Eva vs. Superior-1
Their fists were metronomes, keeping time to a rhythm only they could hear.
Pound. Pound. Pound.
Eva threw a punch. Superior-1 caught it. He threw one back. She ducked, came up inside his guard, and drove her fist into his ribs. He grunted—actually grunted—and answered with an elbow that would have shattered concrete.
She took it on her forearm, the bone cracking, healing instantly as Neuro-Kinetic Substrate flooded the injury. Her smile never wavered.
Dominance Sphere.
Purple fire erupted around them, a perfect sphere of absolute control. Inside, the world belonged to Eva. The flames obeyed her. The air itself seemed to bend to her will.
Superior-1 looked around, assessing, calculating. Then he smiled behind his mask.
"Impressive," he said.
They kept punching.
But now Eva had the advantage. Her strikes landed harder, faster, more precisely. Each blow drove Superior-1 back a step, then another, then a foot, then several feet. The flames wrapped around her fists, amplifying every impact, burning through his defenses.
She sent him flying—a solid hit to the chest that lifted him off his feet and sent him crashing through a wall of fire.
He emerged a moment later, brushing ash from his shoulders, his expression unreadable.
"Here's a lesson for you," he said calmly. "If you find yourself in someone else's Dominance Sphere..." He raised his hand. "Activate your own."
Dominance Sphere.
Grey fire erupted around him, clashing with Eva's purple. The two spheres met at their border, neither yielding, neither advancing—a stalemate of absolute wills.
Eva's eyes widened. Then she laughed—genuine, delighted, surprised.
"You can do that?"
"I can do many things." Superior-1 stepped forward, his sphere pressing against hers. "The question is whether you can match me."
They met in the middle, their spheres grinding against each other like tectonic plates. Purple fire met grey fire. Absolute control met absolute control.
Hahaha. Superior-1's laugh was warm, almost fatherly. "You're growing quickly, child."
Eva smiled—that wild, hungry smile—and punched him in the stomach.
He grunted, doubling over, then straightened and backhanded her across the cheek. Her head snapped to the side, but the smile didn't waver. If anything, it grew wider.
They fought like they'd been born for this. Like every moment of their lives had been leading to this dance of fire and fury.
Eva kicked him in the groin.
Superior-1 folded like a cheap suit, a sound escaping his modulator that was unmistakably a groan of agony. He straightened slowly, one hand pressed to the affected area, his mask somehow conveying absolute betrayal.
"Life lesson, Eva," he wheezed. "Never hit a man there. You won't find a husband if you do."
"HHHUUUUUH?" Eva's indignant squawk was lost in her own laughter as she punched him in the face.
They traded blows—face, chest, ribs, cheek—neither yielding, neither slowing. Eva's purple fire intensified, bleeding into her sphere until the whole thing shifted color, deepening from violet to something darker, richer, hers.
Superior-1's sphere flickered.
He was losing control.
They both felt it. Both knew it. And in that moment, something passed between them—respect, maybe, or the particular kinship of warriors who had finally found an equal.
Superior-1 made a decision.
He pushed.
His sphere expanded violently, shattering Eva's with a sound like breaking reality. The purple fire scattered, re-forming around her in a defensive shroud as she skidded back, gasping.
They stood across from each other, both breathing hard, both smiling.
"Only the beginning," Superior-1 said.
Eva's smile didn't waver. "I know."
---
Wolfen vs. Superior-2
Their weapons sang.
Umbralite scythe met energy blade in a continuous, shrieking duet. They moved through the burning ruins like ghosts, appearing here, then there, then fifty feet away, their combat carving new destruction into already shattered ground.
Sparks flew from every impact—thousands of them, painting the air with brief, brilliant light.
Wolfen was using the same trick he'd used on the twins. The sparks didn't fade. They accumulated, hovering, waiting.
Superior-2 was too focused on the fight to notice. She was good—better than good. Her blade found his defenses again and again, slipping past his guard to score hits on critical places. His ribs. His throat. The soft tissue behind his knee.
Each wound healed instantly—Pulse flooding through him, knitting flesh, sealing blood vessels, keeping him in the fight.
But each wound also taught him something. Her patterns. Her tells. The way she favored her left side when she struck, the slight hesitation before her most devastating attacks.
He returned the favor.
His scythe found her shoulder, her thigh, the space between her ribs where armor was thinnest. She healed too—slower than him, but still healing, still fighting.
The sparks continued to accumulate.
Finally, when the air was thick with them, Wolfen smiled.
"Time to light up."
The sparks ignited—thousands of tiny fireballs converging on Superior-2 from every angle. She dodged most, spinning and weaving through the barrage with inhuman grace. But enough hit. Enough burned.
She emerged from the cloud, smoke rising from her armor, her mask cracked, her eyes—visible now through the damage—burning with something that might have been respect.
Wolfen raised his scythe in a casual salute.
"Your turn."
---
Leo vs. Superior-3
This was the hardest fight.
Both of them were bloody now—Leo's biopolymer filaments sparking erratically, Superior-3's armor dented and smoking. They'd been at it for what felt like hours, trading blows that would have killed normal people, healing just fast enough to stay conscious.
Superior-3's fists were wreathed in energy—not lightning like Leo's, but something darker, denser, a compressed field of force that cratered everything it touched.
Leo's fists sparked with the wild, untamed electricity that had kept him alive for decades.
They were evenly matched. Perfectly, frustratingly, beautifully evenly matched.
Leo needed an edge.
"Dominance Sphere."
The world went electric.
Blue-white light erupted around them, a perfect sphere of crackling energy. Inside, Leo was absolute. Inside, the very air hummed with his power.
Superior-3 looked around, assessing. Then he smiled—a thin, dangerous expression behind his cracked mask.
"Interesting."
Leo raised his hands. Positive charges flooded the air—billions of ions, each one seeking ground, each one ready to discharge.
Superior-3's energy-wreathed fists flickered. The compressed force field around them destabilized, responding to the changing environment in ways its wielder couldn't control.
Leo punched.
The electricity in the sphere focused—every charge, every ion, every spark of power concentrated into a single devastating strike. It hit Superior-3 square in the chest, lifting him off his feet and hurling him through the sphere's boundary.
He crashed through a wall, through another, through a third, finally stopping in a pile of rubble fifty yards away.
The sphere deactivated.
Leo stood alone in the sudden silence, his chest heaving, his fists smoking, his body screaming for rest.
In the distance, Superior-3 stirred. Pushed himself up. Met Leo's eyes across the burning wreckage.
Neither moved. Neither attacked.
They had reached an understanding.
---
Jordan and the Waiting Game
A hand touched Maya's shoulder.
She spun, Omega flaring, ready to strike—
Jordan stood there, his expression calm, his katana held loosely at his side. He looked untouched by the chaos—no burns, no blood, no signs of battle.
"Go to the others," he said quietly. "I'll deal with her."
Maya blinked. "Where were you? We thought—"
"Watching. Waiting." His eyes moved past her, to where Superior-4 stood motionless amidst the carnage. "She wanted me. I'm giving her what she wants."
Maya followed his gaze, then nodded once. She turned and ran toward the others, leaving Jordan alone with the woman who had been waiting for him.
Superior-4's head tilted as he approached. Behind her mask, a smile was forming.
"Finally," she said. "Jordan. I was waiting for so long."
Jordan stopped ten feet away, his katana coming up in a ready stance.
"You wanted me," he said. "Now you have me."
The smile behind her mask widened.
"Let's see if you're worth the wait."