The armored car procession was forced to stop when a wall of flame melted the road before it. Draego, in his dragon form, flew down and planted himself in front of the vehicles, his scaly fists covered in flames. At the same time, Deathstare, in his purple and gold costume, stood atop the roof of a nearby building and unleashed lasers from his chest. Those lasers tore up the road behind and on each side of the procession, keeping the other armored cars from escaping.

People nearby suddenly screamed and fled from the scene as soldiers inside the vehicles poured out with their guns drawn, taking cover behind the armored vehicles. Buildings in the area dropped metal sheets across the windows as civilians took refuge inside the nearest one. With how many supervillain attacks there were in the world, most buildings were built with durability in mind. Inside these buildings, speakers instructed people to keep away from the windows and doors, and once civilians stopped filing in, metal blast doors dropped down, hopefully protecting the people inside.

As bullets bounced off Draego’s scales, one of the soldiers near the armored cars shouted to get the big guns. Soldiers brought out a few large, shoulder-mounted weapons, but Draego threw waves of fire, forcing them to take cover and not giving them a chance to shoot.

Deathstare, looking down with telescopic vision, saw through the metal of the armored vehicles like looking through glass as he scanned each car simultaneously, one eye on his chest per car. Soon, he saw a cylinder containing a yellow crystal the size of a baseball.

“Draego, Cipher,” he said. “The Fugori Crystal is in the third car from the front.”

“Roger,” said Draego, throwing more fire around.

High above, a few drones flew around, watching the surrounding area. In a windowless van a few miles away, Cipher watched the action unfold through the drones’ cameras as he looked out for incoming superheroes. Sure enough, he found SteelStar and Centurion approaching at high speed.

“Deathstare, Draego,” said Cipher. “Heads up. We got company.”

###

SteelStar and Centurion flew down, readying themselves for the fight as the wind whipped past them. SteelStar, in his metal form, charged himself up just a little, and Centurion began glowing red. SteelStar had heard about Centurion’s powers. He could reinforce any solid object he touched, making it significantly more durable, and right now, he was reinforcing his armor. SteelStar, having looked over the alert, considered his options against the villains they were up against. They could barely see the armored cars in the distance, Draego shooting fire, and Deathstare standing atop a building.

“Let me handle Draego,” said SteelStar. “I’m pretty much fireproof.”

“Excuse me,” said Centurion, offended. “I’m the experienced one here. I’ll give the orders.”

SteelStar rolled his steel eyes, “I figured you wouldn’t want to cook inside that armor, but fine. What’s your plan?”

Centurion didn’t answer for a moment.

“I’ll take Deathstare,” said Centurion. “You handle Draego.”

As Centurion flew off, SteelStar muttered, “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

SteelStar zoomed in, approaching at an angle so he wouldn’t knock Draego into anything, and threw a nonlethal electric blast. The electricity danced over Draego, who flinched, but then looked up at SteelStar in irritation and threw a wave of fire.

SteelStar flew right through the flames and punched Draego, sending him flying and rolling across the nearby sidewalk. Draego got up quickly as SteelStar landed next to him and the dragon man punched the metal hero in the face. SteelStar barely staggered. When Draego threw another punch, SteelStar caught it in his metal fist. Draego looked at his caught fist in frustration.

“You might as well come quietly,” said SteelStar. “I’m clearly stronger than you.”

Then, the draconic man raised his other hand and unleashed fire all over SteelStar’s body. This fire was different from before, burning so hot it turned blue, and SteelStar stumbled back, disoriented with all the heat running through his body. When the flames disappeared, they were replaced by Draego’s fist.

This time it hurt, and SteelStar staggered back. SteelStar had a second to look at himself. While he felt disoriented from the heat, he saw that his metal body and the metal parts of his suit were now red hot, his boots sizzling on the asphalt. That wasn’t good. While the heat alone wasn’t much of a danger to his metal form, and his clothes were designed for this sort of thing, this much heat softened his metal and negated the advantage his magnetic reinforcement gave him.

A lesson made painfully clear when Draego moved closer and punched him again, knocking SteelStar to the ground and making him grunt in pain.

“Clearly,” said Draego, his yellow, slitted eyes staring intensely. “Strength isn’t everything.”

Centurion, meanwhile, flew towards Deathstare high above on that rooftop, his armor glowing with red light. Deathstare saw him, turned towards him, and immediately pelted him with lasers from his many eyes, keeping his arms spread out so he could use the lasers there as well. The lasers deflected off the armor until Deathstare pointed all his eyes on the front of his body to a single point and combined the lasers into one big blast, pushing Centurion back.

Centurion recovered quickly, dropping to the roof, planting his feet, and pulling the square block from his back. That block unfolded into a large shield like a roman Scutum. The blast pushed against the shield, moving Centurion back slowly as his feet ground against the roof.

While both of his comrades were occupied, Cipher, from his hidden car, controlled his drones and directed them down. The drones quickly reached the vehicle carrying their target, and one activated a blowtorch, slowly opening a hole in the roof of that car.

SteelStar, after a few blows from Draego making him stagger back, finally got his wits and channeled electricity through his body. When Draego’s fist connected this time, the shock ran up his arm, and he was forced to pull away, even as SteelStar staggered.

The Dragon Man recovered quickly, though, and immediately threw a fireball. SteelStar raised his hand at the last moment, throwing lighting, and the draconic villain was struck at the same time the fireball exploded on SteelStar’s chest, sending both of them flying away.

SteelStar landed on his back, his overheated chest sore from the small explosion.

“Ow,” he said.

He quickly levitated himself up, only to get hit in the face with another fireball. He stumbled back as a few fireballs exploded in his face, the sheer concussive force of each blast making his vision spin. He staggered back for a moment and then fell over, dazed. Draego stood over him, using the time to form a much bigger fireball, getting it the size of a basketball.

And then, out of nowhere, something smashed into Draego, sending him flying into a wall, the impact leaving cracks in the wall he hit.

It was Celerity, her fist in the air where she’d punched Draego. Her running goggles lay over her eyes, reflecting the fallen Dragon Man as she grinned at the corner of her mouth. She turned to SteelStar and stood over him awkwardly.

“I’d help you up,” she began. “but…well…”

“Yeah,” said SteelStar, getting up, his metal face still red hot. “Bad idea to touch me.”

Draego recovered quickly, growling. Hearing this, Celerity rushed at him, but he spread his arms and sent out fire in all directions. Celerity was a mere inches away from the flames as she held back her punch, her eyes wide from the heat as she ran back. Then Draego unleashed jets from his feet to fly up, leaving Celerity nothing to punch. She then looked up in frustration, putting her hands on her hips.

“I’m really gonna hate not being able to fly, aren’t I?” she said.

SteelStar, paying attention to his electromagnetic senses, detected drones around one of the armored cars, one of them going inside and picking something up. As it came out, SteelStar saw it carrying a metal cylinder. The metal superhero reached out his hand to pull on it with magnetism. The drone was yanked towards him, and SteelStar, wary of his red hot hand, grabbed the drone rather than the cylinder, shocking the machine just a little to disable it. As the other drones came over, SteelStar shot them down with lightning, then looked at what the drone had stolen. In the drone’s claw lay a metal cylinder.

Then he heard Draego growling angrily as he charged fireballs.

SteelStar looked up and, on a hunch, held up the drone and cylinder, making sure the supervillain could see it. Draego, snorting in frustration, dismissed the fireballs as he flew overhead. SteelStar grinned.

“So that’s what they’re after, huh?” asked Celerity. “What is it?”

“No clue,” said SteelStar. “But we should get it out of here.”

SteelStar looked up at Draego, who circled above, eying the two heroes angrily.

“You know where the army base is?” SteelStar asked Celerity.

“Sure,” she replied.

SteelStar held up the drone and pushed on it with magnetism, knocking it out of the drone’s claw and sending it to Celerity, who caught it with both hands.

“Get it there,” said SteelStar. “I’ll keep Draego off your tail.”

“Will you be okay?” She asked.

“I’ll be fine,” said SteelStar, turning and watching Draego as he flew towards them again. “He caught me off guard before.” SteelStar’s metal eyes grew serious. “It won’t happen again.”

“If you say so,” said Celerity. “Good luck.”

“You too,” said SteelStar, and Celerity zipped away.

Draego, flying back towards them, shouted, “Get back here!”

SteelStar flew up, trying to put himself between Draego and Celerity as he threw a lightning bolt. Draego, however, feinted his flight path as if he would bank left before swerving the other way, dodging the lightning bolt and slipping past SteelStar. SteelStar, gritting his teeth in frustration, flew after him.

As Celerity kept running, she kept the cylinder tucked under one arm and checked her smartwatch for a route that avoided civilians. Draego boosted after her, his wings wide and the fire jets from his clawed feet roaring. SteelStar flew behind him, and the Dragon man turned, flying face up as he threw fireballs at the metal superhero.

SteelStar dodged, barely missing the explosions on either side of him until one struck him in the face, sending him falling away. Draego turned his attention back to Celerity and threw fireballs. He didn’t throw them directly at her but aimed them in front of her, hoping to cut off her escape. The explosions destroyed nearby parked cars or cars abandoned due to the supervillain attack.

Seeing the explosions in front of her, Celerity pushed herself and swerved, barely slipping past the fireballs before they could cut her off. At one point, she pushed herself forward, dropped to her back, and slid under some fireballs before they could cut her off, dust kicking up from the asphalt under her back until she kicked herself to a stand and kept running, the fireballs exploding behind her.

SteelStar, recovering before hitting the asphalt, flew after Draego and aimed lightning. Draego, hearing SteelStar again, turned over and threw more fireballs. SteelStar dodged and threw some lightning bolts, making sure they didn’t go far enough to hit any buildings. Draego dodged back and forth, out of the way before SteelStar even shot his bolts. SteelStar, meanwhile, had trouble dodging Draego’s explosives.

Even flying face up, Draego could still follow Celerity as she ran around a corner. SteelStar realized that the dragon man must have enhanced senses and knew he had to find a way to get Draego away so Celerity could get that thing to safety, whatever it was.

As SteelStar traded blasts with Draego, he saw a manhole cover. SteelStar reached out to yank on it with magnetism as he sent out a lightning bolt. Draego dodged the bolt, but the sound of the lightning covered up the manhole cover as it flew up fast. Before he knew what was hitting him, the metal disc struck Draego in the wing, catching the dragon man off guard and throwing off his flight pattern.

As Draego tried to correct himself, SteelStar got close and caught Draego by his scaly ankle. He sent electricity through Draego’s body, making him cry out before swinging the dragon man around. Grabbing the ankle with both hands, he spun Draego around several times before throwing him in the opposite direction as Celerity.

Draego spun through the air for a moment before releasing jets of fire from his feet and spreading his wings to stabilize himself. Looking around angrily, he saw no sign of Celerity and flew up, going high enough to get over the buildings. Flying up there, Draego looked for the speedster but couldn’t see her, even with his heat vision. Gritting his jagged teeth in frustration, he looked back at SteelStar flying towards him.

“Well then,” muttered Draego, his guttural voice seething with anger. “You wish to interfere, hero? Then you will learn that there are consequences for doing so.”

And he flew forward to meet SteelStar head on.