Sophia's sudden disappearance shot all thought from my brain and I was only left with my instinct. I was backed against a wall and the man-robot was close behind and ready to strike, so I activate Rock Hand to try and fight this.

I feel danger from the left; jumping to the right I see a web of cracks in place of where I just stood. It slowly turned its head to look at me and pulled its hand out of the wall. It lumbered over to me. I felt the same sense of danger again and I had no choice but to try and cross me arms to block the punch. It struck.

I got thrown back as the punch decimated the Rock Hand turning the minerals into gravel and sand. I think I broke some bone or maybe all of them. All I know right now is pain. I fell to the ground unable to move my body. Was this where it ends? All by myself, unable to act, never to be found.

"Eliminating…t…h…r…e…a…t." The man-robot droned on and slowly drawled as the light left its left eye and closed its right. It collapsed to the ground and I have enough energy to see Sophia holding some canister the size of an oxygen tank, but bigger than the ones we found earlier. Sophia looks to me and I can see panic grow on her face as she runs over to me.

"Oh no, I didn't mean for this to happen." She tries to measure my vitals, I guess, and activates healing magic again though this feels more powerful. It feels so comforting to have someone care for my injuries I just feel like…sleep.

————————————————————————————————————

I wake up feeling snuggled tightly. I look over to see Sophia hugging me and resting on my shoulder. Her hands are still emitting green light. She really cares about me, huh. That's nice. I shift slightly as to wake her up. She moves a bit while waking up and turns to see me staring at her through both of our masks.

"So where did you go?" I ask and can feel the guilt grow from her.

"I was, uh, on the roof to get behind him. He had a large battery back there and while he was fighting you I was prying that out."

"Oh, so what do we do with it then?"

"I was going to wait for you to wake up so you can Inspect him before I throw him in a pocket space."

[ Augmented Human - With the base of a humanoid, this subject has had body parts changed to cybernetic equivalents creating a powerful monster. However, unlike a cyborg, this process was performed with little care for the subject, causing huge backlash on the subject and erasing the consciousness of the subject. In simple terms, a human only able to follow commands and basic ones at that. ]

"Oh. Oh, no. Can, can he be fixed?" I ask Sophia with some desperation in my voice and she just shrugs her shoulders. She then drops the body into a portal.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"He probably can be. If the person operating knew how to operate on similar instances. Perhaps like myself," an unfamiliar voice rang behind us. We turn around to see a tall figure, even more so than me, towering over us. A slim yet durable power-armor covers their entire body and a pitch black dome covering their head.

Their voice seemed modulated so they couldn't be recognized, but I knew who this was.

"C-CyberKnight!" I yelped while backing away as fast as I could. What could the most powerful villain in the city be doing here? Could he be helping these people? But then why didn't he stop us and…he just said he could fix him. I might be overreacting but I don't let down my guard yet.

"Good to see you're still on guard against me." He suddenly appears in front of me and grasps my shoulder tight. "Cause you never know what can hurt you." He lets go and walks away to stand near Sophia. "Your mentor here has me on speed dial and apparently I am trusted backup." That statement sent me into shock. I slowly turn my head towards Sophia and see her nod at me.

"But isn't he a villain?" I weakly say.

"Yes, but...he acts in more of a vigilante style. Acting as he likes. We have met a few times and became good friends," Sophia responds.

"Yes, now while these revelations are important, I do believe we have people to rescue." He walks ahead of us.

"We'll explain later," she whispers as she walks past. They get ahead of me for a few seconds before I catch up to them.

We eventually find a large door. I was about to try Rock Hand again when Sophia put her arm in front of me and pointed to CyberKnight.

I saw him put a hand on the door when a silver liquid poured out and a silver gas came out of his back. The two substances both covered the door for a few seconds before retreating back into CyberKnight. The door was gone. A foot thick, probably steel door was just gone in only a few seconds. "Discretion works best." He turned to me only to whisper three words to me before turning back around.

We find a large domed open space. Augmented Humans hanging from the ceiling by cables plugged into their bodies. The walls had corridors surrounding the room leading off to who knows where and in the center was a pile of computer screens with a familiar alcoholic hunched over a keyboard.

"Just need another. A few more and it'll all be done!" We heard him mutter to himself. "Wait. Intruders!" *Bang!* He turns around a fires a gun at us.

CyberKnight jumps in front of me holding the bullet with his index and thumb. "I'll be honest. I forgot how much that hurts." He drops the bullet and massages his hand. It might be useless though as he is wearing metal gauntlets.

"What are you…three doing here? Are you trying to stop the plan?" Jacque shakily keeps his gun pointed at us.

"We didn't really know there was a plan until you said something. Now, be nice and drop the weapon. Nobody has to be hurt." Sophia attempts to placate his actions.

"No. No! I won't bow to people like you! Heroes are all hypocrites. Saying you'll save the day when all you care about is fame." He...might be right?

"Hey, while most of the heroes in this city are like that, most of them out in the world do the job of actual heroes. I'm not even a hero, so just calm down." CyberKnight attempts as well. He then shifts his head as though he is listening to something. At that movement Jacque makes a mad dash at a table on his left and smashes a big red button. A trapdoor opened beneath him and he disappeared.

A metal grate slams down and closes all of the corridors. I hear a whirring noise and the three of us look up. "Initiating…Destruction…Sequence…Online."

"We might have a problem," CyberKnight states the obvious.