Locked, Stock Material

"Wolf Lead come in over"
"Copy Eagle Central read you over"
"Status is Midnight, I say again status is Midnight confirm?"
Wolf Lead was silent for a moment, she seemed to stiffen and her face became hardened and grim as if bracing herself for the most terrible of burdens.
"Confirm Wolf Lead? Do you read over?"
"Confirm Eagle Central status Midnight confirmed"

"Wolf 3 lets go status Midnight" Wolf Lead informed him before addressing the squad through the radio. "Status Midnight everyone to the transport now!" There was no time to lose, every second could be fatal.
"Well... I'll see you real soon" Wolf 3 leered at the girl he had been about to restrain before exiting rapidly, Wolf Lead turned to follow stopped as if she was about to say something, perhaps warn them but thought against it and left. She clambered into the craft just as it lifted off the ground and into the sky.

The 'Midnight' as it turned out, was in reality a small craft the size of school-bus. On inspection, it would have appeared unlike anything expected, no metallic or mechanical parts seen besides the engines on the rear. The entire ship, was organic, a biological organism unto itself that was headed straight for Earth. It's pilot had tracked their prey down, first from the wormhole it used and then the calculated course, heading straight for.....New York. Screeching through the atmosphere, the ship was hardly inconspicuous as it flew first over the ocean then Brooklyn, drawing many gazes towards it. People pointed, aimed camera phones at it to take pictures, and some even ran away as it continued over them and the buildings before coming to a halt in a park, setting down on a flat field to land.

Then the pilot emerged from its ship. It stood at over four meters, thin and lithe and covered in light yet hardened, insect chitin. Four limbs stretched out, ending in clawed hands and feet while a tail tipped with a sharpened dagger-head whipped about. As he stood at his full height, he tilted back his head to open his maw of razor sharp teeth, spread his bug like wings in a display of triumph, and let loose a loud screech, sounding his arrival. The hunt was on, for the nanomachines.

"Orion! Orion! Agent!!"

Orion stopped by the side of the road, swearing loudly to himself as he pressed one of the buttons in the car, transferring the sound to the speakers. The young man rubbed his head with a loud sigh, expecting something stupid a-fucking-gain from these asshats.

"This is Agent Orion. What's going on?"

"Orion, we've just gotten a dire message from the higher ups. You need to get to Prospect Park, something's happened. We weren't told what, just get there and deal with it now! This is a Severe Alert! We're sending more people there once you've figured out what's going on!"

Orion nodded, shut off the phone, and turned to the private communication channel of the organisation as he made a U-turn and headed on his way to Brooklyn.
He hoped this wouldn't be the same stuff as before.

"All call signs anyone got eyes of the NHT over?"
"This is Owl we're over looking the park and woooooh that's one ugly mother fucker"
"Say again Owl over?"
"Eagle Central NHT is in the park over"
"All call signs move to secure the NHT, use extreme caution and excessive force"

Wolf Lead and the rest of Wolf squad approached rapidly in their transport, Zulu squad where inbound ETA five minutes, Tiger squad were just setting down now and Crimson were three hours away. With a jolt Wolf lead realised that the entire of the UNESD combat force was now either deployed or being deployed in New York.

"Let's move it Wolf" She ordered as they thundered out onto the earth, taking cover behind trees. Tiger squad moved down a park path pushing through crowds and telling the people to move away.
"Eagle Central Wolf has eyes on the NHT over"
"Copy Wolf, Tiger ignore the civilians focus on securing the NHT"
Tiger Lead had always had a thing about saving as many people as possible but here he would have to swallow his pride, and instead focus on the important objective.

Wolf and Tiger moved forward and took cover behind various park decorations, trees, bushes, chairs and a hot dog cart. The transport aircraft had taken off to provide fire support with their miniguns should they be needed. A solitary UAV would also provide fire support, Wolf hoped the situation would not turn hostile however it was Status Midnight... And you would not greet your best friend with the SAS or the Spetsnaz so in a few moments it was going to get loud. But who would fire first? The UNESD where still bound by the restriction of wait until ordered to fire or fired upon first for Central wanted as much fire power their to waste whatever ET crawled out of their advanced spacecraft.

Libra blinked, then looked at the kids.
"Okay, uhm...that was the Immigration Services, right?" Had to be. No one else save the military would be packing that much, right? She frowned to herself, then shivered again.
"So. Uhm. About some clothes..."

Jake was finishing watching an episode of Oeange is the New Black when his phone came alive. Stella woke as her phone began blaring every notification there could be.
The two, thirty seconds later, were reading up on the pictures.
"Stella. Stay here." Jake got up and almost ran for the door.
"Jake!"
"I have to check with my mom! You know she hates cell phones and her landline doesn't work."
The speel about an old age mom who didnt believe in technology taking the place of person tonperson, face to face conversation had worked. So, outside, he ran. Once he was sure he was out of hearing distance, he ran for the roof.
"Aries."
"Prospect Park. I am lucky the cloak is still working; that vessel, while small...it quite honestly has weapons. Be careful. I have a bad feeling of what race it is, and it is most definantly not the Kayva."
"Kayva?"
"What you would call foxpeople."
"FOXGIRLS EXIST?!"
"Help me find my friends and i'll introduce you to one."

Jake was tempted...if Stella brok...hell, he had to break up with her soon...
"PERSEUS Engage." He said. The armor extended from his gauntlets, and when the nanofiber cape extended with a really cool THWOOSH he took to the skies.
"Heading to Prospect."

Paladin was again on the prowl.

The screech of spinning tires rang through the street as a sleek American-made muscle car tore down the street. It's driver hammered the ignition as he made way down the street at practically thee times the legal limit. He heard some chatter over the comm channel before speaking up, interrupting most of them.

"I'm on Linden, I'll be at the park in about five minutes given traffic. Prepare to send backup as soon as I call for it - the police are already on the streets, whatever's going on is bigger than I expected."

Orion turned hard down a street as he made way towards the park. He slowed down as he hit a red light and began to coat himself in a thin layer of hyper-strength alloy. As he tapped his feet he could see the trees coming in just ahead.

He reached forward and turned off the radio, smiling to himself as he burst off again, heading for the first opening in the park. With a skid, a bit of a bump over the sidewalk and a screech, Orion leapt out and stood, checking the sky. Only to be blocked by trees.

"Dammit."

oh wait almost forgot

=takes off the helmet he had been wearing=

thing worked like a charm tho i'm not sure of how well it can work under deeper water

"We could test that some time. Go down until the helmet cracks. Rather I would as it might just kill you." I said, watching cars streak past us as we went down the sidewalk. "Why does it seem like those...uhm...cars was it? Why does it seem those are extraordinarily dangerous?"

"So why are they not limited? Tied to modular tracks with walls between them and the walking populace? On Asadan, we put our motorized vehicles in small ditches as well as attaching them to tracks like those cars you were telling me about, the ones you are meant to crash together in a form of entertainment. I forgot what they were called, but you said they were in festivals? Do you remember?" I asked, giving my roommate a look to see if he knew what I was saying. I knew he did, I was just hoping I was saying the clues properly. My mind was often racing with formulas and data, trying to correlate and align data point to make some sense of the Void, but due to the inherent nature of that ungodly realm it made it massively difficult if even possible.

A few minutes later, Chris had come back down from her room with some old clothes she didn't like anymore which thankfully were able to fit the girl Alexis. There wasn't much they could do for the door......since the assholes from earlier blew it wide open. The only good thing was that there was still the second door that hadn't been closed yet (see Chris' house had that whole two front doors thing, where it was one door over the other) so all we did was close that door. No sooner was it closed however, than I started to hear sirens, and Gestalt linked up to my right eye to show me something.

James, serious problem. We were within the net, working on......it doesn't matter, what matters is this.

He showed me a video that was on the news, and I practically froze, thankful I was out of sight of everyone else. It was Wolf news showing a helicopter feed of what looked like a monster of some sort, moving very fast from what looked like Prospect park towards the buildings near by. There were police vehicles already moving in towards it, trying to block it while the police got out to open fire using their guns. But it had all the effectiveness of using water-pistols, the creature flipping one car over onto a cop, swiping its claws and eviscerating another. The tail lashed out and slammed three of the police away and they weren't seen again as they entered the trees. Then the thing looked up and saw the copter, and I stood there stunned as the feed showed it spreading bug-wings and leaping into the air, the wings buzzing as it gained lift......straight for the camera and the helicopter. The line went dead as the last thing I saw was it swinging its claws. Holy fucking shit, Jesus Christ, what is that thing?

It is one of our enemies scouts, a Stalker strain. They are here for us.

And what the hell are we supposed to do? Look at that thing! It tore though those cops like they were nothing.

We are not nothing. We were made to fight the enemy, and win. This is not an impossible fight James, but we need you to get there, and face him.

This was so stupid for so many reasons......but if Gestalt was right, then really we were the only ones with a shot at killing it. But how to get there without telling Chris, because honestly I didn't want her to worry. "Uh, Chris?" I said aloud. "Yeah James?" she asked from the kitchen. "I'm going to head to the store, grab a drink, maybe some snacks. Want anything?" Chris was silent before she said "Nah, I'm good. Be safe."

As I walked to the door, opening it to leave, I thought to myself......Be safe. Oh the irony. And then I left to face down an alien.

Libra slipped into a bathroom and changed. Coming out, she tugged the shirt a bit, trying to get it more comfortable. Slightly bigger then Chris, it didn't really help.
The pants and underwear at least fit comfortably (okay maybe not the bra...) and when she exited, she looked at her feet.
"...thank you. I don't know how to repay this kindness." She said. "...I need to go. I've already caused your door to get broken and got you upset with my ploy. I'm sorry." She started heading for the door. "Thank you for saving me." She added.

Jake was shocked as the bug started to rip apart the helicopter. The ferocity it displayed...it shocked him.
"Aries?!"
"Fuck...Stalker strain. Mutamorph. That species hates technology, believing organic to be superior. Sort of a reverse of your robot apocalypse cultures. Be very careful; they destroyed races before, and we Valkyries have had trouble with facing tem before. it is by the grace of our goddess that we ourselves have not fared an attack."
"Fun." He dived down. "It's hero time!"

The alien whatever it was just seemed to soak up the bullets, the rounds bouncing harmlessly off against it. "Wolf 4 hit it with a rocket, Owl if you've got those sniper rifles now would be a good time..." Wolf lead was interrupted in her mid order by a grumpy reply from Owl lead.
"Nah I was planning on watching that ugly devil destroy the planet"
"Just fire"
"Already are! Mother... It isn't doing anything"
The whoosh of a rocket was followed by the a missile exploding harmlessly against the hide.

"Eagle Central this is Tiger lead are weapons have no effect on target, repeat no effect on target"
"Copy, all call signs open fire do not stop over"
"But.."
"You will take down that NHT! Eagle Central out"
Well shit... The police reinforcements where getting chewed up and the panicking civilians were not helping matters. The distinctive whine of miniguns opened up but nothing seemed to pierce the alien's hide.
"Keep hitting it don't let ET touch the civilians!" Wolf lead barked out while emptying her clip into the creature.
"HOLY MOLELY IT CAN FLY!!"
"INCOMING!" The yell to her right came from one of the members of Tiger, the monster just took down a news helicopter the flaming wreckage hit one of the UNESD transports that began to spin out of control. "RUN!" Wolf lead bellowed the two squads scattered as the craft came plummeting down.

With a loud thump the craft struck the ground crushing a car and at least three UNESD operatives. "Dragoon 1 is down, I say again Dragoon 1 is down" A voice sounded in her ear as she rushed over to the wreckage to begin to pull the wounded and dead out. UNESD never left anyone behind live or dead. It took her a few moments to realise the voice was her own.
"Casualties pilot's KIA, three operatives KIA..." The co-pilot was pulled from the remains of the cockpit bloody, but breathing. By some miracle both door gunners where alive though badly shaken with seemingly minor injuries. "Rest of the crew is injured over"
"Solid copy, Dragoon 2 extract the wounded, Wolf, Tiger continue the attack" The operative casualties where one from Tiger, two from Wolf. Wolf 2 and Wolf 4 did not make it away in time, same with Tiger Lead.
"Tiger Lead is KIA Eagle Central how copy?"
"Affirmative Tiger Lead KIA Wolf Lead take command of Tiger and press the attack take that alien down"
"Eagle..."
"Don't want to here it, employ Clean Slate tactic"
"Understood"

Once the wounded and dead had been taken away from the wrecked transport, a grenade was tossed inside the transport, destroying it in a explosion. UNESD would not risk their technology or their existence being publicly exposed. Yet it would be hard to disguise all of this, especially since their armour and aircraft came stencilled with the lovely letters U.N.E.S.D. The Alien was tearing up the ragtag police forces in it's path.

"This is Owl we are relocating climbing into Dragoon 3 oscar mike to new firing position"
"Copy Wolf Lead out" She watched the wounded and the remains of the dead be loaded hastily into Dragoon 2 before it lifted rapidly off. There was no time to mourn the losses, their worst fears had become a reality. Previous NHTs' had been at least vulnerable to some human weapons this monster seemed to be immune to all of their fire power.
"Wolf, Tiger on me engage this alien bastard so we can all go home" A chorus of nods and grim acknowledgements greeted this new order.
"Eagle Central do we have any aircraft in the area?"
"Negative nearest craft are 30 minutes out, UAV is not equipped to engage airborne targets, Dragoon 2 is returned to HQ and Dragoon 3 is oscar mike with Owl, your on your own"
"Solid in pursuit of NHT, be advised it is highly mobile as it is flying over"
"Confirm Wolf now I don't want to hear another thing about that big bug till it is dead and I can order a hot dog in the park!"
Nice to see Eagle Central being their usual helpful selves. Wolf and Tiger moved as fast as they could through the maze of wrecked cars, firing their weapons even though it they had no effect against the alien. "Keep hitting it"
"God damn what does it take to kill this thing?"
"Just keep firing, hold it off till the civilians can get clear"

The street was clear of anyone looking, so as I ran Gestalt spread back over me into the familiar suit. But then I was aware of some alterations he made, the AI speaking in my mind.

Small plates of condensed nanites, essentially extra armor that won't impede mobility. Trust us on this, you will need it.

Taking their word for it, I jumped up to a roof, grabbing the edge to pull myself over before running again, heading North for Prospect park. Gestalt kept me updated with a feed of the creature, this time from a DNN chopper. More police had arrived, SWAT teams and gunships now as they tried to hold it off. But the Stalker plowed through them, and then did something odd. Lines started glowing along its chitin, like veins. They increased in intensity, before suddenly they burst. Nothing seemed to happen, until what sounded like a very loud ping filled my ears. Ahh! Dammit, what was that?

It's a hunter, searching for us. It released an electrolocation burst to find us.....which it has.

Once more, courtesy of the feed, I saw as the creature turned in a new direction, facing something.....which could only be us. Before it could make a move though, the police gunships tried to slow it down with the taser nets, the devices shot from the aircraft and wrapping around it. From what I could tell, the shocks did nothing, but the net at least.....they managed to slow it down, tangling in the limbs before it slashed its way out, screeching in raw fury before spreading its wings and jumping up, like a grasshopper. That was when I saw it in person, sorta: as I neared the edge of the roof to jump to the next, I could see something jumping into the air ahead of me, and then shooting forward. Uh....okay, now would be a good time to work on a plan here!

Start be removing the wings, that will be it's main advantage over us. You must sever at the base where it is weakest.

What are its......weapons, I guess?

Claws, brute strength, excretes chemicals that combine for a dangerous explosive.

You have got to be kidding me... I thought, right as the fucking thing came screaming at me. It's strange how you never truly grasp the scale of something until you see it in person. Because while I knew the thing was big, I didn't realize the impact it would have on me when I saw it. Because when I looked up and saw this screaming thing, claws outstretched, swoop down at me.....I went fetal. Dropping to the ground and curling into a ball, it was actually what saved me, as the Stalker passed over, missing me and landing on the roof. Then it turned to face me, wings folded up on the back, and hissed.

Jake had no clear attack vector. The cops and UNESD gunships had effed up every angle, but now it was clear...and facing someone else.
"Aries."
"I'm seeing...oh my god. I'm replaying the video. The ping it just excreted? It was tailored. And from hownit went right for that guy, it was looking for him."
Jake grimaced. "Weakness?"
"The race who made a nanite weapon had the most data. Best thing though, is attack the wings. Limit it's mobility over you. Save your energy for the canon and enforcing Avalon with the energy covering."
Jake grimaced. Diving from the clouds, he was on a sideways attack vector.
"Now to do something novel." He threw out his arm, extending Excalibur. "I'll open with the damn sword, u like Gipsy Danger!"
He sped up, and aimed for the wings. "Any other tips?"
"Yes. Pick up some roses for Stella."
"..."
"And don't die."
"Glad you care."

"Bumper cars. Right." I commented. "Even more things to confuse me." I say, shaking my head slightly, the apartment complex coming into view now. "You humans confuse me greatly, more and more each day."

"Wolf Lead this is Owl Lead over. We're in Dragoon 3 starting our attack run opened both doors so we can fire some of the good stuff!" This was followed by an orchestra of sniper rifles, two missile launchers and mingun peppering the alien.
"Air support is in route, F18s have been scrambled ETA ten minutes"
"This is Wolf Lead solid copy Eagle Central"

"What? Woooooo baby this giant bug is after someone"
"Clarify Owl Lead"
"There is someone on the building, this ugly devil seems to be after him"
"Human?"
"Unclear, we don't have a good enough view of him, humanoid at least"
"Understood, take down the NHT then deal with the possible NC"
"Five by five Eagle Central, Owl out"

Wolf Lead positioned her rather large combined teams in a staggered line so that their fire would over lap, but they would all not get taken out by a thrown vehicle or dropped helicopter or transport. The echo of gunfire was occasionally drowned out by the roar of a missile. All this powerful fire power, all this impressive display of arms did little against the alien. This was rather demoralising to say the least, none of their weapons seemed to have any effect against the enemy.
The Mutamorph tore an air conditioning unit from the roof with it's claws and flung it at Dragoon 3.
"Incoming shi..." The transmission disappeared in a burst of white hot static as the conditioning unit struck home the craft detonating in a bright hot ball of white and blue flames.
"We've just lost Dragoon 3 and Owl Squad"
"Confirm keep up the fire"
The UNESD was getting wiped out, no doubt command was panicking about the situation by now, thus meaning the UN would be panicking too. It must be hard watching the American detachment getting decimated, their little beacons blinking out as each life ended. Not as hard as watching it first hand.
"Wolf, Tiger fall back"
"Could you repeat that Eagle Central it sounded a lot like fall back"
"Confirm disengage, repeat disengage fall back to Zulu's LZ the security forces will have to handle this"
There was a brief moment of hesitation before Wolf Lead nodded the once and the UNESD, or what was left of it began to fall back.
"Disengage, go go, move it out people back to the LZ!" Well aware that to most civilians this would look like the military or some advanced, secret branch of it was abandoning them, Wolf lead tried to make it appear that they did not appear to simply be running away. This is not a retreat, nor where they abandoning the security forces already engaged, yet it sure felt like a retreat. With Owl gone, and their transports destroyed or heading for home, the only support left they had was a solitary UAV. Fall back, wait for support. Wolf lead fired a few covering bursts before falling back with remainder of the forces under her command.
They may have suffered heavy casualties in initial engagement, the UNESD would not lose the battle nor the war.

Rolling onto my feet I quickly stood up while the Stalker was distracted, attacking a gunship that fired on it. The damn thing didn't last long, taken down by an AC unit turned missile. Then it turned to face me, and that was when I noticed something: it had six eyes, and four of them were trained on me. The other two were tracking something else, that I wasn't paying attention to.

Incoming object, Gestalt said.

Then, without warning the Stalker simply lunged to the side, dodging whatever was coming.

Well. That was half expected.
Missing, he made a truck driver turn and came back around, landing beside James.
"So Armor Man, got any idea on how to ground it?" He kept the cannon concealed. Best to not reveal his trump card.

I was honestly too stunned by the arrival of the guy from the docks to respond. Hell, the Stalker didn't give us time to respond, when it made a gesture with the head that looked like it was about to hock a loogey, and spat a basketball sized blob at us. I didn't think much of it, until Gestalt screamed at me.

Out of the way!

So I dove to the side, assisted by my strength to move a bit farther, right as the blob of snot hit the roof......and exploded. It fucking exploded! What the fuck?

The explosive chemical we told you about? That was it.

Elsewhere, back in Chris' house. "You're welcome, now get the fuck out of my house."

Libra chuckled sadly. "I deserved that." She opened the door and left.
Heading down the street, the girl picked her way through bushes and a few backyards until she reached a bus stop. Settling down, she curled up in the corner and closed her eyes.

Jake cursed as the explosion knocked him aside. He regained his footing and took flight.
"Fuck! Flies and fires explosive spit!" He called to the other guy. "Got a plan Iron Man?"

Finally finding my voice I looked up at the guy and said "That's not my name dammit!" Then the Stalker lashed its tail out at me, hitting me like a baseball and I went flying off the roof and to the street, before crashing into a car. I crushed it a little to from the impact, and I gotta tell ya: that hurt.

Multiple bruises and fractures. Sorry, we should have forseen this, healing now and reinforcing. Preferable not to take hits like that though.

Noted, I said, and looked up when I heard a screech. Stalker was at the edge of the roof, staring down at me as it screeched again before jumping down and landing on the pavement. Oh come on.....give me a break here.

Jake landed between the creature and James.
"I'm Paladin. You are?" He inquired, sword in an attack position. The creature was impressive.
"Aries?"
"It's a scout class."
"You're joking."
"No. You're fucked."
"Well fuck." He muttered. His shield entered ready mode. "I can block but not for long. Please tell memyou got a plan."

"Uh......I don't....wait, what?" I asked as Gestalt started talking.

It won't be able to use the explosive chemicals for five minutes now, as it needs to build them up again. Weakness does include the wings at the base but only when they're open, otherwise they're protected by chitin on the back. Get in close, well within the radius of its arms as they won't be able to reach you when you get in, and utilize blades to attack the soft points here, and here.

My vision suddenly went a bit strange, as Gestalt highlighted on the overlay points on the body of Stalker; the armpits, and.....well, the aliens crotch, where the legs connected to the hip. Before I could share the info though with Paladin, Stalker charged towards us, roaring at us. So I did something fairly stupid: I charged right at him. My right hand formed into the familiar blade shape, while my left.....formed into a ball? As best I could describe, the nanites were condensing around my left hand, mainly around the wrist.

When we tell you James, punch the air in front of you with your left hand.

Not sure what Gestalt had planned, I continued forward and wondered if this was really the right idea. When Stalker and I had only twenty feet between us, Gestalt shouted Now! and I punched the air in front of me. To my surprise, the condensed ball of nanites exploded outward in a single stream, and I realized then it had turned into a whip, a spring-loaded whip that shot at Stalker and hit his chest, the nanites latching on. Leaning back, I let myself drop and let my momentum carry me, the nanites increasing that speed as they pulled me in towards Stalker. It was surprised by the move, even more so when the move brought me too far into his reach for him to react in time, and I brought my blade-arm up to hit the soft spot. But I missed, and instead struck the armored chitin of the leg, and while the blade did cut into it, it didn't do real damage. The shock of my tactic wore off, as Stalker grabbed me in a clawed hand and threw me away like a toy towards a brick wall, and while I bounced off, I also dented the wall a bit.

One moment, contacting the 'Paladin' to send a message.

I was aware though of what Gestalt was doing: sending the relevant data on Stalker, the weakpoints and tactics.

Jake's HUD lit up with information. He frowned as he digested it, moving between the fallen James and the Stalker.
"Got another trick?" He asked, sword ready. "And how much damage can the chitin take?" He had an idea, but he'd need to distract the thing. "And it actually will involve using the same trick differently."

Gestalt spoke this time, speaking through the suit.

That chitin can withstand a handful of blasts from that cannon of yours before melting, and the Stalker will be moving too fast for you to get a good shot. Our blade can do damage to it, if given enough time but that is something not available to us.

Sirens drew closer, as did the thumping of helicopter blades, and I looked up to see that indeed the gunships were here. And they weren't police issue either. I saw the logo on the side, and realized what they were: Draco gunships. "Well....shit," I said. Two of them dropped low on either side, and I noted how these weren't troop transports, but vehicle transports, the rear half missing as something was tethered back there. The gunships released what they were carrying and retreated, and their cargo began to move, unfurling into what I recognized as an assault mech.

It was a weapon basically, controlled by a rudimentary AI following set guidelines. A quad mech that was an inch shorter than me, standing on four crab like legs, each one nearly as thicker than my thighs and ending with a set of large "toes," three per foot. The legs were attached to a central body, and atop the body was basically a mounted turret. Oh, there were sensors, electronic eyes and even a pair of manipulator arms, but the tiny machine gun on one side, and grenade launcher on the other took up my attention. And there were two of these things. The machine gun started to spin up, and I said "Oh fuck me!" as I formed another shield.

Then Paladin moved between James and the mechs.
"You're suit knows how to beat that thing. I'll take out Draco and buy you time." he launched himself at a mech, the machine guns pinging off his armor.
"My armor won't withstand this for long! Take out the wings so we can fall back and let these guys take it on while we rest!"

Orion walked through the park, his body now covered in his thin yet dense metal layer. People were running all over the place, but... they were coming from a distinct location.
He made way down the cement footpath, gently pushing people around him whenever they ran by.

He could actually still smell, see, and hear fine, and he was glad about that. The park itself was quite lovely, very green and big, blooming well. The nearby lake helped the beauty.

But alas, this was no time for pleasant strolls. Orion began to run as he heard very recognisable sounds of destruction.
Every step was heavy, every movement hard as he ran, shuddering and trying everything in his power to locate them. Were they still in the park? Or outside now? He didn't even know who he was after! It didn't help.

"This is Agent Orion, I'm in Prospect Park, en route to target. Send backup ASAP, sounds like I'm gonna need it."

He opened his hand and let his phone become engulfed in his layer - a bizarre way of keeping it on him, but it worked.

The mech Paladin launched himself at raised it's manipulator arms, the limbs packing the strength to at the very least grapple for a brief time with the armor. As for its partner, it fired on the stalker, the armor piercing rounds deflecting off the chitin. It must have annoyed him though, because Stalker then turned on the second mech and charged it, exposing its back to me and I took that as my cue. While he towered over the mech, I ran forward, the whip already forming again to be fired while my right hand condensed into a square block. I still hurt though, the pain from my fall not gone just diminished, but it wasn't something I could focus on right now, as Stalker plunged a clawed hand down at the mech and ripped off one of the legs, unbalancing it.

Seeing an opening, I shot the whip forward onto the his back and pulled myself in, though it was pointless; his wings were tucked under the chitin, no way to get at them. Which was why I didn't attack the wings, but used the momentum of the pull for a different approach. In the air I went sideways, my left briefly facing the ground as I spun, hammer swinging outwards towards the sky before my move brought me over and then down in front of Stalker, right as my spin brought the hammer into an uppercut into his chin. Managing to land on the lamed mech, I looked up to see the alien slightly stunned by the attack and clearly hurt, bright blue blood seeping from cracks in the chitin around the jaw.

Before he could even screech, I had Gestalt reform the hammer into another spring-loaded whip, and shot it at the building on my right, yanking me upwards as it latched onto the wall twenty feet above the alien. I landed next to a window, which was good since it gave me something to hold onto, my left hand gripping the upper edge while my feet stood on the window sill, and I made sure I was looking down at the monster. He looked up at me, screeching in fury and I responded with "Come on, I'm right here!"

Paladin threw the mech down as James did his trick. Taking to the air, he disappeared behind buildings.
"Get me a shot. If I can blast the chitin from the wings..." it was risky, but two shots and the nanite guy could ground the bastard. Durandal extended, and Jake charged it.
"This will be fun." He muttered.

Stalker spread his wings then, the armored back piece opening up and the wings unfurling from their resting spot, flapping like a hummingbirdas he pushed off the ground to fly towards me. That was when I also pushed off from the wall to fly straight at him, left hand extended while my right hand trailed behind me. It seemed that he aimed himself too low, since I went over his outstretched arms and head before I grabbed his shoulder. The following movement was.....well, painful, since it put a strain on my wrist and arm as I twisted around to his back, the wings buzzing below me. Not wasting anytime, I let go of his shoulder to drop and let my bladed hand slice through the soft tissue of the wings, crippling Stalkers ability to fly.

It screamed in surprise and pain, and I clung for dear life as both fell to the road again. Thankfully, he landed below me, but Christ did it still hurt, all that hard, pointy in some places chitin. And to top it off, that didn't even faze him, as he was already moving again and shrugging me off, more of that bright blue blood dripping from down his back.

Jake charged Durandal.
"Hey. I need three seconds. Just keep him still that long, and I can fire into the open chitin where the wing was. Might do some damage."

As it turned out, it wasn't too hard to find the source of all the commotion, and boy was it a Hell of a source. A giant robot and the armoured guy from earlier fighting what looked like a mutant cockroache in the middle of Brooklyn.

It was like a mid-budget action movie.

Orion stepped out onto the road, watching the fight. He flickered for a moment as he began to draw from nearby electrical currents. The bug was probably the bad guy here. He waited, trying to find a good spot to zap the ugly f-

"Shit!!"

Orion ducked and leapt aside as the armoured one and the bug plummeted to the earth. For a moment he froze before realising how perfect this chance was.

In a crack of sound and a flash of light, streams of blue lightning burst forward, covering the bug in electric shocks, both of Orions hands raised with the attack.

Before I had anytime to respond to Paladin, my entire body seized up on me, going rigid as currents of electricity rushed through my body and the aliens. I fell to the floor, still shaking as I heard Gestalt speak.

That was unexpected. Countermeasures were not in place......rectifying.

I stood up, and saw the guy from earlier on the other end of the street, electricity shooting from his hands like Palpatine. "Dude!" I shouted. "Dick. Move!" And that was when Stalker stood up, and he didn't look pained....he looked pissed, grabbing a lampost, ripping it from the ground, and throwing it at the guy.

Orion didnt have time to respond to the man, who he still deeply believed was responsible for or involved with that 'terrorist attack' earlier. No, he was a little busy preparing to be impaled.
Within about a second, his plain silver exterior changed into a sheen, crisp bright glimmering metal - osmium.

The pole hit him, and bounced off with little to no impact on Orions side. Though slow, Orion began to move, not used to this inexorable weight.

James! It's been five minutes! Gestalt said.

Fuck, that meant that......oh boy. Stalker made the same movement again, hocking up another exploding loogey, before it spat the glob at the newcomer. There wasn't any time, as the explosive hit and detonated.

The moment the loogey exited, Paladin shot from behind the building. One second later, he fired the blast right at its back. No quips. No jokes. He just shot it, hoping it's attention and the explosion would mask the approaching superheated plasma.

Orion froze again, taking a defensive stance. Spit? What was this supposed to do? Orion assumed it'd be perhaps acidic, maybe just hardening, something stupid like that.

And then, boom.

Orion didn't go flying back, but... It certainly did more than he expected. Knocked onto his back, Orion caused a great large dent in the surface of the road, before transferring his outer layer into something that suddenly felt much much lighter, simple titanium. Not exactly the best choice, but given what just happened, speed might be good.

"Well... This is going to be interesting. You two! What have you been doing? Plans?"