I made the first move; I didn't want him to attack first after what happened earlier. I floated up to meet his face. I drew back my hand for a right hook. But a duck from Gavin before delivering a punch to the gut. The force of the blow, along with the sensation of my muscles tightening and burning from the blue electricity covering his gauntlets. I paid it back in blood by bringing my knee to his chin, causing him to have bambi legs.
I unleashed two stiff jabs in the face before I pulled back from getting hit by a roundhouse kick. I moved back inside, dropping to the floor and punching his knee, causing him to be off balance, allowing me to uppercut him, which caused him to stumble back a few steps. I smiled, thinking he was still stunned and tried to charge in again, but my confidence was shaken when an explosion of pain hit my face. When I was coming in, he launched a Spartan kick directly in the face, causing me to be launched back and dragged to the concrete. I groaned, clutching my nose, until a shadow brought me back to reality.
Gavin had jumped in the air, holding a punch that aimed straight down. I quickly pushed myself back just before that massive attack could hit me. The ground exploded with his punch, and he wasn't done. After his attack had missed, he didn't even let himself take a breather and instead charged at me like a wild animal, unleashing a series of kicks, which I dodged or blocked. Eventually, I found an opening, throwing a stiff jab that got caught.
I gritted my teeth, using my other hand to punch, but once again, a grab. The electricity in our arms danced across each other as we locked hands. Red vs blue electricity. I grimaced, feeling the jabbing pain of Gavin's electricity stab at my muscles. Gavin wasn't doing so well either; his face was more composed than mine, but he was defiantly feeling my cosmic lightning burning his hands
Gavin tried to push, but I was rooted in place. I smirked at him before yelling in effort as I started to push. Gavin was getting pushed back, his feet dragging the concrete below. Still, despite overpowering him, his hands wouldn't let go of mine. I may be at an advantage, but he's forcing me to expend more energy! I've got to get myself out of this!
The idea quickly came to me. My vision became red, which resulted in Gavin's eyes becoming wide, quickly letting go of one of my hands to block my optic blasts, though I only activated for a second. But, I wasn't backing off, with my hand free, I delivered a punch to his face, feeling his grip loosen, my hand performed multiple jabs, hitting directly in the face. After the 36th jab, he finally let go of my hand, backing away with shut eyes. I spun around in the air before delivering a tornado kick to his ribs, causing him to face the dirt.
I thought I had him, but to my surprise and frustration, Gavin got up, though with some effort. My attacks clearly affected him; I could see his legs shake. If he could tank that much damage, I needed my two special attacks to defeat him. That damage should soften him enough so he couldn't evade my attack. I prepared to rush him again before Gavin grabbed something from his belt again.
He pulled out that regular device again, the one that can explode. He pressed the middle and it started to blink red again. I had my head ready, prepared to slap it away again or block it. I was expecting him to whip it at me like a pitcher; instead, he tossed it in the air. What the heck does he think he's doing!?
He's closer to the bomb than I am! Gavin turned his face away, shutting his eyes. Why the heck is he-
Click
I heard the sound of a click, only for the advice to not explode; instead, it created a huge, bright light. So bright that my eyes were forced to close, feeling a slight burn from my gazing at it. So that was the plan! He tricked me, thinking it was another explosive advice, instead, it was a flash grenade, resulting in me closing my eyes. I was forced to use My Mind's Eye, and as soon as I did, Gavin was charging at me like a bull, but then he started to spin with his right arm out.
My eyes shot open despite them being still out of focus, and I quickly crossed my arms to block as a fiery punch collided with them.
"Flame Impact!!" Gavin roars.
The result created a shockwave, as well as the feeling in my arm that I blocked the special move to break. I could hear bones snapping, causing me to yell out in pain before I was launched by the impact of the force, causing me to fly back more than a hundred metres before crashing and rolling on the cold floor. I groaned as soon as I landed. I could feel the snapped, broken bones return back in place a second later. Thank god for my healing factor, that would have been a critical hit!
Still, that hurt a lot; although it wasn't the first time I had broken a bone, it was still painful. I hastily got to my feet, breathing while nursing my recently healed arm. Gavin was on his one knee, breathing heavily. He's running low on energy; the problem was that I was too. I could feel I wasn't as strong as I was when I first flew here, but I still have enough to perform my special attacks.
This is a good opportunity since Gavin is out of breath and hurt; it was time to finish our little fight. I clench my fist and lean forward. I ran to him, yelling at the top of my lungs, which spooks him, quickly raising his guard up. It was too late, I delivered an elbow to the jaw, which made him start stumbling from the blow. That wasn't my special move, only a set-up and now to finish this...
"Machine-Gun Breaker!"
I punched him in the ribs. I moved to his back, delivering a right hook behind his head. I moved again, this time delivering two kicks to the arm. It didn't take long for me to speed up, and my body soon became blurred as I delivered rapid-fire attacks everywhere in his body. Everything was fair game, including the groin. Gavin desperately shells up against the barrage of omnidirectional attacks hitting him everywhere in the body.
The Machine-Gun Breaker is a move designed to completely overwhelm an opponent. A hailstorm of my fists and kicks meeting flesh to wear down opponents. Initially, my rush attacks were only directed in the front until I realized it was easy to counter. With my limbs all attacking, it would be easy to counter with a sneaky kick or punch. But with me attacking all around the enemy, it's a lot harder to counter.
With my high speed, it would feel like I'm attacking you everywhere at once, making you unable to tell where I truly am. Even if they tried to attack, they were so overwhelmed that they'd blindly attack in each direction and with me moving constantly, it would be hard to hit me. Gavin tries to throw a hook with his other arm blocking his face, but hits nothing but air. He can do nothing but just shell up to tank my hits head on. While this move offers great damage along with several other boons, the problem is that it took a toll on me.
Just using this move for five minutes straight nearly burned 80% of my Cosmic Energy yesterday. But I have another card on the table. As good as Machine-Gun Breaker, it was a special move to soften up opponents and not finish them off; that's this move's job. After several more seconds of my barrage, I could feel my heart beating fast, and sweat covered me. This wasn't good. I'm running out of juice. I've got to end this, NOW.
I stopped my relentless assault, slapping Gavin's hand to leave him exposed. He had blood dripping from his mouth, along with his nose and forehead. Guilt came to me, though it vanished quickly as it came. I stood close, facing his abdomen. I cocked both my arms, filling them with CE lightning. My eyes grew hot, ready to fire.
"Shotgun-Breaker!"
I slammed both of my fists at Gavin's chest at the same time, my optic blast not being far behind. All three attacks filled with Cosmic Energy, creating a reddish shockwave as soon as all attacks collided with Gavin's chest. His body was flung back at high speed, crashing and tumbling to the floor before coming to a stop. My heart pounded as I took multiple deep breaths. Shotgun-Breaker is possibly my strongest move out of the four, meant to finish a weakened opponent.
Combine it with a Machine-Gun Breaker? Using both in unison will do an extreme amount of damage. I felt immense pride in the two of them for working so effectively. I snapped out of my musing to sense movement in front of me, and my jaw dropped. There is no way...
Gavin stood up, his body battered and shaking from the effort it took just standing up. He was breathing deeply, he looked like with just a slight breeze he would fall over. Despite this, his eyes told a different story; his body may be damaged, but that will to fight burned brightly. I took a step back. How is he still conscious!?
I literally just did my two biggest moves in unison, and he just got right back up!? Calm down, Ben, relax. Maybe we didn't finish him off, however, Gavin was still massively hurt; in fact, he could probably barely move! I don't know how much CE is left, though I have a feeling I could use my powers for at least two minutes max. I won't be at my full power, but I should have enough to beat him.
Still, worst-case scenario, and I lose my powers in a fight, could I really beat him? I grit my teeth and put on a boxing stance. I filled my hands with crimson lightning and prepared my legs to attack. Gavin glared at me. He took one step...before falling back to the ground, facing the sky. I blinked before quickly being worried that I accidentally killed him when I couldn't see him moving.
My fear was quickly dashed by his chest moving up and down. I let out a sigh of relief before I dragged my healing body next to him. I could feel all the tears in my muscles and bruises vanish. By the time I got to Gavin my injuries were pretty much gone, along with the rest of my stamina and CE. I lay in the ground next to him, staring at the blue sky above.
"Does this mean I win?" I asked.
"Kid, you gave me twenty broken bones, multiple cuts, bruises, and I have a sneaking suspicion you gave me a concussion. Yeah, you win."
"Sorry?"
Gavin snorts. Silence returned for a few minutes before Gavin spoke up again.
"I guess this means you have to go to Russia instead, huh?"
"..."
"Kid. I-. I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"For dragging into this mess. I never should have let you help with the Atlas incident, because of that, you have to go on dangerous missions that no child, actually, no man should have any business being on. If I were only strong enough."
I turned to him, a frustrated look on his face.
"If I weren't so weak, you would probably just be a regular kid doing normal stuff, instead of potentially dying. I don't care if you have powers; I should have done more to stop you.
I frowned. "Nobody is forcing me to do anything; I chose this. I wanted to become a hero because for the first time, my life isn't just living for tomorrow. For the time, I felt like I was living in the present."
"Still, I should have never helped you be a hero."
"Then why did you?"
I didn't know how I felt. It was a mix of emotions. I felt pity for Gavin, but at the same time, I felt angry for not believing in me. At the same time, though, I understood how he felt.
"Because you...reminded me of an old friend of mine, a comrade in the military. His name is Noah Ashwin. When we're just young recruits, we were acquainting ourselves with the others, and he wouldn't shut up about his dream, a dream where there would be no wars or conflict, where everyone could be happy."
"...I see. But why do I remind you of him?"
His eyes moved away from the sky and into mine.
"It's because you have the same eyes."
I blinked. "Huh?"
He didn't say anything at first, he once again turned his face to meet the clouds.
"It's those same eyes that allow him to follow through on anything, the same eyes that make him run in the middle of a battlefield to save multiple lives. I used to call him naive, but in time, I knew that was his greatest strength. So when you came to me, expressing your desire to become a superhero with those same eyes, I couldn't turn you away."
He paused, taking a deep sigh.
"Because, regardless of what I said, you're still going to get out there and save people, that's just who you are. So, I agreed to be your man behind the chair. "
I was silent, letting him finish. After a couple of moments of quiet, I finally asked what I wanted to know.
"What happened to him?"
Gavin frowned, closing his eyes before taking a deep breath. "He's gone."
"Oh."
Disappointment filled my heart. Despite just now knowing the existence of Noah Ashwin, I wanted to meet with him. I wanted to see if he's really like me, a person who saves others because it fills them. It completes them. Filling a destined purpose. My musing was cut off with my stomach grumbling, which earned a chuckle from Gavin and made my cheeks grow hot.
Then suddenly, a louder growl came from Gavin's. His face turned serious, before we both burst out laughing like a couple of idiots.
"Come on, let's eat at Giga Burgers."