Dark Skies

Elise was already scowling when she stepped onto the aircraft, yet somehow, her features twisted further. Breakers milled about in the hundreds, and she barely noticed them. In her anger, she missed the two Rogues drifting in from the side, which had never happened in her forty-seven years of existence.

"What the fuck is she doing here?" she snarled, inadvertently threading power through her hair.

Crackle's grin split her face. "Babysitting."

The cargo hold spiked in temperature and static charge. Their glares could've melted steel. This was partly literal in Elise's case, as the crate rail beneath her boots was dissolving.

One of the Rogues Elise ignored interrupted their staring contest. "That's enough. Kill the lights, or hitchhike across the planet."

"Fine by me," Crackle hummed. "I'm not exactly landlocked."

Elise smiled sweetly. "You can't fly in a casket, dear."

Crackle smirked. "You've barely taken three steps and are already picking fights? The marital mishaps make sense now. Is this what he comes home to?"

Elise, smoking with energy, was on Crackle in five strong strides. The Rogue behind her groaned dramatically as she halted inches from Crackle's nonchalantly crossed legs.

"Say his name one more time and he'll come home to your head mounted on our fucking wall."

"I get it," Crackle assured her. "Betrayal is never easy, especially with the men. I mean, look at their reaction to cheating!" She laughed. "They have the gall to compare it to… well, what we endure." Crackle smiled sympathetically. "You'll find someone, don't worry."

"HEY!" barked the Rogue.

Elise finally dragged her head up to identify him as Blood Rain, a decent enough European gun specialized in deep cover marks. From what she remembered, his trademark was poisoning, but Alphas of his Queen-Class were always versatile. His partner she struggled to place. Despite a niggle in the back of her brain, she couldn't name the face.

"Knock this dumb, cat-fighting shit off." Blood Rain's veins bulged with unnatural definition. "We have work to do. If any of you bitches blow the plane up, I swear to God I'll suffocate you myself." He glared at Elise. "Now sit down." He spun on Crackle. "And shut up!"

Elise relented, plopping into a seat opposite a woman she'd love nothing more than to incinerate. Though confident in her ability to defeat Crackle, Blood Rain was right. Things had a time and place, and now wasn't the time to execute the failed excuse at a homewrecking whore. She let some anger seep from her feet as the plane climbed off the runway and began its ascent into the clouds.

"What am I doing?" she asked Blood Rain once they'd achieved cruising height.

He tossed her a tablet. "Negotiating. You and Crackle are our strongest uninjured fighters outside Mother's guards, so you'll meet the Kill Kollective for Phoenix Talons."

She gave him a look. "Phoenix Talons?"

"You're about seven promotions short of that intel, sweet cheeks."

Her brows furrowed deeper. "I'm not trekking through miles of rainforest and shit with gaps of that size."

"Says who?" snorted Blood Rain.

"If this plane lands without me learning what I'm looking for and its value, I'm not leaving my seat."

Blood Rain rolled his eyes. "It's some mystical artifact they hoard. In line with the whole dragon religion. Pink needs it to complete Bloodreapers, so you'll bring him as many as you can."

"And we don't just email them… why?" asked Elise, swiping idly through data files.

"Old school. Face-to-face traditionals. After Ergo, Mother ain't taking chances. With SWORD ironically swiping our only one, management has decided to send the best."

"Really?" Elise nodded towards Crackle. "Then why's she here?"

"Insurance?" Blood Rain shrugged. "Dunno. Or give much of a fuck, really. Guess you're still on probation. Tough shit. Support too, I guess. The Kollective could get handsy. Can't have those grubby yellow mitts reaching up your skirts now, can we, princess?"

Blood Rain didn't seem to think much of Asians. Or women in general, if Elise was being honest.

She eyed him with a newfound lack of respect. "I can look after my own skirts, thank you."

"No shit. Why'd you think we're in this fridge in the first place? The problem lies in the aforementioned hands. Management is concerned you'll burn a few off, which will get us in hot water with the rice beaters." He gestured to Crackle. "Hence the minder."

"I don't–" started Elise before a chime brought her attention back to the tablet.

She accepted the call and found herself staring into Magne's dark, haunted eyes. The rest of his face looked horrible, with most of his skin covered in scabs and burns. The room behind had prison levels of grey and flatness, but she couldn't make much out of the background blur.

"You are on thin fucking ice." A fleck of spittle dribbled from his lopsided lip.

"Hello to you too." Elise regarded him with a raised eyebrow. "I take it you forgot your sunscreen?"

"You were explicitly told to brief us on all their combat capabilities. You didn't."

"You failed to tell me about the Nursery ambush. How would I have known he'd use an ancient Hail Mary in the opening act? Communication is a two-way street, Magne. You forgetting how to drive doesn't oblige me to teach you."

"There will be consequences," Magne warned. "This borders on betrayal."

Elise snorted. "This is punishment enough. There has to be a lotion or... mask. Can you turn off your camera?"

"Crackle will monitor and submit a detailed report. She is eager to see you dismissed. I'd advise against giving her cause."

He hung up. Elise tossed Blood Rain back the tablet. "He's always been cranky, but now he's ugly too. Eugh."

"Agreed," snorted Crackle. "Somehow, you've never had bad taste."

Elise looked at Blood Rain. "Is there a garbage chute? Or just, chute chute?" She waved in Crackle's direction. "It keeps making noises."

Blood Rain spun on his heel. "Our first stop is in fifteen hours. Brief refuel, then beeline for Indonesia. If either of you dies before the mission, Magne says he'll skin the survivor with their own teeth."

"Well, he certainly can't use his," snorted Elise. She grabbed a parachute pack and wedged it behind her head. "Zara, dear, I will reduce your body to plaque, keratin and Botox if I even catch a whiff of that ridiculous attempt at mustard gas you insist is actually a 'perfume' moving in my direction."

"Botox?" Crackle laughed boisterously. "Why fuck with perfection? Only one of us hides their neck, which, in my opinion, is te-llll-ing ."

She chirped the final word with a singsong voice, giggling contentedly. Elise masked the clench of her jaw by turning her back on the Rogue and settling her breathing.

Bitch.

After what felt like a blink later, a hand suddenly jolted her awake. It belonged to Blood Rain, so their plane survived unexploded.

"Pitstop. Get some fresh air, or don't. I could give a shit. You have half an hour."

Elise did no such thing. She instead peeled off her gloves and wedged them under the makeshift hammock. The Cruisium plating made sleeping uncomfortable. After some consideration, her boots joined them. Crackle made a rude sound at the sight of Elise's bare skin. She ignored her.

They arrived in Indonesia a few hours later. Elise reclothed herself and stepped into the heavy, humid jungle air. Crackle sauntered out behind her, texting on a phone that she wasn't supposed to have.

A familiar face awaited them. He stood at the front of a massive, Breaker-patented camp. Tents and towers lined sequentially down a long, flat runway were all par for the course, though some hitching was modified to fit the arborous nature of the deep jungle. Some Alphas, based on attire, were present, though at much lower density than she remembered at Guadalupe. It was hard to tell in the sea of black and red Breakers.

With a quick, nerve-steeling breath, Elise walked down to their welcome party.

"Fuck you," growled Professor Pink.

His tone bit deeper than the word itself. He sounded exhausted. He looked it as well, with splotchy, thin skin and greying, greasy hair pasting to his scalp. His lips were thin and chapped, and his back seemed to hunch with the weight of the world.

"I didn't have a choice," Elise told him flatly. "This was the only way to ensure peace."

Pink's scowl faltered as he searched her for answers. Crackle materialized from behind Elise and it immediately returned.

"Pinky! You look awful!"

He opted to glare. Elise empathized.

"I'm here to articulate the delicate nature of this operation. The Talons cannot be damaged," he emphasized dramatically, "or I won't be able to apply their thermal matrix to the pommel's energy grid. Even a crack could carry catastrophic consequences."

Elise nodded. "How do we know they're real?"

"How will the King-Class, energy-based Alpha detect the legitimacy of a thermal super-relic?" deadpanned Pink. "I can only theorize. Additionally, they emit a detectable signature, but only in open air. While impenetrable, the Kollective's masking capabilities don't extend past the caves."

"What do these claws do, anyways?" asked Elise, frowning curiously.

"Cycle heat and conserve energy in a near-perfect system." The theory of the project momentarily sparked light in Pink's eyes. "To maintain the hard-light structure of the Bloodreaper's blade, you need a potent and, most importantly, efficient frame. The crystals I devised power them well enough, but the structure falls apart without a robust... skeleton."

Elise nodded. "Right. Are you coming with us?"

"Too valuable," spat Pink, clearly frustrated.

Elise nodded as she did another sweeping pass of the base. A few small planes, likely for scouting and recon, were parked near a looming hangar renovated as the Breaker's munitions dump. Residential tents and units stretched up and down beside them.

"That's me," Pink said, following her eyes and pointing to a tent. "Bring the Talons when you finish. I'll be sleeping."

He stalked away, trailed by a pair of Breakers. Crackle sniffed from over Elise's shoulder.

"Poor boy. Just wants to play with his toys."

Elise spun and headed for their designated APC transport. "Are you going to spend this whole mission backseat driving?"

Crackle glanced down at Elise's rear. "Not much 'back' in this seat, unfortunately."

"There is more muscle in my left thigh than your entire body," snorted Elise. "Nothing wrong with dreams, but keep the stupid ones to yourself."

Crackle made an obscene comment about her impression of Jason's sexual preferences that Elise ignored.

The APC took them deep into the rainforest. They spent forty minutes bouncing around dense, unkempt roads clearly meant for smaller vehicles. By the time they dragged to a stop, Elise was comprehensively lost.

"We're here?" she asked, straightening.

"Not even close," snorted the driver. "This is as far as the road goes. The Kollective Kove is a few miles north." He tossed her a survival pack. "Follow the compass. Either way, I couldn't come. The Ks are a bit... xenophobic to my kind."

"Idiots?" she guessed.

"Weaklings," he corrected, then slammed the partition shut.

Elise took an irritated breath and jumped out. Crackle followed, taking a moment to roll her shoulders before stepping aside to let the APC reverse.

"Isn't this wonderful?" the Rogue laughed. "About time we had a girls' night out."

Bugs immediately assailed Elise's skin. Her durability meant they'd never get through, but it was still annoying. A passive, full-body heat shield immediately corrected this. Charred insects dropped to the grass around her. Crackle followed suit, as aggressing mosquitoes were loudly zapped apart.

"Where's your bag?" asked Elise.

Crackle laughed. "I could fly out of these stupid woods anytime I want."

Elise shrugged and fished out the compass. After brief consultation, she situated herself and began the trek.

Elise's protective barrier quickly proved its worth. And due to the nature of her abilities, heat didn't phase her—at least, not at a temperature where biological life could persist. Even Crackle's neck glistened after a few minutes in the setting sun.

They walked for an hour before their first real run-in with local fauna. A tiger, over ten feet in length, materialized from the shadows. It kept low as if to stalk them. Unfortunately, its targets were King-Class Alphas and immediately faced it.

The beast froze, then charged. To Elise, it was moving underwater. She considered the pros and cons of killing an endangered animal before sighing and sidestepping its lunge.

"Electrocute it," she ordered Crackle.

The Rogue blinked. "No."

"Why not?"

"Don't wanna."

"Don't give a fuck. I can't kill it, as we don't know how the Kove will react."

Crackle narrowed her eyes. "Why is this my problem?"

"Because if they're pissed at me, they're pissed at you. This is the Kollective we're talking about. If I'm dead, you're dead."

Crackle watched Elise dance around the tiger before rolling her eyes with a dramatic groan. Light jumped out from her finger and dropped the beast like a rock.

Elise studied it momentarily and, after ensuring it wasn't dead, tapped her chin.

"What now?" grumbled Crackle. The miserable climate seemed to have chipped away at her prickly and childish attitude.

"This is too slow," sighed Elise. She secured the pack around her shoulders and crouched. "Keep up."

A burst of plasmic fire launched her up from the forest floor to the wooden playground of the jungle's upper levels. She ping-ponged off branches and trunks with tight, controlled explosions. Monkeys, snakes and other exotic life flashed by as she cruised through the sky like a comet.

"This is stupid!" Crackle yelled over rushing wind. "They might see this as an attack!"

Elise snorted. Crackle's misery was a small comfort to a terrible and exhausting week. Matthius' wounds had almost depressed her to immobility. She'd surprised herself saying yes to Magne's assignment.

What surprised her more, though, was how she'd felt speaking to Bernard. There hadn't been any anger, only transparent rationalization. Elise struggled to fault his orders, no matter how she personally felt about them. He'd even spoken up for her in the hospital against Jason.

That, she couldn't make sense of.

This past month had truly been one of the most turbulent of her life.

Elise's absorbing reflection almost caused her to miss the flash of red and yellow a half mile east. Crackle tailed her sharp turn in confusion before they eventually landed in a small clearing covered in flattened grass and dead leaves.

"What are we doing here?" she demanded. "The–"

"Senses are critical to survival in these lands," intoned a deep voice from shadows behind them. With the sun long since down, Elise had to rely on her enhanced vision to cut through and identify the newcomer.

Crackle surged with power as she spun for a target.

"Calm down," snapped Elise. "How many non-Akolytes have you seen wearing red robes in a jungle?"

The man nodded solemnly. "Lady Crimson speaks soundly, Thunderess. I am but a simple envoy."

The newcomer wasn't the tallest, but he was handsome and wore a thick crown of dark hair well. Curved fangs flashed up at the women when he grinned, adding a touch of supernatural intrigue.

"You're our guide?" Elise glowered. "How long did you track us before deciding to step in?"

"You have your orders," declared the Akolyte with laughing eyes, "and I have mine. I'm sure my betters have their reasons."

"Reasons like wanting to make sure we were alone?" asked Elise, walking towards the Akolyte. "With no way of contacting reinforcements?"

The Akolyte shrugged. "I can only stipulate."

"Sure you can." Elise rolled her eyes. "Name?"

The Akolyte bowed his head. "Jinhai. I humbly place myself in your care, Lady Crimson."

"Somehow," snorted Elise, "I doubt that."

Jinhai led them through winding, viney foliage. Elise quickly lost track of what was what, but the Akolyte looked confident. He purposefully cut through heaps of flora for another half hour before they came up on the side of a massive cliff. Given the environment, Elise had no idea how such a thing was possible. Jinhai waltzed right through a large gap in the stone without so much as a second glance. The women followed him into an entryway of stone and brilliant, glittering gems.

The hundred-foot corridor opened to a colossal atrium with long, intricately designed balconies stretching the length of the walls. Elise could only guess how many football fields would fit inside. Pillars spiralling hundreds of feet high kept the absurdly tall roof stable. Said pillars were made of exotic jade stone and patterned with some of the catchiest carving art Elise had ever seen. The floor was composed of white glass, though even that was patterned beautifully to resemble a dragon's scales. Hundreds of Akolytes manned the balconies above them. Their animated discussion petered out as the guests made the long walk to the centre of the room.

Directly before the trio was a gigantic throne. The backrest fanned up like a dragon wing, and the armrests were modelled into dragon claws. Elise couldn't even begin to guess its constitution, but she'd wager it was the costliest thing in the Kove. Blue veins tunnelled through translucent, crystalline red stone. Every few seconds, the blue would glow, and a pulse of energy would roll down and wash over the reflective floor. Six smaller thrones of lesser but still striking quality and design stood at either side of the central dais, these yellow and pumping orange light out from their bases.

In a clever display of architectural genius, a forty-foot golden Chinese dragon looped around the throne podium. Its scales reflected the constant energy waves washing through the room, while black, gem eyes seemed to drink everything in.

It was one of the gaudiest, most ostentatious displays of wealth and opulence Elise had ever seen, and she'd met royal families. The walls looked lined with gold and jewels.

A pure gold dragon of that size would be worth billions at a minimum.

Lounged in the thrones were the presumed leaders, all in far flashier clothing and jewellery than Jinhai. The central blue throne was occupied by a man with a bright red crown. Elise could best describe it as a jagged hoop made of hardened blood.

"Welcome!" boomed the monarch. "Feast your eyes on the Kove."

Elise had been doing plenty of that already, so she ignored him and stepped past Jinhai's prostrating form to stand before the monarch.

"Greetings." Diplomacy had never been her strong suit, but not fighting always trumped the alternative. "I'm Crimson Nova. I assume you've been in contact with my... employers?"

The monarch regarded her dryly before facing an approaching Crackle. "We have, yes. Thunderess, welcome. I am pleased to see you in good health."

Elise was warier than she was offended at the monarch's slight. He was familiar with Crackle, which posed problems. A pre-established relationship made the mission redundant, dramatically increasing her chances of death.

"Likewise, King Shihong. Thank you for granting us safe passage."

Elise had to fight astonishment off her face. Crackle respectfully addressing anyone was a massive shock to her system. She'd even assumed she'd need to mediate between Kollective management and Crackle's childish idiocy.

Brief deliberation revealed she had no real cards and should just get things over with.

"You've met?"

King Shihong nodded. "The Thunderess was our contact. She orchestrated this meeting."

Elise frowned. "I see. Any particular reasons not to have negotiated the Talons then and there as opposed to... whatever this is?"

"Because they are our most prized possession, Lady Crimson. Every scrape and furrow tells a story stretching back centuries. Millennia of celestial warfare elevated the Phoenixes, and, by extension, their Talons, from beast to myth. They hold more value to us than some countries." He smiled. "Most countries." Shihong lounged back, letting part of his robe split over his open chest. "What would you say is the value of a country, Lady Crimson?"

"Right," muttered Elise. "I'm not sure what exactly you're expecting, but I'm only amenable to brief and harmless rituals. We'll pay the difference back in cash."

Shihong chuckled darkly. Several of his Akolytes and fellow throne-sitters joined in.

Elise crossed her arms, unphased. "No ritual?"

"Of course not," laughed Shihong. "The price has already been paid."

Elise's eyes flicked to an Akolyte scurrying to deposit a gem-encrusted chest before her supposed handler. Crackle popped it open, exposing four glowing claws resting in velvet beds. Even almost ten feet away, Elise could feel the power rolling off them.

Shihong hadn't been joking.

Those things were the real deal.

She refocused. Though exchanged pleasantries had been, well, pleasant, things were deteriorating. Fast. Clearly, their 'negotiations' were little more than a formality, making her expendable.

And unfortunately, expendable assets were often expended.

"If you don't mind me asking, King Shihong, what was the point of all this? We embarked on a long, arduous journey to barter for something that was ultimately unnecessary. Why?"

"Because the price had to be paid," Shihong said, grinning wryly. "I did not lie. These Talons are the most important thing our Kollective possesses. We would not relinquish them lightly."

"What price?" Elise asked tiredly. Magne didn't strike her as the type for these kinds of games. If he wanted her dead, he'd just have attacked her himself. And definitely not before grilling her on Jason's Sunmaker first. "Ogling the women who come to collect?"

Shihong smirked as he rose from his throne. Standing at an easy seven feet and rippling with lithe muscle, he cut quite the figure. Elise didn't think it much compared to her husband, whose width she preferred to Shihong's leanness, but it wasn't an eyesore. Even less so when he shrugged off his robe and hopped off the dais.

"Our deal is complete, Crackle. The Talons are yours."

Crackle shot her an evil grin. "Pleasure's all mine, Cap."

Elise rolled her eyes. "You can't be serious."

"As a corpse." Bright red energy rose from the glass floors and slithered up Shihong's legs. "Wu Jiayi."

Elise shrugged off her pack as she tried reasoning with Crackle. "Think about what you're doing, idiot. I was recruited for a reason. This will not end the way you want."

Crackle offered her a lopsided grin. "Of course it will."

"WU JIAYI!" roared Shihong. The Kove rattled, and dust rained from above.

Elise regarded him, then glanced around. "Is... are you calling someone?"

"I cannot call Jiayi, nor can anybody else. She is with the Red Lord, as she's been for years."

"I see." Elise blinked. "I, eh, guess he's not very popular around here?"

"The Red Lord is extremely popular among our Kollective," sneered Shihong, his eyes brilliant and blinding. "We all look forward to meeting him in the Silver Gardens of the Beyond."

"Ah." She didn't really have anything else to say. "Is there a point to this?"

"Our parents died when she was born. From infancy, I was tasked with her wellbeing. Not a day passed without me doing my utmost to ensure this."

The Akolytes were now leaning eagerly over the rails.

They smelled blood.

"Twenty years I kept her safe. Protected and cherished. Twenty years and four months before the White Death tore her from my arms."

Elise took a step back as his skin began to morph. "Again, I have no idea what that is or what you're talking about."

"Then you are not nearly as dangerous as they say. Who else but the Destroyer? The White-Eyed Reaver? Your beloved!"

Shihong's lip curled back in disgust.

"Jason Nova."

You cannot be fucking serious, Elise groaned internally. How do his problems find me, even in the middle of bumfuck nowhere?!?

"King Shihong, while my husband has–"

"SILENCE!" screamed Shihong with an explosion of red-gold energy. Elise shouldered the heatwave with no real trouble, though the pressure did force her to dig in. When the dust cleared, Shihong was gone. In his place was a seven-hundred-foot-long serpentine dragon. It looked almost identical to the golden dragon, though about a thousand times larger. Elise could feel the energy seeping out of it like a leaky tap.

"We will find him," snarled the dragon. Elise was extremely displeased to recognize Shihong's voice. "My vengeance will shatter his foul soul. She did him no wrong. He sought her out and executed her like an animal ."

"He's a Hero !" Elise shouted, still intent on de-escalation. She had no interest in fighting this crazed dragon man. "His job is to hunt down criminals. He wouldn't have tried to kill her, either. If she died, it was her own doing."

"Blood begets blood," intoned Shihong, his words booming off the jewelled Kove walls. "My sister was a queen. Her life is worth ten of yours. Your death will not be sufficient. The Kollective will burn the Nova fire until nothing is left but ash."

Elise was losing him. "You endanger your standing with the Family! Don't do this, Shihong!"

Crackle grinned and hefted her chest. "I'll take good of him, E."

Her instincts screamed a warning. Crackle's distraction nearly cost her as Shihong bulleted forward with a gullet open wide. Skyscraper-sized serpents should not have been able to move that fast. Plasma popped beneath her boots and sent her twisting over the dragon in a high, spinning arc.

Big opponent, low mobility, strategized Elise. I need to keep him here, where he's restri–

Three dozen fireballs roared in from below, turning everything orange. The heat was negligible, but the force threw Elise off course, leaving her open to Shihong's second charge. His truck-sized muzzle rammed her up and through one of the golden balconies. It crumpled with a shriek, crushing a dozen Akolytes.

Elise snarled in frustration and flared with energy, forcing him back with a screech. She didn't even have time to format a response before the Akolytes resumed their bombardment.

Plasma shielding helped her wade through the onslaught and dive back to the glass floor. She elected against rolling to bleed the impact of a sixty-foot drop in favour of cracking the glass and bracing for Shihong's next charge.

Instead, the dragon opened wide, unleashing a deluge of cosmic fire strong enough to send Elise flying. She flailed through the entrance and crashed through a dozen trees outside before dragging to a stop almost a mile away.

"Fuck," groaned Elise, rolling out of her crater. She'd felt the heat of that one. Not to mention the force. The ridiculous punch of Shihong's breath confirmed the energy contained within the Kollective's glass had nuclear levels of power, though her energy senses weren't an exact science. She could be wrong. She hoped she was.

Either way, she had no intention of finding out.

An earthshaking bellow drew her attention back up, where Shihong's dragon form arrowed out of the cave, rising high as his whiskers ignited. Yellow fog clouded his eyes, currently fixed on her small form, and his jaw snapped open.

"FUCK!" swore Elise, blasting herself into the air.

Unmitigated destruction rolled out instants later. Shihong's breath wasn't the widest, but it cut a two-mile track of annihilation. Leaves shrivelled, wood disintegrated, and sand glassed instantly. Animals caught in the beam of death howled in agony as they were roasted alive.

Elise had given a lot of ground. This was meant to be a diplomatic mission, after all. She'd even refrained from directly attacking any of those backstabbing pricks when presented with opportunities.

Now, though? She needed to kill this asshole, and she needed to do it before the military arrived and started filming her battling a Chinese dragon in the middle of an Indonesian rainforest.

What in the world would dear Director Skies say about that?

Fine. Let's fucking dance .

With a casual twist, Elise dragged hundreds of fires from the burning forest into her palm. She spent a moment assimilating them while debating how best to kill the mad king. The answer was as simple as it was disappointing.

The same way she killed everything else.

Shihong spotted her from high and turned to attack. She caught him first, connecting a mile-long plasma ray that rammed his chin back into the cliff wall.

Elise wasted no time closing the distance.

Shihong's brief recovery was rewarded with a second devastating blast. This time, the cliff didn't quite survive, and the impact dislodged hundreds of tons of stone. He managed a despairing shriek before being unceremoniously pinned beneath them. The roar of the Kove partially imploding shook the forest for miles. It only got louder when everything landed, and the dragon was smothered under a small mountain.

Elise, meanwhile, only got closer. She spent the short transit infusing her fist with sufficient power to cook the reptile inside out. Shihong, oblivious, spat tons of damp, earthy grass as he tried to lift back into the air.

He never got the chance.

Elise's skin was peeling by the time she smashed her knuckles into the back of his recently dislodged head. Light erupted from the blow and blew the cliff debris to dust. Surviving trees were sundered like toothpicks. She even drove him into the ground with sufficient force to collapse what was left of the Kove's atrium.

Impressively, Shihong replied with a weaker version of Elise's omnidirectional surge. She careened off his back and crashed a mile later, excavating another subdivision's worth of forestry. Elise scrambled upright as Shihong arced back into the sky and inhaled. The surrounding temperature plummeted as she dragged thermal energy into her body, then skyrocketed when her plasma intercepted Shihong's attack.

Their blasts collided high over the rainforest, blanketing the jungle in blinding light. The warring streams battled furiously for dominance, showering the jungle below in fizzing, radioactive embers.

Elise stood rigid with concentration, consumed in maintaining the flow of plasma. While they were equal in raw power, her finer control eclipsed Shihong's. His fluctuating stream and unease in employing precision were glaringly obvious.

With a grunt, she compressed her beam, shrinking the shaft circumference from over thirty feet to three. The effect was immediate. Shihong's mouth blast dissolved, then he went spinning into the night.

Elise immediately pursued, keen to press her advantage. She'd need–

KRRRAKKK!

Up went down and suddenly she was on her stomach, in a crater of wood. She hissed angrily and rolled off her back to face a hovering Crackle. Electricity arced through her right hand while the chest, glued to her palm with magnetism, hung in her left.

"Damn," sighed the Rogue. "Thought he had you."

Elise didn't respond verbally. Crackle's smirk at evading her first attack vanished when the second slammed her into a tree. The Talon chest went flying, though Elise couldn't tell where. Shihong demanded attention, forcing her to brace and punch a two-hander into his neck.

Her beam dragged him through several football fields worth of jungle. He would've gone further, too, had Crackle not had her say.

Lightning crashed Elise through dozens of trunks. She wasn't focused enough to absorb it, a misstep paid in screaming nerves. She ignored them, using plasma thrusts to slip clear of Crackle's follow-up and back to her feet.

"Eat shit!" screamed Crackle, unleashing a storm of lightning.

Elise sneered. "Ugly and stupid. If you learn to read a speedometer, use handicapped parking."

The electricity split and disappeared into her outstretched hands, shifting her naturally red hair to a deep, bloody orange. Crackle's confused pause got her beamed by an electrically empowered plasma blast.

Unfortunately, Elise's victory was short-lived as Shihong appeared and chomped onto her with the power of a freight train. Her staggered dodge meant he only caught her shin, but even that had its skin sheared off.

He didn't stop there, either, plowing hundreds of tons of earth with Elise as a shovel.

She yowled furiously and shoved her arm into his nose. The following explosion tore her from Shihong's mouth and shredded his muzzle, eliciting another earth-shaking bellow.

Cue another wild tailspin and loud, painful crash.

Focus, she chided herself, pushing the pain to a side. Use this to your advantage. Fight intelligently.

Crackle recovered first and employed a brute charge. Elise crouched low and got under her guard, redirecting them sideways and bowling through forestry. She ignored the sting of Crackle's power and blasted her into the ground, simultaneously throwing herself higher in the sky.

Doing so gave her a sprawling view of her surroundings. A few miles south, she even spotted the camp.

Bingo .

Three hundred tons of mythic monster meat cruised in and punished her momentary contemplation, batting Elise into a wild tailspin.

She rightened and redirected for the camp, spinning to stagger Shihong with a salvo of peppering blasts. His barbaric screams served as her only reward. He didn't slow in the slightest.

Crackle then swooped out of the underbrush and tackled Elise higher into the sky. The trees flinched from the impact, even over a mile below.

The Rogue resumed her ramblings. "I'm gonna fucking skin yo–"

Elise cut her off with an elbow to the neck, then clamped her hand around the back of Crackle's head and erupted. The resulting explosion elevated her by another fifty feet as Crackle streaked for the ground, but that only revealed Shihong's ugly mutt arcing in for a late-night snack.

"Ugh!" she groaned, thrusting past his assault and down for the camp. "I don't have time for this!"

Her U-turn slowed Shihong's colossal slithering form, but Crackle was right there to once again materialize from the bowels of the Indonesian wilderness and crash into Elise.

"I'm gonna rip your fucking eyes out, bitch!" shrieked the Rogue. Electricity poured from her pores with such ferocity Elise felt her plating sear.

Elise matched her and sent energy flooding to her head. "Try it!"

Plasma fountained out of her eyes and into Crackle's chest, yanking the Rogue through a line of Breaker tents and into the base of a watchtower. Said Breakers then proceeded to scramble hysterically for cover. Despite being in a humid, waterlogged jungle, their contest spawned hundreds of fires in tents, towers and equipment. Even the road started to burn. At least, it burned where Crackle lay sprawled in a heap, trying to crawl from the mount of debris pinning her.

In a battle of Kings, nowhere was safe.

Shihong arrived in a storm of fire, roasting tracks of undergrowth from body heat alone. Elise executed a twenty-foot dive to lunge clear of the blitz before belting a plasma whip against the side of his head. Shihong shrieked as he was driven into their cargo plane, flattening it instantly.

Hope the Blood-fucker was still in it, she snarked silently.

Elise used the reprieve to scan her surroundings. Breakers lay strewn everywhere, many dismembered from heat or force. Most of the tents were on fire, though the actual buildings looked to be in better condition, especially, curiously enough, the munitions dump.

She twisted and located Pink's tent, which was also gone. She panicked momentarily before finding the scientist sprinting towards her from a completely different direction.

"What the fuck happened?" he screamed as Crackle electrified her encumberments to confetti. Luckily, she spent much longer actually rising to her feet.

Elise huffed out ragged breaths, wiping blood from the side of her head. "What's it look like? Got crossed."

"Can you win?" he asked, staring dumbfounded at the skyscraper-sized dragon levitating off the ground.

Elise did another sweep of the camp and shrugged. "I've got an idea."

"Will it work?"

"How the fuck should I know?" She nodded to his small collection of equipment. "What's the gear do?"

"Limited combat, but mostly navigation." He inspected her damaged costume. "What happened to the Talons?"

"Crackle had them, then I hit her, and she didn't." Elise gestured to the rainforest around them. "Take your pick."

Crackle, finally on her feet, thrust out her hands with a shriek. The sky rumbled, then a rod of blinding light hammered down to drape her body in writhing arcs of energy. Her eyes went white, sparking wildly as her heels left the asphalt.

"That's not good," muttered Pink.

Elise, on the other hand, grinned. "Actually, it's perfect." She turned and shot him a meaningful, serious look. "Management needs you to come out of this one alive, Pink. I'll handle her, but you need to get clear. Go."

Pink regarded her for a few beats before nodding. "Understood. See you on the other side."

His belt flashed, covering his body with a small film and lifting him into the sky.

Elise snorted. Navigation my ass.

The lightning strike ended, leaving Crackle hovering above the camp, wreathed in white arcs. She glared down at Elise. "I am sick and tired of your fucking meddling! I have had to watch for DECADES as you stole what was MINE ! As your mutant children got what OURS should've had! I had to watch him pretend to love that powerless freak! All to keep you happy! You ruined EVERYTHING !"

The ground cracked under Elise as she dialled up her plasmic output. "Do you ever think that maybe, just maybe, he doesn't like you!"

"HE LOVES ME! HE LOVES ME, AND YOU TOOK HIM! YOU DESTROYED HIM!" Crackle's eyes bled from power and hysteria. "HE BELONGS TO ME!"

The bolt hit like an atomic bomb and uprooted the runway. Elise lost her voice screaming but stayed focused. She'd only have one shot at this, considering Shihong's recovery rate.

"I would've given him better than Matthius and Bernard !" blabbed Crackle. "He would've been happy ! He would've had the children he wanted !"

"Enough!" roared Elise, thrusting out her arms.

Crackle's bolt went from a bar of absolute energy to a stream of splintering light as Elise absorbed it. Power roared through her limbs, wracking her body with tremors and driving her to a knee. Her nerves screamed and her bones chattered as they struggled to handle the nonsensical volume of power.

Crackle's face contorted when Elise refused to disintegrate. She hissed furiously as her enemy drank it all in, even when her gloves melted into a puddle of silver goo.

"I won't let–" was all Crackle managed to splutter before being blitzed.

Elise's hand around her neck cut her short and pounded the Rogue into the devastated runway. The shockwave punched out another crater and carpeted what was left of the camp in errant bolts.

"My children," spat Elise, ripping energy directly from Crackle's body, "are not freaks . My husband doesn't belong to you. We have entertained your delusional, insane nonsense for too long."

Crackle thrashed wildly as Elise took everything: electricity, static and even internal body heat. Skin blackened, blood froze in its veins and muscles atrophied grotesquely from the unending void of Crimson Nova's hunger.

"Mine!" wheezed Crackle as her throat shrivelled in Elise's grip.

"No. M ine ," she growled as Crackle's fingers slackened. "You have nothing and no one. You are nothing and no one. He is mine. He will always be mine. They are my husband and my children. They are all mine ."

With a scream, Elise ripped everything out. Crackle's body, now no more than a charred, half-frozen, smoking husk, shuddered before exploding around Elise's stomping boot. The broken hunks of what was once a King Class Alpha slowly broke apart and gradually began to disintegrate.

Conversely, Elise was completely topped on energy. Her legs struggled to stay upright, shivering with strain. Her vision swam and fizzed with brilliant, blinding colour, which was unfortunate since she still had a tower-sized serpent to wrangle.

Shihong had taken his time recovering, patiently waiting for Crackle to sufficiently weaken Elise, leaving her ripe for killing. With the Rogue dead, he took his chance and swooped in, jaws wide and gleaming, ready to crunch her to bite-sized pieces.

Too late, prick, thought Elise.

Elise slipped wide of his fangs, seized a handful of his whiskers and used her now overflowing reserves of radioactive energy to propel them backward.

Hard.

Unfortunately, as her physical strength wasn't anywhere near her husband's, Elise had to heave with every muscle in her body while simultaneously thrusting plasma from her melted boots. She nearly dislocated both arms, but Shihong was wrenched from his blitz and swung into position.

The dragon realized what she was doing too late. He couldn't even slow them from plowing through the roof of the munitions dump. The Kill Kollective King could only bellow as Elise expelled the entirety of Crackle's life force from her hands.

Elise, on the other hand, grinned maniacally as they crashed through a stack of canoe-sized missiles, then everything went white.

Elise bolted upright with a strangled gasp before doubling over in a coughing fit. She heaved for several minutes before finding the strength to stagger upright. Once certain her legs wouldn’t give, she took stock.

Her armour was in tatters. Part of her chestplate had been torn off, her backside was partially exposed, and the collarbone section of her outfit was gone. Anxiety washed through Elise at the sight of her exposed throat, but she fought past it to scan her surroundings.

Unsurprisingly, she could see nothing but trees. However, in her defence, it was still nighttime, and her head wasn’t in the best condition.

With a few spurts of plasma that took far more energy than they should’ve, Elise whisked herself up to the tip of a taller tree for better sights. A few minutes of squinting revealed a small city's blinking, telltale skyline dozens of miles away. She then turned south, according to where the moon hung in the sky and nearly fell off her perch.

A Boston-sized crater had been carved out of the world. There were no trees, no grass, no animals in the colossal, excavated bowl. It went deep at its centre, but the blast had clearly gone out , not down. The Breaker base had, quite simply, been eradicated. The planes, debris, munitions dump, and even runway asphalt no longer existed. At the edge of the crater, though, was where she could see hundreds of scattered red scales. Massive, though singed and warped from heat. She even spotted a familiar yellow eye impaled to a thicker trunk.

Shihong would meet the Red Lord in his Gardens far earlier than anticipated.

"Fuck me," rasped Elise, steadying herself against a branch. "Haven't let loose like that in years." She coughed. "Scratch that. Haven’t let loose like that ever." She sighed. "Pink better have escaped, or I'll never hear the end of it. God. Always me, solving other people's problems."

She shook her head and turned for civilization. Even miles away, she could see helicopters and vehicle convoys chugging into the jungle, moving to investigate whatever dark power had just taken a bite out of the planet.

Elise hit the ground gingerly, grimacing at the resulting shock rolling up her leg. "How the fuck am I supposed to get home now?"