Part 8: Onslaught
Billy Numerous had never been the sharpest tool in the shed.
Maybe part of it was upbringing, and maybe part of it was simple cockiness. There hadn't been a situation he couldn't overcome by throwing more clones at it. After all, weren't numbers everything? Didn't he who had more win?
Billy believed that, and it seemed to bear out when he confronted the Titans and took care of them, even getting around that fancy chip the cyborg supposedly had.
But it also doomed him, because when the Titans had returned, seemingly with their own duplication powers, Billy hadn't thought for a second it could be a trick. He thought that they'd somehow copied him, and in the process, mocked him. Billy hated being mocked, so he struck out, never realizing he was playing right into their hands, never drawing a bead on the fact that all the Titan clones were avoiding him. He just kept making more and more until his power burned out, his anger going with it. To Cyborg, it was pretty easy. If you can't win physically, win mentally.
And Billy hadn't gotten any smarter. He'd assumed that the old man was just that, that he had already tried to his best and failed, and full of righteous anger he'd made a bunch of hims and stomped after the old man to extract some righteous vengeance.
And walked right into the Tall Man's clutches.
And now, faced with an army of flying killer spheres, Billy could only stand and gasp in horror, his face almost fish-like in its surprise. He could only come up with one battle plan: don't get killed.
The answer: more clones.
And that's what started appearing, popping in next to their comrades, their mindset immediately locked into the universal surprise all of Billy shared.
As Billy turned and threw himself into their mass.
And then the spheres struck.
Absolute pandemonium reigned as dozens of spheres attacked, knives shooting from their bodies as they slammed into clone heads, their drills emerging and performing instant lobotomies, blood spraying everywhere, instant slaughter, and even then more clones appeared, and then more, and then more, as Billy's survival instincts continued firing full bore.
Oh he was feeling the deaths all right, but his sheer fear and adrenaline was blocking most of the sensation. All he cared about was escaping, with a dusting of 'fight back', and even as he did his best to lose himself in his masses more clones appeared, as the army finally tried to get itself together and use the free will it did possess to fight back.
The battle was still one-sided. The spheres, unburdened by the need for such things that were inherent in movies, like a budget, a factor that had plagued the Titans as well, were everywhere, and they were damn fast and armed to the teeth as well.
Several golden spheres swooped into the mass. One opened its front and fired off a powerful laser blast, blowing open a clone's chest, even as another's side opened up, sprouting whirling buzz saws as the sphere twirled in and ripping the whole side of a clone's neck out in a great explosion of blood. One clone swatted a sphere from the air with a baseball bat only to have another sphere ram into and start drilling into his leg, and as he screamed another sphere swooped up and came down right on top of the clone's head, his skull starting to crack open as the drill dug in.
Billy didn't know what to do, as he frantically tried to avoid all the flying death orbs. They could only fly fast in a straight line: it took them time to actually turn. Billy tried to use that fact to stay out of their way…at least until he slipped in a pool of blood and went crashing down on his ass.
More spheres swooped in, slicing, drilling, and blasting. The Tall Man's face never changed, but Billy, as he looked up, could almost swear he saw a glint of satisfaction in his eyes.
"You monster! You're the devil hisself!" Billy yelled.
"You underestimate me, boy." The Tall Man replied, once again drawing out the Y so it came out "Boyyy".
Feeling a fresh rush of outrage, Billy reached down into himself and called on more clones, as they appeared all around him…three of them immediately taken down by spheres. Billy jerked from the sensation, and immediately melted back into the crowd, even as the clones tried to escape from the abattoir Billy had thrown them into. One of them actually managed to avoid all the spheres and leap over the morgue table, putting him face to face (well face to mid-upper chest) with the tall man, yelling as he threw a punch.
The Tall Man grabbed the clone by the neck and lifted him up like he weighed nothing.
"And you overestimate yourself." The Tall Man said, and broke the clone's neck so violently he almost twisted the clone's head off. He laid the body down next to the drone.
Screaming, a clone ran past Billy, trying to get the sphere that was drilling into his back off. Another one was swatting spheres out of the air before one flew in, an arm springing out from the front as a small buzz saw fired up at the end, the sphere flying into the clone's yelling mouth and sawing out through the back of his head in a spray of blood and brain matter.
So much carnage, so much death…all around Billy, as he continued to run, popping up more clones that had become little more then meat shields to protect him from the hordes of spheres, and even as he watched another clone was blown in half by a positron laser blast and fell at his feet. Billy jerked and changed directions…and nearly ran into the fence that was erected in the corner of the room. He stopped, staring at it. Of course. This training room had an elevator that led down to the basement of the base that Blood had had the Hive students build for 'homework'. It came up to fill the gap that was in the floor. All he had to do was…
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH GET IT OFF AUUUUUAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" A clone screamed as he stumbled past Billy, a sphere pressed against his chest, teeth-like blades having snapped out of the orb that were whirring against the clone's chest, turning the sphere into a meatgrinder that tore through flesh and bone, as the clone hit the fence and fell over it, screaming all the way down.
And then the panel that called the elevator up exploded from a precise laser blast, and Billy screamed and ran as several spheres led by a golden one swung down and gave chase. Billy distracted them by calling more clones as he ran into another group of them. He couldn't do this much longer. He couldn't keep, for lack of a better term, killing himself. But the doors were closed, and the elevator was now lost to him: the fall down the gap would, if it didn't kill him, break his legs and leave him easy prey.
But he was already easy prey, as the spheres flew, cutting down everyone they touched, blood soaking the floor of the room.
Sil's speed amazed even Zippy.
But that didn't mean it was enough to take the Elemental by surprise, as Zippy dashed away, Sil's claws slicing only air, and then Zippy dashed back, her fist pistoning out and slamming across Sil's face, knocking her over a desk with a violent crash.
Zippy stopped, stunned at what she had just did. A moment ago, she'd wanted to die, had seriously been considering just letting these creatures take her away from life. But the second one tried, there she was, fighting the good fight all over again. Was it her destiny? Or was she a fool who didn't have a damn clue what she really wanted? She didn't know.
What she did know was that pain was shooting up her arm, breaking her thought processes. Sil's 'alien covering' didn't just make her hideous, it apparently was high grade biological armor as well.
Which had taken Zippy's blow quite well, as Sil half-lifted half-crabwalked herself back up (her legs apparently had more joints then the average human), doing the awkward motion so fast you'd have sworn she teleported, as she shrieked at Zippy and thrust out tentacles, which came from her arm and (this was a very fleeting glance but it disturbed Zippy nonetheless) her right breast, long trails of muscles that were covered with small, subtle but vicious barbs, much like Flense's tendrils.
They wrapped around Zippy's left leg, and any human then would have been in serious trouble.
But when it came to Zippy, the last thing you should attack were her legs.
As Zippy yelled, flexed them, and ran, jerking Sil right off her feet and pulling her through several more desks which went flying before the tentacles tore lose, ripping slight gashes in Zippy's skin, but they were only minor flesh wounds, as Zippy turned on a dime and dashed at the crouched Sil, thrusting up her foot at the last second and kicking the female hybrid right in her face, sending her flying and crashing back into the desk remains that Zippy had found the bloodied robe on.
Zippy felt the impact run all the way up her leg though, the limb tingling a bit. Damn, Sil's relatively small and frail looking form really was a wolf in sheep's clothing: the kick Zippy had delivered would have given her teammate (late teammate, her brain reminded her, and a stab of pain went through the young girl once more) Platinum Blonde a bloody nose. All Sil looked was angry, as she pulled herself up, shrieking at Zippy again.
"Couldyouatleastacthurtorsomething?" Zippy protested.
Sil lunged at Zippy, shrieking.
"Did you hear that?" Nightwalker said, cocking his head.
"Hear what?" Jinx replied.
"Sorry. Forget this helmet can pick up things you can't. Though I heard a weird noise or two…"
"Zippy?"
"Might be. Could also be a trap for all we know."
"Oh…well, fortune favors the bold! Which way was it?"
"…That way." Nightwalker said, as he began slipping ammo packs out. Jinx went on ahead. "I'd also like to say fools rush in where angels fear to tread, but we're no angels." Nightwalker said to himself, and dashed after Zippy.
Nightwalker and Jinx weren't the only one hearing things.
Gizmo had been brooding over the computer, annoyed over his latest failure that this wasn't the computer that would shut down the shield, when his ears had pricked up. While the base was supposed to be soundproofed, how effective the soundproofing in every room could be varied greatly. Apparently one wasn't perfect: it allowed Gizmo to hear very faint noise if he himself kept quiet. Of course, Gizmo had no idea what the noise was.
He could rectify that though, as he shoved off the chair while pulling out a small keypad, doing calculations on it. They told him that the room most likely making the noises came from the wall in front of him, so Gizmo hovered over to it, part of his personal gear forming into a stethoscope like instrument that Gizmo plugged into his ears and placed against the wall.
He wished he hadn't, as it rang through his ears, the muting and echoing not enough to disguise that the noise in the room beyond this one was screaming, terrible screaming, and lots of it. Gizmo jerked back in shock, staring at the wall.
That was one of the training rooms if Gizmo remembered correctly. One that had a nearby door leading to it.
And Gizmo, as immature and bad as he was, wasn't the type to just walk away from such a thing. Besides, all he could tell was that there was screaming: maybe it was one of the Hive girls. Maybe he could land a date. Or at least not suffer from a guilty conscience, as Gizmo dashed back over to his workstation, stuffing his tools in and picking up his gun. He was in such a hurry he almost opened the door without checking it first, but he caught himself. Nothing beyond the door, as Gizmo flew out, down the hall, and down the right turn to the door that led to the training room…
Which was locked.
Gizmo wasn't much surprised. The keypad was intact though, and Gizmo could use that, as he set himself down next to it, leaned his gun against the wall after glancing behind him, and punched in the master override code.
The door opened…
About half a foot before it stopped, the keypad showing an ERROR message.
"CRAP!" Gizmo cursed. No longer sealed, the true din that lay in the room could be heard, dozens of voices screaming in fear, in pain, in rage, in agony, a dread cacophony that washed over Gizmo. He glanced behind him again: nothing, so Gizmo got on his knees and looked under the crack, trying to see…
A face filled his vision, and he squawked in surprise and jerked back.
"AH! GIZMO!" Billy screamed: he'd happened to be near the door when it had started to open. "GET ME OUTTA HERE!"
"Billy! All right!" Gizmo said: he didn't care for Billy one way or the other, but whatever was going on beyond the door sounded like a fate Gizmo wouldn't leave the TITANS to, much less a classmate, as Gizmo got up and went back to the useless keypad. His several override attempts did nothing.
"HURRY!" Billy screamed, and then he was gone, though Gizmo couldn't tell if something had got him or if he had run away. Gizmo's eyes narrowed as he glared at the keypad, then he reached into his suit and pulled out an electric screwdriver.
"Hold on Billy! This shouldn't be too hard to hack…" Gizmo said, as he began unscrewing the panel.
The spear slammed into it, only missing Gizmo because he'd moved to the side slightly to get a proper angle for the screwdriver. Gizmo yelped and stumbled as a spray of sparks shot from the keypad, Gizmo dropping the screwdriver as he whirled around.
Uberjason yanked his spear back, pulling the whole keypad out of the wall in the process, and with a slight whir, the door behind Gizmo fully slammed shut.
The last thing he heard was a wail from Billy.
Despite the general badness of the idea, Billy stood where he was, his arms out, his hope for escape seemingly snatched away from him. He was trapped, and in that doomed.
The room was covered in clone bodies, all of them brutalized by the spheres. A fair amount still remained, but they were starting to dwindle: Billy wasn't going to risk making any more clones, otherwise his talent might overload and all the clones would return to him, leaving him the lone target against the Tall Man. Hell, it didn't matter: the spheres would cut down all the clones and find him anyway. So what did he do?
Well, hide some more for now. It was a training room, and hence there were boxes and such to hide behind. Better then being out in the open and the last thing you hear was the humming whistle as the sphere swooped in.
A clone that was going for the Tall Man had a sphere slam into the side of his head, the drilling digging in just below his ear as he stumbled away, screaming. Another clone came in, swinging a length of wood…before a golden sphere flew past, buzzsaws whirring, and sliced off all the clone's fingers. He screamed at the spurting stump…and then another silver sphere flew by with the outstretched saw arm and sliced off his nose. The screams became wet gurgles, as a buzzsaw sphere slammed into the boy's torso and began drilling through, slicing through his guts.
The Tall Man was annoyed for a fraction of a second, then he shrugged it off. He liked the bodies in one piece, but there was more then enough to get off the ground here, start over, as he removed the helmet of the Billy clone he had himself killed and prepared to start the needed procedurals…
Then his left eye narrowed, his face contorting in a painful squint, as it began: the body began to disappear, to fade away before his eyes. The Tall Man clutched at it, but that did nothing, and within two seconds the body was gone entirely.
The Tall Man looked around, and he realized that other bodies lying on the floor were doing likewise, vanishing into the ether…and robbing him of his hard won materials. The squint grew even more clenched, rage blazing in the Tall Man's eyes.
"BOYYYYYYYYYYY!" He bellowed, looking around for the original, for he was certain the original would not disappear when one of his Sentinals pureed his cranial cavity.
Billy gulped from where he was hiding behind some boxes: the old bastard now sounded pissed. And considering he had sliced and diced his way through hundreds of Billy's clones without blinking, he didn't want to know what he would do when he was angry.
Shimmer was angry.
"BARAN! This itches!"
"Does it impede your movement?" Mammoth asked, arms crossed, eyes unflinching. The three had stumbled across a weapons room, and Wilby had gone in looking for something to use (what a wimp). Much to Mammoth's annoyance, he had insisted on taking the whole room apart, leaving it scattered around the training room the weapon room was attached to (and if you think it's odd that so many Hive members were in training rooms and yet haven't seen each other, remember there were a lot of them, divided into three main areas: Left, Central, and Right. These three were in the Central area, while Billy was in the right wing, and hence was somewhat far away…) because nothing in the room fit his huge hands and Mammoth refused to let him turn back into his shrimpy normal form. So Rhinoceros Beetle kept looking (at the moment he was lugging out barrels, albeit very carefully: Mammoth understood why when he had seen the LIQUID COOLANT on the side: the barrels contained a special fluid that helped keep larger weapons from overheating, and acted like liquid nitrogen if they touched anything organic, like Wilby's flesh), and Mammoth had taken the time to dress his sister up in a suit of Hive battle armor that was in the room, despite all her protests.
"Baran, I…took a long time designing this costume!" Shimmer complained after the suit was shown not to slow her down.
"You can show it off in lesser crisis'."
"Baran, I am not a baby!"
"You're my baby sister, and I told you that I'd always look after you. This is one of those times." Mammoth said. Shimmer sulked.
"He probably knows best Selinda." Wilby said, as he brought out the last box of guns and began looking through it.
"Don't support him!" Shimmer snapped, and kicked Wilby in the ankle.
"OW!"
"Enough. Shimmer, you don't want to be treated like a baby, don't act like one. Wilby, those are all small arms, you'll never find anything in there to fit you. Come on, we've delayed enough. You'll just have to take it if we run into anything." Mammoth said.
Rhinoceros Beetle sweatdropped, and nervously followed the two.
And in case you were wondering, Zippy was in the left training area.
As Sil leapt at her, covering the distance between the two in two big swift leaps, clawing for the teen, but Zippy was already gone by the time Sil got there: now she was up against the wall. Sil hissed.
"Iguesstalkingourdifferencesthroughisoffthetable." Zippy said.
Sil slashed her arm, and black daggers made of the same material that covered her body flew at Zippy. Could Sil do that in the movie? Zippy forgot, but she figured it didn't matter as Sil was doing it NOW: Zippy ran to the side, managing to avoid the daggers. Though she was starting to get worried. She was a long-range runner, needing time and space to get up to high speeds: she wasn't like Hermes, who could flick his speed on and off like it was a light switch. Short dashes of extreme velocity were not something her body was cut out to do over and over again. And locked in the room as she was, working up a head of steam would be hard…
Especially with Sil leaping at her, shrieking like a harpy, trying to bring a whole new meaning to the phrase 'claw your eyes out'.
Zippy dodged that, but this time she didn't stop running. No. The alien bitch wanted to play? She could play, as she poured on the power, running around the room and past Sil before the alien knew what had happened, and as Zippy halfway completed her second pass she ran up and ONTO the wall, sprinting along the length of it. She couldn't do this for long, but she didn't need a long time: she just needed to get back around the room and line up with Sil…
As she leapt off the wall and slammed her knee and thigh into Sil's head. The impact sounded like a rifle shot, and it smashed the alien hybrid across the entire room. She slammed into the wall with a sickening crack, as Zippy landed, stumbled, and went down on her knees.
"Owwwwwwwww." Zippy moaned, her leg throbbing from the impact.
The loud hiss drew her attention, and she looked up in surprise as Sil pulled herself to her feed via the wall, her claws leaving shallow drag marks behind her.
"OhCOMEON! ThatwouldhavedecapitatedGoliath!" Zippy complained.
Sil was attacking again, leaping for Zippy, and Zippy ran, dodging the claws, then more bone knives…and not dodging the lashing barbed tentacle, which ripped a blood line across her back and a scream from her throat.
Sil made a strange sound: it COULD have been laughter, but it was hard to tell. But it was definitely a pleased sound, as Zippy whirled, holding her back.
"AllrightBITCH…" Zippy said, as electricity crackled in her eyes. "BUCKLEUP."
"You think she's behind this door?" Jinx asked.
"I'd bet money." Nightwalker replied, the side of his helmet pressed against said door, very faint noises that could have been fighting coming through to its hidden hearing enhancements. He pushed away as Jinx fiddled with the keypad.
"Damn! I think someone locked this from the other side." Jinx cursed.
"Guess we need a different key then." Nightwalker said, as he pulled out one of Rocko's C4 bombs.
Gizmo didn't have any C4, and even if he did he wouldn't have the time to set it as he looked down the hallway at what had tried to kill him.
Uberjason looked back, and then he put his spear away and started heading for Gizmo.
Gizmo licked his lips. He wasn't really surprised to see Jason. He'd been there last time, from the snatches of security cam footage Gizmo had managed to get, and here he was again, albeit in the form from his latest film. Said film may have been lacking in more then one area, but that didn't much matter now. All that mattered was that he was here and Gizmo was trapped between him and a wall.
Strangely, he wasn't much afraid.
And the reason why stood next to him, as Gizmo grabbed up his custom built gun and aimed at Uberjason, who stopped.
"Shoulda stayed at the camp." Gizmo said, and opened fire, the miniature revolving barrel spraying out a hail of bullets that would have reduced any normal person to hamburger.
Uberjason just looked down at himself as the bullets bounced and ricocheted off of him, not bothering him in the least. At the extremely high rate of fire, it didn't take long for Gizmo to run out of ammo.
Uberjason looked back up at Gizmo, as the very large clip ejected from the special side pack Gizmo had for his ammo.
Gizmo's expression hadn't changed though, as he leaned in close to his gun.
"Armor piercing!"
"Armor piercing." The computer replied as it slammed a new clip of ammo in.
Uberjason's eyes widened a bit.
Gizmo opened fire again, his gun blazing bullets that would have been more at home in a helicopter chain gun, and even Uberjason couldn't shrug them off, as his entire body went into a paroxysm of movement as the projectiles tore through him, driving him back as black blood spurted from the wounds, shells clattering around Gizmo's feet as he drove Uberjason back.
His gun clicked dry.
As the bullets stopped, so did Uberjason, as he leaned down a bit, as if collecting himself, and then looked back up, eyes blazing.
As a missile swung over Gizmo's shoulder and locked on.
"Longing for Tina?" Gizmo asked.
The missile blasted off, the tip opening up into a claw clamp that slammed into Jason and dug in even as the afterburner kicked into high gear and sent his massive frame flying back until it hit the wall.
Gizmo whipped out a remote and pressed the button.
The missile exploded, a series of mini bombs located within providing a devastating wave of explosive concussions. It would have royally screwed up Cyborg.
The fire burned down the hallway, a billowing cloud of burning death, but Gizmo stood still, the heat shining on his face…and then retracting away, the fire burning itself out. Smoke plumed down the hallway in turn.
Gizmo reached over and made a few adjustments to his gun, even as a miniature fan emerged from his backpack and blew the smoke away. His gun adjusted, he started down the hallway.
Jason lay motionless on his back, riddled with holes, his metal mask scorched black. The missile had turned him sideways so his feet were pointing down the right hallway rather then at Gizmo, and Gizmo couldn't see any weapons.
Still, he approached cautiously, carefully skirting around the body and heading back to the computer room…
As Uberjason reared up and buried his axe in Gizmo's back.
Or rather where his back was: the axe went through him. Uberjason's eyes widened again, even as Gizmo uncloaked behind him, as Uberjason turned around.
"I'm not stupid." Gizmo said, and fired. His new gun layout could most aptly be described as if a shotgun and a 50-caliber gun that would normally be mounted on a battleship had a baby: the size of the former, the impact of the latter. The boom was so loud anyone who would have been within ten feet probably would have been temporarily deafened: fortunately Gizmo had earplugs.
And Jason had other problems, as the projectile smashed into him so hard it not only blew a hole in his metal side it shoved him across the entire hallway on his ass, where he crashed into the wall with a ringing bang.
Gizmo simultaneously cocked the gun, ejecting the spent shell, even as he deactivated the anti-grav field that allowed him to actually hold the gun up, the ammo was so heavy. The shell hit the floor so hard it made a dent.
"Maximum impact, minimum recoil. Can I build a gun or what?" Gizmo said, and blew on the barrel.
Uberjason's head snapped up. Gizmo's eyes widened a bit.
"I guess for you it's or what." Gizmo said, as Uberjason started getting up. Gizmo started down the hallway after him. "Well…I always could make a convincing argument when I put my MIND to it!"
BOOM!
The impact nearly threw Uberjason back on his ass, but somehow he stayed on his feet, as he glared at Gizmo, the new giant hole on his right side leaking blood. Gizmo grit his teeth.
"REALLY need some convincing, eh?"
BOOM!
The blast hit Uberjason dead center. A normal human's whole upper body would have been reduced to paste. Even Uberjason got a fist-sized hole in him.
But that just seemed to focus his rage, as he stiffened and then looked up, eyes burning with rage. Gizmo, now quite annoyed, cocked again…
And found the gun wasn't cocking all the way. His eyes widened, and he looked down at the weapon.
"…Aw no! Don't jam now! I built you better then that!" Gizmo yelled, as he fiddled with the gun.
Uberjason cracked his neck and started down the hallway.
"Yikes!" Gizmo said, as his jet-wings popped out, and he lifted off and took off down the hallway away from Uberjason, who pursued with slow, merciless determination, picking up his lost axe and machete in the process.
He entered a large room filled with various gymnastic equipment, his eyes darting around for the midget who had hurt him so. He'd hurt him more…
His inhuman senses picked it up, as he turned…
"WATAHHHH!" Gizmo shrieked, trying to sound like Bruce Lee and failing mightily as he zipped in, one hand clutching his metalliplastic weapon in the same of a blade and another holding a lightsaber like laser sword, as he furiously slashed at Uberjason, using his jetpack and small size to keep away from Uberjason's counter machete slice. You might think Gizmo has lost his mind, actually engaging in close range combat, but his gun was still messed up and he hadn't had the time to properly repair it. Plus, he had a personal shield, so it wasn't like he was going in naked, as he swooped in and dashed by, slicing Uberjason across the mask and flying away before he could counter. Uberjason stalked after Gizmo, who swooped back in and rapidly zig-zagged to throw Jason off. It worked, as Gizmo dodged the axe, then the machete, then sliced Uberjason repeatedly with his laser sword before flying off again.
He wasn't happy though: he could clearly see the holes he had made in Uberjason were smaller then before. The bastard was healing. What had happened in the movie? Nanomachines had rebuilt him? Looks like they considered it a full time job. As if Jason hadn't been hard to hurt and kill already. But Gizmo wasn't going to worry: if Crudborg could take the bugger down, he certainly could!
Gizmo did a very narrow loop and attacked Uberjason from the air, avoiding another machete stab as he sliced with his morphing blade and then with his laser…
Jason grabbed the laser sword, much to Gizmo's surprise, the high-ion blade hissing against Uberjason's metal hand. But he had enough of a grip, and enough of a surprise, to yank Gizmo over his head and slam him into the ground, hard, the laser sword sparking out as Uberjason raised his machete and brought it down.
It hit the shield bubble, and for a moment it looked like the air was mightily resisting Uberjason's blow before the shield also shorted out from the unholy strength, leaving nothing between the machete and Gizmo's head.
Fortunately Gizmo has taken that second of delay to move it, the machete nearly slicing his ear off, as Gizmo let out a fearful yell and then spun up, assisted by his gear, as he leapt up and buried the metalliplastic blade deep into the left side of Uberjason's head and then kicked off and flew away with his jetpack. Unfortunately, the blade was buried too deep (huh, Gizmo didn't know his own strength), and it was yanked out of Gizmo's hands, as he flew a dozen feet away and landed, looking grim.
Uberjason reached up and yanked the blade out, as the metal went formless out of its masters' hands.
"Huh. You seem to keep getting hit there, don't you?" Gizmo said nervously, as he rapidly searched for another weapon. Apparently, Uberjason didn't like the fact that he'd once again suffered the head wound/mask notch that had adorned his face for five films, as he immediately began stomping right for Gizmo.
Right about the time Gizmo realized he didn't have any more weapons on his person that could pack enough of a punch to slow down Uberjason.
Which meant he pretty much had no weapons at all.
"Through here!" Belinda said, as the drones ran up to the locked door, albeit one that was across from the one Gizmo has tried to open.
"You sure?" Flay asked.
"You didn't ask for a trace when you two were talking! If you had, I might be more certain!" Belinda said, as she punched the keypad at the door. To no one's real surprise, it refused to help her. "Dammit! Kane, crack it!"
"Yes ma'am!" One of the two unnamed until just now drones said, as he went over to the keypad and removed tools similar to Gizmo's as he began removing the keypad.
"The rest of you, arm up. Except you." Belinda said, pointing to Flense, as the rest of her companions began checking guns and generally arming themselves.
"Excuse me?"
"You were the one who recognized what Billy was describing, this Tall Man. If you can recognize it off a tossed off comment, you obviously know more then you're letting on."
"What are you talking about?"
"You know damn well what I mean!" Belinda snapped. By now Flay and Shane the drone were staring at Flense oddly.
"…You'll have to be more specific."
"Oh quit fucking around! What do you know about this Tall Man?"
"Oh." Flense said. "Well, you think this is the first time I've seen horror films, this night?"
"I've heard of Jason and Freddy, but I've never heard of a Tall Man." Patrick said. Flense's brow furled.
"An…old girlfriend of mine liked arty bullshit films. Around Halloween, she didn't want to get any NORMAL horror films, she had to get this somewhat obscure series called Phantasm. And since the films were so fucking confusing, I always had to watch them multiple times. Even then I didn't really understand them."
"Fine. Why's this Tall Man so dangerous?"
"He's not human for one. He's pretty much impossible to kill. He can be hurt, but he just seems to…shrug it off. Literally. They dropped him in a mine and sealed it with a boulder, but he came back…they injected acid into him, but he came back…they hanged him, but he came back…they blew him up…but he came back…"
"I get the point."
"Oh yeah, he's also superhumanly strong. And that's just him. The real danger is these flying spheres he commands. They're super quick and armed with all kinds of fatal weapons, all of which they'll want to dig into your head…and other ones have lasers and buzzsaws. He could also have undead servants or quite possibly evil dwarf slaves."
"Evil…dwarf slaves?"
"I didn't write the movie! It's some plot point, he wants dead bodies, by fair means or foul, so he can put them through some shrinking process, shrinks down the brain so he can put in those damn spheres, the whole body shrinks at the same time, hence evil dwarf slaves…hey stop looking at me like that. I just watched them."
"Great. How many of these things will there be?"
"I don't know. Dwarves and undead, maybe not many, but the Tall Man could potentially have thousands of spheres."
"Great. So we have to basically deal with an army?"
"In a sense, but don't lose hope. The Tall Man isn't one to fight, and he moves real slow. The dwarfs aren't all that tough except in numbers. The spheres are the real danger, but it takes them a long time to slow down and turn, so if you bob and wave and run all over the place you'll probably throw them off. If I remember correctly, the Tall Man has a tuning fork like device that he uses to control the spheres, maybe we can get ahold of that. Oh yeah one more thing: he doesn't like…"
"Got it." Kane said, as he finished connecting wires, putting the keypad back on and then standing up and picking up his gun.
"Doesn't like what?" Belinda asked.
"The cold! He doesn't like the cold!"
"Will he have batteries?" Buzz Bomb asked.
Everyone glared at Buzz Bomb.
"Buzz, you better get your head in the game, because if you don't…" Flense said.
And then the door opened.
To a scene of absolute carnage. The room was filled with Billy corpses, the teen having cloned himself so many times that despite the bodies vanishing there were still hundreds of them. The floor literally ran with blood, not to mention all the mutilations on display. There were still some Billy clones left, but the spheres were quickly finishing them off. Worse, the Tall Man was slowly walking among the chaos, occasionally killing a clone himself. He was apparently looking for something or someone.
And he found himself staring at the small group in the hallway.
"…Oops." Shane said.
"Ahhhhhh. New guests." The Tall Man said. "Stay a while. Stay forever!"
And a large group of spheres peeled off the ceiling and zapped towards them.
However, this group was considerably better-armed and prepared then Billy Numerous, or even Reggie and Mike.
As the spheres met a hail of gunfire that blew them out of the air. However, there were still more spheres then bullets, and the remaining ones swooped in, blades flashing.
But their targets weren't standing still, as the Hive droves all dove and rolled out of the way.
As a pair of lashing whips came into play, the tendrils vibrating slightly to add extra impact, as Flay leapt out in a twirling dervish, knocking spheres from the air like it was easy. It wasn't, but Flay had said it himself: the best are remembered. Not every target you face is going to be easy, so Flay had trained himself to hit hard targets as well, a factor that now came into play, as he did a leaping cartwheel and slashed three more spheres from the sky.
Flense did likewise, as five tendrils bearing drills flew from his arms and coiled through the air, whacking and slashing the spheres, the drills giving them a taste of their own medicine, as another pair of tendrils curled around Flense's head to protect him from counter attacks.
Which were well needed: the group may have taken down the first assault, but there were a lot more spheres where they came from.
And they were coming, blades whirling and twisting. One fired a laser blast at the last unnamed drone, who dodged and blew it apart with a swift burst of fire, as Flay switch one whip off and pulled out another before the average person could blink, the new one igniting into flame as Flay lashed it through the air, leaving flame trails as he cooked spheres.
Buzz Bomb…was pretty much standing and watching in shock at the sight.
"…Ohhhhhh, pretty."
And then several spheres flew through the open doorway, heading for him.
"ACK!"
Buzz Bomb got his laser gauntlets up and fired, blowing the first and third sphere out of the air…and then the second slammed into his chest, drilling into his armor…before Buzz Bomb punched it off and stomped on it. More spheres whirred at him, and he screamed and took off, his wings fluttering as he flew backwards, shooting and blowing up more spheres as he fled. Within seconds he was around the corner and gone, about twenty-five spheres following him, leaving his group to the wolves. He flew past Mittens, who stared in confusion, until one of the spheres charged course and went after the cat, who quickly got his butt in gear and ran for it. The sphere chased Mittens for a bit and then decided Buzz Bomb was a better target and changed course to go after him again.
"We lost Buzz!" Flay yelled, and then took out three silver spheres and a golden one in a flurry of whip cracks.
"Eh, he'd probably get in the way anyway!" Flense yelled, as he leapt in front of Belinda and Patrick and provided them with a shield that took out several attacking spheres. Belinda and Patrick leaned around him and continued shooting spheres out of the sky.
The Tall Man cocked his head slightly. Well, this was going differently: normally anyone who crossed him would be on his morgue table by now. But no matter: all died eventually, and death was his realm. And speaking of death, he had to find that boy, the one who had tricked him. He was going to get at least one body out of all this nonsense, that was for certain.
Billy was still hiding behind the boxes, cowering, his mind now thoroughly crushed by fear. He probably would have stayed there until the Tall Man found him…
If a sphere, sliced by Flense's tendrils, hadn't spun out and crashed into the boxes, knocking them all down and exposing Billy as he screamed in terror. The last of his clones were gone: he had nothing left to hide behind, and the Tall Man had seen him.
"BOYYYYYY!"
The spheres were coming.
You can't blame Billy for panicking. And panic he did, as he screamed and ran, heading for the group, somehow dodging all the spheres, as Flay saw him coming and tried to lay down some 'covering fire'.
"Hey Billy nice to…" Flay began.
Billy ran right past him, much to Flay's surprise. He melt-lashed the final sphere and turned his head, as Billy ran through the door…
And stopped suddenly, turning back around so quickly he nearly fell over, and ran back a bit…
For the keypad. Flay's eyes widened.
"BILLY NO!"
Billy didn't hit a specific button: he just wiped the whole pad with the palm of his hand. That was enough.
Flense heard the whirring noise, and he himself turned his head as the door started coming down.
"SHIT!" He cursed, and dove for the door, firing out his tentacles, trying to get in and at the button before…
Too late.
The door slammed down, missing the metal coils by an inch, and sealing the group into the room.
For a moment, Billy watched the door, as a tiny part of him wondered if he had done the right thing.
Such a thought didn't hold for long with him. His sanity was too frayed, not to mention his body was an utter mess from all the feedback of the clone death. Jerking and twitching, Billy turned and ran off, mumbling gibberish, having no idea where to do, just knowing he had to get away from that room, even if it meant he left the ones who has risked their lives to save him to die.
Hey, it was THEIR choice.
And as you might have learned to expect, I will now make a transition by comparing what had just happened with something that is happening now: in this case, speaking of trapped, Gizmo was as well.
"Ah heh heh heh…"Gizmo said, sweatdropping, even as he pressed a button on a pad tucked under his upper arm. "You know, I don't smoke, drink, and do drugs, and my luck with women is about the same as yours, so I don't suppose you could give me a free pass?"
Uberjason swung his axe at Gizmo, who squawked and dodged away via his jetpack.
"Geez, whatever happened to sticking with your viewpoints?" Gizmo asked. Uberjason hurled the machete at him, barely missing as it bounced off the ceiling and fell to the floor, as Gizmo swooped away…
And flew right into the tossed chain-spear.
Luckily it just pierced the wing of his jetpack, but that was enough to send Gizmo spiraling down to the ground as Jason yanked, sending the midget teen down to the ground with a yell and a thump.
Cursing, Gizmo got back up, ejecting the wrecked jetpack, as Uberjason headed for him.
"Crap. Looks like I'm toast." Gizmo said.
And then three doors around the training room opened.
"Or maybe I'm lying." Gizmo said, as a controller snapped into his hands. "Thought I could use these: no better time then the present!"
Uberjason looked around as more figures began to enter the room. The thing was, they all looked the same. They were Sladebots, left over from when Slade had tried hiring the Hive for his missions, and had been sitting around since then until someone found a use for them, in this case Gizmo activating and summoning them with the special remote he had grabbed earlier. Accompanying them were nine of the Hive Cyborg copies, which had also been in storage.
"Domo Arigoto." Gizmo said, and switched the robots into attack mode.
And attack they did, swarming Jason en masse, while Gizmo ran for his gun, picking up his morph weapon along the way. The Sladebots leapt through the air, slashing out with their laser blasters, the beams cutting deep marks on Uberjason, but that only made him mad as he buried the axe in one of their chests and then chopped another one in half vertically with the machete. Then a 'Hiveborg' rammed into him from behind, sending him stumbling as another two blasted him with their sonic cannons. Uberjason whirled, punching the head off the first Hiveborg before he hurled his spear through another, which fell over with a crash, taking the spear with it.
"Ah crap! Do I have to do everything!" Gizmo cursed, as he looked up from his gun. Apparently the AI programs weren't enough to handle Uberjason, and he needed more time to make adjustments to his gun…
Uberjason tore through another Sladebot with machete and axe, and then, spying Gizmo, and instinctively knowing he was the cause of all the trouble, started for him, ignoring the Sladebots shooting lasers into his back and smashing a Hiveborg aside as it tried to stop him.
"Crap!" Gizmo cursed, as he finished with the adjustments: Uberjason was too close! Going to Plan B, Gizmo whipped out a computer part, attached it to the gun, and plugged in a quick command before he turned to face Uberjason, who had just ripped a Hiveborg's head off and thrown it through the chest of a Sladebot before he headed for Gizmo, closing in…
Sil's slashing talons once again hit only air, as Zippy dashed back, and then dashed forward, punching Sil across the face with her fist and then stopping and zapping back as she swung out her leg, kicking Sil on the other side of her head, the impacts so quick they felt like one. Sil staggered, but not for long, as she went after Zippy again, and missed again with a claw attack, as Zippy avoided it and ran past Sil, circling the room once more to charge up, electricity firing up on her fists, fists she lashed out and hammered Sil with, throwing a dozen electrically charged punches into every spot she thought looked vulnerable. Every spot turned out to be just as hard as the rest, but the voltage-changed blows weren't shrugged off like before, even if Zippy probably hurt her hands more then she did Sil. Zippy dashed back to get away from the latest Sil attack, in which a bony protrusion on her forearm extended out and turned into a deadly bone sword that Sil slashed at Zippy, missing her as mentioned. Zippy stopped to take a few deep breaths and think about her options.
Sil was on her like a shot, trying to rip her to pieces. Zippy's face hardened: screw it. She'd do it and do the bitch in!
"Setting the timer…" Nightwalker said.
All the Sladebots and Hiveborgs suddenly convened, leaping onto and dog-piling onto Uberjason as Gizmo switched to manual control. He needed more time…
Uberjason hurled all the robots off of him, one of them almost crashing into Gizmo, as he slammed the head of one into the ground and then hacked off the heads of two Hiveborgs in a row before another one charged in, hammering with fists of steel. When Uberjason tried to get him with the axe, another Hiveborg blew the weapon apart with a sonic cannon blast. Mad as hell, Uberjason reached out and grabbed the head of the Hiveborg attacking him, crushing it inward before he seized the body and hurled it into two attacking Sladebots, smashing them all to bits before he turned back, and Gizmo's eyes widened as he crossed the distance with speed Gizmo hadn't been expecting…
And then Uberjason had him, grabbing him by the neck and lifting him upward. Gizmo screamed, as he formed the metalliplastic into a spiked hammer and rained blows on Uberjason's head, but the undead master of Crystal Lake was having none of that, as Gizmo swung down as hard as he could…and shorted out the weapon, the hammer turning to liquid as the hilt sparked and fell from Gizmo's grip.
Uberjason cocked his head, as if asking if Gizmo was finally done, and drew back his machete…
The last two Hiveborgs came up behind him, clamping his arms and yanking them behind Uberjason, dropping Gizmo with a cry. He scrambled away, as the last few Sladebots came in, slashing and shooting the prone Uberjason…until Uberjason reversed the momentum and smashed the two Hiveborg's head's together, and then slashed off the upper half of the nearest Sladebot. Having had enough of these annoyances, Uberjason walked over to his spear, picked it up…and found it had somehow fused to the body of the Hiveborg it had deactivated.
The last Sladebots leapt in…
And Uberjason swung the body around like a morning star, smashing the last robots from the air. They fell to the ground, twitching and sparking, as Uberjason tossed the now useless spear away. He took a deep breath, and then turned to finally get Gizmo…
As Zippy dashed away from Sil's attack, not even noticing the next one that put Sil in roughly the center of the room. She was fully concentrated on her running, going around and around the room, over and over, building up her speed, charging up her body, uniting with what defined her: the power of the heavens…
As Gizmo brought up his gun, the gun he had programmed to charge up, a charge that could have been done much quicker if Gizmo had been manually doing it, but Uberjason had been biting at his ass and he'd had to program the computer to do it for him…but it had done so, filling the gun up with immense power from a recyling fusion reaction, a power that was now flowing into the 'barrel' as Gizmo aimed and locked on.
"Let's see how hardened your nanomachines are." Gizmo said.
And he fired off a huge ball of electrical power at Uberjason.
As Zippy did one final insanely quick turn even as her power kicked into maximum overdrive and her whole body became energy, as Zippy turned into a golden bolt of lightning.
The two targets were struck with such force it blasted everything close to them away, untold amounts of electricity coursing through their bodies, one natural and one man-made, and both deadly to the extreme, as the two creatures danced in the heart of the storm, the sheer power roasting and burning them from the inside out.
Gizmo stood firm as electrical bolts zapped all around him off Jason's body, while the ruined training room Sil and Zippy fought it was the only one who saw the amazing lightshow.
And then the reaction stopped, as a golden bolt flew from Sil's body and hit the ground nearby, reforming into Zippy.
The hybrid stopped moving, and then, smoking, fell slowly forward onto her face.
As Uberjason toppled over onto his back, hitting the ground with a dull thud, not moving.
Timber.
Gizmo lowered his gun, drawing in a deep breath and letting it out. He looked at the weapon: virtually ruined. That was the problem with such a powered up shot. He'd be lucky if he could shoot one or two more things with the gun, bullets included, before it completely fell apart. He sighed and tossed it down on the ground.
He didn't approach Uberjason's body without a weapon though: he retrieved his morph blade and, while trying to fix it, also borrowed one of the Sladebot's laser slicers. Carefully, he stepped up to the body, which utterly reeked, smoke still pouring from the mask and mostly closed holes.
But there was no movement. And as Gizmo found out by scanning, no more nanomachines. He'd cooked them all.
"Heh." Gizmo said, and tossed the broken metalliplastic weapon onto Uberjason's chest. "Parting gift mama's boy."
And Gizmo turned and left the room, annoyed that he'd have to go back to his room for more firepower, but better safe then sorry. At least he'd taken down one major threat.
Sil didn't smell much better, as Zippy approached her and nudged, then kicked her, ready to run at even the slightest sign of movement. But there was none. Sil was done. Extremely well done.
"…Itwasn'tmyproblem. Rememberthat." Zippy said.
And then, in the sudden quiet, Zippy was aware of noises behind one of the doors. She looked at it.
"Hello?"
The door exploded, making Zippy stumble back with a scream as smoking debris shot into the room. There was a sudden rumbling noise and then an "OH SHIT!" and then Nightwalker and Jinx ran into the room as the ceiling collapsed behind them, burying the hallway they had just come from in debris.
"…Ok. Guess I didn't set it absolutely perfectly." Nightwalker said.
"Llarenes! And…Idon'trememberwhoyouare!" Zippy said.
"Nightwalker."
"Ohyeah! Whatjusthappened?"
"Door needed to be unlocked."
"Really?" Zippy said, looking at the wreckage that kept the three of them from going back the way they came. "Wellnicejobmasterofunlocking!"
"Look Zippy, we're kind of in a 'take what you can' state. We're locked in the base, we can't find a way out, we're dropping like flies, and oh god she's getting back up." Nightwalker said.
"WHAT?" Zippy said, whirling around.
Tentacles lashed for the group, and they all split apart to dodge, Zippy running a few steps to the side before stopping in utter disbelief. Sil was back up, and while still smoking she appeared to have otherwise shrugged off the electrical attack. The millions of volts electrical attack.
"OhcomeonIKNOWthat'scheating!" Zippy yelled.
Sil leapt for Zippy, lashing out with her arm blade. Zippy dodged, as expected…right into Sil's tentacles, which coiled around Zippy's arms and legs and yanked the girl off the ground.
"AH!" Zippy screamed, as Sil adjusted her and then popped out her bone sword again for the finishing touch.
Jinx kicked Sil as hard as she could, a running jumping double-foot drop kick. It still felt like she was kicking a brick wall. However, it staggered Sil enough so that Zippy could get back on the ground, where she promptly ran for it, dragging Sil along with her before swinging her around and smashing her into a wall. The alien fell limply to the ground, letting Zippy go.
"All right!…Oh no." Jinx said, as Sil started to get back up again. Jinx glanced to the side, wondering where Nightwalker was, and was surprised to see him standing still, gauntlets out, aiming at Sil, but not firing, as Sil got back up and attacked Zippy again. Jinx ran over to the vigilante.
"What are you doing?"
"Waiting for the right moment."
"She could kill Zippy!"
"That's a risk I'm willing to take."
"But…"
"Go help if you're worried."
"How?"
"Hex her?"
"My hexes haven't worked so far, why would they start working now?"
"Law of averages?"
Jinx made a disgusted noise and turned back to where Sil was chasing Zippy again, as Zippy ran around another attack and dashed in, her leg blurring out as she did her best impression of Chun Li, hammering Sil with multiple kicks before smashing her across the room again with a final blow, causing Sil to dent the wall. Zippy ran back over to the group.
"Owwwwwwwww…couldyouguysgivemeabreakorsomething, mylegsarereallystartingtohurtandyikes!" Zippy squealed as Sil was once again attacking, crossing the distance like it was nothing, slashing at Jinx and then Zippy, who both dodged. Jinx fired off a hex, but it barely phased Sil, as she leapt for Jinx, her claws going for the throat.
And then Nightwalker blew up her knees with two highly precise orbs.
Sil fell to the ground, falling to her wrecked knees, as Nightwalker ejected one clip, snapped in another, and aimed as Sil turned towards him, snarling.
The explosive blast blew Sil across the room, where she managed to stop, trying to get up…
Two more orbs slammed into her legs, and then a rapid fire barrage tore through her hands, shoulders, and torso, her armor weakened by the explosion. Another explosive orb blew her backwards again, as Nightwalker ejected the detonation clip, snapped in the old one, and aimed again as Sil once more tried to stand.
Orbs tore through her, ripping through her shoulders, chest, and collar, Nightwalker walking forward while firing, and as the alien hybrid reeled on her knees, Nightwalker finished his barrage, walking right up in front of her.
The roundhouse kick loudly broke her neck, as Nightwalker kicked Sil as hard as he could, the alien's head nearly twisting around 180 degrees before her body collapsed, leaking blood.
"…Her armor was proving too much of a deterrent. I figured a focused attack at the proper time would be more efficient." Nightwalker said, turning around and walking back to the group.
"………….Showoff." Zippy said.
"Whatever. We've been looking for you Zippy. For Rocko."
"Rocko'salive?"
"Yeah, though she's pretty worn out. We should go check on her, and then maybe we can actually find a way out of this GUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Nightwalker gasped/screamed as a tentacle suddenly wrapped around his neck and jerked him into the air, as Jinx and Zippy scrambled back.
"NO! NO!" Jinx screamed.
Sil was back up, holding Nightwalker in the air, the wounds evident on her body but rapidly vanishing. Poor Nightwalker: he hadn't known Sil could regenerate her bone and tissue structure, a fact that had allowed her to get the drop on him.
The good news for him was she didn't break his neck in turn.
The bad news was she threw him into a wall, hard, the black clad teen bouncing off and crashing down onto one of the desks that was still in one piece.
Sil's face was shifting, turning back, briefly becoming the face of the lovely blonde that had lured Progeny to his doom.
"…Just give up. You can't kill me. You are…genetic trash. I'm superior." Sil said.
"Funnyyoudidn'tseemsoeloquentinthemovie." Zippy said.
Nightwalker stirred, blinking behind his mask…and not believing what he was seeing.
"…Well fuck me." He muttered.
Sil glanced at him.
"I cannot." She replied. "It is not…proper…but what is it you terrans say…I will gladly…" Sil's face began shifting back. "Fuck…you…up."
The transformation was complete, as Sil loudly hissed at Zippy and Nightwalker.
"Herewegoagain." Zippy complained.
The tentacles went for their heads.
There was no movement in the wrecked gym area, no movement from the body…except on a level so small you could barely see it with the naked eye.
As some very confused nanomachines, not sure what their programming was, found themselves being drawn out of their metal base, where they had once manipulated a weapon on command, and into another, as if willed by some unknown force.
They found another colony of nanomachines within, all destroyed. As was their nature, they tried to repair them.
CH CH CH AH AH AH…
And a hand began to twitch…