Chapter 25
Meteor Strike
The room was medieval, lit by torches. Stone floors, pillars, and horrifying depictions of fallen warriors on murals decorated the room. In the center of the room stood Meteor, the shadows created by the flames danced across his rocky armor. His eyes had the same red glow as his master, a sign he had been infected with the virus. The three siblings walked forward from the doorway up to the solemn warrior. The presence around Meteor teemed and brimmed with bloodlust, he turned to face them and they sprang into action. Quickly each drew their weapons and slashed Meteor in different places. When they had moved past him they turned their heads to see the damage.
"Not even a word before you try to cut me down." Meteor spoke as he brushed himself off, acting like he wasn't even attacked at all.
"Damnit I was hoping that file on him was wrong." Night said in disgust, turning around and bringing his staff up into a fighting position.
"So his file was right about his armor, it's not a big deal." Dusk said as he and Dawn turned and readied their weapons.
"Yeah nii-chan that jus t means we have to find a way around it." Dawn smiled up at Night. He sighed and lowered his staff, "You're right so how about you two help me out finding that way." Night's visor came out of the sides of his helmet and covered his eyes. "You two go at it and I'll collect as much data as I can." Night ordered and Dusk and Dawn nodded in agreement and charged at Meteor.
"Weaklings should learn their place." Meteor said as he stood still taking the attacks again. As the two passed him he quickly turned and threw a punch at Dawn. Dusk saw the attack coming and quickly used an air dash to change his momentum and push Dawn out of the way. Although they dodged the attack the sheer force of the punch caused the wall to shatter.
"If I took that head on I would've been done." Dawn thought as she and Dusk separated and came to Meteor in different directions. Dawn fired off shots from her buster and Dusk used that time to follow up with another slash from his beam saber. The smoke from Dawn's shots hid Meteor from sight, the two siblings stood at the ready to react to any attack. However when the smoke cleared Meteor stood firm in the exact spot where he was attacked.
"Bastard!!" Dusk yelled as he fired off a fully charged shot at Meteor. Again Meteor did not move and allowed the blast to hit him. Instead of waiting for the smoke to clear like last time Dusk and Dawn charged Meteor and impaled him with their beam weapons. Dusk had both of his sabers in Meteors shoulders and Dawn had the tips of her tonfas in Meteor's abdomen.
"Are you finished yet because I am getting bored?" Meteor said as he stood there as if the weapons weren't even piercing him.
"What kind of monster is this guy?" Dusk thought as he looked on in disbelief. Meteor withdrew the weapons from his body and tossed them aside. "If that's all you can do then it's time I finished this." As soon as the words left hi lips Meteor moved so fast that Dusk and Dawn had no time to react. Meteor punched Dusk in the gut and sent him crashing into the wall. He grabbed dawn by the throat and pinned her up against a pillar. "Now I'll make you scream." Meteor whispered to Dawn as she struggled in his grip. He began to squeeze harder and Dawn let out a small cry.
In the next instant Dusk punched Meteor in the face and Night kicked him in the chest. The combined attack managed to free Dawn from Meteor's grip. "Anyone that makes my little sister cry gets their ass kicked!" Night and Dusk said at the same time. "Do you have a plan yet Nii-san?"
"Yeah I know how his armor works now, get us some cover and I'll fill you two in " Dusk nodded his head an d fired off shots around Meteor causing smoke and debris to hide them form sight. Night began to tell his siblings on his analysis of Meteor. "Even though he didn't do anything I was able to figure out what his source of power is."
"Well tell us already." Dawn said impatiently.
"His power comes from our attacks. Every time he was hit by our weapons he absorbed the energy through his meteor rock armor and transformed it into his own energy. I could tell how much energy he converted and stored by a thermal reading I took of him. Every time he was hit the thermal reading increased and when he reached a high temperature he launched his attack against you two."
"Wow that's fascinating but I still don't see how any of this helps." Dusk said.
"If we hit him with enough energy and cause his armor to absorb more than it can handle then it might overload. So without his armor he shouldn't be much of a threat, but we would have to make sure he doesn't expend any of the energy."
"So basically keep hitting him until he explodes right?"
"Yes Dawn in the simplest of explanations." Dusk mocked his little sister. The two began to bicker forgetting their situation. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything too important."
"Yeah you are!" The two yelled and saw that Meteor was standing over them. "Crap." Dusk muttered as Meteor struck the ground where the three had gathered. The shockwave force of the attack caused the ground to ripple. Moving quickly each of the mercenaries scattered and activated their visors to monitor thermal readings. With a quick glance Dusk saw that Meteor was reading 200 F.
"It's amazing that he can get that hot without putting out any felling of heat around him." Dusk thought as he began to test how quickly Meteor would be able to use up his energy. No longer just taking the attacks Meteor began to go on a counter offensive. He still did not avoid the attacks aimed at him but instead threw himself at his enemies and tried to land critical blows. Apparently when he sped up or attacked Meteor's thermal reading would drop quickly. The attacks that the three were hitting Meteor with weren't casing enough build up in his thermal reading.
Night moved to his brother to see what he thought. "We're not doing to well are we?" Dusk yelled over the sounds of the fight. "We need to hit him with more, he probably can't handle anything over 500 F." Night yelled back.
"Oh well that should be easy, especially since we haven't gotten him past 250 F yet." Meteor threw a punch at the two causing a shockwave of pressure that knocked them off their feet. "Aren't I enough for you big boy?" Dawn yelled as she leapt at Meteor and put her buster right in his face. Dawn let loose with a fully charged blast grinning as the blast engulfed Meteor's upper body. However as the blast subsided Meteor's hand grabbed Dawn by the leg. "Little girls should stay out of the way." Meteor spoke as he threw Dawn across the room. She crashed into the wall and was embedded there. "That hurt a little." Dawn pushed herself out from the wall and fell onto the floor.
"Is this really all you can manage? I was expecting a challenge from you weaklings."
Night looked back at Meteor and noticed his thermal reading had shot up considerably. He was at 280 F, almost a 90 degree increase from before Dawn's attack. "Getting hit with that much energy that close is the answer." Night shook Dusk and told him his plan, they ran to Dawn and told her the plan. Each of them scattered and began to charge at Meteor from different directions. "What's this, resigned yourselves to your fate." Meteor jested as they began to speed up and start moving from one spot to another. 'Your speed is nothing to me, you might as well be standing still." As Meteor finished talking Dusk appeared right in front of him.
"Speed's just a diversion." Dusk said with his buster fully charged and pointing right into Meteor's stomach.
"Haven't you learned yet that your attacks are useless."
"Not if you get hit with more than one of these kinds of attacks at the same time." Dusk's statement was followed with Night and Dawn appearing behind Meteor on his right and left sides. Both had their own busters charged and aimed point blank on Meteor, who began to look worried. "What's wrong Meteor you look a little nervous." Dusk taunted. "Now!" Night yelled and the three of them fired their busters. The light from the blasts was blinding, even through their visors the mercenaries could barely see through the light.
The resulting explosion from the blast knocked them back, the area where Meteor stood was covered by smoke and rubble. Dusk slowly rose from the ground where he landed, scanning through the smoke. In the midst of the damage Dusk could see a thermal signature, the area was hot but one spot was reading at 500 F. "Did we manage to pull it off?" Dusk thought. His hopes were dashed as he saw the image move, it looked like it was facing him. "Damnit." He muttered. The image was now charging him and Dusk no longer had to use his thermal readings to see that Meteor was coming through the smoke. His eyes were glowing and he was yelling in fury, but Dusk noticed something about Meteor's armor. "It's cracked, if I push him a little more then maybe." Dusk took off toward Meteor, his right hand beginning to emit a humming sound. "Only one shat at this." He thought as he closed his mask and sped up at Meteor. Within seconds the two were face to face and in that split second when they met Meteor had thrown a punch at Dusk's head. With his quicker speed Dusk was able to duck under the attack, he clenched his fist and looked up at Meteor. "Solar Burst bypass." The humming grew louder and Dusk shot forward at Meteor at blinding speed. "Final Solar Burst! Super Nova!!"
Dusk's super heated fist connected with Meteor's chest. Meteor was taken back, he couldn't believe the force he was being hit with. With all his strength Dusk strained to force his fist through Meteor, but the armor was resilient holding the attack back as best it could. However it the armor couldn't last for long, already weakened the armor buckled and finally broke allowing Dusk to pierce through. Meteor screamed in pain and in his rage he managed to tear Dusk from himself and threw him to the side. He clutched at the wound in his chest, staggering around in disbelief that he was actually wounded.
"This is impossible, my armor could never be compromised." Meteor said in between gasps.
"Impossible is something my brother can pull off." Meteor turned around to the voice behind him and stood face to face with Night. A second was all it took as Night ignited his beam staff and shoved it into Meteor's wound and twisted it. The pain caused Meteor to fall to his knees he looked up at Night who was ready to hit him again, but the blow came from someone else. Meteor fell to the ground unconscious and Night looked over at Dawn who still had her fist clenched and a smile on her face. "I still owed him one." Night let out a small laugh and walked over to Dusk.
Dusk sat on the ground panting heavily, "That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be." Dusk said as Night helped him up. "I guess that file was over exaggerating hi status."
"Well who cares lets just get up to the last floor and get this job done." The three began to walk to the closed door that led to the last floor but stopped when they heard laughing coming from behind them. The laughter couldn't be coming from Meteor they thought because as it rose in volume the three could hear that it was a woman laughing. Night, Dusk and Dawn turned around, buster at the ready. They looked over at Meteor's body and saw that it was beginning to crumble with something starting to rise from it. The figure broke out from Meteor's body and the laughter stopped. The figure brushed off the remnants of Meteor's armor and began to walk toward them.