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“Find yourself a better hiding place, pastor.” Isaac told the priest, who decided to let the lecture describing the difference between Catholic and Protestant slide. Mulcahy ran to hide behind the pulpit. 

Realizing he’d have to lure the creature away, Isaac fired a grapple line and tucked the gun under his good arm swung away from the cathedral. The demon threw Isaac’s finger at him as he swung over head and ran to meet his swing. The Vigilante released the gun and kicked the demon in the head, causing the gun to spill to the street below. 

The beast took another swing, which this time Isaac deftly ducked and avoided. Isaac quickly scrambled back to his grapple gun, scooping it off the ground and reloading it on the run. 

Given enough time he could eventually take the creature apart with ease, he could wait until it had completely turned demon; it’s natural human flesh giving way to the mystical stuff that the others were comprised of, but he didn’t have the time. First; because with every second the gateway remained open more people would die, and second; every second that passed was one second closer to his body going into shock from the blood loss. 

Now it was make or break time. 

Isaac leveled the gun at the dark form. The creature laughed. 

“Never again!” the de-man bellowed “There was a time that pop-gun may have hurt. A time I may have whimpered away and let my fear reign. That time is at an end!” The creature approached. “The day that Kane knows fear has come to an end! The day of the Bullies is over!” 

“And what do you suppose you’ll be doing once you’ve finished off all the bullies? When the last of your tormentors is gone, what will become of Frankie Kane? Do you think whatever devil runs this show will let you retire? Soak up the flaming brimstone on a tropical paradise somewhere?” Isaac lifted his mask and spat, trying to shake off the effects of the blood loss. 

“Not his style.” Isaac scowled. He couldn’t even muster a contemptuous smirk for this pitiful creature. “You’ll become everything you hate. It’s how this works. Devil’s a big fan of irony. You’ve sold your soul to become everything you hate, and the saddest part is you’re too stupid to have even realized it and got something you’d actually want in return.” 

The sudden realization of truth struck the thing that was once Frankie Kane. It was clear in its eyes. For a split second whatever once controlled his body sought to fight back, but then the eyes flickered closed. 

When they re-opened Frankie Kane was gone. 

Isaac didn’t even have time to fire a round off. With amazing speed the beast covered the distance between them faster than he could even see. It grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground. The beast spoke, its voice different now. 

“Hu-man...” it’s voice rustled and scraped, “so... arrogant... so... strident...” 

“G-good word...” Isaac gargled defiantly. 

“And you... your obnoxious conceit. Somehow despite your ever-present weakness you’re so loud, so bold about your own position.” 

Isaac struggled, but still too much of the beast was human flesh. 

“Now you see. All your life you humans live with this false sense of self. Braying about your superiority. Statues and pyramids and great works, screaming your misplaced self-praise throughout your whole lives. Only now, when you see the inevitability of your end... the folly of your own sense of superiority... does it end with a whimper.” 

A wicked sneer crossed the creature’s face. 

“Where’s your voice now, man?” The creature mocked. 

Isaac gave a dark grin, he wasn’t certain it would work, but it was now or never. 

“TURN DOWN FOR WHAT!” He bellowed, and pulled the trigger. 

There was a sound of tearing and, trapped in the moment, an almost comical expression on the face of the creature. Isaac pushed himself off of the beast and a second later it fell. Isaac quickly scrambled on top of the demon and shoved his hand in the cavity of the fiend’s heart. He felt the dark magic withdraw from his grip. Almost spent he rolled onto his back, his hand on his chest. 

As Icon made his way back to the portal, he heard the shouts of The Vigilante below him. Icon began to descend on the hero in black, however, several more of the hateful beasts attacked him on his way to the ground. After making quick work of the beasts, Icon
flew down to see what had happened and offer assistance. When he got there he found a dead demon and the man in black laughing almost hysterically from blood loss, only a few intelligible words escaping his mask. 

“... I gave him the finger ...” 

And he’d taken it back. Right out of the beast’s heart. 

“We’ve got the power! We just can’t seem to breach the integrity of the wormhole!” Archangel called out from near the portal. Icon looked to the woman and saw that she was right. They ought to have enough power to overload the portal, but they just weren’t able to get the job done. It was as if the wormhole had some sort of invisible protective field that was keeping them from bringing it down. 

The man in black grunted and tried to clear his head. He was falling fast. “Scott...” he said, neglecting to keep it to codenames in his deteriorated state, but fortunately far out of earshot of anybody else “Help me up. We gotta close that damn thing.” 

Icon didn’t know this man. He had never seen him before in his life, however, he knew what he had just heard. It was clear to him that although he did not know the man in black, this man certainly knew him. A cold shiver ran down his spine as he thought about the ramifications of this revelation, however he forced those thoughts down as he looked down at the man in black. He lifted him to his feet and putting one arm around his neck, he took to the sky and headed directly toward the portal.

[b] “I don’t know what you have planned, but you better do it quick.”[/b] Icon said as he touched down again at the base of the portal.

The Vigilante stood shakily in front of the wormhole. He lifted the balaklava off of the bridge of his nose. Carefully pocketed his finger and scowled. 

Suddenly he started rhythmically throwing punches and yelling at it “I’ve had... enough... of fucking... portals!” Flickers of darkness peppered the portal and formed bubbles, bubbles of non-vortex in the wormhole. 

“That did it!” The Iron Knight yelled. “We’ve got it!” 

[b]”Now! Hit it with everything you’ve got!”[/b] Icon called out to the others, who did as he said.

The gathered heroes unleashed a powerful assault into the weakening portal. The amount of energy that was put forth toward the portal was enough to potentially wipe entire city blocks from the face of the earth. 

After several moments of the assault on the portal, something finally began to happen. The portal seemed to begin churning, and in a way resembled a massive boiling pot of water. The flow of demons from the portal began to slow, and ultimately, reversed, sucking the devils back where they came from. 

Suddenly there was a brilliant flash of light, so intense that it momentarily blinded those looking directly at the maelstrom. When the bright flash faded, there was nothing.

Every demon within a hundred blocks of the portal had vanished, presumably sent back to where they came from. However, the mangled corpses of civilians and demons alike still littered the city streets. 

It was clear that the otherworldly assault was finally over, and although there had been a massive loss of life, they had won. However, before the heroes could celebrate, one of their own, the man in black staggered briefly and then collapsed. He lay unmoving in the street for several moments as the others looked unbelievingly at what had just happened, and then Icon, realizing that the man in black was in grave danger, rushed to his side, and in a flash of blue and silver, he was gone.