You ducked under the alien's swing; the tip of their spear missing the top of your head by an inch.
And here you were without a proper helmet.
Almost contemptuously, you reached out and grabbed a hold of the shaft in an iron grip. Immediately after, you thrust your hand out, the blazing light that soon followed piercing through the alien's armour without resistance.
After waiting a moment for a surprise attack or final stand that never comes you decide to press on, not giving the fallen alien a second glance. It merely the latest of the dozen fallen and broken bodies left in your wake.
As you walked forward, feeling the familiar heat rising in your gauntlets, you followed an instinct that was becoming easier each time. Closing your eyes, you called for a fragment of your power and directed it into your gauntlets, cooling and revitalising the parts on the verge of overheating.
The beginnings of a headache blossoming behind your eyes, you do your best to ignore it and instead focus on what's in front of you, nodding as you sense your gauntlets repairing themselves, on their way back to full functionality. For now. But after having to do it near a dozen times already you were confident enough that you didn't need to dedicate the entirety of your focus to the process. Instead, your gaze remained locked on the leviathan that continued its path towards downtown unchallenged.
Though that wasn't from a lack of trying on your part, but when the five to six shots that you had unleashed had added up to doing jack shit to its hide, you'd given up rather quickly. It would take something with a lot heavier ordnance (like a tank) to scratch that things shell.
Your shots must have pissed it off though, because right after that a fucking platoons worth of alien's had descended on you like a pack of wolves.
"Speaking of…" You thought, the throbbing behind your eyes almost deafening you to the sudden whine of the chariots coming up from behind. Not wasting any time looking back, you dashed towards the nearest corner and continued towards the best cover that had a good view of the area you just came from.
Raising your head from behind car, you raised both your hands, at slightly different angles to cover as much area as possible, and waited.
One of the first things you'd figured out after the chariots had done a couple of bombing runs was that they couldn't turn a tight corner to save their lives. Your face twisted into a bloodthirsty grin as the whines became louder and your hands glowed brighter. The second thing you'd learned…
Was that they didn't seem to recognise that.
You never got the chance to check how high they'd be flying be flying in from, to see exactly how many were on your tail. With that in mind, in this case, you decided that quantity was the way to go.
So, when the whines reached a fever pitch, and the chariots overshot the corner, the light that left your gauntlets lit up the sky.
Your energy blasts packed enough concussive force to blow chests into meaty chunks, to amputate limbs from shoulders, and to obliterate metal and machinery down to base components.
Every shot that hit killed an alien.
But what made you think that you got them all. You weren't that lucky. What you'd done wasn't new. You had used the same tactics before, but the aliens could learn. And as you saw an alien fall, joined by a second and then several more – their forms crumpling cars and crushing ground as they landed – it was rather obvious that they had learned.
The remains of parts that used to be their chariots falling from the sky told you that you had succeeded in taking out their air support. At least until they called in more.
You better make sure you're gone before that happens.
You raised your hand and light began to pour out, before it suddenly dimmed, and then it started smoking.
Shit! Not now!
Almost pulling your arm out of your socket, you raised it in front of you, a shield materialised to cover your upper body a bare second later. Most of the shots dissipated harmlessly against your shield. But not all of them. Your reaction was fast, but not fast enough.
Two shots got through before your shield covered you.
Those shots burned through the layers of your armour and burst against the soft flesh beneath.
When it came down to it, what you'd made in Stark Towers basement wasn't armour, not really. It made you stronger, and faster, but it lacked the protection of true armour, what little it gave you was more of a side effect from the components that let you punch and move far above your weight class. It'd be more accurate to call it an exoskeleton, but that didn't roll off the tongue quite as well.
Thanks to those components taking most of the blast you were only hit with a diminished payload. With your armour it didn't kill you, but from the bright lances of agony that erupted from your chest, you knew that if you were hit like that again, you'd be done.
Pushing past the agony, you dashed forward, vaulting over your cover, you sprung forward in long, hurried strides. With your blasters out of commission
(again) you figured the best way to take them down was up close where they couldn't aim those fancy rifles mounted on their arm.
Crashing into the first like a freight train, you send him flying, but not before you wrested the spear from his hand.
This will do.
There was no time to familiarise yourself with your new weapon, no time to learn its abilities, its strengths. Because between the moment when you grabbed the spear and the next, the rest were on you. Howling from their distorted vocal cords, moving with their long-elongated gait, they acted in synchronicity, every motion a twisted mirror to each other.
It was unnerving, and if you weren't already used to it, it would've been terrifying.
But instead of freezing, your palm lashed out with enough strength to crack the armour of the alien's chest. It stumbled, but it did not fall. The spear that ran it through a second later would hopefully put it down. Dodging out of the way of another aliens thrust, you ducked and grabbed the convulsing aliens spear. After all, it wasn't using it anymore. But to make sure there weren't anymore surprises of the stabbing in the back variety, as you sidestepped the next thrust, you deliberately pressed your heel down as hard as you could. The fallen alien stopped convulsing.
One down.
Roaring in anger, or excitement over its comrade's death – you honestly couldn't tell – the second alien held out his spear and its tip began to glow with blue light. In two steps you crossed the distance and used your newly acquired spear to push that one to the side. The energy it released put a small crater in the sidewalk. In several clumsy swings – only possible due to your superior strength, you knocked the spear out of his hands, and then stabbed it in the gut, or what you thought was its gut. The kick that followed after the spear was wrenched from its body sent it flying into the same crater.
And that's two.
The last two came at you together. Charging in a straight line, recklessly. Stupidly. The tightness in your chest made dodging impossible, not unless you felt like pulling all the muscles in your body, so you didn't. Instead as they came within reach, your spear clattered to the ground. They stopped. The abruptness of your action, the unexpectedness of it couldn't help but draw their attention. Only for a second, their gaze couldn't help but follow the spears path before it would return to you. But that was all you needed.
Before they could realise what was happening, you blitzed forward. You form was nearly a blur as both your hands reached out, grappled both of their necks, and lifted them into the air. Before they could kick you, or pull your hands off their necks, or twist themselves out of your grasp – anything to get away, really – you smashed their heads together. Then you did it again. And again. Eventually, their skulls burst like ripe grapes, covering the front of your armour in blood and brain matter.
"Urgh, that's really gross." You thought as you dropped the twitching corpses and tried to wipe your face. It didn't really do much. You deliberately put your hands down before you could make it any worse.
Collapsing to the ground, you reached up to take the faceplate off and to catch your breath. The whole encounter had taken two minutes. Felt like a lot longer though. Looking down at your armour, you let out a wordless grunt of annoyance at what stared back at you. Scorch marks littered your frame, the metal plates splattered with blood (not much of it yours, thankfully) and dirt. And of course, there were the two holes in your chest.
A minute to rest was as long as you could risk. After that time passed, you got back to your feet and spread your hands out. Reaching deep, you called on the electronics, the metal around you, to come apart and become a part of your armour. To fix what was broken.
You needed to do this because your abilities had limits. You could smooth out the rough edges, bring back the damaged parts to something functional but you couldn't replace what was lost. You could not create something from nothing, you needed new materials to fill in the gaps.
While a car came apart and its metal sheered itself to fill in the holes in your chest you realised that something had changed. Energy, unlike anything you had ever felt before lit up in your mind. In between one heartbeat and the next you were surrounded by a power that felt entirely new. When you looked down at the spear at your feet, with a burst of clarity you suddenly knew what it was. The alien's tech. You could sense it. And if you could sense it, then you could
use it.
So, you looked down, down at that spear, and
pulled.
Sounds flowed through your ears, you thought they were words but you could no longer understand them. It was like a buzzing in your ears, meaningless sounds that you were sure meant something, but came out unintelligible to your hearing.
The spear began to come apart. Violet energy wreathed it and the alien bodies alike.
The pounding behind your eyes throbbed in harder and harder until it felt like your skull was splitting open. White hot knives of agony pierced your mind. Both your hands went to the sides of your head, palms pressing against your temples. You didn't realise you were on the ground until your knees struck the ground.
The tech you'd manipulated before this was warm, it was comforting and familiar. It wanted to be used. Not this. This alien tech fought you every step of the way. This tech was cold, it was dark and hungry for the destruction of everything warm and good. It would not bow to your will, not until you ripped out its throat.
Roaring, you pushed yourself to your feet. The knives in your head spread to encompass your entire body and still you pushed.
The remains of the chariots around you begin to vibrate and float. Copper coloured energy wreathed your frame and the tech around you.
Consciousness flickered; brief lapses of blackness become your vision for you don't know how long but still you pushed.
Slowly the technology came together. Violet met copper, and was overcome. Alien technology crashed against you and shaped against your armour.
But the majority floated freely. Joining with the earth-based machinery to shape into something different, to create something new, something powerful.
What did it create?
[] An antigravity Flight Pack
Flight ++
[] A floating Energy Amplifier
Energy Damage ++
As suddenly as the agony came, it went. The technology around you settled back on the ground. But that was secondary. You looked at your armour in wonder. You could feel its signature, different from the earth tech you knew in a million different ways, but no less weaker for it.
And with that signature came knowledge. With it came a name.
Chitauri. That was their name.
That was all you knew, but it was a start. But something else came with that name, something you knew was truth without any doubt. This… creation, was your limit. Not forever, but for now. If you pushed further, if you tried to take another piece of Chitauri tech, or any tech now, and make it yours then you would fail. Your body would shatter and your mind would collapse into madness if you tried to manipulate these forces again until you had time to recover.
Time you would not get today.
Shaking you head, you banished these warnings to the depths of your mind. Known and understood, but you didn't have time to sit here and consider your options. You've wasted enough time here. The leviathan was getting away.
As you stepped back out into the main street you saw something that made you stop in your tracks.
You saw Iron Man shooting a barrage of micro missiles at the leviathan. You saw the leviathan turn to follow, and you saw the Iron Man begin to lead it away.
As you watched them fly by, you could've sworn he turned his head and looked straight at you.
Bemused, you raised your hand and waved. You figured, what the hell?
And then he waved back.
Okay, he definitively saw you.
As you moved to follow, you saw another thing that stopped you in your tracks. From behind the leviathan, you watched as a squad of Chitauri chariots dived at a house on a street, raining down death and destruction on those inside. At least, that was what you expected to see.
What you saw instead was a flash of orange light cut through those chariots like it was nothing.
Interesting…
You looked at the building in the distance, and then back at the leviathan getting away. Decision warred within you.
Taking down that leviathan was still priority one.
But nothing you had could scratch it.
Maybe where that orange light came from was something you could use.
But then again, maybe there wasn't.
You shook your head. Whatever decision you make, you must choose it now.
So then…
What do you do?
[] Follow Iron Man. You should follow the leviathan and finish what you set out to do. Between you and Iron Man, maybe there was a way to take it down.
[] Go check out the orange light. Even though you can't create anything else today there might be something there you can use. A little detour can't hurt right?
**
"Hey guys, got eyes on a friendly. Just saw him take out a squad of Chitauri. Wearing some advanced body armour."
"Roger that Stark. Everyone, keep an eye out."
**
You all know the drill. For your fights made this chapter you've one you've earned one skill point. Choose a skill to unlock from the skill tree (You can only pick skills coloured green, and skills are on the character sheet informational)
[] Skill
Again, you all know the drill. There will be an
2-hour MORATORIUM on Votes. DO NOT VOTE FOR 2 HOURS!
I'll be checking the thread. Feel free to discuss!
