In the middle of the technologically advanced city Halaryn, stood the Citadel. The home base of Infinium. This tower is the accumulation of years of technological research and militaristic planning. The perfect fortress for the Director of Infinium, Jay, who had his office built at the very top of the tower.
The very same man who was currently staring at a hologram reconstruction of how one of his agents found it appropriate to disobey his orders. And those orders he had tried so desperately to drill into their heads. "Leave Apocalyptic Returning alone, you did hear tell them that, right Hellman."
Jay turned around to face Hellman. "I said that right. And what does Hook do. He fucking kills Deadeye right in front of three other members of Apocalyptic Returning." While running his hand through his black hair he let out a frustrated sigh.
"So, what are we going to do about him?" Hellman asked "And the situation he's put us in."
"Simple" Jay answered. "We're going to let that idiot face the consequences of his actions."
Swinging his arm to the side, Hook's chain pierced into Wolf's thigh. Upon pulling the chain back, Wolf came flying toward him. He then jumped forward and punched Wolf into the ground. Before Wolf could jump back up, he was jerked across the ground and dragged back to Hook.
Wolf threw his knife at Hook but was deflected by the chain. After being jerked toward Hook through the air, Hook hit him with a clothesline into the ground. Raising his foot into the air, Hook slammed it down onto Wolf's chest multiple times. Once satisfied with the number of kicks delivered to Wolf, he kicked him to the side.
"The boss is scarred of these fucking losers?" Hook said after turning his sights to Rika.
As Rika tried ever so desperately to heal Deadeye, Hook appeared behind her. Before Rika could react, Hook grabbed the back of her head and slammed her into Deadeye's body. He then grabbed her by the leg and tossed her into a piece of concrete. After that, he walked over to her and grabbed her by the throat.
"Pathetic" Hook hissed as he raised Rika into the air. As he was tightening his grip on her throat, a sudden shockwave of energy from behind sent chills down his spine. Turning his head slightly, he saw Musashi and Pyro dashing towards him. While he was distracted, Wolf suddenly delivered a powerful kick to the side of his head.
The kick sent Hook flying towards Musashi. Swinging his sword, Musashi slashed through the chain and down into Hook's shoulder. Musashi ripped his sword out of Hook's shoulder as an inferno exploded into him. Walking through the fire, Pyro raised his hand and shoved it into the wound on Hook's shoulder.
A wave of fire flowed down Pyro's arm and exploded upon reaching his hand. The explosion blew off Hook's arm and sent him flying to the side. Before he could hit the ground, Wolf phased above him and kicked him into a tree. Hitting the tree hard enough to crash through it, Hook then hit the ground in defeat.
With only one arm and irreparable damage to his exosuit, the mere thought of getting back up was impossible. At least it was until a single thought ran through his head. Turning his head slightly, Hook laughed as Musashi walked towards him. With all the energy he had left he muttered a single word.
"Overdrive"
An explosion of green energy was let out from Hook's exosuit, destroying the jungle around him. His exosuit began branching out, replacing the arm he lost. A new chain formed of green energy wrapped around the wrist of his new arm.
His once damaged exosuit fully recovered and far more than ready for another round of combat.
Overdrive, the ultimate ability of any exosuit user. Upon activation the full potential of an exosuit user can be harnessed for a limited time. Their exosuits abilities enhance and recovery time for any damage done is increased vastly. The energy output of the exosuit multiplies tenfold leaving the user multiple times stronger than before.
This newfound power left Hook feeling grand. He felt the energy surging through his body and exosuit. The green energy exploded out of his exosuit pushing Musashi and Pyro back. Phasing forward, Hook reappeared between Musashi and Pyro. Grabbing Pyro by the head, he smashed him through a tree.
After letting go of Pyro, Hook raised his hand and caught Musashi's sword. The hook at the end of his chain pierced Musashi's thigh and jerked him into the air. Another jerk from the energy chain sent Musashi spinning through the air into the ground. The impact from Musashi crashing into the ground created a small crater.
Suddenly, as Hook was stepping towards Musashi, a wave of fire crashed through the jungle behind him. But before the wave hit him, a shockwave of green energy emitted from his exosuit and extinguished the flames. Watching the flames dissipate, he let out a satisfied laugh. A laugh which died out quickly as another exosuit user stepped into the fray.
Hook turned his head, seeing Arthur step over Musashi towards him. Only taking a couple steps, Arthur suddenly stopped in his tracks. He peered past Hook directly at Rika who was desperately crawling over to Deadeye. Wolf tried desperately to keep her back and help her recover.
"Surprised she can still move honestly." Hook mocked. "Though, I guess I was holding back against her for the-" Before Hook could finish, Arthur's fist crashed into his face. He was sent flying back through multiple trees until he landed beside Forger. "What the fuck was that!" he thought as Arthur phased beside him.
Arthur grabbed Forger by the leg and swung him into Hook. This sent Hook rolling across the ground until Arthur smashed Forger down into him. Arthur hit Hook with Forger multiple times until he threw Forger to the side and grabbed Hook's throat. And then with his remaining hand, he grabbed Hook's chain that was flying towards his head.
Introducing his own energy to the chain, Arthur watched as the chain exploded back into raw energy. He then drew his hand back and sent a powerful punch into Hook's face. The punch sent a shockwave of blue energy into Hook which sent him flying into the air. Before Hook could go too far into the sky, Arthur jumped into the air and grabbed him by the leg.
Outstretching his arm back, Arthur jerked Hook back before throwing him to the ground. And he did hit the ground, with enough force to create a small crater. The shock from hitting the ground with that much force left Hook struggling on the edge of consciousness. At least until Arthur landed on him like a meteor crashing into the earth.
Hook lay there, the part of his exosuit around his face destroyed enough to reveal his left eye. But that still was not enough for Arthur. As the nano technology making up Hook's suit began to repair his exosuit, Arthur raised his leg into the air. Lacking the strength to even raise his arms, Hook could only watch Arthur's raise his leg higher into the air.
"Shit" Hook thought as Arthur's leg was encompassed in his harsh blue energy.
But before Arthur could continue any further, he was hit by a blast of purple energy. The purple energy followed him to the ground and crashed into him like waves. This kept Arthur pinned to the ground as a hand of purple energy dragged Hook into the trees. An exosuit user covered in tattered white robes stared down at Arthur as he grabbed Hook and jumped away.
With the exosuit user gone, the waves of energy ceased. Arthur slowly stood back up, minimal damage to his exosuit. As he began walking, his exosuit recovered itself almost instantly. Stopping at the tree line, he could only watch as Wolf had to drag Rika away from Deadeye.
Foxtrot landed between Arthur and Wolf, the sight before him something he wished to never see again. A moment later, Musashi and Pyro walked out of the tree line and walked up to Foxtrot. At the same time, Sebastion walked out from the other side of the clearing. An aura of sorrow filling the air as he took slow steps over to Deadeye's corpse.
The sounds of war died down around them all in an uncomfortable silence. "Who- who did this?" Sebastion asked in a voice almost as quiet as that of a whisper.
"Hook." Arthur answered solemnly.
"Hook!" Sebastion spat angrily as he walked stopped walking. Below him lay a defeated, unconscious Forger. Reaching down, Sebastion grasped at Forger's throat with enough force to crush parts of his exosuit.
After receiving damage, Forger's exosuit woke him up. He immediately raised his hand to Sebastion's face. But Musashi was quick to severe his hand with a simple swing from his sword. Letting out a small cry of pain, Forger then drew his head back and tried to headbutt Sebastion.
Forger was instead met with Sebastion's fist, which sent him face first onto the floor. After kneeling beside Forger, Sebastion drew back his fist for another punch. Before he could get another punch off, he was interrupted by a beam of energy flying past his head. Slowly turning his head, Sebastion watched Vermont, Elise, Dues Venandi and other Infinium soldiers walk out from the tree line.
"Don't you think that's enough Sebastion?" Elise yelled out.
"Enough?" Sebastion laughed. "What the fuck do you clowns want?"
"We want our Captain Forger back." Vermont answered. "And shut up Elise, do you really want a fight with them right now. Because if you don't shut up that's what's going to happen." He raised his hand and pointed to the jungle to his left. "Just go get Captain North, sensors say he's over there."
Elise reluctantly trudged to where Vermont pointed and walked into the jungle. "Look, I understand this will mean nothing to you but Hook, like the rest of us, is under direct orders to leave you all be. He and Forger went against direct orders and will be punished accordingly. On top of the punishment, you have already given them."
"But that does not mean we will sit by and watch you brutalize one of our own." Vermont added. "I am under orders to bring Forger back and if you do not wish to hand him over peacefully, I will resort to using force."
"Was that a threat?" Musashi asked while drawing his blade. "Because if it was id be more than happy to-"
"Stop Musashi...Just stop." Sebastion sighed heavily before kicking Forger over to Vermont.
"Let's just get Deadeye home, then we can worry about all this shit."
As Vermont helped Forger to his feet, Elise and North made their way back to them. North dragged his chain sword behind him as he limped beside Elise. His exosuit repaired itself while he walked behind Vermont. With all his people accounted for, Vermont turned around and they left the members of Apocalyptic Returning to their own devices.
"So that's why the boss wanted us out here." Reyshin spoke to the figure standing on the branch behind his.
"We were just a distraction for the boss to pick up some new recruit." Executive Hyro added. "Not that I'm surprised though. Our numbers aren't exactly what they used to be." A black handprint covered the face section of his white exosuit. A blade like shield was implanted into his left arm along with floating segmented plates that ran down his arm from his shoulder to the shield.
"Its funner that way though." Reyshin stated.
"Leaves more action for us Executives." Once he finished, the two were left in an uncomfortable silence. "So now what do we do?"
"We bide our time and let the roots of chaos take hold." A mysterious voice ordered. Both Hyro and Reyshin turned around to see the white robed figure standing on a branch before them. Over their shoulders, they carried an unconscious Hook. "Now let us go and regroup with the others."
"And what of Apocalyptic Returning?" Reyshin asked. "If they figure out, we recruited the one that killed Deadeye-"
"That will be of no problem for us." The robed exosuit user spoke. "They will soon have much bigger problems than us."
Scout raised his fist and punched the mirror in front of him. "I got him killed." He spoke in distress to himself in the shattered mirror. "Why! Why! Why! Why! Why!" Each "why" was drawn out and when he stopped there was a moment of silence before he continued. "Why did I run? Why didn't I, why couldn't I-."
Whipping around, Scout walked out the bathroom door into the main part of the cabin.
He mumbled something unintelligible before letting out a yell of anger and throwing a chair across the room and out a window. As he was beginning to fall to his knees, a sudden blast of energy pierced through a cabin wall towards his head.
Disappearing the moment, the blast of energy pierced the wall, Scout's disappearance left the cabin empty. At least that was only for a moment as an exosuit user came crashing through the window Scout threw the chair out of. Before the exosuit user even could think about the situation they were in, Scout teleported beside them.
Scout raised his leg into the air and smashed his foot down into the exosuit user's head. The attack damaged their exosuit and left them disoriented for a moment. And in that moment, Scout grabbed them by the leg, dragged them for a moment and then threw them through the closed cabin door.
The exosuit user flew through the cabin door and landed on the ground in front of the cabin. Rolling for a moment, they stopped directly at the feet of Elise and Justice and a Squad of Chaos Brigade members. As the exosuit user stumbled back to their feet, Scout teleported to the rook of the cabin and stared down at them.
"For fucks sake." Elise complained. "Of course, of all the exosuit users we come across in this place and it's fucking him."
Scout analyzed Elise and Justice for a moment. He noticed the emblem on Elises left shoulder and thought back to when he kicked Hook. It was that same emblem that Hook had on his left shoulder. The emblem he knew all Infinium soldiers wore on their left shoulder. The same emblem that killed Deadeye.
Outstretching his arm, Scouts exosuit exploded with yellow energy as multiple knives formed in front of his hand. Upon completion, the knives teleported into the head of the unaffiliated exosuit user. Blood poured from the exosuit users head that now resembled that of a pin cushion.
When the dead exosuit user hit the floor, two things happened simultaneously. First, all the members of Chaos Brigade raised their HCLR's and pointed them at Scout. Second, Scout teleported directly in front of Elise and punched her face down into the ground. And then finally after standing up straight, Scout let out a slight chuckle.
No normal human can ever hope of going toe to toe with an exosuit user. Even with gadgets and weapons specifically made for combat against exosuit users, it is impossible. An impossibility that even some exosuit users face. Which is exactly why Hellman tries so hard to drill it into the heads of his subordinates that some exosuit users need to be avoided at all costs.
The average exosuit user has only very basic abilities like energy manipulation and enhanced combat capabilities. Yet even with these abilities that make them worlds stronger than the average human. Just not strong enough for someone with a special ability like Scout's teleportation.
Charging his fist with energy, Scout teleported behind a Chaos Brigade member and punched through their head. Gore splattered onto Justice leaving her blind. As she was wiping the blood off the face of her exosuit her foot was suddenly kicked out from under her. Falling to her knees, she was then hit in the face by Scout's knee.
Teleporting behind Justice as she stumbled back, Scout sent a backhand into her face. A shockwave exploded from the backhand and sent Justice flying through a wall of the cabin. But that was not it from Justice as in a flurry of light the cabin exploded. A beam of light shot out of the cabin and blasted into Scout.
Jumping out of the Cabin, Justice landed on a nearby tree branch. Aiming her right hand down at Scout, a beam of light shot out of her hand. But Scout dodged this one by teleporting to the side. And as Justice was charging up another attack, knives of energy began to form all around his body.
After letting out a yell of anger, all the knives teleported into the heads of everybody around Scout. Each member of Chaos Brigade present dropped to the ground dead. But being exosuit users with a decent energy output, the knives meant for Justice and Elise shattered upon making contact with their energy.
Scout teleported above Justice, his leg flying down towards her head. But his kick never landed as Elise grabbed him midair by his other leg. Moving out of the way, Justice watched as Elise slammed Scout into the ground beside her. As Elise raised Scout back into the air by his leg, he suddenly disappeared.
Reappearing beside Elise, Scout's fist pierced through the air towards her face. Unfortunately for him, Elise predicted this and dodged to the side. While under Scout, she drew back her fist and sent a powerful uppercut into Scout's face. The energy filled attack shattered the exosuit surrounding Scout's face and sent him flying back through multiple trees.
"Shit" Justice let out. "Let's get out of here while he's still down."
"Are you an idiot?" Elise snarled. "You want to try running from someone who can teleport? No, we need to endure until our reinforcements arrive."
"Elise?" Justice whimpered in concern while peering up at the trees. "He's...back up."
"Already!?" Elsie thought. "I put so much energy into that punch and this motherfucker is already back up."
"I have to admit." Scout laughed, his blond hair flowing with the breeze. "That fucking hurt. So, to congratulate you for landing a decent hit on me." A sinister smile spread across his face as his blond hair blew to the side revealing his blue eyes. "I'm going to rip your fucking arms off."