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Joseph shielded himself as best he could as rocks and rubble rained down, lucky he had been pushed far enough out of the way.

"Ok! That sucked!" He shouted to the entire group, "But do you know where things can't fire goddamn RPGs at us? In the subway! I say stick the the plan and do it double time."

His Nav-Wrist got an incoming communication.

"Though I'm sure some of you will want to go after that." He began to push himself back to his feet and then opened up the line of communication, "Allen, what the hell is going on. You're on speakerphone."

((And I've got to go AFK for a bit, duty calls.))

"WHAT THE HELL, BRYANT!" Sam was screaming as she finally pulled her head free from where he'd tucked it under his arm to protect her. Only to see the wall behind where they'd been explode and she quickly ducked her head back against him then.

"Okay, forgiven." she muttered as she felt the impact of the small shrapnel falling against his back. Thankfully, not hard; they'd moved fast enough to avoid that much at least.

"We were shot at by what seems like a mechanical Walker, reminds me way too much of Carter City. It's heading towards the northern fields, but it seems like someone is getting in the way...looks almost like Athan, I remember him from the Chaos. But it seems like it shot at us and then immediately started retreating, so I don't know what it plans to do now that it's being confronted. Should I keep an eye on things, or rejoin you guys now?"

Until he got his answer, he would still be keeping an eye on things from his lofty location, hoping to stay undetected.

The walker stopped in front of Athan, almost as though it were regarding its new challenger. A few dozen operations flew through its CPU, leading it quickly to a single choice.

With no warning, one of two smaller, less noticeable turrets on its front aimed at Athan. The sound of a power build-up, and a blast of thermal force fired at the swordsman. It was somewhat like a punch to the chest from a giant--a very, very sweaty giant--with enough force to knock the man back and maybe down, but not enough to do serious damage through its armor.

As soon as the blast was launched, the walker would scurry sideways to its right, turrets trained on Athan. It needed more range to launch another rocket.

Damn... That was a big robot. It seemed familiar, but still... Damn.

OSHITSHRAPNEL!

All the shrapnel that he had just avoided came flying back down the street with a roaring and rattling sound that made him turn and take notice. Gambion's hands came up over his body, but it was more than a feeble protection for his face. Any little bits of anything coming at him from that direction would be pressed upwards. The wind would still hit him and probably toss him backwards past the robot and maybe past Athan, but the shrapnel would fly up over his body, keeping him from getting his a** killed.

Perhaps flinging a lot more into the robot as well, considering that it was up higher than he was. It would help the shrapnel to get up above Athan as well, provided that the man didn't suddenly gain a bunch of altitude.

"Shi-!"

Athan barely had enough time to draw his sword and place it in front of him like a barrier when the cannon aimed and fired. His arms absorbed the majority of the impact before the rest forced the sword and the big guy himself back and to the right, where he impacted into and went straight through the aluminum siding of a shed near the factory. The wall shuddered, then collapsed just after Athan went through.

Whistling. Pounding. Panting.

-WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMPH-

And then suddenly, silence.

He didn't go up and then forward. He didn't fly through the air. He didn't stand and flex.

Suddenly, he just... fell.

Silence. Numbness.

For a moment he lay on the side of the road gasping, eyes closed. A ringing started up gradually, growing slowly inside his ears from a mere whisper to a shriek, rising, rising, and-

All of the sudden, the numbness seemed to give way to a piercing heat in his side.

He opened his mouth, half groaning, half screaming, rolling out of the way and behind cover, body tensing up. He could feel his throat and lungs working, putting out sounds and curses, but he couldn't hear any of it.

He tensed up, and grabbed his thigh, screaming- silence in his own ears.

He had two layers on, he saw no hole in his leg. Even the hole in his pants wasn't that large, it was barely anything there. On the other hand, one could hardly miss the slowly growing circle of dark red in his jeans.

...s**t... I... need to stop it. Press-

He grabbed a fistful of his t-shirt, ripping a hunk out, eyes blurring to near blindness quickly from the tears welling up, and pressed the extremely make-shift compress to his wound.

Pressing it. Pressing it. What next. Think. Goddamnit Rayner. Think. ********. Think.

After a moment, Sam pushed Bryant away from her. "Come on, big boy. Time to get going." And dusted herself off. This whole city gave her the creeps. She left Bryant for a moment and began glancing about.

"Anyone hurt?"













Bryant on the other hand was looking annoyed as he stood, and made to move towards the robot. He wasn't at a run or anything, but he was damned curious what would shoot an RPG at random people. Usually that meant answers.