Member
Captain Uni
Various
Harvey's muscles burned like magma. His bones ached as if they were aging a thousand years a second. Sweat fell from his pores, akin to a waterfall. Thunderbolt quickly calculated the amount of time it would take him to cross the world and arrive back in Lost Haven at full speed without slowing down. At a dead sprint, Thunderbolt could cross North America in 22 seconds. The earth's width was roughly 4 North Americas long; so, some simple math later, Harvey estimated his run time to be about one minute and twenty seconds, rounding the size of North America an subsequently the earth down. That was a minute and twenty seconds his sister spent with that monstrosity. A minute and twenty seconds of Umbraxis the Destroyer still drawing breath.
A minute twenty seconds too long.
Lightning spiraled around the speedster as he ran across the Atlantic ocean, spraying salt water a hundred feet into the air behind him. He was moving fast enough that he couldn't see his own sonic boom carpet trailing a thousand miles behind him, the height of a small mountain. The amount of air he was displacing had reached dangerous levels; he was more than likely creating tsunamis and hurricanes everywhere he ran. But he had to press on, and hope beyond hope that there were no stray ships between himself and his destination. He visualized a map of the globe within his mind. Thunderbolt guessed his current position and changed his trajectory to avoid running right through the middle of the heavily urbanized continent of Europe. Instead, Harvey hoped to cross through the desolate oceans of sand and dunes that made up large chunks of Africa. The jungles would've been an issue if not for the fact that his sheer speed would cut through any obstacle that stood in his way. So Thunderbolt continued to run.
He thought of all the people that animal had slaughtered. The poor, innocent and defenseless citizens whom he had so callously absorbed into his own sick, black flesh. He vividly remembered Demolition's gargantuan, headless corpse drop against the remains of the police station, flooding the survivors left inside in his own blood. Harvey considered how effortlessly Umbraxis had snapped the Herald's neck; a hero who could arguably hold his own against Thunderbolt. The forces which Thunderbolt and Boom battled so passionately, with such fervent vengeance and righteous furry, were more powerful than either speedster could really comprehend. But Umbraxis did not know who he was messing with. He didn't understand the complex nature of the creatures he dared to challenge.
I am no stranger to fear. No stranger to terror or horror. I have experienced the worst humanity has to offer; perhaps even the worst the universe could dish out, now that I've met the Destroyer. Sometimes fear can cripple me. Can bring me to my knees. Fear runs through my blood; and the blood of every human being on the planet, I'd guess. Some days I want to give up the mask and the costume and pretend that I'm normal...
But when you come against my country...
When you come against my family...
You try to destroy my people...
The fear is overcome by rage.
Pure, livid and utterly consuming. There is no power in hell or scheme of man that can overcome a man burdened by fury. Anger has no equal. It can drive even the most timid of people to stand in the path of giants. Rage transforms the kindest humanitarian into a violent and terrible killer. It is what makes me...me. What makes me frustrated. What pisses me off. It is uniquely my own. My identity. Not my fear, but my anger. So I will stand. I will fight. And I will win.
Tears streamed down Harvey's face, pooling together with the blood leaking from his eyes and ears before flinging behind him at mach 300. His mind was of one task now; there was nothing that could distract him. So when a pair of voices began to speak within his mind, Thunderbolt didn't even notice a word they were saying.
---
"How so very interesting." One voice said. It was deep and gravelly, containing power and authority few others could speak with.
"An engaging little story, isn't it?" Another voice, more feminine, responded. "He has managed to surpass all of our expectations. Through raw emotions, this...Harvey Smith...Has nearly broken the Lightning Effect Barrier. He might even enter relativistic speeds, if we helped him along."
"Hmmm." The original voice hummed. It seemed to be in deep thought. "His efforts will not be enough. Not on his own."
"Yes. He needs our assistance."
"We will give him access to his second form."
"Oh!" The feminine voice gasped in surprise. "So soon? Is he ready? Can he even survive the transformation?"
The voice took a moment to respond. But when it did, it seemed certain. "He will survive. He is stronger than the last avatar. Although his sister seems more capable, Harvey is more worthy."
"We shall unlock his second form, so that he may defeat this great evil and continue to grow and mature in his understanding of the Lightning Effect."
---
Thunderbolt's costume tore and ripped. Pieces of friction-proof fabric were shredded to pieces by the impossible speeds Harvey had reached. Yet he was going ever faster. The intensity of the lightning streaking behind him could be seen from orbit. Harvey could feel himself..growing. An extra three inches in height caused his costume to strain further, sending larger chunks soaring behind him. Fifty pounds of muscle appeared from thin air, filling out Harvey's usually slender build with a much bulkier look. A streak of bright blue hair faded into existence, temporarily staining Thunderbolt's head. Harvey's shirt was basically gone by the time he reached mach 600, twice as fast as his previous max speed.
The eastern seaboard rushed into view.
Thunderbolt's feet slammed into the water underneath him even harder, propelling him forward further and further.
The moment his foot touched solid earth, Thunderbolt felt a massive rush of energy absorb into his body. He could see Lost Haven now. He raced through the financial district in less than half a second. There. Umbraxis had the rest of the heroes tied down, except for Supercell. He was shoving some sort of energy attack into Icon's face. Gotta move. Faster, Harvey, FASTER!
All of the energy Thunderbolt had built up during his little jog around the world, and the extra power provided by the mysterious figures from before, added on top of the energy he had absorbed when he set foot on solid earth, flowed into the small surface area contained in Harvey's fist. That energy transferred from said fist into the center of Umbraxis' mass, immediately causing a chain reaction of events that would go down in history for millennium. Atoms were split. A mushroom cloud unlike anything seen since World War Two's end lit up the sky but was quickly subdued by the impossible weather conditions created by Supercell. The shockwaves created by the attack leveled everything. Entire buildings were atomized by the force of the attack. Heat and radiation attempted to escape throughout Lost Haven and render the city lifeless for a century. Yet, Supercell's perfect storm shielded the city from the threat and tossed the negative side-effects of the explosion into space.
A microsecond before her brother slammed into Umbraxis, Boom used the brief lapse in Umbraxis' attention to vibrate her molecules fast enough to slip out of the tendrils rather easiler. She immediately did the same for Skull-Thrasher, dragging him out of the explosion's radiance. She doubted his regeneration powers would allow him to survive such a devastating blast.
When the smoke cleared, the only thing standing was Thunderbolt. His body was surrounded by lightning, blood flowing down his now-exposed chest. In his closed he held a pile of ash he hoped was Umbraxis' corpse. (Although it definitely wasn't)
"I am not afraid of you. Or anyone else who threatens my world. If you have any breathe left in you, I want you to fly off to the next big bad eyeing earth and tell it this:
"We will endure."
WORLD LEVEL: ACHIEVED
