Chapter 6.- The beginning of the fall.
Part 1.- Gadget vs. Trenton.
Inspector John Gadget and Officer Dean Trenton glared at each other.
The crowd was silent, watching the two combatants just standing there.
Gadget and Trenton stood still for what seemed like an eternity, challenging the other to make a move.
After five minutes of glaring, Gadget took the first move.
The cyborg charged against Trenton and rammed his shoulder on his abdomen, hoping to suffocate him. However, even if the hit had hurt Trenton, the man in the battle suit grabbed Gadget and lifted him easily, then he slammed his body hard on the ground, making him groan loudly. Trenton smirked and looked down at Gadget.
- Told you, Gadget, you're... - Trenton tried to say.
- Go go Gadget-Extendo-Leg! - Gadget said while he kicked Trenton in the stomach.
Trenton didn't even know that Gadget had kicked him until he was already flying away. Trenton fell hard on his back and rolled a bit on the ground, then he stood up wearily while Gadget stood up gracefully.
- You'll need much more than that to beat me! - Trenton said.
- I wouldn't say much, I just dented your suit with a single kick. - Gadget chuckled.
- According to my HUD, I need .50 caliber to destroy you, my gatlings are now equipped with .47 cal, it won't kill you, but it'll disable you.
- Hit me with your best shot.
Trenton smirked and so did Gadget. Then Trenton pointed both of his wrist-mounted miniaturized Gatling guns at Gadget and started shooting at his chest. Half of the crowd cheered loudly while the other gasped loudly, as they thought that Gadget would lose, but then the tables were turned when they saw that the bullets of the Gatling guns bounced off easily from his coat. Trenton stopped shooting and watched in bewilderment as Gadget hadn't even been hurt.
- How is this possible?! You're not supposed to withstand so much damage! - Trenton said.
- Kevlar-vibranium-adamantium nanofiber, or KVA nanofiber for short, withstands even a tank shot. - Gadget said while he pointed at his coat.
- Withstand this, Gadget!
Then, Trenton activated the small missile launcher that his suit had, he targeted Gadget and shot a missile. The cyborg barely had any time to react, so he did what his instinct told him and put his left arm in front of him to then yell:
- Go go Gadget-Shield!
The missile impacted on the energy shield that Gadget had created, but even if he was unharmed by the explosion, the cyborg had been sent several meters backward.
Gadget hit the ground and stayed there for quite some time, then he punched the ground and stood up, dusting off his coat and glaring at Trenton. The cyborg made a fake gun with his right hand and yelled:
- Go go Gadget-Taser!
A very long cable with an electrode on the tip was shot from Gadget's index finger. Gadget expected that Trenton would get shocked, but it seemed that the battle suit isolated the wearer from any electrical discharges.
- Really, you're gonna try that? - Trenton asked with an amused smirk.
- I'm not called "Inspector Gadget" for nothing, Trenton, go go Gadget-Oil-Slick! - Gadget replied with a smirk while he retracted his Gadget-Taser.
A hose appeared from Gadget's right wrist, and it shot a bluish substance at Trenton, covering him from tip to toe. The metal-clad man shook his head and tried to wipe the toothpaste from his helmet, but he couldn't clean anything with his metal gauntlets.
Gadget seized Trenton's distraction and prepared his next move.
- Go go Gadget-Lasso! - Gadget said.
Immediately after Gadget's order, his tie extended and wrapped itself around Trenton, immobilizing his arms. Gadget simply smirked wider and took a step back, making Trenton slip on the toothpaste and fall to the ground with a loud thud. Gadget chuckled loudly and made his tie go back to normal while he bowed at the crowd that cheered for him.
- Thanks, and that's why the Gadget Project is superior to the Battle Suit Project. - Gadget said while he bowed.
Trenton gritted his teeth and punched the ground, then he pointed at Gadget with his repulsor rays.
Two twin energy rays hit Gadget in the back and threw him towards the crowd. The cyborg cop rolled on the ground and ended up hitting his face hard against the ground.
Gadget growled and stood up gracefully, then he glared at Trenton and said:
- Ok, no more holding back!
With that said, the cyborg rushed against the battle suit, with a fist ready to strike.
Trenton stood on combat stance and waited for Gadget to come at him.
Gadget was finally face-to-face with Trenton, and he tried to punch Trenton in the abdomen, right where he had dented the suit, but Trenton blocked his move and tried to hit Gadget with his knee. However, the cyborg predicted that attack and blocked it to then headbutt Trenton, breaking the crystal of the helmet.
The normal man knew that he was in a serious disadvantage now, if Gadget hit him directly in the face, it'd be over not only for hi but also for Sato and Ryan.
Trenton gritted his teeth and caught Gadget's fist before he could punch him in the face, then he kneed the cyborg and then he hit him hard on the back with both hands. Making Gadget fall to the ground. After that, Trenton grabbed Gadget and threw him away, then he prepared both flamethrowers.
When Gadget hit the ground, he managed to get back on his feet with a rather impressive maneuver, then he extended his arm and grabbed his hat. He put it on and wiped the trickle of blood that came from his forehead due to the headbutt he used to break Trenton's helmet. Then he glared at Trenton and his HUD acknowledged that he was about to use the flamethrowers. This made Gadget smirk, he could now try one of the tricks that gave him the victory against the Robo-Gadget.
- Take some of this, Gadget! - Trenton said as he fired the flamethrowers.
- Go go Gadget-Oil-Slick! Go go Gadget-Turbo-Pressure! - Gadget said while two hoses appeared from his wrists.
And once again, fire was being fought back with toothpaste, only this time it was two bursts of flames that collided with two streams of toothpaste. And against what Sato had thought, the Turbo Pressure of Gadget's streams was powerful enough to revert the flames and render the flamethrowers useless.
- Toothpaste?! Who puts toothpaste in a combat cyborg?! - Trenton complained while he tried to reactivate his flamethrowers.
- The best scientist I know personally! - Gadget said while his Gadget-Oil-Slick put away itself. - Go go Gadget-Extendo-Punch!
However, even if things had started to look up for our dear Inspector, fate seemed to have quite an ironic sense of humor, because when Gadget tried to activate his Extendo-Arm, the Gadget-Laser was activated.
Gadget watched in despair and with gritted teeth as the Gadget-Laser was not only activated but also easily evaded by Trenton.
- Oh, come on! Not now! - Gadget pleaded while he tapped his chest. - Please, not now!
- Gadget! - Trenton said while he fired five missiles at Gadget.
The cyborg tried to use his Gadget-Shield again, however, he didn't have enough time.
The missiles hit him right in the chest, damaging his already burnt chip even more and creating a big hole in his coat, shirt and the skin panels of his abdomen.
Gadget fell to the ground after being shot several feet backwards. When he stopped hitting and rolling against the ground, Gadget was severely damaged. However, he was far away from being defeated, so he grunted and stood up, showing that he had a big hole in his chest that showed the internal machinery that made him the ultimate cybernetic crime-fighter.
Nathan noticed it, and as such he had seen enough, not only Gadget was in bad shape, but it looked like Brenda wasn't holding up so well either.
- Stop the fight! - Nathan claimed.
- Are you ready to...? - Sato tried to say with a smirk.
- Don't come up with that shit now, Sato! This is far more important to me than that stupid bet! And if keeping my sister and her husband away from danger means that I lose, I just have to say that my labs are a small price to pay! I don't care if I lose everything I have as long as I don't lose any of the people I care about! - Nathan yelled at Sato, making her back away. - Unlike you, I care about them! I bet if Trenton and Ryan were in Brenda and Gadget's places, you wouldn't even try to stop the fight!
- Don't you dare to stop the fight yet, Nathan! - Gadget and G2 yelled from their respective places. - I can still fight!
- But guys... - Nathan said in despair.
- No, you've never let us down, and neither we will. - The two cyborgs said.
Nathan was now on the verge of tears. He had literally thrown the two people he cared about the most into the lion's cave, and he could do nothing but watch them risk their lives just to keep the stupidest bet he had ever done.
If there was anything that Nathan would want to do now would be clone himself, just so he could hit, kick, spit and curse himself, to acknowledge the kind of monster he had become. He couldn't believe that he had done something so selfish and idiotic as making Gadget and Brenda fight against two super suits. What the hell was wrong with him? Was he really sick enough to risk his own sister and brother in law just to prove a point? Gadget was right, he really was some kind of insane, modern-fashioned Doctor Frankenstein.
Back with Gadget, he was glaring at Trenton while the latter chuckled at the heavily injured cyborg.
True, his system efficiency was again on the verge of total crash, his body structure had been severely compromised and his energy was leaking again, but his spirit and his bravery didn't let him give up. He was focused on finish the fight one way or the other. And he thought that he could use the glitches to his advantage.
- Face it, Gadget, you lost. - Trenton chuckled.
- Not yet. - Gadget said.
- Then let's end this, say good night, Gadget. - The normal human said while he pointed his arm at Gadget.
Trenton prepared to shoot a taser device at Gadget, when the latter just narrowed his eyes and waited for the perfect moment to strike back.
- I win, Gadget. - Trenton said confidently.
And with that said, Trenton fired the taser device.
While the taser device flew towards him, time seemed to slow down for Gadget. He watched the device as it kept its course towards him, and when the taser was about to hit him, Gadget made a fake gun with his hand, pointed it at Trenton and said:
- Go go Gadget-Cannon!
An electrified tip which was attached to a cable was shot from Gadget's index, and it hit Trenton at the same time that the taser device him. However, Gadget didn't get too damaged by the device as his Gadget-Taser managed to redirect the energy back to Trenton.
But Gadget seemed to have forgotten about one thing, the suit had an energy absorbing system. As such, Trenton smirked and prepared to shot his repulsor rays at Gadget.
However, before the rays could hit Gadget, the latter evaded them rather easily and rushed against Trenton.
- Go go Gadget-Extendo-Legs! - Gadget said.
And just like Gadget expected, the Extendo-Legs remained inactive, but the Gadget-Coils popped out from the sole of his shoes and propelled him towards the man in the battle suit. The cyborg rammed his shoulder against Trenton, only this time the Gadget-Coils gave him enough impulse to make Trenton fall.
The common officer felt how Gadget not only dented his suit severely, but also drove the air out of his lungs, and then he felt how Gadget slammed him hard on the ground while the fell. Both Gadget and Trenton recovered rather quickly after the impact, both rolled away from each other and stood up, then they contemplated the damage they had dealt to each other.
Gadget had a hole in his clothes and his chest that showed his internal machinery, not to mention that his forehead was bleeding, his right shoulder and his systems were heavily damaged and he had lost the skin of his knuckles again.
On the other hand, Trenton's suit was severely dented and scrapped, the helmet had been broken, the flamethrowers had been disabled, the power core was damaged and as such it was leaking energy, besides, he had been injured quite badly because of the fight.
Both knew that they had to finish the fight, and soon, otherwise they would run out of energy.
Both cyborg and man rushed at each other, decided to finish the fight at all costs.
Trenton met Gadget with a hard punch to the cheek, which was responded with a powerful punch to Trenton's chest. Then the cyborg kneed Trenton in the stomach and hit him with both hands on the back, sending him to the ground. Then, Trenton spun on the ground and sweep-kicked Gadget's legs. The cyborg fell to the ground and Trenton stood up.
The human tried to punch Gadget while he was on the ground, but Gadget rolled out of his attack's way and kicked him in the chest, making him stagger backwards. Then the cyborg stood up and tried to punch Trenton, but the officer caught his fist and elbowed him hard in the face, then he kneed him and threw the cyborg several feet away.
Gadget spat some blood and what seemed to be oil, then he wiped the residues off of his mouth and stood up slowly. He was tired, injured, his glitches had returned, and worse of all, the burning feeling in his throat also came back, but worse than last night.
Gadget started coughing violently, each cough felt like his throat and his entire breathing system had caught on fire, and if that wasn't bad enough, he bleed with every cough.
He tried to fight off his coughing, but he just couldn't, it was useless.
On the other hand, Trenton seized Gadget's coughing fit to rush at the cyborg and finally end that conflict once and for all.
Gadget fell to his knees and kept coughing as Trenton ran at him.
Everything slowed down for both combatants.
Inspector Gadget merely raised his head a bit, with trickles of blood coming out from the corners of his mouth. His sight was blurry but he still saw a dark figure running towards him. His ears had been damaged but he still heard someone yelling.
And then, he felt nothing, everything went dark.
The crowd fell completely silent in the moment in which Trenton's leg impacted Gadget's head, making him fall to the ground completely unconscious.
For several seconds, the only movement that was seen was the wind blowing in, Trenton standing up victoriously and Sato's growing smirk.
The unthinkable had occurred.
Inspector Gadget had just lost the fight.
