"You don't even know how to use that!" Ben cried in exasperation. Gwen couldn't blame him. Forever Knights taxed even her patience, and today they seemed bent on making even more of a nuisance of themselves than usual. The matter duplicator they had somehow managed to smuggle onto earth stood in the middle of the room, surrounded by various other technologies.
No answer came from Cyrus or any of his knights, but that wasn't unusual. In any event, it probably wouldn't be heard over the sound of plasma rifles and pained British grunts. Gwen's shield was holding firm, but she could feel Kevin getting annoyed at being left out of the action. Kneeling, he absorbed the metal floor of the warehouse and morphed his hands into two giant hammers.
"On three," Gwen quietly told him. Kevin barely nodded.
"Three," Gwen shouted and dropped her shield. They both charged at the knights, Gwen knocking their shots with her mana-covered hands and Kevin simply running through them. Gwen caught of glimpse of Ben as he changed into Big Chill and breathed on a forever knight, freezing him where he stood. She blasted a couple of knights and left the rest to Kevin, who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself. Grabbing two of their heads, he clapped them together, smiling brutally as their knees buckled and they fell to the ground. The sound of their armor crashing with the metal ground made her teeth rattle.
"You got this?" Gwen asked.
"Yeah," Kevin shouted as he ran toward another group. Gwen smiled at his enthusiasm as she made her way to the matter duplicator. Ben knocked Cyrus back into a wall, hard, and the man crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
"Help me move this," Ben shouted to Kevin. Her cousin was attempting to drag the duplicator to the large door of the warehouse, but couldn't quite manage as Big Chill. Kevin caught sight of him and ran over, lending his strength to the task. As the two struggled to move the object, Gwen found herself suddenly confronted by Sir Morton, who was wielding a mean-looking mace.
"Not so fast, girlie," he snarled as he swung at Gwen's skull. Gwen crouched beneath the arc and powered her fists in preparation for the blows she hoped to land. Morton saw this and quickly altered his full on assault to a more conservative attack. The two battled back and forth for a few minutes, each battering the other. Then Morton landed a crushing blow to her side, both of them hearing the crunch of bones. Gwen's eyes narrowed with pain. Morton didn't seem to care.
Out of the corner of her eye, Gwen noticed Cyrus picking himself up and scrabbling for his gun.
"Watch out behind you!" Gwen hurriedly called to her cousin and boyfriend, one hand at her ribs to ease the pain of shouting. Kevin looked back just in time to duck under a carefully aimed shot by Cyrus, which should have went straight through his head. As such, it went past him and nearly hit Gwen, striking instead a small control tower behind her and Morton. Gwen wouldn't have thought twice about it if a glowing vortex hadn't appeared immediately behind the tower. She immediately recognized it as a portal from her previous experience, but was prevented from further contemplation by Morton, who was pressing his advantage.
Gwen noticed Kevin leaving Ben to beat on Cyrus while she dodged and struck at Morton. Absorbing the cold steel floor, Kevin neatly dodged under the blast fired by Cyrus before he swung a hard uppercut at Cyrus's solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him.
"Perhaps I didn't knock you hard enough last time," Kevin grunted while picking up the winded man by the throat and belt and moving to throw him. As he was turning to gain momentum, a stray blast from one of the lesser knights hit his foot, causing him to let go of Cyrus in surprise. Cyrus flew through the air with the momentum already built up from Kevin's super strength, sailing over Ben and the matter duplicator.
And straight into Gwen and Morton.
The impact knocked the trio into the vortex. Gwen knew the blinding pain from her broken ribs was coming, it was just delayed by her nerves or adrenaline. In the time she had, she noticed the lightning bolts streaking through the walls of the vortex tunnel. She was rather certain that wasn't supposed to happen. Then pain blossoming in her ribs and overtaking her mind stole her conscious and she knew no more.