30 Minutes Later
“Where is he?”
Davídrius slammed to a stop immediately after slashing two Bleeder gang
members and looked around, scowling, before whipping around and dashing off
again, ignoring the chaos and carnage trailing behind him.
“Where is he?!”
He dove underneath a fireball and then leaped up just in time to
rebound off of a Bleeder artillery piece, knocking it over and flattening its
two operators in the process. The Introtechnic then leaped on top of the
machine and launched his rapiers at two more Bleeders before glancing around
irately.
“He’s not fucking here!!”
“Davídrius–?”
“What is it?!”
Kaoné stumbled backwards, bewildered by Davídrius’s furious outburst.
Immediately Siyuakén jumped over and stepped in between the two of them
defensively. “Calm down!” she demanded, looking up at the Introtechnic, “Keep
this up and you’ll go berserk!”
“Go berserk… tch,” he snarled, “if going berserk is what it takes to
draw Strén out and murder his ass, then I’ll do it!”
Siyuakén narrowed her eyes, her fingers beginning to spark – but before
she could offer a response to Davídrius’s claim, a quiet and horrified sob
caught all of their attention. Snapping his eyes down to the source, the
Introtechnic slapped his Sword Boxes to reel in his rapiers, caught both by
their hilts, and then jumped down to the injured Bleeder before holding one of
the rapiers threateningly to his neck. “Where. Is. Strén?”
“He– he– he w-went b-b-back to the, to the base!” the Bleeder squeaked.
“Why the hell did he do that?”
“I– I don’t know! I-I-I’m just a soldier!”
“Soldier? Ha!” Davídrius drove one of his rapiers into the injured
man’s thigh, “You’re a gang member! You aren’t even close to the level of a
soldier–!”
“Davídrius…!”
He glared back at Kaoné, who was looking on in distress. His focus then
moved slightly to Siyuakén, who had crossed her arms as she watched
disapprovingly. “Tch…!” he growled before yanking his rapier out and stepping
back. He gripped his swords tightly before suddenly slamming them back into his
Sword Boxes and turning his back on the scene. “…We’re going after him.”
“You want to attack their base?” Siyuakén asked incredulously.
“…Yes.”
“It’s one thing to attack a bunch of soldiers in open desert, but to go
after them in their own base–!”
“Strén’s there,” Davídrius growled, “I already told you – I’ll do
whatever it takes to kill that bastard.”
“But–“
“I’ll give you ten minutes to bring around the vehicle y’all came with.
If you’re not at the compound exit within ten minutes I’ll assume y’all don’t
want to come and leave on my own.” He then dashed off without waiting for a
response from either Kaoné or Siyuakén.
“…We shouldn’t go,” Kaoné whimpered, “He’s too dangerous…”
“…Which is exactly why we should go,” Siyuakén
muttered, glancing around at the devastation the Introtechnic had caused on the
desert plain during his fury-fueled search for Strén. She then turned toward
the compound and began jogging toward it, gesturing for Kaoné to follow. “Given
all this, someone has to save him from himself…”
*
* *
30 Minutes Later
“We’re here.”
“This is their base?” Kevérin responded incredulously,
glancing between the two short buildings poking out of the sand.
“Aye,” Davídrius nodded as he jumped out of the vehicle, “What you’re lookin’
at are entrances. The actual base is all underground.”
“Underground? In sand–?”
“Strén’s a Geotechnic, sand don’t mean shit to him.” The Introtechnic
glanced back as Kevérin and Siyuakén jumped out of the vehicle as well. He then
looked up at Kaoné. “You comin’?”
“I’ll… I’ll just stay here and… keep a look out,” the Materiatechnic
answered quietly.
“…Sure thing.” Davídrius turned back to the buildings and approached
one of them. Before moving to open the door he turned back to address Kevérin
and Siyuakén. “The base ain’t that advanced. There shouldn’t be any alarms, not
any base-wide ones at least. Not the last time I checked.”
“Well now that you said it there’s definitely going to be base-wide
alarms,” Kevérin deadpanned.
“Doesn’t change what we came here to do,” Davídrius replied, “We go in,
find Strén, and kill the bastard. Even if there’s alarms we shouldn’t have
trouble, since we’re Chaotics. I made sure to destroy any Negation Tech they
had the last time I was here, too.”
“You’ve attacked the base before? Solo?!”
“I was being stealthy then,” he stated, and then immediately slashed
through the door with his sabers. He kicked the door down and discarded one of
the sabers that broke before finishing, “This time, we’re takin’ ‘em head-on.
No quarter… no mercy.” He then dashed through the door, leaving the Pyro and
Electrotechnic to follow in his wake. They glanced at each other warily before
entering themselves and jumping down the stairwell Davídrius had broken through
– only to find themselves trapped between six autoturrets.
“What the–!” Siyuakén scowled as she quickly dispatched the turrets.
“He said the base wasn’t advanced!”
“Where’d he even go?” Kevérin glanced around.
“Probably just ran past…” Siyuakén commented, “You saw his saber break
against the door. He’s not equipped to fight synthetic targets.”
“But we are,” Kevérin added, “…at least it’ll be
easier fighting robots instead of people.”
“Yeah…” Siyuakén sighed, “Let’s just… let’s get going.”
*
* *
“Haaaah!!”
Davídrius
rammed into a gang-member head-long, bowling her over and toppling the other
two Bleeders standing in the hallway. The Introtechnic then stabbed each of
them in the legs before jumping into cover to evade machine-gun fire from
further down the hall. After taking a quick breath he drew his remaining saber
and charged out into the line of fire, easily deflecting each and every bullet
with the sword. Before he could even progress ten meters, however, the blade
broke; he immediately threw himself to the side and then dashed forward,
generating a sonic boom that reached the machine gunners shortly after
Davídrius had smashed through their barricade and brought the gun toppling down
on top of them. He paused for a moment, stunned from the impact, but recovered
quickly and began storming down the now resistance-less hallway as he hastily
checked each adjacent room.
“Tch,” he grunted, grasping his aching right shoulder. “Where is the
bastard…” he muttered through gritted teeth as he busted into another room.
Seeing that it was empty, he turned around, scowling.
“Chaos Cannon!!”
Immediately Davídrius thrust himself to the side, just in time to avoid
being turned to smithereens when a Chaos Energy projectile slammed into the
doorway and obliterated the entire wall. Drawing his rapiers, the Introtechnic
leaped through the resultant debris cloud and dashed toward the source of the
attack call, blindly thrusting his blades forward – only for them to be
deflected. As soon as he felt the contact he threw himself to the ground,
waiting a moment for the debris to clear before leaping back up into a
defensive stance.
“Woooow, you’re pretty good~!”
Davídrius narrowed his eyes as a short woman stepped out of the debris
cloud. Between her short brown hair and simple off-white dress, nothing about
her stood out – aside from the fact that she had just used a Chaos attack.
“…Who are you?” the Introtechnic questioned suspiciously.
“Aw, you should know that,” she sounded disappointed, “I’m a Chaostechnic!”
“I meant your name.”
“Ooooh~? You’ve never heard of me before?”
“I’ve never met a Chaostechnic before. If you don’t tell me who you
are, I’ll just have to knock you out.”
“How cute, thinking you can take me on!”
“I may’ve never fought a Chaostechnic before, but I know how your
attacks work. I only have to hit you before you can finish calling them.”
“Can
you really do that though~?”
“Tch,” Davídrius scowled, irritated by the woman’s light-hearted manner
of speaking. “I’m a Superspeed Introtechnic. The type of Chaotic best suited
for taking on Chaostechnics.”
“That’s what you think~.”
The Introtechnic responded with silence. He then adjusted his stance
before leaping toward the Chaostechnic, but she reacted in the same
split-second he used to change his stance.
“Chaos Explosion!”
A sudden burst of Chaos Energy behind Davídrius threw him forward. The
woman quickly called “Chaos Blade” and
thrust the newly-created sword of Chaos Energy toward the off-balance
Introtechnic, but he managed to parry away the blade and avoid it piercing his
stomach. He then allowed himself to drop to the ground before swinging his feet
around in an arc, knocking the Chaostechnic off of hers. Immediately he jumped
to his feet and moved to stab her but she reacted quickly enough to roll over
and call out “Chaos Strike!” This being his first encounter with a
Chaostechnic, Davídrius had no way of preparing himself against the incoming
lightning bolt of Chaos Energy that stunned him and threw him backwards. As he
tumbled along the ground the woman pulled herself back to a standing stance
before muttering “Chaos Strike”
several more times in quick succession. With the attack name muttered instead
of out-right called, the resulting bolts were less powerful, but they were
still fast enough to keep Davídrius on his toes and unable to approach without
harm.
“Oooh, you’re actually pretty bad for a Superspeed Introtechnic,” the
woman commented, “I wonder, how did Strén ever have trouble with you…”
Davídrius didn’t respond. Instead, he dashed forward at mach speeds,
reaching the Chaostechnic and roundhouse-kicking her in the stomach before she
could even perceive his movements. The force of the kick knocked her all the
way down the hallway and into the far wall; the Introtechnic immediately
blasted off after her, prepared to run her through with his rapiers.
“Chaos Arrow! Chaos
Arrow!!”
Davídrius dodged to the left to avoid the first arrow of Chaos Energy,
and then ducked to avoid the second. He then gasped as something suddenly
pierced his right arm; the sudden pain caused him to lose focus and stumble
into the wall, his rapiers dragging behind him as he clutched his arm.
“That was too easy~!”
“How did you survive that…?!” the Introtechnic turned to glare at the
woman standing some distance away, “What did you do?!”
“Hmm, you really have never fought a Chaostechnic before, have you?” she responded,
“You’re right that Superspeed Introtechnics are the best Chaotics to take
down Chaostechnics, but, wow, you’re really bad at
this. You could’ve had me once, if you had used your swords instead of kicking
me. But you didn’t! So now I’m here, and I’ve won~!”
“Not… yet!” Davídrius declared, crouching before taking off again. He
almost immediately stumbled over again, though, as a gash opened up across his
chest right as he passed by the woman. “Guaghh–!” he spluttered, quickly
attempting to stand up again as he turned around to face the Chaostechnic – who
was once again wielding a sword of Chaos Energy. He scowled. “When did you–?”
“You don’t have to hear me call the attack for me to
call it,” the woman grinned. She then lunged for the Introtechnic who
reflexively moved to block her attack only to misjudge his remaining strength,
stumble over, and drop his rapier on the floor. He quickly scrambled back to
his feet and backed away, not even bothering to reel in his blades as they
dragged along the ground in front of him.
Goddamnit, he
thought angrily, to be brought down like this…! He took a deep
breath and finally reeled in his rapiers, catching each by the hilt.
“You’re still fighting?” the Chaostechnic cocked her head
inquisitively, “…you’re all over the place! First I thought you were good, then
I thought you were bad. Looks like I was wrong again, you’re pretty persistent!
Oh well. Time to stop playing around~!”
What’s she… ungh,
Davídrius squinted as his vision blurred momentarily. Shit. Need to…
take her out… in one go. Just one dash! C’mon, you can do this–!
“Chaos…!”
Here we go!
“Bla–!?”
Both combatants were interrupted as the wall to their side
spontaneously blasted outward, followed by a gigantic plume of fire. Davídrius
immediately reversed his dash to retreat from the heat but soon collapsed from
fatigue. He glanced toward the Chaostechnic just in time to see Siyuakén vault
over the metal scrap and begin attacking the woman vigorously as Kevérin rushed
to help the Introtechnic.
“Wha…at?” Davidrius muttered confusedly, watching Siyuakén chase the
unknown woman down the hallway and around a corner.
“That was us saving your ass,” Kevérin stated, looking Davídrius’s injured
body up and down. “And not a moment too late, too. You got your ass beat!”
The Introtechnic growled. “Don’t mock me–!”
“Get over yourself!” the Pyrotechnic snapped. When Davídrius responded
with a dumbfounded look, Kevérin continued, “Look, you’re not the hotshot you
seem to think you are. You’re just one guy, with no actual training. I watched
you ‘fight’ back on the desert and it’s pretty clear that no one taught you how
to use a sword. On top of that, those Sword Boxes of yours really hamper your ability
to move. Your entire move set involves dashing at people and cutting them with
your swords on the way past. You can’t even do the typical Introtechnic
acrobatics with those things on. I guess this base was actually kinda
conductive to your straight-forward attacks, but it’s no wonder you had trouble
trying to fight another Chaotic in these hallways. You can’t even alter the
terrain!”
“…Tch,” Davídrius scowled, and then smirked despite himself. “…I don’t
know which is worse, that you pissed me off, or that you proved my opinion of
you wrong. You actually aren’t half bad.”
“I told you – we aren’t rookies.”
“I guess I have to give ya that much,” the
Introtechnic replied, and then began getting back to his feet. “Good thing
y’all came along. Now, time to find Strén…”
“Whoa whoa whoa, hold it,” Kevérin quickly stepped in front of
Davídrius, “You aren’t going anywhere except back outside.”
Davídrius glowered at Kevérin. “If you take that back right now,
I’ll pretend you never said it.”
“You can’t be serious. With your body like that you’ll just get yourself killed!
Look – you’re bleeding all over the place!”
The Introtechnic glanced down at his lacerated torso, and then at his
right arm, which he realized he had been clutching tightly with his left hand.
Sure enough, in both locations the white undercloth had been turned a damp red
– furthermore, part of the left side of his Sword Box harness had been sliced,
leaving the left box to hang precariously from his belt alone. “O… oh…” he
muttered, dumbfounded.
“Damn, you’re – tch. Hold out your arm.”
“Eh–?”
“At this rate you’ll bleed to death if you don’t do something about the
gashes. If you let me cauterize them they shouldn’t be an issue so long as you
get actual medical help within the next few hours.”
“…You can do that?”
“I’m a Pyrotechnic, of course I can do that. …Though, only under one
condition.”
Davídrius sighed irately. “You want me to go back.”
“Yeah,” Kevérin nodded, “If you try to fight anyone as
you are now it’d just be suicide. There’s no way you’d even be able to beat
that Strén guy, especially not when he’s waiting for you.”
The Introtechnic looked down and scowled again. “Tch… god… damn it!”
He then looked back to Kevérin. “Alright, fine, I’ll go back, but only if you can
promise me something–“
“Siyuakén and I will take care of Strén. I give our word as the
Hopeless Maniacs!”
“Keh, you can bet your ass y’all are hopeless maniacs.”
“…Uh, that’s not what I meant–“
“Sure it’s not. Now just cauterize my damn wounds already!”
*
* *
“Chaos Strike! Chaos
Arrow!”
Siyuakén easily absorbed the Strike attack, taking advantage of its
similarity to electricity to simply redirect the Chaos Energy back at the
incoming Arrow, thus diverting the second attack. She continued rushing forward
after the Chaostechnic, who had been attempting to shake off the Electrotechnic
for the past five minutes as they weaved through hallways and down stairwells.
Siyuakén had no idea exactly how far into the base she was, but as she rounded
another corner and then jumped down another stairwell, she reckoned that she
was at least seven levels below ground. This won’t be good if they decide to
bring everything down on top of us… she thought warily, the
desert sand will fill in any holes faster than we could possibly hope to
escape…
She then threw herself to the side to evade a Mach-speed Chaos Energy
projectile. Her forward momentum lost, she quickly thrust her arm out and fired
her grappling hook, latching it into the wall at the far end of the hallway.
She then carefully directed electricity around the cord motor but down the cord
itself so that the grappling hook remained extended and embedded in the wall
while the cord reeled in, giving her a forward boost to continue chasing after
the unknown woman. Unfortunately, the Chaostechnic was already out of sight
around the next corner; scowling, Siyuakén pounded the metal walls with her
palm and let loose a massive electric pulse that rushed through the entire
hallway. Hoping to have at least stunned the woman, Siyuakén rounded the next
corner with haste, ready to lay on the full-powered attacks –
– only to suddenly drop into a gigantic pit.
“What–?!” she exclaimed, but wasted little time reacting. She fired
both of her grappling hooks at opposite walls, but one of them failed to pierce
the metal; as a result she soon found herself slamming painfully into the side
of the metal pit. Ooooh… at least I’m not falling anymore…
“Chaos Arrow!”
Immediately Siyuakén jumped away from the wall, reeling in her
grappling hook and then firing the other at a lower spot in the wall just fast
enough to evade the Chaos Energy projectile. Upon realizing just how close to
the floor she was, she deftly swung down and then released the hooks, sailing
through the air until she landed on the ground with a roll. As soon as she
slowed down she leaped up into a standing position and looked around warily.
She was now standing in a large circular room with flooring and walls covered
by stone, but constructed of metal. The ceiling, in which there was a hole –
the hole she had fallen though – was built of metal as well, and also partially
covered by stone. The walls were mostly homogenous except for two doors across
the room from each other; Siyuakén would have quickly made her way toward one
of the doors if a certain duo weren’t standing in her way.
“Heheheh… puahahahahah! You done well, Ind!” Strén guffawed, “Takin’
out that brat and leadin’ ‘is new buddies into the Destruction Room!”
“The what?...” Siyuakén scowled, backing into a defensive stance as she
glanced between Strén and the Chaostechnic, whose name appeared to be Ind.
“Eh, well, it really wasn’t all that hard,” Ind shrugged casually, “He
wasn’t nearly as hard to deal with as you said he would be.”
“Keheheh,” Strén chuckled, “Thas’ mah girl.” He then turned to address
Siyuakén directly as he slammed his fists together gleefully. “You’ll regret
the day you decided to try an’ fight the Bleeders!”
“Oh really…?” the Electrotechnic smirked despite her poor odds, “I
don’t think you know what you’re getting yourself into. Well, it probably won’t
be a bad thing for one of Hero Machina’s first accomplishments to be taking
down dangerous gang leaders…”
Strén and Ind glanced at each other amusedly. “What’re you talkin’
about?” the large man snorted, “You think you actually got a chance?”
“I guess we’ll have to see,” Siyuakén retorted as her hands and arms
began sparking dangerously, “Come at me!!”
Data Entry: Chaostechnism
Most Chaotics, regardless of type, use their powers in the same technical fashion – they think about using their power, and it happens. For the vast majority of Chaotics using their power quickly becomes as natural as walking, and outside of battle they do not have to put great thought into using their abilities. Additionally, most Chaotics merely require the presence of Chaos Energy to use their powers; the Energy itself is not directly used in any detectable fashion.
None of this is true for Chaostechnics. Chaostechnics are Chaotics who interface with Chaos Energy directly; all of their attacks are pure Chaos Energy, and as such their abilities are often far more powerful than comparable skill-level or stamina-draining abilities of other Chaotics. However, in order to use their abilities, they have to verbally call them out, such as shouting “Chaos Arrow” to hurl an arrow of Chaos Energy at their target. This severely reduces the reaction time of Chaostechnics, as well as removing the ability for them to react completely reflexively. As such, Chaostechnics are actually most threatened by Superspeed Introtechnics, who are (usually) easily able to disable the Chaostechnic before they can launch any attacks.
The method in which the ability is called affects how powerful it is. The louder and more time spent calling the ability, the more powerful it is; if the ability is called quietly or quickly, it is less powerful. Additionally, some abilities have “keywords” that can be inserted in between “Chaos” and the ability name in order to modify the ability further. No one knows why Chaostechnics must call their attacks, but most have accepted it as a reasonable trade-off for their raw power potential.
In addition to these oddities, “Chaostechnic” is not a single type of Chaotic. Under the umbrella of “Chaostechnic” are nine different types of abilities; most Chaostechnics can use two or three of the ability types, but are unable to use any other abilities. The nine types are Basic (any Chaotic can use these abilities), Defensive, Directed, Explosive, Movement, Sabotage, Support, Void, and Weapon. A special type of Chaostechnic, known as a Chaos Conduit, is able to use any and every Chaos ability. However, there are very rarely any more than two Chaos Conduits in the galaxy at one point in time.
