Super Sales on Super Heroes 6 -Ch 5- (Patreon)

Chapter 5 - Routed -

Felix, Vince, and Melody rejoined everyone else after making sure Miles was safe, and secure. They couldn’t really bring him with them, but they did make sure to tuck him away inside the house they found him. Warm, hidden, and out of the way.

They entered what could only be called an office space that’d been left in a hurry. There were signs that all the workers here simply picked up their belongings and left.

It looked very every day and normal. A place that Felix had seen more than a few times in his life as well as often on TV.

As they grew closer to where everyone was, Ryker held up his right hand above his head.

Computers, desks, and chairs went flying off in every direction. Knocked about and blasted from one end of the room to the other.

Another part of the room began to tear itself up out of the ground. Forming itself into walls made out of carpet, tiles, and underflooring. The centers were then filled with earth and dirt.

“Earthworks to fire from behind. For those who use ranged weapons rather than up close and personal ones,” Ryker remarked, then threw his hands out in front of himself and then spread them apart.

The ceiling, walls, and windows were all blown out with a boom. Shattering, tearing it all away and obliterating it.

Beyond the lab they were in was the infinite nothing of space.

Felix could see stars, suns, planets, and an endless blackness of nothing beyond.

Some of the celestial objects were as big as the sun he remembered from home, some looked like specks. There was even a planet that looked very Earthlike that was easily six times the size of the moon.

Hanging over them in a strange way, yet clearly not effecting the planet as it probably should.

Here they come. Vince, Alina, Rene, you three will be doing hand-to-hand work. Felix, Edmund, Melody, Dorothy, use those guns please,” Ryker commanded. “Gus and Warner will be showing up just after it starts and handling their own tasks.”

“What about you?” asked a young woman settling down behind a barricade with Edmund beside her.

“Oh, taking care of my own business, of course. Doing exactly what I’m meant to,” Ryker laughingly got out while holding both hands up in front of himself again. Multiple glowing runes began to appear in front of himself.

Runner moved up and hunkered down behind another barrier, then looked to Edmund with a smirk.

“Should never try to out-think, or out-plot, a wizard. Wizards are conniving, deadly, bastards. Make sure you get a best friend who’s a wizard,” Runner suggested, turning his head slightly to catch Felix’s gaze. “If they’re your best friend, you never have to worry about other wizards.”

“Ha… well, I suppose that makes me the mad master of this delusion,” Ryker declared while whipping up more and more runes. “Through ages and eons I made the rules just to break them, tore down angels and rose up devils.

“While everyone else thought that they could see the end in the far distance, none of them heard the violins begin to play far earlier than they all believed.”

As Ryker spoke, he continuously threw out more and more runes. They began to create a weird, almost impenetrable shell around him with the sheer volume of them.

Across the way, in the darkness of space, several blue colored portals began to tear open. Even as Felix moved up to a barricade he saw things start to shift and bend in the very air itself.

Melody bumped up to the barricade next to him, laughed, and looked over to him.

“So, do I call you big bro? Brother? Broski?” Melody asked while laughing, her eyes glowing from within.

“Ah… and that’s all there is. The game is over, there’s no more moves to make, no more rounds to bet on, it’s time to pay for the game,” Ryker called, his voice taking on a strained edge. His volume was raising with every word he spoke. “And now, as the sun is gone and the skies have fallen, where the dark is our sovereign, we can all crowd together in the impenetrable cold of the night!”

“Well that’s not morbid or overly poetic at all. So who’s got the joker?” Runner asked with a nervous laugh.

“Me,” Ryker whispered a second before the world became a blazing golden blue flame.

Endless men and women with weapons began to pour out of the portals that’d opened. All of them had weapons of one variation of another.

Many of them had already raised them up and began firing immediately.

“Oh my fuck this is insane. I wish Gus was here,” Melody got out with a chuckle and began firing back.

Then Ryker acted and the blue flames that’d began to color the never-ending expanse around them were smothered.

The countless spells the man had prepared began to detonate, fly off, or vanish away. Endless magical effects activated.

Explosions, holes in reality, columns of water, walls of fire, came and went faster and faster. Even lightning bolts came from the sky and annihilated soldiers as they streamed out through the portals.

All the while, Ryker pulled more and more spells up.

“Come on out then, my beloved wife!” Ryker screamed at the top of his lungs. “Let’s get a look at you before this end comes for us all!”

“Ryker! My love!” called a voice from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

A beautiful woman with black curly hair and bright eyes stepped out of the nothingness. Forming from the nonexistence of reality directly rather than moving through a portal.

“Ryker!” she yelled out, her eyes landing on Ryker himself. She was wearing a smart black uniform that did nothing to hide her impressive figure. “I’m so glad to see you! And… and I… yes! I’m so glad to see you! My love!”

“Claire?” Ryker asked aloud almost to himself.

The woman made no move or attempt to fight Ryker. Her eyes were locked on him.

She finally moved.

Felix had a momentary flicker of the woman attacking Ryker as half the world fell away in that instant. Yet as quickly as that reality was torn apart, it mended itself back in place.

No attack or spell came.

Instead the woman just flew right toward him. Her arms wide and a blazing smile on her face.

The look of shock and incredulity on Ryker’s face was prominent. So off-track was the Architect that he didn’t do anything other than hug her when she landed in front of him and wrapped him up in her arms.

Then she kissed him. To the two of them, the firefight didn’t exist. A pale blue bubble of magic encircled them as Claire apparently worked at stuffing her tongue in Ryker’s mouth.

I… ah… alright.

Hm.

Well, good to know my psychosis sees everyone as enemies.

That’s fun.

Good to note.

Maybe psychiatrist Andrea can help me with that.

Portals boomed open as more and more soldiers of both sides began spilling out into the area. Both those in what looked eerily similar to Legion black and red colors, as well as uniforms that were black and blue, or white and blue.

Felix lifted his weapon and began firing at the opposing soldiers. Melody was doing the same, though small spells flickered to life and died away at the end of her barrel.

As if she were empowering her weaponry actively.

“Okay, this is a great bonding experience!” Melody yelled over the tumult. “We should go shooting again later!”

“You’re a nut, dear sister!” Felix called back, though he couldn’t help but grin at her words. Her antics were warm hearted and already worming their way into him.

All around him, soldiers were moving forward, taking positions, falling, shooting.

Both from Runner’s side and the opposing force.

As far as he could tell, there didn’t seem to be any losses amongst those Felix had arrived with.

Unless you counted Ryker who was trying to unglue the woman he’d called Claire off himself. She seemed determined to get her tongue down his throat and was actively working at his belt buckle.

Felix spotted Edmund firing into the oncoming enemies as well. Beside him was the young woman he’d seen earlier. He was fairly certain her name was Dorothy.

She looked to be some type of magic user and was actively pulling up shields in front of herself and Edmund.

“Oh! I should do that, too. Derp, haha,” Melody stated. A second later and a shifting of the air around them gave Felix the belief that they now had a shield around them as well. “Sorry, brother. I was a bit excited and forgot to do the setup part. Don’t tell Gus! He’ll get all grumpy at me.

“While I’m at it… I’ll just do this, too. It’d be nice if you help me pay a cost or two later but with your magical owner thing that’s no big.”

Melody released her beer-can like grip on her weapon’s foregrip and tapped his rifle. Then grabbed her own again.

A red circle with a line through it appeared over the muzzle of his weapon.

Felix leaned back into his sights and started firing again. If he hit someone with a round they went down in a heap and laid on the ground.

A new woman appeared beside Ryker and Claire and was watching with wide eyes. She looked shockingly similar to Claire and Felix had the strange feeling like he should know these women. They looked oddly familiar to him in some way.

She lifted a hand and broke through the shield around Ryker and Clair with a punch. Knocking the two out of their lip-locked war.

As soon as the pair looked at the newcomer, Claire released Ryker.

“Shirley!” shouted Claire than smashed the woman in a hug as well. Much to this new woman who was apparently named Shirley’s chagrin.

Ryker took the opportunity to fix his belt, bring up a line of spells, and start firing them into his enemies. His face still had an absolute appearance of disbelief on it.

His mouth was liberally smeared with what looked like drool from Claire.

Not far from Ryker, Runner had an equally bewildered expression.

Before Felix looked back to his front he watched as Shirley pushed Claire off, said something to her, and then snuggled up under Ryker’s arm. They began then launching spells off in concert.

Claire had a strange cast to her features, then she smiled. She stuck herself under Ryker’s other arm and immediately began touching every single spell Ryker or Shirley brought up.

They crackled and spasmed briefly.

When the spell was set off after that, it clearly had a lot more power behind it in one way or another then what had just been happening previously.

Yeah… okay.

This is so weird.

Felix saw the winged warrior that’d been hanging around Edmund flying over the heads of the others. Battling with a man that was glowing bright yellow and fighting her with a sword.

Only for him to lose his sword as a man with grey shaded wings and another that was glowing white blew past Alina at high speed. The two men looked to be working in concert and were targeting anyone holding still.

“That’s my Gus! Woo!” called Melody, firing repeatedly. “GUS! He’s the one with the grey-wings. That’s your brother-in-law, big brother.”

Felix nodded his head and just kept firing. He’d already burnt through at least half of his magazines despite being picky about his shots.

Felix spotted something heading their way from the back-lines. Something that he really didn’t know how to put a label to in any way.

It was a massive blob-like creature.

It was rolling toward the line of combat. It was easily sixty-feet in height and dwarfed everyone around.

Vince appeared and lashed out at the bottom of the gigantic blob with a glowing sword. Only for it to bounce back at him and stagger him partly.

Melody growled at that, sighted her rifle on the big monster, and started firing at it. Visually nonplussed at the fact that Vince was battling it and not winning.

“The hell is that?” asked Shirley, still pushed in close to Ryker.

“I have no god d—”

“It’s a Tongsta!” answered Claire, interrupting Ryker. Her hand raised up to quickly flick through all of Shirley and Ryker’s spells, then add several of her own. “This is delightful!”

There was a roar that came from a swirling blue portal that caught Felix’s attention. Soldiers had ceased to come out of it for a time and it’d flickered only a moment ago.

Out from inside it came Steve. Exactly as Felix had seen him not long ago.

Holding what looked like a woodcutter’s axe, the man rushed in straight at Vince.

“It’s Seville!” hissed Melody, her muzzle cycling toward the man.

In Felix’s memory, she’d only come after they’d picked up Steve. Not before. She had no idea that he was actually on their side now

Before Melody could fire, Steve went right past Vince.

He swung his axe for all he was worth at the slime monster that’d been leaning in over Vince.

An incredible thump that made everything rumble and jitter could be felt. The sound of the whump was loud in Felix’s ears as if a grenade had gone off.

The strange rubbery looking flesh indented around the axe. An incredibly fast swirling motion rushed through the giant slime monster.

Then a great jet of goo blasted out the back of it. It’s whole body moving with the indentation and quite literally turning inside out with the incredible force of the blow.

“MY NAME IS STEVE!” screamed the man at the top of his lungs. He planted his feet down and lifted his axe up, glaring at the closest soldiers in blue and black.

Steve, had come to Vince’s aid and was now standing at the man’s back.

To which Vince laughed and made a small flourish of his sword. The two men then began wading into the forces of the opposing side.

Vince neatly cut people in half and hacked off limbs with his sword.

Steve evaporated people. Every swing and swish of his axe turned soldiers into paste and chunks.

Between the two of them, they quite literally were cutting a wide path through enemy soldiers. Butchering them as if they were nothing more than fleshy scarecrows waiting to be hacked down.

A lithe looking cat-girl of all things sauntered along behind the two men. She was wearing a silvered breastplate and a sword was held casually in her hand. Blue eyes flicked to the forces of Runner, then back to the fight in front of her.

Long dark-brown hair was held in a ponytail behind her head.

“My love, my love?” called the woman in an odd sing song way, her head darting around briefly before she spotted Steve and then hurried after him. Only for Steve to meet her eyes, smile, and then dive back into the fight.

“Mother!?” asked a shocked voice from Felix’s side, causing him to once again look up from his weapon. Staring at Shirley, Claire, and Ryker, was a woman Felix instantly recognized. Then realized where the familiarity came from.

It was the woman he’d known formally as Shirley. A woman who had beaten him and his Legion soundly by using his pride and ego against himself.

She was dressed in a black and red military-type uniform with a number of pouches that looked like magazines should go there.

Except they looked to be filled with bits and bobs of random things he couldn’t identify, though they did have a mystical flair to them.

“Hi dear! Bianca! Yes, hi Bianca!” Claire said.

Shirley shook her head, looked at the young woman, gave her a tired smile, then back to the fight.

“Rene’s over that way,” Shirley stated with a motion of her free hand.

“Oh! I’ll get to meet your fiance today, won’t I? How fun!” Claire cheered, then leaned up and kissed Ryker’s cheek. “We need to give our daughter siblings, by the way.”

Ryker’s face paled, but he didn’t stop casting spells.

“Oh, Hi Felix!” said the woman who was apparently actually named Bianca. She was moving past him and down the fighting line. “Sorry about that whole… ruining your plans thing. We should talk sometime soon! I lead rescue missions into your old world to save people! Ta-ta for now!”

Bianca kept going, then threw out her left hand. With a boom a massive column of flame licked up toward the sky. Obliterating an entire group of people in uniforms of the enemy.

“No. This is not possible! IMPOSSIBLE!” declared a voice from the far side of the mad battle.

“Very possible, Zeus you bastard!” shouted Ryker. “I’ve worked hard to counter, fix, and fuck you over at every turn! Did you think we’d just sit here and do nothing?”

There was a strange warbling shriek that almost sounded as if it were an electronic device being dropped into a tub of water. Crackling and breaking up even as it hit the surface.

The battlefield became eerily silent and everyone ceased in their activity.

A vaguely humanoid shape made out of static appeared in front of them. In and amongst a number of soldiers from both sides, in fact.

With a casual swipe of its arm, it incinerated everyone around it. Each person that was struck being melted.

Or disintegrated.

They came apart in a weird way. As if they were being broken down into small squares and atomized.

“I thought I had more time. I know this is how it’s supposed to be, or… kind of how it was, but I thought I had more time,” Ryker muttered almost to himself. Felix heard it due to the silence that’d fallen over everything.

Ryker shoved Shirley and Claire out to the side’s of himself a moment before a massive blast of bubbling lightning was launched out of the static creature’s hands.

It was easily the size of a truck and the heat it was putting out made Felix feel as if he were standing next to an inferno.

Ryker stood there with a shield in front of himself and it was struck by the attack.

Then the world exploded.

Felix saw an endless line of everyone flicking in and out of reality. Appearing, disappearing, reappearing, then becoming other people.

He watched first hand as Melody became hundreds of different people. Some of them were even male.

Countless people replacing her.

Then he realized it was happening to nearly everyone. Everyone around were being replaced with others. Though every time they were in Legion colors or something similar.

“What… what the fuck?” Felix asked. Everyone was perfectly still even as everything around changed. “I’m… I’ve… what… what do I do?”

Everything began to crumble now around Felix. People, objects, the ground, all if it started to turn into flakes of what they were and fall away. Fall to the infinite below them and vanish.

“Help me,” Felix whispered, now lost to the madness of his mind. Perhaps only to himself even as he stood on a battlefield.

A man appeared not far away from him.

Directly where Edmund had been, in fact. Edmund was there no longer though.

This man was wiry and fit looking. Though somewhat savage and filled with a desperate energy.

As if the world had been stuck in pause, it jumped to life.

The wiry man was gone as if he’d never been there. Instead he appeared next to Ryker. Knocking the man off his feet and sending him to the ground just as his shield failed.

As quickly as the man had appeared, he was gone. All that was left behind was a smoldering piece of what looked like steel where he’d been.

Whatever it had been was indistinguishable now as much of it had been disintegrated.

The colossal attack had struck Ryker at a glancing angle. Shearing off one of his arms and part of his torso. He was alive, but it didn’t look like he would be for long.

“RYKER! MY RYKER!” shouted Claire, stepping toward the static monster. “I’LL KILL YOU ZEUS! I’LL KILL YOU! MURDER YOU! LIAR! TRECHEROUS!”

The monster, who Felix assumed was Zeus, didn’t respond to her. Instead it simply slid into the ground and vanished. Disappearing completely.

“YOU! I’LL I’LL CATCH YOU!” yelled Claire at the ground. Then she spun around and went to Ryker’s side.

Dorothy, Bianca, and Shirley were all there as well.

“I’m not dead?” Ryker asked suddenly and with shock echoing in his words.

“You’re dying!” wailed Dorothy.

“But I’m not dead!” declared Ryker with a loud and sudden laugh. “I’m not dead, I’m dying! Hahaha! That’s a world of a difference!”

Bianca shook her head, a sob wracking her shoulders.

“But you can’t die. We only just… just reconnected,” she argued.

Felix didn’t know what to say to this situation. Runner was standing over the group. His hands were working furiously back and forth across the air as if he were casting some type of spell.

“I’m not dead. He did it. He-he jumped the track,” Ryker said with another chuckle. Then he looked to Bianca and smiled. “You need to help everyone. You must take my place. Become the next Architect. They’ll need your mind and skills. There’s a document thats addressed to you in my will. Just read that and it’ll explain everything. You can pick up from there.”

As soon as he got a nod from Bianca Ryker turned and looked to Dorothy, smiling.

“Find Edmund. Help him. If you can’t, help Runner. This is my last request as your mentor. Help them complete my life’s work,” he asked.

Dorothy nodded her head incrementally at that. She didn’t look happy about it, but she didn’t look like she was going to argue either.

Laughing, Ryker looked to Shirley. His coloring was growing as white as milk now.

“Care for our kids. All of them,” he asked. “Don’t do something stupid.”

Shirley, shook her head at that.

“Don’t,” he repeated. He pulled a piece of paper out of a pocket and held it out to her. “For you. For later. Our kids. Be there for them. They’ll need you.”

Then he slowly looked to Claire once Shirley took the paper and nodded once.

Claire was bent low over him. Tears constantly falling from her eyes and rolling down her face.

“My Claire… we never really got to pick up where we left off,” Ryker said in a slow and ragged breath. “For what it’s worth… I always loved you.”

“I know… I’m sorry… I ruined it all. I love you, too,” she whimpered, staring at him. This entire time her hands had been clawing at the air in an attempt to work spells, Felix assumed. “None of my spells work.”

“It’s the-the shift,” Ryker murmured, his voice growing fainter. A massive pool of blood was forming under him. His remaining time was miniscule.“The shift. It’ll go away shortly. I’m sorry, Claire. I love you.”

Ryker took in a shuddering breath, then slowly looked around at everyone.

“I’m not dead. I’m dying. Haha, that’s great. He did it.

“Runner! Runner, if you do some-something then-then let me rest for a time. Let me rest before you do it, Runner,” he pleaded with another chuckle. “I love you all. Help… help my friend. Please. Help Runner. Help… help him… I’m… I’m the… Architect. Help… me.”

Ryker let out a breath and didn’t take another. He stared into nothing blankly.

“I couldn’t… I couldn’t fix it,” growled Runner. Clawing at the air. Then he tore something off his chest and slammed it into the ground.

He stomped on it twice, then made a gesture at it.

A strange phantasmal being appeared, swept through Ryker’s dying body, and then vanished. Slipping into the void beneath them.

A portal than began to grow not far away. Slowly rotating and forming into an oval.

“I took his soul and put it in an afterlife I can access even here,” Runner stated and staring down at the corpse. “Given time I can get him back. Not any time soon though. Besides he asked for a rest, too.

“No one is ever really beyond my reach with enough time. Well… almost no one.”

“You can bring him back?” Dorothy demanded, looking up at him.

“Yeah. Gonna be a bit. But yeah. Can’t leave my best friend dead,” Runner muttered with a shrug.

“I want to join him,” Claire said, holding onto Ryker’s remaining hand. “You can bring me back after, right?”

“I mean… yeah,” Runner agreed.

“I’m going to go fight Zeus. Take my soul away now so when I die it’s fine,” Claire demanded. “I don’t care if it turns me into a zombie or an undead. Just send me after him when I die.”

“I… you… alright. I can do that, Claire,” Runner agreed. It sounded like he was going to disagree until she turned and glared at him over her shoulder. “We need to move to the next part though. There’s a portal to go through and— ”

The portal that’d been forming had closed. It was gone.

“Uh… what?” Runner asked no one. He looked confused, concerned, and at a loss.

Ignoring everyone, he began to make finger movements through the air as if he were working a spell again.

Claire leaned over, kissed Ryker’s corpse, then stood up.

“My soul?” she demanded.

Runner grunted, pulled something out of his pocket, and handed it over to her.

“Just keep that on your person till you die. You can hold it in your hand or —”

Whatever he’d given her was popped into her mouth and she swallowed it whole.

“That-that works,” muttered Runner, going back to whatever he was doing.

Lashing out with a hand, Claire tore open a hole in reality.

“My spells are back. I’ll go see if I can’t kill Zeus. Then… then I’ll rejoin Ryker,” Claire said emphatically. She looked to Shirley and Bianca. “I’ll give him your love for you. I’m sorry for everything that happened. I look forward to us being a family when I come back with Ryker.”

Claire stepped through the portal she’d made and vanished.

“Uh… now what?” Melody asked, looking around. “Weren’t we supposed to do something or some such?”

Runner didn’t answer.

He was still working away.