In desperation, he landed upon Chi Pulse and activated it. His stamina bar dropped to a fourth of its length but an unearthly hollow *boom* flung them apart.
Gus pulled in ragged breaths, watching Basileus panting as well. His haunted eyes looked feral as he stared at Gus like prey. Being close to the crystal, Gus tried to rush to touch it.
Basileus let loose an unearthly howl and thrust his fists forward. Two constructs projected from his outstretched arms and ran towards Gus, intercepting him. They resolved into growling wolves snarling and snapping.
Basileus cocked his head and growled, “Mine…” pointing to the crystal. The tone of his voice fluctuated in pitch, reminding Gus of Bobcat Goldthwaite. He twitched with multiple facial tics and his eyes appeared not to blink as he stared almost through Gus.
“Not for long. You’ve overloaded yourself! Your body can’t handle all of those powers!” Gus Bounded over the crystal, trying to access the crystal from that direction, but the wolves adjusted again and he could get no closer. Trying It’s All in the Tips, Gus swiped with the beams and cleaved through the constructs, but they managed to reform again as Basileus pumped more energy into the thin streams trailing off the wolves. With everything that Gus tried, Basileus matched or exceeded his speed and strength. His eyes flitted from the crystal to Basileus then the wolves. He had to break this standoff.
“Gus, I’m in position,” a female voice whispered on the comms.
He had almost forgotten about her part in the plan with the rush of battle. Basileus wrinkled his forehead and squinted his eyes as Gus smiled and began charging a Krackle burst, adopting a hadouken pose, his demeanor losing the consternation and stress of before. Gus poured more energy into the ability, stacking three activations into one burst, struggling to keep them focused as he awaited the signal.
Chapter Forty-Five
You Ruined Everything
“Gus, when you see my signal, get to the core. You probably won’t have much time. The surprise won’t last long. Ready?”
In answer to her question Gus let loose the charged Krackle burst. An angry nebula of purple-colored energy shot towards Basileus. Before it crossed half the distance, a large boom echoed off the sides of the chamber. Everybody looked up and froze, stunned by the effect of what they saw. The distraction split Basileus’ attention just enough that he was caught in the majority of the blast, falling back. The constructs evaporated as his concentration failed and Gus saw his chance.
Averting his eyes from the lightshow above, Gus flew to the far side of the core and activated Hyper, doubling his Agility. He then began touching the core repeatedly, alternating hands. As he got into a rhythm, his hands began to blur as he synchronized his movements, faster and faster.
Touch, Leech a block of twenty abilities, release, touch with the other hand, Leech a block of twenty-five, release. Back and forth, the new upgrade on his Leech ability allowing him to maximize his buffer without consciously thinking about it. He tore abilities into him without even knowing what they were. Over and over.
His hands sped up, taking hundreds of abilities in seconds. Time seemed to stretch again, everyone around appearing to slow. The core was Gus’ world and all he could see.
He wasn’t sure what type of aliens lived on the planet the Mandrite core was formed from, but he felt himself moving faster and faster, reducing the space between his hands and the core as he released to push the transfer even more quickly. As Leech leveled up, the regular pinging of a chime increased to a near-constant tone. The buffer grew more and more; the speed with which he pulled powers increased exponentially. The tone changed timbre and stretched out as his TimeSight sped his perception to a higher level and he continued on, pulling as much as he could in desperation.
The core appeared to be shrinking as Gus drank in the powers. At first, he worried he was compressing the core and damaging it, but the effect continued even though he modulated his touches to be feather light. Pressing more lightly also increased his speed, shaving tiny slivers of time away from each contact.
When the core had shrunk to the size of a basketball, a high-pitched whine began to emanate from the crystal, resonating in an ever-higher tone. Gus pushed on, oblivious to his surroundings or how much time had elapsed. It must have been ear-shattering to anyone who hadn’t been operating at such a high speed.
All that mattered for Gus was keeping these abilities out of Basileus’ hands. The whine increased to an ear-piercing screech and suddenly the core imploded to a bright pinpoint of light. There was an aftershock that exploded back outwards, flinging Gus away like a rag doll.
Gus twitched on the floor, his body struggling to make sense of the new information within him. It was excruciating euphoria. His blood was on fire and powers coursed through him, recklessly trying to exert their effects.
Gus lifted his head from the gritty concrete floor and saw Basileus frozen in the act of reaching for the core, but bending backward as the force of the blast was pushing him backward. In Gus’ current state, nothing appeared to move, and he took in the scene as his body refused to listen to his commands, shivering and shaking.
Jet was in mid-slice, slashing the end off a gun-arm hybrid from one of the cyborg supers. Glowing orange outlined the severed metal while sparks hung in the air around the cut.
Looking up, he could see Aurora above, raining down ionized death in the largest stream of energy he had ever seen her generate. Supers cowered underneath her as she looked like a vengeful goddess, descending in glory to punish the unworthy.
Slowly time reverted
