The Death Angel?
"Oh my god," Conner breather in horror. "Dante!"
And then they knew he was there, in the room.
The didn't so much as hear him appear, or see him at all.
They felt him.
A presence, one that struck a chord in each and every person in that security room with such mind-numbing fear that they could do nothing but turn around to face the horror that they felt materialize behind them.
Chris Topher too was stuck in fear but as he started to turn around his years of military training rushed back into his mind and he raised his rifle, ready to fire at -
Nothing. There was nothing there at all. The room was empty, save for the squad and newsteam.
"What the fuck is going on?" he whispered harshly.
A shot rang out, the pulse of an ion bolt shooting from his left. Chris turned in surprise, it was Jackson who had fired, probably out of nerves.
Before he could reprimand his soldier, Chris saw the bolt impact into something that was not a wall. The blue bolt of energy splashed into an invisible object, fizzling quietly before dispersing into air. Every soldier in the room raised their weapons. In that split second of impact, they recognized the shimmer of Second Skin chameleon cloaking.
The chameleon cloaking abilities of the Second Skin allowed a soldier to mold in with his surroundings, the micro-organic epidermus on the Skin changing colors to resemble whatever they made contact with. It provided the soldiers with an unprecedented amount of camoflauge, and could only be deactivated with either a push of a button, or by taking damage.
Chris had never seen anything like what he had just witnessed, since their Second Skins didn't allow them to refract light itself, but he knew a Skin suit when he saw one. He tightened the grip on his rifle. If this thing really was the "Death Angel", then he knew his rifle wouldn't be able to penetrate its armor. The XM-30 pulse ion rifles only had a ionic magnitude of 6 degrees, hardly enough to damage the shield, let alone the armor this thing had.
"Show yourself!" he barked to the seemingly empty room. "Or we will open fire!"
They waited for a tense several minutes, the room deadly silent, the tension thick, and rising.
Private Conner held her weapon shakily, and stammered, "Dante?"
In the blink of an eye, there stood a magnificant figure in front of them, not 10 feet away.
The late doctor's verbal description of the suit did nothing to describe it like what the soldiers saw before them. A deep shade of blacked gray was its tone and every part of the suit screamed out "Lethal!" They saw the figure (this "Dante" that Conner seemed so adamant on calling it) standing loosely in front of them, in one strong arm holding a massive weapon of some sort.
The armored titan in front of them stood at least 6 feet tall, though if you included the wing-like strakes poking out from on its back, it was probably 6.5 or 7 feet. Its completed enclosed helmet was tilted towards them, sharp points and angles accentuating the deadly beauty it possessed. The visor of red LEDs glowed faintly as it stared at them, and they stared at it.
Chris was beginning to get very nervous. He didn't know what type of weapon the thing held in its hand, but it was huge, and it looked like it could hurt, a lot. The weapon was a sort of rifle, or canon, and shaped like a skewed 'A'. Both sides came up to a point where a rail protruded about a foot outwards, and the figure's hand clutched the middle piece as it looked like a handrip of some sort. The weapon was the same black-grey as the thing's armor, and it had glowing blue lines that looked like power conduits running along its sides.
Looks like an ion canon, Chris thought. Impossible! Those things are too powerful for humans to use with their own hands!
He stepped forward carefully and pointed hs XM-30 at the figure. "Drop your weap -"
In the blink of an eye, the figure raised his massive weapon and fired. Chris and the others threw themselves to the sides as a foot-wide blue beam sailed past them, impacting into the blast windows, melting a hole into them.
"AHH!" Allison screamed as the intense heat singed her jacket. Even though it was several feet away, the beam put out such intense heat that warmed up the room considerably.
"Holy shit!" Fischer yelled, scrambling to his feet. He raised his rifle at the suit of armor, but dropped it immediately when it aimed at him. He waited for his death to come...
It didn't.
Fischer cracked an eye open. The figure had lowered its weapon and continued to stare at them. "Uh, sir?" he squeaked, very unmanly for a strapping African-American.
"What is it Fischer?!" Chris grumbled, getting back to his feet. He had unwittingly thrown himself into a nearby locker, mangling the damn thing and getting stuck.
"If - if we don't raise our weapons at it, it won't attack us," Fischer gulped, keeping his hands up to placate the titan.
"You sure about that?" Chris growled.
"Yes sir! I raised my rifle at it, and then it prepared to shoot me but stopped when I dropped my gun, sir!"
"Alright then lady and gentlemen, I want you to keep your weapons down!" Chris ordered, pushing his squad away from the figure in armor, who was conveniently blocking their only exit. "We'll figure out how to get past it!"
Conner timidly stepped towards the figure, ignoring her captain's order to get back. "D-Dante?" she asked again.
The head swivelled to level its eyes on her. The red LEDs grew brighter slightly, and a small wave on each side focused on her, almost as if the LEDs acted like eyes. Two lit up circles of LEDs were trained on her face now. The figure slowly dropped its canon to its side.
Conner took another slow step towards the giant. "Dante? Do you remember me?" she asked nervously, her heart hammering within her chest.
The figure didn't move.
"We -we took forensics together, remember?" she continued, beginning to babble. "I always sat in the front of class and you were always in the back, snoring away..."
She continued moving slowly, getting closer and closer to the figure in grey while her squad, the newsteam and the world watched with fear.
She was only about 5 feet away now.
"Do you remember anyone? Like Phil or -"
Apparently, she struck a nerve with the titan known as Dante. Some mechanical whirs and clicks were heard, as the canon's handrip slid backwards from the main section of the canon, forming a long round handle. The two halves of the 'A' began to close up together, like a clamshell and formed a curved arrow of sorts. With a sudden flash of blue light, the closed 'A' emitted a bright blue beam of ionic energy that formed a massive bastard sword!
Sara Conner stopped very suddenly, with the tip of the 6 foot sword mere inches away from her neck. She could feel the heat radiate off of it, tickling her throat."D-Dante?" she stammered, holding her hands up. "It's me, Sara, remember? It's Sara!"
The sword wavered. Finally, it dropped. Sara (and about 5 billion people around the world) let out a huge sigh.
A quiet whir caught her attention and she looked just in time to see the red LEDs fade out, the light leaving them. The titan stood still, its beamsword shutting off as well. Everyone waited, holding their breath.
Nothing happened.
"Is it... dead?" Jack asked stupidly. Sara walked up to the titan, looking at it curiously.
"Dante?" she whispered breathily, reaching up to touch the helmet. As soon as he fingers grazed the cold metal, a hum and a whir sounded, and the LED band pushed outwards from its place on the helmet. Sara jerked back in surprise. The LED band then split down the middle and each half slid around the sides of the helmet, dissapearing into what looked like sheaths for them at the sides, near the back of the head. The LEDs seperated to reveal the four white lenses they had heard about.
They glowed white softly as the titan Dante moved again, looking at Sara's face yet again.
"Sara," he rasped, his voice highly robotic and scratchy. It sounded as if the helmet made his voice echo within itself.
Sara gave a small, happy smile. "Yes, it's Sara!" she said excitedly. She touched the metal-clad head again. "You remember!"
Dante paid her touches no mid and looked around. "Leave!" he ordered harshly, using his free left hand to make Sara raise her XM-22. "Reavers loose."
Sara frowned. "Dante?" she asked. "What are Reavers?"
Dante's LED band slid out and pressed back into their recession. "Go now!" he hissed. "Go!"
He pushed Sara towards the exit, and pulled on the arms of the soldiers and newsteam. He bodily shoved them through the blast doors and made them start to run.
"What's going on?!" Allison cried as they flew down the corridors, running from yet another unseen enemy. "What the hell are Reavers?!"
"Ultimate bio-weapons," Dante rasped ominously. "They killed everything here."
"RUN!" Chris bellowed, picking up his pace. The made it out of the complex and into the very long corridor that was their exit out of the place.
"SKREEEEEEEEE!"
Everyone held their ears in pain as they stopped running, and in Allison's case, fell to the ground. The noise coming from behind them was literally splitting their eardrums and they turned to see what could make such a noise.
Even the men screamed in terror.
They looked like demons, demons from the deepest and darkest pits of Hell. They once looked human, but their flesh was pale and drawn tightly on their bones, making them look emanciated. Their fingers were elongated, ending in wickedly thin and curved spear-like claws, at least a foot in length. Their legs had been changed, the knees reversed and adopting a sort of dinosaur like posture. They had claws on their toes, and a large sickle shaped claw on their reversed kneecaps.
However, their faces were much more horrific. They say that fantasy monsters are scary, but nothing paralyzes the human mind more than a horrific rendition of their own faces. It was true. These creatures had strikingly human faces, but their eyes were sunken, with no iris or pupils at all, and were just a milky white. Their noses were all but torn off, showing two slits. Their skin was so tight, their cheekbones could be seen and their jaws had been hideously warped, resulting in a sick permanent smile which revealed very long, needle sharp teeth. They gave another deafening screech and the group of at least 10 demons crawled on the ground, walls and ceiling towards their new prey.
TEEEOOW!
Dante had turned his sword back into a canon and fired a deadly blast into the wall in front of two Reavers. The explosion vaporized their bodies instantly, not even giving them a chance to scream. He stood there calmly as the power conduits faded black, then slowly started to recharge their blue lines.
Chris, seeing this, ordered his squad to open fire on the beasts, who were no more than 30 feet away.
"Open fire!" he screamed, pouring ion bolts into the monsters. More bolts followed his and another one dropped dead. It seemed as if they were slightly resistant to the weaker rifle fire, and some shots actually just singed their flesh. Sara's XM-22 did no damage whatsoever.
TEEEOOW!
Another blast from Dante's canon decimated more of the Reavers, leaving about 5 more. He turned to the Special Forces soldiers.
"Too many," he said. "You should run, I will cover you."
Chris, not wanting to risk his squad's death, nodded. "Move out people!" he yelled, turning around as Dante faced the Reavers. "Time to haul ass!" He grabbed Allison's hand and jerked her forwards, heading towards the exit. His squad hurried behind him, with Sara looking back.
"Dante!" she cried, watching the lone figure stand before the pack of demons.
"Go," he said calmly. "I will follow."
She frowned, but turned around nevertheless and started running full tilt towards the exit doors, which were about a hundred feet away. Dante stood there silently as the Reavers surrounded him, each of them screeching eagerly. His helmet's microphone sensors dulled the high pitched screeches so that he could hear them normally.
"Time to die, my bretheren."
-----
Sara was the last one out as she burst into light, the entire area filled with soldiers, tanks, hovercopters and heavy ion canon emplacements. Her squad quickly spirited her away from the exit as a technician pressed the button to seal the blast gates.
"You can't bury him in there!" Sara gasped, trying to break free from her captain's grip. "What are you doing?!"
"We can't have such a powerful weapon get loose," a voice behind her boomed. She turned around to face General Rowland Dekler, Five Star General of the US Army. "Who knows what Gaia M. brainwashed that thing with?"
"But sir, he helped us escape!" Sara protested.
"Probably so it could earn your trust and escape itself," he rebuked. "Now are you going to comply or do we have to face a demotion?"
Sara looked at her combat boots dejectedly. "No sir, I understand sir," she muttered.
"Good, no we should all get back since -"
The general was interrupted by what sounded like a sonic boom from withen the sealed corridor.
"What in God's name was that?" General Dekler asked.
Suddenly, the blast doors literally shattered, and everyone ducked as flying titanium flew everywhere. Sara looked up to see Dante in his suit, flying high into the sky as he was covered by Reavers. He used brute force to rip them from his suit, sustaining no damage at all and hurled each one back into the hole in the ground. Still floating in the air, no doubt due to the searingly bright blue jets of light at his back and legs, the wing-like strakes on his back tilted up and over his shoulders, facing forward like a row of six spears.
Dante tilted himself forwards so that the strakes faced the hole in the ground, and their tips began to glow. Sara and hundreds of others watched as the tips seemingly sucked in ambient energy as orange swirls of ionic particles were sucked into the tips like a whirlpool. The barrels hidden in the pointy tips of the strakes began to glow blue, getting brighter with each second.
"GET BACK AND HIT THE DIRT!" Chris screamed, running away from the hole and throwing himself behind a wall of sandbags. Everyone flew to join him.
Sara looked up just in time to see six continuious beams of ion explode out of Dante's strakes, in a straight laser-line of energy. The lines shot down into the hole that led to the secret complex and within seconds, a huge earthquake toppled everyone to their asses and caused nearby structures to wobble.
Finally, a huge eruption not unlike a volcano came from the whole, in bright blue and white lightwork as the explosion reached the outer sky. Dirt, cement, metal and shrapnel flew out of the hole, raining down everywhere. A shockwave pulsed outwards from the blast around, knocking anyone who had gotten back on their feet down again, and even forcing some tanks back and some hovercopters to spin in the air wildly.
Finally, the chaos ended.
Sara Conner looked skywards again. Dante was still up there, floating with the help of his ion thrusters. The strakes pivoted back, facing upwards before moving to lie flush against his back, like angel's wings. They flared outwards to the sides a bit, providing him stability in the air. She saw him look down at all the people on the ground, and somehow she knew he was looking at her.
"OPEN FIRE!"
Sara spun around to see a livid General Dekler pointing his finger furiously at Dante. Her cries of "NO!" were drowned out by canon and artillery fire.
A volly of ion beams, rockets, missiles and sabot shells streaked towards the figure in the sky, yet he hovered there, watching them apathetically.
Just as they were about to collide with him, a bright blue light shot out from his left shoulder, and he shot to the right about 20 feet in an instant, dodging the fire with what looked to be his shoulder boosters.
Sara sighed but then wobbled on her shaky legs as giant footsteps thundered around her. She saw long robotic legs walking around her as the AM-2 tank walkers moved forwards. These recent inventions were basically walking tanks, which had long 12 foot legs that were quite flexible. The mech's hip was an advanced gyro-stabilizer, which prevented it from falling over or tripping. From the hip was a thick armored spine, which rose up 3 feet to the attach to the head. The head was a modified M1A4 Abrams tank turret, which housed weapons on each side of the head and on top. The center was a brain fuselage, which housed the droid computer systems. It had two cameras, one on top and one on its hips so that it could see everywhere. It was armed with a Hailstorm ion repeater on its left side, which was basically the ion version of a minigun. On its right was a dual Hellfire 3 missle launcher. On top of its head were two standard medium ion canons.
The six AM-2s began to open fire at Dante, who had decided to land on the ground. They ran up to him at their top speed, which was just about 65mph. He raised his canon in his arm and fired with pinpoint accuracy, severing one mech's head from its spine, causing both pieces to crash to the ground. Without even pausing, Dante used his jets to fire himself towards the mechs, crossing a 30 foot distance in the blink of an eye. The mechs halted in mid-run, caught off guard and that gave Dante enough time to change his canon into a sword. Moving quickly, he cut the legs from underneath one mech and it toppled to the ground, where Dante impaled its forehead with his blue blade.
He leapt into the air and corkscrewed sideways, narrowly dodging a kick from another AM-2 that would have sent him flying. In mid spin, he slashed at the extended leg, cutting it clean off at the knee and landed behind the mech. It hopped on one leg, trying to stay steady as it turned its head around to try and see its target. Dante leapt straight up, with the aid of his jets and sliced the mech up the middle, causing both halves to fall to each side.
The remaining three ran up behind Dante, firing at him with their Hailstorm repeaters. The ion bolts splashed onto a transparent yellow dome that surrounded the man, and he jumped backwards, backflipping onto the head of the nearest mech. It shook its head wildly, trying to dislodge its unwanted passenger, but one stab to the droid brain ended its movements with twitches as it collapsed.
Leaping off, Dante landed on the next mech and slashed its brain, killing it before jumping again as it sank to its knees. Spinning sideways once, He cut the spine of the last AM-2 and its head slammed into the ground in front of its legs, which tripped over it.
Landing on the ground, Dante stood up straight and looked over to the US Army that was watching him in shock. On his chest, two small plates on each side closed, covering the shield projectors that had guarded him during his battle. He took one last look at Sara Conner before leaping 50 feet into the air, a loud sonic boom erupting from his thrusters as he dissapeared into the city skies...