Geez3r

Even though he surrendered himself, Malice seems quite hesitant to remove his suit. Which is sort of to be expected, he is kind of outnumbered. And even if the suit doesn't work well, it's still alot better than walking around here "naked". Malice breifly considers bolting when his cell phone rings. The ring sounds a little off, but it's amazing the thing still works under these circumstances. Malice breaks off some of the badly damaged portions of his suit over his right pocket. He digs in his pocket for moment awkwardly before pulling out his cellphone. Dark Star can see the name on the front of it "Mom". Malice gives a defeated sigh, and then bits and pieces of his armor start coming off and falling to the ground, revealing the man behind the mask, Eric Micheals. If you had to guess, you would place him in his early 40's, but if you knew him he's only 29; this morning has not been kind. He's dressed in normal everyday attire, kakhi pants and a red polo shirt. Actually on second glance, it's a very bloody white shirt. He wears his dull red hair in a part down the center, and is a little unshaven. His body has several prominent scars, in addition to the one's he'll probably have after today. His right shoulder resembles a bit of melted wax. His eyes are of someone who has admitted defeat. Those in the know recognize Eric Micheals as the head researcher for Darts Inc., a rather nimble weapons manufacturer. They have a reputation for having a hand in several different types of technologies, and put out products from all walks of life. It appears the reason for their ability to rapidly create products is that one of their staff has already figured them out, and is feeding them the designs. For those not in the know, he's just some schmuck you might have seen somewhere. "Hi mom. Oh thank God you're alright! I heard that explosion, and all the smoke looks like its coming from your neighborhood and-- Mom, stop for a second. What is it? I've got something to tell you. Sit down. ... I don't see-- Mom, it's going to be all over the news soon, you need to hear this from me first. ... Mom... I'm Malice. The explosion this morning... it was my headquarters blowing up. ... ... Are you still there? ... I never meant-- *sob* *click*

"You sir, are a most excellent strategerist. I would be honored if you could teach me some of your strategerisms after this epic battlification of the miniscule representations of abstract concepts of medieval warfare." Apparently when Eric enters Monty Python mode, he becomes a little too silly. While he's considering his next move, he's unconsciously humming the Spam song to himself. Once he's done deliberating, he slides his rook across the board, directly opposite the Captain's rook.

Rook F2 to A2

Pawn B5 to B4.

"Heh. I was going after your rook with my king because ironically that was the only piece I could go after without compromising my defense. But you're right, it's time we bring this match to an end. So in the words of Monty Python, Get on with it." With that Eric moved one of his pawns forward a space. Now was when Eric was at his most vulnerable. Hopefully, his previous strategy had worked so this would be an easy win.

Malice weighed his options as he took in all of this new information. He could see Scarab floating overhead, not doing all together too much at first glance, but Malice was just smart and/or paranoid enough to know that wasn't the case. He knew that Scarab had started forming his own splinter team, and someone with his abilities could alert the entire team to the present danger. Not that the mile high smoke signal went unnoticed either. Being this close to downtown was sure to attract loads of unwanted attention. Malice knew from his run in with Legend he was no match for the Freedom League, even at this best, and he was currently quite far from that. His suit was currently functioning but as Dark Star said, he was leaking energy, and although he had been healed, his suit had not. It was only a matter of time before his suit became an nonfunctional lump of metal. In addition, he had lost his dominant arm, which meant that what his suit functioned long enough to get off an attack, it would be wildly inaccurate. Eric had yet to truly comprehend that his arm was fully and truly gone; right now, it was merely regarded as "nonfunctional". There was simply too much to deal with in the current moment to both dealing with anything beyond that. Eric would probably only realize the full brunt when things cooled down. But for now, he had other things on his plate. Dark Star could feel the energy source in the suit power down, and all the lights on the suit went out. "Alright, let's go." While they're being lifted off the ground, Malice beings to process more of the information. "What do you mean by dimensional rifts? Like actual tears in the fabric of space time?" Malice paused a moment to consider. "I don't think I have anything that could cause that. Unless... unless the explosion caused my Point Singularity rifle to be flung into the core of the Blue Light Matrix, and was fired from inside. And even that's only in theory. The rifle was meant to work on many different frequencies and wavelengths so that it could affect Insubstantial metas, like yourself. But if it mixed with the Matrix, the power source of the base, it might temporiarily gain a massive power boost, and puncture space time."

"Real words to live by huh? Alright I'll humor you." Erci was about to move one of his other pieces when he suddenly stopped. "Almost forgot, I'm trying to get that one with just my king. I got to pay more attention. Alrighty let me see..." Eric though about it for a moment before moving his king into its new position. Was it just because of rook position that he kept moving forward, or did Eric intend to use his own King in capturing the Captains?

King E7 to F6.

Pawn H7 to H6.

"Huh. Didn't expect that." said Eric simply. He crossed his arms and looked at the board for a moment. "Ah, here we go." With a casual flick, he moved his pawn forward a step. "And here we are again. So what sort of damage are you actually intending to cause here? You aren't even really running out the clock either. Just kind of fumbling around in the dark, hoping to get lucky."

King to E7

"Four turns to get my queen, 1 more to get in position, and then checkmate under the current scenario. And it'll take some serious doing on your part to get out of that scenario. As I said, plenty of time. But why go for the kill the easy way. Let's drag this out a little more. I took your first rook with nothing but my king, let's see if I can take the other in the same fashion, just for kicks." Eric was arrogant before, now he's just 100% sure of himself. You can practically see his mind doing all the calculations for all the different moves and all the strategies and counter strategies that can be employed.

Sorry it took so long. I could have sworn I did this already. Approved.

I'm guessing from all the villains signing up that this is some sort of anti-Claremont. If that's the case, Malice may very well have a keen interest in being a "teacher". Warping the minds of the young is its own reward. And having everything you own be blown up and having your arm dissolved may very well shift his morals around a bit. That being said, I know nothing about Shadow Academy besides its name and I have no idea if and when Malice could participate because of various shenanigans.

Yay. Welcome back Sand.

What's with the whole 7 turns thing, I don't get it. King takes rook.

"Seven turns is plenty of time to get a pawn to the end of the board, get myself a new queen, and bring this game to an end. All you are doing is giving up any chance of winning the game." Eric takes the Captain's rook with his King. "If you just forfiet, you can save the both of us a bit of time. You fought valiantly, but victory is beyond your reach now."

Hrmm. This is one of those noodle scratcher decisions. On the one hand, he wants to hang onto the suit because he really doesn't want to go to jail today, but on the other hand he doesn't want to put the innocent people in danger.

Yeah, this book immediately went on my buy list, like even more so than previously. Why? Because they have an entire Mecha chapter. Then there's the feats, which seem to exude awesome. Most importantly of all, there's this: Which leads me to believe they're going about this book in exactly the right way.

"Yeah they do look quite nice don't they? The chrome trimming really accents well off the mahogany desk, and it adds a much needed pop of color, don't you think? But yeah back to the matter at hand. Yeah, the situation's dangerous, but that's no reason not to be confident. In case you haven't noticed, I work with some really dangerous stuff everyday. Base case scenario is something blowing up. I know what you're trying to do, and I know how to stop it. If your attack fails, then you'll probably lose one if not both of your rooks, and then I can take my sweet time finishing you off. You're down to your last hurrah, and I have something left in the tank. I'm sorry, but you're not winning this one." With that proclamation, Eric moved one of his pawns two spaces forward.

Pawn F7 to F5.

Rook (A2) to F2.

"Oh heck no. I'm arrogant as all get out. But... look around..." Eric waves his arms in he general direction of his fully furnished under ground fortress, filled to the brim with death machine. "I get **** done man. I'm used to taking things one step at a time. I go procedurally and methodically, always building on my past successes. A bum rush might work every now and then, but only when you take things slow and steady to you ensure stability. When you rush, you leave yourself undefended." Says Eric as he takes on of Captain Knievel's pawns.

Eric could barely contain himself. "You're saying that I have hubris. Refresh my memory, how many billboards of yourself did you have plastered all over town? It's the pot calling the kettle black is what that is right there. You're so obsessed with living for the now that you never stop and think about the future. Instead of adopting a guerilla fighting style to combat a larger force, you're just bum rushing. So go ahead, go for broke. Me, I'm going for the win; see you in a few turns." With that Eric moved his Knight up, moving in for the final push.

Knight(f6) to E4.