As I watched Polymeniac's desperate struggle inside the slime, I took deep ragged breaths. My body was barely holding itself together, and if it wasn’t for the fire cauterizing the wound, I would’ve already bled out from my missing arm.

  The slime was too distracted with absorbing Polymeniac to move onto me, which was a break I happily took. I used the time to try and collect myself, slowly pulling myself off the concrete. As I left, I made eye contact with Polymeniac, watching as the light started to fade from his eyes.

  I had to keep moving. If I let myself rest for a moment too long, then there was a chance that I couldn’t keep moving. When I looked at where I just saw Tóxica fighting, I couldn’t find her or Quarry. Just the bloody mess they left behind.

  With nowhere else to go, I forced myself to walk in the direction they were. Each step caused me to wince, my body doing its best to stop me from fighting. But the adrenaline pumping through my veins in place of blood was enough to let me power through.

  Another violent roar called out to me, coming from beyond Belaqua Street. I made my way through a nearby alleyway, looking for where Tóxica and Quarry ended up. When I entered the street, however, I realized that I wasn’t the only one she could rely on.

  Tóxica and Quarry were in the middle of the empty street, a few feet away from each other. Tóxica looked even worse than before, one of her hands having been mangled. Still, she continued to growl at Quarry, keeping her distance from the stone titan.

  Quarry’s condition remained the same, easily handling the fight against my strongest lieutenant. The only thing that stopped his approach was the flash of light that burst into the street, alongside the violent roar of an engine. All three of us turned, our attention pulled away by the speeding food truck headed straight for them.

  And for a moment, whether it was the surprise or my heart stopping, the world began to slow down. I could see every detail in Frank’s screaming face, nothing but determination and the gas pedal allowing him to go further.

  Quarry didn’t bother to move out of the way. He didn’t need to. If the two of them were to collide, the truck would break first. Ordinary physical attacks just wouldn’t be enough to stop him, not as long as his [Stone Exterior] was active.

  But Frank knew that. He had to know that. We spent hours discussing each one of Agony’s lieutenants and how we could beat them. Yet, as I began to worry about what the hell Frank was doing, I saw it. He gripped the steering wheel, forcing the truck into a sharp left turn.

  The food truck skidded against the street, flying out of control. Right as it started to spin, the back half of the truck crashed against Quarry. The back of the food truck was shredded against his body, leaving behind a shower of metal scraps.

  Quarry was knocked down by the blow, but it still wasn’t enough to pierce his armor. As he stood back up, however, he noticed an odd purple liquid that was now coating his stone skin. While the truck couldn’t do anything, the small cooler in the back could.

  Tóxica’s purple scales glowed, a shining light against the darkness that filled the street. She raised her head to the sky and roared, a declaration of victory. I saw the acid start to melt through Quarry’s [Stone Exterior], revealing the soft flesh underneath.

  I could see the moment he realized it, quickly raising his guard as Tóxica charged forward. She kept low to the ground, closing the gap between them in less than a second. Before Quarry could land a single blow, her fangs sunk into his neck

  And through the night sky, for just a second, I could’ve sworn that I heard Quarry whisper to no one. “Damn.”

  Tóxica tore his throat out, a violent spray of blood following it. Quarry didn’t move as the blood drained from his body. He accepted his fate, preferring to die standing, instead of making a pointless attempt to run.

  Once Tóxica separated from him, leaving Quarry as a stone statue in the middle of the street, she rushed over to the front of the food truck. After the back rammed into Quarry, the front of the truck had crashed into a nearby building.

  I ran over as I saw her tear apart the driver's side door, dragging Frank out. She carried him in her mouth, gently biting the nape of his neck. As I got close, she dropped him on the ground.

  Blood was running down his head, his body covered in cuts from the crash. Frank looked up at us, his pupils dilated to all hell. “That’s how you deal with a super.”

  I fished around my pockets, pulling out one of my cartons of Throm. I tossed a pill to him. “You did good, Frank. I don't know anyone else that could’ve done it.”

  Tóxica spoke, her voice like gravel. “I appreciate the help. You didn’t need to risk your life for me.”

  Frank looked at her. Well, he looked in her general direction. “We’re a team, we help each other out.”

  “Try and take a rest Frank, you should be healed up in a few minutes,” I said to him.

  “Sounds good, boss.” He closed his eyes, resting as the Throm worked its way through his system.

  “How are you holding up, Tóxica?”

  She looked down at me, her piercing eyes like a predator staring down vulnerable prey. “Fine. He was stronger than I expected. What happened to the arm?”

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  “Just lost it a few minutes ago. I gave it up to kill Polymeniac, so it was worth it.”

  “Good trade,” she agreed.

  “Do you think you can keep fighting?” I asked. “Because Agony is still alive, and I’d hate to leave the leader alive.”

  “If you fight, then I will fight by your side. As Frank said.. We are a team.”

  “Alright, then let’s move once Frank is good to go.”

  Tóxica went over her wounds, spitting poison over them, as we waited for Frank to heal up. After a few minutes, he woke up. His injuries were gone, and he sprung onto his feet with a smile. I couldn’t help but once again think that the healing difference was unfair as I looked at the empty space where my arm should have been.

  “Wow, I can think so much more clearly now,” Frank remarked. “Alright, who’s left?”

  “Agony is the only Disciple member left. He’s currently holed up in the Tower of Agony, from what I last saw. But I don’t think you should join us in this fight.”

  “What? Why?” he asked.

  “Frank, you’re the best lieutenant that I could ask for. But Agony is on a level far above any of us. All it would take is just one of his attacks to kill you.”

  “It’s not like either of you have any Super Resistance left,” he argued. "Sure, Tóxica is transformed, but you’re just as vulnerable as I am.”

  He was right. “I’m just concerned abo-”

  “Don’t be. You’re our leader, and we’re here because we trust your decisions. So you need to trust ours. We chose to be here, even if it means putting our lives on the line. Please, put as much faith in us as we put in you.”

  I wanted to argue, to make him leave. There was still the fear that he could die, that all of them could die, in this battle. But he was right. If I was going to lead them, then I needed to trust them as much as I trusted myself.

  I extended the crowbar out to him. “Alright, I trust you.”

  Frank smiled as he grabbed the crowbar from me, excitedly looking at the golden shimmer around it.

  I pulled out a submachine gun that Reload had given me. “Now, let’s get going before we miss our chance to kill Agony.”

  As we walked back to Belaqua Street, I noticed the change in the atmosphere around us. The struggle of survivors, from desperate gunshots to pained screams, faded away. There was nothing but the crackling of fire. And we only had Agony left to face.

  Well, that should have been the case. But I had made a mistake, one that practically every Supervillain has to make at some point. Even if it feels obvious in retrospect, it can be hard to notice without experiencing the repercussions.

  When I killed Polymeniac, I didn’t stick around for long enough. I didn’t want to watch him slowly die, suffocating inside a pile of sentient slime. You should never leave a death unconfirmed, because that’s how you turn the corner to find a hulking titan made of flesh in the middle of the street.

  I froze as I saw what Polymeniac had become. There were hundreds of contorted limbs, painfully twisted upon themselves. Even as the body parts writhed around, countless more continued to sprout from the pile of limbs.

  When I looked closer, I could see his face. Countless copies of Polymeniac’s head were growing out of the amalgamation, all of them screaming. He’d once told me that he wouldn’t grow more heads, a self imposed limit, because he had no clue if his body could handle having multiple minds controlling it at once.

  It was clear what had happened. With no way out of the slime, Polymeniac forced himself to grow multiple heads, just needing one of them to provide him with oxygen. Of course, that just forced him into becoming this.. monstrosity.

  As I watched in horror, one of the heads made eye contact with me, a blood vessel bursting from its forehead as it focused its attention on me. Soon after, the rest of the body began to move in our direction, having caught sight of me. It was at least twenty feet tall and growing, its body knocking aside everything in its way.

  “Dios mío,” muttered Tóxica.

  I aimed my submachine gun at it, firing into the mass of limbs. But even if every shot hit, it simply grew new limbs over the injuries. As I looked up at it, at him, I couldn’t help but feel a nostalgic fear, one that swirled within my stomach. I couldn’t help but remember Flesh Lord.

  As Frank and I unloaded every bullet that we could, I tried my best to think of any other option. Even if I gave up my other arm to [Infernal Grasp], there just wasn't enough time to kill something that large.

  Tóxica suddenly let out a roar that snapped me and Frank out of our near mindless trance. This wasn’t something we could kill with bullets, no matter how much I wished we could. For now, we ran, sprinting through the ruins of Belaqua Street.

  With each passing moment, it continued to close in on us. I needed to make a decision on who I cared about more. Us, or everyone else. And in that moment, I couldn’t help but think about everything that I’d faced through life.

  I’d suffered more cruelty than I could remember, and I caused just as much. But the scorned looks of the past, the fights that raged into the night, the desperate struggle to be worth something. They didn’t matter anymore. Not when I had Tóxica, Reload, and Frank by my side.

  I wasn’t a hero. I would never be a hero. I could never. Because if I needed to decide between the people I love and the world, I would always leave the world behind.

  “Tóxica, I need you to find me a living henchman. Bring them to me,” I shouted at her, pushing my lungs even further.

  Tóxica didn’t bother with responding, she just nodded her head in response. She stuck her tongue out for a second, as her eyes dilated. A moment later, she shot through the rubble, leaving me and Frank behind.

  Each step felt like miles, that monster eagerly continuing the chase. It had to be less than twenty feet away when I saw Tóxica running towards us. Caught in her jaw was the body of some man.

  His legs were mangled, and he wasn’t struggling. He was alive, but just barely. When she was about to reach us, I gestured for her to go into a nearby alley. Frank and I joined her just a few seconds later, Polymeniac practically on top of us.

  The alley did practically nothing to stop him, but it slowed him down. As we ran into the next street, Polymeniac beat down on the buildings, tearing them apart to create a large enough opening.

  I started pulling out the cartons of Throm that I had on me. That I kept as my true last resort. “Drop him on the ground. Frank, try to see if he has a wallet.”

  While I tore open the boxes, Frank fished out his wallet. “Wait, why are we mugging him?”

  “We’re not mugging him. But if he has a family, then we’re going to provide for them. Make sure they live a good life.”

  “Isn’t he the enemy?” Tóxica growled.

  I forced open his mouth, and I pulled out the flask of water from my suit. I began to pour the first box of Throm down his throat, using the water to help it go down easy. “He is, but that doesn’t change things. For what we’re about to do to him, helping his family is the least we can do to atone.”