Julie slowly looked around the camp, frowning with worry as she watched all the other heroes preparing to leave. Now that the barrier was gone, they could finally do what they’d all come here to do...save Baltimore…or what was left of it.

Most of the heroes were planning to go after Nevermore, but several smaller groups were forming to deal with the other villains. After all, as powerful and dangerous as Nevermore was, she wasn’t the only monster running loose.

“Damn,” Julie muttered in frustration.

Julie wished that she could go in with the assault force, though admittedly, a part of her was thankful that she wouldn’t have to. She’d already done her part for the mission and had exhausted herself as a result. Because of that, she was going to be left behind with the injured. Unfortunately, she knew that this wouldn’t be easy for her, especially when the rest of her team would be going in.

“Now it’s our turn,” Nike announced, her eyes gleaming with eagerness to prove herself.

“Now you know how the rest of us felt when you were the one going in,” Zero Kay teased Julie, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Still, I wish you were coming with.”

“Yeah,” Chrome agreed with a nod. “We’re down half our team right now…”

Julie chuckled at that, then gestured at all the other heroes nearby. “I’m sure you’ll make do. And who knows, you might find Glamour Girl and Deadbeat…”

“I hope so,” Zero Kay said. “You know how effective her powers were against Nevermore’s monsters the last time…”

“Be careful out there,” Julie reminded them. “You remember how nasty Nevermore was, and I can assure you, Loki is no joke either…”

Once Julie’s teammates went to the gathering crowd, she looked around again, settling her attention on Counterweight. Counterweight, like her, had powers that encouraged other people to do her fighting for her, but unlike Julie, she was actually going on this mission. Counterweight was talking to Kaboom, who was injured and staying behind, but a few seconds later, she went to join up with the Miracle Men, who were currently down Ms. Miracle.

“About time things got moving,” Warchild loudly exclaimed while several other people near him made similar comments.

Suddenly, the Face called out, his voice loud enough to be heard over all the noise. “EVERYONE,” he exclaimed. “YOUR ATTENTION!” With those words, most of the talking stopped, and nearly everyone turned to look at the Face.

“What is it?” the White Knight asked with a grim expression, which reminded Julie that his daughter still hadn’t returned from her Circuit Monger mission.

“I just received a message from Witch Girl,” the Face called out, loud enough so most could hear him. “She said that Force, Loki, and the Scepter are all on their way here…”

Everyone instantly tensed at that and there were several loud gasps before Warchild announced, “I guess that will save us the trouble of hunting them down…”

“How soon?” Icarus demanded. “What’s the ETA?”

Before the Face could answer, a flash of red crashed down from the sky and struck a canopy that had been set up to provide shade while the heroes waited. There was a loud BOOM, and a moment later, the canopy was gone. In its place was a burnt and smoldering hole, with a woman standing right in the center.

“What the hell?” someone blurted out.

Julie stared at this woman, with what felt like a lump of lead in her guts. “SHE’S LOKI,” she quickly yelled out a warning.

“I thought Loki was a guy,” Quartz exclaimed, obviously not having paid much attention to the reports of those who’d returned.

At the same time, Shiver called out, “Get her…”

Loki stood up straight and held her staff up, announcing, “Keep them away from me…”

The moment those words left her lips, the wind suddenly began to blow, growing stronger and stronger until Julie was thrown back from the force of it. Even as she began to tumble backwards, being blown away from Loki, she saw that she wasn’t the only one.

“Kill th…,” Loki started to command her staff, only to have Marvel fly into her. Loki was thrown back from the impact, though her armor seemed to have protected her from the damage as she quickly got back to her feet. “I’m gonna kill all you fuckin losers,” she exclaimed with a sneer. “Just like I just did to those bitches…”

The wind was still blowing hard and Julie was lying flat on the ground, using her hands to cover her head for protection. Most of the heroes were too busy dealing with the wind to focus on Loki, but not all. Neon had created a glowing blue force field, which he used to protect himself and several members of Knight Force who were close to him. Mega had grown to twenty feet tall and was now crouched down on her knees, providing a wind-break for several other heroes, including Shiver, who fired an arrow straight at Loki.

“No,” Loki exclaimed as she leapt aside, right before the arrow hit where she’d been standing. The ground was covered in a sheet of ice crystals, courtesy of Shiver’s power. Unfortunately, the ground had been struck instead of the villainess. Loki quickly scrambled back to her feet and announced, “I killed those fuckers in the Seven, and I just killed a bunch more of you losers heroes… Now, I’m gonna kill the rest of you cock suckers too…”

“You’re going to pay for each and every one of those deaths,” the White Knight announced, floating up into the air. A sword made of glowing white energy appeared in his hands, though his focus never left Loki. “Now.”

Loki stared at the White Knight with a sneer on her lips, but suddenly, the Face stepped forward and fired a blast of golden energy at Loki from his mask. For a moment, all the blue in the Face’s costumed suddenly turned grey, though it quickly returned to its normal color.

“Protect me,” Loki called out. An instant later, the Face’s energy blast hit an invisible wall and was reflected, hitting Chrome and sending him flying back. “Destroy him...,” Loki added, and ball of green flame shot out from her staff, straight at the White Knight. The White Knight formed a white energy shield and blocked the attack.

By this time, the wind had died down enough that Julie was able to get back to her feet, which meant that it was no longer keeping most of the heroes pinned down. They were all turning their attention to Loki, who suddenly looked worried.

“The Seven were my friends,” the White Knight told Loki. “Drop your staff and surrender now, and we might go easy on you…” From the look on his face, it was clear that he hoped Loki would choose the hard way.

“Fuck you,” Loki spat out.

Diamond shook her head as she wryly commented, “Such eloquence…”

“Don’t give her a chance to do anything,” Julie yelled out to the other heroes, knowing that they couldn’t underestimate Loki. She’d seen what that lunatic could do with her own eyes.

Loki looked around the gathering of heroes, looking nervous for a moment, but then she began to smirk. “Give me an army,” she commanded her staff.

“No,” Julie groaned, knowing that things were about to get bad.

A thick purple smoke began to pour out of Loki’s staff, swirling around her and then spreading out in different directions. The smoke began to take human shape and solidify, forming into an exact duplicate of Loki…and then another one. Two Loki’s became three, then four, and mere seconds later…three dozen.

Most of the heroes were so surprised by what was happening that they just watched while the copies formed. However, Warchild flew up into the air and fired a blast of energy straight at the original Loki. A moment later, there was a charred and melted spot where Loki had been standing, along with several wisps of purple smoke.

The rest of the Loki’s started laughing. “It won’t be that easy,” one of the Lokis answered. And just when Julie thought that this might be the real Loki, another of them added, “We’re going to kill all you fuckin hypocrites…”

In an instant, most of the heroes jumped into action. Nearly everyone picked a Loki and focused on them, though Julie stood back, watching the fight with a worried grimace. There was absolutely no telling which of them was the real Loki, or if any of them actually was. This worried her, as did the fact that Witch Girl had warned of Force and the Scepter as well.

“Channel,” Julie heard someone calling her name.

Julie looked around and saw Lady Hexx, who was standing back away from the fight, and had formed several large stone walls. She’d created one in front of the medical tent, to protect the injured people within, though she was currently standing beside another bulwark, one that Denise, Will, and the now depowered and male Mystik, were hiding behind. Lady Hexx gestured for her to come over and take cover as well. After hesitating a moment, Julie nodded and started in that direction.

“Damn,” Julie spat out, frustrating at having to go seek cover while nearly everyone else was fighting. Even Kaboom, who had an arm in a sling, was charging straight at a Loki.

Julie had only made it about halfway to Lady Hexx’s cover, when all of the Lokis yelled out, “DESTROY THEM ALL.”

Those words sent a chill down Julie’s spine. She had absolutely no idea what was about to happen, only that it would be very bad. She’d seen enough of Loki to know that very well. Then she looked up into the sky above them, where a glowing ball of red flames was forming and growing large and larger, looking almost like some kind of miniature sun that was about to be dropped on them.

“No,” Julie gasped.

Without even pausing to consider the fact that she’d already collapsed in exhaustion from overusing her powers, Julie silently called out for help. Several voices answered from the dark, though she couldn’t feel them enough to know who they were or what kind of help they could offer. Still, they offered help…and hope, so she stretched her will out towards one of them, and a moment later, felt the spirit flow up into her body.

As the spirit took control, Julie’s body shimmered and her familiar costume changed into a sequined purple tuxedo. Without any hesitation, the spirit spun the golden staff that had just appeared in her hands, then pointed it up at the ball of fire, which was just beginning to fall.

“ALAKAZAM,” the spirit cried out, making a sweeping gesture with the staff. “Begone.” An instant later, the ball of fire suddenly vanished.

“It’s gone,” Julie blurted out inside of her own head.

“Of course,” the spirit responded, radiating a sense of amusement. “Making things disappear has always been one of my specialties, but you should see some of my other tricks…”

“Channel,” Zero Kay called out, running towards them. “You shouldn’t push yourself so soon…”

“Not to worry,” the spirit told Zero Kay. “I won’t be here long…”

Zero Kay hesitated a moment, looking them over before admitting, “Whatever you did, it was pretty impressive.” However, she quickly added, “But that is a rather…flashy outfit…even for a hero…”

The spirit burst out laughing at that. “I’m no here. I’m a stage magician…”

“WHAT?” Zero Kay blurted out in surprise.

She gave a sweeping bow as she announced, “I am the Astonishing Anabelle, back for a one time only encore performance…”

“Anabelle?” a voice called out. “Is that you?”

Anabelle and Julie turned and saw a young man running towards them. Julie recognized him as the guy Mystik had turned into, though Anabelle gasped in surprise as she recognized him too.

“Caleb?” Anabelle blurted out. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here…”

“Wait,” Zero Kay gasped, looking back and forth between them. “You two have the same staff…”

Anabelle held up her staff, though her eyes went to the identical one that Caleb was holding. “Actually, this isn’t the real one. I’m not sure how it works, but I think it’s some kind of shadow…”

“I’m glad to see you again,” Caleb said, though he gestured towards a Loki, who was firing a ball of fire towards Target. “But this isn’t a good time…”

“Of course, you’re right,” Anabelle admitted. “I came for a reason…” Then she paused to give Caleb a speculative look. “I assume the staff is recharging…”

“Yeah,” Caleb admitted with a grimace. “I’m going to be useless for a week…”

“Or maybe not,” Anabelle responded with a grin, using her staff to gesture to his. Her staff glowed for a moment, then his staff floated out of his hand and hung in the air.

“What are you doing?” Julie demanded. “You need to deal with Loki…”

“Trust me,” Anabelle silently told her. “I’m bringing more force to bear on the problem…”

“What did you do?” Caleb asked curiously.

“A particularly nice trick,” Anabelle explained. “I used to do it in my shows occasionally, but not too frequently. This one trick adds nearly a week of recharge time on its own. You see, while minutes pass for us, several weeks are passing for the staff…”

“What?” Caleb blurted out in surprise. “We can do that?”

“It looks more impressive when I use it on fruit,” Anabelle admitted, “but the staff should be fully recharged again, right about…now.”

The staff suddenly dropped out of the air, though Caleb quickly caught it before it hit the ground. He held it up, and an instant later, Mystik was standing where Caleb had been.

“I’m all charged up and ready to go,” Mystik announced while Zero Kay stared at her in surprise.

“I have one use left,” Anabelle said, gesturing towards the fight. “I’d better make it a good one…”

Julie was currently only a passenger within her own body, but she still managed to stare at Mystik. Whenever she called on a spirit for help, there was always a chance that they would know someone involved in the current situation, and that this connection was usually what motivated the spirit to offer their help. However, Julie still didn’t get to arrange reunions between old friends very often, and she’d just done so three times in a row. The odds of this happening seemed pretty low, but with this many heroes gathered in one place, she imagined that the odds of a reunion would be much greater than normal. But still…

“Loki’s staff has similar powers to ours,” Mystik told Anabelle. “But she has less control and she’s not limited to three uses.”

Anabelle nodded at that. “Understood…”

Now that they were focused on the fight again, Julie saw that there were only seven Lokis left. Then as she watched, Kaboom flew straight at one of them, even though one of her arms was still in a sling. Kaboom used her good arm to punch that Loki, who vanished into a puff of purple smoke.

“I think I know how to get rid of the rest of the copies,” Anabelle announced as she raised her staff.

Before Anabelle could do anything, a scream of pain filled the air as Nike dropped from the air and slammed into the ground. Julie cried out for her teammate, though the only one who could hear her was Anabelle. Without hesitation, Anabelle teleported to Nike’s side, giving Julie a better look at her friend. Nike’s left arm was missing, nearly up to her shoulder, along with most of her left wing.

“Help her,” Julie pleaded to Anabelle, knowing that if her current spirit really did have the same powers as Mystik, then she’d be able to do so.

“This is the rest of my power,” Anabelle said as she gestured with her staff.

A golden glow covered the staff and then spread to Nike, who was desperately holding her bleeding stump and screaming. Suddenly, Nike let out a gasp and pulled her hand away from the stump. Not only had the bleeding stopped, but the flesh was now covered with a new layer of skin. Then, right before Julie’s eyes, the arm began to regrow. The flesh stretched out, until mere seconds later, the arm looked completely whole and undamaged.

“It’s back,” Nike exclaimed, staring at her arm in stunned disbelief. She opened and closed her hand several times, making sure it worked. Then she slowly got back to her feet and stretched her wings, revealing that her damaged wing had been repaired as well. “Thank you…”

“I’m glad I could help,” Anabelle said, turning to look back over the fight…and at Mystik who had just appeared a few feet way. “I’ve already used all my power…”

“That was quick,” Mystik responded with a sigh. “But I know how that works…”

“Then, I guess its goodbye again,” Anabelle told Mystik with a wry smile. “I’ll see you again on the other side.” She winked and added, “Just not too soon…” A moment later, Anabelle withdrew back to the darkness and Julie once again seized control of her body.

“Damn,” Julie muttered, staggering for a moment until Nike caught her. After taking a deep breath, she said, “I’m good now. Anabelle wasn’t here long enough wipe me out again, but it was getting close.”

“Be careful,” Nike told her, right before leaping into the air and returning to the fight.

Julie looked around again, just in time to see the Face using some kind of magical shield to block an attack from Loki, while Mega rushed in to step on the villainess. That Loki vanished in a puff of purple smoke, leaving only one Loki left. That was the real one.

“This is for the Seven,” Shiver called out, right before firing one of his arrows. It struck Loki in the chest, and an instant later, Loki vanished into a puff of smoke.

“Then where’s the real one,” Julie gasped, only to see Loki suddenly reappear in a swirl of purple smoke, right on the outskirts of where the fighting had been occurring.

Julie stared at Loki, feeling worried about what the villainess might do next. The truth was, with Loki’s power, she had absolutely no idea…and neither did Loki. All Julie knew, was that whatever Loki unleashed, it would probably be violent and nasty. So far, the heroes had been lucky in this fight, but that wouldn’t last forever. Sooner or later, Loki would throw something at them that they couldn’t protect against, and it would probably be devastating.

Suddenly, the ground shook with a loud BOOM, and Julie was knocked to the ground. She quickly scrambled back to her feet, only to see that a lot of the other heroes had been knocked over as well, and that Loki looked just as surprised as she was. Then, she looked the other direction and saw that a small crater had formed, and the man who’d formed it upon landing, was getting to his feet.

“NOW YOU FACE ME,” Force yelled as he stood up straight, radiating a sense of arrogance.

“Gladly,” Chrome announced, charging straight at Force, along with several heroes.

Chrome’s body was covered with a layer of the silvery metal that gave him his name, and he’d used it to form large blades from each of his arms. Julie had seen those blades cut through steel, though when they slammed into Force, the former hero didn’t even flinch. Instead, he sneered down at Chrome and his ineffective attack, then backhanded him. There was an explosion of raw force that sent Chrome flying back…along with Nike, Kaboom, and Quartz, who’d all been trying to attack as well.

“NO,” Will screamed out, drawing Julie’s attention to the fact that Chrome had just slammed into Denise. Denise was sprawled out on the ground with one of her legs bent at an unnatural angle. The doctor was screaming in pain, while her nephew stood a short distance away, staring at her with an expression of dread.

“Oh shit, I’m sorry,” Chrome exclaimed as he got back to his feet and saw Denise. A moment later, he blurted out, “What’s happening to you…?”

“Do you know what you’ve done?” Will furiously demanded of Chrome. “It’s too late…”

“Too late...?” Julie started to ask, though she paused when she saw that Denise’s skin was all turning blue. “What the…”

A moment later, Denise’s bent leg straightened out on its own. She turned over, getting to her hands and knees, then letting out another howl, but instead of one of pain, it sounded more like that of a wild animal. Will turned and ran.

Denise began to grow, straining her clothes until the seams burst, though that didn’t stop her. Nearly everyone was now watching Denise, including Force, who’d paused in his posturing long enough to do so. However, no one approached her.

The doctor continued to grow in size and musculature, though her body changed in other ways as well. Bony spikes burst out from beneath her skin, forming on her shoulders, elbows, and all down her spine. She let out a growl that was low, deep, and utterly frightening.

Finally, the changes seemed to stop and the now massive figure stood up, revealing that the creature Denise had transformed into was definitely male. She…he was massive, standing twelve feet tall, with bulging muscles, as well as the bony spines and vicious looking claws on his hands and feet. His skin was dark blue, and he had long and shaggy dark blue hair. His face, stretched out into a bit of a snout, revealing a mouth full of sharp looking teeth.

“No,” Julie gasped in horror as she stared into the monster’s bestial face. There was no intelligence in those eyes, only a berserker rage. And as terrifying as all that was, what scared Julie far more was the fact that she recognized this creature. “Grendel…”