“The wreck’s down there?”
“Yeah…” Kaoné looked down at the ice, “It’s really far down, though.”
“Must be,” Davídrius commented, “’cause all I see is a pit of absolute
darkness.”
“The fact that we can even see that far is pretty impressive,”
Christeané pointed out, “This ice is really clear. Rebehka must be
better than I thought.”
“Which won’t help us at all if she’s trapped down with the wreck…”
Siyuakén responded apprehensively before turning to Kaoné. “Is she down there?
Can you tell?”
“…Not really,” the Materiatechnic replied, “My matter-sensing abilities
aren’t all that great. I guess I should say that there’s a wreck
at the bottom of this crevice, since I can’t tell what kind of ship it used to
be…”
“Wait, so this might not even be the wreck we’re looking for?”
Davídrius scowled.
“Even if it isn’t, Rebehka had to have come through here recently,”
Kevérin spoke up, “this ice is too clear and too far south to have formed on
its own; a Cryotechnic had to have made it. And the surface of the ice is still
relatively clean and clear, so the ice was either made recently, or swept
recently.”
“Alright, Mr. Detective, maybe you can tell us what direction she went
too?” Davídrius quipped.
“Now’s not the time for sarcasm,” Siyuakén snapped.
“Then what is the time, eh?” the Introtechnic snorted,
“So we’ve found a place that we think Rebehka passed by. What
now? I don’t suppose any of y’all have tracking skills?”
The second after he spoke the entire area suddenly lit up brightly with
a flash of lightning; shortly after a loud crack of thunder rumbled through the
forest as the clouds opened up, prompting Kaoné to hastily raise a shelter for
the group of Chaotics.
“…And now, tracking skills wouldn’t even matter!” Davídrius threw his
arms up in resignation, “We ain’t findin’ shit in this weather, at this time of
day.”
“…I hate to admit it, but you’re right,” Siyuakén sighed, “What do we
do now?”
“Ah, excuse me?”
“What–?!” Kevérin jumped and whipped around to face the new speaker, as
did the rest of Hero Machina. He stood just outside the makeshift shelter and
waved at the group meekly, allowing the pouring rain to utterly soak his green
military jacket and waist cloak.
“Can I come in?”
“Uh… sure,” the Transfer Captain responded confusedly. He stared at the
mysterious newcomer as he stepped out of the rain before addressing him. “That
uniform… are you from the RPF?”
“Yeah,” the newcomer nodded, “Um, hold on one second. Chaos Form…” soon after he muttered the two words, his
entire body became enveloped in a thin layer of purple energy. The sudden
appearance of the energy startled the members of Hero Machina, but only
partially.
“You’re a Chaostechnic?” Kaoné questioned.
“Chaos
Cancel Form,” the newcomer
muttered, and then turned to Kaoné as the layer of energy disappeared, along
with all of the dampness in his clothes. “Yeah, I am,” he replied, “Uh, sorry
to just intrude like this. I’m Captain Kievkenalis Yumach, from the RPF. You
are–?”
“Kievkenalis?!” Kevérin exclaimed, “Perfect timing! We were looking for
you! Well, not right now, but before we came here–“
“You should really tell him who we are before you tell him that we were
looking for him,” Christeané cut in.
“Oh, right,” the Transfer Captain responded sheepishly, and then turned
back to Kievkenalis. “I’m Transfer Captain Kevérin Tyrion, and this is Happy
Manbears.”
“Happy
what? Tch, Kevérin, really?” Siyuakén
scowled.
“What?
What’d I say?” Kevérin responded innocently.
“You
just called us 'Happy Manbears',” Christeané deadpanned.
“He
really likes to get our name wrong, for some dumbass reason,” Davídrius shook
his head in annoyance before turning to Kievkenalis. “He meant to
say 'Hero Machina'.”
“Oh...
right, you guys,” Kievkenalis nodded, “I was about to go to Nimaliaka to join
you myself, actually, but then I was sent to investigate some weird activity
here on the Hazard Islands…”
“This is that ‘secret mission’ the RPF General was referring to, isn’t
it?” Siyuakén asked.
“I guess so?” the Chaostechnic shrugged, “I don’t know why it’d be
secret. You guys have probably figured out what’s so weird about the islands
already, anyways.”
“You mean the lack of animals that want to kill us on first sight?”
Davídrius snorted.
“Exactly,” Kievkenalis nodded, “I was sent to figure out where they
went, or what happened to them. I only found this ice crevice earlier today,
though… do you know what happened here?”
“A Relédiakian research team was returning from the Continental Glacier
and then crash-landed,” Siyuakén answered, “…we’re not completely certain that
the wreck in the crevice is the one we’re looking for, but we think that one of
the Chaotics on board at least passed through here…”
“Wait, you’re a Support type, right?” Kevérin cut in, “Can you tell us
if there’s anyone down in the ice?”
“I already checked when I first found the crevice. No one’s down
there,” Kievkenalis responded, “…or at least, no one alive is
down there.”
“She’s not dead,” Siyuakén insisted, “If you can’t
detect her in the ice, then she must be somewhere else. There’s no way she’d
die within an ice prison.”
“Maybe Rebehka wouldn’t,” Christeané pointed out, “but
what about the rest of the research team?”
The only response to Christeané’s question was the rumble of distant
thunder and the heavy pattering of rain against the shelter.
“…What if the research team escaped before the wreck was frozen?” Kaoné
asked hopefully.
“The Hazard Islands are hazardous to Chaotics,” the East
Nimaliakian countered, “I hate to say it, but I don’t think we should expect to
see the rest of the team alive, not if we can’t even find for sure where they
crashed.”
“You’re certain there’s no one trapped in the ice?...” Kevérin glanced
at Kievkenalis again.
“…I can double check,” the Chaostechnic responded slowly, “…Chaos Detect. …Wait, there’s something–!”
CRACK!
The surface of the ice mass instantly shattered as the sound of
cracking echoed through the forest and crevice area. The mass then rumbled
slightly before it cracked again, with it splitting straight down the center
and the far half spontaneously shifting upwards by several meters. The
translation of the ice mass was followed shortly by low-magnitude
earthquake-like rumblings as the ice began to slowly settle back down.
“The hell was that?!” Davídrius exclaimed.
“There was something huge beneath the ice!”
Kievkenalis responded quickly, “It– I swear it wasn’t there before! I didn’t
detect it this morning!”
“Did it cause the ice to shatter?” Kevérin questioned.
“I think so,” the Chaostechnic replied, “Just before Detect wore off, I
could sense it tunneling into the rock face beside the ice.”
“Can you tell what it was?” the Transfer Captain pressed.
“It was–“
Kievkenalis was interrupted as the shifted ice cracked again before
shifting down by a full meter, coming to rest about three meters above the
non-shifted ice. Almost immediately afterward the ground opposite the crevice
from Hero Machina exploded as a gigantic metallic monolith extended from the
ground before whirling around its top half to face its pincer-ridden
insect-like face toward the group of Chaotics.
“–that,” Kievkenalis responded meekly, “…it was that thing.”
The worm-like creature stared at the group for another couple seconds
before withdrawing into the ground and tunneling away, the reverberations of
the ground easily giving away its location.
“It was metallic…” Siyuakén scowled, “Another case of metallic
infection? Here?”
“I think it’s worse than that,” Davídrius commented, “that thing
reminded me of the Sunova Dragon far more than I’d like…”
“Don’t tell me you think this is going to go down like Sunova did,”
Kevérin frowned.
“I have no idea…” the Introtechnic drew his sabers warily, “…but if we
just let that thing go, then things might get a lot worse!”
“Time to get wet,” Christeané quipped as he smashed down the walls of
the makeshift shelter, “It’s going northeast, right? Kaoné, can you track it?”
“I can, but–“
“Watch it–!” Davídrius exclaimed as he dashed over and whacked a
creature out of the air just before it could attack Kaoné. He stabbed it with
his saber before glaring at it. “…It’s got that metallic rash–!”
As soon as the words left his mouth, several more infected animals
swooped down from the trees. Siyuakén quickly shocked them all, taking
advantage of the wet weather to augment her abilities as Kievkenalis called out
“Chaos Detect!” once more.
“There’s a lot of them!” he shouted, “How did they get this close
without anyone noticing?!”
“No time to panic now!” Christeané replied as he smashed his
battlehammer into the ground, cratering it and flinging all of the nearby
infected animals into the air, after which Davídrius easily sliced them all up.
The Superstrength Introtechnic began whirling his hammer around before turning
toward the shifted ice mass and releasing his weapon toward it, smashing a hole
through to the other side. “Let’s get going!!”
Kaoné immediately crafted a tall dirt barrier before turning around and
dashing off after the rest of Hero Machina as they rushed across the crevice
and into the forest on the other side.
“Damn forest’s too thick!” Davídrius scowled as he twisted around just
in time to evade a Deathtail attack before beheading it with his saber. “Kaoné,
clear us a path!”
“But…” she whimpered, “the animals–!”
“–are all bat-shit insane!” Christeané responded as he twirled his
battlehammer around horizontally, effectively cutting down all of the trees
within two meters. “We’re on the goddamn Hazard Islands, and all the animals
have been infected anyways! Show no mercy!”
“Chaos
Assist,” Kievkenalis muttered,
infusing himself and the rest of Hero Machina with a boost of Chaos Energy, “I
don’t know what’s going on with you guys, but we really need to get going!” He
ducked before spreading his arms out horizontally, shouting, “Chaos Arrows!” Instantly two arrows of Chaos Energy shot out from his hands and
pierced two of the attacking creatures, killing them instantly.
“…Agh, no one cares about the Hazard Islands,” Kevérin scowled,
“Everyone, stand back!”
Davídrius knocked an infected creature out of the air just before it
could attack the Pyrotechnic. The Introtechnic then flipped backwards and
corralled the rest of the group away from Kevérin just as he raised a massive
fire and incinerated a long column of trees in front of him, with the rest of
the surrounding trees burning strongly enough to withstand the torrential
downpour.
“Kevérin!” Siyuakén gasped, “You–!”
“He’s right, no one gives a shit about the Hazard Islands,” Davídrius
cut in, “What matters is that we catch that metal worm and stop the metallic
infection from getting this serious off of the islands! Now
let’s! Get! Moving!!”
With that the Introtechnic dashed down the burned column, followed
closely by Christeané and then Kevérin. Kaoné and Siyuakén stared on in dismay
before Kievkenalis shook them out of their stupor, shouting, “They’re coming!!”
The Materia- and Electrotechnic both whipped around just in time for
the Chaostechnic to call “Chaos Armor” and take a blow that would surely have obliterated anyone else.
Immediately Siyuakén electrocuted the offending creature before turning to Kievkenalis,
just to see him jump back to his feet.
“C’mon!” he gestured, sprinting after the other three guys. Kaoné
paused wearily, but quickly followed when Siyuakén began running as well.
“Kaoné, you watch the right! I’ll take the left!” Siyuakén shouted just
as she jumped through the burning tree line and engaged her swinging gear,
carefully but deftly swinging through the dense forest. Without even waiting to
lay eyes on any rogue creatures, she periodically ran shocks down her swinging
lines and through the trees, hoping to electrocute any animals hidden in the
underbrush. Just as she had almost caught up with Kevérin, however, one of her
grappling hooks failed to snag, sending her tumbling to the ground. She quickly
jumped back to her feet and whirled around just in time to see and evade a
charging ape-like creature who had just jumped down from the tree her hook had
failed to snag. It blocked my swinging gear! She scowled and
fired both of her grappling hooks at it, sending a massive charge down both and
shocking the offending creature. She quickly reeled the hooks back before
raising her arm just in time to use her swinging gear to block a stinger flung
from some creature hidden in the underbrush. Running enough charge through her
body to create a large enough magnetic field to deflect more of the metallic
stingers, she cautiously – yet quickly – approached the bush before releasing
her charge into the ground, frying all of the nearby plants and the infected
creature that had attacked her. She then quickly took back to swinging just as
another infected ape attempted to body slam her unsuccessfully.
“Chaos Impact!”
Two of the creatures approaching Kievkenalis were suddenly blown
backwards as the Chaostechnic turned to attack two more creatures on his left
as he continued running down the column of incinerated trees that Kevérin was
leaving behind. To his right ran Kaoné, who continually raised solid stone
walls behind and to the sides of the two Chaotics in an effort to simply block
the approach of the infected animals. Suddenly and unexpectedly, three large
ape-like creatures leaped over the makeshift walls, forcing Kaoné and
Kievkenalis to dive to the side as they crashed into the ground. The
Chaostechnic whipped around and quickly called out “Chaos Claws,” inserting himself between Kaoné and the infected apes as he blocked
the first several of their attacks with the long claws of Chaos Energy now on
both his hands. He then lunged forward as he muttered “Chaos Armor,” ducking around the apes’ attacks to get in close and stab them before
releasing his Chaos Claws and jumping backwards as Kaoné raised the ground and
flipped the carcasses over the walls.
“You don’t have to kill them!” the Materiatechnic exclaimed as she and
Kievkenalis took off after the rest of Hero Machina again.
“Better than having them all ambush us at once when we stop to fight
that big worm thing…” he muttered, “We’re in the back, so it’s our job to look
out for the group’s rear. Ah–! Chaos
Strike!”
At the front of the incinerated column was Kevérin, who was progressing
forward at a jog’s pace as he continually burned a path through the forest.
Christeané and Davídrius actively watched the Pyrotechnic’s back, quickly and
deftly knocking away or smashing any infected creatures who attempted to get
close. Davídrius gripped his sabers tightly as he flipped through the air,
smashing his right heel into the skull of an approaching creature and then
using it as a springboard into the treetops where he sliced two waiting
Deathtails in half. Just as he began to fall to the ground he noticed a large
creature simply waiting for him to fall into its huge, open maw – until
Christeané’s battlehammer slammed into it, knocking it aside and smashing it
into a tree. The Superstrength Introtechnic then jumped over and grabbed the
creature by its arm before whirling it through the air and flinging it into the
distance just as Davídrius somersaulted around him and leaped up in time to
stab a Deathtail before it could jump down and attack Christeané. The two Introtechnics
smirked at each other briefly before rushing back into the open where they each
blocked an approaching creature from attacking Kevérin. The Pyrotechnic turned
slightly to thank them before accidentally running into something. He quickly
backed away and shook his head before looking up in awe at a huge infected
boar-like creature that had seemed oblivious to the forest situation – until
Kevérin had stumbled into it. “Uh… guys…?”
The boar let out a roar before turning toward Kevérin and attempting to
smash him with its head. The Pyrotechnic dived out of the way just as
Christeané jumped forward, battlehammer in hand, and smashed it upwards into
the boar’s chin. Stunned, the wild animal almost keeled over as the
Introtechnic began twirling his hammer around before releasing it straight at
the boar, where it impacted one of its metal plates. The boar was knocked
backwards as Christeané’s hammer spun around in mid-air for a second before
smashing into the ground, where it toppled a couple trees – one of which had
been a target for Siyuakén’s swinging gear. With nothing to latch on to, the
grappling hook withdrew back into her arm gear as she sailed through the air,
glaring at Christeané before catching herself with a roll.
“Watch where you’re swinging that!” she shouted back at the
Introtechnic as she took off into the trees again – and spontaneously seized up
as a spasm of sharp pain shot up her left arm. She instinctively clutched her
arm and subsequently forgot to catch herself – only to end up tumbling down a
steep slope, hidden by the dense forest. Halfway down the slope she was able to
partially stabilize herself, but still rolled to an unceremonious stop at the
bottom. She groaned painfully and began trying to pick herself up as Davídrius
suddenly appeared next to her.
“Oi, oi, watch where… you’re…” the Introtechnic trailed off as he
turned toward the shaded but open area in front of Siyuakén. “…What the hell is
that?!”
The Electrotechnic glanced up, only to spot a massive tree… or at
least, what had once been a tree. Now it was covered with metallic rashes and
fungus-like offshoots, all of which pulsed slightly and irregularly. Up in the
highest branches were several hive-like structures, as well as a large array of
metal rods in a sort of cobweb formation, hidden in the forest ceiling.
“This…” Siyuakén muttered, “…is very… very bad.”
Suddenly the ground began to shake tremendously. Davídrius stiffened
and brandished his sabers as Siyuakén quickly wobbled back to a standing
position, just in time for the ground in front of the huge infected tree to
explode upwards and expose the metallic worm. Davídrius immediately took off,
moving to begin attacking the creature – only to get flung back as the worm
suddenly propelled itself into the air, removing itself from the ground
entirely and whipping itself around in mid-air to connect its end to the tree
instead. It quickly and seamlessly fused with the tree, growing two arms as it
did so. Many of the tree’s roots then ripped themselves out of the ground and began
wriggling aggressively just as the rest of Hero Machina arrived at the bottom
of the slope.
“The hell?!” Christeané exclaimed out of shock, “…is that…?”
“This is the metallic infection, allowed to go too far,” Siyuakén
replied, “…we need to stop it!”
“What? Us? Here? Now?” Kevérin spluttered, “But–! That–! It–!”
“If it splits into a billion bugs like the Sunova Dragon did, at least
there’s the Bluesé Ocean to stop them!” Davídrius exclaimed, “At that point we
can just get Tekdecé to glass the island. But something this big? I wouldn’t be
surprised if it could somehow survive bombardment. We need to cut it down to
size!”
“But… it’s so… big…” Kaoné muttered uneasily.
“Hence cutting it down to size,” Christeané smirked as he began
twirling his hammer, “I gotta say, I didn’t expect to get into fights like this
when I joined you guys. I’m glad I was wrong there!”
“Tch,” Kevérin scowled, “Okay, fine. Hero Machina… engage!!”
* * * * *
==================== End of Chapter 18 ====================
* * * * *
Data Entry: Superstrength Battlehammers
Much like Blade Prisms are weapon systems designed explicitly with Superspeed Introtechnics in mind, battlehammers are weapons designed explicitly with Superstrength Introtechnics in mind. Basically, battlehammers are exactly what they sound like: hammers. However they are usually made with highly-reinforced alloys and further reinforced through Chaos Energy infusion so that they can withstand and transmit significant forces without breaking. Much of the use behind battlehammers is to make it easier for Superstrength Introtechnics to apply massive force (instead of simply punching an object, they can instead employ centripetal forces to easily accelerate the hammer and then apply the force at a right angle), but the hammers also have a second use: transportation.
All battlehammers that are officially called “battlehammer” come equipped with a secure body harness and elastic tether. The tether connects the hammer to the harness, which is secured to the Superstrength Introtechnic’s body, as per its name. The tether then allows for the Introtechnic to swing the hammer in larger circles than normal, thus increasing the amount of force imparted by the weapon. But its main purpose is to allow for a sort of improvised transportation – the Introtechnic can accelerate the hammer by twirling it and then release it; the momentum of the hammer will be such that it can yank the Introtechnic through the air in virtually any direction at high speeds. The speeds are not comparable to Superspeed Introtechnics, but they are definitely much higher than most other Chaotics can accomplish in part because Superspeed and Superstrength Introtechnics are both able to withstand much higher forces (and thus much higher acceleration) than any other Chaotic.
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