As Travis slammed his wooden sword against the side of the pirate's head, he could almost feel the helmet give way from the force of the blow. The pirate probably felt it too, considering he got knocked into one of his allies and didn't get up. When the second pirate was pinned under his friend's unconscious body, Travis quickly dispatched him as well - one hit to the head, followed quickly by a kick where Travis thought the ear was.
The others didn't seem very pleased that their friends were getting the crap kicked out of them. A loud screech rang out as one of them fired off their sound rifle, colliding against Travis's side with only minor pain. Another shot to the chest confirmed what he was thinking - he was almost entirely immune to their sound blasts by now, the blast only leaving him slightly unnerved. Noticing how it was ineffective, one of the pirates simply chose to thrust the butt of their rifle into Travis's face.
Pain exploded from his mouth as Travis fell to the ground. He wasn't expecting such a ballsy hit and lost his balance - that was kind of embarrassing. Almost immediately, he began to cough and spit, eventually hacking two teeth onto the floor of the car. They'd grow back, nothing to worry about. He did it on reflex - he knew what was about to happen next, and had learned that getting the shit in his mouth out of there was a priority.
As soon as he shut his mouth again, he could feel the teeth in his mouth fusing, becoming bulky and unwieldy. Almost like they were transforming into incisors or even just blocks of bone. He had experienced it dozens or even hundreds of times, but it was still uncomfortable as fuck. If he hadn't gotten those loose teeth out before the adaptation, Travis wasn't sure if he'd be able to get them out before he healed.
Travis opened his eyes. Three seconds. His forearms already were beginning to grow that brown, almost plate-like armor.
Thank god for adrenaline. Was starting to feel pretty good.
The sounds banging around the car were beginning to dull somewhat - the hairs that had grown all over Travis's body seemed to be working a bit
too well at breaking the sound waves. Still, he could tell that the pirates were firing their rifles - it didn't seem like they were willing to waste any more effort on Travis while he was down though. Turning, he saw that they were aiming at Marcie. Smart move - she was probably a much softer target, and judging by the sudden chill in the room and the fact that the hole into the car had been frozen over, she was a more pressing target as well. As she got knocked to the ground from one of the blasts, Travis could feel a sudden chill near him.
"Tr... Take...!"Even if he couldn't hear clearly, it didn't really take a brain scientist or rocket surgeon to figure out what Marcie wanted him to do. It was hard to get leverage on the ground, but even the best armors didn't fix human anatomy. Rolling over to the nearest pirate, Travis simply grabbed his leg and turned, pulling the leg backward. With his feet frozen to the floor, a sickening crunch ran through Travis's body as the Pirate's knee was forcefully bent in the opposite direction.
It took a spray of blood and a deep scream for Travis to realize that there was another person present - which is pretty surprising, considering he was by far the largest in the room. Easily towering over both the pirates as well as the heroes, Blitz was rushing through the rocketeers with incredible ease, simply running them through with his arms. While most heroes would probably be disgusted with the brutality and lack of care for human life that was being displayed, Travis simply thought
'Man, that's badass'.
"Mahn, tha's badash!"God, it sucked trying to talk with weird fused teeth-blocks...
But it seemed like Travis didn't really need to worry about the rest of the pirates - some of them were fused, and those that weren't would probably get frozen or simply rammed through by the giant running around. Travis quickly got to his feet, prepared to jump in the way of any last desperate sound rifle blasts.
Before the sound of metal being cleaved through rang out through the entire car. Even with his hearing compromised, Travis could tell that probably wasn't a good sign.
Another giant man was walking into the car, and although this one wasn't as tall as Blitz, the giant glowing chainsaw he carried made him look even more intimidating than the guy covered in blood and organs. Travis had no idea who this masked villain was, but was extremely wary of his blade. He'd seen energy weapons before, but only in the form of knives and small blades. Even with his durability, Travis wasn't sure if he'd be able to take a hit from that and survive-
As the Chainsawyer began to move forwards, the tip of his weapon managed to lightly brush against another figure in the room - Viper. While Travis didn't notice him initially, the man's darker outfit almost immediately made Travis think he was a villain and the Chainswayer just didn't care about friendly fire.
Viper's guts and blood spilled onto the ground, joining the sizable pool that was already forming from Blitz's rampage.
'Yeah, let's not even try to tank that...' Travis honestly had no clue how to deal with this. He might get away with minor injuries if he was lucky, but honestly, it was not worth the risk to try and use his power here. It cleaved through someone with only a glancing hit.
Plus, he wasn't sure if he regrew his limbs. And Cybernetics would really mess up his style...
The Chainsawyer began to race towards Marcie - either he followed the same line of thinking as the other pirates and saw her as the most dangerous, or he was just picking them off randomly. Either way, Travis didn't really have the opportunity to help her out - the pirate whose leg Travis just broke seemed to be made of tougher stuff than the others, and he along with the other surviving pirates was keeping him pinned, kicking him in the head and sides while forcing him down with their weight. One of the pirates laying on Travis was already aiming his rifle at someone (Blitz? Travis wasn't really looking), trying to take advantage of the sudden shift in battle the Chainswayer's arrival caused. Seemed like they had found Travis's second-biggest weakness - he wasn't super strong, so they could just pin him to take him out.
Blitz wasn't in Travis's line of sight, but he was the only one that Travis could think responsible for what happened next.
Something flew directly into the Chainsawyer's chest, fast enough that Travis could barely even register what happened. The move seemed to distract the other Rocketeers somewhat, as almost everything seemed to stop for a brief instant.
However, the arrival of another hero was what really sealed the deal. Someone in a flamboyant costume (
'with a very cool looking cape', Travis thought) entered the car, seeming to cause the very air in the room to fluctuate. Dawnbreaker entered a little before the Chainsawyer, but Travis and the pirates pinning him only noticed the man after the initial hit on the giant chainsaw-wielding freak. It was the perfect distraction, as Travis had just enough time to begin choking out one of the mobile pirates pinning him. He struggled briefly, but with his legs locked around him and the solid hairs digging into his flesh, it only took seconds for the tired pirate to fall unconscious. And with only two pirates pinning him, one of whom was partially frozen and had a broken leg, Travis finally managed to free himself from the veritable swarm around him.
Thank god Travis's hearing was messed up enough to miss what Dawnbreaker was actually saying, or he'd also be distracted by thinking of how cool it was.
The two pirates had finally moved on to another target, firing their rifles at Blitz. Travis yanked the rifle from the partially frozen pirate but didn't stop to deal with the other unloading on the huge hero. He had bigger priorities - getting Marcie away from the Chainsaw guy as quickly as possible. She was the only one who could really close the holes these weirdos made in the train car walls, and could painlessly incapacitate the Rocketeers... Well, painlessly compared to Blitz's method.
Thankfully, the gun that Travis stole wasn't one of the ones frozen by Marcie. He trained it on the Chainsawyer, ready to fire it the second the man moved. He yelled at Marcie over the conflict still going on in the train car, his voice coming out strangely from his mutated mouth and weakened hearing.
"Freecee te whol!"God, it
really sucked trying to talk with weird fused teeth-blocks. Hopefully, Marcie would freeze the hole in the train before more pirates came in - then they could have a breather and buy time for the other heroes to secure the civilians and arrive.