Screams were heard through the streets on an Autumn morning as another threat to the city had emerged, it was Quantum and an army of giant robots all fifty feet tall. He was sitting comfortably in a spaceship looking aircraft above his army of robots one hundred strong. His ship was like a fortress where he gave commands to his robots to do his bidding.
"Give ear o ye San Francisco, today you shall all be crushed and come under my rule once and for all" Quantum declared from his ship through his speakers.
"Like we haven't heard that before" a news caster said. "Professor Quantum has attacked our precious city again. Authorities are questioning Maverick's choices letting him escape all the time wanting him behind bars, but some believe a prison cell won't hold him for too long"
As the news caster continued to speak, Max rushed down the steps in his super suit just to confirm that it was Quantum. He stood at the base of the steps seeing Quantum's robots wreak havoc in the city via news footage.
"This time Quantum, you're going to sleep in a cell" Maverick promised.
He walked out through his back door locking it before silently taking off. In the city, Ravage was already on sight helping officials rescue people and blow up some robot heads. On a street, robots walked through destroying everything in sight heading towards an apartment building yet to be evacuated. Ravage stoop on top of another apartment block unleashing a flurry of bullets at the robots getting their attention as firefighters and policemen went to coordinate their evacuation out of the building.
"Get everybody out!" Ravage echoed shooting at the robots.
The robots moved unfazed with the bullets bouncing off their metal plates, one rose up his hand preparing to swing at Ravage.
"Oh God" Ravage remarked seeing the arm rising.
He instinctively ran jumping over to the next building as that building crumbled, as soon as he landed, he noticed the eyes of another robot glowing steadily. That signaled danger to him, and he began to run again as a laser beam hit the top of the building just as he was about to jump off sending him down to the alley. He used his arms to cover his face descending to the ground then all of a sudden, he stopped, he slowly opened his eyes to see himself suspended by a white cloud.
"Do I always have to save your ass?" Cloud said.
"Not always" Ravage said standing up and turning around to face the hero floating on a cloud of his own.
Cloud wore a grey hoodie with a zip he left open, he had a black T-shirt under it with a picture of a weed leaf on it. He had black and red gloves, blue jean three quarters with a belt worn on them and grey Nike trainers. He had a simple mask with an elastic strap on the back holding the mask to his face revealing his black curly hair, the mask was white with a thick black cross on it running across his eye holes and had a weed leaf in the middle of the cross. Before he could reply, the building crumbled as the robots looked at them, Cloud took both himself and Ravage out of there as the other almost fell of his own cloud.
"So amigo, what are we going to do about the robots?" He asked as they zoomed through the streets riding on their clouds.
"Aim for the head kid" Ravage instructed.
"Let's go, muy rapido!" Cloud exclaimed.
He circled back to the robots as Ravage switched to heavier and sharper bullets and shot at the three that chased him, his bullets had no trouble going through their heads. Cloud then took them to another street placing Ravage on top of a building as he used taser bullets to take two down, Cloud took a more brutal approach flying straight at the other three standing.
"EL TORO!!" he exclaimed flying at them with his leg stretched out.
A fiery looking cloud surrounded his leg as the ran through the head taking their heads off. He circled around to Ravage who ran to the edge of his building and jumped off as a cloud caught him, Cloud made tendrils on his back and used it to stab through robots destroying them as Ravage went long-range lying down on his cloud as he followed cloud about on his own cloud. Cloud flew fast and was surprised to see an arm stretch out trying to take him out, he twisted his body doing a back flip over the arm with his cloud alongside Ravage going under the arm using his tendrils to slice off the arm. He landed on his cloud going into a surfer position to continue taking down their robot enemies.
"You show off" Ravage commented.
"What? When you're on cloud 9, there's nothing you can't do" Cloud replied swerving away from robot lasers as Ravage shot them down.
"I think that weed you take has nothing to do with your medical condition"
"Trust me, it's all medical" Cloud answered.
Flying through the city, the two got themselves in a tricky situation chasing down one robot only to be surrounded by more.
"Alright Cloud these robots must have come up with a strategy to counter us so let's not act-"
Cloud already acted using all his tendrils to stab into their chest, out of nowhere, another robot appeared from behind them taking them unawares preparing to fire his laser beam.
"Shit" Cloud remarked.
Cloud knew his powers would be useless against the power of the laser beam and could only stare, the beam shot down and the robot stopped thinking it had completed its mission only for a fist to fly and its head came off.
"You should start listening to Ravage a little bit more" Maverick said.
"Thanks for the save" Cloud said looking at Maverick as smoke rose from the M on his chest.
Max had taken on the beam head on like a champ not flinching.
"Now that we're all here, we need to come up with a strategy from taking out the source" Ravage said.
"You guys take down the rest of the robots, leave Quantum to me" Max said.
"Oh men." Cloud said with disappointment.
"What is it this time?" Ravage said.
"I wish I had my own nemesis to fight like that. It would make my fights more interesting" he lamented.
"Don't worry, someone is eventually going to make you his number one enemy and besides, Quantum isn't my nemesis. Titan is" Max said before blasting off.
Max went straight at the ship flying through robots in the streets like they were nothing as the others took care of any strays he couldn't get. His aim was to locate Quantum in his ship and take him down with no fuss at all, he flew straight at the cockpit from the bottom of the ship. Max shot out of the bottom of the cockpit and landed dramatically with Quantum turning his back to him as he landed.
"Welcome Maverick" Quantum said with a light chuckle. "I've been expecting you"
As he turned to face Max, arms shot out from the body of the ship holding Maverick's arms and feet in place.
"You see Maverick, after your little bout with your brother, I've decided to take you captive and make you mine" Quantum said.
"That doesn't sound right"
"I will wipe your memory and turn you into my arm in which I can control to do my bidding"
"Sorry buddy, that isn't happening" Maverick said.
He pulled his arms free and then his legs.
"What the-"
"That's the problem with you Quantum, you always forget to account for my growing strength" Maverick said.
"But did you account for this?!"
Quantum put his arm on the back of his chair pulling out a blaster. "Take some gamma rays" the professor said.
The blaster he held emitted gamma rays and they hit Maverick, unlike before, he didn't feel any change and there was no sign of weakness.
"That's weird" he thought.
He proceeded to walk forward scaring the hell out of Professor Quantum who had almost turned completely pale.
"It-it-it's not-not-not po-po-possible. H-H-How?" Quantum said.
Maverick simply destroyed the blaster by his palm and held quantum up by one arm. "You're going to prison" he said with a fierce look on his face.
Still fazed from Maverick overcoming the gamma rays, he was flown out of his ship and to the nearest prison with Cloud and Ravage taking care of the floating ship crashing it into the ocean.
Maverick landed at the old observatory Night used to use as Den where Cloud and Ravage were present.
"Quantum is now in prison. I think it should keep him out of our way for a month or two" Max said as he landed.
"That's less work for us at least" Cloud said lying down and floating about on a cloud.
"With Quantum out of the way for now, we have one more misfit to take out" Ravage pitched.
"Who's that?" Cloud asked sitting up.
"The J Brander"
"The J Brander?" Max asked.
"Yeah look at what he's been doing" Ravage said pulling out his phone and showed them pictures of top executives with a J branding on their foreheads.
"That's nasty hermano" Cloud remarked.
"And it seems he or she follows a specific pattern of branding people that had ties to a deal done with the now extinct Cipher Tech" Ravage added.
"That's interesting" Max said stroking his chin.
"So, who's his next target?" Cloud asked.
"His next target is James Hermes, an army contractor with links to the CIA" Ravage said.
"How you get a hold of all this information is mind blowing" Cloud said.
"I just have the right eyes and ears in the right locations"
"But what is the deal they had with Cipher Tech?" Maverick asked.
"That information got lost in that explosion a year ago and there's been nothing on it ever since" Ravage said.
"Okay Ravage, what's the plan?" Max asked.
"The plan is to trail Hermes for the night as our brander only strikes at night"
"If it's at night, I'm out. Got work today" Cloud said.
"No problem then, it'll just be you and I Maverick.
Max arrived his home still fazed at what happened in Quantum's airship. The gamma rays had no effect on him and he took to his phone about to hit up Ramon about it but remembered that he wanted to keep him out of his hero work for his own safety. He instead turned to his cousin for answers.
"Hey Dave, how you doing?" Max said on the phone.
"I'm good, heard you put Quantum behind bars today"
"Well, he has been a pain in the ass lately" Max said.
"He has been a pain to every hero in every state"
"So something strange happened earlier and I wanted to run it through you"
"What's the problem?" Dave asked. His voice full of concern.
"Today Quantum fired gamma rays at me through his gamma ray blaster and for some reason, it had no effect on me. I've bee trying to wrap my head around what could've possibly happened but I've got nothing. Any ideas?"
"Oh that" Dave said without any surprise.
"Why do I get a feeling you know something about this"
"Well that's because I imbedded lead and tungsten into your suit, and they absorb most if it all of the gamma rays and deflect them nullifying the effect it has on you" Dave explained.
"Wow, that was pretty thoughtful" Max said.
"Knowing that there could be someone out there that knows about your weakness, i couldn't take any chances" Dave said.
"Thanks again cuz" Max said.
"Anytime. Feel free to hit me up anytime one of these strange incidents happen" Dave said.
"I will" Max said before cutting the call.
With that settled, it was time to check up on the restaurant.
.....................…
Night fell and Max was on top of an apartment building not to far from James' house alongside Maverick.
"So, when do you think this brander will strike?" Max said.
"I don't know, you can do a perimeter flight and look for any shadowy figure, I'll signal you when something comes up" Ravage said.
"Okay" Max said.
With a whoosh, Max was gone blending into the night sky using his enhanced vision to search for this brander. Ravage stayed put using his binoculars to watch James' every move, Ravage watched him as he stepped into a grocery store to buy some goods and saw him come out five minutes later. Walking past an alley, James was pulled into the darkness of the alley out of Ravage's vision. He wasn't sure if it was the brander or just a common criminal so he decided not to call Maverick in just yet.
"Alright Ravage, you can do this"
He sprinted towards the edge jumping to the next building moving towards the alley. James was on his knees as a black hooded figure stood in front of him.
"Please, I have a family. You don't have to do this, I'll pay you whatever you want. Please, don't hurt me" James pleaded.
"No amount of money can replace what you took from me" the hooded figure replied with a brassy deep voice.
The hooded figure's suit looked like leather but solid as if inter woven with Kevlar, his mask was black as well but with white eye holes that constricted and expanded as his eyes moved. Sort of like Spiderman's. He walked up to the pleading James and took him up by the scruff of his neck with his left arm and put him up against the wall, he raised his right arm and in his palm a metal J shape was there. it began to get hot with steam rising for it as James began to cry. Just as James was about to get branded, a bullet landed next to the wall getting the figure's attention.
"I advise you put him down. I won't miss the second time" Ravage said pointing his gun at him.
The figure grunted as it appeared to put James down.
"That's better" Ravage said.
Just like that the figure threw James at Ravage.
"Shit!" Ravage exclaimed catching the now blacked out man.
Ravage put James on the ground seeing how the figure fleeing the scene.
"No you don't" Ravage remarked running after him.
The figure ran through the street jumping off moving cars like a boss with some sweet acrobatics doing a front flip over the first car and a side flip over the second. Ravage wasn't as flashy sticking out his arms to tell people to slow down as he chased after the brander. They got to another alley which had a wall so it was a dead end.
"Dead end brander"
"That's what you think" he answered.
The Brander jumped to the side of a building and ran on the wall as if he were Spiderman then front flipped over the wall.
"What the hell?!" Ravage exclaimed in utter shock.
He jumped on a garbage can then used his hands to pull over the wall twirling as he came down. He raised his head to see the brander walking on the side of a bus making his escape.
"Oh no you don't" Ravage said.
He got out his gun and switched to grapple bullet. He shot to the top of a building and he was pulled up by the bullet and he spotted the bus and instinctively jumped from roof top to roof top chasing the bus. The Brander thought he had escaped dropping his guard as the bus come to a halt at a red light.
"Now's your time Ravage"
Ravage ran as fast as his legs could carry him jumping of a shop and landing on the top of the bus making it dent alerting the passengers on board that something was going down on top of the bus.
"You thought I was that easy to shake off? Now you got something else coming for you" Ravage said taking his fighting stance.
"Okay, have it your way" Brander replied taking his fighting stance.
As the traffic light turned green, they engaged in combat with phones pulled out and recording. Ravage diverted Brander's punch allowing him to hit him in the chest with his elbow then the back of his fist to his head.
"Not so good in a fight as you are at running away"
Brander shook his head and engaged him, this time with faster movement. He was like water avoiding all of Ravage's punches and even a sweeping leg. Brander performed his and Ravage jumped over it as the Brander carried on his momentum going into a flip leaving his leg hanging out and hitting Ravage in the face. Ravage rubbed the side of his head going back to fight, his punch was blocked his second was parried leaving him open for a punch to the chest. He went for a kick to the head and Brander easily side stepped him and kicking him in the ribs. Ravage stumbled back almost missing his footing and falling of the moving bus. Ravage went in harder as the two produced a mesmerizing fight full of quick movements, turns, jabs and kicks.
Brander moved through Ravage's jabs punching him in the gut then sending his leg straight up kicking him in the chin. To a normal person, that would've been a knockout but somehow Ravage remained conscious only stumbling a couple feet back. Brander walked forward seeking to strike him with both arms only for Ravage to push those thrusting arms and deliver a double blow to his chest and gut sending him screeching back. He taunted the Brander stretching his arm and telling him to come on with a come on gesture with his palm. The Brander puffed and walked forward bring himself to spin, twirl and flip multiple times to land the final blow on Ravage. Ravage smirked as he came closer simply moving to the side whilst spinning his body to deliver a major spinning side kick to his head sending the Brander over the edge. Ravage looked over the edge aiming his gun ready to capture the fleeing man as he saw him stuck to the body of the bus.
"Down with you" Ravage said about to fire.
The Brander saw he was in a difficult situation and made a radical decision, being face down on the bus, he raised his legs making them fall as if he were doing a hand stand then did something incredible. When his body was in a flat position, he pushed himself forward with his arms as he flew through the window of a truck comin gout at the other side in another alley and began to run away.
"Oh no you don't" Ravage said jumping on to the back of the truck and chasing after him.
The Brander turned his head back checking to see the distance between he and Ravage and when he turned his head forward, he ran into what he would describe as a brick wall.
"I thought you would signal me when you found him?" Maverick said as he stood in front of the Brander and was the "Brick wall" he ran into.
"Sorry, I just got tunnel vision" Ravage said panting.
"This is the end of the line for you Brander" Maverick said.
"Is that how you treat an old friend Maverick?" The Brander said from the floor as he arose.
"What are you talking about?" Max said curious as how he had known him.
"Maybe this would help" Brander said putting his head on his hood and mask and pulled them down.
Max stood there frozen like a statue in shock.
"Ramon?!"