AN: So I wasn't planning on this going this way. But the story has taken a few long term story changes so I'm changing the tracks of our little journey just a touch. This is why I'm extending out Calvert's arc since I want to lay more prep work on stuff. Regardless I also wanted to try and get in closer on the action and combat than Thomas's backseat view. So I decided I'd show one of my OC additions to the protectorate. The rest of Calvert's viewpoint arc will still come after this, followed by an outsider Interlude and then Taylor as I've planned and said before. And now back to my not at all regularly scheduled Update!

I could feel the last of my extremities becoming numb as the painkillers and usual cocktail of Tinkertech drugs continued to flood my body, pumped in by my armor as I stared ahead at the garage bulkhead door. I'd already counted six strikes and I could now see daylight coming through in cracks as Madcap brought down our defenses one by one. Ferros was beside me, one of our two Changers had already assumed her Changer State, her body taking on a metallic look to it. A glance to my other side showed Ent who had already pushed himself to ten feet of height towering above me even without any soil to draw nutrients or energy from, or any sunlight from the sky to process. He would be able to stand by me in the front ranks while Militia and Challenger provided ranged support and Ferros handled battlefield control.

There was another booming hit that echoed through the cavernous room that served as the garage for the Rig. The door was even more bowed in now and I suspected that someone could slip through the breaches if they wanted to and were small enough, but neither the villains outside, or my own allies surrendered their positions to expose themselves alone to the enemy. My helmet began to display a proximity warning and I turned my head to look as Militia had switched her power an anti-armor shoulder mounted weapon system. My fists clenched and I could feel a pop as I unintentionally broke one of my own bones. My helmet's display was already showing the damage I'd done to myself unintentionally. I was already checking my exosuit's readouts to make sure I hadn't damaged it when Dr. Harvey was speaking to me through our private com channel.

"Magnus. I'm seeing some pre-combat body damage readings according to your armor. I know its even harder to regulate than normal without any of your sense for pain but I need you to stay calm."

I breathed a deep sigh as another boom sounded through the chamber and I could see a gaping fissure now, wide enough that Militia and Challenger opened fire. Militia's rocket lanced out only to meet a wall of bone sending splinters flying in every direction as Marquis' defense exploded like a hand grenade. Challenger was already firing her rifle with the far more conventional rifle rounds aiming at the opening but more bone was filling the gap for the moment so clearly Militia's shot hadn't taken Marquis out. We had a few more seconds so I took the time to reply with my PRT mandated personal physician.

"Harvey. I'm fine. Just a bit of pre-battle jitters. It's just one of the bones in my fingers, its not like I already broke something bigger by accident yet."

There was a sigh from the other side as the doctor was no doubt wishing he had hair just so he could pull it out. I knew Harvey cared for me and my wellbeing, but my power did little to help him balancing doing his job of keeping me alive and functional, combined with the ethics of my power's use for a doctor to condone.

"Look, just don't hit them any harder than you need to. Please Magnus, for me, even if its not for anyone else. There's no one in that group coming at us with a high enough Brute rating to require you put your life on the line. So please hold back, for your own life's sake."

I didn't reply. I didn't have time as ahead of me one final hit sent large pieces of the door flying in a multitude of directions. I was glad Militia had ordered the PRT troopers back, they would have gotten killed by that and Ferros wouldn't have been able to provide cover for them all if they'd still been in the chamber. I easily vaulted the barricade Ferros had made even as Ent was moving beside me at the same time that Militia was shouting in my ear through our combat radio frequency.

"Magnus, Ent, you're up! Ferros give us cover and force the enemy to split up, Challenger you take the right I've got the left."

I raced forward letting my armored exo-suit move me easily across the floor as Ent's legs kept pace with me even as the branches that formed his arms extended as he prepared to hit the enemies coming at us. First in the door was Madcap but he was already sliding back as Villains surged in around him. Gregor the Snail, Chaingang, and Gridline were already moving in. But they weren't what I hit first as a barricade of white bone raced across the floor beneath them before shooting up in a one foot thick six foot high wall. Ent slowed, I didn't. I just raised my left arm, cocked it back, and punched straight forward just as I was hitting the bone wall.

Instantly I could feel the pops as multiple of my bones in my hand and one in my arm all broke. I couldn't feel the pain of course, the painkillers and cocktail of drugs were already doing their jobs of keeping me from collapsing in total agony as well as already starting to patch the broken bones and torn muscles from my punch. I swung back, letting the armored medical exosuit I wore do its job even as I swung my right foot now at the lower remains of a vastly reduced bone wall. The series of pops repeated itself up my leg and I could see more medical updates from my helmet HUD now, but I considered it a price well paid given that the bone shrapnel from both had brought Marquis's front ranks down and by the looks of it both Newter and Gridline were down and quite possibly already dead from my attacks against the bone judging by how many splinters of bone, some a foot in length, were sticking out of both.

Chaingang was still up though his left arm was completely gone below the elbow. That didn't stop him from using his right hand and arm to swing around the chains that the mercenary got his name from. The chains were a blur and even with only one arm he was keeping Ent's elongated arms at bay. I caught a movement of color from the ceiling and barely turned my head up in time to see Newter using the wreckage of the door and pipes and supports on the ceiling to clear the charnel house on the floor before leaping clean over me. I didn't try and fight him though I was grateful as I saw a wall of metal rising from the floor between me and him as Ferros gave me protection from behind. Giving myself a firm nod I turned forward again just in time to see Marquis, Joan Arc, Faultline now fanning out as Madcap advanced on me, his hands swinging the discus's he carried by leather straps, no doubt building up kinetic energy. Of everyone arrayed against me, Madcap was probably the only one I couldn't take in a straight fight. Shakers like were certainly dangerous, and while letting Faultline touch me could instantly knock me out if she got my armor, Madcap was the only one who could take me head on, so for the moment I watched him, though I didn't let my eyes totally loose track of the others.

I could hear more gunfire behind me even as Ent roared in frustration as Chaingang's whirling weapon continued to keep my comrade at bay, which really was a shame since truth be told I wasn't liking four on one. There was more movement from the breach and I was pretty sure Crickett had just slipped in, I took a brief second to send Challenger and Ferros a warning.

"Careful, Crickett's in here and it looks like she's coming for you two Ferros, Challenger. Neither of you two can take her in melee so keep her at range, don't let her close with you."

Honestly Militia should have been the one doing the ordering but for all of the work that Militia did as our leader, and despite the uniform she wore as her costume. I was the one who had the most battlefield experience so it was me that was directing the team for the moment in the here and now. But I ran out of time to listen to my teammates responses as my enemies made their move. Something hit me directly on the head, and I knew as soon as I was looking up that it had to be a weight of metal made by Joan Arc but I couldn't take the risk of it being someone else who'd slipped past like a Stranger we didn't know about. By the time I was looking back down Madcap was almost in my face. Lacking other options I did one of the only things I could and kicked the ground with my unhurt leg. More pops, more broken bones and torn muscles were the price I paid as the entire floor gave way around me. I could see the panic in Madcap's eyes as he fell. The man could absorb kinetic energy but I'd studied his reports enough since he was one of my natural counters, if he was in the air, that was a different story. My hand barely grazed him as I swung and he twisted in mid fall. But even just my armored fingers catching his arm was enough to bend it in ways that weren't meant to be bent, and more pops in my hand happened.

I ignored the HUD display as I touched down on the floor beneath me, my exo-suit taking the fall and now fully taking over for my movements as I directed it with my eyes and micro muscle movements to get out of the way. Joan Arc, and Fautline had both joined me on the floor below while Marquis had been far enough back to not fall in. He didn't follow them down and I could only assume he was moving to deal with my teammates even as I watched Faultine push herself to her feet and then just throw a piece of metal debris at me. It bounced off me nowhere near sufficient to do anything to my armored exo-suit. The axe flying at me next I did dodge since I had no doubt it had a sharp enough edge that if it hit the wrong place I had no doubts my ability to even survive would quickly go downhill let alone my ability to continue to fight. Another axe followed as I was reaching for Joan Arc when from up above down flew something. The next thing I knew my eyes were tightly clamped shut as what had to be a flashbang went off. My helmet's visor reacted but not fast enough, and I was blinded for precious seconds that I suspected I could not spare.

I was proven right when I could feel my right arm gauntlet fracturing and breaking around my damaged limb, and I knew that dispite the flashbang, or perhaps because of it, if Curveball had been the one throwing it, Faultline had gotten close enough to touch me. Desperate to stop her even though I knew it was probably too late I thrashed my limbs trying to hit her, not caring that this level of movement and aggression would mean I would likely shatter every bone in the limb that hit her as well as turning her into a fine red mist. I didn't hit her though and instead more warning alarms from my suit sounded, lights flashing in my HUD as she got a hand to my torso somewhere. Within a second my suit's power plant was affected just like everything else, and just like that I was out of the fight. The very armored medical exosuit that kept me alive in fights had now become my prison as while I certainly had the strength to move it, doing so would undoubtedly kill me. And so I just waited for a killing blow.

My helmet was the next to go under Faultline's power. I turned my head looking up at the woman in the welder's mask that had incapacitated me. I watched silently as Joan Arc created another axe out of thin air and silently passed it to Faultline who took it up in a two handed hold to kill me with like an executioner of old. Not about to just give her the satisfaction of waiting meekly for my death I lashed out with my arm. I back handed her and I knew that even before she hit the wall behind her she was dead. I didn't care. These villains had come into my home and tried to kill my comrades, and I would be damned if I simply let them do it without laying down my life in the defense of my team. My armored left arm hung limp, I couldn't even move it at all now even as Joan Arc screamed in rage and a spear appeared in her hands that she thrust towards me. I surged upwards, more pops and worse occurring in both legs but neither was so far gone that I couldn't stand for a few moments more. My right arm swung around wildly, no control, just a last final attempt to kill the Villain before me.

But I missed, and she did not. After the spear went through my neck I couldn't feel anything more at all and I knew it wasn't because I'd broken all the rest of my bones. Blood ran from my mouth as I could do nothing me but watch as she pulled the spear back out of my throat, my blood coating the spear head. I fell, my eyes tracking her the whole way, watching as she raised the spear high for a moment. And then she brought it down swiftly, and I knew no more.