Cleaning up the rest of the strange operators in white was easy enough. In short order Redline had disarmed and then left them unconscious in the street, his enhanced strength playing no small role in not allowing them to get involved in the fight again. One of the men groaned, holding his shoulder as Redline stepped over him, focus solely on the Chimera Unit. Leaving them where they'd dropped, Ryan once again tried to engage the creature.

  While he'd been busy dealing with the mysterious operators, the monstrosity had continued its rampage, the tentacle arm smashing through the front of small sandwich shop. Within Redline could hear screaming, the owner and several customers trying to avoid its deadly reach by hiding behind the main counter.

  Unsure whether or not he could reach them in time and cursing his lack of ranged options, he glanced around in hopes of finding something, anything that could draw the thing's attention back to him. Several of the operatives had dropped rifles of some kind, but he didn't trust attempting to utilize them.

  I’ve nothing against firearms, but these idiots said they created that monstrosity. Who knows how the hell their guns work? For all I know they work as well as their freaky beasts do. I’ve got enough problems without some thrown together wannabe ray gun blowing up in my hand, he thought.

  Seeing nothing of particular use he opted to try something unorthodox. Crouching and with great effort he managed to free a manhole cover and spinning like a discus thrower, tossed the metal plate through the air like a frisbee. It struck the creature on the side of its meaty neck, knocking it off balance. Recovering quickly, it turned towards him, screeching once again.

  Yeah, that did the trick. Of course, if this was something less... whatever the hell that is, it would have broken its damn neck instead of just pissing it off. Well, pissing it off more, he thought.

  "That's right, over here ugly! We didn't finish our dance and it’s rude as hell to just cut out like that."

  Praying it didn't decide to use that moment to try its weird eye laser trick again, he bolted towards it at top speed. Reaching to the holster-like sheathe on his hip, wishing that the idiot government researchers that gave him his powers had opted to include some kind of blaster weapon, he shouted.

  "LIBERTY BLADE!"

  If he hadn’t been in the middle of trying to save lives, the required voice command would have made him sigh. As it was, he tried to ignore the idiocy of such a feature and focus only on how he could keep the thing paying attention to him and not the civilians in the area.

  Leaping through the air, a red and silver blade forming in his hand, he triggered the rocket propelled boost feature located within hardpoints around the boots, wincing through pain as readings on his HUD spiked once more into dangerous territory. A brief ignition sounded as energy erupted from his heels, the thrust carrying him as high as the streetlights.

  He came down hard, corkscrewing through the air, the Liberty Blade and then his fist striking the creature across the chest and shoulder. Sparks flew where each slash and punch landed as the creature staggered backwards, still refusing to fall.

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  Spinning he sliced through a nearby parking meter, caught it before it landed, and tried to drive the pole end of it into the red eye-like formation. Unfortunately, fast as Redline was, the creature was faster. The tentacle batted him aside, the mangled meter going flying, spewing coins across the street.

  Hitting the street hard, he rolled through and regained his feet, shoulder screaming at him for having taken the brunt of the hit. Ignoring the pain, he closed the distance once more, weaving beneath another tentacle swipe, and attempting to drive the point of his blade through the Chimera’s side. It struck just near where a human’s ribcage would be, the tip of the Liberty Blade flashing red hot with energy, and bit into creature.

  All of that effort had resulted in a small trickle of blood. At least Redline thought it was blood despite the odd orange hued color. Not that he had time to really wonder about it as the creature, roaring in anger and maybe a bit of pain, delivered a powerful haymaker with the arm that ended in a massive fist rather than a tentacle. Damage warning flashed inside his HUD, the punch nearly driving him to the gravel once more. Before he could fully comprehend the strength of the thing he felt the tentacle appendage wrap around an ankle, lift him clear off the ground, and throw him across the street where he clipped the top of a car, twisted, and skid across the sidewalk.

  Coughing as he attempted to stand, shaking his head to clear the dancing lights in his vision, he tried not to think about the last time he’d been in a situation like this, his armor failing, his vitals screaming. The memory of the night of the Carson Ridge Incident was never far away, but suited up once more and facing overwhelming odds threatened to bring it all back. It was something he couldn’t afford to give in to. Not now, not if he wanted to save lives including his own.

  Dammit all. Why the hell didn’t you just run Reese? This isn’t on you. You are not a hero, just some idiot that got duped into pretending you were one. This is on the idiots that created the Patriot Force Wardens to clean up. You were just supposed to freaking be getting groceries, not throwing down with Cthulhu’s inbred cousin, he chastised himself.

  It was then that his hearing came back enough to notice the voices behind him. People had taken cover in a check cashing place and a child inside, a toddler from the sounds of it, was sobbing and screaming in terror.

  Oh, right. That’s why. Because the suits that signed off on using weird tech they barely understood to make you and your pals into propaganda poster children never show up until after the damage is done. Well, crap. Guess I have to finish this now that I started it. Can’t have some ankle-biter seeing me run off at the first sign of getting my teeth kicked in.

  Forcing himself to his knees, grateful he somehow managed to hold onto the Liberty Blade, he squinted to get a look at the creature. As he did, he saw it, the tell-tale flash of the eye laser charging.

  Considering he could tank an RPG round to the chest, at least once before his armor failed completely, he wasn't too concerned, not for himself. The people in the building behind him though, the storefront glass already shattered? They wouldn't stand a chance. He could think of only one thing he could do, something he very much didn’t want to, but saw no other choice.

  “Oh this is going to suck majorly.”