1.16 Devil Part 4

Beowulf and the three non-English speakers take point whilst Bolt and the villains hang back with Gears.

Gears glances over at Draugr. The woman has clearly taken interested in the original source as shown by the fact she is basically unnaturally tough animated corpse with superpowers.

“How did you manifest Draugr?” inquires Gears as he hops over the rumble.

“What?” says the woman, snapping her head around to look at him.

“I’m curious,” says Gears, “You have an unusual power set and Enhancement that resembles the actual source of your codename and I am wondering what the cause behind it was.”

“Enhancement is what you Americans call the body of the Begavet?” inquires Draugr.

“We prefer the term menneskelig,” mutters Bolt under his breath.

“Yes,” replies Gears, “We have different names for each type of Enhanced. Bellator for the function-oriented, Aphrodite or Adonis for the form-oriented, Abnormal-”

“I am aware of the different types,” cuts in Draugr, “I am aware of the different power ratings of the Western world. For your information, I manifested after I was slain. I experienced a vision where I was gifted the power of Revenant by a being claiming to be Hades. I then work up like this, much to my annoyance. A corpse that never rots. But I suppose my power makes up for it. I certainly got my vengeance and rule the criminal underground in multiple countries. Yours?”

Hmm. Should I tell her about my manifestation?

She did just tell us hers.

And isn’t like we got anything to hide about it.

“Nothing as exciting as yours,” replies Gears as they begin to near Apocalypse again, “I was one of the lucky ones that got their powers at the start of the year. That said, it wasn’t all fine and dandy for me. When I first got my powers, I had to-”

Gears stops speaking as several of Apocalypse’s creatures pounce on them, the monsters clearly having prepared this ambush in advance. As the others rush to action, Gears fly straight up at a massive cat-beast with rippling muscles and spike covered flesh.

As Gears stabs his halberd into its chest, the cat-beast swipes a large paw at him with oversized fangs. The halberd pierces the chest whilst the claws scrape against the side of Gears’ helmet, causing the superhero to grit his teeth.

That damage was limited to the outer plating, but that was too close.

We should try and disengage so we can attack at range.

Good plan.

As they tumble through the air, Gears tries to grab the beast by the throat with his other hand only to remember he has already lost it.

Damnit! 

We can get a replacement once this is over one way or another.

Gears lets go of his halberd and uses his KEPs to fly around the cat-beast before it can strike him again. A couple of metres above it, Gears decides to try out his new ability to summon his halberd back to him.

How does this work again?

Just think about it reappearing in your hand or on your back and will it to do so. It will then do so provided it isn’t being blocked from doing so.

Gears does just that, willing his halberd to reappear back in his hand, being careful to think about his right hand rather than his left.

The black and red halberd materialises in his hand and Gears aims his halberd at the cat-beast as it falls to ground. Gears lobs his halberd at the falling creature before drawing his handgun as he looks around for another target.

Over there!

I see them.

Gears aim his pistol at the demon-bird engaged in aerial combat with Bolt. As the superhero blasts away with his electric-looking energy bolts at his trailing foe.

Gears fires at the creature at it and Bolt draw close to him. The bullets smash into the head of the demon-bird and Gears notes that these ones are Pounder bullets.

Pounders. A solid slug of heavy Gardium. Good for smashing into things using mass, momentum and kinetic force.

Not the best choice of what we have, but they’ll do.

Especially since I want to save the more dangerous bullets for the more serious threats.

And it isn’t like we have the ability to swap over to a different type right now.

As the trio of bullets smash into its face, the demon-bird turns to face Gears and swoops at the American vigilante. Gears dodges out of the way with a few controlled bursts of his KEPs and empties the other nine bullets into the demon-bird at point blank range.

The demon-bird screeches in pain as bullets leave several holes that leak a sickly green liquid, but continues to fly through the air, coming back around to engage Gears again.

Pretty tough for a birdy.

Did you expect anything less from one of Apocalypse’s creatures?

A flash of blue-white lightning smashing to the side of the demon-bird as Bolt lights up the injured left side of the beast. With the exposed bullet-holes, Bolt’s attacks are much more effective this time around as it fries the internal flesh and bone of the demon-bird with crackling sizzles.

Sensing an opportunity as the demon-bird is distracted by Bolt, Gears flies in at creature, holstering his pistol. He swings his hand at the creature, summoning his halberd as he does so. The ruby red blade tears through the black, murky feathers of the demon-bird and into the flesh and bone below.

With ease, the halberd tears through the head of the demon-bird and Gears can feel the charge building strong.

I might as well charge up as best I can.

Gears hacks away a couple of seconds to hack away at the corpse before it falls out of range. 

“Was that last bit really necessary?” inquires Bolt as he flies by.

“Yes,” replies Gears as he flies after Bolt, “Inflicting harm and death charges my halberd’s energy beam.”

“That is an interes-” Bolt starts to say, but his voice trails off as a massive shadow appear over them.