Extinction Rising
New York City
12:00 PM
It was a rainy day as Everett made his way down the Hillside Avenue, his grey sweatshirt's hood up and his head down, he scanned the area. Just as Ivan had told him, two on the outside, and supposedly, there was at least three on the inside. He suspected the ones inside would be more heavily armed, not being out in the open. These two, however, weren't wearing particularly heavy clothing, certainly nothing capable of hiding anything larger than a personal defense weapon.
He figured if he was going to do this, now was the time. The hero froze time, the familiar blue hue surrounding him. In real time, the two guards were knocked out in nearly and instant, and stripped of their weapons. However after knocking the two men out, he took a look up at the corner of the small indentation in the building, just before the double doors. A security camera placed there was going to make his life slightly difficult. Each time he took out a guard, it would give the man watching the cameras that much more time to react to what had happened.
Entering the building, he saw three guards in the hallways, just as he expected. He quickly dispatched them, similar to the way he did to the two out front. None of them were quick enough to counter him in the slightest. Mere thugs offered no challenge to him, almost boring him in fact. The hero quickly found the room that the arms dealer would reside in as well, all too easy. Looking around, saw three cameras. Each one was easy to destroy, as Everett briefly unfroze time to destroy each, before approaching the side of the door to the dealer's room, unfreezing time. Inside the room however, things were not as he would expect them...
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Blood pooled on the hardwood floor of the New York apartment, a flickering shimmer in its reflection as one of the room's two fluorescent lights began to die. The dead body of the apartments occupant, a Finnish arms dealer, laid next to a rolling chair and desk, both of which were also coated in blood. Sitting in the chair with legs up on the desk, an armored man adorned in a cloak fiddled with a Rubik's Cube, his associate standing beside him. As the cloaked man turned the Rubik's Cube a last time, completing it, he looked up to the door, a bloody corpse on both sides. "It seems that our target has come to us." the cloaked man said, in a slightly mechanical voice, "Take care of him Ulysses." The hulking man nodded, making his way towards the door, each step sounding like a normal person stomping, and shaking the floor.
On the outside, Everett heard the footsteps, and prepared to ambush his target. It took him by surprise, however, when the door blasted off of it's hinges like a breaching charge had been used on it, slamming into the wall on the other end of the hallway. As the hallway was filled with dust, Everett was unable to see the metallic arm of his assailant throwing a punch of devastating power. The attack struck Everett's left arm, instantly breaking his shoulder, causing him to be flung down the hallway, and straight into the door that had been knocked off its hinges.
The man suddenly began charging the hero again, his metallic arm winding back for another punch, this one even stronger than the last. Everett's only choice was a temporary retreat. He went intangible, freezing time, and fading through wall and jumping down to the street below. But, maintaining the time freeze was hard with his injuries, and this guy would clearly be hard to best without it. Time returned back to its normal speed, and Everett stood on the street below, the rain having picked up since he had gone into the building. The skies were dark, with clouds completely obscuring the sun.
A hole suddenly blasted open in the side of the apartment wall, chunks of rubble showering onto the streets below. The man jumped down to street level, crushing a sedan under his feet as he did. He began to approach Everett, walking as he did, leaving himself totally open. Everett seized the opportunity, freezing time and running towards his target. His broken left shoulder caused him immense pain, but he tried to ignore it. Things were getting serious, and he had a feeling that this guy was the least of his worries. Everett raised his fist, throwing as hard a punch as he could as the man, briefly unfreezing time directly as the punch would strike his target.
In that split second of time, Everett's punch struck, hitting the man's jaw. And, in that split second, the bionic metal hand of the hulking man gripped Everett's face, whiplashing the hero and throwing him directly into a car, creating a massive impact. Shattered safety glass rained to the ground as Everett laid in the car, his body's impact having bent the car's doors and body inwards. Several of his ribs had been fractured, and his broken shoulder was nearly shattered. He opened his eyes to see the man approaching, seemingly getting ready to finish the hero off. Everett knew he couldn't afford another strike like that, and this guy was fast enough to counter him in less than a split second. But, as Everett looked down, seeing a shiny artificial color spreading through the fallen rain water under the car, he got an idea.
The man reached Everett, pulling the fallen hero out of the twisted steel and lifting him by the neck. He raised his nonbionic arm, preparing to deliver the final punch, when Everett suddenly smiled. In the hero's right hand, a flicked on zippo lighter, which he dropped down to the ground just beneath the car. What ensued was a massive explosion, sparked by the gasoline dripping underneath the car, which burned straight up to the gas tank. The blast engulfed the man, and spewed sparks and black smoke throughout the air, contrasting the rain which fell from the sky. Small fires lined the street, and, on the other side from the explosion, stood Everett, having frozen time at the last minute to escape. Relief swept over his body as he saw the man laying in the center of the fire, unmoving. Some of the cyborg's flesh was burnt off, revealing robotic parts underneath the human tissue and blood. It was the source of his strength. But, as Everett caught his breath, momentarily closing his eyes, he heard a voice from the hole the man had left in the apartment building, just above the burning car.
"Another failure."
Everett turned his head to see a cloaked man in some kind of armor, the embers of the raging fires not rising in front of the new figure, but instead circling around the sides of him, as if some force dictated them to do so. His very presence seemed to darken the sky further, which only briefly lit up as a horizontal bolt of lightning exploded through the atmosphere. Everett, still gripping his shoulder, looked up at the man, "What do you want from me?" he shouted, "Who are you?!"
Police sirens could be heard in the distance, and, they quickly closed in on the street, coming in from both directions. The cloaked figure lifted his hands, opening his palms towards the sky in the gesture of a god. The police cars which quickly approached suddenly burst into flames, each one exploding in a fiery blast. As the flames which erupted from the burning husks of metal blocked off the corridor-esque street, flooding it with sparks and ash, the figure suddenly spoke from above, "You wish to know who I am?", he asked, in a deep and powerful baritone. "I am the destruction in wake of creation. I am the death in the end of life. I am the obliteration of all things. I am..."
"Extinction."
