As Battle Beast mercilessly pummeled Immortal, War Woman, and Glory, the battlefield outside descended into chaos. Gunfire rang out in staccato bursts, and deep booms shook the air as GDA reinforcements clashed violently with the Order.
BOOM!
Rex exploded into action, hurling a cluster bomb that detonated amid a group of Order enforcers. Screams cut through the smoke, those who failed to scatter were vaporized in an instant.
From above, Kate dove from a hovering Verti-bird, summoning a swarm of twenty clones mid-air. They landed in perfect sync, immediately charging into the fray with focused fury. At the same time, Eve hovered gracefully overhead, sculpting shields from raw energy to block incoming fire and reinforce their lines.
DOOH!
DOOH!
DOOH!
The sharp ring of bullets pinging off Eve's barriers echoed like hammer blows, until a sudden streak of electric blue tore across the field. A bolt of lightning danced through dozens of enemy combatants before resolving into a singular, flamboyant figure.
Santana skidded to a halt, cloak billowing behind him as bodies crumpled in his wake.
"Damn, I'm good," he muttered, brushing imaginary dust from his shoulder.
Terror rippled through the remaining Order forces, and some dropped their weapons outright, retreating in frantic disarray.
And then, amid the cacophony, he stepped into the light.
Paul.
He emerged from an armored transport with a cold expression and unleashed a storm of clones, each one moving with unnerving coordination and acrobatic grace. They tore into the battlefield, ruthless and efficient.
Kate froze when she saw him.
"No... Paul?"
Her voice was swallowed by the chaos, but when their eyes finally locked, she launched herself forward, her own clone battalion spreading out to intercept.
They clashed.
"Brother, stop this!" she cried, locking blades with one of his doubles.
Paul's main body surged forward, catching her off guard. With a sharp pivot, he used both feet to shove her backward. She hit the ground hard just as a stray rocket screamed past overhead, exploding behind them in a wall of fire.
Kate rolled to her feet, eyes wide. "Paul, listen to me!"
But he was already gone, vanished into the tide of war.
Meanwhile, one of the Order thugs who'd fired the rocket backed away, hands trembling. Paul's clones turned to him in eerie unison, their gazes like cold fire.
"W-wait… It was an accident! I didn't!"
Too late.
The swarm descended.
They tackled him to the ground, fists and knees hammering down like jackhammers. Blood painted the concrete in wide arcs.
"NO... NO PLEASE... I'M SO..."
CRACK.
The sickening snap of his neck silenced the battlefield for just a moment. His body twitched once… then went still.
Paul's main body stepped forward through the ring of clones, his expression unreadable as he stared down at the corpse.
Kate, watching from afar, felt her breath catch in her throat.
This wasn't the brother she knew.
BOOOOOOM!
A fresh explosion rocked the battlefield, this one erupting from within the GDA compound itself. Dust and debris spilled from the shattered entrance like a wound torn open. The momentary stillness Kate had slipped into snapped like a thread as her attention jerked to the chaos ahead. One of her clones, stationed higher on the battlefield, relayed the image instantly:
War Woman, bloodied, armor cracked, face half-covered in red, was being held aloft by her severed, stubbed arm like a ragdoll.
"IS THIS ALL THAT YOU EARTHLINGS HAVE?!" Battle Beast's voice thundered across the battlefield, dripping with disdain. "I CAME HERE FOR THE STRONGEST, AND AM MET WITH... THIS?"
His lip curled into a sneer as he lifted the battered Amazon higher. "HOW DISAPPOINTING."
CRACK!
His knee slammed into her ribs, and with a powerful spin, he followed with a devastating kick to her abdomen.
WHOOOOSH!
Before War Woman could hit the wall behind her, a radiant pink construct shaped like a massive hand materialized midair. It cradled her with surprising gentleness, absorbing the momentum before setting her down carefully.
"T...Thanks, Eve..." War Woman wheezed, clutching her ribs.
Eve floated down beside her, brows furrowed as she scanned the extent of her injuries. "You shouldn't even be standing…"
War Woman's hand opened.
FWIP!
Her signature mace flew through the air like a loyal hound, slapping into her palm with a heavy thud. But Eve's eyes narrowed at the sight of crimson running down the handle, dripping onto the ground.
"Is that..?" Eve started, her voice tightening.
Drip.
Drip.
The blood falling from the weapon punctuated the quiet between explosions, too steady to ignore.
War Woman met Eve's gaze and forced a bitter smile. "Don't worry... I've had worse."
Behind them, Battle Beast cracked his neck, his eyes already searching for the next challenge.
Suddenly, Battle Beast's monstrous yellow eyes locked onto Rex, who stood atop an ever-growing mound of Paul clones. With a sinister smile, the lion-like alien leapt into the air with feline grace.
Rex had just obliterated a Paul clone with a blast when the sky above him darkened.
"Huh..?" he muttered in confusion, then shouted, "HUH!?"
BOOOOOOOM!
In a desperate bid to save himself, Rex hurled the bulk of his explosive payload to his right and let the force propel him away when, out of nowhere...
FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Battle Beast crashed down from the heavens like a living meteor, scattering chunks of Paul clones in every direction. Blood and gore splattered the surrounding blocks as Rex barely managed to evade the destruction.
On the verge of losing control of his bladder, Rex froze as Battle Beast turned his deadly focus back on him. But before the alien warrior could strike, his attention was drawn to the GDA facility. An enraged Immortal came flying out with terrifying speed.
"DIIEEEE!"
Immortal's bloodcurdling scream echoed through the chaos as he appeared beside Battle Beast, fists raised high in seething fury.
Battle Beast smiled and accepted the attack, and both of them disappeared into the distance.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Machine gun speed punches continuously range out as Battle Beast was pushed backwards, a thin ribbon of blood leaking from his smiling face as he reveled in the combat, but a disappointed sigh still escaped his mouth before raising his arms and smashing downwards as hard as he could.
CRACKOOOOOOM!
Immortal's eyes went blank, and saliva foamed from his mouth as Battle Beast smashed into his back.
The sheer force behind the attack caused his internal organs to turn into pink mist before exploding outside of his body, which itself was smashed into the ground, forming a deep crater in the center of the battlefield, which forced all others to the side.
A bruised, bloody, and beaten War Woman rushed towards Battle Beast, flanked by Glory, who had a murderous glint in her eyes.
"HAAAA!"
War Woman swung downward with her mace while Glory slid under to attack his abdomen.
Battle Beast managed to block the mace but was cut by the blades, forming thin red streaks on the alien's fur.
'Hmmm... you have potential, but..." he thrust his foot into her stomach.
CRACK!
"It is simply not enough!"
She heard those words as a clawed footprint appeared on her stomach and tore into her flesh while the force behind it forced her into a backwards spin.
BOOM!
She landed roughly among a group of parked cars with her head drooped and a line of blood leaking from her lips.
Battle Beast prepared to leap towards her position, but the moment he launched himself, shadowy tendrils coiled tightly around his arms and abdomen.
"Tsk... PEST!" he growled.
He yanked on the tendrils with immense force, dragging Conor, who was desperately trying to restrain him, hurtling through the air. Yet when Battle Beast reached out to seize Conor by the throat, the man dissolved into shadows, vanishing before his very eyes.
Battle Beast blinked, momentarily disoriented.
In a flash, Conor reappeared beside Glory, pulling her into his shadowy grasp before she could react. Moments later, she materialized next to War Woman, safe and sound.
Meanwhile, the GDA agents and heroes, bolstered by the protective barriers conjured by Atom Eve, were gaining the upper hand over their Order counterparts. But despite the tide turning, Battle Beast's exhilaration only grew.
"MORE... GIVE ME MORE!" he bellowed, his voice echoing with unbridled fury, as his battle lust consumed him entirely.
Shadowy spikes erupted from the ground, aiming to pierce his powerful frame, but they shattered upon impact, scattering into fragments of dark energy that dissipated into the air.
Battle Beast blurred into motion, claws poised to strike Conor, but War Woman intercepted with her shield.
SNNG!
The sound echoed as deep grooves were gouged into her shield by the ferocious assault. With a devastating kick, Battle Beast sent her flying, leaving a claw-shaped imprint at the very center of the battered metal.
Turning his blazing, slit-like eyes toward Conor, Battle Beast lunged forward, claws outstretched. Just as the deadly swipe was about to land, Immortal, newly reassembled after being torn apart, appeared in its path, gripping the claws and halting the strike in a display of raw power.
"Back again? You know how this ends, don't you?" Battle Beast's words, though laced with apparent disdain, were recognized by Immortal, who had witnessed centuries of history and held unparalleled knowledge as a warrior, as a genuine, albeit twisted, compliment.
The moment, however, was fleeting.
BOOOM!
A clawed fist slammed into Immortal's stomach, forcing him to cough up blood and spit.
Ignoring the searing pain coursing through him, Immortal retaliated with an uppercut to Battle Beast's jaw.
CRACK!
Battle Beast's head snapped upward from the force of the blow, but just as quickly returned to deliver a surprising headbutt to the man's face.
CRACK!
The sound of Immortal's nose breaking was heard through the sound of the impact, but Battle Beast grabbed Immortal by his arm and did not allow him to be sent flying before proceeding to pummel the man into the ground.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
Immortal was delirious after the third punch, only managing to hold himself up with sheer grit and will.
Shadow tendrils formed on mass and wrapped his arm, preventing him from fully extending to complete the fourth punch.
The shadow tendrils snapped apart in bursts of dark mist as Battle Beast flexed and broke free.
"TSK… PEST," he growled again, eyes narrowing at Conor.
Without hesitation, he lunged.
Conor barely had time to dive into a pool of shadow, vanishing milliseconds before the beast's claws raked through the space he'd occupied.
BOOM!
The resulting shockwave from Battle Beast's missed strike shattered the ground, flinging dirt, glass, and metal outward like shrapnel.
Eve reinforced her barriers just in time, shielding a cluster of wounded GDA agents behind her.
From above, Kate's remaining clones were faltering. One by one, they were being overwhelmed by Paul's duplicates, acrobatic, vicious, and utterly synchronized. The battlefield had become a blur of fists, energy blasts, and collapsing concrete.
Glory stood protectively in front of War Woman, who was struggling to stand again. Her breathing was ragged, her armor cracked, blood streaming down her side.
"Don't... bother," War Woman coughed. "Help... the others."
Glory gritted her teeth, eyes flicking to Battle Beast and then to the rising tide of Paul clones.
"Hell with that," she muttered.
She bolted forward, blades spinning in her hand, slashing down three clones that had broken through the perimeter. Behind her, Kate blinked, drenched in sweat, hair plastered to her forehead, face twisted in disbelief.
Paul's main body had just emerged again, calmly walking through the destruction. His duplicates moved in sync around him, like parts of the same unbroken machine.
Kate launched herself toward him.
"PAUL!"
He didn't stop walking.
She tackled one of his doubles and slammed her knee into its ribs, it disappeared in a puff of smoke, only for two more to grab her from behind.
"STOP!" she screamed.
Paul's real self finally turned.
"There's no stopping this," he said, voice cold. "You should've stayed out of it."
Then, he raised his hand.
A signal.
Dozens of his clones converged on her like sharks scenting blood.
BOOM!
One of her duplicates tackled her out of the swarm's path, but not fast enough. Kate hit the ground hard, shoulder dislocating with a sickening pop, and her vision swam with stars.
From the side, Rex, dirt-streaked and bleeding, hurled a series of magnetic grenades into the swarm of Paul's. The resulting explosions bought a few seconds of breathing room, but not enough.
"Someone kill that guy already!" Rex bellowed, ducking behind the wreckage of a burned-out GDA drone.
"I'M TRYING," Conor snapped as he reappeared near Kate, dragging her toward cover. "He's splitting faster than I can bind them!"
Paul's swarm pushed forward again, relentlessly.
In the distance, Battle Beast tore through another GDA strike team like they were paper. Their screams were snuffed out by the sound of bones breaking and blood splattering against metal walls.
Atom Eve dropped from the sky like a meteor, hands glowing, creating barriers, repulsors, and redirecting debris midair to buy time. She was everywhere, holding the battlefield together by sheer will.
But even she was running out of steam.
Glory stumbled as a Paul clone sliced across her thigh. Another aimed for her head, only for a GDA energy rifle to blast it into ash. The tide was rising again, and fast.
Then—
BOOOOOOM!