Solaria punched Grave Robber in the face with enough force to split his lips and knock out teeth, spraying blood all over her silver and grey suit and blonde hair. Her blue eyes look on dispassionately as the insane villains head swung back at her in an attempted headbutt as she withdrew her hand to punch again, but was stopped cold as she quickly switched her attack. Slamming a quick elbow in the side of his head, she dropped the man dressed in rags and the body parts of his victims to the ground unconscious.
The attack on Iron Shores, a max security super villain prison, had thrown the entire City of Elysium into an uproar. When the League of Unaligned Villains had staged their attack, the Guild of Heroes had assumed that it would have been to break out a particular member.
Not unleash ever villain held inside onto the unsuspecting populace.
The prison break had been four days ago, and the city had devolved into a war zone. People had died in the thousands, the guild, police, and military had been overwhelmed, and even now with many of the villains having been captured or killed outright there was too much chaos. Everyone was tired. Exhausted. Wounded. And there had been many casualties among the heroes as well.
Sighing, she reached down and slapped a pair of inhibitor cuffs onto the villain. The cuffs would prevent him from using his abilities, making him as strong as an unpowered individual. Such cuffs could significantly reduce the power of even a Class IV super. They were also nearly impossible to remove without the key. These cuffs were, without a doubt, law and orders most powerful tool when it came to dealing with insane murderers, villains, and violent supers of nearly any kind.
A man in a shining white and blue suit landed next to her. Standing nearly seven feet tall and built like a brick shithouse, Retribution was a sight to behold. He was Elysium’s most powerful super, boasting superhuman speed, stamina, strength, resilience, and the powers of flight, fire, and telekinesis. Not only was he incredibly powerful, he was nearly invulnerable. He also led the Guild of Heroes.
He was also spotless.
The superheroine frowned at him, noting the lack of dirt and grime that she was covered in from helping people and fighting villains. This led her to believe that either he was supporting from afar or that he, most likely, had been at HQ and not doing a damn thing to help.
“Solaria, good to see you are safe,” he said with a charmingly bright smile. It only made her frown more. Noting that he wasn’t making headway he got serious, “Devastator is coming this way with Breaker and several other major League members. I have Bright Light, Sandman, and Dart on the way here as we speak. But things are going to heat up. Get out of here while you-“
He was cut off as a green beam slammed into him, throwing him through the side of a nearby, already destroyed, building. What was left of it collapsed into a pile of rubble.
Pale at what she had just been told, she spun only to see Devastator standing there in his suit, a maniacal grin on his face. His powered armor was green and grey, stood nearly fourteen feet tall, and looked like something out of a comic book. Devastator was a well known villain and was a Class IV super, making him just shy of the most dangerous level of supers they could categorize. Devastator, or Charles Nox as he was known in civilian garb, was a super genius and a technopath. He could, at will, control anything with a microchip or wiring.
She absolutely blanched, however, when she saw who was next to him.
Retribution had been both right and wrong. Right in the fact that Devastator had brought help. Wrong in who that help was. For, standing next to the villain was the Leader of the League of Unaligned Villains. One of only a few dozen known Class V villains in their region. Death.
No one knew who Death was, where he came from, or just what exactly his powers were. All they knew was that anyone who fought him that was under a certain level of power simply died. He was beyond powerful in terms of strength, speed, and ability. The only powers he had ever showcased, however, were the bolts of purple lighting he threw. If he had others he had never demonstrated them to anyone who had lived to speak about them.
The assortment of lesser ranked villains behind the two immediately knew she was outclassed. Being a Class III super herself, and while her ability to refine sunlight into flight and lasers was powerful she was no match for these people. Not even close, in fact. Swallowing, she took a fighting stance. She would more than likely die here. But she would give as good an accounting of herself as possible.
Death cocked his head to one side, his mottled grey skin cracking at the unnatural angle he held it at.
“You. Woman. Leave,” he said, shocking her and the villains behind her.
A snake looking woman that she immediately recognized as one of her regular nemesis, Viper, marched forward. “You can’t let her go! That’s Solaria! Shes a hero! We have to-“ she collapsed to the ground, lifeless.
“You. May. Not. Dictate. Terms,” Death said slowly, not having moved or even glanced at the body that he had just made.
She swallowed again and was about to respond when the building behind her exploded outwards. A furious Retribution rose into the air and Death’s gaze immediately moved to track him. His once pristine suit had been marred, torn, and scorched. Whatever that beam had been was tough enough to get through the suits armor, but not strong enough to even scratch his flesh.
At that moment Dart zipped up next to her, while Bright Light dropped off Sandman and landed herself. Dart was a speedster, having the ability to vibrate his molecules and move at insane speeds. Bright Light controlled light and prisms among other things, and Sand Man was… well he was made of sand and nearly impossible to kill.
Several other minor heroes came to their side, making the numbers nearly even. But Death simply watched them.
“Surrender now villains!” called out Retribution, “And perhaps jail time is the only thing you will get. Fail to surrender and there will be unavoidable… casualties,” he finished with a twisted grin.
“No,” Death replied simply. He was a… man thing of few words.
Solaria watched nervously as the two sides squared off. This could very well be the battle that decided the fate of the city. The fate of everything. Elysium was the capital city of the Republic after all. Failure here would only propagate the chaos nationwide. She was honestly surprised none of the national level supers had been deployed.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Help. Will. Not. Come,” said Death in his menacing monotone.
“Not for you, nor us,” confirmed Retribution.
Their conversation set off a ton of red flags for Solaria. Just the fact the two supers were conversing was… unnerving. They had never spoken like this before. There were things going on between the lines that she couldn’t understand that none of the other heroes she saw could understand. And that made her even more nervous.
“Kill them a-“ began Devastator, but he was cut off.
A massive crack reverberated through reality, actually smashing some of the weaker supers on both sides into the ground with the shockwave it created. The sky darkened, cascading with bright red and deep black bolts of lighting as something shattered the sky itself like a pane of glass. Both sides looked on in awe, even Death was taken aback by the ferocity of the event.
Out of the gaping hole of seemingly infinite darkness, a cold black so absolute it made space look homey, a blazing inferno shot forth heading for both groups.
Immediately both sides retreated, Retribution and Death both having wide eyed surprised looks on their faces as they quickly backed the fuck away with their respective teams. Solaria realized that the ball of purple and green fire had something at its center. Something… almost human shaped. But she was forced to look away as the blazing inferno impacted the ground.
In an explosion of light and fire, the meteor exploded on contact with the ground. Detonating with far more force that it would have initially been thought to have, it leveled both sides, knocking even the two heavyweights on either side off their feet. The rolling shockwave spread through the city, flinging cars about like toys, splattering any unlucky people into past that covered walls and sidewalks, and shattering an innumerable number of windows and building fronts.
As the blast passed, Retribution and Death were the first two to regain their balance and get up. What lay in the center of the crater in front of them caused them both to hesitate. Crouched on one knee was a being, but both hesitated to call it a man.
Its cracked skin had lines that could be described as nothing short of molten rock flowing through the visible portions. Pieces of clothing, perhaps armor of some kind, draped its body, but clearly it had been heavily damaged. Singed black hair could be seen in spots through its helmed head, but the face was not visible.
And the being was motionless.
“Is… is this your doing? Its another villain? It has to be. Nothing good would have done this,” snarled Retribution at Death.
But the villain shocked him by shaking his head. “No. Not. Us,” he admitted. “Unsure.”
As both the villains and heroes struggled back to their feet, some being destined to not getting back up ever again, the two sides crowded around the edge of the crater.
“It is irrelevant,” Retribution declared with a snarl. “Take out the villains, capture this… this… thing and toss it into prison with the rest of them. Nothing that kills wantonly can be considered anything like a hero.”
Solaria, having managed to get back up, albeit with a now broken arm and with multiple new lacerations, couldn’t have disagreed more.
“Retribution,” she said, having trouble catching her breath, “we don’t know anything about this thing. It may not be evil, but hurt. Look at it, its-“ but the leader of the Guild cut her off.
“Stand down Solaria,” he commanded, his gaze cold. “My command stays in effect. As Guild Leader it is well within my authority to make this decision. The thing is a menace and must be stopped… or put down.”
“Good luck with that,” echoed a voice, diverting all eyes to the creature that had just landed on their world. Slowly standing up to its full six and a half feet in height, its heavily muscled body and deeply tanned skin were both startling and intimidating. Both sides realized that the humanoid had sustained far more damage than either side had initially realized. It was bleeding, red blood, from wounds across its arms, legs, and torso. Its armor had been all but shredded, with only a base wet suit of some kind underneath and a full helmet on its head with a black faceplate on front. Even the helmet, however, had sustained damage.
The being looked, at every inch of its imposing physique, to be a warrior. A killer. The sheer aura it gave off made nearly everyone present hesitate to approach it. Or even speak to it, for that matter.
Retribution was about to snarl an answer when, for whatever reason, Devastator clutched his head and started screaming. But not an insane screaming, no. This was one of fear, pain, and suffering. Uncertainty flashed through Deaths eyes as he turned to look at his comrade.
“No! No! Kill! Kill it now! Kill it now! Before it spreads! Ah!” the man in the suit screamed, clawing at his face plate as if trying to dig something out that had rooted within it. “It has to die! Now!”
Without further preamble or warning, Devastators suit popped open dozens of hatches and deployed every weapon he had. Death took a surprised step backward as the crazed technopath whirled to point it at the creature in the crater.
Then the insane man fired.
Dozens of green, blue, red, and purple beams of energy lashed out at the thing in the still smoking hole in the ground. Other hatches released generic bullets, micro missiles, and even a massive rocket from the back of the mechanized suit. Everything from x-ray beams to concentrated lasers, and several weapons that could only be guessed at slammed into a single spot.
They all struck the creature nearly simultaneously, shocking both sides at the sheer level of violence that had just been employed.
“What the fuck was that?” Retribution shouted, even as Death stood, a perplexed look in his face.
“That thing has to die. Kill it! You don’t understand!” wailed Devastator as he continued to pump high powered lasers and x-ray blasts into the crater. “It has to die! Its wearing demons! Kill it now!”
There was no time to respond as the creature blurred up the side of the crater, a blade of deep black tinged in red in its hands. With one sweep, it bisected Devastator at the waist, cleaving him cleanly into two pieces.
The villains gaped at the creature, standing on the chest piece of what remained of one of the foremost supervillains in the country. Then they attacked. The creature began cleaving villains in two, kicking them across the battlefield, or simply delimbing them, leaving them as a distraction for others.
Solaria was stunned at the sheer ferocity of the creature. It had demonstrated multiple abilities at this point. From weapon generation to enhanced strength, there wasn’t much that was going to get in the way of this thing. Unless perhaps-
“Take advantage of this! Attack!” yelled Retribution as he flew forward, interrupting her thoughts.
The heroes charged into the fray, attacking villains and taking them down. However what started as a free for all melee quickly became a joint effort to stop the thing in their midst from killing more supers. Most of the attacks it received from Class III supers, including her own blasts of light, it simply shrugged off.
That was until Retribution hit it.
Flying straight into the thing from above, having apparently caught it by surprise, the punch flung it sideways. Solaria noted that the moment the blade it was holding came out of its hands it vanished. It must be some kind of power.
She stepped back to Sandman, who was also watching the fight. “What do you think?” she asked.
“Its not magic,” the man said. “At least not as I understand it. Its more… its something else. Something far removed from your standard spells. But I don’t think its powers either,” he admitted.
She watched Retribution and the nameless creature go at it. Both sides were surprised to see the thing going toe to toe in unarmed combat with one of the most powerful supers known to mankind, and it was an even fight. The two traded punches that sent out small shockwaves, knocking supers and villains alike back as the tried to assist. Unfortunately, there were few powered beings in the area that could contend.
But few didn’t mean none.
Death, having taken stock of the situation, strode forward into the fray. As if having made some kind of decision, he made a fist and swung slowly at the creature from behind. The moment the slow fist touched the back plate of remaining armor, the thing was smashed into the ground as if a building had landed on it.
Huffing and puffing, Retribution stared at Death. Then he gave him a slow nod. A nod that Death returned equally as unsure. The two stared at one another, unsure how to progress. That was, until the thing, to Deaths complete and utter shock, stood back up.