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March 28, 2019; Bellwood

“What the...?” Ava gasped at the sight of the creature that now stood in front of them.

“Dude… you reek,” Ruby complained to the plant monster, holding her nose for effect.

The monster didn't respond, and instead just stared them down. Both sides got the sense that they were waiting for the other to make the first move.

“Nothing good ever came from aiming guns at people,” the monster told them in its nasally voice. “So why don't you just put them down and we'll all just walk away.”

“Or how about you put your hands in the air?” Ruby suggested. “You're not leaving this lot without going through us.”

The monster looked at them for a moment, then suddenly it grew a smirk on its lips. “Put my hands in the air, huh?” it asked in a tone of fake innocence. It slowly raised it's mossy hands up next to it's head, palms aimed right at the girls. “Like this?”

Suddenly the insides of its palms sparked and balls of flame plumed out from them. The fires roared and the creature aimed the blaze right in the direction of the Assassins, who gasped and jumped out of the way of the blasts.

“Dude!” Ruby said, taking aim with her gun. “I was originally gonna say you’re cool but now I’m liking you less and less!” She yanked her finger on the trigger of her gun and sent four bullets directly into the torso of the monster, ripping holes straight through its mossy body. Holes which immediately healed back up as if the monster never took a hit to begin with. Ruby simply stood there with a look of irritated stupor. “Well. Damn,” she said, and immediately ducked for cover when the creature through another ball of flame in her direction.

Ava tried to take a different approach, pulling out her karambit and charging the creature from behind. It spotted her at the last second, and tried to hurl more fire in her direction. But she had the advantage, and she used it to duck and swing her blade in a quick zigzag across its chest. It grunted in pain as its torso tore open, but Ava was unpleasantly surprised when those gashes immediately began to pull themselves back shut with moss and vines.

“You know, that's hardly fair,” Ava quipped, causing the creature to chuckle a little before hurling another fireball her way.

“Getting a little hot under the collar?” it asked as she somersaulted out of the way and recocked her gun.

“Well what can I say?” Ava joked as she sprinted from cover to cover, taking shots at the creature and dodging fireballs along the way. “I'm from Minnesota. I'm more of a winter gal.”

“Yeah? How about we cool things off a bit then?”

Ava raised an eyebrow and peaked out from her cover at the creature. It looked down at the bizarre symbol embedded in its chest, a bright glowing green hourglass against a black circle backdrop. The creature pressed its hand against the symbol, and suddenly there was that same blinding light as before. Ava shielded her eyes as the light intensified and then quickly began to fade. Ava suddenly heard a voice call out from the vanishing light, a low, raspy sound that exclaimed, “Big Chill!”

Ava opened her eyes again and gazed back at the creature, which suddenly lunged upwards into the sky from where it stood. She gasped. It wasn't the same creature. This beast looked like some sort of humanoid moth, with deep blue wings and piercing bug eyes that gazed through the icy mist that seemed to pour out of its mouth as if it was the middle of winter. The only similarity it had with the last monster was the green hourglass symbol on its chest.

“What the...” Ava exclaimed. She raised her gun at the monster and was about to pull the trigger, when suddenly it took a deep breath and from its mouth blew out a thick, freezing cloud that engulfed Ava’s hand and her gun in a layer of ice. The nip of the cold immediately stung her skin and she yelped in pain, slamming her hand against an oil barrel to break the ice off. Her hand shook hard and she dropped her gun as she tried to warm herself back up.

She suddenly heard another couple gunshots, and she looked over at Ruby, who had her pistol armed and ready.

“Okay Ava, you gotta admit-”

“No,” Ava said. “Don't you dare say it.”

“That was-”

“Please don't,” the creature said. “Even I'm above that.”

“Pretty cool.”

Ava and the creature both let out a groan, with accompanying facepalms to match.

“I tried,” Ruby shrugged.

“No you didn't,” Ava said.

“No I didn't.”

Ava suppressed a smile and shook her head before grabbing a throwing knife out of her belt and hurling it upwards towards the creature. It landed a hit, grazing across its arm and cutting a small gash in its flesh. The creature winced, clutching its wound, which was, to Ava's pleasant surprise, bleeding instead of healing up. And if it was bleeding, that meant she could bring it down a few notches.

She quickly went to grab a couple more knives and chucked them upwards. The creature gasped as it saw them hurtling towards its torso, and Ava expected to hear the satisfying thunk as they brought the monster down.

But once again, she found herself left in disappointment. The creature held its arms up as if to defend itself, but instead of the knives digging into its skin, the creature suddenly turned transparent like the mist that fogged out of its mouth, and the knives simply flew right through it like a ghost, thudding off somewhere in the lot.

The creature returned to opacity and suddenly fluttered back down to the ground, folding it's wings over itself as if draped in a hood and robe. It stared down the Assassins, its big bug eyes making Ava very uncomfortable.

“That's not fair either,” Ava pouted.

“Don't be a sore loser,” the creature joked. It started sprinting at her, and Ava flicked out her hidden blades. She attempted to throw a punch and impale the thing, but with every swing, the creature just went intangible again before tossing its own punches and attempting to freeze Ava solid as she jumped and dodged around the lot.

Then suddenly one of the freeze blasts hit Ava square in the foot, locking her boot to the ground in a chunk of ice that caused her to fall flat on her face. The creature fluttered over and loomed over her, and raised a fist to land a final punch to knock her out cold in the most literal sense possible. But then a shadow appeared behind the monster, who suddenly found a crowbar being banged against its temple. It oofed in pain and fell to the side, and Ruby immediately smashed open the ice on Ava's boot with her newfound blunt weapon.

“Thanks Rubes,” Ava breathed.

“Anytime,” Ruby smiled.

Suddenly they heard the creature moan and turned to see it start to get up and rub its head. Ruby cracked her knuckles and stepped forward, and gave it a swift uppercut, then another, and another, with the last one sending it flying into a wall with a thud.

“After you,” Ruby said to Ava stepping aside and motioning towards the creature as if to a door. Ava smiled and nodded, flicking out her hidden blade again and charging at the thing as it struggled to stand back up. It worked itself back to its feet just in time to see Ava running up and rearing her arm back, blade bared. She let out a shout and began to thrust her blade forward with every intention of hitting it in the heart. The creature gasped, and right as Ava started moving her arm forward, the creature slammed its hand against the hourglass symbol on its chest. The light exploded out again just as Ava was about to hit her mark, and her sudden blindness caused her to drift to the side. Suddenly, she felt something large grip her arm tight. She opened her eyes again when the light faded away, and gasped again to find the creature had made another transformation.

It reminded Ava of a tiger, but not quite. It was humanoid and intensely muscular, with huge black claws that jutted out from it's knuckles akin to her own hidden blades. It stared her down as it gripped her arm, and let out a furious snarl before letting out another exclamation.

“Rath!” it yelled in a tone that Ava could only describe as “macho wrestler”. The beast lifted Ava off the ground and pulled her face close enough to its own that she could smell its rancid breath.

“Let me tell you somethin’ Hooded Shooty Stabby Girl!” it spat in her face. “When you get shooty stabby with Rath, it makes Rath get punchy punchy!”

“I'm uh… gonna take a wild guess and say you are Rath?” Ava quipped nervously.

The creature made a face as if not entirely sure how to respond to that, stopping just short of going cross eyed before furrowing its brow again. “Yes! Rath is Rath!” it declared.

“Good to know.” Ava punctuated her sentence by suddenly swinging her leg upwards and kicking the beast right in the chin. It roared and stumbled back, dropping her in the process and giving her a chance to regain her bearings. It fixed her with a dirty look, and she simply smiled and beckoned it forward by extending her hidden blades. It growled at her and flexed its arms threateningly, extending its claws in the same manner. The two charged at one another, shouting like wrestlers in a ring. The beast swung first, intensely and sloppily. Ava jumped up above the punch and flipped in the air, kicking the beast in the face again to guide her momentum back down. It grunted and swung again, landing a punch to her jaw that she swiftly recovered from just in time to dodge another one. She dipped and dodged a couple more punches, clearly making the creature ever more infuriated. Ava jumped up again, this time hopping onto its back and wrapping her legs around its neck for a choke hold. It struggled and tried to shake her off, but she held on as firmly as she could to cut off its air.

“Ruby!” she called out as she struggled against the beast.

“On it!” Ruby said, running up with her crowbar clutched firmly in hand. “Batter up!” she yelled as she pulled her weapon back and swung it just as Ava hopped off the beast. It barely had time to recover before Ruby slammed the metal bar directly into its face. The creature let out a loud “oof!” and went spiraling directly into the ground. It moaned painfully for a brief moment, and then finally lulled it's head onto the pavement in defeat. Ava and Ruby smiled at one another, puncturing their victory with a high five before Ava walked up in front of the creature’s head and flicking out her hidden blade.

“Alright, this has been fun,” she said. “But I think I've had enough of the freak show for tonight.”

The creature just groaned dumbly as it slipped in and out of consciousness. Ava took a step back, raising up her hidden blade for one final strike that she hoped would bring this monster down finally. She reared it back as far as she could, grit her teeth as she mustered up her strength, and once the blade reached its peak, she thrust downwards with all her might, aiming right for the heart once again.

“Contego!”

Ava barely had time to process the sudden intrusion of a new voice when her blade arm got gripped tight once again before the killing blow. Her face turned to another look of surprise and looked up at her wrist, surprised to see not a hand this time but some sort of glowing beam of pink light that entangled her arm, preventing her from moving it. Her eyes immediately followed the beam back to its other end, and she was surprised with the sight of another person standing outside the car door, a redheaded girl in a blue sweater vest. She glared at Ava for a moment as the beams that seemed to shoot out from her hands like some sort of magician’s trick held the Assassin's arm firmly in place. Then her gaze shifted to the beast below, and her brow somehow furrowed even more.

“Let me handle it, you said!” the girl droned. “They're just a couple of kids with guns, you said. I can handle them, you said! Ben, why is it whenever you say you've got something, you don't? At all?”

The beast responded to her nagging with another half-conscious moan. The redhead simply shook her head. Then her gaze turned back to Ava, who was still locked in her energy grip. The girl grit her teeth and suddenly swung her arms to the side, flinging Ava right along with them. Ava yelled in panic and Ruby soon joined her as she was smacked in the stomach by the beam and carried along for the ride. The Assassins tumbled into a pile of barrels, and gave a moan akin to their unconscious tiger friend.

The beam vanished, flickering away into nothingness as the redhead stood her ground by the car. The Assassins struggled back to their feet and suddenly heard another one of the car doors open up. They looked up and saw a tall man clad in a simple black t-shirt over a grey sweater. He had long black hair and a chin that could chisel rock. He glared at them, very clearly not happy.

“You brats are gonna pay for smashing up my ride!” he said to them.

“Uh… sorry?” Ruby said, giving a nervous smile and shrugging.

Suddenly the man reached down and put his hand on the dented hood of his car. There was an odd noise that sounded like scraping metal emanating from his fingertips, and something happened yet again that caused Ava and Ruby's jaws to drop for the umpteenth time this night. The metal on the car seemed to leech upwards onto the man's arm, like how water travels up a dry paper towel. It morphed up his body until it coated him in a layer of green steel from head to toe. He clenched his fists and hopped over the roof of his car, somehow still completely flexible in his new metal armor. He stood by the redhead, who held up her own fists and summoned a few orbs of that same pink energy in her palms. Ava and Ruby stood in confusion, and simply responded by drawing their own weapons as well.

“This night just keeps getting weirder and weirder…” Ava said.

“No kidding,” Ruby agreed.

And then the two new fighters charged into the ring.

Ava and the metal man were the first to throw punches at one another. She had drawn her karambit, and made harsh swings as she danced around her opponent. She actually managed to hit him quite a few times, but no matter what she was only greeted with the distinct sound of metal clanging against metal.

“God this would be so much easier if I still had Gabriel's Armor…” she whined to herself as the metal man swung punches at her.

Meanwhile, Ruby was stuck dueling off against the redhead with the magic fists. The girl spawned pink orbs in her hands and flung them at Ruby one after the other. Ruby jumped and rolled, dodging them as best she could. Then she reached into her jacket and pulled out a new weapon of her own. At first glance it just looked like the handle of a weapon, but in one swift flick it telescoped out into a short sword much like her hidden blade would. She brought her blade up and spun it in front of her, hacking away the energy balls like a skilled samurai being thrown fruit. And then, as soon as the girl seemed to tire for just a moment, she took the chance and charged. She swung her blade, hoping to open a gash in her arm, only to be stopped by a shield that the girl suddenly spawned from her hands made of the same pink energy. The girl shoved Ruby away, and their fight quickly became a dance of blades and energy pulses.

Ava meanwhile continued her brawl against the metal man. She managed to spin over his shoulder and put him in a choke hold. The action was difficult given his metal skin, but the effect was still the same as he struggled to get her off.

“Wait, Rubes, when did you get that?” she suddenly asked, looking over at her sword-fighting girlfriend.

“I built this thing last week. Thought it'd be cool,” Ruby responded as she dueled.

“It is pretty cool,” the metal man choked in agreement as he tried to get Ava’s arms off his neck.

“You built that thing?” Ava asked.

“I build a lot of things,” Ruby replied.

“And you didn't make one for me?”

“Hey hey hey it's all cool, calm down. I've been working on something cool for you too, you'll see.”

“Fine. It'd better be cool though.”

“I'm so surprised you two are able to keep such good conversation while we're all fighting like this,” the redhead chimed in while she continued to assault Ruby with her energy manifestations.

“Guess it just comes naturally,” Ruby shrugged.

“I guess so. Most of our fights are just grunting menacingly while we hit the bad guys.”

“Same though!” Ava said.

Then suddenly their cheerful conversation was cut short when Ava felt a blunt metal elbow smack her in the face. She reeled back, and the man got his bearings back.

“Nothin’ wrong with grunting menacingly and hitting bad guys,” he said as he raised his fists and grinned. Ava returned the look with one of her own that just begged him to come at her. And so the man charged, and they found themselves boxing yet again.

But this round didn't turn out as well in Ava’s favor. A swift sucker punch to her jaw sent her falling to the ground, and before she could even get back to her feet, the metal man grabbed her by the collar and raised up his fist for a knockout blow. Ava winced, expecting the warm embrace of unconsciousness to literally hit her within the next split second, but it didn't come. Instead, she suddenly heard a popping noise and then a spasming electrical surge. She looked up and saw the metal man yelling in pain and shaking before falling over. Ava scrambled to her feet, and noticed the two little electrical darts sticking out of his back. The wires that were connected to them suddenly reeled back, popping the darts out of the metal man’s back and retracting them into a little gun holster.

A gun holster that was held by none other than Chelsea.

Ava grinned ear to ear. Chelsea blew over the barrel of her gun like an old western, then returned a smile to her old friend. “Told you we’d be here soon,” she said, immediately followed up by Catherine and Jess walking up to her side, batons in hand.

“What the hell is that?” was the first thing Jess asked. She pointed to the unconscious tiger creature on the ground, which suddenly let out another moan as if on cue.

“Honestly Jess, if I knew, I would tell ya,” Ava shrugged.

“So it's one of those days then,” Catherine laughed.

Then suddenly there was a shout and Ruby went flying past them all, being struck right in the gut with one of the pink energy orbs and being sent straight into a pile of oil barrels. The Assassins all turned to see the redhead, completely unbruised and clearly still itching for more of a fight. She held her fists up, spawning more energy orbs as a taunt. The Assassins started moving forward to give her hell, but suddenly Chelsea got uppercut from a metal fist that spontaneously shot up as the metal man returned to his feet. Her nose bled, and she glared him down. She held up her fists, and she immediately lunged into a brawl with the man, one that Jess jumped in to help with.

Catherine and Ava meanwhile rushed forward to fight the redhead. Catherine was able to deflect many of the orbs that were tossed her way, her weapon being larger and sturdier than Ava’s little knife, but Ava had speed and agility on her side. The two tried to throw the girl off, staying on opposite sides of her to divide her attention. Catherine managed to step in and smack a few bruises onto the girl with her baton, and it wasn't long before the Assassins started gaining a clear upper hand. But then the girl grit her teeth. Her eyes glowed pure pink, and she suddenly thrust her arm forward, letting out a massive energy blast that shoved Ava and Catherine to the ground.

Meanwhile, the brawl between the other three contestants started moving towards the other side where Ava, Catherine, and the redhead were fighting. The redhead scowled at them and started directing her attacks at Chelsea and Jess in an attempt to defend her metal friend. Ava sat up and rubbed her head. She looked over at the fight, then suddenly at her hand as she felt something brushing against it. She gasped as she realized it was Chelsea's taser gun. She immediately grabbed it and powered it up. She stood and took aim, noticing the redhead was more out in the open than the other fighters. Ava closed an eye to take aim. The redhead didn't even seem to notice her until it was too late. Ava pulled the trigger, and the sparking darts surged out of the gun, their aim set directly on the redhead.

But then yet another factor was tossed onto the battlefield. There was a sudden shout of “Chromastone!” before a new figure flung itself directly in the path of the darts. They made a thunking noise as they embedded themselves in its rocky body. Ava gasped as the electricity surged through it, but it seemed completely unaffected. A rainbow of lights started shining up and down its body like some sort of trippy prism. Ava only got a split second to take it in. It looked like some sort of stone cyclops, with bright pink crystals jutting out from its body as it glowed and flashed and stared her down. The last thing she noticed before getting blasted to the ground by a sudden surge of that rainbow light that shot out from the creature was the same hourglass symbol she had seen before on its chest. And sure enough, as she painfully sat back up and rubbed her head, she turned to where the tiger monster was laying and saw nothing but empty asphalt there.

Ava’s friends suddenly found themselves either rushing to her side or being launched to her side by a hard hit. Chelsea wiped her bloody nose. They all stood with their weapons in hand. They heard a groan behind them, a groan followed up by a Ruby who was rubbing her head.

“I'm good, I'm good,” she reassured everyone. “Just need a moment to… and new monster. Awesome.”

“You know, five against one is hardly fair,” the redhead told the Assassins jokingly.

“I agree,” the rock monster said.

Then it reached up to the hourglass symbol on its chest and pressed it. The Assassins were greeted with another halo of intense green light, and when it faded the rock monster had been replaced with yet another bizarre creature. This one was short, and looked as if it were wearing a white hazmat suit of sorts, but with a face that had a massive mouth.

“Echo Echo!” it shouted, its voice sounding like something filtered through an electronic voice changer. Then suddenly it flashed green, and from its sides spawned out two identical copies of itself, evening the playing field in a bizarre sort of way. Ava and the gang rushed forward, trying to get in before another attack but ultimately failing. The creatures took a deep breath and began to screech out a deafening noise. The sound was so loud that it sent the Assassins flying painfully into a wall with hard thuds. They slid to the ground, groaning from the pain.

“Ooohhh,” Catherine suddenly said. “I get it. Echo Echo. Cause like, it's a sound monster that can make more of itself.”

“You're an idiot,” Chelsea facepalmed.

They stumbled back to their feet, standing tall despite the pain. They all stood in a line, weapons in hand as they stared down the other side. The monsters and his friends did the same, each holding up their fists defiantly. They all made snarling faces at one another, trying their best to seem tough to their opponents before they all pounced. Each side let out their war cries as they charged forward across the battlefield, arms raised ready for the ultimate brawl. The only thing that stood between them and their charge was…

“Hello children!”

Both sides suddenly gasped and dug their heels into the ground. A man had seemingly appeared from thin air directly between them, and he casually stepped aside as the two groups crashed into one another and collapsed into a groaning pile on the floor. They all rubbed their aching parts, and turned to look at the mysterious man, who simply smiled in amusement. The Assassins just stared in confusion at him. But their three opponents went wide eyed, clearly recognizing him. The redhead gasped, and she gasped out the name of this mysterious man.

“Professor Paradox?”

Description
March 28, 2019; Bellwood

“What the...?” Ava gasped at the sight of the creature that now stood in front of them.

“Dude… you reek,” Ruby complained to the plant monster, holding her nose for effect.

The monster didn't respond, and instead just stared them down. Both sides got the sense that they were waiting for the other to make the first move.

“Nothing good ever came from aiming guns at people,” the monster told them in its nasally voice. “So why don't you just put them down and we'll all just walk away.”

“Or how about you put your hands in the air?” Ruby suggested. “You're not leaving this lot without going through us.”

The monster looked at them for a moment, then suddenly it grew a smirk on its lips. “Put my hands in the air, huh?” it asked in a tone of fake innocence. It slowly raised it's mossy hands up next to it's head, palms aimed right at the girls. “Like this?”

Suddenly the insides of its palms sparked and balls of flame plumed out from them. The fires roared and the creature aimed the blaze right in the direction of the Assassins, who gasped and jumped out of the way of the blasts.

“Dude!” Ruby said, taking aim with her gun. “I was originally gonna say you’re cool but now I’m liking you less and less!” She yanked her finger on the trigger of her gun and sent four bullets directly into the torso of the monster, ripping holes straight through its mossy body. Holes which immediately healed back up as if the monster never took a hit to begin with. Ruby simply stood there with a look of irritated stupor. “Well. Damn,” she said, and immediately ducked for cover when the creature through another ball of flame in her direction.

Ava tried to take a different approach, pulling out her karambit and charging the creature from behind. It spotted her at the last second, and tried to hurl more fire in her direction. But she had the advantage, and she used it to duck and swing her blade in a quick zigzag across its chest. It grunted in pain as its torso tore open, but Ava was unpleasantly surprised when those gashes immediately began to pull themselves back shut with moss and vines.

“You know, that's hardly fair,” Ava quipped, causing the creature to chuckle a little before hurling another fireball her way.

“Getting a little hot under the collar?” it asked as she somersaulted out of the way and recocked her gun.

“Well what can I say?” Ava joked as she sprinted from cover to cover, taking shots at the creature and dodging fireballs along the way. “I'm from Minnesota. I'm more of a winter gal.”

“Yeah? How about we cool things off a bit then?”

Ava raised an eyebrow and peaked out from her cover at the creature. It looked down at the bizarre symbol embedded in its chest, a bright glowing green hourglass against a black circle backdrop. The creature pressed its hand against the symbol, and suddenly there was that same blinding light as before. Ava shielded her eyes as the light intensified and then quickly began to fade. Ava suddenly heard a voice call out from the vanishing light, a low, raspy sound that exclaimed, “Big Chill!”

Ava opened her eyes again and gazed back at the creature, which suddenly lunged upwards into the sky from where it stood. She gasped. It wasn't the same creature. This beast looked like some sort of humanoid moth, with deep blue wings and piercing bug eyes that gazed through the icy mist that seemed to pour out of its mouth as if it was the middle of winter. The only similarity it had with the last monster was the green hourglass symbol on its chest.

“What the...” Ava exclaimed. She raised her gun at the monster and was about to pull the trigger, when suddenly it took a deep breath and from its mouth blew out a thick, freezing cloud that engulfed Ava’s hand and her gun in a layer of ice. The nip of the cold immediately stung her skin and she yelped in pain, slamming her hand against an oil barrel to break the ice off. Her hand shook hard and she dropped her gun as she tried to warm herself back up.

She suddenly heard another couple gunshots, and she looked over at Ruby, who had her pistol armed and ready.

“Okay Ava, you gotta admit-”

“No,” Ava said. “Don't you dare say it.”

“That was-”

“Please don't,” the creature said. “Even I'm above that.”

“Pretty cool.”

Ava and the creature both let out a groan, with accompanying facepalms to match.

“I tried,” Ruby shrugged.

“No you didn't,” Ava said.

“No I didn't.”

Ava suppressed a smile and shook her head before grabbing a throwing knife out of her belt and hurling it upwards towards the creature. It landed a hit, grazing across its arm and cutting a small gash in its flesh. The creature winced, clutching its wound, which was, to Ava's pleasant surprise, bleeding instead of healing up. And if it was bleeding, that meant she could bring it down a few notches.

She quickly went to grab a couple more knives and chucked them upwards. The creature gasped as it saw them hurtling towards its torso, and Ava expected to hear the satisfying thunk as they brought the monster down.

But once again, she found herself left in disappointment. The creature held its arms up as if to defend itself, but instead of the knives digging into its skin, the creature suddenly turned transparent like the mist that fogged out of its mouth, and the knives simply flew right through it like a ghost, thudding off somewhere in the lot.

The creature returned to opacity and suddenly fluttered back down to the ground, folding it's wings over itself as if draped in a hood and robe. It stared down the Assassins, its big bug eyes making Ava very uncomfortable.

“That's not fair either,” Ava pouted.

“Don't be a sore loser,” the creature joked. It started sprinting at her, and Ava flicked out her hidden blades. She attempted to throw a punch and impale the thing, but with every swing, the creature just went intangible again before tossing its own punches and attempting to freeze Ava solid as she jumped and dodged around the lot.

Then suddenly one of the freeze blasts hit Ava square in the foot, locking her boot to the ground in a chunk of ice that caused her to fall flat on her face. The creature fluttered over and loomed over her, and raised a fist to land a final punch to knock her out cold in the most literal sense possible. But then a shadow appeared behind the monster, who suddenly found a crowbar being banged against its temple. It oofed in pain and fell to the side, and Ruby immediately smashed open the ice on Ava's boot with her newfound blunt weapon.

“Thanks Rubes,” Ava breathed.

“Anytime,” Ruby smiled.

Suddenly they heard the creature moan and turned to see it start to get up and rub its head. Ruby cracked her knuckles and stepped forward, and gave it a swift uppercut, then another, and another, with the last one sending it flying into a wall with a thud.

“After you,” Ruby said to Ava stepping aside and motioning towards the creature as if to a door. Ava smiled and nodded, flicking out her hidden blade again and charging at the thing as it struggled to stand back up. It worked itself back to its feet just in time to see Ava running up and rearing her arm back, blade bared. She let out a shout and began to thrust her blade forward with every intention of hitting it in the heart. The creature gasped, and right as Ava started moving her arm forward, the creature slammed its hand against the hourglass symbol on its chest. The light exploded out again just as Ava was about to hit her mark, and her sudden blindness caused her to drift to the side. Suddenly, she felt something large grip her arm tight. She opened her eyes again when the light faded away, and gasped again to find the creature had made another transformation.

It reminded Ava of a tiger, but not quite. It was humanoid and intensely muscular, with huge black claws that jutted out from it's knuckles akin to her own hidden blades. It stared her down as it gripped her arm, and let out a furious snarl before letting out another exclamation.

“Rath!” it yelled in a tone that Ava could only describe as “macho wrestler”. The beast lifted Ava off the ground and pulled her face close enough to its own that she could smell its rancid breath.

“Let me tell you somethin’ Hooded Shooty Stabby Girl!” it spat in her face. “When you get shooty stabby with Rath, it makes Rath get punchy punchy!”

“I'm uh… gonna take a wild guess and say you are Rath?” Ava quipped nervously.

The creature made a face as if not entirely sure how to respond to that, stopping just short of going cross eyed before furrowing its brow again. “Yes! Rath is Rath!” it declared.

“Good to know.” Ava punctuated her sentence by suddenly swinging her leg upwards and kicking the beast right in the chin. It roared and stumbled back, dropping her in the process and giving her a chance to regain her bearings. It fixed her with a dirty look, and she simply smiled and beckoned it forward by extending her hidden blades. It growled at her and flexed its arms threateningly, extending its claws in the same manner. The two charged at one another, shouting like wrestlers in a ring. The beast swung first, intensely and sloppily. Ava jumped up above the punch and flipped in the air, kicking the beast in the face again to guide her momentum back down. It grunted and swung again, landing a punch to her jaw that she swiftly recovered from just in time to dodge another one. She dipped and dodged a couple more punches, clearly making the creature ever more infuriated. Ava jumped up again, this time hopping onto its back and wrapping her legs around its neck for a choke hold. It struggled and tried to shake her off, but she held on as firmly as she could to cut off its air.

“Ruby!” she called out as she struggled against the beast.

“On it!” Ruby said, running up with her crowbar clutched firmly in hand. “Batter up!” she yelled as she pulled her weapon back and swung it just as Ava hopped off the beast. It barely had time to recover before Ruby slammed the metal bar directly into its face. The creature let out a loud “oof!” and went spiraling directly into the ground. It moaned painfully for a brief moment, and then finally lulled it's head onto the pavement in defeat. Ava and Ruby smiled at one another, puncturing their victory with a high five before Ava walked up in front of the creature’s head and flicking out her hidden blade.

“Alright, this has been fun,” she said. “But I think I've had enough of the freak show for tonight.”

The creature just groaned dumbly as it slipped in and out of consciousness. Ava took a step back, raising up her hidden blade for one final strike that she hoped would bring this monster down finally. She reared it back as far as she could, grit her teeth as she mustered up her strength, and once the blade reached its peak, she thrust downwards with all her might, aiming right for the heart once again.

“Contego!”

Ava barely had time to process the sudden intrusion of a new voice when her blade arm got gripped tight once again before the killing blow. Her face turned to another look of surprise and looked up at her wrist, surprised to see not a hand this time but some sort of glowing beam of pink light that entangled her arm, preventing her from moving it. Her eyes immediately followed the beam back to its other end, and she was surprised with the sight of another person standing outside the car door, a redheaded girl in a blue sweater vest. She glared at Ava for a moment as the beams that seemed to shoot out from her hands like some sort of magician’s trick held the Assassin's arm firmly in place. Then her gaze shifted to the beast below, and her brow somehow furrowed even more.

“Let me handle it, you said!” the girl droned. “They're just a couple of kids with guns, you said. I can handle them, you said! Ben, why is it whenever you say you've got something, you don't? At all?”

The beast responded to her nagging with another half-conscious moan. The redhead simply shook her head. Then her gaze turned back to Ava, who was still locked in her energy grip. The girl grit her teeth and suddenly swung her arms to the side, flinging Ava right along with them. Ava yelled in panic and Ruby soon joined her as she was smacked in the stomach by the beam and carried along for the ride. The Assassins tumbled into a pile of barrels, and gave a moan akin to their unconscious tiger friend.

The beam vanished, flickering away into nothingness as the redhead stood her ground by the car. The Assassins struggled back to their feet and suddenly heard another one of the car doors open up. They looked up and saw a tall man clad in a simple black t-shirt over a grey sweater. He had long black hair and a chin that could chisel rock. He glared at them, very clearly not happy.

“You brats are gonna pay for smashing up my ride!” he said to them.

“Uh… sorry?” Ruby said, giving a nervous smile and shrugging.

Suddenly the man reached down and put his hand on the dented hood of his car. There was an odd noise that sounded like scraping metal emanating from his fingertips, and something happened yet again that caused Ava and Ruby's jaws to drop for the umpteenth time this night. The metal on the car seemed to leech upwards onto the man's arm, like how water travels up a dry paper towel. It morphed up his body until it coated him in a layer of green steel from head to toe. He clenched his fists and hopped over the roof of his car, somehow still completely flexible in his new metal armor. He stood by the redhead, who held up her own fists and summoned a few orbs of that same pink energy in her palms. Ava and Ruby stood in confusion, and simply responded by drawing their own weapons as well.

“This night just keeps getting weirder and weirder…” Ava said.

“No kidding,” Ruby agreed.

And then the two new fighters charged into the ring.

Ava and the metal man were the first to throw punches at one another. She had drawn her karambit, and made harsh swings as she danced around her opponent. She actually managed to hit him quite a few times, but no matter what she was only greeted with the distinct sound of metal clanging against metal.

“God this would be so much easier if I still had Gabriel's Armor…” she whined to herself as the metal man swung punches at her.

Meanwhile, Ruby was stuck dueling off against the redhead with the magic fists. The girl spawned pink orbs in her hands and flung them at Ruby one after the other. Ruby jumped and rolled, dodging them as best she could. Then she reached into her jacket and pulled out a new weapon of her own. At first glance it just looked like the handle of a weapon, but in one swift flick it telescoped out into a short sword much like her hidden blade would. She brought her blade up and spun it in front of her, hacking away the energy balls like a skilled samurai being thrown fruit. And then, as soon as the girl seemed to tire for just a moment, she took the chance and charged. She swung her blade, hoping to open a gash in her arm, only to be stopped by a shield that the girl suddenly spawned from her hands made of the same pink energy. The girl shoved Ruby away, and their fight quickly became a dance of blades and energy pulses.

Ava meanwhile continued her brawl against the metal man. She managed to spin over his shoulder and put him in a choke hold. The action was difficult given his metal skin, but the effect was still the same as he struggled to get her off.

“Wait, Rubes, when did you get that?” she suddenly asked, looking over at her sword-fighting girlfriend.

“I built this thing last week. Thought it'd be cool,” Ruby responded as she dueled.

“It is pretty cool,” the metal man choked in agreement as he tried to get Ava’s arms off his neck.

“You built that thing?” Ava asked.

“I build a lot of things,” Ruby replied.

“And you didn't make one for me?”

“Hey hey hey it's all cool, calm down. I've been working on something cool for you too, you'll see.”

“Fine. It'd better be cool though.”

“I'm so surprised you two are able to keep such good conversation while we're all fighting like this,” the redhead chimed in while she continued to assault Ruby with her energy manifestations.

“Guess it just comes naturally,” Ruby shrugged.

“I guess so. Most of our fights are just grunting menacingly while we hit the bad guys.”

“Same though!” Ava said.

Then suddenly their cheerful conversation was cut short when Ava felt a blunt metal elbow smack her in the face. She reeled back, and the man got his bearings back.

“Nothin’ wrong with grunting menacingly and hitting bad guys,” he said as he raised his fists and grinned. Ava returned the look with one of her own that just begged him to come at her. And so the man charged, and they found themselves boxing yet again.

But this round didn't turn out as well in Ava’s favor. A swift sucker punch to her jaw sent her falling to the ground, and before she could even get back to her feet, the metal man grabbed her by the collar and raised up his fist for a knockout blow. Ava winced, expecting the warm embrace of unconsciousness to literally hit her within the next split second, but it didn't come. Instead, she suddenly heard a popping noise and then a spasming electrical surge. She looked up and saw the metal man yelling in pain and shaking before falling over. Ava scrambled to her feet, and noticed the two little electrical darts sticking out of his back. The wires that were connected to them suddenly reeled back, popping the darts out of the metal man’s back and retracting them into a little gun holster.

A gun holster that was held by none other than Chelsea.

Ava grinned ear to ear. Chelsea blew over the barrel of her gun like an old western, then returned a smile to her old friend. “Told you we’d be here soon,” she said, immediately followed up by Catherine and Jess walking up to her side, batons in hand.

“What the hell is that?” was the first thing Jess asked. She pointed to the unconscious tiger creature on the ground, which suddenly let out another moan as if on cue.

“Honestly Jess, if I knew, I would tell ya,” Ava shrugged.

“So it's one of those days then,” Catherine laughed.

Then suddenly there was a shout and Ruby went flying past them all, being struck right in the gut with one of the pink energy orbs and being sent straight into a pile of oil barrels. The Assassins all turned to see the redhead, completely unbruised and clearly still itching for more of a fight. She held her fists up, spawning more energy orbs as a taunt. The Assassins started moving forward to give her hell, but suddenly Chelsea got uppercut from a metal fist that spontaneously shot up as the metal man returned to his feet. Her nose bled, and she glared him down. She held up her fists, and she immediately lunged into a brawl with the man, one that Jess jumped in to help with.

Catherine and Ava meanwhile rushed forward to fight the redhead. Catherine was able to deflect many of the orbs that were tossed her way, her weapon being larger and sturdier than Ava’s little knife, but Ava had speed and agility on her side. The two tried to throw the girl off, staying on opposite sides of her to divide her attention. Catherine managed to step in and smack a few bruises onto the girl with her baton, and it wasn't long before the Assassins started gaining a clear upper hand. But then the girl grit her teeth. Her eyes glowed pure pink, and she suddenly thrust her arm forward, letting out a massive energy blast that shoved Ava and Catherine to the ground.

Meanwhile, the brawl between the other three contestants started moving towards the other side where Ava, Catherine, and the redhead were fighting. The redhead scowled at them and started directing her attacks at Chelsea and Jess in an attempt to defend her metal friend. Ava sat up and rubbed her head. She looked over at the fight, then suddenly at her hand as she felt something brushing against it. She gasped as she realized it was Chelsea's taser gun. She immediately grabbed it and powered it up. She stood and took aim, noticing the redhead was more out in the open than the other fighters. Ava closed an eye to take aim. The redhead didn't even seem to notice her until it was too late. Ava pulled the trigger, and the sparking darts surged out of the gun, their aim set directly on the redhead.

But then yet another factor was tossed onto the battlefield. There was a sudden shout of “Chromastone!” before a new figure flung itself directly in the path of the darts. They made a thunking noise as they embedded themselves in its rocky body. Ava gasped as the electricity surged through it, but it seemed completely unaffected. A rainbow of lights started shining up and down its body like some sort of trippy prism. Ava only got a split second to take it in. It looked like some sort of stone cyclops, with bright pink crystals jutting out from its body as it glowed and flashed and stared her down. The last thing she noticed before getting blasted to the ground by a sudden surge of that rainbow light that shot out from the creature was the same hourglass symbol she had seen before on its chest. And sure enough, as she painfully sat back up and rubbed her head, she turned to where the tiger monster was laying and saw nothing but empty asphalt there.

Ava’s friends suddenly found themselves either rushing to her side or being launched to her side by a hard hit. Chelsea wiped her bloody nose. They all stood with their weapons in hand. They heard a groan behind them, a groan followed up by a Ruby who was rubbing her head.

“I'm good, I'm good,” she reassured everyone. “Just need a moment to… and new monster. Awesome.”

“You know, five against one is hardly fair,” the redhead told the Assassins jokingly.

“I agree,” the rock monster said.

Then it reached up to the hourglass symbol on its chest and pressed it. The Assassins were greeted with another halo of intense green light, and when it faded the rock monster had been replaced with yet another bizarre creature. This one was short, and looked as if it were wearing a white hazmat suit of sorts, but with a face that had a massive mouth.

“Echo Echo!” it shouted, its voice sounding like something filtered through an electronic voice changer. Then suddenly it flashed green, and from its sides spawned out two identical copies of itself, evening the playing field in a bizarre sort of way. Ava and the gang rushed forward, trying to get in before another attack but ultimately failing. The creatures took a deep breath and began to screech out a deafening noise. The sound was so loud that it sent the Assassins flying painfully into a wall with hard thuds. They slid to the ground, groaning from the pain.

“Ooohhh,” Catherine suddenly said. “I get it. Echo Echo. Cause like, it's a sound monster that can make more of itself.”

“You're an idiot,” Chelsea facepalmed.

They stumbled back to their feet, standing tall despite the pain. They all stood in a line, weapons in hand as they stared down the other side. The monsters and his friends did the same, each holding up their fists defiantly. They all made snarling faces at one another, trying their best to seem tough to their opponents before they all pounced. Each side let out their war cries as they charged forward across the battlefield, arms raised ready for the ultimate brawl. The only thing that stood between them and their charge was…

“Hello children!”

Both sides suddenly gasped and dug their heels into the ground. A man had seemingly appeared from thin air directly between them, and he casually stepped aside as the two groups crashed into one another and collapsed into a groaning pile on the floor. They all rubbed their aching parts, and turned to look at the mysterious man, who simply smiled in amusement. The Assassins just stared in confusion at him. But their three opponents went wide eyed, clearly recognizing him. The redhead gasped, and she gasped out the name of this mysterious man.

“Professor Paradox?”