Rainbow Dash: Aerial Avenger

by The Bricklayer

Mare-Vel Adventures #11: Higher, Further, Faster Baby

Author's Note:

Sorry I didn't give a proper upload yesterday, had to get some help to deliver a suitable finale. Huge thanks to Layton13, give him a shout huh?

“So…” the Mandarin chuckled, seeing a comet flying back towards the Earth and rupturing the upper atmosphere. “She’s finally become who she was always meant to be.”

He flexed his fingers, all ten rings glowing.

“I relish the challenge,” he said, raising up rubble and ripping up the streets with golden cracks forming beneath his feet. “In another world, in another time she might have been the hero this planet needs. But I refuse to let that woman stand in the way of my brave new world. So says the Mandarin!”

“COME ON!” Rainbow roared as she rocketed towards the man like a bullet from a gun, glowing with starlight and a fist stretched forwards.

“I guess it’s time then, to see who really deserves to lead humanity into a bright new age,” the Mandarin said, the Remaker ring glowing as a fist of earth uppercutted Rainbow. “So come, face the changing of the guard with grace and dignity.”

“That’s just it, isn’t it?” Rainbow said, shooting a blast of cosmic energy at him, the Mandarin summoning a black hole to suck it all away. “I don’t want to lead anyone into any new brighter era, I just want to be me.”

The Nightbringer ring glowed once more with dark light, the Mandarin summoning spectral swords and leaping upwards to face her.

Rainbow summoned cosmic energy into her hands, malleable light reformed and thrown as an arc of energy. The Mandarin leaped over it, slicing into her suit and drawing blood as a scream escaped from her throat.

Unleashing even more energy from her palm, it rocketed her arm backward, directly at the assailant. Eyes widening, the swords raced in front of him, before colliding with her elbow. For a few moments, they stood strong, before cracking all over, quickly spreading across the whole construct until it burst into a thousand pieces.

Using the force of her counterattack, Rainbow pulled herself around, before shooting herself directly at the Mandarin, who had used the few precious moments to leap backward.

“You fight well,” the Mandarin said, raising his hand and Nightbringer glowed again. Spikes erupted from the air, cascading out like thorny roots and racing towards Rainbow. “I’m impressed.”

“I’m not looking to impress you,” Rainbow said, shooting upwards even as the spikes raced after her. She was above them, and blasting cosmic energy straight through them. “You hear?”

She was behind the Mandarin, shoving a knee into his chest only for it to pass right through the man. The spectral ring was glowing before the villain solidified once again, wrapping a hand around her throat.

“Very well then, just take my compliments all the same though as you die screaming,” the Mandarin said, tossing her through the side of a gas station.

Cosmic energy collided with fuel lines and up the building went in a massive fireball. And then the fire began to die down, and choked upon itself as it was sucked into Rainbow’s body with the woman’s aura crackling with life.

Remaker glowed, as the Mandarin raised up concrete, again and again, to shield himself from her blasts. Nightbringer glowed, a beam of dark energy shooting out from the Mandarin’s palm to smash straight into one of Rainbow’s own blasts.

Pieces of road, cars, and glass were flying all over the place as both energies clashed, only for Rainbow’s blast to fizzle out rather quickly, the beam rocketing towards her. If a simple projectile wouldn’t work, fighting fire with fire would surely do the trick.

Once more their energies slammed into each other, the street and surrounding buildings quickly being ripped apart, as she unleashed her own beam. Pieces of the debris were thrown her way, before evaporating before ever hitting her, still, she could feel her feet being pushed back inch by inch.

That was when her second hand rose, pointed at the ground behind her. If she was getting pushed back, she just had to push in the opposite direction, simple as that.

The moment the second beam burst from her palm, she felt an immense weight being lifted from her other arm. Within seconds, she could feel she was making progress, gaining foot in their beam struggle.

“You learn fast,” the Mandarin said, being pushed back. All around them was a crater, the very ground scarred by their battle. “I admire that about you.”

“Are you fighting or flirting?” Rainbow asked, punching him in the face and breaking his nose with blood squirting onto her fist. Another punch passed through the Mandarin, his Spectral ring activated once again.

The man reformed briefly, to grab her by the leg and hoist her up. This proved to be a bit of a tactical error, the Mandarin found as he was blasted into a car by cosmic light.

“So I have to ask,” Rainbow said, climbing out of the crater. “Okay, assume you take control. You’re suddenly big bad Mr. President, I have to ask you something. What makes you think anyone will listen to you? You didn’t get elected, you staged a coup. You took over like a tyrant. Your authority isn’t valid.”

She side-stepped a lightning spear tossed at her.

“You brute force your way through any problem presented to you. You’ll be ruling the country if only through fear. You’ll be forcing people to change.”

“All the same, everything will finally be-”

“Exactly as you desired it to be?” Rainbow asked. “Will it though? People will only be listening to you because they’ll be scared of the consequences. The world will only be making sense because you force it to. That’s not heroism or real change or whatever the crap you want to call it. That’s tyranny.”

The Mandarin was floating above her, with pieces of street surrounding him. He launched them at her, the woman just smashing through the projectiles with her fists.

“No answer? Good, then I guess I’m starting to get to you aren’t I? Now I’m the one doing the lecturing,” Rainbow said, firing off another blast that the Mandarin just phased through. “You can dish it out, but you can’t take it can you? When someone applies your tactics to you. You fancy yourself a teacher right? Well sit down Jack, because class is in session! I’m taking over. Leave your things at the door.”

The Mandarin launched another blast of dark energy at her, only for this time Rainbow to not even bother powering through it. Instead she just absorbed the energy into herself.

She slammed a fist into her outstretched hand, a clap of energy shooting out from her.

“Honestly, I’ve given up caring about the trash you keep spouting. It’s just that. Trash.”

Narrowing his eyes, the Mandarin lit the Daimonic Ring up as the ground started to shake. At first, the dust started to flow towards Rainbow, before quickly bigger and bigger rocks and pieces of debris were hurtling towards her. But as she tried to attack once more, her body didn’t move as she intended to, instead, being pulled back by an immense force.

That was exactly when massive chunks of the ruins around them started moving, directly at the center of the gravitational pull, her.

At first, she simply tried to blast them to pieces, which worked well enough, the problem was the pieces that were still racing towards her. After the second chunk she had shattered like this, she hissed. This wasn’t gonna work.

The sudden feeling of being punched in the stomach knocked her out of her thoughts, quickly followed by a similar sensation all over her body, as more and more debris were forming around her. It only took a few seconds till she was buried under a small mass of stone, cars, and anything else that had halfway survived their fight till now.

Inside, she felt the pressure on her body growing with every passing moment, as if she was about to be squashed like a spider. Breathing grew harder, as the rocks pressed into her chest and air out of her lungs. She just wanted out! Right! Now!

The battlefield erupted into a blinding light in an instant, a searing hotness washing over everything. As the light dimmed, the ball of debris was gone, in its stead Rainbow hovered over the ground, energy radiating from her, as she glared down at the Mandarin.

“Okay, so you want to play? Let’s play.”

Rainbow rapid-fired punches at the man shattering his armor and ripping his suit to shreds. When the smoke cleared, there stood the Mandarin stripped of all royal regalia and his chest bared to the world.

To his credit, he looked more amused than anything else and was glowing with an aura of his own.

He seemed to accelerate as the Spin ring glowed a bright green, and no that wasn’t right Rainbow realized. Time around her was slowing down.

And yet because of this, he might as well have gained the ability to move faster than her. He was rapid-firing punches like a Jojo character complete with his own war cry. He was now to the left of her and kicking her down the street.

She bounced several times smashing into the pavement, before rocketing upwards to gain some height. The Mandarin followed, the Daimonic ring glowing again as he gave a cocky grin. His own personal gravity bent to his will, and he was floating.

“Yeah yeah, I get it, you’re going all Chinese Kung Fu Jesus on me,” Rainbow said as the two flew up above the city. “Big deal. Whoopee de-do. I’m still going to rip those rings off your fingers.”

One of the Mandarin’s rings glowed, and Fin Fang Foom flew out of a portal with fangs and claws bared as the dragon snaked around Rainbow and bound her up like he was a constrictor snake.

In a house in Canterlot, sat a girl glued to the TV who could only watch as trails of light ripped through the sky. She prayed to whatever god that was listening that her mother would survive this fight.

“Come on Mom, you can do this… You got this…” Scootaloo said to herself, on the edge of her seat.

Rainbow had freed herself with another energy burst and was gunning for the Mandarin. Time slowed down once again as the world ground to a halt.

Fist met face, and both Rainbow and the Mandarin slammed into each other skin bursting and blood flying. Time resumed and both flew backwards a bit.

Another hole in reality was opening up her, and the Mandarin slowed down time once again and threw her into it.

“You SEE? I CAN KEEP UP WITH YOU! THE WORLD DOESN’T NEED YOU!” the Mandarin screamed, all around them was a great expanse of nothing. No stars, no lights, just a void of darkness. “I AM THE ONE WHO WILL LEAD IT INTO THE NEW ERA!”

“And you’ll do it through fear, anyone who steps out of line? What happens to them, then?” Rainbow said, suddenly finding herself without power. With a dark horror, she realized her binary state didn’t work in here. “You’ll keep on killing and killing until only those who agree with you are left. What does that say about you huh? You’re not some bright new visionary, you’re just a tyrant. A rabid dog who needs to be put down.”

“I am…”

“What the world needs? Good grief,” Rainbow said, floating backwards to dodge a blast of fire. “Give it a rest, the people are afraid of you. You’re not helping to advance the world, you’re only dragging it backwards. What does it take TO GET IT THROUGH YOUR THICK SKULL!?”

Her last resort, a pistol strapped to her side. She fired, blasting the Mandarin’s finger clean off. The world rippled and a hole began to grow as Washington called out to her from below.

“Damn you… Can’t you see? I just… I just wanted to help…” The Mandarin whispered, clutching his bleeding finger as the Remaker ring tumbled back to Earth. “You’ve seen the state of the world, how…”

“Yeah, I know, it’s not perfect but no one man is going to change that,” said Rainbow. “It’ll take all of us, together.”

And finally, something seemed to shine in the Mandarin’s eyes as cheers and shouts came up from the streets below. But they weren’t for him. “Yes… you’re right, I finally do see. I see that…” he whispered again. “I see that I’m not the one the world needs. Can you do something, for me?”

“...?”

“Please, if I can’t change the world, you do it instead,” the Mandarin said, shocking Rainbow. Not that she had much time to think about it, as he kicked her through a closing portal. “The world doesn’t need an adviser. It needs an example, and I am not it.”

“Come back, with me!” Rainbow said as she began to fall.

“To a prison cell or a firing squad?” the Mandarin said, shaking his head. “No, I don’t think so. The world doesn’t want me, they want you. Now go, do what I couldn’t. Change the world, Rainbow Dash. Be a Marvel. Goodbye.”

He had just enough time to smile before the wormhole closed and Rainbow shut her eyes, tears stinging her face as she fell with energy spent. She fell faster and faster and faster…

Then, darkness.

Comments

[badninja]

I think he gave up to easily. I am sorry but a nut job like this would rather destroy the world if they can’t have it, make the hero earn their belief in the world.