Overture (Champion)

A white cape floated behind the man as he glided at a fairly leisurely pace towards his target. Although being his first time attempting something like this a strange sort of calm was consuming him. Over the years of planning he had gained access to a variety of underground and inside contacts, slowly feeding him information from around the globe. This particular instance had landed Dissonance in Houston, Texas on a mission to save some Meta’s from a rather large prison sentence. He had done his research on the Meta’s in question; Smog a gas manipulator, Powercut a teen capable of causing Electronic interference and Blue Beam who was capable of substantial energy emission. They were being transferred to a meta-prison and intercepting the convoy would be a lot easier than breaking them out at a later point.

Three large armoured vans were travelling in tandem through the streets, with police escorts on motorcycles clearing the way for them to pass. He had to time this perfectly so that they wouldn’t be able to evade him somehow or split up and attempt to shake him off of at least one prisoner. Landing on a nearby building Dissonance scoped out the area and surveyed for the best vantage point. He adjusted his gloves making sure that they were on firmly and wouldn’t get in the way. The front van had started signalling to a reasonable sized alleyway and Dissonance saw his opportunity. With fascinating speed he flew over to the alley and stood at the far end directly in the van’s path.

He stood perfectly still at the end of the alley and looked directly towards his feet not wanting to give anything away to the police escorts. Eventually the convoy reached him and the front car came to a stop. The driver started furiously beating his horn signalling for Dissonance to clear the path. The two furthest forward Motorcycle officers dismounted their bikes and drew their guns aiming directly for Dissonances chest. “Sir, we’re going to have to ask you to clear the road” one of them shouted over to him. A wry smirk flashed over his face as he raised his head to the officers and readied himself for what was coming.

With no warning Dissonance thrust a single outstretched hand in front of him and he could feel the energy surging from his fingertips. He released an extremely powerful sound wave at an incredible pitch that tore through the entire alley before dissipating. The two guards that had drawn on him were launched backward down the alley, crashing into the walls as they flew. Every window that was caught in the waves path shattered, blanketing the alleyway in a hail of glass, which in turn was enough to slice nearly all of the vans tyres. As if that wasn’t devastating enough the windscreens of each van in the convoy imploded at extreme speed, lacerating each driver beyond the point of recognition. One of the motorcycle officers fought his way back up to his feet, firing a bullet, which narrowly missed Dissonances shoulder. Dissonance turned on him and the guard froze solid knowing what was about to come next, with three solid punching motions Dissonance launched 3 successive sonic bullets, each containing enough blunt force to shatter a man’s ribcage completely. The man was launched backward like a ragdoll, smashing into the side of a dumpster, No doubt he was dead as the cumulative force of attacks would have been enough to shatter every bone in his body. “You humans are so pathetic” Dissonance commented as he raised himself into the air and floated over to the back of the first van.

“Cover your ears,” he shouted to the Meta whom he would find inside this vans containment facilities. He placed both of his hands against the solid metal doors and emitted a series of strong pulses directly into the metal, practically disintegrating the screws and bolts that held it all together. He took a few steps back and watched proudly as the door fell off of its hinges in front of him and dropped to the floor. Inside the van sat a teen with broken electrical handcuffs dangling from the bench beside him, he was trying to appear calm and collected but it was painfully obvious that the kid was terrified by everything that had just happened. Dissonance reached towards the teen and motioned him out of the van.
“Come with me brother, I could use your assistance on this next part”

As he beckoned the boy came forth to stand at his side “Powercut I believe, I am dissonance, Master of sound.” He said it with such confidence and gravitas that very few would have dared argue with him. He turned to face the other trucks and motioned for Powercut to follow him.
“Right brother, when I’ve opened the doors activate your powers so that we can get the other prisoners freed and to safe harbour that I have already prepared.”

As he began to move towards the second truck he heard a large metallic impact from above it. Looking up Dissonance could make out a large muscular figure, posing tall above the van. From his facial features he could tell the boy to be 20 at the most yet from his muscle tone he would have to be significantly older. The boy must have been a Meta for this to be the case, making it all the more awkward for him now to be standing in the way.
“Halt. Return the prisoner to the van and you may leave with less bruises.” Less bruises? This was what passed for a threat here? Dissonance motioned to Powercut so he would know not to engage his powers quite yet and the pulsing sound through his feet he raised himself up to be at eye level with this new ‘Hero.’ His cape billowed in the wind behind him giving him an appearance of power and grandeur to the already impressed Powercut. On closer inspection he realised the boy to be foreign, the markings visible on various parts of his person resembling the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt. He was clearly a long way from home but that did not excuse his brash behaviour.

“Insolent fool. These prisoners here are Meta-kind that have been judged criminal by the likes of man in all of his prejudiced and unjust wisdom. Their imprisonment is little more that a joke to the likes of us!” He boomed with extreme forcefulness, floating forward he landed on the edge of the middle truck, shattered glass crunching beneath his feet as he made contact. Taking a step forward he looked directly into the Egyptians eyes with an anger starting to burn deep inside of him.
“I warn you Egyptian, do not make yourself a traitor to your own kind it does not beckon to end well for you.” He turned his back on the man and moved back towards the end of the van upon which the confrontation had taken place “Either leave now or help me and your lapse in judgement will be forgotten. I have no time for the interference of a 'Hero'.”

The Egyptian had grabbed Dissonances cloak and twisted it into a position that forced him to observe the injured officers lying around the street. Dissonance could vaguely hear some Hero babble from the boy, but couldn’t help admiring his own handiwork as a small smirk spread across his face. He must not have been paying enough attention because within seconds he had been thrown from the top of the van; landing with a sense of control, slightly crouched so as to steady his landing. The Hero held himself strongly as if though trying to impress and then stepped forward to point at him “... You have already caused enough pain” This sentence was funny to Dissonance, a man who had grown up in a world of pain, a man for whom pain had shaped his entire life and here he was being lectured by an 18 year old who believed he understood pain.

Dissonance stood up tall as a twisted laugh started to pour from his mouth. The Egyptian had dared to touch him and were he human would have surely met his end, but as this was not the case he would be forgiven his mistake and offered one last chance.
“Powercut, see to it that the others get freed from their restraints” he said whilst kicking the keys over from one of the guards on the floor. Powercut, seeming rather unsettled now, grabbed up the keys and hurried over to the rear of the second van and began unlocking it. Dissonance made sure he still had the hero’s attention by proudly walking over and standing near to one of the injured bodies slumped on the ground. He outstretched a flat palm towards the guard, a middle aged man with silver streaks of hair, who was barely even conscious in his spot on the ground.
“My friend, humans are weak, it is an evolutionary imperative that they must be subsidised and eliminated for the prosperity of our race”

Using his enhanced hearing he could hear very quiet speech in the background indicating that Powercut had unlocked the next van, a female voice indicating that it had to be Susan Laurels (a.k.a Smog.) Dissonance knew he had to make a quick example and so projected a strong sonic boom he knew would daze Champion, forcing him to witness what was coming next. Taking a step closer to the guard he began to project strong sound waves to the mans body, causing him to writhe and squirm in extreme agony. His voice now raised he shouted, “You believe that I have already caused enough pain?” Clenching his hand to a fist a strong sonic boom sounded and continued to echo down the alleyway. In an instant the guard stopped moving, blood trickling from his mouth and ears, all life vanquished. The alley fell completely silent, only to be broken by a few words.
“You know nothing of pain.”

Champion had fought his way back up to his feet and was standing with his prideful stance yet again. The guard had died right in front of the Egyptian’s eyes and yet his reaction was not that of your average man. What surprised Dissonance was that at the sight of such a brutal death, first there was a brief expression of disgust, which was entirely expected but what transpired next was a sort of sadness. This was new; anger and disgust were the usual primary responses to this kind of murder so he knew that he was dealing with something very different here.

Champion drew his blade and swished it through the air with a glittering light following it through the air. Clearly now he was ready to attack and had revealed his full intentions to dissonance. Unbeknown to him however, light smog had already started circling around the base of the vehicle Champion stood on. Dissonance had seen this and watched as the smog completely surrounded the hero standing on top of the van. A slight golden glow started to protrude from the smog, no doubt a mystical defense mechanism designed to protect the Egyptian from coming to any harm. A moment passed and the smog had cleared leaving only the Champion on the van, he launched himself directly at Dissonance and leaped into the air with a foot thrust forward to try and smash into him. Anticipating the attack Dissonance dashed out of the way leaving the attack way off of its mark.

“You’ve picked the wrong side Hero” Dissonance said whilst spinning on the spot to follow Champion. He flew straight up into the air and watched as smog blanketed the alley with a thick fog, Powercut was standing terrified against a wall trying to keep as clear away from the fight as was possible. Dissonance soared down beside him and motioned him to the third van; where his powers activated and disabled most of the security inside, which would make the last breakout altogether easier. Looking back to Champion, Dissonance raised a hand in front of him and fired a pulse of infrasound energy directly towards the Hero, not enough to seriously harm somebody of his physical capabilities but enough to knock him back and let him know that this would be a serious fight if he continued. This would certainly be the young man's last chance to turn back from the battle that he was about to encounter.

In the brief seconds before his attack Dissonance had lost Smog, this was a minor setback but it wouldn’t obstruct his plans too much. The loss of Smog didn’t upset him; he had released her from her human captors and given her a second chance. She had taken that chance against one of her own kind and fallen extremely short, survival of the fittest. His sound wave rocketed through Champion and hoisted him off of his feet in to a van and leaving him again on the floor.
“A cowardly attack,” he had said upon reaching his feet again, clearly sore that he had failed to defend himself from the attack.
“Friend it is not my fault you turned your attention elsewhere, you struck first after all,” Dissonance spoke the words with a wry smile and laughter in his voice. This child was after all being fairly entertaining.

Dissonance had turned his head away momentarily to check on Powercut and how he was getting on, needless to say he was whimpering in a corner having seen what had befallen Smog, a much more significant meta-human. Returning his attention to the matter at hand he realized he had left himself open, he brought his hand around to block but he was too late. The hilt of Champions sword bore itself into his abdomen, extreme shock flowing through his body as the air surged upward from his lungs. There was no serious damage done but it was an unpleasant sensation nonetheless. To avoid any follow up attacks Dissonance launched himself backwards at full speed using his powers, Champions knee just narrowly soaring past his cheek with a pace and strength that would have surely made breathing hurt considerably more than it already did!

The Egyptian had clearly chosen his side now; there would be no more turning back from this point, he had to be shut down. Dissonance however couldn’t muster the strength to stand quite yet and so was feeling very vulnerable. Still collapsed right down on both knees he didn’t think he’d make any moves for a while. However, he was sure that Champion would capitalize on this opportunity very soon and two of his assets were already out of the picture. He weighed up all of the options that he could currently see but the best choice was provided for him. His supersonic hearing had kicked in and he could hear it in the air. The gentle hum filled his senses as two large blue beams of light soared over his head. He fought his way up to one knee and placed his foot flat on the ground, leaning backwards to expand his lungs and allow the re-take of oxygen. He glanced upward to see the streaks of light soaring toward the chest of Champion. This definitely changed things and he had to admit he was impressed; the hero called Bluebeam had jumped straight in to defend his own kind without so much as a question. This was the type of partnership that dissonance could appreciate.

Champion had blocked the attack with his mystical shield, not reflecting the beams but absorbing their heat. The attack had barely seemed to faze him at all but eventually it became too much for Blue-Beam, who had to recoil from his own attack for fear of self-induced harm. The Egyptian had quickly capitalised on the situation, dodging any following blasts and planting his feet firmly into Blue-Beam’s chest. The man was sent tumbling backwards from the fight, not defeated just momentarily incapacitated. It was an altogether pointless attack, but it had revealed more information to Dissonance about the Hero’s power, something that was always useful.

Using the time supplied by this well timed distraction, he had regained his footing and was now standing level with the injured Blue-Beam, he could hear the man’s breath and heartbeat as clear as anything. Only winded and a little bit hurt, he’d be back in the game in no time. Champion was standing tall again, swinging his sword around like a wannabe warrior. He was trying to intimidate, trying to make this all go away with some sort of physical grandeur. He began to plead to Dissonance, arrogantly proclaiming that it would be him who would triumph should this continue. The genuine concern in his voice was easily audible, yet another thing this man presented that Dissonance had scarcely seen elsewhere.

“I would have been fine to leave you alone, but you intervened with my plans.” He proclaimed with a slight anger, slowly walking a little closer all the while.
“You would aid the humans, yet we must show them we are superior, they can not be allowed to dictate our rules and lives!”
He would offer the child another chance to back-out but then he would never learn the error in his judgment. The fight would continue, not with the intention of severely hurting or injuring the boy, just… teaching. Summoning pillars of sound from the concrete he launched a large quantity of the destroyed glass up into the air with the intent of distracting the hero from anticipating his next move.

Glass hovered momentarily in the air at the apex of its journey, if time were stopped all that would be seen were cracked reflections of Dissonance and his now menacing grin, the glint of his bright blue eyes just creeping on to a few shards. He launched himself into the air before they could fully land and positioned himself directly facing the Egyptian. Hovering in the air the only things left moving were his silver/grey hair and his white cape, which was reflecting the sunlight making it almost too much to look at. Both gently fluttered in the sun while Dissonance floated high, casting an intimidating shadow across the alley. With a pushing motion from both of his hands he launched a large concussive wave of sound towards Champion, attempting to rip him off his feet and send him cascading backwards in to one of the now unoccupied vans.

The sound wave had been blocked momentarily but was strong enough to eventually tear through the hero and send him cascading into the van, rolling it to its roof in the process. Sparks flew as the metal scraped across the concrete, Champion buried deep in to the chassis of the vehicle. Powercut was still cowering in the corner, head buried into his chest in a futile attempt to protect himself. He had already served his purpose so Dissonance had decided to leave him to do whatever he wanted. Blue Beam was again conscious but still trying to compose himself and get back to his feet. As his attention returned to the van he noticed the Egyptian had pulled himself from the crevice on the side and had broken into a run.

As his feet connected with the wall he launched himself off, dust from the bricks filling the air as a large crack formed around where his foot impacted. Dissonance tried his best to block the attack but came up short, taking a hit directly in the back. He stumbled forwards from the impact as the hero began speaking.
"If you want to show humans how superior you are...!"
Another attack was thrown and connected directly with his abdomen knocking him back in the other direction. He momentarily lost his footing but managed to land in a crouch meters away from the hero.
"Protect them. Protect them from the threats they cannot defeat!"

He was still not getting the message, but then again he was young, foolish. He would come around. He had again raised his defensive stance so Dissonance prepared himself and jumped straight up into the air firing a very strong blast directly down onto Champion, launching himself backwards with the same force. A considerable distance had now opened between them so he considered it safe to speak.
“Protect them? The humans may have my protection when they cease to be the threat,” He began pacing toward the hero as he said the words. “You may have been sheltered wherever you came from, but I have experienced first hand the dangers of humanity.”
Reaching out he made a strong pulling motion towards himself, conjuring up a pulse of sound from behind the overturned van, attempting to catch the hero off guard and crash the van into his back. Normally this would seem extreme but Dissonance knew that the hero could take it, so he did not mind.
“Human’s would have us all in chains given the choice, I’m simply ensuring they are not given one.”

The truck had flung forward and enveloped Champion, covering him entirely with its metal framework. A normal person would have been crushed, even most metahumans heavily damaged; Champion however just shrugged it off as if he had been attacked with a large cardboard box. It cascaded into a wall where it was likely to stay lodged, bricks smashing all over the street. He looked to be advancing on Dissonance for another attack but unknown to him Blue Beam had reached his feet again and was charging up an attack. Dissonance hovered proudly, willing to act as a distraction for this blast. Then Dissonance was reminded of why he doesn’t work with a partner; most people were idiots. Blue Beam opened his mouth and gave everything away, allowing Champion an easy advantage over the man.

The attack was blocked forming a blue glow over the entire alleyway as it reflected off of the shield. Dissonance took advantage of Champions distraction and positioned himself better for another attack. He moved further down the alley and began preparing himself for a large attack. He turned his attention back to the fight that was ensuing and saw the Blue Beam had now been subdued, held in a headlock and struggling to get out. Suddenly the Egyptian held his sword in the air and rammed it through the side of the other man, a stream of crimson erupting into the air as he did so. Dissonance was surprised by this course of actions; this man who talked so freely about saving humanity yet happily struck down anybody that he didn’t agree with.

He turned back to where Dissonance once stood and said something, this was the time to attack. Dissonance reached out, releasing a strong high frequency blast into the alleyway that was designed to stun and seriously disorient anybody in its path. In a quick follow up he leapt high into the air and spread his arms wide, a sound wave erupting forth from his chest a loud scream, almost resembling a war cry, accompanying the blast as it left the man. It was a low frequency concussive blast, but the amplitude behind it was extremely strong, tearing at the walls and concrete as it travelled causing cracks and rubble to follow it along. Many of the guards still lying on the floor were launched by the attack, along with large portions of the glass that had been shattered. The blast was devastating but took its toll on Dissonance, who required some time to recharge following the extent of the attack.