Later
"Archdemons?" Clause asked, half sarcastiaclly.
"How simple minded you are, Claude. Indeed, you wouldn't grasp the fact that even when these creatures first existed, they were thrown into the bottomless pit; where they are still falling. That's because they were totally uncontrollable. They wreaked havoc on the universe. Their fiery breaths were so hot, they blew planets apart."

Claude shook his head interruptingly: "Ok, lemme tell you something about simple minded. Now, to burn a planet until it blows up, that's scientfically impossible, Neria. I'm sorry, but welcome to the 21st century."

Neria frowned: "Are you calling me a liar?". There was a long silence.

"Umm.." Sieg raised his hand. "Sorry to interrupt, but there's something called thermonuclear reaction, Claude. That's when the temperature of an atom is so hot that the nuclei fuse together, releasing an explosive energy. Throw a dozen thermonuclear bombs on Mars and it's Kaput; Nuclear Fusion, physics. Give her a break, she came from fucking hell."
Claude nodded at Sieg: "Really? I suppose you have a scientific explanation for the "bottomless pit" as well, Mr. I am too good to be in school?"

Neria rolled her eyes and thought to herself. "If they only knew that all the collective knowledge of humanity wasn't close to one percent of the knowledge of the universe." She thought.

Sieg scratched his head. "Could be a blackhole. That's the only scientific thing I can think of that can hold these creatures, if they ever existed."

Claude thought, then nodded his head at Neria: "Ok, go on."

Neria looked at him with piercing eyes. Claude Gulped. There was deafening silence.

Claude gulped again. "Anyway. So what was I gonna ask you? Oh yeah, these Chaos things. If they've been falling for the past 50 million years, they'll probably beat the shit out of the first dude they see. So I ain't waking them up, ok?"
Neria nodded: "Indeed, Claude. Indeed, their anger shall be great. But as the King of Clubs, your scepter will put them under your control. And the Ace will lead them in the War." she looked at Sieg. Sieg smiled: "Cool." then he looked at Nieder: "I'm gonna be better than you. I'm gonna be half human, half watchamacallem, coz I'm gonna be the fucking ACE of clubs man."

Niedrig frowned, obviously jealous: "What about me? What am I going to be? If Claude's the King, Cristy's the Queen and Skeleton-Brains -who would've done a better job as the fricking Joker- is the Ace, what bout me?". Neria: "You'll be the prince - the Jack, Nieder. As the Prince, one of the Ace's principal jobs is to be your personal bodyguard.". Nieder looked at Sieg and smiled: "Hear that, Skeleton Brains? You're going to be my fucking body guard, and you have to shine my shoes too..."
"Go fuck yourself." Sieg said.
Claude roared. "You stupid little kids, let Neria finish, this is important."
Neria nodded: "Thank you Claude. As I was saying, as the Jack, you oversee the Kingdom, advise the King and Queen, and make sure your citizens are not revolting. You're also responsible for the Kingdom if Claude or Cristy are not around, or in the unlikely case that the Kingdom has no King or Queen yet."

Nieder nodded: "Good enough."
"So how are we going to get to Hades?" Claude asked.

Neria took a step back and reached to the air in front of her. Suddenly, the dark room seemed to get darker.

A pitch-black object formed above Neria's palm. It formed into the shape of a clover leaf:
The symbol of Clubs. It floated above Neria's hand and spun slowly.

"Cool. What's that?" Sieg asked.
"The symbol of Clubs. This is the key to Hades. It's actually a gemstone, created from the essence of the element of hades: Shadow of Fire. And crafted by one of the first angels, Ballaton." Neria answered back. 
Niedrig stood up: "Kewl! Can I touch it?".
Claude: "If you've got the key, why don't we just go in there? Kick the shit out of the angels then call these Chaos things."
 
"No, the key's to unlock the gates between Hades and the other worlds, I have it, so all we need to do is walk into Hades, through its portal in Purgatory. But that's not the problem, the army is that the army of angels is too powerful for you and me put together, even with the King of Diamonds. I need "Super" villains by my side for that." Neria mocked.

Claude frowned: "What the hell do you mean? I thought you CHOSE us."
"You're nowhere close to whom I chose. In order to wield any of the four tokens, you need to be ascended. That means passing twenty two levels of Ascension, reversed." Neria explained. The guys shook their heads. They were too confused. "I don't have all the time in the world to explain every detail, so you'll just have to find out yourselves." Neria said.

Claude: "But you ARE going to help us, aren't you?"

Neria nodded: "I'm going to be there every step of the way. And as for the other requirement... That can be fixed. By giving you guys a little... Boost." Neria smiled wickedly.

Suddenly, black serpents slithered out of the spinning blackness of nothing and crawled down Neria's body. There were many of them. At first three, then ten, then forty, then a hundred. But they were BLACK like the shadow so they blended easily with the decor. The three were panicking. "GET THOSE THINGS OFF OF US!" The guys screamed.

The snakes crawled up Nieder's body, they all gathered in the center of his body and formed a rope of blackness circling his front and rear body, from crotch up to his head and all the way to the back and buttocks.

The rope covered his face and he couldn't even scream anymore. But the pain he felt was excruciating. This was no dream. This was no "trip". This was real hell.

Sieg was in even more horror. The snakes took over his head, and swamped his entire spinal cord area. He felt an acidic sting in his back and felt the snakes trying to melt their way INTO his body.

Claude was in a frenzy. Seeing a hulk like that thrash about around the cell in total agony is a sad sight indeed; the snakes covered his hand and it looked as if, for a moment, he had no right hand. He slammed it against the wall. He felt no release from the hundred or so snakes that swamped his hand. All he felt was heat that was so painful he could swear that his nerves were about to shut down.

Neria laughed. Her laugh echoed the entire cell. The three men were suffering and they could very well hear her laugh. But no, it was too late now. Whatever was happening to them. It was happening.

Suddenly Nieder's body broke in two, splitting him into two identical halves. The snakes filled the vacuum that was his internal organs and suppressed the impending blood-gush, absorbing it instead.

The snakes on Sieg's body disappeared into his spinal cord and the rest slithered under his skin through his cerebral cortex and into his brain. He fell to the floor in a violent epileptic episode.

As for Claude, he stared at his hand as the shadow formed into a metal, going through and into his hand. "WHAT" he screamed "is HAPPENING to me!"

"I introduce you to my three supervillains." Neria said mysteriously.

"Niedrig..." She turned to him. Out of each half of his body, a shadow poured forth like black vomit, and filled the void, forming two people: Each one half man, half shadow. The Two "half" men stood up.
They looked at each other. "I'm... Two" he said, with two voices. His shadow halves moved themselves towards each other then merged. And out of the conflagration two opposite men emerged: One Man, one Shadow.

"... YOU, are ShadowFlank ." Continued Neria. "Split personality? Yes indeed. One human, one shadow. Your human half is what you normally are. Whenever it wishes, your shadow half emerges, thereby you can do two things at once. Moreover, the shadow half can do superhuman activities. It can go through solids, climb buildings and move instantaneously to anywhere that the shadow can stretch to.
The only catch is, the shadow half should only reveal itself when there's no light. Otherwise, your real shadow cast against light will be angered and will fight your shadow-half to the death."

Neria turned to Sieg. "Siegfried..."

Sieg was on the floor. One knee on the ground. He looked as if he was to begin a race. "I feel it..." he smiled. "I can FEEL IT IN ME!" he shouted.

Neria clasped her arms and smiled.

"Ready..." Sieg said.

"...Steady...." He switched to the "Steady" leaning position. As if about to run a 200-meter dash.

"Go!" He sprinted. In this small cell, you wouldn't think there's anywhere to run to. But he raced towards the wall and continued vertically upwards, as if gravity had no meaning to him anymore. Worse still, he could continue running across the ceiling, wall, floor, round and round again.

Nieder nodded with a smile. "Nice...." Who was now back into a one-man form.

Sieg paused halfway to the top of the wall then leaped across the cell to the top of the bunk bed and clasped his hands behind his back. "Don't feel tired at all!"

"...Hyperact. The shadows inside your blood-stream and cerebrum take control of your hormonal and chemical balances in your body, boosting and balancing your testostrone, adrenaline, dopamine and serotonin levels accordingly. You are not only stronger, but you can also move faster, think faster, heal faster and sleep less without tiring. Your new friend, though, is the water bottle. You'll be easily susceptible to dehydration. So be careful when using your shadow powers.

She now turned to Claude.

"And you... My dear."

He was clasping his right hand with his left. Apparently still in pain. But he turned to her and raised his left hand at her. "Allow me." He walked towards the cell wall and raised his right fist in the air. The pitch black metal seemed to shimmer for a moment.

He punched through the wall...

A scream was heard in the next cell as the punch hit the bunk bed "next door" and made it sprawl in the air then slam-slide across the floor, making its two occupants fly outwards, each hitting their heads against the walls. The huge bunk bed crashed into that cell's metal bars and the reinforced steel gladly gave into the makeshift battering-ram, opening the steel far and wide.

"I..." Shouted Claude, his skin throbbing with veins filled with a cocktail of blood and shadow:
"...AM the Iron Fist...  EISENFAUST!"

Neria dissapeared. "I'll be back, with the next Queen of Clubs."

An alarm sounded throughout the jail and guards stormed the hallway.
EisenFaust, HyperAct and ShadowFlank stood side by side.
Each of them smiled, and without a word they said:

"BRING IT ON."

History's about to prepare a new passage in its book:
"300 years later. A secluded jail in Lyons France. Was witness to a horrible incident.
This day marks yet another massacre. But this time. No one was spared."

[NEXT CHAPTER]