For the first time in years, rain fell from the sky above, and the Crusaders’ makeshift ship searched for a landing site in Baguio.

  The seven heroes bantered while inside the ship, still looking for a good opening.

  “What’s the plan?” asked Death Leopard, looking at this ragtag team of specialists.

  Tophbee coughs while playing Gacha on his phone while picking his nose. “Kame… hame… ha!” he quietly yelled out after destroying his opponent in the game.

  Ladybug silently equipped his umbrella, hopefully to increase the probability of him not getting wet. He tuts. “Huh. This umbrella’s broken. Eh. Probably still works.”

  Inchworm smiles and stares at the rain. “Holy shit! Guys! It’s raining! I love that stuff! Rainwater always feels like tiny little cupids splooging all over you!” He stretches his hand out and feels the rain, only for his hand to be torn off with the suit, but his hand and suit immediately regenerate.

  Gabrielle smiles, chewing bubble gum while typing into her computer.

  Billy smiles and hangs out with the child, smiling and telling her about Beatle’s research. “So, this one is about the Komodo Dragons that recently migrated to Subic. See? Cool, huh?”

  Beatle sighs in relief, crossing his arms while staring outside. “So, this is it.”

  Sabbath nods. “Yeah. We have finally returned… We told the Philippines we shall return, and here we are. How’s it feel?”

  “Scary.”

  “Yeah. The world we know is about to change. Ain’t that right, old-timer?”

  The Voice sighs. “Yep. I believe in you as well… just as much as you believe in me…”

  Death Leopard’s eye twitches, so small in his large seat. “GUYS!?!? WHAT IS THE PLAN!?!?”

  The ship opens up, and the others jump off.

  Death Leopard’s eyes widen. “Fffuck!” The six heroes jump off and prepare for landing in Session Road. Midair, they activated their weapons and powers. Beatle takes out his Cainmarker, yelling “COMING IN HOT!!!”. Sabbath takes out her wings and flies off. Tophbee buzzes his wings and bumbles around. Inchworm smiles and creates a parachute for Billy to float down. Death Leopard activates his mech suit. Ladybug somehow floats down with his umbrella. They land perfectly, with one knee down, except for Death Leopard, who lands face-first with his mech suit on.

  Beatle’s eyes began to glow red.

  The Berserkers yell at Beatle. “STAND DOWN, CRUSADERS!!!”

  “STAND DOWN OR PERISH!!!” yelled another.

  “ALL HAIL… MORNINGSTAR!!!”

  The group just approached while the rain and fog hid their bodies from the Pentagram soldiers. They smile, marching through the rain.

  Beatle plays a song in his iPod. “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” by the Animals.

  While they walked in the rain, Sabbath flirtatiously turned to Beatle, who kept on ignoring her, but regardless, Sabbath turned red seeing his strong physique.

  Death Leopard scoffs, seeing this, just allowing the rain to pour all over his goggles.

  Tophbee humorously puts his phone in a ziplock so it won’t get wet.

  Inchworm smiles, spinning his arm up and down like a rubbery helicopter blade.

  Ladybug opens his umbrella, as an enemy tries to shoot him only for the broken umbrella to pop out a blade that stabs the Berserker in the face.

  They shot at the Crusaders, as they all got behind Beatle.

  Beatle sighs and fired shots at their faces, with each Cainmarker beam blowing their faces into colorful, blue bloody pieces, painting the air like blue rose petals.

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  Billy blew into a dart whistle that successfully kills a Berserker with a single shot. She does this repeatedly as the Berserkers charge toward them.

  Tophbee stung each of them, shooting them with his stings and killing them with each single, fired shot.

  Ladybug just somehow evaded the bullets simply by walking, and even more curiously, locusts began appearing from a distance to shield Ladybug from the bullets.

  Then came Inchworm, who stretched so far that his fists exploded a lot of the enemy’s faces, killing them.

  Death Leopard just plain shot at each of them, competitively trying to outnumber Beatle’s own kills. Beatle takes notice of this and starts killing even more soldiers.

  Sabbath flies up and patrols the skies, killing the Berserkers above with her bladed feathers, each soldier dropping down along with the rain, creating a rhythmic dance of raindrops and splashes, each showing their blue blood painting the sky around them.

  Suddenly, through the rain, the trio of lieutenants stood still at the end of the road.

  Mars charges, zooming faster than the speed of light, and tackles Beatle, who grabs Mars and tosses him away into the stars, but Mars runs back to him and knocks him in his teeth.

  Beatle fixes his jaw and beats Mars with his fists, but Mars’ daughter, Diana, ejects from his chest and beats Beatle as well.

  Sabbath yells in their minds. “ON YOUR LEFT!!!”

  The turn to the left and see the Prince Rasputin freezes the rain from the left, acting as a charging hailstorm of sorts that nearly stabs all of them, so Inchworm becomes a giant umbrella that shields all of them from the hail.

  The wave of hail then returns from their right. Billy shot at the ice bullets masterfully blocking most of them from Inchworm.

  Ladybug, the only one who isn’t shielded by Inchworm, smiles and flips a coin, gaining heads. He keeps doing so, and each time always gets heads. He then flicks it into the head of his opponent, killing six more Berserkers behind him as well. “Lucky…” he smiled.

  The ice kept on raining own at them as Prince Rasputin danced in the rain, blasting ice at them.

  Beatle shot at Rasputin, who dodged, allowing a Berserker behind him to get killed, getting shot in the face.

  Rasputin begins doing the Russian kick dance. From his soles wickedly emerged ice balls that froze Inchworm’s back while Inchworm still shielded them from all sides, causing him to scream in agony.

  Tophbee rolled out and stabbed Rasputin in the shoulder with his stinger as he laughed and froze the wound.

  Prince Rasputin creates makeshift skates of ice below his bare feet and begins charging toward Tophbee. Tophbee cleverly swung his fingers and splashed honey in his eyes.

  He laughed, bouncing with malice and arrogance, flexing his pecs. “You just healed me, bro!”

  Tophbee then stung him in the chest. Rasputin screams in pain, realizing he can’t take the honey off.

  Tophbee cocks his stinger launcher. “How’s that for healing?”

  Suddenly, Tophbee is knocked to the ground by Cheapshot, who dances around in the rain and successfully shoots at all of the ones shielded by Inchworm.

  He has a shoot out against Billy, who began struggling and gets stabbed in the shoulder, as Beatle angrily knocked him down with a quick left hook and slammed him into the ground, knocking him out.

  Mars and Diana then zoomed around Beatle and kept on beating Beatle down as the Berserkers began to use their bodies to shield the other Crusaders from their Saint King.

  Beatle is stabbed repeatedly by Mars and Diana.

  Beatle falls to his knees and is strangled by Mars.

  Beatle growls. “I will never break my unwavering spirit, Mars…”

  Mars smiles and takes his cowl off, as Beatle’s eyes quiver.

  Mars looks exactly like Beatle.

  “You’re a variant…” Beatle gasped, choking.

  “That I am. How does it feel? Knowing someone as good as you could become this.”

  “Why? Why would you become… this…?”

  “Because I learned a long time ago that everything you’ve been fighting for… is a joke…” said Mars. “I learned in my world that the Normals will constantly be above us…” growled Mars. “And everyone I loved and cared for… was lost to me. And my new purpose, Morningstar, DRIVES ME!!!” Mars prepares to stab Beatle, held down by Diana. Beatle struggles to power up. “I hate myself… I always did… You always did, too. From those silent moments where you enjoy being alone and being with other creatures… I just hated everyone… including myself…” said Mars. “But that wasn’t happiness. It was avoidance. It was fear after years of being bludgeoned by the Normies. We were so beneath them and here you are, realizing even you could break.”

  Beatle gulps. “This has to be some kind of trick.”

  The Voice sighs. “It is not. I am sorry…”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “You were already hurt all these years… I knew this would break you,” said the Voice. “So I withheld the truth… Because I cared for you, My Son.”

  Beatle’s lips quivered, staring back at his scarred self’s face. “Everything I’ve done… Everything I stood against… was because I believed I was special… I was different… This cannot be.”

  “You are,” said the Voice. “Please, listen.”

  Beatle shook his head. “Everything I feared about turning into was proven as a possibility. That is vile… I… never will… lose my faith…”

  “But you never had faith in yourself. I am so sorry, my dear Child…” said the Voice.

  “I’m… just a man…“ Beatle gulped, as Mars’ eyes twitched, hearing that.