11-28-2017, 03:52 PM
“Ha!” Steve laughed, surging to his feet the instant the Battle Rabbit transformed, shoving his Secondary away roughly and swinging up his firearm, he pulled back the first trigger. The shotgun jerked in his hand as it spat forth the slug towards his foe, yet despite his advanced age, the old geezer was plenty strong enough to handle the recoil.
Ell's back hit the floor first, closely followed by the back of her head. Surprise flashed briefly across her face as she fell, but the moment she landed her expression twisted in pain and she cried out, her back arching for a moment as she bounced once, before landing again and rolling over onto her side with a weak moan. Steve hadn't exactly paused to consider her well-being before he moved.
Hijiri had anticipated the shot and tracked the weapon as the old man raised it. With the small boost in speed he received whilst in this form, he was – admittedly, just barely – able to turn his head aside as the lump of steel tore past him.
In his place it struck one of the double doors leading into the room... missing Trevor's head by a couple inches.
“Shit! Get down!” Brandon yelled to the others, diving to the floor himself.
Since there was no cover to be found anywhere in the huge, empty training room, however, the effectiveness of this tactic was debatable... though they would at least present smaller targets this way and as such would be less likely to be hit accidentally if their corporal kept dodging those shots, so there was that, at least. Seeing the sense in the elf's suggestion, the other five followed his lead.
On their stomachs, blasters aimed at their foes, those who could target the enemy Prime without risk of hitting Hijiri took their shots.
The others were forced to simply lie there and do nothing, though; he may not have been a stormtrooper himself, but the Battle Rabbit was still their superior, so when he had ordered them not to kill those girls in league with the Wolfpack, they were left with no choice but to obey... well, unless those three – called 'Elizabeth' – actually started shooting at them, of course.
Appreciating the adrenaline boost from Kroll's 'medicine', Hijiri zigged and zagged across the bare floor towards his target. In spite of his aggressive actions, he was actually perfectly under control at that moment, his expression chilling and stern, rather than burning with rage... the anger he had felt earlier suppressed, pushed away into a back corner of his mind.
Steve fired again-
At the last moment, though, he was forced to side-step to avoid a laser from one of the stormtroopers over by the doors, and as a result this shot ended up being almost two feet off target; harmlessly striking the metal panelling of the floor. His gun was unloaded, now. He held no ammo. His Secondaries had yet to even react to their enemy's approach, and the EPD corporal had just a fraction of a second left before he would be in range to gut the old man.
Yet still Shotgun Steve smirked.
At the last moment, as the katana whipped out towards his unprotected abdomen, the older Prime twirled his gun around in his hand – almost casually – and knocked aside the sword with his weapon's stock.
The Rabbit jerked his blade to a halt, flipped it around so that the edge again faced the Wolfpack's Claw, and immediately struck once more, aiming this time to injure the arm holding the shotgun. Continuing the same spinning motion from before, however, Steve used his weapon's twin barrels this time to bat aside the strike.
Suddenly shooting a hand up above his head, the old geezer swung his shotgun in a horizontal sweep like some kind of club or baton.
Rather than try to block himself, the Rabbit took a quick step back to avoid the blow; despite their weapons having clashed only twice so far, Hijiri had felt the strength in the old man's arms... greater strength than he possessed himself, even in this enhanced form.
No sooner had he done so, though, than the old man caught another loaded shotgun in his upraised hand after the red-haired girl had tossed it to him from the pile, then mirrored Hijiri's manoeuvre, opening up more space between the two Primes. That done, he brought his weapon down to fill this gap; he now had Hijiri at point blank range.
His lips parted as the condescending smirk he wore shifted into a savage grin, and he pulled back the trigger.
Hijiri leapt into the air; instantly made light as a gain of sand, he easily kicked off the ground and flipped over the other man's head, successfully avoiding the cloud of metal pellets which burst from the weapon's barrel, then spinning like a top to slice at Steve from behind.
The unloaded gun swung around behind his back, though, effortlessly blocking the negligibly weighted strike. Even the additional strength he had available to him in his True Form made little real difference when it came to attacking whilst using this ability; there would only ever be so much damage one could hope to inflict with essentially no weight behind any of their attacks.
Before the Rabbit's feet had even touched down on the floor, and with their weapons still locked together, Steve flicked his wrist, the force of the gesture easily tossing Hijiri back up into the air. Realising what must be coming next, the corporal began charging up the energy he would need to restore his weight to normal.
Barely a second had passed, though, by the time Shotgun Steve had spun to face him and aimed the gun with one shell still loaded.
Hijiri was drifting down slower than a falling leaf and the last shot Steve had fired had been actual shot, rather than a slug, as with the first gun. Something which would make it a lot harder to miss. Not the best combination from the point of view of the guy serving as the unwilling target dummy.
Just before he pulled the trigger this time, however, three blasts of energy struck him in the back, one after the other, searing through his waistcoat and charring the flesh beneath.
“Aargh!” the old Prime screamed, flinching just before he fired. The shot went wide and just afterwards, the Battle Rabbit released his building energy. He wasn't back to his normal weight, not after such a short time spent gathering power, but for the time being weighing as much as a small child would be plenty for his needs; he quickly dropped back to the floor.
It wouldn't have been enough, if not for the stormtroopers. His reaction speed had been just the tiniest bit off... but that 'tiniest bit' would still have left him taking a round of shot to the face, had it not been for the squad throwing off the Claw's aim.
Steve cursed, turning as slightly as he could to face the 'troopers, whilst not letting the Rabbit out of his sight either. He had put enough distance between himself and his enemy to allow him to fire upon Hijiri... yet in doing so had given the squad just as easy a time firing upon him.
Not to mention, both his shotguns were now empty, so he couldn't even shoot back in retaliation. Instead he snarled and wordlessly tossed first one gun, then the other, to his blonde Secondary.
The first smacked loudly against her palms, the force of the throw making her wince and back up a step. With both hands still occupied clutching it, though, the second slammed into her ribs with a worrying crack, then fell, clattering as it struck the steel ground.
Eyes wide with pain, her breathing ragged, the scantily-clad young woman was knocked back a couple steps further. Her legs trembled and tears welled up in her eyes, yet she remained standing. Turning quickly, she tossed down the shotgun she had caught to land by the redhead's side, and was handed another pair in return.
In the time it took them to make this exchange, Hijiri had charged the older man and had successfully forced him to back away from his women; being unable to block now, his only option was to dodge the katana's swings. As a result, he now found himself caught between the Rabbit and the stormtroopers.
With their corporal having closed the distance again, though, the 'troopers were less able to fire freely now, lest they accidentally hit him. Even so, a couple of them did manage to hit Steve again; once more in the back and once in the thigh.
Though the old bastard cried out in pain each time, and his flesh was visibly charred, the shots had not burnt straight through him as they would to an average person; it seemed that in addition to being much stronger than he ought to have been, this geezer was also more durable than normal.
The blonde was stumbling after them now, her face white as the fractured or broken rib which her own master had given her sent spasms of pain through her body with every step... all her effort would be for nothing, though; Steve was on the back foot now, and it wouldn't be long before a shot from one of the 'troopers would distract him enough for the Rabbit to get in a slash with his blade...
Admittedly, as light as he was right now, it wouldn't do a huge amount of damage even with the enhanced strength of his True Form... it didn't need to, though. So long as they could keep this guy at a disadvantage it wouldn't matter how strong he was; speed was their major advantage here, not raw power, and if winning this fight meant having to inflict a death of one thousand cuts (and lasers), rather than a cleaner, simpler killing blow, then so be it.
It should have worked.
Alas, their plan was upset when the black-haired woman, Ell – whom Hijiri had previously discounted entirely and had been paying no attention to at all since Shotgun Steve had roughly thrown her to the ground – suddenly rushed across from outside his field of vision to stand behind her master, facing towards the squad, her arms thrust out to either side as she tried to shield him with her body as best she could.
“No! Leave master alone!” she screamed at the 'troopers, her voice hoarse with grief... as though she couldn't bear to see Steve being harmed like this, even though it was clear that their lasers weren't dealing enough damage to kill him any time soon.
As easy as it would have been to say that she was fearlessly throwing herself in harm's way, like some insentient machine, from where he stood, just feet away from her, Hijiri could clearly tell that that was not the case; he might not have been able to see her face, no, but what he could tell easily enough was that she was visibly trembling. The poor woman was terrified out of her mind, yet had been unable to resist the urge to protect her creator, no matter the cost to herself...
And there would be a cost, the Battle Rabbit realised, as his gaze drifted over her shoulder, time seeming to slow down in the intensity of the moment. Leading the squad by example, Brandon Windvale, their technophilic elf, had his blaster aimed directly at her... and though he couldn't be sure from this distance, Hijiri could have sworn he saw the corners of the 'trooper's lips twitch upwards slightly, as he took his opportunity to do what he'd originally wanted from the start.
“Don't!” the EPD corporal yelled, taking a step forwards which seemed to last an eternity. They might look as though they were moving in slow motion, but in reality there was no way he could hope to outrun lasers.
The instant the first blast of superheated plasma struck the woman's chest, everything seemed to snap back into its proper focus, as time moved normally again.
And somehow the old man was bent low, moving forwards, his left fist slamming into the Rabbit's gut like a truck. Despite his enhanced resilience in this form, the blow was more than powerful enough to force the air from his lungs, leaving him winded and choking... even worse, though, as he currently weighed no more than a kid, Hijiri was sent flying by the old bastard's punch, spinning and careening wildly through the air until he struck a wall.
He fell back to the ground, then groaned, lying in a crumpled heap at the wall's base.
Hijiri forced his head up though, looking over at the fight as it progressed... and was horrified by what he saw. Shotgun Steve was still unarmed, but now held Ell by the back of her neck... he carried her like a shield, held out before him as he advanced on the stormtroopers, who were now getting back up off the ground so as to be able to back away.
They were completely ignoring their corporal's order, firing unhesitatingly at their foe, apparently completely unconcerned for the life of the young woman whom the Battle Rabbit could only hope was dead by this point. If not, she must have been in excruciating pain.
In the end, though, their ruthlessness did them little good.
As Hijiri watched, the old man reduced the distance between himself and the group to just a couple metres, then stopped, spun three-hundred-and-sixty degrees, and launched his Secondary's corpse at the squad.
One of the helmeted 'troopers and Jallus Reiner managed to dive aside in time. The other four were scattered like bowling pins.
In the sudden, brief absence of gunfire, the blonde woman, Liz, made it over to her master. She held out the two shotguns she carried, stock-first, to the old man... but like Hijiri, her expression was tormented and her gaze drawn to Ell's broken body.
Barking out a harsh laugh, Steve yanked the weapons from her hands and swung them round to target the stormtroopers as the Battle Rabbit forced himself slowly, tediously, to his feet.
Jallus was the first to recover and coolly, professionally raised his blaster. He was calm, despite the fucked-up nature of this battle. He moved quickly, but didn't hurry so much as to mess anything up. He was careful. Methodical. Practised and precise.
And it meant exactly fuck all.
Smirking, the geezer casually leaned slightly to one side just before the 'trooper fired, causing the energy blast to speed harmlessly past his head. For all the extra training they had undergone over the course of the last week or so, it was clear that even the 'elite' members of the squad had a long way to go before they could fight on an even footing with an experienced Prime like this guy.
Before Jallus had time to even take a second shot, Steve's right-hand gun launched a slug straight through his knee. The dark-skinned stormtrooper screamed and came crashing to the ground.
The old Prime wasn't done yet, though; he still had another shotgun. Before Jallus had even hit the floor, their enemy had raised his left weapon and pointed it directly into the face of the other stormtrooper who had not been knocked down.
“Wait-” was all the helmeted man managed to say before the trigger had been pulled.
This one was loaded with shot, though, rather than simple slugs.
His head – helmet and all – exploded.
***
Hijiri, still struggling to breathe properly, began stumbling forwards.
Liz moved to intercept him, and over by the pile of guns, Beth, the redhead, picked up a weapon, clutching it uncertainly in both hands... looking almost as frightened of the shotgun as they both clearly were of the Battle Rabbit.
Neither one was backing down, though... and if Ell's example had been anything to go by, they'd rather die themselves than let their master suffer such a fate.
***
Trevor was the next to engage the Wolfpack's Claw, screaming and firing wildly the moment he was back on his feet. One shot actually grazed Steve's arm, but then the old guy sent a slug straight into Trevor's gut and the stormtrooper dropped.
Brandon and one helmeted guy tag-teamed him, with the technophile rushing him, intent on using some of those close combat skills he'd learned from Sarah and Hijiri, whilst the noob backed him up with covering fire.
“Worthless filth!” Shotgun Steve roared, flipping his now-unloaded right weapon around and swinging it like a baseball bat. Before Brandon could so much as throw a punch, the weapon connected, fracturing the white plastoid armour around the elf's waist with a loud 'crack' and flinging him back, to come crashing to the ground almost three metres away. “You pitiful Secondaries should be bowing and scraping before us Primes! You're nothing more than puppets! Figments of our imaginations brought to life! Yet you worms, dare to take shots at me!?”
The reinforcement stormtrooper managed to fire twice before Steve had closed the distance between them. One laser struck him in the ribs and the other landed directly over his heart.
Against any normal opponent, that would have been the end of the fight... however Steve's Omnilium-enhanced body was beyond the level of normal human durability, and so neither of the blasts managed to penetrate bone.
It was obvious by this point that the old man was actually feeling the pain of his wounds... rather than weakening him, though, they seemed to only be making him angrier.
The 'trooper had remained crouching rather than getting to his feet, so it was a simple matter for the Claw to knock him down onto his back. A knee to the face followed up by a kick to send the blaster spinning off into the distance was all it took to leave his victim helpless before him.
Infuriated at having been injured by this 'puppet', the old bastard wasn't going to make this quick or painless. He lifted his left leg, then stomped hard on the 'trooper's helmeted head. The plastoid surface cracked, slightly, and so he repeated the action. Again. Again. And again.
The final member of the squad – another of the reinforcements – had by now gotten up as well and sought to save his ally. Shotgun Steve saw this coming, though, and before the stormtrooper could even pull his trigger, the enemy Prime had beaten him to it.
The helmets may have been strong enough to at least put up some resistance against regular kicks and punches, but they could do little to protect their wearers from a faceful of shot pellets.
Done dealing with that guy, the old geezer turned back to his victim, still intent upon stamping the man's head into a bloody pulp...
Ell's back hit the floor first, closely followed by the back of her head. Surprise flashed briefly across her face as she fell, but the moment she landed her expression twisted in pain and she cried out, her back arching for a moment as she bounced once, before landing again and rolling over onto her side with a weak moan. Steve hadn't exactly paused to consider her well-being before he moved.
Hijiri had anticipated the shot and tracked the weapon as the old man raised it. With the small boost in speed he received whilst in this form, he was – admittedly, just barely – able to turn his head aside as the lump of steel tore past him.
In his place it struck one of the double doors leading into the room... missing Trevor's head by a couple inches.
“Shit! Get down!” Brandon yelled to the others, diving to the floor himself.
Since there was no cover to be found anywhere in the huge, empty training room, however, the effectiveness of this tactic was debatable... though they would at least present smaller targets this way and as such would be less likely to be hit accidentally if their corporal kept dodging those shots, so there was that, at least. Seeing the sense in the elf's suggestion, the other five followed his lead.
On their stomachs, blasters aimed at their foes, those who could target the enemy Prime without risk of hitting Hijiri took their shots.
The others were forced to simply lie there and do nothing, though; he may not have been a stormtrooper himself, but the Battle Rabbit was still their superior, so when he had ordered them not to kill those girls in league with the Wolfpack, they were left with no choice but to obey... well, unless those three – called 'Elizabeth' – actually started shooting at them, of course.
Appreciating the adrenaline boost from Kroll's 'medicine', Hijiri zigged and zagged across the bare floor towards his target. In spite of his aggressive actions, he was actually perfectly under control at that moment, his expression chilling and stern, rather than burning with rage... the anger he had felt earlier suppressed, pushed away into a back corner of his mind.
Steve fired again-
At the last moment, though, he was forced to side-step to avoid a laser from one of the stormtroopers over by the doors, and as a result this shot ended up being almost two feet off target; harmlessly striking the metal panelling of the floor. His gun was unloaded, now. He held no ammo. His Secondaries had yet to even react to their enemy's approach, and the EPD corporal had just a fraction of a second left before he would be in range to gut the old man.
Yet still Shotgun Steve smirked.
At the last moment, as the katana whipped out towards his unprotected abdomen, the older Prime twirled his gun around in his hand – almost casually – and knocked aside the sword with his weapon's stock.
The Rabbit jerked his blade to a halt, flipped it around so that the edge again faced the Wolfpack's Claw, and immediately struck once more, aiming this time to injure the arm holding the shotgun. Continuing the same spinning motion from before, however, Steve used his weapon's twin barrels this time to bat aside the strike.
Suddenly shooting a hand up above his head, the old geezer swung his shotgun in a horizontal sweep like some kind of club or baton.
Rather than try to block himself, the Rabbit took a quick step back to avoid the blow; despite their weapons having clashed only twice so far, Hijiri had felt the strength in the old man's arms... greater strength than he possessed himself, even in this enhanced form.
No sooner had he done so, though, than the old man caught another loaded shotgun in his upraised hand after the red-haired girl had tossed it to him from the pile, then mirrored Hijiri's manoeuvre, opening up more space between the two Primes. That done, he brought his weapon down to fill this gap; he now had Hijiri at point blank range.
His lips parted as the condescending smirk he wore shifted into a savage grin, and he pulled back the trigger.
Hijiri leapt into the air; instantly made light as a gain of sand, he easily kicked off the ground and flipped over the other man's head, successfully avoiding the cloud of metal pellets which burst from the weapon's barrel, then spinning like a top to slice at Steve from behind.
The unloaded gun swung around behind his back, though, effortlessly blocking the negligibly weighted strike. Even the additional strength he had available to him in his True Form made little real difference when it came to attacking whilst using this ability; there would only ever be so much damage one could hope to inflict with essentially no weight behind any of their attacks.
Before the Rabbit's feet had even touched down on the floor, and with their weapons still locked together, Steve flicked his wrist, the force of the gesture easily tossing Hijiri back up into the air. Realising what must be coming next, the corporal began charging up the energy he would need to restore his weight to normal.
Barely a second had passed, though, by the time Shotgun Steve had spun to face him and aimed the gun with one shell still loaded.
Hijiri was drifting down slower than a falling leaf and the last shot Steve had fired had been actual shot, rather than a slug, as with the first gun. Something which would make it a lot harder to miss. Not the best combination from the point of view of the guy serving as the unwilling target dummy.
Just before he pulled the trigger this time, however, three blasts of energy struck him in the back, one after the other, searing through his waistcoat and charring the flesh beneath.
“Aargh!” the old Prime screamed, flinching just before he fired. The shot went wide and just afterwards, the Battle Rabbit released his building energy. He wasn't back to his normal weight, not after such a short time spent gathering power, but for the time being weighing as much as a small child would be plenty for his needs; he quickly dropped back to the floor.
It wouldn't have been enough, if not for the stormtroopers. His reaction speed had been just the tiniest bit off... but that 'tiniest bit' would still have left him taking a round of shot to the face, had it not been for the squad throwing off the Claw's aim.
Steve cursed, turning as slightly as he could to face the 'troopers, whilst not letting the Rabbit out of his sight either. He had put enough distance between himself and his enemy to allow him to fire upon Hijiri... yet in doing so had given the squad just as easy a time firing upon him.
Not to mention, both his shotguns were now empty, so he couldn't even shoot back in retaliation. Instead he snarled and wordlessly tossed first one gun, then the other, to his blonde Secondary.
The first smacked loudly against her palms, the force of the throw making her wince and back up a step. With both hands still occupied clutching it, though, the second slammed into her ribs with a worrying crack, then fell, clattering as it struck the steel ground.
Eyes wide with pain, her breathing ragged, the scantily-clad young woman was knocked back a couple steps further. Her legs trembled and tears welled up in her eyes, yet she remained standing. Turning quickly, she tossed down the shotgun she had caught to land by the redhead's side, and was handed another pair in return.
In the time it took them to make this exchange, Hijiri had charged the older man and had successfully forced him to back away from his women; being unable to block now, his only option was to dodge the katana's swings. As a result, he now found himself caught between the Rabbit and the stormtroopers.
With their corporal having closed the distance again, though, the 'troopers were less able to fire freely now, lest they accidentally hit him. Even so, a couple of them did manage to hit Steve again; once more in the back and once in the thigh.
Though the old bastard cried out in pain each time, and his flesh was visibly charred, the shots had not burnt straight through him as they would to an average person; it seemed that in addition to being much stronger than he ought to have been, this geezer was also more durable than normal.
The blonde was stumbling after them now, her face white as the fractured or broken rib which her own master had given her sent spasms of pain through her body with every step... all her effort would be for nothing, though; Steve was on the back foot now, and it wouldn't be long before a shot from one of the 'troopers would distract him enough for the Rabbit to get in a slash with his blade...
Admittedly, as light as he was right now, it wouldn't do a huge amount of damage even with the enhanced strength of his True Form... it didn't need to, though. So long as they could keep this guy at a disadvantage it wouldn't matter how strong he was; speed was their major advantage here, not raw power, and if winning this fight meant having to inflict a death of one thousand cuts (and lasers), rather than a cleaner, simpler killing blow, then so be it.
It should have worked.
Alas, their plan was upset when the black-haired woman, Ell – whom Hijiri had previously discounted entirely and had been paying no attention to at all since Shotgun Steve had roughly thrown her to the ground – suddenly rushed across from outside his field of vision to stand behind her master, facing towards the squad, her arms thrust out to either side as she tried to shield him with her body as best she could.
“No! Leave master alone!” she screamed at the 'troopers, her voice hoarse with grief... as though she couldn't bear to see Steve being harmed like this, even though it was clear that their lasers weren't dealing enough damage to kill him any time soon.
As easy as it would have been to say that she was fearlessly throwing herself in harm's way, like some insentient machine, from where he stood, just feet away from her, Hijiri could clearly tell that that was not the case; he might not have been able to see her face, no, but what he could tell easily enough was that she was visibly trembling. The poor woman was terrified out of her mind, yet had been unable to resist the urge to protect her creator, no matter the cost to herself...
And there would be a cost, the Battle Rabbit realised, as his gaze drifted over her shoulder, time seeming to slow down in the intensity of the moment. Leading the squad by example, Brandon Windvale, their technophilic elf, had his blaster aimed directly at her... and though he couldn't be sure from this distance, Hijiri could have sworn he saw the corners of the 'trooper's lips twitch upwards slightly, as he took his opportunity to do what he'd originally wanted from the start.
“Don't!” the EPD corporal yelled, taking a step forwards which seemed to last an eternity. They might look as though they were moving in slow motion, but in reality there was no way he could hope to outrun lasers.
The instant the first blast of superheated plasma struck the woman's chest, everything seemed to snap back into its proper focus, as time moved normally again.
And somehow the old man was bent low, moving forwards, his left fist slamming into the Rabbit's gut like a truck. Despite his enhanced resilience in this form, the blow was more than powerful enough to force the air from his lungs, leaving him winded and choking... even worse, though, as he currently weighed no more than a kid, Hijiri was sent flying by the old bastard's punch, spinning and careening wildly through the air until he struck a wall.
He fell back to the ground, then groaned, lying in a crumpled heap at the wall's base.
Hijiri forced his head up though, looking over at the fight as it progressed... and was horrified by what he saw. Shotgun Steve was still unarmed, but now held Ell by the back of her neck... he carried her like a shield, held out before him as he advanced on the stormtroopers, who were now getting back up off the ground so as to be able to back away.
They were completely ignoring their corporal's order, firing unhesitatingly at their foe, apparently completely unconcerned for the life of the young woman whom the Battle Rabbit could only hope was dead by this point. If not, she must have been in excruciating pain.
In the end, though, their ruthlessness did them little good.
As Hijiri watched, the old man reduced the distance between himself and the group to just a couple metres, then stopped, spun three-hundred-and-sixty degrees, and launched his Secondary's corpse at the squad.
One of the helmeted 'troopers and Jallus Reiner managed to dive aside in time. The other four were scattered like bowling pins.
In the sudden, brief absence of gunfire, the blonde woman, Liz, made it over to her master. She held out the two shotguns she carried, stock-first, to the old man... but like Hijiri, her expression was tormented and her gaze drawn to Ell's broken body.
Barking out a harsh laugh, Steve yanked the weapons from her hands and swung them round to target the stormtroopers as the Battle Rabbit forced himself slowly, tediously, to his feet.
Jallus was the first to recover and coolly, professionally raised his blaster. He was calm, despite the fucked-up nature of this battle. He moved quickly, but didn't hurry so much as to mess anything up. He was careful. Methodical. Practised and precise.
And it meant exactly fuck all.
Smirking, the geezer casually leaned slightly to one side just before the 'trooper fired, causing the energy blast to speed harmlessly past his head. For all the extra training they had undergone over the course of the last week or so, it was clear that even the 'elite' members of the squad had a long way to go before they could fight on an even footing with an experienced Prime like this guy.
Before Jallus had time to even take a second shot, Steve's right-hand gun launched a slug straight through his knee. The dark-skinned stormtrooper screamed and came crashing to the ground.
The old Prime wasn't done yet, though; he still had another shotgun. Before Jallus had even hit the floor, their enemy had raised his left weapon and pointed it directly into the face of the other stormtrooper who had not been knocked down.
“Wait-” was all the helmeted man managed to say before the trigger had been pulled.
This one was loaded with shot, though, rather than simple slugs.
His head – helmet and all – exploded.
***
Hijiri, still struggling to breathe properly, began stumbling forwards.
Liz moved to intercept him, and over by the pile of guns, Beth, the redhead, picked up a weapon, clutching it uncertainly in both hands... looking almost as frightened of the shotgun as they both clearly were of the Battle Rabbit.
Neither one was backing down, though... and if Ell's example had been anything to go by, they'd rather die themselves than let their master suffer such a fate.
***
Trevor was the next to engage the Wolfpack's Claw, screaming and firing wildly the moment he was back on his feet. One shot actually grazed Steve's arm, but then the old guy sent a slug straight into Trevor's gut and the stormtrooper dropped.
Brandon and one helmeted guy tag-teamed him, with the technophile rushing him, intent on using some of those close combat skills he'd learned from Sarah and Hijiri, whilst the noob backed him up with covering fire.
“Worthless filth!” Shotgun Steve roared, flipping his now-unloaded right weapon around and swinging it like a baseball bat. Before Brandon could so much as throw a punch, the weapon connected, fracturing the white plastoid armour around the elf's waist with a loud 'crack' and flinging him back, to come crashing to the ground almost three metres away. “You pitiful Secondaries should be bowing and scraping before us Primes! You're nothing more than puppets! Figments of our imaginations brought to life! Yet you worms, dare to take shots at me!?”
The reinforcement stormtrooper managed to fire twice before Steve had closed the distance between them. One laser struck him in the ribs and the other landed directly over his heart.
Against any normal opponent, that would have been the end of the fight... however Steve's Omnilium-enhanced body was beyond the level of normal human durability, and so neither of the blasts managed to penetrate bone.
It was obvious by this point that the old man was actually feeling the pain of his wounds... rather than weakening him, though, they seemed to only be making him angrier.
The 'trooper had remained crouching rather than getting to his feet, so it was a simple matter for the Claw to knock him down onto his back. A knee to the face followed up by a kick to send the blaster spinning off into the distance was all it took to leave his victim helpless before him.
Infuriated at having been injured by this 'puppet', the old bastard wasn't going to make this quick or painless. He lifted his left leg, then stomped hard on the 'trooper's helmeted head. The plastoid surface cracked, slightly, and so he repeated the action. Again. Again. And again.
The final member of the squad – another of the reinforcements – had by now gotten up as well and sought to save his ally. Shotgun Steve saw this coming, though, and before the stormtrooper could even pull his trigger, the enemy Prime had beaten him to it.
The helmets may have been strong enough to at least put up some resistance against regular kicks and punches, but they could do little to protect their wearers from a faceful of shot pellets.
Done dealing with that guy, the old geezer turned back to his victim, still intent upon stamping the man's head into a bloody pulp...
![[Image: Hijiri_Name_Sig.png]](https://image.ibb.co/k1H7Hd/Hijiri_Name_Sig.png)