3rd Person POV
AJ moved silently through the corridor, his footfalls muffled against the pristine white flooring. The walls on either side glowed faintly, that same eerie, clinical luminescence that had followed him since the upper decks. There were no seams, no rivets, no signs of human hands ever building these passageways. Just smooth, curved material stronger than steel, colder than ice and unnaturally sterile. Almost like he was walking through a machine designed to mimic a spaceship, rather than be one.
The Digivice on his wrist pulsed with a soft green light.
"You're getting close," Elecmon whispered through the speaker. "The central vault is just ahead… thirty meters… twenty…"
AJ didn't respond at first, just let his fingers flex and relax. Clarent was still sheathed across his back. He didn't draw it.
Not yet.
"I don't like this," Elecmon murmured. "It's too clean. Too quiet. I've been pinging every system within range. Nothing's responding. We're walking into a vacuum. No sensors. No motion logs. Nothing. AJ, maybe I should come out. I'll Digivolve into Leomon. We don't know what's waiting down here."
"No." AJ shook his head. "Not yet."
"But—"
"You're my trump card, Elecmon." His voice was calm but firm. "If things go to hell and let's be honest, they probably will I need you ready to blow the roof off this place, not wasting energy wandering halls. Stay inside the Digivice and when we get inside whatever is in that people try to find any signal or connection and latch on it and then try to find and release Peter and others."
There was a pause.
"…Fine. But don't make me regret it, you stubborn jackass."
A faint smile touched AJ's lips, but it vanished the moment he rounded the corner.
There across the long corridor stood a cluster of heavily armed guards. Thirty… maybe forty of them. All clad in matte-black armor with full helmets, visors glowing red. Assault rifles. Plasma batons. High-tier riot gear. Most of them weren't even breathing heavily.
AJ dropped into a fighting stance on instinct, his eyes scanning their formation, looking for weak points, bottlenecks, the first one to drop. Clarent remained sheathed—but his aura flared slightly.
Then, all at once, the soldiers began to move.
Not forward.
They parted.
Like a curtain.
Each one stepping silently to the side, lowering their weapons.
Creating a path.
AJ blinked.
"…Okay," he muttered. "That's not ominous."
"It's a trap," Elecmon hissed. "A very polite one."
"I noticed."
Still, AJ didn't hesitate. He walked straight through them. Each soldier's helmet followed his movements, necks rotating in perfect sync, but not a single one made a move. It was like they were actors. Waiting. Like they wanted him to see what was ahead.
He followed the corridor until it opened up to a final chamber—this one guarded by a massive gate with a glowing metallic arch mounted above it. The frame shimmered with layered alloys AJ didn't recognize—woven together like overlapping plates of scale armor. There were at least a dozen visible locks, and his trained eye—sharpened by his [Security Mastery]—could already tell:
This wasn't something you breached casually. Not without a few hours, three specialty crews, a miniaturized fusion drill, and a miracle.
But before he could contemplate alternatives, the locks clicked.
The mechanisms began to whir and hum.
Then hiss.
And the arch above suddenly lit up in full, symbols he didn't recognize flashing like a circuit awakening. Then with a thunderous clunk, the gate began to open inward. The room beyond flooded with blinding white light.
AJ squinted and raised a hand to his face, bracing.
"AJ—wait! That light—"
But it was too late. The corridor behind him sealed shut, and he was already moving forward.
He passed through the archway.
And into a space that shouldn't exist.
At first, his vision struggled. White bled into shapes, then details, then scale.
And then he saw it.
"…What the hell…"
The chamber stretched impossibly far. It wasn't a room. It was a whole damm expanse. Bigger than anything that could possibly fit inside the ship. Three no, four soccer fields wide. Vaulted ceilings. Arched metallic supports. Hanging cranes, catwalks, high-altitude ducts.
It was a factory.
The Kick factory.
His eyes swept across the industrial labyrinth massive glass vats filled with swirling green chemicals, refinery columns that looked like reactor towers, robotic arms assembling syringes and packets at blistering speeds, conveyor belts carrying sealed doses, cryogenic storage pods, biometric scanners, and testing bays with mechanical restraints.
This wasn't a lab.
This was mass production.
Refined. Efficient. Merciless.
And in the center of it all stood three large containment pods.
Spiderman. Daredevil. Iron Fist.
Each one suspended in fluid. Unmoving. Their gear removed. Electrodes attached to their heads. AJ could barely hear the low hum of vitals, but they were alive.
Unconscious.
He took a step forward but stopped.
Because he wasn't alone.
Just beside the pods stood five figures.
Each one stood like a chess piece.
Ironclad.
Vector.
X-Ray.
Vapor.
The U-Foes.
Ironclad looked remarkably intact.
"How the hell—" AJ whispered. "I froze you."
Ironclad just grinned, arms crossed over his massive silver frame.
"Next time," he said, "you might want to make sure the core is frozen too."
Beside them, floating above a raised platform was a fifth figure a man clad in blue techno-armor, dozens of shimmering discs orbiting his body like planets around a sun. The Controller. AJ recognized him from briefings, from the files Elecmon had pulled.
But before AJ could move, the air shimmered.
The hologram shimmered to life, casting a sterile white glow across the central chamber. At the heart of it stood John Sublime, clad in a pristine lab coat over dark slacks, collar crisp, hair slicked back with unsettling precision. He looked like a man who could dissect a child's life with a scalpel and call it "research."
He smiled. A smooth, confident smile that didn't touch his cold eyes.
"Well, well," he said. "The infamous saboteur himself. The Protector of M-Town. The little infection that's been worming its way through my infrastructure for weeks."
AJ stayed still, Clarent resting against his back, his glare fixed squarely on the flickering projection.
Sublime's hands folded behind his back as he began to pace inside the holographic field, like a headmaster about to reprimand a troublesome student.
"You know," he continued, his voice calm, cultured, "when I first heard about one of my warehouses going up in smoke, I assumed it was a freak accident. Annoying, but not worth my attention."
He paused, gaze narrowing slightly.
"Then lo and behold my distribution lines get cut off and my clubs get shut down. Still, I let it slide. Heroes poking around. A headache, not a threat."
Sublime's expression darkened as the pacing stopped.
"Then my bought and paid for councilman goes haywire and stops responding to me. Now it was not just interference, but deliberate sabotage. Targeted. Coordinated. And suddenly, I wasn't looking at a hero anymore."
He leaned forward, and though the hologram couldn't move closer, the weight of his words felt like it did.
"You made it personal."
AJ's jaw clenched, but he said nothing.
Sublime tilted his head. "Which brings me to the question that's been gnawing at me… Who are you?"
He raised a hand, ticking off possibilities.
"An old test subject? No, no my records are flawless. I'd recognize my work."
"A rogue mutant from one of my deep sites? No one escapes those alive."
"Some grieving son of a mutilated nobody? Hm. More likely, but still..."
He shook his head. "I don't like guessing games. So do me a favor and take that mask off, would you? Let's not be shy. You've earned the right to be seen before you're broken."
Still, AJ didn't move.
Sublime's smile thinned.
"Perhaps I wasn't clear. Your friends Spider-Man, Daredevil, Iron Fist they're alive, for now. But you don't get to make demands here. You're in my ship, surrounded by my people, and we're past heroics. So either remove the mask or I start testing the limits of their pain thresholds."
AJ's hand moved slowly. He unfastened the clasps of his helmet and let it fall to the floor with a dull clink.
Sublime squinted, inspecting his face like a collector trying to place an unfamiliar artifact.
"...Huh," he muttered, puzzled. "Not anyone I recognize."
Then he smiled again. Wider. Hungrier.
"That's good. I like new toys."
AJ's lip curled in disgust. "You're going to regret this."
"Oh, I doubt that," Sublime said smoothly. "But don't worry we'll have plenty of time to get to know each other."
Then, as if remembering something trivial, he snapped his fingers.
"Ah, yes. Basil, would you do the honors? I wouldn't want our guests to sleep through this little family reunion."
The Controller standing off to the side in blue armor, his face half-hidden by his visor and the orbiting mind-control discs nodded once. He raised his arm, tapped his gauntlet, and three containment pods began to hiss.
Steam rose. The fluid drained.
Spider-Man stirred, his groan muffled. "Ugh… I feel like I lost a fight with a vending machine…"
Daredevil's brow furrowed, his senses twitching awake before his mind fully caught up.
Iron Fist gasped for air, straining against the manacles.
AJ's knuckles cracked as he clenched his fists.
Sublime's face loomed in the hologram.
"There," he said. "Now everyone's here. Isn't that better?"
He gestured grandly at the facility around them.
"You've made quite a mess of my empire, you know. So I figured why not make this a teachable moment? Let you see what you're really up against."
He turned to the vats lining the factory, filled with bubbling Kick, glowing like liquid corruption.
"You think I'm just a drug dealer? No. I'm a curator of the next step in human evolution. The old heroes? Relics. I'm building something greater. And your little rampage? That was a data point. Your friends? Fuel. You? You're the next test."
AJ took a step forward. His voice was low.
"I'm going to burn this place to the ground."
Sublime only laughed.
Sublime, still hovering in midair via his flickering hologram, let out a dismissive tch-tch-tch, waggling a finger.
"You'll have to take a rain check on that, I'm afraid."
His voice was calm, almost amused, but his eyes those cold, analytical predator's eyes—flashed with something far more venomous.
"You still don't understand the gravity of this situation, do you?" he said, raising both hands as if addressing a lecture hall. "Let me up the stakes a little."
Sublime clapped once.
It echoed with unnatural resonance. And then the ship responded.
The factory around them began to shift grinding mechanical arms retracted, conveyor belts folded into the ground, the vats of Kick lowered into the floor like descending monoliths. The humming of machines was soon drowned out by a loud, rhythmic thumping from within the walls.
From every direction shhh-CHNK, shhh-CHNK containment pods began to rise.
Hundreds of them.
They emerged like tumors from the walls, hissing softly as coolant mist leaked from the seams. The bright, sterile lights reflected off frosted glass, but AJ could still see what was inside.
Children.
One by one, the condensation thinned and the truth hit AJ like a punch to the chest. Every pod held a child suspended in cryostasis, unmoving, limbs floating, wires trailing into their bodies. Some were clearly mutated wrong proportions, extra limbs, grotesque deformations. Others were whole… but far too still.
AJ's knees nearly buckled.
He spun around, his voice rising like a battle cry.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS, SUBLIME?!"
Sublime's chuckle rolled out slow and smooth.
"Now, now… no need to lose your marbles over something this minor," he said, waving a dismissive hand. "You've cost me more than you can possibly imagine, my masked friend. Resources. Facilities. Personnel. Millions. I could've ignored a few vigilante incidents. But you didn't stop."
He took a step forward within the hologram, and now the madness in his smile was plain.
"So I've decided... I'll take my payback from your suffering."
The room dimmed slightly. A harsh red spotlight lit up the pods.
"We're going to play a little game," Sublime said, voice practically sing-song now. "Hero and villain. Trial by combat. I'll pit you against my champions, one by one., if you fail 250 hundred of these test subjects will be terminated on the spot. Rest will get slow roasted by the very liquid they are held in."
AJ stared at him, frozen with horror.
Sublime continued, undeterred. "There are 500 children in those tubes. Cryogenically preserved. Broken, butchered, branded with my mark. If you want to save them? Then you better put on the performance of a lifetime, Hero. Or you'll walk out of here with nothing but a graveyard on your conscience."
A spark of manic glee danced in his eyes.
"I hear small coffins are the heaviest ones."
AJ's blood boiled. His whole body shook not from fear, but from rage so intense it felt like it might tear him apart.
"You depraved son of a bitch," he snarled. "When I get my hands on you, I'll rip you limb from limb. I'll burn you so bad that hellfire will look like a goddamn comfort blanket."
Sublime just raised an eyebrow, unbothered.
"That depends on you surviving long enough to reach me. And frankly? I don't intend to give you that luxury."
He spun with theatrical flair. "Anyway. Enough monologuing. Let's get the entertainment underway."
From above, the ceiling began to rumble. Chains clanked. A cage lowered from the ceiling, groaning under its own weight.
AJ narrowed his eyes.
Inside the reinforced cell stood a man he recognized immediately battered, confused, and very much not in control of the situation.
AJ muttered. "Random."
Random stood at the bars, his alabaster-white skin stark under the fluorescents. A clear, reinforced collar was fixed around his neck, filled with an eerie green fluid. His body language screamed anxiety.
"Sublime, what the hell is this?" he barked, eyes darting around. "I did everything you asked there's no need for this. I brought you samples. I handled the shipments. You promised—"
Sublime's voice boomed from the speakers, cold and sharp now.
"Oh, Marshall, my dear boy. You did do everything I asked... except stop the little pest when you had the chance. That warehouse mess? On your head."
Random's fists clenched.
"I didn't sign up for this, Sublime!"
"No," Sublime agreed. "You signed up to obey. And failure comes with consequences."
With a snap of his fingers, the collar on Random's neck flashed.
The green liquid surged.
Random screamed.
It wasn't pain at first it was confusion. He clutched at the collar, but it was too late. The chemical spread through his bloodstream, igniting something deep within. His body began to spasm. Then... to mutate.
AJ took a step back, heart pounding.
Random's left arm exploded in mass, jagged spikes ripping through the flesh like bone spears. His right arm stretched into a tendril rubbery and snakelike. His torso ballooned, muscle warping under pressure. His face twisted jaw unhinging, teeth erupting from his mouth in snarling layers. Horns jutted from his skull. Patches of coarse, white fur sprouted like disease across his back and chest.
Two cannon-like appendages burst from his shoulder blades, gleaming with a dull silver sheen.
By the time the transformation was done, Random towered at 13 feet, no longer man but monster an unholy fusion of biology and weapon.
AJ stared at the creature. At the friend he had once fought alongside.
The monster opened its mouth and roared, shaking the entire chamber.
"...You poor bastard," AJ whispered.
The monster that had been Random lowered its head and charged with thundering footsteps.
Sublime's voice, now fully laced with madness, echoed one final time:
"Round one… FIGHT."
The monster that used to be Random charged.
Thirteen feet of twisted muscle, bone, and weaponized biology barreled toward me like a freight train. The floor shook with each thunderous step. Those shoulder cannons were already glowing, building up energy for a shot that would probably vaporize whatever it hit.
I didn't have time to think. Only react.
Fire God Slayer's Bellow.
Black flames erupted from my mouth in a torrent, washing over Random's mutated form. The fire was hot enough to melt steel, cursed enough to burn through magical defenses.
It barely slowed him down.
He crashed through the flames like they were mist, one massive clawed hand swinging for my head. I dropped low, felt the wind from the blow ruffle my hair, and drove my fist into his knee joint with everything I had.
My knuckles met reinforced bone that felt like concrete.
Pain shot up my arm. Random didn't even flinch.
His tendril arm lashed out, wrapped around my waist, and hurled me across the chamber. I hit a support pillar hard enough to crack it, dropped to the ground gasping. The Valentine Ring pulsed, already working to heal the damage, but I could feel ribs crack.
"Marshall!" I tried calling out to him. "I know you can hear me! Fight it!"
The monster paused. Just for a second. One of its eyes the most human-looking one—flickered with something that might have been recognition.
Then the collar flashed green, and Random screamed.
The sound was agony made audible. His body spasmed, muscles rippling as the Kick variant pumped more mutations into him. A third arm burst from his side, this one ending in a cluster of bone spikes. His back split open, revealing pulsing sacs that began to inflate.
From his hologram, Sublime's voice dripped with amusement. "Oh, don't waste your breath. The compound I've pumped into him has completely overridden his higher brain functions. Marshall Stone is gone. There's only the weapon now."
The sacs on Random's back ruptured, spraying a cloud of acidic mist across the chamber. I summoned fire to burn it away, but some of it got through, eating into my armor with a hissing sizzle. The metal bubbled and warped, exposing the copper reinforcement layer underneath.
Random's shoulder cannons fired.
Two beams of concentrated energy screamed toward me. I threw up a wall of ice, and the beams punched through it like tissue paper. I rolled aside, but not fast enough. One beam clipped my shoulder, and I screamed as it seared through armor, through flesh, cauterizing as it burned.
The smell of my own cooking meat filled my nostrils.
I hit the ground hard, clutching my shoulder. The Valentine Ring was already working, but the damage was severe. Through my swimming vision, I saw Random advancing, each step methodical now. Hunting.
"Get up, AJ!" Elecmon's voice crackled desperately through the Digivice. "You have to get up!"
I forced myself to my feet, swaying. Drew Clarent with my good arm. The sword's weight felt like an anchor, but its presence cleared my head slightly.
Random charged again.
This time I was ready. I ducked under his first swing, pivoted around the tendril that tried to grab me, and drove Clarent deep into his thigh. The blade bit through mutated flesh, and black blood sprayed across my face.
Random howled.
His third arm came around faster than I could react, bone spikes extended. They caught me across the chest, punching through my armor and into my ribs. I felt something break—not crack, break. The impact lifted me off my feet and sent me crashing into a stack of chemical crates.
Glass shattered. Liquid spilled. Some of it was just water, but some of it burned where it touched exposed skin.
I couldn't breathe. Every attempt sent white-hot agony through my chest. Punctured lung, probably. The Valentine Ring was working overtime, but even it couldn't keep up with this.
Random's shadow fell over me.
"No," I wheezed, raising Clarent weakly. "Not... like this..."
The monster that used to be my ally raised both fists high, ready to pulverize me into paste.
I activated Copper Form—partial, just enough. My body hardened, every cell transforming into living metal. I became a statue of copper, denser than steel.
Random's fists came down like hammers.
The impact cratered the floor beneath me. Shockwaves rippled outward. But I held. The Copper Form absorbed most of the damage, though I felt the strain in every cell.
Before he could pull back, I grabbed one of his arms with both hands and twisted.
The sound of breaking bone echoed through the chamber. Random screamed, trying to pull away, but I held on with desperate strength. My other hand found Clarent's hilt, and I drove the blade upward into his armpit, angling for vitals.
Black blood gushed. Random thrashed wildly, his free arm hammering into my head, my back, anywhere he could reach. Even through Copper Form, the impacts rattled my brain. My vision swam with stars.
But I didn't let go.
I withdrew Clarent and struck again. And again. Stabbing, cutting, carving through mutated flesh. It wasn't elegant. It wasn't heroic. It was butchery.
Random's movements grew weaker. His screams turned to whimpers. That green collar around his neck flickered, the chemical supply running low.
"I'm sorry," I gasped, releasing Copper Form and nearly collapsing from the strain. "I'm so sorry, Marshall."
I raised Clarent one final time and brought the pommel down on Random's skull with everything I had left.
CRACK.
Random collapsed like a puppet with cut strings, his massive form crashing to the ground. The collar sparked once, twice, then went dark.
I dropped beside him, gasping, coughing up blood. My shoulder was a mess of burned flesh. My ribs were broken in at least three places. My armor was shredded. The Valentine Ring pulsed weakly, barely keeping me conscious.
"Round... one... complete," I spat blood on the floor.
Sublime's hologram drifted closer, that insufferable smile still plastered across his face.
"Well, well. You actually managed to put down Marshall. I'm impressed. Most people would have hesitated, let sentiment stay their hand. But you? You did what needed to be done."
He clapped slowly, mockingly.
"But tell me, how much do you have left in the tank? Because Round Two is about to begin, and I don't think you're going to like what comes next."
The chamber shuddered. From alcoves in the walls, four figures emerged.
The U-Foes.
Ironclad, fully repaired, that silver skin gleaming. Vector, hands already crackling with telekinetic power. X-Ray, his form glowing with deadly radiation. And Vapor, swirling in her gaseous state.
They spread out, surrounding me, cutting off any escape routes.
I tried to stand, got halfway up before my legs gave out. Clarent clattered from my grip. The Valentine Ring was doing its best, but I'd pushed too hard, taken too much damage.
"Elecmon," I whispered into the Digivice. "Tell me... you've found something..."
"I'm trying!" His voice was frantic. "But the systems are locked down tight! I need more time!"
Time. The one thing I didn't have.
Vector raised his hand, and I felt invisible force grip my body. He lifted me into the air like a ragdoll, then slammed me into the floor. Once. Twice. Three times. Each impact drove the air from my lungs, sent fresh waves of agony through my broken ribs.
He released me, and I lay gasping like a fish out of water.
Ironclad stepped forward, that smug grin on his metallic face. "Remember me, tin man? You got lucky last time. Caught me off guard. But now?"
He grabbed my arm the burned one and twisted.
I screamed. The sound echoed through the chamber, raw and animal. Something in my shoulder tore, tendons snapping like rubber bands.
"Now you get to see what happens when I'm actually trying," Ironclad growled.
He lifted me up and drove his fist into my stomach. The impact folded me in half, sent blood and bile spraying from my mouth. He hit me again. And again. Each punch was precisely calculated to cause maximum pain without killing me outright.
When he finally dropped me, I couldn't even curl into a ball. My body wouldn't respond anymore.
"My turn," X-Ray said, floating closer. His form pulsed with radioactive energy. "Let's see how much radiation you can take before your cells start breaking down."
He placed his hand on my chest, and fire exploded through every nerve ending. Not the good fire of my magic this was the fire of my DNA unraveling, my cells dying by the millions. I tried to scream but couldn't even manage that. Just a weak, choked gasp.
"Fascinating," Sublime mused from his hologram, taking notes on a tablet. "His regeneration is trying to compensate, but it's losing ground. The cellular degradation is accelerating. At this rate, he'll experience total organ failure in... three minutes? Maybe four?"
X-Ray pulled back, and Vapor took his place.
She surrounded me in her gaseous form, cutting off my air supply. I couldn't breathe. Couldn't move. Couldn't do anything but drown in toxic fumes. My vision tunneled, darkness creeping in from the edges.
Just before I lost consciousness, she released me. I sucked in a desperate breath, coughing, retching.
"Not yet," Vector said coldly. "Sublime wants him conscious for this."
He grabbed me telekinetically again and hurled me across the chamber. I crashed through a glass partition, shattered equipment, came to rest in a corner among broken machinery and scattered chemicals.
I couldn't move. Could barely think. Everything was pain and blood and the slow, creeping realization that I was going to die here.
From the containment pods, I heard Spider-Man's voice, weak and desperate. "Stop... please... he's had enough..."
"Oh, I don't think so," Sublime said cheerfully. "We're just getting to the good part."
The U-Foes advanced on my corner like executioners approaching the scaffold.
Ironclad cracked his knuckles. "Time to finish this."
They closed in. Vector's telekinesis pinned me to the wall, spreading my limbs so I couldn't defend myself. Ironclad drew back his fist, aiming for my head. X-Ray's form pulsed, building up for one final, lethal dose of radiation. Vapor swirled around me, ready to suffocate me the moment Ironclad's punch landed.
"Any last words?" Sublime asked, leaning forward in his hologram with eager anticipation.
I looked up at them through blood and swelling. My vision was doubled, tripled. I could taste copper. Feel my heart struggling to keep beating.
And I started to laugh.
It was a weak sound at first. Just a chuckle that made me cough up more blood. But it grew. Became stronger. Until I was laughing like a madman, blood bubbling from my lips.
The U-Foes paused, exchanging confused glances.
"What's so funny?" Vector demanded.
"You..." I gasped between laughs. "You think... you've won..."
"I know I've won," Sublime corrected, though there was uncertainty in his voice now. "You're broken. Defeated. You have nothing left."
"That's... where you're wrong..." I lifted my head, and despite the pain, despite everything, I smiled. A real smile. Wild and unhinged and free.
"Ever since... I came to this world... I've been holding something back..."
My hand trembling, bloody, barely functional reached for the Digivice at my belt. Not to call Elecmon. For something else.
"The thing that brought me here... the thing that gives me these random powers... I've been keeping it... suppressed."
Sublime's eyes widened. "What are you—"
"I was scared," I continued, my voice growing stronger even as blood dripped from my chin. "Scared of what would happen if I let it run wild. Scared of becoming something I couldn't control. So I held back. Rationed it. Let it give me one power at a time, when the pressure built up too much."
I looked directly at Sublime's hologram, and my smile turned savage.
"But you know what? I think it's time to stop being scared."
"Vector! Ironclad! Kill him NOW!" Sublime screamed.
Too late.
I released the mental block I'd been maintaining since I first woke up in that Maggia warehouse. The dam I'd built to control the flood of power that wanted to pour through me.
And the Wiki-Warrior system exploded to life.
19-16 Superpower Wiki – Efficient Mode - Users can enter a mode for efficiency, which makes their abilities use less energy and force to do things. This can range from combat and attacks, movement, overall body systems, super powers, and so on. For a roll of 16 AJ gets a 20% more boost than usual efficient Mode.
18-17 Elden Ring Great Heal - Superior incantation of the Two Fingers' faithful. Greatly heals HP for the caster and nearby allies. With a roll of 17, Self heal becomes cheaper to use.
9-14 Terraria - Necro armor - Necro armor is a post-Skeletron armor set consisting of the Necro Helmet, Necro Breastplate, and Necro Greaves. If the full set is worn, the player leaves an afterimage while running just like full Shadow armor. Merges with black knight set, gives 40% boost to ranged attacks.
4-13 Bleach - Gift Ball - creates a single or multiple purple, slow-moving balls of poison, either to launch at an opponent or keep suspended in midair. Whoever touches these balls will near-instantly succumb to The Deathdealing's "poisoning" effects, with a single Gift Ball proving potent enough to incapacitate the former 6th Espada, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, making him collapse right after making contact.
5-20 – Witcher – Werewolves – Summons a pack of wolves under the command of AJ, for a roll of 20 the werewolves are now larger and stronger and can dissolve in AJ's shadow as familiars.
10-15 God of High School – Hattori Hanzo - allows him to create clones of himself with each clone having its own attacking power. With a roll of 15 AJ can create 3 Clones.
The sound of dice rolling filled my head but not one die. A cascade of rolls, all happening at once, the system making up for months of suppression in a single, catastrophic instant.
My body screamed as the powers flooded into me. But this time, something was different. The first power that manifested wrapped around everything else like a filter, like a lens focusing chaotic light into something usable.
Efficient Mode.
Suddenly, every ability cost less. Every movement required less energy. My broken body, held together by the Valentine Ring's desperate healing, found new reserves I shouldn't have had. The pain didn't vanish but it became manageable.
Great Heal manifested next, and golden light erupted from my chest. My punctured lung sealed itself. The radiation damage began to reverse, cells regenerating at an accelerated rate. The burned shoulder knitted back together, muscle and skin reforming.
It wasn't complete. I was still battered, still bleeding. But I could move again.
My armor rippled and transformed. The Black Knight set merged with something new—Necro Armor bone-white plates growing over the black, creating an unsettling fusion of death and darkness. When I moved, afterimages trailed behind me, ghostly copies that made it impossible to track where I really was.
"What the hell—" Vector started.
I didn't give him time to finish.
Hattori Hanzo.
Three perfect copies of me materialized in puffs of smoke, each one solid, each one armed with their own Clarent. The U-Foes suddenly had four targets instead of one.
"Get him!" Sublime screamed.
The clones moved in perfect sync with me. One engaged Ironclad, matching his brutish strength with precise swordsmanship enhanced by the Necro Armor's ranged boost. Every swing of Clarent left cutting arcs of energy that carved into his metallic hide.
Another clone rushed X-Ray, and when the radioactive villain tried to blast it, the clone created something new—Gift Ball. Purple spheres of concentrated poison materialized around X-Ray, floating in the air. The clone maneuvered him into one, and the moment he made contact, X-Ray's eyes widened in horror.
"What what is this?!" He tried to maintain his energy form, but the poison worked on a fundamental level, attacking his very essence. He collapsed, form flickering wildly.
The third clone engaged Vapor, and this time I unleashed something primal. I reached into my core and blasted her with the hottest Fire God slayer attack that I could, vapor tried to dodge by dispersing herself but the width of my attack didn't let her a chance, the blast hit her on the face first and she was slammed into a wall, her whole self was caught on fire and I could hear her screams, deciding I didn't want to kill her I froze her with a Ice breath.
I took Vector myself.
His telekinesis grabbed for me, but my afterimages confused his aim. He caught one clone, slammed it into the ground and it vanished in smoke. The real me was already behind him, Clarent glowing with accumulated energy.
"Your turn," I snarled.
I drove the blade into his shoulder. Not to kill—just to hurt. To make him feel what he'd done to me. He screamed, trying to throw me off with his power, but I held on, twisting the blade.
My clone finished with Ironclad, landing a devastating combination that left the metal man cracked and leaking some kind of internal fluid. The werewolves had Vapor pinned, their massive jaws clamped around her limbs, holding her solid through sheer physical force. X-Ray was still on the ground, convulsing from the Gift Ball's poison.
Vector was the last one standing, and barely. I yanked Clarent free and kicked him to the ground, where he collapsed beside his teammates.
"Four on one," I panted, dismissing my clones and called the werewolves into this realm, one by one hulking beasts the size of trucks came out of my shadow and I asked them to hold the U-foes, so they don't get the chance to get back into the fight.
"Not so fun when you're on the receiving end, is it?"
But I was hurt. God, I was hurt. Even with Efficient Mode reducing the cost, even with Great Heal working overtime, I'd pushed too hard. My new Necro Armor was cracked in places. Blood seeped from wounds that hadn't fully closed. My vision swam.
I dropped to one knee, using Clarent to keep myself upright.
That's when I heard the slow clap.
The Controller floated down from his platform, those mind-control discs orbiting him like a crown. His applause echoed through the chamber.
"Bravo," he said, voice dripping with false admiration. "Truly spectacular. You've exceeded every expectation."
Sublime's hologram drifted closer, and that smile—that goddamn smile—was back.
"Did you really think that was it?" he asked, voice soft and dangerous. "Did you honestly believe I'd stake everything on the U-Foes alone? You're a fool, AJ. An entertaining fool, but a fool nonetheless."
The Controller raised his hand, and the discs around him flared bright.
From their containment pods, I heard stirring. Groaning. The sound of restraints breaking.
No. No, no, no—
Spider-Man stumbled out of his pod, but his movements were wrong. Jerky. Mechanical. His head turned toward me, and behind the mask, I could see the blank, controlled stare.
Daredevil followed, his usually fluid movements now stilted, puppet-like. Those senses that made him so deadly were now being used against him, guided by the Controller's will.
Iron Fist emerged last, and the sight of his glowing fist that symbol of discipline and mastery being controlled by Sublime's lackey made my blood boil.
"No," I whispered. "Don't make me do this."
"Oh, but I am," Sublime laughed. "You wanted to be a hero? Then here's your heroic choice: Fight your friends and risk killing them, or let them beat you to death while you do nothing. Either way, I win."
The three controlled heroes advanced on me.
"Spidey," I called out, trying to reach him. "Iron Fist. Daredevil. I know you're in there. Fight it!"
Spider-Man's only response was to web-sling toward me, fist cocked back.
I dodged, barely. "I won't fight you! I won't!"
Daredevil's billy club whistled through the air, catching me across the jaw. Stars exploded in my vision. Iron Fist followed up with a chi-enhanced punch to my ribs that sent me sprawling.
"Stop!" I shouted, but they didn't stop. Couldn't stop.
Spider-Man webbed my legs, yanked me off balance. Daredevil delivered a precise kick to my kidney. Iron Fist's glowing fist slammed into my chest, and even through the Necro Armor, I felt ribs crack.
"Fight back!" Sublime taunted. "Show me that violence you showed the U-Foes! Unless you're saying your friends aren't worth saving if you have to hurt them?"
I curled into a defensive ball, taking the hits. Every punch, every kick, every impact. I could fight back. I had the power. But these were my friends. The people who'd trusted me. Who'd fought beside me.
I wouldn't become Sublime's entertainment by hurting them.
"Elecmon," I gasped into the Digivice. "Please... tell me... you've got something..."
For a long moment, there was only static.
Then his voice came through, and it wasn't scared anymore. It was furious.
"Enough is ENOUGH!"
The Digivice exploded in light.
A beam of data shot out, materializing into physical form. Elecmon appeared but not the small, puppy-like creature I knew. He was changing, evolving, growing.
"ELECMON DIGIVOLVE TO... LEOMON!"
Where once stood a creature barely two feet tall now stood a seven-foot warrior. Humanoid, but distinctly leonine golden fur, a mane like flame, muscles that rippled with barely contained power. He wore rugged clothes and carried a massive sword that looked like it was forged from pure data.
The Controller's confident smirk vanished. "What what is that?!"
Leomon's voice was deeper now, resonant with power. "I am Leomon, Guardian of the Digital World. And you've made a grave mistake."
He moved faster than the eye could follow. One moment he was standing beside me, the next he was in front of the Controller, massive fist driving into the man's face. The Controller flew backward, his concentration broken.
The mind-control discs flickered.
Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Iron Fist stumbled, the control loosening but not breaking entirely.
"The discs!" I shouted. "Destroy the discs!"
Leomon roared, and his body began to shimmer, becoming translucent. Not solid. Not organic.
Pure data.
He dove into the Controller's armor, his digital form phasing through the physical barriers and into the electronic systems beneath. The Controller screamed, electricity arcing across his suit as Leomon began tearing apart his technology from the inside.
"No! NO! Get out! GET OUT!"
The mind-control discs sparked and shattered, one by one. The three heroes gasped, collapsing as the control broke.
But Leomon wasn't done.
From inside the Controller's systems, his voice echoed: "I'm in the network. I've got access to everything. The containment pods, the door locks , I'm freeing the children!"
All around the chamber, hundreds of pods began to hiss open. The green fluid drained away, and mutated children tumbled out, gasping, crying, alive.
"No!" Sublime's hologram flickered with rage. "Basil! Stop him! STOP HIM!"
But the Controller couldn't stop anything. Leomon had completely compromised his systems. The man in the armor was screaming, clawing at his helmet, trying to shut down the suit manually.
Leomon phased back out, solidifying beside me. "I've got access to more than just this ship's systems," he said, eyes glowing. "I've traced the network connection. I'm hacking into Sublime's personal servers."
Sublime's hologram went perfectly still.
"What did you just say?"
"I'm IN," Leomon growled. "Every file. Every record. Every hidden facility. I'm downloading it all. And I'm tracking you."
For the first time, I saw genuine fear on Sublime's face.
"No. No, that's impossible. My systems are—"
"Compromised," Leomon finished. "I can see your location. I can see everything."
Sublime's composure shattered completely. "You... you're just a program! A toy! You can't—"
"I'm a Digimon," Leomon corrected coldly. "Digital Monster. I exist in the space between your data. And right now, I'm going to make sure everyone knows exactly what you've done."
Sublime's face contorted with rage. "You've ruined YEARS of work! YEARS! Do you have any idea what I've sacrificed?! What I've built?!"
"Yeah," I rasped, finally managing to stand with Leomon's help. "A house of horrors built on the bodies of children. Hope it was worth it."
Sublime was breathing hard now, his hologram flickering erratically. "Fine. FINE! You want to play hero? I've gathered everything I need anyway. Combat data. Power analysis. Mutation catalysts. This was always going to be a temporary facility."
His face twisted into a rictus of madness.
"If I can't have my research, then nobody can. Failsafe omega, ACTIVATE!"
Alarms blared. A new countdown appeared on the walls:
FACILITY SELF-DESTRUCT INITIATED. DETONATION IN 5:00
"Leomon!" I shouted.
"Already on it!" He was back in digital form, diving into the ship's systems. "There are explosive charges throughout the entire facility! I'm trying to disarm them, but—"
"But there's too many," Sublime laughed, his voice growing distant. "Even your digital pet can't save you now. Enjoy the blast, heroes. Consider it my parting gift."
"I can track him!" Leomon called out. "I've got his location locked! I can—"
Sublime's face filled with panic. Real, genuine panic. "Wait. Wait, you can't—"
"I've got you," Leomon said triumphantly. "He is holed up somewhere in Nova Scotia."
"NO!"
Sublime's hands flew across controls we couldn't see. "Delete! Delete! PURGE ALL SYSTEMS!"
"He's wiping everything!" Leomon sounded frustrated. "Damn it, he's purging his entire network! I managed to download most of his research data, but his personal information—"
Sublime's hologram was degrading, breaking up into pixels. "You haven't won! This changes NOTHING! I'll rebuild! I always rebuild! You can't stop progress! You can't stop EVOLUTION!"
The hologram flickered one last time, Sublime's face frozen in a mask of impotent rage, before cutting out entirely.
4:30
"Leomon, forget Sublime! Can you stop the bombs?!"
"Not all of them! There are redundant triggers! I can disarm maybe half, but the rest—"
"Then we evacuate! NOW!"
I turned to Spider-Man, who was groggily getting to his feet. "Peter! Danny! Matt! We need to get these kids out of here!"
Spider-Man shook his head, trying to clear the fog of mind control. "How many—"
"Five hundred," I said. "Give or take. Can you move?"
He tested his limbs. "Yeah. Yeah, I think so. But AJ—"
That's when my body decided it had had enough.
My legs gave out. I collapsed, Clarent clattering from my grip. Leomon caught me before I hit the ground, but I could feel it the paralysis creeping through my limbs. All the damage I'd taken, all the powers I'd burned through, everything catching up at once.
Efficient Mode had let me push further than I should have. Now I was paying the price.
"AJ!" Leomon lowered me carefully. "Stay with me!"
"Can't... move," I gasped. My fingers wouldn't respond. My legs were dead weight. Only my head still worked, and barely. "Get them out. The kids. Get them out."
"We're not leaving you!" Spider-Man limped over, still weak but functional. "We'll carry you!"
3:45
"No time," I coughed, tasting blood. "Kids first. Always... always kids first."
Spider-Man POV
I looked down at Vigil—at AJ—and felt something break inside me.
This kid. This scared, transplanted kid from another world who'd been thrown into a nightmare and decided to fight anyway. Who'd taken a beating that would have killed most people twice over. Who'd unleashed powers he'd been terrified of just to save children he'd never met.
He was paralyzed. Maybe permanently. And he was telling us to leave him.
"Like hell," I muttered.
"Peter," Daredevil's voice was strained. He could hear the bombs now, all of them, ticking down. "He's right. We can't carry him and the children. We have to choose."
"Then we make multiple trips!"
"There's no time!" Danny was already moving toward the nearest cluster of freed children, gathering them up. "We need to move NOW!"
Around us, the mutated children were crying, stumbling, clinging to each other. So many of them. Too many.
Leomon stood, his massive sword manifesting in his hands. "I'll carry AJ. You three get the children to the loading deck. I saw lifeboats there earlier."
"Can you carry him and fight if we run into more guards?" Daredevil asked.
Leomon's jaw clenched. "I'll manage."
We didn't have time to argue. We split up, each of us gathering as many children as we could carry, leading the ones who could walk. They were scared, confused, some of them barely conscious from the cryo-sleep.
3:00
I web-slung through the corridors, a child under each arm and five more clinging to web-lines I'd attached to them like a demented train. Behind me, I could hear Danny and Matt doing the same, their voices calm and soothing even as alarms blared around us.
"It's okay," I told the kids. "We've got you. You're safe now. Just hold on a little longer."
The girl with wings the one who'd asked AJ if he was an angel clung to my back. "Is the scary man going to be okay?" she asked in a small voice.
I thought about AJ, paralyzed and being carried by his partner. About how he'd laughed in the face of death. About how he'd unleashed something terrifying just to save them.
"Yeah," I said, swallowing past the lump in my throat. "Yeah, he's going to be fine."
2:30
We burst onto the loading deck. The harbor was visible below, dark water churned by wind and rain. Luke Cage was there, battered and bloody but standing, surrounded by unconscious guards.
"About time!" he bellowed. "I was starting to think what the hell?!"
He saw the children. Hundreds of them, pouring out of the corridors. Mutated, scared, traumatized. His expression shifted from surprise to horror to rage in the span of a heartbeat.
"Sublime," I said simply. It was all I needed to say.
Luke's jaw clenched so hard I heard his teeth grind. Then he was moving, helping us load children onto the lifeboats we'd found. Emergency vessels, designed for evacuations, each one capable of holding fifty people.
2:00
"Not enough boats!" Danny shouted. "We need at least ten, we only have six!"
"Then we make multiple trips!" I started lowering the first boat. "Get as many as possible on this first wave!"
Leomon emerged from a corridor, AJ cradled in his arms. The kid was still conscious, but barely. His eyes tracked our movements, but his body was completely limp.
"The bombs?" I asked.
"I disarmed about half," Leomon said grimly. "But the other half are hardwired. When they go off, they'll trigger a chain reaction with the Kick storage vats. This whole ship is going to turn into a fireball."
1:30
We worked frantically. Every second counted. Children into boats, boats lowered to the water, Coast Guard vessels approaching in the distance someone had finally noticed the chaos.
I was loading the last boat when I realized we had a problem.
There were still twenty kids left on the deck. And only one boat.
And less than a minute.
"Get them on!" Luke roared. "Now!"
We crammed them in, far over capacity, but they'd float. They'd survive.
"Go!" I shouted to the kids, hitting the release. The boat dropped toward the water.
0:45
"Everyone off the ship!" Daredevil commanded. "Jump! The Coast Guard will pick us up!"
The last few children who could still walk stumbled to the edge. Matt and Danny helped them over, following them down into the dark water below.
Luke grabbed Leomon and AJ. "You're coming too!"
"Wait!" I webbed onto a catwalk. "The Controller! The U-Foes! They're still in there!"
"Leave them!" Danny called from below. "They made their choice!"
But I couldn't. Even after everything, even knowing what they'd done, I couldn't just let them die.
I swung back into the ship, ignoring the protests behind me.
0:30
I found them in the factory floor, still unconscious or incapacitated. Vector was trying to crawl toward an exit. Ironclad was sparking, his systems fried. X-Ray and Vapor were barely holding their forms.
The Controller was on his knees, his armor smoking, completely shut down by Leomon's digital assault.
"Come on!" I grabbed Vector's arm, started dragging him. "Move!"
"Why?" he gasped. "Why help us?"
"Because that's what heroes do!" I webbed Ironclad, started pulling him too. "Now MOVE unless you want to be vaporized!"
They stumbled after me, using the last of their strength to reach the loading deck.
0:15
We burst out into the rain. The others were already in the water below. I grabbed the villains, webbed them together, and jumped.
0:10
We hit the water. The cold was shocking, but I held on, swimming away from the ship as fast as I could with my bundle of super-villains in tow.
0:05
I heard sirens in the distance. Police boats. Fire department. The Coast Guard closing in.
0:00
The ship exploded.
It wasn't one blast it was a cascade. The bombs detonated, triggering the Kick storage. The factory floor went up like a green sun, the chemicals igniting in a reaction that turned night into day.
The shockwave caught us in the water, rolling us like leaves in a storm. The heat was intense even at this distance. I pulled the villains close, webbed us all together to keep from being separated, and held on.
The ship's skeleton, that massive leviathan of metal and horror, collapsed in on itself. Fire and water and twisted metal, all consuming each other in a death spiral.
And then it was gone. Sinking into the harbor, taking Sublime's research, his factory, his crimes down into the dark.
I treaded water, surrounded by debris and exhausted heroes and scared children and defeated villains. In the distance, boats were approaching, searchlights cutting through the rain.
I looked around for AJ Vigil and spotted him. Leomon had him, keeping his head above water, but the kid was unconscious now. Used everything he had and then some.
Danny swam over, Iron Fist's glow fading as he released his chi. "Is he—"
"Alive," Leomon confirmed. "But badly hurt. He needs a hospital. Now."
Matt was helping children onto the first Coast Guard boat that reached us, his face grim. "They all need hospitals. Medical care. Therapy. Years of it."
Luke pulled himself onto a floating piece of debris, several kids clinging to him. "What they need is justice. Sublime might have escaped, but we got his data, right? The files?"
Leomon nodded. "Everything. Names, locations, financial records, experimental logs. Enough to bring down his entire network."
"Good," Luke's voice was granite. "Because this doesn't end here. We're going to find every facility, free every victim, and drag every bastard involved into the light."
I looked at the children around us. At the genetic horrors Sublime had inflicted on them. At the fear and pain in their eyes.
And I thought about Vigil. About how he'd seen this darkness and decided to fight it, even when it nearly killed him. About how he'd held back his power out of fear, but released it when it mattered most.
The world was cruel. Crueler than most people realized. There were monsters like Sublime lurking in the shadows, building empires on suffering.
But there were also people willing to stand against them.
People like Vigil, who fought because it was right even when it was terrifying.
People like Iron Fist, who brought discipline and honor to the fight.
People like Daredevil, who refused to let evil hide in the darkness he lived in.
People like Luke Cage, who stood as an unbreakable wall between the innocent and those who'd harm them.
And yeah, people like me. The friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, trying to do what's right even when the web gets tangled.
We couldn't stop all the darkness. Couldn't save everyone. But we could stand in the gap. We could be the shield between the cruel world and those who needed protecting.
I looked at Vigil, unconscious in Leomon's arms, and made a silent promise:
We'll carry this forward. What you started tonight, we'll finish. Every child freed, every monster brought down. We won't let your sacrifice be for nothing.
The first police boat reached us, and officers began helping children aboard. Emergency blankets appeared, warm hands reaching out, voices calling for medical personnel.
"Spider-Man!" an officer called. "We need statements! What happened here?!"
I looked at the burning wreckage of the ship, slowly sinking beneath the waves.
"Justice," I said simply. "Justice happened."
The sirens grew louder. More boats arrived. The harbor filled with rescue vessels, all converging on our location.
And as I helped pull one more scared, mutated child to safety, I thought:
This is what heroes do. We stand up. We fight. We protect.
Even when the world gets dark.
Especially then.
Behind us, the Leviathan took its final plunge into the depths, carrying its secrets down with it.
But we had the data. We had the evidence. And we had five hundred living witnesses to Sublime's crimes.
The war wasn't over.
But tonight, we'd won a battle.
And sometimes, that has to be enough.