In reply, Deveros' eyes widened and mouth dropped. He raised a shaky hand and pointed behind Tiny. The giant turned quickly to find The Talon standing where the stranger had stood just a moment ago, a little bit of blood coloring his lip and some trickling from his nose.
"So where'd you run off to?" taunted Tiny, hobbling back into a fighting stance. His right leg was definitely broken, but Tiny was a professional. He gave the slightest glance back to confirm his body was still between his employer and the hero. Tiny steadied himself and looked back at The Talon knowing this would be a losing battle. "I guess it really doesn't matter. Let's get this over with," he said.
The Talon looked from Tiny's broken leg, then at the determination on the man's face. The man knew The Talon's reputation and still stood in defiance of The Legion's best, most feared fighter. The Talon couldn't help but respect the henchman's professionalism. The fighter nodded and lifted one finger. "One hit. Let us begin," he said before striding forward.
Tiny couldn't help but smile. He'd heard rumors from other thugs and hired guns who faced down The Talon. It was common knowledge the fighter appreciated professionalism in his opponents when it came to combat. The One Hit was a show of respect the superhero granted to few of his opponents - the guarantee that the fight would end in just one blow, not a pounding of hits that could lead to needless suffering.
Tiny bounced on his feet, checking his mobility. It wasn't good, but he still weighed more than twice that of The Talon. If the hero meant to end the fight in just one hit, he'd have to get close enough that Tiny could use his size to the advantage. It would all come down to timing. In arm length and reach, Tiny definitely had the advantage. The Talon could try to close the distance or negate that reach with a kick, but Tiny suspected the smaller man couldn't generate enough force with a kick to knock him out with a single hit, especially if Tiny knew it was coming. No, he'd need to come into range of Tiny's fists. If he could get The Talon to line up, especially for his big right fist, he could knock the hero out with a single blow of his own.
As the hero got close, Tiny threw out a left jab, purposefully aiming a little wide. Predictably the smaller man dodged inward, away from the fist and directly into the path of Tiny's follow-up, a powerful, sweeping right hook. What he didn't predict was for The Talon to shift his quick dodge into more of a fall, sliding even further and outside the arc of his swing. Tiny felt himself start to stagger off-balance having put too much into the sweeping fist. From the corner of his eye, he saw The Talon spin as he stepped passed Tiny. The larger man knew he was too injured to keep up with the hero. He felt the weight of the hero press down onto the back of his right leg, buckling Tiny and dropping him to a knee. Then The Talon delivered the One Hit, this time taking the form of an elbow hammered onto the top of Tiny's skull and knocking the giant unconscious. The Talon stepped away, letting the giant kiss the floor with this face, landing with a thud that shook the room. Then he faced his real adversary, Deveros himself.
Deveros pointed his finger at The Talon. "I saw you. I know what you are!"
The Talon closed the distance between the two men and, like a viper, his hand shot forward and broke Deveros' extended finger. With the same hand he snatched the glasses off of Deveros' face before striking it with the palm of his other hand, breaking the villain's nose and sprawling him on the floor.
Blood gushing onto his shirt, Deveros stared up at The Talon. "I saw it. I wasn't sure in the atrium when King Fist suddenly appeared. Maybe it was just a trick of my eyes in the darkness. But this time I know what I saw."
"What truth do you believe you have witnessed?" The Talon asked, his face expressionless in the face of the villain's accusations. He walked back to the entryway of the hidden lair and retrieved Blue Furnace's shirt.
"You. I saw you for what you really are. When Tiny wiped that foam from your chest, he disrupted the markings that everyone knows covers The Talon's body. And then you disappeared because you weren't you anymore. Except you were still there as if in disguise because we couldn't see The Talon, but just another ordinary man. You were there but you also weren't there. Then you used the blood coming from your nose caused by Tiny's lucky swing to redo the missing lines. That's when you became The Talon again. It's got to be something about the way we perceive you, your appearance or clothes or something," Deveros stammered, getting to his feet, adrenaline pumping, smiling confidently. "I know your secret now."
For a fraction of a second the calm stoic face of The Talon broke and revealed an arrogant smile underneath. In that same moment, Deveros' vision blurred and the hero not quite disappeared but also wasn't quite there. Then the hero reappeared fully, his hands wiping the shirt of Blue Furnace over his body.
"So, you think you figured it out," said The Talon as his voice distorted as well, as if cutting in and out with static, while the hero wiped the foam and
blood covering his body and face with the shirt. "You sound even crazier than usual,
Deveros." He tossed the shirt aside and The Talon vanished, an
unknown, average, shirtless man standing in his place and still walking
toward Deveros.
To Deveros' eyes, the shape of the man alternatively blurred and sharpened as if his eyes were picking up static or some other sort of interference. "No, you won't trick me again," he said, dropping one leg backwards and rearing back with his right first. "And, if my prediction is correct, right now you're no longer The Talon or Blue Furnace or King Fist or any of those other names. You're just a regular man."
Just before he got in range, a blurry man replied, "Or perhaps I've got all their powers, all the time."
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