Built Different [Cyborg Superhero ProgFant]

Once the military squad of Gnaws showed up, it was clear as day that they had external funding and supplies. Ballistic armor and modern firearms. The one point in our favor was that the mutants either didn't know how to care and maintain the equipment, or didn't care to.

Belle's dome shield flickered as another salvo of bullets ricocheted around our location. The heat of battle was sweltering. Even through my re-breather, there was a thick stench of blood and split internal organs. A squad of armed gnolls would have been a modest challenge. With the siren blaring out the promise of a fresh meal on their doorstep, every mutant with a pointed object and wanting stomach had joined the fray.

So much for our more nuanced take on our objective. Things had become a bloodbath. A one-sided slaughter at present, but the pressure on us was constant. It would only take a little bad luck or a mistake, and one of us could fall.

"Open street warfare isn't working out," Roxy growled.

I could tell the super was seething, even beneath her mask. She wanted to leap through the air and land in the middle of the mutants. Incredibly effective, possibly. In most other situations, I would have no problem with that plan. The Gnaws had been provided equipment for warring against Goldarch, however, and might have something to weaken or disable superpowers.

Throwing cooled lava or chunks of the scenery had done nothing to improve her mood, her ire probably another reason for the heat oppressing us. The rest of us had no problem with stopping any of the unarmored mutants from trying to run through the barrier to attack us, but the ones with firearms were actually showing some smarts.

They were using cover, for one. I could tell Roy had a few thoughts about our decision to fight in the open. Most superheroes didn't have to worry about protracted battles, let alone urban skirmishing. Any time we took out one of the Gnaws firing on us, one of the less experienced mutants would pick up their equipment and continue the fight.

We had pushed them back three times to their current position, but progress through their territory had ground to a halt.

//Clara: Flanking force coming from the east.
//Clara: They are also mobilizing tanks toward your position.
//Gunquake: Any place we can break their effectiveness?
//Clara: There's a large complex to the east.

[Prepare to move back to the last turning on my call.]

A Flash shot zapped into my gun-arm from the loading mech back home. I pulled two Smoke grenades from my vest - one in each hand.

"Barrier down in five seconds," Belle said, her voice strained.

I pulled the pins and pointed down at the mutants firing at us. Flash burst amongst them, blinding any not entirely behind cover. By the time they could recover, our position was flooded by a large cloud of gray smoke.

We were powering east, along a side street we had passed. Ahead of us was a group of mutants jogging our direction and looking surprised to see us already. A flank organized by one armored Gnaw, while the rest were a mass of sharp knives, dark fur, and ill intent.

My grappling hook hit the roof further down and I used the momentum to swing toward the group. V-Force in my feet pulsed out to reduce my friction on the road, and my arm reared back.

A magical arrow burst above them, a strong gust of wind causing them to stagger and stay in place. My collision with the armored Gnaw was guaranteed. V-Force drive in my arm flared up and jettisoned out of my elbow vent, powering my fist forward. I extended two fingers, like a spear.

My punch cratered straight through the reinforced plating, the metal of my arm stronger. Broke through ribs and mashed organs, but couldn't go through the armor on his back as well. With my hand fully embedded in his torso, I fired the High Explosive shot.

The rest of the mutants barely had a second to process their leader bursting into chunks all over them before Roxy arrived. Like a blazing comet, she collided with those on the left of me with twice the force I had. Two died just from the collateral blunt force trauma, as she hit them like a truck, her punch actually aimed for one near the back. It connected, and the mutant's skull practically vaporized.

Electricity crackled along my right as Roy flashed between those remaining before they could escape. I flicked the chunks of gore from my hand and ejected the spent cartridge.

//Clara: Keep moving.
//Clara: Pursuit will soon follow.

Heading east was taking us away from our main objective, but we needed to end the stalemate. In the open streets, they had more of an advantage… at least if we didn't want to act too risky. None of us wanted to spend tomorrow in the hospital.

Further down this winding side street, we eventually saw our target destination. While most residential buildings were single story, sometimes with an upper floor, this larger structure was three stories tall and easily five times wider than any house.

"Factory or something?" Roy murmured as we ran.

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The gunshots had petered off to silence behind us now, which meant the smoke had cleared enough for them to realize we had escaped. In less than a minute, this area would be crawling with more gnolls. As well as armored vehicles and more squads from their makeshift army, no doubt.

It didn't matter what the building was.

"No door," Ren said. "Make our own?"

[Affirmative.]

Roxy paced ahead of us, hunkering her posture like she was a charging bull. A couple of gnolls appeared from the houses ahead, but received arrows through their foreheads before they could even yelp.

The super struck the wall of the tall building, and we powered in behind her.

Only realizing what a mistake it had been a split second later as she tried to call out a warning. With no time to decelerate, it was too late anyway. Gravity took us as the odd sights of the building interior flashed through my mind. I hit a flat edge of something and then dropped another ten or so feet onto solid ground.

Ground that smelled like ammonia and wet fur. I rolled to the side as a mutant leaped up on me. Surprisingly strong. One hand pinned me to the ground while another brought up a rock, intending to bash my skull open. I fired a solid steel ball up through his lower jaw and out of the top of his head.

With a grunt, I pushed him off and stood to my feet. Boots crunched on parts of a Gnoll skeleton, long decaying. Echoes of fighting drowned out by the hoots and wild hollers of dozens upon dozens of other mutants.

I was in a jail cell, for lack of a better word. It was more of a pit, however, as there was no door. Roughly square, barely twelve feet across. There wasn't even anything stopping the captive from climbing the ten or so foot wall to escape, at least in the traditional sense. My eyes looked up to our audience, and my first impressions as I had fallen had been correct.

The upper building was hollow, and instead of floors, it just had hanging cages. Another… maybe fifty Gnolls trapped in them. It was the oddest prison set up I had ever heard of, and I was willing to bet there was further barbarism in the process than first glance could tell me.

Ren hovered into view over my cell atop her bow.

"We managed to fall into three separate cells. Shall we regroup?"

[What's the layout?]

She flew a little higher and then touched her temple. A message popped through in my lens, and I opened up the image. The whole floor was cell next to cell, apart from the entrance on the opposite side that had an opening where the guard must sit. I imagined they just walked new prisoners along the edges of the walls, since the cells were below that ground level.

There wasn't enough room for us all to fit into one room. Being packed in like sardines once the army rolled back in wasn't ideal. Roxy could do a little restructuring, but being stuck in a pit was still a disadvantage. We'd just need to get to the other side across the walls.

//Gunquake: Regroup on the walls.

I shot my grapple up to a higher inner wall and zipped up to land atop the edge of my cell. The grid walkway was barely a foot wide, but gave us a clear enough route across. Belle and Roy joined me, a row across, before Roxy hopped up. The elf landed behind me and wielded her bow.

On the other side, a short figure moved behind the desks and other furniture before vanishing from view. Before I could think about loading up an explosive shot, a crackle of a speaker system rolled through the prison.

"Feeding time!" a voice growled.

"Now what?" Belle grumbled, eyeing up the hole we had made in the wall behind us.

In answer to her question, the whole structure vibrated with noise. The floor shook - and the reason became clear. As the heads of the biggest and most deranged Gnolls I had seen started rising into view, I didn't need to glance down at the cell beside me to know that the floor was ascending up to our level.

The clinking metal noise from above told me something else as well. All the cages were lowering as well.

"Out of the frying pan…" Ren sighed. She released an arrow, puncturing through the mutant in the cage coming down toward us. It was a slow process, and we weren't going to stand around waiting for dramatic effect.

I fired another metal ball at a prisoner who was eagerly climbing over their wall early to our left. With a growl, Roxy kicked one on our right, clean across the prison. The fighting ground had become more even, but that made it both easier for us and the group soon to arrive at this position.

"I'm not one to usually complain about a target-rich environment," Roy said as he raised up his fists. "But it feels like a lot is being asked of us here."

I wasn't entirely sure if Kingston would have sent us here knowing the full extent of the Gnaw's power, or if he did already know and we were expected to be a five person army. Either way, we were too far from the Meteor for an easy exit. In the middle of the most violence we'd ever had to deal with. Even with all our powers, we weren't equipped for this sort of situation.

They were all looking to me for guidance, aside from Roxy, who was waiting for permission.

[Take the left corner and weather the storm. Ember spear protocol.]

Ember spear was a Roxy-led aggressive maneuver. Roy and I assisted her and kept the two ranged heroes safe. We couldn't run from the aggressors, so we had to hunker down until we ground them into the dirt. Only then could we proceed.

The prisoners here had other ideas.

As soon as the cages reached twelve feet from the ground, the bottoms popped out, dumping the occupants to the now-flat stone floor. Combined with the ones from the cells, the mutants rushed us like a tidal wave.

I fired a metal ball through two, the first not even slowing from the internal damage. I kicked out his knee, shattering it, and shot him in the face with the pistol wielded in my left hand. Another barreled into me and I turned to the side, pushing their long snout away from me. A magic arrow slammed through his neck, barely missing my arm. Then I was on to the next fight.

Not too far from me, waves of heated air washed through my outfit already soaked with sweat. Growls combined with shattered gnoll parts spread through the air. The hum of electric flickered around my left side as Roy assisted the others.

My protective shield hissed out as a clawed hand raked at my back. I twisted in place, firing a metal ball through another mutant before facing the attacker. He growled, annoyed at being unable to tear at my skin. In seeing my exposed neck, he lashed forward, snapping his long teeth. I caught him in the act, my metal fingers going straight into his eyes sockets.

I gripped and wrenched the front of his skull off.

A squat prisoner rammed me, knocking me to the ground. Before he could take advantage, three arrows pierced his side, shoulder, and head in quick succession. A nearby Gnoll crumpled as Roxy burst through and offered me a hand.

Even with the goggles, I could see the fire burning in her eyes.

I stood and fired past her, exploding the throat of a prisoner. Despite the losses, they were unrelenting. Starved for the taste of fresh meat.

"Permission to try something new?" she asked, a sleek excitement in her voice.

[Granted.]