The beautiful city of Celestial City, with its towering skyscrapers, sparkling lights, and bustling streets, was alive with energy on this lively night. The air was thick with the sounds of laughter, music, and the occasional explosion. People filled the sidewalks, moving in a colorful blur as they hurried to their favorite clubs, restaurants, and bars. The neon signs flashed brightly, casting a kaleidoscope of colors across the buildings, painting the cityscape with a surreal glow.
Above it all, a battle raged on between Ambrosia Diavolo, the ruthless Mafia Queen of Celestial City, and the elite Adamant League mercenary squad.
Ambrosia stood atop a rooftop, casually observing the action below as her men and women engaged the mercenaries. Her Enforcers were tearing through them. For all of their skill and weapons, Ambrosia's men were trained to the highest level and then augmented further with her Biokinesis, putting them well into the Superhuman Range of abilities which meant that the mercenaries didn't stand a chance. But those guys were the lucky ones. The unluckies were facing Ambrosia herself.
They moved with a lethal grace, their every step and strike calculated. But, even with their numbers, advanced weaponry, and superhuman abilities, they couldn't touch Ambrosia. She dodged every blow, evaded every attack, and seemed to be barely breaking a sweat.
Ambrosia sighed as she watched the mercenaries get wiped out. "I really should've left this to my guys. You jokers are barely worth the effort. I know The Blood Hunt resulted in record death numbers but still...you lost wouldn't have lasted a day In The Age Of Heroes." She turned around to look at the squads that had been pursuing her across the city's rooftops. "So can you pick up the pace already? At least make this a little entertaining for me."
One of the Mercenaries, Ralph, stepped forward angry at her disrespectful attitude towards them. "ARE YOU MOCKING US?!"
"I assumed that was obvious." She held up her watch. "Come on now, you have five minutes left. I'm going to kill you all the instant time runs out so you better start fighting like your lives depend on it."
"Damn you."
"Don't fall into her trap, Ralph! We need to stay focused! Everybody spread out! Attack Pattern Omega!" The Mercenaries Leader shouted at them. Ambrosia raised an eyebrow. "Oh, you think you can spread out and catch me off guard with that? I've seen that one in action. You're gonna need a new plan." She grinned, her sharp teeth glinting in the light.
As the mercenaries spread out, moving through the city's rooftops with a newfound sense of urgency, one of them, a girl with fiery red hair, seemed to be lagging behind. She was struggling to keep up with the others, her movements slow and labored.
"Roger that, Leader. Falling back to support her," one of the mercenaries reported. "I've got her now." He reached out to grab her, but before he could, Ambrosia reappeared behind the woman, her fist cocked back, ready to deliver a killing blow. She hesitated just long enough for the girl to see her, then she let loose and powerful punch. The mercenary was sent flying through the air, crashing into a nearby skyscraper with a loud thud.
"What the...?" He spun around, searching for her.
Ambrosia vanished again, appeared underneath the one who'd fallen back to support her last victim, kicked off the air, flew up and grabbed bro and snapped his neck before throwing him across the city like a softball.
"That's two down. Only six more to go. Let's see if the rest of you can keep up," she taunted them. The mercenaries exchanged glances, their expressions grim. They knew she was right. They had to find a way to take her down before time ran out. As they continued to search for her, Ambrosia remained hidden, using her incredible speed and agility to dart between rooftops and stay one step ahead of them. She paused for a moment, perched atop a gargoyle on a particularly ornate building, her gaze scanning the city below. She could feel the anger and determination radiating from the mercenaries, but also their fear. They knew they were outmatched, and that knowledge only made her more confident.
With a smirk, she leaned forward, her fingers dancing along the stone. She felt a surge of adrenaline course through her veins as she prepared to launch herself back into the fray. But before she could, a loud, earsplitting sound filled the air and Ambrosia paused to listen before she realized what was happening. The mercenaries had called in an airstrike. She groaned under her breath as a massive explosion rocked the building beneath her feet, sending debris flying through the air. She managed to dodge it however, using her superhuman reflexes to propel herself to safety. As the dust began to settle, she saw that the mercenaries had scattered, using the confusion to divide and conquer. They were trying to surround her, cutting off her escape routes. She was about to touch down on another rooftop but the instant she touched down on it, numerous explosives lit up and illuminated the rooftop and exploded, destroying the entire rooftop in a giant thunderous fireball!
Rather than being caught up in the explosion however, Ambrosia re-appeared on another building that she was standing on, literally on the side of it, and she looked down at where she'd just touched down. "Well now. That was actually better. Not a bad trap for a team of idiots." She giggled. Of course she'd need to go put that out, but first thing was first. She kicked off of the side of the building and re-appeared on top of a building and she looked up at the jet that was currently circling around to come back at her. Ambrosia took aim at the jet they'd called in for their airstrike and used her Biokinesis to create a change in her body's skeletal structure that acts as a conductor and capacitor of electricity. With only the electric current of a single electron, the body will act like a superconductor. Electric charges running across the skeletal system are amplified via adrenaline, generating millions of watts of electricity. The excess is quickly discharged through the epidermal layer. This resulted in Ambrosia firing a large bolt of electricity from her hand that shot through the air and blasted into the side of the jet and caused a massive explosion that took down the jet. With the jet now barley working, she used her Biokinesis to take control of the pilot and used a combination of this and her electricity to send the jet careening far away from the city into the bay safely away from the city.
The jet crashed down into the water and exploded safely away and Ambrosia sighed and rubbed the back of her head. "Tsk. I didn't expect an airstrike. I wonder if I'm out of practice? Oh well. I guess I should go ahead and end this then."
She noticed a glowing light behind her and she turned around to see the leader aiming a Plasma Cannon at her. "I didn't expect you take our jet down but it doesn't matter. We have you now! Go ahead! Try and tank this! Prove you're not a coward! Show me just how strong the legendary Diavolo is!"
"Alright then. I'll take that bet. Take your best shot little man. Show me what you got." Ambrosia taunted him as the light of the cannon continued to shine in intensity. "Just so you're aware though, if this doesn't work? I'm going to slaughter you guys."
"Don't worry about that. You won't get the chance! PLASMA CANNON FIRE!" With a deafening roar, the plasma cannon fired, the blast engulfing the area in a searing wave of heat that flash fried and melted the ground in front of her and the rooftop around her while setting the others next to them on fire and even causing the ones behind her to catch on fire! While the mercenaries had their energy shields to protect themselves, Ambrosia simply stood her ground, waiting for the attack to come. With a confident smirk, she raised her hand and stopped the blast with just her palm. The air around her shimmered and crackled as she held off the energy with just one hand! The massive blast was stopped with just her palm. She pushed her arm out and pushed it back until the blast died down and the light faded to see Ambrosia standing tall in front of them with a smile on her face and only a few small burns and singes on her hand but even that was immediately healed!
The leader stared in horror. His words catching in his throat. He stammered but nothing came out! Ambrosia just laughed. "So tell me, Ripper, where is your God now?" She sneered and then blitzed Ripper and tore his head off! The rest of them didn't even have a chance to react to this before Ambrosia began darting around the rooftop tearing through them. Her movements were a blur of death and destruction. Bodies were sent flying as she decapitated, disemboweled, and dismembered them. The blood splattered on the rooftop, painting a gruesome tableau of death. She moved with an animalistic fury, her eyes burning with a cold fire that left no room for mercy.
In the end, there were no survivors. Only the lifeless bodies of those who had dared to stand against her. With a sigh, Ambrosia wiped the blood from her hands and turned to leave. Her work here was done. She leapt from the rooftop and disappeared into the night, returning to the shadows from which she came. As she landed on the ground and used her powers to clean herself off, she once again found herself missing Cody and Serenity. As problematic as The Superheroes were, they never failed to give her a hell of a fight and the back and forth banter was always gold! But she was retired, more or less, Serenity was gone, and The Blood Hunt had wiped out most of the talents so she was stuck dealing with the scrubs right now.
"May-be...maybe...there is something I can do it...maybe...I can bring out the talents in people." She rubbed her chin while The Clean Up Crew ran past her to handle the aftermath of the attack. Ambrosia looked up at an electric holo-billboard advertising an upcoming MMA Match and she smiled again and took out her phone to call up her wife. "Hi honey! I have a crazy idea!"
"Hi Ambrosia! What do you have in mind?" Volkov asked her wife.
"Okay, so, you know how The Hunt was a Bloodbath? Well, I've noticed that the world's been feeling rather down lately after that, which makes sense, and you know I've been itching for a good fight lately, so I figured why not come up with a solution that will benefit everyone? I was thinking of throwing a Marital Arts Tournament, a big one, a grand tournament, inviting the best fighters from around the world, pull out all the stops for it, offer an enormous cash prize, and make it PPV. Give the people something fantastic, something incredible, something amazing to reinvigorate their spirits. The Devil-Wolf Martial Arts Tournament!"
-
Meanwhile, the last remaining soldier in the mercenary squad, lay in wait as he adjusted his lightbeam sniper rifle. He hung back in wait juuuuust in case Ambrosia was somehow able to take out the others and his instincts proved right. He was not going to let Ambrosia get away with this, no way in hell, he was going to blast her goddamn head off. He got set up, crouched down in the room, knelt down and took aim.
-
"Sounds like an absolute blast! But how will co-hosting it scratch your itch?"
"Ohhhh that's the best part. I'll offer a special prize to whomever manages to win the tournament: Double Or Nothing! If they want to challenge me after winning the tournament? They are more than welcome to do so. If, by some miracle, they manage to win? They can double their money.. If they lose? They go home broke."
"Pfffft. You really are a devil!" Volkov laughed.
"You know you love it." Ambrosia teased.
-
The shot was perfect, the timing was perfect, it was time to end her. The Sniper took aim and fired on Ambrosia. The rifle releasing a focused beam of light from the barrel that instantly crossed the distance between them right at the back of her head with pinpoint accuracy! But then...Amborisa suddenly vanished before it could tag her and the laser missed her completely and instead left a scorch mark on the ground. The Sniper didn't even have the time to realize he'd missed before Ambrosia appeared behind him and held out her free hand and stretched out her fingers to spear his head through his helmet and come out the other side.
"...What was that?" Volkov asked her.
"Just some scrubs. Barely even worth remembering. Anyway, they're all dead now." She told her while retracting her fingers.
"Cool. Anything I can do?"
Ambrosia looked out the window at the fires while cleaning off her fingers. "Actually, yeah, listen, I'm going to go ahead and repair the damage, but could I get a rainstorm here?" She asked as another arm grew out of her back, stretched out, moved up, grabbed onto the roof of the building and pulled her up onto it. The arm then retreated into her as four more arms grew out of her side and the hands clasped together with three fingers touching together and two fingers down. Mouths grew out of the backs of the hands and began chanting the spell through them while she talked on the phone. Biokinesis was, of course, her specialty but she'd learned enough about magic and sorcery from her long years of life and life married with Volkoff that she knew how to weave and wield it.
"Whispered words in melodies,
To heal the wounds of this fallen city.
With magic threaded through each verse,
I chant to mend, to quell, to disperse.
From the depths of sorrow, arise anew,
With words of power, I shall accrue.
Repair this city, once vibrant, now torn,
Bring back its life, let it adorn.
With ancient whispers and timeless grace,
I chant to mend this broken place.
Let walls stand tall and roofs restore,
The heart of this city shall beat even more."
Her voice echoed through the weary streets, like the soft rustle of wind through leaves. The incantation flowed from her lips, weaving together a tapestry of sound and magic. As her voice swelled with each verse, the spell took hold, and the city responded. Cracks in the ground began to close, crumbling buildings regained their strength, destroyed rooftops were fixed right back up, faded graffiti transformed into stunning murals. One of the many benefits of combining her abilities with sorcery was that, with her multiple arms and mouths operating and chanting at once she could do the work of several mages at once. She wasn't quite as good as a dedicated sorcerer/sorceress would be but she knew enough to handle herself and used her powers as a cheat to get by. All while she continued to talk on the phone with her wife.
Once the majority of the repair work was done the rest was just up to the Cleaners and Volkoff. Ambrosia sighed and her arms retracted back into her and she took a breather. Growing multiple arms and mouths to amplify her magic was a good idea but it still took quite a bit out of her, especially for a wide range repair spell like that. She took a seat on the edge of the building and took a few breaths in and out while she used her Biokinesis to restore her stamina.
The clouds gathered overhead and Ambrosia smiled and closed her eyes and tilted her head back as the rain began to fall on her. "Thanks, babe."
