"You're not taking it alone." He batted it away with the shovel, and Belle ducked out of the room as it exploded into countless shards.
    Unfortunately Horus' idea backfired; his illusions didn't encompass smells, and Adam's expression grew enraged as he realized he had been tricked. He picked up the couch with a roar and tossed it to one side.
    Outside, Shovels Stevie saw a car pull up behind the building. One of the men who got out had an oddly-shaped helmet on, and spoke quietly to the other two.
    "We're gonna go up, get her, get the other guy, get 'em out. Even if it turns out that she ends up dead, it's still gonna get finished."
    "What're you talkin' about, boss?"
    "Why the hell am I even talking to you. Come on up there with me." They headed into the back of the building, where someone had conveniently left the door unlocked for them. Lightning began flickering around the Ray's body.
    "What'd you do that for, boss?"
    "I got a bad feeling about this."
    Stevie noted the car they had pulled up in; it was the one he had seen outside his hideout—could it possibly be only two nights ago?
    Still in Saturn form, Astro-Man tried grappling Adam to restrain him, pleading with the gorilla for calm. Adam was stronger, but having been raised among humans, he was trying to fight like a human, rather than say, going for Astro-Man's throat with his teeth.
    Gravedigger saw Belle sprint for the door and moved casually to intercept her. A fine judge of his own strength, he swung the shovel almost gently. This one would live to go to jail, though she would not reach the gun she had been after in the other room.
    Adam overpowered Astro-Man and hurled his currently almost one-ton form at Horus, who hit the floor, willing to sacrifice dignity in favor of not being flattened. The wall gave way. That left Horus facing Adam, whose back was to Gravedigger as the latter loomed over the now-unconscious Belle.
    Stevie wedged a lug wrench into the wheel well of the Lincoln, point against the treads. If the car moved, it would rip its own tire off. Then he hastened up the stairs after them, trowel in hand. It looked surprisingly sharp.
    "You hear some sorta noise in there?" one of the men asked.
    "I don't know, she's probably still yelling at that dumb ape of—" He opened the door. "That's one pissed-off gorilla."
    "Uh, boss? That's Gravedigger," a henchman muttered nervously.
    "You haven't killed anybody recently, there's no reason for you to be worried," the other replied, bravely supportive.
    "Not in the last ten years he hasn't," Gravedigger intoned, turning in their direction.
    "Ten years? I don't know what you're talking about," the Ray bluffed.
    "Upstate New York. Right after you got done burning the brush."
    "We can take him, guys."
    "We can take him?" one henchman echoed, panicky.
    "Yeah, we can." The lightning bolt jumped out of his forehead at the shovel-bearing man. "Cause there's no one alive who can take this and not drop!"
    Gravedigger stood there; his mackintosh smoked slightly.
    "Jesus, that guy ain't human," one muttered, awed.
    Outside, Astro-Man prudently shifted to his Neptune form and re-entered through the hole he'd made. "You okay?"
    "Quite," the Gray Mage replied, brushing himself off. "Yourself?"
    "Oh, God, there are more of them," one of the Ray's men moaned.
    "We'll be with you in a second," Astro-Man promised.
    "Astro-Man, the Ray; Ray, Astro-Man," Horus performed introductions.
    "Pardon me if I don't shake hands," the vigilante replied.
    The Ray laughed as Gravedigger swung the shovel; the man was using a metal weapon against someone coated in electricity? Gravedigger had been aiming for the radiator, however; coated by the spray, the Ray's helmet shorted out.
    "Um, boss, no offense but we're kinda leaving you here," a henchman apologized. "He seems to only be interested in you, and we haven't killed anybody." They ran for the stairwell—right into Stevie. Seeing them coming down the stairs, he swung around to the side and from below managed to stab the trowel through the railing, deep into one man's leg.
    "Aaargh!" He fell; the second man slammed into him and sent them both tumbling down the rest of the stairs. The unwounded one looked like he was going to get up.
    "Stay down!" Stevie warned him, waving the bloody trowel in his direction.
    "Who are you?" the guy asked, baffled.
    Stevie dropped his voice to a sepulchral whisper. "Shovels Stevie."
    The gorilla took several halting steps toward Belle's unconscious form; he stroked her long hair, tossed her over his shoulder, and headed for the hole in the wall. There the creature turned, almost looked like he was trying to talk, to indicate that he only wanted to leave this place. Seeing that Gravedigger had the Ray both outclassed and outmatched, Horus gestured and let fly at Adam with a bolt of mystical energy.
    The civilized veneer dropped away from the albino giant. He clambered through the hole in the window and in passing slapped out at Astro-Man with one massive hand, sending him staggering out of the way. Then he grabbed the cornice ledge and swung himself and Belle up onto the roof.
    On the other side of the room, Gravedigger contemplated the annoyance that was the Ray for a moment and slammed the shovel into the helmet.
    "My helmet! You broke my helmet! You..." He pulled a gun.
    Gravedigger was mildly surprised. The Ray fired three times at almost point-blank range and missed three times, his hand was shaking so badly.
    Horus decided that it might be a good idea to go a bit defensive, creating a mystical field of energy around himself that would send any stray bullets harmlessly into another dimension.
    Stevie's voice floated up from downstairs. "Boss, I got two down here!" His voice cracked badly on the last word. "I have two down here, boss," he tried again.
    "What—Frankie, Johnny!" The Ray did not look pleased.
    "Yeah, Frankie, Johnny—me and my boss'll carve that in your tombstones," he tried the graveyard voice again. This was great.
    The shovel struck again, this time knocking the Ray unconscious. Then he stalked down to retrieve the two men his sidekick had captured, cuffing them.
    Above, a gorilla's cry rang out across the rooftops. Adam had set Belle down and seemed to have lost interest in her. Astro-Man was thinking that he hadn't particularly enjoyed that movie when with a sudden running jump Adam left the rooftop and crashed down on the other side of the road—in Central Park. He vanished into the trees.
    Astro-Man swooped down, grabbed Belle, brought her inside and called the police while Horus located the other two.
    "I believe the gorilla has landed in Central Park. Your tracking skills may be useful to us."
    Gravedigger shrugged a bit. "I suppose we'd best do something about him before he kills somebody."
    "Excellent."
    The four of them regrouped and headed into the park.
    "Stevie, good job," Astro-Man congratulated.
    "Thanks." He did the shoulder-squaring thing again.
    "We'll have to get you some cuffs," Gravedigger noted. "I don't suppose you can find the gorilla?" he asked Horus.
    

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