A/N: Sorry about the delay, a buddy of mine moved up to the same state now, plus work's been slammed, I haven't had energy to do much on weekends. It also doesn't help that a bunch of great games have been coming out in the last few months. I'm already working on 4.4 and it should be out very soon compared to this one. One or two more chapters and we'll be at the conclusion of the Storm arc as well. Also I've probably mentioned this, but this story will be ending relatively soon, this was never intended to be a giant fic that challenges Worm in length, it's already longer than I ever thought I'd get it to be. Thank you to all of you who are still here and reading, I really appreciate all of your kind words and favorites/ follows.
Storm 4.3
The sheer arrogance of Ares' statement left Taylor speechless for a moment, before she glanced up at the sky above. The completely clear sky. He had changed the weather with nothing but a punch. She could also sense his satisfaction and the fact that hadn't been his strongest blow.
"I'll give you a brief run down of my power." Ares said conversationally even as capes began moving around the battlefield in confused panic over the sudden turn of events. Leviathan had left Legacy half buried in rubble and was now moving with all speed toward them, recognizing Ares as the greater threat. "I can access a source of energy that makes me stronger, faster, tougher, and allows me to regenerate quickly. The problem is that the more I draw upon this power, the more rage and hatred I begin to feel, a need to fight and test myself as well. When I leveled New York and killed Magician, I was at about 50%."
Taylor nearly choked. She'd seen how powerful and how clever Magician was. And Ares had killed him at only 50% of his max strength…? "What happens when you hit 100%?" She asked uneasily.
Ares grunted. "Happened only once, during my trigger event. Except that 100% probably wasn't nearly as potent as my current. Even that was enough to level a city and cause a government to try to use a tinkertech nuke on me." Ares went quiet and Leviathan was almost on them. "I'll start at 50% for now, but if I have to push beyond that, then get ready to reign me in if you have to. Like I said, the rage is still there, if muted, but if I go all out then even that dampening might not be enough."
"I'll be ready." Taylor promised.
"Good."
Ares suddenly vanished in a burst of speed, the ground cratering where he'd stood, air pressure of his movement making Taylor take a step back. He reappeared at eye level with the charging Leviathan with a savage grin on his face before rearing back and punching it right in one of it's glowing eyes. The air shuddered with the force of the blow, a shockwave blasting out as Leviathan was hurled through the air and began plowing through city blocks.
Taylor winced at the damage that was being caused and just hoped that the civilians were safe. Her armband came alight with chatter before the familiar voice of Armsmaster cut through it all. "Olympia, is he one of yours?!"
"Yes." Taylor confirmed. "One of my strongest. Brute 12, minimum."
Silence for a moment before Armsmaster spoke again. "Can he kill Leviathan?"
"From everything I know about him, yes, he can." Taylor replied.
"Then ignore any collateral damage. Anything is acceptable if it means killing an Endbringer." Armsmaster ordered.
Taylor resented the note of command in the hero's voice, but let it go. He was a regional commander and was probably stressed to hell and back with this fight. "Ares will get the job done." She said, then cut the connection.
"It's scary seeing him in action again."
Taylor spun, spear materializing and leveling at the familiar voice. "Magician!" She hissed angrily. "What are you doing?!"
The supervillain gave her a lopsided smile. "Honestly? I was debating using this opportunity in some way." He looked over at Leviathan as Ares appeared above it in another burst of obscene speed and then pummeled it into the ground, flattening several city blocks in the process. "But then you had to summon him."
"He's the one who killed you, right?"
"Yeah." Magician grumbled. "We'd fought before, sure. It was a whole rivalry thing. But that day… That day we were playing for keeps." Magician smiled darkly for a moment. "I really thought that would be it too. Every time we had fought before, I was never serious, while I thought Ares was just a try hard." He shook his head. "Sandbagging bastard."
"If he was so strong, then why didn't you just run? You claim to have hundreds of powers, didn't you have a speed or teleportation power?" Taylor asked.
"I tried." Magician growled, frustration leaking into his tone. "Believe me, I tried. Speed was useless, he was as fast or faster than my best and teleportation was out too, he had some sort of… metaphysical weight. It kept me from bending space or turning myself into light to teleport away, anchored me to that location. Plus…" Magician trailed off, then shrugged. "Call it destiny, fate, or maybe a canon event, but there was a finality to that moment that my precognition tried to warn me of, but I just kind of ignored because I thought I was invincible. I was going to die that day one way or the other. So was Ares. No matter what paths we'd taken, it was going to happen."
"So what, then free will is just a lie?" Taylor asked with a grim shake of her head. "I refuse to believe that."
"Look, I'm not gonna dip into the metaphysics of it all, I'm just explaining to the best of my ability why and how Ares killed me." Magician shook his head even as another of Ares' blows caused several nearby windows to shatter. Leviathan was in full retreat, trying to make it back to the ocean. "Damn it's really tempting to try and nab you here, but I also have a feeling if I tried, Ares would just kill me again."
"You…" Taylor looked over Magician and the false bravado he was radiating. "You're scared."
The supervillain flinched. "N-No I'm not, what are you even talking about?!"
"You are! Maybe not of Ares directly, but… what he'll do?" She guessed. "You're a villain, but not a monster. You think maybe Ares will do something like the Downfall again, don't you?"
Magician was silent for a moment. "Yeah. The Downfall… I thought maybe I could stop it. I did see it coming after all. But like I said, it was destined to happen. If Ares didn't cause it, then I might have if I killed him and stole his powers. Sometimes, the timelines can only get worse. The Downfall my world experienced was the best of several outcomes. There were others that could have turned out far… messier." He shook his head as if to clear unwelcome thoughts. "Anyway, I thought I'd come and keep an eye on you here. If Ares goes postal, I can probably contain him briefly. We're not on completely even footing, but I'm tricky enough to keep him occupied for a while."
"Or maybe you can just let yourself go back to the Storm so I can use that chunk of power again?" Taylor asked wryly.
Magician laughed heartily and patted her on the head condescendingly. Huh, so her power kept him from harming her, but not from direct contact. That was good to know, because who knew what kind of powers he had that were touch ranged and not directly harmful. "Olympia, you should know by now that I do what I want, when I want. I haven't given up on my plan yet, I was just here… let's call it an act of community service. Now let's see what my old foe has got in store for Leviathan, eh?"
Reluctantly, Taylor turned from the supervillain and out onto the battlefield. It seemed like Ares wasn't having the best time by the looks of things.
Ares was having the time of his life! He'd never been able to cut loose like this before, the sheer joy of getting to hit something as hard as he could and that thing just getting back up rather than turn into red mist? It was indescribable. With a laugh of utter bliss, he slammed his fist into Leviathan's chest and sent it up off the ground and several stories into the sky. The area of the Endbringer's chest where it had been struck began to weep black ichor even as Ares kicked off the ground and appeared above Leviathan in a blur of speed, grabbed it's face and then used some of the built in effects of his armor to cause himself and the creature to plummet back to the ground where he could then slam it down into the street! He felt a sensation on the back of his neck, like he was forgetting something…
Jason pulled and shackled his battle lust. He growled to himself at the slip-up and decided it was good that the other Endbringer fighters had retreated, rather than try to assist. While lost in the battle-fury, he might have…
A pink-haired girl surrounded by advanced killing machines reverse engineered from Doctor Jackal, her most powerful Designs, stood between him and Magician, the only truly worthy foe on this killing field. Dead supers, heroes and villains alike, littered the crater.
"I got your back Ares!" She called cheerfully, even as Magician appeared in a burst of light and tried to impale her with his sword-cane.
Ares took the opportunity, already too deeply taken by his power. It should have been the first warning sign to those still alive that something was wrong with him. He kicked off the ground and appeared behind the girl (Tech-Support, a friend) and shoved her aside with far too much force in his eagerness to renew his assault on Magician…
The sounds of bones snapping like twigs was lost as Ares continued the only fight that truly mattered to him.
Jason grit his teeth and then leapt forward and delivered another haymaker across the Endbringer's face, popping another eye and sending the thing rolling end over end through the city. Earth Bet didn't need Ares, the mad dog driven insane by his own powers, it needed Ares, the war hero, the one who had incredible strength and could use it smartly.
The world slowed as Ares raced across the city to the landing site of Leviathan. The Endbringer had already regained it's feet, water surging from it's form as it prepared to unleash a tide of destruction upon the surrounding area. Ares snarled and lashed out with a blast of pure air pressure shaped by his fist, a wave of condensed wind that scattered the Endbringer's gathering wave before it could fully take shape. He had already deduced that the Endbringer's primary threat was the massive amount of collateral damage it could dish out, if he could keep it off balance…
Water struck him from behind like a ram, enough concussive force to remind him of the times he'd sparred seriously with Legacy. The fluid flowed around him and began to exert a constant downward pressure, keeping him pinned against what he assumed was the street. He strained against it, but the force of it was all consuming, thousands of gallons working in concert to keep him in place. Ares was briefly reminded of a hydrokinetic he'd fought during the Downfall, but shook it away. Leviathan was by far the strongest water manipulator he'd ever seen, certainly the strongest by volume at least. Fluid began to leak into his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. It began to fill his lungs and strangle the air and life out of him.
He snarled and tapped deeper into his well of power. His eyes became a deeper shade of red and veins began to stand out along his arms with the shining light of the Storm's energy. Pulling back his fist through the shifting water, Ares slammed it into his own chest. The armor, forged by his brother's hand and imbued with it's own power, took the force of the blow and caused it to rebound, creating a massive shockwave that blew away Leviathan's trap and sent the Endbringer tumbling away from the sheer power behind it. Entire blocks and their structures were blown away as hurricane force winds were rapidly generated by the shifting energy.
Ares took a deep breath as he stood on solid ground again, rather than pinned against it. He wiped some water out of his eyes and then looked at the Endbringer that was pulling itself from a nearby debris pile. It was moving slowly, sluggishly. It's wounds still poured black ichor, but they healed slower than before.
Is it pretending to try and lure me in or have I pushed it to it's limit?
The monster tried sending out another stream of compressed and highly pressurized water, akin to a water saw and even as Ares was moving to avoid it, it was beginning to run back to the safety of the ocean.
"You're mine!" He roared, feeling the indignation of a powerful foe trying to run burn in his chest.
He threw himself through the air after the creature, before being sent crashing back down by an almost negligently thrown wave of water that sent him crashing back down to the streets. Leviathan couldn't hurt him unless it was focusing a lot of power on him, but it could sure as hell be an inconvenience. He threw another air pressure blast at it, not enough to truly hurt it, but enough to send it stumbling and give him time to catch up. It's tail whipped around, but he caught the damn thing and tore it free with a spray of thick ichor and a roar of pure rage.
Then as a red haze began to fall across his vision, the world started to burn with golden light.
Taylor grimaced as she felt Ares' rage filling him, consuming him, twisting him, twisting her. The link with her supers had never felt more like a double edged sword as Ares' power and rage filled her, making her want to fight and kill anything in a 20 mile radius. Magician could see or maybe sense what she was feeling as he was slowly easing away.
"You alright there?" He asked cautiously. "You uh… You got a little something here." He gestured at his face.
Taylor felt her own and felt blood dribbling not just from her nose, but the corners of her eyes as well. "Fine. Ares is just… a lot."
"Yeah, I'll say." Magician grimaced. "He's pushed past what he used to kill me and is going further. The fact he hasn't tried to rip anyone other than the Endbringer apart yet is a miracle and a half."
"He wants to." Taylor said, feeling the churning rage within. " He really, really wants to, but he's also having fun fighting Leviathan. But once it's dead or gone…"
"He'll turn on the gathered assembly of some of this world's strongest capes." Magician sighed, seeing her logic. "And prove his strength by crushing them into the ground. Another Downfall." He looked at her appraisingly. "You've gotten a lot stronger with your powers though. You couldn't force him back to the light?"
Taylor hesitated. Maybe when she was at her best and fresh, but now, in the middle of an Endbringer fight after using most of her power…?
"I can try." She finally said. "I can't promise anything though."
"Well worst case, I'm sure I can slow him down a bit." Magician grinned cockily, then took on a more thoughtful look. "Actually between me and Legacy we might even be able to kill him, as long as he didn't go full 100% at least."
"Legacy and I."
"Yeah yeah, I never graduated high school, so lay off my grammar." He shook his head. "Alright Olympia, I'm gonna do something I never thought I would before now: I'm gonna help you." His hands began to glow with energy before he froze like a deer in headlights and looked out across the sky. "Oh shit."
"Magician?" Taylor looked out to where he was gazing with some degree of worry.
"New plan!" He hissed, eyes beginning to burn blue and Taylor could feel through their link as he began to cycle through powers. "We're hiding now." He made a gesture and Taylor felt him share his senses and perceptions with her for a moment. The golden power rushing across the sea and toward the vicious battle.
"Scion." She whispered. "But he helps with these sometimes, right?"
"Yeah, but if he senses our energy, that unique power that makes us supers, well, super, then it could set him off. Maybe." He grimaced. "Not risking it either way. I've put a few Stranger powers over us, hopefully he won't notice."
"Ares is a giant beacon of the storm's energy though!" Taylor hissed.
"Which he could write off as an anomaly since his mate had started to take in and scan the power, but if he senses you of all people…" He trailed off.
"Wait, what do you mean by that?"
"If Ares is a bonfire, you're like the sun, no, like a supernova." Magician laughed as he pulled her out of sight. "You don't get it, do you? Me and Ares? We were some of the world's strongest supers, even decades after our death, but you can bring us back into existence at our apex and control us, shackle us to your will. You have a near infinite well of potential and access to supers that might be even stronger than us." His eyes met her with a burning intensity. "There's a reason I want your powers so badly and make no mistake, I will find a way to get ahold of them, but I can't do that if Scion preemptively starts the end of the world."
The first parahuman or rather, the source of parahuman powers, appeared in a blaze of golden energy, stopping as quickly as he'd arrived. His dull eyes scanned the various parahumans that were assembled, seeming to linger with what looked like disdain upon Eidolon for a moment, before resting on where Ares and Leviathan still struggled with each other. A single hand was raised and light built up in Scion's outstretched palm.
Then the world flashed with golden light and Taylor screamed.
