For a moment Redline felt like time had stopped. In his mind's eye he was not on the city street, the only thing standing between a death ray spewing monster and innocent civilians. No, he saw himself, almost like an out of body experience, in different life or death battle, this one at the Carson Ridge Park.
Instead of facing the cyclopean monstrosity, Redline found himself squaring off against a team of soldiers, each seemingly utilizing technology not unlike the Drivers that he and the Patriot Force Wardens used to transform. Unlike the Wardens who merely activated their devices to weaponize the natural bioelectrical field of the human body, these soldiers seemed directly fused to their technology. Rather than a Driver strapped to their wrist, the soldiers had a strange disc shaped object resting directly over their hearts, each cranking of it like the dials of a clock further altering their forms, sending glowing grids of energy through their bodies as random jagged bits of armor burst through their backs or weaponized limbs.
The problem was these soldiers, private military contractors gone rogue, knew the tech that had powered him and his teammates far better than they did. Worse they understood more about the potential and the pitfalls of the technology better than the government researchers who jury rigged the damned things and strapped them to the wrists of a bunch of kids. All the feel-good team building exercises, the martial arts training that was more artistic than it was reasonable for combat, and the massive multimillion dollar PR campaigns couldn’t make up for actual training.
Shaking his head to clear the image, he was back in the present. The Chimera Unit had charged up its ocular beam and in seconds it would tear through the store front and likely through Ryan too. There were not many options available. He could hope he could tank the blast, but then the civilians would die and even if he found that in any way acceptable, he wouldn't be able to finish the fight. He could try and dodge and he very well may be out of the blast radius, but the people in the building were still going to die.
Just like that night. Just like the team, he thought, despair threatening to choke the life from him before any monster laser could.
It was then that he knew what he had to do, something he'd only done once before, a maneuver that was not part of his normal kit but instead a permanent reminder of that dreadful night. A reminder of his failure.
No choice though, not if I don't want even more deaths on my conscience, he thought. Dammit all. I have enough ghosts haunting me already.
Raising the Patriot Force Driver towards his mouth, he shouted as loud as he could.
"LEGACY CALL! BLUE WARD WALL, SHIELD US ALL!"
The Patriot Driver whirled, the star-shaped emblem pulsing as it spun. Red sparks turned white, then electric blue. The speakers blared, playing that same stupid, but catchy theme song that accompanied every public appearance and every toy commercial. The voices of his dead teammates came through the speaker as if they were right beside him, prerecorded jingoisms and catchphrases that played at random.
"You got it!” Elena announced, chipper as ever.
"No problem!” Marcus said, trying not to laugh in the sound booth.
"Nothing can beat us when we stand together!" Kaylee said, probably the only one who had believed in the lines they were recording.
Then he saw it. A flickering image at the very edge of his darkening vision. Patriot Force Warden Blue, translucent, energy flying like a clogged water faucet, his hands stretched out in front of him. The wraith-like apparition repeated his shout out.
"NO WORRIES BOSS! ONE BLUE WARD WALL COMING UP!"
You jackass Lucas, always calling me boss just because he knows I didn't want to be in charge. Hell, blue's my favorite color anyway, he can have the useless leader title... Ryan thought.
As a semi-spherical forcefield formed in front of him, Redline still on his knees, couldn't see it. He was no longer aware of what was happening in the here and now. His heart was pounding so loud he heard it in his ears, drowning out the sound of battle around him. Then there was a voice in his mind, loud and echoing as if inside a cave, overpowering the thunderous sound of his heartbeat. as he looked out he saw through the eyes of Patriot Warden Blue. He saw himself, limping, his right leg refusing to fully support his weight. Despite the helmet he could smell the burning of flesh from enemy plasma blasts.
"Ry I can't see! I can’t see anything! What's happening? Where'd they go? Where's...I can't.." Lucas cried out.
His own voice replied, as if from far away. “Everyone sound off! Lucas, I can’t see crap, where are you?”
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Suddenly red-white light flashed through his vision and he inhaled hard, like someone who nearly drowned finally surfacing for air. He forced himself to stand and take stock of the situation. Carson Ridge Park was gone and he was back on the street where the creature was still rampaging. The laser had struck the Blue Ward Wall and what hadn't been absorbed was deflected harmlessly into the air.
Hands still shaking from reliving the moments just before his teammate's death from his perspective, Ryan tried to reevaluate the situation. The beam had been stopped and other than some light scoring on the concrete sidewalk there had been no further damage. Just to reassure himself he turned, glancing over the top of the crack in his visor to verify the people in the shop were okay. He heard murmuring and briefly heard the same kid from earlier start to sob once more.
Don’t blame ya kid. I’d cry too if I didn’t think his damn driver would use my own tears to fry me more, he thought.
Forcing himself to his feet, he tried to ignore the white spider-web cracking starting in the gauntlets and the darkening tips of his gloves. Attention snapping back to creature, he cursed. If it wasn’t ticked off before, seeing the beam it intended to roast him with being deflected sure managed to tip it over into livid.
Jokes on you ugly. That was my only shot with that trick. Not...Not gonna get another go at it. Not if I want to stay among the breathing.
Ryan knew the move was going to take a lot out of him, but he never expected it to be as rough as it was. The Legacy Calls were not a normal part of being a Patriot Force Warden. Initially the Drivers all had some of the same baseline abilities, the enhanced reflexes, the armor, each color coded for the individual. They each came with unique powers too, like Lucas’s shields. While the individual Warden could use them numerous times safely, apparently channeling the absorbed echoes of your dead team’s powers wasn’t exactly meeting the usual standards.
Not that these damned things were safe to begin with, but I can’t complain. Gotta think of it as a final gift from the team. Speaking of which...
Rushing forward, he tried to stay in the center of the road hoping that if the monster had any other tricks up its sleeve, it would focus on him and avoid anything flying through a storefront or worse yet, collapsing a structure. Nearly halfway to the thing he twisted to the side, narrowly avoiding a mailbox thrown at him, but did not stop. Instead, as he completed his turn he dramatically held out his hand, the Liberty Blade extended towards the Chimera.
Standing there, all too aware how ignorant it was and how stupid any onlookers must think he was for do so, he shouted.
“Yellow Lightning Barrage!”
His Driver whirled, spark-like embers spewing from his wrist as once more a variation of the jingle played, and the Yellow Patriot Force Warden’s voice sounded over the music.
“Yellow Online! Let’s light up their world!”
More pain, this time as if fire had been pumped into his veins. Another flashback to the Carson Ridge Incident. Elena, her own Liberty Blade sticking out the disc like transformation device of their foes, sparks flying.
“Hell yeah! I think I got one! Red, we need to aim for the glowing bits! Just like a video game!” she shouted.
That had been just before the enemy she’d down exploded at close range, the energy released by his destroyed transformation device vaporizing the nearby streetlamp. For Ryan, it triggered more feedback, an electronic screech that deafened him, but at least he could still see when he was no longer in the memory.
Four long wire-like cables crackling with yellow energy had erupted from his Liberty Blade and at least a few of them had struck the creature with one embedding in the very edge of the red ocular unit. It howled as lightning coursed through it, electricity briefly highlighting the internal structure showing bones and muscle far exceeding those of a human.
Wailing in pain it used its massive hand to tear the tethers free, each cracking like glass as the constructs faded back into nothingness. Ryan tried to use the moment to close the distance, but he found himself upside down, dangling from where the tentacle appendage had snaked around his ankle.
As it pulled him almost face-to-face Ryan was grateful he still couldn’t hear, because based on the spittle striking his visor he was almost certain it was roaring.
“Sorry, I get that you might be a fan, but I never kiss on the first date,” he quipped.
Whether it understood his joke or not Ryan wasn’t sure, but he did know that he’d been thrown and that his armor, already threatening to overclock from the usage of two Legacy Calls in short order, did little to protect his back as he crashed through the windshield of an SUV, hitting the interior with enough force to move the vehicle.
