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 5

The scaly monster grabs Gears from behind with its claws as the dragon dives down on him and Bolt.

Gears tries to break free of the dragon’s grip, but the monster’s hold on him is too strong. Even his KEPs at full blast lack the force necessary to overpower the dragon.

Bolt blasts the dragon, but his powers aren’t strong enough to overcome armoured hide of the dragon. The dragon responds by swiping at Bolt with its tail, the razor sharp barbs tearing into Bolt’s chest.

Heck! Is he okay?

Can’t tell.                 

Gears doesn’t see Bolt’s fate as the tumbling superhero is blocked from his view as the dragon swoops down.

Is that a building?

It is a building.

Swooping down lower, the dragon goes down far enough that Gears is smashed into a building. He averts his eyes as he smashes through the wall at high speed and crashes through the furniture, items and walls inside the building whilst still being held by the dragon.

Stupid beast! This is just annoying, not harmful.

As he comes out the other side of the building, the dragon lobs the disoriented Gears at the ground.

Gears tries to shield himself with his arms as he spots up and coming ground. He plows into the street, tearing up the road and pavement in addition to losing his grip on his halberd. He comes to a halt face down and grunts in irritation

Freaking dragon! I am so taking it down.

That’s the spirit! Give him what for!

As Gears starts to get up, a massive claw slams into him, tearing across his back. The blow knocks him to the side so he lands face up. Gears snarls as damage alerts pop up on his HUD in addition to a warning message.

Just great. Most of the outer armour on my back just got torn up in addition to losing most of the KEPs on that section of the armour. Which has the extra result of losing my ability to fly effectively.

You still got enough KEPs to manoeuvre on the ground and air in addition to the KEPs on your boots if you really need to fly.

I still lost a major function of my armour and we haven’t even reached Apocalypse yet!

Gears rolls to the side as the dragon strikes again. The claws rip into ground where Gears just was as the vigilante scrambles to his feet.

I’m not going to go down without a fight.

As Gears begins to summon his halberd to him, he is bathed in a blast of fiery flames. He yowls in pain as his left arm flares up in pain again and a multitude of damage alerts flash up on his HUD.

Aarrgh!

Stay in there!

Unable to summon his halberd through the pain, Gears drops to his knees. Through the burning pain, Gears glances at the message briefly. The outer armour plating is being superheated, causing the Gardium to become brittle and his eye pieces to being to crack. Even his heatsinks are being overwhelmed.

While strong, lightweight and flexible, Gardium is set in its current form once it has settled, unable to be moulded or changed. And while extremely resistant to heat and cold, at certain temperatures, Gardium becomes brittle. At that point, it can’t be conventionally fixed and needs to be replaced even if it retains some of its effectiveness.

Gritting his teeth, Gears mentally fights this way past the pain with the aid of his companions and focuses on summoning on his halberd.

I really-ugh-got to think of a name for it.

Reinkal?

Why not?

The flames stop as Gears finally summons Reinkal. He looks ahead, ready to fight the dragon, only to see a wall of solid ice between him and the dragon. Out of the corner of his eye, Gears spots Draugr standing off to the side with ice spires and shards around her as she fends off a pack of cat beasts.

I owe her one.

She did just save our lives.

Gears takes a moment to look at the dragon. The monster is roughly twenty metres long according to his HUD with motley black and grey scales and leathery wings. It looks like your average western fantasy dragon with its massive horns and long spikes running down its spine and tail.

As the dragon slams into the wall of ice, denting and cracking it, but not quite breaking it entirely, Beowulf leaps at the dragon from the rear with a wild battle cry and both of his swords in his hands.

The Norwegian vigilante stabs his swords into scaly hide of the dragon, but only one pierces the armoured scales as the other glances away. Holding on firmly to the sword lodged into the dragon’s back, Beowulf slashes with his second sword.

But the blade just scrapes off of the scales.

Those scales must have B class, possibly A Class toughness.

Reinkal can do the job.

Ready to slay a dragon?

As ready as I’ll ever be.

As the dragon turns its attention to Beowulf, Gears leaps forward, using his KEPs to boost onto the ice. Glaring at Beowulf, the dragon jerks its wing towards the hero. Beowulf yelps in pain as a razor sharp barb on the wing pierces his shoulder.

As Gears dashes across the top of ice. The dragon stretches its wing out again, yanking Beowulf off of its back and tossing him away. To Gears’ horror, the dragon unleashes a fireball at Beowulf as the vigilante flies through the air.

1.16 Devil Part 4

Beowulf and the three non-English speakers take point whilst Bolt and the villains hang back with Gears.

Gears glances over at Draugr. The woman has clearly taken interested in the original source as shown by the fact she is basically unnaturally tough animated corpse with superpowers.

“How did you manifest Draugr?” inquires Gears as he hops over the rumble.

“What?” says the woman, snapping her head around to look at him.

“I’m curious,” says Gears, “You have an unusual power set and Enhancement that resembles the actual source of your codename and I am wondering what the cause behind it was.”

“Enhancement is what you Americans call the body of the Begavet?” inquires Draugr.

“We prefer the term menneskelig,” mutters Bolt under his breath.

“Yes,” replies Gears, “We have different names for each type of Enhanced. Bellator for the function-oriented, Aphrodite or Adonis for the form-oriented, Abnormal-”

“I am aware of the different types,” cuts in Draugr, “I am aware of the different power ratings of the Western world. For your information, I manifested after I was slain. I experienced a vision where I was gifted the power of Revenant by a being claiming to be Hades. I then work up like this, much to my annoyance. A corpse that never rots. But I suppose my power makes up for it. I certainly got my vengeance and rule the criminal underground in multiple countries. Yours?”

Hmm. Should I tell her about my manifestation?

She did just tell us hers.

And isn’t like we got anything to hide about it.

“Nothing as exciting as yours,” replies Gears as they begin to near Apocalypse again, “I was one of the lucky ones that got their powers at the start of the year. That said, it wasn’t all fine and dandy for me. When I first got my powers, I had to-”

Gears stops speaking as several of Apocalypse’s creatures pounce on them, the monsters clearly having prepared this ambush in advance. As the others rush to action, Gears fly straight up at a massive cat-beast with rippling muscles and spike covered flesh.

As Gears stabs his halberd into its chest, the cat-beast swipes a large paw at him with oversized fangs. The halberd pierces the chest whilst the claws scrape against the side of Gears’ helmet, causing the superhero to grit his teeth.

That damage was limited to the outer plating, but that was too close.

We should try and disengage so we can attack at range.

Good plan.

As they tumble through the air, Gears tries to grab the beast by the throat with his other hand only to remember he has already lost it.

Damnit! 

We can get a replacement once this is over one way or another.

Gears lets go of his halberd and uses his KEPs to fly around the cat-beast before it can strike him again. A couple of metres above it, Gears decides to try out his new ability to summon his halberd back to him.

How does this work again?

Just think about it reappearing in your hand or on your back and will it to do so. It will then do so provided it isn’t being blocked from doing so.

Gears does just that, willing his halberd to reappear back in his hand, being careful to think about his right hand rather than his left.

The black and red halberd materialises in his hand and Gears aims his halberd at the cat-beast as it falls to ground. Gears lobs his halberd at the falling creature before drawing his handgun as he looks around for another target.

Over there!

I see them.

Gears aim his pistol at the demon-bird engaged in aerial combat with Bolt. As the superhero blasts away with his electric-looking energy bolts at his trailing foe.

Gears fires at the creature at it and Bolt draw close to him. The bullets smash into the head of the demon-bird and Gears notes that these ones are Pounder bullets.

Pounders. A solid slug of heavy Gardium. Good for smashing into things using mass, momentum and kinetic force.

Not the best choice of what we have, but they’ll do.

Especially since I want to save the more dangerous bullets for the more serious threats.

And it isn’t like we have the ability to swap over to a different type right now.

As the trio of bullets smash into its face, the demon-bird turns to face Gears and swoops at the American vigilante. Gears dodges out of the way with a few controlled bursts of his KEPs and empties the other nine bullets into the demon-bird at point blank range.

The demon-bird screeches in pain as bullets leave several holes that leak a sickly green liquid, but continues to fly through the air, coming back around to engage Gears again.

Pretty tough for a birdy.

Did you expect anything less from one of Apocalypse’s creatures?

A flash of blue-white lightning smashing to the side of the demon-bird as Bolt lights up the injured left side of the beast. With the exposed bullet-holes, Bolt’s attacks are much more effective this time around as it fries the internal flesh and bone of the demon-bird with crackling sizzles.

Sensing an opportunity as the demon-bird is distracted by Bolt, Gears flies in at creature, holstering his pistol. He swings his hand at the creature, summoning his halberd as he does so. The ruby red blade tears through the black, murky feathers of the demon-bird and into the flesh and bone below.

With ease, the halberd tears through the head of the demon-bird and Gears can feel the charge building strong.

I might as well charge up as best I can.

Gears hacks away a couple of seconds to hack away at the corpse before it falls out of range. 

“Was that last bit really necessary?” inquires Bolt as he flies by.

“Yes,” replies Gears as he flies after Bolt, “Inflicting harm and death charges my halberd’s energy beam.”

“That is an interes-” Bolt starts to say, but his voice trails off as a massive shadow appear over them.

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.