A sharp whistle pierced through the chaos, growing louder until Rez, Ceri, and LuLu whistled onto the battlefield. Their arrival was a blaze of energy, shadows and lightning streaking across the shattered plaza.
The instant LuLu lunged forward, her scythe's edge screaming through the air, the towering exosuit flickered--there one moment, gone the next. A blur of steel and power, it struck before anyone could react as LuLu's body was sent hurtling backwards like a comet.
But before her body met the unforgiving wall, two figures intercepted her mid-air. Davie and Mek caught her, setting her down gently before turning with synchronized precision toward the threat.
The exosuit dashed forward again--a monstrous force. Both Davie and Mek rolled opposite directions in perfect unison, then retaliated with two strikes across its back. The hit sent the machine staggering forward, slamming into a wall in a spray of fractured stone and metal.
From above, the sniper opened fire, energy bolts streaking down like lightning. Davie and Mek twisted through the barrage, sparks hissing off the ground, and shot forward toward the sniper.
But before they could close in, the exosuit recovered and with terrifying speed, it surged back into the fight. A metal arm lashed out, grabbing Davie mid-flight and slamming him mercilessly into the ground, the impact shaking the battlefield. Mek spun midair, his Helix Rocket targeted and launched.
The projectile never met its mark. The exosuit, impossibly fast, sliced the shell in half before it could detonate.
The exosuit advanced towards Mek, each step heavy and deliberate. Davie, broken but defiant, latched onto its leg. "Caught you..." his voice box glitching but persistent.
The exosuit only looked down coldly before stomping, its other leg shattering Davie's arm beneath its weight. Davie's yell was muffled under the grind of steel and broken wires. The machine turned its gaze back toward Mek but was too slow to react.
Mek roared, clamping onto the exosuit's chest. "HELIX SURGE!"
In that heartbeat, Davie summoned his Ion Shield, planting it firmly and angling it toward both Mek and the exosuit. Energy thrummed violently in the air. Mek released the surge--a storm of raw, spiraling Helix-energy, engulfing the area. The resulting blast swallowed the exosuit whole in a searing wave of power.
Smoke and fire rolled out across the ruins. When it finally cleared, Davie lowered his shield, coughing, exhausted but alive. He managed to take a single step forward--and froze. The gears in his body stopped allowing him to walk forward anymore, and when he looked down, a fist of steel bursts cleanly through his torso without him feeling anything.
His eyes widened as oil and sparks sprayed across the cracked ground. The exosuit's shadow loomed behind him, its cold precision unshaken. Davie's body crumpled forward, hitting the stone with a heavy thud.
The exosuit stepped out from the dissipating haze, walking steadily toward the others. Mek laid slumped nearby, struggling to rise, while Davie's light in his eyes began to turn off, as the sparks, oil, and energy in his artificial soul were lost.
The monster of steel advanced, its presence barely scathed and scratched.