Jason, a being of living flame, looked at his brother, now a man of solid iron. For a moment, the sheer absurdity of it all struck him. Then, he smiled through the fire. They had been freaks together since childhood; what was one more transformation between them? Death itself couldn't separate them now.
The regenerating researcher scrambled back, his mind reeling. "What... what are you?"
In a blinding flash, Jason became a torrent of fire, reappearing instantly before the researcher. His molten hands, radiating a heat that warped the very air, clamped down on the man's arm.
"Your little trick is impressive," Jason hissed. "You can regrow flesh. But can you regrow ash?"
The researcher screamed as his arm, caught in the infernal grip, sizzled and blackened. The flesh cooked, the muscle vaporized, and the bone carbonized in seconds. With a dry, cracking sound, the limb disintegrated into a cloud of black dust that floated away on the heated air.
"AHHHH!" The man howled, clutching the cauterized stump where his arm had been. His vaunted healing factor was useless. There was nothing left to heal. He had been permanently maimed.
Driven by agony and fury, he lashed out with his leg, a powerful kick aimed at Jason's fiery form. But before it could connect, a metallic blur intercepted it. Edward, moving with the silent, implacable force of a machine, caught the kick with his open palm. With a sickening crunch, he closed his fist, shattering the man's tibia.
Edward's face, a mask of grim iron, twisted into a sinister smile. "Jason," he said, his voice a low rumble. "We're on borrowed time. How about we burn it all down? Leave nothing but ghosts and echoes."
Jason didn't need to answer. He simply nodded, the flames around him flaring with renewed intensity. It was a final pact, sealed in fire and iron. They were no longer just seeking revenge; they were instruments of annihilation.
What followed was a symphony of destruction. The two brothers, walking avatars of death, tore through the facility. A researcher conjured a shimmering energy shield, only for Edward to punch straight through it as if it were glass, his iron fist continuing through the man's chest. Another scientist, a pyrokinetic himself, hurled a desperate fireball at Jason, only to watch in horror as his flames were greedily consumed by Jason's inferno before he too was incinerated in a blast of overwhelming heat.
The laboratory, the heart of the island, detonated in a cataclysmic explosion. A massive plume of black smoke and angry orange fire punched into the sky as the remaining researchers fled the wreckage like terrified insects.
One, a woman with super-speed, was a blur on the beach, making a desperate dash for the water. A wall of fire erupted in her path, coalescing into Jason's smoldering form.
"Where do you think you're going?" he asked, his voice soft and terrible. "The show's not over. Come and be buried with us."
Watching from the Void, Marcus felt a flicker of grim satisfaction. "Since you don't want any loose ends," he murmured to himself, "I suppose I can help tidy up."
His Limbo form shimmered. One of his arms morphed, shedding its sleek armor for a grotesque, coral-encrusted appendage dripping with spectral water. A power not of the Rift, but of the roiling seas, answered his call.
Tentacles Raging.
The ocean around the island churned. From the depths, a behemoth of pure, churning seawater arose, its abyssal eyes glowing with cold light. Simultaneously, hundreds of massive tentacles made of pressurized water erupted from the surf, creating an inescapable cage around the island. A researcher who had dived into the ocean was snatched up by one of the watery limbs, constricted until his bones snapped, and then smashed against the island's rocky cliffs with the force of a locomotive.
No one was getting out.
Jason saw the sea monster rise from the waves. He felt no fear, only a strange sense of kinship. He didn't understand its origin, but he sensed it was part of the same cosmic force that had given him this final, glorious power.
"More of your abominable research, I assume?" he snarled at a researcher being held fast by a water tentacle. "A monster to guard your monster factory. If you were left to your own devices, you'd drown the world."
He opened his mouth and blew a gentle stream of fire. It transformed into a flaming dragon that coiled around the trapped scientist. There was no scream, only a silent flash of incineration, and a puff of ash that drifted into the sea. With the sea monster's help, the brothers' work became brutally efficient.
One by one, the last vestiges of Vought's secret project were erased from existence.
When it was over, Edward staggered onto the blood-soaked beach. His iron body was beginning to flake and rust, the golden light in his eyes flickering like a dying candle. Every movement was agony as his life force burned down to its final embers.
He collapsed to his knees.
"Jason..." he rasped.
Instantly, Jason was by his side, the inferno of his body retracting until he was merely smoldering. He knelt, placing a hot but gentle hand on his brother's iron shoulder. "I'm here, Eddie. I'm here."
"I'm sorry, Jay," Edward's words came in ragged gasps. "Our wish... we never found them. Never found our family... I'm going now... Leave me here when I'm gone." He was fading fast, his consciousness unraveling.
"Jason..." he whispered, his gaze turning to the smoke-filled sky. "Can I... can I see the fireworks one more time?"
Tears sizzled into steam on Jason's fiery cheeks. He nodded, and summoning the last of his own fading strength, he opened his mouth and blew gently upwards. A shower of soft, beautiful sparks floated into the air, like dying stars against the dark canvas of the sky. They were a faint echo of their innocent circus days, one last moment of beauty at the end of all things.
"Beautiful..." Edward breathed, a final, peaceful smile gracing his iron lips.
As the last spark faded, the light in his eyes went out. His body cooled, hardened, and with a soft, groaning sound, a network of cracks spread across his metallic form. The statue of the iron man crumbled into a pile of rust and dust on the beach.
Edward was gone.
From the Void, Marcus watched the final, quiet moment. A rare, unfamiliar emotion stirred within him. A sense of waste.
"A man who died for his brother," he mused. "A loyalty far deeper than any ocean. What a regrettable waste of a perfectly good soul."
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