Times Are Changing [Now Closed]

Sam was seated atop his apartment complex, legs dangling across the edge of the roof as he looked up at the starry night sky, it was fairly cold, not cold enough for people to begin panicking, but cold enough that one could see their own breathe. Sam was having conflicted thoughts and feelings about his life, this was the first day he was back on the "job" and he was wondering whether this was the best thing for him to do now he was a Titan. He had recently unlocked his full Titan form, a momentous occasion for any Titan apparently, but it was usually triggered when Sam would become extremely mad or angry at someone or something, meaning it could pretty much trigger at any time, and with the added factor of criminals thrown into the mix, perhaps he was not the most stable person to be doing this.

He looked down to his knuckles, both were quite red and bruised, he had been training a lot in the Abyss as of late as well as keeping himself fit back in the real world and it was starting to take it's toll on his body, he slowly stroked his left knuckles and could feel the difference between before and after, he once had rather smooth knuckles. Sam's moment to himself was cut short by two loud bangs echoing from the distance, his head rose immediately and looked into the direction of the faint crying that he could hear, once he could pinpoint the exact location of the crying, he rose to his feet and sped off to investigate.

Sam came to a stand still at the opening of an alleyway and looked to see a woman, still alive, but badly wounded on the floor with a man kneeling beside her and rummaging through a bag, he looked over to the woman dying on the floor and said "Come on lady, someone as good looking as you should have something expensive in here..." he then noticed Sam standing off in the distance as a black silhouette in front of a pair of street lights, without wasting anymore time, he shot to his feet and began to run in the opposite direction. Sam instantly teleported into the man's way and gripped his throat, lifting the fairly tall man off of the ground and slamming him into the brick wall beside him, the sudden movement caused several items of woman's jewelry to fall out and clang onto the ground, not to mention causing the criminal to groan in pain with the several breaths he could accustom. Normally, Sam would wait for the police to show up and keep this man here so he could be thrown into prison, but Sam was getting sick of the same men being released just to commit the same crimes again, it would make Sam's life a lot easier if he simply killed them and lowered the crime rate that way. The man was begging for his life now as he scratched and clawed at Sam's arm in an attempt to escape, he had reached the bargaining stage now and was offering Sam money in order to let him go. Sam did not say anything, he just continued to look between the criminal and the woman, barely alive on the ground, thinking about what he should do.

Whole new feeling were flowing through Sam now, there was something about the woman on the floor that made him feel alive, a feeling where he could do anything, the same great feeling that he felt the first time he entered the Abyss... This aura of Nether was more concentrated though and sent Sam onto a whole new level of euphoria, one that he rather enjoyed, if he was to get this feeling whenever someone around him was dying, he would kill more often... No, he can't think like that, that's crazy, he sounded like he was on the bridge of becoming a serial killer... but he could not shake of the feeling he had, he felt amazing. He slowly turned back to the man in his grasp, his face was turning more and more red by the second as he was grasping for breath, in a final split decision, Sam hardened his grip on this man's neck until he felt a snap... the criminal's sporadic breaths had stopped completely and the body he was holding was now lifeless, Sam released his grip and watched the body of the criminal slump to the ground in a heap, Sam took a deep breathe in and felt the same exact great feeling as before, it did not even occur to him at the time that he had just killed this man...

The day was coming to a close. It had been a couple of days since her attack at the Santa Monica Pier. Her suit had suffered a small amount of damage and remained in the city in order to repair it. She also made a couple of scheduled appearances at some LA events, but tonight she had to herself. At the meetings, they had not mentioned anything about the attack or what they should do about them and she was not going to bring them up as to not draw any sort of attention to herself. Once she left, Elena was a little disgruntled about the direction that the meeting had gone, more would need to be done. She planned on calling a meeting for her own benefactors once she returned to the New York area to see what they thought about the attacks if any additional measures needed to be taken in order to protect the cities.
Vexus plotted a midnight attack, more than likely on a finicial establishment. People cared a lot about money, and destroying a bank or three would maybe help people realize the danger that they're in. She took off into the night sky with her robotic suit of armor in full swing, but soon she came across something a little more interesting than blowing up a bank. It was a classic robbery. Late at night, pretty girl walking home and a thug jumps her to take her things while she takes the short cut down a alleyway. Elena watched for a moment as the man approached her from behind with his hands in his pockets. She could see that he had a weapon with him, so he was at least determined in walking away with something. Once he grabbed the poor woman she began to cry out for help and no matter how hard the thug tried to quite her she only yelled louder. He tried to put his hand over her mouth only for her to bite down violently almost making him bleed. The man replied in a most dramatic fashion by putting two bullets in the woman as she tried to escape. He started to go through her things, and the show was over. Elena stood from the building she had landed on and began to make her way to a bank around the corner, but just then the suit's sensors caught someone approaching fast. A hero? It was definitely a man, from what she could see he was rather young. A proper hero doing his job, Elena figured she would stick around to see what he would do figuring that he would more than likely show up at the bank she was going to bomb. However, the following events are what perplexed her.

The thief caught sight of the alleged hero and made a run for it, and instead of the 'hero' using his speed to catch them man he teleported in front of him. Teleportation was not a feat that Vexus frequently witnessed and was always curious to how it was preformed from a MetaHuman standpoint. He slammed the robber into the brick wall paying no attention to the woman on the ground who was bleeding out fast. Elena was monitoring al three of their heart rates, the woman was dying, the thief was having the life strangled from him and the Meta's heart was racing. It was like he enjoyed what he was doing. He was no hero, he was a cold blooded murderer who got off on preying on the innocent, or somewhat innocent at least. In the next moment he snapped the mans neck and his body fell limp in the killer's hand. The boy looked terribly young to be killing so effortlessly. They never progress properly when they're lust for death is not focused and simply runs wild. She was sure it would only be a matter of time before he evolved into nothing but a killing machine...The level of primal curiosity that coursed through Elena was almost unbearable, maybe she could get this kid to do the damage for her. All he needed was a nudge in the right direction.

Vexus activated her Celestial Eye and converted a small amount of the roof of the building she was standing on into Technomatter. It drifted down and settled on the now deceased woman's body and began to convert it into Technomatter as well. The initial specs of Technomatter were too faint for the eye to pickup immediately, however it now sparkled in the moon light as it drifted from the woman to the man and began to devour his body as well. In a matter of moments there was a rising cloud of Technomatter and the bodies of both the man and the woman had been removed. In the mean time Vexus had silently moved to the end of the alleyway and drew one of her guns. The cloud of Technomatter danced in the sky for a moment before separating and hiding itself among he bricks of the neighboring buildings.
Vexus took a couple of steps towards the man and aimed her gun at him. The laser sight put a red dot on his heart as she took aim. With the suit, she upped it's durability to the max(+4DUR) since she knew he was strong and with the speed at which he was running earlier, a punch would cause heavy damage with her defenses down. Mostly as just a test, she fired a single shot at him aim at his heart. She just needed to see where he stood with reaction times. Lasers do travel awfully fast.

It was a lovely night in this not so cold city, or so he would have said if the pollution did not blot out all of the stars within the sky, and left him with nothing but that dark dome that masqueraded as the sky. The Ethereal being plopped a small square of chocolate in his mouth, letting it melt over his tongue as he waltzed along one of those things that they called sidewalks. The strange metallic things called cars would drive past him as he made sure to keep himself as inconspicuous as possible, considering that if modern television held anything right, is that there were always weird humans that wanted to rob you and or defile you. Not that he was exactly someone that was helpless, but you never really knew, especially if it was a Metahuman, they could be tricky when it came down to the powers.

Still, he wasn’t metahuman, so he had no reason to fear the persecution or whatever the humans called their ill conceived fear. A light breeze picked up and ruffled his hair slightly, though it wasn’t as if his choice in hair style wasn’t unkempt to begin with, seeing as how it was mostly made to go upwards and look somewhat attractive; or so he told himself. The silver orbs were hidden behind some neat sunglasses that he had bought from some store, though they only really helped him stand out amongst a crowd, as no one else seemed to be wearing them in the middle of night. Another square of the chocolate as he walked along the street humming to himself, the tune of a song he had heard on the radio. That was when Michael let the question sink in for a moment, and that was where he was. It had to be a city that was landlocked tight.

The United States was a certainty, but he never got around to memorizing all of the states or the cities that dotted these states. Somewhere with the large buildings with various unknown purposes was obvious, but then again he just did not care at this point. Reaching for another piece of the chocolate from the wrapper, Michael realized that he finished off the last bite and his lip curled into a rather annoyed frown. It went quicker than expected, but then again he had been eating it constantly for the past five minutes, but that was not a sufficient enough explanation, which meant that he would have to get more of it, and maybe something else with his…legally gained money which he did not steal. Not that he really cared for human laws and morality in the first place, but their enforcers would prove annoying if they came after him, and his father was sure to raise hell if he caused wonton chaos.

Sure his Titan parents’ wrath was bearable; the other was something that was to fear. Removing the rather tacky shades, he let the neon green flecked orbs scan the street for… one of those convenience store full of food. With the person behind the counter that would take your money and let you walk away with the food, which seemed to be how everything worked around here, granted this was not his first time walking about outside the isles, it still was interesting to see how the humans went about their lives, even if they were a short lived race. Walking through the clear glass door of the store, Michael would make a beeline for the section that held the many sugary treats, his eyes scanning over everything with morbid curiosity. One finger ran over the Hershey bars, and ended up enclosing over around four of them as they were wrenched from their white coated metallic section.

That was when he basically let his mind run wild from the small sugar buzz offered by the last bar of chocolate that he had eaten. The clerk would not really pay much attention to him, as he went through the motions of searching for tonight’s treat.”Mmmm these Doritos look pretty good too.” Michael mused to himself as he took one of the largest bags of Cool Ranch that the store sold and held it under his arm. While the young looking Ethereal was busy picking out the food that he would devour within less than an hour, of course a robbery was in progress, and he went unnoticed as he knelt and looked over all of the delicious snack foods. This small bit went on for only a second before Michael stood up; with a small jerk of his head he pushed the hood from agitating his cheek. Standing to his feet, Michael found himself looking at the beck of the head of a rather jumpy looking person holding a gun to the cashier, raising an eyebrow as he considered this a chance to simply walk out and with all of the stealth possible he was close to doing so, when what seemed like a bell above the door sounded.

Without missing a beat Michael broke out into a run as he could hear gunshots and shattering glass as his feet carried him away with the chips in hand, as well as everything else he had managed to sneak away in his jacket pocket. It may have not been a high profile robbery like his little gang back in the Windy City were used to, but it was still fun nonetheless. Smirking Widely, Michael would walk away with his ill gotten goods, perhaps aiming to walk back to his motel room and snack down until the clingy bastard Andrew would call to make sure he had not gotten himself shot up by Mafia or whatever they hell they were called around here. He was slightly familiar with the term from old movies, but the style itself seemed like something that had become archaic long ago, and suits just did not stick well with Michael in general. "Hrm that went better than expected, and i'm not out a single cent." With his most free hand, Michael pulled the shades from his face, letting out a deep sigh as he looked up into the starless sky slightly breathless after what felt like forever of running; he heard more gunshots, but something about them did not speak of the crook that was only so long ago trying to rob a store, but something else.

Michael shoved everything that could fit into a pocket, and kept the bag of Doritos under his arm as he approached where the sound came from, as well as a source of pleasant energy, one that he recognized from when he was with his father Sean. There was Nether around, and something about that sent his heart alight, and for a moment he did not notice the strange other Nether around it, one that was taking it in. It only took him a minute to follow the Nether trail and he came upon a face that look somewhat familiar, though the shifting shapes within the shadows caught his eyes just as much, as well as a bright flash of energy aimed for the familiar figure. The Nether still floated about in the air, but something about it seemed subdued by a stronger source, and it was the one being attacked.

Sam took a step back against the wall on the opposite side of the alleyway as he stared at the now deceased man and woman both inside the alley, it was only a matter of time until the police arrived at the scene, but Sam wanted to get all of the energy he could before leaving the area. Sam's entire mindset had changed now, he was once a man that was committed to helping the citizens of the city he lived in from the criminals, but now he seemed to finally realize how good death feels to him, he seemed to change in a matter of minutes. The events that had just transpired flowed through his mind and yet he did not really care that much, he stared at the man who was slumped into a heap on the ground and noticed some kind of sparkly substance in the air, this substance generally wouldn't have startled Sam, but he noticed that this substance was moving with purpose as it wrapped itself around the body of the criminal, the body was slowly dissapearing before his eyes and Sam had no idea why, he could see the body was slowly becoming the substance that was floating around him, this strange sparkling dust that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, he marveled at what was happening and then realized that there was no more crime scene, both of the bodies had just completely dissapeared, including the blood that had escaped the woman's body before dying.

Sam slowly pushed himself back off of the wall as he inspected the place where the body had sat, there was definitely nothing there anymore, but Sam felt like his mind was playing tricks on him. Sam noticed a silhouette in the corner of his vision, he was slightly startled as he looked around, he know knew how the criminal had felt. Sam could not make out much of this person standing in front of him due to the bad lighting, but he did watch as the figure raised an arm at him and fired what looked like a laser bolt. Without thinking, Sam dissapeared in a cloud of smog less than a second before the laser flew by, piercing a whole in the smog that was left behind, he re appeared in the same place with his eyes fixed on the figure, he would have fought back, but he would at least like to know who he was facing and why they wanted him dead so badly. "Who the hell are you?" he asked rudely, all manners where out of the window now, she shot at him first.

This boy's reaction time was spot on. His entire body basically evaporated into a lingering smoke which her shot tore through. A moment later he reformed unharmed. That might get annoying later. Once he reshaped, he immediately asked who she was and not in the most polite of manners. Such a question asked in such a way did not deserve a response, not that she would have answered anyways. Elena was still in disguise and had no reason to speak with this individual. She dialed up the size of the laser shot to about the width of an orange and drew her second gun. The boy needed a little bit more of an aggressive push for Vexus to get him to where she wanted.
Within only a couple of seconds of him asking who she was, Elena began to fire blast after blast towards the man in very quick succession. She could only hope that he wouldn't reduce himself to the smoke form she had witnessed previously. Granted, her weapons were rather powerful so it may be in his best interest to avoid them for as long as he can. A strike from one of her guns, let alone two, could prove fatal. Elena then had a thought, why did the thief from earlier not shoot at his killer? Surely he had more than two bullets. Had the two of them met previously? There must have been some sort of reasoning behind his fearful retreat. Something that Vexus was missing.

As she remained where she stood and fired off her multiple rounds her scanners picked up another approaching individual. Not thing gave off too high of a reading at the moment so she chalked them up as just a bystander. More than likely a soon-to-be witnessed that Vexus would need to eliminate, Or maybe even get killed in the crossfire if she was lucky. Regardless she diverted her attention from the approaching person and focused more on landing a hit on this disgruntled boy.
By this time, whoever was nearing the gun fight must be able to see the flashes from the shots being fired but their pace did not hasten. Though soon enough he was standing behind Vexus in the alleyway. Without turning to look and not taking an eye off of the target in front of her, Elena ran a scan of the new man. Everything came back at a normal human level. However there was one thing that stood out in the results. This new individual also had a traces of the strange energy she had encountered sometime ago when facing Brandon Hale. This man's energy signature was similar to the boy's from before, but different in some sense. There was something about it was was not the same. Was it more refined? More powerful? The two scans matched in the basic complexity of the energy, however it was the power levels that differed. What was she dealing with now?
Vexus changed her stance holding her right run pointed towards the man who had just killed the man and the woman, and this new energy bearing individual. Her laser sights were aimed on the both of them and she was ready for a fight. From what she experienced of this energy type previously they were a powerful set of people and it would take a little bit more effort from Vexus than originally planned. From behind her mask she glanced at the walls of the buildings that ran along the alleyway. They had a very light sparkle too them. Her Technomatter was still present and going to work silently. Hopefully she wouldn't have to resort to that, but the last time she fought two individuals at this power level she was forced into that situation. Though now only time will tell.

Michael made a note of the two people now standing within the alleyway, gauging their threat levels and seeing ig he would end up having to fight both of them within this instant. He could tell one was a Ti’taen, but something about the other one he could not quite figure out, something about them was not organic in the least when it came to appearance, but he was working on such lowly lit settings. Something about the scenario amused him, and it was the fact that this mysterious woman thing was attacking the male for some unknown reason, though it could have been because of the people that he had killed, or so the spike in Nether had told him. At first his appearance on the scene did not draw much attention from either, which slightly hurt his feelings in some convoluted way but not enough to result in a negative backlash.

It seemed the only real reason for this was because he had not presented himself as a major threat, and that usually made one glide under the radar smoother than usual. While watching what unfolded ifnront of him, the male would dig into his jacket pocket and fish out one of the chocolate bars, ripping open the paper and plopping one of the squares into his mouth. Okay, perhaps eating chocolate while robo lady tried to kill this poor fellow was wrong, but then again it was chocolate for petes sake, there was no time to waste on heroics. So he would have been content in watching the fight progress, but one crucial factor forgotten or unknown about robots is that they have bullshit scanning systems or something like that.

In an instant he found himself also having a gun pointed at him, and that was not a pleasant sensation, even if he had one pointed at him before. ”What a twist.” Michael snarked popping another square of the chocolate into his mouth as he narrowed his eyes to get a good look on the other unfortunate fellow within this situation, perhaps hoping to get a grasp on who his comrade in arms was. When that did not work, he closed his eyes and let the good ol Ethereal Sense kick in, and show all the strange auras around him popped up, including the two infront of him. One was unfamiliar and then there was one that he recognized immediately, and with that Michael smirked.

”Oh its you. So you were the one making all that Nether…” He took in a deep breath. ”Almost all of its gone now though. Anyway you look like you could use some help, so I thought I would join in.”

Sam was hoping for at least some kind of response, perhaps even a motive for why this person was trying to kill him in the first place. Instead, this person decided to turn their guns up to 11 and use both this time to get the job done, Sam didn’t think his technique of disappearing and then re appearing after the lasers missed would work as efficiently this time, so he decided to go for a slightly different technique. Sam created a black, gassy copy of himself and made it stand where he was as he sprinted off to the right side of the alleyway in a hope to scale the wall. The plan seemed to be working as the lasers were still being fired at his copy who were just letting them fly through it, Sam hoped seeing two of him would cause some kind of confusion and perhaps give him a window of opportunity he needed to get himself out of harm’s way. Sam used his parkour knowledge to climb the wall beside him, using trash cans, loose bricks and fire escapes to his advantage until he managed to dive over the small wall on top of the roof and narrowly avoiding a laser bolt to the back.
 
Sam sat on one knee as he attempted to catch his breath, he was still trying to figure out why this person was trying to kill them, perhaps it was an accomplice of the mugger he killed, but this person seemed to be kitted out with some high tech equipment and could easily have pulled a mugging off by themselves, hell they looked like they could rob a bank in a matter of minutes. Sam was calculating his plan in his mind and was ready to execute it when he heard a loud voice that seemed to be talking to the two fighters. Sam listened to what this person had to say and they had a clear knowledge of Nether, was this a Titan living amongst the regular humans just like he was? Sam pushed himself up to his feet and hopped up onto the small wall on the rooftop and looked over the two shooter and the new challenger. The fact that this person knew what Nether was made him slightly more trustworthy than a complete stranger, but Sam was still quite wary, this armoured shooter seemed intent on making him pay for something though and a helping hand would not go amiss. “Sure thing, whatever gets me home quicker” he said, creating this temporary alliance in a few words.
 

Sam used this opportunity for a counter attack, he vanished from the rooftop and appeared directly in front of this metallic monster and ahead of his new ally. Sam was not so sure whether this was a very smart idea, but he did not have much time to think of it, he clenched his fist and leaned his arm back before shooting it forward and connecting with a chest plate, the suit and the user inside of it was sent sliding down the alleyway, but it left a mark on Sam too. He bared his teeth and shook his hand violently before grasping his knuckles and swearing under his breath, “Yeah… that wasn’t a very smart idea…” he said as he tried to look past the pain and hoped that the opposition was worse off.

This boy was very nimble being able to avoid all of her shots. Not to mention talented with this smoke element displaying the ability to creates clones of himself. Elena continued to fire at him as he scaled the walls using the environment to his advantage. His speed also greatly helped him out here. The man she was firing at landed on the roof and the other individual she was now targeting was speaking to him. Something about Nether? Was this another form of energy that Vexus was not familiar with? Regardless he radiated with the same type of energy that she had been curious about previously and him joining in on the first revealed a completely different light.
From what she has witnessed previously with this energy, it can be highly destructive. It may be easier to round up this new guest rather than get the murderer to do damage. Elena released a batch of her Micro-M.Tech Drones into the air to create a visual grid around the area. Following, she brought both her guns over and pointed them directly at the man holding a chocolate bar. Regardless of the power that he held, he did not appear as a threat but underestimating him would result in a failure. 

Just as she was about to pull the trigger when the smoke manipulating boy appeared between her and her target, and without skipping a beat put a well placed punch to the chest place of Vexus' armor. There was a significant amount of force behind it, enough to push her back and need to re lock on her target. Though it seemed it also caused a little damage to the attacker as well. Now with the two of them in front of her things might be a little easier. She began firing at the both of them this time and also utilizing the yellow electro-whip that extended off the back of her head. It extended at an alarming rate, twisting around trying to make contact with either of them. Ideally, it aimed to wrap around a limb of either of them Men and toss them into the brick walls lining the alleyway while violently electrocuting them. The faster that she could put one of them down, the faster this could end and she could get on with returning to New York.
Though Elena had a thought. It was more than likely that her initial target possessed this Nether energy which the other man had brought up earlier. There must be similarities between the two if he can sense it. One way or another she would need to acquire DNA from the both of them in order to compare and contrast the two energies that she had a curiosity for. It was still fascinating to Vexus that there were still things about this world that she was learning about, even after being alive for over a century.

The male was forced to continue in his attempts at dodging the mechanical beings attacks, perhaps either misguided attempts at heroism were the reason for its actions or something else entirely. Luckily the half Titan had enough skill to use what he had to maneuver around the attacks coming at him, and they simply went through what looked like a black smoky copy. His skill in moving around her was also admirable, and reminded him somewhat of how his father moved, though the lack of the constant Nether of unimaginable levels pumping from his was missing for sure. He noted Michael’s offer and actually accepted it, which would make everything happening much easier. However within moments of accepting his help, and before Michael could really begin the strategy meeting, the male leapt onward with his amazing speed lashing out at the woman with a powerful blow.

The force of it rung out within the alleyway, and made Michael’s chest hurt a little from looking at it, though it was nothing that seemed to really hurt the one in question. ”No it wasn’t, could you please not try running in like that again?” Michael noted slightly wryly, seeing that this one was the impulsive type. So it seemed like the type of guys his father would hang out with when he was not around Ouroboros, though Michael kept his mind from venturing too far into that, as it seemed that they would have to be dealing with a counter attack soon enough; soon enough being now. In an instant he forced the dark ethereal energy to react to his will, forming around eight powerful tendrils from his back, and all of them moving with an amazing speed.

One of them blocked the path of the electrical whip, as it coiled around the energy and tried to harm something that did not feel. The other seven would form a rather powerful barrier between him, Sam and the barrage of energy rounds. They would slow crack under the barrage of the powerful energy ammunition, but it was not like they would be breaking through anytime soon; which meant they had a brief respite from the combat for the time being. Michael concentrated on a point within his palm, gathering large amounts of Nether energy, until it formed a strange mark on his palm, though it ended up coalescing into a small sphere. Without really a prompt, Michael pressed the palm against any patch of bare skin he could find. ”You’ll need to be stronger, maybe faster.” The Nether would burn a small mark into his skin, one that would fade away once the energy had finished doing its thing.

[+4 points to whatever stats Sam wants]

Sam was still nursing his knuckles as he saw the robo lady stand up in the distance and set herself properly before firing a barrage of laser bolts and whipping something the pairs way, to make it worse the whip was electrified too. Sam felt like a deer in the headlights for a few seconds as he watched it all fly towards him, the whip veered away from him and wrapped itself around some kind of energy tentacle that his ally could apparently make, at that second he figured this guy would be a suitable partner, it looked like he could handle himself. The hair whip may have flown by him, but the laser bolts were still flying towards him, he was busy thinking of which way to go, but it looked like it didn't matter which way, they were always going to reach him, the decision was made for him though as the same energy that the tentacle was made of had spread itself in front of the two as some kind of shield. Sam could hear the shield taking the bullets like it was nothing, but the sheer amount this robot was firing was soon starting to take its toll on the make shift shield and cracks started to show, soon it would take no more and shatter and send them both back int other fray.

Sam turned to his partner for this short break that they had and hoped they would use it wisely, the other guy seemed busy doing something already though, he was looking intently at the palm of his hand, Sam looked over to it and watched as a mysterious symbol appeared onto it as if it was burned onto him, without any warning this man pressed the palm of his hand against Sam's forehead, now it felt like Sam's head was burning and the pain was quite uncomfortable, Sam pulled away and moaned slightly at the sharp pain he was feeling, it slowly dissapeared though, but the same symbol had been engraved on his head. "What was that abou-... Ooh that's interesting..." Sam said as he could feel his body changing slightly, he began to feel both stronger and faster due to this symbol on his forehead, but he knew this would help in his battle against this strange robot that wants him dead.

[+3 to Strength taking it to 8, +1 to Speed taking it to 8, lasting for 5 posts this post included]

The shield was showing large cracks now and was soon going to break, Sam took this short time to create a plan for him and his new friend, "Ok... so we beat this thing up and then ill buy some more chocolate or something, sound good?" before his ally could reply, the shield shattered and dissipated, unfortunately the robot was letting up and they were soon met with more laser bolts. Sam dashed to the left, narrowly avoiding the lasers and he took cover by the entrance of the alleyway. Sam clearly was not going to dash in head on again, he took a step back and vanished before re appearing back onto the roof above him, he ran down the roof and closed the gap between him and the robot lady before leaping down and landing behind it, he immediately began throwing punches against the back of this thing in a hope to damage it in anyway.

That damn energy...
It was moving exactly as it had in the past, the tendrils formed around the boy controlling it and moved with great skill an accuracy. He was able to use one to meet with her electro-whip, her diagnostic showed that it was pumping high amounts of energy into the thing but with no results. She retracted the whip and upped the size of the laser blasts yet again when she watched the energy form into a protective shield around the two. If it was anything like her previous encounter it would not be easy to penetrate. Regardless, she did not falter on her onslaught.
These seconds were precious and no doubt they were plotting something, she needed to get them out of there. Some progress was being made with her guns, so she kept on firing, cracks began to appear slowly so she moved the lasers to a constant stream and the damage began to increase. After just a couple seconds of the continuous laser the shield shattered to reveal the two of them. Instantly after the guns reverted back to bullet-like blasts and she began firing at them again. The one who had punched her a moment ago dodged to the left and Vexus immediately noticed he was moving faster than before. What had happened inside of that barrier? Did these strange new energy have a sort of boosting effect when used in conjunction with each other? Too many questions to be answered and not enough time as her target moved rapidly to the entrance of the alleyway still avoiding her laser bullets. 
Her grid of surveillance robo-insets had moved into place giving her a view of almost every angle of the battle field. The boy then moved at such a blinding speed that her nor her insects could follow slipping through her near perfect field of vision for just an instant. He reappeared on the roof and moved with the same impossible speed down the side of the wall heading straight for Elena. She was only able to turn and meet him as it was too late. He threw a punch as he had previously though this time it connected with a much more significant amount of force. So much more that it sent Vexus flowing backwards, right towards the tendrils. Without another thought, the yellow whip shot from the back of her head to the right wall of the alley and dug itself in like a grappling hook. She retracted it which pulled her away from the tendrils of unknown energy and up onto the wall

She stood upright on the wall as if defying gravity as the yellow extension returned to its normal length. Elena would not allow her to be struck again by the brutal stylings of these two amateurs. Vexus forfeited her increase in defense for an increase in her speed. She may not be able to move faster than him, but he was outclassed in every other respect. The both of them were. Regardless of her methods she would emerge on top. In a flash, Elena sheathed her two guns and shot two blasts of her Technorganic matter, one at each of them looking to strike them on any parts of their body. Though from what she has seen already, they would more than likely be able to dodge it especially the fast one. And as such, a counter had already been prepared. She fired all ten of her Miniature M.Tech Missiles, five to Speedy, and five to the other boy.
The digits on the suit almost instantly reappeared as she launched herself up into the air above the two. She drew her guns again and dialed them up to a very wide and consistent beam. If they dodged the Technorganic Matter and survived the missiles then they would be met with not only the continuous beams from her guns, but also the two large beasts formed from a combination of her Technomatter and whatever it was able to gather together to make a body. Since she now flew above the two and had both of them in her sights, she repositioned her spying insects at more ground levels giving her a view of their fighting styles and various movements. The data they relayed would allow her to analyze their potential strategies in order for her to plot a more devastating counterstrike. Not that she couldn't devastate them from where she stood, or flew rather, she needed at least one of them alive for proper testing. 

Alive was such a loosely used term in Vexus' book. Ranging from 'barely breathing' to ' just a limb will do'.

The male at first seemed surprised with the sudden strange marking stuck to his forehead, but within moments that tune changed when he felt the effects. With this new upgrade to his physiology, Michael was sure that their chances would have been increased exponentially and so it would be. He was faster, stronger and with that skill of his, a venerable monster on the battlefield now. ”You’re buying.” Michael noted as most of his tendrils shattered into small bits, leaving him with a stubby single tendrils that he let fall away as the others did before it ended up wasting most of his energy. A few of the energy bolts still came through his defenses, and with a few movements, Michael managed to avoid what was aimed towards him. That was when he noted that the male had managed another blow upon the robotic female, but this time it seemed that his enhanced strength had actually done something.

She would have been sent right into an attack from Michael, though managed to stop herself a few feet from him and then proceeded to retreat into the air, not before launching something at him. It seemed that she was moving faster than Michael had initially expected her to be able to, and that meant that he would have to get serious before things became bad. She released a blast of something, a strange material that Michael had a feeling that he should not allow to touch him, but before he could react to that, something else was sent at them; in the form of what looked like ten missiles. Dodging was not possible now, so he went with something that would have been far more viable, and that was simply deconstruction. In an instant his body would appear to become a fine purple mist that both the technomatter and missies would go through as it rose further into the air.

What looked like the male reforming within the air appeared only be fired upon, while the monstrosity formed of the concrete that the matter touched would attack a shape within the smoke created by the missiles. All of them being simple creations of his Ethereal energy, illusions made to confuse and it was easy too, considering that they still seemed to act as if he were using his little intangibility trick. While all attention was being placed upon the fake, a mist settled over the sky itself, thick and perhaps hard to see through properly. Michael created a small orb of Ethereal energy within his palm, having reformed within the now thick mist, and launched a full power blast at the mechanical female. This was only one phase within his plan to defeat her, and so far he felt is was going fine.

The robot was sent much further and faster than his previous punch, the strange magic that his ally provided appeared to be showing some results, it did not even hurt his hand this time. Sam was pleased with the punch that he landed, although even with more strength it did not seem to faze this thing, it used the whip to grip on the wall and stop itself from going anywhere, it then used a height advantage to rain down a range of projectiles onto the both of them. First of all there was some kind of silver goo, it didn't look very friendly so Sam rolled out of the way of it and watched it slam into the ground behind him, the goo attached itself to the concrete ground and began to break it up into smaller pieces, Sam watched in awe as the concrete rose from the ground with the goo keeping it all together, it took the shape of some kind of monster with a gaping mouth that caused Sam to shudder.

Sam took a few steps back from this beast as it began barreling towards him with surprising speed for something so big and heavy, although some whistling behind him caused Sam to turn just in time to see 5 missiles being fired upon him, in a split second decision, Sam vanished into a cloud of black smog and the missiles flew through it and conveniently into the beast that was behind him, sending pieces of this goo and concrete scattered across the alleyway. Sam returned to his original spot and looked at the destruction that the missiles had caused, scorch marks scarred the walls and ground as the silver mixture began to dissapear, his attention was on the wrong thing however as a large laser bolt flew by him and skimming his right arm, it still caused some damage to it, but a full hit would have taken it off completely. Sam grabbed at his arm and winced in pain before dropping to a knee, blood trickled over and under his hand and flowed down his arm before creating a pool of it on the ground beneath him. He looked down at the strands of blood making its way down his arm, it was darker than normal blood and reminded him that he wasn't human anymore, but that might not be such a bad thing, he was certainly a lot stronger because of his change of race. The pain was harsh and he could barely use his arm, but the adrenaline of the situation was probably disguising some of the pain, it would come back to him soon though.

Sam stared off into the distance as he motivated himself to get back up, he did just that and turned to the flying robot lady who was probably pleased that she had done some damage to either of them. A damaged arm was not going to keep Sam down though, he was still willing to fight with one arm if it meant not being killed, Sam took a step forward and leaned over to his right with his let hand and grasped a metallic garbage can lid, it wasn't much of an attack, but hopefully he could throw it fast enough and hard enough to either hit and do some damage or even miss and cause this thing to make a mistake. Sam, with his right arm limp by his side, span clockwise to create some momentum before releasing the lid at a quick pace towards the flying annoyance.

These two were proving to be somewhat troublesome. As planned, they both were able to avoid her Technorganic matter. Though that was only the first part. Her missiles followed. The boy who controlled the strange energy she found fascination in dematerialized himself allowing the missiles to pass through him. Keeping an eye on the area, there were forms of him that appeared which the missiles went after though to no avail as they were only clones. Her Technorganic beast also tried its luck with the diversion, though it was stupid and even after it obviously not working the first time it felt the need to try again.
Meanwhile, her other opponent was fairing rather well in dodging the Technorganic matter and was about to face the beast that had formed from it when he heard the missiles coming in for him. Using his apparently increased speed he narrowly avoided the missiles, but in a timely fashion of allowing them to hit and destroy her Technobeast. Still yet he was not out of the dog house as Elena showered down he laser which she was successful in making contact with his arm. Not as much as she would have liked, but she caused damage. Depending on his tenacity, he may or may not be using that arm again.

Still standing upright on the wall, the other boy still had not showed himself since evaporating. Her bugs on the bottom floor were on the look out when above they were able to spot a odd cloud above Vexus. It was relayed to her and she spun around immediately. There was a large concentration of energy growing within the cloud. She could tell where this was going and there was no time to appropriately calibrate her guns in order to counter it. Against its will, Vexus' Technomatter creation moved at its top speed and forcibly moved Elena out of the way, but in not such a way that would cause her much if any damage.. She flipped a couple times and landed gracefully down the alleyway as she watched her second creation get obliterated in the blast of energy. 
Elena brushed off her shoulder in an unimpressed manner. The beast that hit her left a couple of scratches, which had been worth it in avoiding the magical blast her opponent had launched earlier. Would have caused much more damage than a light tackle. Things were heating up indeed and Elena needed to adapt. She readjusted her suit to deal more with her strength levels allowing her to lift more and cause more damage with just her fists alone.(-4SPD +4STR). In addition she also separated her arms giving her four in total, two of which held her guns. The boy who's arm had been grazed by the laser grabbed a trash can lid and with as much power as he could threw it at Elena. Being analyzed with her suits processing systems it was clear that it had been thrown with too much power to be caught. She effortlessly stepped to the side and allowed the attack of sorts just pass right by her. Elena really only needed to get one direct hit in on this kid to put him down, the other one might prove to be a different story. She at least wanted to somewhat preserve him for his powers.

They must be getting tired of her routine of shooting and the whip, but they were persistent thus she would continue. As she took steps closer she would unleash yet another barrage of laser fire, this time the whip was wrapping around debris and chucking it at the two of them just to add on to the challenge. Her goal this round was to push them back a little further so that she can collect a DNA sample that had left this man's body. It wasn't the one that she wanted, but it may have to do for now.
At this rate, it did not seem like she was going to have to resort to the full power of her Celestial Eye, or even some of it. Last time she did have to call upon its power in order to deal with the energy user, though this time he did not seem too overbearing with his abilities as the last one had. This one had more control over it. More conservative. It made him more dangerous. She would not count him out just yet

The powerful blast of Ethereal Energy would be more than enough to reduce the foe in question into nothing more than a fine ash that would be blown away in a stray puff of wind. Along with the fact that he had made sure that her attention was elsewhere, Michael felt more than confident that he had the woman on the ropes now. Just one quick decisive blow, and then he could walk away from this before any unwanted attention was drawn his way, like the cops that so enjoyed getting in his way. He made note that Sam had managed to get himself injured, and for a second considered not even helping the half titan, but then again that would have only made the thing as a whole annoying if his attack did not succeed in the first place.

However, within the last moments of his preparing the attack, the strange monster that he had been keeping busy suddenly leaped upwards, pushing the woman out of the way as it was destroyed completely. Michael cursed under his breath, teeth grounding lightly together as he quickly descended, gathering more energy within one hand and quickly tossing it into the air was it ascended impossibly high into the air. Landing next to Sam, Michael noted the scattered remnants of what was once the monster that was trying to kill his little hybrid friend. He noted that the woman had now produced what had looked like four arms, two of which were holding guns and firing them off as usual. Something about this back and forth was annoying the male more than anything, and he had to end this before things got out of hand.

So he drew upon the dark Ethereal energy within him once again, forming a dark purple aura around his right hand as what sounded like the crack of lightning filled the sky and within an instant rain began to fall upon them. While it may have looked like normal rain within this low light, closer inspection would have shown that it was a dark colored liquid, and for Sam that it was healing him. The downpour started of insubstantial and would grow to an amazing amount soon enough, its healing properties only apparent to those that he did not consider an enemy. With a wave of his hand, Michael quickly created a wall of the dark energy, and forced it to rush forward, each shot upon it, and thing thrown crating some damage.

With constant concentration he was able to keep the wall from shattering. It was beginning to grow tiring on his end, but not enough to keep him from forcing the attack forward. He turned to Sam, and with a single motion of his head, he told the male that he wanted him to use his little teleporting power to get on the other side of her, and end this with one decisive blow that would shatter the woman.