A Superhero Tragedy...This Could Be the End...

After a brief snack, some minor first aid and a lengthy clean-up of my yard and the surrounding environs, we boarded the Siren and headed back to the Saltmine...

We couldn't possibly have made a worse decision.

I'm afraid that the end is near.

It all started out well enough. We landed in the back lot of the Saltmine and I used my special key to get us into the building (which is closed all the coming week). We were talking amongst ourselves and laughing as we sauntered down to 117.

We suspected nothing.

Why would we? As far as we knew, our inner sanctum was secure.

How foolish we were.

The Aviator, walking with his usual speed, was the first to reach the door of our basecamp and thus the first to take a hit. As he reached the double doors, there was the sound like air being forced out of a paper bag with a bang and a hole appeared in the middle of the window, cracks spiderwebbing out from it seemingly in slow motion. I think maybe I shouted something but everything that happened is a little hazy with the execption of snapshots of the carnage. This is what followed...

...The Aviator tumbled over sideways, a dart sticking out of his neck just above his right collar bone. His eyes were rolled back into his head and he dropped to the floor like a bag of rocks I was on the floor next to him in seconds, though it felt like I was running to him through cold, deep water...

...The Chameleon, Boe and Lizzard rushed the door; she was already shimmering into a change when a second dart hit her in the chest, she too went down, tumbling forward and sliding a few feet down the hallway...

Boe was already shouting but for some reason I couldn't seem to hear anything except the blood pounding in my veins, perhaps my own screams drownd out even his... Even as his scream blew out the windows of 117 he was going down himself, a dart sticking out of his right cheek causing a trickle of blood to run down his face like a tear. He fell back onto the Chameleon who stutter-stepped, trying to keep our comrade from slamming violently to the floor. As Chameleon toppled over under Boe's weight he also took a dart, this one to the leg. Instantly they were both motionless on the floor in a heap.

Shaggy, Seymour and Fuzzy-B, who had been bringing up the rear, froze momentarily, staring at the madness before them in shock. As they did, three men emerged from our Headquarters weilding dart guns. Seymour attempted to summon a psychic shield to protect us from harm but he was too late. Before he could react there was a painful scream that seemed to come from everywhere around us, freezing us all. The scream reminded me of Seymour's but it didn't come from him...Instead another man emerged from 117, he was short and dark-haired, wearing a blue uniform with the Guild (GWAD) insignia on it...

He was smiling as he screamed in our heads.

Looking back at Shaggy, Fuzzy and Seymour, I saw that all three looked to be in as much agony as I. In fact, Fuzzy had collapsed to the floor and was twitching in a horrific parody of Break Dancing. Seymour was screaming himself, his hands covering his ears and his eyes closed in pain but there was no way I could hear him over the sound of the sream already filling my head... Again, there was that exploding paper bag sound and darts appeared in both Seymour and Fuzzy. Seymour went over backwards and lay still, his hands falling away from his head.

And then something even more terrible happened. Something I can't even bear to remember, though it is branded on my brain like a tattoo...

Shaggy, the only one of us who seemed even slightly immune to the pain in his head (another aspect of his new-found strength) shook his head, crouched forward and made a flying leap at the uniformed man. The fury in his eyes seemed to have laser capability...Just as he had almost reached the screamer (who never lost his evil smirk) yet another man emerged from 117. He was wearing a black mask and was unsurprisingly familiar... Shiruken.

That evil bastard.

He had a katana in each hand and just as Shaggy made contact with the screamer Shiruken rushed in from behind. I rose shakily from the floor, screaming myself for real this time and launched myself at his knees. I succeeded in taking him out but even though my tackle had been a success, I was far too late...

When I looked up from my position on the floor next to the ninja leader, what I saw filled me with such horror that I cannot possibly relate it to anyone with efficacy...

On the floor just a few feet away, lying at the feet of the blue uniformed screamer, was Shaggy, blood spurting from his back and a low moan emerging from him...

His wings lay in a tangle of feathers on the floor beside him, both had been completely severed from his back as cleanly as if they had never been there to begin with...

I suddenly realized that for the first time since the battle had begun, I could hear again. In fact, the last thing I heard before I was clubbed on the head with something hard was the sound of my own screams in the echoing corridor...