1.14 Slaughter Part 8

Guardian adopts a defensive stance as Gears flies off, Gord’Ang in gripped tightly in her left hand.

Careful. I recreated your body slightly earlier than I should have done. As result, you are weaker and more fragile than normal.

I’ll keep that in mind.

Aquiline is wearing a black leather full bodysuit and has a sword with a silver blade while Guardian has her armour and Gord’Ang.

That sword appears to be a molecular blade.

If he has been using it against Gears, it must be pretty worn down by now.

It is still dangerous to us even with our armour.

And we got a few new tricks up our sleeve. My past lives have taught me quite a bit.

“Oh £$&* you!” snarls Aquiline with a mixture of annoyance, angry and even a bit of fear, “You’re supposed to be dead! You died! I don’t believe you been lying low these last few months. That just isn’t you!”

“Is it so unbelievable that I can come back from the dead?” inquires Guardian as she strides forward.

The vigilante is controlling her armour with her power as being inside the machine gives her better processing and reflexes. Especially with her weaken physical state.

“No,” mutters Aquiline quietly, “Not when it comes to you. @#*&!”

Guardian dashes forward, her feet barely touching the ground as she uses her KEPs at low power to boost her speed. Aquiline is caught off guard, barely raising his own blade in time as Gord’Ang comes at him.

The silver blade is cut into two as the Linx blade tears through it, nicking Aquiline and leaving him a small gash on his upper arm. Already in motion, Guardian swings her right fist into the side of Aquiline, knocking backwards.

As the mass murder is knocked off his feet, Guardian sticks her foot against his chest and activates the KEPs in it. As the KEPs in the back of Guardian’s armour keep her steady, Aquiline is sent flying across the street.

He slams into a wall with a thud and collapses on the ground. Guardian is about to go for the kill when something slams into her. She grunts in pain as she loses her grip on Gord’Ang. As she tumbles through the air with whatever hit her, Guardian quickly grabs Gord’Ang out of the air and stabs the blade into the creature that hit her.

As Guardian roughly lands on her feet, the creature creates out an unnatural screech of pain. Guardian holds Gord’Ang with both hands as she takes in the massive beast standing before her.

The creature is a three metre tall bulky humanoid with muscular black and red skin. The body and legs are covered by dirty grey armour while the hands and feet are covered by metal plate gauntlets and boots respectively. Four curled black horns grow out of the hand, two on each side while the creature has four gold eyes and a pig-like nose.

It snorts at Guardian as it looks down at the gash in its side as it drips misty black acid. It glares at her, Guardian spots Aquiline uneasily getting to his feet.

“%$£&,” coughs Aquiline before looking at Guardian and the beast, “Well, it looks like you got your hands fall with one of Demonica’s Drenora. I wonder what deal she had to make to get this one. I’ll be seeing ya around Guardian darling. Toodles!”

Aquiline runs down the street and Guardian is itching to hunt him down and finish this once and for all. But she has to deal with the Drenora as Aquiline called it.

The Drenora roars it summons a large greatsword with a red blade and black hilt that it holds in one hand with ease. It charges at her, swiping the large blade at her. Guardian raises her right arm in front of her.

As the blade comes down on her, Guardian activates a trick that Ceta taught her in the cyber world. A heater shield made of green hardlight appears in front of Guardian’s right wrist. Using extremely advanced Deltaen technology, advanced enough that often got them mistaken for divinity, Guardian can convert data from the cyber world in the objects in the physical world.

As the red blade bounces away from the green shield, leaving only a small dent in it, Guardian slashes with Gord’Ang. The Drenora roars in anger as Guardian chops off the hand holding the broadsword, just at the point where the gauntlet ends.

Guardian jumps back, pulling the hardlight shield closer so it is floating only an inch away from her right wrist. As the Drenora also backs up, Guardian jumps forward and boosts herself to the side by firing the KEPs.

As she flies over the shoulder of the Drenora, Guardian hacks off its other arm at the shoulder. She spins around as her feet touch the ground. Before the Drenora can finish roaring in rage, Guardian stabs through its chest.

Guardian is careful to avoid the acid that is burning through the street as she pulls Gord’Ang out. But rather than die, the Drenora whips itself around before Guardian can finish removing Gord’Ang from its body.

The sudden movement yanks Gord’Ang out of Guardian’s grip and she stumbles. Guardian braces herself as the Drenora charges at her, its horned head pointed at her. She sticks her green hardlight shield in front of her and staggers as the Drenora slams into it.

Before the stunned Drenora can recover, Guardian summons Gord’Ang back to her hand and stabs the Drenora in the forehead.

As the Drenora goes limp, Guardian yanks Gord’Ang out. Before it can hit the ground, the body of the Drenora disappears into black mist.

Guardian returns her hardlight shield back to the cyber world before taking off into the air.

Who needs my help next?

Defender needs our help.

1.14 Slaughter Part 7

Aquiline dodges to the side and Gears’ handgun automatically ejects the empty magazine. Most of the Renders miss, but three hit Aquiline despite his abnormally quick reflexes.

Aquiline’s words about his suit being both bullet and explosion proof are proven correct as the Renders fail to hurt him with neither its kinetic force nor its explosive power. Aquiline laughs loudly as he twirls both of his blades again.

Where is Necromantress?

Yes, where indeed?

Probably off to create more undead.

Then we need to finish off Aquiline and Murderiser and hunt her down.

Along with the rest of the Seven and Sinister Man.

If Sinister Man isn’t a member of their group.

Oh he is.

“Well, this has been fun, but I have to go,” says Aquiline with a mock bow, “Personally, I don’t want to get involved in this anymore than I have to. It is my teammates that want to tangle with you guys to be honest. So I figured why not let them find out first-hand how dangerous the Guardsmen are? If they survived, they’ll come out more educated for it. If they don’t, then we’re better off without them.”

Meanwhile Gears has reloaded his handgun with another type of bullets, Blasters, as he listens to Aquiline talk. Blasters contained high explosives with a lot of power. Designed purely to blow apart their targets.

As Aquiline dashes down the alley, Gears opens fire with his handgun. Five of the six shots hit Aquiline and while they don’t penetrate his clothing, they do stagger him. As the Aquiline stumbles, Gears fires off his KEPs and slams into the monster in human form.

Shouldn’t there be more people about?

Yes, there should be.

With the Seven about, the implications of such a thing are disturbing.

Indeed, we should eliminate Aquiline as quickly as we can so we can evaluated the situation.

Both Gears and Aquiline go tumbling into the road, Gears losing hold of his weapons in the process. As Gears get to his feet, he spots one of Aquiline’s silver swords lying within reach. He looks up to see Aquiline preparing to strike him with the other sword, where it is has currently lodged itself into the road.

With a snarl, Gears rolls out the way and grabs the other sword. Aquiline yanks his own sword out of the road and swings it at the vigilante. Gears whips his stolen sword around, meeting Aquiline’s in a clang and burst of sparks.

Gears is rewarded with a momentarily stunned look on the Aquiline’s face, just there for a spilt-second to the one point somebody would need inhumanly quick reaction time to even notice it.

And I think that was a bit of fear in that look as well.

Growling at Aquiline, Gears’ fist slams into Aquiline’s gut, already in mid swing when the swords made contact. Winded, Aquiline stumbles backwards and Gears presses his attack. He swipes his sword at Aquiline and the serial killer raises his own.

As the flat side of Gears’ sword hits the sharp side of Aquiline’s, Gears watches as his sword snaps into two.

Dammit it!

We still have two of our own molecular daggers.

Plus Aquiline’s blade must be losing its sharpness as well.

Indeed. Aquiline might be more skilled, but we have more options and gadgets available to us even if we are equally skilled physically.

I just wish we knew his power set.

As Gears hops back and prepares for Aquiline’s next attack, both he and his foe turn to look at Murderiser as the mass murder crawls rapidly along the side of the wall. Protector quickly follows him out of the alley at ground level.

Gears and Protector make eye contact.

“Don’t let Murderiser get away,” says Gears, using the comms in their armour, before turning his attention back to Aquiline, “I got this one.”

“As you say,” replies Protector as he activates his KEPs and flies off after Murderiser.

It appears wall crawling is one of Murderiser’s powers.

And did you notice that his arm was healed from the damage we inflicted earlier?

Yeah, I did.

It is not good news.

Indeed, Murderiser must have some form of powerful healing or regeneration.

That is definitely not good news.

Aquiline charges forward, swing his sword at Gears. Gears fires up his KEPs and takes off into the air, out of Aquiline’s reach.

“So where is the rest of the Slaughter Seven?” inquires Gears in an angry voice.

“Dealing with the local heroes,” replies Aquiline in what is supposed to be a causal tone, but is too tight for that, “Friend and some of our lackeys are dealing with the local heroes while Demonica, Hackjob and Murder Wolf are taking care of those ridiculously powerful Fowlers. Necromantress is doing her thing.”

Joan.

We must deal with this monster and go to her aid.

We can’t just let Aquiline go and he shows no signs going down anytime soon.

Then we send Jaylyn to aid Joan.

“Sentinel,” says Gears as he switches to a private channel and turns off his external speakers, “Go and help your mother. Demonica, Hackjob and Murder Wolf are going after her and the rest of her family.”

“Understood Father,” replies Jaylyn in less than a split-second, “I will use your spare suits of armour.”

“Good girl,” mutters Gears under his breath as he turns his external speakers back on, “Let us finish this Aquiline.”

“Then come down and fight,” sneers Aquiline as he points his remaining sword at Gears.

“Actually,” says a deep, distorted feminine voice, “Why don’t you go and help some others in need of aid Boh. I will deal with this Tokkik.”

I know that voice…

This is wondrous news!

Indeed!

Excellent!

Brilliant!

Praise be God!

“Guardian,” says both Gears and Aquiline at the same time, but in two very different voices.

1.14 Slaughter Part 6

“Well Gears,” says a haughty male voice, “Despite what my compatriots thought of you, you have fulfilled all my expectations.”

“Aquiline,” hisses Gears as he recognises the voice of the sociopath.

Glancing at Protector as his fellow Guardsman fights the bloodied and beaten zombies, Gears turns to see Aquiline at the other end of the alley.

The black haired man smirks at Gears as he twirls a silver sword in each hand. A stunning, lithe woman in a black dress with a low V-neck is standing on Aquiline’s right. On his left, Gears can spot the heat signature of a fit, lean and bald human.

Aquiline, Necromantress and Murderiser.

We can take Aquiline and Necromantress. Murderiser might be more troublesome if he does have extra powers like some witnesses claim.

Especially if the rumours of his ability to charge objects with explosive power are correct.

Aquiline is an extremely skilled Bellator as well and we don’t know the full extent of his powers.

Necromantress is the weakest unless there human corpses about. Beyond her power to create undead, she is only an Aphrodite.

At A Class mind you.

We should never underestimate this group. Between them, they have killed almost a half million people in under four months.

And they weren’t even trying their hardest. They treat what they do as a game.

Perhaps that is what it is to them.

These are some of the few people I am just going to do my best to kill.

Agreed.

So what do we do?

Protector is still busy with those two undead.

We should buy time until he is done, then engage these three as a group.

Jaylyn should also be receiving data from our armour and passing it onto the authorities.

They’ll probably be having their hands full dealing with the other four members of the Slaughter Seven.

Do think Sinister Man is a member?

As a replacement for one of the Seven or as a lackey?

The latter.

I wouldn’t put it past for Sinister Man to be a replacement member. With their body count, the Slaughter Seven have a turnover rate as high as one would expect.

“Do really think your swords and armour can hold up against my gadgets?” inquires Gears as he cocks his head at Aquiline, “We all know your fear of technology, but how can you hope to beat me without it or any powers?”

“Don’t you remember that little gadgeteer girl down in Georgia?” replies Aquiline in a surprisingly calm and polite voice, “Called herself Armoury? Local hero to her precious town? Figured she could actually take us on singlehanded?”

“Let me guess, you killed her and everybody else in the town before stealing her gadgets?” replies Gears, his voice hardening in anger.

“Oh, dear little Armoury wishes she was dead I’m sure,” replies Aquiline with a sneer, “But while Necromantress’ undead can still use their powers, it doesn’t include non-physical mental powers such as thinkers, tinkers and gadgeteers. So I let Hackjob deal with Armour instead.”

Good Lord…

What is Armoury going through?

Let’s hope we can save her.

Or at the very least, end her suffering.

“You’re a monster,” snarls Gears as he receives a message from Jaylyn.

All local authorities notified as well as all state authorities in Michigan and the neighbouring states. All national authorities are also notified.

“So I’m told,” laughs Aquiline, “But what do I care? Anyway, I got some nano-sharp swords that can hurt even somebody with A Class invulnerability while this bodysuit is pretty much immune to bullets, explosions, energy blasts, fire and other elements.”

With that new knowledge, Gears takes another look at Aquiline’s full bodysuit. He thought it was some kind of black leather, but if what Aquiline says is true…

Here comes Protector.

Time to get this party started.

About time.

Gears throws one of his molecular daggers at Necromantress before moving his hand to draw one of the custom handguns that he brought with him from his belt. As Aquiline moves strike the dagger out of the air with one his swords, Murderiser strikes forward at inhuman speeds with a jagged knife in each hand.

Gears twists to the side as Murderiser stabs at his shoulder. An explosive force ripples off of his armour as Gears aims his semi-automatic pistol at Murderiser. While he doesn’t have time to aim it, Gears has a very strong and steady aim with the assistance of his power armour and he is firing at near point blank range.

The bullets that come out of Gears’ handgun are also customised made by him. An explosive core with a delayed charge while the Gardium outer shell pierces the target’s defences before exploding.

Gears calls them Renders, one of the severals sets of bullets that he has designed.

Of the four shots that Gears fired, the first two hit Murderiser in the shoulder, tearing into the flesh before detonating. The last two Renders explode in the wall as blood and gore splatters Gears.

As Protector swings a fist into Murderiser’s face, Gears turns his attention back to Aquiline and Necromantress.

Duck!

Glimpsing one of the silver swords coming at him from the corner of his vision, Gears follows Lion’s advice and ducks. As the first sword slashes through the air of his head, Gears spots the second stabbing at his side.

He positions his molecular dagger upwards in a position that it blocks the silver blade from his body. 

There are several sparks as the two molecular blades connect with each other. Gears fires the rest of bullets in his twelve-bullet magazine at the sociopathic serial killer. 

Interlude - Aquiline

Lawrence Ackerson suppresses the urge to smile as the police van holding him bumps. He may have been caught earlier by that brat Alexandria and that bitch Guardian, but Lawrence still has a few tricks up his sleeves.

Quite literally as he has a cloaked version of one of Claudia’s energy knifes with a deactivated blade. They took his armour and anything else they could find away, but let him keep his clothes.

It’s shame that those two didn’t make it. Krystal’s illusions proved quite effective at keeping them hidden and Claudia’s ability to make impossible technology by poofing the parts of thin air gave them excellent access to wonderful equipment.

It is also shame that they fell so easily to Guardian. It is made even worse that the superheroine was so easily able to counter all of their powers when the powerhouse that is Alexandria was helpless against them.

Guardian is definitely the biggest threat to him. Especially with her powers that are apparently related to technology.

Perhaps he ought to find a way to make style so it doesn’t use technology. His powers would quite helpful in that.

As for his powers, his main one is the ability to access all of memories of those that share his blood or genes and are also dead. In effect, it lets him access all of their skills and knowledge at will. And best of all, those skills and abilities stack, meaning the more of a skill or piece of knowledge has access to, the easier it is for him to recall it.

Beyond that, Lawrence has become the physical peak of human ability. He’s stronger, faster, tougher and smart than anyone that isn’t superhuman.

Not that any of that did a damn when against @#$%ing Guardian.

He really doesn’t want to go to prison or where ever they are taking him. Nobody knows what has happened to any of the other captured supervillains.

Lawrence can’t afford to be locked up if he is going to become famous. To be remembered throughout history is what he desires and now he has been given a prime opportunity.

There have been many famous people in history, but the vast majority are forgotten after their time. Only the truly infamous are the ones that nobody forgets.

Adolf Hitler, Genghis Khan, Nero, Jack the Ripper, Caligula, Joseph Stalin, Julius Caesar and Vlad the Impaler. Those are all names that nobody will forget and he wants the Aquiline to join their ranks.

And with the suddenly appearance, Lawrence has the opportunity of a lifetime if he moves quickly. An infamous superpower serial killer is what he desires to be and Lawrence doesn’t get himself established as the first and greatest in these upcoming weeks, someone else will take his place.

So no, he can’t afford to be imprisoned simply because Guardian stopped him.

Time to escape.

The feds gave him and the others drugs to keep them unconscious, but with his enhanced body, Aquiline soon recovered from them and has pretending that they still have him sedated.

Just him, his skills, his wits and a single blade versus whatever the authorities can throw at him.

This will be fun.

Lawrence slips the knife so when he activates the blade, it slices through the hand cuffs. Bring his arm around, he quickly cuts the hand cuffs around his ankles.

Before the police in the front of the van can react, Lawrence dash for the doors and slices the lock on the door and kicks it open.

He leaps from the moving vehicle and rolls as he hits the ground. That’ll leave him roughed up, but Lawrence is still okay enough to get away. He gets to his feet and runs.

He is definitely needs work on his parkour skills. He already has some thanks to his dead relatives, but Lawrence can still improve quite a bit.

He runs into an alley and slices off the reminder of his hang cuffs with the energy knife. He needs to put some space between himself and the cops.

The Battle-Zone is definitely out of the question as that is Guardian’s territory and there is no way that Lawrence is messing with that bitch again unless it is on his own terms.

Down south side, Lawrence had Claudia place a teleporter so they could get away in an emergency. And this feels like an emergency to him.

Lawrence makes his way through the back routes of the town, murdering a guy for his coat and snagging a gun off a local gangster who wouldn’t get it up willing. He needs both the warmth and the firepower.

He is almost to the warehouse when a police car rolls up down the street and a couple of officers exit.

Keep calm, they haven’t noticed you yet. Act like you got nothing to hide. Trying to avoid them will just get their attention.

It turns out that those two officers were stopping to investigate some more local gangsters. Just Lawrence crosses the road, one of the gangers flees towards and one of the cops pursue.

And here Lawrence hoped to get away without any more trouble.

He walks alongside the fence before coming to a halt as the gangster scrambles over. Without a moment’s hesitation, Lawrence jabs the knife into the neck of the criminal, angling upwards towards the brain. He yanks it out and throws into the eye of the stunned police officer as he freezes in his attempt to climb over the fence.

The body falls on his side the fence and Lawrence calming retrieves his weapon. He quickly strides away without a look back, now very eager to reach the teleporter.

Lawrence reaches the warehouse without further incident. Using his ancestral skills, he swiftly climbs in through a broken window and starts to locate the teleporter. Just as he finds it, Lawrence hears a thud behind him.

Sighing in annoyance, he turns around, energy knife at the ready. He really ought to get replace them after they proved so useless against...

Guardian.

She is right there, marching towards Lawrence in her grey armour, concealing any trace of the human that lies beneath it if there is even one at all. The vigilante is silent as she advances on Lawrence, the only sound being the soft thuds of her footsteps.

He tosses the energy knife at Guardian as he draws his gun and is already moving. Lawrence knows it will be useless against her, but it beats having it explode in his hand. Right now, his only hope is the teleporter and Guardian doesn’t destroy before he can use it.

As he predicted, the knife explodes mid-air and Guardian is already drawing those two weaponised pipes of hers. Lawrence fires his gun, aiming for the pipes. He can’t afford to let Guardian use her weapons on him if he is to make it through this.  

The bullets tear through the pipes and Lawrence dashes behind some crates. He doesn’t expect them to conceal him from Guardian if her armour is worth anything, but he needs the time to reorganise.

Lawrence rolls out and fires at Guardian. He gets lucky as bullets take out the third pipe that Guardian has drawn even if they useless ding off of her armour.

Only two bullets left in his clip, no time to reload, only Guardian and her armour are standing between Lawrence and the teleporter.

Lawrence snarls as he rushes Guardian and tosses the gun at her face. She halts as it bounces off the front of her helmet and he tackles her, knocking them both over backwards.

He tries to get to his feet, but he collapses his right leg lights up in pain. Lawrence vague recognises as it as the sensation of a broken leg using his memories. He grabs the small teleportation device and looks behind him.

Guardian has drawn a sidearm and is aiming it at him.

Superheroes don’t use guns. They just don’t. It doesn’t work that way.

Lawrence activates the teleporter at the same time as he hears the bang of the gun being fired.

1.4 Murder Part 5

“You found them then?” inquires Alexandria as she easily keeps up with Guardian.

“Sentry did,” answers Guardian, “He says that they have already started killing.”

“That’s bad,” replies Alexandria, “We should-, I got a call.”

Any ideas on what I should do voice?

Aquiline

Is he the biggest threat?

“Yeah, sir,” says Alexandria as she speaks into her gauntlet device, “Me and Guardian are already heading over to them. Her pal, Sentry, found them. I know, I know.”

“Hey Guardian,” says Alexandria as she ends her call, “I can trust you right? You’re one of the good guys?”

“Of course,” answers Guardian, “We’ve approaching our destination.”

Guardian locations at the location highlighted on her HUD. It’s an apartment building, not a particularly tall one, with its front doors kicked in. She can easily pick out the heat signatures of those inside.

But despite the screaming coming from the building and fact it has obviously been broken into, people are ignoring the apartment building.

“Where are they?” asks Alexandria as she slows down.

“The one with the broken doors,” answers Guardian as she heads for the building.

“None of them have broken doors,” protests Alexandria, but Guardian ignores her.

Instead, Guardian flies at the window of the room that the trio are in. She could take the doors and stairs, but there are innocent people in the room with the villains.

Guardian zooms through the window, stun-pipe in one hand with her modified-stun-pipe in the other.

Cowering in the corner is a family of three, a mother with her two children, one is a boy in his late teens while other is younger girl. In the door stands Krystal and Aquiline, who has another pair of not-technology guns in his hands.

Guardian doesn’t waste any time as she rushes forward, poking both of the not-technology guns with her power. They explode as expected, disorienting Aquiline and Krystal.

“What are you doing-whoa!” Alexandria starts to demand as she flies in after Guardian.

“Find Techni-Hurt,” Guardian tells her as she swings her stun-pipe into Krystal’s gut, “I’ll deal with these two.”

“On it,” replies Alexandria as Guardian turns her attention on the recovered Aquiline.

“You’re really starting to piss me off,” snarls Aquiline, “Do really think that you can beat us?”

“Quite irrelevant, but yes,” answers Guardian as she swings her pipes at him.

The Aquiline dodges and punches Guardian’ chest. He winces and pulls his hand away. Guardian is about to counterattack when she hears Alexandria screaming from below.

Does that girl require constant babysitting?

No.

Rhetorical question voice.

Guardian kicks Aquiline in the chest and he goes flying out of the room. She moves into the next room to check on him, but the villain isn’t getting back up. None the less, Guardian places a couple of sensors on him.

The voice did say he was the biggest threat.

Better go and save Alexandria now.

Guardian runs back into the room and jumps out the window. She looks at the scene below and blinks in surprise.

Alexandria is down on the ground (again) while Techni-Hurt is being whooped by Gears.

Yes!

Guardian jumps down from the window. As to be expected, Gears is easily handling Techni-Hurt and her not-technology.

How could someone wielding not-technology best someone with proper technology? Still, I should help my partner in justice.

Guardian reaches out with her power, lashing at Techni-Hurt’s not-technology. The villainess screams with pain as her not-technology, including her suit of power armour, explodes. Gears quickly finishes Techni-Hurt with electric sphere.

“Urrgh,” groans Alexandria, “What hit me?”

“Techni-Hurt hit you with a blast from her weapon,” answers Gears as he marches up to her and offers a hand to help her up, “My best guess is that it disrupts your power and stuns you.”

“Is she down?” inquires Alexandria as she accepts his Gears’ hand and he pulls her up.

“Yes,” answers Guardian, “Krystal and Aquiline are both down in the apartment.”

“Great,” says Alexandria, “I’ll the police to arrest them? I’m fairly certain the FBI, CIA or someone will be showing up as well and it would best for everyone if you didn’t get involved anymore. I know you’re good guys and all, but you’re still illegal vigilantes even if you did save the day.”

“I understand,” replies Gears, “I don’t want to get involved in that stuff anyway. At least not until the proper procedures have been worked out and finalised.”

“Okay,” says Alexandria, “Thanks for the help by the way. I wouldn’t have been able to stop these guys on my own.”

“Come on Guardian,” Gears says to Guardian as he activates his boot KEPs, “Let’s go.”

Guardian activates her own boot KEPs and follows him. Once both are up in the air and out of sight, Gears opens a private channel with her.

“I got to get back to school now,” says Gears, “I might be able to get back in time for the start of afternoon lessons. If not...well this is more important than missing the start of English. We’ll talk more later. There is this cool idea I want to tell you about, but I don’t have the time now.”

“I understand,” replies Guardian, “I’m going to go back and have lunch with Scott. This was just meant to be a quick field test of my new armour before I encountered the supervillains.”

Gears adds some more boost to his KEPs and zooms off ahead while Guardian slows down as she approaches the basement.

This day could have gone better, but it could have easily been much, much worse.

Guardian rolls her shoulders as she lands a few blocks away from the basement. She doesn’t want anybody following back to her hideout.

And a good thing it turns out to be for her as Guardian hears a familiar voice from behind her.

“Hi Guardian.”

1.4 Murder Part 2

 Guardian activates her KEPs in her boots and flies up into the air. People are running away from a shopping square and the sounds of fighting begin.

That is where I should go.

Guardian lands on building that is overlooking the square. There is a fight involving combatants with superpowers and people are fleeing.

The first person that Guardian spots is the girl known as Alexandria, but she isn’t wearing her uniform. Alexandria has already taken a bad hit and is already down on the ground, struggling to get up from whatever she was hit with.

She must have been ambushed while she was off duty. Not to mention that whoever hit her must have had some serious power to get past her nigh invulnerability.

Guardian looks at the trio of attackers. One is muscular and lean man in fancy full body armour with several not-technology gadgets in addition to several technologic devices. A mask conceals his face from view while there are two not-technology energy guns are in his hands.

Behind the man is a mousy woman with curly brown hair. Despite having no visible power, she is clearly an ally of the man.

The third attacker makes Guardian scowl in disgust. This woman is what most people describe as beautiful with a tall slender body, long flowing black hair and extremely generous curves. But only those that find insanity endearing could claim that she is truly beautiful as the woman is clearly mad and mentally unwell.

The woman is without doubt the source of the not-technology as she is wearing a set of power armour made of not-technology and has a not-technology energy weapon in one hand a not-technology energy blade in the other.

What should I do?

But Guardian already knows the answer even as the voice says as it and has already drawn both of her stun-pipes.

Fight.

Guardian leaps from the building and activates her boot KEPs as she aims herself at the man. She slams into the man and he goes flying into a shop window on the side of the square.

Guardian swings her stun-pipe into mousy woman and her foe drops as electricity courses through her body.

“Thanks for the help,” groans Alexandria as she gets to her feet, “You are?”

“Guardian,” answers Guardian, “Who are they?”

“No @#$£ing idea,” replies Alexandria, “They just attacked me while I was out with my friends. I hope they all got to safety.”

“Focus on the fight,” Guardian tells her.

“Yeah, yeah,” answers Alexandria, “Don’t worry I can take ‘em with my power with no problem.”

And with that, Alexandria zooms straight at the third member of her attackers. The woman doesn’t move and instead aims her gun at Alexandria before firing a bolt of red energy. The bolt hits Alexandria dead on and the girl goes tumbling into the ground in front of the woman.

The woman kicks Alexandria in the face and the girl goes rolling away. The woman turns to face Guardian, but Guardian has already launched her own attack.

Guardian throws one of her electro-sphere at the woman and it activates upon contact. The sphere electrifies the woman just before Guardian slams into her, shoulder first.

The woman goes tumbling backwards.

“Oi Guardian!” yells a man and Guardian turns to face to the man she sent flying into the shop as he marches towards her.

“Techni-Hurt, get Krystal to safety,” orders the man to the second woman, “I’ll deal with Guardian.”

He aims his guns at Guardian and she reaches out with her power. But the moment that Guardian touches the weapons with her power, the non-technology breaks.

The man yelps as his not-technology guns explode in his hands and Guardian rushes him. He barely braces himself in time as Guardian punches him in the face.

The man goes backwards and he halts his fall as he lands on his feet, crouched on the ground.

“Don’t you want to know who I am?” inquires the man.

“No,” answers Guardian without a moment’s hesitation as she gets her second stun-pipe out again.

“Well, too bad,” sneers the man, “I call myself the Aquiline. It doesn’t really mean anything even if it is based for the Latin word for eagle. I just felt it sounded cool for killer supervillain extraordinaire.”

Guardian doesn’t bother with words as she engages her opponent again. Despite her ferocious attacks, she can’t land a blow on him as the Aquiline keeps dodging and blocking.

“You have no idea how experienced I am at this,” snarls the Aquiline as he draws not-technology energy sword with a red blade.

Guardian reaches out with her power again and the sword explodes in Aquiline’s hand as she touches it with her power.

He growls and backs up.

“Me or her,” sneers Aquiline as he tosses a not-technology dagger, also with a red energy blade, at the still down Alexandria.

Guardian sighs as once again she reaches out with her power and destroys the not-technology with a mere touch.

“How do you keep doing that?” demands Aquiline.

“With ease,” answers Guardian.

He looks at something behind Guardian before replying.

“Let’s see how you deal with something old fashioned then,” snarls Aquiline as he pulls out a regular knife, “Me or her.”

Guardian is already in motion as he throws the knife at one of the bystanders. Guardians aims her stun-pipe at it and with her power, she modifies her stun-pipe so it can fire electric bolts.

Without a trigger, Guardian is forced to use her power to activate her modified stun-pipe.

The electric bolt hits the knife and knocks it off-course. But despite Guardian’s efforts, the knife still skims the shoulder of the innocent woman, nicking the skin and drawing blood.

She turns her attention back to Aquiline just in time to see him teleport away in a flash of red light using not-technology. As Guardian looks around, she realises that the other two women are gone as well.

Alexandria groans as she gets up once again.

“What happened?”