With all the Nomads in the area in it's sphere, the machine merely disabled the singularity. The Nomads and chunks of the area it sucked in fell to the ground. In perfect range for all of it's attacks. The combined damage done to random areas barely slowed it down. As it was
made to withstand the mightiest blows from the Nomads. It felt it's faceplate being knocked off by a little man with a lamp. It's sensors focused on him for a moment, before a cannon came out it's bottom side, and fired a green blast of plasma right at his body. Before other cannons appeared out of it's body, it sensed ki inside a strangely placed igloo. It raised it's foot up into the air, and swung it's leg at it. Giving the inhabitants little time to respond, while also striking wide enough to potentially hit many other Nomads.
All the while the many robotic grunts that were floating around the arena came to the defense of the robot, and the situation quickly became a chaotic battle between Nomads and machine
When the singularity came to a stop, Brenda sighed in relief that she didn't have to hold on anymore. That was when she got her bearings as to what in the hell was even going on. She saw that the robot had deployed an array of cannons. One was aimed right at Brenda, and fired a green blast of plasma. She quickly reacted when she punched the ground and make a stone hop up into the air and tank the blow for her. It shattered into pieces, and Brenda covered her face and let the stone harmlessly crash against her. Teeth were well grit as she realized she would have to get in close. She cocked her fist back, covering it in stone, before it turned into hot magma. She threw her fist forward in a charge that was akin to a meteor, as she was surrounded with flames. She rushed the robot head on, and punched the machine square in the leg. The sheer impact knocked it's leg off balance, up into the air as it left a hole inside of it.
The machine quickly focused on Brenda, before a long metallic tentacle came out of it's body, similar to a giant cable. It quickly whipped Brenda across the face, and sent her flying backwards a few feets. She loudly yelled as she hit the ground with a skidding stop. Before she came to, hopped on her feet, and rubbed her face. Okay, she
really didn't appreciate
that... She looked up and the machine had several other tentacles deployed, and she knew she was in for a fight.
Otsana watched in awe as the giant pod crashed into the ground, knocking her onto her ass.
"Oh come on how'd nobody notice this approaching?" She scrambled away from the black hole as it was fired, only to feel it tugging at her. Sliding against the floor, she scrambled to load a grappling hook and fire it off, grunting as it caught on a hand railing. She hung by her harness, dancing on the end of the micro-cable reel to avoid concrete, metal , and the odd Nomad as they were pulled towards to robot. It was only a matter of time before her luck ran out and she was hit by a blue clad nomad. The cable broke and they both and twisting in the wind, both of them rolled to a stop behind a pile of rubble.
"Oh merde ! Désolé !" Margot sat up, adjusting her hat and patting her swords to check they were still there.
"Aucun problème" Otsana rolled her shoulders, pulling her machine gun out from under her and unclipping the busted line from herself. She spotted a wayward tentacle swinging their way and without saying anything she pushed Margot out of the way, the metal limb swinging where their heads used to be.
"Too close. We need to keep moving." "No shit." Already she'd sprung to her feet, waving back.
"Good luck." With that, the broke in opposite directions, both drawing their weapons, carving a path around the arena.
Calvin rolled from underneath the igloo as the giant robot squashed it. He hurled a snowball into one if it's eyes. After seeing how pointless his one measly snowball was, he realized how massive this thing truly was. Just like... a giant walrus... Calvin charged ki into his flat palm, and right in front of the giant robot. He then slapped one of it's legs with a
Walrus Anasthesia Slap, creating a large shockwave through the air as his slap made contact with it's leg. It blew off several chunks of the robot's leg, and exposed wiring and machinery as it was knocked aside. Even Brenda was impressed, but the machine pulled it's leg back into it's body. Sparks flew as it initiated a repair mode. The robot replied by directing several cannons at Calvin and Yen, and firing a green blast of plasma at him. Calvin quickly raised a slanted Ice barrier. It blocked the blasts shot at them, but quickly shattered into thousands of melting pieces.
Inanna sighed in relief when that strange pulling sensation finally came to an end. He hung halfway through his portal for a moment before he adjusted himself and began to wriggle out, absentmindedly closing it before he was all the way through. He yelped in surprise as he sailed through the air over the larger robot, knocking down several of its smaller escorts before he broke his fall on one of them on the other side of the arena. This was fine... It gave him a chance to think about how he was going to defeat that thing! He deftly thrust his staff at the smaller robots across the field as he did so by way of some quickly-created portals.
Askin shook his head. Everything was spinning slightly. One moment he'd been swirling through the air, then a burst of green, a strange wavery pain all over his chest, then nothing. He struggled to his feet, and then he saw the robot.
No more singularity; the other nomads were moving into action. It looked like the smart ones were going for the legs—
right, nice, that sounds like a plan. Askin stumbled through the rubble, his vision still rather blurry. What had once been a spider-looking robot had quickly expanded into a massive, flailing thing, legs and tentacles waving about and beating down at its attackers. The tall, dark woman from earlier and a nomad with snow on his shoulders seemed to be keeping its attention up front:
Maybe if I can get to the back— he started to think, before being interrupted by a hard metal fist to the face. Askin went spinning and fell to the ground. Again. Reinforcements were here, more of those robot soldiers, everywhere he looked. Okay.
I can work with this, sure. Stumbling to his feet, now faintly aware of the smoke rising up from his chest and the burns all over his coat, Askin took a few steps back, and waited for a robot soldier to rush him. When it did, Askin bottled it away with a flick of the wrist.
He was off, scrambling his way around the massive robot titan and its swinging legs and tentacles. If a soldier came close, Askin would bottle it, or swing another bottled soldier like a sledgehammer and smash the things together like dolls. Eventually, he managed to finagle his way to the robot titan's rear left. He opened up a container, put on a burst of speed, then rocketed up to the rear of the leg. The robot's foot seemed to be divided into two parts, several front toes, then one rear toe to keep the foot planted in place. With a single bottle, Askin vanished the rear support, leaving the robot's foot split in half and unable to hold up the full leg. And for his efforts, he was rewarded with a tentacle coming down from overhead. From the relative safety of the back, to the not so relative safety of the front, suddenly Askin was delivered with indiscriminate blunt force straight into the middle of the fight, nomads and plasma and blasts of energy all around, deafening, like putting on earbuds but forgetting you'd set the volume to
maximum just last night. His legs were wobbling, and he couldn't make them stop. That couldn't be a good sign.
Brown had done her best to resist the pull, grabbing hold of one of the chairs in the stands and holding on until it was ripped clean of the concrete with her. Crashing down onto the arena with the other Nomads she watched as Brenda was back handed (back tentacled?) by the hulking killer machine. It's design was distinct from the tin cannon fodder they had beaten through up to that point. That machine's size alone made it clear that it was well and above anything they had previously come up against. Yet as Brown stood to her feet there was no fear, not even a flicker of concern as she stared across the arena.
Gazing over the robot's exterior Brown shot forward across the arena, he feet slamming against the already cracked stone as she propelled herself forward. Seeing a tubby coated boy attacking over of the robot's legs Brown ran over to attack the adjacent one. Pulling her yo-yo off her belt she spun it through the air till it picked up enough speed to become nothing by a brown and white blur slicing through the air. Running in close Brown swung her yo-yo over her head and whipped the head towards the back of the massive robot's leg knee-joint.
"Taikutsunakiba!!! (FADED FANG!)" The wild eyed girl screamed as she dumped the full strength of her arms into the blow...Which assisted, and caused another hole to be formed in the machine.
Lucie's eyes darted around as she took bearings of her surroundings. After being sucked into the singularity, the Frenchwoman was thrown into the ground, with an odd assortment of misfit Nomads, presumably those participating in the tournament that she was supposed to guard, gearing up to fight The robot itself seemed to transform as well. It was armed to the teeth with cannons, and it was firing giant green pulses of plasma at the ragtag team of Nomads. A second later, the MAVERICK agent started grinning as she loaded a fresh magazine into her FAMAS. While the death and destruction caused by the giant metal monstrosity might be unfortunate, Lucie finally got a chance to prove herself. She was going to take this robot down, and everyone would finally adore her!
Springing onto her feet, the Frenchwoman aimed her gun at a hole created by some small childlike nomad slamming her arms into the robot. Exposed circuity was the perfect place to unload well-aimed bursts at the robot, and that is exactly what Lucie aimed at while attempting to roll away from the giant robot's plasma bolts. The Frenchwoman relied on her experienced trigger discipline to avoid shooting at the poorly clothed woman directly.
Her fire was soon joined by the much louder and flashier fire of a machine gun. Otsana kept up her focused fire as she slid behind cover with her.
"Ah, good to see at least one cop's competent here. Not sparing her another glance, it didnt seem like she noticed the MAVERICK logo on the Frenchwoman's uniform.
"Keep up the good work, I'll see if I can get a better angle on this thing. It seemed like she was talking to herself as she slung her machine gun over her shoulder and drew her pistol, yelling as she made her ways into the stands, shooting several of the smaller drones down in the process.
Before it could suffer even more damage, it retracted it's leg for repairs... while also deploying the other, newly repaired, leg. It got annoyed, it retracted all of it's plasma cannons... before rocket launchers appeared along it's back. A barrage of missiles was fired at it's aggressors, from Brown, to Askin, to Brenda... and all the other Nomads.
Inanna's eyes widened a bit when he saw the series of missiles heading straight towards him. This was exactly what he was waiting for. He waited for the missiles to get as close as possible before he opened a portal in front of him that led to an exit right above the robot's body.
"Thank you very much!" Inanna said to the soulless machine as the missiles sailed through his portals and collided against the robot.
"Damn it!" Brenda hissed in between her teeth as she broke out into a sprint. A trail of missiles hit the ground behind her, and exploded. Sending rubble all over the place, as Brenda narrowly dodged them. The others probably weren't having similar luck, but she knew there had to be some way to beat this thing. She punched the ground, and made a stone hop off the ground on her path. She sprinted over to it, and swung her arm at it, the back of her fist colliding with it, and sending the rock flying. The stone hit the robotic beast... and shattered against it, only leaving a dent. She swore, before she came to a stop when there were no more missiles for her.
However, the robot just retracted the missile launchers, and reloaded them with fresh salvos. Before firing another barrage, giving none of the Nomads any space to counterattack.
That was until a barrage of light arrows appeared, and hit the rockets. Causing them to explode preemptively. Standing on a piece of rubble was Sage Pimm, holding a bow and arrow made out of light. They kept firing at the missiles with pinpoint accuracy, as they shouted. "I'll keep the guns off you all!" Sage fired another arrow, "Just destroy it!"
Easier said than done. Hitting the legs seemed like the right plan—no legs, easy pickings. That was before it pulled away one of the damaged ones—
Brown's handiwork, holy shit—and revealed a brand new one in the time it would take for a scolding parent to tie the shoes of a rambunctious and rather slow child. Legs may not work out in the long run. Then, Askin caught sight of an explosion of rocks overhead: hey, that looked familiar. As the glowing angel went into furious combat with the guns—that's what that was right? An angel? Askin was having trouble seeing that far, blood kept getting in his eyes—he stumbled towards the source of the rock ballistics, and a welcome, familiar, if not especially friendly face.
"Hey, boss," he said, hurrying over as quick as his wobbly, tired, and suddenly very shivery-feeling legs could manage. "I think I got an idea. How far an' how fast do you think you can throw me? Given you can punch holes in armies, and that I'm basically a human china-doll."
"I have an idea," Brenda said, as she crossed her arms, observing the missiles exploding like fireworks. Giving them a chance to stop and actually strategize. Brown was going wild like an animal, and Brenda wondered where in the hell Otsana's ass was. Either way, it was up to her to stop this... and this hobbit. Regrettably. She shrugged. "I can throw you on a rock."
He pointed up to the rattle-clank roaring of the main gun hanging from the robot's belly. "If you lob me—" All of a sudden, Askin's legs gave out, and he fell to his knees. "Um—fuck—okay, don't need legs for this, that's fine, cool—listen, if you get me close enough, aerially, I mean, I can vanish away some of the armor on the underside like I did with the robot's face, make an opening for one of your artillery shots."
"Look, you can barely stand up," Brenda pleaded. "You're just going to get yourself killed."
Lucie barely had enough time to swap magazines before she realized a salvo of missiles were heading straight to her position. She could have tried rolling away, like she was doing with the plasma, but those missiles were tracking her, as she figured out after attempting to roll away from what the MAVERICK agent thought was a far away distance. She was rewarded for her misguess with a face full of missiles, knocking her back flying into yet more rubble. Yet, the Frenchwoman got back up on her feet only moments later, bruised but still under no means out of the fight.
Her eyes turned to some... boy? Girl? Androgynous person who was lying bloodied on the ground. While the appearance of what might be a literal guardian angel seemed to have to removed the immediate threat of more missiles slamming into the ex-arena, it would be only a matter of time before the robot switched back to the plasma shots it was using before. Lucie had to do something fast to help them get out of the warzone.
"Hey, idiot!" the MAVERICK agent yelled as she pulled a smoke grenade from her box of explosives, "Get out of here while you can!" She lobbed the smoke grenade a yard or so in front of the injured androgynous person. A few moments and a small explosion later, smoke rushed out of the canister, breaking line of sight between the monstrous robot and Askin.
"Oh, that's convenient," said Askin. In the distance, a woman with gray hair—was that the same person Askin bumped into around the singularity?—seemed to be yelling something.
Get out while you can. A deep, uncomfortable shiver went down Askin's belly. That's right, he could probably get out of here. It's not like he was doing much good with his legs knocked out.
Askin pretended he didn't hear her.
"I don't die easy," he told Brenda, pushing out a tired smile. "I'll be fine, really. Honest-to-God. We might be able to get some real damage in this way. But if you have any other ideas, I'm all ears, whatever puts this thing down faster."
IIf Askin was so confident in himself... well, he surprised Brenda once before, then he can probably do it again. She sighed, as the woman swallowed her pride for just a moment. She quickly punched the ground, and the slab of stone that Askin was lying on floated up into the air a few feet. Before she turned towards him. "Alright, hold on tight..."
"What's that thing they say about bugs and rugs?" he said, smiling. He dug his hands into the rock, in one hand, an empty container, in the other, a bottled breeze.
WIth that comment, Brenda turned towards the robot, and threw a glorious punch out in the air, and sent the rock flying right at the robot at high speeds. Doing just as Askin requested... and hoped he didn't unceremoniously bounce off it's armor
Askin and the enormous slab of half-molten artillery shot through the smoke, streaking straight for the underside of the robot.. Closer, closer—the white metal stomach quickly swelled across Askin's field of vision, stretching out in all directions. As soon as they were close, Askin opened both containers at once—in one, a great slab of armor plating was sucked away from the robot's belly. The other sent Askin streaking off the side of the magmatic boulder in a concentrated jet of wind, seconds before impact.
With the armor gone, the robot quickly went into a state of self-repair as it attempted to compensate for the missing materials by cannibalizing the materials from the other robots.
"Oh, no, you don't!" Brenda shouted, looking to capitalize on the opening. He brushed away at her lip, as she charged at the robot. Her body surrounded in flames like a meteor. She quickly raised a fist up into the air, and gathered ki... which converted into a red hot flame that gathered around her fist.
"ERUPTION!" She slammed her fist onto the ground, and a fissure in the ground was created. Shooting burning hot magma up into the robot's underbelly, and destroying much of it's circuitry. Brenda hopped backwards, before realizing that the robot was still coming. It desperately focused it's self-repair module on the damage Brenda just caused.
But, it had a counterattack in mind. It retracted it's missile launchers, before the massive singularity orb appeared again... except twice as large as it was before. It sucked in everyone twice as hard as the previous one... so strong that it tore pieces of the ground off.
Calvin was lifted off the ground and pulled towards the singularity again, though he attempted to grab onto a crack in the ground near his feet. Yet the piece of ground he grabbed onto peeled off as he held onto it, pulling the chunk along with him. He created a snowball in his palm as he turned back to the face the rapidly approaching singularity. Aiming carefully at the part the singularity was closest to, Calvin tossed the snowball... Only for it to be absorbed into the singularity as well.
"Well crap." Calvin said in defeat.
Brenda tried the same trick she did when it first did it's black hole thing. Digging her hands into the ground, but all that happened was that the ground was pulled alongside her. She let out a yell as she willed the rocks out of the way of herself. Even though she hit like a rock, getting a faceful of rock was not going to be fun.
Inanna let out a cry as he was torn from the ground yet again. He attempted the same thing he tried before, digging his staff into the ground. These efforts proved to be fruitless as the ground itself was torn out from under him, and he was eventually drawn into the crowd floating around the singularity. He was surprisingly okay with the situation, only clinging slightly more tightly to his staff as he floated around.
Askin floated pointlessly through the air, half-upside down. He bumped into some of the others as they swung around the singularity, shouting out slurred, distant-sounding apologies.
"Damn damn damn!" Brown cursed, raking her fingernails against the tiled arena flooring as she was sucked up into the air. She flailed her air and tried desperately to gain some kind of control over her accent but it seemed totally fruitless. The sudden feeling of powerlessness got her heart racing. Her previously calm, almost cold expression she had before when facing the robot vanished. Desperate, unshielded fear exploded across her face as she looked like she was ready to scream.
Lucie felt herself being dragged up into the air yet again. She cursed as the singularity lifted her out of the ground yet again. She frusteratedly slapped her gun into a single-fire mode, before pointing its barrel at the robot's eyes. With a few well-placed clicks of the trigger, the Frenchwoman fired at what she hopped was an exposed area of the robot, trying to get the singularity to cancel out as quickly as possible.
Once the Nomads were in range, the singularity faded away yet again. However, this time, a mechanism activated within the machine, and a cannon came out of the front. It loudly charged up with a bright green light, as it fired a massive beam of plasma that swept through the area. Brenda balled her fists as she quickly began a sprint.
"Get behind this!" Brenda shouted as she flipped over a large piece of stone - several times larger than herself, and used it as a shield against the beam. It stopped it... but the rock was quickly coming apart. However, another combatant had an idea.
Sage hopped high up into the air, and shouted, "Someone get behind it!" As they drew their arrow and fired a few times into it's eyes, drawing the attention of the beam upwards towards them.
Inanna rolled against the ground and quickly picked himself back up. His eyes widened when he saw the beam of plasma, and he quickly dropped down into a portal beneath his feat, landing behind Brenda's shield.
Come now! the voice inside him chided when he returned to his thoughts.
This is a battlefield, not some foolish puzzle. If there were not so many other targets you would likely be dead already. Make your decision, and make it quickly! Inanna nodded.
"Damocles Drop..." He whispered as his eyes glowed green for but a moment. He opened a portal next to him and dropped his staff into it, which sailed into another portal above the first one. The staff began to fall through the portal loop, falling faster and faster as time passed. It was kind of like cooking! Except it wouldn't get burnt if he waited for too long. He peeked his head from the side of the shield for a brief moment as he chose his target.
Lucie appreciated the cover that the other Nomad managed to create for her and the other, and immediately rolled to position herself behind the rock. Flipping her FAMAS back into a three round burst firing mode, the MAVERICK agent popped in and out as the robot was more focused on blasting its laser at the cover itself, shooting her bullets at whatever the MAVERICK agent guessed her attacks would be the most effective.
Hitting the ground and barely making it behind Brenda's shield to avoid the beam Brown was the first one to come sprinting back out into the open. With the robot distracted she ran, her expression of fear warping into something unstable. Memories began to flood her thoughts. Countless incidents of pain, humiliation, defeat, and utter helpless played before her in an instant. Her pace quickened, her hands clenched into fists, and her breathing grew deeper as her heart began to thunder wildly like a motor beneath her ribs. As ran into position behind the robot Brown looked up and saw not a mechanical enemy, but a personal enemy. The summation of all the doubts that she and others had placed against her. The idea that she
couldn't and
wouldn't gave physical form.
"You think you're better then me!? You think just because you're bigger, that you were brought into this world to fight and kill means you'll always win?" Brown screamed at the robot, eyes wide and body shaking in a blind almost unhinged rage.
"Anyone who is brought into this world and given gifts that make them 'superior' to others will ALWAYS be inferior to those who work for their gifts. You're a machine. You were designed to fight, designed to kill. Well I chose to fight, I chose to kill. And right here, right now I choose to kill YOU!" Taking a deep breath Brown concentrated, every synapse of her brain straining as the very limiting functions that kept the human body from pulling itself apart suddenly switched off.
"Fururirīsu!!!!!!!" Brown's voice boomed outwards as her veins thicken and her petite, athletic muscles seemed to harden and inflate outwards. Her heart, lungs, brain, kidney, every single part of her body went into overdrive...
... Only to be nonchalantly kicked by the robot.
There was an air of silence among the Nomads (even the robots stopped fighting for a moment to look). Brenda had facepalmed, she honestly wondered what she had expected. Sage was also caught off guard, as they carelessly floated to the ground. She was only saved from hitting the ground hard when Margot jumped into the air and caught her.
"... That was anti-climatic." Sage muttered to themself. Either way, they need to capitalize on the distraction. "... Can somebody
else get behind it?" Sage asked.
Calvin raised his hand
"I can!"He created a trail of ice that went underneath the robot between it's legs. He then hopped over the shield Brenda had raised and slid underneath and behind the robot. Once he got to the other side, he just awkwardly stood behind it, He looked at Sage.
"What now?""Back legs!" Sage shouted, as they fired arrows at the robot's front legs as it resumed its plasma barrage on everyone. "Everyone go for the legs!" The damage Brenda did was about quarter repaired... but if they take out it's mobility, they won't have to worry about the beam, and can swing away at it.
"Okay."Calvin raised his fists as he started punching the robot's back leg, with seemingly no effect. Then his fist glowed blue with Ki, and he slammed his fist into one with a [b][i]Walrus Punch![b][i], severely denting it into a narrow column, which he shattered with a roundhouse Kick.
Otsana popped out from behind some abandoned seats, riddling the robot with tiny but distracting bullets.
"Understood! Attack the weak points! She ran down the aisles, circling wide around the arena as she loaded another grenade into her launcher. Moving swiftly, she dodeged the occasional beam. Thankfully the bot hadn't been designed for an attack from above. The hip joint was an easy target. A few bullets riddled the joint, opening the already thin armor there before she shot the grenade in. While it didnt blow the leg off, she smiled at seeing the thing stagger as sparks rained from the wound.
"I can do that!" Inanna chimed. He looked at the legs, focusing on the knee-like joint high in the air, where the armor was far less exposed. He put one hand on his hip, and with the other, he pointed just above his target.
Ready? Ready!"[b][i]Damocles Drop![/b][/i} Inanna repeated, his eyes glowing green as the two voices spoke in unison. A portal appeared above the robot's leg, and the staff fell through with blinding speed, piercing into the limb and embedding itself at the staff's head, which cut partway into the joint, as sparks flew from the "wound" that they had inflicted. Well, he supposed he'd have to get that back later?
Askin had absolutely no idea where he was or what was going on.
Back legs! someone had yelled. Yes, Askin's back legs, those were feeling quite rough at the moment. Or, rather, he couldn't feel his legs, at all, which was presenting some problems. After being sucked uselessly towards the singularity, then spat back out to slam rather harshly into the earth, he'd been having some trouble following what was going on. There was a good deal of yelling, but that wasn't anything new. Then, there was a thunk, the sound of brute metallic force striking human flesh and bone. The next moment, a rather dashing woman all in blue landed just a few feet away from Askin, with a familiar face in tow.
"Oh," Askin said, his voice a whispery but rather pleasant (all things considered) rasp. "Hey Brown. You don't look so good." Taking her in, no, Askin was realizing just how much she definitely wasn't looking good.
This can't all be damage from the robot, Asking thought—her veins were dark and spiderwebbed thickly beneath the skin, and her muscles were shivering, like angry rabbits.
"Hey, miss," he said to the blue woman. "If you put her down, I can try and heal her up."
"No." Brown snarled as blood run from her mouth and the burst veins in her arms. "Ah, Brown, wait—!" Askin started. With gritted teeth she flexed her arms and legs, the snapped muscles sending sparks of painful protest to her brain as she flung herself out of Margot's arms. She landed on her feet but her legs buckles and she was soon on her hands and knees. Sweat poured from her head, mixing with the blood as it trickled down her face in a warm slurry of violence.
Margot quickly moved to catch her.
"You two are hurt, we need to get you out of here. She looked between the two and winced at the state of Askin's legs.
"You especially. "Not nearly as bad as it looks," Askin insisted, as he nestling his shoulder under Brown's arm to keep her upright. "Boy, you're really something, you know?" He produced two tiny brass bottles from his pocket, little things that might've fallen off a child's game board. "This is only temporary, Brown. You have fifteen minutes, tops. When the time is up, all your injuries will come rushing back, so be prepared."
With that, he closed one fist around each of his little trinkets, then spoke the words of power. Into one bottle, Brown's built up pain and exhaustion wobbled, burned, then, after maybe a minute, were sucked away. Into the other, her injuries were bottled up, the tears in her muscles and the wear on her organs and the puncturing in her blood cells. Soon, Askin held Brown's pain and suffering divied up in either hand, parted from the body they had plagued just moments before.
"AGHGhhhh!" Brown gasped, eyes widening as the pain she fought through was pulled away along with the weakness and tension in her broken limbs. Rising to her feet she only briefly glanced at Askin, her eyes showing a glimmer of thankfulness before they once more grew cold and wild as she faced the robot.
"Full-" Brown bent her knees, breathing deeply as the cyclopian robot fixed it's gaze on her
"Release!" Once again Brown's body kicked into over drive. The muscles in her arms and legs flared outwards, thickening and hardening as all restraints were removed. Her heart fired like a combustion engine as her senses sharpened like a blade filed down to a near invisible thinness.
With a sharp concrete rupturing crack Brown set off running towards the robot like a bullet fired from a gun. Seeing her approach the robot lurched forward and sent dozens of steely tendrils out. They stretched, arching through the air into Brown's running path with the aim to stab straight through her. Yet instead of the crunch of bones and the puncturing of flesh only the sound of shattering stone reached the robot's audio sensors. Brown had dodged the tendril, guided by millions of dollars worth of targeting software and cutting edge combat processors designed to out think any fighter, like she was side stepping a telephone pole while jogging. The countless other tendrils coiled down to skewer her but ended up stabbing the ground, becoming little more then obstacles in Brown's path.
Swinging her arms as she ran Brown began to smash the ground piercing tentacles. Her flesh and bone arms shattered the tightly wrapped titanium coils like cheap twine, sending a flood of damage notifications to the robot. It's sensors struggled to follow Brown's approach until she was nearly right in front of it. Raising one of it's front legs for another dismissive swipe the massive robot swung it downwards, putting it's full weight baring straight down on Brown who spread her footing and threw up her arms. There was a deafening crash and a rush of air and stone dust as the robot's leg struck it's targets with enough force to crater that spot of the arena. Silence hung in the air as the robot's internal processors hummed, assuming success even as the dust clouded it's sensors. Then-
CRACK
"DANGER LEFT LEG UNDER EXTREME STRAIN"The robot's processors flared to life and it's monogramming fumbled. It tried to retract it's leg from the dust cloud but found it begin pulled, forcibly straighten out and tugged to the point it's hydraulics were beginning to groan. A sudden gust of wind blew the dust away and the robot's optics dilated as it saw Brown standing in the crater, not simply holding up it's arm but
pulling on it.
youtube.com/watch?v=Gmzay5oAwOM"You're pretty heavy, let's see I can't help you lighten your load!" Brown's pained grimace curved into a smile as her legs sank into the powdered concrete, every muscle in her body screaming as she leaned back and pulled on the robot's leg with a sudden jerk. Metal plating warped as hydraulic lifts as thick as tree trunks ruptured, sending dark oil spraying outwards like hot blood from a torn arm.
"BEGINNING AUTOMATED REP-"
ZCHHHHUNK!
High current sparks erupted from the robot's left leg joint as the leg itself was pulled away, trailing still intact wires and cables behind it like cut nerves from a severed arm. With one final earth shaking tug Brown ripped the leg clean from the robot's socket and nearly sent it falling over. Her whole body shook, her heart felt like it was going to explode and her arms burst as she held the unspeakably heavy robot leg over her head like an oversized baseball bat.
"ENEMY THREAT LEVEL REEVALUATED BEGINNING INVASIVE MANEUVERS" Rocket thrusters in the bottom of the robot's legs fired, spewing fumes and heat that uneasily but steadily began to lift the robot upwards and out of danger's reach. It was already preparing another ranged attack, believing it
had mitigated the danger Brown faced. Yet in it's haste to follow it's programming the robot made a grave error. All the thrusters on it's legs fired.
Even the one Brown still held"YOU'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!" Brown roared as she kicked off the ground with the 30 ton robot leg clutched in her grip. Launched skywards she soared higher then the ascending robot before beginning to drop. As she felt she heaved the robot leg over her shoulder and swung downwards. At the moment the robot's thrusters reached peak output and the massive rocket engine on the back of the leg fired with the force of a space bound shuttle. Sensing something the robot's single edged head turned skyward just as it's down leg as smashed into it like a gigantic rocket propelled sledge hammer. The deafening sound of crushing, rending, exploding metal cut through the arena as the robot's head was completely crushed. Billions of dollars worth of high end sensory equipment reduced to the consistency of shop class metal shavings in a single instant.
Thrusters cutting out the headless, three legged robot crashed back to the ground. It's body hurled stone and debris outwards like a grenade as it cratered the ground beneath it. Moments after it landed Brown hit the ground as well, landing on her feet and straightening herself out. She looked onto the fallen robot, a weak smile on her face.
"Like I said you were made to kill and that's why you'll always lose to someone who chooses to...kill..." Brown wavered back and forth as blood began to silently erupt from her arms and legs. Her eyes drooped until she eventally collapsed, her legs folding up as she fell onto her back. The damage to her muscles and bones suddenly showing themselves as she lost consciousness.
Margot stood in awe as Brown tore the thing apart with her bare hands.
"Mon Deiu, thank goodness she's on our side. She jumped as Brown collapsed. Using some of her ki speed, she caught her and carried her to safety.
"I hope you didn't overdo it..."The machine was still operational, but just immobile, and heavily damaged... in a final, desperate moment to save itself, it deployed all of it's weapons and fired wildly in all directions. But, it couldn't save itself.
"Everyone! Unload everything you have into the robot!" Sage shouted as they raised a hand up into the air, and a shining beam of light bore down, and created a massive bow that was at least twice the length of their body. "My loving God..." Sage muttered as they pulled the string, and an enormous arrow of light appeared. "Please, guide my arrow so I can destroy all threats to your loving reign...."
The arrow lost shape as it took more of a form of fire, vaguely arrow shaped.
"... So all may be well."
Sage fired the massive arrow at the machine, and it was followed by a blinding trail of light. It pierced through the robot, and created a giant, gaping hole. Which should make it easier for the other Nomads.
Calvin rubbed his hands together, spreading them apart as he began channeling massive amounts of his ki into them. By the time they were both radiant with blue ki, he slammed them on both sides of the Giant Robot's rear. With both hands filled with overwhelming force colliding towards each other, The creatures rear was completely crashed. It left the Canadian exhausted, however, and he fell backwards, still conscious, but breathing very heavily.
Finally, Brenda mustered the strength for another eruption move. This time, it should finish the job. She raised her hand up into the air as she gathered volcanic ki, until her fist was glowing a bright orange color. She twisted her upper body, and punched the ground hard as she possibly could. A massive fissure appeared, and sprayed the machine with volcanic lava, and Brenda hopped back up with her fists ready.
Now the angel was yelling at everyone to throw their strongest attacks at the robot. Unfortunately for Lucie, she already
was throwing her strongest attack at the robot! It's not like she could just with her sheer force of will force the bullets that she was shooting to hit the robot any harder than they were in the fight previous before! Guns simply just don't work that way!
Unless...
The Frenchwoman rummaged through her box of grenades, before pulling out a highly experimental potato-masher looking explosive. If Lucie wasn't holding it right in her hand, she thought it would have came straight out of those science fiction games that she once played as a teenager. It was a highly experimental Tesla Grenade, and these things cost a fortune for the MAVERICK organization to get their hands on. The grey-haired woman was reluctant to use this grenade earlier in the fight, seeing how much strings she'd had to pull to get her hands on another one of these babies. But looking at the destruction this one single robot managed to bring, Lucie knew she really had no chance.
She twisted the stick of the grenade, causing blue sparks of electricity to jump all around the grenade. The Frenchwoman jumped out of the remains of Brenda's stone cover, to face the robot directly.
"I GOT SOMETHING FOR YOU, ASSHOLE!"
The MAVERICK agent lobbed the grenade as hard she could, straight into an exposed area of circuitry. A beautiful explosion of electromagnetic and kinetic energy erupted as soon as it pounded into a hole on the robot, frying all the unshielded electronics in its vicinity.
Clenching the bottles in his hands, curled up on the ground, Askin muttered words of binding and magic into his fists.
Holy shit, did that really just happen? The robot was a staggering mess, nearly single-handedly crippled by Brown's unforgiving strength. But Brown herself hadn't gotten back up after her vicious pummeling, and the dashing woman in blue had gone to rescue her from her vulnerable position just before the robot. Askin hadn't seen Brown take any hits, but a nasty suspicion about the woman's sudden burst of energy was working its way into his head. The seven syllables of the sea, the circle of prayers, the iron hymn—as he focused his energy, Askin stuffed Brown's earlier injuries deeper and deeper into the bottles, binding their lids, hoping to buy her as much time as he could before her old wounds returned. As he spoke, he pushed himself as fast as he could towards the blue woman, waving frantically, saying in a soft, rasping voice between sealing syllables, "Hey! Over here!"
Margot away from the robot, trying to dodge the few remaining gun drones. She ran back to the last bit of cover she had, next to Askin. She stopped next to him, kneeling to put Brown down for a moment as she looked around. Her eyes locked onto him.
"I don't know how you healed her so quickly, but I hope you can pull the same trick twice. I think she's pushed herself too hard." Already her mask was trying to diagnose Brown's injuries and suggesting first aid treatments, though each of them were bracketed with a "PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL TREATMENT REQUIRED"
"Christ above," Askin muttered. Brown's injuries were just as bad as the ones he bottled away. He'd miscalculated—this was self inflicted, massive stress from some kind of super-move. "Listen, ma'am, I didn't actually heal her, I just bottled away her old injuries. There's maybe twenty minutes before all these injuries double." He took out the bottles. One, containing Brown's pain and exhaustion, he pocketed and ignored, focusing only on the one with her injuries. Another quick word of sealing, and concentrated burst of willpower. "That's another five minutes. I can't hold this off forever though, we gotta get her to some kinda hospital facility for when her old injuries come back."
Otsana ran over, putting her gun over her shoulder.
"Holy shit, Brown, is she okay?" She got down next to the others and looked the girl over.
"Shit, where's Doc? We need Doc. Askin, did you see Jonas around here or is he still AWOL?" "Jonas? Is that the other woman's name? I think she's somewhere over there." He gestured to a massive pillar of earth off in the distance, the product of another attack from the earth-powered woman. It was then, however, that Askin tried to get to his feet, and a burst of jelly-like pain ran up his body, and he remembered his shaking, unworking legs. "Ouch! Ah. Shoot, wow, I forgot about that."
Otsana facepalmed.
"Right, you haven't met him yet. Did either of you see a guy running around in a white labcoat?""Not me," Askin said.
Margot looked over at Otsana.
"It was pretty hectic back there. They could be anywhere, but he," she motioned to Askin,
"needs our help to move. Think you can carry him while I carry her? We're on a time limit here before she gets worse."Askin looked over Brown's injuries as the others talked. Even if the others carried her away as quick as they could, she must be in incredibly unstable condition. He had no open bottles left, but, that could always be amended.
Digging into his pocket, Askin produced yet another tiny brass bottle, and opened up the thumbnail-sized thing over Brown's face. There was a soft sound, like children's laughter coming from far away and deep underwater. A good, happy dream was released into Brown's sleeping subconscious. And now, a free bottle.
With hurried words of power and sealing, Askin removed the worst of Brown's injuries, though it was a rush job, and he couldn't take away her pain or exhaustion this time. "That should buy us another ten minutes, maybe fifteen. Not a lot though."
"Right, I gotcha Askin." She picked him up with a practice motion onto her back, his arms wrapped around her neck, a soft
ooph! expelled from his chest. [color=lime]"Name's Otsana, by the way."/color]
"Well, thanks for the lift, Otsana. Ah, sorry if I get any blood on you. It's been quite a day." He tried to be careful with his arms around her neck, though she seemed more than capable of supporting him (or ten of him, at that). After the chaos of the fight, and spending most of his time beaten across hard, unforgiving rock, it was nice. He left his head rest gently on Otsana's shoulder. Blackness hovered around his vision, and he fought off the sudden urge to fall into a deep, deep sleep. "Oh," he remembered, looking faintly to the woman in blue, drowsiness winding around his eyes. "I'm Askin, by the way. Askin La Askerrone."
Margot nodded.
"Renard Bleu, nice to meet you." She picked up Brown carefully herself, standing up and motioning to the group of fighters already forming.
"After you.""Oh," Inanna said sheepishly. "Did we win?"
The robot couldn't take the barrage of damage, and the grenade was the straw that broke the camel's back. The robot broke down, falling apart into several different pieces as the lights went dead. It hit the ground with a colossal thud, and it's corpse rested there. The robots that defended it quickly left the area, and the Nomads celebrated.
"Well, that's one pain in the ass out of the way," Brenda said as she put a hand on her hips, as she watched the robots flee. Probably was a central unit, or leader? It could possibly be controlled by someone? Brenda couldn't tell, but maybe a little punching could.
"Everyone has cleared the arena," Sage said, as their ability to sense the light of people around them told them that nobody was around... other than the bodies. The poor civilians that didn't get away in time. Fortunately, Sage did all they could to save who they could. They put a hand on their chin as they thought about it. "This attack seems... random. They couldn't have been here to kill people, or else they would have just blown the place up from a distance..." They mused out loud.
"I thought they were after something here..." Inanna said.
No,that was my idea... The golem opened a portal to where his staff was and grabbed hold of it before planting his foot in the leg it was embedded in and pulling hard. It eventually started to give... But only because the staff had broken in two. He fell backwards and clutched the staff's head against his stomach and letting it fall to the ground. He looked around for a moment, seeing that some others hadn't gotten through the fight with nearly as much luck as he did.
"Possibly," Sage said. "Such as... the prize money?" They suggested.
"Oh, yeah, like that!" Inanna agreed. "Thinking about this is really fun, but we seem to have some wounded. Maybe it would be a good idea to get them some help first? Or get them somewhere a bit cleaner and safer?" He opened a portal leading outside the arena to demonstrate his point.
"Yeah..." Brenda took a look at Brown, whom proved her strength to Brenda. Maybe the girl had something in her that Brenda couldn't quite see yet. Maybe the girl had
passion. Though, there was something else on the stone-boxer's mind. "But, I feel like there is something we forgot..." Brenda said, as she rubbed her chin.
... The explosions of the bombs they failed to disarm quickly reminded her as she quickly looked around and saw the arena go up in flames.
"... Oh, that." Brenda said as she looked at Inanna. "Quickly! Make a portal!"
"Right!" Inanna said. He closed the first portal and opened another one next to him, leading much farther away from the arena this time. Brenda quickly rolled inside of it without giving her team a second thought.
There would be no escaping through the gates. All around, the walls of the arena went up in clouds of rubble and molten fire. Some nomads, the ones capable of flight, were escaping through the air, carrying what friends they could. Not too far away, the woman who Askin had assisted with the combo attack had shouted something at a strange-looking youth—
that's right, he remembered,
the slight, white-looking boy who could summon portals."Over there," he shouted, though in his current state it resembled something more similar to a stiff breeze than a shout. Even with the world crashing down around them, the drowsy blackness hadn't left his vision, and he could barely lift his head from Otsana's neck.
Otsana had already broken into a sprint.
"I can't believe we got sidetracked on that shit!"Margot gave her a sideways glance as she followed her.
"Any port in a storm. "Lamma bada yatathanna," Askin sung distantly, his thoughts and words dissolving into a humming whisper. "Aman, aman, aman aman..."
Calvin weakly raised a hand towards the glowing portal. He was still exhausted, having spent so much ki in his attack.
"Somebody help me?" His arm collapsed to the ground. He hadn't really spent this much energy in a single fight before.
Lucie raised her fist excitedly as she watched the robot broke apart after the grenade! The Frenchwoman finally did it; she saved the city!
Well, most
of the city, she corrected herself as she looked at all of the bodies strewn across the ruined stadium, the remains of slaughtered attendees and competitors. Still, many more would have died if she did nothing, and that what was important, right?
Right?The MAVERICK's attention turned to the androgynous person she bailed out with a smoke grenade, the one she tried to tell to leave while they could. They evidently didn't take her advice, which suit themselves, but now he was trying to volunteer to stay behind while others evacuate! The Nomad that seemed to be relying on some sort of magic for basic locomotion!
"MAVERICK doesn't run away from a site of disaster," Lucie barked at the androgynous being, "
You need to get out of here!"
The Frenchwoman had half the mind to try to evacuate the androgynous person herself, but that idea quickly went to the backburner when she heard an injured Nomad with a slight Canadian accent begging for help. She turned to face a brown haired youth-looking nomad reaching towards the portal, unable to get his body moving.
"I got you," Lucie said as she ran towards the person on the ground. She leaned the injured nomad over her shoulders and started dragging him towards the portal, away from this catastrophic mess.
"Wow, thanks." Calvin said gratefully. Calvin looked hopeful, despite the apocalyptic stadium falling to pieces around him. Then he saw the bodies. Several of them nomad, several of them robots. His eyes drifted to an asian-looking girl, and his expression dropped from mild discomfort to shock. It was Yen, the girl who he teamed up with. She wasn't moving. He held an arm out to her, and then tapped the girl he was with on the shoulder.
"Hey, can you see if she's okay?" He pointed towards Yen.
Lucie nodded, momentarily laying the Nomad she was carrying back on the ground, before walking over to what she assumed was his friend. She was as stiff as a door, just by looking at her. She didn't really need to go any further to give her coroner's report to the first Nomad, but she wanted to let the brown haired kid to at least have the comfort of knowing that she tried. She kneeled over the corpse and put her fingers over her neck, trying to find a pulse. As she expected, there was none.
"She's dead," Lucie somberly noted. "I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do."
The MAVERICK agent shook her head and lightly sighed, before going back to carry the still-alive nomad to safety. They can cry over the dead once everyone is away from ground zero.
Inanna frowned, concerned over the loss of life as he watched the two head through the portal. Making sure that everyone had gotten through, he stepped through the portal and closed it behind him.
Right when the Nomads cleared the arena, the stadium fell apart. Collapsing in on itself. Fortunately, everyone got clear, and there were... no more casualties. But, it was the fall of an icon, a landmark to all martial artists... in crumbles. Brenda had rolled out of the portal, and looked over her shoulder and watched the tragic show. While she didn't care for the stadium, or even the tournament... this place was something often talked about by her peers in the boxing gym. And... she always passed by this place when she was younger.
Then she realized that, on reflex, she left her entire team behind.
"Guys!" Brenda shouted as she looked around. "Is everyone okay?"
Sage shortly came flying down, as their wings dissipated. They paid no mind to the arena, and focused on the Nomads... they didn't need the angel's help, but there was something on their mind.
Inanna tilted his head to one side as he looked at what was left of the arena. What was next?
What's next? We were supposed to find out what they were after! We're fresh out of leads, now... Inanna sighed. It was another excuse to head back home, along with his need for a new staff. This got him on the receiving end of a lecture on how irresponsible he was to break such an ancient heirloom, but it quickly faded once the voice realized that Inanna was only pretending to pay attention.
Calvin hopped off of Lucie's back.
"Thanks for helping me. I can walk now."He stood in front of the blazing arena, hands in his pockets. Other nomads looked shocked and broken at the destruction of a piece of fighting history. Calvin stared at the floor, and kicked a single pebble into the inferno. He turned around and sat on a bench, and sighed.
Lucie smiled as the nomad hopped off of her back. Thanks to her work, she can definitively say that she made sure at least one person survived all of that carnage.
"Don't thank me, it's just my job," Lucie said. It sounded like the heroish thing to do? Lucie did like to be thanked though; it felt like an affirmation that everything she did was ultimately good.
"I just wonder where the rest of MAVERICK was..."
"The rest? Are you a member of MAVERICK? That's cool."Calvin didn't know where he was gonna go next. He didn't have any money to travel, and had already visited most of the Americas. He wanted to visit more of Europe, but didn't have enough money.
"Oui," Lucie replied as she slowly changed magazines, as a precaution in case any further violence came around. Never know, one of those smaller robots could have survived. "MAVERICK was the security detail for the tournament..."
"Yeah,
was," Brenda bitterly added. "That didn't turn out so well, did it?"
"Now hang on. Even MAVERICK is probably ill-prepared to fight off an entire army of sci-fi robots. If they weren't there, that probably means a lot more people would have died if they hadn't shown up." Calvin shrugged.
"I just hope they can stop whoever did this before it happens again..."The sound of a familiar voice pulled Askin's consciousness out from the smoky river of his unformed, half-sleeping thoughts. "Hey," he said, shifting his head slightly in Brenda's direction, "I know that voice."
Otsana looked over her shoulder.
"Well we just got through a horrible terrorist attack, so there's that." Margot nodded, looking for a place to put Brown down.
"We need to find this girl a doctor, quick." Lucie shot Brenda a glare, not just from wounded pride, but also from the all the deaths at the stadium now being laid at her feet.
"I responded as fast as I could."
"She did," Askin piped in quietly. The dark blur of sleep that sifted below his thoughts, once so terribly inviting, suddenly took on familiar shapes more like memories than dreams. In the same way one gags when bile rises from the belly to the mouth, Askin felt a similar reaction as the past trickled up from the stomach where it sat to and intrude on his tongue. "I don't think it's fair, blaming anyone like that. She fought. We fought. But now, uh, no more fighting, please."
Brenda crossed her arms, but chose to take the little Hobbit's advice... for now. "Fine." She looked around.
His head fell back down onto Otsana's neck, no longer able to support itself. Memories nipped at the edges of his eyes, like fish picking at dead skin. He hoped very much that Brown was going to make it.
It was probably time that Brenda and the crew departs. Jonas is probably dead, or if he was smart, he would had left - hey, where did the doctor scurry off to while they were fighting the robot? If he left, then, after Brenda's mission was complete, she was going to personally shove her fist up his ass. But, for now, Brenda walked over to Margot, and said, "I'll take her off your hands." She took Brown, and effortlessly carried the girl. She looked over her shoulder, then said.
"... We have a damned good doctor."
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