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But this creature, well, she’dbeen trainin’ something hard. Focused entirely on this day, this meeting, thisfight.He wasn’t brawlin’ with some bully off the street, or even some talented Set Metalborn. He was facin’ an assassin what had been designedspecificallyto kill him.

She was stronger than he was. Faster than he was. Younger than he was. Better with the canes. He was better with his powers. He was certain of that. But in these close confines, that didn’t really matter. And as he traded blows with her, taking hits and forcing himself to heal, he… Well, he took more punishment than he gave. Rusts… was this what Wax felt like, now he was gettin’ on in years?

He rolled to the side, through the muck on the bottom of the giant tube they was in. That put him right to the other edge of the speed bubble, and he slipped halfway out of it—though fortunately, so long as you were touching it at all it included you in its powers.

A motion from where Wax was fightin’ made Wayne duck. Wax himself went flying past again, and he soared completely out of the speed bubble. Damn. That was what they’dbeen planning to do to the other guy.

Wax froze instantly, hanging in the air with a grimace on his face, gun trailing from his fingers and hovering in front of him, mistcoat tassels sweeping around him.

Uh-oh,Wayne thought.

A spray of coins hit Wayne a second later.

“Aw, Dumad,” not-Wayne said, turning. “I was havin’ fun.I’msupposed to be the one who takes him.”

“You’re inefficient, Getruda,” Dumad said. “You play with him. You simply need to hit him repeatedly until his health runs out.” He punctuated this by giving Wayne another faceful of coins, knocking him to the ground.

Rusts. This was bad. Wayne healed that, but it was slow—his healing was starting to run dangerously low. And he had to ration it as a result.

“Oi,” he muttered, “Death. Betcha fifty clips I survive this.” It was a good time for a bet. Because in such a situation, Wayne had to try something truly desperate.

The truth.

He stumbled to his feet, putting his back to the rounded wall of the tunnel. “You think you know me?” Wayne whispered. “You think you know what I’ve been through?”

Dumad looked at him, thenPushed.And rusts, the guy was so strong he could affect the metalinsideWayne’s body. That was a crazy thing to experience—Wayne was shoved backward from the coins embedded within him. Rust and Ruin… that was a power that the Ascendant Warrior was said to have had.

These guys reallywerecheating. No wonder Wax had lost his fight. No wonder Wayne had essentially lost his—the dueling portion at least. But if he could keep their attention…

He grunted at the Push. Then he stepped forward anyway, feeling the coins tear and rip inside him. He took another step, leaning forward into the Push.

Not-him hesitated, lowering her canes. He met her eyes.

Then he grinned.

“You can’t hurt me,” he whispered, changing his accent. “Ain’t nothin’ that can hurt me more than life already has. You can’t kill me. I’m already dead. I been dead for years, sister.”

He took another step forward. Most people, they didn’t notice accent changes like that. Little tweaks to the tone of your words. But people judged you on them anyway. Their brains associated accents with meaning.

Dumad frowned, seeming disturbed, and raised his hand and Pushed harder. Wayne slid in the mud, the coins ripping farther through him. Then he took another step forward and changed his accent further. Put on his most wide-eyed, excited face. Twisting his voice to be something unnatural. Something terrifying. Something out of a nightmare. Matching this not-Wax’s accent, but terrible.

Like the accent he’dhear from his parents and family. Only broken. Wayne didn’t need a hat for this one.

“It’s easy to do what you do, since you don’t care,” Wayne growled to the two, making his eyes go even wider. “So long as you can pretend. But real pain, that comes when you realize what you are. What you done. Waking up each morning, knowin’ you’re worthless.That’spain. Anything else? Anythingyoucould do to me? Well, that’s just a little bit o’ fun.”

“You’re…” Dumad trailed off as Wayne’s smile widened.

“Thank you,” Wayne said, “for tossin’ Wax outta here. That way I got a few moments to have you two all to myself.”

The coins finally ripped through Wayne’s back, letting him lurch forward in a sudden rush. And as he did, he threw himself to the ground. Because amid his display—getting them to focus only on him—he’ddropped the speed bubble. And they hadn’t noticed.

From the side, Wax put a hazekiller round straight in not-Wayne’s face. Its secondary explosion went off a second later, blowing off half her skull. A second shot from Wax took Dumad in the chest as he was turning, then exploded out his back.

Incredibly, the Coinshot didn’t fall. Pewter. Did the fellow havepewterto burn and push through wounds? How many spikes did this fellow have, and why hadn’t they let Harmony take control of him?

Unfortunately, the man stayed on his feet and ducked the next bullets. He shoved a grate off the ceiling, opening it up to the sunlight, then seized the bloodied not-Wayne and Pushed on a coin.

The two launched up and out. One with a hole in his chest that didn’t seem to hurt as much as it should have, the other with half her head gone. She might be dead, though Wayne couldn’t be certain. Head shots were tricky. They could end you, but it all depended on the damage done.