Only Human (closed to Vanguard)

He was not disappointed by the outcome of his attack, even surprised. When he had clamped down with his jaws he had felt the give of flesh and the crunch of metal but it had clearly done much more than that. As he rose to his feet and retracted his tongue Dressler felt a considerable amount of lessened weight. When his eyes scanned to the end of his tongue he found the man's arm clamped tightly in his mandibles. The armor too had come along with it. Well that was wonderful. A sinister smile stretched on the abomination's face as his mouth grew large and sharklike.

With a sick snap of his tongue the arm enter Dressler's maw, the hand flopping limp from outside of gnashing teeth. A few chomps and Dressler was through with his grizzly meal, the man's arm digesting in a series of specialized stomachs to make short work not only of the biological material but the metal as well. And with a full stomach, he scanned for his prey further.

He did not take much to find. A crater was formed where the man had landed, blood rapidly gushing from his body. Pathetic human Dressler gawked as he approached the scrapped suit and man contained in a metal death trap. Swiping his arm across the man's visor it ripped jagged from his face, clearly exposing the man beneath. Dressler would drop to a knee and hold the man in a sitting position as his head resumed its more human appearance. Whether or not the man was conscious he did not care, he would have his moment. I want you to remember my face human. I want you to look upon me, for my visage to be burned in to your subconscious. You are playing among gods morsel, a feeble mouse in a den of snakes. On some level I know you know this, otherwise you would not encase yourself in metal and pretend at greatness. Once again standing Dressler would wipe his hands free of the human filth allow the man to drop to his back once more. If you survive this I want you to remember this day and your defeat. But more importantly remember this, you're only human. Dressler would then step over the unconscious man and go to the nearest payphone after assuming his human form once more. Yes I need an ambulance he would speak to the operator after depositing an amount of change. Come quick, the man appears to be bleeding to death. And with that done, Dressler would leave the scene, off to find another broodmother for his harem.

Consciousness, a fading thing slipping through his fingers much like grains of sand. The flutter of a heartbeat trying to keep a body supplied with an ever draining supply of blood, a dying beat that continued as his eyelids began to close. To think that such monsters existed was unfathomable, but then again it was a world of monsters with a human trying to stand against them. Just moving would have been an impossibility and something told him that this was not the first time that he had been beaten this bad. It appeared that he could not overcome his own weakness, just a weak thing trying to play strong within a metal suit. Despite the hard work put into the suit itself, he knew a tool was nothing without a proper operator. If this had been the legacy his father left him, well it had been wasted on one as incompetent as him.

Colin was already within the grips of unconsciousness by the time that Dressler would begin their rant, lost to the words that were spoken so condescendingly to him as a Black Sea rose to claim him. The waves were not harsh really. Instead they were comforting as he sunk into them, feeling almost weightless as he fell further and further into the unknown. He was only human, and there was nothing that could be done about it. Even within this dream state he was aware of his own painful flaw, and that ate away at him like a festering open wound. On and on he sunk, deeper until it felt as if he could sink no longer, but then all at once the sensation of being jerked upwards could be felt. As if a hand had clamped around him, forcing him to rise higher and higher until he broke the surface once again.

Light flashed across his face for a moment as eyes would open.  

The sound of something steadily beeping was his first noise as eyes would look around to the room that was around him. It was...a familiar sight, something that he should recognize. "Reckless as always. You really like to make me worry, don't you?" That voice full of worry and slightly weary even.

He was alive.