KWAAAANG!!
The strike filled the night with a loud bang, producing a brief bright spark at the point of impact, its shockwave akin to that of a grenade explosion.
Vonn…
Janet's eyes went even wider, tears welling up as she took in the scene.
Janet's stomach churned with nausea, threatening to spill out at any moment.
Her heart raced with terror, her mind reeling in shock.
The trauma was becoming too much to bear, and her grip on sanity had begun to slip.
As she knelt there pondering, her trembling intensified. More urine seeped out from beneath her knees.
Vonn is dead, and it was her turn next...
That was what she thought.
But when the fog cleared, Janet's gaze was embraced by an astonishing sight.
Two mysterious figures, clad in advanced armor, stood side by side, their futuristic swords raised in simultaneous defense against the colossal claw of the monster.
Their silky-smooth, big, black, puffy trousers and metal boots seemed to gleam in the dim light, while advanced ballistic panels covered their arms and torsos. Vonn hung on his stomach, atop one of their shoulders, seemingly unconscious.
What just happened?
Ah…
Her gaze caught something.
It was a bit blurry, not just from the darkness dimly illuminated by the moonlight but also due to the distance.
Yet that crest, boldly protruding from the ballistic arm panels, was unmistakable. The image of that symbol was etched into the souls of every person on Earth.
For generations, the world has ensured that the symbol of the heroes who saved humanity from impending extinction was ingrained in the hearts of all.
HV soldiers.
Hope…
Janet felt a surge of hope just from realizing who these figures were.
The HV soldiers were like legendary beings, revered by all. Each one was honored like a deity descending from the heavens.
Though they were rarely seen—mostly appearing on television guarding one of the four major presidents of Earth—they were not entirely absent.
While they typically did not intervene in everyday crime, history had recorded their presence on a few occasions, treated as though they were divine.
And now, two of them were here.
While this reality underscored the gravity of the situation, for Janet, it simply inspired hope.
"Man, this big guy's way too ugly. I didn't sign up for this." One of the individuals, a man, uttered with a grimace, his voice deep.
The man was visibly larger than the other, and unlike his partner, he didn't have anything resembling a gas mask covering his face, allowing the full display of his wide chin and rugged features—a strong, defined jawline, prominent cheekbones, and a small scar above his left eyebrow, which added a touch of ruggedness to his appearance, enhancing the aura of a battle-hardened veteran surrounding him.
He looked more like a handsome villain from some fantasy anime, and more than anything, he seemed powerful.
Suddenly, the mutanaut poised its other arm backward with splayed fingers and then struck with immense speed towards the man's partner.
Without looking, the man let out a confident smirk showing off his snow-white teeth, and then in a swift motion, kicked the colossal arm they were defending against, propelling himself upwards and spinning mid-air in an instant.
In that swift spin, with his futuristic sword in hand, he sliced through the speeding arm just before it hit his partner from behind.
Struggling to maintain a balanced landing from his flip, he immediately pulled out a big gun from the holster on his waist, and just before he slipped from the imbalance,
BAAANG!
He let out a destructive shot that took a huge part of the monster clean off.
The mutanaut resembled a grotesquely mashed-up, slimy meatball. Its massive form was marked by huge, swaying hands and skin that was both scaled and thorny. Tentacles grotesquely protruded from various parts of its body, adding to its bizarre appearance.
Atop this massive figure rested a smaller version of the meatball, which featured five large greenish eyeballs that seemed to survey its surroundings. This smaller mass, protruding from the tip of the larger one, appeared to serve as the creature's head.
Unlike typical life forms, the mutanaut did not have a mouth located on its head. Instead, it had a large opening at the center of its body, revealing a set of spiral-patterned fangs that were inconsistently arranged.
A long, salivating tongue swayed within this cavernous maw.
And now, a great portion of the upper part of this huge scaled meatball was blown clean off, dark red blood uncontrollably gushing from it.
The mutanaut fell a few steps backward in recoil to the attack.
The man, now squatting on the ground, looked up at his partner.
"Hell yeah! Didn't think I could get you to owe me your life this easily, hun. To think I actually pulled it off this early into our first real mission. Now you have no choice but to accept this dignified hero's marriage proposal. " he uttered with a lofty smile that left no piece of teeth hidden.
"In your dreams. I clearly had that situation under wraps. " the partner said, her voice a sugary sweet feminine tone with a dash of sass.
"Pfft. So what do you think?"
"I'm not getting married."
"Not that. What do you make of our huge meaty friend over there?"
"Ah, the Mutanaut? Well, it's huge." The female hv soldier answered assessing the monster as it bled out aggressively.
"That one over there's done, too." she said, turning towards Janet, who knelt, knees spread atop her own urine with her mouth wide open, drool lining down both opposite corners of it.
"Looks kinda hot, doesn't she?" she added, casually tossing Vonn towards a wall.
"...." The man who glanced at Janet with an awkward look on his face hesitated for a bit before adding; "If that's what you think, I guess..."
She stabbed her sword into the black sheath lying on her waist, shot both of her hands towards the inter-joined holsters on her lower back and pulled out two huge futuristic pistols simultaneously, all done in a profound grace.
Unlike the man whose actions so far seemed kind of barbaric, each action the masked lady took felt extremely purposeful.
Observing this, the man couldn't help but smile. This was one of the many things he loved about her.
"Huff!" she exhaled loudly, and with a soft metallic screech, her mask's panels slid apart, retracting into its frame.
As the mask gradually unfolded itself open, the female soldier's bright blue eyes became visible, as they sparkled like a pair of sapphires sculpted into a smooth, radiant face with high cheekbones and a gentle, heart-shaped jawline.
Her silver-blonde hair, having been released from the bounds of the head piece, gracefully cascaded down her back in a wild, curly tangle, framing her face with a soft, ethereal glow.
With a sudden burst of exuberance, she flung her arms wide open, as if embracing the sky itself as she looked into it, her face bright from the beautiful moonlight reflecting on some part of it.
The akimbo pistols she equiped equally gleamed from that same light in each of her hands, like extensions of her own fierce energy.
Her face was alight with unbridled enthusiasm as she flashed a radiant grin, her eyes sparkling with a fire that seemed to dance in her very soul.
"THIS IS IT! Chris!" She uttered suddenly.
"This is the moment we've longed for!! Eight generations! For eight good generations, we HV soldiers have withdrawn ourselves from the trivialities of this world, devoting our existence to the safety of humanity."
"We've advanced our technology, sharpened our intelligence, thickened our muscles, all that for what?—to watch it all rot away with old age!? Passing our legacy to each younger generation without ever unleashing the prowess we worked so hard to cultivate!!"
"We're revered like we're some kind of gods by the outside world, while in reality, we're nothing short of some well trained pieces of bozos living off the others like leeches, waiting for some nonexistent threat that goes way beyond the human capabilities, and in the end, retire without even serving a single purpose."
"You see this, Christopher?!..." Katarina uttered in excitement, her gaze narrowed down, locking onto the monstrous figure bleeding aggressively before her, "...This is no mere coincidence. This... this is divine intervention. You are a divine fucking blessing, you hear me, you monster?! A blessing!!"
With fierce determination, she struck her chest with a clenched fist, her gun still gripped tight. "And I!.." she declared, "...I, Katarina Argent, acting deputy captain of lower division squadron four, destined to rise beyond the rank of a HV general, will seize this opportunity to ascend the ranks and prepare for the fun era that is to comee!!"
The colossal monster, towering above, gathered its remaining arm and suddenly,
WOOSH!
unleashed the arm towards Katarina with a blinding speed.
The ground shook as the massive fist blurred forward, creating a shockwave that sent debris flying all over the place.
Just before it hit her, time seemed to slow down for a moment, and with a lightly done jump and a quick effortless spin that felt like a dance rhythm, she dodged the attack, her body arcing through the air, her movements fluid and graceful.
"Too slow," Katarina uttered with a wide sly smile spread across her face, her eyes gleaming with a mischievous spark.
While still mid-air, she pointed her akimbo-wielded guns downwards, the muzzles aimed squarely at the ground.
BWAANG!! BWAANG!!
Without hesitation, she unleashed two explosive blasts on the ground, the recoil propelling her high upwards, her endowed geared body soaring into the sky like a projectile.
From the height, she pointed her guns directly towards the monster, which now seemed small from the distance, her gaze focused on its stretched, thick, slimy-looking, veiny serpentine hands retracting to its body.
"Turns… me on," she whispered gently, her expression soft and serene.
With no further delays, her index fingers clenched the triggers of both guns, and unto the creature, a pair of power blasts were unleashed, shattering the night silence.
Time seemed to slow down as the two shots sped through the air, the accompanying shockwaves seemingly densifying rapidly as they competed to obtain the mutanaut's annihilation.
BOOM!
The blast annihilated the monster, erasing most of its body and a chunk of the floor beneath it. A jagged, two-foot-deep crater was left, surrounded by a bloody, mangled mess. Only a few tiny, gruesome fragments of the mutanaut remained.
Little gore sections were sent flying everywhere. To think that all that remained was a smattering of grisly, fragmented parts and a pool of blood where the monster once stood.
Katarina landed with a light thud, taking a few recoiled steps forward that raised dust at its wake.
The partner stood watching the scene unfold, his expression serious, and hands raised in a unique salute; His left arm extended straight forward, fingers aligned like a spearhead, while his right arm bent lightly at the elbow, shooting outward with clenched fists and resting under the left hand's elbow, both forming kind of an 'x' shape.
This pose was an exclusive salute of the Hyper-Vigilant Corps, representing the image of a spear and a war hammer: the spear aimed directly forward and the war hammer lightly curved and crossed beneath it, symbolizing their unstoppable power, domination, and unwavering support.
Moments later, the pose was accompanied by energetic applause and laughter.
"Hahahaha! Impressive work, my darling! As expected of my fiancée!! That was a real sexy performance. Gave me a real hard-on," he added, walking closer to what was left of the monster.
He squatted beside the pool of dark red blood, surrounded by the mutanaut's smoldering remains.
"But man, this is an extreme letdown. Is this weakling really the same monster that drove mankind to ruin? Got done with a few shots," the man said, his brow furrowed in dismay, poking one of the bloody parts with the tip of his sword.
"From the looks of things, it's killed a few civilians. Should've at the very least, attained a second evolution. Is this it? Based on what we learned, if it really has to kill more to become very formidable, then I'm afraid to say, but no matter how many of these things show up, the starving HV soldiers will never be satisfied," he said, scrutinizing once more the damage the mutanaut had left behind.
His eyes traced from the pedestrian's remaining bloody bones to the mutanaut's twisted remnants.
"Hmm, or perhaps we HV soldiers have become too strong over the years," the man pondered, rubbing his jaw.
"What do you think, Kate?" he turned towards his partner.
"Huh?" he uttered suddenly with a surprised look. "... Everything alright, Kate?" he added, staring Awkwardly towards his partner.
Katarina still stood at the spot she landed after the attack, her legs visibly trembling.
Her gaze seemed to be focused on Janet, as she struggled to take a step forward.
"Ah... don't tell me..." The man's expression suddenly twisted into a dirty grin, every single one of his teeth visible. "This damn bitch..." he added.
Katarina, who now staggered towards Janet, her muscles tensing with anticipation. Her grip loosened, causing her guns to drop. She shot both her hands into her thighs, her loud breathing slowly turning into a soft moan.
"I'm... so... horny~" Katarina moaned softly, her eyes sparkling with desire, her gaze seemingly burning with an inner intensity.