1:19 p.m.

Petra heard the comms screech and yanked her headset off.

“What happened?” She called out.

“We just lost all our back-up and the electricity fried our comms without Neutronis absorbing it.” Black Hat called. Petra watched on the monitor as the Red Angel took note of every other flyer retreating from nearby airspace. It turned and roared its’ satisfaction at finally being able to focus on the Limo by itself.

Petra did her best to fend off the high volume of lightning arcing towards the ship but there was simply too much. The strikes began to tell and the engines sputtered.

“Boss we’re losing all our onboard computers from the overload.” Black Hat reported in a ragged voice.

“Screamer just went quiet,” Web said quietly.

“They’re almost done retreating.” Petra stated. “We’ve got until they drop a disruptor bomb here and we die since we can’t get away from the Red Angel.”

She laughed bitterly. “Provided it doesn’t kill us first. Well done Excelsior, well done.”

Suddenly, the ship shuddered from a giant impact.

“Petra, its’ clinging to us!” Transporter yelled out. Petra hadn’t realized the monitors had stopped tracking when the computers went down and she’d missed the Red Angel’s approach. “It’s underneath us!”

The engines died and the Limo began to plummet downwards, spiraling from how the Red Angel had unbalanced it. Blind without the monitors and disoriented from the spin, Petra was helpless to even attempt prying the Contender off of them. Petra caught Web’s eyes as the ground rapidly approached. He shrugged best he could while pinned to a wall by the force of the fall, giving her a small smirk.

Damn, didn’t think it would end like this. Was Petra’s last thought before a sense of impact and everything going black.

1:24 p.m.

Celestis was starting to get concerned. Khyber had been gone for over ten minutes now and there still was no back-up for her. Worse, her comm link had gotten smashed when she’d been clipped on the head by one of the Crawler’s claws and she couldn’t communicate that her situation was definitely worsening. The Contender had smashed its’ way through fifteen or sixteen city blocks as she did everything she could to slow it down. The Crawler shrugged off most of the stars impacting its’ hide and Celestis had been in a constant retreat for the first three or four blocks before she worked out a reliable way of tripping the Contender up. Celestis wished she could have thrown caution to the wind but these Contenders worried her. The Minotaur, by the snatch of conversation she’d heard over comms before losing her link, seemed to disregard invulnerability entirely, having downed Centurion and effectively removed Titan from the fight. The Crawler hadn’t done that with the few times she’d been hit by one of its legs but Celestis was taking extra care to avoid the acid it spewed every few seconds just in case.

She rolled under a lunge by the Crawler, shoving multiple spheres into its maw. The Crawler had a strong enough jaw to simply latch on and prevent her from choking it but every time it did so, it bought her a few seconds to think and breathe. Khyber’s wisdom about that had helped her when Ajax had sought her out and was serving just as well here.

“Remember this if nothing else.” He’d told her, squatting down on his heels beside where she lay on the burnt, grassy fields that littered the Huevos ranch. He’d finished thrashing her for the fourth time in a row and she was gasping for air. “When you fight against someone stronger than you, you have one goal: survive. Unless you value something more than your life, do not hesitate to run, cheat, or play dirty when it comes to dealing with stronger opponents.”

He’d paused, flicking her on the nose, an annoying habit she’d learned about the hard way. “Every few seconds you buy of survival, that’s a few more seconds to think, to breathe, to better prepare to survive longer.”

Celestis caught movement out of the corner of her eye that was obviously not the Crawler. Her eyes flitted over to see Titan carrying Arc and Centurion, both of whom looked critically wounded. Titan himself didn’t look much better, hunched over and limping, bloodstains visible on his white and purple uniform. He obviously wasn’t paying a great deal of attention to the fight half a city block away because he failed to react when the Crawler surged in his direction, also having spied movement.

Celestis gritted her teeth and summoned a star that was about twenty meters in diameter and sent it hurtling towards the Crawler. The Crawler won the race, smashing into the wounded fighter, sending Titan and Arc in one direction and Centurion flying towards Celestis. Centurion was flying through the air like a rag doll and Celestis darted to catch her. The star collided with the Crawler, bowling it over on its’ side. Celestis dismissed it immediately, the amount of focus it took to maintain a star that big would dull her reflexes in a fight.

Celestis set Centurion down, scowling at the slash across the older woman’s chest and the goring wound through her stomach. Celestis was more than a little afraid of anything that could do that to Centurion. She watched as Titan hurried away with Arc on his shoulder, using the Crawler’s re-directed attention to escape. Celestis couldn’t blame him; in that condition, he’d be a liability in a fight. Though she wished Titan had grabbed Centurion again before leaving.

1:26 p.m.

The Crawler was skittering towards her again and Celestis quickly darted away, trying to draw the Contender’s attention away from the injured fighter. When the Crawler bore down on Centurion regardless, Celestis gritted her teeth and summoned another twenty meter diameter star to smack into the Crawler once more. That hit got the Contender’s attention again and it veered to deal with the source of the blow. Celestis dodged backwards, pelting the Crawler with an unending stream of softball sized stars to harass it. As she continued to lead the Crawler away from the incapacitated heroine, she found herself wishing Khyber, or anybody really would show up to give her some relief.

Then a gigantic mass crashed into the Crawler, sending it sprawling. As the masses disentangled from each other, Celestis saw what had to be the Minotaur brandish its axe, roaring in fury as lava erupted from the nearby area. It lurched to its feet and Celestis saw it staring in the direction it had come from. Bright blue blood dripped from a wound on its chest and another in its leg. She followed its line of sight to see Khyber, blue blood spattered on his mask and costume, emerge from the building. Celestis had a strong urge to suddenly be elsewhere; Khyber was marching towards the Minotaur as if he intended to tear it limb from limb and damn anything that got in his way.

Before she could think about why he seemed so furious, Celestis’s eyes were drawn to the Crawler, which had used her lapse in attention to scuttle towards Centurion’s prone form. Celestis let out a scream of desperation, flinging a meter wide star with everything she had at the Crawler as she scrambled to block its’ approach to Centurion. It ducked the star but didn’t dodge her body slam, which nudged it off course from trampling over Centurion. The Crawler screeched in frustration, rounding on her in a blink. This was the closest Celestis had allowed it to get since she’d been knocked over by its’ mental attack earlier and once again she found herself staring down the maw of the Crawler with nowhere to run.

This time, she wasn’t mentally incapacitated and summoned a wad of various sized stars, shoving the mass directly down the Crawler’s throat. The Contender made a choking sound as it forced the stars back out from its’ throat while Celestis skipped backwards to regain a safe engagement distance. She couldn’t afford any spare attention for the fight between Khyber and the Minotaur as she desperately summoned and manipulated stars to keep the Crawler a safe distance from both herself and Centurion. Several times she was forced to summon stars to intercept streams of acid directed towards the injured fighter.

Suddenly the Minotaur was crashing into the Crawler again and both Contenders went skidding about twenty feet while entangled. Khyber appeared right beside her, blasting away at the enmeshed Contenders to keep them from separating. Celestis added in her own barrage.

1:29 p.m.

“Grab Centurion and run!” Khyber shouted at her. Celestis glanced over at him in confusion. “Everyone else has pulled out of here. They’ll be dropping a disruptor bomb in a few minutes, you need to get the hell out of here!”

Celestis didn’t have time to reply before Khyber blurred towards the Contenders as they finally separated, tripping up the Minotaur and sending it stumbling back into the path of a fresh stream of acid the Crawler was spewing. The Minotaur’s bellow of pain made the previous roars seem like whispers. Khyber blurred back to her side, resuming his portion of the barrage.

“I’ll buy you two some time! Don’t go back to your team, they’ll kill you.” Celestis turned to gape at him.

“What the hell are you talking about?” She shouted.

“We were set up, Joan and Pike were both betrayed and killed.” Quiet fury entered his voice. “The Limo went down with no survivors when they had their support stripped.”

Celestis heard the raw anguish mix with the fury and couldn’t reply, too stunned to say anything. Joan was dead?

“Like I said, I’ll buy you enough time to get clear of the disruptor bombs. I can keep these idiots distracted for long enough. I’m glad we became friends Celestis, I –“ Khyber paused and shoved Celestis to the side. She went rolling and felt the impact of something heavy hitting the ground where she and Khyber had been standing. Celestis popped up on her feet right beside Centurion. Khyber was in the middle of fending off an assault from the Red Angel, which had landed and was lashing out with all four arms.

“Go!” He screamed. Celestis was torn between staying to help, getting Khyber to clarify just what the hell he meant, and retreating with Centurion.

1:31 p.m.

“Go!” Khyber screamed again, emphasizing it with a bolt of plasma sent Celestis’s way. Celestis went. She scooped up Centurion in her arms and skimmed along the streets as she left downtown. Celestis had no idea which way she was going, only that it was farther from the fight she heard raging behind her. Her mind was in a turmoil trying to process the information Khyber told her.

After a few minutes of flying in a generic ‘away’ direction, Celestis calmed down enough to begin heading for the rendezvous point the Valkyries had set up in the brief time they’d had before coming to Montreal. She didn’t know if what Khyber said was correct, but she needed to find someone to help Centurion regardless.

Celestis flew slowly to make sure she didn’t end up killing Centurion by jostling her too much, trusting Khyber to live up to his promise. A while later, she could still hear it going as she neared the rendezvous point. She was extremely concerned that she hadn’t felt the telltale pulse of a disruption bomb yet. Lyudmila stepped out of a side-alley and Celestis nearly ran her over in surprise.

“Good, you made it.” The Russian immigrant ran over and gave Celestis an awkward hug with Centurion still in her arms. Part of that was due to Lyudmila still holding her rifle. “I was worried they’d gotten you too.”

“Me too?” Celestis asked.

“Da. Zero said Sledge took down the building Amp and Stormfront were in and he probably was the one who threw Joan in front of the Minotaur. Freya and Neutronis got Pike killed by the Red Angel, and someone tripped up Centurion to get her out of the way.” Lyudmila grabbed Celestis by her arm, dragging her over to a non-descript car. “Get in, we’ll talk on the way to Asclepius’s, we’re rescuing Flora and Flashbang.”

As she started up the car, Lyudmila glanced back at Centurion lying pale and bloody on the back seat. “And maybe getting her some help too.”

“Wait, so they got everyone out of the way who wouldn’t what? Be okay with us abandoning the Dozen?” Celestis felt the adrenaline leaving her system and fought the sudden fatigue that was exaggerated by the soothing motion of the car. She’d been hoping that Khyber had been delusional. Lyudmila’s conviction otherwise drained her, made her feel leaden and useless.

“The people who could actually cause a problem if they disagreed with the plan. Centurion, Joan, Pike, you, and Amoeba as far as Zero could figure out. Though it looks like they’ll end up being two for five.” Lyudmila frowned. “It was their mistake not to include myself or Daedalus on that list. He helped the survivors escape under Meridian’s noses.”

“Me?” Celestis asked numbly.

“Da. You’re an excellent front line fighter, you’re generally a nice person, and you’re powerful enough to be a serious problem if you took the Dozen’s side in a conflict. They were planning on leaving you to die by the disruption bombs.” Lyudmila shook her head. “They knew you wouldn’t disengage as long as you thought you were still protecting people.”

“Wait…” Celestis began putting two and two together. “How many of the Dozen died?”

“All the ones in the Limo: Transporter, Black Hat, Web, Petra.” Lyudmila said grimly. “They’re good, but even they weren’t good enough to hold off that enraged flyer by itself. Not without the rest of their crew onboard. And Pockets got her throat cut.”

“So, we’re meeting up with Khyber and the remaining Dozen after our rescue mission? Get some payback?” Celestis began to feel a burn of anger in her stomach at the thought of being set up to die. She knew that however angry she felt, Khyber and the remaining Dozen would be far worse. Celestis found herself smiling at the thought of joining them on a campaign for revenge. Betrayal wasn’t something good people did, but it was certainly something good people would avenge.

“Well, the remaining Dozen, yes.” Lyudmila hesitated, causing Celestis to turn and stare at her teammate. “Khyber won’t be there.”

“Why not?” Celestis asked. Before Lyudmila could respond, both women straightened at the feeling of a disruption bomb going off behind them. Then a second, and a third. The pulses were too weak to do anything serious to either woman, though they felt incredibly unpleasant. “Jesus, three bombs, that’s overkill, even if it is absurdly overdue.”

“They wanted to make sure they cleaned up their mess.” Lyudmila scowled.

“Okay, that makes sense.” Celestis responded. “So when do we meet up with Khyber? I want to be there when he goes after whoever did this.”

“We don’t meet up with him.” Lyudmila said sadly. “Ever, if I understood Zero correctly.”

“Ever?” Celestis tried to make sense of that, refusing to believe the only sensible conclusion. Bits of their last conversation came back:

“You need to get out of here,”

“Buy you time to get clear,”

“I can keep these idiots distracted for long enough,”

“I’m glad we became friends.”

“Stupid bastard.” She mumbled as the realization that Khyber had never intended to get clear of the disruption bombs himself hit her. Her voice grew thick as emotions warred beneath the surface. “He could’ve gotten away.”

Lyudmila grabbed her shoulder, squeezing it. “I’m sorry, I know he was a good friend to you.”

Celestis didn’t reply; she couldn’t. Lyudmila released her grip and looked forward again.

They drove on in silence.

2:07 p.m.

Web groaned as he came swimming up from blackness. As he regained awareness, Web noticed a curious feeling in his legs. He opened his eyes and looked up from where he lay on the asphalt. The Limo was in pieces around him and a particularly large chunk had landed on his legs, crushing them completely.

Guess that explains the interesting feeling, Web mused, vaguely intrigued by the initial lack of pain. Opening his mind to his surroundings, he found only one other active mind, with two others’ last screams still echoing in the air. Web had never shared that tidbit with his teammates, that dying minds left a mark that lasted.

Web, feeling surprisingly energetic mentally, linked to the one active mind he felt. The mind was currently doing its best to prevent the body from understanding the depth of pain it was feeling from the jagged shard of metal sticking through its’ torso. Each breath was agony, but both the body and mind agreed that living in pain was better than dying and so breathing continued. As he finished linking, Web smiled a bittersweet smile.

Petra.

Petra: ...Web?

Still kicking. Well, actually not so much kicking or even walking.

Petra: Not exactly feeling great myself. I think I finally ran out of good plans.

Could’ve definitely been worse. Some of the others will get away.

Petra: Yeah, there’s that. But…I think we’ll be seeing far too many of them soon enough if your metaphysical crap turns out to be true.

I’m wounded. Literally wounded. Just Pockets, Hat, and Transporter died, I’m stretching my reach out now, the rest of them are still alive, though I’m assuming with Flashbang and Flora.

Petra: …And Sam.

What do you mean?

Petra: He saw the ship go down, he had to based on where he was and where we fell. He’ll be following my last order.

He still can get away with time to spare before they drop disruptors.

Petra: He could, but he won’t.

He’ll survive for revenge.

Petra: He burned out on revenge after we broke Excelsior and Deus. And…I don’t know he’d want to survive the death of the Dozen.

He wouldn’t?

Petra: Sam told me after Greg and Kendra died and he’d gotten revenge, he felt empty. Like there wasn’t really a purpose. He couldn’t see a happy future for himself. I formed the Dozen partly to keep giving him a purpose, to keep him wanting to live. Live to protect the only surviving family he had, live to keep alive the dream Kendra had, live to find a challenge worthy of finally being his end. He knew it and I knew it, we just…never talked about it.

Tori, he had other reasons than that.

Tori: Maybe he faked them for you, but he never lied to me. We made that agreement after Cincinnati.

Oh yes he did.

Tori: No he didn’t!

Web reflected on the fact he was finally having the conversation with his step-sister he’d been meaning to have for the last four years. And that the conversation only was happening because they were dying. They never stopped being siblings when it came to the small things.

Let’s ask him then.