The roaring mix of gunfire and monster noises became more clear to the three armed men, MAGES., and Falcom as they headed downstairs. Luke and James were clearly struggling a fair bit, grabbing onto whatever they could to support themselves during the descent. Josh was making sure neither of them died. MAGES. and Falcom, however, stayed silent.
The only noise between all of them, not counting the wheezing breaths of Luke and James, was the sound from downstairs.
What was going on downstairs?
The noise from upstairs had stopped.
Had Jack won? Had the weird monster thing won?
Whatever had happened, the shooting and explosions were finished, too. As they quietly slipped down towards the thirtieth floor, MAGES. spoke up.
"I can only hope that the other girls are OK," she mused, glancing to Josh. "You don't have their contact numbers, do you?"
Josh shook his head, prompting James to start laughing weakly, leaning on a railing.
"Course he wouldn't have their numbers," he chuckled, looking to MAGES., then to his still functioning friend. "He only takes blokes' numbers." Josh stood still for a moment as Luke joined in the pained laughter. MAGES. and Falcom were confused as to how they were finding entertainment in these dark times.
Finally, Josh walked up to James, and kicked him in the right ankle. Immediately, the Welshman crumpled downwards like a Socialist economy, letting out a yelp of surprise as he hit the floor.
Luke cleared his throat, then prepared to continue forwards. As he put pressure on his leg, it gave way, prompting him to hiss loudly and land on his back, breathing heavily.
"Actually," Josh piped up, looking to the others, "It might be an idea to hole up here for a while. I don't think that dragon thing's gonna follow us down seventy flights of stairs." The group of mismatched fighters glanced at each other, shrugged, and nodded. Josh, now deciding he was de-facto team leader, gestured to a nearby set of market stands. "We'll get set up over by those stalls. MAGES., Falcom; see if you can raise any of those girls you mentioned, and stand guard. I'll see what I can do about Dick and Dom, over here."
MAGES. gave a respectful nod. "As you wish," she replied calmly, before gently turning and beginning to dig through her phone in an attempt to find Tekken's number. Falcom slung her sword onto her shoulder, pulled up a crate to sit on, and watched the east approach, idly scratching her chin.
Meanwhile, Josh had dragged Luke over to a market stand, leaving James slumped by the railings. After removing Luke's vest, he pulled his jacket apart, to reveal the poor state of his comrade's armour. "Christ..." Josh whistled, taking out his knife to cut the shoulder straps of the ballistic vest. "Were you dodging bullets or hugging them?"
Luke responded with an angry muttering, clenching his fingers hard onto his L85's pistol grip in an attempt to alleviate at least some of the pain he was going through. Then again, he wasn't really in a place to talk about taking a lot of bullshit.
Jack had gone off to fight a huge fucking mutant dragon, and it sounded like all the gunfire had ended.
From upstairs, at least.
So, if it had all ended up there, either the Cyberdragon was now drawing its final breaths through one of its many new arseholes, or Jack's remains were scrambled across the place like the leftovers of a deer hit by a speeding freight train.
Of course, the gunfire downstairs meant the police might have been engaging terrorists.
Or, Jack had managed to bring the fight downstairs, which Luke was really hoping hadn't happened.
Wincing as Josh put a sewing needle through a gaping .44 wound in his arm, Luke leaned his head against the market stand behind him. After a moment, he sighed, unclipped his helmet, and dropped it down next to him. "Fuck."
Josh looked up at him. "No shit, you're gonna be saying 'fuck'. Half the bullets you tried blocking with your body are still in here. Now hold still, there's a big chunk of three-oh-eight next to your jugular that I need to pull out."
Luke groaned, tightened his grip on the edge of his helmet with his fingertips cracking loudly in protest, and Josh put his fingers into Luke's gaping bullet wound to retrieve the foreign object.
MAGES., meanwhile, was growing concerned about the noise downstairs. There was a considerable amount of gunfire, mixed with explosions. With the fact in mind that the noise from upstairs had stopped, she was simply going to have to assume that London had somehow survived a fall from that height, and began fighting either the police, or some other enemy.
She sniffed the air, leaning on her staff.
There was a strong smell of Lastium in the air. The metal, which was rare enough in itself, was pretty much exclusively reserved for anti-gravity generators, but the creature London had been fighting...it looked like it had one in its' chest.
MAGES. deepened her thought process, furrowing her brow and stroking her chin. If she didn't figure this out, she was gonna be kicking herself for it. Bad habits of a scientist; The ones you don't solve are your worst memories.
She thought back to the noises she'd heard as they evacuated. Considering the brief, repeated explosions, she guessed it was using an automatic arm launcher, and the creature had looked like it was stitched together, so it would probably have needed a power source to keep working. That was something that confused her a good bit; Avenir would normally just use Share adaptors to keep their devices powered. There wasn't a law against that, even though it was incredibly effective and had the side-effect of drawing power from nearby Share energy sources. That in mind, that dragon wouldn't have needed an anti-gravity generator for anything. Something of its size wouldn't get any tactical advantage from lifting itself off the ground, and the arm launcher alone was powerful enough to level a city block.
There was nothing it could use an anti-gravity generator for.
Unless...
MAGES. eyes narrowed.
"No..." she murmured. "They can't have done that."
Downstairs...
One of the mecha-Fenrirs released a piercing screech, the ten foot-long beast being the first to throw itself at Jack from the rear. He reacted fast, twirling on the spot and lighting it up with both barrels, the deafening boom of the twelve gauge mixing with the metallic clang of the creature's natural flesh being torn straight from its face and dropping it to the ground.
Jack wasted no time in reloading his shotgun, expertly sliding in two shells in a rapid display of sleight of hand before snapping it shut with a one-handed upwards flick.
Behind him, he heard one of the enemies making a move.
Jack swept low, raising his fist and delivering a solid uppercut to the steel framework of an M-3 drone, before using his stance to throw himself upwards and out of the horde of surrounding monsters.
His brief glimpse of them in the air confirmed his concerns. There was a bloody lot of them.
Not a single one could be allowed out of the arena alive. They could easily slaughter dozens of innocent people.
On landing, Jack grit his teeth at the sharp jolt of pain in his previously twisted leg, but simply decided to bear it for the time being. Without a second's respite, he threw away the double-barrel before pulling out the RPD, yanking the charging handle, then holding it at the hip as he began firing and running.
The LMG's recoil wrestled against him, sending a tempest of 7.62x39 tearing towards the heaving throng of monsters and shredding holes in those it hit. Undeterred, the creatures kept up the heat, relentlessly pursuing him as he led them around the large crater. Every so often, one of them would fall foul of Jack's bullet paintbrushing, only to be swiftly replaced by another creature pushing its way through the pack.
Jack grimaced, jumping backwards over a large gap in the ground.
There was no way he could kill them all.
Not without some missiles; And lo and behold, the rocket launcher got knocked out of his hands up on floor 100.
He was not doing well today.
His mind kicking into overclock mode, he continued gunning down as many of the advancing beasts as he could whilst he formulated a plan.
'I need explosives,' he thought, dodging a fireball and kicking a large rock at the thrower, 'Or something that can run through shit without challenge...'
He realized something, punching through what was left of the first Fenrir's jaw and ripping out its neck.
That's it: The Challenger.
But how the Hell was he gonna get it? The bloody thing was halfway across Planeptune and had probably already been clamped because he went 100% Jew, and didn't pay for the parking.
His train of thought was broken off as he narrowly avoided a massive axe slamming down in front of him, shattering the ground. The force of the impact split the earth, almost instantly creating a large chasm that Jack couldn't see the bottom of. On the other side of the gap, the hordes of monsters desperately tried to stop themselves, a few falling down into the hole and their cries of fear fading into echoes. Jack stepped back, raising the RPD and assessing the axe's head.
Then, he looked to his right.
Staring back at him, a wicked grin plastered on its' face, was one of the clones of White Heart. It lifted the axe one-handed, slinging the weapon onto its shoulder like it weighed nothing. Seconds later, it was joined by another of the clones, followed by the last of the three.
Gritting his teeth, Jack began to back away, his machine-gun aimed dead towards the lead White Heart's face as they steadily began to pace after him. "What's the matter, London?" they asked in unison, all bearing the same, disturbed grin. "Don't like powerful women?"
Jack squeezed the trigger, landing a shot right into the leader's right eye. She staggered back, screaming in pain and clutching at the injury with a free hand.
"Nah, I prefer 'em fuller-chested," Jack retorted flatly.
The two other White Hearts were quick to respond; The one to Jack's right let out a fierce battle cry, throwing itself forward with its axe raised high. Immediately, Jack hopped to his right to avoid the swing, swapping out his RPD for the .44 revolver. The gun was in single-action, but if Clint Eastwood taught Jack anything, it was the art of racism, death stares, grimacing, and revolver techniques.
As soon as he'd landed, Jack pivoted into a crouch, revolver held to the hip as he snapped the hammer back, releasing a round of .44 into the White Heart's ribcage. The bullet made a loud crack as it hit the ribcage, and the White Heart began to react.
Jack's hand swept down over the hammer spur in the blink of an eye, resetting it and chambering yet another round that was fired immediately, smashing straight into the clone's jaw.
Jack was able to land four shots before he broke into a run, the final clone in hot pursuit and the other two White Hearts lying screeching in pain, mechanical fluids dripping from their wounds.
No time to fan the hammer again; That was just asking for trouble. Instead, he just had to keep moving. Ahead of him was open ground, leading in a wide arc towards the Cyber-Dragon.
'If I get that bastard, this lot should all sod right off.'
Jack grit his teeth, pumping harder than ever to make it across the battered ground. In retaliation, the huge creature raised its cannon, levelling it towards London and baring its teeth. As its arm came up, a trio of crimson light beams emanated from the tip of the cannon, pointed at London.
Jack couldn't feel them doing anything to him. The beams weren't damaging him.
As he processed the situation, the Cyber-Dragon shifted its weight, stabilizing itself on the rocky ground as its arm slowly began to light up with a blue energy.
His mind clicked.
Those beams weren't the ones meant to damage him.
"Fuckin' Hell!" he cried, diving sharply to the right in the blink of an eye. The Cyber-Dragon's aim didn't shift in time, the lock on beams remaining exactly where they'd been before he dived. The Blanc clone behind him made its' best effort to change course, but to no avail.
The Cyber-Dragon let out a mighty roar, which was cut off suddenly by a deafening explosion that ripped from its arm.
He barely had time to see what had happened as he picked himself up and carried on running, but between the three laser pointers, there remained a faint, cyan smoke, hissing and crackling in the air in a trail that led to where Jack'd been a split second before.
From the corner of his eye, he watched as what was left of the White Heart clone's body continued on its forward path, scraping along the floor for a good distance, crumpling over some rough ground, then finally slamming into a rock and exploding in a ball of plasma, throwing pieces of the ground up and spraying him in a molten shower of earth.
...yeeeeeah, fuck that.
The Cyber-Dragon let out another roar, as its cannon suddenly sprung open, venting blue plasma with an almost steam-like hiss. To deal with it, the monster stepped onto the back foot, hefting a large boulder with its mangled right claw and lobbing it at Jack. The man barely had time to dodge, with the huge rock hitting the ground like an asteroid and smashing the ground apart.
On reflex, Jack tried to pull out the rocket launcher, but then realized it was almost a thousand feet above him. Instead, he opted for the next best solution: He whipped out his trusty Mossberg, loading in a single high-explosive shell and racking the pump to chamber it, before beginning to return a volley of explosions towards the monster. The Cyber-Dragon clearly hadn't been expecting it, but it seemed more than happy to return fire; It grabbed the open vent on its cannon, forced it shut, and raised the weapon, beginning to rapidly circle the arena and launch its own barrage.
Meanwhile, Jack could see the other monsters carefully leaping the gap made by the White Heart clones, and one by one, beginning to chase after him.
'Fucking lovely, just what I needed.'
With his eyes out for rockets, Jack threw the Mossberg back into his disk, and pulled out both the RPD and AK. Slinging them to his hips, he was forced to slow down slightly to keep himself steady under the recoil of both machine-guns spewing out hot metal. The small bullets began chipping away at the Cyber-Dragon's chitinous hide, flakes of its' rock-like skin flying off with each shot of 7.62.
The monster seemed to like this even less than it did with the explosive shells, beginning to flinch noticeably under the hailstorm of bullets. Eventually, the creature was forced to shield itself with its' huge cannon, which gave Jack the chance to deal with a few of the monsters that had been getting a little too close.
Turning suddenly, Jack was just in time to catch out a Mecha-Fenrir that was just about to start lunging for him, bullets hitting the massive wolf more frequently than Chris Brown hit Rhianna. The beast, in its' lunge, was unable to avoid the projectiles, taking all of the shots from both Soviet bullethoses as it flew towards Jack. The Fenrir let out a synthesized yelp as its' left foreleg was completely torn from its cybernetic frame, spewing oil and fluid as it crashed into the ground like a ton of bricks.
Grinning, Jack brought the guns to bear on the next monsters, who were just beginning to scramble back from him. "COME ON, YOU UGLY MUNTERS!" he roared, once more squeezing the triggers of both weapons and unleashing another ballistic tempest. The horde of creatures let out their sounds of anger, and began a mixed bag of reactions.
A few of them ran.
A few more stayed and took the bullets.
And one or two of them made an attempt to go for Jack, but ended up being sheared in half by the amount of bullets they were struck with.
It was as Jack began to steadily march on the creatures that he remembered something.
'There were other CPUs.'
Just as that thought popped into his mind, he felt something solid slam into his spine, throwing him forward a good few feet and forcing him to make an emergency combat roll, ditching the RPD. Spinning on his back as he went, he put his feet out to stop himself from sliding too far, then raised the AK.
Resting in his sights was one of the Green Heart clones, idly twirling its' spear with a playful expression on its' face. It was suddenly joined by two similar clones, both wearing that same smirk.
"Come now, Mr. London," the trio said in their predatory way, "I thought you said you preferred fuller chested women?"
London thought for a moment.
"I don't have a comeback to that," he responded flatly, "So to be clear, I'm gonna rape all of your corpses." In the brief moment that the Green Heart AIs tried to formulate a response to that interesting comment, Jack tugged the trigger backwards, once more lighting up the area with the deafening roar of Mikhail's bullet orchestra as the lead Green Heart began dancing on receipt of the bullets. The first group of shots ripped through its' stomach apart; The rest ripped through the clone's arms, legs, and ample chest.
Barely a split second after the first had begun to drop to its' knees and grab at its' injuries, one of the other Green Hearts threw itself towards Jack, lance pointed forwards in a charge as it cried in rage. Jack turned towards it as fast as he could, gripped the AK in both hands, and threw it towards the clone. Unable to stop in time, the copy raised its' left arm to protect its' face, which was when Jack took the chance to strike. The other clone began circling, waiting for the right chance to strike at him.
He span to the left, going to the outside of the clone's thrust. As it began passing, he grabbed its' right wrist with his left hand and stepped behind it, yanking its' arm upwards one-handedly. The clone let out a scream as its' arm dislocated, accompanied by the clatter of the lance hitting the floor.
Without skipping a beat in the violent rhythm, Jack whipped out the double-barrel, levelled it with the clone's spine, and pulled both triggers, sending forth a devastating wave of buckshot from both the barrels that ripped through the clone. The ground in front of it exploded as the pellets passed through, accompanied by a spattering of mechanical parts. The inside of the clone was now little more than salvage that could be seen through the ragged hole in its' synthetic flesh. The replicant let out a synthesized screech and dropped to its' knees, grabbing at the hole with its' one good arm.
Jack raised his boot and forced it against the back of the clone's head, slamming it down into the dirt and crushing the flimsy copy's skull beneath his foot, grinding it against the floor as added insurance before stepping off and reloading the shotgun.
Jack didn't let his guard down.
One left.
He glanced around.
Where was it?
He caught sight of it.
It was running away.
Jack grit his teeth, sweeping up his recent victim's lance. "Oh, no, you don't."
He steadied himself, holding the lance like a javelin and aiming just ahead of the clone.
The wind was good.
Jack took a deep breath, stepped forward a bit, then slammed his arm forward, sending the weapon flying towards the Green Heart. It sailed through the air gracefully for a few seconds, like Paul Walker when the car hit the tree.
The clone barely had time to react as the lance sailed up behind it. The clone yelped, and swept right, barely dodging the projectile. As soon as it steadied itself, it looked at the projectile for a few seconds, then slowly turned its' glare back to London to intimidate him.
The clone's head promptly exploded when Jack shot it straight in-between the eyes with the Mossberg's explosive shells. The machine's anti-gravity servos disengaged, the motors stopped running, and the Vert clone dropped to the floor in a heap, the stump of where it used to have a head still smoking and spewing sparks. Jack brought the shotgun towards himself, racking the pump to chamber the next shot and beginning to jog once again.
"Six down," he muttered, "Six to go." He kept his eyes out: Now that the White Heart and Green Heart clones were dead, he was dealing with the Purple Heart and Black Heart clones. And whilst he was pretty well versed in dodging spears and axes due to their single-directional hits and easily-avoided swinging arcs, he now had six opponents with big swords. That meant they were a lot more capable of both blocking his attacks, and hitting him more accurately.
If they landed a swing, it'd do a hell of a lot more than just knock him on his ass.
Keeping his eyes open, he turned most of his attention back to the Cyber-Dragon, which had begun kneeling down to perform repairs on itself. It didn't seem to be aware of him, and it was fully open ground between him and his enemy.
Jack narrowed his eyes, pulled out the chainsaw, and began charging the monster. It had its' cannon out, and was using what remained of its' mangled right claw to repair a few panels which had come loose in the gunfight. Not only that, but the inside of its' skull was visible; Bone and steel could be seen through a gaping hole in its' face that had been blown open with an explosive shell, baring the rows of sharpened teeth that it had tried scaring Jack with before.
Then again, each tooth was about half his height.
So Jack was probably doing the right thing by being careful.
He tried keeping his approach as subtle as possible, dodging behind whatever large rocks were available, and it seemed to be working.
Just one final stretch to run up and...
The air beside him felt slightly warm.
With barely a split-second to spare, Jack span, raising the chainsaw defensively and barely keeping balance as a huge purple blade slammed against its revolving teeth, throwing sparks and awful noises throughout the air. Jack forced the blade away from him, but was once more put on the defensive as he heard a second blade come from behind. He flipped the saw upside-down to point behind him, and had to battle to keep it over his head as a second blade swept down onto it.
He grit his teeth and looked towards his first attacker. One of the Purple Heart clones was already spinning into a second swing, and he had no way of dodging without the attacker behind him getting a hit in.
But if he was remembering rightly from that time he sparred with the real Purple Heart, the sword was unable or at least struggled to pierce the armour on his legs and arms.
As the massive purple blade came searing towards him, he raised his right leg defensively, angling it to parry the incoming strike. A shower of sparks and data flew from the contact between shin-guard and sword, with the Purple Heart clone's eyes widening with shock as the sword began bouncing back.
That was all the chance Jack needed.
He threw his foot straight behind him, hoping for some contact behind him with his rear attacker's knee. When there was none, but he felt the top of his thigh touching what felt like the crotch area of an attacker, he forced himself backwards, shoving the bladesman behind him to the ground with a yelp.
'That yelp sounded like Lady Noire,' he noted. The yelp was immediately halted as he flattened her with his body weight. He cast his eyes forward towards the Purple Heart, who saw that he was on the ground and took its' chance. Yelling a battle cry, the purple-haired clone raised its' sword over its' head and began swinging it downwards towards him.
Jack waited for it to be halfway into the downwards swing before he moved.
He rolled sideways and off the Black Heart clone, barely avoiding the weighty blade as it crashed down onto the robot behind him. The clone let out a scream that was swiftly cut short as it exploded, throwing Jack and the Purple Heart a good distance away from each other. Shrapnel laced into his back, prompting Jack to yell out in pain, before his rolling momentum forced the shards even further into his back.
Steadily, he dragged himself to his feet, revving the chainsaw and spitting out a mouthful of blood. Around him, the Purple Heart clones were gathering, the remaining two Black Hearts had dropped down, and the Green and White Hearts he didn't confirm were destroyed had performed crude repairs on themselves.
All around, he was being circled, made even worse as the horde of monsters joined the ring, slowly pacing around him, baring teeth and brandishing weapons.
Jack put on his serious face.
Through this whole ordeal of bullshit, pieces of steel had pierced his back, he'd been bashed in the spine, dislocated his knee, been shot dead, resuscitated, shot almost to death again, blasted with rockets, charged out of a building, then barely survived the impact, only to be chucked against another horde of cunts.
He'd been told to go out for a day with some of his friends, and these fuckers were ruining it.
Not only that, but his mind flicked to the thought that they'd actually decided to capture some of his friends.
Especially Cave, who he was pretty desperate to apologize to.
So now, he was absolutely furious.
He thought of his injuries.
Trivial, all of them.
Whereas at one point they hurt, the huge amount of adrenaline surging through his body completely number him to all of that.
He was gonna fucking end this, right now.
He locked eyes with the leading Black Heart, pulsing the chainsaw's motor in short bursts as the clone stared at him with the resting bitch face that Noire always wore.
The robot briefly laughed, then readied its sword, prompting the other clones to bristle with their weapons.
His eyes briefly flicked over the crowd surrounding him.
There...
...there was actually a good chance he probably wouldn't make it out of this fight.
But insurmountable odds and little-to-no chance of success...
...that was something he could never ignore.
The ground shook slightly as the Cyber-Dragon slwoly approached the outside of the group, staring down at him. It bared its' teeth in the same way it did when they first met, only this time, a good amount of its face wasn't there anymore. The cannon was smoldering and leaking sparks and small plasma flames; Its hard, bone-like body was littered with craters and scars from London's attacks; What remained of its right claw was a tattered, gory mess of blood and metal; And the humming from its chest was louder than ever.
Jack slowly turned on the spot, staring down every enemy as they snarled and snapped at him.
He was well and truly surrounded.
And he was being perfectly honest in rescinding his previous statement about his survival odds.
There was zero chance he would be walking away from this.
Mentally, he reprimanded himself for not giving some of the finer things in life a go. Like cigars, investing in his own house and car, or convincing some lovely lady to do the dirty with him because they're both bored.
And as he went through his mental notes to figure out if it was possible to save a backup or something, his mind flicked back to training.
He remembered Captain Blazcowicz approaching him after one of the training matches failed early on in the year. Jack had just cowered as the other team pelted him with marker rounds, winning them the game after his whole team was wiped out.
And whilst he'd been expecting a ribbing, he got...something else.
"Listen, kid," the Southerner had began, placing a hand on his heavily bruised shoulder. "I saw whatcha did out there. Good thang you survived that long. But you threw it all away. You knew you'd be taken down, didn't ya?"
Jack had nodded.
"There's inevitably be a point where that's your situation: Alone, and surrounded, with no escape. But you can't just do what you did, where you sit and wait for the end."
Jack had wiped his bleeding eye. "Then what else'm I meant to bloody do?"
The grin Blazcowicz pulled remained burned into Jack's mind as the face of a man who knew exactly what a cornered wolf could do.
"Bring as many of the bastards with you as you can."
Jack momentarily paused.
His mind flashed to the motto of his training unit.
"They will be demons; But you will be worse."
Then, he smiled wickedly, and cast his glare back to the Black Heart clone.
"I hope you're as thick-skinned as the real Noire."
Instantly, the clone was upon him, raising its sword as it soared towards him. Jack reacted, swiping up with the chainsaw and parrying the blade to the left. The clone grunted, continuing forwards, giving Jack the chance to hold the saw one-handed and wrap his left fist around the clone's neck. The machine halted immediately as if it had been clothes-lined, using both of its hands to try and remove Jack's powerful grip from its throat.
Behind him, a roar.
One of the smaller Mecha-Fenrirs was mid-lunge.
Jack span, his spin giving the saw the momentum it needed to smash teeth-first into the Fenrir's head. Whilst it wasn't forceful enough to go through, it knocked the wolf to the side, redirecting its flight into a group of Metal Dogoos and flattening them instantly.
Back to the clone.
Jack fluently turned the spin into a choke-slam, pounding his left fist into the dirt with the Black Heart in his grip. The machine let out a garbled yelp, with Jack quickly releasing his grip and-
Incoming.
Just in time, he ducked low as the remaining White Heart's axe sizzled through the air above him, almost decapitating him.
He gripped the saw with his free hand, and held it low like a bayonet-charge as he turned towards the axe's source. The clone of the Lowee Goddess was just finishing that swing, both of its arms to the side. Judging by how they were moving, it wanted to connect with a second swing.
No chance.
Jack darted forward, forcing the saw into the abdomen of the machine. The moment contact was made, green and orange mechanical fluids began spraying out of the wound like a hosepipe, the clone immediately freezing and screaming, shaking as Jack pulled the saw back and forth in the small frame of the robot. Eventually, he had just the right position to-
There!
One firm yank upwards and the saw was free, exiting the left side of the clone's jugular circuits in a brilliant display of robo-gore and flame.
Jack flicked his attention back to the Black Heart that was barely picking itself up. He slammed a boot on the robot's chest, pinning it to the ground, before bringing his fist down on the clone's face. It caved in like a pile of wet tissue paper, the metal frame being remarkably weak.
Right away, something latched onto his back for an attempt at dragging him down.
His reaction was to raise his knee and bring it straight backwards like a piston, just as he had done before. However, this time it was accompanied the metallic SNAP of a clone's leg breaking, accompanied by the pre-recorded scream of Purple Heart. The clone's grip loosened, and Jack took advantage in the lapse of restraint.
Immediately, he span, briefly ditching the chainsaw to the realms of his disk so he had both hands free. He shoved his right hand into the mouth of the clone, punching out a few teeth in the process, before quickly planting his left hand on the machine's bosom and getting his right fingers gripped around the robot's (remarkably lifelike) inside jaw.
Then, with one yell, he pushed with his left hand, and pulled with his right, prompting the sound of something that could be likened to a piece of juicy, boned steak being crushed beneath a boot, as the Purple Heart's jaw was torn ragged from its face, trailing synthetic muscle and machine oil as it was ripped off. The tongue inside wagged violently in a bottomless mouth as the clone screeched, flailing its arms as it was flung onto its back with a snapped leg and no jaw.
Jack figured that was enough.
He barely picked up the sound of something flying through the air towards him in time.
With no time to duck, the flat side of a spear cracked him in the face, immediately tearing open the side of his head and prompting blood to gush from a new cut as he staggered to the side.
Well, fuck you, then.
Jack regained his balance as fast as he could, pulling out the double-barrel to hold it at waist height, before spinning on his heels and bringing both shells to bear on his attacker.
The wounded Green Heart clone was still operational, and not going down without a fight.
As Jack let loose a wall of buckshot, the clone dipped to the side, a few pellets striking its abdomen but with no effect. It immediately swept the spear behind it, twirling it into a position where it could be used to stab Jack in the gut.
He dropped the double barrel as she thrust the weapon at him, flicking out his bayonet.
As the bladed spear flew towards him, he delivered a backhand to the shaft, knocking it out of the way. Before the clone could realize what was going on, Jack punched the knife straight into its face, between the left eye and bridge of the nose. There was resistance as the blade went in, but it stopped halfway.
Jack needed to be sure.
He reached up with both hands, grabbed the sides of the Green Heart's head, and raised his knee as he pulled the hilt of the knife right onto his knee-pad. The hammer-like action had the effect he'd desired; the blade went all the way into the robot's head, with the hilt getting stuck almost a quarter of the way in, too.
No way he was getting that knife back in time to use it. He'd have to carry on.
At this point, the crowd had steadily begun to thin out.
Two Black Hearts, all the Green Hearts, all the White Hearts, and two Purple Hearts were now destroyed.
There still remained a Purple and Black, the monsters, and the Cyber-Dragon.
Speaking of which, where was that dragon?
Jack turned around, just in time to see the Cyber-Dragon begin charging straight through the crowd of monsters. The lesser creatures let out howls and roars as their giant master completely flattened them, crushing them beneath its' massive, tree-like feet.
The monsters in the circle began to scatter, and Jack dived to the side, getting the RPD as he commando-rolled back to a stable position. Where he'd been a moment before, the dragon blasted through with the force of a runaway freight train, its giant feet smashing apart the ground as it went. Jack stood up to his full height as the creature carried on, giving the briefest attention to a panicking Horsebird so that he could kick it in the arse, knock it on its face, then rip out most of its spine by pulling off its tail before shooting it in the back of the head.
In the short wait for the Cyber-Dragon to halt itself, Jack raised the RPD and began jogging backwards once more, blasting away at the crowd of monsters as he had done before. The monsters, however, were undeterred; They clambered over the bodies of their dead pack-mates, and charged right towards Jack. One of the larger Fenrirs - the one that Jack had hit with a chainsaw - made a powerful leap towards him.
Unlike before, it ignored the hailstorm of 7.62, and knocked him over, trying to pin him down. With the force of the tackle, the RPD flew from Jack's hands, and he was immediately put on the defensive, the giant mechanical wolf's teeth gnashing at him and going for his throat.
"SHIT!" Jack yelled. It took all of his strength just to keep the creature away from him, his hand pushing the wolf's slathering jaws as hard as it could away from him. Second by second, the monster was getting closer, and he could hear the other monsters beginning to circle, all of them in the same state of mind as the Fenrir in that they didn't care whether they died, anymore.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
The teeth were getting closer. And the claws were starting to hurt his chest.
What could he use? He had no grenades, no...
Wait.
Gritting his teeth to get ready for the inevitable wrist pain, he whipped out the Desert Eagle, and jammed it right into the abdomen of the wolf on top of him.
Then, wincing in preparation for the recoil, he pulled the trigger.
The back of the creature exploded outwards, prompting it to arc its back as it howled in pain. Jack was quick to take advantage of it loosening its grip; He raised his legs to his chest and pushed both boots into the Fenrir's wounded stomach, throwing it backwards. As his legs were in the air, Jack put his hands on the floor behind his head, and shifted his momentum to flip himself over.
His feet went down on the ground.
Adrenaline was pumping harder than ever.
Not even skipping a beat, he whipped out the suppressed MAC-10 he'd 'borrowed' from the bathroom gangster, levelling it with the Fenrir that was still mid-flight and lighting it up with sub-sonic ammunition. The gun rattled away with a raspy wheeze, nowhere near as loud as the gunfire from an unsuppressed weapon, but at this distance did just the same amount of damage as its non-silenced counterparts.
The hail of 9mm bullets spattered against the metallic framework of the wolf, denting, bending, snapping, and penetrating the creature's mechanical organs.
By the time it had collided with its comrades, the light in its eyes had gone out and it lay still, twithing and smoking.
Jack swept the MAC-10 under his right armpit, and released a stream of bullets that came out in a suppressed burp. Behind him, a Bit drone was destroyed, raked with gunfire like a soldier leaving the trench.
Ahead of him, one of the M3 drones had locked itself in place and begun charging its main cannon. Jack flipped the Desert Eagle up to absorb recoil with his hip and landed a pair of shots on the machine's 'head'. The device drifted backwards in receipt of the heavy bullets, shaking itself side to side as if stunned.
As its optical sensors returned to Jack, he had begun pelting it with MAC-10 rounds, diving from the circle and continuing his run. The low-power munitions began displaying their falloff range as he created distance between him and the group, but nevertheless the remaining monsters - two more Fenrirs, a Dogoo, and a couple of Spider Tanks - were flinching on registry of the shots.
So it wasn't entirely pointless, but nowhere near enough.
Just as he was about to swap the MAC-10 for the second Desert Eagle, a fierce battle cry rang out to his right. Just in time, he whipped out the chainsaw, barely parrying the swing from the Black Heart clone that had suddenly come to strike him.
Unlike before, the clone stepped back to avoid Jack's countersweep with the chainsaw, before returning with yet another spinning swing towards the gunman. Jack ducked below it, and converted the movement to go for an upwards swing at the Black Heart. As the saw came up, the clone's blade dropped down, clashing with the rotating teeth of his logging appliance. The copy of Black Heart didn't relent, delivering a knee to Jack's ribs, grabbing his collar, and spinning him around to be thrown away.
The clone was remarkably strong; Its throw sent him flying. Jack grit his teeth, and forced the saw into the ground, gripping the trigger as tightly as he could so that the pull of the blade would tug the ground and slow him down. As he slid, he began pumping his legs, barely getting grip on the wrecked dirt floor but finally getting just enough that he could charge back at the clone.
"MY BLOOD IS UP!" he roared, immediately opening with an upwards saw swing. The clone barely sidestepped it, tapping the saw away with the rear of its blade and quickly spinning itself into a diagonal downwards swing towards his shoulder.
With barely a second to spare, Jack raised his arm as a shield, batting the sword away as he had done on the first day he was in Gamindustri. As his grip returned to the chainsaw's handle, he delivered a quick boot to the clone's stomach, sending it staggering backwards...
...only for it to be caught in the path of one of the Cyber-Dragon's missiles, immediately smashing apart the left side of its body and sending it tumbling away. Jack fired a single pistol shot at the monster, not deterring it from pumping rockets towards him, prompting him to start running. Behind him, the ground crashed loudly as the creature's gargantuan legs smashed the floor apart with each step.
God, Jack wanted that rocket launcher back.
Just as he turned his head to check where the monster was, there was a crack, a loud explosion, his entire body jolting, and the feeling of being thrown forwards, letting out a yell of despair. Seconds later, he slammed into the rocky ground, sliding along the dirt on his face.
All sounds were muffled slightly.
What the Hell happened?
Groaning, he clenched his fist and steadily picked himself up. Briefly, he felt something scraping against his spine.
Shrapnel.
Great.
He must've been hit with a rocket.
Wincing as he reached behind him, he could feel a good amount of the steel shards dug into his skin.
But it couldn't have been a direct hit; He was fairly certain that would've blasted him apart.
He muttered more expletives, shook his head to clear the ringing, and turned to look back at the dragon.
The Cyber-Dragon had had its' arm turned into a pile of scrap metal, the creature roaring loudly as it toppled sideways, landing on its' mangled right claw. Leading to where it had originally been standing was a long trail of smoke, which led up to...
"Mr. Loonygun!"
Shit...he knew that pet name!
"Fuck! IF?!" he asked, suddenly beginning to look around. His eyes quickly fell on the small woman as she suddenly lunged towards him, grabbing him in a hug. Ignoring his leg pain, he crouched down to reciprocate, gripping her tightly. He was fairly certain she was crying, but whatever. He was probably crying, too. "Thank fuck. Thank fuck, you're alright, Miss IF." The hug lasted for a few seconds, before Jack heard a loud metallic clank.
He knew that noise.
As fast as he could, he swept IF behind him, and pulled out the Mossberg, levelling it towards the red-uniformed man walking towards them, who was calmly loading an RPG rocket into his empty launcher. Jack grit his teeth, keeping the gun aimed at the man. In retaliation, the approaching threat - whose upper face was obscured by an oversized M4 helmet - snarled at him.
"Don't even think about it, son," he growled, a gruff American accent clearly audible with each word he spoke. "I kicked enough asses of bastards like you back in Poland." Jack was about to respond with one of his devastating Fuck Your Country's History™ jokes, but IF suddenly looped in front of him and tugged his shotgun down.
"Mr. Loonygun, calm it!" she said sternly. Jack blinked in surprise as she gestured to the man. "This is Mr. Doe. He helped me get out of that nightmare."
Jack glanced at the man's legs, ignoring the sound of the Cyber-Dragon's mechanical body struggling to reactivate behind him. Doe's legs were covered in dark soot stains and shrapnel tears. His boots were also full of shrapnel. Jack narrowed his eyes, and looked up at Mr. Doe's face. The man snorted briefly, grimacing at the sight of him.
He knew exactly who this guy was.
"...aren't you that bloke who jumped the barracks in Siberia using an RPG-7?" he asked. Doe nodded, prompting Jack to stick out his lower lip and raise his brows appreciatively. "Fair enough. You were the one who shot the Cyber-Dragon, right?"
"I am the best at leading targets with missiles," Doe replied calmly, putting the back end of the launcher onto the floor and leaning on the forward grip, tipping his helmet up slightly. "I just needed bait."
"And I was the bait?"
"Mmhmm."
Jack turned to look back at the Cyber-Dragon. The creature was, once more, lying on the ground, twitching.
"Doubt it's dead..." he muttered, scratching his chin, before turning back to Doe. "...but nice shootin', Soldier." Once more, Doe nodded and turned back to observe the surrounding area. The monsters had taken to crawling about at a distance, waiting for an opportunity to strike. The remaining Purple Heart clone had gone...somewhere.
That gave Jack the chance to get his shit together.
He turned to his brunette lady friend. "Listen, Miss IF-"
"Just call me Iffy, if you want," she cut in. "No need for 'Miss'."
"Fine. Iffy. You got a phone, right?"
She shook her head, surprising Jack.
"Not even one?"
"Not even a single one."
"Where are they?"
"That guy with the crappy accent at the top of the tower took everyone's phone if they were a hostage."
"Wait, you were a hostage? One of Kashuba's?"
"If that's his name, then yeah. A bunch of his guys came over, grabbing everyone they could, then taking them to the top floor."
"They got everyone?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, as many as we could," Doe cut in. Jack glanced at him.
"I take it you were with Kashuba."
"I was," he replied, "Until he made me shoot down a civilian helicopter. I don't hurt civvies. Not in my soldiering guide to soldierliness. I know everything he ordered, up to sending me out with Iffy to shoot down choppers." Jack nodded understandingly, scratching his chin.
"Right...so what's his game?"
"Seems to me like his game with this is to cover up what he's got planned."
Jack tilted his head. "This is just a show?" IF quickly raised a finger.
"Actually, this is all part of a piece of fan fiction, and despite the gap in updates, this has all taken place within the space of about five or ten minutes, but go on."
Jack sighed, and ignored her conspiracy theories.
"Well, he originally intended to steal the master codes to the national treasuries. Then when he got up there, he found out that there was a meeting going on with a number of important businessmen and company CEOs. To Kashuba, that's just more money."
"And he wants their cash?" Jack guessed. Doe nodded.
"Spot on. His plan is to take their stored credits and flood the market with it. It'll destabilize Gamindustri's economy, devalue credits."
"The Depression Era all over again..." Jack mused.
Doe nodded.
"You know how else that reference works?" he asked. Jack shook his head. IF had no idea what was going on. "In a time of economic failure, people turn to extremists, as opposed to their current government, if they feel nothing is being done. Kashuba's already met a few political officials to formulate a new party; The Multi-Theologists, or MTs, for short. Their views include overthrowing and executing the CPUs, destroying the 'sharicite', and eliminating 'undesirables'."
Jack's eyes went wide.
"So he's not a Commie..."
"That's right," Doe finished. "That Ivan's a fucking Nazi."
Jack shook his head in disbelief, adjusting his shotgun. "But just us three alone have no chance of headin' up there and takin' him down." Doe brushed the back of his helmet.
"You're right about that one, trooper." The man pointed to the top of the building. "Right at the top, Kashuba's got thirty hostages. He senses foul play, he won't even hesitate to shoot one. And not only that, but one of those hostages is a CPU Candidate."
Jack's heart dropped.
"Oh, shit. They've got Nepgear."
"If Kashuba sees us coming, there's a good chance he'll just kill her. And that is not something we want to happen." Doe eyed Jack up and down. "Judging by your kit, I've got my doubts that you don't follow the Frenchman's guidelines to suits, balaclavas, and espionage."
"Same could be said about you," Jack retorted. "We can't get up there. We're both too loud."
"I'd be useless, too," IF added. "That asshole's got my weapons." The three of them looked at each other, then to the top of the building.
"Must be some way..." Jack muttered, shaking his head. "So what were they doing with the hostages? Just meat shields?" Doe shook his head, and sighed.
"Meat shields, punching bags, and in the case of the women..." Jack's face took on a look of disgust.
"I think I get the picture." He glanced at IF. "They didn't touch you, did they?" The woman shook her head.
"No...but I think they were saying they wanted to 'take Cave for a spin'."
Jack's teeth cracked from the force of him gritting them in rage.
If he wasn't pissed before, he sure as fuck was, now.
He immediately drew up plans on how he was going to torture Kashuba.
Just as they were about to begin approaching the building, the trio heard the sound of people cheering around the edge of the crater.
Confused, they looked up, and relaxed a bit, smiling.
The CPUs had arrived.
Just as they touched down, their Share energy being nearby was all that the Cyber-Dragon's converter needed for one last round.