Ex Dynamis Chaos

For the last month, the Dallas/Fort Worth area has been what was only recently considered abnormally calm. It's not that crimes or strange occurrences don't still go on without him, the world keeps spinning after all, but it seems The Metal causes the bulk of the chaos in town. Back at Pitaya Laboratories specifically, Pitaya and Kavi enjoyed the peace with some tea and sushi from their favorite specialty shop a couple of towns over. Of course, as you know by now, nothing stays quiet for long.

In a mighty crash, the wall exploded open with The Metal plummeting through and planting his bare feet into their food. Expectantly upset, Pitaya grabbed him by a leg and tossed the smaller man across the length of the Lab.

"Sorry. We would have used the door, but you know how he is."

"Ah, Sentri. You came back to town for this?"

"Like I could miss it."

"Besides, Metal wanted the same audience as last time. A salty runback of sorts."

"Hey," The Metal said as he strolled back after landing spryly. "Don't talk to them. Your focus is over here big guy."

The mad scientist turned back to him and slowly picked up his momentum toward The Metal. Like a semi-truck, Pitaya charged down the main aisle of his laboratory with the palms of his hands wide open and ready to do what he enjoyed most. Following his lead, The Metal ran down the aisle opposite of him. Meeting in the middle, the two caught each other's hands and tried to overpower the other. Having the grip he needed, Pitaya went for the toss. The Metal saw what was happening and slipped back his weight, as well as that of the heavy training gear he was wearing, and countered him with the Tomoe Nage: a notable Jiu-jitsu suicide throw where the user tumbles backward flinging their opponent clear over their body. Pitaya tore through fifteen warehouse shelves before coming to a stop under the collapse of yet another storage unit. Quickly getting back up, Pitaya lept back over at The Metal in a single bound while carrying a twenty-foot, titanium support beam that previously helped make up one of the fallen shelves.

"Batter up!" he hollered as the bar swung into The Metal's torso, sending him flying yet again. "Aw, you bent it."

"Ugh, you got faster."

"Well, I figured you wouldn't just sit on your ass for a couple of days and come back for the exact same results. It's been quite some time. You trained and, in a way, I did as well."

"Guess it wouldn't be fun otherwise."

Pitaya leaped over to him for a second time but The Metal, who was still on the ground, snapped back and launched the large man through the roof with both of his feet. Not but two seconds later, he came rocketing down through a different part of the ceiling. Both stood up, huffing in and out as smiles crept upon their faces.

They ran upon each other again. This time Pitaya revved up for a backhand that he unleashed like a sledgehammer. Ducking under the swing, The Metal popped up and delivered an uppercut to his exposed jaw. He slugged him a few more times in the chest, but then Pitaya slammed both of his arms upon him. The Metal fell without much resistance. He felt his leg being tugged at and soon found himself at odds with centrifugal force. The mad scientist spun round and round, treating the martial artist like how a kid treats a yo-yo when he doesn't understand how it works.

"Jesus, how does he handle that? I'm getting sick just looking at it."

"Remember when we were younger and we'd see who could stay on the rotating tire swing at the park the longest before giving up or throwing up?"

"Oh God, don't remind me," Buck replied almost vomiting a little in his mouth.

"Yeah, Kidd, and your brother would always win because he's a stubborn asshole."

"Which is exactly why I'm wondering how he's still so stubborn that he won't take his weights off yet."

"C'mon guys, didn't we go over this last time?"

"Well, Kavi, it's not exactly the same as last time, now is it?

"How so?"

"Metal is wearing about four times more mass than last time, but Pitaya isn't even straining at all."

"Yup, mah boi seems to have the edge this time around."

For some reason, The Kidd took that as a personal insult, even though the fight had nothing to do with either of them.

"Okay, let's have a bet. I'll put down a hundred on Metal to win."

"Sure, why not? I could use an easy hundred."

"Hey, bro!" The Kidd screamed with a devious grin. "I'm starving, can we wrap this up soon and grab a bite?"

The Metal tightened his body and started unfastening the equipment from his left arm. Pitaya was so busy whirling him around that he didn't even notice what was happening. With a punching motion, The Metal launched the now loose sleeve into Pitaya's head. He didn't quite think the idea through fully, for when Pitaya let go due to the force of a three hundred plus pound sack striking his head at a hundred and fifty miles per hour, The Metal was no longer at odds with centrifugal force and zoomed off into a wall.

"You know, that actually hurt," Pitaya exclaimed shortly before he was hit with the one from the other arm. "Rude!" Prepared for the legs, he dodged both of the other weights and let out a loud, "Ha!" A celebration that was a tad too early since immediately after Pitaya was pegged squares in the chest by the nearly seven-hundred-pound torso weight and was planted back on the floor.

"I really didn't want to have to go there, but honestly the more time I spend here, the less time I'm spending back at Sam's Pizza devouring several extra-large pies."

"Blarg," Pitaya grunted getting back up, "I was wondering when you'd stop holding back. I can't stand intentional underperformance. But I warn you," he spoke almost whimsically while slipping on gilded bracers to his wrists, "I won't be holding back anymore either."

He tapped the bracers together and black liquid spewed out towards his fingertips, wrapping his hands like vinyl gloves. The air around his new gauntlets was intense and unsettling like molecules were dancing around at a much faster rate in the immediate vicinity. Pitaya jolted at The Metal again, trying to grab him with the full extent of his superior reach. Suddenly having flashbacks to racing Kavi, the faster fighter of the two was not having any of what his opponent was trying to give him. The difference in speed was almost unfathomable. Pitaya would lunge out and The Metal would already be under and out of the attack before the onlookers could blink.

"Damn, I didn't think you were that fast."

"To be honest, neither did I. My youngest brother dropped us off, so not going through customs I haven't taken those weights off since my trip to China. The others made me go through a carwash before coming here though."

"That explains the fresh pine scent. C'mon. You smell nice enough, let me give you a hug."

"Normally I'm happy to oblige in your grappler gimmicks, but I'm not fond of electrocution or third-degree burns."

"Wait… how did you figure that out?"

"I kind of took the full load of a shotgun to my skull a while back. Almost thought I died, but ever since I got back up I've seen the world… differently. I can visibly see how your gloves are agitating the air around them."

"Interesting. Though I hate to break it to you, that's me doing that, not my gauntlets. I haven't really had time to get the hang of it all yet, so let's just say these AMP-lify the effects."

"Oh, now that sounds fun."

Every time The Metal avoided one of Pitaya's attacks, he made sure to smack him across the cheek with the backside of his hand. Not only did he feel insulted, but Pitaya was a man of science and was not about to let his desire to try out his new toys on someone directly overwhelm his much stronger desire to rattle The Metal's ego. Devising a more effective plan, he picked up another titanium beam. Gripped firmly, the beam turned a bright, glowing copper color and then a pinkish white. He snapped it down to a more manageable eight-foot length and swung it swiftly like a Katana even though it was closer in size to an Ōdachi.

"One point nine thousand Kelvin. That's how high I can go before this bar melts."

"Guess I'm just lucky titanium doesn't conduct electricity very well."

"Yes, this effort feels only half-baked, but it's better than none."

"So tell me," The Metal interjected while still dodging the oversized hair straightener, "How did you get these powers anyway? Did you nearly die too and just woke up stronger, faster, and with abilities you previously lacked?"

"Please, I don't leave matters like these to chance. I built a machine designed to reset the human potential by bringing one to their peak and letting them grow again from there."

"And you just jumped into something like that?"

"Of course not! I let Kavi go first to see if it was safe."

"I'm faster than both of you!"

"Nobody cares," said everyone in the room in unison.

"So, does this mean that the machine is still operational?"

"Duh, like I'd strip something like that down for… wait you want to use it, don't you?"

"You've really intrigued my curiosity."

"Unless you get passed me, I don't see that happening."

"Okay," The Metal shruggingly said catching the heated titanium in both his hands.

"What the fu-" Pitaya was cut off as The Metal swung the beam he was still hanging on to, launching him through the exterior wall on the far side of the Lab. Soon after the fighter lost composure and started blowing on his hand feverously.

"Joke's on you, I recently found out I could survive flames twice that heat!" he screamed toward the hole in the wall. "Now, where is this machine? I'm gonna guess the one with the person-size container next to it."

Skipping over to the device, The Metal noticed a whole slew of controls and settings. They were all previously switched to maximum output and he really didn't see a point in changing that. Pitaya didn't spend much time outside and sprinted over as fast as he could, but he was too late. The Metal had already started the countdown to one second, dashing inside the unit in the blink of an eye. A heavy sigh was let out by the machine's creator as it did what he designed it to do.

"Just turn it off."

"I can't. I designed it to run through completion and it'll be done before I can disable both the main and backup power units."

"Wait, so you can't just unplug it?"

"Yes, Kavi, because I would totally risk wiring such an important process to our city's faulty electrical grid."

"Fine, I'll take care of it," he groaned before unleashing upon the door a couple of hundred electrified punches within a couple of seconds.

"And… I may have designed it to handle more damage than anyone could possibly dish out, even after it did its job to them. It seemed like good planning at the time, but I didn't think this jackass would try to use it; during a fight no less."

The glass window steamed up, becoming opaque, and the device started making ominous sounds. Heavy bolts of lightning and smoke extruded from the back of the chamber. The noises picked up in frequencies but scanning the monitors no one could figure out what was the issue. After the last glance, Pitaya turned around and made a run for the back of the Lab. The others soon followed suit realizing something must be up. Before anyone could make it too far on their own, they were swept forward by the erupting explosion of the machinery behind them.

The Lab was filled to the brim with smoke for not even a minute before the emergency ventilation systems went to work. As the smoke cleared, everyone got up to make sure each other was okay. It was then that they all recalled The Metal was still inside the canister when it went off. Rushing over as the last of the smoke cleared from the epicenter of the blast, they saw a faint figure in the cloud. The problem was that it wasn't The Metal… at least, they were pretty sure it wasn't.