A sound caught somewhere between a roar and an explosion pulsed, then the noise of the screaming meteor and rushing wind vanished. I imagined I had broken the sound barrier and experienced a sonic boom—if I was even remembering the term correctly—but I could hardly afford it any thought as I focused on the city, which had seemed so small not so long ago, growing larger and larger. And along with it grew the Endbringer…

… around which there were no shields. Fuck, fuck, fuck! What happened to the protection, Dragon?! [Klaus: Stop!! You'll level half the city!!] [Rotlimb: Talk about going out with a bang!] [Edict: Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, oh—] [Toro: Ahahahaha!] [Butcher: Don't dare chicken out! Do it!!]

I almost stopped it—pushed it into elsewhere, wasting the attack to save the city, but scarcely a second before I did, a bubble that gleamed a kaleidoscope of hues snapped into place around the sides of the Endbringer.

The voices cried out, but their words were lost to me as I scrambled to act. The momentary indecision had cost me. The meteor hurtled towards the Endbringer, still on target, but I had slow my fall immediately. I yanked myself to the side as sharply as I could, trying to bleed speed and redirect my momentum. Maybe I would have succeeded. Maybe I wouldn't have. I never got the chance to find out. My nerves screamed in warning, and a moment later, a shockwave smashed into and past me.

I was spinning, the world a blur, then nothing. My chest seized up, my lungs howling for air. I jerked in terror and confusion, my eyes snapping open. I instinctively tried to move, but my body felt off—wrong. Drowning. I was drowning. I need to get out of here, but I couldn't tell where I was, where the fuck up even was. What was going on?! No no no no no no—!

Something enveloped me, every inch of me feeling its touch squeezing in. My chest protested, unable to cough up the intruding water killing me. Let me go!! I tried to scream, half hacking half gurgling as the pressure refused to yield.

Somewhere along the way, my eyes had clenched shut in horror, so it wasn't until I felt the water being forcefully yanked out of my lungs and up through my throat that I opened them and realized I was no longer underwater. The force holding me vanished, and I crumpled like a rag doll onto soft dirt as the last of the liquid in me slipped out.

My head lolled around, my eyes loosely drifting with it, and I realized someone was standing over me. [Klaus: Oh thank god, you're okay!] [Rotlimb: What. A. Ride!] [Footloose: Hoo hoo hoo! Daaamn, queen! Do you know how to make an entrance, or what?!] [Toro: Aww, she survived…] [Diamondback: That was a close call.] [Butcher: Heh. Credit where it's due, new blood. You actually did it.]

Not standing—hovering. A cape. More importantly, the goddamned Endbringer still stubbornly loomed over the figure's shoulder, its massive sword body splitting the world in two from this close up. Its massive, blood red eye was trained in my direction, and a large portion of its handle was missing, jagged remnants left in its wake. I felt something like a crawling sensation in my ear, then an incredulous masculine voice reached me. "—re you thinking?! You could have leveled half the city!" [Klaus: Phew… I was worried Delible's regeneration wouldn't be able to keep up…] [Rotlimb: Again! Again!] [Footloose: Your cape name's Meteor, right? No one's gonna forget it after that!] [Toro: Guess you've got to do it again, hm?] [Edict: Jesus fuck, Toro, can you even pretend to not be such a huge piece of shit?]

"Ah wahned Drah-gon in advance," I managed to reply, my words becoming clearer as my teeth slipped back into place in my gums. "She said she'd orchestrate capes to protect from the collision." [Klaus: Wait, is that…?] [Rotlimb: C'mon, Sixteen! Do it!] [Toro: Suck my dick, Ten. Actually wait, don't. You'd probably be so shit at it you'd bite it off or something.] [Butcher: Fuck.]

"I see. Well, it's fortunate I noticed you in time to protect everyone then, since Dragon has gone incommunicado." [Klaus: Holy shit, it's really him!] [Rotlimb: Huh? Wait a sec…] [Edict: In your goddamn dreams, douche canoe.] [Belial: Delightful. Juniper, dear, I'd counsel keeping secret you're one of us for the moment.]

Caught up as I was in my near death and my failure to force the Endbringer to flee, it took the voices' comments for me to finally look at the man who professed to have single-handedly shielded Brooklyn and Queens from my meteor's impact and who, in all likelihood, was the one had saved me from drowning. The dim haze suffusing his skin backlit his casual, everyday clothes, made his black beard stand out like an inky black pool, and most importantly made his identity unmistakable. The illusive man himself—motherfucking Adam—hung in the air over me.

"I-Incommunicado?" I blurted, stumbling over the word in my awe that I was actually talking to the first and greatest hero. [Rotlimb: Jesus, are you really going to fangirl over this stuck up prick?] [Footloose: Hey Sixteeeeen? I double dog dare you to flick his nipple!] [Toro: You wanna know what I dream about, Ten? Ripping out your goddamn heart and forcing you to fucking eat it.]

"Indeed. Her armbands and craft have all stopped functioning. Quite ill-timed, but then the disappearance of one of the Triumvirate is inherently inopportune." Adam turned, looking over his shoulder at the damaged but unyielding Endbringer. "We need to resolve this immediately, or matters will get much worse from here on, I fear. Can I trust you with a repeat performance?" [Diamondback: Six, your antics aren't welcome right now.] [Rotlimb: At least the great glowing goober is staying on track.] [Edict: Depraved as ever, asshole.]

Would you all shut the fuck up for a goddamn minute? And I am not fangirling! I hissed at the voices, trying to focus on Adam. I'm just trying to wrap my head around this actually happening. He's the last guy I ever expected to meet, much less talk to! "With gusto." [Rotlimb: What's that, bitch?! You want us to talk louder?!] [Toro: Damn right I'm depraved! You know what I would've done with you, if you hadn't had your fucked up power?!] [Butcher: Watch your tone, new blood.]

"Go, hero. I will keep the impact contained," Adam ordered as he lifted up into the air. [Klaus: June, you should know that's not only going to make things worse…] [Rotlimb: Is this loud enough?! Because I can talk LOUDER!!] [Toro: I'd have ripped off your goddamn eyelids so you'd have to watch me while I fucked your cunt into oblivion and choked the life out of you nice and slow.] [Footloose: Huh? Oh c'mon, I missed it! Why're we all talking so loud?!]

"Name's Meteor, and I'm no hero," I replied, doing my damnedest to ignore the voices as I tried to lift myself up into the air only to realize everything but my scarf had burned off. I was fucking nude in front of the man who single-handedly fought off Behemoth on its first appearance. Fuck me. [Klaus: Oh shit, cover yourself!] [Rotlimb: Bwahahaha! Fucking rich!] [Edict: Eugh! You sick bastard!] [Footloose: No, really! I got all distracted by Adam's bulge. I mean, would you fucking look at it?] [Diamondback: That was bound to happen. Delible's powers are the only reason you yourself made it out intact.]

Adam barked out a laugh, though whether that was because of my scrambling to cover my key areas with my scarf or because he found my name apropos, I wasn't sure. "Do hurry, Meteor. I'll be ready for you." [Klaus: Just, just go! Get out of here, and take care of it on the way up!] [Rotlimb: Hey, do you guys think the goober's erection is because he likes the sight of little girls' snatches?] [Toro: You know what, Ten? You're right. Fucking a cum dumpster like you is a terrible idea. Who knows what diseases I'd get?] [Footloose: Dude must really like fighting Endbringers, you know what I mean?]

I did my best to clamp down on the embarrassed flush of my cheeks as I pressed my hands to the ground, reformed the dirt into metal, and used the material to cover myself from the neck down. I wasted no time taking off, sparing a moment to commanding the voices to be Quiet! to give myself a reprieve from the insanity. It wasn't like I needed to speak as I flew over to the base of the Endbringer to retrieve my fallen meteor. Though Adam's shield had contained the force from the impact, the area immediately around the sword's entry into the ground was absolutely devastated.

A myriad portals were strewn about the vicinity, requiring the capes trying to attack the Endbringer to divert some of their attention to the nightmares regularly emerging. More than a few gazes snapped over to the massive steel sphere when it lifted into the air, but even they could barely afford to pay it much mind with the unending onslaught. Littered here and there amongst the chaos, I spotted several Dragon-craft lying motionless, and strangely, I heard clearly over all of it what sounded like a flute of all things.

[Rotlimb: The fuck d'you th—!] [Toro: Fucking—!] [Butcher: Stop t—]

Quiet. I pushed all that out of my mind as I pulled myself into the sky as fast as I could, dragging my meteor along for the ride and regularly ordering the voices to be quiet. Even with my newfound speed boost, I found myself desperately wanting to swear at how long it took me to reach the same height as before. In truth, I may have been lower because the chill could more readily set in with my lack of clothes, but it was enough nevertheless.

[Rotlimb: If you don't—!] [Toro: I will rip—] [Butcher: New blo—!]

Quiet! I plummeted, my namesake hurtling through the air in my wake. The metal layered over me heated up to the point it nearly liquefied, but regular flexes of my power kept it solid. The twinkling lights dotting the black city grew and grew, and before long, I could see the Endbringer well enough to properly use Quarrel's power this time.

[Toro: Hey, Sixteen! What do you call a naked bitch in the middle of an Endbringer attack?]

I set the meteor's target for the eye nestled in the nexus of the blade and its handle, then I pulled up hard against my own momentum while commanding, Be quiet! I couldn't feel pain, but that didn't mean I couldn't immediately feel the strain of my body smushing into steel I was struggling to hold together and keep solid.

[Toro: No really!]

I was too distracted to realize the bastard hadn't waited, and in my preoccupation, I defaulted to what I had been doing repeatedly for the past minuet. I said qui—!

I began to sneeze uncontrollably. I tried to focus past it, but all I could manage was to vaguely yank myself upward. I realized water was under me, and even though I saw land nearby, the fear of drowning gripped me like a vice, and I shoved the solid steel surrounding me into elsewhere. For the second time in less than an hour, I was decapitated as my body was pulped against the abruptly immovable steel. My only saving grace was that very same beheading killed the bulk of my head's momentum, a grace more than offset by it continuing to fall and ultimately smash into the land I had spotted before. To add insult to injury, the sneezing didn't stop, albeit in the form of twitching, since I had no lungs to sneeze from.

[Toro: A goddamn sucker.]

Toro, you bastard! [Klaus: June!!] [Rotlimb: Fuck yeah, Nine! Ahahaha!] [Footloose: Hey guysos, what exactly happens if Sixteen is technically the reason she dies? Does she become a double Butcher…?] [Toro: Think you can keep us quiet, you brainless whore?!] [Butcher: Learn your place.]

I twitched, a failed sneeze jarring me enough to rock my head onto its side just in time to see my meteor collide with the Endbringer. I had landed half the city away thanks to trying to kill my momentum much higher up, but even still the cacophonous clang of the impact reached me. The collision struck true and with cataclysmic effect, the entirety of the handle and grip breaking off with a horrendous screech while the kaleidoscope shield around it rippled and shook with the effort of containing and redirecting the energy from the impact.

I twitched again, beginning to feel faint. Would the pieces of my body make it here in time to stop my dying? [Klaus: Goddammit, Toro! How could you?!] [Rotlimb: Whoa, that looked like it did some real damage.] [Footloose: Wait, would would being a double Butcher even mean? Would she get all our full powers, maybe?] [Edict: TORO!!]

The same excruciating noise that had heralded the monster's arrival overwhelmed my senses as the sky tore apart into a jagged stretch of light and the Endbringer began to dissolve into red energy that flowed up into the gash at rapidly rising rate.

I… I did it. I really did it… [Klaus: Hang on, June! Try to pull your pieces together quicker! No wait—bring them to you with your metal!] [Rotlimb: Six, you are such a weird fuck. How do you even come up with this shit?] [Footloose: Ooorrrr you could teleport your body to you! Tel-e-port! Tel-e-port! Tel-e-port!] [Toro: Yes, your anger sustains me, Nine! Ahahahaha!] [Butcher: Hn. At least you did something worthwhile, new blood.] [Belial: Well done, Juniper.]

"JUNE!!" someone nearby cried out. Who was that? I knew that voice but couldn't place— No. I couldn't spare it attention. Black was creeping in at the corners of my vision, but thankfully Footloose had the right idea for once. I hadn't noticed until the crazy cape had made their harebrained suggestion, but for some inexplicable reason I could feel not just the steel around my body but my body itself. I had no fucking clue if it would work, but I tried to focus on teleporting it to—

Heat seared my face and hair, but I couldn't bring myself to give a fuck. My body was next to me! I lost connection with the steel up in the sky, causing it to return from elsewhere and begin to fall, but I was wholly focused on the fucking eerie sensation of my pieces pulling themselves together. [Klaus: Oh thank god… I swear, if I had a heart, you'd have given me a dozen heart attacks by now…] [Rotlimb: Fucking hell, Sixteen, you have more lives than a goddamn cat.] [Footloose: Woot woot! Who's numba one? Six! Who?! Six!!] [Toro: You lucked out this time, cunt. Don't you ever think of trying that shit again, or I'll make sure you bite the dust next time!]

Movement in the corner of my eyes signaled someone reaching down to touch me, but my neck wasn't whole enough yet turn and— Oh wait, no it was…? I sat up, feeling funny. How had I pulled myself together so much quicker that time? [Klaus: What?] [Delible: Definitely quicker. Did you do something different?]

The person touching me squeezed, and I turned to see who it was and breathed an immediate sigh of relief. Amy Dallon's face, on the other hand, pinched in distress and confusion. "June? W-What's happened to you? Your skin is—"

I leaned in and captured her lips with a searing kiss, savoring the warm tingling that shot through my veins. I hadn't even meant to, but when I saw those cute freckles and pinched lips of hers, I just couldn't help myself. [Klaus: Huh? I thought you were with…? I mean, not that you can't be with two people…] [Footloose: Woo hoo hoo! Do the horizontal monster mash, Sixteen!] [Belial: Oh? Interesting. How will you get out of this, I wonder?]

"Oh, June," Amy moaned into my mouth, sending shivers of pleasure racing down my spine. "I know I shouldn't have, but…"

Too much. It was too much, the heat building in me to a fiery crescendo. It briefly crossed my thoughts that Elle probably wouldn't be happy about this, but I couldn't bring myself to care enough. I pulled back for air, panting heatedly as my trembling hands reached for her robes. I shouldn't—I shouldn't, but I needed her!

I froze as sheer terror abruptly overwhelmed me.

"AMY!!"