Stars over Vegas

The American Southwest was warm. Nothing like the cold, tundra of her home province in Canada. The sun beat down without a cloud to stave it off, and the air kept the heat like a battery kept power. Las Vegas was, as she expected, absolute noise made manifest. Neon lights bright enough to cut through the mid-day glow lit up all around her, palm trees everywhere gave the feeling of nature surviving in a place like this, between the a sea of fluorescent colors and mind-numbing architecture that soared into the sky. The average person might’ve been desperate for some fresh air, a few ice cold drinks to offset the three-digit temperature.

Stareater wasn’t like the average person.

From this high up, atop one of the highest buildings, she sat as though she owned the pace. Stareater stared down at this city, absent-mindlessly taking everything in while absorbing that heat. It was sustenance to her body, letting the young energy vampire thrive in an environment others lagged in. To Stareater, this weather was perfect, and felt lilr it was little more than 15 degrees Celsius from her perspective. The thermal energy simply evaporated into a Stareater-shaped void. She wasn’t doing much, so it was a good time to just sit and relax. She rested with her dynamo harness next to her, the backpack-sized device serving as a way to prop herself up, more comfortable than the concrete.

There was something about flying at Mach 7 that made all of Jacobs problems seemingly wash away.

As the sun sat high in the Sierra desert sky, Talos rocketed over the city, taking in the view below. It was a warm 89 degrees today, but the Talos suit kept Jacob at a cool 60 degrees. There was nothing better than this, as he cut off his jets, facing up to the sky as he held his arms out, falling back to the Desert below.

The elevation tracker ticked down faster and faster as he gained momentum, until he reached 500 feet. The jets bursting back on, and he took off once again, sending up a decent size sand cloud.  

“Yuri, what do we got for today?”  

”Well, you and Mr. Masters are scheduled for dinner at the Luxor at 9pm, and tomorrow you have a live demonstration of your latest prosthetics models at Nellis Airbase.”

“Right, let’s hope that goes smoother than our meeting with Arisawa...” Jacob launched back up into the sky, turning back to face the city. “Luckily, I won’t have to worry about customs.”  

’Sir, I am picking up a strange anomaly within the city.”

“What is it?”  

”Nothing, sir.”

”I don’t understand.”

Suddenly, an image appeared on Taloss’ HUD, of what looked like a satellites thermal image of the city. In the center of the image, the thermal heat appeared to be receding into a small black spot at one of the casino buildings.  

“What the hell is that?”  

”Unknown, but it seems to be siphoning energy from the surrounding area.”

“Alright...” Jacob locked onto the building. “Inform Ryan we got a possible situation, I am going in to intercept.” He then took off.  

Upon reaching the building, he landed behind the figure sitting a few feet in front of him. “Excuse me...” He stated out loud. “If you’re here to cause any chaos or destruction, then you and I will have a...” He stopped as he stepped beside the figure, looking her over. “Problem.” His voice went from serious to curious, as he recognized the person in front of him. “Wait, weren’t you one of the heroes in New York?”

Ryan was impressed with how Vegas quickly rebuilt after the attack. Where there was desolation and rubble had quickly been built up, a newer player in the game subsidizing the reconstruction in a way that he was sure was sketchy. His fathers had their own ways of doing this, patterns he was smart enough to catch. Even still, those weren’t the reasons he was here, enjoying the sights of Vegas once again. There was business of his own he needed to do, collaborating with Talos who was likely also in the city.

Honestly he was pretty sure the guy operated almost solely in this city. What was so great about it, aside from just fueling the greed of so many petty men? Money never really appealed to him. It was useful for sure, but only because people assigned a meaning to it. He could already hear the arguments his family would offer to the contrary, yet those voices suit out quick.

The sun was still setting, which meant he had hours before he needed to do anything. So what did Ryan do when he had so much time to spare? Enjoy the scenery, on the outer sections of the city away from The Strip. He didn’t care anything for gambling or anything like that, it just wasn’t something he cared for. Giving money away to gain more in a rigged game was stupid.

”I really think you’d like the casinos way more.” Sven spoke into his earpiece, emulating a tone that almost sounded judgmental. Maybe it was more confused, as if he were acting in a way that could be seen as boring.

”It sounds boring.”

”Maybe you’re just being boring,” He didn’t think so. Arisawa was enough of a reason for him to want to avoid excitement, the very stress he’d went through still fresh in his mind. Thinking back in the images and all that had been at stake, his blood a frozen torrent through his veins. He was instead just eating a street taco, the rich taste and scent of spices keeping him centered.

”Incoming message.”

”From who.”

”Your boyfriend.” He paused, coughing and hacking on the food he was chewing not too long ago. The hacking and coughing last a few seconds, until he was able to adjust to the surprise.

”Something about a situation. He sent coordinates, if you’re into seeing what that’s about.”

Despite his irritation with the AI he knew his friend likely needed him there. So he walked off from the street vendor, not really concerned with how that might have appeared. A few blocks away he slipped into his suit, the upgrades enough to make it more useful than just a way to hide who he was. Internal rocket thrusters allowed him to take off into the sky and fly towards where things were happening. He was fast but he wasn’t sure if he was fast enough.

I should be there in a few seconds, He sent across the telepathic connection. He didn’t want his speed to cause any damage, so he had to keep it a little slow.

Stareater was young, but she liked to think she understood the world better than most. It was difficult to know the universe of you only studied one planet. She had learned long ago not to trust most people. They could screw you out of everything you had, chest and stomp on everyone to get their way, and make off before anyone could stop them. But to Stareater, most people didn’t stack up very well against her. She didn’t feel threatened by people she could erase from reality with a snap of her fingers.

It was for that reason that Stareater calmly stood up, not offering a response to the stranger that had arrived on the rooftop for her. She turned around and pointed a gauntleted palm at the man. A crackling sphere and black and white energy formed in her hand, the same energy that could be seen writhing around every inch of her helmet. The air hissed and wailed on contact with the energy, being devoured and unmade. There were no instruments on the planet capable of identifying that energy, nothing like it that could be used to draw a comparison.

”We’re a long way from New York, and I don’t recognize you.” Her voice came through the helmet deep as a valley, drowned in reverb. And she sounded testy. ”So I suggest you explain who you are, why you’ve been following me, and why I shouldn’t eradicate you for doing so.”

”Sir, the energy she is outputting, I’m unable to read...” Yuri sounded confused, a little programming Jacob added to signal there was an error somewhere. ”It’s output is too unique for my scanners to process, it’s like nothing the world has seen before, and there is no data to work with.”

Talos held his hands up, showing he didn’t want to fight. “Names Jacob Mercer, you might have heard of me, or the name Talos...” His suit opened up, as he stepped out. “I protect these parts from hostiles...” He stepped away from his suit, letting her see he meant no harm. “My systems detected an anomaly, something siphoning energy from the atmosphere, I came to make sure it wasn’t something that was gonna destroy the city...” He shrugged. “After Mad Jacks little nightmare escapades, people around here are a little on edge.”  

”I should be there in a few seconds.”

”Copy, but approach slowly, she isn’t a threat to the city, but she’s kinda got me at the proverbial gun point, so to speak, and the energy she is using is unlike anything known to science.”

“Look, I have a friend, he’s on his way, he’s kinda my back up...” He was calm and collected on the outside, but inside, his heart was pounding through his chest. “He is also a hero, Cobalt, and he means no harm either.”  

He couldn’t tell if his words were helping his odds, or if he was about to experience this new energy first hand, the glow from her helmet made it hard to discern any emotions, or even a face.  

“I saw you on TV, you were one of the heroes in New York...” He smiled, trying to show he was friendly. “You and those others, the dragon, the flying guy, and the really fast one, you guys stopped those robot cats from hurting people.”

Stareater scanned this guy up and down, noting that he seemed to mostly just be a normal human being with a fancy suit. Barring the mechanical limbs he stood on, he didn't look like much. There was no body language for Talos to discern anything from, Stareater gave nothing away externally. But internally, she was on edge. She had enough of people chasing her down well before leaving Canada, so she was not very thrilled about someone who recognized her from the other end of the country she was currently in.

She elected to keep an eye out for Talos's "backup." Not that she had eyes, but she wouldn't hesitate to atomize this Cobalt individual either.

"Cobalt had better make sure he stays where I can see him, if he wants to go home after crossing paths with me," She warned, still holding the whitespace charge up to blast Talos. "I remember being there. Not that it concerns you, but yes. I helped stop the attack And I'm not attacking anyone yet, so you can fly off, now."

Jacob sighed as she made her threats, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Okay, look, you can’t just...” He looked back up to her, but stopped short, as his attention was immediately drawn to something in the sky behind her. “What the fu-”.

”Threat incoming, engaging guardian mode!”  

The suit suddenly sprang to life, rushing to Jacob, pulling him inside in time, as a small missile struck the armor, sending Talos off the roof with a decent sized explosion.  

“Yuri...” Talos leveled out in the air, coming to a full stop as he scanned the city, looking for the source of the attack. “Where did that missile come from?  

”Sir, scans show several Mercer Tech drones coming from the east.” A live satellite feed popped up on the HUD, showing a series of red spots flying towards them.  

“Great, disable them.”  

”Sir, the drones programming has been upgraded, the firewall is taking time to breach.”

A familiar, modulated voice cut into the heros’ comms. “Jacob Mercer, how’s you feeling, still twitching from our last encounter, I hope.”  

“Revenant, I should have known this was your doing...” Talos made a dash for the drones. “Getting drones to do your dirty work...” He reached the first drone, flying through it fist first. “If you want my attention, let’s get coffee, I know a good place downtown, how about we meet right now?”  

“Tempting, but see, it’s not your attention I’m after...” A drone smashed into the hero from behind, forcing him to crash into a nearby building. “You’re just the means to an end.”

From the hole in the building a beam of blue energy shot into the sky, as Talos split another drone in half. “Yuri, call for an evacuation of the immediate area...” He peeked out the hole, seeing the drones surrounding the building, arming more missiles. “This place is about to pop off.”

Stareater watched the suit ruin up to meet him, and watched it barrel into him to rejoin with its master. She had to fight the urge to just atomize Talos on the spot. That was until a missile sent him flying off the roof in a blast that Stareater ducked down in response to. Talos immediately jumped into action, it seems. Stareater turned around, and saw a swarm of fucking drones coming to ruin the day.

He didn't seem to be doing very good against a bunch of machines. Honestly, if he had the nerve to bother Stareater, he should at least act like he had some capability... Stareater might've grimaced if she had a face, as she bent down to slung her dynamo harness over her shoulders. So much for an easy day. She walked towards the edge of the roof she was on, and let gravity tip her off.

Stareater mindlessly tumbled for a second, letting the kinetic energy ripple through her flesh and give her that little nudge she wanted. She drifted downwards and feet away from the side of the building, and suddenly exploded with a burst of black and white energy. She ceased falling, and began to fly in the direction of the drone swarm. She became a comet, circling back up and around the ones arming their missiles.

The air in her wake fissioned and crackled as she flew past, and aimed her power at them. Scattered beams of whitespace energy screamed through the air and struck a cluster of the enemy robots, unmaking them into absolute nothingness, leaving only pale explosions in their wake. Barely a few trace scraps of metal were left behind.

Suddenly, the sky was filled with beams of the white energy the figure in the space suit harnessed, as drones seemingly vanished in their wake.  

“Yuri, how’s that firewall going??” Talos launched from the hole, flying up to another cluster of drones.  

”The firewall is changing the more I attempt, someone is counter hacking.”

“So, you got yourself a new friend...” Revenant spoke through the Comms again. “Does the Indestructible Talos need help now?

“Oh, you have no room to talk about who I fight with...” Talos grabbed one of the drones, throwing it into another one, following up by firing beams of Fusion energy into the cluster. “We clapped your ass so hard, you have to hide behind drones now.”  

“Oh is that right?”  

“Yeah, at least I am out here fighting, not cowering behind others.”  

“Well, I would come out there to prove you wrong, but, I have other business to attend to currently...” The sound of gunfire could be heard over the Comms. “But I might stop by on my way out.”  

”Sir, Nellis AFB alarms have just gone off, they are currently under attack by unknown forces.”  

Talos cleared through the cluster, stopping mid-flight. “This is a diversion!” He looked over to Stareater, flying over to her. “Hey, I need to go, somethings going down at the Air Force Base, and if Revenant is involved, then it has to be big...” He fired another blast of energy at an incoming drone. “Nellis Air Base is on high alert, but they know me, so they won’t open fire, you and Cobalt help here, keep the drones from destroying the city.”  

He didn’t wait for her response, taking off towards the base at high speeds.  

“Yuri, do a full inventory scan of the Air Base, I wanna know what that freak is after.”  

”Sir, today is the day they unveil the new Ragnarök missile.”

The Ragnarök missile, a military attempt at a "clean nuke", all the yield, none of the radiation.  The Ragnarök prototype wasn't quite at the desired levels, but it's current yield could still clear an eight mile radius.

“Shit, that’s got to be what he’s after...” Talos eventually reached the base, dropping down on the tarmac of one of the landing strips. “If that missile ends up on the black market, we could be looking at destruction on a world-ending scale.”  

As they destroyed one drone, two more would pile in, flying throughout the city, firing on random cars, sending missiles flying into buildings.

”Sensing null energy ahead. Wouldn’t it be great if it were one something to do with that Black Beast, His mind flashed back to that moment, that day when red sparks dissipated through the air before him and all that had been lost then. It was enough to fill him with brief terror, the kind of panic that squeezed his chest and made breathing difficult. He wondered what Jacob could be rushing into, what could be awaiting him when he arrived.  

”Could you supply any satellite feeds?” He questioned, the rush of the wind going past him as he propelled through the air. A second passed, likely working through what feeds he could hack into.

I’ve got something. Looks like Talos and someone else, maybe one of those scions we’ve looked into, He didn’t know much, getting as much information as he could when he trained with Flamel and when trying to read through what he could get from the old alchemists archives. Potential threat. How do we plan to procede?

”We’ll see what the situation is and then work from there.” If they were void aligned, well, he wasn’t sure what he could do. Something about the negation of all existence, which didn’t sound like anything science could deal with. It was almost enough to make him panic. As he got closer a dense cloud of drones were there and what he didn’t see was anything that suggested Talos.

Where the hell was he?

He enveloped himself in telekinetic power and spiraled into what remained of the drones, knifing through a good few before letting it spread outwards in lines of force that continued to get even more into pieces.  Explosions across the sky over the city, as he took to scanning around.

”What’s going on Sven?”

Looks like somethings going down in Nellis. Something to do with the missile. He rolled his eyes at that.

”Because nothing is easy, is it?”

With the other guy having fucked off to do who-knows-what, it was just Stareater and the machines. ”I can’t even have one quiet day,” She griped. ”One day when the supervillains with their toys take a break… How many of you are there?” As if the machines would someone answer her questions when she was snapping them out of reality.

Stareater took a nosedive through the cluster of robots, leaving a trail of vibrant whitespace energy in her way. The drones exploded and crashed into each other, like a runaway chemical reaction as she saw some stranger flying up to join her.

”Who on earth are you?!” she barked, watching him wreck some untouched drones.

“Alright, where are you, asshole?” Talos stated to himself as he made his way towards one of the hangers. “Yuri, which hanger am I looking for?”  

”Scanning now, the missile is in hanger...” The AIs voice cut out, followed by a serious of quick beeps, then a flat tone.  

“Yuri...” Talos tapped his helmet, trying to reconnect. “Yuri!”  

“You’re little AI friend got a peak on the other side, and now he is mine...” Revenants voice responded. “Just like your Comms relay...” There was a pause. “And I wouldn’t suggest trying to reach blue boy with your mind trick, I had the drones drop off a psychic dampener onto the base, you’re completely cut off from all means of communication, minus this single channel between you and me.”  

“Let’s skip the phone play, and how about you just come out here and face me.” Talos lifted off the tarmac a foot, hovering around the base.  

“Oh, I’m not even in Nevada...” Revenant stated. “I learned from our previous encounter, you and your friend are too smart to take lightly, so I decided to handle this mission from a safe location, and what better weapon to use than Mercer Tech combat drones.”  

“Using my fathers tech against me, cutting me off from Yuri, hijacking my comms, and blocking my mental communication with Cobalt...” Talos lifted one of the nearby hanger doors, hovering inside. “Sounds like you were trying very hard to get my attention.”  

“Oh, when this job came across my desk, I was ecstatic...” Revenants modulated voice made it hard to read any sort of emotion. “I get paid and I get payback for Japan, it was a win-win.”  

Talos realized there were no guards, or anybody, the entire base was a ghost town. “Awww, I knew you were thinking about me...” He hovered over to another hanger. “To be honest, I haven’t given you a second though.”

“Now now, you know lying is not what heroes do.”  

Another thing Talos noticed, was the lack of resistance, there were no drones. “Oh, you know me too well.”  

“You’re right, which how I knew you would be able to figure out my plan so quickly, and planned accordingly.”

From the sky, four large objects crashed into the tarmac around Talos, opening up into bipedal robots, each one equipped with massive club-like hands.  

“You recognize the HMR-43s right?”  

Talos shifted into a ready stance, his eyes moving from one robot to the next. “You looking to kill me with nostalgia?”  

“I’m looking to kill you with blunt force trauma, but I like your version better.”

The drones fell away like flies being swatted. It all felt a little too easy, but then again he couldn’t see where Jacob was around here. Something about that concept alone was enough to make him worry and make his attention turn to this third person with an intense suspicion. If they were anything like the people he saw that day, then making someone disappear without a trace would have been nothing. His mind reached out for the presence of his friends, which he found rather easy.

So he hadn’t been killed yet.

More semi-visible blades that slashed through the sky, carving a swath through what remained of the machines. A voice shouted over the din of destruction, mostly demanding who he was. He contemplated answering mentally, yet decided against it, instead accessing a voice amplification feature. ”Cobalt. You met my friend Talos earlier!” He responded, hoping this wasn’t someone he’d have to fight.

That assuring presence in his mind then severed itself. Was that even possible? He found himself suddenly working over an entire concept, one train of thought, considering what could do that. Did his friend sever the mental connection, or had someone managed to break it themselves? He couldn’t afford to focus on the mechanics of the why, when this had actually happened.

”Sven, scan for problems in a…hundred mile span. Nothing below a six.”

”It seems theres some kind of crisis at Nellis Airbase, unknown forces attacking or something like that.”

”Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

He was sure Sven would laugh if he could. ”I didn’t think it was important. Talos looked like he had it.” Did he notice he was suddenly nervous now? Thinking on that was enough to make  He looked to this stranger, the one that apparently Jacob had decided to approach with no concern for his own safety. Maybe that was just what kind of person he was.

”There’s something happening at Nellis Air force Base. I don’t know about you, but something tells me that’s where I need to be…since my friend called me here and just decided to leave.” He had a feeling this person was just as confused as he was here, and maybe he could hash this out later when there wasn’t a problem going on.

The last of the robots fell away to nothingness around the two of them, and Stareater came to a glowing hover near Cobalt. She just wanted to be left alone today, not bothered by a robot invasion. She wondered, for a moment, if this was going to end up like New York, where the entire city was going to be overrun by machines that she would need to do away with. Stareater looked around, and as far as she could tell, there was no evidence of such a thing happening. But still, it was irritating. The one day this month she decided to rest...

"I don't know you, and I don't know Talos," she said, upon getting an answer to her question. "If these robots are looking for one of you, I suggest you keep your problems to yourselves." As she said this, she noticed the guy started talking to a voice that she couldn't hear. And then he turned back to her and said the air base was being attacked. Or at least, probably attacked.

Great.

"This is extremely inconvenient. I flew over it on my way here. If it's more robots, I'll deal with them." Without another word, or even a thank-you to Cobalt for the backup, Stareater tumbled downwards a few hundred feet, and then let off a burst of blinding white energy, shooting off into the sky, in the direction of Nellis Air Force Base. It didn't take her long to get over there, barely five minutes at most, and Stareater paid no mind to any EWS contingencies that she may have tripped. Missiles and bullets didn't scare her, so she swooped around in the sky, looking for signs of trouble.

Sure enough, she spotted ramsleds falling from above, and opening up to reveal more machines. Only these ones looked humanoid, and they were in a fight with Talos. Robots of a humanoid design were easier to deal with than drones, they had humanoid weakpoints, humanoid construction meant that you didn't leave your heart exposed. So if Stareater had to guess, the most critical components were in the chest cavity, or the head.

She curved downwards, letting gravity boost her along, and soared like a pale meteor towards one of the robots with a mass of Whitespace energy curling off of her hand. She got as close as she could, and swung the atom-annihilating energy into one of the units' center mass. To Talos, it would loos like a pipe bomb had detonated, while she was already gone back into the sky.

One of the HMR drones brought it’s club-fist down onto Talos’ shoulder, forcing him down to one knee.  

“Now, now, is the mighty Talos going to let a simple HMR drone defeat him?”

“I’m just letting them wear themselves down...” He tried to stand, but was knocked back down to one knee. “They gotta get tired eventually.”  

“Come now, Jacob, is sarcasm really the only response you’re capable of?”

“I mean, it’s worked for me so far.” Talos jumped to his feet as the drone brought the fist up into the air, driving his own melee blow into its center mass.  

As the first drone stumbled back, a second one delivered a powerful straight jab from the right, knocking Talos off balance. The third drone followed the attack with a hard uppercut into Talos’ center mass, which sent the hero up into the air.  

As he was mid-air, the first drone regained it’s balance, leaping into the air, where it would tackle Talos, slamming him back down, the tarmac giving out beneath him from the force.  

“It’s not looking good, should I stop them?”  

“Nah, I got them right where I want them.” Talos replied, as the drone stood over him, hammering its massive steel fist into the faceplate of his suit, forcing him deeper into the small crater.  

As the fourth drone was going to step in, it was hit with a ball of whitespace energy, then was suddenly gone in a bright burst of light.  

The other two drones turned, seeing Stareater launch back into the sky.  

“Told you.” Talos brought his arm up, firing a blue beam into the center mass of the first drone. As the drone began to fall forward, Talos’ jets kicked up, pushing the suit upward, as he lifted the drone up with one hand, shifting into a standing position, the drone over his head like it weighed nothing at all. “Excuse me, gents...” He stated out loud, waiting for the two other drones to turn and face him, before hurling the unpowered drone to them. “I believe this belongs to you.”  

The two drones knocked the body of their teammate away.  

The body provided the perfect diversion, as Talos was already in the face of one of the drones, driving a hard punch into the singular “eye” that made up majority of the drones head. His fist went clean through, as he ripped out the optics. “Oooh, that looked important.” He then fired another blue beam, hitting the drone in the exact same spot as the last one.  

“Doesn’t it feel good, destroying your fathers legacy?”  

From a hanger to Talos left, two more machines smashed through the door, rolling on small tank treads, the sentry drones twin vulcan miniguns started to spin up, pointing up to target Stareater.

“You remember the Scorpion Model 2s, funny thing about the Model 2, it was originally designed to be piloted on the field, the remote control was added in later, in case the pilot was unable to continue operating the vehicle.”  

“X-ray.” Talos vision shifted, seeing the inside of the machine.  

Inside each drone, struggling to get free, from what the young hero assumed was restraints, were two soldiers. Taking a closer look, Talos could also see they were rigged with some kind of explosive.  

“What’s it going to be, hero, save the soldiers, or save your new friend, but be careful, if those drones take any kinda damage, and boom.”  

Talos fist clenched tightly, as he looked up to Stareater, shouting. “Get clear, do not fight, people inside!!”