[b] Marconi Estate [/b] 

Bender was having a very bad day. His knee had already been severely cracked and when he reached out for Sixgun, his fingers had been broken in horrifying degrees by Sixgun's assault. The mob men watching almost all groaned in pain, Chunk cackling madly while Fontana chuckled, La Sombra seemed contemplative while the Witchfinder stared at Sixgun's brutal assault with a measure of admiration. Marconi grinned from ear to ear while Music stared coldly at the bloody spectacle. Sixgun's elbow came down again and again and Bender screamed out even louder than before as his knee broke. 

The giant had never felt such intense agony before and it made him mad. In a fury, he raised his other leg and kicked Sixgun full in the chest with all the strength he could muster in his muscles and positioning. Then he collapsed as the motion brought even more waves of pain through his tortured body. He gritted his teeth and snarled, hate fueling his eyes as he knew that he could not win fairly now. But then again he was a gangster. Since when did they fight fair? 

Fighting through the agony, his movements fueled by wrath, he reached into his jacket the motion slower than it should have been. Fontana went for his gun but Marconi reached an arm across his chest and stopped him grinning even wider. Bender fumbled for the gun and slowly pulled it out, only able to aim with one hand and mind almost rendered inoperable by pain as he tried to aim at Sixgun. 

[b] Fight Clu- Training Center [/b] 

Mike nodded solemnly and took Emanuel's hand in his shaking it strongly his grip already like steel despite being flesh, "A powered fight it is. We're going to see what the two of you can do. First one to stay down for the count loses. Since this may get interesting, we'll all be watching from out here." Mike walked over to Ocean Warrior and shook his hand. Then he stepped out of the ring and nodded at an instructor standing by. The small lithe brunette spread her hands and a clear white-tinted dome spread over the sparring ring, encasing Flashbolt and Ocean Warrior. 

Mike asked if each fighter was ready, raised his hand, and chopped swiftly down, shouting, "Go!" 

[b] Slaughterhouse [/b] 

St. Michael slashed the door into pieces with his sword and flew inside his corona of light filling up the entire space. Furious and Arachnid were right after him, ready for combat. Nothing happened. In their world whenever you kicked in a door something usually happened and it usually happened almost instantly. Nothing. There was no movement or even sound and as the trio looked around they could see the slaughterhouse was mostly empty. 

Furious kept his arms raised and said, "Ok. This isn't creepy at all." Arachnid snorted and casted her pistol around, "No kidding." St. Michael frowned, "We must proceed. I can sense an innocent life nearby." St. Michael kept advancing floating over the floor. Arachnid shrugged and followed Furious right after. The old abattoir was dark, light drifting through cobweb-crusted windows the air heavy with dust. Everything was coated in it and it was devoid of any signs of life. They all gripped their weapons tighter, even St. Michael. 

Then they heard the sobs. Furious snarled and ran off, St. Michael reaching out for him but then flying to catch off Arachnid firing a web to follow. Furious burst through another locked doorway and he saw a scene straight from a horror film. The space was tinted amber by equally spaced torches on the walls, strange and archaic and nightmarish scriblings all over the floor in a circle. There was a large wooden post in the middle of the room, a half-dozen or so robed figures around it. On it was a young boy or no more than six, face streaming with tears and his mouth still screaming though it came out hoarse and rough. The figures were chanting in low ominous tones that slowly rose higher and higher as one figure advanced on the boy with a knife. 

Furious kept charging and St. Michael felt very strange. He shouted, "Furious!" One of the robed figures turned and revealed and lifted a hand. Tendrils of lightning flew out and hit Furious locking his muscles and making him scream in pain. Arachnid fired off a pistol round striking the figure right in the head, scarlet blood and brain matter splattering the boy on the post who screamed even louder. St. Michael looked up and saw a circle drawn in what looked like blood above him, curving runes running around a scarlet pentagram. 

St. Michael yelled and drove his sword forward but it rebounded off of the air itself, flashing against a red barrier that appeared out of nowhere. He yelled in frustration and kept battering the barrier with no effect. Furious got off of the floor and he charged right into the midst of the figures his strength increasing by the second, he punched another robed figure and his head snapped back with a crunch. He got to the second one and punched him in the ribs while he lifted him in the air then throwing him on the ground and prepared to stomp his chest. The man yelled and then his colleagues fired off more lightning bolts at Furious all at once. 

The young hero was driven to his knees and his rage and pain induced scream climbed in volume. Arachnid fired off more rounds but one robed figure raised a hand and they bounced off another red barrier right in front of the three rogues. Arachnid ran forward and fired a web at the ceiling. She climbed to the top and jumped off the web landing behind the man who raised the barrier. He raised his hand again only to have it grabbed by Arachnid who twisted bringing him to his knees. The butt of her pistol slammed into his head and he went limp. She fired off a round and caught a figure, seemingly a woman judging from her more feminine grunt of pain, right in the chest. She sunk to the ground, blood seeping from her wound. 

The last man, the one with the knife, turned his attention on Arachnid and his other hand, shocking her and making her scream and fall to the ground wracked in agony. Furious snarled and picked up the body of the bleeding woman. He charged forward and hit the man right in the upper torso with his comrade's pained body, her pained groans stopping suddenly as the man fell to the floor with a grunt. The man raised his hand again to have Furious kick him breaking his arm and he screamed. The boy's screams continued as the second man Furious assaulted had risen to his feet advancing on the boy despite his wounds raising his own knife. 

He grabbed the boy by the hair and lifted his neck shouting in an incomprehensible tongue and raised his knife. He stopped short suddenly and gurgled knife falling to the floor as he sunk to the ground, the other man's knife buried in his back. Arachnid got up shaking her head and tried running to the boy, rapidly untying him, handing him off to Furious as she retrieved her gun. She fired off two web steams that cocooned the two surviving robed figures leaving only their faces open. Furious panted and said, "Not so bad." 

St. Michael kept battering away and Furious tried to smile, "It's alright Mikey we got the kid. We'll just break you out of that magic circle and be on our way. With the survivors in irons" St. Michael shook his head, "The circle wasn't just a trap for me. It was a signal." Furious's eyes widened and they ran towards the exit when suddenly the walls on three sides were lined with figures who appeared out of portals that seemed to just appear. They outnumbered them at least five to one, all garbed in differing costumes that just screamed villain wear. 

Another hooded figure, this one with robes of scarlet where the others had been plain brown stepped forward as they surrounded them. The figure's face could not be seen but not be seen but when it spoke it did so with a twisted feminine tilt, "We've been waiting for you."