Malicious intent

[MarkK]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but The Emissary disliked the Fens. Oh, the people who made their homes there were as fine as people generally were, but, the.. stores.. and the 'theatres' and even the bars.. It was as if every degraded and seamy vice that remained tauntingly legal oozed its way into this place to fester, and rot, and that decay itself a mire that covered up the real crime that had a hold on the area. There was a stench to the place, a.. film even that he could almost feel coating him. He tended to have to shower repeatedly to get rid of the sense of it.

He had pondered the one time trying to give a public talk on how the pornographic industry, for instance, would hardly be necessary if society was more embracing of healthy approach to sexuality and body image, sex ed generally, and also provided more accessible and better funded counselling. Fortunately he had brought that up with some of his friends in the Freedom League, who hurriedly talked him out of it.

And so it was that another nightly patrol through the city entire found him in the skies above the Fens, just a tiny frown gently curving his lips as his gaze roamed over the streets and alleyways, and his hearing stretched outwards.

[Geez3r]

Propulsion systems operating at expected 85% efficiency. Structural integrity showing no signs of weakness. Life support systems are fully operational. All peripheral systems check out. "Excellent. It's working even better than expected."

A man sized and shaped object flying over Freedom City had not been a rare sight in quite a long time, but this figure was. Clad in full body red and blue armor, this figure looked much like a bird learning to fly. It had the basics down, but now it attempted to do more, and attempted a variety of aerobatics.

"Hrmm. Not quite as mobile as I thought. Build Log 113: Armor acts somewhat sluggishly around corners. Suggested remedies: reduce armor's weight by 7% or increase manual dexterity at junctions 3 and 7 by 4%."

Flying over the Fens, Malice ran down the list of systems and how they have performed, until his eyes fell on the last system to be checked: the weapons system.

"Haha. Finally. Now all I need is a target." Almost as if on cue, a beat up station wager runs a red light in the intersection below him. "Perfect. Arm main laser-cannons, and lock on target." Weapons armed, target locked, fire when ready.

And just like that the relative piece of the Fens was shattered. The car looked as if it had been hit by a semi as it careened into a telephone pole. "Build Log 114: Main Cannons perform up to specifications, but have a slightly higher kick back than estimated. Suggested Remedies: Decrease frequency of beams by 1% and increase beam diameter by 0.7%. What's next, Photon Grenades, nice. Need a bigger target." Malice turns a deaf ear to any shouts and cries directed at from below, they haven't seen what this suit can really do yet. He'll wait until the crowd has seen true power to pay them any mind. He circles above the area, looking for a suitable target for his next weapon.

[MarkK]

The sounds of screaming and the particular crunch of wide scale property damage at the edge of the Emissary's hearing pulled his attention over in full. He zoomed through the skies, looking out towards the source, taking sight then of Malice and his 'field test'.

"Really." Said quietly to himself, with a bit of exasperation.

"Really?" shouted more loudly, as much part of drawing attention away as his shooting forwards, fists outstretched and muscles tensing, arcs of light along his silvery form as he advanced through the starlit sky.

[Geez3r]

As Malice circles the area looking for a target to test his grenades on, he spots a figure approaching him from the sky, an angry figure. Ah crap. Is that...? It is... naturally. Build this suit to fight all the supers and the poster boy himself shows up. Guess I get to make my mark quickly, but will it be in the history books or the sidewalk?

To himself: "Build Log 115: When testing new powered armor, it is wise to test the weapons systems first or at least doing so in a subtle manner. Suggested remedies: common sense."

"Alright twinkle toes, let's do this!" shouts Malice at the approaching figure. The suit whirs to life and begins emitting a faint red glow as Malice begins to enter a fighting pose, and the suit's energy output spikes in preparation for full battle.

[MarkK]

"I will later demand without sarcasm an explination for what seems to be some kind of general addiction to random mayhem among your ilk! I am compiling a list!"

This was perhaps one of the stranger battlecries possible, but all the same, it accompanied the Emissary pushing himself to outright blurred speeds, a shimmering metalling wake tailing his flight path as he tensed and concentrated to push all momentum and force to the very edge of his fists, seeking to slam them full on into Malice before what looked to be very impressive looking blasters could level on him.

[Geez3r]

Alright, it's show time. If memory serves, Emissary is the big bruiser type, but slow. If I can keep my distance I should be fine, and ... wait - is that his battle cry? I mean twikle toes wasn't awe-inspiring or anything but it's my first night and he's - "RIGHT IN FRONT OF - "

*THWACK*

Malice ragdolls in the air for spell as Emissary connects with a powerful shot.

"Owwww. *groans* Build Log 116: Put padding in the $^%&* helmet." Damage detected. Begining reconstruction process.

Malice shakes his head to try to regain his bearings, but his suit looks like it was able to take the punishment, for the most part.

Edited for spelling

[MarkK]

The Emissary presses forward relentlessly on the attack at the sight of his enemy reeling. It seems for a moment he's going to hurtle after Malice for another sundering punch, yet at the absolute last moment of his approach, he veers sharply, outright spinning behind the villain, arms lashing out as the Emissary seeks to pull him into a bear hug, and pin his arms at his sides.

[Geez3r]

A dull clunk is heard as Malice's arms become locked against his sides. He sighs as all the gauges in his helmet start screaming at him because he diverted power away from the physical strength of the suit into powering the weapons he was gleefully enjoying until Emissary showed up. To shut them up he hurriedly transfered power over, in order to struggle against Emissary's grip, but part of his mind told him was too late, Emissary probably had solidified his grip by now.

[MarkK]

There was the usual straining and scraping sounds of metal pushing against metal, but they seemed for naught as the Emissary maintained his grip, to the point of even sparks flying off at the points of contact, and shot off through the sky, out from the Fens and over the empty waters of the South River, pushing Malice well away from his would be targets.

[Geez3r]

"Alright. You have to seriously get of my back. Here's looking at ya." After a bit of squirming, Malice tries to get into a position to fire one of his weapons at Emissary. For a brief second, he gets his hand enough freedom of movement to blast Emissary with the yet untested Mindbender Special. Please work. thinks Malice as he waits in any slack in Emissay's grip to immediately fly away and get some distance.

What actually happened:

As Malice sits tight in Emissary's grip one particular icon on his HUD is really starting to bug him; the photon grenade icon. *sigh*"Well I did want to test it out. Man this is gonna hurt." *Fwump* A grenade pops out of Malice's weapons system, until its about eye level with the pair struggling above the river's surface. Time seems to slow momentarily as the grenade glows a bright blue before detonating in quite a spectacular fashion. After the little light show, Malice's head is ringing for the second time this fight. To Emissary he says over his shoulder"You know, you're putting a bit of a damper on my whole evening here, think you could cut it out?"

[MarkK]

The Emissary gritted his teeth through the flare of light, heat and pure force, maintaining his hold.

"Unfortunately, I must take your attempt at exploding us to small pieces as a pre emptive commentary on the idea of your peaceful surrender."

And with that, he.. seemed to let Malice go with a quick push forwards, but it soon became clear all he was doing was moving his power armoured enemy into the path of the fist he had cocked back, then launched through the air like a cannon shell.

[Geez3r]

Emissary dashes forward and clocks Malice with a vicious haymaker. Malice's head is turned completely to the side, and he was knocked back a few feet, but for once the armor was doing what it was supposed to be doing, and Malice could still see straight. All right, this is my one chance to unload on the guy, got to make it count. Putting his all into the blast, Malice ran his suit into the red and hit Emissary with everything he had.

[MarkK]

Smoke sizzles out from the Emissary's silver skin, the massive blast sending him bruised and reeling with a loss of focus, and cutting off any reply beyond an audible cry of pain.

When the energies settle, his limp body plunges into the river below.

[Geez3r]

Malice takes the time to look at his now smoking hands and say "Huh, didn't think that would do it." before darting to Emissary's falling body and grabbing a hold of him. The guages began screaming at the sudden increase in weight, but Malice poured on the power and they prompty shut up as the pair's decent stopped when Emissary was about chest deep in the water, Malice hanging onto one of his arms. "Not today. No self respecting villain lets the hero die on the first outing." Malice flew Emissary to the river bank, dumping him unceremoniously on the ground. "Sweet dreams." said Malice before he did the smartest thing he did that night: got out of there as fast as he could before Emissary could wake up or other heroes were attracted by the noise of the fight, but not quite before he took the time to burn "MALICE" into a rock near where he deposited Emissary.