Martyn raced across the dunes, rapidly slamming his titanic feet into the sand. Plumes of sand shot up into the sky, creating a storm that would trail behind him.
The behemoth suit was several hundred tons of white steel and armor plating. The nuclear engine powering the machine hummed close to Martyn chest, the heat of which was cooled by a climate-controlled cockpit.
Martyn shifted to run west along the southern side of the city, his patrol ceaseless. He and the other two behemoths made a constant circle around the city, watching and waiting for the moment they would get their revenge.
It had taken Martyn and his crew considerable effort to steal the machines, but all the suffering had proved worth it.
Anthony had been very resistant to participating with the hijacking, particularly the part where he had to be the bait. The man was the fastest of the crew, and with a few cybernetic upgrades, curtesy of Red Door, Kent was able to make the man run over a hundred miles an hour, reflexes to match too.
Martyn had watched as the boy raced across the desert, for a solid three minutes before collapsing into the sand, his chest heaving as he coughed up blood.
That was more than enough time for them to complete their plan.
Poppie and Kent had stayed back in base while the operation was under way, the woman providing their means of unlocking the behemoths remotely. Kent stayed to monitor the team’s vitals and prepare for the worst, his trauma room fully set up and stocked for the imminent tragedy.
It had boiled down to Martyn, Percy, Lily, and Anthony to face the task head on. Each person drove a separate car, Anthony in the front of the pack with the fastest of the machines, an old gas engine muscle car, nitrous pumps thrusting him forward.
A single sixty-four wheeled armored tractor-trailed truck rumbled across the highway, a behemoth suit running alongside it, the transports escort.
Anthony reached the convoy first as was planned, leaning out his window and firing a grenade launcher at the racing machine.
An explosion boomed out as the grenade impacted.
Bursting from the smoke and dust came an enraged behemoth.
The machine activated its thrusters and made after the man, leaving the shipment exposed and vulnerable.
Martyn and the others closed in on the unguarded vehicle and drove up close to the front cabin. With a few well-placed shots of a secondary grenade launcher, Martyn was able to separate the truck from its trailers, the propelling cab crashing off the road and into the sands.
A loud crunch signaled their second time stamp. The car Anthony had been driving had been crushed under the feet of the mad behemoth.
The boy could be seen leaping from the vehicle at the last moment. The man sprinted wide and fired another grenade into the behemoth, the action only serving to enrage it more. The effect was desired though, the man in the machine was now solely focused on the speedster.
Percy and Lily drove their cars in front of the still rolling trailer and slammed on the brakes, acting as makeshift tug-boats for the runaway container. Everything screeched to a stop as the trailer crashed into the back of Percy’s and Lily’s trucks, the pair being jolted in their seats.
Martyn leaped out of his vehicle and raced to the crashed trailer.
The man pulled a panel away and connected his phone to the open port.
“Poppie! It’s all you!” Martyn shouted into the device.
“Ten seconds!” The woman replied through the phone’s speakers.
The ten seconds lasted forever, the echoing booms and roars of the still living behemoth that pursued their friend chilling the crew to their core.
With a loud clank and slam, the metal sides of the trailer flew open. Behind which sat three white behemoths, their cockpits open and ready.
“You sure these aren’t like the old ones?” Percy asked Martyn, they all knew what one had to do to pilot the earlier models.
“Of course I am!” Martyn replied with surety.
The man didn’t actually know for sure, only having the word Jane as confirmation. The woman had proven to be trustworthy so, he hoped his trust wasn’t misplaced.
A distant scream followed by rapidly approaching earthquakes brought the crew back on task.
Martyn and the others pushed away their qualms and jumped into their respective suits, settling into the cockpits.
Anthony had been caught; they were running out of time if they wanted to escape.
They would also need to retrieve the boy during their run.
Martyn prayed he was alright.
The man ran his hands along the controls, searching for the appropriate start sequence.
Flicking switch after switch, a low hum erupted from the machine, the inside coming to life as the machine sealed him inside the metal coffin.
With a cool hiss the machine puffed a chemical into Martyn’s face, the drug filling his systems and giving him a sense of unprecedented energy.
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Immediately after recovering from the forced drug, a needle jabbed itself into the back of the man’s neck, the cold steel invasively binding itself into his spinal cord. Fire lit throughout Martyn’s body, but only for a split second. A numbness soon enveloped him as he opened his eyes.
Looking out he was now six meters above the ground, his feet sinking into the sand. An intense sense of vertigo tried to sweep over him, but a flare of pain from his neck pushed it away.
With a step forward Martyn fully exited the trailer, his balance completely unaffected by the sudden physiological transition. The man turned his gaze forward just in time to see as a behemoth slam into his torso.
Martyn expected to fly backwards or to be crushed instantly... but neither of those things happened.
The man looked down at the behemoth that had hit him in confusion. The machine was stuck onto him, its arms grappled around the man, the thrusters on its back and legs blasting out in full force.
Sand blew through the air behind the machine in great force, a whipping fury of sharp crystals and dirt.
From Martyn’s right a titanium first flew down onto the behemoth that had hit him.
The hand slammed into the suit’s head with earth shattering force, the steel frame of the machine being smashed inwards.
Martyn took a nervous step back, the behemoth before him sparking and flaming as it twitched erratically on the ground. The man lifted his foot and placed it on the torso of the dying creature.
He pushed down.
With a metallic crunch the chest caved inwards under Martyn’s weight, a mixture of blood and oil spilling out onto the sand.
“We just killed a behemoth...” A voice rang out from Martyn’s right.
Turning to look, the man saw the source to be Lily, the woman’s voice echoing out of her own behemoth suit. She had been the one to initially hit the machine after it had grappled the man.
“WE HAVE TO GET BACK NOW!” Percy shouted from a ways in front of Martyn, his feet kicking up large piles of sand as he ran towards the others.
A bloody body was cradled in the metal titan’s arm.
“Fuck!” Martyn swore, turning on his heel.
The trio broke into a full sprint, reaching speeds over three hundred miles an hour over the course of a few minutes. Each step shook the earth and threatened to collapse under the force.
They came to a screeching halt at the doors to the abandoned hotel they called home.
Kent stood waiting at the front door, Poppie in makeshift scrubs besides him.
“Give him to me now!” The man cried out from below the armored crew.
Percy bent down and placed the lifeless form of Anthony on to a stretcher, the boy’s eyes already glassy and vacant.
Kent looked into Anthony eye’s and slammed his fist into the kid’s chest. The boy’s body shaking slightly in response.
“Dammit!” The man shouted, pacing far away from the crimson corpse.
The crew had given Anthony a full sendoff. Using the last of their liquor, they made a pyre to burn him upon. The remaining few members of the gang sat in silence, thanking their lost friend, the group grieving together.
Martyn could do nothing but blame himself.
If he was honest, he always knew that the boy would die running from the machine, despite what he had told the kid to get him to agree to the plan.
In fact, Martyn expected all of the crew before they were done.
No one gets to kill a behemoth and live forever.
After that night, the crew made plans for patrolling the outskirts of Las Vegas. The suits had built in nutrient dispenser and blood filtration machines, meaning they could stay running around the city of days on end.
No food, no water, no sleep.
They could run forever.
Jane was informed of the successful heist, the woman was pleased and told Martyn that she would let him know when to come and attack the robot. The woman still holding her claim of spotting the machine in the city as true.
Martyn’s crew proceeded to run around the city for several days before they received their first call from Jane.
“The city is going into lockdown.” the woman said, her words playing directly into Martyn’s head as he came to a sliding stop.
Sand was scattered into the air, the moonlight catching the glass and causing it to sparkle.
“Why?” Martyn asked the woman sternly.
Being left with nothing but his thoughts day after day as he ran around the city had slowly burnt into the man. His mood had grown sour and his temper short. He was fed up with running, with waiting... he wanted to get his revenge.
“Our mutual acquaintance is why.” The woman replied distastefully.
Martyn felt his blood pressure shoot up.
“What about him?” The man asked through gritted teeth.
The woman was silent a moment before speaking.
“The bot has killed one of the city’s behemoths and blew up a tower. I think it’s worth noting that the blame has fallen onto you and your crew.”
Martyn seethed at the woman, “YOU BITCH! You pinned that bastard's actions on me?!”
“I had nothing to do with it. Martyn. I’m just as screwed as you are. They know I tipped you off about the behemoth shipment.” The woman replied, her explanation doing nothing to calm the raging titan.
“How do you plan to get me in there to kill the thing now?!” Martyn yelled at her, his shouts causing the sand to shift and shake below him.
“The entire city is looking for him right now, the thing is going to have to leave sooner rather than later if it knows what’s good for it. You will be the first person to know when it does.” The woman spat out, her own patience wearing thin.
“I better be.” Martyn replied, disconnecting himself from the call with a single thought.
The man paced back and forth across the sand, churning up his own personal dust storm.
Within it, Martyn tried to calm himself, the anger clouding his vision.
Martyn hadn’t slept or ate in three solid days; the mental strain was starting to get to him. It took great effort to control himself now, the machine that invaded him whispering him hateful words. It made his heart speed, every vessel in his body threatening to burst.
Sensing his strain, the suit pumped him full of more drugs, the chemicals slowing his heartrate and calming him down.
Martyn took a moment to collect himself. The man knew he should return to base and escape the suit for even a few hours, but he couldn’t risk it. Jane hadn’t been lying about the machine not being able to last long in the city; every news station plastering the ugly bot’s face on each screen in the city.
The man breathed in deeply, holding it for as long as he could. When his chest started to burn and his face turn blue, he released the breath.
Martyn started running, continuing his patrol around the city.
He couldn’t let the others catch up to him.
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A ringing in his head brought Martyn back to reality, his mind having wandered into space.
He had been running in a daze for... he didn’t know how long.
The star filled sky rested well above him, the only other source of light his glowing white eyes.
Coming to a stop, the man dropped onto this butt, sand flying up around him at his impact.
With a long-suffering sigh, the man accepted the call, a barrage of words flung at him, the voice filled with rage and urgency.
“THE NORTH EASTERN GATE! NOW! THE BOT IS OUTSIDE THE CITY!”
Jane’s words took a few seconds to register in the man’s mind, but when they did...
Martyn flung himself to his feet and ended the call. The man turned sharply on his heel and ran back the way he came, the behemoth's jets straining as he pushed them to their max, forcing him forwards at supersonic speeds.
A pain in his neck signaled the administration of a drug cocktail, the suit sensing his urgency. Each movement slowed in Martyn’s view, the drugs enhancing his perception and reaction speed. Using the new senses, the man increased his speed, only a blur remaining of him.
With a thought, the man created a channel and invited Percy and Lily, the pair still running their own patrols along the city. The two joined, a tired greeting from each exposing their own exhaustion.
“Move to the north eastern gate now!” Martyn commanded, “This is it...”
Just push a little harder guys, He thought for his crew, we’re almost done.