When Stephen first learned about the grand, overarching plan that was to take place today, a dark, eager anticipation had settled in his chest. He was sincerely hoping that he would be specifically placed up against Jett during the raid, or at the very least, he prayed he would have the fleeting opportunity to cross paths with him in the chaos.
He had played this exact encounter out in his head a thousand times over the past few weeks. He had meticulously visualized exactly how he was going to systematically dismantle and best the towering monster he had humiliatingly lost to the last time their paths crossed.
He had played the theoretical fight over and over again in his mind’s eye. In his imagination, his speed was always too much; his counters were always perfect, and each time the simulation ran, he had walked away as the undisputed victor. But the harsh, bruising reality of the physical world wasn’t anything like the flawless, choreographed victory he had constructed in his imagination.
It quickly turned out that when they had previously fought against Jett, they had only barely scratched the absolute surface of the man’s true, terrifying strength.
"ARGHH!" Stephen roared, his voice echoing through the debris as he charged aggressively forward.
He planted his front foot and threw a devastating, hydraulic-assisted fist outward. But instead of connecting with flesh, his knuckles slammed brutally into a heavy, reinforced metallic car door that Jett had somehow ripped off its hinges and was utilizing as an improvised riot shield. The sheer kinetic impact of Stephen’s punch rang out like a struck bell, creating a remarkably large, deep dent in the thick steel, but Jett barely even flinched from the heavy blow.
Realizing a direct assault wouldn’t easily break the defense, Stephen quickly moved to his blind side. Utilizing his supernatural speed, he became a sudden blur, repositioning himself at a completely different angle. The moment his boots hit the ground, he stopped on a dime and charged forward again, his fist cocked and entirely ready to attack Jett’s unprotected flank.
But it was almost as if Jett possessed some sort of eerie, supernatural sixth sense. The absolute moment he had successfully blocked the very first attack, Jett had already anticipated the flank. Before Stephen’s blurry form even fully materialized from his high-speed dash, Jett had already leaped backward out of the danger zone.
This flawless evasion caused Stephen to charge blindly forward like an enraged, fast-moving bull, his heavy hydraulic fist sailing through the empty space and hitting absolutely nothing but the cold air.
Then, materializing right in front of him from the shadows, Jett hoisted the heavy steel car door high above his shoulders. With a fierce grunt, Jett brought the hundreds of pounds of jagged metal crashing down, attempting to slam the improvised weapon directly on top of Stephen’s head to crush him.
’I simply can’t afford to use the power of my Vow too much right now,’ Stephen thought rapidly, his tactical mind racing as the shadow of the door fell over him. ’Although I can significantly speed up the cells in my fists and my legs to dodge this, if I use that supernatural acceleration too much, it completely tires out my central nervous system. If I can successfully stop this crushing blow without burning my Vow, then I absolutely should!’
Making a split-second decision, Stephen decided to firmly plant his feet and rely entirely on the raw, mechanical strength of his state-of-the-art Exoskeleton instead.
He raised his arms above his head just in time. His reinforced, armored hands caught the descending steel edge, successfully stopping the heavy car door from completely crunching down and flattening his skull. The hydraulic servos hidden beneath his pristine white lab coat whined in severe protest, and his knees bent slightly under the staggering, immense weight of Jett’s downward force, but the suit held its ground.
"Tense up!" Jett shouted, his voice booming over the grinding metal.
Without warning, Jett completely let go of the heavy car door. Using the momentary distraction as Stephen caught the dead weight, Jett stepped inside his guard and threw a devastating, heavy fist directly toward Stephen’s exposed chest.
Stephen frantically managed to drop the steel door and bring his armored forearms up to guard just as the strike landed. He was hit directly. The heavy, bone-rattling fist pounded against his crossed arms, the sheer kinetic force lifting Stephen off his feet and causing his boots to slide aggressively backward across the rough concrete ground.
The advanced Exoskeleton managed to successfully absorb and distribute the brunt of the kinetic energy, protecting his internal organs from rupturing. But despite the top-tier armor, there was still a deep, aching pain reverberating through Stephen’s entire body just from taking the sheer shockwave of the hit.
"This guy... he’s an absolute monster," Stephen grunted, spitting blood onto the floor as he forced himself to stand up straight and desperately tried to shake off the lingering numbness from the attack.
Right then, Jett walked over to another ruined, overturned vehicle nearby. With a sickening screech of tearing metal, he grabbed the handle, planted his foot against the chassis, and forcefully pulled an entirely new door right off its heavy hinges. Now, it was almost exactly as if Jett was holding onto two giant, impenetrable steel shields, one strapped to each arm.
"You have the absolute nerve to call me the monster?" Jett said, his voice dripping with cold, righteous disdain as he banged the two steel doors together, the metallic clang echoing loudly. "How is it that you Syndicate guys just keep growing stronger, faster, and more equipped every single time we see you?
"It’s becoming quite clear to the Chairman and the rest of us that if we foolishly leave you guys alone to lick your wounds again, you will inevitably become an overwhelming threat to this entire city. So, I’m making a promise right now. Once I’m completely done breaking you, I’ll personally make sure to get rid of every single one of your leaders, so you never get in the way of any of us ever again."
"Hey," Stephen said, his breathing steadying as a dark, intense focus completely washed over his face. "I think you’re arrogantly forgetting about the highly lethal opponent standing right in front of you. You should really focus on surviving the immediate situation here before you start making grand plans to go after the others!"
From his grounded position, Stephen charged forward once more. And when he closed the final gap, he didn’t hold a single ounce of his strength back; he threw his fist out with absolute, unbridled force.
’If I already know for a tactical fact that he’s just going to block my fast strikes with those thick steel plates, then I need to completely forget about everything else,’ Stephen concluded, his mind achieving absolute clarity in the heat of combat. ’I need to completely forget about trying to nimbly dodge his heavy counterattacks. I need to forget about meticulously planning what my next three moves are going to be. I just need to focus every single ounce of my existence entirely on this first, singular attack.’
Rather than throwing a quick, blinding jab like Stephen would usually rely on to test the waters, he decided to completely change his paradigm. He planted his lead foot, generated torque from his hips, and threw a devastating, looping overhand strike.
His armored fist slammed directly into the center of the steel shield. The tremendous impact didn’t just cause a large dent this time; the sheer, concentrated hydraulic force of the Exoskeleton completely ripped through the thick metal, cleanly punching a jagged hole right through the center of Jett’s makeshift defense.
Right after the metal tore, Stephen quickly yanked his hand back, freeing his knuckles from the jagged steel edges.
’I just used the super speed from my Vow strictly in my legs, combined with the raw pushing power of the Exoskeleton, to seamlessly cross the distance and create the momentum for that punch,’ Stephen analyzed, his eyes locking onto Jett’s surprised face through the newly formed hole in the door. ’But now that I’m standing right in front of him, inside his optimal range... I absolutely won’t worry about getting hit on the counter. I’ll just put my entire soul into hitting him as incredibly hard as mechanically possible!’
Stephen then firmly planted both of his feet into the cracked pavement, rooting himself to the earth. He was finally close enough to the giant that he could throw out a devastating, wide hook. Activating his Vow, he drastically sped up the cellular movement in his striking arm, seamlessly synchronized it with the maximum hydraulic power output of the white Exoskeleton, and threw a vicious hook directly to the side.
Jett immediately held up the second heavy car door, bracing himself behind the steel to use it as a thick barricade. But when Stephen’s accelerated fist hit the surface, it effortlessly tore through the thick door just like the last attack. The steel buckled and shredded, and Stephen’s bare, armored fist crashed cleanly into Jett’s defending arm behind the plate.
A sickening, unmistakable CRACK echoed through the air.
Jett’s entire, towering body was violently lifted completely up off his feet from the sheer kinetic transfer. He was sent tumbling backward, skidding aggressively across the rough concrete floor and helplessly dropping both of the ruined car doors from his grip.
Lying in the dust, Jett could agonizingly feel it radiating through his nervous system. His forearm... it was completely, undeniably broken. The bone had fractured under the overwhelming pressure of Stephen’s engineered strike.
Before the giant could even attempt to push himself up off the floor using his one remaining good arm, a shadow fell over him. He looked up and saw that Stephen was already standing directly above him, his white lab coat fluttering in the draft.
"Just like you, I also wanted to look past this fight and take you all out. I was looking at the grand overarching war, rather than just focusing my attention entirely on the man standing right in front of me. Underestimating you... that was my greatest mistake today," Stephen said coldly, his eyes devoid of any mercy.
He then raised his armored fist high into the air and brought it smashing brutally down, burying it right into the center of Jett’s face.