I hope my team managed to evacuate this building, the soldier thought to himself, ‘cause it may not be intact for much longer.
“Benny, stop this nonsense! Now!” Donovan pleaded as he leapt to his feet and fired two more medium-intensity plasma projectiles at the boy.
The still off-balance metahuman managed to dodge one of them, but the second flaring projectile hit him directly in the chest. Benny shouted in both pain and rage while stepping back a few feet. This time, though, he didn’t fall.
Oh, man… Donovan griped to himself. “Benny, don’t make me fire at you again! I only want to talk to you, okay? That’s all. I’m not taking the side of those kids who hurt you, but you need to understand that what you’re doing here is no different than what they did. I know that deep down you’re not like them, so you have to stop this.”
“I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to anymore!”
With that declaration, Benny screamed in an incoherent rage and projected another sizzling bolt of energy from his hand at Donovan. Again, the soldier’s battle-honed reflexes enabled him to dodge; this time, however, part of his left arm was skimmed by the beam. It seared through the sleeve of his body armor and scorched the outer dermis of his skin.
“Arrgh! Damn you, Benny! You’re beginning to seriously piss me off now!”
Forcing himself to remain on his feet, Donovan pointed his rifle and returned fire. Benny evaded the marble-sized sphere of plasma with superhuman reflexive precision, and again retaliated with a beam of sizzling azure energy. Donovan somersaulted out of the way, with the beam consequently shearing clear through the living room couch and blowing out the wall separating the front room from Mrs. Robbins’s sleeping quarters. Her clothing dresser was shattered, and her entire queen-sized bed was knocked over and strewn across the room by the force of impact.
Further, the explosive destruction inflicted by the stray bolt of energy caused the entire ten-floor apartment complex to begin shaking on its foundation. Donovan continued with his desperate attempts to talk the anguished teen down, certain it would be possible to reach him.
“Benny, I know you went through a lot, and I’m trying to be patient with you, but this has to stop!”
“Nobody tells me what to do anymore! Are you going to try?”
“Damn straight I am, kid!”
Summoning as much of his speed and audacity as he could muster, Donovan rushed towards the boy before suddenly dropping down into a semi-crouched position. As he hoped, the feint was successful, and Benny’s next energy beam sizzled over his head, striking and smashing the open door into hundreds of wooden smithereens.
The charging soldier moved under the sizzling blue energy and slammed into Benny’s diaphragm. The impact knocked the boy back against the wall next to a large window with such force that the glass on the pane was cracked. Donovan’s body armor just barely shielded him from the sting of the energy arcs which crackled in the form of azure sparks all over Benny’s body.
The veteran soldier knew he had to act quickly now. He made use of the startled metahuman’s off-kilter state by slamming his elbow hard on the teen’s jaw. Donovan immediately followed that move with an even stronger blow to the side of the boy’s face with the weighted handle of his piece. He finalized the assault by delivering the hardest punch he could muster to Benny’s solar plexus region. The combo of moves finally seemed to stagger the powerful teen.
“Benny, listen to me, goddamn it! I’m here to help you!”
Despite being moderately stunned, the young man was now far too strong and resilient to be taken down with just a few blows from a normal human being, no matter how expertly placed. Shouting once more in unmitigated fury, the younger combatant grabbed Donovan by the lapels of his trench coat and effortlessly slammed him into the section of the wall next to them. The soldier gasped in pain as the wind was cruelly knocked out of his lungs.
Benny then had more words of his own to hurl at Donovan as he was stunned up against the wall.
“No, you’re not here to help me! You’re here to help them! Just like all my teachers at school! Just like my own grandfather treats me the same! I’m tired of being hated! Now I’m going to hate back! Let’s see how they like being constantly terrorized by someone stronger than them!”
Upon saying that, Benny pulled Donovan forward and slammed him into the wall again, this time sending him halfway through the stucco. The soldier struggled to regain his senses and regain the offensive before he was torn apart. That would constitute a fate he knew may next befall the remainder of his task force, to be followed by any number of civilians before the police or military managed to take him down.
Having been overcome with his own emotional anguish, the youthful metahuman raised his diamond-hard fist, clearly intending to send it sailing into Donovan’s fragile human face. However, thinking about what he was about to do appeared to cause Benny to hesitate for just a moment.
That was all the time it took for a powerful beam of whitish-blue energy to come crashing through the window and slam into the teen’s left shoulder. Struck by a force that was obviously far more powerful than even the highest intensity setting of the taze rifle could produce, Benny was knocked clear off his feet. He landed on the floor outside the kitchen, momentarily stunned.
This bought Donovan the seconds he needed to himself to recover. The soldier pulled himself out of the wall’s stucco and quickly glanced out the shattered window pane to view the source of the beam that saved him. He saw a clear silhouette of what appeared to be an adult male figure hovering in mid-air, with a hint of a glimmering silvery attire being discernable.
Whoa, that must be Ultimus! Donovan mused to himself, recalling the reports collected by the Institute regarding North America’s most powerful--and thankfully heroic--metahuman to emerge since the first Warp Event of the 21st century. No sooner did he make this seeming realization than the hovering figure suddenly turned around and soared out of the area at tremendous speed.
“Hey, wait, I can still use some help in here!” Donovan barked out the window at the fleeing figure. “I’m not sure if that was enough to take the kid down for the count!” And how the hell did he know I needed him here, anyway? Talk about a real-life deus ex-machina!
However, the apparent intervention of Ultimus was to prove but a temporary reprieve, and not quite the deus ex-machina that Donovan had hoped for. Within a second and a half of the flying hero’s departure, Benny recovered and abruptly sat up. Wisps of smoke could be seen billowing from the material of his shirt where the beam had struck him.
“What the hell was that?” the no longer dazed boy demanded aloud.
Oh, shit, I knew it, Donovan lamented to himself. It never fails.
The soldier swiftly pointed his rifle at Benny, letting off another shot at the teen metahuman before he could get back to his feet. This time, however, the youth’s preternatural reflexes proved fast enough to counter with a lower-intensity beam from his fingertips. The sizzling sapphire beam successfully hit and dispersed the oncoming plasma projectile a few feet short of its target.
Damn, that kid is quickly getting the hang of those powers, and he can really think under pressure. I need to end this fast.
By that point, Benny was back on his feet and angrier than ever. “Who did that to me?”
The still dazed teen looked around and saw no one other than Donovan, nor did his enhanced senses pick up the hidden presence of another party. He then shrugged off the mysterious attack and returned to his spiel.
“It doesn’t matter who did that anyway, because you see that you can’t take me down! You’re not going to stop me from getting to those people! Did anyone stop them from hurting me?”
Benny raised his arm again, and once more the energy arcs dancing around his form like the sparks emitted from a pinwheel began increasing in number. This by now signaled to Donovan that the projection of another energy beam was imminent. Before the combat veteran could attempt an evasive move, Ag
ents Gail Parker and Sasheen Kahn entered the now smashed doorway behind him, their taze rifles raised and ready.
“Donovan, get down!” Gail hollered.
The leader of the team wasted no time heeding this warning while his two teammates unleashed a salvo of plasma projectiles from their taze rifles. Struck by the multiple bolts, Benny was knocked back several feet towards the window. He still didn’t go down, though his wobbly state clearly indicated the salvo of plasma had caused him severe pain and numbness.
Gail was determined to take no chances after the way Eddie was injured. “Hit him again, Sasheen!”
The two soldiers released another fusillade of plasma bullet, and Benny was in no shape to dodge them. This time the impact from the multiple spheres of stinging energy knocked the boy clear through the window, where he landed hard on a fire escape situated about a dozen feet below. The already cracked glass was shattered as Benny was sent through it, and the shards showered down past his dazed form as it lay on the metal grating.
Donovan was by then back on his feet, and he was determined to press this advantage and end the conflict on his own terms. And he needed to do so with haste, as he knew the building would soon be surrounded by both pedestrian onlookers and police cars.
“Well done!” he barked to his team members. “But I’ll take it from here!”
“What do you mean, Donovan?” Gail asked with more than a hint of concern.
Donovan wasted no time answering, however. Instead, he ran towards the broken window and jumped down to the fire escape below. As intended, he landed directly upon Benny’s sternum while the teen metahuman was still not fully recovered from the combo of the plasma salvo and the fall. The young metahuman gasped in pain when Donovan’s full weight came crashing down on him from twelve feet up.
The veteran combatant was determined to continue pressing the advantage, likewise taking no chances considering how powerful Benny had already proven to be. He quickly unleashed a series of punches to the boy’s face, never taking the risk of pulling a single blow.
“Dammit, kid, stay down!” the soldier roared as he delivered the severe pummeling. “I know you’re not really a killer! I can tell you’ve been holding back your full power whenever you attacked someone!”
He delivered another punch before grabbing Benny by the lapel of his shirt and shaking him before continuing his impassioned lecture. “You have to let your conscience fight past the pain and come to your senses before you do kill someone, or we’re forced to put you down! Whichever may come first!”
Donovan then struck Benny in the face as hard he could once more. “Do you hear me, kid? I’ve had about enough of this from you today! So, stand down and stop this tantrum of yours or you’ll force me to keep hitting you until you do!”
Despite Donovan’s best efforts he noticed that Benny’s meta-resilient skin was just barely showing any sign of bruising under his severe pummeling. Before the boy could be rendered unconscious, his rage kicked in again and he pushed against the soldier’s chest with his palms.
Though he couldn’t bring his full strength to bear, Benny’s superhumanly enhanced musculature was still sufficient to hurl Donovan into the metal steps of the fire escape a few feet behind them. He then managed to get back to his feet again, and the bruises on his face and the rest of his body were already beginning to vanish completely.
Donovan managed to get back on his feet in record time, only to find that he and Benny were facing off again. The boy raised both of his fists, and the rage boiling within him caused the sapphire-hued energy popping about them to resemble sparks flitting about a live wire. His eyes were now glowing with a fearsome intensity comparable to lighthouse beacons.
Before Benny could make a move, though, he found himself under assault by another salvo of plasma projectiles, these fired out of the window above them by Gail and Sasheen. The impact of the glowing red spheres struck their target and knocked him back against the side bars of the fire escape. The teen grabbed onto the metal with great force and just barely managed to prevent himself from falling over.
With surprising speed Benny gave as good as he got by firing a bolt of energy back at the window. Gail had seen him telegraph the move, however, and shouted the warning to her comrade. Though they both managed to jump out of the way, Sasheen did so with only partial success, and was grazed by the edge of the beam’s corona as he leapt back. He yelled in pain and fell down to his knees. The right side of the window pane was blasted away by the force of the beam, sending a spray of splintered glass and other debris into the already devastated apartment.
Gail quickly ran to her fellow soldier and helped him to his feet. She promptly checked the wound on his right shoulder and was relieved to see that it was only superficial; thankfully, his body armor spared him the worst of it.
“Stand down, all of you!” Donovan shouted up at his team. “I’ve got this!”
In the meantime, the grizzled soldier took his biggest risk yet by turning to face Benny and raising his hands to show that he didn’t have a firearm or any other weapon. “You see I’m unarmed, right, Benny? I’m sorry I had to give you that beating, but it’s not like you couldn’t take it. And you know you didn’t exactly give me any other choice. Now, will you please listen to me? Don’t you at least owe me that much?”
Benny stood with his hands still raised in preparation for an attack. Both his hands and his eyes continued to blaze with an intense blue radiance. His teeth were still gritted tightly and his lower lip trembling in a state of fury. But he seemed to be momentarily listening as per Donovan’s request. Hence, the soldier continued his talk, trying to make his words as gentle as he could despite maintaining a firm tone.
“Thank you. Now, listen, Benny. I know you’re hurting. Please trust me when I tell you that I don’t want to hurt you further. I know you’ve been through hell for many years now. I know how those kids treated you, and I can imagine what your home situation is like.
“But this is wrong. I’m saying this to protect you as much as them. These powers you were given by the Warp Event are a tremendous gift. You can do much good with them. Please don’t give into the pain and become a worse bully than the people that hurt you ever were. I know you’re better than that despite all the pain controlling you right now.”
“I’m not letting them get away with this!” Benny shouted back. “They need to pay for making me become… what I’ve become!”
“And they will pay,” Donovan replied. “But not like this, Benny. Hate and revenge are wrong. They’re self-destructive, and right now you’re standing on a very dark precipice. I know you’re not a bad person, so please don’t let your pain turn you into one. Don’t force me to take extreme measures to stop you. Please stop yourself first.”
Benny didn’t move back, and the energy arcs continued to blaze about his upraised fists like plumes of blue electricity. His eyes continued to glow with a piercing incandescence, but suddenly they appeared to be flickering rather than blazing with a piercing intensity. It seemed as if something from within his being was fighting to temper his fury. But it was seemingly losing that fight quite rapidly.
“I don’t want to do this! But I have to! I’m going to make them stop! And I’m going to show them what it’s like!”
Donovan then decided to take a further risk and take a few cautious steps closer to the enraged boy. His hands were raised in a gesture of extending the olive branch.
“Benny, not like this. You know it’s wrong, and I know you don’t want to become like them, only worse. Right now, you must make a decision. One that will have huge consequences upon not only the direction of your life from this moment on, but likely the entire world. For God’s sake, please make the right one.”
Agents Gail Parker and Sasheen Kahn continued to peer out the window, but sans their firearms raised. Nevertheless, they still had them in hand, prepared to go into action at a moment’s notice. They also found themselves really wishing they hadn’t left Agent Bret
t Silver to remain outside of the apartment to maintain crowd control. It appeared they would soon need every able-bodied member of the team to have a fighting chance of containing this situation, and they were ready to call for reinforcements.
“Donovan, I hope you know what you’re doing…” Gail whispered within ear shot of Sasheen. “You better survive this, so I can slap you in the face later.”
Benny had clearly listened to Donovan’s impassioned words, but the rage continued to show evidence of seething out of control. Both the metahuman youth and the hardened soldier began wondering if the emotional damage was too great for any inkling of conscience or empathy to rise forth and stem the tide. Was the young man now past the point of no return?
Benny began advancing upon the grizzled warrior before him, his fists still raised, his expression remaining indicative of a person needing to cut loose. Donovan steadfastly maintained his “at ease” stance and braced himself for what now appeared to be coming. He was nevertheless determined to play out his big gamble to the end.
“Donovan…” Gail whispered aloud as she quietly went against his orders and raised her taze rifle.
Sasheen pushed her hand down. “No, Gail. Let Donovan carry this out his way.”
After approaching within a few inches of Donovan, Benny found himself looking at the unarmed soldier eye-to-eye. The boy’s teeth were still gnashed in an expression of rage and his eyes glowing with furious intensity, but the older man didn’t flinch. Instead, he kept eye contact with Benny while sustaining a fearless but calm expression.
After this stare down continued for what seemed like an eternity, Benny then made his move. The boy stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Donovan. But the teen didn’t exert any superhuman force as he did so. When Benny sunk his face into the soldier’s coat and began crying uncontrollably, it became evident that the tight but not constricting grip was simply an embrace.
Centurion- Dark Genesis Page 10