All in (Phoenix)

Oh no, we aren't doing this. Lucius thought as he saw the giant knight construct. He waited until the last second and activated his teleporter, then his cloaking device. He ported the max he could at the moment, ending up just short of a football field away as the knight swung and the twenty or so blasts were released. What a meat head, using nothing but power to try to win.

Lucius took this time to calm himself a bit. It was true he was about at his most dangerous now, enough hatred to keep him determined but not enough to make him tunnel visioned, but he couldn't risk getting angry. He had to keep himself fresh and level headed.

He walked back toward his target, small but simple speakers in hand that would allow him to speak through them. He sent them to various places around the area and slowly moved them toward Phoenix using his thin energy telekinesis technique. The point of this was to use stealth to his advantage. He even used faint energy to create foot prints slowly walking toward the hero from all directions, while he himself hung back, cloaked and using his thrusters to gain height while the hero was distracted.

"You think your hell was worse then all the others? You think you have dealt with more evil then i have? I had a copy once too, Blood Tithe. He was about to brutally kill an eleven year old before i was resurrected and stopped him, having gone through literal hell. I had no control, he forced me to drown my lost love, smash her head in, strangle her, cut her into little bits..... How would that make you feel? If you were made to crush the heart of the only person you ever truly loved? How would you feel if you knew the monster that caused it resides in you? Don't talk to me about evil, boy. You have no idea what that is, not until you become it." The message poured from all the high powered speakers around Phoenix, and the foot steps got closer from all directions. Before the hero would figure out what was happening, the cloaked Lucius would already be touching down from his four hundred foot dive. He had charged the whole way, and was headed straight for the Savior, unseen and about to unleash power Phoenix had not yet seen from him.

Upon impact, at least three hundred meters around would be enveloped in a red energy explosion, with Phoenix and Lucius at the center of it. It was like a warhead going off, especially if Lucius landed right on top of the hero, being unseen the whole time. Lucius though, he would be totally unaffected by his own blast. After it was done, Lucius would simply be standing in the kicked up dust, while Phoenix would likely be badly corroded and burnt.

This did use a lot of power though, especially since he had to manipulate the faint energy from such a distance. Hopefully the gamble payed off.

Andrew sensed no counter attack but could hear Lucius from every direction. "You know nothing of what I had to go through. You don't have to become your enemies to defeat them. Much like I won't become you to win here today."
He could hear footsteps coming in all directions with smoke kicked up. Elena had prepared him well for this. He closed his eyes and thought for a fraction of a second before putting a few things together.

"Got it." His brain truly had gotten stronger with the rest of his body. He was no A.I. but this was an improvement.
"None of those footsteps are the correct sound for walking on the desert sand. There's only one place you can be." Andrew looked straight above himself. "There."

Based off the way this guy fought Andrew knew he would more than likely be coating himself in energy, much like  Phoenix did with his fire. Or he would be preparing a large blast for the hero. Either way, he didn't feel like taking a direct hit. Not from this guy. As Andrew dashed ahead of himself, he felt the actual impact beneath his feet of Lucius hitting the ground. Sand leaped into the sky. "Faster" Andrew was running somewhere between mach 2 and 3. He looked over his shoulder to see the blast coming for him.

"That thing has to have a range." Andrew kept running full speed now. There was no way this blast was going to swallow him.
As he cleared the area, the concussion from the blast sent him flying and tumbling over. He had made it out unscathed from that certain doom.
"Thank you Marie." he spoke up to the sky knowing whichever universe she was in right now, she would hear him.

Andrew looked at the blast radius once the dust cleared a bit.
"300 Meters was his maximum distance. So far. I know I can outrun it. Can he outrun me?" Andrew circled the area around Lucius in an arena of fire.

Snapping his fingers, the entire construct imploded inwards. Andrew used this time to dash back at his opponent he knew this would be maybe one of the only openings he got. Still coated with his layer of miraculous gold and white flame, he leaped at the devil.

He threw one hell of a hay maker, mixed with his speed. If this thing connected no shield he could create would stop it. He followed up by Back flipping and firing a large stream of fire that turned into 8, swarming his opponent from all sides.
Things were certainly getting intense.

Lucius drew in a large sigh of irritation, but upon releasing the air pushed the anger to the side. Somehow the metahuman had managed to totally evade the blast, and was now coming at Lucius with a counter attack. Lucius had to do something more creative with this guy. He had two ideas so far, and they exploited the metahumans lack of a sensory advantage.

Just before the fire came at him, he sent a brilliant flash outward to keep him hidden for a moment as his costume left him, segmenting a bit to create an opening for Lucius to simply walk out of the armor. After that, he created a construct of himself in the armor and he himself sunk into the sand with his energy within a matter of seconds, making sure to bury himself quite well. Sure some of his tech might get fried up there but it was his only hope. He made sure to keep Cora Zen at his side however.

He was about thirty feet underground, and the fire hit the construct Lucius, then Phoenix himself charged in with a haymaker. All in all, it likey damaged his tech control systems and scanners. A sacrifice he was willing to take. Using his solidified energy again, he rose up from the sand a couple of feet over, standing right behind Phoenix within the blink of an eye. The meta likely thought he was in the suit, but no, he was stabbing his sword directly at Phoenix's back.

With the fact Lucius had such quick reaction time, being quick on the draw, and the fact he was surprising Phoenix, the hit seemed certain. The vibrating blade would saw its way through just about any flesh in an instant. Meanwhile, his gadgets collapsed into their nano cube form and the construct fadded.

"Lets see how you avoid being impaled."

Andrew was astounded that his hit landed with ease. The entire fight Lucius had been defending everything The Phoenix. "This makes no sense. Wait." he had the realization. Lucius was brilliant.

"Son of a bitch has me dead to rights." Andrew knew he was in for some trouble it was just a matter of how much. The construct faded along with Andrew's smile of victory.
If not for his amazing speed, this next attack could have been the end of the fight. Spinning quickly he saw the blade coming his way. He used his staff to deflect most of the blow, but it still cut across the outer layer of skin near his ribs. "Damn. That hurt. I have to be smarter. if I want to walk out of here without being skewered."

Andrew leaped back, and spun his staff clockwise. It created a speeding wind tunnel to blow back his opponent. As the wind moved at insane forces, he let fire leak into the whirlwind. It quickly set to flames. "You got me good." Andrew let the whirlwind stop before slamming his staff back into the ground.

He fired two extreme blasts of flame. Power Lucius had yet to see. Hell, there was no limit, he only would see more and more power. "I owe you a good hit back." The fire roared on.

The sword had tasted blood, that was a step in the right direction. Sure it wasn't a fight winning blow like Lucius had expected, but it was progress. Lucius immediately sheathed his sword and grabbed his gear with his energy, which segmented back onto him in about a second. This unfortunately gave Lucius no time to react to the whirlwind created by Phoenix's staff. He was lifted up in the air, and flung around like a rag doll. His teleporter was still charging, so he had to ride this one out. Well, that would have been an alright option if there wasn't now fire streaming into it.

Glorious...... Lucius instantly felt the burns across his body, and noticed much of his robes were set ablaze. He was being cooked in his armor by the intense heat, so he had to do something. He activated his thrusters at full power and hoped to pull away, only getting out with some assistance from energy ropes. He made sure to fly a good distance away before the fuel burned out in his thrusters and he hit the ground.

He was a good distance away from his opponent, so he had some time to get up and gather himself. He was pissed off, that much he could barely fight off. He gritted his teeth, cursing his powers limitation as it made it hard to think. He had to though, only his tactical moves had proved to have any effect on Phoenix. He had to keep playing his games, he couldn't lose it, not now. He slowly and persistently walked toward Andrew, closing distance calmly and without hostility. He could be doing any number of things, he just hoped Andrew would hear him out.

"I didn't say you needed to be evil to defeat evil, i said you needed to have touched it to understand true evil. What you see before you is a monster, turned that way by fighting monsters. I would have never believed that stupid quote if it hadn't happened to me...." Lucius said, priming the explosives on his belt as he got as close as he could. If Andrew hit him with anything, he would take it, if he tried to launch him away with that wind stick, he would coat his body in energy and hold it down to the ground. Regardless, he was getting close enough to talk at a conversational level.

"I understand your plight. I understand your sacrifice. We aren't so different, you and i. Funny we ended up on other ends of the spectrum...." Lucius said, activating the bombs telepathically, which exploded on his belt. The high tech bombs weren't fire, they were UV radiation, like the sun. The explosion was at the literal speed of light, Phoenix had nano seconds to run and it was doubtful he would clear the large blast entirely if he did. Lucius was confident his endurance would get him through this, but it was a risky move obviously. He was blown away, launched in fact, his armor totally obliterated. There wasn't going to be any more tech tricks. He may be able to salvage something, but it looked doubtful. He was burnt to a crisp, his healing factor taking extra time to kick in. The only good part about this was he was hidden by kicked up dust. Talk about a Hail Mary.

"Finally some damage." Andrew made a fist of victory. It wasn't a large bit of damage, but brick by brick right? So The Phoenix knew he could hurt the man given the right circumstances. Andrew didn't like hurting people, but the devil asked for this dance, and was intent on killing the hero. If his life was not in danger, he probably wouldn't be throwing so much power. Not to mention Lucius was giving him little to no moves. "This guy must be great at chess." he thought to himself.

As the devil approached he looked miffed. His body language said it all. He was all set with Andrew and his fire abilities. That's when he noticed he was talking more than he had the entire fight. Was he going to teleport away? "We're not opposite ends of the spectrum, Alba. We aren't even in the same one."
Andrew looked at him as he continued walking. The bombs on his belt exploded. There wasn't much time to react.
"Damn."

Andrew grabbed his staff, and slammed it into the ground, dropping to one knee. He braced for the explosion and watched as his opponent was sent off.  Andrew was pushed back about 5 feet himself. The top half of his costume had been mostly ripped off. Only the Phoenix in the center and the right side remained. Andrew grabbed his chest and pulled the costume top off. Taking a look down at the Phoenix logo, he stood up and clenched it tight. "At least this is a symbol of hope to all. You elitist."

Andrew was the one walking slowly now, his staff draped across his shoulders. He pulled it off and spun it clock wise once more. A wind tunnel kicked up and blew all the dust away from the scene of Lucius's body.

Andrew held the staff, and pointed it towards the bastard.
"So you managed to blow yourself up to cost me a shirt? That's not very calculated, but you're angry now aren't you. Getting stupid. Getting reckless. I knew it was only a matter of time."

Andrew leaped and spun the staff with incredible force, creating the largest tunnel he had to date. He let fire flow as it all went soaring towards the charred body of Lucius Alba.

Andrew's dog tags began to glow. There was trouble.
"Talons to Phoenix, we need you."
"What's the problem?"
"Those anti-hero terrorists are attacking Vegas as we speak aren't you there?"
"I'll be on scene A.S.A.P. Phoenix out."
Andrew looked down at his opponent.
He would heal from that wound, but there was a more important battle at hand.
"How do i get back to the city?" He asked walking closer to Lucius. Fire formed around his hand.
"I know you regenerate. Any funny business, and this knocks out teeth."

Seriously? No damage from two building leveling bombs? If that didn't hurt him what would? He was already up and walking toward the downed villain. Maybe Lucius had underestimated the Saviors endurance. Regardless, his pride was wounded and the situation looked grim, but he had one last trump card to pull.  That's when he heard something was going down in Vegas. Honestly, Lucius couldn't have that. He loved that city, and had made it a point to stop unnecessary death lately. Looks like the Devil and the Savior had a common enemy. That didn't mean Lucius wasn't going to pull his final move, though. He was far from beaten, and couldn't have the hero thinking otherwise.

"Still a lot smarter then you..." Lucius remarked with a pained chuckle, however he may have looked though, he was still playing games. The entire time Phoenix was talking and walking, Lucius was allowing energy chains from his back to burrow into the ground, hidden under his body, eventually extending around twenty feet around him under the sand. And then he reached for his blade, but not to kill anyone.


The situation in Vegas is grim, and there have already been several casualties. I would suggest you involve yourself quickly. The AI said, choppy through the mostly ripped apart mask.

I plan too. No need to let people die while I'm close enough to put it to a halt. Convert 90% of current core power to revitalization, 9% to vibration for a single stroke, and the last 1% to go into stasis. Thank you, Hector. Lucius thought in response. Now was the time to make his move, to turn the tables and set things straight. He had to set the ground rules before this all happened.

"My teleporter is the only way unless you want to waste lives running through about five hundred miles of desert." Lucius said, acting like he was only responding but just after he did he made his move. Using a last large bit of energy, he created a flash bang of sorts. It was brighter then the worst of them, and would blind anyone, even a Savior, for at least a few seconds. He also pulled out his literal last gadget, the sonic emitter, and turned it on. Couldn't hurt to keep him from hearing as well.

In that time, Hector converted his cores power in the sword to healing energy, quickly accelerating Lucius' healing factor to an insane degree. Just as that happened the chains would spring from the ground, trying to grab at Phoenix's legs and then torso, before moving up to confine him even more. With the metas physical power the constructs would probably only hold for a minute or so, but thats all that was needed. If all went well Phoenix would be tied up and Lucius would be standing in front of him before the red light faded from his vision and the blaring sound left his ears.

He would be holding his sword straight out, aiming at Phoenix's throut as it buzzed with vibrations. Half of Lucius' mask was tore off, revealing a red glowing eye with pure hatred within. Murder could be seen in his eye, if everything landed it would be so easy to just flick his wrist and kill the hero, but he couldn't. He wasn't a murderier anymore, he was better then that. His eye faded back to grey, and he tore his mask and hood off.

"Stay out of my way after this, and I'll help you get back. Not to mention, not kill you." Lucius would say. Now all they had to do was see if Lucius could repair his teleporter.

As Andrew was ready to offer his hand to his opponent, once given the information he realized that Alba was his ticket out of here. "Well we better make a mo-"

Bang. It happened in an instant. A trick up Lucius's sleeve. "Damn."
As he prepared for the worst he felt burning energy around his leg. "No. no. no. no."
Andrew pulled back with all his might, able to take a step backwards, as the chains pulled. After about 2 seconds of pulling what he couldn't even see he was able to back flip away, holding his staff behind him, keeping his fire lit on his right hand.

As his vision came back he saw Lucius standing in front of him, with his sword drawn. Andrew pointed his hand at the devil and created a spear like structure. "Looks like a stalemate. Let's go save some people?" Andrew took a step towards Lucius.
"I'm putting innocent lives in your hand Alba. Don't make me regret it." he awaited the teleportation to activate.

Perhaps the stalemate was about the best Lucius was going to get. He couldn't help but chuckle at the overall JUSTICE! personality type this man seemed to have. It was so weird hearing him talk, like he really thought this was a Saturday morning cartoon or something. Lucius was helping to improve his image more then anything, but keeping people from losing loved ones was a plus. He shealthed his sword, then turned his back to Phoenix and started going through his damaged goods.

Damn, the power cell was fried. They wouldn't be able to make the jump without a massive power surge, and he just so happened to be limited in the energy department as of now. He had to do it though, or call up a friend but it was too time consuming. As open as it would leave him it was his only option.

"Don't make me regret not nuking your precious Talons while they all are in one place....." Lucius said in retort, out of anger if anything else. He wanted so badly to hit something, to do something to release the anger, but it was only going to get worse.

"I have to supercharge the power cell with my own energy. Unfortunately, since you.......well, made me use it a lot, i might not be as kind after i'm done. Don't bother trying to stand in my way if i end up wanting to kill one of the so called terrorists." Lucius explained, before supercharging the cell and activating the teleporter. Soon, they found themselves in the heart of Vegas, where people were running and weapons were sounding off. Lucius immediately hobbled into an alley, knowing he was liable to blow up anyone who so much as nodded approvingly at that dim wit Phoenix. Lucius was sick, in more ways then one.

They arrived at the scene and Andrew instantly heard the attack.
"You're out of power. You're nearly out of gadgets if you aren't already. You even think about killing anyone, and that little sword won't save you from the inside of a power inhibiting prison we built specifically for people like you."

Andrew took off into the street. The crowds were running for their lives as they were being shot at. There couldn't have been more than 30 terrorists there. Maybe 40 at the most. Andrew leaped up on top of a car and shot fire into the air. Everything seemed to come to a momentary silence.

"You know exactly who I am. What I don't know is why you keep keep killing humans when you have a problem with meta-humans. Do you even think about the orders passed down?"
Andrew looked around and pointed his hands like guns at about 20 of the men. Instantly flames of insane temperature shot out like bullets, landing on his enemies firearms, and they began to melt.

They screamed in a bit of pain as Andrew dashed at the them, knocking them each out with a single blow of his staff.
10 more men flanked Andrew, firing fully automatic weapons at him. The bullets hit him, and fell to the ground. "Why do they keep trying with the guns?"

Andrew walked slowly towards the men. They kept up the fire till the sound they feared happened. Click. Click. Click.
"Enough." Andrew spoke spinning his staff sending the men flying backwards at a brick wall behind them and knocking them out. There could only be 10 more at most.

The police were beginning to move in. From the rooftops of Vegas, Phoenix chants rang with a boom like that of a concert.
They all clapped and looked down with pride at their hero.
The terrorists looked pissed that were left. That's when Lucius came walking out of the shadows.
"Don't!" Andrew screamed.

You insufferably idiotic lit...... You know what, it's not worth it. Lucius thought as he sort of sat the first wave out, breathing heavy and desperately trying to fight off the red he was seeing. What Phoenix didn't understand was at this stage Lucius could have no choice in the matter, he could snap and decapitate someone at any moment.

And that's when someone decided to shoot him. It seemed to be some dick with a gun's unlucky night. The bullet bounced off Lucius' head, leaving only a small mark which healed almost instantly. His eyes were now glowing red and faint energy radiated from him. He looked at the man with a devilish grin, standing still as the young terrorist took in the sight in absolute fear.

"You shot me on the wrong night, kid. I'm sorry...." Lucius said with his last ounce of willpower, before he lunged forward, grabbed the gun, kicked the mans legs out from under him, and was about to slice his head off with a quick sword swing. The only thing that broke his trance was the loud call from Phoenix. He paused, hesitated. He slowly turned his head, half covered in shadows with what light there was highlighting his distraught state and his five o'clock shadow. He laughed, holding his sword at the mans throut as he stared down Phoenix. This was about to get ugly.

"You threaten me.....? Hahahahaha! Please! You may be powerful, but it's still nothing more then a tiny yelp from an irritating insect. No one commands me, especelly not a dillusional meathead that somehow believes his actions will create long term improvment. Why don't you people let the adults talk? Be gone." Lucius said, creating a small lightshow which, along with his appearance, served to scare the people in the area off.

"Don't worry Andrew, i won't kill this man. No, i try to keep bloodshed to a minimum. I'm saving my first kill in months for the people you love. If you even so much as look in the general direction of Belarus, i will make those you hold dear suffer. Your entire world will burn, i'll crumble every last thing you have to dust, and you will be alive and well the whole time to watch. Finish up here, stroke your ego, get some pictures taken, and then go back to being irrelevant." Lucius said, making sure all the cameras and recording devices in the area were fried with a minor EMP and also making sure no one was in ear shot. There was of course the man, but the dude was a anti metahuman terrorist. No one was going to believe a word he said against Lucius Alba. Regardless, even if his speech did get out, it didn't matter. So many people already knew what Lucius was about, and they didn't care. They called him a redeemer and a devil after all. He then sheathed Cora Zen, turning around and just daring Phoenix to respond. Hector was bound to have notified his people once the situation earlier took a nose dive. If Phoenix wanted to play again, then so be it.

Once he was assured that man wouldn't be killed he spun his staff counter clockwise and sucked the terrorist towards him. Away from the claws of this monster. Once he had the man in his hand, he turned and tossed him into the pile of his sleeping friends. Sure a bit of a hard landing, but nothing that wouldn't heal in a few days. I mean, he was attempting to kill hundreds, if not thousands of people. A few broken bones were nothing compared to what this maniac would've done with his body.

Andrew turned back to Lucius.
"Shut. Your. Damn. Mouth."
Andrew was now pissed himself.
"Your threats are as empty as your power reserves. The best you could do is have one of your buddies come and save your sorry ass. You think you'll destroy everything deer to me!"
People began to gather around Andrew. Creating a wall. Creating a small army standing for what is right.
"As for your little dictatorship. I'll get to taking it down. Although after speaking with Sean, and witnessing it today with my own eyes. You have a habit of blowing up. Things around you fall. That psychopath Holocaust already took everything I held deer from me. Do your homework before you threaten someone."

More cheers erupted. Andrew created a wall of fire between Lucius and the his the group around him.
"Now go back to your rat hole. Wait for me. Come anywhere near me again and you'll find out exactly what I'm capable of cutting loose and doing. You're not half as scary as you think you are, and you're not nearly as powerful. My strength comes from doing what's right. What is needed. What people gather together for. Now consider yourself lucky and get out of here."

Andrew turned and walked away. Before looking over his shoulder and saying some final words.

"I may be 'insufferable', but you're just a monster. You're poison to this planet. Everyone knows what you're about. It's just a matter of time until we all come together." Andrew dashed off into the night. Leaving the monster behind as news choppers began to circle the city of sin.
Even miles away he could still hear the faint sounds of "Phoenix! Phoenix!"
No ego had to be stroked. His point was proven. They would meet again one day.

Lucius listened to the whole horrible comic book speech with a grin across his face. This man thought he had nothing to lose, he had EVERYTHING to lose, and Lucius was going to take it from him one way or another. As much as it made Lucius angry to hear it, he shook his head and simply walked away. Daniel popped up next to him after Lucius went down the same shadowy alley that he had appeared in, and they both ported away.

You still have the girl, you still have the power, you still have the love of thousands of people, and you still have a body i can rip apart piece by piece. I reckon that's good enough. Lucius thought after he showed up in the Sanctuary, immediately going to his holographic computer for analysis and planning. They would indeed meet again, and next time he wouldn't be unprepared at some blackjack tables. Apex, Phoenix, Tyuki....he was out for all of them.

END