Thin circles of red glowing dots draw themselves on the robot's body. Each circle presses downward and opens to reveal machine guns turrets which can shoot from every single angle of the mech's head.
As the turrets prepare to open fire, a few of them either don't appear or simply pops out. As Riley dreads in silence, unable to concentrate and contemplating death, the hunter checks rapidly for signs of wear and tear on the robot, something he could somehow exploit to make it lose its balance and fall.
It nonetheless received a large amount of damage: Missing left eye components; ripped off metal all around its body; the missing teeth in its grotesque mouth; hundreds of wires visible and some scratched away. this machine, for how much it must be considered a mechanical marvel wherever it was created, was purposed for terrestrial devastation, not underground exploration.
"Let the game begin." Let's out the death robot.
"This isn't a game, dipshit!" Retorts Alister.
The machine aims all its turrets at the scientist and the assassin. Compared to Nil, its arsenals is faster and pack a better punch. They must run.
"Quick! touch my arm!" Shouts Alister.
Riley dashes at him.
At the same time, the machine initiates its turrets mechanisms.
Hundreds of bullets spawns and are already in trajectory to hit the targets in half a second. Alister is able to activate his lightening abilities. As soon as he does this, Riley is left shocked. Every living being that touches Alister are a part of his ability.
To the doctor, ten bullets are a literal centimeter away from the hunter's torso, frozen midair with killing intent.
Saying that Riley J. Smith is astounded would be a misunderstanding.
"Oh, by the name of God! How did you find out you could-!? H-How long do we have in here!?"
"Not for long!" Exclaims Alister. "Now let's go!"
Stuck in limbo, the two sprint away from the mechanical beasts as they proceed to run on this convenient staircase made of rocks. In terms of checkpoints, they sit around the 5600s and are reaching the 4000s soon, meaning that they will hit rock bottom in about 3 days. Until then, they need to survive this beast and the lack of food and water.
72 hours before they reach what they hope to be the bottom of the pit.
Alister's eye ache strikes again. The agony is immediate, forcing the now screaming assassin to stop the technique before it burns his eyes and blinds him. They run for around a minute and a half, creating some distance.
Not for long. As soon as they disappear from the mech's vision, it stops the bullet hell and looks to its right. The mech only needs one eye to see the road ahead in this darkness, guided by the artificial lights installed around it.
"Trying to run away, I see. For two predators, you play the role of prey very well."
The demon shoots turrets that they dodge at the last second.
This entire game of cat and mouse, with an overpowered arsenal has only been two minutes long. Alister is already exhausted. The beast starts creating some distance by moving the proximities between the two walls of the pit at will. It charges its claws at them. Alister, unable to use his eyes for now, gets saved by the scientist at the last minute. Riley activates his booster pads to jump on the platforms. Panicking, he starts jumping around, dodging by the skin of his teeth every claw that punctures holes on the staircase and the wall. Bullets sometimes fly nearby them, but trying to attack amputates the monster's abilities to shoot precisely.
When it makes the choice to restart the bullet hell, Riley's panic increases tenfold. Alister, seeing this could be the end if he doesn't do something, intervenes by getting off the doctor's grip, to Riley's dismay.
"Hey! What are you doing Alister!?"
"Again, get a hold of me! Let's try to make it last longer!"
"What about your eyes!? I see sustained damage, and this might negatively impact your-!"
"MY EYESIGHT'S ALREADY FUCKED! WHO CARES! JUST SHUT UP AND GRAB ME!"
The scientist grabs him by the shoulder. Once again, they enter what the scientist can only describe as a time stopping ability and evade by pure luck a bullet that could blow one's head into smithereens. They run for another minute before Alister's sight turns red.
"Like…that's going to… STOP ME!"
He shouts in rage and begins running even faster. To the scientist, he just went from a sprint to a dash. For the machine, who had begun feeling the paste of the hunter in terms of speed, two human beings are replaced by a trail of lightning that leaves the sight of the mech once again. The scientist is left amazed by the spirit of Alister and his will to push his body to such extent to save both their lives.
That is until he discerns a disgusting amount of blood galloping from Alister's face.
They must pull off the time stop.
Only two uses and if Alister open his eyes, a mixture of pain, tears and blood pours out like a flood. The assassin falls to the ground, unable to move, his hands covering his eyes. This is the worst predicament of all: They lost three of their allies and his powers are destroying his body. All this running catches up to Alister. He lifts his head up and, although he cannot see, he lets a cry leave his soul towards a man he once tried to kill:
"DOC, KEEP RUNNING! DON'T JUST STAND THERE! GET AWAY!"
The scientist has a hard time listening to what this man is saying. Running away? After everything they have been through. After the bond they have shared despite being bitter enemies. After being able to agree, finally, on spending their last days on earth here? This same man opened his heart to Riley J. Smith, a coward who used children to birth monsters, a scientist gone array with over two decades of pent-up frustration vented with research. The voices, the ghosts of the past, as well as the ghosts from another world. He can see them once again. It's been a while. This time, Riley J. Smith proceeds to walk towards Alister.
They share a bond, as two men who contributed to the chaos in Brooklyn. What Riley J. Smith sees when he looks at Alister crying, begging him to save himself from certain demise is…
"Redemption! Think about our redemption! We will find what's in the Bottomless Pit, together! Seigneur, have you forgotten already? I NEED YOU, ALISTER!"
He runs towards the assassin, tears overflowing. He too shouts in a primal rage. The Mech arrives just in time to greet them. Riley pulls droplets of his tears and drops one in each of Alister's eyes. The assassin screams in pain as Riley holds onto him.
The mech has plenty of time to crush them during their bonding process. Something, however, is distracting it.
It ears a scream, from deep down.
It comes from the garden, without a shadow of a doubt.
It can't be the crocodile, nor the bullfrog, nor the boy.
It's something far more demonic, a scream to ice the blood in one's veins.
No matter, it will deal with that later. It must kill the scientist and the assassin now. Strangely, when it turns around, Alister stands up just fine. His eyesight doesn't seem healed, nor do they resemble human eyeballs.
Where there would usually be an iris, instead a pattern has been formed with a glow. It's eyeballs sure tries to remain human-like, but it's bizarre enough to convince the machine that whatever the scientist pulled is no good. They must die now.
Riley is left astray. Although he tried his powers on humans as part of his experiments, it was in controlled environments, in his laboratory supported by top-of-the-line equipment and technology. Furthermore, his tests concluded that, in order to make a difference in the human body, he needed a significant quantity of his tears. Only children and animals were affected. Adults normally had at best a small mutation that led nowhere. At worst, they died inexplicably.
Alister is the first adult human to have received the tears of Riley as a boost in his abilities. That boost in ability, they are about to find its use against that mech.
The minute wasted here is perfect for this devil machine, as it kept a surprise left to utilize:
Its mouth is now wide open, with a bizarre tube attached to the center of its teeth.
It's a laser cannon.
It's ready to burst energy that would pulverize both to smithereens.
Alister, with new eyesight and overwhelming determination, grabs his katana.
"Riley, I don't know what you did to me, but thank you. I appreciate it! I feel like I can see as clear as day with these! Now, we're either gonna end up like dust, or I'm gonna kill it! No more bullshit!"
Thunder builds rapidly around his whole body, in far greater quantity then previous usage, as if Alister's anger and frustrations became a power source in it of itself.
"I am the son of Nathaniel Crow, hero of Vancarther! I'll show you the true power of a 'downgraded human being'! My name is Alister Crow, AND TODAY YOU DIE!"
Riley proceeds to dash at Alister, not quite knowing what he hopes to do here: Stopping him? Going with him? Either way, he's pulled by his energy the second he grabs the assassin's shoulder pad, glowing of the exact lightning energy too.
Alister and by extension Riley charges at the machine's head like a lightning bolt.
They knock out the wind out of the mech so hard it flies back, dethatching it from the walls so hard it rips apart the claws, as they had too tight of a grip on the rocks.
In a violent shake, the entirety of the Bottomless Pit returns to its former state.
Alister and Riley grab onto the machine, as they all fall into a Bottomless Pit no longer controlled by the owner of the wrecking ball.
Suddenly, it is dark again, and very quiet...