Cheng looked forward as Julian's group climbed the stairs to them. He expected them to be tired out from all the climbing, but he guessed burning passion can overcome fatigue.
"Greetings, challengers!" He announced, throwing his arms in the air to add a sense of much needed bravado to the coming proceedings. Nobody reacted.
"So is Cassandra behind that door?" Samuel asked.
"She would be." Cheng nodded. "Or would that be too obvious? There are many prisons here, and to just stand in front of Cassandra's? A little too convenient, would it not be?"
"Shut the fuck up and tell us where she is!"
Julian ran forward for a punch, running into an enlarged mallet from Capri.
"The metal on this level looks pretty flimsy." Capri said, looking around and knocking the sheet next to her. "I have a feeling one decent fight could topple this place. And I don't think any of us want that."
"Didn't expect the clown to be observant." Cheng said with a lowered tone. "But I assure you, if it came to blows, we'd all survive, at the very least."
Suddenly, Xander burst out of the room. Blood was dripping from the stump his arm was once attached to, the Sangaria shield and Saoloro bow in his hand. He looked over to Julian's group, throwing the bow to Samuel and pointing to the door.
"Shoot that!" he yelled.
Samuel looked to him, doing as he asked. Vines erupted from the spot where the arrow landed, causing the door to be sealed shut. Angered pounding was heard from inside, and when Ziwadi was about to clap, Cheng quickly put his hand between his.
"Afterwards." Cheng said calmly.
"Xander, are you seriously turning traitor right now?"
"Yeah!" Xander screamed. "Do you think I'm gonna let him take over the world?"
"Liberate the world!" Cheng yelled. "Unite it with the world below and create a new world, where all are equal!"
"Do you actually think that?" Xander yelled back. "You give power to a maniac who has to brainwash kids to hold power, and you think he's gonna make everything better?"
"Like the people in the Grands could do any better!"
"Look, I'm not gonna pretend that life over there is perfect, but I've seen it! People are happy, they have everything they need! I wanna get out of here and live with them, and I want you to have that too!"
"You killed Marcel, you can't turn back now!" Cheng yelled through gritted teeth.
Xander looked to the three heroes, trying to process this information, and then back to Cheng. The tubes connected to his arm and made the blood flow, and he launched towards Cheng. Ziwadi swapped him and Xander, but without missing a beat, Xander kicked himself off the wall and vertically slashed Cheng on the rebound. Cheng wailed in pain as he fell to the ground. Ziwadi clapped his hand to let him back on his feet. Cheng breathed heavily as he tried to keep his composure.
"Kill them!"
Adya tried to weigh down Xander, but he pushed the shield upwards to block the anti-gravity. Capri ran under him, delivering a hammer swing that sent her barrelling through the hallways. Cheng pulled out a knife with a wicked smile, and Samuel dropped the bow and kicked it out of his hands. Ziwadi swapped places with Julian, grabbing the bow and aiming for the the door that held Cassandra. Xander leapt in front of the bow, deflecting the shot to the ceiling, where the vines started to grow. Julian went to punch Ziwadi, and Xander followed, both landing solid punches to his head, leaving him stumbling backwards. And as he was about to fall over, he was caught by Serafina.
"Hey, what'd we miss?" She asked, glancing at the growing vines on the ceiling.
"What are you doing here?" Cheng asked. "Are the other threats dealt with?"
"My heads a little fuzzy, but yeah." She nodded.
Daciana walked into the hall, dropping Fiorella onto the floor. She was bloody and bruised, but very much conscious.
"She's dealt with, at least." Daciana said calmly.
"Yeah, turns out it's hard to fight with an axe against a double blade and a steady supply of replicas, whoda guessed?"
"Fiorella!" Capri yelled, enlarging her hammer for a bash, which was quickly shrunk after Serafina and Daciana held up Fiorella as shield.
"Relax, circus show." Serafina said, leaning in and backing away as soon as Capri tried hitting her again. "We're not gonna kill her. Not when we could bring some big names in to negotiate something bigger. We're talking leaders here! Maybe Mia, or Zachary, or…"
"We'll decide that later. But for now I must commend you, Serafina."
"Yeah! How you feel about that! Now then, I think everyone needs to calm down, and we'll send a message to make sure you're here. Sound good?"
A strike was felt at the back of Serafina's head. She turned around, and Roxanne was behind her, looking panicked with her fists up. She slammed her into a wall several times, until she fell to the floor.
"Roxanne?!" Julian yelled out. Roxanne dashed past him to get to Cheng, who pulled a knife out and was preparing to stab. She tried wrestling the knife out of his hands, and Cheng managed to push her against a wall. Roxanne put her hand out to brace for whatever impact was coming her way. For a brief moment, she felt the pain as the knife pierced her hand for less than a second. But Cheng stepped back in shock as Roxanne was fine. He looked around to his teammates.
"You all saw that! I stabbed her!"
Roxanne looked at her hand. She felt the impact, but now she was fine. It was like he missed. In his moment of confusion, Roxanne punched him in the head, forcing him to the ground. She stomped on his head a couple times for good measure, and he was down.
The three remaining looked on in horror at Roxanne. Adya weighed her down and Daciana immediately went in for the kill, which Capri and Xander managed to block while Julian pulled her out. Cheng pulled himself up, opening up the door to Cassandra's prison while everyone was distracted. He motioned for Ziwadi to get inside, which he did. Once inside, Ziwadi clapped his hands together, swapping places with Roxanne. He did this with Julian too. Ziwadi stepped out and was about to close the door shut, but Xander came forward, sticking his shield in between in an attempt to pry it back open. Adya weighed him down once again, and Cheng pushed him inside the prison.
"Now then, find a way to deal with the other three, and I'll figure out how to get the boss out."
Inside the prison, Xander used the shield to cut the chains. Once Cassandra was freed, Julian knelt down to meet her. When their eyes met, Julian broke down, hugging her and holding her as tight as he could. He tried to form a sentence in between bouts of tears, but Cassandra just broke down next to him.
All the while, Xander was bashing the door trying to get it to open, with no such luck.
"Look, I know this is a good moment, but could you help me get this door open?" Xander yelled.
Roxanne looked at the door, trying to see if there was a way to open it. Maybe whatever caused her not to be attacked could help? No, she couldn't guess the correlation between these two. Xander took a step back, opposite the door. he ran to bash the door open, but the only thing that followed was a shaking noise.
"Wait, what are you doing?" Cassandra yelled, shooting upright.
"Trying to get us out of here!" Xander yelled, trying again. But when he bashed the door, the shaking began.
"Okay, you need to stop!" Cassandra yelled.
But Xander didn't listen, trying one final time. But when he leaned back, the world fell with him. The sky started to get faster around them, and when Cassandra looked outside the window, all she saw was the cluster getting further away from them.
And then her vision of the cluster was replaced by the surrounding clouds.