Night of the Nerds (Trog)

Erwin, upon seeing all the assorted equipment Caleb was assembling, was beginning to realize the meaning of the phrase "discretion is the better part of valor" and voiced his honest chickening out.

"Uhh... I'm gonna take a cue from the Ironman 3 movie yo, and pilot my robot instead. Come on, let's go take this to the garage. I-It's not like I'm chickening out yo... the army uses drones, don't they?" Erwin said, a bit dejected. He felt ashamed of himself, lacking courage to put on a suit and join an actual combat situation, preferring instead the safety of controlling a robot from afar.

"WinBot, assemble." Erwin said, and the nondescript crate he brought on his truck opened up, the robot standing in place.

"Hi." The robot said in a deadpan voice, raising his hand in a greeting.

Erwin worked with his friend, quickly jury-rigging useful weapon systems, using their combined know-how to convert appliances and junk into armament and armor. Erwin looked a bit sad, as he had turned his search rescue robot into a war machine. heh. War Machine. Winbot's frame supported all the added weight of the armor, giving him an electrified claw with an underslung flamethrower, while the other arm had an articulated robot hand, and was modified to have a Rocket Grab.

THE PLACE

Erwin took his truck a block away from the place, hiding in a parking lot and wishing Caleb good luck. Instead of two nerds, Caleb and a giant robot would show up at this other parking lot, where there was a single car and two figures sitting under the street lamp. The moon was full, and the environment was dimly illuminated at least.

"Sore wa, shōnen to kare no robottodesu! Hontoni Subarashiiii!" The Biker Foxy with the bright orange hair backflipped and landed on her feet, cautiously approaching Caleb and eyeing him and the robot up.

"Otaku o yōi shite kimashita!" The Biker Foxy was wearing a leather jacket and denim short shorts, to accomodate her fancy moves, and again spoke in a really high pitched Japanese voice reminiscent of anime. She didn't seem to carry a weapon, but had chains around her arms.

Behind her a more reserved figure simply stood calm, leaning against the car. She was wearing a straw hat and subdued samurai robes, a black scarf wrapped around her face from the nose down concealing her face. She carried a Katana, placed at the right side of her sash.

Your robot is like, totally awesome when it talks! You should totally make him say 'Bite my shiny metal ass'! Caleb said enthusiastically as a rather hamfisted attempt to raise the spirits of their two-man crew. In a way he was pleased to have a giant robot at his side rather than Erwin. After all, the robot was big and had a flamethrower, but on the other hand he would have been far more comfortable with Erwin along. Erwin was his friend and very good for moral support. They drove over to the empty warehouse in silence. there was very little to say

Caleb was definately rather pleased pleased that he had enough foresight to slap the voice-modulator into his helmet when he walked out of the car. That way the would not be able to tell that he was about on the same level of Terrified as a frightened as a kitten about to be drowned. The fact that he had Erwin on an earpiece actually helped him to retain some sort of tough-guy demeanor. after all if he started crying and wet himself right now, and miraculously survived his friend would never let him forget it. Ever. And even though they would likely never tell anyone outside of the exact circumstances surrounding this little kerfuffle, Erwin would definitely tell Kevin about the fact that he pissed himself. And that shame would live forever.

Time to put his courage on and be a superhero, time to get his game-face on. He looked at the robot that acompanied him, and felt slightly comfortable. the thing was huge, not to mention heavy. Even the way it moved told a tale of strength, endurance and the broken bones of those that dared to oppose. he pressed his com-button and spoke to Erwin. He just needed to hear his voice before diving into the unknown. He did not want to be alone in the jaws of uncertainty.

"Hey, bro. You with me?" Caleb asked as he swung his arms around and flexed his fingers. He could not say that his suit of armor was uncomfortable in any way.
"Just calling to like, say I have a codename now. I'm totally "Gadgeteer". Cuz I have armour"

he had attatched an anti-grav device to it to deal with that problem, but it felt unusual to wear it. Somewhat hot and sweaty, though he was certain that the "sweaty" part might be from the situation that was about to unfold before him. there was at least two ninjas, and he had no doubt that they would not think twice about ending his nerdy life prematurely.

With a few blips on a the buttons on the side of his helmet enabled the voice-modulators and made his conversation actually audible outside of the helmet. The warehouse just about bright to see at all, but still it was on the dark side of thing. Perfect for silent assassins and ninjas to lurk, hidden by the shadows. However, Calebs thoughts was interrupted by a ninja who did not look all that ninja-like. He had not gotten a look at her in the warehouse, but if this was it, he was somewhat dissapointed on some levels, even though he was happily surprised on another level. Not only did she have very shapely legs, but she had a badass biker-styly leather-jacket. And orange hair. Oh, and that voice. He really liked it, even though the high pitch somewhat grated on his ears.

"Hi." he said, the voice-modulator turning his teenage, cracking voice into a deeper, more badass version of Darth Vader. He was rather happy that the woman could not see his terrified face behind the helmet. Not to mention the fact that it concealed his eyes, as the travelled up and down foxy-bikers Body.

Uh, do you like, speak english, ninja-lady? Caleb asked sheepishly as the woman continued talking in what he presumed was some variety of japanese. He really should get a translator-device slammed into this helmet of his at some point. It would make him seem all sophisticated and knowledgable when he met sexy foreign adversaries. Chicks totally liked that sort of thing.

"Yo costumuu~ is gayoo-desu." Biker ninja said in a rather derisive tone. "Isu thato enurf engrish fo youuu? hohohohho!" Then she laughed to herself. She stopped when the Ronin finally came forward.

"Okay that's enough out of you. I'm glad you came by Dr. Robotnik." Diana took those moments when Oyuki spoke to Caleb to study him. She could read that he eyed the Genin, probably fancied her, even if it was just a brief moment. Typical of men.

Diana was a bit more serious and to the point, losing the straw hat when it got in the way. Diana was a more typical asian lady, with piercing dark eyes and short, messy dark hair, the scarf hiding the lower half of her face. "The hat was a stupid idea by the way." she said. "Shikashi, anata wa sono naka ni shinpi-teki ni miemasu..." Oyuki said in a meekish tone.

"ANYWAY. First and foremost, we would very much like our phone back, and secondly, I apologize for the attempted theft. We were hired for it, we've got nothing personal against you. Infact that's why we used paralyzing venom."

"Hai hai! Gomen! Gomen'nasai!" biker Foxy echoed the apology, giving two swift bows. She seemed to have these strange antics.

"Now, as to why we are here..." Diana started to explain, but the headlights and sound of lots of cars arriving outside caused her to curse.

"Oh shoot, they're early. Well... I hope you're ready to dance. Come on, Foxy. You should hide too Robotnik." Diana and the biker foxy head into the dark corners of the warehouse, leaving Caleb to his own initiative. "Good-o Ruck-u Lobotnik-desu!" Even before a great battle the orange haired biker ninja kept up her antics.

The warehouse door was forced open and in came about a dozen or so goons in military chic, all tough guys with high powered assault rifles or SMGs. They all shined their car headlines into the warehouse. their leader, a Russian guy in a suit carrying a pistol, told them all their task. "The signal led here. Find the ninja and shoot her in the head."

"No way. This costume's totally boss." the Darth vader-like voice of Caleb/The Gadgeteer said in an indignant fashion, quite akin to the manner of a petulant, pouty child. He knew that the daisy-duke ninja was just trying to get under hi skin. After all, his costume was totally based on Mandalorian armor, and few things kicked as much butt as the mandalorians. Most of the species inhabiting the star wars universe could attest to that! He snorted derisively at her, which caused a noise, not entirely unlike a man blowing into a microphone.

"You don't even have a costume, so you aren't allowed to say anything about my costume." he continued, sounding more argumentative this time. Fortunately his helmet hid his face wich was currently locked in a derisive sneer. Of course she thought she could mock him, what with being all handsome and pretty-legged and him being a teenage boy with unsightly acne. Even when dressed in mandalorian armor people thought about him like he was some sort of geek. He quickly looking down at the metal armor he wore over his chest, just to reassure himself that it was still awesome and so he felt quite reassured.

"Besides, it's not even a costume, it's armour, so nyah!" he muttered angrily, though his Darth Vader-esque voice-modulater broadcast this as if it was some manner of baddass boast, which is was assuredly not. He mentally cursed and made a note of trying to upgrade the modulator at a later point so that it did not announce everything badass-like.

However, his thoughts about the voice-modulator was interrupted by the other woman stepping forward, and even though she lacked the high-pitched voice and cuteness of her compatriot, she had a more serious, dangerous sort of beauty. She could easily be a sort of Cat woman to his Batman. Well, in theory. Lord knows he wouldn't have any chance of getting a Cat woman to his batman in real life. He would be considered lucky if she got a cat-lady. struck him as the more dangerous of the two by far.

"Gadgeteer. But, like, yeah, thanks. " he said sheepishly. There was something about the womans glare and manner that told her that it would be unwise to mouth off to her without cause, He felt a small wave of joy as she berated her companion for her choice of hat. and even though she probably felt nothing more than a small bit of shame, it invigorated him somewhat.

Oh, yeah, sure. here you go. he said as she asked for her phone back which he tossed over at her. No doubt her awesome ninja-reflexes would allow her to catch it.

"That picture of the dog in that like, petshop was totally like, super-cute." he added. The sentence was definately ill suited to his voice-modulator that had the power to make even the most innocent sentence to sound like a doomsday-prophecy.

The cool ninja spoke up again before getting interrupted, this time by a group of cars that arrived. Apparantly this was bad news, as both of the ninjas ran into the warehouse, urging him to hide as well. He figured that it was best to stay close to the ninjas. After all, if they were scary enough to frighten her, they would probably be more than dangerous and ruthless enough to kill a young man in an awesome suit of armour without hesitation or regrets. Thus he followed the pair into the warehouse, where his superior brain allowed him to find a pretty kick-ass hiding-spot pretty much immediately. There was a few seconds of anticipation. He could see the room light up somewhat when the headlights shone through the windows.

he heard the boots on the floor. twelve of them. he quickly counted. He hoped that Erwins robot was as badass in a fight as it looked, because it sure looked like they had one on their hands.

"Look. It is robot." One of the men pointed out the obvious, spitting his cigarette to the floor and stamping it out.

"Hi." The robot said in its usual deadpan, raising a hand to greet them.

"Hello. You see ninja around anywhere, mister Robot?" He decided to return the greeting and humor it. For that he got a smack to the back of his shaven, tattooed head.

"Sergei, stop talking to the robot and shoot it. It's bound to be armed or something." The suit wearing boss said, shooting it a couple of times with his pistol.

BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM. A few of the men take pot shots at the robot, but it didn't quite react.

"Ow. that hurt." The robot simply said, as bullets grazed its thick armor. One of the mercenaries lit up a molotov. This was perfect.

Appropriately diverted, Diana simply signalled the ninja. "Oyuki."

"Hai! PONI NO TAME NI!" Oyuki used a Kunai to cut a rope in their hiding spot, which released some nets holding some ninja choking grenades into the mercenaries' midst.

"EAAAAGH!" A shuriken smashes the lit molotov, lighting the man on fire. He goes to ground, stopping dropping and rolling. He was going to the hospital if he survived that.

"Trap! get out! *cough cough* " The Russian leader realizes his folly and moves the goons out of the warehouse. The doors slide shut thanks to Diana pushing a button.

"BANZAAAAIII!" Wearing a face mask and thermal goggles, Oyuki charges into the smoke dual wielding Kamas, just as the mercenaries were moving out of the trap and the warehouse to regroup. They were cut down to half their number, as Oyuki and Diana went into the smoke and crippled the men, cutting them at their elbows and knees. Diana hadn't drawn her blade yet, bashing people across the face with her sheathed weapon.

The rest move further into the warehouse, trying to find cover. Then they started opening fire, but by now were a disorganized mess to be mopped up.

"Robotnik! You're up! And get your robot to do something!" Diana called out to their third ally, wondering what the two had to contribute.

Caleb was rather surprised that one of the thugs tried conversing with the robot. In his adrenaline-fueled, terrified state Caleb thought that this was quite hilarious indeed. He had to struggle not to start laughing out loud. If someone would ask him why that was, he would have no idea what to answer. after some initial hesitation he dared sneak a peek at the goings-on, but he only caught a glimpse of the people that had entered the area, but due to his abilities it was more enough to see how everyone was placed. Then he could listen to their footsteps and create a mental "map" in his brain to help keep track of their movement by sound. Now he could make up a plan of action.The logical start was trying to take out the leader as fast as possible, before taking out the others, but he had little chance of doing that alone.

"Right. Uh, warmachine! Smash!" Caleb ordered his robust robot pal. He fully realized that his ordering was pretty useless, due to it being remote-controlled. Hopefully Erwin was cooking up something grand behind his keyboard, but Caleb was unsure wether he could fully depend on his pet robot. He had full faith in his friends ability to control it, but After all, this was basically the test-run for the weaponized version. It had not been programmed for combat, and they had not had much time to work with before they had to travel here to meet the dynamic ninja-duo.

Caleb leapt out of his hiding-place, Noticing how at least one of the ninjas was wearing a facemask of some variety. The first thing he does is shoot a smoke-bomb to prevent those dorks from shooting at him. The second thing was to take aim with his newly modified gauntlet and fire globs of capture-gel at his opponent. at first the globs looked like nothing but ping-pong-balls, but as they entered the open air they turned to blobs of foamy goo and started expanding. sticking to whoever they hit before hardening. The first glob hit the leader as he stared at the door, literally glueing him to it, trapping him in what looked like a giant, rock-hard logey. the second oneknocked man to the ground, totally imobilizing him and sticking him to the ground. The third blob did not manage to glue a man to a surface, but was more than enough to stick his arms and legs together and thus making the poor guy helpeless. The fourth one missed. That was when they noticed caleb. After all, that was why he used the globs. They were noiseless, but the lasers was not.

Our not-so valiant hero quickly leapt behind a conveniently place crate, Normally the dark and smokey environment would be an exercise in futility, but the special vision-enablers in his helmet allowing him to see as clear aiming and shooting at the remaining mafioso with his laser, and even though he aimed to not kill, he had no compunctions about breaking legs and arms, which his concussive laser-shooter was more than capable of doing.

The robot still did not move, causing Diana to curse slightly in her native language. But the robot wasn't necessary either, as the armed gunmen were easily dispatched by the three. Caleb's ranged weapon systems took them down easily.

Diana thought it was far too easy; weren't these supposed to be hardened eastern european mercenaries?

"Wareware wa karera o taoshimasu!" Oyuki though was already in a celebrating tone, jumping up and down where she was.

Diana ignored Oyuki and flashed a light on the people they had maimed. She drew her sword, and the weapon gleamed with malice in the dark.

"No, no... don't kill me...please..." The mob leader said, as the sword came closer to her. Except, Diana was more interested in cutting open their sleeves and coats. She saw their bodies were pale, thin, scrawny and without tattoos or scars. A terrible realization dawned on her.

"We have to get out of here!" Diana said, but alas, the counter trap was sprung on them- having given away their positions and revealing themselves to deal with these impostors, the real enemies showed themselves with ruthlessness.

They came from the rafters above the warehouse, attacking with the advantage of surprise and elevation. They were brutal and efficient- they sought to divide these three, and take them apart piecemeal. Oyuki was first; three kunai caught her in the arm and leg, causing her to scream in real pain. "Yaaaaa!" The blades cut into her muscle and scraped her bones, but Oyuki rolled away, trying to hide and fight back with the guns the mercenaries brought, to no avail.

Diana was forced to duck out of the way of a large stack of crates being dropped on her, the impact sending her flying. A female wearing a demon mask, wearing soccer mom jeans and a wool sweater approached her, twirling her kusari gama.

Caleb, with his attention on the mercenaries, would be snuck up on with a large, well muscled jock in basketball shorts, tank top and rubber shoes. The man shimmied down from the windows above in silence, wearing a japanese demon mask and trying to grab him by the mouth and choking him out. The real enemies were here.

Caleb was just about to let out a triumphant shout of victory when suddenly an arm nabbed him from behind pulling him back attempting to choke him. the thin, T-shaped visor on his helmet quickly started cracking. It was made from a material more durable than regular glass, but it was definately not bullet-proof. His night-vision started to space out and soon disappeared entirely. the hand had slid down to his throat. He frantically tried to get the man to let go, first by flailing wildly in panic, and afterward by hitting him with the shock-glove he had designed, (Actually a re-purposed taser) but the man did not even as much as flinch, even though he was plenty sure that it was more than enough to put an ordinary man down for a while.

He felt the panic rising up through him at the realization that he might actually die here. There was so much he had never gotten the opportunity to do. He had always scoffed at the expression 'too young to die' but that was exactly what he was thinking. He was too young. He had barely begun living and so, he would die here. if he could scream, he would, and not an elegant scream, but a blubbering one. he could not tell wether he was crying or not, because his cheeks was already wet from tears that emerged because of the stranglehold. he closed his eyes and repeated an age-old mantra passed on to the Kwizatz hararach through the bene gesserit sisterhood.

"Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone only I will remain!"

He recited the mantra in his mind and felt slightly calmer. He was still extremely upset about the fact that this might be the end of him, but he at least had enough of a grip on himself to think somewhat straight, as it were, thinking somewhat straight was all he needed to figure out a way out of there. suddenly he realized how to get out of this mess. he pressed a button on his belt and a loud roar was heard as the jetpack came to life. He adjusted the exhaust to shoot backward rather than downward, thus hopefully burning the groin and gut of his musclebound tormentor.

As the flames roared from Caleb's jetpack and singed his lower body, no scream of pain came from the Ninja, but he realized the damage might eventually spread to cripple his muscle functionality. He released Caleb with a knife hand chop to the back of his neck, less effective probably with the armor, then walked to an extinguisher nearby.

The Ninja's pants were burnt off, partly melted on his skin. The thing between his legs was completely ruined. And yet he only looked inconvenienced. "Such a bother." he muttered, before bringing out his weapons, a pair of weighty Nunchucks studded with iron. Designed for hurting armored enemies.

The ninjas definitely had their priorities down. They sent three weapon masters against Diana, one wielding the chain, one a bo staff and another with swords. Diana was on her feet and fighting, but when she thrust her sword into a gut, the Ninja didn't even flinch or scream, but instead grabbed her blade, causing their fingers to bleed but depriving Diana control of her weapon. Diana got a face full of fist and a leg sweep, and a couple more kicks to her gut. "...Who the hell are you guys..." She asked, rolling with the blow but finding her nose bloodied. The ninja actually pulled her sword out of his gut and tossed it aside.

Oyuki, her limbs perforated as they were, managed to stick it to the man after her. "I don't have time for this Ayakami shit!" she exclaimed, speaking in a clearly american Jersey accent for the first time, that was crying, very frightened and very serious. Oyuki's cheerful demeanor was completely replaced by sheer, utter terror.

Her opponent got a Kama in his groin and another in his arm. He didn't flinch either, but Oyuki was able to reduce his effectiveness.

And through it all, the robot had remained idle.

"That's quite enough Genin, Gaijins. You in the jetpack, stop this now." A fifth demon masked ninja, one dressed like a construction worker, materialized at the door, dragging a chained up and beaten Erwin.

"...I'm s-sorry... yo..." Erwin apologized through a busted throat and face, his glasses smashed, still on his head. He bled from nose and mouth, and clearly limped.

"We only want the girls, Americans. you two may go home to your families tonight, just give up the females. Or else..." He held Erwin's head in deadly lock, ready to snap his neck in an instant. "All of you die."

Caleb felt as if his head was about to explode as the man kept choking him. he figured that this was probably the blood-loss to the brain. The bad news was that he would pass out wihin about a minute, and then the man would have no trouble finishing of his limp body. On the bright side he would not be awake to feel how excruciatingly painfull death from suffocation actually was. He tried to scream, but did not even manage to produce the gurgling noise he had managed earlier. He could not understand how this was, The flame from his jetpack ran insanely hot, which in turn was the thing that had given him doubt whether the design was viable at all. So why was he still standing. It was not fair, it was not right! He had done everything right, but even so it did not work! Nothing worked

He started punching the ninjas arm with his shock knuckledusters, in the hope that the shock would force him tolet it go, but it did not work.
he could not die here!
He tried to bend his arm back enough to take a shot at the ninja with the laser-gun whilst he punched, but it was impossible to aim it properly. He fired a few blasts hoping that one of them would hit its mark, but the ninja just moved slightly to dodge them, without relinquishing his grip
He must not die here!
He struggled to get loose, but his boy-strength was no match for the Ninjas man-strength. His frantic flailing amounted to nothing at all. Then it dawned on him.
He would die here.

That was when he suddenly shot forward, and felt the rush of air into his lungs. his throat felt raw and he could feel the metallic taste of blood on the back of his tongue but it did not matter, he could breathe. The joy was temporarily interrupted by a sharp pain in the back of his neck, but it was not enough to take the joy out of breathing. As he flew forwards he panted and coughed, barely managing to steer himself upward and land on one of the girders near the roof of the warehouse. Despite the fact that he was probably far from safe, he felt a great relief. He turned back to look what the man that had tried to kill him was doing, and he almost gagged as he saw the state off him. what little remained of his pants had been melted into his groin, and it and his abdonmen looked like half-meltelted piles of flesh. It looked almost like a pizza with too little flesh, and it was still smoking. He should not be alive! He should not be unconscious. . .

Oh god, what had he done!?
Pity gripped him, but it did not take more than a second to shake it off. He had defended himself! That man had no one to blame but himself. If he had let him go immediately he would not have gotten burned like that! And he would do it again! He should not have to feel any guilt for the situation of this man! If anything, he should hurt him more! After all, why should he be merciful, the other man had no intention of being merciful

"I'll kill you. I'll kill you all." The boy promised himself in a voice nearly inaudible, it was little more than a hoarse whisper due to the earlier treatment his poor throat had been subjected too. Not even his voice-modulator picked up this message. But it picked up the next noise he made, wich was a shriek of anger, however, the hoarsness of his voice, made the message come out sounding like a digitized, garbled mess. He aimed and fired his weapon a frantic burst at the muscle-bound, murderer, although his hand was not as steady as it usually was.

However, his attention was soon directed elsewhere as a final demon-masked individual entered the warehouse. All of the rage his was turned to terror as he saw Erwin being brought in. He looked like he had been through the beating of his life. His glasses were shattered and his face bloodie. even though he was trying to be brave, it was clear that he was terrified.

"No, wait, don't hurt him! We'll leave, just don't hurt him!" Caleb said pleadingly the voice-modulator giving the answer in a garbled slightly digitized form, although the message was clear enough. He coughed as he finished, the taste of blood in his mouth growing more noticable.

The man who had handled Caleb watched as his opponent flew up and away. He used his short sword to block Caleb's weapons fire, though the steel shattered in the process. The laser bursts caused burning welts on his skin, but again he didn't flinch.

Their combat came to a halt, and Caleb was cowed into easy compliance when their compatriot was brought as a tool. The Burnt Ninja proceeded towards Oyuki, extracting her kamas from the eye and groin of the ninja they were planted in.

"Good boy. Now as for you Oyuki, you've demonstrated you are indeed a strong and powerful ninja since you left. You'll birth many strong ninja in turn..." the hostage taker said.

"I refuse! I won't be your breeding mare you assholes!" Oyuki voiced her protest, having no intention to be taken like this. She was battered, cut and bruised, from fighting off her attacker.

"We know. That's why we're taking off your limbs here. We only need your womb." He said with a completely calm voice.

"NOOO! PLEASE DON'T!" Oyuki screamed, terrified as the Burnt Ninja held Oyuki by her shoulder, intent on amputating her whole arm off at the socket.

Erwin listened, and watched as the animals were about to carve up the ninja. "No... no man... that's sick and wrong... yo..."

"Silence, boy. Just keep quiet and you'll leave alive." He said, tightening his grip on Erwin's chin and neck.

The Kama's blade dug into Oyuki's shoulder, the Burnt Ninja going in for a messy amputation. Erwin wouldn't abide by this. He gathered up his resolve, and shouted.

"Winbot... KICK. THEIR. ASSES! HURRRK-" Erwin managed to say,In an instant, his head was twisted at an unnatural angle.

"Erwin-san!" Oyuki cried out, seeing Erwin had just showed defiance.

"Fool..." Diana muttered, watching the scene unfold through one good eye. Her hands were full with these three ninja. She was bloodied, but her opponents were no better off, with broken fingers, twisted limbs and covered it cuts and bruises- but still going. Not only did they not feel any pain, but they were trained to reduce lethal blows to managable ones.

As Erwin's vital signs faded, the order for experimental autonomous combat subroutines began to load. A progress bar visibly filled up on the robot's face.

It then proclaimed, in a monotone, "My name is Winbot. You killed my father. Prepare to die." The Winbot's combat programming kicked in, and a rocket punch careened into the ninjas who were about to carve Oyuki's limbs off. The fist's heavy weight crushed their bodies against the walls, and now four ninjas remained- three who were tussling with Diana, and the one who killed Erwin.

Winbot slowly advanced to take his revenge, while Erwin's killer drew out a Naginata. Even against a murderbot, he showed no fear, and holds his own. Chaos ensued once more, as Diana roared to fight for her own survival as well.

the feeling of shame overwhelmed the armored vigilante after he made his decision. He was no ninja like his two companions. He did not have the mental fortitude to withstand this level of stressfull situations, he had not been trained for combat or for dangerous situations such as this. He may have armor, a flamethrower and a laser, but there was nothing but a boy behind all of these things. A boy who's face was not covered in snot, spit and blood and that wished that he was at home right now, enjoying a quiet evening in front of the TV with his parents.

He knew he would feel guilty about abandoning the two ninjas, but he could simply not allow them to kill his friend. Erwin must be saved, and that was his number one priority. If you think this through logically he had no allegiance to the two women. Due to the way they had met he was rather sure they were not good people.  He and his friend were only here because they had attacked Erwin at the university to steal his life work. If anything he should blame them for getting him into this mess in the first place!

as the attempts at rationalization went through his head he sighed heavily. There was simply no way he would be able to come out of this feeling he had made the right choice, no mater what choice he had taken. He was convinced that the man holding his friend would kill him if he did not comply. He could have taken a pot-shot at the man, but there was no guarantee that would work. After all, the man that had tried to choke him had managed to stand up against far more powerful attacks without even flinching.

Caleb remained silent as the ninja-leader convinced the poor annoying girl to a life of eternal abuse and childbirth, but he did naught but look away. He promised himself that he would come back for her someday. Save her, and she would understand. At least that was what he told himself.

And right then Edwin sacrificed his own life and proved that out of the two, he was the stronger one. He had given his life for the woman. It felt unreal as with nothing but a quick crack his friend fell limply on the floor, ad devoid of life as a sack of doorknobs.

"NOOOOOOOO!!" Caleb Howled, his voice, still hoarse from the  strangulation disolving in a wet, hacking cough. The damaged voice-modulator made this come out as a digitized, garbled mess, sounding a bit like the voice-recording from an old-timey videogame console and an old-timey internet-modem. In a way it was oddly appropriate. It was the war cry of a technophile. The unholy mix of Despair, sorrow, rage and hatred he felt was like nothing he had ever experienced. Suddenly the pain of his throat was forgotten, so was any thoughts of home and hearth. Those things did not exist anymore. There was only this room, and the most important thing in the world were the people that had killed his best friend, and the meaning of his life was to make sure that the people in question ended their lives in as much agony as possibly.

However, he did rush forward in a blind rage, no, he was beyond that now. His mind was crystal-clear, icy cold and transparent, like an sculpture made of ice. It felt as if he was watching himself from somewhere outside of his body, as he turned up the force of his laser-bolts to the maximum. Now they where mre than capable of smashing through a brick wall like it was papier-machie  This would fry his power-cells quickly, so he had to. He activated his jet-pack and flew among  the rafters, his mind far more focused than ever before. He took aim, his aim steadier than ever and he took a shot, aiming for the ninjas leg. Hopefully this would be enough to slow him down enough for Win-Bot to obliterate him. After all, in a a way, Win-Bot was Erwin. He had put alot of his soul into that robot of his, so it would only be fitting if he avenged himself.

the gaze of the heartbroken avenger then turned to the overwhelmed ninja-woman. With the most effective flight-plan already calculated in his mind he flew around the fight from relatively safe distance untill he was at such an angle that that the evil ninjas were lined up two in a straigh line from his position and then took aim and fired. if his blast was powerful enough to go through one of them it would hit the one standing behind him. Even if he was just sent flying, he would crash into his unlucky companion, thus evening the odds a bit for his companion.

The naginata wielder fighting Winbot had the upper hand, fighting off Erwin's robot, until a laser blast from Caleb cleanly blew his leg off from the mid thigh down. Off balanced, Winbot grabbed him in his grabbing hand and pointed his flame thrower at him.

"Revenge. Is a dish best served. Hot." Winbot would say in his machine voice, before roasting him alive.

Diana's opponents were now distracted by the robot's progress. They made the mistake of looking away, and in that instant Diana recovered her sword and bisected the unfortunate soul who tried to keep it from her.

"...Shit. The Clan won't be happy about this." The ninja said, seeing Diana recovering her weapon and healing up her wounds.

"Pretty smart, taking my sword and trying to finish me off quick. but.." Diana said, but now Sword in hand and having her wounds healed, she carved through the ninjas who had lost their element of surprise. Diana had become used to their movements and read them uncannily. She decided that wounding them was no use- each attack had to be a killing blow, and so severed the head of one and struck the heart of the other

The ninjas were all dead. A silence fell over the warehouse, as Oyuki slowly recovers, holding her bleeding arm in place. Diana rushed to help, but their attention was on Erwin. The two girls limped over to his side, Erwin's eyes still open, gazing at the ceiling... perhaps directly at Caleb.

"...Sayonara. Erwin-kun. Arigato..." Oyuki said quietly, Diana helping her up.

"Guy? you can come down... it's over." Diana called out to Caleb, wondering if he was alright.

As his first shot connected Cable felt a surge of cold satisfaction rush through his mind, but not nearly  enough to  second shot was fired, he turned around to see the Win-bot grab a hold of the one-legged Ninja, Caleb felt nothing but a surge of cold satisfaction rush through him as he saw the leg being blown off the man. Even though he had no idea of it now, the chill of his thoughts at this moment would haunt him for several days to come. One of the aspects was a nearly perfect memory, and so he would have to live with what he did for the rest of his life. But would it be an isolated incident or his future self's way of thinking? Only time would tell. From behind his cracked visor, he glared hatefully at the man. He would Let him hop around for a while, see how he likes that. No matter how much pain he felt, Caleb wanted to give him more. If he would have his way, the leg was just the first down-payment. A few pennies in the jar to repay the grief the ninja-leader had caused him.

Yes, this was as it should be.
This was justice.
An eye for an eye.

After trying to help the woman he once again turned his course to join Win-Bot as the robot had decided to roast the ninja alive. Normally he would be horrified by something like this, but for now, he thought it was fitting. He should be in pain because of what he did. He watched as the life left the murderer and landed. He had expected to feel a rush of triumph or at least satisfaction as his friend was avenged, but instead he felt nothing. He felt empty, not entirely unlike a robot who had its programming erased. As he started to calm down from his anger, he realized that the first thing he needed to do was to live with what had just happened.

He slowly descended, and as the roar of the jetpack faded out everything was strangely quiet. He once again remembered the pain of his throat as breathed heavily. trying for dear life to hold his tears at bay. If he started crying now, he did not know wether he would be able to stop or not. As he stood there, next to the body of his friend, there was the strangest thing. Even though life had left him, Erwin looked as if he had been focusing directly at where he was during the final battle. Caleb wondered if he would have liked what he had seen, if he had been alive to see it, but he suspected he would never get the question answered.

He took the few steps over to the body. sniffling as he took the three steps needed to join the two girls by the body of his friend. his vision became slightly blurry as his eyes teared up. He tried wiping his eyes reflexively, but the helmet was in the way. He quickly undid the strap underneath his chin and took it off, it felt good to have the cold air hit his face once again. He could not help but to see his reflection in the polished chrome of his helmet. His face was a mess. there where globs of half-dried blood and mucus around his mouth and eyes, and his eyes were bloodshot and swollen. He let his arm fall by his side, the helmet hanging limply, still half-heartedly gripped by his hand.

"He's Dead." Caleb said in a dull monotone voice. between sniffles. he knew that he was still in shock, even though the anger had left him.

"I brought him Chimichangas yesterday, and now he's dead." Caleb droned before it fully dawned on him and he started bawling. His best friends was dead, and nothing could bring him back.

The silence in the warehouse seemed to stretch on for eternity, as Diana and Oyuki knelt beside Erwin's form. Oyuki was about to close Erwin's eyes to put him to rest, when a whirring sound caused the body to lurch to life.

"Who... Whoa man, this is a real heavy moment yo... but I'm not dead." His voice came from a damaged speaker within the head, as ErwinBot 2.0 twisted it back into place.

"KYAAAAA! ERWIN IS A GHOST! BANISH!" Oyuki clapped her hands together in a ninja seal, to invoke a jutsu to banish evil spirits. Sadly, the crossover of magic and technology yielded no results save for Oyuki's hands glowing slightly with Ki.

"Whoa, whoa! Calm down yo! Like I said man, this hero stuff's way too dangerous. Good thing I stayed home." Erwin tried to calm Oyuki down, not to mention the grief stricken Caleb. "...Sorry to have you worried, but I did say I'd just remote control a robot. Yo man, you should see the look on your face..." Erwin said to Caleb a bit weakly, trying to cheer him up.

Diana couldn't help but break out into a smile. "You idiot.... you magnificent... idiot. We thought you were a real man. This is..." She couldn't help but just laugh.

"...Your skin looks plenty real... the cuts? the bruises?" Diana observed, the body looking uncannily real, even fooling her. Diana inspected it closely, and realized indeed, it was unreal, no pressure points.

"Yeah. Kevin wanted me to test the sim skin he's been developing." Erwin explained.

"Words cannot express the joy I feel." Winbot said in a deadpan voice. A great relief came over Diana and especially Oyuki, who hugged the ErwinBot, crying profusely for someone she basically just met. "BAKA! YOU MADE ME WORRY!"

For the first few seconds he thought his mind had snapped somehow. Erwin was dead, yet here wa was, walking and talking, seemingly bad from the dead somehow. Perhaps it had been the strain. He had never been through anything like this before, so maybe this was just how much his mind could bear before snapping in twain. However, as Oyuki shouted out in astonishment, asking for some sort of exorcism to be performed Calebs mind started working, the wheels spinning, trying to find a logical explanation. And when he realized it, it was so obvious. He should have thought about it immediately!

And that was when Edwin told them he had never even left his house, but had been working through the robot all the time. Caleb started laughing as he shook his head. To say that he was annoyed at Erwin for putting him through all that turmoil would be an understatement. "Furious" would be a far better way to describe it. He had been through hell even though it had only lasted a few minutes.

"You're alive! Man, I'm so glad you're alive, you brain dead, son of a. . . . I'm so friggin glad you're alive! Idiot!" he stuttered forth, his voice a rather unusual mix of pure joy and anger. He wanted to hug his friend and punch his stupid face in at the same time! But despite this, he was feeling happier than he had ever done in his entire life!

He joined Oyuki in grouphugging the Erwin-Bot. He knew that it wasn't his real friend, no more than he was the avatar next to his username, but he just needed to expess his joy somehow.

"And of course it's Kevin's fault somehow!" He laughed as the felt all the tensions drop off him, like a million ton heavy piece of a neutron star that he had worn around his neck without knowing it. "I'm so glad you're alive!" Tears were still flowing from his eyes, but this time it was tears of joy, clashing somewhat with the huge smile on his face.

((And here endeth our tale))