Shortly before the battle with the Beast...


    "Do you think you could use your new power to heal Mr. Larison?" Hope asked softly as she folded her arms.


    "I don''t know," Sky admitted. The healer leaned against the wall, standing next to the Lord of the Sun. The two of them stood directly outside of the room where the other girls were. Lily was currently watching some cheesy horror movie with Sera and Ashley when the two of them decided they needed some alone time to talk. Sky glanced down at her hand, feeling the power that resided in it. A power that had appeared ever since the defeat of Wish. "I don''t think I could fix him. I''m sorry."


    Hope closed her eyes and let out a sigh she had been holding. It was a girls'' night, one she was spending with all of her new friends, and she had waited the entire day to build up the courage to ask Sky that question regarding the future of Mr. Larison. It was an answer she had expected yet still hated. "You''re sure?" She finally asked, opening her eyes.


    Sky nodded slowly. "It''s his power. He''s too strong. I think he would cancel out any changes I tried to make."


    "What do you mean by that?" Hope questioned.


    Sky held up two fingers. "There are two kinds of effects my power can cause in a person. The first is an effect that a person wants. Let''s say you get injured and want me to heal you. I''d touch you and patch you up, and because you wanted that to happen, your power would let me. The second kind of effect, however, is one you don''t want. Wish made contact with you several times yet wasn''t able to change or twist your form."


    "Yeah, I noticed that. The first time I fought her, she kept trying to blow me up, but it wouldn''t work. I assumed it was because I was a Lord since she was able to destroy Money Tree''s hand with one touch."


    "That''s sort of right." Sky nodded. "The stronger a person is, the better they''re able to negate powers on their level or lower. Wish was only really strong due to the number of lives and healing she had. In the grand scheme of things, you are way stronger than she''ll ever be, so anytime she wanted to use her power on you, she''d have to compete with your level of strength, which she couldn''t match up to. It isn''t just a Lord thing, though. All Supers have this trait. People like the Victorian are rumored to be able to move in frozen time due to how strong they are. The closer to someone''s level of power you are, the less their powers can work on you if you don''t want them to. It''s even the case with durability. Attacks won''t harm you simply because you''re so strong."


    Hope nodded her head but held a small frown. "I get what you''re saying, but doesn''t that mean you should be able to heal Mr. Larison? The reason you can heal me despite the power difference was because I''d allow it, right? So, if a Super is crazy strong, they can still be affected by weaker powers if they allow them to work. So, all he needs to do is let your power work on him, right?"


    "And that right there is the main issue." Sky turned away from Hope and stared out the window. The sun had long since set, and the moon hung high up in the sky. "Do you think he''d let me heal him?"


    Hope bit her tongue in order to stop herself from saying a remark she would regret. She had heard Mr. Larison''s words to the Victorian after the battle with the Emperor. It was like he had given up a long time ago. It tore her up inside watching that fake smile on his lips earlier today when he had allowed her to drive his car.


    "I don''t think it matters in the end, though." Sky''s words caused Hope''s thoughts to cease as the healer looked back down at her hand. "I''m still not sure if I''m actually the Lord of Life yet."


    "Of course you are!"


    "I could be. There''s something I''ll need to try first to confirm it, though."


    "Oh? What''s that?"


    Sky just gave a sly smile and brought a finger to her lip. "It''s secret."


    "Aw! Come on, tell me!" Hope whined.


    "Nope." Sky turned her head away, ignoring Hope''s puppy dog stare. "Still though, it does make me curious about the nature of powers now that I''ve inherited Wish''s ability."


    "What do you mean by that?" Hope asked, perking up.


    "The Emperor back in the day tried to create a world of only Supers." Sky practically spat out her father''s title as a look of disgust came onto her face. "He wasn''t able to create new Supers, though. Instead, the things he made were Monsters. They had powers like Supers, but whereas Supers look exactly like humans, Monsters kept changing and growing. Most died out, some became mindless creatures that still roam the planet to this day, and fewer managed to somehow keep their sanity and form. It wasn''t just humans he would change. Golden God and Fairy Queen both used to be Supers until he changed them. He placed new powers inside of them and managed to cause their bodies to twist and change. I''m sure there were others in his army that were also like that, such as Hell Hound."


    "Wish did something similar, too." Hope nodded. "Kevin wasn''t a Super before, yet he changed."


    "I don''t think it was the same thing though." Sky shook her head. "See, that''s what I''ve been thinking about. Previous Lords usually share powers, but they always have one thing above all else that makes them unique. Sini was a Mental-based user on top of being a Lord, Max Lightning was able to create realms, something no other Lord of the Sky showed; and Full Monarch had strength that went past anything any other Lord had. Wish and the Emperor also had powers that other Lords of Life didn''t have. The Emperor was able to create his monsters, but he couldn''t heal as well as Wish could. He could repair his body, but he never showed anything on the same level as Wish, who could literally send her cells out as weapons. I don''t think her way of making Monsters was the same as the Emperor''s. Not to mention those people she did change looked very human."


    "Some Monsters can keep a sort of human form, though. Avalon looked pretty human until he became a sword." Poseidon looked human yet had the same blood as a Monster, though Hope decided not to say that last part out loud.


    "I guess, but I still think it''s different. We won''t know until we ask one of them, though, and I doubt something like that will ever happen." Sky let out a soft snort and balled her hand into a fist, digging her nails into her palm. "What are powers exactly? Where did they come from? We still know so little. What is Inversion, and why do some people have more than one power while others are born only with a single ability? I was born with two different powers, both my Realm ability and my healing power, and now I might have a third power in the form of the Lord of Life."


    "Who knows." Hope threw her arms behind her head and looked back into the room the other girls were in. A jump scare had just happened, and Lily practically chucked her bowl of popcorn into the air, causing it to spill down. "Do you think I could get another power?"


    "What? Not happy with fire?"


    "Well, I''d like flight, but I know I''ll likely unlock that eventually. I don''t even know how to Invert my power, so I''m sort of stuck with fire." The Lord of the Sun hummed softly. "Another power could be kind of cool."


    "Oh yeah, what would you want? Besides flight, I mean."


    "I''ve actually thought about it a lot, believe it or not."


    "Really?"


    "Yeah." Hope smiled and looked back at Sky. "If I could have any other power..." She opened her mouth and spoke, saying her answer. Sky''s eyes went wide for a moment, and then the girl giggled. "Is it really that funny of an answer?" Hope questioned.


    "No. It''s just that I didn''t expect it. It isn''t anything as crazy as I thought it''d be." Sky admitted. "Is there a reason you picked that one specifically?"


    Hope just shrugged. "I just think it would be cool."


    Slowly, the memory of that day faded away as Sky found herself back in the present, running through the tunnel. She remembered that night constantly. It would always come back to her mind and cause her to curse herself.


    She had brushed the question off so easily. She hadn''t bothered trying to save Battery at all. She didn''t even consider it, simply deciding he wouldn''t have wanted to be saved. Maybe if she had tried, maybe if she had reached out to him and healed him, things could have been different. He wouldn''t have changed so much; he could have teamed up with the Victorian, and the two of them could have slayed the Beast. Her mother and sister would have never gotten harmed, and Hope would still be here, being the hero she was meant to be.


    But it wasn''t the time for what-ifs and half-baked ideas. So instead, Sky forced herself to focus on the here and now. She was Paragon; she was a hero, and right now, someone was in trouble.


    Black Shark caused ripples and bubbles to lift off of the floor that he swam in. A shark fin stabbed out of the ground, phasing through anything that got in its way as the villain''s power allowed him to swim through the earth around him. He had been under there for almost a full minute now, pushing forward at fast speeds. It was starting to make her worry. After all, he might not need to come up for air, but Mr. Lauren certainly would.


    "Paragon!" A voice yelled behind her. The healer turned back just in time to see a fast-moving silver blur coming at her. "Hop on!"


    Paragon jumped up just in time and came down directly next to Oxide, landing on a platform that the hero had created. They stood on a long silver disk that was about the size of a car. It was completely flat and floated off of the ground by several meters. Under it, millions of wasps formed, picking the thing up and carrying it forward at incredible speeds.


    "Good thinking." Paragon gave a nod to Oxide and turned to look back at the fin that poked out of the ground. Black Shark was only a few meters ahead of them, but they were quickly losing ground. "He''s too fast!"


    The metal-based hero created a bow forged from pure metal and an arrow, which she launched out at the shark fin. Chains attached to the arrow, turning it into a sort of harpoon, but it sadly didn''t work, simply phasing through the fin and crashing to the ground. "His power is similar to Mister Man''s." Oxide cursed. "Any plan to get him out of the ground?"


    "I have one." Paragon sheathed her sword and crouched on the metal platform. She poked her hand beneath it, feeling the wasps that buzzed. "Wasp Nest, do you trust me?"


    A loud buzzing noise came from beneath them, gradually distorting into a single word. "Trust."


    Breathing deeply, Paragon closed her eyes and began to focus on her power. It wasn''t just healing that she could do now. She was the Lord of the Land and Life. She had done it before with Destiny, though he had been created to literally merge with her powers. Wasp Nest was able to turn himself into billions of bugs and reform over and over again, negating the damage done to him. Yet Wish had still been able to harm and negate his power due to the sheer strength and control the villain had over life. She wasn''t planning on forcing him back into his human form like Wish had done, though. Instead, she began to do exactly what she did to Destiny.


    Suddenly, all the wasps began to twitch, and they started to reform, coming together just like when the hero would turn his power off. He didn''t turn back into his human form, though. Instead, the wasps began to grow and get bigger as they absorbed each other. Again and again until finally, only one wasp was left. Wasp Nest gasped, feeling his new body. He looked down at his hands in shock. It was like he had taken on some strange hybrid form between his human form and his wasp form.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    He was the size of a normal person, but instead of flesh, he was covered in a thick black carapace that formed strong armor along his body. Jagged wings stabbed out of his back, flapping so fast they looked as if they were moving in slow motion. He had arms and legs like a human, and his head looked mostly humanoid. Paragon had forced his power to change, or at the very least she had tweaked it.


    "What did you do?" Oxide asked in shock. The platform they stood on crashed to the ground now that they didn''t have the hundreds of wasps to carry it, but Oxide simply changed its design, turning it into a sled and attaching metal tendrils to Wasp Nest''s waist as the hero flew forward much faster than he had been a moment ago. Sparks were kicked up as the metal board the two of them stood on scraped against the stone floor at rapid speeds.


    "His consciousness was spread out across millions of different tiny forms," Paragon explained. "Normally, changing how a person''s power works would be impossible for me, but I can use my ability to control Life to change a person''s physical form to an extent. For anyone else, doing something like this wouldn''t work, but Wasp Nest is unique since there were so many of him. I simply merged all that biomass into a single entity. His power involves changing his form already, so in a way, I guess you can say it''s like tweaking a single line of code. Instead of splitting off to change, I just had him connect together."


    "Will I be able to change back to normal?" Wasp Nest called out. The hero reached up to feel his throat, a little shocked that he was getting to talk in his transformed state so well. He felt strong—crazy strong. He had always been a little jealous at how weak he was in the grand scheme of things, yet now he was sure he could do a lot more with this body than he ever had.


    "We''ll figure that out later," Paragon said sheepishly.


    "What! You mean you haven''t tested something like this out before!"


    The healer just shrugged. "After that shark!"


    Wasp Nest just sighed before smirking. As he sped up, he got even faster. Black Shark had been gaining a lot of distance, but now they were rapidly catching up to the villain. The air around Wasp Nest began to heat up as he pushed himself forward, his wings kicking up the wind just as BB once did. The villain was only meters away now. "Go long!" He turned and spun himself around, causing the sled that he had been dragging to fly past him. "Get him!"


    Oxide caused the chain she had connected to Wasp Nest to vanish right as they passed him. The force of his spin had sent them flying forward, and she forced the metal they stood on to rise up a bit and wrap around both her and Paragon''s feet to ensure they didn''t go flying off. They went so fast that they actually went flying past Black Shark, and as soon as they passed by the fin, Paragon dropped back down to her knees and slammed her palm into the ground.


    The Lord felt her power flare up, and she forced it to Invert just as she had done in the battle with the Beast and in the belly of the Tallest Wave. The ground around them shifted and changed as her realm was layered over reality, changing it. All around her, in a ten-meter radius, the tunnel they were in became a field of grass that tore itself open and lifted the swimming body of Black Shark out, throwing the villain into the air. The villain spun around in the air, clearly disoriented for a moment as the field around them began to fade.


    In Black Shark''s arm, he held the body of Alexander Lauren, who was quickly taking a gulp of air before they crashed back down. Black Shark began to fall toward the ground again, about to sink into it, but right before he could, Oxide swung out, forming a massive hammer that she rammed directly into the villain''s head. Unlike Mister Man, the Zoo member could only phase through objects when he was swimming.


    The hammer cracked him upside the head and caused most of his mask to come off and shatter as the man''s eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he hit the ground back first, completely unconscious. For good measure, Wasp Nest roughly landed on the villain''s gut, using his new super strength to break any ribs as he kicked down.


    "Mr. Laruen, are you okay?!" Paragon didn''t miss a beat and ran forward to the downed man, who was coughing up a storm.


    The older man grimaced a bit, making a sour face as he shook his head. "That was not a fun experience. I never thought I''d almost drown in stone."


    Paragon let out a sigh of relief as her eyes roamed over the man. She didn''t see any serious injuries on him. "I''m glad you''re okay-"


    "It''s not over yet!" Wasp Nest yelled. "Watch out!"


    Oxide acted fast, throwing herself in front of all of them and holding her arms out just in time. A massive metal dome appeared around them, blocking a wave of red energy that fired down the tunnel they were in, bathing everything in crimson. Paragon felt her eyes narrow when she saw the energy. It was one she had seen before. She had seen Red Ape use the same attack, firing that laser out of the helmet he had gotten from Avalon. It wasn''t Red Ape that shot at them, though. Oxide''s barrier slowly crumbled as the energy died out, and they all came face to face with two more familiar Zoo members.


    "First Black Crow, then Black Shark, and now you two show up." Wasp Nest called out, folding his arms. "I''m going to need to have serious words with Boy Genius about why none of you are in Nightshade!"


    Across from them, standing several feet away, Red Monkey pointed two of his revolvers at them. The guns smoked and billowed out fumes as the lasers that came from them died out. It seemed that creating a new body for Green Wolf wasn''t the only thing Doc and Red Ape had done in their spare time. They had somehow created another one of Avalon''s laser weapons, ones that Red Monkey now trained on them. Next to him, dressed in a pure white suit, White Spider stood. The woman didn''t bother wearing her mask and instead held a wild and almost insane grin on her face.


    "Aw. You''re wondering why Boy Genius didn''t tell you about us?" The woman asked in a mocking tone. "Maybe he just didn''t trust you guys enough."


    Before any of them could make a remark, a loud groan came from behind them as Black Shark suddenly jumped back up to his feet, no longer injured. "He heals fast!" Paragon yelled out. The villain swung out with a mighty fist, but Wasp Nest caught it easily and used his new body to shatter the palm and break Black Shark''s arm. Instantly, though, Black Shark ripped the limb out of the hero''s grasp and forcefully snapped it back into place as the limb healed once again. "Really fast!"


    "Since when can he heal?" Oxide asked in shock. She was then forced to throw up another barrier as Red Monkey fired at them again with both his guns, two lasers firing out of the barrels and combining into one big one, which started to push Oxide back.


    Black Shark shoved his way past Wasp Nest, who unloaded several powerful punches into the man''s body that literally left dents in the flesh, but it barely slowed the bad guy down, who made a mad grab for Mr. Lauren. The arm never reached its target, though, as Paragon swung her sword up and easily sliced the limb clean off. Blood didn''t come out of the wound, and the villain simply jumped back and clutched at his wound, which was already starting to bubble up and heal.


    "What the hell? He''s like a zombie or something." Wasp Nest stared at the regeneration in horror. Even Black Shark''s clothes were repairing themselves. "I''m pretty sure this wasn''t a power he used to have. Did Red Ape or Doc do this?"


    "Maybe, but I don''t think so." Paragon winced. "Whatever''s going on doesn''t matter. They''re clearly targeting Mr. Lauren, and I''ll be damned if I let them lay a finger on him!"


    The energy behind them died out as Red Monkey''s guns stopped firing and began to recharge. Oxide let out a sigh of relief and dropped her barrier, catching her breath. White Spider''s grin only grew, and the woman casually lifted her hand up. All along the tips of her fingers, tiny white spiders danced, weaving their webbing, which drifted down her arm. "It''s so cute how you all think you can stop us. You didn''t even notice it, though, did you? You already fell right into my web." The woman''s eyes met Paragon''s, which only caused White Spider''s smile to grow. "You know what happens next, right?"


    Paragon felt a chill run up her spine, and she yelled, but it was already too late. In a flash, White Spider''s power went off, causing Oxide, Paragon, and Wasp Nest to vanish out of the tunnel. Alexander stood there, surrounded by three villains, as he felt a wave of fear hit him.


    "Uh oh." He managed to give a sheepish laugh and reached up to tug at his shirt. "I don''t suppose you guys just want to- Sneak attack!" He pulled out a can of pepper spray and pointed it at Black Shark, unloading it into the man''s eyes.


    Black Shark didn''t even flinch as the villain approached Mr. Lauren and pulled his fist back, smashing it into Alexander''s face and knocking the man out with one punch.


    Back at the beginning of the tunnel, Paragon suddenly dropped down as she appeared right back where they started. "No!" She yelled out in anger. The sound of battle barely registered to her as Myth and Drake fought their opponents.


    "What the hell just happened!" Wasp Nest asked in shock. His form changed, twisting back into his human form as his new enhanced power wore off. "How are we back here?"


    "It''s White Spider''s power!" Oxide hissed.


    "I know, but how the hell did she do that!" Wasp Nest said, shaking his head. "Her power doesn''t let her just freely teleport people around wherever she wants. She has to set up a zone, and then it stops people from entering or exiting that zone, teleporting them back to the place she set it up at. She doesn''t get to control it, and her teammates have to follow the same rules she does. That''s not what she just did to us, though. That was actual teleportation. Not to mention, Black Shark''s power was also different. I''m sure of that. I watched the footage of his battle with Myth, and he never showed a healing factor on the level he did just now."


    "Who cares!" Paragon yelled. "We have to get back there!"


    "And do what? They''ll just send us back to the start again." Oxide winced.


    "That doesn''t mean we just give up, though." Wasp Nest replied. "There has to be something we can do."


    Paragon gritted her teeth and stepped forward. She got a few feet in the tunnel before she suddenly appeared back at the start next to Oxide and Wasp Nest. "Damn it!" She cursed.


    "Looks like the web has been set up." Oxide folded her arms and frowned. "No way we can get through now."


    "What are you guys doing back here!" A voice called out. They turned, finding Metal Ronin was making his way over to them. "Did you guys get Hope''s dad already?" Directly behind him, most of the train station was in ruins as fire spread out in all directions caused by both Myth and Drake, who were still fighting Green Wolf and Black Crow.


    "Nope. We''re stuck." Wasp Nest sighed. "White Spider made a web. Also, did Myth get bigger? And get fire powers? What''s even happening over there?"


    Metal Ronin rubbed his chin. "White Spider? Oh yeah, I remember her. She''s that annoying villain that Green Wolf brought with him once when we fought her. Poseidon beat her by destroying her web before it got created all the way."


    "Well, we can''t do that." Paragon grumbled and stomped her foot down. "It''s already been set up. Those bastards still have Mr. Lauren."


    "So?" Metal Ronin asked.


    "What do you mean ‘so’? Obviously, we can''t get through it." Oxide yelled, throwing her arms up.


    Metal Ronin looked at them oddly. "Yeah. She set up a ton of webs in the tunnel so that if you guys pass into it, you get kicked out. So why not just travel in a different way?"


    "Like what?" Wasp Nest questioned. “We could get to the surface, but then we’d have no way of figuring out where Zoo’s base is. My wasps can’t go through the web either, so we’d be running around up top blindly and might piss one of the Giants up there off.”


    Metal Ronin cocked his head to the side. "Can''t one of you just walk through the tunnel and make it not the tunnel anymore?"


    Paragon sighed before face-palming. She felt her power surge back and shift as the area around her changed into her realm once more. White Spider might have placed the webs all over the tunnel, but none had been placed in her realm, which would layer itself over the world around them. In other words, she could just walk through her realm to get to the end of the tunnel.


    She was really glad Metal Ronin was on their side...


    Meanwhile, all the way at the end of the tunnel, Alexander Lauren let out a soft groan as he felt a hand gently slap at his face. His eyes slowly began to open as he found himself lying in a place that was definitely not in the subway anymore. It looked almost like a surgeon room but was way dirtier and filled with dozens of animal cages.


    "Wakey, wakey, sleepy head." A voice teased. As the light hit Alexander''s eyes, he found himself suddenly face to face with a man in a long, dirty lab coat. The man''s face was also completely covered by a green cartoon mask that was an ape smoking a cigar. Green Ape, leader of Zoo, stood back up and stared down at Alexander. "You have something I want."


    "W- Where am I?" Alexander reached up and clutched at his broken nose, which was still gushing blood. Black Shark''s punch had rattled his head and screwed up his thoughts. Everything was still spinning a bit, but he did his best to look around. They weren''t alone in the room. Black Shark, Red Monkey, and White Spider all stood near the back of the room, as well as several other people in masks that he didn''t recognize. "What''s going on?" He asked in a panic, scooting back.


    Green Ape hummed and folded his arms. "It seems you might have been more injured than I first thought. Obviously, you''ve been kidnapped by the one and only Zoo!" The man clasped his hands together, doing his best to speak like how Green Wolf would when the former leader put on a show. "As for where you are... Well, you''re in one of our former bases."


    "Former?" Alexander felt his ears twitch a bit as he heard a quiet beeping sound, and he turned, finding a wall filled with dozens of bombs. His face paled, and he felt a chill go down his spine. "W- What the hell!"


    "As I said. Former base. This place won''t be around by the end of the day." Green Ape said, letting out a soft snort. "I wonder how long it''ll take people to notice that an entire city block got blown up. After all, with White Lamb, not a single sound will be heard when we blow this place sky high!"


    Alexander gritted his teeth and jumped up to his feet, wobbling a bit. He glared at Green Ape and took a step forward. Red Monkey drew his gun and raised it, but Alexander didn''t care. "You''re a monster! It was you, wasn''t it? You''re the reason why Green Wolf is running around looking like my daughter!"


    "Green Wolf? Damn it, I told her to stop calling herself that." Green Ape sighed and shook his head. "She keeps thinking she''ll find some way to take the throne out from under me, but I won it fair and square! She''s supposed to be Red Wolf now, you see-"


    "Answer me!" Alexander roared.


    Green Ape raised his arms, holding them up slightly. "Geesh. Alright, if you really want to know, no. I''m not the one who created that body. It was actually the newest member of Zoo that made it."


    As if on cue, soft footsteps came down from a set of stairs that led up to a higher floor in the building they were in. It was followed by a cane that tapped each set of stairs as the person walked down. Even with all the rage he felt, Alexander felt himself be taken aback as he stared at this new person.


    "What the hell is this?"


    Doc reached the bottom of the stairs dressed in his new costume. "Okay, look, I know it looks bad, but..." The man asked, holding his arms out. "Do I make it work or what?"


    He had been Doctor Blue during his time as a member of the Hero Branch. After that, he was Doc and worked under Mr. Grove. Now... Now, he was at the lowest point in his life.


    He was an egg... A large egg that had only four holes for his arms and legs, which poked out of the massive shell. White Egg, the newest member of Zoo, had arrived.