***********************************************************************
Based on stuff that's not mine...
Written by Cyclone...
Whirlwind Productions presents...
BOOMER 1/2
Episode Three--Terrorists, part two
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Ryouga dropped down to the ground floor. Flanking him were the green and blue Knight Sabers. Six blue boomers turned to face them and roared. The two Knight Sabers broke to either side and each engaged two, leaving Ryouga with the center two.
The first 55-C swung its right fist in a massive haymaker. Ryouga caught the punch in his left hand and pulled, removing the boomer's arm from its socket. He ducked under the next blow and smashed his forearm into its midsection, neatly ripping it in half.
The other biomechanoid fired its mouth cannon at him. He ducked under the laser beam and flung the first boomer's spontaneously amputated arm at it.
"Ha! Is that the best you can do?" Ryouga taunted.
Several panels opened on the boomer's chest, and a heat beam spat out. Ryouga leaped over the beam (not an easy task in a room with a ceiling only three meters high) and cupped his hands together.
"SHISHI HOUKOU DAN!"
As he landed, he turned and saw that the Knight Sabers needed no help. The blue one's two foes were leaking brown lubricant from damages inflicted by nasty-looking long metal spikes. There was nothing left of the green's opponents save for two piles of shredded metal and biomechanical parts.
They continued down.
High above...
Ranma leaped up to the twenty-third floor, the white and red Knight Sabers immediately behind him. She knocked the two Knight Sabers away as a rocket soared toward them. She deftly brought her arm up and deflected the rocket.
The explosion behind and to her left rocked the building.
One of the offices had all the glass knocked out of its windows and several tables brought up to barricade the windows and doors. The end of a large metal tube poked out above one of the tables, pointed at the three of them. A flip-out targeting reticle was positioned over the right eye of the man who hefted it on his shoulder.
Ranma snarled as she cupped her hands and readied a ki blast.
"Don't try it, hero!" One of the terrorists stood with a data operator held in front of him. He held a gun to her temple.
Ranma's eyes narrowed. *Coward.*
The terrorist grinned, "An' we got two more cops back here, so don't get any bright ideas."
The martial artist focused her senses. She detected a total of five auras. Three hostages and the two terrorists. She briefly realized that the two Knight Sabers were no longer behind her. *Good. Maybe I can distract 'em long enough for them to nail 'em.*
"Now be a good hero and step out where we can shoot you."
Ranma stepped out around the corner. The man with the pistol pointed it at her and fired. That was his mistake.
Ranma sidestepped the bullet as metallic white arms ripped through the plaster wall behind the terrorist and pulled him into a headlock. The other terrorist panicked and swung the rocket launcher around. Ranma dashed forward and struck him in the back of the neck, disabling him.
The white Knight Saber let the limp terrorist slump to the ground as Ranma turned to check on the hostages. The three hostages were physically unharmed, but none of them was responding to her. The red Knight Saber shook her head, "They're fine. They're just in shock right now."
Ranma nodded. "Let's keep moving, then."
In the N-Police level B3 garage...
Ryouga looked around warily. The two other basement levels were empty and this was the second to last level. The complete absence of guards after the ground floor set him and the two Knight Sabers with him on edge.
He visually scanned the parking level and spotted a trio of SWAT vans parked at the far end. "Over there!"
The three of them headed over to the vans, cautiously watching their surroundings.
"I don't like this, Priss."
"I know, it's gotta be a trap."
The two Knight Sabers let their apparent ally get ahead of them. Both were eyeing their sensors nervously. Ryouga didn't notice as he looked through the window of the first van. Inside were several unconscious uniformed people, mostly data operators and dispatchers.
"Look out!"
He spun. The other two vans were ripped apart from the inside as two massive robots, battlemovers, freed themselves of their vehicular disguises.
One, gunmetal grey and very intimidating, turned and launched itself at the two Knight Sabers via rocket thrusters. The other, a far more menacing black machine that seemed to melt into the shadows, blasted at him with two palm-mounted laser cannon.
He ducked under the coruscating red beams and charged toward the massive black battlemover.
"BAKUSAITENKETSU!"
The legendary Breaking Point Technique failed him this time. While an explosion did indeed erupt in the battlemover's armor, it was small and localized. His opponent clenched metalshod fists together and slammed downward, smashing his face into the concrete floor.
On the other side of the garage level...
The grey battlemover slowed to a halt and apparently sized them up. Suddenly, a massive vulcan gun swung out from its back over its right shoulder and opened fire on the blue Knight Saber.
Priss leaped out of the way and returned fire with her railgun. The spikes embedded themselves into the battlemover's armor but had no other visible effect.
Linna leaped toward the battlemover, hoping to catch it off guard, and spun, charging her monowhips. The battlemover proved more nimble than it appeared as it not only evaded the whips, but swung around and slashed at her with monoblade that extended from its right forearm.
She barely dodged the blade but found herself one monowhip short as the battlemover continued its advance.
On the top floor...
Ranma looked around. The top two floors were hangar bays for the N-Police's helicopter force. Behind her were the two Knight Sabers that had followed her. Standing near a roof access stairwell was a midnight blue battlemover and a large man wearing a grey helmet and a matching grey bodysuit that covered his entire body. He spun as Ranma and the two Knight Sabers emerged.
"Kill them," the man said, gesturing casually toward the three intruders before he ran up the stairwell. The battlemover stirred to life and focused on them. A pair of vulcan guns mounted on its shoulders began firing. Ranma shoved the two Knight Sabers to one side as she dove for the other.
"Go after him! I'll take care of Big Blue here!"
Sylia and Nene hesitated for a moment but complied.
Ranma watched out of the corner of her eye to make sure they made it and caught a particle beam in the side for her inattention. She snarled as she picked herself up.
A panel on the battlemover's abdomen suddenly dropped open and Ranma swore as half a dozen guided mini-missiles streaked toward her.
"MOUKO TAKABISHA!"
The ki blast detonated the missiles, and Ranma coughed through the cloud of smoke. She looked up as a shadow formed through the cloud of smoke. The battlemover had used the smoke as cover to close in. It began to blast her with a seemingly endless barrage of laser fire.
On the roof...
Sylia and Nene halted as they looked around. There was no sign of their quarry. Suddenly, a particle beam scorched a path through the air toward them. They dove to either side, and Sylia fired a blistering volley of laser fire toward the source of the particle beam.
"Nene! Can you get a sensor lock on him?"
The electronics specialist shook her head, "I'm not detecting _anything_, Sylia. Something's jamming my sensors."
Nene began crossing the roof, scanning methodically as she attempted to break through or trace the jamming signal. Sylia visually scanned the roof while checking her onboard sensor suite. She suddenly noticed a faint shimmering at the edge of her vision and spun.
She fired her laser cannon several times but could not tell whether or not she had hit her target. She eyed that area closely as she held her fire. Suddenly, another particle beam streaked out and slammed into her chestplate, knocking her back against the wall of the roof access stairwell.
Nene periodically whipped her head from side to side, trying to pin down their opponent with her sensors. Suddenly, she was shoved forward as the majority of her sensors died. Her eyes widened as she reached back and felt her sensor pack. Twin gashes ran diagonally across her sensor pack, occasionally sparking with electricity. She hurriedly cut off power to it.
"Sylia, my sensor pack's down. I still can't find him! What do I do?"
There was no answer.
"Sylia?" She turned and shrieked as the white hardsuit was flung straight at her.
They collapsed in a heap. Nene groaned and pulled herself up. She looked down. "Sylia? Sylia, wake up."
Then she saw the blood.
Underground...
Priss pulled herself out of the small crater she had formed when the battlemover had backhanded her into the wall. Trying to close in while it was busy with Linna had turned out to not be a good idea.
Whoever was in the battlemover was very good. Every attempt Linna had made to close in had been thwarted even while the battlemover kept closing in on Priss time after time.
Linna was currently doing her best to dodge a spray of bullets from the battlemover's shoulder-mounted vulcan gun. Priss lined up her railgun, aiming for the base of the vulcan gun.
The battlemover spun and stretched out a hand toward her. A small port in the palm opened, and a small missile streaked toward her. She cursed and threw herself to the side. The missile flew past and detonated in mid-air as it passed her. As it knocked her over, she thought, *Rangefinder.*
Meanwhile, Linna dashed toward their foe, evading the lethal spray of ammunition the vulcan gun kept spitting out at her, somehow tracking her movements just barely a fraction of a second too slowly.
Inside the massive battlesuit, the pilot grinned as he watched the blue Knight Saber crumple to the ground. His eye suddenly caught the vulcan's autotracker readout, and he turned his machine's head back to face forward. Filling his viewscreen now was the image of the green Knight Saber as she unleashed a devastating punch assisted by her knuckle bomber.
One floor down...
Ryouga struggled to his feet. The black battlemover had slammed him right through the floor and down into the fourth basement parking level. Currently, he was having considerable difficulty fighting it, since his own favored tactics relied on his superior strength and endurance. He was swiftly disabused of this notion as the battlemover took hit after hit without even slowing down.
So far, it had not used any weapons other than the palm lasers it had tried to nail him with in the beginning. It seemed to prefer unarmed combat and was quite proficient at it. He had lost his umbrella somewhere soon after the battlemover had slammed him through to this level.
"SHISHI HOUKOU DAN!" This was the third ki blast he had thrown, and it had little more effect than the first two. The battlemover shrugged off the blast and charged, rearing back a fist.
Ryouga expected this, and this time he was ready for it.
He leaped over the battlemover and landed on its back. He drew back his fist and hammered the battlemover's rear armor, again and again. Ignoring his bruised knuckles, he kept pounding and didn't stop.
That is, he didn't stop until the battlemover slammed its back into the wall, Ryouga first.
In the top hangar bay...
Ranma was in trouble. She couldn't get close to the battlemover without getting hit by its multiple chest-mounted laser batteries. She had hit the battlemover with three ki blasts already, to little effect.
It didn't help that it had a lightning-fast reaction time.
Its long-range weapon systems provided enough of a fire volume to keep her at bay for the most part. She hadn't even had a chance to hit it with an Amaguriken. Then again, considering how it shrugged off her ki blasts, she wasn't sure it would do any good anyway.
*That leaves me with one option,* she thought.
"HIRYUU SHOUTEN HA REVISED! HORIZONTAL BLAST!"
The massive blast sent the battlemover sliding back and through the far wall.
Down below...
Smoke roiled everywhere. Leon, with the help of two K-12s, had already disabled and crippled one of the grey battlemovers, but the other had launched several smoke grenades. Leon looked around and switched to infrared. Suddenly, the hulks of fallen Armored Troopers and a massive humanoid figure right in front of him became clear.
"Oh, shit!" He threw the modified DD replica back and fired its two shoulder-mounted triple autocannon ("borrowed" from a couple of scrapped Firebees) at the battlemover.
20mm shells shredded through the smoke and riddled the other battlemover's chestplate. The hulking grey war machine stumbled back from the impacts and returned fire with a forearm-mounted 7.62mm machinegun. Its shoulder-mounted vulcan gun had already been reduced to a mangled piece of metal.
The other battlemover's bullets spanged harmlessly off the replica's battered armor. *A few more seconds of fire should take care of this guy,* Leon thought. His grin faded as the sounds of gunfire vanished, leaving only the whine of spinning barrels. A quick glance confirmed his fears.
He was out of ammunition.
Above, a section of the top floor wall exploded outward. The grey battlemover looked up. Leon charged, thrusters firing. *One chance,* he thought.
He tackled the other battlemover and bowled it over. He slammed one metalshod fist into the battlemover's sensor head, caving it in. He rose and eyed the fallen battlemover. It didn't move.
On the roof...
Sylia hissed as she painfully sucked in a breath, searching fervently for their opponent. Her upper left arm had twin gashes in it, and she was certain a couple of ribs had been broken. It had not been fun discovering that their opponent had somehow jammed their comm systems as well as their sensors. They were now relying on hand gestures and external speakers, which did not sit well with either of them.
Suddenly, the building beneath them trembled and shook as a section of the wall on the floor below exploded. The blue battlemover the redhaired superboomer had been fighting flew out at the end of a massive blue energy beam.
The beam disappeared, and the battlemover activated a thruster pack and flew to the roof. Its sensor head focused on them. The armor was scarred and dented, but no critical damage was discernable.
The two Knight Sabers backed away from the monolithic blue war machine. It raised its right arm and a harmless blue laser sprang to life from its forearm. The beam centered on Sylia's chest. She barely dove out of the way when a bolt of electricity shot through the air to where she had been standing a moment earlier.
A section of the roof exploded upwards behind the battlemover, and the redhaired superboomer, Ranma, leaped out. "KACHUU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN!"
The battlemover shuddered under the assault as Sylia and Nene added their own laser volleys to Ranma's barrage of punches. A panel on the battlemover's chest opened, revealing three dozen laser lenses, which opened fire on the two Knight Sabers.
Underground...
Priss and Linna dropped through the hole and found the fanged superboomer, Ryouga, smashed up against a wall as the black battlemover pounded him relentlessly.
The blue Knight Saber fired her railgun as Linna closed in, readying her knuckle bomber. The black battlemover turned and sidestepped, apparently vanishing into the darkness. It reappeared moments later, slamming Priss against the wall. Linna spun and lashed out with her surviving monowhip.
The battlemover stepped back, avoiding the monowhip, and fired two coruscating red beams of laser fire. Priss groggily recovered and fired her railgun. The spikes glanced off the armor, much to her amazement.
Suddenly, Ryouga was in front of her, battering the battlemover's dented rear armor. It spun and swung at him with an open hand. Wicked-looking claws now extended from its fingers.
He grit his teeth and whipped out his belt. The belt straightened and formed a monoblade. He parried, and the battlemover's hand came off, sliced at the wrist.
Behind the battlemover, Linna spun in the air, slicing off the battlemover's sensor head. It suddenly froze, as if it had just lost power.
On the roof...
"Saber Prime, I think I found a weak spot! Hit the laser batteries while they're firing!" Even without the sensor pack, Nene's sensors were still superior to the other hardsuits' by the simple virtue of her hardsuit's stripped-down weapon systems allowing more space.
Sylia nodded grimly. She cut her thrusters as the lasers traced a path up to her position. She leveled her arm and fired. Her thin laser beam speared toward the exposed chest cavity of the battlemover and struck between the central lenses.
The massive war machine stumbled and dropped to its knees. The laser batteries were still firing, but now moved erraticly, searing into the rooftop and lancing into the night sky. One beam sliced across the roof and struck a shimmering figure. The figure dropped onto its back and became fully visible again.
Neither Ranma nor the two Knight Sabers noticed this, as they were busy trying to avoid getting hit themselves. Sylia, finding the comm frequency clear again, transmitted, "Mackie, we need air support."
//Roger that, sis. On my way.//
Moments later, the KnightWing flew in and hovered overhead. Twin railguns thumped twice, and four steel spikes, each about three centimeters in diameter and thirty centimeters long, stapled the battlemover to the roof.
The aircraft suddenly rocked as an explosion erupted on its underside. Ranma and the two Knight Sabers turned as Mackie struggled with the plane's controls, taking it out of range.
Standing in the doorway of a helicopter was a large man, carrying a rocket launcher and wearing the tattered remains of the grey stealthsuit he was wearing earlier.
A metallic gleam was evident on his chest and left arm. A somewhat bulky metallic gauntlet covered his right forearm and hand. A livid scar on his left cheek made him look all the more sinister as he grinned, "The name is Cirrus Clayborne. Remember it, interlopers."
He withdrew into the chopper and slammed the hatch shut. Ranma launched a plasma blast that struck the door with no apparent effect. Sylia and Nene both opened fire as the aircraft took off, but their lasers were no more effective than the superboomer's plasma blast had been.
GENOM Tower...
"Sir, the Firestorm, Shadow Warrior, and Mjollnir prototypes have all been confirmed destroyed."
Smith nodded. "Disappointing. It seems the CLA was not able to perform as advertised. Very well, prepare a press conference." His oily grin returned, "The outstanding performance of our anti-boomer boomers should bolster the public's confidence in GENOM."
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Author's Postscript:
Okay, folks, I have only vague ideas what part four's gonna be about, so ideas are welcome. Send them, along with any comments, questions, or praises (a guy can hope, can't he?) to either cyclone@citynet.net or cyclone_274@hotmail.com
Send all flames to quincy@genom.com ^_^
This is Cyclone, signing off.
Based on stuff that's not mine...
Written by Cyclone...
Whirlwind Productions presents...
BOOMER 1/2
Episode Three--Terrorists, part two
***********************************************************************
Ryouga dropped down to the ground floor. Flanking him were the green and blue Knight Sabers. Six blue boomers turned to face them and roared. The two Knight Sabers broke to either side and each engaged two, leaving Ryouga with the center two.
The first 55-C swung its right fist in a massive haymaker. Ryouga caught the punch in his left hand and pulled, removing the boomer's arm from its socket. He ducked under the next blow and smashed his forearm into its midsection, neatly ripping it in half.
The other biomechanoid fired its mouth cannon at him. He ducked under the laser beam and flung the first boomer's spontaneously amputated arm at it.
"Ha! Is that the best you can do?" Ryouga taunted.
Several panels opened on the boomer's chest, and a heat beam spat out. Ryouga leaped over the beam (not an easy task in a room with a ceiling only three meters high) and cupped his hands together.
"SHISHI HOUKOU DAN!"
As he landed, he turned and saw that the Knight Sabers needed no help. The blue one's two foes were leaking brown lubricant from damages inflicted by nasty-looking long metal spikes. There was nothing left of the green's opponents save for two piles of shredded metal and biomechanical parts.
They continued down.
High above...
Ranma leaped up to the twenty-third floor, the white and red Knight Sabers immediately behind him. She knocked the two Knight Sabers away as a rocket soared toward them. She deftly brought her arm up and deflected the rocket.
The explosion behind and to her left rocked the building.
One of the offices had all the glass knocked out of its windows and several tables brought up to barricade the windows and doors. The end of a large metal tube poked out above one of the tables, pointed at the three of them. A flip-out targeting reticle was positioned over the right eye of the man who hefted it on his shoulder.
Ranma snarled as she cupped her hands and readied a ki blast.
"Don't try it, hero!" One of the terrorists stood with a data operator held in front of him. He held a gun to her temple.
Ranma's eyes narrowed. *Coward.*
The terrorist grinned, "An' we got two more cops back here, so don't get any bright ideas."
The martial artist focused her senses. She detected a total of five auras. Three hostages and the two terrorists. She briefly realized that the two Knight Sabers were no longer behind her. *Good. Maybe I can distract 'em long enough for them to nail 'em.*
"Now be a good hero and step out where we can shoot you."
Ranma stepped out around the corner. The man with the pistol pointed it at her and fired. That was his mistake.
Ranma sidestepped the bullet as metallic white arms ripped through the plaster wall behind the terrorist and pulled him into a headlock. The other terrorist panicked and swung the rocket launcher around. Ranma dashed forward and struck him in the back of the neck, disabling him.
The white Knight Saber let the limp terrorist slump to the ground as Ranma turned to check on the hostages. The three hostages were physically unharmed, but none of them was responding to her. The red Knight Saber shook her head, "They're fine. They're just in shock right now."
Ranma nodded. "Let's keep moving, then."
In the N-Police level B3 garage...
Ryouga looked around warily. The two other basement levels were empty and this was the second to last level. The complete absence of guards after the ground floor set him and the two Knight Sabers with him on edge.
He visually scanned the parking level and spotted a trio of SWAT vans parked at the far end. "Over there!"
The three of them headed over to the vans, cautiously watching their surroundings.
"I don't like this, Priss."
"I know, it's gotta be a trap."
The two Knight Sabers let their apparent ally get ahead of them. Both were eyeing their sensors nervously. Ryouga didn't notice as he looked through the window of the first van. Inside were several unconscious uniformed people, mostly data operators and dispatchers.
"Look out!"
He spun. The other two vans were ripped apart from the inside as two massive robots, battlemovers, freed themselves of their vehicular disguises.
One, gunmetal grey and very intimidating, turned and launched itself at the two Knight Sabers via rocket thrusters. The other, a far more menacing black machine that seemed to melt into the shadows, blasted at him with two palm-mounted laser cannon.
He ducked under the coruscating red beams and charged toward the massive black battlemover.
"BAKUSAITENKETSU!"
The legendary Breaking Point Technique failed him this time. While an explosion did indeed erupt in the battlemover's armor, it was small and localized. His opponent clenched metalshod fists together and slammed downward, smashing his face into the concrete floor.
On the other side of the garage level...
The grey battlemover slowed to a halt and apparently sized them up. Suddenly, a massive vulcan gun swung out from its back over its right shoulder and opened fire on the blue Knight Saber.
Priss leaped out of the way and returned fire with her railgun. The spikes embedded themselves into the battlemover's armor but had no other visible effect.
Linna leaped toward the battlemover, hoping to catch it off guard, and spun, charging her monowhips. The battlemover proved more nimble than it appeared as it not only evaded the whips, but swung around and slashed at her with monoblade that extended from its right forearm.
She barely dodged the blade but found herself one monowhip short as the battlemover continued its advance.
On the top floor...
Ranma looked around. The top two floors were hangar bays for the N-Police's helicopter force. Behind her were the two Knight Sabers that had followed her. Standing near a roof access stairwell was a midnight blue battlemover and a large man wearing a grey helmet and a matching grey bodysuit that covered his entire body. He spun as Ranma and the two Knight Sabers emerged.
"Kill them," the man said, gesturing casually toward the three intruders before he ran up the stairwell. The battlemover stirred to life and focused on them. A pair of vulcan guns mounted on its shoulders began firing. Ranma shoved the two Knight Sabers to one side as she dove for the other.
"Go after him! I'll take care of Big Blue here!"
Sylia and Nene hesitated for a moment but complied.
Ranma watched out of the corner of her eye to make sure they made it and caught a particle beam in the side for her inattention. She snarled as she picked herself up.
A panel on the battlemover's abdomen suddenly dropped open and Ranma swore as half a dozen guided mini-missiles streaked toward her.
"MOUKO TAKABISHA!"
The ki blast detonated the missiles, and Ranma coughed through the cloud of smoke. She looked up as a shadow formed through the cloud of smoke. The battlemover had used the smoke as cover to close in. It began to blast her with a seemingly endless barrage of laser fire.
On the roof...
Sylia and Nene halted as they looked around. There was no sign of their quarry. Suddenly, a particle beam scorched a path through the air toward them. They dove to either side, and Sylia fired a blistering volley of laser fire toward the source of the particle beam.
"Nene! Can you get a sensor lock on him?"
The electronics specialist shook her head, "I'm not detecting _anything_, Sylia. Something's jamming my sensors."
Nene began crossing the roof, scanning methodically as she attempted to break through or trace the jamming signal. Sylia visually scanned the roof while checking her onboard sensor suite. She suddenly noticed a faint shimmering at the edge of her vision and spun.
She fired her laser cannon several times but could not tell whether or not she had hit her target. She eyed that area closely as she held her fire. Suddenly, another particle beam streaked out and slammed into her chestplate, knocking her back against the wall of the roof access stairwell.
Nene periodically whipped her head from side to side, trying to pin down their opponent with her sensors. Suddenly, she was shoved forward as the majority of her sensors died. Her eyes widened as she reached back and felt her sensor pack. Twin gashes ran diagonally across her sensor pack, occasionally sparking with electricity. She hurriedly cut off power to it.
"Sylia, my sensor pack's down. I still can't find him! What do I do?"
There was no answer.
"Sylia?" She turned and shrieked as the white hardsuit was flung straight at her.
They collapsed in a heap. Nene groaned and pulled herself up. She looked down. "Sylia? Sylia, wake up."
Then she saw the blood.
Underground...
Priss pulled herself out of the small crater she had formed when the battlemover had backhanded her into the wall. Trying to close in while it was busy with Linna had turned out to not be a good idea.
Whoever was in the battlemover was very good. Every attempt Linna had made to close in had been thwarted even while the battlemover kept closing in on Priss time after time.
Linna was currently doing her best to dodge a spray of bullets from the battlemover's shoulder-mounted vulcan gun. Priss lined up her railgun, aiming for the base of the vulcan gun.
The battlemover spun and stretched out a hand toward her. A small port in the palm opened, and a small missile streaked toward her. She cursed and threw herself to the side. The missile flew past and detonated in mid-air as it passed her. As it knocked her over, she thought, *Rangefinder.*
Meanwhile, Linna dashed toward their foe, evading the lethal spray of ammunition the vulcan gun kept spitting out at her, somehow tracking her movements just barely a fraction of a second too slowly.
Inside the massive battlesuit, the pilot grinned as he watched the blue Knight Saber crumple to the ground. His eye suddenly caught the vulcan's autotracker readout, and he turned his machine's head back to face forward. Filling his viewscreen now was the image of the green Knight Saber as she unleashed a devastating punch assisted by her knuckle bomber.
One floor down...
Ryouga struggled to his feet. The black battlemover had slammed him right through the floor and down into the fourth basement parking level. Currently, he was having considerable difficulty fighting it, since his own favored tactics relied on his superior strength and endurance. He was swiftly disabused of this notion as the battlemover took hit after hit without even slowing down.
So far, it had not used any weapons other than the palm lasers it had tried to nail him with in the beginning. It seemed to prefer unarmed combat and was quite proficient at it. He had lost his umbrella somewhere soon after the battlemover had slammed him through to this level.
"SHISHI HOUKOU DAN!" This was the third ki blast he had thrown, and it had little more effect than the first two. The battlemover shrugged off the blast and charged, rearing back a fist.
Ryouga expected this, and this time he was ready for it.
He leaped over the battlemover and landed on its back. He drew back his fist and hammered the battlemover's rear armor, again and again. Ignoring his bruised knuckles, he kept pounding and didn't stop.
That is, he didn't stop until the battlemover slammed its back into the wall, Ryouga first.
In the top hangar bay...
Ranma was in trouble. She couldn't get close to the battlemover without getting hit by its multiple chest-mounted laser batteries. She had hit the battlemover with three ki blasts already, to little effect.
It didn't help that it had a lightning-fast reaction time.
Its long-range weapon systems provided enough of a fire volume to keep her at bay for the most part. She hadn't even had a chance to hit it with an Amaguriken. Then again, considering how it shrugged off her ki blasts, she wasn't sure it would do any good anyway.
*That leaves me with one option,* she thought.
"HIRYUU SHOUTEN HA REVISED! HORIZONTAL BLAST!"
The massive blast sent the battlemover sliding back and through the far wall.
Down below...
Smoke roiled everywhere. Leon, with the help of two K-12s, had already disabled and crippled one of the grey battlemovers, but the other had launched several smoke grenades. Leon looked around and switched to infrared. Suddenly, the hulks of fallen Armored Troopers and a massive humanoid figure right in front of him became clear.
"Oh, shit!" He threw the modified DD replica back and fired its two shoulder-mounted triple autocannon ("borrowed" from a couple of scrapped Firebees) at the battlemover.
20mm shells shredded through the smoke and riddled the other battlemover's chestplate. The hulking grey war machine stumbled back from the impacts and returned fire with a forearm-mounted 7.62mm machinegun. Its shoulder-mounted vulcan gun had already been reduced to a mangled piece of metal.
The other battlemover's bullets spanged harmlessly off the replica's battered armor. *A few more seconds of fire should take care of this guy,* Leon thought. His grin faded as the sounds of gunfire vanished, leaving only the whine of spinning barrels. A quick glance confirmed his fears.
He was out of ammunition.
Above, a section of the top floor wall exploded outward. The grey battlemover looked up. Leon charged, thrusters firing. *One chance,* he thought.
He tackled the other battlemover and bowled it over. He slammed one metalshod fist into the battlemover's sensor head, caving it in. He rose and eyed the fallen battlemover. It didn't move.
On the roof...
Sylia hissed as she painfully sucked in a breath, searching fervently for their opponent. Her upper left arm had twin gashes in it, and she was certain a couple of ribs had been broken. It had not been fun discovering that their opponent had somehow jammed their comm systems as well as their sensors. They were now relying on hand gestures and external speakers, which did not sit well with either of them.
Suddenly, the building beneath them trembled and shook as a section of the wall on the floor below exploded. The blue battlemover the redhaired superboomer had been fighting flew out at the end of a massive blue energy beam.
The beam disappeared, and the battlemover activated a thruster pack and flew to the roof. Its sensor head focused on them. The armor was scarred and dented, but no critical damage was discernable.
The two Knight Sabers backed away from the monolithic blue war machine. It raised its right arm and a harmless blue laser sprang to life from its forearm. The beam centered on Sylia's chest. She barely dove out of the way when a bolt of electricity shot through the air to where she had been standing a moment earlier.
A section of the roof exploded upwards behind the battlemover, and the redhaired superboomer, Ranma, leaped out. "KACHUU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN!"
The battlemover shuddered under the assault as Sylia and Nene added their own laser volleys to Ranma's barrage of punches. A panel on the battlemover's chest opened, revealing three dozen laser lenses, which opened fire on the two Knight Sabers.
Underground...
Priss and Linna dropped through the hole and found the fanged superboomer, Ryouga, smashed up against a wall as the black battlemover pounded him relentlessly.
The blue Knight Saber fired her railgun as Linna closed in, readying her knuckle bomber. The black battlemover turned and sidestepped, apparently vanishing into the darkness. It reappeared moments later, slamming Priss against the wall. Linna spun and lashed out with her surviving monowhip.
The battlemover stepped back, avoiding the monowhip, and fired two coruscating red beams of laser fire. Priss groggily recovered and fired her railgun. The spikes glanced off the armor, much to her amazement.
Suddenly, Ryouga was in front of her, battering the battlemover's dented rear armor. It spun and swung at him with an open hand. Wicked-looking claws now extended from its fingers.
He grit his teeth and whipped out his belt. The belt straightened and formed a monoblade. He parried, and the battlemover's hand came off, sliced at the wrist.
Behind the battlemover, Linna spun in the air, slicing off the battlemover's sensor head. It suddenly froze, as if it had just lost power.
On the roof...
"Saber Prime, I think I found a weak spot! Hit the laser batteries while they're firing!" Even without the sensor pack, Nene's sensors were still superior to the other hardsuits' by the simple virtue of her hardsuit's stripped-down weapon systems allowing more space.
Sylia nodded grimly. She cut her thrusters as the lasers traced a path up to her position. She leveled her arm and fired. Her thin laser beam speared toward the exposed chest cavity of the battlemover and struck between the central lenses.
The massive war machine stumbled and dropped to its knees. The laser batteries were still firing, but now moved erraticly, searing into the rooftop and lancing into the night sky. One beam sliced across the roof and struck a shimmering figure. The figure dropped onto its back and became fully visible again.
Neither Ranma nor the two Knight Sabers noticed this, as they were busy trying to avoid getting hit themselves. Sylia, finding the comm frequency clear again, transmitted, "Mackie, we need air support."
//Roger that, sis. On my way.//
Moments later, the KnightWing flew in and hovered overhead. Twin railguns thumped twice, and four steel spikes, each about three centimeters in diameter and thirty centimeters long, stapled the battlemover to the roof.
The aircraft suddenly rocked as an explosion erupted on its underside. Ranma and the two Knight Sabers turned as Mackie struggled with the plane's controls, taking it out of range.
Standing in the doorway of a helicopter was a large man, carrying a rocket launcher and wearing the tattered remains of the grey stealthsuit he was wearing earlier.
A metallic gleam was evident on his chest and left arm. A somewhat bulky metallic gauntlet covered his right forearm and hand. A livid scar on his left cheek made him look all the more sinister as he grinned, "The name is Cirrus Clayborne. Remember it, interlopers."
He withdrew into the chopper and slammed the hatch shut. Ranma launched a plasma blast that struck the door with no apparent effect. Sylia and Nene both opened fire as the aircraft took off, but their lasers were no more effective than the superboomer's plasma blast had been.
GENOM Tower...
"Sir, the Firestorm, Shadow Warrior, and Mjollnir prototypes have all been confirmed destroyed."
Smith nodded. "Disappointing. It seems the CLA was not able to perform as advertised. Very well, prepare a press conference." His oily grin returned, "The outstanding performance of our anti-boomer boomers should bolster the public's confidence in GENOM."
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Author's Postscript:
Okay, folks, I have only vague ideas what part four's gonna be about, so ideas are welcome. Send them, along with any comments, questions, or praises (a guy can hope, can't he?) to either cyclone@citynet.net or cyclone_274@hotmail.com
Send all flames to quincy@genom.com ^_^
This is Cyclone, signing off.