Quote:
Originally Posted by patteeu
I'd like to see a one on one battle between DC's Clock King and Marvel's Cypher. Thanks.
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One hundred yards from each other in the vacant streets of downtown Gotham, Cypher finds himself unsettled by the motionless stoicism of the Clock King. In a sterling three-piece suit and opaque clockface glasses, the Clock King's unhalting, statue-esque gaze would have been darkly soothing, were it not in what could possibly be a fatal confrontation.
The Clock King stared on, his clockhand cane-sword tucked under his arm. He is careful not to move, not to speak, his face expressionless and his breathing regular. Well familiar with Cypher's hyperability to decode any and all communication, especially nonverbal communication, the Clock King kept completely still so as to not give anything away.
But of course, not doing anything is still doing something, and Cypher quickly discerned that this act was designed to conceal the Clock King's plans. What those plans were.... remained a mystery, however. Cypher decided he must get the Clock King to move so he could quickly discern his intentions and adjust accordingly -- he is a universally feared planner of battles, the quicker Cypher can decode his plans, the quicker Cypher can find some way of killing him. Killing the Clock King is already an extremely difficult task, given his elite proficiency in hand-to-hand combat. If the Clock King could speak, Cypher would immediately know his every move, but surely he would not give away the game that easily -- getting him to move is what he needed.
"Stand down, Clock King. Surrender, and I will spare you." The rocketboard at Cypher's feet started propelling him forward at a steady pace.
The Clock King remained motionless.
"Move, you son of a bitch," Cypher uttered under his breath. He was now within 50 yards.
The Clock King remained motionless.
Alright, if you won't move, I will get you to move, Cypher determined. He whipped out a gun from his back, and fired a bullet at the wizard of time, drawing no response from the time master. Confidently, with his board slowing to a halt, Cypher confidently fired off six rounds. each one second apart.
Like a blur, the Clock King was able to instantly dodge each bullet in moves that seemed to violate physics, flawlessly returning to his stoic position.
"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR," Cypher demanded. "FIGHT ME."
The Clock King remained motionless.
Cypher squatted down on his board, reloaded his gun, pulling out a second, and prepared to fly head-first into his enemy. Which is when he heard two bass-drum sized clocks roll out from alleys into the city street twenty five yards behind him.
Cypher spun on his board like an X Games champion as the clocks rolled out slowly into the streets. They had old clock faces, but Cypher immediately determined they were artificially intelligent drones. They immediately sprouted pronged legs and huge machine gun barrels flexed out from their sides, starting to take aim on Cypher.
"I love it," smirked Cypher. He swiftly stuck a gun in his belt and put his hand up to the barely visible wireless communicator (something he had fashioned himself) in his ear, immediately remote-hacking the drones via his peerless ability to determine their communication codes. The drones froze, now at Cypher's command.
Confident in his new allies, he spun back to where the Clock King was standing, only to see that he was gone. In his hacking of the Clock King's drones, he lost his nemesis' escape.
"FIND HIM," he shouted to the drones. Which is when a squeak from the city's PA system started up.
"They can't," oozed a soothing voice. Cypher immediately interpreted it as having malicious intent. "You may not know me too well, my mutant friend, but I couldn't possibly know you better if I wanted to. You disabled my drones, turned them against me, something I anticipated. I built them deaf, and unable to trace heat signatures, so that they wouldn't be able to locate me once you turned the tables. They can look and look, but you're going to have to find me yourself."
The PA was coming from four different speakers, all echoing and bouncing off the buildings surrounding Cypher. He struggled to focus and determine where the Clock King's voice was. But Cypher could immediately determine from the voice that everything playing out now was part of the Clock King's plans.
Ordering the drones to follow him, he began swooping through the street, shining his board's light into the alley. The Clock King was surely using a walkie talkie he had programmed into the city's PA. He could disarm it, easily, but he desperately needed to know where he was to stay alive.
"It doesn't matter what tech you throw at me!," Cypher shouted as he spun on his board. "I can hack anything with I.A.! You'd be wise to just confront me yourself!"
"Maybe, mutant," echoed the soothing voice from the PA. "Or maybe I should just use more rudimentary technology." Cypher's eyes immediately widened with shock, and he prompted his board to make haste for escape.
Too late. An explosion in a trashcan from a primitive IED twenty feet away from Cypher knocked him off his board. The drones immediately started scanning the rooftops looking for the perpetrator.
Badly uninjured, Cypher rose from the street, and picked up a pipe that fell to his side. "SHOW YOURSELF, COWARD."
"Maybe I will," blared on the PA.
Cypher spun immediately. His hearing was shot, but he roughly determined where Clock King was, in the shadowed alley across the street. He pointed to the alley, ordering the drones to fly into the alley and secure it.
They disappeared into the darkness and began firing. An explosion was heard. More firing. And then... silence.
Cypher began a cautious, hobbled march towards the alley. He ordered his drones to return to him, but neither did.
He stared down the dark alleyway. He jackknifed over, he felt like he could be suffering internal bleeding. But he clung to the pipe in his hand with fatal fervor.
A voice arose inches behind him. "You anticipate brilliantly." It was him...
Without even a half-pause, Cypher spun 180 degrees, with as strong a swing of his pipe as possible.
The Clock King, on a silent hover board without his hat, glasses, and suit jacket, greeted the pipe with his clockhand cane sword, striking it out of Cypher's weak hands in an upward strike, smacking the pipe down in mid-air with a downward strike, and then grabbing it once it bounced up off the pavement.
"But anticipation is not the same thing as planning." He swung the pipe across Cypher's face, knocking him to the ground, unconscious.
Upon Cypher's collapse, the drones crept out of the shadowed alley. "Let's put this mutant in a cage," the Clock King ordered. "His talents could prove valuable."