Hurtling down like a falling star, Ginger’s wings begin to glow with heat as she accelerates.

“Stay on course!” she screams, her teeth rattling as her whole body shakes under the force and weight of the air around her. “Stay… on… course!”

“Ms. Napp, our current speed has a deleterious effect on suit integrity.”

“Don’t slow down!”

Next to her ear, a pinging noise suddenly activates.

“Ms. Napp, suit integrity is failing. Pressure regulators are operating below acceptable levels.”

The pinging increases in intensity and pitch.

“Just keep going!”

“Ms. Napp! At our current speed collision with the ground will be harmful to your health and suit integrity.”

Ginger grits her teeth and takes a deep breath before saying, “I don’t care! We need to hit that building as fast as possible!” Then, to herself, she adds, “C’mon Hailey. Don’t waste this chance!”

Racing toward the same spot, Blind Justice and Eldritch have no time to spare to look up to the sky! All their energy, all their attention, all their focus lies on one thing—Athow!

“Wait!” Eldritch shouts at Blind Justice as he leaps toward the warehouse. “What about a plan?”

Blind Justice shrugs and hefts his sledgehammer. “Hit him with this. Keep hitting until he stops moving, and then hit him a few more times. Worked on Anathamizer, worked on Hellraiser, works against the Thirteen. It’ll work on him too.”

Before Eldritch can protest Blind Justice leaps again, taking the pair to the roof of the warehouse just as Ginger Snap bashes into the roof creating a giant hole.

Inside the warehouse, Thorm Athow pauses in weaving magical chains around Belladonna and spins. Quickly, he raises his hands and thrusts them forward. Shouting an incomprehensible set of words just as the roof bursts apart, he flings out a set of white strands of light!

The strands spread out, each one colliding with a piece of the shattered rubble in midair. Lancing through them the beams of light solidify into crystalline spears, arresting the explosion in mid-moment. A set of the beams smash into Ginger, propelling her back upward but failing to skewer her like they do the rubble.

Coughing, Ginger Snap gasps for breath. “Damage?”

“Suit integrity at forty percent Ms. Napp. Automated repairs in progress. Try to remain still.”

“Ugh,” Ginger groans. “No problem there. Get em, Eldritch.”

Although she cannot hear her friend’s words, Eldritch reacts as if she had dear reader! For with a gentle leap, she hops into the hole Ginger so kindly made and shouts, “Step away from the girl, Athow!”

Just behind her, Blind Justice does the same, landing with a cloud of dust. Straightening, he hefts his hammer and says, “Shall we get things started?”

With a sneer, Athow gestures to the beams of light and shouts, “So, you return.” Sneering at Blind Justice he adds, “With a pair of new allies. Who are you, eyeless one?”

“Blind Justice.”

Athow shrugs, unconcerned. “I do not recognize the name. I take it you are one of the superheroes, and not a wizard.”

Blind Justice’s mouth curls upward in a smile. “Well,” he says with a hint of mirth, “that’s a first. Everybody knows my name.”

Coolly, Athow replies, “I do not concern myself with the names of lesser peoples. Without magic, you are irrelevant to me. Leave or die.”

Blind Justice slaps the head of his sledgehammer into his palm and answers with, “I could say the same thing, but unfortunately I’m not generous enough to let you leave.”

Athow spreads his hands wide and smirks, turning back to Eldritch. “A blind man that sees and a girl made of metal. This is what you bring against me?”

“I might be blind, but I still See.”

Athow turns back to Blind Justice and asks, “How much do you see?”

“Everything.”

“Good,” Athow replies with a smile. Then he turns toward Eldritch and says, “As I recall, you tried this spell back at the library. Let me show you what Greek Hellfire looks like when summoned forth by a competent caster.” Glancing back toward Blind Justice, he adds, “And you, if you really see everything then gaze upon this, and despair.”

Fire.

As if a dragon’s maw opened in the suddenly tiny warehouse, gouts of flame drip from the air, the ground, and the beyond itself. Ripping open, the sticky green fires pour down like some river of horror pouring onto Eldritch and her companions.

His hands swirling with energy, Athow flicks his fingers out and in unison, the rivers of flame become waves building into a tsunami of fire crashing toward Eldritch and Blind Justice!

Slapping her palms together, Eldritch glows for a second before bursting into a miniature sun. Throwing her hands wide, the sun explodes into walls of light on either side of the pair. At her side, Blind Justice leaps preternaturally forward, lowering his shoulder and smashing through the first wave of fire. With a roar, he swings his hammer around and beats his way through the second.

Her barriers finally in place, Eldritch’s arms tense as the hungry flame hammers them, pushing her down to one knee. But, dear reader, her walls hold! In front of her, Blind Justice raises his sledgehammer with both hands and brings it down against the enraged flame.

None of this seems to concern Athow, however, as he smiles cruelly at Blind Justice and calls out, “Fool! This is no ordinary flame! You should not touch it.”

Unfortunately for Blind, the warning comes too late as the sticky fire crawls up the handle of his hammer, growing like a weed of foul heat. It curls around the heft of the weapon, reaching for his hands and scorching them.

Cursing, Blind Justice leaps back, taking his hands off the hammer and trying to shake out the fire. Instead of going out, it sticks to his skin instead forcing him to smother it with his hands.

“Stop moving!” Eldritch commands while her arms still holding the barriers. Then she lowers a hand and flicks a spell at the fire, now up to his forearms. A moment later, a white bandage wraps itself around the fire, choking it into oblivion.

Retrieving his hammer and falling back, Blind Justice glances down at the burns on his arms and says, “We need a new solution. Can your magic protect me from his long enough to get me in close?”

Straining to close the gap in the shields before answering, Eldritch grunts out, “Aren’t you Blind freaking Justice? Can’t you figure out a way?”

Justice taps his hammer against the ground and says, “Not without destroying this place, and there are still civilians around. Otherwise I’d just tear up the concrete and bury him.”

“Okay, so I just need to get them out of here and you’re free to pummel him?”

Blind Justice cracks a grin. “Sounds like a plan.”

“Good! I’ll keep his fire under control, you wake up Ginger and we can-”

“When will you learn, girl child,” Athow remarks with a contemptuous sneer. “Your plans are meaningless. Your struggle is meaningless. Your allies, your maneuvers, and all your pathetic scheming means nothing compared to my power.”

With this pronouncement, he gestures toward her with one hand, sending the fire sloshing and swirling against her barriers, with the other he grabs the inert bodies of Detective Anderson and his partner shoving them across the ground to where Belladonna struggles. With another gesture, he seals the three in a cage of black bars before blasting a hole in the wall and tossing them out safely away from the fight.

“There,” he finishes, “now there is nothing holding you back. No excuses for why you cannot hope to match me. I bore of these petty games, girl. Either learn to cast with intent or cease to exist.”

One hand still conducting the hellfire, Athow uses the other to conjure a ghastly spear that appears like a rent in the fabric of reality. Then he hurls it toward Eldritch!

Grunting, Blind Justice brings his hammer around and smashes it away before it can harm her. But the corrosive spear takes a chunk out of the hammer, eroding the metal.

“I don’t think I want to see that hit flesh,” Blind Justice murmurs before smashing a second attack away. Turning back to Eldritch he shouts, “Plans changed! I’m going after him. You keep the fire under control.”

Concentrating, Eldritch can only nod before beginning an incantation.

At the other end of the arena, Athow snorts. “Casting with words? Amateur.”

Then he throws up his hand, pausing before creating another spear, and makes a fist. A second later, all sound ceases. The crackle and crash of the fire vanishes. Ginger’s labored breathing and the quiet beeping of her suit falls away. Athow’s taunts cease. Even the sound of Blind Justice’s hammer impacting the spears that fly his way becomes a silent pantomime. But far worse, dear reader, is the sudden loss of Eldritch’s voice!

Gasping without sound, Eldritch tries in vain to continue her spell. Failing she tries to start anew, pushing the words out. When nothing happens, an expression of horror slowly creeps up her face. She starts to try saying something again before her eyes suddenly go unfocused.

“Child,” Belinda says through their spiritual connection. “Do not panic. Remember when you fought Belladonna? I cast a spell through you using the Starry Realm. We can do the same now.”

“That left you silent for a week!” Hailey protests, “If I do the same I’ll be unable to cast so much as a ball of light. I’d be completely at his mercy.”

“Then you had best make your spell count,” Belinda advises grimly.

“It didn’t cut off my connection to my other magic,” Hailey says, perking up. “I can still manipulate the walls,” then, determination shining through her tone, she finishes, “and wait for an opportunity!”

“If you cannot keep the fires off Blind, then that opportunity might never arise.”

Nodding, Eldritch steps forward and begins manipulating her hands into complex patterns before clapping her palms together. When she does, the walls collapse outward flattening over the flame and containing it underneath the walls turned floors. Then she flips her hands face down and pushes, sending the walls into the floor and the fires with them.

Athow simply releases the flame, turning all his attention to stopping Blind Justice. Abandoning the spears, he creates a series of black walls in between him and the charging superhero.

But Blind Justice does not seem to care! As he reaches each wall he hammers it down with steady strikes of the sledgehammer before crashing through, closing in on Athow. Seeing him getting closer, Athow points at Blind and a series of chains materialize around his arms and legs before crashing into the bedrock. They pile onto him while Eldritch finishes maneuvering the walls.

With a silent roar, Blind Justice tears the chains from the ground, ripping up the floor in the process. As he does, Eldritch raises her walls, bringing them together with Athow in the center like the jaws of a trap!

Anger on his face, Athow throws out one hand covered in a globe of darkness that annihilates the walls. With the other, he creates a vortex that drags Blind Justice back, whipping and tearing at his skin like a flurry of tiny razors.

But Blind Justice hardly seems to notice as he swings his hammer around and hits the floor with it. A second later he vaults forward, hurtling himself toward the wizard! Caught off-guard Athow barely has time to raise a hand, erecting a wall in from of him that catches Blind Justice before he can reach him.

Seeing the opportunity Eldritch smiles. “Now!” Hailey exults Belinda and her speak with one voice in the Starry Realm.

As they finish, a third wall rises from the ground behind Athow! As it moves, it transforms into a spike that erupts into a scintillating multicolored prism. The lights surge forth like a buzz saw hammering into the surface of the air a few inches from Athow’s skin. As they hit, a set of lights matching Eldritch’s attack wink into existence, meet their opposite, and then vanish. Finally, only the white light of the wall turned spike is left and in a swift motion, it pierces through Athow!

Victory, dear reader! A win taken not by force but by planning! But has Eldritch really put this enemy to rest? And what of Belladonna, for surely with the defeat of Athow her prison must be gone? Find out next week in… “Triumph?”