By C.M. Rich (Magnetman)
May 31st, 20XX, 5:39 PM , PST
War took the first shot.
It was a bright orb of plasma that buzzed past Snakeman’s cheek
just barely as the nimble-yet-exhausted Robot Master managed to side-step
the glob. Behind him, the red-hued collection of energy smashed into
the dusty Earth, splashing apart upon contact and searing everything
within a few feet, the plasma slow to dissipate.
“Slow-burn plasma!”, Geminiman alerted. “Look out! That stuff’s
worse than napalm!”, shooting off a Gemini Laser towards Famine, who
proved to be a difficult target.
“I’ve had enough burning for one day…”, Shadowman
grumbled, taking three kunai in his hand from his back.
Attempting to disarm the massive red war machine as quickly
as possible, the world-weary Shadowman launched all three daggers at
War’s armament, growing frustrated by the rogue mercenary’s
technology.
The kunai were deflected by an ion field produced from an oval-shaped
bulge on War’s forearm, which was only visible due to the dust
hitting it. The ion field appeared to be automatically activated, and
not by the soldier, making things that much worse.
“Damn it.”, he spat, looking over the Horsemen and spotting the
ion generators in various places all over their armors. They were rather inconspicuous
before, but now they were ominous in their simple shape, meaning it would be
a tremendous obstacle just getting past those to inflict any damage to the
Horsemen.
Before he could come up with another plan of action, Topman
was getting rather impatient, opting to test the Horsemen’s close
quarters combat potential against a flurry of seemingly random spin
dashes and whirling roundhouses.
“I’ve got this!”, Famine yelled, stepping in front of his
brothers quickly.
The black-clad mercenary’s rifle barely made a noise as its projectile
unloaded itself in the form of a mass of grey-tinged air-hard to see
in the hellishly dust-infected atmosphere.
SD was having a hard time finding the impending attack, but
rolled to the side at the last second, the mass of silvery dust somewhat
colliding with his left inner knee. After a few rolls without feeling
much effect, Topman stood up and took stock of the damage, if any.
“Oh! Shit!”, he yelled, trying to brush off the ash that was eating
away at his outer layers, disintegrating his gloves slightly, exposing the
synthiflesh and metallic bone ever so slightly beneath his fingers.
“A caustic cloud.”, Snakeman named the deadly munitions. “It’s
like a cancer. It’ll eat through just about anything.”
“Thanks, Mr Wizard.”, Topman said dryly, finally spinning the last
of the cancerous creation off of his body.
“Hehehe…You guys are completely outclassed.” Famine gloated. “Even
Dr Light’s brilliant mind couldn’t match our R and D lab’s
capabilities. Meredith and the good doctor here are only a scratch on the surface
of our technological might!”
“Meredith?” Geminiman echoed.
“Probably one of the Riders we killed.” Raijin concluded. “Spark,
give me some cover, alright?”
“Coming right up!”
SparkChan stood to the side of the serpent sniper as he kneeled
for a level shot. Electricity crackled to life in the sandstorm, and
a very visible field of amber plasma formed in front of the pair.
Snakeman squeezed the trigger, watching his armor-piercing
bullets disappear against the ion fields generated by Death.
“Worse than I thought.” the scaled sharpshooter grumbled between
shots. “Those fields are instantaneous and a lot more powerful than they
should be. I think- LOOK OUT!”
In his concentration, Snakeman hadn’t noticed the near-seven foot
tall War approach from the side, attempting to club the sniper with
the butt of his rifle. As Snakeman rolled away, Classi turned her attention
towards him, using some of the power she had generated for the spark
shield to stun the Mars red merc.
“Gla-ah-ah-ah-ah!!”, he screamed as the Spark Shock smacked into
his shoulder, arcs of electricity tracing lines over his body for a few seconds
before he dropped to a single knee.
“Oh…my…I didn’t think it’d…”,
a concerned SparkChan defended.
“Good work, Spark!” Snakeman commended, on the other hand. “Electricity
doesn’t seem to be their friends.”
“Same with my lasers!”, Geminiman chimed in from a few yards away,
overhearing the conversation. His Gemini Laser was indeed having a notable
effect on Death, who sported a few new scorch marks on his silver and black
attire.
“Their shields are meant for solid weapons, not energy-based attacks.” Snakeman
surmised. “G, any luck with you?”
Shadowman wasn’t having as much success against Famine, nor was
Topman:
“These guys aren’t exactly sitting still for us.”, he shouted
back, ducking a rifle swipe from the onyx black warrior as SD’s whirling
kick was rebuked by an ion field.
“These damned force fields are all over these guys!”, Topman added
in dismay, rubbing his foot.
Snakeman took this in for a second, then turned to his associate.
“Spark…I know it’s not what you want to do, but you’ve
got to go on the offensive.”
“Raijy, you know that’s not-“
“Please. If you don’t, we’re probably not going to get out
of this one alive. You’re the one in the best position to help us win
this.”
“I…” she said, turning away to watch Geminiman get smacked
in the face with a nasty left hook from Death. “Okay…”
“Good. Now-“
Snakeman felt the shadow a bit too late as War had recovered,
literally crushing Snakeman with his powerful arm, mashing his face
into the Earth, almost drowning him in the sand-like ground.
“Got a little cocky, junior.” War admonished. “It’s
the last mistake you’ll ever make.”
“Ka! Class…Gyrahh!...N-now!”, Snakeman pleaded under War’s
grip.
Hesitant, Classi had to force herself to watch Snakeman’s suffering
for a second before realizing she had no choice. Her conductors were
ready, energy gathered. She looked up at War.
Who was pointing his rifle dead at her face with his free hand.
“Another mistake.”
May 31st, 20XX, 5:46 PM , PST
Lennon could almost feel the shot
from the ten yards distance between he and his elusive love interest.
Instantly, he turned around, completely ignoring Death’s attack
barrage.
“No…CLASSI!”, he screamed.
Death wasn’t about to let such a golden opportunity escape. He
kicked out Lennon’s knee from behind, forcing the Twin Terror
onto his knees.
“The worst crime you can commit on the battlefield,” he started
with a raspy voice. “is taking your eyes off your enemy, even for your
friend.”
Death wrapped his arm around Lennon’s throat keeping him steady
as he pulled out another weapon from his belt. The familiar buzz of
a beam blade accompanied the sight of the knife held next to Lennon’s
throat.
Still, that took a backseat to…
“Spark! Answer me!”
He couldn’t keep his eyes off of the motionless figure of SparkChan,
still smoking from some place on her upper torso, her head turned away
from him.
“Stupid child.” Death berated, digging the fiery laser knife into
Lennon’s face.
“Yeaarrgh!”, he screamed, his attention now back on his current
peril.
He struggled like a rat in a trap, finally pushing the snickering
Death away from him, grabbing his face as soon as he could. A major
part of his left cheek had been burnt down to the metal beneath, which
was also sporting a deep groove.
“You bastard…”, he hissed at the silvery menace that clutched
two beam knives.
“Hope you can handle the receipt. No one touches my face, least
of all leftover trash like yourself.”
Geminiman matched Death’s weapons with two of his own, his riot
batons. He was far from agile or showy with a back-handed smack, which
was deflected by the handle of Death’s knife. The two then matched
attacks, holding each other at bay at arm’s length.
“Boy…This ain’t a game. This isn’t about honor or
pride or anything so meaningless. This is way bigger than that.”, the
silvery menace coldly stated.
“Keep telling yourself that if it makes killing civilians that much easier
for you. Do whatever you need to delude yourself to sleep at night.”
Death delivered a swift knee strike to Lennon’s upper thigh, which
was blocked with his free hand. Using Death’s imbalance to his
advantage, Lennon thrust his own foot down towards the mercenary’s
grounded leg, hoping to break it.
Again, he was thwarted by an ion field, his foot stomping down
awkwardly as it glanced off of it, his back momentarily turned away
from his enemy. That was all the silver-clad soldier needed.
After only a second, Geminiman was now attempting to remove
one of the glowing knives from his back, planted right between his shoulder
blades in an instant. Death wasted little time in following up once
more, jamming the other knife straight through Lennon’s right
knee from behind, going straight through to the other side.
“Ahhhgh!!” the Twin Terror screamed as he collapsed under his own
weight just as Death reclaimed both of his weapons with calculating effort.
Lennon turned over on his back, propping himself up with his
elbows, his head tilted backwards in total pain.
Death took only a moment to look over his enemy, then kicked
away the twin riot sticks cautiously, then resumed stalking his prey.
May 31st, 20XX, 5:31 PM , PST
“Gaunts! We’re definitely NOT winning!”, Topman observed,
watching Lennon fall a few meters away as he avoided another blast of sickly,
cancerous air from Famine’s rifle.
“Noted.”, the ninja acknowledged, though he had realized this a
few minutes earlier, taking the time to send a few kunai in Death’s direction
between masses of the cancerous clouds shot at him.
Death’s attention turned towards the pair of Famine-dodging Maniacs.
“He’s all yours, Top.”
“Oh, great. Thanks.”
Gauntlet unsheathed his ninja-ken to get up close and personal
with the matter-melting Famine, hoping to at least negate that ever-so-deadly
caustic cloud. A quick twirling leap later, and Shadowman was perched
atop Famine’s own rifle just as he was about to take another shot.
“Hi.”
Famine dropped his rifle to the ground, hoping to unbalance
the cyber shinobi. No such luck for Famine, as Gauntlet merely shifted
his weight, landing on his feet, managing to kick the rifle away, much
to the ninja’s relief.
“You! Well, you can’t even lay a finger on me. Not with this armor.”,
Famine reminded in a shaky tone.
“Hmm, I’ve been wondering about that, actually.”, Gauntlet
confessed, ducking below a bladed elbow from Famine. “It’s a pretty
good defense, but I think you’re relying on it a bit too much.”
“Is that so? Ha! I’ve had my fair share of battles. In fact, I
was probably retired around the same time you were a toaster waiting to be
recycled into a hunk of scrap robot. I’ve got nothing to prove to you!”
“Now, that’s not very constructive.”, Shadowman admonished. “You’re
just going to let your equipment do the work for you? What if your equipment
fails?”, he questioned after coming around Famine using his shadow warp.
“Not bloody likely! This armor is absolutely perfect! It was, after all,
reverse engineered from some of Dr Light’s own designs and improved upon
a hundred fold!”
“Is that so?”
Gauntlet leapt backwards suddenly, lobbing a few more kunai
at his onyx black
“friend” in the process.
“Heh! I thought you’d le-earrrrgh!!”
Famine fell back, his hands wrapped around his shin as he looked
at the cause of this new, unfamiliar pain. A kunai was sticking out
of his leg, halfway deep. In a sense of shock, Famine pulled the blade
out as quickly as he could, feeling even more pain as he did so.
“Rrrrghh!! Ahhh!”
Keeping an eye on Gauntlet as he slowly, cautiously walked
around him in a circle, like a lion observing his prey, Famine checked
the ion generator on his shin plate that should have deflected the damned
kunai. It was then he realized the small, egg-shaped device was slashed
open from the side, almost from behind.
Shadowman smiled, quite evilly.
“…Death! They’ve found a way past our ion fields!”,
he reported to the nearest Horseman, who was busy trying to stab and slash
the ever-whirling Topman.
“Negative!”, he retorted. “YOU allowed them past YOUR field,
dolt!”
“Just sh-shut up and get over here! I’m wounded!”
“Let your suit do the work, retard.”, Death reminded.
“Y-yeah…Alright…”
Like that, Famine realized his leg was already feeling much
better, the sharp pain easing to a dull throbbing in a matter of seconds.
He remembered now, how his armor could tighten and loosen around a body
part when it sensed a wound, forming a splint and a tourniquet, and
injecting morphine through the dermal layer while releasing trace amounts
of serotonin into the brain, all in a matter of seconds.
Gauntlet’s smile faded as Famine literally hopped back onto his
feet, seemingly unaffected by the nasty wound he had given to him not
more than twenty seconds ago.
“Hehehehe…Tougher than you thought, eh?”, Famine gloated,
flexing his leg outward.
Shadowman stepped backwards, sinking down into his own shadow
instantly. Almost simultaneously, Famine felt a new pain in his newly
healed limb, this time in his foot as he watched a ninja sword pierce
the appendage from his own shadow.
Shadowman then dragged the blade out, cutting down towards
his toes before finally exiting and withdrawing the sword.
“Fix that.”, he demanded, reappearing from another shadow.
May 31st, 20XX, 5:51 PM , PST
“Big man, you’re not
going to get off very easy.”, Snakeman warned his enemy, wiping
away a trickle of chilled blood from his mouth. He was covered in
dirt from his chest up to his helmet, barely managing to kick his
way out of War’s grip.
“I’m absolutely shaking.”, War brushed off.
“You just might in a second.”
War noticed his scaly adversary wasn’t looking him in the eye,
but at his shoulder. The red-plated monster followed suit, looking at
his shoulder. At the very corner of his eye, he saw one of Snakeman’s
minions, obediently chomping away at his chest and shoulder plates,
behind the ion field.
“Hhgh! Damn!”
War pulled the menacing robot critter from his shoulder, bits
of metal falling from its mouth as the enraged mercenary crushed its
neck in his grasp, eliciting a small wince from Snakeman.
“Sorry Makoto.”, War thought he heard Snakeman mutter. That was
just as he felt another new feeling in the same area the snake was chewing,
only this was more familiar.
He touched his hand to the affected body part, bringing up
fingers doused liberally in blood. He’d been shot. It was then
he realized the snake was targeting one of the ion fields on his body.
“H-heh…Pretty clever.”, he granted Snakeman, grasping his
shoulder, protecting it from further damage.
“We’re just getting started.”, Raijin promised, his face
grim. “We’re just getting started…”