The good news was that North Wind turned up soon after Shade, and Justin kept quiet when she mentioned hearing about Dragon's escape from a friend, the even better news was that she thought she might have a way to deal with Dragon.

They still needed to catch them individually though, which meant needed to find and hit them in their own territories, drawing them into a fight before they had chance to call in reinforcements. Luckily, Shade had managed to pick up intel on possible gang hideouts in their districts. No one was terribly happy with the idea of a downtown brawl, let alone two of them, but they figured it was preferable to their other plan, which was wait and see where they turned up next.

Which is how Justin found himself split between two downtown locations, a battle drone hovering over each half of the team. At least he could take solace that Division was equally divided, with two of his clones at each location, but he figured the duplicator probably had more experience dealing with the split.

The two teams had been causing trouble for about an hour, hitting gang hideouts, rousting dealers, generally having about as much fun as you could while still being heroes. Unsurprisingly, it was Ku who turned up first, apparently unable to resist meeting a challenger on his territory. He'd brought a few of his gang with him for backup, better armed and equipped than the newbs he'd thrown into an ambush. He seemed to feel distinctly unthreatened when he finally spotted their team without the undead knight amongst them.

Having watched them fight during the ambush, he probably felt there was little a drone, two clones, a speedster, and a skulking shadow could do to him. And he'd be right, except that that Justin had given Shift a few toys to try out, first up was an over-powered tazer staff, much closer to a cattle-prod really, and Ku bellowed as it jabbed him in the kidneys, falling to his knees before managing to shake the shock off.

Division must have spotted a couple of Ku's backup reaching for their guns, because he put a couple of tazer grenades into their midst. He didn't get many, but it distracted them and gave the heroes time to find cover. "Remember," he said over the comms, "we just need to keep him distracted until we find Dragon, don't take any risks, but if you see a chance to put him down, take it."

Justin could see the other half of the team were getting twitchy, they could hear their teammates fighting against a foe that had them outnumbered and outmuscled, and yet there was nothing they could do to help except hope that Dragon turned up soon. North Wind especially seemed twitchy, summoning and dropping ice daggers as she paced back and forth in the street, throwing frustrated glances at the placid skull of the tall figure stood in the centre, calmly clutching his metal staff.

"Ah, my Knight, you have returned to serve me after all." The voice was female, ineffably smug, and was coming from directly behind them. Justin spun his drone around to confront the approaching Black Dragon, and saw most of the others do the same, but the tall knight fell to his knees with a groan.

Justin would have sworn the street behind them was empty just a moment ago, but now it held the smiling necromancer with at least twenty ghouls at her back.

"Some sort of illusion?" Division asked quietly over the comms.

"Unsure." Justin answered just as quietly, "will later review."

"And you've brought the little bitch who dropped a meteor on me." Dragon continued over them, smiling at North Wind as she approached closer, Wind just glared back, rubbing her left arm as if remembering it getting broken. "Rise my new servant and subdue my enemies."

"Nah, Chica, I've got a master and it ain't you." Shade rose amidst his shadow costume, throwing the fake armour and skull mask to the floor.

Dragon blinked in surprise, "But you feel just like..." she didn't get to finish as a mass of shadow wrapped itself around the globe of her shield.

"Had a drink from a friend," Shade muttered before glancing back at Wind. "Rápido, can't hold her much longer."

North Wind closed her eyes, her brow knit in concentration, they heard a scream and then silence from inside the shadowed globe. Behind it, the ghouls began to lope forward, gasping and shrilling, their clawed hands scratching divots in the concrete road. But suddenly they stopped, blinking in as much confusion as mindless undead could conjure, before falling lifeless to the ground.

Shade released his shadow and the air popped as fresh oxygen rushed into the void. Inside was an unconscious and mostly frozen Dragon.

"Well that was anticlimactic." Division muttered from behind.

Justin had to watch as Shift danced around Ku, his cattle-prod had been broken into pieces pretty quickly, and the small sticky grenades had just managed to scorch Ku's clothing and piss him off. Luckily, Shift was keeping occupied, slipping in andout of his reach, which gave Justin and Division time to deal with the lurking gang members.

These ones were much better trained than the others they'd fought, and much more professional than soldiers trained by Ku should have been. They kept calm, worked together, pulled back when injured, they'd even managed to take down one of the Division clones. More mercs? Justin wondered, before deciding he could look into it later.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as Justin and Division saw that Dragon had finally put in an appearance, and the com chatter clued in the rest. Revenant burst out from the shadows, finally able to engage the enemy rather than just watch his team struggle to contain them. He roared to attract Ku's attention while Shift blurred into the midst of Ku's gang, his tazer batons flashing. The tide had definitely turned, and it wasn't long before the gang members were withdrawing or surrendering.

Ku continued to put up a fight, but Revenant was managing to contain him, and it wasn't long before Justin spotted Ku plucking a piece of black chalk from his pocket and he began scanning for any distortions as soon as the chalk was snapped.

He quickly detected the warping of heat and air patterns, and fired two separate 'grenades' through the horizon. The first to trigger was a broad-burst signal grenade, prepared for just such an eventuality, the second was a tazer. The portal popped closes a moment later.

With direct escape cut off, Ku became more desperate, and it was all Revenant could do to stop him rampaging through the nearby buildings. Finally, Justin decided Revenant needed a distraction and swooped down behind the Hawaiian powerhouse, unleashing his entire battery load through his forward prongs, directly into Ku's ass.

Successful Skill Use +12 xp to Tazer - Beginner Level 2 [12%].

He didn't get to see the fight end, but Revenant later claimed to have seen sparks flash between Ku's teeth, right before he knocked them out.

Villain Defeated!

Ku the Destroyer

Type: Hero Team

Description: You have aided in the defeat of Ku the Destroyer.

Difficulty: Difficult

Rewards: 300xp

Villain Defeated!

Black Dragon

Type: Hero Team

Description: You have aided in the defeat of Black Dragon.

Difficulty: Difficult

Rewards: 300xp

Congratulations!

You are now Level 4

Rewards: +1 Attribute Point, +1 Character Point.

You currently have 1 unspent Attribute Point, and 3 unspent Character Points.