“What is THAT!?” Andrea screamed as the red monster shambled across the field. It was tall, wide and unstoppable.

The STARS guards fired their guns, fingers squeezing on the triggers. Their faces were grim as they unleashed the powers of the modern rifle.

Like bb rounds hitting a steel plate, so too did the bullets fail to penetrate the red carapace.

The soldiers of Val Verde were also having similar luck. The multitude of power armored soldiers were firing from their odd guns. The needles were a strange weapon as it protruded from the thing’s bonelike carapace.

The super infected walked through the hail of gunfire. It didn’t glance at any of them in particular. It stopped twice to examine who was firing at it, but stared at everyone. It could not decide on who to try to eat first.

The first warthog began firing on it with its minigun, and the bullets did more, pushing it around. With a roar, it leapt into a run and slammed into the front.

The creature struggled with the weight of the vehicle. It began to rock it back and forth. The soldiers scrambled off as it got tipped over.

The creature began to pound at the vehicle with glee.

Andrea turned to look at the most powerful person in the vicinity. The Supreme Leader of Val Verde frowned. The man was staring at the monster with a calculating gaze.

He did not look worried as it he looked at the red hulking beast. It was not the Hulk, though it could be the Hulk’s and a lobster’s child.

After a few seconds of watching, he held his collar to his throat and mumbled some words. He then turned to look at the man standing beside his white warthog.

“Fenris! You are up!” The Supreme Leader yelled.

“You want me to what?” the older man asked as he gestured to the red monster currently reducing a warthog into a lump of metal.

The man in question turned his head over. Even though he wore a helmet, she could discern his expression.

The Supreme Leader only gave out a bright smile.

Andrea stared between the two, confused at what difference a single man could do.

Then she heard the telltale sound of a Pelican. Though this one sounded a bit different. Was its engine louder then the rest?

She looked up to see the approaching drop ship carrying a cube. A cube the size of a warthog.

What was this?

—

{Hello! My name is Maya, and I will be your combat assistant today. Please wait for the unit to come to a complete stop before entering.}

[THUMP]

Fenris watched as the Pelican, now unburdened, fly back to the Mansion grounds.

{Please step to the back indent. This is the pilot seat} Maya said and Fenris could feel her smile.

The man made his way over to the only indent on the cube. It looked like it got molded for human from the waist down. It took two tries, but Fenris found his footing and shuffled in.

{Initializing Dummy Power for the Scopedog Prototype. This is the new test type for our mini Power Frame.}

He felt like an idiot. The name didn’t bolster his confidence either. He could feel the box beginning to shift under him. He stomped onto the cube to test its stability.

[Clunk]

Fenris felt something attach to his back. The weight was enough that his motors sent complaints to his HUD. The heavy weight revsered, leaving him feeling weightless.

Wait, was he floating now?

{Please refrain from hitting the spot underneath you. It houses the Micro Impulse Reactor and its explosive power might be enough to kill you.}

Fenris made a note to never stomp his feet in here again.

His HUD scrambled and he could see a install bar begin filling in the right corner of his helmet. New icons appeared.

The power meter, represented by a circle was now more spiral like. It there was a red center, and it spiraled out to a fishtail like end, which was green.

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{Initializing Dummy Plug System}

The power meter extended with two more loops. The new loops filled up as the systems registered the new engine. His own armor locked up, preventing his from actually moving.

The world seemed to shift as the box unpacked into a more rectangular shape that stood at 2 meters tall. Then it began to connect itself to his armor.

{Initializing Phase Shift Armor}

The machine began to tighten, and his dark vision connected to the external cameras. Everything was bright, and blurry.

Then the unit focused.

Fenris blinked as he could see almost too much. He stared at the red monster and the camera system focused with him. He moved his arms and flexed his fingers.

The unit followed his thoughts. His new arms and fingers moved. His leg moved as he took a small, simple step.

[Thump]

The red monster stopped pounding on the misshapen warthog and looked up. Its eyes began to glow as it growled. It was feeling threatened.

The monster was taller then the other humans. Yet before this it was smaller. A fair bit smaller.

{Initializing all weapon mounts}

Fenris watched as his weapon icons came online. There was only two sets. Set one: Ranged, and Set two: Melee.

{The weapons are voice, or thumb activated. Say Set One, or moved your thumb, like on a directional pad, to the bottom.}

“Set One,” Fenris said and the system selected the ranged weapons.

The stubby minigun under his left arm began to rev up, and the power system drained by a half a circle to empower the gun. A flamethrower pilot lit up under his right arm.

Two targeting crosshairs appeared, and moved as his arms moved.

{Please note we are registering 45 millisecond delay between you and your Power Frame. That is pretty much a half second delay. We will calibrate this as you use it.}

The minigun’s teal crosshair centered over the monster. The unit locked onto the desired target and Fenris squeezed his left trigger finger. The minigun began to make a loud crackling sound and the hypersonic needles spat out.

The smaller infantry rounds tended to bounce off the infected monster’s carapace. The best they could do was stick to the outer layer of the bone like skin.

The Fenris stepped into range, he also unleashed a stream of fire. A thick bellow of fire and heat burst forth with a fwoosh sound.

The Scopedog’s larger rounds was powerful enough to pierce through. The monster roared as pain registered with it. It dropped to all four, then started charging at him.

The fire wasn’t stopping it.

{I would recommend the ‘Set Two’, General.}

“Set TWO,” Fenris yelled out and he could see the power drain increase. His unit forearms began to shake as two katar like blades shot out of his over sized forearms.

The blades began to screech, and glow as the power finished rerouting.

{Sonic blades. The technology is still rough, but its armor penetration is quite good.}

Fenris leaned forward to take the charge head on. He aimed his blades and struck a full second before he should have. The Scopedog moved as desired.

The creature reached him and Fenris learned two new things.

One. The cutting edge was no joke. His right blade gave a clean cut. The monster’s left arm got severed off. He watched as it smacked against his chest and bounce off.

Two. The loss of arm did not slow it down, its moment was not impeded, and the monster slammed into the Scopedog’s waist.

The monsters claw left a jagged scar. Its attack wasn’t enough to pierce through as it didn’t have the original leverage it had needed.

{Phase shift armor… intact. Area comprised by 18%. Data logged.}

The monster, realizing it wasn’t winning, jumped back to gain some distance. It needed room to charge again.

Fenris growled as he raised his left arm and swung down. His right arm was chopping in from the side.

It had reacted and moved enough to prevent its death. The monster’s right arm got shaved down by a third. The other blade left a deep gash at the waist, which was preferable from bisected.

Beeps began to sound, and his power bar started to flash a warning yellow.

{Your power levels are in danger of shutting down the Power Frame. Please switch to Set One, and try to cook the target. Doctor Akagi wishes to see its current fire resistance.}

“Set One,” Fenris said as he watched the blades stop, and then retract back into its sheath. The power drain stopped, and the bar began to climb back up.

Fenris grinned as he locked onto the monster. His right pointer finger squeezed and flamethrower bellowed to life.

Its scream of pain and rage echoed across the plaza. Its only movement came from the fact that it had fallen over.

Fenris only relented as Maya requested small pauses to record its current status. Then Fenris continued the fire bath.

It only took a two minutes before the monster stopped moving, and responding.

Fenris stopped firing at five minutes. Not because he felt it was enough, but rather he had run out of promethium.

“Looking good General Fenris,” the distorted voice of Johnny congratulated him.

{Hmmm, we are getting static? Now? Please wait a minute as we look into this.}

A roar pierced the air. Followed by a series of crashes and glass breaking.

A small missile landed onto the plaza, and skidded to a stop by the fountain.

Fenris zoomed in. Wait. He knew that flaming red hair and light copper skin tone.

The system even picked up the panicked cry of Johnny as he screamed out Kori’s name.

The girl took a few moments before she started to move. She was slow to pushed herself upright. Her arms shook and then sagged face first against the fountain’s stone base.

Johnny and Candice were already driving over, as was the surviving vehicles.

Usually Fenris would condone such emotional actions. Then again, Kori was a very valuable ally, and he would have done the same thing.

Fenris looked over to the building the alien princess got launched from. It was the ruins of the Umbrella Laboratories.

The sounds of grenades going off and roars were now discernible. He had wondered where the girls had vanished too.

The now louder, and angrier roar of a beast became louder as Lady Kara broke through a wall in her haste to escape.

The Scopedog’s camera zoomed in and he could see her torn clothing, and the bruises she was now sporting. Her eyes lit up and lasers shot out.

Seconds later, a monster smashed out of the building. It popped out of the wall as if it was styrofoam.

It was huge. Misshapen as it resembled a gorilla with its massive arms, and short stubby legs. Its head was still human sized, though it was now off center.

The area where the should be, opened up. It revealed a set of stone sized teeth and it roared. Spittle flew everywhere as it chased Kara.

{What the FUCK IS THAT?} Maya screamed across his speakers.

He felt that summed it up perfectly.

—

Chapter 36: Old dogs and new tricks