***
"Man, listen to this," an Inferno Raider grumbled, tapping his helmets radio. "Fight of the year, and we're missing it."
"Would you quit bitching?" said the engineer next to him. "Those guys may get the fun part, but if we didn't take Medicomm down, it
wouldn't matter, would it?"
"Exactly right Richards," their officer replied, listening to the sound of gunfire from across the building, where the PPD SWAT teams were trying to
get in. "How's it going over there John?" he asked.
"It's goin' fine Simon," came the slow drawl of the Wing Raider Officer handing the front door of the Medicomm facility. "Boys in blue
don't seem to have the powered suits to back 'em up, so they're not really getting anywhere. Guess the Capes are a mite busy with the big fight to
come and fix the actual problem."
"They're Capes," the officer chuckled. "Thinking's not their strong po-" He was interrupted as the wall exploded inwards,
scattering his men across the hallway. The Engineer didn't waste any time, powering up his force field generator, even as the Inferno hosed down the
opening with his flamethrower. This proved to be utterly pointless as a figure in sleek blue power armor leapt through the smoke, fist connecting with the
Infernos chest, small explosives in the womans gauntlet blasting the Sky Raider back into a painting. His now broken body armor saved him from a caved in
chest, but the near shattered rib cage took him out of the fight.
The Engineer tried to open fire on Street Sabre with his rifle, only to yelp in surprise as massive thorny vines emerged from the floor, wrapping around him
and holding him on place, as a black armored figure shot past and cut the Officers rifle in half with her sword. Before he could go for a backup weapon, Edge
Sabre lunged again, blade carving through armor and flesh with equal ease. As he slumped to the floor, she knelt down to check he wasn't going to die, then
pulled off his comm gear and tied him up, even as Street knocked the Engineer out with a backhand. "Clear," the duelist Sabre said, looking back to
where the rest of the Sabres of Paragon were entering, the smoke dispersing around them.
Silicon Sabre nodded, turning to Net. "What way?"
The red-pink Sabre tilted her head to the side, studying the map her suit had recovered. "Down the hall, left, right, right, elevator," she said.
"I think they know we're here!" Range Sabre snapped, opening fire on several raiders sprinting around a corner. Nano Sabres emitters popped open,
launching a stream of nanites at one of the Raiders as Silicon and Demolition Sabre charged ahead, colliding with the Raiders with armored fists and blades.
The other Sabres were close behind as they forced their way through the building towards the control room.
***
"Sapper!" Amberlee yelled, taking to the air as the Malta soldiers charged into the massive brawl.
"The hell are they doing here?!" Ifrit said, calling down the fire as Enynns fire storm ended. Inyme W'tin ducked past her, launching a psi-storm
into the approaching black ops specialists that scattered a number of them, before leaping for cover as the Malta Sappers opened fire, white energy beams
ripping into the gathered heroes. Ifrit screamed as one of the beams glanced her, sending a numbness through her body as her magic seemed to slip away. Another
beam hit Quicksilver Nano head on, causing her nanotech structure to ripple in agony as she dropped to her knees.
A moment later, the Sappers fire was interrupted by a thrown park bench connecting with one of them. The other spun, only to see Terrence Knight leaping at
him. The Legendarys most famous tank ducked under the Sappers shot, ignored the weapons fire of several other Malta operatives as he grabbed the deadly device,
ripped it from the Sappers hands, ducked under a swing from the mans sapp stick, then grabbed him by the arm and twisted. There was a aubile crack as the
Sappers arm snapped, and he dropped to the ground screaming, until Terrence knocked him out with a swift kick.
The man turned to the other Malta Operatives, eyes almost burning with disgust. "Next," he said. As they raised their weapons to fire, they came
under fire from above, a dozen arrows falling into their group with impressive precision, punching through advanced armor and flesh. Purrfect Archer was right
behind her attack, landing in front of them as magical flames whipped around her, forming a defensive shield.
Tearing an arrow from his arm and slapping a med-patch over it, the Gunslinger looked at her for a moment, then gave a short, clipped order. The soldiers
dropped back, some providing cover fire, others going for grenades, even as the Gunslinger vanished in a teleport, trying to flank the heroes. Terrence went
for the soldiers while Archer leapt clear of a grenade salvo, only to be blasted by energy bolt from the war bots moving up behind the regular Malta troops,
throwing her back down the street.
She flipped, landed on her feet and skidded to a halt, regarding the two Hercules class Titans, and the lobotomized minds that Maltas obsessed science used to
control them. Then she was moving again, sprinting towards them. As she got close enough she held a hand out in front of her and concentrated, calling flames
into being around one of the mechs. Fire and smoke seeped in through the cracks, nibbling at wires and hydraulics, virtually paralyzing the war bot. The other
mech targeted her and opened its missile hatches, only to be driven to its knees by a psi-bolt from Inyme, Archers girlfriend going for the human mind at the
beasts core. There was no anger or rage coming from Inyme towards the creature, simply a warriors duty, and the fact that she would be doing the Titan a mercy
by ending its life.
Purrfect Archer summoned an arrow and nocked it, taking careful aim and infusing extra magics into the arrow before releasing it. The Titan made a high-pitched
noise that could almost be considered a scream as the arrow punched through the armor and right into the brain at its core. With the organic CPU gone, it was
now a multi-million dollar statue. "I'm sorry," she whispered sadly.
"Alice!" Neko yelled, leaping off her shoulder. Alice spun in time to see the Gunslinger duck under the lunging cat and raise his two pistols at her.
She threw a hand forward, a wave of telekinetic force throwing the operative back nearly twenty meters, but not before he got off several shots, some of which
managed to get through her flame shield and natural damage resistance. The catgirl gasped, clutching at the large wounds in her left arm, even as she saw
Emerald Blast sprinting towards her, while a furious Lady of the Peace nailed the Gunslinger with a magically enhanced punch.
***
Miss Lightning swore as she dived towards a Raider Sky Skiff, launching arcs of electricity at it. It began to drop as it's systems overloaded, giving
Lora'lai a clean shot at it, her energy bolts blowing one of its engines clean off, sending it into a death spin as the pilot ejected.
Working the controls of her stolen Raptor pack to try and get some speed up again, Miss Lighting tried to get her heartbeat under control again. She'd
dealt with Hellions, Skulls, Lost, even a few Thorns... but now she was going up against trained soldiers with no Medicomm safety net. She'd heard stories
from her brother and sister, along with her adopted neice (Whose rapid progression as a hero had given her a lot of stories), but none of them seemed to convey
the utter terror she was feeling right now. The burns on her back and the bruises she'd gotten from Castillo certainly didn't help.
As she rose up to about a hundred feet again, Lora'lai hovering nearby, things went wrong fast. A bolt of Quantum energy launched from a nearby rooftop,
hitting the Peacebringer in the back, drawing an agonizing scream as the twin halves of her being were pulled apart for a moment. She dropped towards the
ground, transforming into her White Dwarf form to absorb the impact, while Miss Lightning came under fire from the ground below. She didn't even have time
to react before one of the raptor packs thrusters died, sending her spinning out of control. The scream that tried to escape her throat was cut off as her head
was slammed against the thruster pack, and then she hit the ground, managing a pained shriek as she felt bones break, the single working thruster dragging her
across the ground, finally ending with her buried in a pile of construction supplies, gasping and sobbing from the pain.
"Over here!" called out a voice, and Miranda Barnes forced her eyes open, looking up to see a squad of Arachnos Wolf Spiders running towards her.
Gasping for air, she tried to call on the electricity that a run-in with an experimental power source had granted her, but was only able to muster the
concentration for a few weak sparks.
"Group effort boys," the squads Huntsman smiled, taking out his sidearm. "Excellent shooting. At least one hero is going down today." With
that, he aimed the gun at her head and fired.
***
"Man, listen to this," an Inferno Raider grumbled, tapping his helmets radio. "Fight of the year, and we're missing it."
"Would you quit bitching?" said the engineer next to him. "Those guys may get the fun part, but if we didn't take Medicomm down, it
wouldn't matter, would it?"
"Exactly right Richards," their officer replied, listening to the sound of gunfire from across the building, where the PPD SWAT teams were trying to
get in. "How's it going over there John?" he asked.
"It's goin' fine Simon," came the slow drawl of the Wing Raider Officer handing the front door of the Medicomm facility. "Boys in blue
don't seem to have the powered suits to back 'em up, so they're not really getting anywhere. Guess the Capes are a mite busy with the big fight to
come and fix the actual problem."
"They're Capes," the officer chuckled. "Thinking's not their strong po-" He was interrupted as the wall exploded inwards,
scattering his men across the hallway. The Engineer didn't waste any time, powering up his force field generator, even as the Inferno hosed down the
opening with his flamethrower. This proved to be utterly pointless as a figure in sleek blue power armor leapt through the smoke, fist connecting with the
Infernos chest, small explosives in the womans gauntlet blasting the Sky Raider back into a painting. His now broken body armor saved him from a caved in
chest, but the near shattered rib cage took him out of the fight.
The Engineer tried to open fire on Street Sabre with his rifle, only to yelp in surprise as massive thorny vines emerged from the floor, wrapping around him
and holding him on place, as a black armored figure shot past and cut the Officers rifle in half with her sword. Before he could go for a backup weapon, Edge
Sabre lunged again, blade carving through armor and flesh with equal ease. As he slumped to the floor, she knelt down to check he wasn't going to die, then
pulled off his comm gear and tied him up, even as Street knocked the Engineer out with a backhand. "Clear," the duelist Sabre said, looking back to
where the rest of the Sabres of Paragon were entering, the smoke dispersing around them.
Silicon Sabre nodded, turning to Net. "What way?"
The red-pink Sabre tilted her head to the side, studying the map her suit had recovered. "Down the hall, left, right, right, elevator," she said.
"I think they know we're here!" Range Sabre snapped, opening fire on several raiders sprinting around a corner. Nano Sabres emitters popped open,
launching a stream of nanites at one of the Raiders as Silicon and Demolition Sabre charged ahead, colliding with the Raiders with armored fists and blades.
The other Sabres were close behind as they forced their way through the building towards the control room.
***
"Sapper!" Amberlee yelled, taking to the air as the Malta soldiers charged into the massive brawl.
"The hell are they doing here?!" Ifrit said, calling down the fire as Enynns fire storm ended. Inyme W'tin ducked past her, launching a psi-storm
into the approaching black ops specialists that scattered a number of them, before leaping for cover as the Malta Sappers opened fire, white energy beams
ripping into the gathered heroes. Ifrit screamed as one of the beams glanced her, sending a numbness through her body as her magic seemed to slip away. Another
beam hit Quicksilver Nano head on, causing her nanotech structure to ripple in agony as she dropped to her knees.
A moment later, the Sappers fire was interrupted by a thrown park bench connecting with one of them. The other spun, only to see Terrence Knight leaping at
him. The Legendarys most famous tank ducked under the Sappers shot, ignored the weapons fire of several other Malta operatives as he grabbed the deadly device,
ripped it from the Sappers hands, ducked under a swing from the mans sapp stick, then grabbed him by the arm and twisted. There was a aubile crack as the
Sappers arm snapped, and he dropped to the ground screaming, until Terrence knocked him out with a swift kick.
The man turned to the other Malta Operatives, eyes almost burning with disgust. "Next," he said. As they raised their weapons to fire, they came
under fire from above, a dozen arrows falling into their group with impressive precision, punching through advanced armor and flesh. Purrfect Archer was right
behind her attack, landing in front of them as magical flames whipped around her, forming a defensive shield.
Tearing an arrow from his arm and slapping a med-patch over it, the Gunslinger looked at her for a moment, then gave a short, clipped order. The soldiers
dropped back, some providing cover fire, others going for grenades, even as the Gunslinger vanished in a teleport, trying to flank the heroes. Terrence went
for the soldiers while Archer leapt clear of a grenade salvo, only to be blasted by energy bolt from the war bots moving up behind the regular Malta troops,
throwing her back down the street.
She flipped, landed on her feet and skidded to a halt, regarding the two Hercules class Titans, and the lobotomized minds that Maltas obsessed science used to
control them. Then she was moving again, sprinting towards them. As she got close enough she held a hand out in front of her and concentrated, calling flames
into being around one of the mechs. Fire and smoke seeped in through the cracks, nibbling at wires and hydraulics, virtually paralyzing the war bot. The other
mech targeted her and opened its missile hatches, only to be driven to its knees by a psi-bolt from Inyme, Archers girlfriend going for the human mind at the
beasts core. There was no anger or rage coming from Inyme towards the creature, simply a warriors duty, and the fact that she would be doing the Titan a mercy
by ending its life.
Purrfect Archer summoned an arrow and nocked it, taking careful aim and infusing extra magics into the arrow before releasing it. The Titan made a high-pitched
noise that could almost be considered a scream as the arrow punched through the armor and right into the brain at its core. With the organic CPU gone, it was
now a multi-million dollar statue. "I'm sorry," she whispered sadly.
"Alice!" Neko yelled, leaping off her shoulder. Alice spun in time to see the Gunslinger duck under the lunging cat and raise his two pistols at her.
She threw a hand forward, a wave of telekinetic force throwing the operative back nearly twenty meters, but not before he got off several shots, some of which
managed to get through her flame shield and natural damage resistance. The catgirl gasped, clutching at the large wounds in her left arm, even as she saw
Emerald Blast sprinting towards her, while a furious Lady of the Peace nailed the Gunslinger with a magically enhanced punch.
***
Miss Lightning swore as she dived towards a Raider Sky Skiff, launching arcs of electricity at it. It began to drop as it's systems overloaded, giving
Lora'lai a clean shot at it, her energy bolts blowing one of its engines clean off, sending it into a death spin as the pilot ejected.
Working the controls of her stolen Raptor pack to try and get some speed up again, Miss Lighting tried to get her heartbeat under control again. She'd
dealt with Hellions, Skulls, Lost, even a few Thorns... but now she was going up against trained soldiers with no Medicomm safety net. She'd heard stories
from her brother and sister, along with her adopted neice (Whose rapid progression as a hero had given her a lot of stories), but none of them seemed to convey
the utter terror she was feeling right now. The burns on her back and the bruises she'd gotten from Castillo certainly didn't help.
As she rose up to about a hundred feet again, Lora'lai hovering nearby, things went wrong fast. A bolt of Quantum energy launched from a nearby rooftop,
hitting the Peacebringer in the back, drawing an agonizing scream as the twin halves of her being were pulled apart for a moment. She dropped towards the
ground, transforming into her White Dwarf form to absorb the impact, while Miss Lightning came under fire from the ground below. She didn't even have time
to react before one of the raptor packs thrusters died, sending her spinning out of control. The scream that tried to escape her throat was cut off as her head
was slammed against the thruster pack, and then she hit the ground, managing a pained shriek as she felt bones break, the single working thruster dragging her
across the ground, finally ending with her buried in a pile of construction supplies, gasping and sobbing from the pain.
"Over here!" called out a voice, and Miranda Barnes forced her eyes open, looking up to see a squad of Arachnos Wolf Spiders running towards her.
Gasping for air, she tried to call on the electricity that a run-in with an experimental power source had granted her, but was only able to muster the
concentration for a few weak sparks.
"Group effort boys," the squads Huntsman smiled, taking out his sidearm. "Excellent shooting. At least one hero is going down today." With
that, he aimed the gun at her head and fired.
***