Ursula, Nora, Malcolm, and Eli
In collaboration with @Horrid, @Stairdweller, and @GingerBoi123
The three of them had ascended atop the bordering walls of the tower. Using the front doorway seemed... too obvious, to say the least. Each of them was well and capable of climbing the tower in their own manner. Once they were rested upon one of the four bordering rooftops, they eyed the happening below, in the central courtyard.
Aggressors. Several of them, but... not the same ones they'd seen thus far. Not burned and ragged and wielding pipes and nailed boards. These ones were uniformed in dark, belted garbs and masks that hid all their features save their eyes. They had exquisitely crafted firearms at their sides, and they stood at least a head taller than the three of them. They counted five of them, four standing behind a group of kneeling Denizens, bound by their wrists and with heads lowered. The fifth Aggressor, supposedly the commander of this group, was at a nearby table. He was carving strips of meat and flesh out of the body of a Denizen, riddled with oily chemicals that bled from its innards.
Ursula peeked out around the crumbling frame of what used to be a window. There was some sort of terrible, ritualistic cannibalism occuring down below them and the sight of the Aggressor's hands slick with the inky liquids of the Denizen's body made her stomach unsettle itself once more. She looked for as long as she dared, to assess their forces and what it was they were up to before tearing her gaze away with a look of sickness upon her face. Her stomach's reaction was less powerful this time around, which made her worry.
"Christ Almighty, that shit is just sick." She whispered harshly to her companions, cloth strapped hands gripping at her abdomen and covering her mouth once again. "I seriously hope we're going to do something about that."
Nora surrepituously wiped her mouth with the sleeve of her flesh arm. "Yes," she said, monotone. "Sick."
"We can't let the others die." Malcolm said to the other two as his gaze also fell upon the gruesome butchering.
The Aggressor set his knife down and carried the strips to the Denizens. Without so much as a warning, he grabbed one of them by their jaw, forcing it open, and shoving it down his throat. The Denizen swung his head about, struggling, doing everything in his power to resist the consumption of the body of one of his own. The commander, however, was stronger. He forced the Denizen to swallow the strip of flesh, and then promptly pushed him aside to the courtyard floor. The Denizen lay there, thrashing about, twisting, contorting. His vaporous skin quickly began to show streaks of red, and within moments, he has turned. From an innocent civilian, into a bloodthirsty monster. One of the uniformed Aggressors held the newly turned on the floor with his foot, and the commander approached the next Denizen down the line.
"Is he..." Ursula pushed aside her lessening nausea to look closer at what was occuring beneath them, attempting to push up her glasses and finding that they weren't there. "Is this thing trying to make an army?"
"Succeding in making an army, I would say," Nora thoughtfully murmurred.
"Let's stop them!" Malcolm said as he descended upon the appaling scene below. He used his gloves to dig into the tower to slow his fall before jumping the rest of the way down. He did a forward roll when he landed which put him right infront of an aggressor who was taken off guard. The perfect opportunity for an uppercut. Malcolm sprang up from the ground by pushing his legs for extra power, while at the same time bringing his right fist straight to the aggressor's jaw. When Malcolm gained his footing he immediately crouched again and threw his fists up into a block, letting the bullets bounce and ricochet off of his metal gloves.
"Wait, we're just jumping straight in? Is there a goddamn plan?!" Ursula rasped as she tore a piece of the stonework from the nearby architecture with a pulling motion of her hands, before using it to lower herself to the courtyard. With a motion like a gorilla slamming its fists on the ground, she brings the stonework to the ground in front of her and crouches behind it as she hops off, taking cover from the incoming gunfire.
Nora was the last of the three to jump down into the courtyard. "So, we're fighting now? Fine." Clearly annoyed, she held her skeletal metal arm up in front of her face and torso, trying to shield herself as much as possible from the gunfire. It made a pretty damn poor shield, skeletal as it was, so she combat-rolled her way behind Ursula's hiding as quickly as she could.
"So..." she drawled, "Any idea how we can do this? Preferably without dying?"
Ursula ducked her head as a bullet pinged off the cover and sent a shower of stone dust into the air. She looked to Nora with a look of uncertainty, biting her lip and eyes darting. "Uhhhh. That depends. Does that arm of yours shoot lasers or something?" She jested, but the feeling of panic was looming. The cover was deteriorating rapidly under the hail of gunfire. They had to make a move soon.
"Nope. It's just a large arm."
"Lemme try something," Ursula said, and with a grunt of effort, she made a motion of pushing at the cover she had made. It made a sound of stone grinding stone before it began to move forward, toward their Aggressor assailants.
With the Aggressors focused on the shifting stone barrier, Nora dived left, bouncing off a column with her metal arm, before crashing into one of the gunmen at knee level. His partner immediately shot at her, the bullet grazing the outside of Nora's thigh before the cyborg managed to flip the Aggressor over, wrestling the rifle up into a choke hold across his throat and pulling her enemy in front of her as a shield.
She had barely managed to force her way to a half-crouch when the commander turned on his heel and neatly shot her 'hostage' between the eyes. "Motherfucker!" she swore, legitimately angry. The exiting bullet had richocheted off the protruding knobs of her enhanced ear, splattering her with gore and sending a warbling scream of feedback down her aural nerve. She dived away again, back behind some cover, stolen rifle in hand.
Upon seeing the others moving into action, Ursula takes advantage of the sudden divide in the Aggressor's attention and vaults her cover, hands out to the sides as she advances. Her cover emitted a loud crack before splitting into to smaller parts, about the size of two basketballs. With a spin to the side on her heel, she catapulted one forward, where it found its mark soundly between one of the Aggressor soldier's neck and stomach, crushing his ribcage with a series of disgusting snaps and squelches. The second Aggressor stood stunned for a moment before turning its rifle on Ursula as well, but by then it was already too late. The stone projectile caught him in the legs, bowling him over as Ursula dived to the side, scrabbling to find cover once again.
As she peeked out to see the fallen Aggressor, Ursula mimed as if she were picking up a sphere before pulling her hand down into a fist. The stone ball followed the action, and lifted into the air before coming back down with a terrible crunch. Ursula's skin crawled at the sound.
Malcolm, who was thankful for his team's assistance, set his eyes on the commander who was readily aiming a revolver. Malcolm ran forward keeping his left arm infront of him as a shield whereas his other arm was gearing up for an uppercut. The commander fired a bullet which harmlessly bounced off the metal glove and threw the revolver on the gorund as it ran out of ammo. Malcolm went for an uppercut but the commander was certainly adept at combat and rolled out of the way, letting Malcolm hit the desk, sending it a fair few metres across the table. Malcolm yelled in pain as he felt the back of his calf being slashed by the commanders knife. Fortunately it didn't cut deep and only left a long cut that could easily be bandaged.
Malcolm turned around and entered his standard boxing pose. Bouncing lightly on his toes with his left fist just a bit infront of his right. The commander took a similar pose except he kept the knife pointed at Malcolm. Malcolm made the first move, stepping to his left and throwing a right hook. The commander feinted backwards before going in for a slash, however Malcolm's left fist was there to block. Malcolm brought back his right and landed a body shot, straight into the commanders gut. The lead aggressor howled in pain before being cut abruptly by another gut shot, keeling him over. Malcolm pushed back the knife and used his now free left to land a left cross on to the back of the leader's head. Finally bringing him down. Malcolm dropped down tih his right fist, letting gravity pull it down to crush its head, leaving Malcolm kneeling next to the body and panting.
That was it. The battle was over. With the commander felled, the trio stood before the newly turned Aggressor, still bound and struggling on the floor.
Ursula gestured to the prone Aggressor, speaking in between pants of fatigue, "Well what do we do with th-"
Nora took a knee beside the struggling, bound aggressor, and caught his snarling face in the elbow of her long metal arm, articulated fingers braced on the opposite ear. She twisted sharply, until there was a satisfying crunch and the struggling stopped. "Problem solved," she said, lurching back to her feet and dusting off her knees. Fresh blood oozed from the wound on her thigh, beading on the polyuerthane surface of her pants.
With a flinch at the sickening crunch, Ursula looked away quickly and mumbled, "Fair enough."
Malcolm stood up and turned to the other two zoners. "Good job guys." He said between pants. "Now... let's wrap this up." Malcolm looked for the leaders knife to cut the bounds however when he found it his large metallic fingers couldn't actually pick it up. "You know what..." Malcolm said as he walked to the first bound denizen, Malcolm pulled the rope apart that bounded its hands. "Fuck it." He finished saying after the first one. Malcolm then freed the same two in a similar fashion.
The three of them made thankful gestures towards the Zoners. Two of them approached the body of their fallen friend and lifted him by his arms and legs. The third picked up a few of the weapons left lying on the floor, and dragged the body of a trooper by his foot. They left for the bridge leading out of the tower, back towards the rooftops above the cityscape. The trio of Zoners was left with four dead Aggressors and a supposed base of operations. They looked around a bit, and that's when they noticed one peculiar piece amidst it all.
Above the table, where the commander cut away at the body of the Denizen. Resting on the wall was a large, heavily ornamented painting. Two figures, both female. One was seated in an ornate chair, with the same dark skin and ghostly veil as the rest of the Denizens. She was dressed in a simple mix of blacks and whites in a long, flowing gown. Her face, however, was crossed out with a rather rough-looking red cross. In fact, most of her side of the portrait was damaged, seemingly intentionally. Standing beside her, however, was an opposing figure. An Aggressor, from the looks of it, though it seemed as though her red skin had been painted over some time ago. Split, ragged red hair. A torn dress that dropped to the bottom of the frame. Her side of the portrait was well-kept and surrounded with lit candles on the table. Clearly, she was the favored figure. But the question...
Why?
"Wow, this is... unexpectedly beautiful. Do you think they are some kind of god figures or something? Monarchs?" Ursula mused, walking up to the damaged side of the portrait and running her hand over the textures of the decoration, feeling the deep scores cut from the surface.
"It looks like a shrine," Nora added. She tapped one of the candles with a metal finger, standing unneseccarily close behind Ursula and examining the painting over her shoulder.
"Certainly a SHRINING example of figure worship, huh?"
"Puns aren't funny."
"Do you think they could have been the leaders?" Malcolm asked, staring at the two women. "Like queens?" He pondered. "Turned sisters perhaps?" He suggested. The painting may certainly have been beautiful if it weren't for the graffiti that defaced it. Some people...
Nora snuffed out one of the candles with her metal fingers, unmindful of the hot wax that spilled over her hand when she lifted it, and licked the side of the taper. Then she leaned around Ursula and gave the painting the same treatment, licking both the damaged and undamaged sides of it.
There was a pause amidst the trio before a loud scream pierced the silence. A familiar scream. The same they heard when they first entered the Zone. They turned and looked upward as, atop one of the corner towers, stood their target. He stared down at them with his searing, crimson eyes practically cutting through the frame of his mantle. In this moment, he was the true embodiment of anger.
BOSS
THE RAM
Malcolm turned to face the Ram above. "Guys, stay behind me." Malcolm advised, worrying for the safety of the girls and not himself. Malcolm readied his biological power for the first time in the Nexus. Malcolm yelled in agony as his own bones began to thicken and grow. His bone sprouted out of the gash in the back of his leg and formed a thick protective layer over it. Some bone spiralled out of his shoulders and formed some sort of spike shapes that went from big to small as the bone spikes littered his shoulders. The Ram dropped down and brought an explosion with it as it landed. Knocking Malcolm back, the Ram bellowed as Malcolm slowly stood up. Entering the same boxing stance before, Malcolm stared directly at the aggressor in front, gasping from the pain of the newly formed bones which had stopped growing. Malcolm was immediately put on the defence as the Ram charged and shoulder barged him. Malcolm hit the floor hard and looked up, seeing the Ram descend upon him at such a speed that Malcolm couldn't have dodged. Malcolm simply turned his gaze to his allies, praying they'd be safe until being engulfed in fire as the Ram stomped on him, letting loose another famed explosion. Malcolm's vision went black. He couldn't see, hear or even feel anything. Then a bright white light slowly but surely began to engulf his vision. There was nothing left of Malcolm in Zone 1.
Nora lurched away from the painting, raising her stolen rifle and squeezing the trigger. The firearm helpfully jammed. She dropped the useless thing and decided to go for broke, dashing diagonally toward the Ram. She managed to get her metal hand on his coat, and thought for about half a second that she was going to succede before he kicked backwards and caught her in the solar plexis. She was aware, in a disconnected, slow-motion sort of way, of the explosion, the brittle cracks of her shattering ribs, and the unfortunately delicious smell of her own flesh cooking. There was an extended moment of weightlessness before she slammed into the distant wall and slid down it, puddling bonelessly on the ground.
The mangled body persisted for a few seconds, sparks arcing uselessly off her shorted-out implants, before it vanished.
Frozen in place for a moment by the scream, Ursula's muscles tensed with panic to the point of immobilisation. She watched as her allies rushed off to face the terrifying new opponent that was accosting them, and she saw as they were soundly dealt with as if they hadn't just triumphed in a major conflict not thirty seconds beforehand. Fear overtook her common sense and as the Ram advanced, she tore up small fragments of stone from the roof around her and propelled them forward in a flurry of slicing grey projectiles.
It didn't phase the creature at all. It advanced slowly, red feet sizzling the ground with each step. Her mind raced, pulling up no option that was useful to her. What could she do? Was she going to die here? With a swing of her arm, as if she were throwing a wild punch, she launches another chunk of stone architecture at the Ram which it easily dodges. She repeats the motion, attempting to swing the chunk around and hit it, but only succeeds in whiffing the air around it as it bends to the side. It was too close now to pull the debris around for a third swing, so Ursula did the only thing she could think of. She heaved up her arms with a grunt of exertion as the stone rose to form a wall between her and the Ram, but too little too late as he let loose an explosive roundhouse to knock it down completely and send her sprawling to the ground.
Her vision blackened for a moment before returning to look up at the Ram, it's foot raised above her head as she slipped into unconsciousness. Her body flickered from sight just as the steaming foot came down where her head once was.
The Ram reared his head back, letting out another crazed, bellowing scream to announce his victory over the Zoners. It echoed across the red city from atop the tower.
...
Eli, in rapid sequence, hit each of the three buttons corresponding to the three Zoners, causing them to cease their flashing alarms. He stood up and looked over the console as Malcolm, Ursula, and Nora each slowly arose from their seats. Their encounter with the Ram just now... dear God, it was brutal.
"Hey!" He called out, "You three alright?"
