Spider
Each stone on the ground shook and leaves fell from the trees. It was as if the forest it self felt the evil coming and was trying to uproot itself to get away. Torrent stood his eyes flashing around wildly in search of the source of the thunderous crashing. The noise seemed to come from every direction, and whatever the adversary was, it gave off no smell. With no sound or smell, the approaching threat where invisible to Torrents powerful senses. Ann attempted to stand at Torrent's side but stumbled from the fatigue given to her by Robin in battle and fell forward. Torrent spun and caught her arm as she tripped, and then lifting her over one shoulder he carried her to a small crater dug into the side of a small hill by one of Robin's explosives. He set her within the protective position and turned to defend her from the approaching foes.
The first of them crashed into view. It was obviously mechanical, but its body was stained black instead of silver. A single orange eye glowed within its head, and long claws shone at the end of each arm. Multiple, long, sharp, spider like legs held it aloft from the ground. Torrent saw it before it was able to spot Torrent. He studied it with his keen eyes and began to use his ability to estimate what the creature was capable of. Then it saw him, its glowing eye locking on to his position. The mechanical spider lunged forward with frightening speed, its clawed hands out stretched preparing to rip at its victim's throat. Torrent stood in front of Ann unshaken by the furious charge, only seconds passed before the motorized beast was within jumping distance of Torrent and Ann. It pounced as nimbly as any carnivorous cat Torrent had ever seen toward them. The air whistled around its sharp talons as the distance from them to Torrent's throat closed, and still he remained motionless. Then at the last possible instant, Torrent dived, not away but directly at the black machine. As if surprised the machine froze for almost a second when it landed, unsure where its target had vanished to. Torrent need no larger of a window to place his attack. With two fingers he struck upward into the things "neck". The thin metal broke and the inner wiring crackled as Torrent ripped them apart. He stepped away as the Spider began to convulse in malfunction induced death thrashes. No explosion followed, it simply froze mid convulsion and its orange eyes slowly faded and became a blank socket. Ann was shocked in how easily Torrent had disposed of the strange black machine, she was even about to let out a compliment when she realized that the rumbling of the forest had not stopped. She reached out into Torrent's mind and sought out his thoughts, what she heard caused shock to cover her face, "A scout."
The trees and bushes surrounding them where suddenly torn apart as dozens of swift black shadows charged toward them. Torrent stood at their center beside Ann and smiled back at the looming horror surrounding him. With a flick of his foot he sent Robin's discarded staff that lay on the ground next to him into the air he caught it in one hand and spun it around several times, then caught it under one arm pit. As if shocked by this display of expertise the spiders suddenly faltered and began to form a circle around the crater Torrent defended. His eyes flashed from one machine to the next, these where different from the one he had destroyed. Armor plates covered every inch of their bodies and long sword like appendages extended from their forearms. The clatter as the long spider legs crashing through the under growth around them slowly dulled down until complete silence ruled over the forest again. Torrent was the only thing moving, he swiveled his body continuously as he observed each of his foes individually, waiting for one to move. The armored spiders however where frozen still. No sound came from the dark assembly, until a stark mechanical sounding voice seemed to imitate from every creature simultaneously.
"Surrender, so that we may take you to our master." The unexpected statement astonished Torrent and Ann. Ann was moved to almost a point of panic, then she heard Torrent laughing. She glared at him, but still he smiled at giggled at the demand as if it was perfectly normal to chuckle over death threats. The laugh had a tinge of insanity laced within its joy. Ann had always known the Torrent had been slightly strange in the head, caused by his strange gift to quickly learn in battle, but as he mocked their potential killers now she truly questioned his sanity.
One of the spiders, as if offended by the exhibit of disrespect lunged forward at Torrent's back. He immediately stopped laughing, though his smile still remained, and stuck out with his acquired weapon without even glancing behind him. The orange eye at the center of the creatures face was crushed. It screamed a mechanical wail and gripped at its blinded puncture wound. Spinning Torrent struck the machine across the face with such force that its head was torn free from its neck. No death thrashes followed, the black spider simply crumpled to its knees before Torrent and died. The others reacted by pulling their heads back toward their bodies, shielding there vendible necks.
Another two of the spiders disconnected from the group to assault Torrent. He swiped at the head of the first but his blow deflected and only achieved sparks as it clacked off the tick metal hide of his enemy. From behind him he heard the second spider charging with its sword held out like a spear. Torrent jumped upward and spun in the air into a flip, landing neatly atop the spider's shoulders. It's blade that had been intended for its enemy's spinal cord found itself buried deep within its ally's chest. Before it could even retract its weapon from its accidental victim Torrent forced his staff into the crease in the armor at its shoulder joint. Bracing the pole against his shoulder, Torrent wrenched as hard as he could tearing the arms free of the rest of its owner's body. After hopping nimbly off his foes back, Torrent plunged his hand deep in to the open wound he had created and ripped out a large handful of wires. They fell together, both of the newly slaughtered spiders landed at his feet. The others watched and began to change again, long sharp spines extended out of each of their backs, preventing any skyward assaults.
Three came this time. The first attack he dodged and rolled the aggressors legs. The rest lowered their undersides closer to the ground. He spun and stuck as hard as he could into where the machines spine would and been, the attack successfully cut power to two of the creature's six legs. The others grew more spines down that crease on their backs. Slowly the crippled spider turned to face its target, only to be met by a flurry of blows to the face from Torrents staff. One of his swipes struck its target and broke the single eye into a shower of glass. Each of the others motorized eyes was then slowly incased by a focusing metallic plates. Torrent pushed the rod deeper into the spider's emotionless electric brain, causing instant death. The creatures remaining limbs fell limp at its side. Torrent ripped his weapon free of its skull, scattering the ground with small pieced of metal.
The other two came, swinging their blades wildly and clawing at the air in every direction. Torrent ran directly at the storm of shinning edges and planted the end of his pole into a crack in the ground, pole-vaulting over the pair's heads, barely clearing the newly grown spikes on their backs. Before they had time to turn Torrent landed and placed his pole beneath one of the machines backside. He quickly used his weapon as a leaver and flipped the unsuspecting machine forward onto its face. Punching through the soft metal of the spider's underbelly he grasped even more inner hardware and tore it free. Torrent suddenly felt cold metal sink into his right bicep. The other spider had sunk its long blade into the flesh on his arm and was preparing to devastate the rest of Torrent's dominant limb. He fell backwards, removing the black blade from the wound before the spider could rip the muscle free from the bone. The moment his head struck the ground the black robot stuck down with one of its multiple legs barley missing his neck. Torrent rolled as more leg attacks stuck the ground all around him. He rolled into his staff on the ground and grabbed in with his intact left arm. The next leg strike was defected back with the metal rod, the rebound time allowed enough of a window for Torrent to get to his feet with a quick flip. The mechanical monster lashed outward with a frantic outburst, its blades slashing wildly at Torrent. He stood in the direct path of the blur of glinting steel and prepared his staff in one hand. The first blow he attempted to block directly but with only his one arm the creature was to strong for him. Another came quickly after the first, this time Torrent merely deflected it letting the blade glance off the side of the staff. Sparks flew and metal clashed together as Torrent continued to repel the spider's blades back. Then in a massive, double bladed attack the Machine struck down, breaking the rod in two. Torrent saw the newly sharpened edge of his broken weapon and shoved its serrated point deep into his assailant's chest. It began its death throws and Torrent pushed it away, so not to be caught within the thrashing points.
He held his wounded arm and looked up at the multitude of black enemies, and then he looked down at the exhausted Ann. He didn't want her to sense his mounting feeling of hopelessness within his mind, but he knew that she did, he could see it on her face. The flow of adapting black machines surrounding them seemed endless. Torrent stood at their core injured and weaponless. Ann staggered to her feet and stood at Torrents side with her fists raised. Torrent assumed a marshal stance and prepared for the next wave to come.
A whirring sound, similar to that of the spinning cannon mounted on the helicopter they had found back at the underground lab, suddenly echoed from down the path past the monsters. Both Ann and Torrent turned their heads to see its source, but the wall of black machines blocked what chance they had of seeing anything. Without warning a stream of bright blue pulses of energy ripped though the black mass of spiders. This time as the spiders fell, explosions followed. Three fell and burst into violent flames, then five, and eight. The remaining spiders quickly turned to the forest and retreated, another fell to the blue bullets as it ran. When the smoke cleared and Torrent could be seen covering Ann with his body and arms, he squeezed her tight. Slowly, after no more spiders came, he let her loose and looked up to see what had come to their rescue. A large, silver man stood down the path. His left arm, witch seemed to have been replaced with a large gun of some kind, was smoking. Most of his body in fact had been replaced with shinning metallic armor. The one part of his body that retained its humanity was the upper left portion of is head. Four large silver cylinders grew from his back and his left eye glowed red. He was a Cyborg, and to his left stood Sparks the jester. She noticed that Torrent had spotted her and spoke up,
"Told ya I'd bring help! Now come on, the master is waiting."