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Joselyn held the base of her seat with a white-knuckled grip, not fully trusting the seatbelt to keep her in. She glanced over the inside of the metal shell that she was riding in, and saw that she wasn’t the only one who seemed nervous. Vickie was grabbing her seat almost the same way, though her brother was grinning and having fun.

“Here she comes again,” Ghost Boy exclaimed from his seat, pointing into the sky behind them.

Joselyn didn’t need to turn around to know who she’d see, though she did so anyway. Praxis was coming straight at them again. After they’d taken down Circuit Monger’s obelisk and escaped, Praxis had followed after them, and they’d been trying to dodge her ever since. Then, as Joselyn also expected, Invincible Woman came up from below, slamming into Praxis and delivering a series of punches before flying back.

“Can’t this thing go any faster?” Chris asked Counterweight, who was sitting in the ‘pilot’ seat up front.

“I’m giving her all she’s got,” Counterweight responded in a bad Scottish accent. “Besides, this damn thing doesn’t have any engines you know…”

“Do I have to get out and push?” Ghost Boy asked, giving a worried look behind them, obviously concerned about Invincible Woman…who was ironically enough…his son.

“How much longer until we get back?” Chris asked.

“Not much further now,” Joselyn answered, hoping that Invincible Woman could keep Praxis off them until they reached the other heroes.

Vickie looked behind them and announced, “If Praxis gets close enough, I can shut her down…”

“And make me blind,” Counterweight pointed out.

Joselyn shook her head. “By the time she got close enough for you to block out the control signal…it would be too late for us. She could still end up knocking us out of the air…”

Suddenly, Joselyn saw something from the corner of her eye and snapped around for a better look. A glowing purple ball was flying across the sky, going in the same direction that they were going. At first, she feared it might be some kind of attack, but quickly discounted that. It wasn’t coming towards them. In fact, it was going faster than they were and quickly left them behind.

A moment later, Joselyn’s attention was torn away from the purple glow and focused instead on Praxis. Her power was screaming a warning to her, that Praxis was coming at them from beneath.

“NOW VICKIE,” Joselyn screamed.

Vickie reacted immediately, just as Joselyn had hoped, and suddenly, everything went black. Joselyn was thankful that Vickie understood what she meant and had reacted so fast. It had just been in time.

Though Joselyn couldn’t see a thing, her powers told her that Vickie’s dark zone had worked. Praxis had been momentarily cut off from Circuit Monger, and when she froze up, gravity reclaimed her and she fell.

“You can drop it,” Joselyn said, and the darkness immediately vanished. “Thanks…”

Joselyn looked over the edge of the metal shell, just in time to see Invincible Woman sweep in to catch Praxis. However, right before Invincible Woman reached the falling heroine, Praxis recovered enough to punch her.

“Damn,” Joselyn growled, frustrated that Praxis had snapped out of it so quickly…and even more…that she was still under Circuit Monger’s control.

While Invincible Woman and Praxis exchanged blows, Counterweight announced, “We’re getting close. Just another couple minutes…”

“About time,” Ghost Boy said with a scowl. “We could use the reinforcements…”

“Yeah,” Joselyn agreed. “Definitely.”

Joselyn scowled in frustration as she continued to watch the aerial dogfight that had been occurring ever since they left Circuit Monger behind. She wanted to help Invincible Woman, but there wasn’t much she could do. Ghost Boy and Counterweight could both fly, but neither of them was fast or maneuverable enough to do much good in that dog fight.

Praxis made yet another attempt to come at them, but Invincible Woman intercepted her and they went into another flurry of punches and dodges. Unfortunately, Invincible Woman couldn’t keep Praxis’ attention for long, because as soon as the infected hero saw an opportunity, she tried to break off and come at the shell again.

“She’s getting tired,” Ghost Boy announced. From his worried expression, they didn’t need to ask which ‘she’ he meant.

‘We’re here,” Joselyn exclaimed in relief, seeing the encampment in the distance.

However, as they moved closer, Joselyn saw that there was some kind of fight going on, though they were still too far away to make out many details. She saw a flash of green light, then a flash of blue light. Following that, there was a loud BOOM, which they could hear, even from this distance.

“What the hell is going on?” Counterweight demanded.

“And what the hell is that?” Vickie blurted out as she pointed towards the camp.

Joselyn didn’t have to ask what Vickie had been referring to, because her eyes immediately locked onto to the massive creature her best friend was gesturing to. The creature was shaped like a human woman, but she had scaly red skin, horns, claws, and of course, she was over thirty feet tall.

“Loki,” Joselyn blurted out before she even consciously realized what her powers were telling her. Her eyes went wide in realization. “Holy shit. That’s Loki…”

“No way,” Counterweight exclaimed with a look of stunned disbelief.

Though Joselyn didn’t know why Loki would transform herself into that monster, she had no doubt that it was bad news for all the heroes at the basecamp. When Loki caused trouble, she always went all out.

“I don’t see her staff,” Joselyn said, clearly noting that Loki was completely naked and didn’t seem to be holding anything in her hands.

Mega quickly grew until she was the same size as Loki, then she attacked the villainess. But to Joselyn’s surprise, Loki just let out a roar and punched at Mega, who staggered back from the blow. A moment later, Loki threw herself at Mega, grabbed the heroine, and then threw her.

As they got closer, Joselyn was surprise to realize that Loki wasn’t the only threat that he heroes were fighting. She saw Force floating in the air…though only for a few seconds before a massive blue monster leapt at the former hero and punched him. Force was sent flying back a long distance, where he crashed into a nearby house.

“Grendel,” Joselyn gasped, confused about where Grendel had come from or why he was attacking Force.

Force burst out of the now destroyed house and flew up into the air again. He fired a massive concussion blast towards the heroes, though the Face and her uncle Leon got in the way and created glowing walls of energy to block it.

“Force, Loki, and Grendel,” Joselyn whispered, suddenly feeling like they might be in over their heads. Then she saw finally notice the other two villains. Circuit Monger and the Scepter were present as well. “You’ve got to be kidding me…”

“Circuit Monger,” Ghost Boy exclaimed as he noticed the metal woman as well. “How did she get here before us?”

“Loki,” Joselyn answered, ‘knowing’ that Loki was responsible, though not the circumstances behind it. Most of the time, her sixth sense tended to be a little short on details.

The Scepter stood beside a large black panther, and she was surrounded by several heroes, which she was keeping away from her with a combination of her telekinesis and her feline helper. Diamond was suddenly thrown back, only to be caught by her teammate Radiant. Zero Kay threw a ball of freezing energy towards the villain, but the ball suddenly changed direction and went straight towards Splash. However, Slash sent a wall of water up in front of her, and as soon as the ball it the water, it instantly froze.

Circuit Monger was a distance away, floating in the air and dealing with several of her own opponents. She fired a blast off energy at Nike, who dodged the attack and then charged at Circuit Monger. Circuit Monger snapped around and backhanded the hero, moving faster than Nike had expected.

“I didn’t think we’d get another chance at that metal bitch so soon,” Counterweight said with a grin. “Time for you guys to get out…”

“What do you mean?” Chris asked with a confused look.

Vickie just rolled her eyes. “She’s going to ram her with this thing…”

Chris’ eyes widened, then he nodded. “I can carry one of you with me…” He had a worried expression.

“I’ve got you,” Ghost Boy said, grabbing hold of Vickie. “I can’t carry very much with me, but I can get you down safely…”

Joselyn looked to Chris and blushed a little. When he put his arms around her and picked her up, she felt a surge of nervousness and excitement. However, when Chris jumped over the edge of the shell with her a moment later, she screamed.

“Don’t worry,” Chris assured her as they fell. He held her tightly, making her feel a little safer, even if they’d jumped out of a perfectly good flying shell, without a parachute between them. “I’ve got you.”

Joselyn closed her eyes, blurting out, “Why couldn’t I have inherited my dad’s flying power?”

It didn’t take long before they hit the ground, though there was no impact or sudden stop. One second they were falling, and the next, Chris was standing on the ground, with her in his arms. He’d absorbed all the kinetic energy, which meant that his powers were fully charged and ready for the fight.

“Just like a roller coaster,” Joselyn weakly joked. She did NOT want to do that again. Then again, as she considered the fact that Chris was still holding her, she amended that and decided that his part wasn’t so bad at all.

“It looks like we’ve got a fight to join,” Chris announced with a grin while setting Joselyn down.

“Definitely,” Joselyn agreed, forming a rapier of glowing pink energy in one hand and a glowing pink dagger in the other.

However, instead of charging into the nearby battle, she looked up to where Counterweight was positioning the large metal shell well above Circuit Monger’s head. A moment later, she released the shell, which immediately dropped right onto Circuit Monger, smashing into the metal woman and driving her into the ground in a mass of crushed metal.

“That takes care of tin britches,” Vickie announced as she and Ghost Boy settled down beside them.

Joselyn looked back up to where Counterweight floated in the air for a moment, right before she flew off to the side in order to get out of the way. She settled back down to the ground well away from them, obviously thinking about the fact that she was still injured and not at her best for a fight.

“Time for the rest of us to pick our targets too,” Joselyn announced, taking another glance around the battle and trying to decide which villain she’d be most useful against.

Force was the only male among the group, which meant that he was the only one she could use her mind control on. However, not only was he fully aware of her abilities and likely to kill her before she got close, he was also flying around out of her reach and in the middle of a fight with Grendel. There was no way she wanted to get in the middle of that fight.

Joselyn glanced to her energy sword, then to the massive monstrosity that Loki had become. She frowned and shook her head, knowing that she wouldn’t be of much use against Loki either.

Circuit Monger was buried under a mass of twisted metal, but Joselyn was sure that she wasn’t really down either, merely inconvenienced. And unfortunately, Circuit Monger was another of the villains that she wouldn’t be very effective against.

“The Scepter it is,” Joselyn mused, glancing towards the last villain before telling the others, “Circuit Monger will probably be up and at it again in just a minute or two…”

Then, just as Joselyn finished saying this, the twisted remains of the metal shell exploded and Circuit Monger flew up into the air. She looked like she was scratched up and perhaps even had a small dent or two, but otherwise looked undamaged.

“I hate it when you’re right,” Vickie muttered.

In the distance, Loki let out another loud howl, then lunged forward, stomping onto Joselyn’s aunt Gina. Aunt Gina was invulnerable, but even so, Joselyn gasped, not sure her aunt could survive that kind of attack.

For a moment, Joselyn wanted to rush over and check on her aunt, but her powers assured her that Aunt Gina was all right. At least a dozen heroes were attacking Loki, distracting her from the temporarily fallen heroine, though they didn’t seem to be doing much damage.

“Let’s move,” Joselyn exclaimed, turning and running towards the Scepter.

The Scepter was standing back, holding out her scepter towards Ryan. Ryan lived up to his codename of Shuriken because a dozen throwing starts flew around his body in an orbit, even the villain’s power lifted him up into the air.

“I’m going to snap every bone in your body,” the Scepter exclaimed. “I will make an example of you to all these fools…”

“Eat spinning blade,” Ryan responded, sending all of his shuriken flying straight at the Scepter.

A moment later, he suddenly dropped to the ground as she turned her attention to defending herself. Nearly every one of the throwing starts hit an invisible wall and came to a sudden stop. Only one of the shuriken got through, hitting the Scepter’s armor on the side and leaving a deep gouge as it passed by.

The large black panther leapt at Ryan with its claws extended, but it was hit with a blast of water that sent it flying back, courtesy of Splash. Surge responded by firing a blast of electricity at the creature, who yowled in pain, then quickly shook it off.

“Time to take this bitch down,” Chris exclaimed, running straight at the Scepter.

Joselyn gulped, realizing that Chris was getting cocky because he was fully charged up. A moment later, he was captured in the Scepter’s power, and she sent him flying straight up into the air before releasing him. Chris immediately came falling back to the ground, where he hit hard. But to the Scepter’s obvious surprise, he just laughed.

“Thanks for charging me up,” Chris announced with a grin.

The panther leapt at Chris, who backhanded the large cat. The panther was sent flying back from the blow, a hit that should have shattered half its bones. However, when the cat hit the ground, it immediately leapt at Vickie.

“I don’t think so,” Joselyn exclaimed, throwing her energy blade into the cat’s side and then impaling it with her sword. The black cat snarled and turned on her. Joselyn formed a glowing shield, using up as much of her energy as she could. It was barely large enough to block the cat before she was knocked back. “Bad kitty…” Then with a sudden realization that had been granted by her sixth sense, Joselyn exclaimed, “The cat is the source of her powers…”

“In that case,” Mystik announced, floating in the air and holding out her staff. “It’s time to put the cat out.”

Mystik made a grand sweeping gesture with her staff, and it began to glow. The panther was suddenly engulfed by glowing sparkles, which caused the creature to let out a horrified shriek of fear and pain. It desperately tried to leap away, but seemed to be trapped within the sparkles.

“EBON,” the Scepter cried out, sounding more outraged than worried. However, she was already dealing with Ryan, Splash, and Surge…using her power to keep all three of them away from her.

Suddenly, there was a burst of light, and the panther was gone. At the same instant, Ryan, Splash and Surge, who were all being held back, staggered forward as the Scepter’s power vanished.

“Regardless of what you did to Ebon,” the Scepter announced in an arrogant tone, holding out her scepter as though she could destroy them all with a single sweep of the item. “I will crush you all…” However, Joselyn’s power told her that without the cat…without Ebon…the Scepter was powerless.

Just then, Joselyn saw her cousin Angie rushing up behind the Scepter. A moment later, Angle grabbed hold of the villainess, who immediately began to scream in pain.

Joselyn winced, almost feeling sorry for the Scepter. Almost. Her cousin Angie was codenamed Agony for a good reason. Not only did she have a powerful healing ability, she also had an empathic power that let her weaponized her own pain. She could store up every bit of pain she felt, then transfer it to someone else…just like she was doing to the Scepter.

The Scepter collapsed to the ground unconscious, completely overwhelmed by all of Angie’s stored pain. Angie stepped back with a grim look on her face, just as she had every time she used that power.

“The Scepter is down,” Joselyn said in relief. Then she looked to Mystik, who had removed the source of the Scepter’s powers. “And I think she’s out of the game for good.”

Just as Joselyn was letting out a sigh of relief at this, she caught sight of something from the corner of her eye that caused her to snap around in time to see Grendel falling from the sky with Force held firmly in his large claws. As she watched, Grendel came down and slammed Force straight into the ground. There was a BOOM as they hit, and a moment later, Grendel stood triumphantly over an unmoving Force.

“No way,” Joselyn blurted out.

Grendel let out a horrendous roar, then looked back down at Force with a snarl. Force was still moving, and was even trying to sit up, but it was clear that he was out of action. In spite of his force field, he’d taken a lot of damage. Blood poured down from his broken nose and his arm was bent at an unnatural angel. And from the look of things, Grendel was about to finish the job.

“NO,” a woman called out. “You can’t kill him…”

That drew Joselyn’s attention to the speaker, a massive woman who had blue skin, a lot of muscles, and enormous breasts. She looked a female version of Grendel.

“Grendel,” Vickie gulped from beside Joselyn, her eyes wide in stunned disbelief. “He just beat the crap out of Force…”

“And there’s a girl Grendel,” Chris added a moment later.

“Grendel’s Mother,” Joselyn stated, still confused by Grendel’s presence, not to mention that of his mother.

“He’s already defeated,” Grendel’s Mother told the monster. Then she pointed up at Loki and snarled, “Now we fight her…”

Grendel let out a deep growl, then without warning, he grabbed Force and threw him right at Loki. Force hit Loki’s chest hard, though Loki barely seemed to notice it. Force bounced off and then hit the ground, with the last of his force field finally fading away.

A blue clad woman ran towards the fallen Force, and a moment later, Catalyst bent down beside him. “And stay down,” Catalyst ordered as she took away Force’s powers, though by this point, it was no longer really necessary.

“Two down,” Joselyn announced, looking to Loki and then Circuit Monger. “Two more to go.”