The Final Battle
Outside Hamada Industries HQ, the night's quiet was shattered by the peel of tyres as several sleek black cars pulled up to the doors. Out emerged Reilly and five other agents, as well as Tip, who looked understandably uncomfortable.
The men marched forward as Tip opened each door in front of them with her access card, but eventually, there came a door she could not open.
"My key's not working" she told Reilly "The door won't open"
"Stand aside" Reilly instructed her, planting a small fist-sized device on the door.
"Is that some kind of lockpick device?" Tip asked
"In a sense" Reilly smirked, pushing Tip a little bit further away from the door. There was a BOOM and then the door was no more.
"Well, that's one way to do it" Tip said, her fingers in her ears.
"They called me "Wreck-It" in the academy" Reilly smiled, as they all walked in, guns raised. The corridors of the laboratory were almost pitch-black in the darkness. Tip had to be careful not to trip over any cables in the dark.
"Hey sir!" came the voice of one of Reilly's men "I think I've found it"
Tip followed the voice to find what looked like Callaghan's suit.
"So he was making a suit" Reilly said
"I thought it'd be bigger" Tip admitted. While the suit was taller than them all, it was only a head taller than Reilly.
"Spread out" Reilly ordered "See if we can't find anything else"
So the group split up, checking the dark corners of the room. Tip came across a strange sight: power cords hanging high from the ceiling, attached to nothing, yet swaying. And then, in the darkness, she saw a light. A small, faint glow.
Then the light rose up, and Tip realised that Callaghan had never left the room. This was the true suit.
It was a humanoid tank of a suit. Miniguns and cannons were strapped to its arms and shoulders. It was a machine built for war.
Tip screamed.
"Get out!" Reilly shouted at her "Open fire!" he yelled to his men.
Tip turned and ran, the sounds of gunfire and ensuing screams following behind her. When the shooting died down she feared it wasn't because she was too far away to hear. She didn't stop running until she was outside the building, and her phone rang.
"Tip?" It was Hiro!
"Hiro. Oh my God, Hiro, are you okay?"
"I'm fine" came his reply "How are-"
"Hiro, it's Callaghan!" Tip cut him off in a panicked rush "He's gone insane!"
"I know" Hiro said
"He's built a suit!"
"Tip, I want you to get out of there, you hear me?"
In that moment, the ground rumbled as Callaghan clawed his way out up through the very earth of the parking lot. Tip was frozen in place as the suit's blank face fixed stared into what felt like her soul.
"Where do you think you're going?" came Callaghan's booming voice.
More terrified in that moment than she had ever been before, Tip stumbled and fell and screamed as one of Callaghan's arm-cannons whirred into life and pointed at her.
"Your services are no longer required"
He never fired, because at that moment Hiro came flying in with dive-bombing tackle yelling "CALLAGHAAAAAAN!" The ensuing crash knocked Callaghan straight off his feet, through several shipping containers and out on to the freeway, where they both went through a truck before they eventually stopped, another car bouncing off of Callaghan for added insult.
Growling, Callaghan picked up the car, the occupants screaming inside. "I love this suit" he said as he raised the car over his head.
"Put them down, Callaghan!" Hiro ordered him.
"Collateral damage, kid" Callaghan retorted.
Not wanting to harm the civilians, Hiro kept his arms low "Divert energy to chest piece" he instructed his computer. Responding, Hiro's suit fired a massive blast of energy from his chest instead of his hands, the force of which knocked Callaghan flying backwards.
Hiro lunged forwards to catch the car, successful in his attempt. Unfortunately, his suit wasn't as strong as Callaghan's and he could feel the strain the weight of the car was putting on him. Not to mention the fact that the driver hit the accelerator the minute they touched the ground and Hiro was unceremoniously ran over.
"Ow," he hissed as he got back to his feet "Stupid, ungrateful-"
His statement was left unfinished as Callaghan came flying in armed with a motorcycle, smacking him across the freeway like the bike was a bat and he was its unfortunate ball. Hiro groaned as he hit another car and tried to struggle to his feet, only for Callaghan to charge and kick him again.
"For thirty years, I've been holding you up!" Callaghan as he picked the younger inventor and threw him back on to the ground before stomping on him "I built this company from nothing!" He picked him up again and threw him through a bus "Nothing is going to stand in my way, least of all you" A large missile unfolded from his shoulder as he took aim and fired, destroying the bus in a single fireball.
Hiro survived, but was flown into the sky, only managing to activate his thrusters when he was a few feet off the ground.
"Impressive!" Callaghan chuckled as Hiro took to the air "You've upgraded your armour. But guess what kid, I've made some upgrades of my own!" The parts of Callghan's feet clicked and spun until he too flew skyward after Hiro, his massive thrusters spilling smoke and fire behind him.
"Sir," spoke Oh in Hiro's ear "Callaghan's suit can fly"
"I can see that, Oh" Hiro replied "Take us to maximum altitude"
"Sir, with only 15% power, the odds of us reaching that-"
"I know the math! Just do it!"
And so the race began, Hiro racing as fast as his thrusters would allow him with Callaghan in hot pursuit.
"Hiro, power is now at 13%" Oh warned him.
"Keep going!" Hiro commanded him
"11%..."
"Climb!"
Hiro could feel it now, his jets were starting to lose power, he was slowing down. Callaghan, on the other hand, was just starting to speed up.
"7% power sir"
"Just leave it on the screen!" he snapped.
At that point Callaghan caught up, grabbing Hiro by the ankle and slowing him so he could grab him by the neck "Nice try, Hiro, but my suit is more advanced than yours in every way!"
If Callaghan could have seen under his mask, he would have seen Hiro's smirk and realised that he had fallen into a trap "Oh really? How'd you solve the icing problem?"
"Icing problem?" was all Callaghan said before his suit stopped working.
"Might want to look into it" Hiro smugly quipped before bringing his fist down on Callaghan's head, knocking him out of the air.
Hiro hovered there for a moment, savouring his victory until he was brought to his senses by Oh's voice "Uhh, sir..."
"Yeah?"
"2% power"
That's when his thrusters cut out.
"SHIIIIIIIIT!"
"Now running on emergency back-up power!" Oh announced, his alarmed voice barely audible over Hiro's screams. This allowed Hiro's suits to spasmodically flare back into life, slowing his fall and turning what should have been a lethal fall into a painful, but survivable, crash.
"Urrrgh" Hiro groaned as he landed on HQ's roof "Tip? Are you there?"
"Hiro! Oh my God, are you okay?"
"I'm almost out of power" he told her as began manually dismantling his armour "I've gotta get of this thing. I'll be right there"
CRASH went something him. "Nice try!" It was Callaghan. His suit was still working.
Hiro managed to duck under his swing and opened fire, only to realise he had removed the glove on the hand he was attempting to use.
"Ah, dammit hindsight" he muttered as Callaghan's next punch sent him flying. Jumping back to his feet, Hiro used his thrusters to try and land a blow on his opponents head, only to be caught by Callaghan's killer embrace.
Hiro could feel the pain of Callaghan's armour slowly crushing his own "Weapon status?" he asked his AI through gritted teeth
"Repulsors offline. Missiles offline..." Oh listed.
"Flares!" Hiro commanded.
Every flare within the suit went off at once, blinding Callaghan and forcing him to release Hiro.
"Very clever Hiro" Callaghan muttered as he tried to search for the young inventor in the smoke, his half-blinded eyes only making it more difficult.
Hiro had managed to take cover and hide, although he knew it was only a matter of time before the older man would find him "Tip?"
"Yes?"
"I need you go and overload the reactor and blast the roof"
"What? How am I meant to do that?"
"Go to the central console and open up all the circuits. I'll let you know when I'm off the roof. You'll hit the master bypass button and it'll fry everything up here"
There was a brief moment of silence, followed by Tip's voice saying "Okay. I'm going in now"
"Make sure you wait till I'm off the roof" Hiro told her "I'll try and buy you some time"
Sneaking up behind Callaghan, Hiro pounced on to the larger suit, perching himself on its shoulders "This looks important" he noted aloud before pulling some wires out of Callaghan's neck.
"I can't see!" Callaghan thrashed and grabbed ahold of Hiro and threw him across the roof, taking his helmet off in the process.
Hiro got back to his feet as Callaghan removed his own helmet.
"Y'know," Callaghan said, crushing Hiro's helmet in his hand "I never had a taste for this sort of thing, but I must admit, I'm deeply enjoying the suit!" He continued to speak as he marched towards the young inventor "You finally outdid yourself Hiro. You would have made your father proud!"
Drawing the minigun from his arm, Callaghan opened fire. Hiro managed to protect his face from any bullets, unfortunately the glass he was standing on broke under the storm, and Hiro fell, holding onto a steel beam so he wouldn't fall to the ground.
"Hiro!" Hiro could hear Tip's alarmed cry below. He must have been hanging directly over the reactor. If he fell, he would definitely die.
"You know son, it's kind of ironic" Callaghan said "You tried to rid the world of weapons, and you wound up creating its greatest one! And now... I'm going to kill you with it" From his other arm unfurled a rocket launcher that fired and missed "Damn, you tore out my targeting system"
Ultimately it didn't matter. With the sheer number of missiles Callaghan had it would only be a matter of time before one would land its mark.
"Tip!" Hiro called down to the woman below "Hit the button!"
"You told me not to!" she called back "You had to get off the roof first!"
Another missile flew, this one landing much closer.
"Just do it!" Hiro yelled
"You'll die!"
The next missile's explosion was close enough to dislodge him. Hiro was now only holding himself up with one hand "Push it, dammit!"
So Tip did. The reactor overloaded and released a massive shockwave of energy that sent Hiro flying. Callaghan was hit too, his bulkier and heavier armour taking the full brunt of the shock as Callaghan screamed in pain. Falling forward and through the hole in the roof, Callaghan landed in the reactor and he, his armour and the reactor all died at once in a massive electrical fireball.
Hiro was still on the roof. He wasn't moving. He was barely breathing. The only signs of life came from the reactor in his head, its blinking, failing light desperately trying to stay alive...