Chương 76: R&R2 Ch. 15 — Hammer of Retribution

Jasmine had the sneaking suspicion that things were going to be going badly soon; it didn't take a genius. They had all the information they could ask for and everything was closing in on them. Or more accurately, they were willing to let the maw of a trap close right around them, but they were heroes; that's what they did. If they weren't willing to let a trap close around them so that they could make everyone's day a bit safer, then what was the point of being a superhero?

Jasmine spun her hammer in her hand as Nicholas prepared his weapons. They would be fine; worst-case scenario, they could decide the museum wasn't important and they would retreat to somewhere more open so other heroes could respond. That wasn't the plan they wanted to go with; it was preferable they just won here, but they wouldn't pretend they were guaranteed to succeed like that anytime soon. Several people at rank along with at least one confirmed enemy above rank. It was going to be hard.

"Found our fallback point, park that's been under construction for months so even if I wreck it we can just build the park," Nicholas said, putting away his phone. Once they had decided they were going in, they had been faced with the important question of what exactly was their fallback plan. But that was done too.

"Ready?"

"We have to be," Nicholas said, and she could feel power building. He wasn't likely to switch off playroom till his weapons broke, but Book would throw out commands like they were falling out of style. With the force of a titan, Jasmine's hammer crushed into the door separating them from the enemy, blasting it into one of the larger imps. Green energy crackling around her, she shot forward hoping to capitalize on the surprise. They would know they were coming, just not how."

Barrage" A storm of energy tore out of Book, flying through the air, each one landing perfectly, and the symphony of weapons under Nicholas's directive followed right behind. The imps were still caught off guard as Jasmine slammed into one of the rank threes. They couldn't promise a quick kill on the strongest one, so they weren't going to bother. Her hammer met the head of the imp and pulped it along with forming a crater in the floor.

They weren't on the ground floor, not yet, and there was a basement beneath that. Jasmine hoped she wouldn't cause a floor collapse. Bolts of crimson fire pinged off Nicholas's floating shields as he continued to cut through the weakest denominator.

"Each shield with my bonuses can probably only block one or two fire bolts, so be careful." Nicholas said." Lullaby" The haunting song that sapped energy away from their opponents played from invisible speakers, and Jasmine poured more power into her armor and Quicksilver. Right now she was just maximizing what her armor could already do. It was a simple decision; it wasn't like the force armor was that subtle, anyway. Gravity warped as Jasmine pulled their enemies to her, hoping to throw them off guard. It did.

But she could do without the attacks slamming into her side without end. Jasmine spun her power higher as she continued to swing her hammer. There wasn't an end to them, and Nicholas was blocking fewer and fewer attacks. And while the defenses of her armor were great, they wouldn't last forever." Call" That hadn't been book. Jasmine whipped her head around to see the imps advancing on Nicholas instead. What was he thinking? What was that damn idiot thinking? She was the one supposed to take attacks for their team!

Jasmine was running to him when her foot hit a particularly destroyed patch of ground and the floor collapsed beneath her. Jasmine and several imps were falling. Her last view of her partner was him flipping over an attack as he kicked another imp through the room. She let her rage push her farther. If he was trying to take an attack for her, that was stupid but fine. But continuing to do so after the attack had missed?

In the air her power was greater, and with the rubble from the destroyed floor now under her control, she had no reason not to just start breaking things more. Rubble spun around her in tight loops, forming a barrier from projectiles as she pulled the flightless imps to her, pulping them with her hammer as she fought to get back to her friend. They weren't all focused on him; she knew that much. The ring around the hole blasting her with attacks was enough of a sign for that.

"I just want it to be known you're an idiot," Jasmine said, blocking an attack with her hammer before trying and failing to fly up through the hole. Her rubble barrier could block some attacks, but the amount that the imp brigade was throwing at her was a bit much.

"I'm aware, but I didn't have a better word to make an attack miss," Nicholas said, even his mental voice seemed like he was hitting his limit. Jasmine grumbled but didn't disagree.

"You mind if I destroy more of this place?" Nicholas asked. If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. Jasmine's response was confusion. Nicholas took that as permission." Impact" And Jasmine thought she had broken a good amount of floor. Rubble rained down with Nicholas holding onto Book like his life depended on it as the soul book tried its best to fly them to safety."

Playroom" Jasmine was now wrestling Nicholas for control of the rubble, but she lost that battle happily as she focused more of her power on pushing her armor faster. With actual material, Nicholas would do a lot better, and Jasmine was happy to let them fight like normal for once. It was like the very sky was on her side, pushing her faster and pulling the enemies to her. All Jasmine needed to worry about was hitting things as hard as she could.

"Focusing on support right now, so go wild," Nicholas said. With lullaby and playroom active, plus all the commands he had been using earlier? Jasmine doubted he would be good for much more, so she had to take care of this.

Twister had been taking the day off when she saw the livestream and had tuned in on a whim. It was something about a new hero team fighting demons, and she figured that could be a fun way to kill the afternoon as she rested from the train. She hadn't expected it to be Retort and Retribution on a job, and they had been on the front lines of the train too. It boggled the mind how hard those two worked compared to everyone else. It had also been shocking to watch them work together.

She knew that they rarely talked in the field, but she hadn't thought it was because they just knew each other that well. She figured they had a private way to communicate. But no Retort had actually talked and surprised Retribution, and then they went right back to silently existing together. And that it had been him flirting with her? Absolutely adorable, she hadn't really seen it before since Retort had always been really quiet and standoffish, but now that she had seen them just together existing?

Twister saw the vision, and she was going to be the first in line to congratulate them when they got back. Well, she guessed it was possible that they weren't dating yet, but she still thought they were cute. That opinion still existed, but watching them systematically butcher their way through the imps had been horrifying. The two of them were amazing, and they were effective. But then they had paused outside one of the central halls of the museum to rest, maybe?

Retort had even brought out his phone for something. The cute superhero badassery ended in the next room, and it was straight out of a horror movie, with a horde of demons trying to kill her friends. She knew they could fight like demons; she had been there on the wall, and she had done enough time on the train with others at their rank she was pretty sure they were near the top but this was a whole other thing.

The drone that was being used to stream this event could show the power of the monsters they faced, and all the big ones were stronger; one of them had even a full stage on them, but they were undaunted. But Twister was afraid. She could see the writing on the wall; they weren't absolute authorities of victory; they were heroes trying their best against impossible odds, and with every second the moment seemed to slip farther and farther away from them."

Break" Twister wasn't sure she had heard that command before, but it didn't do what she had expected. She had thought that it would involve the enemies' bones breaking or something like that. The actual result was so much worse. Space itself fractured in the video, and the imps that passed through came out the other side stretched and distorted. The viscera flying through the air from all the gravity manipulation had been bad, but that was worse."

Playroom" And just like that, Retort was back to his normal combat style. But the break had given something invaluable to Retribution. Like an emerald sun, she tore through the battlefield, pulling enemies to her just so that she could break them into pieces. Was this what it meant to them to be heroes? Were they always going to break through the enemy, no matter how ugly victory might have to be, so that they could protect people?

Twister hadn't been sure who they were protecting, though, and those two always fought hard. Back to back, the two fought impossible odds, but they were being forced into a corner, and worse than that, they were being forced to be right next to each other. Retort couldn't take the hits meant for Retribution, that he was now in the crossfire of. And Retribution couldn't swing her hammer and move as fluidly with Retort by her side. Before she knew what she was doing, Twister was in the air, flying to them.

She wasn't in uniform, but she was a hero and she wouldn't let her friends die.

"I got one more left in me, then I'm going down," Nicholas said, his voice calm. Jasmine was not feeling calm. She was feeling anything but calm.

"That's your plan? Knock yourself out?" Jasmine practically screamed as her hammer killed another imp. They were penned in and she couldn't get out to try and get the stronger ones. Their numbers had been cut in half, but that didn't mean they weren't still scary.

"No, my plan is to trust you, and like I said, this will be a big one," Nicholas said, still radiating calm.

"It better be a good one," Jasmine grumbled. It was a sign of just how bad things were going that Jasmine didn't argue further; it wasn't like she had a better idea. Originally, the plan to just bust their way out and run away if things went south wasn't viable anymore.

"It is." Jasmine had a bad feeling about this." Die" Her bad feeling was correct. But the wave of power that flowed out of Nicholas was like nothing she had ever seen before, and she was prepared to watch the whole battlefield fall into pieces dead. That wasn't what happened. None of them died. But it was like someone had signed the death warrant on every monster here; they slowed, some looked to age, and all of them trembled with fear.

She put that out of her head as Nicholas slammed to the ground and Book came under her purview. The drain was immense; he had been holding onto the lullaby and his own playroom at the same time? Jasmine could barely imagine it. She knew that his power was denser than hers, so for the same effect she would have to burn more power, but even with her reserves she wouldn't be able to keep it going for hours. That wasn't entirely true.

"Sorry, guys," Jasmine said to the items infused with her soul. She cut off the power she was sending them, letting the items consume their own soul energy as she let her own pool of power go to filling Book's lullaby and boosting it farther than ever before. She would be able to repair all of her items eventually, so long as they didn't get critically damaged. That was a time limit.

All that was, and she was already on a time limit in the first palace since they wouldn't pay attention to Nicholas's unconscious body for long. Jasmine exploded into motion, her power glowing with the light of the emerald sun as she fought with the fury of a dragon. When the roof was sheared away, Jasmine looked up, blinded by the sun.

"You guys are okay," Twister said, touching down.

"Okay?" Jasmine repeated. The fact that she wasn't fighting anymore was hard enough to comprehend.

"Holy shit, Retribution, what happened to you?" Twister asked.

"I won?"