Fragment Recovery: Gamma (Winter)

The soldiers hurriedly worked. They knew it was only a matter of time and they had no time to waste. She could come from any direction, and they had to move Gamma out of the area. It was once secure, being guarded by heros like the Teen Titans, but they were gone altogether. Average security would never keep her out. Gamma needed to be moved immediately. As they loaded the last of the boxes, the military plane immediately began to spark to life, moving slowly down the runway.

Suddenly a black blur launched itself straight into the wing of the plane, causing it to spin out straight into a hangar. The engine sparked the building, causing an explosion that likely killed quite a few people. But that didn't matter, the armored figure began walking toward the wreckage. The few dazed survivors pulled their weapons on it, firing in confusion. But it was no good, everything just seemed to bounce right off.

The armored figure pulled a pistol from its built in holster, pointing it off to the side. Rather than launching a bullet, a grapple cable was launched from it, halting at about 20 feet in length. It was then suddenly whipped around with such force, it ripped most of the soldiers straight in half. All but 2 were now a blood stain on the pavement.

The first one panicked and began to run, another plan that was entirely in vain. The grapple cable launched and curled around his leg, dragging him back to where the armor raised its boot, crushing him beneath it. Then it turned its attention to the last one, frozen in horror and fear. Stepping forward she kicked his knee with such force, his leg nearly snapped straight off his body. Now on his knee, the armored figure reached out and grabbed his head with both hands, slowly tightening its grip. "You have no idea what kind of trouble you're in..." The armored figure growled in a low and masculine voice.

With all of the soldiers now dead, the figure stepped forward to claim its prize. A blast-resistant, bullet proof case. Immune to all forms of adhesion, almost impossible to steal. High security military technology for sure. When she kicked the case open however, there was only a small blue chip inside. This seemed to spark a genuine joy in the moving suit of armor as it bent down to retrieve it. Slowly removing its helmet. This revealed a young woman, red hair falling out of the helmet which was hastily pushed aside to make room for the blue computer chip which would soon be buried deep into her neck, along with a matching white chip.

Replacing her helmet, the woman's green eyes would shine blue for a moment before a blue hologram appeared before her, flickering and shaky. "Agent Texas." The hologram said in a very computer voice, completely void of emotion. "You have no idea how good it is to see you again.

Tex smiled at the AI under her helmet, turning to leave the wreckage. "Likewise Gamma." She said, slowly walking from the wreckage. "How long can I expect until you restore the memory unit and your AI attachment?"

The manifestation of data and logistics sprang to attention, strangely proud to be fulfilling the minor duty of a status report. "I calculate an estimated time frame of 20 minutes before the memory unit is fully operational. The Palm Pummeler however should only take 10."

Tex nodded to him, slowly picking up the pace. She wasn't keen on dealing with more police or military, and was sure the surprise factor had given her the edge she needed to get away before the bother presented itself. But you could never be sure. "Remind me to change its codename." She told Gamma.

Jump city. It had been a long tome since the Titans had torn down the tower. Pity, that - she would really have loved to see the great T, standing like a beacon of hope and strange architecture. But, this was still the golden land, or so it was said.

Why had she come? She reminded herself again of her motivations. She wanted to be a Superhero, right? Well these kids had been younger than she was now and they were bonafide badasses in the extreme. It was said they had sent demons back to hell, kicked the tar out of villains with twice their experience and generally put a monkey wrench in the twisted gears in the heart of darkness. I she could just get here, maybe fill some sort of hole or find some inspiration... Maybe she could reflect their example, Batman's example, in herself! It would be quite a thing.

When they'd disappeared... When Batman disappeared... Things had been pretty bad for a couple years... But people had adapted. The world didn't need heroes, because the villains had disappeared too! But even so. She'd cried. She hadn't cried since.

Edyth Lostetter pulled her repaired flatbed into the airport. She'd timed the shipment and the travel in just such a way... That the package would have arrived just that night. She'd mailed the experimental repulsor drive. It was something of a pet project - leaving it would have been a real wrench as well, so she decided hey - why not! It had been an arm and a leg, and customs made a real fuss about its inspection since it was such a strange object, but she'd told them it was a junk art project she was working on, gave them The Stare (a glare that says 'how dare you challenge me' in fifteen languages in big unfriendly letters) and she'd shipped it. Bloody expensive... She'd saved for months straight to afford this trip and all it entailed.

Gripping the stickshift, she popped her truck through its gears until she could apply minimal brake, engine stopping the motion just enough, pulled into temp business parking, and almost got out, cigarette in her lips and about to be lit when...!

The windows rattled hard, the ground shook, and a thunderous BOOM shook the air around her so hard she felt it in her chest. The air was filled with red light... And Eddie looked ahead and to the right. The cigarette fell out of her mouth as she gawked (but was fielded by her free hand because its a shame to waste good tobacco). Gunfire boomed out after it, and Eddie was already pulling back out of the airport and making for the sealed off access to the restricted area of the runway. A thought made her flip a switch under her dashboard and hide her license plate before barreling through the barricade arm like it was made of balsa-wood. It was the work of a moment to put on her helmet and gloves...

As Agent Texas made a break for it, the only thing between her and freedom was an import yard, full of empty cargo containers, semi trucks, heavy equipment and cranes. It was devoid of all life. It was, anyway, until a hulking, towering figure strode from between a heavy forklift and the heavy shipping containers, its footfalls clearly audible as it was not thirty feet from her.

The behemoth was a monster of black metal and silver chrome, blue light roaring from the apparent eye sockets of the fanged steel skull on its head, twisted into a visage of wrath. It didn't move like a mechanical thing though, even though it clearly was something that had been built. It moved... Like it was alive, and its body language suggested in no uncertain terms who it was going after, its strides long and purposeful as it closed the distance

"Just where do you think you're running off to?" It snarled, its voice a two-toned demonic rumble.

Tex looked up at the gigantic robot, blinking under her helmet before her disguised, gruff and masculine voice rang out. "Well if you must know I recovered what's mine and now I'm going off on my way." A small white AI appeared beside Tex, twisting and shimmering as if his very existence were unstable. "Scan that thing Omega." She said, now on her guard in case of any sudden movements from it.

Omega grunted as a small screen appeared in front of him and he hastily slid information away, using his radar software to look into its deepest visible crevice. "Eh, I have good news and bad news kid. The good news is that this is definitely not government. It's so poorly adapted when it comes to movement that it's almost a pity. the downside is the worksmanship is exquisite. No real physical weaknesses other than the fact that it moves slower than a melting stick of butter down a hill." He sighed, and logged off, letting Tex eye her mechanical foe. "Nine minutes until the Pummeler is online too, I might get to have some level of fun."

Tex pulled out her grapple gun and launched it at the leg of the mech. She expected to be strong enough and was aiming to pull it off balance. According to Omega, it should have some relative difficulty getting back up.

While the woman and her AI analyzed her, she was giving the armor a good look of her own. She was big - bigger than a normal human. The keys of her sensor controls flew under her fingertips as she highlighted interesting bits, zooming in on them, and analyzing the way the woman moved.

There was blood on her armor. And not a little blood - a pretty significant amount of human bean-juice, in fact... Viscera, too. There could be no doubt over her guilt. But that armor she wore... It was powered. Her eyes narrowed... It was powered, braced, and made from quite advanced technology. In a word, military. This was some freaky shadow-ops %#!@ here, and she didn't like it... But for now emotions took a back seat.

She reached for her holster, and Deadlock shifted her stance. She'd noticed no pouches to speak of - no bandoliers of ammunition or suchlike, so that meant one thing - that wasn't a usual sort of pistol. The grapple lashed out and latched onto her leg, the armor sparking and shimmering with a very strange sort of blue light that crackled, and the assailant hauled!

Deadlock lurched a bit, but she really had been ready for something like this - the motions of Texas's hands reaching and aiming had been transparent, like she honestly thought Deadlock could make no reasonable reaction. All it took was moderate resistance, a shift of her weight, and a sturdy stance and Tex might as well have been a child tugging a tree with a rope.

The woman was strong - damn strong, and Deadlock found herself impressed as she glanced at the pressure readings and quickly deciphered their meaning. About... Seven and a half, eight tons of exertion. The woman actually pulled her forward a foot or so before Eddie wrapped her leg once and yanked her leg back down, stomping down with a thunderous crash, using the motion to step forward again and bring her fist around like the wrath of gods, using the full turn of her torso and hopefully Tex's own possible off-balance jerk from her rough pull to bring her in range of the Deadlock Haymaker. The whole exchange took much less than three seconds.

Tex realized about a second in that the mech suit was actually much heavier than it had been anticipated, and her neural enhancements quickly made adjustments, creating new combat strategies for her. Judging from the mech's movements, it was relatively obvious the punch was coming. Rather than taking it, she jumped up, spinning off the first with her right hand and recalling the grapple into the pistol.

Tex landed herself behind it, crossing her arms. "Not a bad punch." She said, backing into a very dark bunker and grappling into the rafters, Batman style. "Lets see what you got."

Deadlock was impressed. This dark-armored woman with a dark, masculine voice had actually dodged her punch. The fact that she was a woman was pretty firmly cemented in her thoughts by now - she was clever. She thought with her head. Men tended to think with their muscles. Another common misconception - men weren't actually always thinking with their third leg - they, especially in the case of soldiers, thought with their hands and feet instead, or with their pecs. A man, a stupid one, would have taken the punch. If he had been arrogant, he would have tried to catch it. He also would have instantly regretted it - the fists of the Inevitable had creamed more than a few such interlopers (It was a testament to her own skill that not one had died from the ordeal - just wished they had. Sparing their miserable lives was NOT the soft option, she'd always found.) But a woman... a stupid woman would have perhaps taken the hit and flown like a rag-doll, perhaps playing dead to trick her, probably. A smart one, and a very agile one, would have done... well, what this one just did. All of these thoughts passed by in the time it took Tex to land on the ground behind her and for her to shift her stance within that moment.

Deadlock turned, the hulking thing achieving this in two steps, just in time to hear her challenge and see her grapple into the rafters again. Now then... this was interesting. But... not, she reflected, very intelligent. She'd seen Deadlock resist the almighty leg pull as easy as pie. Did she not realize what she was dealing with? Time to show her. The hangar was dark... all that was in there was property. Well, sod property. Time to rain hell. It was... pretty big. She estimated... a five-rib support system... ooh, maybe good for rain and wind and storms and things... no planes were inside it really, just tools. And fuel. Hm. That was a thing. Deadlock strode to the shipping containers, stacked five high, and after a nudge or two to gauge their relative weight, hefted a stack. Each of the five two-ton containers was lifted... as easily as one might pick up a sweet ingratiating puppy.

Then she hurled them at the roof. They crashed through the cheap construction for aircrafts quite easily - it was like bullets being shot through rubber, really, and that was a pretty fair analogy considering how fast they were moving after she'd given them a good touch of the arm en-masse. It was messy and imprecise... but it didn't need to be precise - it was MEANT to be chaotic! If someone had been in any position to comment on the way they fell, however, they might just have remarked how they fell on the roof like hammers, one over each of the five main supports.

The building collapsed. And when it did, a great fireball rose with it in a thunder of destruction as Deadlock watched the doorway and destruction with interest. What did you do with a fox? Burn it out of its little hole. She was in no mood to play games.

Tex growled and forced her way out of the wreckage. There wasn't a scratch on her armor, not a dent. There wasn't even a crack in her visor. "So Gamma, how much longer should I be waiting?" The small blue AI reappeared and calibrated. "Well. If I had to make a rough estimate, and my estimates are always correct, I would say roughly one minute."

Tex nodded to him, taking a moment or two to calibrate the time slot. Now it would only be 50 seconds. "Simple." She said in a monotone style, as if this was a daily occurrence to her to be fighting a gigantic robot. She broke off into a run, another white AI appearing beside her. "I've initiated our little chemical surprise Tex." He said with a low chuckle. "Thank you Omega." She said, her eyes glowing white under her helmet as her speed increased, her reflexes were boosted. She was ready for any form of response. "20 seconds." Gamma called out in her head. Perfect.

Deadlock grinned and gave the woman a good hard look, highlighting her on the screen. Despite herself, she was impressed. You had to know what you were looking for not to see it, but sure as anything two tons of steel coming down on her head ha done nothing verymuch to her. This looked like being a good fight! She felt a pang about the building and the explosion... But she'd checked there was nobody in there, and there was nobody near for a good ways - nobody got hurt. That was a problem - she'd wanted to at least hurt Tex... But that was alright. She'd seen something like this twice before - it meant she didn't need to put on kiddy gloves. It only worried her a little that she thought walloping someone with a building was kiddy gloves...

Deadlock laughed as Tex charged - not out of mocking, though she tried to make it sound as if she was mocking. On the inside, she was glad Tex couldn't see her face. She was concerned. This woman was clever... And she didn't sound angry so much as irritated, but here she was, rushing her. Oh! And picking up speed sharply. She watched a moment, and muscles twitched... And bulged.

I see. she thought Chemical stimulants. What could she do against something like that? She thought about her own armor, how there was just no way she could dampen being shaken around like a matchbox, how no matter what... She was human. The squishy meaty center. Well now. Chemical stimulants meant she was human too. That meant... She really had the same weakness, regardless of how tough her armor was, didn't it. Ohhh you bet - organs don't like being jostled. Your brain rattles hard and enough and you get a concussion.

So what do you do? You damn well don't give her reaction time! And you watch her movements! As she picked up a big, thick fistful of girders, Deadlock charged.

Calling her movement slow wasn't the right word exactly. Momentum was built up quite quickly, and all the while Eddie was monitoring Tex's muscle groups, watching for changes, watching for subtlety as she hauled ass. The woman and the mech closed at about fifty miles an hour, both running at their top - it halved the time Tex had to react. Knowing instinct would play a major part in her reaction, Eddie swung the rebar low. There was no way Tex could duck it or jump back or under it - Deadlock was too tight to it, an the fistful of rebar was too long.

That would mean she would probably have to jump... And Eddie was watching her closely, ready to aim where she would go. This was the Hammerzone, and Tex was dead set in the middle of it - if she was airborn in a jump, she couldn't properly dodge... And that was right where the Deadlock Backhand was aimed. See how she likes THEM apples. All her weight, momentum, and strength was behind it, and it wasn't a slow lumbering swing either - she had momentum on her side, this was a whip of destiny!

Tex apparently had underestimated the speed that the mech could throw a punch, and did infact find herself face to face with the fist. However thanks to her Theta state, she was quickly able to put out her hands and flip over it, landing on the fist itself. Springing off the head of the mech, she landed behind it and got into a stable stance.

"There, I got you close, now how much damage do you think we can do to that armor?" She asked strictly in her mind, launching herself forward. Gamma's voice echoed in her mind in a very computer-like form. "There is a 5% chance of piercing the armor. Tex quietly cursed under her breath, sliding to the side to decide how to deal with it as it started to turn around. "I have an idea." Omega echoed with a psychotic laugh, highlighting a combat route in her Interface. Tex laughed and took up a position just under the gigantic mech. "What would I do without you Omega?" She laughed, digging her fingers into the metal and lifting with all her might, easily hoisting the 5000 pound mech over her head and taking a couple of steps.

"I sincerely hope this thing can swim..." She chuckled, hurling it forward and directly into the bay. A steel brick will always float like a steel brick, no matter how advanced it is. Tex laughed and started to walk away as it sank. "So what have you got on Theta, Gamma?" She asked, jumping onto a nearby building and scaling it, using her strength to dig into the wall.

(Exit)

((This was chosen by Muse as your punishment for Godmodding, due to it being entirely in Tex's limits. Now, the godmodding is the following: Boosting your speed, lowering my own, reading my thoughts and the thoughts of the AI units, and making an attack that was basically undodgeable))

((Ok, Admin's ruling is admin's ruling and I'll gladly accept that, but I'd like to impress one thing upon you - I didn't write all that with the intention of reading her thoughts, all I did was try and have Eddie be smart, watching her movements - and she did NOT slow Tex down or speed herself up - she just decreased the reaction time Tex had - when I said fifty miles an hour, miss, that's because Tex was running at thirty miles an hour and Deadlock at twenty - that adds up. Ever seen a low speed car crash? Anyhow. I totes deserved this for making an attack you wouldn't be able to dodge easily. Good show~ I hope we can roleplay again sometime.))

Eddie sank like a rock. Deadlock wasn't built to float. And there she found herself - in the middle of the bay. A shark investigated her for edibility. She gave it a flick up the nose, and it fluttered off, offended. She'd wanted to test the suit in all situations, didn't she? Well! This was certainly a situation. Inside the cabin, she closed the air circulation system up, hooked up an airtank to her mask, and tried to take slow, steady breaths as she steamed, sinking gradually to the bottom. Rassumfrassumsquiddlywibblymishmashinmush....