Widow floated in the center of the stairwell, her glowing blue eyes shifting between the three of them. Her smile widened, revealing teeth that seemed just slightly too sharp.
"Three paradoxes," she said, her layered voice echoing off the concrete walls. "All in one place. How delightful."
Monti moved first.
Purple smoke erupted from his body, thick and writhing. The invisible crocodile jaws materialized from the haze, snapping toward Widow with terrifying speed.
She didn't flinch.
Her arms remained at her sides, but something *else* moved. Something Monti could barely see—distortions in the air behind her, like heat shimmer but more solid.
Invisible arms.
They shot out from her back—four of them, maybe six, it was hard to tell—and *grabbed* the smoke-crocodiles mid-strike. The invisible limbs held the manifestations in place, squeezing, crushing them back into formless purple haze.
"Invisible crocodiles," Widow said, studying the dissipating smoke. "This is great I haven't seen another liers paradox in a while. How fun." She looked at Monti with interest. "A logical paradox—with a whole lot of energy."
The invisible arms released the crushed manifestations and reached for Monti.
He dodged, his enhanced strength letting him move faster than normal, but the arms were everywhere. One caught his leg, lifting him off the ground. Another wrapped around his torso, squeezing.
"Monti!" Kínitos activated his speed and blurred forward.
Two of Widow's invisible arms swung toward him. He ducked under one, twisted past another, and drove his fist toward Widow's face—
She caught his wrist with one of her visible hands. Her grip was ice-cold.
"And you," she said, pulling him closer. "What seems to be… unbound." Her eyes studied his purple suit, the energy flickering across it. "Oh shit he's gonna love this, Immovability. Speed. Momentum. All in one vessel."
She threw him.
Not with her hand. With her *mind*.
That invisible force slammed into Kínitos, launching him through the air. He crashed into the wall, his immovability activating on instinct. The wall cracked around him, but he didn't budge from where he'd hit.
Marco was on his knees, purple smoke still leaking weakly from his body. The hexagons had stopped appearing, but the exhaustion from his earlier manifestation had left him barely conscious.
Widow's invisible arms grabbed Kínitos while he was stuck in immovability, pulling him away from the wall. He released the ability and tried to activate his speed—
Another invisible arm wrapped around his throat, cutting off his air.
"You're dangerous," Widow said, her tone almost admiring. "Too many variables. Too much potential." She tightened the grip. "Best to eliminate you first."
Purple smoke exploded from Monti again. More crocodile jaws manifested, larger this time, more aggressive. They tore at Widow's invisible arms, ripping through the semi-solid appendages with savage force.
She hissed in pain—the first real reaction they'd gotten from her.
The arm around Kínitos's throat loosened. He activated unstoppable momentum in his arm and drove it upward, toward where he thought the invisible limb was attached to her body.
His fist went *through*.
A perfect circular hole appeared in one of the invisible arms. The appendage spasmed, releasing him.
Kínitos dropped, gasping for air.
Widow floated backward, her invisible arms pulling in defensively. Two of them had holes through them now—one from Kínitos's unstoppable momentum, one torn by Monti's manifestations.
She looked at the damage, then at them, her expression shifting from amusement to genuine threat.
"Perhaps I underestimated you," she said coldly.
The air pressure in the stairwell changed. Dropped. Like all the oxygen had been sucked out.
Widow's eyes flared brighter blue.
And every invisible arm lashed out at once.
Monti's crocodiles met them head-on, jaws snapping and tearing. But there were too many. For every arm the manifestations destroyed, another appeared.
Kínitos activated his speed, blurring between the attacks, but even moving faster than thought he could barely dodge them all. One caught his leg. Another his arm. They pulled in opposite directions, trying to tear him apart.
He activated immovability—trapping himself but also making it impossible for the arms to move him.
Widow pulled harder. The invisible arms strained against his immovable form.
"Interesting," she said. "You make yourself unliftable. But what happens when I remove the floor beneath you?"
One of her visible hands gestured downward.
The stairs beneath Kínitos's feet simply *vanished*. Not destroyed. Not broken. Just *gone*, like they'd never existed.
For that second his mind unconcentrated. With that.
He fell.
His immovability kept him rigid as he dropped. He crashed through to the landing below, the impact rattling his already-injured ribs.
Monti was still fighting, purple smoke pouring from him in waves. But he was tiring. The manifestations were getting weaker, smaller. His enhanced strength was fading.
Marco tried to stand, purple smoke flickering around him. Another hexagon appeared in the air, rotating slowly—
Widow's invisible arms grabbed him before he could do anything with it.
"No more tricks from you," she said, lifting Marco off the ground. "You're coming with me."
"Like hell he is," Monti snarled.
He inhaled more purple smoke, his body swelling with one final surge of power. The largest crocodile manifestation yet materialized from the haze—massive jaws, easily ten feet across, lined with teeth like swords.
The invisible predator lunged at Widow.
She raised both visible hands.
And the crocodile manifestation *froze* mid-strike, held in place by a dozen invisible arms that had wrapped around it from every angle.
"Enough," Widow said.
She *squeezed*.
The manifestation shattered like glass, purple smoke exploding outward.
The backlash hit Monti like a physical blow. He staggered, blood trickling from his nose, his suit flickering.
Widow turned her attention back to Marco, her invisible arms pulling him closer—
"Now let's go h-"
A fireball erupted from the landing above.
Not purple. Not orange.
*Blue*.
The flame tore down the stairwell like a living thing, consuming oxygen, super-heated to impossible temperatures.
Widow's eyes widened. She released Marco and threw up a barrier of invisible force.
The fireball hit it and *exploded*, the concussive force rattling the entire stairwell.
When the smoke cleared, Widow was gone.
Not dead. Just *gone*. Fled.
Marco dropped to the stairs, unconscious.
Kínitos pulled himself up from the lower landing, looking toward where the blue fireball had come from.
A figure stood at the top of the stairs. Tall. Lean. Wearing a purple suit identical to Kínitos's but with blue accents instead of purple.
Jade.
His hand still smoldered with residual blue flames.
"You two," Jade said, his voice calm but edged with fury, "have a lot of explaining to do."