A Copy Cat? (Elena Vexus)

One of the great things about the city of New York is the fact that most of the buildings in the industrial district were uninhabited. These abandoned buildings were the ideal place to see the destructive power of his abilities and test the first two elements of his new Combustion Suit. The top was folded neatly and hidden in one of the many nooks and crannies of the warehouse but the pants, gloves, mask and boots were the only things he had prepared. The man began practicing his fighting skills with two quick jabs of his left hand followed by a cross with his right. Just after that he twisted to the left and raised his right leg, jumped and twisted even more to carry his left up with the his heel as the point of focus. In order to be effective he needed to build up as much momentum as possible without creating unnecessary movements to give away his intentions. After the airborne kick he landing on his left foot and carried his right in for a swingthrough corkscrew. It was a rather showoffish move, but it gave the momentum for a final devastating move. With his left leg coming down and his right raised he slammed his heel into the pavement sends a thunderous explosion that destroyed the the pavement around his kicking foot in a ten foot radius. Hunter smiled widely once he noticed the boots weren't destroyed and he he desired to fire off the nodes the power would have been doubled; a more than fatal attack against a normal person and a devastating blow to those that weren't killed instantly. Content with the progress of his equipment Hunter placed the mask on his face and flipped his hood up; deciding to shake down some criminals.

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Under the cover of darkness Hunter stalked a group of rather shady men via the rooftops whom he had heard earlier were about to deliver something to their boss. From their conversation they were about to strike a business deal with someone rather important. There were four men standing in a diamond formation around one central man holding a briefcase so he assumed that what they were doing was too good to let go. They stopped at a street corner and Hunter prepared to jump them, but then a black SUV pulled up to them and they all stepped in. Things just got interesting. Since his top speed was 80 mph would have no problem keeping up with them. He followed for roughly ten minutes, jumping from rooftop to rooftop and made sure that he would never lose sight of his targets when they turned to a secluded area when they stepped out and looked around. That was when Hunter decided to strike. He clapped his hands together and compressed the explosion, holding a burning white softball sized orb of energy that burned his hands and he tossed it onto the top of the car, snapping his fingers upon it touching down. Suddenly the pineapple grenade of energy exploded, destroying the car and killing whoever was inside. Once he was sure that they were dead, He jumped from the roof and pillowed his way down with a series of counter explosions so he could land safely.

The man rummaged through the rubble to find the briefcase unharmed and smiled widely until he noticed combination lock on the front, a name embroidered on the rim, "Elena Vexus?" he shrugged and laid the case on the ground. If he couldn't open it with the code, he just needed to break it open. Hunter clapped his hands once again for the pineapple grenade and laid it in front of the case before snapping the fingers which caused another great explosion, but the case was just blasted across the area. It must have been made of something pretty strong to withstand attacks like that. It seemed that his tailing would be nothing more than a waste of time.

A blacked out Escalade rolled up the the scene after the explosion. The driver and the man in the passenger seat got out. They were both wearing sunglasses and suits. The man that was driving stood looking with his arms crossed. The other man went and opened the other door letting yet another suit-clad man with sunglasses out. But then, following the man was a lady. She had vibrant pink hair and was much over dressed for this apparent situation at hand. Her heels clicked to the ground as she stepped out of the vehicle. She walked forward a bit with the three men standing behind her in a row. They were much taller than she was giving her almost a childish look to her.
She looked over at the destroyed van, and then to the man that was trying to open the suitcase. She put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes.
"Excuse me... But what exactly do you think you are doing...?"
She said in a tone that seemed polite, but sounded like death by the end. She was not happy that this renegade thing decided to cause such a problem with her. She then crossed her arms and shifted her weight to one side.
" I cannot say I know what you did to obtain that suitcase, or how you even managed to destroy my truck. What matters now is that you hand to me what is rightfully mine, and I will be on my way..."
The three large men in the suits that were standing behind her began to walk forward to collect the suit case, if this delinquent refused, the men would pummel him to nothing, or so that was the plan at least.

Once Hunter had retrieved the soot covered suitcase a fully black Escalade pulled up. Quickly the man turned and slipped it into the messenger bag on his left side. When the car stopped and the first three men stepped out he raised his hands with the right near his face and the left leading yet down at his waist. If push came to shove he would need to fight his way out of the situation, but that would come last. The men surrounding the pink haired women towered over her and they seemed to be about his height. He opened his mouth to speak but he was cut off by a soft yet threatening voice, "Excuse me... But what exactly do you think you are doing...?" Before he could respond she spoke again, cutting him off, I cannot say I know what you did to obtain that suitcase, or how you even managed to destroy my truck. What matters now is that you hand to me what is rightfully mine, and I will be on my way..."

The young man took a step back and clutched the messenger bag tightly as the three rather large men advanced on him. He didn't want to kill them but if they were too forceful he would take them out and continue on his business, "Your men were careless..." the mechanical flange hid his accent perfectly and he patted the messenger bag "I don't see what your drones could do to stop me if I didn't want to give it back." With that he took his fighting stance once again and waited to see what the men would do, a hint of a smile could be seen in his mismatched eyes.

Elena's eyes narrowed at this boy and his defiance. He had no idea who she was, nor what kind of trouble he was now in. If she had ank kind of heart, she might have felt bad for the kid. But he picked his fate so it's his own problem now. She simply spoke two words and the brutes in the suits launched at the boy.
"Kill him..."
An evil smirk creeped up on Elena's face as she pictured her men beating and kicking the kid within an inch of his life. They would teach him who he was dealing with and why the rest of the world knew better than to mess with her. It just also so happened that no one, not even the armies of the world, have confronted her and walked away unharmed.... Or dead.

Upon hearing the words her brutish bodyguards lunged at Hunter, intent on pounding him to jelly. Little did they know that he had a little something up his sleeve. The first man reared his fist back and brought it down at his face, a blow that would normally knock him for a loop but his moves were sluggish and telegraphed. Quickly he ducked under it and rose his fist up for an uppercut. If it were to connect, a powerful explosion would blast his chin through the top of his head. However he didn't forget about the other two and his with his free hand snapped the fingers, compressing the energy in his fist. The pulsating red golf ball of energy was warm to the touch but once released the heat and concussive force would be enough to blast someones leg off. With a flick of the wrist he tossed the ball at the second of the three men just as he threw the uppercut in one fluid motion, snapping as soon as it bounced off of the ground. (The second snap triggers the explosion.)

Elena watched in shock and awe as her henchmen were blown apart, literally. When the fire works had ended, Elena stood with her arms crossed and her eyes wide in surprise at the kid's unexpected abilities. She blinked a few times as here eyes looked at the dismembered corpses. The first man was missing part of his lower face, most of his head was gone. Dead. The other two had been blown back and away by another explosion of some sort. They might have been dead, in some sort of coma or unconscious. From what Elena had caught, it seemed as if this boy's punches were explosive. She would much rather have an ability like that working for here than some dressed up brutes. And anyways, if she could convince him to work for her, she would avoid any possible damage that she might receive in a clash with this boy. After all, she did still want her suit case back.
"Well that explains how my truck got destroyed. How very interesting..."
Elena began taking steps closer to him, paying absolutely no mind to the three men of hers that were just demolished. She figured she could put on her nice lady act for a moment...
"I am not sure what you are interested in, money, power, or maybe something as simple as a place to stay or some protection... But I am prepared to offer you it. And all I would ask for in return would be a couple favors here and there, not to mention that suit case of mine that you have. This is really a win-win deal for you, for both of us really. You get something you want, and so do it... A new valuable asset to my team..."
By this time she was about within two or three arm's lengths of the boy.
"So what do you say...?"
Elena then offered her hand for a handshake to seal the deal between her and the boy full knowing that it was extremely dangerous. If anything, this kid would probably be smart and take in the events that just happened and compare it to her offer. Elena just ordered his death and now she is asking him to work for her. With some good fortune, he would probably just say no and be on his merry way. But on the other hand, he could also view this as opportunity to strike. Elena could just be offering this truce because she knows that she is out matched by this kid. Which is not the case and would be a poor choice for him, but how would he know. He could probably hold her hostage for all she's worth... And she is worth a whole hell of a lot...

Once the explosions went of a satisfactory smirk came to his obscured face and after the blood finished raining down, he removed his hood, exposing the dirty blonde hair beneath. The man didn't enjoy killing people, but they initiated with the intent to kill. He only defended himself. "I wish my abilities weren't so destructive." he said, the flange distorting his voice, "I always leave too much of a mess."

Hunter shifted his mismatched eyes to the seemingly baffled woman before him and took note of her lack of fear; there was surprise, but no fear. This alone was a red flag. Normally people would jump and break for it once they heard or saw what had happened, but instead she stepped closer to him for a business deal as if nothing had happened, as if the people she just lost didn't matter. For each step he took the fingers on his left hand would act as if he were playing with a lighter. As she got closer the flick and loud snap soon after would increase in volume and speed; a nervous habit of his. He listened quietly to her speech and when finished she offered a hand for him to shake. In reality it was really too good to be true. A poor homeless Russian Immigrant with superpowers just so happens to meet a woman that offers him anything that any normal person would jump at. It sounded like a movie cliche, and he wasn't going to buy into it.

The man stopped his nervous snapping and shifted his eyes to her outstretched hand, "What do I say...?" he paused, "...I say..." He raised his own hand and moved it near hers, "No." Just after that he moved to grip her hand with enough force to create another explosion; but if it were to come into contact with her hand he would set off the amplification nodes in his glove, generating enough force to blast off a human arm and then some. However if he missed he would continue the motion with a spinning kick aimed for her ribs.

Elena heard the boy deny her offer, and began to pull her hand away when he went to grab it anyways. Unfortunately for her, she pulled away too slow and the boy made contact creating a powerful explosion.
"GGUUUAAHHHH!!!!!" She yelled out in a sort of pretend pain. Vexus was flung back by the explosion and smashed into her vehicle leaving a large dent, and then falling face first into the pavement. Her left arm, the one she offered for the hand shake, had been blown completely off. Elena's arm socket was now smoking as she lay there, seemingly unconscious and defeated. What was really happening was that Elena was pondering whether or not she should continue lying there and allow the boy to thing that he had killed her, or get up and send the boy in to a devastating depression at the realization that she was not dead nor that he would be able to kill her. She liked watching people suffer so she decided on the second option.
Elena began to push herself up with her right arm. Upon standing she brushed what dirt she could from her outfit. The clothes on her left side had been scorched from the explosion and her face had been scratched up a bit from hitting her Escalade along with the ground. Also, her arm area was still smoking a little. If he looked closely, he could probably see that she was a robot of some sort, since the loss of her limb exposed some of her parts. Elena then put her one hand on her hip as if she had both hands on her hips.
"My my. What a hit...
Elena turned and looked at the dent and shattered windows that she had caused from her impact.
"And that was an armored vehicle, I must have hit that pretty hard for that to happen. It must have really hurt when you punched out my friends over there. But no matter. You have obviously denied my offer and I still want my suit case back..."
Elena started in a semi-fast walking pace towards the boy, her heels clicking with every step.
"Give it to me, or I'll make sure to repeat on you, what you have done to me..."

After the explosion the sleeve on the left side of his hoodie was torn to shreds but this damage was minuscule compared to what he had given to Miss Vexus. True to his style her whole left arm was blown completely off and she screamed in what he would have called agony save the fact that normally a person would have bled out in a matter of seconds. For the amount of collateral damage that occurred he was surprised to see her stand back up. There was no blood, no bits of flesh, just shrapnel. Her face was scratched up and bits of her mechanical insides could be seen from where he was standing, quite frankly she looked like something straight from The Terminator. As if she wasn't even fazed she dusted off what she could and placed the one remaining hand on her hip. "My my. What a hit..." once again her soft but cold voice purred, sending a freezing sweat down the back of his neck. His powers were useful, but against something like a machine, he would just need to keep hammering on until nothing was left to repair. Hunter shook off his hesitation and re-took his fighting stance, "I try."

Under normal circumstances he would have charged in as soon as he found out that the person wasn't dead. But she wasn't a person, hell she was a machine. And if he were to lose this fight, no mercy would be shown. Between himself and Elena there was nowhere to run without leaving himself vulnerable, so he had no choice but to see this through. He was like a rat in a cage. Soon after his reply she began walking at a quickened pace in his direction with a rather plausible threat. But that threat made him think, if she were to repeat what he did to her; does that mean she was programmed to copy abilities? But could that mean if he got too close she could just switch abilities on him and punch a few sizable holes in his chest. And unlike her he wouldn't be able to get up after it. Hunter snapped the fingers on both of his hands and tossed one of the golfball sized bombs at her stomach. If it were to hit, he would snap again and start the fireworks. However if she managed to dodge he would use the other one to pick up the slack.

Elena thought it was cute that the kid still had some spunk after finding out that she had not been killed by that explosion. It looked like he was going with the exploding golf balls again. She had noticed that he used one of them to take out her men earlier, so she kind of had an idea on how the worked. In her head, she thought a little bit about how she said she would replicate what he had done to her. Maybe she could take that into a literal sense and freak the kid out a bit. Make him think that she was a copy bot or something to that effect. But she had to do something about these explosives first, he had made two and sent the first one at her. It was too bad this kid didn't decide to go with her, she could have taught him a thing or two on strategy. Seeing that he had only fired one, it gave her the notion that he was going to use the other one if the first one failed. If she was going to pretend to mimic this boys powers, she would have to get a little closer. Close range was not really her forte, but Elena thought that she could make due. She then put her hand behind her back, and pretended that she reached into her waistline and pulled out a gun as if she had been keeping one there. What she had really done was simply create a gun. Elena did not want him to know her true abilities until it became necessary. She took aim at the explosive that was coming directly at her and shot at it. Due to her tracking and targeting systems she was able to hit it dead on. It exploded in a decently powerful explosion, one that would probably take off another limb of hers if she had allowed herself to get hit again.
Elena walked through the smoke and debris that the blast had created and took another shot, this time at the explosive that he was still holding in his hand. Immediately after, and not waiting for the first bullet to hit, she took another shot, but this time at the kid's right knee cap. If he wouldn't be able to get himself through this first counter, then maybe he was right in denying her offer...

Hunter was surprised to see that she was able to reach behind her back and stop his explosive mid flight with what seemed to be a handgun. Since she was a robot of some sort he assumed that there would be some form of tracking software due to the zero hesitation and pinpoint accuracy. In such a case he would need to be much more careful; her movements were precise, but his speed and reaction time was much higher. As soon as she lowered the gun to fire again at what seemed to be his hand, he flicked the ball to the side which made her targeting system chase it for the gunshot. Without skipping a beat she turned and lowered the gun even more to shoot at his knee but this time he lifted the leg up and surely enough the gun followed. Unlike the projectiles he couldn't flick his own limbs away at will and the bullet hit him dead center in the kneecap. It was a good test for the lower part of his combustion suit and it passed. BZAAAK the bullet was stopped by the defensive nodes and was forced into the cooldown. It still hurt like hell, but it didn't pass through which in his mind was very, very good.

The man didn't have much time to celebrate his little defense mechanism as Elena was still closing the distance. She was still slow, but she was close enough to do some real damage. By this time the cooldown on the offensive pulse on his left glove was done and flung the arm out in her direction with the palm facing out, "Back off! Then through the transfer of kinetic energy and the nodes in his glove an explosive wave blasted out in her direction. Normally the attack would have done no more than blast her back a few feet and possibly break a bone or two, but with the energy enhancing nodes the power was doubled in explosiveness and concussive force, but on the other side the recoil was enough to slide him back a couple of feet. Since there was nothing but air between the two 'people' There was nothing to stop the wave from blasting in her direction. The fem-bot had something up her sleeve at every turn so far, and he wanted to see if she was truly able to keep him from reducing her to shrapnel. But even in that chaos his free hand was a work, With it he snapped the fingers again but instead of one golfball sized bomb there were three smaller ones, each the same size and potency; enough to liberate a few more pieces. Just as he went for the large blast he flicked them up into the air in a vertical line; one went for her head, the second at her chest and the third between her thighs in order to blast her legs off. The power may have been divided, but that didn't make them any less dangerous. As soon as they would make contact, Hunter would snap the fingers once again to spark some fireworks and hope for metal confetti. God dammit... I can't keep this up for too much longer or I just might dry up. I just don't know how to conserve energy properly without sacrificing effectiveness. If this doesn't at least keep her from advancing I'll just have to drop the dead weight and cut my losses.

It was true, Hunter was not used to using his powers in fights and over time his normally explosive attacks would be whittled from military grade hand grenades to nothing more than fourth of July snappers. But when it comes to enemies that wouldn't stay down after losing limbs, Divide and conquer would be the most effective method.

The boy had been some-what hit by her bullets, but they had not passed through like she had hoped. His retaliation was sending a shock- wave towards her. Elena tossed the gun aside and then formed a grenade in her hand. It was colored hot pink, like her hair, in order to make on believe that it was not actually a grenade. She did make this explosive different than others. Once it was created, it's timer to explode had already been activated. Vexus threw it at the shock wave right before it exploded. The two explosions canceled each other off. Elena was however a little close so the force did cause her to step back a bit. His follow up move were what seemed to be three smaller explosives that were aimed at three different places. According to her calculations, one was aimed for her head, another her torso and the third her legs. She ran through some numbers in her head. These explosives look like miniature versions of the normal golf-ball sized ones that he used. If that was the case then they were all 1/3 of the explosive power. Then, by calculating how much force an explosion from a golf-ball sized bomb, she was able to find the amount of power she needed in order to cancel out the three that were heading for her.
Elena proceeded to create three mini grenades that had relatively the presumed same amount of explosive force that the other bombs had. Since for her, there was no energy projection behind her pink bombs, she took aim and threw each of them individually at three incoming bombs. Once they collided with each other, Elena put up her arm to block as much as she could for the explosions happened rather close to her. Some shrapnel flew passed her causing some scratches, though Elena was not bleeding. After the attack had been properly countered, Elena began walking back over to the gun she had tossed away.
"That was a pretty nice move there... If I had been hit by those, I can't say I would have been able to get back up..."
Her shoulder that was missing an arm sparked a bit as she bent over to pick up her gun.
"You do have a rather interesting power, but I would suggest honing your skills just a little bit more before you go challenging people like me. Now, this is your absolute last chance to give me my suitcase. Deny one more time, and I'll blow more than just your arm off..." she said as she raised her gun and took aim...

A mechanical sigh of desperation was heard from the man as once again, his attack was negated. It seemed like all of his ranged attacks would be useless and he would need to get up close and personal; his specialty. As beads of cold sweat ran down his burning forehead and neck Hunter genuflected in a feigned surrender and laid the case in front of him, his mismatched eyes downcast with what looked like submissiveness, "Fine..." he said with the flange still active, "Take the case and do with me what you want. I'm spent, done. I lost."

From his now kneeling position the sweat fell from his brow and formed pebble sized pools on the ground below him. He was genuinely tired and this last attack would have to work or else he wouldn't be able to drag himself home afterwords.

To further sell the act he placed his palms on the ground and stared at them, although in his peripheral vision he would be able to see what her next move would be. If she came to him he would release the nodes in his boots and use himself as a rocket in a flying tackle with her between him and the opposite wall. But if she stayed at her semi-ranged spot he determined that with the force of the launch he would be able to reach her before she could shoot him somewhere vital like the forehead. If he managed to make contact the force from slamming into Elena would create a second explosion and finally the force from hitting the wall or ground would generate a third one. This needs to work... If it doesn't I just might die here tonight

"Heh.." She chuckled with a victorious grin, the kid was done with and she had won yet again. Elena put her arm to her side and began walking towards the boy, he had put her suitcase down and she was simply going to pick it up, shoot him in the head, and be on her merry way. Ms. Vexus was already heavily behind schedule due to this little run in. The runt had caused he quite a bit of trouble, and it was too bad that he wouldn't join her. She took a quick glance at her arm, or lack there of and figured that she would allow that to be repaired after this kid was good and dead. She didn't want to show off her secrets if she didn't have to.
Her heels clicked with every step she took, it was like a bomb ticking. Evey step brought the kid closer to his death.
"I must say, with some practice you might actually have stood a chance. But, you should have done your homework, boy. I am not someone to be messed with. Though it's too late now..."
Elena bent her elbow so that the gun was pointing straight up as she continued to walk closer to the doomed child. Her devilish smirk of over confidence was still proudly displayed on her face.

Hunter's raspy breathing began to steady as she was getting close and closer to him, the click of her heals as she confidently strutted in his direction and slowly closed the distance between the two. Each click for him would have sounded like he would have been counting the steps to his death, however Miss Vexus was walking right into his next attack. Once the fem-bot spoke about how he could have won and that it was too late for him he tilted his head up and stared directly into her eyes, seeing that her gun was pointed straight into the air. "You're right, Miss Vexus... It is too late. Hunter said, his voice low, "But not for me!"

Suddenly the nodes in his boots blasted off and sent Hunter in a flying tackle aimed directly for her midsection. while one hand groped for the case If contact was made there would be another explosion from point blank and finally once they hit the wall the other explosion would smash the two right through it and onto the ground for a final blast. In short, a lot of damage would be done to the both of them seeing as blunt force trauma was a foil to his combustion suit.

However if she were able to dodge, which he doubted due to the close range he would just blow through the opposite wall and hit the ground running. Either way he planned on getting out of this situation alive and with the case in tow.