1.15 Brimestone Part 1

After quickly and silently dropping off Necromantress at the police station, Gears swiftly heads off, leaving the supervillainess with the stunned officers.

Which member of the Slaughter Seven is closest?

Demonica.

She is actually heading towards you.

Hmm, we need to be careful then if she is willingly facing us.

Gears changes his direction to intercept Demonica, his Gardium halberd in his hand. It isn’t long before he spots his foe. The Aphrodite woman is zooming through the air right towards him.

No, not an Aphrodite, but an Abnormal.

Not that it is harder to mistake her for the former.

Very true.

Demonica is a red haired Aphrodite, not a natural copper, but an unnatural bright red that looks like blood. Her skin is an eerie pale white while her eyes are black with blood red pupils. Her costume is nothing more than a set of gold and black exposing armour.

Absolutely impractical.

She can afford to be so with her A+ Nigh Invulnerability.

It is still shameful.

Not to mention ridiculous.

Gears adjusts his position, but not slowing down as he approaches Demonica. He raises his halberd back, ready to strike the villainess.

Demonica looks up at she spots Gears approaching and pulls something out of her belt. She crushes it in her fist and throws it at Gears as he enters within a few metres of her. The vigilante rolls out of the way of the dust and brings down his halberd.

But before his blade can connect with Demonica, a red black hole-like portal appears from where the dust is. Gears tries to fly away, but he is already engulfed by it.

What the heck is this?

I don’t not know.

Let us hope it isn’t fatal.

Or at the very least, our armour can withstand whatever it is.

Within moments, Gears is sucked into the portal and his world is replaced with red and black fiery swirls. He is spat out the other side of the portal, slamming face up into crimson red ground.

Gears looks up in time just to see the portal close, the swirls of red energy imploding.

“What happened?” asks Gears as he sits upright.

My head feels so much clearer and lighter.

I know the reason for that.

We all do.

“We have been transported to another dimension,” answers Enduring Iron, “A pocket reality created by Demonica’s power.”

Gears snaps his head around to face Enduring Iron before looking around as he realises what has happened. All of this companions are surrounding him, given physical form in this pocket dimension just as they are given form in virtual reality.

“Great,” mutters Gears sarcastically before raising his voice, “So how do we get home?”

“Unknown at this point in time,” replies Iron before pointing at something in the distance, “But my guess would be that the citadel over there may contain answers.”

Following Iron’s indication, Gears looks at the multi-towered black citadel built into a mountain in the distance.

“A good a guess as any I suppose,” says Gears, “Who can fly?”

Burning Heart, Joyous Star and White Tea all raise their hands while Iron morphs pair of jetpack wings.

“Okay then,” says Gears, “I’ll ride on Lion then.”

“No problem,” replies Vigilant Lion as he kneels down on his forelegs to allow Gears to climb onto his back.

Gears does just that and clips his halberd to his back as Lion gets up. Gears holds onto Lion as he observes this dimension.

It has crimson red dirt, black rocks, rivers of lava and a blood red sky.

Geez, I wonder what place this pocket dimension was modelled after.

“So what can you guys do?” asks Gears, deciding to see what he has to work with when they run into hostiles.

“I am a brick with ability to render myself immune to some of the total damage inflicted,” answers Lion.

“I am an energy projector,” comes Star’s answer while Heart replies a moment later, “The same.”

“Healing and repair,” says Tea, “Basically restoration.”

“I can morph myself into different things and I have your Gadgeteering,” says Iron, “Except I don’t have the restraint of physical resources when I’m morphing my form.”

I got a lot to work with here.

Don’t forget we can still mental communicate.

I won’t. I just hope all of this will be enough for whatever we face.

We will be.

“Okay guys, this is the battle plan,” says Gears, “Star and Heart will be our frontline hits. Lion and I will be the second line while Tea and Iron provide support.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” agrees Lion.

“Yes, it does,” Iron also agrees.

“Contacts up ahead,” reports Heart as they near the citadel.

Using his armour’s telescopic vision, Gears looks at dozen guards of the citadel gates. Each is about two metres tall and humanoid in shape, all wearing bulky black plate armour with an assortment of weaponry.

“Looks like some fun,” says Gears, “Let’s take them down.”