Bring The Heat

67. Skin VS Steel Pt 1 (CB ARC 16)

Rebound threw his ball before anyone could think. Just as X9 raised his gun arm, the ball bounced off of the floor and smacked it upwards, sending a shot straight into the ceiling. He and BM both had the same training, and knew that they had to disarm X9 as soon as they could.

Wren was fatigued from her mental adventure, but Rebound's action gave her the time she needed to react. She threw herself into X9, tackling him, but the robot stood almost unfazed. He returned a punch to Wren's gut, shoving her away.

Rebound ran in straight after, and quickly shouldered X9's gun arm as it raised again. The shot went straight past Rebound's head, giving him a deafening pain in his ear, but the adrenaline kept him almost unflinching.

X9 went for another gut punch, but Rebound pulled himself in, taking the blow to his side instead. Being made of metal, X9's blows were strong, but Rebound's pain tolerance after years of rigorous training were not to be underestimated. He held X9's gun arm high above both of their heads and grappled him tightly, restraining him as he was hit repeatedly in the lower back.

Thinking on his feet, BM hobbled over to the destroyed medbay door, bent and crushed from being forced closed by the Second Layer Protocol. He grabbed a sharp, jutting piece of metal, and strained and grunted weakly as he bent it out.

Rebound understood, and flipped himself to be holding X9 from the back. He gave a nod to a rising Wren, wordlessly communicating the plan. She charged X9 once more as Rebound lined it up, and as she collided, all three of them fell backwards.

X9's arm landed directly on the jutting edge as they fell, being torn up and bent backwards. Rebound was winded as the weight of both Wren and X9 fell onto him, but as Wren jumped back, he scrambled out from underneath the robot.

But X9 wasn't done yet.

Flailing his destroyed gun arm around, he fired. The shell exploded at the edge of the busted barrel, sending a volley of fragments towards Rebound. He threw his arms in front of his face, but they and his chest were painfully lacerated by the shards.

As X9 next flung his arm in Wren's general direction, BM intervened and grabbed it. But in his unpowered, injured state, he was weak. X9 swiveled and punch him directly on his shot wound from the day before, and fired off another volley of fragments point blank. BM fell back as little shards of twisted metal dug deep into his stomach.

"BM!" Wren cried, and charged X9 again, propelled by rage. But Rebound ran up and tackled her into the wall right as a shot flew through the air where Wren's head had been. Swiftly, Rebound turned towards X9, and dragged his fingers down his lacerated arm. And few small fragments fell from light wounds, and clattered onto the floor - only to skitter right over to X9 and clog up the barrel of his gun arm!

Not realizing this, X9 tried to shoot at the two once more, but the shell exploded further up his arm, destroying it beyond repair.

"Got you, asshole!" Rebound yelled, climbing to his feet and picking up his ball, "Now I'm gonna beat your little chrome skull in!"

But as he approached, X9 laughed electronically, and rolled away.

"There's more to me than you know..." he muttered, also rising to his feet. But he paused halfway up, and muttered under his breath: "Y = 0.9".

As he said it, X9's eyes flashed purple, and from their centre shot out a flat purple plane, roughly 3 feet off of the ground, which covered the whole room. It shot straight through Rebound's midriff, and over Wren's head as she stayed on the ground.

Before he could even think, Rebound's top half was dragged down to the Y layer, and his bottom half was dragged up, leaving him floating helplessly on the plane.

Shocked, Wren stayed ducked underneath it, but when X9 started running towards the vulnerable Rebound, she shot up to defend him. Quickly, she found herself in the same situation, helpless to the gravity of the layer. X9 laughed again as he approached.

"They never expect the robot to have a power... humans love to think they're superior like that."

He wandered over to Wren first, who tried to swipe at him, but he just grabbed her arm and began to twist it slowly.

"I'm- gonna KILL YOU!" Wren shrieked in anguish as X9 tormented her. But really, there was nothing she could do - it was like being stuck in a spider's web.

For that remark, X9 slammed her face-first into the ground. The second she left the Y layer, gravity was restored again, so she rolled onto her back to try and push X9 away weakly. But he just bent down and pulled her back up to the layer by her throat, and prepared to snap it - right when something collided with the back of his head.

X9 turned back to see that it was a piece of his gun arm, thrown by BM - who was now barely standing... on the roof!?

"The line sucks you in, but if you can get past it, it pushes away gravity on either side!" he called out, and began to hobble away. He may have lost his ability, but BM would never lose his resilience!

"Where are you running to?" X9 asked mockingly, turning way from his helpless victims to pursue BM.

Rebound looked around him; sure enough, his ball, which he had been holding above the layer when it was created, was now on the roof. He reached down as far as he could, hoping to push off of the floor, but he just barely couldn't reach.

"Rebound!" Wren hissed quietly. He looked up, and saw that she had shifted her 2-zip bomber jacket down her back and arms, and was now floating one of the zip loops over to him.

Grabbing it, Rebound pulled Wren over to him, and slid her underneath him. They pushed on each other in unison, and both fell from the line - Wren to the floor, and Rebound to the ceiling. He ran over and picked up his ball, lobbing it down the hall as Wren crawled along the floor below.

The ball whizzed past X9, but hit the door at the very end of the hall, bouncing back and smashing into his head.

As he hit the ground, X9 felt something akin to annoyance. He had lost the advantage, everyone was free from his Y layer, and they now knew of his ability. But to be fair, one was gravely injured, and another was powerless. The only remaining power threatened relatively low damage to him... yes, X9 decided.

This was a fair fight.