Gacha God: Thunder (ch. 26) (Patreon)

There was a brief standoff between us for a moment, both of us waiting for the other to make the first move. I channeled my energy to my eyes just in time to see that he was about to break that stalemate, targeting my skates with a wrist mounted laser beam. I saw the movement before it happened, not only allowing me to dodge it, but to counter it perfectly. After what felt like too long, my Eye of Cthulhu Yoyo appeared in the palm of my hand, flicking out towards him and the battle began in earnest as I flipped over the laser.

Tony backed off, weaving around the business end of my yoyo. It wasn't a great weapon at range, I quickly decided, giving chase to him. The string was as long as I wanted it to be, but at long distances, it didn't do too great with fine maneuvering. The gravity helped a bit, as I sent down an overhead swing, aiming at the position that Tony was about to dart to before shooting a missile at me- no, a net. Aw, he was going non-lethal. Lame. Now I had to too.

My gravity field caught the net, flinging it upwards while I darted forward, letting the yoyo catch up. "Thirteen Totem Pole," I intoned, summoning the staff version since there was nothing for the totem pole version to use as a base. I extended the staff at his chest, enlarging it to the size of a barrel at the last second, which turned the near miss into a direct hit.

"Okay, how are you doing that? Are you cheating?" Tony questioned, sounding annoyed as I flicked my wrist, letting the yoyo's string catch on the totem pole to shift its trajectory, sending it straight for him. Tony shot upwards to avoid the pummeling that the phantom yoyos would have delivered him. "You are cheating. Ew. What's with your eyes? Wait- are those? Well… well well well, if it isn't the consequences of my own actions. Been seeing too much of them lately," Tony bantered with himself, coming in hot when he realized that he had inadvertently helped me kick his ass.

"You really should have asked what the eyes did before you helped me install them," I agreed, dodging a punch to the face that would probably have had me spitting teeth. I was getting a handle on using the eyes in combat already -- it wasn't enough to just see what Tony was about to do. He would react to my reaction, so an attack that would have hit if he kept his course suddenly went wide because he saw the attack coming and he dodged. Meaning, in theory, the best thing I could do was counter attack at the very last possible second.

But, honestly, that felt like flirting with disaster against an enemy like Tony. The better way to do it was to overwhelm him with attacks and control his mobility -- make him dodge where I wanted him to dodge. That, however, was going to be a rather tall order up here in the open air. Naturally, that meant falling down to the city where it would be a lot easier, and maybe finding an abandoned building or something to fight in. It would make my weapons more effective too and I would get a little bit of terrain control with my totems.

The only issue with that was Tony would know that too. He was a verified super genius. Smarter than the second smartest smart person on the planet by a wide margin, probably. Additionally, he had a combat AI that would think any thought that he didn’t already think. He was smarter than me. The Divine Water had helped the hamster in its wheel a good bit, but there wasn’t a single doubt in my mind that Tony had already considered and planned for any possible move that I could think to make.

Unfortunately for him, I was the smartest dumb person in the world, so I did it anyway.

Tony’s arms expanded, intent on grabbing me before I rebounded him, shooting him into the air as I plummeted down into the city. I don’t think Tony had been lying about designing the suit to counter me, and my skates, because I saw that my control over gravity didn’t seem to bother him any. The thrusters in his hands and feet focused, pumping more power to fight the gravity, so he barely missed a step when he came flying down after me.

It was then that I heard a crackle in my ear. “Dude. Are you fighting Iron Man right now?” Ned asked me, sounding absolutely betrayed that I hadn’t given him a heads-up.

“Kinda,” I answered, dropping below the skyline of New York and started racing forward, weaving between buildings with Tony right on my ass. I didn’t know most of the city that well, but I did know where a bunch of abandoned buildings were in Hell’s Kitchen. Especially the one that used to be my house on account of me blowing up the top floor to kill Past Me.

“Why?!” Peter protested, joining the call while I made a hard bank down the main street, before turning around. I pinched the string and began to spin it in a tight circle, getting ready for an opening. There were people gaping up at us, but most only noticed when it was too late. Tony wasn’t far behind me, seemingly content to let me lead him wherever I was taking him. So, not only did he anticipate it, but he was confident that it would end in his win, huh? Well, I suppose we would have to see about that.

“Bet. I get his armor if I win, and he gets to keep the Tesseract if he does,” I answered, recognizing the borough that we entered.

I heard Peter suck in a sharp breath at that. “I don’t know who to root for,” he admitted.

“Me!” I exclaimed, seeing my destination and tucked myself into a tight ball before I flipped, sailing through the half-shattered glass window feet first. The top floor had collapsed, for the most part but the rest had opened up with demolished walls. Tony came in a split second later and I flicked the yoyo at him, forcing him to divert while I intoned, “Thirteen Totem Pole.”

In response, totems ripped up from the ground, forcing Tony to divert as I lashed out with my yoyo. I wasn't too surprised that he had a counter ready -- his shoulder and arm panels lifting up to reveal a good two dozen micro missiles. My yoyo wrapped around the totem with a flick of my wrist, catching up to him as he darted to the side. It was around that time I saw that the micro missiles were, in fact, not missiles. They were drones with lasers attached to them and I found myself bending over backwards to dodge the red lasers.

Another totem ripped up from the ground to provide some cover to hide behind, but Tony was on me as I positioned three more totems, letting them catch the string as the yoyo hunted Tony down. The phantom yoyos struck his armor as he made to close in, my gravity field initially able to throw off the drones aim before he started keeping them out of the area of effect. His armor sparked, bending with the heavy impact for a moment, and driving him back.

"Ow. What is with that thing? It hits way harder than it should," Tony complained, as I ripped the yoyo back and it slammed into the palm of my hand, the totems falling.

"Damage done is based on a percentage rather than impact," I remarked with a grin in my voice. I hadn't seen the ace up his sleeve just yet. I was kicking around plans in my head -- should I use Tsukuyomi? Would it work without direct eye contact? It did feel a bit cheap, but I wasn't above hitting below the belt if it meant getting more cool stuff and not losing the cool stuff I already had. What else did I have up my sleeve? Not… a whole lot, admittedly. The Ring on Nine Dragons, maybe, but revealing that would be a huge risk that came with consequences that I'm not sure I wanted to bother with. Roll back the clock and prepare the arena with some traps, maybe?

"I should have made you bet that," Tony reflected, shifting his posture. And it was then I saw what he had been doing with my Tesseract.

He vanished in a warp, and it was only pure instinct that saved me -- it was hardly the first time I had fought a teleporter, after all. I kicked out with my skates, catching Tony in the chest as his clever ploy backfired on him. Amping up the gravity, I increased my striking force and sent Tony smashing through one of the few remaining walls.

I shouldn't have done that, in hindsight. Peter had mentioned that there were kinks, and that I should go easy on them. The Regalia couldn't withstand the force of the gravity -- the Gravitonium wasn't compromised, but the steel wheels bent ever so slightly, even with the kinetic energy absorbing material. Still operational, I noted, lashing out with the Thirteen Totem Pole and my yoyo, chasing Tony through the building. The yoyo tore up the floor and walls, and he let me get a bit of a lead before he teleported again.

That's why he was so comfortable being in a tight spot. He knew he could snap out of it.

The totem poles vanished, and I reverted them into a staff, catching Tony on the forearm as he blocked the blow to his head. "Okay," Tony started, a bit of frustration leaking into his voice. "I thought the teleportation would be an instant win. That was my fault -- set my expectations too high, but could you at least act a little surprised? For me?" Tony questioned, before revealing the depths of his research. The drones began to teleport as well, appearing and reappearing as I dodged them. One tagged me in the shoulder, and I instantly felt it go numb. Not numb enough that I couldn't use it, but it would be a delayed reaction.

"OMG! Are you, like, teleporting? That's so incredible!" I spouted, spinning my staff as I extended a thrust at him before he appeared behind me. Again. Just in time to catch my yoyo in the back -- the first clean hit I’d delivered the entire fight, but it was a light one because he teleported again.

"Ugh. Never mind. Never speak valley girl at me ever again," Tony complained. He sure was doing a lot of that. He did sound rather annoyed that he hadn't won yet. And I guess I had no leg to stand on when it came to talking shit about helping him make something that would kick my ass. The remark bought him the time to position his drones.

It was too much of a pain in the ass to keep dodging them, or forcing their aim off. I needed to get rid of them. To that end, I let the staff fade away from my hand to summon the thirteen totems. They erupted from the ground and the ceiling, crushing six of them instantly, but the others teleported out of the way. The numbness in my shoulder was already wearing off as I shifted my attention to the troublesome drones.

They kept teleporting in and out, flanking me as Tony decided to press the attack. His attention didn't suffer as he attacked me, the drones being elusive and a thorn in my side. I'm guessing they were controlled by Jarvis. Since they teleported, I couldn't read their movements, and they were pretty good at appearing where I couldn't see them to take a pot shot at me. One hit the back of my calf, then another in my shoulder blade. Tony understood that my Sharigan worked on line of sight and he was using that against me.

It was annoying, I decided, the totems appearing and vanishing in rapid succession to cover my blind spots and provide me leverage to press the attack despite my poor positioning. There was a decent chance that I was going to lose. Unless something changed up real quick -- and, something did, as if summoned by the thought. Sensing that he had the advantage, Tony went in for the kill. "Too bad, kid. You'll thank me when you wake up," He said, his hands mashing together to become what I could only describe as a big fucking gun which he promptly leveled the business end of at me.

"... Don't you mean if? What the fuck is that thing?" I asked, my fingers twitching to the last ace that I had up my sleeve -- the slate. It was in the fanny pack around my shoulders, the camera pointed to Tony. I just had to click a button to activate it.

"I'll show you," Tony said, teleporting and I whipped myself around behind me, only to see the vestiges of the teleportation he was doing and I knew he was behind me again. Ah, fuck. This is what I get for fighting someone smarter than me when he knew the cards up my sleeve. I caught a flash of light behind me, the intensity of it shining through my thin hood, and I tensed in preparation to take the hit.

Only it never came. Or, rather, it never hit me.

The laser struck something but it wasn't me. My eyes started to ache, telling me I was using something connected to them, but it wasn't Tsukuyomi. Emerging from my body was a skeletal figure, a spine and ribs that were a blood red and faintly translucent, but undeniably solid because they stood strong like a stone against a river. It was half formed, and based on the size of it, it was supposed to be big, but the spine alone stood taller than I did, and I stood comfortably within the ribs.

Susanoo.

"Nice," I remarked, focusing on the thirteen totems. I had no idea if Tony noticed the skeleton, but there was no better time to take a strike than during what the enemy thought was the final blow. Their guard would never be lower. Something that was proven right when I had two barrel sized totems smash into Tony from both sides, crushing him within it. The blast that he sent my way was instantly cut off, revealing Tony. His armor held out, unsurprisingly.

"Ow," Tony groaned before falling to the ground when the totems returned. "Ow! That smarts."

"Giving up? Cryin' uncle?" I asked, lazily walking the dog with my yoyo as the skeleton began to vanish in wisps of smoke before I came to a stop in front of him. There were a few sparks coming up from where the armor had caved in a bit, and it was sporting some serious dings. But, overall, it seemed fine. The man inside, less so.

"What was that? Would you stop pulling this stuff out of your ass?" Tony sighed, not giving up. He was stalling. He still had a few drones in the air, but they kept their distance, cautious of my new defense. So, it was a question of what he was stalking for.

"No. No, no -- none of that," I wagged a finger at him before getting down on my knees and slapping the ground, "One! Two! Three!"

"Ten count! Ten count!" Tony protested as soon as I began counting, and I heard grinding metal come from within his suit, followed by a low groan.

"Six! Seven! Eight! Nine! T-" I obliged as he struggled to rise to his feet. The wall busted in before I could finish the count, and I smelt the sharp smell of ozone.

Uh-oh.

"Man of Audacity," Mother fucking Thor announced himself, striding into the abandoned building, mjolnir in his hand and dressed in full armor. "Lay down your arms, and you shall be spared my wrath. You have hurt a friend and taken something I require to go home. I am not in a merciful mood." He warned, his expression as serious as it had been when he was fighting Loki.

Tony… you dick. Oh, you absolute dick.

"Ten count stands!" I told Tony, considering my option. I did not like my chances against Thor. I had seen him fight -- in short, he could manhandle the Hulk. Ned had managed to get his hands on a clip of the fight between them, which had been floating around Shield's personnel in VS debates on which Avenger was the strongest. I saw him fight his brother, and it was clear how much he had been holding back then because he didn't want to hurt him. I don't think that would be the case for me.

"Does not," Tony argued tiredly, laying back on the ground. "Thor? Get 'em."

"With pleasure," Thor replied and I pulled on the Susanoo, the skeletal specter appearing around me just in time to eat a hit from Mjolnir that sent me flying across the room, even with gravity control. A deadly crack formed in the skeletal ribs, telling me that it wasn't going to hold up for too much more.

Bail. I needed to bail.

"I totally won the bet," I shot back, making Thor's brow crease as took positioning. I was directly in front of the window that we had entered through. Thor was still probably holding back a fair bit, but him being less gentle than he normally might be would still be enough to dust my bones. I could fly out with my skates. Thor had to use the momentum of his hammer to fly, as far as I could tell, but I needed to make a clean escape. Something made a little easier thanks to the Fortress of DOOM.

"Does not."

"You will speak of this wager and many other things, soon," Thor decided, closing in. As he did, I shifted the Sheikah Slate so it faced me, just as he arrived, driving the hammer into the weakened rib and shattered it to pieces. Just before the hammer connected, likely shattering every rib that I had, I pressed the button and I felt myself freeze. I thought my mind would have been active during the stillness, but when I suddenly felt like I was strapped to a rocket pulling ten Gs, I realized that was not the case.

Thor must have either hit me hard or gave me a couple of power swings because I found myself shooting up across New York, my organs feeling like they were about to come spewing out my nostrils. It took me a quick second to get some awareness, enough to slam hard on the brakes to cancel out my momentum, leaving me traveling at a far more subdued pace. Flipping lazily, I opened up a portal to the Fortress of DOOM and landed on the other side.

To safety.

"I totally won that bet," I said, landing on my ass as the portal closed, laying back as I caught my breath. My heart was pounding and pure adrenaline was surging through my veins -- that had been a close one.

"Sebastian!" Ned called out, running into the teleporter. "Are you okay?" He asked, coming to a stop as I took off my mask and took in some deep breaths after tossing it to the side.

"That was a close one," I breathed, a bark of laughter escaping me. I totally won that bet. Absolutely. Should have gone with the three count. And I should have expected that Tony would bring in some reinforcements -- the kind that I couldn't fight. Nothing in the bet said that he couldn't bring a friend -- the bet was to see who could kick whose ass.

Peter and Dr. Hall came running -- the latter was far more concerned with my ATs than myself. I thought he was going to start crying when he saw the damaged wheels. "So, uh -- Mr. Stark sent us a message. He said that the ten count only counts when the hand hits the ring?" Peter said, sounding like he had no idea what message that he was relaying meant.

Fuck. "Is that an official ruling?" I asked, hoping that it was bullshit. Peter hesitated and nodded. Double fuck. God damn it. I wanted bragging rights. "Fine. Fine! But the next bet, we're doubling up," I said, shrugging off my ATs. Both Peter and Hall looking them over with punched expressions. "The one point zero didn't exactly do too hot."

"It's a prototype, not the one point zero," Hall muttered, his tone distracted.

"The resin couldn't absorb enough of the impact," Peter agreed, and it sounded like they were about to devolve into tech talk but it was Ned that brought them back into focus. He was looking at me with a bewildered expression.

"Dude. You fought the Avengers," he pointed out.

"Just Iron Man. And Thor," I added, and his jaw dropped. That had Peter's instant attention as well. "Well, more like I survived Thor. And you need to reach out to Tony -- apparently Thor is stuck here or something? He needs the Tesseract to get back home or something, so tell him to stop hogging it." And, hopefully, I would never have to see the business end of that hammer again. That shit was scary.

Peter seemed puzzled by that, but nodded.

Ned, on the other hand, frowned, "This is pretty bad, isn't it? You fought the Avengers. They're going to make it really hard for you to show up in New York, right?" He asked, and I considered that. After Malta, I bet they were questioning where I would show up again. Then I showed up in New York. Tony tried to bring me in because Past Me was an asshole, but fighting back made my intentions clear.

Scratching at a cheek, calming down and thinking. "Ned, do you think that you could find out exactly what Shield is saying about Audacity?” I asked, thinking that I needed to know where their head was at when it came to my activities. That could really change their approach, and that would change mine. However, it was looking increasingly clear that it was only a matter of time before Shield made the connection, and it wouldn’t be a simple fix of me putting up the Audacity mask.

Not unless I rolled an item to change my appearance. Or had Peter make something. But that…

That didn’t sit well with me. Felt too much like I was hiding. So, it was just a question of how I was going to come out on my own terms.

“Maybe?” Ned hesitated to answer, surprising me. “Skye was the one that had a big thumb in their systems, more than me, and she knew about my fingers in their systems. It depends on if they’re smart enough to put her on cybersecurity?” Ned asked, offering a small shrug. Fair enough.

“See what you can find out-” I started, only to be interrupted by Dr. Hall.

“Vibranium,” he said, bringing everyone’s attention to him. He only had eyes for my ATs, though. “The polymer was to help absorb the impact, but the core of the- erm, Regalia was too weak. Steel is a structural weakness, no matter how effective the polymer is… It can never reach its full potential with it. No… no, Vibranium is perfect. All incoming kinetic energy would be absorbed into the Regalia…” It was like he was off in his own little world.

Ned spoke up, “Like Captain America’s shield?” He asked, and I perked up. Captain America’s shield was made of Vibranium, wasn’t it? Oh… oh, I was getting ideas.

“Er- yes, I suppose. It’s an extremely rare element, but there are other sources. Highly guarded and regulated, but-” Dr. Hall began, but I cut him off with a hand.

“Say no more, Dr. Hall. Say no more.”

Looks like I knew exactly how I was going to make my grand introduction to Shield.