Invincible on the other hand slips on a pair of x-ionised spiked knuckles and braces to receive a charge. "I think I remember that game. I scored the home run that won it for my team." He sniffs. "Seems kinda small now, but at the time I was pretty stoked about it."
Thong shrugs. "Dad wasn't. Hard to understand when you're eight, but…" Purple recovers somewhat, floating unsteadily in the air and gingerly pushing his jaw back into place. "Still in fighting shape?"
Ah, of course. When the fight is unequal, even it up by cheating. In this case, indestructible
cestus.
Well, at least he's not out of the fight.
"Hey." Rae's voice is in my ear, and I have to keep myself from reaching up to feel for her. She's probably just using radio. "How long does your mind control take?"
"It varies. The more my focus is disrupted, the longer it takes."
And talking to people counts, so...
"Right, great. Mark, I'll need you to grapple him long enough for me to get in him."
"Sure. No problem at all."
That's going to be a
challenging proposition.
Yes, I need to hurry up.
Assimilation in progress. Thirty percent complete.
Faster. Must go faster.
Okay. I can see the pink glow as Atom Eve starts flying in our direction. Bulletproof should be next to her, but he's far less visible at this distance. Monster Girl and Rex Splosion will be approaching on the ground, but I doubt that they'll be able to do much. With most of his robotic frames destroyed Rudy is stuck controlling…
I see they filled him in on their names and powers. Good to know what they can do, or can't in this case.
The E.M.P. fried the drone network that he was trying to take control of, which means that he's probably stuck on the sidelines. Of course, if he does manage to reboot them and get full control, that's… Of limited use without the planar portals to summon more and defeat the target by ring out.
Still, anything they can do is useful, even if they're little more than unarmed cameras.
Assimilation in progress. Forty percent complete.
"Everyone ready!" Thong Invincible looks around like he's actually expecting an answer. "Okay,-"
Nice of him to wait for everyone to prepare themselves like this is a simple sparring match.
He moves, and Invincible and Local Invincible both dodge sideways without hesitation, Invincible twisting in the air and throwing a punch which I suspect is purely speculative. Thong Invincible-. He flew past them to disorientate them, then turns on a metaphorical sixpence and shoulder barges Local Invincible in the back.
Classic Dragon Ball Z trick.
"Ah!"
I don't see or hear anything break as Local Invincible instinctively flies away from the pain before spinning around and going for-.
Honestly, better to keep their distance when they can. Until they get an idea of his skill level...
Invincible hurtles towards the road beneath us.
Assimilation in progress. Fifty percent complete.
...He'll be kicking them all over the shop.
Replay.
Thong Invincible flew towards him fists first. Invincible tried to kick him in the face but he moved sideways. Invincible span and jabbed twice, which Thong deflected before spinning to slam his heel down on Invincible's head.
Ah, taking advantage of the fact they don't need to fight as if they were standing on imaginary ground. Bet the only reason he's meeting them in remotely the same alignment is to avoid offering easy shots to weak spots.
"I don't get it." Thong slowly rotates around, making eye contact with everyone-. And casually slapping a few long range shots from Atom Eve aside. "You've all had other viltrumites to train with, right? I thought…" He shrugs. "Oh well. Lantern, once I've killed your boyfriend, make sure that you open a portal for his dad. If you both-"
In most cases, said Viltrumite was their father, who probably wasn't going to train them in how to beat other viltrumites. Like, say,
him. And having Mark be unskilled against the senior Viltrumites would make him less likely to attract attention as a threat.
He dodges as Bulletproof swings at him with his right fist.
"-come at me together, that might-"
Not quite on the same level, but good on him for trying after his
last ass-kicking.
Bulletproof tries a haymaker with his left. Throng moves his head to avoid it, grabs Bulletproof's arm with his left hand and then punches him in the elbow with his right.
"-be-. No snap?"
If I remember right, his
trick is kinetic absorption. And redirecting it into his muscles to make himself stronger.
Assimilation in progress. Sixty percent complete.
Bulletproof hits him in the face with his right fist, pushing Thong back… A very small amount.
...Sadly, not strong
enough.
"I actually felt that. Okay. No disrespect. You're i-."
A thick blue beam of energy slams into his back from… Armour Invincible, his armour clearly damaged but the back-mounted energy cannon in full working order.
Somehow, you just know getting his interest is a
bad thing, in this case.
Thong recovers immediately, making a show of brushing off the.. sunburned patch where the blast hit. "Black Invincible's in, and you're just a course hazard. Warm-up's over."
Assimilation in progress. Seventy percent complete.
Let's hope he can make it before Thong-boy finished his sparring.
And… I can't keep track. Viltrumites are mostly brawlers. Honestly, their skill ceiling always struck me as surprisingly low. They fly at each other and… Box or grapple or just pound away at each other and trust their toughness to absorb the hits they take. I've seen more creativity from Invincible, but even with using aerial manoeuvrability and rotation to hit with extra force… He's young. He just isn't strong enough to show the limitations of the 'orthodox' style during the few spars he's had with the other viltrumites on Earth.
Which is amusing, given that grappling is probably the better way for them to fight. Joint locks and overextensions may not be
crippling, but they hurt like hell and can immobilise a foe long enough to finish the job
properly.
It looks like Thong learned all of those lessons.
Hence him going for the elbow-break on Bulletproof. After all, he probably likes his punching bags to last more than one fight if he can manage it.
Local Invincible flies in, trying to keep track of Thong as he closes the distance. And Thong isn't exactly.. faster, not in the super speed sense. He just.. moves better. A deflection, a knee to the diaphragm, a light push and a vertical spinning kick and Local Invincible is eating tarmac and struggling to breath through a flattened nose with no idea how he got there. Invincible decides to be more active and more cautious, moving, jabbing and kicking-. And it's no good because Thong responds instinctively to everything. Fists, feet, knees and elbows unerringly slam into points of vulnerability; diaphragm, liver, throat and arm joints on his burned side and I see his upper arm snap.
Eesh. The joy of a player who knows how to use counter-hits.
"A-AGh!"
Purple tried to intervene and Thong dodges out from between then before slamming their faces into each other. Armour Invincible manages to get a glancing hit on his back while he's surveying his results, but that just prompts him to grab Bulletproof and hurl him in Armour's direction to soak the next shot.
Oh, that's got to be embarrassing for BP. Going from fighter to
projectile.
"Get out of the way, Black Invincible!"
"I'm not..!"
Can it, BP, you're Black Invincible now.
Eve fires a series of bolts, which Thong knocks aside contemptuously-.
And then there's a sword sticking through his hand, which Eve fired disguised as another bolt.
...Oh, great. Let's hope he isn't trained in sword-fighting.
Assimilation in progress. Eighty percent complete.
"How did that-?"
Do keep up, Thong-boy. She shot it at you.
For someone with superspeed, he's a little slow on the uptake with the unexpected. /jk
The drones begin reactivating, rising slowly and forming up around Thong Invincible. He smacks them apart while pulling the sword out and tossing it aside, but it obscures his sight lines. Armour manages to shoot him directly in the eyes, which I suspect was made possible by him being given a link to the drones' cameras. Bulletproof draws his sword, using the distraction to close in on Thong Invincible at the same time as Invincible. Fairly wild slashes from both of them -along with what I think are random movements- prevents Thong Invincible from keeping track of them in the drone swarm, while Local Invincible comes up from beneath and-
Ah, I see Robot is making himself useful. Admittedly, as a
distraction.
"Ugh."
-briefly grabs his legs and holding on for about three seconds before getting awkwardly kicked off.
Assimilation in progress. Ninety percent complete.
Come on, just one last push, Lantern!
Local Invincible spins head over heels to prevent a follow up, but the confusion of the drone cluster works both ways and he can't make contact.
"What's-?"
Yeah, the drawback of improvising things like that in the field.
Thong Invincible convulses, apparently trying to claw at his own face with what little control of his own limbs he still has. A moment later the drones part, giving each of the still-functioning Invincibles a clear shot while he's helpless. Local Invincible flies low and picks up Rae as she grows to normal size, while Bulletproof and Invincible finally land hits with their x-ionised weapons. But it's not enough; they can't drive them deep enough into his flesh and-.
I'm guessing she shoved one of those capsules into his nose or mouth while he wasn't looking. And again, the weird interaction of fused molecule and 'smart' molecules.
"Ow."
Thong grabs Bulletproof's wrist-.
Hopefully BP's meaty bits are tough enough to prevent him losing that arm...
Assimilation complete. Armstrong Levy of Earth, you belong to the Orange Lantern Corps.
"Open a portal to somewhere bad!"
And it's done! He gets his first Construct Lantern, and boy, is it a doozy...
"I hear and obey."
Ssshnnng.
It opens just behind him-.
I'd laugh if it was an empty universe with no-one to fight, because that's possibly the worst place Thongboy could imagine...
Purple Invincible spin kicks him, making him release Bulletproof and forcing him towards it. Armour Invincible then hits Thong with both fists from a full dive, knocking him half through-.
"Close it!"
Since the drones weren't likely to do the job... I'd be worried being that close to the gateway. One grab, twist and fling...
Thong's face falls. "Ah, shi-."
Thong's face falls, along with the rest of the front of his body.
...
Ow. That's one way to end this face-off.
