CHAPTER 33: ACE IN THE HOLE, PART 2

The return of Ace Savvy was thought to be triumphant and flawless.

Carrying tremendous guilt over the neglect he had left upon the city, falling victim to the lies spread by the so-called superhero known as the Silver Sentinel, Ace Savvy wasted no time to return to the cape, the spade-spangled hero making his triumphant return to rid the city of Royal Woods of supervillains once and for all.

For the most part, it seemed to be working flawlessly.

Knowing the supervillains well enough due to a few previous encounters and gaining some familiarity with their tricks and combat methods, Ace Savvy, fueled by his drive to correct his own mistakes and reclaim his name, took them down with very little difficulty. Fighting off and defeating 5 supervillains is no easy task, especially not for a 12-year old who had their powers for a mere few months, but Ace Savvy made it look easy.

The rest of this battle seemed to be a cakewalk; the worst being put behind him. It seemed to be, but it was not the case.

The last thing on his mind was how he would handle the task of defeating Silver Sentinel, and the last sight in his eyes were the defeated supervillains lying at his feet. Those ended in a quick fade to black, and, now, the first thing on his mind is its own return, and the first sight in his eyes are those same supervillains standing tall once again.

Instinctively, he tried to rush and attack these foes once again, but found that he would not be doing any sort of fighting for a while, as he was tightly strapped to a chair and his hands were restrained. Reaching for the straps around his arms, he tried to redirect some energy to destroy the restraints to free himself, but he found that all his energy was gone, even though he was very certain he had plenty.

Despite all the conscious effort put into the task of detonating the restraints, Ace Savvy found no success in freeing himself, leaving him trapped with no hope of escape.

"Don't bother. You don't have any power left." A voice said.

Instantly recognizing the voice belonging to the Silver Sentinel, Ace Savvy turned to face the man of silver standing behind him, leaning his arm against a tall piece of machinery. Coming from the machine were several wires and cables, each which he quickly found led up to either the top of his head or his left leg.

"This little gizmo we whipped up sucks out all your power before you can use it on us. After we first realized that your power comes from absorbing energy, we made some plans to make this just in case. Honestly, I'm just proud to see it in use." Silver Sentinel said.

Now taking conscious notice of the lack of energy in his body, Ace Savvy began to feel intense nauseousness; causing his head to go light and dizzy with his stomach churning with unease. Whatever he focus he had on the goal of escaping is now only put towards his growling stomach, wishing he could fill it with a Burpin' Burger drenched in caramel syrup and baby carrots.

Taking observations of his surroundings, Ace Savvy saw many of the supervillains might have been still in fighting shape even after their past battle, but still had a few wounds to lick. While Nailbomb was busy trying to dry and heat his suit back up with a hairdryer, Icebreaker's remains began to melt away on the floor, all save for his head, which had a few impatient words to share with his current state.

"Hey, assholes! You gonna fix me up, or what?" Icebreaker asked.

"Hold your wad, dickhead, I'm coming. Here's your stupid water." Killer Crab said.

Returning from elsewhere with a bucket of water, Killer Crab dumped the contents onto Icebreaker, providing him with more material to reconstitute his body. Feeling his remaining parts all connected in the puddle of water on the ground, Icebreaker began to freeze the puddle, causing it all to piece into one form.

The end result was a jagged mess that resembled a roadkilled animal, but was quickly fixed with the icy foe reshaping the mass into its normal form.

"Took you long enough, crab-boy. I hate it when my head gets separated, it's like some weird, trippy ego death." Icebreaker said.

"Well, if you don't appreciate it, I could've done nothing and let you experience actual death. Not like we need you around, anyway. One less cut of the town, and one less other supervillain with a crappy gimmick." Killer Crab said.

"Oh, yeah? How about I freeze your balls until they fall off and shatter? And what the hell do you mean 'crappy gimmick'? I can freeze people solid! What the hell can you do, pinch people to death? Threaten us by arming yourself with Cajun seasoning? Who the hell's afraid of a giant crab-man?"

"They'll be scared of me plenty when I smash you into a snow-cone, you little-"

"You two, knock it off, or I'll throw you both into the sun!" Silver Sentinel said.

Obeying the orders given by their leader, hearing his voice boom throughout the room in his authoritative manner, the two fighting supervillains backed down on their tense argument; neither wanting to suffer at his hands at the cost of making the other suffer at theirs.

"Jesus, these people. I can't deal with them." Silver Sentinel said.

"Then why deal with these people at all? You were supposed to be a superhero, why would you go and make some deal with them?" Ace Savvy groaned.

"Ooh, is this the part where you ask the leading question of where I explain my whole 'evil plan' to you? In all its true cliche fashion?"

"Thanks to your little gizmo, I can't get out of this, and nobody's coming to get me. The only one who would is my best friend, but he and I had a big fight and broke up. Not likely to happen. You've got me trapped, and I can't escape, and nobody else knows where I am or can possibly rescue me. Do you think I'd bother asking for it if I wasn't sure that you weren't sure that there wouldn't be the slightest chance of me affecting the outcome?"

"Heh. Nice Watchmen paraphrase. But I like the way you think. Why the hell not? I think this may help with out my plans for you."

Rushing out of the room and returning back in a speed too fast for the human eye to register, the Silver Sentinel retrieved himself a chair, sitting in it backwards and leaning forward on it. Making himself nice and comfortable for a long exposition, the shiny superman awaited the first question of his prisoner.

"So, then, where would you like me to start?" Silver Sentinel asked.

Having the villain in the position he wanted, Ace Savvy readied something else in his hands to handle the Silver Sentinel. Having the questions he finally wanted answered to be answered, Ace Savvy readied his tape recorder behind his back; documenting the entire conversation to follow to use it for his own purposes later.

"I wanna know why you did all this. Why all the public deception? If you wanted to join the villains, why didn't just be one? And why would you turn, anyway?" Ace Savvy asked.

"See, now, that's a lot of questions, and to answer them all requires a lot of context. Fortunately for you, we've got plenty to work with. Tell me, you at all familiar with the old comic books? You're obviously familiar with Ace Savvy, and maybe these new ones being put out like Danny Phantom or Vampire Cannibals, but how about the days when comic books were about the caped crusaders like you and me, back when we were just fiction? The golden era of DC, Timely, the rest?" Silver Sentinel asked.

"A little bit. I've picked up a few back issues, pretty good stuff."

"You're goddamn right it's 'pretty good stuff'. I was raised on it, before it suddenly became out-of-date. Makes you wonder, if we somehow find the afterlife, horror movies'll go out of date? Anyways, I grew up on it heavily as a kid. I wasn't the superman I am now, I was just some pathetic, little, scrawny kid who could barely see out of his broken glasses. Everybody bullied me left and right, and I was the runt of the litter of my generation. Comic books were my only real escape: An ordinary man with extraordinary powers, fighting for truth, justice, and the American way, and, as I saw in my later years, all the gay subtext. But all I ever really wanted was the chance to be a superhero myself. Then, one day, I got my wish."

"Oh, yeah? How?"

"A monkey from space named Ormon granted me a magic wish using his Satanic powers from Hell."

Needing a moment to process the bizarre answer given to him, Ace Savvy looked back at Silver Sentinel in pure confusion, not sure how to even react to the sentence. Silver Sentinel, getting the reaction he was looking for, followed up his statement with an amused smile.

"Ha! No, that's not how it happened, but that's one of the stories I had to work with back when I was with the company. I became the Silver Sentinel when I first signed up for... Oh, hell, I don't even remember who it was, Good Burger, Nasty Burger, Honker Burger, one of the big chains. I forget. But the important part is, I got my powers, and I got them to make the company look good. From there, you know the story: Helping people, beating bad guys, getting the key to the city, blah, blah, blah."

"So, then, what happened?"

"That's where the classics come in. You say you know the classics, you remember some of the old DC heroes, like Superman and Batman?"

"A little."

"Well, I was always into Batman before the powers, found him more relatable than Superman: No powers, forced to rely on my own wits and money. It was only after I got the powers that I started to relate to him for obvious reasons. After a while, I sort of lost touch with my roots in Batman, focusing too much on Superman. The Man of Steel never had much trouble with his bad guys, being immune to everything except Kryptonite. I don't have any sort of Kryptonite, fortunately, so that wasn't a problem. But, during my time operating in Monopolis, I started to run into the same problem that all superheroes had during the first time we started popping up: Running out of bad guys to fight. Someone like me can easily clean a city up, but that leaves a lot to be desired when the job's done. It wouldn't be too much a problem, except for the fact that no fights meant I started losing money. The company dropped me like a garbage bag, and the city turned apathetic towards me. 'Thank you so much for saving our lives for saving our lives, now piss off so we can focus on the new hot thing'. Around there is when I realized the real problem, going back to Batman. Tell me, what's Batman's moral code?"

"What?"

"He never kills. He'll maim you and paralyze you, do everything you can possibly imagine to make you empty your bladder in your pants, but never will he kill you. He always lets the bad guys go free, no matter what kind of horrible crimes they commit. You could go from anally raping newborn babies fresh out from the womb and eating them alive and the guy still wouldn't kill you. Beat the shit out of you for sure, but never kill you. Everytime would argue that killing 'em would stop their crime sprees, he'd always spout that it'd be crossing a line he'd never go back from. It made perfect sense to me then, and I followed it to a 'T'. Only I didn't realize something until later on about Batman. You know what it is?"

"What is it?"

"Think for a second: Depending on which continuity you go with, Batman's been fighting crime for something like a decade, and, despite all his efforts, he never makes Gotham a safe place to live. There's always crime, always murder, always rape, always robbery, always evil. At first, I just started to wonder if he was just a really bad superhero deep down. Then, it finally occurred to me what the real situation behind Batman is. He never kills them because he can't kill them. You know why he can't kill them?"

"The moral code?"

"No, that's bullshit. I learned that the hard way. The problem's this: If he cleans up Gotham and makes it safe again, what happens? Peace for all citizens, sure, but what about him? He just cleaned up Gotham City: There's no Joker, no Mr. Freeze, no Riddler, no Poison Ivy; not a goddamn thing to fight. He's out of a job, and he's got nobody to blame but himself. But, hey, he finally accomplished his mission, he can just relax and retire from it, reflect on a job well done, right? No. He can't do that. That's not in his nature. His nature is to beat up bad guys and put them in jail over and over, every night, for the rest of his life. He spouts all his idealism about making Gotham City peaceful once again, but he'll never actually do what he needs to do to get it done. He won't because it'll take away the only thing that makes him who he is. He can buy up all the yachts and casinos and hotels and women as he wants, but none of it'll make him forget who he is. At his core, he's the goddamn Batman, and nothing's gonna change that in him. So, why does he let people live? Because he needs them to stay Batman, that's why."

Never having heard such a detailed psychological look at the character before, Ace Savvy found a slight pause in his response, still taking his time to think over the concepts shared with him. As soon as his mind finally caught itself back up with him, he shared his counterargument to the point addressed by Silver Sentinel.

"That's still just fiction. Comic books aren't real, they're just for fun." Ace Savvy said.

"'Real'? You wanna talk about what's 'real'? Let me tell you about what's 'real', Lincoln. 'Real' is whatever the company decides for you. That little joke I made about getting my powers from a Satanic monkey? That was one they came up with during the dark ages when we all needed to be 'cool' and 'edgy' to be appealing to the kids. Before that, it was something like getting bitten by some radioactive animal, or struck by lightning, something to be more creative. That one they had to change because kids kept trying it themselves. The first time around, there were rumors that I was some sort of Nazi experiment, and the companies decided to roll with that to keep their trade secrets, until Nazi science talk attracted Congressional hearings when they had to admit that was bullshit. I can remember all of those stupid backstories they kept making up for us, but you know what I can't remember anymore? Who I was before. I have no goddamn clue who I used to be. All I know how to be now is Silver Sentinel. That's all I'm good at. It was when that thought occurred to me that I realized why I and all these other heroes were going out of business. When we beat all our bad guys, there's nothing left for us. Even if we're not done with our jobs, our jobs are done with us. The city's safe; no need for us anymore. Let the cops deal with the rest now, which, at that point, the only thing left to save were some old lady's cat out of a tree. All our powers and costumes, and we've got no use for them. It's back to one of the oldest apologetic religious arguments: Good can't exist without evil. Like a lot of supers, I tried putting my efforts into something where I'd fit better, like the military. Just like 'em all, though, we were turned away. You'd think that with people like us, they'd hire us up in an instant, right? All those wars we're fighting for overseas for oil and other markets, we'd sweep those Arabs up in seconds, right? They didn't want us. We're just dumb muscle, and they can get that anywhere without having to worry about inexperience. On top of that, all those companies that supply our military with guns, bombs, tanks, and other shit? People like us would put 'em out of business in seconds. Any job we could possibly take, we can't do, because we'd just either outdo everybody else at it and put other people out of jobs, throwing the whole economy into chaos, or, if we do get one, our powers'll get in the way more often than not. We have no future, and no past. Just the present, and we barely even have that. Most of the big names just faded into obscurity, mainly doing regular jobs. Again, unable to use a lot of their powers without putting the others out of business, but that little fact made me realize something. Superheroes aren't about fighting for principles or trying to make some kind of change in the world. It's all about money. Everything is." Silver Sentinel said.

"Not everything is."

"Everything pertaining to what I do is, and what I do... is entertainment. All the fights I go through? All I really do is knock around a couple of retards who look for me on purpose because they want attention. You've seen the idiots you've had to fight, you've seen me fight them for you, you really think I want to spend my whole life fighting a bunch of dumbasses in lame-ass costumes they made from shit they got at arts-and-crafts stores? I don't, but that's what brings in the money."

"Superheroes are supposed to help people. Like the Green Eye."

"Oh, but we're not the Green Eye, now, are we? The Green Eye does what he does for free. The man's a total charity case, he's not one of us. You ever wonder why you don't see us providing big speeches to the U.N. to end world hunger or fly it over to starving countries ourselves? Because of two things: 1, it's not profitable. The company always cares about its bottom line above all, and you don't pad the bottom line by providing actual help to people. 2, it's not sexy. It's not appealing to the public. More people spend their time reading about celebrity drama and romantic and personal affairs more than they read about current affairs around the world. For example, if congress decided to pass a motion to declare war on some country full of towelheads a few thousand miles away, nobody cares, because it's not something they experience in their everyday lives, and they don't see. But if some senator just so happens to be sleeping with his secretary and cheating on his wife, well, then, the whole damn media just cums themselves over that, because that's something that people can see, and it catches their attentions a hell of a lot more. They'd rather read cheap grocery store romance novels with all the raw, primal emotions in them, instead of Shakespeare, with all the carefully crafted words and plots to them. Not only do the vast majority of people have the attention spans of gnats, they have the taste of junkies and shit-fetishists. They're unthoughtful and stupid, and only want their basic emotional needs met without any of the work to actually grow as people, because they can't be bothered to care about anything else. That's what the Hillwood Effect really is: A bullshit, three-ring, circus side-show of freaks."

The final point by Silver Sentinel left Ace Savvy silent, forcing him to stop and reflect on the words said to him thus far.

"In any case, it all gave me an idea. If all these businesses exist for keeping their own status quo and making sure their profits aren't hurt, then, it us superheroes are just as big a market as them, then, shouldn't we try to protect our own profits?" Silver Sentinel said.

"How?" Ace Savvy asked.

"Remember when I said that Batman needed his villains to stay in his game? Well, a simple jailbreak for these 5 stooges here, and I got my own villains. Unfortunately, I couldn't really get away with explaining how I let some of the same villains I put away for good get away, so I came up with a new plan: Relocation. Taking my once-foes with me, I brought them all to a mutual understanding, allowing us all to benefit equally. Without them, I'm out of a job; no one to fight. Without me, they're out of a job; no one to battle. So, keeping all that in mind, we made a deal. We would relocate to some quiet town without any superheroes, wait for one to pop up, make him our pansy for whenever any of them would have some fun, and, while they get to rob the town blind as much as they like, I get my endorsements, and my money, back. Everybody's happy."

"So... So you completely betrayed all your values and principles just so you could make money? You let dangerous criminals loose just so you could pretend to be against them and pretend to be a hero?"

"There's no such thing as a hero. There never was. For that matter, there was never any such thing as being a villain, either. I know I said good can't exist without evil, but who decides what's 'good' and 'evil'? The people with the power and the money. They set the rules of the game for everyone to play along to. Anybody can be bought and owned. The only real difference between people is their price tag. There's no such thing as heroes and villains, only good businessmen, and I'm the best one of all."

"I can't be bought. I still stand for my principles."

"Oh, really? Is that why you took a blank check from Key Comics to be their new face? To quit being a superhero so you can just live an easy life?"

"You tricked me into it. Besides, you said yourself that you can't stop someone from being a hero. By your own logic, you should know that I wouldn't really stop."

"Maybe not. But, by the time that happened, I'd have had my fun and I'd retire with the money I made. Fun as this may be sometimes, I'm not too interested on doing it forever."

Having finished his story, Silver Sentinel rose from his chair, displacing it to stand face-to-face with Ace Savvy. Wanting to say something far more personal, Silver Sentinel removed the mask from the spade-spangled hero's face, then, after staring at it for a brief moment, set it to the side.

"That brings me to my offer. I still do need you for the plan to work, so here's the deal on the table. I'll be your personal Don King. You can still have a fight with the boys now and then, but you'll be taking a dive on each one. The people might still hate your guts, but I'll give you a nice big slice of the pie in return for your efforts." Silver Sentinel offered.

"Not a chance. I don't believe you when you say there's no more principles. I do believe in principles, and I'm not abandoning mine again. I'm not taking your offer. I'd rather die." Ace Savvy groaned.

"Ha-ha. I thought you might say that, but, you might want to rethink that final answer a little more. See, kids are special in a great way. They're always so full of youth, they don't know their own mortality; always thinking they're gonna live forever. I've had a chance to feel like that a second time after getting my powers, fortunately, but I have learned a thing or two about killing. See, I eventually started getting a little lax on that whole no-killing thing. After that little moral code wasn't selling well with the sponsors, I stepped it up and started making a few kills here and there. No real undeserved ones, mind you: I stuck to the child molesters and serial killers. Not only did nobody object to those, my public opinion got a pretty big jolt with each kill. Turns out, people don't like the concept of those people existing, and feel safer without them in the world, who knew? Anyways, the simple kills like neck-snapping and dropping them off buildings started getting a little boring for me, so I had to mix it up with some creativity. Having superpowers like mine, you can find plenty of ways to do that. The sponsors and citizens started to get a little... 'iffy' with some of my ideas, but, as long as they were just the pedos and psychos, they didn't care too much. After all, nobody wants to be the guy to defend a pedophile, especially not in front of his victim's parents."

"Oh, yeah? And what exactly did you count as 'too much'?"

"Hey, kid, you might wanna be careful when he warns you about stuff like this. It really ain't pretty, the kind of stuff he can do." Decibel warned.

"He's right. Hey, boss, show him Russian Rendezvous. He might need some proof." Nailbomb said.

"Who's Russian Rendezvous?" Ace Savvy asked.

"There used to be 6 of us, kid." Killer Crab said.

Taking his subordinates' suggestions, Silver Sentinel took a small cube from his pocket; the cube being a solid black and appearing to be some kind of rock. While Ace Savvy did not understand the object being presented to him, the observing supervillains all turned away in disgust; none able to look at the cube in his hand.

"What is that thing?" Ace Savvy asked.

"This is Russian Rendezvous, one of my old villains. Well... it used to be Russian Rendezvous, but, in a way, it's still him. He wouldn't sign onto my plans, stuck in his old beliefs that I was some capitalist American dog. The others considered the same, not all agreeing onto my plan. It was hard enough getting a bunch of people who hate each other to work together, having one lead the charge in their lack of cooperation was just frustrating. Then, I wondered what it would be like to try out molecular reconstruction. I've got a lot of powers to work with, but I never really tried that one before, so I personally split him molecule from molecule, reorganized the atoms into soapstone, and made him into a whiskey stone. Works great in a Yahoo Soda." Silver Sentinel said.

Leaving the room and returning within the same instant with a glass of Yahoo Soda, Silver Sentinel presented the whiskey stone to Icebreaker, who blew on it to sufficiently freeze it. Having his whiskey stone frozen, Silver Sentinel dropped it in the glass of soda, drinking the cooled beverage.

"So, you see, there are very, very bad ways for you to die, Lincoln. Ones that won't leave anything left for your family to mourn over. Of course, I could reorganize your atoms to leave something for them if you beg hard enough, but I'd probably just turn what's left of you into a big, purple, rubber dildo for the hell of it. Last chance. No going back after that. Are you with us or against us?" Silver Sentinel asked.

Every part of Ace Savvy desperately wanted to live, willing to do whatever it may take to accomplish that goal, and Lincoln Loud followed those same sentiments.

He wished for the chance to be able to see his family and loved ones once again, and he could never, ever bear the thought of any of them having to live with his death, especially not with the threat of having only a sex toy comprised of his atoms to mourn over in his place.

Even as terrifying and dreadful as that thought was to the spade-spangled hero, more terrifying than all that was the threat of allowing Silver Sentinel to be proved right. By accepting his offer, he would indeed prove that there was no such thing as good; that only money mattered in this world and there were no more principles.

He desperately hates the next sentence that will soon leave his mouth, but he knows that it is the only true answer that he can give.

"No. You can't buy me with your mafia scheme. I grew up on the Ace Savvy comics, and I'll never forget the lessons that he taught me. I'll always stand up for what I believe is right, and I won't let money buy my beliefs or change them. I am and always will be Ace Savvy, the world's savviest crimefighter. I am and always will fight for truth, justice, and the good of everyone. I am and always will be the hero. This is who I am!" Ace Savvy struggled.

Disappointed by the answer given by the boy hero, whether it be by his own beliefs being disproven or simply by not having his plan followed as he wished, Silver Sentinel's face began to sink to frustration. While the man of silver was hoping for Ace Savvy to turn, none of the other supervillains were expecting such a turn of events to happen. seeing what was currently unfolding exactly what the knew would happen.

"Told you he wouldn't do it, boss." Tommy Gunn said.

"Yeah, kids are way too principled these days. No realism to them whatsoever." Icebreaker said.

"Fair enough. I suppose you all won that little bet. Fine. He wants to die for his beliefs, he can." Silver Sentinel said.

Looking at Ace Savvy, Silver Sentinel's eyes began to glow bright red, behind the eyes housing a charge of concentrated energy condensed to a laser beam.

"I'm not going to kill you right away. First, I'm going to disintegrate your frontal lobe; give you a complete lobotomy. That way, you just become too stupid to realize what happens to you as I do it. The ones that do die in shock before I get too far. With you, I want to enjoy myself." Silver Sentinel said.

Before the man of silver was able to complete his threat on the boy, Silver Sentinel caught ear of his cell phone ringing, letting out an annoyed sigh after hearing it.

"Oh, dammit. It's that commercial talk I've been waiting for. You got lucky, Lincoln. I'll be right back." Silver Sentinel said.

Lowering the charge of laser beams in his eyes, answered the phone, stepping out of the room to handle his own business.

"Tony? Hi, hey, yeah, I've been reading the script, it's really great, really." Silver Sentinel said.

"What? But, boss, what about the kid?" Decibel asked.

"One second, Tony... I don't know, just beat him with some crowbars for a minute or something. I'll be a minute. Okay, sorry about that, Tony, I had some kid who wanted an autograph. Yes, of course, now let's talk about the payment..."

Taking the opportunity as it was presented to them, the supervillains instantly took advantage of the proposal that their leader had left them, all grabbing some crowbars and instantly going to work on the spade-spangled hero, ruthlessly beating him with the metal tools in an act of retaliatory aggression.

Normally, Ace Savvy would simply absorb whatever kinetic energy would be thrown his way by such attacks, suffering only some minor pain from the strike.

Having the strange device constructed by the supervillains attached to him, however, the machine had somehow prevented his powers from acting normally. With the cables attached to his head and leg, the energy absorbed by his body did not stay within him, but ran through him like a current, leaving his body vulnerable again.

As such, he can feel all the pain of the crowbars bashing his body as anyone else can. He feels one crowbar crack a rib, another bruise his intestine, another fracture his skull, another shatter his kneecap, another bash his testicles, and, eventually, he loses count and all sense of feeling where the blows are coming from.

All he can feel is the pain, and he can focus on nothing else, save for the taste of blood as he coughed some of his own up.

Soon, his consciousness begins to fade out, perhaps for the very last time, never to return again.

Not allowing the spade-spangled hero to succumb to his torture, the supervillains make a quick visit to the power-dampening device, making a slight adjustment. Allowing a surge of power to enter his body again, the energetic charge allowed Ace Savvy to heal from all his injuries in an instant, as if none had ever occurred.

There was a strong sense of relief to be found with the healing, but it was only met with more beatings shortly after.

For a few minutes, this cycle repeated itself:

The supervillains continued to beat Ace Savvy near death, and then gave him enough power to heal from it all just so they could return right at it.

His body might have been able to take the heavy abuse it was being put under with the boost of energy being fed into it, but his mind was far from able to survive the abuse much further; the mind of Ace Savvy having more pain to process than any human being ever could in their lives.

Growing dazed, confused, and nearly broken at the mind, Ace Savvy fell to the floor; his thoughts in limbo between presence and absence. Trying to abide some time from the beating to gain a moment's peace of mind, the spade-spangled hero resorted to a satirical quip to share with the supervillains; (hopefully) giving the reader a laugh, but leaving the villains confused.

"You're letting them kill Martha..." Ace Savvy groaned.

With none of the supervillains in on the joke, the vicious beating of Ace Savvy came to a temporary but sudden stop, their confusion leading to the 5 standing in a confused stupor. Logically, still being completely thrown off, the only question that they could muster up to find any of the logic behind his words are this:

"What?" Tommy Gunn asked.

"Find... him... save... Martha..." Ace Savvy groaned.

"What the hell is he talking about?" Decibel asked.

"I don't know, I think you hit him on the head too hard." Killer Crab said.

"Wait... How'd he know?" Nailbomb asked.

"Huh?" Icebreaker asked.

"Martha's my mother's name."

"So what? You wanna let him go or something?" Decibel asked.

"No. Just thought it was weird. Oh, well, let's just kill him now."

"Agreed. Nailbomb, you were the first to fight him, care to do the honors?" Icebreaker asked.

"With pleasure."

Taking a knife constructed of ice handed off by the aforementioned Icebreaker, Nailbomb prepared to drive into the neck of the spade-spangled hero and end his life.

"Alright, Ace Savvy, right now, it's time for you to die." Nailbomb said.

Nailbomb lifted the knife into the air, preparing to drive it into the neck of Ace Savvy and kill him at last. Before the knife could begin its descent, an unexpected foreign object cut through the knife, slicing off the blade. With all eyes of the supervillains looking to see the object that had cut through, all had confirmed it to be a playing card; the ace of spades.

Turning to see where the card came from, the group found a sight that none of them were expecting to encounter. Led by a female Ace Savvy, an entire group of superheroes all with similar card-based themes stood in the entranceway of the warehouse, all locking their eyes on the 5 targets standing before them.

Arriving in just the last possible second, the Full House Gang had made its arrival.

"No, bro. Right now, it's time to... KICK OUT THE JAMS, MOTHERFUCKERS!" Night Club shouted.

[Sountrack Cue: MC5 - Kick Out the Jams; Starting from 0:10]

Rushing to the rescue of their downed brother, the youngest members of the Full House Gang pushed on first, moving to bum-rush the 5 supervillains before they could continue their attack on the spade-spangled hero. Barely having any time to react to the attacking group, the first instinct of the supervillains was to drop their crowbars and immediately run for the exit; hoping that a retreat would allow time to regroup.

Acting on said instinct, the supervillains did just that; none being prepared for the attacking superheroes.

Moving to flee from the Full House Gang as quickly as possible, each member of the group ran for the other exit of the warehouse, with each trying to leave the other behind to save themselves. In their most desperate moment of vulnerability, the foes stay true to their own nature.

The Silver Sentinel, still on the phone on his business deal, was not yet aware of the events unfolding with his subordinates. Instead, he was caught in a rather lengthy and annoying conversation regarding his upcoming commercial appearance for a commercial product, promising more money in his pocket.

"Look, I get that you spent all this time on the script with the marketing team, but you can't beat the classics. You know the saying 'keep it simple, stupid'? No, Tony, I'm not calling you stupid. I know you're an artistic genius, I know you're just waiting for your breakthrough, but you can't get your career without a simple start somewhere. That means you need to strike the right balance between something new and something-" Silver Sentinel began to say.

Before the man of silver could continue the tiring discussion any longer, the sight of some of his subordinates running past him in fear brought confusion to his mind; making him lose track of his own sentence. Killer Crab was the only one to stop before Silver Sentinel, grabbing him and shaking him to inform him of the threat at hand.

"Boss, you gotta help us!" Killer Crab shouted.

"Hey, what's wrong with you? What happened?" Silver Sentinel asked.

"Look!"

Pointing towards the charging superheroes, Silver Sentinel quickly understood the gravity of the situation, and quickly began pondering how to deal with it. For obvious reasons, the conversation with the commercial director quickly began to lose its priority, and he puts a temporary stop for more pressing matters.

"Uh, Tony, I'm gonna have to call you back." Silver Sentinel said.

Putting his phone away and fleeing out the door with his subordinates, the supervillains all made their way to the exit of the building; finding their temporary safety from the invading superheroes. To keep their safety as prolonged as possible, Icebreaker froze the entrance outside completely shut in solid ice, ensuring that they were completely sealed off.

[Soundtrack Cue End]

And once the Full House Gang reached the wall, they knew that there was no quick way through it, giving the villains a temporary benefit of time.

"Crap, solid ice!" Strong Suit said.

"I can break through this, just give me a minute with my shovel." Eight of Spades said.

"Later, guys, we have to help Lincoln." Lace Savvy said.

With all running back to the downed Ace Savvy, the Full House Gang gathered around the disoriented boy, all trying to help him snap out of his trance. Acting as the forefront of providing him with care, Lace Savvy took it upon herself to help him back on his feet.

"Hey, Linc, you okay?" Lace Savvy asked.

"Ugh... I'm probably going to be mentally scarred and have PTSD from that, but, otherwise, I'm okay." Ace Savvy joked.

"Heh. Well, your sense of humor's still there, that's a start. Sorry we're late, we couldn't find an Urban with a big enough car to fit us all."

"That's fine, I had everything under cont-"

Before Ace Savvy could finish his own sentence, his blurring vision and warbled thoughts began to correct themselves back to normal again, his healing factor kicking back in with a decent charge of power. Seeing the girl he loved the most dressed in a costume very similar to his own, his train of thoughts began to focus clearer than ever, but towards only one thought in particular.

With the one thought on his mind, Ace Savvy let out a blush and began stammering nervously.

"Bah... Bah... Bah..." Ace Savvy said.

"What?" Lace Savvy asked.

"You look really beautiful in that costume."

"As much as I appreciate that compliment, Lame-O may I suggest we focus on the main threat of dealing with the evil superhero trying to run all super-crime in the whole city? It's kinda, you know, the whole reason everybody's here."

"Oh, uh... right. Sorry."

Picking himself up on his feet again, Ace Savvy gave his neck a crack and headed to the power-dampening machine, still attached it. Instead of running the machine on its power-dampening mode, Ace Savvy instead turned it to its power-boosting mode, turning it up as high as he could crank it.

Pushing the limits to the machine as far as he could take them, Ace Savvy began taking in as heavy as a charge as he could hold, making sure he was well-prepared for the fight to come against Silver Sentinel and his supervillains. Not too far into his charge, the machine exploded under its heavy and unintended usage, but not before leaving Ace Savvy with his charge.

Having absorbed more energy than ever before, his eyes reached a blue color, the highest up the electromagnetic spectrum they have gotten to this point.

"Alright, guys. We've let these guys run around long enough. Now, it's time to-" Ace Savvy began to say.

"'Deal out some justice', we know, we know. You always say that. Can we please just actually do the job without making it so melodramatic?" Lace Savvy asked.

"Right. Okay, Ronnie Anne, Clyde, on me. We're going in."

"Right behind you, buddy. And you're welcome for me bringing in the cavalry, I was the one who let everybody know the news." One-Eyed Jack said.

"And I'm sorry we had that fight. Thanks for coming to save me."

"That's what BFFs are for, man. Now, how about we go kick some bad-guy butt?"

"Hell, yeah."

Leading the Full House Gang to the barrier of ice, Ace Savvy transferred a small charge of energy within the frozen mass. While the charge might have been small in terms of joules, it was more than enough to melt the ice within seconds, giving the group access to the other side.

Reaching the exit of the warehouse, the Full House Gang reached a new portion of the industrial park: A large courtyard filled with barrels, pallets, crates, and other such obstacles. As the setup resembled some large setup for a battleground, or, better yet, an ambush, the appearances of the supervillains confirmed that it was meant for both.

Popping out from behind their obstacles, the supervillains all aimed their weapons straight for the Full House Gang, having every intention to attack. Nailbomb readied his wrist grenade launchers, Icebreaker readied his hands to shoot off ice blasts, Decibel's speakers gave out ready 'hums', Killer Crab stood tall with his claws wide open, and Tommy Gunn dual-wielded a pair of tommy guns to use against the family.

Silver Sentinel was nowhere to be seen, but was the least of their troubles for the moment.

"So, 5 against 15, huh? Don't you feel outnumbered?" Ace Savvy asked.

As if summoning their reinforcements for them, a large explosion took place just a few feet away from them, sending a volley of small crates their way. None of the crates had met with the group at all, but what had met with the group was the added numbers to the group of supervillains.

Stepping out from the smoke of the explosion, a series of muscles and bone covered by a mere piece of plastic stared at the family; hiding the rest of its body in a long trench coat. Using whatever muscles left for facial expression remained, the figure let out a smile and laugh in anticipation.

The family all recognize the figure, but none could believe his return.

"Surprise, surprise... Assholes." Lars said.

"Lars Rodriguez?!" Ace Savvy asked.

"Don't you ever die?!" One-Eyed Jack asked.

"Not that easily, and no thanks to you cockstains sending to a damn world of twerking ducks. But, that's water under the bridge now, because, not only do I get to kill you, but, while hopping across dimensions trying to get home, I made myself a new friend." Lars said.

"Really? And who'd ever wanna be friends with a piece of shit like you?" Lace Savvy asked.

"Why, who else, but another piece of shit like me? A number of alternate universes just means there's a lot more of me out there. Speaking of which, why don't you say 'hi', bro?"

The mysterious partner of Lars Rodriguez, obscured behind a large crate, sent the giant box flying straight at the Full House Gang, prompting them all to duck to avoid the attack. While they might have been unprepared for the attack, the family managed to save themselves quite well, but being unprepared on seeing who kicked the crate was an entirely different manner.

Slowly lowering his robotic leg down to the ground, the mystery partner of Lars Rodriguez was finally known to the group.

"Allow me to introduce myself..." The mystery partner said.

Throwing off his own trench coat, the partner revealed himself to be a near-perfect doppelganger for Lars Rodriguez, bearing almost every similarity in terms of face and body shape. There laid only a few differences: This Lars sported blonde hair, his skin tone was a significantly lighter shade of brown, and, instead of a robotic arm, this Lars sported one robotic leg.

"...my name is Larsen Rodriguez, and it's a pleasure to meet you." The mystery partner said.