“Bad dog! Bad dog!” Sorli shouted, dodging the raking claws and massive maw of teeth that chased him.

The irony in the whole situation was that Sorli did like dogs and despite the flashes of not-quite-memory that showed him over and over that driving a boot across the maw of a beast that was trying to eat you was okay, he was having trouble bringing himself to do it. It wasn’t that the things weren’t monstrous enough, borg wolves the size of small horses, but Atreyu had called them dogs.

Was that on purpose? Is word choice fucking with me?

Sorli rounded another corner of the maze and almost ran headlong into a Viking’s axe. He spun around to the right.

Three Vikings on the ground with axes, two above, one with a net… great.

Sorli lunged forward, past the center Viking and drove his outstretched elbow up and under the jaw of the warrior on the right, when he heard the scraping of the hound’s claws on the floor behind him, he grabbed the large man by the mail and wrenched him around.

“Hrk!” he said.

The hound’s massive claws erupted through the man’s chest, still reaching for Sorli.

“Hell no!” he shouted, and drop-kicked the massive man, toppling him over on top of the hound and springing out of the path of an axe swing, a pair of javelins, and the net. When that hit the ground, any thought of “Yeah, I’d be totally fucked if I got caught in that,” was validated as it constricted on its own and tore up the floor in the process.

As Sorli continued to run, he noticed something… a few somethings, actually. The observatory room, where he’d heard most of the loudspeaker squawking Atreyu had been doing, was in view… and empty, he could still hear claws pursuing him, and the temperature in the room was starting to drop, but not in his immediate vicinity.

“I’ve got you, you son of a bitch…” Sorli growled as the suit homed in on where the freezing spike’s origin was.

Sorli’s lack of control and aggression had been what kept Atreyu off-guard the last time they’d scuffled, things were completely different now. As he neared the center of the cold spot, the sound of pursuing claws slowed.

“So, Grimm Raven… you found me, how -”

Sorli pushed off of his back foot and hockey-stop-slid across the sheet of ice Atreyu had made, pivoted, and drove his fist into the middle of the pontificating hero’s chest, sending him soaring back.

“Shut up and fight!”

“Now now, Grimm -”

Sorli manifested his feather sword and rushed forward again, using the ice to his advantage, he slid, slashing from his hips as he used his heels and the balls of his feet to guide his slide around Atreyu.

“I am sick and tired of the monologuing, the lecturing! Shut your mouth, get out your bow, and fight, or I’ll cut you down where you stand!”

Atreyu weaved around the first couple of slashes, blocked one with his bow, and caught the final lunge in his bowstring.

“Shit…”

“Did you think that this was just a bow, Grimm?” Atreyu mocked.

The grip at the middle of his bow had separated at its center, the edges of the bow itself now appeared razor-sharp, and the bowstring had looped around the bottom ends of the, now separated, center grip, a line of fire connecting two curved short swords.

Atreyu yanked on the sword, trying to pull Sorli forward and into his two waiting blades. Sorli released his hold on the feather sword and swept his arm in, toward Atreyu. His weapon fractured and the shards flew toward Atreyu’s face.

The hero leaped back, twin blades flashing, deflecting the projectiles.

“Did you think that was just a sword, Poster Boy?” Sorli mocked in Atreyu’s accent as he formed another sword in his open hand.

“I tire of you, Grimm Raven. You’re no hero, you never were, just a scared angry boy in a suit who had abilities granted to him by some whore in a back alley. How did you get your first enhancements, hm? What foul creature did you f-”

Sorli cut Atreyu’s monologue short by opening a gash in the hero’s chest.

“I said, if you didn’t shut the fuck up I’d cut you down. I wasn’t kidding. Then you made the mistake of shit-talking one of the only people who helped me get here. You won’t make that mistake again.”

Atreyu looked down at the seeping wound on his chest incredulously…

“How dare you… you arrogant…”

The clash of smoldering feather on ice wrapped around sunfire echoed throughout the chamber.

“Right… only business…” Atreyu grunted, “come on then!”

Atreyu shoved Sorli’s blade off of his and repositioned, lunging forward with both blades. Sorli was already moving, sliding again on the ice, mid draw-slash when the whole building rocked, sending the pair of them off course and sprawling.

Sorli tucked and rolled up to his feet and looked for Atreyu, who was hovering in the air with a hand on his earpiece.

“What do you mean someone landed a building on our building?” he shouted.

Sorli arched his brow under his mask.

Excuse me, good man, would you happen to be Grimm Raven? A voice spoke into Sorli’s mind.

Who wants to know?

Paranoid, gravely voice, even in his head, ‘ats gotta be him. My name, good ser, is Techno, I’m part of the crew here to spring you from your little cage. My associates, some of which I am sure that you know, should be arriving on your location in just a moment.

That’s a bad idea.

And why is that, sir?

Atreyu, sixty some odd giant Vikings, and at least three bio-wolf-dog things are all out here.

I don’t think that’s gonna be a problem.

Why not?

Well, y’see sir, Panzer, she seemed to be in an awful mood this evening, and then there’s Go Loud…

What?

“I need all available Heroes to my location immediately, GSO HQ is under attack and we have an escaped villain in the facility. Threat Level Alpha Protocols to be engaged, immediately!” Atreyu barked into the communicator.

And just like that, all Hell broke loose.

Go Loud looked out over the maze.

“Who would do something like this? Such a waste of space…”

“I know, mi amor…” Shadow answered the large man.

“What’s his problem?” Panzer asked, following his gaze.

“Papi has wanted to finish the basement in our home for a while, he can’t help but get a little jealous when he sees one, especially if he thinks it’s been done in…” Shadow looked out again, seeing the maze, the shack, and the clamoring Vikings, “in poor taste.”

Panzer rolled her eyes before they snapped to a levitating figure.

“Atreyu…” she growled, “of course that fuckwit would be here, Go Loud, you’re up, make us a hole.”

“But I thought Plan Break things was -”

“Plan Fukitol!” Leap corrected.

“Yes, that one, was for only if things all went wrong?”

Isto stepped forward, still surrounded by a shimmering emerald aura, and punched out the front wall of the observatory.

“If you think any part of your plan hasn’t gone sideways by now, you’re delusional.”

“​​Perdóname, señor, but I am the one who is supposed to be breaking things here…”

“You hesitated.”

“Do not make me show you why I- “

“Look, Señor Molina, there are plenty of things down there for you to break…”

“But the glass wall looked tan bueno smash, I wanted to break it, you know what I am saying?”

Isto furrowed his brow and let out a long, exasperated sigh.

“Señor Molina, I apologioze. I promise, when we find an equally smashable wall, I will insist that you do the honor of smashing it.”

“You… Señor Raita, you are not so bad!”

With that, Go Loud leaped from the window… and didn’t drop.

“Ehm, ​​perdóname, I have a question…” he said, looking over at Panzer.

“W-what is it?” she answered, unsure if he was keeping himself from dropping or not.

“There is some crazy-looking lady down there… she has this strange thing going on with her hair, and she is holding her hands out at me, and I am not falling. I want to be falling so I can break things… this is probably a bad thing, yes?”

“That’s Psycher, the GSO interrogator. She’s a telekinetic and a telepath.” The Supplier announced after silencing the building alarm with the flick of her wrist.

“Isn’t she the bitch that mind fucks people to make them talk?” Leap growled.

The Supplier nodded.

“And Grimm was down there? With her?”

“He sure was… for three days.”

“She’s mine,” Leap announced, “got it?”

“I am not planning on fighting her, I just need her to let me go…” Go Loud answered, “Ey! ​​Señorita! Would you maybe consider letting me go? You can just drop me I would be muy -”

Go Loud dropped out of sight.

“That’s a bad match-up, Leap…” Panzer warned.

“You’re not the only one with a trick or two up their sleeve…” Leap answered with a wink before she vanished off the ledge.

The sound of rushing, shuffling cards filled the air as a man in a garish purple tuxedo and tophat, complete with neon orange trim and accessories appeared. The cards continued to swirl, making a portal that Arclight and RAY stepped through and into the observatory.

“Hello, Shadow, been a while,” Ray menaced, his eyes glinting gold.

“Raymond…” Shadow answered, “now is not really a good time for me so -”

“Shadow,” Panzer interrupted, “I’ll take him, you take Presto and she -”

“Presto the Magnificent is mine,” The Supplier menaced.

“Do I know you?” Presto asked.

“Oh, you will,” The Supplier answered. She contorted her hands, forcing the spinning cards to reverse direction and surround them in a vicious squall. When the cards dropped, neither of the magic users were anywhere to be seen.

“New plan, Raita, you get to Grimm, I’m sure he’s hurting and needs backup, Shadow, prep for exit, I’ll handle these two.”

“Yes ma’am,” Isto replied with a smirk, “Atreyu and I have some catching up to do, anyway.”

Shadow nodded and vanished into her namesake nearby.

“Riggs? You think you can handle me? Let alone the both of us?” RAY scoffed, “don’t make me laugh.”

Panzer stripped off her button-up uniform top and let the heavy garment fall to the floor, rolling her muscled shoulders forward.

“What was it that she always said…” Panzer muttered to herself, calling on the most destructive power she’d inherited… Nova’s power. Panzer held both her arms up in front of her, energy crackled between them, tracing over the deep lines of her musculature and piercing the air with a high-pitched whine.

“Bitches…” a ball of plasma and doom formed over her chest.

“Love” the crackling overcharge of energy consumed both of her arms.

“Cannons!”