Cinder

21 - The Tower

"TOBIAS!"

Kay called out to her partner below as she continued to hold onto the hook end of the grappling cable, her hands threatening to disengage from their local magnetic field. She awaited for his response only to suddenly feel a bit of slack in the line. Confused, she began to reel in the wire until she saw the reason for the lack of tension; dangling on the other end was the attachment to Tobias' arm plates, meaning he'd disengaged it from his armor.

She gave a synthetic sigh, completely due to her exasperation since she had a very obvious deficiency in lungs and other organs. "Why can't these things ever be easy?"

Turning around, she made her way towards the stairwell to progress farther up the tower.

...

He assessed the situation rather quickly, noting that there weren't any major threats in the room; the only immediate opposition was a few security officers who were completely bewildered at the sight of a Pilot crashing through the window, no more than five. He had the advantage for a moment or so, but they could overcome him with numbers if he let them think too long.

Raising the wingman up, he fired into the ceiling and hoped he didn't hit anyone he'd regret killing later. The shot garnered the attention of everyone in the room, many of which cried out in shock and surprise.

"I'm not here to kill anyone, but I've got no qualms about it if you force my hand," he yelled clearly to the crowd. "Weapons on the ground, and no one gets hurt."

One of the officers immediately complied, probably one of the more inexperienced guards. Most of them kept their weapons in hand but looked hesitant; only one decided to go for the kill and raised their carbine as they charged him.

Using his thrusters to evade the shot, he let himself fall to the floor and swung his feet in a semi circle. The man tripped up over his legs and cried out as he rolled uncontrollably into the gaping hole Tobias had left in the window to a presumably quick death on the pavement below.

Raising the wingman at the officers, Tobias nodded his head towards the window and muttered darkly, "Anyone else want to try their luck?"

The others made up their minds and set their weapons on the ground, likely not wanting to risk a direct confrontation with a Pilot; considering it had been four years since they were a common infantry unity, it was possible none of them had even faced one before. Yet another advantage on his side.

"Who are you?" asked one of the researchers, their tone anxious but genuinely wondering as well. Tobias remarked amusedly to himself that if there was one constant when it came to the field of science, it was curiosity.

His initial reaction was to deny them that knowledge to remain hidden, but then he realized that Spyglass would likely know it was him here in a few minutes if he didn't already. Perhaps he could work with a revelation like this one.

"Well, I've been called a lot of things. My favorite is the 'Inferno'-"

Her jaw dropped even further if that was possible, as did a few others including the security. "You- you're supposed to be dead! For two years, you've been-"

"Spyglass's reports weren't entirely accurate," he explained with a smirk. "Glad to see you've heard of me, though."

She fell silent to be replaced with another researcher who sized him up. "Well- if you really are Tobias Four, I mean- what are you doing here?"

"Same thing I'm always doing," he said dryly, "going up against impossible odds and saving humanity. Getting kind of tired of it, but someone's gotta do it. First it was Erebus and the fold weapons, then the Amalgamation; now it's Spyglass's turn."