I told the crew that I was, "On the other side of your current location. On the other end of Chinatown to be exact. I'm currently picking off troops within my own barriers I made. I'm in a shit situation at the moment but I will get out. Use that machete well," and signed off the mic.
I was in an alleyway, back facing a dumpster and my front to the walls of a building. I stretched my left arm barely out the side of the dumpster and flipped open a mirror on my coat. Two troops outside the alleyway huh, I'll quickly shoot them from the side and climb the fire escape… Actually there's a more optimal idea.
I barrel rolled out stealthily. They still noticed me and came into the alley. I quickly drew the duel-pistols I made yesterday and shot twice from each pistol. All four shots landed, of course they would.
Suddenly eight more came at the front of the alleyway, "of course there would be more that I didn't see," I commented on my own work.
I shot more of my bullets until I used up the six-magazine that regularly comes with these bullets. Once I ran out of those I pulled sheets of metal from the armor on my legs and used them as throwing stars and they landed right on the head of the troops left.
"Guess these guys aren't much work to deal with." I said as I was climbing the ladder to the fire escape, "I need to make more metal bullets to refill my magazines." I thought as I ran up the stairs.
I got to the rooftops and took a scan of the area using the special helmet I made with Quinn.
Looks like Sam did something dumb again, but it worked. I can only have thirty something guys left. The rest of the crew are currently fighting a… wow that is a huge enemy. Must be at least seven feet tall.
I pulled the sniper rifle that I had strapped behind my back and propped it up with its legs on the rooftop. I laid down on the cold rough ground of the roof and leaned on the side. I line my sight to the scope and took a deep breath, getting ready to pick off the last thirty on my own.
If I were to do this I would need to make about twenty-six more rifle bullets hmm… I don't exactly have a lot of metal left on me so I'd have to make more from nothing, but also that spell from earlier- wait a second I could just tear some from the wall and make bullets.
I stealthily crawled over to the edge of the building where one of the walls was and grabbed a thick pair of pliers and grabbed a small sheet from the top corner.
"Hey Andrew! Ya still around?" A voice appeared on my channel.
"What?" I recalled back, "who is this?"
"Sam." Ah the fire one.
"I thought you were knocked out. What do you want now? I'm actually busy doing a job." I told him.
"Yeah yeah whatever you're better than us or something," he shut down my comment, "What I want from you is coordination. If we coordinate a surprise attack using smoke I make from flames to cover us up, we might be able to take down Arzo."
Why the smoke so specifically? And also "Who in the hell is Arzo?" I only asked the last part.
"The commander of the current force on the ground."
"Ah. Alright fine, I'll work with you ONCE I complete getting rid of the smaller forces left who are just currently grouped within the walls." I lied back down and aimed my rifle right at the head of a soldier.
[Bang!]
As the sound of the bullet exiting the barrel of my rifle rings in my head, I told Sam, "But first. I have a job to do." And shot once more. The masses of them all started to look where the bullet came from, I'll realistically have to move spots a couple of times to make this safer on my end.
Out of curiosity I asked Sam, "Are you even capable of using magic right now? Didn't you use two quite massive spells already?"
"... That's where my plan starts to crumble." He laughed off as I rolled my eyes between firing my rifle from hearing the stupidity of his statement, "I don't think I have that much energy left in me. I'm currently sitting up behind a barricade resting and not really doing much." He relayed.
I looked back to the ground and, "oh shit." They found me. Magic bolts started soaring through the air in my direction. I lay flat behind the little wall on the roof. This is a very shit situation to be in.
"I'll likely be with you shortly Sam, I need to go somewhere with better cover." I told him. I grabbed the rifle from where it was propped up and strapped it to my back again. I started crawling on the ground to avoid being shot.
I heard from above me, "Would I be of any help?" I looked up and it was Xeno. He was truly battle-damaged. Blast marks and soot covered his used-to-be pure white suit turning it to a varying pallet of gray.
"Why the hell are you standing up?" I asked him.
"Well I came to you first since you were the most convenient member to reach."
"Greattt," I sighed, "now help me clean out the rest down there, there's a bit over twenty left."
"From this range or-?"
"Melee." I told him, "I'll go short ranged with dual pistols, you can use your spear. That good enough?"
"It is more than so," he exclaimed. I got up from the ground and the both of us climbed down the fire escape into an alleyway that the metal wall blocked us from the soldiers.
"I'll bust through my own metal wall when I count to three, you'll charge in first and I'll come in to gun them down." I instructed Xeno.
"When you say 'count to three' you're going to count one two three and on three you'll open the wall correct?" y'know sometimes I forget he's an alien.
"... Yes. Correct." I sighed again.
"Understood. I'll block the bolts that come your way," he shrugged, "go on. Start your counting."
"Alright alright," I placed my back against the metal wall, "One," I set my left hand on the wall and my right hand on the grip of a pistol, "Two," I clenched my left hand ready to burst through the wall, "THREE!" I gripped the wall hard and forced my hand through creating a thin doorway frame.
"Moving Onward!" Xeno shouted as he charged in. He immediately thrusts his spear into an unsuspecting victim and uses his body to block some bolts.
I pulled out the right pistol and slid in and kept near the wall. I was a bit to the right of Xeno and shot down two he was about to have to fight.
He turned back to face me. No words were exchanged, I only nodded at him and he nodded back. When Xeno turned back around to the incoming soldiers ready to thrust their spears into him as revenge, he instead used his spear to block the incoming ones and didn't attack. He's shielding for me! I noticed.
I ran ahead and grabbed out my second pistol and started firing into the crowds that he made for me. When only half were left, Xeno made a spell as a shield and only used his spear to quickly slice anything in front of him.
The two of us cleaned house, leaving none of them alive, "good work." I said while dusting my gloves off.
"Yes, and now we can assist our other comrades," Xeno nodded and sheathed his spear around his back.
"Sam had a good idea earlier of assisting via an ambush."
"He did? hmm, set us up into a voice chat with just the three of us will you?"
"Alright," I started pushing buttons on the side of my helmet to adjust the voice chats, "Sam can you hear me?"
"That I can," he said to Xeno and I.
"Perfect!" Xeno declared, "Andrew mentioned to me that you had an idea for an ambush, is that true?"
"It is," he relayed, "I think an ambush from the sky would be the best option. With everyone fighting him on the ground he won't be expecting anything aerial. Also with Xeno having wind, air should not be a problem. By the way Xeno, do you happen to have any spells that would create any mist or smoke of any kind to give cover to yourselves?" he rambled on.
"I do in fact have a spell that'll create smoke from the wind." Xeno explained, "it was used as a gimmick for small children to learn wind magic quickly, but what do you need it for?"
"Great! I was gonna have you cast that spell on top of where they were fighting so you can ambush him easier." Sam stated.
"Why?" I asked him.
"Because it would create a smoke cover for you to work in secrecy." he explained without the real reason.
"No Sam, I mean I want to know the real reason why you want us to do this."
"... because it was used in old school Ninja Movies and I think it's cool," he meekly declared.
"Uh huh there we go." I acknowledged.
"How did you know that was the real reason?"
"I did some digging on each of you," I stated without wanting to reveal my methods.
"How!?"
I decided to be snarky, "to take a page out of Quinn's book: Classified." I looked towards Xeno, "So his plan is fine right?"
"I have faith that it shall be successful!" Xeno expressed and he started forming a magic circle, "I'll make the smoke."
"Alright," I shrugged. I grabbed a pair of handcuffs from one of the pockets in my coat, "we'll use these to restrain Arzo. It's the same metal I made using magic so it should be a bit tougher than regular metal." I don't know if that's true or not… but I believe in my work.
"Arzo?" Xeno questioned.
"Yeah, the guy's name." I reloaded both of my pistols just in case.
"No no, I am aware of the name. I've encountered him before. I did stowaway on their ship after all."
"Makes sense," I was about to grab my machete and remembered that I gave it to Adam, "tch," I snickered, "are you ready to go yet?"
Xeno just nodded.
"Okay," I clapped my hands, "I'll be swinging to a tree then jumping down, what about you?"
I turned back to face him and he was standing on top of the spell circle he made earlier, "I'll ride my spell, she may not be super fast at low altitudes. But I can spring an attack like this."
"It works based on how high up you are!? Interesting," I acknowledged, "Alright." I shot a grappling wire, "Let's go!" and it ripped me through the air to the tree that I shot it to.
Xeno followed behind, slowly albeit but still behind.
"Want to count to three this time?" I offered him.
"I'd be glad to." Xeno nodded. I waited for him to finish his spell. I could see the others down there struggling. Lots of lightning crackled from under us and even more screams and shouts, "I'm ready!" Xeno finally stated, "One… Two… THREE!" Xeno activated the smoke spell making a loud [Boom!] on the ground as smoke plumed up from under Arzo, Xeno then leaped to the ground.
I heard a loud [THUD!] like something big was just toppled. That was my queue to jump. I released the grapple from the tree and leaped down.
I found Arzo's arms and handcuffed them. As I was doing that Xeno asked, "How have thou been faring without us?"
I also stated, "I was running a bit late. Had a bit of help though," then I pointed at Xeno.
"You're under arrest, War prisoner." He declared to Arzo.
Arzo groaned, "You… goddamn… stowaway-"
"Shut it," I slapped Arzo's back as I was tightening the cuffs. I stood up once again and dusted my gloves down, "mission complete." I stated.
"Good work guys," Sam slid from behind us and patted my back. He probably came from the barricades.
"Woah where did y'all come from?" The ice one asked. I could only really tell he was the Ice one with the snowflake symbol on his peacoat.
"I had them come from above. Also is detaining this guy really the safest idea?" Sam asked while lightly kicking Arzo's side.
Arzo in return growled like a dog, "Cyrus."
"Huh?" he asked.
"Encase him in rock so he can't move or try anything." and then I ordered.
"I would rather chop his head off right now," Cyrus rubbed the backside of his head, "but I don' gotta lotta energy left y'see."
I just rolled my eyes, "Anyone with magic that can make something!" I announced, "Encase Arzo. Bringing him in for questioning is the best move!" I saw Xeno staring up into the cloudy sky frantically looking in all directions, "What are you staring at?" I asked him.
"I can hear the winds coming down at us…" Xeno took a glance at all of us, "DROP TO THE GROUND!" he suddenly screamed.
Everyone did exactly as he said, all of us together dropped to the ground. I kept looking around and I'm pretty sure everyone else was doing the same.
"What is it?" Zack asked, "What are you hearing?"
Xeno started, "A ship. Is coming down-"
"It's gotta be coming for Arzo!" The blue girl one shouted, "Zack you should charge up some lightning to shoot it down."
"I would like to, but. The only things I can make now are small and definitely not enough to go super high into the air." He explained.
"Xeno?" she shouted again.
"Wait." Xeno claimed, "patience. We must spectate then react accordingly. Do you not hear the sounds in the wind?"
Through all the traffic sounds and general hustle and bustle of this damn city… yeah I couldn't hear anything.
"Actually," The white girl one, commented, "Xeno might be onto something. I can hear jet-engine like murmur like a loud hrmrmrmrmrmrmrmrmrm, y'know?" she sounded out.
"I understand what you're saying," Xeno acknowledged, "you're definitely correct. The sound is eerily close.
Suddenly another spaceship ripped through the clouds revealing itself!
"I thought you got them all XENO!?" the darkness one shouted, and I agreed too.
"Seems as if I missed one," The ship stopped as Xeno stated. He stood up tall gripping his spear with the tip angled to the ground, "Come down if you dare!" he shouted up into the sky.
The rest of us stood up alongside him.
Sam stated, "look. Anyone who can fight, hold off whoever comes down or try to take cover… if they start bombing us then we're so screwed."
"You'd be right about that," The blue one lightly punched his arm.
We kept staring and a port at the bottom opened up, "be ready!" he shouted.
A tiny white light brightened from the small port, then the light started to fall down at us closer and closer-
[FWOO!]
It was no bomb, it was a man. He dropped down onto the ten of us and a restrained Arzo. He landed on the ground creating a shockwave that knocked us all back.
Everyone rushed to get back up. Who dropped was a man wearing a mix of robes and armor. No head cover, a black and navy blue coat with long coattails that reached the bottom of his legs with silver shoulder pads. He brandished a spear that was glowing a bright white, "I'm here to collect a comrade," he pulled his spear back into a stance having equal lengths in front and behind him.
"Sa-Sa!" Arzo called out. So that's his name?
"I'll be with you shortly," he stated. The darkness one came in from behind to slash his back with the machete, but Sa-Sa thrusted the back of his spear into his stomach, knocking him back.
"Get his ass!" Cyrus shouted as he threw a chunk of rock, it was cleanly blocked. The blue one came in to grab his spear with a whip. Sa-Sa let her grab the spear but when she pulled the spear she wasn't able to out-muscle him.
Sa-Sa lashed his spear the other way and the blue one went flying through the air and crashed into Cyrus, "gah!" she yelped.
Zack, Sam, Xeno and I all at once tried to land a hit on him directly with our axe, odachi, spear and grapple hook respectively. He ducked at once making us all unstable. He forced us away with a small spell of light sending us away from him.
"That was a stupid idea! I should've just tried to shoot him!" I thought while lying on the ground.
He was with Arzo now already pushed back the ice and darkness guys. I quickly drew my right pistol and tried to pull the trigger quickly, "futile attempt." he smirked as he used his spear to block two of my bullets. He then cut my handcuffs with his spear tip to free Arzo.
"Come, let's get out of here." he nodded up to his ship.
I drew my other pistol out but before I could even shoot Arzo ran at me looking like a football player with his right shoulder extended- [BAM!]
I barely opened my eyes and saw the two of them escaping on top of a spell of some kind.
Get… the hell… back here!