Shredded metal on fire, tires lying around, oil and more fluids spilled everywhere, and destroyed tire rims, the Hybrid and Stealth Cycle had reached the end of the road.

Shadow gulped and recomposed himself. "Come on. We have a job to do." He started to walk away after one final look at the destroyed vehicles.

"I'm gonna miss that Cycle." Spinelli sighed seeing her precious Stealth Cycle destroyed.

Soon, they had found a floor-grate system that led somewhere…

"Think we should beat some sense into her for talking back like that?"

CRASH

CRACK

Shadow had jumped out of the floor grates and smashed two soldiers' heads against the floor. Scarlet jumped out, grabbing a ninja, twisting him in the air, and slamming his back against the floor. Trickshot jumped out, pulled out his handguns, and shot three bullets at three soldiers, knocking them out.

Nobody was left standing.

"Arnold! Get me out of this!" Brooke was tied up in a chair. Thankfully, she was unharmed.

Shadow was about to release her, but a deep robotic voice spoke.

"Turn… Around…" Shadow, Scarlet, and Trickshot all turned around to see who it was. It was Haidra with a pistol pointed at them.

Shadow spoke up. "Who are you?" He asked, suspiciously.

Haidra kept the gun pointed at them. "You really have no idea… Do you, Arnold?" The voice went from robotic to a (somewhat) regular female voice.

The mask had come off Haidra's face. While hair wasn't visible with her hood and mask still on, a unibrow was seen. Nobody gasped, but were shocked to see who it was behind the mask this entire time…

"Helga Geraldine Pataki." Arnold had an angry look on his face.

"So you remember me? I'm touched." She said blankly. Helga started to walk around with the pistol aimed at his head now. After she walked around for a moment, she finally spoke up.

"What's the matter? Lost for words? I expected more. I'm hurt." She said.

"This can't be real. I thought you were dead after I got married."

"DON'T YOU DARE LIE TO ME! How much time passed by before you moved on from me, huh?! A month?! A WEEK?! A DAY?! I FUCKING TRUSTED YOU, AND YOU JUST LEFT ME TO ROT AND DIE!"

"That's not what happened! I once considered you like family, but I couldn't see myself spending my life with a one eyebrowed freak! Every waking moment I'd have to suffer with you forcing me awake so your lazy ass can simply torture me! But I moved on, and I thought it'd be impossible for me to ever see you again. You ruined every chance you've ever had, but you crossed the line when you once kidnapped Rhonda during high school, and Gerald clearly remembers it." Shadow frowned.

"Now that we're mentioning Gerald…" She aimed her gun at him. "Did it HURT seeing your brother DIE? Did it hurt when you had to go to his funeral?" She turned back to Arnold. "AND YOU?! How much did it hurt when your grandparents died?! I wanted revenge against you!"

"So it was you. You son of a bitch. I always knew you'd go so low, but you've reached new levels of low, you dirty son of bitch…." He frowned.

"It was you? You were the one who killed Jamie O! You're the son of a bitch who killed him!" Gerald exclaimed.

"You always told me, Arnoldo, focus on what I want to achieve… and it'll happen. Well, you know what I want, huh?!" Helga immediately walked to him. "I want you DEAD." She shoved her gun against his chin.

Arnold immediately whacked away her arm and headbutted her.

She got on her knee and pulled out another pistol while Arnold, Spinelli, and Gerald grappled away. Her mask fritzed out with sparks flying from it as she shot several bullets.

"YOU CAN'T HIDE FROM ME! I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN! YOU HEAR ME, YOU COWARD?!" Soon, her pistols started to expand, forming a sniper rifle. She conjoined her two pistols, removed the broken blue mask, and pressed a button on her neck. Her mask lowered back to her face but turned red instead. So did her armor. The blue pieces of armor turned red. Helga looked around for a moment and soon grappled up to a vantage point.

The three Vigilantes had taken cover below.

"Helga's taken a sniping position, I'll need to get in close from underneath." Arnold mentioned.

"Where do you want us?"

"This is my fight, not yours. We have history between us."

"Hey!" Spinelli had a hand on his shoulder. "You're not in this fight alone, we can help you!"

Shadow hesitated to answer. "Alright. Look, I want you guys here for now. I'll go after her." Shadow grappled up to a gargoyle.

The red laser from the sniper rifle looked around while Shadow soon got in close underneath. His grapple hook attached to the gargoyle and he soon grappled up.

He had gotten up to the gargoyle and had the rifle in his grasp.

"SURRENDER! We already know the countless crimes you've committed! GIVE IT UP! He tried to yank the rifle loose.

"NO! I MUS- HAVE TO KILL YOU!" She fired a bullet, loosening the rifle from his hands. She immediately jumped off with a smoke bomb to disappear.

Soon, a section of the mall opened up.

"You're not the only one with sidekicks!" She yelled while aiming her rifle on another gargoyle.

"Scarlet, Trickshot, you're up." He went on his earpiece.

"Where is he?" One soldier asked.

"Is he freaking cloaked?!" One of them freaked out.

While Trickshot and Scarlet focused their attention on the roaming soldiers, Shadow focused on getting to Haidra.

While a soldier was heard being knocked out, Shadow had gotten under the gargoyle Helga was on. He soon grappled up.

"You just never give up, do you?!" Shadow had a hold of her sniper rifle.

"I'm not gonna rest until I step over your lifeless CORPSE!" She yelled while holding a detonator device. She pressed it, only to disappear in smoke.

Shadow turned around to see the final remaining soldier nearby.

CRACK

"EUGH!" He landed on him, crushing his face against the floor. He immediately grappled out of the mall section to the main area.

"I learned to take a little pain, I was always advised by the best!" Helga had the sniper rifle ready while more soldiers came out, but these weren't normal soldiers.

These soldiers were carrying blue armor that had lights coursing through it.

"You can't hurt what you can't see! Optic deflection armor, your detective vision sensors won't work! Use your eyes, fuckwad! If you remember how!" Helga shouted.

"That's some technology we could use." Gerald mentioned. "Tech that was stolen too. Now come on! Let's crush these toy soldiers!" Spinelli replied and grappled to a different vantage point.

Shadow was creeping up on a soldier, and soon took him out silently, or did he?

"AUGH!" He ended up slamming his head against the staircase.

He barrel rolled underneath the vantage point for one final shot.

He grappled up, whacked the sniper rifle from Helga's hands, and punched her back to the wall. He slammed his shoulder against her to get her a little dazed.

He had a hand against her shoulder and ripped off her chest symbol. "JUST STOP! Stop with this persona! All this just for revenge? All this to get to me?! ALL THIS AND FOR WHAT?!"

"YOU ABANDONED ME! YOU THREW ME OUT AND LEFT ME IN THE DUST!"

"I LEFT YOU FOR A REASON! AND THOSE REASONS YOU DEMONSTRATED IN FRONT OF EVERYONE, YOU TORTURING SHITHEAD!" They kept yelling at one another.

After Spinelli finished choking a soldier with his rifle, she looked up and heard all the commotion.

"Boy, they really must hate each other to be yelling that much." She told herself.

"STOP! JUST STOP TALKING TO ME!" She shoved him off. She started to charge at him, but Shadow immediately grabbed her as they fell off the gargoyle.

He slammed her back against the ground. He immediately got on top and was about to punch her mask off, but saw her mask was damaged, revealing her face underneath. He only got up with a frown.

"YOU DID THIS TO ME…" Helga pulled out another pistol and aimed it at him with her voice trembling.

"And I should be sorry? You did this to yourself. You killed my grandparents, you killed Jamie O, you nearly killed my mother-in-law, and you killed millions of people just to get to me! And I don't wanna hear you say all this is my fault, it's your fault! All those times you belittled me, that's something that sticks with you. And you're nothing but a piece of scum who's done nothing but evil her entire life."

Helga didn't even answer. She only dropped her weapon and hung her head. Arnold looked away and got on his earpiece.

"Phoebe, I… We finally found out Haidra's true identity. It's Helga. We've found her." He told her.

"What?! B- But how is that remotely possible?! Is she even okay?" Phoebe asked.

Arnold looked back, only to see Helga had disappeared "Not even in the slightest…" His comms cut out.

Soon, Spinelli, Arnold, and Gerald met back up at the main area where they started. Haidra's blue facemask was on the floor, sparks flying from it as it fritzed out.

"This city just keeps getting weirder and weirder since the day I moved here. No offense." Spinelli said to Shadow, who merely shrugged. "This city has been on such a downfall after I got married." He replied while they walked over to Brooke.

Shadow soon cut off the ropes from her hands. "Thanks, sweetie." She got up and hugged him.

"Come on, let's get out of here before more of them arrive." He replied.

"Hey. You alright?" Spinelli asked Arnold. "I guess this is just a hard pill for me to swallow." He replied.

As they walked toward the elevator, their hands briefly rubbed against each other, and they nearly held each other's hands.

Arnold cleared his throat. "Uh, Mom? Are you alright?" He noticed she was relatively quiet.

"I'll- I'll be fine, I'm just glad you guys came when you did." Brooke held her arm.

"Alastor must be on the roof right now, come on." Trickshot mentioned.

Soon, the elevator doors opened and they stepped inside.

After a minute, the elevator took them up to the roof, where a masked Alastor awaited.

Trickshot pulled out his handguns and Scarlet with her Sai.

"On your knees, Alastor! Now!" Shadow threatened once.

Alastor merely shook his head. "So you made it happen. I must admit, I had my doubts you could make this happen."

"We're not asking again." Shadow had his hand ready to pull out his katana. "And I'm not talking to you. It's time." Alastor replied, motioning over someone.

Brooke then turned to Shadow and pulled out a tranquilizer gun. "What?"

Militia soldiers walked over with rifles while… Rhonda came in held at gunpoint?! "Call in transport. We're done here." Alastor told one of his soldiers. "Yes Sir."

"Rhonda! But how?!" Arnold thought to himself while they all had to stay silent.

"It is time for the people of Hillwood to see their savior for who he truly is. A man. Just a man. Devoid of hope, betrayed by those closest to him." Alastor said, menacingly.

"We had a deal! You told me I'd get him here and you'd let me go!" Brooke nervously said while more soldiers with rifles ran over and pointed at them.

Alastor evilly chuckled. "Once I understood your greatest fear, controlling you was too simple. And with that fear… It makes you mine." He grinned behind his mask. "Think very carefully of your next move… Your daughter's life depends on it."

Brooke trembled for a moment. But soon, she ended up turning the tranquilizer on Shadow.

PEW

He fell backward with the dart hitting his chest. Militia soldiers immediately apprehended Trickshot and Scarlet and dropped them to their knees. Alastor came over to Brooke and ripped the gun from her hands.

"Did you think I wanted him DEAD?! Did you think that even SAVED your daughter's life?! Look again." He turned her face to her daughter, which in reality was a decoy diagram. He then held her by the throat and started walking to the edge.

"Just a little longer…." Scarlet whispered.

"Do you know what happens to the person who refuses to be controlled by her fears?" Alastor held Brooke high by her throat and over the edge. "She must face them!"

"Y- You don't scare me…!"

"It's okay to be afraid."

"NOW!" Trickshot shouted. He and Scarlet broke free from the Militia soldiers and picked up their weapons. Alastor let go of Brooke's throat.