(This is a continuation from their original fiction, you can start HERE)
"Status report, Jeeves," Grey said. He'd spent the day at
the beach with daughter Adelina, thankful that there'd been no
interruptions. Now back in his ship's command center, he was eager to
see if they'd made any progress. Things were getting pretty rough out
there, with the Legion starting to take the offensive and attacking
on multiple fronts.
"Good news,
sir, we’ve managed to acquire 3 Mind Benders for your arsenal,”
Jeeves intoned, his disembodied voice cordial as usual. “Also,
analysis of Tyrannor and Fasttrack's capabilities is coming along
quite well! It's more or less complete, though of course they may
have some tricks up their sleeve held in reserve."
"Oh,
excellent!" Grey said. He'd been waiting for this. "Download
them immediately, I want to look at the data right away. And put the
Mind Benders in my lab, I want to see how they react with each
other."
As the data about
his Legion enemies flooded in, Grey immediately became disheartened.
"Well, this is just lovely..." he thought to himself. These
power levels were extremely disturbing... no wonder he'd gotten his
ass handed to him by Tyrannor during their first encounter.
"Well, that
explains why our agents are having so little success against them,"
Grey said aloud, somewhat glumly.
"Indeed, sir,"
Jeeves replied. "In that regard, I have collated the latest
reports from your Area 51 agents. EvoLucian experienced the most
success, though keep in mind I use the term in a relative manner. He
encountered..."
"Later,
later..." Grey interrupted. "I get it, we're not strong
enough. Dammit."
A heavy silence hung
over the air.
"Sir, if I
might suggest, perhaps you should consider..." Jeeves began to
say.
"I GET IT, shut
up, dude," Grey barked. He frowned. He really only had one
option left, as distasteful as it was. He drummed his fingers against
each other, an old habit, as he desperately tried to consider other
options, but ultimately came to an inescapable conclusion.
He was gonna have to
reach out to Super Rakly.
Grey had once rolled
with Rakly, back in the days when SR was just starting out and
running a group called Battle Born that had garnered considerable
acclaim. Super Rakly had, of course, gone one to become perhaps the
most powerful Hero on Earth, but Grey had departed BB on, shall we
say, heated terms (long story). They hadn’t spoken since, and Rakly
had gone on to form The Avengers, the world’s most powerful
superhero team. And now, Grey needed to enlist their help.
Bah.
“Jeeves, locate
Super Rakly and open a door 2 miles above his current location,”
Grey ordered.
“Immediately,
sir,” Jeeves replied.
The portal opened,
and Grey flew through, hovering high over the city a moment before
soaring downwards towards it, as he scanned it with his enhanced
senses for Super Rakly’s unique energy signature.
Suddenly, out of
nowhere, he was slammed by twin energy beams, causing him to careen
off course!
“What the…?!”
Grey gasped as he stabilized himself and peered towards the source of
the attack. His force field held up, but barely, and he began to
direct some of the nanotechnology in his body’s cells to start
creating mini-wormhole energy absorbers on his skin as a backup
defense. “How the hell did anyone get past my detection arrays?”
“Ha ha ha,” a
booming, yet feminine, foice rang out. “Foolish Star Guardian! All
forms of energy are at my command… it was a simple matter to absorb
your detection fields and strike you unawares. For I. Am. ARCHON!!!”
Grey winced as there
was a flash of imploding energy, which coalesced into a (surprisingly
attractive) female form comprised of glowing, crackling blue energy.
Her eyes flashed, and her pretty features twisted into a snarl.
“You’ve been a
thorn in our side, Star Guardian, and have been very clever at hiding
from us,” Archon declared, “but I knew that if I monitored for
your distinctive Federation portal technology's energy signature, I’d
eventually find you. Now DIE!!!”
And with that, she
lifted her arms and fired an immense energy blast at Grey!
“Aaargh!” Grey
grunted. Holy God!!! This energy discharge was of FAR greater
intensity than before! Again, his force field held up, but only
because of his freshly-created wormhole generators being able to
siphon off approximately 60% of the blast’s energy. Grey’s eyes
widened… she wasn’t screwing around! That blast would have
vaporized him had he not bolstered his defenses. And she might yet!
It was ON.
Grey maximized his
speed and flew in an evasion pattern, as she continued spraying him
with energy blasts. Occasionally, Grey would take a shot with one of
the many weapons that his nano-tech could fabricate, but she was too
fast. Even the couple of lucky hits he managed to land seemed to be
largely ineffective against her energy form.
The worst part was
her constant gloating. “Hey, baby doll,” he shouted with
exasperation. “You’re a pretty girl, but you’re gonna talk
yourself out of this date if you don’t put a cork in it!”
“Nice try,”
Archon sneered, “but your date tonight is with DEATH!” And she
launched yet another ludicrously powerful blast, while flitting
around the sky honing in on Grey like a heat-seeking missile while
easily evading most of his attacks.
After several
minutes, Grey started to get concerned. She didn’t seem to be
slowing down! And her blast intensity was becoming ridiculous… Grey
was glad to be engaging her high above the city, or the collateral
damage would have been crazy bad. And nothing he was throwing at her
seemed to be working! EMP, sonics, dimensional disruption,
concussion blasts, zero-point bursts, solid projectiles… even some
magic! It was all too slow to connect with her, or she was immune to
it.
“Ha ha ha ha ha!”
Archon laughed. “You’re WEAK, Star Guardian! Your friends are
weak, your planet is weak, and you shall fall before the LEGION like
so many other planets under the protection of your Federation of Suns
have fallen! You’re insignificant! You’re nothing! We shall kill
all of you ‘heroes’ and destroy all you hold dear, as we take
this planet for ourselves!”
All right, Grey
finally started getting pissed off. Screw this jerk! Suddenly, he had
an idea… her energy form was ridiculously fast and durable, but
there was still a mind controlling it all. So maybe a psychic attack
might be effective! He activated his communicator.
“Jeeves, collect
those Mind Benders and teleport them onto my fingers immediately,”
Grey said, dodging another blast.
“How many of them,
sir?” Jeeves replied.
“ALL OF THEM!”
Grey grunted, as Archon managed to hit him again, straining his
defenses. “This thing is going south in a hurry!”
“Very good, sir,”
Jeeves replied. A couple seconds later, the powerful rings appeared
on his right hand, and Grey felt a surge of psychic energy burst
through his mind, both invigorating and disorienting him.
“All right, bitch,
let’s finish this!” Grey cried out, clearing his head and flying
towards her at top speed, his eyes narrowed. He could feel the Mind
Benders pulsing on his hand, and in his brain. They could emit a
localized sphere of psychic energy that disrupted the psyche of
anyone caught within, so he just needed to get close enough and pop
her with it.
Grey concentrated.
These rings were so powerful, they were hard to control… if he
didn’t focus, they might not work at all, but if he could pull it
off, the disruption field should be more than powerful enough to put
Archon down for the count.
“Sorry, darlin’!”
Grey shouted, as he zipped into range, psychic energy building up in
his fist. “You’re cute, but you ain’t my type… I don’t date
fat girls!”
Archon’s eyes
widened, then narrowed with anger, and she began to hiss a reply…
but just then Grey activated all 3 Mind Benders!
Yes! Grey could feel
right away that he got off a good one… the energy surge was one of
the strongest he’d managed yet!
Archon, quite
simply, blew away as the event horizon washed over her. Her face took
on a shocked expression, and then her eyes rolled back, and her
energy form dissipated into nothingness.
Grey hesitated, the
air suddenly silent. Was that it? The psychic shock wave was unlikely
to kill her, but Grey figured that it’d probably be a few hours
before she could reintegrate her energy form, after a psychic wallop
like that one. Unless he was wrong, of course…
But as the seconds,
then minutes, ticked by, it looked like his gambit had worked. Archon
did not return.
“Jeeves, I’m
returning to the ship,” Grey said, activating his communicator. “I
can talk to Super Rakly later… got some great data on one of the
Legion generals that I want to go over. Open a portal at my
location.”
As Grey waited for
the portal, he smiled with satisfaction. The Legion was powerful, but
they could be beaten! Now, he just had to figure out how...
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