Broken Wings: Blood Bath

Solitaire crossed over his legs and sighed, shuffling his cards with his eyes closed. He pulled his hat down and took another drag on his cigarette. Apparently the suit had been a bluff or the man had gotten out of it. Who even was he? 'Eh. Solitaire didn't care, he wasn't being paid to ask questions like that. He folded thre cards into increasingly complex shapes. Gravity Man fired a blast at the pair, which filled the air with a red hue and a flaring heat. His hand reached up and held his hat on his head. The orange tip of his cigarette pushed inwards, flared by the heat, burning the cig up. He let it drop out of his mouth and let out a whistle.

The sound of the explosion muffled the bullet that flew into Alpha's ass, meaning he didn't even think to go assist.

Vexus did some thing with the ground and Solitaire leaned back against the tree. He resumed folded the cards into intricate shapes and sighed once again.

"As fun as this is' his voice was dull 'I'm gonna go take a little dander over yonder."

He flipped his leg over the branch and landed onto the ground. He began walking before his body scattered into a few hundred cards. They seemed to vanish in to thin air. They reorganised themselves near a tree at the fight between the other four. He leaned against the tree, a few hundred feet away and watched. Between the pillars of flame and the grosteque creatures their fight seemed much more interesting.

It seemed he'd started watching the show just in time to hear a blood curdling 'pop' of the Angel's wings being twisted and dislocated. His face scrumbled and he began shuffling cards.
He'd feel sympathy, but sympathy was for honest men.
Would the others need his help? Probably not.
Gravity Man said he had it, and he didn't seem the type to lie.

Alpha actually went above and beyond the call of duty in terms of how predictable he was. As previously stated Drifter was expecting a telekinetic blast and had already prepped to shoot a line above him to avoid it, which he did. In fact the very edge of the blast served to help Drifter get away by launching him further up, ironically enough. Aqua Marine then took to figuring out just how he wanted to do this whole kill Alpha thing. It was a lot harder then one thought after the initial jump. Maybe he should have shot him in the head? I don't know, in the ass was pretty funny.

With his high powered energy guns stretched outward, he took aim at a tree across from him about mid way down, and opened fire. After a few shots burnt through it, the tall tree creaked and snapped before breaking and falling, right on top of Alpha and...... Yeah he really hadn't thought this one through. The tree was also falling toward him, so he leaped from his perch and with a grapple line managed to land safely, presumably while Alpha was still either lifting the falling tree or simply recovering from a dodge. It was at this point two more energy bolts were sent toward the Rise head, both expertly aimed to rip Travis' face off.

Meanwhile, Solitaire would hear footsteps behind him as a man in a Plague Doctor's outfit approached. Large gun outstretched, he pointed it right at the distracted magician as he watched the other fight from afar, then pulled the trigger. It was an explosive shell, so it would have an effect even if the actual round didn't hit. But i'm sure there is some magic card thing he can do.

Zell was more than surprised when Sean began to take the entire blast to the face, but he didn't worry about it too much, he just sent another blast of energy firing out at the rocks that arrived to crush Sean. "Okay, Sean. I'm sure you know Gravitas isn't a pushover. Neither is Elena. I need you to pick one and go for them." Zell said through their signals. Zell's blasts didn't destroy the rocks, and it wasn't long before Sean was likely thrown into the air by the earth.

Gravity Man snarled before placing his hand out and then swiping it towards the ground, forcing Sean to drive into the earthen column and soon, smash through it, several boulders piling in with intense gravity. Zell went to move and Gravity Man held up his second hand, the gravity around Zell beginning to lighten as he started to float away.

You wanted the thrusters turned up right?
Yup. Zell replied to his A.I
So...you want to flail around aimlessly? No...you have a plan, don't you? It asked, suddenly realizing as a wicked grin flashed over Zell's face. The screen over his visor blinked back to show the face of a little computer smiling and winking.
We're going to use the negative gravity field here in alignment with the excessively positive pull around Sean. Zell began, the smile growing even wider.
Oh...oh God...I'm so glad I don't have reproductive organs right now... But I don't think you made your exosuit that durable... Zell just kept smiling, causing the A.I to sigh and simply allow the young genius to live up to his title of the most intelligent man in the world.

With the negative gravity field behind him, and the positive one cycling in front of him, Zell accelerated, and for a brief moment he had literally achieved light-speeds. Positive and negative gravity fields alone were enough to do that, the thrusters simply let him steer, careening himself as a light-speed bullet right at Gravity Man himself. The gravity around him was quite dense, so he slowed to a very fast degree, causing what was quite possible the most brutal whip-lash in the history of mankind. Had the frame of the exosuit not supported his cranial structure so well he'd have been dead instantly. Zell stuck a hand out as he stopped, realizing that he had collided with Gravity Man and sent him reeling back. Zell's exosuit was jarred, fragments ripped of and some areas where his red skin could be seen, the sheer friction breaking through. With his hand out towards Gravitas he manifested a holo-generated taser gun, firing liberally at the villain.

With Gravity Man no longer adding Gravity, he had assumed Sean would soon be able to break himself free with a few adaptation. Though Zell quite honestly knew that Gravity Man was about to ring his bell. Clean his clock. Beat the living tar out of him. It was inevitable, sadly... Zell's only ready suit was now damaged beyond the point of optimal function, had very little armor left on it and the frame was now hindering movement. He was a sitting duck...

"Sean, countering Gravity man's powers requires you to amplify the Normal Force. It's the force that counters Gravity, the force exerted in response to it..."
"Sean, countering Gravity man's powers requires you to amplify the Normal Force. It's the force that counters Gravity, the force exerted in response to it..."

Zell explained this, though the sensor and module containing his silencer was busted, meaning that Zell had simply explained the process to everyone currently around. He was worried for only a moment that Miss Vexus might discern something...though he quickly remembered that given what he created...she couldn't learn anything.

Sean was on his way to give gravity man a beat down but that annoying Vexus got in his way again, this time doing some kind of earth thing. It started off with small specks of earth rising to cling to him, forming a cocoon of earth that would slowly begin to surround him, though honestly hew was only annoyed by the fact that  Vexus was...well getting in his way. Are you serious? This is getting really annoying. Sean thought to himself, initially struggling to get out of his bonds and finding that not working initially so well. Add in Gravity mans move and well, he was having a bad time, but that did give him some time to actually react to things. ”Okay, you’re going to pay for that one.” He grumbled, letting the energy gathered from the explosions within his body, then releasing a pulse  that reduced the earth around him to smoldering ash as it fell away.

”Really, just tell them everything.” He said with a roll of his eyes and a sigh, his xenogens producing a field around him of said energy, the opposite reaction to the gravity that Gravity Man exerted. ”Okay, going to beat the hag up right now. Wait your turn robe man.” Sean noted, cracking his knuckles and glaring at Vexus, then turning to Zell taking notice of...their rather broken exosuit. ”Okay, he’s actually in the way. Wow, I never thought I would say those words.” Sean muttered to himself, rolling his eyes and well….making his way to Zell as quick as he could go. ”You wouldn’t happen to have anymore of those suits would you?” He asked, seeing this situation as...well not exactly optimal.

Drifter had been thrown back by the telekinetic blast as Alpha quickly pushed himself to his feet with  a swift motion, eyes snapping to the vigilante. What he saw was a tree falling towards him. Unleashing a burst of telekinesis, the tree was torn apart as it split around him. Splinters of the tree fell to the ground, shattered trees crashing to the ground, however it was the following attacks that made things difficult. That being….well the bolt colliding with his face, shattering the thing psionic barrier kept and...well the sight wasn’t pretty. Easily the bolt went through bone, reducing the interior of the skull to a worse mess, Travis colliding with the ground in a heap, the fringes of the hole made within his mask smoldering. This was followed by a spurt of flames  rising before the fallen villain, a brilliant orange in color, the air rippling around it.

”You know….really glad you stole regen from assholes” Zeta growled, snapping as the wall of fire would explodes forward in a powerful wave either to drive Drifter back or to destroy them. This was mostly to let them move said now brainless Alpha.

This was a fearsome duo. They were not working the best in unison, but just their powers alone would be enough to overwhelm just about anyone. Zell had caused some pretty serious damage to his suit, and serious damage to Gravity man. Her sunglasses notified her of the disturbances occurring around her. Even she was surprised to see the man in once piece after reaching such ludicrous speeds. Surprised to see both of them intact, actually. Sean did manage to break free of the hold the both of them had on him. Not too surprising. The great mind of Zell instructed Sean on how to properly counter act Gravity Man's gravity, so it would seem that this left Vexus against Sean. The boy cracked his knuckles in a classic sort of fashion as he prepared to apparently put her in her place. Elena's eyes narrowed at him from behind her shades.
A shadow then cast over the entire area as a cloud moved over their location. Or at least, what seemed like a cloud.
"My my, what unfortunate cloud cover..."
Vexus said as she removed her glasses, revealing her Celestial Eye. She had done her best to keep it hidden yet still active so she could bring this massive cloud of Technomatter over the battlefield. It looked enough like a cloud, however now that it was lower to the ground it was far too dense and did not allow enough light to pass through it.
"You are all hummingbirds caught in a hurricane. And it looks like the skies won't be clearing any time soon..."

It then began to rain tiny drops of Technomatter, avoiding all of the Rise members. As it began to puddle together, the silver sand like essence would begin to convert everything it was touching. Eating and digging into the ground, devouring trees left standing, and crawling up on the Talon's members. There was a more concentrated area of this rain falling on Sean for obvious reasons. He needed to be subdued as quickly as possible. The Technomatter would rapidly begin to build on Sean to hold him down in place. It would break through the ground from beneath him to latch onto his feet, arms, legs, and anything else the substance could wrap around. Because of the rooting of the Technomatter through the ground, it would make it increasingly difficult to pull off from earth. The binding of Sean, and the other Talons members, would be a continuous and constant attempt as long as the cloud hovered over the area. To keep it raining, Vexus had the Technomatter on the outskirts of the battle field continue converting the landscape and return back up to the cloud to be reused.

All Talons members in the area, Zell included, would be hunted down and restrained by the Technomatter raining from the sky. Since Vexus had exerted little to no effort so far in this fight, pulling off such a large stunt was not as draining as it could be. It was still taking quite a bit of concentration and effort to manipulate such a large amount of Technomatter, but being at full strength she would be able to continue this trick for an impressive amount of time.
The Technomatter would rain on Vexus and drip down to the ground moving like water. If anything attempted to strike her, or any other Rise member, the silver matter would immediately and effectively defend them.
A twisted smile crept across Elena's face as she crossed her arms. This storm was not one she saw these children making it out of unscathed.

(OCC: Rise Members, you may use the Technomatter as a sort of NPC to defend yourselves with to some extent. But defense only, no offensive moves with the Technomatter.)

Solitaire inhaled a breath of the dirty grey smoke and sighed to expel it from his lungs. His eyes squinted while he watched the other four fight. He brought the cigarette back up to his lips.

When Tyuki's sceaming quietened, he heard twigs snap under foot behind him. Immediately a card slipped from his sleeve and between two fingers. He looked over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow to see who was approaching him and interupting the show. They had a gun extended. They fired it.

Solitaire span to the side and as he moved his entire body exploded into cards, narrowing avoiding the explosion which had now engulfed the area he had been standing. His body reapparated on a higher branch, his legs crossed over and his body slouching back like it was a sunbed. His cigarette was brought back up to his lips and he looked down at the man dressed like he was in the wrong time period.

"You saved me the effort of asking if that was a gun or if you were just happy to see me." He sat upright. "Now would you mind explainin' what in tarnation you are doin' in the woods, tryin' have a shoot out with a stranger?" His lips coiled into a smirk and an eyebrow raised.

Did he just kill Travis? He doubted it in all honesty. These metahumans always seemed to come back from minor injuries like total incineration and losing chunks of their brains. No matter though, he had made a point. All he had to do now was reveal himself. Of course, Travis was completely screwed. Zeta would have to relay the information to him once he woke up. Regardless, he stuck out the ridiculous water sprayer the previous owner of the armor installed and fired it out. Upon contact with the air the water froze instantly, and once it hit the fire the two forces mostly canceled each other out. Yes some flames kissed his armor, but the majority of the attack was subdued and the armor took the rest.

Now, how does one deal with a spoiled brat pyrokinetic? Well, you blow them up of course. Drifter started ripping off parts of the Aqua Marine armor, including the helmet, to reveal his own outfit, minus the mask. This was mostly just to reveal his face to his opposition, and to allow him access to the explosives he had in the clothing that lay beneath.

"Wonder which 'cousin' you are. I suppose it doesn't matter. Just don't forget to tell Travis who put an energy bolt in his brain once he wakes up, if you manage to escape me killing you that is." Drifter said, pulling out a makeshift nail bomb grenade and activating it before he threw it right next to Zeta and the downed Alpha. It was a simple enough device, just a can with nails and good old plastic explosives. Of course he had to get away from it or he risked dying, so right after throwing he shot his grappled line, zipping up into a tree while the explosive went off. Even if Zeta managed to get even fifteen or so meters away, the risk of getting hit by a nail was still very, very high. Not to mention his downed Alpha needed to be protected. Fire was just not the best shielding device against nails moving as fast as bullets.

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I've been monitoring the camera system i previously set up in your area. From what i can tell, Miss Vexus, Solitaire, and what's left of Alpha's groupies can handle the situation until the Phoenix is thoroughly; um, broken. Your man is in position and ready for the maneuver, and the package is secure. When you're ready do join us, i doubt you would want to miss this. Lucius said to Gravity Man over the Rise ear pieces everyone had. It wasn't a matter of him speaking in the middle of his own fight, it was all simply read from his thoughts by Hector and sent over. In fact, due to his brain's capabilities of multi-tasking, sending the message didn't hinder him at all. Whether Gravitas wanted to finish what he was doing or get back to it after the next stage of the operation concluded was unknown, but it didn't matter either way. Apex wasn't going anywhere, and they could have their fun destroying him at any time.

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"I don't know. Why does Rise want to breed out an entire race of strangers?" Thesis said in retort. He seemed to have underestimated his opponents abilities. They said he was magic. Thesis didn't exactly believe in that sort of thing, it was probably a metahuman power or some shit. Either way, as he turned to face the man he quickly unleashed two blade discs from out of seemingly nowhere. The first would hit from the front, while the other passed Solitaire entirely and floated in the air, waiting for the man to put up a defense or teleport before it launched at him.

"I'll assume that you two will be fine on your own. Well... one of you at least." Gravitas said, still obviously unsure of his decision to allow Vexus and Travis defend themselves. He stood himself up and began to unleash a torrent of replusion fields. He had confidence in Vexus...and in Alpha, though he wasn't sure just how far they'd get against Apex. Though without Zell...would that xenogenic dump even know how to use his powers? Gravitas stuck out his hand and immediately the violet energy sparked, though of course a small funnel was created dragging the nearly immobile exosuited would-be-hero over to Gravitas. The strands of technomatter may have remained attached if the lady so insisted, however the man was quite secure in the air of zero gravity.

"loose lips sink ships." Gravitas said through his teeth as Zell remained in his suspeneded gravity. "...Hardened hands pass judgement." He said clenching his fist as gravity fluxuated. The gravity was slowly beginning to presure in and release in other areas, a kneading like motion as the visable distortions in gravity were able to be seen.

"You may know how to save yourself Apex...but let's see if your a real hero.... let's see if you can save all of them." Gravitas yelled as the sphere around Zell began to more violently ripple. Zell was already battered and messed up, though now he was on his last leg of luck it would seem. The display began to look a lot like water in Zero gravity, but the osceleations began to make it curve in and out, like an exercise ball. Then it sped u, making it more violent, the osceleations more pronounced. The dips dipped deeper and became sharper. "We've all failed at one point. Slipped up. Faltered. Some of us more than others. I've let my grudges go. There's a time when I'd have loved to kill Atterrius instantly. But now...He's just another name. Another face. But YOU....You are a completely different story. You and your "Heroes". Tell me Apex... how many can you save? How many will you save. Come, come tell me thy proclimation. Let's hear that pride. You have stormed in here with your "heroes" on diplomatic lands unprovoked! Do you even know why you're here? Your "fearless leader" went to Las Vegas and picked a fight with an intenraitonal figurehead. Any other hero does that and they are scolded, possibly persecuted, or held on trial. But your "Phoenix" suffered no punishment. No scorn. That is why I've taken justice into my own hands. Then you came here and attacked us. Planning to attack us, might I add." Gravitas said clearly as he shouted. In his hand he held up a small little decvice, no larger than a small sea-shell.

"We have been peaceful. It was your Phoenix who started this fight. We wanted to co-exist. To make this world a greater place. For both humans and metas. But your leader has nothing more than a delusion of this world. He sees this world in black and white. Good and Evil but he refuses to see the good that lies within. He refuses to be wrong and allows his fame and ego-stroking attitude and his sense of entitled grandure to assure him that he is the hero... Well he's not. Not this time. He's a traitor, a fool and he's proven to be nothing but dangerous." Gravitas shook his head as he waved a hand off. "And the only thing more dangerous than a fool....are all the fools who follow." He said as he turned to Vexus and nodded to her. It was his own little way of turning control of the situation over to her.

"At the end of the day... you're the same as we are in principle. A monster. In practice you are separated only by your self-absorbed sense of morality, your blindness to see that what we want are really the same. But in reality we are separated by one fact. You've lost... We've won." He said as he stopped walking to turn around and face the battlefield one last time. He looked to Apex.

"I don't intend for anyone to die here today. Tomorrow when the obit's are read to me I only want to hear "The Talons" and in the police report I wish to hear "The Phoenix". The members of the group itself... I couldn't care less." Gravitas said as he made his final farewell. Sean wouldn't be able to catch him as he utilized Zell's own trick to put some space between them. Even if Sean could chase after him, he'd be abandoning a rather helpless Zell, a vigilante against a powerful telekinetic and the alpha bitch herself. Not a situation he'd want to be in....

(Gravity Man has left the thread)

Gravity powers, man did Sean hate the damn things. Can’t exactly do anything against something that a fundamental force in the universe, and while he could adapt against them, not as if he could exactly help others with that. In a sense it was a rather selfish power, and useless in this instance. As powerful as he was, he was...powerless to help the people that mattered, all the time. A feeling he had thought was long gone coursed through him again, gripping tightly onto his heart with enough strength that he felt as if it would burst. Of course anyone associated with Lucius would resort to such cowardly methods. Play the moral high ground, talk as if their words meant anything when all they cared about was their own selfish ends. A dozen visions of him ripping apart Gravitas flooded his head, and yet all he could do was stand there frozen.

He could tell they would be able to kill Zell without any effort and there was nothing he could do. Wow, even after all this time...I still can’t do anything. He thought bitterly to himself, wishing there was something that could be done. In the end there was nothing he could do and nothing he could say. ”Well Zell...” he sighed once Gravitas had made their leave, approaching the downed male. ”I…we’re leaving. Don’t think you’ll have a problem with that, right?“ Kneeling down, he left them as best as he could as stood up. ”I know you’ll probably have some stupid idea, like trying to stop us Vexus but i’ll nip that in the bud for you. If any action you do ends in his death, I promise what i’ll do to you will make you beg for death.” His tone was sharp as a knife, making it clear he wasn’t bluffing.

”Hang on, this might be a bumpy ride.” He said, though his voice sounded almost fatigued. With that, he took off, though not towards Gravitas but rather just away. He had a feeling he knew where he needed to go.

Zeta had prepared for most things, and yet a nail bomb was not one of those things. He sighed softly, seemingly preparing to use his own body as a shield and yet something else happened. The earth rose to his defense, forming a half dome over them that managed to absorb the shrapnel as well as any explosive damage sent their way. ”So, you’re the one that’s been messing with my family.” He heard Robert say as they stepped into the battle, cracking their knuckles. ”I’ve been wanting to meet you for a while now. I’ve always wondered what face you’d make when I flooded your lungs with sand.”

Stamping their foot down, the very earth within the area began to rumble, breaking upwards in great spires. ”Let’s see you run now.” Clenching their firsts, they rapidly kneaded the ground until it became a sandy composition, mostly forming a pit of quicksand beneath Drifter. The tree itself would begin to tilt, likely making staying on it even harder as  a hand of sand would rise up to consume the tree itself.

The Technomatter rain slowed to a stop as the fight itself began to die down. Zell was dangerously injured, and Apex was not alone in this fight. Gravity man gave the boy an option. He explained how Phoenix was a fault here. How the destruction of the Talons was all caused by his arrogance. Elena had heard about the confrontation between the two of them in Las Vegas. And this was the final product. These were the consequences. Rightfully so. It had been for too long that heroes would fearlessly go after 'villains'. Whether they were wrong doers or not, someone cannot just attack another individual. Heroes get away with that the most, and apparently Lucius has had enough of it. No one does payback better than Rise

After Gravity Man's speech, he quickly left the scene. Elena assumed to the main event where Lucius, Phoenix and the other members were. In turn, Sean decided to take off with Zell. He did not leave in the direction following Gravity Man. He was wise not to follow him. Both Vexus and Alpha wouldn't allow him to interfere with the events transpiring with their leader.
Vexus had not see anything that transpired with Lucius or Andrew. She had a history with the both of them, and it almost seemed out of character what Phoenix had done. Though, Rise wouldn't be who they are without a little bit of propaganda. Elena was sure some details had been left out of the true story. How ever such details did not concern her. She closed her eye and let out a deep breath as she deactivated her Celestial Eye. The Technomatter cloud dissipated, and all of the silver sand like material on the ground assimilated into the air leaving not a trace.
"General, dear. No need to return. We're just about done here." she said placing her finger on her ear piece.
Elena looked off in the distance. Something had changed in the air. It was not something she had felt before, but it wasn't an emotion of any sort. This was a result in her acquisition of magical ability, she noticed slight changes every now and again. Something had happened... Had Lucius succeeded? Had her little hero finally fallen? The boy had become powerful, thought not powerful enough. Couldn't save himself, his friends, or his reputation. This would be a lesson to heroes everywhere. Think before you act. There are always consequences.

"It does not appear as if my services are still required here. If anything arises though, I won't be far."
Vexus closed her eyes and began to blow away with the wind as her body converted into Technomatter. This conflict was completed and Rise has once again ended on top.

(Vexus Exit)

Solitaire's gloved hand threw the finished cigarette to the ground. The Plague Doctor spoke on about some of Rise's aims and ambitions but in all honesty, Solitaire didn't care. He kept a straight face, a card spinning between his fingers. The man turned and threw two objects at the red cowboy, who with the reactions of a gunslinger flicked the card over revealing a nine of spades. The card quickly dashed around Solitaire, splitting into 5 others and blocking the first bladed disk. He stood up on the branch, cards spinning around in like a miniature tornado. His eyebrow cocked upwards as he saw one of the cards hit the ground, the bladed disk that was thrown behind him lodged within it.

He hopped down from the Branch and cracked his neck. "Aren't you at least gonna introduce your self?' He brought another cigarette to his lips, unlit. 'It's only polite since your trigger happy self is tryin'a kill me." The cards kept spinning around his waist like a protective hula hoop, awaiting to hear the man's name.

I haven't killed someone in over 2 years. Can I do it again? Sure. Am I bluffing? ...

Solitaire couldn't answer his own thought.

I don't think this situation is a 'can' one. It's more of a 'I'm going to need to if this greenhorn doesn't stop trying to beef me' one.

The Cardslinging Cowboy brought a three of clubs to his cigarette and the tip of it erupted into flame, lighting the smoke.
The fire died and with a spin of the card it turned into an Ace of Spades and was launched directly at Thesis pistol, attempting to slash the barrel and render it useless. Solitaire's hope was to catch him off guard while he was introducin' himself. After the first, he threw another Ace at the man's right arm in an attempt to slash it and make it difficult to use.

A sly smile stationed itself across Drifter's face as he saw Delta, aka Robert Masters. He recognized this one as another cousin of Travis'. Looks like he was fighting two members of this gang of whatever the fuck they were. He was now pretty much fully stripped of the Aqua Marine costume, now shown in all his glory as the vigilante Drifter, collapsible gold mask included. He scanned the new target. Earth Manipulation.

"Ah, family, so quick to help each other out eh? Or maybe pyro over here just can't handle this by himself." Drifter mused, voice slightly changed by his new found mask. Then suddenly, the tree began to be pulled down by the sand that had been forming under it, a hand forming to envelop it and presumably him. Well, Lukas was quick enough to avoid some simple sand. He fired a grapple line to another tree, swinging down toward Delta as he readied the grenade he had pulled from his belt. It was a basic semtex grenade, sap from the tree coated around it to be used to stick to the target. His aim was true, and he threw it right at Delta's chest, finishing his swing and arriving, presumably, at the other tree top.

The explosion from that close up was enough to cause some serious damage, like blowing a car to nothing but rubble or knocking a hole in a bank vault. Even if Delta had great durability, it would at the very least hurt and temporarily stun.

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"Call me Quincy." Thesis said, removing a bottle of clear liquid from his belt and then throwing it in the air and shooting it as the man spoke.  Unfortunately this left the gun barrel exposed, and it was lopped off, making the firearm useless. That was just great. No matter though. Quincy holstered his broken gun and smiled under his Plague Doctor's mask.

"You know, that bottle of liquid wasn't just water. That was Strychnine, a poison that causes muscle convulsions within a minute after inhalation, and that will lead to asphyxiation and finally death within ten. Plenty of time to come to a little, agreement, don't you think?" Thesis said, watching the particles of the poison spread throughout the area from the force and heat of the explosive shell. He doubted this person would have got away in time, especelly with not knowing what was in the bottle or that Thesis would shoot it. He had the cure, and didn't intend on killing this man, he just wanted information.

The massive grasping hand managed to narrowly miss grabbing onto Drifter, wrapping around the tree and reducing it to a splintered mess with sheer pressure. Already he would begin to prepare his next attack, splintering any earth that was not  turned into sand, as his eyes fell upon where his opponent had moved next. His aim was to open a massive crevice under the tree, one that would swallow both Drifter as well as the tree itself, leaving them to plummet into the blackness below. That was when the explosive stuck to his chest, Delta having enough time to look down before the thing set off.

The force was enough to propel him off of his feet, a stinging sensation flowing through his chest as he was thrown back with exceptional force. Robert ended up colliding with an earthern wall that caught him, cracks spider webbing outwards from where he collided as he got back to his feet rather quickly. At best one could see that the skin beneath his clothes was irritated but nothing major beyond that. Robert patted his chest, his eyes following Drifter should they have avoided the attack that he set up.

”You’re really good at not dying aren’t you?” His eyes narrowed as the very earth began to shake, and within the span of around a minute large walls of earth would begin to rise, forming what looked to be a contained area, maybe 100 yards around them. It rose high, making scaling it somewhat difficult but not impossible. ”Let’s see how long you can last then.”

Solitaire let out a rough chuckle, removing the cigarette from his mouth when the Plague Doctor revealed his ultimatum. The grey smoke curled upwards from the tiny fire before Solitaire squinted at the queer fella. "So now you wanna talk?" He leaned against a tree, remaining remarkably calm for a dead man walking. "You do know how starting a conversation works, right? You say something like 'hello' or 'howdy' as apposed to shooting at them while they're back's turned and throwing whatever the hell those disks were at them. It would have worked too, Desperado or Not, I love a good tongue wag." He laughed again, taking another draw from his cigarette. Two poisons, one stone.

"Your concoction is completely unncessary, Queeny' He sighed, lowering the cigarette. 'And if it's so fast acting you better be a fast talker. Please indulge me as to what this agreement will entail."
He extinguished the smoke against the tree's trunk.

Some part of him admired the Doctor's craftiness. Most of him was furious, however, a gambler rarely shows how they really feel. The Poker Face he was wearing right now was flawless.

Bloody hell. Now he was pretty much trapped, with little escape. Sure he could try scaling it, but he wasn't about to climb a earth wall with an earth manipulator around. He could bust through it with thermite, but again that was risky. He had to stay away from everything that even resembled soil as long as this guy was still awake. He perched in the tree, hooded half cloak pillowing in the wind as he scanned the new walls. This was just perfect. It was do or die now, he could only stay in trees for so long with this dude pulling them down. He had to be quick and stay out of the way of the dirt.

His first order of business was to swing down from the tree and toss a flash grenade. There was little way to know it was a flash grenade, and it pretty much penetrated eyelids and would envelop the area, so Robert was getting stunned. It was at this point he would finish his swing directly into Robert, hoping to knock him over with the force of the swing. He was clearly durable, but that didn't mean he was immune to the laws of force and acceleration. Drifter also made sure he swung in a slightly different direction then where he was headed before the flash grenade went off, to make sure he wasn't predicted and then killed fast.

If all went well, he would end up on top of Delta, pressing his gauntlet into the males head before setting his EMP/taser to it's highest setting. This would drain the entire battery into the man's head, which was, well, a lot. Easily enough to kill an elephant, maybe more with where he aimed it. Unfortunately the spike of electric energy effected him a bit, as the kinks weren't really worked out. He was electrocuted mildly, but nowhere near the amount Robert would be if he was successful. This would likely severely burn even Robert, and send electrical currents straight into the brain no matter how thick his skin was. Organs were perfect conductors. That meant his nervous system was about to be under attack, and would send him into a body spasm.

"So much need for revenge..... Well, you'll never get it. Take you're sorry ass home and grow up, then maybe we can talk." Drifter would say if all went well, pointing his gauntlets at Robert fully intent on firing if a move was made. He had plenty of different things loaded into them that could hurt the male, no matter what Delta thought.

-------------------------------

"You're communicator is what i want. It has a connection to the surveillance equipment in the area and a few other goodies. Was gonna take it off your body but this works fine too." Thesis said, digging in his coat for a syringe and then taking a step forward and reaching out.

"So, let's make an honest deal. Give me the earbud, i give you the cure. And don't say you can't trust me, duh. You have no choice here."  Quincy said. The concoction was indeed the cure and would stop the poison, but the serum would also knock the man out. Thesis had to be careful, couldn't have the dude chasing him or something. But he was sure the man could respect an honest deal like he could.........

Maybe.

"Tick toc tick toc Gambit, what's it gonna be?" Thesis said with amusement in his voice. He was clearly enjoying himself.

The flashbang went off, managing to blind Delta pretty good as Drifter would swoop in for their finishing blow. Even trying to close his eyes didn’t work, so he was left blind as they ended up slamming him into the ground as a large current of electricity was sent through his body. They convulsed for a little before falling down, though drifter would not get to enjoy their victory as they would feel as if they air was ripped from their lungs. ”They’re right, you were pretty scary.” Eta said walking to the downed Delta as well as Drifter who would likely quickly be fading into unconsciousness. ”I guess that explains why Alpha doesn’t like you, huh? Likely now he would be down, as Eta motioned, creating a small funnel of wind that lifted his brother into the air, seeming to take them away from the scene.

”Alright, let’s get going Rob.” He said cheerily, as he would let Drifter fall once he fell unconcious. ”All this fighting is pretty stupid anyway.” So he would leave, not even thinking about making a killing blow.