When The Viper, Duncan, The Crawler, Nightclaw, and Powerhouse arrived at the front of the New York Times Tower, they were met with a horrifying sight; the entire group had fallen on their knees and were ensnared in bluish-purple chains by Malcorchus's spell. On the far left was Coldsnap, with Malcorchus having somehow managed to restrain her giant ice dragon as well. Both of them looked completely hopeless, with the icy heroine just gazing sadly at Duncan and hoping that the others had some plan to get them out of this.
The remaining heroes in the convertible soon caught sight of everyone else who had fallen victim to Malcorchus's magic: Giorgio Carlisle, Commissioner Marvin, and all of their troops.....even Dean, Amy, Jaden, Adriana, and Diamond---completely innocent civilians---were caught up in the king's wrath.
Shocker and Herman were tied up next to each other, with the former having been rendered totally powerless. Walter and Clara, too, had also met the same fate not too far away from them.
"No.....what has he done?!" The Viper cried as she and the others immediately exited the convertible and rushed over to the captives in an attempt to help them. The heroine's first move was to try and free Herman, while Duncan hurried over to Shocker and assisted her, too. In addition, The Crawler, Nightclaw, and Powerhouse went to check on the others.
"No, Viper, wait!" Walter called. "All of you need to back off! It's a trap!"
But it was too late. Before anyone could react, Malcorchus hovered down in full view of all of his chained victims, and swiftly used the exact same spell to ensnare Duncan, The Crawler, Nightclaw, and Powerhouse, leaving The Viper as the only one able to act.
"Welcome, Little Snake....." the king greeted mockingly. "I was beginning to think you'd never show up."
"Let them go, Malcorchus," she demanded. "Your fight is with me, not them."
"Oh.....I know. Why do you think I chained them up?"
"The Viper's eyes widened. ".....Because you wanted to lure me out....."
"Exactly! Pity that you only figured it out after you arrived....."
"Well, here I am. What do you want?!"
"I wanted what anyone else would want; to survive," Malcorchus began. "But no.....you've resisted us at every turn. You've killed Nic'qura and the Opulent not once, but twice. Your friends are responsible for the death of Caspian and the destruction of our home. Even if I were to resurrect them all again, there would be no hope of restoring our dimension now....."
By now, the formerly-calm king was now seething with rage. "There's nothing left! But I will personally see to the complete and total destruction of this city's 'hero'."
"Yeah? Bring it on, then!" The Viper challenged, bringing out her pistols and taking a fighting stance. "We'll see how well you can deal with me when you aren't sending your minions to attack from behind.....like a coward."
Malcorchus angrily grimaced and gritted his teeth at the insult, which she noticed.
"Touched a nerve, didn't I?" she taunted further. "Tell you what.....if you can actually put up a good fight.....I'll take back what I said."
"What?! No! Don't do this, Viper!" Clara protested. "You don't know what you're doing! If Walter and I ended up like this.....who knows what he'll do to you?!"
"Shut up!" Malcorchus ordered, conjuring up a second, smaller chain to seal her mouth shut before turning his attention back to the superheroine. "I should've killed you myself on the helipad that night. No matter.....when I'm done with you, Little Snake, all of your friends and family will know the grief and loss I've been through."
YOU ARE READING
The Paragons
Teen Fiction~PARAGON CINEMATIC UNIVERSE: PHASE 1, BOOK 6~ *This novel serves as the culmination of all five PCU novels that have come before it, and it is the 6th and final novel of Phase 1 of the PCU. You will get the most out of it if you've read all of them...
