Webs of fear (Alert| Talos)

Ryan was used to nightmares. Ever since he could remember, his mind was wracked with images he was sure those his age weren’t supposed to deal with.  He just wasn’t born in that kind of world, where he could be just like any other child.  

This was a different kind of nightmare. The familiar image of snow, and the body in his hands weren’t there. Instead he could see it for a moment, Vegas stretched out beneath him with a shadow cast over it. The moon a pumpkin face and eyes like a burning candle,  looking down upon those who crawled like ants.  It would have felt just like a dream if he didn’t have a strange feeling in his gut, that he was dealing with something real and familiar.

A fluke really was the only reason he didn’t get dragged further into the nightmare. The booming jack-o-lantern mans voice and then he snapped to consciousness, the sound of a tv filtering through the Vegas suite.  His heart was hammering in his chest, like a bird trying to fly straight through his ribs.  He blinked, rising from the bed and moving to one of the massive glass windows.

Were there supposed to be webs between the high rising buildings? His mind blanked for a second, long enough for a multi-faceted face to look upon him through the glass. Long enough for it to slam a leg through the window, sending shards of glass across the room, shredding through his shirt.

”Giant spiders?” He questioned to himself, throwing a psychic defense up against the leg before it could pin him against the closest wall.  Anger blossomed within his chest, producing an explosive force out from his body sending the leg lashing outwards against a nearbye wall. He was definitely going to get in trouble for this one.

Something was attacking the city or maybe just this part of the city. Either way he lowered the few feet he had been slammed above the floor, and beckoned for the container that held his suit. A simple looking sleek attache case that snapped open to reveal the suit beneath, something that split into the many amorphous parts that slid over him before taking shape. Covering his body enough to keep his identity from those that actually might care about that kind of thing.

”Now, let’s see what the damage to the city is,” he stepped up to the hole punched in his room, which had grown larger from his self defense.  As the visor slid over his eyes he let the systems search out for anything. The internet was working for now, though mostly it was scattered stories of an attack on London. By what people called Ascendant. He couldn’t find much info on who that might be, beyond  a few tangential reports from before the attack.

Looks like he’d need to do things the hard way. As the world sped up from the slowed down thought process he noted the spider head peeking through the massive hole. It was quickly thrown from the building with a thought. It seemed spiders weren’t anything special. ”Wish Lucas were here. He’d know how to deal with this,” He muttered to himself, Flamel would be good too but here he was working alone.  So he quickly transcribed a few alchemist runes around the room, stepping through the hole and holding himself aloft through telekinetic prowess alone.

Once he left the room the hole and all damage knit itself back together in a flash of blue light.  His eyes were however focused on the massive spiders walking among a massive network of webs that worked its way throughout the city. Wherever these spiders came from they had quickly began gathering what could only be described as food.  Hopefully they didn’t eat quickly, otherwise he wasn’t sure he would have many people in those cocoons to save.  The spider who thought he was some kind of snack was flailing about in the air, unable to escape him and soon enough it was a mushed pulp that fell to the street below.

As it fell it hit a few threads of thick web, sending a vibration throughout and drawing the attention of others. Would he be the only one doing anything about this? He hoped not, seeing the chaos that happened beyond even the massive web network. If so this was going to be a long night. With a motion he unleashed cyan bursts of energy, hitting various sections of the webs and spiders, the points where they hit rapidly freezing and crumbling apart. The first step to saving the day was breaking the enemies equilibrium and he would do so.

There was something about flying as Mach 7 that made all of Jacobs problems seemingly wash away. He soared over the night sky, overlooking the city of Vegas below. It was his favorite view, for the city was always shining bright, like a cluster of stars, shimmering in the desert.    

Except, the city didn’t glow like it did before, instead, it was blanketed in a dark shadow, originating from a massive figure that loomed over the strip.  

“Mad Jack...” Jacob looked up at the skyscraper sized villain. “Yuri, please tell me why there’s a psychopath the size of the Empire state building standing in front of me.”

Yuri, the advanced AI Jacob had programmed, didn’t respond. Instead, an eerie sound played through the Comms of the suit, which sounded like...little girls singing a nursery rhyme.  

Suddenly, he felt the wind on his face, as he looked down, realizing the Talos armor had vanished, and he was just, floating there, in his boxers. Upon realizing he was unarmored, he felt his body start to fall, hurling towards the city below.  

“Yuri...” Jacob cried out, pressing a button on his wristwatch, trying desperately to connect with his AI. “Yuri!!”  



Everything then went black...



Jacob shot up in his bed, gasping for air, drenched in a cold sweat. “Yuri!!”  

“I am here, sir, what do you need?” The AI voice spoke into the room, coming from the small wall-mounted screen by the bedroom door.  

Jacob let out a sigh of relief, as he shifted to the edge of the bed, strapping on his legs. “Prepare a cup of coffee, queue up my rock playlist, and warm up the lab, it’s gonna be one of those nights.”

He rubbed his neck, walking out into the main living area of the modern desert mansion, heading for the entrance to his private lab. He stopped short, as he looked over to the windowed wall that overlooked the city of Vegas from the Spring Mountains, where Jacob had his home built.  

Even from where he stood, he could tell something was wrong. The city didn’t have it’s usual luster.  

His heart sank as he heard a familiar voice, seemingly coming from the room itself.  

“Vegas is mine, All heroes Welcome!”  

His attention snapped to the window itself, where Yuri had brought up a live feed from one of the local new channels, and imposed it on the smart window, showing the final moments of the poor news van.  

“Sir, Vegas is on high alert, as the city has been overrun by dark monsters.”  

“Looks like Mad Jack got a power boost...” Jacob clenched his fist, grabbing his coffee. “Yuri, fire up the Talos systems, looks like we’re smashing pumpkins tonight.”  



A few moments later...



Talos launched out of the mansion like a bat out of hell, on a war path towards the city. “Yuri, tell me what’s going on.”  

“Several heroes have already been spotted on the scene, moving in on the source of this nightmare.”  

As Talos reached the city, he scanned over it, his HUD pinging several anomalies. “Yuri, get ahold of Nellis Air Force, alert them that we will need a city-wide evacuation, heroes have arrived.”  

He dove down into the city, nearly dropping into one of the spiderwebs. Luckily, someone had already devised a plan for them, as they were suddenly frozen, and shattered.  

Talos turned to see a familiar hero. “Hey, cobalt!”

Suddenly, he felt something start to tug him down to the ground, “What the hell...” He spun around, seeing one of the spiders on the ground, who managed to fire its webbing at him, and was trying to pull him in. “Oh, are you hungry??” Talos grabbed onto the strand of webbing, giving it a solid tug.  

The spider suddenly found itself airborne, as the hero ripped it off the ground, and flying towards himself. Excitedly, the spiders fangs twitched, as it was about to feast.  

Talos, however, dodged to the side before the spider made contact, letting it go hurling toward the sky. A targeting system activated, locking onto the spider, as a tiny missile popped up from a compartment on Talos left shoulder, launching off towards the monster.  

The missile pierced the exoskeleton of the arachnid like a bullet, before detonating with concussed air, turning the bug into an explosion of ichor and chitin.  

“So, this is definitely magic...” Talos turned his attention back to Cobalt. “You got any clue how that Psycho managed to do all this??”

Despite how thick and tough the webbing was, the moment his energy touched them it was nothing more than brittle cloth holding the network together. Many threads shook and then sagged from the sudden release of tension, followed by what he thought was a chorus of screams and irritated spider noises. Well, that did answer if there were people still around to save within the cocoons.  His mind was running a mile a minute, taking count and note of every single person caught within the webs, how many were making minute motions and if that was something he could act upon. Saving the humans was more important than anything else really. Deaths were not something he could really tolerate as long as he were here to do something.

Time was moving slowly, through his perceptions he could think this all through without even losing actual time. Through these slowed perceptions he could also see that rocket fly through the air and turn a spider into the equivalent of a water balloon.  Spattering cuts and bits across the ground far below. Looked like he had some help in this fight, which might mean he could do a little more in regards to saving people. Despite the radiant fear around him, Ryan couldn’t help smiling beneath his mask.

”Talos!” He responded, quickly calling upon the heroes name from the vault he called a mind. The hero with what looked to be a robotic suit could be a great help, especially if the weapons systems were half as good as he thought they were.

Well, it beat the hell out of working alone.

The guy mentioned this was definitely magic, which meant his learning from his dads would be no help. Luckily he also learned from a famous, and pretty much immortal alchemist how magic worked, so maybe he could do something about a magical nightmares made real thing. ”In all honesty, not really but I could make a few guesses,” he responded, voice filtered through his helmet. What could cause someone like Mad Jack to become powerful enough to affect an entire city as large as Vegas? That was something that made little sense to him.

”He could have come across an artifact or source of power that amplified his powers, if they’re truly magical. If that’s the case it should come down to severing him from that source of power...which I don’t think I’ll know how to do without more info,” He explained as best he could, though these two were the easiest and most obvious to him explanations for why this could be happening. ”All I know is he’s been documented to have some kind of nightmare based abilities but that’s really all,” Luckily someone had done their due diligence and gotten some information about the guy, even if it weren’t too much. Even if it were also partly insulting the pumpkin themed villain. People who frequented the internet were frightening people.

”If we can, I’d like to save the people trapped in these webs.” He added, trying to keep large portions of the web from plummeting to the street, though so far it only served as a faint pressure on his mind. A distraction he could focus on for the time being. Being that he caused the web itself to become unstable the spiders, with intelligence he was sure beyond their norm were all turning their attention towards the two young heroes.  Maybe not all of them, but a good few dozen were turning all of their ire upon them, which meant a fight was close.

Multiple spiders launched their webbing at the two of them. He lashed out with a thought, slicing through some of the webbing, and quickly conjured up a barrier for the rest aimed at him, causing it to curve around the circular shape of it.  The loss of vision was enough to confuse him, throwing Cobalt back against the side of the building he had stepped out of, more and more spiders rising from seemingly nowhere to come up at him. Their legs creating a loathsome skittering sound with their dreaded approach. It was mostly dark within the impromptu wrappings, ones he pressed his palms against and unleashed a burst of his energy through. Quickly turning sticky threads into frigid and fragile strands that snapped under their own weight.  They were blasted away, revealing three snapping maws all too ready to bite into his armor.

His eyes darted around the massive network, and he focused his intent. Producing bursts of telekinetic energy that sliced through two of them while a spike formed from building material ripped through the abdomen of the third as its fangs barely managed to clamp onto him. It didn't even managed to break through the skin, not even the armor.  The two attacks he launched ripped through the spiders and went further to tether two sections of the network with people attached.  With a frantic reach, he tried to catch them and lower them down to the street below. That went well for the most part and he was pretty sure they managed to escape before anything else could catch up to them.

Mind if I make this a mental talk? Think this might make working together a little easier, He reached out with his telepathic network, hoping Talos would accept it and make things easier.

Talos nodded in response to the plan of clearing civilians from the webbing. “I agree, the Air Base has been alerted, and should be putting together an extraction plan as we speak, but they’re gonna need a clear path...” He would drift in the air, avoiding the oncoming barrage of webbing, firing his energy at the attacking spiders, the energy punching straight through their chitin armor. “Luckily, these things seem to go down pretty easily.

As Cobalt would find himself back against a building, Talos would realized he had left an opening himself. Concentrating on the spiders spewing webs, he missed a couple that had managed to get above him, slowly descending down to him, and snagging him in their eight legs, going to drag him back to their web, slowly encasing him in a sack. As they both went to bite him, hoping to subdue him with their venom, their fangs would find solid steel, which would shatter them, causing the massive arachnids to screech in pain.  

“Sorry, I know the ladies call me a snack...” Talos ripped through the wrappings, firing his energy beams into the faces of both spiders. “But nobody is eating this hero tonight.” He jetted into the sky some, punching through the spiders grip, and several layers of webbing.  

“Mind if I make this a mental talk? Think this might make working together a little easier.”

Talos looked down to Cobalt, and nodded, replying in his own head. “It’s a bit weird, but whatever makes it easier, I am willing...” He shrugged. “Just don’t go poking through my brain or something, I had some weird thoughts.” He joked.  

"Sir, Vegas CCTV has picked up something interesting.” A screen showed up on Talos HUD, showing a live feed of what looked like a huge, dark tree, planted in the center of the city.  

What the cameras focused on was one of the branches, where a silver and blue figure was hanging, motionless.

“Holy shit, is that Silver Scion??” He stated in his head, quickly realizing Cobalt couldn’t see the live feed from him. “I mean, the tree in the center of the city, we need to get to it as soon as we can, there’s a hero that needs our help.”  

He scanned the area, determining the amount of webbing, and how many spiders, they would have to carve through, before coming up with an idea. “Yuri, bring me the flamer...” He paused, as if to purposely add suspense. “The heavy flamer.”  

“Copy, sir, incendiary cannons on approach, ETA five minutes.”  

From the mansion, a decent sized pod launched from the lab, its self-guided propulsion systems steering it towards the Hero, like an automated care package.

The spiders were dangerous but by his own metrics they were nothing more than pests that needed to be squashed. Apparently to Talos they were also equally easy to destroy, blasts of energy and small rockets ripping through their exoskeletons like they were nothing. This was what they got for fighting with the nightmares of humans. Such frailty lead to even their predators being things that he could think at and destroy.

Some even attempted to bite the other hero, bringing with it a certain anxiety that quickly was blown away when fangs shattered against steel armor.  He sigh of relief worked from him as he  quickly worked towards ripping more and more people free with blasts of telekinetic influence,  doing what he could to set them down upon the street below. Sure, they were on their own then but that was the best he could do in that department.

As he connected their minds, the man responded with an affirmation followed by a joke. Well, he was hoping it was a joke anyway. How much of his thoughts would bleed through in this connection were possibly unfortunate if  they were really weird.  I’ll keep that in mind, Was it possible to be sarcastic with his own thoughts? He didn’t know but he hoped the joking tone carried through.

That was when mention of a name snapped his attention to the other hero, eyes wide in brief confusion before  recognition came.  That was a hero he knew his father despised, one he had clashed with many times and each time came away with more agitation.  Silver Scion? What’s he doing here? He questioned absently,  looking to the massive tree to rose in the distance and a silver glint that was barely visible within that distance. Even his visor could only zoom so far, though it was enough to reveal what he was looking at.

Massive webs were between them and the place the hero hung, his mind working through what he could do to free the man. Despite his sordid history with the villain known as Lucius Alba, he had no real gripes against the man. He let himself settle on the roof of his high rise hotel, taking in all the chaos that unfolded around him. We need to get through the creatures between here and him. The spiders will be easy, but they aren’t the only things we need to worry about, Massive creatures, scaled with wings flew above them, the glint of feathers as well. Making them look like a mixture of dragon and bird, considering the two of them as if they were food.  Like buzzards they just flew there, not quite acting yet but he could tell they were considering it.

Attempts to rip through the webs were made, but it seemed like they were regrowing now instead of simply falling apart when sliced. Was someone making them regrow? His eyes looked to the massive shape of Mad Jack leering down, and he huffed.  Despite that he tried harder and the webs fixed themselves more, as if they were infused with a malevolent life all their own. A sticky thread creeping out along the roof and wrapping around his leg, blown away quickly enough by a thought. That didn’t save him from a dozen more that began trying to drag him into the massive mass of webs that were rising between them and the tree.

“I mean, given how much Jack hates the guy, I’d say he’s definitely not here for cake...” He joked, it was a defense mechanism, which kept Talos focused. “Either way, I’m sure freeing him will put a huge thorn in Jacks ass, which is just fine with me...” His attention shifted to the flying creatures Cobalt pointed out. “Great, the monsters have air support.” He looked back to the webs, which seemed to be growing back, all on their own.  

He also noticed something else, as the buildings, roads, everything around him, started to crack apart, a black void-like aura emitting from the cracks.  

“Yuri, what’s going on??”  

“High readings of energy fluctuations are popping up all over the city, sir, it appears that by manifesting nightmares onto the physical plane has caused an instability at the quantum level...” Another image popped up on Talos HUD, showing what looked like a scan of some sorts. “I’m afraid sir, that by tampering with reality, Jack has started to fracture said reality, creating a singularity...” Yuri paused. “If not stopped, Vegas will cease to exist.”  

Jacob felt his heart sink, as the cold sweat returned. “How long do we have??”  

“Given the rate of decay, I would say Two, two and half hours, tops.”

“Anything we can do to stop it??”  

“Not from this reality, but I have confirmed reports that heroes are moving to engage Jack in his realm, if they can break his control before the singularity reaches it pinnacle, then there’s a chance reality will stabilize itself, with some minor structural damage.”  

“Well, guess we just keep doing what we can here...” He looked to Cobalt, speaking from his mind. “Got some news, reality is trying to fight Jacks control, and the collision is causing a singularity, we got two hours to get everyone out of here, and hope the others can break Jacks control before Vegas vanishes entirely.” His attention turned back to the webs, and the flying creatures. “Let’s get to work.”  

”Incendiary cannons arriving shortly, eta three minutes”

That would make things too easy, Cobalt agreed,  frowning underneath his mask. This was just like new York, the city being assaulted by a force the heroes and even the humans around him could do nothing against.  Whatever the case was, the two of them likely could and should save the hero. His mind was running, working over what he could do and nothing was  coming immediately to mind. His father had techniques that that could do something here now right?

His mind turned towards cracks appearing within the air. Very visible, like glass cracking slowly even with the faint sound of glass cracking. Spurts of energy came through, one of which hit him full force to the face. Doing no damage whatsoever but he felt it, the heavy weight of a madness he couldn’t describe. His mind became a flurry of emotions and thoughts, a sharp pain happened within his left nostril alongside the taste of copper on his mouth.

His fathers death. Isalia’s death. So many deaths pierced through him in a single second, forcing the young man to his knees as his stomach became a maelstrom of nausea. He’d felt this sensation, once before and it was enough. The lower half of his  helmet raised and he released the content of his stomach over the rooftop. Mind still ringing, pain still apparent as a black energy began to crackle around him like lightning.

The webs like vines began wrapping around his body, trying to drag him into a torrent of webbing that had become something else entirely.

”Give me a break,” He muttered catching his breath, blasting awayt the sticky webbing with a burst of black energy tinged with streaks of blue. Something was wearing away at reality.  Maybe that was the whole point of this attack on Vegas and maybe even London. ”Well then, let’s get moving. Don’t really want to stay here and get sticky,” The tides of webbing slammed against the building and he retaliated with a wave of blue energy, forcing it back as it became brittle and snapped apart.

It was kept from advancing but never was pushed back. He needed fire, but he had nothing that could make it right now.  Not my first rodeo in dealing with something trying to end reality, He looked up, reaching out with his mind and latching onto one of the dragons.  He gave a wrenching gesture followed by the dragon screeching loudly, plummeting through the air and slamming into the distant dark tree which shook the city around it. That was followed by him propelling himself into the air telekinetically, drawing a small metal hilt to his hand as the blade of blue energy rose from it.  

He could feel the wind pressure pushing back against him, eyes narrowed as he slammed into the other flying creature. He was pretty sure  a boom echoed outwards somewhere within his upwards trajectory. The blade bit through scale, causing a loud shrieking cry from the dragon. Flailing around, the tail smashed into him until he was shaken loose as the blood splashed over him. Throwing the young man away from it, turning to release a breath of flame.  Curving around a quick barrier, though he couldn’t keep from plummeting to the ground and smashing through the roof of one of the many high rising buildings.

Wouldn’t happen to have any fire would you? He mentally questioned, sure the webs wouldn’t stop with ice alone.

Talos looked over as Cobalt collapsed to his knees, as some kinda energy hit him in the face, forcing him to purge his stomach.  

Before he could ask if he was okay, Cobalt was back on his feet, responding to the news by flying up, and making a direct charge for the flying creatures. “Not a bad idea!” Talos followed suit, driving a flying haymaker into one of the other creatures beak, shattering it completely. He then followed up by firing another energy blast down its now exposed throat, it’s head bursting into a fiery explosion.  

“Incendiary cannons approaching, etc one minute.”

As he turned to react to another creature, it had already started to belch out its fire, engulfing the hero in flames.  

The creature, thinking he had roasted the hero, gave a gleeful screech, which the remaining monsters responded to, as if giving a victory.  

But, as the smoke cleared, it was clear they were celebrating way to early.  

“Sorry, your fires hot...” Talos, smoking, but otherwise unharmed, raised his hand, a yellow glow emitting from his energy blasters as he charged up a massive shot. “But not hot enough.”  

Krakoom!!

The charged shot blasted across the sky, temporarily lighting the area in a sun-like glow, as it punched through not only the attacking creature, but two others that were unfortunate enough to be caught in its flight path, before dissipating.  

Talos then turned back to see the webbing, which was still growing. “Oh, I got just the thing...” He replied to Cobalt, as the pod came flying towards him. As it got close, it separated into smaller pieces, which guided themselves to the proper parts of the armor, connecting with ease.  

First, a pack-like object attached to his back, which connected, via wires, to what looked like a wrist mounted cannon, the size of his forearm.  

”Incendiary cannon attached.”

Talos aimed the cannon. “Someone call the exterminator!!?”  

The cannon, instead of firing a standard fire, fired a torch-like beam, the section of web it hit, was reduced to nothing more than ash.  

Talos swept the beam across, making sure to hit every inch of web he could, while avoiding any unnecessary damage to buildings, or people.

The air smelled burnt. The heat from the creatures breath was hot, something that felt uncomfortable but he managed to protect himself mostly from the attack. Fragments of the building rested on him, pinning him to the floor, quickly brushed away with a thought. ”Dragons, huh?” He muttered to himself, drawing himself to his feet and seeing the flash of  a shot illuminate the nightmare tinted sky.

In the shadows around him things were writhing. How long had they been here? His eyes were barely adjusted to the dim light of what he realized was a high rise hotel suite, a few victims strewn around him. It was when he realized that there were forms like snakes moving along,  their low unnatural hissing grating at him. Their eyes were a blood red, glints within the shadows.

”Don’t have time to play around with you guys,” With both hands spread out, he unleashed a blast that decimated this entire floor of the hotel, leaving him wreathed in a cloud of smoke.  It was just in time to see the flames lick over the mass of living webbing, eating it  greedily and spreading over the mass quickly.  When other things hadn’t worked he could see that the fire quickly destroyed it.

Didn’t know you had something like this hidden away, He noted with approval., silently considering the flames that now lit the sky up.  With an enhanced leap he picked out a building closer to Talos, leaving a small rune which quickly activated once he left the ruins of this building. Not even really paying much attention to the entire floor pull itself back together with a flash of energy. Buildings like this had pretty basic structures, nothing he couldn’t quickly guess and work through.

Now between them and the tree was an ocean of burning flame, burning webs that quickly faded to smoke and ash. They weren’t nightmares, that much he could tell but what did it mean? Were they manifestations of dream and desire made real? A nonsense concept if he were to ask his father but Flamel might have considered it something possible.  Afterall, The King of Nightmares as he was called by the more magically inclined was known more as a demon than anything else. Not powerful enough to do this, but that also meant something was improving him. What kind of magical juicing was he doing?

If Jack isn’t functioning in the waking world, that means whatever we’re seeing here is nothing more than some kind of avatar. Defeating them might do something, if they’re aspects of him. He offered the suggestion, wondering if perhaps defeating the manifestations of the pumpkin headed demon would weaken his hold in the physical world. Were the two of them strong enough to do something like that? Maybe with Silver Scion’s help they could eke out some kind of victory. His mind ran with these kind of thoughts, eyes narrowed towards the prize in the distance. He wished he had some kind of flying capacity in his suit, but he also could do something more with his own powers.

Guess we should get moving, don’t want to see what else this Jack guy can do. Imagine spider dragons, He tried a joke, wondering if that was something heroes did with one another. Well, he would learn now wouldn’t he?

As the beam finished its function, the pack began to beep, as if warning of something. “I like to be prepared for any occasion...” Talos detached the cannon and pack, setting it down on the roof of a nearby building. “Unfortunately, the pack only holds enough charge for a minute of blast...” He looked out to the now cloud of ash, that once used to be webs. “Luckily, it seems that was all we needed.”

The pack began to smoke and spark, as a failsafe kicked in, burning the internal components, in case any snooping hands managed to find the high-tech equipment before Talos could retrieve it. All anyone would find is a melted slag, with no way of discerning how it was originally put together.  

Silver lining, they could make some decent cash selling the metal slag.  

“I mean, in order to bridge the two realities, he would need something anchoring him here.” Talos scanned the city. “If we can destroy, not only could it break his control, but we might be able to put some hurt on his physical body.”  

First thing was first, they had a hero to save.  

“Or web dragons.” Talos joked back, looking to Cobalt, who appeared to be in thought.  

One of those thoughts, Talos assumed by accident, slipped into his mind, as he felt the other hero wanting the ability to fly.  

“This would be faster if I carried you...” He flew down behind Cobalt, placing his hands on his sides, applying just enough pressure to secure him, but still be comfortable. “Just try not to wiggle to much.”  

A second later, they were in the air, soaring across the city. Talos, holding the hero in his hands, couldn’t help but sing in his head, forgetting his mind was linked with Cobalts, as his mind played A Whole New World.  

A few seconds later, they arrived at the tree, landing on a nearby building.  

“Alright...” Talos scanned the branches holding Silver Scion. “I think we should be able to cut through those branches easily.”  

As his view zoomed in, he noticed shadowy figures running along the branches. “We might have another issue, though.” Coming into view, Talos spotted several Imp-like creatures guarding the fallen hero, their small wings and long whip-like tails fluttering excitedly as they watched the two newcomers, waiting with small spears in hand for them to make a move. “Awww, these ones have evolved to using tools, how sweet.”

Prepared for all scenarios.

He knew he should have been prepared but he was also just used to having all the power he did. Capable of acting without having to create specialized equipment to do things like that, though he also  knew that these powers weren’t all useful.  ”Still, pretty nifty thing to have in your back pocket,” He replied, wondering if he could make something like that for himself. Robotics and technology were not his main skills, though he learned enough from Luke to know the basics. Everything else was just working from those basics, making simple complex until he had a suit similar to the one this guy was wearing.

The other hero seemed to agree with his assessment, which felt pretty nice.  Sure he didn’t know too much about dimensional tethering, and the like though he had a feeling that his fathers teleportation research would  give him some clues, if he had it. ”Okay, so that’s a start. Let’s see if we can damage his physical tether, make this whole thing harder for him,” There had to be one anyway.

Now they had a hero to save.

His mind fully devoted itself now to saving the hero in the distance. It was in overthinking that he didn’t guard his thoughts from someone else connected to him, which meant  some of  his thoughts would just bleed through. Not a common occurrence but one that seemed to happen now.  He blinked, turning to Talos, smiling awkwardly beneath his helmet, forgetting that he had it on and the face obscuring.

The guy flew down and rested his hands on his side. It was totally fine, not weird at all. He quickly put up a barrier between his thoughts and the others, feeling his cheeks grow warm. Okay, now this helmet was good to have on.  ”I’ll try not too. No promises though,” Well, his stomach felt like it were wriggling, though he was sure that was some kind of ticklish reaction. It made sense enough, so he went with it behind that brief wall around his thoughts before he let it down quickly.

Seconds had passed between him being lifted and the tree which seemed so far away even a few seconds ago.  This guys speed was pretty impressive, even if only he was sure because his suit allowed it. Did the guy build it himself or have someone else do it? A question for later. The real question was the sing playing in his head. He knew where it came from, the context it was played in and that made his stomach wriggle even more. He couldn’t even come up with a good comeback, instead just spacing out as the song became part of the background noise of his mind.

Within a few seconds they landed on the branches of the massive tree, feeling the massive branch barely even flex at their weight.  Things moved within the shadows of the tree, barely visible with the naked eye but he could tell.  He narrowed his eyes, letting the blade of undulating blue energy offer brief illumination. They didn’t look like anything he should worry about, even their weapons forged from warped black iron were nothing really. If bullets were nothing to him, they shouldn’t be either.

”Imps and pitchforks? A little cliché if you ask me. What’s next, fire and brimstone?” he questioned, chuckling to himself as the imps hovered at the edge of the darkness. Their eyes alight with malevolent intent.

”Terrible quips and everything, truly you’ve acquitted yourself as a hero nicely,” The voice fitted a presence he didn’t recognize before, as if formed from the tenubrous darkness around them a figure emerged. Visor red, and fit within a black suit with red accents that looked very much like his own. Slender red blade held within his hand, and flowing cloak trailing behind the man. ”You call yourself Cobalt now, correct? I suppose the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Though to think you’d fall for such easy bait.”

”That can’t be, you’re...”

”Dead yes. You’d be surprised how much death just doesn’t stick, especially if you know how to thwart it. ” Red energy danced along the edge of the blade, illuminating the imps which existed within the shadows. ”Still, I don’t think I have need of you anymore. So how about we prune the tree a little,”  The imps all swarmed Talos, moving wit frightening quickness but he was mostly focused on the  slash of energy that cleaved part of the tree and all of the branch they were standing on way.

A brilliant flash of red light that illuminated the nightmarish sky, slamming into a telekinetic barrier and ripping through as it slammed into his body. Burning like no pain he had felt before and hurling Ryan several hundred feet into the street below.

On the burnt edges of the pruned branch stood the form of Lucius Alba, watching him plummet.

“Cobalt!!” Talos kicked on his jets, chasing the hero as he went flying. “Come on...” He closed the distance quickly, ignoring the group of Imps that were chasing him, as they couldn’t even come close to touching him at this speed. Catching Cobalt, he swooped back up with him in his arms, flying onto another nearby rooftop. “Yuri...” He set the hero down gently, scanning his vitals. “How's he looking?”

“All vitals are stable, and no fatal injuries.”  

Talos let out a sigh. “Thank god...” He then turned his attention to the figure that appeared in the tree. “Lucius, I thought he was dead.”  

“All reports confirm your belief, as this figure is comprised of the same energy that the other monsters are made of.”  

“So he’s some kind of nightmare clone...” Talos looked over to Cobalt, then back to the Villain, noting slight similarities in their outfit designs. “Huh, that’s gonna be an interesting story to hear.”  

“Sir, those Imps are closing back in.”  

Talos had forgotten about the Imps, as he turned back to them. “Yuri, arm the swarm.”

“Locking on.”  

The HUD showed several of the Imps being marked by an icon, indicating the laser targeting system has chosen its targets.  

“Light’em up!!”  

From the suits shoulders, two hidden launchers popped into view, firing small cluster of small projectiles, each guided towards their registered targets.  

As the missiles reached their targets, the sky burst into a wave of moderately decent sized explosions, turning the group of Imps into small burnt chunks and ash.

“Now...” Talos lifted off the rooftop, his attention focused back on Lucius. “Time for the big boss.”  

The back vents on his armor started to glow, as his jets charged up.  

“Sir, perhaps plan of attack would be beneficial.”  

“Oh I have a plan...” Talos flew forward in a high burst of speed, as he zoomed towards the Villain. “Attack!!” Closing in on his target, his clenched fist began to glow with the same color energy as his blaster and jets.  

“Oi, Red Dead Replicant!!” He declared, as he shifted his body once near, rearing back to deliver a powerful right haymaker, using the momentum of his speed, as well as charged energy in his fists, to make sure the punch would pack some serious punch.

The energy slamming against him stung, burning through his suit and stinging the skin beneath.  The energy was diametrically opposed enough with his own to negate his bodies own natural durability a little, not a lot but enough to hurt when it slammed into him. He expected the impact with the ground, though instead he collided with something solid, nowhere as hard as he expected. His eyes quickly adjusted to the sight of the suited man holding him, something that would have been awkward were the prior fear not already taken hold in his heart.

Well it helped, he couldn’t argue that.

The two were soon enough on another rooftop, his eyes scanning over the sky and then looked to Talos. ”I’m fine...I heal pretty fast,” He knew he would, even if the red energy were burning away at his skin. It didn’t seem like energy put into it wasn’t enough to damage him lethally.

He wondered if the similarities would be too obvious, his own suit was meant to be reminiscent of his fathers, though he didn’t want anyone connecting those kind of dots. He felt over his chest, the flesh tender but rapidly healing up once he focused some energy towards just healing.  He didn’t even have time to deal with the imps, who were blown away by a barrage of rockets. Looked like they were as weak as he thought they were.

He could knit his suit back together, a simple rune and it would be done. Downside being it would be thinner, unable to take the same punishment it could take before.  Cobalt sighed, and rose to his feet, brushing off a few motes of dust.

”How inspired. No one’s ever done this before,” Lucius noted, allowing the strike to connect. A powerful blow, one that shook the massive, severed branch but did nothing to move the man. A faint, crackling energy formed around him for a second. That was followed by a powerful pulse wave, meant to throw the hero back. ”I’m not someone you can just punch out like a paltry back robber. You’ll need to try a little harder than that,” Despite speaking to Talos, he could feel eyes on him.

It was just like him to be unphased by a strike to the face like that. Despite that he still had to do something, anything to keep his father from making this worse.  Don’t think rushing him like that will be a good idea. He’s got plenty of gadgets that help take people down, He sent the mental message, wondering if Talos knew that or was just acting in the way he thought best. He seemed smart so it had to be that, right?

That was when he noted small things flying out from the mans right gauntlet, Little explosives that flew outwards at wicked high speeds, zooming out towards perceived blind spots within Talos and Cobalt’s view.  Flying around various building, looping through the smoke and all things to get close enough to allow their explosions to cause some real damage.  Each was strong enough to destroy a small building, so they likely in large enough number were able to harm most metahumans.

They were the distraction however.

As he raised a telekinetic barrier to protect from the explosives, all it did was throw up a massive among of smoke, hiding the red blade that was swinging towards him. He raised his arm in time to block Cora Zen, though it still managed to bite into him. The pain was white hot, enough to make him bite into his lower lip, pushing back with a burst of energy from where the blade cut through skin. That sent the fear clone skidding back, then he was gone appearing wherever Talos might have landed or moved to, unleashing a few blasts of highly powerful and corrosive red energy before  disappearing a third time to where though he didn’t know.

Talos felt the punch connect, as the force wave from the impact of such a blow shook the very leaves of the tree. A punch, capable of sending some of the toughest superpowered foes stumbling, landed perfectly in the nightmare clones face.  

And did, absolutely...nothing.  

“How inspired, no one’s ever done this before.” The clone mocked him, as his own energy charged.  

“Mother fuc...” Talos was sent flying back from the blast wave of energy, crashing through three buildings, before he finally settled on the middle floor of a hotel.

“Don’t think rushing him like that will be a good idea. He’s got plenty of gadgets that help take people down.”

“Good to know...” He climbed back to his feet. “Yuri, damage report?”  

“Battery durability holding, with 93% charge, armor durability at 89%.”  

“Oof, best to avoid taking any more major blows.”  

“Speaking of, I suggest you move, now!!”

Threat icons popped up on Talos screen, showing several small objects flying towards his location. “Yuri...” Talos kicked off, getting clear as the projectiles made short work of the hotel, leveling it to nothing but rubble. “The suit got hit directly with that energy, what can you tell me about it??”  

While Jacob was infamous for impulsive decisions, it was only because he outfitted himself with tools that, if one action failed, he could at least gain something, mostly information.  

“The suits sensors read a high concentration of heat emitted from the burst...” Another energy scan popped up on his HUD. “The energy seems to affect matter at an atomic level."

“That explains why it did that much damage.” Talos looked over his suit. “Only a few seconds of contact, and he took my durability down 11%.”  

“Sir, incoming!!”  

His threat indicators picked up again, this time reading a single source, firing several beams of energy at him.

“Not this time!!” Talos spun in the air, jetting to the side of the shots. If there was one place you didn’t want to face the young hero, it was in the sky. As he blasted upward, gaining altitude above the villain, before returning fire with a volley of energy beams himself.  

“Yuri, this guys gotta have some kinda weakness.”  

“Unfortunately, any and all information pertaining to his weaknesses has either been erased from record, or is locked away out of reach.”  

Talos looked over to Cobalt, remembering he was there, sending a mental message as Lucuis vanished. “Hey, doesn’t take a Sherlock to put two and two together, you know this guy...” He flew over to the hero. “How is not important, what is important, is do you know what can put this guy down??”

Ryan didn’t have first hand experience being hurt by Cora Zen. It was a blade his father had wielded throughout his tenure as a villain, one he was sure had drawn plenty of heroes blood but he had never come to face it.  What he knew was that it could cut, and when it did the blade stung quite keenly.  Feeling it bite into him was a fine example of the pain it could bring, teeth coming down to bite into his lip to choke back the growl of pain. This would heal, he knew that. It wasn’t a big deal at all.

Despite that his mind was running a mile a minute, working through what tactics could take down his father. Fear induced apparition or not, he was someone he had little confidence in his ability to defeat. Was this even his father or just how he perceived him? That might warp his abilities into something even worse than they might have been in reality. The man afterall was someone that prided himself on his ability to prepare to deal with almost anything that came after him. Many heroes had come after him and most had failed.

Using his teleportation technology to such devastating effect, now that was not something he had seen him do before. Moving around in ways that made the subsequent attacks even harder to predict, or even avoid. This was not a fight he could hope to even escape without better prep. Was there any escape from this fight? He worried and wondered over this within the span of a second, something that stretched out over what felt like longer within his hyperactive mind.  He knew he could think like this forever, but the habit was hard to break.

His father had weaknesses, he knew that much but what they were wasn’t something that immediately came to mind. Best he could think of was his own energy, which was opposite in color and from what he could tell properties. After all, heat seemed to mess with his body in many ways which meant perhaps the opposite would affect someone with an opposite energy. The flash of red burst through the thrown up smoke, smashing into a barrier of blue energy that flashed around him. Streak of black coloring it, though it looked more like an accent than anything else.

Thruster sounds caught his attention, followed by Talos speaking to him. I don’t know too much about his weaknesses but I do have a few ideas. Have anything like liquid nitrogen in that suit? He questioned, working through what the two of them could do against someone like Lucius Alba. He wanted to plot within their minds, less that the villain could overhear. His eyes scanned around, though the multitude of explosions were enough to vastly reduce visibility for him. Well, maybe he’d need to invest in better technology in the future. Direct action while possible, gave away too many of his moves.

I know his powers produce and feed on heat to some extent, so extreme cold temperatures should have some effect on him, He mentally explained, not including the fact this was hypothesis and nothing more. He didn’t even ask Lucas if that was how his powers worked, though he had the feeling it was.  Was he lurking somewhere around them, waiting for some kind of weakness before striking? That sounded like something he would do. My energy has properties similar to liquid nitrogen, so it might be some help though his energy also seems to counter it too,

With a thought he tried to blow away the excess of smoke that had been thrown up, revealing the ruined street around them. Cars, their metal exteriors bent and smashed apart. His father was nowhere to be seen, which meant he was watching from a different point or perhaps he had lost interest. That was just the hope really, but if he knew anything about him that meant he wouldn’t be so lucky.

He’ll strike soon, so we need to be prepared, As if reading his mind something did happen, a sudden upheaval of his equilibrium that ripped Cobalt from his feet. A powerful, sudden wind that rose up from a point he couldn’t make out within his suddenly frenzied mind. What was happening now? His mind worked over the possibilities, especially of what he knew about his fathers gadgets. What could create a sudden whirlwind like this? He was sure he had seen something like that when training with his father before, trying to learn how his powers worked and ways he could master them further. It was a short experience yet one that remained within his mind for a while.

What came to mind was a stick that when set down created a powerful maelstrom from the point it was set down. As he spun around in the air, Ryan tried to steady himself though he still slammed into what felt like the rubble of a hotel that once stood around. Massive chunks of cement were pulled up, drawn into the twister and becoming more of a hazard. If someone were around they would end up getting hurt too.  Massive rocks thrown into still standing buildings, slamming through and leveling even more floors with just wanton destruction. With a grunt he shoved one of the pieces of rubble pinning his body down, holding himself in place through sheer will alone against the hurricane force winds that had been conjured up.

This was getting annoying. His father didn’t even have the decency to stay dead and not bother him anymore, even if it were something conjured by an evil pumpkin demon. He felt something stinging in his eyes, though he didn’t focus on that feeling right now.  The real question was where the source of this wind was. ”So, this a new hero friend of yours? Not too impressed, his suit is impressive enough but that’s about it,” The voice came through his helmet, likely connected through a communication thing. He ground his teeth together, looking for where it could be coming from but knowing sight alone wouldn’t help him.

He had to hope Talos’ suit could find and stop the whirlwind.