I'M ALIVE! (Only by the strictest of legal definitions though)
I've got loads of fun excuses to give you about why it took so long, but telling you might double the word count of this released chapter.
OH! Speaking of doubling things... I have a surprise.
Originally, this story was supposed to be M-rated all the way through, but being featured in places that want to "keep it clean" has made me reevaluate that. And let's face it... I'm not a very vulgar writer. My curses in real life consist of yelling out delicious southern dishes, like "Biscuits and Gravy!" or "Blueberry Pie!" among other things.
ANYWHO... I have created the first M-rated Shards chapter to be released separately from this. Parts of this chapter might not reference it directly, but have inferences towards it.
That's part of my reason for a slow update, being that I preferred to post both at the same time. But please... if you are so inclined, check it out and leave feedback if you wish. I advertise here because I won't pretend all of you follow me and will see the update for it. XD
Now then... Fav, follow, review, enjoy, grab that strange snack. Today... I didn't exactly have a strange snack... Being that it is my wonderful wife/mate/significant other's birthday, I made her an entire dinner FROM SCRATCH. Made my own friend chicken, BBQ sauce with a sweet heat to it, fresh mashed potatoes with roasted garlic and rosemary... then cheesecake for dessert. I bit tough for me to do the last as I'm lactose intolerant. haha... but she enjoyed it.
"Tell me again why I'm offloading these massive things," a voice sassed over the comms inside the suit, its hulking mass landing on a rooftop with a light landing that defied the look of the armor.
"You did offer to pilot the only suit capable of doing the heavy lifting," another voice sounded over the comms. "That and whatever Leo rattled off when you picked your suits."
"Rattled off?" Leo chastised the second voice in a mild tone. "All I said was that Judy's Gravitrix suit, coupled with the heavy lifting ability of the Howlitzer made it ideal for transporting the generators to their appropriate positions before the next breach."
"Like that," Nick mentioned, barely acknowledging the actual words the android spoke. "Besides, someone needed to clear the way and set up sensor pods, as well as correlate all that sensor data."
"I know I'm the sci-fi nerd here… but… can you explain further for me," Judy spoke with a slight mumble to her tone.
The robot replied evenly and quickly, saying, "Staccato is the only suit with the processors powerful enough to quickly sift through and organize the massive amount of data we are likely to receive from the sensors he is setting up."
The rabbit huffed indignantly, smiling on the inside as she realized she didn't really mind her role, though it did feel a bit monotonous. Having been roughly three weeks since her successful rescue of Nick and the following date, as well as about a month since the last breach event of the Gate.
With relations towards the governing factions and such being tenuous, the team couldn't do what they were currently doing until minutes from the supposed next breach, making sure that interference would be minimal, if at all.
"At least Leo was able to blackmail the government into leaving us alone for this event," the doe voiced with a shrug.
"Negotiate," the mechanical being corrected.
"Buddy…" the fox interjected, "you used information of a sensitive and possibly volatile nature, if released to the public, to strongarm them into acquiescing to your demands. It's blackmail."
"The word seems so aggressive though," Leo remarked plainly.
"Ha!" the tod barked in laughter over the comms. "Take some lessons from Fluff. She's brimming with aggression."
"Bite me," Judy belted out with a sassy tone, her following sneer only known to her at the moment.
"Don't tempt me," Nick followed up without missing a beat, as if the exchange was reflexive. The doe dipped her head in her suit, thankful that her fox couldn't see the pervasive blush as she took that in. biting her bottom lip, she then tried to refocus on her task.
"Maybe later…" she whispered, dropping a pod in the appropriate spot, watching the unit expand on the rooftop she rested and deploy.
She was using Howlitzer to carry and deploy a series of shield generators around the city, leaving them to activate and substantiate a barrier at the right time. The plan was to protect Zootopia from a direct impact of a supposedly large incoming craft through the Gate. As opposed to a normal deflector type of shield, which wasn't designed to give way, the specific design of this one was to act like an energy based and ginormous air bag. Using the sensor data that Nick was going to correlate, they could accurately adjust the shield parameters by the millisecond to guide the invading craft away from falling on the city itself.
They got lucky last time, but Leo was rather adamant that they come up with a proper plan to avoid future dependence on luck. As such, this was their recourse.
Each unit was rather hefty and large, testing even the mighty lifting capacity of Howlitzer. That made the grey doe's involvement with her Gravitrix suit all the more vital, being that she was currently and consistently using a deployed gravity field to minimize the overall weight of her load on Howlitzer. To supplement the loading capacity and movement, the android was able to adapt the nanobionic actuator technology from Jackhammer, which operated on a principle that it was acting like artificial muscles. It was less robust than the giant actuators from before, but acted far more organically and reflexively, aiding to mobility in combat, while also allowing for a more compact design to increasing strength.
She had already deployed nearly a dozen of the units, with another four units attached to the back of the larger suit.
"Alright Judy," the robot spoke evenly in her ear, "I'm getting good projected numbers and synchronization from here for the field. Time for you to stop with the perimeter generators and take the last four to set up the center of the field. Nick will be waiting for you with his sensor net."
"Gotcha."
Turning Howlitzer towards the downtown area, Judy locked the legs and fired the thrusters, the multitude of them going off slowly in a controlled ascent, using her gravity functions to work in tandem with the thruster control.
"How's flying around in that titan?" the red tod asked in genuine curiosity.
Looking down, seeing the onlookers staring up at her, the bunny laughed, telling her boyfriend, "We've got some wandering eyes giving me a good peek."
"Oh really?" the red fox jibed with a questioning tone, full of playful energy. "Well… tell them you're taken."
Judy rolled her eyes, sighing at his newfound snark. Before their night together in heated embrace those couple weeks ago, Nick had some sass and bite, but now… he was a spicy rogue with ravenous fangs. It was both a frightful and refreshing change to the previous timid demeanor that he approached her with before. The doe was still processing how to feel about it, though she was still enjoying it, seeing that he wasn't treating her any less respectfully or becoming overly focused on her in a physical manner. Sure… he was flirtatious and made plenty of puns to that spirit, but he still had that soft look to his eyes and smile that never warped.
"I'll be sure to make a note," she replied, increasing her thrust to reach the tall skyscraper that her tod would be waiting at.
A small jostle caused the rabbit to twitch her ears and turn her head.
"Oh relax, Carrots," Nick's voice relayed over the comms, with a shimmer warping the air around Howlitzer's right leg. It dispersed to reveal the very western outlaw looking suit of armor, Staccato, the stealth and sensor suit. The base layer was very condensed and slim fitting, forming to the fox's body well. The 'hat' was a modified sensor apparatus and the 'duster/cloak' was capable of deploying a very effective stealth field.
Staccato, too, was upgraded and modified. The field generator that hid the suit was now able to project a very powerful bubble shield. The catch was that it couldn't activate a shield and stealth field at the same time. The power needs to keep both operational could effectively burn out the suit within seconds. The twin guns that rested on either side of the hips were now able to modulate between stun shots and short range E.M.P. bolts that could disrupt any mechanical functions on a target for a few seconds. As an added function, the guns could be loaded with physical rounds that had a condensed Shard power cell inside. The supposed effect was that it would impact, expunge its energy, and heavily disrupt any shielding that would be in place on heavier units, making way for a more damaging direct hit.
The two of them landed deftly and gently upon the roof to a large skyscraper in the center of their shield and sensor net, with the last four generator units detaching and floating to the outermost borders of the roof.
Opening up the larger suit, the armored doe steps out, looking up and trying to somehow find where the Gate was, many miles above the city. Flux stepped next to her, tapping a few controls on a control unit that rested on the roof before paw.
"Do we have an E.T.A. on the Gate breach?" the armor clad tod inquired of his robotic companion.
"I'm reading no significant variables in the wormhole to denote an incoming breach," Leo remarked simply. "That is not too surprising though, given the information we were able to dig up."
The information that they 'dug up' happened to be a very simplistic manafest that was decrypted of something amounting to dossiers. At first, it seemed too good to be true that they would store such information on another Shard, but it was then surmised from other snippets of information that the list was meant to be a way of making sure the occupying force prepared a proper reception for these incoming forces. Apparently, the Blue Shard was supposed to be one that solidified the occupation.
Whatever the intention, they had a very detailed schematic of what was coming, along with a plan of action from the incoming invasion force.
From what they could gather of the translated data, two Shards would be arriving, with one being drained like a battery to use its power to shield the craft from any damage in the virulent spacial vortex. It was documented that the drained Shard was not expected to survive after transit.
Aside from that, a very powerful Blue Shard, equipped in a pod with nearly sixty drones and eight Flare models, would be encased within. If there was ever a time to plan and pull out all the stops, this was it, because a rare event was likely to happen from this prepared arrival…
…. An entire pod would potentially be shielded and intact, producing a full complement of drones from an undamaged craft.
That left quite the quandary. They all needed to somehow disable, destroy, and decimate the incoming craft before a fully equipped and prepared armada could be unleashed on the city.
"Let's just get this set up and exchange our suits for the new ones," Phantom fired at the two of them, paws shaking nervously as she felt the tension of the last couple weeks of building and planning coming to a head. She wanted their effort and plan to mean something, hoping against everything that it wasn't shattered in seconds.
"She's right. Get suited up," the android agreed. As if to answer their need, two pods arched low from above and landed in front of them. Stepping out of their current suits, Nick and Judy let Leo take control of Gravitrix and Staccato, ready to use them as backups or for cover fire from a distance.
Donned by each of them were better forms of the undersuits that the fox was tinkering with before, allowing more seamless fitting with armor and a means of fighting outside of their suits for a short period if they needed. The red accents were still present, as the power needs had to meet the condensed and very versatile nature of the designs, so as not to overload them, emulating a Red Shard output.
Thankfully, the tod was able to solve the 'pinching' issue. It was still a chance, as nothing was ever perfect, but the chance was minimal and less problematic.
"I'm so glad we had time to train with these before paw," Flux spoke with a roguish grin towards his bunny. "Are you ready?"
"No… but are we ever?" Phantom replied with a anxious tone.
"Oh relax, Judy," he rebuked her rare cynicism with a sweet tone that didn't usually fit him. "You've done wonderfully and come so far, as well as pushed me further. Heck… you've darn near carried us a team for the last couple of fights. I should be the nervous one." On the last sentence, his eyes glazed and paw rose to brush her cheek lovingly, bringing a smile to her previously stiff face.
"Thanks, Scruffy," she tried to sass back, hoping to bring a spark back to his eyes.
It worked and he gave her a gentle kiss, before opening the pod and allowing his suit to form around him.
Judy did the same, feeling that these suits were more advanced and adaptive than many previous designs thus far.
Phantom was wearing Slingshot, a collaborative suit of a couple different designs. It used a much smaller gravity core to give the armor acrobatic versatility, along with thrusters and jump jets that easily alter course, or hold it, in mid-air. The main weapon of the suit was a large rifle, loaded with a prototype ammo that depended heavily on the grey doe's increasing expertise with her control over her power.
Each physical round of the rifle was a very condensed and very high capacity Shard battery, with a degrading cohesion rate that was by design.
With Judy's proclivity to make barriers, Nick had the idea of using it in an offensive fashion, with the mechanical being agreeing and incorporating it well.
With practice, the bunny was able to infuse rounds with the barrier energy, able to fire it and, upon impact, induce a barrier to expand with explosive and exceptionally powerful force, like a deployed airbag.
Without the rifle, the suit was still formidable in close combat, able to use powerful repulsor emitters to create barriers with more refinement than the ones she made during her sparring matches with Nick, while also firing bolts or beams with great accuracy.
Flux was donning his new suit, Hoplon. Shielded, armored, and armed for close combat, it was built and designed to take hits, dish them out, and withstand an elongated battle with multiple enemies. A large shield disengaged from the rear of the suit and slid to lock into place on his forearm, a cylindrical unit coming from the thigh and gripped in his other paw.
The unit was a much more refined version of the 'flashlight' that he brought to Bunnyburrow, turning on with a purple arc of solid crackling energy.
Nick would act as vanguard and engage the enemy up close, allowing Judy to pick off and contain the stray units. Leo would control and use the recently vacated suits to relay information and protect the generators as needed.
"So… we play a waiting game?" the red fox remarked in question.
The grey rabbit shrugged, standing and staring at the sky.
0000000
Nearly an hour passed before Staccato, under the robot's control, seemed to turn its head and spoke, breaking the tension of the two mammals waiting for an imagined eternity, "Energy expenditure detected. I believe we finally have a breach."
Sure enough, there followed a crackling flash from above, a bright cloud of energy exploding out from a point in the distant sky, looking like a miniature nebula.
"Generator's primed and ready," the bunny called out, letting Leo do his work.
"Acknowledged."
Instantly following, all the generators around the city that she dropped came to life, bracing and pointing strangely shaped emitters towards the sky. A vibrant and shimmering wave of lightly purple hued energy funneled out and upward, coalescing into a rippling bubble around the city.
The four emitters Judy dropped on their rooftop began bolstering the peak of the shield, with a resounding echo reaching their ears, sounding like a metallic hum underwater.
"Judy, time for a barrage," the mechanical being reminded her. Leaping into action, the doe hopped into the large suit, the guns aiming towards the tiny dot of the falling pod, the artillery bracing clamps splaying out to steady her armor for a clear shot.
Much like her rifle, Howlitzer's cannons were adjusted to fire off solid rounds with her energy imbibed into it, allowing her to use the expanding barriers to attempt altering their course, or simply blowing a hole in the pod with brute force.
"Locked on," she voiced.
"Fire at will," Leo confirmed.
She pulled the triggers on both control sticks, both long cannons firing with a huge kick that tested the stabilization of the armor. Two hard shell rounds blasted through the sky, exiting the shield coverage.
It was a couple seconds of waiting before there was dual impacts, with the grey rabbit looking at a long distance camera viewing of the event.
The pod looked like an egg with jagged plating and small protrusions randomly sticking out. She had little time to peruse the design before aligning the next shot and firing again.
Howlitzer loosed a couple of mighty howls from the cannons, with Phantom firing off rounds more rapidly, hoping to destroy the pod before it could even impact the shield. Each shot that she could see impact over the camera view exploded with a purple hue, crackling against the red hue of a shield that covered the pod.
"Trajectory altered by three degrees," remarked Leo. "Keep it up."
"I feel a little sidelined here," Nick complained in minor lamentation.
"Don't worry… you'll have…. Plenty of time… to destroy something," the armored bunny snarked at her fox between firing the cannons.
Unlike popular media conceptions, the shields of the pod didn't buckle outright. Some shots would create a temporary hole that another shot might make it through and blow apart some plating, while others would impact a reforming weakness, much like water gravitating to a low spot to create a level surface.
"You only have a few rounds left," the robot reminded her, with Phantom taking a peeking glance at the numbered icon that counted her rounds. She switched to plasma bolts and saved the last rounds for later.
At this point, the pod was descending quite fast, growing larger over the city and looking like a smoking asteroid that just broke the atmosphere.
"Leo… it might be about time to deploy," the red tod commented, seeing how close it was coming.
"Just a few more seconds."
"Leo…?"
"Hold on…"
"Uh…" Nick mumbled, growing worried at the proximity of the alien craft. He knew the shield was supposed to hold but having something that looked like it could level a city by impact alone was a bit daunting.
"Ready," Leo voiced, with the generators glowing brightly from a burst release of energy.
The shield glowed a more solid violet color, the amorphous bubble looking like water with sun beams reflecting off of it. Following that, the bubble expanded upward drastically, with the pod impacting it and slowing down immensely.
Like a drop of water hitting a leaf, the pod skewed off towards the valley from before, where the two faced the previous Shard. Acting like a cushion, the shield was doing as it was designed to, buckling under the pressure in the right manner to redirect the pod to where it would do the least damage.
There was a heavy series of crunches and grinding, with the pod obviously leveling many trees and digging deep to tear away at the earth and bedrock. As it slowed to a stop, smoke billowed from all the blown apart sections that Judy hit, her lips curling in a small sneer of victory.
Both mammals breathed a sigh of relief, having avoided the most dire initial problem of the city being leveled by the pod impact. This was by far the largest and most intact pod, with previous ones having apparently been destroyed within the vortex on most occasions, according to Nick and Leo.
"Let's move," Flux commanded, jumping from the roof and letting his thrusters do the work, propelling him forwards with great force. Phantom vacated the giant suit and rushed to the edge of the roof, laying out, almost splooting to line up her large rifle and linking the scope to her optical sensors. With the stabilizers in the suit making swaying a minimum issue for her aim.
"Quick question," the doe belted out.
"Go ahead," the android goaded her.
Judy didn't sway from keeping her rifle trained near her fox as she asked, "Will the shield hold from any remaining units?"
"Uncertain," Leo replied. "Nearly half the units burned out from the stress, with another few draining their cores to keep up. We now have six units keeping the shield up, to which I cannot accurately gauge how much it can take before total collapse. I'll keep you both updated, but do try to eliminate the targets before they can attack the city, should that be an issue."
"Should that be an issue?" she mentioned curiously.
"Remember that they are almost solely focused on us," Flux told her, his distant form reaching a final approach of the ruined vessel. "And they don't know there are two of us. As long as they are focused on me, I should be able to keep them confined to the valley. Just keep me covered, hunny bunny."
She giggled at that.
"Don't get too steamy in there, otherwise I might have to crack your armor open to relieve the pressure."
"...what is that even supposed to mean?" Nick fired back, utterly confused. The grey doe blushed in her armor, feeling she might have forced her line.
"I believe that she was trying to flirt with you," the robot supplied, to no one's surprise as he stated the rather obvious. Not even bothering herself to be embarrassed further, Judy rolled her eyes, knowing full well that Nick was too.
"Gonna have to wrap this up," the fox interjected, with the bunny refocusing on her scope to see plating of the pod blasting apart, with various drones exiting the craft.
"Tear them apart," she egged him on. He chuckled in response.
True to sentiment, Flux arched upward, cutting his thrusters and angling his shield downwards. His thrusters kicked back on, shooting him downward….
Impacting and crushing the head of a drone, to which it instantly slumped and fell to the side.
"One down… a few dozen more to go," the red tod mumbled under his breath, readying his shield and bracing as he saw the numerous drones exiting the pod.
From a distance, Phantom was gauging her targets and waiting for a clear shot. One Drone appeared to be lining up a shot with a massive, rapid fire, cannon. She picked her target and fired off a round.
Finding her mark, she put a solid round rather effectively between some plating, just underneath the shoulder joint that held up the cannon. While the impact did nothing, the resulting energy expenditure, expanding instantly in a wide diameter bubble with seemingly unstoppable force, ripped the arm from its mounting and threw it violently against a neighboring Drone, knocking it over.
The doe pumped her fist lightly, not wanting to ruin her line of sight with too much movement.
"Nice shot," Nick breathed slowly in amazement, a low whistle preceding his complement.
Not one to stand idle when his girlfriend did good work, the fox charged forward, rolling under a swipe and leaping up to evade a lower blow.
Raising his shield, he planted a foot and let his eye slits barely peek over the rim of the shield, a Drone firing a shoulder mounted blaster.
The shot impacted the center of the shield, a reverberate echo thundering out as the bolt was withstood and reflected back at the offending aggressor, the shot now amplified twofold and tearing into chest plating.
Hoplon's shield had a scaled down version of Ricochet's rebound fields, as the full version required too much reliance on Leo to run the program. So, the tod was able to use the shield to rebound anything that hit it in a frontal attack, giving it a backlash ability.
Throwing the shield at the gaping crater in its chest, as the Drone was still trying to move, the disc impacted the damaged unit and tilted it back, whereas it fell over, sparks and smoke pouring from the expanded wound.
The shield floated in place, able to function very basically like the Ricochet discus as it returned to Flux, magnetizing and clamping back onto his forearm. He barely had time to let it return as another two Drones tried to strike or shoot at him.
Phantom covered him, firing another barrier round at the neck joint of the Drone taking aim. The shot struck, working its way into a crevice once more, going off and popping the head from the large robot like a cork from a champagne bottle.
Taking the chance and knowing she trusted him to deal with the close combat, dived low and slashed his arc saber, with the suspended and confined beam of lightning burning as hot as the real thing. The purple saber sparked and ate away at the metal armor of the Drone's leg, dismembering it from just below the knee and sending it toppling.
As it fell, the fox continued his previous swing and brought the blade upwards, bifurcating the Drone with an uneven gash up across the chest.
It was then that the tod noticed that these Drones were smaller than he was used to facing. Usually the simple robotic enemies were on par with a rhino in size, being difficult approach without worrying over being easily overpowered. The ones he faced now were more equivalent to the size of a lion or a tiger in stature, with speed and power to match. It was a relief that he didn't have to spend so much time on each giant enemy, but the caveat was that there were far more of them.
To note that fear, Flux was slowly becoming surrounded by the amount of intact Drones pouring from the pod.
None of them were the Flare models or the Blue Shard itself, making the fox confused.
"Leo!? What's going on?" Nick called out, taking a guarded stance and striking only when struck. After the first few fell, it seemed as if the remaining many were playing it safe, adjusting strategies and becoming more evasive of his movements.
"The Shard is assuredly in the pod still, though the readings from the one that shielded them in the Gate is long gone. Dead, most likely, having expended all of its energy," the android explained. "But if you meant the sudden change in the Drone behavior… I'm surmising that the Shard might be directly manipulating the strategies. Be very careful. This one was remarked upon being a skilled strategist. I couldn't dig up much more than that. Fight smart and diminish their forces as quickly as possible."
"Got it," he replied, boosting his thrusters and diving towards a Drone. It tried to sidestep, but Flux threw his shield upon leaping, intercepting a leg and making the robot misstep. With that stutter, Nick was able to drive his blade deep into the exposed chest plating, burning out and turning the innards to slag. The entire thing slumped on its back, with Flux standing atop it, hoping to look a bit intimidating to the Shard, wherever they were watching from. The shield returned as well, latching back on.
Phantom steeled herself and fired off a few more rounds, trying to diminish the amount of Drones from her end. She picked her targets, taking out the leg of one to give her fox an edge in approaching it. He took the chance and used Hoplon's shield to bash in the head with a few strikes, cutting the torso to shreds with his blade.
Suddenly, the side of the pod that the tod was fighting near exploded outward, a swash of bolts pouring out and putting him into a huddled stance behind his shield. The move was definitely unexpected and jarring, as it put the normal Drones directly in the line of fire, with a couple blasted apart and one or two more being damaged by the barrage.
Flare Drones trampled through the newly torn gash in the plating of the pod, the new additions looking far more formidable than their lesser brethren.
Nick drove forward fearlessly, knowing Judy had his back.
He closed in, striking and swiping, blocking and parrying. With the smaller size of these particular Flares, he could trade blows with more ease, focusing on controlling the fight instead of avoiding every hit. It didn't hurt his chances that Hoplon was likely his best defense suit, with an integrity field that bolstered his armor plating to far exceed the normal parameters for the alloys that made them. It was like a shield that was infused with his armor. His actual shielding would diffuse energy attacks while the integrity field helped him hold firm against physical attacks.
He had little in the way of ranged attacks, though his entire purpose on the ground was to engage the enemy and give his doe a grouping of targets that couldn't evade her line of fire.
He smiled as a shot rang out…
...only for it to break and burst against a shield above him.
The armored red fox looked around instantly for an emitter, his eyes perusing the pod first.
Nothing.
Upon a closer glance, he noticed the Flare Drones glowing bright, their accents casting out a collective aura that created a collaborative shield between them all.
"Leo, can you still hear me?" Nick barked out, worried he might have communications blocked by the field.
"Loud and clear," the robot replied evenly. "It appears to be a field to entrap you. Keep moving and disable them."
"Don't need to tell me twice," the fox grunted, dodging and darting away from incoming blows and bolts.
The Flares were cautiously closing in, using their shield to confine the space with which Flux could fight. It was becoming harder and harder to move, evade, and strike without being vulnerable.
He was barely holding his own, with Judy firing away to try diminishing the shield strength. It didn't appear to be working.
All three were trying to adapt their strategies and come up with a new solution.
Suddenly… Flux was sent flying, a strike he didn't even see or hear coming impacting his side and throwing his body against the nearest Flare.
It, in turn, batted him aside. He recovered and braced, keeping his eyes, ears, and sensors attuned.
It did him no good.
He was sent flying again by a blow to the back, tumbling him into the confined shield.
Such was the pattern of events for a couple minutes, testing the durability of Flux's suit to its limits as he tried desperately to defend against something he couldn't predict.
"I don't know what's going on! I need help. A reading. Anything!"
"It's the Blue Shard," Leo supplied rather obviously. The tod rolled his eyes, thusly sent flying once more by his unseen foe.
"I got that! Tell me something to help fight him."
"Maybe he's got telekinesis or something?" the far away doe tried to offer, sounding nervous about the hitch in their plans.
"No," the android rebuked. "The shield has a spike in its energy signature with each attack. From what I can gather, its an exploitation in the shield's refraction rate. I would surmise our foe is using speed or projectiles to hit you."
"Speed?" Nick mumbled to himself. Another hit threw him against the shield, knocking the breath out of him. He was quick, most recently more so with his newfound expertise on a once self harmful trump card, but this speed seemed further than that. "Do a scan and figure out how fast, if this Shard is in fact a speedy one."
A few seconds pass, with the red fox growing tiresome of the strikes and seeing his integrity fields redlining. He needed time, and an out.
"The last strike was from something going 1.87 times the speed of sound," detailed the robot. The tod groaned in exasperation, knowing his current suit was too limited in that fashion to even attempt matching that speed.
"Ready Z…" he began, trying to think on the fly, when he was cut off by a grip to his throat, heaving him clear of the ground.
The armored fox was now staring into the glowing visor of a semi large armored being, about as tall as a strong tiger and proportionally built as such, if the armor did any justice to the creature wearing it.
"Is this all you have to offer me?" a garbled voice growled from the being, stunning Nick into non-movement, with Judy having heard it over his comms and gasping slightly.
"Uh… Leo?" the tod mumbled. "...it talked…. in our language."
BOOM!
Don't worry. Already starting on the next chapter. I don't like leaving cliffhangers for long, so I'll keep the month long wait for an update from happening again (barring ridiculous stupid stuff).
Alrighty then!... I'll be delaying the review response for now, since I've got an early morning tomorrow and I believe most of you are just excited to see I updated.
I hope you liked it or at least look forward to the continuance.
Until next time, It's been a hustle, Sweethearts.