Brace for Impact
Downtown Millennium City was undergoing reconstruction after the cataclysmic fight with Ultimate had laid waste to the surrounding area, when a man was found alive under the debris from a destroyed apartment building, after aid workers discovered he was super powered when he was seen attempting to break the debris with some form of energy, they backed up and decided to call in back up. The man once freed, seemed to go on a super powered rampage, blaming Vitality for the death of his family during the fight with Ultimate, and demolishing the rebuilding work that was being done in the neighborhood. PRIMUS was called in and arrived on the scene just in time to stop a man going crazy and destroying anything further, they were able to subdue the man and lock him up in the Westside Prison.
After his arrest and incarceration, it was revealed in the following weeks that this man was Eric McClendon, a mutant with the ability to project concussive energy blasts. His mutant powers had surfaced during the emotional breakdown over the loss of his family. His initially limited control over his newfound powers allowed PRIMUS to stop him. Before he could be questioned further, Westside Prison was attacked by ARGENT forces, in a bid to free a few of their own and get to Eric, whom they had been monitoring for a short while and planned to use him to their own ends. As surprised as he was, Eric did not think twice before accepting ARGENT's offer to free him, and made a swift exit with the Squad leader whilst the ARGENT soldiers and some of the prisoners staged a stand-off with the MCPD and SWAT teams on the scene.
After ARGENT had pulled out and were clear of the Prison, Eric was coerced into working for ARGENT, who promised to support him financially, provide protection and more importantly, to them, assisting him to hone his abilities. Grief-stricken and plagued by a feeling of helplessness and loss, he accepted their offer. Eric began training him to control his powers, enhancing him and pushing against his limits in an attempt to make him more useful to them. ARGENT used their links and resources to clear his name from the system, granting him a "clean slate", allowing him to operate within other organizations without arousing suspicion. ARGENT used Eric for undercover missions, under their instruction and guidance he stole classified intelligence files from both PRIMUS and UNTIL. Eric was loyal to ARGENT, and never wavered from his hatred for Vitality. Getting revenge was his main goal, ARGENT had promised that as long as he helps them, they will provide him with the means and power to take his revenge on Vitality. This promise combined with his hatred caused him to push himself even further to shorten the time it would take to achieve his main goal. Revenge.
Months passed and Eric had been transformed into a new man. The once slightly weak and sad Eric had fully embraced his abilities and transformed himself into a man burning with hatred and power, who had honed his abilities to the point where he could become a significant threat. Pleased with the way Eric had turned out, ARGENT enacted Phase One, a plan to target and draw out superhuman threat, in this case, Vitality.
ARGENT revealed how the intelligence he had stolen had been used, they had created a suit designed especially for him. They equipped him with a neural interface suit which amplified his abilities by allowing him to tap into his own power reserve and manipulate it accordingly, the gauntlets amplified his concussive blasts tenfold. Eric was assured that this suit would allow him to dish out his revenge on Vitality. With this assurance in mind, Eric renamed himself Impact and made his presence known to Millennium City and it's heroes on the 17th of September 2013 when he attacked First National Bank causing severe structural weakening with his much more potent concussive energy blasts.
Later on in the month Impact, following the procedure of ARGENT's Phase One, set his sights on PRIMUS and UNTIL HQ's with the intention of causing enough of a stir to draw Vitality out to fight him. Noticing that one attack wasn't enough, he began to frequently attack the HQ's and associated bases and bunkers resulting in billions of dollars worth of damage and a high number of casualties. This caught Vitality's attention who investigated the scene of each crime. With his attention finally caught, Impact moved onto Phase Two, namely, Confrontation. During his next series of attacks, Impact under ARGENT's guidance left subtle clues as to the location of his next planned attack, where of course, he would be waiting for Vitality.
Vitality got the assistance of Joule and Techna Ology who helped with the analysis of the clues, which when triangulated displayed the next likely target of Impact's fury, the well placed clues had pointed to a warehouse for their next attack. Vitality and Joule arrived on the scene, but it quickly became clear that the warehouse was abandoned. The reason for this was simple, Impact wanted Vitality, nothing else. Vitality and Joule were ambushed by a few dozen ARGENT soldiers, and easily subdued them. The duo made their way further into the warehouse when Vitality spotted Impact, recognizing Impact from a photo from a PRIMUS report, Vitality made the connection to how this man was likely affected by the events with Ultimate and asked Joule not to fight.
Vitality tried to talk Impact down as he attempted to convey his regret at what had happened all those months ago. Impact upon identifying that it was in fact Vitality did not even let him finish his sentence before attacking savagely, releasing a colossal burst of energy at both Vitality and Joule, catching Vitality off guard. Joule, noticing this, used her energy absorption abilities to attempt to contain the kinetic energy which had nearly destroyed the warehouse. The sheer volume of kinetic energy she absorbed to save Vitality, had overloaded her kinetic energy absorption field, causing heavy feedback which resulted in her loosing consciousness.
Knowing that Joule wasn't adept with absorbing kinetic energy in comparison to other energy types, Vitality used the heavy crates in the warehouse to make a makeshift blockade in an attempt to slow Impact down. Vitality then turned his attention to Joule picking her up and flying her away from the scene, placing her with local law enforcement and out of harms way before turning back to confront Impact once more.
When Vitality returned Impact had just blasted through the first crate and lunged at him. They fought, Impact unleashing his concussive blasts and Vitality desperately holding back his strength in a bid to try and get through to Eric. As the fight went on, Impact became increasingly angry, increasing the magnitude of his powers, almost overloading his suit. Realizing that the energy shockwaves Impact was putting out was causing structural instability, Vitality knew things needed to end before any serious destruction could happen. Taking a deep breath, Vitality steeled himself and his fist contacted with Impact's chest, sending the ARGENT trained mutant crashing to the ground. Vitality pleaded with him, apologizing for the loss of his family, confessing the immense guilt he felt for the lives lost that day and admitting that he is responsible for what happened.
Impact got up taking dizzying steps backwards and looked at up at Vitality, his suit near out of commission and his rage burning in his eyes before he fully processed Vitality's words. After a moment the rage seemed to die out, he slumped against a nearby pillar, defeated and plagued with guilt for his actions, Impact, now Eric again then began to breakdown, sobbing uncontrollably whilst discarding the gauntlets of his suit. It was clear that he had given up, Vitality called in UNTIL and Impact showed no resistance as the UNTIL agents came and took him into custody.
