Built Different [Cyborg Superhero ProgFant]

One. Two. Three.

Rage surged through my entire being as I loaded three shells into my gun-arm for a Triple shot. Sparks crackled down my arm as the V-Force drives screamed into action. Before our assailant had the chance to move or load his sniper rifle, my clenched fist responded to his initial interruption.

Three High Explosive rounds detonated on the target, shredding through their tactical armor and sending a spritz of blood and ruptured internal organs across the room they had fired from. They got off lightly.

I turned my burning eyes to Roxy.

Her body had fallen against the wall and slumped down, as if she were just slouching in a seated position. A streak of blood ran down the wall, drawing a line from the initial impact spray to her current posture.

I crouched down beside her, observing her crimson-daubed face. It hung low, inert.

[You're not allowed to sleep just yet. Don't be selfish.]

My voice echoed down the corridor slightly, the robotic tinge hiding the turbulent thoughts fighting for attention in my head. A fresh drop of blood ran down her cheek and landed on the floor.

Roxy groaned and sluggishly raised her head. Eyes glassy and unfocused as she looked up at me. "Is it… bad?"

I exhaled through my re-breather and got more comfortable on one knee. Gently, I held her chin with my metal hand and turned her to face the side so that I could see the wound.

[Well, I can see your skull. So, not ideal.]

"Fuckin' motherfuckers," she hissed, wincing as some of the pain started to filter in.

It was only through the grace of her superpower that her brains weren't decorating the drab paintwork. Even then, the bullet had managed to reach her skull. A two-inch crater of bloody flesh surrounded the thumb-sized patch of crimson-marred bone.

[Are you able to stand?]

She scowled at me briefly before taking my arm. I pulled her up, and she wavered, cursing under her breath all the way. She closed her eyes and clenched her jaw.

Part of her scalp flickered with flame before turning to lava. The bright amber ran from beside her central tuft of hair and seeped over the wound. Roxy clasped her fists tighter before taking a deep breath. The lava cooled, hardening to ruddy rock, covering the gap in her flesh.

"Not exactly healing," she complained, some of the fire returning to her eyes. "But surprisingly effective."

[They seem to have a way to detect us through walls.]

I didn't even bother asking her if she was fine to continue. That conversation was meaningless. We both knew where this was heading. After all the times I had skirted death to reach the finish line, she had no qualms about catching up. Equal in risk. On the same page.

"Yeah." She rolled her neck around. "Did you notice the other group we fucked up, though?"

[Tech kill-switches.]

It wasn't something that we had come across in the past… well, no, that wasn't true. An old memory of my mercenary days illuminated everything, and common sense filled the gaps. Every piece of technology, including their weapons, had fallen inert as soon as they had died. A simple way to keep their equipment from falling into enemy hands. No spying on their communications.

"You know what that means then, huh?" She spat some blood onto the floor and glared down the corridor.

I had some ideas, although most were morally questionable - if not outright reprehensible. After watching Roxy almost die in front of me, I was willing to do a war crime or two in retaliation. Earn that anti-hero tag right back. Toe the line.

//Clara: Most windows are obscured, but I'm marking location of potential sniper.
//Clara: I will distract.

The map appeared in my lens, with a new dot off to the west. We didn't need much prompting after that. It was a short distance, and the sniper might already be tracking us. Probably there were too many walls between us for them to make the shot.

Roxy and I ran. Urged on by the prospect of revenge and preventing further calamity, we powered around the next corner, into a small lobby. Our target was off to the left hallway. To the north, the upper end of this waiting room had been turned into a shooting gallery. Tables had been tipped to make barricades.

A group of military goons were positioned behind a group of them, weapons trained on us.

[Go on ahead.]

Roxy burst across the room, with a partial leap. I slid across the smooth floor to take cover behind a pillar. Small arms fire filled the area, chunks of stonework and clouds of powdered wall bouncing around my position. There were five of them. My gun-arm ached.

Smoke grenade from my vest. A classic, even if not as effective against those with the right vision tech to see through it. I stood and took a few steps back from the pillar. V-Force hummed through my legs, building up in a brief two seconds. With a quick kick, I released the energy.

The stone pillar shattered, spraying their barricades with thick chunks of rock. Most took cover. Those that didn't were struck by my Flash shot. Grapple had me in amongst them before their vision could even clear.

A second kick broke the knee of the first combatant. As they dropped, my punch turned their head with a quick snap. High Explosive shot to the second, rupturing out his stomach. Sparks rang from my arm as the third lunged with a knife. The blade slid along the dark metal as I drew my own knife from my side. A slash and he dropped his pistol. Lunge and I buried the sharp end into his shoulder.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Reflex flooded my eager system, brightening up my synapse connections. Elated and composed. Calm within the tempest. I moved with a speed that would have impressed Roy.

Steel ball through the throat of number three. Another to the chest of the fourth, breaking ribs. The follow-up punch ruptured their lungs and heart. Fifth goon received a ball to the thigh, dropping them to a knee. I stepped over to knock the gun from their hands. I grabbed at their goggles and pulled their mask off.

Hmm. Surprising. I vented the last of my frustrations by breaking in their face with repeated strikes of the removed headwear. Once the goggles split in half, I dropped the convulsing body to the floor.

[Are they clones?]

//Clara: More akin to plant life, if you could believe it, Gunquake.
//Clara: Unsurprisingly, illegal on the continent.

The Government would turn a blind eye if it benefitted them. I was expecting humans, or adjacent combatants. Mostly male, based on their form and gear. Pretty standard for these sorts of organizations. The face beneath the mask hadn't been a grisled mercenary, or even human at all.

Pale white skin, shiny and almost featureless. Reminded me of a mushroom, which lent credence to what Clara said. Black eyes with odd tri-dot pupils. Slim mouth that was serrated with external teeth like a bare skull. They still bled red blood. Some data filtered in from the techie told me they had a similar bone structure, but rather low intelligence. Biological automatons.

"Hear that? I feel a little less guilty now."

I looked up from the minor massacre now surrounding me to see Roxy walk in from the other hallway. Powdered stone now clung to the parts of her face that had been bloodied by the last sniper. A pair of thicker goggles sat on her forehead, two cables running from them to the figure held limply under her arm.

[He's not dead?]

"Broken knees and elbows. Also…" She turned in place to show me the mercenary's face. "They have the classic kill-capsule-tooth-insert. No backup if that fails, it seems."

The odd plant guy had a severely dislocated jaw. I'd often mused over the complications of us turning villain. Roxy clearly had little issue maiming the merc to use as a battery for the goggles, even before knowing they were essentially senseless robots. Since they almost blew her brains out, perhaps they had it coming.

[Any luck with the tech?]

"Seems to work via sonar, which is an odd choice." She pulled the goggles down over her eyes and turned in a slow circle, still carrying the figure. "Should be thermal, right?"

[Typically.]

I didn't rate our chances of traversing the building in total silence. Either the plant soldiers couldn't use thermal for some reason, or something about the hospital meant that sonar imaging was more effective. Nothing in the original plans hinted at any clues to such a theory holding weight.

//Clara: Odd. I will investigate.

"Can't even see anyone," the super complained. "But I know there must be more assholes hiding up here."

A cautionary glance at the map told me we had barely scratched twenty percent of this floor. As much as I wanted to be thorough, we could spend hours and get nowhere here. I grunted and turned my attention to the super.

[Are you going to take that along with you?]

"Meh." Roxy shrugged. "Maybe Clara could reverse engineer the tech so it doesn't break?"

//Clara: I appreciate your trust in my skills, Rockslide, but we don't have the time.

"Balls." The super turned the man around in her grip and twisted his head with a sharp crack. She discarded the goggles and allowed the body to drop to the floor. "I assume you have a backup plan, Dubs?"

[We didn't want the Disasters to come here so that they could avoid a bad rep. But... what if nobody sees them?]

I pulled at a pouch on my left and withdrew a black rod from within a case. Dark green light rolled across it like the tide.

"Teleport them in, have them clear up behind us so we can press forward. Teleport them out after?"

[Precisely.]

This Fading Storm group was dangerous, but nothing the team hadn't dealt with before. If Roxy and I could clear the bigger threats per floor, then the other three Natural Disasters could mop up the stragglers and save us time. Roxy agreed, and so we stepped to the side of the room - the magic needed space.

I threw the rod into the middle of the waiting room. It bounced once and then laid still as if suddenly very heavy. Reality warped slightly, a large sphere distorting in the air above the thrown magical item. Then, with an acrid pop, three people appeared.

Roy looked a little dizzy as he got his bearings, although a wide smile went across his face upon seeing us. Both Belle and Ren were rather concerned at the state of the two of us, but also relieved. We hadn't seen each other since Chevalier had arrived. Hours rather than days, but absence and catastrophe made the heart grow stronger.

"Clara updated us on your plan," Ren said, her eyes narrowed at the bloodied waiting room. "We'll sweep the area. I'll secure this position." With that, she immediately went to check the corridor we had entered from.

"By His grace!" Belle exclaimed, before rushing over to Roxy. The shielder scowled at the wound on the side of the super's head.

Roy stepped over to me, his smile grimmer as he looked down at the bodies of the military unit I had run through. "Arena was pretty fucked, huh?"

[Certainly not ideal. These guys familiar?]

"Eh." He tilted his head from side to side. "Yes, and no. At certain levels, all private military orgs look the same. Weird plant guys? No idea. Some of these weapons, though…"

I watched as he kneeled down beside one of the corpses. The assault rifle had become inert, part of the kill switch disabling the function. Unlike the sniper rifle rounds, the projectiles from these guns seemed to be energy-based rather than gunpowder. Not too dissimilar from how my gun-arm worked. I voiced these thoughts to Roy, and he gave me a slight nod.

"Electromagnets or something, if I remember. Newer models, but same manufacturer as..." He furrowed his brow as he turned the weapon in his hands. From his belt, he withdrew a small fork-like piece of metal. With one eye closed, he pressed the edge of the tool against one of the ridges on the side of the gun. After exerting some force, the small panel slid away with a click. He glanced back up at me. "Hand me your knife."

I did so after wiping the blood from it.

The Captain inserted the pointed tip into the slim hole and shuffled the blade about as if he were picking a lock. Sparks fizzled out of the gap. He withdrew the blade, and the lights and ammo counter on the top of the rifle flickered back into life. "Things change but stay the same," he muttered to himself.

[Useful for Belle to aid in suppressive fire.]

I looked up at the shielder as she held her hand against the side of Roxy's head. The super looked displeased, but allowed it.

"Your flesh will be healed," Belle said, "but even with His assistance I can't fix any trauma to your brain. If I were a doctor, I would advise bed rest. Thankfully, your power means you're unlikely to get an infection."

"Silver linings," Roxy murmured.

The pink-haired hero gave her a dry smile and stepped away from her healing duties. Back in the center of the room, she picked up the teleportation conduit and returned to me. With a whisper of a spell, fresh energy washed around the rod.

She handed it back over. "If you two get in trouble, snap this and you will both return to me… as long as you're within ten feet of each other. Likewise, we can come to you again if necessary."

[Thank you. It's good to see you all again, even under such circumstances.]

Belle rolled her eyes. "Assuming we're not dead or banished from the city at the end of this, you owe me… a lot of alcohol."

I brought up the map in search of the closest stairwell. My right arm was shaking, my body complaining over our current inaction.

[Deal.]