As President Victon finishes, Rexford and Rebellion step up beside Travis, ushering him forward towards The Unique Regulator. The stage seems to spin around him and nothing feels real—what is happening here? They can't possibly be asking him to do what he thinks they're asking him to do….
He looks across the stage at Jenny in her Null suit, desperate for some kind of insight. And although he can't see her face, she tells him all he needs to know with a simple shake of her head.
He knows that whatever he does in this moment, all of America has its eyes on him. Not just as a representative for Unique-Class Powereds everywhere, but as a representative of the next era of American heroics.
"I don't believe in your vision, Victon. Your version of America doesn't look anything like mine," Travis says, raising his hands to blast. "So sh*t your weapon of persecution."
Before anyone can stop him, a nuclear-boosted energy blast charges around his hands, ready to rip into Victon's Regulator.
He lets the blast loose, but finds that it splashes against a golden shield—one that Inherit has wrapped around The Unique Regulator at the last second.
"Gravitate has lost control of his Unique Powers, just like The Crush!" President Victon shouts into the podium microphone. "American Protectors, take Gravitate down!"
Travis knows that isn't true for one second—he has never been more in control in his entire life. President Victon is trying to set him up, clear as day.
But the heroes that begin to descend upon him—heroes he stood beside not too long ago—don't seem to care about that. They're too on-edge after what happened with The Crush to stop and think.
He doesn't have a spare second to reflect upon the million betrayals and injustices just committed against him, but he does know this, Jenny was right.
The Hero Project must have always had an anti-Unique agenda. One that just placed its crosshairs on him.
He doesn't know who exactly is behind this, but if this is what he can expect from Victon's regime, he has to stand and fight. Now.
So that's exactly what he's going to do.
He surveys the scene—there are six different targets lining up to take him down:
1) DaHChip and Rexford, guarding the The Unique Regulator
2) The Meek security guards & the President's Secret Service
3) Sky & Asrid
4) Manbeast
5) Jury & Inherit
6) Rebellion
As he decides who to handle first, Jenny jumps into the fray, her Null suit primed to go.
"I told you I'd have your back, Gravitate!" Null shouts as she charges away at Rexford and the The Unique Regulator. "But you also need to know that—"
Before Null can finish her sentence, DaHChip steps into Null's path, arming her considerable body arsenal. It looks like it's going to be a battle of the robo-ladies…
Which means he needs to fight his way through the other targets to get over to Jenny, since she must have something from her investigation to tell him about all of this.
So he stepped forward to fight, activating his H-Chip Warning System.
Before he can even get through The American Protectors, a swarm of Secret Service agents take President Victon away—they don't seem to want anything to do with him. Which is fine—he has enough to deal with, for now.
"The Meek will not stand for this display!" Lyra shouts from her own front row seat, pointing her detail of armed guards in Travis direction. Great.
But before the guards can reach Travis, a DRPR SWAT squad appears from the rafters to neutralize The Meek guards. Travis had no idea they'd be here, but it looks like his help with Jenny's DRPR investigation is paying off….
As he moves on, he can't help but think that, if there's DRPR support here, Jenny must have uncovered something pretty nasty.
With The Meek guards taken care of, he finds Sky and Asrid coming for him next. It's no surprise these sheep would do whatever they're told, even if it's persecuting fellow Powered heroes or former friends.
As the Sky and Asrid run at him, they start firing ice-cased laser bombs. Travis flips above a laser-ice bomb and it shatters on the floor, sending laser-light beams shooting across the stage.
He's about to launch an attack when suddenly he finds Shula and Bearcat standing beside him, ready for a fight.
"Underdogs until the end," Shula says. "Besides, we're not about to stand for this slugging nonsense, not after what they did to Lucky."
Travis doesn't know what to say—he's just thankful for the help, right now. He'd have to take these two down on his own, if not for the support.
"And I'm dying for a piece of that crap," Bearcat shouts, immediately charging at Asrid. He shrugs off two laser-ice bombs as they explode against his thick hide, tearing his way towards Asrid.
With the Asrid caught off guard, Bearcat manages to grab Asrid by the arm and toss him across the stage at Sky.
As this battle rages, Shula hovers forward, pulling Travis along.
"The producers tried to escort us off-stage with Frey and Black Magic, but we weren't about to let this happen," Shula says. "Though I'm glad Bearcat is taking on Sky. I don't think I could face what she has bec—"
But Shula doesn't get to finish as Manbeast comes swinging for them both.
Of course Manbeast would back up Victon's Powered regulation—he must be thrilled with all of these developments. And Travis can tell that he is, since Beast smiles as he arms his energy bow and arrow, mid-swing. Come to think of it, that's probably the first time he has ever seen Beast smile….
But the smile is wiped from his face as Shula snaps forward, knocking Beast off course with a super fast shoulder check.
"I've got this covered," Shula says, flying after Beast, who recovers from the hit with a graceful flip. "Do me a favor and knock Jury upside the head for me?"
"Done and done," Travis says, very ready to finally face off against his so-called rival.
Jury is joined by Inherit and both of them run at Travis from opposite sides, encased in Inherit's golden shields. They obviously mean to crush Travis between the rock-hard shields.
"Your Unique superiority complex will not stand!" Inherit shouts. "The Meek shall Inherit the Earth!"
"Always knew you were a bad seed, rookie," Jury shouts next. "Just like those degenerate parents of yours."
Oh, he's really going to enjoy this one.
Concentrating, he focuses on the atomic makeup of Inherit's energy shields—and he disrupts their structure with his own energy nudge.
Opening his eyes, he finds Inherit and Jury still coming at him, not yet realizing that their shields have dropped.
Sweet sh*t, this is going to be good.
Wrapping both of his hands in oversized energy fists, he spins mid-air and listens to the cracks as he knocks Inherit and Jury in their smug jaws.
Spinning back to the stage, he has to admit that those may have been two of the most satisfying hits of his career….
As Inherit hits the ground, Travis triples his body's gravity, sending him down through the stage to whatever is below.
Just then, Jury comes back at him and tries to hit him from behind, but he spins under his blow. He then launches up into the sky with Jury in his grip, rising high so that the cameras can't hear what he's about to say:
"I'm going to take down your entire family. You piece of crap."
"If you can." Jury spits.
So he let Jury go and sent him rocketing back to the ground with one last punch.
Settling back on the ground, he feels really good—until he sees Rebellion standing in front of him.
And a chill runs through his entire body.
"You are the last person on the planet I'd expect this from, Rebellion," Travis says. It may not be perfect, but it's all he can think to say at the moment.
"Took the words out of my mouth," Rebellion says, coming at him full-force.
This is most definitely not a fight he wants—but it's a fight he has to win.
Travis creates a cage around Rebellion, but he just jumps through the walls of energy with a deafening scream.
Skin still sizzling, Rebellion bashes him with the back of his fist.
Reeling, he flies back to recover—and makes his next move. He has seen Rebellion take far worse abuse than this before, so an energy cage was only ever going to slow him down.
Travis let Rebellion come close for his next hit, priming for an energy flash.
But Rebellion is faster than he expected, knocking him in the side with a swipe-strike as he emits his energy flash.
He doubled over from the pain, but also found that his flash managed to knock Rebellion clear across the stage.
Not missing a beat, Rebellion pops back up to his feet and comes at Travis once again, faster than he ever could have expected.
Without giving Travis time to react, Rebellion forces him to go toe-to-toe with him, sending Powerful punches his way rapid-fire. But Travis manages to dodge and block the blows—Rebellion may be insanely good, but he has studied his moves for years. And he knows how he likes to fight.
Frustrated, Rebellion throws a wild mega-punch, one Travis duck under and swivels around, managing to catch him in the side with a heel kick. Travis then spins into an uppercut, sending Rebellion back across the stage.
He took a moment to breathe and smile—the entire nation just saw him win a sparring session with its number one hero. Not to mention the fact that Rebellion really deserved to take a few hits, after how this has all gone down….
But then he pulled himself back together. That attack might have done the trick for now, but he knows Rebellion will be back for much faster than he'd like….
"Uh uh... you're not standing anymore." Retribution jumps on top of Rebellion. "I can't believe you got knocked by a kid... what happened to your awakened power? can't use it now can you?"
"D*mn you! get off me! you piss of sh*t!" Rebellion tries to free from Retribution hold but fails to do so.
"For your information, this sword is not an energy sword. A scientist made this for me, it can disabled Unique-Class Powered." Retribution says. "Oh, and you gave me one heck of a wound, look... I have bandages all over my body, and it hurts to move around."
Before any of The American Protectors can come back for round two, Travis flies towards the other end of the stage, where Jenny stands over DaHChip's limp robo-body. Next to that, Rexford sits restrained beside the depowered Unique Regulator.
"Null, we won't have more than a few seconds," Travis says, landing at her side. "What's our next move?"
"Do you want to tell him, or should I?" Null says, eyes on Rexford.
"You say one word and I will end you!" Rexford spits. "You'll never work in Hoshi City—no, this entire country, ever again!"
"Suit yourself," Null says, turning to make sure the camera orbs floating around the scene are still recording.
Then she turns to Travis, obviously ready to drop some new bombs….
"Rexford was using Scoundel to communicate with Phobus and coordinate all of The Hero Project Missions against The NewOrder," Null says. "And he was doing this in service of The Meek Movement, as one of their secret Apostles. Rebellion is also working with The Meek."
As Null speaks, Travis scrambles to put the pieces together—Rexford and Rebellion was the Meek mole? And he was working with Phobus too?? More questions race through his brain, but Null keeps going, so he forces himself to pay attention.
"Rexford's main directive was to arrange for you and The Crush to have uncontrolled Unique incidents, fueled by an illegal drug named Pump. And all of this was done in order to boost Anti-Powered sentiment before the presidential election to place Mayor Victon in office."
Null then turns directly towards the nearest camera—and takes off her helmet.
"My real name is Jenny Yu and I was placed in The Hero Project by the DRPR to uncover this conspiracy," Jenny says. "And this is information I could only procure thanks to Gravitate's unwavering cooperation and personal sacrifice in the—"
"Liars!" Rexford suddenly screams. "I won't let you ruin me, not again!"
Travis turns towards Rexford—who has somehow gotten loose from Null's restraints and stands behind The Unique Regulator…
Which he has reactivated.
And pointed directly at Jenny.
Rexford screams again and fires The Unique Regulator at Jenny, causing a stream of clear waves to shoot from its needlepoint.
Without thinking twice, Travis dive and shove Jenny out of the firing line. She goes limp as he knocks her aside, so he prepares to tuck into a roll and tumble next to her…
Until The Unique Regulator blast catches him in the chest.
And then he can't feel anything at all.