Hunting Season
A/N: In case you were wondering, yes, what happens in this chapter is mostly inspired by John Wick Chapter 2, the Kingsman movies, along with quite a few other movies involving lots of shooting.
Also, this chapter took a little (a lot, actually) longer than I initially planned for it to be, and as such the conclusion will only follow in the next chapter.
Ten Seconds Later…
Somewhere in the midst of the chaos, Mason got separated from the others when he was pulled into a room by three armed mercenaries that had been waiting to get the jump on him. Unfortunately for them, the redhead was more than ready to deal with them than they expected as they threw him against the wall of the hotel suite.
Instead of immediately fighting back, Mason rolled out of the way as one of them tried to stab him in the shoulder with a knife. Pushing off the wall, Mason then twirled around the third man before pulling out Fuil, folded up into its gun form, and taking shots at the other two men while using the one in his grasp as a shield, his arm firmly coiled around the man's neck.
Though the shots were not powerful enough to break through their Aura, the force the rounds carried with them was enough to knock the two men to the ground while Mason hooked his right leg around the mercenary's left leg before throwing him onto the bed next to them. Then, in one fluid motion, Mason had Bas out and drove it into the man's chest after two swings to break through his Aura.
While the strike didn't kill him, it was enough to leave him reeling from the pain as Mason unfolded his sword-gun to block a strike from the mercenary with the knife, now wielding a second knife in his other hand. All the while, the remaining mercenary brought out his bayonet-mounted grenade launcher and waited a few seconds before striking out at the redhead.
With his longsword over his shoulder to block another slash from the knife-wielding mercenary, Mason was able to twist out of the way of the strike and grab the grenade launcher by the barrel, pulling it out of the mercenary's hands before he could do anything. Twisting on the spot, Mason then bashed the grenade launcher over the head of the mercenary that had tried to slash him before dealing a slash of his own on the disarmed mercenary.
One man was thrown back by the force of the blow while the other stumbled from the pain of being smacked by a fully loaded grenade launcher. Stepping up to the knife-wielding mercenary, Mason grabbed one of his wrists while he wasn't paying attention and drove the man's own knife through his chest while pushing him to the ground before making a move to retrieve his axe and dig it deeper into the same man.
When all was quiet for a few seconds, Mason let out a victorious cheer. "Oh, did you see that? Pro skills, bitches!" his celebrating was interrupted by the sound of a gun cocking, however, as the last man stood back up with a pistol in his hands.
Instead of immediately attacking, however, Mason quirked an eyebrow before scoffing. "Really? What're you gonna do with that?"
"Uhh," the man droned as he first looked down at his own weapon before glancing at Mason's. For a few seconds, the mercenary seemed at an impasse for what to do before suddenly changing his aim and firing once.
Mason was able to swivel his eyes fast enough to look in the direction the man had fired, but he wasn't able to do anything else as the bullet made impact with the discarded grenade launcher, causing its ammunition to ignite and throw him through the wall of the suite and out of the hotel.
"Aw, crap!" Mason cursed as he twisted in mid-air while fumbling with his weapons to strap Fuil to his body while transforming Bas back into its sawed-off shotgun mode and firing both rounds in the chamber out at the air, aiming away from the hotel. The backwards force worked to push the redhead back towards the hotel – as planned – and partway through one of the windows halfway down the building.
He heard a woman scream as he tried to get his other foot through the now-broken window as he rolled into the room he had crashed through, laying on the ground for a second as he let out a sound halfway between a laugh and a groan of pain.
A blonde-haired woman came over to him a second later with a morning-star in her hands, ready to bring it down on him. In response, Mason hopped to his feet while aiming his shotgun at her, even though it didn't have any bullets in it. "Oof, sorry to intrude, m'lady." He said with a polite dip of his head. "Now if you don't mind, I'll be taking my leave n-" he didn't get to finish as a pair of high-caliber sniper rounds pierced the wall next to him, and he made a mad dash for the door to the hotel room, charging into it with reckless abandon and breaking it off its hinges.
Between the sound of more gunshots and his feet pounding against the hallway as he made his way towards the elevator, Mason also heard the distinct sound of his Scroll ringing along the way. Pulling it out, he answered the call without checking who it was. "Y'ello?"
"Mason, where are you?" Tanner yelled back from the other side of the line, the background filled with the sounds of gunfire and fighting.
"Oh, hey Tanner. I'm just makin' my way down now." He stated casually as he reached the elevator and pressed the button to summon it. "I'll regroup with you guys like we planned, so hold your horses."
"Hold my-" the brunette on the other end was interrupted by the sound of swords clashing before a choking sound came over as if a man could not breathe. "Oh, forget it, just get down here before we leave – SK's already run off on his own, again."
"Oh, how typically emo of him." Mason commented just as the elevator reached the floor he was on. Right before he could enter it, however, a sword was thrust between the doors as they open, and Mason narrowly caught the blade between his palms.
Looking down the length of the katana, he realised his attacker was the same hooded girl from before, and offered her a smile as he pushed the blade up and delivered a solid kick to her chest, knocking her to the back of the elevator.
"Ok, good-talking-to-you-gotta-go-bye!" Mason rambled into his Scroll, which now had a slight scratch in it after having used it to catch a sword, before putting it away and drawing Fuil once more.
The redhead quickly transformed the weapon into its heavy-pistol mode and fired several rounds at the girl in the elevator. To his disappointment, the girl had better reflexes than Mason anticipated and was able to deflect or dodge each shot he fired.
After the fifth shot, the berserker paused for a second when he noticed how a couple of the deflected bullets had punched holes in the roof of the elevator. Quickly weighing up his options, an idea came to mind as he aimed at the centre of the elevator's roof and fired two shots.
When the second round pierced the roof, a loud, heavy snapping sound followed as the elevator suddenly sank with a groan. The hooded girl's eyes widened in realisation and shock as Mason gave her a parting smirk. "It's probably better if I take the stairs."
At the last second, the girl tried to reach out and grab the redhead with her free hand, but fell away when the elevator gave a sharp snapping sound and plummeted down the shaft. As he leaned over the doorway to get a look down the elevator shaft, Mason let out a low-pitch whistle as he watched the elevator's brakes kick in right before it hit the bottom floor. "Shame – she didn't go splat." He stood where he was a second longer before the sound of a door suddenly being kicked out drew his attention to a man carrying a greatsword who had entered the corridor, and was now dropping into a battle stance in front of the berserker.
Seeing the obvious challenge, Mason gave the swordsman a cocky grin while drawing both his weapons. "Really?" In response to the challenge, the man hefted his sword back and held it in a ready position to strike. With a sigh of frustration Mason began approaching the man. "This will be quick."
A mere nine seconds later and the redhead was making his way down the emergency staircase exit of the hotel, his attire now splotched with someone else's blood.
The descent to the ground floor of the hotel was no less eventful for the redhead. Halfway between the first and second floor, a pair of shotgun-armed mercenaries burst through the door to the emergency staircase, cutting Mason off from going down further. They spotted the berserker immediately and fired at him even though they were out of effective range.
As he improvised on the spot, Mason charged down the stairs towards them while pulling out a small vial of Lightning Dust from his belt, which he cracked in a clenched fist and allowed the Dust to spill into his bloodied hand. Just as he was about to reach the landing the two mercenaries were on, he jumped and kicked off the wall to dive towards the two, extending his hand towards them just as a crackle of electricity shot out.
The lightning chained between the two mercs – not nearly enough to kill them, but enough to stun them long enough for Mason to push them over the railings and take the express travel method to the ground floor.
"Double kill." He managed to breathe out between exhausted breaths as he stumbled down the rest of the stairs to the lobby.
Pushing open the door to the lobby, Mason was immediately greeted by a cluster of shrapnel from a shotgun buck-shot which smacked into the wall next to him, cracking the wooden boards that made up the walls of the hotel.
When the redhead looked in the direction the shotgun blast came from, he spotted a pump-action shotgun sticking out from behind the reception desk. "Get out of my hotel!" the voice of an old man called out from behind the desk.
Before Mason was able to manage a response, a screaming body flew in front of him before hitting the wall hard, knocking the man out. As he turned to look in the direction the body came from, he spotted Tanner, who was taking cover behind an overturned table as rounds of ammunition flew through the open windows and the far wall. "Mars, get over here!" he shouted as a round of bullets punched holes in the brittle wood.
Quickly stowing his weapons, Mason made his way over to the table in a low crouch as bullets flew over his head before sliding up next to the swordsman. "Yo, what's up, brudda?"
"Not the time," Tanner snapped back at him while peeking over the edge of the table. "T got separated from us when the guys outside pulled out a grenade launcher. He should be-" the brunette stopped mid-sentence when his eyes landed on something across the street. "Oh shit."
"What?" Mason asked while standing up next to Tanner. The berserker immediately saw what had caused Tanner to lock up: a pair of turret-mounted heavy-calibre machine guns which had been set up while several other gunmen sprayed their position with gunfire to keep them distracted.
"Run!" Tanner screamed just as the gunners manning the turrets began to open fire and tear apart their fragile cover. With a quick sweep of everything in his line of sight, Mason scrambled to his feet as he noticed one of the wooden pillars was near enough to him to take cover behind. A keen observation revealed to the redhead that, despite being covered in impact holes and chips, the wood remained as one solid length without any major damage. The conclusion Mason drew from this was that it was some kind of petrified wood – hard enough to block bullets.
Tanner, on the other hand, scrambled across the floor at an astounding speed as a trail of bullets followed him. He eventually stopped in a low crouch as he pulled the tower shield off a wounded – and unconscious – mercenary and held it in front of him to block the shots.
Fuckity, fuck. We're not going anywhere with those turrets up. Mason thought with a grimace. In hopes that his luck would hold out for him, the redhead stuck his heavy-pistol around the edge of his cover and fired a few shots blindly. The weapon clicked dry only after a few shots, doing nothing to impede the shower of bullets that came his way.
In fact, firing back at the gunmen proved to be counter-productive as a concentrated stream of bullets ate through his wooden beam faster than he would have liked. Dropping down lower to reduce his exposure, he pulled out his Scroll before hitting the first hotline he could find. "Me need help – useless teammates!" he shouted to be heard over the sound of the guns.
"Not much I can do unless I find an explosive on one of these bodies." Tanner replied, shouting almost loud enough to be heard by Mason from where he was.
Mason was about to throw out a witty comeback when a screech of static over the line caused his features to crinkle as he held the device away from his ear until it stopped. When he put it back to his ear, the calm, monotonous voice of T was there instead of Tanner. "Standby for immediate mortar strike."
Before Mason could fully process what T had just said, his sharp ears picked up a high-pitched wailing sound that was progressively getting louder and lower in pitch. Just as the pieces clicked together in his head, Mason barely had enough time to brace himself against the ground as an explosive shell landed right on the mounted turrets on the opposite side of the street. A cloud of dust erupted from the point of impact and covered the whole street for about nine seconds before it cleared enough for Mason to see how much damage it had done.
As he suspected, both machine guns had been blasted off their twisted, bent turret mount, with either machine gun being in a different state of damage. The gunmen were knocked down by the blast, but it looked like their Aura absorbed nearly all the damage, if their squirming was any indication.
Gotta give those guys some credit, Mason thought to himself while coming out of cover. They had to be right next to the centre of that blast.
"T, you're a life-saver!" Tanner exclaimed as he bounded out of cover and onto the street. Mason followed at a leisurely pace, walking towards the concussed gunners on the ground.
As he neared one, his foot caught on one of the machine guns they had been using to spray the hotel with. Bending over, he picked up the damaged weapon and looked it over to assess whether it might still be usable. With a hard slap to its side, Mason found that sharp impacts to the weapon's frame still caused it to fire a burst of rounds.
"Shame, really." He said to the gunner at his feet, who was still crawling towards a pistol just out of his reach. "I kinda liked that hotel." Aiming the end of the gun at the mercenary, Mason gave it a firm slap – the rounds penetrating his Aura with ease – before repeating the process with the other downed gunmen.
"What do we do now? Is the rendezvous point still clear or…oh, ok." covering the mouth-piece of the Scroll, the brunette turned to look at the redhead. "T wants you on the phone as well." He told him before putting the Scroll back to his ear. "Yeah – I told him already!"
Tossing the broken machine gun back on the ground, Mason pulled his Scroll out of his pocket and put it to his ear. "Y'ello, Mason here."
When T spoke over the Scroll on the joint-frequency, his voice clearly conveyed his only-business tone. "The rendezvous point has remained unchanged, but some of the roads there have been blocked off. Apparently someone tipped the Mistral police off, and there are more bounty hunters after us than I thought." A few gunshots could be heard from the other end of the line.
"T, where the hell are you?" Tanner asked, quickly searching some of the bodies for spare ammunition. "We'll come to you – just give us your position."
"No time for that - head to the rendezvous point now! Overwatch will be standing by and I've marked out the clearest route for you to take on your Scrolls."
As Tanner brought the Scroll away from his ear, a small holographic outline of the sector of the city they were in appeared, along with a red line that ran along the different streets. The swordsman was about to reply when a burst of gunfire suddenly came from their right. Turning in the direction of its source, Mason saw a new squad of armed mercenaries coming down the street – some of them on motorbikes.
"Ah, roger boss, though we might be a little delayed." Mason said as Tanner quickly closed his Scroll and started running down the street, with the redhead in tow as the sound of engines could be heard.
Same Time…
"What do you mean 'delayed'?" T asked, his annoyance seeping into his tone as he took cover behind a food stall on the side of the road as another burst of crossbow bolts struck the area around him.
Not bothering to wait for a reply, the hacker cut off the call before switching his Scroll to Overwatch's interface and speaking into his earpiece. "Overwatch, I need you to locate the archer and give me a firing solution." He commanded.
"Certainly, Captain, but you'll need to give me a view of the area first." Overwatch's calm voice replied. T's fingers ghosted over the icons on his Scroll, moving fast with familiarity as he activated its camera function. With his back to the stall, he poked the device over the top of the cart for a few seconds, which was met by several poorly placed shots that landed nowhere near his hand or Scroll.
"Got it!" Overwatch exclaimed excitably as the display in his vision changed to show several lines streaking off into the distance. "I was also able to mark out three other gunmen taking cover in the buildings around you – shouldn't be too much trouble for you to dispatch."
"Let's focus on the archer first." T stated while swapping out the nearly-empty clip in his pistol for a fresh one.
"Right, she's on the roof of the pharmacy at your…five o'clock." Overwatch replied after a second of thinking.
"Firing solution ready?"
"Sync."
"Mark." Like a coiled spring, T sprung to his feet and fired three shots at the roof, doing his best to aim where the line led him. After the third shot, the cyborg quickly ducked back down behind cover as another barrage of firepower struck his position. "Did it work?"
"None of the shots connected." The tone in Overwatch's voice was a little too optimistic for T.
"None? I thought you said you had a firing solution?" T asked in an annoyed, sharp tone just as a couple lucky shots broke through the supports on the stall holding up its roof. His stress continued to mount as he watched the roof of the stall fall to the floor.
The lines in his field of vision began to disappear until there was only one left, which was now accompanied by several scales that showed him the angle of his sight. "I needed you to take a few shots to run some final calculations." Overwatch argued in a tone that made T imagine she was pouting.
"Have you finished calculating?" T asked while holstering his pistol and expanding his arm into its crossbow-form.
"Aim an inch further to the right and one and a half inches up." Keeping her instructions in mind, T popped out of cover again and fired a harpoon bolt at the opposing archer, watching as the bolt struck the woman right in the shoulder, right before she fell off the roof of the building she was on from leaning too far forward.
Following through with the momentum of his advantage, T clambered over the stall he was hiding behind and made a sprint to the two remaining gunmen, who were both hiding behind a natural boulder on the side of the road. When the two fired at him, the hacker raised his right arm to block the shots while drawing his pistol with the other – using it to shoot the revolver out of one of the gunmen's hands just as he got close enough to slide over the top of the boulder and deliver a double-kick to the remaining gunman, who was using a submachine gun.
As the man was sent back by the kick, T quickly turned on his spot to throw a punch at the disarmed gunman's face, the blow connected with a solid crack as his fist met the man's jaw. As the gunman, stunned by the sharp blow, staggered from the attack, T grabbed him by the scruff of his overcoat with his prosthetic hand before driving his pistol into the man's chest, firing twice at point-blank range where his heart should be and penetrating the man's Aura on the second shot.
Immediately after, T spun back around to face the remaining gunmen, who had now brought his SMG to bear on the hacker. The man was able to get a burst of four bullets out – which grazed T's brown coat – before T pushed the gun away by grabbing the arm that held the weapon. As the man continued to fire rounds into the air while trying to bring his aim back down, T delivered a solid punch to the man's throat with his metal fist. The force behind the punch crushed the man's windpipe and his grip on the weapon in his hands loosened long enough for T to rip it out and unload the rest of the clip into him.
As the man dropped to the ground, dead before he even hit the ground, T turned to check on the other gunman only to find that he had bled out. After a quick magazine swap, T holstered his pistol while still holding the SMG in one hand as he searched both bodies for their Scrolls. He put each to his prosthetic arm as a data mining software pulled all the files from both Scrolls before he dropped them on the ground and crushed both with his boot.
The hacker perked up a second later when he heard the tell-tale sounds of distant gunfire. "How close are we on plotting the quickest route to the Bullhead?" he asked as he began trekking down the mostly-deserted streets of Mistral.
"It's done, but I think you should know that the fastest way to the air-pad I have the ship stationed on is through a police blockade just a couple streets down – they seem to have secured the closest working elevator to the Mistral upper levels where the air-pads are located."
With a sigh, T brought out his Scroll and opened up a program he designed to keep track of Mistral police movement based on intercepted messages between dispatches and patrols. "Then we'll just have to cut through them. Cycle the bolts for an explosive round and redirect nearby police forces away from the blockade – the less we have to deal with, the better." He told the artificial intelligence, who complied with his orders by first highlighting all the areas of police activity on the map on his Scroll.
"Seems there are quite a few ground forces trying their best to keep the people calm, but there also look to be two airships patrolling the area – must be looking for the others." Overwatch explained.
"Knowing them they've probably split up or lost track of each other." T mused out loud as a mercenary with a rapier dropped down from a nearby tree and tried to take a jab at him. T responded by blocking the attack with his metal arm before throwing his Scroll at the man's face. The device struck him right on the nose and stunned him long enough for T to bat the sword out of the way and grab him by the neck, bringing him around in an overhead slam with his free hand on the man's body armour.
He remained in a daze after hitting the ground again, giving T enough time to leisurely retrieve his Scroll and pull out his pistol before putting two bullets in the man's head.
"Uh, Captain, I don't mean to alarm you, but it seems like we've got another problem ahead of us." Overwatch told him in a nervous voice as he took a quick sweep of the area to make sure there weren't any other mercenaries hiding in wait for the right chance to pounce.
After a few cautious seconds, T lowered his pistol and put his hand to the communicator in his ear. "Just give it to me as it is."
"Well, it seems that our little incident back at the hotel has caused quite a stir, and quite a few people have flocked together along the street further down from where we are right now – y'know, right in the middle of the route to the Bullhead." Overwatch explained. "The Mistral army has been dispatched there to try to quell things as, according to chatter, a few riots have broken out."
Things are deteriorating fast. It's best that we get out now before we cause any more harm. The hacker thought as he continued down the cobblestone and dirt path to his destination. "Is there any alternative? Any buildings we could cut through?"
Overwatch thought for a second before replying. "There seems to be a multi-level market square coming up on your right. If you cut through that, you'll avoid the rioting altogether, though you'll still be heading for the checkpoint in front of the elevator."
"Well, it's better than-" a crack rung out through the air just a split second before a round clipped T in the shoulder, causing him to stagger forward as what few people that were still on the streets took cover. T did the same, quickly scrambling behind a wooden notice board on the side of the road as another two shots impacted the ground where the hacker had stood just a second earlier. "Give me a bearing on the shooter." He ordered the AI.
"Calculating," Overwatch responded as another shot penetrated the thin wood of the board concealing him. "Got it! The rock formation at your seven o'clock! It's a Huntsman, but he's out of effective weapon range."
Taking a chance, T slowly peaked around the edge of the wooden board he was hiding behind and got a look at the rock formation about two hundred metres away; shaped roughly like the tip of a giant sword poking out of the ground, or like the fingers of a giant hand kept close together in an open palm. Sure enough, another gunshot was heard a second later after poking his head out, which tore a chunk out of the edge of the board just as T slid back into cover. "Can we fire a missile at his position? Small explosive payload – just to keep him distracted."
"Possible, but there are civilians right at the foot of that rock formation. Even one of our smallest blasting effect missiles would still cause a rock slide that could kill half a dozen people." Overwatch explained as the hacker turned his head down the street and a line in his vision ran along it.
"How far are we to the market square?" T asked while bringing out his Scroll and opening it to go through his options for a missile strike.
"Another seventeen metres down the road, though given this Huntsman's accuracy, it's likely he'll be able to land a minimum of two shots on you before we can make it back into suitable cover." Overwatch's tone was increasingly distressed as a round punched a hole through the wood just above T's head. "Your Aura can only stand up to another shot, and if he places one on your legs…"
"Any chance you could guide me to deflect the shots?"
"Also possible, but given the speed of the rounds, your chances of successfully intercepting the bullet are less than thirty-nine percent."
T took a moment to weigh up his options, the reasonable part of his thinking constantly going back to the fact that a missile strike would put innocents in harm's way while the logical part asked him why he should care.
Eventually, his mind became clear with resolve as he took the risk. "Then make sure you warn me in time." He told Overwatch before bursting out of cover at a sprint, high-calibre rounds landing exactly where he had put his foot down a split-second before. By the time he had crossed half the distance between his cover and the market square entrance, however, the marksman's aim had adjusted far enough for him to land a shot on T's ankle, causing him to stumble as his Aura took the damage, flickering as it finally gave out.
A second passed as T anticipated the next shot, mentally preparing himself to evade or block the shot. However, as another second passed and no shots were fired, T wondered what had changed when Overwatch – almost as if sensing his concern – spoke up a split-second later. "I counted eight shots. It's likely he's either out of ammunition, or his gun jammed." Before T could voice his opinion on which was more likely, a shot passed right in front of the bridge of his nose. "Nope! Not out of ammo!"
The door to the market was right in front of him, within reach of at least three more strides. T was almost tempted to sprint even faster to cover the distance and just tackle the doors open, but he knew that would just leave him vulnerable to a well-placed shot. Then he would really be in trouble.
Instead, he slowed down his pacing just in time as Overwatch announced, "Swing downwards – right to left, six o'clock!"
Pivoting on one foot, the hacker did exactly as he was told when he heard the thunderous clap of a gunshot, bringing his arm back to follow through with the full motion. Sure enough, a half-second later and his clenched fist came in contact with a bullet aimed straight at his heart, knocking it way off course and causing it to ricochet into the ground at his feet.
T only realised his mistake after he had blocked the bullet. By changing his course, he had lost his running momentum, meaning it would take even longer to get to the door now that he had stopped. If he tried, it was likely he would not make it to the door without getting shot again. His only solution left was to plan his course now while also blocking the next shot that came his way so that he could take off while the Huntsman had to remove his spent sniper shell.
"Overwatch-" the hacker didn't get to finish his request as the next sound of a gunshot could be heard in the air.
"Right between the eyes!" the AI warned, giving T enough time to duck out of the way of the bullet before taking off at a sprint for the doors behind him and tackling into one. The force of him slamming into the door forced it to give way, breaking the lock on it as the hacker tumbled into the dimly lit space of the market square. "Nice work, Captain. You're out of range, he'll have to change his position if he wants another shot at you."
"We'll be long gone by then." T reminded as he dusted off his open trench coat.
"Um, yeah, well, it seems I might have forgotten to add one minor detail about the market square." Overwatch said sheepishly. Before T had a chance to inquire about what she meant, he was met at eye-level by at least eight different guns and blades as he suddenly found himself surrounded by people.
It seemed, at first glance, that he had walked in on a strange assortment of people, with some wearing plate armour, others wearing combat body-armour, while others wore simple travel garb or even expensive-looking suits and dresses. However, after a quick scan over their faces with his cybernetic eye, T made the connections.
Many of them were drug dealers, weapon smugglers, wanted men, bandits, high-ranking members in crime syndicates both in and out of Mistral. Some of them, in fact, with quite the bounties on their heads. Another quick glance at his surroundings, and T suddenly realised why he had the feeling that this was no ordinary market square.
Black market traders. T thought to himself as his eye picked up on all the various illegal, experimental or stolen goods that lined the different stalls around the place and hung off the walls. Should've seen this coming, but why are there so many mercenaries here?
"Captain, I-"
"Just give me an exit route that puts me back on track." T whispered under his mask as he raised his hands in surrender, not wanting to hear Overwatch's excuses at this moment. "Afternoon." He said in greeting to the people present.
"Who are you?" one of the people in the crowd asked in a gruff voice.
"Hey, doesn't this guy have a bounty on his head?"
"Yeah, he does! Torchwick's paying a lot of money for him!"
"In that case I better collect – got bills to pay and debts to settle."
"Like hell you're collecting his bounty! He's worth enough Lien to finally get me away from Mistral PD."
A gentle beeping in his ear redirected the hacker's attention from the squabbling mercenaries to the blue line that appeared in his vision as the AI spoke over his communicator. "I've got a path for you; head to the first floor and exit out the eastern window." Overwatch explained as the line trailed out a window on the next floor up. "That will put you back on the street to the elevator."
"Nobody's going to collect my bounty," T said out loud, interrupting the arguments beginning to break out between the criminals. "Last warning; let me pass or the cleaners coming through here will have to scrape parts of you off the walls."
There was a moment of silence as everyone on the ground floor of the indoor market square took in exactly what T had just said before many of them burst out into laughter. In all honesty, even T found the absurdity of the claim laughable, but he was pressed for time and humour was not on his list of priorities.
"Alright, then." T said as he dropped his arms before jabbing his left hand out to grab an assault rifle pointed at him by its barrel, quickly reaching for the wrist of the man that held it as he pulled himself towards the criminal before swinging it towards the crowd of mercenaries and criminals. The hacker made sure to move his left hand over the man's hand that held on to the forward grip before driving his right elbow into the man's ribcage to get him to loosen his grip on the trigger. Moving his own hand in its place, T discharged a drawn-out burst of rifle fire into the tightly-packed crowd before letting go of the fore-grip and swinging the rifle around at the man, breaking it against his head.
From the displaced crowd, a woman with a revolver quickly took aim at T and fired several shots. Dodging the first bullet, T located a drug trafficker within arm's reach and quickly spun in place while reaching out a hand to grab him. Still too confused at what had just happened, the drug trafficker didn't resist as T pulled him towards him, using the man as a shield to catch the three revolver rounds that came his way before returning fire with the SMG in the man's hand, which cut the woman down quickly.
A sudden cry of rage quickly redirected T's attention to the cat-eared Faunus wielding a machete behind him, charging straight for him with the blade raised to strike. Using the one second gap it took for the Faunus to reach him, T ducked under the arm of the drug trafficker that he was holding up before bracing his free hand on the man's chest, putting him right in between the machete blade and the hacker.
The scream of pain that the man gave off as the machete sunk into his back made it clear that he had not died of his gunshot wounds quickly, but it garnered no sympathy from the hacker. T thought little of it as he bent his knees to lower himself as he placed his boot on the dying man's chest, kicking him into the Faunus and throwing both of them back.
Another man was on him immediately, broadsword raised and aimed to cleave his head off. T met the blade with his metal arm before sliding it along its length so that he could wrap his prosthetic fingers around the man's hand and pull him closer while drawing his pistol with his left hand. He pulled the man towards him at the same time as he drew the pistol and pushed it into the man's stomach, firing off three silenced rounds at point-blank before firing a fourth right where the man's heart should be.
Two women came at him this time, both wielding twin daggers as one tried to drive them through his neck while the other aimed for his waist. Weighing up his odds, T decided to go for a risky move; dodging out of the way of the woman aiming her blades at his waist while also throwing his hands out to catch the daggers of the other woman by the blades. With one of them in the grip of his metal hand and the other lodged against his pistol, T thrust his closed fist forward, smacking the woman in the face with her own dagger. With the lady in a daze from just one hit, T took a risk to get under her guard and elbow her in the jaw, hearing a satisfying crack as his metallic elbow hit a soft spot and she fell over.
Too preoccupied with one of the knife-wielding crazy women, the hacker was nearly stabbed in the back by both four-inch blades of the other before his senses alerted him to the danger in time to step out of the way, escaping severe wounds with only a deep cut on his left arm as one of the daggers managed to slice at his arm.
Drawing his arm back, T quickly extended his right arm and channelled what little reserves of Aura he still had into his Semblance, targeting the woman that had attacked him and causing her to suddenly collapse to the floor on all fours as T lined up his pistol and fired two shots. One of the shots was stopped by her Aura while the other went straight through her neck.
After a quick glance to assess how bad the cut on his arm was, T crossed the distance between himself and the other knife-wielding woman in a couple strides before dropping into a crouch to grab her by the head while she was still in her daze. Before she likely even realised what was happening, T had already rolled her onto her back and gotten her into the best position to snap her neck with a single twist.
With heavy breaths of exhaustion, the hacker rose back to full height as he took in his surroundings. Since the shooting had started, some of the criminals and vagrants in the multi-level market square had gone into a panic and started fighting one another, while others were using the chance to kill off competition, or stake their claim on the bounty of another.
Immediately, T's attention was drawn to the half a dozen men and women with their weapons drawn, all gathered together in an arc just a couple feet out of arm's reach as they watched him warily. "Anyone else?" T taunted as he swapped out the clip in his pistol.
His answer came with the sound of a body hitting the floor with a roll just behind him. Turning around, T barely caught the wrist of a young girl in a hooded cloak as she thrusted her hand out at him. Catching the lady's wrist, a blade suddenly sprung out from a hidden mechanism concealed in her long sleeve, aimed directly at his neck. She was stronger than she appeared, and T had to use both hands just to keep her hand from getting any closer. She responded by using her free hand to grab the hacker's prosthetic arm in a vice-like grip that T felt as he was sure the hand would make a miniscule dent in the plating.
Their struggle for dominance went on for a few seconds longer as T tried to summon up enough strength to use his Semblance again, only for the girl's strength to disappear like a cloud of smoke while she gasped in shock as a blade was thrust through her chest.
T let go in an instant as the blade was pulled from her and her form collapsed to the floor, revealing SK standing behind her. "Back-to-back!" he shouted, coaxing T into action instantly. As soon as he spun around to cover the rogue's flank, another man with a sword brought it down to cut him down the middle, blocked only by T's arm.
"How long were you going to stand and watch before you did something?" T asked, bluffing as he hadn't actually noticed SK during the scuffle with all the criminals in here.
"Shut up," the rogue replied while blocking a few strikes from a halberd-wielder on his end. "What's the plan to get us out of here?"
"The Bullhead is waiting for us on the cliff-side air-pads." T replied while parrying a strike and countering with a punch from his metal arm. "There's a police blockade between me and the elevator that'll take me up there."
"Uh, you mean 'us', right?" SK asked while ducking under a swipe while kicking out at his attacker, quickly changing stance a second later to block several bullets being fired his way.
"No; you can turn invisible, so it's no problem for you. Me on the other hand…" T quickly reached out to grab hold of a man that stumbled too close to him while using his free hand to pull the pins on the grenades hanging off his bandolier. Before the man even realised what had happened, the cyborg had already shoved him towards a makeshift stall that sold various types of weapons, which soon became a pile of rubble following an explosion.
"Got it. I'll see what I can do about their firepower without them noticing me." SK replied before switching his falchion to its laser rifle form and firing a continuous stream at a team of thugs that got too close to him. "Try to keep up." He taunted over his shoulder before turning invisible as he dashed into the chaos.
Rolling his eyes in exasperation, T turned his focus on the route to the window that would put him back on the street now that the violence was not so intense or focussed on him. Following the line of light in his vision, he saw he had to make it up a set of stairs to get to the next floor before getting to the window. The next thing he focussed on were the men and women that stood in his way to reach his exit, marking each of them whether they looked like they were going to attack him or not – if they stood in his way, they were a threat.
From there, the hacker was a continuous flurry of motion, ducking and weaving between the crowd while throwing a punch out or firing a couple rounds into anyone that stood in his way. When he reached the base of the stairs, T's eyes locked on a man with a large greatsword standing halfway up the staircase, who had just thrown a man coming down the stairs over the railings before turning his attention to the hacker.
Not wanting to waste any time with the man, T activated one of his explosive bolts as he switched his arm into its crossbow-mode. As he fired the crossbow bolt straight at the man's chest, the swordsman quickly raised his blade in front of him to block the projectile – stopping it, but not the explosion that followed immediately after.
The man was thrown from the staircase with the force of the explosion, though – to T's luck – the wooden staircase itself remained intact. Rushing up the flight of stairs, the hacker quickly realised his mistake as the explosion drew the attention of many of the armed criminals on the next floor up, who then proceeded to cut him off at the staircase.
In an attempt to avoid the oncoming spray of projectiles they sent his way, T vaulted over the railings of the staircase, his metal arm firmly latched on the wooden handle as he used his left hand to take aim and fire at the two men blocking the top of the stairs while also using his momentum to throw himself further up the stairs.
The tactic worked as the two men dropped to the floor from their wounds just as T's boots hit the staircase again at a run, carrying him the rest of the way as he engaged in hand-to-hand with anyone in his way until finally reaching the window exit.
"Captain, incoming rocket-propelled projectile!" Overwatch quickly blurted out through the earpiece he wore just as he forced apart the window by smashing the lock with his bare fists. Quickly looking over his shoulder, T saw the object of the AI's sudden worry as an RPG was rapidly approaching him. Taking a calculated risk, T leapt out of the window without clearly looking where he would land right before the rocket exploded against the wall next to the window, causing wood and metal to splinter and fragment just as he landed on the pavement, leaving a burning hole in the side of the multi-storey building he had just jumped from.
"A little dramatic, don't you think?" the rough voice of SK asked over the intercom.
T didn't bother looking for the rogue or wondering how he had seen the explosion, instead opting to get back on the route to finally leave Mistral before the situation deteriorated further. "Keep moving; if you're not at the airship once I make my final flight checks-"
The sound of a metal blade sliding through flesh could be briefly heard on the other end of the line before SK interrupted him. "I'll be there – try not to lead anyone up there while you're at it." the rogue said in a condescending tone before hanging up.
T continued down the path before stopping just short of the blockade, quickly using some carefully placed crates and a balcony on the side of a building to scale its wall and get on top of the roof for a vantage point over the police defences.
From what he could see, they had six men and women stationed at the blockade, standing vigilant against anyone coming their way. It seemed, to T's luck, he had arrived just as a pair of civilians had approached the blockade to try and talk the policemen into letting them up the elevator. After a few seconds of looking over their Scroll IDs, the police let them through without any problems.
T doubted that it would go as smoothly for him, but he wasn't planning on doing this the easy way.
Along with the armed guards stationed at the blockade, scans from T's Scroll told him that they had a couple of automatic machinegun turrets set up on either side of the blockade as well. For a hacker of his skill, reprogramming the turrets was as easy as opening up the main data-files and getting them to target the blockade itself. T held off from firing them immediately, however, as he first tapped into the elevator controls to command it back down. Then, he drew a retracted bolt from the pouch on his belt and slid it into his arm, which unfolded to its full length as the metal arm changed into a crossbow.
The circumstances had given the hacker the choice to change his earlier plan to blast through the blockade with whatever he had at his disposal, and he took it without a second thought.
Taking aim with his natural eye closed and his bionic eye opened to give him targeting aid, T fired the crossbow at the feet of one of the guards standing outside the blockade, which quickly began to produce smoke just as T used the Scroll in his other hand to activate the turrets.
Between the cloud of smoke and the turret fire on either side of them, the guards quickly went into a panic, some even abandoning their post as T dropped down to the ground, taking his time with walking at a brisk pace to make it through the blockade and to the elevator.
Everything seemed to be going according to plan, until the turrets suddenly stalled and stopped firing.
Though he wanted to take a look at their interior scan and schematics to see where he had gone wrong, T knew he had precious little time before the police got themselves back into formation and posed a threat to him. The hacker broke into a run as he vaulted over the foldable barricade the police had put in place just as the smoke began to clear and the first few officers poked their heads out of cover.
Abruptly, T made a sudden change in direction as he twisted perpendicular to the direction he had been previously running in to charge and tackle into a police officer. After a quick blow to the head to knock him unconscious, the hacker grabbed hold of the foldable grenade launcher that the officer had hooked to his belt and wrested it out of its safety straps, along with a couple grenades from the bandolier the officer also wore.
Having wasted too much time already, T had to keep his head low as he ran when three policemen – completely recovered from the earlier shock of being fired upon and covered in a cloud of smoke – began firing on him.
Not bothering to check what kind of ammunition it was, T quickly primed the grenade already in the weapon and fired it back at the police officers. As it turned out, the weapon had been loaded with a non-lethal flare grenade, which produced a bright, blinding light that gave T the cover he needed to make it to the elevator and hack into the override with his phone, causing the platform to go up without closing its doors.
As the elevator climbed the vertical height as fast as T could run, the hacker loaded one of the grenade rounds he had picked off the man – an explosive shot – and fired it down at the police blockade along with a spare explosive bolt he had in reserve. The explosion that followed completely decimated the barricades and cover that had been erected and threw many of the officers too close to the explosion a good three metres into the air.
If any of them lived through that, T thought to himself as he loaded the last shot he had into the grenade launcher. They're gonna want to take a few months off work.
When the elevator finally reached the sky-dock level, the first thing that caught his eye as the elevator slowed its ascent to make sure it stopped at the floor was a flash of steel. T's immediate response was to drop the grenade launcher in his hands and draw his pistol, but he stopped halfway when he saw his potential attacker was merely SK, holding his falchion in the ready position.
"What took you so long?" he asked while sheathing his blade.
"A blockade and two malfunctioning turrets." T stated while picking up the grenade launcher off the floor. "I assume your handiwork?"
"Your welcome." SK allowed T to take the lead as they stepped away from the elevator.
"Next time you want to help, just don't." T reprimanded in his neutral tone of voice.
"What's that supposed to mean?" the rogue asked with an annoyed glare, to which his only reply was another glare from the hacker. "Fine, I suppose you want me to wait here for the others while you go start up the airship?"
Calculating that he was now an appropriate distance from the elevator, T pivoted to face the direction he had just come from and gripped the grenade launcher in both hands. "No." The round he fired hit the elevator where he assumed one part of the dual gear-and-rack system was, causing it to explode and splinter into pieces as the elevator caved in under its own weight without the appropriate support. A couple seconds later the other gear responsible for carrying the elevator up and down broke loose, causing the whole platform to fall the seventy metre distance to the bottom.
SK's expression was one of confusion and shock as he lowered his arms – which he had raised to shield himself from the blast – and turned to T. "The hell did you do that for?" his tone was restrained, but the hacker could tell that the rogue was trying his hardest not to shout.
"Covering our tracks – the others will find their own way up." He said while moving to the edge of the platform they were on to throw the grenade launcher over the edge. "The Bullhead is on Platform Six." He stated before taking off at a brisk pace, following the mapping in his vision.
The raven-haired teen followed close behind him as they made their way through the sparsely populated sky-dock. Those that were still there stayed clear of the two or were pushing anxiously to board the next airship out of Mistral.
T realised what had happened here today would have repercussions and consequences for months to come – putting not only him but his team on the Remnant wanted list, but the hacker couldn't care less if he had to burn down an entire Kingdom if it meant putting an end to Cinder Fall.
He and SK had just arrived on the walkway that led out to the platform where Overwatch was docked – extending off from the cliff-face and supported from underneath by several long metal beams – when a couple of airships came into view, having suddenly risen up from below the platform.
One of the airships aimed its forward weapons at T – if the laser-sight dots that appeared on his chest were any indication – while the other glided over the walkway to the platform in front of them as the doors on its side opened up to allow several armoured men – most likely Mistral special forces – to slide down a set of cables ropes and drop to the walkway.
Just as T began weighing up his options, the loudspeaker on one of the airships came to life in a burst of static. "Attention, this is the RSCD, we have you surrounded, surrender yourselves now or we will open fire!" As the voice over the loudspeaker said this, a third ship flew in, slowing to a hover right above the walkway behind them before deploying more soldiers to cut off their escape.
Though he heard the rogue draw his weapon out of its sheath, prepared to fight, he could tell by the elevated heartbeat and breathing rate coming across with the data from SK's wrist-bracer that he understood the situation they were in. "RSCD," he muttered, unintentionally thinking out loud. "Mistral's Ronin Special Combat Division; well-armed."
Outgunned, surrounded on both sides by Anima's finest and down by half his team.
Still, it wouldn't stop T from taking them down with him.