Despite my desire to bury Chevalier here and now, in such an appropriate place, cooler heads prevailed.

Roxy made sure he was dead. A normal skull wouldn't have survived the new shape of his helmet, but that wasn't good enough. She stepped down into the pit and pulled the bent metal away. Blood and flesh came away with it. With no hesitation, she brought her own boot up and stomped down on whatever remained.

I wasn't aware of anything that could come back after having its brain destroyed. Her eyes were grim orbs of flickering flame in the midst of the dark smears of soot and blood. Destroying a corpse was an unpleasant necessity, but the super had no reservations about it. In our line of work…

My eyes drifted toward the city as I leaned against the wall of the pit. I was so fucking exhausted. Breathing was shallow as my head swam slightly. Both arms had already fallen asleep. Roxy looked as though she was considering tearing the metal suit open to get rid of more of my deceased brother.

We both paused as soft footsteps came from the direction of her house.

Clara. Laptop under one arm, and Warlock under the other. One side of her face was dark red with dried blood, and her left leg was slightly askew. Despite the limp and stress on her face, her green eyes were glowing brightly.

"Dibs on the machine," she said. "There might be tech we can steal once Rockslide purges the organic matter."

I grunted and gave a half-hearted nod. Roxy didn't even complain or object. She started looking for a way to crack the armor apart. The techie sat on the edge of the pit beside me and placed the cat next to my shoulder.

[Thank you for saving my life.]

"The teleportation circle was a necessity, even if I died to bring my dear sister here. In turn, you saved my life, Gunquake."

[No issue at all. It's you who has to nurse my broken bones back to health.]

"I was almost hoping you'd lose the arm so we could do something fun with it."

Fun. I tilted my head to see the smile on her face.

There was an odd calmness in the situation. Most of the buildings dotted around us were on fire. We were standing in a shallow grave. Our home was destroyed. My loader racking and artefact now lie in rubble. All three of us were bloodied and beaten. But… we were alive.

Chevalier was no longer a threat. The claws of the World Government, now blunt, would surely sink away. For the time being, at least. Against all odds stacked against us, we had prevailed.

"Kingston better give us a huge replacement house for all this bullshit," Roxy complained. She clenched her teeth as she pulled the front plate of the knight's armor apart.

[I can imagine we will be having a long conversation with him.]

Clara exhaled through her nose and leaned against me. "All that we worked to build, put to cinders."

The super grunted. "There aren't even enough bad guys around to pulp to get the anger out."

It amused me to think that she still thought of us as the good guys. Then again, Chevalier himself expected me to talk at him. Like some cliché superhero who did no harm. Perhaps Bard had been a little more optimistic and averse to such barbarism. If anything, I had Boss to thank for that.

I narrowed my eyes out at the city again, which was difficult to see behind the smoke and ruined warehouse. Now I wouldn't know if Boss was really here or not. Had it just been a ruse to lure me into the trap? He could be dead, or in on it. My brain… was a slurred mess.

Just living was good enough for me.

Roxy tore off the front half of the metal plating. The suit groaned and squealed as she pulled it away. I winced at the noise before glancing down at what was within. It was pretty much as expected.

Chevalier had a similar build to me. Not quite as lean, his ability to eat helped him stay bulky. He was wearing a skin-tight suit that had dozens of electrical connections and tubes attached to it. Blood soaked through his chest where I had placed the large bullet.

The super pulled him, dragging his corpse out of the suit. With some difficulty, and a few extra broken bones inflicted on the body, she tossed him out to the side. After shaking her head, she looked back over to us. "The others must be worried about us. Any chance we can get comms over to them?"

Clara shifted back up to a sitting position and opened her laptop. "Chances are slim, Gunquake. Most of our... local infrastructure is currently on fire, and both our dome and defenses are down."

[So you're saying we're sitting ducks?]

"Not entirely." She furrowed her brow and looked to the side. "I may be able to reroute some of the Meteor's systems and make it a temporary hub."

The techie started tapping away at the keyboard before I even had the chance to ask her to proceed. Warlock stood up and yelled in my ear. The kitten then peered down into the pit before deciding that lying against my shoulder was for the best.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Roxy stood with her hands on her hips and looked around. "Everything is gone, almost. Shame we can't hop in the Meteor and go somewhere to start fresh."

[We've earned a reprieve, but we aren't exactly free.]

She shrugged. "Who is, really? I'd rather have this life than whatever this asshole had." The super gave the corpse a little kick.

[Perhaps.]

After all, it had been the three of us who had survived. Without the help of the League, Silhouette and the other heroes, or even the Disasters. If stomping flat the head of the arsonist threatening your life wasn't freedom, then what was?

"You think they'll send helicopters or some shit? Put out these fires?" Roxy looked over at Goldarch.

"Unlikely, sister. We're near enough to the outskirts that they'd turn a blind eye." She put her laptop on the ground beside her. "Plus, we'll need to wipe data and destroy evidence before leaving here, anyway."

"Leave nothing for the vultures. No doubt Gov rats will be scouring the area once we're cleared out." Roxy turned her attention back to the burning house and sighed. "Motherfucker. I was really starting to feel at home here. Now I can't even go and take a shower."

"As a next-best-thing, Rockslide, perhaps you could do me the favor of adding the corpse to one of the fires?"

The super grunted and hoisted the body over her shoulder. "Perhaps watching him burn away will be cathartic." With a little jump, she hopped out of the pit and strolled over to the warehouse wreckage.

Clara slid down beside me and shuffled over to the metal shell of the empty plate armor.

[How bad is your leg?]

"Nothing some quality time within your healing aura can't fix." She waved me away dismissively. "My fault for taking the basement stairs eight at a time."

My memory wasn't so sharp in my current position, but I recalled there being only twelve or so stairs. Throwing herself down there was undoubtedly better than getting stuck in the blast radius of the missile - or the resultant destruction.

I watched as she crouched beside the open torso. She brought out a multi-tool and poked around at some of the inductive plating.

[Looking for anything in particular?]

"Not exactly, Gunquake." She tapped the side of her head, and her right eye turned into a bright white light. "Most of the tech displayed is military or A-Grade at best. I'm more interested in… the fuller picture. As your technician and sidekick, I need to scrape together new ideas for your equipment."

[Gadgets, then.]

"In a word, perhaps. Chevalier's suit is stocked full of interesting problem-solvers. In the same way that your gun-arm has a host of different ammunition types to draw from. Your tactical mercenary gear is fit for purpose, but we could do so much more…"

I let her continue to prod around without interrupting further. At present, I was too exhausted to imagine what new ideas she had in store for me. She had a point, though. I had my synapse powers and minor magical abilities, but other than shooting people in varying flavors or throwing grenades, my skill set was rather simple.

Chevalier undoubtedly had more weapons and gadgets than he had used against us as well. They were just ineffective or inopportune. Not that I wanted to be walking around in a mech suit, even after seeing how indestructible it could be.

Clara folded up her tool and put it away. "We're going to need to call in our favorite man with a van. The Meteor won't be able to hold everything salvageable. Most of the machinery in the workshop and my office should be fine. Please help me up, Gunquake."

She stepped over, and I used my bent knee and tired arm as a short ladder for the techie to climb out of the shallow pit. After pausing to wipe her hands off, she pressed a couple of keys on her laptop.

"Signal has been sent to the Disasters. Kindly look after Warlock while I retrieve something."

Before I could respond, she had plucked the kitten up and placed him in my metal hand. I cradled him to my chest as the techie walked off. He wasn't injured, but seemed tired. I rubbed my thumb along him and looked up at the darkening sky.

[We did it, brother. Hopefully we can all rest easy now.]

The cat did not respond, but I felt some weight lift from my shoulders. Now only three of us remained. Silhouette had been opposed to me in my last life, but his post-amnesia life as a hero had changed him. The stationary signal of one of my other brothers left an uncomfortable ball in my stomach, but wasn't anything I had the power to address.

After burning their fingers and losing an important asset, the World Government should leave Goldarch well alone for a while. Their grip around my neck had loosened. But was it over?

Any further self-reflection petered out as a swell of magical energy came from the side of the garden. I turned my head in time to see a bright green flash, and the three missing Natural Disasters appeared.

Belle immediately held her head and hunched over like she was about to vomit. The cowboy hat fell to the ground as she groaned. "Oooh, He is not happy with me right now."

The other two looked shocked at the state of our home area.

Clara stuck her bloodied head out of the workshop door and glared at them. "Both of you help Rockslide with recovery and putting out fires. Belle, please update Gunquake on news from the city."

Roxy had just been standing by the burning body of Chevalier with a thousand-yard-stare before the trio had arrived, but now seemed to relax slightly. Between Ren's air attacks and Roy's speed, they shouldn't have any issues getting the destruction under control.

Ironic, given our group name.

I moved to sit on the edge of the pit that hadn't fallen in fully, and Belle came and joined me. She still seemed nauseous, but resting against the dirt at least stabilized her.

"Looks like you had a tougher time than we did," she said, her eyes on the shell of the knight's armor.

While Warlock purred, I told the shielder the full story. A play-by-play from when I had been woken up, to the final blow dealt to Chevalier.

The Natural Disasters hadn't exactly been sitting idle, either. After getting Kingston to central Goldarch, they had briefly holed up in one of his safe houses. No sooner had Roxy left to help me, but they were attacked.

Naturally, they repelled the attempt with little issue. Another success because of their experience in the wastes. Even caught themselves a hostage who divulged not only the mole in the League, but the Director who had sent them.

I wasn't sure what they had done to pry that previous information out of the individual, and didn't care to ask. The mole was a hero I hadn't come across before, which seemed anticlimactic. Not that everything had to revolve around me.

With this information, the four of them went to the League HQ. Ousted the traitor Director. In terms of political power, Kingston won big. Not only seen as a savior, but a lot of the credit behind the city dealing with the criminal uprising was pinned to him by association.

[Friends in even more powerful positions.]

Belle pulled a face. "We'll still be a dirty little secret. Kingston is too smart to waste our competencies by making us more famous in the public eye. We're much more valuable as his personal mercenaries behind the scenes."

I looked over at the city as a fresh breeze pushed some of the lingering smoke away from the warehouse. Goldarch was illuminated by thousands of lights as nightfall drew itself to blanket us all in darkness. Sitting in the ruins of my old shack, injured and exhausted, there was some irony in coming full circle.

[Being in the shadows isn't the worst thing.]

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