Interloper-360°: Expanded Version

Angel Stardust 14: The Ultimate Life-Form

Like his jet, his movements are incredibly fast. He uses the robotic legs to grab onto the various consoles around him and propel himself forward as if he was being thrown. His legs curl up to his stomach, and his feet connect with my stomach and chest. He kicks me into the door, slamming me with his body weight and momentum.

I drop my blaster and let out a pathetic whimper as all the air escapes my body. I wheeze, sliding down the door to the floor, and quickly scramble away before he can make another move. I crawl for my blaster, snatch it, and crawl behind a console.

"Your heart is still beating? Interesting. Where'd you get to?" he asks, his robotic limbs carrying him around the room high above. I peek out, still struggling to breathe, and shoot a few photon blasts at the back of his head.

The blasts connect, but they hit some sort of invisible shield that keeps him completely unharmed.

"There you are!"

He swings his way towards me and throws some robot arms my way. It pains my stomach, but I roll away and recover quick enough to start shooting frantically. All of my shots hit something else protecting him. What is that?

"How do you like my photon diffuser? No light can touch me!"

I run to the other side of the small room and skid into some more cover. He continues climbing my way without getting tired. I won't have the endurance to keep running from this guy, I need to throw him off somehow.

I shoot the lights overhead of us and start creating shadows. As the glass covering shatters, he instinctively looks that way. I shoot one right above him and the glass phases through his diffuser and scratches his face.

He yelps softly as he rubs his eyes and has his robot arms carrying him away from the falling glass. I quickly sprint over to the light switch and flick it off, then I shoot it. The room is really dim with the only lights coming from the consoles themselves. I can still see, but darker corners are an option now.

I hurry away from the switch before his crashing body can make contact with me. He slams into the wall and creates visible damage to what is supposed to be a highly sturdy metal. That could've been my bones.

"No night vision on all that tech? What a shame," I whisper.

"Did you know that The Keeper is neurologically linked to its owner? Think of the mechanical parts as an extension to myself."

"Keep talking, Deus, that's all you're good for."

I shuffle quietly all around the room, only barely dodging his skimming eyes. He stands under another cover and I shoot the glass. It rains, he gets annoyed and moves away. I need something more effective than this. This is only angering him.

He begins to climb higher to the ceiling. I pop out and try to shoot him, but he spots me and quickly twirls his whole body to dodge all of my shots.

He throws himself at me again with a powerful scream to accompany it. I dodge the front of his attack; his strong fist aiming for my head, but as I scurry away, a robotic limb grabs me by the wrist.

He pulls me off the floor and manhandles me like I weigh nothing.

"Looks like I've caught myself a mercenary."

I squirm and groan as the metallic grip gets tighter, scraping and scratching my flesh. "Ack! Whatever happened to dinner and a movie first?"

I quickly fumble for my outfit with my free hand, snap a metal accessory off of my jacket, and jam the sharp edge into his neck. He releases a loud and intense scream in my face, then his robotic arm hurls me away from him fast and hard. I fly to the wall so greatly, I splat against it like a toy.