Chapter 107
Unsung Heroes 13
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After dropping out the HAA, Theo’s training with Miss Samantha spiked up in frequency.
Teachings that ranged from the mundane to the ‘what the hell is wrong with you crazy bitch?!’ were slowly and carefully shoved down Theo’s throat.
One particularly nasty lesson of hers was ‘How to beat Crow’
The short version: It was impossible
The long version: It was impossible…. Unless you cheat.
Evangelica Testarossa was an upgraded Theodore Lorne in almost every aspect.
While she might not use guns, her marksmanship was phenomenal.
She was rumored to be the master of a large number of martial arts. This was actually inaccurate because based on Miss Samantha, Crow was a master of nearly all martial arts in existence.
She also outstripped Theo in terms of combat experience, critical thinking and overall physical and mental abilities.
So, how can Theo bridge the massive difference of skill and experience?
By using the 2 aspects that he had that Crow lacked: extremely advanced technology and the ability to completely disregard a person’s life.
The milisecond the battle began, Theo fired his pistol at Crow with every intention to kill her.
Did he want to kill her? Absolutely not!
But that was the wrong question to begin with.
The correct one was ‘Was anything besides old age capable of killing her?’
That was up for debate.
Many criminals have seriously tried to kill her. Clearly none succeeded.
As such, no matter how hard Theo tried, it was literally impossible to kill Crow unless nuking an entire city was involved.
And even then, that was not a guarantee.
Thus, Theo needed to fight as dirty as humanly possible.
While pistol fire kept Crow from approaching, Theo used used the Super Shotgun’s grappling gun to grab the corpse of a teenage mutant ninja squirrel and smashed it into Sparrow who was in mid lunge.
She fell into the filthy cavern below, but she could easily glide to safety and use her grappling gun to get back up.
She’ll be back.
Crow used this almost millisecond gap and threw a 3 crow shaped shurikens at Theo.
Though caught off guard, Theo was able to shoot it all down.
Just like anything related to Crow, nothing was that straight forward.
The second of the 3 shurikens was actually a powerful flashbang.
However, Theo was sort of prepared for this.
The beauty of losing all of his eyes was the fact that his cybernetic eyes automatically adjust the brightness in order to make things easier to see.
The flashbang had no effect on him, but he pretended it did to get Crow to drop her guard.
This was a mistake.
True enough, Crow charge straight to him like he hoped, but he soon realized how massive the gulf of skill really was.
Crow threw a hard right which Theo blocked with his left arm.
Crow kicked the pistol out of his hand before he could even counter attack.
Crow bashed Theo in the face.
Just to be clear, all of this happened AT THE SAME TIME!
In a single instant, Crow shifted the tide into her favor.
Such awe inspiring level of skill.
Theo tried to back away, but Crow allowed no such thing.
She unleashed a barrage of blows and kicks that could easily knock out someone cold.
The only thing that kept Theo conscious was his power armor that effectively negated nearly all of Crow’s haymakers. However, he knew that beating someone to a bloody pulp was not required to score a knockout blow.
All that was needed was to violently rattle a person’s brain.
As such, Theo protected his head at all costs. He took a fair bit of blows to the body, but nothing he couldn't handle.
Out of desperation, he overclocked his brain and fell back to his favorite melee gun fighting tactic.
He dodged and weaved like a boxer while firing a single pistol round into Crow’s gutt.
However, after taking a single shot, Crow immediately changed tactics. She reduced her flurry and focused on redirecting Theo’s hands before they could pull the trigger.
Nevertheless, her counter attacks were as accurate as they were powerful.
And to make matters worse, Sparrow was back.
She glided from behind and joined in the brawl.
Out of desperation, Theo activated the Seer System and kept it active.
He didnt like the idea of using the supercomputer spydrone till it broke, he literally had no other option.
At the same time, he sent a transmission…
“Activate Contingency Plan B”
He hoped to buy a bit more time before using Plan B, but such was expected when dealing with S Ranked Heroes.
Theo changed his fighting style to match the Seer System’s assistance.
His movements went from small and efficient to erratic and dance-like.
Such was the Bullet Dance style.
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The effect was instantly noticeable.
Despite both Crow and Sparrow ganging up on him, Theo was receiving considerably less blows.
However, he was still unable to counter attack due to Crow’s skillfully redirecting his hands before he could pull the trigger.
Theo could use his omnidirectional flamethrower to get these 2 off of him, however, this would certainly cripple or kill them.
This was not what Theo desired.
And besides, the flamethrower was essential to his escape plan. Thus, he held back on using it.
However, he needed to get out of this predicament ASAP.
With that in mind, Theo executed a quickly constructed plan of his.
Theo swung his Super Shotgun and tried to aim at Crow. And as expected, she was able to redirect the gun to point downward with a skillful karate chop.
This was exactly what Theo hopped for.
Throughout this battle, Theo refused to pull the trigger whenever he couldn't get a clear shot. This was to avoid reloading at the midst of battle.
Without bullets, he was practically unarmed to Crow and Sparrow.
This time around, he abandoned this philosophy.
Using the Seer System, Theo was able to predict how Crow was going to redirect his Super Shotgun.
Theo fired both super shotgun’s bunker buster round into the surface between him and Crow
Reminder: They were fighting on top of a large sewer pipeline.
The filthy sludge that was passing through the pipe suddenly erupted like a geyser, taking Crow by surprise. She was thrown into the air and landed with a dull thud on one of the pipes above.
Getting hit an impromptu high pressure water cannon would do a fair bit of damage. Even someone like Crow wont get out of that one without a few bruises.
Before Sparrow could react to the sudden event, Theo fired all of the grappling guns on his back weapon at her.
As expected of Crow’s disciple, she was able to dodge all of it with a skillful backflip.
Unfortunately for her, the Seer System was able to predict her flight path.
While in mid flight, the super shotgun’s grappling claw grabbed her by the legs. And without missing a beat, Theo violently slammed her into the pipe like a rag doll.
Theo did this one more time to ensure that Sparrow was truly dazed.
He dragged Sparrow towards him and tore her mask without any hesitation.
She knew Theo’s real identity. It wouldn't be fair if he didnt know hers in return.
The moment Theo saw her face, a single question was asked.
“Who the hell are you?” asked Theo to the dazzed Sparrow.
She was a beautiful girl that fitted the pretty tomboy trope perfectly.
She was probably a few years older than Theo with short hair, determined eyes and a face that brimmed with infectious energy and enthusiasm.
Theo has never seen her before, yet he couldn't help but feel that she was familiar.
One thing was for sure, she was not part of the HAA.
Such a pretty girl would have been in Theo’s radar if that were the case.
Theo was about to run the facial recognition program on his right eye, but was cut short when his back camera spotted an incoming threat.
Theo released the supershot gun’s grip on her, grabbed her leg with his left arm and used her as a gigantic club to smash the incoming Crow.
Unfortunately, Theo was a second too late.
Crow’s dropkick connected first before Sparrow slammed into her.
Theo was thrown off the pipe so violently that he smashed through the smaller pipes before he could react.
Theo fired the grappling guns on his back to slow his descent and avoid hitting the larger pipes.
Eventually he was able to land safely on one of the larger pipes.
There was bout 30 meters of vertical distance between Theo and the Crow trio.
It was actually surprising how far he fell in such a short span of time.
As he was musing his current predicament, a couple of status reports came in.
First : The supercomputer in the Spy drone was no longer operational. Returning to base
Second: The elven hunt has ended. There were a couple of prisoners and no casualties on Theo’s side. They were currently pulling back.
Third: The Contingency Plan B was on its way down.
Theo had but a few moments to prepare for his grand exit.
He looked down at the stagnant filth below.
Based on his right eye, there was enough mixture of crap to produce the dangerous Sewer Gas
Perfect
Theo launched his grappling guns skywards and charged towards Crow.
“*sigh*.... I can already feel my bones breaking.” thought Theo while trying to control his breathing.
And then it happened.
Something big smashed through the distant ceiling.
It’s momentum was so great that it tore through the thick pipes with ease.
It sunk its fingers into the concrete sewer walls in order to slow, and eventually stop, its descent.
Theo and the Crow trio stared at it in shock and confusion.
“What the hell is that?!” roared Theo as he stopped just below where the Crow trio was.
Naturally, he knew exactly what it was.
It was the 3 meter tall giant he and the Ecclesiarchy found underneath the 9th District of Hellhole.
It was also Theo’s contingency plan.
And just as he hoped, the giant was pissed off and was looking for an outlet to vent its rage into.
Fortunately for the giant, Theo and the Crow trio were there to entertain it.
With a massive roar that felt like it shook the world, the giant pulled out one of the nearby sewage pipes and lunged at its prey
“SCATTER!” roared Crow
Not that it was necessary.
It was fairly obvious that being anywhere near the giant had a negative effect to one’s health.
The giant jumped towards them, taking out every structure along its path.
It was a no brainer to run for your life the moment you saw such a monstrosity move in your general direction.
However, among the people within the filthy shithole, one person remained unmoving.
This was Dorothy Boreal
No one could blame her though.
Not only did her first love not love her back, he openly admit that he was using her and has her father hostage.
How can anyone be alright after such a heart shattering moment?
As such, despite being perfectly capable of dodging the incoming monstrosity, Dorothy’s will to live was nonexistent.
She just sat on the filthy sewer pipe and watched the giant swing its pipe at her with disinterest.
This was exactly what Theo was hoping for.
With the supercomputer spy drone out of commision, Theo used his own brain to perform the calculations needed for the Seer System in order to predict where the giant would swing his makeshift club
Theo fired his grappling hook and rushed towards Dorothy.
He was able to push Dorothy out of the way before getting hit by the massive pipe.
Before he got hit, he took a posture that made sure that both of his legs and his right arm were the only ones that got hit.
He was smashed into a wall a few meters away with a violent thud.
At this point, Crow and Sparrow assaulted the giant in order to distract it.
“T-Theo?” asked Dorothy in disbelief and horror.
Her reaction was understandable given Theo’s condition.
All of his ligaments minus his invincible left arm was twisted like a disgusting pretzel.
Fire leak from his omnidirectional flamethrower and was already engulfing him.
FYI: he was doing this intentionally. An added dramatic effect so to speak.
With a weak voice Theo said…
“Dorothy…. Are you… okay?”
Just to be clear Theo was not acting.
He was hurting like hell right now and was desperately trying to not scream extremely rude words to anyone and everyone.
He had a script prepared for the situation.
If he could pull it off, Dorothy would fly right back into his hands.
With that in mind, Theo delayed the activation of the omnigel.
And it seemed to have worked wonders.
“THEO! Hold on! I’m coming!” said Dorothy as she rushed towards him.
Unfortunately, the giant’s rampage sent debris flying all around. Some of which smashed into the pipe Theo was clinging to.
He fell silently fell into the murky deep below.
“THEO! NO!”
Dorothy was about to dive after Theo, but suddenly, a massive explosion turned the the stinky pit of shit into a blazing field reminiscent of hell itself.
The bottom of the massive cylindrical area was filled with Sewer Gas, a highly flammable and explosive substance.
This was the main reason why Theo intentionally started the fire leak via his flamethrowers.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! THEO! THEO!” screamed Dorothy from the top of her lungs.
Crow jumped after Dorothy and pulled her back.
“Fallback! This is not an ideal place to fight that thing!” ordered Crow as she dragged Dorothy who was practically kicking and screaming.
At this point, Theo activated his omnigel and swam away underneath the fire and shit.
“I was able to escape an inescapable opponent like Crow, got back on Dorothy’s good side and was able to finish off the elves without anyone noticing it. Today is a good day!”