1.16 Devil Part 7

Damn it! Damn it! Just damn it!

We can still fight.

Can we Lion? Can we really?

Such sarcasm is unwarranted and unnecessary Leo. We still have things we can do.

Like what?

If we can kill some more of the creatures, we can make another shot. Plus we still have our guns and most of our ammunition.

Like they’ll do us any help.

And you’re forgetting what Drakvar gave us. From what he said when he handed the device to us, I am assuming it is a weapon to be used against Apocalypse or one of the other Harbingers.

But it is all pointless since Apocalypse is just going to kill us in a second before we have the chance to do anything to stop him.

But before either Apocalypse or Gears can do anything, there is a flash of light and a bright beam lances at Apocalypse. It strikes the Harbinger in the right eye, tearing through the flesh as the projectile, whatever it is, lodges itself in Apocalypse.

Then it explodes.

Gears blinks at this sudden downfall of good fortune as Apocalypse howls in pain, clutching his right eye with both hands.

Well, that was a pleasant and unexpected surprise.

A welcome one too.

Still, I don’t trust it. It seems too suspicious.

Is it really so strange that somebody else harmed Apocalypse? There are many others here fighting the Harbinger and it is likely that one of them is also capable of hurting him. They probably just waited for the opening that our attack provided.

I guess that makes sense.

Regardless of what just happened, we need to focus on how it affects us. Now is the time to strike. While Apocalypse is off-guard.

As he falls through the air, Gears grabs the device that Drakvar gave him. He aims it at Apocalypses and the metal parts form a floating ring at the end of the device, held together by what appears to be an electromagnetic field.

The machine hums and several orbs of bright blue energy with a white glow form in the ring of floating parts.

Any ideas on what those are or what they do?

I-I genuinely have no idea. I never seen anything like them. All I can tell that it is extremely advanced and uses electromagnetism in some manner.

Then let us find out what it does. Unleash its fury upon Apocalypse!

Gears pulls the trigger and there is a flash of light as the orbs surge forwards towards Apocalypse, moving faster than Gears can track even with his armour.

But the effects are clear to behold as the Harbinger tumbles out the sky. Without time to regenerate, the rapid succession of powerful attacks have taken their toll on Apocalypse.

The gaping hole where the right eye once was has been completely blown open with the majority of the right head now gone. The chest has been shredded with the left side torn away.

From the shoulder, the already injured left arm has been blown off and the limb is currently tumbling through the air as it falls to the ground. The leathery wings have also been torn to shreds while the legs and right arm have also suffered major damage if not as serious as wounds inflict on the rest of Apocalypse’s body.

Doesn’t matter if you regenerate and are fast if we actually get a good beating down you.

From our estimates, I say that Apocalypse will take at least a couple of weeks to fully recover from these wounds.

Excellent.

Gears smiles he realises that they now have a good chance of finishing off Apocalypse. Or at the very least, somebody else can kill the Harbinger.

But Apocalypse begins to fall, now truly looking like a fallen angel, a large circle of shining white light above the Harbinger.

What is that?

I don’t know for certain, but it looks like a portal to me.

Whose?

I don’t know.

There is a flash of lightning and Gears feels beautiful static in his head. Realising that the static is of hostile origin as he feels his body being to freeze up, Gears spreads it out amongst his companions, breaking its power and hold on him.

What was that static?

I have no idea.

According to Guardian’s records, it might belong to Ziz, the second-in-command of the Dozen Harbingers of the End Times. But it also says that she favours various songs and melodies.

Another Harbinger? But there is only supposed to be one per a month.

Perhaps the fact one of their own may die has caused them to break their own rules?

That sucks.

Bright white light and crackling blue electricity engulf Apocalypse’s falling body and rapidly pulls the Harbinger up into the portal.

As he also falls through the air, Gears thinks about his next course of action.

First of all I need to survive this fall with a badly damaged and half-functional suit of power armour that lacks flight capabilities.

Fire your remaining KEPs at key points to slow your descent and make a landing sounds good.

Sounds like a plan.

But Gears doesn’t get a chance to implement his plan as a familiar sight comes towards him. Bolt swoops in and grabs Gears out of the air.

“Rest down helt,” says Bolt as he heads for the ground, “You have earn it.”

1.16 Devil Part 6

“Oi!” yells Gears at the dragon as he jumps at the monster with Reinkal mid-swing.

The dragon snaps its head around to face Gears just the Guardsmen boosts forward with his remaining KEPs and Reinkal comes flying down.

The halberd tears into the left eye of the dragon and its yowls in pain. Letting go of Reinkal, Gears drops down beneath the dragon, leaving his halberd embedded in monster’s head.

I can always summon it back later and this leaves my hand free.

Not to mention it should stop the dragon from regenerating.

Gears grabs a molecular blade from his belt and stabs it upwards into under jaw of the dragon.

The dragon roars once again in pain, jerking its head back and away from Gears. It swipes one of its forelegs at Gears and he jumps out of the way. Unfortunately for the American, he fails to see the other foreleg coming at him.

The claws slashes across Gears’ chest, tearing through the already severely damaged outer armour plating and even into the inner armour. Gears jumps back, grimacing at the loss of his chest armour.

At this rate, I won’t even make it to Apocalypse let alone drive off the Harbinger.

Don’t give up. People are depending on us.

Oh, I’m not giving up.

With a snarl, Gears summons Reinkal back to him as the dragon backs up. With his halberd held tightly in his grip, Gears and the dragon circle each other, neither wanting to be the first to attack.

Deciding that this dragon is dangerous enough to use an energy blast on without such a powerful attack being wasteful, Gears aims Reinkal at the monster. Sensing Gears’ intent, the dragon unleashing another continuous blast of fire at Gears.

The beam of black energy lances forth from Reinkal, striking the centre of the oncoming inferno. The beam pushes forwards and through the flames, absorbing them and their power as it does so.

Well, that is a pleasant surprise.

The dragon realises its folly too late, its remaining eye widen in understanding as the massive beam of black energy smashes into it.

Gears boosts backwards through the air as he ends his beam, observing the damage inflicted on the dragon.

The dragon looks unsteady on its feet, the scales on its head, neck and forward body burned away along with most of the flesh, exposing plenty of roasted bone and muscle. The second eye has been destroyed with the horns and fangs both charred.

And yet it still looks so ferocious and deadly. As if all I have done is make it angry.

We have done more than that. Judging from previous reactions to injuries, it must have sustained some serious damage.

It isn’t over yet.

Lion is right. The dragon is visible regenerating.

With its flesh regrowing slowly, but surely, the dragon is recovering the wounds it has sustained and Gears knows he needs to finish this fight soon as letting dragon recover will only prolong it further and increase the chances of him losing the battle.

Gears leaps forward at the dragon, Reinkal ready to strike the monster. The beast flaps its wings and takes off, but Gears swings Reinkal at its armoured belly and the blade becomes lodged in the flesh
.

Gears desperately holds on as the dragon rises. As dragon reaches far above the buildings, Gears spots Apocalypse. The Harbinger is hovering amongst the clouds in plain sight to all those that look up.

Interesting position.

And a good one too.

How come?

By being so far up, the Harbinger seems imposing and you have to look up to see him. Makes seem more dangerous and powerful whilst making you feel insignificant compared to him. In addition, it puts him mostly out of range any potential attacks so he can’t be harmed like you harmed him earlier. Speaking of which, being this high up will stop most people from realising he has been injured by you, keeping up his implied invincibility.

That is a lot of reasons.

As I said, it is a good choice.

Gears looks at Apocalypse. The Harbinger has yet to notice him and the dragon continues upwards.

Perfect.

Just a little higher than we can strike Apocalypse.

What is the plan anyway?

Once we are close enough to get a hit in without Apocalypse dodging it like he did earlier, we’ll stabilise ourselves with our remaining KEPs long enough to take the shot.

Sounds good.

About half a minute later, Gears lets go of Reinkal and pushes away from the dragon. Apocalypse hasn’t noticed him yet and Gears hopes he won’t until it is too late.

As he fires up his KEPs to keep his position in the sky, Gears summons Reinkal back to his hand, aiming at Apocalypse in the process. Not wasting a second, Gears fire off the beam as soon as he can using his enhanced reflexes and reaction times.

As the black energy beam surges forth from Reinkal and lances towards Apocalypse, Gears focuses on every bit of energy stored in his halberd. He pours it into the beam, giving every inch of power that he can.

Apocalypse turns to face Gears, but the Harbinger is too late to respond in time. Gears feels a momentary crushing sensation throughout his body, both externally and internally. But at this point, pain is just a dull sensation to him.

The main effect is on his armour rather than his body. The majority of the remaining KEPs are knocked out and all of his surviving outer armour plating is shattered.

As he begins his freefall, Gears looks at Apocalypse. He may have missed the beam striking the Harbinger, but Gears can still see the results.

Apocalypse has suffered serious damage. His chest and upper left arm have been burned away with the ribs on the left side of the chest showing.

But the Harbinger is still standing whilst Gears has lost an arm with his armour wrecked as he freefalls from a fatal height and the hero has used the last card up his sleeve.

1.16 Devil Part 3

Remembering how Tar’garieth hit him even after he dodged, Gears won’t let Apocalypse get off so easily either. He swings the halberd towards Apocalypse and the beam slams into Apocalypse.

Got him!

Good shot.

The Harbinger howls as unnatural energy tears into his side, ripping through the outer flesh of the arm, leaving the limb hanging loosely at the side.

Almost instantly, the wound begins to regenerate and Apocalypse turns his head to look directly at Gears.

Not good! So totally not good!

Run!

“Run!” yells Gears to Beowulf as he takes off into the air.

Gears doesn’t make it far, barely reaching the buildings again when he slam into the ground. He cries out in pain as he feels his left arm crushing inwards, the armour doing nothing other than resist for a couple moments before breaking and tearing into his flesh and bone.

As Gears grits his teeth in pain, the crushing suddenly stops and Gears looks up to see several figures standing over him.

“Gar det bra?” asks a voice and Gears hears Beowulf reply in Norwegian

Gears calls up his armour status on his HUD.

That...that is pretty nasty.

I am unable to heal it in this realm.

Gears’ upper left arm has been compromised with broken armour, internal and external bleeding, bruised and torn muscles and a fractured bone. The lower half of the arm and the hand are...missing, simply torn off by whatever Apocalypse did.

The Harbinger must have used his telekinesis.

That is the most probable answer.

How good are you with your right hand?

Good enough given I’m left handed. At the very least, I am good enough to last this battle.

“Father,” says a familiar and welcome voice via his internal speakers.

Jaylyn? I am so glad to hear her voice again.

We missed her.

“Sentinel,” mutters Gears as he remembers to turn his external speakers off, “What is the status at home?”

“The Slaughter Seven have been sent in full retreat,” replies Sentinel, “Friend and most of their lackeys are dead while Necromantress and Aquiline have been captured. Demonica has taken over leadership for the survivors. Less than three hundred people were killed. We got lucky. Very and extremely lucky Father.”

Aquiline got captured?

“And our casualties?” ask Gears.

“Other than Guardian, nobody whom you know was killed or injured beyond the ability to heal,” answers Sentinel, “Other than that, some interesting things happened in the aftermath. Oh, Mother is fine and completely unhurt by the way.”

Good. That is one less thing to worry about.

What about Guardian?

She’ll be fine.

“So what interesting things happened?” inquires Gears as he feels the pain in what is left of his left arm begin to fade away.

“Well, Grandma Danica manifested and is A Class,” replies Sentinel, “She, Grandpa Cecil and Mother’s family found out your secret identity after DSA revealed it to them. They themselves found out after Mother let it slip. Secretary Scott himself showed up and it turns how he is Sentry’s brother! Other than that, when they tried to retrieve you from the other dimension Demonica sent you to, they accidentally got an alternate version of you instead. So now you have a twin sister! The DSA is currently in the process of sorting out the paperwork. I should also inform you that you have suffered severe damage to your arm? Should I begin to fabricate a replacement?”

Well that is a lot to take in. Shouldn’t all of that seem weirder?

Meh.                                                                                                 

Weird is relative to us these days anyway.

“Yeah,” mutters Gears as he sits upright and looks around.

Beowulf is there along with a brown haired Adonis in a brown and dark green costume. Standing next to him is a red-white spandex clad Aphrodite with flaming hair while to Gears’ other side is person wearing thick and bulky grey armour. Next to the armoured person is hovering Bellator man in dark blue spandex with white boots and gauntlets and glowing mane of hair.

To the front of Gears is a white-haired female in Viking armour whilst tending to what remains of his left arm is another person in Viking armour, this one an Adonis.

“Are you okay now Helt?” inquires the man tending to his arm in heavily accented English.

“Yeah,” replies Gears as he gets to his feet, “The pain is gone.”

“Good, my potion has done its work then,” says the man, “I am Ragnar. You are the fabled Gears right?”

Beowulf must have-wait, fabled Gears?

He must have heard of us.

“The one that scares Darkness right?” inquires the woman in front of Gears in a deathly cold hiss.

Ah, that will explain it.

So both Darkness and we are known here in Norway. Not bad for a couple of Americans.

“That I am,” confirms Gears as he picks up his halberd with his right hand, “Who are you guys?”

They all take a few moments to explain their powers to each other as the Viking woman keeps up a telekinetic shield around them.

The man in green and brown is midlevel brick called Bjorn while the flaming hair woman is Pryokinetic called Flamevinge and the armoured man is a low level brick and Gadgeteer known as Jernside. None of them speak English, but all of the rest do.

All of them are local government heroes led by the hovering man, a specialised energy projector at lower upper levels called Bolt. The two in Viking armour are both supervillains and part of Darkness’ international Syndicate.

Ragnar is a Norse enchantment tinker at B Class while the woman is an undead Abnormal at A Class level called Draugr with half a dozen A+ Class powers.

“Super Strength, Nigh Invulnerability, Regeneration, Telekinesis, Cryokinesis and Phasing,” Dragur had said, “I am the leader of Scandinavian Syndicate Division.”

“Okay guys,” says Gears as he looks at wear Apocalypse is now hovering over the city, “Let’s go and hurt this guy.”

1.16 Devil Part 2

As the beast rushes them, Gears zooms at its head and slashes away at its gaping maw and fanged mouthpieces. He quickly makes quick work of it, but almost instantly it begins to regrow.

Realising this head on approach won’t work with this creature, Gears hack his halberd into the chitin and leaps onto the back of the head. Using his KEPs and activating the energy of his halberd, Gears slides down back of the centipede, his halberd tearing through the armour plates and the energy coursing through the blade sears the flesh beneath.

I’m starting to really like this new halberd.

It is impressive.

Who thought a tinker power could be so useful

But what about the sharpness? Won’t the blade be getting dull after this amount of use?

No. What Tar’garieth did to halberd has made its sharpness permanent.

Nice.

The centipede howls in pain and Beowulf chops its head off with his blades. Gears prepares to finish it off, but it seems to be dead as its wounds don’t begin to heal like they did before.

“So what is your plan?” asks Beowulf as he twirls both of his swords.

“Hurt Apocalypse until he is forced to leave and then deal with the creatures once he isn’t around to create more of them,” answers Gears, “First we need to find some folks capable of hurting-”

Once again, Gears is interrupted by another one of Apocalypse’s creations.

A massive fiery creature forms over the ocean. It has a burning orange sun at its core with four glistening rings with shining gems circling it. Around rings are tendrils of golden-orange light, each one full of charged energy.

Thin beams of bright light flash from the gems at Gears and he dodges out the way, barely spotting the lasers let alone avoiding them.

I can barely keep up with all of these inhumanly fast attacks even with my C Class Bellator reflexes. Heck, I wouldn’t be able to dodge them if it weren’t for my armour. I don’t even want to think about what it would be like for somebody with normal reflexes.

Powers do render things very unfair to normal people. Not many ways out there for mundane people to hold their own against parahumans let alone win.

Or we could just be facing off against the more powerful ones out there.

What are the chances of that happening?

Pretty high. Statistically speaking, we get involved in situation containing a disproportionately large amount of top tier parahumans.

Grand Rapids has more A Class parahumans than any of the states do and more than some countries do. Quite a few actually.

Ignoring Beowulf, the sun-sphere creature focuses its fire on Gears, unleashing about a dozen laser beams per a second. Gears does his best to avoid being hit, dodging those that he can and block those he can’t with his halberd.

Gears is trying to figure out a way to best this latest foe when several chucks of rubble fly at it. The sun-sphere fires it laser at the creature, destroying two of the five chucks. The remaining three continue onwards, dodging the laser beams.

For them to get out of the way like there somebody must be actively control via terrakinesis or telekinesis rather than just throwing them using super strength.

The tendril lashes out to intercept pieces of rubble, but only catches one, disintegrating it on contact. The remaining two zoom towards the mini-sun in the centre of the sun-sphere creature.

But before the chucks of rubble hit the sun, a bolt of lightning smashes into the sphere. The electricity blasts away a large section of the sphere allowing glowing wisps of orange energy to escape.

A mere moment before they hit the damaged sphere, the two surviving pieces of rubble freeze over. Slamming into sphere, the two chucks of rubble take more of the sphere, leaving only a third of it left.

As the tendrils and rings flicker and the sun begins to reform, Gears tosses his halberd at the mini-sun. It almost makes it, but begins to fall short.

Darn it! I was so sure I would make it!

Nobody is prefect.

Suddenly the halberd moves again, strike upwards at the sphere. The halberd smashes into what is left of sphere, the red blade absorbing the sun into it.

Using his magnetic recall, Gears summons the halberd back to his hand.

You know, you could have just made it reappear in your hand.

Hey! I’m just getting use to all of its new abilities!

As he tightens his grip on his halberd again, Gears feels the massive amount of power coursing the halberd.

“You’re a Tinker right?” asks Beowulf as he joins Gears again.

“No, I’m a Bellator Gadgeteer,” replies Gears, glancing over at the teenager.

“Really?” asks Beowulf, “So am I with a few extra powers on the side. All D Class. I think so at least. You American use a different rating system to the Nordic ones. So how did you make that halberd?”

“I made it and it was recently enhanced by a Tinker,” explains Gears, “Now it does all sorts of cool things. Just watch this.”

Gears aims the halberd at Apocalypse and fires off a large beam of black energy at the Harbinger. Crackling beam of energy spears towards Apocalypse, but as it gets within a few metres, the Harbinger suddenly dodges out of the way.

1.16 Devil Part 1

His upgraded halberd in his left hand, Gears strides out of the portal into the midst of an ongoing battle. He looks up to see a thin man with torn black leather wings in the middle of the sky. Red energy emits from the crevices in his body and his entire body is bathed in a crimson glow.

A Harbinger...                                                            

That must have been what Drakvar was talking about.

Yes, Niltoc must be what he calls the Harbinger.

Speaking of which, which one is this one?

Apocalypse is beheld before us.

What can he do again?

Fast A Class flyer with a relative weak physical prowess at C- levels. Telekinesis and regeneration both at B Class.

Doesn’t sound that tough. Somebody like somebody like Atlas, Lightbringer or Darkness could take this guy down. What’s the catch?

He is an Infinity Class Spawner.

Wait, Infinity Class? I thought that class was still theoretical.

Officially it is, but we have access to data otherwise.

Such as Guardian’s data on the Dozen Harbingers of the End Times.

Yeah. So what does he spawn?

Organic life. Generally brutes up to A Class levels, but he produce specialists at B Class. Intelligence can be up to sentient levels, but he generally sticks at the borderline between a smart animal to barely sentient at most.

And once he has spawned a creature, Apocalypse can’t unspawn them.

Sounds tough. So what do we do?

The best tactic would to be to try and drive off Apocalypse whilst fending off the creatures that he spawns. Then once he is gone, finish off any remaining creatures.

Trying to take out the creatures won’t work as Apocalypse has no upper limit on how many he can spawn and will just continuously make more as you take them out.

Okay. Let us get a handle on the situation and then try and drive off Apocalypse with whatever forces we can muster.

Gears runs forward through the ruins of a destroyed building as he charges towards the shore. He does his best to ignore the bodies, both those of civilians and those of two massive dog-like beasts, both of them having been frozen to death.

Must have been a powerful cryokinetic to do that.

Could have been a Tinker or Magician.

Gears spots a hydra-like creature fighting a figure on the beach. The hydra is a roughly ten metres tall with a scaly lizard-like body, two barbed tails and five fanged heads.

The figure on the hand is obviously a parahuman, but he is a superhero, a supervillain or vigilante is not so clear. He also appears to be in his late teens at a glance, but with the Enhance rating and shapeshifting, that could easily be wrong as well.

The parahuman is wearing black clothing with some plates of armour. Furthermore, he appears to be wearing an exoskeleton suit and has a pair of grey swords in his hands.

The parahuman jumps at the hydra and it snaps one head at the boy. The boy blocks with a sword and is forced away. As he lands, another head fires a beam of concentrated fire at his feet.

The parahuman moves fast, his feet barely touching the ground before he leaps away again. But the hydra is also swift, firing at the boy with another two heads.

At this point Gears decides to intervene. He jumps forward at the distracted hydra, flying forward with his KEPs.

In a series of rapid motions, Gears flies past the front of the hydra, hacking away at the heads. He easily cuts off the first two before slicing off the third and fourth, but the fifth jerks back, avoiding the fate of the others.

Landing on his feet with a slight skid, Gears steadies himself with a slight blast of his KEPs before aiming his halberd at the hydra. He feels the blade charging up and unleashes it, just enough to take out the hydra.

The beam of black energy strikes forth from the spike of is halberd and tears through the neck of the fifth head and into the body. Seizing the moment, Gears stabs forward with his halberd, piercing the hydra and draining its dying body of its energy.

Yanking his halberd out of the corpses, Gears turns to face the parahuman.

The boy looks impressed and starts to say something in what Gears assumes is Norwegian, but Gears cuts him off with a wave of his hand.

“I don’t speak Norwegian,” states Gears bluntly.

“Lucky I speak English then,” replies the boy with an abnormal cheerfulness given their current situation, “I am Beowulf.”

“Gears,” replies Gears, “I’m an American vigilante who just came out of a transdimensional portal. At the moment, I’m not even sure I’m sure on my Earth because the portal home got mucked around with by someone else.”

“So do you know this guy?” asks Beowulf, indicating Apocalypse with a wave of his hands.

“I know of him,” answers Gears, “And I fought another.”

“So can he do then?” inquires Beowulf.

“A Class flyer and C Class physical prowess,” replies Gears, “Telekinesis and Regeneration at B Cla-”

Gears falls silent as he and Beowulf turn to face a massive centipede that rises out of the ocean. Covered in shiny black plates of chitin with a flurry of barbed legs, the monster rushes at Beowulf and Gears.