Havok Bringer

"At close distance and with his enhanced speed, your swords hold little value, Captain. I suggest meeting him head-on," Sherlock spoke frantically.
"I can't beat him from a distance, so how do I stand a chance up close?" Nevertheless, I dismissed my swords and took a fighting stance. I glanced down to see that my arms from the elbow down had reverted to their original black form. Not only that, but they had twisting, cracked veins pulsating with bright white energy.
"Ses?"
"Trust." My head sparked with pain as he spoke the word in my head. I gathered myself and prepared to fight. I had no choice other than trusting the alien that was bound to me. I looked at Jax, who was bouncing lightly on his feet, rolling his head side to side, stretching out his bulging neck muscles.
"You go fists, I go fists!" I shouted to Jax, who responded by jab stepping forward and throwing a right fist toward my midsection. I closed my eyes, braced, and my arms suddenly shot forward into a defensive X pattern. A wave of energy shot out from the enhanced strength of Jax's punch as it landed, and he stood, fist still out, looking at me, confused.
"Always a tricky little bitch ain't you, Dawes?" Jax sneered before pulling his fist back and reloading with another round of devastating blows.
It seemed Ses had somehow not only enhanced the strength of my arms but was actively assisting me. As Jax punched, I saw every one of them coming my way.
Usually, I could recognize danger coming my way, but I lacked the physical ability to move quickly enough to evade it. This explained why I had been stabbed, burned, and had my arms cut off…more than once. Now, to my surprise, I was moving fast enough to intercept the blows. I was unable to mount any attack on him, but I wasn't getting hit either. We were at a stalemate.
Jets suddenly shot out from Jax's calves, and he leapt backwards into the air. "Time for phase two, I guess." He screamed in pain as his arms shot out to his sides. Chunks of metal and woven strands of flowing metallic fibers burst out of his skin, forming a covering of segmented armor that engulfed his entire body up to his chin.
"Like the upgrades?" He asked with a smile.
"Jesus, Jax. What did he do to you?"
"He made me a fucking god, that's what he did to me." Jax levitated back into the air and nodded toward the maniacal crowd of the arena. "I think they got their money's worth. Time to wrap this up. " He shot forward into me with what felt like the force of an elephant. We flew at least a hundred yards before I shot an elbow down into his back. The blow rattled Jax, and we plummeted down into the grass, rolling end over end before coming to a stop a few feet from each other.
I groaned and wiped blood from my eye. I had scraped up my face pretty badly on the landing, but didn't seem to be injured otherwise. I got to my feet with no small amount of effort and felt my stomach drop at the sight of Jax already standing on his feet, stretching and completely unharmed.
"Looking pretty rough there, Dawes. Don't worry," he smiled, "It's almost over." He took his fighting stance with an energy that told me he was just getting started.
I raised my fists slowly, with effort, and readied myself. If I was gonna go down, I was at least gonna make this fucker bleed, if he still could. "Let's go, you Yankee fuck."
"That's the spirit!" Jax shot a straight right at my head.

I slipped the punch and slammed into his ribs with a hard right hook. At the last second, small metal spikes formed over the entirety of my fist, piercing his armor. Jax groaned at the pain and tried to pull his arm back and twist away before bellowing in pain.
The spikes on my fist had grown when the punch landed, then as Jax twisted, Ses flattened the spikes into tiny horizontal blades that sliced him open from his ribs to the middle of his stomach.
I quickly stepped back, making sure to continue guarding against follow-up blows, but was surprised to see Jax fall to one knee. He looked down at the wound and slid his hand across it, holding it up to show a thick orange fluid dripping from his fingertips.
"Weird, right?" He asked. "It's a trip when you expect to see red but see orange instead."
"Jax, what happened to you, man?"
"Do you live under a fucking rock, Dawes? Our whole planet went to shit, hell, after Alcara, the whole galaxy went to shit," Jax stood, still holding pressure on his wound. "You know, when the Orbs dropped and things got bad, I still had my brother. Then, when everything went crazy and the looters and bandits took over, we managed to kill our way to a small piece of happiness, only to get sucked into this mess. But you know what? I still had my brother! We were not even gonna participate in the fucking reaping dungeon. Did you know that?" He winced and looked at the wound. "Matty and me were gonna try to get out of there and find somewhere safe to put our heads down. We didn't know the whole thing about that place being a pocket dimension yet. Then we got caught by that freakshow, Anthragor, and the worst thing that could have happened, happened. You showed up."
"Jax, I saved you guys. I lost my arms to get you all out of there."
"Ha! You love it, don't you?" he spat. "You claim you don't want the power. Claim you don't want to be the hero, but deep down you love that shit. Yeah, Dawes. You saved us from that monster only to do the worst fucking thing you could have done. You gave Matty purpose. You made him feel like he could be a part of something that could save everyone. I didn't want that shit, though. I did my time in the service. I laid in a hole full of my own piss and shit because my unit was pinned down for days at a time while we waited on reinforcements that never came. I fought for the people I love and the country that gave me everything I had. I did that shit proudly, too, but I was done. All I wanted to do was get out of this latest round of craziness alive, and with my brother." "Jax, there is no safe place. Don't you see that? If the Council isn't stopped, if Karis isn't stopped, you will never find that peace you're looking for."

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Jax reluctantly took his fighting stance. "Maybe you're right, Dawes. Honestly though? I just really don't like you, so I'm gonna fuck you up then deal with the consequences as they come."
Blades erupted from the sides of Jax's forearms, and he lunged forward. Blows blasted in my direction in flurries. I managed to block most of them, but every few punches, he would curve his arm in, slicing me in various spots on my arms, chest, and shoulders. None of the cuts were dangerous on their own, but they were adding up quickly, and I felt myself starting to slow drastically.
Jax feigned a left jab, then came up hard with a right uppercut, catching me squarely under the chin and sending me flying back. I landed and tried to shake the fuzz from my head as blood began dripping into my right eye again. I raised my head to see where Jax was, and suddenly saw Karis appear, standing beside him, holding a football-shaped silver device.
"I need him alive for this, you fool!" Karis hissed at Jax.
"Relax, bossman, he ain't dead yet."
"Ensure that he isn't able to move of his own free will. Severing the spinal cord should suffice." Karis hovered closer to me. "If you had done this willingly, it would have been much easier. I can still accomplish my goals, even if your mind is fighting the process. Your body, I fear, won't be joining that fight."
Jax moved toward me. I managed to get to my knees but couldn't stand and defend myself before he got to me. He reached and grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled my head back. I grasped at his arm, trying to free myself, but my energy was gone. My strength was gone. I suddenly realized that I had no other tricks. This fight, this effort to dismantle the Council and secure retribution and freedom for humanity, was over. I tried, but I just wasn't strong enough. I… I gave everything I had, but in the end, it wasn't enough. I fought and I lost.

C.J. reached and pressed the button to activate the emergency vent procedure for the cargo bay. Orange lights began flashing, and alarms blared on the bridge.
C.J. began counting. "One, two, three."

"Why are you counting?" Michael asked.
"I'm gonna give it five seconds, that should be long enough. I don't wanna expose our people to the vacuum of space if I can help it."
"They are in their cells, C.J.. I'm pretty sure they will be fine." Michael responded. "Let's get those doors closed and get in there, though. No reason to drag this out."
"You people are too squishy. No Mulhaz would ever fear the cold embrace of the void."
C.J. and Michael both turned to look at Kinthragor. Michael patted him gently on the shoulder. "We have talked about this, Kinny. You can't say shit like that, people are gonna think you're a psycho."
"I am not sure what this word means, but I will assume being a psycho means you can endure much pain and vanquish your foes in battle."
Michael shook his head. "Not really, buddy. Not really."
C.J. pressed the button again to cancel the emergency venting procedure. The hum of the cargo bay doors closing reverberated through the ship, and a loud clank signified they had sealed.
"Let's go," C.J. rushed through the bridge exit into the cargo bay to see one large Council Guard remaining, strapped to a cargo tie-down post. Without a word, the guard slapped a console on the wall beside them, and the bridge door slammed shut, leaving Michael and Kinthragor locked on the other side.
"Oh shit! There is a guard left, still, guys. He, he is pretty fuckin big and he looks pretty fuckin pissed!" C.J. shouted into his comms.
"Do you see the crew? Are they okay?" Michael responded
C.J. surveyed the cargo bay to see everyone alive but unconscious in their cells. "Yeah, they are all here, but they are unconscious. What do I do, guys?"
"What level is the combatant?" Michael asked.
"How the hell should I know? I'm not initiated, that's why I use this drop suit armor."
"Can you best them in hand-to-hand combat, C.J.? I suggest you try that." Kinthragor said.
"Look, C.J., you are gonna have to fight him," Michael added. "You trained for this. You and Andrew did nothing but drill for the last couple of months. You got this."
"Drill? We were playing Elden Ring and called it drilling. Elvis even made sure we had the best weapons, so it would be easier! I didn't train for this shit!"
"Kinny is trying to bypass the security protocols," Michael said. "Until then, you gotta make sure that bastard doesn't do anything to harm your friends. This is the hard part of being a hero, C.J., now pull your shit together and go kick that guard's teeth out."
The Council guard reached down and unbuckled the strap that held them to the cargo tie-down post. They took several steps forward, then pulled a long, menacing plasma-edged blade from a sheath on their hip before settling into a fighting stance.
"Hey buddy, I think we can talk about this," C.J. held his palms up in front of him defensively. "Maybe we should consider de-escalation as an option. What do you think?"
The guard lunged forward and swung the blade in a wide arc as C.J. jumped back, causing the attack to slide across the front of his armor, leaving only a minor scratch.
"So, that's a no to the de-escalation option then?"