The team had been walking down the path for a while, Jet leading the way due to his knowledge of the area. The only thing that was still needed to be known was exactly what kinds of materials and equipment they were supposed to be looking for which only GravGear seemed to truly know what it was. Knowing that this was vital knowledge that everyone needed to know in order to have a more effective search, Jet decided to ask exactly what the goal at the moment was.
“So what exactly is it we’re looking for?” Jet asked. Quicksilver replied quickly.
“Any weapons, parts Grav can use, food or just something useful in general. The more prepared we are, the better.”
GravGear, keeping his head forward, helped narrow the search down with specifics on the needed equipment. “We are mainly looking for things composed up of gears and cogs. Remnants of airships, clock towers, even just an old watch would do. If we can get enough together than taking that outpost will be like taking a sweetroll from a baby.”
“Wouldn’t know what they taste like.,” Jet said, scanning the ground. “Grew up in the slums, not much money. Things got better money-wise, but we never moved.” He bent down to inspect a twisted, burnt piece of metal, shattered glass under it. It was a barely distinguishable clock face. The size of his head.
Air Raid appeared behind Jet and inspected the clock face as well. “There should be some gears here that we can use, though they have to be in a useable condition.” He stated as he began to look through the area around it. “Reminds me, exactly what unit are you in Jet? I know I have seen you around, but I never was able to get a accurate bead on what it is you are doing.” He finished as he picked up a rather melted looking piece of copper up before throwing it away and continuing rummaging the scorched area.
“Services. My last job was working as a clerk in a general store. It wasn’t a bad job, paid pretty well.” He picked up a slightly burnt cog. “Will this work?”
GravGear looked toward the object in Jets hand and nodded, taking it into his aura and putting it into the messenger bag given to him by Mortar. He then began to search around as well with Mortar while Air Raid stayed with Jet. Starting to make a small pile, Air started to speak again.
“Services is a good job, allows for a lot of skills to be learned. Grav was part of one of the Engineer Corps here, though I think that might have been a little obvious. Got told it was to be his job as soon as they learned about his special little abilities.” Air Raid said, chuckling a bit to himself after remembering how that conversation went.
“Must have been quite the talk,” Jet said, remembering the first time he saw Grav’s powers, even though it just happened a day ago. He began finding more and more undamaged gears and clockwork as he got closer to the tower. He called everyone over after noticing that the gears by the base of one of the taller buildings were immaculate.
“Looks like we hit the jackpot here” Mortar stated, everyone nodding in agreement. GravGear started to put the clockwork into his bag, which seemed to be somehow holding all of it while everyone else looked at the surroundings. “Ironic that we find it here” Mortar continued as she realized just what building they were in front of.
“Not really, this building had a number of reasons to have clockwork inside of it.” Air Raid answered, knowing that the building served as both a clock tower and gym. “You didn’t really even try to explore this base at all.” Air Raid looked toward Quicksilver, a question now forming in his mind. “Now I know I haven’t seen you anywhere, what unit are you with?”
“Military Police,” Quicksilver replied, picking up another gear. “You know, this situation feels… off, with all this perfect clockwork here. It isn’t twisted, burnt of disfigured in any way. this one is even shiny.”
Air Raid thought for a moment before answering, “you are actually right. This is rather close to ground zero so even if they had some kind of barrier, they should be a lot more damaged than these ones are.” Mortar was about to speak as a small sound was heard that was a little too familiar to the two.
“It sounds rather distant, but I know that sound anywhere.” Mirage stated as she started looking in the sky towards the direction of the sound. “That is definitely some heavy duty air coming our way. At least one cargo, some choppers, and some kind of recon.” Air Raid sighed as memories started to come back.
“It’s a Sweeping Crew,” he announced as the sound slowly got louder, “and something tells me they have kill on sight orders.” He looked at the current team sizing up chances. “Unless we have a trick other than Grav up our sleeve, we won’t last a second. Any ideas?”
Jet replied, “Well, there is one thing… I’m infused with magic, like Grav. But for some reason, it only activates under periods of extreme stress. I gain the ability to control fire. The stress level would have to be like someone getting gravely wounded, so there’s little chance there.”
Air Raid sighed as Grav walked up to him. “Got anything for some Sweepers?” Air asked Grav, a thoughtful looking appearing on his face.
“I should have just enough,” Grav started as he looked toward the ever growing sound, “but it won't be enough. Extreme stress is what he said, right? Trust me, that will activate the second he sees what a Sweeping Crew looks like.” Grav let a small smile come across his features as he looked toward Jet. “Hope you have some experience in combat, because this is where you can truly prove your worth”
“Don’t worry, I can handle myself. Just stay away, because I kinda go crazy. My eyes even have fire in them. My pain tolerance grows, though, I’m also immune to any amount of temperature, hot or cold.” The sound of rotors was deafening now, and the group was just hidden from view by the building.
The rest of the group took cover as Grav gave a small scoff. “Right,” he said as a red glow started to form around him, “Just try to keep up!” He now yelled as gears started to fly out of his bag and come together. Jet watched as three humanoid shaped creatures formed from the gears, each had what appeared to be some kind of weapon on one arm and a blade on the other. One of the copper made figures turned its head toward Jet before looking at the now visible Sweepers. One heavy cargo VTOL, two attack choppers, and a VTOL drone came into view.
“Okay… So how many people are on their way down?” Jet asked quietly.
“Sweepers… enough to take down a small opposing force.” Grav answered back as his creations started get in a battle ready stance. “Looking at around two IFVs, fifteen ground troops, and some kind of surprise. Also of course the two choppers and drone, which by the way can sense heartbeats through materials so that should be a major target for us.”
“Shouldn’t we get to some vantage point? Maybe an ambush?” Jet was starting to strategize when the choppers started to hover overhead.
“They knew where we were before we even heard them,” Grav started as the drone started to hover overhead as well, “That drone is modified, its range greater than a regular one. They just want to give the ground guys some target practice.” The cargo VTOL stopped short of them and started to descend as the rear door opened revealing all to eager Celestial ground units.
“Sick bastards, look at those shit-eating grins. They enjoy the sight of death.” Jet said, to nobody in particular.
“I think he may be getting some magic in his blood.” Quicksilver whispered to Air Raid.
Air Raid nodded as he replied, “I believe you are right. His scent has changed a tad bit, smells like embers.” He looked toward the now almost fully descended carrier as his expression hardened. “I know Grav can handle himself against the infantry… hopefully that fire has some punch to it.”
The VTOL quickly touched ground, the units within it quickly rushing out to meet the Grav and Jet. The held their fire for the moment, knowing that they would most likely be unarmed, and approached the two. One of the men, a rather pudgier looking human, approached Jet and started to speak to him with an arrogant tone in his voice.
“Alright, lets get this over with.” he barked as the men quickly surrounded the five, their rifles pointed and trigger fingers at the ready. “Tell your friends to come over here and lay on the ground. You have ten seconds before my men give you some new holes to breathe through.” His smudge smile grew as he started to count down slowly.
Jet started to open his mouth, but saw Grav shaking his head with a small smile on his face. Letting it go, he heard the enemy commander get to three with the sounds of fifteen rifles safety being set off. The second Jet heard one he saw all three copper soldiers move at an impossible speed toward an enemy soldier, each one slicing their victim straight in half. At the same time he felt his blood boil and fire start flowing from his hand.
“What the-” was all the enemy commander get muster before Grav had a hold of his throat, his aura more pronounced than before. Jet quickly took the opportunity of confusion to throw fireballs at the semi-panicking soldiers. Four of his six fireballs hit their target, engulfing four of the soldiers in flames while the copper soldier continued slicing left and right. Within seconds, ten soldiers laid dead on the ground with their commander still being held by GravGear. The IFVs took quick notice of this and hastily started to unload lead toward Jet and the copper soldiers while the remaining ground troops circled around Grav with their weapons pointed straight at him.
Jet quickly ducked down as soon as he saw the bullets start flying by him, barely avoiding getting hit. Thinking quickly, he summoned magma from the ground trying for right underneath the IFVs, but instead ending up doing so beneath the landed VTOL. The magma caused the aircraft to start moving erratically left and right before crashing into the IFVs with an explosion. The attack copters quickly saw things turning south and began to open fire toward the three copper soldiers, who just stood their ground as the bullets ricochet off.
Unfortunately, a stray bullet reflected off of one of the copper soldiers managed to hit Jet right in the left shoulder triggering an immediate rage. His eyes started to glow bright as he raised his arms, a giant ball of plasma quickly forming above him as his upper armor slowly started to deteriorate. Within seconds, the giant plasma ball was formed and quickly jumped from his hands towards the first copter, effectively burning right through it without leaving a trace as it jumped toward the second one with the same effect. After that it smashed into the copper soldiers before disappearing. The enemy soldiers could only stare before dropping their weapons and getting into a laying position on the ground.
Jet’s eyes quickly stopped glowing while Grav still held the commander by the throat.
“Woah… Been a while since that happened…” That was everything Jet could get out before he blacked out. The rest of the group stood up. Quicksilver made his way over to Jet, while the other walked towards Grav and the commander.
As they approached, they noticed that a small amount of blood was dripping down from the commanders neck. Taking rapid notice of this, Air Raid yelled out toward Grav.
“Grav, you okay…” he shouted as they got closer to Grav. After getting no answer, Air went into a sprint, reaching him quickly. “GravGear, answer me” he stated as he finally saw where the blood was coming from. A small blade had come out of Grav’s faux left arm, piercing the commanders neck for a slow and painful death. Letting a quick sigh out, Air took Grab by the shoulders and turned him around before shaking him rapidly causing the aura to disappear. GravGear shook his head as he regained his senses.
“Damn… what happened?” he asked toward the group before seeing the carnage caused by Jet. “Oh, guess his fire did have a punch.” he stated as he tried to take a step forward only almost fall over.
“And you also lost control, something that shouldn’t happen with such small creations” Air Raid added as he helped support GravGear, walking him towards Quicksilver and Jet. “You let go… you never let go unless something big happens.”
“Let’s just say a felt a powerful presence…” Grav answered as they got next to Quicksilver. Air Raid put his hand on the batponys’ head.
“Let me look at him,” Air Raid started as he knelt down to look at Jet, “something tells me he needs more than just a stitch.”
Air Raid examined Jet’s shoulder first. Noticing the obvious bullet wound, which would take a rather painful stitch to patch up, he set out from their. He started to speak as he looked over Jet.
“That smell is really bothering,” he started as he examined the veins on a arm closely, “even regular infused humans don’t give off that kind of scent when they are using magic.”
“Do you think it’s the fire mixed with the magic?” Asked Quicksilver.
“No, I have been around that enough to know that scent like the back of my hand.” Air Raid answered as he started to check Jets’ pulse. “This had some part to it that I haven’t encountered before… at least as it was with Jet.”
“So Jet is different than other humans infused with magic? How? I thought that was illegal.” Quicksilver pondered this while Air Raid talked again.
“I can’t be sure until I can test him,” Air Raid started looking over Jets’ head, “but if my hunch is right Jet is quite the special lad. Though that would come with a price.”
“A price? That sounds bad. Is it bad? What is it?!?” Quicksilver began to hyperventilate, his breathing speeding up.
Air Raid started to chuckle as he answered. “Depends on factors. Could be anything from simple little twitches to life draining, hard to say though. I have only seen around three or four others with it.” Air Raid finished as he laid the head down before checking Jets’ heartbeat.
“So isn’t it still illegal anyway? And what kind of powers did the others you’ve seen have?” Quicksilver asked, calming down.
“It’s only illegal if it is artificial, which something tells me this one isn’t.” Air Raid answered as he started to stand up. “His seems to be a naturally occurring one, but then that raises a lot of questions I need to ask him. As for what other kind of powers I have seen, I don’t think I need to say. You saw another one in action.” he finished with a small chuckle.
“Oh. Shouldn’t we go through the wreckages? Find more supplies?” Quicksilver looked around at the crashed helicopters.
Air Raid shook his head as he looked toward the wreckage as well. “We don’t have time. That UAV managed to escape, no doubt to bring a larger force here. We have to get back to the shelter as soon as possible.” he quickly looked toward the downed Jet. “And we have two people unable to walk at the moment.” A look of thought came across Air Raids’ face for a moment. “How much weight can you carry while flying?”
“Less than you’d hope, but more than you’d expect.” Answered Quicksilver. “I can carry one of them.”
Air Raid looked between GravGear and Jet for a moment before speaking. “Take Jet back to the shelter as soon as possible, don’t stop for anything. I will take Grav back and Mortar can grab as much as she can and run back. She is very quick on her feet, so she stands the best chance.” Mortar gave a quick nod before running toward the wreckage. “I trust you can handle Jet and yourself, Quicksilver.” Air Raid stated as he bent down to allow GravGear to hop on his back.