Chapter 8: The Revenants
A staredown. The two Reploids were sizing each other up in an attempt to find any weakness in the other's resolve. Neither buckled, which nearly seemed to surprise the giant. After all, he was probably the type to equate height to power and bravado. Given the size difference between him and Vile, that should've made the former Hunter a coward. The large Reploid soon lost all patience for the stalemate and decided to throw the first punch. The cloak draped around his frame bellowed as he raised his right fist and attempted to bring it down on Vile's head like a massive hammer. The nimbler Reploid rapidly dashed aside to avoid being crushed into the asphalt. The impact of the fist shattered the ground. As bits of the debris went flying, the giant straightened himself again. A wide grin was plastered across what little was visible of his face beneath the hood.
"Good, good..." his booming voice had softened to a whisper, which made it impossible to distinguish between praise and mockery. Thick, white fingers gripped the hem of his cloak and with a swift motion, Vile's enemy tore the garment from around his body.
Despite resembling a veritable tank on legs, the Reploid failed to intimidate Vile. The renegade had stared down worse, though he did know well enough to use even more caution from that point onward. This wasn't some pushover Mechaniloid, after all.
The Reploid's frame was massive. Thick, armored plating covered his body in layers, while his shoulder pads were broad. His boots had been reinforced to handle the force exerted by a set of jets installed in them. Those had to be able to lift the heavy Reploid off the ground, or at least propel him forward in a dash similar to what X and Zero often resorted to. His head was the only unprotected part of his body – or so one would assume – and with white, long, receding hair and a short beard, he had been manufactured to resemble a grizzled, seasoned warrior. A small module was attached to his right temple, which extended into a targeting system that covered his eye on the same side.
A wide grin tugged at a corner of the giant's mouth. "Name's Onslaught. Boss wants ya dead, boy," Onslaught's dark blue and silver color scheme shone brightly in the orange light of dusk.
He reached back and grabbed hold of a long, wide-muzzled rifle that activated with a crackle of energy along the length of its bulky barrel. Three containers held the lethal plasma used to power the weapon, while a laser scope attached to the top of the gun was going to aid its owner in picking out his target. His left arm seemed to have a disk mounted on the top of its wrist, which began spinning rapidly the instant Onslaught clenched his hand into a fist. The rotation was paired with a loud hum at a persistent frequency. Once the device had charged sufficiently, a circular energy shield, half the size of the warrior, burst from the disk to serve as another barrier for Vile to try and work around.
It was only then that the purple Reploid noticed the strange, steel bars attached to Onslaught's shoulders. That pair pointed down along his waist, while another set was attached to his hips. He'd seen them before. If properly aligned, they'd form the rails of a particle projector; a weapon normally reserved for battleships. To handle the power requirements and recoil of a miniaturized, prototype version of something like that, referring to Onslaught as a bipedal tank just didn't seem to imply enough sturdiness anymore. Fortunately, for now at least, the weapon seemed to be deactivated and resting idly.
It seemed the large Reploid didn't feel like mincing any more words, though he hadn't exactly seemed like one for them to begin with. He took aim with the rifle he had drawn and pulled the trigger. His internal and external targeting systems made each shot lethally precise. Only through experience and gut instinct did Vile respond quickly enough to prevent being pierced by the beams of energy produced by the over-sized weapon.
In retaliation, the Front Runner discharged twice, the resulting energy spheres colliding with Onslaught's barrage. The projectiles mostly canceled one another out in a flash of light that forced both combatants to cover their eyes for a brief moment. Even with his vision temporarily compromised, Onslaught appeared to have enough faith in his aim to open fire again. The rifle seemed to be highly resistant to overheating, as rapid firing an energy weapon of such potency would ordinarily be too much for most armaments to handle.
Vile's jet boots activated and propelled him into the air. Energy spheres erupted from his pristine, repaired shoulder cannon three times as he ascended. Every shot was aimed at a different area on the armored target's body. The renegade hoped those spots were less protected than obviously reinforced ones such as Onslaught's chest or shoulders. The purple Reploid didn't get his answer, though, as Onslaught raised his left arm to meet the orbs before they could connect. The energy shield he wielded was more than powerful enough to absorb the blasts without even seeming to bother him with recoil.
"Nice try! But ya can't hide up there, little man!" Onslaught's roaring voice could clearly be heard over the noise of weapons fire. The instant there was a pause in the renegade's assault, the front of the mercenary's pauldrons opened. A grid of missile launchers were revealed to be hiding underneath the thick metal. Once his shield arm was moved aside, Onslaught unleashed a spray of missiles up at the airborne Reploid. Each warhead was fairly small, but still potent enough to pack a good punch. On top of that, they appeared to be semi-homing.
Fortunately for Vile, he retained the advantage of agility in the air, allowing him to dodge most of the incoming volley. Given that they were only semi-homing, they were forced to arc too widely to try and compensate for Vile's movement, which they failed to do. It caused the explosives to veer away and collide with the ruinous structures littering the battlefield around them.
"Nana! Analyze this bastard! If there's a hole in all of that plate, I wanna know about it!" Vile had raised his voice into the comlink that was still established between himself and the pink-haired operator. Vile's right knee opened up to allow for the internal grenade launcher to lob a glowing, light blue explosive at Onslaught.
"I'm on it! Try to keep him preoccupied," the feminine response came complete with a deep breath intended to steel her nerves. She quickly began to scan the readings she was being fed from Vile's sensors.
The former Hunter grinned viciously behind his helmet. He hadn't felt so alive in ages, in no small part due to finally having been fixed up properly. He was armed and armored, and never better. "Now that won't be a problem," those words heralded his next maneuver, which had him flying towards the roof of a nearby, mostly intact building.
Onslaught raised his shield to ward against the grenade. The device exploded on contact, but instead of a blast of flame and shrapnel, the merc was instead rewarded with an orb of energy that expanded around the impact site. It seemed able to remain airborne and stationary. The spherical field crackled and sparked dangerously as it lingered, serving as both a trap and an obstacle. The heavily armored Reploid growled in frustration as his energy shield short-circuited from the electricity being fed back into the barrier's emitter, leaving him without the added protection for a short while.
In the confusion, Vile was able to fly over Onslaught, keeping his high ground advantage by landing atop a small house. He was hoping the merc's back was less protected. The purple Reploid grabbed hold of the Front Runner to aim it manually, while the rocket pack installed on his other shoulder activated and opened to reveal its payload of small warheads. Individually, each of them didn't pack much of a punch, but they were ideal for proverbially carpet bombing an area like only Vile could.
Much like his grenades, he had been saving his last few explosives up for an occasion where he had no other choice but to resort to them. This was as good a time as any. The downside? Once those last few reserves were gone, he'd be down to his energy weapons only.
Onslaught groaned in pain as the first volley of explosives collided with his armored back. They did little but leave scorch marks; and make him exceedingly angry, of course. The laser scope of his rifle activated as he turned around. A thin, red ray quickly lined up with the renegade. It seemed his rifle came with different firing settings, as Vile did not expect the stream of energy that left the barrel when Onslaught next pressed the trigger. The beam was faster and more powerful than before, causing Vile to not be quite as successful in dodging as he'd been before.
The bright, blue beam burrowed a hole into Vile's left pauldron, taking with it both armor and internal mechanics. The impact almost grounded him, but the Maverick was able to keep his balance by moving with the momentum forced upon him. He spun around in a full circle before dropping to a single knee to face his opponent from his higher vantage point. He took the time to shake his left arm a little, thereby deducing there wasn't enough damage to fully hamper the limb. Hopefully, his automated systems could repair it fast enough.
Vile had been gathering energy to fire a more potent projectile from the Front Runner, but his sturdy opponent hadn't given him nearly enough time to charge up as much as he would have liked. With Onslaught opening fire, he was now forced to keep moving if he was to avoid becoming a Reploid pincushion.
"Why don't you try this on for size, tin can!" Vile poured all of the energy he had already gathered into his shoulder cannon and released it as a blue orb of energy with a core of bright silver. It wasn't much larger than the normal shots the Front Runner fired, but any readings would reveal it was much deadlier.
Onslaught attempted to get his shield to work; as his bulk was too significant to allow for the swift maneuvers required to dodge the incoming orb. However, he was forced to raise his left arm with the defensive barrier still offline, as it hadn't recovered from the earlier shock yet. Vile's shot crashed into his guard, exploding in a large discharge of electric energy. The renegade knew better than to think that was enough to take his enemy down, so he immediately took to the air. From there, he continued to fire blasts from his cannon towards the center of the screen of dust and sand that the charged blast and missiles had whipped up. It became apparent rather quickly, though, that he was barely denting the giant's armor when several crimson beams were fired at the flying Reploid from within the cloud.
Vile sparked his boots to boost him to the right, the speed proving to be just enough to avoid getting pelted. In doing so, though, he had fallen right into Onslaught's trap. As the dust cleared, the hulking tank reached for three grenades that were very similar to the electric ones Vile had used on his shield. With a boisterous laugh – as if he was having the time of his life – he hurled the trio into the air, all along Vile's flight path. Each of the explosives detonated in sequence, with the renegade being unable to get himself clear of the third. The resulting surge wracked through his body and temporarily deactivated his jets, sending the Maverick spiraling to the ground.
"Vile, I think I've found a weakness!" Nana's report arrived in sync with Vile regaining a modicum of stability before hitting the ash-covered asphalt of the street below. After a bit of a tumble, he managed to let his legs take the brunt of the landing so he remained relatively unscathed.
"He's only using energy weapons. But, despite constant fire, none of them seem to be overheating. That's because they're connected directly to his body, and several systems on his frame are serving as auxiliary cooling units for those armaments. Logically, heat vents like that should be located on his back. Try to get around him again and find them; then hit him there. It won't take him down, but it'll make his weapons far less of a threat. He may even cause significant internal damage to himself from overusing them. By virtue of those vents having to expel heat, they're going to have to be less armored and covered up than the rest of him," the operator's soft voice was filled with a mix of triumph and excitement at what she had managed to piece together.
However, that enthusiasm was offset by skepticism from her partner, who was preoccupied with dashing in a zigzag pattern to avoid additional, incoming fire from his opponent. "Sounds like a lot guesswork to me. But, I suppose it'll have to do," a trailing grumble put an end to his complaints.
He had to piece together some way of getting behind Onslaught and the only way he could think of was a suitably risky and daring way. After all, the renegade wasn't exactly known for prudence and calm action in the heat of battle. Vile began running at the massive Reploid, using his shoulder cannon to disperse incoming fire from Onslaught as he had done before.
Onslaught bellowed loudly and defiantly. "Come to yer death!" he was beyond pleased with the prospect of having Vile up close and personal. Most likely, he looked forward to ripping the much smaller Reploid limb from limb with his bare hands. He pulled his free arm back and threw a powerful straight. Vile, however, responded in kind, with their fists meeting halfway. He had built up enough speed to dart into the giant's guard and put all of his force behind his punch. The lack of distance between the two had prevented the mercenary from completely stretching out his limb to connect with the daredevil. It caused him to lose much of the force behind his punch that he would otherwise have been able to exert.
The impact made Onslaught stumble, an effect made worse by all the heavy gear strapped to his back, which made him top-heavy and unbalanced. Vile didn't let up, as he reached for Onslaught's wrist and shifted the position of his feet to put his dominant leg back. With a roar, he yanked back hard and pulled the walking tank down towards him; ready to meet a headbutt that further disoriented the surprised brute. That last hit was more than hard enough to have Onslaught reeling and reaching for his face out of pure instinct. It created the opening the smaller Reploid had wanted and needed.
Vile capitalized by planting one boot on the abdomen of the enemy that had been leaning back from the strong hit to his nose and forehead. From there, it became a simple feat for Vile to effectively run up his opponent's body. A second step to Onslaught's chest gave Vile the height he needed to cleanly leap over and land behind him. The increasingly violent Vile was never one to waste any time, so he instantly turned around upon his boots touching the ground. From his crouching position, he attempted to find the vents Nana had spoken of, but was having less luck in locating them than he had hoped. Time was of the essence, as the blue Reploid was already recovering and would probably attempt to backhand Vile to the Moon in rage.
"They're on his lower back!" the operator's triumphant proclamation came out of nowhere, but also in the nick of time.
Her unlikely partner had no idea how she had managed to figure all of this out based on the meager data his sensors would have been feeding her, but he didn't really care either. With her guidance, Vile quickly spotted the vents just underneath the lighter plating on Onslaught's lower back. Immediately, he opened fire with his shoulder cannon at essentially point blank range. Finally, he was getting somewhere, as each hit caused obvious pain to his opponent. The same suffering seemed to be a powerful motivator, as Vile's advantage proved short-lived when Onslaught executed the very backhanded strike that Vile had predicted not moments earlier. The blow connected sharply with the purple Reploid's jaw and sent him skidding over the ground for a good few feet.
The mercenary tried and failed to hide his frustration at having been caused obvious, internal damage behind a poker face.
Vile's proceeding laughter was cruel, as he couldn't help but mock his enemy with an insufferable cockiness that only he seemed capable of. "What's the matter, big guy? Fight not fun anymore? Well tough! Ya picked one with Vile, and now you're paying for it!" the former Hunter raised a single hand and beckoned the giant over, a brief flash of a single red eye further cementing the motion as an audacious dare.
Like a stampeding rhino, Onslaught lowered his entire body and began charging at Vile. His energy rifle was securely fastened to his back, granting him two free hands with which he fully intended to work off some frustration. The renegade's plan was once again somewhat suicidal, though that was par for the course. He would wait until the absolute last minute before activating his jet boots to get out of harm's way, hopefully exposing Onslaught to more attacks to his less-protected back.
"Watch out! I'm picking up another energy signal!" Various warnings alerted Nana that the ambush was about to get even more dangerous for her associate.
Her words came too late, though, as Vile was surprised to find he wasn't soaring freely into the air when he was supposed to. The briefest of glances down revealed that his boots had been frozen to the ground, locking him firmly in place. "What the f-?" By the time the danger sunk in, Onslaught was already upon him.
The full force of the massive Reploid hurled Vile through the air for several meters, the ice that had trapped him shattering under that strain instantly. Simulated pain was sent coursing through his body, both from the ramming attack he had just endured, and how he had crashed into the base of doctor Cain's old statue in the middle of the dried-up fountain. The knock had scrambled his sensors, which was essentially a Reploid's equivalent of a concussion. His vision was spinning and his entire body ached. As his focus returned, Vile slowly got up on his feet, anger boiling up from his gut at the cheap shot he had just been subjected to.
If there was anything Vile was known for, it was his awful temper.
"Who's the slimy coward that hit me with my back turned?! Come out and join the party! That way I can shove your head down his throat!"
It was then that he noticed the newcomer. The much smaller Frostbite had appeared on the scene. Still hidden by his cloak, the tiny Reploid crossed his arms smugly and stood beside his colleague. Onslaught – in a similar fashion to Vile – was having trouble containing his rage. But, he was slowly starting to calm himself down.
"Frostbite's the name, not slimy coward," the corrections came with a disapproving wag of an index finger. "I've decided I'm done being patient. I think it's time you see why I'm the most talented and gifted member of the Revenants," the diminutive Reploid grabbed hold of his cloak and tore the fabric away as his larger ally had before him.
Frostbite had a very lithe and nimble body with a color scheme made up of soft blues and silvers. His frame was only lightly armored and primarily covered in the same skintight undershirt that most Reploids donned underneath the more armored and less flexible parts of their android bodies. Two silver lines ran down his sides from chest to boots, which added some definition to the plain material.
His pauldrons were cylindrical with a trio of icy spikes sticking out the front, back and side on each. His head was protected by a helmet that had a protruding forehead plate adorned by a bright blue, star-shaped gem. His skin was pale and his features resembled a young boy's. Purple eyes stared at the renegade with smugness glinting from them as much as it was dripping from his facetious smirk. Black lines ran down from his eyes to just above his lips to give the diminutive Reploid an even stranger appearance.
The icy Reploid put his hands arrogantly in his sides and tilted his head up, effectively looking down his nose at Vile. This, despite standing quite a bit shorter than his foe across from him.
"Revenants?" The name sounded vaguely familiar to Vile.
"I'm sure your operator can fill you in on that. Right now, Spectrum wants you dead. You're a danger to our mission, you see. Poking your nose in where it doesn't belong," Frostbite's voice was high-pitched, but contained the same haughty implication as a wide grin that bared two fangs that had been hidden behind his lips. That expression persisted even as he glanced up at his massive partner. "I've got this. Just leave him to me."
"Nana, any readings on the short one?"
"I'm afraid I have nothing right now. Basic analysis isn't giving me anything I can use. I'm looking up information on these Revenants, maybe I can find something faster that way than by analyzing combat data. You'll just have to be careful until we see what he can do," the operator pouted slightly, as she was growing increasingly concerned for the safety of her associate. After all, without him, she was back to square one. Maybe worse than that, given the hired mercenaries knew who she was and would be working hard to figure out where she was.
Despite the teasing pest's smile persisting, it seemed as though impatience had taken a hold and he decided to make the first move. He clenched his hands into fists and an ice cloud began forming over the circular indents on top of his shoulder pads. Once enough of the fumes had been produced, the cloud condensed rapidly, forming two icicles; easily the thickness of Frostbite's torso. Vapor wafted from the Revenant as he 'fired up' his weapon systems, activating what seemed to be an array of abilities involving what his name implied.
"Ready? Se-et. Go!" Frostbite proclaimed before darting at Vile. His dash boots were surprisingly silent and effective, as he covered a significant distance rapidly without telegraphing the impending motion all too much.
The former Hunter braced himself and opened fire, the yellow hued orbs of energy from the Front Runner racing right for the incoming mercenary. He hoped he could cut the tiny Reploid off halfway. However, his speed allowed him to leap over the barrage, with small, conservative bursts from his dash boots giving him just enough thrust to remain airborne until he was located right above Vile. The icy Revenant began spinning rapidly while he remained stationary overhead. His body tilted forward so the icicles on his shoulders were aimed straight down. Cold fumes and dust surrounded him like a thick fog, while the rapid spinning motion blurred his frame and made him resemble a large spike ready to come crashing down and impale anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in its path.
Despite the complexity of the attack, it all occurred before Vile could even glance upward and aim properly in an attempt to counter. Without much warning, a much more violent flare erupted from Frostbite's boots, which thrust him down with fierce momentum; spikes first. The renegade jumped aside, out of the fountain and barrel-rolled to give him as much clearance from the deadly attack as possible. He had only narrowly avoided getting skewered through the top of his head, which had even him wince at the mere thought.
His opponent crashed into the base of the fountain. Icy mist and cold air whipped up and the sound of the icicles shattering emanating from the impact.
Meanwhile, Vile turned around to try and get a fix on the agile foe, though he was immediately forced to keep moving. The icicles that had shattered inside the fountain were composed of something very different from regular, frozen water. The razor-sharp shards fragmented in all directions, much like a detonated grenade. The only thing that prevented Vile from being pelted by the fragments was a large piece of debris that he had managed to dash behind for cover.
His back was pressed to the reinforced, concrete slab. Vile could hear the other Reploid's mocking laughter from there, prompting him to grit his teeth.
Frostbite climbed out of the fountain to stand on top of the stone rim that lined the murky water in the container, his arms crossing over his chest smugly once again. "Almost got you there, didn't I? What? You're hiding now?! I don't like it when my prey skulks around like a coward, Vile!" He was trying to taunt the hot-tempered Reploid into action, and making mistakes.
"Little dweeb's mocking me..." Vile clenched his hands into fists of anger. He needed to get closer to him to take away his advantage in speed and agility. Vile's reflexes were good enough to cut Frostbite off, but just shooting from afar right now would be a waste of energy and the mercenary would just dodge it all anyway.
He leaped from cover and opened fire while Frostbite was still laughing at a series of quips he was reciting to spur on Vile's bad temper. The spheres raced toward the small Reploid but, as expected, never hit their mark. The Revenant had opened his palms and small discs of ice had formed, which then proceeded to hover an inch from his hands. Each disc shattered when one of Vile's shots collided with them, but they could easily be replaced. Each disc fully absorbed a single shot, making it a simple but effective means of defense.
Vile was only trying to keep Frostbite pinned while he moved to a more advantageous location, but it still hurt his massive ego to see his shots stopped so readily. He had to try things from a different angle. To that end, the purple Reploid flew up into the air, all the while firing a volley of fast-moving, but weaker shots from his cannon.
"Pft, you're so easy to predict!" Frostbite blocked two more energy blasts before dashing forward, passing underneath the airborne Vile to dodge the rest of the volley, and make it harder for him to line up further shots. Frostbite came to a halt near the other side of the fountain where more cold air started gathering around his hands and leaving a snowy trail in his wake. The mist packed together in his palms, condensing into solid ice and elongating into semi-translucent, silver javelins with the same surprising speed with which the spikes on his shoulders had formed earlier.
With an amused cry, he hurled the first of the dangerously sharp spears at the renegade, who was forced to descend quickly in order to dodge the projectile. The second javelin followed soon after and missed the flying Reploid by barely an inch.
Vile cursed as he continued to struggle just to keep up with the nimble Revenant, who in turn reveled at having the upper hand. He continued to throw javelin after javelin, his aim becoming consistently more precise with each throw as he got a feel for his opponent's rhythm and instinct.
Vile realized his next maneuver was risky, but taking a chance was what made battle so thrilling. Putting his jets into overdrive, he leaned forward and dove down, right at his opponent. His descent was rapid, though not fast enough to catch Frostbite off-guard. The blue Reploid continued to spawn javelins and hurled them one after the other at the vulnerable, purple Reploid. Some of them struck their intended target, but made little more than glancing contact. Each of them caused gashes to appear on Vile's body, and came dangerously close to piercing important, internal systems.
When he got close enough, Vile activated the rocket pack on his shoulder. Instead of firing a volley of smaller rockets, though, he set the device to fire a single, spherical, metallic object. The sphere profited from the momentum Vile's descent had built up to race at an unwary Frostbite. As soon as the Revenant came in range of it, the device activated. Two sides of the sphere revealed a panel that opened up to expose a deep, blue energy core. The device began spinning in place, projecting a field of electrical energy all around it. It was a drone of sorts – a very simplistic machine even for a Mechaniloid – as it was semi-aware of its target and continued to inch closer even after deployment.
Frostbite was unable to move away in time and the left side of his body was caught in the field. He cried out in pain as he felt a shocking pulse rush through his body, overloading some of his circuitry and frying others. The damage itself was minimal, given that there were plenty of redundant systems in a Reploid's body, and automatic self-repair systems would also kick in. However, it still caused his entire left arm and leg to temporarily go limp, making it a struggle to even just pivot. The effect would be short-lived, but it gave Vile the opening he needed to get up close and personal, just like he'd wanted to.
Before landing behind Frostbite, he fired another blast from the Front Runner, painfully scarring the mercenary's right arm. The direct hit had the short fighter reeling, and about-facing in the hopes of catching a glimpse of what Vile was planning next. All so he had enough time to react to it.
His rotation was executed only halfway when a fist was slammed into the side of the Revenant's head. His right leg was then gripped before he had a chance to fall over. Vile proceeded to effortlessly hurl his enemy over his shoulder and into a nearby, roadside lamppost. The pole bent upon Frostbite connecting with it. Behind the purple Reploid, the drone had used up all its energy and dropped to the ground, exploding soon after so that it could not be salvaged.
In an attempt to defend himself, despite being prone and vulnerable, Frostbite placed his right hand on the ground. The frost his rather unique, built-in weapon systems generated began creeping across the pavement and the asphalt. In less than a second, the floor surrounding Frostbite was covered in a thin layer of perfectly flat and, as such, very slippery ice.
Vile had seen the encroaching flash freeze and boosted up into the air again. Had he not done so, he would most likely have been frozen to the ground like he had been before. Despite avoiding that fate, he had still lost the advantage he had sought to press; much to his chagrin. The Revenant managed to get back up, pleased to find control over the left side of his body returning as the damage dealt by Vile's drone had been fixed. His anger was palpable, as he returned to creating javelins and throwing them at his opponent. There was far less mirth and playful attitude to each hurl, as he seemed to realize Vile had to be taken seriously.
As a result of that determination, he hit his mark. One of the javelins penetrated Vile's right shoulder, though it did not pierce all the way through to the other side. Not wanting the protruding shard getting in the way and affecting any internal systems, the former Hunter pulled it free with an accompanying, pained grunt. He clenched it in his hand, shattering it and letting the remains tumble to the ground below. The direct hit had preoccupied the renegade long enough to allow for Frostbite's next attack to prove debilitating to his opponent's efforts to stay airborne.
A stream of cold air generated by Frostbite's pauldrons froze one of Vile's jet boots solid. The sudden loss of one of the crucial sources of propulsion and stability caused Vile to spin out of control until he deactivated his other boot. The force that had been generated by his brief, erratic flight through the air, sent him crashing into the face of one of the few relatively intact buildings in the city, after which he hit the pavement with the impressively loud clang of metal-on-stone.
Vile heard Nana on the other end of the communications link between them, shouting out his name in worry. He didn't bother with answering as her monitor would show her enough information about his status to know he was alive. He rose to one knee and tried to locate the nimble Frostbite. The tiny Reploid had given chase and had stopped a few meters from where he had crashed.
The mercenary's body was spinning rapidly again, his 'ice spike charge' this time coming at the renegade from a horizontal angle, instead of a vertical one. Because of the vapor and mist surrounding the Reploid, it was very difficult to properly aim for Frostbite's actual body as opposed to formed ice or just thin air. Vile decided to take a chance, regardless, and fired three shots from his shoulder-mounted weapon. All of them were aimed at the approximate center of the charge. Two of his blasts were effortlessly deflected by the torrent, but the third was a perfect hit. Frostbite's right shoulder had been greatly damaged by the blast, which also claimed one of the two spikes he had generated, and offset the careful balance of the spinning motion. Not long after, the mist was lifted and he hit, head-first, the side of a nearby, burned-out car.
"I'm gonna enjoy this, you little twerp," Vile took aim for the dizzy Frostbite, ready to pelt him with a barrage of energy until nothing but scrap remained of him. His window of opportunity closed as quickly as it had opened, however, as Nana's voice sounded over the perpetually open com link.
"I'm picking up a massive energy build-up from down the road. It's Onslaught's particle projector! I think he's ready to fire!" the warning was punctuated by the operator raising her voice as high as it would go, just to drive the point of urgency home.
Vile turned his attention to his left, following Nana's instructions, in time to find his previous opponent standing on the asphalt of the road with both feet planted firmly and wide apart from one another. The obsidian, steel rods attached to his bulk had rotated and shifted so they now faced forward. Each of them formed part of the rails that would guide a lethal projectile towards the intended target. Energy began gathering along the length of each of the bars. That same power seemed to get diverted to a sphere that formed between the four rods.
The force behind the projectile being formed was not going to leave enough of Vile left to fabricate a pencil sharpener. He had to dodge the attack at all costs, or his little adventure would come to an untimely end. The renegade had just switched on his sole, operational boot when Frostbite responded by freezing the ground and locking Vile down once more. The thick layer of ice spread up Vile's legs, trapping him in the path of Onslaught's coming attack.
"Dammit! I'll rip your tiny head off for this!" the renegade continued to curse as he attempted to free himself. At the last, possible second, he was able to shatter the ice with a solid punch. He wasn't about the waste any time checking to see if both his boots actually worked, and he immediately boosted up into the air. A blinding flash swept across the city as Onslaught pulled the proverbial trigger.
The large orb of dark, blue energy was propelled forward with incredible speed and passed underneath Vile, missing him by a measly few inches. The air displacement its trajectory emitted was enough to knock the purple Reploid away and through the window of one of the nearby buildings. The glass shattered and he crashed into what was left of the second story floor of the structure. The sound of the energy orb colliding with a derelict structure was deafening. The resulting blast obliterated the impact site to little more than a barren crater, with the barest of remains that could be considered reusable scrap.
"Vile?! Come in! Are you alright?" A grunt was all Nana needed to be reassured to at least some extent.
A set of white palms planted themselves onto the scratched and splintered floorboards and Vile crawled onto his knees. A shake of his head was his attempt at getting rid of some of the dizziness that came over him. "I'm fine... Blockhead missed..."
"Whoever's pulling the strings of these mercenaries is still trying to trace our whereabouts through some of the files you sent my way. I'm afraid if I keep this link open any longer, they'll find us. But it means I have to shut down all lines of communication between us, which includes your remote transfer signal," Nana felt more than her fair share of guilt as she continued to spring worse and worse news on him.
"So you wouldn't be able to get me out of here if things got too hairy?"
"Too hairy? You've been impaled, frozen, beaten and almost incinerated! Please tell me when it gets too hairy for you," the operator's lecture came complete with a furrowed brow, though that was unseen by the preoccupied renegade. "They've started ganging up on you. Ego or no ego, I'm transferring you out of there now that there's a lull in the fighting, while I still can."
"Good to know I have a nanny that's gonna to be spoiling all my fun from now on," Vile proceeded to knock down one of the room's doors with a shove of his heel. He dashed through the opening in time to avoid being enveloped in the explosion of a volley of missiles, courtesy of Onslaught.
"I've almost got a fix on you. They're jamming the city pretty thoroughly, but I think I can get through," Nana was working as fast as she could to counteract whoever the so-called Revenants had operating against her.
Vile realized he was a sitting duck inside the ruined building he had been knocked into. He figured if he stuck to the high ground and stayed out of sight, he could buy Nana the time she needed to get her calibrations sorted. He shattered another window down the hall he found himself in and leaped through it onto the rooftop of a building on the other side of an alleyway.
Onslaught displayed his deadly aim once again, as a shot fired from a good distance away pierced metal and brick to send debris flying; only barely missing its mark despite the difficulty of the shot. However, now it seemed the two ambushers had lost track of Vile, prompting the giant to start systematically destroying any building that could be housing the renegade with a mix of charged shots from his rifle, and missiles launched from his pauldrons. He definitely wasn't about to give the former Hunter a single moment to recuperate.
As Vile reached the edge of one of the rooftops he had been running across, he whispered a curse to himself. He found no more buildings left standing within jumping distance. He prepared to take flight, even if that would make him stand out like a sore thumb and make him the perfect target for the over-sized Reploid down in the streets.
"You've got nowhere to run, Vile!" Frostbite's voice called out to the renegade after he'd jumped up onto the same rooftop from below. He stood armed and ready.
Vile turned to face the annoying, child-like Reploid, his cannon poised for use. But, just as Frostbite pulled his arm back to throw a newly formed javelin, his target vanished in a beam of purple light. Vile's dematerialized body ascended into the skies and to safety with immense speed.
The diminutive Reploid gritted his teeth in frustration as his purple eyes watched the stream disappear from sight. His arm lowered slowly as something unsettling dawned on him.
"Oh man... Spectrum's going to kill us…"