My ill-thought out and hastily constructed plan had about a fifty-fifty chance of success.

As soon as I saw the expression shift on the speedster, I acted as quickly as my physical body was able to. Down through the hole to the floor below. Either Roy would rush at me and try to catch me with his advanced brick attack, or he would turn around and run to where I was about to land and fight me there.

Since he looked a little frazzled from an earlier encounter with Roxy, I had my bets on impatience and expediency guiding his assault.

I was correct.

As soon as we had both shifted, the spiderweb closed in. I was well aware that wasn't how webs worked, but having my left arm almost torn off by the elf had me slightly loose around the edges. I dropped through the hole, making it barely a foot before my Smoke grenade went off. Had it not, I would have clocked a brick to the skull.

Instead, Roy's attack was slightly off, and he missed me by inches. Before he could sweep around to catch me with the blunt object, I had fallen through the hole.

My fully extended grapple wire whipped back into my limp arm as I landed. It snagged twice, jerking my limb and running fresh agony through my shoulder. The first time was probably it escaping the debris I had partially hidden it with. However, the second time was more important.

I hit the synapse connection to expel the Foam in the head of the grapple. My arm twisted forward again, as Roy's legs dropped through the hole above me. I raised my gun-arm and fired a Nerve shot into them.

The air vibrated, and he vanished. Along with the slow-moving cloud of gray smoke, the severed end of my cut grapple line fell from the floor above. Another tool in my arsenal taken out of action. I shook my head and sighed.

Roy couldn't have gone far, but he wasn't likely to rush back into combat with me. Even if a brief amount of hyperspeed had allowed him to sever my grapple, he was still shot in the legs and had the expanded Foam stuck to him. He wasn't running anywhere in a hurry.

I turned and made my way to the nearest stairwell. A loose hero was trouble, even if weakened. I had to finish the job. Empty shell bounced across the concrete floor as I loaded a fresh Nerve in. Halfway through the magazine already. Once the speedster had been dealt with, I'd need to…

My thought process faded away as I pushed through the door to the stairs. Only, they weren't really stairs anymore. The central column, once plain gray concrete, was now chunks of vertebrae. Each step was an extended mass of muscle and pulsating veins. Even in the gloom, the wet shimmer of blood and visceral matter painted every wall.

I blinked several times before turning in place. Heavy pass.

Either Belle was close, or she had used her powers to cloud the whole stairwell. Most likely for defense rather than as an offensive tactic. That said, I had witnessed how effective her delusions could be. Being stunned in a living nightmare would make for a quick exit from this battle royale, even if I could endure the torment.

Roy would have had enough time to make an escape by now. Any sharks looking for a taste of blood would have smelled our brief skirmish. With my injured arm, I wasn't sure if I'd have enough time to prepare another trap on this new floor. Forcing a drain of my combat stims would keep me moving, but leave me dry if I went through a gauntlet of Disasters.

Sounded like most of my life.

I leaned up against a waist-high wall to catch my breath. Roy wasn't so far away; I could tell. More of a general hunch than an ability to detect him. If the supers had any sense, they'd be looking to take either Roxy or I out of the competition as quickly as possible. The speedster had already rolled the dice against the volcanic hero. Probably lost.

If I were to guess, the Nerve shot might wear out quicker for Roy, due to higher rate of processing when he sped up. The Foam would have dissolved by now. Other than some minor embarrassment at getting caught in my trap, he should be back to his normal potential.

With a stifled growl, I lifted my left arm and took hold of my second magazine. First dropped from my magwell, and I slotted the fresh one in. I gasped and allowed my limb to relax again. Defeating Roy was mostly about reaction time, and there wasn't any way I could beat him in that regard.

Good thing I always had a Plan C to rely on. Triple shot loaded through my arm, and I stepped away from the wall.

A gust of wind blew in through the other doorway, and then Roy was there in front of me.

The brick blew through my personal shield and bounced off the metal plating covering my head. I didn't hear him or the attack, as my ear defenders were turned up high.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

One of the prototype payloads Clara had given me left my arm as soon as I was aware of his presence. Even at this short distance, he was able to avoid the shots. Good thing I didn't need to hit him.

The tentatively named Decibel shot burst on the floor, a partially magical energy dispersing and amplifying sound waves in the area. Bang shot did exactly that. A loud crack filled the entire floor, even harming my ears from behind my noise suppressors. Roy was entirely undefended. As my third shot—Quake—hit the ground, the speedster already had his hands up to the sides of his head. Blood ran between his fingers.

I lashed out with a kick as the first V-Force wave thrummed through the office. He was too disoriented to avoid it. His body burst through a dividing wall before rolling several times. I leaped in time with the vibrations of my Quake, landing beside the man as he scrambled back to his feet.

My cybernetic fist came down, and he crossed his arms to block it. He staggered back, left forearm broken. Anger consumed his expression. His right fist crackled with electricity, even though he wasn't wearing his-

He landed two punches on me before I even saw him move. The first mostly absorbed by my tactical gear, but the second found a softer part of my torso. I grabbed a Flash grenade from my vest, and then it vanished from my grip. Roy had taken it. I dove to the side, the last pulse of Quake the only thing stopping the speedster from leveling a kick to my face.

I powered up my gun-arm's V-Force drive and pulled another grenade from my vest.

After it vanished from my hand again, I activated the plastic explosives I had stuck to it during my roll. Not enough to maim the speedster permanently, but it had the effect of knocking him out of his flow. He appeared at the side amid the brief explosion.

Flickering with energy, my barrel let loose another Triple shot. I'd have to thank Clara later for setting the magazine up this way. Three Smoke shots erupted around the disoriented speedster, almost immediately filling the entire open office with a dense gray cloud.

With his hearing shot and one arm out of action, Roy didn't know where I was. His only option was to escape, if he could remember which direction the doors were. One of the few windows allowing light in, illuminating sections of the smoke, suddenly fell to darkness.

He lashed forward, aiming a punch at me. His attack struck my empty trenchcoat, and my kick from the side knocked Roy into the wall of the next office. He rolled away and avoided my next attack that put a hole through the concrete. By the time he righted himself, there was just a swirl of gray where I had been standing.

The speedster changed tact. With a grim expression, he waved his hand around. At speed, he acted like a propeller, pushing the dense smoke out through the open windows. The reduction of obscuring cloud would allow him enough reaction time to see me coming and counter.

Or it would have, were I not already standing behind him.

I grabbed the back of his head.

//Dubs: Sanguine stake. You die. //Roy: … //Roy: I yield. //Dubs: Sorry about your hearing. Belle can heal it once she is out.

His body language deflated, and he turned after I released my grip. I wasn't well-versed in sign language, but assumed that he wasn't impressed with the lengths I went to by the gestures he gave me. He shuffled away to find the fire escape.

Perhaps I was being a little rough with my friends. No, I could be a lot worse. Our enemies were more ruthless, and we'd all grown in power. With my full ammunition stores and a valid reason to kill them, at least three Disasters would be corpses by now.

But now there were three of us left. Just Roxy and Belle to work my way through. I was down an arm, my grapple, and only had one grenade left - assuming I could find where Roy took it. The magazine full of disorienting ammunition was meant for Roxy, but worked just as well on the speedster.

I dropped the remainder from my arm and kneeled down to try to put another magazine in.

How much could I bet on Roxy and Belle fighting, leaving only the victor for me to take out? Somehow that felt unlikely, as much as I didn't want to have to face both. The entire building shook, as if in answer.

I hesitated over which magazine to pick, ultimately going for the one that would be best against Roxy. If I knew her well, then she wouldn't have allowed herself to fall for the same tricks Belle had pulled yesterday. The super was just too headstrong. Now that she knew it was all an illusion, she'd fight through it, despite reality trying to guide her otherwise.

Or perhaps that's how I'd handle it.

Hard to tell. I grunted as I stood back up and made my way through the dissipating smoke toward the skeletal staircase. When I eventually arrived, it had turned back into the regular plain concrete.

"Did you survive, Dubs?" Roxy's voice came up from somewhere below. "Come get your ass beat."

I wondered whether this was an illusion. Pretty convincing if so, as it would be like Roxy to call me out for our inevitable one-on-one. However, if Belle had bested the walking volcano, then drawing me down into something unexpected would be smart.

Ultimately, I chose to neither respond nor descend. There was a time when I would be goaded into stepping into punch-range of the hero much stronger than me. After losing my legs to Red Dust, I tried not to follow my thinning sanity when it tried to convince me mortal danger was a satisfying meal.

My hand ran along my belt, trying to find a few more tricks I could utilize. With most of my gear still in storage, the pickings were slim. Tripwire and some explosives. Tools for picking locks and disabling traps. My last grenade, which was Flash. A desire to break some rules and see how I could half-kill myself in search of new powers.

It was obvious to me why I had so much disdain for killing superheroes. Aside from the moral ramifications, it was just a huge pain in the ass. Especially solo rather than supporting more capable fighters. My thoughts went back to the chair that I had seen in the forced nightmare.

I had been squirming away from my destiny like a writhing maggot. Against everything stacked against me. Was there a wall I couldn't climb? An obstacle that could truly stop me from achieving what I desired?

In answer, I heard the very clear footsteps of Roxy stomping through the floor below. She sought me out, confident that I would be easy to take out once found.

Time to humble her, and remind her I was a superhero killer.

My legs vibrated as I pumped the V-Force drives to the maximum. Stims washed through me as I activated the combat performance drain. The echoed footsteps sounded as though they were right below me.

I ejected a powerful blast straight through the floor.

[Going down.]

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