Bliss took a deep breath as he faced the machine. After all his talk about freeing him, Onder was now forcing him into another cage. His stare lingered longer than he would like to admit. He didn’t think this choice would hurt this much. His reaction was not lost on Onder, who had carefully set Lunai on the ground.

  “I’m sorry it’s a cage.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “I didn’t want that, but it had to be something that you wouldn’t fall out of or drop.”

  Bliss didn’t answer. For once his silence wasn’t strategy. Something inside him screamed at him to run. He felt fluttering inside of his empty chest. His head was pounding. A voice slammed itself against the sides of his head. It was deafening. It was demanding. It was consuming him.

  It was perfect.

  He couldn’t distinguish fear from excitement. As he stepped forward, a sickening smile curled on his face. He thanked the stars that his back was turned to the crowd. He knew the aftermath would be horrible. He knew he’d have to escape from his brother’s protection when he woke up. He could deal with that later. Right now, he reveled in the thought of having just a few hours away from his mind. His feet marched forward and the door closed behind him.

  Piercing screams rang throughout the main hall. Bliss stood up as he felt surges of electricity burning his skin apart. His nervous system was the only functioning part of his physical body. He could feel every second of pain. It broke through skin to fat and fascia, then down to the muscles and viscera. The damage healed at the surface as the current went deeper, penetrating his flesh in waves. His nerves fired rapidly, overwhelmed by the electric current combined with the damage to his body.

  Lunai started to move towards him, but she felt a hand on her shoulder. Argalax pulled her back away from the stage. She struggled against him as he wrapped her in a metal bear hug.

  “BLISS!” She screamed helplessly. “LET HIM GO YOU MONSTER!”

  Onder turned away from her. He started muttering to himself, pleading for Bliss to fall asleep quickly.

  “Don’t fight it, Mtsi. Just sleep; sleep and then we can go home.”

  Bliss’s mind was on fire. Thoughts bursted in and out of his head, not one of them staying long enough to be heard. He felt alive. He felt real. He wasn’t fighting the current, but he was following it so well that his peace would be delayed.

  The audience did not share his enthusiasm. Many were hiding under tables with their ears covered. Heroes at the front tried to put on a brave face, holding the line between the civilians and Armageddon. The cameras were still running. The torture of the galaxy’s favorite human was being broadcast to millions of planets. Lunai was reduced to a sobbing mess on the floor. Onder wanted nothing more than to collapse in tears as well, but he had to remain tall.

  The racing thoughts started to dim. Bliss’s body had sustained a massive amount of damage within five minutes. When he fell backwards the cage caught his back as designed. The current continued to run through him as he slowly slid to the ground. The world was darkening around him. He stopped registering the screams within his head. Pain was once again replaced by an empty void. Panic set in as the reality of his situation dawned on him. He was not in control. His body moved without his permission.

  The air just outside the cage swirled and started to crack. The break grew until it spanned the size of the cage. The new void heated up, generating sparking lights and a screeching sound. The intensity of the scream accelerated until it was replaced by the soft thud of a body hitting the ground. In front of the void lay Entropi, arms out in front of her. The void closed up, its purpose was complete.

  As the current continued to run through Bliss, Entropi started to stir. She pushed herself up slowly, appearing unsteady on her feet. She wobbled around for a few seconds while scanning the room. Her helmet bobbed around awkwardly. The crowd started cheering for her. Various voices rang out in support.

  “Entropi! Entropi’s here!”

  “She’s gonna kill Armageddon!”

  “Entropi, you have to help Bliss!”

  Entropi could barely make out the words. She felt dizzy and her vision was blurry. She heard the faint hum of electricity behind her and could see the figure of a massive humanoid. She tried to touch her face, but her helmet was still there. She leaned over and tried to steady herself.

  Onder knew the threat before him. The woman Reu warned him about had finally made an appearance, stumbling like a fool right in front of him. This was an opportunity granted by fate, a chance given to him to remove the obstacles between him and his brother. He took two steps forward, the woman still getting her bearings. Now standing over her he raised one fist. The puny woman looked soft and fleshy, easy to crush in one blow. Just as he was ready to strike, a whimper from the cage stopped him in his tracks.

  “En-Entropi?”

  Bliss could barely squeak the words out. They sounded soft and pathetic, like a child begging for his mother. As embarrassing as it was, the words saved them both. Entropi’s eyes suddenly widened as she turned to see Bliss. He was now sitting on the ground of the cage with his back against the bars. Barely awake, electricity continued to devour his body. He looked completely helpless. It was the trigger Entropi needed.

  Her back straightened and she now stood tall. Her vision cleared as the stress hormones in her body battled her intoxication. She could now make out the monster in front of her. His fist was already moving towards her. A black box formed between them, catching the impact. Onder’s fist struggled in the space, able to move but incredibly slow.

  His fist came out the other end of the box with no momentum, swinging back to his side harmlessly. Entropi’s face was concealed by her helmet, but her rage was palpable. She moved her hand and a sheet of darkness cut through the top of the cage, slicing through its generator and cutting off the current. Bliss’s body properly repaired itself as he lay half-awake.

  “You messed with the wrong fucking kid.”

  Her voice was calm and definitive. She sounded as if she were in a movie. The crowd swooned in awe and relief. A cinematic display from Entropi was a rare treat. Onder opened his mouth to respond, but a black box surrounded his entire body before he could get the words out. He started feeling the crush of gravity on his scales as he was pushed to the floor. He steadied his legs and pushed back against the force, moving each foot slowly towards the edge of the box.

  Entropi increased the gravity of the zone in response, but the man kept moving. Keeping the zone active started to make her sweat. The box was dropped with a huff of air from her. Trying to crush her enemy with gravity would take a risky amount of stamina. She was ready to try her second-line attack, forming another black box around him. Armageddon felt slightly warm inside.

  “Entropi, temperature… won’t work. Sun serpent.” Bliss barely managed to choke the words out.

  Entropi knew what a sun serpent was and the man before her did not look like one. They were large enough to serve as a celestial body in a solar system. Armageddon was large, but not by cosmic scales. Confused yet intrigued, Entropi made a mental note to study him later when captured.

  “Looks like we’ll be doing this the old-fashioned way.”

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Entropi charged up into the air and landed in the center of his chest, her fist coated in a black casing. The force managed to push him back a few feet, but he remained standing. He ran back towards her with his fist pulled back. She dove into the air with her hands together above her head. Her black zone returned around her in the shape of a pyramid, with the sharp tip right around her hands. When they met in the center of the room, he moved his fist under her body to impact her stomach.

  He only met the same resistance he did before, making a forceful punch impossible. Entropi slammed right into his shoulder. She hoped to plow right through the man and leave a nasty hole, but she only managed to dig about one inch into his skin. Her force sent him flying back towards the wall with her stuck to his shoulder. They crashed through and found themselves outside. Sirens flared in the background telling citizens to evacuate the area.

  With Armageddon just outside, the heroes raced to get the guests to safety. They were gathered up on colorful panels of light that safely lifted them away. Queen Nebula flew into the air and brought the guests with her to escape the district. Lunai and Argalax ran to Bliss in the cage. Argalax pried the metal bars away and Bliss slumped forward.

  Lunai tried to speak through her tears. She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Bliss, are you ok? We can find a healing light and-“

  “NO!” He pushed her arm away. “No healing! No…” He took a few deep breaths to steady himself. “I’m not hurt, just tired. I need to join Entropi and get those two off the planet.”

  He pushed himself off the ground and moved towards the hole in the wall. Lunai and Argalax followed, not to stop him, but to assist in moving the fight. They activated their hero suits to prepare for an ascent into space. Entropi had circled Armageddon in a low gravity zone, bringing them both away from the planet’s surface. Armageddon thrashed around trying to escape, but the zone moved to follow him. Entropi kept moving out of his range every time he tried to strike her. Bliss’s team exited the building and saw the two fighters elevating.

  They all followed, with Bliss flying noticeably slower than he usually did. Once Entropi noticed he was following, she nodded at him and accelerated their ascent. Armageddon activated his spacesuit as they left the atmosphere.

  Entropi released the low gravity zone once space could do the work for her. Armageddon’s suit was now set to help him navigate the gravity of space. Hollybrook and Platinum Promise followed Bliss as he inched closer, but he put a hand up telling them to stay put. They hovered on the sidelines as he took his place next to Entropi.

  “It’s not too late.” He said to Armageddon, confusing Entropi. “You can still make the right choice.

  “Mtsi, I’m only going to say this once. You don’t know what’s right. In your mind,you’re still a child that never got to grow up. You run to your abusers because you’re scared of something better; you think you don’t deserve it. You can say your past doesn’t define you, but it’ll be your future if you stay here. I will make the difficult decisions that you don’t have the maturity for, even if you hate me for it.”

  Bliss scoffed. “Okay. I was conflicted before, but now I really want to fucking kill you.”

  At this point, it was clear to Entropi that Armageddon had some sort of relationship with Bliss. She was at least 98% sure that he wasn’t trying to bring him to human traffickers or void siren poachers. Regardless, she did not care who he was to Bliss. He put him in a cage and tortured him. She would end his genocidal tirade right now for that reason alone.

  Bliss stomped on the space in front of him and formed a crack leading to Armageddon. Entropi surrounded the void with her own powers. The void stretched up and out with the help of Entropi’s zone, which fostered the crack’s growth by increasing gravity and temperature. The severing of reality was a reaction that responded perfectly to the system Entropi provided. Armageddon advanced towards them as the void lurched up for his feet. He was faster than he looked, aptly weaving through the rising arms of the shadowy valley rippling below. The distance between him and Bliss closed quickly.

  He reached his hand out as if to grip his entire face. “You were seconds away from rest. Just a little more pain and I can get you out of here.”

  Entropi jerked her arm up and a wall emerged from the valley that completely blocked Bliss. Armageddon’s arm went through it and latched on anyway. His arm started to spasm within the void, but his hand remained attached to Bliss’s face. He yanked on him and dragged him through the wall. He gripped Bliss’s shoulders aggressively and brought his knee to his brother’s stomach. Bliss curled in on himself and coughed up blood. His body once again began to repair the damage as Armageddon held on tight. He checked his own arm, completely mangled from remaining in the void.

  Entropi noticed this as well, creating dense sheets of darkness over the injured arm. They managed to peel away at the already damaged scales, exposing a much softer tissue underneath. The arm of his suit was also destroyed, meaning his teleportation device was out of commission.

  Bliss lay motionless in front of him. He used the mangled arm to gently hold him against his chest. He needed to use his good arm to finish the fight against Entropi. He wasn’t in it to win anymore; his only goal was leaving with Bliss. With the siren now unconscious, the void beneath him slowly closed up. Entropi flew back towards him in a rage, using her powers to increase the force of her blows. She aimed for the exposed flesh with sharpened jabs. The pointed force penetrated deeper into the muscle.

  Armageddon grabbed her back and threw her backwards. She flipped through the air and bounced off of a panel she created for herself, pushing right back against the injured arm. Despite the searing pain shooting down his shoulder, Armageddon’s grip on Bliss remained strong.

  Hollybrook and Platinum Promise were stuck on the sidelines, barely able to see what was happening. They could make out Entropi’s focus on Armageddon’s arm and Bliss’s capture. Hollybrook bit her lip and held herself back from jumping in. She grabbed one of her eyes and threw it towards the battle.

  It stopped just close enough for her to see that the scales of Armageddon’s right arm were shucked off. She opened her mouth and her breath stood still. The pause was long enough to prompt a low oxygen warning from her spacesuit. Platinum Promise turned to check on her, but she was already barreling towards Armageddon.

  “Hollybrook, wait!” He shouted in their communication, but he couldn’t bring himself to chase after her. He knew he would only make things worse.

  Hollybrook was moving as fast as her suit could. In order to help, she needed to reach Armageddon before he noticed her. She approached from his backside while angling towards the arm. She reached one arm over her head and prepared to extend the roots at the end. Entropi had one hand jabbed into the front of his shoulder joint and one stuck in the back. He kept reaching his good arm towards her before being blocked my more walls of black energy.

  Entropi was starting to sweat, she couldn’t keep this up forever. Armageddon was a tough opponent and had messed with her emotions. She needed to calm herself to conserve stamina, but this was impossible with Bliss curled to the monster’s chest. She looked up and saw Hollybrook’s imminent approach. If she messed up now, he would surely kill the intern. As she watched Hollybrook’s arm extending further, she pushed her fingers deeper into the shoulder joint and forcibly abducted the arm.

  Hollybrook now had a clear canvas to latch onto as her hand collided with the bloody forearm. Her roots dug deep into his flesh, easily making their way through the damaged skin. She found the most superficial nerve available and followed it to the root. Armageddon roared as he started shaking his entire body. Entropi and Hollybrook held on as the roots went further back to his central nervous system.

  She screamed through her communication line to Entropi, “I don’t know where his reticular activating system is!”

  They heard Bliss coughing from Armageddon’s grasp. “He’s half-human.”

  Hollybrook needed no more information. She went for the typical placement of the human brain stem to knock him unconscious. Entropi kept him distracted with continued punches all around him, zipping in and out to draw his eyes away from Hollybrook. Armageddon screamed in pain as he tried to swat at Entropi. His body froze up once Hollybrook reached the brain stem. Bliss was released from his arm as he slumped forward in space. His body floated aimlessly. Entropi immediately apprehended him with strength-limiting cuffs from the GSA. Hollybrook caught Bliss, his eyes barely open.

  Entropi opened a communication line with the agency. “Entropi reporting in. We’ve defeated Armageddon. I’m with Bliss and his two interns. Send secure transport immediately for the prisoner.”

  “Entropi, you finally made it” Dr. Crux’s voice rang in her head. “Where were you for the gala? I got crushed and agent Surfrista was killed. We were counting on you to be available if Armageddon targeted Bliss again. The gala was a publicized event and there was a very real chance he'd attack since he already had his sights on him.”

  “I… I’ll explain later. I don’t really know what happened myself. It was supposed to be just one beer…”

  Bliss suddenly sprang up. “JUST ONE BEER? Are you telling me that you went and got drunk while I was being auctioned to the scum of the galaxy? You didn’t care to make sure nothing went wrong?”

  He tried to continue but started coughing again. Entropi took him from Hollybrook and hugged him tight. There was much more to be said, but that could wait for another day. He was safe and that was all she cared about. His words confirmed to her that he needed her. He expected her help that day. When he was in trouble, he brought her there with his powers. It made Entropi feel soft and strong at the same time, like she was the only person he trusted to save him. It was the type of paradox that came with knowing Bliss, or with being a mother, she wasn’t sure which one. That was going to be a problem.