Flynt and Braellyn stand in the center of the office-like room. It is almost entirely empty. The floors are neat, and the windows are clear. They remain there for a moment, in an almost perfect silence, staring at Deagon’s boss across the room. He hops down from atop his desk, flashing a toothy grin; he slides his robe off onto his desk. The sound of silence resumes, broken only by the boss striding towards the two, now bearing only a pair of torn up jeans and a severely tattooed chest.

Braellyn, shooting quick glances about the room, sets her foot back, and reaches for her side. Flynt stares forth, unflinching. In an instant, in a blinding gleam of light, the man draws back his arm, swiping it against Flynt’s face. Dazed, Braellyn cocks her head over to Flynt. Glass shatters. Beyond the trail of dust leading up to the shattered window on the side of the room, Flynt is nowhere to be seen. Before Braellyn can avert her gaze back over to the man, a second dazzling gleam of light overtakes the room. He drives his fist into her gut; Braellyn flies up off the ground, landing flat against her back beside the elevators. She lays hunched on the ground, writhing and clutching at her stomach. She drops her head toward her other side, directing her gaze toward the window. A clamorous wind makes its way into the chamber through the window, and, echoing through this wind, is the clinking of fallen glass. Shakily, Flynt pulls himself up, stomach first, over the ledge, resting it on a bed of glass. He pulls one foot over the ledge, then the other, until he stands just before the shattered hole in the window, just before the ledge. Stinging cuts cover the entirety of his body, shrouding his skin in a thin film of blood.

“What have they sent for me here? Why is it just the two of you? Where’s Deagon?”

Braellyn coughs and cackles. The others direct their attention toward her.

“Fuck you!”

Braellyn rolls over onto her chest, pushes her arms out against the ground before her, and gradually stands up. The boss creeps toward her. She remains expressionless. A flash of light takes form in his hand. The sound of footsteps echoes throughout the room, starting in the elevator, and approaching the man. Braellyn opens her eyes to the sound of metal tearing against skin. Before her, Avery drives her arm against the side of the man, wearing the new silver pair of brass knuckles. He redirects his strike into Avery, bashing his arm against the side of her head. She slides back toward the row of elevators behind her. A new slash appears over the top of Avery’s torso. She grimaces at the man from across the room.

“Have I ever told you… how fucking stupid you are?”

He lurches toward her. Avery ducks down, throwing her arms up in front of her face, and backs up against the wall. Braellyn tears two pistols from either of her pockets and unloads them at the man’s back. Midair, he changes course toward Braellyn; a flash of light appears before him, and, with his hand, he diverts the bullets before his path. He grabs Braellyn’s neck in his fist, holding her off the ground. Avery lunges at him from across the room. Still holding Braellyn over the ground like a rag-doll, he rotates his body, and, with the back of his heel, he crushes Avery against the floor. Still standing by the window, Flynt holds a pistol in his hand. He fires at the man. The bullet strikes through his heel, blood sloshing out the back like a heel. The boss drops the two of them. Light overtakes the room. As the light dies down, the man is nowhere to be found.

“Fuck… How are you guys holding up?”

Braellyn pulls herself onto her feet, somewhat hunched over, clutching at her stomach. She gives Avery a thumbs up, and Flynt nods.

“I just had a pretty great idea… Jack’s nearby, right? That’s what Muriel said. Can’t we just die and then go fuck that guy up?!”

Underneath the oppressive sounds of the wind pouring in through the hole in the window, another clanging sound echoes from out of the elevator.

“No! That’s not how it works! You and I already died anyway, so we’re done if we die. If Flynt dies, there’s no guarantee he’ll come back either! That’s a stupid idea.”

Flynt paces over toward the desk in the back of the room. He picks the bright robe off the floor and wears it. Dulled footsteps approach Avery from behind. Braellyn gasps, sweating profusely from her forehead. Avery raises an eyebrow and jerks around. The armored woman from before, her skin covered in horrible burns, swipes her spear toward Avery. She jumps back, and the armored woman continues swiping at her, backing her up toward the shattered hole in the side window. Flynt approaches behind the woman, still wearing the bright robe; Braellyn stares, aghast, from across the room. The armored woman sweeps Avery’s feet from under her. Avery gasps, and she kicks Avery through the window, leaving her to plummet from the tower. A thud resonates moments later. Within the cloak, Flynt’s features remain fully obscured. The woman turns around to face him, gasps, and takes a step back. Flynt pushes her out the window, leaving behind a similar thud. Flynt peaks over the ledge. There is a terrace just below them. Avery and the other woman lay flat on their backs, over the concrete ledge, laying on a bed of glass. Flynt jumps down, landing between the two of them. Braellyn awkwardly scuttles behind him and hops over the ledge. Avery opens her eyes slowly. Cuts and scrapes and blood, glass, and concrete dust cover her entire body.

“Fuck, that was cool.”

Avery throws her arm into the air. Flynt grabs her hand and pulls her up to her feet. For a moment, the woman sits up. She glances around the balcony for a moment, and she frowns. She shakily raises her arm. Instantly, the air gets heavy, suffocatingly so. The wind becomes overpowering, and the world shifts into a tone of blue. The others drop to their knees, unable to move. Just as quickly as it began, the pressure abates, and the armored woman falls flat onto her back, unmoving. She closes her eyes, and the sky regains its depressingly dark tint.

Avery paces to the other side of the deck, lightly nudging Braellyn out of the way, before hoisting the woman off the ground and over her head.

“I’m just gonna deal with this now… She’s just the fucking worst.”

She tosses the woman off the side of the balcony. Avery turns around to face Flynt and Braellyn. Braellyn leans against the railway, panting. Flynt stares past Avery. A rumbling overtakes the earth, and a wall of blue seeps its way into the city. It comes in waves: a massive wave of water hangs over the towers along the horizon, dissipating as it approaches, flooding through the ground level, carrying with it the debris of ruined structures. The tide recalls the water, and it comes back greater than before. Braellyn struggles to keep her footing on the terrace.

“God dammit! This is dumb!”

A booming voice makes its way from one of the nearby buildings. Avery peers around the tower, spotting the boss standing on top of a billboard, a billboard standing atop a shorter tower.

“You haven’t yet a clue of who I am or what I do! The engine’s on, but I’ve just been idling! It’s time to apply some gas!”

Through the darkness, a beam of light shines over the man like a spotlight. He waves his arms about theatrically. The light around the man burns brightly with such intensity that it gives the illusion of daylight. The greater tower above the three of them falls apart, severed down the middle. Bits of concrete crash onto the terrace as the building above them topples down into the streets. The rushing water carries away the debris beneath them. As they quarrel, the water level soars. Debris falls past the platform incessantly, striking the sides of it, causing it to fall through a lower level of the tower, another overhang shrouded in glass; the platform smashes through into the lower floor with the three of them on it.

The room they find themselves in is a dusty mist. Shakily, Flynt, Avery, and Braellyn scamper off the sides of the platform, taking up space in the room. The dust settles. Just in front of Braellyn, a faint, glowing object becomes noticeable. The dust settles some more. Standing over Braellyn, the boss smiles down at her.

“I have seen everything. Don’t think that you can get away so easily.”

Braellyn steps backwards, her feet nearly giving way beneath her. She struggles to walk, covered in cuts and bruises, just like the others. She trips over her own foot, falling onto her back. Flynt and Avery sprint toward her. The man pulls a metal pole from out of the rubble. A star of light appears at its tip, and he drives it down toward Braellyn. The dust settles further. The boss’s right arm lay severed on the floor beside Braellyn. Her eyes grow wide, and she opens her mouth in shock.

“Thank you for coming to see me, Braellyn! Sorry we didn’t quite make it up in time, but we are here now!”

Behind the boss, Eleanor stands with her hand on his shoulder. Wasting no time, the boss leaps into the air, driving his foot against the side of Eleanor’s head, crashing her into the floor. She lays there unmoving. He brushes his hand against his bloody stump of an arm. With a burst of light, he cauterizes it. The blood ceases pouring out from his wound. The sky falls into ever darker shades of gray, and the dust seems to pick up into a palpable haze. Flynt approaches the man from out of the darkness. The boss lunges at him, swiping his fist through the air in a furious somersault. Flynt steps back into the darkness. Debris falls overhead on the man, who smashes it to pieces over his head. At once, Avery bursts out of the shadows. He crushes her against the concrete floor. Braellyn fires at the man from that hazy void; he swipes his arm into that darkness, and a blade of light slashes through the fog. Eleanor dips down from the ceiling, tearing the light apart before Braellyn’s eyes. Deagon tackles the man into the wall of glass panes, sending the two flying toward the running water beneath them.

They land on top of a toppled-over building. Across from them, on a ledge hanging just above the slowly rising water level, Muriel stares at the two from across the stream. Deagon and the Boss shakily pick themselves up from off the rubble and stride toward each other, grabbing at each other’s shoulders. Deagon rapidly takes ground, pushing the man back. He raises his feet, swiping them at Deagon. Deep cuts make their way through Deagon’s chest. Shades of red drape over his shirt. He continues to push. Deagon’s face remains expressionless. In his peripheral vision, Muriel appears not so far away from him, sitting over the ledge of the building, dipping her arms and legs into the water. The boss cocks his head toward her, wide-eyed, trying to pull himself away from Deagon.

“Muriel! Why don’t you help me out here?”

Muriel pauses.

“I’m busy.”

Sweat gathers over the boss’s forehead.

“With what could you be busy right now?!”

“I’m making a bet.”

Muriel takes a deep breath. A great quantity of electricity imparts itself in the water, which crackles and boils underneath the three of them. Muriel grins at the other two. Deagon continues to push the man off the debris toward the ledge. With greater frequency, cuts and stabs make their way through Deagon’s body. In an instant, it stops. Deagon dips his boss’s head into the water. The air grows calm, and, after a short period, the water becomes still. He drags himself out of the water, his head out of its usual shape, molded by the current. He tosses him aside, onto the rest of the rubble. Deagon looks back over to Muriel.

“What the hell is all this?”

“I made a bet on whose world I’d rather live in.”

Muriel pulls herself onto the top of the rubble, making her way out of the water.

“Anyway, I’m going to go now. I don’t want to be here when Jack does his thing.”

Deagon does not say a word.

“By the way, sorry for trying to poison you that one time.”

Deagon chuckles and looks up toward the building from which he fell. Squinting, he can see all the others waving down toward him, yelling indistinctly. The sky quickly falls darker. Deagon grins and looks over toward Muriel. She is no longer anywhere to be seen. In his periphery, movement makes its way overtop the platform. Deagon cocks his head around to spot it. The boss pulls himself onto his feet, his head impossibly misshapen.

“God dammit! Stay dead, asshole!”

Slowly, he inches toward Deagon. An insurmountable pressure overcomes Deagon’s body. Try as he may, Deagon does not move an inch. Deagon’s eyes widen as he falls to the floor, looking up at the man.

Deagon’s boss stops in his tracks. The sky becomes pitch black. Darkness envelops the world around them. The water becomes a sea of static, the ebbs and flows settling into a void of popping. The surrounding buildings seem to close in, forming a perfect net around him, and his soul backs out of his body. For a moment, Deagon watches himself standing there, over a grim pile of wreckage. He collapses onto his knees. His eyes become lifeless, and his head slides off of his body. His torso collapses to the floor, severed endlessly into a mush of parts. As the pile of man slumps over onto the floor, he reveals behind him a shrouded figure. Jack steps over the man, approaching Deagon. Deagon’s soul snaps back into reality. Deagon pulls himself onto his feet; the world revolves around him. In an instant, Jack appears inches away from Deagon’s face, staring into his eyes. Space bends around Deagon. The buildings around him crumble into a single point. The raft of rubble upon which he stands minimizes and maximizes; unmoving, Deagon finds himself further and further away from Jack until he blacks out.