“Chaos
Control!”
Christeané and Wilkas jumped for the AI core as the beast froze in
place. They had barely righted the device and picked it up before Kievkenalis
lost control and the infected monster whipped around to face them – just as
Rebehka froze it in place with ice.
“It won’t last long! Get going!” she hurriedly waved the two
Introtechnics forward. They quickly moved past her and into the hallway,
followed closely by Kaoné, Kevérin, and Vélunis. Kievkenalis backed up as well,
but paused when he noticed Davídrius, Rebehka, and Siyuakén standing their
ground.
“Guys–?”
“Someone’s gotta hold it back!” Davídrius exclaimed,
brandishing his single blade as he glanced over at the girls, “And I figure it
might as well be me. Make up for being such an asshole lately. But the two of
you should get back as well!”
Rebehka moved to object but the beast broke free of its ice prison
before she could. It spun around and leaped toward the room’s exit but
Davídrius intercepted it mid-air, knocking it to the side with a powerful kick.
The moment he landed he spun on his heel and launched himself at the creature,
blade forward – only for the beast to snap its tail through the air, smacking
Davídrius on his hand, knocking his sword away and throwing him completely off
balance before jumping forwards itself, its maw wide open – only to be blown
back by a block of ice. The moment it recoiled Siyuakén issued it a massive
electric shock and Rebehka immediately followed by freezing it again.
“I told y’all to stay back!” the Introtechnic snapped.
“As if you could take on that thing by yourself,” Siyuakén retorted,
“Just stop complaining and help us hold it off until the elevator comes back!”
“I don’t think the elevator is all that safe–!” Kievkenalis exclaimed,
but was interrupted as the infected creature broke out of its frozen state and
spun around toward Davídrius – and then dashed over to his sword, grabbing it
with its mouth and swallowing it whole.
“What the–!” the Introtechnic scowled but was forced to immediately
dive out of the way as two blades suddenly grew out of the beast’s shoulders
and launched themselves his way. He quickly spun around and grabbed the
weapons, continuing through his spin before jumping toward the beast and
shoving the blades through its neck just as Kievkenalis hit it with Chaos
Impact, forcing the blades all the way through. But the injury was non-fatal –
the creature responded by whipping its tail around to whack Davídrius away, and
was stopped only by the sudden appearance of several sheets of ice. Rebehka
attempted to encase the beast in ice again but it leaped away too quickly; the
moment it landed again it lunged toward the Cryotechnic, but was suddenly
forced aside as Siyuakén snagged its shoulder with one of her grappling hooks
and yanked hard. The creature remained fazed only momentarily – then, faster
than Siyuakén could respond, it spun around, snapping the grappling line taught
and yanking the Electrotechnic through the air. Davídrius quickly jumped
forwards and ripped the grappling hook out of the beast’s shoulder before
slamming his foot down on its head, allowing Siyuakén to sail over the two and
into Rebehka unharmed.
“Chaos
Armor! Chaos Impact!” Kievkenalis jumped forwards, blowing the beast away before it could
attempt to decapitate Davídrius. The Introtechnic back-flipped away just in
time to evade several more blade projectiles but landed unevenly and collapsed
to the floor. The infected creature immediately pounced on his location, but he
quickly rolled out of the way and leaped back to his feet as Siyuakén blasted
it with electricity, stunning it momentarily. It then snapped its tail across
the room, swiping Davídrius, Kievkenalis, and Siyuakén off of their feet before
spinning around itself and slamming its front paws into the ground, creating
enough of a shockwave to further stun the three Chaotics. Rebehka quickly
responded by forming two ice lances and diving toward the creature, freezing
its paws to the ground right as she drove her lances into its face – and was
subsequently thrown to the side as the animal began writhing in pain. It let
off a tremendous roar before leaping at the Cryotechnic – and then getting
crushed as the ceiling suddenly collapsed in, followed by tons of dirt and
metal debris.
“What the–?” Davídrius muttered as he and the other Chaotics backed
away from the debris cloud uneasily. He snapped his attention to the ceiling as
the entire room began to rumble and the ceiling began to give way further.
“What–?!”
“Ha! I’m here!” Christeané exclaimed as he leaped out of the wreckage,
his armor’s shields flickering from heavy damage absorbance.
“What– did you just smash your way down from the top?!” Rebehka
exclaimed, looking up at the ceiling.
“Yep!”
“But… we’re on the eighth sub-basement!”
“I know.”
“How’re we supposed to get back up?” Siyuakén questioned,
but was interrupted as the infected beast began to move again.
“Still not done?” Christeané turned back toward the wreckage and
cracked his knuckles. “Ha, well let’s fix that!”
“What’re you doing, we need to–“ Davídrius stopped abruptly when he
noticed a broken satchel fixed haphazardly to Christeané’s armor. “Wait, you’re
using the Ayas–?!”
The Superstrength Introtechnic ignored him and instead dove forward,
slamming his fist into the beast’s maw just as it turned toward him. He
followed with an uppercut before summoning a glaive from nowhere and thrusting
it forward, piercing the creature in its chest. He then dismissed the weapon
and summoned it again, stabbing the creature once more before dismissing the
weapon and summoning it again. He repeated this several times before finally
slamming his fist down over the creature’s head.
“There. See?” Christeané turned back to everyone else, the creature’s
mangled corpse lying motionless behind him. “Not that hard.”
“Except that you probably just sped up the release of the bugs!”
Siyuakén scolded the Introtechnic, “Do you even know what you’re doing?!”
“Uh. Stopping the… infected monster thing?”
“Is everyone alright?!”
Everyone turned to face Kaoné as she landed from falling through the
hole Christeané had created. She didn’t even wait for a response before rapidly
lifting the ground beneath her and the other Chaotics to ground level and then
completely sealing the hole with steel.
“Give me that,” Davídrius scowled, flash-stepping over to Christeané
and snatching away the satchel before he could react. The Superspeed
Introtechnic then tossed the satchel to Kievkenalis.
“Oh… whoa…” Christeané suddenly held a hand to his forehead, “…guess I
got a little carried away.”
“A ‘little’?” Siyuakén snorted.
“I told you guys,” Kievkenalis crossed his arms, “The Dark Ayas are
called as much for a reason.”
“And now we need to get out of here,” Siyuakén began speed-walking down
the trashed hallway, “It’s only a matter of time before we have to deal with
the swarm.”
“What about the AI core?” Rebehka glanced toward Christeané and Kaoné,
“Did you take care of it?”
“That Wilkas guy is carrying it to a waiting shuttle,” Christeané
replied, “The core should be fine. Most of the RPF have pulled out; I think
it’s just us here, now.”
“They sure are fast about it,” Siyuakén remarked as they began moving
through the hallways toward the nearest exit, “It looks like they’ve even
rounded up all of the SFC resistance.”
“The RPF has had plenty of experience doing this kind of thing,”
Kievkenalis replied, “That is, being in and out before you even know they’re
coming.”
“You ever have that problem?” Christeané elbowed Davídrius cheekily.
The Tresédian stared at him blankly. “What problem?”
“No problem,” Rebehka rolled her eyes, “It’s just
Christeané being Christeané.”
“Huh?” Davídrius frowned, “Wait, what? …Was there a joke there? That
was a joke, wasn’t it–?”
“Sshh!”
“Eh?” the Introtechnic glared at Siyuakén, “What’re you–“
“No, seriously, shut up,” she repeated, her attention directed behind
the Chaotics. They all silenced and glanced between each other uneasily, unsure
of what the Electrotechnic was trying to do.
“Do you guys feel that?” she asked quietly.
“Feel what…?” Kaoné replied warily.
Siyuakén didn’t respond. Instead she froze for a couple moments before
whipping around and power walking down the hallway. “We need to get out of
here, now.”
“Excuse me, then,” Kaoné parted the ceiling and all the floors above
until sunlight leaked in. She then rapidly raised the ground below the Chaotics
until they were level with the compound roof, high enough to spot an open
shuttle circling the compound.
“Looks like that’s our ride,” Christeané commented as he began twirling
his hammer, prepared to launch himself into the vehicle.
“Wait–!”
“Huh?” the Introtechnic glanced over at Siyuakén inquisitively just as
the rooftop several meters away exploded upwards, a four-winged creature
appearing – the infected beast that had attacked down in the AI chamber.
“Of course it’d come back,” Davídrius scowled, “Of course it
would.”
“It’s got two tails and wings now, so watch out,” Kievkenalis warned, “Chaos Assist. Wait– that second tail…”
He paused and jumped out of the way as the infected creature swooped
down at the Chaotics, launching several metallic blades created from its very
skin. Davídrius attempted to grab two of them but his armor’s shielding flared,
indicating that the blades were somehow corrosive. He discarded the blades and turned
back to the creature just in time for its two tails to whip by.
“That’s the Ayas!” he exclaimed, “That’s– that’s Hastryth! It’s
attached to its tail?!”
“It’s got the Ayas,” Kievkenalis scowled, “We can’t leave without it!”
“Oh, but I think we can…!” Christeané replied warningly, his attention
directed elsewhere. The rest of Hero Machina turned to look where he was and
were surprised to find four torn bodies climbing haphazardly up onto the roof.
“Wait, they’re… RPF soldiers…” Kievkenalis muttered, “What’re they–?”
He was interrupted as one of them suddenly lunged for Kaoné, who
reflexively stumbled backwards – and into the waiting maw of the infected
creature. Davídrius immediately dashed forward and dealt a fierce kick to the
beast’s neck, knocking it away before it could chomp down on the
Materiatechnic.
“Watch it!” he shouted just as he ducked to evade a tail swipe from the
creature. He then turned back to the RPF soldiers just in time to knock back
two of them as they charged forwards, each wielding dangerous metal scrap.
“What’s up with them?!”
“They look infected–?” Rebehka started, but was interrupted as Siyuakén
stepped forward… and then issued forth a massive electric shock, frying all
four of the bodies and sending them flying off the rooftop.
“They were infected,” the Electrotechnic scowled,
“Irreversibly… for a person to become infected so quickly…!” She paused
apprehensively and glanced over at the infected creature. “…We need to get out
of here! Now!”
“But–!” Kievkenalis exclaimed, pausing to shout “Chaos Deflection” to knock away the bladed projectiles
directed at Hero Machina. Christeané jumped forward and smacked the beast with
his hammer as it dove by again, sending it flying away and allowing the
Chaostechnic to finish his thought. “We can’t leave that Ayas here!”
“It’s only a matter of time before we’re attacked by swarms of bugs!”
Siyuakén shot back, “We need! To! Leave!”
“I’m with her on this one,” Davídrius commented wearily, “Got a bad
feeling about this. Given everything we’ve seen here that we haven’t seen
before, I don’t know if we can expect to escape the swarm like we did on
Sunova!”
“Then let’s go!” Christeané exclaimed as he began twirling his hammer,
allowing Rebehka to erect an ice shield to deflect the next few attacks from
the infected creature. Without waiting for a response from Kievkenalis, the
Introtechnic launched himself toward the circling shuttle, followed by
Davídrius leaping after him.
“Sorry, Kevken, but this is it,” Kaoné commented as she lifted the
ground underneath her and the Chaostechnic. Rebehka and Siyuakén jumped onto
the platform just as Kaoné whisked them all over to the shuttle – just as the
abandoned rooftop suddenly become engulfed in metallic bugs.
“You were right… again,” Rebehka glanced at her friend curiously, “This
isn’t the first time today you’ve predicted a move from the infected
creatures.”
“I got lucky,” Siyuakén replied flatly as the platform arrived next to
the open shuttle. The four Chaotics jumped inside as it changed its trajectory
to escape the atmosphere. Kevérin – who had been aboard the shuttle the whole
time – and Kievkenalis offered a few more pot shots at the infected beast
before the shuttle’s hatches closed, at which point the Chaotics finally took
seats and fastened themselves to the safety harnesses.
“Tch,” Davídrius scowled, “Another ‘successful’
mission from the members of Hero Machina.”
“Shut it. Your little stunts at the beginning of the raid didn’t help
at all,” Kevérin snapped, “So what happened? Do you guys have the Ayas?”
“I have the black one…” Kaoné held out the Ayas, “But the dark blue
one…”
“…So we really did lose an Ayas?” Kevérin sighed irately, and then
turned to Davídrius. “Do you have any idea–?!”
“Yes, I do,” the Introtechnic responded bitingly, “I know I
screwed up. I know that. But I’m not arguing
about it here.”
“Did we at least get the AI core?” Rebehka questioned, intent on
driving the conversation away from conflict.
“…We did,” Kevérin replied, “It’s damaged… but we have it. Hopefully,”
he glanced at Davídrius irately, “It’ll make up for losing an Ayas.”
“We did get another one,” Kaoné pointed out.
“Yeah… but it’s still not good enough,” the Transfer Captain frowned,
“We’ve lost an Ayas, and we lost the planet… I can’t be the only one to see the
trend in our mission reports.”
“…Are you implying something?” Christeané crossed his arms.
“I won’t imply it, I’ll state it outright,” Kevérin sighed, “If we
don’t get better soon… Hero Machina is as good as disbanded.”
* * * * *
==================== End of Chapter 33 ====================
* * * * *
Data Entry: {null}
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