The vast blue expanse of the Pacific Ocean stretched out beneath Dashuan as he soared through the blackened night sky a few hundred feet above it’s churning waves, listing heavily as his mind felt like a weight keeping him low enough to see the foam of the crashing currents clashing.

The freeze of the nipping air pummeled him in his depowered state, but it did little to alleviate the tempest in his mentality as he controlled himself with a singular hand. Ultress' words echoed in his innermost reflections. "You're out of your depth here," she had expressed so matter of factly, and now, suspended between unending sea and spiraling stars that prickled the heavens, Dashuan felt the truth of those utterances more keenly as he stared at his darkened silhouette darting over the dark waters. Thinking that he was always out of his depth in truth.

He had fled the island momentarily, unable to bear the weight of the accusing stares, the palpable dissatisfaction that seemed to permeate the very atmosphere from every individual who recognized him from the news.

How many lives had been lost because of his misguided attempts at heroism and confrontations with Derek? How many Aberrants had truly suffered under the military, been hunted by Derek with the knowledge he now had? How many experimented on behind closed doors, all because he couldn't resist the urge to play savior for the short time he was even “allowed” to be public?

Dashuan's fists gripped tightly as he remembered Mina's face, flicks of hidden tears breaking to streak down her face and pure disgusted twitching at every beautiful feature, Cassandra's death lay squarely at his feet even if Arc’s fault, another casualty of his arrogance as he aimlessly stumbled his way through life without truly leading himself and waiting for others to bring him the solution.

Lost in his introspections, Dashuan almost missed the distant rumble flowing over the salty smelling ocean. At first, he mistook it for boom dry thunder, but as he focused his ears, he realized the sound was too mechanical, too constant of a deep reverberation. His eyes scanned the darkened horizon of deep blue waves, lilac glow assisted vision piercing through the haze of fog.

There, on the edge of his heightened perception, a fleet of ships cut through the waves with heavy arrays of dimly lit gunnery. Their sleek silver silhouettes and bustling exhibitions of weapons left no doubt--these were warships, and they were headed straight for the island.

Dashuan's heart lept from his chest. He knew what this meant. Derek had found them, and he was bringing the full might of the American military to bear. As if hailed by his confused thoughts, a familiar figure rocketed up from the lead ship and into the ebony nights sky.

Derek--

Encased in his radiant power armor, coasted in the air, his expressionless faceplate of shining silver trained on Dashuan and already crinkling The air around it with the energy it housed which mimicked both he and Arc's power.

"Should have played ball, Dashuan!" Derek’s amplified voice carried across the water. "Your kind caused enough damage. It's time to end this before any more humans get hurt."

Dashuan forcefully gulped the lump in his throat. He couldn't let them reach the gleaming isle. Not only would it mean certain death for the Lesser Aberrants and human sympathizers, but the disease they carried could spread, potentially triggering a global pandemic and further outrage that could not be calmed by any scheme.

God only knew what the originals were capable of themselves if pushed--Dashuan did not want to know the true destructive nature they held combined unleashed upon the soldiers when they realized their intention of ambush or worse if they chose to press the matter to the mainland.

"Derek, please," Dashuan shouted out, arresting his momentum with his developed gravity power with a hawk’s ease. "You don't understand what's at stake here. If you attack the island, you'll be putting millions of lives at risk–including yourself!"

Derrick's response was to raise his arm, a pulse of energy building in his palm that was wrapped with crimson bolts of electricity as it passed coiled gauntlets. "I'm done listening to your excuses, Dashuan. Thank you though--For leading us directly to them…and all the biometrics along the way. My new suit is better than ever!"

The energy blast thrashed out in a second, a searing beam of red plasma cutting through the night sky and barreling toward Dashuan as it turned water into steam on its journey.

Dashuan let out a negative gravity pulse above himself, the heat of the blast unlike anything Derek had been able to muster up till this point. It passed just inches from his skull and detonated deep beneath the depths with a resounding explosion of heat and charged particles.

Enough, Dashuan thought to himself as he caught himself. He would not run away this time or waste time trying to reason with his enemies--

Dashuan rocketed towards Derek, his mutant body a blur as he warped the gravity into a funnel around himself and created vortexes of water that jutted upward in massive columns.

He bashed into the armored chestplate with enough force to send them both plummeting towards the ocean's surface but skidding across it when finding its impact. At the last second before submersion Derek's thrusters engaged, sending them skimming in a spray of sea foam as they clung to each other among the towering crash of the ocean.

Dashuan's fist suddenly connected with Derek’s ribcage, the reinforced material cracking under the impact slightly but reforming quickly. In retaliation, Derek drove an armored knee into Dashuan's side, driving the air from his lungs mere feet above the churning ocean spouts.

Gasping, Dashuan broke away, putting some distance between them slightly. He could see the ships progressing, their weapons trained on the aerial warriors indiscriminately. He had to end this quickly or risk the chance of them using Derek in order to move past his defense.

With a burst of gravity that left Derek sinking momentarily, Dashuan dove towards the closest American destroyer. He could hear the panicked shouts of the crew as he approached at full speed and increased his density-- Dashuan could see the frantic scramble to bring weapons to aim at the correct target but only felt his heart besting agaisnt his lungs.

He hit the deck like a meteorite sent from god, the impact sending a chain explosion through the ship's steel structure. Alarms blared as Dashuan tore through the vessel's innards, ripping apart humming gun emplacements and radar arrays with his bare hands instead of his powers to minimize the damage to human life and allow time for escape.

A hail of mini-gun fire peppered his position from another ship, bullets ricocheting off his skin and leaving welts as they blazed into the hull of their sister vessel. Dashuan turned to see a squad of marines incoming, their faces showing no fear while loading what he assumed was the Perfect Slug ammo as he expected this to be an extermination mission.

He felt a pang of remorse nonetheless–these were just men following orders, not the true enemy that sat back and watched the slaughter. "Please," he said while holding the sonar machine's guts, "I don't want to hurt you. But I can't let you reach the island...I just want to do what's right." Dashuan pleaded as be took a single step forward.

They esponsed with no words only a volley of gunfire that sent blistering pain where they impacted. Dashuan held back a yelp, then moved to enchance himself further. To the human eye, he was little more than an afterimage; like the spinning blades of a fan in full motion. He had disarmed the entire squad, leaving them stunned but unharmed with a quick localized gravity well in his direction.

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Another gigantic explosion rocked the ship, nearly throwing Dashuan off his feet and rocking the marines from their stunned positions. He turned to see Derek hovering above the smoking hole of the warship, energy crackling around his armor that evaporated rain that downpoured on them from above.

"Had to recalibrate–I hope you had fun blowing through millions of dollars," Derek growled. "You're putting these men at risk. End this now, before someone gets killed...I will try my best to spare you from the fate of the others if you join me..."

Dashuan's reaction was to bound into the air, meeting Derrick head-on once again with a raised fist that was caught mid-air. They collided with a jaw-rattling force that killed most of the marines present, the shockwave creating a momentary vacuum in the air around them that snapped back so powerfully it liquified the insides of the Marines standing too close and crushing the others into the frame of the ship as it rebounded.

They traded blows at superhuman speed, each impact resonating like thunder in the night. Dashuan's fist crashed into Derek's helmet, denting the reinforced metal only fractionally but enough to cause the Ai inside to let off alarms. Derek countered with a savage uppercut that sent Dashuan spiraling through the ship's decks and finishing it with a follow up downward kick as they reached the air.

As Dashuan regained his equilibrium before crashing to the waves, he saw that the fleet had abandoned the now-sinking vessel. They were dangerously close to the island's outer reefs. Grinding his teeth together, Dashuan made a split decision. He couldn't waste any more time on Derek. He had to stop those ships.

With a burst of acceleration that left even DereK stunned by the velocity and cursing the Aberrants birth, Dashuan streaked toward the closest destroyer--

He hit the water at an angle, using his momentum to slide just beneath the surface. The freezing water cocooned him, but Dashuan barely felt its nip due to the heat of the friction on his dense skin. His Lilac vision pierced the murky depths as he approached the ship's hull.

With all his might, he slammed into the shining keel. Metal shrieked and tore, the hull buckling under the force of Dashuan's gravity-enhanced clash and enchanced density. Water rushed into the ships tears, alarms blaring as the it began to list heavily to one side and crumple.

Dashuan didn't wait to see the results of his handiwork. He was already moving on to the next ship, and the next, leaving a trail of crippled vessels in his wake as Derek scrambled to catch up behind him to no avail; Most likely kicking himself for not realizing how much Dashuan had trained his agility and maneuvering in the past months as he watched each of the warships topple and explode under their own weight.

Dashuan could hear the panicked radio chatter, the desperate calls for evacuation as he dismantled the armada like nothing. Part of him hated what he was doing to the humans, but he knew it was entirely necessary. His only tell was slight seconds of hesitation before blazing through another warship with a thundering impact. Better a few hundred evacuated sailors than millions dead from a pandemic and fallout of the confrontation with the original Aberrants, he thought to himself.

As he emerged from the water after disabling the fourth ship, a massive energy blast caught him in the face; The force alone reversed his momentum and send blood to the sky.

Derek descended, his armor scorched and dented but still fully functional. "I warned you," he said, his voice cold with fury. "I gave you every chance to stand down...You are the danger Dashuan--Any Aberrant could pose a threat humans couldnt even dream of! Aberrants dont understand what its like to be human." He bellowed. “You might be the closest thing–but you are a fucking danger to anyone around you!”

Dashuan labored in a hovering state above the waves, his face seething from the blast and his nose dripping dark blood that warmed his face. "You don't understand," he wheezed. "If you reach that island, you'll unleash something you can't control. Millions will die!"

"They all will die if we keep allowing your kind to live," Derek stated. "No more talk. No more chances." With that, he charged forward, crimson energy pulsating around his silvery armored form. Dashuan braced himself, crossing his arms and letting his full power flow through his body.

It was a bluff; Derek, using a small blast followed it up with a spinning kick that slashed deep into the Aberrants forearms. Dashuan held steady with everything he had within his soul, driven by desperation and the knowledge that he was the only thing standing between humanity and their own potential extinction.

He noticed a shimmering foreign alloy that was new to Derek's suit; somehow specifically designed to bleed his skin, he wondered how long Derek had Prepared for this moment between gasped breaths and pummeling on both sides as he used his powers to reflect the brunt of the blows. Derek had truly planned even down to the inch; besides Dashuans enhanced speed, all was calculated as if they never truly an option for peace. His armor, a pinnacle of human engineering, absorbed and redirected the force of Dashuan's best punches. Energy beams lashed out from his feet and hands, charring Dashuan's skin and leaving angry red gashes where they whipped down long slants into his skin and unleashed fresh Blood into the ocean that was quickly lapped away.

They wrestled midair, spinning and tumbling toward the ocean once again. Dashuan managed to get a grip on Derek's helmet, his fingers digging into the metal but scraping bloodily against the charged material.

With an effort that was impacted by his gravitational prowess, he tore the faceplate clean off the light brown skinned man. Dashuan witnessed Derek's face. The man's light colored eyes were tumultuous, his sharp features almost more animal than man as he manically struck out at Dashuan without caring.

"Look at me, Derek," Dashuan pleaded. "Look at my fucking face. We're not different. We're both trying to protect people. But you have to--"

"Will you shut up?!" Derek yelled. He brought his hands together, electric energy coalescing between them in a blinding sphere that cast violent lightning bolts in every direction. Dashuan's eyes widened as he realized what was coming. The energy blast hit him point-blank, engulfing his entire body in searing light that ripped at his bones and ligaments.

Dashuan shrieked, feeling as though every cell in his body was bathing in lava. The force of the discharge sent him hurtling through the air, his consciousness flickering as he struggled to stay awake under the blinding pain. He hit the water with limb-splitting emphasis, plunging deep beneath the cold waves.

The frigid shock of the ocean brought him back to his senses almost instantly, but his body felt limp, unresponsive to the wails of his mind. As he plunged deeper into the blackness of the Pacific Ocean, Dashuan's mind played cruel games in the form of screaming taunts his way—He had failed. The fleet would reach the island. The Lesser Aberrants, the human sympathizers, all of them would die. And then the disease would spread, bringing death on a scale the world had never seen.

No--NO!

He couldn't let that happen. Dashuan forced his battered body to move past its screeching pain. He began to swim, each stroke sending lances of agony through his muscles and sinews. As he neared the surface, he could hear the muffled sounds of detonations and taste the bitter soot when heaving for oxygen.

His heart sank. Had the bombardment of the island already begun? Dashuan exploded from the water, gulping in great lungfuls of air after nearly a minute of submersion; the scene that greeted him was not what he expected. The remaining ships of the fleet were under attack, portals were opening in midair, disgorging Aberrants who fell upon the vessels with terrifying recklessness of untamed powers.

The Lessers--

Mina's Rose-gold hair peaked from the entrances, directing the assault onto the hunting humans. Arc's electrical discharges lit up the night sky almost entirely, short-circuiting the ships' systems and blinding the unprepared. In the thick of the fighting, was Air Force, tearing through steel bulkheads and covered in guts combined with bile as Dashuan could hear him almost hooting like a hyena.

A shadow fell over Dashuan, and he looked up to see Ultress descending towards him, her face covered by the same illuminant gold-accented mask that sparkled pink. "It was admirable; attempting this alone." she expressed, extending a hand to help him up from the waters. "They bring this upon themselves though."

Dashuan took her hand, a mixture of relief and dread washing over him as he mustered words. "They are all just scared….” He did not want a slaughter on either side.

"And now we must give them something to fear," Ultress cut him off, "but Aberrants are our people, not them. I would never let them hurt you, Dashuan."

As Dashuan rose into the air, exploring the warfare fuming around them, it was all up to now. Maybe, just maybe, they still had a chance to pull this out; he was no longer alone and knew they would stand together agaisnt Derek.

A bone-chilling roar split the air, and Dashuan turned to see Derek rising from the wreckage of his flagship that had just been sunk. His armor was in tatters and half-forming, revealing the man beneath, but his eyes burned with an inhuman pale white light.

"What have you done to him?" Dashuan gasped, recognizing the telltale signs of Aberrant transformation that came from his glowing eyes.

Ultress' voice was harsh. "We didn't do anything. It seems Derek has been harboring some secrets of his own...perhaps sythnthasizing a failsafe if he failed to kill us all."

As Derek's shape began to twist and grow, his skin hardening into armored plates that matched his once gleaming suit, Dashuan only stared at the drool-snarling man.

With a shared nod of understanding, Dashuan and Ultress rocketed toward the transforming Derek; Ultress on her impossibly propelled circular machine and Dashuan ever at her side