Losing Control(Saber)

[Mani4c]

Chakram waited for Dagger to finish speaking with Bit, he wanted a fair fight, to prove that he was better than Dagger. Chakram's thoughts had become completely consumed by his repressed dislike of Dagger, his hatred for constantly being compared to him, and his loathing of being seen as a potential disaster wating to happen.

Finally, after a minute of silence, Chakram spoke, his voice laced with an almost supernatural anger. "I despise you you know...Ever since I was created, I've been compared to you...Me, Claymore and Katana always being treated like the one who has to repair the damage you and Halberd caused to my family's name." Chakram began to walk, circling Dagger, but never taking his eyes of of him. "And then, you crawl back to us when you finally find a threat that you can't stab in the back like a coward, and you're welcomed back with welcome arms...a piece of trash treated like a long lost friend, while my family has to continue being seen as nothing more than replacements."

Chakram summoned his blades, which were cloaked in hellish red flame, as he once again stood in front of his brother. "But now I will show all who dared to doubt us the truth...we are not your replacements...we are your superiors, and once I finish with you, Saber and Halberd will fall to me as well." ((Cue corrupted Chakram's theme)) With his intentions made clear, Chakram lunged at Dagger, slashing at him with his flaming weapons.

Amaterasu frowned when she received Dagger's message, she summoned her sword, thunder edge, and unleashed a blast of golden lighting at a nearby criminal, burning a smoldering hole in his chest. "This won't work...we need to split up, Claymore, Katana, you focus on getting to the engineer's cabin, I'm going to find the leaders of this little band of thieves and wring the location of this captured woman out of them...and then they're going to die."

Claymore nodded and fired five cannon shots from each of his hands, obliterating anything in front of him, and unintentionally blasting apart much of the car's sides. "Claymore, your cannons are too damaging! If you disable the maglev motors on this train, it'll fall out of the air and kill us, to say nothing of the civilians below, stick to melee when indoors." Claymore nodded and summoned his sword and shield, "Sorry mother, understood. Katana, stay behind me until I thin them out."

[Saber]

Dagger listened silently as Chakram vented his anger about being compared to him, always being stuck in his shadow. He understood Chakram's rage, his hatred of him, and he could bear that. But when he heard the corrupted avatar's full intentions, his pupils shrunk. Not of fear of Chakram lunging at him, but out of something more powerful.

Instead of waiting for Chakram to close the gap, Dagger lunged forward as well, using his wind blades to block Chakram's attack and force him back from the recoil of air "Hate me and Halberd all you want, but I will not allow you to bring harm to Saber!" For once, his voice had some form of emotion, determination. He was going to do everything in his power to stop this berserker, but he was at a disadvantage without Masamune's help. What was keeping him?!

Katana stuck behind Claymore, her single remaining, but somewhat damaged copy hanging back as well "Lead the way, big guy, let's stop this train."

[Mani4c]

Chakram quickly recovered from the strike and whipped his weapons at Dagger, one blad scything towards his abdomen from below, while the other swung down from above, aimed at his face. Chakram charged Dagger, smashing him across the face with a vicious backhand before begining to pummel him with a trio of vicious blows to Dagger's ribs.

Chakram heard a few ribs break, and smirked viciously, he grabbed Dagger by the throat and began to throttle him with one hand. "You won't allow me to kill him? What a joke...you're nothing to me, this power is taken from within myself...you need some science experiment to handle your foes."

Meanwhile, Raijin sprinted across the rooftops of the city, using the coordinates that Bit had provided Masamune with to reach them. "Masamune, tell them that you're sending an expert in, I'll be there in less than 3 minutes."

Claymore burst into the next car, swinging his blade with surgical precision, cleaving any criminal in his way in half. "Mother, the engineering car is up ahead, if this "Spammer" is controlling the train, it'd be from there. We will continue past the car and into the control room."

Claymore reached the door to the engineering car, and pryed open the door...only to be greeted by the glowing emitter of an arm mounted beam weapon. "Hello there." Claymore was blasted across the car, landing in a heap near Amaterasu. "CLAYMORE!" Amaterasu knelt down and examined Claymore as an armored man walked out of the engineering car. "Hello, I heard that you were looking for me...I am Spammer."

[Saber]

Dagger backflipped between the two blades, but wasn't able to see the speedy assault by Chakram, and then being grabbed by the throat. Then, he began to taunt him, and even began to insult Merge. His eyes grew cold, even as Chakram was pummeling him, and Dagger reached up and deflected Chakram's next attack, his free hand holding a blade boiling with acid as he slashed at Chakram's eyes, taking advantage of the point blank range. Now blinded, Dagger then proceeded to use Chakram's own weight against him, leaping up and wrenching his neck free of the vice grip, before judo-flipping Chakram a good distance away. His mind then began to work how he used to when he was all alone, using someone's weakness against them, and Chakram's particular weakness was himself.

"It must burn you up inside...All of that strength, and you're still failing at the one job you were clearly programmed to accomplish...Your power means nothing to me, rookie...If you continue to challenge me, I will kill you..." He held three explosive shuriken in his hand, firing silenced rounds at his successor's limbs and midsection to further anger him "...And with no vision, you don't stand a chance..."

Katana heard the bast coming and leapt out of the way, sword held at the ready as she stared the odd avatar in the eye. She wasn't in the mood to be having formal introductions, crouching and bracing for the next attack, and an opening to strike "Where's the NPD operative you abducted!"

[Mani4c]

Chakram growled and wiped the acid from his eyes, all he could see was a white blur, with a slightly darker blur being Dagger. When Dagger began to taunt him, his first instinct was to lash out...until he noticed Dagger's acutal reaction, he had shown emotion. "Heh...hehehe...HAHAHAHAHA! I may not have killed you yet, but I did manage something nobody else did...I managed to crack the unflappable Dagger's facade, you feel more than you let on, don't you?"

Chakram smirked and cloaked himself, moving from one location to the next, his cloaking program masking his footsteps and making it impossible to track his movements unless he spoke. "But it doesn't matter, you won't be living long enough to express that much." Chakram dashed at Dagger, his blades extended and aimed at his back.

Masamune finally sent a single message to Dagger, unaware of what was going on. <Help on the way, he knows what to do.> As if on cue, Raijin leaped from a nearby rooftop and tried to land on the train's roof, but he underestimated the speed of the train, having to whip out his hand and dig his fingers into the train's hull to keep himself from missing his target. Raijin grunted in annoyance and flipped himself up onto the train's roof, shaking his head. "Damn train...now, Dagger should be up front, I gotta get there." Raijin crouched low, getting into a sprinter's stance before shooting forward far faster than any normal avatar.

Spammer simply tilted his head, the glowing "eye" on his helmet roving over Katana briefly before a beam of light shot from it, enveloping Katana in a wireframe that swept over her body several times before vanishing. "Target data aquired, subject designate: Katana. Target programs are standard scrambler and rapid strike mods, a blade duplication program, alternate weapon: claws, as well as...interesting...you possess a duplication module and a reflex/strength enhancer."

Amaterasu looked up from Claymore, her expression grave. "What? How did you-?"  Spammer chuckled, looking down and typing some commands on a set of buttons installed on the side of his main cannon, which looked like a long rifle. "I have modified my code extensively, I possess a custom made scanning program that allows me to see what tricks my opponents can use...among other things."

Suddenly, two flying drones appeared behind Spammer, their optics gazing down at Katana. "But that is a moot point...kill the girl, then the older ones..." The drones optics blinked once, turned red, and then the drones opened fire. Unbelievably hot hard light slugs burning though the train's floor and threatening to burn right through Katana's armor and flesh as well. 

[Saber]

Dagger had his eyes focused on where Chakram was when he vanished, but he currently had his optics disabled, relying solely on sound as he listened for Chakram to speak, expecting him to be as taunting as ever. "...You speak of facades...Yet yours is clear as day..." The moment he heard the slicing of air behind him, he quickly sidestepped and swept his feet in a wheel low to the ground, aiming to trip Chakram as he charged at him. As confident and cocky as Chakram was, he was predictable, and sloppy with his actions, which played to Dagger's advantage.

Without any warning, a hurricane formed around Dagger, sweeping Chakram up as he was within the wind's range. Dagger took this moment to lob the three explosive shuriken into the hurricane as well, the shuriken flying in the hurricane and eventually closing in on Chakram's slower mass dragged in the winds, ready to explode.

When the wind dissipated, Dagger was nowhere to be seen, cloaked and nowhere in the immediate area.

Katana rolled out of the way of the slugs, sprinting at Spammer and closing the gap quickly. The hacker's orders were explicit, kill her first. So she was going to be the hardest target they've ever aimed at. Her ranged skills were lacking, but she was certainly good at one thing "Let's dance, big guy!" She lunged forward with her claws, just as a fresh copy materialized and jumped at Spammer from behind with its sword. The last remaining copy had its attention on the distracted drones, leaping up and swiping at the round attachments on the sides, likely their flight modules.

[Mani4c]

Chakram let out a grunt when the whirlwind struck him,he flipped in midair and threw a hail of kunai at Dagger's shurkien, detonating them before they could do any damage. Chakram landed on his feet, he looked up and saw that Dagger was gone, "Damn it..." Chakram sealed his helmet, making sure that his connection to Dagger and his siblings was cut before anything else. 'Fine then, if he wants to play this game, I'll play it.' 

Chakram retracted his blades, walking slowly and keeping his ears open, Dagger didn't have sound dampeners built into his field, and a single misstep would reveal his location. Chakram threw his chakrams into the sky, using his telepathic control over them to keep them in flight over the train, waiting to attack Dagger at a moment's notice.

Raijin had seen the hurricane, run to where it spawned, and saw...nothing. Raijin grit his teeth and cursed. "Goddamn cloakers...more trouble than they're worth."

Spammer thrust his hand out in front of him, forming a hard-light Barrier that absorbed Katana's strikes to his front, when the duplicate of Katana came within range, one of his drones automatically pivoted around and charged the clone, firing a barrage of hard-light rounds at them. "My armor has motion detectors built in, when you enter my 'zone of influence' my drones are programmed to automatically protect me, or in this case...one guards me, the other punches smoking holes in your torso."

The now solo drone flew up and out of Katana's reach, continually strafing her with a barrage of rounds.

[Saber]

Dagger had already reached a train car several back from the front, waiting for Chakram to get tired of nothing happening and force his hand. When he saw that Raijin had arrived, he realized that this must have been the expert that Masamune mentioned. He connected to Raijin's IP and began sending him silent text messages to his HUD [Chakram is consumed by that dark aura. My combat skills are barely keeping up with his strength, and I have him in a stalemate with this stealth competition. Masamune says you're the expert, what is the weakness?]

Katana continued to pressure Spammer, his drones and his obnoxious strategies certainly holding up to his namesake. She and her remaining copy continued to keep Spammer distracted, hoping that there would be some support coming soon. She then realized that Spammer just gave his program's flaws away, shooting Dagger a message about her team's current status with Spammer.

Dagger received Katana's message and realized the situation has only gotten worse, relaying this to Raijin as well [We need to hurry and force Chakram's hand...I need to get down there and help them as soon as possible]

[Mani4c]

Raijin sighed, "There is no weakness, at least, nothing incredibly effective. The aura increases strength, stamina, and resilience by 300%, and speed is increased by 250%, your best bet is to damage his limbs, there aren't any techniques that are usable without working appendages. And don't delete him damn it! Something triggered this, and deleting him is just asking for a repeat performance down the road." When Dagger mentioned forcing his hand, Raijin had an idea. He switched to IP chat to avoid tipping Chakram off. [I've got it, just make sure you disable the engine first, if the fight get's too intense, this train could derail and kill a bunch of people. Stay quiet and disable the engine, I'll play interference.] 

Raijin cupped his hands to his mouth and bellowed, "CHAKRAM! COME OUT, I'VE HEARD THAT YOU'RE THE BEST, AND I'M HERE TO PROVE YOU WRONG!" Chakram's blades immediately angled towards Raijin, who slapped the blades aside. [That got his attention, now go!]

Spammer leaped to the side to avoid a sword strike, leveling his rifle at the Katana clone and squeezing off 5 shots, all aimed at center mass. "Useless, recalling drones, summoning Knight Armor." The drones vanished in a flash of cyan light, as a blue wireframe took shape in front of Spammer, texture files loading up as it did. When the armor was finished, the back opened up, and Spammer climbed inside, the back sealed shut with a hiss as the armor began to glow. "This armor increases my strength and durablity by 500%, and it is loaded with enough weapons to level a small server single handedly, give up now and accept your demise please."

[Saber]

Dagger took the opportunity that Raijin opened for him, moving to the side of the train that Raijin's back was to. If anyone would be able to keep Chakram at bay, it was the acclaimed expert. Silently, he ninja-sprinted along the side, looking through the windows to see the empty cars within. He then saw the fight happening between Katana and someone new, and the enemy had the advantage, with what looked to be an exo-suit. He needed to hurry, and back them up. [Amaterasu, you need to get Claymore active, fast. If I'm right about his design, he'll have a limiter removal similar to Halberds, but improved on. I'm going to stop the train with its power brakes, make sure you keep that man facing the caboose, inertia and his center of mass will do the rest.]

Now at the front car, Dagger forced the door open and stepped inside, immediately leaping up onto the roof to survey the area for any enemies.

Katana glared at Spammer as he started to boast about his new armor, claiming he can take down a server, and told them to give up, and accept that they're outmatched "Fuck off! If you think I'm going to give up, then you're batshit crazy!" Her two copies rushed at Spammer, attacking from two sides to try and flank him. While they were rushing him, Katana exchanged her sword to fire derez blasts from her hands at a rapid pace of 4 blasts per second at the armored hacker.

[Mani4c]

Chakram dashed towards Raijin, who was standing in a guard stance waiting for Chakram to attack. When the young Cyberblade lunged at Raijin, blades extended for a killing strike, Raijin's hand snapped forward, grabbing Chakram's wrists and throwing him into the air. "Time to force you into view!" A deep purple aura erupted from Raijin's body, with raging violet flames shrouding his fists.

Raijin leaped into the air, delivering a spinning uppercut to Chakram's jaw, Raijin propelled himself higher with his aura, delivering another uppercut, this time striking Chakram in the ribs, he then performed another uppercut, striking Chakram in the jaw once more and knocking him high into the air, with Raijin's momentum propelling him far above his target. Raijin opened his palm as swirling wisps of black and purple flame formed an orb within his hand. "MESSATSU GOSHORYU!!!" He then angled himself down and clenched his fist, slamming it into Chakram's skull and driving him through the train-car's roof and into the pavement below, a 10 foot wide explosion shattering the pavement and creating a small crater when the two fighters hit the road below, Raijin's fist still driving Chakram's head into the ground. Raijin then kicked Chakram across the street and into a storefront, shattering the glass window and causing the customers to run from the building. "Come on pup, I use the Hado too...you're not dead from that."

Amaterasu stood and raised her hands in front of her, both of her palms facing each other. "Claymore...we need you to wake up." ribbons of golden light began to swirl around Amaterasu, threading their way to the gap between her hands and forming a golden orb of energy. "Now...get up my son!" Amaterasu shoved her hands towards Claymore, firing the orb at him.

The orb struck Claymore dead center in the chest, sinking into his armor and making him glow a dull gold. The orb healed Claymore's wounds, his eyes opening as he sat up. "Mother...you and Katana get to that car and find our comrade...I am going to make an example of Spammer." Claymore stood up, and raised his right hand in a clawlike grip, a black spark of energy forming above his palm. "Just hold on Katana...I plan to obliterate this fool in a single shot...Mother, empower her durability!" Amaterasu nodded and formed another orb, this one bright blue. "Goddess' Gift: Gift of Armor!" Amaterasu shot the orb at Katana, which struck her in the back, instantly doubling her defense.

[Saber]

Dagger didn't see anyone inside of the conductor's station, only some odd module keeping the train running on its current path. Dagger didn't waste time, leaping down the the ground and pulling out one of his blade guns. Letting it crackle with electricity, he stabbed the module with his blade, before ripping it off of the console. The train was still moving at full speed, however, so he yanked on the brake hard, bringing the train to a screeching halt that caused everyone on the train to topple over, some harder than others.

Katana saw Spammer's body start to fall back and charged at him, blasters firing nonstop at his midsection. She then called out both copies and they all began blasting him full force with their blasters, all focusing on what they believed to be the weakest point of his armor and targeting that specifically.

[Mani4c]

Chakram burst out of the storefront, driving his fist into Raijin's face and sending the older avatar flying. "I'm going to grind your bones to dust!" Chakram tried to activate his cloaking function so he could strike Raijin without being seen, but all that happened was a blast of sparks that shot from his armor and a dying whine of damaged machinery. "What!?" Raijin got to his feet and chuckled, "Why do you think my second hit was to your torso?" Chakram's eyes widened, Raijin had smashed the components to his cloaking program, he could order the armor to cloak, but somewhere inside his armor a connection was severed.

"Fine, I don't need to cloak to beat you into the ground!" Chakram flared his aura and dashed forward, his feet ripping divots in the asphalt as he started unleashing a barrage of punches at Raijin, who countered each one with his own strikes. "I'm getting tired of this, and every second I waste playing with you is another second your family is at risk!"

Raijin caught Chakram's hands and yanked the young cyberblade towards himself, driving his knee upwards and smashing it into Chakram's solar plexus. Chakram reared back, gasping for breath, as Raijin cupped both of his hands together at the palms and thrust his hand forward. "GOHADOKEN!" A huge Violet fireball, easily 4 feet high and 3 feet wide, shot from Raijin's hands and struck Chakram, exploding violently and sending him flying. "Now to finish this!"

Raijin dashed forward and grabbed Chakram by the neck, choke slamming him into the pavement before tossing him up into the air and slamming his fist into the back of Chakram's head, violently face-planting him into the pavement. Chakram let out a pained sigh as consciousness left him, the purple flames that surrounded his body fizzling out. "Hmph...now I gotta fix you before we can help your folks...stupid brat."

Spammer nearly toppled over from the force of the train halting so suddenly, Katana's blasts, though keeping him off balance, didn't do to much, pinging off of the thick armor plate of the power ramor. Claymore thrust his hand back, bellowing at the top of his lungs, "KATANA! MOVE!" Claymore thrust his hand forward, shouting the name of his attack, "EBON SPARK!" The black sphere of energy shot from his hand like a cannonball, arcs of electrical energy creating blasts of sparks as the projectile hurtled towards it's target.

[Saber]

Dagger took a blank shuriken and jabbed it into the brake lever system, locking it in place before getting ready to open the door leading to the next cabin. But he stopped short when he felt a powerful tremor coming from the next car over, moving out of the door's way and out on top of the train again in case it couldn't stand up to the force of what was coming.

Katana leaped out of the way, the other copies vaulting her to the side of the car, where she vaulted to the back, where Amaterasu was. She then watched hopefully as Claymore's Ebon Spark flew at the off-balance Spammer.

[Mani4c]

The Ebon Spark shot past Katana and struck Spammer square in the head, when the sparking orb struck the criminal, it shrunk to a tiny mote of light...before rapidly expanding to the size of a small car and exploding, a ten foot high and 7 feet wide column of sparking black energy engulfing Spammer, vaporizing most of the car, and burning a smoking hole in the building beyond the train car.

When the energy dispersed, Spammer was still there, missing his right arm and everything from his right shoulder down to the center of his lower abdomen, a massive gaping cavity that Spammer stared at. "This is an...unforeseen result." Spammer started to drop to the ground, before Claymore finished off the criminal with a cannon shot to the neck, the large blast of energy blowing away Spammer's head and most of his chest. "Go to hell you wretch."

[Saber]

Katana breathed a sigh of relief as Spammer began to deteriorate, finally too damaged to repair and erased completely. She started heading for the door leading to the conductor's cabin, and noticed that the train had been stopped, and a certain someone had left a calling card, to make sure the train didn't keep going "...That Dagger. Even with complications, he can still complete his objective. So awesome! I wish I was that good!"

Dagger had to shield his eyes when the blast erupted, watching as Claymore deleted the hacker during his escape attempt. Now, he needed to check on Chakram, and make sure Raijin had things covered, sending Amaterasu a message to update them <Amaterasu, I'm going to check on Chakram. Secure the train, and signal for a salvage team to come and scan for captives or stowaways.>

With that, he leapt off of the train, letting his grav-boots do the work as he propelled towards Raijin's location <Raijin, this is Dagger...What's your status?>

[Mani4c]

Amaterasu followed Katana, a smile on her face. "He's simply more experienced Katana...One day you'll be able to go toe to toe with him, I know it..." Amaterasu frowned slightly, she was worried about Chakram, from what Dagger had described, something was wrong with his emotional grid...'Or maybe he does hate his older brothers, Chakram's never been fond of what the first wave's reputation has done for our own...Chakram, please be okay.'

Claymore noticed a portable terminal that was plugged into the train's data distribution node, he knelt down and lightly picked up the terminal, "Katana, Mother, I think we can locate our captured friend with this...but I need someone to work the keyboard. I would end up smashing it."

Raijin stood up, having just used a repair kit to mend Chakram's injuries. <I just used a kit on him...he should be waking up when you get here, but don't worry, he's not gonna be hostile.> Just as Raijin sent his message, Chakram opened his eyes, he noticed Raijin standing above him, and instantly whipped a Chakram at the man's face.

Raijin batted the disk aside, but was knocked off his feet, courtesy of a sweep kick to the shins. Chakram was upon Raijin in seconds, his wrist blades crossed over the man's throat. "W-who the hell are you?" Chakram's voice was weak, a sign of his exhaustion from using whatever ability he had accessed. "I'm Raijin, I was called here to help you...you had a bit of an accident." Raijin explained what happened to Chakram, who didn't lower his guard for an instant.

[Saber]

Katana stepped forth and started tacking on the keyboard, trying to access the virtual terminal to discern the group's captive officer "Working on it, Clay, let's see what kind of dirt we can get on these guys."

Dagger landed a couple blocks away from Chakram and Raijin, sprinting over and stopping short of Raijin finishing his explanation of what happened to Chakram. When he finished, Dagger's voice came from out of nowhere "Has he made a full recovery?"

[Mani4c]

Katana quickly managed to breach the computer's security, revealing a MASSIVE Cache of files. Mission profiles, crew and weapon manifests, and most importantly, the identity of their Hijackers. Amaterasu leaned in and narrowed her eyes. "The Iron Wings Syndicate...ariel Pirates who's base is a flying fortress. They're more like a small army than a criminal group." Claymore nodded, "Which would explain the advanced gear that they use, it's military grade Add-Ons and Downloads."

Amaterasu took the terminal and began to rapidly sift through the terminal's files, while also saving everything that was stored on it, including a large folder filled with almost a terabyte of Download and Add-On prototypes, concepts and finished products. When Amaterasu found their captured officer, her gaze became murderous. There was an MP4 file, as well as a large text and picture file that showed what the Iron Wings had done to her. Stun collars, pain sensory enhancers...as well as something that made Amaterasu's blood run cold. "Reproductive organ duplicate...oh no." Claymore clenched his fist, he knew what that meant. "Her name...give us her name mother!"

Amaterasu looked at the woman's statistical data and read out her name. "Huntress...NPD officer, Rank: C-Commisioner!?" Claymore looked down at the file, the woman's picture was blurred, but everything about her was not. and there, in bold, red type, stood her given rank. "We need to contact Shepard immediately...AND DO NOT PLAY THAT VIDEO." Claymore was borderline yelling at Amaterasu, his uncharacteristic reaction showing how angry he was.

Raijin laughed, "Well, he has two knives on me, and knocked me on my ass. I'd say he's good."

[Saber]

Katana's eyes glazed over. Just reading all of the things that these monsters did to a P.C. This was unforgivable. Part of her wanted to reach for the terminal, and play the file, but every other part of her knew that if she did, there wouldn't be any going back.

Dagger sighed and lifted his cloaking veil, arms crossed and giving Chakram a calm glance "Stay your weapons, brother, he is not your enemy."