Angel City issue 22

Silverblade part 2

As our heroes were when last we left them, the blue skinned man circled around the four  would be rescuers. His movements inhumanly fluid like a snake's slither as he kept in motion constantly. Wukong stared in monkeyish curiosity, as the two British heroes kept their guard up. Only the Silver Shinobi was at ease with the presence of the newcomer.

"Who are your friends, Ryu? Have they come to help take Stonemason's head?"

Silver...or Ryu, slowly turned, following the newcomer's movements but seemed relatively unconcerned. "Amadeus...These are a few members of MI6. As I informed you when I called for backup, they have offered me a place to stay and some assistance tracking down the remainder of the 13."

Amadeus considered his circling, not missing a beat. "Oh, so that is what the E-mail wasss about. I was on the verge of giving up Mason's trail...before he outed himself with this hostage situation. You all realize this is obviously a trap, right?"

Meryl piped up, "Silver said another ninja was coming for backup. Just what...exactly are you sir?"

Amadeus  finally stopped moving, back where he stood when he was first seen, bowing to the four heroes. "I am Amadeus Taipan, Deathadder of the Venom shinobi clan. Sworn brother of Ryu Arashi, the Silver Shinobi. And currently I hold the head of one member of the 13 to Ryu's 3."

Meryl just looked confused. "But why are you blue?"

"I'm from North Africa."

As Meryl went wall-eyed trying to wrap her head around Amadeus' oddities, the blue snake man (wow, that sounds weird as I type it out loud) easily slid backwards, grabbing a double door. "I finished all the robots up here for you, thank you very much. The real situation is downstairs. I suggest the lot of you who don’t have shinobi training tread lightly. Mason probably is not above shooting the hostages if we piss him off."

As he spoke, Amadeus' attempt to dramatically open the door just resulted in him pulling futily, before realizing it was a push door...several moments of awkward silence later, he kicked the door open and proceed.

…

In the sub levels of the building, robots patrolled around, glowing red eyes scanning at every doorway for the intruders they knew were coming...

Suddenly, the door at the base of the stairs blew off its hinges, smashing a robot, as Amadeus walked in, popping his knuckles in an intimidating fashion.

"I am what the Internet would call a highly visible ninja. Of course we, being Shinobi, encompass much more than just ninjitsu. We are called Shinobi, or Shadow People, because our clans exist outside the prying eyes of modern society...Wait, why would I waste my intellectual lesson on robots. Once again I am thwarted by mindless automatons... it's Harvard all over again."

Immediately the robots opened fire with high caliber weapons. Amadeus did not even make an attempt to dodge...as about 20 percent of their ordinance actually hit him. When the salvo cleared, he stood, almost literally full of holes, giving a very bored and deadpan "....Ow."

The robots waited to assess the situation, as Amadeus began breathing heavily in exertion and pain, the holes began filling in rapidly, the bullets being pushed out by the super speed cellular regeneration. "Oh, your poor quartermaster. All those expensive bullets wasted on a target you weren't even sure you could penetrate. For shame... the budget guy is going to have your asses over his fireplace for today."

The robots quickly attempted to fire once more, but with a single motion, Amadeus swung his mighty blue arm, lashing like a whip it cleaved through the two frontmost robots, extending like it were made of putty before snapping back into place. Amadeus raised one finger and shook it. "What makesssss you think I will even give you another chance?"

Making a fluid spin, Amadeus grabbed a pair of curved blades in each hand, like snake fangs, striking with his powerful extending arms while moving in constant flow, and the blades flew through the robots' armor as the blue warrior rampaged down the hall. Stopping only when his fist-mounted fangs stuck through one robot into the opposite wall.

The other four arrived just as Amadeus finished, and scraped his blades along the walls, turning his head at a rather unnatural angle to look back at the 4, still unblinking, "These things didn’t stand a chance against my serpent style. Was this really a trap, or is he just very bad at planning his crimes?"

The Inquisitor however had a different line of thought. "You alone destroyed these things before we even arrived. He wasn’t planing on catching us here, only slowing us down...what is happening in the hostages' room?"

There was a brief moment of awkward silence once more...

…

The door to the heavily guarded room where the hostages were held suddenly glowed with runes before exploding into huge chunks like a puzzle, Wukong and Meryl immediately entering through the dust. The robots within opened fire, but their bullets bounced harmlessly off Mery'ls magic shield, as Wukong vaulted over her, headbutting a robot so hard its entire spinal support exploded out of its body. The robots surrounding her tried to pepper the monkey girl with bullets, but she back flipped off the destroyed robot, smacking into another one as she landed and plowing it into the ground.

Outside the double doors, the Inquisitor finished off a large number of guards, the mass produced robots being no match for a hardened warrior of the church, as he used his large blade to cleave through them.

A snake like shadow darted across the floor beneath Wukong and Meryl, coiling around the robot closest to the hostages, suddenly in a blacklight flash, Amadeus stood in its place with his stretched arms coiled around the robot, and with a squeeze, he ripped it apart like a constrictor.

As the remaining robots all trained their guns on Amadeus, a huge surge of lightning flew throughout the room, shredding the remaining robot guards with explosive force...while also charging everyone in the room with electrostatic.

Amadeus reached up to notice his white hair now in a frizzed afro. "Well... this might be a good look for me."

Meryl's hair on the other hand had frizzed into a curly mullet. "You have nothing to complain about..."

Wukong didn’t even notice her hair had sprigged into a forest of huge, near vertical spikes, ambient electricity still arcing between them. "I feel strangely yellow."

At the center of the room sat a robot, reclining in an easy chair with a TV screen for a head. An image played across it before changing to Mason's emblem, as his voice could be heard speaking through it.

"So, you and your new little clique have managed to survive this far. Not that i was even trying with this batch. Mainly i just wanted to send a message and these... objects provided a simple strategy." As he spoke, the robot motioned at the captives.

"Now, Mr Shinobi, on to business. You have been hunting down my associates one by one, I understand you want to take revenge for the massacre of your clan. I can't say I blame you... though I do kind of wish an entire city full of ninjas could have put up a much better fight."

Silvers hand's tightened around his blade, but before he could speak, Mason continued.

"That's all fine and dandy...however there is a far more pressing matter you do not fathom. Recently I was approached by a liaison of a powerful individual. He wanted the old technology of the device I have used as the basis for my robots' sophisticated design. Obviously I told him no...then I had to flee my haven in Italy, as apparently he did not like my answer."

Silver growled out "Who is 'he'?"

The robot paused for a moment, before its screen shifted to show white, glowing eyes in a dark room.

"He came by proxy, so I have only a name. Warlock. That is why I brought you here. Share this information with the global hero community. Warlock searches for the Five Artifacts."

Amadeus stepped forward. "Alright, now why should we trust you, and why are you helping us?"

He made a motion as if laughing. "Helping you is a side effect, I merely have to relay crucial information to set you and your global initiative on a man hunt, which will stop a much worse villain from bothering me, and weed out competition. Best of all you have to do it, it is your job. You have what you came for now, go be good little dogs and sniff out the Warlock's evil plans. I have my own evil plans that pay a lot more but slip below your radar to get back to."

No sooner did he sign off, than Amadeus fist went through the robots head. "I hate that channel."

...

It wasn't long after that the hostages were secured, everyone was back at base, relaying all that had happened.

Mr Matthews rocked in his chair, looking quite troubled at the news. "I see... get The Bureau on the line. This just got much bigger than we thought."

To be continued!