Creeping closer, I got a better look at the guards.
I recognized the meta immediately.
Leon.
He was from Sierra Leone—lanky, with his hair plaited neatly in cornrows that made his frown lines stand out more. He was sweating despite the air-conditioned lobby. Clearly, this was his first real fight. He paced around the desk facing the entrance, patrolling alongside a pudgy, middle-aged, balding man who looked only marginally better prepared.
His name tag read Reggie, and his thumbs were hooked into his wide belt, inches away from his gun. He'd clearly been told to expect trouble. The fact that he hadn't run told me no one had explained just how much of it was coming.
Then there was the sorcerer.
Fia.
She sat behind the guard desk, arms folded, eyes glued to the surveillance monitors.
I could almost smell the fear on her.
I targeted Reggie first, squeezing the trigger and rapidly swiveling to Leon and fired. Fia reacted before I could get my third shot off, flinging a knife my way—a knife I caught—before my limbs locked up, my body refusing to respond.
Fia managed to get her technique off. Maybe she was more competent than I gave her credit for.
Fia's eyes glowed with Cursed Energy. "He's here!" she screamed, her breath already ragged. "Earn your keep, Leon. Take him under!"
Leon's eyes met mine, one hand still clutching his injured neck. The other lit up, his pupils burning like miniature suns. I shattered Fia's technique before he could fire the beam, opening a portal into my Cursed Inventory and tanking the blast.
I threw up a barrier next, cutting us off from the rest of the building, while simultaneously flinging a low-powered wave of Expanse at Fia. It shredded her station, flinging her off her feet and slamming her hard against the edge of the barrier.
My eyes snapped back to Leon.
He lit up like a Christmas tree, screaming at the top of his lungs.
"Stay away from me!" he screamed in heavily accented English.
The barrier filled with searing light that melted through Inverse like fire through wax. My whip lashed out, wrapped in an Inverse Cloak to keep it from disintegrating, and tore through Leon's stomach with a sharp thunderclap.
His light flickered out as he folded in on himself, clutching his bleeding gut. I pulled the whip back and struck again, this time with less effort. It wrapped around Leon's neck, and I yanked him in, palming his solar plexus.
Bone cracked, and he coughed up blood.
A collar was fitted around his neck before he even hit the floor. I pumped two paralytic rounds into his chest and healed his stomach wound while keeping one eye on Fia, who had gotten back up—and transformed.
She fixed me with her warped new eyes, and surprisingly, they held me in place for a heartbeat. Long enough for her to close the distance and rake her claws across my neck.
They skittered across my bone armor, drawing a thin line of blood.
Blood I immediately seized control of.
I snapped out of her hold and flicked the blood straight into her eyes.
She screamed, clamping them shut and stumbling back. I surged forward, flooding my limbs with reinforcement. She swung wildly. I caught the offending arm, snapped the bone, and opened her up for a brutal follow-up that collapsed her throat and left her wheezing.
I knocked her into the tiled floor with a vicious straight, cracking it, then hammered into her face.
My blows descended like comets until her automatic healing flagged and she reverted, unconscious.
Her face was swollen when I stepped away. I tossed her a pity heal before lowering Curtain, coming face to face with Superboy's stunned expression.
"They're barely alive," he said.
"They're plenty alive," I shot back.
"You didn't even use a dart on Fia," he pointed out.
"Oh…" I admitted, then shrugged. "That's how I've always handled sorcerers with Blockbuster Venom flowing through them."
"Why don't you let me take the lead on the next one?" he suggested carefully.
"Sure," I said with a shrug. "Let's get a collar on her and stuff both of them into the bathroom."
M'GANN'S POV
"Update on Alpha Team?" Batman asked. He sat behind me in my invisible bioship, hovering just outside Alex Whitmore's building.
I hesitated. "Julius handled it alone, but he was rough on the meta and the sorcerer. Superboy says he beat Fia into a bloody pulp."
A moment of tense silence passed, our unease communicated without words—without telepathy.
"No casualties?" Wonder Woman asked.
I shook my head. Batman hummed softly. "Let's hope he keeps up that pattern. He has five more floors to go."
"And after?" I asked quietly. Our ceasefire only lasted twenty-four hours, and we were less than six hours from the deadline.
"We proceed as planned," Batman said smoothly. "Extract and plant evidence indicating this was a three-way fight."
"I think she means after the deadline passes," Black Canary said.
Batman opened his mouth, then closed it. I felt an ephemeral pressure settle over him, urging the truth to the surface.
"We default to our original plan," he said at last. "Incapacitate and detain."
"Even after the truce?" I pressed.
My reaction to discovering Julius's secret had been revulsion, but after touching his mind—feeling a fraction of the anger, pain, and hunger he kept bound tight—I realized something else.
He'd shown restraint. A frightening amount of it.
"Don't forget what you saw, M'gann," Robin said quietly behind me. The pale bodies of the people he'd poisoned reappeared in my mind eye. "I know you feel for him. I do too. But it's the right move."
I scrunched my face and nodded. Logically, I knew he was right. But in my gut, the terror lingered. The flashes of pain. The hunger. The hate. The grief.
I'd been tempted to look deeper—to explore the depths of his torment—but that would've breached the vow, and I'd already seen the beginnings of the consequences such a magical contract carried.
"He's going to see us coming," I said. "Julius is smarter than that. The emotional impressions I got… he's expecting a double cross. And we know he's not above desperate measures."
"Keep an eye on him," Batman said. "For now. And warn Superboy."
I nodded and reached out to Connor.
They were already on the second floor.
Connor was facing two metas. One was a telekinetic who could accelerate small objects to absurd speeds. The other could manipulate her hair, growing it with a thought and making it harder than steel.
Connor was struggling, and Julius looked perfectly content to sit back behind his barrier.
"You know I can step in whenever I want," Julius said smugly.
"No thanks," Connor grunted, batting a knife away from his eye. "You get the next set."
He shrugged. "Suit yourself."
"Taking turns?" I folded my arms. "Is now really the time?"
Connor hesitated—and nearly paid for it when a coil of blond hair wrapped around his leg and almost yanked him off his feet. The orbiting knives closed in, but he twisted free, flipping and leaping away.
Julius clapped.
"Not bad at all."
"It was either this or let Julius fight," Connor said, breathless. "And he doesn't do gentle."
"Yeah…" I said quietly. "About that…"
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Note: The comments have spoken. I'm doing an Invincible Gamer fic then.