Saturday. The day of Winston Deavor's superhero extravaganza, expected to attract supers from all over the planet, as well as their supporters and various dignitaries. A festive event which would include decadent foods, fine live music provided by some of New Urbem's most talented young musicians, and a chance for the superheroes of the world to relax, drink, unwind, and enjoy each other's company.
But the Soaring Six hadn't planned to attend the party that evening. The New Urbem area was under siege, and the last thing they needed to think about at this moment was enjoying themselves and having fun—a sad but necessary truth.
Instead, they were going to capture a killer.
Voyd sat behind a very bushy shrub, the sky a cloudless powdery blue above her, and the air crisp with the smell of spring. A pair of fancy DevTech binoculars were pressed to her eyes; they stripped away the leaves that blocked her vision, showing her the glowing heat-signatures of the people who were in the park beyond. Today was the grand opening of Helnwein Public Park—thus named for a generous Austrian donor, who had given over a million dollars to have an abandoned former industrial complex be torn down and replaced with six acres of greenspace, public trails and benches.
Right now, New Urbem's deputy mayor—her name was Christine something; Voyd couldn't remember—was standing before a crowd (who were seated on cheap fold-up chairs), wearing a sharp blazer and matching pencil skirt, and making a speech about the importance of green spaces in New Urbem. The crowd was large—probably around fifty people squirmed in the uncomfortable-looking folding metal chairs. But still, the crowd was sparser than it would've been, had the grand opening been held on its intended date—Sunday of the following week.
Instead, without much notice, the opening had been hastily moved up a week, at the behest of Winston Deavor. A few days prior, the billionaire had quietly slipped Deputy Mayor Christine Something a $500,000 cheque "to fund the next greenspace," his only request being that the grand opening took place that Saturday instead of a week later. Of course, despite not knowing why Winston would make such a demand, the deputy mayor had blubbered in shock for a few moments before agreeing wholeheartedly to his request.
Voyd was part of a very small group of people who were privileged enough to know why Winston had bribed the mayor. The grand opening was a trap.
Of course, it was easier said than done to trap Heartless and Queen of Hearts. The two of them seemed to attack at random—a shopping mall, an airport, Edna Mode's home. But as far as the Soaring Six and the NSA knew, the supervillainesses did have some sort of vague pattern: they liked to target places where numerous innocent people would be present. Then, superheroes would be lured to the scene, and the villains could focus on their real goal: to torment and attack the supers.
In that respect, the public park's grand opening would make a tempting target, with its large crowd of innocent civilians. Not only that, but on this particular Saturday, it was the only major event of any importance that was taking place—a rare event in a huge city like New Urbem. Of course, that was discounting Winston's super gala that evening, but Voyd, the Soaring Six and the NSA all agreed that it was supremely unlikely Heartless would target that event. It was one thing for Noreen and Julie to attack a team of six or seven, but dozens of supers would be present at the gala, and even someone as mad as Noreen probably wouldn't risk going toe-to-toe with three dozen heroes at once.
Well, at least, Voyd hoped so.
Her thoughts still flashed back to the sunlight machine, Evelyn Deavor's disinterested proclamation: If someone got hold of the device, they could make a few modifications and transform it into a large-scale WMD. According to Dicker, the NSA had started doing some investigations, speaking to Saudi Arabian officials and trying to track down where the device had ended up after the Deavors sold it. So far, they hadn't made much headway. After speaking to Evelyn again and learning that it would take hundreds of very specific and technical modifications over a period of several years to turn the sunlight machine into a weapon—something that was likely beyond Noreen Bowman's capabilities—the NSA had developed the theory that Noreen had indeed acquired the device, but had likely found it useless and scrapped it.
Rick Dicker had advised the Soaring Six to put the machine out of their minds for now, but Voyd couldn't do that. Her mind kept focusing on the subject, and even now, as she watched the grand opening and listened to Christine's droning speech, she shook her head violently as though she could shake those anxious thoughts away.
"Hey, what's eating ya?" The question came from Reflux, who was seated beside her with his own pair of binoculars. (The other Soaring Six were stationed around the park, observing as well.)
"Nothing," she lied.
The elderly super grunted. "Hey, kid, I know fibs when I hear 'em. Remember what you said to me not that long ago? We're a team. If there's something up, you can tell me."
Voyd wished she could be more open with her friends, but she didn't want to infect Reflux with her anxieties—not to mention the rest of the team, via their headsets—and she knew that if she shared her fears, they'd only grow stronger. "I'm just worried about this mission, that's all. I mean, what if the bad guys don't take the bait? What if they attack somewhere else while we're waiting around here?"
The older super shrugged his thin shoulders. "Well, if that happened, I s'pose the NSA would tell us, and we'd just head over to wherever they were attacking. Like we would've done anyway. No biggie."
"Yeah… you're right," she sighed, lowering the binoculars, as her arms were starting to ache from holding them up. "And hey, if they don't take the bait, it'll only have cost Winston five hundred thousand bucks, right?"
Reflux guffawed at her joke. "That's true, ain't it? But hey—I bet he makes that much in an hour."
"He probably does," Voyd giggled, though somewhat guiltily. She still hadn't told Winston about her choice to quit her job, and though she'd been able to purchase some food for herself in the past few days, her last paycheck was quickly running dry. And though she'd spent the past few nights in the SJP, she hadn't gotten her stuff from her apartment yet; she was procrastinating the heck out of that. It was only a matter of time before her landlord chucked her belongings into the street and rented her former home to someone else.
Winston Deavor's voice sounded over their headsets. "Joking at my expense? How dare you! Nah, I'm just kidding," he continued before Voyd could offer a guilty apology. "Don't worry about the money. I was planning to donate to a public project in the city, anyhow. It's the least I can do. It won't go to waste either way."
"Thanks, Winston. Where are you, anyhow?" Voyd inquired. "You're not around here, are you?"
"Nope. I'm safe in my office, just looking over some paperwork. Don't worry yourselves about me."
Artie Fishel's voice suddenly came bursting over the headsets too. "Hey, guys, quick question—which one of you ended up with the weapon?"
"Krushauer's got it," Voyd informed him. "Why?"
"Just curious. Wish we could've made more than one of 'em for you guys, but hey—you gave us, what, two days? I think we did pretty good." His tone turned awed and reverent. "Christ, I got to work with Evelyn Deavor. That's a gift all in itself."
The Soaring Six had specifically asked Artie and Evelyn to design a device that would aid their plan to trap Queen of Hearts. The two inventors had collaborated day and night to create the special weapon—though, since she wasn't allowed near technology, Evelyn's role had been relegated to verbal assistance. The weapon was a rough prototype, but it had been tested and was proven to work the way it should, which was good enough for now. The weapon worked "neurally," according to Evelyn, affecting the pathways in its target's brain in unprecedented ways. Used properly, the device would stun its victim, render them incapable of using superpowers, and leave them paralyzed for several minutes, if not an hour.
Though it was a collaborative effort, the weapon's basic functions had been Evelyn Deavor's idea. Which kind of chilled Voyd, but she tried not to think about it too much.
"I hope you are certain about this, Artie," came Krushauer's curt voice over their headsets; the super was observing the proceedings with Screech elsewhere in the park. "If this weapon doesn't work…"
"I'm confident it will," insisted Artie. "Honest. Wouldn't have given it to you guys if I wasn't. And it's not just me—Evelyn's confident about it, too."
"What a comfort," Krushauer said sarcastically.
Voyd held the binoculars up to her face again, their cool metal rings pressing to the skin around her eyes. They cast a glowing green pallor over her vision. Christine the deputy mayor was gesticulating to accent her dull speech, while in the crowd, several people seemed to be falling asleep. All were rendered in otherworldly swirls of green, blue, yellow, orange and red, denoting the heat of their bodies. Nothing was amiss, and there was no sign of Heartless or her daughter.
She dropped the binoculars yet again with a sigh. "Gosh, that's a pretty long speech, huh?"
"The broad must've been blabbering for forty-five minutes," mumbled Reflux. "I've half a mind to conk out, myself. During the great war, everyone made speeches all the time, y'know, Voyd. The generals made speeches, the sergeants made speeches, the grunts made speeches, the bigwigs made 'em and we listened to 'em on the radio… Everyone was making a damn speech. Got sick of 'em mighty quick. I remember one time, Churchill made this speech about—"
"I think it would be best, my dear Reflux, if we kept our conversation to a minimum at this moment, and focus solely on the mission," Screech interrupted smoothly over their headsets. (Voyd was silently grateful.)
"Uh—hem. Of course." Reflux piped down, looking a little embarrassed.
Voyd vividly recalled just days before, when Queen of Hearts attacked Reflux's emotions at Edna's house. She recalled Reflux's words in that moment, when the elderly super had stubbornly sat down and muttered: I'm no part of this team anyhow. Reflux had barely spoken about that moment since, but Voyd suspected that Queen of Hearts had taken Reflux's feelings of disconnect from his younger coworkers and amplified them. It was moments like these when Voyd worried it could happen again—not for no reason, either. She felt rotten for being relieved that Reflux had shut up.
Sure, it wasn't an opportune time, but shouldn't she want to hear his stories? He was a member of this team, too, and Voyd forced herself to admit that sometimes, she—as well as the others—saw him only as a funny old mascot, or an amusing blabbermouth to be tolerated. That wasn't right. He was an equal member of the Soaring Six, and despite his age, he deserved respect like all of them did.
"I'd love to hear about Churchill later, Reflux, if you've got the time," she whispered kindly to her elderly companion, knowing it wasn't much, but hoping it was enough. She didn't want him to feel ignored and silenced.
"Oh, sure!" he replied, surprised but pleased. "I can tell you a hell of a lot about Churchill. Could talk about him for hours. But for now, I'll shut up."
"Shh," He-Lectrix hissed through the headset sharply. "I think we've got company."
A chill lanced through Voyd at the words, and she quickly raised her binoculars once again, scanning the area beyond the bush for any sign of an intruder. "What do you see?" she demanded.
He-Lectrix sounded doubtful when he spoke again. "Um, maybe it was just the wind, or a car passing by. Thought I heard something off."
It was entirely possible he'd just heard a car rushing past—after all, the park was situated right next to a road. But Voyd had a gut feeling that this was something more. "Keep your eyes peeled, guys," she cautioned the others.
Her colleague's words had rattled her, and though it was a tranquil day—not a cloud in the sky, birds tweeting peacefully—Voyd's heart was drumming double-time. She kept scanning, looking for signs of foul play, as Christine the deputy mayor's voice continued droning on.
"…and so, we must continue to protect and maintain the green forest land within New Urbem for our children to enjoy, and their children, and their children after them, so that even a hundred years from now, our city will stay green and beautiful…"
Something caught Voyd's eye, far up into the sky, to her right. Her gaze shot towards it.
"…and with the help of generous donors, we can continue…"
What was it? She squinted hard, pointed in its direction so that Reflux could see it, too. It seemed to be barreling towards them from high in the sky: a shiny, reflective object.
"…unused lands in the New Urbem area…"
Voyd thought she could hear the noise He-Lectrix had spoken of, now: a quiet rushing, steadily growing louder, like wind through a tunnel.
"…safe and healthy outdoor area for our kids to play…"
"I see it," Krushauer said shortly.
"What the hell is it?" Reflux cried.
"We need to evacuate these people now," Voyd cautioned, unable to snap her eyes away from that thing in the sky.
"No, you'll tip her off. Let them come to us. Then we'll evacuate," Krushauer insisted.
"But people could die!" Voyd cried.
Krushauer sounded far more confident than Voyd felt. "No, they will not. We'll ensure it this time."
"…ensure that people will want to live in New Urbem for decades to come…" continued Christine monotonously.
The rushing noise had grown louder, and Voyd could now make out the object more clearly. No, there were two objects, side by side. Two people. Two women.
"It's them," Voyd whispered into her headset, terror briefly paralyzing her. "It's gotta be them…"
"But how?" He-Lectrix asked in uncertainty. "Did a plane drop them, or what?"
"Krushauer, with all due respect, I am not prepared to simply wait for these people to be murdered in cold blood," Screech snapped tersely. "We must act now, before they land."
"…continue to protect our precious green lands…" Christine spoke into the mic as people in the crowd continued to drift into sleep, unaware of the danger screaming toward them.
"Trust me. Wait," Krushauer told the others in a hard voice.
The forms were becoming clearer and clearer in the sky, and it became apparent why they were glinting in the sun: instead of being protected by the red bubble they'd used last time around, this time, both women were clothed in shiny metal armor over their suits. They wore breastplates, arm and leg guards, metal shoes, and metallic helmets that conformed to their skulls; rather than looking like something an old-timey knight might wear, this particular armor looked futuristic and modern.
The armor didn't disguise Heartless's wide smile as she descended like a meteor.
"Christ, do they even have parachutes?" He-Lectrix demanded.
"They're coming in way too fast," Voyd cried.
"I'm going to shoot the young one now." This came from Krushauer.
"No, Krushauer, you can't—Evelyn said the weapon can only take so many shots, and they're moving too fast! You'll miss!" Voyd warned him.
"The people—someone help the people." Even Brick's usually-calm voice carried a sense of urgency.
"No, wait for them to land, then we'll evacuate, like I said before," snapped Krushauer.
Heartless and Queen of Hearts were plummeting feet-first towards the ground with no sign of slowing down—Voyd thought they must be less than a hundred feet away from the earth at this point, and if they landed at this speed, they'd probably hurt or kill somebody in the crowd. Voyd lifted her hands, two seconds away from creating a portal underneath the evildoers that would teleport them safely to the ground, but before she could, Heartless and Queen of Hearts reached behind their backs in unison. Two pink parachutes—heart-shaped, of course—deployed from their backs, instantly slowing the villains' descent.
Queen of Hearts lifted her own hands. Julie Bowman's blonde hair whipped around her helmeted head, and twin beams of crimson energy shot from the teenager's palms. From high in the air, the blasts shot like two laser beams toward the ground and the unsuspecting civilians.
Voyd couldn't keep from acting any longer. Desperate, she stood up, no longer hidden by the bushes, and threw one portal, then another, within instants of each other. The first opened underneath the beams; the second sent them shooting harmlessly into the sky.
By now, the civilians had started to notice that something was wrong. They were frowning in bewilderment and casting worried glances over their shoulders, confused faces turning to terrified ones as they saw the villains descending toward them. Screams began to ring out, and even Christine turned her attention away from her speech, eyes turning to saucers as she beheld what was above her.
Queen of Hearts sent another blast as she continued to descend with her mother, and Voyd managed to deflect this one away from the crowd, too, with the help of two portals. The crowd was in chaos now, chairs overturning as they tripped over themselves to run away.
"Run, little mice!" Heartless yelled in glee; above the din, Voyd could barely hear her.
"It's past time to show ourselves," Krushauer commanded, and the rest followed his lead. Voyd and Reflux both leapt out from behind their shrub, revealing themselves. Around the park, the rest of the team did the same, jumping down from trees or stepping out from behind large rocks where they'd been hidden. As they did so, Heartless and her daughter landed safely on their feet, parachutes rustling to the ground behind them. Both women smacked a button on their chests, and the parachutes' strings detached from their backs.
Luckily, the crowd didn't need the supers' help to evacuate; all the civilians had made scarce on their own, leaving behind a tipped podium and scattered lawn chairs. Even as Queen of Hearts aimed a stray blast at a fleeing woman's back, Voyd made short work of it with another portal.
"Well, well," said Heartless loudly, hands on hips and smiling. "Looks like we don't have to wait for the supers to show their pretty faces this time around. Do we, dear?"
Queen of Hearts, as usual, didn't speak. She only stared, her gaze as intense as always. This time, her eyes were directed at Voyd, and Voyd almost shuddered; the teenager's stare was like an electric shock, and Voyd couldn't decipher what it meant.
She wondered if Julie would thank the Soaring Six for "saving" her from her mother.
All of the Soaring Six had prepared for the emotional spiraling that Queen of Hearts could cause. They'd spent a few hours, earlier this morning, deep in meditation—at Winston Deavor's recommendation, and with the aid of an expert he'd hired. Voyd didn't know if it would help, but she did know from experience that she could resist Julie's power, if she tried—and she knew the rest of her friends were strong-willed enough to do it, too.
The key was to keep emotions out of this fight, as best they could. If they could.
Heartless spoke. "Before you begin attacking us, listen up for a moment, supers," said the woman, casual as always. "It was quite the nice little trick, learning to resist my daughter's power the last time we met." Her grin widened, showing tombstone-like white teeth. "Don't worry," said Noreen Bowman. "It won't happen again."
Before Voyd could do much more than exchange a concerned glance with Reflux, Heartless had reached to her hip and produced a weapon of her own. It resembled a gun, but all silver, sleeker, like the kind of blaster you'd see in cheesy science fiction films about aliens. And Heartless's finger was lightly brushing the trigger.
Across the park, Voyd saw that Krushauer was pulling his own weapon—the one provided by Evelyn—but he wasn't quick enough. Queen of Hearts witnessed him aiming the weapon at her, and instantly reacted, shooting her energy beams toward him; he was unable to dodge in time and was stuck head-on, blasted back against a nearby tree, Evelyn and Artie's weapon clattering out of his hand onto the ground.
At the same moment, Heartless had pointed her own weapon at Reflux. Voyd lifted her hands, preparing to deflect the weapon's blast—her heart hammering, wondering what Heartless's gun would do to them—but at the very last moment, Heartless turned just slightly and blasted at Voyd instead. Voyd couldn't react in time; she just stared stupidly as a burst of almost-invisible energy—rather like a heat devil—shot towards her.
The blast hit her square in the chest. She was unmoved—it didn't carry any force—but she felt it, like a thousand tingles roving through her body. Creeping and crawling up into her brain.
Her head began to pound, then to ache, then to hurt like hell, until she was forced to double over, clutching her skull in her hands. She distantly heard Heartless laugh, saying in a sing-song voice, "So you prepared a special weapon for us, did you? We did the same. Great minds think alike! No matter, anyhow—you'll never get the chance to use it."
"Voyd!" Reflux cried in concern, but suddenly, even as Voyd was nearly screaming fighting off the agony of her pounding head, she heard him grunt in pain, too.
"What the hell is that thing?" He-Lectrix cried, as Voyd collapsed onto her knees with her head on fire. With half-open eyes, she just barely saw He-Lectrix—whose ankles hadn't entirely healed, but who had been unwilling to stay out of the fray—send a burst of lightning toward Heartless and her daughter. The two leapt away in unison, just in time; the bolt passed harmlessly between them. He-Lectrix aimed another blast at Heartless alone this time, who barely managed to sideswipe it, before countering with a shot from her special weapon.
He-Lectrix was sent to his knees, clutching his head, just like Voyd and Reflux. Krushauer—who had just begun to recover from Queen of Hearts' blast, shaking his head and sitting up—was targeted too, sent straight back down to the ground. The only ones left standing were Brick and Screech, but even as those remaining teammates began to attack the villains desperately, Voyd could no longer watch. Her mind wasn't working the way it should. Not at all.
This feeling, this pain… it was akin to Queen of Hearts' wave of emotions, but different. Queen of Hearts' powers were purely psychological. This? This was physical. Voyd's head was in utter agony, the worst migraine you can imagine times a thousand, and she felt as though it might explode. But the pain was accompanied by anger. No, fury. She was losing her thoughts, even as she fought to reclaim them. She was becoming an animal, losing her sanity, losing herself to savage rage.
She fought and fought hard, just as she'd done with Queen of Hearts' powers, but it wasn't enough. She began to scream, lashing out with her arms. The tide of agony ebbed and flowed, leaving her less animalistic in some moments, and more in others. She felt a great heat skirt against her leg, and scooted away on her knees, briefly coming back to herself again as she looked at Reflux, who was nearby. Consumed by his own pain, the old man had aimed a burst of lava at her. It had just barely missed.
"Reflux, no…" she grunted, but she was unable to muster more words.
Heartless's laugh was maniacal, like something you'd hear on a Saturday morning cartoon. "Perfect," cried the villainous woman. "Now end each other. As painfully, as violently as you please. Kill and be killed."
Heartless wanted them to publicly kill each other. That seemed to be her overarching goal. Voyd would not let that happen. But at the moment, she wasn't totally sure she could help it.
With a scream of effort, she tried her best to push the pain to one side, to ignore the agony and battle against the forces that threatened to pull away her humanity. Voyd reached out a trembling hand.
A portal opened up underneath Heartless. The villain hadn't been expecting this move, and she fell into its maw with an audible gasp. As she fell from around six feet in the air, not an insignificant drop, and thumped against the ground, the weapon was loosened from her hand, skipping along the grassy earth until it rested around a meter away from the villain.
Voyd groaned as yet another throbbing wave of pain overtook her head, but managed to hiss through clenched teeth, "Somebody get the gun!"
She heard nearby gurgling and felt another rush of lava, the heat inching closer. Heartless might just get her wish today.
"Aggghh!" She couldn't hold back a scream as the pain intensified even further, and—to her own terror—she felt a tingling in her clenched hands. No, please, no…
A repeat of the destruction of Edna Mode's mansion might be impossible to avoid. Only this time, Voyd and her friends might be too maddened to do anything about it.
Through unfocused eyes that were rapidly fluttering open and shut, Voyd dimly noticed the winded Heartless struggling to her knees. Queen of Hearts approached her mother, arms extended in concern.
"Give me the gun," the mother said shortly, and her daughter obliged, kicking the weapon towards her mother. Heartless grasped hold of it once again, lifting it and smiling. So Voyd's action had been in vain—and by now, she was too out-of-it to aim another portal so precisely again.
The Soaring Six were in deep trouble.
But Voyd felt a flash of hope, even as she heard, in the distance, another of her friends screaming in pain. She couldn't tell who; He-Lectrix or maybe Brick or Krushauer. But her own agony was starting to subside, the throbbing pain in her head growing less and less with every second, until she could concentrate again. So the effect wasn't permanent—thank heaven.
Hesitantly, she pushed herself onto her knees, then struggled to her feet, screaming to her friends, "Fight it, guys! It doesn't last if you fight it!"
"Oh, for god's sake." Heartless sounded almost bored. "Wouldn't it be easier to simply give in and kill one another, rather than fighting my power like a bunch of stupid monkeys? It'll happen one way or another, eventually. No matter what." She displayed all her teeth when she grinned. "And the news cycle will eat it up like the rabid vultures they are."
She clicked her tongue, as though she were directing a dog. "Gem, strike her."
Julie Bowman looked straight in Voyd's eyes. Heartless's gaze wasn't on her daughter, and Voyd was shocked to see Julie mouth something at her. Voyd tried her best to make out what Julie was silently saying, but she couldn't.
When Queen of Hearts lifted her hands, Voyd cringed and braced for the impact of wild emotions to join the pain that still ran rampant in her head.
They didn't.
The emotions didn't begin intensifying in Voyd's chest; the wave didn't crash down. Though Queen of Hearts was biting her lip and scowling in concentration, just as she'd done the previous times she had inflicted her powers upon Voyd… this time, nothing happened. Nothing at all.
It suddenly came to Voyd what Julie had mouthed. No more.
No more? Voyd could only stare at the young villainess in shock. Was Julie… faking the use of her powers?
Was Queen of Hearts on their side already?
Heartless glanced at her daughter in dissatisfaction as Voyd continued to stand upright, completely unaffected. "Darling, what's this?"
"I don't know," Queen of Hearts responded, still pretending to concentrate. "I don't know, Mom. Nothing's happening. I don't get it."
Heartless took a step forward, brandishing the gun, face scrunching and reddening in genuine anger. "Have you supers invented a new trick to defend against my daughter? Tell me, you stupid girl, or I'll shoot you again."
From the corner of her eye, Voyd saw a dark shape silently swoop down towards the villainesses from high above. To avoid giving Screech away, she didn't look at him. "I guess your tricks just don't work as well as you thought," she spat at the villainess.
She wanted to warn Screech not to hurt Queen of Hearts, but she couldn't. Not without giving both him and Julie away, in different ways.
Heartless's grin wasn't bored, this time: it was manic, accompanied by a horrible scowl, full of anger and malice. "If you're going to lie to me, well, perhaps I'll just give you another taste of this gun. A little pain never hurt any super. In fact, pain is good for supers. It brings them back down to Earth, reminds them they're still human, like the rest of us." Noreen held the gun in front of her eye, aiming it directly at Voyd's chest. "If you are human, anyway."
Before her pink-gloved finger could squeeze the silver gun's trigger, Screech swooped down onto her from above, silent as a bat. His claws dug into her shoulders, and his sheer momentum immediately knocked Heartless to the ground, with Screech alighting on top of her back; the gun was once again knocked from her hand, and ended up a few feet away onto the grass. Voyd wasted no time, quickly aiming a small portal underneath the weapon. With residual pain still pounding in her skull, she worried she'd miss, but luckily, her aim was true. The gun fell out of another portal right next to her, and she caught it in her left hand, holding it tight.
The gun was still warm from Heartless holding it. That small detail buried its way into Voyd's mind.
Screech, still sitting on the struggling Heartless's back and pinning her down, opened his mouth and let loose. His signature wail sent a needle of agony into Voyd's ears, and she winced hard, crying out as the screech's pain mingled with the weapon's. She couldn't imagine how bad it was for Heartless, whose ears were so much nearer to Screech's mouth. Evidently, it was pretty bad: the supervillainess screamed in torment and then went limp. Voyd suspected her eardrums might have been shattered.
Queen of Hearts, who was standing nearby her mother, clutched her ears and took a step back at the sound of Screech's wail. She stared at her mother's limp form on the ground; for a moment, she seemed entirely unsure of what to do next, awaiting instruction from Heartless, who didn't seem in any condition to offer it.
It seemed Brick had recovered somewhat from being struck by Heartless's weapon, as Voyd could see her large form across the park, slowing rising to her feet. He-Lectrix was doing the same, and Krushauer couldn't be far behind. Queen of Hearts turned around, eyes darting from one super to the other, face growing more panicked with each one she beheld.
As Voyd saw Krushauer struggling to get up, she called his name and lifted the gun in her hands. The super's eyes locked on it. Instantly, the weapon let out high-pitched groaning noises as it crushed into a small, useless ball in Voyd's hand, which she immediately dropped like a hot potato.
"Krushauer, Evelyn's gun!" she yelled at him. Right away, the super began scanning the ground around him, turning in a circle—but evidently, he couldn't find where the weapon had dropped.
Queen of Hearts' eyes locked upon Voyd's. It was an electric moment, and for an instant, the two were both entirely still.
"Give up, Julie," Voyd told the teenager softly. "It's not worth it."
Julie Bowman hesitated, casting a glance toward her mother, who was groaning under Screech's weight.
Voyd could see the cogs turning in Queen of Hearts' mind. She lifted a placating hand. "Julie, no—"
But in that instant—though her eyes told a story of regret and sorrow—the young villainess apparently decided her allegiance was to her mother, and no one else. Two gloved hands jerked upwards, palms aimed toward Screech. The blast of red beams blew Screech away like a feather, and Heartless was freed. Queen of Hearts hurried to her mother's side, aiming her hands with a suspicious glare at the superheroes around her.
"Julie, we want to help you!" cried Voyd in desperation, but it wasn't enough.
He-Lectrix aimed a blast of lightning at Queen of Hearts, but she ducked down to dodge it, and countered with a blast of her own, which the super, in turn, barely dodged. And when the teenager began to yell, Voyd realized that it was the first time she'd heard Queen of Hearts speak so loudly.
"Leave us alone," cried the teenager, with her left arm holding her almost-limp mother up under the armpits. "Just let us go. Can't you see she's hurt?"
Voyd took a step forward. "We don't want to hurt you," she insisted, though she knew some members of her team would contest that fact. "We just want to help. Give up, and this can all end here. Nobody else has to get hurt." A pleading tone crept into her voice, and she knew her face wore an expression of anguish as she remembered the people who'd perished at the mall, the cooks who'd lost their lives at Edna's house. "No one else has to die, Julie."
Heartless was beginning to recover from Screech's attack, groaning and shifting in her daughter's arms. Her eyes opened and she regarded Voyd with pure hate.
"We've lost this battle, but the war is not over. Get us out of here," she hissed, her eyes not leaving Voyd's.
Once again, Queen of Hearts bowed to her mother's demands. She got up, hauling Heartless along with her. Instantly, several supers prepared to attack—Krushauer, Voyd and He-Lectrix raising their hands to use their powers; Reflux creating a gulp of magma in his throat; Brick raising her fists; Screech assuming an offensive pose. But before anyone could do anything, Heartless reached a quick hand to her waist. Apparently, the villains had even more tricks up their sleeves.
With the speed of lightning, Heartless produced a grenade and threw it at the ground, where it burst, creating a thick puff of smoke that instantly reduced visibility to zero across the park. Through the smoke and her own coughing, Voyd saw lightning flash and magma glow in the darkness, but neither seemed to have hit their target.
Voyd felt like she'd hack her own lungs out; the smoke was invading her chest. She managed to cry, through bouts of coughing, "Where did they go? Did anyone see?"
"They went north!" came He-Lectrix's responding cry, accompanied through his own coughing.
Voyd began to stumble in a direction she vaguely believed could be north, which she knew would lead her further into the greenspace park. She hoped she didn't hit a tree, but thankfully, as she headed forward, the smoke began to clear, and her breathing—and sight—started getting easier. She became aware of her friends—some behind, some in front of her—heading through the park with her, pushing past shrubs and feet thumping quietly on the grass.
As the smoke thinned and dissipated, she realized He-Lectrix was right: Heartless and her daughter had headed north. She saw them ahead, both running full-tilt; evidently, Heartless had recovered.
She reached out to create a void underneath them, but apparently, the women had realized this possibility. They were both running in an unpredictable serpentine pattern, sometimes veering to the left, sometimes to the right, and Voyd bit her lip hard as she pursued them, unable to aim properly. She had to admit, it was a pretty intelligent strategy. She might never catch them this way.
He-Lectrix had initially been running ahead of Voyd, but he slowed down, gasping with each step; she suspected his ankles were bothering him. "I can't go on," he said shortly as Voyd stopped beside him, staring at him with concern. "Here. Aim good."
He pressed an object into her hands, and it took her a moment to realize what it was. It was the gun.
"Go! They're getting away! Go!" the super snapped, and as he doubled over with hands on his knees, Voyd skipped back into a run, pursuing the supervillains. Not that far ahead, the greenspace gave way to a larger, denser forest, and Voyd well knew that if Heartless and her daughter escaped into that wood, it would be exceedingly difficult to find them again.
Voyd threw a portal ahead of her, running through it and emerging closer to the villains. She aimed a shot at the sprinting Queen of Hearts, but the teen's wily maneuvering made it difficult to aim properly, and Voyd's shot went wide. She aimed again, and again missed.
Growling in frustration, Voyd tossed yet another portal, emerging just behind Queen of Hearts. She didn't want to get too close—she knew the dangers if she did.
Evelyn and Artie had given express warning that the gun was a prototype, and firing it more than three times would likely result in its breakage. Voyd knew it was entirely possible that she only had one shot left.
A low-hanging branch from a tree smacked her in the face, and she stumbled sideways. Her finger brushed the trigger unintentionally, and a shot rang out. A sharp knife of desperation stabbed her; she realized she'd just likely wasted her last shot.
But as she collected herself and continued running, she suddenly slowed to a stop and stared down at the twitching body lying on the ground below her.
Her shot hadn't been wasted, after all.
Queen of Hearts lay there on the soft earth, and it was clear that Artie and Evelyn's weapon had worked perfectly. She was near-paralyzed, movement reduced to an errant twitch of the leg or arm; her eyes stared up, seemingly unseeing. They had succeeded, but as Voyd gazed at the vulnerable teenager, she felt a pang of pain and regret.
Not too far away, Heartless had slowed to a stop and whirled around. She saw her daughter on the ground and Voyd there above her. For the briefest second, there was hesitation. Then, Noreen Bowman began to run again, quickly disappearing into the ever-denser trees.
Voyd's friends rushed past her, engaging pursuit with Heartless. As for Voyd, she knelt beside Julie and kept watch over the villain, trying to understand why this didn't feel like a victory.