Phil Pov

I may not look at it, but I've always been a big fan of museums, seeing all the legendary and wacky pieces of art we've made over the centuries. It was always fascinating to see how far we've come and how much we've yet to achieve. Too bad that the beautiful art didn't distract from how utterly screwed I was in this world gone mad. I know that Chelsea chose the best matchups possibles, but I still dreaded every second about what's to come. Because it wasn't too hard to realize that I would be fighting the same woman who gave me cookies for five months straight, the one who seemed to enjoy learning about h2h, the one who thought I was a good parent in this crazy city of ours.

With said worry, combined with my new toys, I took down the various members of this house easily. Almost too easily as I now searched through every wing of the museum-like, a hunter looking for his big score. Chelsea tried using her drones, but the nature of her powers make that a little bit hard. By the time I made it to the end of the great stair hall on the 2nd floor, I had searched over half of the freaking museum looking for her. Frankly, some god out there must have realized I needed some action as all of my senses started to fire at all cylinders. At first, I didn't realize why, but once I saw a shadow above me, my body rolled out of the way of Kate's descent! But that didn't help matters at all as from Kate's fist; I had to brunt the force of the shockwave that followed immediately after. The intensity of the wave was so bad I was sent tumbling towards the railway below like a crash test dummy. If Chelsea hadn't modified the armor, I didn't even want to think about the cost of my medical bills.

Unfortunately, life couldn't give me any breaks as Kate uncharismatically leaped down from her perch to stomp like a cockroach. By this time, I had already sent my grapple to the nearby wall, escaping by only inches. Though this didn't stop her from trying to charge a small barrage of vibrational blasts my way, but before any of the blasts could potentially make their way towards me, my earlier laid flashbang finally got to work, messing up her aim just enough. Once I got my proper landing, I unfurled the deadliest and newest piece of my armory: Longinus. Named after the spear that pierced a god, I unleashed the full magazine of the automatic rifle, hitting Phazer with a variety of armor-piercing bullets!

Every time I heard one hit her concrete-like skin, the rifle felt all the heavier. But I still carried on through until it was all over. Immediately after I put the weapon away as I rushed to her side, hoping that I didn't do the unthinkable. Kate and Derek's durability were on the same level as something like this being a danger even to him. Still, it was the only viable option I had. With an outstretched hand, I tried to check her pulse, only to have her arm grasped in a bear trap-like grip! And as I'm ruthlessly thrown to the ground, I had a painful reminder that all this time Kate's been holding herself back. At her full power, she was able to keep her body intact even after facing near-atomic separation, a fully automatic was nothing more than a swarm of ant bites next to that. Realizing that I had been fully having, I could do nothing but see Kate's hand vibrate at a frightening frequency.

My life flashed before my eyes as I thought that this was the thing that would send me to an early grave: the hand of a woman I would call a friend. But before the fatal blow could be struck, Kate instinctively phased through a taser. Even I thought she was safe until I saw that it attached itself to the railway. Soon enough, Kate's entire body soon went wild from electricity! Seconds later, a grapple like bola appeared on her neck, dragging her away to a man that mercilessly elbowed her face in the ground, finishing his blitzkrieg by the administration of a strange gas that sends Kate straight into unconsciousness.

I wish I could say I was thankful for my savior, but it would be a blatant lie. Because in an instant, I realized that to get Kate to safety, I would have to have a little rematch with Tactic! Only seconds after his victory, he already turned to me with his new costume. It wasn't anything special, but his helmet now seemed more alive with the dark grey now being lighter to acknowledge his light-up HUD; also, he now had an insignia on his chest: an upward arrow inside a covered in an x like some football coach strategy book. In a look of pure superiority, he turned his ferocity towards me while making his introduction.

"I was wondering when your abominations would have nowhere to run. Guess it's my lucky day."

For once, my usual sardonic banter stalled, mainly because I knew I had substituted the fire for the frying pan. Ever since the Vacuum and cockroaches Tactic has made it his life's mission to capture us and find the proper funding to further expand his private anti Helix military. A part of me dreaded his reappearance ever since our first fight in Turin, but now that we were face to face I guess now was the perfect time to see who's armory was truly superior. With my choice made my sardonic banter started right back up again.

"If you think we are afraid that you must be even more deluded than I thought. We just have bigger fish to fry," I say mockingly.

"Now, you see that's where you're mistaken; you should have feared me more, guess I have to remind you why."

After that, I didn't bother with words any longer instead of starting by firing my twin grapples. However, with almost mechanical speed, Tactic used his knife to parry both grapples and pull out his pistol. In a split second of instinct, I whipped my grapple at just the right angle to disarm his pistol before he could get a clear shot. In turn, I tried to pull out my pistol, but Tactic immediately countered by throwing his knife right at my outstretched hand! Before I could even think about getting said pistol back, Tactic cartwheeled into a sidekick that I barely block! My prior injuries immediately took their toll as the strike sent me back a couple of inches. Keeping up the same ferocity as before, Tactic leaped off the rail way to deliver a swift yet hammering punch to my right arm!

Any last vestige of my defense was then shattered as I felt a crippling axe kick thrash me to the railway. And with a potential death literally seconds away I realized how bloodlust he really was. But it almost made me realize that to win this, I had to change my own tactics. Before he could unload another punch I fired my grapple towards the ground, pulling me out of the way just in time. Once I gained some distance I fired my other grapple to lead into a spin kick that disorients him further. Keeping up the pressure I grappled his helmet to lead into a powerful right hook which led into a pulled knee to gut! I tried repeating the process again and again but with surprising strength Tactic pushed me off, while at the same time getting one of my knives.

In response, I pulled out my other knife and tried keeping my offensive up. Almost exponentially, our slashes grew all the faster, bathing the wrecked museum in violent sparks. Yet even with this offensive, Tactic was still a hair faster, disarming my knife and going straight for my throat! Almost reflexively, I grabbed his forearm with the fear of death getting all the closer. But in this desperate situation, I still held on as I used my grapple to divert the knife just enough to avoid it. Taking the golden chance in stride, I hooked Tactic in a powerful chokehold. In one last desperate attempt, I grappled straight towards the staircase at blazing speed. As we both tumbled on the ground, Tactic managed to get out of the way, flipping his way to the front of the staircase. But for once, I was able to think just a little bit faster as I used my Longinus like a bat, smacking it across his head with all my remaining might! Like a rolling stone, Tactic tumbled across the stairs at a breakneck speed.

Once he found proper footing, Tactic tried to make his way back up, but by then, I already covered his immediate area with all of the flashbangs I could muster. But before they all went off, I decided to leave him with some words of wisdom.

"Next time, Tactic, do us all a favor and stay in your pond," I said as his senses were soon bombarded with bombs.

Despite the badass line, though, I secretly pulled every muscle in my body. And just like that, the intense few minutes of combats were soon replaced with me hauling an unconscious adult woman to my secret underground bunker. Only in a post-Genesis world people.

Hours later, we all managed to come back to the Trophy Case while licking our wounds. Not going to lie though morale was at an all-time low. Most of us were roughed up beyond belief, and we had no real idea if the mind control would even wear off. Either way, our victory was only short term and surface level. Our reputation was now down in the toilet with all of Philly following suit on what to do next. Yet in an odd sense, I wasn't in despair, call it me finally accepting the madness or me going crazy. But a year of this world has taught me that truly anything is possible, which means that there was certainly still a chance that we could win it all. After all, we're still Champions at the end of the day, and no one is ever going to change that.