It had been easier with Cinder.


    Myth couldn''t help but think back to the first time he had met the girl. Back then, he didn''t even have his team fully planned out. He had only just found Snowdawn and got Lois to agree to join him. The day he had met Cinder had been just like any other. He worked with a group of the police force to track where all the missing animals had been taken and discovered the villain known as Red Ape had been hiding out in the sewers.


    In a way, this was almost exactly like that, but now the stakes were much higher. Instead of the sewers, which had over a hundred different paths, they were going deep into the subway, which had over one thousand ways to go. Other cities had reported that their animals were going missing, and most knew it must have been the work of Red Ape. The madman was most certainly copying what he had done the first time. The most significant change this time around, though, was that there was no Battery or Cinder to save the day.


    "You guys will need to be careful," Alexander called back to the heroes who had followed him through the station. "Some of these places can be a tight squeeze."


    "No kidding..." Oxide winced and did her best to suck in her gut and chest as she awkwardly squeezed through a gap. She was jealous of not being flat for the first time in her life.


    Oleander had taken quite the beating in the fight with the Beast. Most of the train stations had been from an older point in the city''s history, and nowadays, they weren''t used. Many had collapsed in on themselves, and rubble was piled all around them. Alexander navigated through it, though, by ducking under pillars of stone or going through cracks in the wall that led to other tracks.


    It was sort of like cave diving in a way. Only somehow worse.


    Paragon weaved in and out of the rubble right behind the man. She was followed closely by Wasp Nest and Oxide. Directly behind them, covering the rear, was the newest member of Oleander''s Sub Enforcers, Drake. His tail slapped at falling debris, and he shoved his way through walls, brute forcing his way. He kept getting nasty looks from the others for almost bringing the place down, but that didn''t seem to stop him. Finally, in the very back, Metal Ronin and Myth walked together.


    Myth had shrunk back to his human form, and Metal Ronin had switched his armor to a leaner and more skintight suit. It was sort of like Snowdawn''s own gear—a silver skintight bodysuit that covered him from the neck down. A few blue dots were scattered across it, forming circuit lines that sparked slightly.


    "Have you field-tested that new suit yet?" Myth questioned.


    Metal Ronin looked down at his hands, flexing them open and closed. He didn''t have his helmet on but did wear a blue visor that covered his eyes and nose. It brought up various scans and information about his new suit. "No. This will be the first time I try using something like this." He admitted. Normally all his gear was made out of trash. His power allowed him to recycle and find uses for anything, even garbage, but this particular suit had been forged from the destroyed robots Boy Genius had sent out in the Beast battle. What little bit that was left of them had been fashioned together into the small, skintight suit he now wore. "I got the idea for this suit after seeing Battery in action. Some of the stuff he did in the fight with the Beast blew me away."


    "Yeah... He was strong." Myth grumbled.


    "Oh! I shouldn''t have said that, should I?" Metal Ronin winced and ran his fingers through his hair. In the past he had dyed it blonde to stand out more, but now it had been turned into a dull blue color.


    "It''s fine." Myth''s face made it clear he was lying.


    "Have you heard from Whisper at all?"


    "No."


    "Oh..." Metal Ronin awkwardly cleared his throat as the two of them dropped to their knees and crawled beneath a wall with a massive hole in the bottom that led out to another series of tracks. "Yo, Mr. Lauren, I had a question!" He called out.


    "Call me Alex!" The man hollered back. "And what''s your question?"


    "You guys were hunting all the monsters that appeared in here, right?"


    "That''s right." Alexander stopped and looked around at where they were. This tunnel was wider than the rest, and the tracks had long been torn out, turning it into a simple stone pathway. "When we first came down here, I joined many of the hunting groups and was one of the first to map out how far we could go. A lot of these tunnels are collapsed, but as you saw, I know the best places to get around them all despite that little issue. We''re getting close to the danger zone. At the end of this tunnel is another opening that was created, and that''s where a lot of the monsters are. It can be tricky killing them and getting their bodies back through all those tight spots, but we''ve managed."


    "And you haven''t gone past the monster-filled zone?" Oxide questioned.


    "Nope. It''s been too dangerous. My guess is Red Ape is near that area, so we didn''t want to risk anything," Alexander explained.


    "Red Ape isn''t strong, but I thought it would be for the best if I gathered a group up before I tried to confront him," Paragon stated, folding her arms. "I didn''t want to risk him pulling out the win on me because I let my guard down."


    "Well, that''s why we''re here." Wasp Nest smirked. "I''ll take that loser down in two seconds."


    "Is he really that weak?" Drake asked awkwardly.


    "Let''s just put it this way." Myth spoke up. "The only time I''ve considered him to be a threat was when he used gear made from other Mental-based Supers."


    "Oh wow. Wish bad guys sucked that hard in my city." Drake said in surprise.


    "I haven''t actually fought Red Ape either." Oxide noted. "The only real powerhouse on Zoo, though, was Green Wolf, right?"


    "Not exactly." Myth shook his head. "They had some other heavy hitters like White Cow and Black Shark."


    "You beat both of them though?" Metal Ronin said sheepishly. "Do they really count as heavy hitters if they lost to you?"


    "Are you calling me weak?" Myth asked, raising an eyebrow.


    "No, sir! I just meant you''re a lot stronger than you were a few months ago!" Metal Ronin looked around at the others. "We''ve all been working our asses off to get better so that next time something like the Beast happens we won''t be dead weight." His eyes slowly settled on Paragon. "You''ve really improved a lot also. I heard you could even join the Enforcers if you wanted to."


    Paragon didn''t say anything, instead choosing to keep her gaze forward. Her fingers did grip down on the sword that was at her side, though. It was Alexander who spoke up next, the man clearing his throat. "Alright. We''re about there." He called out.


    Up ahead, the tracks began to appear once more as they reached a part of the tunnel that didn''t have them all torn out yet. They had gone through a lot of rubble to reach this point, so it was kind of odd how untouched this section was. It opened back up as they came to another underground station, much like the one Alexander and his people had set up as a camp. Unlike that station, though, this one was abandoned. Some rubble had come down near the stairs that would lead up to the city below, blocking it off, but the rest of it was untouched for the most part. There was another tunnel at the very end of the station that would lead to the other half of the city.


    "Would you guys mind if we took a bit of a break?" Alexander asked as they exited the tunnel. They had been walking for less than an hour, but the hard terrain seemed to affect the older man. His face was a little pale, and he kept breathing heavier than usual.


    "Of course," Paragon nodded. "We should be good to go on our own from this point on. Now that you''ve led us to this tunnel, you can return if you want."


    "I''ll walk you back." Wasp Nest offered, holding his hand up. He had stopped being in his swarm form around the time they left the station full of people. "Now that I''ve seen how to get here, I can go in and out of my form and map the rest of this tunnel while we go back."


    "That sounds good to me; just let me catch my breath." The man chuckled and hopped up onto the platform sitting on it. "I''m the oldest one here, and compared to you younglings, I''ve practically got one foot in the grave."


    "I''m sure you got a ton of life left to give, man!" Metal Ronin said, giving a thumbs up.


    Myth cleared his throat, getting attention back on him. "You heard the guy. Take ten, everyone. After that, Wasp Nest will take Mr. Lauren back, and we''ll enter into the tunnel with the monsters in it."


    Everyone slowly mingled amongst each other while that let the older man calm his beating heart. Oxide stood off by herself, folding her arms, and played with some of her liquid metal. Metal Ronin and Wasp Nest moved further down the tunnel they had come from and were playing around with Metal Ronin''s new suit, the tech-based hero showing his friend how he could change its colors on the fly with a thought, causing the suit to shift from white to black to pink. Paragon took a seat next to Mr. Lauren, and the two were talking about something, but Myth didn''t really get to hear much of it as Drake came to stand next to him.


    The dragon-themed hero leaned against the wall and folded his arms. "You doing, okay?"


    "Are you?" Myth shot back. "I heard your sister was kicked out of her city."


    "Yeah. Some nice guy your former teammate turned out to be." Drake huffed, and a spark of fire came out of his mouth. "I can''t believe he actually expects us to believe he beat the Victorian."


    "You saw the video, didn''t you?"


    "The video''s fake, obviously."


    "Is it?"


    "Of course. Even if it wasn''t, though, the Hero Branch would surely stop him."


    "Would they?" Myth raised an eyebrow.


    "Yeah! Even if I don''t always agree with some of the things they do, they''ve still managed to help a lot of people. The cities wouldn''t be nearly as protected if not for the superheroes. No way they''d willingly let him kick them all out and replace the heroes with those Giants."


    "Could they stop him, though?" Myth hummed. "There was a thing I heard once. Every Enforcer member could team up and fight the Victorian, and the number one hero would still win. That''s why the Supers fell in line when the Hero Branch came knocking. They had her under their thumb. If she lost and Battery is really the next strongest hero, could they actually stop him?"


    "Of course they could. Because they''d have every other Enforcer member as well as the Victorian."


    "What if she didn''t help?"


    "Why wouldn''t she?" Drake frowned. "She''s a hero."


    "Maybe she doesn''t want the spot back."


    "What? Why?"


    "I don''t know. That''s the only thing I can think of, though." Myth shrugged. "I mean after all. Boy Genius, Victorian, and the brand-new Lightning Empress." He spat the last name out as it left a bitter aftertaste in his mouth. "Those three teaming up could likely beat the Emperor, so wiping out Battery should be no issue for them, especially if you added the other members of the Enforcers. The only reason I can think of why this hasn''t happened is that the Victorian doesn''t want to take the spot back. And if she doesn''t take the spot back, the next heavy hitter is Boy Genius, and it''d take him a bit to come up with a new weapon to take out Battery, even with the other Enforcers on his side."The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    "Is Battery really that strong?" Drake winced.


    "You tell me." Myth sighed and balled his hand into a tight fist. He could still remember all the missions they had gone on as team Pantheon. How did things change so much? "You saw the battle with the Beast, right? The only people that actually did anything to that monster when all was said and done was Battery, the Victorian, and Cinder."


    Drake bit his lip, nearly drawing blood. The teen hated to admit it, but Myth was sort of right. Most of them hadn''t been able to go toe-to-toe with the Beast while its power was suppressed in its suit. The only reason they managed to fight it at all toward the end was due to how much damage it had taken from the nonstop battles it had gotten in back-to-back with everyone. The difference in power between Supers could be massive, even more so when you look at regular Supers compared to the monsters that were Battery and the Victorian. Those two were simply in another league, reaching levels of power that rivaled the Lords.


    Slowly, Drake spoke up in a desperate voice. "If the Victorian doesn''t step up to him, then what happens next? Does he just remain at the top, and we just hope he has our best interests at heart?"


    "Maybe?" Myth didn''t sound too sure himself as the man lazily shrugged his shoulders. "Or maybe the Victorian has another plan in mind."


    "And what would that be?"


    "If she doesn''t want the position of number one hero, maybe, just maybe, she''ll find the next person that should hold onto it. Maybe Battery is simply the man at the top who is waiting to be defeated so the whole world will accept the next greatest hero."


    "Like a scapegoat of some sort? Is that why the Hero Branch hasn''t done anything?" Drake asked in shock.


    "It''s just a theory." Myth snorted. "After all, it assumes that the traitorous bastard still has a heart."


    "Let''s hope then."


    Over with Paragon and Mr. Lauren, the white-haired hero placed her hand on the man''s back. ''I don''t know why you''re bothering. He might have been cured physically, but his Ego has been-'' She tuned out the voice of the Prettiest Flower as she got to work using her powers on the man.


    "How are you holding up, sir?" She asked quietly. "Any new symptoms?"


    "No." Alexander shook his head and forced on a grin. "Not thanks to you, doc. I''ve been able to act like I used to before I got the Dead Virus."


    "It''s important you tell me if something new is happening," Paragon said sternly. "The only reason you lived as long as you did with the Dead Virus is because Lucifer didn''t bother using its full force on you. Normally, he can kill a person instantly with his ability and claim their life for his tome, but he likely didn''t see a point in adding you to his collection. Your body was cured and restored, but you still carried that thing in you for years. There are things not even a Lord of Life can do."


    Paragon was instantly reminded of her mother. She hadn''t been able to bring Ocean Empress back from the dead. Nier wasn''t able to bring his child or daughter back. He had used his powers to make someone that looked like the Princess of Life he married, but it wasn''t the real deal, and he knew that. It would forever be tainted and never hold up to the original. That was what drove him mad, and started his attempt to create his perfect heir using the DNA of his four generals to make the body that would contain the next Lord of Life—strung along by the voice in his head, no doubt.


    She had been forced to learn what it meant to be a Lord from the Prettiest Flower. The Ego just wouldn''t shut up. They were vessels made to hold the power of the first Lords who kept coming back even after death had claimed them. There were three stages to a Lord. The first was a battle mode. This allowed the Lord to tap into a portion of the Ego''s full power. Their hair would change, and their eyes would turn a fiery red. The next stage, though, was the true battle mode. Whenever they began to hear the voice of the Ego within them, they would start the process that would allow it to fully awaken inside of them. The last and final mode was where the Lord would fuse with the host. In the past, Full Monarch did this to power up, but after his betrayal, something she had learned from the Prettiest Flower, the Lords more or less used this form to take the host over and gain a new body. In the Lord of the Sun''s mode, they became cloaked in blue fire powered by the universe, while the Lord of the Sea became a monster found in the darkest depths below. She hadn''t gotten to see the true form of a Lord of Life or Sky, and she hoped to never see it.


    "Seriously, I''m fine." Alexander''s rambling brought her out of her thoughts as the man patted her on the shoulder. "The one you should be worrying about is Jane."


    Paragon shook her head. "That''s not true. I''m worried about both of you. I promised I would keep your daughter safe, and I failed. Over and over again, I always fail when it matters. Not this time, though. I''m going to keep as many people as I can safe. I want to be a real hero."


    Alexander chuckled and flicked her on the forehead. "You already are. You’re the one who saved all those people who had nowhere to go. You found us, helped us find a place to stay, and ensured we would have food. You even fought off a villain group for us. The Skull Boys never stood a chance when we had someone like you with us." Alexander stood up and stretched a bit, giving another grin. “You are seriously the best, Paragon.”


    Sky bowed her head, trying to hide a faint blush that appeared on her face. “D- Don’t say silly things like that.”


    Alexander just laughed before he finally turned to the others. "Alright." He called out. "I''m good to move again. I''ll be heading back the way we came while you guys progress forward-"


    "Hold that thought." Wasp Nest spoke up and held his hand. Three of his fingers were missing, but a second later, a group of wasps landed on his hand and folded back into his flesh, fusing into it as his fingers came back. His gaze was focused on the tunnel they hadn''t gone down yet. While everyone had been busy talking, he had been exploring it. "Something''s coming our way."


    Right on cue, the sound of a stomp echoed throughout the underground. It was followed by several more as a group began to rapidly approach them, coming from the darkness of the tunnel in front of them. They all instantly jumped into action. Wasp Nest crouched down and got ready to shift into his bug form; Oxide grew a large metal whip out of her armored dress, which flowed in the air as if it had a mind of its own; Paragon took a protective step in front of Mr. Lauren and drew her wooden sword, while Drake and Myth both transformed. Both of them grew long, jagged horns, but Drake''s skin grew bits of red scales along his flesh while Myth took on the shape of a massive bull-like beast. Drake''s tail jutted out, growing long, and slapped the ground hard enough to crack it. Finally, that left Metal Ronin, who reached up and pressed a button on his visor; his bodysuit glowed, and the circuit symbols along it came to life, screeching as they struggled to process the power. Something formed over him, coming into existence as red and gold layers of armor closed around him, resembling the armor worn by the few ancient warriors that were capable of uniting feudal lords under one banner, followed by one of his standard beam sabers, the color of which now matched his hair, appearing in his hands. All of this seemingly appeared out of thin air.


    They were all ready for whatever it was that was charing toward them.


    Then they saw it. Myth let out a heavy sigh, and his bull snout let out an annoyed snort. "Seriously. This again? That man really has no creativity, does he?"


    "Why are they so big?" Oxide asked, cocking her head to the side.


    "And so pale?" Alexander frowned.


    Four alligators crawled out of the tunnel, hissing at them. They weren’t regular gators, though. They were thicker and larger than any normal animal, and their skin was coarse and jagged, covered in razor-sharp scales, being a nasty gray color. The animals sported a set of intelligent eyes that quickly tracked the movements of the prey in front of them back and forth. And, of course, placed smack in the middle of their heads were pale white robotic hands that dug their fingers into the scalps of the transformed creatures.


    Red Ape, at the end of the day, was nothing but a one-trick pony.


    The gators roared, but Myth and Drake roared right back, causing the animals to whimper and cower back. It didn''t last for long though, as the hands on top of them squeezed tighter on their skulls and forced them to obey the will that had been programmed into them. Their eyes glazed over, and they charged forward, but they didn''t get very far.


    Oxide changed her whip out, swirling the metal together and forming it into a massive hammer, which she brought directly down on one of the alligators, easily shattering the hand that was controlling it and knocking it out in one blow. Paragon stepped forward and swung her own blade out, the wooden sword growing longer and forming vines on it as if it suddenly became a tree branch. It was still thin and as sharp as a normal sword, easily slicing one of the machine hands clean in half, causing it to slide off of the animal''s head, freeing it. Metal Ronin''s back opened up as thrusters fired out, allowing him to blast forward, and he slammed his free hand out, grabbing the device inside of the third alligator and easily ripping it out as he flew by it. That left just Drake, who lazily spat out a thin beam of fire that pierced the final animal''s robotic hand, blowing it up.


    The three freed animals escaped when they sensed the danger and ran as fast as they could. The one Oxide hit though smashed into the ground, completely knocked out. "That was a bit anticlimactic." Wasp Nest joked. "Like, I didn''t even get to do anything!"


    Paragon crouched down next to the unconscious animal and placed her hand on its hide. Her eyes could see past its hide thanks to her new powers. She could see the little cells that made it up. All the way it had been forced to change, the pain it would have gone through. "Can you change it back?" Oxide asked.


    "No." She shook her head sadly. "I can fix it up a bit, but the damage is more spiritual.”


    “What do you mean?” Metal Ronin asked, suddenly very interested in what was happening. “You mean like their souls have been messed with?”


    “Do souls even exist?” Drake said skeptically.


    “Souls, being real or not doesn’t matter.” Myth grunted. “At the very least, there is something inside of us that functions as a soul. Both my brother and I have forms that can harm this thing.”


    “Myth’s right.” Paragon folded her arms as she stared down at the animal in front of her with pity. “Our bodies hold something known as an Ego, which basically serves as a soul. This Ego is what shapes us and allows us to live. Supers have two Egos, as their power is another Ego that is a reflection of the first. The Lord of Life, and all healers for that matter, aren’t just messing with biology. In a way, we’re messing with the soul itself. I could use my ability of cell manpulation to put the bodies back together to the way they were, but their souls have been altered and shifted around so much that anything I do to them could destroy them. Souls can be very fragile, and the Emperor messing with them was what created all of his monsters. I’d likely end up killing the gators by mistake if I messed with their soul.”


    “There’s really nothing you can do?” Oxide asked sadly.


    “Think of it this way. Imagine you have a cup of clean water. Now put salt water into that cup, and with just your hands, try to get all that salt water out.” Paragon explained. “You’d likely spill all the water before you fully separated it. It’s sort of like that.” Slowly she grabbed her sword, her knuckles turning white as she gripped down on it. “The only thing I can do for these animals is get revenge for them and make the man that harmed them this much pay.”


    "Make him pay? Now that sounds like a threat." A new voice called out to them. They all jumped back and turned to stare at the entrance to the tunnel. Someone stood with their arms crossed, having seemingly walked up while Paragon was busy explaining the theory behind souls. Instantly, they could tell he was a member of Zoo, one that Myth recognized right away. He wore a black bird mask and a black business suit that had flicks of dark dust coming off of it. "Guess I''m going to have to teach you guys a lesson for badmouthing the boss." Black Crow announced, creating a sword out of coal, which he pointed at the heroes in front of him.


    "You''re the villain Money Tree beat," Myth said, narrowing his eyes. "You were there during the attack on the mall last year. How are you here?"


    "Oh, you didn''t hear about what happened to Nightshade?" Black Crow snickered. He wasn''t alone either. From the darkness, growls escaped as several large, mutated lions walked out and stood next to him, all having those familiar hands stabbed into their faces. They had undoubtedly stumbled into Zoo''s base just as they wanted.


    Drake let out a soft snort and folded his arms. "I liked Money Tree, but I''m pretty sure I could beat that guy. If you lost to him, what makes you think you stand a chance against any of us? You don''t really expect a couple of monsterfied animals to give you that big of a boost, do you?"


    Black Crow lazily placed his sword on his shoulder and slowly took his time eying them all up. "Yeah. You''re totally right. I have no chance of beating you guys. Like none at all!" His sword faded into dust, and he lifted his hands up, throwing them into the air. "So, I give up-"


    "Nice try!" Myth roared. "I''ve seen this trick before! Take him out!"


    Drake had zero hesitation. The hero blew past the others, moving faster than any of them, and opened his mouth wide, about to fire a beam of pure flame. He stopped at the last second though when Black Crow dropped to his knees. The villain was ducking. He didn''t get to see it, but he felt it as an unseen slash cut into the top of his head and sliced his eyes apart.


    Drake hit the ground yelling and grabbed at the top part of his face as it rained blood. Paragon was next to him in an instant, placing her hand on him and fixing the damage the best she could, trying to repair his eyes, but the others were all frozen in place. They knew who had to be the one responsible for that attack. Quiet and slow footsteps came from the darkness as a figure began to approach.


    Myth shifted into his lion form while Oxide expanded her dress into a heavily armored suit with a massive shield in front of her. Wasp Nest''s body came undone as he separated into thousands of wasps that buzzed and hissed while Metal Ronin''s suit vanished and flickered, changing into the costume he made after his fight with Wish, that being a large, ten-foot-tall, heavily armored suit that carried a greatsword and shield. Alexander Lauren hid behind one of the pillars in the train station and poked his head out, staring at the sight in front of him.


    Drake winced as his eyes slowly healed, and he was able to see again. "How?" He croaked out. "You''re dead."


    "My death was... Greatly exaggerated." The voice that came from the tunnel wasn''t one any of them were expecting. It caused a chill to go down all their backs as they recognized it very well. Alexander stepped out from behind the pillar and took a step forward in shock. It wasn''t the voice of the cruel villain that called himself Green Wolf. Instead, this was a voice they attributed to a friend, a comrade, or even a loved one. This was the voice of Hope Lauren. A young girl stepped out of the darkness wearing a black suit with a cartoon-green wolf mask that covered her face. She had one hand on her hip and the other one on the katana that she had flung over her shoulder. "Well, what do you all think?" She announced. "Do I make it work or what?"


    Hope Lauren stood before them.