Tsuna himself was at a standstill with the third robot. Those things either adapted very fast or had knowledge of their fighting styles beforehand, because after the beheading of the first enemy, his current opponent was making sure to keep the brunet at a distance. Like Byakuran, Tsuna had a few powerful long-distance Flame-based attacks, but they needed a little time to charge, and he didn't have said time when he was kept on his toes by the killer robot on one side, and the large area bullet rain of the Mosca on the other (he would really have to have a few words about security measures with Spanner once everything was over).
But all killer robots were either down or kept busy, and that had been the plan all along if they couldn't defeat them easily enough one-on-one.
Because while Spanner was taking cover in the woods, and Tsuna, Hayato and Byakuran were distracting the three enemy robots, who were the only ones elaborated enough to select a target based on threat, Shoichi was not being idle.
He had used one of the many gadgets he always kept with him : an expanding umbrella that he had tweaked to double as a shield when powered by Flames. Lightning Flames were the most efficient, of course, but Sun Flames did the trick as well. Once the four most dangerous robots were distracted, that left only the Mosca to take care of.
Shoichi didn't really have the reflexes, instinct or speed to avoid bullets, but since there only was one unmoving robot aiming his way on and off, it was no problem to protect himself with his umbrella. He took a long detour to make sure to avoid the three one-on-one battles, but he easily reached the Mosca.
Spanner had explained earlier in the day that, although his Mosca had been primarily built to be autonomous, he had added manual commands behind his robot to control it. With the blond's instructions, it was fairly easy to stop the rampaging machine and instead aim it directly at one of the enemy robots' head, specifically, the one fighting against Tsuna.
With the Mosca shooting only one robot rather than jumping from one target to another and aiming at a single point, the bullets that had been useless so far started to have some effect, and slowly started to distort the metal. Given enough time, it was clear that it would eventually pierce through.
Suddenly, the killer robot was facing not one, but two opponents, and it was now loosing. Its attention was divided, and its reaction time was worsening. Tsuna was slowly closing in, step by step, and between on dodge and the next he was finally within striking range. The head was already under heavy fire by Shoichi and the Mosca, so the Sky hit the torso with his Flame-covered fist, melted the protective armor, and yanked out as much wire and components as he could.
The robot crumbled to the ground.
Shoichi aimed the Mosca at Byakuran's opponent, while Tsuna immediately went to help Hayato, who was still throwing his dynamite at his robot to keep it at bay.
Working together, with the Storm attacking relentlessly to make an opening for his Sky, it only took a few minutes to behead the third robot. Tsuna stayed back while the silveret went to support Byakuran and give him enough time with Shoichi to focus his Flames and unleash a powerful enough attack to pierce right through the last robot and leave it with a large hole where his stomach would have been had it been human.
Tsuna distantly kept an eye on his friends' battle, but his attention was elsewhere. Now that the danger was dealt with or almost dealt with, his Intuition was telling him something else and he was trying to pinpoint what.
Once the last killer robot fell down and didn't move for a moment, they all breathed a sigh of relief. Spanner gingerly came out of his cover in the woods and joined the other teens to slump down on the side of the bullet-riddled bus.
But Tsuna wasn't able to relax as much as his friends, no matter how much he wanted to. His Intuition was still ringing in his ears, not because of a threat, but it definitely wanted to bring something to his attention. He let his eyes wander, hoping to catch whatever it was that was setting off his instincts.
The top of the trees shifted a bit, brushed by the winds, but the brunet noticed one tree stayed suspiciously unmoved by the breeze.
Ah, so this is what it was trying to tell me, realized Tsuna. He gathered his will, accidentally making his eyes shine orange once more, pushed himself up and looked straight at the too still tree.
"I know you're here." He said, loud enough to be heard from the top of said tree. His friends jumped in surprise, but quickly took on their battle stances. "You can come out now."
This is finally done! Writing this chapter was like pulling teeth, and I'm not even satisfied with it. I like the way the fight went, but I absolutely hate the way I wrote it, but since it has been a while since my last chapter (two months), I figured you guys would rather I post it anyway (please tell me if that's not the case, I'll work on it).
Also, just for the record, I will not write about the Simon (Shimon?) Family. There just isn't enough material (manga or fanfiction) about them for me to not write them as cartoonish characters with no depth. Not that I'm saying that the other characters I've added so far are not cartoonish, but I'd like to think I've somehow managed to add some kind of depth to them. Let me have my dreams, people!
Anyway, thank you all for your reviews, they are what give me the motivation to keep writing, even when the story doesn't want to be written, and I hope you are not too disappointed by this chapter (all in all, there's not much that happens in it...).
Chapter 24: That doesn't have public transportation
Start from the beginning
