When Gods Underestimate Mortals:Vance Astro vs. Sha

Vance's followers had lost faith in him as several of his past encounters with the gods had caused him to become weaker and weaker. Once worshipped like a god himself, Vance has become almost as human as the people that followed him. No longer did they seek his power to ward off their enemies. His wisdom and leadership had become his only valuable asset. Members of the Banned had began to notice Vance's lack of enthusiasm for battle. They had noticed he had become less reluctant to retreat. He had built his underground empire on power...on being the strongest, on physically being better than everyone else but at this point he couldn't rely on that anymore. 
 
A mutiny was started by a rebel alliance within his own circle.Vance had those who were still loyal to him make examples out of them. Fearing that this would happen again, Vance turned to the one person whom loved him more than he loved himself. The Earth Goddess, Gaea. Although she had been responsible for stripping him of his powers in the first place he felt he could win her over as he had before. He begged and pleaded with her to restore him to his former self but she declined. All she offered him was her wisdom. She told him that he was more powerful than he gave himself credit for and that his followers would continue to follow if he engaged a formidable opponent in battle and defeated them.  
 
When Vance returned to his fortress he sent his followers out to find such and opponent for combat. His resident Sorcerer, Dr.Stephen Strange scanned for the most powerful energy signals in the area and returned to Vance with a potential combatant. in a city, not to far away there was a young hero by the name of Sha. The fact that they hadn't noticed her before was alarming. Her credentials were that of a veteran. The more he learned of her the more Vance couldn't wait to be face to face with her. Since her alignment was good though Vance had to become the villain. He retrieved his shield from the armory and head out to this city to find her. 

Alexandria Va,

The gentle breeze ran through her skin causing her to almost burst into laughter, it had been almost eight years since her Ninjan Home world had perished. Thinking about everyone whom was responsible; the thought of revenge quickly entered her mind but was quickly put to rest. Upon her return, she found that Hayden had been killed by Feral Nova in the KOV tourney. Darkchild had also passed, however Sha knew this, she and him had both been in the same place for a brief period of time. Then there was Gambler, Apparently the earth had gone through some apocalyptic age; and he rose to a high power once again, but this time the U.S gave him their full support. Making matters worse, he was backed by Arrow, a person that Ziccarra had never had the pleasure of running into; she had only heard stories of how he operates but apparently he commanded darkness far better than she did.

She was a tad bit sketchy on exactly what happened after her death, but she’d find out sooner or later; she did know that legally she wasn’t supposed to be on Earth thanks to the passing of the Ninjan Exclusion act awhile back, but no one seemed to care, or maybe they didn’t notice. Sha’s “Sister” Maya had done a great job making a name on her own.   She was even supposed to be playing Ziccarra in an upcoming “Sha” movie, Naturally Ziccarra didn’t know how she felt about that, but she wasn’t going to argue with it, she had other things to figure out.

Standing on her back patio she glanced at the city that was already booming with life, and decided she better test her powers before, trying to venture out into the world. She forgot what it was like to be on earth, The air was tainted the ground even had a smell to it; Truth of the matter is this world was far more different from the world she called home, for the first time since she joined We are Legend almost 20 years ago, she felt like an outsider. Taking for plates from the Patio Table she tossed them far into the air, hoping they would stay suspended for a while. She concentrated all her energy within her body summoning her light energy, throwing her hand back and then pushing forward she shot her energy at the falling plates seeing if she could land with prescion and accuracy.

“Why am I alive…” she whispered to herself, she had awakened in a tomb in what looked like LOVE HQ, not wasting anytime she flew away. Landing here in Alexandria for whatever reason; her hearing picked up the faintest sounds of someone else on the deck.

Turning around she saw a man who had some distinctive tribal clothing on, the man just pointed at Sha and from behind him another man came bearing a shield. At first glance Sha thought he came from the heavens, but he didn’t give off that sort of Vibe.

“What the hell do you want?” She said with power and raw aggression, she was still a bit bitter to the human race, it was only after she said it that she realized she was not human. However she still balled her fist up and prepared to defend herself had this situation turn for the worse.

Vance smiled as he could tell Sha was ready for combat. He had worked up such a respect for her in his research that the thought of taking on an opponent of her caliber at this point in time was overwhelming. He felt it for the first time in years. Back when he was the leader of the Avengers he got this strong feeling in his gut that whatever the outcome of this battle he would grow into a new understanding and love for combat. It's a feeling that Captain America had described to him when speaking of WWII. Vance being an accomplished researcher took heed to everything, he had learned that Sha. although she was young was very disciplined. She knew he was there for a fight and right away she was on guard.He was looking straight into her eyes but could still see her ball up her fist.He removed the shield from his back and slid his arm under the straps and made a fist to secure it then reached his arm out forward directly at her. He said, "I've been looking all over for you.I'd suggest you ready your A-game because you have what I want and I will stop at nothing to reclaim my glory". 
 
By her expression. Vance could tell Sha had no idea what he was talking about. He also became aware that she was playing defense. All that time he had been giving her the stare down and running his mouth she didn't budge. She just stood there with her fist balled waiting for him to make a move.He was still reluctant to attack her though..I mean besides respecting her she was a hero like he was. How could he go out and engage in combat with a potential ally? After all his training and teaching from the best of the best and after all the things he himself taught others he was still taking this anti-hero route at the suggestion of Gaea. 
 
His eyes squinted as he picked his position, he drew his arm back and swung the shield flattening out his arm and opening his palm, releasing the weapon. As the shield flew toward Sha she still didn't budge and even when it flew passed her face just barely missing her she still didn't flinch. He sent a PK beam after shield as if to chase the shield down. When it was about 50 yards away, the PK beam caught up and held the shield in place.As he waved Sha in for an attack he told her, "watch the star, or you will regret it." As he himself took his attention off her and looked toward his hovering shield.

 Sha’s eyes locked on to the man, in all her years of trained combat never had anyone so easily snuck up on her without her knowing. She knew he had come to fight, but she remained ignorant as to why he chose her to fight with. The two stood a good 15 feet away from each other with their eyes locked on one another, She was notoriously nicknamed the battle queen, known for not backing down from any challenge and even today she was reading herself to live up to that Title. Although this challenge came a bit too quick as she was just two days removed from her resurrection , she would have liked to just relax and catch up on what she had missed, but this would allow her to use her powers.

She was stuck somewhere in-between the worlds so to speak, she wasn’t eager to pick the cape up again, but she didn’t want to attract the attention of the Government by making earth pay, therefore she wore her traditional colors and left the cape in the house. Her hair freely swayed as the wind molested it blowing it south. Finally a break in the tension, he began to move, bringing his hand around and removing his shield, this grabbed Sha’s attention.

Now she had some sort of grasp on what was happening, the decal on the shield alerted her to whom this was, She had never actually seen him but often heard people speak about him, most in a bad way. Many hailed him as a hero, while others spited him for his harsh battle tactics and aggression, Sha gritted her teeth as she did not know what he wanted with her. Her instincts told her that he was a god, she had faced Aztek a while back and they both gave off the same aura only his was not as hostile. Figuring this could be a simple test; she gave off a smirk, but then quickly fixed her face once he began speaking.

Cocking his arm back he released his shield, Sha tried to catch it with her Magnetism through her eyes, but this power had not been activated, The shield sped pass her face and continued behind her, now she never heard it hit the ground, which meant it was suspended in the air, or on its way back around, she would have to rely on her hearing because she refused to take her eyes off him. “I don’t have any grudge against you, but if it’s a fight you want then fine…I won’t make this Easy…you won’t enjoy this” Sha’s eyes flashed red, a low almost feline like growl could be heard ringing from her throat. Normally her strategy would have been to just attack with her energy, however she wanted to try something new. She smiled and slowly began to levitate in the air, the dust particles under her began to began moving, her right eye started to flash white, while the other black. She folded her hands and in a instant, she quickly flew at her new foe, with both Darkness and Light energy flowing from her; however just like his shield she went behind him and stayed there for that wasn’t the act, just a minor diversion. The real attack had a delayed reaction, it cause the patio to split into two separate pieces, once the fissure ended a geyser of Photo energy shot from the ground and converged on him.

Landing back on what was left of the Patio, she knew that appetizer wasn’t enough to finish him off, so she once again returned to a defensive stance. Normally she would have her Sethosphere look Vance up to run down a list of potential weak points, but once again that was something she didn’t have, for all she knew she was in a bout with a powerful God, and Survival was now a factor.

Vance was so used to being this god character that when the Sha began to attack he had almost forgotten that he had lost most of his power. He wasn't durable enough anymore to take those hits. He could create shields via psychokinesis but her attack reached him almost before he could react. He was ready for the attack and somehow he still let her get inside of his defense. With Sha now behind him, his first thought was melee.. to turn around quickly and hit her with a back fist or some type of turning strike. He didn't know what her next move would be either so he thought the faster that he puts her off her guard or gets into position for defense, the easier it will be to reclaim the advantage she now has which is being outside his field of vision. He could hear her breathing hard, not because she had exerted herself in flight but because she was all worked up. He could tell that she knew how good he was. Just before he made any moves he said, "you better have more than this up you sleeve because i'm not impressed yet." He didn't want her to think she had any sort of upper hand so he spoke as if he had her where he wanted her. 
 
Suddenly he lunged forward with great speed and distance, when he hit the ground he rolled, then quickly got up to see where if she was after him. He let off a power for blast at the ground with his PK it dug around the concrete until there was a large chunk cut out then he gently with the same beam lifted it from the ground. As it hovered above him he said, "Checkmate!", then he drew back his body and swung his head further which moved the concrete toward Sha and down like a hammer. Then he dusted off his hands as if he had lifted the land with his bare hands and said... "Easier than I thought."

 After eight months lost in a damp, dark and non symmetrical world, Sha could instantly feel her lust for battle yearning and churching within the pits of her stomach. She felt like she had been trapped in bondage for eight long years, and the moment he challenged her to the moment she released the energy attack she felt someone had signed the writ for her emancipation. She never saw the attack hit him; she was levitating behind him with her back towards him, a confident move but for now it was ok, since he didn’t mount a quick enough counter attack.

Sha turned around smiling she had both of her arms folded with strings of dark energy coming off her right side, while strands of light energy flared off her left. Locking eyes with him, she continued to grin the same darkness that once held her body captive had been unleashed. However He didn’t look too amused as a matter of fact he came out and blatantly told her so. "You better have more than this up your sleeve because I’m not impressed yet.” Once again Sha smiled, hearing his words and committing them to memory, sooner or later she was going to make him digest that very sentence.

Sha watched him continuously move, creating some sort of distance between the two, this was a nice strategy because it took him out of ran for her Solaris attack. Taking note to his Psychic ability, she watched as he dug some sort of trench; knowing he could be up to something she quickly attempted to attack him before he finished his scheme. Losing sight of her strategy she walked right into what seemed like a perfectly executed ploy.   As she converged on him, she felt the unwelcoming stare of a shadow followed by the harsh plow from a concrete projectile.

The slab knocked her to the ground, keeping her there for a few moments, eventually she pushed herself back up to her feet, and she glared at him looking humid in the face with anger.   Not delaying anymore attacks she lifted her legs up and stomped on the ground causing a minor Tremor, of sorts to throw off his guard. Taking to the air she began moving her arms around in a weird motion, Darkness and Light covered both of her hands. On the ground a visible “chess board” appeared, it formed so that Vance was in the middle of the board, Know she knew he could jump off the board in an instant, so she tried amplified the gravity on the grid. Now it would take the same amount of energy it takes for someone to lift their own body weight, it would take to jump off the grid.

“Now you look like a master Tactician… I have created what is known as a Cartesian Coordinate Plane System, Every time EITHER one of us lands on a negative pairing; The board shall realse a shock, IF you land on a positive setting you’ll be able to regain some of your mobility.” Sha folded her hands again; she loved creating riddles and games while toying with her foe. “The catch is, where both starting in the middle of the grid…and well I doubt you know how to move at this much gravity”

Sha cocked her arm back and tried to ram it in his nose. The grid had been activated now the game had begun.

When Vance slammed the large concrete structure  on Sha it knocked her down so violently that he thought he had at least put her in a coma. When he was that she wasn't moving or getting up he had though of thousands of ways he could just end this but he didn't want to end it so easily.He wanted to torture her,just in case that last attack wasn't the last of this fight.As he got closer he could see her stomach contracting as she breathed heavy and the closer he got the more he could actually here her breathing.When he got close enough to kick her she was on her feet faster than he could even tell she moved. The look on her face was that of a little girl. A little girl that had been picked at and picked at until she snapped. He had realized that he needed to come harder. That attack did nothing more than piss her off. She was ready to finish him off right here. 
 
Just when he thought of what he was going to try next she stomped the ground causing a tremor. He could barely collect himself before she was in the air. She put together some weird hand gestures that created a grid. She told him that if he stepped on any part of the grid that wasn't positive that this board would release a shock.Because of the way his mask was designed, she could not see the expression on his face but it was telling that he had no clue how to react to this. He thought now was the time to try and set her up to pull his trump card.As he gathered is thoughts she was up on him. She hit him so hard in the nose that he thought his head was going to explode.He landed halfway between a negative and positive space. His legs were electrocuted until the color of the lower half of his costume began to change color to darker hues and caught fire.He quickly pulled his legs in; brushing off the fire, then used his upper body strength to hold his legs in the air in a handstand position. His head hurt to much to try and use his powers to hold him up and his legs hurt to much to stand up on the square. 
 
He held himself in that position for a moment and then he finally came down. When he stood on his legs he wobbled a little. He was breathing heavy because he had exerted himself holding his body up. Still without being able to see his expression he could feel the blood from his nose dripping down his mask until it seeped through and the mask itself appeared to  be bleeding.The blood was all over his mouth and neck. Still he looked into her eyes from where he stood and said..."You hit like a girl!" the tone of his voice was condescending as if he wanted her to know that what she had done may have appeared to have shaken him but he was still going to win. He arched his back pushing his chest toward the sky and grabbed his arms putting strain on his midsection..he could hear the sound of his bones cracking..then he stretched forward.  
 
He jumped to a positive square closest to her and said..."watch your head!" With his psychokinesis he waved in his shield that he had left hovering at the beginning of the fight. As it spun toward her..he decided to attack he was now on the same square as her. Just as the shield narrowly reached the back of his head he ducked..leaving her in it's path.

 There were many appeasing smells blowing through the air, but the one that made Sha smile the most was the smell of his godly blood running down the side of his face. It brought comfort to her knowing she had injured a god, many times during her young life she faced off against foes much more powerful than herself; however she never had a chance to make a god bleed. This did nothing but compliment her own skills, many people journeyed through life wondering what gods are like, Sha went through life trying to knock them unconscious.

The fact that he was bleeding gave her some sort of confidence, she knew she needed to tone it down just a bit, because the fight was far from over, watching as he rose to his feet, she gave off a smirk at his brash comment, one could see that both of the two warriors had pretty sound strategies, Sha simply wanted to overpower him; while he opted to outsmart the battle queen.   Sha kept her hands folded keeping her keen eyesight and attention focused squarely on him, she could tell by his build that he once had immense power; she kind of wanted to fight him at full power; however she knew she would have been completely outclassed by a god.

He leap frogged the negative squares and jumped into the positive, Sha was impressed by his strength, she had increased gravity by 2 and he was still jumping on an Olympic level, by now he was one square away, Sha charged up her light energy and fired to early, it was almost like he knew what was coming, leaping over the blast and onto the same square as Sha. The invasion of her space gave her little move to move, she was also surprised at the fact that he was suddenly in her face. A whirring sound resonated in her ears, in an instance he ducked and she was smacked in the face with his shield.  The force behind the blow knocked her deep into the Negative Zone causing a shockwave of sorts to erupt around her.

The electricity surged through her body, giving off the smell of burning flesh, thinking quickly, she disappeared into a dark portal then reappeared back in the positive. Her clothing had been tattered, she was visibly worn, the electricity continued to flow through her body reducing her to just one knee. “Very…smart” She said to herself. Pulling herself back up to two feet she struggled to clap for him. “I’d expect nothing less from a god…”

She turned back to look at the sun it was placed perfectly in the sky, she wanted to try her “Ace of Spades” but it might have been too early. Opening the hands so that her palms faced the sky he brought down a volley of light energy balls, the smashed into the grid blowing up on Contact. Sha erected a dark veil around her body to protect herself; she knew He was going to use his shield to protect from the aerial attack, so she cocked her hands back together. A loud noise could he heard formulating within her hands, she thrusted forward with her hands and fired as Sonic Burst towards his body hoping that the wind and sound blast would not only hit him, but would push him into the negative zone. With that she charged to a light veil and began taking sunlight from the sun. Allowing the rays to charge up energy body slightly healed her wounds, something she would need later on to perform her solaris.

As time fell deeper into this bout, Vance became more aware that this would never work in his favor. The more attacks he dished the more it amped her for battle. This grid was dangerous. He had become aware when she got electrified that she would stop at nothing to take him down. When that shield cracked her in the head and barely made a blemish..he knew he would have to have something else in his arsenal to beat her. He thought of giving up but he was too far in now.He watched as from the skies she conjured light energy he held his shield upward as to avoid getting hit but then she blasted him where he was not shielded...as he flew backward and then upside down he looked to see where he was goind to land. He couldn't afford to land on a negative space again. 
 
Just as he was above a negative square he shot a PK beam downward that shot him up further into the air,then with all the time and space he had while in the air he readjusted himself so as to land on his feet. That last blow took more out of him than he bargained for though. He was bleeding internally. He snatched off his mask and now the bleeding had gotten intense. It was coming from his mouth, nose, and eyes. As he wiped the blood from his face he said. "Gods never surrender, especially to mortals..so let's just say.I owe you one". Without her knowledge he grafter a PK shield to his foot and then stomped on a negative patch of the grid then jerked his body as if he was being electrified. Then he threw himself backwards on to a positive area..appearing to be unconscious. When Sha came in to confirm her KO he was going to hit her with all of the PK energy he could muster. The thought of being able to pull this off almost made him smile, blowing his cover but he didn't. He just laid there and waited.

 “Damn this guy is tough” Sha said wiping the blood that had been trickling down her cheeks up. Granted a lot of the damage she had taken was self induced, but his resiliency is what was really killing her, she had fought many opponents who shared this trait, but only being three days removed from resurrection took a toll on her.  Sha sent him airborne, grinning as he appeared to be on a collision course with a negative point, however being the impressive bastard that he had proven thus far to be, he was able to aerial recover and land rather harsh on a positive spot.

“Very Impressive” She said watching as his body stirred over the black marble piece that had been crushed. Sha slowly jumped from positive piece to the next stalking. Her victim slowly rose to his feet, that resiliency that Sha hated was slowly kicking in, holding on to her damaged ribs and bleeding head, she continuously hopped from piece to piece, and her only drawback was creating such a large board, so it took time to navigate.   He got up taking a step and got shocked, because he trekked on a negative piece, this brought a smile to Sha’s face.

In life a rose represented Peace and Love, and a Gun represented War and protection, seeing her unconscious opponent drew a question for her to ponder, should she kill him or, should she allow him to live, She didn’t know him, she didn’t have a personal vendetta against him, so what was the point in killing him. Society labeled Sha as a Villain, an unholy incarnation of Satan, however she just did what came to her heart. She decided on not killing him, for him to have sought her out; made her wonder why, she started to fly down converging on him looking to place his body on her couch until he came to.

However as she flew down to the Square he was on, a powerful energy blast knocked Sha out the air causing her to disappear in a flash of light. When the light subduded, Sha’s body was limp on the edge of the grid being shocked by the negative point that she had landed on. Vance’s playing possum trick had worked, in doing two things; damaging the queen to the point where her injuries were clearly visible, and two awakening her killer instinct from within.

Steam quickly rose from her body as she now lay in the dirt off the grid; her bleach blonde hair had been tarnished by the ground that she was currently residing. Finding the strength to pull up, she performed a slow kip-up, so that she was able to see the grid before her. Blood gushed from her stomach and painted the ground, The blood from deep within her through quickly rushed to her teeth only to be spat out onto the ground. Sha smiled, not because she enjoyed the pain, it hurt like hell, but because she had an idea. Picking up a bunch of pebbles from the ground she tossed them onto the negative area, to start a chain reaction of sorts. This would cause the grid to go unstable and began going Haywire, while doing so Sha began to absorb the Light energy from the electicity, and in the same method he had used to knock her from the grid, she tried to use to eradicate him. Expanded the light dome, she pushed it outwards hoping, that if the power didn’t kill him, the sheer heat would.

When Sha had become submerged in that beam, Vance could see that he had hurt her.All the blood and gore was getting to him.He was supposed to be the hero and the greatest hero at that. Why did he listen to Gaea? She is supposed to be wise, be kind to her children. She wasn't. She told him what I wanted to hear, she was testing him. She wanted to see if he would really fight Sha just for his cause. How would his followers even feel. Did they follow him because he was powerful or for his passion for upholding justice. His eyes grew wide as these things passed through his mind. He almost appeared to be in a trance. He started directly at Sha, his eyes got glassy as if he was going to cry. He flashed back to the Civil War when Colt Python had been killed. It was almost the same scenario. He had been tricked and then fired upon. Only difference is Colt didn't make it. 
 
He didn't know what to do. As he watched her grimace in pain from her wounds, he didn't know whether he should attack or trick her a second time with a different tactic so that neither of them have to be hurt anymore.Just when he decided on  the latter he saw Sha toss some pebbles on to the grid. Sparks and electricity was flying everywhere and she began absorbing the energy. That reminded him of Carol Danvers. She was like an aunt or an older cousin to him. They had fought along side each other many of time, watched each other's backs.Once she had absorbed all of the energy, Sha sent forth a large light dome. Again he made his shield levitate with PK and sent it over the dome toward Sha. As the dome got to him he put up his forcefield and when her dome hit it he was almost injured on impact. The dome was so strong that every second he could see it ripping through his forcefield. So he ducked or rather layed on the ground.When the dome broke through his forcefield the energy rolled over his back causing severe burns. He yelled out in agony as he smelled his flesh burning. The pain was so intense that this time he really blacked out.