Inside a decently sized room is the leader of the group occupying the base. The room serves as his main office but also doubles as his bedroom. The leader is sleeping in his bed as a black liquid seeps into his room through the door.
The liquid climbs onto the bed and enters inside one of the ears of the leader. This causes the man to wake up in a panic, sitting up and picking on the ear where the black slime went in.
He calms down and reaches for a water container to grab a drink before his hand stops mid-way. He collapses on the floor, eyes bloodshot and glassy. The black liquid comes out of his ears and nose along with his blood as Lutrex opens the door and walks in. She places her hand down and collects the liquid before going to the office desk.
She opens the drawers and looks for any documents or information worth taking. She looks around the room, opening closets, lockers, electronics and even the body and bed of the leader to make sure she doesn't miss anything.
After that, she placed all of the gathered info on the desk and started putting them in a bag found in the room. She contacts her uncle through her helmet to update him on the status.
[LUTREX: "Hello? Uncle?"]
[CALIAN: "Huh? Oh hey, did you find anything?"]
[LUTREX: "Yes. The group stationed here is a part of a larger Anti-Foreigner group."]
[CALIAN: "Any info about meeting areas and bases? High-ranking individuals?"]
[LUTREX: "There are coordinates that lead to a large base located in the middle of a desert lake where they send captured foreigners to. The person in charge there is a staff sergeant."]
[CALIAN: "Great. How about the targets inside? You managed to kill them all yet?"]
[LUTREX: "I believe so. But I do wish to check something else in the basement."]
[CALIAN: "What for?"]
[LUTREX: "It seems they have captured some foreigners and placed them inside a storage room."]
[CALIAN: "You wanna rescue them? Alright, but be careful."]
[LUTREX: "Understood."]
The call ends as Lutrex slings the pack on her while walking outside of the room, closing the door quietly to not alert any inhabitants still remaining.
As she heads deeper underground, the atmosphere of the underground complex becomes darker and more oppressive in nature. Less light sources are available along with scattering of chains and other mechanical equipment.
After wandering for a few minutes, she finally arrives at her destination. Lutrex stands in front of a double door made of metal. The room seems to have been a storage area for equipment.
She places her hand on one of the door handles and opens it, making sure to hide her body behind the steel door in case enemies are inside. Equipping her rifle, she slowly inches herself near the opening to take a peek inside.
Empty. Empty of life she could see anyways. The mostly dark storage room is filled with crates, random equipment, spare parts and other miscellaneous objects.
What caught Lutrex's eyes however is a large curtain in the back of the room. Illuminated by a single ceiling light, she could see the top of a large cell poking above the height of the curtain.
Unsure if anyone is inside the room, she does a quick scan for heat signatures. Seeing no sign of life inside the room except for a weak heat source inside the cage, she enters the room and equips her rifle.
As she slowly walked towards the end of the room, she made sure to check her sides in case her scan did not account for machines such as drones. She reaches the end and pulls the curtains aside, making her blood boil at what she saw.
Inside the cage were twelve foreigner children, all of them human, clumped together in a corner to try and warm themselves. Their clothes were tattered and dirty and she could see cuts and bruises through the holes.
The children have mechanical collars on their necks that have red, blinking lights. Even without knowing what they are, Lutrex could guess that removing the children from the cage with the collars still active would be bad.
Lutrex activates her helmet comms and contacts her uncle again.
[LUTREX: "Uncle? Are you there?"]
[CALIAN: "What's up? Found the foreigners?"]
[LUTREX: "Yes. There are twelve human children in a cell deep in the underground facility. I will need assistance in removing their collars."]
[CALIAN: "Bomb collars?"]
[LUTREX: "Most likely."]
[CALIAN: "Alright. I'll call the ship to bring a techie down here during extraction. I've killed the guards outside so meet me up here."]
[LUTREX: "Understood."]
The call ends as Lutrex looks back at the shivering kids one last time. She wanted to help them now but her lack of knowledge with technology would just put them in harm's way. She could only hope the drop shuttle would arrive quickly.
She walks back towards the exit and steps outside, only to see a massive figure standing outside the room in her peripherals. She tried to turn around and step away but it was too late. The unknown figure grabs her whole head and throws her to the wall on the opposite side of the room with enough force to embed her into it.
Seeing her stuck, her assailant decides to step closer to get a better look at the intruder. The person is wearing a set of industrial power armor, heavily reinforced by plates to be used for combat.
The helmet of the metal colossus is shaped like that of a human skull painted blood red.
Lutrex could make out a firearm on its back, but she was more concerned about the weapon on its right hand. It was a handmade polearm with two, large buzzsaws serving as its blades.
Even though the power armor wasn't on par with Arkham's, the lack of an exosuit and the small environment made it a massive threat to Lutrex and she knew it,
As the metal giant slowly walked toward her, she had the black liquid eat away the concrete holding her up on the wall. As she watches silently, the pilot talks and reveals himself to be male.
"Well well. I thought one of the idiots tried to fool with the kids again but I didn't expect Arkham to show up here. Guess that explains why everything went quiet."
"Normally, we're told to keep your armor intact. But I'm sure they won't mind a missing helmet!"
He lifts his buzzsaw axe and slams it down onto Lutrex, but she removes herself from the wall in time and dodges the attack. The polearm ends up getting stuck onto the wall, giving the oni a chance to run away and escape.
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Removing his axe from the concrete, he turns around and starts to pursue Lutrex inside the compound. As she runs away, she forms a pool of black liquid on her palms and sprays jets of it on both sides of the wall she's passing by. When she stops spraying, the black substance bursts and turns into large crystals to slow down the power armor.
Not wanting to touch the substance, the pilot halts and uses his buzzaxe to properly tear down the strange barrier. This gives Lutrex enough time to contact her uncle and inform him of the situation.
[CALIAN: "Hey, what's-"]
[LUTREX: "Uncle, I need assistance! I am leading an enemy outside!"]
[CALIAN: "Shit! Alright, go!"]
The call ends as the pilot breaks the last barrier and continues to pursue the oni. Lutrex sees the entrance and runs faster while forming another ball of black liquid.
When the liquid sphere roughly reaches the size of a basketball, she solidifies the mass and throws it toward the cellar door. The door breaks open from the force, allowing Lutrex to jump and roll out.
Knowing the pilot is not far behind, she heads outside of the warehouse towards an open space.
Now outside, she could see the guards dead and torn apart. Many of them had missing heads while others had their torsos blown out.
Lutrex sees Calian standing on top of the sawmill's roof to support her. Throwing the backpack to the side, she pulled out her rifle and aimed at the warehouse.
The pilot runs out of the building, only to be bombarded by combined fire from Calian and Lutrex. Although their bullets only hit the shield, the sustained fire from both is rapidly overheating.
Realizing that he's only a few seconds away from being cooked by his own armor, he grabs the gun on his back, a machine gun, with his right hand and fires at Calian who's forced to retreat from the hail of bullets.
He then sets his sights back on Lutrex, who is nowhere to be seen. She reappears from his left, holding a scythe made of black crystals and cutting the gun in half.
The pilot recovered quickly and dropped the gun to grab Lutrex by the throat. She tried to swing the scythe but he swatted it away with his free arm before grabbing her by the throat.
He started to choke her as she desperately tried to free herself, placing the black liquid on his hand to break it. The pilot noticed this and started to electrocute Lutrex, causing her body to convulse in pain.
She couldn't scream due to the pressure on her neck. With the electric shock and the hand crushing her throat, Lutrex started to fall into unconsciousness as she started fighting back less. Even though the black liquid had started to eat the affected area, she'd be dead before they devoured the arm.
Behind the pilot however was Calian, producing arm blades from the forearms of his armor. The four blades resemble the talons of an eagle, electricity flowing through it and vibrating faster than the buzzaxe of the pilot.
With an upward slash to the power armor's right shoulder, the blades cleave through the armor with ease. Time slowed down for the pilot as he felt the loss of feeling on his right arm, feeling it going numb.
He looks towards it as he sees it fall towards the ground along with the unconscious Lutrex. Now registering what happened, he let out a bloodcurdling scream that traveled throughout the dark forest.
"ARRRGGGHHH!!!"
He tried to reach out to it and cover the wound only to realize that someone behind him did it. He instead reaches for his buzzaxe again and swings behind him, forcing Calian to step back to avoid the hit.
He swings the axe at Calian again but the smaller man is able to narrowly dodge the hits. Calian moves backward to keep him away from Lutrex while she recovers.
Lutrex coughs as regains consciousness, slowly rising up as her uncle fights the pilot. She places her palm on the ground as she looks towards one of the dead guards killed by her uncle and the cut machine gun.
The pilot started to use his reach against the agent, who could only dodge and try to get close to the PA user to get in range of his claws.
Calian saw his chance and tried to land a strike, but it was a mistake. The pilot shoulder bashed him with all his weight, sending Calian back a few feet on his side. The pilot didn't stop and ran towards the downed agent, kicking him like a football at the center of his torso.
The kick was strong enough to have him crash into a shed and destroy it. Calian couldn't do anything as he was in too much pain. The pilot slowly walked towards the fallen agent and stood above him.
"Should've- *pant* -run away instead of- *pant* -going down and saving her."
"Whatever... I'll finish the job after I-"
He felt bullets hitting his shield as he heard footsteps running towards him. He spun around with his buzzaxe to slice the oni. What he hit instead was a guard covered with black crystals, who held his fixed machine gun.
Lutrex reappears from above, using the dead guard as a platform to jump. A black spear in hand, she plunged it on the pilot's head. Then hops off as the power armor collapses onto the ground.
She starts to breathe heavily due to fatigue but realizes that her uncle is badly injured. She stumbles towards him and kneels down to check on him. Seeing that he's unresponsive, She connects to his suit using her console.
She sees on her screen that Calian is suffering from internal bleeding and multiple broken ribs. The bone shards have also pierced some of his organs, causing him to bleed fast.
Lutrex produces a blob of black liquid on her right hand. She opens Calian's mouth and lets the blob go inside him. Using her device, she directs the blob towards the damages and uses it to consume bone shards and patch up the damaged organs.
Seeing the bleeding has stopped for now, she disconnects from her uncle and contacts HQ.
[LUTREX: "Cordoba-01, this is cadet Lutrex! Agent Calian has been Wounded in Action and we need immediate medical assistance! Please send a dropship ASAP!"]
Lutrex ends the call and looks back to the unconscious Calian. She drags him into one of the shacks and places him there to hide him while she climbs on top of the warehouse and cloaks to hide herself.
20 or so minutes later, Lutrex could see a boxy-looking dropship appear above. Removing her cloak, she turns on the purple LED of her suit and helmet to signal her location.
Dropping off the roof, she runs towards the shuttle that lands near the body of the dead power armor pilot. Its ramp drops and four heavily armed men exit with their assault rifles at the ready, scanning the area for hostiles. The armor and guns they possess are angular and geometric in design. Their color scheme is dominantly white with black and gold patterns.
On their chests is an eerie symbol that resembles the letter H and the letter I combined [https://img.wattpad.com/d4710ac6e1b1834077df0c9c5b7701ef05c4be27/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f7354746b354f3158706e656d39513d3d2d313333353834313532382e313735373562373136323064363361353136323539393532303739302e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
On their chests is an eerie symbol that resembles the letter H and the letter I combined. The bottom arms of the symbol were glowing a brilliant gold color, and in the center of the symbol is an eye with a white pupil and black sclera.
Upon seeing the emblem, Lutrex sighs in relief that other Arkham agents have arrived. She runs towards the team of four, making sure her barrel is aimed at the ground. Seeing her approach, one of them asks her for an explanation.
"Cadet Roko, report."
She gives a hand salute before informing him of the situation.
"The mission is a success, sir. I have placed all of the gathered information in this bag."
Lutrex takes off the black bag from her back and hands it to the agent she's talking to. He opens it to check and nods his head before flinging it on his back as Lutrex continues.
"Agent Calian has been seriously injured and there are captive children inside a storage room with a large, steel door inside an underground complex. You can find its entrance at the large warehouse beside us."
The agent looks back to his team and points with his head to check out the warehouse. As the rest of his group leave, he looks back to Lutrex to give some final words.
"Good job, cadet. Now go get your uncle and get out of here."
"What about you and the others?"
"Don't worry, we'll call for another shuttle to pick us up. Now go!"
With a nod, Lutrex breaks away from the agent who heads inside the warehouse to regroup with his team.
Pulling him out of the shack, Lutrex lifts him up and carries him in her arms as she walks towards the shuttle.
"You will be fine now, Uncle. We will get you help."
Lutrex enters inside to see the pilot waiting for them inside, who prepared a stretcher to put Calian on. The oni laid her uncle down and helped fasten the straps.
With that done, Lutrex gives another sigh of relief and falls on one of the seats, fatigue finally affecting her. The pilot gives reassuring pats on Lutrex's shoulder, talking to her while returning to his cockpit.
"Go ahead and take a nap. When you wake up, we'll be at the station."
Taking his advice, Lutrex leans her head on one of the seat cushions and falls asleep as the dropship lifts up into the air and zooms into the sky until it disappears from sight.