Chapter 09-04

This was one of those times that he wished that he had some kind of scan ability. Alex stood a few yards away from the man clad in black armor and stared down at his body. The jig was up, and the guards were onto the fact that someone had broken the perimeter.

“Function is there any information on this guy?” Alex asked as the guards began to surround the building that Alex had dented with Dusk’s body. They all hand their weapons at the ready.

“Searching…” Function said. Light blue lines surrounded the downed man’s body scanning in his dimensions. Database information started to flash across the screen.

“Sooner might be better.” Alex said in a nervous tone as he considered retreating inside the ship’s tent.

“There are three heroes that go by this designation. Given the description available for the three I believe that this is the man you are facing.” Function said putting the file on Alex’s HUD.

­-Dusk

-Super-Strength

-Aligned with the Venomous Strikers (Defunct)

-Free agent

“Well that is only a little helpful.” Alex said reading over the file. There was information about the man’s commonly known locations. He focused on the information that he thought was useful. The man had super-strength.

The guards were there baring down on Alex. He raised his fists and clenched them tightly. There was nothing that was going to stop him from putting up a fight.

“Stop.” A booming voice rang out from the ground where Dusk had landed.

The guards backed away from Alex slowly obeying the order. Dusk was on his feet. He took a few steps towards Alex his fists clenched to his sides.

“It has been some time since I have faced someone who had been able to make me bleed.” Dusk said reaching up and activating his mask. The bottom hissed and folded out exposing his jaw and mouth. His teeth were red and his spit blood on the ground.

“Oh, there is more where that came from.” Alex said with a smirk.

Both men did not hesitate. They ran at each other like freight trains on the same track. Each of them clenched their fists. Light streamers began to emit from Alex’s fist as he activated his normal seismic punch. Dark streamers of black light began to emit from Dusk’s fist.

The two fists fueled by super-strength collided in the air. A massive shockwave radiated form the impact point. There were buildings on either side of the two men that were knocked off of their supports. The ground under the impact dipped down as the dirt and rock gave way. All of the guards surrounding them were thrown backward.

All of this happen in a split second. When everything caught up to reality with an ear shattering boom both Dusk and Alex were thrown back away from the impact. Alex tumbled end over end until he crashed into the alien ship which did not give way like the buildings that they had set up.

With a groan of pain Alex peeled himself off of the ground. Checking his status, he found that his health was reduced by twenty-five percent with that attack. He had to hope that nearly the same had happened to Dusk.

Alex got to his feet and stumbled back out of the tent shaking his head. Dusk too had gotten to his feet. The good news was that he looked like he was having the same issues that Alex was having.

The opportunity was too good to pass up. Alex ran at Dusk as fast as he could. With a round of a kick he activated his new skill Shattering Kick. The energy was instantly drained from his reserve. The speed at which his leg was moving multiplied tenfold. His foot made contact with a massive crashing boom. Dusk was still in the process of recovering so the attack landed true and solid. He was sent through the air in a blur crashing into another building leaving behind a dent the same shape as his body.

Alex landed but didn’t wait around. He flew towards Dusk, but the guards moved into his path protecting their leader.

“Move back!” Dusk said pushing them out of the way, “I’m starting to have fun!”

Dusk moved faster than Alex could keep up with. He jumped at the last second and kicked with both legs into Alex’s chest. This move caused him to fall to the ground, but Alex rocketed towards one of the temporary buildings. He hit it so hard that the wall caved in around him and was knocked back into another of the buildings.

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For a moment Alex couldn’t breathe. He had to give his regeneration a moment to do some work, he activated his Flash Heal skill to give the process a little boost. He could feel his ribs move back into place. So much for the thirty percent bonus to the strength of his bones.

“That was quite the hit.” Alex wheezed out trying to catch his breath.

They rejoined each other on their makeshift battlefield. For what felt like an eternity they swapped blows. Their energy seemed to regen at the same rate and their blows seemed to hit with the same force. Alex began to get tired of the game. Hail the size of golf balls began to fall from the sky filling the air with the sounds of their impact on the buildings around them.

Pulling himself from a divot in the ground carved by him being throw like a ragdoll he injected himself with a second energy serum. He followed that up with a health serum. He took a deep breath and again he ran into the fight.

Dusk threw a punch at Alex’s head, but instead of him dodging out of the way or meeting the blow with his own punch he let the blow come. It hurt like he couldn’t have imagined, but he wrapped his arm around Dusk’s arm and clamped on as tightly as he could. He focused energy in both super-strength and flight.

Upward the two men shot at Alex’s top speed. He wasn’t sure exactly how fast he was going but it wasn’t but a few seconds before the ground started to look like it did when you looked out of a plane window.

Alex let go. The two of them drifted apart. Dusk was having trouble breathing just as Alex was, but his regeneration was doing a good job allowing him to breath in the low oxygen. Reaching out his arm Alex used a burst of psychic energy to push dusk away so that he couldn’t grab at him.

The momentum began to wane and they both began to fall towards the planet. As fast as they had moved up, they began to rocket downward. Alex was a little worried that he wasn’t going to have enough energy to stop his decent.

In a split second that felt like an eternity the battle came to a devastating end. Dusk crashed into the ground sending out a massive cloud of dirt and debris. Alex put on the proverbial breaks, but he ran out of energy. A purple blur rocketed out from the roof of one of the nearest buildings.

The Obsidian shaped blur collided with him in midair and the two of them crashed into the side of a building. Her body acted to absorb the blunt of the impact and Alex kept from being crippled by the rocky landing.

“Thanks.” Alex said with a wheezing groan.

“Any time.” Obsidian said sounding much the same.

They peeled themselves from the ground realizing that the fight was not over yet. Alex was bingo on energy and had to inject himself with the third energy serum in a row. He only received sixty five percent of his energy. He did feel a rush of vigor as the little over two hundred energy rushed into his body.

“I think we can make this a little easier.” Obsidian called out to get Alex’s attention.

“How’s that?” He asked turning to investigate. She picked up a discarded energy rifle from one of the guards that had been downed in a shockwave. Tossing it to him she leveled her own rifle at the incoming remaining guards.

The duo backed up until they were standing next to a couple of crates that they could duck behind for cover.

“I already defeated your boss, why don’t you guys skedaddle.” Alex called out with his sights locked on the nearest of the guards. The same man had his weapon firmly pointed towards Alex.

It wasn’t clear exactly who pulled the first trigger. When Alex saw a streak of red rip through the air, he didn’t hesitate to return fire. There was no kick to the energy weapon and the shots would ring out in an extremely fast succession. There was about half a second that the capacitor system needed to build up enough energy for the next shot. Alex took this time to line up his targets for head shots.

It was almost stormtrooper-like as the bolts flew past them. Alex breathed out slowly as he readied himself for the next shot. Each shot rang out loudly in his ear as the capacitor discharged. They hit their targets, some more accurately than others. If he managed to actually get the head shot that he aimed for then the Guard would drop to the ground. More often than not it would be a glancing blow, or a chest shot. The attackers were able to take a couple of chest shots.

As they both ducked down behind the crates, they made themselves the smallest targets that they could. Obsidian’s shots, Alex noticed in the split second that he dared look, were not only landing truer but were forcefully knocking the men back. Alex shook the worry out of his head when a bolt smashed into his arm. It took away thirty percent of his health and burned a nasty whole not only in his armor but also his flesh.

“SON OF A BITCH!” he yelled locking his sights on the one who had fired. He fired four times as fast as the weapon would recharge until the man dropped to the ground.

“Are you alright?” Obsidian asked. She moved her weapon like precision and after an exchange that felt internally like it was hours of a few seconds there were only five guards left in the fight.

With just a few more laser accurate blasts from Obsidian and a volley of blaster fire from Alex they took out the remaining guards. When it was all said and done Alex dropped onto his butt in the snow. He was breathing heavily and still felt the pain in his shoulder. His regeneration had done its job to put the parts back together, but the relief from the pain would come later.

“Well that was fun!” Obsidian said standing up from her crouched position.

“What the hell was that?” Alex demanded pulling himself up like a drunk baby deer.

“What?” Obsidian asked oblivious to what he was talking about.

“That shooting. You’re like a trained assassin.” Alex said slipping on the ice that was starting to form from the cold, the hail, and the snow.

“Oh that, well I am. You know you can get certain skills that level outside of your personal level, right?” She asked.

“Yeah I guess I knew that.” Alex said.

“Well my father tried to force me to manifest Villainous feelings, so he sent me to a military school, a villainous one. They trained us to be assassins. He thought that if I enjoyed the school it would instill villainous feelings in me, or if I hated him enough for sending me it would do the same. Jokes on him. I enjoyed the training and it did not instill any kind of negative feeling in me concerning him. He was a villain and only wanted his daughter to follow in his footsteps. I don’t blame him for that. I know enough to be able to keep myself from turning full dark side.” She explained.

“Assassin huh?” Alex asked considering her for a moment.

“I specialized in marksmanship so, it’s more like sniper.” She said with a shrug.