I looked at the phone, making sure I was on the right track. It was now in the afternoon, but the sun still shone brightly, that was until I reached the mountains, where the thick clouds prevented the sun from showing its full glory. The area was rather beautiful, and the plentiful large mountains were covered in snow. It's weird seeing them, especially when it's still summer. They became more prominent as the altitude increased.
I dropped down, taking a deep breath in. The cool air felt refreshing, and like I said, the sight is very beautiful, but I wasn't here to go sightseeing, unfortunately. According to the intel, this was where Arc was last seen. I clicked my tongue. I have no clue where he is, though. I don't even have my SEE Goggles to at least give me clues, now I'm stumped.
I closed my eyes to expand my Mind's Eye, my range increased, but there weren't any silhouettes. Damn, how will I fight Arc if I don't know where the heck he is? I sighed, my warm breath created a small fog before quickly fading as fast as it appeared. I walked, the snow crunching at my feet as I looked around, for any clue.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
I whipped around as I saw Arc still retaining the battle damage he received from his fight with Gavin. I was immediately on alert, putting my hands up, ready to fight, though weirdly, he was facing away from me instead, admiring the sight of the snowy mountains. He wasn't in a fighting stance whatsoever, although I was only a few feet from him. Then it hit me, I couldn't feel his silhouette.
"You're not really here, are you?"
His head slightly turns to me. "Oh, you managed to figure it out rather quickly. Or is it one of your abilities?"
I stayed quiet, just gazing at him. It's no doubt a hologram of himself. I can't do anything to him; he's a fake, and my attacks will just pass through. The question is, why is he here? To gloat to me that he won and now has the ultimate weapon at his disposal? Arc shifted to fully look at me.
"Why are you here?"
I blinked at his question before responding.
"To stop you, before you hurt anyone else."
I had a feeling that if Arc had no helmet on, I probably would see a single brow raised.
"Despite knowing the SV4 is now functional, you still want to fight? Even though I know about your weakness."
My frown deepened.
"After watching your fights, my helmet detected that there was an energy radiating off of you. And each time you use your powers, that energy lessens, but you immediately regain some energy after eating some food. That's why you eat in the middle of a fight, right?"
Despite the cold air, a sweat formed on my forehead. My silence pretty much confirmed it. Arc is the first one to know who I am behind Red Justice and the weakness of my power. What's next? He knows my search history?
"You're strong, Armstrong, you really are. But I'll tell you right now that you stand no chance against the SV4; it's the ultimate weapon of humanity, no Esper or those from the Moonlight World stand a chance. Perhaps, without your weakness, you stand a chance, but with that debilitating weakness, there is no hope you could win."
Moonlight World? No, that doesn't matter. I just gave Arc a serious look.
"You're talking very big for someone who has no idea what I'm capable of. Still, I have a question: why didn't you kill us, back when we were at your mercy?"
Arc didn't answer right away, turning to face away from me and instead returning his sights to the snowy mountain ranges.
"I just didn't want to kill my best friend or a kid. I thought having the SURVIVOR would make you think twice about fighting me, but now that you're here, you have forced my hand."
He said the last part with an icy tone that sent my spine tingling. A small part of me wanted to fly out of there, because I knew it wasn't a threat. It's a warning that he will kill me if I don't leave this place right now. But the bigger part of me, the one that wanted to see this through, swallowed all my fear and told me to focus. I steadied myself and narrowed my eyes at Arc.
His hologram flickers, but before he disappears, I stop him.
"Wait."
His form stabilizes, looking at me curiously.
"I know the answer to your question now."
This fully earned his attention; he fully turned to me, waiting for what I was going to say.
"While I don't have any plans yet, I'm not going to change the world through brute force, I'm going to do it with hope, love and compassion. I'm going to save the world with that." I said, mustering as much conviction as I have in my speech.
Arc stayed silent for a couple of seconds before shaking his head with a sigh.
"Is that really your answer? A childish and naive-"
"I don't care if it's naive!" I shouted back, stunning him.
"If being naive means I can save the world without bloodshed, then yeah, I'm the most naive boy in the universe. I don't care if you call me a child. I'm Red Justice, The Crimson Angel. I can achieve the impossible. Then achieving a world like that without force is possible!"
Arc and I just looked at each other. Neither of us is backing down. I knew he would never back off; he was stubborn, and I was too. This isn't a fight between good and evil. This was a battle that would decide how the world would go forward.
"Fine, then. Let's see whose ideal will come on top."
With that, the hologram vanishes, and almost instantly, the ground starts to rumble.
"The heck!?" I shouted, startled at what was happening.
I jumped and floated into the air and watched as the ground I was on a few seconds earlier started to break apart. The ground cracked before something shot out. It was big at first. I thought it was the SV4, but after a few moments, I realized it was the ARM. How big does it have to be if an arm nearly reaches the SV3's height?
Then the rest of it came out and stood up. And holy crackers, was it big. It must be about 90 metres minimum, maybe even bigger! Its shape was similar to its third version; both are skinny humanoids, with the SV4 being far bigger. Unlike its previous version, its armour plates were colored blue, with a silver outline.
On its head, the face was colored white, with four massive red eyes glaring at me. Speaking of four, the darn thing also had another pair of arms underneath the top one. Then, finally, on its chest and two shoulders, protected by metal and nearly enclosed, are the three cores. They were no longer glowing blue, but blood red, similar to SV4's eyes.
I felt my heart pound; it's far more intimidating than I thought. I could feel my confidence being ripped away, before I forced it back within me by slapping my cheeks. I tightened my fist and pulled them up, ready to brawl.
"Let's see if you have the resolve to win. Come on!" Arc said within the SV4.
I wanted to say something witty or throw a taunt at him. Instead, what came out of my throat was a primal roar. As I charged forward, throwing my hand back to throw a punch, a red force field appeared in my way, colliding with my fist. The red barrier cracked at my attack. I threw another punch, which I thought would break, but it held, more damaged, but still holding up. Clearly, its barrier is superior to the SV3; of course, it is.
I was about to launch a barrage of punches, but the SV4 thrust its massive palm at my face, and I just realized it had had a circular hole at the center, which quickly lit up with a white light.
"Oh shi-" I quickly brought both my hands and pulled my legs up just in time as a massive white laser beam, bigger than even me, enveloped my whole body, pushing it back.
I yelled as I felt an extreme burning sensation all over my form. Thankfully, it stopped, which leaves my body smoking and me panting like a dog. I felt my healing factor stitch any burn wounds I received from the attack.
"Come on! Is that the best you can do!?" I yelled out.
The SURVIVOR V4, in response to my taunt, pulled up all three limbs, and all of them had a hole in their palms that glowed white. I gulped.
"Uh…time out?" I said sheepishly, but I had to fly down to avoid a beam that nearly hit me.
Then, I pushed myself from the side to avoid the other one before pulling myself up from two more beams. I gritted my teeth watching the SV4 and its red barrier, its crack from my attacks slowly fading away. Oh, no, you don't! I fired my laser beams, which landed on the crack, which caused even more forming. It must have worked because after a couple of seconds, the barrier vanished.
I mentally pat myself on the back as I dived in towards the war-machine, meanwhile avoiding the giant white beams that aimed at me. The last one hit me, I screamed as pain hit me like a truck, but I pushed myself forward as I roared, throwing my fist back, amped by my red lighting and thrusted forward, planning to hit its chest, only for the red barrier to appear.
"What!?"
I shout, I thought I broke his shield!? Wait a minute, whenever I break a barrier like SV3 or the Silver Marksman's, they usually shatter like glass, while the SV4s vanish. Arc must have taken his shield down so I can come close to him to lure me into a false sense of security!! I snapped out of my thoughts just in time, just as a large metal fist came at me. I dropped down, just barely dodging it within a breath, but I was too focused on that arm to neglect the other bottom limb, which successfully threw a jab at me, which resulted in me being launched away before crashing into one of the mountains.
I coughed as I got back up. What a punch! That would have been game over if it weren't for the fact that I had a healing factor! I could feel my bones snapping back in place. I grabbed candy bars and quickly ate them before jumping away just as another beam hit the spot where I was. Damn it, what could I do!?
That damned barrier needs to be gone so I can land some hits in! It's too durable, though. Think, Red Justice, think! Why wouldn't I give Gavin advice right now? But I can't rely on him, I'm my own, so I've got to think.
My eyes trailed to one of the large mountains, before an idea popped into my head. Tourists are going to hate me for this. My eyes heated up as I fired my laser beam at the bottom of the mountain, and with the turn of my head, I sliced the top part off. Before 85% of the mountain could fall, I flew to the bottom, where I sliced with my heat vision and lifted it. I grunt and felt the muscles in my arm squeeze as it lifted the heaviest thing I had ever lifted. I took a deep breath before I flew up, with most of the mountain on top in the sky.
I turned around to face the SV4, which was actually a step back. I grinned before I rushed in, holding the mountain tightly. Desperately, it tried to shoot me with its white beams, but even when I'm weighed down with a literal mountain on top of me, I was fast enough to evade it. With a roar, I pointed the mountain peak at the machine like a spear, which crashed into the forcefield, shattering it as a large chunk of the mountain broke apart, making it rain rocks. The SV4 was stunned by that attack, stumbling back.
I grabbed the falling pieces and chucked them at SV4. After the fourth large boulder shattering on its head, Arc had enough and made the machine try to grab me, but I acted quickly. Rushing forward to punch the machine in the face. But that hit barely made it stumble; it looks like my ordinary punches aren't very effective. My body is too small for any meaningful damage.
Maybe after a hundred thousand blows, I would eventually break the machine, but I can't afford that. I'll burn too much Cosmic Energy, and if that happens, the fight is over. I have to bring this thing to space, so the metal would freeze and make it brittle enough and slam it back to the Earth for massive damage. With a plan set, I moved to the side and punched the machine's cheek as hard as I could. But that was so it would be stunned, I quickly grabbed its leg and was about to pull and lift, but as quickly as I appeared, blue electricity wrapped around its full form, shocking me.
I moved back, grunting in pain. Moving back to gain some distance.
"You were trying to do what you did for the SV3, right? Too bad for you, it has an electrified defence system that shocks anything nearby."
I gritted my teeth, clenching my shaking fist. This was bad. Looks like I can't just toss it to space for an easy win. Fine, if I have to hit it a million times to win, then so be it! I grabbed another chocolate bar and ate it, feeling better and ready to go. I was about to dive in, if it weren't for the fact that the red forcefield appeared around it again, uncracked and perfectly ready to tank a few hits.
Oh, fantastic, his force field can come back after a few minutes. This is harder than I thought, but no way in heck am I going to back down! I let another primal roar as I rushed forward.
RED
Hideout…
JUSTICE
Gavin grunted as he removed himself from the couch. He hissed as his cuts and wounds stung him. It had been half an hour since Ben had left. He believed in the kid; he still can't help but feel worried for him, especially since he can't see how he's doing. He's praying Ben wasn't just charging in recklessly like a dumb Shonen protagonist. He bit his lip hard enough to draw blood; he really hated this situation. Here he is, the Fang of America, one of the best Super-Soldiers in the world, even when old.
Mastered every martial art known and even some obscure ones. Possessed powerful weapons and gear, yet there is no point to it when his Godson is out there in the battlefield fighting the most powerful weapon humanity has ever achieved! He nearly lost balance when another tremor shook EVERYTHING. It's unbelievable, the fact that their clash could be felt from this distance is insane. It doesn't matter; he's going to help Ben no matter what.
But he knows right now, he's deadweight. But there is something he could do to help. Gavin stumbles to his backup phone and, after tapping a few buttons, the phone rings. He brought it to his ear, and a second later the phone picked up.
"Hey, Gavin. What's up?"
"We need you, Ben needs you."
The line was silent for a few moments before the person from the other line spoke.
"I'll be there."