Lightning might not be as fast as actual light, but to most people, there was no difference between the two. Thunder Strike arrived above the city hall in the blink of an eye, and with one look, he located all four targets. He searched his mind but couldn’t find any matches, which meant that these Genomes weren’t the same as him and his team.
Heaving a sigh, he coated himself in the golden energy once more, having picked one of the targets. From the looks of it, she was a Level 3, likely an Advanced, or maybe even an ascended. As a lightning user himself, Strike knew exactly how troublesome such powers are to deal with, which is why he decided to take her out first.
As he prepared to descend, he noticed an explosion of emerald green flames nearby and realized that Huntress had already launched her arrows, beating him to the first strike. A little annoyed, he tucked his legs and rotated his body, the lightning enveloping him growing so bright that his form vanished into it.
The sky flashed once, and an instant later, a massive bolt shot down, sending a violent tremor through the area. Arcs of electricity snaked out of the burned crater, and as the rising smoke was blown by the wind, Thunder Strike retracted his lightning and surveyed his surroundings, paying no mind to the charred corpse at his feet.
The first thing he noticed was the eerie silence, which informed him that Erebus had already arrived. Finding him wasn’t very difficult, but guessing what he was doing was an entirely different matter. From the looks of it, the man with the white megaphone had some importance attached to him. Strike decided to let his shadowy teammate take care of him and turned to the city hall, intending to take care of the remaining villains.
The next obvious choice was the berserker trying to demolish the massive white building with his bare hands, but strength types were Star’s favorite, so he turned his attention to the demonic man with the horns and massive bat wings. That one didn’t seem to have any combat capabilities, so taking him out didn’t seem like a challenge.
’None of them are...’
Though it grants people powers and an instinctual understanding of how to use them, the time limit that comes with Catalyst made mastering them an impossible task, and with how expensive each dose was bound to be, it was unlikely that any of the people here got to try their powers before now.
Strike raised his right hand and lined his fingers, aiming at the demonic man. Lightning surged and coated his arm, crackling as it prepared to burst out. Just as he released his hold, his body suddenly shifted and threw off his aim. The lightning bolt zapped across the plaza and struck the white building, blowing off the edge of the roof.
Confusion followed surprise as Strike felt his feet rise off the ground. The sensation was very similar to floating in zero gravity, making him feel as if he had lost all of his weight. Looking around, he tried to locate the source of whatever force was affecting him, but at that moment, something slammed into him at great speed, blasting him into the ground.
Thanks to Erebus’s Silent Domain, Strike failed to detect his attacker in time, and as his body bounced off the hard asphalt, anger surged from the depths of his heart. So what if it reduced the damage they received from enemy attacks? Was there a point if it was the reason they got hit in the first place?
The weightlessness didn’t disappear even as he brought himself to a stop, and he had to grab onto the ground to keep himself from floating. Looking up, he saw the demonic man flapping his bat-like wings a short distance away, creating soundless gales of wind.
He was preparing to make another charge, which confused Strike a great deal, since anyone who recognizes him should know that going for a physical attack was tantamount to suicide. Preparing to meet that second attack, he commanded the lightning coursing through his body and took control over its movement, negating the effects of the force causing him to float by taking flight himself.
As the demonic man launched himself with a powerful wave of his wings, his horns aimed forward, Strike adjusted himself and allowed them to pierce straight into his chest. The impact of the strike was greatly reduced and the horns failed to penetrate the blue costume, but they still managed to cause some pain.
As both of them flew toward a nearby building, Strike took hold of the demonic man and released a surge of lightning into his body, electrocuting him on the spot.
He could have fried him right then and there, just as he had with the first one, but instead, he chose to give him just a little zap. The momentum still caused them to smash into the building, however.
"I guess I’m not at my best today..." Strike heard his own voice and realized that he had flown outside Erebus’s range. "No wonder I felt that last one..."
He also noticed that the force causing him to float was gone, too, letting his feet touch the floor. Letting the demonic man fall to the ground, he stared at him for a moment then reached down, grabbed both of his jet black wings, then stepped on his back. With a single pull, he plucked both with a single move.
The demonic man woke up screaming at that moment, showing that losing the wings was painful enough to erase the effects of the lightning. There was no blood seeping from the wounds, however, which told Strike he was going to be fine.
"Sit still, villain. Someone will come to take you soon."
He wasn’t so sure that the demonic man had heard him, seeing that he had passed out once more. Sighing, the blonde hero channeled lightning through his body and flew out of the same hole he entered from, rushing to end things at the city hall.
Just as he reached the plaza, he saw something falling from the sky like a meteorite.