1:15 p.m.

Pike could not believe what he was seeing. This was Pike’s third time going up against an aerial Contender and this Red Angel was significantly more powerful than the other two he had faced. Both those previous Contenders had made short work of anything and everything not invincible or invulnerable, including three different state of the art automated ships made by Daedalus. Those ships packed considerably more firepower, speed, automatic defenses, and armor than the Dozen’s ship. Common sense said the ship should have already been ripped to pieces by the furious Contender.

The Dozen’s ship was defying all common sense. Three times now Pike had been sure the Contender would close the gap and begin ripping the ship to pieces. Three times, the ship had danced away, delivering a stinging counterblow with guns and sand.

Pike and Freya had thrown themselves in the way repeatedly, attempting to block the Red Angel’s direct path to the ship, buying it time to retreat out of range. Every time either fighter had tried, the Red Angel had knocked them aside, slowed by perhaps a second. Pike couldn’t figure out how they were doing it but he found himself actively rooting for the Dozen’s ship.

If nothing else, nobody on his team had taken a scratch from the Contender as they blasted away; it was purely focused on destroying that ship. His team had been hammering the Red Angel continuously and it was starting to show. Pike could make out cracks in some of its armored hide and one of its wings hitched whenever it flapped. Neutronis was playing an incredibly dangerous game of chicken, sitting right at the edge of his absorption reach to siphon the electricity arcing off the Contender’s body and weapons.

The Contender was knocked awry by a tendril of sand as it swooped towards the Dozen’s ship and before it could correct itself, it was hammered by a tank shell and high pressure jet of water from Quetz. In the few seconds the Contender took to re-orient, the Dozen’s ship had cleared about four hundred yards of space away from the Contender, still unloading into it with several different automatic weapons along with their under-mounted barrel.

Glancing over at Freya, Pike saw her tapping her earpiece. Hardened comms units were great, but they had downsides, like being extremely uncomfortable. Pike gave Freya a nod as they continued to pursue the Contender, which chased the Limo relentlessly.

“Pike, we’re down to about 70% ammo here, how beat up does it look?” Petra’s strained voice came over his earpiece. Pike wished they could have kept the mental communications but he couldn’t be too upset; a mentalist Contender was not something to fuck around with.

“There are cracks in its hide and a hitch in the pattern of one wing.” Pike replied.

“Slow and steady wins the race.” He heard.

1:16 p.m.

Pike saw an opportunity to really knock the Contender off balance and dove towards it. He knew he’d take a retaliatory swipe, but he trusted his regeneration to see him through it. He came in at an angle, intending to clip the tip of the Red Angel’s wings to force it further down. As he approached, Pike suddenly felt extremely heavy and collided with the Contender’s snout.

This thing has gravity control? He thought as he began to zip backwards. However, he saw surprise in the eyes of the Contender. Wait, if it sucked me in, why the hell is it surprised?

Pike was still wondering that when the gravity sucked him straight back into the Red Angel’s arms. The Contender grappled him and Pike knew he was stuck. Gasping in pain as the Contender began applying pressure, Pike prayed fervently that his teammates could get him out of the thing’s grip before his regeneration was overloaded and he died anyways. He felt the charge beginning to build in his body, pain lancing through him as bones began cracking and resealing repeatedly, his regeneration trying to right the damage. Turning his head, he saw Neutronis flying towards him, but he seemed to be moving far slower than usual. Pike wondered just how badly the pain was affecting him as his eyes shifted over to Freya. He saw her flying his way as well, wearing a look of concentration. When their eyes met, guilt flashed across her face.

It took Pike several seconds to work through the logic of that as he fought against blacking out. Her powers included deft control over gravitational pull of objects; she had altered his gravity to suck him right into the Contender’s arms. He puzzled through possible reasons for betrayal. As far as Pike knew, Freya had genuinely liked him and he’d never done a thing to harm the Valkyries. They’d saved each other’s lives before against Contenders and Et Timuerunt. The only difference this time was…the Dozen? Pike struggled to put the pieces together as pain lanced through his body once more, following the path of the electricity burning its’ way through him.

They want to ambush the Dozen? He asked himself and came up with no other alternatives. Pike wouldn’t have stood for betraying an ally, even mercenaries like the Dozen. So they had to get rid of me. Damn, Joan too?

The pieces clicked in place and Pike suddenly was certain he wasn’t escaping alive. Peace flooded through him, muting the pain somewhat as he decided to throw a small wrench into their plans.

“Petra,” He coughed, saying her name to activate the comm line directly to the ostensible leader. “Freya, gravity…trick. Ambush.”

There was silence for a few seconds.

“Damn it,” he heard Petra swear, as if talking through a cloth.

“Thank you Pike.” Pike could’ve sworn he heard her voice catch, faint as it seemed to him. She said something else, but Pike was suddenly free-falling into blackness and he embraced the escape from pain.

1:13 p.m.

Stormfront hauled ass up the stairs to the top of the brick building he and Amp were supposed to be shooting from. Amp was a few steps behind and Sledge had stopped at the base of the stairs to buy time if one of the Contenders got too close.

“Shit, can’t believe that thing got Joan.” He heard Amp panting behind him.

“Don’t think about it.” He replied, seeing the sign for the tenth floor go by. “Let’s just get in place to help out with the aerial Contender.”

Only ten more stories, he thought wryly. They arrived at the top floor of their peak of the building a minute later, both panting and doubling over.

“Petra…we’re….shit that was a long climb…we’re in position.” Amp was bent over, holding her knees as she communicated.

“No go for helping with the aerial Contender.” They heard Petra’s terse reply. “It’s an electricity based Red Angel. I – Transporter full reverse now! Shit, sorry, this thing is stubborn. Can you see either of the other two Contenders from where you’re at?”

Stormfront and Amp shared a look. Electricity based enemies were a pain in the ass for them, especially Stormfront. As he looked out the window, Stormfront saw the Limo darting away from the Red Angel, tendrils of sand lashing out to knock aside lightning as it arced toward the ship. It was always an impressive sight to watch as the Limo danced around an aerial opponent. Shifting his gaze, Stormfront saw flashes of green impacting against a fire-wreathed giant six blocks away.

“We’ve got vision of the Minotaur over by what’s left of the church.” Amp was reporting. “Khyber’s kicking its ass.”

As they watched, Khyber took a shot from the axe, crashing through a wall. “And maybe get his ass kicked a bit too.”

“Give him support if you can, we need that thing contained.” Petra barked. “Update me when you can.”

“Got it boss.” Stormfront replied. He heard the comm link click off. “Ready?”

Amp turned and flashed him a coy smile. “Make me glow.”

Stormfront grinned and chose not to comment on the intentional innuendo by his partner. He focused and lightning leapt from his fingertips, striking into Amp. She glowed briefly before a torrent of lightning flew from her outstretched arm directly towards the Minotaur. The impact was enough to knock it off its feet and Stormfront saw Khyber leap in to pummel the downed Contender. He and Amp repeated the barrage multiple times, hitting more often than not. The Contender located the source of the lightning and bellowed a challenge. It charged towards their building and Stormfront once again thanked whatever being watched out for him that Khyber was on his team.

With a green flash, the Minotaur was sent reeling and Khyber interposed himself between it and the building. Amp returned the favor, hitting the already stumbling Minotaur to knock it over once more. Khyber shot a glance their way and Stormfront could tell he was laughing even from half a dozen blocks away, the bastard. The Minotaur suddenly appeared behind him, swinging its’ axe. Khyber and the Minotaur became a whirling green blur that Stormfront had difficulty parsing. They separated suddenly, with the Minotaur going ass over teakettle from some move by Khyber.

Stormfront grinned as he watched Khyber dart in and smash the Minotaur into the ground. The Contender got in a retaliatory blow and Khyber’s small frame hit a brick building hard enough to cave the entire five story structure in. The Contender surged to its feet and moved towards their building. Amp glanced over at Stormfront nervously as their barrages only made the Minotaur stutter while covering the distance to the building alarmingly fast. Stormfront waited for Sledge to send the Minotaur flying with whatever energy he’d been storing up but nothing happened and the Minotaur closed to within a block.

1:16 p.m.

“What the fuck is Sledge doing?” Amp muttered beside him as the Minotaur approached. Both of them breathed a sigh of relief as they saw a green blur appear right below their building, knowing Khyber would head the Contender off. Then they saw Khyber go flying through the air, pinwheeling as his grey bodysuit blended with the cloudy sky.

“Shit!” Stormfront exclaimed.

The Minotaur was too far away to do that. Stormfront thought. Then he saw Sledge running away from their building. Everything clicked.

“Petra!” Stormfront screamed into his comm link as he grabbed Amp’s arm and headed towards the stairwell. “Double cross by Sledge! We’re in trouble!”

The two of them pounded down the stairs as they felt the Minotaur smash its way into the building and it swayed dangerously.

Petra barked back in his ear almost instantly. “Get the hell out, Khyber will buy you time!”

There was profuse swearing on the other end of the line. “It was a set-up, they got Pike.”

Stormfront heard Petra reasoning her way through the ambush. “Which means they got Joan and Centurion too. Celestis has to be clean or she’d have pulled one on Khyber while they were alone, why didn’t they…? Oh fuck no. Stormfront I need you to –“

Petra was interrupted by Zero jumping in. “Petra. I’m hit.”

Stormfront could hear the pain in Zero’s voice. “Trickshot put one in me from behind but I got away clean, I think.”

“Fuck!” Petra swore loudly. “Zero, rendezvous with Stormfront and Amp at the secondary evac point from the job.”

Stormfront and Amp stumbled as the building shook, presumably from Khyber making his presence known. There was a click on the comms. “Bubbles, Pockets, get the hell off of Chariot’s ride, we’ve been set up.”

“What the hell- Pockets!” Bubbles cried out. “What the fuck?!”

There was a scream over the comms.

“I’m okay.” Bubbles voice came over the comms thirty seconds later. “Garganta, she, she, Pockets is dead.”

Bubbles’ voice trailed off, the misery clear in her voice. “She went after Amoeba next, the two of us bailed at the same time. They didn’t turn around for us but I can hear someone clashing with a Contender nearby.”

“Dammit!” Petra continued swearing. Stormfront glanced over to see that he and Amp had made it all the way down to the seventh floor. The crashing sounds beneath them were growing louder and Stormfront was sure Khyber had re-entered the fight.

“Bubbles, you’re between both ground Contenders and they’re headed right for you, bail now.” There was another click. “Khyber, we’ve been backstabbed, buy the rest time to get clear. Get to Celestis and get her out of here, if they went after Amoeba, she’ll be on their list too. Once they get clear, the gloves come off. Code yellow off.”

“Fucking right they will.” Khyber growled. “Stay down!”

Stormfront heard the shout in stereo between the comms and the noise below.

“All right, the rest of you, standard evac and scatter protocol. We’ll use the –“ there was a screech and then the comms went dead. Stormfront and Amp glanced at each other as they ran out the base of the stairwell, using the emergency exit on onto the street. There was a tremendous crashing sound and Stormfront looked up as the building fell on them both.

1:19 p.m.

Zero swore as she heard the screech and then silence over the comms. She looked down to check on the wound leaking blood from her abdomen. She wasn’t sure what Trickshot had used but Zero was glad it had been a through and through.

Turning the corner, she saw Bubbles and Amoeba sprinting down the street, getting the hell away from Khyber and the Minotaur going at it hammer and tongs. They paused next to a collapsed building and Bubbles began digging frantically for a moment before Amoeba joined her. Zero decided to speed up their escape and walked over to a somehow untouched, Rupture-hardened car. She smashed the window and reached in to unlock the door.

Once she had the car started, Zero looked up to see Bubbles and Amoeba staggering towards her, Amoeba supporting Stormfront while Bubbles was carrying an unconscious Amp.

“Fuck.” Zero muttered to herself, driving the car up to them. Stormfront crawled into the car and Bubbles shoved Amp inside before crawling into the backseat herself. Amoeba jumped into the passenger seat and Zero whipped the car around to take off. She stopped when she saw Trickshot standing in the street, holding what looked to be a modified grenade launcher.

“Wish I could say I felt bad about this!” Zero heard him shout. “But I’m really n-“

Trickshot’s head exploded as a line of red intersected it. Zero tracked the beam to an alleyway a block down where Lyudmila was crouched. Zero drove over to her, watching the rearview mirror to keep an eye on the fight between Khyber and the Minotaur.

“What the hell is going on? I saw him shoot you earlier and he tried to take me out when I asked why, knocked out the supports from my perch.” The sniper asked as they rolled up.

Zero gave her a quick outline of the situation and Lyudmila frowned. “Do you know if anyone else on my team was in on it?”

“We’re pretty sure Celestis is clear. Otherwise, I think –“ Zero cut off as Amoeba gripped her arm and pointed towards the sky. Zero turned her head to see the Limo trailing smoke and in a death spiral, the Red Angel clinging to its underbelly.

“No…” She whispered as the ship crashed into the ground maybe nine blocks away, out of sight but well within hearing range of the thunderous boom. “No.”

“Oh God…” Bubbles whimpered behind her. “Jenny, Tom…”

There was a roar behind her and Zero was chilled to her very core. She turned and saw Khyber staring directly at the crash while the Minotaur struggled to right itself within the ruins of another building. Then his head turned and Zero felt his stare. Khyber nodded once and then turned to lunge at the Minotaur, smashing through the remains of a crumbling office building.

“Dammit.” Zero whispered. Fighting back tears, she shook her head and refocused on the situation. “Lyudmila, get out of here now! We’ll extract separately since you’re collateral, not a target. Khyber will…Khyber will buy us time.”

Lyudmila nodded and turned to sprint off down the alley, presumably towards her own mode of extraction.