In the middle of all this chaos the Vanguardians struggled to contain, the original Maxwell Wolfe, the only clothed one (obviously, since his clothes didn't share his powers), struggled with Link Fox in a possibly endless battle of equals. They simply stared into each other's eyes as they stood pressing each other's arms and immobilizing themselves.
"Why?" Link asked, gritting his teeth and sweating because of the fire that surrounded them.
"You broke our rules, brother..." Maxwell replied. "Do you think I'm stupid? Do you think I wouldn't have heard about it? That you could have gone back to your old habits and go unnoticed? I have very good connections... Very good ones. While I considered the possibilities of how to punish you for disobeying me this time, I found through one of my connections that someone, a very important someone, was willing to pay for the lives of the descendants of the Rogues... Perfect timing. I don't need the money, of course, but I saw in this little contract a beautiful possibility... What I enjoyed the most about slaughtering your friends in the past was the look on their faces as they thought I was you during their last moments... The same look I saw in Little Jack Merlin's face this time... I've always wanted to make that moment last longer, and now I have: I made your new friends think you were a killer and hunt you down... I bet there's still doubt in their minds as to whether you planned this or not... Even if you defeat me, that doubt will always be there... They'll never look at you the same way again... Never."
"This is going nowhere," Adem said, observing the fight from above, never having left the rooftop where he materialized along with the rest of the team what seemed like days ago. "We must change the situation."
Hero, standing next to him, nodded in agreement.
"I don't understand why we're just standing here with all that's going on down there!" ACK said, also standing on the rooftop. "I just wanna give that fucker a piece of my mind..."
"We need a team to stay out of reach from Wolfe, in case things get out of hand," Hero replied.
"Uh, boss... Don't you think they're already out of hand?!" Brian Dead asked.
"Wait!" Adem said, before Hero could reply, listening to an earpiece coming out of his wrist. "Jym just found something on the Mandelovian legend!"
"What is it?" Hero asked.
"I don't know what to make of it..." Adem said, still listening to Jym. "However, Link possibly might."
"We need to get him here," Hero said. "We must distract Wolfe to--"
"I'm on it!" ACK exclaimed. He jumped off the rooftop and activated the jets in his boots to fly towards Fox and Wolfe as fast as he could.
ACK tackled Wolfe, leaving Link standing in confusion. Holding Wolfe to the ground, ACK looked back at Link and yelled, pointing at the rooftop: "THEY NEED YOU UP THERE!"
As Link ran towards the building, trying to think of a way to get past the burning Dukes and get to the rooftop, Hero flew to him and picked him up, taking him to Adem in no time.
"Jym found something!" Adem exclaimed, unhooking the earpiece coming out of his wrist and letting Jym speak out.
{"In the future the legacy of the Rogues will have to confront a threat spawned from their original adventure. The only object capable of destroying the threat will be the very same one that created it."}
"Well, that's convenient..." Brian rolled his eyes.
"Spawned..." Link thought about what Jym just said. "Of course! Get Montag and give him a transducer! I need him to go get me something!"
"I don't know if you're aware of this," ACK whispered to Wolfe, as he pressed the Duke's neck to the cement with his arm, "but you killed the only mentor I've had in my life. I don't know if I can kill you... but now that I have you I'll make you suffer as much as I can. Unlike the weaklings you've fought so far, I was trained to be a soldier for the Strikeforce 1... I know a lot of ways to make a man scream in pain. I know things that would make your sad little murders pale in comparison. I promise I'll make you cry."
With his throat pressed under ACK's heavy metallic arm, Wolfe managed to get one word out: "...Try...".
"Knife," ACK said in reply, and in an instant a blade came out of the side of his arm, the same side he was pressing to Wolfe's throat... ACK moved his arm sideways, slashing the Duke's neck horribly, but being careful not to cut his head off.
However, Wolfe's face remained static, no sign of pain crossed it for even a second. Instead, he simply took advantage of the fact that he wasn't being pressed to the ground anymore, and threw his head back, directing the blood that sprayed from his neck to ACK's helmet.
With his visor covered in Wolfe's blood, ACK took a step back in blinded confusion. "OPEN VISOR!" he yelled, and as his order was complied by his armor, he saw something the size of an M&M coming his way. Before he had time to tell his visor to close again, the small object was already inside his helmet. He heard it fall into the dephts of his armor.
ACK looked at Wolfe in confusion. "What...?"
"A small explosive device of my design," the Duke said. "Granted, its explosion won't be very big... But I'm guessing the chain reaction started by it inside your armor in about ten seconds will destroy this whole area and everyone in it..." He grinned. "Except for me and my brother, of course."
ACK's eyes widened. He stood still, full of shock and not knowing how to react. There wasn't enough time to take off his armor... And, even if he did that, he wouldn't have time to escape from the explosion caused by the power supply in his armor's chest.
Hero had heard everything through the SF comm buildt into ACK's helmet. "ACK! FLY AWAY! NOW!"
ACK didn't move.
"I'M GIVING YOU AN ORDER!" Hero yelled into his comm, watching from the rooftop.
ACK closed his eyes, as tears started pouring out of them. He opened his mouth and softly whispered at Hero through his comm. "I don't regret a thing."
ACK started his jets and flew into the sky. When he was several feet above the ground, a small explosion in his armor, followed by a gigantic one, covered the sky.
While everyone looked up, Hero looked down at Wolfe with fury. He flew to him in superspeed and, after the Duke was tackled to the ground for a second time, Hero started furiously punching his face.
The Duke didn't even attempt to defend himself: all he did was laugh, while his face healed itself after every punch and before Hero could connect the following one. Hero incresed the velocity of his punches to superspeed, causing the blood that jumped after every punch to cover him and the street that surrounded them. After a minute, when he stopped for a second to catch his breath, he saw in horror that the Duke's face remained unaltered, as did his horrible grin.
