A/N So peoples this is chapter 22, ya here's my excuse. Mortal kombat x and the new dlc, it's actually the first MK game I have ever owned and played(my bro has MK9 on his hardrive on the old xbox but I never played it) but on paper fighters that are two dimensional spaces never appealed to me LIKE DODGE LEFT AND RIGHT DAMMIT, my common sense cutting in. It's why I kinda likes soul caliber more. Anyway I love the game but I suck at it and I know it. Still having trouble doing button combos to do specials and advanced combos. I haven't learned to jungle more then a three hit combo. Ya I just suck, but I still love it…. I also play with the stick and am forcing myself to try and use the d-pad but it ain't working. Anyway thanks for waiting and being patient guys, I hate doing that. But I mean I just wanted to play that for awhile. So thanks for the patience(if any of you were actually going "OMG I need my Admiralkirk fix! Lol) Nah I don't think I'm that good.
Let's see where this goes.
Morning came and everyone geared up for their most difficult mission yet.
Scourge had been informed of his role in the attack and at first he didn't want to do it at all. Shadows anger didn't help. In time Nicole finally approached.
"Scourge, I know it's not the most ideal place for you to be but we need efficiency. You and Shadow are the most efficient at this job. I will be with you as well and I believe you will do a good job" she hoped kind supportive words would help more than anger and violence like Shadow had tried.
The green hedgehog looked away and sighed and mumbled only so she could hear "You're pushing my buttons now" he groaned "Fine I'll do it, but if we die you die first" he pointed to Shadow.
"You make sure it doesn't come to that and I'll do the same" he warned. He fiddled with his leg brace as Scourge turned away to get his gear.
Off a short distance away Tails was all armored up. He was waiting crossed armed next to Fiona. She'd thought about it and now wore a makeshift bandolier with filled magazines for her pistols along them, freeing up some space for a few more hand grenades. Tails also offered an old experimental set of his original shock gauntlets. He warned they didn't recharge over time like his current ones did but they had two guaranteed charges. Besides that they were metal and had small spikes on the knuckles, so even with the charges gone she'd have stronger hits.
"I may hate his guts but I think he'll do his job" she said.
"I really hope you're right" he watched Scourge intensely as he hooked his shotgun to the back of his belt "You ready?" he asked her breaking his stare to her.
"I'm as ready as I'll ever be, just hope I don't take another bullet to the foot, especially not the other one" she tried to act like she was joking but she was clearly frightened.
"This isn't too different from stuff we did in the past" Tails tried to reassure her.
"Back then we weren't heavily outmatched, had Sonic with us to be a distraction, more people and more equipment to pull this stuff off" she sighed.
"If Shadow, Scourge and Nicole do there job we won't be nearly as outgunned"
"We'll still be out numbered"
"We'll find our way into the ventilation system and move around that way"
Fiona was about to ask further but he beat her "Nicole will download a map of the place so we'll know where to go, so don't worry" he smiled encouragingly "We stick to the plan and we'll get through all this fine, just need the execution and the plan will go right"
"And if we can't keep the plan together" She asked.
"Then we improvise and execute that right" he said sternly. He hoped confidence would help make her confident. Thinking back in the day that's how he and Sonic worked. He'd always been confident in everything he did, and it just overflowed into him. When he felt scared, afraid and feeling like he couldn't do something he'd always been a shining beacon of confidence for him.
She nodded and took a deep breath "Ok, well. You've gone through some crazy stuff in the past. I guess we could try and rub off some of that luck from you" she then rubbed her hands along his cheeks a few times like she were shaking off some fairy dust, it resembled when a grandma pinched your cheeks and shook them "There, now I got some"
He chuckled rubbing his cheeks a little "Hope it works" he smiled hiding a blush with his rubbing.
They turned back to find Scourge was ready and all of them looked to the two foxes.
Tails felt he should say something so took a moment to think "I can't do speeches, but everyone just stick to the plan and we'll get through this. I know we can do this, with skill and some luck. So, everyone be careful, don't take unnecessary risks…. And make it back to base alive"
They all nodded agreeing with that and they all exited the base. Shadow making sure to have the chaos emerald before leaving.
They travelled faster than last time since they weren't trying to track anything this time. Shadow and Scourge ran, Scourge carrying Nicoles PDA. Silver used his telekinesis to lift Blaze and Fiona and himself and fly alongside them and Tails was able to keep pace using his tails as propellers.
Within minutes they reached the small hill they ascended before to spy on the factory and came to a stop. The group crept up the small bank and looked over. Nothing much had changed, another airship was just leaving as they arrived.
"Ok, so everyone know the plan?" Tails asked.
He got nods and took a deep breath "Alright then, Shadow do your thing"
The dark hedgehog nodded and reached out for Scourges hand. He reluctantly took it and with his other hand took Nicoles PDA.
"CHAOS CONTROL" in a flash of light the three were gone, leaving the other four to wait.
Inside…
With a flash of green Scourge and Shadow appeared in a hallway.
"Ok we didn't reappear inside a wall" the dark hedgehog sighed.
"Ya, awesome" Scourge mumbled wiping off his jacket.
"We should start moving, the sensors surely have picked us up by now" Nicole appeared with only her head being projected from her PDA.
"She's right"
"How do you know? There's no alarm" Scourge crossed his arms.
"Could be a silent alarm. Everyone here is a robot, no need for sound when they are all connected together like a hive mind" Shadow growled back getting ready to go.
Scourge followed though rolled his eyes.
Within a few seconds the hedgehogs were running near full speed through the halls blasting past a bunch robots giving them no chance to even notice them. They wanted to find a terminal to connect to quickly. There Movements slowly were noticed, their rushes of air giving away their position. The robotic network soon using the information between eachother to respond to the threat.
Within a very short time doors started closing and locking, normal small ones and the larger blast doors that closed the large hallways. The two hedgehogs zipping past them all as they slowly closed.
Their speed kept them from getting trapped but if they didn't find a usable terminal soon it wouldn't matter when all the doors locked down. Luckily they were both faster than the doors and slid under the next one which was about a meter from the ground as they entered a new room. There were no other doors to be found and the one they just went through had fully closed.
"We're trapped" Scourge growled.
"I can see that" Shadow grumbled.
Nicole materialized from the PDA hanging off Scourges belt. Once fully constructed she took it off him so she could walk freely and looked around.
"This room has no other entrances. That must mean it's important, we could be in luck" she digital eyes scanned around.
The space was mostly dark, and generally hot, hotter than most of the building. All the machines working at once caused a bad stench and heat. Here it was much hotter, why was what they were about to figure out.
Listening they could hear electronics, the buzz of electricity filling their ears. The sounds of heavy fans was heard next, quite loud and large sounding.
Nicole finished her scan and suddenly beamed with a large smile "This is the master computer!"
"How in the hell did we get that lucky?" Scourge sighed flapping his vest for a moment to cool off.
"However we ended up here doesn't matter, we're in, find an access port" Shadow ordered to which Nicole quickly started searching.
"We'll watch the door, doubt they'll try anything if this is the master computer" Shadow said turning to the still closed door. It was still dark and the only light was coming from either the master computers small lights all across the room or Nicole, who's form gave off a faint glow.
"I will be as quick as I can" she said jogging down scanning the walls as she did.
"No smart ass quip?" Shadow asked.
"Haven't thought of anything good yet" he said pulling out his shotgun incase something surprised them.
For the next few minutes they heard Nicole walking around, the echo of her feet telling them she was still searching. Their eyes never left the door.
After what seemed like a long time they heard Nicole yell "I found it! Please watch the door, my hacking will surely raise their aggression"
Nicole was packing a small pistol so if anything came near her during the hack attempt she could protect herself, but she was confined to a small area. So it was still very much Shadow and Scourges job to protect her.
"Also this may go without saying but please be careful of the equipment, if anything is damaged it could shut down the system or effect my efforts, or worse"
The males looked to one another and knew Scourges shotgun either had to not take part in any fighting here or he'd have to make real sure where any random shots might go.
"I am beginning hacking protocols"
As a reminder Shadow said "Remember, turn off the lockdown protocol, download a map, and deactivate all defenses if you can and anything else that might be useful"
"I understand, I will do my best as quickly as I can"
With that her humming was all that could be heard for a long time, or atleast what felt like a long time. It probably took five minutes before noises could be heard on the other side of the door.
Thinking quickly Shadow looked to Scourge and said "Hide somewhere, let them walk in a bit if they come"
Scourge did as told and ran to the side of the door so he could lean against the wall and be almost unseeable. Shadow quickly found a spot far to the right peaking around the corner of where a row of computers began.
Both waited, occasionally looking to the other. There wasn't much of a reason, mostly to see if any last minute messages were sent, but both were good where they were.
Another minute passed before the sounds of metal on metal floor died and door hissed and slowly rose.
Both hedgehogs tensed and got ready, the humming from Nicole ending wanting to keep her position a secret as possible.
The first bots came through, minor bots. Five entered scanning around for any sign of the intruders.
Since Scourge had been beside the door he was relatively behind them all and got ready to homing attack his way through them all.
He began with the closest jumping into the air and curling into a ball and fired forward. Smashing into it he took the top half off and bounced and fired at the next and took it out too.
They took notice as he prepared his third bounce and turned to fire but Shadow was ready to go and slid by sweeping all their legs in one go since they had been standing in a row.
They all fell, quite comically, and Scourge quickly finished them all off before they could recover then dashed out of sight of the open door to avoid any gunfire.
Hiding again the duo waited for the next wave.
Quite quickly eight more entered, running, with no caution and all looked around in different directions. This time not in a perfect line, to avoid what happened a second ago.
Getting a bright idea Shadow kneeled, quickly curled and spun in place charging up. The sound of it attracted the eggbots attention and approached cautiously. Seeing this Scourge quickly made a decision and walked out into the open.
As expected his appearance caught all their attention and aimed at the green hedgehog. He smirked, that's all he had to stall for. In a mere instant Shadow fired into sight bouncing between the eight targets in less then a second and came to a screeching halt next to Scourge smoking a little from the dash.
The dark hedgehog nodded to the green one in thanks who just huffed back and fixed up his jacket.
The two hedgehogs positioned again waiting for another wave. This time four average eggbots entered followed by three heavy kinds Scourge and Nicole faced yesterday. The difference was they were missing their laser cannons, probably to minimize damage to the computer.
Remembering them Scourge motioned to Shadow silently that they needed to hit the back and he nodded understanding.
Shadow stomped on the ground catching all their attention. Scourge being on the opposite side homing attacked towards the closest of the larger robots and struck it's back. The metal caved in then gave way for him to damage the inner working, like yesterday he was easily able to do this all and shut it down.
Although his action caught all their attention. Using his speed he dodged away behind a row of the computers forcing them to not fire at him.
Shadow did the same as him but with a chaos enhanced punch ripping into the heavy bot and causing it to fall forward with him. As it landed his jumped up, homing attacked to a smaller robot so he could get close enough to the computer as well to get to safety.
All the while Scourge went in again taking out the third robot and finished off the last three.
This continued, their increasing numbers hardly seeming to matter. When they got smart and made sure to only have half look towards any distractions the hedgehogs made Scourge and Shadow just got more deceptive or aggressive.
Shadows chaos empowered attacks were able to break through even strong armour.
But then it stopped and Shadow realized they'd been going for twenty minutes "How's it going Nicole!?" he panted a little, using his powers usually made him tired, but he'd worked his endurance, he could do this for much longer even if he started using more powerful attacks.
"I am nearing the end, just one more fire wall. These systems are much more advanced then the last time I hacked into any of Eggmans systems. He seems to have upgraded since then"
"Just make it quick, there's getting to be a lot" so much so that the destroyed eggbots had caused a pile that blocked their exit and the eggbots entrance. They must have used a magnet because they somehow pulled the scrap into the hallway to clear it away.
Yet still nothing came.
"What the hell is going on" Scourge growled to himself.
They suddenly heard Nicole yelp. Both hedgehogs tensed and Shadow quickly flicked his head to tell Scourge to check it out, he wasn't letting his eyes off the open door.
In an instant Scourge ran back and found a thin slender, black robot threatening Nicole. Infact it was forcing her form against the wall and going to unplug her from the wall.
Even in the darkness he could tell it was special, thin, agile and flexible. But how'd it get in?
"Let go of her!" he yelled catching its attention just in time. Before Scourge could react the new robot threw Nicole at him. She dematerialized just before hitting him as she flew too far away from her PDA. Scourge flinched all the same.
Through the disappearing pixels the slender bot flew threw and it's fist collided with Scourges temple.
"Ahhh" he growled recoiling backwards and to the side making him fall into the wall just barely keeping him on his feet. His eyes were fuzzy and tried hard to stand up straight.
"Fucking bastard I'll dest-" before he could finish his threat his felt a knee to the gut which took him to the ground this time.
He hacked having lost his breath and was on his knees. His eyes still weren't clearly up. He desperately lunged forward to try and tackle his opponent but fell flat on his face when he learned nothing was there. He groaned coughing and tried to get up.
As he tried he felt a foot collide with the side of his head, the hit also causing him to smash his head into the wall.
He screamed in pain feeling darkness at the edge of his vision. Anymore and he'd be knocked out.
Using all his strength he swept out his leg hoping to trip this new robot but like before he found only air. For his trouble he got a hard stop on his back. The shock knocking him completely to the floor and losing all motor control for a half a second.
He tried to move but it hurt too much. But then the floor was pulled away from him and cold metal hands grabbed his jacket collar.
He finally was face to face with this thing as it held him in the air. He was almost entirely limp from the short but brutal beating and blinked to gain some of his vision back.
It's red optics stared at him.
He did the only thing he could think of, he spat at the robot and smirked "That…. All you got…. Huh? You prick"
One hand left his collar and prepared to punch him and silence him for good.
A loud bang went off and the bot dropped Scourge. He tried to land on his feet, he succeeded, but his injuries made his legs give out and fall.
"Scourge, stay down" he heard a feminine voice yell followed by three more bangs.
"No problem…." He was all to glad to oblige on the fringe of passing out.
Around him Nicole used her side arm to make the robot back away. Her first shot connected in the lower torso but the agility of this thing allowed it to dodge the next three.
Before Nicole could try again it disappeared, very similar to Tails cloak. The last she could see of it, it was jumping away.
She jerked around trying to spot it again but had no luck.
"Scourge?... Scourge please wake up!" she said trembling. She wanted to go to him and help but not only was that dangerous but he was too far, her PDA couldn't project her that far. All she could do was watch helplessly as she kept working on the firewall.
The quick glance she could afford allowed her to see he was trying, very slowly. His arms trembled just trying to lift his own weight. "I…. better…. Get… a day off… for this"
The lynx heard something but was too slow. She turned only to feel the gun knocked from her hand and a swift metal hand on her throat. It knew she was just a hologram after throwing her so just threw her away again.
She hit the wall behind it and shattered into pixels. Like always it didn't slow her down. Seeing it approaching her PDA again she materialized next to it and slapped its hand away. Only to receive a backhand from said hand to make her go away.
She tried her hardest to stall it, for any kind of help, but so far Scourge was still down and recovering while Shadow seemed to be unable to help.
Materializing yet again to intercept it tossed her away again. This time no more time left to stall. It reached out ignoring the reemerging Nicole who desperately tried to pull its arm away. But its raw strength made it ignore her entirely now. It picked up the PDA and prepared to rip the cord from the wall. It stopped and smacked Nicole away again and looked to the PDA and seemed to decide to just crush it.
When suddenly a loud bang went off. It's lower torso torn away leaving a gaping space in between it's chest and legs. Before it could fall another shot went off in quick succession taking its arm off and saving Nicole, the strong PDA simply falling to the floor in the severed arms grasp.
The bot fell hitting the ground and had nothing to defend itself but it's second arm.. Nicole got up from her fall and saw it was Scourge with the angriest glare she'd ever seen. His shotgun smoking from the two shots. He forced the robots second arm to extend out horizontally and used his shotgun to smash down so hard it severed that appendage too.
He dropped the gun and hefted up the, now useless robot and faced the wall. Putting a palm behind the head he swiftly smashed it into the wall. Then again… and again, and again. Cursing with every smash he probably did it ten times before letting it drop to the floor and stomping on what was left of the head.
"That is what you get when you fuck with us!" he yelled breathing heavily afterwards. Afterward wiping blood from his maw and spitting the rest from his mouth.
"Scourge…?"
He snapped from his trance and saw Nicole getting up, just a little fear in her stance seeing his display. She wasn't afraid of him, just surprised at his brutal strength even after such a beating.
He just panted hard his strong anger filled body suddenly trembling as the pain came back and asked "Please tell me you're done?"
She looked to her PDA screen, prying the device from the severed arm and saw it was infact done "Yes, it will take me only moments to find what we need, I will also be able to access the network with ease from any terminal if need be"
"Just… do it please" he panted leaning against the wall, right next to him was hydraulic fluids on the wall from where he'd mercilessly smashed the eggbot against the wall. Some had gotten on his jacket as well. His legs simply gave out and he slid down the wall to a sitting position on the floor.
Nicole placed the PDA back where it had been and walked to Scourge and accessed the damage "Are you alright?"
"Do I look alright?" he was still bleeding from the mouth a bit, some coming from his nose as well, the kick must have caused that. The spot he'd been punched in the head was now swelling slightly making a small bump. A quick look under his jacket revealed a bad spot on his back where he'd been stomped.
"You are far from ok" she pointed out agreeing with his sarcastic question.
She adjusted his jacket for him and noticed his glasses had fallen off. Looking around she found them just close enough for her to grab them and inspected them. Against all odds they still weren't damaged so she placed them in their rightful place.
"There, all back together" she smiled.
He made a noise that sounded like he wanted to chuckle but only coughed.
She frowned, this would complicate things, he was far too beat up to continue on. Already the plan was falling apart.
She looked back at him and said "Thank you"
"For?" he grunted out.
"Saving me" she smiled, right after that Shadow slid around the corner, he looked like he'd been hit by a hard hit or two but was relatively fine.
He slid to a stop "Guess he ran into another of those stealth bots. During its fight it had used the stealth systems just like when Nicole shot at theirs.
She nodded.
"Must have been how they got in without us seeing them, how is he?" he asked.
"Hurt bad" she frowned showing his injuries.
"Dammit" Shadow cursed "Did you get in?" he asked the lynx.
"Yes, I…. have finished all I was required to do. She extended her hand and opened her palm making a small projection. First was a projection of blue prints of the factory. Second was a over view of the plant and all it's levels and all the door symbols turning green signaling they were open, including all outdoor entrances. Finally dots representing the defenses in and around the facility turned red as they powered down.
"I have also left a copy of myself in the system to allow me easy access back inside and to combat any reactivation of systems" the hologram dying as she tended to Scourge again.
"Are there more?" she asked.
Shadow shook his head "Seems they expected those things to finish the job, but that might change soon"
Nicole knew what that meant and went back to her PDA and pulled her cord from the computer "Ok, what about him?" she had no intention of leaving him behind.
"Sadly I can't chaos control him out, I'd have to come back to help and leave him alone, and we can't leave anyone else behind to protect him outside, we need everyone we can. They'd probably tracked my teleport and find him where I left him while we're still in here fighting. For now, he has to stay with us" he truly hoped Scourge would get over his injuries quickly, doubtful, but possible. He'd already seemingly pushed past it all and annihilated his opponent from existence.
Nicole hated that idea and spoke up "What if I lock both of us in here, with you and everyone else causing problems they'll forget us"
Shadow sighed it seemed like the only really good choice, Nicole was most useful in the system and she had an access point right here.
"You sure you can stay safe in here?"
She nodded sternly "There's auto turrets all along this hall to protect this room, I'll activate them and use them to stop or stall anyone who can get to us. Even if those stealth things tried to sneak past them, the doors are too heavy for them. I've scanned this ones corpse and it doesn't have a built in fusion cutter. It is completely designed to be as stealthy as possible"
"Alright then, once I leave close the doors and hunker down, we'll contact you if we need help, but I'm sure you'll hook into the cameras and see anyway" Shadow said getting up from his kneeling position getting on the move.
"Good luck" Nicole said plugging herself back into the computer. Behind her Scourge simply grunted as his fair well.
Shadow left the dark and hot room looking around and found nothing to attack him and put a hand to his ear.
"Tails, you hear me?" behind him the door was already closing.
"What news you got for us Shadow?" his voice coming into his ear.
"We completed our part of the mission, but some new stealth robot attacked us. I was able to take mine out but Scourge was beaten near to death. He and Nicole are hiding out in the main computer room, they are secure"
Tails made a groan of annoyance hearing Scourge was down but said "Alright, we're heading in, meet you there"
Nicoles voice came up "I will direct you to eachother, then direct you to our objectives"
"Good thinking Nicole" Tails said, he could be heard huffing, probably running to get inside with everyone else "How is Scourge"
"He has taken hard hits to the head, back and stomach. He won't be moving, I'm sorry it was my fault. He was protecting me"
"It was nobodies fault, neither if you are dead, that's all I care about. Be safe, we'll get this done" Tails said being surprisingly encouraging. Although he was surprised to learn that Scourge nearly died for Nicole.
"I will remember that" she replied "Shadow, proceed to your right, I will direct you further when you reached the turning point, I will keep an eye out for any traps or ambushes being made ahead of you and Tails"
"Thanks Nicole" both hedgehog and Tails said.
Shadow jogged forward keeping it slow to get his strength back from the hard fight and to be more careful. Despite Nicoles eyes watching anything could still happen with invisible bots walking around.
He quickly fiddled with his leg brace again now sore from the fight and quickly swallowed one of the pain pills from his pocket and moved forward.
He was vulnerable until he found the other group…
Ok so that actually extended to near 5k, like actually that fight was long. Anyway I wanted this out RIGHT NOW, because I'm hooked on Mortal kombat, Division is out in two days and I'm working basically all week. So it was now or never. Thanks for the patience. Tell me what you think of the fight and don't forget to review guys.
Live long and prosper
Admiralkirk