Spirals of Fate is a serialized work of fiction centering on the intellectual property of City of Heroes and City of Villains. Chapter One centered on two villains, Vincent and Mara, and their breakout from the Zigg, a prison used to house those with super powers. They met another villain named Mosaic and the three headed for Arachnos flyers and freedom. Chapter 2 explored the perspective of the young heroes called to defend their city from the rising tide of crime. In Chapter 3 Part 1, Mosaic, Vincent and Mara arrive at an Arachnos-held area only to encounter violence from other prisoners. In Chapter 4 the rookie heroes converge on the bank and are met by the three working for Arachnos

Spirals of Fate: Chapter Five (Spiraling out of control) - Part One
By Michael Lafferty and Matthew Eberle

Charger had hit the bank with the speed of a small tornado, his eyes keyed on the big black swirling cloud, emitters firing. A fist would emerge ever so often, to pound this or swipe away that. Bullets were penetrating the mist around the body, but seemed to have little impact. He couldn’t tell if his beams were having any effect and that made him nervous. Yes, he was staring intently at the black cloud, too intently.

What he didn’t see was the woman, turning visible directly in the path between him and the maelstrom in the main lobby of the bank. He may not have seen her initially, but the red glow from her fist struck him like a steel battering ram – one that caused surprise and some pain as he retraced his path into the back, though this time in an out-of-control flight trajectory.

Mara stepped down onto the street with a snarl on her face. The “hero” in that tin can was still struggling his way out of the wrecked car and two more were rushing up the street to meet them. The young woman wrapped her invisibility around herself like a cloak of shadows and carefully walked into the open. With all the cracked pavement she had to be careful not to give away her position by moving some of the debris. Mara felt her chest tighten as Vincent’s gasp of pain hissed into her ear from the small transmitter nestled there. “Are you okay?” she whispered.

“I’m fine,” Vincent said shortly. “Thanks for getting that idiot off of me.” She could see her friend gingerly probing the gash in his t-shirt and coat where the energy beam had tried burning into him. He straightened up as the so-called heroes finally made it to the bank front. The large male leading the charge did not wait. He plowed right into Vincent, dropping his shoulder like a football player. Vincent grunted with the impact as he flew backward into the bank.  The icy warrior continued his charge, following him into the confines of the damaged building.  The young man twisted in mid-air and landed on all fours like some kind of beast. Mara shivered suddenly, although she didn’t know why. The huge figure, clad in what looked like solid ice, was ill prepared for Vincent’s response. The youth sprang forward and delivered a vicious right hook that knocked him off balance. The blows the two men were exchanging sounded like thunderclaps.

This fight needed to end quickly, she decided. Mara began slowly circling around behind the monolithic figure. With a single well-placed blow she could easily shatter the protective ice covering his head. She might even be able to knock him out with a solid enough hit. Mara heard a metallic grinding and looked behind her. The armored hero had finally kicked his way free of the totaled minivan.   He was angrily striding up to the bank, his fists raised to point his weapons at the brutal melee Vincent and their unknown assailant were engaged in.  Someone should do something about that, she thought as she began creeping closer to him. While she was still far enough away that he might not here her, Mara whispered a hurried question, “Mosaic, where are you?”

…

Mosaic tapped the control, which would activate his microphone as he set the drill bit. “I’m a little busy, Mara,” he replied. With the press of a button the powerful drill began chewing its way into the reinforced steel door of the vault. “What seems to be the problem?”

“We have three- hold on,” she suddenly trailed off. Mosaic winced at her deafening battle cry followed by a heavy crash and what sounded like another car alarm. “We have three heroes out here trying to bust us.” Mosaic bit back a curse. “How do things look?” he asked quickly. Depending on the answer he might have to flee the scene. The villain shuddered to think what his masters would do to him for a failure of that magnitude. He would almost prefer to be back in the Zigg. At least there he might have a chance of avoiding any unpleasant – and permanent –punishments his masters would deal out.

“Vincent has two of them busy right now. I think we have it covered for a few minutes at least.” Mosaic grunted as he tugged the drill out of the finished hole. He carefully set the bit and began a second exactly four inches away from the first. “Just keep them busy for a few minutes longer and we’re home free,” he said over the grinding metal.

“You are supposed to be WITH us,” Mara hissed. Mosaic winced inwardly. There had been two plans and so far they were going as planned. The plan Vincent and Mara knew was to have the three of them work toward the vault and Vincent to drain the energy from the metal retainers making the door easy to open. The plan that Mosaic and his Arachnos adviser had determined to be the best course was to have Vincent and Mara occupy the staff at the front of the bank, Mosaic would then sneak through the bank entry and move straight to the vault. The latter was going according to plan. Vincent and Mara had drawn the entire attention of the bank. The camera system was likely out from Vincent’s initial rampage, and that gave Mosaic a precious few moments.

He had hoped to be able to exit through the front, ‘saving’ Mara and Vincent and taking them with him. With the entry of the heroes, it looked like that would not happen. His primary job was to secure the artifact, nothing more. He considered a moment, regretted what must be done, then resumed work on the vault door with Mara’s exclamation still ringing in his ears.

…

‘No reply?’ thought the black-clad woman. Then it hit her, ‘he is leaving us behind!’ She wanted to roar out in unbridled rage and go hunt him down, but Vincent needed her. She saw a movement out of the corner of her eye. A woman, blue-haired, clad in purple and gold tights was floating nearby, trying to get an angle on Vincent.

Lumiare was trying to angle a psionic attack, hoping to disable whatever the beast in the murky cloud was. The ‘human,’ for she was sure that is what it was, had taken some of Snowman’s best blows and merely roared in defiance, striking back harder than she had ever seen anyone before. He was horribly dangerous. She had to take a shot.

She heard a whisper in her ear, a woman’s voice underscored with incredible anger, “don’t even think about it!” She turned and looked straight into the eyes of a redheaded woman. A fist was poised to strike, but something was stopping it. Lumiare saw pain there, hunger, desire, betrayal, and …

Was it possible? This woman was angry but not at them, and she was only trying to protect …

She saw Charger on the other side of the woman, emitters powering up, aiming at the small of the other woman’s back. Her eyes widened.

Mara saw the look and knew what was coming. She gritted her teeth and prepared for the pain.

Vincent also saw it.

“NO!”

His speed was inhuman. One moment he was toe-to-toe with Snowman, exchanging punches, then he was across the lobby, delivering a crushing blow to Charger. The young hero’s armor absorbed some of the terrible blow, but it still sent him crashing to his knees. Vincent followed up with an uppercut that caught the sagging hero under his chin and flung him onto his back outside the shattered entrance to the bank. Vincent followed outside, to finish off the nuisance in armor. Lumiare heard Charger gasping in pain. He was hunched over on the ground, clutching his ribs. There was a whistling surge and Snowman appeared between the two men. Paul grabbed onto the shadowy figure and struggled to hold him. Charger took advantage of the distraction to take to the air.

…

He was looking down at the artifact. It was precisely where his bosses said it would be. This would please them. Time to leave, thought Mosaic. He could hear the battle rumbling through the building. Whatever was happening was likely to be an amazing spectacle. His bosses were right – if those two could take on three heroes for this length of time, plus a whole bank full of security, they might indeed be too dangerous. ‘Too bad,’ he thought, ‘they would have been all the muscle I would have needed.’

With a  shrug he removed the earpiece and dropped it to the ground, crushing it beneath a shoe heel as he made his way toward the bank’s rear exit.

…

Paul tightened his grip on the smaller man. Something in the man’s jet-black aura made it difficult to seize him firmly. They were nearly face-to-face now. For the first time he could clearly see his opponent- a young man, barely out of his teens. His sharp features were contorted in a grimace of exertion as he struggled against the much larger hero. Snowman’s aching wounds were quickly fading as he was bathed in a green light. Paul glanced up and saw Lumiare hovering over him protectively.

“Mara,” Snowman heard the other man gasp from between clenched teeth, “get out of here.” There was a pause as the two men continued grappling. In their struggle Snowman managed to kick over a mailbox and nearly tripped. His opponent nearly threw him to the ground, but Snowman’s superior strength and a quick hop ended up sending both of them to their knees instead. “Mara, don’t argue – just go!” Paul tried to keep his grip on the youth’s wrists, but he managed to twist away enough to get one arm free. Before Snowman could stop him several powerful blows slammed into his face in rapid succession. Paul staggered back as tendrils of black mist clung to his face, leaving him partially blinded for a moment.

There was a shattering Charger blast from the right that staggered Snowman. He winced as fragments of concrete bounced off his icy armor. A woman yelped in fear – the girl robbing the bank, he wondered – and Snowman heard his opponent’s voice for the last time. “Mara, I can outrun them, but I can’t do that if you’re still here. GO!” Snowman dashed his fists against his face and wiped away the last of the clinging darkness in time to see the young man peel some kind of headset off and hurl it away.

Charger was building up to another energy blast as he hovered over the battlefield. Before he could unleash another blast against the girl Vincent shrugged off Snowman and bounded effortlessly up into the air. Almost three stories up the two men collided. Charger flew away like a drunken bumblebee, zigzagging unsteadily as he tried to get away from Vincent. Snowman quickly glanced at the spot where Vincent was going to land and let his attention turn inward.

… to be continued
In Chapter 5, Part 2 the conclusion of the Spirals of Fate story.

This is a fictional story is based on the intellectual property of City of Heroes and City of Villains. That property was used as a backdrop for this story with the permission of both Ncsoft and Cryptic Studios. While this story uses that world as a backdrop, it is not meant to reflect either gameplay or storylines with the massively multiplayer online world. Some of the images used with Spirals of Fate have been taken from the game and modified to suit the illustrative purposes of this story. This story is intended for entertainment purposes only.

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