Destro saw Black Knight’s death in the distance.
He did and felt absolutely nothing about that fact. Black Knight was an ally, yes, but Destro had no emotional involvement with that guy. Powerful individuality, one of the few people out there that could battle him in melee, but…
Destro deeply disliked that man’s track record. He was a serial killer, his only saving grace being the fact that he only targeted people that could at least defend themselves. Hell, whose job was to kill or arrest people like them.
Besides, they had Overhaul around, right?
There is also a small problem of Destro being busy fighting for his life, swarmed by three Perfects. Yes, swarmed. It might have been only three, but it felt like facing a small army. That’s a good summary of how dangerous they were.
He isn’t built to dodge. He is built to tank attacks. It’s not easy to do it when the enemies are much faster than you, have reflexes that are nothing short of miraculous, and… well, some of them have short blades that can slay him in one go.
Holding them back isn’t easy. He waves the mostly destroyed shields away, Virtue firing her bullets and generating walls just in the right time to keep them at a distance. The combination keeps them alive - Virtue’s ability is almost as fast as light instead, it’s NOT something that one can measure up to. If Perfects gets close enough to her, their superior speed will make them become a lethal threat.
She has techniques to keep fast moving threats engaging her in close quarters at bay. Omni-directional blasts of hardlight. But… multitasking with her individuality wasn't an easy thing, and she needed to continue attacking to keep Destro from getting swarmed.
In short, a problem.
But, they were very experienced problem solvers. And unlike the two of them and the Black Knight, they did fight side by side, even if mostly in a training environment in times before the outbreak of the First Villain War.
Virtue yells a codeword. Destro throws a nigh-useless shield at one of the Perfects while drawing his present weapon of choice.
Another Perfect realizes the trap a moment too late, Virtue’s Binds of Light trapping his body in place, Destro slamming a baseball bat made from some hyper-resistant modern composite (thank you, Clockmaker) into his head before the enemy can free themselves.
The carapace of the Perfects can withstand gunfire of conventional firearms with only minimal issues caused by impact. Destro just slammed that one with a baseball bat. Except, Destro was currently operating on a similar strengthening level as that one time when he tore off a tank turret and slammed it into another tank with enough strength to make the latter tank’s ammunition storage explode.
Right into his face. And yes, Destro walked it off.
In an example of purely American baseball bat violence, Perfect’s head ends up doing what a watermelon would do if it was met by a full-powered blow of a normal baseball bat by a normal person.
One enemy down, that Perfect isn’t going anywhere.
Dealing with two enemies was much easier than dealing with three. The fight continues, but it’s clear that the enemy is losing from now on. Of course, the enemy has the intellect to realize that fact.
Destro finds himself suddenly restrained in place. Telekinesis? That brings him back to his fight with Invincible. Except, whoever did it to him was incomparably weak. Hence, Destro instantly shatters the binding.
He can hear Virtue’s shocked gasp when the mysterious attack moves over to her. One of the Perfects takes advantage of that to leap at her, but Virtue blasts him away with an omnidirectional light blast.
Narrowly.
In the end, Singularity realizes what was happening in time (Destro noticed it too, but he wasn’t in position to charge through the remaining Perfects) and slams the source of the telekinetic attack, a man in more standard military vest that didn’t look like the Endless or Perfects, into the ceiling.
Headfirst.
The enemy made a bad call on focusing on much more intimidating enemies. So, Destro and the angel by his side. That was rather attention-grabbing, no matter how you looked at it. Singularity could do slightly longer-range attacks, for as long as she had a time to focus her individuality.
The strength of the impact was powerful enough to break the man’s neck. Thus dealing with the problem of their mysterious attacks. As a result, the Perfects are starting to lose. But damn if it isn’t a hard fight.
Destro would have died three times at least if not for the fact that the Perfect whose head he liquidated was the one armed with a plasma blade. The others carried more conventional melee weapons, and a handful of pistols that had issues piercing Destro’s skin. And he didn’t let them recover that blade.
In the end, however, the Perfects are repelled, most of them dying. In the end, though, it was less about Perfects themselves being slain, and more about the flanks of the Truthseekers being rolled through by Hypothermia and Decay (although he was significantly lagging behind the Ice Queen) alongside some soldiers and VAA elite mooks, leading to their lines collapsing and their commander issuing a retreat order to try to safeguard as many viable assets as possible.
Revenant ordered a pursuit, even if a rather cautious one and not a far one, despite finding no signs of the enemy faking the retreat to draw them out. He also sent Overhaul to fix Black Knight before his death would become permanent.
Elsewhere, things were going from bad to worse for the Truthseekers.
***
Enlightened Udo Weber abandoned his temporary command post right after a retreat was ordered. He and his few staff officers and personal security detail were busy hurrying back, Weber issuing orders to the remaining Endless and Perfects (through his commplants) about keeping the enemy off their back, all while slowly beginning to consider what was he supposed to write in the report.
They were already past the now-abandoned Black Mamba, the Seekers managing to get some of the data out of its computers, but not even nearly as much as they hoped for.
The operation was a failure. Enemy casualties were way beneath the Corporate’s expectations. Their own casualties were way above the acceptable level. Sure, Endless and even Perfects were perfectly replaceable, even if the latter were costly to do so, but...
They might have been replaceable, but there was a stark difference between losing them while achieving the goals of the Corporation and losing them in a battle that ended up as a failure, with no goals being satisfyingly fulfilled.
They still knew nothing about the mysterious Pure, aside from the fact that their numbers were greater than previously expected. But that wasn’t a sufficient explanation, especially when his higher-ups will end up asking about it.
He realizes that this is the smallest of his problems when he sees a towering figure in powered armor of one of the RPC’s knights standing in the corridor in front of them. Well, that’s just what he wanted to have to deal with right after losing a fight.
Two of the Endless from his personal security fire at him. The Perfects don’t bother, their improved senses realizing that they were facing a hologram. The Endless stop firing right afterward, seeing the Knight not respond to their gunfire at all and realizing what was happening.
“Oh, how lovely.” Udo Weber says loudly while ordering the others to stay quiet through the commplants. “A murderous religious fanatic.”
“Oh, how lovely.” The Knight replies, their voice somewhat artificial. “A murderous atheist fanatic.”
Why was one of them around? Did they and the Pure strike some sort of a deal? The RPC’s tendencies for striking deals with various nasties on the basis of ‘they gave us a reason to think that they are redeemable’ were well-known. Especially among the Truthseekers.
The AI/ARACHNE affair was a sore spot to the Corporation members ever since.
“So, let me ask just in case.” Weber then says, the knight’s hologram is still standing there. “It’s a trap, right?”
“Obviously.” The knight replied calmly. Where is the loudspeaker? “We’re going to play a little game. If you win, you’re free to go. If not, you’re going to die. How does that sound?”
“I’m not in a mood for this.” Weber replies. “So I believe that the right words to use are ‘get the fuck out of my way’.”
“Sure.” The Knight replies. “If you want me to detonate two hundred kilograms of military-grade explosives that I stole from one of the friendly local nasty groups and hid behind the fake wall literally in the middle of your group, that is.”
What?
The hologram points at the wall to their left. Without a word spoken, Weber orders one of the Endless to check it out. The moment the man touches the wall, a fake surface made from programmable fabric capable of mimicking a wide array of materials falls off the wall.
Behind is a bomb.
It’s literally written all over it.
There was a small alcove in the wall, the back wall of it being hidden behind a large, vertical container covered with some words and danger signs in German. Someone spraypainted a large ‘BOMB’ at the top of it.
There is another, smaller container in front of it, clearly welded to the other one. The detonator? It felt rather crude. There was a large screen in front of it, and four large buttons under it, marked as A, B, C and D.
“The game is simple.” The Knight announces, interrupting the shocked silence. “The monitor is going to display a simple quiz about the basic tenets of the Christian faith. If you get 70% of it correctly, and there are almost three hundred questions by the way so it’ll be a while, the front container will open, revealing the cables. You cut the right one, and the bomb is disarmed. You get less than 70%, and the bomb explodes.”
The Truthseekers are staying completely silent, Udo Weber being simply frozen in place. That misguided runt dared to…
“Also, the right cable is the red one, according to ancient cultural customs of Mankind.” The knight continues. “The bomb is going to explode if any of you tries to leave this corridor. The only exception is your leader, who is not just allowed but also supposed to leave. You have some extensive combat mods, I can see it from here. Not giving you a chance at fighting me would be boring. The others can leave only once the bomb is disarmed, so if they want to assist you in your duel against me, they better hurry.”
Weber sends a message to one of the Endless accompanying him, the one that has been trained into a qualified bomb expert. The man (the puppet) nods, and pulls some of his tools of trade from a backpack.
The knight says nothing when the soldier appraises the gizmo on the wall. After maybe fifteen seconds, the Endless sends the report back.
The bomb is genuine. And most likely of the yield that the knight claims it to have. Well, that’s incredibly not good.
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Weber sends the order to some of the still retreating Truthseekers units (leftovers of the units that used to form their flanks to be honest, the enemy really did a number on those) to ditch the rendezvous point and head directly for their base.
For some reason he is almost certain that trying to gang-up on the knight with said leftovers would be utterly disastrous. They would arrive separately, the knight slaughtering them with nigh-total impunity. And that’s if that asshole wouldn’t just blow their main group due to ‘cheating’ or something like that.
They need to preserve any assets they can. The main group is crucial due to having his staff officers there, but… the others are important too.
“Fine.” Weber announces, sending a message to his soldiers to focus on disarming the bomb. “I’m going. Where to?”
The knight points in the direction of the corridor behind him. Then the hologram vanishes. Weber dashes forward. He has a fight to win.
***
Weber manages to travel for maybe a few hundred meters and a few twists in the corridor, before he arrives at a significantly larger room. The knight is standing there, on the other end of it.
Udo Weber fires a gun at him right off the bat, the knight hiding behind a shield just in time to bounce it off.
Incredible reflexes. The knight’s a Visehradian, isn’t it? That’s the only way of explaining the man reacting quickly enough to shield himself from a bullet. Seeing Weber’s hand raising his arm up to fire at him did give him a head start, and Perfects could pull it off as well.. But…
The shield didn’t cover the whole of him. He moved it quickly enough to repel the attack despite Weber changing the point that he was aiming at literally the last second.
“Now, that’s rude.” The knight says. Despite the artificial nature of the voice, it manages to properly display the dryness of the tone. If not for the helmet, Weber would risk a claim that the man just deadpanned at him. “No wonder your Corporation has been banned from existing if it started meetings with foreigners by shooting them in the face.”
“We both know that shooting foreigners in the face isn’t illegal nowadays, merely seen as a sign of really bad table manners.” Weber responds in kind. Deadpan for a deadpan. “And as for you, I have reasons to shoot you in the face.”
“What could that be?” The knight responds. “Oh, is it that small bomb prank I’ve pulled on you?”
“That too.” Weber replies. He is fine with buying time. Contrary to popular opinions, his sidekicks should be capable of piecing up answers to the pop quiz. One of his staff officers had some knowledge about it, thanks to his past job infiltrating one of the RPC countries. That should work. “But it’s mostly because you’re a disgustingly primitive relic of history that has to be erased for the future of Mankind to be bright.”
“Oh, yeah.” Knight nods. “ You know, you might have a point, depending on how you see it. I can’t believe that someone’s still reading early 23rd Century superhero comics. Truly I’m an outdated relic.”
“Nice dodge, but we both know what I’m talking about.” Weber continues buying time. “Religion has been…”
“Oh, just shut up.” The knight doesn’t let him finish. “I’ve heard the same drivel about how religion has been halting progress way too many times already. Some of the people claiming that were from ethnopolities that were less technologically advanced than my own. All of those people were completely ignoring the contribution of religious people to scientific progress. Unless you have something new to say, don’t bother.” The knights snorts with clearly audible indignation. “Besides, I’ll take a lower technological level over the sick things your Corporation does to innocent people, thank you very much.”
“The sort of weak drivel is the reason why disasters like whatever has happened to New Springfield happen.” Weber retorts. “Because we’re weak. And the only way of overcoming this sort of weakness is through technology and understanding. Not fairytales.”
“Really?” The knight remains unfazed. “I’d say that those ‘fairytales’ worked as a pretty good motivator for a lot of decent folks to stand ground and save the lives and well-being of other people. From my point of view, there is no reason to shun religion or science. Getting into either extreme is just being an idiot.”
“Getting into religion is something that idiots do when they need someone to provide them with explanations on how things work.” Weber replies. “An explanation that’s easy enough for them to understand. It’s nothing more than an outdated philosophical memeplex that should have been discarded the moment that science took off properly. We don’t need it anymore. And we probably never did.”
The knight stays there, standing quietly for a few seconds. Weber considers the option that he got somewhere with his last words, but…
“Oh, well.” The knight sighs. “I hoped to have a genuine debate against someone with a high sounding title like enlightened, but… I forgot that the Seekers are a singularitarian cult. Any attempt to have a debate with a fanatic cultist is like trying to play a chess game with an angry chimpanzee. They’ll tilt the board and throw their feces at your face instead of engaging your wits. I’ll try having that if I ever encounter some atheistic philosopher from Equality Front, someone who actually has well-crafted arguments to back their beliefs instead of being only able to parrot the slogans. Ones on an intellectual level of what I would expect to see from some internet edgelord from a minor RPC country in a process of rebelling against his parents for telling him to leave home more often and get himself a girlfriend.”
“HOW DARE YOU…” Weber erupts. The knight refuses to cooperate.
“Also, your higher-ups are either imbeciles or are making a very elaborate joke at their field operatives expense.” The knight cuts in. “Because Max Planck, you know, the guy whose name you immortalized in the name of your ship due to him being one of the pioneers of quantum physics, was a Lutheran that considered the ideas of science and religion to be mutually beneficial, you fucking donkey.”
Weber almost leaps at the man right there. Oh, the absolute audacity of that deluded fool. But… he is better than that. He is a member of the Truthseekers Corporation, he is above such pathetic attempts at provoking him.
He calms down. He is on the verge of connection range, but he still can contact his staff members. They are blitzing through the quiz. Soon enough they’ll be able to assist him. The knight being in a talkative mood is actually a major benefit to the present situation.
“Oh, really?” Weber asks. “And let me guess, you learned that tidbit of knowledge as a part of an indoctrination that was supposed to leave you impregnable to arguments of people that dared to have different opinions than you.”
“Yes.” The knight replies calmly. “Your point being?”
Ugh. Fucking fanatic.
“You see nothing strange or wrong with that?” Weber replies, the knight shrugging. The opening is way too brief for the enlightened to leap into melee, then again, every second bought is his victory.
“Not at all.” The knight replies. “The idea that parents imparting their view on the world onto their children is an atrocity is idiocy. You could as well complain that they impart their language upon you, especially with how far language can shape your understanding of the world. Besides, what’s the alternative? Did you even have parents or were you brought in one of the Truthseekers’ indoctrination facilities?”
“Indoctrination, pah!” Weber scoffs at the idea. “It’s called education. I have been brought-up with the best possible education, allowing me to understand the world around me with my own mind. You were just brainwashed with delusions of long-dead people.” The knight tilts their head a little, about to say something. Weber knows what it's going to be before the words come. “Don’t you dare claim that learning science is the same thing. Science is confirmed. Science is verifiable. Your infectious delusions are not.”
“So are scientific hypotheses.” The knight replies. “It takes a while to confirm them, am I wrong? Are you going to forbid sharing scientific hypotheses with other people?”
“You can’t be serious right now.” Weber is about to become enraged once again. Except… then he realizes something. “You’re not serious. You know the difference between sharing hypotheses as a hypothesis and as a confirmed truth. You’re buying time too, aren’t you?”
“Yes.” The knight replies. “Prove me your intellectual superiority and figure out why I did that.”
“You don’t need to have a working brain to realize that.” Weber replies, before clicking his tongue loudly. “You’re in cahoots with the Pure, and are buying them time to arrive here. You think that I can’t…”
The knight lets out a hearty laugh. What’s going on?
“Let me advise you a little.” The knight eventually manages to speak. “You should certainly get yourself a working brain. It’d do wonders when improving your life expectancy. They aren’t Pure and I’m not in cahoots with them. How's the quiz going?”
“It’s almost done.” Weber replies, squinting at the knight suspiciously. “You think that they can’t succeed in it? You’ll be surprised then.”
“Oh, no no.” The knight waves his hand. “I genuinely hope that your friends will succeed. It would be boring otherwise.”
What’s going on? Udo Weber has no idea. And that worries him almost as much as the knight being there, right in front of him.
“The hell is this about?” Weber decides to ask.
“God has made us in His image.” The knight replies. “Don’t know about you, but if I was made in His image, it means that God is a major troll.”
What?
***
The officer finally answers the last question. A moment later a large ‘Congratulations! You have answered 83% of the questions correctly!” text displays on the monitor. The people gathered in front of the bomb have maybe ten seconds to breathe a sigh of relief, before the front container opens up.
Inside, there is a cable that can be cut to disarm a bomb. It’s red.
Just as the remaining twenty-nine cables.
The knight never said that the cable that can disarm the bomb was going to be the only one coloured red, after all.
***
Udo Weber freezes in place where he hears the report. The bomb was… shit. And then the knight starts fucking cackling.
“Maan, you should have seen your face!” The knight finally lets out. “Absolutely hilarious. You have been tricked, you have been backstabbed and you have been quite certainly bamboozled.” Backstabbed? Bamboozled? What the hell? “Now, do the smart thing and surrender. The ‘Pure’ will take you all in. I should pay them back for leaving you so exposed and I’m really curious as to what they are going to do with you.”
Weber replies with a single word.
“No.” He says. While sending a message to his staff officers that they are to cut any random cable. That the knight was doing a practical joke on them. That when he said that cutting the red cable will disarm the bomb, he meant any cable whatsoever.
Udo Weber lied. But he was cornered, and he saw preservation of his own life - he one of the highest ranked and thus most valuable of Truthseekers Corporation members present in the area - as priority. He could, after all, describe the situation to his higher-ups with the most detail.
As the bomb explodes, annihilating his staff and security detail, the ground around them shakes violently. The knight is surprised, the man tumbling to the side. It’s at this point that Udo Weber leaps forward, his bioware implants hitting overdrive.
He had a whole array of those. Starting from a smaller and yet much more efficient thyroid gland, which freed some space for a much more unique hormonal gland. His body is flooded with artificial compounds based on adrenaline but one provoking a massively more intense reaction.
Thankfully, his heart is a bioware implant too. His veins have been altered, years of nanomachines slowly enhancing their structure from the inside to prevent ruptures. Most basic of bioware implants.
His bones are from hyper-resistant nanocomposite. His muscles have been reconstructed, and while still organic, what they could do was way beyond baseline human capabilities. He is, like all of the Truthseekers higher-ranked members, a superhuman through and through.
The long combat knife with a monomolecular blade is suddenly in his hand, Weber landing on the floor to the knights’ side, swinging the blade at him from the side, attempting to go after his neck before he can move his shield.
Before Udo Weber’s knife can find its purchase, the man is suddenly electrocuted. His muscles go limp, and the man slumps to the floor, losing his consciousness. The last thing he notices before drifting off is the anti-personnel electric gun turret that the knight put behind his back, just in the perfect position to keep it hidden from Weber while they were talking.
“Throwing away the lives of men that trusted you to lead them just to save your own skin, probably under some flimsy ‘I am more valuable than they are’ justification.” The knight snarls while kicking the unconscious man in the stomach. There is something of a faint whimper of pain that serves decently enough as a reward. “Tsk. You’re worse trash than I thought you were. I wonder what Revenant will do with you.”
The tests shall continue.
***
You know the drill
Obraz [https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1106241074403483798/1132424867019501670/00002-2959989944.png]