Alex – Heart Of The Vanguard

__________*_Alex_*__________

I side stepped a semitransparent purple and red disc as it was launched at me from down the hall. It impacted and wedged into the glossy medical white wall a few feet behind me, vanishing a second later and revealing a large oblong gash.

Me: "Really?! That's all you got?!" I shouted back to the Executioner that just launched the attack at me moments before.

Executioner: "Oh I'm just getting started, I have plenty more to give you..." He snarled in return, "...kill them!" He barked at the armoured SkyTech Dragons, 2 on either side of him. They instantly bolted on all fours toward us down the hall. This was going to be a problem, 2 armoured SkyTech in the past was a challenge for me in a partially weakened state. Reikon killed one of them and I freed the other, that being 42 obviously, when I managed to subdue him for a few seconds.

Now there's 4 of them and an Executioner. Granted, I'm at full strength and more powerful and I had Wrex as backup, but he wasn't powered... So my main target was the Executioner, but I need to restrain the converted without causing death or injury to them... Let's go!

I bounced on the spot twice to hype myself up before setting off in a sprint towards them. I bounced and leapt over the first armoured Dragon as he made a swipe at me, doing a one-hand hand stand over him, forcing him to the floor. I spun a web of energy as I flipped over it, like a literal purple spider web shaped net. It covered the armoured SkyTech Dragon, tightened down, pinning and holding him to the floor. The next one, I walloped into the wall with a back hand, netted him as well, sticking him to the wall with another purple web net.

Now came the challenge, the Executioner started launching multiple attacks at me, red and purple crystalline spikes were hurled my way. The Executioner was literally creating them from thin air and was throwing them at me like javelins, over the top of the remaining to SkyTech Dragons. One scraped my upper left arm, taking a small gouge out of the armour as it seemed to burn and melt through it. The next few spikes I either managed to use my own telekinetic abilities to send them off in other directions or just dodged them entirely. I met the 3rd SkyTech while dodging the last few javelins, he spun mid stride, trying to swipe me with extended tail blades.

I lassoed his tail with rope of purple energy, then whipped it up to hang him from the ceiling. I then lassoed more ropes of energy around his body, yanking him up to pull him tight to the ceiling, leaving him completely shocked and confused as to what just happened. Now that he was out of the way, I safely slid under him on the floor on my side towards the final SkyTech. This last one tried to Make a grab for me lunging mid stride. So while I was still on the floor, the momentum of my slide just ending, I kicked him in the underside of his helmet, smacking his head up and completely curling him back over himself.

Using his back flipping body as he fell though, I launched myself from the floor, over him, webbed him to the floor on to his back as he completed his 180. I finished flying through the air over him, landing back on my feet in a sprint. The Executioner panicked, having witnessed how easily I had subdued his pawns, started launching wave after wave of attacks at me. I raised my arms as I ran, firing shots of plasma alternatively between each arm at him, he swatted each round away in-between attempting to launch retaliating red and purple attacks back at me. In a last ditch effort, he rippled the walls and floor, they warped and formed waves, cascading in my direction in an attempt to throw me off. I leapt up and rotated myself in midair, then repositioned my point of gravity.

The ceiling of the hallway became my new floor, my feet making contact as I sprinted the last few paces at him. I was literally walking, or running, on the ceiling. Shaking off his momentary confusion of me running at the ceiling at him, he quickly drew his dagger from his lower back, making a quick spin in his fingers before throwing it at me. It curved in midair, I saw it glow red and purple as he directed it with his mind. So I Jumped it... It flew into a small red and purple mist as it closed to within a foot of my abdomen, disappearing completely from reality. It then reappeared out of another portal, exiting right behind him, erupting out of the portal and stabbing him in the back.

He growled and stumbled forward, right into me as I finished my sprint, falling into my quickly extending plasma blade on my right arm as I spiraled around him, returning to a natural position of gravity on the floor of the hall. His body smashed to the floor motionless, dagger sticking out of his back like a mast, his head rolling and clattering in its helmet further down the hall a few paces towards the last SkyTech that I restrained.

This whole process-, this little 'fight' - Took less than 30 seconds...

After watching the head roll, a long thick spewing blood trail following it, my gaze followed up to see Wrex down the other end of the hall where we had come from, mouth dropped and eyes wide in awe, frozen on the spot.

Me: "You alright?" My words seem to unfreeze him, he blinked and shook his head clear.

Wrex: "I'm equally: Impressed, proud, horny and scared, all simultaneously..." He replied, counting his fingers as he started moving towards me. I gave the smallest of sniggers in response. "...what about these guys though?" He asked while almost tiptoeing around the armoured SkyTech. They each growled and thrashed this way and that as they fought against their restraints.

I put my hand on the closest one's helmeted head, as he struggled violently under the webbing, sent the usual release signal and the order to his control chip to knock him out for 2 hours before switching it off. He squealed and fell limp and silent.

Me: "I'll set them free, but I'll also knock them out for a couple of hours, we should be done by then." Then set about doing the other 3.

...

Hammer and Strike force informed me that they were making good progress down through the facility, now making their way through the research and development labs and making swift progress to the VIP areas. I instructed the teams to hold back, I didn't want them setting Skylen off doing something drastic. Wrex and myself had to handle this alone. We had come across small groups of armoured SkyTech Dragons on the last couple of floors, all were handled without injury and incapacitated with relative ease like the earlier lot. We were on our last floor to climb, where the boardroom was located and we were close.

Me: "4 Executioners, round the next corner, guarding Skylen's room..." I whispered to Wrex as after pulling my head back around the corner, "...I need to make this quick... I can feel them Wrex, our kids. They're alive and so close."

Wrex: "Lets not fuck this up at the final hurdle then, eh. What do you want to do?" He whispered quietly in return. I only took a moment to think about it.

Me: "You distract them, I'll take them out as stealthy as possible. Give me 10 seconds." And with that, I cloaked, completely hiding myself from sight, including Wrex's and started off round the corner towards the 4 Executioners milling around near the boardroom door.

Wrex: "Wait, wait, how do I-?! Damn it." I heard him strain to whisper as I shot off... I knew he'd think of something to do.

I jogged, silently and invisible, down the hall and between the Executioners, narrowly missing one as he turned on the spot. His tail swept under me, I just had time to hop over it, but my metal clad feet, even as quiet as I could make them, still clattered as I landed.

"What was that?" A female of the Executioners asked at the noise, unknowingly looking in my direction as I circled around them.

'Come on Wrex, do something.' I thought to myself.

Wrex: "Hey, guys? A little help?" The Executioners spun on the spot, snapping their heads in the direction of Wrex, limping out of cover of the corner, hands raised in surrender. One of the male Executioners chuckled and relaxed slightly and replied,

"He he he... 'CAPTAIN' Wrex..." The way he emphasised the word 'Captain', sounded like he wanted to spit on the term. "... You're looking a little worse for wear Captain, what can we do for you?" I noticed 1 of the 4 Executioners at the back of the group pulled their dagger from the sheath of their back and another's hands started glowing.

Wrex: "Guys, no hard feelings, you lot put up a good fight. But I'm done, I'm beat. I've had a real hell of a day, mind if I just speak to my brother? For old times sake?" The male Executioner that had spoken, wearing a sinister grin, glanced down the hall to the rest of us, eyes almost seemed to fix on me between his comrades, grin faded, even just for a split second. He turned away, laughing, and started casually stepping towards my slowing limping Wrex.

Male: "Oh Captain... Captain, Captain, Captain..." He placed a hand on Wrex's shoulder, "...Wrex... You know I can't allow that. But I feel as though I need to let you know, a mistake that you both made?..." I lowered my arm blades from their housings, as slowly and quietly as possible, getting ready to ignite them as I stepped up behind 2 of the Executioners. Wrex stayed quiet and still, hands still raised, the male put his hand around his back, gripping the hilt of his own dagger. "...Thinking that I can't see your mate!" He grabbed the blade, spun and threw it at me, between his team. At the same time he flared his tail blades and swiped at Wrex as he spun, the blades just catching his abdomen, even though he jumped back.

Shocked that he somehow saw me, I still reacted quickly, my blades ignited in plasma, my right arm snapped up. The super heated blade slicing the dagger in two, the 2 glowing pieces splitting and taking opposing courses. My other arm swiped at the closest Executioner, gliding through his back and spine. He screeched and fell to the floor before he ever got a chance to spin. The other was the one with their hands glowing already, she did spin in time as I brought my right arm back down towards her.

She created a form of a shield using her powers, my blade bounced off of a red and purple semi circle with an electrical snap noise with as much forces as I put into the swing. I swung my other arm low, attempting to get her legs, but the shield covered them as well. Again my arm bounced off with the speed and force that I had applied. The returned force spun me back the opposite way, so I carried on the momentum, back stepped a couple of paces, knelt on one knee and brought my right arm up while sliding my blades away.

I charged a large plasma shot and fired. The ball of plasma flew and again was deflected off of the shield back at me, I just about dodged it in a back roll.

Me: "Da' fuck?!"

Female: "Reflective shield, turns the attackers own energy against them. Not many can conjure them and I'm pretty good at it. So come on, what else you got?!" She taunted as the male Executioner behind her, readied himself, hands starting to glow red and purple. I leapt up and forward, jet bursted myself to run up the wall then onto the ceiling. The whole short distance I ran, the male was drawing metal spikes from the walls, piercing through behind me as I ran, they couldn't keep up.

I spun over the female, my target being the male for now. He sprung a wall of spikes from the floor and ceiling to defend himself as I belted towards him, like a toothed jaw had closed between us. Once again I fired out my plasma blades, sliced clean through the teeth like spikes, grabbed one and threw it at the male, impaling him through the throat. He gargled as he gripped the spike and fell. Now back to the female.

She had spun, looking at me through the sliced spikes, her hands held towards me, red mist formed in between them. I felt like I was being pulled apart... That's exactly what she was trying to do! Like my limbs, flesh, organs, every atom of me wanted to be as far away from each other as much as possible. I screamed and fell to my knees.

The Shard, hummed, louder and louder, resonating in my back, to the point of it vibrating my skull. All of a sudden, the female Executioner dropped her hands, screamed, then violently exploded. The bits and pieces of her rained from the ceiling, blood every square centimetre of the hall for about 30 meters in both directions, including me... Thankfully protected by my armour.

So that was 3, shit, the 4th one! Wrex! I spun to see where we had come from. There was the 4th, also covered in his teammate's blood. He swayed slightly, one arm behind his back, bloody face twitching at the semi open mouth and eyebrow. He wore a blank expression, unaffected by the blood he was wearing or my existence in front of him. He fell to his knees with a thud, then flopped forwards, revealing Wrex riding his back, panting away. He was the one restraining the Executioner's arm behind his back, Wrex's tail blades also buried deep in the Executioner's back.

Wrex: " *Pant* Who needs a super powered suit?, Eh?" He asked rhetorically, as he fell from the Executioner's back to sitting beside his body. I ran over to help support him.

Me: "Are you ok?!"

Wrex: "Yeah, just never took on an Executioner before on my own and won. *Pant Pant*... Could you help my tail please?" He tugged at it, lodged in the Executioner's back, but the blades wedged tight. So I stepped up, stepped on the Executioner's back armour while yanking on Wrex's tail. With combined effort it was freed, dripping with blood as he shook the worst off it then retracted his blades.

Wrex: "Thanks, I assume you got the other 3?..." He surveyed the blood soaked hall, besides the body we were next to, 2 other bodies lay motionless, tiny bits and pieces laid strewn here and there, "...of course you did, what a stupid question, you didn't even break a sweat, did you..." He mused as he just finished getting is breath back. "...I'm getting too old for this shit."

Me: "Oh, as if! You're only a thousand! Got a millennia and a bit before you can even start saying that!" He chuckled and dropped his head in defeat with a smile.

Wrex: "Alright alright... I assume that's not your blood?" He looked me up and down as I knelt next to him.

Me: "Oh, noo, not mine."

Wrex: "What did you do then?" He said looking back at the mess once more.

Me: "Well, she made this shield, deflecting any of my attacks back at me, then tried ripping me to pieces, atom by atom. So I worked out how she did it and did the same to her."

Wrex: "Huh... Nice..." He grimaced, eyes falling to the nearby blood covered door. "...is that our door?" He notioned his head towards it.

Me: "Yeah..." I trailed off.

Wrex: "Alright then, let's finish this." He strained in pain as he pulled himself from the floor, I leapt to help him up, but noticed he was holding his abdomen."

Me: "What have you done?"

Wrex: "It's nothing."

Me: "The hell it's not!..." I pulled his arm out the way to see a huge gash, a cut through the softer, not so well armoured gel layer on his belly, and blood oozing from the gash. "... You're hurt! I need to get you some help."

Wrex: "No!" He barked,

Me: "Wrex, please!"

Wrex: "The door is right there! THEY are right there! I am NOT stopping now! He dies by my hand, you promised me!" He growled. I gently raised both hands in submission, then gently placed one on his shoulder, and nodded,

Me: "I know, I know, it's ok... If you're sure, then let's do it."

I helped him to the door, he didn't really need my help, I don't think, but he didn't resist me.

Wrex: "You know, there could be anything behind this door, and he's going to know we're coming after the ruckus we just made out here just now." He said as we reached the door. I flicked vision modes, switched between radiation output... Nothing... No one was using any Shard powers in there... Then to life readings... It wasn't so obvious, whether the walls and doors were too thick or what, but I was only picking one life sign, far center of the room.

Me: "He's alone, I think. I'm not picking up anything else."

Wrex: "Hmm... still, be ready for anything..." He pulled away slightly, straightening himself up with a strong inhale and slight grunt of pain. "...do it. Open it." He nodded to me. I glided my hand in front of the door, hacking it and forcing it to open.

(-Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori)