"Danger rating ten, a cost of nearly ten thousand [Credits] to transport you that far from our domain. May you suffer-" Barillo began, halting as his eyes flicked down at his podium a few times, then stayed locked there, widening. "What is... Twenty thou- shut it down!" he yelled, turning his body around to stare at a man sat behind them, a large metal plate grasped tightly in his hands.
Kellin watched the man nod frantically as he looked down at the plate and began to fiddle with it, only to look back up in confusion.
"[Treasurer] Kafre, I said, shut it down!" Barillo yelled at the man again.
"I... I can't sir," Kafre responded, meeting the [Senator's] eyes with apprehension.
Gradually, the energies that had seemed to stabilize grew chaotic once again. The portal expanded in diameter as the surroundings became saturated in what Kellin could only assume was the Universe's own will, or what they understood as [Credits]. The screens above flickered on and off until all shutdown, the lighting in the room seeming to bend.
Taking a grueling step away from the expanding rift on reflex, Kellin realized his suit had cut itself off from the external influences keeping it held in position as well. Thinking fast, he stopped himself from taking another step, less anyone in the room notice and he lose his newfound freedom. This mistake had just made him become the most dangerous person in the room by far, probably allowing him to enact a massacre.
If he were guilty of half the crimes he'd been accused of, he might just have done it too.
"It... won't stop consuming," the [Treasurer] added, his voice picked up above the commotion by the [Senator's] mics while gesturing toward the plate. "It estimates a net usage of over a million."
The enhanced voice cut through the murmuring in an instant as everyone fell silent, staring at the anomaly in the room before them. The rift continued its expansion, already passing eight feet in diameter, until the entire structure they were inside of began to creak, loud cracks shredding through the polished stone floor as the metal holding the bleachers in place groaned.
"That's... an entire month of... impossible," the [Senator] on the far right muttered, Amaran Flisk if Kellin remembered correctly.
A slight tug began to pull at his suit, snapping him out of his reverie. Leaning back and exerting just a bit of pressure, he managed to keep himself from sliding forward into the portal scant inches before him.
Others, however, weren't so lucky.
A large banner of silk tore off the wall and made for the rift, wrapping two unlucky men up in it as it swept them down the rows of watchers and hit the center platform of the Colosseum with a loud thud. The men thrashed to be free, but like a wind in its sails, the fabric banner pulled their screaming forms towards the portal as the room exploded with motion.
Men and women alike who had begun to gently slide forward activated the mag-locks in their footwear and hit the decks, huddling under their seats or making for the doors as banners, maps, papers, notebooks, and every other loose object gently dragged itself toward the ever-expanding rift. The two men in the banner disappeared without ceremony, the only indication they were no longer here being the silencing of their yelling.
All five [Senators] began to leave their podiums in haste, as the rift had been conjured between Kellin and them and was less than a foot from where they'd stood. [Senator] Barillo, in a panic and ever seated at the center and highest point of the [Senators], attempted to push past Amaran and tripped over her robe, falling down the last few steps to the floor, body almost horizontal as his feet hit first, gaining momentum before his head contacted the floor last with a dull thud. It was no surprise the man lost consciousness and began to slide toward the portal on his front.
A few men and women tried to grab at him, but found themselves being pulled along by a force that was constant and unforgiving. They let go and he continued sliding at the same constant pace as when they'd tried to hold on toward the maw of the rift.
Kellin chanced a look toward [Station Commander] Tresk's podium and found he'd abandoned it, taking his AI chip with him. On a whim, Kellin gave a last command to his suit halfheartedly, even jokingly, expecting it to be non-responsive.
"Computer, scan room for [Station Commander]."
Nothing happened for a few seconds, causing him to sigh in knowing.
'No idiots would use an actual combat suit AND AI unit when killing off-'
His internal grumbling was cut short when a slightly warbled ding sounded out, causing his stomach to flip as a disjointed voice began speaking.
'sEQuenCe ComPLeTe. COM-der highLigHT-d'
Halfway through the words, his visor lit up with a bunch of fragmented numbers and colors, finally settling on a heat spectrum to Kellin's disappointment as the rest of the screen cleared. A miserable AI it was, but one nonetheless. It had done what it promised and showed the commander ten times brighter than the others, caught in the traffic of folks leaving with a few of his guard around him.
Luckily, none suited up.
"Enable manual override?" Kellin stated hopefully, heart pounding as he watched the rift slowly begin to expand beneath his boots.
Immediately, he felt the suit go slack against his body as he strained a bit, clenching down on his jaw hard to ignore the pain of having any amount of pressure on his heavily damaged body. The sudden increase in pain had almost caused him to stumble forward which would have been an absolute disaster.
With another burst of willpower as adrenaline began to kick in, Kellin waved his arms around and began to hop on his toes, testing the suit's AI-influenced range of motion. It was much less responsive than even a training unit, but it would do.
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Leaping forward over the rift, he planted the metal boots of the fully enclosed combat suit against the large podium falling into it and shoved off, sending himself flying towards the stands near Tresk and landing with a loud crash that shook the room. With grace reserved only for those with thousands of hours of experience piloting a combat suit, he avoided crushing any on-lookers while once again jumping further up the stands until he had made it past where the [Station Commander] was on his way to the door.
Turning around and moving right, he slid into the walkway with all the subtlety of a train, people leaping out of the way or being knocked aside as his heavy form threatened to crush any feet or limbs that became an obstruction. From his vantage point, he could see Tresk's men doing worse, throwing women and men alike out of the way as they made their way up the staircase. Until they met a three-meter-tall metal blockade that they couldn't move.
Or he thought they shouldn't be able to, until a punch from one of the [Elite Guards] launched him back into the stairs behind him.
Years of experience took over as Kellin utilized the backward momentum to roll onto his back and over his head, up the recently populated steps until he was facing the men again back on his feet. In the same fluid motion, he'd already drawn the assault rifle at his hip and attached the serrated blade underneath it, pointing down the stairs at the five men before him. All four [Elite Guards] paused in their advance, staring down the barrel of the deadly canister rifle all military men were forced to start their careers with.
Kellin idly wondered if the men before him had tried taking a round to the chest yet with their enhanced status.
"My AI, Tresk," Kellin demanded using a tone offering no alternatives. "Or you all learn what those creatures you baited on us felt as I finished them off, one by one."
Tresk's face was a mask of calm despite the gun pointed directly at it. The act brought Kellin a small amount of unease, despite knowing how outmatched the men before him were.
"You're bluffing. The weapon is empty," Tresk replied icily.
Turning a dial on the side of the rifle with his thumb, a round formed in the chamber before exploding down the barrel and taking the man in his leg with enough force to rip a fully grown elephant's leg clean off.
Tresk winced as his shinbone became exposed, dropping to one knee. The two furthest guards that had been standing around prepared, but lax, closed in front of the Commander as the other two began to slowly advance forward after getting the go ahead from Tresk, the one who had hit Kellin's chest initially on his left and further up. Another click permeated their surroundings as Kellin reactivated full-auto.
The two forward guards lept forward with a speed no ordinary Human would ever possess, covering the few meters left between them in half a second. Kellin had seen it coming due to the perfectly unlucky permanent state of his vision, an explosion of color originating in their legs signifying their intent. Pivoting his left leg back, he crouched down and brought the serrated blade of the rifle into the gut of the man on the left, pulling the trigger just before he was hit by the truck of the other man on his right shoulder.
[Credits earned for the defeat of Elite Guard Class individual above your Threat Level: 450'000]
The serrated blade tore out the side of the man's stomach with the momentum of the tackle as three rounds shot out his back towards the ceiling.
Shoving off his right foot hard, Kellin tumbled further up the stairs, momentum taking his heavy suit up and over the top of the other man. As the movement finished, a metal knee landed in the chest of the second guard as the canister rifle once again sounded through the hall, dispatching a burst of ammo into his attacker's head.
Looking up quickly, Kellin's gun trained itself on the three left before him. A metal boot cracked the stone next to the head of the man he'd just murdered as his dark blue and silver suit slowly rose. The fully encased metal shins, thighs, and abdomen were splattered with a small amount of blood, as was the rifle that remained steady on Tresk before him.
[Credits earned for the defeat of Elite Guard Class individual above your Threat Level: 300'000]
Kellin scoffed at how much they'd spent on these two individuals alone. It was understood that any kills generally netted a rounded down [Credit] amount equal to half an individual's total consumed throughout their lifetime, increasing or decreasing with classes or relative strength in comparison to the opponent. With the average citizen barely getting one thousand throughout their short life, it disgusted him to think how long these men might have already lived, and made all the more realistic how fragile Humanity truly was. Kellin had only ever been allocated a measly 40'000, despite having contributed himself more than 400'000 alone.
All this meant that if he had caught these men at any other time, in any other circumstances, he'd likely be dead. If they had been in their [Jaeger] or [Executioner] outfits, against a simple [Marine]...
Kellin shook his head and glanced over the shoulder of Tresk, staring into the portal. It had been less than a minute since he'd left it, but already he could tell it was stabilizing based on the calming air and the maniac cackling by it, holding a metal plate and shouting about the majesty of such an event. He could only tell where the hole in reality was due to the lack of color in its direction. An absence of... any type of heat.
Looking back down to Tresk, Kellin lifted his left arm off the gun and touched the side of his visor, causing it to flip up as his hazel eyes stared out from within the suit.
"90% of [Credits] evenly distributed into [Class]: [Marine] skills."
Immediately, Kellin felt a surge of knowledge and energy begin to empower his suit. The dent left where the guard had hit him in the chest before fixed itself instantaneously as the rifle clicked on its own, expanding and contracting slightly to adjust to the monumental improvements it was just given. An ethereal clip slowly extended itself in a loop downward by his hip before it went up and attached itself somewhere on his back, two hidden pods appearing before disappearing again on each of his shoulders and hips.
"Chip, now. Or your life."
He waved away the multitude of notifications passing by his vision and moved his left hand outward, resting the barrel of his gun atop his suit's arm instead. He knew better than to let Tresk actually touch him, despite reaching for the man with his palm up. He could probably kill the Commander before he got into melee range, but he knew well the danger the dictator's body posed. If he'd invest that much into his guards, it wouldn't be a surprise if he'd used ten times as much on himself.
"You obtained [Endless Ammo] without it being reported anywhere. How?" Tresk spat out, eyes furious.
"Still haven't gone through those last battle reports then. I was wondering why you claimed it a bluff," Kellin replied, no movements wasted as his gun remained locked onto the man's chest.
Realization dawned on Tresk's face, to be replaced by a sneer.
"Fine, you worthless shit. A real portal for you it is then. And if you want this defective chip so badly," he continued, holding up the AI in the palm of his hand, "then take it."
He finished by crushing his hand around the AI with all the force the man could muster, the sound of metal and plastic snapping so quiet in the room but heard as clearly as a glass plate shattering to Kellin's ears, cold fury rising in his chest in moments.
The barrel of the gun lit up as a wide arcing wave of bullets tore through the remaining two guards, Tresk diving wide behind one to avoid death while throwing the broken pieces of the AI toward the portal.
Not hesitating in the slightest, Kellin lept through the air in a twist with his left hand outstretched, his voice sounding out inside his mind.
'Remaining [Credits] split evenly into [Body Enhancement].'
His hand closed around the pieces of chip as he felt some of his still open wounds beginning to heal in milliseconds, falling toward the black pit of nothing below him.
The last thing he saw was Tresk, smirking down at him before turning into one of panic as Kellin's rifle exploded in light again, his right hand aiming it at the older man's face. That, and the sight of the Sector Five's Sub-Station exploding into the void between the two stations in a shower of glass.
Then darkness.