At the Mountains (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

Hellion's final, devastating blow finished off the Ultiman, sending him collapsing to the floor in a pool of his own blood. Only his rapidly falling chest and twitching limbs said he was still alive after the savage beating, not that the kids would have expected anything less from the famously resilient and powerful Kal-Zed. If he had any further warnings to give, he was in no shape to give them as he collapsed to the floor. The cyborg Centurion, a smile on his face twisted by the machinery that occupied most of it, said, "Hah! I knew you children could do it. Together, we'll beat this thing. Come, let's rebuild the Zero Zone machinery and put him where he can't hurt anyone again."

Mark spoke up then, studying the cyborg Centurion with an odd look on his face. "And then you'll go back to your own dimension, sir? It's...it's not that we don't appreciate your help, but it might confuse people if there was a second Centurion floating around."

The cyborg crossed the room and patted Mark on the shoulder, the reassuring look on his face the one all the kids had seen in old movies, marred once again by that electronic mask across half his face. "Oh, son, don't you see? I am your Centurion. Thanks to everything you children have done, I've returned."

-

Across the room, Medea had abandoned the still unconscious Dr. Stratos to glare at Midnight. "So now what?" she demanded. "You going to-" She proceeded to describe a really very lurd series of punishments that Trevor recognized from the gladiator movies that Travis liked to watch. "Because I've seen some pretty bad stuff in my day, junior, and you're going to have to be pretty competitive if you want to keep up!"

[Gizmo]

A flat series of grating notes escaped from the black clad figure partially obscured by wisps of mist rising from his form; it took the sorceress a moment to realize that Midnight was chuckling coldly. "Ask yourself," he intoned in a voice just loud enough that Medea could strain to hear him, "who does one such as I bargain with to regain his youth and renew his vengeful war?" Leaning forward, his voice dropped even lower, the terrible whisper of air escaping dead lungs. "Out of your league, hag."

[Ecalsneerg]

Geckoman was very disappointed. After People's Elbow-ing the armour Stratos had occupied, he'd been down on his back, and by the time he'd got to his feet and ran towards the combat, it was all but finished.

The cyborg crossed the room and patted Mark on the shoulder, the reassuring look on his face the one all the kids had seen in old movies, marred once again by that electronic mask across half his face. "Oh, son, don't you see? I am your Centurion. Thanks to everything you children have done, I've returned."

"What we did? Um... I don't think it was us, sir," said Geckoman carefully. "And, if it's no disrespect to ask," he continued slowly. I'm not sure if this is actually the Centurion, but there's no point being rude, just in case it is! "Who installed all those cybernetics into you?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"When my friends in the Freedom League left me to rest in the Zero Zone, my body was found by a friendly civilization of cyberkineticists. They repaired my damaged remains with their technology, making me better, faster, and stronger than I was before." The Centurion smiled beneficently at Chris and Mark, the two nearest boys. "But now with your help, I can return to the world outside and make everything better again. All will be well."

"Liar." A bleeding, battered Superior opened his eyes to glare up at the cybernetic Centurion. "You came from space. Tore the world in half and took it for your own! Tens of thousand dying screaming at your hands as you took their knowledge in the name of your dark lord!"

"The world you'd conquered?" replied the Centurion evenly. "The world that you'd made a petty kingdom of your own? Is THAT the place you're mourning, Kal-Zed?" His voice was cold and hot all at once, a decidedly unsettling tone to hear from the Centurion. "You can't fool these children with their lies! They're clever! They can see right through you to the monster within! Perhaps it was YOU all along who fought for Omega!"

Mark stared at the cybernetic Centurion for a long moment. Visions of the past, present, and future all came together as he pronounced a sentence. "The Centurion wasn't buried in the Zero Zone." He locked eyes with the other Centurion for a minute and added, "And he doesn't talk like a bad guy, either. And...and my dad was there when they found his body! He isn't coming back! He's never coming back!"

And then the cybernetic Centurion pulled back a fist and threw it at Mark's face.

[Electra]

While Mark was getting increasingly worked up about the Centurion, Erin kept her eyes on that notable, narrowing them thoughtfully when he began to talk about mourning and petty godlings. Because she was watching for it, she saw the punch telegraphed a fraction of a second before it happened. Shoving Mark away from the incoming fist, she ducked it herself and came up ready to swing.

[Ecalsneerg]

Geckoman looked in horror as the Centurion delivered a motive rant. "Dammit, can we not fight anything not hidden under a really thin veneer?" He pivoted on one leg and began moving to the right, fists in a boxer's stance, ducking and weaving. "C'mon, big man, let's square off. You, me, mano-y-mano, well..." He glanced over his shoulder. "Then I suppose someone will punch you in the back."

[angrydurf]

Phalanx stood agape for a moment as the Centurion's rant revealed him to be false. It had been to much to hope that he had truly returned he knew, being robbed of that hope only served to steel his resolve however. As Geckoman pulled the attention of the earths mightiest fraud Phalanx dropped down behind the Cyber-Centurion swinging his fists overhead in a crushing arc to bring them down across the villainous doppelgangers back with force that could pulverize impervium.

[Avenger Assembled]

The Cyber-Centurion caught Phalanx's fist as a sound like cracking metal burst through the room, looking at him with murder gleaming in his cybernetic eye. "You stupid child," he said, fury in that all-too-familiar voice. "You and yours could have been at my right hand most of all!" Despite his best efforts, he wasn't able to keep a grip on Phalanx, but that didn't seem to phase him. "Your whole League had to trick me into the Zero Zone to stop me before! I am tired of weak, puling subterfuge. I am the Alpha of Omega, and you children will be the first of this world's heroes to die! But you won't be the last!"

"Nononono...." Mark pulled himself together through sheer force of will, his eyes darkening as he stared at the monstrous perversion of everything he, his family, and every hero of Freedom City had ever fought to defend. "This isn't right. You don't belong here." Did the shadows at the edge of the brightly lit corridor grow especially black and inky for a second? "Young Freedom! Do this for every hero in Freedom City! Do it for you, for me, for everyone! This is for the real Centurion, and everything he taught us! Like how to take out the trash!"

[Electra]

Even as Mark attracted everyone's attention, Erin acted on his suggestion. Dropping to the floor, she executed three quick sommersaults past Phalanx and the Alpha Centurion and came up behind the cybernetic villain while his back was turned. With her face betraying nothing but absolute focus, she began to methodically beat on him, focusing mostly on his kidneys and shoulders but landing a solid hit or two on his head as well. Her bat was moving almost too fast to track visually, moving so fast that it made a thrumming sound before each devastating strike.

[Avenger Assembled]

Across the room, Medea gave Midnight a mutinous look, but stopped taunting him. She wasn't very happy, naturally, but he'd evidently done the work of shutting her up. "Look, Midnight," she said, glancing down at Stratos, "we're all in this together, right? We don't need to fight when you've got the Omega-Centurion there trying to break down the doors and let in the Destroyer. So why don't you just let Sebastian and I go one way, and you can get on with the business of saving the world? That's what a hero would do, right?"

[Gizmo]

Midnight didn't even bother to give Medea a condescending glare. "Strike you as the compromising type?" he asked rhetorically in a flat, filtered tone. Stygian gas crept from the seems of his costume to waft about his shadowy form, so that when he drew his matte black escrima sticks he seemed to be pulling them from the cloud itself. "Want to keep hide intact for another twenty seconds? Be useful."

[Avenger Assembled]

Medea sighed, sounding at once very young and very old. "Fine. But I've seen what the real Centurion could do against the whole Crime League at once. This is going to end in blood. I...well, I do have something. This is going to be unpleasant for you to watch, darling. Just don't vomit on Sebastian." She hummed for a moment, then waved her hand. "Demons of air and darkness!" she called, her eyes rolling back in her head as her body convulsed. "I summon thee forth! Foul creatures of the Stygian Pit! Attend me and my followers in the name of Midnight!" Suddenly Medea's head pitched forward and she vomited forth a half-dozen fiends, each one exploding up to near-human size and scuttling over to take up protective positions nearby. "They're on your side, children! But when they're gone, they're gone!" With a sigh, she wiped her mouth. "Well that was unpleasant, and now my mouth tastes of magic. Do you kiss as well as you used to?"

[Darksider42]

Rift sighed as he felt the full force of his Sonic field go back up. Some small part was hoping that this wasn't too good to be true, but he saw past the cyborgs lies easily. The punching people in the face bit didn't help his case much either. He waited for a few seconds, eyes watching at the chaos before him. He knew this was just a cheap copy of the centurion, but his durability was still quite impressive. Hmmm...Wonder if his terminus rotted brain could handle something a little less direct than that... Playing a few notes on his guitar, he focused his mind on the frequency, altering it as quickly as he could while the servant of Entropy was tied up with the others. Spotting an opening, Rift projected the refined sonic force directly towards Cyber-Centurion's head. If he had calculated and altered the sound composition, it was bound to overload certain parts of his brain (at least the parts not converted to metal anyway) and cause excruciating pain.

[Gizmo]

Midnight's ominously glowing red eyes narrowed slightly as he grimaced beneath his featureless mask. Oh, there is no way Gramps... well... I mean, someone like Bombshell, okay, but... ew. Observing the scuttling horrors flatly, he ignored Medea's question and grated, "Air and darkness. Apropos." Inwardly, however, he cringed. Summoning demons is one thing, but lady, you're creeping me out.

[Avenger Assembled]

Medea was tending to Dr. Stratos now, letting her demons do what they willed. "Sebastian, waaaake up," she muttered, "I don't know how to fix that maaaachiiiinee..."

The Cyber-Centurion staggered briefly under Rift's bombardment, but quickly recovered with a sneer. "You weak little children!" He spat, the look of rage on his face like seeing one's beloved parent become a monster. "I have torn worlds in the Zone asunder with my bare hands and tasted their blood in my mouth! You are nothing!" He smashed aside the demon guarding Phalanx with contemptuous ease, then gave a terrible sneer Phalanx's way. "Those are my colors, boy, and I will take them from your corpse when I tear you limb from limb!" And with that he swung a devastating blow, smashing the boy wonder directly in the ribs!

[Ecalsneerg]

Geckoman turned and winced as the cyborg Centurion levelled a punch into Phalanx. "That's gonna hurt," he muttered, dropping one hand to his utility belt. "Got a good left hook on you there, son," said Geckoman, dropping a grey capsule onto the ground as he dropped into a crouch. "Thing is," he waited for the smoke to rise up to just below his eyes as the cloud of grey smog spead from his little smoke pellet. "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, your fist can't hit what your weird robot eye can't see!" He back-flipped out of the cloud of smoke.

[angrydurf]

Phalanx took the crushing blow with a grunt of pain staggering back a step blinking for a moment to clear his vision. He moved in tandem as geckoman distracted the false Centurion coming up from his blind side. Throwing his whole body into his swing he fired off a devastating punch to the imposter's midsection, "You're a pale imitation of the true Centurion an weak deluded fool." he bellowed as his blow connected.

[Avenger Assembled]

Phalanx's devastating punch sent the false Centurion reeling backwards, falling into the machinery behind him with a massive electrical . He was still on his feet, but barely, a look of fury on his now-bleeding face. The metal implants on his face were torn and battered now, pulled and bent to reveal raw, formless flesh beneath like cooked meat. "Foolish boy," he spat. "I _am_ the real Centurion! And soon, I'll be the only Centurion that ever was, or ever will be!" Across the room, a glowing figure levitated to his feet; the fallen villain having landed near Midnight and the other bad guys after his fight with the cyborg Centurion.

Superior smirked through the blood on his face as he winked at Midnight. "Well, it seems you have this situation well in hand. Good luck!" With a flash of cosmic energy, he took off, flying through the open corridor and away from the other heroes.

"Son of a..." Edge looked wildly from Superior to the cyborg Centurion and back again before he called, "We've got to stop him, too! Wander and Midnight, you're with me! Phalanx, Geckoman, Rift, stop...him! Any way you can!" And with that he was off himself, running pell-mell after the fleeing Ultiman.

[Electra]

Erin didn't hesitate, racing after Superior at her best foot speed. She was fast enough to follow the golden trail of light through the corridors, running pell-mell without concern for her surroundings. If Superior had been laying a trap for her, she'd have sped into it headfirst. Luckily, though, when she caught up with him, he seemed more concerned with beating in a wall labeled "Hangar Deck." Without breaking stride, she charged into him, trying to knock him away from the wall.

[Gizmo]

Midnight grimaced behind his featureless mask, but didn't hesitate to act. "Watch her," he called to Geckoman, indicating Medea with a significant gesture before sprinting after Edge. Leveraging his slightly longer stride to catch up, the black clad youth pulled his grapple from his belt and grabbed the reality manipulator's shoulder firmly. Turning the strength of the cable's retraction up a few notches to balance the added weight, he sent them both soaring forward after the escaping villain.

Reaching the end of the corridor as Erin charged into Superior, Trevor immediately washed the entire area is light absorbing midnight mist as he released Mark and replaced his grapple. "Back to the void with you, Superior."

[Darksider42]

"Go kick that Nazi where the light never shines man." Rift said with a short salute to Edge before refocusing his attention of Alpha Centurion. If hes the real one, then how are we kicking his ass? The Genius Guitarist though before striking a power cord and sending a concentrated blast of pure sound towards the cybernetic impostor. C'mon. Go down....

[Avenger Assembled]

On opposite sides of the Centurion's Sanctum, twin wild melees played out as the heroes of Young Freedom fought fantastic battles for the sake of the survival of the planet. Rift's sonic blast proved the final ingredient in the battle against the Cyber-Centurion: an eruption of energy spurred by Rift's blast was matched by the power erupting from the equipment all around the monster. The terrible mockery of the world's greatest hero gave a terrible shriek as the power of rock activated the dimensional machine Superior had blasted open earlier, and an eruption of white light swept over his body as he was sucked away into realms further and more terrible than anyone wanted to contemplate. "Noo! Not again! Anything but-" And then he was gone, his last cry echoing in the air.

The defeat of Superior was a terrible struggle for Wander, Midnight, and Edge, the teen heroes united against a villain whose sole goal was nothing more and nothing less than escape. And anyone knows an animal is always at its most dangerous when cornered. The Ultiman was an animal in the end, spitting and hissing defiance, growling as he leapt for the throat of his primary tormentor. But between the sheer force of Wander's blows, Midnight's well-placed sticks, and the good luck of being around Edge, the Ultiman was finally overmatched and beaten into unconsciousness by the teens yet again.

[Ecalsneerg]

"Well, Cyborg Centurion," said Geckoman, turning away from the blinding white light with his hands held up to his face. He turned back around with his goggles gone, taking a pair of sunglasses out of his utility belt.

"Looks like your batteries," he grinned, sliding on the sunglasses. "Didn't quite last the century." With that, he turned to Phalanx. "On a more serious note, can we go anywhere without getting assaulted by supervillains?"

[Darksider42]

As if on cue, Rifts guitar squealed, the sound quickly morphing into a loud over the top YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!! with the first few notes of the song following. He looked around for a moment and shrugged. "Sorry, couldn't resist. Rift said with a grin. He slung his guitar over his shoulder and looked at what was left of the Centurions Sanctum. "As for Villains, They usually crash whenever I try to perform." He said as he went over to the machine that apparently monitored the portal to the empty expanse that was the Zero Zone.

Hmmm...This thing still working? He wondered as he tried to puzzle out the twisting and winding machinery.