[Hoo hoo hoooooboy!] [Guess new girl’s got guts after all.]

I pulled the sphere around me out of elsewhere and moved both it and myself up into the air before tearing it apart to add to the storm of steel swirling around me. A weight I’d barely noticed laying against my leg slipped away, and my gaze sharply snapped to it.

A… head? [Do you all see this? This is awesome!] [Grab that!] [Where is Elena? Find her!]

Catching the falling object was a simple task with how much metal was swarming around me, though I immediately wished I hadn’t once I had brought it up close enough to identify.

Found your head, Delible… I thought as I swallowed down the bile in my throat more easily than expected. [Oh…] [Is that Fifteen?]

[Ha, look at Fifteen’s wide-eyed expression!] [Yo Fifteen, didn’tcha say you healed or whatevs? How did Sixteen kill you?] the voices said, but I paid them no mind as I returned my attention to the situation below. None of the three-hearted vascular systems remained, and the area was peppered with burst open corpses with fizzling wounds.

[Don’t make light of my death, douche… And Six? Footloose? Whoever. I regenerate, so I don’t know…] [Oh god… June, you can’t just do that! You killed so many…] The fighting had stopped, and the expressions of the real people directly beneath me, the only ones I could make out from up here, were all varying mixtures of shocked and appalled. But my focus was already shifting to what mattered most.

Elle.

I shot like a cannon towards where I felt the head harness for her mask, the storm parting for me, as swaths of metal peeled off from the nearby crushed nightmares to wrap around her and lift her into the sky—into safety. I had a way to stop the madness, and you wanted me to what, wait? What if Elle had died?! [Wait! Don’t forget Elena!] [Wait, are we not determining what happened to Fifteen?]

There! I crossed the distance between us in a burst of speed before rapidly slowing down and throwing my arms around her with a sob. She was covered in blood, but her arteries and veins were intact, so if any of it was hers, it wasn’t substantial. “Elle,” I breathed out. “You’re okay. Thank god you’re okay! I thought…” [Aww, now ain’t that sweet? Makes me wanna vomit.] [This your girlfriend, Sixteen? We need to give her a costume makeover, stat! Frumpy robes are sooo last year!] [What? Why are you doing this?] [And what if you had been wrong? What if you were being fed an illusion? You could have killed innocent people!]

“June. Safe.” Her arms sluggishly moved into place around me before squeezing me back tightly. “Talking?” [Oh. So her name is Elle?] [For fuck’s sake, I thought you were actually going to do something, not this pansy ass shit!] [This is pointless. Either figure out how you overcame Fifteen’s regeneration or finish what you started, Sixteen.]

“Talking…?” [She was with Elena, right? Ask her what happened!] [Oh fuck, this one’s a fucking loon too, ain’t she?] [June, Diamondback has a point. If you don’t understand how you overcame Delible’s regeneration, then you have a weakness you’re not guarding!] [Stop. This. Stop it. Do something useful instead of this drivel.]

“God, if it’ll get you two to shut the fuck up, then fine! Her head probably couldn’t get past the metal I put in elsewhere, alright?!” I growled. “If Cache couldn’t beat it with his dimensional pocket, then I don’t see… how… Wait.” Elle’s words and what I was doing finally clicked. “Omigod, I can talk again?!”

“June? Don’t ‘stand.” [Could… could you not talk before?] [Huh? Oh, right. You were struggling to speak before.] [There you go with this ‘elsewhere’ shit again. The fuck does that even mean?] [‘Couldn’t get past’? You mean like a barrier? How does a barrier stop regeneration?] [You know, this is a really exposed—]

Alarm shot through me like fire in my veins, and I shoved Elle and myself aside. A spear of ice rocketed through where we had been a moment prior followed by some sort of energy attack. [Don’t just sit there! Keep moving!] [Fucking finally. Apparently you’ve gotta be dragged into a fight…] [Do a barrel roooolllll!]

“What the fu—?” Attack from behind me, at an angle from below. Large. I was already moving us, the burning sensation in my veins—no, my nerves?—guiding our flight out of the way of what looked like a chunk of the ground somehow pulled out in one solid piece. A flash of light in the corner of my eye brought my head snapping around to some kind of glowing sphere about to collide with us. Why hadn’t my nerves burned? No time. Too late to dodge, I started to reach out to a spot nearby—

[No!!] [I mean, you’ll ‘splode your girl, but…] [Do it haha!] [Don’t!!]

An iron shield formed between us, and the sphere dissipated against it harmlessly. What? Why—

Memories from Footloose and the voices that followed rose to meet my question, and I screamed, “What the shit, Footloose?!” [Ooooo, lucky. Guts are a bitch to get out of your hair.] [Footloose’s power explodes out from you on arrival!] [It seems Sixteen has someone watching out for her. Was that Heavensword?] [Keep fucking moving, for god’s sake!] [Fuuuck, just get out of here, kid!]

Fire seared my nerves again, and I shoved aside all the questions of how or why for the moment as I threw Elle and I into motion. Danger Zone’s power, alerting me to danger and strengthening me to match. No, not just danger—danger to my body. Had I been caught off guard because that sphere would have only done something to my thoughts?

[Girl, you should have seen the first person I blew up. Explosion was waaay stronger for me, and I blew that dude to smithereens while he was still fucking me!] [So do the rest of you agree they’re after her because of the whole mass murder thing, or…?] [Yeah, my power is limited for you, June. That’s how the transfer works.] [June, use Toro’s power to maximize your reflexes!]

Oh god, I was thrown off my rhythm by Footloose’s memory of being pegged by that guy made its way to the front of my thoughts, and I nearly failed to dodge a spear that DZ’s power didn’t warn me about. Wouldn’t that have hurt me? Or did it only count if it reached a certain threshold of harm? Fuck, what if Elle was the one who would’ve been hit? [Don’t be like that! He was an epic lay! Y’know, until the whole severed dick in my ass thing.] [Delible was right—finding Elena is good. She can help protect you!] [Ror, I can’t remember—does your power work for multiple people?] [Almost certainly because of the deaths. Even if the new blood was right about them being this Endbringer’s minions, how do they know that?]

The hasty application of Toro’s power sharpened my focus and made it easier to push away the unwanted memory if not forget it entirely. Elena. Heavensword. How could I find her though? She made metal out of thin air, and Klaus’ projected memory showed she normally wore a crown of spikes, but she hadn’t had that on her today given the abrupt Endbringer attack. On top of that, I still needed to make sure everyone else was okay too! [Six, you agreed to never bring that shit up again.] [Shut the fuck up, Ten! Don’t you dare bring up that pansy bitch or her power!] [Five’s power does not do well with multiple individuals, as I recall.] [Your power seemed to synergize extraordinarily well with mine, Quarrel’s, and Alvíss’, June. Perhaps do the same as before, but hold everyone down to reduce the potential attacks?]

Yes! Alchemist, you’re a genius! I praised her as I reached for the storm I had left swirling in the sky and began—

The air began to crackle.

“Fuck,” I hissed as my head snapped to Elle. If I fell, she’d be a goner, but if I just pushed the metal holding her up into elsewhere, she’d be a sitting duck. A sphere? She needed enough air to breath, but if I gave her too much space and she was affected, would the nightmare appear inside where she couldn’t escape it? I could compromise, wrap her in a layer of metal but leave the area around her mouth exposed to— Shit, her trigger! Would that be too close to her trigger? What could I do?!

[Gonna just sit there, new blood?] [What will you do, hm?] [You can’t save anyone if you don’t save yourself first!] [Well lookit Sixteen, too afraid to act.] [Hide…?] [Sooo… What’s gonna happen again, exactly?] [June, save yourself!] [Doing nothing only gets you caught on the back foot!] [You’re gonna end up dead, Sixteen, just you watch.] [C’mon, June! Do your elsewhere thing!] [Perhaps—?] [If you don’t act, you’ll both die, right? So act.] [Ha! This is just so delightful!] [Doing nothing gets nothing done, Sixteen.] [Save her! My power will pull you back together!]

I was paralyzed. Seconds felt like minutes as I desperately scrambled for something smart to do, but in the end, Delible was right. I needed to—

I was falling—we were both falling—the world around us spinning. My nerves were simmering, a mere fraction of the burn I should be feeling as the ground rushed towards us, and the voices in my head were distant whispers, easily overwhelmed by the screams and shouts of the people on the ground. I could still feel the metal wrapped around us, but it was distant, almost numb as I desperately tried to get my power to respond.

Elle!!

I grabbed hold of the metal around us and pulled. Our momentum shifted agonizingly slowly, only just managing to curve to the side in time for us to whip over the capes on the ground like some sort of demented roller coaster drop. Hysterical laughter bubbled up out of me as I realized Elle was safe, relief washing over me as I safely brought up to a stop.

My nerves screamed at me, and I almost instinctively teleported away before managing to clamp down on the urge. Something slammed into me, grabbed my head, and yanked. Confusion reared up in me as I felt the metal around me staying still while I lost feeling and was sent tumbling wildly. I smacked into the dirt face first and spat in disgust at the foul taste that entered my mouth. I rolled to a stop after a couple seconds more of uncontrolled tossing and turning, and cold realization and terror washed over me as I landed sideways, facing back the way I’d come from.

[Oh ho ho ho! Lookit that!] [June… Oh my god…] [Well congrats, newblood. You officially hold the record.] [Mmm, few things better than this!]

Butcher, Rotlimb, and Toro all laughed uproariously while Klaus and Edict yelled at them. An insanely muscular man with a huge, pro wrestler style belt and no shirt was stalking towards me, and behind him, just over his shoulder, I could see Elle hanging in the air and facing my way. And next to her?

My headless body hung limply in my costume, held aloft by my power.

Oh my god… Am I… Am I going to…? [Freefall is scary and all, but maybe don’t lose your head over it next time, eh? Eh?] [Seventeen must be pretty strong to rip your head off that easily with your fragment of Twelve’s power.] [June inherits our powers, right? Am I understanding correctly?] [Delible, your power was regeneration, right? Right? How good is it?!]

Something started to shift me to the side, rolling my face sideways and down towards the dirt. I gasped for air as hints of darkness started to creep in at the edges of my vision, the man nearly upon me. Delible’s regeneration? On the beach, her hand had been reduced to literal pieces of blood, flesh, and bone that had ripped themselves out of a nightmare to reassemble, leaving her none the worse. Could I do that?

I felt a tug on my scalp, Diamondback’s power completely eliminating the pain I should have felt at having my decapitated head lifted up by the wrestler cape as he reared back to punch me. [C’mon, you guys get it, right? The joke didn’t go over your head, did it?] [Regeneration? Heh, I guess we’ll see how well that works.] [Yes, anything I lost always came back to me, and I was very strong. If she can do even part of that now, then maybe…] [June, can you get your head to your body? You have to give yourself as much opportunity to recover as you can!] [Jesus, Six, really? Stop the shitty puns!]

The roar of engines passing overhead reached my ears, but I couldn’t afford the noise any attention as I melted the cape’s belt, bringing some of it up to form a hastily erected shield I shoved into elsewhere while the rest of it wrapped around my head. The last thing I saw before the liquid metal covered my eyes was the cape smashing into the shield, then I forcibly ripped my head towards my body, ignoring the tugging sensation on my scalp.

The voices were cheering and heckling in equal measure, but it all felt distant. I had already begun feeling lightheaded, and the sudden claustrophobic feeling of my entire head being engulfed promptly made it significantly worse. When my neck crashed into my scarf, I immediately ripped away the metal and gasped in relief.

An empty gasp. I still couldn’t feel anything.

I numbly felt what might be tears trickling down my cheeks as my eyes met Elle’s mask, the two of us pressed against each other from my desperate attempt to stop our fall. I could almost imagine the look of abject horror hidden behind it.

I love you, I tried to mouth, my lips weak and numb.

Stupid. How long had I delayed saying that? We had been through so much together. How could I not love her? Why was it so hard to admit? To say it aloud? And now I couldn’t.

I love you! I wanted to scream it. I needed her to hear it—to know it. I love you! I love—“you!”

I coughed, air raggedly blowing through my mouth past my lips as the feeling of the rest of my body blossomed. [Whoooaaa…!] [I’ll be damned…] [Yes!] [Your power is quite useful, Fifteen.]

My hacking devolved into mad laughter as I realized it had worked. Delible’s power—I was alive! I could—! [Not the first beheading we’ve experienced, but damn if that wasn’t the coolest, Sixteen!]

My nerves screamed at me, and this time I didn’t hesitate. I muffled the urge to teleport but immediately whirled to face the wrestler cape, even as that same sense of danger pinged behind and to my right. I pulled Elle and me down towards the ground and away from both sources of danger, shifting her back and behind me. A crackling ball of electricity shot through the air where we had been a moment prior, forcing the wrestler to duck. Just the sight of the bastard made me want break him for nearly killing me, and as I stepped forward, I felt power pulse through me. He threw a haymaker for my head, and I neatly pivoted around on the right, grabbing as much of his thick wrist as I could with my much smaller hand. He growled as my inescapable grip brought what should have been a devastating blow to a grinding halt, but he was quickly singing a starkly different tune when I crushed his wrist and shattered his elbow with a swift jab into its underside.

[Yes! Show them why they should fear us!] [Hell yeah! Attagirl!] [Stop! Don’t rely on instinct!] [Likely right-handed, so that will neutralize him. Good job.]

I tossed him aside with a negligent flick, snapping my wrist as I let go to flex his forearm out and do more damage to his broken elbow. Barely a second later, I blanched as Klaus’ words caught up to me. What the fuck, I didn’t mean to do all of that! [Heh, just when the show was getting good. Don’t worry, newblood, there’ll be plenty more fighting to do with an Endbringer fucking about.] [Aw, c’mon! Don’t stop now!] [You don’t just get fragments of our powers, you get fragments of our skills, our instincts—if you aren’t paying attention, you’ll seriously hurt people!]

Fuck, really? This had gotten too far out of hand. The only reason we had even come here was to get Spitfire’s arm checked out, and now everyone was in danger and who knew where while I had a horde of parasites in the back of my head and was breaking a Brute’s bones as easily as I could snap my fingers. All that plus the Endbringer still— [Goody-two-shoes Seven’s really stepping his game up for his kid, eh?] [One raises a very good point, Sixteen. Be wary.]

I noticed something illuminating the night sky on the horizon and realized the Endbringer was on fire. Well, really just its eye, but it was on fire. That was different, and different meant bad when it came to Endbringers. [Snapadacious, just lookit that thing! Fucking huuuuge!] [Well that is appropriately ominous.] [Eh. Behemoth was scarier.] [It definitely wasn’t doing that earlier…]

“We’ve gotta get out of here,” I said, reaching for Elle’s hand.

“Now, now, there’s no need to run so soon,” a voice whispered in my ear.

Elle jerked away from me as the ground next to me swelled up into twin suits of armor that thrust the spikes of their halberds at me. My power instinctively caught the tips an inch away from me, but everything nearby was already distorting. The ground began to segment and flip, revealing mismatched and shattered tile and rapidly growing walls lined with dirty, stained padding and doors bursting open to reveal doctors and nurses garbed in bloodied scrubs with hands clenched around rusted saws, old glass needles, and dripping, freshly removed organs. Faultline had mentioned this to me once before, but neither Gregor nor Newter, and especially not Elle, ever spoke of it. A specter that loomed in Elle’s past, something to avoid mentioning.

The bad place.

Oh god. [What fresh hell is this?!] [Is the Endbringer doing this?] [This looks markedly unsanitary.]

“You made quite the entrance earlier,” the voice from before continued, seeming to come from just over my shoulder. “I confess to some minor irritation at your disruption of my fun, but you’ve made up for it exceptionally so far.”

“El— Labyrinth, it’s me! Meteor!” I called out to her, even as the people she had conjured up surged forward and around her towards me. The medical projections attempted to cut, hack, and stab me, but my nerves were calm, so I ignored them in favor of trying to push past to Elle. Without Butcher’s power augmenting my strength, I had more trouble pushing past the mass of bodies swarming me than I had with the Brute, but all they could really do was slow me down as I unyieldingly marched forward. “You need to calm down!” [Is frumpy girlfriend doing it? Whoa! What a power!] [Ha! I wonder if your bitch will be the one to do you in!] [Is the Endbringer… talking to you?]

“Twice now you’ve been touched by one of mine, but you keep cleansing yourself. You’re proving quite the fun puzzle!”

“Who the fuck are you?” I demanded, as I smashed aside a projection with a straitjacket while turning the metal implements in the hands of others nearby into plates I used to shove them back. I swear I’ve heard this voice before… Fuck, who is this? [Te-le-port! Te-le-port! You can dooz eet! Who cares about a few roasted bodies on arrival, just teleport!] [Fucking crush this things into pulp like you did those three hearted things earlier!] [Just fly away? Why are you even bothering with this?] [You could try ordering your girlfriend to stop with my power?] [You can change the walls into more of your metal and just slip past, no?]

“Rude. I’ve magnanimously remembered you for your part in my escape in Providence. The least you could do is do the same for me.”

“Wait, you’re that bi—?!” [Are you even listening to—?!]

The ceiling that had formed over the area shattered with an explosive bang, cutting me off as debris rained down and the sound of the roaring engines I had heard earlier filled the air. The serpentine, winged form of a Dragon-craft descended through the circular hole, the machine gun mounted on it raining hell down on Elle’s projections. A woman in opalescent armor was gripping its side, and once the craft was low enough to the ground, she dropped off and jogged towards me with her hands held up non-threateningly.

I hated to say it, but that was probably the only thing that got me to pause long enough to recognize who it was. Her armor was different than when we first met, but I recognized it from the press release I had looked up after our second meeting in the mall.

[Uh. So who’s the knight in shining armor?]