Iron Eyes
BangoSkank
odium
SHADOW BANE
Noctis
Nirvana
Xantara Aradia
Hos
AlteredTundra
And
Location: North Pole
Time: High Noon
Inside of the colossal building the giant led the three men deeper and deeper, answering their questions about why he had led them in, why he had spared them instead of destroying them with their planes. With their curious minds satiated, Auan began asking them questions. What their purpose was, why they lived under the rule of others, what their dreams and aspirations were.
They were hesitant, skeptical of course, but Auan was patient and talked kindly despite his overwhelming display of force and presence. By the end of the first hallway and entrance into the next major room, they had begun to even laugh a bit at his statements. He’d made them so comfortable in his presence that they’d begun to take the entire situation lightly. When Auan and the three soldiers finally reached the central room he turned around to them and presented the towers of stasis pods, the lights behind the giant figures cast shadows upwards on the ceiling with a collage of shadow forms lying in an inward spiral. “My brothers and sisters. The reason I am here. They cannot live in this time, trusted with their lives I am saddled with a heavy burden.”
As he spoke, his accent gradually shifted to match theirs. They were all of UK descent, they spoke with a Belfast or Northern Irish accent. Something like Liam Neeson with the voice of James Earl Jones, it made them more comfortable as the pronunciation of their own language was no longer butchered by literally billions of years of distant alterations. “Now the weight of the world is on my shoulders. Their hopes, dreams. Mine now, and I cannot risk disappointing.” He dropped down to one knee and offered his right hand to them, pulling his giant gauntlet off to bare his striped slate grey human skin. A gesture of humanity, to prove that despite their differences he was still human. “I want not for war, though I must save my people. I offer an alternative.”
He raised his left hand and presented the forms of the giant warriors from the future. “I cannot make you as strong, but I can make you like them.” The three men looked at eachother with confusion and disbelief. The most brave of the three took a step forward and put his hand on the giant palm of the gold clad figure.
“I’ve always dreamed of being a Hero, I joined the military to serve and protect. Not to wage war.” The other two nodded and stepped forward, placing their hands on top of their companion’s Auan’s happiness couldn’t be conveyed in just a few words.
With glee in his voice he stood up and sheathed the gauntlet back on his hand. “Together you, The Companions! Companions of Supersol, first of your kind. You will be the example of peace and strength to those who attend my labors!” His voice echoed and boomed throughout the complex as he shouted, followed by laughter and its deep rumbling through the metal workways.
The joy slipped immediately, Auan’s ears quirked and the alarm sounded once again and the cameras showed that something had already arrived at his doorstep. Holograms orbited him and images of an intrusive figure emerged. “Get down behind the machinery, Companions!” He screamed to them, warning them before rocketing off towards the doorway. Each colossal step rumbling the floor as the three soldiers backed off into the corners of the room.
-----
David released the board from his control and left it a few feet away from the machine, amidst the remains of the jets, he took note that they all were destroyed right in front of the machine; it reminded him of ancient tribal warnings. To his relief there were no skulls in sight, which might mean the pilots were alive, might.
The door to the giant machine was open, he had no idea if that was meant as a trap for him, or simple carelessness, so he made the extra effort to keep his ears open, and continued to keep that attitude with him as he ventured inside. The air inside was a stark contrast to the frigid winds outside, it was hotter than any summer in Florida, and the air was wrong. It was heavier somehow, and it smelt terrible.
What the hell am I stepping in to?
The walls of the corridor were clean, but it wasn’t smooth like a building would normally be. There were pipes chugging something throughout the interior, and there were several other vague parts exposed to him, shaking in their own way. It felt like he was walking inside a car engine, or the hallway of a battleship, but it was a little bigger than that. Normally, the Terra Firma body felt a little too big, going through doorways was a hassle, but here it felt fine, normal even. Which could very much be a bad thing.
He pressed his hand to the walls, usually he could vaguely feel elements like Iron, steel or limestone in construction and in streets, but the materials here felt too far removed. He couldn’t recognize them at all. David continued on, he had no idea where he was in relation to anything or anyone important, so he just continued, aimlessly walking left and right, left and right. Until he found a giant room.
Some kind of cylinders, or pods, ran miles up and down from the ceiling, and even across from where he was, making him feel like he was definitely in some sci-fi movie; the shadows casted over the idle machinery was intimidating enough, but the room itself seemed sterile and creepy.
David moved closer to one of the pods at his level, it was covered in condensation so he rubbed a hand over it, carrying the extra moisture with it, and inside…
”What the hell?” David shouted out, as he stumbled backwards.
Human, he looked human!
David ran to wipe off some more pods, unsure of what he’d find, but he found the same each time. Human, and another human, they were all human; not only that, but some of them were huge, a few of them were well over 12 feet tall, which was impossible. He looked to examine them for injuries, anything, and he noticed something. Their bodies were different, altered maybe, like monsters in human form, they were statues of muscle and flesh. Some were small with razor like features, others were massive figures.
What had he stumbled into?
-----
The hallways rumbled beneath his feet, the circular alert cameras around him showed him a massive figure of starlight in human form, a beacon of light shimmering in the outline of man. Auan’s heart trembled for a moment, too similar to Transcendant humanity in appearance. Like something had forced humanity into the vague semblance of its future self, but with all of the imperfections of its time. Not pure radiance, but a sort of natural appearance.
He’d heard of something like this, a creature in the distant future. They called it the Ghost of the Deadlands, it was a magical beast of shimmering natural energy. Some said that it was the Earth’s anger at being abandoned by its greatest children, some believed it was the Earth itself. Auan was not superstitious, and so he steeled his heart and barreled into the next pod chamber. It had come in through another entrance and into another separate pod room, where those less immediately human of his brothers and sisters was stored.
They knew the humans of the past would have a hard time accepting people like them, so they willfully chose to separate themselves into different chambers. He barreled through the door and his hand alighted with electricity, arcing from his fingertips down to the floor and to the nearest metal objects. “Be gone from my home, my people!” His voice, like a lion’s snarl, it echoed and would feel like someone rattling your ribcage.
David felt the man’s words vibrating through the floor, and this had nothing to do with his power. Was this just how strong the man was?
In a single moment he unleashed the fury of lightning upon the intruder, throwing his arms out like whips and casting the electricity off in one single motion. The arc of lightning struck out at the figure of energy as soon as his eyes met Auan’s mask, were it not for the mask Auan would have looked visibly shaken by the intrusion of someone so dangerously similar to the enemies of his time.
David stumbled back a couple steps as the lighting slammed into his chest, whoever this was certainly wasn’t kidding around, a blast like this would have killed a human. He moved an arm to intercept the lightning stream, carrying it in an arm, before tossing it off to the side, breaking off the flow of energy, throwing off a shower of tiny, harmless sparks into the air and onto the floor.
“Your home? So this behemoth is yours, what the hell is this?”
--
It had cast aside the lightning as if it were nothing to him, this being was nothing to play around with. As his arms reset into their resting defensive posture he was asked if this was his property. It wasn’t alien, at least, it spoke the language of this time. “Yes, my home. Yet traveled a great breadth of time to reach this place. These are my people, my charges of protection. You have entered my domain without permission.” His left hand gestured to the pods near Terra and then returned to his side, flickering now with a blue fizzle of plasma. “We can resolve this peaceably. I want not of violence.” He raised the hand and directed his fingers towards Terra Firma. ”Should you remain, I would remove you.”
David held out a hand of his own, palm facing out, gesturing for him to stop. “We don’t have to fight, I didn’t come here to tear up your home. You said you traveled a great distance of time? As ridiculous as that is, I do know you traveled here somehow. But why?” David placed his arm back down, and continued. ”But be warned, if this does come to blows, I’m fairly strong.”
”In my time, your world is destroyed. This culture propagates destruction, timeless and immortal. So long as its effects do not reach your leaders.” He paused and shifted the shape of his hand to more directly point a finger accusingly towards Terra Firma, “Trillions of worlds, billions of stars. If your time had not happened, many worlds would still be habitable.” Auan turned and drew the floating hologram from his immediate right, shifting its shape with his mind.
It contorted into a sphere and took on the vague semblance of Earth in this time, albeit with slight differences. It began to spin rapidly and the continents shook and moved, machinery consumed the planet entirely before it became a grizzly wasteland of dry deserts and blistering sun. Machines and sand were the way of the world and suddenly it changed with humanity’s exodus from its own world. The machine buildings took flight off of the world and left behind a dead world, blistering heat and dry cracked earth.
It spun faster yet, the world dried up. Its oceans boiled away and life became impossible.
More time passed and a colossal asteroid struck the planet, a water asteroid that flooded the Earth with new water. Humanity brought alien life from the stars to this world that had readily available oxygen and they flourished immediately. A new species rose up on the red stained planet, they built a small civilization and once more machines began to grow.
Humanity returned now, subjugated them like cattle and altered their genetic code. They saw humans as overlords and gods down to their very DNA. The world was abandoned once again, nature taking its course as the new species evolved and went extinct one after the other. The world was always red now as the sun approached, the temperature rose and life died off once again.
The oceans boiled, and the planet was suddenly upheaved by a cosmic power. Drawing it away from its dying star to protect it. It was returned to orbit once the star had died, but the damage was too great. All life ceased to be except for a single incredibly adaptive species of extremophile that could eat any mineral to survive, and cannibalized to keep its species strong.
There the giant spaceships of humanity returned for the last time, dumping the Supersols onto this dead Earth. The rotation stopped abruptly here as the construction of the structure they were in was beginning.
“In our time, we saved Humanity, born prisoners of its faults, created to protect. Then abandoned like a plaything.” His voice was somber, choked up and sorrowful. ”Did everything that could be done to save as many as one man can.”
”Your future, my past, is grim.” His voice was low and almost a whisper as he spoke those words.
David winced several times over the course of the show, although it would only be perceived through slight nods, and the tightening of his fists. Time travel, an absurd concept that experts in the field loudly and proudly dismissed, was now being presented as fact by this man, and David was half inclined to believe him.
That hologram, or whatever it was, could be faked, and he hoped it was; because if it was real, it would mean that humanity had taken the wrong path in its future. But those people in the pods, they looked human enough, and he was even being won over by the man’s aggressive behavior breaking way to a sad self underneath.
”You showed up suddenly, and without warning, that’s why we’re here.” David gestured to himself, then off to the side to represent the recent battle outside.
”But this time, this era on Earth, did not cause your future, and I know I speak the definitive truth. Because even now, there are hundreds of heroes, known and unknown, all fighting for a better tomorrow. Even unpowered humans of today have a role to contribute, we pave the way for the next generation, we care and teach the young so that we can avoid a future like this!”
David answered the man’s own seemingly sorrowful words with his own heartfelt ones. He wasn’t just shouting, or talking blindly, he truly believed in what he was saying. Because he could not, can not, believe for one second that humanity would become warmongering.
”Personally subjugated five star systems of Humans who had stricken away from Humanity. Had decided to walk their own path. Tried be better than the Humans who destroyed so gainfully.” The hologram dropped, he didn’t wish to recreate these images. Something about the way his hands dropped to his side and his gaze turned away from Terra spoke volumes.
Terra might have even been able to read that Auan was bleeding with regret. ”We watched them become decadent, hedonistic.” The hologram flickered for a moment, demonic figures nearly five times the size of Auan were bearing down on him and his men. ”They sought power from dark magic. They sought power from aliens. It is inherently Human to want more, but when we try to be better.”
The image of Humans cast upon artificial metal frames, their skin stretched over mechanical bodies in a grizzly parody of the Human form.”We wind up so much worse.”
”We had seen many paths. We’ve been alive longer than your entire species has had culture. Fought more wars in our lifetime than Humanity has in its entire history.” The giant head turned towards the shimmering giant in the same room. Two goliath figures, one cast in gold and the other cast in light.
”You think you’re the only one who has studied history? I’ve seen it too, I’ve seen humanity war with itself for centuries, and the one thing I’ve noticed. We always get better, we develop as a society, we evolve each other. Medicine, science, culture. Humanity just needs time, it will get better, and it will never become as grim as you say it will.”
”We had to come back, to change the course of Humanity. To stop Humanity from destroying itself, its world, and every other species in the universe.”
He took a few slow and measured steps towards Terra Firma, speaking icy cold for a single moment.”I have to change Humanity itself.”
”And what does that mean, what exactly are you planning?” David asked, unshaken by the man’s intimidation.
”Humanity is limited in choice, restrained by social contracts of physical power being insufficient to match political power. This absolute fact dictates the course of the next four billion five million one hundred forty eight thousand six hundred and twenty two years. I give Humanity the choice, evolution by their own wills, or by the wills of faceless masters.”
”Faceless masters? What do you mean?”
”From our time we sought solutions, our enemy so vast that victory was unattainable. We concluded that history must be altered, by Humanity’s liberation from faceless masters. Great leaders will rise from elevated masses, and all will be right. Uncontrollable variables must be introduced in greater numbers, the few that exist are not enough.”
”There exist, already, a great number of powerful people in the masses. Especially after the Pax Humana event, if you plan a repeat of such an event, I’ll have to stop you.”
”You’ve traveled here with a deep conviction, I’m hoping to change your mind with words, but I’ve also seen, that words alone are not enough sometimes.” This time David took his own slow, impactful approach, one step at a time.
"You won't be convinced," Auan took a couple steps to the right, opening up another doorway to a long hallway leading out to the snowy hellscape of the Northern Pole. "Sorry it must come to this, do not want to make enemies." The regret was tangible in his voice, "At the very least, may I have your name? The real one, no honorifics or titles."
”Any name I give you could be ‘real’.” David replied, but he could hear a palpable sorrow in the man’s voice, and it touched him again.
”Call me…. David.” He finally answered after a short pause, and although he had already said it, he began to carry some small amount of regret.
"I see. It was a pleasure meeting you, David. I am Auan Six-Five-Nine-Four. It is a sad state we find ourselves in."
”I wish I could have dissuaded you with words. But I’ll teach you just how good humanity can be, even if I have to beat it into your skull.” David had felt sorrow, even disappointment, that this had turned sour, that he had ended up in another superpowered brawl.
Just what kind of example is he, what would his family think?
Those were the kind of thoughts that floated through his head. But he had it up to his limit, people these days were so obstinate, so quick to violence, maybe he should be too; like Pantheon, the Hounds, even Icon didn’t spare a second to talk. He could never hope to be an international symbol of hope or peace, but he can damn well try to be a good example to his family, should they ever find out. Auan at least gave words a chance and explained his situation, but they were too opposed against each other, words could not settle this.
The hallway behind the golden goliath opened all of its doors in sequence, an electrical signal running down its corridors as the cold wind blew through towards the room. ”Let us not do this here, we should let them rest.” He turned towards the door and began walking, his fingers typing as he moved. He was sending a program to the automated systems for the conversion of the first companions.
Auan trusted his back to the warrior from the past, turning completely away from him as he made his way outside. David followed Auan outside, right to where he had come in, where the remains of the jets lay, and he took this moment of peace for one last question.
”I don’t mind taking the fight away from your people, but what of my people, the men that flew these machines?”
A small jolt of disquieting nerves ran up his spine, that electrical tinge of surprise and fear you feel when something goes wrong. For a single moment, Auan’s voice revealed this but tapered back to his natural cool and calm tone.”They are safe with me now. They are the reason we came back, the first to receive our gift.” Each second felt agonizingly longer than the previous, every step bringing him closer to the inevitable fight between David and Auan. Time began to slow, that adrenaline slow that comes from a dangerous situation.
His feet finally stopped clanging on metal and crunched into several feet of snow, the sudden echoing metallic ring halting and bringing his senses to a sharp knife’s edge. Auan moved several steps into the snow, bulling over foot after foot of hardened powder snow. When he’d put ten paces between himself and David, he turned to face the spirit of Earth, man to man.
”What is this, ‘gift’, and are they with you willingly?” David asked, Auan put distance between them, so David started jogging to his side, like he was going to flank Auan; but would stay parallel to him for a time. Other than lightning, he had no idea as to what Auan’s powers were, and speed is a good thing to check for.
”Our gift?” Auan’s voice deepened and steam began to seep from the thinnest points of his armor as his body began to heat up. ”The power of choice.” Like a rocket in the shape of a man, jets of flame erupted from Auan’s back and shifted through the color spectrum until they burned a bright cosmic blue. The flames turned to plasma and in a single instant he crossed the gap between them, lowering his arms to the waist level to grab hold of Terra Firma’s hips and lift him into the air.
Auan was fast, but so was David, at least to a point, and threw his fist upwards into an uppercut in an attempt to stop his grab. ”Choice, what do you mean?” The blow winged the helmet on the side, sharply turning the head of the golden warrior before the full weight slammed into Terra. Instead of lifting up on Terra, his direction was changed and the pair were blasted off to the side.
As he tried to push Terra Firma into the ground, quickly altering his original plan to something immediately more convenient. ”The ability to choose their fate!” His body shifted its enormous plates of metal and muscle to angle the entire conflict into the Earth where he would attempt to go for a mount. To put his entire bulk on top of Terra so maybe he might beat some sense into him.
”What makes you think they haven’t already?”
David saw what Auan was trying to do, but Auan had already managed a firm grip on his body. Thanks to those jets on his armor Auan was probably faster, but stronger?
Let’s see about that.
David slammed his fists into Auan’s head, palms first, although he tried to dial it back, he didn’t try too hard. A man that could rip planes in half was definitely no weakling.
The future warrior always did his best to conceal his weakness with ferocity. Close quarters unarmed combat was not his specialty, engaging Terra Firma like this was to put him on the backfoot for an immediate advantage rather than fight to his total advantage. It might even surprise Terra Firma that every single one of Auan’s physical attributes was significantly inferior to that of himself, Auan was just a profoundly experienced fighter.
Auan’s body buckled beneath the downwards blow to the head, his head wound up shoved straight into the lower part of Terra’s chest but his grip was slackened to drop down to Terra’s knees. With a tremendous pull upwards and two steps forward he went to topple Terra to the ground by lifting his legs straight from under him..
Had David actually trained in combat, his reflexes might be able to take advantage of his powers, as it was Auan had his way and flung David like a pancake onto his back. But he didn’t take it lying down, so to speak, and used his flight power to start moving, taking Auan along for the ride.
As the two spun in a deathroll of superhuman giants, blasting snow aside like a hurricane of pure white, Auan held firm at the waist of Terra and attempted to claw up towards the midriff. Jets of plasma and energy fall off intermingling in a spiral of crackling power. ”There is no choice in a future that is already set!” His right hand slipped and dragged behind them, Auan gripped tightly with his left hand and tried to reach up to grip with his right. ”If I am here, then this future remains unchanged! Their fates were predetermined by my existence!”
”I don’t believe a word of what you’re saying, the future is always changing! If what you said was true, then that just means we all have to work a little harder, and even if it takes a few generations!”
David saw that Auan was losing his grip, and decided to use this to his advantage. Right now he was facing the sun, staring straight at it, if he were still a normal human he might be annoyed at the glare, but right now it evoked another feeling. He remembered once using the light of the sun to blind others, although it was small scale then, David felt that this was a good time to upscale that attack. His body reached out, channeling sunlight, and his body reacted by glowing brighter and brighter, until it outshined any other nearby lights, the sun included, all to ensure Auan couldn’t see.
He called for the tiny bit of Earth he had left near Auan’s craft, while trying to aim them towards somewhere with actual land; he couldn’t do anything with this Ice right now, and no point trying to feel up new powers. If Auan wanted to climb him so bad then he would help him, David grabbed Auan’s loosened hand up, and then clamped his arms tight around Auan’s body this time. The light began to recede as David drove the both of them down into the ice, Auan head first.
The pair smashed into the ice and Auan's head was buried deeply in the packed snow and hardened frost. Shattering like glass the shrill cracking noise filled their immediate proximity, muffled by the soft snow and mist that had been blown up by the impact. Terra had his back and his legs were underneath Auan's armpits, so the golden giant slung his hip up and over to smash the being in the face with his lower back and buttocks. It was inglorious, but when you're a warrior you must use every part of your body to your advantage.
This would be David’s first true fight with another superhuman, so he had no way to gauge how well or poorly the fight was going, and he wanted to make sure he hadn’t over done it. So he loosened his grip to check on Auan, the man’s lower body lulled forwards slightly, then suddenly crashed into his face.
[i]Seriously? An attack like this?[/color]
David thought as he tumbled backwards from surprise, as well as the attack itself, providing Auan with an opening. The future warrior quickly dismounted in a spiral of plasma trails, blasting both behind and underneath himself to reposition further away from David, breaking free from immediate face to face melee to put himself into the advantageous position once again.
Once he reached a solid hundred and fifty feet away he would materialize a giant hammer from the ice in the air around him. Unlike in advantageous locales, the only materials around were ice and snow. With his mind he compacted the snow to a steel hard bludgeon, literally vibrating with it's instability.
”We have seen how the world ends, we cannot risk the future you have seen. Whatever the cost we will ensure that time never comes to pass!” He raised his hands high with the hammer held aloft, sparks of electricity coursing through the frozen bludgeon. ”I don't wish to wage war, I don't want to be the enemy! I offer the world the choice to determine its own destiny, rather than be subject to the fate predetermined by politicians in high towers, untouchable by normal men!”
His voice was a scream, booming and with each syllable vibrating the air between them. ”I didn't have the choice, born into the doomed Universe! A slave!” Brandishing his greathammer towards Terra as his opponent rose to face him. ”But I will die a liberator.”
”That time will never pass, and if you’re so adamant about it we can work together for that better tomorrow!” David raised his hand up into the air, not to stop, but to grab, though not necessarily at Auan, but at his hammer. Usually his powers are tied to feelings, the urge for quick and powerful strikes birthed lightning, the need to stand firm awakened his power over the ground, and even then his feelings resonated with those powers. Here, he felt nothing, even as he tried to reach out with everything, he felt nothing. Disappointment and worry filled his mind momentarily, before he shifted back to the fight.
”There doesn’t have to be a war, and nobody has to die for it! You come from a dark future, but it can be bright, we just have to guide the next generation, that’s our duty, as adults!” David’s own voice echoed throughout the icey plain. Auan was certainly stubborn in his belief, but his beliefs were inherently wrong, ideas brought about in a timeline so far removed from his present had no place judging the people of today, and he was going to show him that.
”You have a choice now, you can help the humanity of today, or you can keep fighting it like you have been all morning!” David could feel something else, a passion flowing through his body like a geyser. He firmly believed Auan was wrong, his way of operating was wrong, and although he himself had no right to be talking about the future, he had no intention of losing.
Fire, genuine flames and embers exploded in plumes off his body, coalescing all across his body, then spiraling down towards his fists and arms. The ice under him hissed violently as it steamed a boiled underneath him, causing him to sink down to his thighs , but it didn’t bother him in the slightest as he bent slightly, and launched into the air.
As Auan dropped from his ascent, no longer maintaining centripetal motion or upwards ascension, he drifted strangely lightly down towards the ground. Before he could speak again, David had blasted from the ground in a column of fire and fury. The two met mid air in a collision of ice and fire as Auan swung the bulk of his hammer straight towards Terra Firma’s head. Instead of it serving as a proper weapon it simply exploded into shards of rapidly melting ice in the radiant mutual heat of the impact.
What shards that didn’t escape landed on David and sizzled away into nothing as he continued to barrel through, and flew into another grapple with Auan. Instead of grabbing him, David opted to one good hit, he clasped both his hands together over his head, and slammed down.
The surprise of his weapons failure was in no small part due to the atmospheric differences of their times. The temperature of Earth had decreased so much that the ice and snow sheets were comprised of much denser elements. He hadn't noticed the compositional difference until the moment of failure, where his entire guard was dropped and the energy being smashed both fists into the crown of his helmet.
With a single rapid motion he was plowed into the ground again, his slow descent becoming a quick one in zero seconds flat. His left foot and right knee hit the ground and both of his hands followed quickly. As he rose to his feet he spoke. ”I am not immortal, despite my great age. I cannot ensure that they will guide themselves by my teachings! I can pass on my words but the powers that be are tenaciously evil. Within three generations they will alter my words, within five they will forget my face. Falsehoods and twisted lies of my deeds will be fabricated and spread as truth.”
His body crackled with plasma emissions, blue lights gliding weightlessly across a golden body. Illuminating the darkened crevices for the moments they intersected. ”Then they will tesr power from the people. Ignorant of the lies. Illusion ot choice will reign supreme once more!”
He stretched his arms out and placed his legs at shoulder width, broadening his body to the maximum space that it can accommodate. Lines of electrical emissions crackled to the ground and expanded in geometric patterns across the uneven snow. ”This is the only choice!”
”The people aren’t as powerless or ignorant as you seem to think! Everyday someone gets powers of some kind, and the world changes in that instant! Because of superhumans organizations like STRIKE and SPARK exist, even the government is working together with them. Sure, there are those with dark intent, but those are dealt with in time. This era isn’t the same one you read about in your time, everyday the powerless become the powered, and in time we can all affect the world!”
Auan was taking this moment to prepare something, so David would too; miles beneath the ice they stood on was the ocean floor, so he reached down for it, pulling at it. He felt the intense resistance from the water, the absolute depth, even the distance, and it was coming, slowly but surely.
Like the blast of a naval broadside, shockwaves erupted from behind Auan in a half moon expanding out over two hundred feet. His hands whipped forward to the full extension, directing both open palms towards David, firing a beam of concentrated psychic plasma towards David, exploding the packed ice, mountains of snow and frost flew in all directions except towards the ray.
It ripped the air apart and sweltered like the surface of the sun, blistering the air around them from a frigid cold to a superheated atmosphere of sublimated water, having completely skipped the liquid phase and jumped to the gaseous phase.
Auan's power was never in question, but even though he wasn't trying to kill Terra Firma, he was trying to beat the message into the head of a very powerful being.
David braced his arms in front of him as the energy collided into his body, he tried to resist it but was thrown backwards by the blast. The sheer force behind it proved too much to stand against, even what remained of the snow around them had no choice but to move; he managed to recover enough to stand on one knee, and braced himself like that. If their superheated battle, turned literal, continued as is, the very environment around them, known for its subzero temperatures, would cease to be, and so he resolved to move their fight.
Right now the ice beneath the two of them was melting, swiftly transforming their part of the frozen plains into a cavern, and that was perfect. That piece of the ocean floor he had called for was finally close enough, and he began forming it into a fist even while it flew underwater; the time to change the stage had finally come. David’s slab had been holding position high above in the sky, and now it came racing back down at Auan’s backside. While his underwater ram closed in on him from underneath, shattering what little ice remained, and slamming full force into Auan’s front.
Like two speeding trains they collided with Auan. Taking his front and his back simultaneously and sandwiching him between them with an explosion of rubble as he enveloped himself in a psychic barrier at the last minute. The much larger plate sent him plowing through the smaller block of stone, flying through the air at high speeds in a reverse freefall of chaotic energy. He had not seen this coming both literally and metaphorically, the plasma had blocked it from his view and there was no way to see a continental plate being slammed into you coming.
As he careened like a ragdoll in a ball, Auan tried to stabilise himself by shooting out jets of plasma from his body. He managed to stop himself from spinning but there was nothing he could do about the speed he'd built except slow himself down gradually. This was unfortunate as Terra Firma was not yet finished with him.
As the undersea ram punched it’s way up through the ice, hitting Auan, David reached out to it again. A tentacle like appendage shot out at his hand, merging with it, dragging him into the air at a near blinding speed; the arm twisted, and whipped forward suddenly, throwing David at Auan. He used flight to guide his body as he got closer, grabbed one of Auan’s legs, and flung the both of them into a spin; letting go of Auan after a couple seconds, sending him flying out of the North Pole.
Like a supersonic missile being intercepted by another, faster, missile he was grabbed from the air as his barrier faded away. His legs were grappled below the knee and he was dragon thrown over Greenland, accelerating more and more from the force of it. He spun like a frisbee with jets of plasma coming from his hands and feet, his vision blurring into a circle of grey and blue and brown and green.
The golden goliath gritted his teeth and squinted hard, his nose scrunched and his nostrils closed themselves. David was a formidable opponent, far beyond Auan in physical ability and supernatural abilities as well. Even his psychic might wasn't enough to compensate for the difference in ability. He braced himself by pulling his knees up to his stomach and folded his arms over his chest.
This wasn't over quite yet.
They were moving fast now, faster than David was used to, but he wanted to get Auan away from the Ice, and it seemed he had gotten his wish as they had transitioned over an ocean now. Saving the environment was fine and all, but this might have been a bad move on his part as he wasn't accustomed to fighting only in the air, and being several feet into the air put that much more difference between the Earth and him.
Nonetheless he had to keep going, so David closed in and slammed his fist straight into Auan's crossed arms. It wasn't exactly a decisive hit, but Auan wasn't outwardly evil, so maybe now, after all that, the fight could end. Logic told him to fight hard and fast to win,, but fighting wasn't his first goal, and he wanted to give talking another chance.
”Forcefully changing humanity isn’t the solution, it isn’t too late. You can be a force for good!”
Before being blasted to the ground by a powerful blow he was caught and pulled close to David, opening his eyes back up once again he heard David shouting over the rushing wind. Still yet, David did not grasp the truth of the matter. Even though he was clearly intelligent he was blindly optimistic towards the future of humanity, despite the truth being held before him. ”It is not Humanity who must learn, it is the very nature of leadership to become corrupt! To keep leaders in check you must have power!” Immediately exploiting David’s moment of patience he threw a straight blast punch into David’s face and broke free from his grip.
Jets of plasma erupted from his left hand side and he spun in the air, taking David’s back with a two footed drop kick strengthened by his subsonic body’s force. Sending David flying ahead of himself he pumped as much power as he could into lightening his own body weight with his psychic prowess and jets of plasma. A sonic cone formed and broke around him as he managed to push himself supersonic, plowing his shoulders into David’s back as he was recovering from the initial blow. ”I have to give them the power they need! People of this time failed! History dictates that the strongest being became a pawn of the government, a stooge, a patsy! Betraying all superpowered beings, betraying humanity, and betraying the very concept of fairness and all that is good!” Auan screamed, his voice barely reaching over the scream of his supersonic jets of plasma.
David grunted from Auan’s sucker kick, and again when he was tackled from behind. His body flew the way Auan wanted for a few moments before he turned himself mid-air, and tried to counter with his own punch.
”Impossible, who could possible betray everyone?”
A contrail of electric blue accelerating rapidly across the sky, breaching into upper sonic speeds. Breaking mach two he reached up and grabbed under David’s left armpit to get a better hold on him. ”Several million years have passed, only a scarce record exists! We could not find who betrayed Humanity, but when I find the greatest of this time I will know!” Electric chains flickered across his golden armor, trickling down and glistening off into the tail of plasma of this two man comet. ”It cannot be done it alone, I am but one man!” He blasted a jet of energy from his left hand side to begin an aileron roll, like a crocodile performing a mid air death roll.
It was clear, Auan was much faster than he was, but thinking only one attribute would win a battle was foolish. Still, these dizzying speeds were nothing to scoff at, he needed to shake out of it soon. So David used his other arm and tried to deliver several successive gut punches.
”No one hero is the ‘greatest’, we’re all doing our best, and if your records are so scarcely intact I’m even less inclined to believe this story!”
”There is no possibility that the records are faulty, only incomplete!”
Giants exchanged fists midair, tumbling at supersonic speed and before they had even noticed they crossed over Canada. Leaving behind a trail of flattened trees and gouged out Earth.
The two gigantic bodies hurtled towards a city in the north eastern region of Continental United States. Like a blur they would soon crash down near the University, finally with the two bodies coming to a halt, suddenly crashing to Earth. Terra Firma was standing, Auan's body was half buried up to the waist. Legs and rear smoking and glowing slightly from the friction generated heat of the midair battle.
Even the traffic had come to a halt, the two had crashed in the middle of an intersection. No horns honked, nobody yelled.
And all was still.
