She snarls at the dead burning guards and pursues the remaining soldiers; earlier the troop attempted a surprise attack for the purpose of capturing and subduing her. But now only a small fraction of the original platoon is left as it continues to diminish while she slowly picks them off. They have completely stopped fighting her and seemed to only focus on running, of course they would run. Who would want to be torched and electrocuted to death simultaneously and face her wrath? However the group is completely quiet, none of them is screaming or shouting for help as they sprint away from their thunderous fiery grave, they move in a strangely coordinated pattern as if they are leading her somewhere.
Well if it's another trap, she'll like to see them try. Her anger fuels the metal parasite that coats her, her rage controlling her thoughts. At this moment, she is mad, she is angry, she is furious at her purpose. She couldn't believe that the BeanBean Kingdom decided to spite on her cackling glory and mock her even more by bringing her back to life and using her for their own needs. Her incredible power now reduced and bended to their will. She refuses to accept their advances, so with her newfound mechanical body. She tore at them.
The chase went on for several minutes, and each minute, a soldier dropped. She blasts the ones that were too far with her electric hand cannon and torch those who were a bit too close with her flamethrower, she chases them with utmost speed, the BeanBeans will pay for their disrespect.
Then all of a sudden, the soldiers turned a corner and promptly disappeared. All that's left from their presences is a small purple furred black man who's lying on the floor, he seemed to be asleep, his calm breathing is completely undisturbed by the hulking deranged Beanish that stands before him, she sniffed at the man, growling at him. If this man is the trap, then this must be the most pathetic one she has ever seen. He doesn't even look like he could lift his head underneath all that cybernetics, and he's even more scrawnier than her. He looks like he could barely breathe, let alone stand.
She grinned, this won't even be a fight, just one swipe from her huge claw and it'll be over.
And so she approached the purple man…
And swung.
Antasma was startled awake by a loud pulsing sound, something had attempted to strike at him while he was asleep, but it was blocked by his automatic energy shield. He locked eyes with the offending cybernetic Beanish and was unpleasantly surprised at the beastly sight, before him was a huge old female Beanish with metallic armor that spread across her torso, face, and purple horns, she has a gem embedded on her forehead that looks to be connected with the cybernetic. The way the armor is layed out looks as if it's an infectious disease, the older beanish woman doesn't seem to be in her right mind, her eyes are crazed and bloodshot, a mixed expression of anger and manic is presented on her face as she continues to claw and snarl at the force field. But by the looks of it, her advances are seemingly working as her claws continue to tear at the shield, sometimes disconnecting the energy all together as it slowly weakens.
Antasma can see a energy bar on his UI slowly depleting, apparently it can only protect him for a period of time when he's not in battle mode, long enough so that he can prepare himself to fight, he wondered if this is what protected him earlier while he was still in the surgery room.
He stood up groggily and cracked his neck, he felt oddly calm when there's a raging beast on the verge of breakthrough. He looked at the angry Beanish with pity, they were probably also someone who was reused as a weapon for the war, he doesn't know what to do about the Beanish lady, she probably isn't coherent enough to talk.
However, before he entered Battle Mode to fight, his system scanned the beast and revealed a shocking truth.
The monstrous Beanish lady is labeled as Subject - LE11a.
He stared at her, she's the one that he's supposed to fight?
Wait no his objective says extract, not fight. Maybe he can stun her? Knock her out?
Antasma really isn't feeling up for another murder, he just had an emotional breakdown and he doesn't want to fight. He just wanted to…leave.
But as he watches the shield health depleting, he doesn't have a choice. So he initiated Battle Mode, and prepared himself.
The system was nice enough to give him a countdown as he revs up his machinery with his magic, he cracked his shoulders and stared down at the Beanish lady. If he can't help her, then he might as well put her out of her misery.
The shield went down, and the fight began.
Dreambert watched everything unfold within his comfortable office, everything from the luring to the initiation of the fight.
He would've started munching on some popcorn if the microwave wasn't broken, speaking of that…when will they fix it? It's not like they have a food shortage or something, which is surprising considering the war, but they've been keeping their supplies fairly stable so the microwave does actually have a use.
Maybe he should get something else but the show is en route, and he doesn't want to miss out on some cheap treats.
Everything has been going accordingly, the only part he wanted to really happen was for Antasma to kill Subject - LE11a, or as what her files stated,
Cackletta.
He doesn't know much about this Cackletta other than her being a Beanish Witch that caused havoc within the BeanBean Kingdom.
Dreambert is confused on why the BeanBean people decided to bring back their historically most notorious villain, but he also suggested for Antasma to be revived so perhaps they might have the same, more deeper reason as him.
To rehabilitate them and bring them back to their original selves.
He wanted his best friend back badly, he remembered the good old days where they float among the meadows and enjoy the breeze. It was so long ago, all before that dreadful day and the consequences after it.
And especially the disease that ridden him.
he balled his metallic right fist.
If it weren't for the newly invented cybernetics, he would've been dead. He still remembers the sickness slowly eating away at him. The feeling of his flesh peeling off his bones and the agonizing pain, he was bed-ridden for months. Not even the Zeekeeper could help him...or rather he was too lazy to help him, what is good about all that friendship? The thought of that bird brings a bitter distaste in his mouth. He was so glad he got rid of him, he no longer cares for the rainbow deity. How could he do this to them, his only worshippers and their leader, they adored him yet he treated them like trash.
He shook his head, now is not the time to remember the painful past, he needs to refocus on his mission.
He leaned forward towards the screen and observed the fight, Antasma seemed to be doing well. His dodging Cackletta's attacks with blazing swiftness and striking at her with his newly installed ability.
Dreambert smirked, he really likes it huh? He supposed the feeling of exploding guts and blood spraying everywhere after a strike from the speed dilation seemed to be incredibly satisfying for him. So satisfying that he became reliant with this attack.
He leaned back in his seat and placed his foot up on the desk, whatever happened next. He will eagerly watch it unfold.
The battle went on for a while, the old Beanish lady is a lot more sturdy than she looks, despite her crazed mind, she's somewhat aware of battle tactics and strategies and performing them with swift effectiveness. Such as when he would swing a heavy strike, she would counter it with a quick fire blast from her left arm, hitting him before he could react and singeing his delicate fur. It hurts obviously, but he can tank it. However that doesn't mean that he is shabby either, everytime she would try to zap him with her electric hand cannon from her right arm. He would swiftly dodge the strike and slash her from her sides, effectively wounding her further.
But the battle continued on, none of them showed signs of stopping or weakness. Antasma doesn't feel tired at all, the adrenaline and his enhanced physical prowess was probably carrying him through the battle, but that also means that the old lady was experiencing the same thing too.
Antasma backed up a bit and exhaled deeply, this battle will go on forever if he doesn't find her weak point. He scanned her while he was busy dodging her attacks, nothing was showing up on his scans, only her subject number. So it's only up to him to figure out her weak spot.
He pranced around her, easily dodging her fast lighting bolts and bursts of fire as he is smaller and slicker than her. But so far nothing is sticking out of the ordinary….
Until he spotted a red pulsing light from the cracks of her armor.
It was located on her left breast, the same place where a heart would be on a normal humanoid.
Antasma grimaced, he'll have to pierce her heart in order to kill her. He wasn't sure if it would work considering how effective her armor was, but he has to try.
So he took a deep breath and extended his claws, and slowly moved into a crouched position and waited, the angry Beanish snarled and took his stance as weakness, and without a second thought, she pounced…
...and he activated his ability.
….
It was a blur, she wasn't even aware of what happened. One moment she was fine, and the next, she couldn't feel her blood pumping.
She stumbled, her body in shock. Her mind wasn't processing, what happened? Something is missing in her chest, she can't-
She collapsed, her sickly green blood was everywhere, she crane her head up and saw her fate.
Antasma was holding her heart, he tore through the armor plates like it was made of paper and made direct contact with her vital muscle. His expression was blank as he clutched her still beating organ, she couldn't believe what was happening. She thought he was weak, she thought that he was a nuances and only a small roadblock for her revenge, she could've never guessed that such a small statured man could hold so much power.
Her vision was starting to blur as her neck gave out, all this new-found opportunity and second chance, only to be stopped by one of the BeanBean Kingdom's dogs. She chuckled at her defeat, when she's back in hell, she will be sure to wait for them.
Antasma watched as her vitals dropped, slowly but surely, it diminished.
The Great Cackletta is no more;
And it was his hands that dealt the final blow.
…
He wasn't sure what to feel about doing that, he was still clutching the muscle, it had already given out its final pump and now lay motionless in his hands. He…is starting to hate the feeling of blood trickling through his fur, it's sticky and it's hard to clean out.
It's disgusting…
He stared at the heart…and unceremoniously dropped it on the floor, he couldn't bear to touch it one moment longer.
So he averted his gaze and glanced back at his objective as the first part of his mission was completed. Now…how does he extract the combat chip?
His objective isn't very clear on where the combat chip is, is it somewhere in her heart?...No it couldn't be, why would they install something that's meant for the brain within the heart? So that must mean that it's somewhere in her neck, the same way he inserted his.
He hesitated, he really didn't want to see his colleague's dead face, especially when he was the murderer. He floated a little bit off, does he really have to do this? To mutilate her body more in search for items that are beneficial to him? Antasma knows he is evil, but even then he has standards. He would at least see through a proper burial or rest for the fallen, he would never disfigure the dead to spite their friends and family, and he would always back up his allies.
…which is the exact same thing that got him killed.
…
He approached her and bent down, maybe he could just press a button that's on her neck and take the chip out without further harming the corpse.
He began feeling around her neck, feeling incredibly awkward at the action, he knew that someone was probably watching him while he performed this procedure, how else could this beast find him? What, she just randomly wandered where he was when she was already leagues ahead of him with no sign of backtracking?
Obviously this is Dreambert's doing, he's probably up there laughing at his stupidity and bad luck, he doesn't want to entertain the Pi'illo any longer then he had to, so hopefully he can just find the access point and get this over with.
After fiddling around with the corpse, and slowly moving her head around to find the port...
...Annnd his system proceeded to just…automatically eject the chip out by itself.
Antasma paused;
He just stared at the chip as he watched the second part of the objective being crossed off, completely in shock at the unexpected delivery as he began to feel a little bit ticked off, so much so that he-
"IT CAN DO THAT THE WHOLE TIME?!" Antasma yelled in an exasperated tone.
What the hell? Why didn't it just do it earlier while he was still being protected by the forcefield, maybe it could've deactivated the villain without him killing her and going through all that awkwardness of finding the supposed opening!
Antasma screeched angrily, this is why he didn't believe that technology could achieve the level of advancement people predicted it to be. It doesn't hold any kind of moral standings nor situational effectiveness, it only follows a set of code and patterns that only IT can understand.
He punched the wall again, he is already exhausted from his first encounter, he thought that the cybernetics he has would somewhat understand his thoughts and feelings, but apparently not!
He leaned against the wall and sat down again, exhaustion is already starting to kick in, from both the fight and the anguish.
He pinched his non-existent nose and swore that he was going to punch Dreambert in the face once he found him.
After a series of deep angry breaths. He reached over and took the chip, it has a basic coloring of red and blue with a few golden circuitry lining it. This must be her ability by the looks of it, how does even work? Is it even compatible? His system verifies it…so it must be.
He exhaled deeply and readied up, here goes nothing.
He lifted the chip up to his neck and pushed it in the slot, he felt the same buzz rumbling through the base of his neck and he could hear a few clicks and mechanical wiring coming from his sternum.
After a while, a new messages popped up:
— – New Module Installed – —
– Burning Thunder –
…Burning Thunder? Well that's an interesting name, judging by what the Beanish lady is using, the name fits it perfectly.
Now…how does he activate it?
He waved his arms around randomly, seeing if it would trigger the ability…it did not, he was not surprised. Apparently everything had to be activated by his system or something, so he thought of a command. Zap wall?
Nothing happened, well ok, unnnnn. Does he need to be in battle mode to use this? He decided to initiate it and to point his right arm at the wall, and made the command.
Immediately, liquid metal came out from his forearm and began to wrap around his hand in a speedy fashion, and before he knew it. His hand has been turned into the same hand cannon that the Beanish lady has and proceeds to electrocute the wall into a blackened spot.
Well, it looks like he can only use his new ability when he's in battle, which makes sense, it's probably a safety feature or something. Now he wanted to see the fire mode, still raising his right hand, he commanded it to torched the wall.
The liquid metal quickly changed the handcannon into a different nozzle and blasted the wall with flames, effectively metaling the metal wall and revealing the blackened concrete behind it. He could probably do the same with his other hand so he doesn't bother testing it.
Now with a new tool under his belt and a good nap in his mind, he stretched his back and continued forward. Hopefully whatever he encounters next wouldn't be as painfully relatable as it just was.
….
But little does he know, this is only the beginning.