Damage, Inc.

A flash of red light smote the skyline of New York City. One by one, buildings along 5th Avenue were run through by a crimson bolt of enigmatic light. It rained rubble. Car alarms wailed. Civilians fled. The strange light halted suddenly, revealing the still glowing form of Ultra hovering in the air. Clenched in both fists; the tattered fabric remnants of a villain's ensemble. After being crushed by the full impact of over a dozen skyscrapers at several hundred miles an hour, those scraps were all that remained of the ne'er-do-well known as The Atomizer.

Ultra, on the other hand, seemed entirely unaffected. In part because the Atomizer had absorbed all the impact, and because not much short of a calamity had any reliable chance of hurting him. Atomizer had learned that the hard way.

"I'll kill you!" a feminine voice shouted with rage and desperation.

Wonderkill, one of Atomizer's nefarious allies. Ultra deduced by her reckless retaliation that she was likely some kind of lover as well. She tore through the air with a fist wound back for a strike. Ultra's unflinching regard sneered. All of Wonderkill's momentum halted when her face met Ultra's palm. Inertia shattered bones with a crunch that echoed loudly off the skyline windowpanes. Fingers wrapped around Wonderkill's skull, palming it like a basketball before Ultra flung her into a wild toss. She splattered against the bricks of another tall building like a bug on a windshield.

Another hard lesson.

Ultra huffed with disappointment, he didn't derive any kind of satisfaction from this. Lethality was an unfortunate measure, but he had warned them beforehand what he'd do to them if they didn't stand down. In his own words, he told them he wasn't a 'pussyfooted softie' and that none of them 'wanted what he'd give them'. An argument could be made against it regardless, but then again, they had every intention to take his life as well.

"I reckon this'd be your cue to pack up and fuck off," Ultra remarked toward the third member of the vile clique.

Spartan had watched the ordeal from a rooftop, unable to fly like the others. Ultra's condescending suggestion fueled the rage he already felt over the loss of two friends at the hands of the glowing bastard before him. Beneath the obscurity of his helmet, Spartan flashed a perspirating scowl. Lighting from a clear New York sky struck Spartan, imbuing him with godlike strength. He leaped toward Ultra, threw a strike with his shield and sent him through a building from whence he came with Atomizer, punching a second whole through it alongside the original.

Three more new holes were punched in the concrete canopy of the city before Ultra shook off the daze from the blow. A burst of red electricity conducting through the atmosphere heralded his sudden change in trajectory. Mach waves burst around Ultra's form, the subsequent sonic boom shattered every window on the block. He collided with Spartan before he'd even hit the ground. Inertia had no effect physical effect on either of them as speed dropped significantly, unlike Wonderkill. Clinched together in light they wrestled. Turbulent trajectory saw them slam into buildings, skid against the ground and create fissures in the concrete, and shatter cars into pieces.

Ultra managed to slip Spartan into a full nelson. "Feel like giving up yet!?"

Spartan's Greek retort crossed the language barrier as a resounding 'No'. Unable to finish him from there, Ultra began to fly directly upwards. Spartan immediately realized what was happening, kicked his legs backwards several times before finally meeting Ultra's groin with his calf. Their clinch released, Spartan began to fall once again. Ultra gritted his teeth, and with a deep inhale released a stream of condensed Ultrawaves from his eyes. The beam connected with Spartan's shield, exploded, yet had no effect. Ultra shot again, and again until Spartan had reached the ground. Another crack echoed across the city as Ultra abused the sound barrier.

The fight continued on the ground near Riverside Park. Every strike roared like thunder. One slip saw Spartan's striking arm in Ultra's grasp. Spinning at insane speed, Ultra wound up a great toss, releasing and sending Spartan over the Hudson toward New Jersey. The historical villain caught footing on a building and pushed off, leveling the entire structure and sending himself back toward Ultra. Sudden stop. Ultra met him halfway, a fist through his abdomen. Reaching down for a leg, Ultra finished the job with a final tug, tearing the final member of the villainous trio in half, dropping his body into the Hudson.

It could have been different, Ultra acknowledged privately. If only they'd taken the warning.

Slowly, Ultra hovered back to Riverside Park, landing gently on a footpath. He brushed rubble and viscera from his suit, only to be faced with the damage and chaos he'd caused. Blatant holes in buildings, sirens and panicked commotion in the distance, along with several fires and piles of rubble. Comparatively, it was nothing when compared to the catastrophes the city had been subjected to in the past. Far too large to be swept under the proverbial rug, though.

This always happened when they didn't listen.

Dark shadows cast themselves across the  dimly lit room. Talons HQ now rebranded as Halo HQ hadn’t seen habitation for a month or two, not since the self proclaimed hero came and went. He strode the length of the commons room, hands buried in his pockets and eyes considering the smartly designed couches and tables with only half interest.  It was obvious he didn’t design these things, though no one was accusing anyone of anything.  The living room wasn’t of any interest anyway. It was nothing more than a place half cocked heroes could unwind after playing hero, there were other places his interest lay. Anyone who had access to the building plans could find discrepancies if they looked hard enough and his own Shade connections allowed those things too.

Lifting aside a tacky looking art piece, and pressing into the wall a small keypad was revealed. Enter in a short code and he found a door sliding open in the building. Who built something like this? Was it Vexus, the eternal enemy of this group or someone apart of it too paranoid to really let some villains be locked away in public prisons. Regardless of the who he couldn’t help smiling, stepping into the slim hyper-glass elevator and letting it descend down into the depths of the earth. Fingering the dog tags so freely given to him without a thought. The Doctor had helped him learn all these things, and add a few things of his own.

Were teleportation anchors like this so easy to give out? Well, that was possible though he didn’t think too hard on it. They were his now, so he was free to do what he wanted to do with it. With a light ding, the elevator stopped and the doors silently slid open. From there was a sterile hallway, neon blue lights offering the only illumination there. The soul of artificiality, mingling with the humming of electricity through the walls. From there he stepped into a large room. Far larger than the upstairs common room, dominated by a massive screen and the blur of images projecting across it. Access to the world wide web also meant the various news stories that projected themselves onto it as well. Humanities obsession with superhuman that existed alongside their equally strong fear of them.

”AI, show me…the current meta human crisis,” He spoke out-loud, lips pursed and eyes now turned fully towards the screen. That torrent of information ceased, revealing to him satellite footage of meta human brutality. A little blurry, but with the proper slowing down he could see what looked to be red lightning and a human shape being torn apart by sheer speed. No regard for bringing them in alive it would seem. An amused smirk formed on his lips as he watched, wondering what he was dealing with.  It would have been the normal heroic reaction to stop something like that but he was never by any means normal in that regard. People killed one another all the time, so it was not even new by many metrics but he wasn’t here to save people. Leave that kind of thing to Silus; a bleeding heart who seemed to care for everyone.

His reasons for working in New York now and through a heroes sanctum was for reasons all his own.  ”I want this monitored. Inform me when it becomes something I should step in on,” With that he spun from the large screen and stepped through another sliding glass door, far more opaque than the elevator and immediately was hit with the scent of disinfectant. The smell of hospitals always left him feeling off. Perhaps it was the harsh chemical scent or just the sheer lack of color that came with these things. Regardless he made his way through until reaching an observation room of sorts.

Two sided glass which let him consider a young human male, bound in many wires and kept sedated with large monitors keeping track of his vitals. ”AI, how is the patient today?” He questioned, seemingly to no one once again, arms cross over his chest and contemplating said patient.

“Vitals remain steady. No changes from last inquiry,” The artificial intelligence had more of a personality before but he was told it had a few restraints put on. Maybe to keep it from doing anything he didn’t want.

”Analyzation of the Phoenix Factor?”

”50% so far. Extradimensional in nature but unknown. Capable of performing feats impossible for regular humans, even superhuman but dependent on host.”

”I wonder what that means for this one…or for the previous host,” He shrugged,  shaking his head. ”oh well, how’s the fight looking,”

”It appears that Spartan is…now deceased,” Well that was quick. Those meta humans didn’t last long against whoever they were fighting. Maybe it was a case of fools punching far above their weight classes. Humans sometimes did things like that.

Would he need something like a disguise to keep people from knowing who he was? Yes, that was the way of the world now. All it took was someone capturing him on their phone and it was all over for him trying to have a normal public life. ”Gather coordinates and prepare transit.” The intelligence would know what he wanted without having to be told about it, not that he ever worried about this gift of his. Letting nether darkness wash over himself, he let it shift into another shape entirely. Nothing into jagged yet slim armor that covered him well enough into a skeletal black helmet.

Covering this was a cloak like shadows, flowing over his shoulders down to his feet. If he had to give his disguise a descriptor, it would have been edgy fantasy villain but that suited him just fine. What people assumed was their own problem.

”Teleportation beginning in 3…2…1.” With that he felt the sensation of being moved.

Bright light that enveloped him. One seconds he was in the observation room and the next he was elsewhere. If he were to guess, two to three blocks from where his target was expected to be. Set atop a high building, feeling the cold wind blowing past and whipping around his cloak.Of course New York had to have cold winds like this, bringing about with it goosebumps along his arms and the back of his neck.  ”Well, I suppose I have to get moving if I want to meet this new public menace,” It was almost exciting to see how they would react to…well him, though maybe he would try to rip him in half too. Wouldn’t be the first person that tried to do something like that and wouldn’t be the last either.

Drawing the ethereal energy through his body, he let the energy pool through his legs and arms. Seeping within the skin to the point that the strength of all of these things were increased, enough to tussle with most meta humans that went around busting buildings. Turning, he could see a massive hole punched through it and fragments still breaking off from it.

”I know someone who’d have an aneurysm from something like this,” Like that he sprung in motion, not fast enough to break through the sound barrier yet enough to become nothing more than a black blur to the naked human eye. Moving through the streets, weaving around people that were still in the streets after that kind of chaos and finally nestling in a tree. Crouching within its leaves, settled upon one of the thick branches, looking down on the hero speckled in gore and debris. The grin under his mask unseen.

”That was quite some work. Think that’ll set the city back a good bit,” He clapped, practically applauding the actions of the metahuman. ”New York has sure bred a different kind of thing,” Resting his elbow on his knee, and considering him. Perhaps he could do something, but that all came down to if this man thought he was an immediate threat. He stood a good 10 inches taller than him give or take, so maybe he would think that gave him an advantage like most others would.

Humans and meta humans were all so presumptuous.