“
What about all the people who have to suffer and die while you’re at war with these so-called gods?”
“
Regretful but necessary sacrifices. Their loved ones, however, will find themselves living in a better universe.”
Nightshadow shook his head and regretted it. It hurt and made him dizzy. He almost thought he saw that shadow slipping across the ceiling between the fire cages at the edges of his blurred vision.
“
You’re mad,” he told Phoenix Bright. “You’ll kill us all with your insane scheme, but Hyperman will stop you. The Silver Seraphs will. The other Invincibles will come too.”
Bright snickered. “Even now, Gilgamesh finds himself lost within this fortress’s labyrinth. Dynamo-Man tried hacking into my systems and exposed himself to dozens and dozens of computer viruses. Hyperman and Areva have no way home from the war-zone on Prism, and my forces are overwhelming Sea Devil and S.I.L.E.N.T. as we speak. The day is mine.”
“
There’s still me then.”
Phoenix Bright sighed. “Even chained up and with all hope gone, you seek to oppose me. Yes, I see it quite clearly in your soul. I feared that you wouldn’t see the light of reason. I’d have preferred your compliance, but I can always make the proper strategic alterations to your thoughts, both yours and your friend’s.”
He locked his gaze upon Nightshadow, and sharp orange-red flames sparked within the eyeholes of his skull-mask. Nightshadow watched those flames spin around and around, drawing him down inside of them where it was warm and comfortable. He tried fighting it, but the fires soothed and caressed his very soul and he wanted to plunge down into them and burn happily forever.
NO!
he screamed inside of himself. He struggled in his chains, but the flames tickled against the skin of his soul, and he wanted to surrender to their sensual sizzle.
Just when he was about to give in, a web snagged Phoenix Bright’s mask. It immediately broke the spell, and Nightshadow shuddered and shook off Bright’s foul influence, though he still felt woozy. Meanwhile, Bright clawed at his mask, trying to tear the wet, sticky webbing off. The Spider-Specter leaped down off the ceiling and smashed an electrically charged punch right into the sorcerer’s facemask. The force of the blow bashed Bright back into a couple of his short computer towers.
The Spider-Specter shoved and pulled the others down with webs right on top of Bright. With Bright thrashing around beneath the fallen computers, the Spider-Specter jumped up and crawled across the ceiling. Using his enhanced strength, he managed to tear the chains off Nightshadow and Wrath and help them down to the floor.
Immediately, Nightshadow searched for and found Wrath’s pulse. He looked up at the Spider-Specter. “Your danger sense helped steer you clear of all Bright’s illusions, and your camouflage powers blended in too well for even his magic to detect you,” he said.
The Spider-Specter shrugged. “It helped that he didn’t know I was coming, but I still had to fight through all the hordes of freaking hell to get here.” He pointed to his torn up costume and the harsh bruises that showed on his ribcage and arm. His mask even hung in tatters.
Phoenix Bright tore through his fallen computers and ripped the webbing off his mask. “THE INDIGNITY!” he bellowed.
“
Shit!” Danny muttered.
“
Distract him while I take care of the hostages,” Nightshadow said.
“
I don’t know if I can take him, Night! I don’t know if both of us together can!”
“
It’s not just us.”
***
Shrieking and cursing, Phoenix Bright threw fire and lightning all over his throne room, knocking down the walls and ceiling. Danny pranced, ducked, and twisted out of the way, always just barely missing every blast. Nightshadow dragged Wrath down behind the throne for cover. He noticed that when Bright’s magical blasts struck the white-flaming hostages in their cages, it only made them burn stronger and brighter. He wasn’t sure what that meant or how to free them, but luckily, there was an expert on magic nearby.
With Danny distracting Bright, Nightshadow whisked around the throne and grabbed the jar throbbing with Liandra Dark’s spirit. He slammed it down against the short steps leading up to the throne, but the glass didn’t break. Snatching it back up, he beat it against the hard stone floor, but it didn’t even crack. Finally, he picked up Paul Wrath’s arm and aimed the wrist-blaster on his gauntlet point blank at the jar. He pulled the trigger, and energy shot out in a thin white, sizzling line.
Glass shards flew everywhere, and a bloody-pink mist seeped through Nightshadow’s facemask up into his nostrils. He couldn’t help but suck it all in and thought he was going to suffocate. His lungs and guts felt fit to burst. He shuddered, spasmed, and choked. Hard white flashed across his eyes.
“
Relax, it’s me,” a familiar, accented voice said deep in his head.
“
Liandra?” Nightshadow asked aloud.
“
Yeah, we’re roommates now, Night, dear, and here’s my share of the rent.”
Nightshadow gawked and choked as centuries of knowledge filled up the inner reaches of his mind. Spells, curses, forbidden languages, mythologies, maps to other realms, and strange, inhuman rituals all flowed together.
“
Thank you for being my little library, Night,” Liandra said. “I see your life in here too. I’m sorry about your family. You were only a child, but there was the explosion and the bridge collapsing. All these people were screaming and you didn’t know what was going on and almost died yourself. You’ve never been able to process what happened and what you’d lost. You never process any of your pain. You just block it out and I see it in here, building and building. I don’t know how you can stand it, Nathan.”
“
Don’t call me that,” Nightshadow said. “I’m not him.”
“
Sorry. I can see that he’s completely gone.”
Almost of their own accord, Nightshadow’s hands began circling in the air, trailing fiery green and purple vapors. The magic bled across his wing-suit and hardened into semi-transparent armor. His mouth moved of its own accord, chanting ancient words that hurt his tongue to pronounce. Power built up and burned inside of him, aching to erupt.
“
Now we can settle this,” Nightshadow and Liandra said together.
***
Smoke filled the air and formed into hissing, glowing-green snakes that wrapped and writhed around Danny, pinning and holding him down to the floor. Phoenix Bright brushed the remaining webbing off his armor before taking aim at him with a fireball.
“
Now!” Liandra told Nightshadow.
While she chanted away in a dozen different languages deep inside of him, he concentrated and formed a knife out of his armor. He flung it at Bright, who dissolved his fireball to catch and crush the knife in his hands. The cyber-sorcerer turned toward Nightshadow. Bright’s armor shimmered as the flames embedded in it came to life.
“
You had your chance to be spared!” Phoenix Bright said. The flames leaped off of his armor, turning into dozens of flaming daggers that darted at Nightshadow.
In response, Nightshadow threw his arms wide, knowing instinctively what to do with Liandra and all her knowledge lurking inside of him. A flickering-flashing shield appeared in front of him and caught Bright’s daggers as one after the other speared into its transparent, thick magical glass. The shield cracked under the stress. Bright then brought a massive sword of smoky black fire down against the shield and shattered it into pieces, which was exactly what Nightshadow had wanted him to do.
The shield parts flew, melting along the way and becoming swampy-green water that splashed up against the fire cages. The magic water drenched the hostages and put out the fires, reducing the cages to weak, blackened metal. The cages snapped free and fell to the floor, breaking and spilling the hostages out, though they were all wet with sweat and soot.
“
NO!” Bright hissed.
“
YES!” Liandra yelled with Nightshadow’s voice. A giant, blue-burning hammer flared up in his hands, and he slammed it down at Bright, who caught it.
“
YOU ARE NOTHING!” Bright roared as he threw the hammer and Nightshadow back. As Nightshadow fell backwards, the hammer broke into pieces that pelted into him. Bright formed an orb of sickly orange power and hurled it through the air at him. The orb crackled and pulsed with power and was seemingly ready to explode. Nightshadow thought he couldn’t dodge quickly enough away to avoid it. However, an elegantly jeweled spear lanced through it, and the orb exploded back onto Bright and knocked him over.
Gilgamesh emerged from the shadows and picked his spear back up from the floor. Behind him, Dynamo-Man burst through a nearby wall and launched a barrage of mini-missiles at the fallen Bright. This allowed Sea Devil to sneak in through the hole in the wall and shoot Bright with his trident-rifle as he struggled back up. Phoenix Bright lashed up his hands and threw a wave of flames that sent everyone reeling back. He tried conjuring another orb, but a bright, bursting light appeared and the Answer bounded out of it to give Bright a powerful uppercut that put him down.
Gilgamesh stared at him. “I thought I’d killed you!”
“
That was only an illusion to help me escape,” the Answer replied. “No hard feelings though, Gil. I know you weren’t yourself.”
With the other Invincibles taking over the fight, Nightshadow ripped Danny free from the snakes. Each twitchy, hissing serpent evaporated into smoke once they were torn apart. Then Nightshadow and Danny joined up with the other Invincibles in a battle formation. However, when Bright stirred, Paul Wrath staggered shakily up and shot him back down with his wrist-blaster. With a weary smile, Wrath collapsed down onto the throne.
“
Nice to see that we all found our way here,” he said. “Must be magic, which comes down to you, Liandra, darling. You are inside of Night there, aren’t you?”
Under his mask, Nightshadow’s mouth crested up into Liandra’s smile. “It’s the spell of unification,” she said with his voice. “Too bad Hyperman and Areva are too far out of reach for me to summon.”
“
We’re fine without them,” Gilgamesh said, stalking toward Bright and rubbing his hardened, clenched fists.
***
After impaling Phoenix Bright to the floor with his spear, Gilgamesh began hammering down at him with explosive, shell-shocking punches.
“
The astral plane!” Liandra chirped as everybody watched Gilgamesh pummel the sorcerer. “Bright’s trying to sneak out to the astral plane!”
Nightshadow felt her slip out of his body like a breath. He went cold and numb and nearly toppled over. All of Liandra’s magical knowledge was vanishing in a flush, but he vaguely saw her on the misty, chaotic astral plane, slamming a fiery soul-spear down through Phoenix Bright. It impaled him there much as Gilgamesh’s spear did for his physical body here. She blew Nightshadow a kiss as she started drawing a circle in soul-blood around Bright to exile him to another realm.
The image faded from Nightshadow’s mind, and the real world of Bright’s fortress came hurtling back, painted in harsh, eye-hurting colors. It hit him like a punch, and he went reeling back. He shouldered stiffly into a wall and leaned up against it to regain his bearings.
S.I.L.E.N.T. troops rushed in and saw to the hostages, while the other Invincibles went to finish off the last of Phoenix Bright’s forces. Gilgamesh called for Nightshadow to join them on the hunt as he tore his spear up out of Bright’s motionless sack of a body and lumbered off.
Instead, Nightshadow approached Danny, who was checking on hostage after hostage, offering them consoling words or helping with their bandages. He saw Nightshadow, excused himself, and drifted over with Nightshadow to a corner behind the throne away from everyone else.
“
So it’s over?” Danny asked.
“
This is, yes,” Nightshadow replied and offered Danny a hand. “We need to talk,” he said.
Danny shrugged. “I guess we do.”
He took Nightshadow’s hand with a firm, hard grip. Nightshadow triggered the electro-shock. Danny screamed, shuddered, and shook before falling over unconscious. The chemical spray on Nightshadow’s wing-suit had kept him from detecting any danger.