"Oi! Cunt!"
A few moments after the strange voice that it had originally planned to ignore, something cracked into the back of the Cyber-Dragon's head and exploded violently, slamming it face-first into the steel girder that was near its head whilst it rummaged through the building. The metal clashed violently with the monster's head, but barely hurt it. The building, meanwhile, lost a good part of a steel floor beam.
Nothing major, however; The building was, quite frankly, absolutely colossal,with 250 floors and a base that was nearly a mile wide. It was designed to withstand a full-blown assault from the troops of Planeptune's enemies, which made it nearly indestructible without the use of several tonnes of explosive in a few dozen very specific spots.
The dragon was barely up to about the thirtieth or fortieth floor.
Still gigantic, still nigh unstoppable, but just not enough to completely destroy the tower without a serious onslaught.
It had been in the process of trying to find as many human soldiers as possible and get revenge on them for trying to tame it earlier when the attack and shout came, so it was actually not too surprised.
More offended, than anything else.
Thus, rather than get incredibly angry, the Cyber-Dragon turned to see what had been so rude to it, a superior lifeform.
Standing in the middle of the wrecked street below, out in the open, was a single human with a rifle. He was in the process of dumping a small object from the side of the rifle, but still glaring at the giant.
Could this be that human that it had done glorious battle with before?
The Cyber-Dragon bared teeth and zoomed in, almost prepared to advance, but then stopped.
On closer inspection, this wasn't the Dragon Hunter.
It was a tall, black-haired man with a few scars, and a cigarette hanging lazily out of his mouth. He seemed to be dressed in desert-coloured camouflage clothing and equipment, and the rifle in his hands was an odd black-and-green colour combination. Even more bizarre was the large shell it was loading into the second barrel of the gun, and the rather brave expression on his face as he did so.
The dragon cocked its' head slightly, trying to figure out the tactical merits of wearing sand camouflage in the middle of a shiny silver city, when the man spoke again.
"Yeah, I'm talkin' to you, you giant cunt!" he yelled, swiping the rifle to the right and closing the breech of the gun beneath the gun as he jabbed a finger forwards towards the dragon. "The fuck do you think you're playin' at, smashin' apart a buildin' for no reason?"
The dragon turned its' body to face the man. He completely paled in a size comparison, but honestly, the man didn't seem to care.
The Cyberdragon bared its' teeth, but then shielded its' face with its' right claw as there came the sound of a loud ploop, followed by a good half of the dragon's face exploding. The armoured scales peeled off, revealing the metal beneath, and also revealing that it did not like being shot in the face with a grenade launcher.
Within the seconds of recovery, the Cyberdragon leaned forward and let out a roar that shattered windows all around the area, beginning to advance on the man.
Luke stared at it, and began running away. He grabbed the button for his radio, and switched on his earpiece. "James! I've pissed it off!" he said quickly, "What now?!"
The earpiece buzzed in response. "That wasn't so hard," James' calm voice responded, "You're good at pissin' people off. Apparently it extends to eighty foot tall demon things."
"JAMES, WHAT DO I DO NOW?!" Luke yelled.
"Uhhh..." There came a brief hesitation. "OK...yeah...right. I got your route planned. Get it to chase you past the Harmod's department shop. Josh'll take over from there. All you need to do is shoot it and try not to hit the CPUs." There was a brief pause. "Oh. Looks like Harmod's is renowned for its' fish and chips. Could probably go there once this is over."
Luke grunted as he slid under the tail of a wrecked helicopter, immediately getting his footing and continuing to sprint. "Yeah, yeah, sounds fuckin' great!" he snapped, veering behind cover as a minigun burst tore the ground apart to his side. "WHY DID I HAVE TO RUN FUCKIN' DISTRACTION?!"
"Because you're obnoxious," James replied.
"Because you're obnoxious," Josh confirmed, tuning into the radio frequency.
"Where're the girls?!" Luke snapped. He snapped his arm upwards to shield his neck as another burst of gunfire caused the floor to explode.
"Had to knock MAGES. out because she wouldn't go to the evac," Josh replied calmly. "Falcom carried her away. As far as we're concerned, they're safe." Another radio pause. "James, you're not wrong, I just tried some of the Harmod's cod in batter that someone left behind on a table in their restaurant. Oh my word, it's absolutely delightful."
"Josh, if you don't do your bit, I'm gonna fuckin' die!" Luke cried. His eyes narrowed; The streets were completely empty, save for a massive gridlock of abandoned vehicles and a few wrecked things. The evacuation process was incredibly fast.
That meant Luke was basically just sprinting as fast as he could down the gaps in the empty cars, avoiding the devastating bursts of minigun-fire as he went, and just hoping that this all wasn't some elaborate scheme to kill him off.
Up ahead, he could see it; The towering department store of Harmod's, which was probably only a few floors shorter than the Cyberdragon. Gritting his teeth, Luke used every ounce of his battlefield training to vault a bench with his gun raised, then get very close to the department store, before turning to fire another grenade at the incoming beast. It roared, practically swatting the projectile away with a wild right armed swing, and flattening cars beneath its' colossal feet.
Luke, in the process of reloading, backpedalled behind the building, and looked up just in time to see the giant claw of the creature grab the corner of the department store, smashing a number of the windows. He had no idea where to go as the monster's massive head peered around the corner to see him.
"JOSH! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?!" he screamed, hipfiring his L85 wildly at the Cyberdragon.
"Right here!" came Josh's sudden voice through his earpiece. A window up above suddenly shattered, catching Luke's attention just in time to see the lightly-armoured form of Josh diving out of a window with his sword drawn, before he issued a two-handed slash to the dragon's eye and slammed the sword into the creature's metal cannon to stop himself from falling.
The results were immediate; The monster screeched in pain, stumbling back. As it did, Luke took the chance to release another 40mm grenade into the glowing chest motor, staggering it further.
Josh, meanwhile, had gotten a grip on one of the cannon vents, pulled out his handgun, and started dumping the magazine into it.
However, every shot landed on the steel saw the damage nearly instantly twisting back into shape. Josh grit his teeth.
"The armour's too strong!" he yelled. "I'm gonna frag him!"
Luke, still trying to load another grenade and magazine, dived behind a truck for cover, just as a burst of aimless minigun rounds shredded the floor he'd just been standing on. "FUCKIN' DO IT, THEN!" he snapped.
Josh grit his teeth, and cast a brief glance to the CPUs; They'd reverted to their normal forms, quite clearly due to the lack of Shares reaching them, and none of them were conscious, restrained to the metal cannon by the unusual purple energy.
"James!" Josh yelled, tabbing his radio. "You ready?!"
There was no immediate response.
"Shit, I hope you are!" he grunted, before grabbing the grenade from his belt, pulling the pin, dropping the lever, and using as much force as he could possibly muster to slam the explosive between a gap in the joint, wedging it between a few servos of the elbow.
Then, as the dragon prepared to swat at him, he pushed with his feet, withdrawing his sword, and threw himself off the mechanical arm.
The fall was pretty hard; He fell for about thirty feet, and landed on the top of a large truck that was parked nearby, grunting in pain as he hit the roof, but seconds later rolled off as a shower of shrapnel began.
The deafening boom of the hand grenade was considerably more powerful than Luke's 40mm grenades, especially when the dragon let loose an almighty roar of anger as the protective plates around its' cannon completely shattered and flew off. Thankfully, the CPUs hadn't been in the blast range, instead getting their hair ruffled a bit, but the grenade hadn't been enough to knock out the protective field.
Luke grimaced as the creature roared, stepped back, and used its' claw to begin trying to hammer the metalwork back into place. "Jesus Christ, that thing's still movin'!" he yelled, snapping off another grenade shot that smashed away some scales on the creature's abdomen. It barely staggered, ignoring the assault in favour of hammering at its' cannon to desperately get it fixed.
Luke didn't understand why it was focusing on that over the pummeling of grenades it was receiving, but then he remembered what James' plan entailed.
"James," he said quickly. "I thought you said you were gonna do somethin'...oh, about NOW?!"
There was a moment of silence.
"James, we need you to do your part!" Josh snapped, picking himself up and staggering over to Luke. "Where the fuck are you?!"
The dragon spat out something, then turned its' head towards the two men, baring teeth and raising its' cannon. The two men pressed their radio buttons simultaneously.
"FUCKING NOW, JAMES! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?!"
After a few seconds, the radio channel bleeped through the headsets of both men.
"Right where I need to be."
A moment later, there came a sudden, brilliant purple light, followed by the entire ground shaking as the Cyberdragon dropped to its' knees, flailing in rage. The ragged hole left by the grenade suddenly spewed forth a brilliant spray of glowing purple energy, shooting out flames like those from the back of a jet engine.. Merely seconds passed before the distant crack of a gunshot rang out, echoing through the air but being drowned out by the monster roaring in agony.
As the ground shook, the giant beast taking a knee and clutching its' now limp cannon arm, James' voice crackled over the radio.
"I take it I got him?"
Luke chuckled slightly, switching on his microphone.
"Yeah."
"How'd I do, distance-wise?"
Luke thought for a moment. There were about ten seconds between the impact of the shot and him hearing the sound, so...wait, carry the two...
"I'm guessin' about five miles."
"Five miles. Not bad."
"You just put that record-holdin' Lance Corporal to shame!" Luke grinned. Just as he was about to open fire again, he noticed something.
The restraining energy around the CPUs had halted.
They were lying on the ground. Still unconscious, but no longer attached to the Cyber Dragon.
Now was their chance.
He snapped his gaze over to Josh, who seemed to have noticed roughly the same thing. "JOSH! CPUS! NOW!"
The blonde's face set into a look of zealous determination, narrowing his eyes and immediately breaking into a sprint. He vaulted a sports car that had been halted nearby, shielding his face from the glare of the glowing purple flames that billowed from the dragon's arm as he went into a running crouch behind some cars.
Ahead of him, he could see Lady Noire and Lady Blanc. Lady Vert's gloves could just be made out through the smoke, and Lady Neptune was just visible in the reflection from a car bumper. None of them were conscious, but Josh just knew that the dragon was keeping its' eye on them.
Josh turned, halting next to a car bonnet, then switched on his radio. "Luke," he whispered. "Turn it away from me. Get him looking at you."
He didn't even need the radio to know that Luke was probably sighing angrily right about then. The dragon was still hissing and snapping at the damage to its' arm; Blistering flames poured from a hole, and its' sources of power were now sprawled on the ground.
"You really are tryin' to get me killed, aren't you?" muttered the squaddie. The end of his sentence was punctuated by the sound of a plop down the street, followed by a whistle, and the flash of a 40mm explosive slamming into the top of the Cyber-Dragon's head. The giant creature roared angrily, and immediately looked to the right. Luke was doing his usual, and was lighting up another cigarette whilst dropping the spent grenade case.
"DIDN'T FORGET ABOUT ME, DID YOU, YOU UGLY MUNTER?!" screamed the Irishman, before he immediately ran towards a service ladder he'd noticed down an alleyway, turning only momentarily to launch yet another grenade at the dragon.
This time, the explosion tore off its' left pectoral plate, revealing the metalwork and glowing lights beneath.
And, this time, with the damage done, the dragon was really pissed.
It stood up, immediately forgetting to grab the CPUs, and instead turning its' attention to finding and killing that bomb-throwing son of a bitch. The towering colossus raised to its' full height, easily passing the height of the department store that Luke was making his way up, before roaring and reeling its' right fist back.
Then, it held it there.
Waiting.
Josh, meanwhile, hadn't noticed: He was busy grabbing as many of the small women as he could; He had piled Lady Blanc and Lady Neptune into his arms, and started running down the street.
Luke was already halfway up the ladder when he paused.
"I'm not hearin' movement..." he murmured. Hesitantly, he looped his shins behind the ladder rungs, holding himself up by his knees, and slung his rifle to his hip. After a moment of looking up, and with no movement, he decided to actually make use of some of the training he was given by Captain McTavish back on Earth.
Then, he reached over to the nearby drainpipe with his knife, and began sawing at it to take a long chunk from it.
"It's up to summat..." he grumbled. He couldn't see it from where he was, but the silenced unnerved him.
As he set about breaking the long section of piping free, he switched on his radio. "James, where are you, right now?" he asked calmly.
"Just on top of a buildin' five miles away. What's up?"
"Yeah, I need a favour. Do you think you could, perchance, tell me what our large adversary is currently doin'?" The mocking sweetness of his tone brought a grin to Josh's face as he stealthily approached the dragon's foot to retrieve Lady Vert and Lady Noire.
"Well, my good sir," James began, joining in on the posh twattery, "The grand opponent is currently standing in a pose suggesting that he intends to throw a punch. If I were to make an assumption, it would be that he plans to sock you right and proper when you pop your dome over the top of the ladder."
"Much appreciated, my good man," Luke nodded, smiling. He removed his helmet, and balanced it on top of the piece of piping.
Then, making sure his launcher was ready, he looked up, unhooking himself from the ladder. He was about two or three floors below the roof of the building, but still about ten stories up. A fall right then wouldn't have been good, but his permanently present parachute could save him from something like that.
Slowly but surely, he took the drainpipe with his helmet on, and slowly began raising it up the middle of the ladder. Steadily, the helmet rose up, floor by floor, until the very tip of it was just visible over the edge of the roof.
Still nothing.
Luke grit his teeth, hooked his knees on the ladder again, and raised his L85 launcher to point upwards.
Then, he slightly shifted the helmet above the roof.
The gigantic fist of the Cyber-Dragon practically detonated the top two floors of the department store, blowing out all the windows and showering Luke in pieces of masonry. The building behind him suffered, too; An entire apartment exploded from the monstrous strike, creating a small hailstorm of destroyed furniture and brickwork.
Directly above, the trunk-like arm of the monster loomed over him like a bridge between the buildings. Luke's pipe snapped in half, and he watched what remained of his helmet – a single shred of MTP camouflage fabric covering – flutter down to the bottom of the alleyway.
He wiped his brow, dropping the pipe he was holding and unhooking his legs. "Jesus fucking Christ."
Up above, there was a slight rumble. The launcher stayed pointing up.
The Cyber-Dragon's leering visage appeared at the top of the building, seemingly inspecting the damage.
All it got was a face full of 40mm, slamming it square in the eye that Josh had slashed at earlier and blasting pieces of optical nerves and sensors everywhere.
The beast howled in anger, staggering backwards and clutching at the wounded eye. Cars were flattened beneath it as it stumbled, trying to hold in the countless yards of destroyed circuitry.
Luke, being a relatively smart man, decided not to hide in the building, and slid down the ladder to get back to the ground.
"Not wrong, was I?" James asked. Luke grunted as his feet made contact with the floor, wincing slightly as he rolled his ankle on a piece of brick.
"Not at all, James," he replied. "Cheers for the heads-up."
"No worries. Seems like it won't make that mistake again, I'm afraid. Think you fucked its' eye up, though."
Luke reached the corner of the building, and peered over at the monster. It was currently forming a rudimentary eye bandage out of two Planeptune flags that had been flying from some lampposts. He had absolutely no idea how something so big could be both so smart and capable of tying a knot with one claw behind its' head, but nevertheless, it was adapting.
"Yeah, I did," Luke grimaced. "Bastard's makin' himself an eyepatch, surprisingly enough."
"Is he?" James' voice sounded confused, before being coupled with the sound of him shouldering his rifle. There was a moment's pause. "Well. The cheek of this motherfucker."
"Think you can take his other eye?" Josh interrupted. "All it took to get rid of the one was a sword slash and a 40mm."
"Difficult," Luke replied. "It was hard enough gettin' close to it. No way in Hell it's fallin' for that helmet trick again, especially considerin' that I now don't have a soddin' helmet."
"Well, we could always try and get one from some of those dead soldiers back at the tower."
"Great idea: You run distraction, this time."
"Point taken."
"Not sure if my rifle'd be enough, either," James noted. "Besides, if I take a shot now, we're be drawin' him away from the tower. We need him as close to it as possible. We're already draggin' the fight towards the evacuation zone boundaries."
Luke grimaced, and looked down the street. He could just make out a number of purple tanks in the distance, forming a barricade. "Bugger. You're right."
"CPUs are alright, though," Josh sighed. "I've moved all four of them about a hundred meters away. They're groaning, but alive. That thing's still taking their Share energy, so they're out of it for this, right now."
"Agh, crap, this isn't goin' well..." Luke muttered. He pulled the cigarette from between his lips, and exhaled an unhealthy amount of smoke for someone his age. He leaned against the wall, and knocked his unprotected head against the bricks a few times.
It hurt.
Whatever.
He could complain when he was dead.
Slipping the cigarette back between his teeth, he rummaged through his vest pouches to find his frequencies list. The small sheet of paper was in his chest pocket, completely crumpled. He squinted at it briefly, then stuffed it back into his pocket and grabbed his radio. "Right. Keep an eye on it. Gonna find out where our support is," groaned the taller soldier, before fiddling with the dial.
Once it was set, he clicked the button.
"Chaz, mind tellin' us where you've gone?"
There was silence.
Then, the sudden sound of muffled rotors came in.
"Yeah, just had to pick the Challenger up," he said loudly. Luke couldn't help but smile. He'd actually forgotten that they had that old thing. "Holy...! I can already see the bloody thing! He's fucking HUGE!"
"Yeah, no observational bonus for you there, Chaz!" Josh cut in. Luke had no idea he was on the channel. "I don't even think the tank's shells'll be enough, at this rate!"
"Why not?" Chaz asked. "From where I am, a load of its' skin's coming off. Whatever the Hell you were using is working, and I assume it was explosives."
"A whole fuckin' lot of explosives, mind you," Luke groaned. "Besides, I'm runnin' out of forty millimeters."
"How many'd you bring?" Josh asked.
"Enough."
"You just saying that because the author can't be bothered to go back and count?"
"Well, he's made me go through about four cigarettes in five minutes, so probably."
As he listened to the dragon struggling to get its' eyepatch assembled, an unknown force made Luke absent-mindedly light another cigarette so that it was, indeed, his fourth, and the author wasn't making an error.
"Well, what do you lot suggest?" Chaz asked finally. "I doubt I'll be able to get the jump on him with a tank. He'll see me coming a mile off."
"He hasn't spotted me," James noted. "And I'm sat in some family's top floor apartment two miles away...ohhh, hold on, lads." There was a momentary hesitation. A voice could be heard in the background, along with the clinking of china. "Oh, why, thank you kindly, ma'am!" The china sound continued, and James could be heard sipping something, before letting out a satisfied 'ah'. "Lovely. Thank you very much, I appreciate that."
Luke grimaced, glaring daggers through the radio. "You did not just accept a cup of te-"
"Goddamn right, I did."
"You jammy bastard."
"Hey, it cleared my head," retorted the Welshman. The sound of a rifle being shouldered could be heard again, followed by light chuckling. "Speakin' of clear, I think that forty-to-the-face did more than take his eye out. Next time he turns around, look at his chest."
Luke raised a brow, shaking his head slightly, then peered around the corner to observe the monster. It was currently facing a building, but...
He pulled out his binoculars (which had surprisingly lasted this long), and took a look over at one of the windows.
In the reflection, he could see clear as day: The chest of the dragon was now entirely ripped open. Where there had once been scales, there was a massive conglomeration of spinning gears, assorted biomass, and a huge, glowing crystal, all buried in its' chest cavity.
Luke went wide-eyed slightly.
"There's absolutely no possible way in Hell that that's not a weak spot," he remarked, lowering the binoculars. "You got line of sight, James?"
"Have I ever not?"
"I'm lookin' at that giant fuck-off crystal. I dunno about you, but the fact it's glowin' white probably means summat'll happen if you break it."
James sucked air through his teeth, and could be heard sipping some more tea. "I dunno, mate," he murmured, "Look again. Those two things either side of it look like some kind of armoured batteries." Luke tilted his head, and raised the binoculars again.
Whilst the dragon was still trying to make an eyepatch (It did only have one hand, after all), it had its' arms raised up to display everything inside its' chest cavity. In this case, Luke could barely make out what James was talking about; Positioned on both sides of the large crystal, and each marked with a large lightning bolt, were two surprisingly small metal cylinders. Large cables were hooked up to the crystal. The things couldn't have been more than a few feet long, and were probably thinner than his arm, but he knew what they were immediately.
"Good point..." Luke groaned loudly, and seated himself against the brick wall. He knocked his head against the wall a few times again, sighing from exhaustion and closing his eyes. "Fuck, this is more complicated than I thought it'd be."
"...maybe not."
Luke raised a brow at Chaz's comment.
"Go on."
"Well, it's probably the same as a lot of electrical things. Like...ah, a laptop. It serves a purpose, and it was made by a company."
"Where the fuck are you goin' with this, Chaz?" James sighed.
"I'm getting to it. You know how you can unplug a laptop from its' power source, and it'll still work if it's charged?"
Luke went wide-eyed.
"Holy shit..."
"I think he has a point," Josh confirmed. "Even if it's predominantly mechanical, it can probably still run if you smash that core. I doubt they'd give something so strong such an obvious weak point."
"I could try grenadin' the core, but I doubt it'd do much to the batteries. All it would do is just force us to wait out the battery life and hope it's got the power consumption of an iPhone," Luke suggested.
"Hang on," James cut in. "MAGES. said that thing steals Shares, right?"
"Right?" Josh said curiously. He paused. "Riiiight."
Luke caught his drift fairly quickly, grinning. "We smash that crystal, and the CPUs get into the fight."
"What do I do?" Chaz asked. "Air support? Drop off the Challenger?"
Luke shook his head, standing up. "Challenger'd bring too much attention. Besides, that thing could fuck it up; We'd be too slow. If anything, we just need to distract it after the crystal's broken."
He watched as the Cyber-Dragon finally finished with its' eyepatch, and began calibrating its' remaining eye using its' right hand; It moved the appendage backwards and forwards a few times, then it focused the eye accordingly.
He noticed, however, that when it focused, it took at least three seconds, likely to compensate for the missing sensor and loss of depth perception. The focusing took longer the further the object was.
Immediately, Luke's brain concocted a plan.
"Lads-"
"You have a plan?" came all three voices simultaneously.
Luke grinned, flicking his cigarette away.
"You know me too well, gents. Now, listen up. Chaz, maintain speed. Hell, increase it. Circle the chopper around from the East. I take it the Challenger's hangin' beneath your helicopter?"
"Yeah."
"Good. Josh, make sure you're ready to slap the CPUs awake."
"Uh...OK?" the posh man replied cautiously.
"And James..."
"Yeah?"
"...you know how people say that a laser pointer can show a pilot exactly where you are if you point it at their eye?"
"Oh, I'm not likin' this."
Meanwhile, inside the 240th floor's emergency access shaft...
For a ventilation system, Jack had to hand it to the architect: It went everywhere.
Quite frankly, it was alarming how much of the building could be accessed through these steel tunnels. Obviously, it was a bit harder for him, especially considering that he was a good head and a half taller than most – if not all - of Gamindustri's residents, meaning that what was a crouching space for them was more of a crawlspace for him.
His other concern was less from a tactical standpoint and more from an "irrational fear of advances by the opposite gender" standpoint.
Cave's little comment earlier about "happily sharing a bed with him" had caught him completely off guard. It had stunned him more than when that RPG went off nearby, or when he got the fuck beaten out of him by the Cyber-Dragon back on floor 100.
Someone actually found him marginally attractive.
His brows furrowed as he took the lead through the vents, guiding his alleged bodyguard through the shafts he had memorized from the service manual he skimmed over a few floors back. His plan was to get to the floor nearest the top (floor 249), then keep up the Kung Fu Cop charade until he had the prime opportunity to shatter Kashuba's goddamned skull with his fists.
At that point, he halted, and peered out of the vent nearby. "Hmm..." he murmured to himself about darkness, but then there came a gentle grunting from behind him. Suddenly, something soft clambered over him as he lay still, before lying on his back. A pair of arms began resting inbetween his shoulders. This wouldn't have bothered him so much, if his suddenly close friend wasn't breathing down his neck. "C-Cave, can you not?" he asked as politely as possible, trying not to reveal his confusion.
Cave, however, remained stoic, and was looking out of the same ventilation cover as he was. "I wish to see what it is you're assessing," she said calmly, shifting slightly to get more comfortable. "There is simply not enough room for me to go by your side in this vent, so I'm lying on your back."
Jack swallowed slightly, and continued looking out of the vent. "U-Uh...r-right you are, Miss Cave..." he murmured.
'God, she's so light. And she smells like cherries...'
"I hope I'm not being a distraction?" Cave asked. Jack couldn't read people very well, but she seemed genuinely curious. "I cannot see as much as you in my current position. May I move forward?"
Jack sucked air through his teeth, frowning. "Not that there's much to see," he noted, "But, uh, go ahead, I s'ppose?"
"Thank you, Mr. Loondumb. Please hold still for a moment."
Jack lowered his head slightly to hide his embarrassment as Cave slid the front of her body against the back of his, which was accompanied by quiet grunts of exertion. He was forced to shove some very dirty thoughts out of his head immediately, instead trying to remain calm and collected as he looked out of the thin vent cover.
Just then, Cave practically lay her head against the side of his. He understood that it was hard to see through the vent, considering the size, but...
"D-Do you really need to be this close?" he stuttered quietly. Cave exhaled for a moment, either through frustration or exhaustion. Both were pretty viable answers. He couldn't see her very well, but she seemed...bored?
Good to know she was back to normal, at least.
"I must say, that for this current situation, the fact that your biggest worry is my clothed body against yours is both quite comforting, in that you're showing a remarkably positive attitude, and also rather depressing."
Jack frowned. "How's it depressin'?"
"If this is your reaction to clothed physical contact, then it brings my attention to the apparent teenage traumas from your past that Miss IF and Miss Histoire mentioned."
'Those free-mouthing bastards.'
"Yeah...that..." Jack trailed off. Cave released a quiet "Hmm.", and the two went back to silently watching outside of the vent.
Was she still mad at him?
There was silence.
Cave thought for a moment as her eyes looked out of the vent and into the darkened room before them, trying to pick out features to discern where they were, exactly.
Was he still mad at her?
There was further silence.
Finally, the pair of them sighed.
"Listen, Cave –"
"Don't worry about it."
Jack paused, then looked over his shoulder at his companion.
Her emerald green eyes were clearly preoccupied with something, putting a troubled look on her matured face.
"If..." he began, swallowing, "If there's...anythin'. Anythin' I can do to make up for the shit I said earlier...just lemme know. I don't think I can put into words how sorry I am for all that." There was more silence. "Look, if you're still pissed off at me –"
Cave's arms suddenly moved, from between his shoulders to underneath his body as he lay down. He tensed immediately, expecting her to find some way of choking him out or something.
Instead, her head leaned against the back of his own, and she let out another sigh.
"It's alright, Mr. Loondumb," she murmured, practically nuzzling the back of his head. "I think the fact that you came back to save everyone speaks more volumes about who you are than any assumptions that I had made whilst protecting you." She hesitated. "This is hardly the best place in the world for this kind of discussion, but-"
A massive, armoured fist slammed through the bottom of the vent, grabbing Jack by his body armour and suddenly smashing him against the roof of the vent, Cave pinned behind.
He barely had time to react as the arm kept him up there, clearly thinking it was strangling him; It began tightening its' grip, bending the top portion of Jack's new armour.
With Cave pinned behind him, Jack knew he couldn't stay like this or pretend to be dead.
His mind went right back into combat mode, and he drew his knife, delivering a fast but cack-handed slash across the wrist of the the hand that was attacking him. It recoiled slightly in what seemed to be surprise, before pulling itself out of the hole it had made on entry to the steel vent. Jack and Cave had no time to see what damage that had done, instead slamming onto the bottom of the vent on top of each other.
Jack immediately dropped onto all fours and began crawling as fast as possible, Cave still lying on his back. She was tempted to voice her protest, but then realized that she was being carried away at great speed; Ultimately, that was what she needed, and so she didn't complain.
He'd been aiming to reach the support beam up ahead, but clearly, whatever the Hell was down below had a very different idea. Jack barely reacted in time to dodge a shotgun blast that tore through the vent to his right, spattering him and Cave with buckshot, before he immediately dropped back, with another shotgun burst tearing through the vent where his crotch had been moments before.
Jack violently shifted left, dropping Cave off his back, drawing one of the Deagles from his disk and slotting it through the hole that had just materialized from the assaults.
Then, without hesitation, he started slamming the trigger back, with no remaining regard for his wrist's safety. Something definitely popped; Either his wrists, or Cave's eardums, but it had the effect it needed to.
A filtered voice from below rang out with a yell of surprise, before the fist punched through the vent again, gripping Jack's vest once more. This time, however, it came with a tug, physically tearing Jack through the steel vent, pulling his lower abdomen onto a waiting left hand, before spinning him around and throwing him across the room.
He slammed onto the floor, rolling violently and flinging the goggles from his head as he slid across the floor. Jack barely got his bearings in time to catch a passing support beam, stopping him before he fell down a hole in the floor.
Steadily, he picked himself up, and looked around.
The whole room was easily the size of a football pitch, and very dark. All around, there were undecorated steel and concrete pillars that generally meant this room...hell, floor was under construction or renovation. There were a few drywalls around the place, which were no good for physical cover, but incredibly good for line-of-sight cover.
Then, Jack turned his attention to his opponent, pulling out the Mossberg and sliding in a shell of 00 Buckshot.
The figure across the room was about the same height as him, heavily armed, and of roughly the same build. However, that was where similarities ended: The man (?) facing him was clad in a heavy set of dirty and scratched olive-green armour, a few parts glowing with lights and a visor that was reflecting his own image. Considering all the wild shit that'd been thrown at him in the past few months, Jack made his assumptions.
"Nice power armour," he said flatly, raising his shotgun and racking the pump. "I take it there's no more in stock?"
"Flat-out of it, you bastard," came the response. It, just like the mask from the Kung Fu Cop, garbled the voice slightly, but Jack immediately had the accent. African.
His mind raced back to the team of South African police officers that had been on the training courses. Brutal sons-of-bitches, but he supposed that just came naturally if you're a police officer in that dump.
"Well, I hope the receipt's still in there somewhere," Jack continued, beginning to menacingly circle him. "Because I'm gonna need to take it back to the shop so they can clean your sorry arse out of it when I'm done."
The man in the suit just laughed.
"This is not an action movie, boy," the African snapped dismissively, pointing a huge gloved finger at him. "You have caused a lot of trouble today. One-liners will not save you."
Jack wasn't using the circling to spout shitty one-liners, though.
He was using it to buy extra seconds within which to come up with a clever way to outdo the guy, and identify possible hazards and weapons.
For one thing, the guy was lugging an AA-12 in his right hand. Jack hadn't noticed that immediately, since he'd had it behind his back.
Not only that, but from the appearance of the shape on his back, he also had some kind of much bigger weapon. Looked like some kind of...hammer.
Thankfully, they were the only two he could see, but now Jack knew he was a pretty close-range opponent.
"They won't?" he smirked. A plan was set up immediately. "Shame. Let's see if that glorified Tin Man cosplay'll save your skin, then."
The man – presumably – grinned, and took on a stance indicating he was going to run.
"With pleasure."
The ground in front of Jack practically exploded before he could open his mouth, and his vision was suddenly filled with the man's fist slamming into his face.
Blood jetted from Jack's mouth as he was thrown across the room, accompanied by a sound that seemed like a gunshot of a hit.
'W-WHAT?! HOW'S THIS BASTARD SO FAST?!'
He'd barely gotten his bearings again, scraping across the floor on his feet, before the armoured man was back upon him. He suddenly jumped at least ten feet in the air, AA-12 pointed towards Jack and dumping shells in a hail storm of pellets.
Jack grit his teeth and shielded his face from the smattering of lead, raising his shotgun one-handedly and firing a shot towards his opponent mid-air. The results were immediate; The armoured man suddenly began glowing a bizarre golden, lightning streaking all around him with no damage to the suit itself, but he was sent flying backwards, performing a backwards roll as he landed and standing up.
Grunting, Jack glared back at him, using his left forearm to wipe away the blood that had splashed from his mouth and his right arm to swap out the Mossberg for the AK.
"Energy shields, eh?" he called over. His opponent shrugged, and mockingly brushed at the spot Jack had hit him. "How's it feel, bein' enough of a pansy that you need a fuckin' energy shield?" A second or two later, he was enveloped in the strange golden field again, before it disappeared.
The African rolled his shoulders. "An advantage is an advantage. For instance, this suit will enable me to pull your arms and legs off with little trouble." Once more, Jack assumed he was grinning behind the visor. "I am also fast enough that I can punch you before you can react."
"I noticed," Jack snapped. "But pull that suit off, and what're you? Some deadbeat copper that got tired of rapin' schoolkids in South Africa and decided he wanted to rape toddlers in a new dimension. That about right?"
Seemingly, this hit a nerve.
Jack knew this because the guy had flung himself towards him, the punch narrowly missing his face.
In the brief moment, Jack was tempted to try and snap his arm, but he was gonna just have to try and get the guy out of the fucking window: There was no way he would be able to beat this son of a bitch through force.
As the armoured man reeled from the missed punch, Jack span heel and booted him in the back. He hadn't expected it to work, and nor had he expected the armoured guy to flick his feet backwards, two-footing him in the side of the face as he slammed onto the floor.
Jack yelled out in pain, instinctively gripping the trigger on the AK and beginning to release a hail of rounds onto the man as he picked himself up and sprinted across the room. The guy slid, and went behind a pillar. Jack did the same, and began adjusting his weapons.
He could only imagine that Cave was probably crawling away by now, or still hiding in the vent.
Whatever she was doing, she was gonna be getting the massage of a lifetime if she could pull him out of this one.