We were in a room covered with razor wires. A room I recognized.

  The bandage man's limbs thrashed. "I find this room pleasant; it was where we tested to see if repeat results were possible, you know. We had a great result till you took it away."

  Confused as I am by teleportation I can put that together easily. This was the room I had found Bianca in. He is talking about my daughter.

  I lunge forward recklessly, hand swiping through the air trying to take down the floating green orb so I can crush it between my fingers.

  I chase him doggedly, tearing my way through the wires as I calm down at least enough to think more.

  With a silent roar, I charge forward, not caring when multiple bandages come into contact with me. Part of me wonders why he’s using them to attack with regular striking techniques like it’s some kind of energy blast instead of trying to restrain me, but I mostly ignore it.

  Once the distance is fully closed, my fist nearly slams into the orb, only for a mass of bandages to block me, sending him spinning through the air.

  I chase after him, taking wild swipes through the air all the while ignoring the voices of Asher and Amelia prattling in my ears.

  Each punch, I get a little bit closer to striking him as I use more and more of my explosive strength, not caring for the consequences of passing what my body should be capable of.

  Tendrils wrap around an ankle, flipping me into the air and holding me against the ceiling.

  Call it the blood rushing to my head, but I calm down just enough to think clearly. That or my best friend is yelling at me to respond helps.

  Phasing through the bandages, I flip through the air, landing lightly. “I’m okay, just trying to take out the trash.” I say confidently.

  Bandage-boy thrashes at that

  “I’m almost done clearing out the first floor. They haven’t been sending anyone up for a while, so I’ve been able to go a lot faster than we thought.” Amelia relays.

  “Smoulder and Cannonball haven’t had to deal with much yet. Doesn’t seem to be anyone around at this accursed time of day.” Asher grumbles. “Though I still have my drones flying around to look obviously.”

  I slip to the side of an attack from the bandages as I analyze this room. It looks like the door has been sealed shut to trap the two of us in.

  My body aches from using the immutable mode too much already, which isn’t ideal.

  Now more focused, I go to close the distance, slipping between the attacks I can and phasing ones I can’t avoid.

  As he dodges back, the orb gets caught in a net of razor-sharp wires where I watch it bleed emerald light.

  “Caught you!” I say as I slam my fist into him, further into the network of wires, my fist also eventually being caught by the same thing.

  In the time I take to free my fist from its restraints, he’s also back to normal, undulating around like the world's weirdest octopus.

  Despite his bleeding light floating around the room, he doesn’t seem any worse for wear, which irks me greatly.

  “Is that all you have? You were much scarier when willing to be the monster.” He says, shaping the bandages into a hand so he can flip me the bird.

  “Be quiet you I’m trying to think.” I say, rubbing the back of my head.

  “First floor evacuated, making my way down the stairs, but there’s some heavy resistance, and without Mask here I can’t just blast chill them all.” Amelia relays, and I feel a bit guilty.

  Between the two of us, it’s so much easier for us to take out groups all at once.

  “I’ll be there in three minutes.”

  The question on how I'm supposed to beat a floating orb with danger tendrils spinning off of him crosses my mind as I barrel forward. I just am not bothered enough to care. I promised I would be there in about three minutes, so now I have to put my money where my mouth is and figure out how in the world I’m going to do it.

  How was I supposed to beat a lightning elemental guy? I had figured something out.

  The wires snapping and decaying at the touch of the tendrils doesn't escape me.

  It hasn't bothered me yet, so presumably while using my powers, it's not able to do whatever it wants. My domain, my rules.

  In the battle between my physical might and his bandage manipulation, I am the winner in that I can pull them. However, he apparently has more bandages than a clown has silk scarves, rendering it moot.

  “You can't win, so just give up.” He taunts the orb floating towards a corner of the ceiling deep in a web of wires.

  “And last I checked, you can't hurt me. All I need to do is catch you once.” I reply, wondering if I can catch him off guard.

  Leaping off the ground, my fist slams into the wall right next to the orb, the wires making me miss slightly.

  The problem I'm avoiding isn't my capacity to win, though it's my energy.

  As I slip out of his grasp of bandages, I let myself return to normal. “I don't need my powers to beat you, so why bother?”

  As another network of attacks rains down on me, I take one to the forearm to see what happens.

  In my mind's eye, I see the bracers beginning to decay as I observe myself, I pull my arm back.

  Dodging decay bandage attacks only noted.

  “So is the reason you set up all these wires to piss me off or should they help you?” I taunt slipping to the side and watching more of the wires snapping and decaying.

  I grin as I get an idea.

  As the bandage races towards me, my hand shoots out, grasping it in my gloved hand even as the glove decays. I release waves of power, phasing the bandage and pulsing it through his entire form.

  The bandage I’m holding no longer bothers me. Somehow, his power doesn’t work while I’m controlling it.

  At all.

  No longer able to be held aloft by the bandages below him or hang there from the ones he placed above himself, he falls, with only gravity in control.

  For a brief instance I consider letting him fall through the ground forever until he comes across a cave he can go solid in.

  With a grunt of effort, I haul on the bandages as I twist around, throwing him up and to the side, right into the wall with the least amount of wires for him to catch on.

  Thankfully, just before he comes into contact with the wall, he flickers back to solid, slamming into it and scattering more emerald light in the form of sparks about the room.

  “Do you give up yet?” I ask, trying not to be irritated at myself. I will not be the person who’s swayed in the moment with whatever harebrained emotional response is bubbling up.

  Besides, I doubt he needs to eat or anything like that. He’s corrosion incarnate; he’ll eventually escape just being tossed down.

  The incoherent screeching I get in response is answer enough as tendrils shoot out trying to grab me once again.

  “Mask! Where are you?” Amelia's call drags me out of my focus just long enough that I narrowly dodge the attack to my torso.

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  “I’m still fighting the bandage man.” I say, wishing I had a knife or something to cut the wires.

  A good portion of them have been broken, but not all, and it makes dodging while recovering my energy difficult.

  The sound of Amelia growling is all that fills my ears before I get a dejected response. “You got teleported away and are fighting an unknown super and you didn’t use your glorious powers to escape because?”

  Logically, I know she's right.

  Emotionally I disagree.

  Instead of charging at the bandage man, I run to the exit, passing through it and aiming to head towards where I feel the bulk of people on this floor.

  Turns out, bandage man can't seem to immediately get out on his own; that must be why they used a teleporter to bring the two of us there.

  He’ll take some time to decay through all of that though I guess it’s possible the teleporter will try and come get us. Though they didn’t touch me, I would have noticed that.

  I hadn’t noticed anything one moment in the center of the lab; the next there were people in the center.

  Do they have some kind of ability to teleport people while they’re nearby? Or could they be portals?

  Regardless, I keep my eyes open in case there’s a stimulus that I can see that I can’t feel with my brain.

  “Fractal. I’m out of the cage match on the third floor. You want me to come up there and help evacuate folks down here or…” I trail off as I push my senses out trying to locate where the people we do care about are.

  Found them. “Or do you want me to try and stop Andromeda and company?” They haven’t escaped the place yet; they’re still all gathering together, meaning that the fight there would be significantly less ideal.

  Though without Kurt there, it makes things a little easier for it all to be managed.

  “Try not to engage, but we want you to scare them off and get moving sooner to separate whoever stays here to put up a resistance and whoever runs. Hopefully, they’ll run into Cannon and Smoulder.” Asher says barking orders.

  “On it.”

  I dash in the direction of the group, ignoring anyone who tries to stop me. Between the armor and my own abilities, their small laser guns aren’t doing a great job at actually injuring me.

  The one thing that bothers me is that as I run closer, I can feel the group getting smaller as if every once in a while a couple of people are vanishing, though it’s mostly leaving it as end neutral as more people rejoin.

  “Fractal?” I rasp out while running.

  “Yea?”

  “Stand near Kurt. I think they’re using a teleporter. So, I want you to make sure they don’t spring him.”

  “If they actually have a teleporter, you do realize they can spring him out of prison, probably, right?”

  “But then it won’t be our fault.” I say before flickering phased as I dash through a pair of metal doors.

  “Fair, but that’s going to slow down my rescue efforts. You should give me a prize for doing all this work without complaining.” She teases right as I come face to face with a large group of people. Even if most of them are just Andromeda.

  “If I politely asked you to stop, would any of you be willing to do that?” I ask, holding my hands up as fists.

  “Like we would ever surrender to the likes of you.” Vertiga snarls, holding up some kind of cannon-looking thing.

  It seems incredibly dangerous to be near, so I really have no interest in getting shot by it. If they can make me into a super, I’m going to guess that just maybe they have the tech to make it really difficult for me to be immune to.

  Flexing my power, I turn immutable for a moment to maximize my strength, closing the distance between me and Vertiga.

  An abyssal fist slams into the cannon, breaking the barrel before I return to normal, slamming a fist into her stomach.

  “Try to make me fall over.” I dare as she topples to the ground as I look towards the others. The Lizard is already missing, and nobody here is screaming teleporter to me, so that makes me think they’re off doing something else?

  A black pane manifests in the middle of the air, and bandages spill out, trying to grab me.

  Jerking to the side, I manage to avoid being pulled back through the portal, and not too long afterwards, Bandage-man slithers out.

  “I know you probably won’t say yes, but how about you join us, Forty-three?” Andromeda calls in a singing voice. “With you and Frostie taking out Kurt, we could use you. And if you go willingly, we won’t even brainjack you two? How about it?”

  “You gotta be absolutely crazy if you think I would agree to that.” I say, casting my eyes and brain around to find the teleporter. If he can make those portals appear out of nowhere, he could send me back to who knows where without a problem.

  “You said I could kill him.” Bandages rasps, his green orb flickering in rage.

  “I said you could try while we escape. Now, Vortex is the next portal ready?” Andromeda asks irritably, nothing I can detect responds.

  Vertigo grabs my ankle and begins squeezing hard, pitting her own strength against my resilience and the suit’s. “You have been a thorn in my side.”

  Acting on autopilot, I phase as I leap into the air out of her grasp, only just barely twisting to the side as a portal appears near me trying to send me who knows where.

  “Y’all are a bunch of kidnappers who have been torturing people to make slaves, and I need to be taught the lesson?” I ask dryly. “I’m pretty sure I’m the teacher giving you all the lesson here.”

  Before anyone can react, I surge forward, closing the distance between myself and the group, and become a whirlwind of violence as I go to take them down as fast as possible.

  “Just a little bit longer, Mask, currently icing over the last of the people on this floor who tried to shoot me.” Amelia says, gasping for breath.

  “Holding them here for as long as I can.” I confirm keeping track of Vertiga with my mind map.

  I need my eyes to see the portals, which means I can’t close them, leaving me vulnerable to the discombobulation gaze she has.

  Not ideal, but with all the Andromeda clones it’s easy to keep someone between me and the mad scientist.

  Though the best thing for me is that they can’t work together. Andromeda is just several human plus people, and Bandages can’t fight with allies unless he wants to dissolve them.

  Fighting Amelia and Cass at the same time while they made as many constructs as possible was definitely worth it.

  A legion of Andromedas attempt to tackle me, and I spike myself immutable as the tide of bodies slams into me, forcing me back but not knocking me down.

  Multiple strands of fabric wrap around my arms and legs, trying to pull me back as Andromeda tries to shove me forward.

  Vertigo is behind me, so it’s easy to see what they’re trying to do push me towards her and have her send me to my ass, unable to function.

  More and more bodies are added to the pile, pushing me back, and I give up on staying immutable. It’s draining my power too fast for me to keep up with it.

  While being pushed back, I slam into Vertiga, and I twist around to see a portal appearing behind us.

  As Vertiga and I are shoved through the portal by a horde of Andromedas, we stumble back into the first room I had encountered her realistically speaking not all that long ago.

  Getting back to my feet I adjust my senses trying to figure out where everyone else is and I’m happy to say that Amelia is close and I quickly relay my position to her so we can finally meet up and take care of this to the best of our ability.

  “Andromeda!” she roars, whirling on her associate. “You betrayed me!”

  “You knew as well as I did the boss values me more. Just a decision to get the most important members of this facility to the backup.” Andromeda says her clones dissolve into blue light. “Too many supers are spiritually heavy for Vortex, so you and number forty-three needed to go.”

  With all the clowns gone, it leaves me with the scientist, and I can’t help but laugh at the sheer absurdity of it all.

  Vertiga whirls on me. I’m sure rage billows in her gaze, but the moment she turns to me I shut my eyes to stay away from her powers.

  “Surrender, please.” I ask gently.

  When the room drops in temperature, I relax, but, strangely enough, so does Vertiga.

  Frost gathers on every surface as Amelia bursts into the room, her armor covered in enough ice to make her almost a titan of a super.

  “Got teleported again?” Amelia says blasting ice at Vertiga and freezing her quickly.

  “Portal.” I confirm. “Though I don’t know why they sacrificed her.” I admit. “By the time both of us get there, everyone else that matters will be gone.”

  Amelia hisses in annoyance. “We got two of them though.”

  “They won’t have gotten too far. The teleporter doesn’t seem to go very far; otherwise, I would have been sent farther away the second time.” I say, pushing my awareness out to the maximum distance, looking for people who are stepping from one place to another in an instant.

  “Miracle how long till someone’s here to catch the strays here?” Amelia asks while I carry the supervillain popsicle to where Kurt is being kept.

  “Not long, but there’s another problem.” Asher says, my heart sinking at the response.

  “Are we getting smeckledorfed or are they leading us by the nose?” Amelia complains breaking another door as we gather the prisoners and freed captives.

  Asher doesn’t have to explain to me why things are going less than stellar, though. I can feel it easily enough as my detection is pushed to its maximum range.

  “Miracle, can you send drones to protect everyone while Fractal and I get moving?” I ask picking up the pace and carrying the people that are moving too slowly for my liking.

  “Yeah, I can do that, but are you two sure?”

  “Am I sure about what?”

  “I’m going to chase Andromeda and the others because I’m the only one of us who can.” I watch Amelia’s form stiffen at that response as she growls in annoyance. “I need you to be a hero and help protect everyone with Smoulder and Cannonball.”

  “How bad is it?” Amelia asks quietly, her voice a whisper so that none of the civilians can hear us.

  “Bad enough.” Asher explains. “I think they had a deal for most of the gangs they’ve hooked up with powers to prepare for when they needed to bug out and cause a ruckus.”

  “Miracle, some of the people they were experimenting on are probably gang members, aren’t they?” I ask quietly, looking over the smattering of people huddled together in an attempt to fight off the chill.

  “Probably.”

  “Be ready to tranq one if they cause problems.” I say before dropping through the ground and gathering up some blankets they had in the facility.

  Asher gives me his ascent and, to the best of our ability, the lab is emptied of all human life, the former experiments separated from the criminals we’ve captured by a thick wall of ice.

  By the time we’re done the last of the people on the bottom floor have escaped through the portal but there’s only a few spaces that can hide that big of a group and I can feel enough that I’m pretty sure I know where they are currently.

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