Hot lead engulfed the room with ammunition flying towards every possible escape attempt. Dynamo didn't express hesitation; these situations weren't rare at all. Lena however, ran directly in front of the skating robot who dragged her name into this mess even more, "So I introduced myself and it's sorta rude if you don't share yours," Dynamo whistled with his arms locked downwards spreading his shoulders wider. Her instincts were preoccupied at the moment. Just stepping outside the cover Dynamo provided would prove fatal. The downpour was strong and the scent of asphalt ignited her nostrils. It was as if she could see every drop of rain and every strand of steam. Each explosion of bullets flew past her made her throat seal a little more. "Man, they must be real riled up…"
"How are you so calm about this-Ah!" before she could step foot out of the compound a bullet met the bottom of her right heel. It didn't hurt, but her skate augmentation was cracked, "Why did you drag me into this!?" she dove under the closest crate near the grounded construction gear. Their chasers decided to save bullets. "Who even are you!? And who are they!?"
Lena directed every ounce of anger towards the inorganic shield. Things fell silent with his finger on her lip. He reached into the asphalt and unearthed a hearty chunk of black. It was tossed right where a crane sat. It crumbled against the side producing a bang. Engines slowed as silence prevailed where only rain splashed.
"Did you just try and trick us?" one of the cropdusters spoke up, "We're made with optical units that can pick up heat signatures…" he provided a reminder. Its clamped fingers reached into their chest, past their electrical core with hundreds of miniaturized rotating parts. On both sides were small capsules with cardinal needles. The ball dove over the bulldozer's roof and towards the targets. "This was the guy that's giving the captain so many issues?"
"Aye, I can still hear you!" Dynamo poked his head out earning him a bullet between the eyes, "And I'm not blind either!" between his finger and thumb was the capsule. The ends of the object were unsealed revealing ventilation slits. Pink fumes freed themselves from a compressed prison and filled the air while thrown back to the sender. Lena held her nose. Dynamo's glanced around. While his goals were different he couldn't let a civilian get harmed. The hippobotamuses waddled for a pincer attack from either side of their guard. The crop dusters were gearing up their wings too; the copper-plated one was the scariest.
That dominant aura wasn't for show, it was brought by that horrid device. A DDD system. The heart and veins are the source of human's control of magic. Long ago before the Dragonfall war, before the dream of human-like machines, magic roamed and flew freely through every plant and stone. Every monster and man had powers to tame oceans of essence that flowed through them and their heart. So why couldn't machines do the same? The question asked by a madman forgotten by history. Experimental artificial circulatory systems and beating hearts were embedded into select machines and their mainframes granting them power known only by organic life. Not to the same extent as humans initially, but time saw to fix that.
"Alright, I'll answer your questions if you keep following me, there's a thirty percent chance we get out of this with a few scrapes," Dynamo whispered with his eyes on the ramps to the upper floors of construction. "If you do, get to that ramp and start climbing up on my call."
"Are you mad!? Why scale the tower more-" the foolish machine stopped Lena once more. Those ebon eyes had a level of determination that would calm the disparity of a devil and soothe the depths of a storm. She bit her tongue and took a deep breath. "Fine, but anything happens and you're gonna get it worse than them."
With approval granted, Dynamo geared up. His solitary leg repositioned itself in a crouched state. His chest whirred. Lightning cracked and Dynamo's heel steamed with a skate. He took off to the right. Ammo rained down on his skull with the blobby, rubbery bodies of hippobots coming from the left and right of the crane. Equipped with plasma cutting teeth and tasers for fingers anyone would think again if angered. Not including CC5 nanomachines in most combat and security machines. Hits to their frames would be repaired in moments, "Let's go blubber boys!" Dynamo antagonized. His ankle rotated mid-slide and hooked the left hippobot's leg. The momentum carried over with a twist. One toppled into two causing them to stack with the third trapped under. "Now!"
Lena gulped. Her crossbow extended with what minimal power remained. She charged past the fallen bodies with the cropduster's wrath centered on her. Their wings hummed. From behind, the right and above formed an unbeatable triangle; bullets merged with rain, "I gotcha!" Dynamo's back rested against the ground. His leg throttled nearing maximum output to lift both itself and the hippobots to the skies. "Slide!"
Lena dove under. A shadow moved over her head and every bullet bounced against rubber. Before the one on the right could adjust aim it met the bite of her bow. A bright orange arrow formed with the drawn string. Optical enhancements granted near-perfect accuracy. The arrow fizzled into the shoulder gun of the silver cropduster followed by half a dozen more exploding within his chest. The escape continued. "Go on, I'll be there in a minute."
Dynamo winked with both pursuers under his foot, "Why would I wait on you!?" Lena argued back. She didn't focus on him. Only the upper levels of the building. Once she made the turn all hell broke out beneath her. The ungodly pounding of metal and the cries of engines. Yelling and boom of bombs that couldn't be explained. She couldn't let that steal attention, only run. To where? Who knows? The winds blew stronger with an altitude increase. The ground was slippery and soaked like the one running upon it. Security tethers ran from the mesh of girders under her feet and pillars.
On the left of the entrance, more beams were stacked near the edge with hard hats, bags of cement, and the typical fire hydrant. The ramp to the next floor was on the far end. With every step the sheet metal floor shuddered. It was too much. It'd be too much for anyone, dragged into something like this. Her neuragear amplified the natural instinct to survive. Something was coming from behind. Lena dove behind the stacked steel. "I hate this goddamn city. I could've stayed in Mandaly or head to Skylandria but no, I had to be different and follow the 'Giganto dream' like half the schmucks in this town."
Her grumble incited a rattle next to her. Before she could shoot, Dynamo rested his finger on her lips with his body steaming, "Shh…" he motioned to the fire hydrant before opening his own chest cavity, "I took out the crop duster's optical units," he whispered, "They still have-"
"You what!?" Lena whisper screamed, "It's been a minute how did you manage-" Dynamo silenced her off with another shush.
"I have higher than average calculation rates, back to the matter at hand," Dynamo's chest panel slid open, blocking Lena's view of an impromptu operation, "They'll be here quick. They still have heat sensors but shapes should be difficult for them- hand me that extinguisher," he uttered again.
Dynamo produced a metal fragment and a blue canister from his chest cavity. A chunk of his very power source and his backup coolant system, "Uhh you might want to keep some distance. Cause you know...uranium," the uranium fragment hissed. Lena reached over the girder for the extinguisher. "Oh yeah and to answer some of your questions, they're a squad of rogue units from the outer slums. CD-type boys. Grumman, Cessna, and Dromader the copper-plated one."
"The hippobots...dunno. Haven't been tracking them for too long, miss…..what's ya name?" Dynamo's head inched around the girders with the extinguisher aimed. He fired at their cover forming a thick layer of foam over the top.
"Well yeah they're rogue units," Lena scorned, "They act like they're too shady to be registered under Rote's commission," she sighed. Her hands shook though she was hardened to death. Adrenaline spiked through every inch of her body, "And just call me Lena, Legbuster was it?" saying the name out loud sparked something from within. It was a title she was familiar with. "Wait, Legbuster as in-"
"They're also sort of mad at me because I broke into their hideout and sent their confidant to Skylandria maximum, Miss Lena," Dynamo disregarded the stranger and plopped the extinguisher on her lap. His focus was on the ramp, "I kept myself dormant and hid in their shipments and yeah...I got found out and they started dissembling me..hehe," Lena only winced at him. The unit that saved her was as sharp as a marble. "And I dragged you into this cause they'd turn you into fertilizer anyways."
"That's...okay more reasonable I guess-" she went silent with the rumbling. The silver cropdusters bounced from the ramp and clung from the side with their heads turning in all directions. Directly behind were the hippobots and that copper cropduster; all three of their cyclopic eyes were crushed and cracked. Dynamo bounced his shard of uranium across the room. It crashed.
"Light 'em up!" with Dromander's call Grumman and Cessna fired. The uranium bounced from place to place and their bullets followed. Over the ceiling and even between the five where Dromander grew wary.
"Stop it's not him!" a hippobot shouted with finger pointed to the next ramp, "The next floor!" They hurried after their fellow man's leadership. As Lena slumped over with an escape route opened, Dynamo was there to shut that window. She could only watch the grinning little machine and attempt to stop his winding arm. He threw the coolant as hard as he could above the rogue lot.
"What are you doing!?" Lena's sudden scream halted each pursuer. Eyes locked unto the top of her head. "You idiot why didn't you-"
"Hurry up and shoot it," Dynamo grumbled. He lifted his head over the barrier and drew fire with a smile, "I told you I'll get you out of here in one piece...did you think I had some sort of route on the roof?" he laughed, "I'll show you what I meant!" his voice bleated with each guttural laugh. Lena laid on her side and took aim. A single arrow dragged against the ground tearing a path in the floor before reaching the goal. The coolant. It erupted into a mess of icy gas clouds that encapsulated the floor in a carbonated fizz. Dynamo waited no longer.
The machineguns of Grumman and Cessna showered everything with their own poison. By balancing with his hand on the top of the beam stack, Dynamo's leg pounded the ground in an atomized process. The back of his ankle sounded like a snake den from escaping gas. His leg's basic physiology allowed it to rotate in any direction, winding all the way forward, missing the target before rotating all the way around into a regular kick. One kick was enough to send the entire stack of girders flying and into the ice cloud. "Copper's got the briefcase! Crack it open and your way out is in there!"
Dynamo landed on his butt and gave a thumbs up with tongue stretched out. Lena didn't do more than stare at the rain of metal on soon-to-be bodies, "Well...boys pick your targets," the metal stopped. The girders hovered. Each beam was supported by a craggy dome of clay that came from nowhere.
Dromander's body sounded off like a drum; a heartbeat, " I made a deal some time ago with Scutum Palladium," the copper-plated soldier boasted, "My heart may be ice but it beats so softly mother tellus would defend me to her final breath!" the dome didn't provide full coverage. A gap from their knees to the floor was wide open.
Lena steadied her breath. Within the walls of her mind, everything became numbed via neuragear's control. Gently her fingers pulled back on the bow; three more shots was her limit. Two bolts left the bow. She pressed the end of her heel against the ground to get a much-needed push from their skate augment. Both bolts hit the clay. The flash removed attention off her just long enough to slide under the wall. Danger was secondary in her mind but nevertheless tied to survival. That briefcase was her ticket home. One last arrow. Her fingers strummed the weaponized harp one final time igniting leather and melting steel.
A leg fell from the case; Dynamo's missing limb. From it came the stench of oil from the leaking tubed attached to it. One could only call it a spider's net of tubes attached to a throbbing box. Another DDD system.
Both beeped with a green flash. Dromander's eyes locked unto the mechanical thorn in his side with a matching green flash. Next he saw the leg and heart rocketing under his shield to the owner. In moments the DDD system reconnected to their original body. Dynamo smiled once his leg locked back in place with a pound. Every vein of oil entered the ports on his arms, legs, and chest before hiding under faux skin; his beating heart right above his uranium core, "Oooh, thanks for keeping my leg shiny," Dynamo complimented with the same toothy grin. Between each tooth and pore on his body exited steam. "A rainy night with everywhere soaking wet, I wonder how this'll end?"
The odd gas rested on the ground. When in contact with water it crackled and popped into something new. Whatever it produced, it rusted a hole in the floor. A mechanical killer. "Lena, seeing that you don't look like the brightest let me give a lesson in chemistry," Dynamo's legs winded up. With her name mentioned all guns were aimed at her. Time slowed for her. Dromander lowered himself to seal the only entryway. Though, it didn't matter since this monster was back in one piece.
Dynamo's entire body rocketed with jets on the back of his shoulders and thighs. From both ankles, curved blades with serrated ends struck out. His right leg kicked the top of the ceiling and his left dug into the dome. They were doomed when the second ankle dropped.
Dromander's clay was fractured and the silver gleam of those heels broke through.
"You scrapyard sonuva-" Dromander's final words cut short once his chest was crushed under both heels. The electrical core was finished and heart cracked. Dynamo's feet touched the ground first. Both rockets fired to flip the machine upside down. Dynamo split his legs and supported all of his mass on their wrists.
"Oi you bastard….owch," Lena retreated to the end of the ramp. Her breath unsteady after staring down the barrel of a gun. What was more intriguing were the fumes Dynamo produced as both legs spun like a tornado. "And what do you mean not the brightest!? I came out of Mandaly U with a master's degree!"
"Wow….you're really focusing on a little joke right now?" Dynamo's hurricane of poison trapped the four, that and the cuts made by his barbed heels made corrosion easier, "Well seeing that you're so smart, why don't you tell me what happens when uranium, fluoride, and then water meet?" he was coy, "Long story short, Uranium Hexafluoride- That's already a killer for most metal, but throw in water….hydrogen fluoride. Uranyl fluoride and a death sentence to any hardware," the hippobots and cropdusters tried to run. But the poison was already in their systems. Puny whimpers escaped their lips before the ground became their resting place. Lightning cracked and thunder roared, yet the sky cried no longer.
"Alright let that air out, wew that felt good!" Dynamo shouted from the top of his lungs. His gears stretched while wafting away the hex gas; his body wasn't affected by the corrosion, "Well there you go. Escaped," he wiped the end of his artificial nose. Lena was cautious in his approach. Though he was under control, he murdered three machines with a childlike smile. Dynamo flinched at her bow, "What?" his leg pressured against each unit one after the next with the magnetic D imprinted upon them. "I just knocked their power systems out of place don't get ahead of yourself. Their processors and other units are still active."
"Oh…" her weapon lowered with the quick correction, "Anyways...what now?" she asked, "Do I just go home? Take a stiff drink and pretend like this didn't happen?" her eyes couldn't look away. How disastrous was that hex gas? How it tore through metal with ease. This robot, even if he preferred to subdue, was nothing short of a warmachine. "Legbuster….as in the CC unit?" her question met the back of the stranger. Dynamo looked upon the land and the skyscrapers that grew over him. Yet, that gentle hum made him twitch.
"Umm, might wanna flee…" Dynamo gulped. It wasn't some secret weapon of the rogue units nor a gang of cropdusters like Lena theorized. In fact, it was a double-edged sword. Red swarm knights. Guards modeled after the sworn protectors of the Dyson household. Mass-produced and served the most elite of guards to both Rote-Gigante and the civilian world. A horde on patrol heard the commotion. Their bodies are smaller than the average with bright red coats. Like skeletons with blood armor and wings of an angel; each 'feather' fired jets that kept them afloat. Over a dozen emerald eyes pinned down the remaining duo, arms-bearing arms pointed. Lena could finally breathe, moving towards the ones that scanned her. Nothing of note came up on Lena Buakham, the one beside her was another story.
"What? Why?" Lena felt a chill in the wind. Her body stepped to the side before she noticed the taser stuck to the ground with another piercing the skin of Dynamo. He ripped out the barbs before revving his ankle jets once more.
"Cause I'm an unregistered AI unit," Dynamo twiddled his fingers with a giggle. Knowing what would happen if she was caught, he took her by the hand. "Hold on, your personal escape route is on the job!"
One poor knight had his shoulder stepped on with both going out under the damp midnight.