From shadows [Invite only]

Crime appeared to be a little more prevalent within New York than usual, as if someone had peppered a little instant evil all over the city. Not quite the best metaphor sure but then again things were as they were. These strings of crimes were something that he had been following for a little while when the time had presented itself. Different people interrogated and things of that nature, Colin make sure not to draw too much attention to himself while doing so. A gang had been building power within the criminal underworld, and the people were beginning to whisper about it to an extent. It was a meeting for their newer recruits that he was attending actually, though only after a lot of planning. If anything, someone could not say Colin was stupid when it came to these kind of things. All someone needed was to know where to look and how to conduct themselves.

People would be wearing various get ups to make themselves look a little more intimidating and some even had some more interesting weaponry to make up for a lack of superhuman abilities. That was how he would fit himself into the whole thing, by taking a gauntlet from the suit and using that as a sort of prop so to speak. Sure, he could call the suit to him should he need it, but then again things were as they were. Looking at himself in the mirror, the only thing one could see of him beyond the get up was the slightly tan skin around his eyes and nose, as well as the dark brown colored eyes. ”Wow Colin, you look as impeccable as ever.” He muttered to himself with only slight satisfaction, tugging the bandana obscuring his lower features upwards to better hide them.

Mostly he looked like a punk save for the gauntlet colored a soft blue over his right hand, a small gleaming point within the center of the palm. Normally it wouldn’t be safe to wield a weapon like this, but it’s kinetic fields had a certain usefulness when calibrated just right. In essence he fixed them to allow him to use the strength within the arm and even the pulse cannons without breaking his arm or any bones, making the suit even more marvelous than before within it’s own rights. Now that he disguise was all worked up, well he needed to actually bring it all with him. Calculate how long it would take the suit to actually reach the place and then go from there. It was a tiring process really and something told him Travis would not quite appreciate this unrequested expense as small as it was.

”Operation Bust Crime is a go.” He muttered to himself, looking down at his phone, casting light now across his face within the dark alleyway infront of the meeting place. Getting through the front door was easy enough, all he needed was a password and drawing up a deeper voice was something he had within his talent pool. They appeared to buy it as they let him through, Colin sifting among the various people within the crowd as they all looked upon a stage. Otherwise it reminded him of one of those seedy bars on a larger scale. Whoever this recruiter was would be here soon.

Lucius was back in New York, his home town. Even with all the heart ache it went through over the years it still had a certain nostalgia to it, but then again maybe that's just how Lucius felt because he grew up here. In recent months the criminal underworld had changed quite a bit, changing hands from multiple gangs to the Lotus Society and Ultra Gang to just Ultra Gang which eventually splintered giving the newly formed Rise large amounts of territory in the city. It was really only a matter of transferring the resources Lucius and the other former members had, then simply using a bit of force to expand it.

So as it stood Rise had control of a lot of New York's criminal underground, the only parts that weren't were likely nothing to worry about. Even still, localized recruits were needed. Sure Alpha's people could move in to do the job, or Lucius' own metahuman following, but their uses were a bit more important then that. No, they just needed some mooks to help secure territory and operations, that was it. No need to move in the actual forces when there were plenty of low lifes looking for cash already in the city. So that's what was happening today.

After the whole thing in Belarus this seemed low scale, but then again Lucius was an intricate man. If the little things weren't done right then how could he expect the big things to be? Lucius was doing this in person, even though Daniel said he could handle it. Red was a little stubborn like that, but it wasn't like Daniel would dispute his decision. So they set up an inconspicuous meeting place, though made it easy enough to find. After all you couldn't expect common thugs to do that much digging. The large building would fill up, and once in everyone would be prompted to scan their thumbs. Lucius wasn't going to let just anyone in here, and he needed to know exactly who these people were. If they didn't like it, well they could turn around and walk away, forgoing that big pay promise.

Lucius had taken every precaution to ensure that any 'heroes' were caught and thrown out. This wasn't some low end gang meeting. Eventually Lucius would walk up on the stage, boots tapping against the ground with an echo. He wore his usual grey and red armor, which glowed bright crimson on certain parts and overall just looked intimidating and highly advanced. Once to the middle of the stage he would speak, voice changer modifying his voice to make it sound Darth Vadery without the breathing yet clear as day.

"Hello gentlemen, and ladies. i thank you for coming. Unfortunately this will be a waste of time for many of you, but for those accepted into my organization, well, you will become rich beyond you're wildest dreams. To begin, i would like you all to remove your face obscuring head ware. There is no need to hide faces here." Lucius said as he took his own mask off, which collapsed and segmented into a small stick which he put in his belt, then pulled off his hood. These people should have known that there was no reason to be all Batman in here, especelly if they expected to get a job. After that was done, well Lucius would continue.

"Now then each of you come up here, one at a time, show me your gear, tell me your powers, all that. I assure you this will be a lot quicker then you'd expect." Lucius said. There were a lot of people here, so there was no way to really test them out in the field individually. So Lucius was doing the interview route, just to weed out the total losers and bring the more promising recruits into a more personal stage of initiation.

Eventually the person holding this little meeting would make their appearance, Colin standing back within the crowd while they spoke. They appeared to be someone he had seen some information about before, Lucius Alba if his memory wasn’t faulty anyway. They were a pretty powerful metahuman, someone he didn’t want to deal with outside of his suit anyway and he wouldn't want to even fight them then. Still he had been expecting most of what they were saying, save for the one thing about removing their face obscuring things. Because that made things annoying as he couldn’t gather any information now. Because in the end that would lead to them knowing who he was and that was only so much trouble if the information about what this guy did to loved ones was worth anything. This meant he would have to think of a way he could either get out of here or perhaps even stop the the most influential gang in New York now.

Considering his position within the crowd, he had a little time to think about that, even if having to was not quite something he considered. People milled out before him, some of them being accepted and others being told to hit the road. Still, removing his facial covering...well that was no good. Considering that they weren’t likely focusing on everyone all at once, then he could get along with that. Still, not like he could just let anyone see his identity and so that meant calling in the suit a little earlier. Sending a signal to his suit, it would power up and within less than a minute it would crash through the ceiling while throwing up a large amount of dust. This would throw the whole room into disarray as people would shuffle around to avoid the rubble from crushing them while Colin would let the suit slip around him.

Why couldn't this guy be stupid like He thought to himself as the suit would rapidly power up, allowing energy to flow through the gauntlet as well as the rest of the armor itself. ”Your security needs a little work.”

Well, this was quite the turn of events. A predictable one, but one none the less. People always barged in on things they didn't understand, trying to 'help' but only making things worse for everyone involved including themselves. A suit had literally crashed through the ceiling, though to everyone else it just looked like a meteor or hunk of metal. Lucius had wicked fast processing power and tech, and he immediately knew it was some manner of weaponized suit.

"Oh look, another Ironman wannabe. Daniel, please finish up here while i entertain our guest." Lucius said before using his thusters for a controlled levitation off of the stage. Once on ground level, he walked toward Vanguard, stopping about ten feet from him.

"What do you say we take this somewhere else?" Lucius asked. In all honesty, with his new status he didn't want to have too many public fights. Not to mention he didn't want to interrupt this meeting or cause unnecessary causalities. In an instant Lucius would teleport behind Vanguard, grab him and his suit, and teleport to a random location. Sure he could have left the suit behind, but there was no honor in that now was there? Once they arrived, they would find themselves in an open weed littered field with a circular tree line around it. It looked like a large forest arena, how fitting. Lucius would take a few steps back from the male, walking about fifteen feet away before stopping and turning.

"Alright lets get this over with, i need the practice anyway." Lucius said. He was being very nonchalant about this, not taking Vanguard seriously in the slightest.

The sensors would signal onto Lucius as the rest would seem to spread away from the exosuited hero. So it appeared that Lucius Alba was the one behind this whole gang thing, not exactly a surprise but then again he hadn’t quite prepared for this. This made things even more dangerous really but then again that was something he would have to find out soon enough. ”I’m an Ironman wannabe? Does that make you a Magneto wannabe?” Colin noted unamused by the comparison as he was either drunk, nor a billionaire A low light began to glow along the lines of his suit as the metahuman approached him, hesitant on what they were planning. The unexpected was taking this elsewhere as if this were some manner of dragonball z fight. Not like he could stop himself from being teleported, so within a few seconds he was somewhere else entirely.

Where they found themselves next was an open field, not quite something he expected from a supervillain but then again he was not one to question things like this. It appeared like a forest really and that left for some strategic value still should he look for it. Just from how the male spoke, well he could tell they were taking him not too seriously at all. Just thinking about that annoyed him really, but then again people like him tended to look down on him just because he was human. This was perhaps all just a game to him, but Colin would not be made a game out of. Energy rapidly built up within the palm of his left gauntlet and unleashed a pulse towards the ground at Lucius’ feet. Likely it would have enough force behind it to either force him to jump back or protect him in some fashion.

This also threw up some dust, enough so to obscure vision really as he took off in a strafing motion while firing off a few energy rounds at the metahuman in rapid fire.

Lucius just rolled his eyes at the comparison to Magneto, it didn't really bother him (like it does his author). He could really care less if a character had similar view points to his own, and in fact took a little pride in the fact someone could see the logic in it enough to make a character. Anyway, this was going to be a fight, that much Lucius knew. Though he didn't expect it to be all that difficult. Hector had been scanning the thing and giving Lucius info on its weaponry and things of that nature, and in all honesty Lucius was impressed. But then again, he had equally advanced tech, so it wasn't much of a scare. The man's first attack was also very basic and predictable, he wasn't showing anything Lucius hadn't already faced and beaten.

With a blur of his hand it was in motion, his gauntlets speed assistance helping greatly as he grabbed Cora Zen and systematically deflected the bolts of energy with the indestructible sword. He also assisted this deflection with a faint pulse of red energy, just to deal with the energy that the sword didn't. It all happened in under a second, the sword moved with an inhuman speed to knock each of the energy shots off course and into the ground or air.  The dust really did nothing as his mask tracked the bolts and vanguard in at least five ways, giving Lucius pretty much the same amount of visibility he would have had anyway.

"Energy cannons, well that's something i haven't seen a thousand times before." Lucius said sarcastically with a smile under his imposing mask. Still, he remained stationary and calm. This wasn't a fight to him really, it was second nature. He was playing a game with someone who, compared to him, didn't know how to play.  Or at least that's how it looked.

He could really defend all day long, attack was the only problem. The suit had slightly more mobility then he did, especelly considering the fact his teleporter was still cooling. But this wasn't that big of a problem, it just made a quick win a little less likely. So he ran forward into a thruster assisted jump at the exosuited male and started charging energy, but instead of taking the jump all the way he stabilized his thrusters when he got about ten feet away, releasing a small (for him) but powerful pulse of energy outward. This pulse would travel about thirty feet from Lucius rapidly before dispersing, so Vanguard was in range. It was really just a test to see the suits evasive abilities or the durability of it's armor, one of which he would find out after this resolved.

Vanguard expected the guy to not see him as much of a threat, but then again that was something he hoped they would think. When villains underestimated you, they made stupid mistakes and tended to lose more often that way. It always worked like that from his experience, so he would just let them think whatever it was they were thinking. When they found out how strong he was, maybe they would learn a little something from the experience. His first attack was a test more than anything, testing out what his opponent could do which seemed to be deflect them with some manner of strange sword. It looked almost effortless and the speed by which he slashed them out of the way was astounding even. This guy was definitely good, but that did not mean he was outdone quite yet, when he had a few more tricks up his sleeve beyond simple energy bolts.

Those were by no means the best he could do, infact they were nothing more than test shots. His scanners would keep a lock on the male as they leapt forward into a thruster assisted jump that stopped mid air while he detected a build up of energy within him. They were going to try something but that made him wonder what they were planning. Alright, increase the suit synch rate by 10%. He thought to himself as the suit itself would oblige him, raising the little meter from a simple 10% to 20% as the attack itself being released from Lucius would slow down even further to a more manageable rate as it began to go into motion. Already he found himself wondering how far he would need to push the suit to take this guy, so many possibilities going through his head and none of them good.

The pulse would break out from Lucius before scattering into what appeared to be a harder to avoid shower of corrosive red energy. He knew if the energy hit his suit it would at the very least cause some manner of burn damage to the suits exterior but it would need a greater concentration to actually break through. If anything he was confident enough within his father’s work to know it wouldn’t break down so easily, so he would continue with his defensive maneuvers. It was within his ducking and weaving around the energy attacks being thrown his way that Vanguard would unleash a few more bolts of energy at the male, aimed at the thrusters rather than at him personally. Guided by the suits personal on board targeting system, they would have had a much better chance of hitting them than if he just fired them off randomly. His right leg’s armor took a minor hit but that only created a rather ugly looking black singe marking on it.

Cosmetic damage was something that would repair itself from the suit within less than a minute, though something told him it might be longer. With some defensive shots taken, he would deflect a bit of the red energy aimed towards his face with the personal shields he could form around his wrists. This fight was just beginning and he had to be sure it didn’t end with him losing, or dying, which was the worse of the two. So circling around Lucius in an erratic fashion he waited for the metahuman to react.

Ok, that's more like it. The evasive capabilities of the suit were quite good, and his energy, even though it was a small and unconcentrated amount, only burnt the leg armor a bit. So he wasn't dealing with just any junk pile here, no this technology rivaled even the Hector EXO. Lucius continued to scan it to try to get as much information as he could. This was just a skirmish really, they both weren't going all out, but he needed to be ready when that time came.

"What can you see as far as weaponry? And what's the alloy?" Lucius asked telepathically. This communication was happening between seconds of course, as Lucius' mind was fast and multi processing, and Hector....well he was a living supercomputer. Telepathic conversations between the two always happened so quickly you wouldn't be able to hear them if they were speaking normally.

"There are several power sources throwing off energy signatures in various parts of the suit, especelly in what i think is the core. It stands to reason most if not all of the firepower in it is energy based. Also, the palms seem to contain similar technology to the pulse generators on the H2. As for the alloy, i can't recognize it, it seems to be alien. Any special properties besides being stronger then most metals are not apparent." Hector said back while continuing his scan. He also locked onto the suit, just in case he decided to do any kind of surprise attack Hector could alert Lucius as to where he was.

"Good work, keep me updated." Lucius said in return. While the man evaded his attack he seemed to fire off a few bolts of energy, this time not directed at Lucius himself but clearly meant to hit his thrusters. They were spot on, they had to be computer assisted, maybe even AI assisted but Lucius wasn't giving this guy that much credit just yet. Lucius' eyes never left the man, and even if they did he continued to track him with his HUD. As soon as the bolts were fired Lucius knew it, but he wasn't going to outright evade them. He simply floated out of the way of most of them, but on the last one he flew in front of it, purposefully. He needed to know exactly how much this basic attack would damage him, so he took one to the chest. It burnt through the chest plate, causing a charred hole to form then hit Lucius himself. It wasn't quite enough to hurt him noticeably, sure it caused a minor burn mark but Lucius wasn't in any kind of pain. So, the basic bolts were annoying but not much of a problem.

Now he had to think about his offense, it was clear this guy wanted him out of the air, and Lucius could see why. It would be a major advantage if he could just fly around Lucius, shooting at him. So, he needed to stay there. He could still cause problems on the ground, but it would make this all the more difficult. His next attack was going to be a lot more......complicated. He removed a bomb and a shock module from his belt, then coated them in a faint, microscopic field of red energy. With this field, he could manipulate them, mimicking telekinesis in a way. Sure it was not exactly as practical as normal telekinesis, but his opponent didn't know that.

He did the same with his sword, then with a hand gesture sent the three objects flying at surprising speed. They would spin and loop around him in an attempt to confuse him, or see just how good that targeting system was, before moving in. First the sword would fire out blade first at the suits back, trying to spear through it. If it missed it would return to Lucius. Next the shock module would come flying at Vanguard, trying to stick to the suit before going off. If it did it would send an insane amount of electricity into the suit. And finally, the bomb would just fly about ten feet at Vanguard and then explode with enough force to blow up a convenient store into nothing but ash.

Already the burn marks had begun to dissipate, giving way to the usual light blue hues that composed the outer layer of the suit. The repairing progress was being kept note of on the upper left of the little HUD on the visor, requiring what appeared to be minimal energy really. A a few of his energy bolts missed, flying through emty air and colliding with some of the trees that composed the backdrop while others would hit the metahuman rather than colliding with their intended target. It appeared that he did not want his precious thrusters being taken out quite yet, but that left him  with an idea really. If he could take away his opponent's air mobility that further increased his own mobility advantage and with it came a better chance of victory. Still, something told him this would not be an easy thing to get through and so a little smart thinking was required.

He needed to pay both carefully and safe, otherwise something told him he might even die. A few of the scanners denoted minor damage being done, but it was nothing that appeared to impede the metahuman really, meaning that likely the blasters would need to be put at full power to even hope to do something exceptional. So at least their durability had not been exaggerated any. Still keeping up with his subsonic speed seemed to give him somewhat of an advantage as they had done nothing more than stood there. That lead to reason perhaps they did not have any means of superhuman speed like he did, but that did not explain why they could bat away his first attacks like he did. That lead to him needing to find out how they could do something like that, scanning over mostly his hands of all things which had been the limbs that blocked his attacks. Even with his excessive mobility he did not find it too hard to give them a once over.

The probability was perhaps that his gloves had some manner of function that allowed him to react faster than he could naturally move, or they were holding back a lot. Either way Colin knew he would need to take them down before they began to get serious and likely destroyed everything around them. Instantly they would then remove what looked like two things, likely weapons that were meant to mess up his day. With what appeared to be telekinesis he would send out those two things along with that sword of his in what looked to be a three part strike. Not something he should have too much of an issue dealing with, unless this was simply just a diversion from his real attack.

First there was the sword striking at his back, which Colin would bat away by releasing one of the energy blades from his right arm. The hiss of energy could be heard through the air as it was thrown away, though his left hand had already released a bolt with all the energy that could be allocated into it towards the bomb. Should it connect, likely the bomb would have been prematurely detonated or at the very least destroyed. However that left him unable to really react to the electrical device coming at him. So instead of trying to dodge and putting himself in a compromising position, his suit simply prepared to deal with the damage coming it’s way. As soon as it latched onto him, the energy would course through the suit. Before that would have shut it down, but something different happened this time.

Two rods would rise from the shoulders, taking a large majority of the electrical energy and forcibly discharging it outwards in different directions allowing minimal to no damage to be done to the suit itself. This did however cause him to pause for a few seconds, but it wasn’t anything major really. ”I’m really glad I got that installed.” Colin muttered under his breath as the HUD would flicker for a moment before correcting itself. Even the thrusters would flicker off for a second, causing him to lose altitude before correcting themselves. So far he had around five of the chaos cylinders with him, the Vanguard's Wrath was currently at full charge and he still had his other weapons systems online. The question was how he would get around someone with a larger amount of combat flexibility. ”Increase the sync rate to 35%.” Within a second that happened as the lines along the suit would begin to glow brighter.

Within a moment he was in flight once again, a resounding sonic boom reverberating through the air as he decided to try something else. A large influx of energy would go into the repulsors, and using the force generated by how fast he was going, and the pulse that would come from the gauntlets, he had a feelings not much would be able to simply walk this off.

Lucius elegantly caught his sword and sheathed it once more as he watched everything else unfold. His bomb had been detonated prematurely, not being in range to really do anything. However it gave his shock module enough time to stick to Vanguards suit and activate. After that, well something interesting happened. The amount of electricity in the module should have fried a lot of the suits systems, but it was absorbed by some manner of rod the suit activated. Impressive technology really. If it would do that, well it could likely shrug off an EMP. So Lucius wasn't going to do that just to fry his own tech. After all of that, the male was in motion. Unfortunately one of Lucius' weaknesses was his lack of speed, sure he made up for it well enough, but when his teleporter wasn't ready he was pretty much a sitting duck. Right now for example it was still a little too hot to risk using, so he had to think of something else. Wouldn't be too hard though, charging Lucius, or any energy manipulator for that matter, was not exactly a good idea.

"The force generated by the suits momentum along with the energy pulse weapons is enough to override the repulsive aspect of the field, and it will only hold for 0.8 seconds." Hector said. That, was also impressive. It was likely the pulse weapons used a similar technology to Lucius' repulsive field, and the conflict between the two would cancel out their effects. Lucius would have to be smart about this, not to mention quick.

And so, when Vanguard hit, he would be flying into the repulsive field. However, it didn't launch him back as it normally would, it just made a loud crackle, and they would both likely remain where they were as the conflicting momentum's negated each other. It was in the 0.8 seconds of Vanguard hitting the shield and it breaking down that Lucius would start his attack. First, he let out a flash of red energy from his body. However it was not harsh like usual, it was just hot and very, very blinding and the glare would likely give him some cover. Next his arm rapidly made way for his sword and he slashed outward at the exosuit just as the field went down, black and faintly purple energy vibrating around the blade as it spat at the air it cleaved through. The tension and the blades overall indestructibility, even without much strength put behind it, would definitely be enough to cut through the alien metal. If the cut landed or not, Lucius would thruster jump slightly backwards, flipping before sticking the landing and releasing an energy wave at point blank range (About ten feet) with hands stretched outward.

Two opposing repulsive forces would meet, releasing sparks outwards from the point that they had impacted. Vanguard had managed to avoid being pushed back, but he force he created did nothing to effect Lucius. In the end it was a stalemate as Colin found himself being pushed slightly back by the created force between them. Under his breath he growled, while letting his eyes dart up to the male who happened to release a blinding flash of red light which served to blind him if only for a moment, meaning that something was coming after that. However, the sound of something humming could be heard through the air as Colin raised one f the shields on his arms to defend. The sound of something shattering could be heard along with an intense feeling of pain within his right arm, like something biting through it. Biting back a cry he would make distance between him and Lucius, the damage done now apparent.

He had managed to cleave through his shield, armor as well as even cut into the flesh of his arm. There was likely some manner of nerve damage involved, explaining why his hand had gone numb suddenly, the feeling alone was an uncomfortable one. Already the medical systems had begun to  apply the proper things, coagulants and painkillers to keep him from bleeding out or suffering from shock. Already the relief would flow through him as it took the pain only a few seconds to fade away and the repairing the damage done to the suit. Up the sync rate to 50% And in a moment the suit would do as he commanded, increasing it’s overall output as the suit itself would force the limb in question to move even if it did not want to. Reaching into a small protrusion of the suit around the small of his back, a small sphere would eject into his palm, releasing a small beep to show it was primed.

It appeared he would have to get a little rough to deal with this guy, though killing was not his intention. First he would have to lure him into a false sense of security as his hand stayed clenched around the weapon which was small enough to hide like that and within less than a second  he was in motion again to avoid the energy attack, however the speed he reached was greater. Likely Lucius could see that his suit was capable of greater speed, still breaking the sound barrier but going beyond even that. This time he would go around the metahuman, a blur to humans eyes and likely difficult for even Lucius to keep track of now. This was more a game of trying to catch him off guard, firing off bolts to take out his thrusters, all of them coming from multiple angles now. However within that he threw the chaos cylinder with exceptional force as it would careen through the air.

Should they manage to shoot the device out of the air, it’s sphere of influence would likely still reach him.

As expected the vibrating blade of Cora Zen sawed through the armor and to the man's flesh, though he did pull away before Lucius managed to take his arm off. After that, the blade stopped vibrating to conserve power. Doing that too much would slow down Lucius' tech or render it useless, and that was something he could just not afford right now. This fight was turning out slightly more difficult then Lucius had expected, the suit had its merits it seemed, and was only getting stronger. Now Lucius was getting serious, this person had done a lot more to his tech then a lot of opponents had, so he had to amp up his firepower. Suddenly the suit was in motion again, moving past the sound barrier, maybe even several times. Lucius had dealt with speed before and had the reaction time and tracking tech to not get two confused by this, but the overall speed of the attacks were to quick for him to move against.

He dodged the first few shots sent at him, but inevitably he was hit with a bolt, which took out his left legs thruster. From there he had to deactivate them or he would risk flipping out of the sky, instead he would much rather just fall and land, which he did. Him falling though had given the speedy exosuit enough time to fire off something that looked a bit more deadly, a grenade perhaps. It landed right next to Lucius, who immediately put up a barrier of red energy, but the explosion was just a bit too much to contain. It was violent, breaking the red energy barrier and sending Lucius flying, his armor now burnt and several wounds through it visible on his chest and legs, this wasn't the worst part though, as the grenade started to reverse and pull him in, likely to an even worse fate. So he put himself in a bubble, one made of red energy, and then began rooting it to the ground with energy tendrils. He would be pulled on for a few seconds, but eventually it would end. That was not something he wanted to do again, but at least he knew to avoid those from now on.

From his HUD Lucius could see he had a broken rip, bit it seemed to be in place so wouldn't require any kind of rebreaking to heal. He also had several severe burns along his chest and legs, those were annoying more then anything, not as much of an issue as the rib. He was in a minor amount of pain right now, but powered through it like he always did and got to his feet, dispersing the bubble. It would likely take awhile to heal fully from this, but his healing factor was kicking in. Even if it would take a bit to heal fully it would only take three or four minutes to make it a nonfactor combat wise. He was honestly surprised by that whole thing, he should have thought quicker. Now he just had to think about how to deal with this guy, with the better mobility he had he would now have to fight even more defensively, only attacking when the male left himself open. But for now he would just make a powerful attack to buy time.

So, charging up as much energy he could in a few seconds he released it outward. It was very quick, though that was to be expected from a light based energy. As it expanded from Lucius it eat away at everything it touched, even the air, and would most definitely reach Vanguard in little time. The pulse was about fifty meters in diameter around Lucius, a point which upon reaching it would slowly fad away. Lucius figured this would at the very least buy him some time, and at the most blow the suit to hell with the sheer explosive and corrosive fury of the energy.

It appeared that things seemed to be going more in his favor now that he was upping the ante a little. While priorly the meta had been able to avoid his shots with seeming ease, now a few of them found home with one of the thrusters which meant that they would have to shut the other one down before they found themselves in an unfavorable situation. A small victory within its own right, but that did not mean he would slow down just because the advantage of flight ad been given to him alone. Now Colin needed to continue to hammer hard at them until they gave in, or perhaps simply could not take anymore punishment. That of course meant that he would not get hit by anything that would knock him out of commission too, as that would have been unfavorable. The possibilities of where this could go were endless really, and just thinking about it made Colin nervous.

Damage had been done by the chaos cylinder, burns and overall damage to their armor which seemed to be major. However that was also a testament to the males durability, how they could withstand something like that without at the very least being totaled. This meant that he did not have to worry about accidentally killing them, their body could withstand a lot. Still, he was not too sure if they could withstand taking the cannon directly, as that was something that tended to cause mass destruction on even the lowest level of power it could manage and killing was not his objective. Unfortunately he was unaware of the fact that Lucius possessed a rather potent regenerative faction, which made any damage done not something that would stick. Already he would run over multiple ways by which he could take them down, but few things came to mind.

Time quickly became short for him as Lucius would charge up what appeared to be another attack with that strange energy of his. The attack was quick, taking only a few seconds to charge up and yet his suit allowed him to sense the attack coming. Before the attack could come out, he moved back away from the attack which had a certain range of effectiveness as all attacks did. So all he had to do was stay out of that and examine what the effects of the energy was. What happened was everything touched by the energy appeared to corrode away as if being absolutely destroyed. If it took them a few seconds to charge up an attack like that, it meant that he could likely bridge any distance between them before it could fully be released.

Likely now that they had seen one of the cylinders in effect, that meant that they would know how to deal with them better or at the very least know to avoid them. This made things annoying really, but then again he had no right to complain. The distance between them was around fifty five meters, and with his speed it would not even take a second to bridge that distance. So rushing them was an applicable strategy, and considering the building nature likely required, they would not have too much time to gather energy that would cause him any real trouble. All of this was speculation of course, but then again it was something that had to be looked into. Pushing the suit to break off in a burst of speed, he would start by unleashing a hail of energy bolts meant to annoy rather than actually harm. If they impacted, they would likely impede him somewhat considering they were aimed towards his face.

Should they mess with his vision that would gave him enough time to continue giving the pain, which was composed of flying over him with the same speed, releasing two cylinders from the duct and dropping them at Lucius. What would two at once do to him?

It seemed the male evaded the blast easily, which was to be expected really considering the suits speed. However the blast stayed around long enough to give Lucius around ten seconds of healing, every little bit counted even if it wasn't all that much. This fight would seem to be in the exosuited man's favor, however Lucius still had several aces up his sleeve. He just wasn't pushed far enough right now to use them. He would however get a bit more advanced, doing something he hadn't really done yet. But first he had to deal with the man flying at him and releasing two more of the grenades. Predictable really, if someone found something that worked they always seemed to begin spamming it when that was the time where they should have been mixing it up.

The whole thing was easy enough to avoid with a simple teleport. Sure it was a bit cheap and kind of a cop out, but then again he had it for a reason. It was really only cool enough to do one more, after that, well it wouldn't be able to. Not unless Lucius wanted to create a quantum rift. That would just be bad for everyone. So, he teleported as far as he could away from the shots and the grenades, then watched them explode. It was at this point he would begin his attack, using every second to his advantage. It would probably take a few seconds for the man to realize where he was, so that was a little extra time.

Now, let's get scientific shall we? Lucius' energy has the effect of corrosion. This Is usually only possible on metal or stone, however the energy corrodes all matter regardless of what it is. Corrosion itself is the process of removing electrons from whatever is being corroded, which causes it to rust and decay. In red energies case, this is rapid to the point where it seems like incineration, but it is actually just decaying the atoms rapidly, which produces the red color of the energy and it's heat by emitting a unique radiation as matter must be transferred into something because it can't be destroyed.

Since Lucius has subatomic control of this substance, he can corrode atoms on a subatomic level. This reduces the electrons through the same process as normal corrosion only it can be done to all matter, not just metals and stone. When one or more electrons are removed from or added to a substance, usually a gas, it becomes unstable and ionizes, creating plasma. And that is exactly what Lucius was about to do. So, focusing his energy on a microscopic level, he corroded the electrons of several gases in the air, doing so in large quantities and rapidly. Usually only one or two were removed with a laser or magnetic field, but Lucius was upstaging that, taking away a lot more in a short amount of time. This super heated the gases and instantly inonized them to their maximum heat output, and the heat from those ions quickly started to spead out to other atoms to do the same to them.

This would cause what is known as a plasma discharge, and boy, was it violent. The entire area would rapidly combust into a fury of different colored plasma, some compounds being hotter then the sun. Sparks of electricity even started to pop up out of nowhere as the reaction detonated the right gases to create lIghtnIng. All in all, it looked like a rainbow of energy, rapidly exploding more violently then any non nuclear bomb. This orgy of plasma was easily as hot as the sun, maybe hotter, and would envelop the entire area around the two combatants, not only burning the gases in the air into plasma but catching the vegetaion on fire, quickly turning the battlefield into an inferno. All in all, the range of this attack was massive, and the ions would only stop spreading after the blast got about 600 meters from Lucius, outrunning this, even if you could react to such a sudden blast, would be nearly impossible with the speed it was traveling at.

Unfortunatly, this left Lucius in the center of it, sure he put up a barrier and all that, but that went down quickly and burnt almost all his armor too a crisp, revealing his face, which was black with third degree burns. He looked like Anakin in Revenge of the Sith, minus the no limbs thing. The only gear that seemed to be untouched was Cora Zen, and he quickly, and weakly, grabbed It. Hector knew what to do, quickly transferring the energy from his core into Lucius to start healing him rapidly. He groaned in pain, no, agony, as his healing factor and the sword got to work. Even with the insane speed Cora Zen healed him at, it would take at least two minutes to stand again, and after that Hector wouldn't have enough power to help him again and his tech would be useless, even if it survived the blast. Not to mention he would suffer from a huge amount of healing strain, likely being too weak to fight at anything close to normal. He had not expected such a large discharge, now everything In the area was set ablaze and turned to ash.

Teleporting, now Colin really hated that power. Not only did it allow them to avoid his attacks but it also meant he would have to search for the metahuman once again before doing anything about them. ”How did I forget about the damn teleporting?” He growled under his breath as his visor would lock upon lucius rapidly, but that gave him not time to react to the next attack. It was spontaneous almost as the air appeared to ignite in a rainbow of color. All it took was a cursory glance to know that this could kill him, and probably destroy the suit in the process. This meant he would have to reroute all power to one thing, and that was the kinetic fields, if they would do him any good. Could they defend against plasma or was he screwed? Well Colin would have to find out if he even survived long enough.

Despite the suits protection the heat could be felt blistering through the polymers as he swore he heard something crackle, or maybe it was shattering. Explosive pain flashed through his entire body as if someone had set his insides on fire. He screamed but in the explosion no sound could be heard, only the knowledge that he did allowed him to realize he was. Reading denoting a temperature as hot as the sun could be read, melting the very suit around him as the pain continued. From there shock seemed to settle in as the suit tried to both cope with the damage being done to itself as well as Colin, though the medical systems had been dealt damage too great for it to handle. With the thrusters now down, all he could do was crash to the ground with consciousness fading rapidly. Colliding with the scorched earth a massive crater was created from the impact alone.

Pain became nothing more than a dull sensation as even sensation began to fade away into nothingness. There was the smell of scorched flesh in the air, likely his own mingled with the melting alien metals. Colin had  a feeling he looked like a wreck but then again that came with taking plasma head on. The heat seemed to slowly give way to cold, as his body sort of stopped moving on command save for a small twitch of the index fingers. Critical damage sustained to over 90% of suit systems, however the core has taken no damage. Estimated time of repair is thirty minutes. It sounded like his suit would be fine, but he was in a whole different mess. Third degree burns are present on over 40% of your body, along with what appeared to be multiple fractures and light internal bleeding. Please seek medical attention.

Thanks for the obvious you damn suit. Now why don’t you….oh god there goes the feeling in my legs. He couldn’t speak really, just opening his mouth was a painful sensation and his throat felt scorched as if he had swallowed sand. This appeared to be what heroing got him in the end, though the taste of it was not quite as sweet as he thought it would be. Granted that was what he got, a human trying to help people in a world of metahumans, a pointless death in a scorched field. Ya know Travis….I really hate having to admit you’re right. A soft glow emanated from the suits left gauntlet which was still intact before it faded into nothing. Black ash like snow had begun to settle over him, drifting downwards as it would form a thin layer upon both suit and scorched skin. Maybe this was the feeling of dying, though it was a lot more peaceful than he had expected.

Another human dying, it shouldn’t have been so painfully expected.