Dr. Philip's voice chimed back over the speakers, chuckling.
"Unbelievable... Hey, Vice-Leader guy! You are way tougher than I thought you'd be. Taking out an entire squad of twenty-five Knights all by yourself with raw, unassisted punches? You really are a monster."
Hearing that their Vice-Leader was single-handedly annihilating his sector filled the DWO unit with a sudden surge of adrenaline.
Zero smirked, Vice-Leader did all by himself. That's really unbelievable. She thought.
What are we waiting for. stinger thought with a smirk of pride.
"Ms. Cheetah, keep going!" Scorpian said.
Cheetah nodded, "Don't let the Vice-Leader steal all the glory!"
She flexed her hands, extending her razor-sharp bio-claws with a sharp metallic click. With a terrifying roar, she swung her arms in a cross-pattern; her claws elongated mid-swipe, unleashing vacuum blades that sliced seven Knights clean in half in one brutal arc.
Philip... you're dying next, Cheetah thought, her blood pumping.
Beside her, Scorpion drew his heavy tactical dagger alongside a custom break-action hand cannon, placing surgical armor-piercing rounds directly through the visors of the oncoming constructs.
Stinger shifted into high gear, moving at speed to slice a cluster of eight Knights into scrap metal before turning back toward Zero.
What he saw made even his breath catch.
Zero moved so fast, that stinger couldn't see, vanishing from sight and reappearing directly behind a battalion of nine Knights.
With a single, explosive roundhouse kick, she sent four of them crashing through a concrete load-bearing wall. Bending their bodies at impossible angles and breaking everything inside and cracking the outside of armor.
Before the remaining three could react, she blurred forward again, throwing a lightning-fast barrage of palm strikes that shattered their inner chassis mechanisms from the inside out.
"Damn! You guys really tore through my knights," Philip's amused voice echoed through the compound. "Alright, alright, you win Round 1! Shall we move straight to Round 2, or do you little elite soldiers need a minute to catch your breath?"
"SHOW YOURSELF, YOU BASTARD!" Cheetah screamed at the ceiling speakers.
"Little kitty, why are you in such a rush to die?" Philip replied mockingly. "I'm trying to be polite and give you time to recover. You won't survive Round 2."
"Shut your damn mouth!" Cheetah snarled. "You're not man enough to face us yourself!"
"Oh? Now that hurts my feelings," Philip sighed dramatic over the intercom. "Fine then. I'll send out someone special to handle you and your partner personally."
Scorpion narrowed his eyes, tightening his grip on his cannon.
Someone else? More Knights?
"Round 2 begins... now."
With a heavy hydraulic groan, a massive blast door in the far wall began to slide open, revealing a long, dark corridor.
Scorpion and Cheetah instantly pivoted, raising their weapons toward the opening as a lone human silhouette emerged from the shadows.
Meanwhile, Liam watched the mansion with his tablet in his hand.
"Boss, Plan B is primed and ready on my mark," Light's voice reported smoothly over the headset.
"Hold your fire. I'm already inside," Terminator replied coldly.
Terminator stepped through the shattered entrance of the primary research bay. The moment his boots hit the tile, more than sixty Knights lunged at him simultaneously from every angle in a overwhelming death swarm.
Terminator didn't even flinch.
A single, unseen sweeping blade arc whistled through the air. All sixty Knights froze mid-stride... before sliding apart into neat, severed thirds, collapsing onto the floor in a massive pile of dead metal.
Too easy, Terminator thought, stepping over the wreckage without breaking stride.
Suddenly, the slow, rhythmic sound of hands clapping echoed from the far catwalk above.
"Old man... you've still got it," a voice called out.
Terminator tilted his head up, spotting Dr. Philip sitting in the stairs, near the control console in his immaculate white lab coat, a faint, dangerous smirk playing on his lips.
"So you finally decided to step out of the dark, Philip," Terminator said quietly, his hand resting on his weapon.
"Old man, any last words before we wrap this up?" Philip asked, adjusting his glasses with a smirk.
"You're overly confident, kid," Terminator replied, his voice dropping an octave. "You really have grown a spine."
Philip's grin only widened.
"Old man, shall we begin."
Philip leaned over the railing, his eyes locking onto Terminator with absolute conviction.
"Today, the world watches the impossible happen. Today... the DWO Unit dies."
Out in the eastern corridor, Cheetah and Scorpion stood back-to-back, their weapons trained on the dark entryway as the heavy blast door finished rising.
Meanwhile, T-Rex crushed the throat of another Knight, who appeared out of nowhere, in his grip just as the wall in front of him slid open, exposing a similar dark passage.
"All of you will die right here," Philip's voice resonated over every speaker in the facility.
"WHO THE HELL IS COMING?!" Cheetah screamed into the dark.
Scorpion's eyes narrowed to slits as footsteps echoed out from the corridor.
A lone figure casually stepped into the dim light of the hall. He wore normal clothes, his posture relaxed, his black eyes carrying the cold, unshakeable aura of a predator who owned the battlefield.
"Nice to meet you," the man said smoothly, flexing his right hand into a fist as his gaze swept across Cheetah and Scorpion.
"My name is Damian."