Ow.
I blinked a few times, regaining awareness of my surroundings. Scion was still there, looking down at me. His expression almost reminded me of a scientist, watching as a paramecium squirmed in a petri dish with detached interest. His hand was lowered, though I knew he could easily raise it again.
I quickly rose to my feet, surveying the damage he had done with his first attack. He had blasted me into the water directly below us, and in the process I had hit the seafloor with enough force to fracture it for miles around. Magma oozed out of countless new fissures, rapidly darkening as the cold seawater solidified it. The entire area around me was clouded with debris and dead fish, a testament to the sheer power Scion could wield.
Scion was still watching me, as motionless as a golden statue as he stared down at me with brazen eyes. What was he waiting for? Was he gauging how well I had taken the shot, to see what he was up against?
I wouldn't give him the chance. Balling my hands into fists, I sprang out of the water like a bullet and flew right at him. He did nothing to defend himself as I began my counterattack, swinging at him with a vicious right hook. To my surprise, the fist swiped clean through him, scooping out several pounds of unearthly flesh in the process. The wound regenerated immediately as soon as there was nothing blocking it, a faint golden glow emanating from wherever the new flesh poured in from his vast well. It was impressive, how fast he could heal; only someone like me could have actually seen the process in progress before it was completed.
I pressed my offensive, my arms transforming into a blur as I tore out more and more of his flesh. Golden blood, undoubtedly without any actual use for him, dripped into the waters below, turning the ocean a bright yellow. How much of him was I actually damaging? There was probably millions of tons worth of tissue for him to access, and I was only taking out a few pounds at a time. It was like trying to drain an Olympic swimming pool with a teaspoon; I could only speed up the process so much.
Scion blasted me again. This time, the beams came from his eyes, almost like a mockery of my own heat vision. The golden light hit me dead on, sending me arcing across the ocean as it pushed me. Something solid hit my back at an angle, but the beam continued to shove me through it like it wasn't even there. Finally, the beam cut off, allowing me to drop to the ground. As I recovered, I realized that he had blasted me through a mountain. A neat hole had been punched through it, revealing blue sky on the other side.
I lifted back into the air, panting. That attack actually hurt. It hadn't been since I fought Behemoth that I felt so much pain, and I realized that it was probably not going to end there. I took a deep breath, then prepared myself for another attack.
Scion passed through the hole he had made through the mountain, his entire body suffused with a bright golden light. Something strange happened to the mountain wherever the light touched, an effect that somehow weakened the material bonds of certain substances, and the entire peak collapsed behind him in a cloud of dust that swiftly towered above neighboring ridges. The light shifted again, shuffling strangely through wavelengths, and the dust immediately settled back down.
I flew at him again, fists outstretched. Scion fired again, this time using his hand again, but I nimbly sidestepped the beam and rushed him. His entire head turned to a fine paste as I struck it, then swept downwards, splitting him from chest to groin. I began to move faster, using my speed to destroy as much of his flesh as possible before he could have a chance to fight back. His body was unrecognizable at that point; I was tearing it up too much for it to reform in time.
As I pressed on, however, it began to get harder. Each swipe took longer, his flesh becoming more resistant with each passing strike. He took the opportunity to blast me again, sending me smashing into the nearby ocean. A titanic spray rose from the point of landing, only to fall straight down as Scion drifted closer. He descended into the water, his perfect form practically glowing in the dark ocean as he gently alighted onto the seafloor.
I clutched my ribs, groaning. It was like a truck had slammed into my chest, and a look down revealed livid bruises forming underneath my uniform. I had to chance tactics if I wanted to get out of this intact, maybe try and contact Dragon, if she didn't already know what was going on.
That would have to wait, however. Scion sprang forward, striking me across the jaw with a brazen fist. It appeared he was experimenting in combat, seeing how well physical blows would do. The force of the blow splintered his arm like an overripe fruit, but he paid no heed to the damage as he brought his knee up into my gut. Air bubbles rose to the surface as the wind was knocked out of my lungs, and I winced in pain as he made contact with the bruises.
I began to speed up again, watching as everything slowed to a graceful trickle. Scion lashed out with another fist, but it was slower this time, like he was moving through molasses. I sidestepped the strike, then began pulped his torso with a kick. He slowly reacted this time, twisting to reach me as I slammed my fists into his chest over and over, taking out hundreds of pounds of flesh with every fraction of a second.
It was slow for my tastes, but I didn't want to take any further risks. If I moved too fast, like the speeds I used against the Simurgh and Behemoth, the atoms in the way would forcibly fuse together and further damage everything around us. If I wanted to go all out, I needed to take the fight off-planet, like orbit or the Moon again.
My thoughts were interrupted when golden light blasted out from all directions, nearly blinding me with its intensity. The water around us simply vanished, turning into its component particles as Scion activated his main offensive power. As I reeled from the light, he reached out with lightning speed, grasping my throat tightly.
I choked, struggling against his grip as he brought me closer. He glared at me with inhuman eyes, a furious snarl marring his perfect face. More light flashed from his hand, burning into the flesh around my throat. I had to resist the urge to cry out in pain as he increased the attack's strength.
That was when the idea struck me. Heat. I glared back at Scion, feeling a familiar warmth build up behind my eyes.
"Burn," I rasped.
A massive cone of red light engulfed Scion, vaporizing his body down to the portals that linked to his well. The water around us rushed in as soon as his attack stopped, only to turn into steam from the sheer heat of my beams. The rocky seabed beneath us began to glow a dull orange, producing a bloom of infrared light as it turned into molten slag. Behind him, a sandy beach turned to glass wherever the heat vision made contact.
A few seconds passed as I continued to burn away more and more of his flesh, then the beam faded. Scion's body reappeared almost immediately afterward, a white bodysuit reforming over his naked form. He cocked his head at me, as if the attack had never even happened. Was he gauging the damage the heat vision had done?
There was time to ask questions later. Narrowing my eyes, I lunged.
S
A shudder rocked through the ship, quivering the precariously stacked equipment in the main hall. Colin looked up from his workshop table, frowning.
"What was that?"
"I'm not sure," Dragon replied. "It might have been an earthquake, but there are no major fault lines in the area. I'm trying to pinpoint the epicenter right now."
"Do you think it might be something else?" Amy asked, concern clear in her voice. "Maybe... maybe it's already happened, Scion going nuts and everything."
"Let's not jump to conclusions just yet, though I'm afraid we can't rule that out." One of Dragon's combat drones whirred to life, rising from the floor. "I'm going to scout it out. In the meantime, we should prepare for the worst. Prepare to contact government authorities, warn them of the danger Scion poses. I wouldn't be surprised if Cauldron's already trying to evacuate people right now."
"One of the few good things they can do," Colin muttered. "If it weren't for the fact they'd probably try to screw us over, it would have been useful to have access to their portals." He stood up, pulling the black helmet over his head. With it on, there was an inhuman air about him, like he was more of shadow of the night than a man. "That reminds me. What's the status of the Phantom Drive?"
"Still working on it," replied Dragon. "Not much longer, though. Within two hours, we should be able to move between realities and start looking for his real body."
Another tremor shook the hall, dislodging a few stray dust particles.
"I wonder if that'll be soon enough," Colin murmured.
S
We soared over the vast boreal forests of Siberia, tangled in a deadly grapple with each other. I clawed at Scion, digging away more of his flesh with my fingers as they scratched temporary furrows into his chest. In response, he drove a fist into my gut, hunks of meat and splintered bone spraying from his arm as he regenerated the damage of the attack.
I was starting to get tired. The fight against the Endbringers had already been draining on me, and the sheer strength of his attacks did not help. It wasn't to a considerable degree, but it was not good in comparison to the damage I was doing to him. By the time I actually managed to make serious headway against him, I would be too tired to continue, and he would still be going strong.
Scion changed course, sending us careening into the ground. We hit hard, plowing through permafrost and countless trees for miles as we continued to struggle against each other. I worked against his pull, slowly bringing to two of us to a stop. Breaking away from him, I opened fire with my heat-vision again, burning away more of his flesh. He shifted powers, slowly gaining resistance to the beams as his body regenerated back to a visible form.
A ball of golden light raced at me, moving just my heat vision. Cutting the attack off, I dodged to side and watched as it raced past me, blowing up a distant mountain in an explosion of rock and ash. I watched in horror as the dust rose into the air, realizing that people were probably living nearby.
It was the distraction he was going for. A fist struck between my shoulder blades, followed by a muscular arm wrapping about my throat. More golden light shone from his body, scalding my flesh through the material of my uniform.
There was a strange flicker, then the scenery around us changed. The forest was gone, replaced by a vast desert of mottled red and brown tones, accompanied by the usual colors only I could see. The sun beat down upon us from a cloudless sky, and I realized there wasn't any oxygen in the air. We were on another Earth, one where life never evolved to the stage of photosynthesis, and thus actually moved onto land. The only signs of life on this Earth were swarms of single-celled organisms in a chemical-choked ocean on the other side of the planet.
No more worries about holding back, then.
I ripped free from Scion's grip, tearing off his arm in the process. As he reacted to that, I spun about and drove a fist into his gut, pulverizing his torso, then began to scoop away at his well with renewed fervor. He tried to fire a beam again, but I easily dodged the attack and repaid the favor with a massive blast of heat vision.
Scion rocketed into the air, his face contorted with animalistic fury. He screamed, a hoarse roar that chilled me to the bone as he glowed with awesome intensity. Golden light pulsed out from him in all directions, flash-liquidating the ground for miles around us with the sheer amount of energy behind it. A beam slammed into my chest and shoved me into to ground, the entire continent around us shattering into crumbling chunks of tectonic plate. He poured more golden light into it, and the remains of the continent folded around us as I was pushed further and further down.
I rose against the beam, slowly regaining my footing. Bracing myself, I flew to the side of the beam, moving out of his area of effect. I breathed a sigh of relief as the sun shone down on me, then changed course and smashed against Scion again. I changed tactics, rapidly flying around him as I tore at his flawless body, not allowing him the chance to get a bearing on me.
Suddenly, Scion clapped. Everything around us stopped, whether it be dust particles or pieces of debris larger than a city block, and I felt a disconcerting feeling throughout my body. It was as though every cell in my body jerked briefly, and I realized that Scion had attempted to use his stilling power to stop my bodily functions cold. If I had been any younger, any less powerful, it probably would have worked. As it was, I drifted back, trying to overcome the wave of dizziness washing over me.
Scion watched me, and I could've sworn I felt the faintest signs of something other than anger coming from him.
Satisfaction.
He was experimenting, trying to see how doing this made him felt, and he was loving it.
With that in mind, I shook off the dizziness I was feeling, and struck again.
S
"The portal in New York is operating at maximum capacity," the Number Man said. "Approximately fifteen thousand people per hour are being deposited into emergency settlements on Earth Gimel via that route. The Brockton Bay portal is at fifty-three percent capacity, and the Mumbai'i portal is at ninety-two."
"How many people have been evacuated so far?"
"At the moment? One hundred million, three hundred and eight-four thousand, six hundred and ninety-one, with a variation of one point two three eight percent. Forty eight percent are currently on Earth Gimel, while another fifteen point three are on Earth Dalet-"
"Thank you," Doctor Mother interrupted. She sighed, looking around the meeting room. "I must say, the casualties are far lower than what I expected so far."
"We have the Kryptonian to thank for that, strangely enough," Alexandria said. "For some reason, it appears that Scion is focusing predominately on her, though he's still attempting to inflict civilian casualties. For example, the first area the fight ended up making landfall on was Iceland, the nearest population center. Then, as they flew through the atmosphere, it appears that he made grazing shots at any signs of habitation. Had the arc gone on any longer, they would have hit China."
"The most populated area on the planet," Doctor Mother said. "We should focus evacuations on there. What is the likelihood of Scion arriving here again in the next twenty four hours?"
"Hard to tell," the Number Man replied. "Based on scattered reports from our outposts in other realities, he and the Kryptonian are currently flying over Earth Shin. Theoretically speaking, he could arrive back here, though he may attempt to attack easier to reach Earths first."
"We should be out there," Eidolon said. "The longer we spend just on evacuation, the weaker I'm getting. If I want to be even a little useful, I have to move fast."
Doctor Mother turned to him. "For now, we have to observe, see just what Scion is capable of. I'd rather risk the Kryptonian than you."
"Why is that, by the way?" Legend asked. "Why is it we're letting her out to dry while we just sit here?"
"I understand you may have some personal concerns," Doctor Mother replied. "I also know that the revelation of what our true intentions are may be a prob-"
"I'm not talking about that," Legend snapped. "I'll deal with that later, when I don't have to worry about the human race going extinct. I'm talking about why you're letting someone tough enough to kill Endbringers handle Scion alone. She's probably got more power in her little pinky than the three of us, and she's risking herself to keep him away from civilians. If we lose her, we're fucked, period."
"I don't see why you're so adamant about protecting her. She may be the most powerful player on the table, but that doesn't mean she's as useful as Eidolon or Alexandria. She's unpredictable, unwilling to work with us."
"So, she's not valuable because you're not the one telling her to fight him?"
There was a brief pause. Doctor Mother leaned back in her chair and sighed, exchanging a brief look with Contessa. "We'll see if we can move some of our weaker capes into the fight, get some pressure off of the Kryptonian. Our priority is not her, however."
Legend walked out of the room, sparing his two oldest friends a glance. He walked down the hallway for a bit, then paused.
"Door."
