“I don’t think so,” Will exclaimed as a raven soldier charged towards her.

The soldier was large and muscular, standing seven feet tall and wielding a massive war hammer that would have been too heavy for a normal person to even pick up, much less swing as easily as he did. For most people, this warrior would have looked incredibly intimidating, but not for her.

“Come on shorty,” Will taunted the raven, who actually seemed short to her. Then again, since she was eight feet tall, pretty much everyone seemed short to her. “Give it your best shot.”

Will didn’t know if the raven understood English since he hadn’t said a word, but he took up her up on her invitation and swung his massive hammer right at her. He caught her in the side with enough force to make her stagger, but not hard enough to do any real damage.

“My turn,” Will said, right before she punched the raven as hard as she could. He was thrown back from the impact, his face smashed in and his neck bent at an odd angel. He landed in the middle of a crowd of other ravens, so she couldn’t see if he got back up or not.

Will snarled, feeling excited and disgusted at the same time. She loved the fact that for once, she could finally cut loose without fear of hurting anyone, but at the same time, her brutal actions also bothered her.

As another raven soldier came forward, she opened her mouth and belched out a burst of green energy, which blasted a hole right through his chest. He collapsed to the ground, though he was already beginning to heal. Even an attack like that wasn’t enough to take one of these things down for good.

Will glanced to the side, where Grendel was charging through a dozen of the raven soldiers, smashing them and letting out a deafening roar as he flung the bodies away. Will smiled faintly at the sight, happy that Grendel was able to do some good for once, and knowing that Aunt Denise would agree with him.

“Grendel,” She called out, pointing in the direction where Baron Nevermore and the Queen of Ravens watched the battle. “Destroy them.”

Grendel roared again, then belched out his own burst of green energy, destroying a group of enemy soldiers. As soon as he’d done that, he charged forward, tossing others out of the way as he followed her directions and went for their leaders.

Will started to follow after Grendel, only to find another raven had appeared in front of her. This one was tall, even taller than she was. He was nearly nine feet tall, though he didn’t have her muscles or bulk. Instead, he was skinny…unbelievably so.

“You look like a damn stick figure,” Will blurted out in surprise. The man in front of her did look almost like a stick figure come to life. He had extremely long and thin limbs and torso, was dressed in a black suit of a very old fashioned style, and he wore a black and white masquerade style mask over the tope part of his face.

The stick figure man spoke, but it was in a language Will didn’t know. He sneered and swung at her, using his clawed hands to lash out. She reached up to block, but his claws tore through the back of her arm, making her yelp in pain and surprise.

“Damn,” she snarled.

She was tough enough that most of her opponents hadn’t been able to hurt her very much, and fortunately, she healed pretty quickly. It was also fortunate that she was strong. VERY strong. In fact, even with all the gathered heroes, she was probably the second strongest person there. The only one stronger was Grendel himself.

“Get out of my way,” Will demanded, swinging at the stick figure man, but he moved faster than she did and was able to dodge her punch. He immediately slashed out with his claws again, using his long reach to tear along her arm and side. “I’m going to break you…”

A moment later, Grendel reached Baron Nevermore and gave a loud roar as he leapt at the villain. However, Baron Nevermore held up his hand and a giant snake made of smoke suddenly appeared between them. The snake threw itself at Grendel and began to wrap around him. To Will’s surprise, Grendel didn’t seem to strong enough to break the snake’s grip.

“You are an interesting beast,” Baron Nevermore commented. “Perhaps I should tame you…”

The Queen of Ravens stood back, watching Baron Nevermore and Grendel, though she didn’t lift a finger to help. Instead, she took several steps away, as if to give Baron Nevermore more room to work.

Suddenly, a burst of golden energy came out of the sky and hit the smoke snake, dispersing it enough for Grendel to break free. “I never thought I’d have to rescue Grendel,” Ms. Miracle exclaimed as she came down, her attention locked on Baron Nevermore. “Now you finally pay…” And with that, she flew straight at the villain.

Will wanted to watch that fight, or better yet, to join in. However, she still had to deal with the stick figure man, who was slashing at her wildly. With each attack, claws tore through Will’s skin, though she couldn’t land a punch. The skinny monster was too fast.

“Stand still,” Will spat out, glaring at her opponent in frustration since she couldn’t even lay a finger on him.

Then, with a snarl, she took a deep breath and belched out a blast of green energy. The stick figure man couldn’t dodge that and yelled in pain as his clothes and body burned. For a moment, Will felt guilty for doing that to another person, until she reminded herself that the stick figure man was not just the bad guy, but that he was trying to help take over the world. That eased her guilt, even as she swung at the raven and finally connected with a cracking sound. The long limbed creature collapsed to the ground, broken and twitching. However, Will knew that he wouldn’t say that way for long, so gave him a swift kick and sent the body flying.

“And these guys never stop coming,” Will grumbled to herself, seeing that another raven soldier was already trying to rush forward to fill the empty space.

In spite of the fact that she was facing an army of monsters, Will wasn’t afraid. After all, she was a monster herself, and had even been named after a famous one. She stretched her body and tensed her muscles, savoring how big, strong, and powerful she was at the moment. She loved that feeling. She loved being Grendel’s Mother…and even being a girl, not that she’d admit that part to anyone else. Of course, she probably would have felt differently if it wasn’t for the fact that she could change back to being a guy whenever she wanted.

“A weak and boring guy,” she reminded herself, right before punching a raven soldier and smashing in his metal armor. She snarled, trying to look scary and intimidating, though that didn’t seem to do much to her opponents. Fortunately, her clawed fists were better at expressing her opinions of them. “Now come to mama…”

With that, Will looked around the nearby ravens, most of whom were backing off and watching her warily, obviously trying to decide how they could take her down. That gave her a few seconds to catch her breath and look around.

Lightning Force had arrived to join the fight a short time ago, and unlike most of those who were already present, they were still relatively fresh and energetic. They stuck close to each other, working as a team, whereas most of the teams present seemed to have become separated.

Hardshell hovered overhead, firing energy blasts at any soldiers who tried to approach Dr. Power or Mindseye. Syphon took care of any of the ravens who managed to avoid Hardshell, acting as a living shield for the rest of his team. And to Will’s amusement, since Syphon was a solid black figure, he could have easily been mistaken as one of the ravens…a fact which seemed to confuse some of their enemies.

Of course, Lightning Force weren’t the only reinforcements to have recently arrived. A short time ago, the government team Sanction had suddenly appeared, immediately launching a full scale attack on the ravens. Several of them seemed to be heavily armed, and they were using their weapons as well as their powers, and probably would have been an even greater help if the raven soldiers didn’t keep getting back to their feet.

Suddenly, the White Knight flew over the heroes and yelled, “We have reinforcements incoming… Everyone, try to fall back and give them room…”

“More reinforcements?” Will mused, looking around and wondering who could be joining them this time. The Protectorate? They could definitely use the help of some more heavy hitters like Vigil and Eclipse.

Then, Will saw the reinforcements, or at least, what he assumed were the reinforcements. And in spite of her previous hopes, this wasn’t the Protectorate…not unless the hero group was arriving in a half dozen black helicopters. As they got closer, she could barely make out the logo on the side of the one closest to her, and she recognized it as belonging to DAD…the Developed Affairs Department.

Will began to back away, retreating towards the camp. She glanced towards Grendel, who was still fighting Baron Nevermore. “Grendel,” she called out. “Come…”

Before Will could finish commanding Grendel to pull back, the helicopters opened fire, raining down a heavy storm of gunfire into the middle of the ravens, along with several missiles. Will’s eyes shot wide in surprise as she saw the massive wave of destruction that tore through the enemy ranks.

Suddenly, what appeared to be a giant black squid appeared in the air, wrapped around one of the helicopters. The monster entangled the vehicle and it’s rotors, so it fell to the ground where it was smashed into a ruined mess. A burst of green energy hit another helicopter, which exploded, sending shrapnel into a third and damaging that one. Only three helicopters remained, and they were quickly under attack as well. A black cloud formed around one, and a moment later, chunks of rusted metal rained down from it.

“No way,” Will gasped, shocked at how quickly the helicopters had been destroyed. Before she knew it, only a single helicopter remained, and flew away…just barely…and leaving a trail of smoke behind it.

Will stared at the battlefield, and what was left of the decimated raven army. Most of the ravens had been torn to shreds, leaving only a tiny fraction of their total numbers behind. Even though the ravens had destroyed the helicopters, they’d still suffered unbelievable losses. For the first time since the battle started, Will began to grin.

“This was just what we needed,” Will started to say, only to pause as she saw movement among the field of corpses.

To Will’s stunned disbelief, bodies began to stand up. A bullet riddled samurai held a dismembered arm to his shoulder, where it reattached. He wiggled his fingers experimentally, then drew a long and wicked looking katana. A few feet away, what appeared to be a cowboy with a long black duster that was riddled full of holes, absently brushed himself off. And then there was the stick figure man, who seemed almost completely unharmed.

“No,” Will whispered, staring in horror as every one of the ravens got back up, acting as though the helicopter attack had been nothing more than an annoyance. She gulped as she saw all the glowing red eyes, each of which was filled with a dark and twisted malevolence…and many with a cruel amusement. “Impossible…”

For the first time since this battle had started, Will felt afraid…almost terrified. As powerful as she was, at that moment, she actually felt helpless. After all, what could she…what could any of them do against any army that could simply shrug off that kind of damage and keep coming?

--------------------

Daphne hovered in the air, though her attention was focused on the ground and the mass of death and destruction that had been left by the DAD helicopters. Half the raven army had been destroyed, torn to shreds from the heavy gunfire. The attack had been so brutal, that even Grendel had stopped to watch. However, as brutal and destructive as the attack had been, it seemed that the effects were only temporary. The raven soldiers who’d been torn to shreds, were already back on their feet and ready to continue fighting.

With a grimace, and more than a little worry, Daphne turned her attention back to the enemy that she’d been fighting before the helicopter attack. Baron Nevermore. To her disappointment, he hadn’t been touched by the attack, nor had the Queen of Ravens who was just a short distance away, watching the entire scene with an unreadable expression. Instead, Baron Nevermore stood there, along with several creatures that he’d summoned.

A large snake that seemed to be made of black smoke, was coiled and looked as though it was ready to strike at a moment’s notice. Daphne wouldn’t have thought the snake very dangerous, except that she’d previously seen it holding Grendel in place. Anything that could stop Grendel, even for a few seconds, was not something to be taken lightly.

While Daphne had been distracted by the attack, two new creatures had appeared beside Baron Nevermore. She didn’t know if they were raven soldiers, or some of those other creatures that he liked to summon. One of them looked like the Grim Reaper, with long black hooded robes and a wicked looking scythe, though his face was covered with a red skull mask. The other one was female, and didn’t quite look alive. Instead, she looked like a freshly raised zombie, one who’d only been dead and decaying for a couple days.

“This isn’t going to be easy,” Daphne told herself, but of course, dealing with Baron Nevermore was never easy. It was even more difficult for her, since she couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that he’d murdered her mother.

Just then, Discharge, the leader of Sanction called out, “The National Guard is mobilizing. If we don’t get this contained soon, then we’re likely to be facing a large scale strike…”

Daphne paused to glance back at Discharge feeling a cold chill go down her spine at those words. She wasn’t completely sure what Discharge meant by ‘large scale strike’, but she suddenly had an image of Baltimore vanishing in a massive mushroom cloud. And the truly frightening thing was, even if they did go to that extreme, Daphne was no longer certain that would be enough to destroy the ravens.

“They’re like cockroaches,” she muttered bitterly, glaring at Baron Nevermore and remembering how she’d once knocked him through a portal into Hell. If he could come back from that, even a nuke might not be enough to take him out for good. “But I’m sure as hell going to try. For my mom…”

Daphne flew straight at Baron Nevermore, pulling her arm back so she could punch him with every ounce of her considerable strength. But a wall of shimmering purple light appeared between them, and she slammed right into it and was thrown back. She yelped in pain, still hurting from her earlier injuries, and a moment later, she hit the ground where she yelped again.

The red masked grim reaper leapt at Daphne, swinging his scythe overhead so that the blade would hit her as he landed. Daphne saw it coming, but couldn’t react fast enough. But then, a massive blue figure suddenly appeared and grabbed the reaper into a powerful bear hug. Grendel roared menacingly as he crushed the reaper, and mere seconds later, he dropped the broken figure at his feet and stomped on it.

“I was saved…by Grendel,” Daphne gasped in stunned disbelief.

Grendel let out a deafening roar and didn’t even look at Daphne before charging at Baron Nevermore. The black smoke snake sprang at the blue monster, who opened his mouth and fired a blast of green energy. It ripped through the smoke monster, seeming to hurt it, though not nearly enough since it was still there. However, it backed up a little and hissed at Grendel.

Baron Nevermore glared at her with his glowing red eyes and an arrogant expression. He held out his hands, and a ball of dark purple energy formed in each palm, cracking and snapping as if eager to do something.

“You are a persistent foe,” Baron Nevermore announced with a sneer. However, there almost seemed to be a faint note of approval in his voice, as if he might actually respect her persistence a little. “But you shall die, along with the rest of your kind. This world now belongs to the Queen of Ravens…”

Daphne stood up and braced herself to deal Baron Nevermore’s attack, whatever form it would take this time. He raised his hands to unleash his power, but then suddenly paused with a look of surprise on his face. It quickly turned into a deep scowl, and he looked away from Daphne, as though she was no longer his immediate concern.

“Someone is interfering with the portal, my queen,” Baron Nevermore told the Queen of Ravens.

“Yes,” she agreed with a deep scowl of her own. “I feel it…” Her eyes narrowed and she suddenly looked far more threatening. “This will NOT be allowed. I require that portal to call forth the rest of my forces…”

Baron Nevermore bowed. “Then I shall secure the portal and deal with whomever dared to interfere…”

“No,” the Queen of Ravens stated, fixing Baron Nevermore with a grim look. “I shall deal with the portal myself, and bring forth more soldiers.” She gestured around the battlefield and added, “Finish this battle, my consort. Destroy these champions and prove beyond any doubt that you are powerful enough to sire my heir.”

“As you command,” Baron Nevermore responded, giving her another bow. Daphne saw a faint look of satisfaction cross his face.

With that, the Queen of Ravens turned and was suddenly obscured by a cloud of swirling black feathers. And though Daphne had heard no orders being given, a dozen of the nearest raven soldiers all leapt up into the sky, transforming into ravens as they did so. Mere seconds later, a small flock of birds flew off towards the center of Baltimore, led by the largest raven that Daphne had ever seen, one that was the size of a small plane.

Baron Nevermore turned his malevolent gaze back to Daphne, sneering as he prepared to attack. However, before he could do so, Grendel roared and charged straight at him, knocking the zombie girl out of the way and then belching out a blast of green energy. Daphne smiled faintly at the sight, and since she wasn’t about to be outdone by Grendel, she charged forward to deal with her greatest enemy once and for all.