After a Rami-mandated breakfast, Orion went out with the Clockwork to the Gearmaster’s shop. As he entered, the Gearmaster met him there with some inkling of urgency.
“Glad to see you’re doing alright. How many ships was it in total?”
“Four that I took care of. When I got down to Blood Moon Island, they were already dealt with. A strange scenario.”
“How so?”
“There were Syndra men lined up among the dead.”
The Gearmaster looked at him with more worry than before. “Well then, it’s a good thing you’ve tested out your new tools already.”
“I’m not totally sure I’m ready for those.”
“What better way to find out?”
“I suppose.”
They walked into the basement of the shop, where a good most of the tinkering happened, and entered the area that had now been claimed by Orion. The Gearmaster’s previous apprentice, a man by the name of Mr. Lowe, had been there before, but after some bad blood between the two that Orion hadn’t asked about, it was his turn to one day continue the legacy of the Gearmaster.
In this case, it was two new equipment items he’d been working on: rocket boots and a heavy shield made of the same material as the Clockwork.
One thing that Orion had asked repeatedly is exactly what metal it was, but the Gearmaster was unwilling to share that at this point. Maybe it had something to do with Mr. Lowe. He may never find out.
He threw the rocket boots on, which went over his normal boots, and picked up the heavy shield. It was still a little rough around the edges, but it was his first project as understudy to the Gearmaster, and he was more than happy with how it had turned out. Besides, it didn’t have to be beautiful, it had to be functional.
“I adjusted the thrust on these a little so you don’t risk breaking your hips on launch anymore,” the Gearmaster said, pointing to the boots.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea. Appreciate it.”
His watch buzzed, and the setup in his room started flashing lights again. This time, there was activity somewhere in the Biomed and Engineering Districts. Two places at once.
“Do we have camera access?” Orion asked, approaching the terminal.
“No, but judging by how slow they’re moving and how spread out it is, I’m guessing it’s a ground army. Likely came by boat.”
“Okay. I’ll get word out to the army, and the two of us will head out.”
“Good luck out there. And let me know if you find out anything more about Syndra.”
“Of course. Do you have the protection system on?”
“Nobody’s getting past the twins, Orion. I think we’ve had our fair share of demonstration on that.”
Orion and the Clockwork lifted off towards the Biomed and Engineering Districts, which wasn’t too long of a flight from their shop. In the meantime, Orion did what he could to look around the area, making sure there weren’t any stray or advancing enemies in the rest of the city. For the most part, it seemed they were all concentrated on those two spots.
Which to go for first? Either way, the one they didn’t go for was going to advance and try to take their respective district, doing who-knows-what to the people in it.
Maybe it was time they split up for once.
The Clockwork turned his head completely around and looked at Orion, almost as if to ask if he was sure. But it was decided. He would take the smaller group at the Engineering District, and the Clockwork would take the Biomed District.
Once they were close, Orion hopped off of the Clockwork’s back, allowing himself to freefall for a bit. The wind felt good against his whole body, and with his eyes protected by the goggles, he got a good view of what was happening below. The Nazi men were already taking prisoners. He would have to act with caution to make sure nobody innocent got in the way.
As he got dangerously close to the ground, he threw his rocket boots on with the click of a button in his pocket, and slowed his descent to the pavement below, while also retrieving his shield from his back. It wrapped tightly around his arm and covered most of his upper body.
A few of the close Nazis looked at him with confusion on their faces until he also pulled out his baton. He spun it as he ran their way, before rocket-jumping at one of them and bashing them with the shield. They fell to the ground, and three others started shooting.
He took out the one on his left with the baton, smacking him so hard he hit the ground and didn’t get back up. The other two backed up in fear, still trying to shoot, as their bullets ricocheted cleanly off the shield. Then, they too received the baton treatment, taking more than one hit each to go down, but still going down just the same.
By now, almost all attention, civilian and Nazi alike, was on him. He wasn’t sure when the army was supposed to show up, but he knew it was going to take a miracle for him to face off and win against all forty-or-so men alone. Depending on how long it took the Clockwork to deal with his portion, he might not have to.
Those closest to him started barking something in German, but he paid no attention as he rocket-jump-bashed another one in the head, almost tripping over his unconscious body on the landing. More heavy gunfire rang out, which he rolled away from, and met the face of another man with his shield, slashing at him diagonally. It left some serious damage and a lot of screaming, but that man was officially no longer a worry.
More German yelling came, and the men tried to wrap around him. As soon as they nearly had the strategical advantage, he pressed the button for his rocket boots and held his shield face-downward, effectively blocking gunshots from below. One pinged against a boot, causing it to shutter momentarily, but it regained control after a couple of harrowing seconds.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Many of the people that had been held hostage were taking the chance to run away into buildings, and before long, it was him and the Nazis. He landed down in front of the group, all within his view, and held up his shield.
“I will not let you take Carmsborough,” he said, practically yelling. He wasn’t sure any of them actually understood him, but the one that seemed to be in charge yelled something back in German. He hadn’t known any language other than English, so that didn’t particularly mean anything to him. The man was obviously angry, though.
All the men aimed their guns at him, and in one clean barrage, they opened fire. He ducked down to cover his whole body with the shield as the firing continued for what felt like half a minute. The repeated trauma to the shield rattled his bones, but it was a lot better than the alternative.
Once the firing had finished and the shield was still unpenetrated, he stood back up. The men were all in the middle of reloading. It was his chance to wipe out a few more.
He did the usual rocket-jump into one of them, which they almost dodged, if not for the baton swiping out at them at forty kilometers an hour. The target crumpled, and he was on to the next, his baton swinging ferociously.
One of their own pulled out a baton instead of reloading their weapon, and challenged him to a battle. He pressed a button on the bottom of the baton, and in an instant, one edge of it had become sharp. They swung and Orion’s cut the enemy’s in half. Then, he slashed at the man’s legs, who hollered out in pain and fell to the ground.
A few of the men had successfully reloaded by this point and were more than eager to take him on. He returned his shield to a defensive position and felt the ping of the bullets ricocheting off. The one in command yelled something out, and the bullets stopped. When he lowered the shield, he saw the bullets had bounced off the shield and into some of their own men.
Friendly fire.
They were now down to about thirty people capable of continuing the fight. Orion was starting to feel like maybe he really could do it, but it hadn’t mattered, because a moment later the Clockwork was whistling through the air and landed on the one in charge. It was a sickening noise, but it did all it needed to do for the rest of the men, who immediately either started firing at the machine or dropped their weapons.
A minute later, and the remaining thirty had been reduced to zero by the Clockwork, who was notably unblemished by their actions. He seemed almost cheerful about what he’d done. The fact that they continuously went for the Clockwork with nothing that could actually do damage was mind-boggling.
It took a few minutes longer for the Carmsborough military to arrive.
“Glad to have you here,” Orion said, giving the new general a handshake. “There might be a few still standing around here somewhere. I’ll gladly help with cleanup.”
“You know, Orion, you can save some for us,” the general said. “This is our job, after all.”
“Yeah, but have you tried telling the Clockwork he can’t do something? It doesn’t exactly go over well.” He gestured vaguely to the scene behind them.
“Fair.”
Orion’s watch buzzed again.
“Calling to comment on a job well done?”
“Not quite,” the Gearmaster replied. “Looks like there’s some activity in the northwestern section of the Housing District. Violent fighting was heard at an apartment complex, and it looks like some drama with a moving company. Think you can get to it?”
“So, not Nazis? Just normal crime?”
“Sorry, I couldn’t give you anything more exciting again. Police have also been alerted.”
“Alright.” He looked over at the Clockwork, who was already prepared. “Let’s kick it into gear, bud.”
-◦=[ ]=◦-
On highest speed, it took about five minutes to get from the eastern-most part of the Engineering District to the northwestern part of the Housing, which was a lot faster than the Clockwork used to be able to do, thanks largely in part to continued tinkering by Orion and the Gearmaster. Still, five minutes was more than long enough for situations like this to go sour, and as he approached, that seemed to be the case.
From what Orion could make out as far away as they were, multiple armed men seemed to be standing around a bush, guns out. Several cars were parked outside of the complex, including a box truck for a company called B Realty.
Many of them turned to see them approaching and booked it for the cars. Then, someone came running out of the bush and into the box truck, turning it on and driving jerkily forward.
Orion figured they were probably incredibly nervous, whoever it was.
He watched as the other cars followed the box trucks, and all of them blew the stop sign. From there, the cars split into different directions, and if he had to guess, they were either trying to lose him or get the jump on the box truck.
“Let’s follow the box truck and the car behind them,” Orion told the Clockwork, who obliged.
A man in the backseat popped halfway out of the car and took a few shots at them. The bullets came nowhere near, but at least it let Orion know whose side they were on, and that the box truck driver likely wasn’t at fault here at all. Once they’d given up on that, they aimed for the box truck, putting holes in its cargo area.
The two vehicles blew through another stop sign and went straight onto a busier street, causing a bit of chaos. The box truck slowed, forcing the black car following it to bump into it, and the Clockwork took that chance to smash down on top of the car. It eventually rolled to a stop under his weight, completely deformed, and they took off again, leaving the car and the people inside behind. The police could deal with them.
The two went back for a bird’s-eye view and eventually spotted the box truck being shot by the two other black cars on an even busier street. They smashed down once again on the car to its right, stopping it dead in its tracks, before the Clockwork picked it up and placed it on an empty section of sidewalk to get it out of the road.
Orion watched as the box truck took a hard left into an alley that it was almost too big for, using it as access to another road and another alley. The black car followed, and both vehicles stopped in the alley.
The Clockwork landed at the mouth of the alley, and the two men unloaded their pistols, which, unsurprisingly, did nothing to the brass behemoth. Once they’d gotten their fun in, the Clockwork smashed them into the sides of the buildings, and Orion hopped off.
“I’m only going to ask once,” Orion said, approaching one of them. “Who do you work for?”
“As if we’d tell a kid like you,” the man said, grunting under the pain.
“This kid has a lot more manpower and resources than you do. If you simply tell me, this’ll go a lot easier for you. Who are you, and who were you chasing across the city?”
“Just some kid. She’s been giving the boss some trouble.”
“And who’s your boss?”
“We ain’t spilling.”
“I really think it’s in your best interest. Otherwise, the police will do what the Clockwork is doing to you for a lot longer.”
“Better than what the boss would do to us if we spilled.”
“So we get you some safety. If you’re really that scared, I can help you. You just have to cooperate.”
Orion heard a footstep down the opposite end of the alley, and for a brief moment, he glimpsed the person they had been chasing.
It was the homeless girl who had helped him over two years ago. She had a look in her eyes that he recognized completely: fear and loss. Exactly the way he’d felt after fleeing the farm when Rami had been shot.
For the moment, he decided not to chase after her. He couldn’t imagine what reason she would have had to get tangled into a mess with some organized crime group, assuming that’s what this was, but something told him if he kept watch in whatever way he could, she could lead him to the bigger picture.
Add that to the list of loose ends right now, he said, going down the list. Nazis, Blood Moon Island, Syndra, and now the homeless girl and organized crime. The past two days had been more exciting than the past two years.
“Can we go now?” one man asked.
“You’re funny. The cops will be here any second to take you away.”
Only one thing stuck out in his head: her cat hadn’t been there with her. Not when she ran to the truck, and not when she was running away. Something told him it had something to do with that.