Slowly, Naecken pulled himself up off of the ground. He looked around wearily, there was no sign of Smith anywhere. Bah, he thought to himself, the weakling probably couldn't handle the overload. Once again, Kwaiziel is triumphant! He smiled as he took notice of the Vanguardians celebrating their seeming victory. Ah, little angel, it is time I finish what I started and summon my armies. . . As Naecken began to stand, he felt his throat grabbed from behind.
"Remember me, old pal?" Grimm hissed in Kwaiziel's ear. "Urkk!" Naecken responded. "Thought so." Grimm spun the still weak demon lord around and blasted him with a steel covered right cross. Naecken's jaw shattered as his spiked teeth flew out of his mouth. "That was for Mick!"
Grimm nailed the demon lord again with his left hand, shattering Naecken's eye socket and knocking his eyeball loose. "That was for scaring Shirley!" Naecken howled in pain, still weak from Smith's absorption. He attempted to punch Grimm, who dodged, grabbed Naecken's arm, and bent it backwards, hyperextending it and fracturing it just above the elbow. "That's for the people killed and hurt in Promethan City!" Naecken screamed in agony, the Vanguardians now alerted to the situation unfolding in front of them. "And this. . ." Grimm held up his left hand, as his axe rose up from it's resting place beneath a mound of snow. The axe landed in the hands of it's master, as he raised his arms above his head. "THIS IS FOR ME!!!!!!!" Grimm brought both of his arms down with full force cleaving Naecken's head in two all the way down to his sternum as blue light bathed everything in the immediate area. Naecken's body slumped back, the composite being finally dead.
*********************
The Vanguardians looked around the Antarctic. T5 robots lay shattered, their remains littering the landscape. The dead were everywhere. Metahumans, brainwashed normals held in thrall by Naecken and forced to fight against those that would free them, and of course, the Annunaki.
"Did we win?" Phil Smith asked, surveying the devastation. "Can we ever truly win in a situation like this?" Grimm answered. "Sometimes the best you can hope for is to survive. Let's go home, guys."
