[hr][h1][i][color=dodgerblue]Lihua Vuhong[/color], [b]Henry olin[/b], [color=lawngreen]Sonya Mayfield[/color], [color=Maroon]Mark Emerson[/color], [color=Gray]Quentin Taylor[/color], & The Agents of NEST vs. The Changeling Unit.[/i][/h1][hider=Delphic Doubt (AC Remix)][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diBX8X4_Vuo[/youtube][/hider] [sub][i]Written in Collaboration with [b][@UrbanEvolution][/b], [b][@DeadBeatWalking][/b], & [b][@Zombiedude101][/b][/i][/sub] [hr] Lihua dropped the Deadman switch, as Acid Scar started shouting at them. She stomped her foot into the ground, and it sounded like it hit with a lot more impact judging off the loud crash. A wall of concrete erected between the NEST Agents, and the building. The second her finger let go of the switch, every bomb in the building went off at once. The building went up in one large explosion. Every window exploded, as the building went up in flames. The explosion could be heard from all over the Isabella Isle. Many of the Changelings were instantly killed in the explosion. The few that survived sure as hell took a mighty hit. Acid Scar's porous, chemical-laced skin did him little favors. Before he could gratify Lihua with a scream, his entire frame had reduced to withering black leather. Unfortunately, he shielded most of The Changelings, leaving Smoke only singed and Ironsides and Wild Fang [i]annoyed[/i]. Another new problem was the noise NEST had made alerting their presence to the few Changelings in the Ghost Town away from the hide out. The armored trucks containing the infants had already escaped the blast zone, peeling away the moment Leon had confirmed Acid-Scar's truth. Though the children had been guaranteed safety, the NEST agents began to doubt theirs for a moment (Except for Lihua, she's ready to die in this fight). "Agent Dragonfly requesting permission to engage." Henry said from his ambush position. He was just itching to fuck someone up. "Permission granted." Max said into the comms. "Take them out." Lihua raised both hands in the air, putting them sideways, before she dropped them. She cut the walls of concrete in half, before she swung her hand, palms down, sideways. Slicing the concrete into blocks. She pulled her fist back, and slammed it forward into the concrete. Each of the blocks that she created shot forward, flying into the walls at high velocity. Smoke was unfortunate enough to get hit by the block of concrete. It carried him right into the wall, and sent him through it. Killing him instantly. Lihua raised her foot into the air, before dropping it. It tore a chunk of concrete out of the ground underneath her feet. Which levitated, and carried her around. She raised her hands in the air, and pulled many concrete rocks off the ground, and it began circling around her. Forming a shield. Henry exploded from his position, which was only about sixty feet away from the now destroyed casino. Wild Fang and Ironsides had just risen out of the rubble when Henry, with all his speed and momentum decked into Wild Fang's torso, sending them both into Ironside, running over the poor man in a flurry of claws, scales, and fur. As Henry lost momentum he threw Wild Fang off of him a few meters away. [hr] A massive creature came running through the walls of one of the buildings not too far away from the battle. Once the cloud dissipated, it revealed the twenty-five foot tall monster, that looked like an organic robot, covered in rough armor. The Colossus. It stood straight up, and balled it's fists. It began a dangerous charge right for the center of the NEST Group. "I got this!" Maximilian said as he did a pose. He flew up into the air at the Colossus, and Echo came out of his body. The Colossus picked up speed, and Echo started flying at the Colossus's feet. With one swipe of his hands, Echo sent the Colossus tumbling backward. Breaking the street, before it dug it's massive hands into the ground to slow down it's momentum. It was kneeling down, as it faced Max. Max had his arms crossed as his feet hit the ground. Echo standing right behind him. The Colossus started running at Max with it's fists balled. Echo responded by rushing the brute at high speeds, and quickly delievered a barrage of fists that moved so fast that it looked like Echo had a lot more arms. The Colossus threw it's arms up to block, but the barrage of high impact punches cracked it's armor. Threatening to break it if it kept up. The Colossus took a step back, and kicked it's leg forward at high impact. It hit Echo, and sent the golden-shadow of Max flying backwards. Max let out a loud yelp as he quickly got out of the way. Echo disappeared, then appeared again right behind Max. Standing over him. The Colossus balled it's fists. Max was ready. [hr] Ironside rolled off the wall with a flurry of high-pitched metallic dings and scratches as he balanced himself out, steadying himself on the concrete. He glared at Henry who was preoccupied, though that was likely to Henry's advantage -- All of his clothes had been burned off but his leather boots and about a pair of board short's worth of decency from his still-smoldering jeans. His metal skin was red hot, and his eyes resembled molten gold. He shouted in sheer, primal rage at Henry as steam radiated off is skin in lieu of sweat. In short, he was terrifying. "I've been waiting to have a crack at your ass since I heard about you!" Henry snarled to Wild Fang, a devilish, feral grin on his face. His attention was taken away for a moment by Ironsides shouting and he really wished he hadn't turned his head to look at him. A red hot floppy dick was probably the scariest thing he'd ever seen. The young man sprinted towards Henry, launching himself forward like a lion chasing prey. As Henry's attention switched from Wild Fang to Ironsides. It wasn't much of a real plan that Henry was cooking up, much the opposite- because that's what fighting was. Henry however had been trained to do one thing in all twenty years of hand to hand combat. Side stepping usually always worked. And so, Henry did just that. Ironsides' flew forward, and directly into Wild Fang, who's balance was thrown off. This resulted in the larger of the two of them falling. Ironsides skidded along the ground, sliding with a metallic hiss, steadying himself with both hands. "[i]Not like this.[/i]" He barked, clenching his jaw tight enough for Henry to hear his metal teeth crack. "Bro I'm just waiting until you cool down. First rule of baking- wear oven mits or do not touch the hot food." Henry said, standing to his full height and grabbing a rather large lead pipe from off the floor. Henry thought Ironsides had laughed at the joke, though the sound he made was either a very strained laugh or a bark. He launched himself at the agent again, now prepared for any misdirection the agent had tricked him with once. [hr] "Okay, gotta take the shot." Sonya lined up the shot with Ironsides - before a buzzing filled her ears from behind. [i]Wasp.[/i] Sonya thought to herself as her tongue shot out of her mouth, and latched onto the edge of the building. She jumped off, just as Wasp was rushing her, and her tongue acted as the rope. Wasp was floating above her, looking down. "... [i]Freak.[/i]" Wasp said. Sonya said, "Takes one to know one", but, because of obvious reasons, it came out incomprehensible. She put her hand (Other hand was holding the rifle), and feet, onto the wall, and it clung against them as she retracted her tongue. As Wasp rushed her, she leaped off the wall, and Wasp followed behind he. She landed on the ground - which was bad, because she was in the action, a sniper is [i]never[/i] in the action - as Wasp flew at her at high speeds with a knife. She quickly reached for her knife, before shooting her tongue out against. It hit wasp directly in the face. "Oh! Oh my God!" Wasp shouted, as all he saw was Sonya's pink tongue. She quickly pulled him in closer, and jabbed the knife into his throat. He gargled, as blood pooled. He was dead a few seconds later. Sonya quickly looked back up at her perch. She was about to jump up onto it, before she heard something. Like a fucking landslide. She turned, to see a wall of dirt flying right at her, filling up the street. "Bloody hell!" Sonya shouted, as she instinctively jumped into the air, looking down. She saw a tall, skeleton-creature, riding on top of it. It had dark-brown "skin" (It was so bony, that it barely appeared to have any skin), and these large, glowing yellow eyes. He turned and looked up at Sonya, and the dirt quickly formed hands that started flying towards her. Sonya reacted quickly, and shot her tongue out, which attached to the edge of the building. It pulled her right for the ledge of the building, out of the way. She quickly grabbed on, and launched herself onto the roof. Quickly, her hand went to her earpiece. "... Think I found Gravedigger!" Sonya said into the comms. "I could use some help! You all know I'm not equipped for up close and personal fights like this!" The hands made of dirt grabbed onto the ledge, as Gravedigger raised himself in the air on a hill of dirt. [hr] The relatively short time since his “enlistment” with NEST had felt like a lot longer to Quentin, especially when he piled the training he’d been given and the overall process on top of his ‘Agent’ status. Agent Taylor, Agent Quentin Taylor, 'Counterpoint' - somehow it felt..... odd, didn’t exactly roll off the tongue, either. He’d never wanted to be a cop, felt almost an aversion to it when he’d first heard Reed say he was going to join the academy at the first chance he got, yet here he was. In true NEST fashion, he’d slipped on a tactical vest fresh from the armory’s locker over a long-sleeved combat shirt whilst wearing a pair of combat pants, complete with padding in the appropriate areas. Around his waist was a tactical duty belt with a holstered Glock 23 on his right whilst he wore a pair of combat boots. His gloves were also lightly padded with Kevlar yet he’d opted for the pair without the finger tips, allowing him the finer functions that he would’ve been inhibited from if they were fully covered. To top it off, he'd grabbed a Remington 870 Police issue from the armory and was in for a whole world of shit, or so he'd mused not long before it hit the fan. "This is Counterpoint, breaking cover," he uttered into his PTT headset as he moved in alongside other NEST agents with his weapon at the ready, searching his field of vision for potential targets. Barring the fact it was his duty, he [i]wanted[/i] a chance to bring some retribution against these bastards for everything they'd done to him and judging by the brief, he might have had a shot against that bitch, Heartbreaker. Approaching one of the dilapidated and now burning casino's blown-out windows, he spotted a smoldering figure bursting through the windowsill, strewing debris all over the vicinity. As it escaped the smoke and the flames, he noticed chunks of the figure's mass sloughing off and writhing on the floor. Leeches. Dozens of them, shriveling away at the presence of the intense heat and smoke and dying en-masse, yet the figure continued onwards toward him with a heavy stride. Quentin leveled his shotgun with the Leechman and squeezed back on the trigger, firing off a spread of lead pellets which disintegrated some of the leeches fixed to its torso and causing the bastard to stagger. The Leechman roared in the air. It's inhuman, needle-like, teeth were on full display when it opened it's jaws so wide it looked like it unhinged. His eyes glew bright red as he hunched over, looking at Quentin. Before it suddenly rushed him, extending it's claws. However, it was launching leeches off it's body at him. Quentin recoiled as the leeches were flung against him, sacrificing his aim so that he could heftily sweep the leeches off before they did any real harm. Even through the sleeve of his combat shirt he could still feel the vile things trying to clamp down into his skin, making it clear that these were no ordinary leeches. While Quentin was getting the leeches off of him, the aberrant charged him, making it clear it was simply a momentary distraction. It charged so wildly, it appears to be thrown off balance. When it was close, it swiped it's claws at him. One swipe was close enough to snag and tear his shotgun sling away and another knocked the shotgun out of his grasp, briefly sending him staggering backwards, off-balance. Training only did so much for you when you were in the heat of the moment and about now he felt like he was in the god-damned steel mill. Without thinking, Quentin instinctively reached for his sidearm and snapped it to the ready, firing off a short volley of.40 rounds at the Leechman's center mass, hoping for the stopping power to punch through its organic body-armour. The Leech man took a few steps back, the impact sent it backwards. It looked down, and some leeches merely dropped off. These leeches were enhanced, just like their host. It laughed a little. It threw it's arms backwards, then quickly flung them out at Quentin, sending the leeches on it's arms at him in a shotgun style attack that wouldn't be easy to avoid. It exposed it's arms, long, and nearly skeletal. Yet, it quickly grew more leeches off it's body. It looked up at Quentin. Unable to ignore the volley of aggressive leeches being thrown his way, Quentin recoiled and staggered backwards yet again, cursing rather colourfully as one bit through the kevlar padding of his right glove. "Fucking freak!" It forced him to drop his pistol as he tore it away with a free hand, clenching his palm into a fist to dull the pain. The Leechman grew closer, probably ready for another volley of leeches, forcing Quentin to think fast. Remembering the tactical knife on his belt, he quickly contemplated something that could've been wither downright suicidal or ingenious before deciding it was do or die. At the last minute, he yanked the knife out with his right hand before making a charge for the Leechman in an effort to drive the blade as far in as he could, even if it meant pushing through the mass of leeches. There was a violent cry of pain as the knife punched through flesh. There was the disgusting sounds of flesh being torn as the leeches on the creature's frame started violently shaking (Like a rave!). It put it's claws onto the blade, and tried to pull it out... before it looked up at Quentin. It opened it's mouth wide, and launched it's mouth at Quentin's neck. Were it not for the (expensive) protective gear he wore, he would've possibly bled out or choked to death on his own blood had the bite been made with surgical precision. Instead, amidst the struggling between the two it bit down between his neck and shoulder, it's needle-like teeth just barely punching through the padding of his vest. Quentin howled with an agonised growl and relinquished his grip of the knife as one might drop a glass if surprised, jamming his fingers inside the wound it had created. The Leechman wasn't getting the results it wanted. Quentin jamming fingers into it's fresh wound made it take steps back, releasing it's grip on him. It's red eyes flashed red, before it simply lunged at him with all that it had. Quentin met force with force, taking advantage of the Leechman's aggression by letting it get close before turning its own momentum against itself. In a way, it was like the security work he'd done for years with the likes of drunken troublemakers and wannabe thugs with the same method. Quentin thrust his an elbow into the Leechman's neck and jabbed his free hand into the gaping wound, this time pushing hard against it. Ahead of them, the burning structure had gone to further ruin and huge gaps existed in the building where windows had blown out and the architecture had collapsed in on itself. The flames roared like an open furnace, and the Leechman frantically scrabbled and screamed as it felt chunks of its mass either and die, scorched by the flames. It tried to push Quentin to the ground, yet this time he sent a frustrated kick to its knee before giving it a final shove into the roaroaring depdepths of the building. It's mass charred and withered, the foul stench of burning "flesh" permeated the air as the Leechman wailed its swan song. For good measure, Quentin recovered his lost sidearm and returned (dangerously close given it was a burning building already structurally weakened by well-placed explosives) to empty the remainder of his magazine into the barely moving. "Better safe than sorry" he murmured.