Gods of Tomorrow

[Geez3r]

A cannon is a bit of an understatement as Malice reels from the blow. But, with some quick thinking Malice activates his flight boots and lessens the impact of the blow a little though there is a second impressive dent in Malice's armor now. Malice tries to bait Wonder into thinking he's very injured by playing dead for a moment.

After waiting for his ruse to either take effect or to be discovered, Malice springs up and unloads with his blasters that appear out of his arms. As he fires he shouts "How dare you stand in my way! I have abandoned too much to be stopped by the likes of you! You will pay for crossing me FAWCETT!"

[shazam]

As it happens, Malice's deception is remarkably successful. Leaking hydraulics pass for blood in the moonlight, while swiveling mechanical joints let the neck inside look broken. It's been a long time since Captain Wonder has fought anyone in armor, after all. The deception only lasts for a moment, but it's long enough for Malice to take him completely and utterly off-guard in both word and deed.

For the first time in seventy years in costume, Captain Wonder feels fear. Replaced a moment later, as the dust clears and he stands untouched by Malice's blast, with rage. "You son of a-" The sound of his fist striking metal cuts off his words. He throws himself into the next punch, his anger giving him the force he needs to throw a right cross with tremendous power

[Geez3r]

If the situation wasn't so incredibly hazardous to his health, Malice would be laughing with mad glee at rattling a hero as infamous as Captain Wonder. As it stands however, there's a very real possibility of having one's head taken off by a monstrous assualt. But Malice is able to cushion the blow by spinning like a top in the air, rolling with the blow.

Malice uses his own spin to put his blasters practically down Wonder's mouth before unleasing a full power blast a point blank range. No wity banter this time around, if Wonder's getting serious, so is Malice.

[shazam]

Wonder's head snaps back from the force of the blasts as if he'd taken a punch to the face, and for a moment he's knocked askew in the air. When he looks back at Malice, his nose is bleeding. "Is that all you got?"He can be hurt, it seems, but it's hard to tell just how badly.

A moment later, he throws a punch. Keep hitting him, Fred thinks, Don't give him time to realize how hard he can hit." This time he goes for the belly, his fist ringing off steel as he punches Malice where his stomach should be. He's not done yet, though. He grabs Malice by the arms, hard, and if he succeeds in holding him, hurls him straight down into the skylight of one of the empty office buildings below them.

[Geez3r]

Malice can tell Wonder felt that last one but then again, Malice would probably turn tail and run if it hadn't. Malice is glad Wonder decided to hit him in the stomach instead of the head again; his armor was thicker there than around his helmet. The smirk that appeared on his face as he was able to take Wonder's last blow was quickly replaced by wide-eyed shock as Wonder latches onto his arms. Malice fights with everything he has but with his power divereted to his weapons systems, he is simply no match for that level of strength and is sent hurtling towards the ground at break neck speeds.

Malice crashes through the skylight, sending glass cascading down to the floor below it, before Malice crashes through it. He keeps hurtleling and crashes through a second floor, before coming to a stop at the third floor surrounded by remanants of the previous 2 floors. For a moment everything is still, before a voice says "Beat-stick mode" from underneath the rubble. The rubble is sent flying every which way as Malice gets to his feet and more than one piece of office furniture goes flying through the windows and down to the empty streets below.

As Malice stands in the pale moonlight streaming through the 3 holes his body just made, he looks long and hard at Wonder, who happens to look very much like a very bright star at this distance. Marveling at the fact that he is unhurt from such a fall, as a dramatic gesture, he takes a moment to dust himself off, albeit with limited actual success. He eases himself into a fighting stance and gets ready for round two. Okay, my blasters are barely able to hurt this guy. Gotta change my strategy a little. I might even have to break out the Malice Cannon, but I got to wait for an opening, the Cannon leaves me a little too wide open.

[shazam]

For his part, Wonder is more than content to stay where he is. Maybe it means giving initiative in the battle over to his opponent, but he's nervous about closing with those powerful blasts inside a building that might come down on both their heads. "What's the matter, punk?" he calls down to Malice. "Can't take it when an old man hits back? Maybe you need a new tin can!" The guy already knows the secret, and Captain Wonder has never been one to flinch from the truth. He thinks for a moment, his gaze falling on the parking lot below, then makes his decision. My company. My truck.

As he dips down across the street, it does occur to Wonder that he's about to do a lot more damage to his company than Malice did. But it's the principle of the thing; dang it. Fawcett Architecture, and Fred Fawcett himself, doesn't knuckle under to hoodlums in power armor. And, hey, if he's suffering from this, he doesn't have to feel so bad about the money he just took out of his neighbor's pocket.

When Fred returns to Malice's field of view, he's carrying Fawcett Architecture's panel truck. "Here's one for you now!" He throws it down the hole he just opened at the supervillan on the bottom floor.

[Geez3r]

Malice is so taken aback by Wonder's change of tactics that he doesn't even dodge the truck, and winds up taking the blow full on. The force of the blow and the additional weight puts Malice through yet another floor as the steel from the truck wraps around Malice's power armor. Malice winds up flat on his back with a nose of a truck on his chest. The truck falls over to one side like a giant domino. For a moment, everything's quiet, then the car alarm starts blaring. With a very agitated groan, Malice peels his arms out of the ground, and starts massaging his pounding head.

Observing the damage around him, Malice thinks Either Fawcett's furious, or that's not Fawcett.... and why the heck did I bother sneaking in?

[shazam]

Though hitting Malice with the truck gives Captain Wonder a tactical advantage, to exploit it he'll actually have to go down into melee inside the building below. That would be too risky, though, both in terms of damage to his neighbor's building and in potential damage to himself. Even Malice would be at risk if the building came down on them from an errant blast. Instead he floats above the small office tower, keeping his eyes on the exits, waiting for his foe to emerge. He's pretty sure he's hurt the guy in armor (and has no idea of his rapid healing), and is willing to wait him out.

[Geez3r]

Sitting up, Malice tries to gather his wits. He could feel the Arms of Malice repairing some of the damage done to his ribs from that last attack, it was still a very weird sensation, and would most definately leave him feeling sore in the morning. That particular system was a great pain to design and the earlier models, well they were counter productive to say the least. Still, Malice knew he couldn't keep taking hits like that, he couldn't fix broken bones too easily. Then with a start Malice realized that Wonder hadn't capitalized on his injured state. Jerking his head upward, he was the supposed hero hovering in the air, just waiting for him.

Why the heck is he just waiting up there? Is something else going on? Nah he's focused too much on me. Then what's stopping him? As answer to his question, the building groans and strains. Looking around, Malice notices the great number of sharp, heavy and pointy (that's the important part) things all around him, threatening to come down. Ask a stupid question. Alright, let's see if we can end this.

Malice gets to his feet and blasts up through the holes in the building which were shaped a little too much like him for his own liking. He stops his ascent at a height equal to Wonder's, but about 30ft away from Wonder. "What's the matter? A few decades on the job and you just now realized collateral damage is bad?"

[shazam]

The sirens start as if on cue, echoing through the nearby blocks and easily audible to the two men in the air. "You think I'm one of those Next-Gen punks, doesn't think about what he's doin'? You forget who yer talkin' to, son." Wonder raises his fists.

"That buildin's got a police substation init. When you went through the wall there? You set off alarms in half the stations in the North End." Wonder sets his improbably square jaw. "Now, I'm sure a big fella like you can handle a few civil servants tryin' to make their pensions. And maybe that tin can of yours can handle me, too. But I'm bettin' we can hold you down till the League gets here, whereupon which I will peel that thing off you and throw it into orbit."

"But I'll give you this. You gave two old men a chance back there. Some folks like you might not have done that. So I'll give you one back." When he slams one fist into his open palm, the sound is as loud as a mortar shell hitting concrete. "I gotta lotta work to do here. Up to you how we handle this."

[Geez3r]

If Wonder were to strain his ears right now, he could hear the very satisfying sound of a jaw hitting the inside of a certain helmet. Malice looks repeatedly between the building he had been thrown through, the man who threw him through it and the people approaching the scene of the fight. Utterly flabbergasted, Malice shakes his head and is unable to come up with anything better than "Oh you suck."

He puts his hands on his hips and looks down at the scene, assessing the mess he's gotten himself into. With a bit of what can only be described as aerial pacing, Malice starts muttering to himself, using one of his arms to gesture every now and then, and some times stopping all together just to let out a long sigh.

Okay, okay, okay. What the hell do I do now? I'm screwed. Shut up. Ummmm... He's giving me a chance, should I take it? He's got the upper hand. He doesn't even have to win, he's just got to stall me. But me? I've got to kick the crap out of one of the most iconic heroes of all time, deal with like half of the FCPD, and then try and outrun the Freedom League. That's what we call a snowball's chance.

But I can't just run can I? I know I'm in better shape than him; I've got to be, but he's not exactly hurting either. Do I really want to give him the win? But won't it be a win for me if I get away. But there's no guarentee that he won't follow me. Wait, I think I got it.

"Okay Wonder. One attack. We'll let one last attack decide it. You hit me with everything you got, and I blast you with everything I got. The winner is whoever can stand afterwards. If we both win, we both go on our merry way, no more fighting tonight. If I lose, I'm waking up in orbit. If you lose, well, why ruin the surprise? Both lose? A race back to consciousness. So Wonder, do you think you can take the best I've got? Do you think you can put me down with one shot?"

[shazam]

Wonder thinks about that for a moment, then nods. "All right." Maybe he's not a Next-Gen punk, but evidently Captain Wonder can be baited as well. "Just one thing, though?" He points to the nearby street, mostly empty of cars at this hour. "Let's do this over the street, all right? No use busting up any more buildings today." As soon as they move out over the double-yellow, Captain Wonder moves off a few hundred yards, studies Malice...and suddenly disappears. He is a flashing blur of gold and white as he disappears up into the sky, rocketing up far above the skyscrapers.

A moment later, though, he reappears in a rush of speed and power, both massive fists out in front of him as he flies. For a single glorious instant, before he makes impact, it is instantly obvious how he came to be called The World's Mightiest Man. And then he hits. He doesn't punch Malice, he doesn't grapple him. Captain Wonder lowers one remarkably massive shoulder and simply slams into him at upwards of Mach 1! The sheer force of the impact is enough to send both men hurtling across the city, the cops overhead looking up in amazement as armored figure and golden paragon go flying halfway out of the neighborhood.

[Geez3r]

As Wonder gains speed, Malice prepares an attack of his own. The 5 fins on his helmet detatch and hover in front of him, forming a star. Five panels on Malice's chest open up and a violent amount of electritvy comes puring out into the end of each of the points of the star. A small space in the center of the star appears as the fins seperate slightly. In this gap, writhing ball of energy slowly grows. In the suit Eric mutters "Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on." as the guage on screen slowly builds and Wonder comes plummeting towards him. The gauge turns green as the power caps out and the star, along with the energy ball slam into a recess in Malice's torso. As Malice locks onto the blue eyes mere feet away he shouts "FIRE!".

Malice takes Wonder's attack quare in the chest. The pair go hurtling through the streets as Malice unloads his most powerful attack, trying to keep his wits about him as Wonder tries to crush his lungs.

[shazam]

There is a brilliant flash of light as Wonder throws his hand over his face, and Malice feels the supersonic projectile that is the Captain of the Sun and Stars blown off his chest. For a moment or two, it looks as if he's ended the decades-long career of Captain Wonder with a single blast from the Malice Cannon! (Obviously the latest upgrade was well-worth the money!)

A second or two later, though, Malice is able to make out a gold and white figure tumbling freely in the air, back over the horizon and disappearing behind the city skyline after being hurled what must have been at least a half a mile. Captain Wonder doesn't reappear. It's going to be hard to chase him towards Midtown without the Freedom League showing up at an inopportune moment, though. He doesn't have what he came for...but he's got something very special, nonetheless.

[Geez3r]

Malice groaned weakly in the hole he was lying in which had just so recently been made with his face. He sits up every so gingerly and sees Wonder being hurled through the air. "Oh thank God." says a very thankful Malice as he slumbs back against the ground. Every idiot light that his suit was blazing; had Wonder hit him about 4 inches to the left, then the charge gathered for the Malice Cannon would have rebounded into his system, shorting out literally everything in the best case scenario.

"That was way too close." Malice grunts as he gets gingerly to his feet. He staggers awkwardly for a moment before the sirens snap him back into reality and it becomes very much a good idea to not be anywhere near here. He blasts off into the air without a second glance back, hoping to make it back to his bunker before company arrives.

=========================

Back home, Eric Micheals looks over a newspaper clipping about Captain Wonder and another about Fred Fawcett, while nursing his shoulder with a bag frozen peas. He looked across the table where he had various clippings about most of the supers in Freedom City. One would think Eric would be happy about finding the identity of one of these supers but he wasn't. He was tired. He had finally realized the situation he was in. The number of potential targets he had, just doubled.