"I am Vesuvius."

Arbiter and I continue our midair grapple as we fall. His punches don't hurt, but God damn it they are fucking annoying. Nobody would probably say I should try and figure out how Arbiter's power works, but I don't need to know what he can do to beat his ass. He slugs me in my jaw, and I accidentally bite my tongue. Motherfucker! I bat his arm away and grab him. The invisible force seems to absorb my punches, but if his pained grimace is any indication, they are doing something. I see the rapidly approaching street behind him and use my grip on him to throw him to the ground. He collides with the concrete, creating cracks that snake out from the impact site, and sending the few vehicles on the road tumbling away with the force. Not enough. He needs to be taught a lesson. I put my legs together and put my arms at my sides. My fall accelerates, and my boots collide with Arbiter. The shockwave from the force shatters every piece of glass and utterly destroys the street beneath us. The ground opens up like a sinkhole, swallowing everything into the sewers below.

We fall, along with large pieces of concrete, cars, and pieces of buildings. I fucked up. I just have to hope that there aren't any casualties. I land on my back with a few chunks of road hitting me. I brush the dust off my shoulders and kick off the ground. Searching through the rubble I find the little asshole. Arbiter looks terrible. The cloth around his eyes is soaked in sweat and blood. The red liquid drips from his ears, nose, and lips. Still, he gets up, floating to face me again. He may be an ass, but he's not a quitter. This should be enough time for them to get Nobody back to the base. I dash at him, twisting my body, and slamming my leg into his left side. Arbiter crashes through the brick wall, body rolling through the murky brown water.

"Give up. You aren't strong enough to judge me," I said.

"Fuck you," Arbiter said, spitting out a glob of blood.

"I can do this all night; you can't. I'm not trying to kill you, but you're in rough shape. So why don't we stop, and you can see a doctor? Or we can continue, and you can meet the coroner," I said.

"Get away from him!"

I turn toward the sound and see three new Capes. The one who spoke is a chubby woman with her brown hair up in a ponytail. She's wearing a pink gymnast outfit with matching running shoes and large blue gardening gloves. Elbow pads, a plastic domino mask, and a hand-stitched rainbow patchwork quilt cape complete the outfit. She's got two belts crisscrossing her waist with bulging pouches all over them. Her costume looks homemade and not in a good way. She reaches behind her back and pulls out a handful of paper shurikens. What the fuck? The shurikens cut through the air as she throws them all at me. I put my arm up to block my face. Better safe than sorry. My hunch proves right as they stick into my forearm. Brushing them off, I catch one to figure out what's going on with them. They're sharp and heavier than paper should be.

While I'm inspecting the not-paper paper, the one covered in cloth wrappings tries to get the jump on me. I step back, making her leg sweep miss, and then hit her with a roundhouse kick. I'm holding back, but she didn't expect me to move so gracefully, so the hit connects. A gold symbol briefly appears behind her, but I don't get a good look at it. Instead of flying, she only skids a few feet back. Oh, she's interesting. Another symbol appears, the same color, but with a shape that consists of two equilateral triangles overlapping slightly. It looks like an hourglass. She blitzes me, moving so fast that if I hadn't seen the blur, I would have thought she teleported. There's a new symbol I notice once she appears: a circle perfectly surrounded by a square. Her first hits me center mass, and I am blasted back. The punch hits me through eight separate walls within the maze of the sewer.

Rolling across the wet environment, I get soaked in disgusting muck. The terrible smell is made worse by the heat I give off. I touch my chest, checking for any signs of a crack. The tattered remains of my transformed hoodie are still intact, despite feeling like I got hit by an entire Quickrail. Hell yeah. The others have definitely gotten away, so I should probably get out of here. But. It's only been five or so minutes since I transformed, so I have time before this gets lethal.

I crack my neck out of habit more than a need, and run back to them. I need to know her name. The woman who hit me is clearly a fellow martial artist. She's wearing a modified gray Gi. The top is more of a trench coat than a traditional Gi top. Her feet, ankles, wrists, and hands are wrapped in gauze and tape like a boxer. Her long, silky black hair hangs behind her with a single gold clasp splitting it in half. She has a white geisha mask with gold lips and eye makeup. She honestly looks so weird, but she's got the edge to her that only real fighters have. I step through the final hole in the wall I made and see them all freeze. There's a goopy humanoid monster made of cement, bricks, and sewage, cradling Arbiter and slowly climbing out of the hole. Another challenger approaches. Leaving the spandex paper girl and the martial artist to face me.

"ShiftState, ranged support only. Pileup, get Arbiter above ground and meet up with Glow Guardian. I have a feeling we're going to need everyone for this," the martial artist said.

"Unless you have a lot more to show, then the five of you won't be enough. Listen, out of respect for you and your technique, I will give you time to make sure the civilians are evacuated. In return, I would like to know your name. I am Vesuvius," I said.

"What are you, some sort of honorable rogue type, or are you only saying that to make me let my guard down?" She asked accusingly.

"Hah. No, I just like a good fight, and I don't want you fighting me while your mind is elsewhere," I answered.

"You attacked Glow with acid and then powerbombed Arbiter through an intersection. In what world does that sound like a good fight, you bitch?" ShiftState demanded.

"Watch your language," Pileup said as he crawled out of the sewer.

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"I did not attack Glow with acid, and it wasn't a powerbomb; it was more of a diving dropkick. But a powerbomb would've been sick," I joked.

"Semantics," Shiftstate mocked.

"Not semantics, they're completely different moves. Now, you gonna tell me your name or not?" I asked.

"Sigilist," the martial artist said finally.

Sigilist, like a combination of sigil and pugilist. God damn that's a cool fucking name.

"Well, Sigilist, are you ready?" I asked, savoring the moment.

"Don't blame me if you end up regretting this. I have to avenge what your comrade did to our team and what you did to Arbiter," Sigilist warned.

"The guy thinks he's a tyrant, but is nothing more than a weak bully. Trust me, I know a tyrant and Arbiter is nobody compared to him," I smiled at my stupid little joke.

Sigilist doesn't respond as the triangle symbol from before appears behind her. Her form stretches, blurring around the edges, and then she crosses the hundred-something feet between us in a heartbeat. So that symbol is speed. Next comes the circle square that has to be strength or power. She gets low, bending her knees slightly before she springs up, attempting to hit me in the chin with an uppercut. Nope. I weave around her fist till I'm behind her, and I grab her out of the air by her waist. With my arm completely locked around her chest, I suplex her into the ground. The painful grunt she makes lets me know she switched symbols again. She switched to defense; otherwise, that would've slept her. Releasing her, I roll to the side to look at my other opponents. ShiftState is keeping her distance, but Pileup successfully gets Arbiter out of the sewer.

Sigilist picks herself off the ground. We need a scenery change, I can't really fight at my best while underground. Sigilist won't be inclined to accommodate me, but that just means I need to take away her choice. ShiftState is clearly unaugmented, so she requires a gentler hand. The Cape seems to have a lot of faith in Sigilist because she's staying as an observer, rather than a participant. Arbiter wasn't enough, Sigilist wasn't enough. I can only hope that the sum of their parts is more than the individual pieces. I've given my name, I can't run away now. Vesuvius will take no losses and run from no challengers. Sigilist rushes me. Her power is so limiting, she can only have one symbol active at a time. I feint a kick, making her cancel speed and switch to defense. She's got her arms up in a cross guard, but I turn my back on her to go after ShiftState. I make a beeline for her, and she throws more of the paper shurikens at me. I don't even bother blocking against her useless attack; I grab her quilt cape and throw her up and out of the sewer. She might break her legs from the fall, but she'll survive.

I climb out of the tunnel onto a still-intact portion of the street. The level of destruction I caused is insane. I've never fought in a place as crowded and confined as Quinstin. The epicenter of my impact is a huge crater. From the road to the bottom must be a hundred feet. Burst pipes spray water everywhere, and a small pool is filling the crater. There are trees snapped in half, live electrical wires severed and dangling, telephone poles and street lights embedded in buildings like trebuchet bolts. Car alarms blare from overturned vehicles, mixing with the sound of crackling fires and the constant drizzle from exploded hydrants. Huge fissures trail across the road like fresh wounds from knife cuts. I did this. The saving grace is that this helps our goals. Property destruction at this level will only make Momentus Inc. more valuable to the city once we debut. I got lucky that no one died. That move I pulled on Arbiter was risky. Thankfully, it looks like the Capes were able to get everyone out.

"Why are you running?" Sigilist asked from behind me.

I flip out of the way of her attack: a kick that sends cracks through the ground.

"I'm not running, I just wanted some fresh air."

Where are the rest of them? They can't really expect Sigilist to be enough to take me on, can they? Then, as if summoned by my thoughts, something hits me in the back, causing me to turn my back on Sigilist. Standing fifty feet from me is the rest of her team, including Glow Guardian, whose suit is repaired. What is that covering the gaps? Molded over the holes are colored sheets of construction paper. Does ShiftState's power make paper stronger? Arbiter is floating above the others, looking down on all of us. God, you are so insecure. I finally get a good look at Pileup. He's basically a long blob without any legs or defining features. His arms end in large, muddy hands with only three fingers and a thumb, and there's only a featureless shape where his head's supposed to be. I'd say he's probably about seven and a half feet tall and five across. I hate fighting gross guys like that.

Sigilist hits me hard, and I quickly find myself carving a lane through the pavement, landing near the others. Glow Guardian holds a palm out, and a blast of energy comes out. I get up and roll away to dodge the attack, but he's not aiming at me. He lasers a rough circle around me into the ground, as ShiftState runs at me. She puts her gloved hand on the inside of the circle, and I start to sink into the ground slowly. Arbiter flies at me from above and pushes me down deeper into the muck. I can't muster any resistance without a surface to push against, so I sink up to my chest. ShiftState taps the muddy pool, and it instantly solidifies, trapping me in concrete. Huh.

Pileup's shapeless form quivers and then shrinks on itself, becoming solid. His face is visible now, but he has a half mask that covers the top portion of it. The cement, bricks, and sewage have molded themselves into a combination of a linebacker and a knight's armor. He has a wide chest, the shoulders and thighs are bulkier, and the helmet is rounded with thick curved horns jutting out of the top. The legs are basically just columns with bladed knees. The hands are the size of oil barrels and look perfect for grappling. He looks like a wrestler, and that's exciting. I haven't fought many people who know how to grapple.

Sigilist's foot collides with the back of my head, but my current predicament prevents me from moving. The same holds true for Arbiter's punch that follows. ShiftState is hooking up an inflator to something, but I can't tell what it is. Glow Guardian blasts me repeatedly from a safe distance. I guess Nobody scared him enough that he's afraid to risk his suit. His lasers are harmless and are only serving as a nuisance. Pileup approaches and moves behind me, grabbing both of my arms and holding them up above me. What are they trying to do now? ShiftState comes running, holding up a large, inflated hammer taller than she is. She swings it down on me with one hand, while the other reaches into one of her pouches. Right before the hammer hits my head, I realize I might not be taking this fight as seriously as I should. Did I underestimate them?

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