Left in Ruins

Like a boxer readying himself for the big fight, Ruin was preparing himself for what was soon to come. A slight twitch in his fingers was the only visible sign of his nervousness, his face being hidden under his metallic mask. His eyes were set on today's target, a bank. Understandably, he was more than a little bit worried that things were going to end badly for him today, due to the fact that the last time he tried to do anything villainous he fought a wolf man for his very life. Breathing deeply, he calmed himself, the last thing he needed was to go in there and freak out. He was standing across the street from the bank, hidden in the shadows of a darkened alleyway. He had chosen to go at night for reasons that were rather obvious in his opinion; one, if he were to go at day then it would be full of civilians who would just get in the way, less to no casualties was for the best; two, his suit wasn't what most people would describe as discrete or stealthy and he didn't want people calling the police before he even managed to do anything. A quick glance around him and it was clear that the area was practically deserted, a rarity in any big city, let alone New York. A small confident smirk made its way onto his face. Perfect... Breaking into a run from the alleyway, Ruin sprinted his way to the bank's main doors. Still mid run, Ruin waved his hand ahead of him quickly which had broken up a section of the ground nearby and sent the debris hurtling towards the doors, which had offered practically no resistance.

Making his way into the building, Ruin's examined his environment quickly. It was one of those massive single roomed kind of banks, very expensive looking decoration, arches and pillars throughout and most importantly, the door to the vault within plain view. Once again running, his eyes began scanning the massive metal door as he approached, the thing looked to be more than a few inches thick and would definitely be putting up more of a fight than the doorway he broke through to get in. He skidding to a halt twenty feet away from the vault and decided on how he was going to be getting through. He raised his arms in preparation, but was interrupted when he heard a man call over to him. Turning around, he saw two men pointing guns at him, both looking to be bank security. "Freeze! Put your hands behind your head and lay down on the ground!" Ruin, who was completely unconcerned by the threat of their weaponry, simply responded in a bored tone. "You'd better back off before you get yourself hurt." His confidence in the situation was obvious, he was bulletproof after all. "Get down on the ground now! I'll shoot!" They of course didn't know he was bulletproof. Taking a step forward, Ruin spoke again. "I wouldn't do tha..." He was suddenly cut off by a gunshot going off and a cry of pain from one of the men. Apparently one of the men got frightened by his approach and fired off a shot which had ricocheted and hit the other guy in the leg. Sighing heavily, Ruin looked at the downed man. "I warned you..." Ignoring the men now, who were now more concerned with themselves for the moment also, Ruin turned his attention back to the doors.

After a quick crack of his knuckles, he once again raised his arms and started to pull apart part of the ground around him and sent it crashing towards the vault door, only to find it hardly putting a dent in the thing. "OK, better step up my game..." Glancing to his left, he looked at one of the pillars of the building. He shifted his left hands position over to it and watched as the pillar violently detached itself from both the floor and the roof. Levitating the massive piece of stonework above him, he made it point itself right at the steel doors and sent it spearing towards it with one swing of his arms. However, to his displeasure, the metal barrier stood standing. So this was why the building had so little security getting in...this damn thing's f*ckin indestructible! Grating his teeth, he mentally scolded himself for having once again made things so damn hard for himself. A massive flood of frustration hit him at the moment and he chose to release this anger at the door. Aiming both hands at the door for the final time, Ruin let his powers go wild as random chunks of the building began flying towards the vault, just about all of it either breaking upon impact or being deflected off. A good few minutes of this resulted in a tired Ruin, staring hatefully at a still standing vault door. He even tried to tear the entire vault apart just to get in, but found that it was a big metal box, with no obvious material he could use to break in. His right eye twitched and a few seconds of silence fell before he finally snapped and let out an angry scream, his powers losing any sense of direction and control. Massive amounts of assorted debris launched itself around the room and the building itself shook, but eventually this ended and Ruin was left standing alone in a room filled with rubble.

His eyes were closed and he was just now regaining composure after his little fit. His breathing calmed and he slowly opened his eyes to the sight of a finally open vault. Apparently in his rage, he had finally, if inadvertently, smashed open the door. Only a small chuckle left his throat as he walked towards the door. "*Pant* Easy... *Pant*" Moving aside the rubble that was blocking his path, Ruin stepped inside the Vault and looked at his spoils, fantastic amounts of sweet, sweet cash, all piled up neatly just for him. Of course, he would only be taking a relatively small amount for transportation purposes, but still the sight of all that money had him excited. Pulling out the bag he had stuffed away in the suit, he filled it up to a moderate amount with money from around him. He began to make his leave, but only a few feet from the vault he heard the sound of the building started to fall apart and saw the roof starting to collapse. "For the love of..." Running for the exit proved futile though, and the entire place fell down on him. It took a few minutes, but after the collapse Ruin climbed out of the remains of what was once a bank, bag of cash still miraculously intact. Regaining balance, Ruin patted himself down and looked at the carnage around him. "Well, that's only the second time I've ever had to do that one." Tentatively stepping over the debris, Ruin made his way over to the street and examined the damage. Whistling lowly to himself, he actually impressed himself with what he managed to do. He was also thankful that no one seemed hurt, a damn right miracle if you asked him. The building itself was a fair bit set apart from the others nearby and those two security guards had fled long before he managed to do any real damage. Now finished inspecting his handiwork, he turned, slung the bag over his shoulder and was about to make his getaway.

New York City, New York.Or rather what was left of it.This place was no longer the grand city it once was.It now looked like a disaster zone.Fitting since it was.The attack on it that occured recently had left it in shambles.Even with the massive amount of rebuilding efforts that were ongoing it would be awhile before this city recovered from the damage that had been done.

Forcewave had been participating in these efforts but not for much longer.He would be leaving this city in the near future.These were his final days here.He wasn't sure how he wanted to spend them to be completely honest.This place was home to lots and lots of memories.Truth be told he was going to miss it quite a bit.Still what happens, happens and there wasn't anything he could do about it anyways so might as well take it as is.

He had been sitting in an alleyway of sorts that had been created by the destruction reminiscing over recent events while just trying to calm his mind.It was at that very moment something occured.An earthquake it seemed with the way the ground was trembling.It then stopped quickly and started up again.This wasn't natural.He could tell right away.The sound of a building crumbling could be heard nearby.Going to investigate he found a building had just collapsed.

That wasn't all he discovered.There too stood someone dressed in armor standing outside the wreckage holding a large bag.This could realistically mean several different things but the most likely was that this person, whomever they were was responsible for what had just happened.Surveying the wreckage he could see that the building that had just collapsed was a bank.Forcewave was really starting to believe that this armored individual had just robbed the place and destroyed it either in the process of doing so or afterwards.The bag could certainly be carrying money in it.

Forcewave had to investigate further.At least find out exactly what happened before taking what could possibly be the wrong course of action.Exiting the area he had been in he made his presence known to the armored person with the bag."Hey you there.What happened here?"He asked him hoping this would not turn out badly.Fearing that this guy was dangerous he prepared for the worst.Charging power behind his back to keep hidden from this guy he stood there waiting for a reply.

Ruin stopped walking mid-step when he heard a voice addressing him from behind. Turning on his heel, he faced the newcomer. The man was shorter than he was and had a much younger look to him, probably one of those teenaged superheroes. Not that Ruin would treat any superhero as any less of a threat based on such things, because he knew that there were probably dozens of younger super humans about nowadays that could tear him apart, but even still, it was a little weird treating someone that much younger than him the same way he would a man his own age or higher. What was weirder for him though was when the guy asked what happened. Ruin's eyes stared blankly at the heroes' face for a few seconds, then shifted their sights over to the remnants of the building he had just taken down, then to the bag that was hefted over his shoulder and then, finally, back over to the kid. Another few seconds of silence reigned before he spoke up.

"Seriously?" The tone of his voice making it evident just how incredulous he was over as to how someone couldn't understand the situation. Then again, he may have been just making sure that he knew all the details before he attempted anything, or maybe things just seemed more obvious from Ruin's side. Whatever the case, Ruin didn't exactly feel like spilling his guts to this guy, either figuratively or literally. Sighing heavily, Ruin decided to try something, even if it had no chance of actually working. "Alright, how about you just walk away right now and save everyone the trouble? I've already gone through enough hell today and I'd rather not level any more of this city fighting you." The fact that the city was in shambles was obvious and him taking down another building probably wouldn't be helping anyone out. He had no idea what kind of powers this guy had, but he was sure that with his luck it was going to be something that would knock him flat on his ass more than once if they fought. Despite his words, took a less casual stance and was preparing himself for a fight, expecting the kid to maybe charge at him, or pull a weapon or something. Of course, Ruin was completely unaware of the energy the guy was charging behind his back and if he were, he would have probably made the first move by now.

Forcewave had been minding his own business when he had heard something major happen nearby.Going to investigate he had found a bank had just collapsed and outside it stood a man holding a bag full of something.He had highly believed that it was full of money and that this guy had just robbed the place.He had decided to make sure exactly what happened first.It was best to not simply assume no matter how much he believed he already knew exactly what was going on.After all just because this guy was wearing armor didn't mean in anyway that he was a bad guy.After all he had previous fought alongside people wearing armor and they by no means were evil.It would be prejudiced to think such a thing.It was the other things that made him believe that this person had robbed that bank and destroyed it.That bag could easily be containing a bunch of money and it was certainly suspicious for him to be standing outside it right after it just fallen like the way he was.

The guy's response confirmed exactly what he had believed to have happened.He had robbed that bank and destroyed it.As if this city wasn't in bad enough shape already without people taking advantage of its distressed state to loot it.Some criminals could be just so petty.This guy seemed to really be such a thing.He was actually trying to convince the hero to just leave this place.Telling him he should leave simply so this guy wouldn't have to cause any more damage."That destroyed bank may say otherwise.At least I won't be making a mistake in thinking that this guy is responsible.He did this for sure."He thought in response to what this guy was saying to him.

"That's not going to happen.I kind of have an obligation to this fair city.You've left me with no other choice.I don't know why you decided to rob that place and level it but I'm still going to take you down here and now."He told the armored theif in a manner that was seriously calm when one considers the situation at hand.He wasn't scared at all even though this guy had just brought down a building somehow.After what he had previously been involved in this was nothing."You have one chance to surrender.I suggest you take it."

"So that's the way it is huh?" Ruin said in a tired tone; his eyes never left the young hero as he spoke. The guy was obviously very confident as to challenge someone he knew had just taken down a building, the fact he said it all in an unwavering calm tone actually started to put him on edge. Yet, he could actually understand the guy's persistence, he was a hero after all; it would be rather pathetic if someone who was willing to risk their life to protect people and stop criminals were to just stop doing so because the bad guy asked him to. The only real concern Ruin had was that this guy was going to make him lose his loot and after his previous failure in thievery and his little episode involving the vault, there was no way in hell he was going to be giving up on his hard 'earned' money without a fight; earned being a questionable term to use as while he did steal it, the work he did for it was just as real as any legal job. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, exhaling heavily. He mentally berated himself for not being more ready to fight heroes; he was a super-criminal after all and with that comes superheroes opposing you at every turn, hell he fought a giant wolf-man hero thing the last time he tried to do something villainous. He was Ruin, the criminal, but he was also Lucas Hill, a guy who didn't like to fight or steal for that matter, but these things were just a price he paid as a means to an end; the end being him having a roof over his head and food on the table. The destroyed buildings and massive amount of collateral damage he caused to the city were regrettable, but at least no one who didn't deserve it got hurt. Yet. Stealing was his profession now, his job and despite his personal feelings, a part of him now. Just as with the hero in front of him, this was something he needed to do, even if his reasons for doing so were much less noble. With new found conviction, Ruin opened his eyes and focused on the hero. "I guess it can't be helped..." The lights on Ruin's armor lit up brightly and Ruin thrust out his free hand towards Forcewave, forcing open a large fissure in the road below Forcewave's position.

Forcewave had told this here bank robber to surrender immediately.Yep he sure did.It wasn't like he actually expected the guy to do so.He had just robbed a bank and destroyed it after all.Why would he surrender at all?Forcewave had not presented the robber with any real reason to do so as of yet.To this guy he was probably just some kid in a weird costume for all intensive purposes.Was he even being considered worth spending more time talking to, let alone an actual threat.It was hard for him to tell with this guy's face covered by his mask.

"You decided to steal all that money.It doesn't belong to you so you have no right to it.But since you're trying to take it you've brought this on yourself." he said to the armored one in a nonchalant fashion.The hero wasn't interested in hearing any excuses or anything or that sort at all.It's not like this guy had anything worth listening to at this point in time."So what's it going to be?I'm not here to fight but if you leave no choice then I'll do just that." he continued onwards in trying to get this guy to give up rather than do something drastic.For instance Forcewave had no idea how this guy managed to destroy that building but was very sure he would find out one way or another.

He wasn't scared though.For some reason there wasn't an ounce of fear travelling through his veins.Perhaps he had gotten used to finding himself in dangerous situations.Even with the thoughts going through his mind of the possibilities of what this guy was capable of it didn't frighten him at all.He truly was courageous.Or maybe just didn't care about his own sake anymore.Whichever it was that caused him to not be afraid was certainly better than being paralyzed by fear.

He was still waiting for a response to his request for this theif to surrender immediately.He got one.Oh did he ever.Suddenly the armor had a bunch of lights activate.Then he took action.His hand thrust forward and the ground between them started to split open and it was heading directly towards the hero."So that's how he did it." was what went through his mind upon seeing this.Then he acted.The energy he had been preparing.It would help tremendously.Using some of it he swiped his right hand across him to send forth a wave of power that met the fissure at it's tip to stop it dead in its tracks.He then followed it up with another blast sent directly at the guy from a curve around the locking point of their two attacks.

So this guy could control the ground beneath their feet.Well at least he knew exactly what to expect from him.Now he knew what to be prepared for.He would have to figure out what else this armored crook could do.Like for instance how powerful that armor was.Was it nearly indestructible or something he could rip right off him.Only through effort would he be able to tell.

It was, to say the least, a surprise that the hero was able to stop the fissure Ruin created by blasting it, but he had little time to dwell on it before he noticed the wave of energy coming his way. "Oh son of a..." Was all Ruin could get out before being knocked back by the superhero's energy blast. The force of the impact had sent him flying through the air for a few feet before hitting the ground and skidding to a halt face first against the road. So that's what this guy did, he could fire some kind of energy blasts and for all he knew thousands of other energy based moves. There was a painful stinging sensation on his chest where the attack hit, but Ruin was more interested in the fact that the hero had just unleashed two energy attacks with no apparent charge or preparation, unless of course the guy was preparing his attack before they even started fighting. This was all just unwarranted speculation however as he actually knew pretty much nothing about this guy's powers or energy based abilities in general. Ruin grumbled something obscene under his breath and pushed himself back to his feet. His eyes narrowed at the kid, he was right to expect that he wouldn't be a pushover if that attack was anything to go by. He had even managed to stop the Ruin's attack by countering it with his own beforehand. One thing he could definitely live without in the future was the generic superhero spiel that the guy had been talking, but then Ruin could see that the hero could probably live without another villain running around either.

It was worth noting that as Ruin looked at him, the guy didn't seem the least bit worried about the situation, probably because this wasn't his first time doing this sort of thing. Now that thought would be one to make Ruin think. Why would someone so young risk his life the way he did? He couldn't understand it. Well, whatever the reason, it didn't mean that he was going to be going easy on him; kid or no kid, he needed to eat and this money could keep him set for quite some time. Ruin cocked his fist back before throwing it forward and as the lights signaled once more, large man sized chunks of the earth around him ripped out of the ground and were sent flying at the hero.

The first exchange of attacks that would make this a battle had just occured.Forcewave had managed to win that one.Luckily he was prepared for just such a thing to occur though he didn't know if he really needed to be.This robber's full capabilities were still shrouded in mystery.But at least he was no longer completely unaware of what this guy could do.He appeared to be an earth manipulator so the hero would now expect attacks based around that.Wouldn't make it any easier actually having to deal with such an ability though.

The criminal had been knocked back and to the ground by the force of his second attack.One he had generated immediately after using his charged energy to combat that fissure.He had some charged energy still remaining but not that much.He was planning on saving it for later.A tiny bit of his energy still remained from his first attack.He gathered that and brought it back to him for his next attack.He was planning on having at least two uses charged at all times.Hopefully he could do so.Forcewave would probably need to do so.His attack had hit the armored criminal directly but did not seem to have done much damage at all.He had been knocked down but was nowhere near to being out.

"Now are you done with this little, whatever it is you wish to call it?" He asked the guy as he was getting back up."As you can see.I am indeed capable of beating you." He was mostly saying that to try and convince the bank robber to give up so he wouldn't have to risk seriously hurting him since he knew that he could do some serious damage.Though he doubted it would work, it was still worth a shot.Nothing ventured, nothing gained after all.

It didn't work.Instead the guy decided to keep fighting.Chunks of ground were ripped from the ground around him and sent hurling directly at the hero.Instead of simply blasting them back he decided to try something different.Moving quickly he dodged between each of the rocks and got past them and in close range of the earth manipulator.There he attacked again aiming at the exact same spot he had hit the guy before.

Ruin had made no response to the kid's little speech before he attacked, but on the inside it was slightly aggravating him. The way the guy spoke to him was in an obviously confident and almost insulting tone. What did this guy think, that he wasn't going to be able to put up a fight? No, that was not going to happen, not on his life. He may not have been happy about his current career, but just like everyone else in the world he had some pride; this kid thought that just because he got hit once that he was going to be taken down that easily, that he could be intimidated into giving up, but there was no way in hell he would lose that quickly before showing him just what he could do. Which was actually a little ironic as he himself didn't fully understand his own abilities. Ruin's eyes widened as he watched the hero evade his attack, dodging each of the rocks and then closing the distance between them. It wasn't hard to see that this guy was fast, not to mention skilled. He winced ever so slightly just before the hero attacked once again and just like before he was aiming for his chest. It appeared that this guy was playing it smart and chose to attack the same already weakened spot to deal maximum damage. Unfortunately for Ruin, it had the desired effect. A grunt of pain could vaguely be heard over the sound of the energy of the hero's attack making contact with Ruin's armor. The blast had, quite painfully, sent him crashing back a good distance onto the ground. The only consolation he had was that unlike last time he didn't end up landing on his face. Sitting up, Ruin looked to his opponent with a scowl. He was now determined to take this guy down. Picking himself up, he took a defensive stance.

"Is that it? That's all ya' got? I just got crushed by a fucking building and you think that's going to take me down?" His voice spoke with forced confidence and it took all he could to not show that his last attack was actually causing him some pain. He also neglected to mention that he came out of the building unscathed because he stopped collapsing rubble from hitting him with any force with his abilities and it was not just his endurance keeping him safe. Raising his right hand up, more roadwork broke up from the ground and levitated into the air behind him, coming together and forming two twelve foot long and three foot wide spikes pointing at Forcewave. Ruin's arm remained outstretched as he lowered it until it too was aimed at the hero. The lights on his armor flashed only a second before the spikes were sent hurtling towards their target with impressive speed one just after the other.

One successful dodging of chunks of concrete ripped from the ground itself that were bigger than he is and a counterattack later, Forcewave had once again brought his opponent down.Pieces of concrete the size of boulders that can be sent flying at you at anytime.Nothing scary about that right.Nothing at all.This guy seemed to be one with more to fear.He couldn't seem to have any way at all of countering any of what the hero would throw at him.Not a good position to be in.Neither was lying on the ground for that matter.But that was the postion that Forcewave had managed to bring the earth moving bank robber too once again.But he got up quickly just as he was expected to.

"I got plenty more in store for you if you keep this up." Was what he said in response to what the guy had said right after getting back to his feet.No he didn't believe this guy was done yet.He had quite the feeling of determination resonating from him.This one would not back down any time soon.Then again neither would he.He already knew that he could in fact take this guy down.Now it was just a question of how best to do so.Hitting him again while he's still recovering from the last blow dealt to him seemed like a good idea.

Forcewave had started charging towards the theif while his energy powered up and formed together in preparation so as to reduce the distance between them for his next attack when he was forced to stop on a dime.That attack plan didn't seem like the best idea to continue following.Not with what had just been done.Once again the earth manipulator tore out the ground but this time reconfigured the shape of the ground he had just lifted into the air.Now floating behind him were two long spikes of earth aimed directly at Forcewave.Definitely a change of plans was needed.Using that energy he was just charging he prepared a method of defense.The spikes were sent directly at him but they were stopped short by his barrier of energy.The force of the impact however was enough to knock him backwards and to the ground.As he was falling he stealthily fired off an attack at the guy before quickly getting back to his feet.