Freefall - The Momentum Hero - Real Name: Tyler Snow - Ranked 11th in the National Protectorate.

Former Air Force Fighter Pilot whose unusual tolerance for G-Force led to his testing for the genetic super markers put him on the front lines of the 2050 conflict in the first version of his “Crash Suit.” A marvel of engineering and calculus, the suit contained more gyros, hydraulics, and circuitry than the most advanced bombers and almost as much steel.

Designed to be “non-lethal” plenty of henchmen and villains met their end to the sheer amount of force put out by both the Crash Suit and Snow’s innate power - the control and manipulation of his own momentum. According to his file, the only drawback, the only weakness Freefall had, was generating the initial momentum from a dead stop.

What wasn’t in Tyler Snow’s file, was that he was the Hero whose notion of glory and "justice" led him into an extended battle with Thorn Titan on Sorli's block, toppled the building that he lived in, and killed his mother; as far as he was concerned, anyway. Twelve years in the sham that was the GSO-sponsored foster system, the obsessive training, and study, the honing of his powers; all because of Freefall's arrogance.

That's what Sorli should have been focused on... revenge.

"Consider me impressed, I didn't think you'd be able to drive Atreyu off with flailing, inspired as it was." The Supplier said.

Sorli shook his head, grateful that the domino mask and suit hid the stupefied look on his face.

"What do you want?" he asked.

A wave of heat pulsed over the rooftop, vaporizing the remaining snow and ice; glassing over the roof under Sorli's feet.

"I'm accelerating the timeline of our arrangement," she answered as she approached.

Sorli arched an eyebrow. Despite the sultry tone of her voice, The Supplier was dressed in functional layers. She wore an armored tactical vest with vials of differently colored substances where magazines would be, heavy cargo pants with a pistol strapped to her thigh, a short sword and dagger, both with matching obsidian hilts on her left hip, a silver bracer with a jade stone on her left wrist, and a matching brass bracer with a gleaming orange stone on her right, the gaps between her garments were covered in a black bodysuit, except for her collar and shoulders where intricate silvered linework stood out in stark contrast to her crimson skin.

It wasn't the horns that swept back along her skull poking out from her tousled black hair, the thick tail fitted with a sickle, or the hooves clacking against the roof that caught Sorli most off-guard; it was the pair of ever-shifting multi-faceted eyes boring into his.

"One more time?" Sori said.

"I'm accelerating the timeline. Isto told me what you did. The compassion you showed for Leap, the beating you gave that sad excuse of a man, your face-off with Viskol, the impression you made on the press..."

"And?"

"And," The Supplier said, a hard edge to her voice, "you've gained the notice of the top hero in the world, the ire of Brandao, and aren't licensed with the GSO yet. What we have is a small window of opportunity for you to act unnoticed and we're going to leverage it."

The supplier drew two vials from her vest, stepped, almost uncomfortably close, and offered them to Sorli. One of the vials looked to have the same concoction he'd taken just the day before, and the other was filled with a liquid that seemed to shift between a pastel green and pearlescent yellow.

"I haven't adjusted to my new powers yet," Sorli stated bluntly, looking down at the vials as he took them in his hands, "is another boost - "

"I'm going to let you in on a little secret, Grimmarson," The Supplier said, pushing his chin up with her finger. The mask made by the suit flipped back, revealing most of his face, "That is a booster, but that," she said, tapping the vial of shifting liquid with one of her hardened nails, "is a stabilizer and a potent one. You're going to drink them both, right here, right now."

Sorli pulled his chin away from The Suppliers hand, "Why now?" he asked, taking a step back.

The Supplier matched his stride, keeping the space between them small.

"Because, Little Raven, the power dormant within you and that were recently awakened is unstable. You're going to have enemies coming for you from every side and if you can't hold your ground they will overwhelm you."

She was practically nose-to-nose with him at this point.

Hold your ground. She'd said, so Sorli did just that.

"What does that have to do with these, and if this isn't a boost then what the fuck is it?" he demanded.

The Supplier paused and took a step back.

"It's a catalyst." She said.

"Made out of old scotch and cigars?"

"No, Sorli."

"Then what is it?" Sorli shouted.

The Supplier, non-plussed, answered. "It's your blood."

"What?"

"Did I stutter?"

Sorli hesitated, brow furrowed, and jaw set.

"What does that mean?"

"It means that heroism is in your blood. You were born for this, Sorli Grimmarson," she said.

Before Sorli could open his mouth to ask "what" again, The Supplier interrupted him.

"I have a dossier for you. Freefall's information. He'll be at GSO HQ in one week for an annual review. You don't get the dossier until I watch you drink what is in those vials, this is likely your only shot at Freefall without seeking him out first."

Without a second thought, Sorli slammed back the vial of blood and then the stabilizer. It was the same stale bourbon with a full cigar's worth of ash taste, but the stabilizer was something else. It was almost like some sort of fruit extract and filtered water that cleansed away the entirety of the awfulness that preceded it.

"So, how do you feel?" The Supplier asked.

Sorli measured his response. He didn't feel any different.

"I feel f - " the words caught in his throat as his heart slammed rapidly and repeatedly into his rib cage. His veins were on fire, his vision was shrouded by non-existent smoke, and the sound of roaring flames filled his ears.

"You... you are my vessel?" a deep voice boomed.

Sorli couldn't tell whose it was if it was a man or a woman, someone he knew or a stranger... but it felt familiar.

"I am?"

"You are the one born under the crest of the Raven, blessed by the Morrigan, and whose justice is spurred by revenge."

"I mean, I guess?" Sorli answered.

"Receive my blessing. Inherit my name"

Sorli's vision spun into darkness as a single word echoed in his head.

"Vidar"

Once Sorli woke up and Isto explained to him why he was laid up in the lawyer's lavish guest room, the blonde-haired man got down to business.

"Alright Grimm, we have one week to prepare, find the limits of whatever new powers you have, go over the dossier, and plan. Follow me." Isto dictated.

He strode out of the room, expensive loafers clicking on the tile with Sorli a couple of paces behind him. For an apartment in a multiplex, even for the nicer part of King's Gough, it was massive. The guest room had been bigger than Sorli’s entire apartment.

Normally, he would have scoped the place out; tried to figure out what he could about Isto by observing the knick-knacks and keepsakes in the space as he observed them.

It was all noise.

A front to throw off anyone who actually knew anything about Isto Raita. Sorli didn’t know much, but he knew enough that luxury cars and magazines about the latest trends in interior design didn’t fit.

“Where are we going?” Sorli asked.

“To take a look at what you can do now. We can’t do that very well up here, too many unknowns and too much stuff for you to break.”

Sorli responded with a raised eyebrow and a scoff.

“We’re heading downstairs. You can cut loose down there.” Isto answered as he tilted his head to the side.

“Downstairs?”

“That’s what I said.”

Isto walked over to a service elevator, slid open the creaky iron doors, and stepped into the lift, then leveled an expectant look at Sorli.

The young super followed the lawyer into the lift and stuck his hands in the pockets of the sweatpants he woke up in. Someone had dressed him in normal clothes. The fit of the black sweats and white t-shirt wasn’t seamless like the jeans and other apparel the suit had made for him.

Isto pressed the button labeled “B,” slid the doors shut, and waited for a beat before the elevator shuddered and started to descend.

“I don’t get it.” Sorli blurted.

Isto looped his thumbs through the dark green suspenders resting over the white button-down shirt he was wearing.

“Don’t get what, Grimm?”

“Any of it, really. You’ve got connections to supers like Remedy, more money than anyone I know, The Supplier was packing all sorts of hardware and cleared out Atreyu’s ice because she felt like it. Why are you helping me?”

“This is the part where I’m supposed to ask you if you want the truth or some flowery bullshit, right?” Isto asked the sarcasm heavy in his tone, “We’re not helping you. We’re helping ourselves through you.”

“That sounds an awful lot like ‘we’re using you’ to me,” Sorli observed through grit teeth.

“Look, Grimm, there are just some things that you shouldn’t do on your own. Like the lawsuit, right? You have some basic semblance of the law from the street-level test, but you’re not suited to sit in a courtroom. Similarly, I shouldn’t be going around finding shitbags like Cody and giving them what for.” Isto explained.

“You shouldn’t?” Sorli asked, remembering how easily Isto had removed his hand from the lapel of the lawyer’s jacket and sent him sliding across the hospital floor.

“Right.”

The elevator’s arrival tone interrupted Sorli’s next question.

“Here we are.” Isto declared as he stepped off the elevator into a dingy, but expansive space. It was an abandoned, underground hangar. There were racks of ancient firearms, boxes of matching ammunition, bayonets, and machetes.

“What is this?”

“It’s an old bomb shelter. Made for a pretty solid foundation for the building, actually. Should be able to handle anything you can dish out.” Isto answered.

“Uh-huh. How old is it?” Sorli asked.

“Bomb shelters like these got popular in the 1950s, they were dropped into backyards of paranoid old men with too much money across the country almost overnight. Quite the spectacle.”

“Sounds like you were there,” Sorli said.

Isto ignored Sorli’s remark and snapped a finger.

A mannequin-Esque dummy sporting combat fatigues shuddered and shambled toward Sorli.

"Go on and hit that thing as hard as you can."

Sorli squared off with the mannequin, set his feet, and delivered a crushing hook into the center of its chest, caving it in and sending the thing flying.

"Not bad," he commented as he rolled his shoulder. The target slid to a stop on its back at least fifty feet away.

"Terrible." Isto retorted.

"What are you talking about?" Sorli snapped.

Isto shot to his feet, stormed toward Sroli, and snapped his finger again, awakening another training golem, this one roughly the size of a small house. The lawyer took one step past Sorli toward the thing and coked his fist back. The air around him shimmered with baleful green hues as he drove the entirety of his weight into the mannequin behind his fist with a primal shout of violence.

The impact of the blow resounded throughout the entire shelter, sending guns tumbling from their places on the shelves and rattling ammunition in its container; it reduced the pristine sleeve of Isto's pressed shirt to ribbons. The emerald aura receded and Isto let out a breath, adjusted his tie, and turned to Sorli again.

"I said 'as hard as you can,' didn't I?"

Sorli opened his mouth to answer, but couldn't take his eyes away from the shattered remains of the colossal dummy embedded six feet into the solid concrete wall on the other end of the shelter.

"You sure did," Sorli answered, "but if you can do that why am I the one fighting Freefall?"

"I've explained this already. Plus, Freefall is the one who killed your mother. I just think he's a rotten hero. That's hardly a good enough reason to kill someone, isn't it?"

Sorli was gobsmacked. How is he so composed?

"Grimm, The Supplier told me that you questioned your first boost. Do you remember that?"

"It was almost literally the day before yesterday. Yes, I remember."

"How is this a boost?" Isto recounted, "those were the words you used."

"And?"

"Think about it like this, Grimm. You're a sports car and your absolute refusal to acknowledge your pain and emotions other than your rage are six tons of shit chained to your frame. Your first boost was the chain coming off. The one you just got was the engine you were intended to have been dropped under the hood, and the stabilizer was a full tank of gas."

"So...?"

"So that's why the suit had to compensate for you, Sorli and why it doesn't have to anymore. When you're ready, we'll put the suit back on and see what you're really capable of."

At that, Isto snapped his fingers, animating another golem.

"Don't make me repeat myself."

One Week Later

"Good Grimm, nice counter. Keep on the offensive, don't let it find a rhythm. Stagger your attacks, don't get predictable." Isto coached.

Over the course of the week, Sorli had graduated to the colossi-sized golems. While Sorli and Isto hadn't pinpointed the exact upper limit of his powers, he bottomed out at City Guardian level... without the suit.

The smell of smoke and briar roses preceded a singular clop of a hoof on the concrete floor.

"Don't go distracting him." Isto said over his shoulder, "Watch the left!" he shouted to Sorli. The young hero's senses were sharp. While he may not have caught the smell, his footing had faltered at the sound of The Supplier's distant approach.

"How's he doing?" The Supplier asked.

"I think he's ready. The world is going to see the real Grimm Raven today." Isto said, a tinge of pride almost detectable in his voice, "I think he's the one, Mal. I really do."

"What makes you think that Isto?" she asked.

"He doesn't care about the rankings, the ratings, publicity, any of the bullshit that made heroes a commodity. For him... it's about doing the right thing, not the lawful or legally 'correct' thing. That, with the potential you've so carefully unlocked, should be enough to see it all through." There was no hiding the satisfaction in Isto's words. He was proud of how far Sorli had come.

"Is that pride I hear Isto Raita?" The Supplier teased.

"It just might be," he answered.

"Still a big softie under underneath the sarcasm and nonchalance." she chuckled.

"Certainly not," Isto said, regaining his typical composure.

"But will he have the fortitude to see it through?" The Supplier asked.

"That... that we'll have to see."

"Why do you keep calling it the Montoya Method? This is just me starting a fight?" Sorli shouted for what had to have been the third time.

"Because there are steps, Grimm," Isto replied in a level tone, again.

Sorli let out a frustrated groan.

"Now, listen this time," Isto demanded.

"Fine."

"Step One, Polite Greeting... Go."

"Hello."

"Step Two, name..."

"My name is Sorli Grimmarson..."

"Step Three, relevant personal link..."

"You killed my mother."

"Step Four, manage expectations..."

"I'm gonna kick your teeth in."

"See? That wasn't so hard, was it?" Isto mockingly cheered as he clapped Sorli on the back.

"So that's the whole plan? I introduce myself to Freefall, threaten him, then what?"

"Then you make good on the threat and beat him to death," Isto stated matter-of-factly.

"And I'm just supposed to do this at GSO HQ in front of Viskol and who knows how many other supers?" Sorli demanded more than asked.

"I know how it sounds - " Isto started.

"It sounds like suicide."

"Do you have that little confidence in yourself?" Isto challenged.

"What?"

"You heard me, Grimm. We've been training for almost a week straight, your powers are developing ahead of projections and you want this fight, right? Do you think I would have wasted my time here with you if we thought you'd lose?"

"We? Who's we? You and The Supplier? You two are more powerful than I am, why is it me doing this and not you?"

"This again? For fuck's sake Grimm, follow the plan, kill Freefall, get out alive, and then The Supplier and I will sit down with you and explain everything, okay?"

"You haven't even told me the plan!" Sorli shouted in answer.

Isto rolled his eyes and exhaled sharply, his viridian aura flaring for the briefest of moments.

"The plan is simple, you go to the award ceremony post-review, approach Freefall, employ the Montoya Method, take it outside if you can, kill the bastard, and leave."

"Alright, fine," Sorli grumbled, "I have two more questions."

Isto perked up, "It's pretty straight - "

"Not about the plan, I get that. It's... it's something else."

"What is it, Grimm?"

"Who's The Morrigan and what does Vidar mean?" he blurted.

"Where did you hear those names?" Isto's tone took on a serious air.

"When... when I got the last boost, there was a voice somewhere that said them."

"What did the voice say exactly, Sorli."

Isto hadn't referred to Sorli by name since he'd decided on his superhero title.

"It said I was 'the one born under the crest of the Raven, blessed by the Morrigan, and whose justice is spurred by vengeance' then it said something about receiving its blessing and inheriting its name, that's when I heard Vidar," Sorli explained.

Isto had started pacing back and forth as Sorli explained, nodding along all the while.

"I know your mom passed when you were little, what do you know about your father, Sorli?"

"Not much, why?"

"And your mother, she didn't have superpowers?"

"I imagine if she did, she wouldn't have died when she did. Why?" Sorli asked again, agitation present in his voice.

"That's curious, she could have been a carrier, had recessive traits..." Isto mumbled.

"Will you stop muttering and explain what the fuck is going on?"

"We'll put this on the table for the little meeting after you pull this off." Isto answered, "Now suit up, you've got places to be."

Sorli perched in the same spot he had before crashing through Audrey's window just a week prior. It felt like months had gone by in the seven days with all of the training and preparation leading up to this day.

Sorli knew he was strong, his powers were at their peak, he was ready.

"So why can't I shake this?" he muttered tensing and relaxing his shaking hands.

"Hey fella, come here often?" Leap's voice said from behind him.

Despite his nerves, Sorli didn't jump. Leap's teleportation had a signature sound and feel to it; he knew she was coming before she'd even arrived.

"Only been here one other time, view's nice though," he answered flatly.

"Ooh, are we going for distant broody or nihilistic tonight?" she teased.

Sorli shook his head. "Neither... just trying to focus."

"On?"

Sorli turned to look at Leap, the domino mask firmly in place. She was standing closer than he thought she would be and there was no mistaking the concern hiding in the slight upturn of her eyebrows and the creases at the corners of her mouth.

Is she worried about me?

"I've got a couple of rounds to go tonight and I'm not sure if I'm ready," he answered, hoping that she would just leave it alone.

"Funny, I wasn't planning on stealing anything tonight. You step out on me?"

Sorli's back straightened at the comment.

"What?"

"I'm joking, love. Who are you squaring off with down there?" Leap asked, gesturing at the distant GSO building.

Sorli weighed the question.

What's the worst that could happen?

"Freefall," he answered.

Leap burst into laughter.

"That's a good one Grimm! How about the real answer now?"

"That is the real answer," Sorli said.

The severity of his tone cut Leap's laugh short.

"Grimm, I've run away from that maniac before, even with what you showed when we fought, what Audrey told me, you don't win that fight," she said.

Any doubt Sorli carried about Leap's concern vanished. She was worried about him.

"Why him?" she pressed.

"It's personal," Sorli answered.

"Personal enough to throw your life away?"

"What's with all the questions? Why do you care?" Sorli barked.

Leap didn't flinch.

"Because someone's got to if you don't! You saved my friend and helped me when you didn't have to. I have a hard time believing that there isn't someone you care about whose life would be worse without you around!" she challenged.

"There isn't!" Sorli bellowed, "That bastard took everything from me and all that I've done up until now has been to get him back for it!"

"Everything?" Leap asked, "Saving Audrey from Cody? Letting me walk? That was all for revenge?"

"I..."

"Because that would be a whole lot of coincidence, Grimm Raven, too much, I think."

Sorli stewed.

"I tell you what, love," Leap started, "I'll keep an eye on the festivities, and if that bloke looks like he's going to kill you, I'll get you out, then you can explain how saving a couple of damsels in distress got you to your vengeance, deal?"

"Fine, thanks," Sorli answered, resisting the urge to take a step back as Leap drew closer.

She planted a kiss on his cheek and teleported, Sorli heard her "exit" down in Audrey's apartment and shook his head.

Definitely something to follow up on later. he thought.

Sorli launched off of the multiplex and rocketed into the sky, through the layer of smog and clouds that obfuscated the stars. His powers had evolved significantly in a short time but flight was not among his suite. His strength, dexterity, reflexes, perception, and durability were all far beyond mortal capability.

But he had nothing like Atreyu's elemental control, Leap's teleportation, Panzer's astounding command over projectiles, or whatever the fuck Isto's aura let him do.

It would have to be enough.

As he plummeted toward GSO HQ, he planted his feet against one of the looming skyscrapers and slid down, putting the brakes on his momentum enough that he could spring back and forth between buildings and scaffolding without damaging them to reach the ground.

GSO Grunts were on him in a second, leveling their weapons at him with a synchronized chambering of rounds. His suit was already at work, highlighting the soldiers, their weapons, and rating their level of threat as "moot." Their weapons versus his enhanced resilience and the protections offered by the suit came out heavily in his favor.

The suit did highlight one, blaring red threat.

Panzer.

The familiar mechanical chambering of "Angry Daddy" reached his ears.

"Rookie," Panzer said, continuing to point the weapon at him.

"Ma'am," Sorli answered sarcastically.

Panzer smirked and lowered the weapon, holstering it at her side. "Glad you made it. Didn't think you would when you didn't RSVP."

Sorli kept his posture level, caught off guard by the statement. "Haven't been home in a few days," he answered.

"Stand down," she ordered the soldiers.

The weapons lowered and the threat indicators vanished from his vision.

"Thanks for that."

"I'm guessing you didn't see your acceptance letter either?" Panzer asked, "It didn't come back as undeliverable from your apartment address."

Sorli's jaw tensed as a chill shot up his spine. He had to maintain his composure. He'd left a PO Box as to where to send his street-level license to if he passed the exam. Panzer stating that it was his apartment address it had been sent to meant that the GSO knew who he really was.

"Guess not," he answered.

Panzer approached him and kept her voice low, "I looked into you, rookie, and I have a fair guess or two about what you're doing here. I can't pretend to know how you feel but I'm telling you, don't do this. He'll kill you." she pleaded.

This was the only shot he would get at Freefall without seeking him out halfway across the Western Federation. King's Gough was familiar territory, his territory. He wasn't going to get a better opportunity.

"Not if I kill him first," he growled, "good to see you again."

Sorli walked around Panzer and toward the crowd of press gathered on the stairs of the GSO facility. His heart pounded in his ears as he approached.

Freefall was standing at the top of the stairs, enthusiastically engaging with the crowd of reporters... in a brand new Crash Suit. If Freefall's naming convention held, this would be his "Mark VI" suit. It was slimmer than the Mark V, which didn't say much for it in terms of raw mass.

The Hero's superhuman strength made moving inside the boulder of metal and tech possible, his powers made it effortless and deadly. There was easily seven tons of Crash Suit on the man; the colossal training dummies that Sorli had worked with, that Isto had sent flying in broken pieces, weighed about five.

He'd just arrived and all of the studying, all of the variables he'd considered, everything that he'd known for sure, everything Sorli had planned for had changed. He may as well have gone in blind.

Fuck it, he thought, I have to take my shot.

Sorli shouldered his way through the crowd and up the stairs. As soon as the first reporter cried "Hey it's Grimm Raven!" the rest parted around him, forming a corridor straight to Freefall.

"Hey, I heard about you!" he called down, "You're the one that's gonna wake society up, right? Sorry to say rookie, but you don't get to dictate what society thinks. That's reserved for the best... not street-level trash."

The reporters ate up Freefall's jeering and bravado, laughing at Sorli with him.

"Tyler Snow!" Grimm Raven shouted. The boom of his voice, amplified by the suit, drowned out the noise of laughter and gained Freefall's undivided attention.

"Hello," Sorli advanced up the stairs, the GSO already knew who he was, what did it matter if the press did too? "my name is Sorli Grimmarson, twelve years ago your bravado and failure as a hero killed my mother and three-thousand fifty-two other people. It's time to pay!"

Freefall took in a breath, about to bellow his retort. True to form, if it wasn't someone that he acknowledged as a threat, Snow was content to talk smack. With a roar, Sorli lunged with the full force of his anger and all of the power he could push through his legs, shattering the steps beneath him, and drove his fist into the Crash Suit that rolled up in front of Freefall's face.

Sorli's fists bombarded the Crash Suit like a repeating cannon as he pressed the attack, each impact forced Freefall to slide back. Freefall lurched to the left, sending Sorli crashing through the front door of the GSO facility as he missed, then he rebounded and rocketed off, away from the building.

"Get back here!" Sorli shouted before taking two long strides and shooting off after him.

Isto's plan had been to take the fight outside, and with what they'd known about the Mark V Crash Suit, that was the right call. With the unknowns surrounding the Mark VI suit, Sorli wanted to push the fight indoors on GSO property, where Freefall's collateral wouldn't be tolerated. It seemed that the new suit allowed Freefall to redirect momentum with a level of precision and finesse that was not possible before.

That means... Sorli considered.

The Crash Suit seemed to bounce off of nothing as it rocketed back at Sorli mid-air. Sorli's reflexes told him to dodge, something he couldn't do while soaring through the sky. He brought up his arms and legs to guard as seven tons of steel intersected with the momentum of his own leap, amplifying the impact.

Freefall adjusted his angle of approach at the last second, spinning upward and sending Sorli straight down. The impact shook Sorli all the way down to his bones many more times over than his impact on the concrete below. He'd seen a similar maneuver before and knew he had to move before the follow-up came.

"Geronimo!" Freefall cried as the crash suit spun in the opposite direction and plummeted after Sorli.

He twisted and dove toward the wall of the crater he'd made when he impacted the ground, hitting with enough force that he made a second, smaller crater within it; just deep enough to conceal his body.

Freefall crashed and spun in place inches away from Sorli's boots. A week ago, he would have waited to attack again or tried to gain more space to make room and chamber a punch or kick. Sorli adjusted, pointed the tips of his fingers at the crash suit, and watched, waiting for the dent he'd made in its surface with his initial attack to come around again, then collapsed his fingers and weight into a six-inch punch, arresting Freefall's spinning momentum.

"You're a natural fighter, no one can deny that Grimm," Isto said "Your speed, strength, reflexes, and will to win are all impressive."

"Why do I feel like there's a 'but' coming?"

"But you've never had formal training and it shows. Your movements are too obvious, you need too much room to generate power behind your strikes and that's not always going to be an option. A trained fighter will see that and use it to pick you apart."

"Can you get to the point already? Freefall is here in five days."

"We're going to fix that."

"How?"

"Tell me, Grimm, have you ever heard of Bruce Lee?"

"What the fuck?" Freefall shrieked.

Sorli unfurled his fist, laid his fingertips against the metal of the crash suit, and collapsed into another punch; this time sending out a spiderweb of cracks in a foot circling the point of impact.

"Crash Suit hull integrity compromised."

"Yeah no shit!" the hero shouted back at the suit.

The crash course in "The Way of the Intercepting Fist" was paying off. Sorli felt the Crash Suit shifting under his fist, trying to spin up the momentum generating gyros contained inside. He adjusted, planting both feet firmly in the recently made cracks and anchoring his back against the cement. Sorli rained blow after blow down on the center of the dent he'd made in the suit, each strike within a half-inch of the prior.

"Let go!" Freefall shouted as the gyros whined with effort against the pressure of Sorli's legs.

"Good idea!" Sorli yelled back as he pressed his legs down and apart. The sound of tearing metal reached his ears.

His relentless assault on the Crash Suit's shell, the force pressed down to keep it in place, and Freefall's desperate attempts to escape had created a significant amount of room for Sorli to maneuver in.

A significant amount of room to generate power.

Sorli raised both hands over his head, fists clenched, and slammed down on the suit with everything he had.

The Crash Suit split open like an over-ripe melon.

"Eject Sequence Initiated"

Tyler Snow rocketed past Sorli and drove a heavy iron boot under his jaw, sending him through the concrete and ejecting him through it up onto the street. Sorli's vision exploded with sparks against a black backdrop and he tasted copper in his mouth.

"Round two, Rookie."

Before Sorli could shake the fog from his vision, the sound of turbines and flame spouting from engines reached him. The heat and pressure in the air coupled with the sounds of the engines drawing closer indicated that Freefall ejecting was not a sign of his retreat.

On instinct, Sorli rolled to the right. The same metal boot colliding with his gut sent him sprawling, made him wretch, and forced his eyes open.

Freefall stood in a casual boxing stance, thirty feet away, bouncing toe to toe on blue flames spouting from the boots of his gleaming power armor.

This definitely wasn't in the plan. Sorli thought.

No villain had ever forced Freefall out of his Crash Suit and the file he'd gotten from The Supplier said nothing about what he was looking at either.

Sorli struggled to his feet and brought his hands up just in time to intercept another blow from Freefall's rocket boots. He managed to stay on his feet this time, but it still felt like someone taking a sledgehammer straight down to his bones.

"Twelve years ago, huh?" Freefall taunted, "I think I remember what you were talking about, shitty little neighborhood where I fought Thorn Titan? Now that was a fight."

Sorli's arms wouldn't rise above his waist, he'd have to dodge the next attack... except there wasn't one. Not immediately.

Freefall was monologuing. He had been for at least ten seconds now.

"And because I'm going to make you a bloody, chunky smear on the pavement in just a minute, I'm going to let you in on a little secret, Sorli Grimmarson."

Classic villain bullshi - Sorli thought before the blood in his veins ran cold.

"Thorn Titan and I, well, we're old buddies. No one ever really wondered why I couldn't stop or catch him one hundred percent of the time. Y'see one hand washes the other, Thorn presents as one of the most dangerous villains in the country, I beat him up every once in a while and call him my nemesis... get filthy rich and famous, he gets away sometimes and cuts me in a percentage of the take. Your little neighborhood? Collateral." Freefall bragged.

Sorli ground his teeth as his heart rate picked up.

"All of those people that died? More like an investment. When I brought Thorn Titan in, I hit single digits in the National Protectorate. The bounty on him could have rebuilt that shit heap twice over."

Sorli couldn't hear the gloating over the sound of his own ragged breathing and his heart pounding in his ears.

Vidar

The name pounded in his head, accompanied by a vision of a man standing in the maw of a great beast. He held its fanged mouth open and slashed at it wildly with a blade.

What am I looking at?

Revenge

Sorli's vision snapped back as Freefall closed on him curled up like a meteor. His hands came up on instinct, all feeling of fatigue gone, replaced by a numbing fury.

He roared as he caught Freefall, stopping his attack, and attempted to hold him in place.

A burst of fire from the rocket boots sent Freefall vertical and a shift in his momentum looped him around Sorli's back. As Grimm Raven rounded on him, three lines of fire burned into the back of his hand, forging the Rune of Tyr.

Hand closing on instinct, Sorli swung his fist to meet Freefall. His eyes went wide when a blade made of burning feathers cleaved through both the power armor and Tyler Snow, leaving the "hero" in two even halves on the pavement.

Yes, you are my vessel.