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After Hawk escaped from the constructs and his human pursuer he ran into a strange greenhouse. The plants here were vile creatures. Vines shot out at him but he opened fire with his Spectre mowing down the dragonsnare. A second one reared its head then but this time Hawk managed to somersault out of the way of the vines. He decided it was best to leave this one alive to slow down the other man if he somehow survived the robots.
Then Hawk ran through another doorway and came to the end of the road. Neon green liquid covered the floor of this room. There were parts to some sort of ballistic missile scattered to and fro. He could make out the stabilizer fins in one corner and the long shaft in another. The warhead was busted open and leaking. This is where the neon green material was spewing forth from.
“What madness is this?” he wondered as he surveyed the situation.
Hawk reached down and picked up a metal panel near his feet. It was marked with a strange symbol and the words Biohazard Warning: Nuclear Material. He muttered these words like they were the verse of some voodoo curse and tossed the panel back to the floor. Some of the metallic pieces contained large teeth marks as if something had been feeding on it.
“What kind of monstrosity made those marks?”
As if in answer to the question something moved from above his head. Hawk looked up in time to see a winged mechanical creature dive down towards him. He rolled out of the way and opened fire with his submachine gun. The bullets ricocheted off the creature as Hawk knew they would but just as he predicted as well it threw the creature’s dive off course.
The metal bat, for that was the closest thing Hawk thought it resembled, slammed into the floor with a jolt! It shook its head as if trying to regain its bearings and turned two blinking red eyes towards Hawk. It barred its metallic teeth and the razor sharpness told Hawk that they were the ones that had been chewing on the SOTA. He opened fire again but this time the bat covered itself with its wings to deflect the bullets.
“Damn” Hawk cursed.
Then the bat construct let out an echoing screech that sent Hawk flying backwards with the impact slamming him into the far wall. He dropped to the ground covering his ears with his hands as they started to bleed. He was definitely getting too old for this crap. Hawk found himself kneeling in a puddle of the nuclear waste and cringed inwardly at the implications.
As the automaton approached him on foot, Rick Rapture charged into the room wielding Durendal in his hands. The commotion caught the bat’s attention and it turned its sights on new prey. Coyote quickly changed form to his canine mode and leapt between his captain and the creature. Then the two robots slammed into each other and began clawing and biting ferociously in combat.
Skylar ran over to where Hawk was kneeling and kicked him in the side of the head. The blow knocked him over and caused him to receive a mouthful of the green liquid. The material tasted like sulfur water with a hint of magnesium paste. He remembered the time he drank such a foul tasting concoction and his stomach churned violently.
Hawk wretched all over Skylar’s boots, rather a pair of Rick’s old boots that she had put on along with a spare set of his clothing when she left the ship. Then his body began to tremble and his eyes rolled back into his head. The convulsions grew worse and then stopped suddenly as if the seizure was over. Then it started over again.
Rick came up to him and pulled Skylar Blu back away from the shaking man. Then he knelt down and retrieved some medicinal herbs from his left pocket. He forced them down Hawk’s throat and held the other man until the fit stopped. Slowly the Renegade leader opened his eyes to discover that he was still among the living.
“Why?”
“I don’t kill unless I have too” came Rick’s reply “just sit up and try and breath normally. The herbs will help absorb the radiation.”
With that Rick Rapture left him sitting there and turned back to the battle raging nearby. The bat construct had managed to clutch Coyote’s head within its massive jaws. Then it closed its mouth severing the head with its razor teeth. Coyote’s body fell to the floor lifeless save for the sparks from its internal wiring.
“Nooooo!” Rick shouted then ran forward swinging his broadsword.
The sword connected with the bat’s left wing slicing into it for a quarter of an inch before the bat batted him aside with its other wing. Rick fell backwards with oomph and slammed into Skylar knocking the both of them down into the neon green liquid. Then the bat was on top of them slashing out with its wings in rage slicing into their flesh.
Rick took the brunt of the attack covering Skylar with his body to protect her delicate royal skin. The bat thing continued to slice him with unrelenting strokes. All of his past regrets came to surface as if he knew this were the end. At the forefront of these was his breakup with Skylar Blu. At least he could die with her. No he couldn’t give in to death when he still had the means to protect her from harm.
Rick heaved himself up beneath the metal monster shoving the bat from his back with a reservoir of strength that he didn’t know he contained. He looked about frantically for his sword but could not find it amidst the chaos. Then he heard Hawk grunt and look in the other man’s direction. Hawk held out his dirk for Rick to take.
“Thanks” Rick said grasping the knife in his hand.
Hawk nodded and seemingly passed out from the pain that ravaged his own body. Rick sprang forward hoping to stab the construct in the eye but the beast took flight. Then it dove down at him ready to pin him between it and the solid floor beneath. Rick rolled out of the way and jumped just as the creature leveled off a few feet from the floor. He landed on the bat’s back and grabbed hold of its thick neck as it rolled and jerked trying to knock him free.
Somehow Rick managed to hang on and he inched closer to the creature’s head. In one swift motion he stabbed the wretched beast one of its blinking red eyes. As the bat convulsed he was finally thrown free. The winged automaton slammed into the far wall and exploded in a fireball fueling by the green liquid it had been feeding on. Rick hit the ground hard and felt several ribs crack from the impact. But at least he was still alive.
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