"The body shows no visible reaction to the treatment. Monitor for the next 24 hours."
Yuiko watched as Ms. Rachel began to leave the room. "Where are you going?"
"Other matters need my attention," she replied. "I will be back to check on his progress very soon."
Once she left, Yuiko approached the pod, and for the slightest moment, she thought she saw an eye move.
Meanwhile…
"Don't run, children!"
Justice dragged Eclipse through the cell blocks as Axel clawed the walls behind them. "Face me, cubs!"
"Why are we running?" Eclipse protested.
"Because he's tearing this place apart! Look, the prisoners are escaping!"
He pointed to the cells, where the doors were now open as inmates jumped out of them.
"Freedom!"
"Let's get outta here!"
"Finally!"
Axel slammed into a wall near the duo, forcing Justice to jump to the second floor. Eclipse looked at him, expectantly. "Well? What's your Plan B?"
"Plan B? I didn't have a Plan A!"
"What kind of leader ARE you?"
Axel ripped a pillar off its supports, tossing it at them. Justice sliced it in half with his sword. "Come down. Cowering is beneath you."
"Exactly," Eclipse agreed. "The only way out of this is to fight. So let's fight!"
Justice sighed. "Fine!"
He threw his sword at the ceiling above Axel, causing the roof to collapse on him. As soon as Justice dropped down to the first floor, Axel punched right through the rubble.
"A clever trick."
He dug his claws into the ground and pulled it up, shaking the entire area and causing more pillars to break. "But this hunt…is over."
BOOM.
All three of them paused when they heard a loud noise in the distance, followed by the alarms ringing. "Alert! Alert! Evacuate the building, ASAP! Alert, Alert! Evacuate the building, ASAP!"
"Shit," Axel realized. "We've been compromised."
He pointed a sharp claw at Justice. "I'll be back for you, kitten."
As quick as a tiger, he was gone. Eclipse landed on the ground. "What a softie. I didn't even get to trim that cat."
A black and green tendril carved through the walls, knocking Justice and Eclipse over.
"Hey, that's Kumiko!" Justice realized. "We've gotta follow that cat!"
He grabbed her arm and dragged her in the direction that Axel ran, stopping in front of the door to the laboratory.
"Why would your friend be in a lab?" Eclipse questioned.
"No clue. No time to find out!"
He raced through the door, and Eclipse followed him.
On the other side…
Kita and the Doctor continued their clash, with the Doctor picking up bookshelves to throw at the boy. "I hate to waste such good material, but you've got to make sacrifices!"
He swung a bookshelf like an axe, hitting Kita dead on in the chest and knocking him to the ground. "Sorry! No hard feelings!"
Kita slowly got up, evading the next swing. "Hmm! He has no proper control over his accuracy! He's like a wild animal!"
Kita evaded his next attack, watching for the slight movements in his arms. "There!"
He jumped onto the bookshelf and delivered a punch to the Doctor's face, causing him to stumble back and crash into a row of bookshelves, which fell onto him. "Oof!"
"I win!" Kita cheered.
The Doctor struggled to get up, collapsing on the floor. "Congratulations, kid…ahh this hurts so bad."
He managed to crawl out from under the bookshelf, coughing. "My wife is NOT gonna be happy."
"You're correct."
A pair of heels stepped in front of him as he looked up to find the Nurse looking down on him with an unimpressed look.
"You've failed me, Hiroshi," she mocked. "What a waste of my time."
She pressed her heel into his hand, making him wince. He gritted his teeth. "Honey, listen! I've done everything you've wanted ever since we attained our powers! Are you really going to kill me for one tiny slip-up?"
"No," she answered. "I'm not."
He sighed a breath of relief, but he heard footsteps coming from outside. "My superior will."
"No…no…!"
The footsteps got closer and closer until a young woman in a black coat and black and red outfit walked into the room, her eyes an eerie red. The Nurse bowed as soon as she saw her, and Hiroshi's eyes went wide.
"Oh, no! Please, have mercy!"
Without hesitation, she fired a powerful heat beam from her eyes, but Kita grabbed Hiroshi, pulling him out of the way.
"You saved me!"
The beam completely obliterated the floor where he stood, and the woman turned around.
"He's one of those heroes," Rachel informed her. "Team Zero."
Kita jumped back and forth, a smile on his face. "Another villain! Yes!"
Hiroshi grabbed his arm. "No, kid! Don't engage, she's far too dangerous! She's one of the Legion, she'll kill you!"
"Okay!"
Kita swung a punch at the woman's face, but it phased right through her, and so did he, tumbling to the floor.
"Wow! I missed!"
Her head slowly turned around, and she fired another beam at him, which he stumbled away from.
"More than one power!" Kita realized. "Time to go!"
He grabbed Hiroshi and immediately took off as the two women watched. Rachel turned to her superior.
"Madam, what would you like to do about them?"
She remained silent for a long time. "Nothing. They don't matter."
They both took in the damaged library, before the woman phased through the ground, disappearing.
"Not very chatty, is she?" Rachel remarked. "That's to be expected."
BOOM.
The entire library shook, causing Ms. Rachel to fall to the ground. "Such damage! That can only mean one thing!"
She hurried on her heels to the exit. "The prisoner is loose!"
Inside the Observatory…
"Get her!"
Villains charged at Xenova, who used her tendrils to send them all flying. Neon watched as his subordinates got taken down one by one.
"Her power is off the charts," Neon noted. "Is she like the Boss?"
Jin fired laser after laser at Xenova, who put her tendrils together and formed a durable exoskeleton from them, acting as a shield.
"I've got a bone to pick with your buddy!" Jin shouted. "He'll pay for what he did to me!"
"He should have taken the other arm," Xenova said.
"Argh!"
A powerful laser shot out from his hand, but she sidestepped it and slammed him into the wall with one of her tendrils, just as Fujio came swinging at her.
"You again!" she remembered. "Hello!"
She blocked his blows with her forearms, the force shaking the observatory as Neon watched.
"Zap time!" Keisuke announced, sending a lightning bolt her way.
Xenova used a pair of tendrils to grab the ceiling and vault over the attack, which hit Fujio and dropped him to the floor. She swung forward and used her momentum to kick Keisuke in the gut, causing him to double over.
Neon clapped. "Your skills have been understated. You are no mere sidekick."
She landed on the ground. "It's your turn to get your butt kicked!"
His harness glowed. "I like the confidence. But that's about as far as you'll get."
She lunged at him and he used his powers to blow the top half of her body off, which began to reform. "Stop doing that!"
She tried to kick him and he used neon energy to blast off her leg, pushing her back with a concentrated blast of neon energy.
"Grr, you're strong," she admitted. "But not strong enough!"
A swarm of tendrils emerged from her back and attacked Neon repeatedly, forcing him to destroy them with a channeled blast of neon.
"I told you," Neon warned. "This battle will not go well."
Another tendril tried to stab him, and he destroyed it easily. With a burst of neon energy, he was in front of Xenova, blasting her to the ground.
"You should have stayed in your cell—-"
He noticed drops of blood falling from his body, and then he saw he had been pierced in various limbs by dark green spikes, which came from Xenova's body.
"Another ability…" he mumbled. "How unexpected."
He broke free of the spikes and backed away, breathing hard. Xenova got up, her spikes retreating. "How's that? I told you I was going to beat you silly!"
She grabbed him with a tendril, but a claw slashed it to pieces, and she saw a massive body blocking her from Neon.
"Axel," Neon greeted.
Axel sniffed Neon. "You've taken quite the brutal injuries, Master Neon. This girl must be stronger than we imagined."
"She adapts and counters extremely well," Neon explained. "Her survivability is inhuman."
Justice and Eclipse burst in through one wall, while Serratine came in from the opposite door.
"Looks like a party," Neon commented. "Too bad we didn't bring sweets."
Serratine quickly hurried to Neon. "Master Neon! Are you okay?"
"I'll live, Serratine," he assured. "We must escape this place."
Justice pointed his sword at the villains. "What happened to not running? Don't try and get away now!"
Axel carried Neon on his back and used his other arm to pick up Serratine. Neon glanced down at Justice. "The original hero himself. Sorry, but I can't stay. I have to be around for the Boss's transformation. Until next time."
Neon looked at the downed villains. "Leave the expendables. We'll rebuild from scratch, with the Legion as the head."
Axel formed a portal and escaped just as Justice appeared next to him. "Damn, let the villains escape again! That's terrible news for my PR."
Xenova noticed Justice. "Mykhail?"
He immediately turned toward her. "Kumiko!"
She threw him into a hug. "Wow, you really came for me?"
"Well, yeah, of course."
He noticed the unconscious villains. "Doesn't seem like you needed it, though."
She giggled. "Yep! They were super easy to beat! Did you have a hard time…"
She noticed Eclipse behind him.
"…getting here?"
"Oh crap," Justice realized.
Meanwhile…
Kita helped Hiroshi back above ground, where he laid the man on a nearby wall.
"Thank you, Kita," Hiroshi praised. "You are a good person."
He sat up. "I assume you came here with Justice?"
Kita nodded. "And Eclipse!"
"Who's Eclipse?"
"Our newest member!"
"Where do you find powerful recruits?" Hiroshi asked. "My wife has been searching tirelessly for even one strong enough to be a Legionary."
"Like that girl who tried to kill you?" Yasuda recalled. "She was strong!"
"Yes, she was. They call her Inferno."
"Because of her heat vision?"
"Yes. One beam is enough to kill an army."
"Sounds cool!" Kita laughed.
"Where is the rest of your team?" Hiroshi wondered. "Now that I'm surely marked for death by the Syndicate, I think it's best I share some information with you all."
"I'm sure they'll be here soon!"
BOOM.
The entire street collapsed, with an army of shadows fending off a barrage of tendrils. Kita pointed. "There they are!"
"What the hell?" Hiroshi gasped.
Justice jumped out of the hole. "Hey, stop it, you two!"
Kita watched as Xenova and Eclipse battled in mid-air, destroying buildings in their wake. Justice flew into the air, grabbing Xenova and pulling her to the ground. "No more fighting, Kumiko!"
He glared at Eclipse. "You too, Kaori!"
"Why is she here?" Xenova demanded. "Why? Is she here to replace me? What is the meaning of this, Mykhail?"
"Erm, well…"
Eclipse landed on the ground, dispelling her shadows. "Replace? More like surpassed you. Compare me to yourself. You're not even needed. The fact you think I'm a mere replacement for you is asinine."
"I'll make you eat those words!"
Justice got in between them. "No one's replacing anyone! You guys are just teammates! That's all! Isn't that great? Two super-strong women working together! Right?"
"Fight me to the death," Eclipse challenged.
"Okay," Xenova agreed. "Attack me!"
Justice slapped his forehead. As he did, he saw Kita with Hiroshi. "Kita! You made it out! Who's that guy?"
"He's a doctor!" Kita introduced. "I found him in the base! He wants to help, since his wife tried to kill him!"
"Talk about relationship problems," Justice remarked. "Well, we should clear this street before the cops come."
He glared at Xenova and Eclipse, who were swinging arms at each other. "That means you girls too!"
They both shot him a glance before continuing to swing at each other.
"Kita, meet at my house in ten."
"Okay!"
In a lab…
Yuiko hummed to herself as she tapped on a computer. "Status, still inactive. Finalizing report for the day."
She left the lab, heading into her office to grab a cup of coffee. "I wonder when Mr. Sato will return. Why would he ally with the Villain Syndicate is beyond me."
As she sipped her coffee, she heard a noise coming from the lab, and an alert sounded.
"Laboratory compromised. Laboratory compromised."
She dropped her coffee and grabbed a nearby gun, hurrying back into the lab. "Intruder, halt!"
She searched the lab for any trace of a break-in, and once she got to the pod, she found it open…
…and a boy was standing in front of it. Yuiko dropped her gun.
"Impossible…"
The boy's eyes darted around before settling on the woman.
"Yuiko?"
—-