The heroes watched on, waiting for the inevitable, the breaking of this insulting façade. But it never came. Their enemy, their target, the one who killed their friends and escaped the death he was owed was just there… crying over his crimes. Like some greenhorn villain who took things too far and couldn’t deal with the reality of what he’d done, or he didn’t even know what he did till now. Either way, fists tightened and stares hardened at the wholesale affront kneeling like a penitent seeking forgiveness. The hardest being Buster’s as she stared straight into a draining eye slit, the faint image of the eye behind it masked in the shadow. Or brought about by expectation. There was no glow like last time, no dim blue signaling his power, just a stream of slowing down tears. But her stare lightened in the reflective drops. Enough for her to realize this was their only chance at vengeance.

Stares flashed between heroes, attention drawn as plans were silently passed and attitudes focused away from blind retribution. A glare even passed over the crowds still frozen in confusion, a necessary message to get them the hell back from what was about to happen. Slowly and quietly, the pieces started to move.

The shuffling and whimpering of the misled bystanders, the silent sidesteps of the betrayed heroes moving to the flanks. They were all that was left, all he could hear, like it was demanded of him, but the only thing he felt was the crushing weight of his own sins still forcing him down. But that demand still felt… familiar. Something in him demanded he fight, demanded he get up, demanded demanded demanded! His metal claws gripped tight as he tried to shut this caustic thought out, tried to just suffer in peace. He had nothing left to fight for anywa-

“You have yourself…”

He opened his eyes, the suffering was postponed as he felt words and feelings again that were separate from his own. It was just one… two? They were hazy, disjointed, impossible to make out beyond a few emotional cues. Had the Garkah left someone behind, was he just hallucinating? His sorrowful stupor abated as he questioned his own senses, as he questioned his own mind, as the figure disappeared into the backdrop like he was never there. And as the reality around him finally had his attention.

Cauterizer maintaining distance on his right, the growing sizzle of his hands heating clear enough. Depthcharge behind him, hollow breathing and moving water outlining their intent. Terawatt making less of an attempt to hide, path shattered beneath her as twin metal stakes skewered the ground… and the flash of power flowing up at her whiting out part of his enhanced sense. Power that seemed to come inexorably from deep, deep underground. Lastly, Buster’s contradictingly light steps slinking her off behind the monument. She wanted her sword back.

‘The one she impaled me with.’

The phantom pain in his chest returned, trying to resurface that guilt as the memories returned in kind, at least parts of them. Enough to fill in the blanks and help him understand that he didn’t want to ignore that sword… ever… aga-

‘Grrrh No…! That is not who I am!’

He forced back the phantom pain, he was free of its insistent pangs and wasn’t going to repeat his mistakes again. He was not going to accept more guilt.

The air caught in tension at last, the city still too drained and scared to din and the heroes in place not wanting to be the first to strike. Seth was left with nothing but the beat of his own heart in his ear as he struggled for calm. It slowed as if by command, and the silent world opened up. Muscles tightening in anxious preparation. Light breaths masked as best they could be. Cloth and foam chaffing and squeaking under tightening grips. Stares that watched for even the slightest movement, waited for something to break, something to lose its focus, something to falter and receive retaliation en mass. And the racing hearts that those stares created, threatening to- *crackle* And of course Buster got greedy for her sword. *BFFFFFFFFFSSSSSSsshhh*

The release of compressed water shattered what was left of the silence, Depthcharge was acting first. An arcing burst forward, like a controlled bottle rocket tired to a brick. Stupor and weight lost out as Seth shifted around, talons scratching up the path as a guard came up bracing. Dense foam met hardened metal, water weight falling hard and another burst of compression smacking like a mechanical pile driver. A halo of water spreading out in all directions steamed as Cauterizer pressed through. Glowing white hot hands set to grapple that recoiling guard instead flash steamed the water left in his wake.

Seth accepted his recoil, let it shattered more path in his wake and throwing him away from Cauterizer’s path. A slight twirl and scathing knee stopping him as Depthcharge landed and locked down off their recoil. As Cauterizer only just came about off his attack. And as Terawatt shot in from behind. Another guard flashed about, sideways as a staking left tried to skewer into the armor. Instead padded fist bunched and cracked, wrist lowered for the stakes and unprepared for impact. Seth sidestepped and slid his guard lower as the impromptu flying fist lost its inertia, a catastrophically sprained wrist grabbed along the way. What was left of Tera’s inertia sending her rolling into the sidewalk beyond.

The disparity should have been made clear to the heroes now, even weighed down by all this armor and guilt he was faster than they were. But he refused to press this advantage. So they had to. Depthcharge burst forward again, fist trailing water like an over drenched sponge. But their wake vaporized behind them. Another guard brough counter, foam and metal grazing off each other as he side stepped around them, right into Cauterizer hiding in their steamed up shadow. A leg dropped and the fiery slap sailed through the gap his broken horn used to occupy, momentum scraping him to a stop facing all three heroes again.

But Terawatt wasted no time smashing forward past them. A possibly-broken wrist set haphazardly, but stakes held back and set to pile drive more mundanely. Seth flexed another guard, but slowed its roll out until- *CLANG* that guard slammed into her gauntlet mid swing. Stacks shot out in misfire as her attack was parried away. Her momentum betrayed her as she stumbled passed, collision sidestepped again just in time- *BFFFFSSSshhh* for that still charged fist to reappear. Depthcharge had waited until they were as close as possible to release and rocked forward. But it STILL wasn’t enough. Seth dropped his foot back, kept his inertia, and brought his arm wide as that fist passed just off his helmet’s snout. A claw palming into Depth’s shoulder in time to push them too hard off their attack, killing their balance and tossing them to sloshingly crash next to Tera. But that claw was finally grabbed and seared as it returned, metal finding its energetic state in Cauterizer’s gritting grip.

The moment hanged as the glow intensified, either in his perception or Seth’s. The heat was poured in, tried its best to send his meticulously alloyed plate into thermal runaway, but even it wasn’t enough. But that wasn’t the real point, Cauterizer wanted him locked down and slowed in momentum. But he didn’t have that kind of strength. The moment returned as Seth pulled his arm back despite the hold, slipped it back parallel, and hooked his claw into Cauterizer’s vest. He only had time to release his tenuous hold before he was whipped away stumbling into his teammates. Off their own fumbles, they caught and steadied him, but winced away from his still glowing hands. Awkward realigns and flaring tempers, being made fools of didn’t sit very well as hardened stares returned with their posture.

He was toying with them, insulting them further, refusing to fight like the monster he was, like the monster he is. The heroes glared into those barren eye slits with a renewed hatred that carried beyond scorn as their lured prey made a mockery of them. But this fight was far from over. Depthcharge’s eyes burned like torches as their compressed fists spurted barely contained, Tera’s grimaced face winced as she set her wrist back and arced borrowed electricity between stakes, and Cauterizer fury burned his expression to a hateful leer above the completely white hot burn of his hands. No more playing around.

And no more room for holding back to spare yourself. Seth met those stares in kind, but felt more than their callous gaze. The people cowering behind him, the crowds about blaming him for duping them, for lying to them. Despite their accusatory glares and fearful posturing they were in danger of becoming collateral damage. Especially with this much powered force set to come down on him. But all this attention was a good thing to have in this regard. A talon lifted up, narrowly spiked that powered tension to hasty action, but deflated it as he side stepped slowly out of angle. An action mirrored in that rerising tension, the heroes following suite, stepping in unison to keep their angle and accept this precaution. At least their fury wasn’t completely-

“Kill them…”

That invasive thought returned, betrayed the silent posturing only cut by uniform steps and off stage greedy exertions against concrete. His vision tried to red shift, his wrath tried to rise as if pulled upon. But…

‘That... Is not… Who I am!!’

Despite his struggling, metal claws again straining against themselves, he still knew he had to fight this time. Anything less and he’d die. Again. A stymied pull, just what could be hidden. The armor hardened, soaked and gorged on glutinously stolen electricity. Threaded flare coated his muscles, pulled taut in preparation. And the hollowed eyes of that metal terror finally glowed their initializing plasma blue.

The instant the angle turned perpendicular, the path was shattered by launching talon and unison kick off. Cauterizer’s hands seared the air wide as he took the lead, but his stance was too wide to defend. A talon stomped down, rounded Seth in line, and acted as secondary booster. A full metal shoulder slamming chest and countered every bit of inertia. And then some. A building behind received a Cauterizer shaped hole in its façade, and the heroes truly felt their disparity as their formation was holed in an instant. Depthcharge pivoted regardless, compressed jets righting their disrupted stance. Terawatt was left in the lurch, but quickly pounced at Seth’s back as he squared up on Depth. Just as that back lurched closer and an elbow came back high. Tera was denied, smacked in the face off her attack as Depth’s first swing whiffed where once there was armor, as that arm came back to attack in earnest.

But Depth was far more prepped for a brawl, both hands laden and compressed and set in succession. Opposing fists, metal and foam, slammed into each other. Halos of water splashing out as that hydro driver shot to add force, but only succeeded in matching its opposite. Then the others met this sequence, clashing strikes countering each other in sparkling sprays. The air quaked and kicked, foam not enough to soften the blows, and water weight only lasting so long. A rising beat crescendoing into one last clash bereft of its compressed spray, recoil finally pushing through and knocking open a hole. One shaped perfect for a metal shin. Seth swung his leg out and caught them in the side, dried up heavy armor spared the damage but given too much force to weigh down. They were sent whizzing into the rebuilt buildings on the other side, at least only adding a window to the new repair bill.

That armored leg followed through and rounded back as Tera roared in off her rebuke, all spikes arcing and demanding a taste of what they were brought here for. So Seth might as well give it to them. A clawed fist crunched together to meet its opposite as he powered into her charge. And hammer them apart. Over extended stakes shattered as he dashed them apart, invalidating her attack, invalidating her threat, and opening her up to counter. A scraping sidestepped, a claw un clenching and rounded back, right in line with her face. A flash of fear caught her in the shattered remains of her weapon, but was opposed by a flash of concern that was obviously alone. That claw whipped into her just as Seth dropped the both of them to the ground. Below the sudden slab of oscillating metal that cleaved where both used to reside. Tera was slammed down into the shattered path and Buster left to careen over with contradictory grace, blade spinning her about by sheer weight alone, bringing her to an air curling, shwinging stop.

Those still relatively dim eyes found their glare as he stood up off his duck, a foot sliding under and scooping Tera’s still stunned body up to kick her out of the way. Seth couldn’t deny that this was a duel long overdue. Buster slid her gratuitous sword into battery, actions in concert with that vibrating monstrosity. But… the images of that sword in Seth’s head made it seem… shinier. A green hue exuding from it, but now it just looked like normal metal that oscillated in place silently and violently. He was seeing it as it truly was, no obfuscation by the vibration, no false luster in drained senses. And he could see Buster’s movements to control that demanding force. Small flexes, counter movements so slight they barely get noticed, and all in time with each beat of that sword’s mechanical heart. He wasn’t about to deny her skill, but the look she gave said more than it should.

Fire wasn’t enough, she was at the bounds of livid emotion. Vengeful fury, scornful hatred, a baleful stare that could turn the mightiest villain with the slightest shred of decency left in them into a repentant quivering mass. She wanted him dead, deader than dead. And Seth couldn’t do anything more than accept that hate. He could see Phazer’s kindred fury reflected as he stared back, vengeance passed down the line until someone ended it once and for all. And he could remember Aegis’ fury across that easing shield, scorned warnings burning as they faced him down… And returned just enough of him to stop before it all crashed down. He caused this, he was at fault for its creation and stagnation. It was something he had to atone for as well. But he couldn’t allow it the outcome it demanded with every fiber of Buster’s being. He had too much to answer for and no ground to stand on. He couldn’t let this be his end.

The air was thick, no one wanted to even breathe to release the strain building between them. Padded feet ground the path to dust under them, metal talons flexed their grip deeper. The overlong sword hilt creaked in wrung out leather, claws cracked the armor between them. The thrumming mechanical heart revved under wrathful holds, and inner layers segmented to start up their countering pulse to kill it once again. Invasive thoughts tried to press through, even as they passed power to the generator. Something demanded just as much death as she did, revenge for revenge. Seth could do little to quiet them. But they were not the ones in control anymore.

Everything finally snapped with the unprepared path. Twin bursts of concrete loosed without care or concern. The bystanders buffeted and showered, but the dust was never going to settle. A clawed right hurtled round, sword swung in grand cleave, and a pulse set with none of the callous malice it carried about before. Only determined focus to rip this misaligned image apart. Metal met metal again, but this time the recoil was just hers. Both sword and Buster were swung back around as the reverberating tone of a true meeting filled everyone’s ears, filled everyone’s hearts, and flashed the city to life in its wake. She only knew the tired hell he’d been lost in at the time, this was what he truly could do. Seth followed through, talons skidding him to a stop as Buster was spun counter. Hasty reorientation brought another cleave around, but the left was already haymakering into it with all the built up momentum.

The sword was blasted, the path was blasted, the windows unfortunately adjacent shattered, and the air was cleared of whatever was left in it. Seth pushed the right palm counter as the now uncontrolled sword swung back again with its owner only along for the ride. It clanged off in sudden stop, whiplashing Buster and stumbling her back in control. It did nothing for her wrathful glare though. A dizzy step and titanic whipping away of her blade righted her, but the grit in her stare unhinged at the defied revenge. Like a tiger given a baseball bat, she roared back in, one handed swiping her overgrown sword from on high with none of the stable control she’d practiced before. Or at least none Seth could see.

The swipe grazed down his armored shoulder through the horn gap, sparking ineffectually as it tore at what got in its way. It whipped back with complete abandon, wavering like a poorly built wing. And clanging off that shoulder with none of the give and force it expected to still have. She was just killing her own edge in her disparity fueled desperation with none of her technique spared. The sword itself the one getting in the way. A flick sliced it back up, ground between them gouged as the blade was spun back high right, and both hands brought it down again. But all it won were more sparks, recoil, and blunted edge as it impacted the opposite shoulder like that bat to a block of concrete.

Her grip tightened beyond what her handle could take, her stare turned almost inside out as her blunted blade came back. She was losing herself to her wrath… She was falling into her own abyss. Her once sharpened mountain of vibrating metal trying desperately to catch up with her rhythm, but she was out of her own control now. Like a storm of blades, she swiped at the armor, at the terror she’d already killed once, at the monster that killed her friends, at the pain she couldn’t find any other remedy for than killing it dead yet again. But all it won was a storm of sparks and callous spalling. The sword beat against the outer plates more like a club than a blade. Friction and flaking steel arcing away off every strike. But Seth weathered that horrid storm, smacked around inside his hollowed suit, few comforts left to him. And little blocking out the real pain coming through with every strike.

Beneath the vanity, the pride, the muscle. She was hurting just as much as he was. But his friends were at least still alive. She was falling deeper, liable to never come back up, to never see the resolution she deserved. She would burn that pain away and hollow herself out like… the abyss in him. Like him when this pain was first started, like it was a disease passed along out of malice and spite-

‘Fuck!! You!! That is not… Who I AM!!!’

A talon crunched the path to dust, recoiled that wanton storm of contagious fury, locked Seth into the only action that could end this once and for all. Buster stumbled back again, eyes practically rolled over in their sockets, teeth cracking under uncontained fury. But her senses kept something aloft. Both hands slammed the titanic blade home at her hip, a foot shot back and buried itself for traction, and a grand skewer was demanded to end this once and for all.

“yyyyyyyYYYYYYAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!”

The path atomized under foot, the air sliced before it could get out of the way, and all that torrential hatred released like a nitrous fueled rocket. All right into a waiting chest that would feel the sting of impaling death again… If not for the left that pounded down upon that wrath dulled edge.

Like a poorly made trebuchet, the blade sliced down into the path under force beyond what was put in. The handle bunched up Buster’s grip into her armpit just as that stabilizing talon pulled Seth down into line, the right hurtling up low and fast. It slammed the underside of the blade, kicked the throwing arm into action, and launched the projectile that had refused to fly too much before. Buster was catapulted over, iron grip still too tight on her handle even as it twisted into her arm. End over end she sliced and cracked the path on her back, one grip finally lost with the air in her lungs. But the concrete was not given any peace. Talons scathed it apart, exploding it to proper devastation, sent Seth to follow his shot. Momentum and training twisted Buster back to her feet and spun her about, right into the flying armored knee aimed for her gut. Emptied of everything and denied gravity, she flew again, bouncing off the concrete and hurtling toward her failed trap, without her blade.

The clawed right shadowed the knee, countered iron grip with monstrous, and stole the instrument of Seth’s guilt ridden pain away from its lost wielder. The flying knee cashed its leg down, tore the path a new rut as the right whipped the humming blade to the side of its new master. Seth could feel its heart with true clarity now, an inquisition of threads snaking through the mechanism that fueled this monstrosity. It beat like a heart overclocked. Like living metal. Like… like an actual living sword! The hum… it was something he could understand. A different genre all its own, but something he could work through with ease. But… The only thing he felt most from it… was fear. Fear at what he would do with it, fear for its true wielder. But… it wasn’t just afraid of this sudden paradigm shift. It was afraid of losing her to herself. Even if she had barely understood what it said.

A new anger welled up, perception slowed realization driving his grip tighter on his borrowed blade. And driving his hum louder and louder through it. This much care, this much affection left to wallow as its only bearer burned herself away without even knowing. This green hued blade shifted under his control, a red gleam rising up, the heart running faster than it ever thought it could. And the maw refused to be silent at this deplorable dereliction.

“RRRAAAGGGHHHHH!!!”

The path atomized again in sliced patterns as Buster’s back finally crashed into the monument she’d erected in arrogant hope, and her eyes finally seeing her own blade come for her for what her wrath had done. A pillar of gleaming red, carried by the source of her own fear and hate. A vengeful skewer for what was done to it. And no time to escape the consequences of her actions. Only time to shield herself in vain fear as that pillar stabbed through to the vain monument of her regrets… Right beside its owner.