Still Don't...Wait...Nope Still Don't Own Anything.
More Meetings, though not all of them are good for those involved, also some violence and excessive use of Cole's radio. As to one of the creatures in the previous chapter, Eleanor dropped a Deathclaw off the cliff. There will be a wider variety of things from other worlds in this chapter, I think, maybe, I'll try to put more in here anyway.
Onward To Tomorrow!
Planet Chimera: Mars Sector.
Delta stomped on the wolf-like mans head before tossing the body out of the building and setting it on fire. The former Big Daddy walked back up to the second floor and found Ace retrieving the last of the traps and mini-turrets, with exception of the one from the first floor.
"I think we should leave, all that noise may have attracted something else, there may be more of those things too." Ace was worried Delta would disagree but smiled when he simply nodded and took the turrets and spears she was holding while motioning for her to get her bags.
"Eleanor's in that direction right?" Ace pointed toward where the moon was hovering, it looked like the satellite couldn't decide what direction it was going. Delta nodded and lifted the small psychic onto his left shoulder before marching off in that direction.
Ace continually scanned the area within her range to insure that at the very least they weren't surprised by any living enemies, so it came as no surprise to Ace or Delta when ten more creatures like the wolf-man leaped at them from a cliff twenty feet above their heads. Ace caught all ten in mid air where Delta put an electrified Heavy Rivet in each of their heads before the girl sitting on his shoulder dropped them to the ground, all ten of them extremely dead.
In a large bunker several miles from the pair a man with messy black hair, dark circles under his eyes from lack of sleep, wearing faded blue jeans and a long sleeved white shirt dropped a handful of sugar cubes into his coffee before sighing at the monitor in front of him.
"That's no good, brute strength and shear power are his strong points and with Ace...Hm?" The man brought up the personnel profile for Subject Delta on another screen. "When pressed displays greater intelligence then appearance and usual behavior would suggest? Let's see how far that goes. I wonder what Cross and Smith will do, fight most likely. Oh, the brownies are done."
Planet Chimera: Earth Tropics Sector.
"Demons? God, and I thought the Chimera were the worst of it. So what year was it when you died? I know you said you didn't want to talk about it but it'd be nice to know if there are any similarities in our situations besides being dead." Hale tossed another stick into the fire and checked the fish they were cooking.
"It was 2003." Rachel tossed a rock off the cliff they were camping on, hearing a quiet splash in the water below.
"2003? You died fifty years after I did, how's the world doing? Things were pretty bad last I saw."
Rachel stared at Hale. "How did I miss that? Earth was never invaded by anything other then Fiends, the invasion you remember never happened...on my Earth."
Both half-humans just stared at each other for a full minute before beginning a panicked discussion about what this revelation meant.
Cross stifled a laugh while watching the duo go crazy trying to rationalize the situation. "Guess I should let them get that out of their systems before the party starts, it gives me some more time to get set up anyway."
"So in your history there was a war in the fourties with Germany and Japan on one side while basically the rest of the world allied against them?"
"Yes, but that never happened on the Earth you remember, instead the world lost contact with Russia and then in the fifties the Chimera started invading the countries around Russia, right?" Rachel had decided it wasn't that odd after thinking about it, if the Fiends had their own dimension then why couldn't there be other versions of Earth?
"Right, and the Earth you remember had demons, real demons and magic." Hale didn't remember much from his brief contact with the core consciousness of the Chimera but what he did remember was enough to tell him that alternate versions of his universe were entirely possible, but demons and magic were a bit much to swallow.
Rachel caught the doubt in her companions voice and stood up. The half-fiend floated into the air with fire and light gathering in her hands, the two spheres of magic were then slammed together to create a storm of light blades that sailed off into the night. "Blades of Ouroboros!"
"Yes, real magic and demons." Rachel smirked at the dumbfounded expression on the soldiers face.
"Okay, I don't think I can argue with that. Right, so magic, and demons, bet no one back home would believe this." Hale shook his head and smiled to himself. "Guess I shouldn't be surprised by anything after this huh?"
"I wouldn't say that, I've been surprised quite a few times in the past in ways that had little to do with Fiends or magic, there are still mysteries in the world, like where we are for one." Rachel gasped when she remembered the voice from the room she woke up in. "You woke up in a white room right?" Nathan nodded. "Were you told to exit the room? Did you hear a woman's voice at all?"
"No, I didn't stick around long though, so maybe there was something and I didn't hear it."
"Well I woke up in a room most likely exactly the same as the one you were in, I thought I was dead so I didn't see any reason to move around much, after a few minutes a woman told me to get ready to leave, she said I was taking longer to get ready then someone she called Subject Delta, does that sound familiar to you?"
"Sounds like a designation for a military experiment subject, someone they'd test drugs or something on, never heard it before though. Think there are other people here besides us?"
"At least one more, but there could be others too, I just hope we aren't the only two that are civil."
Planet Chimera: Earth Plains Sector.
Cole sat on a rock staring off into the distance, the radio playing Don't Stop Believing. The Conduit tossed the Blast Core from one hand to the other wondering if it would be safe to use it; if it was just like the ones back in New Marais it would leave him out for at least an hour, could he afford to be vulnerable for that long?
"Just a small town girl, livin' in a lonely world. She took the midnight train goin' anywhere. Just a city boy, born and raised in south Detroit. He took the midnight train goin' anywhere."
"Haven't been attacked by anything for a while but with my luck something would probably show up the minute I was out, at least if Zeke were here I'd know someone was watching my back."
"A singer in a smokey room. A smell of wine and cheap perfume. For a smile they can share the night. It goes on and on and on and on."
"Alright, no use just sitting around..." Cole jumped up and stared in the direction he was sure he had just heard gunfire. "Guess the Blast Core will have to wait after all." The hero put the shard of rock back in his bag and sprinted off to see what was going on on the other side of the ridge.
"Working hard to get my fill, Everybody wants a thrill. Payin' anything to roll the dice, Just one more time. Some will win, some will lose. Some were born to sing the blues. Oh, the movie never ends. It goes on and on and on and on."
Cole crouched down and watched what appeared to be a live action western unfolding before his eyes, with the exception of the fact that only one cowboy was involved, the man in question was exchanging fire with what appeared to be aliens, tall, pale skinned, yellow eyed, mouths filled with fangs, aliens.
It looked like the man was a good shot, one of the aliens was down and another looked injured, but the difference in the weapons the creatures had and the primitive equipment of the cowboy and the advantage of numbers would obviously win this shootout if Cole didn't interfere.
"He's less likely to shoot at me, so here we go." The moment Cole leapt off the small cliff toward the aliens the radio changed songs. When Cole landed, smashing the Amp down on one of the creatures heads, the new song really started.
"Everybody was kung-fu fighting, Those cats were fast as lightning, In fact it was a little bit frightening, But they fought with expert timing."
Cole spun to his left and swept one of the aliens off it's feet before leaping over it and kicking another in the chest, causing it to shoot the injured alien by accident.
"They were funky China men from funky Chinatown, They were chopping them up and they were chopping them down. It's an ancient Chinese art and everybody knew their part, From a feint into a slip, and kicking from the hip!"
The hero of New Marais weaved and dodged among the aliens, breaking bones and damaging their weapons with the Amp while the song continued. Cole was almost surprised when he ran out of aliens to beat on, he shrugged before Bio-leeching the last one.
John Marston hadn't been able to see most of the fight, hidden behind his wagon for his own safety and all, but it had sounded incredible to the former outlaw. "My god, how did you do that?"
Cole turned to the man who had only just then, right after the bio-leeching finished, stepped from cover to examine the broken and battered bodies of his former attackers. "Uh? Practice mostly, never had to fight aliens with laser guns though."
The radio, which had gone silent briefly, chimed in at that moment, a voice both humans recognized. "Those aren't laser guns Mr. MacGrath, that would imply that the Chimera used light based weaponry, those guns, the Bullseye and Auger if you wanted to know, are plasma weapons, they fire projectiles formed from the fourth state of matter, a laser gun would fire a beam of focused light."
Both men stared at the once more silent radio. "What's that thing?"
"Huh? Oh, right, guess you wouldn't know what it is. It's a radio, not sure where it's picking up it's signal from though, it just seems to come out of thin air, it's a machine that receives signals from another source and plays whatever is in the signal; music, voice recordings, and apparently the crazy woman that dumped me here can talk through it.
"Not just you, I had a chat with the owner of that voice too. So why do you have that, radio?" Marston felt he was taking the situation quite well.
"I killed a giant bug, monster, thing in a jungle a few miles away from here and a bunch of orange boxes came out of it, the radio was in one of them." Cole shook his head while wondering when it got so normal for him to say such bizarre things.
John backed up and leaned against the wagon, vaguely noting that his horse had run off again. "What?"
"I know, weird, unbelievable, but that's what happened. Trust me I'm having trouble with the fact I'm talking to a guy that looks like he walked right of an old western movie, so you're not the only one questioning their sanity here."
Marston sighed after a moment of silence. "Think you can help find my horse?"
"Yeah, I can do that." Both men began searching for signs of the wayward equine, neither quite ready to try rationalizing their shared circumstances. The radio began playing The Show Must Go On while the two searched.
Planet Chimera: Metropolis.
Faith and Rubi slid under a stationary truck, both shooting at their pursuer as they did so, the creature behind them just roared and swatted the vehicle aside and followed the pair into an alley. The Runner started making her way to the rooftops while Rubi slammed a door open and dashed into the building.
The Hunter almost followed Rubi but was distracted by several bullets punching into its' skin, Faith took a few steps back and ran forward, leaping through an open window on the opposite building just as the Hunter landed on the roof she had just left. The Runner rolled to her right and scrambled to open another window, flipping out and hanging from the sill while the Hunter, having realized at least a part of what it's prey had done, leaped back through the damaged wall it had just crashed through and landed back on the empty rooftop.
Faith slipped back through the window and quietly dashed into the hall and headed to the roof via the stairs while Rubi rode the elevator up. The Hunter's rather acute hearing alerted it to the moving elevator and the monster smashed its' way through the walls between it and it's prey. Rubi heard the doors several floors below her current position being torn open and grabbed onto a service ladder in the shaft, just above the now motionless elevator before shooting the wires holding the metal box up.
The Hunter, once it reached the bottom of the elevator shaft, roared as it tore the elevator apart to free itself before charging straight up the wall to catch up with the two humans who had just reunited on the roof.
"Dropped an elevator on him, think that did it?" Rubi reloaded her pistols while Faith pulled a pair of grenades out of her bag.
"Doubt it, probably hurt him though." Both women reacted instantly when the Hunter smashed through the roof access door. Faith pulled both pins and threw the explosives while Rubi fired two simultainious shots, detonating the grenades within an inch of either side of the Hunters' head.
The monster stumbled and growled while temporarily blinded, Rubi and Faith headed for the next roof while their pursuer recovered from the surprise attack. The Hunter shook its' head and roared before leaping from it's current location to the slightly lower roof of the next building, it landed ten feet ahead of the humans.
"Good night." Both spoke in unison, they were getting used to that, while the four grenades they had thrown moments earlier detonated right under the Hunter, the blast stunned it and damaged the roof, dropping the dazed monster to the next floor where it's weight carried it through to the floor below that where it lay motionless for a moment before slowly rolling to its' feet, too dazed to do anything for the time being. Sustained fire from four SMGs brought the monster down, most of the bullets being aimed at it's head likely helped.
"Stubborn bastard, most things have the decency to die when you drop a speeding elevator on them." Rubi cracked her neck and replaced her guns in their holsters.
"Or blow two grenades right next to their head." Faith stretched after reloading her own guns and putting them away. "Should we go back for the stuff we left behind?"
"No, probably a waste of time, besides he wasn't alone remember, those guys couldn't keep up but that means they're between us and camp, we should just get moving and pick things up along the way to replace all that.
"Guess you're right. This better not be someone's idea of a joke, putting us through this for nothing." Faith jumped to another roof, Rubi following.
"If it is I'm shooting whoever is behind it."
"No argument."
A flash of red caught their eyes and drew their attention towards the park in the center of the city, a stream of red lightning was connecting the sky to the ground and didn't show any signs of stopping.
"A bit much just to get our attention don't you think?"
"Maybe, but I doubt it matters if we go willingly or not, try to run they'll just send more of those things to herd us back." Both sighed and started toward the park.
Planet Chimera: Panau Desert Region.
Eleanor was aware she was putting herself in danger by doing it but felt that the risk was justified if it meant she would reach Delta faster, so she was teleporting as far as she could again and again without much pause between jumps. The former resident of Rapture stopped when she reached the ocean, she could sense Delta further in the same direction but there was no way she could teleport across the enormous body of water.
A small base caught her attention; on the beach a short distance from her current location was what appeared to be a dock and several boats, there were also nearly fifty armed guards patrolling the area.
"Not likely they'd be willing to let me borrow a boat, but I don't want to just attack them if there's a chance they aren't hostile." Eleanor hid behind a boulder and watched, hoping to see something to tell her whether or not the humans in the camp were enemies or not.
For no reason Eleanor could identify, all the guards suddenly glowed red while the boats flashed gold. The colors remained for only a moment before fading, the soldiers didn't seem to notice it at all and the boats hadn't changed.
Eleanor smiled slightly while forming a green organic grenade in her left hand, Hypnotize would get their attention focused where she needed so she could use her remaining EVE on Electro Bolt to stun them so she could wipe them out with the weapons she had picked up in her starting camp.
The guard Eleanor hit with the small orb instantly turned and opened fire on the others, all of whom only hesitated a moment before returning fire and rushing over to examine the body afterward. One guard was killed by the Hypnotized soldier and another was injured, Eleanor wasn't able to tag them all with the blast of lightning but the ones she did get were between her and those who weren't effected so she had a perfect barrier between herself and enemy fire.
A pair of grenades killed or crippled seven of the soldiers while a pair of Spear gun shots impaled six more. Eleanor slipped behind a jeep and slung the Spear gun across her back again before drawing the machine pistol she had found back in the camp Alex had left her in when he brought her to the planet. With the accuracy provided to her by the various Gene Tonics her mother had oh so lovingly injected her with she was able to take out four more guards without a single bullet missing it's mark.
It didn't take long to finish off the remaining guards, once that was done Eleanor quickly searched the base for anything useful. In the end she found a pair of EVE Hypos and more ammo for her Spear Gun and pistol, along with a few grenades, smoke and standard, and a Mini-Turret.
Once she was ready Eleanor selected the most durable looking and, thankfully, fastest boat and started the engine after checking and confirming that the vessel had a full tank of fuel and enough extra for a full refill, hopefully that would be enough to cross the ocean and get her closer to Delta and Ace.
Planet Chimera: Generic Ocean Sector.
Eleanor didn't know why she was surprised when she was attacked by the swarm of flying fish, after everything else she really should have seen it coming, even the fact that the fish could in fact really fly wasn't that strange in retrospect.
"You better at least be edible!" Eleanor swatted another of the animals aside when it flew right at her spinning like a drill. More then a dozen of the creatures that seemed to simply ignore the laws of physics were already lying dead on the deck of the boat while Eleanor hurled lightning at those still flying around the speeding water craft.
Once the fish were dealt with and Eleanor had carefully confirmed that she could eat them the Big Sister settled down and watched the waves, checking her course and such every few minutes to be sure she didn't miss her goal somehow.
Planet Chimera: E.D.N III Desert Sector.
"What the Hell!" Alec Mason, and the Exosuit he was in, tumbled to the ground as a massive worm erupted from the ground under him. Once Mason got a look at his attacker he just stared at the creature for a moment.
The animal was roughly forty feet in length and had a nearly ten foot wide circular mouth, the giant worm possessed numerous glowing blue eyes on it's 'head' and along either side of it's body, the eyes were apparently protected from the sand through which the creature burrowed since they didn't seem bothered in the least by the grains of rock.
"Damn It!" Alec rolled the mech to his left to avoid the worms attempt at eating him. He remembered all too well that the mech was out of ammo, meaning he would have to ditch it to fight off the monstrous annelid.
Alec charged as fast as the mech could move away from the worm as it recovered from it's own failed attack, there was a large boulder jutting out of the sand about fifty feet from him and if he could reach it he was sure he could daze the worm long enough to exit the mech and lure the worm away from his supplies and transport before killing it.
The Exosuit slid to a stop and turned around to face the charging worm. A charging worm is actually a lot more intimidating then you might think, especially when the worm is forty feet long and twelve feet wide. When there were only seconds left before impact Alec slammed the controls to the right causing the mech to lurch in that direction while the worm sped through the vacated space and slammed into the boulder before dropping to the ground and making a number of gurgling noises and what sounded like growls.
Alec got around behind the boulder and leapt out of the machine, drawing both Banshee Pistols and rushing around the stone to open fire on the worm just as it fully regained consciousness. The bullets punching into its' skin immediately got the worms' full attention focused on Alec who wasn't feeling quite so sure about his plan now that there wasn't a few hundred pounds of armor between him and the rotating teeth of the giant worm.
"Alright, those just piss him off." Alec leapt aside just as the worms mouth slammed into the ground. He put away the pistols and pulled the Charge Launcher from his back and aimed at the worm. Surprisingly the trio of demolition charges detonating on the worm didn't kill it, it was seriously wounded, maybe fatally, but it seemed intent on taking Alec with it if it was dying.
Alec chose to take a risk and waited until the last second the next time the worm dove at him, just as it opened it's mouth the Martian fired a charge and rolled backwards, narrowly avoiding the monster. Just as the worm reared back up Alec triggered the charge he had fed it, not quite the rain he had been hoping for for the last three hours.
"Well I never want to see another worm again." Alec had managed to avoid most of the chunks of worm that were thrown about by the blast, but he still had to walk through the slime and some of the ooze did land on him.
Ten minutes later the L.E.O was beginning to overheat, it had been stressed beyond it's intended limits by the jumps down the cliff that brought Alec to the desert and the hours of walking through the desert combined with the split second maneuvers he had made to avoid the worm had only made things worse. The legs were refusing to move right and the internal heat was reaching unbearable levels.
Alec chose to ignore how dangerous it likely was to board the train he found thirteen minutes after abandoning the L.E.O, he was tired and hot and wanted to rest, the tracks seemed to go in the general direction of his destination and the giant gun on top of the double wide engine looked like it would deter any minor threats he may have otherwise encountered. Climbing onto the train and stowing his supplies in the main room of the engine, which was thankfully far cooler then the weather outside, Alec quickly found the controls for the train and got it moving.
"Now I just hope whoever is in charge of what tries to kill me will back off for a while." Alec leaned back against the cool metal and closed his eyes for a bit, he was woken from his nap about half an hour later by what sounded like jets.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Alec opened one of the two back doors of the main room and was shocked to see dropships of some kind depositing armored soldiers on the various train cars behind him. The troops and the vehicles looked, from what Alec could see, to be at least as advanced as the EDF, maybe a few years behind but advanced enough to be a major threat. All the dropships were clearly labeled in bold black letters on white armor: S.T.A.G.
Alec pulled one of the B.L.A.D.E.S and switched to the Rail Driver, his first shot got two of the S.T.A.G agents and the falling bodies knocked another off the train. When those close enough to have a chance of hitting him returned fire Alec just groaned. "Of course they've got laser guns."
If the Martian weren't used to fighting against superior numbers without backup he would have been really worried as the soldiers made their way up the two sets of train cars towards him, given past experience he was aware that he was in possibly the best position to deal with the situation and so decided not to complain in the hopes that things wouldn't get worse if he kept his mouth shut.
"Ten down, only one-hundred or so left." Another pair of troops presented Alec with another opportunity to kill two birds with one Rail Driver shot. "Twelve! Okay, hope they keep making-WHOA!" Alec quickly eliminated the soldier who had nearly taken his head off with some kind of energy weapon equivalent of a rocket launcher, he also noticed that the weapon didn't match the others these men were using.
"So there's more weapons back there? Should of searched the cars before I started this thing. And I'm talking about them making mistakes." Since the S.T.A.G troops were getting closer Alec decided to abandon his sniping attempts and switched to the Assault Rifle and started firing three round bursts at his attackers.
Alec jumped when the previously unused com system of the train snapped on and began playing music:
"All aboard! Ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaa!"
"Okay, that's great, I'm outnumbered, possibly outgunned, and may end up dead soon, but hey, at least I've got some music." Alec shook his head and switched to the shotgun and spun around to take out the S.T.A.G soldier that had just entered through the door to his right, before shutting down that B.L.A.D.E. and switching the other to Plasma Beam and leaning out of his cover to sweep the stream of energy across the advancing troops.
"Crazy, but that's how it goes, Millions of people living as foes, Maybe it's not too late, To learn how to love, And forget how to hate."
Alec switched off the B.L.A.D.E and put it away before drawing the Banshee Pistols, the soldiers weren't nearly as durable as that worm had been so it was a safe guess that the heavy pistols would work quite well on them.
"Mental wounds not healing, Life's a bitter shame.
I'm going off the rails on a crazy train! I'm going off the rails on a crazy train!
Let's Go!"
The Martian dashed out of the engine room and charged toward the surprised troops. The closest soldier had his feet swept out from under him while Alec fired two rounds into another before finishing the fallen clone with a single shot to the head before diving forward into the train car that soldier had exited from.
"I've listened to preachers, I've listened to fools. I've watched all the dropouts, Who make their own rules. One person conditioned to rule and control, The media sells it and you live the role."
Pistols back in their holsters and Maul in hand Alec climbed to the roof of the car and slammed the hammer into one soldiers stomach before he was even noticed and shoved the injured trooper off the train before running toward the back of the train and leaping from one set of cars to the other, rolling to a stop on an empty cargo car before rising to his feet and smashing a soldier in the face which sent the man flying into the side of the opposite car before he tumbled out of sight behind the speeding train.
"Mental wounds still screaming, Driving me insane.
I'm going off the rails on a crazy train! I'm going off the rails on a crazy train!
I know that things are going wrong for me, You gotta listen to my words, Yeah!"
A Singularity Cannon shot into one of the passenger cars took out seven of the remaining soldiers while Alec used the Banshee Pistols to eliminate the others on his side of the tracks. "Guess that wasn't so bad, could have been-"
Alec was cut off by the music abruptly changing to an ominous sounding instrumental piece, the music change was followed by a loud roaring noise that drew Alec' attention to a massive creature bursting out of the desert sand to the right of the train.
"I wasn't even done saying it! Damn it." Two seconds later Alec was firing Plasma Cannon rounds at the behemoth that could most likely eat the train if it wanted to.
Planet Chimera: Metropolis: Public Park.
Rubi and Faith stopped at the edge of the plaza that looked like it ought to have a fountain in the center, they noted the lack of a fountain right away. Instead of a fountain in the center of the stone and brick circle there sat a woman in deep green clothing clearly from somewhere in the middle east or Asia.
The woman had dark skin and long dark hair, gold rings hung around her ankles and a red gem was set in the forehead of the green cloth headress she wore. A great deal of the woman's skin was showing, what she was wearing would fit right in on a beach in California or Florida, including the green sleeves that were not attached to the rest of what covered her chest which amounted to a bikini top from the perspective of the Problem Solver and Runner.
Laying on the ground beside the woman was a single edged curved blade with a red jewel set into the pommel, the sword was covered in a flowing design all the way from the cross-guard to the tip of the blade.
Rubi pulled on of her pistols and aimed it at the woman. "You the one that called us out here?"
Red eyes calmly opened and studied the odd pair. "I merely gave you reason to investigate this location." The woman stood, leaving her sword where it lay. "You came here of your own free will, and so I shall test you further, as he has requested."
Rubi swore as her guns, all of them, exploded into particles of light, seeing the same happen to Faith's weapons didn't help her mood. "Who do you work for?" The mercenary drew her sword and prepared for a fight. "What's the point of all this?"
"I do not understand why he does the things he does, I only know that he gave me a purpose and home when I had lost everything else. I do not know the reason I am to test you but as he has commanded myself and others to do so I will not hesitate to act." The woman's eyes shifted to Faith. "You will need a blade, I hope this will be sufficient."
Faith stepped back in shock as a sword almost identical to Rubi's assembled itself from nothing right before her and floated there. Deciding that it was better to trust that the woman wasn't trying something and avoid trying to fight her bare-handed Faith reached out and cautiously grasped the handle of the weapon. Nothing happened that shouldn't have, the blade was just released from whatever force had held it where it was. The moment Faith grabbed the new sword the woman's own weapon was in her hand.
"So we have to beat you?" Faith had never really used a sword but she had seen Rubi quite a bit in the short time since they met and was sure that she could do an at least decent job.
"No, you have to fight me, I am not required to allow you to win, though I am limited to my own skills, the power I was given is no longer active, the moment you took up that sword the test began." The mysterious woman dashed forward, nearly disappearing for a moment as a result of how sudden the action had been combined with the simple speed at which she moved.
Rubi stepped forward and intercepted the attack, her counter was dodged and another slash of the woman's blade nearly took the mercenary's head off. Faith still wasn't accustomed to needlessly ending another persons life and so hesitated to get involved while Rubi and the woman fought.
After trading blows with Rubi for nearly a full minute the woman seemed to notice that Faith hadn't moved and flipped over the problem solver, twisting in midair and attacking her from behind forcing her to put more distance between herself and Faith in order to avoid being killed while their opponent used the break to rush toward the Runner.
Faith managed to block one swing and dodge another but the third left a cut along her left side, the fourth attack was interrupted by Rubi returning to the fight. Both women dodged and weaved around the odd woman who simply danced through their attempts to harm her; flipping over one blade, spinning around while dropping to her knees to avoid the other, it was actually quite a beautiful display if you were watching from outside the fight itself, and even Rubi admitted, if only to herself, that she was impressed and possibly outmatched by the woman.
The duo were barely able to avoid any of the woman's attacks fully, less then three minutes into the fight both were covered in small cuts that were the result of not managing to completely escape a slash here or a stab there. The woman flipped backward over an attack from Rubi after blocking a slice from Faith, the action nearly caused the two to injure each other by accident, she landed fifteen feet away from them with her sword drawn back level with her shoulders, one hand resting on the top of the blade.
Rubi glanced at Faith and nodded the Runner immediately understanding that she meant "Stay behind me and keep up." At the same moment Rubi and the woman charged forward, Faith falling in behind the mercenary.
The ring of metal striking metal filled the air while several drops of blood fell to the ground. The companions remained where they were when their opponent leaped back away from them; Faith noted, surprisingly calmly she thought, that there was a small amount of blood on the blade of the sword in her hands.
The woman brought one hand to her cheek and glanced at the blood on her fingers in mild surprise, she smiled at the two who were waiting to see what would happen next, not an unpleasant smile really but still not one you would want directed at you. The woman's eyes and the jewel on the pommel of her sword began to glow, she almost dashed forward again but jerked, as though restrained at the last second, and the glow in her eyes faded, the glow of the jewel following shortly after.
"You pass my test. I will insure that you are safe from the dangers of this planet for ten hours, use that time wisely." The moment the glow had faded from her eyes the unnerving smile vanished as well, replaced by the same calm expression she had worn before and throughout the fight.
Faith and Rubi stared in relief and confusion when the woman simply vanished without another word. Both slipped into a more defensive stance and shifted so they were back to back, neither was ready to believe they weren't in any danger after all they had been through on the planet so far. Eventually they decided that it would be better to keep moving and stay cautious rather then simply stay where they were and wait for something to happen.
Eden Beta: Enchantment Research Lab Three.
"You almost got carried away there." Alex didn't stop what he was doing when the swords-woman appeared in the room, other then his simple statement he gave no other sign of noticing her presence.
"Forgive me, it has been a while since I encountered two individuals with the potential those two possess who are already so skilled, had I had several people their equal in my army we would have sustained fewer losses-" Alex cut her off.
"Thinking about that again? You won your wars and you remember what you were given in return, you don't owe them even the courtesy of remembering them. You gave them everything and they turned on you, don't bother wishing you had been able to do more for them before that, it would have happened regardless."
"Yes, forgive me. You are already aware of the outcome of my test, is there anything else you wish me to do?"
"Not at the moment, though I wouldn't object to you keeping an eye on Smith and making sure he doesn't go overboard with Marston."
"Consider it done." She bowed and vanished.
Planet Chimera: Ocean Sector Two.
Eleanor had dozed off at some point and was quite rudely awakened by an odd sound that reminded her of an advertisement she had seen somewhere, she didn't remember what it was advertising but that wasn't really important since her boat seemed to be sinking.
The Big Sister leaped to her feet and spun toward the source of the noise while drawing her Spear Gun. The sight that greeted her was one of the oddest things she had seen yet on this strange planet; it was a shark with a freaking laser gun attached to its' head.
A short burst of Electro Bolt to the gun instantly fried the creatures brain and it began drifting away, as close to dead as it could be without actually dying. Eleanor didn't even get around to thinking about stopping the leaks the shark had caused in her boat, the arrival of several more laser equipped sharks was a more pressing concern.
Spears and Electro Bolt were enough to kill the sharks but in the end there was nothing Eleanor could do to stop her boat from sinking, she was just relieved that the vessel had an emergency raft on board.
"Now what? Am I supposed to row the rest of the way?" Eleanor sighed. "I don't even know how far it is to land."
After drifting in the general direction of Delta for almost an hour Eleanor was surprised by the large wooden ship that had managed to sneak up on her without being noticed. "Maybe I shouldn't daydream anymore."
She instinctively teleported when she saw a net get thrown over the side of the vessel, clearly intended to capture her. Eleanor looked down on the confused men below her from the top of the main mast of the ship, she quickly put a spear in the lookout before he could alert the others to her location, she didn't hesitate here simply because she knew what the generic skull and crossbones on the ships flag meant; pirates.
"Why would there be pirates here? Who would they steal from? I guess it doesn't really matter, they have a ship, I need a ship." Eleanor nodded to herself before tossing her Mini-turret down into the crowd that was inspecting the empty net.
While machine gun rounds tore up the shocked humans Eleanor herself teleported down and started blasting pirates off the ship with telekinesis. Once the only surviving pirates she could see were in the water Eleanor fired several Electro Bolts into the ocean around them, knowing that even if they had been truly real people and not just enemies placed here to hinder her the pirates were still every bit as vile as Splicers, Eleanor didn't feel any remorse at leaving them dead in the water for the flying fish, laser sharks, and who knows what else to eat.
A quick search of the ship revealed several more pirates, several spears dealt with them and a quick few teleports later left Eleanor the only organic thing on the ship, alive or dead. Teleport made it easier but controlling the large vessel alone was still difficult, once Eleanor was satisfied that the ship was heading where she wanted to go she sat down and ate some of the surprisingly decent food she had found in the ships cargo hold.
One Hour Later.
"Stop doing that!" Eleanor hurled another Electro Bolt at her most recent attackers. "Bloody Mermaids!"
Moments ago while checking over the ship to make sure everything was still working right to get her where she wanted to go Eleanor had been knocked off her feet when a ball of water the size of a basketball struck her solidly in the stomach. After righting herself and rushing to the railing to retaliate Eleanor had discovered a creature that at first had appeared to be a mostly unclothed human woman waving some kind of wand in an odd pattern before launching a cannonball of water from the object.
It didn't take long for the former Little Sister to catch sight of more of them, almost identical to each other no matter how you looked at them, swimming toward the ship, the sight of their tails instantly confirmed to Eleanor that she wouldn't have been able to reason with the entities even if they weren't more of the things that seemed to exist just to attack her; Mermaids weren't described as the most civil and caring beigns, usually they were said to be vain and spiteful, Eleanor had always known those were just fairy tales and legends back on Earth but on this planet she doubted anything was impossible, and if these creatures were what legends and sailors stories described then they were certainly not friendly under the best circumstance.
The Mermaids seemed not to care whether they were leaping high out of the water to fire at Eleanor herself or attacking the ship from just above the surface, their intent was simply to end her any way they could. Streams of pressurized water had soon joined the original water bullets the wands could fire, Eleanor didn't need to be hit even once to know that she didn't want to be caught in the path of water moving at that speed.
Electro Bolt was effective if she could manage to hit the water near them, or better yet strike one of the fish women directly, but they just kept coming and they were quickly learning to get out of range of the shock effect the Plasmid created in the water. Eleanor doubted that they would respond to such a tactic any more then Splicers did in Rapture, but she saw no better option so she abandoned her electrical attacks and raised her Spear Gun while catching four Mermaids in mid jump with Telekinesis before lining them up and and impaling the struggling monsters with one shot straight through the left side of their chests.
The other Mermaids surprisingly took immediate notice of what had just happened and dove underwater, after several moments Eleanor released the corpses, dropping them into the ocean, before slinging her Spear Gun back over her shoulder and letting out an exasperated sigh.
"Well, Alex said you'd have no trouble with them, guess I should know better then to bet against him, eh?" Eleanor turned and hurled an Incinerate fireball at the speaker, she knew that was an irrational thing to do considering they hadn't attacked her but she was extremely annoyed and whoever had snuck up on her provided a convenient target. "OW OW OW! HOT! HOT!" The man, now on fire, dove off the ship into the ocean.
"Next time don't sneak up on me!" Eleanor decided not to feel bad about having set him on fire, he had snuck up behind her while she was still defensive after the fight with the Mermaids.
"I'll remember that luv." Eleanor spun around again and actually got a look at the man who had jumped off the ship only moments ago. He was taller then her but nowhere near as massive as Delta, or any Big Daddy for that matter, average height if anything. The man was dressed in an extremely worn looking long coat and shirt that may have once been white along with a pair of somewhat baggy pants and old leather boots. He had an old bag slung over his shoulder that hung down on his left side.
The mans hair was longer then Eleanor had ever seen a mans hair and it wasn't very well cared for from the looks of it, though he clearly took a great deal of time out to braid it and the braids all had beads and other things tied into them. He wore a red bandana tied around his head and an old tricorne hat. He also had a goatee tied in a pair of braids.
"Who are you?" Eleanor prepared Winter Blast in both hands and narrowed her eyes at the man, her eyes gained a slight red glow that usually indicated an enraged Big Daddy or Big Sister.
"Ah! Allow me to introduce, myself." Eleanor lost some of her fury when the man paused and looked briefly uncertain what he was saying. "I am Captain Jack Sparrow. A pleasure to meet you Miss-" He was cut off by a blast of ice slamming into his face.
Eleanor wasn't naive or stupid, she had been in quite a few unpleasant places since escaping Rapture and she recognized the look Jack had been giving her and the way he was speaking. She was hoping she'd have the chance to introduce him to Delta sometime after telling her father about this incident.
"Was that really necessary?" Jack shook his head and spit bits of ice out while heating the air around his head, wondering if Alex had known Eleanor was going to do that to him. "You're too young for me anyway little girl."
"She could be one hundred and still be too young for you Sparrow." Both pirate and Big Sister turned to see a man in a long dark coat with orange lenses over his eyes, and short brown hair standing with his arms crossed looking straight at Jack. "I have my own job to do but Alex thought I should check on you before catching up with Smith. Now are you going to do your job or are you going to keep goofing off?"
"Alright mate, no need to get violent." Jack turned back to Eleanor. "I swear, steal the staff fridge one time and no one trusts you anymore. Anyway, good job so far, I'm not really a fan of confrontation myself, so instead of some big sword fight or shoot out or some other nonsense I'm just going to see if you handle a certain situation better then I did back home." The pirate winked and vanished, the other man having already disappeared.
Eleanor stared for a moment before teleporting to the top of the main mast again, she didn't know what was about to happen but it was usually best to have the high ground no matter the situation, unless lightning storms are involved of course. From her vantage point above the ship Eleanor immediately spotted the tentacles rising from the water along with the massive squid-like creatures head as it rose up out of the water.
Knowing that if she just stayed where she was the monster would simply destroy the ship beneath her Eleanor did the only thing she could given the situation, the three Rocket Spears she had been saving blasted large chunks out of the creature and got its' attention focused up toward Eleanor instead of on the ship itself.
Winter Blast and Incinerate kept the tentacles away from the Big Sister while she hurled lightning into the water around the creatures main body. Eleanor injected an EVE Hypo and teleported onto the creatures back, she was hurting it with her attacks but she didn't seem to be doing enough damage, so she decided to get up close and finish the fight quick, hopefully without any negative consequences for herself.
Eleanor dropped a grenade into each of the three holes her Rocket Spears had blasted into the monsters body, after the explosives detonated she teleported away from the grasping tentacles and hurled Incinerate at full power from both hands into the hole on the very top of the monsters body. Even in extreme pain the Kraken was still aware enough to attempt to catch Eleanor again so she had to cut her attack short and teleport to the lower deck of the ship, which was fine considering the ship was armed and the Kraken wasn't exactly in the safest position just then.
The Big Sister couldn't resist the impulse to shout. "FIRE!"
All cannons on the starboard side of the ship fired almost at once, teleport and superhuman speed had allowed Eleanor to prep all the cannons in a matter of moments and light them even faster, the Kraken writhed when fourteen cannon balls slammed into and through it. The creature was fatally wounded and slipped into the water without actively attacking any further, but it's tentacles caused a great deal of damage thrashing about as the monster died.
"No way this is going to hold together long." Eleanor sighed after inspecting the damage the Kraken had done to the ship, the main mast and mizzen-mast were cracked and splintering in multiple locations, the deck was heavily damaged and scarred with holes, and the hull was breached in several places below the water line. Long story short, the ship was sinking slowly and the damage was bad enough that it would get worse over time.
Eleanor spun and prepared Incinerate and Electro Bolt when she heard an odd noise behind her. Dead center, right behind the main mast, beams of light were gathering from thin air and taking the shape of a stereotypical treasure chest. Once the chest was whole and didn't seem to be going anywhere Eleanor began inspecting it, after a few minutes she concluded that there was nothing to do but open it and that at worst it would explode and blow the ship in half.
After preparing a lifeboat just in case the Big Sister used telekinesis from what she hoped was a safe distance to open the chest. The first crack in the lid resulted in a bright gold light emitting from the opening, the light got brighter the more Eleanor opened the chest, once the lid was all the way open and nothing happened, good or bad, she decided to go take a look.
The moment Eleanor lifted the well crafted Cutlass out of the chest a blast of music played from thin air and the ship began 'healing' on its own. Eleanor jumped back when a holographic screen appeared in the air over the chest and informed her that she had just acquired an Enchanted Cutlass before fading without revealing any further information.
"Well that was helpful. So this sword's magic?" The only evidence of the sword being unusual was the fact that it had somehow manifested a sheath for itself along with a belt to put it on. Eleanor chose to keep the weapon and fastened it to her waist before checking over the newly repaired ship, she was happy to see that the damage done by the mermaids was gone as well.
With the ship repaired, Eleanor decided not to worry about how that had happened, and her apparently magic cutlass on her belt Eleanor righted the ships course and continued on her way to find Delta and Ace.
Planet Chimera: Mars Sector.
Delta and Ace looked up at the high wall before them, it didn't fit no matter how they looked at it, the whole structure was just completely out of place. On top of being out of place the wall moved when they did, if they tried ot go around it it moved in whichever direction they moved and if they tried to go back the way they had come from the wall followed them.
"I can't read past the wall, there's a barrier just like the room I woke up in." Ace sighed. "We have to go through it." There was a door on the wall that always stayed straight ahead of their exact location, the only time it and the wall didn't move was when Delta walked toward it.
Delta nodded and set Ace down before again handing her the pair of pistols and cautiously walking forward and opening the door. The moment Delta stepped through the opening he vanished, Ace rushed through the door after him, more then not wanting to be alone she was concerned for the quiet man she had started to view as what she guessed was a father figure.
Ace flickered into view right beside Delta who was examining the room they were in and seemed relieved when Ace appeared. The room was fairly large and almost completely empty besides the two of them. In the middle of the room there was a raised platform with four buttons on it and the only door they could see was currently on the ceiling above them.
Before Ace and Delta could take a step toward the platform they both found themselves on their knees feeling like their heads were going to explode. Ace quickly realized someone with powers like hers was attacking them and was able to repel the force and shield herself and Delta.
"I see you've discovered your test Ace." A voice neither recognized spoke up from the walls around them. "Now Delta, you just have to navigate your way through this labyrinth, not to difficult, just hurry, the longer you're in a room the more severe Miss Wade's psychic attacks will become and I know you want to do what you can to protect Ace so I would advise making it through as fast as possible. I have some extra cookies you can take with you once the test is over if you hurry, I don't know if that helps but it would certainly motivate me."
Ace tried to find the speaker but again found her mind trapped within a limited area, she was however able to locate the source of the mental attack they had been struck by. She could sense the other psychic and was allowed to see into their mind; she saw a young woman in a red dress sitting on a swing hanging from a tree at the top of a hill, the psychic had long black hair and skin nearly as pale as Ace's own, she was smiling pleasantly at the younger psychic which didn't really make her any less threatening.
Before Ace could attempt to speak with the other psychic she and Delta were struck by another wave of mental power from the girl in the red dress, while she was able to protect them right away this time Ace noticed that the power behind the attack had increased significantly over the first one. "Delta hurry I'll keep us safe as long as I can."
While Ace' eyes began glowing Delta lifted her onto his shoulder and held her there letting her concentrate on defending them while he rushed over to the platform and began figuring out the puzzle. The first button Delta cautiously pushed caused several sections of the walls to move and slide around, the floor and ceiling didn't change. Delta pushed the same button again and carefully watched how the segments moved before pushing another button, he sped up his attempts when Ace winced and groaned and he felt some of the force of another psychic attack.
Eventually Delta was able to arrange the walls and ceiling and floor so that the door was level with him and it opened, the Big Daddy carried the young psychic through and into another room as fast as he could, both of them happy to be out of the giant rubics cube.
The new room they found themselves in was more of a long hallway then a room, four feet from the door the floor dropped off and was replaced by a pool of an unpleasant looking liquid that bubbled and hissed for no reason they could see. A hatch opened in the ceiling and a stone statue of some odd creature was lowered into the liquid, only a few seconds later the statue was lifted back out to reveal that every bit of it that had touched the green slime was gone.
Delta noticed that the hall was lined with buttons and pushed one of the two that were on the walls just within the room, the result was several platforms made of blue light appearing over the acid pool, the problem was that none of the platforms were close enough to jump to and even if they were there were none close enough to the other side. Delta pushed the other button and again several platforms of light appeared but most of the original set vanished.
It took a minute to figure out the pattern but once he knew what platforms would vanish and which wouldn't Delta was able to move from one platform to another safely while Ace continued to fight off the mental attacks of her fellow psychic, attacks that were getting more complex then simple blasts of mental force.
Three puzzle rooms later both humans were ready to be rid of the place and were not amused by the 'Exit' sign above one of the many doors in the room. In the middle of the room was another raised platform just like in the first room, on this one however there was a riddle, Ace and Delta both decided they didn't like riddles after that.
Planet Chimera: Earth Plains Sector.
"Okay, so let's see if I understand you here. You're from the future?" Marston looked skeptically at the man sitting opposite him.
"From your perspective yeah, the way I see it you're from the past though." Cole nodded and gestured for the cowboy to continue.
"Alright, we're dead but not so I guess I can buy that. You're from a place called Empire City but you died in a city call new Marais?" Cole nodded. "You died saving the world from, the devil?" John couldn't believe that no matter how odd their current situation was.
"Not exactly, The Beast I fought was just called that, he was a human like me who just happened to have a gene that gave him super powers. But yeah about where I'm from."
Marston nodded and sighed, deciding to move along rather then argue. "So you were blown up and somehow not only survived but now you've got the wrath of God in the palm of your hand? I'm sorry partner but that's just to far, you can't expect me to believe that."
"Your choice man, believe what you want." Cole took the Blast Core out of his pack and stood up. "Look, we can continue this later, right now I want to get this out of the way while I can."
"What the hell's that?" John looked and sounded less then comfortable in the presence of the glowing rock.
"Blast Core, irradiated chunk of stone created by the detonation of a Ray Sphere, it'll give me new powers or improve the ones I've already got. But, I'll be out for a while after so could you make sure nothing decides to eat me or something until I wake up?" Without waiting for Johns response Cole walked out of the cave they were camping in and held the glowing stone in front of himself before charging it just as John caught up and was about to question him further about what he was doing.
Marston leaped back and swore while lightning engulfed the Conduit. "Holy..." He trailed off and watched the brief light show. When the electrical storm passed the former outlaw cautiously moved his new comrade into the cave and just shook his head. "I need a drink."
One Hour And Six Minutes Later.
"Well my head hurts so I'm guessing I'm still alive, that's good." Cole sat up cracked his spine while stretching. "And you're still here and alive, so I take it you believe me now?"
John sighed and set aside the bit of wood he had been carving. "Well I still don't think I can believe you got blown up and that's why you've got the wrath of god coming out your fingers but I can't say I can explain away that little show of yours."
"Fair enough. Now I just need to-" Cole was cut off by the cave they were in dissolving around them. "Now what?"
Now standing in the open field again, hills to their left and a canyon to their right, Cole and John faced a man in a black suit who, despite the dark clouds in the sky, was wearing sunglasses and a man in a long dark coat who's eyes were hidden by a pair of orange lenses that seemed to be attached to his head.
"Mr. Marston, Mr. MacGrath, nice to meet you. My associate and I have orders to test the two of you to see if we think you're both up to the task our employer has for you in the near future." The man in the suit spoke in a calm and collected manner and also sounded extremely condescending.
The other man spoke up. "MacGrath you're with me, Smith's just gonna play some mind games anyway so let's take this somewhere we won't distract him, better for Marston's health that Smith stays focused."
Before Cole or Marston could react to what they had heard the man in the long coat blurred and reappeared almost right in front of Cole and delivered a solid kick to the Conduit's side which sent him flying to the right and straight off the cliff into the canyon. The man vanished again with only a rush of air signalling his movement.
"Now that they're out of the way for the moment." The Agent smirked and Marston's world dissolved into streams of data.
In The Canyon.
Cole hit the ground and rolled to his feet and had only a split second to dodge before the man who had knocked him down there in the first place nearly crushed his head. The Conduit hurled a Magnum Bolt at his attacker and was annoyed to find that it had no affect on the man, in fact if he didn't know any better Cole would have thought the man had simply absorbed the attack.
"Care to try again MacGrath?" The man tilted his head to the left and raised an eyebrow.
The walking electrical storm narrowed his eyes and pulled the Amp off his back. Blue arcs of lightning leapt around the weapon for a moment before solidifying into a massive blade, much to Cole's surprise while his opponent just looked slightly more interested in the situation then he had been before.
"That's new, never seen you do that. Gigawatt Blade through the Amp, good idea but I wonder if you can actually use it." The man held his arms slightly away from his body and Cole was shocked to see long blades extend from the back of the man's arms from under his sleeves.
Cole spun to his right and barely managed to intercept one of the blades and he was about to point out the flaw in attacking a living lightning rod with metal weapons but just stared as his Gigawatt Blade shrunk as long as it was in contact with the strange sword the man had swung at him.
The Conduit leaped back and recharged the Amp, the Gigawatt Blade flaring back to full size. "Okay, I'm no scientist but I'm pretty sure that wasn't supposed to happen."
The cyborg grinned. "Uru has a tendency to absorb just about any energy directed at it, and Alex gave me these blades specifically to fight you so it's safe to say your Gigawatt Blade won't be that much of a threat to me."
Cole flipped forward and spun around in midair to avoid a sudden attack from behind and managed to catch sight of his opponent before he heard a rush of air to his left and only just barely deflected a stab from one of the man's swords.
Then the radio kicked on and the fight was given a soundtrack.
"Has he lost his mind? Can he see or is he blind? Can he walk at all, Or if he moves will he fall? Is he alive or dead? Has he thoughts within his head? We'll just pass him there why should we even care?"
Cole swung the Amp and spun away when his opponent jumped over the weapon and swung both blades at the Conduit's neck. Blades met lightning and drained more of the heroes power before he leaped away again and launched an Alpha Rocket at his enemy. The cyborg swatted the electrical missile aside and vanished before slowing back to visible speeds to swing both blades straight down, the attack was blocked by Cole who was quickly adapting to tracking a target solely by electrical signals.
"He was turned to steel in the great magnetic field. When he traveled time for the future of mankind. Nobody wants him, He just stares at the world, Planning his vengeance, that he will soon unfurl."
"Getting better. Looks like you'll survive this after all." The man slowed back down and stopped twelve feet ahead of Cole. "Name's Adam Jensen, we won't be seeing much of each other I think, but if you make it through this and the rest of your time on Chimera we will run into each other once in a while so best to know who you're talking to." Adam disappeared again.
"Now the time is here for Iron Man to spread fear. Vengeance from the grave, Kills the people he once saved. Nobody wants him, They just turn their heads. Nobody helps him, Now he has his revenge."
The cyborgs blades passed through empty air while Cole launched an Alpha Rocket which hurled the former chief of security through the air before he landed, unharmed on the other side of the small stream that was all that remained of the river that had carved the canyon.
Cole shut down the Gigawatt Blade and began gathering power for an Ionic attack. "Let's see how much energy those swords of yours can really take." A massive bolt of lightning roared down from the sky and struck Jensen perfectly, the cyborg almost dropped to his knees from the impact alone but stayed on his feet.
"Getting serious now? Good, then I can quit playing around too." Adam raised both swords above his head and then moved his arms out to his sides, the Ionic Storm splitting and following the blades as he did so.
The Conduit had no choice but to finish the attack before stumbling slightly. "No fu-, you have got to be kidding." Cole stared as Jensen smirked at him, both his blades glowing and roaring with the contained power of a lightning storm.
"Heavy boots of lead fills his victims full of dread. Running as fast as they can, Ironman lives again!"
Adam swung one blade down and the other horizontally toward Cole, blue bands of energy lashed out from the magically forged weapons. The first attack Cole simply leaped to his right to avoid, the wave of power cut and blasted a three foot deep and three foot wide trench in the ground which traveled straight up the side of the cliff as well. Cole couldn't duck under the second attack so he leapt over it, barely. The second blast left a trench identical to the first across the wall which miraculously didn't crumble from the damage done to it.
"So was the Gigawatt Blade all that Blast Core gave you?" Jensen lowered both blades to his sides and crouched. "I hope you've got more in you either way."
Despite the speed Adam was moving at Cole could visually track him by the blue streams of light his blades were now leaving as he sped along the ground. The one good thing that came of the cyborg absorbing the Ionic Storm was that Cole was able to track him with less difficulty.
Planet Chimera: Tropics Sector.
Rachel jumped to the ground and caught the supplies Hale threw down to her before he dropped down to join her. The alien hybrid and half fiend had decided to keep moving along the shore and head what they were for the time being viewing as north and so they set out in that direction.
Before the pair had taken more then three whole steps Hale heard a noise he recognized all to well and telekinetically launched Rachel away from him before jumping and rolling in the opposite direction.
The barrage of missiles cratered the area where the two had been only moments earlier before a Chimera Stalker of the same type Hale had first encountered in Europe crashed to the ground and took aim at him.
Nathan launched a shield from the Auger and prepared to fire while Rachel also got ready to attack the machine, both waited for the Stalker to fire but instead it shut down and the pilots seat opened up to reveal a man in a black special ops military uniform; the pilot of the Stalker had short greying hair and a somewhat scarred face, his eyes instantly told Hale that the man was a soldier and had seen a lot in his life, maybe more then was even possible for a human to see.
"Okay, I guess you're good enough. I've seen Alex' recordings of your time during the Chimera invasion and all, but since he said I was supposed to test you two I see no reason not to make sure you're really the soldier Alex thinks you are." The man gestured and Hale found himself falling, he had only a second to curse before he disappeared into the red portal on the ground beneath him.
"Hale!" Rachel dashed forward past the Stalker but wasn't nearly fast enough to reach the portal before it closed. The Fiend Hunter spun to face the man still standing on top of the alien machine, War Hammer in hand. "What did you do? Where is he?"
Cross grinned. "Wouldn't you like to know."
Rachel leapt at the Specialist and brought her hammer down on his head as hard as she could, or rather she tried to bring it down on his head. The half fiend woman landed on the machine and stared in shock at the man who had without so much as a grunt caught her hammer with one hand and looked bored more then anything.
"You're not human." A simple statement, and rather obvious at this point, but Rachel couldn't think of anything else to say.
"Not anymore, no. But you're one to talk, at least I'm just a resurrected soldier given superhuman abilities by a god-like abomination of science, you're half demon." Cross paused and looked off into empty space for a second. "Actually I'm not sure which of us is more inhuman, oh well, not important."
Rachel shut her eyes to protect her sight when a flash of white nearly blinded her, when she opened them again she was standing in a huge Coliseum and Cross was standing on a balcony above her.
"Let the games begin." The former Blackwatch Captain clapped his hands together and five lesser fiends appeared in the arena with Rachel.
Planet Chimera: The Battle Zone: Northern Europe Wilderness Sector.
Hale curled up and rolled the moment he hit the ground, his forward momentum was lost completely only seconds later when he hit a tree. Having rolled a notable distance along the ground Nathan was 'painfully' aware that his Bullseye and Auger were both gone and he wasn't surprised to find that his Magnum was also missing; the only weapon he still had was a simple combat knife.
The soldiers eyes snapped wide open and he dove to his right while pulling the knife from it's sheath, only just managing to dodge a burst of gunfire from the ridge above him. Hale quickly and quietly navigated around to a position hidden from view and waited until his attackers came into view. "Russians? Why would...Stupid question. They shot first and I doubt they're any more 'normal' then the men Rachel was fighting in that base. Guess I have to go through them to find her, least I know she can take care of herself."
Nathan shoved one of the four soldiers into a tree and rushed out of his concealed location while the rest were busy trying to figure out what had just happened. Before he was noticed Hale grabbed one man from behind and stabbed him in the throat; leaving his knife where it was for the moment Nathan grabbed the mans gun and used him as a shield while spraying another soldier with AK-47 rounds.
Once the automatic weapon was empty and his second target dead the Chimera/Human Hybrid pulled his 'shields' side arm and telekinetically hurled the dead man at one of the remaining two soldiers, one of whom had not yet recovered from being slammed into a tree moments earlier. While one man was trying to get the dead body off himself Hale fired four shots into the other before he could lift his own gun to retaliate. The last of the four man group had only just managed to extricate himself from underneath his teammate when three bullets to the back of his skull ended his 'life'.
Nathan retrieved an AK-47 and relieved the bodies of the rest of their ammunition before hiding them in the bushes and heading down the narrow path they had apparently followed to get there in the first place, he also retrieved his knife before leaving.
"Okay, I'm fighting Russians for some reason and I'm back in Europe, or a copy of an area in Europe more likely." Hale watched a patrol pass under him while going over the situation in his head. "Rachel should be fine on her own, if half what she said is true a Stalker and one man shouldn't be that much trouble."
Planet Chimera: Coliseum.
Rachel backhanded a Bast Fiend and cleaved the cat woman's head from her shoulders while it was stunned. Cross stopped tuning his guitar and set the instrument aside before getting to his feet and clearing the bodies of the fiends from the arena floor.
"Okay I admit you're doing extremely well so far, so let's see if I can't make this tougher for you. Alright, it's pretty clear you can handle Fiends and most demons would be extremely similar so they're off the list, so let's go with machines then." Cross slammed one fist into the palm of his other hand. "Got it, that's perfect. GLaDOS this is Cross requesting a fully automated GTB-22 with assault weapon load out to Coliseum Three, don't try to hit Rachel though, orbital deployment isn't necessary but you can if you want."
The Fiend Hunter jumped back from where she had been standing and looked up just in time to see a large metal container descending rapidly from the sky, the impact raised a dust cloud that briefly obstructed Rachel's view of the object. The dust cleared just in time for Rachel to witness the container unfolding to reveal a large bipedal robot with a Gatling Gun mounted on its right 'shoulder' and a Rocket Pod on the left.
"Round Seven! BEGIN!" Cross clapped his hands together and the Faze leaped into the air while deploying smoke grenades.
Rachel heard a loud crash to her left and dashed forward away from the sound while pulling her machine gun off her back and releasing a volley of bullets toward the source of the disturbance, the location of the mech was confirmed by the sound of bullets striking metal. Knowing that the robot now also knew where she was Rachel leapt into the air and to her right and began charging magic into her hammer, only a second or two passed before a hail of bullets struck the ground where the blond woman had stood before.
Hearing the sound of the machines feet impacting the ground gave Rachel an update on it's location and the moment she landed she sent a shock-wave toward the killer robot, the attack cleared a path through the smoke and knocked the GTB-22 off balance briefly which the Fiend Hunter took full advantage of and charge toward the stumbling mech.
The Faze recovered from the shock-wave attack before Rachel could reach it and retaliated with a volley of eight rockets, forcing the warrior to abort her charge and avoid the explosive projectiles instead.
Rachel rolled to dodge the last of the rockets and drew her gun to fire on the mech only for the robot to leap into the air again, though this time it was pretty obvious it planned on landing on her instead of just close like before. The half-fiend jumped away just in time to avoid any serious harm but was still stunned and sent tumbling as a result of the impact.
Getting to her feet just in time to narrowly avoid another barrage of fire from the robots Gatling Gun, Rachel closed the now short distance between herself and the machine before it could register that staying close to her had been a bad idea. Rachel's War Hammer connected with the knee joint of the mechs right leg, and while it didn't immobilize the machine it certainly slowed it down as well as making any more jumps impossible without destroying its own limb upon landing.
With the mechs movement hindered Rachel was able to easily maneuver around it and deliver a pair of fully charged magical impacts to the machine with her hammer which crippled the robot and left her free to pry open what would normally have been the cockpit and smash the control system which permanently ended the fight.
Cross uncrossed his arms and smirked while Rachel glared at him. "Oh come on, you've gotta admit that was fun. Well anyway, let's move to round eight shall we?" The GTB-22 vanished as did the drop pod that had brought it to the surface. "Okay how about..." Cross opened a holographic list of VS and skimmed through it briefly. "Ah! That works. GLaDOS send down a fully armored and automated Enhanced GAH-42BS with a Shield and Laser Lance equipped, same coordinates as last drop."
Moments later another drop pod landed, this one smaller and kicking up less dust, which opened to reveal a machine smaller then the last which was humanoid in design; on the left arm was a large metal shield and on the right was some kind of gauntlet with three metal fin-like portions that extended forward from the limb, the weapon flared to life and projected a large beam of energy out into a stable blade which the mech flourished once before raising the shield on its left arm which unfolded to reveal that it was actually larger then it first appeared and was now projecting an energy barrier over its own surface.
"Round Eight! FIGHT!"
The humanoid machine launched forward and raised it's blade while Rachel groaned and prepared to continue her fight for survival.
Planet Chimera: The Battle Zone: Northern Europe Wilderness Sector.
Hale stared at the portal on the opposite side of the base he had tracked his Russian enemies to, killing many of them in the process. "Guessing that's where I'm supposed to go, and only about three hundred soldiers and a couple of tanks between me and the 'exit', easy, right."
Nathan spent a few minutes searching for a way to sneak through the base without having to get into a full blown firefight with the Russians but in the end it was futile, he had no choice but to reveal his presence while less then a fourth of the way to his destination. "Good News: Four of them are down. Bad News: The other two-hundred-ninety-six know I'm here."
The Chimera hybrid ducked behind the nearest convenient wall and tossed one of the grenades he had picked up toward a watchtower, a satisfying crash confirming that he had not only hit his target but that the small explosive had damaged the structure just right to bring it crashing down. "That's good but it was luck, can't count on that continuing."
What the hybrid found most unpleasant about the situation was the fact that the Russian soldiers never spoke, they seemed to be receiving and giving orders, they obviously warned each other where he was and what he was doing, but not one of them ever made any noise other then grunts of pain when shot.
"Halfway there and two tanks waiting for me to stick my head out so they can blow it off, wonderful." Hale maneuvered around so that one tank would be blocking the other from aiming at him, once he was safe from that, and had killed several more soldiers, Nathan stepped out of cover and hoped he was faster then whoever was aiming the tanks cannon.
The American was glad to note that while he was no where near as powerful as he had been after killing Daedalus he had apparently regained some of his lost power since fighting that robot with Rachel. It was difficult but Nathan was able to lift and tilt the first tank so that it could not fire at him, once that was done he lifted it higher and dropped it on top of the other vehicle.
With the tanks dealt with Nathan made a dash for the portal but was stopped by an explosion knocking him off his feet. Hale rolled across the ground and came to his feet facing the direction from which the explosion had originated; the cause was a group of five Russian soldiers with rocket launchers, he couldn't say what sort since he had never been interested in the weapons used by people he would never meet since the Chimera had wiped them out.
The soldier who had fired the shot that missed and knocked the Lieutenant down finished reloading and all seven of the soldiers took aim and fired. Hale took a deep breath and hoped he wasn't pushing his luck and power; when the rockets were within twenty feet of him Nathan caught them, all seven projectiles stopped and were suspended in midair, though the man holding them there could tell they were still moving forward to a degree.
"I think these are yours!" Hale flipped the rockets around and released them, pushing them faster with a thought to be sure they would reach their new targets. Nathan didn't wait to see if the explosions he heard had ended the seven men, he just sprinted the last few feet to the portal and dove through.
Planet Chimera: E.D.N III Desert Sector: Railway Gun.
"Okay I get it, you're hungry, so open wide ugly." Alec finished turning the gun and fired just in time to put the last shell straight down the giant monsters throat.
Alec wasn't surprised that the thing didn't die quietly, nothing it had done since its arrival had been quiet, he wasn't surprised to see more of that orange goo fly out of it either, what did surprise him was the couple dozen orange rotating boxes that also flew out of the dying monsters body along with the orange jello that seemed to serve as the things blood.
One of the boxes nearly landed on Alec who caught it out of curiosity, the box popped open and revealed what appeared to be part of a gun inside it. Alec pulled, to his surprise, a large weapon he had never seen before out of the box that couldn't have actually contained the much larger object. Along with the weapon was a small thin book with the letters 'BFG' on the front over a picture of the weapon, it looked like an owners manual.
Alec set the gun and book down and grabbed the nearest box, he figured that as weird as things had been so far it wouldn't hurt to just go along with it. The second box contained an item he couldn't identify that looked like it was supposed to be attached to a weapon somehow, setting that aside the war hero chose another box to investigate.
The next box bothered Alec, being a Martian he wasn't happy to find a video labeled 'Mars Attacks' in the box. The fourth box encouraged him just as much as the third had upset him, the fourth contained a mechanical gauntlet like object that Alec doubted was just for show and hoped to examine further later.
Box number five again bothered the former rebel leader when he found another video, this one labeled 'Santa Claus Conquers the Martians'. Dropping the movie to the ground Alec grabbed another box and opened it, staring blankly at the contents afterward; how's one supposed to react to finding a twenty-five pound ready to cook turkey in the middle of a desert, never mind how he had acquired the box which contained the dead bird.
"Yeah sorry about that, I know it's just bizarre but GLaDOS has a weird sense of humor. At least I think she was just messing with you with the movies and the turkey, with her it's hard to tell." Alec turned and had a shotgun aimed at the speakers face almost the moment he heard their voice. "I'll be honest it's been a while since someone put a gun to my head, I kinda missed it."
"Guessing you're not another nutcase that wants me dead, mind telling me why you're here, and while you're at it how you got on the train without me noticing."
"I teleported here, Alex makes sure we can all do that, those of us working directly for him anyway, you just get a dimension jumping ship. I...Okay this is going to sound weird but could you at least try to shoot me, it can get really boring when no one even tries to kill you, so come on pull the trigger."
"Wha-?"
The apparent lunatic suddenly pulled a gun out of their coat and fired, just barely missing Alec who responded reflexively by shooting them in the face. "That's better, didn't hurt but it's better then nothing." The individual stood back up, having leaned almost impossibly far backward when shot, and slipped their own gun back into their coat.
"Alright, the abominable snow men, giant worms, crazy guys and whatever the hell that thing back there was I can handle but how the hell are you still alive?" Alec put away the shotgun and aimed the BFG at the person who he had just noticed he couldn't really peg as male or female.
"I'm bulletproof?" A shrug and smirk accompanied the question. "Anyway, nice to meet you Alec, I'm The Boss." The Boss held out a hand to Alec and smiled.
"You're in charge of this place?"
"Did I say that? No, I said I'm The Boss, same way you're Alec Mason."
"Your name's The Boss?"
The intercom on the train responded. "No, Their Real Name Is-"
"GLaDOS don't you dare! Alex promised me you wouldn't tell anyone else!"
"Alex Said He Wouldn't Tell Anyone, He Never Said I Wouldn't."
"GLaDOS behave, you know perfectly well what I meant, stop teasing The Boss and get back to work."
The intercom went silent and The Boss exhaled in an exaggerated manner. "Okay then, with that bit of comedy out of the way let's move along. Okay, you past my test and didn't even know you were being tested, pretty sweet right? Now normally I would just let you chill here and rest until the train reaches its' destination, but, since you're still pretty far from the station I'm going to give you some more S.T.A.G jerks to play with, try not to die that would look bad and I don't want Alex mad at me, don't know where he sent Freddie and I don't want to find out so if at all possible don't get yourself killed okay."
Before he could question The Boss they disappeared, leaving Alec staring at the passing desert landscape, only to be distracted moments later by a laser just barely missing his head.
Need to stop here, don't want to but I have to. To much jumping around and to many ideas going through my head to focus. I have more that's happening but I can't type it all out at the moment since it's the basics of the scenes and I'm getting lost as it is at the moment, so there will be more to this but for the moment this is going to have to do.
Sorry again to those who actually read this if it isn't that good and that it took a while to get it posted even though the chapter isn't technically finished.
Hob the Apologetic Robot.