POV Rio
The enemies I was facing on my third attempt were a bit easier to deal with, as I had a handle on what they were capable of. The first person I dealt with was one of the two people in Power Armor. They were in the X-02 variety, which meant that even a headshot with the General's Ghost wasn't a guaranteed kill, so I had to follow it up with my once-daily use of Temporal Seal. The issue with Temporal Seal is that I can't use any offensive measures while time is frozen. Anything I do is stuck in time until time resumes, so certain things are better than others. Such as my strategy, which was to use one of the few remaining Mini-Nukes I had to create an IND (Improvised Nuclear Device). I simply tossed it at them, and when time resumed, I was already out of range.
"Bloody Hell! It's a Nuke! Run for it!" screamed a Scottish man while leaping towards the bomb.
They scattered, and the first to get away was the one called the Speedster. They could run really fast. From my estimates, they could run over 120mph. The second to get away was the one I called the Scout, as they ran fast but not nearly as fast, and they always had a quip. The Nuke went off and killed the Scot, whom I call the Explosives Expert, as they were equipped with an Automatic Grenade Launcher. The blast also finished off one of the Power Armor users and severely injured another, which just so happened to be the one I called the Assassin. They were invisible most of the time, and as such, a pain to deal with if it wasn't me. No one else could see him, so getting rid of him was best.
"Ah sh*t! They killed Demoman! Those b@stards!" yelled Scout.
BOOOM
The Demoman then exploded again, which finished off the Assassin.
"Sacre Bleu," said the Assassin before dying.
"Heh, that will teach that cheap French b@stard!" yelled the Scout.
"Didn't your mother ever teach you to have a clean mouth!" complained Nick.
"Hah, what you upset, tin can?" Scout snapped back.
"Die little Pony! Heavy is Magic Death Pony!" screamed the other Power Armor user.
Everyone just looked at him and then went on with the fight. Speaking of the fight, I knew we only had a few more seconds before that man would join the fight. Which meant I needed to reduce the numbers more. My first target was the Sniper. They were fast but not too fast, and they had a sniper who shot shells strong enough to kill me in one shot. I used Shadow Step and appeared behind him. The Speedster, always aware, started to run at me. But it was too late. I strapped a bomb to his back and then ran away.
"Crikey!" he said before getting blown sky high.
The speedster ran right at me with his chainsaw spear, but he had to take a slight detour to avoid the blast, giving me just enough time to teleport again. This time, I chose the flame weapons expert user not in Power Armor. They tried to predict my movement, causing everyone to aim at where they thought I would appear, but no one predicted right, as I wasn't looking at who I was aiming for. Instead, I was looking at the Scout. While they were distracted, I stuck a knife into the jugular of the fire weapons user. And then added some lightning magic, charring his throat and killing him instantly.
They realised their mistake and moved to aim at me, but I chose this time to use one of my Ultimates. My body rapidly changed into a dark blue crystal, and I started spamming any and all magic spells I knew. At this point, all my Companions were in fairly poor condition, but they had managed to pin down the Heavy and injure the Scout. The Scout was finished off by an Ice Spike to the chest from me. And I caused a decent amount of damage to the Speedster. The main issue was that reinforcements arrived, and the Heavy was taking almost no damage. However, I had faith that Nick, Cait, Dogmeat, and Piper could handle the remaining enemies. Especially now that my Ultimate ended and caused all of them to be fully healed, and it inflicted damage on my enemies.
"You idiots! Can't even deal with one mutie without me!" yelled the new man who arrived.
The man was fairly tall, around two meters, and he wore armor, sleek black Combat Armor that had many pieces f tech built into it. It also had the Old World US Flag on its chest. He was the only person who had any type of symbology visually present. The rest were seemingly nobody with no clear insignia to identify where they came from.
"Oh well, I guess I will handle this myself. Time to clean up this glorious country of ours," said the stranger.
"Hah, I'm afraid you might find it quite difficult to kill me!" I respond.
"Perhaps, but that is what makes my life worth it. Seeing your rotting corpse on the ground will bring a smile to my face. Your ride's over, Mutie, time to die," he responds while I switch to Quiet.
I open fire, and he doesn't even try to dodge; instead he smiles and starts running right at me. I keep shooting while trying to back off, but I notice something very wrong. He is growing in size and speed. He closes the distance and punches the gun out of my hand before going for a head strike. However, I am no novice when it comes to Unarmed Combat. I flow with his strike, allowing me to dodge it effortlessly, which gives me time to activate another one of my abilities. I grow in size, and my eyes turn red as I shift into my Infinite Rage form. The next punch hits me, but I block it easily. I can see some surprise in the man's eyes, and I don't give him time to process it as I punch him squarely in the jaw.
His head is knocked upwards, and I keep combing him and beating the ever-loving crap out of him. After about 5 seconds, I go for another punch, but he grabs my fist and takes the blow completely. It was my turn to be shocked as he then started to counterattack. I was shocked, as my Strength Stat should be 28, as I had recently gotten another Strength Stat increase. The fact that he could block an attack and do so completely was shocking to say the least. He was also nearly 3 meters tall (9 feet). I tried my best to hurt him as best as I could, but after 30 Seconds, my Infinite Rage boosts ended, and even in my normal rage form, I was being absolutely manhandled.
SNAP
The man hit me hard and sent me flying through several trees, which activated my first life-saving skill, making me shatter into wood and appear from a nearby tree. I took this chance to see how the others were doing, and I was happy to see they brought down the Heavy. However, only Cait was still standing, and she was only barely managing that. The Speedster, on the other hand, was still alive, if only barely. It seemed like he had run a distance away for now. I had to refocus on my enemy as I was too tired to maintain the Rage form, meaning it was a much more difficult fight.
'I'll need to trick him if I am going to win this. Or at least outlast him.'
Despite the man's strength, he was in terrible condition. His breathing was ragged, and he had blood all over him, none of which was mine.
"I'll have to say you were quite the prey. You really made me have to work for this, but unfortunately for you, this is the end of the line," he says while punching me.
I barely manage to dodge, but the punch obliterates a tree. I pulled out a Shotgun and fired, but only shot once before it went flying from my hands. He attacks again, and I narrowly dodge again, this time using my M1911. I shoot 3 times this time before he smacks it away. He goes for another punch, and unfortunately, it comes even faster than before, causing it to connect. I barely survived the hit with a Shield Spell and went flying again. But it seems Cait saw it and used this chance to use a weapon dropped by the Heavy. A Tesla Cannon is fired and hits the man attacking me, giving me some time to heal while he grabs a knife and throws it at her. Cait is taken out for the count, but the attack had disabled the man's power fist.
"Argh! Whatever useless piece of tech was holding me back anyway," he says while throwing the power fist at me, preventing me from shooting him with the General's Ghost I had pulled out.
The Power Fist is launched too fast, and the General's Ghost is knocked away. The man then runs at me, and I scramble for any gun I have, but only find one thing. I act panicked, and when the man gets near me, I take his full force punch. But I masked the activation of my last bomb.
BOOOOM
I am fine as I shatter into crystal and become invulnerable for 4 seconds. However, I am shocked to see my foe is still alive.
"Hehe. Cough-Cough. You're one tough mutie. But killing creatures like you is what makes my life worth living. All you do is contaminate this great nation with your filth. You think you have won, but you're all out of tricks now. Which means... Checkmate," he says while walking slowly towards me with a revolver drawn.
He was fairly right; I had no weapons, bombs, or abilities left. My Mana and AP were out, and I was sitting at 50% Health. While I knew he was in worse condition, he was also far faster and stronger than I was right now.
"Hahaha, you're right, I am in quite a corner now. But I won't surrender. Not now, not ever. But I never got the name of the man that I am fighting. Care to share?" I said while trying to stall for time.
"Hehe, usually I wouldn't tell my name to filth like you, but... You've been quite the quarry. And the fight was the best fight I have ever been through, so I will tell you. My designation is Agent 111. But when you get to Hell and meet the devil, tell him that it was James Horrigan who killed you," James says with a wicked grin.
"Horrigan? Are you related to Frank Horrigan?" I ask while preparing my final trick.
My question causes James to pause.
"Well, well, well, it seems someone remembers my father. He was a true patriot, died for his country. Died trying to cleanse this Glorious Nation of your kind. I am just continuing his work," he says while aiming his revolver at my head.
"God Bless America," James says with a fervent smile.
I smile back and activate the Rune I had just overloaded with my Mana. During our conversation, I was standing completely still to increase my Mana regen by 5 times. That allowed me to gather enough Mana to create one last trick.
"NOOOOO!" Before the rune could explode, the Speedster ran into James and threw him out of the blast. However, the two of them wouldn't get out of range in time. Or at least I thought they wouldn't, but then they vanished in a beam of light. As for me, I used my last once-per-day ability to transform into any known being for four hours. I chose the Smooze. The blast was mostly fire and combustion, so it would do very little to a being made of highly resistant magic slime. It turned my body into chunks of green goo, shooting all over the place. But I slowly came back together. While I was separated, I stored everything I could, as it was either mine or really nice loot.
I didn't drop the form just in case they tried anything else, and I was lucky I did, as next came a defending screech. But thankfully, this form was basically immune to sonic attacks. At least those of a high-pitched frequency. What came next baffled and confused me, and made me quite angry.
"A FREAKING NUKE REALLY!" I scream into the sky as a Nuclear Missile comes this way.
Thankfully, I had time. I first dropped the form and then activated the Agility Perk, allowing me to boost my speed by 500% for 6 seconds. Then I used what Mana I regenerated to boost my speed further, and then flew as fast and as far as I could. I could bring the others, but I knew they were still unconscious and therefore immune to damage and pain. I stacked everything I could to boost speed and nearly broke the sound barrier, but that was not important. What was important was that I escaped the blast radius and cleared the trap. I knew because the quest was completed. As for everyone else, they were all launched in the same direction as me. So they weren't too far from me. But I would go find them in a minute. For now, I was tired and needed a break.
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Author's Note:
In case it wasn't obvious, Alpha and Bravo Squads were based on the team from Team Fortress 2. Also, yes, that is an exact line Heavy can say in the game, specifically the second half. There is a whole MLP-themed hat in TF2 that enables unique dialogue. Rio, with enough tries, can beat most threats. But that doesn't mean dying is pleasant. After all, Rio has to die to come back. And dying is rarely painless. The next chapter will focus on the Battle in Goodneighbor and then end with the Siege of Sanctuary. Until next time, Ciao.