Contest Entry: Grey Swipes Left on Archon!

Contest Entry
ID#: 11128

"Status report, Jeeves," Grey said. He'd spent the day at the beach with daughter Adelina, thankful that there'd been no interruptions. Now back in his ship's command center, he was eager to see if they'd made any progress. Things were getting pretty rough out there, with the Legion starting to take the offensive and attacking on multiple fronts.

"Good news, sir, we’ve managed to acquire 3 Mind Benders for your arsenal,” Jeeves intoned, his disembodied voice cordial as usual. “Also, analysis of Tyrannor and Fasttrack's capabilities is coming along quite well! It's more or less complete, though of course they may have some tricks up their sleeve held in reserve."

"Oh, excellent!" Grey said. He'd been waiting for this. "Download them immediately, I want to look at the data right away. And put the Mind Benders in my lab, I want to see how they react with each other."

As the data about his Legion enemies flooded in, Grey immediately became disheartened. "Well, this is just lovely..." he thought to himself. These power levels were extremely disturbing... no wonder he'd gotten his ass handed to him by Tyrannor during their first encounter.

"Well, that explains why our agents are having so little success against them," Grey said aloud, somewhat glumly.

"Indeed, sir," Jeeves replied. "In that regard, I have collated the latest reports from your Area 51 agents. EvoLucian experienced the most success, though keep in mind I use the term in a relative manner. He encountered..."

"Later, later..." Grey interrupted. "I get it, we're not strong enough. Dammit."

A heavy silence hung over the air.

"Sir, if I might suggest, perhaps you should consider..." Jeeves began to say.

"I GET IT, shut up, dude," Grey barked. He frowned. He really only had one option left, as distasteful as it was. He drummed his fingers against each other, an old habit, as he desperately tried to consider other options, but ultimately came to an inescapable conclusion.

He was gonna have to reach out to Super Rakly.

Grey had once rolled with Rakly, back in the days when SR was just starting out and running a group called Battle Born that had garnered considerable acclaim. Super Rakly had, of course, gone one to become perhaps the most powerful Hero on Earth, but Grey had departed BB on, shall we say, heated terms (long story). They hadn’t spoken since, and Rakly had gone on to form The Avengers, the world’s most powerful superhero team. And now, Grey needed to enlist their help.

Bah.

“Jeeves, locate Super Rakly and open a door 2 miles above his current location,” Grey ordered.

“Immediately, sir,” Jeeves replied.

The portal opened, and Grey flew through, hovering high over the city a moment before soaring downwards towards it, as he scanned it with his enhanced senses for Super Rakly’s unique energy signature.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, he was slammed by twin energy beams, causing him to careen off course!

“What the…?!” Grey gasped as he stabilized himself and peered towards the source of the attack. His force field held up, but barely, and he began to direct some of the nanotechnology in his body’s cells to start creating mini-wormhole energy absorbers on his skin as a backup defense. “How the hell did anyone get past my detection arrays?”

“Ha ha ha,” a booming, yet feminine, foice rang out. “Foolish Star Guardian! All forms of energy are at my command… it was a simple matter to absorb your detection fields and strike you unawares. For I. Am. ARCHON!!!”

Grey winced as there was a flash of imploding energy, which coalesced into a (surprisingly attractive) female form comprised of glowing, crackling blue energy. Her eyes flashed, and her pretty features twisted into a snarl.

“You’ve been a thorn in our side, Star Guardian, and have been very clever at hiding from us,” Archon declared, “but I knew that if I monitored for your distinctive Federation portal technology's energy signature, I’d eventually find you. Now DIE!!!”

And with that, she lifted her arms and fired an immense energy blast at Grey!

“Aaargh!” Grey grunted. Holy God!!! This energy discharge was of FAR greater intensity than before! Again, his force field held up, but only because of his freshly-created wormhole generators being able to siphon off approximately 60% of the blast’s energy. Grey’s eyes widened… she wasn’t screwing around! That blast would have vaporized him had he not bolstered his defenses. And she might yet!

It was ON.

Grey maximized his speed and flew in an evasion pattern, as she continued spraying him with energy blasts. Occasionally, Grey would take a shot with one of the many weapons that his nano-tech could fabricate, but she was too fast. Even the couple of lucky hits he managed to land seemed to be largely ineffective against her energy form.

The worst part was her constant gloating. “Hey, baby doll,” he shouted with exasperation. “You’re a pretty girl, but you’re gonna talk yourself out of this date if you don’t put a cork in it!”

“Nice try,” Archon sneered, “but your date tonight is with DEATH!” And she launched yet another ludicrously powerful blast, while flitting around the sky honing in on Grey like a heat-seeking missile while easily evading most of his attacks.

After several minutes, Grey started to get concerned. She didn’t seem to be slowing down! And her blast intensity was becoming ridiculous… Grey was glad to be engaging her high above the city, or the collateral damage would have been crazy bad. And nothing he was throwing at her seemed to be working!  EMP, sonics, dimensional disruption, concussion blasts, zero-point bursts, solid projectiles… even some magic! It was all too slow to connect with her, or she was immune to it.

“Ha ha ha ha ha!” Archon laughed. “You’re WEAK, Star Guardian! Your friends are weak, your planet is weak, and you shall fall before the LEGION like so many other planets under the protection of your Federation of Suns have fallen! You’re insignificant! You’re nothing! We shall kill all of you ‘heroes’ and destroy all you hold dear, as we take this planet for ourselves!”

All right, Grey finally started getting pissed off. Screw this jerk! Suddenly, he had an idea… her energy form was ridiculously fast and durable, but there was still a mind controlling it all. So maybe a psychic attack might be effective! He activated his communicator.

“Jeeves, collect those Mind Benders and teleport them onto my fingers immediately,” Grey said, dodging another blast.

“How many of them, sir?” Jeeves replied.

“ALL OF THEM!” Grey grunted, as Archon managed to hit him again, straining his defenses. “This thing is going south in a hurry!”

“Very good, sir,” Jeeves replied. A couple seconds later, the powerful rings appeared on his right hand, and Grey felt a surge of psychic energy burst through his mind, both invigorating and disorienting him.

“All right, bitch, let’s finish this!” Grey cried out, clearing his head and flying towards her at top speed, his eyes narrowed. He could feel the Mind Benders pulsing on his hand, and in his brain. They could emit a localized sphere of psychic energy that disrupted the psyche of anyone caught within, so he just needed to get close enough and pop her with it.

Grey concentrated. These rings were so powerful, they were hard to control… if he didn’t focus, they might not work at all, but if he could pull it off, the disruption field should be more than powerful enough to put Archon down for the count.

“Sorry, darlin’!” Grey shouted, as he zipped into range, psychic energy building up in his fist. “You’re cute, but you ain’t my type… I don’t date fat girls!”

Archon’s eyes widened, then narrowed with anger, and she began to hiss a reply… but just then Grey activated all 3 Mind Benders!

Yes! Grey could feel right away that he got off a good one… the energy surge was one of the strongest he’d managed yet!

Archon, quite simply, blew away as the event horizon washed over her. Her face took on a shocked expression, and then her eyes rolled back, and her energy form dissipated into nothingness.

Grey hesitated, the air suddenly silent. Was that it? The psychic shock wave was unlikely to kill her, but Grey figured that it’d probably be a few hours before she could reintegrate her energy form, after a psychic wallop like that one. Unless he was wrong, of course…

But as the seconds, then minutes, ticked by, it looked like his gambit had worked. Archon did not return.

“Jeeves, I’m returning to the ship,” Grey said, activating his communicator. “I can talk to Super Rakly later… got some great data on one of the Legion generals that I want to go over. Open a portal at my location.”

As Grey waited for the portal, he smiled with satisfaction. The Legion was powerful, but they could be beaten! Now, he just had to figure out how...