Fighting Faust

Diana and I walked in knowing that Faust was still too sure of his strength to bother keeping an eye on his surroundings. I walked to the first bookshelf and looked up at the light source. Kinda dumb to have an open flaming skeleton as a light source in a flammable library. I'm sure it saved on the power bill but, well books and flames don't mix well. 

I jump up and break the chain of the first flaming skeleton, then with an apology to readers and authors everywhere I leaned it against the bottom row of books and walked to the next one. Once Diana saw my plan she smiled and flew off in another direction to start the same thing at the other end of the library. This would both piss of Faust terribly and also be some payback to Hades for all the trouble he caused in Themyscira. No one would be reading these forbidden tomes again.

Rinse and repeat for about 20 shelves before there was finally a reaction out of the set of armor just 4 bookshelves in front of me. Maybe not having a nose was why he didn't notice all the smoke.

Faust turned and saw the library on fire and screamed "My Books!!!"

When he locked his eyes on me, I happened to still be dragging a flaming skeleton behind me. "You know I got to say Faust, these light fixtures are in no way OSHA approved! Now I know you will say they were here before you moved in. Last tenant and all that jive, but it just doesn't excuse you from fault. You really should have changed them out to something, well, less flammable.  No way insurance is going to cover this one." I toss the skeleton in my hands to the shelf off to my side and it starts the shelf on fire.

Faust charged directly towards me, and I took note of the clumsiness of the armor. It was impressive but just too bulky to be more than a simple tank. For all my analysis I still didn't want to get hit by it, so as soon as he got close to me and Faust raised his arms I watched until his arms blocked his sight, then I quickly scrambled past him and changed into my gorilla shape. I jumped on his back and added a good push to knock him off balance and into the burning bookshelf. 

This did nothing more than irritate him as obviously fire meant nothing to armor forged by Hephestus himself. He raised his hand, palm out and blasted me with a bolt of pure magic that threw me for about 30 feet before I bounced off the floor. My muscles twitched as I resumed my natural form, the last bits of the magic dissipating.

Faust, "I let you off easy for interrupting my reading before, but now you have destroyed unimaginable knowledge by burning these books. I will make your suffering match even that of Hades who is being feasted on as we speak."  He pointed his palm at me again and as I saw the glow begin to form, I quickly turned into a hummingbird and dodged as speedily as I could. 

As he panned his helmeted head trying to find my blurringly fast form I flew above him and went Indominus Rex above him. I found it a shame the ceiling wasn't higher, but my weight still forced the armor to its stomach. Holding him down with my left foot I shifted all the weight I could on it and used my claws to scratch at any seam I could find. Not making any progress with that, I bent down and bit onto his foot and tried to straighten my back. Hoping this would pull the armored limb from the torso, however it was useless. 

Faust finally managed to get his arms under him and push up lifting my leg and causing me to stumble. As soon as he could see me, he used both palms to blast me away. I was again forced to return to my own form as the magic ran through me.

Faust, "How can you survive that much mana flowing through you? Even I can only touch this much because of the armor. Your flesh should be cooking and sliding off your bones by now."

Logan, "The power I use is of the Cosmic, yours is barely at planet level." I changed into the Triceratops form I used when I entered Tartarus and charged Faust. 

Faust again blasted me with both palms shooting raw magic at me but as soon as it hit me, I opened up to the flow of The Red and it overwhelmed the magic fired at me by Faust. The meeting of the two energies in my body was still painful, I roared in anger at the pain as I rammed into the Annihilator armor and knocked it back into another bookshelf causing it to tumble into one that was already aflame. 

Faust, "STOP DESTROYING MY BOOKS!"

He stood up amid a pile of burning books, rage apparent on his face he charged at me. Seeing his magic wasn't hurting me much he decided to go with a more physical approach. With all his attention on me he didn't notice Diana throw her lasso around one of his feet and pulling it tight caused him to go face first again.

Diana approached Faust and said, "That's enough Faust, I know the weakness of the Annihilator armor from stories my sister told me. It is fueled by rage, as long as we don't attack the armor it won't attack us. 

She was surprised when the armored hand reached for her and grabbing her around the waist, brought her face to face with Faust. "I improved it Princess, obviously!" He then slammed her to the ground and stomped on her back forcing her into the floor. 

I charged Faust again to interrupt his attack on Diana but before I got there, Hades finally made his appearance by drop kicking Faust to the side with a shout of anger. He followed up with a style that led with the bident to make an opening only to be capitalized with a follow-up swing of the Stygian sword in his other hand. 

  Diana got up off the ground and shook her head to gather herself, then she bent down and scooped up her shield and sword. With a battle cry of "For HERA!!!" She jumped and swung her sword at Faust's shoulder driving him to one knee. 

Faust, trying to buy himself time to recover, shot magical bolts at the few remaining flaming skeletons and they jumped to life to attack Diana and me as he focused on Hades. Blasting the God Hades with is raw magic blasts he shouted, "This time I will leave nothing to torture, even a God cannot handle this much raw magic without a totem to work through."

I was in my Gorilla form as I dealt with the flaming skeletons. Individually they were nothing but as they worked together, they could capitalize on your lack of focus. Any burns were being healed by my natural ability, but I was starting to get tired, and this was looking like it would turn into a battle of attrition. We had to outlast Faust's ability to summon his power. As Diana crushed the last skeleton attacking me, she said, "We must find a way to immobilize Faust. If I can get my lasso around some joints of the armor, we can capture him somehow. Then maybe find a way to drive him out of the Armor."

Logan, "I bet if we could drag him in front of Persephone, she could drive him out. Didn't she gain powers over Ghost's while in the underworld?" 

"Let's do this!" Diana shouted as she once again charged the Annihilator armor. 

Hearing her shout Faust turned and fired another blast of his magic at Diana and I would swear he heard us talk about binding him because that's exactly what he did to her. His magic circled around her and turned to golden rope that wrapped her up like a mummy.

Hades responded to Faust's lack of focus on him and opened his mouth wide and breathed the fires of Tartarus directly onto the armor causing it to heat up and glow red. 

Faust, "It was rumored that Hephaestus worked on this armor in the heart of a super volcano. It is tempered in heat that rivals that of this world Hades, just give up." He backhanded Hades towards Diana who was still struggling to break free of her bindings. "BEHOLD THE POWER OF THIS ARMOR SATURATED WITH THE MAGIC OF THIS WORLD AND KNOW IT WILL BE YOUR DOOM!!!"

I shifted back into my form from the gorilla one and said, "You know Faust, there are two words you used in that rant that you really shouldn't have. Because I just had a great thought."