Exo Saves The Day, Chapter 17

[gynoneko]

Sorry, no sex in this episode, but exciting action at least!
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Chapter 1. Chapter 2. Chapter 3. Chapter 4.
Chapter 5. Chapter 6. Chapter 7. Chapter 8.
Chapter 9. Chapter 10. Chapter 11. Chapter 12.
Chapter 13. Chapter 14. Chapter 15. Chapter 16.
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Exo Saves the Day
Chapter Seventeen: Metal Mecha Mayhem
By Gynoneko


The mysterious man hovered over me, after having used both my alias and my real name.  I don't know how he knew that, but there was something more to this man.  Somehow he had been appearing in my dreams, but I had no idea who he was.

I got to my feet and stood before the him without taking his outstretched hand.  He was a tall man, maybe an inch or so taller than me, which is saying something.  I'm not used to looking up to someone physically, but with him, I had to.  His dark gray business suit perfectly framed his lean tall body, giving him an air of authority.  It didn't hurt that his life-size cougar attack droid was standing next to him.

"Who are you, and what did you do to Tom and Cynthia?" I asked in a commanding tone.  I was hoping I could challenge his presence with an aura of authority myself, but I didn't have a giant mecha cat to back me up.  The beast rubbed against his leg, with enough force to push a man to the ground, but he remained firm and stable.

"Who I am is not important" he said in a raspy voice.  "As for the two scientists, I have done nothing to them.  As you can see, they are not here.  I don't know where they are.  But perhaps you can tell me.  I'm sure SHE must have told you something..."  He eyed me cautiously through his round glasses, and studying my features, my posture, even my attitude.  He was doing more than just looking at me, he was sizing me up.  He was ready for a fight, and he knew I was there to bring one, even though I wasn't confident anymore.

"That's bullshit!" I spat.  "I'm here cause they told me they'd be here.  But how did you know about-"

"You're name?  This address?  You're alias?...  Tera?" he interrupted.  There was a dangerous tone in his voice, like he was not only aware of everything, but disapproving of it as well.  "There are many things you don't know yet Daniel, if you're lucky, you'll live long enough to learn one or two of them."

In the back of my mind, I realized that something else was about to happen. I had relayed to Tera to run, as in to run away, but she would never leave me like that.  She was too dedicated to me already, and we had no backup plan, no contingency if it was too dangerous.  Tires screeched on the road in the distance, and I knew they were heading right into danger.  All I could do was try to keep him distracted and hope they got away before anyone get hurt.

"Is that a threat?  Who the hell do you think you are?"  My voice was coarse and loud.  It almost scared me when I heard it.  The man didn't flinch, but his expression went from one of amusement to annoyance.  It was just then that the SUV came roaring into the park lot next to the building.  They were driving fast and hard.

Mr. 'not important' looked over at them as a man would look at a fly.  They were nothing to him, nothing more than a minor annoyance to be swatted.  Just then, the window behind the driver's set rolled down, and a hand holding a gun emerged.  Jack fired 2 shots at the man with a pistol.  I'm not a weapon's expert, but I recognize a hand gun when I see one, and this was a pretty decent one.  Where the hell he hid it I had no idea.  Hell, I didn't even know he had one at all, or could even shoot.  Not only could Jack shoot, he was good at it.

The two shots ricochetted off the handrail directly in front of the man.  If you've ever seen a face twist into fury, I promise you it was nothing like this.  I watched as the stranger's features morphed almost like clay into a whole new person, or at least it seemed that way.  It was far too expressive, and filled with rage, to have belonged to the man I saw moments before.  He flicked his wrist toward the SUV and Leonis, his mechanical mountain lion, gracefully jumped down from the second story walkway to the parking lot below, and right over to the SUV.

Joan stopped the SUV near us, and Jack jumped out before seeing the chrome cougar stalking him.  Tera pulled him back into the car, and closed the door just as a gigantic paw took a swipe at the vehicle, ripping the side of the truck up with inch long metal claws.

"I'm only an interested party Mr. Hawthorn."  His expression softened again as soon as he saw Tera.  "I'm here to take back what is mine."  The cat continued to assault the vehicle, mostly pushing against it or just growling at those inside.

"Liberati?" I admit I didn't know what Liberati looked like.  But I did not expect him to look like this.  I was imagining something a little more... Italian mafia style.  "Why are you trying to kill her then?"

He laughed at me in his raspy voice.  "Danny.  I thought you would have known better than that.  Liberati is a fool.  A fool that must be dealt with.  But all in good time."  His voice was all too cheerful, in a mocking sort of way.  "Still, he was not to touch her.  He will regret that..."

"What do you want with Tera!?"

"Let's not spoil the fun now Mr. Hawthorn.  I'm not telling you all my secrets.  The important thing is that I take her back with me now."

"Like hell!"  I growled as I threw a punch at his jaw.  Even with my enhanced speed and strength, he still managed to dodge my swing with ease.  I moved in closer for another, and again he side-stepped me and completely evaded my attacks.  I used what I could remember from my studies in Tae-Kwon-Do years ago, but they did nothing to get me any closer to releasing my fury on this guy.  He was too damn fast!

I got too reckless trying to hit him, and left myself open.  He didn't hesitate to give me a kick to the chest, knocking the wind out of me.  It burned as I tried to get air back in my lungs, but he never let up.  Sliding his cane across my neck, he pulled me into his body and started to strangle me from behind!  It was bad enough I had the air kicked out of me, but now I couldn't get any more air at all.  It was a double whammy!

"She'll be fine with me Mr. Hawthorn.  Now that you've bound yourself to her, you need to be taken out of the equation.   Otherwise she can never fully give herself to me".  I struggled against his grip, but it was too strong.  Everything was starting to get black around the edges of my vision.  I knew that if I didn't get air fast, I'd be a goner.

My thoughts turned to Tera for an instant.  I shuddered to think of what he'd do to her once he killed me.  Would he be content to just rape her?  Or would he torture and twist her body and mind into something unrecognizable, as Liberati had done to her sisters?  I could not let that happen.  Reaching inside for all the fury and rage I had left, I let out one last big struggle against his iron grip, only to realize it wasn't going to work.

Luckily, some my my Tae-Kwon-Do training had paid off.  In the moment I realized I couldn't overpower this man, I discovered that he was also being reckless.  His footing was off, and with the slightest effort, I was able to slide my foot behind his.

We fell to the ground with a clang.  I was instantly grateful to my parents for paying for all those classes they were sure I would never use.  Somehow, against all odds, I swiped his foot out from under him, and pushed him to the ground, landing on top of him.  I was out of his grip, coughing and gasping for air, as I stood up again.

Any normal human would have had to take a few seconds or longer to recover from that kind of a blow.  Unfortunately for me, he was not a normal human, and somehow was on his feet again almost as fast as I was, although he wasn't gasping for air.  I decided I needed to jump.  Another round against this guy and I would be no help to anyone expect the mortician.

I got my legs over the rail, and jumped down directly onto the cat below.  I was hoping for something a little softer to land on, but at least this way I was helpful.  See, I planned it.

Jack jumped out again, gun in hand, when the cat shrugged me off.  Here I was hoping it had a spine to break, but I guess I was out of luck.  Jen joined us, coming from the other side of the SUV, carrying of all things a baseball bat!

"Glad you could join me.  But where did you guys get the toys?" I asked, my voice rough.

"Toys R Us" Jen replied.

"What she said" Jack answered.

"Riight.  Let's just..." before I could finish my thought, the cougar lunged at us, keeping us back, and pushing us away from the car.

Joan just stared at us from the driver's seat, trying to decide what to do.  She only had one arm, and could barely walk.  Trying to take on a 6 foot long metal monster was not going to help at all.  I signaled to her to stay calm, and returned my focus to the cat.

Leonis did an excellent job of keeping us at bay.  All I could do was watch as the mysterious man jumped from the second floor, and landed on the asphalt below, standing as he hit the ground.  Inertia meant nothing to him, and somehow he made it look suave.  With determination behind his steps, he marched over to the SUV, and opened the backdoor before reaching inside, and pulling Tera out by the neck!

Joan hit the gas to try to get them away from him, but it was too late, he already had her in his grip, and she struggled against him.  I could sense the pain in her neck as he grabbed her, and the terror she felt at his touch.  3 loud gunshots went off next to my ear as Jack shot at the man with pinpoint accuracy.  I never would have attempted such a shot myself, but somehow, he managed to completely avoid hitting Tera.  A trio of bullet shaped holes appeared in the man's jacket, but he barely flinched at all as he started to literally drag her away, walking toward the street.

"Leonis, kill them" the man ordered as he walked away.  His feline robot growled at us and started to stalk toward us, ready to attack.

"Dan!!  You need to take out the cat!" Jen cried.

"My bullets will be no help here" Jack said.

"Please!  He's got Tera!" Jen continued.

"I KNOW!" I snapped.  "But what the hell can I do!?"

"You have armor on that thing don't you?" Jen asked, still slowly backing away from the beast.

"Yeah.  Kevlar.  Bullet-proof armor.  If you haven't noticed that thing has inch long caring knives!  It makes Edward Scissorhands looks like a butter knife.  Those will slice through this like bread!"  I'm sure Jen didn't realize that knives have more puncturing power than bullets, but wasn't about to explain the physics behind it to her.  Needless to say, I didn't expect to come up against something like this.

"My gun may be useless, but I have an thought... Joan!  Toss me my phone!" Jack yelled.  Joan rolled down the window, and tossed a mobile phone to Jack with perfect accuracy.  It flew through the air over the cat and Jack caught it.  Instantly he started messing around with it.  "Cover me!  I think I can hack it!"

"With a phone?" Jen asked unbelieving.  Regardless, he backed up between us, and we made sure the cat stayed away from him.

It didn't take long before it ran at us.  Jen got in the first blow.  Pushing herself to the point of grunting like a tennis player, she swung the bat upside the cat's head.  CLANG!  Leonis halted for a moment to recover, but only for a moment.  The cat now focused on her.

Rain starts beating down sporadically as the clouds prepare to release their torrent.  I was about to find out if my suit was built well enough to handle rain or not.  Leonis probably wouldn't react to this at all, but on occasion rain would effect a robot.  Just probably not this one.

I felt in my mind Tera's presence, her pain.  As she struggled to free herself from the man, he tightened his grip around her neck.  I knew as a robot she could hold her breath much longer than a human.  Eventually she would risk overheating, but the damage he could inflict on her would be deeply scarring for Tera.  Plus, I just got her a new voice box!  I had to act fast, and Leonis was between me and my girlfriend.

'Is she really my girlfriend?' I thought.  But I had to push that thought aside as Leonis pounced at Jen, claws and fangs at the ready.

Of course I did what any chivalrous idiot would do, I pushed Jen out of the way and punched Leonis square in the jaw.  The cat went flying into the wall of the motel with a clamorous clatter of metal.  I managed to give the cat a serious left hook, but it wasn't without a price.  Leonis's claw got a hold of my right arm, and ripped it as easily as a sheet of paper.  It hurt!  Blood stained the sleeve of my coat, as the rain started to beat down harder against us.

I crouched in pain, holding my arm close to me, but a voice in the back of my head told me to get up!  I stood just in time to see Leonis recover as well, focusing her attention on me with a deep grinding-metal growl.

At the same time, a flood of more data streamed into my mind.  Tera had struggled to get free, and almost got loose when the man started to hit her!  It wasn't a dainty little slap either.  He punched her hard in the torso and face.  Fury rose inside me, but I could do nothing to stop him.

"I don't get it!" Jack cried out.  "There's no AI in there to hack!  It just... isn't there!"

My mind went into overdrive.  Either this meant Leonis was a full-body cat cyborg, or a doll.  I had never heard of either of these being used for a cat before, and if Leonis was the former we'd be in serious trouble.  There was only one thing I could suggest, and I prayed that it would work.

"Jack..." I said calmly, never taking my eyes of Leonis.  "Can you emit a scrambling signal with that thing?"

"A scramb-- Yeah.  I think so."

"Do it!  Leonis might be a real cat..." I suggested.

"A doll!?  You're kidding--  I'm on it but the signal will be small.  I'd need to be right on top of it for it to work."

"What's a doll?" Jen asked.  I wasn't surprised she hadn't heard of this before.  They were not common, very rarely used outside of hospitals and industrial zones.

"Think a marionette, but instead of strings, it uses a wireless signal." I said.  I had to stand up straight and ignore the pain in my arm, for fear of showing any weakness to Leonis who would take advantage of it.  For now, I had hurt her enough for her to consider me a threat, which meant I had seconds before she would lunge at me again.

Leonis and I stared off, and slowly circled one another.  I wasn't sure how, but I'd have to get a hold of Leonis, and keep her contained long enough for Jack to get his signal scrambler close to her.  All this, and I had to survive, and rescue Tera!

"I got it!" Jack said a few second later.  He was incredibly fast with electronics.  I had no idea how he could do these things so quickly.

Just then, movement from the corner of my eye came into full view.  The beat up and torn SUV smashed into Leonis, pinning her to the building.  Joan had been busy getting the truck into position, and I never noticed.  The cat struggled to free itself, and Joan had to keep putting the pressure on it, spinning the wheels of the truck.

"Jack!  Now!" Joan yelled from the car.  Jack ran over to the cat, and held the phone out to it.  The struggles and throws of the metal beast turned into sporadic jerks as the signal feeding the cat was lost.  Leonis collapsed, and stopped moving entirely.  Joan backed up the truck and Leonis clattered to the ground in a lifeless heap.

"I'll stay here, go help Tera!" Jack said.  He didn't need to say it twice.  Before he even finished talking, I was running at a full gallop toward the mysterious man and Tera.  He nearly got her to the street, and I saw a car waiting in another lot ready to take them away.

With all my effort, and a yell of righteous fury, I gave the stranger an uppercut with my left hand to his jaw.  He didn't have the time to react and dodge this blow since not only did he not see me coming, but he continued to struggle with Tera, and was preparing to strike her again.

A blow like this would have broken the jaw, and possibly neck, of any normal man, and sent him flying 6 feet in the air.  Instead, he lifted 1 foot off the ground, and fell over, hitting the ground with a thud.

Jen caught up with us, and wrapped her arms around Tera, pulling her away from the man.  I stood between him and them, and prepared to strike him again.  I could sense that Tera's injuries were not threatening, and while they hurt, she would be able to recover on her own.

The man shook his head, and stood up again, sparks flying from a tear in his skin stretching from his neck to his jaw, as rain invaded his mechanical body.  The side of his jaw hung loose and disjointed.  Of course, he's a robot too!  But he was so lifelike, as real as Tera except for the inhuman abilities.  A smell of burning electronics filled my nostrils as he tried to speak.  Instead, he ended up messing with his jaw, and realigning it so he could form words.

With Jack and Joan busy, I figured Tera would be the only one who could help us out this time, like Jack had done before.

"Tera" I whispered as the man busied himself with his jaw.  "I need you to try to hack him.  Can you do that?"

She struggled to get to her feet with Jen's help.  "I think so" she said, her voice unaffected by the pressure of his grasp, except for the emotion in it.

The man stopped messing with his jaw, and gave up with it.  He heard our little conversation, and started to attack.  He was fast, to fast for me to keep up!  I dodged one or two blows before he'd land one on me.  My suit did help lessen the intensity of this punches, and I remembered enough martial arts to move with the punch and not against it.  But still, they hurt!

I managed to get in a few blows myself, but he was unfazed by them, and continued his onslaught.  The one thing I made sure to do was to stay between him and the girls.

"I... I can't do it!" Tera yelled through the pounding rain.  "His AI is... different.  Like it doesn't do anything."  It must have been another doll.  The AI in this unit was probably a way for the robot to manage information like pain and pleasure to the user, as well as handle the incoming commands.  I'm sure Leonis must have had a similar AI in it, but Jack wouldn't have been able to hack it.  These are hardwired AIs and cannot be changed.

"Another doll?" Jen asked.  "Tera, trying jamming his signal."

The man's face twisted again into the furious one I saw on the balcony when Jack shot at him.  He doubled his efforts, and knocked the wind out of me again, ready to deal a blow to my neck that would probably finish me.

Just then, his body stopped moving.  Slowly he lowered his hands and took a step back.  Tera stood there with her eyes glowing blue in the gloomy rain.

"I can't jam his signal" she said.  "But I can take over the puppet.  And he'll still feel everything" she said coldly, as though she were someone else.

I watched as the man lifted his arm, and plunged it deep into his own chest, ripping the shirt he wore.  It took a few seconds to break through, but he did, and pulled out an assortment of circuits and wires, as well as a mechanical heart.  No, it wasn't  heart, it was a battery.  His grip tightened, until the battery burst in his hand, releasing an explosion of sparks and acid.  His body stiffly collapsed one last time to the ground.

Tera's eyes stopped glowing, and she collapsed into Jen's arms, catching her breath.

"Tera!" we both said simultaneously.

"I'm sorry.  I couldn't stop myself.  He..." she said as tears fell from her eyes and missed with the rain.

"Shhh.  It's ok Tera, you're safe now" Jen said as she held her close.

"Tera... are you ok?"  I knew she was physically, or at least she'd be alright, but emotionally and psychologically I was concerned.  I didn't know how an advanced AI like EVE in her Evelyn brain would handle psychological issues like this, but she was advanced enough that I'd say it would be darn close to a human reaction.  after, her sisters were susceptible to mental anguish and coercion, even brainwashing.

"I'll be fine" she said breathless.  "Oh Danny!" she cried looking up at me with big tear-filled eyes.  "I knew you'd save me.  All of you!"  She gently squeezed Jen's arm and tried to compose herself.  There was a trickle of red-orange blood dripping down from the corner of her mouth, and she had bruises forming where he hit and grabbed her.  I cursed myself for not being able to stop this from happening.  "Danny!  You're arm!  Oh god your bleeding!"

She knelt down to look at my right arm.  It still hurt bad, and it was still bleeding, leaving a puddle of red rainwater at my feet.  She rolled up the sleeve gently, trying not to touch the wound, to get a better look at it.  It stung as she pulled up the torn sleeve, and I breathed in sharply.

"This is bad Danny!  You need to go to the doctor!"  She tore at her red dress, to rip off a strip of cloth from the hemline.  I tried to stop her, but she wouldn't take no, and ended up shortening her dress by a few inches.  She wrapped the cloth strip around my arm tightly, which hurt like a bitch, and tied it off as best as she could.

Joan drove up with the SUV and Jen quickly opened the back and grabbed the first aid kit, where she completed the initial bandaging with a gauze strip, and a sling to keep my arm up.  Tera just held onto me while Jen worked at my arm.

"I thought I'd never see you again" she said.  I held onto her with my left arm, and let her cry as we sat at the trunk of the SUV, the door over our heads shielding us from the rain.  Jack ran over when he saw the commotion, and helped with my arm.  Even Joan got out and made her way over to us hopping on one foot.  She sat next to Tera, and wiped the dirt and tears from her face while looking at her cuts.

"You really do need to go to the hospital, Danny" Jen said.  "This is still bleeding, and you've lost a lot of blood."  She never looked me in the eyes as she spoke, and I got the feeling she was avoiding them.  As I stared at her, she lost the ability to resist, and our eyes met.  "Why did you have to do something to stupid?" she said.  A tear formed in one eye and fell, but she just ignored it and her voice never changed.

"You know damn well.  I wasn't about to let that thing rip my best friend up" I said.

She looked at me with her lip shaking slightly.  "Chivalry died in the middle-ages you dolt."  She finished fixing me up, and starting to put away the rest of the first aid bin in silence.

Suddenly, a man's raspy voice could be heard laughing.  It was the voice of the man we just defeated.  Had he already shown up with duplicate doll?  We looked around and saw Leonis standing before us.  The laughter came from her.

"Very clever boy.  Very clever" he said through the metallic feline.  "I wasn't expecting you to show up here.  Surely you knew Liberati already found the hotel.  I would have expected better from you Mr. Hawthorn.  But perhaps this is Cynthia's fault.  I will never understand that scatterbrained bitch.  I will be seeing you again soon.  I wasn't ready today, but next time I will be prepared for your arrival."

Leonis, or rather the Leonis doll, leapt away and vanished into the back alleyways of the city.  Without warning, the broken doll of the man burst into flames with a loud pop.  This was probably a self-destruct mechanism he activated, not that he really needed to, but perhaps we could have traced down his location if we got to the brain.  The stress level dropped, and we all let out a collective sigh of relief.

Jack decided to investigate the room Tom and Cynthia were in while the girls saw to me.  Joan helped clean Tera up, and Jen decided to check me over to make sure there was nothing else hurt.  I think it was just an excuse, but she somehow managed to get my shirt off.  I thought it a little wet and cold to be doing that, but none of the girls complained about it.  While I has some sore spots on my chest, she didn't feel anything broken.  Jack came back after a few minutes to report that, while the room was a mess, there were no signs of Tom or Cynthia.  They must have gotten word their cover was blown and ran for it.

Before we all piled into the SUV again, I walked over to the burning puppet, and picked up the cane he dropped.  I examined it as I walked back to the truck to join the others.  It had a black metal shaft with a chrome tip and a rubber sole.  Adorning the top of the shaft was a chrome cat head, like a lynx.  It was nothing fancy, but I figured it might help us find this man, or at least it would be a nice trophy.  I tossed it in the back with the rest of our stuff, and joined everyone in the debate about going to the hospital or not.

I did not want to go to a hospital.  They were often crowded, would take forever to see you, stick needles in your arm, and then charge you 2 months rent to do it.  I didn't exactly have insurance as a freelance android repairman.  We ended up deciding to go to a local free clinic.  I didn't think my wound was life-threatening, and I was sure it would heal.  But they could at least get me a better dressing on my arm, and maybe something to help with the pain.

We drove off, leaving the mess from the room and the fight behind us.  I felt sorry for the guy in the office, but not that sorry.  Before we pulled out, sirens started to approach from the other end of the street.  He must have called the cops, not that I'd blame him.  The police hadn't seen us yet, so Joan took it easy driving out of the parking lot, and turning a corner out of sight.  Never run from a potential crime scene, it would only lead to a chase.

Tera sat close to me, leaning her body into mine, as we drove away.  I could feel her trembling still after her encounter with the dream-man.  She clearly didn't want to talk about it, but at least found comfort in sitting with me, and did her best to relax while thinking deeply to herself.  I shuddered to think of what things he may have said to her, and cursed myself for allowing him to hit her like that.  Whoever that man was, he knew more about us than we knew about him, but I aimed to change that.

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/End Chapter 17
Chapter 18 here.

[NukuNookee]

Excellent action oriented chapter. Looking forward to the next one....

[Asato]

I actually prefer romance to explicit sex anyway

[gynoneko]

Glad you like it so far. I do like romance, but being a sex oriented website, I do like to include explicit sex. Good news is that I plan to rewrite this with a lot of romance and little if any sex... For a more general audience. No worries, I will finish it here first before I rewrite it. This is sort of a draft that helps me work out the story while getting that pesky libido of mine out of the way.

[Asato]

That that I have anything against sex, that is

[gynoneko]

There will be more, don't worry about that. However it might be a chapter or two till it gets really heavy again. Too much story to work out first. Still, I'll make it as sexy and good as I can so keep your eyes peeled. Should have another update later this week.

[liliwinnt6]

Let's see if we can capture that sniper, she made 'us' a lot of trouble.

And, please don't end a story in a hurry. General did that, I could understand him, but I didn't like that.