“I told you her dad was a big shot, didn’t I?” He heard Leo asking through his earpiece as he staggered back to his feet and made some room between himself and the warriors. “I’ve no doubt he dropped significant resources to give his daughter and her playmates the best bodies the ship could make. They might be a little out to lunch, but that doesn't mean they can’t kill you if you’re not careful.”
“Thanks for the warning,” Ronin muttered back, flexing the muscles around his neck to engage his helmet plates. He doubted they would survive a direct hit from someone as strong as these colorful juggernauts, but it should at least cushion his brain for one or two hits. Having settled his feet, and caught his breath at last, Ronin took a quick look around to check on his team.
K3 was holding his own, exchanging blows with the red armored man, and dodging the blows the giant black armored color force was sending his way. Ronin noticed that he had a spiderwebbing of cracks on his armor as well. Looked like the biggest of their foes packed quite the punch, and his friend didn’t want to be hit again either. Elyria on the other hand, had taken to the sky. She’d clearly decided that she didn’t want to take them on in close quarters but was keeping them distracted. Darting down to make a slashing attack with her short sword, and then back up again before either of the armored women could engage her.
Feeling better now that he knew his friends were ok, Ronin dove back into his own fight. Deciding he’d just think of them as their color from now on, Ronin dodged aside as Green came forward for another punch. Blue had positioned himself off to the side, to take advantage of Ronin while he was off balance after dodging Green. He managed to dodge again but instead of backpedaling further, Ronin swung the kanabo at Green who’d switched places with Blue to attack him after his dodge.
The spiked metal club contacted Green’s torso with a resounding crack. The impact staggered Green and caused the kanabo to vibrate wildly in Ronin’s grip. He grit his teeth against the pain in his hands, as he steadied his weapon. There was minimal damage to his enemy, the small spiderweb of cracks closely mirrored the ones on his own chest. That was bad, his enemy’s punch had done as much damage to him as a five-foot-long club made of solid metal, being swung at full force, had done to his enemy. They must have had metal or carbon fibers woven into their armor. Ronin cursed inside, wishing he’d have thought to do that himself.
“Why do you deny the inevitable?” Blue asked in a voice meant to carry, as he entered a roundhouse kick that would have taken Ronin’s head clean off if it had connected. “You must have realized that you stand no chance. Evil never does… just give up and surrender your resources. We’ll leave in peace after we have acquired them.”
“Yea,” the woman armored in pink called over from her fight. “Our suits were designed by the best minds the government has. My father pulled strings to ensure we could fight effectively. Just give up, it’s only been a few days. You can’t have gathered much anyway; we’ll just take it and go. You can get more later.” She didn’t sound quite as committed to the superhero act as the others were, and Ronin wondered if it was her boyfriend who’d come up with the color force idea and she’d just gone along with it.
“I cannot,” Ronin said in his own theatrical voice. “Because I have gathered these resources to help the people, so to give them to you would be an act of betrayal that I will not abide. My code will not allow me to do so.” The theatrical speech made his face go red under the helmet, but he didn’t stop. He had dreamed of a fight like this since his first day in his pocket world. A fight against overwhelmingly strong opponents, who were trying to take what belonged to him. There was no way he’d give up now. Ok, so maybe they outnumbered them a few times over and sure, he had rifles powerful enough to punch through their armor, but that was beside the point.
“Wait, what do you mean your honor…” Blue had stopped his wild dodging and leaping when Ronin had given his one liner. Apparently surprised that Ronin wasn’t dutifully playing the bad guy. Sadly, he stood still for too long, and Ronin was able to capitalize on the moment of stillness. The kanabo rang with the impact as it smashed with full momentum into Blue’s tinted visor. It cracked under the impact, and Blue went down in a heap.
“Cowardly scum, attacking an unprepared opponent.” Green roared as he charged Ronin in a fury. As they danced around, Ronin could hear the frantic clanging and banging from his team members. It looked like his stunt had angered all the color force. He only caught small snippets of their battles, but Elyria had put herself between him and Pink and Yellow. She was swinging her blade so fast it had become a blur. K3 had followed ronin’s example and caught one of his own foes off guard. Red followed Blue to the ground with a smashed visor of his own.
Looking down at the writhing Blue, Ronin gasped in shock, allowing Green to get a solid kick onto his chest. He was flung backwards, chunks of his armor flaking away. Thick sticky blood the color of orange juice with the consistency of syrup seeped from the wound as he crashed into the ground. He pressed a hand to his chest, trying to stem the tide of internal fluid that so closely matched what was leaking from the cracked plates of Blue’s visor. He hadn’t known it at the time, but Ronin hadn’t connected with a helmet visor, he’d hit Blue directly in his eyes. It was his skull that had cracked under the blow.
They’d managed to drop both Red and Blue, but Ronin was hurt, and Elyria couldn’t even hurt her opponents. Not that he had time to worry about her, since Green was nearly on top of him. As Ronin rolled backwards and climbed to his feet, a voice entered his earpiece as he hobbled up the ramp.
“My lord, this is Stone. I have a bead on the green knight. Shall I take him out?” The goblin scout who was best known for her long-ranged skills, could have likely dropped the remaining three-color force warriors in the amount of time it took her to ask the question, so he appreciated her tact.
“Negative, Stone.” Ronin said, reaching the top of the ramp and grabbing the fast-drying glue that Elyria had been fixing the panels in place with. “I told them we’d fight three on six. I don’t want to go back on my word.” Turning the bag around, he squeezed a healthy amount of glue onto the wound in his chest. He then used the side of the bag to smear it in and around the cracks and missing pieces of armor. No sooner had he finished, Green arrived with a flying kick that Ronin only dodged by letting himself fall to the ramp and roll back down towards the dusty ground below.
Pain jolted through his chest, forcing him up. Fire, his chest was on fire. Ronin tried his best not to touch the still drying glue, so he didn’t end up gluing his hands to his chest. While he backpedaled from the rapidly approaching Green, he looked down to see the clear glue was now tinted with the orange of his blood. It Bubbled and smoked as it dried, chewing further into the armor and his exposed musculature before it finally solidified.
Another kick to his chest sent him wheeling backwards again. Thankfully, the glue held everything together. Staggering back upright for the umpteenth time, Ronin panted from the searing ache of his melted muscles, and how resilient the glue was when mixed with his armor. Blinking in shock at the realization he’d weathered that blow better than before his armor had been damaged.
“I’m going to kill you, honor less trash.” Green said in that overly theatrical voice, slowing his advance to pose during the threat. For which Ronin was grateful. It gave him the time to recenter himself. He’d lost his kanabo during the battle, the only weapons he had left were a small belt knife and his sidearm. The knife would do little, and he refused to compromise the terms of the fight and use a weapon, no matter if this wasn’t a formal duel or not, he had his principles.
Thankfully, as he’d been tactically retreating, Ronin’s foot came into contact with something solid. Looking down, he saw an eight-foot chunk of T-beam, which had been discarded due to a twisted end. During the seconds Green posed, Ronin picked up the beam and pointed it at the charging warrior. The twisted tip caught the charging Green in the abdomen, and the beam was yanked from Ronin’s grip in the fury of the powerful charge. By shear chance, Green lurched forward on impact, driving the other end of the beam into the dirt. His own momentum did the rest, as he ran himself through on the beam.
Not wasting even a glance for his now defeated foe, Ronin darted back towards the battle. With three of their number down, the color force was getting frantic. Snatching up his kanabo as he ran, Ronin didn’t slow as he neared K3 and Black’s battle. When he was less than ten feet away, he launched himself into the air, bringing his club up over his head in a two-handed grip. As he dropped, he swung the weapon down with all the force he could muster.
Black, who must have seen him coming at the last second, dodged to the side. As a result, Ronin missed his head, but the kanabo still bit into the biggest color force’s shoulder. Armor cracked, and Ronin heard the sound of squelching insides, as thick syrupy blood painted his club orange. Black hit the ground with a cry of pain, his voice joining the chorus of pained cries Green, Blue, and Red were making.
Not having planned further ahead than connecting with his enemy, Ronin was left off balance and face planted into the dead ground, losing his weapon once again as it was ripped from his numb fingers. His chest, however, was still holding together well. Apart from the burning pain left over from his melting muscles, the glue was providing wonderful impact resistance.
“No.” Kimberly said with a cry. “It’s not supposed to be like this, we’re super strong. Your supposed to just give us your stuff… like the last few did…” Her voice got quieter and quieter, and she finally trailed off. dropping her hands in defeat, and turning to Yellow, her last remaining party member. “Looks like we have no choice… Keep them distracted, Yellow force, I’ll go for the back up.”
“Count on me, I’ll die if it means preserving the honor of the color force.” Yellow said, the declaration accompanied by a series of martial arts stances before she threw herself towards Ronin. Kimberly took advantage of the momentary distraction, to high tail it back to her ship. Elyria flew after her, swinging her short sword down at the pink warrior, but it didn’t do any good. Kimberly just ignored the attacks and continued to run until she disappeared back into the ship.
Meanwhile, Ronin and K3 put Yellow down. She was fast and agile, but with the two men doing their best to hit her with their heavy weapons, eventually they did. K3 connected with a glancing blow to her hip, that Ronin capitalized on and smashed his club into her knees. The crunching of carapace armor and the squelching of orange blood signaled the end of the fight. At least, they thought so. Until the whining of motors, and the whirring of gears drifted out of the color force’s open drop ramp.
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Kimberly came back into view then, her pink armor reflecting the sun, down at her foes. Only, she hadn’t come back unarmed.
“Holy shit, is that a mecha?” Ronin said with awe, staring up at the suit Kimberly now wore. Until he noticed Elyria was clutched in one of the pink suit’s large hands. Kimberly had grabbed her by the thigh and was bringing her other hand around in a motion reminiscent of how someone would squash a mosquito.
“Stone,” Ronin said, frantically pressing his earpiece. Thankfully, he didn’t have to say anything else. He couldn’t hear the gun being fired, thanks to its pneumatic nature, but he saw the orange spot appear on Kimberly’s shoulder. It was followed in quick succession with three more shots, too her other shoulder and both knees. Elyria dropped from the now limp fingers with a scream of pain, that Ronin couldn’t hear over the screams Kimberly was now producing. The pink color force warrior was screaming louder than the other five members of her team combined.
Ronin was by Elyria’s side in an instant, the fatigue that had been catching up to him forgotten, as he knelt by her side. She wasn’t screaming, but that was clearly because she’d bitten down on her own hand to hold it in. Her leg was badly crushed, and her knee was twisted at an odd angle. Orange blood seeped out from around the white scales she’d covered her body with under her clothes. Ronin wasn’t sure what to do, reaching out tentatively, he rested his shaking fingers on her thigh, only to be knocked back with a backhand blow to the face by a near delirious Elyria.
“Move back kid,” Leo said, arriving at his side from nowhere. “Let Red take a look, she is a doctor, you know.” Ronin felt a wave of relief at those words, he’d completely forgotten they had a doctor nearby. The relief quickly turned to horror when Doctor Mycroft arrived on the scene. She was flanked by four of the thorn covered vine-octopus monsters.
“What are you going to…” He started to say, when Leo picked him up by the shoulder and hauled him up and into the color force’s ship. Before his view was cut off, Ronin saw Doctor Mycroft examining the wound with all six of her hands, while one of her monsters was injecting a bright red fluid into the affected leg.
“Let her work kid.” Leo said, setting him down and giving him a once over. “Reds going to have to give you a look when she’s done with the fairy queen.” He continued, tapping a clawed finger against the bubbled and uneven surface of the orange blood infused glue, which was holding Ronin’s armor together. “That was some quick thinking. Let you finish the fight, and in the field, it would have saved your life. I have to question the wisdom of the action now though. It’s going to have to be cut out you know. Red could have healed you up with a few jabs, but now… be ready for pain kid.” Ronin knew the older man was worried about him, but with Elyria’s muffled groans still echoing in his ears, Ronin couldn’t be bothered with it. In order to take his mind off her situation, he looked around the cavernously huge drop ship.
“How in the world did they get mechs?” He asked Leo, looking at the remaining five colored suits, standing right beside the drop ramp. Each was colored the same as the other five color force and looked intimidating as hell.
“Don’t be so dramatic kid,” Leo said with a scoff. “Those aren’t mecha, they’re just exosuits. Can’t you tell the difference? Mechs are considerably larger than this. These suits are barely over nine feet tall. Here, look,” He moved forward and started pointing out features of the machines. “See this?” He asked pointing to the chest, which was opened up like a clam. “The wearer steps into the suit, putting their feet on these pads.” Here he pointed at the small platforms at around knee height on the exosuit.
“There are straps for the shins, knees, thighs and so on. And here,” Next, he pointed at the arms of the machine. “The wearer’s hands aren’t even completely covered in the arms, they are just strapped in, underneath. Once inside, the chest closes up to protect the torso and the head, but the arms and legs are exposed. These were constructed from a mix of human and beetle tech. Made, I think, primarily because the inventor was bored.” He shrugged his giant, mane shrouded shoulders as he walked around one of the suits.
“They can be used in combat, but they’re mainly used to provide muscle power where we can’t get bigger pieces of equipment… Not that we, as a race, have much reason to come down to the surface anymore. Again, they were crafted out of boredom more than anything.” Ronin calmed down some and picked up on the worry in Leo’s stance. He thought the lionid was explaining so much about the suits to keep them both distracted more than anything.
“What are you going to do with the kids?” Leo asked at last, turning away from the nine-foot tall exosuits, to give Ronin his full attention. “We should really kill them. If word of this encounter got around to Kimberly’s father, it could be bad for us.” Ronin looked up at Leo, absentmindedly rubbing his chest, as he thought. The bubbled, smeared texture of the glue felt strange against the carapace covering his hands.
“We’re here to try and save what little of humanity we can.” Ronin answered at last, looking Leo in the eyes. “If we start killing kids who are guilty of only being too sheltered to understand how the world works, why even bother?” He was having flashbacks to himself, in his early days in his pocket world. It was sad, but he saw so much of himself in these kids… kids who were likely older than he was by decades. “What happens to beetle bodies, when their minds reenter the crystallin matrix?”
“You mean if you or I go back into our personal realms?” Leo asked, scratching himself under the chin as he thought. “It depends. I bought a body before, but after a while on the surface, I went back into the system. The ship gave me the option of selling the body or maintaining it for future use. Since I had no plans to leave again, I sold it. But it stands to reason bodies that don’t house consciousnesses can be reused.” Ronin’s face split into a wide grin at that news, and he began thinking furiously.
“Then, I don’t want to kill them.” He said at last, to the amused look on Leo’s face. “I’ll send them into my pocket world along with the refugees. I don’t see them causing too much trouble in there. It was daddies’ money that cause all the problems out here anyway.” Ronin looked at the five exosuits, and thought about the six, strong, bodies now waiting to be used, and his grin grew wider.
“It’s your turn, bug boy.” Doctor Mycroft said, entering the ship with her four abominations following in her wake. “Don’t worry, your girlfriend is fine, the big guy is carrying her back to the other ship to rest, then he’ll be right back… think we’re going to need his help to hold you down.” Ronin felt relief, followed by anxiety at her words.
“Hold me down?” He asked with trepidation. “Why would you have to do that?”
“Oh, I don’t know kid,” the doctor said, crossing her arms under her ample breasts, causing them to perk up even more. “Perhaps because you used a chemical bonding agent to seal the cracks in your armor? It’s not coming off either your muscles or your exoskeleton without cutting. It’s just lucky for you I spent some time experimenting with rapid growth steroids lately. It’s still going to hurt like crazy, but at least you’ll be healed up, good as new In days rather than weeks.” Ronin gulped at that, attention turning to the ramp as K3 ran into view at full speed.
“You ok boss?” The kaldarr asked, not slowing down until he’d reached Ronin’s side. “You took several hard hits out there.” Ronin noticed that he wasn’t the only one, K3 had at least two sections of his own armor that were slowly leaking orange blood between hairline cracks in the carapace.
“I’m fine. Apparently, I did more damage with the glue than the blow did me. What about you, big guy? Looks like they got you a few times too.”
“Minor damage, the doctor has already given me a rapid growth injection. I should be fine again in an hour. Also, don’t worry about Elyria. She’s sleeping, but the doc fixed her leg up first, and said she’d make a full recovery.”
“As touching as this is,” Leo said with a smirk. “Can we get on with it? We’ve got too ships now it seems. So, I’ll go get your people collecting more glass. You earned this ship by combat, so you keep it. While Red is seeing to your wounds, they can build another chamber in here.”
They hashed out details for a few minutes, and Ronin made a quick call to Stone. He thanked her for the quick save and let her know that Leo would be asking them to do some more work, and that they should do as he said. Then, he settled in for his surgery.
“Hey Doc,” he said, as she used all her hands to slowly cut the glue from his body. An annoyed hiss interrupted him before he could continue, however.
“Do not address the doctor in such an informal manner.” Locke, who’d been assisting with the procedure, snapped. He closed his mouth quickly, and ducked in silent apology, when the doctor in question gave him a dark look.”
“As long as you don’t call me, Red,” She said, with a nod at Ronin, “I’ve answered to worse than Doc… what do you need child?” Even when she’d glanced at Locke, she’d never ceased her work. Constantly swapping out instruments from the belt at her waist, and a bandoleer, Ronin hadn’t noticed underneath her lab coat.
“I was wondering about the glue,” Ronin said after making sure she was ok with the interruption. “When I got hit in the chest before, my armor cracked, just from a punch. After I got my chest split though, I mixed glue into the wound. It burned like crazy, but the next time I got hit, it didn’t hurt. Why is that?” The Doc worked in silence for a while, clearly thinking through the question, if the look on her face was any indication. She stopped scraping the glue away after a minute and started pushing Ronin’s chest. Checking around the wound, and an area that hadn’t gotten injured.
“Looks to me like the armored carapace you designed is hard, but brittle. It has no give to it, so when it reaches as much force as it can take, it breaks. The glue was designed to hold glass into a frame, which might move. It’s flexible, yet strong. From what I’m seeing here, having this flexible seam has improved the ability of your body to take damage by being able to give a little under the blows… like a willow bending to the wind, verses an oak, who breaks because it won’t bend.
The reference to an oak unwilling to bend brought back memories from his pocket world. Ronin exchanged a look with K3, the giant had an interesting look on his face. It took Ronin a moment to remember he’d fought shoulder to shoulder with Unyielding oak in that final battle. Done with his trip down memory lane, Ronin refocused on what was happening in the here and now.
“I don’t suppose there is any way we could, I don’t know, split my carapace at regular intervals and fill the gaps with glue?” He asked the wide-mouthed Doctor Mycroft, with a slight grin. “I was too vulnerable in that fight. I need every edge I can get if I’m going to get stronger.”
“Putting aside the fact that you could have easily won that fight with a few silent bullets from range… are you serious about this? The glue wouldn’t work, but I’ve been experimenting with the ladybugs on the tree, I think with a few samples of your armor I could have an upgrade ready for you in a few days. If I mix the…” Ronin hadn’t known what he’d unleash when he’d asked the question, and, not for the first time he was reminded of Owl two. Doctor Mycroft was fixated on experiments to the exclusion of almost everything else. As she prattled on about different compounds and how she could apply them to improve his body’s durability, Ronin’s mind began to wander.
He looked around the color force ship, his ship now, while the doc worked and talked. His people were coming and going from the ramp. Hard at work building a second enclosure. K3, after realizing that Ronin wasn’t going to move. Had activated the fabrication machine and was feeding in a slew of materials the color force had likely robbed from other contestants. Ronin watched as six small cages took shape, each equipped with one of the tentacle arms that had held them in the growth vats.
They should be enough to keep the colorfully armored prisoners contained, while they waited for Xerox to contact them. A series of loud noises heralded Karr, who was walking the exosuit back into the ship, coached quietly by Leo, who was walking at his side. Ronin grinned widely as he watched his sergeant work the machine.
His combat potential had just skyrocketed. Opening up several new avenues to his goals… His smile dimmed a little, as he realized that his plans were moving too smoothly. Whenever that happened, something was bound to come along and ruin those plans, in a way that normally resulted in someone he cared about dying.