Chapter XVIII: From Worse to Worst -Multex

"If i ever...ever..EVER survive thisI'm ripping that Son ofa B****'S Lungs out with my bare hands!!" Multex bellowed between breaths. In his flight from that sadistic jerk of a bounty hunter-reborn, he had managed to run across an old and worn trail on the mountain path and it had immediately buckled and crumbled under his weight. From there it had been a blind and mind numbing plummet down the sheer rock slope. It seemed like forever before he finally snagged an arm around an outcropping rock and managed to keep his hold. As he caught his breath and removed small rock splinters from his arms and legs, he glanced up to note that the odd "dog" that had been following him had split the scene without a trace. "Forget the blasted dog...you're on the side of a dang mountain with one rock between you and another pleasant roll." he mentaly growled. He quickly surveyed the scene and cursed as the nearest ledge was a good twenty feet too high. The agent almost kicked himself as he finally remembered a very crucial fact. Reaching under his jacket, he carefully slid the cane from it's strap and took it in his right hand, his left still wrapped around the rock with his back to the mountain. Looking out at the scenery, he tried to plot a safe location to land. "Forest about everywhere at the base of this...huge lake nw of here...and...what the heck is that??" the agent murmured, signting in on a small disturbance with his robotic eye. It looked like a midnight purple form moving across the tree tops at a fair amount of speed. "No plane or glider could be that small...then what the heck is it? All i can see is it's made of metal.." Multex noted, keeping a keen eye on the object. As it drew closer, Multex suddenly felt an odd chill throughout the entierty of himself. It was a fearful cold...taking his breath from him and causing him to involuntarily shiver. Mentally, he tried to shake the feeling, but as that..thing drew closer, it only seemed to take him by a stronger hold, until he felt numb to all but his sight. The Agent watched, and the figure grew closer. It seemed to...stir an odd melody in his very soul..sort of an odd mix between the unexplained..while at the same time a hint of rock and roll echoing in the background, clashing with the main melody. As it finally came into visable range, Multex could finally make out the form. It resembled a small jet, yet he could tell there was a humanoid shape to the underside of it. And it seemed to be headed....straight for him! The agent suddenly snapped back to his senses as the craft soared right up the cliffside, hitting it's after burners in the process. This thing wasn't planning on passing him, it was going to dam plow INTO him! Thoughts racing, Multex's mind quickly clicked into gear and he quickly raised the cane, thumbing the switch on the handle and rapelling off the rock wall. His timing couldn't have been more cutting it close if he had tried. He was immediately tosses back in the air as the craft banked and totaly riped the rock he had been holding to gravel with a...light? "No..not a light. Like I thought, that's a someone..it has arms on the underside and one hand's holding a sword of the technological advanced kind! Wait..he's turning for a dive..." Multex was quite accurate. The being had already done a skillfully executed roll, followed by a half loop and was rocketing for the agent once more. Now, in a normal person's mind, put in the same situation, the locigcal deduction would be: Flee. Multex's mind took this as a challange. Moving quickly, he had his hand in and out of his pocket, now clutching his patented pistol, The Epsilon-Dhelus "Quicksilver" he was already sighting up the target. "You want to play a little airborne duel? Then come get some!" Multex called out. By the sudden acceleration of the being, Multex knew it accepted.
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From his thoughts, Sir Pseudo Havering suddenly stirred. Leaning forward in his chair, he reached a gloved hand over to his crystal ball and laid it there upon. Focusing his thoughts, his eyes once again glazed over with a glasslike appearance. His gaze drifted to the scene of a battle already under way. He immediately went on edge when he saw who was engaged in the battle. "What?! NO! This wasn't how it should go!" Havering bellowed, his canines bearing and a throated growl eminating from his throat. He was out of his chair in an instant after seeing the intruder upon his plans slam viciously into the agent, causing his grip to loosen. "He's not to die yet...not by far.." Havering growled as he assimilated on the canyon top above his dwelling. Raising a hand to the heavens, the Demon summoned his Sickle, currently in it's complete scythe form. Then, raising a foot off the ground, the very earth beneath his shadow seemed to begin to steam from an immense heat. With glaring eyes, Sir Havering suddenly rocketed across the ocean in a blazing trail of distorted sky, forming what looked like the very heavens burning in his wake for a good few minutes.
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Multex swung back, narrowly avoiding being knocked out of flight as the being dove yet again. Both had traded a fair amount of blows, and Multex had landed a good few solid kicks to the thing's left wing, which was now badly dented, with a few laser fire indentations along it's exterior. Apparently, it was tiring of this ray and was lining up for a critical blow, Multex noted, reading himself. Unfortunately, he wasn't ready for what *did* occur.
With blinding speed, the sickle chain shot from all angles, binding the flight being tightly, crumpling the outer edges of it's wings as if they were tinfoil. As Multex watched, the moving blur at the chain was apparently coming from solidified into the form of the nefarious manipulator who he had once battled ages ago. "PSEUDO!!" The agent half bellowed, half roared. The Timebender casually turned , causing the sickle and chain to go rigid in mid air, still binding the jet being a bit too tightly for comfort. Sir Pseudo Havering and Agent Multex707 locked glares for the first time in two years. "Well, you seem to have disposed of this one quite nicely before I even arrived." Pseudo said in a slightly impressed tone, gesturing towards the bound victim he was holding in his weapon's grip. "But, I didn't come out here to do absolutely nothing, so if you will wait a mere moment.."
With that, the sickle chain suddenly recoiled and released the captive flyer from it's grasp. simply holding out his palm, Pseudo drew the flyer in to within an inch of touching him before suddenly, in an explosion of wind and sheer forces, he sent the now limp body screeching towards the mountain, where it impacted violently before plummeting off the far side with an echoing crash. Havering frowned slightly as he realized that had probably just destroyed Holograntis's illusions, but shrugged as his minions were probably already miles gone, as he couldn't sense Havoc anywhere nearby. Turning back to the Agent, the demon sneered slightly. "I call it "the Shotgun"; I mastered it shortly after our last encounter." Multex glared and unbeared his teeth. "I frankly don't give a damn what you call it...What's your game this time, Pseudo!" The Agent had by then realized why he was feeling no rush of wind from his rotor-cane or the natural breeze at this altitude. "Because he's stopped time around us.." Multex mentaly deduced. When he brought his mind back to the present, he found himself unable to move, and his cane was somehow back in it's strap. Havering was within punching distance, but of course, he couldn't if he tried. Still, the agent's red RageForce aura crackled around him dimly as a side-effect of his hostile feelings towards this nemesis. "I hope you realize, I'm not sparing you without getting some enjoyment out of watching you suffer." Pseudo snickered, putting a hand on the Agent's coat collar. "I figured something like that from you.." Multex responsed coldly, already bracing himself for anything mentally. Pseudo slightly grinned at that remark, like someone would at something warm said by an old friend. "I suppose, until later, this is, as you say:Adieu, Adios and Farewell; Until we meet again."
With those words the agent suddenly found himself plummeting for the ground. He knew trying for his cane would be futile, he could see the distance was too far past that point already. Moments later, with a sickening crash, the Agent impacted with the ground and skidded violently, bouncing off rocky patches every few minutes until he finally came to a halt after slamming into a large Sickamore trunk, soundly rattling his mechanologic skeleton and sening waves of pain throughout his body. As the dust settled in his wake, he listened to the dull static of his internal systems trying to recover, and knew for the time, he was out of action. And he also knew, while he lay there, waiting, waiting, waiting for his ebbing strength to slowly return, that there was a demon just chuckling at his sitation, and an unknown stranger with a grudge against him to settle. It was a race of time between which of them might recover first. It was one Multex knew would give no medal to the second place finisher. Then, once again, all was static.