My Fault (Jeisen)

Damocles seemed to be fast enough to keep up with Jeisen for the most part, but he caught a few glancing blows in the scuffle, including a shot from one of the hero's Reavers on his arm. The damage was mostly superficial, however. His suit was tattered, but the armor underneath only seemed to be a bit scrapped and burned. Nothing critical, that was for sure.

Jeisen managed to dash away from Damocle's gauntlet attack with relative ease, leaving behind a device of some sort. The well dressed man instantly knew what it was based on his atomic level scans. He didn't dash away because it was really no issue. The sonic waves were released, and Damocles experienced momentary pain, but his armored helmet mostly protected him. Even if it wasn't doing the job, though, the grenade was taken care of; he blasted it with his gauntlet, taking a portion of the roof with it. If it wasn't turned to dust, it would surely be blasted away.

All while this was happening, Jeisen maintained a steady rate of fire, and Damocles in turn maintained expert evasion. His computers had now adapted to Jeisen's specific style, subtle as it was, to the point where Damocles' reaction was more than fast enough to dodge the shots. His scanners could even tell when the Reavers were charging up to fire nanoseconds before they did by analyzing them atomically, giving Damocles a slight predictive edge. The shots didn't land. Damocles was getting comfortable again.

"You're not half bad at this," Damocles said, giving no indication of what he was going to do next. He knew with someone as fast as Jeisen, slight tells could tip him off. He didn't make that mistake, acting as if he was just making a one off comment as he looked at the hero. Without warning, though, his optics sent out two intensely hot laser beams at Jeisen. These were of course light speed, so unless the hero could figure out what was happening before the lasers fired, he would have issues. Whatever was hit by this attack would be absolutely pulverized. These lasers cut through solid steel like butter.

Lucas in the meanwhile had moved down the fire escape. Damocles' scanners were keeping track of him, but curiously the man did nothing in trying to pursue him. The teen was free to get to ground level, where he awaited Sven's delivery of Cora Zen.

"Uh sir."

"Not now!" Jeisen said as he squeezed off another shot. Damn this man was learning his fucking shot pattern. Needed to compensate with more variance. But how?

"Sir!!"

"WHAT"

"Heat signatures!"

That confused Jeisen more than it helped. He paused his firing though, trying to figure out what his little robot meant. The shot began to charge up on his gun building a frightening amount of power rapidly. His body began to spark with electricity as his paranoid instincts began to kick in. Without visible warning or even subtle ones, two death rays cut through the distance the the two supers.

The two rays caught Jeisen's left forearm first as it was in the way of his chest from how he was hold his pistol. Now the Advance Recon suit was some of the most high tech defensive ware out there thanks to its alien origines, but this was raw power it was facing. It resisted for nanoseconds before the beams cut through in thin holes. Jeisen's own arm was now sporting two holes in it as the beams cut through it like butter and out the otherside. The pain barely registered as the two now admittedly thin beams came out the other side of his forearm and headed to his chest.

They never reached however, or well.... the arrived at that spot, but Jeisen wasn't entirely there anymore. The living Lightning had gave into his more natural form. The plasma beams cut through the air, heading off to where every energy beams go when they are shot off. Nolan liked to think they all one particular planet and the people there were always pissed about it.

Now that was what we called a dick move. As fast as a bolt of lightning, Jeisen teleported to the other side of the man to a dagger close to his foot. He gripped the dagger in his left hand with his right hand bearing a gun down on the rude ass. He simply let go of the trigger with the charged up shot already there for him. Reaver's normal shots were absurdly dangerous by even metahuman standards, this one was even more frighteningly powerful.

Damocles couldn't help but curse to himself. Teleportation was always an irritant, if not completely predictable. Everyone who had it seemed to think they were the most clever person in the world by teleporting behind their opponents. In truth it did take him off guard, but it would have from the front as well. Damocles' reactions weren't based on his senses, but scanners that worked just as well behind him as they did in front of him. That said, Jeisen just appeared and was already firing, so there was little to react to. Damocles' sensed him and began to move, but it was already too late.

With his speed, the cybernetic man was able to avoid a devastating core shot, but it still tore through his shoulder. A digitized howl of pain poured from the man's mask. Those were some strong guns. These repairs would cost a fortune.

Damocles wasn't done, though. With immense speed, he spun on his heels, shooting destructive lasers from his optics the whole time. He performed this spin with ease, and even though the beams would at one point or another hit every chest high point on the roof, it was only a distraction.

Damocles pulled out a small remote-like device, then pressed a button on it. Waves of sound and radiation would pour out from the device in waves. These waves were specifically designed to inhibit proper brain function on a fundamental level. Anything that thought that wasn't completely artificial would in some way be affected. The device was called The Sword of Damocles, and it was meant to cause paranoid illusions and debilitating anxiety. Most people couldn't even stand upon hearing it's frequencies, but he was sure Jeisen was made of better stuff.

"Let's see how the world's most paranoid man fairs against true uncertainty," Damocles said. He was playing confident, but his cards were running low. He only had a few more hands to play.

Down below, Sven finally arrived. The AI was in all his robotic glory, apparently not caring about being seen like that in public. Lucas sighed. Well, at least he'd have a weapon now.

"I need Cora Zen. Come on. Back in your core," Lucas said. Sven whined a little bit.

"Seriously? You make me come all this way so I can turn into a freaking sword? Why don't I just go up there and knock some heads?" Sven said. Lucas considered that, but Jeisen would only ask more questions if a mysterious android just showed up out of nowhere. No, it was better to keep a low profile now.

"No, you've never been for combat. You're much more valuable to me in the background. Now come on," Lucas said. Sven sighed, his body turning to metal dust before reforming into a sword.

Both you and your Dad never let me have any fun. The AI said, sending the message to Lucas' OPTIC lenses, which then sent it straight into Lucas' brain. The teen almost regretted giving the AI the addresses necessary to communicate with his supercomputer contact lenses. Now Sven could just drop messages into his head whenever Lucas was wearing the damn things. Oh well. There were bigger things to worry about at the moment than incessant complaining and cynicism in his mind.

Lucas shook his head, picked up Cora Zen, and started back up the fire escape, hearing intense commotion on the roof. He even saw a laser beam.

What the hell were these two packing?

"Nolan, activate the medigel. Left forearm." Jeisen issued a quick command as he tucked into a roll behind some rubble for some cover. He gritted in pain as the once seared nerves began to fire again. It was like dipping his hand in molten lava. A shot pierced through his cover, showering him in a spray of rocks as he dove again.

Rolling to his feet, Jeisen danced out of the way of the incoming fire with precision as if he had been doing this for years. In the midst of this though a high pitch whine cut through the chaos yet at the same time remained just annoyingly out of reach for his hearing. It set his teeth on edge whatever it was.

"Let's see how the world's most paranoid man fairs against true uncertainty," said the cyberneticly enhanced man.

"Well thats not fucking ominous" Muttered Jeisen inside of his helm. A shadow clouded his vision from the right. The bastard had help! Jeisen answered with a low sweeping kick, but came up with nothing but air. He danced back as another lazer shot came dangerously close to him. Another presence Jeisen was sure of forced him out of position. Nolan sprung up his bubble shield for him, the barrier coming around him. Jeisen used the time it bought to duck out of the way a shot he had just stepped in front of with that ill advised dodge.

Nolan sqwuaked in his ear "What are you swinging at?"

"I.. thought I saw something." Was all Jeisen could say. Things were wrong, all of his instincts were screaming at him to move a million different ways. His breathing was coming in short hyperventilated gasps.

"Jeisen! Its his device! Come on!" Nolan yelled at him. He seemed to think volume would be a cure for this. But Jeisen continued to flinch at unseen attacks, making small missteps that were driving him into a corner of the now collapsing building. The hero was closing the distance between the two, which was not a good idea. He had even less cover and time to dodge as he got closer. A good portion of the rooftop had given way underneath their barrages. Jeisen's armor had new score marks upon its surface, his cloak full of holes.

If Nolan had a mouth, it would be frowning right now. He really hated when he did this, but it looked like Jeisen couldn't tell what was going on. With a flip of a switch, Nolan unleashed the EMP blast from within Jeisen's suit. The tiny A.I. went dark as the pulse went off wave eminatting from Jeisen.

Damocles watched with amusement as Jeisen freaked out. His hair trigger reaction speed was playing against him. He saw ghosts and reacted to them as if they were real. The cybernetic man hadn't ever seen the device work so well. He walked forward, and was about to end the fight. It would only be a matter of shooting fish in a barrel. But of course, nothing could be so simple.

The EMP wave hit him unexpectedly. Sparks shot out from Damocles' cybernetics like a waterfall of fire. His systems were glitching out. Hell, many of them were shut down entirely. This wasn't good. Not good at all. In seconds the tables had been turned. The Arbiter knew he had to get out of there.

Thankfully his portal generator was still mostly functional. He was about to make his escape, but all the sudden his arm was chopped off by the quick slash of a rapier. The cybernetic arm clamored against the ground, and Damocles spun around to see that Lucas was standing behind him. He hadn't seen the teen on his computer systems, making the sneak attack possible.

"It's over. Stand down," Lucas said, pointing the masterwork blade at Damocles. The one armed man considered what the boy said for a moment, nodding. It was as if he were agreeing.

"Indeed. My work here is done. I'm sure this alteration will produce.... Interesting results," Damocles said, suddenly sinking into a portal generated beneath him. Lucas ran forward, trying to stop the cybernetic man from escaping, but it was too late. The portal shut, leaving their attacker on the loose.

Lucas heaved for breath, the adrenaline getting to him. Or maybe it was the man's mysterious words. He couldn't tell. All he knew was that whoever that was, they couldn't have had good intentions.

Lucas approached Jeisen, offering a hand. It looked like the hero pulled off some last resort to get that guy on his back foot, because Jeisen himself didn't look all that great. He seemed to be coming down from a panic.

"Do you know that guy? I don't, but he seemed to know us. And what do you think he meant? 'This alteration?' What a weird person," Lucas said. His mind was quickly coming up with a great many outlandish theories, but it couldn't hurt to ask what Jeisen thought as well.

Jeisen tapped his mask as the optics refreshed again. The gear was EMP proof, but that didn't matter to him. The need to double check was a little stronger then normal. He signed inside his helm. Maybe I am a little rusty. I should have seen that earlier. The when he started up those nuclear inside his gun, the EMP burst would have disrupted that I'm sure. He fiddled with his left forearm gauntlet, examining the two hole in it.

A hand appeared in his version. Jeisen hesitated, but pulled himself up off of the ledge where he was sitting. He brushed himself off with a casual pat.

"Do you know that guy? I don't, but he seemed to know us. And what do you think he meant? 'This alteration?' What a weird person," said Lucas to him.

"He's not from here. I don't mean like he's not from London. Talking about alterations and other such, he might be from the multiverse. Don't think to hard about it, he could also just be a nutjob who thinks he is but he's really from some small town in America." Jeisen said as he checked his gear once more. His usual unflappable composure was back in place.

"Well that was a nice little practise ya? Get that blood flowing in you squishy meat popsicles. But let's move this talk to another spot, before this building collapses mmkay?" Nolan said as he floated out from underneath the cloak.

Jeisen gather him a withering glance from underneath his mask, but the bugger had the right idea. "There's a safe house not too far. Let's get out of here."

And with that Jeisen used his gauntlet to pull him off to the next building, leading the way.

Lucas nodded at Jeisen's conclusion that the man they just fought was probably from the multi-verse, or some other such place. That was the teen's instinct as well. Wherever he was from, though, he would definitely be back. Lucas just hoped it wouldn't be so surprising next time.

Jeisen rightly pointed out that this was no longer the best place for them to talk. The building was indeed collapsing. Once again, sirens could be heard in the distance. They needed to leave, or would have to answer a lot of unwanted questions.

Jeisen suggested a safe house that was apparently nearby. That sounded like as good an idea as any. The hero shot his gauntlet grapple line, leading the way. Lucas furrowed his brow. He didn't have anything like that with him, so it seemed his travel would have to be a bit more.... conventional.

Lucas was a decent acrobat, however, so he mostly kept up. If a jump between buildings was ever too large, he'd just make his way down a fire escape or the building's window ledges, one by one. He was probably on par with all those people in Parkour videos online, but still, to Jeisen he was probably painfully slow.

Jeisen stopped outside a tall and skinny London Town House. It was rather.....normal. Or at least, it wasn't exactly a place Lucas would expect Jeisen to be chilling in. It gave off more middle class, family of five vibes.

Whatever the case, Lucas would follow the hero into the entryway. He hoped the inside was a bit more what he imagined.

"Home sweet home" Jeisen murmured to himself as he stopped in front a ledge of a building overlooking his house. A new matt was outside the doorway saying welcome on it. Odd, must have been a new addition. "Sarah..."

With a quick press of a button, Jeisen covered himself in a hologram to disguises himself as an older man. He wiped his feet on the rug as he entered home. The inside was neat and orderly, the hallway leading into a small living room with the kitchen just beyond. There was a small side hallway that lead to stairs going up and down. The entire place looked pretty much like a normal home, if a little on the spartan side of things. The only perhaps odd thing was the lack of pictures through out the house.

"Seems she's been keeping this place clean... really should thank her one of these days you know." Nolan said as he nestled down into a set of pillows.

Jeisen took of his cloak and hung it up on a nearby rack. Looked a little odd next to a hat, but it was quaint. "There's a room upstairs for you, across the hall from Sarah's. Don't bug her now okay? She's ahh... busy. Down stairs is the basement where my workshop is. Careful if you go down there, the anti-gravity generator is usually running. Don't touch any of my projects either, most are a little sensitive ya know?"

He crouched down next to a cupboard, pulling out a set of blankets, sheets and a towel. He handed them off to the young Lucas. "Room might be a little small, but you'll get used to it. Go get settled then come find me in the basement."

And with that Jeisen left the young man alone, walking down to his basement. Nolan was still nestled in the couch flicking through the t.v channels. A tea began to boil in the kitchen.