Guardian Angel [Open, but just ask first]

Quick as lightning, Jeisen had both a gun out and knife in hand as Red rested his hand on his sword. He felt that hum of energy as the shields fired up. Looked like Red was ready to fight at least. Besides the gun and knife though, Jeisen appeared nonchalant. Or as nonchalant a man in armor can appear.

"A sword? Really? We both can regularly time bullets and you don't move faster then a normal human. You know I do, so come now. "

Jeisen was pretty sure this was a Mexican standoff or something. Sure he had seen it in a Clint Eastwood movie.

"Leave red. You got nothing to win here and I don't get any enjoyment from kicking your ass. Well... Maybe a little."

If only Jeisen knew what this sword could do. Lucius didn't expect to actually hit Jeisen, but Cora Zen's abilities went beyond being just a sword. In the end Jeisen was too confident in his speed advantage. Lucius could react just as well and had enough quick counter measures to choke a horse. He calmed his mind, started to calculate what he knew of his opponent and what his own main disadvantages were. Soon the technological gem in the hilt of his sword lit of with a bright cyan, and Lucius was in a level headed, combat focused mind set. This was not going to be aggression based, not yet. That would just tire Lucius out trying to hit the male with high powered attacks. He needed to get into a dance of complete serenity.

The room was small. If he attacked from the front, the logical thing for and opponent to do was step back as there was little area to move to the side. But even if Jeisen did move to the side, his plan would work. Honestly it was to open the fight. Lucius didn't expect to take him out so soon.

"Nothing to win, no. But i also have nothing to lose, and I'm out of practice." Lucius said. In that moment, two things happened. The first was a lunge forward with his sword, the swing enhanced by the power of his chassis behind it. It was unlikely to hit but if it did it could cleave through just about anything with the ten tons of force behind it. The second thing was the actual attack. His gauntlet was mentally activated and began targeting and pulling in the electricity that ran through the walls of the building, soon causing the whole hotel to go black except for the sparks of what looked like blue lightning flashing in the room the two were in. This electricity was pulled in from everywhere throughout the building. The walls in all directions, including behind Jeisen, the floor, the ceiling, and even from the lamps and lights. It was all swirling around the room and likely hitting Jeisen unless he could evade thousands of sparks of electricity. But that wasn't the real damage dealer. Once it was all sucked into the gauntlet, it was immediately released as kinetic force toward Jeisen. This was enough to tear the entire side of the room off, making it fall into the streets below. Rain poured in, now bouncing off Lucius' armor as the cool wind blew his robes about. This was about to get real.

The two men were like snakes. Waiting in the grass for the other to make a move. The first to break the tension would unlesh hell upon this earth. And Lucius went. The lunge forward with a blade. Sure, Jeisen could moved a couple dozen feet in the same span of time to took to draw the blade, let alone lunge forward with it. Jeisen leaned back, arms wide as the sword lunged forward. There was a ball in his right hand instead of a gun now.

That gaunlet pulle on him. The drawing of the elecricity. Jeisen could feel it right down to his core. It felt like when he shifted forms an teleported. So, Jeisen simple went with the pull. In his right hand he let go ball as he phased into lightning.

As he was turning, the pair of them hung for a moment, locked in combat with life an death at the stake. It was a wonderful sight to Jeisen with all the elecocty being pulled from around the building.

Jeisen: "I'm sorry Lucius, I didn't come to play."

An with that he let go of the orb on the other side of Lucius, Jeisen now fully lightning. The kinetic blast tore right through where his body was, but did nothing against his phase. The orb on the other side went off with a bomb strong enough to level the hotel building.

Thinking on it now, electricity might not have been the best attack against a lightning based metahuman. But Lucius did it for two reasons. One, to give his gauntlets a good charge. Two, to see how Jeisen reacted to electricity not produced by his own body. It seemed to have a slight effect but the metahuman just phased with it it seemed. Lucius now expected an attack on one of his blindsides. Fortunately, with his hyper advanced scanners he was never blind. He was atomically locked on Jeisen in every way, and had a full map out of the area particle by particle. Soul Sync wasn't going to allow him to be blown up by what it recognized as an explosive device. Lucius was teleported the instant Jeisen took out the sphere.

He now stood outside the hotel, which was rubble. The street lights shined down on him as he brandished his blade. Jeisen spoke about cowardice and then as an opening move used a bomb? Jeisen had an interesting idea of what courage was.

"I'm disappointed..... You're still just amped up conventional weapons and speed. I expected at least a few new things." The message was sent out for Jeisen's tech to hear, though whether he would answer was yet to be seen. Lucius expected Jeisen to continue, or else he would have to eat his words. So he activated Roots, making him functionally immovable. He could still take damage, but only he could push himself around. His scanners directly linked to his brain, so he would see Jeisen coming. As soon as his opponent appeared, his state of the art technology would be ready for a counter.

The bomb went off. That was for sure. It blew out the first floor of the now 13 story building. Jeisen reformed on the back edge of the building his boots holding as the hotel began to collapse. Jeisen then of course, cheated. He shot through the building as he went, taking out key supports as he brought the tower down aimed right at the newly teleported Red.

"You just fail to appreciate the classics mate."

With that, Jeisen lept off te too of the falling building. He shot out his grappling hook into the side of another building and landed on a near by rooftop with a roll. He draped that cloak around himself to dowse most of his signal. Hopefully the dust would insure the rest.

"Nolan, drones at the ready?"

"Yes, but I'm not sure how useful they will be."

"Just modify their programming like I told you and set it up."

"Done."

What was with the cat and mouse tactics? You can't excuse someone of being a coward and then play the hit and run game. Well, you could, but you would be projecting. Jeisen was pretty much refusing to have a straight up fight at this point, evident by his ridiculously cheap opening move. How was this honorable again? How was this brave? Lucius expected an actual fight, not hide and seek.

The tower falling was pretty quickly picked up, by Lucius' own eyes and his scanners. He ended up sending a blast of kinetic energy from his gauntlets that pushed away the bulk of what would have hit him. Sure a few stones made contact, but they were simply sent flying away by his repulsive armor. He now stood in a cleared circle in the center of a ruined tower, but he still didn't move a muscle.

"Are you going to come down and settle this, or are you calling in Michael again because you're not sure of yourself? Worked like a charm last time, if i remember correctly." Lucius said once again over his technology, not parting from his position in the well lit street. Lucius wasn't going to chase Jeisen into a trap, he was going to fight on his terms. If London's hero didn't like it, he could walk away, he could be the coward.

Soon, he shot out a few micro explosives, which were set to their highest level. They swarmed around him, unseen to the human eye, looking more like wicked fast flies then anything. They were there awaiting Jeisen's return, prepared to be sent out at a moments notice.

"Come on, come save the world. End a man because he knows what you do doesn't work, take him to jail because he has experienced the failure of your type first hand and wants to end it. Did you ever stop and wonder if it's you that created me? Did you ever think that maybe the collateral damage this world endures isn't just buildings falling over? Truly, Jeisen, do you really think i do this for my ego?" Lucius transmitted, mostly just to fill the silence with something. However, Lucius did want to know what Jeisen thought his motives were. He wanted to see a 'heroic' perspective. So many victims were labelled villains, and nobody stopped for one second to maybe wonder if there was something more they could do then just hit them.

"Funny, I seem to recall you calling in back up first before I did." The armored lightning bolt mutter more to himself then anyone else. He had his spot on the rooftop, his pistols now in sniper rifle form. He ha been letting them vent their unusual radiation while he watched Red through his scanners. Time and time again, Jeisen was glad these guns didn't appear on scanners. Alien tech was a blessing somedays. He focuse back in on Lucius. It seemed like that armor of his was shielded through some sort of repulsed tech. Would make a hand to hand fight be almost pointless then. Jeisen would have to by pass it somehow.

A couple ideas struck him, but they would need set up. He pulled out two small balls and tossed them into the air. They took his form right down to their electrical signals of his armor. Only touch would dispel the trick of the trio. All three moved positions now, heading to different rooftops as they gave off the signals mutted through the clouded air. Jeisen held down the trigger of his sniper rifle and sent off a charged shot at Red. The holograms gave off the same signals since lazers were just light after all. Just something to keep red guessing a little bit.

Jeisen went mostly off radar. Whatever tech he was packing was quite useful it seemed. That didn't really bother Lucius though, because from what he could tell it wasn't always active. Even if it was though, it wasn't like it was that big of a deal. Red had many other things in his favor.

Eventually, three signals were detected. Light or some sort of laser it would seem. Now, unless Jeisen was in three places at once, this was some sort of trick. His opponent was trying to split focus across multiple targets, maybe even confuse his scanning systems. Clever really.

The shot could have came from any one of those places, so it was particularly difficult to defend against. His systems couldn't detect which way it was coming, so he had to make an omni-directional defense or take the shot. Thing about it was though, nothing he had could effect a laser moving so quickly without time.

Lucius pretty much bet that the shot was heat based. Most energy really was in the end. But even if it wasn't, extreme cold slowed down molecules, and energy itself was what it was because of rapidly moving molecules. So, with a simple thought, his temperature pocket was activated. A shiver went down his spine, his armor was good but it couldn't reduce something this cold to nothing. A thick frost even went over the area, and lights flickered until they shattered entirely.

Once the shot got close, it would feel the effects of this ridiculous change in temperature, likely both reducing speed and heat. Despite that though, the pocket wasn't going to disperse the shot entirely. Lucius moved to get out of the way once he saw it coming, but it was too close now and it hit him. His shielding fizzled and sparked on impact, looking to be damaged, but soon and with a little adjustments it stabilized. The shot was powerful enough to partially break the repulsive barrier, and it knocked one of Lucius' shoulder pads off as well as caused a minor burn. He didn't seem to even stumble however.

Lucius was a little impressed honestly. Jeisen had quickly identified his advantages and disadvantages and took up a good position to use that information to it's fullest. But Lucius wasn't stupid. He wasn't going to just stand there and get sniped out from a superior position. With his technology, Lucius had a hand to hand advantage. Jeisen was a ranged fighter after all, so closing the distance was probably a good choice. Lucius was doing it mostly because his tech was practically designed to deal with speed up close, but not so much at a range.

The teleportation device embedded into his armor charged up, making a very labored sound as it worked up to what Lucius had in mind. In about a second or two, Lucius was gone. His teleporter had been directed to move him to all three signal areas, at the same time. Yes, he technology allowed that. He had made the tech be able to port him so rapidly that his matter actually appeared in three places at once, briefly. The only down side was the device would have to cool for awhile.

As soon as he appeared in each place, he was already lunging forward from the side toward where the signal came from, his gauntlet charged with a kinetic energy meant to cause maximum impact as it was combined with both the strength his chassis gave him and the repulsive field that surrounded his body. If he hit Jeisen, the guy was going flying, far. Would probably get a few broken bones too. The teleportion device would stop and make Lucius one once again when his opponent's location was determined, but not before he made a quick shot of electricity at each of the drones. It wasn't essential that they be taken out, but it was a plus.

Nolan: "Sir, scanners are picking up the same energy scale from earlier building up. Higher degree. Estimating.... three seconds."

Jeisen: "You don't think we can time it do you"

If Nolan had shoulders, it would have shrugged. Instead, Jeisen tore off his cloak as he shoved something into the middle of it. He was just pretty much winging this engagement right here, but it was worth a shot. Where the hell else would Red try to teleport too? The now cloak-less man relaxed his tension in his shoulders as he up his bodys processes. Too tense and he might not be able to pull this off. The holograms went off with a small little blip as the electicity shorted them out without a hitch. Damn. He was hoping he would still have his doubles hanging around.

There was a small pop as Red was now at his side. He was already lunging forward mere inches away from Jeisen who was now letting go of the package on the other side of him. It was oddly similar to the first time Red did this. Even down to the fact that Jeisen had shoved another bomb into his cloak. Hopefully that scanner proof material would be enough to hide what he just did. The kinetic shot ripped Jeisen's body apart like before as he phased through it. The bomb went off just like before. Deja vue

As impressive as Jeisen's quick decision making was, Lucius had still managed to take out the holograms and find his opponent. Though the fact Jeisen had deduced Lucius was coming meant he was already in his lightning form, and the cloak behind him held a bomb Red couldn't see. It went off, but Lucius wasn't out of this yet.

As soon as the explosion was freed from the cloak, Lucius' scanners picked it up and automatically his body twitched to defend against it. Soul Sync was doing everything it could to avoid damage to it's creator. By the time his system reacted the blast was upon him, causing the field around his armor to sputter and spit. But it didn't overtake the Prime Minister. The explosion was met with the kinetic energy blast he had previously charged to unleash on Jeisen, and as the explosion expanded outward the power from the gauntlets fought it. It wasn't nearly enough to get out undamaged, but he wasn't going to be taking as heavy as a hit as Jeisen thought.

The force itself didn't move Lucius, as he was immovable, but it along with the heat did tear up his armor. Eventually, he heard a loud crackle, and he knew what happened before Hector even spoke.

The repulsive shielding system is down. But aside from that and some minor dents the armor is running at full capacity. The AI said telepathically, his voice echoing through Lucius' head as the smoke cleared and Red regained his relaxed posture.

That's unfortunate..... Gauntlet power level? Lucius replied.

18.9643 percent. Should i divert power from Cora? The AI asked. The conversation was happening in a fraction of a second. The glory of mental technology.

That won't be necessary. Lucius then walked to the edge of the building, looking around. His scanners could still pick Jeisen up, even if the cloak made it difficult at times. Unless the guy laid under it Lucius would probably find him. But in the end, knowing where Jeisen was didn't help him. His teleporter was hot, and this was Jeisen's fight to be mobile in.

One trick pony...... If this is how you get rid of your criminals I've lost all respect for you. I thought there was something more under that suit. Now all i see is a pathetic boy, so intelligent yet stuck in the past, like you have something to prove. You're doing this to make up for something aren't you? Well, there's another thing we have in common....." Lucius said. It would be transmitted, but he was mostly talking to himself. He was pretty prepared to walk away now. Not run, just saunter away. Maybe this fight was pointless. If Jeisen wanted to stop him he could, but as of now he was minutes from simply coming to the conclusion Jeisen didn't want to face him like a man. Fighting was going as well as talking it seemed.

Jeisen: "Aw man, I really liked that cloak too...."

Sweat rolled down his back as he reformed a short distance away. He slide behind cover, his gun back into its sniper rifle form. Sure he had gotten a bomb off, but now no more hiding from sensors like before. That effectively cut off some of his favorite options. Still had Jeisen wasn't out of tools just yet. He sat there wait, letting Red drone on for a bit. The man always did like his speeches. Jeisen muttered to himself as he looked through the double optics of his suit and sniper rifle - "Ah Red, I've never needed your respect. Nolan, drones."

With that, two drones flew out of either side of the small battle ground. They seemed to be talking to each other over an network, communicating to work better. Jeisen simply shot through walls with high powered rounds.

Lucius once again locked on Jeisen, as well as what seemed to drones. Without the cloak his opponent was quite exposed, unlike before where the connection kept getting cut. That was a major advantage for Lucius, though his repulsive field being gone pretty much nullified that. Regardless, Lucius could predict where the next shot was coming from. He turned to face them, and was met with a barrage of high powered energy bolts.

The first he deflected with his nearly impenetrable blade, the second seemed to run into thin air, dispersing with a flurry of cyan sparks. It was his weapon's ability at work. The next was a little more complicated.

Target the shot with the selective pulse generator, highest setting. Then set the gauntlets to max absorption. Lucius said telepathically to Hector. Soon, the shot would run into a pulse that was sent outward. The odd thing about it though, was that it effected nothing but the shot. Not a grain of sand was moved, just the bolt. This meant it was slowed down to a crawl when it got to Lucius, met with incredible force from his technology. It could now be targeted and marked for absorption. Red then stuck out his hand, reaching out for the slowed energy bolt with his gauntlet and then pulling it in.

Analyze............. Interesting. Convert the remaining 20 percent of power to this substance until further notice. With that, Lucius sheathed his sword then stuck out both hands and, well, let's say unleashed hell. The output and range of his gauntlets was not like the guns, he could make massive waves of this deadly energy, not just shots.

The wave of energy was directed right at the wall the shot had come from, and honestly it was so wide Jeisen would have to leave that area in general or risk getting obliterated just like the walls. They practically turned to dust on impact.

"If it's your intention to win, you're going to have to try harder then that." Lucius said. As always his voice was projected over the airwaves, but it's not like Jeisen was being very talkative.

Nolan: "he froze the bolt. Or it seems to have slowed down quite a bit. I think that's called cheating."

Jeisen simply hmphed. Cheating or not, it was certainly effective. Just as he seemed to have the man on the ropes, he fought back to even again. And now Jeisen didn't even have his coat. He clicked his guns into their dual wielding form now, the barrels cooling off. Time seemed to elongate around him as he tried to concoct a plan. A sewer gate caught his attention. He grinned underneath his helm.

He pulled out a small disk from underneath his breastplate that unfolded into another drone. Jeisen attaché something to it as he grappling hooked the sewer gate off. He looked back over hi shoulder as a wave of death pulsed out like a fireball. Now that was cheating indeed. Jeisen hopped down into the sewers as the hellish wave passed overhead. Thank the gods they were in the site of Jeisen and Enteis fight. Nothing was around for several blocks and they were just knocking down buildings like they were play things.

He gave it another second or two till the rumbling stopped from above then accede back up to the street level. He stood there, a lone man admist the rubble. He began walking forward towards red. Just walking then broke into a jog and finally a sprint, though at human level.

Lucius had fully expected the male to get out. Jeisen was rather good at running, and any opponent of the man needed to realize a simple blast was going to do squat. Even so, the method was interesting. He figured Jeisen would have phased or dashed away or something like that, but no, from what Lucius could tell by what he saw and what was on his scanners, the metahuman just found decent cover.

What happened next was equally surprising. Jeisen showed himself; walking, then running, then dashing toward Red. A rather interesting tactic. He was simply giving Lucius even more time then he needed to react. The so called villain in turn walked forward. Jeisen couldn't move him, not with Roots still active, so Lucius wasn't going to budge no matter what the man fit him with. If Jeisen shot at him, Lucius had more then enough skill to simply swipe them away with an energy charged hand. If Jeisen closed with him, well, there was a ridiculous amount of ways that would go wrong for London's guardian.

"You would rather fight then consider helping people just like you?" Lucius muttered as the two closed with each other, the distance shortening by the millisecond.

"....Then you're of no use to anyone!" Lucius said. It was the last thing heard from Red just before the clash, whatever it might be.