Zeppo 3: Slayer Evolved
Part 6: Hell has no fury…
Walsh stalked along the corridors, still fuming with embarrassment over the ease with which Xander had been able to escape.
The appearance of the second Spartan was a mystery that had a simply explanation. One of her agents had reported being attacked by a young woman, who was physically faster and stronger than she should have been given her body size. Added to the fact that someone had taken the suit of Mjolnir armor Xander had been wearing when he was captured, and it became clear that he was not the only person out there who had somehow acquired the cybernetic upgrades needed to use it safely.
This revelation was both a blessing and a curse. It meant that they had two possible people to experiment on, but they would be twice as hard to capture working together.
Walsh stopped outside Room 314 and smiled. She had something that would even up the odds a little.
Xander picked his way carefully through the trees, assault rifle held at the ready. Something was very wrong. He should have run into something by now, but it was like all the vampires and demons had packed up and left town. His eyes kept flicking to the motion tracker on his Heads Up Display, but it remained empty.
"I spy, with my little eye…" Cortana muttered, growing increasingly bored. "This is our third sweep and still nothing."
"Hey, I for one can live with that." Xander snapped back, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up. "I've got a really bad feeling about this…"
"You know, I hate it when Spartans say that," Cortana sighed. "It normally means that something is about to…" she stopped as a solitary red blip appeared on the very outside edge of the motion tracker. "B-I-N-G-O!"
"I hate it when this happens." Xander muttered, flicking off the rifle's safety catch. "Call Buffy and tell her what's going on. We may need the back up if Walsh is after a little payback."
"You're presuming that the Slayer isn't doing the horizontal tango with Captain Cornbread."
"That is a very nasty mental image for me to have at a time like this."
"Live with it, human."
"Kiss my cybernetic butt!" Xander snapped back as he passed through the trees and stopped dead in his tracks. "Oh boy…"
"Hello?" Buffy picked up her mobile and answered it without bothering to check the caller ID.
"Buffy, it's Cortana," the voice on the other end replied. "You'd better get to the high school. Walsh is here and she looks too happy for someone who's facing a heavily armed Spartan…"
"Hello, Mr Harris." Professor Walsh smiled as she stood on the steps leading up to the main entrance of what had been Sunnydale High School. "Surprised to see me?"
"Yeah, kind of…" Xander held his rifle in one hand. "What is this… some kind of 'join with me and we can rule the galaxy together' speech? Because it didn't work for Darth Vader, and it's not going to work for you."
"No, this is the 'I'll give you one last chance to surrender before I kill you' speech." Walsh smiled like a shark. "As a Spartan, you are far stronger than a regular human or even a vampire, but there is always something bigger and nastier out there."
"Like?" Xander asked sarcastically.
"Me." The voice came from behind Xander. He instantly checked his HUD, but the motion tracker was clear.
"What the…" Xander spun round to find himself facing a literal Frankenstein monster. He stood the same height as Xander did in his armor, but almost twice as wide at the shoulder. He looked like he'd been made up of parts taken from a human and a collection of demons, as well as the contents of an electronics store. "Hi," Xander smiled behind the mirrored faceplate of his helmet.
"So what exactly are we dealing with?" Buffy asked her phone as she made her way through the streets towards the old high school. "Cortana?"
"I'm sorry, but Cortana is too busy to come to the phone right now," A voice on the other end replied. "Please leave a message after the tone."
"Not good…" Buffy closed the phone and started to run.
"I am Adam," The patchwork man smiled. "I am here to kill you."
"Yeah… sure… you betcha!" Xander brought his rifle up and around, desperately trying to bring it to bear on the new enemy.
Adam reacted faster. His demon hand swatted the weapon clear, sending it sliding across the car park. His other, human hand grabbed Xander by the throat and lifted him clear off the ground. The energy shield surrounding the armor flared brilliantly as his finger dug into it, attempting to throttle the life out of the struggling Spartan.
Cortana responded by increasing the strength of shield in that area, keeping Xander from suffocating.
Xander responded by kicking out with both legs, catching Adam in the chest with enough force to break his grip, sending the two of them flying in opposite directions. Xander rolled as he landed, letting the inner layer of his battle armor absorb the force of impact.
"He's stronger than you are!" Cortana advised. "You have the Master Chief's memories. Treat him like you would a Hunter."
"Yeah… sure… no problem…" Xander pulled himself to his feet. "You wouldn't happen to have the Jackhammer with you?"
"You don't need a rocket launcher with you to deal with this."
"You have a suggestion?"
"Tactical withdrawal: give him something to think about, and then make a run for it."
"I've got just the thing." Xander pulled his one remaining plasma-grenade from his belt and activated it. "CATCH!"
The glowing blue sphere sailed through the air and stuck fast to Adam's chest. He looked down at it in wonder as Xander started to run, grabbing his rifle from the ground before leaping over a low wall… only a split-second before the grenade detonated.
A bright blue and white flash turned night into day and the ground shook as the plasma was explosively released from its containment field.
Xander slowly lifted his head over the wall, his rifle up and ready. Adam was laying flat on his back; his body burned and chard where the plasma had burned him. Then, with slow, deliberate moves, he started to stand.
"YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" Xander protested as he quickly ejected the magazine from his rifle and reloaded it with one filled with armor-piercing rounds. Standing with feet spread apart to steady himself, Xander raised the MA5B Assault Rifle to his shoulder and dropped the targeting radical on his HUD over Adam.
It remained blue, refusing to lock on.
"He must have some kind of Electronic Counter Measure system," Cortana hypothesised. "You'll have to do this manually."
"No shit!" Xander snarled as he pulled the trigger, sending an entire clip of 50 rounds into the monster at 10 yards. The 7.62mm Teflon-coated rounds ripped into Adam's already burned chest, tearing the flesh away to revel a solid metal plate below. "Oh, hell no!"
Xander slung his rifle over his shoulder and drew his M6D HE Pistol with one fluid movement, using both hands to hold the weapon as he linked his HUD to its built-in zoom function. Adam's face grew large in front of Xander's eyes as he pulled the trigger as fast as the weapon would allow, sending a dozen 12.7mm steel-cored rounds into the creatures head at almost point blank range.
Adam's head snapped back sharply with each hit, but he started to advance on the now terrified Spartan.
"You know, discretion is considered to be the better part of valour…" Cortana sounded worried.
"I'm way ahead of you!" Xander turned and started running as fast as he could, easily out distancing the lumbering Adam.
"You can run!" Walsh called out after him. "You can run, but you can't hide!"
To Be Continued…