SCIENCE!!!! 2.0 (Alpha) (April 1st Challenge)

Lucius was in what many would call a hopeless situation. But, it was easy to say something was impossible. It was easy to be the nihilist. It was easy to give up, because then you didn't even have to try. Yes, they were outclassed. Lucius had got carried away with his tests of the genome and packed the being to the brim with power, but that didn't mean he couldn't destroy him. Lucius thought back to all the powers he had coded. He searched for a weakness, somewhere, anywhere really. With Alpha holding the being off, it was time for Lucius to come up with a tactic that would end this. Better that then both of them fighting the damn thing and getting nowhere.

Echo's plan seemed to be going well for awhile. What do you do to beat an all powerful telekinetic? You spread their focus thin and overwhelm them. You attack randomly, repeatedly, and from multiple fronts and in multiple ways. This idea seemingly broke Alpha down, and Echo could only laugh as he saw it unfold....... Unfortunately, it was just a ploy. Travis was too clever and all around too powerful to be taken down in such manner. The Rise Head sneakily latched onto Echo's leg, then with unmatched might slammed his adversary into the ground. The force was something Lucius had perhaps only seen from someone like Atlas. It was ridiculous, and it managed to audibly crush a few bones in Echo and cause a huge amount of blood to pool on the floor. He was healing, sure, but he was also screaming.

"You....you won't win.... You delay the inevitable. I willl......  I will kill you both, you bastards!" Echo said as the force continued to come done on him. It was, apparently, Alpha's best impression of a black hole, and it was tearing Echo apart as fast as he healing.

The being then unleashed it's own power, trying to hold back the unimaginable force coming down on him. He succeeded partially, allowing himself to heal a bit more then just enough to stay alive, but this was unsustainable. For a moment Lucius even thought perhaps Alpha would do it. Perhaps Alpha would overcome this more powerful adversary without some clever strategy or trick to tip the scales in their favor. Unfortunately, that was likely only wishful thinking on the dictator's part.

Echo screamed in pain, his barrier breaking down. Alpha was stressed as well, his nose bleeding in a way Lucius had not seen in years, but it was clear his friend was winning this...... Right up until Echo teleported.

The plan was to make Alpha focus all his power on one thing so he could get an opening, and Echo had done it masterfully. An energy blade appearing in his hand, Echo attempted to impale Alpha through the back.

"And so one Rise Head falls, and the other is left all alone........ This is over, Lucius."

Travis had seen videos of Gravitas acting before. Small little fractal fragments of information but with study he could tell that his abilities were akin to telekinesis if not a bit more...precise. This was his attempt to replicate that, putting all his focus into bringing down the force of a psuedo-blackhole onto his enemy. Their flesh should have been rent. Turned into morbid spaghetti that could barely even resemble the human form and yet all he did was hear the faint, yet violent crackle of bones beneath flesh. Even with all that pressure they could speak, and more than anything that pissed Travis off. As if his little maneuver was nothing more than an annoyance that would eventually be shrugged off, and attempting to crush him even more was his response. There were few things that could fully resist sheer physical force, that was just how the universe worked and yet here this person was doing it.

It really pissed him off and at the same time excited him.

Unfortunately they had power and that meant they could fight back long enough to regenerate, allow their body to start healing from the impossible pressure that was coming down upon him. All of it looked like he was succeeding, spitting in the face of strategy to just smash them into nothing more than sentient pulp. That was however when they teleported, disappearing from their point and behind Travis while he quickly tried to change his focus from them. Woozily he lost balance, and felt the blade pierce through his flesh. It hurt far worse than one would expect from being stabbed, this weapon jutting out from the front of his body and now covered within blood. Unfamiliar thoughts raced through his mind a mile a minute, all lost within a blur of color as the weapon was jerked from his all too mundane flesh.

He fell face forward, elbows barely managing to catch him while pain swam through him and blood bubbled into his lungs. Each forced breath caused him to cough up more of the dark red liquid, splattering across the ground and joining the hazy earth. It didn’t work. he thought to himself forlorn, still trying to hack up the blood while his injuries would work themselves closed. Even then, his body needed to stop him from suffocating on something that was multiplying within him. Blood unfortunately, well it was produced whether he liked it or not. So, he focused on the fluid inside of him and tried to exude it from his body. It felt like sharp pain within his chest, but then all at once blood spewed from his mouth, anything that would have been bleeding quickly forced together in a way that would heal without further annoyance.

It felt like minutes had passed, but combat had a way to make time stretch out. Grey eyes shot up to Lucius, hoping that he was still alright after what had happened and attempted to push himself to his feet. He couldn’t replicate his last maneuver but he could do something else. That was forming illusions around Lucius, not against him but ones of him that moved slightly different from him. Side to side, or even just small little limbs that made his attacks harder to predict. Anything he needed to make the fight a little more...even on his side.

While Alpha recovered, Echo, who was still healing, sped off toward Lucius. Even if Travis somehow recovered quicker then expected and didn't die, the speedster would still be too far away for the other Rise Head to affect him. Now it was Lucius' turn to die, apparently. Echo sped toward Lucius and tried using telekinesis to throw Red off balance as he approached, but Lucius simply turned on his Movement Stabilizer. He was still taking damage from the pulses, but Echo didn't know that. Plus, there was some utility in not being thrown around like a rag doll by telekinesis.

Lucius managed to avoid the pulses, sure, but he still had a charging speedster to deal with. So, the dictator let out his own pulse of energy, as ineffectual as it had been previously. A plan was starting to form in his head, but it wasn't complete. All the variables hadn't been considered yet, so once again he had to simply buy time. It was either that or give up and die.

Echo was knocked off course by the blast, and even somewhat damaged, but almost instantly he was back up again, charging. Lucius, in turn, sent out a pulse that knocked him off course again. This cycle continued three times over, with Echo unable to use his telekinesis on Lucius in order to take him off guard and bypass his energy. To add insult to injury, Echo seemed unable to pin down exactly where Lucius was attacking from. It was a product of Alpha's illusions, and it was making Lucius' stand possible. Echo was, needless to say, getting irritated.

It was in this moment Lucius saw a dozen Echos, maybe more. It was an illusion, he knew. He managed to focus on them long enough for them to disperse, but by the time he did that the real Echo was on top of him. Punch after punch at blinding speed hit Lucius in the chest, stomach, face, and head. His armor sparked and sputtered as it cracked and warped at blinding speed. It all happened in an instant, all before Red could react. The Illusions had delayed his otherwise insurmountable combat analysis. Lucius was forced to teleport.

He appeared, broken and battered, next to Alpha, hoping his friend was alright.

"Well, glad you aren't dead," Lucius said once he appeared. Half his mask had been blown off, revealing a pale grey eye underneath. It showed a tinge of worry, perhaps even fear, but also determination and tact. This fight was not going to be his last. He wasn't going to lose to one of his spawn. Not Blood Tith, not Sven, and not Echo. This plan had to work, and if it didn't, he would come up with another one and make that work, and so on and so on until Echo was dead.

"I think i know how to beat him, but i have to calibrate my systems for it. We have to go all out and survive until then. Think you can do that, Travis?" Lucius asked. He thought for a moment about alerting the rest of the people in this facility, but he pushed it to the back of his mind. That was a last resort. As of now it would only put them in danger.

Despite his injuries, Travis managed to get himself up and help Lucius a little. The illusions allowed for a few good shots, yet it was nothing that would slow down the monster that continued to pummel Lucius without mercy. That was when he noted that...the thing was copying their abilities with a frightening quickness, turning any advantage they had into a detriment. Now that was...really fucking annoying. Travis hated people that could just steals others gifts and acted like they they were their own. Still, that was happening before him and there was nothing the two of them could do against a juggernaut of power. Nothing that imminently came to mind, which made him even more angry with their whole situation. Turned from a seemingly well meaning kid to a monster, now that was just a tough break all around. He wondered if they had a family somewhere and if that family would have been worrying about him now.

Considering how humans treated metahumans, something told him that was not likely. Either way, they pummeled Lucius with lightning blows that broke through all of his defenses and armor. Toss the dictator right back to him, allowing the two friends to stand side by side once again while this monster would likely barrow down upon them. He really wished he could just rip the fucker apart atom by atom. Maybe then he would be able to do anything pesky like regeneration. Throwing him into the sun also sounded like an excellent secondary option.

”Lucky for you Lucius i’m a little harder to kill than that.” if getting his brains scrambled with a bullet wouldn’t work, no way in hell would a little stand in his back do the same. Even if his body would give him hell later for letting it get the run around like that. Regeneration at his speed had different implications than just your average human with their fragile little bodies. His eyes scanned to Lucius, almost expecting the male to have some kind of plan. His own powers, while great were doing nothing more than slowing this guy down and that meant they needed a more permanent solution. Anything that didn’t involve...well hitting them harder sounded really ideal right about now, even if that was the only thing his level of telekinesis could do for them right now. It would have seemed sad that two of the worlds most powerful metahumans were floundering against their own creation.

”Think I could buy you a minute or even two if i’m lucky.” He let his mind relax, all of the fast thought coalescing into one whole while his eyes tried to follow the fast moving person. ”Come on Echo! Thought your puny little dagger could kill me?” He shouted, feeling the skin on his leg having already healed up and the hairs attempting to grow back as well. Without any attempting to hold back he unleashed a barrage of telekinetic blasts wherever echo was or looked like he was. Stepping forward from Lucius, he implemented this scorched earth plan in the hopes that he could hold them off until given the word.

Lucius stepped back and let Alpha take the wheel of the fight, but he stayed close. He would provide the occasional blast of energy and defense, but he needed Alpha to do most of the fighting. Lucius was building a counter measure to his little creation. He had built the technology that made this all possible from the ground up, and that meant he could mess with it. That meant he could hack it, as ridiculously secure as it was. His plan was to use his EMP device to send out a pulse that wouldn't only attack the electronics in the genome, but also place within it a virus he hoped would kill the being. The only problem? He had to write it all mid combat.

With Sven helping along, filling in gaps and fixing bugs, Lucius rapidly created his little program. If he failed, they would probably die, but that was not a thought that crossed the dictator's mind. Every time Echo charged him, even though the being was moving even faster then before, either Alpha with his tk or Lucius with his energy or pulse generators simply knocked him away. Nothing would get in the way of this plan, so long as Alpha held their creation off long enough.

Once he realized Lucius was playing defensive, not taking any risks and not attacking, Echo focused on Travis. The light in the room once again turned to energy, and then it shot lethally toward the telekinetic like a cannon bombardment. Echo was intent on getting through Travis' barrier, and his energy attack as well as his telekinesis was now in full swing. He unleashed all the power he had at Alpha, trying once again to break The Rise Head down. He hoped the wound Travis had sustained would help, but it didn't seem to be much of a factor as of yet.

Lucius watched the contest of power in amusement. Alpha he knew would hold up. He knew his friend's power was enough to hold off the onslaught. He was, after all, almost done. Only a few lines of code sat between him and total victory. Only a few pieces of text between him and survival. This feat is not to be understated. He was writing something many genius' would be proud of finishing in a decade, and he did it in about two minutes. That's right, he finished, and now victory was his. Lucius Gavril Alba stepped forward as the power struggle raged around him, and he put his plan into place.

"What do you think you're doing, Alba? I'm smarter then you, faster then you, and more powerful then you. As soon as i kill Alpha, there's nobody to save you. You're done," laughed Echo, sure of himself. Lucius just stared at the kid, then removed from his bandoleer a small sphere.

"Maybe so, but that's never stopped me in the past. I have people that believe in what i believe in, you see, I have friends. You, you have nothing but a few lines of code i programmed into a computer. As easy to put in as they are......to cut out." Lucius then pressed the button on the sphere, and his virus filled pulse was set off. Echo didn't even try to run, overconfident as he was. Unfortunately for him though, when the pulse hit him his genetics changed. He screamed in pain, and his skin began to rot away. It was as if he were decomposing as he stood there. The screaming didn't last long. In fact, the whole death didn't last long. Within seconds, Echo was nothing but a pile of rotten organs.

Breathing heavy, Lucius looked like he might pass out. "I.....think i might just go to bed and die now. Thanks for holding him back Travis..."

Lucius had faith in Travis’ abilities and Travis accepted that even he was able to believe in someone. Not exactly a concept that anyone put with the Rise head but in the end he was actually a pretty nice guy. Once you got past the occasional homicide and the lines of people that would have rather seen him die. Honestly, he was surprised that anyone had good opinions of the man but here he was defending him with his life. He couldn’t help the fact that he was smiling, genuinely enjoying the little revelation as he batted the being back with each attempt to assault Lucius. He did have more important things to do, which included whatever plan he had to stop them from..existing. This felt like something that might have even needed a celebratory drink afterwards, with him paying of course. Scotch was something that Lucius liked, right?

At first they didn’t notice that Lucius wasn’t doing any actual fighting, just letting his ally bat them away with strong bursts of telekinetic energy. While not as destructive as the psuedo-gravity it was more than enough to keep him from doing anything. Always stepping forward to be knocked back once more, with each attack steadily chipping away at his defenses. Had anything ever worn him down so much within his life time? Muscle memory said yes but his mental memory came up with no answers. Eventually that small mind would click things into place, and begin to assault Travis rather than Lucius. Reducing the light bulbs within the room into nothing more than energy missiles, all aimed for the far more fragile psychic. He smirked, letting his assault turn defensive.

Each blast, while holding a little more substance met with the bolts and caused them to explode on contact rather than trying to battle them out. Each attack blocked pulled out even more stamina fro him now, eyes narrowed and glaring at the being that was successfully wearing him down in the most annoying way possible.

Minutes passed in that annoying slow way that they did but eventually whatever was being done finished. His ally stepped forward, holding what looked to be an odd object while Echo pronounced their premature victory. Honestly, he could help smiling while Lucius retorted in a way that only he could. Once the pulse went out, it hit the confident being and reduced them to nothing but melting flesh that fell in upon itself. Screams turned to gurgles, and then nothing at all while he watched this show with a certain interest. Maybe he just wanted to see them finally die, rather than just regenerate due to some bullshit. After a minute when nothing happened he just flopped onto his back and let the ground met him with a thud. ”This really sucks. I kind of almost want to die now.” He groaned, mirroring Lucius’ tired exclamation.

”Don’t have to thank me though. It’s what friends do. Real shame about Derek or whatever. I thought he was pretty cute.” He laughed at his own statement, as if that somehow lightened the mood for him. That was when he lifted himself enough to see someone looking over him with...surprised. Chris should have been used to wonton destruction and gore by now.

”I’m...not even going to ask.” His eyes flickered to the rotten organs.

”Let’s not. Think of it like another Chuckie Cheese event.” He just flopped back onto the ground.

”Sure.”

”Oh yeah, and get Delta to carry me to my room and the largest container of ice cream possible. I think I earned that one.”

”Uh huh.” He wasn’t going to do it and Travis with fine with it. He had his fun, and hopefully the next recruit wouldn’t end up being horrifically mangled.