MEANWHILE... (cont.)
Watch Dog threw himself to the floor. Broken glass showered him, bouncing off the back of his helmet and littering the floor. The mercenary quickly threw away the magazine from his rifle and reached for the spare on his belt. For the tenth time, he was glad he decided to throw on both ammunition bandoliers. Watch Dog the type of merc to walk around with a ton of ammunition on his person like some kind of '80s action hero, but he had a feeling he would need every single bullet he had for this mission.
Boy, was he wrong. He needed more than every single bullet he had. Much more.
Watch Dog climbed to his knee and pointed his gun out the shattered window of the train. The war drone hovered just above them, raining down and unbreakable shower of bullets upon the vehicle. The storm of lead ripped through the walls of the train, ripping apart chairs, shattering windows, and knocking out lights. It was everything Watch Dog could do to avoid the gunfire.
They had given up on using Strongarm as a shield awhile ago. The rocker was glad to stand in front of Watch Dog and use his arm to block the gunfire, but the kitty beacon did its job and the raw amount of gunfire focused on the moron was just too much. Within seconds of the war drone appearing, entire chunks of the train were ripped away leaving Strongarm standing there like a confused statue. The idiot was the only thing to actually survive the gunfire. They had to abandon that car.
Watch Dog quickly realized it was better to stay away from Strongarm than to use his shielding capabilities. And Gainer...
A score of rockets suddenly launched from the war drone.
"Next car!" Watch Dog shouted. He threw himself at the door to the next car and ripped it open, the locks were pretty much swiss cheese at this point, and jumped into the next car. The rockets pounded into the previous car with a series of thuds-or at least they were thuds with the muting in his helmet active; anything over a certain decibel point was reduced-and the train rocked.
Watch Dog scrambled to the next seat for cover. He didn't bother to see if his comrades were still with him. He locked back.
Gainer was there, crouched beneath a window, but Watch Dog didn't see Strongarm. He looked again. The car was gone, blown off the tracks by the rocket salvo. It lay on its side in the street below.
"Woohoo!" a familiar stupid voice cried.
Watch Dog rolled his eyes.
The metal arm distended and Strongarm slammed into the side of the car. His face smacked against the window and broke his nose, but that didn't faze the man at all.
"World in flames, assholes! World in flames!" Strongarm shouted with glee.
"Get away from him!" Watch Dog ordered. A hail of gunfire was about to rain down on their position. Watch Dog charged down the car, the pyro trailing just a few steps after him.
The expected attack came and the back end of the car was turned to scrap metal. Watch Dog didn't look back. He kept looking ahead. The door on this car was solid.
"I got it," Gainer said. Fire jumped from his outstretched hand, he gave up on guns awhile ago, and melted much of the door. But despite this development, Watch Dog shook his head worriedly. There was only one car left, but a seemingly endless supply of drones.
Watch Dog knew the New Millennium station wouldn't be like the other stations, but he was still surprised by the response. Upon arriving at the station based on the tower's third floor, an entire squad of soldiers and a host of drones awaited them. They didn't even bother asking them to give up any hostages. The drones just fired. Even the soldiers were surprised by this. Watch Dog couldn't see the soldiers' faces, but there is a certain gait a soldier has when something heinous happens. The mercenary had seen it before, and he saw it again when the drones fired on the car. The soldiers shouted for them to stop, but their voices were drowned out by the endless rain of bullets on the train car. But the drones didn't have enough firepower to reach its hijackers and the three fled to the next car where they were able to provide a response. Gainer tried shooting down a few drones at first, but a wave of fire proved to be the only reliable method to take down the drones. Watch Dog's grenades were all well and good, but he ended up using them to blow open the shutters sealing the station. That is when the war drones appeared and Watch Dog used every trick up his sleeve to bring them down. Two drones were brought down and the train advanced. But another drone came and now Watch Dog was down to his lightest arms.
A thought came to the merc's head. A thought lost in all the action and scramble for survival.
"That's enough! We've done more than enough!" Watch Dog yelled. "We need to get off this thing."
"We can't jump off a train at this speed," Gainer said.
"I know. I just need a minute to think," Watch Dog said, but he didn't really need to think. He already had a plan. "Strongarm, if you're still alive, lead the drones away from us. We're leaving."
The idiot's head suddenly appeared in a nearby window. He gave Watch Dog a thumbs off.
"No prob! Later, fuckers!" Strongarm's arm suddenly extended and reached for a building rooftop and the punk rocker flew off into the distance.
"What about us?" Gainer asked.
Watch Dog gave the pyro an uncertain look through his helmet, but he had an answer. The mercenary had packed inertial dampeners, a type of pack that used anti-kinetic tech to slow down a fall. It won't stop him completely, but it should be enough to survive jumping off the train. As for Gainer...
"We'll have to jump. No other choice," Watch Dog said.
Gainer frowned. "If I jump, an entire city block will be destroyed."
"Then stay on the train and allow yourself to get caught. You can melt your cuffs later," Watch Dog replied.
"You never expected us to get off this train, did you?" Gainer asked.
Not true. Watch Dog had planned multiple escape plans, but most of them considered a tamer response. A severe response requiring him to focus on his own life was the least expected possibility. For all of this city's security, Watch Dog had never seen anything he would consider a military like response. He half expected the drones to have only a token amount of ammunition. Just enough to fire warning shots. He knew the cat would draw extra attention, but it was only one person. Even when it is a single person flinging bombs, you might get a SWAT team at best. Since when does a single person warrant a response like this?
This was Steel Cat's fault, not his. The robotic feline should have been more forthcoming about what to expect. Any lives lost are on its head.
"I planned for the worst," Watch Dog finally replied. The mercenary didn't wait for the pyro's response. He jumped to his feet and kicked open the door off the train, then jumped. He activated the inertial dampeners. His momentum just...stopped. He immediately slowed and started droping like a rock. He fired his thrusters. It was enough to throw him through a nearby window. He landed atop a glass table of some sort and rolled, eventually ending up on a couch.
The mercenary gingerly climbed to his feet while a family of shocked onlookers stared.
"Those robotic trains are death traps. Stick with the bus," Watch Dog said as he limped away.
* * * * *
Strongarm settled down in the middle of an alley. He chuckled to himself as his arm distended to its original state. He chuckled again at the arm, then pointed a robotic finger at the sky.
"Suck it, drone fuckers!" he yelled. He reached into the pocket to produce the kitty coin. He laughed, and then flipped it. Tails.
"That's right! Flawless AI my ass."
Swinging away from the train was easy. After the upgrade to his arm, Strongarm had spent many nights just swinging around the city. His former arm was fun, sure, but this new arm was much snappier, extended and distended without a hitch, and could re-extend mid withdraw without so much as a spark. It was the highest quality tech he has ever owned, and it showed. Between this and weeks of practice, Strongarm had no trouble swinging away from the war drone and breaking line of sight while the machine fired helplessly at him. Eventually it ran out of ammunition and could only follow him from a distance. Other drones joined the chase, but all Strongarm had to do was swing through a window and run through a building to lose the drones. Those things always had to follow some kind of room-to-room protocol and always assumed no human would ever consider jumping out of an upper story window. Not a problem for Strongarm.
But even the greatest shows came to an end, and the arm was getting a wee bit sore. The shielding on his arm was pretty much gone at this point. It's time to slam this shit home.
Strongarm flipped the coin again. "Thanks, kitty cat! I owe ya for a great time, but I've been singing all night and my voice is fucking cracked." He tossed the coin over his shoulder.
Something thudded behind Strongarm. Cracks appeared in the concrete beneath the former rocker.
Strongarm's gaze followed the crack in the concrete to its source. A robot, at least twice as tall as man and bristling with weapons, had landed behind him. The pavement had cratered beneath its feet upon landing, and numerous sensor lasers swept the alley. They settled on the kitty beacon, then slowly traced their way back to its former owner.
"Curtain call, huh? Sure, why not?" Strongarm said at the sight of the monster. He snapped his fingers. "Hey, I remember you! You were one of those guardian things, right?"
The robot didn't reply.
Strongarm shrugged. "Who am I to deny my fans? Come on, bitch! One more for the road." Strongarm's arm shot out, latching onto the robot's arm. It distended, rapidly pulling the rocker towards the metal beast. He wound up his other arm for a punch, ready to connect the moment he reached the robot.
Not once, not even for a micro second, did Strongarm think about what he was doing. But boy, the ensuing skirmish was a hell of a show. Just like he wanted.
MILLENNIAL DREADNAUGHT: