Vinyl VS 'The Clan' (Part 2)
The world around Vinyl was a continuous, cacophonous explosion of war and destruction. Bullets bit through the frigid air like angry bees, chunks of building exploded into dust, carriages and trolleys shuddered and convulsed as they took heavy metal rounds; the gunfire was constant. That, coupled with the snow and sleet that battered hard against the entire scene, it made everything that much more intense.
“Do not let them break this line!” Twilight roared; voice just barely audible over the gunfire and destruction. “Hold them for just a while longer!”
Vinyl flinched as a bullet grazed the armor on her shoulder, sidestepping before raising her rifle and firing down the street. The enemy team had charged in, guns blazing as expected; though their strength had been more than anticipated. It was like every member of the enemy team actually knew what they were doing for once. Usually there were only a handful of skilled players per game, but this entire team, the way the held their ground and attacked. It seemed almost too organized.
Two of the Heavy-Class robots on the enemy team had taken up positions up near the rear. They held their machine guns lowered at the hip, firing in the general direction of their enemy almost constantly. Vinyl had managed to figure out who the two striped individuals had been. It was Flim and Flam, from her first game; Funny how small this virtual world could be sometimes. The two of them were completely healed and showed no signs of Twilight’s rifle rounds. So it led her to assume that they had a medic holed up somewhere on the other side of the street, but as of yet she wasn’t sure exactly where.
In the past two minutes, as the enemy had drawn closer, Vinyl had noticed a trend in the enemy team that would possibly explain their efficiency. Not a single enemy was below level 12. They all were experienced, with good gear and seemed to be moving as if under orders to do so.
“Gah, dammit!” A voice cried out. Vinyl looked to her left, catching a brief glimpse of March taking a hard hit to the stomach. It blasted into the armor, sending smoke, flame and machine fluid spurting out of the wound. March clutched at the hole, body trembling a bit as she tried desperately to raise her rifle and return-fire, only to be forced onto her back by machine-gun fire.
Vinyl gritted her teeth, ducking behind the large pile of stacked vehicles and rubble that had been created, and moving her way over to March’s position; even as bullets and rubble rained down around her. She reached March and quickly grabbed her arm, pulling her down behind the junk-wall.
“Where are they, the guy who hit you?” Vinyl asked quickly, wincing a bit as an explosion on the other side of the barrier sent rubble and a trolley-wheel flying over her head.
“Agh…the left of the street, two blocks down, she’s…she’s got some sort of cannon, I’ve never seen anything like it, be careful!” March said sharply, wincing as her stomach popped and crackled. “Ah…damn, I’m leaking reactor fluid.”
“I need our medic, now!” Vinyl roared, turning and looking down the length of the barrier at their Medic; who was already on his way over. Satisfied, Vinyl took a moment to ready for herself. She would have only a precious few seconds to find and attack this cannon-wielding enemy, before she herself took a hit.
With a deep breath, she rose up from behind the barrier; bringing her rifle with her. Left side, two blocks down. Vinyl swung the rifle around to that general area, and found that her target wasn’t at all hard to find. In fact, her target wasn’t really even in cover. Out on the left side of the street, stood the most hefty-looking Warrior-Class robot she had ever seen.
The Warrior-Class was painted a pale, grayish pink, with dark purple accents on the forearms, shins and around the visor. The armor plating itself was bulkier than usual, more rounded and with more of a presence to it overall. There was a single image of a diamond ring painted onto each shoulder of the robot, though what was probably the most eye-grabbing out of everything about the mechanical beast, was the gigantic, pulsing cannon that sat in place of what would normally have been its right arm; Above the robot’s head, floated the words “MoneyMare” accompanied by a whopping level indicator of ‘30’.
Pushing her surprise at such a high-level aside, Vinyl took aim and fired. Heavy rounds thumped rhythmically as they were spouted out from the end of her weapon. They struck true, tearing into ‘Moneymare’s’ armor and causing her to stumble back. She roared in defiance, swiping a clawed, mechanical hand at the incoming stream of bullets and raising her cannon up to face Vinyl.
“Damn!” Vinyl cursed, just as the cannon was aimed at her, began to hum, and then unleashed a rumbling shot of energy straight for her. The DJ turned, diving to her left and away from the point of impact. The shot exploded onto the junk-barrier, and sent bits of concrete, vehicle and street all flying in various directions.
A new voice roared out over the battle, it sounded rather…well, unpleasant, harsh, commanding and unpleasantly uppity. “Kill them! Crush them all, I want victory within the next five minutes or someone is getting demoted!”
Vinyl raised an eyebrow as she started pushing herself back upright, taking a knee and peeking out from over the top of a truck that had been stacked atop a trolley and then squashed with a large chunk of concrete. The new voice was coming from the high-level, cannon-wielding robot.
‘MoneyMare’ had seemingly recovered from her various bullet wounds, and was back out at her post on the left side of the street, firing away. In fact, there weren’t any holes in her armor at all! It was like she hadn’t ever been hit!
At that moment, Vinyl couldn’t help but notice a slight dip in the amount of enemy gunfire. She peeked out over the top of her cover once more, and took inventory of the robots shooting at said barrier. The two Heavy-Class robots had moved up, more into the middle of the street. One of them was keeping their fire focused on wherever Twilight was, at all times. Vinyl guessed they had figured out what a threat she was and figured out that keeping her under wraps would be a good idea.
She could see Minuette popping in and out of cover, zipping around the street about a block away and either lobbing explosives or unleashing quick barrages of energy-shots downrange, but aside from her…there really weren’t very many of the enemy over on the other side of the street. Where had the rest of them gone off to?
Vinyl gasped softly as a Racer-Class beside her, one ‘CameraClick’, exploded from the chest up into a ball of flame. He had caught a cannon-round from ‘MoneyMare’ that had blown his chest and head to shreds. His body flew backwards against the pavement like some sad ragdoll, rolled a bit, and then lie motionless.
With the fear of being flanked even now, in her mind, Vinyl could do little more than hold the line until their reinforcements dropped from the roofs behind the enemy. She took aim, straight for Flam’s Heavy-Class. Rifle rounds thumped away and flew straight into his visor. They hit hard, the first few only plinking off, but then eventually beginning to form cracks in the super-strong glass.
Flam let out a displeased howl, swinging his machine gun around and leveling it with where Vinyl stood. The DJ let out a yelp as bullets began to tear her cover apart. Various bits of debris flew this way and that, but the mixture of concrete and trolleys managed to hold off the fire; for now at least.
She turned her gaze over to where Mjolna and March had taken up arms, the two of them ducked in and out of cover frantically, exchanging fire with Minuette and ‘MoneyMare’. It was hard for Mjolna, the Heavy-Class, to get in much in the way of returning fire though. If she stayed exposed for too long then she was met with a hail of fire from the majority of those down the street. Her armor was flayed and ripped in many places, smoke pouring from her right shoulder.
Poor March was better than she had been last time Vinyl saw her, but not by much. Their medic had managed to patch up her stomach, but she was still missing an arm, and now most of her shoulder on that same side.
Twilight was faring the best out of them all, she had managed to avoid taking too much fire, but only because she was constantly in cover. Their enemy had pushed her into one of the alleyways near their little wall, and the corner wall of the building she was using as cover had become almost non-existent. She called for covering fire, frantically so, but none could be given.
There were a few others, Their Medic and two Racer-Class. The medic could do little to help fight aside from his pistol, and the two Racer-Class were able to do even less. One of them, ‘DoubleD’ had taken a hit to the shoulder and his arm hung limp at his side.
Greater in number or not, they were in a bad spot, A very bad spot and it would only get worse if they were indeed being flanked like Vinyl thought.
There was a sudden commotion from the other side of the barrier, Vinyl returned her gaze back out over the top, watching in pure joy as soon as she laid eyes upon the scene. Currently in the process of smashing Flam’s face in, was a giant turquoise Heavy-Class. It had pure-white accents in more places than she could count, and the hands were painted a bright gold. An image of a harp was worn on each shoulder, and over the beast’s head were the words ‘HandsR4Real’, followed by a level indicator of 7. Accompanying this robot was a Warrior-Class. It was painted beige, with pink and navy-blue accents around the visor and on the shoulder-plates. Two images were painted onto this robot, on the shoulders were three pieces of candy, and on the visor was a stylized image of sunglasses. It carried twin SMG’s, and over it floated the words ‘SecretAgentHorse’, along with a level indicator of ‘11’.
‘HandsR4Real’ had grabbed Flam by the shoulder, broken his gun, and then proceeded to slam her fist hard enough into his visor-plate that it cracked outwards in all directions and sent him sprawling out onto the icy pavement. She turned, ducking beneath an oncoming swing from Flim and then grabbing him by the wrist as she did, twisting his arm around and lifting her thick, stumpy leg and pressing it on his hip. She pulled and twisted; hard enough that Flim’s arm popped and cracked.
Meanwhile, ‘SecretAgentHorse’ was charging for ‘MoneyMare’, unleashing all she had right into the side of the enemy robot. ‘MoneyMare’ shrieked and swung her cannon around. It cocked with a loud, threatening whirr and unleashed a massive shot of energy into the ground beside her attacker.
“Now! Charge, Go!” Twilight roared, stepping from her cover and sprinting out over their barricade and into the street.
The sound of Twilight’s rifle finally starting to fire once more, spurred Vinyl and her teammates to follow suit. As one, they leapt over their barricade and charged forth. Epic cries of confidence and war echoed throughout the city. As they ran, Vinyl was able to spot the source of ‘MoneyMare’s’ rapid healing. She had a medic; a pure white Warrior-Class robot crouched down in an alleyway beside her, constantly healing her whenever she took damage. The Warrior-Class had pink accents, and an image of a red cross was painted on either shoulder. The name ‘HealingHooves’ floated above her head, next to the level indicator of ‘12’.
An evil grin came across Vinyl’s face. She’d take care of this, no problem.
The DJ charged forth, unhindered. Her enemies were all too busy dealing with the robots that had dropped in on them from above, to notice her right away. Flim and Flam were locked in combat with ‘HandsR4Real’ and March. ‘MoneyMare’ was too busy trying to simultaneously dodge and return fire at Twilight and pretty much the entire enemy team. She was getting torn apart, but her medic was making sure wounds healed almost as fast as they were dealt.
Vinyl raised her rifle, taking aim right for the enemy medic. She fired, and connected instantly. ‘HealingHooves’ flinched and shuddered as she ate lead. She shrieked and fright, trying to simultaneously keep her healing ray active and on ‘MoneyMare’. This proved detrimental to her own health, more than was apparently worth staying and healing her friend for. ‘HealingHooves’ retreated farther into the alley as she took more hits.
“Gah! Redheart, what did I say about your job!” ‘MoneyMare’ roared, whipping around even as she took a shot to the shoulder. Her gaze came to rest upon Vinyl, and the evil, fiery glare could be felt even through both their visors and digital space.
Vinyl faltered a bit, scrambling to a halt and raising her rifle to fire. She managed to get off but a dozen rounds before ‘MoneyMare’ had swung her cannon around and taken a potshot; The energy orb whipped by Vinyl’s arm, singeing her weapon and causing her to recoil a bit. The DJ righted herself quickly, beginning to backpedal as ‘MoneyMare’ took another shot, and missed by only a few feet. The round exploded into the pavement and threw Vinyl backwards, onto the ground. She rolled, frantically scrambling to get around the corner of the nearest building and out of the line of fire. Maybe charging straight in hadn’t been the smartest idea she’d ever had.
‘MoneyMare’, luckily enough, had been forced to turn her attention onto March; who had taken advantage of her being distracted and gotten in some good; but fruitless, hits onto her stomach.
Vinyl spat out a colorful string of curses, leaning against the wall of an apartment building and checking her rifle. It was charred, blackened, and the end of the barrel was melted shut. The heat of the shot that grazed her weapon had completely ruined it. She growled, tossing it down onto the ground and reaching into a thigh compartment. Out of it, she pulled a monster of a handgun out; The P-Eagle, a large, energy-style pistol with 9-round clips. It was colored a shiny silver, and blue lines glowed over its surface. She brought it up before her, pulling back the slide and cocking the weapon just as March stumbled over next to her, and collapsed against the side of the building.
She didn’t look good at all. There was little to no armor on March’s left side. Her right leg was bent and barely functional. Her visor was fragmented and missing large chunks, and machine fluid and smoke coughed from many a hole in her armor. A small fire had sprouted up on her back, and burned hot through a hole in the armor. Her weapons were nowhere to be seen.
“Jeeze, March…” Vinyl said softly, grabbing her by what was left of her left shoulder and helping her stay upright.
“Yeah…Medic got blasted, so I’m in a bit of a bad spot…” She winced as sparks flew from her left side, and another fire started up. “My power cell’s gonna bleed out soon if we don’t get me some help…” She said grimly.
Just then, from above, a robot dropped. It fell right behind March, seemingly out of nowhere. Vinyl tried to warn her, to call out, or even to raise her gun and fire, but nothing could be done in time. She could only watch in horror as a large, glowing-red sword was driven directly through March’s back. It punched through armor with ease, melting and slicing directly into her visor. She screamed in shock, raising her one mechanical hand to grasp at the blade, as if doing so would save her in some way.
The blade was twisted, causing her body to shudder and go limp. As it was removed, she slumped down onto the ground with a heavy ‘Crash!’ and moved no more. The words. “MarchyMarch was eliminated by MasterDJNeon’ shone brightly in the top corner of her HUD, and once the body had fallen, Vinyl was able to get a clear image of an old nemesis.
Neon Lights stood over the body of March. His armor was still a dull grey as it had been last time, and with the same black accents. Though, this time the armor was more angled, sharper-looking. He clutched a short-sword in one hand, the blade steamed and radiated with heat. All around the edge it shone a bright, hot red. His level was now ‘12’.
“What’s up hot stuff?” He said with a cocky grin, swinging his sword around in his hand and brandishing it outwards at her.
Vinyl only growled in reply, fury coursed through her blood. She raised her weapon, aiming it directly for Neon. Though, he anticipated the obvious and predictable move. With a swipe of his sword he cut the gun clean in half, sending the larger end of the barrel flying off onto the street.
The DJ dropped the ruined weapon, stepping back and reaching around to draw her combat axe. She brandished the handle in front of her in one hand, pressing the button on the hilt and watching as the large axe unfolded in a seemingly impossible manner, from within its own handle. The blade radiated a bright red glow, and steamed visibly in the chilly weather.
“You don’t sound very pleased to see me!” Neon spat, bouncing a bit and stepping closer to Vinyl. He swung his sword around and then down upon her, a blow she easily parried with her axe. Sparks snapped and flew out from the point of contact like firecrackers. “I mean, last time we met you didn’t give me a chance to put up a fair fight!”
“I’m going to kill you just like last time too!” She hissed in reply, swinging her axe around at his side. “What’re you even doing here?”
Neon spun, parrying the swing and shoving Vinyl’s axe away easily. “I mean, look at this anyway!” He said with a laugh, stabbing for Vinyl’s head and then quickly bringing his fist up to slam into her visor as she put all her effort into parrying the attack. “I join this high-level clan that’s supposed to be the top of the cake!”
Vinyl yelped as she was hit, stumbling over into the side of a nearby building. Next thing she knew, Neon was on her, raising his sword up above his head to stab down into her shoulder. “And here we are, once again on the stage of war!”
The DJ, brought an arm up, grabbing Neon’s wrist as he brought the sword downwards. The tip of the blade melted into her armor, hissing and crackling as it melted through. Vinyl put all her might into shoving him back, causing her nemesis to stumble a bit and giving her time to lunge forth and take a vicious swing with her axe.
Neon laughed manically, swinging his sword down and parrying her swing. “Come on babe, you can do better than that!” He mocked, taking a stance ad twirling his blade around in one hand.
Vinyl raised her axe again, steadying herself and taking a split-second to glance at the battle out in the middle of the street. It wasn’t going well, for her team at least. She had looked at just the right time to see a new enemy Heavy-Class. It was the one whom had launched a missile at them earlier, ‘Krat0s’, level 28. He was currently squashing a white Racer-Class beneath his metal fist. Flim was in a smoking pile of shredded metal on the street; dead, but ‘HandsR4Real’ was now busy trying to fend off the enraged twin-brother Flam. Twilight was desperately struggling to dodge incoming shots from ‘MoneyMare’, and take shots at ‘Krat0s’, who had now turned his attention to her. Minuette was just flitting about causing hell for whoever she could find. This whole ‘Charge forth and win’ plan had gone to hell really fast.
After an extremely brief overview of the battle to her right, Vinyl kicked it into gear and charged forward. Her team may lose, she may be obliterated, but she’d be damned if she let Neon Lights be the one who took her out. She swung her axe down, hard. It slashed against Neon’s sword and sent more sparks flying out all around. Again she swung, upwards. This blow was less easily parried and ended up slashing a small gash across Neon’s armor and visor.
Neon winced, chuckling to himself as he stepped back and scratched a mechanical finger against the gash. “Come on, I know you like going deeper!” He said, the words oozing from his mouth.
“Creep!” Vinyl roared, taking her axe in both hands and charging again. She raised it above her head, swinging it down upon Neon. He sidestepped; spinning around and slashing his sword across her lower back.
Vinyl let out a pained cry, collapsing to her hands and knees on the pavement. She wouldn’t go out, not like this, not to him. Never to him. He’d gloat about it too much, use it against her and mock her at every turn both in-game and in the actual, physical world. Not that she cared, she just hated hearing the slimy little bastard run his mouth. The armor integrity across her back had dropped low, very low. It flashed bright red and showed a holding percentage of 65%; that hit hadn’t done her any favors.
The DJ tried to push herself up, only to receive a swift kick to the gut that would have forced her to vomit had it actually been physical. She keeled over onto her side, quickly finding herself met with Neon’s clawed foot dug into her chest; sword raised above his head. Vinyl snarled in defiance, swinging her axe around and hurling it directly for his visor.
The weapon struck true, and buried itself directly into the middle of his visor plate. Super-strong or not, a red-hot combat axe to the face was hard to repel. Neon cried out in shock, stumbling backwards and falling onto the ground. He dropped his sword, bringing both hands up to the axe and trying to pull it from his visor.
“Gah, son of a….Minuette!” He roared, rolling over onto his side and shakily trying to right himself. No doubt the axe shoved into his cockpit was making seeing his world clearly a problem.
Vinyl had just pushed herself up when he had called for help. The sound of a Racer-Class boosting up rapidly behind her pulled her attention. The DJ turned just in time to see Minuette; the little blue racer, leap forwards and grapple onto her front end.
“Gah, you!” Vinyl spat, swinging an arm around to swat the little robot away, only for said robot to boost up and around onto her back.
“As a dentist, I know the DRILL when it comes to cleaning up messes like you!” Minuette retorted, slipping forth an arm-blade from her forearm and jamming it down into her opponent’s back.
“No! No puns!” Vinyl spun around a bit, swiping and clawing desperately to try and remove the blue annoyance. The sight of her rear-armor being dropped lower and lower only made her movements more frantic. It didn’t take long for her to realize that swiping and spinning was not a viable plan, and she could already see Neon out of the corner of her eye, finally pulling the axe from his visor. She formulated a plan, quick, hopefully effective.
She stopped cold, bent her knees and then leapt backwards. Minuette hadn’t been expecting this and ended up coming down with her. The next sound that was heard was the unpleasant crunching of metal and armor. Vinyl quickly rolled onto her side, slamming a fist down onto Minuette’s chest as she tried to get up. The little blue robot coughed, weakly slashing out with her blade to no effect.
Vinyl wasted no time in finishing her off. “Try and make shitty puns without a head!” Vinyl growled; slamming her palm down onto the damaged robot’s head and gripping hard. Minuette shrieked and stabbed away, but it did nothing to save her. Vinyl pulled, hard. The Racer-Class convulsed and quivered, machine fluid and sparks spurted out onto the street, and with that, Minuette was no more.
Vinyl tossed the disembodied head to the side, not even bothering to look at the Kill-Notification on her HUD. She groaned a bit as she stood upright, hearing sparks pop and snap from her badly-damaged back. She would run just fine, just would have to be a bit more careful. Her armor integrity back there was down to like 38% in some areas. A few well placed shots and she’d be out for the count.
“Look at you, Vinyl….”
Vinyl snapped her gaze over to where Neon stood. He had removed the axe from his visor and now brandished both it and his own sword.
“You’ve lost! Your team is falling even as we speak…You’ve got one, two heavy classes left, and two warriors?” Neon let out an evil, manic cackle. “You can’t even hold a candle to what we’ve got, not even in numbers, in raw, unbridled talent…go ahead, take a look, watch your team fall…”
Vinyl took a step back, briefly flashing her gaze over back into the street behind her. He was right, it wasn’t looking good. Twilight had either run out of ammo or lost her weapon, and was currently firing with her sidearm at ‘MoneyMare’, who simply shrugged off the shots and paid them little mind as she put a round directly into ‘SecretAgentHorse’s’ chest and sent her flying through the air and into the side of a building.
‘HandsR4Real’ wasn’t exactly in good shape, ‘Krat0s’ was seeing to that. She just barely was able to block an incoming punch from one spike-tipped hand, only to receive another straight to the gut that crumpled her armor inwards something terrible.
Flim and Flam had died, but other than that they hadn’t taken much ground without losing some of their own as well. “Doesn’t mean I won’t tear you a new one.” She deadpanned, turning back to face Neon with gritted teeth. “You’ll die before they get to me…”
Neon let out another cackle, twirling both weapons in his hands. “Oh, you don’t have to worry about that. Once I figured out you were on the enemy team, well…I told them to leave you to me if at all possible. I wanted the pleasure of driving a sword through your gut and having you fall to your knees before me, because, well, let’s be honest; we all know you want to.”
Vinyl’s gaze turned even colder than it already was. He would pay dearly for that mouth of his.
“Give me my axe then, we can fight it out like equines. Honor and all that.” Vinyl said with a grin, squaring up and readying herself for his attack. He wouldn’t give her the axe, she knew it full well. He would charge her, and she would be ready.
“You’d like that, huh?” He cocked his hips for a moment, tossing the axe up in the air and catching it once more. “Nah, I think I’ll keep it!” With that, he charged forth, straight for Vinyl.
She took a deep breath. She was severely outgunned, and badly wounded. If she could pull this off though, she’d be perfectly fine with losing this particular game. As Neon charged forth, Vinyl waited until the last possible second. He slashed downwards with both weapons, and she ducked down and hurled herself forward; straight into his chest.
Neon let out a ‘Hurk!’ of surprise, as if he had been winded. Vinyl wrapped her arms around his waist, putting everything she had into picking him up and using his own momentum to bring him up and over her own head. Neon hadn’t been anticipating this, and as hoped, went face-plate first into the pavement. She went down with him, of course, only onto her back. She had seen this move on TV, in wrestling. In all honesty, the DJ was completely surprised it had worked.
Vinyl quickly rolled over, grabbing Neon’s sword and ripping it from his loosened grip. She delivered a hard kick to his back, slamming his visor down into the pavement even harder with a sharp ‘Crack!’. She stumbled back a bit, brandishing his sword outwards and holding it with both hands. She waited until he tried to get up, and then swung it upwards like a golf club. The superheated blade sliced into his right shoulder and came clean out the other side.
Neon let out a pained scream and clutched at the wound, the mechanisms of his right arm almost completely severed at the shoulder; rendering it immobile and useless. He pushed himself up, scooping his opponent’s axe up off the pavement and making a blind, stupid charge straight for her.
Vinyl easily dodged the attack, spinning around beside him and viciously jabbing the blade she held, outwards. It sliced straight into his back, through the armor, machinery and plating, eventually protruding from the other side and out of his chest.
“N-no!” He cried weakly, helpless to do anything but cry out as Vinyl stepped up behind him and grabbed his shoulder tightly.
She kicked hard at the back of his leg, causing Neon to collapse to his knees. As he went down, her blade pulled up. It sliced and melted through everything it touched, cutting Neon clean in half from the waist up. Fire and smoke coughed forth from his body, and the lifeless metal corpse collapsed onto its side in the middle of the icy road.
Vinyl, battle-worn and battered, clutching in her hand the very sword of her enemy; stood there for a moment even as snow whipped and swirled around her. It would have made one hell of a picture; if only someone had been there to take it. There she stood, over the burning, smoking corpse of her long-time enemy, it all looked rather epic.
“Now who’s kneeling, bitch?” Vinyl spat, kicking the burning corpse before turning back to the scene of battle.
As with the last few times she had seen the scene, it hadn’t been going particularly well for her team. Twilight was pinned down by constant fire from ‘MoneyMare’, and ‘HandsR4Real’ was getting the crap beat out of her by the intimidating Heavy-Class known as ‘Krat0s’. She seemed to have held her own this far though, so that was something.
There were only a few robots left. The battle was drawing to a close; soon the victor would be decided. Vinyl knew she could shift the tides in their favor, she just needed an opening. She stooped over Neon’s body, grabbing her axe and slipping it onto her back. Still clutching his sword, she stooped over and searched his lower half for a weapon. His cannon had been obliterated when she sliced him, so all she managed to recover was a handgun and a few clips. It was an impressive weapon; a Lockbuster revolver, she quickly attached it to her hip. The sudden sound of her enemy beginning to ramble again, pulled Vinyl’s attention.
“Yes, yes! You will die, die like all the rest! None shall stand up to my clan, none!” ‘MoneyMare’ let out a long, manic laugh, swinging her cannon around and extending it out towards a new target. It was ‘SecretAgentHorse’, she had pulled herself out of the building and was struggling to stand. Now, totally defenseless, she could only look on in horror as she was fired upon and sent hurling back against a building, dead. Vinyl watched in horror as ‘Krat0s’ drove his fist into ‘HandsR4Real’s’ stomach. Armor crumpled and bent, and the gigantic turquoise robot collapsed to her knees. Vinyl could hear her cries of defiance, she fought to the end, struggling and swinging away, but it did her little good. ‘Krat0s’ raised his arm, forming a shape with his hand that caused the entire limb to shift and re-form. The fingers turned around and curled in, pulling down within the inner arm and being replaced by what appeared to be a massive cannon, its hum was audible even from this distance.
“Vinyl!”
The DJ flinched a bit, whirling to her side and brandishing out her newly-claimed sword. She let out a soft sigh upon seeing who it was, Twilight.
“We need to go…now.” Twilight said softly, grabbing firmly onto Vinyl’s shoulder and giving it a tug. Her armor was torn, and sported more than a few scars and holes. It didn’t look like anything too particularly bad, she just looked really, really roughed up.
“What, but, what about-“
“There’s no time! We can’t help her, not anymore…she’s fought well, they all did, but we have to retreat and regroup!” Twilight insisted, giving Vinyl another tug and starting to pull her along.
Vinyl let out an unhappy grumble, turning back and giving ‘HandsR4Real’ one last look as ‘Krat0s’s’ cannon blasted a hole into her visor and out the armor on her back, killing her instantly. With that, she gritted her teeth and took off after Twilight down the street; leaving the victorious roars of their enemy behind them.
Vinyl had barely noticed the snowstorm in all of the mess she’d been in. The storm was at its peak, snow and sleet battered hard against her hull, wind whipped and whistled in the air. Every so often, a particularly strong gust would give her a bit of a jar, but nothing more. Her machine would hold up against it, no problem. If nothing else it was a bit of a blessing, the sudden decrease in visibility would help aid in their escape.
“How did you get to me, I saw you pinned on the other end of the street.” Vinyl asked, as she and Twilight made their way quickly down the road.
“I circled around, that big pink one with the cannon got distracted by Mjolna trying to charge her…” Twilight said grimly, taking a moment to slow down and look down either end of the street, and then taking off to the left.
“I couldn’t check the Kill-Notifications, is there anyone else left?” Vinyl asked; taking a quick look behind to make sure they hadn’t been tailed.
“They’re dead. All of them. Mjolna, March, our backup, all the others.” Twilight sighed softly, coming to a stop up beside a building and leaning against it. “We’re on our own.”
“Fantastic.” Vinyl said softly, reaching down to her hip and grabbing at the Lockbuster she had stolen from Neon Lights. “What do you have as far as weapons?” She asked, looking over at Twilight as she checked the revolver to assure it was loaded.
“I’ve got elbow rockets, some C-16, and…actually, that’s it. I ran out of ammo for my sidearm a while ago.” Twilight said, whining unhappily as she tossed her empty pistol onto the ground. “What’ve you got?”
“Lockbuster I looted off someone I killed, a sword, axe and two semtex grenades.” She said, reaching back and pulling her axe out. “That C-16, it’s remote-detonated, yeah?” She asked, holding the axe out to Twilight with a faint, mechanical whirr.
“Yeah, I can set it up near the end of the street. If nothing else we can knock out their Heavy-Class with it, should make things easier for us.” Twilight said, twirling the axe in her hand before slipping it onto her back and pulling the C-16 from a compartment on her hip.
“You still think we can win this?” Vinyl asked, pulling one of her grenades out and tossing it to Twilight.
“Oh, I haven’t the slightest clue.” She replied, chuckling softly as she caught the grenade, stowed it away, and began fiddling with her own explosives. “But I’ll tell you this. I’ve faced a lot of troubles in my life, a lot of them much worse than anything you could find in a video game. In my time, I’ve learned that if you give up…” She paused for a moment, looking up at her teammate and placing a mechanical hand on her shoulder. “If you give up, you’ll never know if you would have won anyway.”
With that, The Princess clunked off towards the end of the street. Her form became partially obscured by the harshening storm, but even still Vinyl had a view of her.
“This has been one hell of a game.” Vinyl said softly, chuckling to herself and shaking her head. Here she was, getting life-lessons with Princess Twilight, about to engage in a heated battle with the odds stacked against them. They were outgunned, outnumbered, and wounded. Yet she felt confident, it was a strange feeling this game instilled in the player, the confidence and the will to push on. So many times Vinyl had faced odds like this; it wasn’t uncommon, and she had come out the victor just as much as she had been crushed like a bug, but this time, she really did feel confident. She wanted to win this; though it sounded silly, for those who had fought so hard up until this point, who had so quickly charged forth with hope in their hearts and fire in their eyes. She would win this, for those who had given it their all.
Twilight reappeared through the storm just then, clunking quickly up to her DJ companion and giving her a nod through the visor. “They’re coming.” She said softly, “We should get to cover. Spread out, each side of the street. See if you can’t take out that medic. We aren’t going to get anywhere as long as she’s around.”
“Got it. I can take care of that, no issue.” Vinyl said confidently, drawing her sword from her back and giving it a firm squeeze. It hummed faintly, heat radiating from the blade and steaming in the frigid air.
“And hey, Vinyl.” Twilight continued, chuckling a bit to herself and pulling the axe from her back. “You’re not all that bad, so, whatever happens, I would look forward to fighting alongside you in the future.” She then took off, without giving Vinyl much time to reply.
The DJ simply nodded a solemn, silent nod. Adrenaline coursed through her body, yet she was calm, collected. She knew what she had to do, and how she would do it. Well, actually she didn’t know how to do it, only that it needed to be done, but, that had to count for something. She slipped into an alleyway near the end of the street, trying to crouch down and make her massive metal form as small as possible.
The scene was set, the true, final battle, a snowy street, in the middle of a storm. Tall, impressive buildings towering high above, the flashing street lights shining through the pure white snow. The air was blistering and cruel, like death floated in the very oxygen they breathed. Vinyl sat there, preparing herself. She was ready, ready for this fight. It wasn’t long before she could hear the heavy, rumbling steps of the enemy. She could hear them chattering, hear ‘MoneyMare’ barking orders. She sounded extremely confident, almost annoyingly so. Vinyl got the feeling that this mare was the type to think she should win simply because she existed.
“The fools. Thinking they can run, Ha!” ‘MoneyMare’ chortled, cocking her cannon as she rounded the corner and onto the street. She stood there for a brief moment, cannon humming faintly. “Find them, Cratus!” She barked, swiping her hand outwards, towards the street. “I want them to be shown the true power of Spoiled Rich, and her clan!”
‘Krat0s’; Or Cratus as he had been called, lumbered out into the street with slow, deliberate steps. His grey armor was worn and damaged, but overall still intact. The blood-like markings on his arms and visor only added to the intimidation factor. Spikes protruded from his shoulders, and there were white, ghostly skulls painted onto his shoulders. He held his arm-turned-cannon out in front of him. It whirred and sang softly, energy orbs held right on the brink of firing; ready to be discharged at any moment.
Vinyl waited, holding her breath as Cratus lumbered past her. He didn’t see her, and she didn’t question why. Maybe it had been pure dumb luck, or maybe he just hadn’t been really paying attention too well. Regardless, it would just be a few more steps before he was practically standing atop of Twilight’s explosives.
‘MoneyMare’; or Spoiled Rich, as she had addressed herself, clunked along, staying a fair distance behind Cratus at all times. She was obviously using him as a shield, having him go first to try and trip any surprises or attacks, and as she would learn a few seconds later, trip an attack he did.
There was a massive, rattling explosion that shook the very earth itself as Twilight triggered the explosives. Cratus roared out; no doubt wounded, but Vinyl paid it no mind. She had her mission; her objective was first and foremost now. The DJ burst forth from her alley, sword in one hand, revolver in the other. Spoiled Rich was too dazed from the explosion to react in time, but the DJ simply shoved past her, and bolted for the medic.
Redheart; as she had been called earlier, let out a frantic squeak and began to backpedal. She slung her repair-ray around her back as she moved, reaching for a sidearm on her hip. Vinyl raised her own weapon, firing off two rounds at her target. Redheart gasped in shock as steel pellets tore into her left shoulder. She raised her handgun in a desperate attempt to return-fire, but by the time she had pulled the trigger, the enemy was upon her.
Vinyl spun, swinging her sword around and slicing long ways through Redheart’s right forearm, then brought her other arm around and smashed the revolver across the medic’s face. Redheart stumbled back, grasping at her ruined hand in shock. Her pistol was destroyed, and she was now almost completely helpless. Almost.
“Camping little shit!” Vinyl roared, bringing her sword up over her head to slash once more.
But Redheart was ready this time, with her one remaining hand, she drew a knife from her waist and swung upwards at Vinyl’s sword, parrying the blow and sending sparks flying out from the point of impact.
The enraged shrieks of Spoiled Rich could be heard just then, and Vinyl whipped around just in time to catch a smack across the face from her enemy’s cannon. She went flying to the side, weapons flying from her hands as she careened backwards and slammed into the side of a building; sending crumbled brick and glass down onto her armored body.
As she pulled herself out of the small crater that had been made in the side of the building, Vinyl caught a brief glimpse of Twilight clashing with the massive robot known as Cratus. She had managed to climb atop him, and was in the process of slashing away at the top of his hull with her axe. He roared in defiance, discharging his arm-cannon frantically into the air behind him, trying to shake her off. Twilight held firm, though, bringing the axe down and burying it into the armor of her foe. She then pulled a grenade from her belt and crammed it into a hole in the armor, kicking off of the robot’s back and falling onto the street just as Cratus’ upper-back exploded into a mess of fire, smoke and bits of machinery.
“Look at you!” Spoiled Rich hissed; her tone colder than air around them. “So valiant, for such a low-tier commoner!” She raised her cannon, beginning to charge it up for a lethal shot.
“Commoner?” Vinyl spat, pushing herself off the building and slamming her body against that of her enemy. Spoiled Rich’s cannon discharged into the air; the shot exploding into the side of a building, as Vinyl slammed into her. They both went flying onto the street, tumbling down the road in a spectacular fashion.
Eventually, Vinyl and her foe came out of their tumble down the street, she and her foe both rose as one. Vinyl slashed out her hand, gripping hard onto Spoiled’s shoulder and dealing a wide swing into her visor, it cracked and splintered with a sharp ‘Snap!’. Spoiled Rich stumbled back, clutching at her damaged visor and raising her cannon to fire off a quick round. At this range, it was more than easy to avoid. Vinyl sidestepped and turned on her heel, swinging her elbow around into her enemy’s shoulder and sending the cannon-wielding robot crashing into the side of a building across the street.
“Gah, Redheart!” Spoiled Rich roared, calling out for the backup of her medic as she began pushing herself up.
Vinyl turned, just in time to dodge a vicious stab from Redheart and her knife. The medic had been hovering around the edge of the battle, waiting for the opportune moment to try and jump in. Vinyl was about to educate her on what a poor moment she had picked to do so.
Redheart stumbled forward from her own momentum, only to be dealt a devastating punch directly into her gut by Vinyl. The DJ grabbed onto her shoulder, digging her clawed hands in and pulling the medic around and in front of her…just as Spoiled had unleashed a shot from her cannon. The glowing blue round rocketed forth, directly into Redheart’s lower back. The medic cried out in shock, mechanical body twitching as she was dealt a fatal blow. Vinyl tossed her to the side, charging straight for Spoiled Rich.
“I will not be defeated!” The cannon-wielding mare roared, raising her cannon again and trying to fire. She would have got off a shot, had Twilight not run in from the side and buried an axe into the top of her enemy’s visor. Spoiled Rich screamed out in anger and surprise, swinging her arm around and slamming it into Twilight’s stomach. She shoved her against the wall, swinging her cannon around and pressing it up against The Princesses’ visor.
“Not gonna happen!” Vinyl cried, grabbing firmly onto Spoiled’s cannon-arm. She pulled it away from her teammate, angling it upwards just as a round discharged from within its depths. She pulled, hard, pressing her clawed foot against the robots lower back and proceeding to rip the arm completely off. Vinyl chucked it to the side, grabbing Spoiled Rich by the shoulder and pulling her off Twilight and proceeding to slam her hard into the side of the building.
“N-No! This isn’t possible!” She shrieked, desperately swiping out at Vinyl with her single, remaining arm.
Vinyl easily dodged the attack, grabbing her enemy by the wrist and using it as leverage to swing her back around to where Twilight now stood. Spoiled Rich was helpless to stop it, and she was swung around in a half-circle, straight into the elbow-rocket-propelled-fist that Twilight Sparkle dealt directly into her visor. The Faded-Pink robot flew backwards, out of Vinyl’s grasp and tumbling out onto the street, a battered, beaten mess of armor and metal.
“No…” She groaned weakly, shakily pushing herself up to her knees. “This…It can’t be!” She whined, reaching down to her hip and pulling a large handgun from a compartment in her thigh. “I won’t accept it!” She brandished it outwards; meaning to fire at Vinyl, only to be met with a roundhouse-kick directly across her visor.
“God, I’m so tired of hearing your voice.” Vinyl grumbled, clunking over to where the battered enemy robot now lay, and placing a clawed foot across her wrist. “You know, you seem pretty…rich-bitch-type. Like you think you’re better than everypony else, yeah?” The DJ hummed, pressing her weight onto Spoiled’s arm and crushing the armor beneath her foot.
“Maybe this’ll teach you a lesson, you and your little clan, or whatever the hell you are.” She continued, ignoring her enemy’s weak attempts to squirm free. Vinyl reached onto her waist, pulling out the single grenade she still had. She tossed it into the air, catching it and rolling it around between her mechanical fingers before stooping low and glaring at her enemy. “Don’t underestimate the underdogs.” With that, Vinyl activated her grenade, enclosed her hand around it, and then punched it through a weak spot in Spoiled’s visor. She released it inside, and then stood up and released the doomed robot from the grasp of her clawed foot and began backing away.
“We had better gear, higher levels, communication, and plans!” Spoiled Rich roared, slamming her fist into the road as she rolled over and pushed up onto her knees. She remained on her knees, hanging her arm at her side and looking up into the skies. “I’m supposed to win, I never-“
The sudden explosion from the grenade cut off any further talk. Spoiled Rich’s cockpit exploded into a ball of fire and smoke. Her visor glass shattered and blew out onto the street, and her body was knocked back in the process. As she hit the ground, the words “VinylScratch Decimated MoneyMare” appeared in the HUD of the two remaining players. Vinyl simply stood there in the snow, watching the burning metal corpse as she waited for the game to come to an end.
“As someone who gives her fair share of speeches…” Twilight said, clunking up beside her companion and letting out a soft chuckle. “I can say with a fair amount of certainty that that…was probably one of the more corny ones I’ve heard.”
Vinyl shook her head, chuckling softly as she turned to face the battle-worn Twilight. “I’ll let you do the honors next time, then, how about that?”
Twilight gave a sheepish chuckle. “I…think I’ll pass, just because I have to make speeches doesn’t mean I’m all that fond of it.”
“Whatever you say Princess…” Vinyl said with a grin, turning her gaze up into the cloudy, stormy sky as the winning team was announced, and the game came to its end.
--------Final Standings--------
Red Team
Vinyl. (VinylScratch) Level 10. Warrior Class. (Kills: 3 Kill Assists: 0 Killed By: N/A)
Twilight Sparkle (StarSwirlFanGirl) Level 21. Warrior Class. (Kills: 3 Kill Assists: 0 Killed By: N/A)
Double Diamond (DoubleD). Level 7. Racer Class. (Kills: 0 Kill Assists: 0 Killed By: Krat0s)
March Gustysnows(MarchyMarch). Level 18. Warrior Class. (Kills: 0 Kill Assists: 0 Killed By: MasterDJNeon)
Mjolna (MjOWNa). Level 12. Heavy Class. (Kills: 1 Kill Assists: 0 Killed By: Krat0s and MoneyMare)
Fine Print. (PrinterPaper). Level 9. Warrior Class. (Kills: 0 Kill Assists: 0 Killed By: BrushyBrushy)
Lyra (HandsR4Real) Level 8. Heavy Class. (Kills: 2 Kill Assists: 1 Killed By: Krat0s)
Bon Bon. (SecretAgentHorse). Level 11 Warrior Class. (Kills: 0 Kill Assists: 1 Killed By: MoneyMare)
Junebug. (JuneBug01) Level 3. Racer Class. (Kills: 0 Kill Assists: 0 Killed By: Krat0s)
Featherweight. (CameraClick) Level 4. Racer Class. (Kills: 0 Kill Assists: 0 Killed By: MoneyMare).
Blue Team.
Nurse Redheart. (HealingHooves) Level 12. Warrior Class. (Kills: 0 Kill Assists: 3 Killed By: VinylScratch
Spoiled Rich. (MoneyMare) Level 30. Warrior Class. (Kills: 3 Kill Assists: 1 Killed By: VinylScratch)
Ace (Ace). Level 13. Racer Class. (Kills: 0 Kill Assists: 0 Killed By: StarSwirlFanGirl)
Cratus(Krat0s) Level 28. Heavy Class. (Kills: 4 Kill Assists: 1 Killed By: StarSwirlFanGirl)
Flim. (Salespony1) Level 12. Heavy Class. (Kills: 0 Kill Assists: 0 Killed By: HandsR4Real)
Flam.(Salespony2) Level 12. Heavy Class. (Kills: 0 Kill Assists: 0 Killed By: HandsR4Real and SecretAgentHorse)
Minuette. (BrushyBrushy.) Level 13. Warrior Class. (Kills: 1 Kill Assists: 0 Killed By: VinylScratch)
Neon Lights.(MasterDJNeon) Level 14. Warrior Class. (Kills: 1 Kill Assists: 0 Killed By: VinylScratch)
Noteworthy. (PianoNotes) Level 12. Warrior Class. (Kills: 0 Kill Assists: 0 Killed By: MjOWNa)
Comet Tail. (ShootingStar) Level 13. Warrior Class. (Kills: 0 Kill Assists: 0 Killed By: StarSwirlFanGirl)