Night 55: Weapon's Range
[from here]If the last room had seemed bright, this one was even brighter- or perhaps that was only because he hadn't been anticipating it at all. This room was totally new to him, and as he stepped through the doors, for the first time since he arrived at the Institute Depth Charge realised that he was aware of every part of his new body, from tip
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When the wall finally opened up and what looked like three cyber raptors clattered into the room, he was almost relieved. Well. Considering his choice had been between these slaggers and the official Dinobot clone, this was the best possible outcome.
Which, given the situation? Was kind of like saying it was better to get a gunshot to the gearbox than it was to get a laser to the face. But, Pit, down here they needed every advantage they could get, and if that meant facing off against three semi-mindless clones rather than one tactical genius, he could roll with that.
Literally, as it turned out.
In a flash one of the raptors leapt forward with a shriek of fury, claws glinting in the bright of the room- and the only thing Depth Charge could do to avoid it was throw himself to the side and into a roll, with the momentum to help push him back up onto his feet as quickly as possible. As painfully, too, with his bad leg. But he didn't flinch. Not yet.
"Stay back!" he managed to bark, and then he was off again; the other two were away from S.T. and the sword guy, even if they were doing a good job showing off their optic lasers, and that was a good enough reason to go on the offensive. He whirled his tail deftly up over his head and swung it down hard, towards the nearest raptor's neck, and willed the blade to be strong enough to cut through steel or hide or whatever these things were made from.
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Unfortunately for the raptor, the attack wasn't enough. Regardless of any damage done with its optics, Depth Charge was able to score a hit on the raptor with his tail harpoon, cutting into a more organic part of its neck. Unfortunately for Depth Charge, this area was not extremely important to the raptor's continued functionality; it wasn't where the thing was vulnerable. So, while there was some sparking and hesitation after wiring was struck beneath scaly flesh, the raptor was able to shake its head again and continue the charge, opening its partly metallic jaws and aiming to score a bite between the man's neck and shoulder.
Meanwhile, the other two raptors continued to fire optical lasers at the non-combatants - that was, until one was hit in the eye by an unexpected projectile between blasts. Another ungodly shriek as the creature realized that there was now something obscuring part of its vision in that eye: cookie crumbs. Its head flailed wildly for a moment, shooting a laser blast in a random direction in an attempt to burn the crumbs away.
It just so happened that that random direction was just slightly off of a serious hit to its partner. The optical blast hit a glancing blow off the second raptor's arm, causing it to temporarily stop its own attacks in favour of shooting the flailing raptor a death glare. The two traded snarls and growls, their attention turned away from the intruders for just a few moments.
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He almost didn't register that he had an opening to give Depth Charge some help in time, the sight was so unexpected. Realize he did, however, and he took that opportunity. With no more laser blasts firing, he took a short rush forward and yelled out at the raptor attacking D.C.: "Hey! You! With the face!"
Hoping that would be enough to distract the attacker, even for a microsecond, Scott raised Senna's sword over his head, pointed the hilt at Depth Charge, and hurled it over the raptor's head like a javelin. Here's hoping 20X6 here is a good catch, he thought with mentally crossed fingers. Scott knew he could still defend himself, even without a weapon; he even preferred to fight weaponless in some situations. Depth Charge he figured was a capable enough fighter as well, but if the raptors really were focusing on keeping him as their main opponent in this fight (and they seemed to be), then Scott figured Depth Charge was going to be the one who needed all the weaponry he could get.
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While Curly and Moe were doing the Three Stooges routine in the background, they had a shot at taking down Larry Leader. Or at least D.C. did, while he was just going to try to avoid being dino chow.
Scott did something high on the idiotic/heroic scale, chucking his sword to give D.C. a double-barreled assault. Flinging more crap around was just going to get someone smacked in the face with something a little sharper than Chips Ahoy.
He stepped closer to Scott. Either the kid was going to need the minimal protection of a piece of steel pipe. Or he was about to do something awesome. Safest place would be beside the guy with the super powers, not in between him and the enemy.
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Which meant doing his slagged best to dodge when the raptor decided it was time for a counter attack, and he'd bared gotten the end of the tail blade out of the creature's neck before its head snapped towards him, ominously close to his shoulder-- and then he heard someone shouting. Not S.T., and not one of the raptors. Next thing he knew, there was a sword flying towards him. Wait, a sword?
Ordinarily he'd have rounded on the thrower (three guesses who) for giving up his and S.T.'s only means of defense, but in this sort of situation you couldn't afford to be picky. The raptor's jaws were all but brushing his skin, so close that he could feel the heat of it, when he dived for the hilt- and clasped it. Just.
Which left little time for strategising, given his proximity to the cyber raptor and Sword Guy's official disarmament, but by then he'd already had time to process the situation. Cyber raptors. This wasn't anything he hadn't seen before, hadn't fought, so he had to know their weakness. It was in there somewhere: flashing in the back of his memory core like a set of blinking Interface Me lights.
... he was so stupid.
Without another thought, he readjusted the sword in his left hand and swung it towards the blinking device on the raptor's back. Second time's a charm...
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Its attention was back on Depth Charge after that, but the distraction had cost it time. Its bite missed by precious millimeters. Its opponent was lower to the ground, giving the raptor an advantage there, but now he had double the armament. Angered, the raptor shrieked and lifted its metal foot to swipe at Depth Charge's stomach.
Unfortunately for it, whether it did any damage or not, the sword strike was good. The blade was dull, but it was sharp and heavy enough to significantly damage one side of the blinking control unit. The raptor's movements jolted at that, and more sparks flew. The creature jumped and flailed its arms, movements erratic and impossible to predict. If Depth Charge wasn't careful, he might yet get hit by a stray claw swipe.
Meanwhile, the other two raptors had shaken themselves out of their infighting, and refocused their efforts. It seemed the other two members of the party were now unarmed, but their packmate was also not doing well. They split their efforts. One fired off a laser blast in Depth Charge's direction as an aid to the malfunctioning raptor. The other took a run for Scott and S.T., firing more blasts and hoping to immobilize them with its claws.
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That metaphorical burning sensation became literal when one of the laser blasts finally caught him, burning clean through his left pant leg and badly singing his calf. Scott couldn't help but stop for a half-second as pain seized up his leg, making him stoop some. That was all the opening the raptor needed to get up close to him for a double swipe at his face. Scott yelped as small claws raked down across his cheeks and jaw; he pulled back just fast enough to keep his face from being torn open, but even shallow wounds were worse than none.
"Son of a-! You are not a nice dinosaur!" was about all the wit Scott could manage as he took a duck and roll to the side. Hoping to get to the raptor before it could slice up S.T., Scott pushed off the ground on his good leg for a powered leap forward, aiming to give Robo Rex a shoryuken to the jaw.
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O.K., it reeked. It was a fuck of a lot better than dead bodies or shit like Sarin nerve agent. Humanity had evolved a nose designed to instinctively avoid disease from the former by violent nausea. Kick contaminated water or food out before it had time to sink in. The latter didn't smell like anything at all. Technology had outstripped nature on that one. Even if it was aromatic in the nontechnical sense, by the time it was close enough it was too late. Lethal doses walked through skin like politicians past a protest march. Stadium mustard through unrecycleable paper napkins. Made PCBs look like a mountain spring.
Sangamon Taylor was used to this. When one of the fossils went for Scott, he did what he did best. Jumped in like some kind of fucking idealist who thought he could change the world. He stepped forward and took a two-handed backhand swing at the little red light bobbing at the top of the antenna, aiming to knock it towards the far wall. Or at least splatter the thing all over the room.
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Didn't matter, anyway. He'd pinpointed their weak spot, same as it ever was back on prehistoric Earth, and that put him at a distinct advantage- so long as he could forget that his new, human weak spot was essentially his entire fragging body.
"Yeah? Tell that to Megatron," he called over his shoulder, to Not-Sword Guy, narrowly avoiding the powerful swing of the raptor's tail. "He was the one who designed the slaggers."
Smart-afting aside, there wasn't much time for joking. He had to figure out some sort of action plan before the other two ended up raptor food or this one lost the plot entirely and self-destructed or something. Swinging around, he raised his good arm up over his head and hurled his tail harpoon towards the raptor snapping at S.T.- it looked like the other guy could handle himself, just for a nanoklik.
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Such a conclusive kill came at a price, however. All zeroing in on the same target meant that the three men still had both the unpredictable movements of the malfunctioning raptor and the actions of a perfectly functioning, 100% undamaged raptor to deal with. Still nearby to Depth Charge, the malfunctioning one continued to flail and spark at random, its shrapnel-spiked tail swinging in a wild half-circle right at the Maximal's torso. The rest of its control unit would have to be disabled before it ceased functioning entirely.
Meanwhile, the functional raptor did not take very kindly to the destruction of its packmate. It took advantage of Depth Charge still being under attack, keeping its distance on the other side of the room and firing lasers first at S.T. and Scott to keep them at bay, then at Depth Charge's backside. Then with a roar, it charged in for what was intended to be a killing blow with its large metal foot claw.
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Scott's thoughtless question was cut off by another laser blast, though thankfully, he caught sight of it just in time to dodge. Well, almost. It managed to singe the bottom corner of his parka, which filled Scott's nose with the smell of burnt fabric. No time to think about the consequences of breaking the fourth wall: they still had problems inside walls 1-3 to deal with, apparently.
He turned back to S.T., whom he really hoped hadn't gotten hurt yet. "You okay there?" he asked, eyes glancing back and forth between him and the melee with Depth Charge. "Think you can get an opening to smash that glitchy guy's radio box thing? I'm gonna try going for the other one."
And he knew just what he could do it with, too. Depth Charge had returned Scott's favour by giving them the harpoon to use. Not what Scott had intended when he tossed his sword over, but he was going with it for now. Wincing as he put weight on his burned calf, Scott twisted the harpoon out of the fallen raptor's back. It was a lot heavier than it looked, he thought as he hefted it over one shoulder.
There! The undamaged raptor had made a charge. Hoping that harpoons weren't much harder to aim than swords, Scott lobbed the weapon across the room with as much force as he could muster (which, admittedly, was a lot considering his body size). He was aiming for the control box, but with a moving target and an unfamiliar weapon, all he was really hoping for was any kind of debilitating hit.
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"Sure." Good all-purpose answer. S.T. sounded more confident than he was. He'd had a lot more practice dodging bullets and a variety of other macroscopic unhealthy objects over the past few months, but he was well aware this wasn't his usual gig. He felt about as well-equipped for safari as a yuppie who'd bought a Land Rover and khakis and a fishing hat.
Shit, both of then were going for Depth Charge. He pulled his head out of his ass and ran like a defensive lineman that just had a pass fall in his hands. He wasn't sure what to do but if he didn't do it fast he was going down. No time to line up a perfect shot -- as soon as the spasming cyborg-reptile was maybe in range he started swinging. The first swing was too short, but the second hit the corner of the box, glancing off in a shower of sparks.
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Not that he had long to celebrate, what with the curve ball Ex-Sword Guy tossed his way a nanoklik later. "What? How do you know Megatron?!" How did he know Optimus Prime, for that matter? That would have been impossible, unless he was from around the same time that the Autobots were on Ear-
Something thick, hard and muscular slammed into the small of Depth Charge's back and sent him sprawling: the raptor's tail, heavy with metal and winding him, sucking out the breath he would have used to cry out when another laser grazed his hip-bone. Primus, that hurt a lot more there than it had on his shoulder!
Luckily for him, S.T. was already on the case. As he saw the man's lash out towards the control unit he dropped his head, shielding his face from the inevitable rain of sparks- but he wasn't just going to cower like Waspinator or someone. With a grunt of effort he rolled onto his side and kicked out at the raptor's legs, trying to knock it to the ground.
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Depth Charge's fall and roll also did well against the functional raptor, surprisingly. The move may have been meant for the malfunctioning one, but it put the Maximal out of the path of a fatal attack, meaning the beast landed just behind his head rather than on top of him. Still, that put it dangerously close, enough so that the raptor's next screech would be pure torture to the eardrums.
There was still good news here, though. Said screech ended up being the result of the harpoon landing a hit on the raptor. It was far from direct, as expected, but the weapon did pierce just below the grated metal on the raptor's lower haunch, making movement of that leg much more clunky and awkward. It also provided a good opportunity for the weapon to be grabbed back by either Depth Charge or Sangamon.
Enraged, the surviving raptor shook its leg wildly, unable to get the harpoon out. In its fit, more lasers were fired near the ground, this time at close quarters with the men.
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Yeah. Not the best of circumstances.
At least there was only one of it now? So long as no one was killed in the next five seconds, the odds looked to be in their favour.
"Tell you later! After we take care of Jurassic Park III here!" Scott shouted back to Depth Charge across the room as he took a charge toward the melee. Again taking care not to leap off his injured leg, he took a powered leap into the air and aimed a Bruce Lee-style flying kick at the raptor's backside. "Tag team it, guys! Let's go!"
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There was a harpoon sticking out of its leg. Or Depth Charge's tail, but that line of thought needed a lot more drugs to make sense. He reached out for the end of it. When he had a hand on it, he didn't so much pull as just let it ride along, like a lazy paddler. It had a nasty barbed head. Do more damage on the way out, but getting it there required leverage. Maybe standing up.
Or he could just slow it down. Turn this whole thing into a Hemingway/Melville mashup with an aging hippie playing Ol' Ahab. That was the vicodin and the pain talking, but it wasn't a bad idea, was it? He hung on.
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