William, Immortal, War Woman, and Glory charged at Battle Beast, their very presence exuding ferocious and lethal intent.
Battle Beast skillfully deflected the strikes from William and Glory's swords, but the relentless assault from Immortal and War Woman proved unavoidable. A devastating uppercut from Immortal hurled him high into the air with immense force.
Without hesitation, William and Immortal pursued.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Struggling against his inability to fly, Battle Beast was relentlessly attacked from every direction by the two adversaries. He became a living pinball in the Chicago sky, battered mercilessly, until a crushing hammer fist from Immortal sent him plummeting back to Earth.
RUMBLE!
William aimed a gravity-enhanced axe kick directly at Battle Beast's head, but in a flash of movement, the lion-like alien grabbed William's leg mid-strike. Without wasting a moment, he leaped toward Immortal, who still hovered in the air, dragging the helpless William along like a weapon.
Immortal had only a brief moment to raise his guard before Battle Beast swung, using William's body as a bludgeon.
CRACK!
Immortal both felt and heard the sickening snap of bones breaking, his arms shattering and puncturing the skin in multiple places.
"Why is his body so hard?" Immortal thought as he was sent flying backward, his shattered arms hanging uselessly.
William's body wasn't much better off. The savage impact had not only shattered his ribs, but the explosive force also turned the shards into deadly shrapnel, embedding deep into his organs and muscles.
He tried to breathe, but only torrents of hot blood poured from his mouth. His transformation was escalating, twisting his features into something unholy, his jaw unhinged slightly, revealing a maw of razor-sharp, burning fangs, and his eyes had gone completely white, the irises erased by raw, seething power.
Across the battlefield, War Woman and Glory lunged in from both flanks, determined to press the attack before Battle Beast could recover.
The lion-like alien snarled, raising William's limp, half-conscious body once more to use as a bludgeon—
But then… something strange happened.
A patch of living shadow on William's side flickered, pulsed, and two pistols emerged from the darkness, black and silver, unnervingly smooth. The twin weapons floated for only a second before merging together into a massive hand cannon, its barrel grotesquely wide and humming with unstable energy.
A distorted voice echoed from within the darkness:
"My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
Battle Beast blinked, confused for the first time in the entire battle.
But the moment of hesitation cost him.
The swirling shadows surrounding the cannon began to twist and churn, collapsing in on themselves like a black hole. Dark purple waves pulsed from its core, rippling across the battlefield with a pressure that made even Glory falter mid-swing. Cracks spiderwebbed along the cannon's barrel, as if it were barely containing the demonic force brewing inside.
The ground trembled.
The sky darkened.
And William, still bleeding, still broken, began to smile.
BOOOOM!
An explosive shot that came out in a wave rather than a bolt of shadows, the wave alternated between black and purple as Battle Beast and William were sent flying, but because Battle Beast was holding onto him, he found himself unable to escape the beam as he was inevitably smashed into the ground and forced into a spin in which he sent William flying into a wall.
CRASH!
William's bloodied and mangled corpse fell onto the wreckage of a truck, and a fearful Kate rushed to his aid, completely unconcerned with the danger nearby.
Conor felt a chill on his neck as a pair of deep yellow eyes flashed in his direction from within the smoking crater where Battle Beast fell.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Conor saw Battle Beast lunge towards him with his Claws extended menacingly towards his face and the mace in his other hand mid-swing.
"I won't be able to fall into the shadows before he reaches me, and my weapons won't stop him, I cannot even slow him down..." As Conor was about to completely give up to the inevitable doom coming his way, a silhouette flew in from the distance at several times the speed of sound and smashed into Battle Beast.
Marie appeared fully decked out in her super suit and managed to land a powerful kick to the side of Battle Beast's face, causing the beast to go flying in the opposite direction entirely.
Battle Beast slammed into the pavement like a meteor, skidding through concrete and steel as the GDA perimeter crumbled around him. He finally came to a halt after carving a jagged trench across the street, smoke and dust billowing from the crater he'd made.
He rose slowly, blood dripping from his mouth, muscles twitching with anticipation.
Then his eyes narrowed.
A sharp boom cracked the air.
Marie arrived like a missile, no glow, no theatrics, just a sonic boom and a blur of motion. She slammed down between Conor and the smoking crater, the sheer force of her landing kicking up a wave of dust and debris. Cracks spiderwebbed from her boots across the pavement.
Her cape fluttered behind her. Her fists clenched.
Muscles taut, face unreadable, she stared Battle Beast down with a cold, warrior's focus that said everything.
Behind her, Conor stood frozen for half a beat, then reached out both arms. Shadows pulsed from beneath his feet like living veins, spreading across the fractured pavement and hardening into spiked tendrils.
Marie didn't look back. "You good?"
Conor exhaled shakily. "Not remotely."
BOOM!
Battle Beast exploded from the crater, roaring with savage glee, mace raised high.
Marie didn't hesitate.
She launched upward with a concussive blast of air, meeting him mid-sky in a collision that shattered the sound barrier. Her punch collided with his face, snapping his head to the side with enough force to send blood flying in a wide arc.
She pivoted midair, grabbed him by the arm, and slammed her knee into his gut, then spun and hurled him into a half-collapsed GDA surveillance tower.
The impact split the tower in half.
But Battle Beast wasn't down for long.
He surged out of the rubble, snatching her by the leg mid-dash and whipping her into the pavement below.
CRACK!
She tore through the concrete, her body carving a shallow crater. But before he could press the advantage, something hit him like a battering ram—
Immortal.
Reinforced by Atom Eve's pink constructs wrapping around his arms and shoulders, Immortal collided with Battle Beast in midair, sending both of them crashing into the street below.
Fists flew. Bone cracked.
The war wasn't over, but Battle Beast seemed to slowly become overwhelmed by the numerical advantage.
Battle Beast landed in a crouch, claws gouging deep furrows in the pavement, blood dripping steadily from his mouth and nose. His chest heaved with exertion, not from exhaustion, but from exhilaration. This was war, and he was born for it.
But even he could see the tides turning.
Marie was already on him again, a blur of motion delivering punishing blows to his ribs and spine, each hit forcing him a step back. War Woman soared in from above, slamming her warhammer down with devastating force. Battle Beast caught it, but his footing slipped.
BOOM!
A pink battering ram, Atom Eve's construct, slammed into his side, and before he could recover, Conor's shadow spears burst from below, aiming for the soft joints between his muscle-plated armor and bones.
"Enough!" Battle Beast roared, spinning wildly with his mace, forcing them to back off for a moment. But the reprieve was short-lived.
Glory's blade tore across his side. Immortal crashed into him with a shoulder tackle that sent both of them skidding across the concrete. Marie was already there when he stopped, stomping down hard on his ankle with a crunch and driving a knee into his temple.
Battle Beast reeled.
He was still standing.
But for the first time in the entire fight, he was on the defensive.
His body bled from a dozen fresh wounds. His breath came harder now. The grin was still there, but it twitched at the edges, bordering on a snarl.
"You all think you've won just because you can swarm me?" he growled, rising unsteadily. "You think numbers make you warriors?"
"We think not dying does," Marie snapped, her eyes narrowing.
BOOM!
Another pink construct slammed down like a hammer. Another flash of shadow spears. A blur of Glory's blade. William's body, barely held together, armor formed from crystalized blood and unholy regeneration, charged again.
They drove Battle Beast backward, one blow at a time. The air was thick with smoke, steam, and blood.
And then—
Time froze.
Not literally, but everything stopped for a moment.
The smoke parted.
The very atmosphere changed, the sky dimmed unnaturally, and a new figure stepped casually through the smoke as if entering a ballroom.
He was a tall, pale, and unshakably calm, wearing a perfectly fitted emerald green suit with a black undershirt. His hair was slicked back, a vibrant, unnatural green that shimmered faintly like it was never still. Pale eyes like ice behind tinted glasses glanced around the battlefield, dispassionate and unhurried.
He looked like he didn't belong here. Like none of this chaos had anything to do with him.
And yet, the moment he arrived, everyone stopped.
Even Battle Beast.
The warrior's smile faded slightly, not in fear, but in unfamiliarity. Confusion.
The man in the green suit didn't raise his voice. He didn't posture or threaten.
He simply walked forward… until he stood directly in front of Battle Beast.
The alien bared his teeth, unsure of what to make of this sudden presence.
"You don't belong here," he snarled.
The green-haired man tilted his head. "Neither do you."
And then, in one smooth motion, he reached out and pressed two fingers gently to Battle Beast's chest.
WHOOOOM.
A pulse of green light exploded outward, silent and blinding, rippling across the battlefield in a perfect ring. Everyone shielded their eyes. The air itself seemed to fold inward on the spot where they stood.
Battle Beast's roar was cut short as his body seized, frozen in place, unable to move.
The green-haired man leaned in close and whispered something only Battle Beast could hear.
Then—
SLICE!
A vertical beam of green light split the air like a blade, swallowing them both whole.
They vanished.
No sound. No explosion. Just gone.
The battlefield was silent.
Ash drifted. Debris settled. William groaned.
Marie scanned the sky.
"…Who the hell was that?" she asked, voice low.
The silence loomed over the battlefield, heavy and oppressive.
William groaned, a guttural, strained noise as he fought to push himself free from the rubble. His body was broken, ribs crushed, muscles torn, but the determination in his eyes remained undiminished, a flickering ember refusing to be extinguished.
Kate dropped to her knees beside him, her hands trembling as she pressed a crude bandage against his wounds. "Stay with me, William. You don't get to quit now."
William's lips curled into a faint, blood-smeared grin. "Not sure I've got much say in the matter anymore."
Across the ruined battlefield, the dust began to settle. The air was thick, suffused with the crushing weight of what had transpired. The heroes stood warily, battered and bruised but unwavering, their gazes drawn toward the spot where the green-suited man had vanished with Battle Beast.
Immortal flexed his newly repaired arms, his sharp eyes scanning the scattered remnants of the team. "He's gone…"
His gaze lingered on the fallen, the bodies that littered the streets of Chicago, friends and foes alike. With a deep, troubled sigh, Immortal absorbed the grim reality of their costly victory.
Cecil materialized beside Immortal, dark circles under his weary eyes betraying his exhaustion.
"That bad, huh?"
Conor couldn't resist quipping, which earned him sharp glares from the older heroes and Cecil himself, who glared at him for several long seconds before remembering why he was here.
"They stole something important!" Cecil pulled up a data pad and showed Immortal the image of a large tentacled creature that looked like it belonged in a Lovecraft novel.