Everyone trickled in early. Even Plagius, who was later than everyone else, arrived ten minutes early.
Chestro and Sin-Eater were wearing full-body power armor, along with full helts with integrated gas-filter systems hanging behind them by the tubes attached to the back
Dude ca to win, Perry thought, turning his attention to his cousins. Ellanore Frepon was wearing her Moonlight Flash outfit, a pale, skin-tight hyperweave with decorative dark blue bikini armor overtop.
George was wearing formalwear, immaculate white dress clothes with gold brocade and trim that made his brilliant blue eyes pop.
He looked damn good, but also like a damn good target.
“That suit rated for super combat?” Perry asked, raising a brow.
“Of course,” George said, idly smoothing down the front of his suit. “The enchantnts are Royal Grade.”
“You two have gas protection?” Perry confird, handing out the remaining helts he’d made to Plagius, Nat and Heather. He offered one to Mass-Driver, but the man waved it away.
“You think we wouldn’t?” Ellanore said, her pouty lips upturned in a smug smirk.
“Excellent.” Perry pulled his helt down and retrieved a tear gas grenade from his storage before snapping it in half like a glow stick.
A violent explosion of tear gas engulfed all nine of the assembled supers.
None of them doubled over, retching and coughing like Perry expected. Not even his cousins. The gas didn’t seem to bother them at all. Anti-poison? Mass-Driver watched with mild amusent, noxious fus swirling away from his head, condensing and dribbling off an invisible barrier.
“Had to be sure,” Perry said with a shrug.
“Anyone who can’t fly above two hundred miles an hour, please board Boor,” Natalie said in her best stewardess voice, motioning to the ch.
The cockpit opened up to reveal space for up to six passengers.
Sin-Eater, Plagius, Wraith, and Perry’s cousin’s all boarded the ch and strapped themselves in behind Natalie’s seat. George tried to take the pilot’s seat, but it was far too small for him to sit in, forcing him to give up and sit next to his chortling sister.
“I thought you guys could fly that fast,” Perry said, leaning on the outside of Boor’s cockpit.
“We can, but is it a good idea to be magically exhausted before we even arrive?” George asked.
“Touché,” Perry shrugged as the cockpit closed, leaving himself, Mass-Driver, and Chestro standing outside.
“Guys got your GPS? Perry asked. Mass Driver wordlessly raised the GPS watch and Chestro nodded inside his power armor.
“Alright, then, let’s go rob a museum!” Perry shouted, pumping his fist.
“Whoo!” Boor fist pumped, but Mass Driver and Chestro seed to lack the sa enthusiasm.
They took off, following close behind Perry as he began to slowly raise the speed, consulting his map and orienting on Chicago.
“Seven hundred and Seven miles to the Field Museum!” Perry said over the comms. “ETA, three hours!”
“Roger,” Chestro said.
“Got it.” Mass-Driver responded.
“Let’s go!” Nat said, cranking Boor’s speed up to match Perry’s as they oriented on their target.
****
Organic humanoids detected.
Conducting Threat Assessnt:
Consulting records.
A trillion known threats flickered past the watch-drone’s awareness in a matter of seconds.
Positive ID. Mass Driver: Catalyst, High Kill threshold, high KPS, Threat Assessnt: HIGH
Positive ID. Paradox: Tinker, Low Kill Threshold, Moderate KPS, Threat Assessnt: LOW
Positive ID. Chestro: Catalyst, Moderate Kill Threshold, Staggering KPS, Threat Assessnt: HIGH.
A flash of a ch crossed it’s database, and was intantly attributed to another humanoid threat.
Positive ID. Hardcase: Tinker, Baseline Kill Threshold, Low KPS, Threat Assessnt: LOW
In a fraction of a second, a list of the four’s known associates were populated and catalogued, with a hypothetical crew inside Hardcase’s ch, composed of six extra organic threats, with an average threat assessnt of DIUM.
TOTAL THREAT: HIGH.
Suggested course of action: Guerilla Warfare to avoid strong counterattack from Chestro and Mass Driver. Separate, Exhaust, Demoralize. Prioritize cessation of organic activity and reclamation by threat level, LOW to HIGH.
Submitted to Command, returning to Overwatch.
Command: backfill the organic’s path of retreat to Franklin City with dreadnauts D-17 through D24, delay engagent until they are two hundred Kiloters from site C-0 or Command signals. Set up an Anti-air net out to a hundred Kiloters. Prioritize limiting mobility.
***Perry***
“So when are we gonna get there? This is taking forever, and the replicators haven’t even noticed us. Can we just gun it?”Plagius’s voice wheedled over the comms. “You said there might be stuff to drain, but we’re just-“
BOOM!
One second Perry was rolling his eyes at Plagius asking his sixteenth variation of ‘are we there yet?’ and the next second the entire world was a blender of explosions and shrapnel.
“Down down down!” Perry shouted over the comms, practically swimming through shrapnel, anti-air, and Anti-armor rounds to grab Boor’s wobbling fra and assist in a controlled crash.
Chestro took an explosion to the chest, sending his suit of power-armor flinging off into the distance, with Mass-Driver flying off after him, weathering the storm of explosions like it was nothing.
It was a rattling twelve second descent that felt like it’d shake Perry’s teeth loose, until they crashed into the earth, cutting a deep furrow into the ground.
“Anyone who’s dead, speak up.” Perry said, pulling himself out of the loamy grave his armor had buried itself in.
There were a few minor dings and burns from the Anti-armor, but his suit was already repairing them, flaking the burned sections away and replacing them with freshly captured carbon.
Well done, Mk. 6. I didn’t even lose any health in the crash.
“I’m alive,” Nat said over comms.
“Alive,” Heather said, followed by Plagius, Sin-Eater and his cousins.
“Look alive, They’ll be coming any second,” Perry said, scanning the treeline for any sign of attack. Visibility was shit down here. Trees blocked all lines of sight any further than a hundred yards.
“No they won’t.” Mass Driver said, dusting himself off as he and Chestro flew out of the thick forest, landing beside Boor, where the rest of the team was climbing out.
“What do you an they’re not coming?” Perry said, frowning.
“This ain’t my first rodeo, kid. I thought that’s why you hired to babysit?” Mass Driver said. He pointed up at the sky. “The Replicators always to the right thing, tactically. That ans they always do the sa thing. Right now they’ve got a massive amount of Anti-air above our heads if any of us make a run for it, and a veritable army assembled between here and Franklin city to make trying to run back ho suicide, but they’re not going to actually engage: They’re gonna try to make us sweat, wondering when the killing blow is coming, maybe throw in the occasional artillery shelling to make sure we don’t get any rest.”
“They’re gonna keep us landbound, but they’re not gonna actually hit us hard until we’re tired and strung out, making mistakes, separating, getting lost. Then they’ll pick us off one at a ti, starting with the weaklings and those that wander off to pull they hyperweave down around their ankles, maximizing their kill to loss ratio.”
Plagius looked like he was about to hyperventilate as Mass Driver described how brutally efficient the trap they’d landed in was.
“Which ans…” Mass Driver said, turning towards Boor. “The next couple hours are actually the safest of the entire trip!”
Mass Driver dug through the luggage in Boor’s storage and pulled out a bag of marshmallows.
“Who’s up for Smore’s?” He asked with a grin.
“I think I’m gonna throw up,” Plagius said.
“C’mon, kid, don’t let the robot’s mind gas ss with ya.” Mass driver said, slapping Plagius on the back, causing the teen to fall to the ground and begin rocking back and forth, tucking his knees up to his chest.
Well, there’s a first ti facing certain death for everyone, Perry thought.
“I’ll take two S’mores,” Chestro said, using telekinesis to pull in a bunch of dead branches into a teepee shape before starting a fire with his power. Perry, Sin-Eater, Heather, and Nat all exchanged glances.
Maybe he got replaced by a robot infiltrator? Perry thought, eyeballing the shredded super who wouldn’t touch a marshmallow if his life depended on it.
Chestro glanced up and noticed half the group staring at him with suspicion. “Extended combat engagents dictate caloric overload,” He said with a shrug.
“Ah, there he is,” Perry said, waving vaguely in Chestro’s direction.
I guess he would touch a marshmallow if his life depended on it. That makes sense.
“So…I can have one, too?” Sin-Eater asked, drooling.
“As many as you want until we get back to Franklin, as long as you don’t get sick,” Chestro said, waving her over.
“HELL yeah!” Sin-Eater practically skipped over to the fire. “Why didn’t you tell , I would’ve brought skittles, and candy bars, and…soda. Oh, my god, I miss soda. Why didn’t I bring soda!?”
“I brought dates, peanut butter and pemmican if you need high-calorie foods after this,” Chestro said, stacking together a graham cracker, marshmallow and piece of chocolate and wolfing it down…without roasting the marshmallow.
Freakin’ psycho.
Sin-Eater sighed and rubbed her temples before sitting down next to him, gently explaining the concept of S’mores to their resident sociopath.
Actually…Perry swept his gaze over to where Mass-Driver was leaning against a tree, keeping all of them in his sight as he ate the sticky treat.
On the other side of the clearing was George and Ellanore, eating what appeared to be Manitian Ambrosia with delicate silver spoons, watching Perry like a hawk.
Maybe the non-sociopaths are in the minority. I feel good about this decision.
“Oh, jeez,” Natalie muttered to herself as she pulled out one of Boor’s sacrificial anodes. The tube was corroded like it had spent a hundred years under the ocean.
84% Saturation. 12Hr 18Min
The cannister had an LED display on the cap that displayed how long it would take to de-corrode, releasing the accumulated damage harmlessly back into the environnt as oxygen.
“Darn,” Nat frowned, throwing the anodes into the storage bay and retrieving another two, slotting them in before closing the panel on Boor’s butt.
“I hope we do get so ti between attacks,” Nat said, glancing over at Perry. “I’ve only got two spare sets.”
“Where are you going?” Mass Driver demanded, causing Plagius to freeze in place, halfway out of sight.
“I gotta- you know,” He gestured to the treeline. “Gotta go. To the bathroom.”
“What did I JUST say? Pop a squat right there,” Mass Driver said, pointing to the edge of the clearing abutting an oversized oak. “Trust , it’s better than getting your head blown off by the snipers watching the periter.”
“What?” Plagius frowned before shaking his head. “Nah, you’re hazing , there’s no way it’s that bad.”
Mass Driver rolled his eyes and stood. Instead of walking towards Plagius, he grabbed George by the shoulder and began dragging him across the clearing, causing the aristocratic Manitian to drop his magical breakfast.
“Hey, what are you doing, let go of you Dull reprobate!” George cried, struggling in Mass-Driver’s grasp. Unfortunately the super was, by definition, unstoppable.
Mass Driver made hard eye contact with Plagius and shoved George’s head past the treeline.
BOOM!
An armor piercing round stopped right in front of George’s forehead as the enchantnts on his fancy clothes flared to life, dropping the palm-length tungsten bullet into Mass-Driver’s palm.
“Eh?” Mass Driver grunted, letting go of George and waggling the heavy tungsten bullet between his fingertips for Plagius’s benefit before biting off a chunk of the tungsten and chewing it like gum.
“There’s the shitter,” Mass Driver pointed, the tungsten screeching between his teeth as he chewed. “Make sure you bury it deep so we don’t have to sll it while we’re eating.”
Plagius sighed hard and went to do as he was told.
“Is that kid special?” Mass-Driver asked over the private comms, glancing at Perry.
“I’ll…have him drain so smart people,” Perry muttered. “Give him a few years.”
“Fair enough. I was pretty dumb at his age.” Mass Driver said.
“How’d you know George’s defenses would hold?” Perry asked.
“He seed rich enough.” Mass Driver shrugged. “If they didn’t hold, I rid the world of a rich prick. Win-win.”
“You’re gonna keep everyone alive, regardless of your personal opinions. I appreciate the advice on how to handle the Replicators, it’s been great, but don’t pull anything like that again.” Perry said.
“Or what?” Mass Driver asked, cocking his head.
“Or I’ve got a disintegration crystal with your na on it.”
Mass Driver chuckled, sneering at him.
Wordlessly, Perry ejected Gor’s Disintegration from his forearm and spun the crystal until Mass Driver could read the sharpie note written on the side of the crystal.
MASS DRIVER
Mass Driver’s chuckle died, and his grin faded to nothing. He spat out the mangled piece of tungsten into the dirt and took another bite of the armor-piercing bullet, staring at Perry contemplatively as he chewed.
After a tense few seconds, he spoke.
“I like you, kid.”
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