Cass
How would I do this if it was a video game? His mind spun, then it occurred to him. Okay big guy, you're about to see me as a threat.
He took off again, this time running to move parallel to the wall with the turret. He watched it begin its slow motion turn toward Luna and his dad, but he pushed that out of his mind. Can't keep doing the same thing until I run out of steam, he thought as he put on another burst of speed. He remembered his experience in the stairwell and all the episodes of The Flash he'd watched with his dad. He'd always thought that the wall running parts were ridiculously anti-physics, but he'd felt the difference when he'd done it and understood now. Momentum was carrying him forward - he either had to tap lightly enough to move forwards without pushing himself away from the wall, or come in at an angle that let centrifugal force do its magic. A wry smile crossed his face as he imagined his dad's lecture.
"Centrifugal force doesn't actually exist, son - that's just the sensation of experiencing centripetal force. It's just become such a common word that most people don't realize they're referring to the wrong thing."
He focused and angled to touch the bottom of one foot on the wall. To his surprise he felt himself pushing against the wall - not as strongly as gravity, but not far off. He took an internal anticipatory breath and took his next step on the wall. He stumbled slightly as he tried to keep his body upright, then realized that the ground was no longer his 'up.' He had a new 'up' and it was freaking awesome!
He sprinted along the wall, his skill naturally adjusting his steps to keep him glued to it as he ran. He reached the corner and kicked off the wall he was running on, his body instantly adapting to the new 'floor.' His grin turned feral as he approached the glass windows facing the room. As he approached them he stooped and dragged the razor's edge that was his shield along the glass, scoring a deep gash. Before the sound finished traveling through the window he was against the other wall, pushing off and running back the way he'd come. Another score on the glass, another pivot. His speed was dropping precipitously but he grinned in satisfaction when he saw the turret reversing direction.
Have to time this right. Almost out of juice. He slowed to the point that he was barely hanging onto the wall, giving the turret a moment to track him - just enough to catch up. To him, its movements were ponderous, but to everyone in the room the turret would have spun at alarming speed. Just as it reached his position he let his speed drop and he fell from the wall.
Bullets raked his torso but, he held the shield up to block them from hitting his heart or head. He gritted bloody teeth and let it come, knowing that the next part was vital.
He landed in a crunch and felt something in his knee pop. He pushed off with his good leg to hide behind the barrier he'd dropped next to, satisfaction mingling with pain as he watched the confused guard drone explode in a shower of turret fire.
Luna
Luna had her back to the barrier, the girl next to her huddled and shaking in her arm. She kept the gauntlet arm free and was swinging it around, watching everywhere for threats. She'd realized that physical movements were out of the question - everything she did felt like she was drunk. Well, she'd never been drunk, but it's what she imagined it felt like. She made shushing sounds that she hoped was soothing to the girl, although she was pretty sure it was impossible to hear them over the clamor of everything going on around her.
She wanted to look over the barrier but was terrified of what she'd see - and even more scared of what she'd be unable to do.
"Okay, okay, okay. It's going to be okay! We're strong and lucky and brave. We'll be just fine, I promise!" Her words sounded weak, even to her own ears, but she hoped it did something to help the girl. She didn't know how much time had passed but it felt like it could be minutes or hours. At least that stupid, loud, annoying turret had finally stopped firing at her!
"Wait…" she looked over and saw that it was turning to aim at the front of the building where a weird blur was covering the far wall. She winced when it started firing again and she squeaked in fear when she saw Cass drop from the wall.
"Cass!" She cried over their emotional bond. Not the mental connection of the party chat, but the bond they'd had since they were born. Everyone said that it was fake, but she knew that she could feel what he felt. Her dad said it was just an empathetic placebo response, and her mom just patted her on the back - not denying, but obviously not believing either. But she and Cass knew. They knew the way they felt. They knew when they were sad, and she could ALWAYS tell what he needed when he was at his lowest. Maybe it was all mumbo jumbo like they said, but she didn't think so. The universe put some people in your life so that you could feel what they feel, and be there when they needed it. Their bond had only increased with their Empathic Melee skill. When they were fighting together she could feel more than just vague emotions - she could sense his intentions, and he hers.
In this moment she felt his pain. She couldn't see what had happened, but she knew he was hurting - but she also felt… satisfaction? Like 'mission accomplished' kind of satisfaction? Like when he beat a really hard video game level or talked to someone at school without them needing to come up to him first. She felt it and she knew that he'd done something that he meant to do. She also felt that he wanted her to do something.
Hope sprang up inside of her as she realized what it was. The bad guy in the tower was focused on Cass and the wall gun was facing him - too distracted to retract back into the wall. She leaned down and spoke softly to the girl.
"I have to stand up now, so you stay here."
"No!" The girl's voice was loud and Luna winced at it. "Don't leave me!"
"I'm not going anywhere, but I have to do this right now. I have to be quick. Can you be brave?"
The girl shook her head and held Luna tighter.
Luna inched her way to her feet, fighting clinging arms the entire way. She reached down and moved the girl's arms to circle her leg, letting her hold her there. She wasn't going to need to move anyway. She rested her elbow on the barrier and aimed, closing one eye and focusing it over her gauntlet. She'd had a lot of practice and knew how it felt when her aim was true, but she didn't want to mess this up. She'd only get one shot at it.
"Heh. One shot," she said to herself before letting the gears fly.
Zavier
Zavier turned to face the thing that had dropped on them. It was skinnier than the others, all narrow limbs and articulated arms with too many joints. The six limbs all ended in hands and the whole thing seemed to have no up, down, left, or right. For a moment his brain imagined the inside of a Rubik's Cube, if they functioned by Eldritch horrors. Like a spider with legs growing out from every direction. A small ball of the same opaque material the other guards' visors were made of sprouted an arm in each direction, the arms long enough for five of them to be touching the ground at any one time. Two of the hands held blades made of the white composite plastic-looking material of its body armor, and a third held a razor thin blade that looked like a rapier without a hand guard, the thin metal reflective and deadly sharp.
The blades came at him from three directions and he was stretched to his limit keeping track of them. This dandelion of death was lighter than the others, its limbs light enough for him to knock back with the chain. He flung his chain like a thing possessed, constantly twisting it around him, sending its links ricocheting off one limb to trip up another. He knew it was a losing game, though. He was only defending and the guard just had to wait for him to make a mistake.
"Gotta Hoth it," he mumbled to himself and tucked into a forward roll underneath the rapier strike. His chain flew out, Zavier's aim true, and it buried itself in the gap between two plates of one of the lower legs. Keeping an eye out for the blades he kicked off and ducked between two other legs, immediately leaping to his feet and running a tight circle around it. Sliding to a stop he pulled the chain hard, the grunt of effort being rewarded with the sound of limbs smacking together. Four of the limbs had been cinched together in a bundle and the guard toppled to the side, catching itself with one hand but dropping its blade in the process. Zavier stepped closer, catching the now-awkward swipe of a blade in his chain, wrapping it with the last of the links.
His mind flashed back to his first fight in his garage, the massive spiders trapped under the ladder, limbs twitching and fighting. He reflected on how different that fight would have been today, even as he stooped to pick up the dropped rapier. He admired the sharpness of it and the way it felt almost weightless in his hand. The metal was so thin it was hardly visible edge-on, slightly flexible but not floppy. A decent enough light weapon if someone wasn't strong. They'd have to be careful of stabbing with it though - the missing hand guard meant that someone could cut themselves pretty badly if their hand slid down the blade.
He stepped closer to the guard, meeting the lidless eyes that were visible through the tangle of limbs and fogged plastic.
"N-o. Don't. Don't. Don't."
Zavier actually stepped back in shock, the glitchy, semi-static voice shocking him. His conscience told him to lower his sword. His mind told him that he was anthropomorphizing a machine. His heart told him that the machine used to be a person - one that was looking back at him with all-too-real eyes and muscle and bone underneath the exoskeleton.
He shook his head slowly and stepped forwards again, looking at the being's eyes. And it was a being, he realized. The eyes that stared back may have been disconnected from any face that could show expression, but he could see the humanity there. The fear.
"You got a bad rap, I'm sorry. Shouldn't have tried to kill my family."
"Do-"
The half-formed protestation ended as the rapier's thin edge sliced cleanly through the orb.
He looked around for his family, seeing Luna and Fara on the other side of the barrier. Waving them over he saw Tess climbing gracelessly over a barrier, cradling one arm. Where is Cass? He saw him then, standing, but leaning heavily against a barrier, favoring one leg. He waved him over as well.
Without warning a crackling explosion filled the air and the family was showered in glass shards. There was a massive thump heavy enough to send shockwaves through the ground. They all looked to the center of the room and saw that the guard in the tower had leapt through the window, shattering the marble floor with his landing. Where the other guards had seemed more like mooks with limited fighting capabilities, this one had obvious intelligence in his orange eyes. He stood eight feet tall and was shaped like a human, proportioned like an anime character.
Looks like evil Metroid. Zavier thought, thankful that it wasn't armed with a cannon - just a… massive… five-foot… blade. He couldn't help but admire the deadly beauty of it. It was almost as long as he was tall, pure white composite material but limned with a silvery metallic edge. The top of the guard's head was a half-sphere of the composite material and its orange eyes swiveled independently within it, each moving rapidly in different directions to assess each of them.
"Everyone go at once! We have to blitz it - kill it quick before it can take us out individually!" Zavier's group chat sent everyone springing into motion. Tess lifted the gun she'd taken from the guard, electrically-charged rounds punching into its exoskeleton. It grunted and lifted an arm as a shield, the bullets causing more grunts each time one left a small hole in the armor.
"What do we do?" Luna's voice was breathless.
Zavier considered. This guard was some sort of prime - it was better covered and the vulnerable points at the joints were much smaller. The eye that wasn't focused on Tess had turned to them. "I guess we just go for it." He handed her the sword. "Use the gauntlet. If you have to get close, use this and go for the joints! I'll try control its limbs!"
Tess's weapon ran dry. She dropped it and picked up Claw in her good arm. Her right shoulder felt dislocated, but she didn't have the time to try to pop it back into place. Zavier and Luna were rushing the guard and she wasn't confident that they'd be able to fight it in hand-to-hand.
She was at it in a moment, Claw coming down in a vicious one-handed arc that sent chunks of armor flying. Both orange eyes swiveled to focus on her and then it was back a step, sword cleaving the air as it cut toward her. She blocked and was sent skidding backwards with the force, grateful that she wasn't able to drop Claw unless she wanted to. Even so, she couldn't take many of those hits straight-on like that.
The next one came and she deflected, letting it run over Claw as she bent backwards at an impossible angle, the sword sliding over her. Dismay spiked into her when she saw that it had shaved a strip of bone from Claw. Infuriated, she began slashing and hacking with frenzy, heavy bone thumps echoing deeply against the side of the composite blade and the exoskeleton fist. It was slower than she was and it knew it, redoubling its efforts by attacking with sword and fist. Its sword came from one direction and its fist from another, intending to either slice her in half or pulverize her in the pincer attack.
Its fist halted mid-swing, one eye moving to observe the chain that was wrapped around its wrist. With its other eye it saw Tess ducking under its sword to stab upwards into its exposed armpit. It let out a static cry and grabbed the chain, flinging Zavier across the room and into the ceiling-high barrier at the back of the chamber. A sickening crunch sounded and the Torres family paused in shock.
There was a clang and everyone turned their attention back to the guard. Distracted, Tess hadn't seen the fist flying at her - but Cass had. He'd thrown his shield like a frisbee, the enchantment on it forcing the guard's attack to ricochet back and the shield to drop in place. It spun to face Cass, lifting one leg to stomp him into paste.
Tess seized the opportunity, sliding forwards on her knees in a spin, Claw slicing through the tendons in the back of its knee and causing it to tip backwards.
In a flash its torso spun 180 degrees and it caught itself with one massive hand before falling, eyes level with Tess's. She stared into it, remembering the bear that had given her Claw. The one that had seemed so insurmountable - so powerfully unkillable. She'd realized then that she could kill anything. Claw was swinging even as it steadied itself on one knee, swinging its sword.
The guard's massive blade met Claw straight on, and kept going. Tess processed the sight in slow motion, the metal tip of the sword biting deep into Claw, then going further, further - micro-shatters branching out further and further, sharp shards of bone flying off of it in a spray.
With a literal cry Tess felt the enchantments from Claw disappear. The drop in her attack skills hurt, but the loss of what felt like a friend cut her as deeply as any weapon could have. She watched as the guard's sword completed its journey into her chest. Claw had saved her life one last time, slowing the blade enough for it to send her flying backwards without cutting through the kevlar vest.
Luna was frozen. In the few seconds after her dad had told everyone to attack she'd seen him get flung against the far wall to drop behind a barrier that he still hadn't come out from behind. Mom had been attacking like a boss, but now she was flying through the air, her sword gone. Cass had thrown his shield. Her family was down and this thing barely looked injured.
She really only had one play, so she took it. She raised her gauntlet and fired. The homunculus rounds hit like diseased, out of control trains. Ugly, poisoned tendrils grew from the holes in the thing's armor and the electrical charges sent its limbs dancing akimbo. She stepped forward cautiously, raining shots down as fast as she could send them. Both eyes swiveled to focus on her and she watched it rear back with that huge sword. She started running, still firing the gauntlet, but trying to get inside of its swing with the sword her dad had given her. She was no swordswoman like her mom, but the edge was sharp and she was the only one left.
Time almost seemed to slow down as the sword swung in from the side, low and flat. Luna took another step to jump… and tripped. With an eep she fell flat on her face in a sprawl, sliding all the way to the guard as the sword passed over her.
There was an odd squelching sound and Luna flipped onto her back, looking back the way she'd come.
Fara was there. She'd been following Luna, running after her. Luna hadn't told her to stay or to hide, and the girl had done what she'd been told. Stay behind me. I'll protect you. I'm not going anywhere.
Luna remembered the words - words she'd never forget for as long as she lived. Words that hit like icy spikes to her chest when the upper half of Fara's body slid off of her torso and the girl collapsed in two pieces.
Luna had been angry plenty of times in her life. She'd been sad too. She'd felt normal emotions like anyone else. It wasn't until this moment that she realized she'd never really felt them. Every anger had been nestled on a pillow of knowing that whoever she was angry at had their own point of view, and she might need to be understanding. Every sadness was wrapped in a cushion of knowing that this, too, would pass, and everything would be okay. Every bad thing she'd ever felt was balanced out by a deep knowing that, in the end, everything would work out just fine.
For the first time in her life she felt true, unmitigated, unsafe fear, hurt, and loss. Then came the anger. It was so pure, so undiluted, that it felt like a cleansing fire that swept through every protective and hopeful barrier she'd ever erected and reduced them to ash before they could put up a token defense.
The sword was in her hand and she stood, slowly and with purpose. The air around her rippled and then two things happened at once.
No, she realized, one thing happened in two different ways.
She saw the guard reach down with its hand, grabbing her head and squeezing it until it popped. She also saw it swing with its sword, slicing her in two. They were both there in front of her and she realized she had a moment to look at them - really look at them. She wasn't sure what she was looking for, but she knew that she'd know it when she did. Luck pervaded the air around her - no, not air, it pervaded reality in the deepest sense. This reality, but others too.
Her eyes were drawn to something. In the vision where the guard swung its sword it had to pull back to reorient itself. When it did that it stretched and,
Got you.
She leaned into that reality and suddenly it became more tangible - the thin film of possibility popping like a bubble. She was back in the real world and the guard was pulling its arm back to swing its sword. Luna gripped the rapier in both hands and swung upwards, straight into the opening between its helmet and the shield that she'd spied in the vision.
Its swing halted with a loud dragging sound as the guard's sword stalled its momentum inches from Luna's feet. A plastic plunking sound echoed throughout the room as its head bounced along the floor.