Chereads / Harem Hero / Chapter 16 - The Quick and the Cloned - Part 4

Chapter 16 - The Quick and the Cloned - Part 4

Motoko laid out how things were going to go down. It was tough cramming so much information into your brain on such short notice, but you managed. Many people's lives depended on you pulling this off.

You relocated to the roof of the building where a large glass roof looks down into the lobby. You can hear them talking to each other through the glass. Sundar is there with two dozen hostages, surrounded on all sides by gun-toting robots. Sundar is relishing the moment to torment his hostages, "If that detestable superhero you're all so in love with doesn't rescue you, well, it just goes to show how pathetic he really is."

He laughs at his own joke. This guy sucks.

You also notice that Sundar is wielding a new weapon on his left arm, which is being powered by a large backpack. You do not want to get hit by anything this guy comes up with. He has his head screwed on correctly, unlike his compatriot.

Mitsuru didn't have time to make all of the adjustments that Motoko asked for, so you can't do the cool thing and rappel through the window, shooting the whole way down. You stand away from the edge to prevent a shadow being cast into the building and mark every enemy you can see. The targeting computer inside your suit begins to work overtime. In fact, it's working so hard that you can feel it heating up at the base of your spine.

"On your mark, Major."

"Copy. Going in three."

You prepare yourself for the fight.

"Two, one. Go!"

You kick the glass pane in front of you and shatter it into pieces. You drop down through the hole and land on the balcony that runs around the second floor. As you roll to a stop, you draw your weapon and blow two of the robots to hell with accurate hip fire. There's no time to think about what Sundar is doing. You swing back and aim over the stone bannister, the robots surrounding the hostages don't move to harm them – Sundar points his finger firmly at you.

Now you get it, he captured them to lure you here!

Before they can return fire, you blast three more of them by stabilising your aim on the railing. You duck back down as a hail of bullets tear the stone to shreds. You roll out of the way before any of them can hit you. Gunfire breaks out in another part of the building as Motoko begins running interference on the others.

"Hostages don't seem like your style!" you taunt.

"I don't care much for them really – I just needed an excuse to draw you and your big mouth out of hiding!"

The robots have destroyed the closest piece of cover already. You move to the right and blow another away with some quick gunslinging. Then you find your face meeting the floor as a strong impact knocks you over from behind, you roll over and find another leering down at you from your blind spot.

"Asshole!" You fire three shots through his chest and watch him explode from inside-out. You stand back up and feel your back protest in pain, that's going to leave a mark. Finding a safe angle, you see that Sundar hasn't moved an inch since the firefight started.

"You think these small fries are the only thing I brought?" Sundar titters, "Say hello to Billy the Gundroid." He points to his left, where a strange looking robot with a ten-gallon hat and revolver style arm stands menacingly.

"It's a cowboy."

"I know it's a freaking cowboy!" Sundar scowls, "There's no way you can outshoot this thing. It has a targeting computer from a fighter craft."

"Oh yeah? This targeting computer was coded by Mitsuru," you reply. You severely doubt the efficacy of the retrofitted robot. Popping out of cover, you find yourself proven wrong as the cowboy's arm snaps into position and blasts you in the chest from long range. You slide across the floor and slam into the wall behind you.

Shit, that hurts! A smoking scorch mark on your left pectoral has ruined the all-white design of the Herarmor. It's a good thing they packed so much protective padding under there, or you'd be a red smear right now. Sundar cackles gleefully.

"See what I mean? This amateur hour crap isn't going to last for a second versus this thing!" Sundar doesn't move to finish you off though, he marches up the staircase towards you, pressing several buttons on the side of his new arm-cannon. "I had the Doctor whip me up something special. Now that you're stuck here and can't move, I have the perfect chance to use it."

It begins to crackle with blue energy, but instead of pointing it at your head or chest, he aims it down at your right hand – the one holding the Sledgehammer.

Oh no you don't!

You will your body to move and slide across the floor just as he fires. The blast hits the ground and your hand, but it doesn't hurt. In fact – the shot does no damage to your body at all. Sundar's eyes follow the weapon as it escapes, and that's all the distraction you need to kick him in the chest and send him flying back down the stairs.

Motoko bursts through the door next to you and begins to shut down the remaining robots. She disappears like a blur, using her cybernetic body to move at incredible speeds and contort her body in a way that a normal human can't. You get your second wind. You recover the Sledgehammer and hop down the steps.

"Get out of here!" you say to the hostages. They scream and run for the exit as all hell breaks loose once again. You do your bit and shoot the remaining stragglers. The cowboy dives for cover behind the counter. Sundar must have taken a blow to the head, because he looks out of it.

"Nice work," Motoko says as she lands next to you, "I rescued the others. Now all that's left is to eliminate these two."

"Don't think I'm so easy to get rid of!" Sundar spits. You're forced to roll away as the Gundroid unleashes several shots in your direction. As you twist and turn, you notice a small girl hiding behind one of the pillars. She didn't get out with everybody else!

Sundar, sensing that he's about to take a major L on his debut outing, he points his finger at the terrified girl and fires a blast of purple energy. Everything slows down to a crawl as you watch the flaming projectile fly towards the cowering girl.

There's only one thing to do.

You don't hesitate for a second. You leap over in front of the young girl and sweep her up in your arms, spinning around and taking the brunt of the attack for her. It hurts pretty bad, but you manage to steady yourself. When you put her back down on the ground and turn to face Sundar and his drone, you discover that both of them have already fled – leaving nothing more than a shower of sparks from their teleportation.

"Coward," you mutter. You place the girl back down on her feet, and she runs over and hugs your leg.

"Thank you!"

You kneel down and pat her on the back, "Don't worry about it. That's what I'm here for."

Your display of heroics receives a polite round of applause from the rescued crowd as they filter back into the room. Her parents arrive shortly after and thank you for protecting their daughter. Some of them take pictures of your armoured figure or ask for autographs. Motoko is not amused. You humour them for a brief time before Mitsuru begins chirping in your ear.

"I'm not detecting any more interdimensional signals. It seems that their attack is over."

Motoko taps your shoulder, "We better get out of here before the police show up."

You hustle your way out of the park the way you came in, over the fence and back down the road. You de-transform out of sight of any nearby cameras and lean back against the wall behind you. That was a pretty hairy situation. If these guys are going to start attacking civilian targets just to get to you...

"Debrief me," Motoko demands, "What do you think of what happened?"

The tone of her voice puts you on edge, and you immediately feel like you've done something wrong. Recalling her combat training, you check it against every instance where you fired your weapon or cleared a room. You think it went pretty well. There's only one thing that stands out.

"Is this about Sundar and the kid?"

Motoko nods, "I want to ask you why you jumped in front of her."

It's a question with an obvious answer. So obvious that you wonder why she's even asking it of you. "My first job is to protect people. I wasn't going to let a kid get blown to hell just so I could get another hit in against them."

Motoko continues unabated, "But now they might do this all over again. In exchange for one life, you may have endangered dozens more. You could have taken him down here and now, and saved them."

"I'm not here to save hypothetical victims. I would have done the same even if it injured me more seriously. A hero who picks and chooses who's worth saving isn't a hero at all."

Contrary to how you thought she'd react, Motoko cracks a slight smile.

"Good. I don't need a soldier who second guesses himself. Doing everything you can now is more important."

"Ugh, another test?"

Of course it was.

"That doesn't mean I'm happy with how this went down. We could have captured the target if we'd done things differently. And don't start throwing yourself in front of every damn bullet and on top of every damn grenade – bravery and stupidity are very much alike. You're only one man."

You get her point. Motoko comes from a military background where rational action is core to everything she does. In that world you can't stop a bullet with special interdimensional armour. Doing that without the tools and protection that you do would be a serious risk, you could die.

But you have some more takeaways than just that; "Now that we know what his game plan is, next time won't be so easy for him. And anyway – it's not just you and me out here." You eject them into your hand and hold up a hand of cards, "We've got backup to spare."

"Hm. That we do."