...but Nadia put herself between ACK and the Mandelovian dictator.
From the "robot" came a metallic voice: "Ah. A girl, a crippled man, an hippie... this is the powerful Vanguard? All that cocaine has burned Merlin's brain, I guess."
O'ken stepped away from Grimm, now totally engulfed in the shadow matter, and went near his Tenant. At the same time, the twelve Strikeforce soldier were keeping the various guards and technician under aim.
Nadia smiled: "You have problems with girls, thin-head? The rust has taken your cock?" and saying that she threw herself at the armored man, jumping high and pointing her steel heeled boot toward ACK visor.
Instantly, O'ken raised his sword, to stop or even cut the woman approaching leg, when something unexpected happened. Something invisible blocked the sword run at mid way. The impact made O'ken loose his stability, and he fell to the ground.
At the same time, Drake exchanged place with Drax, and the furry dragon apparition scarred the soldiers, that began to shot like mad in every direction.
The heel of Nadia crashed the visor of ACK, as he fell to the ground.
Smith was standing in the middle of the chaos, yelling "More... more.... more!"
As the dragon began whip tailing the soldiers, Tayden took D'Goon for an hand and headed the fallen section of the wall.
ACK was again on his feet, and so was Nadia. The armored man, whose face was now visible behind the broken visor raised his laser cannons toward the Russian woman, and fired. The beams were deflected again by an invisible force, but now O'ken was free from the unbreakable force that took him before.
From behind, he kicked Nadia in the head; as the girl, senseless, fell to the ground, the invisible force that kept helping her dissipated.
"Shadow!" O'ken yelled, putting on a strange pair of goggles. "No, my visor is broken!" yelled back ACK, but the answer from the master warrior was just a "Fuck you!"
Instantly, the dark matter tying Grimm dissolved into a black mist that engulfed all the War Room.
Only O'ken was now able to see. And his carnage began.
Outside the Palace, Phil, Priest and Ozzie were charging at the soldiers with a veritable wall of fire from their Mandelovian weapons, when something big as a Sumo fighter, stepped in from behind a ruined wall. it was a man, dressed in the grey suit of the Strikeforce, with legs similar to trunks, wearing steel boots. At the sight, the soldiers still on their legs retreated behind some rubbles.
The Sumo guy, or Agent Shock, as the Strikeforcers called him, raised one legs, and then pushed it back to the ground.
It caused a wave of vibrations, like a localized earthquake, that reverberated trough the courtyard, sending the three Vanguardians on the ground.
Immediately, another Agent appeared, over a nearby roof. His eyes were glowing red, and suddenly the weapons in the hand of the three Vanguardians became too hot to be held, and they had to let them fall on ground, where they melted up.
It was then, that a striped saber-tooth tiger jumped in.
"It's time you use your mind, man" whispered Priest to Phil. The unidentified put his hands to the temple, and then said "The fire guy can set the molecules of metallic things into motion until they melt; the tiger is a werewolf sort of thing, it has a human mind inside... the big one can send many form of shock wave, with legs, hands and mouth..."
Priest nodded, and so did Baxter... when a red, glowing beam cut across his head. Ozzie fell to the ground, as the two teammates turned toward his lying form.
Velo, Banshee and Chance, a hundred meters away, turned to see the point from which the laser ray came, a roof where evidently a sniper was firing over them.
"Brianna, go" ordered Chance, and the girl took flight. "We have been ambushed! Shit!" shouted Chance.
"They have a big advantage over us" said Velo. "They know perfectly the place, while aside you, me and Nadia nobody of us has ever been here... uhm..."
"What?"
"They had done their homework about the city, that's sure... but when we were trying to run away from here, two years ago, we did find something even the Mandelovian force were too happy to run into..."
"?"
"There is a big network of dungeons, cave and caverns in the city underground. Me and Nadia know them. It could be our best chance to hide D'Goon and put the Strikeforce at disadvantage."
Chance was thinking fast: "Where's the entrance?"
"In the sub-basement of the Palace... but you will not come, Kristopher"
"Eh?"
"You have a mission for Quantos... and it's the best time to start it. I will lead the guys in the dungeons..."
"No, I can't leave you right now... that would be... you know, Velo, shameful ..."
"Chance, you see the world in black and white... tell me, who are the good guys here, we or them?"
"Well..."
"So, then do something for which Vanguard could be proud, Schanz!"
The Swedish look around, shaking his head... "Ok, you take the lead. I will regret this, I am sure..." he said, while running away toward the Palace.
Velo turned toward the three friends (Baxter was back on his feet, according to his own amazing power) , wondering what he could have done to help them, when a Mastiff of War jumped in the middle of the Courtyard, between them and Agent Fangs. In the cockpit the tall figure of Adem Different was easy to spot.
"Now that's what I call a diversion" smiled Velo. "Time for me to get back at the War Room" though Kristogar, looking in the sky trying to spot Banshee.
The Irish girl fled at full speed toward the roof from which the laser beam that hit Baxter came, and found himself facing The Rose, still shocked by having seen baxter coming back on his feet after she had hit him right in the head.
The Strikeforcer rose her head from the aiming scope, to find the flying girl staring at her, smiling. She saw the mouth of Bashee opening and taking a particular shape, and than a powerful sound wave it her, and all went black.
Happy, Brianna turned back, to look at her companions, when a short yell made her turning back again.
There was a woman with Indian features standing on the roof, and she had just thrown a knife to her. Like in slow motion, the knife was heading toward her chest, but before she could do anything, it was deflected from his deadly path by a big, spiked mace.
Standing next to Brianna a winged man was smiling.
The Raptor has returned!
