Man Versus Machines [Revengineer/shadow]

Roderick crashed head-first into the sand, a cloud of the grains being thrown up as he face-planted quite spectacularly. The suit was remarkably durable, and a paltry fall like this would serve to scratch it at most, but what had interrupted him mid-flight was far more of a threat than a bed of sand, and possibly some irate crabs. He flexed his left fingers, and then his whole arm, attempting to gain knowledge of whether his suit’s limbs were still functioning. Considering he had just been hit in several different areas by high-calibre rounds fired from what was likely something resembling an anti-tank minigun, it was something a lot of people like him would do.

The enemy he had been fighting was likely another one of his uncle’s prototype robots – he had always supported recycling, and had figured sending obsolete models to kill or be killed was a better use for them than a metric ton of paperclips. This particular foe was an upgrade from the last one, in the sense that a toilet with a toilet seat is an upgrade to one without one. It hadn’t been upgraded, as much as it had had its most obvious major flaw fixed up. The last one had attempted to use lasers, but unfortunately, some bumbling henchman had handed Roderick’s uncle the wrong parts, and the machine exploded in front of Roderick without so much as firing a shot.

He’d given up on lasers for the time being, likely until he found some henchmen who were able to actually prove themselves competent, instead of being shot in the kneecaps for being dribbling, bumbling morons. Rapidly-rotating multi-barrelled terror made a distinctive whirring noise, as the metal humanoid settled upon the sand, followed by countless amounts of rounds now embedding themselves in the ground where Roderick had been previously. Now, he was running, knowing the bullets would scratch his armour, and possibly cause some harm to him. Obviously, he thought nothing favourable of either of those two options, and decided to wait for an opportunity to actually do something that didn’t make him look worse than the unlucky henchman.

Spotting an opening as the drone waited to have its chest-gun cool down enough, Roderick formed an energy spike in his hand, opting for Xunar energy – it was night, and it would recharge. The drone was likely of pitiful strength, in comparison the suit he and his father had sweated, bled and cried over, and the javelin would likely prove more than enough to destroy a vital part of the robot. And indeed it did – a spear of energy arced through the air, landing gracefully in between the optical sensors of Roderick’s enemy. After sparking and jarring a little, it settled down for good, prompting a smug look from behind the helmet.

Which was wiped clean off of his face upon seeing the fleet of them descending towards him.

Red X hopped out of the sewer manhole, confidant that he had lost them. He would never speak of that battle again. He had arrived at a street bordering the shores of Jump City. Given the time, he wouldn't be spotted as soon as he got off the road. At 50% of his xynothium supply, he could probably try another heist before raiding the tech company.

As he was dusting the sewage grime off his suit, he heard an odd beeping sound. He looked around and saw nothing, but the beeping continued. He looked up to see a fleet of robots, one of which was pointing at a red spot on Red X's chest. Red X realized the significance of this.

He barely dodged out of the way of the blast, but the shock-waves sent him onto the beach. He brought out his X-blades, but noticed a suit of armor standing on the sand. A moving suit of armor.

Red X called out to him, "So, these guys this week's plot to take over the world?"

Red X wasn't sure whether medieval-man was a hero or a supervillain.

“With Stormtrooper aim? They’re about as much a threat to the world as my lunch, and that’s already digested. No, these are probably just some rejected models my deranged uncle’s throwing at me in an attempt to have me killed. Care to join me in collecting some scrap metal?”
As if to emphasise his point about Stormtrooper aim, a hail of bullets sped towards Roderick, though only a few actually made any significant contact. And even then, those ones caused minimal damage, just a few scrapes that could be fixed later on, when he had finished the fight. “Ever play bowling? It’s a really fun sport, you should try it.”

Except, y bowling, Roderick actually meant blasting. Blasting robots. With a sphere of high-powered, five-hundred degrees-Celsius energy, that proceeded to scatter an unfortunate enemy’s haphazardly-constructed pieces like skittles on a bowling ball minefield. In a manner almost out of character for Roderick, the boy jumped straight into the middle of the fray, waiting a few moments before re-activating the jets. The resulting explosion was quite amusing – they had locked onto him, but had instead fired at empty space where he had once been, creating a blast that took out several enemies at once. Unfortunately, the explosion was just large enough to catch Roderick, and throw him face-first into the sand. Again.

This time, he was close enough for their visual sensors to do their job properly, and the automatons actually managed to shake off their debilitating aim – or lack thereof – long enough to focus fire on his suit. By the time he had gotten up, he was already putting up his forearms to block the tirade of anti-tank rounds, being forced back every so often. It wasn’t the most dire of situations, considering the rounds were probably built with twentieth-century tanks in mind, and his armour was built to be just as strong as the strongest steel, except lighter and far more usable in just about anything. It was, however, quite inconvenient, as enough concentrated fire would likely damage his armour’s arms’ functions, making it harder to form and hold energy constructs.

"So you're not a hero, this is a personal thing." said Red X.

Red X then proceeded to teleport onto the back of one of the robots and slice it open with his X-blades. He jumped from robot to robot, slashing them apart, but at robot number four he was shot with a blast and careened towards Solunar.

“I suppose you could say that.”
Having lowered his arms after the storm of rounds had finished pounding into them, Roderick was not prepared for the humanoid missile flying towards him. A strange mix of confusion and outright annoyance plastered itself across the boy genius’ face as he fell backwards onto the sand – just to make a change from the twice-carried out faceplant. Considering the impact was not as dangerous as, say, a flurry of minigun rounds designed to puncture a tank’s armour, he managed to recover a bit quicker from this ordeal, though he did still display a considerable level of annoyance at this indiscretion on Red X’s part.

“Jesus H Christ, watch where you’re bloody going, why don’t you…” he muttered under his breath, forming a javelin in response to a robot preparing something that vaguely resembled an attack involving launching a slightly more powerful explosive than usual, possibly powerful enough to throw the boy back more than two feet and a bit. He launched the spike towards his enemy, jamming it into whichever orifice they had chosen to launch their failed attack out of, causing the launcher to be disabled and the explosive to blow up prematurely. The robot was not so much destroyed as it was vaporised on the spot, but you’d have to take into account just how lazily these things were put together.

Now forming his signature rudimentary excuse for a bladed weapon that could somehow be classified as a sword, Roderick sped towards his foes, pranging rather stupidly into one, scrambling his vision for a few moments. This was all that was needed, as it turns out, as he was now being continually pounded in the back of the head, until he stuck his sword blade-side up, impaling said enemy’s fist upon the weapon. And even though his visor was still attempting to correct itself and he was still trying to stop feeling as if he’d had one too many, he still managed to lop its head off, prompting him to be considered the main threat once again.