Daredevil & Angel: The Silver Age
Issue #2
"Fellowship"
Angel couldn't stop falling up.
It was night, and he was rocketing straight up, uselessly flailing his limbs and wings. He was screaming, though he couldn't hear himself. The sounds were abandoned far below him. He'd managed to hang onto his guns, this time. The man who called himself "Halo Knight" was keeping pace with him. He was shouting something about saving people and preventing suffering, and he kept firing those silver energy rings at him...but he was using one to fly, so he could only shoot them from his other hand. Angel was barely able to keep track of his opponent. His body was spinning, and the entire world seemed to be a blur. Halo Knight's attacks were currently missing him-a moving figure trying to shoot a moving target-but each shot got a little closer.
BREATHE. CALM DOWN. THINK.
One type of gravity ring had pressed Daredevil down; the other type had sent Angel plummeting upwards. Both kinds of rings looked the same. He couldn't control his flight, and Halo Knight was starting to zero in on him. Halo Knight didn't seem to be a great shot...but then, Angel wasn't, either. He didn't think he could successfully hit him with either gun, not in a situation like this. The phrase "fight or flight" popped into his head, and he laughed, overcome with a sense of gallows humor. He couldn't fight or fly, right n-
-wait, wait, stop fighting it. Let the momentum carry you, like a surfer on a wave. Add your wings to it. Maybe you can outrun him, and buy some time.
Angel holstered his guns, straightened his posture, and flapped his wings. Sure enough, it shot him higher than/ahead of Halo Knight. The "anti-gravity ring" the lunatic was holding seemed to make him just as fast as a person who was hit with one of them, but when Angel added his wings to the effect, he was faster. He'd only been spinning because he was struggling. Now that he was going with the flow, his "fall" was much more even, and it gave him a better view of his enemy. He could see that Halo Knight was awkward in the air. Angel had only been practicing flying for the last month, but this guy seemed even more like a rookie.
Finally, somebody that's less experienced than me. I've never heard of this guy-this could be his first fight. Well, this is my fourth, and it may not be much of an advantage, but I'll take it.
He went higher and higher, and Halo Knight continued to pursue him. Silver energy rings missed him by inches. It was getting colder, and the air was getting thinner, but that didn't bother Angel. His body hadn't just grown wings; it had also changed in other ways. In addition to the radically-improved eyesight, his lungs felt more powerful than ever, and he seemed to be resistant to the cold. Halo Knight's spaceman-looking suit might protect him from the frigid air, but what about breathing? He had to pass out eventually...
Don't get cocky, Warren. If Daredevil hadn't saved you, you wouldn't have survived those goons in the office building-and he isn't here to help you, right now. One "heavy-gravity ring" could cause you to fall to your death. If the lack of oxygen doesn't get him, you'll have to turn and fight him on your own. You might want to start thinking of a plan.
He'd never fought someone that could fly, before, and he honestly had no idea what to do. Luckily, circumstances intervened. Angel suddenly realized that he was slowing down. While it initially made him panic, it didn't take long for him to figure out what it meant: the anti-gravity effect was wearing off. In another minute or so, he'd have full control of his body, again. Halo Knight was still pursuing him, firing energy rings, and Angel put everything he had into an attempt at changing his course. He only altered it slightly-by a degree or two-but he could feel the anti-gravity weakening. Angel pushed, and pushed, and finally broke it, veering off to the side. He laughed.
At first, he just tried to stay away from Halo Knight. He banked hard to the left, dove, and then looped back up. Angel tried to remember the aerial combat movies he'd seen. All that stuff about dogfights, and getting behind the other plane. Then, he noticed that Halo Knight was struggling to keep up with him; his turns were loose and sloppy, and his attempt at looping hadn't gone so well.
I don't get dizzy when I fly-let's see if the same is true for him. Maybe I can make him throw up in his helmet.
Angel turned on a dime, veering at a hard right angle, and he made another loop. A third loop followed, which incorporated a lot of zigging and zagging. Halo Knight was right behind him, but he "spun out" in midair, losing control and spiraling away. He didn't fall, but it created more distance between them. Angel flew up at a forty-five-degree angle, made a tight turn, and then rocketed straight down. When Halo Knight tried to change direction just as suddenly, his momentum made it impossible. The guy was having trouble flying and shooting at the same time. He focused on the former, giving up on the latter, at least for the moment. Halo Knight tried to anticipate where he was going and cut him off, but Angel easily banked away from him.
Actually...no. Let him get close.
The next time that Halo Knight tried to cut him off, Angel made him think he had a chance to grab him, but he stopped short at the last second. And he'd drawn one of his weapons. As the silver-and-black man zipped by him (grabbing empty air), Angel shot him right in the face. It was a gas-filled sphere that resembled a ping-pong ball. The sphere hit the front of his helmet, and it exploded, but Halo Knight didn't react. In fact, he didn't so much as cough.
Come on! I tried the same thing the first time I saw him, and it didn't work then, either. I assumed that he just held his breath and vanished, but maybe not. Maybe that helmet filters out the gas. Or maybe it has oxygen in it, and that's why he isn't having trouble breathing up here.
This wasn't working. The high-altitude conditions weren't doing anything to him, and the aerial maneuvers didn't seem to be disorienting him all that much. Angel needed help.
Halo Knight once again started chasing him, and Angel resumed his loops and violent turns...but he was gradually working his way down. Closer to the city. Daredevil had been shot with a heavy-gravity ring, but it had probably worn off, by now. They needed to tag-team this clown.
Angel was really giving his wings a workout, and, from time to time, a few feathers would go flying. Halo Knight carefully lined up a shot, firing a gravity ring at him-it just barely brushed one of the loose feathers and immediately broke up, causing the feather to fall like a rock. Angel watched it happen. Apparently, if one of Halo Knight's gravity rings hit something solid, it would affect it and vanish...even if the object was small, even if it didn't hit it head-on.
The closer they got to Manhattan, the better Angel felt. Then, he hit a wind shear, and it slowed him down. Halo Knight surged forward and grabbed his ankle.
Angel's entire body convulsed in panic, and he tried to shake him loose. HOLY-
Halo Knight had a gravity ring in his other hand, which enabled him to fly, but he shot it at Angel, instead. Angel jerked away, and it missed. Halo Knight wasn't flying, now, he was just hitching a ride. He kept shooting, and Angel decided to give him the ride of his life.
Angel spun, looped, and generally played crack-the-whip. The energy rings became more infrequent and erratic-Halo Knight had to feel like he was handcuffed to a roller-coaster. Then, finally, he let go, plummeting until he formed another energy ring to hold onto. They were right over the city, now. Angel could actually see Daredevil on the rooftop.
Just a few more seconds, Warren. Get down there and let the actual superhero deal with this.
Angel glanced over his shoulder, checking for Halo Knight...he was maybe thirty feet behind him. But, when he looked at the rooftop again, Daredevil was gone.
He didn't have time to worry about it. Angel landed behind the little roof-access shed, using it for cover, and he drew his other weapon: the one with dense, rounded, non-lethal projectiles in it.
Halo Knight landed on the main part of the rooftop. He fired a single ring at the shed, and it yanked itself off of the roof and flew into the sky. Angel was completely exposed.
"You're not him," Halo Knight was saying, nearly breathless. "You aren't the light. There's light and darkness, and if the light kills the darkness, this horrible world will be over, and we'll all be okay. But you aren't-"
There was a metallic whipping noise, and a wire-thin cord suddenly wrapped around Halo Knight's torso. One of his arms was down at his side, and it was pinned to his body; he was using the other one to point at Angel, so it wasn't caught. Daredevil leapt out of nowhere, roaring.
