A heavy bluster crashed against Wisp’s coat as he tried to shield himself from the rain in his dark raincoat. He didn’t even bother bringing an umbrella, knowing it would be blown away in this weather. Dave had a much easier time, his heavy power armor barely shifted by fierce winds. Vola crawled along the ground, minimizing force applied horizontally to his body so he could continue forward without risk of losing his footing. Mei’s stand could cover her like a forcefield.
Lightning crackled, striking metal rods erected on particularly tall skyscrapers, lighting up the city with flashes of white and purple. Frequent thunderclaps and the pounding of countless raindrops upon cracked asphalt and decadent concrete drowned out all other sounds, making communication difficult if not downright impossible. Slipping into a covered backstreet narrowly placed between two apartment complexes granted them some small reprieve from the weather.
“Dave? Any life signs that could be…”
“For the 17th time: no. I would have told you otherwise. There are literally no vital signs within 30 meters, besides ours.”
Wisp leaned against the wall in deep thought, wordlessly contemplating his next moves. Here he was at an impasse, a seemingly unsolvable dilemma. For Kyki was nowhere to be found. Combing the city during the storm was difficult and proved to be fruitless so far, serving only to exhaust everyone besides Dave, who needed not put his full effort into his movements. The suit’s servos did that for him.
“By the way Dave, why does your mask remind me of an animatronic? What’s up with that?” said Vola, pointing at his helmet to draw Dave’s attention.
“It’s my aesthetic obviously. I say it adds intimidation value to the armor. Best way to win a battle is to get inside their head, y’know?”
Vola’s arms were covered in a swirling mass of dark energies, unsettling to view and even scarier to be the subject of.
“Don’t worry, I know that all too well. How do you think I got these powers?”
Mei raised a hand in her tired state, hands on her knees and breathing in and out deeply.
“So uh, did you- did you say that there are no vital signs? Around us? At all?”
“Yes. Otherwise I would have tracked them down to figure out if it was Kyki or not.”
“Is your scanner supposed to capture the residents too? Shouldn’t there be people in the buildings around us, hiding from the storm?”
And Dave could not snap back with a snarky comment, because she was right. This section of the city was mysteriously empty, their immediate vicinity devoid of life. In fact, he couldn’t even see himself or his team on the minimap.
“You’re right. It isn’t detecting anything, not even us. Either it’s broken, despite the fact I checked it today, or it’s being scrambled. By someone, or something.”
A great silence descended upon them, overcome by an eerie sense of imminent dread. For a moment, all was still; and then Vola turned on a dime to throw a punch behind himself. At first they thought he was crazy, until the assassin that was nearly killed decloaked behind him. Standing there in the shadows, a shimmering robotic killer backpedaled as ruinous damage to its shoulder caused the cloaking system to fail.
Both parties sized each other up, observing the other for weaknesses. The would-be assassin attempted to scale the wall to try and escape, only for Dave to raise a rifle and turn them into swiss cheese. The body hit the floor with an audible CLANG, sparking and melting from the heat of the rifle. Immediately his sensors came online again, the assassin’s jamming failing along with the rest of its internals.
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The back of the metal skull, on further inspection, had “Automotive Industries Mk 1 Unseen Hand” printed on the back. Wisp held his head in his hands.
“First Kyki is gone, and now we’re being hunted for sheltering Dime? My god, this day couldn't get any worse.”
Over the rain could be heard an explosion in the distance, brick and stone and mortar crumbling to the ground. A roar of anger pierced through the storm, turning heads.
“I take that back. It could get worse. All who want to investigate the noise raise your hands.”
The decision was easily unanimous, leaving the alley to push on towards their new objective.
Down the road, a detachment of Mk 1 Guardians formed a loose encirclement around a partially destroyed building, unflinching as their tower shields were buffeted by water and debris. From the ruined complex came the last Void Hound, wounded but still ferocious as ever, aggravated by a hail of gunfire from surrounding buildings. The beast was not cowed by mere bullets, as typical firearms could not effectively harm it through its mysteriously thick hide.
Void Hound uses [Piercing Wail]!
Combat Constructs are immune to fear.
Thus the robots weathered the opener, a couple of Mk 1 Juggernauts closing in on the beast. These models were larger than the norm, equipped with powerful energy blades able to slice through normal materials like butter. This powerful attack and strengthened impact made up for the cost of the armor required to plate its outsides and the slow speed with which it took actions.
The hound was no fool, understanding the true threat. With speed that belied its size, it leapt forward with incredible force in an attempt to smash through the encompassment. At first it seemed like an easy solution, since the Guardians were like little bowling pins compared to the hound. And then…
Guardian 1 activates [Emergency Thruster]!
Guardian 2 activates [Emergency Thruster]!
Guardian 3 activates [Emergency Thruster]!
....
….
A whole bunch of them activated at once, suddenly propelled by boosters on the back to the hound. Both SLAMMED into each other, creating a pressure boom that parted the rain and swept away the grime and Dime in the air for a fleeting moment, where metal met darkness and beast met machine. The Void Hound struggled to push against the incredible force of the rockets at first, but then began to take step by step forward, against the odds. A concerned Juggernaut approached at a measured pace, hefting its greatsword above its head.
Void Hound uses [Dark Pulse]!
And the Guardians swarming its front were unceremoniously flung away like flies before a tornado. The Juggernaut had barely a second to react before the dog reached him and batted it away with a single paw, hurling it into an empty office building where it stayed down. For now. The blade was not so lucky, snapping in half under the weight of the mutt’s foot.
A kinetic round fired from a rooftop impacted the Void Hound with great force, knocking it to the ground as more Juggernauts approached. Outnumbered and outgunned, the hound could not completely avoid the deadly swings of its enemies, accumulating cuts along its length and legs. For a minute, the battle seemed decided, the hound too far gone to pull back the victory from the ruthlessly efficient drone army.
And then a BANG sounded from the rooftops, one of the Mk 1 Gunners falling off in multiple pieces. The rain cleared away the Dime and debris, to reveal a glowing grinning Vola clutching the dented arm of the destroyed robot.
“We’re back, bitches! Miss me?”
Such was how the robotic army was thrown into a sudden frenzy. Most turned their sensors to the newcomers, identifying them as bodyguards of the Chasmaary target. The majority retargeted to Wisp and his rescue team, granting the hound just enough leeway to escape the grasp of its captors and begin clawing them to bits, slowly crushing a Juggernaut in its jaws as the rangers were all summarily executed by Mei and Vola, with Dave providing ranged fire support.
The Guardians were knocked away by the dog of darkness, who turned its ire to these invaders. It could not, would not rest until all was dead.
Vola chucked a skull at another robot, watching them blow up beautifully like in the movies.
“You should have just kept to yourselves, idiots!”
Mei sliced off the gun arm of a hapless Mk 1 Sniper, bashing it into the floor in a brutal display of superiority. With the board now cleared of the Chasmaary threat, they turned their eyes to the wounded and helpless Void Hound, snarling at them and threatening to pounce. Dave, unimpressed, overcharged his automatic rifle to pierce the head of the dog in one fell swoop, executing it for good.
“Done. I think that’s the last one. There should be no more interruptions from here on out.”
Mei sat down on a nearby object to rest, commenting, “What about the interruption of more of those Automotive Industry combat models? They’ll probably send more after us.”
Wisp quickly put two and two together: “Do you guys think they kidnapped Kyki? I just realized how timely that would be. They could be trying to capture all of us to reduce our strength.”
Dave was unsure with this hypothesis, countering, “Why would they catch us rather than murder us? If Kyki has disappeared, don’t you think they could have been…”
“No. I won’t consider it. Kyki is out there, likely imprisoned, and I’m going to fix it. Now it's personal.”
Mei sighed, kicking the seat she was sitting on in frustration.
“So it’s simple then. Just break into their factory or whatever and find Kyki. That shouldn’t be too hard, I guess.”
Then her seat stirred, shaking. The white ovallish shell was hollow, with a dark opening at one end and little holes and points scattered across its surface. From a hole peered a little blue eye, and scythe-like legs extended from the opening and sunk into the ground as the beast stood tall above them like a predator from hell.
The Lagavulin has awoken!
The gang backed up as it stared at them with pure anger, shrieking in rage and approaching them with slow and careful steps. Wisp was not amused.
“Shouldn’t be too hard, huh?”