Summus Proelium

Five people. Five Fell-Touched--one of whom had pretended to be a hero for over a year-- were all surrounding me in this single wide hallway. Four of whom were these wannabe Scions. Which meant, counting the one guy I had already handcuffed, two of the candidates were missing, Jennica and one other I didn't know. And unless they decided to show up soon, I wouldn’t get the chance to, because these five would kill me first.

That was me, always being positive. I wouldn’t have to fight the missing two Scions candidates if these ones killed me before they got here.

Thinking quickly, I forced my voice to stay as casual as possible, which wasn’t exactly easy under the circumstances. “Nope, sorry, we can't do this now. I mean seriously, I went through all this trouble to meet all seven of the idiot wannabe posers. If there's only five of you here--I mean six with Box but who cares about him-- it's hardly worth it. But hey, if you can call your two friends over here so we can all party together, I don't mind waiting.”

I wanted these people to stop and talk at me, maybe rant a little bit. Anything to give Yeet and Facs more time to free the others. Or even for the rest of my team to show up. Not to mention the other heroes and authorities who should have been called in by now. I had every reason to want this dragged out.

Unfortunately, they didn't fall for it. Whamline immediately snapped, “He's stalling for help, it's what he does. Take him down now.” He was breathing hard for some reason, making me think he’d had to rush to get over here from wherever he had been.

And that was the end of our conversation, at least as far as they were concerned. Box, who had been standing back and watching all this, immediately lashed out with both hands, sending a couple orbs my way. Or rather, at the walls on either side of me. The balls struck the brick there before exploding into a pair of stone pillars that were perfectly shaped to catch and hold me in place for the others to do whatever they wanted.

At least, that was his idea. But I had already activated blue paint on my shoes and green on my legs as I hurled myself forward and up. As the stone pillars exploded into place around me, I barely managed to slip through, twisting in the air just in time to pull my ankle through the last little gap in the rapidly-closing space.

That put me on the side of the stone trap with Box and the guy in the lime green coat. I could do something about these two, then--

Just as I was having that thought while starting to drop into a roll, the stone trap was shattered into dust by a long energy coil. It caught hold of my ankle even before I hit the floor and swung sideways, sending me flying toward the nearby wall. I barely had time to activate an orange bird shape on my arm before slamming hard into the brick there. It was enough to stun me. But I knew that didn't matter. I had to fight through the pain. Even as the coil from Whamline yanked me back off the wall to send me flying face first toward the other one, I made my ankle pink. With another gross schlooping sound, the coil went right through my pants, skin, muscle, bone, everything, before slapping against the wall by itself.

Of course, I was still flying toward that same wall, just not quite as fast. Pointing both hands backwards over my head, I sent a shot of red paint at both Box and the green coat guy. Then I simultaneously activated both of those spots as well as the red I had just put on my gloves. That was enough to yank the two together, slamming them into one another while I was pulled that way too. Before they could recover, I canceled the red paint and flipped myself over in the air so my feet came down on each of their left shoulders. I rebounded off of them like that, but that wasn’t all. I had put blue paint on my shoes again, so I was sent rocketing much further back down the hall than I should’ve been. At the same time, those two were knocked to the floor by the force of the impact. Both of them let out grunts of pain that were incredibly satisfying in that moment.

Not that it was all sunshine and roses on my end. Something appeared in the air next to me even as I was using another shot of red to pull myself toward the ceiling. It was one of that regal lady’s ghosts. Before I could react, the heavy mace this one was using slammed into me. It was lucky that I still had active orange paint from a few seconds earlier, or that would’ve done a lot of damage. As it was, the force still knocked me hard into the floor.

Once again, I felt one of Whamline’s coils grab my ankle. The other one this time. I started to do the same thing I’d done before to get free, but the coil was already releasing me. He just yanked me up in the air, then let go even as his coil appeared right in front of my face.

“Oh shi--” I managed while instantly giving myself another shot of orange protection with a laughing emoji face that appeared on my chest. I still had the first bit of orange for another few seconds, of course. But this felt like something I’d need a boost for.

I was right. The next thing I knew, the coil exploded in my face. That was the rest of Whamline’s power. He didn’t just make energy ropes that could fling people around and whatever else, he also made those ropes explode into blasts of concussive energy. Concussive energy which, in this case, was enough to feel like a sledgehammer to my helmet and chest, knocking the wind out of me as I was sent pinwheeling backwards to crash into the far wall. A second later, the floor came up and smacked me almost as hard as I slid off that wall and collapsed forward.

And, of course, because that wasn’t enough, I lifted myself into a kneeling position just in time to see the bear mask guy focusing on me. My hand rose, but before I could do anything, his bellow slammed into me. I hit the wall again, even as a crack appeared in my visor. Worse, the bolt of lightning that followed the sonic attack slammed into my chest. If I hadn’t been protected by my orange paint, I probably would’ve died right then. As it was, my entire body spasmed violently, and I smelled something burning. It wasn’t anywhere near as bad as the near-miss I’d taken from Cuélebre, but it still wasn’t good. Worse, those mushroom spores started to grow right on my costume. If they exploded into that dust stuff directly in my face…

No, I couldn’t let that happen. Even as I was gasping for air, as my body was still spasming from the electrical shock while the pain of being slammed into the walls repeatedly left my muscles crying out, I focused through all of that enough to cover my chest in blue paint before activating it instantly. The mushrooms were sent rocketing off my costume, flying forward just as they burst into that cloud of dust.

Which would have given me a second to breathe and ready myself, but regal lady’s ghost was still there. The thing’s semi-translucent hand yanked me off the floor by my arm while I was still desperately trying to catch my breath. It yanked me up so hard it almost felt like it was yanking my shoulder out of alignment, sending another wave of pain through me. Its mace had transformed into a sword. Or maybe this was a different ghost altogether. Either way, the thing was holding me up so it could slam the blade right through my chest. And I couldn’t focus enough to do any sort of paint in that moment, even as I saw the blade cut through the air toward my helplessly dangling form. They would kill me, and then they would kill Pack, Amber, Izzy--

Izzy.

At the last possible instant, still dangling from the ghost’s grip as I was held by one arm, I shoved all the pain aside and managed to snap my leg up, kicking the incoming blade away from my chest just before it would have plunged into me. At the same time, I managed to give my arm enough pink paint to yank free of the ghost’s grasp, allowing myself to fall to the floor. Landing hard, I rolled out of the way before the thing could retaliate.

Well, this was going just wonderfully. I was bruised, possibly broken in a couple places, I was still struggling to breathe after the wind had been knocked out of me, and I hadn’t really done anything of note to any of these guys. Just peachy-keen fighting on my end, really.

Right, time to do something about that.

Pushing past the pain, I covered my body in more paint, as much as I could. Every open spot, both on my clothes and under them, was colored. I cracked my knuckles and threw myself into a backwards roll away from the spot where that ghost was already driving its blade down. A new spot of blue on my shoes launched me off the floor as I rolled back to my feet, and I flipped over in the air in order to bounce off the wall the same way. That sent me toward the opposite wall, but I sent a shot of red through the mushroom dust as it was dissipating. Then I held my breath and yanked myself that way. The dust was still enough to make me choke and cough even when it was almost gone, so I couldn't imagine how bad it would've been to take a full dose. Still, I canceled the red paint and inverted myself in the air just in time for my foot to collide with the bear man's face. My momentum carried me right through him as the man was knocked to the floor with a grunt.

Whamline was already reacting, sending two of his coils toward me. At the same time, two more of those ghosts appeared, and Box was flinging another orb my way. The previous two had been brown for ground, while this one was red. I had a bad feeling about what that meant.

Sure enough, the orb exploded in mid-air into a ball of fire. A ball of fire that I was heading straight toward. At least, I was until I activated red paint on the tip of my shoes to yank myself up toward the ceiling, barely clearing the edge of the flames as they flickered against the top of my helmet when I was being yanked upward. Even then, I could feel the incredible heat, which was getting worse, because the ball of fire wasn’t just staying the same size. The damn thing was expanding. In an instant, it was going to encompass the spot of the ceiling where I had flung myself. So, it was a good thing I wasn't planning on staying there for any length of time. Instead, the second my feet touched the ceiling, the blue paint that was still on them rocketed me off of it and forward at that angle. I barely cleared the expanding flames while passing right between the two coils that Whamline had been trying to grab me with. As soon as he saw me pass through them, the traitor triggered the two energy constructs to explode. With me right in the middle of the long lines, being caught in a concussive explosion like that would have done a lot of damage. Fortunately, I was ready. Just as I saw the boy focus on me, I activated the image of an orange and blue man in a space suit that was across my back. The blue fed into the orange. I still felt the twin explosions like a couple of hard punches on either side of me. But Whamline felt it too. He was knocked backwards into the wall with a quite satisfying yelp.

Box was already rearing back to send a pair of white balls my way. Those ones would produce wind, I was pretty sure. But I didn't let him get that far. Instead, even as I was coming through the explosion, I sent a shot of red at each of his elbows and activated them. He was in mid-throw as his arms suddenly slammed into one another as though he was crossing them. The orbs flew into the walls on either side of the man and exploded into twin blasts of wind that knocked him stumbling with his arms still crossed.

“Hey, nice air balls!” I wheezed out despite myself. The ground was coming up fast, and I hit it in a roll, not staying still for an instant as far as I could help it. My name might've been Paintball, but I was doing my best to be a pinball right then instead. “Get it, air balls?!”

Unfortunately, I’d barely come off the floor in an attempt to throw myself at Box before he could recover, when a ghost appeared and nailed me in the side with his hammer. It was a good thing I still had the orange and blue combined paint. It made the ghost shatter from the damage that was done to it, but I still took enough of a blow to send me sideways into the wall. I crashed into the bricks there and fell to the floor in time for the bear-mask man to come running forward, his foot lashing out toward my head. The kick almost knocked my helmet clean off, definitely cracking it along the side. But hey, bear-man didn’t have time to be happy about that, since he took some of that damage himself, falling sideways with a confused cry.

They were off balance, a couple still reacting to taking damage from their own attacks. This was my chance. Possibly my only chance.

Rolling over on my back, I fought through the pain and dizziness to point with both hands while moving my arms around. In rapid succession, I hit all five of the Fell-Touched with a pair of mixed paints, as close to their faces as I could. They were all in the midst of reacting when I triggered those paints. White and green, in this case. Five separate bursts of blinding light filled the room, even as my eyes closed tightly just in case. As soon as I heard them react, I activated as much purple and green as I could, springing back to my feet.

Regal girl with the ghosts was the furthest away, but she was still first. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion right then, with all the green paint I had. My hand sent a shot of red that way, making a crimson blotch appear on her chest before I yanked her toward me. In the same instant, as the woman was yanked off the floor and came my way, I pivoted to catch the bear-man. He was still stumbling from taking the damage from his own kick to the head, and from being blinded. My hands caught his extended arm, and I continued my pivot to fling him as hard as I could into Box. Both of them staggered over together even as the ghost lady reached me. I canceled the red paint while continuing to turn in that full circle so she would sail past me and crash right into those two while they were still stumbling. My motion carried me all the way around so I could raise my foot and slam it hard into her back, knocking all three of them flat to the floor in a tangled heap. Before they could recover, I sprayed them and the floor itself with red paint. They would be trapped in a ball like that for a few seconds. An eternity at a time like this.

But I didn't have any time to celebrate. There were still two guys left on their feet, Whamline and the guy in the raincoat whose power I hadn't even seen yet. It was the latter I focused on, as he stumbled to one side, waving a hand in front of his face. Like the others, the guy was still blinded, so he had no idea what was happening to his companions. Not yet, anyway. Which I needed to take advantage of. To that end, I quickly flung myself that way, intending to tackle the guy to the ground before he could recover.

And then I passed right through him like he wasn’t even there. Only he was, because the second I stumbled through his smoke-like form, the man spun and kicked me hard in the back. He might not be able to see, but he’d definitely felt me pass through him. And I felt that kick, enough to knock me to the floor.

On the plus side, the orange-blue paint had stuck around long enough for green coat guy to feel his own kick slam into his back. But instead of falling, his form burst apart into lime-colored smoke. An instant later, he coalesced on the opposite side of me. And he wasn’t blind anymore, apparently. Because his eyes found me just fine, before a green smoke tendril extended from his arm, caught my leg, and flung me up into the ceiling.

Great, now I had two tentacle people to deal with. Didn’t they know doubling up on powers like that was wrong?

The thought flashed through my mind, just as I hit the ceiling and dropped right into a pair of energy coils from Whamline himself. They held my arms to either side, leaving me dangling in the air.

Oh, and it got worse. Because I was out of paint. I’d felt it coming, but now I really needed a few seconds to recharge. At possibly one of the worst times, of course.

“Okay, so,” I managed while panting heavily, “you guys wanna surrender, or are you really so obsessed with licking Pencil’s toes that you’ll let him use you all as obvious sacrifices like this?”

“You really don’t know when to shut up, do you?” That was Whamline. “Not all of us give a shit about Pencil. You don't know what you're talking about. But I’ll tell you one thing, I’m glad you're here. Cuz then, when I tell Way that I’m the one who killed her dad, I can punctuate it by killing her little friend too.”

A sound like a wounded animal and an enraged beast came from behind the boy, further down the hall. Amber, in full That-A-Way costume, stepped into view. There was a bruise along one of her cheeks, her nose had been bloodied at one point without being cleaned up, and she was breathing heavily. She looked beaten and battered. But she was out, she was free.

And she had just heard what Whamline said.