Location: Kobra Base, Everglades, Florida
Vincent was mid-stride when he felt the bolas begin to wrap around his ankles, tripping him as they shocked him, preventing him from catching himself.
Are you serious, this again?! he thought, unable to do much else. He knew he was in trouble, this time. The last time he had been tangled up, the bolas had been attached to a steel plate he detached from his back. This time, they were wrapped directly around his ankles and he couldn’t remove those. Not painlessly, at least, nor would it be a simple matter of reattaching them.
Despite the pain of being shocked, he kept an eye on his opponents. Counting only the armed guards, there were roughly ten of them, four of which bore red armbands. Two of those had bola launchers, one was equipped with shockwave gauntlets, and the last had one of those foam guns he remembered from the bank heist. The guards were arranged in a loose semi-circle around him, their weapons trained in case Vincent managed to free himself. Normally, he wouldn’t be worried, but he found it difficult for him to focus enough to cover himself in his carbon armor. If they decided to open fire then and there, he was a goner.
Suddenly, his mind flashed back to the harbor. He could still feel the increasing weight on his chest, the helplessness of being pinned underneath his rampaging teammate, unable to do anything. And then…
It was dark in the closet. There was shouting, the sound of something breaking. Someone was looking for something, demanding the couple to give it to them. The voice sounded young. The couple said something. There was a stifled sob. Then a furious yell, joined by terrified screams cut short, the splatter of something wet, the sound of a pair of heavy objects hitting the ground…Vincent slammed his fist on the ground and slowly pushed himself up, using the pain of his split knuckles to focus. The guards all took half a step back, nervous, while the blonde meta seemed to grin wider.
”Never…again…” the young hero growled as a small, black knife of carbon appeared in his hand. Reaching down, he sliced through the wire connecting the metal spheres of the bola and immediately felt the current fade as he let out a sigh of relief. Now able to focus on them, Vincent realized he could sense something familiar about the bolas…
“Fire!” came the order just as gunfire erupted all around Vincent. In the split second it took for the order to be given and the first shots to find their mark, the young hero’s body was covered in his signature carbon armor, protecting him. Then came a pair of bolas, but Vincent was prepared, this time.
”That’s not gonna work, anymore,” he said with a grin.
The moment they were within range, he reached out with his power, calling to the steel he sensed within the electrified spheres, and forced them to change course. The glove-wielder and the guard with the foam gun, taken by surprise, couldn’t react fast enough before they found themselves ensnared, crying out as they received the same treatment Vincent freed himself from. Now able to counter both the bullets and the bolas, he was free to turn his focus toward the bigger threats: the metas.
He glanced at the bald man floating in midair, then the blonde on the ground, who only seemed to grow more excited at the prospect of a fight. He had no idea about either man’s abilities, but every instinct seemed to tell him that the bald man was probably the bigger problem. Which meant he had to go down first.
Drawing from the air, Vincent layered more carbon on top of his arms and legs before he jumped toward the bald one. He called on his power to pull him through the air, giving him more height and speed, before he lashed out with a heavy right hook.