It was for a heartbeat, one that had spread itself out over millennia. A relapse to that grim perception fought for it to hold, an overdrive to rubberneck back and be sure, but it all faltered as nothing but sudden peripheral flash.

It had to be a trick of the light. Just the warning lights still swirling amidst the rain at the edges of his sight. A funny mix of nostalgia and reminiscence making his brain fill in the blanks an eternity of separation had left. But that last side street, that ignored quick exit, that passed instance of unneeded escape.

It had flashed over orange like so many walls had before. And…

And so was the next! Swallowed up in that field of pure impenetrability. That vibrant orange plain separating it, protecting all beyond from what will cause harm. That filter of possibilities that had held back the worst of his nightmares. That vaunted invulnerability he'd shown his true self through. That will driven expanse of 'You shall not pass' that he'd crossed and crossed and demanded the world of. That wall… that was expanding all the way from street to closed in sky.

Across every intersection intake like a grand bollard against the most heinous of terrors. A condemnation so pure and loud it may as well be screaming down on top of him. A condemnation refuted time and time again, but levied anew as yet another damning Rubicon to cross. With far worse implication if this sag in his heart couldn't be alleviated.

'It can't be her! Please don't fucking let it be her!!'

A sudden burst forward. A renewed need to get the hell out of here! The trap closing fast with all signs pointing to his half assed cover already getting blown sky high! Street after street walling up and daring him to repeat history. To just yell out to the world that Rage was back and all hell was going to be needed to put him back in the ground.

A sharp corner slammed hard to get ahead and out of the line, but slammed shut all the same as roadway bore the brunt of his sudden deceleration. Heel turn and scathing rocket opposite only careening into the same bulwark closing up tight. As both these edges of hope and damnation came together before him. All the speed and strength in the world rendered moot and untenable, as his heart hit the floor and his gaze hit that locked shut trap. And as the drone of sputtering defiance came to a scrapping roar behind.

That delayed bird making a belly landing, tearing concrete and asphalt in equal screeching measure. But its orientation spun counter, thrusters washing over in heated breaking, and its wide open landing ramp bouncing and scraping to buckle. Those flat rumbling engines flaring bright in enforced deceleration, stopping this crash short and putting its contents right where they were needed.

Contents bracing the lurch away into unwilling staunch. Glaring out from the dark in all manner of edge and intent. Powers and uniforms too disparate to claim allegiance, but wholly conglomerated under one tight nit banner. Chief among them stomping down from atop their ridden down conveyance, all the mannerisms of their progenitor contorted to stand taller… than they actually could.

This neo Erdwut crowding out the middle of the formation spilling forth. A shirtless yet helmeted bulk stancing flashy alongside. A half plated red flare cracking her knuckles on the other side, grin a fair bit sharper and a horns jutting from above a visor face. A matching set of navy and sky blue flyers hovering out above, the same plated armors but no helmets to block their icy pierced visors. And lastly a form just stepping off the buckled ramp, a matte silver full plate with their arms fully extended. All signs pointing hard and…

'Huhhh thank fuck!'

Alleviating at the same time. Despite masking armor and the clear display of power, it was not Aegis come to put him down on day one. They were way too scrawny to even come close to that. But… But that didn't make this any less of a fight oncoming.

"You've got nowhere to run jackass!! So just give up!"

The neo Erdwut's modulated voice tried to boom louder than it could manage. Their stature and stance rising in kind, but blaring bluster and bravado unfitting. Seth narrowly had a full head over them and yet they still acted like they were the big shot around here. In fact, all these looks seemed hard pressed to rise above. Or they were just already grumpy.

The muscle bound stance on their right couldn't be too far off of Seth, but he was trying his hardest to be bigger. The twins overhead definitely fell under his age, though they sure glared beyond their years. The near literal demon though… well you can never make assumptions. She could be a thousand years old, or just really in to the motif. Either way the consensus was all too clear to ignore. Seth had the trainees sicced on him. Or at least the recent graduates. And, even as they blared their contempt, he really couldn't level his feelings between being lucky or insulted.

'They have dedicated teams for this and these are the ones they chose?'

What he couldn't waver on though was the cheeky chuckle peeking out from under his mask. A subconscious relief coming free or just maybe too much familiarity, it didn't matter. He could only just smile at the situation he'd been dropped into. At the rollercoaster of emotions he'd just been sent through. And at the immediate rise being wrung out of his new contemporaries arraying themselves against.

"What's so funny? Losing yourself already or do you just think so low of anyone but your god?"

The bulk spoke almost too eloquent to justify the pose bulging their profile. No modulation beyond simple projection, the helmet not made to stifle the banter.

"Maybe he just wants to follow them and die."

"Or he thinks he's hot shit and can take us!"

One of the twin girls didn't hold back, and the other wasn't too far off. At least they didn't complete each other's sentences. But both couldn't look away even if they tried. And Seth was starting to worry about generational trauma for some reason. Because they looked way too familiar. Something with their hair being a shade too grey to be blond.

"Nah, he's definitely tough enough to justify."

The demon was… actually aware? And now Seth was worried she might actually be a demon.

"But he doesn't knows what he's in for."

Nope, never mind. She was trying to be intimidating. Red eyes flaring out from under her visor cementing that.

"Please just kick his ass already. This is way too many walls to keep up while you're wasting time with bants."

The armored child of Aegis, or maybe descendent by this point, was just proving Seth's point. His voice shaking in the wind like his arms, and his will seemingly ignored outright by the demon.

"Don't worry, he'll cave in no time Buckle. Just kee-"

"*kkhhhm*"

A lapse, a fucking strain unimaginable, that lucking out smile losing to a suddenly inflated smirk. To pained cheeks and the modicum of decorum demanded falling onto a knife's edge and a holding back hand. As an ire untold rose to make him regret that failure.

"You got a problem?"

That small Erd twisting high and volcanic, but couldn't keep down what was already too far gone.

"*khm*…buckle… *kh* KH HAhahaha What the fuck!? Hehaha Haha!!"

Seth couldn't help it, couldn't hold back, couldn't imagine or manage to take this seriously.

"What-hah what the fuck was she thinking?! Hahaha hehah!! Oh what the hell Dana?"

That ire, that spiteful glare massed and all but doubled over in boiling fury from silvered slatted eyes.

"Keep my grandmother's name out of your GODDAMN MOUTH!!!"

'Hehaaa, well at least I know when I am better. Hehee… Buckle?'

A moment of drag, of unfocused merriment. Of compromising joy falling to snicker against eruption. Of shameful hiding and righting against cracking asphalt. Of digging himself deeper and deeper against hurtling steel and rising obsidian retribution. All acceptance of the consequences of his hollow actions, of that new Erdwut already on their way blow his cover and cave his skull in good and proper. But also a light in that deep dark hole of just comeuppance. A tiny glow, but a beating rhythm. That fire, that power, that buried absorption singing callous motivation.

'I've gone and made them mad… Good!'

An all or everything gambit bleeding insightful and inciting. And drawing that formation apart at its seems. Right into gut checking range. That power slipping free, that resentful side given just ever so slight reign, and this drawn out stretch of metaphysical might launching hard on intercept. Knee ballistic and armor far from enough. A battle wanted than a battle received. Not enough to throw away this wanted reset, but enough to see just what this world was made of. And throw it all back to show who was in over their heads!

Armor found that knee unperturbed, velocity found rebounding lesson, and progeny found velocity in ballistic rebuke! This Erdw-

"Callah!!"

The sudden clash of metal and asphalt shunted to a stop. That muscled helmet catching his apparently female leader in backblasting full stop before she could flail back into their formation like a lighter Maya v Aegis. But that name was yelled out by the unfortunate Buckle at the back. And growled over in the shield arm soothing of her short order rebuke.

"Kick… this fucker's… ass already!!"

A cue taken with no objections. But varied degrees of whole hearted enthusiasm. The twins rising faster and already glowing brighter. Firing positions leveling as the demon girl rushed in below. All as Seth took his own recoil. Arms scrunching and letting his overweight pack swing into his palm, flinging it out of the firing line and letting that smirk contort on its own. Better to play the part and lose himself, but really this was going to be fun.

Paired swirls of blue hued light crescendoed around the twin's extended hands, as beams of indisputable intensity took over the stage and raked toward him. But despite the clear color grading, their elements mismatched entirely. One melting asphalt to an expected orange torrent of slag, but the other icing it over in flash freezing chill. And so the space between was rended into assured no man's land, as hot and cold intermixed in violent convection and oncoming expansion. In a string of booms and cracking shrapnel, and one rolling dodge to get away from that hell. Only to land right ahead of the other less metaphorical.

The demon girl proving her foresight or just good inference, bounding alongside the progressing thermodynamic shock, and bearing down on that mask like it was the only target truly on offer. Yet only finding an inertia swung guard to ply her motif against in truth. A halo of flame and searing hot pass through, impact just a normal punch coated in fire. Skin felt the brunt but thread denied that excess, and retaliated sharp with all that had been put in.

That guarding arm pushed against his head, but that elbow leveled right to her chest, and there was plenty of spring loaded up to pop it right back. Her own recoil added back on to as armor took its own brunt, but gave as good as it was given. Another spring sprung, like metal was a subjective term these days. Rebounding off like rubber yet refusing to dent with any permanence. But still enough force imparted to let her fly her ass back to the starting line. Unlike her bulky compatriot already entering the fray.

The shower of shrapnel and frosty circulation broke apart as a palm as big as Seth's head leaped through and holed the ensuing choke. Its twin already bunched up and ready to smack him into the next decade. But big moves require big wind ups, and leave plenty of time to catch up and brace. Even as a twist in the still recoiling air formed, a wash of asphalt and ice buffeting ensued, and one massive blast of forced air rippling in condensate and clear lineage.

'I know powers can be fucking hereditary but you don't all have to all stay in the same damn city!!'

The modified air fist made body building Buddha palm had ever hallmark of Marco's powers, just with all the force of a point blank blunderbuss. The sudden, overdrive demanded, twist that followed pulled him free of both the sudden worry and the rapid blind combo palms that tried to weather him back into dust like the sidewalk it was hitting instead. A notion bleeding into thought unprovoked, drawing that fire back out with sheer unilateral spite. And locking a foot off his dodge to put this feeling down alongside its cause.

Launching back out toward the bulk with only so much ground needed back, hardened up shoe scraping in behind his too slow reactions and pushing all his inertia into that same arm once again. Fist striking kidney through the back and meeting blow back in kind, softening air cushions only affording so much defense. The other fist firing harder to make this disparity felt, yet slamming home against their abs like they were steel bolts. No cushion needed but plenty of force getting through, rippling impact countering the first blow in concert. And setting up the next a little higher on this bulk.

Another slow wind up, a clear intent fighting back. This was already taking too long and that helmet was swiveling back to him. That first fist fighting that coming retaliation, glancing off their shoulder blade to twist him away just that little more. And tighten up one last hit higher.

This over realization of a father's dream fighting the impact hard, turning near enough to face him despite. Their own fist rising in more understandable spite. But only making it perpendicular before Seth's own open palm was whipping right at their helmeted face. And his other foot sweeping around their overstuffed calf. A smooth motion, a paired seesaw action, and a magnanimous drop of their overblown bulk to the road below. All under the sudden but inevitable return of that molten ball of hurt swiping too late to catch Seth out. But sure as shit startled him back.

Burning proximity, melt trailing and threatening as spikes cut into his free flowing Hawaiian, yet all wholly avoided as the pavement cracked apart under the cushioning blowhard he'd been focused on. Momentum demanded that both new belligerents swing similar and free, but one was already conflicting with the gears of inertia. Grinding her armor toward a dead stopping catch.

His fist closing over impacted helmet and tearing through asphalt spray, her that dark metal shield denying one more clean impact. A deep clang recoiling both unequal. Too much of Seth's power still bottled up and this Callah's suit whining in undertones of shock absorbent staunch. But it wasn't staked to the ground.

Recoiling off, Seth let his other hand swing its freedom. Grabbing that empty crest by its trim bolted to her brace. Muscle bunching and twisting back again with the recoil, as feet stamping hard to deny this Callah even a moment of position. As her momentum was taken and her weighted position denied, bunching linear as her arm was dragged along.

A shine through the cloud that halved this battlefield marking the target, a modulated growl transitioning to a yelp, and another taste of humility for the one sure trying to claim someone else's history. As she was swung in tight and elliptical, caught apoapsis over her slammed down comrade, and lined up on another looking to add her beam to the fray. A slingshot orbit to launch her back to tumbling, to too far away to cause trouble. And knock out one of most definitely Zeleny's and Jacob's grandkids.

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'Because at this point it would just be my fucking luck!!'

The cloud parted in armored turbulence, the navy blue twin's shocked face and extended hands receiving a few hundred pounds of extra baggage to handle because Seth wasn't having any of it!!

'If they want to be mad at me, at least make sure it was for something recent!! Not stuff I already died over!!!'

That fire was smoldering a little too brightly, but the sentiment held too much sway to leave unthought. Rage and resentment coming hand in hand, and feeling justified in the concussion and catastrophic carpal tunnel he just gave the laser twin. Knocking her out of the sky with her own leader's armored excess. And no doubt triggering her freezer twin to come join the cycle. Because by now whatever fun he stupidly thought there was in this was ripped to shreds and burned. With the ashes clouding out the lot of this damnable reminiscence.

Just in time for the demon to rear her stupid bony head! A flaming fist coming in all the same ways, but no inertia left to ply a block into place, nor will to move from his metaphorically burning spot. Just a lot of untamed anger refusing to have the light flamed out of him! To keep this mascaraed going in spite of everyone just seeming to want him deader than dead! So of course a little more power flooded out unabated. All to fill in for the-

*KKANGggggg*

Oncoming ringing gap. Fire washed over as threads wound tight to their binds. Magnetic attraction not enough, true metaphysical connection keeping that mask on tight. And take this blow for all it had. Seth could feel the seep of too hot air against his braced eye, the singe at the edges of his cheeks, the bare metal becoming traitor as it pressed like an iron against his head. But it was nothing, he'd faced the sun and stolen its throne! This was nothing but fodder! More pain to feed his own fire!

His feet scraped away recoil, his spine accepting the aftershocks, all that inertia was denied and taken on the side of his head. Just one single punch accepted outright, but retaliation roaring to give it right back. Muscle bunched and crunched into place, what managed char melted away in a puff of sizzling heal, and a rebuttal came back screaming for reciprocity. The demon's follow through not fast enough yet, all her strength pushed to bean him in the face. With nothing spared to avoid what was coming of her!

Unwreathed, unfolded, just raw flesh and fiber asking "LET'S SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT!!!"

The flash desperate expression wiped away and scrunched off to one side. Her skin burning Seth's, her bones holding firm, her eyes refusing to roll, and her stance hardening all the same. Metal rubber boots deadening the impact, wanting parity in the slugfest she was hoping to start. Because there was no better way to know someone then to punch them repeatedly in the face now was there!!

'…Why... the fuck did…? MOTHERFUCKER!!!'

A compulsion. An overriding. An infectious burn fueling that hidden fire. Her wicked grin illuminated like it was the only thing to ever see. An all too familiar feeling like his own will mattered for shit! Because she wasn't the skirmisher popping in to hit and run, she was the fucking tank!! And all the aggro in the world was flooding down to smother his resentment in an all consuming-

"RRAAAAGGH-"

Before her own rebuttal turn his other cheek for him. Another burn, another dose, that seeping feeling worming its way past the small piece of armor. And dousing his fire in jet fuel and blind hate. More recoil, more crunching staunch. The other fist roaring to go again. Nerves on fire! And the only cure was to beat that smirk off her damn face!

A low shot, more jaw than cheek to contort it away. But still that burning press against his knuckles, yet more wrath demanded to the surface. The deep corner it all had sunken to roiling like a volcano. Like the next fist bound retort swinging even lower still was liable to pop it like a cork.

Her fist slammed chin, Seth's teeth cracked together, a dim border around his vision tried to drag his thoughts away. But he could still stare back down through his mask's shadowing jag, stare all this hate, this 'programed' hate, back at its administrator! Stare this moment between them like it would last only as long as both held it.

Her follow through reined in, her stance locking back, her smirk faltering like she'd seen too much in that glare. Or that he'd seen enough. He'd felt this feeling enough, and it was time to rid himself of this excess the only way it could be. The same locking stance pulling him back down to line, the same unbridled buildup wrought to bear, the same fallen enjoyment in a battle fought too well. Because he had more than she could ever imagine. And she'd gone and dug herself right to its level. Right to where Rage had fallen.

This moment of calm only lasted so long. Before those locks broke loose, those stances hardened to solid, and all hell was brought to bear as a storm of mutual fists. A blur of flames and two flesh tones. Of impact after impact too close to tell who was hitting who. Skin and bone rippling to tatters, scorching to indents or splitting to spray. No time for it to bruise, no blood left to bleed, all of it steaming or spraying too fast to try and stay. But a countering sizzle, threads catching up and charging ahead. Her skin was tough but Seth's was near infinite! Muscle could ache all it wanted, bone could complain to the heavens for all he cared, neither was going to stop until either were dead!!

Yet the disparity between bred a disharmony to this hold, wobbling frequency of bloody impact hardly a mold. The broken clock setting up and telling the right time as its partner. Unison punches crashing passed each other, searing and ignoring and only knowing one goal to this fight. As both cheeks took that blow like it was doubled in strength, frequency match not baffling but amplifying considerable. Both heads turned by the force, both looks failing to hold their locks. Like the spell over each was just socked in the face as well. But both were now turned, seeing now what this moment's lapse had allowed. As the freezer twin's glare tripled over in her furled up hands.

Mutual forces and curtailed aggo dragged both along for the sudden acceptance of gravity's authority. Just as the blockading cloud of dust and frost flash froze away. A pure ice blue beam raking through it like a sword swung wide. And narrowly slicing through them with no regard for team play. Or no patience left for the effort. The demon's own flames being snuffed out by sheer proximity and Seth's back icing over to counter the melt flecked onto it. Both popping back up stiffen to frightening, not a whim spared to shiver as they looked to the one who almost killed them for fighting too hard. As she bore her failure between snarling teeth, before wincing at the crackle just over Seth's shoulder. Drawing both stuns to take in the jagged glacial impact coating the bulk who tried returning to the fray.

'Fuck generational trauma, this is way too recent!'

And too extreme to just leave as is. He had just wanted to gauge, not make things worse. And a full body case of frostbite was going to do just that. Make this worse! Even if it wasn't his fault! But the dichotomy of the atmosphere wasn't lost just yet, flash freezing offered some time and he had a more than warm body at hand to thaw this bulkcicle out. And she seemed just as worried, as he turned to face her. Doubly so as the hand that just bashed her in the face suddenly shot up and grabbed one of her fiery horns.

No notice and no time, and that fight still more than justifying the whipping fling of the fire wreathed demon of wrath. One arm acting all its own and ignoring every limiting factor he'd proscribed, shattering that icy coating with her flaring head and tossing both beaten heroes to the wayside together. So the bulk could get warmed back up with her unconscious on top of him. All Seth's worry now locked on the freezer twin just so she didn't accidently put this whole street on ice as well.

Because she was nearly there.

No limits on her fury set, growling as her flight bunched up and her hands glowed at her sides. All intent and no justice, just a want of him dead. And a screaming contrail to bleed out all her doubts into overwhelming thrust. Her powers set to loose in instant gratification, hands rising as she flew center mass, wanting to put Seth in hoarfrost for a whole new eternity. If not in the ground as an added bonus.

The glare in her eyes never leaving his own masked stare, this visage all the justification needed to risk killing her friends. A sentiment careening closer and closer as Seth's worry solidified it. Took it all as it was given and accepted his part. But still refused to just take it as justice.

A moment's override flashed to sudden counter charge, a whiplash cutting screaming to condensate. A step low overtaking and rounding back around, Seth's hands wrapping around her shins as her thrust cut short of her only known goal. As he pulled her into a far greater flow. One crunching the asphalt and using every last bit of that misplaced hate it just slaughtered for sustenance. Inertia diverted, twisted horizontal and spun round and around before all of it was consumed. A bit violent for a better outcome but still less destructive an end point. They were supers, they were tough.

'So what's another concussion to go along with the first?!'

The air chopped into whirlwind before her ballistic flight repeated in the opposite direction. Subsonic sure, but parabola still pretty damn flat. And his target would just have to forgive him for smacking her sister in her face as well.

The lapse and the beatings had offered Callah and the laser twin too much time to realign. To heal and pick and choose their own moments to strike. And laser burns were a lot harder to buff out. So benefit of the doubt wasn't on the table for either of these new members of the cycle, they both had to be out. Even if it meant knocking their heads together right in front of their leader's good manners.

Just a moment's dust off and helping up after colliding, broken apart by a twin's head impacting the other's jaw. Sending both to smash through a closed up storefront and out of this rapidly closing fight. So it could just be Erdwut's successor left to take in the sudden upped ante, and bear her own fury back at the one forcing the call.

That fanged visor glaring brutal above modulated growl, trying too hard to sound even tougher than she already was. Whatever politics bred this need deserved no sympathy, but Seth could feel the animosity bleed through either way. One approaching clang at a time. Frequency increasing with no regard for melt or ice obstacle, crunching into both with iron soul and whatever-metal soles. Burning mace rising high over both of their heads, shield raising in every way its counter, and yet way too much baggage left on the tarmac to just send her flying away without again.

So Seth was making sure this was the end of it.

A hand shot up, molten shaft no deterrent and blocking shield no obstacle. His target high as she loosed her counter weight. His objective more substantial as that burning singe found some words at realizing his return. Force deadening to shockwave as power was allowed to flow in flash flood, hardened threads denying this moment's burn and crush. Her inertia caught but far from redirected, body left to its whims as her defense lapsed in whiplash. And her head was wide open for the rear back of his own. So he could ring the stupid edge right out of her.

That visor cracked, those teeth snapped, but it all refused to shatter. As his metal mascaraed made its mettle fully known. A full stop echo bashing away at the city bustle, accented by distortion and breaking apart systems. That modulation crashing and wavering as Callah stumbled back, all the surprise and stun coming off like chipmunk grunts and full demon growls. Finally failing to buzz as her real breath found itself, and all the real anger it harbored came with it.

"FUCK YOU!!!"

As did the fear that was trying to be hidden.

A cold advance whooshed below that spiky molten ball retaliating wide. A fist crashed hard against her exposed flank, articulating plate bent into bunching interference. That shield reaching over to curtail and contend, rang hard by the other fist taking every advantage. This advance driving her back, metal crunching over icy no man's land. A swipe at the mask not even eliciting a breath out of place, just a scraping another surface cut along its implacable snout. One quickly reclosing before her eyes like nothing she could do mattered at all. All that fear held back poured into her wrath blinding, annoying Seth too much not to end this. To let her see the error her predecessor already learned from.

Her armor wailed, her arm pulling back and stabbing back in hard. Melt and spall flaring as she tried to go for the heart. No glare spared through broken glass, none to make sure of the kill she could only hope for. Nor to even see him sidestep and make a fool of her one last time. Deep into her stance, matching hand locking around her own, the other guarded shoulder checking against much harder chest plates. But only subtle force, more aligning than counter. Yet all the intent to make this the finisher.

A curled arm loosed, open palm catching helmet by the lower jaw and grabbing hold of this broken bit of shame. The other hand revving her own grip for the passed on implement needing fresh relinquishing. A smooth twist and heel turn, all her and her suit's weight falling on the connections of her helm. And all the force necessary bursting in to send her on her way.

Arm pulled down like lever action, body carried aloft like catapulting effect, joins snapping mid way and loosing its tanned cargo rolling, and sending short dark helmet hair flying upside down along that icy cut up road. Her back bounced first, kicking her upright the wrong way as her face took the next. The ensuing rolling cacophony smoothing out as instinct countered before her consciousness fell flat. Tumbling to a stop just shy of her only comrade left, still staunch in his hold of this battlefield's bounds. And learning firsthand why Aegis diversified.

As Seth righted up dark, shadowing mask advancing on him now with no step lost to the menace exuding. One hand bearing shameful cover for perceived weakness, the other the tool that burned so familiar.

'I thought that was you. Long time no see Eschen… Schwartzwald? Heh, yeah I see it. But why a mace?'

The begrudging instrument simply burned harder against his inspecting palm. Its disembodied will still hardassed and callous despite its new glistening obsidian namesake. Though diminished in stature, it was feeling no love for this hidden reunion. A new scar or two felt in its refusal to be wielded unworthily. That generational trauma not even forgetting the implements. A bit of worry filtering through at what could do that to something basically magic, but that was a past seemingly already over with. And he didn't need to be abstractly yelled at by some passed down handle. The helmet dropped from his hand and the rolled with his advance, rechristened weapon passing between hands in short order lateral. Leaving just as quickly as it flung and tinking its obsidian tree line against the asphalt. Rolling all the way back to its bearer's side. And leaving only the single object of attention left for Seth to meet eye to eye with.

Their arms flexed wider like defiance was all they could manage, a new barrier of towering orange nostalgia crashing up behind the wreak still at his back. All their determination driven to peak and strain, armor rattling like even its weight was becoming too much. And mixing with a fear carved out of that inciting and insightful retort. This grandson of Aegis, this…

'heh... Buckle.'

He was not living up to her legacy. Didn't even have that weird shield on his arm. Just some obviously peer pressured armor and powers. Or at least one of her powers. If he had her flying this would be more eventful. Instead he just stood there, cowering in his armor as Seth advanced with all the menace that mask afforded him. And all the-

"I won't let you get away!"

The boy spoke clear through his own terror. No fear of death but what his body refused to keep down. Seth's approach too terminal to see any other outcome.

"I won't let you hurt more people!!"

Anger taking that fear and burning it, keeping his determination bright. Seething it through gritted teeth even as Seth's shadow grew larger than life in his slats.

"I won't let you-"

*cling*

His small light suddenly drowned as that hiding slat shot up, armored visor forced up in salute. The pale face underneath stunned by the light and darkness falling over unprotected. And made to come face to face with the terror he had far too much baggage over. Face to metal face… with the real guy under it.

"Calm down Buckler."

As all at once that fear cut out and skipped a tremble. His expression locked and left blinking like he couldn't believe someone could use his real hero name or something. All but confirming what Seth had inferred. Cruel nicknames persist even in the absence of their chief architect.

'I swear to god if Para is still around…'

His thoughts cut out into a slight telling chuckle, keeping this menace looming over him as light as it could be. Even if anyone who could overhear was knocked out on the ground or run off to the sidelines.

"Sorry for testing your buttons, but I had to be sure of a few things."

Seth was quiet but his words still froze Buckler to his stance.

"It's probably been ughhh… shit I don't, a good while. But I knew you grandma on a first name basis. And I knew she wouldn't have left you with a stupid moniker. Whether she left you open to the nickname on the other hand… Eh?"

His shoulders shrugged and a step back lifted the shadow off of the boy's face.

"But what I do know… is you probably couldn't stop me even if you tried. Your shields are a… filter… after all."

The boy's face sank in sudden brick based flotation. His terror turning horror like all was lost. That the enemy known by that awful mask was now unstoppable. Ignoring all the implications that are supposed to come with it!

'Seriously it's like an evil detector! Why are you-'

"Guuhhh! Did she really not tell you what that's supposed to mean?"

That horror faltered, not diminishing but mixing and being found wanting as the boy seemed unable to keep his gaze upright. Sure he was still terrifying but…

"Hughh… Sorry. It's touchy isn't it?"

Buckler looked barely up, almost three faced in his expression. Sadness and fear contorting under indignation at this whole thing. Just wanting to understand-

"Who the hell are you?"

Seth's smirk was almost instinctual, and the thought of what to say was becoming too much fun.

"I'm… Just someone out to get their stuff back. Yeah that's about right. Heh. And don't worry, I won't hurt anyone who doesn't deserve it. I mean I didn't 'really' hurt anyone getting here so…"

Seth's second shrugging retreat was assaulted by the sudden drop of every wall stopping him in order to heave the smoking wreaks of the past few minutes back at him. Buckler's arms distancing and gesturing to all he had wrought.

"Ah their fine! Who doesn't have a concussion once in a while? Also you uh… lost focus by the way."

The boy's horror shot back to prominence, but his arms stayed down like wet noodles. His own limitations hitting hard, peer pressured push proving too much to remanifest. And all that armor proving too heavy to recover in. A slight snicker escaping from under Seth's mask, but carrying pride in his best friend's grandson for giving his all.

"Sorry. I just have that kinda effect on people."

A saluting wave turned him away from the last obstacle in his path puddling to his clanking knees. And a bit of hopefulness in what he'd faced. Retracing to his pack and taking it back up as the sun cut through the higher clouds. The wandering rain spreading away as a clear path shined bright.

"And hey!!"

He turned momentarily to the groaning defeated piled behind.

"Don't look at this as a loss!! You're a hell of a lot better than we were!! You just need to learn to calm the hell down!! And be yourselves...!! Except you Lil Miss Maphisto!! That shit's going to get people killed!!"

Whatever eyes were left on him couldn't retort. Only grumble and watch as he locked down and shattered more asphalt. And broke away into the sprawl long awaited. Flying off free back to the rails and high roofs, charging into the rain trying to escape him. Staying hidden was definitely warranted. If even just the newest recruits were this good, than the rest would be stronger. The League had more than taken his sheer existence to heart.

But despite that, this city was too big not to have plenty of places to hide. And get to know proper just what he'd woken up into.

And maybe find something to eat. Being dead sure has a way of leaving one pretty hungry.

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