A new target.

For a few seconds the man just stood their. In his suit of armor he was so still he could simply be a statue of some futuristic knight teleported into the middle of the bank, if it wasn't for the corona or red energy that buzzed around him like a swarm of bloodthirsty insects. Behind his mask Tristan couldn't make out what he was looking at, although e had a sinking suspicion it was him. In the few seconds he had before the man moved Tristan tried to formulate a plan.

His armor looked strong, combined with his energy field could make injuring him, even slightly increasingly challenging. And he hadn't even taken into account the wealth of equipment arrayed across the mans body, things that Tristan couldn't begin to guess at the use of. All in all, Tristan was effectively going up against a walking armory with nothing but his own powers. Letting his eyes slip around the room for a second Tristan noted large marble pillars set around to carry the weight of the roof above them. At least they might provide some good cover, and with room to fly he might be able to outmaneuver him. Just long enough for him to make a mistake.

Suddenly Tristan's eyes shot back to the man as he drew a menacing red sword, seemingly out of nowhere. The voice that emitted from his mask echoed around the room as he took one step forward, and Tristan took one involuntary step back. So, not only was the man heavily armored but he was now wielding a sword that, if that huge graze cut into the floor was anything to go by, was incredibly powerful.

Tristan could feel the breath catching in his throat. Scared? He didn't blame himself really, this guy looked like Darth Vader ate Doctor Doom for breakfast and was stepping toward him like Tristan wasn't even registering on his threat level. Crap thought Tristan as he powered up his energy blast I really hope this does something or i'm going to have to think really quick

Jumping up into the air Tristan floated in place for a second, letting him aim his blast at his enemies palm. A second later he pulsed the energy forward. A glowing ball of pure energy shot from his hand toward whatever insane, maniacal man was striding toward him.

(OOC: Sorry if this is stepping on toes n such, but I figured we are coming up on a week since the last post and I don't want this one to go down)

This was just all too easy, entertaining really. Lucius had trained metahumans of this guys powerlevel, taught them. He trained with ten at a time in some cases, fighting them all at once and using them against each other. If there was ever a fight that should be considered one sided it was this one. This man was obviously unskilled with the use of his abilities, perhaps a little over confident, until now at least. He was in the big leagues today, and he wasn't ready in the slightest. Lucius saw the blast of energy coming a mile away, then raised his blade, using its vibration function and the blades durability to slice at the blast, deflecting it with the assistance of a little pulse of red energy. It looked as if he just casually absorbed the attack, and that was only reinforced by a menacing chuckle.

"...Come on lad, you're simply outmatched. It's not worth it, go use your gifts for something more meaningful then suicide." Lucius said. It likely wouldn't do anything considering the stubborn nature of heroes. They felt they were fighting the good fight, standing against evil and such, but stopping a bank job was the bottom of the barrel. All they were standing for was made up laws, and they were endangering themselves and others because of it, still calling themselves heroes and good guys even though in a practical sense they were the ones causing the most chaos.

"What are you accomplishing by stopping me here? Oh, you stopped money and material items from getting stolen from a bunch of rich scum, good for you, you hero you. Please don't be so disillusioned and misguided, these people hate our kind, and you're sitting here like a dog doing tricks for approval." Lucius said, now sheathing his sword. He looked as if he were lowering his guard, though he was just as able to fight, perhaps even better.

The man clove Tristan's energy bolt in two like he was carving a cake, he could feel the energy split against the man's energy sword. It did however give Tristan an interesting insight into the man's powers. In the few seconds it had taken for him to strike the blast aside Tristan could feel the corrosive nature of the red energy. The energy was naturally unpredictable, which explained the flickering energy field around the man, but he seemed to be able to command it through what seemed like sheer force of will. Tristan let all the information sink in as the man chuckled at him before commenting how far out of his league Tristan was.

It was true, whoever this guy was he was stronger and more powerful that Tristan. Even without the red energy his suit still looked like it could take a shot from a rail-gun and keep trucking. Tristan's brain suddenly latched onto an idea. Rail-gun, that's it. This guy looked strong but if you hit anyone hard enough it's going to at least knock their head around, and if this guy was so convinced that Tristan was so far below him, maybe he'd lower his guard a bit more.

Still hovering in the air Tristan floated down to the ground and lowered his hand, he reduced his glow as well. Secretly however he begun to build up a field of energy behind him, as more energy compacted behind him Tristan could feel the worst case of pins and needles and he had to focus to not start sliding across the floor. Taking a step forward he looked up at the man.

"You know what" he said, trying to sound worn out and despondent "Your right, I am tired of fighting for these people. They never give me any credit no matter what I do and all I do is help them. I just want to go somewhere that I am useful, somewhere that I matter, somewhere I can make a difference"

Oh bother, this guy was really trying to play tricks on him now? Who rushed into a bank trying to be a hero only to be convinced with a few sentences to change their life view? Either Lucius just now developed the power of jedi mind tricks or this guy was bullshitting him. But then again, maybe he was just that weak willed.

"I don't know what's worse, the fact you are here trying to stop theft for no apparent reason or the fact your trying to play me for a fool. If you really mean that, turn around and walk away, if you don't, please do yourself a favor and just attack without trying to slight me." Lucius said, fully prepared for whatever the male wanted to throw at him. It was at this point Lucius started charging energy, though it didn't seem like it as nothing really changed outwardly.

Tristan allowed himself a moment to cruse, of course this guy would see through the lie. This wasn't the ordinary low time villains Tristan had grown used to, the ones who never thought beyond a few days. No, by the looks of it this guy was a pro, and everything was planned down to a T. Perhaps that's what Tristan was here to do, throw a spanner in the works. At the very least, even though he wanted to turn around and run he forced himself to stand his ground.

The energy behind him was nearly at critical mass, nearly enough to do some damage to this guy. Tristan just needed a bit longer.

"Ok, i'll bite" Tristan said as he slowly stepped to the left, once again trying not to be forced across the floor by the force pent up behind him "If it's such a stupid thing for me to be stopping a bank robbery then why is it Ok for you to be doing the robbing?"

He stopped moving, looking behind the man for a second he saw there was a window positioned right behind him. In his mind Tristan felt a flood of elation, perhaps this ridiculous plan would work.

Gesturing at the man Tristan continued "Surely this is above your level of villainy. Would have figured someone of your 'power and stature' would be above raiding a simple bank. By the look of you i'd imagine you should have upgraded your mountain complex to a volcano lair right?"

A few more seconds and Tristan would be ready to attack. As he watched the man Tristan could sense an increase in his energy output, to what end he couldn't discern. He noted it but paid it no mind, he was too deep in his plan to back out now. But hopefully he was about to score one of the underdogs.

Lucius had seen this before, the stalling. It was in every movie ever made, ever comic ever written. This guy really did come into this wanting to be some manner of batman or superman didn't he? What he didn't realize though was this was the real world, not a story where you could stall a 'villain' with exposition and clever banter. Lucius just sighed, he had been watching the energy the man was producing increase exponentially, perhaps enough to do some damage. That combined with Lucius' next attack, which was just as charged if not more so, this building wasn't going to stand for long. Heck, with Lucius' output it would likely spread past that. The job was already done at this point, Carden was gone with the product and there was really no need to stay here. Except to teach this guy a lesson that is.

"Actually i was thinking more of a moon base or an entire country, but that's beside the point here." Lucius said with a chuckle, folding his arms behind him as the energy aura around him began to spark violently, wanting to be released. It was chaotic, but he had such elegant control of it. It was like bottled rage.

"Instead of worrying about what I'm doing here, why don't you consider what you're up too? We both have enough energy charged up to level this building and then some, which will cause a lot more collateral damage then is required. Honestly, my allies already have what they came for, but this is far too entertaining of a choice to just leave, right? Go ahead, release it, i assure you i will survive, at best you'll get your ego stroked and turn the building to rubble." Lucius said, still charging energy. In a few moments he would be ready to level the block, but that was something he didn't quite want to do. Despite how it appeared, Lucius didn't take too well to pointless slaughter.

The red colored villain replied with a quip of his own before notifying him that his assistant had already escaped with what ever the group had come to steal. Tristan had been hoping the other person would have tried to help with that but he appeared to have disappeared while the two of them had begun their charge sequences. Well, none of this has gone to plan thought Tristan to himself sadly What do you mean plan? You never had a bloody plan did you, you just jumped in here and thought you could blast your way to victory

For a second Tristan thought about leaving again, the mission was over if there was a mission in the first place and there was nothing more he could do bar search for the stolen goods. When suddenly the man mentioned that he had enough energy to blast the building apart. That was his in. The mission wasn't about stopping this guy from nicking anything, he'd already won that bout, but he could at least stop both the villain and himself from stomping this building. Perhaps he'd be able to find out why he wanted whatever he wanted here while he was at.

But all this called for a change of plans, and a risky change at that. Original plan had been to blast the man into next year but now Tristan had to get the man way from here, and the only way he was doing that was by getting up in his face. The energy field behind Tristan was now strong enough that Tristan was having to dig in his heels to not slide forward and it felt like hot coals being forced into his skin. Never the less he was ready to try one of his riskiest moves yet.

"Don't know if you know much about heroes" Tristan took a step forward "We don't like collateral damage much"

As soon as his foot touched the floor Tristan let his energy shift forward. It slammed ahead of him with much more force than he was expecting, almost knocking the wind out of him as he shoot forward. With a shimmering energy shield in front of him Tristan tried to ready himself as best he could, the shield would take the impact but he'd still need to grapple with the man if this was going to work. And it was really loud, the world instantly blurred and all he could see clearly was his target, all he could hear was white rushing noise.

And all this happened in a heartbeat, any outside observer would see what looked like Tristan blurring forward as the windows along the wall shattered. If Tristan's little gambit was successful he'd slam into his target with enough built up force to crack concrete, once grappled all Tristan needed to do was angle up. Once the man was in the sky Tristan would have the advantage. And all his armor would be dead weight.

Knowing this type of person, Lucius knew he would still stubbornly continue. This was boring now, and Lucius just sighed. He was really trying to match a more powerful energy manipulator with sheer power? Not to mention one such as Lucius, that had a lot more going for him then his potent red energy. Lucius just hoped this would serve as a lesson to the male. On his scanners he saw the metahuman continue to charge and the shift his energy, why in the hell was he charging forward? One of the best parts about energy manipulation was it's range, and he just threw that totally out the window. Lucius didn't even have to think about his next move, 'fights' like this were just a waste of his time. He compared it to playing chess with someone that didn't know how to move the pieces, and that's what this was. There was no sport in this, and his followers had already gone, so there was no point in staying much longer.

All it took was a simple telepathic command to his AI, and Lucius' repulsive field activated. On impact with the energy charged metahuman it would sputter and spit violently, throwing the energy back and all around the room which demolished desks and windows, and the tile. The mixture of the energy the male was emitting and the repulsive fields discharge was quite climactic. The metahuman would likely be thrown back by the force of his own charge and energy, there was really no way to avoid that. Touch the field, you get thrown. Lucius however, just stood there, not moving a muscle with his arms behind his back. He was unscathed by the attack, though the repulsive field would deactivate once his opponent was thrown back, that was quite the attack it took.

"Your ability is impressive, but used in the least creative ways imaginable. I must say I'm disappointed in this generation of our kind, so young and sloppy, unrefined and reckless. It's no wonder agents have such an easy time getting rid of you." Lucius said, amusement clear in his tone even through his modifier. Now he had a few options, he could release the energy he had been charging all this time, which was easily enough to demolish the building and potentially the rest of the block, or he could just leave. Of course, it was unnecessary. He didn't need to do that just to teach this kid a lesson.

"You're so very lucky, a few months ago i would have kill you without a second thought. Do yourself a favor and stop being so short sighted and find a higher purpose." Lucius said before simply turning on his heel and teleporting away. He didn't care about the situation really, but his advice was genuine. The kid was wasting his gift playing cop, and that was just a shame. It would likely get him killed eventually too.

Tristan shot across the room, desks and pillars blurring past as is effectively super stepped at the villains position. To his credit the villains didn't seem phased and in the split second it took Tristan to cross the gap he hadn't even moved. A nanosecond before impact Tristan noticed something, another energy field. It was hidden alongside the red energy coiling around the man it was only up close that Tristan could sense it.

Just before Tristan reached him the energy pulsed outwards and shot him back, his forward momentum shattered by the on coming energy wall. Now he was shooting back the way he had come, with a wall speeding up to speeding up to meet him. No time to think, just act so that he didn't crush himself against the marble walls. He shifted his energy shield backward a second before he impacted the wall. There was a crack as the marble shattered and Tristan slumped to the floor, dazed for the moment.

Rubbing his head Tristan looked up in time to see that the villain had gone, teleported away. Gently placing his hand on the wall Tristan tried to rise up, he felt like his whole body was bruised.

That was stuipd Tri, really really stupid he thought as he rubbed his head.

Looking around at the mess he'd made Tristan tried to gather more energy into him again, getting ready to leave. Whatever had happened here was at an end. As he headed out Tristan thought about what had happened, the villain was right. He'd not been thinking, about just blindly entering the fight and how he'd used his abilities. With a chilled thought Tristan realised he could have died today. He'd been lucky really.

Moving outside he floated up and into the air. He'd learn from today, learn to fight better. He'd gotten lucky today and Tristan didn't plan to waste it.