Wimpy, fat Sara Dayton was dead. Now you can simply call me… The Wisp.

*****

Death Ray stood in the alley behind Club Thrash calmly smoking a cigar. He didn’t much care to wait for Bob’s dumb ass out here, but something told him it was wise to do so. As the din from inside suddenly turned to screams, Death Ray knew that, like it or not, it was time to bail Bob’s ass out of the fire again.

He rushed back through the kitchen door just in time to see a massive cyborg raise his weapon to strike. At blindingly fast speed, Ray whipped the ray-gun from the holster on his belt and fired.

The blast caught the cyborg’s left wrist and sheered straight through it. Suddenly off balance, the axe tilted away and sliced through the air just inches from Bob’s skull.

Someone grabbed Ray from behind. He whipped around to see his foe but saw nothing, even as the grip tightened on his shoulders. He suddenly choked as Venus de Milo’s acid touch burn in to his skin.

He dropped to the floor and gasped at the pain. The ray-gun fell from his hand as he slowly reached around to his back. He yanked one of the detached arms from his back, swung it up and over his head, and down against the floor. Across the room, Venus cried out in pain. Ray felt the other hand’s grip loosen and fall away.

His back still burned, but Ray retrieved his gun and climbed back to his feet. He shoved his way through the crowd, trying his best to get a clear shot at Venus before she reached the exit. Instead a metal fist struck him alongside the head. The blow took Ray off his feet. He fell hard on his hip. He felt the bone snap as the gun slid several feet away. Wargod moved in closer for the kill.

Ray swept a foot out but instead of tripping the cyborg, he only managed to bruise his foot against its solid steel leg. Wargod reached down with his remaining hand and grabbed Ray by the throat. Ray struggled for his life as Wargod lifted him up by the neck, and at the same time began to crush the life out of him.

Ray silently cursed as he desperately raised his hands up and clawed at Wargod’s face. Even he couldn’t survive without air. His fingers caught against Wargod’s raised right optic sensor. Ignoring the pain it caused him, Ray drove his fingers in to Wargod’s fleshy forehead and ripped the bionic eye away.

Wargod roared in pain and confusion. Ray felt the grip loosen ever so slightly around his neck. He took the distraction as an opportunity to bring his legs up between him and the cyborg. He drove them with all his might in to Wargod’s chest and pushed. He felt his collarbone snap even as he pulled free of the cyborg’s grip.

Ray tumbled to the ground and rolled up on to his knees. His hand dropped to the ground and on to the ray-gun just below his hand. Wargod turned towards him just in time to take the blast from the ray-gun in his remaining optical unit. Its vision completely gone, the cyborg roared in confusion.

Ray stood up. He scanned the room for Venus. He knew she wouldn’t leave without her servant, but he could not see her anywhere.

“Over here!” At the sound of her voice, Ray turned back towards the bar. She stood atop it, but she was not alone. Her arms were returned to her shoulders and she held an unconscious Bob Cat by the hair. She stroked his face with her free hand.

“If you don’t want to see your friend’s skin melt from his face, I suggest you drop your weapon.”

Ray grimaced as he lowered his weapon to the ground. Despite all the dumb shit Bob pulled, Ray still loved the kid like a brother. He couldn’t just stand by and let him die.

Wargod moved past him and straight towards Venus as she continued to talk. “We’ve got what we came for, and despite my hatred for both your asses, I really don’t feel like fighting to the death today. So if you let me and Wargod teleport out of here, I will let your little friend here go. Agreed?”

Ray glared daggers at her, but he slowly nodded.

Wargod reached Venus’ side. Venus pushed Bob in to Wargod’s free hand. She began to gyrate her hips on stage. A few drunks, too inebriated to have left the club in the melee, began to cheer at the free show.

After several seconds of dancing, a blue glow began to radiate from her skin. Dots of energy popped away from the glow and floated like fireflies around her body. As her movements became more lude, the fireflies multiplied again and again. With hundreds now formed, the fireflies floated away from Venus’ skin. They formed a ring a few feet in front of her. After a few more moments, the inside of the ring flashed to life and formed an iridescent blue rift in space/time.

Venus stepped towards the warp, but she stopped short before entering it. “By the way,” Venus said as she turned back towards Ray. “I’m a liar.”

Wargod threw Bob Cat’s limp form through the warp hole. Ray cursed. He reached down and yanked the gun from the floor as he sprinted towards his opponents.

Venus walked through the portal, followed two steps behind by Wargod. Ray pushed himself forward and dove towards the warp-hole.

It closed just as he reached it and Ray found himself hurtling in to the bar. He crashed down hard and felt his arm and several ribs break on the impact.

Ray pulled himself upright. He reached down, grabbed his arm, and shoved the bone back in to place. Damn it, he thought. Why does every night out with Bob have to end up like this?

He dragged himself towards the door. It was going to be a long night. He had a rescue effort to mount.

*****

Downtown was on fire.

Jack Flash looked at the flames in his hands, but he could do nothing about it.

The Dogpack were insane. He couldn’t think of any better way to put it. Their mission was only to capture Mr. Mayor. The Dogpack were willing to sacrifice hundreds of lives to accomplish their goals.

Jack knew he couldn’t stop them. He was powerful, but not powerful enough to take either the four powered members or their hundreds of normal human dawg-soldiers. I started this anarchy. I started it for the worst of reasons. It’s on my head. But if all these people are going to die today, than I am sure as hell going to make sure Mr. Mayor goes with them.

“You stupid fucks!”

Jack Flash turned to see Witchqueen’s portal close behind her. The leather and fishnet clad woman stood next to Matrix, her cyborg lover. It was his deep, metallic voice that rang out across the battlefield.

“You fuckers are going to come and burn down my fucking town?” Blades unsheathed from all of Matrix’s finger-tips, each one three inches long and razor sharp. Pitbull and Bulldog were unfazed by the threat. They charged in, their dawgs following.

Jack Flash turned his attention away from them. Neither the Dogpack nor the Cabinet was his major concern. His only goal was to distract Mister Mayor, to give time for the real work to begin.

No, his foe was arriving right now.

Surrounded by a green glow as he flew, Mr. Mayor swooped down over the crowd and landed only feet away from Jack Flash. His eyes glowed as the aura faded around him. Instantly his massive, muscled physique shifted from flesh to an even more massive metal form. Jack found himself standing only steps away from a solid steel monster who wanted him dead.

“You’re a damn fool,” Mr. Mayor said with a sneer. “You know you can’t hurt me. Your fire doesn’t hurt me and I doubt any of these fools you call allies can do anything either. So leave now or I will take action against your territory as well as that of the puppies.”

“I can’t do that, Mayor. This needs to end tonight.”

“Have it your way, Jack. But I’m no monster. You have been a worthy enemy and I will regret ending your life today.”

Jack sheathed his entire body in his full flame aura. His t-shirt and jeans burned away as his entire body was engulfed by the fire. He knew that Mr. Mayor’s metallic form was impervious to heat and that he couldn’t cause any real damage. But he sure as hell still planned to make the man hurt.

Mr. Mayor charged towards him, but Jack jumped in to the air. His leap took him up several stories. He knew Mr. Mayor couldn’t fly without dropping his metallic form for his flight aura. From his vantage point, he could easily see the action below him. Pitbull swing his chain at Witchqueen, only to have the weapon pass through her as she went intangible. He saw Bulldog and Matrix trade blow after blow with no noticeable effect on either man. He watched as the people of Downtown, Mr. Mayor’s men all, took to the streets with knives and clubs to fight off the once superior number of the dawgs.

Chihuahua yanked the chain around the neck of his barely clothed concubine as the blind man walked in to the midst of the melee. Behind the pair came dozens of canines of all shapes, breeds, and sizes. They looked almost like some kind of retinue, but far angrier. The dogs were ready to fight, and they immediately started taking their aggression out on the people of Downtown.

Jack reached the peak of the jump and immediately used his flame powers to create a thermal beneath him. This slowed his descent. Mr. Mayor waited beneath him, ready to catch his prey. Jack had to resist the urge to grin. The damn fool doesn’t know he’s right where I want him.

A streak of white and blue struck Mr. Mayor from behind. The metal man stumbled forward at the blow as his attacker came to a stop. Johnny B. Goode looked up at Jack. The seven foot tall blonde gave Jack an even dopier grin than usual.

“Keep hitting him!” Jack said to Johnny. Jack dropped back down to the ground to watch the fight.

Johnny was a good kid, a simple soul who grew up in the wrong town with the wrong kind of people around him. He was a natural meta, always as exponentially strong as he was slow on the uptake. He could take a beating and dish one out with the best of them, but all he ever wanted was to be hero. He first started to follow Jack just over a year ago. At first he was just a royal pain in the ass, always in the way for Jack to stumble over. Despite his best efforts to the contrary, Jack quickly realized Johnny wasn’t going away. So he did the exact opposite of everything he thought wise and took the kid as a sort of sidekick. He sent Johnny on the easiest of missions, usually the ones that brute force could easily solve. Like kicking the crap out of a would-be ruler that thought he was invincible.

Johnny struck a double handed blow across the back of Mr. Mayor. The concrete splintered beneath Mr. Mayor as his body was driven down and through it. Johnny looked to Jack as he stood over the injured mayor.

“Keep it up until he’s out, Johnny!” Jack looked in Mr. Mayor’s eyes as he struggled to get to his feet. “Beat him down until he can’t move anymore!”

“But I might hurt him, Jack.”

“He wants to kill us, Johnny. We don’t have time to play nice. Do it!”

Johnny nodded. He drove a boot down in to Mr. Mayor’s back and continued to stomp the man farther in to the ground. Jack turned back to the rest of the battlefield. He leaped off to help Bulldog against Matrix. This fight was still a long shot, but they might just have a chance now.

*****

In the shadows of a nearby alleyway, the biker known only as Skull Solo watched the battle. If he was following his duty to the rest of the Cabinet, he would be out helping his fellow members in their fight with those damn dogs. But his days of serving those bastards were done. At this point he didn’t much care. He had been Mr. Mayor’s peon too long. His time with the boys was over with now. Soon he would be a rich, rich man. He could feel the data disc against his chest.

“You sure this is what you want?”

A man in a large, ruffled cloak walked up beside him. The rest of his outfit matched the cloak in audacity if not color. Multiple colors, none matching, all made from various man-made fabrics, mostly polyester. He wore massive elevator shoes and each heel contained a miniature lava lamp. Anyone who saw him would immediately recognize the Gigolo. And any of those people, at least in this part of town would immediately try with all their might to kill him.

No one caused more problems for Mr. Mayor than the Gigolo. Nobody.

“Yeah, this is what I’ve always needed. With this data I will be able to crippled Downtown and take out Mr. Mayor once and for all.”

“And the money?”

Gigolo reached in to his cloak and pulled a briefcase out of nowhere. He handed it to Solo. “Five million Canadian in the case, twenty million waiting for you as soon as you hit the border. I’ve got my boys on the outside waiting to smuggle you through the fence.”

Skull pulled the DVD-ROM from his vest pocket and placed it in Gigolo’s hand. “Then I guess it’s good doing business with you, boss.”

Gigolo smiled and patted Skull on the back. “Yes it is, my friend. It most certainly is.”