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[b][u][h1]A Man Out of Time #8: The Fall of Rage[/h1][/u][/b]
Location: Pacific Point, California[/center]

The wind metahuman summoned a gale that blasted the three heroes who had appeared to stop the ramage of the metahumans victimized by the Hounds of Humanity. These winds would have knocked the average person off their feet, but Gajana, a mountain of a man, crept forward, approaching one step at a time. The wind metahuman kept pumping more power into the violent winds, but no matter how much the winds raged, Gajana kept inching forward until he was standing right next to the man. Gajana then raised his arms up and slammed his fists against the wind meta’s shoulders. As a result of blow, the wind metahuman was momentarily stunned, which caused the winds to die down.

“Firefox!” Gajana exclaimed, since he had made an opening for his teammate.

Another portal appeared next to the elephant man and the nine-tailed fox girl hopped out of the portal and landed next to her teammate. Using her fire powers in the same way she did on the speed metahuman, Firefox pressed her hand against the circular device that was attached to the metahuman’s stomach. In mere seconds, she was able to deactivate the device and revert the metahuman back to his original state. Gajana then lifted the now unconscious metahuman and gently placed him down on the other side of the portal, so the individual would no longer be in danger.

“Look out!” Firefox called out when she saw the light-powered metahuman charged up an energy blast and shot it at Gajana. Firefox instinctively leapt into the path of the beam and took the hit for her teammate. However, due to her powers, Firefox’s body absorbed the energy. As a result, the tips of her nines began to glow, signifying that the energy had been stored in her body.

Meanwhile, the Wanderer had been tussling with the rust and ice metahumans. The buffeting winds from the wind meta had done little to deter him, his bloodied face scowling at his two opponents through the purple haze of his barrier. The combined strength of rust spears, the wind and a blizzard-like beam did little against the strength of the barrier despite it looking impressive. As the attack brushed up against the barrier, the mutant focused on the area around them, trying to find the best place to launch a counterattack of his own. As he focused on a potential location, he knew that with the three attacks striking up against the barrier, there was little in the way of him preventing himself from sustaining an injury.

As soon as Firefox took down the wind meta, the mutant saw his opportunity to strike. Releasing his hold of the barrier for a second, he focused on phasing to the next location. While the icy blast and the metal spears struck him as he focused, their attacks seem to do little to deter him. The spears were only glancing strikes against his arms and legs and his body armour slowed the advance of the cold against his body. Smirking, The Wanderer disappeared into thin air, reappearing a moment later between the two metahumans. Before they had a chance to react, he low kicked the ice meta across the knee. The kick itself was ineffective, but it gave him the position needed to blast the rust meta across the street with a beam of psionic energy. 

Reduced to one enemy, he began focusing on the ice meta and launched an attack of his own. The psionic blades began to work as they chipped away at the icy exterior of the meta. As he shifted between attacking with the blades and phasing around the metahuman, the blades disappearing between each shift, it wasn’t long before his barrage became too overwhelming. The ice metahuman collapsed to the floor in a daze, much like the wind meta before her. [color=4682b4]”Another metahuman down,”[/color] he called towards Firefox. He then turned to face the rust meta, managing to get back up on its feet after getting blasted.

While the Wanderer was facing the rust metahuman, Firefox opened up another portal and jumped through it. She landed next to the downed ice metahuman and started working on destroying the device that had turned these metahumans into these raging monsters. The light-based metahuman was momentarily disorientated by his target suddenly disappearing. However, when he turned around, the metahuman immediately found its target again.

“Gajana,” Firefox shouted to her teammate. In turn, Gajana rushed forward the light-based metahuman and he threw a right uppercut. However, the punch did not hit its mark. Instead, his fist passed through the metahuman’s body, as if the light being was intangible. The light-based metahuman turned, raised his hand, and blasted the elephant man with a light burst, which sent Gajana flying into the side of a nearby building.

While her teammate momentarily distracted the light-based metahuman, Firefox was able to revert the ice metahuman back to normal. However, she did not have enough time to open another portal and transport the metahuman to safety. Therefore, the only option she had was to take any hits the metahuman could dish out.

As the fight with the rust metahuman was about to start, The Wanderer noted the two warriors as they were preparing to remove the device from the downed ice meta. As psionic blasts hit the surface of his opponent, he watched from the corner of his eye as the device was successfully removed from the victim, though at the cost of Gajana being struck into the side of the building. While the rust meta was being dealt with medium success, his slight distraction wasn’t enough to fully put the monster down. When the light metahuman was ready to launch an attack on Firefox, with the recovering metahuman still in the field, he had to act.

As the light meta was done focusing on the elephant man, it raised its hands to begin another attack towards the kitsune woman. After it finished charging up, tendrils of light shot out from the ball of light that formed within its hands, each finger darting towards their target. A moment later, the attack connects. However, they collided with something other than their intended target. A translucent dome of a faint purple hue appeared in their path, the damage from the attack doing nothing to dent it. A little further away, The Wanderer had his back turned to the rust metahuman, the monster getting back onto its feet after a psionic detonation blasted it off its feet.

As the tendrils disappeared, the mutant focused on the light meta. His eyes narrowed as his thoughts channelled in on one thing to do, much like he had done with the group of Hounds. The barrier fizzled out, but the beam used to create it surged from it towards the light metahuman. The psionic beam successfully hit the meta, sending it flying. He chuckled at the result. [i]I’m starting to get the hang of thi…[/i]

As his thoughts were finishing, the rust metahuman had reached him and slammed its right arm into his side, sending him flying into the building close to where Gajana was. As he collapsed to the floor, groaning at the pain that was now pulsing through his body, he turned to the elephant man. [color=4682b4]”I think it’s best if you go for the rusty one while I go for the light-based one. What say you?”[/color]

“Sounds better than being blasted by this human lightbulb,” Gajana answered the Wanderer.

Gajana then pulled himself back onto his feet. Before he had time to rush into action, the rust metahuman had Firefox in its arms while trying to squeeze the life out of the fox girl. Gajana could not just confront the enraged metahuman without endangering his teammate.

Suddenly, fire burst out on the tips of Firefox’s tail. The flames then started to spread down her nine tails, until it had covered her entire body, from head to toe. The heat that the flames were giving off grew in intensity. Once she was outputting enough heat, the rust metahuman loosened its grip on her, allowing her to slip out of its grasp. She then rolled out of the way, giving her teammate an opening.

Once Gajana saw his cue, he picked up one of the wall chucks that were created by his impact with the building and chucked it at the rust metahuman’s head. The blow to the head dazed the metahuman for just enough time for Gajana to charge over against their opponent. With one strong punch to the jaw, Gajana knocked the metahuman out cold. As a result, the rust metahuman crumbled to its feet and rolled over.

Firefox dropped to her knees and began working on the device that had drove the rust metahuman crazy. This time, since she had used her powers to covered her entire body, including her suit, with flames, this procedure took even less time, since it took less time to heat up the device. Once the rust metahuman had been reverted back to normal, Firefox stood back up next to Gajana, who had turned to see if the Wanderer needed any assistance.

As the rust metahuman was reverted back to normal, the lone light metahuman snarled at the two heroes. Like a feral animal trapped in the corner, it roared at them in defiance as it began to charge another attack. As both hands were forced into the air, the light in the surrounding area began to darken. Even in the broad daylight, the light from the sun seemed to wane as the skies around them seem to go black. Each passing second went by and the ball of light grew bigger and bigger.

With the attack from the enraged metahuman almost concluded with its charging phase, The Wanderer phased into the line of sight between it and Gajana and Firefox. While he blocked the way so that he would take the brunt of the attack instead of the two heroes, the mutant thought about how to counter whatever the attack was. He thought about the barrier to shield them from the attack, but with the length of the charge then the surrounding area would probably get destroyed. Likewise, if he used a barrier to surround the metahuman, the attack could risk killing the person inside of it. Seeing no other choice, with even a close-up attack being ruled out for it being too slow, he began charging his own attack. He raised his right hand and pointed it towards the light metahuman, the flames of his psionics migrating to his hand as a ball of psionic energy formed in it.

Then, both of them fired. The purple beam of psionic energy and the beam of light collided in the middle of the street, the destruction in the road forming at the point. At first, the two beams were equal in strength, not wanting to budge an inch. But with the previous exertions of the past couple of days became apparent as moments later, the beam of light slowly started to creep forward as it pushed the psionic beam back. The mutant gritted his teeth as he dug his heels into the ground and searched within himself to find more energy to stop the incoming attack. [color=4682b4]”I don’t know how much longer I can hold this back,”[/color] he grunted at Gajana and Firefox, his body slowly edging back towards them. [color=4682b4]”Get the changed people to safety before I lose my strength.”[/color]

Suddenly, something tweaked throughout his being. As if something was beginning to break within him, The Wanderer started to feel more energy coming into him. This was visually apparent to those near him as the purple flames of his psionic aura began to flicker with shades of blue in the tips of the flames. Whatever had happened, it gave the psionic beam more energy than before and started to push the beam of light back. Then, as the energy started to increase, the purple beam split the beam of light in to. It surged forth until it hit the light meta. The enraged person was sent flying down the street as the beam of light disappeared with the attack. The purple beam disappeared as soon as The Wanderer reacted to the attack hitting the metahuman. He collapsed onto his hands and knees, panting heavily as the sweat dripped from his face.

A moment later, he looked up towards the light metahuman. With the sudden surge of energy that went into the attack, he feared the worst had come to pass. While his normal eye saw the metahuman’s body looking limp, his psionic eye saw the waves of psionic energy still emanating from the body. [color=4682b4]”Good,”[/color] he muttered, audible enough for Gajana and Firefox to hear. [color=4682b4]”The metahuman is still alive, but they would need some serious treatment after this.”[/color]

While Firefox took care of the now downed light-based metahuman, Gajana immediately contacted the authorities to send an ambulance as soon as possible. Before the heroes knew it, emergency sirens were blaring in the distance, signalling that the EMTs were on their way.

“Thanks for the assist,” Gajana told the Wanderer. “However, I would suggest you let the medics take a look at you. You took quite a beating back there.”

“I agree,” Firefox said while she walked away from the light-based metahuman. As she approached, the flames that had covered her entire body started to extinguish itself. However, when these flames disappeared, her costume turned out to have not been damaged at all, since it had been designed to withstand the heat that Firefox could output. “You don’t want those wounds to fester.” 

The Wanderer panted as the two heroes dealt with the last of the enraged metahumans. It wasn’t too long before the sound of the emergency vehicles were in his ears. [i]Guess with this over, it’s time for me to make my leave,[/i] he thought to himself, getting back to his feet. While he had suffered injuries from both the Hounds and these metahumans, he was still new to the timeline he was in. Meaning, there wouldn’t be any record of him in the books at all bar the heroics he will have written about him in the news outlets. Besides, he suffered injuries like that before and he figured he could pull through them again.

When Gajana spoke to him, the mutant nodded at the elephant man. [color=4682b4]”And likewise,”[/color] he responded in kind. When the suggestion of getting the medics to check his injuries from both heroes, he shrugged off the idea. [color=4682b4]”While I am sure you’re right about me needing to get checked out by the medics, I’m afraid I’ll have to give that a pass.”[/color] He paused for a moment, deliberating on whether to reveal that he was from 200 years in the future. [i]Ah, fuck it,[/i] he thought. They might press on their point on getting the medical attention so he better reveal it now than learn about it in the future. [color=4682b4]”Besides, I’ve shrugged off much worse injuries from worse beings in your future and still live to be able to get to your time.”[/color]

If any word could describe the expression on Firefox and Gajana’s faces, one would use the word ‘surprised’. Although this world had seen interdimensional demons, metahumans, and users of the mystic arts, something like time travelling was too far-fetched to be science fact. This had to be this guy’s gimmick. It was either that or he was mentally unbalanced enough to believe in such a delusion, or possibly both. But what superhero isn’t a little crazy in the head when they run around a city in tights to beat up bad guys.

However, although the Wanderer had taken a beating from his encounters with the metahumans who had been sent into a rage by the Hounds, Firefox and Gajana decided that it was probably better not to try to take the Wanderer in to inquire about the validity of his claim about being from the future. They would only endanger the first responders and any other civilians by starting another metahuman battle.

If the expression that the two heroes were any indication, The Wanderer’s declaration of him coming from the future had taken them by surprise. [i]Of course,[/i] he thought, the feeling of disappointment in realizing the error in making such a statement. [i]They probably think that me being from 200 years in the future is too outlandish for this timeline.[/i] Nevertheless, he needed to convince them that what he was saying was true and not a delusion that anyone would make up when meeting other superheroes in this city.

[i]Ok, trying to convince them is the next part, but how?[/i] was the major question that ran through his mind now. The easiest solution would be to show the various news articles that had been saved in the small memory banks of his wrist device. But, with the more advanced technology he was used to, he decided against it. Without calling past events of this year without much in the way of knowledge on his part, there was only one option for him to take. One that he didn’t like at all.

[color=4682b4]”Judging by the looks on your faces, what I have said seemed to be a bit… absurd?”[/color] He asked, pretty much validating that he has read their expressions. [color=4682b4]”It is a large bit of information about me that I have given you, so it might be deemed as impossible. We can talk all day about it and try to convince that I’m from a time 200 years in your future, but that might make either one of us frustrated at the other.”[/color] He paused for a moment. [color=4682b4]”It doesn’t matter if you think that I am delusional or not, that is the truth that I will say about myself. Whatever its interpretation, I’ll leave to you. Nevertheless, you still have my gratitude and I hope that we meet again under better circumstances.”[/color] As his time with this fight has drawn to a close and the threat on civilians are no longer around, he nodded farewell to them and walked away from the scene.