The cannon ignited. The bladed heel of Dynamo hooked the lips of the barrel. With a tug from the unit that flew over Lena and the stranger, the weapon followed behind. A boom rang in the air with a ball of plasma melting the roof of the opposing home. Dynamo's legs struck the pavement with his body low. His eyes faced up at the perpetrator, someone taller than any modern man.
An enigma wrapped in a black coat with a blank face shrouded in the shadows of a black brimmed hat. Before Dynamo's heel snapped their blades hid once more with attention on that canon, "So looks like you want a second date, boss," Dynamo irritated the figure. That left foot of his kept tapping the ground while Lena took aim between the gap in their attacker's clothing. The rogue unit's silent message went unheard with the bolt leaving the bow.
The arrow struck the back of his head. The stranger's hat cackled with flames, yet he remained undisturbed. All eyes turned to her with more bolts loaded and aimed, like the canon being raised towards her, "For the love of- Do yourself a favor!" Dynamo's heels steamed. Both legs wrapped around the giant, pinning his arms to his side. "In my basement! There's a special little tool I use whenever someone wants to break into my place."
Lena saw his words as an excuse. Though both legs rattled in the titan's presence while he attempted to break free. She ran down the basement to where he described. The room was all white with blueprints of archaic technology plastered on every wall accompanied by a scattered toolbox and a charging station in the far left; a giant white contraption with glass panes to reveal the interior. Everything smelt of gasoline and rust. Her toes bumped into the tools thrown about, her eyes too fixated on the goal. Mounted on the support beam was a big blue box with a sticker plastered on the front. It read 'Warning, Last Resort'.
"How long do you intend to interfere with my actions, old man?" the stranger's voice mimicked the depths of an ocean, "Leave or face eradication," his warnings earned only laughs from the machine with blades pinning their chest and arm together; both robots made of the same legendary metal. What Dynamo trapped was nothing less than a modern warmachine.
"Yeah, leave my goddamn house or we'll visit the scrapyards later," Dynamo kept his eyes on the shuffling stairs. Soon Lena emerged lugging the contents of his case, a canon to match the strange unit. Smaller than regular and built like a rifle with ventilation slits for barrels and magnetic charges on the back in the form of cylindrical canisters. Lena trembled to pull the trigger on the streamlined white weapon. The weapon that sat in her hands was illegal in most countries. An emp rifle. She bit her lip. It was too far gone, pulling the trigger now ensured safety. Both flinched at the invisible wave of radiation to come.
"Umm…" Lena stammered at the reaction. A lack thereof, "This is a magnet gun right?" she pointed to the rifle. Dynamo's nod failed to instil confidence. The only harm done to the stranger was his coat now ablaze and thorns within his skin. A breath escaped his rubber lips. Dynamo leapt back. His perpetrator's forearms glowed a bright red. Color ate away at the skin and coat.
What remained was nothing short of a monster in humanoid shape. It possessed a body of ivory with an exoskeleton over that. Within said exoskeleton were bright red webs laced all the way from their fingers and toes to form that blanketed every inch of their frame with a structure most humans could never achieve. Their shoulders were broad with pointed ends and legs that throbbed under pressure. In the center of its chest was a case of ballistic glass which held a glowing uranium core. But that wasn't the worst feature.
This titan's worst feature sat on his wrist. It wasn't new to see weapons on a warmachine, but the canon on its left wrist was an eyesore. "How uncouth of you," it wasn't entirely a canon, it was a bit conical. One could call it a modern blunderbuss.
Steam flowed through the stalker's chin and their muscles throbbed black with oil. Black veins and red palms with heat like the depths of passion. The titan's torso spun around to meet the mechanical thorn with their leg already aimed at his chest. They clashed. Silence remained with no prying eyes on the altercation, though that boom was enough to kill it. Red radiation and plasma met Dyanmo's frame and sent him flying with the pulse, "Come on!" while one hand rested behind his head, Dynamo bent his left.
It left an ominous feeling in the air, that elbow. Dynamo didn't have a rocket port as his other limbs there, rather the elbow was laced in gold. With a touch, his forearm snapped to the side exposing a device. A tether, springy like a tentacle with a silver speartip aimed was shot at the one who didn't belong. It wrapped around his arm the same, "You wanna make a scene? Then make it flashy, stranger!" the rockets of his feet kept him stabilized. The titan planted his feet into the pavement. His arm yanked back on the cord.
The cord bounced reaching its full length; enough for Dynamo's leg to clamp the smoldering ends of the parallel home with its ankle blade. Before it broke he spun using that leg's rotation. Before either knew it, the stranger found himself off the ground, bashed against the side of a roof, and going off in the distance followed by that damned unit.
All the way to where nobody lived, two houses over and a street away. The flat stone roof was a fitting arena for the coming storm. Both separated once Dynamo's tether recoiled. Iron grated on stone for a nasty tone. Their bodies scratched the ground, sharpening with every hit. Eyes landed on each other with the distance just right between them.
Both of Dynamo's eyes scanned the strange unit. His motherboard ran searches through all of his memory for a similar unit from the thousands that lived between both ears. His eyes winced with the results. No match. This thing was a completely new model to him; to everyone. "So then, mister mystery unit, who are you?"
Dynamo stood with crossed arms and blunt words. The thing circled him, "A new model and make- right off the production line and you're already interfering with the business of old men," crude words flowed like a river, "By the looks of it, you're not worth the kosmik spent on production," Dynamo copied the actions of the metal titan. However, it held no effect on warmachines stripped of emotion. Like a star falling to the earth the heavy hands of the titan descended. Dynamo struck in retaliation, however, the difference in power was evermore present. "If you know so much about me, why not grace me with a little info about you?"
The titan remained silent with the red suns behind both optical units. Every attempt Dynamo's leg made towards their core was thwarted, though the engine's torque was enough to separate the duo. Neither wasted a second calculating the next move, "Zaltras," the model uttered, "Z2-00173, Zaltras," a name given at last. Zaltras' arms slung behind him, "Speak all you want in an attempt to urk me, Legbuster. My makers countered the flaws in modern mechanics," with every word distance grew between them. "All I do know is that 'Dynamo Legbuster' is the enemy to the Zenith." Both arms rose to action. What met Dynamo was a fully charged cannon with the sun's wrath stored within. Charged from a molten red center, immediate death to any organic life by being nearby.
Bolts of plasma crashed against the cold stone. Every crack and sizzle alerted Dynamo to keep moving. Both jets and retractable skates kept him safe with the right judgment. Zaltras fired where he thought his target would flee; a mental battle of supercomputers in human forms, "Why do you keep running? Why do you fear me so? Where was that bravado, my dear ancestor?" Zaltras boasted. His arm jerked back with every shot. A lattice wrapped around the internals with the giant opening converting to a dozen tiny barrels. Pellets of white-hot energy exited the gatling gun, many of which met with Dynamo. If had neurological systems the sensation would be hell. Dots with the heat of a sun bombarded the surface of his faux skin leaving only blackened remnants. There was no insurance of safety even though they were made from an alloy denser than earthly metals.
No matter what, Dynamo needed to keep up with the heat, "Alright you got a cool gun I'll admit that much!" Dynamo vocalized between every lunge and attempt to get closer. Though he had no time to stop he fantasized of those upgrades upon his own frame. He stepped around every blast and glided around the crumbling roof. In wait for that weapon to give in. Click.
A bolt didn't fire. A moment spared. Dynamo filled his body with oxygen and coolant that circulated through his heart. Steam broke from every inch of his body. A reaction Zaltras feared. The strange unit before him that paraded the name 'Legbuster' had a unique DDD unit.
It was far more archaic and less efficient than modern ones in mass production, however, Zaltras had no clue if it was ever updated or not. Like the body of the machine. All he knew was to run from what has been dubbed "Poison of all life". Before anything else, a foot met Zaltras' face. Followed by another. Dynamo's heels trampled their torso in a horizontal tapdance. Zaltras's arm bearhugged the unit to his chest. "Well, I didn't know you called for backup."
All of the roars from mechanical beasts struck the ones behind Zaltras. From all angles, they surrounded and colluded, now hesitant with a hostage taken. Dynamo's legs kept the fight alive. Both bent and spun at angles unreached by others with the momentum to crush skulls, "I'll give you credit for your age, Legbuster, you hold up surprisingly well-" a buzz cut his voice.
Spotlights flipped on the struggling duo. Gottenfall's police department had eyes on them from hovering ballistic vehicles. Magnetic rifles, stun weapons, decommissioning teams, and robots in armored suits like the humans among them. But one person stood out to Zaltras. Between all the black and blue ballistic vehicles and painted yellow officers had one above all. A robot just like everyone else, but a body like blood and a slender build. Bulky shoulders and a chest disproportionate to their lean stomach. A canon sat near their pelvis with darker rings and a yellow charge within. The model stood to their full height with thin, rigid legs. With a pulse from the blaster under their heel, the robot hopped across the vehicles. To anyone who saw him, they were struck with fear for such a humanistic, white face and ebony eyes.
"Rogue units detected, show me identification and license for your AI. Cease actions at once or face immediate decommissioning."
The mounted shoulder rockets of the strange unit stood out, like the tree-barreled gun in their arms. It wasn't any other random department droid or even a red swarm member, but a Red Knight himself. Cerise the bloom. Specimen developed over a millennium ago. Models like him had well over a dozen bodies, each better than the last, "Ah….if a Knight is here then…." Zaltras' eye traced the one within the vehicle. She was there. That single strand of gold hair wrapped around the corner of the broad door. That woman didn't need to tilt her head or show her gaze to make men shiver, her knight did it for her. "Amelia Dyson, how quaint."
His canon aimed towards the woman, though engaging was impossible with Cerise's presence. Cerise's gun packed enough power to force down Zaltras' canon in a bang, "Engage," Cerise spat. In a fraction of a moment, the long-barreled shotgun sunk. The barrels bent backwards, locking in place with Cerise's arm. A hidden blade poked its head. The head of an ax made from plasma. Silence fell. Dynamo propelled himself back. Bullets and railguns fired. Robots moved to action.
Silence fell and so did Zaltras.
Hundreds of rounds in ammunition focused on a singular point snapping his knees. It wasn't as if his body would last any longer. Simple motions of Dynamo's fingers doomed Zaltras. The uranium inside him was his own demise, "I have lost today it seems," the defeated titan lifted both hands over his head; the canon was detached. "You've won against me, Dyson."
Amelia's words remained null, "Oh how mannish of you not to part me any words...if so then I will impart some of my own," Zaltras's heckling earned more shots from every conceivable angle. There was a flash, "Rote-Gigante, Blaublare Gotche, Ignelion, Shenryu Raidon, Helion Vanta. Scutum Palladium and even Kassiel Dragna," he listed off names they all knew, "They're all clinging unto dreams older than them- If this world were to progress then those old machines have no place to rule. Metal rust and magic drains, like the stars and the city in the heavens t
"They will face the same premonitions of their maker."
"Eh? A warmachine with a philosopher's programming?" Dynamo joked, "Man I wonder who would do something like that? Mr. Defender of Zenith." his air quotes struck a nerve within the titan. The titan fell flat on the ground. An anomaly filled the air. Why was everyone not moving him to subjugate the fallen machine? What startled them so? Why was the hand of Dynamo Legbuster releasing an ungodly amount of toxins? "Don't count me out as an idiot for my age," the already crumbled roof began to implode. Heat wafted on the air. Uranium tried to trap it within a bubble.
"I didn't see you as one, it doesn't matter if you know or not," Zaltras' unchanging face spoke. The nuclear core in his chest cracked. The two halves met with each other. Between the plates, a reaction like none other occurred, where both halves met light was born from hell. Amelia Dyson waved her hand. Cerise responded accordingly.
"Legbuster," he commanded. Every shoulder-mounted missile and the railgun in his stomach extended to its full length. The uranium dome had an opening. Cerise rained down hell from above with the firepower to flatten a city with miniature missiles reloading from seemingly nowhere. Everyone flinched at the sheer firepower, even Amelia looked away from the scene entrapped within a dome. For almost a minute the ceaseless discharge flowed until the dust settled.
"Yikes….I wasn't even needed huh…." Dynamo scratched the back of his head. All of the uranium fluttered before settling on the burnt body. A body of red turned to cinders, mangled and melted beyond belief or use. The ominous body of Zaltras had perished before it took everyone else with him, "So…" Dynamo's gaze tilted to the woman of white, "I think we have a few things to talk about…."
"That we do, Dynamo. There's much explaining on your part," Angelica's yellow eye pierced the depths of even mechanical souls. "Retrieve the body and return it to PD with the others."