Chapter 5-4

Three men armed with weapons that were probably Tinker-made sniper rifles. While I doubted that they had the ability to kill me in a single shot, I wasn't about to test it. Ultimately, the question was how I was going to deal with them. I could blast them all off the roof. Quick and simple. Even if they survived the drop intact enough to fight, they'd lose their vantage point. On the other hand, if the fall killed them I'd open up a can of worms that I wasn't ready to deal with. Besides, if they did survive their fall intact, they could still cause trouble later. Better if I dealt with them here.

I tried sneaking up on them, but the one in black noticed me before I could. Immediately, he started turning around, probably trying to shoot me. I had two choices: run and get a better vantage point or attack and get to close for them to use their guns without hitting each other.

I chose the latter.

The yellow guy to the left was closest by. I grabbed him by the neck and pulled him towards me, using him like a human shield. Surely they wouldn't…

Before I could finish my thought, my captive's shoulder blasted apart. Bits of flesh pinged off my shields. The guy in black and the other guy in yellow had their weapons pointed at me, their barrels still humming with power.

Holy shit, they just did.

These guys were playing hard-ball. I needed to take them down fast. In one motion, I pushed my captive towards guy-in-black and activated my taser. Yellow fired which took out my shields and some of the armor underneath. I fought through the pain and planted the taser in his neck. He shook, but didn't go down. His suit's probably resistant to that. Instead, I kicked him in the groin, pulled off his helmet, and tried again. This time, it worked.

I looked around. Guy-in-black had disappeared. Irritating. I quickly cuffed the downed man and started listening. To my surprise, I found something annoyingly familiar: a void, just like what Grue's power did at the bank robbery. The dots connected in my head: the bastard could turn invisible and inaudible. Power? Tinkertech? Doesn't matter. I needed to find him and take him out.

I looked over my options. The guy shot me with a rifle powerful enough to pierce my shields. Clearly, he planned on killing me, the PRT guys below, or possibly both. I could go all-out against these guys. The field manual didn't provide many concrete examples of what constituted as 'appropriate force', but I'm pretty sure Armsmaster will forgive me if I took out the glaive for this one. I don't want to kill anyone, but these assholes are forcing my hand. Unfortunately, the glaive is a close-combat weapon and I'm fighting a hidden sniper. I needed a better weapon.

My eyes fell on yellow's sniper. Hmm. It'll do. I'm probably breaking a rule by taking it, but right now, I've got bigger problems. I grabbed the weapon and instantly familiarized myself with it. Invisible footsteps grabbed my attention. The hunt was on.

"Doctor, drop whatever it is you're doing. You need to leave." Guy-in-black muttered in his helmet. No wait, that was Anyo, wasn't it?

"What? Why?"

"They are here, Doctor. Don't ask how, just go. I can handle one of them, but when the other three show up, I'll have to disengage."

'They', as he put it. I took offence at the tone. The way he spat out the word, it sounded like I was some sort of horrible monster here to murder him and loot his corpse for parts. I'm a superhero, dammit!

Wait, how did he know that there were three other heroes inbound?

Focus. Worry about that later.

"They?" The doctor said, sounding very afraid. "But…oh, no, the samples…the specimen…I have to…"

"Leave them." Anyo urged him. "Vent the reactor into the labs. Just get out of here. I'll hold off this damned fashion victim for as long as I can."

Whatever was in that lab had to have been important. Important enough that they didn't want it to fall into our hands. I'm sure that the PRT would really like to see whatever is inside. Maybe the others could stop them?

"Kid Win, this is Banshee. Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear." He answered, somewhat panicked."You may not have noticed, but shit's hitting the fan. PRT is on the warpath and the Boxheads have an army of killer robots running around. You need to get out of there now!"

Angry PRT? Killer robots? Problematic, but not something I could deal with right now. "Can't. Some jackass is trying to shoot me. Have to take him down first. I need your help with something else, though. The Boxheads are going to do something to the reactor."

"Self-destruct mechanism?"

"Yeah. Can you stop it?"

"Uhh, don't think so. Not from here." Kid Win stammered.

"Velocity here. I'll be there in twenty seconds. If you tell me what to do, I should be able to disable that thing."

"Okay, yeah, that'll work."

Good. With that settled, I need to show a certain someone what this fashion victim is capable off.

It took me a while, but I managed to figure out Anyo's location and took aim at what I thought were the legs. I pulled the trigger, let the charge built up in the weapon, and let go. Anyo swore as the projectile stuck him. Oh, did that hurt, you asshole? That's what getting shot feels like!

"Two things, Mr. Anyo." I said, as the man became visible again. "One: I don't get to choose what I look like. Two: you're wearing a shoebox on your head. You don't get to judge my looks."

To his credit, he didn't seem particularly ruffled by the fact that I overheard him. "I would have you know that the M-29 Tactical Helmet has saved my skin a dozen times already. Half the reason I've survived this long while being hunted by you murderous psychos."

I was shocked. Sure, I've been mistaken for a villain before, but a murderer? Seriously? "Murderous psychos? I'm a hero, you idiot. I'm with the Protectorate."

"The Protectorate…" Anyo deadpanned. I didn't think he believed me at all.

"Well, the Wards, actually. Those men you're shooting, they're PRT. We're not here to kill you, just lower your weapons and surrender. No one else has to die." In all honesty though, even if he did, Piggot would flay him alive anyway. Not that he needed to know that.

"You're with the Protectorate…" He continued. Was that really so hard to believe?

"Yes, I'm a superhero. Now throw down the damn gun already. I really don't want to shoot you."

He shook his head. "You have no idea, do you?"

Okay, this guy was seriously starting to get on my nerves. "About what?"

Anyo disappeared and rolled a grenade my way. I jumped to the side. The explosion only damaged my shields. I quickly turned around and fired at the nearest sound-void I could see. More swearing was heard, and another grenade came my way. I jumped past it, letting it explode behind me.

Suddenly, a blade came my way and I rolled under the swing. Anyo had a sword, it seemed. Well, two can play that game. My glaive slid out of my palm and I blocked Anyo's thrust. It gave him a moment's pause, which I used to kick him aside. I moved forward to deal take him down for good when a bunch of grenades rolled towards me. With a smirk, I pushed them away and into my opponent.

Yeah, not falling for that again.

Anyo was quick on his feet and hid behind an air-conditioning unit when the grenades exploded, reducing his cover to molten slag. I smirked.

"Kid Win here. Velocity managed to disable the reactor. Building should be safe now."

"Apart from the fucking robots, you mean?!" Sarge yelled over the comms. "Fucking hell, we need some fire support here!"

"This is Armsmaster. ETA five minutes."

"Likewise for Battery. Just hold on."

Right. We weren't our of the woods yet. I had to finish up this mess with Anyo, quickly. "Please, just stop this." I asked him. Hopefully, I could convince him to shut down the robots and put an end to all this.

Then, I heard a bloodcurdling, feral scream coming from the labs below.

"What was that?" I asked, already dreading the answer.

"My cue to leave." Anyo dryly replied from behind his cover.

I raised my weapon. "You're not going anywhere."

He chuckled in response. "Fun fact about that gun you're holding, girl. The Lanka wreaks havoc on robotics, but it's penetration is terrible. This half-molten piece of slag's more than enough to ruin your shot. By the time you found your way around, I'll be long gone."

"You can't run for me, Anyo. I can sense you, even when you're cloaked."

Anyo didn't seem to be impressed at all. "Maybe you can, maybe you can't, but think about this: you chase me, your PRT buddies are going to get shot to pieces by the Moas. You know, the ones down in the streets. Now, you can hunt me down and maybe you'll even catch me, but I'll guarantee that your friends are going to pay the price if you do. Alternatively, you let me go and help them. Like I said, the Lanka wreaks havoc on robotics. Use your imagination."

"I don't know. Maybe taking you down is worth the cost."

"Maybe. Thing is, I've been chased by you people for a very long time. I know how you think. Your kind is obsessively protective of their allies, even the ones without special powers. So, no, you won't be chasing me. Not today." With that, he bolted, hopping from cover to cover to keep me from having a clear shot. The smug bastard was going to get away unless I chased him, which meant leaving the PRT guys to their fate.

I gritted my teeth. He had a point there. I could chase him, but I don't think I'd be able to live with myself if people got killed because I had to catch the bad guy. Fuck. Already, I could hear the men down in the streets, fighting. I had to help them, which meant that I had to let Anyo go.

The bastard was playing me, and there's nothing I could do about it.

I sighed and ran towards the troopers. Looking down from the roof, the battle had turned into a mess. The Boxheads themselves were already gone, but they left a small squad of machines behind. There were nine of them left in total: eight bipedal ones armed with some sort of energy weapon and another helicopter-like one floating overhead. A command unit, maybe? It looked important. I took aim, let the rifle charge up, and fired. The flying drone exploded in a shower of sparks, but the others kept fighting on. Not a command unit, then. Dammit.

The troopers fired away at the bipeds with everything they had, but they weren't making much headway. The drones had some sort of shield that seemed to protect them from most weapon fire and no one was able to get close enough to foam the damn things. Velocity was already on the scene, but all he could do was distract a few of them. His power gave him super-speed at the cost of being less able to interact with the world around him. It let him dodge their fire, but he had trouble hitting hard enough before being forced to retreat.

I took aim at the nearest robot and fired.

Suddenly, three of the remaining robots changed direction and started shooting in my direction. I let the rounds bounce harmlessly off my shields as I took the second shot: a robot far too close to a downed PRT officer. Velocity finally managed to kill a third by shoving a metal pole into it, causing the machine to explode. Then, Armsmaster's motorcycle stormed through the alley and finished off the rest of them.

"Well, that didn't go as planned…" Velocity muttered darkly.

Armsmaster grumbled in response. "No, it didn't. This was supposed to be a simple stake-out. What went wrong?"

"Everything, sir." I admitted. "In short, the Boxheads went nuts and started shooting."

"I see. Is the area clear?"

I scanned the building. All was mostly quiet, except for the growls and the sound of tearing metal coming from the lab. "There's something inside the lab, sir. I'm not sure what, but I don't think we want it to get out."

"You're talking about that scream from earlier, right?" Velocity asked.

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Get down here." Armsmaster ordered. "We'll wait for Battery before moving in. The rest of you: perimeter. Nothing gets in or out."

Right. This was going to suck, wasn't it?