Steampunk CTs

The orbs that were there defending her swarmed around her in an attempt to save her. But it didn’t stop there. Dozens of orbs came out of the woodworks to swarm and surround her. From the bushes, to the trees, to the underground, every single one of these orbs revealed themselves to do what they could to save her life.

“Arno, don’t let those orbs get to her! Redirect them all in one direction except for one!” Ori revealed herself as she started running towards me.

I wasted no time following Ori’s orders.

“Blazing Soul: Overclock!” A gold shimmer once again encompassed my white armor as I entered that tinge gold world. In several streams of red, I blasted past the slow-moving orbs and punched as many as I could away from Olivia’s body except for one. Then, once all of the color of the world returned and time resumed, I didn’t stop there. There were still tons of healing orbs flying towards us to get a chance at healing Olivia.

“GRAHHHHHHHHHHH!”

But with a barrage of fists, I pummeled away each and every one of them into one area like Ori asked. Once I did, an entire army that covered almost every inch of grass directly in front of me began to recover and move straight for Olivia once more. I didn’t have any more gas in the tank. I used all of my stem energy on those three instances of overclock. Anything from here on would have to be through my own sheer willpower alone.

Chk

The barrel of a sniper peeked from my right side fired off a spectacular wave that froze each and every orb in front of me in a cone of ice. I looked over to my side and noticed Ori dropping the butt of her rifle on the floor and blowing away some of the cool air emitting from the barrel.

“You can praise me now!” She said as she puffed her chest out and grinned from ear to ear. I immediately looked over to the one healing bot treating Olivia’s fatal wound.

“Is she going to be okay?”

Ori sighed and explained as she moved towards her. “I noticed while we were fighting that certain things took priority over others when it came to what the bots would do. For example, the bots would rather defend her so they could heal her. Only when she directly intervened would the bots change their behavior. So I began making a priority list that the bots followed in my head from most important to least important: user command, protect user, heal user. But then I started thinking: what if there was a priority even higher than all of those? That’s when I thought up that plan.”

Ori then picked up a golden badge that had the words “Health Maiden” emboldened on the center. “The healing process will be significantly slower. But she’ll be fine. Catch.” Ori passed the badge over to me and once it made contact with my hands, Nellie made an announcement over the speakers. “And it seems like our Haustorian duo has defeated a titled CT of their own! With half an hour left on the clock, how will they get those points to make this partnership of theirs a worthwhile endeavor?!”

“It’s simple! From this point on, we’ll be going after regular CTs! I’ve already estimated that you’re stronger than the average CT Arno, so all we have to do is beat five or six of them.”

“You know they can’t hear you, right Ori?” I gave her a worried look.

“Of course I know, Arno…” Ori returned an even more worried look my way.

We wasted no time immediately getting to work. We took off in a run through the forest, avoiding ongoing battles while searching for any regular CTs and when we finally found one, we noticed him standing proudly with his legs spread apart at shoulder length. When he noticed us, he reached for his belt and grabbed a blue boomerang.

As he winded his arm back he yelled, “Parasites! You have the honor of fighting Boomerang Tang! One of the strongest CTs without a title! Our battle will be legendary but I will come out triumphant! Have at thee!” Boomerang Tang threw his stemata directly at us as we approached him. I jumped directly in front of Ori and punched the boomerang away, but it immediately spun back around and was going to hit me. Before I could react to it, Ori shot it away with a wind shot. That didn’t stop it though from its persistent offense. Luckily for us, Ori and I found a rhythm from that one interaction and ran with it. Ori shot the boomerang away as many times as she could as we closed the distance. Any time it would get too close for her to react, I would punch it away as far as possible. We kept this up right up to the moment we got right within Boomerang Tang’s vicinity. His eyes widened as he pulled out a stemata pistol and shot it in an attempt to defend himself, but he made the mistake of shooting it at me. I easily dodged it and fluidly transitioned that dodge into a devastating blow that sent him flying into a tree.

Ori relaxed her shoulders as she took a moment to catch her breath. I rubbed her back to comfort her and joked, “I sure hope that wasn’t the strongest CT without a title.”

“Regardless…if he proved to be a challenge…we would’ve just snatched the badge and ran…”

Wait a minute…

“Couldn’t we have just done that with the Health Maiden?”

“Arno my dear, it’s all about sending a message!” Ori wagged her finger as she sauntered over to the knocked out CT and looked for his badge. After a moment, her searching became more frantic as she looked all over his body.

“That’s weird…did this guy just forget his badge at home?! Screw it. We gotta move on. Damn! I actually used a bit of stem energy there.”

We then moved on to find another CT. She was a lady with a blue scythe with red markings on it. Before we even started fighting the first thing Ori did was ask her if she had her badge.

“What a dumb question! Of course I have my badge—huh?!” The reality set in for the scythe-wielding CT that she also didn’t have her badge.

“Yeah that confirms it…the regular CTs don’t have their badges. Someone took it from right under their noses…” Ori shook her head.

“But who could get away with something like that?! Especially on such a large scale?!”

“Judging by the type of area we’re in and what we know of the trainees participating, it makes sense for one person and one person only to pull something like this off…”

Therese Cistra

That was easy enough…

I found a nice place in the forest and used my stemata to make a wooden chair to sit in. I shifted my weight and placed one leg on top of the other as I rested my head on my hand. All the while I used my other hand to hold a straw basket in my lap. What does this magic basket of mine hold, you ask? Well let me tell you!

I really lucked out! Thanks to the setting of the arena and my stemata, I was able to extend the roots across the entire venue to snatch the badges of every regular CT participating. I would’ve nabbed the titled CT badges, but they’re way more experienced than your average CT. There was no chance that my roots would’ve gone unnoticed.

Now I just sit back and reap the benefits! I’ll stand at the very top while everyone struggles to no avail against some of the most experienced counter terrorists in the BCT.

Over the speakers, Nellie excitedly casted, “Because of this powermove made by one of the trainees, participants seemingly have one option if they want points! That’s right! From this point forward, it’s going to be the new generation of CTs versus the top brass of the old generation: the titled CTs. I’m getting fired up just thinking about it!”

“They better put up a good fight! Massive amounts of funding goes into their upkeep!” King Crayton said.

“No matter who wins or loses here, I can feel it. The BCT as a whole will grow stronger because of this.” The Commander’s unwavering determination could be heard through the mic.

Honestly…I just hope those purple-haired brutes get crushed…