FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Legion of Pain

---

Chapter 4: The Elephant Graveyard

Dead Horizon was chillingly quiet after Tibia’s ‘Group Beta’ had been subdued. The boat that Samson had chartered was a relatively small speedboat that seemed out of place in the vast, rusting hulks of half-sunken cargo ships sitting in the port. How he had managed to smuggle it in past Tibia’s men remained a mystery and when questioned why they couldn’t have just taken the boat immediately, everyone was reminded that their goal was to attract attention to themselves. The Cornucopia was in position. While they were unsure what Tibia planned, they could not risk tipping him off or triggering his plan prematurely. All the previous Gene Stealers had some sort of overarching plot or objective. Tibia seemingly did not. Every step needed to be taken cautiously.

While Samson captained the boat, the rest of the party sat on the deck or down below. Elliot had emerged from his power armour and was, once again, polishing it, checking it for dents and scratches. Lance and Leon were splayed in the back, resting their weary muscles. Leon was actually half-asleep. David sat beside Lance, placing the youngest of the twins between him and his rebellious son. There was a faint smile on his muzzle as the ongoing war between him and Leon had temporarily been put on hold with the latter’s partial slumber. Jacob was down in the deck, rummaging.

For Caleb, he sat with his back to everyone, arms crossed to form a cushion of sorts for his chin to set on. The young, wolf with the physique of a bodybuilder was haunted by how close he had come to actually raping someone. An internal struggle between the ‘boy scout’ within him versus this new, freed beast clashed in his abdomen, giving him a terrible sensation of his stomach churning even though it felt empty like the two forces were clashing within the empty halls of his gut and the impacts were echoing off the walls. One side knew that those henchmen didn’t deserve the mercy that they were shown and he secretly wished Jacob had literally fried their brains. The other side argued against it, pleading that was not how a hero should act. He was a defender of life and the innocent. He should not be taking lives.

But he had already killed before.

By accident, yes, but there was already blood on his paws.

What was a little more?

Caleb squeezed his eyes shut.

That was a terrible thought. He couldn’t believe he was even thinking it.

“Look what I found!”

He flicked his ears in the direction of Jacob emerging from below deck. The blue-clad wolf was holding up two six-packs of beers.

“I didn’t pack those…” Samson said worriedly.

“I certainly didn’t. What, you think I have a magical weapon that can somehow conjure icy gold beers out of nothing?” He got blanks stared for that comment but decided not to answer it. “I think after that fight, we deserve to take a load off!”

“That’s incredibly irresponsible,” David scolded. “We can’t afford to get inebriated while we’re on the job. Not to mention there are a few here that are underage.”

Jacob rolled his eyes and tossed him one of the cans. “Please. More than half of the people here are supers. Beer won’t keep you drunk for long because of your regeneration and metabolisms. The other half can take one beer. These antiquated laws of yours needs to be applied to the situation not as a blanket rule. Every person is different, every story unique. Saying ‘no’ to all the possibilities because of a rule established centuries ago is just stupid. Besides…” He shrugged and slumped against one of the seats. “If Tibia decides to send his team against us from the water, all I have to do is jab Sturmspalter into the salt sea and zap!” He snapped his fingers. “Shock-fried elephant. I might electrify some fish while I’m at it but oh well.” He glanced off to the side as he popped the can open. “I wonder if I can induce some form of electrical paralysis to living creatures while they’re swimming, kind of like an electric eel.”

David popped open the can with a grunt. “Are there any limits to your abilities?”

“Well sure. My only actual power is the inability to feel pain.”

“Don’t lie. You’ve been pulling weapons out of your ass since day one.”

“Those aren’t my powers. I’m borrowing those from my friends.”

Lance straightened and lifted one of his paws. Jacob tossed him a can. “I still don’t get that, to be honest,” admitted the hulking, four-armed wolf. “What do you mean you’re ‘borrowing’ those powers? Is there a super out there that’s got electric powers that you’re just ‘borrowing’? Is it like you make a weapon like Caleb, touch them with it and you ‘enchant’ it with their powers or something?”

Caleb perked his ears and pulled himself from his dark mood. Maybe listening to something else would lift the gloomy cloud looming over him.

“Not really,” Jacob responded, tilting the can to his lips. “It’s… kind of complicated.”

Leon leaned forward, now fully awake. “Try us. Please don’t be like my dad and keep secrets from us because you think it’s ‘for our own good’. Let us decide what’s good for us and what’s not.” David shot his son a foul stare for that, the moment of peaceful observation long gone.

“Are you sure?” asked Legion. “Innocence, once taken, can never be returned. Even if you were struck by a bout of amnesia.”

Truer words were never spoke. A bit of his soul had blackened when he had been willing to drive his dick up the ass of a prisoner. He felt like he had committed a war crime and was being sentenced to an eternity stewing in the guilt.

“I’m sure,” assured Leon.

“Alright.” Jacob shrugged and took a sip from his beer. He gagged and held the can out at arm’s length. “Yuck. It’s a light beer.” Despite this, the others picked up cans of their own and drank. Caleb avoided one as he was still technically underage. “You know how this world is full of superheroes and supervillains, right?”

Elliot snorted. Though he was still polishing his armour, he slowed down his circular motions and was obviously listening in. “Rhetorical question there, Roman.”

“Right well, have you ever thought that some of those people fighting out there are just fighting for the sake of fighting? They don’t have a goal in mind. Sure they tout about world peace or world domination but they’re the kind of people that when they actually achieve that goal, they’ll be lost and won’t know what to do next.”

David grunted as he downed a muzzle full of beer. “I know a couple of people like that.”

“As do I,” Samson answered over his shoulder. “It’s a common temptation amongst the Alpha Pack given our relative immortality.”

Jacob nodded sagely. “They’re the kind of people that just want to keep their story going in the same patterns over and over again because that’s their comfort zone. Their bodies, their muscles, their bones are just going through the motions.” He let out a soft chuckle. “Sometimes I wonder why certain supers don’t just do something about the villains that they imprison instead of just handing them to some mental institution to be examined.”

“Because killing them would be wrong!” Leon exclaimed immediately. “The moment you kill your villain is the moment you become the villain.”

Caleb felt that gut-punch directly. He had been so close to being the villain… and yet, would that be so wrong?

“I’m not talking about killing,” Jacob answered, surprising the young, troubled wolf. “What if instead of constantly handing the Joker over to Arkham Asylum, Batman befriended him? What if instead of constantly foiling Lex Luthor and letting the government deal with him, Superman sat down with Lex over some tea and discussed what they were doing? When you’re constantly fighting with someone, you’re going to form the same patterns and eventually fall into the same trap.” He lifted a finger at them. “The moment one of you eventually crosses that line, the instant one of you kills the other, you’ll be left with absolutely nothing because there’s inside them: self-worth.”

Leon shook his head in defiance. “That can’t be true! Batman has plenty of self-worth. So does Superman.”

“And yet there have been incarnations of them both when they eventually kill their archnemesis and fall apart as a result. They’ve dance the dance for so long that they’ve let it define them. They can’t be happy with who they are.” His dark blue eyes turned to the silver and gold blade of Sturmspalter, his reflection staring back at him against the unmarred, perfect metal. “When I’m asked to help, people like that seldom are able to find that self-worth in their lifetime. As much as I rail and whine about the gods and their arrogance, deep down they still care for their creations. Well… at least most of them. The good ones care especially for the people who will never find happiness and satisfaction in their lives because they’re a testament to the gods’ failure. People like that will never be happy in Heaven or Hell. How do you think that’ll make the gods feel when these people pass through into the afterlife and can’t find the happiness promised in paradise?”

“If someone came into my house and told me I was doing a terrible job of running it and that they weren’t happy, I’d kick them out,” David huffed, briefly shooting Leon a glance.

“Yeah but deep down you’d still love them because you made them and it was the environment you created that caused them to become dissatisfied with your paradise,” Jacob responded. It wasn’t clear if he knew exactly what - or who - Jacob was referring to but he quickly moved on from the topic. “These days, that’s why I’m called in. The gods know that these poor souls won’t be able to find their happily ever after no matter what they do. The other part is because they’re unsure of how things will turn out despite their supposed ‘omnipotence’. I’m kind of like an interdimensional consultant.”

“So what do you do with these people you help?” Lance asked. His ears were perked up so he was genuinely curious. “Do you help them find their happiness because you offer an outsider’s perspective on the world?”

“I try. But sometimes you just can’t find what’ll give you that sense of self-worth within the confines of the reality that they currently exist in. So, I either undertake the long legal process of reincarnating them into another dimension which involves a lot of paperwork…” Jacob grimaced and rubbed the back of his head, his eyes were shut like he was trying to block out the memories of being buried under paperwork from different dimensional creators. “But I’m happy to do it. Seeing the smiles at the end of a chapter is an incomparable feeling. Having played a part into making it happen is even better.” He glanced back towards Sturmspalter. “But then there are other times where reincarnation just isn’t an option. There are souls that desire adventure, conflict or some variation of that and starting all over just won’t be the best way to give them that self-worth. So I take them along.”

“And that’s what Sturmspalter is?” pressed Lance. “That’s the soul of someone from another universe that’s adventuring with us? Have we got an eighth party member?”

“Not exactly. Like I said, I’m just borrowing their power. It’d be unfair of me to drag them and all the others if I selectively picked and chose one or more of them to take along. It’d be like being given a full roster of ten in an RPG but only ever taking the first three you encountered from beginning to end because they’re the most you’re familiar with. The rest of the party don’t do anything and are just there for cut scenes. Pretty lame.” Jacob shook his head. “No. This is just a conduit to their abilities, their power. It’s not them. I guess you could call it my representation of them. How I see them. A copy from my perspective.”

Lance grinned broadly. “That’s honestly pretty cool. But I thought you weren’t allowed any other powers apart from your generation here.”

“True but it doesn’t mean that someone from outside the universe can’t throw me a bone every now and then. There are always ways around rules without technically breaking them.” Jacob grinned broadly. “Besides, not like the gods can do anything against other Creators.”

Caleb exchanged glances with the others. “Hang on,” he began. “I thought you said Sturmpalter represents someone that’s unsatisfied with their lives. Do you loan them to other Creators too?”

“Huh?” Jacob’s ears perked up. “Oh. Right. Sorry.” He smiled broadly and waved a paw absently through the air. “It’s not like I’m infinitely dragging them on my adventures or anything. Remember, my goal is to help them find what’ll make them the best version of themselves and finally be happy with themselves. But it’s not like I get rid of the weapons after they find that happiness. I keep it around.”

“That doesn’t answer my question. Why’d you call the soul that Sturmpalter represents a ‘Creator’?”

“Because that’s what he is now. He found his happiness.” Jacob clasped his paws together, his eyes going distant and a soft smile on his lips. “It’s really quite amazing. When you achieve that state of true self-worth, it’s like a switch just flicks on in your soul. You become fully capable of grasping your future in your own paws. No gods, not conspiracies, no contrived plots. You stop becoming characters in a story that someone else is writing and become the writer yourself. Those people become Creators in their own right and are able to step out of the confines of time and space, find their own plot of land in the infinite cosmos and start their own worlds.” He chuckled softly. “It’s kind of funny. When that happens, there’s this tradition where I hand them ‘their book’. It’s representative of them being able to write their own stories, after all. It’s purely ceremonial. I used to do it when all existence was bound to a single law but the tradition carried over even now. Kind of like a weird graduation ceremony. Isn’t that weird?”

He glanced up and his features fell, his brow furrowing. Everyone, even Samson, was giving him a terrified stare, their faces frozen in a look of shock and terror. If he could see their skin, he was sure they had gone pale. “What? What’s with that look?”

Leon pointed at him. “Y - Y - You’re basically swinging around a god like a fucking baseball bat!”

“And you can just summon them whenever you want!?” shouted David. “Why haven’t you just waved your hands and solved all our problems!?”

“There are no gods, just mortals!” Jacob shouted. “And I can’t do that unless you call electrifying everyone into submission and starting a divine war your solution!”

“Bullshit!” Elliot roared. “Don’t you have a weapon that can rewrite DNA and cure Barbie and the others of the Gene Stealer shit!?”

“I have several that come close but not for this exact problem! What if I get it wrong!? I could be turning them into eldritch, tentacled, interdimensional horrors! Remember, these are people from different realities with different laws of physics! Applying all of their powers to a problem could have disastrous effects! I’m honestly using just a fraction of their full abilities!”

Imagining Mary as some sort of terrible, world-consuming terror that could jump from world to world bordered on the impossible. Then again, given Mary’s growing psychic abilities and her penchant for messing with people’s head and meddling in other’s affairs, that image became more and more realistic the more Caleb thought about it. Driving people mad with her psychic powers, drawing them towards her big, long, purple, rape-tentacles and then devouring them mind, body and soul between her billion-toothed mouth springing from the top of her head… Caleb squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his fingers against his temples.

“Are you okay, son?” David asked.

“Yep. Just trying to hide away the terrifying image of Mary being some interdimensional horror that devours people with her vagina so far into my subconscious that she’d never find it because if she did, she’d kick my ass and then make me eat it.”

Having been on the receiving end of Mary’s abilities, David let out a pained cry and grasped the sides of his head, pleading to get that image out of his head.

Caleb laughed faintly and looked to Jacob who was now arguing with Elliot about the ‘Deus Ex Machinas’. He was left wondering how he could achieve that same sense of self-worth that the No One was speaking about. Could he even find that happiness in this world? He had Lars, yes, but would that be enough? Was his boyfriend even the solution or was he just fooling himself? Could he find self-worth in the love of the hunky doberman whom he was still afraid of fully committing for fear of shattering their friendship? Would that affection be enough to sustain him even were he to lose his family and other friends?

Looking towards his paws, he capped off the line of questioning by wondering if he was the best that he could possibly be.

******

The Quarantine Zone was simply called QZ-A45Z. It had no other name. By the time the zombie plague had hit, the world had already been crippled by nuclear war and there was very little people could do to really hold back the oncoming tide of undeath. Little wonder that the rusted metal had been arranged in such crude structures. Such locations had become taboo to visit either because activists claimed that they had historical value or because people were still wary of being cut by something and suddenly waking up craving brains.

“Hey Jake,” Caleb began, feeling his flesh crawl just by stepping onto the disused pier. “Have you ever encountered zombies before?”

“Plenty of times,” answered Legion, hoisting Sturmspalter over his shoulder. “Both in the typical mindless, flesh eating kind and the highly intelligent kind. I’ve met more than one Zombie King or Queen before. Went into a world once with an alternate version of London where instead of the Spanish flu, it was a zombie outbreak instead. People thought having your brains eaten by someone that was infected would turn you into a zombie but the zombies were highly intelligent and only ate the flesh of the deceased. This let to unfair prosecution and witch hunts. In reality, the flu was spread purposefully by the British government as a means of ‘culling the weak’ and sending the healthy out into the war.”

“That’s… grim.”

“Things were way grimmer in that universe. I think everything was greyer too. Definitely a lack of bright colours. It’s like everything had an overlay of monochrome and constantly had a film grain effect.”

Samson held up his hand, indicating silence. They reached the end of the sole pier. Before them was the quarantine zone. Past a large, dilapidated concrete wall topped with barbed wire was the abandoned rusted village. Posters warning of zombies and large ‘Keep Out’ signs were still hanging on the moss-covered stone. The air was surprisingly clean but also held a sense of emptiness like death had come to this place and swept it clean. Apart from the gentle lapping of the ocean, everything else was silent. Two, large, rusted metal gates hung by their hinges, partially open and swinging back and forth soundlessly.

“We better be careful from here on out,” warned the werewolf.

“Do you think they’ll by waiting in ambush again?” Elliot asked.

“That would certainly show a lack of creativity but it would also be the most intelligent thing to do. The problem rests with these things.” He tapped the shielding device latching onto his chest. “These can absorb a lot of damage. More than a few seconds of rapid gunfire can inflict. They would have to attack non-stop for an extended period to break through them and stop us from moving or the shields will just recharge.”

“They don’t know that, though. They just know that we’ve got shields. If they want to fuck us over, they’d have to do it in one, big bang.”

A familiar whirring noise rose from around them from multiple sources.

“Speak of the devil.”

Gunfire blazed from all directions even from the shore. Bone bullets came streaming in and Caleb instinctively swung Funny Bone upwards, summoning a wall of bone to barricade himself against the onslaught. David did exactly the same from the front of the group only summoning a wall of steel instead. Their two barriers met above them, forming a dome made half of ragged tusks and the other of hard steel.

“It’s a trap!” Jacob exclaimed with a laugh. Even in the darkness, he could see his fellow wolf’s grin. “I’m sorry. I always wanted to say that in a universe where the reference would be relevant.”

“How do we get out of this mess?” Caleb demanded.

BOOM!

The ground shook and he could feel a faint heat blasting through the barrier. “They’re using explosives!” he exclaimed. “My bones won’t be able to hold up against this for long!”

“Steel can only take blasts like that for so long,” David growled, teeth grit. “Anyone got a plan!?” He blinked in surprise as he cast his gaze around. “Where the hell is Leon again!?”

“I’m hunting, dad,” came the hushed reply. “The turrets can’t detect me. I’m going to see if I can fuck their shit up.”

“Wait,” Elliot exclaimed. “The turrets all activated at once. That must mean either they were all watching the same spot or they’re on the same circuit. If you can get me access to one of them, I might be able to hack them!”

“You’re talking as if I know how to get you access.”

Elliot sighed heavily, rubbing one of his large, metal gauntlets against the dome of his helmet. “Fine. I can’t expect anyone from Muscles’ family to be a genius. Just find me one of the turrets. Tell me where it is. I’ll see what I can do from there.”

There was a sound of ruffling but it was interrupted by another explosion. Cracks began to appear against Caleb’s barrier and he immediately stepped back, summoning another wall in front of him. His tail brushed up against Lance’s leg. They were being pushed back against one another. Space would soon become very limited.

“Found one. I’m to the left of the pier. This thing just came up right from the ground beneath the water.”

Clever. The ocean was inky black at this time of night. There was no way they would have the foresight to check the shoreline let alone spot the metallic turrets on their way up the beach.

“Got it,” Elliot said. “Muscles, open your bones a crack. I need line of sight.”

“Are you serious!?” Caleb shouted. “You’ll get mowed down!”

“We’ll get mowed down if we stay in here. Just shut the fuck up and trust me for once!”

Eyes shut, Caleb shuffled aside in the increasingly shrinking dome and commanded one of the bones to shrink back down into the earth. Elliot stepped past him, peeking through the opening.

“Found you!” exclaimed the orca. “Alright… Beginning hacking procedure.”

“Hacking?”

“I built in remote hacking procedures into the power armour,” Jacob explained. “Like I said back at the portal-port, the suit was made more for defense and support than offence. I’m honestly surprised he’s managed to become adept at it already.”

“I’m a supergenius, remember?” boasted Elliot, his grin felt by everyone despite the all-consuming, dome-shaped helmet. “Heh. Idiots. They wired all the turrets into a single network.”

Lance glanced over his shoulder. The big, four-armed wolf was using all four of his paws to press up against the barrier in a desperate attempt to hold it up. Unfortunately, that also exposed everyone to his armpits which were dripping with sweat and musk. Caleb could not help but feel a little nostalgic when he had that odor all to himself. “So it’s easy to hack?”

“I never said that. Their security is pretty good.” A dull thud like someone beating a large, empty bass drum caused Elliot to flinch. His shield momentarily flashed blue. A bone bullet had struck him. “Shit… They’ve got four kinds of turrets out there. Sniper, machine gun, rocket and flamethrower.”

Caleb jerked back in shock. His bone barrier wouldn’t survive against a flamethrower attack. “Flamethrower!?”

“Stop pissing yourself, Muscles. We’re not in range.” Elliot shuffled from one foot to the other, seemingly trying to get a better view of the lone turret Leon had spotted. “Looks like they might’ve thought that if we tried to run instead of hunker down, those flamethrowers would’ve popped up and set us on fire.”

“Diabolical,” Samson huffed.

“I’ll say. This tech is pretty expensive. I mean, really. They’re definitely military grade.”

“Stop admiring the damn hardware and get them to stop firing at us!” David shouted. A bone jammed through his steel barrier, making him jump back and nearly trip over Lance.

“I’ll do one better. Just give me a second… and…” Elliot suddenly straightened. “There!”

The constant thudding of bullets upon the barrier ceased. The gunfire didn’t stop, however. Loud roaring of rockets flying overhead soared was quickly followed by explosions but somewhat far off.

“What did you do?” Caleb asked, tentatively commanding the bones to retreat into the ground.

“Reprogrammed them to ignore us as targets. I’ve got them shooting into the air to Rossini’s William Tell Overture.”

On the shore, bone bullets were streaming out from the turret’s barrels but they were soaring well past them and the quarantine zone. Instead, they were firing high into the air to some unheard music .Even the flamethrowers were spouting jets of flame high into the air. What surprised him the most was that there were more of the traps than he had expected. There had to at least be a dozen jutting out of the shoreline with two of them sending rockets soaring through the air and flying high enough to explode into a burst of smoke and fire almost like fireworks.

“This would have more impact if I knew what the William Tell Overture was.”

“Philistine,” Elliot scoffed. “It’s this one.”

Music began blaring out of their communicators, the latter half of the William Tell Oveture. Now that Caleb actually heard it, he could recall the song. Not the name. Just the tune.

“Now I remember what that is!”

“I repeat. Philistine.”

David lowered his metal barrier and let out a long, relieved sigh. “Remote hacking. That’d be a rather useful skill. Would still need to maintain line of sight and have the knowledge of how to actually hack a system but that’s fairly impressive.” He clapped Jacob’s shoulder in what had to be one of the few signs of appreciation that he had ever displayed towards the black-furred wolf. “You built that thing to be fairly useful.”

“I’m not making you one.”

Feral Steel cursed quietly under his breath. The career superhero turned his gaze towards the other end of the quarantine zone. “Alright. If anyone is stupid enough to try and fight us here, they’re in for a hell of a time. Elliot, you can still hack those turrets, right?”

“Got them on remote, yeah. If any of Tibia’s men try and hit us within range of those turrets, they’ll be royally fucked.”

“Good.” David began striding forward, leading them once more. “Finish the song and then set them on standby. Don’t waste ammo.”

Minutes later, the bombardment ended and the turrets fell silence. Madagascar was quiet once more and the quarantine zone became as silent as death. However, the group strode forward with a different aura to them. It was not the same cautious advance as when they landed. Each step was purposeful, challenging almost like they were telling Tibia to come get them. Caleb found himself growing more and more confident as they passed the rear gates of the dead shanty town and followed the lone, path that cut through the forest.

Tibia was close now. He knew it.

“You know, we should call ourselves something,” Elliot chirped. “I mean, we’re not exactly Arsenal_, you know.”_

“This really isn’t the time,” Lance rumbled. “Besides, what’d you call us?”

“I dunno… Ordnance? Bombardment? No… that one’s copyrighted.”

“What about ‘War Wolves’?” Leon suggested. “We’re all wolves here, right?”

“I’m not!”

“Aren’t orcas known as the ‘wolves of the sea’?”

“That’s way too obscure dumbass. Plus we’ve got a werewolf too. I say we go with something simple.”

“Rogue Commandos,” Samson suggested with a grin. “I think that fits us quite well, don’t you? It’s not like we’re all exactly representing any particular faction and we’re running around assaulting beaches and fortresses.”

Caleb tilted his head to the side. “Assault. I like that.”

Everyone on the team paused to give him a surprised stare.

“Heh,” Leon grunted. “You know, I do too. It’s heavy.”

“And, surprisingly, not copyrighted,” added Elliot.

“Then we’re Assault,” Lance said, grinning broadly and cracking his knuckles - all four of them. “Sweet.”

Arsenal and Assault. It was so fitting. Also a little strange. Arsenal was focused on defense and protection, often reacting to Gene Stealer attacks while searching for cures. Assault, however, was the exact opposite. Here they were attacking a Gene Stealer base. Maybe that’s what was more of what they needed. Less reactionary supers and more preventative ones. Like Gwen had advised, he had to break the mold and shatter the norm if ever he was going to make progress.

David suddenly stopped. An enormous elephant’s skull at least sixty feet tall and about half that wide loomed in front of them with the tusks themselves forming a sort of yawning avenue into a pair of enormous, metal doors. Flags were pinned at the end of the tusks, each one emblazoned with two insignias. One was clearly Tibia’s as it showed the silhouette of a four-tusked elephant with glaring, white, featureless eyes. This was placed over the second emblem which appeared to be six swords with their pommels pressed against one another in a fan-formation and three letters hanging above it all.

“LoP?” Lance wondered aloud. “I wonder what that could mean?”

Jacob strode past him, Sturmpalter’s blade scraping along the ground. “Anyone who paid attention to the subtitle of this issue would know.” He paused just shy of crossing the threshold into the base itself. “So, are we charging in headfirst through the front gate or - ”

“RAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

Samson and David charged without warning, leaving Jacob with an exasperated look on his face.

“What the hell!?” Leon exclaimed. “That is literally the worst thing you can do!” He bolted after them, tapping his gauntlet and vanishing from sight.

Lance waved after them, bounding over with his heavy steps shaking the ground. “Dad! Scowl! Wait for me!”

Caleb could only stand there and watch in shock. “I’m impressed that they actually managed to coordinate when they’re going to charge.”

“I’m impressed a veteran superhero and an ancient werewolf could both be colossally stupid,” Elliot sighed.

Jacob turned back towards the doors. “I’m surprised they actually waited to cut me off before charging.”

Those steel doors, even if they were two feet thick, stood no chance against the head of the Alpha Pack and a super whose name was Feral Steel. Both men - both alpha males - slammed their fists into the titanic gates, sending them flying from their hinges with one, powerful blow and a deafening crash. Both wolves immediately struck a pose, their experience in this world of supers kicking in. Leon actually squealed a little at the sight.

“Oh my god!” exclaimed the normally antagonistic wolf. “That’s a professional entrance right there! And those poses! Dad’s doing the classic Impenetrable Pose, so named after the hero Impenetrable! Samson is Giving the Death Glare!”

Stunned by the uncharacteristic fanboying of his brother, Caleb could only ask, “Uh… What?”

“It’s two of the most classic poses in the business! See how dad has his arms crossed and his chin lifted while still looking straight forward? It gives this impression that you mean business, you’re pissed and you’re going to get crushed beneath this hero! Would’ve worked better with a cape and some hero wind but what can you do? Dad’s not as young as he used to be.”

David’s ear flicked in irritation at that last comment but he did not break his composure.

“And Samson! Wolf Christ! Hands to his sides, clenched, chin lowered but also pushed forward to give the maximum profile of his features and glaring up from his brow! So intimidating! It just screams ‘You’re going to die, motherfucker’! Oh! Oh! Quick! Everyone take up position around them! I’ll get Zeus to take a picture! The first group picture of Assault!”

Caleb just had to grin to himself as Leon broke out into an almost childish glee. In many ways, this was his dream come true. He was finally part of a superhero team… even if it did consist of a villain and came about from the incapacitation of another team. In the back of his mind, he wondered how Leon would respond to the team dissolving once Arsenal was back up and running. But that was for the future. Let him have his moment. Ignoring the fact that they had just charged headlong into the enemy base, Caleb positioned himself beside his father, Funny Bone resting on his shoulder like he had seen Jacob do many times before. Elliot and Lance - being the biggest of them - loomed behind them. Jacob likely positioned himself on Samson’s right while Leon appeared right between the werewolf and Feral Steel. Zeus, his brother’s mechanical eagle, flew in front of them and its bright, red eyes let out a soft click.

“Ooooh!” Leon cried. “That is so awesome!”

Caleb peered over his brother’s shoulder at the gauntlet where there an image of the team displayed on screen. Even the contrived photos with Jacques - the photographer from GUYS magazine - didn’t look this good. They were perfectly symmetrical. Even he and Jacob struck similar poses though Caleb’s features were positioned into a cocky smirk, Jacob’s were glowering, his lips flat.

“Jake?” he asked. “Is something the matter?”

For a moment, the No One didn’t respond. His eyes slowly slid from the corner he was gazing upon to the hall that they had entered. “As far as endgame dungeons go, this one’s fairly short. I didn’t expect the final boss to just be sitting on his throne barely 200 metres from us. ”

A good distance away from the entrance, a long, white carpet led to a small raised dais where a throne of human skulls stood. Columns seemingly shaped from ivory stood led to the gruesome chair, perfectly framing the titanic figure that sat upon the chair. Soft lights illuminated the vast, cavernous hall. There was little else in the hallway save for a few doors to the far sides and behind the throne itself. Salazar Shin glared at them with amused eyes from his throne, resting his head on his knuckles and loudly drumming his fingers on the armrest.

“That was quite the entrance,” rumbled the mammoth pachyderm. “Are you quite done?”

Caleb was instantly on edge. Now he understood why Jacob was glowering. This was not what he had expected either. Tibia supposedly still had three squads sitting somewhere. He had expected to fight through them and only after a long slog through a dark dungeon fraught with traps and enemies, he would finally reach Tibia where he would get to smash the elephant’s tusks. But this… this was wrong.

“No respect for the process,” Leon scowled, lifting his stasis rifle. “This is your last chance, Tibia! Surrender and give us the Original Serum for your strain!”

Tibia clicked his tongue. “Another naive puppet and to an antiquated system. Don’t you ever get tired of your clichés and contrived lines? Don’t these stereotypes bother you?” He gestured at the members of Assault. “You’ve got the big dumb muscle man,” he said, pointing at Lance to which the four-armed wolf folded his ears and uttered a soft, ‘Hey’. “The renegade, hostile spy-type. The rigid and honourable team leader and, of course, his equally experienced teammate who is constantly trying to undermine his authority. Then we have the supergenius that’s excellent with all technology but cannot fight for shit.” His eyes levelled on Jacob. “The moral compass…” Then his eyes switched to Caleb. “… and the protagonist.

He rose from his seat, spreading his arms wide. “Don’t you see? It’s these kinds of classifications and biased role-allocations that drives the majority of our society to resort to crime! For every hero out there, there are dozens of villains that are born because they don’t fit into any of your personality types or just aren’t powerful enough! We can’t choose our powers! But we have our roles chosen for us because of them!”

Again, Gwen’s words came echoing back into the forefront of his mind. “In this world, everyone is pigeonholed into their roles based on what powers they have. People praise those with what they consider ‘useful’ powers but denigrate those that have abilities that they assume are useless or have no powers at all. And you wonder why there are often more villains than heroes!”

Was that what happened to Tibia - no, to Salazar Shin? People considered his power weak and useless so they insulted him, teased him and crushed his dreams? Was that what drove him to this life of villainy? Was that why he turned to the Gene Stealers? Because his powers were so weak he had to take their help so that he could become stronger and prove to the world that he wasn’t? Guilt struck at Caleb as he remembered the first thing he thought when being introduced to Shin… and how he treated Shin’s for his abilities.

“Bull. Shit.”

He jerked away from his stupor as Jacob stepped forward, lightning crackling from his shoulders like a sizzling, furious aura. “You may have grown some impressive genitals, Shin, but you still don’t have a pair.” He lifted Sturmspalter, pointing it directly at the supervillain. “You’re blaming society for the decisions you made! This world has its flaws, yes, but it also has countless inspiring stories of people triumphing over adversity. Instead of taking your powers and turning to hurting others, you could have used it to prove those that laughed at you wrong like so many others before you have done! Hell, you didn’t even have to use your powers at all! Just because people call you a bad guy, doesn’t mean that you are! Instead, you call yourself a bad guy because you think there’s nothing else you can be!”

Jacob lowered his blade, slamming it into the ground and causing lightning to crackle from the impact. “You can’t accept the consequences of your own actions. You have no self-respect whatsoever. Even were you victorious here, you’d never be satisfied because deep down, you’ll always be blaming the world for making you into a villain while deluding yourself that you could have been a superhero had everyone else just been nicer to you!”

The No One thrust a finger in Tibia’s direction. “If you’re going to be a villain, at least be proud of it and don’t blame anyone else for your own decisions!”

Lance made an incredulous expression, his muzzle hanging open slightly and his eyebrows lifted with his brow creasing. “Uh… That’s one hell of a speech, Jacob…”

“I’m pretty sure you won’t get that in the superhero text books…” Leon added, his expression matching that of his twin’s.

Tibia was similarly surprised by the speech, enough that he sat back down on his throne with a dumbfounded look. It did not last. The villain’s expression turned to one of condescension. “Just more superhero drivel and senseless sentimentality from someone gifted with incredible powers from birth. What could I have done with a power to inflict pain in one’s shins?”

“Join the police force,” suggested Legion. “Your powers would be an amazing non-lethal means to disable hardened criminals! Maybe become a coach for a football team or personal trainer, get people used to being kicked in the shins! Learn more about your ability and develop it so that you can inflict this pain on more than just a target’s shins and maybe all over their nervous system! Hell, maybe even develop it so that instead of inflicting pain, you could ease it! Supers have the capacity to grow just like Outsiders and anyone else!” Jacob pressed his free paw against his temple before gesturing towards Tibia. “Yet you became so engulfed in this delusion that you had to be a villain that you couldn’t see that these roadblocks could be circumvented!”

“What do you know of my struggles?” snarled the villain. “You’re just spitting out some meaningless speech based on your own corrupt morality. You don’t know me!”

Jacob sneered and lifted his paw in surrender. “You know what? Fine. No more speeches. I won’t bother to giving you the one about how we shouldn’t let our powers define us or how it’s not what your power is but how you use it. So let me just ask you this…” The wolf picked up Sturmspalter. This time, he held it in both paws.

Caleb flashed back to that moment when he had been saved by that very sword.

“It’s just a good thing I didn’t use both hands,” Jacob had said.

“Oh shit…” he whispered, taking a step back.

Tibia started to rise from his seat, preparing himself for an attack. Even David could feel something big was coming. The big, steely-grey wolf seized Caleb and Leon with his large, meaty paws, pulling them back. Samson began to retreat himself, lifting at arm to prepare to defend himself. Elliot was far from subtle and covered his head with both his hands. The orca was quaking which caused his armour to shake. Caleb just imagined some immense storm or titanic bolt of lightning cutting through time and space and cleaving Tibia in two. Or maybe it would be so powerful that there would be nothing left of the elephant but a pile of ash and dust.

“Here it comes…” Lance whimpered.

“Brace yourselves!” David shouted.

Jacob’s features split into a grin, full of malice.

“If I had hit you with a lemon-cream cake right about now would that have been funny?”

…

Supers generated a field known simply as an ‘Aura’. It tended to cause those around them to synchronise with them and intensify emotions. This was why most battles between supers tended to be cinematic and appear so well coordinated. In this case, with four supers in the group, it was entirely possible that Caleb and Elliot were pulled into the gravity of their influence as they all synchronised with one another and shouted the same thing in perfect unison, each of them feeling the exact level of frustration, annoyance and exasperation.

“WHAT IS WITH YOU AND THAT DAMN CAKE!?”

Tibia just stared at the strange dysfunction, stunned. “I… I certainly wasn’t expecting that.” He shook his head and snarled. “Whatever. Your nonsense won’t change the fact that I’ve got something planned for each of you! Dragon Knight! Now!”

At the sound of one of the major Gene Stealer’s names, Caleb lost all his anger and replaced it with fear. Shimmering blue portals appeared beneath them - at least most of them. David dropped down from view, giving a startled cry. Both Leon and Lance vanished into their own portals and even Samson and Elliot were caught off-guard. One appeared right beneath Jacob but Legion was quick and leapt away from it, grinning. Tibia looked pissed.

“What did you do!?” Caleb shouted, paws balled into fists. “Where did you send them!?”

“Probably into their own little trials or traps,” Jacob answered. “That’s what you were planning, wasn’t it Tibia? You were going to give your monologue and then send everyone but Weapons Master off into their own death traps so that you can face him yourself.” The wolf grinned broader. “Too bad our little tete-ta-tete left me as the only one with my guard up. I mean, did you even notice that I’m the only one that really moved from our original positions?”

Caleb’s eyes widened in realisation. “You knew he had a plan for us. But you screwed with him and us. Why didn’t you just warn us?”

“Because I have faith in your father and the rest of Assault,” answered Jacob. “Don’t get me wrong, I have faith in you too. I’m sure you can defeat him but I want some answers first.”

Tibia rolled his eyes and assumed his bored posture again. “And here I thought you were different from the other so called ‘heroes’. Yet here you are betraying your own team’s trust for the sake of a few ‘answers’.” He waved absently at Jacob. “Go on then, ask away.”

“Thanks for your consideration,” Jacob said sarcastically. “Nothing philosophical and certainly nothing about your motives. What I want to know is where the big bomb is.”

There, even Tibia was startled.

“Jake, what’re you talking about?” Caleb asked.

“His contingency plan,” the blue-eyed wolf snarled. “Remember what Leon suggested? Villains shouldn’t just wait for the heroes to come to them unless they’ve got something big planned. The throne room at the very front of the base. No guards to greet us. No traps. Him waiting right here for us. It all smacks of someone whose got an overarching plan.” He turned his gaze back towards Tibia. “You could’ve escaped any time you wanted and yet here you are, waiting for us. Even after we defeated your team down at Dead Horizon, you still stayed. Sure you laid out some traps at the quarantine zone but you were here waiting for us.”

“Perhaps I’m just confident in my ability to deal with you,” taunted Tibia.

“Doubtful. You weren’t the arrogant idiot that you were before. You know you could never have stood up against seven guys like us. That’s why you tried to separate us. At the same time, you’re not stupid enough to hope that your tricks will be enough to defeat us. No. You’ve got something else. A bomb. Some ultimatum that’ll make us choose between either defeating you or letting you get away and disarming the thing that’ll blow this island and everyone on it to kingdom come.”

Caleb’s jaw dropped open in horror. One look at Tibia’s irritated look and he knew what Jacob said was true. Again, he was in awe of his best friend’s ability to look past the norm, the typical progression of events between supers and villains and see get to the root of the problems.

“I underestimated you,” Tibia rumbled, straightening in his seat. “Very well. For that, I’ll tell you.” The irritation on his face turned to one of malicious sadism. “You know how portals work, don’t you?”

“I do. It’s how we tracked you here.”

“Then you’ll know what’ll happen if we overload the portal and destabilise it.”

Even Caleb knew that. When portals were first being experimented with, there was a facility in the Nevada Dessert that was trying to create a stable connection halfway across the world in Japan. However, the portal became unstable during the process. The power needed to generate the singularity that would connect one place in space to the other was monumental. The portal collapsed and the singularity exploded. The greatest damage was in Nevada but even on the floating, coastal Japanese base, the explosion was big enough that it caused a mini-tidal wave to hit the shores and killed everyone on site.

According to analysis, if a portal collapses for whatever reason, there was no telling where the energy would be distributed. It could be that the explosion could erupt equally between the two sites or it could explode from just one side or the other. It was this sort of randomness that made portal technology so dangerous to use and why they were always very-well regulated. A disaster could cause a massive chain reaction especially in portal-ports. Even if one portal were to collapse, it could take out all the other portals in the port and cause those to collapse as well. Conspiracy theorist often came up with potential end-of-world scenarios involving a world-wide portal network collapse.

By the look on Jacob’s features, he knew the implications as well.

“You’re going to collapse it over West California Island, aren’t you?” he accused. “Right where you left the last time.”

Tibia threw his head back and laughed. “You really are unexpected! That’s exactly right!” His maddened grin left Caleb in chills. “And you know what the best part is?” He got back to his feet, spreading his arms wide. “There’s no telling whether or not the collapse will unleash all the energy here or over Callista Heights Mall! You may even have to choose between sacrificing everyone in this facility or taking out a huge chunk out of your home!”

“You fucking bastard!” Caleb roared. “What have you got against that mall, anyway!?”

Jacob held up a paw sharply. “No. Don’t answer that. We don’t have time.” Lightning crackled between his fingers. “Tell me where that portal is. Now.”

“And if I don’t?”

“You saw what I did to your people back at Dead Horizon. If you think that I’m some typical ‘hero’ then I’d be happy to educate you to the contrary. You already know I’m unpredictable so let me assure you, I am not beyond making the ten seconds you leave for your countdown feel like an eternity. By the time that explosion hits, you’ll be so grateful for death that every cell in your body is going to beg for that sweet release of death. Then, when you think that it’s finally over, I’m going to grab your soul and reincarnate you as a fucking eunuch with his severed balls surgically implanted into his chin named Peter!”

Tibia appeared genuinely rattled by the accusation. “The door to my left. Behind my throne.”

Jacob hefted his sword over his shoulder. “You better hope you don’t die, Pete.” Then he glanced over to Caleb, his features soft and apologetic. “I’m sorry. I’m going to have to leave this dickhead to you. I’ve got a portal to close.”

“Thinking with portals?” Caleb offered lamely and with a shaky smile.

Legion let out a soft laugh and gave him a dazzling smile, one that made Caleb’s heart stop for a brief moment. “You’re my Chell. Give GLADoS hell for me.” He turned towards the door Tibia had indicated, falling into a crouch. “I swore I wouldn’t shout the name of my techniques in this world but… unfortunately, no choice!” He grit his fangs together. “Sturmspalter! Full-body Fulmination!”

The peel of thunder cracked through the entire hall with a gale of wind blasting outward from Jacob. Caleb was forced back several steps and Tibia was thrown back into his seat. Golden arcs of lightning erupted from Jacob, curling around his limbs like a suit of living, electrical armour. No… they seemed more like veins than armour. Then Jacob was bolting down the hallway, his speed like lightning. He didn’t even stop when he crashed into the huge, metal double doors that Tibia had indicated. He just collided with it, ripping them clear off their hinges and leaving their electrified debris to fall to the ground. A trail of crackling lightning marked his path, the only way Caleb could even tell where he had gone.

Caleb prayed that Jacob could make it in time.

He turned towards Tibia, a smirk on his muzzle. “I bet you’re grateful you didn’t have to fight him, huh?”

The elephant could only nod though he quickly regained his composure. “Before we begin… would you like to see where the rest of your team has gone?”

******

David nailed the superhero landing. It had been ingrained into him from the moment he started aiming to be a professional super. Mentally, he cursed himself for falling for such an obvious trap and for not anticipating that other Gene Stealers were in the facility. That mutation-crazy organisation was changing up their tactics by targeting supers now. There was no reason why their ‘field commanders’ as he liked to think of the original five Gene Stealers wouldn’t take the field. Still, it was a sure sign that Arsenal - and Assault - were getting to them.

He quickly took stock of his surroundings. Mostly darkness save for three monitors mounted on the walls air above three paths carved into the cavernous intersection. Frowning, he approached the empty halls and started at what he saw.

The centre one showed the very hall that he had just left. Jacob had somehow managed to dodge the attack from Dragon Knight leaving him and Caleb alone with Tibia. They were speaking but there was no volume. It looked like Jacob had just said something that made Tibia lose his composure. Good. If anything, Legion was excellent at unnerving his opponents and doing the unexpected. To the left, however, he saw Leon trapped in a chamber with a pedestal at its centre. There was no sound coming from it but he could hear the voices emerging from the hallway way that the passage beneath the monitor led to.

“Alright, Spy Wolf,” came Tibia’s voice, likely a recording. “I know you don’t quite like Feral Steel and a lot of the other members of the team. I’ve been informed of your identity thanks to the other Gene Stealers, Leon Hale. So I have a test for you. In front of you is a vial containing the same strain that infected me. You want power? You want to be the hero? Take the serum and change. You and I are the same, after all. Pigeonholed into a role because others judged our worth before we even had the opportunity to show them exactly what we are made of. With this serum, you can prove to them, prove to the world, that you are more, much more than they every thought you could be!”

“Leon… No,” David whispered.

“Oh and before I forget…” A soft hissing filled his ears. Looking up at the screen, an acrid, yellowish gas began filling the room. “… I’m filling the room with nerve gas. It’s a special gas that will only liquefy the organs of those that were not infected by my strain. The only way to survive it is if you take the serum from the pedestal and transform. Otherwise, you’ll die. I estimate you’ll only have three minutes before your insides are turned into a red, mushy paste. Make your decision.”

David took a step towards the hall when a flash of colour caught his attention. The centre screen again. Jacob suddenly left, leaving a trail of lightning in his path and Caleb all by himself to deal with Tibia.

“Reaper! What the hell!?”

Then there was movement in the last and right most screen. Lance was caught in gunfire from an entire squad of Tibia’s goons. That was twenty well-trained elephants all firing at him! Hardened as his shields may be, there was no way he would survive the barrage for long! There was no one to support him and he was pinned down on all sized by the withering bombardment. If he did not get help soon, those bone bullets would cut through his shields and he was likely to be infected!

That was when David realised the conundrum that Tibia had put him in; the cruel Sophie’s choice of sorts. He had to choose between saving either Leon, Caleb or Lance. There was no time to save all three.

“Damn you, Tibia!” he cursed.

It was an impossible choice. Even though he and Leon had butted heads over the past few months, he still loved him as his son and respected him. Watching his eldest son slowly suffocate was exactly the sort of dangerous situation he had hoped to avoid for the brash young wolf. Then there was Lance. The younger of the twins was strong but he never had a head for making decisions on his own. The huge, four-armed wolf was always following orders even before he became a super. Lastly, Caleb. After his youngest’s outburst against the captured henchmen, he began to worry about Caleb’s mental state. Now Weapons Master was standing off against the source of his recent heartbreak.

Whatever Tibia may have been previously, he was now a supervillain with the cruel sadism to rank well amongst the A-listers.

“There are five guiding principles to being a hero.”

His eyes switched to Leon. His son had seized the syringe. David’s heart froze, his eyes widening like saucers.

“No Leon… Don’t… Not again!”

“One,” Leon iterated. “Never fight for yourself. The moment you don that mask, you are in service to the people and never yourself.”

The five guiding principles of heroism. David had taught that to his sons from a young age. He remembered posing joking, a blanket around his shoulders while declaring them in their yard. Leon and Lance would always jump up in joy and shout them alongside him. Hearing Leon repeat them flawlessly brought tears to his eyes.

Leon lifted his head. “Two! Never lose sight of your convictions! Fight for a purpose you can be proud of!”

The proud wolf spun, facing the camera directly with no idea that he was speaking directly to David. “Three! Always remember to protect your identity. You will make a lot of enemies and a lot of friends. You endanger those you love by serving the public so they can never know who you are!”

Leon held up four fingers. “Four! Sacrifice is part of the job! It’s not about the fame or the glory! It’s about protecting those who cannot protect themselves!”

Then he held up his last finger. “And five. Remember to hope.” Leon lifted the serum into the air so that whoever was watching could see it clearly. “That’s why I reject your offer, Tibia! I’m not going to become stronger because I’m nothing like you! I may have been rejected, pigeonholed and cast aside but it’s just like Jacob said! You chose to be a villain! I’ve made my choice and I’m going to stick by that!”

He threw the syringe into the ground, shattering it in an instant. In that moment, David could not have been prouder.

Now he had a decision to make.

It was no easier than before.

******

Samson emerged from the portal with a crash, slamming into the stone floor with his heavy claws digging into the ground. He had only partially transformed in a desperate attempt to clutch the edges of the portal before he fell completely through but it was futile. His blackened nails and hairy hands receded back into his human flesh. No sooner had it faded, thin beams of laser sights levelled at his face, dancing across his vision. Lifting his head, he spotted the faces of Tibia’s elephantine henchmen standing in front of him, bone-themed guns levelled at him. Ten of them were there, poised to strike and with him cornered. The fall had regenerated his shields, at the very least. A quick scan of his surroundings revealed that he was in some sort of dining hall. Several, heavy, stone tables had been overturned to form a barricade where Tibia’s boneheads were hiding behind. Others had been thrown against the only exit preventing a hasty escape but also leaving him with no cover against the onslaught.

The only option would be to strike before his shields were depleted. Against these ten soldiers who were on the level of supers both in technique and power, however, he had doubts that he would be able to win.

Then, one of the men tossed him a jet injector. The white device filled with a bright green liquid skidded across the floor to rest at his feet.

“Samson Connors,” shouted the same elephant. “We have no intention of fighting you but we will fire and engage you should you show hostilities.”

He slowly rose to his feet, unwilling to lift his hands into the air in surrender. “So we negotiate then?”

“Yes. Tibia has recognised that you are not only the head of the Alpha Pack but also a well-respected villain. Thus we are here to propose a truce.”

No self-respecting villain would ever propose a truce unless it was part of their plan to disrupt a team. Tibia may have grown in intelligence but his ploys were disgustingly transparent. “A truce?” Samson asked, playing along with the ruse. These henchmen were not just dumb grunts. From what he saw they were not privy the same cliched mistakes that most henchmen - including the ones that he had hired - often fell into. They kept their guns up, they spoke without distraction and those that weren’t speaking to him were also scanning their surroundings just in case any would-be assailants to break the stalemate. He had to be very careful.

“Tibia knows you’re an ambitious man,” continued the leading thug. “He sees no reason for us to be enemies.”

“Apart from the fact that you turned my son into a slavering, tusked beast,” he added firmly.

“An unfortunate circumstance. Tibia had hoped that the Elemental Alliance would be first on the scene not Arsenal.”

That was certainly plausible. Samson had heard the recordings. “Be that as it may, he has clearly fired upon me and sent his forces against me. I hope he is not so naive to believe that now I am so close to his throat, he would surrender in the hopes that I will show him mercy.”

“It would be a waste of both our resources if we were to fight. What Tibia offers is your chance to become a Generation 4 Gene Stealer like himself and one on a superior level given your status as a werewolf.”

That had been one of the concerns that Samson had ever since David had opted to join the Alpha Pack. He welcomed the challenge of having someone as headstrong and powerful as David standing beside him and perhaps even challenging him. The Pack could only grow by being challenged not constant victories and complacency. But ever since Ben had become infected by Tibia, he feared that the Gen 4 transformation on top of being a werewolf with superpowers would give the younger werewolf some ideas or perhaps even tip the balance towards the rebellion that David was no doubt concocting. One of the many reasons he volunteered for this mission was to gauge the true threat of the Gene Stealers with this latest development particularly with a Gen 4 like Tibia and to prevent David from getting infected. A developing werewolf on top of a Gen 4 mutation would be disastrous to the Alpha Pack.

“Now isn’t that interesting,” Samson admitted. “Your master is willing to prostate himself before me, make me like him, and for what? So I won’t kick his ass after all this is done?”

“The Alpha Pack’s desire for power is known all over the world. We are offering you greater power that what could be achievable by conventional means.”

“And what would that mean for me and the Pack?” he countered. “Subservience to the Gene Stealers? To Chimera? Were we to fail, would we be discarded as easily as one of your other experiments?” He pressed a hand against his chest. “Were I to become a Generation 4 Gene Stealer, would I become obsolete the moment Generation 5 was developed?”

“That is not -”

“I’m not finished,” interrupted the head werewolf. “The Alpha Pack isn’t just a group of villains that have consolidated all their power together to become an unstoppable force capable of toppling nations. We are a family. Think of us as a mafia-like organisation that values loyalty and acts selflessly for the rest of the Pack. Nothing I would expect from a group of ivory-spouting mutants who would sacrifice their familial ties in exchange for ‘power’.”

He kicked the jet injector back across the room towards the henchmen. “I would invite you to take your offer back to Tibia but I don’t think you’ll live that long.”

The boneheads pushed the safety off their guns. “This is your last chance to reconsider, Samson. You won’t get another.”

“I appreciate the gesture but allow me to spell it out for you logically.” He lifted one hand, palm up. “Why in the world would I submit myself to your terms of surrender when you will have no choice but to launch those infectious bones at me anyway and infect me, thus turning me into a Generation 4 Gene Stealer anyway but, in fighting, I’d have the satisfaction of crushing your skulls between my fingers?”

It was perhaps one of the oldest tricks in the villain’s handbook - make your opponent doubt the use of their greatest weapon. If your enemy couldn’t user their own powers, then they were that much easier to defeat. Though these henchmen were indeed well-trained, he could see the flashes of doubt in their eyes. They were not just henchmen. Each of them were supers in their own right; each with their own variations of the same powers but also each with the same strengths and individuality that made supers so dangerous. That meant that he couldn’t just treat them like simple grunts that he could brush aside. He could already see that his tactics were working even in the slightest tilt of the gun barrels aimed at him.

“So let’s get this over with,” he growled, rolling his shoulders ominously. “I’ll show you why I am the leader of the Alpha Pack!”

******

The vast garage was filled with the constant sounds of gunfire. Empty apart from the large, circular barrier where Tibia’s men stood behind, Lance found himself encircled by the boneheads. His shields were rapidly failing - the extra-hardened kinetic barriers already falling dangerously into the orange zone. The boneheads were using clever hit-and-run tactics. One of them would spring up from behind the barrier and pepper Lance with about ten seconds of sustained fire before ducking back behind the concrete wall. Then another would spring up from another barrier further down and launch his own barrage. Even when Lance charged at the first and knocked down the barrier, the elephant was gone. They had erected multiple barriers in large, concentric rings so even should he strike at one, that same guy would just escape to another ring while Lance’s attention was drawn by another bonehead somewhere else.

“Goddamnit!” he roared.

In a desperate attempt to keep his shields intact, he shoved his lower two paws into the concrete barriers in front of him. He wrenched it clear off the ground, muscles bunching and a tremendous roar rising from his throat. He ducked down, positioning himself in such a way that he was sandwiched between four of the concrete barriers, two of them in his paws and the other two placed by Tibia’s men. That eased the gunfire somewhat but given his sheer size, some of the ivory bullets still got through and struck his rapidly fading shields.

He had to think. There was no way of telling how many boneheads there were and the hanger was so vast that he would be hunting for them until the sun came up. They were faster than he was and knew the grounds far better. The advantage was theirs and they worked in close coordination with one another, adding to the difficulty of the scenario.

“Think!” he snarled at himself. “Come on! You’ve gone through simulations like this at the Tower before!”

All those simulations had always been in the company of his team, however. Bosch was their undisputed leader. He had the most experience and knew superhero tactics like the back of his scaly hand. Cory - Lance’s boyfriend and the sexy Australian kangaroo - was their all-rounder being both strong, fast and possessing the incredible ability to manipulate and generate sand with ease. Arcturus - the same Arcturus that was the Hound of Death - was their anti-super weapon as his ‘superpower’ in that disguise was to nullify any and all superpowers he could target. Lance was usually the meat shield or powerhouse that could smash through enemy lines or provide a distraction. He was content just letting Bosch lead and just being the muscle. It was a role he was comfortable with. Even when he was ‘normal’, Leon had always been the one to take the lead while he just provided backup or extra muscle.

Now he was stuck alone with time rapidly running out.

“Think!” he growled to himself, giving himself a little slap with his free paws. “Surrounded at sides by enemies. Little to no visibility on their positions. They know the terrain. What do I do?” He squeezed his differently coloured eyes shut. “What do I do?”

In desperation, he began repeating the classical superhero plays and moves that he had memorised by rote. Never one for intellectual analysis or even reactionary tactics, Lance had always taken to memorising his jobs or expectations to get by. High school had never demanded anything more from him and even on the college-level, he just remember his lectures and regurgitated them to get by. Being a super was far more difficult as he had to think before he acted.

A loud crack brought his attention to his left shoulder. A red hexagon appeared just above his shoulder, a hairline crack appearing on its surface. His shields were on the verge of shattering.

“Come on…” he pleaded, as if taking to his own brain. “The Phoenix Fire Combo? No… Don’t have any fire powers. Feral Steel Finale? Damnit… Dad’s not here!”

He shook his head. “No. Think of moves heroes have performed solo!”

CRACK!

Time was running out.

“Matador Rush? No… Place is too wide. Bulldozer’s Bombardment? Gonna leave myself open if I do. What about…?”

His eyes widened. “Geoscape’s Terraformer! That’s it!”

Lance immediately sprang to his feet and flung around in the direction the gunfire was currently coming from. He hurled the concrete barrier he was holding in that direction before immediately spinning to his right and hurling the second barrier at some spectre. It was all just to keep the henchmen on the defensive. The momentary reprieve allowed him to crouch down, bunching his powerful leg muscles and bracing himself. With a cry, he launched himself straight upwards. The immense strength of his legs added with his superpower launched him over a hundred feet into the air, almost brushing up against the ceiling of the gargantuan hanger. Clenching his fists, he pulled two of his arms on his right side back while his left paws were held out below him, aiming at where he would strike. The henchmen only had about a second to gawk before he spun in the air and pressed his feet up against one of the metal ceiling beams, angling himself straight down.

Then he pushed off.

Gunfire rattled off in his ears but with what little of his shields remained and his high speed, none of the ivory bullets pierced his flesh.

Instead, he slammed his fists hard into the ground, shattering the metal floor and causing enough of a dent that the ground beneath him bent and warped into an immense twenty-foot crater. The impact from the blow was enough to shake the entire hanger and the very foundations shuddered wildly. Earth and metal heaved from the impact, moving like rippling water outward from the impact site. Tibia’s henchmen were good but they could not outrun the force of physics. Not only was the shockwave from the strike enough to knock them off their feet but the heaving ground sent them hurtling into the air, depriving them of their precious footing.

Lance grinned to himself savagely as his red shields eased back into orange as it absorbed the kinetic energies from the impact.

“Oh I’m not done yet,” he snarled.

Now back in a crouching position, he launched himself up again into the air, this time, angling himself a little to the left. Once again, he spun in the air and planted his feet against the ceiling beams. Their cover shattered, he could clearly see where Tibia’s men were positioned. The shockwave had knocked down the majority of the concrete barriers and the boneheads were stunned from the sudden, shocking move. Lance angled himself towards one of the men on his back and kicked off, bending two and a half-foot metal beam in the process.

The elephant barely got time to get his bearings before Lance crashed into him, right fists slamming into the earth beside his head while his left fists slammed into the pachyderm’s skull for a less powerful but still crushing blow. His second crash sent another shockwave throughout the entire hanger. By the cries of the boneheads, they were again unable to find their footing as they were tossed around like noodles in a fiery wok. The henchman beneath Lance was out cold, his tusks broken and eyes gazing off into the distance, eyelids fluttering between ragged breaths. Lance grinned.

This was working.

“I’m going to call this move…” he began. With a grunt, he launched himself once more into the air. Again, he scanned the hanger. Nine henchmen remained.

He took aim at the next one.

“Fang Fissure Finale!”

******

There were no traces of deception in Tibia’s words as he directed Jacob to the overloading portal. Part of him was curious exactly what the devious pachyderm had in store for him through Dragon Knight’s portal but the lives of not only the members of Assault but also the men under Tibia were at risk. The thought that these men had willingly allied themselves with Tibia knowing full well that they were going to be genetically raped while also being used as cannon fodder seemed a little strange to him. These were well-trained men. People with identities and individual personalities. Something different drove each of them. The Gene Stealers had gone through a very extensive selection process to select these boneheads and yet they were just going to let them all die so needlessly for Tibia’s petty reasons?

As he ran through the hallways, cloaked in crackling, golden lightning, Jacob Reaper considered what he knew about the Gene Stealers. Though they seemed dismissive of their assets on the surface, the Gene Stealers could easily distribute their serums and infections rapidly. With Dragon Knight’s power to open portals anywhere at any time, it would be very simple for him to inject their corruptive influence all over the world and start an outbreak that would cripple the world’s supers with ease. They were also capable of creating Thralls which were effectively clones of themselves. So why go through all the effort of arming and creating these well-trained men if they were just going to be obliterated in a collapsing singularity?

No. The Gene Stealers valued their troops too much for that.

He ground to a halt in the middle of the dark, stone hallway.

“Tibia has gone rogue, hasn’t he?”

A faint chittering noise filled his ears, forcing him to swivel them back. A silky, sultry voice came from somewhere behind him, the soft, sweet breath brushing against the fur on the back of his neck.

“I wouldn’t say ‘rogue’ as such,” Spider Queen cooed softly. She wrapped long, pale fingers gently against his shoulder. “He is still performing within the bounds of the test. But destroying half of Madagascar or West California Island by collapsing a portal… Now that was unexpected.”

Jacob’s eyes narrowed, keeping his eyes forward and away from the venomous woman. “The Gene Stealers are still strictly an issue of the United States. Particularly California’s issue. If Vernon Washington wanted to make it a national issue, he would’ve made a move for senator not mayor.” He stared fiercely into the darkness of the hallway. “You want to make sure that your operation, your experiments, your test and even the people that you ‘elevate’ remain covert. That’s why you brought Tibia out here into the middle of nowhere instead of planting him in some UAN city. You also don’t trust him enough to be able to move on his own and that’s why both you and Dragon Knight are here overseeing him. After all, if he succeeds in collapsing the portal, it will get traced here and then the UAN will be after you. You’ll become a global problem and that’s not something you’re prepared for. Bet neither of you expected him to use his portal like that especially since Dragon Knight could have easily provided him a means of escape that time at Callista Heights Mall”

“And what makes you say that?” she sighed, drawing a finger lightly across his collarbone. “We can infect supers now. Perhaps this is all part of Chimera’s plan. Why go hunting for more test subjects when they willingly throw themselves at us?”

Jacob smiled softly and offered a little shrug. “Fair point.” He glanced away from the direction she was skulking. “If that’s the case, you won’t mind me telling the governments of the world that your base of operations is currently in the sunken city of Thelkosia.”

He felt her flinch.

“You are full of surprises.”

“Get me in bed and I’ll blow your mind,” he answered snidely. There was no time to play games with her so he jabbed Sturmspalter into the ground and reached into the pocket of his overcoat. He held both a notepad and a pen over his shoulder. “Write down the instructions on how to disable the portal on this. I’ll stop Tibia from making the Gene Stealers a global spectacle.”

She paused momentarily even if her fingers plucked the pad and pen from him. “And what makes you think that we don’t want the Gene Stealers’ notoriety to be a global phenomenon? There are countless people out there who would willingly give up their frail, ailing bodies to be stronger, faster and on the level of supers. We would garner more support than opposition.”

“Because the stage isn’t ready yet. Like I said, you’re just a very local issue to the rest of the world. Not even a flea in the entirety of the universe’s problems. If we’re drawing comparisons, you’re the Tibia on the world stage - you’re a D-list villain that hasn’t threatened the entire platform let alone all of reality yet. What you want is your Gen 5s and enough support in the world that when the revolution comes, people will flock to you. You don’t want to be painted as the villains just like what happened with Thelkosia.”

Suddenly, Spider Queen’s fingers grasped his shoulders tightly, her nails digging into the fabric of his coat. “You are dangerous. Very dangerous. What do you want in return for instructions on how to deactivate the portal?”

Jacob case a smirk over his shoulder. “It’s already on the second page.”

Spider Queen turned the notepad and lifted one meticulously maintained eyebrow. “That’s it? That’s all you want?”

“You’d be surprised how valuable that is to me.”

She let out a haughty laugh. “You must be joking! I have everything to gain from this bargain. You keep us on track of Chimera’s plan in exchange for something I can purchase off a corner store.”

“I think you’ll find this particular item rather difficult to purchase,” Jacob said, his grin growing broader. “I was very specific about what I wanted.”

She regarded the item again before huffing. Switching back to the first page, she pressed the pad against his back and began writing. “Surely you want more. I’m a reasonable person. I can give you more.” Her lips twisted upwards in a sly smile. “Much more.”

“Oh, trust me. You’re giving me a lot.”

“Really? Prevent a global crisis in exchange for a cake?” She finished writing and handed him the pad and pen.

“No.” He turned to face her, taking the offered items. He ripped the second page off the notepad and handed it back to her. “It’s prevent a global crisis in exchange for your humiliation.”

Spider Queen’s emerald eyes widened. “I beg your pardon?”

“You’ll find this particular cake to be very hard to acquire from any corner store,” Jacob answered with a dark smirk. “As the list says, four separate layers. Lemon custard between each layer with slivered strawberries. Basil whipped-cream between. Raspberry sherbet meringues on top shaped like teardrops accompanied by peanut butter praline and passion fruit jelly.”

“I’m sure someone in France has something like this in stock,” she said arrogantly. “It’s a simple matter of travelling there, you know. What with dear Dragon Knight’s abilities.”

“I challenge you to buy this cake off the shelf,” Jacob responded. “But I trust you’ll get it to me by the time I shut down the portal. Otherwise, I’ll have to consider our bargain forfeit and I may just let it slip to this politician or the that world leader that Thelkosia may not be as abandoned as first thought. The Gene Stealer base could be annihilated in a moment. Not in some grand battle to shake the very world but in a pathetic splutter that won’t even make the evening news. Probably the worst thing for you is not knowing whether or not I spilled the beans.”

Spider Queen’s eyes widened and she reached out to snatch the pad holding the instructions to shutdown the portal. Jacob pulled it away, his grin broadening.

“Nah-uh,” he taunted, offering her the scrap of paper that had the cake instructions. “This is yours. If you hurry, you just might be able to make this yourself in the thirty or so minutes it’d take me to shut down the portal. And do note the line clearly stating ‘no mutagenic or transformative agents’. I’m planning to share this.”

Her eyes flared up in anger and frustration. “What exactly do you get out of this?” she snapped, snatching the piece of paper from him.

“The satisfaction that you, Spider Queen, a powerful Gene Stealer, whose genetics formed the basis for all of Shark Tamer’s serums and femme fatale of the Gene Stealers has been reduced to baking a cake because she couldn’t control her own little pet project.”

She snarled at him, her fist closing in around the scrap. “If you think I will be degraded to such a level, you best think again.”

Jacob held up his paws in a helpless shrug and began to retreat backwards. “Then I guess this will be a test of your convictions for Chimera’s goal, won’t it? Either you bake me a cake, sacrificing some of your own pride and dignity, or I ruin all of Chimera’s well-laid-out-plans by bringing the planet’s resources down upon him in your little sunken city.”

Spider Queen was left speechless as Reaper’s visage began vanishing into the shadows of the long, dark hallway. Even though his dark blue eyes were nearly black, they seemed to burn brighter even as he faded.

“And they call me evil,” she hissed at length.

“Good and evil are just names. Mortal constructs to describe behaviour that they either find appealing or repulsive. But that…" He chuckled and waggled a finger at her. “That was me getting inside your head. I win.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Maybe not,” he agreed, his eyes lingering in her mind. “And yet here I am, about to stop a portal from collapsing. What are you going to do, Spider Queen?”

******

Caleb smashed Funny Bone into Tibia’s skull throne, shattering the white bones and sending debris scattering around him. He swung his paws up. A wall of bones erupted in Tibia’s direction, nearly spearing the superpowered elephant. Without skipping a beat, he charged at his own bone wall and smashed it into bits with his heavy mace. Tibia was still in mid-step, dodging the wall itself and had no chance to block the blow. Caleb smashed his weapon hard against the pachyderm’s left flank. Salazar Shin grunted, clearly feeling some discomfort even though there didn’t seem to be a lot of damage inflicted.

Attack.

Platforms of bone erupted from the base of Caleb’s feet, propelling him forward and giving him the force he needed to launch into the air. With Funny Bone as a pivot, he spun through the air and slammed both feet against Tibia’s face, careful to avoid the elephant’s tusks. Tibia staggered back just a single step, a grunt leaving his lips.

Keep attacking.

Caleb saw Tibia was reaching up with his right arm and he immediately twisted himself in midair. A foot was placed on one of Tibia’s tusks and he kicked off if, sending Tibia stumbling. He landed in a crouch and yanked Funny Bone away before Tibia could grab it. Grabbing the weapon in both paws, he swung it and smashed it hard against the villain’s shins. The armoured shin guards shattered and the pachyderm skipped backwards, yowling in pain. The blow didn’t breach the strong, leathery flesh but it was enough to at least give him a bruise. Ironic that Salazar Shin who prided himself in the power to inflict pain was, himself, stunned by the painful blow.

He had to keep attacking.

Ghostly hyenas sprang up from around him and launched themselves at Tibia. Their ethereal fangs and claws tore at his armour, ripping off plates of bone and hardened fabric. They couldn’t pierce his thick, leathery flesh, seemingly enhanced by his mutations. Caleb used the moment of distraction to lower his shoulder and charge straight at the elephant’s gut. Striking those rows of hardened abdominals was like slamming into a brick wall. Tibia only budged because of the shock from the impact.

Never stop attacking.

A thin spire of bone launched up just between both Caleb and Tibia. Came within an inch of Shin’s left eye and that alone was enough to cause the massive elephant to stumble back. Ivory erupted from the ground, forming a few stepping stones beneath the pachyderm’s feet and launching him further back and away from Caleb’s reach.

“That’s the last potshot you’ll get, pup!” roared the villain, landing on his rump with a heavy boom. Ivory spikes erupted from behind him and immediately launched themselves at Caleb.

The brown haired wolf slammed Funny Bone into the ground and a wall of bones erupted in front of him. Football training and his experience fighting villains warned him that Tibia was faster, stronger and more powerful than he was. The Gene Stealer was likely to try and pin him down beneath a barrage of bones. Being so big, however, Tibia had a slower rate of turning. That meant the best way to close the gap again was to keep moving.

Caleb slammed his free arm against the wall of bones. A single, large fang wrapped around his forearm. With a powerful grunt, he ripped a shard of the bone wall away from the rest, forming a makeshift shield and started running. Tibia kept firing at him, pivoting in place. Just as he suspected, the massive elephant was having trouble keeping up with him. The white-haired villain may have been faster but his reaction speeds was still below Caleb’s own speed.

That may be his way to win.

He sheathed Funny Bone over his shoulder and dove forward, adding some extra space between him and the barrage of bones. With an added roll at the end of his dive, he was able to crouch behind his shield.

“Nowhere to run now, pup!” laughed Tibia.

Caleb waited patiently, gritting his fangs together while his shield kept getting peppered by Tibia’s ivory spikes. He jerked back when one of the spikes dug deep into his shield and just barely touched the kinetic barrier that Jacob had provided him. Tibia likely forgot about it as well. Grabbing the spike, he yanked it free of his shield and channeled his will through it. The spike glowed with an ethereal blue-white light, iridescent feathers dancing from it. The world slowed to a crawl as his eyes shut for the briefest of moments. Flashes of dazzling crystals danced before his eyes, each one connected by a confusing network of bright, blue threads. The essence of the spike in his paw shone like a shimmering star with billions of strings lancing out from it. A bright blue flame followed one such trail up towards one of the distance crystals. As the flame drew closer to the crystal, he could see that there was something kept within the murky, white shell. A boomerang.

No. He needed a piercing or slashing weapon.

Just that simple thought was enough for the blue flame to strike the crystal immediately, causing it to catch fire and highlight the other lines attached to it. It gave him a second to see if he could peer into the murk surrounding the crystals. The lines and the newly illuminated crystal provided some light and he could see what weapons were held within some of the closer crystals but the further ones were still a mystery to him. The flame then launched automatically in one direction. He tried to redirect it but the force of the burning flame but it was like a fire slowly eating away at the fuse of a stick of dynamite; the only way to stop it was to destroy what it was burning towards and that was risky in itself. It came with the same sense of urgency so he instead pushed the fire towards its destination. The ethereal fire launched straight towards the crystal at high speeds. He slowed it again in time to see that the crystal held a chakram.

Interesting but he wanted to try for something a little easier to use.

He released the flame from his hold and it struck the crystal but when he felt the sensation of the weapon in his paw taking shape, he pushed it to keep searching. The strings connected to the crystal began snapping, leaving only few choices. This was not something he could maintain forever and he was hit by a moment of panic as his choices became limited. That hesitation allowed for the flame to launch off on its own again, this time rocketing for a nearer crystal; one that held a spear.

Perfect.

He pushed the essence of the weapon towards the crystal and released his grip entirely from the weapon. Opening his eyes, the blue-white glow in his paws extended into a long pole tipped with a jagged, triangular edge. The luminescent glow began peeling away from the weapon in the shape of ethereal feathers. A newfound confidence filled him and he rose from his crouch. Tibia hesitated momentarily at the sight of the bone-white spear.

Caleb hurled the spear straight at the villain. Tibia had the time to roll his eyes before swatting the weapon aside. The Gene Stealer froze, however, when the spear clung to his hand. A loud crackling noise filled the throne room as the spear began to shrink. The shaft drew itself towards the spear tip while the tip itself seemed to blend and wrap around the back of Tibia’s hand. There wasn’t enough bone in the spear to full cover his hand but it was enough to restrain movement in his middle finger and add a little bit of weight.

“Clever,” snorted the hairy elephant. “Sadly, if there’s anything we know about your powers, is that it’s random. You can never repeat the same trick twice!” He lifted his fist into the air and smashed the bone plate that had clung onto the back of his hand. There was a sickening crack and the bones shattered. Blood seeped between the cracks. Tibia painfully ripped the bone armour right off the back of his hand, taking some of his armour-like skin with it and revealing the flesh beneath. His regeneration kicked in almost instantly, ceasing the bleeding and starting the healing process. It was far from instantaneous, however.

“Now…” rumbled the prideful pachyderm, rolling his huge shoulders covered in white-fur. “Where were we?” He grinned and lifted both his hands towards Caleb. “Ah yes… Right about here!”

Ivory spikes began launching themselves at the agile, black-clad wolf again. Caleb was ready. He snatched one of the spikes from the air with his free paw, keeping his shield up with the other. Again, he channelled his will through the projectile. Predictably, the essence had started somewhere else in the vast lattice of possibilities than the first one but just as the many times he had tried since being controlled by Trojan, he could see the crystals that he had previously touched shining like beacons in the infinite darkness. With every crystal connected to one another, it was a simple matter of pushing the spiritual flame straight towards the bone spear and immediately triggering its transformation.

He pivoted on his left foot. Midway through his spin, the spear materialised. Over his shoulder, he could see Tibia paused in surprise. With the momentum from the spin, he hurled the spear back at the villain. This time, Tibia had no time to merely swat the weapon aside and had to dodge. The weapon dug deep into his left calf and immediately began encasing it in bone.

“What is this!?” bellowed the elephant. “Since when could you consistently create weapons like that!?”

Caleb’s jock-mentality kicked in. “Since I fucked your mom!” He rolled to the ground once more, snatching an ivory spike buried into the ground. Again, using the same technique, he transformed it into a spear and launched it straight at Tibia. Though he was primarily a wide-receiver, his dad had insisted he try out other roles as well and he was getting good at hurling the football. While not as accurate as Lars, he still managed to send the spear jamming into Tibia’s foot.

“This shouldn’t be possible!” Tibia let out an ear-splitting roar and ripped his foot off the ground. Blood was spilling from where bone was rapidly encasing his limb. “How are you doing this!?” He flung his fist at his own calf, shattering the bone plates wrapped around this diamond-shaped muscles. When he reached down to rip it out, he roared in agony and was forced to pull back. The bone had grown from where the spear had punctured meaning there was now a triangular piece of bone that acted as the root for the rest of the plate. It restricted his movement and made extracting the plate all the more painful. Desperate, he flung his hand at his shielded opponent. A huge, ivory spike the size of his arm launched from behind him.

There was no dodging that. Caleb deftly dove into a roll and snatched another spike from the ground. He had another spear embedded into Tibia’s chest before the elephant could even recover.

“You of all people should know that we can all grow,” he growled at the Gene Stealer. “Just like Jake said. We’re not stuck with our powers. We choose what we do with them. How we develop them. You may have chosen to take an easy route and get the Gene Stealers to give you a boost, but I’ve lived with mine and been practicing with it!”

“You’re a hypocrite!” Tibia snarled. He flung his free hand over his shoulder, summoning an axe made of bone and hurled it easily at Caleb. Again, the grey and white-furred wolf leapt for a spike, avoiding the weapon entirely. He had enough time to flick up his shield again as Tibia immediately followed up the clumsy attack with a barrage of spikes. His bone shield was starting to shatter but that was fine. He charged forward, shield up and hurled the spear over his shoulder. Even as his physical shield shattered, the kinetic barrier held long enough for him to erect a second shield.

Tibia managed to dodge the spear this time, hobbling behind one of the pillars.

“Your powers only evolved because you were continuously infected by the Gene Stealer Original Serums!” cried Tibia. “You would still be stick with the randomness of your abilities were it not for what we gave you!”

Caleb snatched two spikes from the ground, turning them into spears and hurling them at either side of the pillar. Tibia came out of the left side and was hit in the shoulder by the spear. “Maybe but these abilities are mine. I’m choosing to use them to stop you. Even if the Gene Stealers were involved in giving me these powers, I’m going to use them to put an end to their bullshit!” He drew Funny Bone from over his shoulder. Ghostly hyenas sprang up around him once more.

“For most of us, there is no such choice!”

The voice came from above Caleb and he jerked upwards. Tibia was suddenly above him. Bony armour encased both his arms and legs, their sharpened fingers and toes digging deep into the stone ceiling and holding him there. The elephant suddenly dropped from the ceiling, letting out a tremendous roar as he clasped both his armoured hands over his shoulder.

Dodge. He had to dodge!

Caleb rolled forward, pulling his bone shield beneath himself and placing both feet against it. When Tibia hit the ground, a tremendous shockwave erupted from the blast. Seated on his shield, he rode the shockwave until he was flipped onto his back. There, he slammed Funny Bone into the ground to keep himself from flying away and seized his shield. He lifted the bone barrier in front of him, protecting himself from any shrapnel and debris.

“In this society of ours, we are given our roles based on our abilities,” Tibia panted. The huge elephant rose from the cloud of debris surrounding him. “Not just on the usefulness of our powers but also whether or not we have powers or not. We’re either assigned as a super, Outsider or a victim based on some arbitrary criteria! Hardworking men and women pay exuberant taxes when villains or supers destroy their homes! Even those without powers hoping to become armed vigilantes have to come from money or privilege to be able to reach the ranks of normal supers! How is that fair!?”

Caleb yanked his mace from the ground. “So you’re blaming others for their good fortune just because you didn’t get it? You’re not a villain!” He pointed an accusing finger at the towering, bone-covered elephant. “You’re just the whiny, jealous little brat that keeps asking why he can’t have all the other toys the other kids have!” Lowering his finger, he spat at the ground in disgust. “I honestly had more respect for you the first time we met. At least then you were trying to better yourself instead of being this ass that’s trying to justify his actions by blaming everyone else!”

“What do you know!?” Tibia fumed. “You’ve never been in my shoes! You’ve never know what it’s like to be looked down upon because of how you were born!”

“Are you fucking kidding me!?” Caleb roared back. “Just a few months ago, my own dad was telling the public what a shitty job I was doing helping people just because I’m an Outsider! But even through that all, I still fought on and didn’t let anyone else define me! I didn’t start blaming him or society for their perceptions! I still kept helping them!”

Shin snarled and slammed both his armoured fists into the ground. “More senseless sentimentalities!” He lifted both of those fists. “Time to end this, Weapons Master!”

Caleb bared his fangs and readied Funny Bone. “Fine with me.”

A loud bell rang above them and both fighters paused to look up in surprise.

“Uh… Hey guys,” came Jacob’s voice from the PA system. “So, I know you’re all busy but I thought I ought to let you know.”

His heart froze. Jake had gone off to prevent the portal’s collapse. If he was contacting them now, it was either he was successful or… Caleb glanced towards Tibia and the elephant was grinning wanly at him.

“It seems our time is up, Outsider,” laughed the heavily muscled pachyderm. “I wonder. Will you spend your last few moments lecturing me or will you try and go help your friend?” He hiked a thumb in the same direction Jacob had disappeared to. “Door’s right there. Make your choice.”

******

The portal was located at the very bottom of the base.

By the time Jacob had reached it, the device was already in its death throes. The huge, hexagonal frame was shaking and shooting sparks in all directions. A shimmering, purplish-blue vortex of energies was barely contained within the frame. Crackling bolts of lightning was shooting off in all directions. Positioned within a cavernous, underground hollow, the portal was big enough to allow a ship like Tibia’s dropship to pass through it easily. Generators built into the sloping walls were all flashing with red lights. A constant wailing cut through the air with a rough gale pulling any loose objects towards the centre of the portal.

The moment he stepped inside, a huge elephant landed in front of him. The man wore the battle paint of one of the ‘Alpha Group’ and was possibly the largest of the boneheads. Clearly he was superior to the others as he was decked out in a full suit of bone armour including an intimidating helmet shaped like an elephant’s skull, giving him the appearance of having four tusks much like Tibia. Upon landing, he slowly rose and drew two enormous swords from over his shoulder.

“And there’s the welcoming committee,” sighed Jacob, brushing his hair back with one paw. “Look…” he began. “Can I get your name?”

The huge, hulking henchman seemed stunned by the question and some of the veins running down his biceps eased with the confusion. “I am Alpha-1.”

“You’re real name. You look like… a Paul to me. Is it Paul.”

A moment’s pause. “My name is Felix.”

“Right. Well Felix, far be it for me to question your role as the dedicated time-waster that’s there to make sure that the last nail-biting moments of this chapter will be even more thrilling because of the time I spent fighting you but are you really so committed to Tibia that you’re willing to die for him?”

“The portal isn’t going to explode here, super,” snarled Felix. “It’s going to blow up over West California Island. It’s going to take out that damn mall of his.”

“Uh-huh,” he drawled, striding forward casually. “And you believe him.”

“He planned this entire encounter.”

“Did he think I was going to come here or was it Weapons Master?”

There, the elephant paused. Just as Jacob had expected. Tibia had hoped that Caleb would be the one that would face this terrible choice not him.

“It doesn’t matter,” grunted Felix. “I will stop you.”

“Why?”

Again, that caught his foe off-guard. “Why what?”

“Why will you stop me?” Jacob asked, shoulder Sturmspalter while taking another stride forward. “What’s your stake in this? Is it because you weren’t born with a superpower and this was your chance to get one? Are you in the same boat as Tibia? Felt that you were cheated because you didn’t get a power while others got all the fame and glory of being a super? Or are you going along with this because the Gene Stealers posted an ad asking for mindless obedience and potentially dangerous muscle work but in exchange, you get well-paid, spiffy uniforms, genetic mutations that add muscle mass, superpowers and they offered great dental.” Jacob flashed his fangs and tapped one of his canines. “Love what they did with yours, by the way,” he added, indicating the elephant’s tusks.

“What does it matter?” snarled the warrior. “Fight me!”

“Let’s face it, Felix. You know in your heart that you’re just going to be tossed aside. You’re the roadblock. You’re the Hail Mary Pass meant to stop the heroes just long enough for the bomb to go off. If I hadn’t asked your name, you would’ve just been Elephant Henchman Number 21 or something. Is that really how you wanted to go out?”

“It doesn’t matter! I won’t die here!”

“Why?” Jacob asked, casually strolling towards the elephant. “Because I’m a ‘hero’ and I’m not going to kill anyone? Even then, are you content to be incarcerated permanently? Is that really where you wanted to be as a henchman? In fact, why are you settling for a henchman? Why not go for full-on supervillain?”

Felix glared at him angrily. “I’m not falling for your mind tricks! This is my job! I’m good at it!”

“I really wouldn’t say that,” said the black-furred wolf. “After all, you didn’t notice that I was striding towards you and now I’m within striking distance.”

There, Felix grinned at him savagely. “No. I noticed.” He reached out with one, huge hand and seized Jacob’s waist, easily lifting him up into the air. He was so big that even with the length of his massive sword, he could only reach about halfway up Felix’s bicep. “But you forgot who has more reach!”

Jacob grinned at him apologetically. “Oh right. You think Sturmspalter is a sword!” He lifted the blade, levelling it straight at Felix. The elephant immediately pulled his head back even if there was still quite a distance between the tip of the blade and his face.

“It’s not.”

Lightning crackled along the length of the weapon. The blade suddenly split right down the middle, the same lightning crackling between the split like an enormous lightning rod. Suddenly, there was a loud, metallic clinking and the grip of the blade extended, shooting forward from Reaper’s grip. Felix was forced to jerk his head to the side as the twin, electrified blades nearly skewered him between the eyes. He was staring at his own reflection in the electrified, polished metal.

“It’s a spear.”

Lightning suddenly erupted from Legion, causing Felix to convulse and he immediately dropped the wolf. He dropped down to one knee only to find Sturmspalter’s tip levelled against his trunk. When he looked up, Reaper was holding up a sheet of paper with a very familiar set of instructions.

“The Gene Stealers may care for your welfare but Tibia does not. He sees you as expendable. Spider Queen herself gave me these instructions to stop this portal from exploding. If you still believe that the portal doesn’t have a chance of blowing up this place as well as West Cali, then tell me now and I’ll fry your neurons so you won’t experience the agony of being ripped to shreds in the heart of a collapsing singularity. Otherwise, get up off your ass and help me shut down this thing.”

Felix’s eyes wavered. Doubt flashed in his eyes. His fists tightened into fists and he grit his teeth.

“Alright, fine.”

Jacob nodded and pulled Sturmspalter away. “Good man. Come on.”

He bolted down the gangway to the portal’s control consoles. The wild energies were growing more and more unstable and the pull of the vortex was intensifying by the second. With one paw on the loose instructions, he began tapping on the screen, turning dials and pulling levers.

“What do you need me to do?” Felix asked.

He was honestly surprised the elephant was actually eager to assist. It wouldn’t have surprised him if Felix had just opted to sit back and watch him struggle. “See if you can redirect the other end of the portal somewhere else. Somewhere no one will get hurt. Maybe above the Pacific Ocean.”

“Got it! Don’t forget to reactivate the gravitational stabilisers!”

“Already on it!”

He began tapping away at the console though his progress was significantly slower since he was limited to just one paw as the other had to hold the notepad tightly. Alarms began blaring on the console screen and he cursed.

“Damnit! I’m locked out!” Tibia certainly wasn’t making it easier for him.

Felix bumped him aside. “Here, my credentials should still work. Tibia gave me access just in case he actually beat Weapons Master and didn’t need the contingency plan after all.” He grinned and pumped a fist. “There, I’m in.”

Pleasantly surprised by the elephant’s assistance, Jacob seized Sturmspalter and strode towards the portal. “Great. See if you can stabilise that thing. I’m going to keep these bolts off you.” He jammed the spear hard into the metal ground. The arcing bolts of electricity shot towards the half of the spear, preventing it from reaching Felix.

“Damnit!” cursed the enormous pachyderm. “It’s already too far gone! I can maybe minimise the impact of the singularity to this side of the portal but there’s still going to be an explosion!”

“Goddamn you quantum physics!” Jacob roared, shaking a fist into the ceiling. “Do what you can,” he shouted behind him, yanking spear from the ground. “And open me a channel to the rest of the base.”

“What? Why?”

“Because I need an opening.”

“What are you planning?” Felix asked, clear panic in his voice. “We need to evacuate, now.”

“No. Not yet. The portal will always be restricted to the boundaries of the frame. Where it goes, the portal goes even if the portal goes nuclear.”

There was a loud bang behind him; Felix slamming a fist against the console. “You’re just stating facts now. All I can do is lower the explosion radius to about three and a half kilometres! We’d still be killed!”

“Three and a half kilometres,” Jacob murmured. “Cruising altitude it about 10.” He nodded to himself sagely. “Alright. That should work.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Open me that channel now!”

Felix held up his enormous hands in surrender. “Alright… fine.” He tapped a few keys. “You’re good.”

Taking a deep breath, Jacob said, “Uh… Hey guys. So, I know you’re all busy but I thought I ought to let you know.”

******

Elliot cleaved through the last wall in the large ivory maze that he had been thrown in. Apparently, Tibia had hoped it would keep him occupied by challenging him mentally but the orca was a gamer at heart and gamers always find a way to exploit the system. So instead of going through the maze walls like a trained rat hunting for cheese, he just cleaved through the walls.

Simple.

Then Jacob’s voice started coming over the speakers.

“Tibia has set up the portal he came here with to go nuclear. We’ve got maybe… a few minutes before it wipes out everything in a three and a half kilometre radius.”

Elliot’s heart started pumping in his chest. “Can’t you just hack the system!?” he bellowed.

“I’m assuming someone - probably Elliot - is asking why I can’t just hack this system forgetting that this is a PA system and is entirely one-way as our communicators are jammed. So, I’ll say that this is a very sophisticated piece of hardware that has an entirely unique operating system built specifically for this base’s operations. That trope where someone can just spontaneously jump onto a system, any system, and hack it is unrealistic. I was given specific instructions on how to minimise the damage but not enough to become an expert in quantum physics that I’d know how to neutralise this thing entirely.”

The orca grimaced. “Shit… I don’t want to die!”

******

David rested Leon against the wall, his son barely conscious but mercifully still alive.

“Fuck…” Leon gasped. “If you have to leave, dad…”

“I’m not leaving without you,” he snarled back. “Jacob has got to have a plan. He wouldn’t just start calling us over the PA just to tell us to say our prayers.”

Leon coughed, a sarcastic smile on his muzzle. “First time I’ve actually seen you openly relying on someone else.”

David rolled his eyes. Even in the face of death, his eldest was still snarky.

“We don’t have to time to figure out anything else and every second that passes makes this thing harder to deal with,” Jacob continued over the speakers. “So here’s my plan…”

******

In the hanger, Lance lifted his head towards the speakers, ears perked. The ground was filled with miniature crates from all his impacts. None of the henchmen were conscious. He had dealt with them all.

“I need you all to focus all of your power towards the ceiling. Smashing the roof off this place.”

He tilted his head to the said. “Not that I’m complaining about smashing things but… why?”

******

Caleb tilted his head much the same as Lance. “What? Why?”

He was vaguely aware that Tibia was making his escape.

“I don’t have time to explain. I’m at the bottom most floor. Everyone else is on the ground floor. Just smash the ceiling then get out as fast as you can. Make as big a hole and run.”

Caleb didn’t even hesitate. He flung his paw back and hurled it boldly towards the ceiling. A huge hand made entirely of bones rocketed up from the ground and smashed straight into the ceiling. Dropping his shield, he hurled his other paw in the same direction. Another bone hand launched upwards and tore right into the stone. The black stone buckled, debris and stalactites falling down into the majestic throne room. He pulled both his paws back and sent them slamming upwards. The roof of the dark headquarters began to crack and splinter, the faintest streams of the grey dawn streaming through.

Not too far from him, David let out a tremendous roar and launched pillars of metal in the same way as his son, smashing the ceiling and peeling away the stone. Leon offered what little help he could by lifting his rifle and freezing the falling debris and preventing them from injuring either wolf. In the hanger, Lance launched himself at the metal ceiling, digging his paws into the metal with a roar. He ploughed through the steel, tearing it off in great big chunks. Elliot turned his weapons towards the ceiling and began firing, screaming wildly while tears were streaming down his cheeks. Samson Connors focused all the kinetic energy he had gathered from the fight with the henchmen and hurled it straight upwards. In a single blow, the alpha of the Alpha Pack shattered the roof above his heads.

With all their focused efforts the ceiling of Tibia’s headquarters crumbled. Caleb was forced to bolt out of the throne room, covering his head with his arms as gravel and stone fell down around him. Elliot came smashing through one of the walls. He waved down the orca in the power armour gestured for him to hurry. Lance emerged from one of the doorways and had enough time to give Caleb a hug before hoisting his little brother off his feet and bolting back out into the Madagascar jungle. All three of them charged down the path back to the quarantine zone. David, Leon and Samson were still nowhere to be seen but when Caleb dared a glance back, he spotted a metal platform, its surface glinting off the dawn light, shooting overhead. Samson appeared beside him a second later.

The moment they reached the outskirts of the quarantine zone, they all turned around, watching with hearts pumping. David landed beside Lance, setting down Leon who was also staring up anxiously in the direction of Tibia’s base.

******

“That’s all the time we have!” Felix roared. “If you’re going to do something, you better do it now!”

Jacob approached the crackling portal. The swirling energies were nearly blinding. He had to shield his eyes from the light. Sturmspalter absorbed much of the angry lightning but some still snapped at his arms, chest and legs while its powerful gravity pulled him closer and closer without the need for him to take any steps forward. He threw his paws at the large ring. Lightning snapped out from his fingertips, striking the supports holding up the portal vertically enough to weaken them but not enough for the portal to topple backwards.

“I hope this works,” he muttered softly. Golden bolts of lightning crackled around him, snapping at the electricity launching from the portal like they were slapping them away. He hefted the weapon like a javelin, aiming just above the portal’s frame. “Alright, Vraski. Get ready!”

A pair of ethereal, webbed wings spread from his back, membranes crackling with lightning. Lightning coalesced around the spear’s length, encasing it. Felix could only gawk at the sight.

Jacob suddenly grinned.

“Alright. Fine.” He smiled ruefully. “I should never have introduced you to anime.” Features suddenly hardening, he tightened his grip around the spear’s haft. “Sturmspalter!” The weapon instantly responded. An aura of fierce lightning wrapped around the weapon. Golden light that filled the entirety of the cavernous chamber and a roar of thunder to rival the high-pitched keening of the portal grew shook the very foundations of the base.

“Dual Lightning Cascade!”

He threw the spear.

The immense weapon rocketed from his fingertips completely encased in a whirlwind of crackling golden lightning. The torrent of electricity shattered the ceiling of the underground portal chamber with enough force that it cleaved the debris and carried it well into the air. The spear erupted from the throne room, shattering the remnants of Tibia’s throne and destroying the meticulously carved ivory pillars. From those looking on at the quarantine zone, an enormous pillar of golden energies rocketed into the sky, originating from Tibia’s base. Leon instinctively clutched both Lance and David’s paws. Elliot immediately began calculating the energies involved and his eyes widened in shock. Samson broke his composure and gawked. Caleb stepped forward ahead of the rest, clutching his fists tightly to his chest and praying.

Not a second later, Jacob shot right after the spear but he did so with a passenger. One millisecond later and he would have missed his mark. His claws dug deep into the frame of the portal, ripping it clear off its foundations and shooting upwards in the same path of Sturmspalter. The force of hitting the frame and then being compelled to follow the spear through the air was enough to rip his shoulder right out of its socket and he could feel it almost tearing it from his torso. Only his durability as a super kept him somewhat intact. Five kilometres into the air, he caught sight of Sturmspalter and seized the weapon with his free, uninjured paw. He immediately released the portal and spun in the air. With what remaining strength he had, he hurled the spear back down towards Madagascar.

One millisecond later and he would be been disintegrated by the exploding portal.

Sturmsplater crashed back into the portal chamber in a torrent of lightning.

Above them, the portal let out one last high-pitched whine…

… and then exploded.

******

Caleb held his breath the entire time. There was something magnificent and terrifying of the enormous sphere of expanding dark energies spreading outward from a single point little more than a speck in his vision. The ball grew bigger and bigger, wiping out clouds as it expanded and eclipsed the brightness of the sun. There was no heat. It was a vast spherical void that even light could not escape. As it expanded further, Caleb feared that it would grow so big as to consume all of the island and him included.

But as quickly as it came, it was suddenly gone; shrinking back into a tiny purple twinkle before disappearing entirely.

Only then did his heart start beating again.

“Jake!”

His feet carried him straight back to the shattered headquarters while his mind continued to race. Barely past the entrance and he was peering down the hole that Jacob had made as he ripped the floor apart to make room for his spectacular feat. Far below, he could see Jacob lying face down right next to Sturmspalter. A huge elephant wrapped in bone armour was approaching him.

Tibia!

“Get away from him!” he shouted and launched himself right off the edge.

Caleb landed - inadvertently nailing the superhero landing - and rushed past Tibia. Though as he skidded past the pachyderm, he realised that this was not the same elephant that had attacked him. Still, he was once of Tibia’s henchmen.

“Whoa,” Felix said, holding up his hands. “I was just going to check if he’s okay.”

“Don’t you dare lay a finger on him!” Caleb snarled.

A second later, David was landing beside him, pushing the bonehead back. That gave Caleb time to immediately turned towards his best friend and turn him over. He pressed an ear against Jacob’s muscled chest and breathed a sigh of relief to hear the steady beating there. He rested Jacob’s head on his lap.

“Jake. Come on, man. Wake up! Jake!” A gentle slap and Jacob grimaced.

“It’s Jacob…”

Caleb sighed in relief. “Fuck man… That was fucking crazy!”

He got a lopsided grin from the wolf. “I would’ve like to milk the moment where you fret over my safety and maybe steal a kiss as you try to resuscitate me but that cliche’s is so overdone.” Slowly, Jacob began to rise but immediately collapsed on his right. His right arm looked dislocated. Badly. “I suppose there’s some advantages to not feeling pain.” He grabbed his wrist with his free paw and Caleb jerked back. The bones and muscles in the arm looked to almost have liquefied as the limb flopped around like a limp sausage. “This would really hurt otherwise.”

The rubble stirred around them.

Several members of Tibia’s henchmen began emerging. Assault surrounded the injured Legion protectively without thought.

Felix placed himself in between the two opposing forces.

“Stop,” he bellowed. “Leave them alone.”

Another one of the elephants snarled at him. “Turning traitor, Alpha-1?”

“No. Seeing reason.” He waved his huge hands at the members of Assault. “They could’ve killed us but they didn’t. They saved us from Tibia’s madness!” He pointed an accusing finger at each of the emerging members. “Can you honestly tell me that each of you weren’t at least a little bit doubtful after you were defeated? You all knew what Tibia planned with the portal but, like me, you all fought because you were confident that we would win! But we got beaten instead! Look around you!” The huge elephant spread his huge arms. “Where is he? Where’s Shin? He’s gone! Escaped with Delta and Gamma.”

“Actually…” Jacob muttered, lifting one finger from his uninjured arm. “He hasn’t…” He pointed straight up.

The air shimmered high above them. Felix and the rest of Tibia’s men gawked as the enormous black carrier-class starship dropped its cloaking field. The emblem of AEGIS burned brightly on the flank of the starship while their own transports and dropships began streaming out from the ship’s hangers.

“We kind of anticipated that Tibia would try and escape using his dropship,” Elliot boasted confidently_. “So we had the_ Cornucopia lie in wait.” He made a gun with his fingers and ‘fired’ it at Felix. “Just in case you guys needed more incentive to surrender.”

Caleb had to shake his head and relief. He had completely forgotten about the Cornucopia. Smiling, he pulled the injured and limp-armed Jacob to his feet. “You really are crazy, you know that?” he whispered.

“We’re all a little crazy,” answered the injured but smiling wolf. “Especially when the lives of those we care about are at stake.”

A light blush touched Caleb’s cheeks. “Yeah… I guess that’s true.”

Suddenly, a blue portal appeared just in front of Jacob. The stunned wolf reached out and a large, green square box dropped into his paws before the portal shut. Everyone stared, David and Samson stepping aside so that the others - even Tibia’s men - could see. With his arm incapacitated, Caleb was the one to reach forward and slowly pulled open the lid of the box. His expression turned to one of cautious curiosity to surprise… to exasperation. Jacob’s however brightened. Inside the box was a four-layered angel food cake with slivers of strawberries, lemon cream and basil whipped cream between each layer and topped with strawberry sherbet meringue and passion fruit jelly.

Peanut butter praline had been arranged artfully to spell the words ‘You’re an asshole, from SQ’.

“So…” Jacob said, grinning broadly, “Anyone one want cake?”

******

Salazar Shin hit the floor unceremoniously. The impact made him cry out in agony. Though his injuries were already healing, the parasitic bony growths that Weapons Master had inflicted upon him were injuries that could not heal very easily. There were times doctors had to re-break bones so that they could set properly. Tibia knew that with these bones melded with his flesh, he would have to undergo the rather painful process of ripping them out piece by piece or else his movement would be severely limited.

Powerful hands seized his shoulders and yanked him to his feet. On either side of him were two members of Group Gamma. Strange considering how he had last been in the company of Group Delta at the time of Legion’s spectacular display. They had been escaping on the Shinebone Mk. II which had been hiding in the jungle. One of the many reasons Tibia had decided to engage Weapons Master and his team out in front of his hideout was so that he could also make a hasty escape towards his dropship. Group Delta had been waiting for him. He had already dispatched Gamma to his secondary base before Assault had made it to Madagascar. He was feeling rather comfortable about his escape when Legion unleashed what could only be described as an upside-down waterfall of lightning. Even he could only gawk at the display before being floored by the explosion of the portal.

Thankfully, he was already well above the explosion radius and he chuckled to himself at the prospect of having killed the annoying blonde-haired wolf.

Then the carrier appeared.

There was no time for evasive maneuvers as the starship was basically right on top of them. Tibia had resigned himself to fighting when the floor vanished beneath his feet and he was suddenly falling.

Now… he was here, being propped up by his own henchmen in front of Spider Queen and Dragon Knight.

“What happened?” he demanded, steeling himself for what was sure to be some harsh reprimands.

“You were soundly defeated by Weapons Master,” answered Spider Queen, twisting a raven lock in her finger. “Feral Steel went to save Fenrir. Feral Fang nearly destroyed your base. Samson Connors resisted temptation. That fat orca in the suit of armour didn’t even play your game. And let’s not forget that Legion outwitted you.”

“Outwitted us all,” grumbled Dragon Knight. “I still cannot believe you had me deliver him a cake.”

Tibia lifted one eyebrow. “A cake?”

“Long story,” sighed the arachnid Gene Stealer. “Suffice to say that I am both severely disappointed in your efforts but at the same time, quite pleased.”

That caught him off guard. What did Spider Queen have to be pleased about? “You… are?”

Only then did he notice the third Gene Stealer striding forward and his heart plummeted. The creature was an enormous muscular, feral wolf - at least twelve feet tall with slate-grey fur. He - for the wolf was definitely a male - towered over them all with his enormous jaws big enough to engulf Tibia’s entire head. The beast’s anatomy was a little strange. With the heavy muscular definition, it was clear to see where his pectoral muscles were but they seemed more humanoid than a true feral beast’s. With each movement, it was possible to see the faintest outlines of abdominal muscles beneath those mighty shelves. In fact, his paws looked more humanoid than the paws of a true wild wolf.

“Yeah,” grumbled the titanic beast. “We are.”

“Wh - what is this?” Tibia stammered.

“Meet Fenrir,” Dragon Knight said lazily. “You called him ‘Spy Wolf’ and tried to kill him.”

His eyes widened in terror. Leon Hale was Fenrir? In fact, there was a Fenrir? Tibia was no fool. The other Gene Stealer Originals had been given codenames reminiscent of legends of old; Gnoll, Minos, Ursa, Trojan and now Fenrir. When he had been transformed, he hadn’t been given such a codename. He remained as ‘Tibia’ even if he had been injected with an Original Serum. More and more, he realised he was not the mastermind that he thought himself to be but just another pawn in the grand game the Gene Stealers were playing.

“I didn’t know.”

“That was the point. You weren’t. We gave you explicit instructions not to kill anyone.”

“And yet you seemed to go out of your way to use weapons that would have either inflicted grievous harm or outright killed them,” sighed Spider Queen. “The turrets on the shore? Those using ivory bullets I could understand but flamethrowers? Rocket launchers? Then that foolish ploy with the portal? You seriously would’ve killed them all had it not been for Legion. You would’ve killed one of our own. In fact, someone who is integral to our plans.”

Fenrir growled in agitation. “Wish I could’ve done more to be honest. You didn’t have to drop me into his trap, Aloysius.”

Dragon Knight shrugged absently. “Perhaps not but it was necessary to maintain the illusion of your cover.”

“If I didn’t know any better, I could’ve sworn you were trying to kill me.” Fenrir huffed and turned back to Tibia. “Point is, you fucked up, Shin.”

Salazar Shin straightened, shrugging off the grips of his henchmen. “Typical villains. Turning on one another at the slightest drop of a hat. And here I thought you were different. Here I thought we were all working towards a singular goal under Chimera. Now it turns out that I’m little more than your plaything.”

Spider Queen skulked forward, running her long, lithe hands along his tusks. “Don’t be like that. You had ever opportunity to follow our orders and be more than…” She frowned at him, her nose wrinkling in disgust. “… than this. You stink of failure.”

“Perhaps had you been forthright with your intentions, I would not have tried to overreach.”

“We were clear,” Dragon Knight chastised. “Yet here you are, blaming someone else for your failings again.” The black-scaled winged reptile shook his head, turning his back to Tibia. A portal appeared in front of the dragon. Similar shimmering, blue disks sprang up around them.

Spider Queen smiled at him, resting her angled chin on the back of her hand. “But like we said, despite this failure, we’re actually quite pleased.”

“And what exactly did I do to please you?” he spat.

“You tested out the versatility of the Generation 4s, for one,” she said, lifting a finger gracefully. “You proved that with ample training, even those mutated from an Original can become incredibly powerful and stand on their own, developing their own variations of the same superpower. I do believe those that were already supers or had powers previously are even merging their existing abilities with yours, forming incredible new combinations!” She nodded towards the members of Group Gamma. “And your stunt actually wiped out a large majority of our trail from Madagascar. Given the covert activities of Arsenal, they cannot go blaming us for they would have no proof of our presence. Perhaps they have captured some of our men but who will take the word of mere ‘henchmen’ when the Original is still missing?” Her dark lips twisted upward in a cruel smile. “Arsenal will have a difficult time explaining why they were in another nation illegally while causing widespread destruction.”

If there was anything about the world order, it was that it was extremely litigious. Tibia drew some satisfaction from the fact that he would have at least inflicted some legal pain upon Weapons Master.

“Is that all?” he scoffed. “Is that enough to spare me from your torment or oblivion?”

“We’re not heartless, darling,” she said, turning around and striding towards the portal meant for her. “You’re still a Gene Stealer but just one that needs to have their desires, their instincts tempered. We’re going to leave you in the capable hands of one of our own.”

Tibia snorted in Fenrir’s direction, angling his trunk at the enormous wolf. “What? This pup?”

Neither Dragon Knight nor Spider Queen replied as they strode through their portals wordlessly. The loud, watery rippling noise from their departure echoed across the chamber. Group Gamma were retreating as well. Fenrir strode towards Tibia with the pachyderm holding his chin high in defiance to the traitorous wolf.

“Piece of advice if you want to survive,” rumbled Leon Hale quietly. “Be honest with yourself. He’s going to dangle a carrot in front of your face. Man up and realise that you don’t want the carrot but the asshole holding it.”

Tibia’s jaw opened slightly in shock at Fenrir’s words. The enormous wolf strode past him, making for an extra-large portal.

“Wait!” he demanded. “Who are you talking about?”

A chill suddenly fell upon the chamber. A terrible feeling of being watched crept up his spine and he turned slowly. His throat immediately went dry at the sight of the dark, four-armed creature standing in front of him, saliva dripping from bloodied fangs and wild, black eyes feasting on his fear.

Wendigo took one step forward and that was enough to send Tibia crashing to his knees.

“You’re mine now, bitch.”