The jump tossed Gabriel’s stomach around like a cement mixer. He landed roughly on his backside, knocking over a shelf and sending bottles crashing to the floor.

“My fine wines! Look who finally decided to join us! You could have been more careful with- Gabe?!” Zero leaned over his backrest, confusion plain in his wide, glowing eyes. “Why a-”

“No time for questions. Miss Liberty is dead, and Grizzly’s engaged with an unknown assailant. Dr. Atomic suspects a Reality Bender.”

Bulwark raced to exit the transport, but - without looking - Omicron Beta wrapped his liquified metal arm around the panicked super.

“Let. Me. GO!” Bulwark’s suit channeled his high-intensity vibrations into Omicron Beta. Most objects - or people - would have disintegrated atom by atom at that point, but somehow the restraints held. “I have to get to Rescue!”

Zero and Omicron shared a long, intense look.

“I guess Quantum’s cat’s out of the bag now, huh? How much did he tell you?”

The mentor’s nonchalance was starting to get on Gabriel’s nerves. His teammate was going ballistic over his wife’s safety, and this man had the gall to chit chat?

“I can put two and two together. I’m sending you all the tracker locations. As you can see, they are all underground, in an unmarked building with some sort of secret basement. Are you ready to take this seriously?” He said those last words directly to Zero.

The mentor looked surprised, then… proud? He checked his WristPad and said, “That’s a mile below us. The entrance is at the foot of that mountain. Two clicks west.”

“Yes. I think it’s an abandoned mineshaft someone built over. Watch your backs. There may be defenses we don’t know about. Whoever planned this did so meticulously.

Whatever you do, don’t cause a cave-in. I know Grizzly’s gotten out of worse before, but she is likely injured. We also need to get Lady Justice and Rescue out safe. Omicron, let him go.”

The silver AI nodded and released Bulwark, who huffed in frustration. “At least someone gets it. What do you say, kid, care to take Offense today?”

Gabriel shook his head. “I have my own instructions; you’ll have to make do without me. Good luck.” He walked to the open transport hatch, activated the cloaking device, and disappeared, leaving the Heroes confused.

“You heard him. Let’s move.” Bulwark finally said.

Gabriel’s next course of action was finding an alternate route into the mineshaft. While the Sentinels caught the attention of whoever was down there, he would already be in position.

The Shield working through the defenses should provide enough of a distraction to locate the Reality Bender.

Flying over the mountain, Alfred spotted a minuscule grate hidden under dense foliage.

There. We could fit if you detach your wings. Alfred said, already on board with the whatever-it-takes mentality.

Gabriel gave the go-ahead, and the heavy metal appendages fell to the ground with a rustle of leaves. He hid them carefully under the vegetation, then eyed the grate. It must be a ventilation shaft. Already, sweat formed on his brow from the humidity, a drop fell into his eye, forcing him to blink.

The tracking beacons on his HUD showed the others had entered the shaft. From their slow progress, he guessed they’d run into resistance early on.

His WristPad relayed a message to the Spartan Suit’s helmet. “Ruchin WarBots.” Said Zero’s voice through the static.

Satisfied the defenders were preoccupied, Gabriel tugged the grate off and tossed it aside, transferring energy into his sensors to increase their range. If there were any traps in the shaft, he wanted to know ahead of time.

The cloaking device will trick any laser sensors in place. I will watch for thermal cameras, partner.

Give me a random number, Alfred.

4, but why?

“Feet first it is.” Gabriel jumped.

The tunnel was even more cramped than it looked. It was less of a free fall and more of a wiggle down. If the cloaking orb hadn’t muffled sound, the enemy would have surely heard the generator on his back scraping down the metal shaft. Luckily, he wasn’t claustrophobic, and there weren’t any thermal cameras, and the almost constant laser sensors didn’t sound any alarms.

“Remind me to thank Atomic,” Gabriel whispered as he took a break from wiggling. His back was starting to cramp, and he couldn’t twist into a more comfortable position. Only about 300 feet to go. He kept wiggling.

Suddenly the ventilation shaft widened. He had to catch himself with his generator to keep from falling the rest of the way; no sense in testing how good the sound dampening was. With more space to move, Gabriel checked where the second team was. They were still about a quarter-mile above and moving quickly. He had approximately 3 minutes to find the Reality Bender before they showed up to brawl.

The ventilation branched off from where he floated, so he moved towards the first team’s trackers. None of them had left the area where Miss Liberty’s tracker showed no vitals. Soon he was in the ceiling of the same room, but when he moved to peak through the opening in the vents, a sparking mass of viridian electricity shot past him, blowing the grate wide open and descending - into what Gabriel could now tell was a rocky, barren cavern.

Photon had arrived, and he was flying straight into a trap. Still, Gabriel could do nothing without compromising his positio- wait… how did Photon know where to be? He wasn’t there when Gabriel shared the tracking information. What the hell was going on? He peaked through the opening.

Photon was crouched next to Grizzly, who laid on the floor gasping. Her legs bent at odd angles, and one of her arms was missing at the shoulder. Arterial blood splashed everywhere, covering Photon’s green spandex. His hair stood on end and energy crackled in his eyes as he glared at Rescue, who stood just outside the sanguine pool.

His hand morphed into a ball of energy, and he shoved it against Grizzly’s shoulder to cauterize the wound. The Shield’s mightiest brawler barely shuddered from the pain, her dark skin paling from blood loss. The blood kept flowing, and Photon let out a grunt as the light intensified. Finally, the wound closed.

Grizzly has no healing factor. Alfred said.

That would explain all the scars. Gabriel ran his eyes over the rest of the cavern, lit by faint bulbs lining the ceiling at random intervals. He noticed Lady Justice lying unconscious off to one side by an odd rock formation that looked like horns.

He almost vomited when he saw what remained of Miss Liberty. Her body was cut vertically in half and sprawled next to a section of wall where blood streamed like a natural spring. Somehow she’d unphased half inside the wall. Not an uncommon accident for Intangibles, but Liberty had been the best. Questions just kept piling up, but answers would arrive soon enough.

Gabriel kept still and blanked his mind. After a few training exercises at Iodine, the scientists realized he could hide from telepaths incredibly well by willpower alone. Their tests found that, in this state, his psychic footprint wasn’t much different than a mouse’s. The only drawback was that he wouldn’t be able to think coherently past observation and whatever trigger he chose himself.

I’ll move when the target shows. Once he set his intent, he’d register as just another fly on the wall.

Below, Photon stood up and electrified himself, letting the blood on his suit fall to the floor with a splat. “What happened?!” He spat the words at Rescue.

The red-head shrugged. “She went crazy! Don’t look at me like that. I mean, you ever fought Grizzly? No? Then consider yourself lucky you weren’t the one whose face she tried to pancake. She was a capital B to bring down.”

“Is Justice okay?”

“Yeah, just knocked out, I think.”

“And what about you? How do you not have a scratch on you after doing that to Grizzly?”

“Long story, anyway, the rest of the Shield will be here soon.” Rescue ran over to Lady Justice and started checking her for wounds.

At that moment, the wooden door at the opposite end of the cavern exploded outward, and Bulwark charged in. He stopped short when he saw the carnage. “Oh my god. Liberty….” He caught sight of Rescue. “Jane! Are you alright?”

“Yes, but Justice is hurt. Come give me a hand.”

Zero and Omicron Beta entered the room with caution, taking stock of the situation as Bulwark stomped over to Rescue.

Zero checked his WristPad. “Justice’s vitals are all over the place. What’s the problem?”

Bulwark knelt and took off his helmet to get a better look at Lady Justice, revealing his ashy twisted face and mishappen ears. “I don’t know. She’s holding something in her hand.”

“My juggernaut, I missed you. Thank you for coming so fast.” Rescue leaned her head on her husband’s pauldron.

He moved to give her a kiss when she said, “I’m sorry things had to end this way.” She kissed him and placed her hands on his face. Bulwark’s eyes bulged as he gasped, arms scrambling to rip her hands away. Thin glowing lines of black energy quickly branched up Rescue’s arms like vines. She was far too strong. He tried to vibrate, but the more he resisted, the faster the energy Rescue’s energy flowed.

Omicron Beta and Zero moved to help, only to be frozen in place by some invisible force. Photon seemed flabbergasted.

Rescue looked deep into Bulwark’s eyes with melancholy. “I did love you, Frank, in a sense. Part of me did, anyway. Goodbye.”

As she finished draining him, his skin shriveled away. Soon all that was left was ash inside a super suit. Rescue took a deep breath and sighed contentedly. The branches of energy reached her face to frame her eyes, eyes that now shone with ecstasy and unrestrained power. She let out a satisfied sigh. “That feels wonderful. I hate hiding my power.”

Photon powered up, becoming a blinding ray of light. “What the fuck, Rescue? No one was supposed to die. We were only supposed to trap them here while the Blitz destroyed the city.”

“Stop calling me that, you fuel cell. My name,” Rescue gave a wolfish grin, “is Calamity. I can’t believe all it took to fool the Shield was a little plastic surgery and hair dye.” She tapped her hooked nose. Janus, stop playing dead; it’s time.”

Lady Justice stood up, stretching her back. “Excellent work, love.” Her voice cracked, and she frowned, looking down at herself. “Ugh, finally.” She shook herself, growing shorter by a head while her bone structure moved around as if possessed. Her skin loosened and darkened, then tightened around the more petite frame until a grey-haired Indian man in a police uniform stood in her place.

“How long I’ve waited for this moment.” The man cackled. “The day you meddling Sentinels learn how foolish you’ve been.” He reached a hand towards Photon and clenched it shut.

A gut-wrenching screech was the last thing Photon uttered before getting crushed into an orb the size of a golf ball. The concentrated energy swirled brighter as it landed in Janus’s open palm. He admired Photon’s remains for a moment before placing the now crystalline orb in the gun-shaped device in his other hand. Orange lights blinked as it powered up.

The Reality Bender, showtime. Gabriel’s brain started up again.

Janus gave Calamity an enthusiastic smirk. “See? Even rushing this, part 1 of the plan wasn’t too messy, in the end.”

Gabriel would make him eat those words.