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Aphrodite City: All Things Must End

By Psion

An Aphrodite City Story

All Rights Reserved

Downtown Aphrodite City, a day after the events in Daybreak

It was never a good thing in Kraken's mind when orders came down that looked like the folks up top were making things up. It wasn't a good thing when he was a SEAL in the Navy and it was an even worse thing now that he was taking orders from bureaucrats in Washington. The Homeland Security Directive getting deployed to Aphrodite City was one such thing, a call to play a vanilla-sounding name for a protocol that in reality was about as ridiculous as the Pentagon's plans for a zombie outbreak. Worse then that, as at least the Pentagon blatantly labeled their zombie procedure as an intellectual exercise. The HSD on the other hand was supposed to be an actual, no-holds-barred, "black box" contingency plan in the event that a supervillain or cabal of supervillains managed to successfully take over an American city... except that there were so many things wrong with it there might as well be no plan at all, a useless program written by saber-rattlers more accustomed to rattling their swords then using them.

Still, the sea otter contemplated as he walked through the ruined downtown with the rest of the taskforce, navigating streets clogged with wrecked cars, none of that mattered as much as the fact that he was here to make things right. Before volunteering for the supersoldier program that turned him into the amphibious commando Kraken, the aquatic mustelid had seen dozens of warzones, all of them located in faraway lands that would be seen as exotic if not outright alien to the average American. To see the same kind of destruction visited upon a country he had fought to keep safe from the commonplace cruelties of foreign soil... someone was going to pay.

"So what's the plan ma'am?" Dozer asked professionally, trying hard not to look at a small memorial set up on the sidewalk, a stuffed teddy bear holding a silk flower surrounded by pictures of children. Normally Kraken would have sneered at the inclusion of the donkey jack. Though he was the "Land" aspect of the "Land, Sea, Air" trinity of the same program that gave the otter his powers, Dozer hardly cut the kind of professional figure one would expect of a super soldier, guess allowing him to digest virtually any carbon compound with perfect efficiency wasn't really a good idea after all. That being said, the rotund, black-haired donkey was both as strong and as tough as an Abrams tank and currently cradled a custom-made semi-automatic shotgun built to fire 10-gauge shells, welcome things to have considering the sheer number of unknowns they were presently facing.

"Knock on doors until we find someone, anyone at this rate, that can tell us what is going on." Special Agent Susan Gales of the FBI replied automatically as she scanned the street ahead of them, lapine ears searching for a sign of someone trying to sneak up behind them as the crack profiler processed information with a detached calm more appropriate for a machine then a person. "At this point I wouldn't care if the last lawman in the city was a vigilante named Captain Tiddlywinks as long as he could tell us what happened to this place."

Kraken was about to question the wisdom of being so open when the crash of broken glass erupted from an abandoned grocery store grabbed everyone's attention. A sliver fox vixen screamed then ran out of the shop with a crude pack stuffed with necessities slung over her shoulder. Two sinister men in magnificent purple robes followed behind her, malice in their eyes, neither group looking in the lawmen's direction until the vixen, in an attempt to flee, ran down the street towards the armed strangers and slipped on some black ice.

Landing at the otter's feet, Kraken could only imagine what the cut-up black-furred fox with long platinum blond hair thought when she saw this muscular mustelid dressed in heavy cold weather clothing looking back down at her. To the sea otter's right, Dozer slowly lumbered up into position with his weapon raised, Agent Gales drew her handgun and took up a position by Kraken's left. Overhead, the carapace-clad figure of Black Vespa hovered ominously. Yes, the SEAL could see why there might have been a bit of hesitation in the young female's eyes as he leaned forward and held out a gloved hand to help her up.

As the woman rose to her feet and hid behind him, the amphibious hero extended a pair of wicked-looking claws through his fingerless gloves. Even as the two members of the Barney Appreciation Club started to reach for their weapons, Kraken could see the doubt in their eyes. Running was starting to look like a really good idea to both of them right now. They probably would have started to retreat if another troop of six of the colorfully dressed hoodlums hadn't appeared further down Main Street. Eight versus four... even with all of the hooded weirdos carrying semi-automatic weapons, Kraken had fought worse odds and he knew the others with him had as well.

Only a look was exchanged between the FBI agent and the three DSA super soldiers before they all flew into action. Kraken found an abandoned car and shoved the vixen inside the back before ripping the door off its hinges to use it as a shield. Dozer chambered a round into his shotgun and took cover behind a hot dog cart that had clearly seen a few gunfights already. Meanwhile Gales knelt behind a pile of trashcans and garbage bags that looked like they hadn't been picked up in weeks.

Meanwhile the opposition was emboldened, believing they had the advantage. The fact that three out of four of their challengers wasted no time hunkering down didn't seem to faze them in the slightest. Yet it wasn't until one decided to open his mouth that the four agents realized what idiots their foes were.

"Hey everyone, look at the fat ass trying to look scary with the big gun and the metal skull mask. Bet it's loaded with beanbag shells or something, heroes are always too much of a pussy to-BAKOOM!" A single shot from Dozer's shotgun rang out, vaporizing the heckler's head and carving a hole in the concrete behind it.

"Damn, that was supposed to be a warning shot." The donkey deadpanned nonchalantly as he chambered another round in with an ominous 'ka-chunk!'

The mood quickly changed as the Purple Brigade immediately realized who Kraken and his fellows must be. The opposing force promptly opened fire, bullets pinging off of metal as the gangers... cultists... whoever they were tried to take aim and were doing an incredibly poor job at it in the otter's mind. Retaliation was swift and merciless; Black Vespa briefly cloaked and disappeared from sight only to reappear and strafe targets with energy bolts, Dozer and Gale peppered foes with one round after another, and Kraken advanced behind the cover of his improvised shield. Bullets whizzed past as the government agents began to move up and push their enemies back, gunned down cultists falling over in showers of crimson blood.

Seeing their comrades mowed down, the survivors turned and attempted to flee. But Kraken wasn't having any of that. Grabbing the car door by one side, he spun the projectile like an Olympic hammer thrower and flung it at the retreating thugs. As all their opponents lay dead, dying, or knocked out cold due to blunt force trauma, the four outsiders turned to the vixen still hiding in the abandoned car.

"Excuse me miss..." Dozer began calmly as he shouldered his shotgun.

"Kara." The vixen replied automatically, still clearly in a bit of shock.

"Well then Kara, what do you say we take you someplace warm and you can explain to us exactly what has been happening here for the past several months?" The donkey replied with a disarming smile as he held out a gloved hand and helped her out of the car.

All jabs and disparaging remarks aside, Kraken had to admit Dozer had a way with the civvies at times. Several minutes later, the DSA team was getting in contact with Mayor O'Connor and began piecing together the story of the Aphrodite City crisis...

Scarlet Palace...

Stanley should have figured that anyone willing to build a small replica of a Scottish castle smack in the middle of an American city was probably crazy enough to go all the way and include a dungeon in the deal. Made sense in a way, the Scarlet Countess would need a place to hide her latest trophies away from paying customers. Can't have the depraved rich folks the turkey hen was somehow smuggling in from outside of the city getting killed by violent prisoners. After all, not everyone they tried to beat down would have their spirits so easily crushed.

Chained to the wall and suspended inches off the ground, Stanley Dewpond glared silently at the rotund Countess as she admired her latest catch. The avian munched on a large plate of stuffing, gesturing to the muscular bear with her fork.

"Good job girls, you caught us a Force Recon Marine. That has to be worth a pretty penny to the right people. So pretty boy, what's your name? Your real name I mean."

"Stanley Dewpond, Sergeant, Food Service Operations." The brown bear with the blond buzzcut replied automatically.

The Countess stared at him blankly; her prisoner could almost see the rusty wheels slowly creak into motion. "A cook? I lost two of my best snatchers to a damn cook? I swear, if this is a joke..."

"Served with the 41st Quartermasters in the Igoroth conflict; worked as part of the kitchen staff at UN Aid Station Zulu for pretty much the entire engagement. Spent a lot of time on the rifle range because I was a naïve apple-polisher, only saw combat when the Blackstone Syndicate managed to sneak an attack group past our frontlines. Held out with the rest of my unit until the French sent a battalion of grenadiers to mop things up. And that's pretty much it. Came back, used some of my GI Bill money to open a restaurant, and tried to forget the things I saw. Was doing a pretty good job until you had to go remind me. Which is how I ended up as... what is it people are calling me now, the Castigator?"

Dewpond could tell his captor was halfway between decking him one good and trying to find a way to turn this to her advantage. "Oh well... I suppose this isn't a total loss. If nothing else, I can put you to work in my kitchen." The round avian mused with a greedy smirk as she gobbled up the rest of her stuffing.

Does the job come with an oven big enough to cook you in? Pretty sure the only way you'd be tolerable is as a part of Kimberly's delicious ass. Stanley thought to himself, keeping his expression neutral. She really wouldn't be stupid enough to put him in a position where he could easily poison her would she?

"Milady, you do know that-" One of the Countess's henchbirds, the parrot sniper, began.

"Yes I know, I know. If I put him to work I can't let him near any knives or cleaning supplies." The turkey hen waved dismissively. "Come, we have other matters that need to be addressed." The Scarlet Countess beckoned, leaving Stanley alone with the rest of the new captures...

Meanwhile, Ambrosia Biotech...

Kimberly Dewpond's biotech treatments were coming along better then he anticipated, Dr. Townes realized as he took note of the progress being made by the stout ursine woman suspended in a nutrient bath. Overall body mass had already made noticeable increases, and while Kim did not appear to become significantly taller, she was certainly getting broader. Dense muscle coated by a thick layer of body fat particularly concentrated in the hips and belly, giving the she-bear a sturdy pear shaped appearance.

"Well you certainly have some interesting hobbies Dr. Townes." An unfamiliar voice called out. Even after putting up a fair fight against Panzer Beast, something about the stranger nearly made the tiger jump out of his skin, probably the fact that the lab was on the thirtieth floor and there was at least two dozen armed guards between him and the lobby.

Turning around, the CEO of Ambrosia Biotech found himself staring face to masked face with a vaguely familiar rabbit dressed in a trench coat and a gasmask. Barely remembered stories of a vigilante from St. Louis began to surface from deep within his mind. Could it be?

<Yes, I am Mentalrix. Hopefully you'll forgive me if I don't go through that whole 'I am the night' routine the media keeps attributing to me. Theatrics have their place, just not with me.> The rabbit answered the unspoken question telepathically.

"How... I'd say it's about time someone showed up but how did you even know? The entities have cut off easy access to mass communications; people have been trying for weeks to get some kind of a signal out of the city. And any requests to get the DSA to pay us a visit have apparently been lost in a bureaucratic black hole."

"Believe it or not, Pirate Pete has managed to come and go through the city. The Aphrodite Five have made quite a stir with the public and a great deal of money for him. And apparently he feels that whoever is mucking things up here is bad for his business in the long-term, which is why he left a message for me and a couple others in the vigilante community then submitted a request to the DSA and the FBI on behalf of the city after he left."

Townes did his best to not roll his eyes at this news. "I suppose it makes sense given the blatant ways the Entity has been-"

"Entities, there's two of them." Mentalrix interjected. "I know, I know; how do I know? Whatever they are and however they do what they're doing, I can look back at them when they're looking at me. Currently they've stopped looking at me, partially because I've started to narrate what they're doing when they watch me. That and what is happening to Kimberly and Dr. Okeke is a major mood killer for them. Something about no fat chicks or some similarly juvenile rubbish. But enough about that, the point is I've been spending the past day or so learning everything I can. I know about Shield and the other heroines, I know about the Brothers as the city's supervillains call them, I know about the Hedonists and the slavers, and I know what you're trying to do about all of it. Very noble what you've been trying to do overall but might I suggest having a plan for when the DSA starts inquiring about your scheme to manufacture 'proper' heroes? Or at the very least have a plan for escaping and resuming your normal life once the media attention has died down a bit?" The rabbit asked then shook her head. "Nevermind, if you do it's probably better if I don't know what it is. Besides, I'm told you have your mind on more immediate goals concerning a certain bloated turkey hen. Would you like some company on that errand?"

"Are you offering to join us?"

"Yes. Slavers, sadists, rapists, they're all the same. Disgusting creatures that need to be put down for the good of the world."

"Is there any other way to view them?" Townes asked rhetorically.

"Not unless you've been to the bondage fetish sections of Flesh Affinity lately." The rabbit replied coolly.

"Alright, I suppose we should start making plans then." The tiger replied with a nod. Time to start making plans to see how they could save Kimberly's husband...

Scarlet Palace, two days later...

It was a quiet snowy day outside the Scarlet Palace; Old Man Winter, the actual metaphor and not a silly oversexualized personification created by adolescent comic book nerds, was starting to show his full fury upon Aphrodite City with a heavy snowfall. The Scarlet Countess rubbed her chin as she sat on her heated porch and contemplated the latest developments and what they meant for her business. A team of government agents had finally arrived and was paving the way for the DSA, FBI, and National Guard to show up in force. Even if the rumors that at least one vigilante from out of town had arrived and managed to somehow defeat three of the city's biggest supervillains were not true, that was going to put a serious cramp in her business and soon. Perhaps the Jade Empress had the right idea when she packed up shortly after that fiasco with the Hedonists competing with each other to become the city's top pervo paparazzi. But where would she ever relocate? She had heard there was opportunity for her business to grow in Silicon City as well as Austin, Texas but she also heard that a number of vigilantes took a fairly ruthless stance against her business, even going so far as outright killing humble merchants like herself. Such savage intolerance to free enterprise, perhaps there was something to the assertion that deep down all superheroes were communists...

Further down the snow-covered street, taking shelter within an alleyway, Mentalrix watched the out of place building carefully. A stone castle, built in the style of old Scottish or British castles but at the size of a particularly large suburban "McMansion." A wrought iron gate with matching fence enclosed the main entrance and about half of the perimeter of the property, the rest was blocked off by a thick, six-foot-high hedge that may or may not be part of a Victorian hedge maze. With Townes, Okeke, and Dewpond all having super strength, there was nothing there that could keep them out for longer then five seconds. Tearing down the gate or the fence would be loud though...

"What do you think?" Dr. Townes asked, having traded his lab coats and business suits for a costume that the rabbit couldn't help but find a little ostentatious; a combination of the paramilitary and classic colorful spandex. Still, she couldn't rightly argue against his logic for "an inspiring symbol" even if now was a good time for it.

"Well we're not going in without having to smash through something, the question is do we want to smash the hard, noisy thing or the soft, not so noisy thing that's further away from the castle... never thought I would get the chance to use that word literally while still staying in America."

"Yes well... Aphrodite City always had an eccentric element, it's just that the Brothers have done an excellent job bringing it to the forefront." Townes confessed apologetically as both of them turned to the others.

For a biotech think tank corporation, Mentalrix concluded, Ambrosia Biotech had a strange amount of high-tech hardware of a more inorganic variety. Then again, with every other manufacturing or high-tech company packing up and leaving, there was probably enough stuff left behind or sold at a loss to put some kind of workshop together. Given Townes' determination to take "his city" back, there probably was one somewhere in the Ambrosia tower dedicated to supplying equipment to his latest project. Couple that with the fact that the Gunrunner had resurfaced in the city and assembled a present for Kimberly and the Brothers might want to rethink the script of their little porn games if they want to maintain their control on the city much longer. Between the industrial equipment and the ferret prodigy's help, there was practically no delay in getting the others equipped with something.

Clad in an elastic nano-membrane jumpsuit dyed white with blue trim and equipped with an overstuffed medic's bag slung over her shoulder, Annelie Okeke was the classical female bulk heroine meshed with the archetypical combat medic. "Love my body or fear it" tight bodysuit with a trauma medic's "crash kit" in arm's reach. The psychic rabbit couldn't help but stare at the mountainous cheetah heroine for a second longer then was necessary. She knew how Okeke slew her attackers during the Hedonists' attack on Ambrosia Biotech even though the others didn't have a clue, yet the spotted feline was oblivious to just how much the gasmask avenger's telepathy revealed. And after thinking about it, Mentalrix decided the other female deserved to be blissful in her ignorance. The irony of dealing with the savage Daschund only to find herself fighting along side someone that ate or had eaten monsters was a meditation for another day.

Kimberly Dewpond on the other hand was a she-bear who benefited a great deal from the Gunrunner rising to the challenge of crafting a proper weapon for someone with super strength. Apparently a carpenter with the Peace Corps before the events that put her in the hospital, Gunrunner thought it would be fitting if the she-bear's "weapon" was as aptly suited for construction as it was for destruction. So the ferret kid gave her a giant double-head axe with mechanical morphing properties. Meaning it was a wood axe that could turn into a sledgehammer, a pickaxe, a mining pick, and a shovel of all things. If that wasn't enough, there was a smaller version clipped to Kim's orange utility belt that could turn into half a dozen other hand tools. Stupid-sound gadgets yet at the same time they looked sturdy enough and Mentalrix could see a market for them somewhere.

The she-bear was built just as largely as the cheetah Okeke, strong muscular arms stood in contrast to Kimberly's thunderous hips and softened abdomen. Long red hair was tied back in a ponytail, her brown eyes fixed with grim determination as she tightly gripped her axe with a pair of gloved hands. A black and burnt orange full body suit kept her warm despite the steady snowfall... or at least it helped her thick bulk keep the she-bear warm at least. The newly remade she-bear "brick" looked ready, they all looked as ready as they'll ever be.

"Alright... I usually work alone so I'm a bit out of my element planning things out in groups. Here's what I managed to observe. The countess is currently lounging out on a heated patio with a bodyguard carrying a large rifle meaning we have at least one sharpshooter guarding the lair. We could smash through the gate, run up the driveway, and break down the front door. If what Townes tells me is true, that should not be a problem for any of you. Whether you can do it quietly remains to be seen. On the other hand, a tall hedge blocks the part of the property closest to us. Kimberly should be able to chop that down and allow us to slip in. Personally I favor cutting through the hedge. With this snow it will be harder for the castle guards to see us, allowing us to slip in quietly."

"Why not just charge on in and cut through them? You might not be bulletproof but the rest of us should be tough enough that you can just duck behind us right?" Kimberly replied impatiently. On one hand, Mentalrix couldn't really blame her but on the other... they would be no good to anyone if they got trapped by blindly charging in.

"That might work but the less time they have to react, the less time they have to think of things like use hostages as shields."

Dewpond opened her mouth to argue but Mentalrix could tell she knew the rabbit was telling the truth. Ultimately the three agreed to do things her way and like clockwork, a hole was cut down in the hedge and the band moved up into the castle courtyard. Keeping out of the light, the foursome quickly trudged through the snow up to the front door. There was a tense moment when the parrot sniper promptly stood up and stared into the grounds below, clearly thinking she heard something. But the avian's mistress quickly called her back, audibly complaining that she was spoiling the view.

As the solid oaken doors loomed in front of them, Anne and Kim slammed them open. Inside the foyer, the noise and sudden gust of wind caused the attendants and a small group of lounging clients to look up at the new arrivals. Seeing that violence was imminent, the "domesticated" females fled for cover as the Scarlet Countess emerged with her troop of enforcers.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here, more self-righteous do-gooders eager to become the latest attraction in my harem? Oooh, Mentalrix herself has apparently decided a career change is- wait, what are you doing?"

At the mention of Mentalrix's name, four out of five of the countess's retinue immediately laid down their arms. Gun safeties were engaged and swords were sheathed as the slaver's mercenary warriors threw down their weapons and held up their hands. "We surrender." The colorful parrot sniper, the leader of the armed band, explained flatly.

"You can't surrender, get out there and go do what I'm paying you for!" The Countess fumed, pleasure slaves and guests scattering as the heroes made their way through the main hall unchallenged.

"Yeah go fuck yourself boss. First rule of our profession is 'live long enough to spend your paycheck.' The local amateur show is one thing but you aren't paying us anywhere nearly enough in hazard pay to take on a proper brain burner." The parrot shot right back as all four avian soldiers of fortune walked down the stairs right past the four intruding heroes and took a seat at the bar.

The remaining loyal member of the slave mistress's entourage, a tawny-feathered chicken hen clad in dominatrix gear and clearly had more loyalty and sadism then sense, charged down the grand staircase towards the heroes... and was promptly tripped up by Mentalrix and made to fall head over heels the rest of the way down the stairs.

Still upstairs on the balcony landing, the Scarlet Countess feebly reached for one of the discarded weapons only to look up and find the masked face of Dr. Alexander Townes glaring back at her. Hauling her up by the collar of her red unitard, the costumed tiger only said one word. "Where are they?"

"Who... who are you?"

"I am Dr. Viva and I will only ask one more time, where are they?"

"Alright, alright. The dungeon is down that hallway, third door to your left, the key is around my neck. Now show me what a goodie-goodie you are and put me down." She demanded.

His temperament as it were, the masked medic would have probably very well put her down gently if she had asked politely. But the naked arrogance and contempt for her fellow beings in her voice filled him with a sudden empathy for Mentalrix and her barely restrained hatred for people like the Countess. Upon ripping the key off of her neck, Dr. Viva turned and flung her off the open balcony into the foyer below, causing her to crash into an overstuffed sofa. Patrons and "entertainers" shrieked and dived for cover as a roughly two hundred and fifty pound projectile crashed into the couch and flipped it over. From outside of Townes' immediate field of view, the turkey hen groaned but didn't try to get up. The last immediate threat had been successfully neutralized.

Not a word was said between the four heroes as they made their way deeper into the castle. As the dungeon door was unlocked, the psychic rabbit was the only one who didn't gasp at the horrors within. Already hardened to the cruelties of the world, seeing furs suspended up against the cold stone walls under the harsh light of an incandescent bulb, most of them bearing horrific scars, didn't faze her so much as provide a painful reminder of how much humanity she had lost since she became Mentalrix. Townes and Okeke found themselves unable to stop themselves from identifying implements based on the scar tissue, their minds involuntarily reconstructing what had happened. Whips, branding irons... neither of them was ever going to be able to look at a penknife the same way again. Kimberly was similarly aghast to the point of paralysis, Mentalrix could feel her torn between searching the chained furs for her husband and just smashing their restraints one after another with her sledgehammer.

And yet in an instant, a feeling of detached calm washed over them. A tempered resolve flowed through Townes and the two giantesses, Mentalrix's way of empathetically urging them to keep moving. Strengthened with her resolve, the heroes went back to work. Chains were broken or ripped right out of the wall and the emancipated thralls gathered to mob rush the door to freedom. Male, females, all battered and bruised, looked expectantly at their saviors as adrenaline began to flow through their veins and give them the strength for one mad push.

The last prisoners to save were Stanley Dewpond, a blond haired, muscular specimen of ursine kind, and a black-haired, gray-furred raccoon girl whose eyes had been covered by a bloodied bandage. Blinded by things the heroes didn't want to think about, the raccoon stumbled onto the floor only to get promptly scooped up by Mr. Dewpond. The brown bear army cook stood with a purposeful look in his eyes, mentally shutting out all the parts of his personality other then the soldier that refused to leave a man behind. They were ready.

In the chaos they had caused with their sudden entrance, the Countess's patrons and her mercenary bodyguards had fled the scene. Even the turkey and her chicken hen lieutenant had recovered enough to somehow disappear, leaving the scared slaves working the main hall to their own devices. No matter, Mentalrix decided, there would be time to hunt them down like the animals they were once these people were taken to safety. Outside in the snow and the cold frigid air, the four unregistered heroes discovered just how close their timing was. Turning onto the street just as the vigilantes led a mass procession out of the castle, Special Agent Gales and the three DSA heroes looked ready to demonstrate to the Countess just how unromantic medieval warfare really was. There was a lengthy, awkward silence as the two groups looked at one another, registered lawmen and self-motivated vigilantes regarding each other with a wary gaze that was only broken when one of the freed civvies spoke up.

"Ummm, excuse me? Ms. FBI agent ma'am? Any chance you brought a school bus or something because I don't think most of us can walk all the way to the hospital in this weather?" A bystander asked sheepishly.

Like that, the stalemate was momentarily broken. The FBI agent gestured to a vehicle they had parked right around the corner just as all of them began to feel a sudden sense of dread and apprehension.

<COCKBLOCKERS!!!> A voice that was most definitely not Mentalrix screamed telepathically. Looks like the ringleaders decided to finally make themselves known.

Panic broke out amongst the crowd as people fled for either the parked bus or the flimsy cover of the nearby abandoned buildings. A few even ran back inside the Countess's abandoned castle, preferring its tainted stone walls to the danger of what was to invariably follow.

Where the crowd once stood, a pair of foxes dressed in fine two-piece suits appeared. One was tall and immaculately groomed; the other was short and disheveled. Surrounding both of them was all six of the supervillains that had been terrorizing Aphrodite City for weeks. "Well, well." The taller fox began. "I suppose we should have realized we would only be able to go for so long before someone tried to challenge our rule."

"THIS IS OUR CITY NOW COCKBLOCKERS!" The shorter one screamed.

FBI agent Gale, the apparent spokesperson for her group, shot the vigilantes a quick look, their other argument was going to wait until later, before turning to the Brothers and their troop of villains. "Umm excuse me but don't we outnumber you?" She remarked academically as both heroes and villains began drawing weapons and staring daggers at each other.

"Bah, typical superhero blather. You cannot hope to hold a candle to their vaguely-defined strength that we never truly bothered to elaborate on because it kept distracting us from the bondage boobs." Tall waved dismissively.

<Did he really just say that?> Mentalrix telepathically projected to the rest of the heroes.

Gales was undeterred as she tightened her grip on her handgun. "You can't win. The game is over."

"NO, YOU'RE OVER! ATTACK!" Short bellowed.

And like that, pandemonium erupted. Five of the six villains immediately lunged to defend their claim to godhood. Crimson Screamer traded shots with Dozer while the bullet-resistant heavyweight positioned himself between Gale and the Australian thug. Kraken battled with Venom, the armored villain spewing anti-hero rhetoric as cybernetic claws clanged with alloyed gauntlets. Panzer Beast decided a rematch with Dr. Viva was in order while Hypothermia fought to fend off Okeke and Kimberly. Recognizing the threat Gonzales posed to the others, Black Vespa goaded the Latino pyrokinetic into focusing on her. Cloaking in and out, she avoid the worst of his heat while keeping him pinned behind a wrecked car.

And standing in back was Red Storm, waiting, waiting... until finally his patrons noticed he hadn't thrown himself into the fray. "What are you waiting for you big dumb Russian? Attack!"

"No." The bear replied.

"What, what do you mean no? You have no way to refuse." Tall rebutted just as Short held up a flask amulet both brothers worn around their necks. Inside the crystal container was a dark amber-colored fluid, more then enough of the antidote to completely cure his family of the poison the Brothers had inflicted upon them.

Red Storm, known publicly as just Boris, merely smiled as a glass vial fell out of his coat pocket, a vial that looked identical to the ones Alexander Townes used to store his super soldier serums. "Actually... I do."

Muscles augmented by the same serum treatment that coursed through Dr. Viva's veins, the "communist" "supervillain" punched Short in the face, knocking him over as the bear snapped the flimsy necklace chain and pocketed part of the antidote. Both of the arch-villains of Aphrodite City turned on him, stripping him of his Red Storm powers. A pointless gesture as he had already demonstrated he had all the superpower he needed.

Punching Short squarely in the chest, he pulled his blood-soaked hand back out... with Short's still-beating heart in his palm. In that instant, hero and villain alike froze midbattle and stared at the blood-splattered bear. "On behalf of the city and everyone in it, this has taken too fucking long." Boris snarled, crushing the fox's heart in his hand like an overripe melon.

Confusion immediately broke out amongst the villains as those that received their powers from the Brothers began to feel their abilities weaken. Who was the bigger threat, the heroes or their now-mad compatriot? Wielding the dead fox's body like a club, Boris soon answered that question for them. "Come one, come all. Red Storm, the Soviet hero of Aphrodite City is striking a homerun for all the friends of freedom!" The bear bellowed, cracking Tall's skull while swinging Short's body like a baseball bat. Believing he was the one with perhaps the most to loose, Panzer Beast abandoned his battle with Dr. Viva to fight the crazed Red Storm. Bones cracked as bear and bull clashed, Boris's serum making both of them equal in strength. But the Russian-American immigrant, running on a combination of adrenaline and a raw singularity of purpose, beat back his opponent long enough to steal Tall's half of the antidote and grab a weapon of convenience... that turned out to be Tall's left arm.

With Short dead and Tall quickly going into shock from having his arm ripped off, the villains of Aphrodite City started to feel their powers quickly slip away. What began as a confident battle against a numerically superior foe quickly turned into a hasty, every-man-for-himself, retreat. Panzer Beast and Gonzales outright ran, too much of their fighting ability hinging on the powers they received from the Brothers. Hypothermia and Crimson Screamer, marginally proficient with modern firearms, fell back and withdrew in a fighting retreat. Not receiving any powers from the Brothers and confident in his armor's abilities, Venom fought on, not noticing his cowardly comrades had ran for their lives until it was too late. He was alone, his only saving grace was that Red Storm and the vigilantes had also taken advantage of the confusion to disappear. In the end though it was not much of an advantage. With Black Vespa taking shots at him from above, Kraken and Dozer proved to be too much, both males working together to rip his armor apart like it was made of tin foil. As Venom fell before the four heroes, the Aphrodite City Crisis was over. Except that for the people who lived through the ordeal, it would never be over....