CH. 23 - Attack at the Facility

Late into June. A laboratory, at the top of a hill far out from the main city, is conducting research into an experimental serum. Something a private corporation is funding in secret.

Late at night, while the scientists and engineers work, outside, a group of people begin to form in the shadows. Roughly twenty members of the Devil’s Syndicate are stationed outside, all staring at the building that is not intensely fortified as not many know of its existence. A familiar face, Frontier, steps forward. 

“All personnel in position. We will strike on my mark. Get in, retrieve the serum, and exit. Minimal casualties.” They say with a serious tone.

“Well, well, well, I’d say I’m proud, trying to minimize deaths tonight and all, but uh, that would be a lie.”

Shocked by the extra voice, Frontier shoots their head up to see Fullsky standing on a branch just above them.

“You!” They shout angrily. Everyone focuses their attention on her. “How did you know we’d be here?”

“Oh, you know. Large group of uniformed, conspicuous people all formed around a fairly shady facility. Pretty obvious.” As she speaks, she walks along the branch, then under it, completely hanging upside but maintaining her footing like it's nothing. Frontier gets an aggravated look.

“Come to get into our business again?”

“Yep.”

“Don’t forget what happened last time we fought.” They smirk at Fullsky.

“Yeah, but I don’t see that big machine around anymore, soooo.” She smirks back. She then jumps off the branch and flips to a landing behind them. They all turn to face her, stanced, ready for a fight.

“If you don’t mind, I’m gonna end this quickly. I gotta get up early tomorrow.” She lunges at them with a dash, but before she could strike, she is suddenly frozen in the air.  “W-what?! What did-”

“Oh yeah, about that machine.” Frontier lifts their arm up to reveal it to be augmented. The same glowing parts from the big machine pieced throughout their arm, energy bolts and metal bands protruding from her flesh, having replaced the entire arm with the upgraded machine. “After our lead engineer got a hold of the old, might I say, clunky one, he modified it, upgraded it and gave one to me to test.” They suddenly shoot Fullsky back, hard, and smash her through a tree. She gets up as a little blood falls from her mouth. Frontier smirks but gets serious then puts a finger to their ear for coms. “Everyone, move in. Retrieve the serum. I will fend off Fullsky.”

The group starts running in. Fullsky notices and tries to get past Frontier but is stopped. 

“Gah!” She yells in pain as Frontier looks to be grabbing her with their hand, crushing her. They pull her in closer to them and flips her upside.

“You like my upgrades? It’ll certainly be easier to fend you off now. Oh, and there’s one other thing.” They slowly raise their hand and take off the bandana wrap around their head, revealing a marking on their forehead that is slightly glowing red. “The boss gave me a gift. I’m much more than a human now.”

They give her an evil smirk before they smash Fullsky into the ground head first. She coughs out blood while smashing into the dirt. Immediately after being released, Fullsky disappears. Frontier smirks and begins to take off their jacket. They stand in their black tank top for a moment before their eyes sharpen. They snap around and quickly collides blows with Fullsky.

Fullsky pushes with her leg in a kick against Frontier’s machine arm. They both get shot back from the force. Fullsky lands on her hands and flips onto her legs, then releases one large wing. Using it, she propels herself in a twist motion, hitting Frontier in the arm they used to block. This sends them flying back into a tree. After a moment, they regain their footing and grabs a large rock with the Pulse Arm. They hurl it at Fullsky. She stares at it with an unamused look.

“What’s with you people and rocks?” She dives forward and rolls past it as it smashes behind her. As she comes out of the roll, she lifts her hands and points them at Frontier. Then she points her finger at them. “Let’s take this somewhere I can really move.” Then she points up in a snapping motion. Suddenly, Frontier is shot into the sky. 

“What the hell?!” They float around for a moment before Fullsky jumps up to follow with her wings. As she is going up, she looks over to see the others running up to the building. She grits her teeth in frustration.

“Some help would be really useful right about now.”

As she says this, the members almost hit the door when a large crash happens in front of them. Once the dust clears, they see Watchdog standing before them.

“Sorry I was late, boys. Got a little lost.” He cracks his knuckles. “Now, who wants to go first?” He says as he stances up. A couple of members start yelling, charging him as he dodges and hits them back. He knocks them out with one strike each and they fall one by one. “Come on. At least one of you has got to hit harder than that, right?”

As soon as he finishes his statement, he is punched through the large steel doors to the facility. He tumbles across the floor before landing on his back. He coughs a bit as he sits up, holding his chest.

“Okay.. That’s fair.” He looks up to see two large people standing over him. They both have the same symbol as Frontier on their heads. “Woah, cool tattoos. Where can I get one? Ah-!”

He is grabbed by his leg and thrown through the wall next to them, crumbling the surrounding cement. He sits up once again, in a pile of rubble, as scientists begin to run away.

“I see how it’s going to be. Let’s go.”

He leans forward on one knee before lunging at one of the Hexed individuals. Their fists collide and they are both instantly shot back a bit by the force. With a heavy stomp, they both charge once again and start throwing a barrage of punches at each other, each with the intent of breaking the other.

As they are trading blows, the second Hexed goes around and begins a strike at Watchdog from the side. As he is throwing punches, suddenly, an eye appears on Watchdog’s shoulder. He looks at the second Hexed coming from the side and quickly stops punching, crouches, and dives into the legs of the first Hexed. This causes him to stumble forward and look over with shock before he is struck in the face by the second Hexed and sent packing. 

“Ah! Sorry!” The Hexed shouts with a worried look. Watchdog whistles at him. He looks up to see Watchdog hanging from the roof before dropping and slamming both his knees into the Hexed’s face and straight into the ground. Watchdog stands up after a moment, panting.

“That should buy me a little time. I hope Fullsky is doing alright.” He looks back out the now destroyed entrance where Fullsky and Frontier face off.

Frontier struggles to gain a footing in the air and Fullsky approaches them fast. After a moment, Frontier uses the Pulse Arm on themself to adjust their feet in the air and keep them upright. Fullsky floats not too far from them. 

“What does the Syndicate want with this serum?”

“You have no idea what the Devil’s Syndicate is plotting, do you? You just know how to stick your nose in business that has nothing to do with you.” They spit back.

“What you’re doing is hurting people, I think that is a part of my business. Now tell me, what do you want with it?” Fullsky demands. Frontier smirks before shooting themself at Fullsky at full speed. Their arms collide as Fullsky blocks the punch with her elbow.

“If you want to know so bad, make me say it.” They smirk even more sinister than before as their arm begins to glow with intense heat which burns Fullsky. She lets out a yell for a moment before throwing them back. As Frontier spins, they grab a tree from the ground with the Pulse Arm and swing it hard, hitting Fullsky who blocked it but is still sent flying back. After catching herself in the air with her wings, she looks up to see Frontier diving at them with a glowing fist.

Back in the facility, Watchdog is running through the building’s halls looking for any of the Devil’s Syndicate members to beat up while directing civilians towards any exits he thinks are safe. While rushing a couple of civilians along, he turns to look down a long hallway to see three average members run from around the corner and stop when they notice him.

The four of them stand for a moment in silence, staring at each other before Watchdog takes a sharp breath in and bolts towards them. The three men do the same and rush him. As they go, Watchdog dives forward with a twist before grabbing one man by the face and slamming his head into the floor, followed by a rollover and a quick turn towards the other two he passed. One pulls out a baton like weapon with electricity coming from it while the other points a gun at him.

The man with the gun starts shooting while Watchdog dodges and jumps off the walls, making his way towards him. The man with the baton rushes forward and swings at him as Watchdog lands in front of him. He misses a couple times as Watchdog dodges, then strikes him in the face upwards. The man with the gun stopped shooting due to his partner rushing in the way he did. Watchdog then strikes the baton wielding man with both fists in the chest which sends him flying back, knocking into the man with the gun.

Before the gunman can regain his footing and look back, Watchdog rushes him and grabs his wrist, pointing the gun up, and jabs him in the throat, causing the man to collapse. Watchdog empties the bullet and clip from the handgun before dropping it and looking back over his shoulder.

“They don’t seem to know where they’re going anymore than I do.” He observes while catching his breath for a moment. A sharp pain shoots through his body, causing him to wince, noticing a gunshot wound in his lower left side. He sighs a bit in disappointment before continuing to run down the hall. 

Alarms and flashing lights are going off as Watchdog makes his way through the facility, stopping any members he can find. As he runs around, he eventually comes to an ominous room. He stops and peers inside.

As he slowly walks in and looks around, he notices on one side of the room there are cages. He gets closer to them, only to find most of them are empty. The farther into the room he goes, however, he eventually finds a few cages with different small animals in them. Cats, dogs, rats, guinea pigs, small animals of the like.

They just seem to be looking forward not making a sound but clearly awake. As he gets closer, they slowly turn their heads toward him as if to acknowledge his presence, but are not startled nor seem to be bothered in any way. He snaps his fingers at them a couple times with no reaction. He then notices that their eyes glow slightly green in the dark.

“What in the..?” He goes to the farthest cages and when he looks inside, he quickly covers his mouth and turns away. “Oh god! What did they do?”

He slowly looks back at the decomposing corpses of animals in the cages. Glowing green liquid oozes from the bodies as the muscles still twitch ever so slightly. He notices how it looks like they were being destroyed from the inside out, as their fur and skin are still mostly intact.

After giving a horribly disgusted look, he turns and looks around the room for more information on what this facility is about. He looks at some of the boards and papers around, but most of the room is scattered and messed up due to the invasion. 

“Something inhibitors?..” He couldn’t make out what the first part of the name was because of the paper being ruined. Something then catches his eye. He turns to see a glowing green vial, a single one, in a tube carrier. He goes over to it and picks it up in his right hand and looks at it closely, only to be confused as to what it actually could be. 

“It doesn’t look like anything I’ve seen before… Is this what they’re after?..” Before he could look at it too long, there is a loud bang as bullets come flying towards him, destroying the vial and shooting through his hand at the same time. This causes the green liquid to spill all over his now heavily open wounded hand. He freaks out for a moment about that, but is quickly focused on the woman who just shot him.

“Watchdog! I’m gonna kill you here and now!” She shoots a few more rounds at him as he disappears from her view. “Huh? Where did he-”

Before she could finish her thought, Watchdog punches her in the face, sending her smashing into the wall behind her. He walks out of the room and looks around for a moment before taking a look at his right hand. There is a good size hole closer to his wrist as well as his index and middle fingers are missing.

“Great.” He gets an irritated look before clenching what is left of his hand and continuing onward. “That couldn’t have been what they’re after. I gotta keep looking.” He thinks as he runs further into the building. 

There is a large boom outside as dirt and debris fly everywhere. Frontier is sent crashing into the ground as Fullsky follows up fast with a heavy blow using her wings as a mallet, slamming them deeper into the ground. Frontier is on one knee under the heavy attack, struggling hard to stay mostly upright as Fullsky struggles to push them down.

Frontier gives a loud shout as they burst out a heat wave, forcing Fullsky back. Before she can fully gain her composure, Frontier uses a gravity grab and pulls her in close while their other arm glows with heat once again. Fullsky can’t escape the grasp and is clotheslined hard enough in the face to cause a small shock wave. She slams against the ground by quickly rolls on her front.

As she lifts herself up from the ground, blood pours from her nose. She looks up to see Frontier’s hand of their Pulse Arm open with their palm to her face, only to repulse her aggressively, causing her to smash through multiple trees. She tumbles across the ground but manages to get her footing under her. As she stands up, she sees Frontier walking towards her slowly with both hands and eyes glowing the orange red color. 

“What’s the matter, Fullsky? Not your day? This can’t possibly be the same person who gave Keeper so much trouble. Don’t tell me you’re holding back.” They give an evil smile while Fullsky wipes the blood from her nose, giving a cocky smirk back.

“You’d like it if I were holding back, wouldn’t you?”

Frontier just smirks in response before rushing her fast enough to disappear for a moment and appear right in front of her. Before Frontier’s open palm heat attack could land, Fullsky bends backwards incredibly fast and lands a double rabbit kick to their face.

This causes them to fall unconscious for just a moment, but long enough for Fullsky to make her move. As Frontier’s eyes come back to front, suddenly Fullsky jumps up and places both her hands over their eyes, a blackish smoke-like effect coming from them. 

“Never see the light again.” She says. Frontier freaks out for a moment before a heavy force is shot into them. They yell out in pain and exert a large heat wave, causing Fullsky to let go. Frontier folds forward and stumbles while holding their face in their hands. 

“Ahh! Erg, what did you do?!” They scream as they look up with their eyes grayed out. Before they could make another word, Fullsky smashes them in the face with a solid punch, sending them packing over themself. Fullsky follows up quickly with a heavy gut punch, causing Frontier to puke a bit before taking another punch to the face, then to the side, then an uppercut to the jaw.

Fullsky lands a barrage of blows to their body and face. Frontier then tries to fire a Repulsion attack but completely misses and is kicked headfirst into the ground. 

‘Focus… Focus… I am a Hexed! I can’t lose!’ They think as they are repeatedly struck by Fullsky, but not going down. As she pulls back for another punch, she swings, but Frontier leans back and it barely misses them. Fullsky’s eye widens for a moment, but without hesitation follows up and lands a wide kick to their side, then a palm strike to their back, sending them flying forward.

She charges at them to follow up once again as they stumble forward. Before she could strike them, however, they spin away from the attack and place their Pulse Arm on her back and use Repulsion to send her flying into the air, coughing out blood from the impact. Frontier straightens up and turns in her direction as Fullsky hits the ground hard. They start walking towards Fullsky, who is coughing and trying to recover from the hard hit.

“You certainly have a variety of abilities, but none of these tricks will help you. I am a Hexed, elite soldier of the Devil’s Syndicate, and I will move you out of our way.”

Fullsky looks up at Frontier, who points the Pulse Arm at her. A large ball of energy begins to form in their palm. Before they can fire, Fullsky laughs a bit. This catches Frontier off guard.

“You’re laughing right now-” In that single moment, Fullsky slashes Frontier across the chest with her wing. “Gah!” They stumble back and place their hand on their chest then feel the blood coming from them. 

“It took me a second to understand how you were reading my movements despite being blind, but I get it now.” As she stands and steps toward Frontier, the grass around her feet begins to freeze slightly with each step. “My wings don’t produce heat of any kind. I’m not even sure what they’re made of being honest, but since they don’t, you can’t see it.” Her hands sparkle as small ice crystals begin to floating around them in a bright mist. “This ‘Hex’ of yours just gives you better heat control, including reading it. So if I lower my temperature enough…” Frontier stands with an intense look, getting ready for anything as Fullsky steps right up to them, only centimeters away from their face. “You can’t see me at all.”

Frontier freaks out for a moment as Fullsky stomps their head into the ground. She jumps back as Frontier lifts themself up a bit.

“No… no no no…” They’re then hit in the face by Fullsky’s wing and sent tumbling back. Fullsky then jumps up and throws herself down to stomp with both legs onto their stomach. They cough up blood but get no time to dwell on the pain as Fullsky begins pounding their face with a flurry of punches into the ground. After a solid moment of the assault, she stops and grabs them by their collar. 

“Now, tell me what the Syndicate wants with that serum!”

Severely injured, Frontier remained unresponsive for a moment before spitting blood onto her face. Fullsky lets go and stumbles back a bit, taken aback by the act. Suddenly, Frontier’s eyes widen as they get up and fire up their fist. Fullsky is shocked as a heat punch hits her across the face, sending her stumbling back a bit, reeling from the strike. Frontier looks over and sees three heat signatures in front of them. 

‘Her fists… my blood..!’ Using the Pulse Arm, they charge and put their palm on her stomach. ‘I have to kill her with this before the heat cools!’

They then use Repulsion on her again, with an overcharged Pulse Arm spitting sparks and small bolts of electricity. It vibrates heavily and glows with heat from the surge. It blasts heavy damage into Fullsky, sending her into the sky above. A long trail of blood pouring from her mouth and nose, leading into the air where she floats from the blast. Her vision goes fuzzy for a moment, struggling just to stay conscious. Frontier pants heavily and waits for the sound of her body hitting the ground. It never does. Fullsky falls for just a moment before her wings come out and she catches herself. She stares down at Frontier on the ground with blood coming from her mouth.

“That one.. hurt.” She says with an aggressive tone. Frontier grits their teeth hard and yells loudly. They then point their open palm of the Pulse Arm in Fullsky’s direction. They then grab an energy bolt from the arm and rip it off completely. This piece being broken off then sends the Pulse Arm into a frenzied overdrive, blue electricity and energy begin to pour from it.

“I don’t need to see you if I just blow away the entire area!!” They scream. ‘I’m sorry Doctor, I know I said I wouldn’t do this to your first design, but she’s leaving me no choice!’ They think with a slightly ashamed tone. Fullsky’s eye widens as she pulls back her fist and it begins to glow with a silver hue. Using her wings, she then pushes herself fast and hard at Frontier, swinging her fist down. Frontier shouts as they release the large blast, hitting Fullsky right before she could follow through with the punch. This doesn’t stop her, though.

She pushes harder and harder against the force Frontier is making. They shout as Fullsky pushes and grits her teeth. As they push against each other, bit by bit, Frontier is pushed back and down until they have to use their other arm to keep themself from hitting the ground.

The longer Fullsky stays in the blast, the more cuts start to open up on her face and arms and the more fractured her bones become. She then shouts one last time as her wings begin to change. Another set of wings, slightly smaller than the first, comes out that pushes her harder down until her fist collides with the Pulse Arm. They resist for a moment before she pushes through and completely shatters it.

Frontier is shocked for a moment before Fullsky’s fist hits them in the face and smashes them into the ground one last time with a large burst of energy. As the flash of light disappears, officers begin to pull up with lights and sirens blaring. Chief immediately jumps out of his car and observes the situation. He sees the mess made in the surrounding area, a few unconscious members lie around, and civilians running out of the building. He sweats a bit as he thinks quickly. 

“This looks like Syndicate work, so proceed with extreme caution! Main priority: protect the civilians! Get everyone out as fast as possible and help the injured! You are cleared to use deadly force to protect yourself and the civilians, go!” He commands. Everyone moves out on his command with heavy armor and weapons hot. He takes a couple of steps toward the facility before stopping when he notices something in the distance. Looking towards the treeline covered in clouds of dust, he sees someone walking out towards him. His eyes widen when he sees who it is. Fullsky steps out, dragging an unconscious body behind her. 

“Fullsky!” He calls out. She tosses Frontier next to his car, their right arm missing. Chief looks at Frontier for a moment, then back at Fullsky.

“The criminal, Frontier, has been apprehended.” She gives a secretly proud look to Chief, who nods and restrains the hand of Frontier before placing them in another car and sends them out. He then comes back to Fullsky, who is standing by his car. 

“Man, you look like shit. They really got that strong, huh?”

“You don’t even know.” She rolls her eyes in exhaustion as Chief nods.

“What’s going on here? What does the Devil’s Syndicate want with this building?”

“They’re trying to get this serum of some kind. I don’t know how much or what it does. Frontier wasn’t too keen on telling me.” She says with a frustrated but worn out tone.

“Got it. You good? Should I get medical here for you?” He asks with a concerned look.

“No, I’m alright. Just gonna.. Sit here and rest for a sec. Watchdog’s got it…” She leans against the car and slides down until she’s sitting on the ground, then immediately passes out. Chief gives her a look for a moment, then turns towards the facility. 

“He’s here too. Good. Let’s get this mess cleaned up.” He says before heading inside.