Dr Archeville Posted May 1, 2011 Posted May 1, 2011 April 15, 2011 Fenris didn't usually suit up so early in the day; he wasn't an all-night-patrol hero like some, but he preferred to have at least some shadows to work with. If nothing else, it discouraged people from trying to figure out everything about his armor from the get-go. 'Never hurts to have a little mystery in life, people. Especially if that mystery means you don't get my tech...' Suddenly, alarms blared as multiple portals started tearing open in the sky all over the city! He sped down to street level, only a couple of blocks away from The Lab. He saw a couple of portals open nearby and produce... “Pirates? Really? That's kind of...Oh you're kidding me.†Another portal had disgorged what looked like “classical†ninjas. Somehow, the two groups were already fighting, swords of various kinds whirring through the air, throwing knives and primitive flintlock pistols trying to eliminate enemies at range. Civilians ran in fear, one poor man getting clipped by a throwing knife. “Okay, as much fun as this might be for YouTube later, this needs to stop. Time to shock some sense into them.†With that, Fenris began striding forwards, sending blast after crackling blast out from his PPCs. Each blast seemed to knock another combatant out of the picture; since he was alternating between each group, neither got any major advantage, thus keeping it from being a slaughter. Before long, it was down to the apparent leaders of each group. The pirate was a crusty-looking older fellow, with a whole lot of those pistols and a rather large cutlass. The head ninja was actually smaller than his fellows, but seemed to have an almost supernatural grace about him. The pirate charged first. “That's for me crew! Blasted metal dog-man!†The sword was caught in now-glowing claws, and quickly sundered to utter uselessness. The other hand came up in a devastating uppercut that knocked out a couple of teeth, even as the pirate slipped into an unplanned nap. “Wolf, not dog. Hey, watch the finish!†The ninja had tried to strike his head off while he was distracted. It had only succeeded in scratching the metal, doing no real damage. A quick elbow from Fenris staggered the ninja, and twin PPC blasts put him out of the fight. “Well, that was kind of fun. Minus the lives at risk, I guess.†His head whipped around as his suit picked up a “silent†alarm at The Lab. He sighed. “Bet they're all busy with these portals. Anything setting that off is bound to be bad news.†With that, he flashed away, speeding through the space between space, arriving in a flash of light just down the block from the front of the Lab. For the moment, the building looked intact, but there were three figures in front that looked quite menacing. All three were wearing what looked to be powered armor, but they were easy to tell apart nonetheless. One of them had a good two feet of height on the others, making him something like eight feet tall. He carried what seemed to be a large energy cannon in both hands; the weapon looked more like one designed for a main battle tank. The next, in a suit that bizarrely emphasized the fact that the wearer was female. She seemed to be armed with what looked like a long spear, and bore a jet pack on her back. The final figure, who seemed to be the leader of the merry little band, had a much more “generic†looking suit. He had an over-sized pistol gripped in each hand, and what looked like some sort of sword on his back. All of them looked dangerous. Especially the one pointing the giant gun at the Lab. “Hey! Heavy Weapons Guy! Hope you have insurance on Sasha there!†With only that cry as a warning, Fenris appeared perhaps 50 feet away, firing both PPCs directly into the huge gun. His shots damaged it, but it seemed to still be active, albeit going into a “standby†moder, perhaps to assess damage. Of course, he didn't have much time to think about that, since Leader was firing a barrage of shots at him, and Spear Lady was trying to turn him into a shish-kebab. He blurred away, putting a good 200 feet between them. HWG busied himself getting his gun up and running, Leader hung back, and Spear Gal flew after him. She aimed for his heart, the tip of her spear crackling with energy... Only for Fenris to practically fall backwards, his now-glowing claws swiping upwards at the shaft of the spear. Sparks flew, and the weapon fell to pieces in her hands. Spear Gal dropped the useless metal and drew a combat knife and an over-sized energy pistol. The pistol was also shredded quickly, but the knife managed to cut into his armor somewhat; thankfully, it didn't breach anything. He counter-attacked, punching her several times across the torso, and once in her head. She staggered, and he saw his chance. Getting behind her, he practically shoved both PPC barrels into her suit's backpack (which he figured had most of her power systems and such. With a wordless growl that sounded even worse coming over his speaker, he fired. The results were rather dramatic, as the backpack suffered an overload, producing a small explosion that scorched Fenris's arms and slammed her into the ground. There were a couple of moments where she was wracked by electrical overload, before she was locked inside an inert suit of armor. But Fenris had no time to celebrate, as the HWG was barreling towards him with a bellow of rage. “Sweet on Little Miss Spear here? She's fine; probably a few burnt hairs, definitely some aches and pains in the morning, and obviously a wrecked suit, but she's still alive.†He zipped away from where the large man tried to actually stomp on him, firing a few shots of his PPCs. They cratered the large man's armor, but didn't really slow him down. Fenris frowned inside his helmet; there was no way he was risking getting close enough to try taking him down with his claws. He started zipping around faster and faster, hoping to confuse the large man, or at least outmaneuver him. That was probably the only thing that saved him when he came out of a dash and was staring straight down the barrel of the huge gun the man carried. A barrel that was already starting to fire, having charged up for the last minute or so. Fenris crouched, the jumped high into the air, activating his Vacuum Flux Capacitor as he did so. In the microseconds before he entered that slipstream that would carry him over the large man, the energies of the cannon started to wash over his suit's legs. When he emerged, directly above and behind the large man, his legs were blackened and trailing smoke. He fired two stronger-than-normal shots, disabling the huge suit in a similarly dramatic fashion as the first. The huge cannon sparked and sputtered from the overload, several parts exploding within the casing, leaving it a useless wreck, even as the weilder collapsed. Fenris himself fell into a weary crouch, panting a bit beneath the armor. His legs felt like they were on fire; probably because a good portion of his armor there had been melted off. A couple of his actuators had been fried, too; everything in his legs felt stiff. He was about to stand up when a sword tip found itself resting at the base of his throat. “My my. Another armor user, but this time one of those pathetic “superheroesâ€? Well, perhaps pathetic isn't entirely accurate; you defeated both my comrades with little damage to yourself. But you forgot about me. Now, I'll kill you, and then I'll take what technology I can from the Lab. After that, I'll leave it intact, after planting a few spy devices that are cutting edge in a century or so. From then on, I'll have a free line on tons of great tech, enough to really keep me in the money. This sword's pretty sharp; looks like it's already cutting in. You'll open up like, oh, what's the term? Ah, yes. “Like a tin canâ€, I believe.†The man started to apply pressure, but Fenris suddenly collapsed backward, pulling himself away from the sword. Mostly. It still cut deeply, actually reaching to the final layer above his skin, leaving a mark scored in the interface suit he wore. His left arm snapped up, his blazing claws first scratching, then scoring, then finally severing the blade. It was quickly dropped even as Fenris fired his right PPC into the other armor's shoulder, frying the electronics with a well-placed hit. His enemy, undaunted by only 1 working arm, pulled his other pistol out and started to fire. These shots cratered Fenris's armor, two of them tearing into his own left arm systems, leaving almost that whole side useless. Finally, a lucky shot from Fenris hit Leader on the right side of his neck. The final armor down fried and done for the count, but Fenris hadn't fared much better. His suit was in shambles, and he was barely able to stand and start dashing back to his hidden base. As the armor was peeled off his body, and the automated shop got to work taking care of most of the damage, he was lost in thought. 'They would have walked all over me if I hadn't had the element of surprise. I had that, and I still almost lost. They said they were from a century in the future...I guess that means I need to figure out ways to get at least a century ahead, then. Because if this sort of “portal storm†shows up again, I might end up facing even more of them. And then people die, including myself. I can't let that happen, no matter what the cost.' Soon, he sat down at his drafting computer, and began to tinker with some old nanotechnology designs he'd found half-buried in their archives. Some of these things only needed a few tweaks to be perfected...
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