Johnson pushed Albur away and kept firing at Rhea. Rhea didn't even flinch a little. Covie and Albur kept dragging him but he kept on firing at Rhea.
"DON'T BE A COWARD AND GET OUT OF THAT ROBOT BODY!" yelled Johnson.
Rhea pressed a button on her, then, her real body slowly ascended from the giant robot body. She was able to do so due to the rockets beneath her feet. Her body is slim and a huge part of her body is mechanical. Her right arm is completely robotic while the left one is completely normal. She wears a white long sleeved shirt and her mechanical body part wearing black. She still has her bomb fuse scarf wrapping around her neck.
Johnson stomped on the ground in rage and fired his minigun at Rhea. She blocked them with her right arm and slowly walked towards Johnson. She then picked him up and smashed him on ground. Albur, Mysty and Covie were shock, Rhea simply scoffed and stepped on his stomach.
"Your rage and lack of control are becoming a weakness. They interfere with your strategic mind and make you predictable. Do better."
Rhea then stomped on his stomach even harder.
"Hey hey! Rhea! His stomach experienced countless injuries! Don't worsen it!" Albur panicked.
Rhea looked askance at him and let go of Johnson. Covie quickly helped Johnson up. Johnson glared at Rhea, who just adjusted her scarf. Johnson still charged towards her, she simply ducked and kicked him in the leg, causing him to fall.
"Guys! Stop fighting!" yelled Mysty.
But then, Rhea, felt dizziness, she was unable to stand still, she quickly walked over to the resource box. Johnson smashed the ground and rushed towards her again, about to ambush the weakened Rhea. But luckily, Mysty stopped him by tasing him with her taser gun, causing him to fall. Albur and Covie immediately hurried over and helped Johnson up.
"Man, you really need to help with your anger control....."
Mysty slowly walked towards Rhea.
"Are you ok?" she asked.
Rhea grabbed a lollipop and put it in her mouth. After a while, her dizziness was cured.
"Yeah.....my apologies...its my low blood sugar....."
Johnson panted heavily, he slowly calm down.
"What...have I done.... again?"
"You nearly killed Rhea."
Johnson shook his head, slowly realizing what he had done.
"Sorry..."
Covie gently comforted him.
"But Rhea, you really did crossed the line, he have some mental problems so please, avoid making him angry." said Mysty.
Rhea stared at Johnson, and sighed.
"I'm sorry."
Johnson recovered. Covie flew to the resource box. She closed it and carried it on her back.
Mysty picked up the energy detector Johnson dropped just now.
"So...next stop?" she asked.
The crew looked at the hologram displayed by the energy detector. The nearest core is 30 kilometers away from them.
"Yep, leg torture day once again." sighed Albur.
"I wouldn't consider it as." said Havoc.
Albur glared at his rifle.
"You don't have legs....."
"That is why I don't consider it."
"Let's just get going humans. We don't have much time until the next core grows."
Rhea shrunk her giant battle bot into a keychain and started heading towards the direction of the core. The crew followed her.
"I xxxxxxx hate her..." Johnson gripped his arm very hard.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
The crew walked further into the tumor. Nearly every skyscrapers in Xectar City is in the tumor. The sky was dark so as the surroundings, only faint purple lights are shining on the surface. The environment is chilling, and the whole place have an indescribable odor. Every building is crawled with purple substances, making the resources in the shops unsafe to be used. The Xectar City they once knew doesn't look the same anymore.
"This place is disgusting. " said Covie.
"This is surely worse than the glitch infection." Murmured Mysty.
"I wonder what Cluster have up his sleeves. " muttered Albur.
"You wanna find out? I don't wanna." Scoffed Johnson.
"Experienced fighters never get limited by the environment. It seems you all do though." Said Rhea.
"No one asked, female." Said Johnson.
"You sure did."
Johnson and Rhea looked away.
"By the way, Rhea? I don't think we got your full name yet. "
"Just call me Rhea, or, Rhea the bomberwoman. "
"Surname?"
"Don't have one. "
Albur was surprised to hear Rhea not having a surname.
"Your family have no surname?"
"I hate my family. "
Albur stopped asking further.
Johnson slowed down his pace and walked next to Albur.
"What a weird woman."
"You should keep that mouth shut to prevent more injuries."
"I doubt that. "
But suddenly, Rhea stopped, the crew nearly bumped into her. She started looking around.
"What's wrong?" Asked Mysty.
Weirdly, Johnson heard something as well. The 2 cyborgs are seemingly hearing things the 2 humans and the bot isn't.
Suddenly, Rhea turned her head.
"Contact! 9 o' clock!"
The crew turned to their left. There is a metal bench there, sitting there silently.
"Uh....is there supposed to be anything that is about to happen?"
Rhea signaled Mysty, pointing at her pistols. Mysty aimed at the bench, and fired her pistols. The bullets destroyed the bench, then, a hiss can be heard. The crew took out their weapons. After the ashes cleared, a creature is standing there. Its a Virus lifeform, it is hissing and slowly approaching towards the crew.
"Its just one, easy peasy."
But then, Johnson heard more unusual noises.
"No, its not alone."
Then, they heard noises of pebbles being kicked. They looked around them, and found that they are surrounded by a whole pack of virus lifeforms. One of them is especially large and its hisses have deeper pitch which seems to be the alpha of the pack. The crew entered battle stance. The lifeforms charged towards them. Johnson vanished into the digital world. Albur fired his rifle at the lifeforms. It dealt damage but not enough to take down a lifeform.
Albur kept retreating and used Hyper Blast and Virus Corruption to fend them off, but facing these human noise mimicking lifeforms make him sometimes slip his rifle.. Mysty ran around the whole battle field and dodged the lifeform's attacks. But when the virus lifeforms got near her, she struggled at defeating them. She could only use her taser to fend them off for a while and hope it recharges fast enough.
Johnson on the other hand fended off the virus lifeforms pretty easily with the help of his digital world traveling ability, his sharp claw and his minigun. Rhea also appeared to be able to take down many of the virus lifeforms without much effort.
Albur was struggling to defeat the virus lifeforms. 3 of them surrounded Albur while he leaned on a wall. The rifle is overheated and is reloading. Mysty tried to help but she is already busy fighting the virus lifeforms attacking her.
"Hey! Albur! I think you might need my power now!" Havoc started speaking.
"What? Your power? "
"The energy provider! Use one of the slots! "
"Now? Just against these minions? "
"If you have a better plan I would love to hear it!"
The virus lifeforms screeched and started running towards Albur. He had no choice, he activated the first slot on the energy provider. Then, his rifle glowed a bright light. The light is so bright even the crew and the other virus lifeforms noticed it.
"There's no way Albur activated one now....." murmured Mysty.
The light slowly faded away. Albur's rifle turned into the Prismatic Virus Blade. The virus lifeforms backed away. Albur laughed and raised his sword.
"Let's go! Albur!" Said Havoc.
"Yeah!"
Albur swung his sword and striked one virus lifeform with it. It penetrated its skin easily. Albur looked at the others. He then stared at the 7 color switches.
"If I remember...."
Albur pressed the cobalt button. The sword glowed cobalt blue light.
"That's it! The air slash!"
Albur then swung his sword and fired an air slash. But instead of attacking the lifeforms, it headed to another direction and destroyed a building.
"Wait is that supposed to happen? "
A Virus lifeform screeched and rushed towards Albur. Albur pressed the Damson button and tried to teleport away. But the place he ended up after teleporting is always not the place he wanted to go.
Albur tried to slash the lifeforms with the sword, but he had poor swinging skills and the virus lifeforms tackled him and pinned him on the floor.
"Get it together! Albur! This isn't keeping up!"
"What am I suppose to do?"
Rhea kicked the virus lifeforms attacking her away and charged towards Albur. She grabbed the virus lifeforms that pinned Albur and threw them away.
"Get up, rookie,"
Albur got back up. Then, 4 virus lifeforms charged towards the 2 of them, Albur tried to use Clementine orange's power, but when he activated the button, the laser beam's recoil is far too strong for Albur to handle. The sword pushed Albur meters away, the laser beam fired everywhere, it killed every single virus lifeform it shot. But Albur was unable to control it, the beam destroyed countless buildings and nearly hit the crew.
Rhea clicked her tongue, she hopped around to dodge the laser, but it still burnt her hair. Rhea grabbed Albur and kicked the blade away. The laser recoil sent the sword flying around, destroying even more skyscrapers. It finally stopped after a few seconds. The blade dropped onto the ground, and turned back into the laser rifle.
The rifle turned bright red, before cooling down and turning back to normal.
The crew stared at Albur, Albur slowly approached the rifle, he then picked it up.
"Havoc?" Albur looked at slot 3 of the rifle. He opened the hatch and took a look inside.
Havoc is glowing bright red, and there are minor cracks on it.
The crew ran over to Albur's spot.
"What's wrong?"
"Crap...there's a little crack on him..."
Covie fired a repair beam that fixed Havoc. Then, Havoc glowed, and coughed.
"Man! Dang it! Do you know how to use me? I remember you did a great job last time fighting Commander Glitch!"
Havoc yelled in anger.
"Sorry, I think I kinda forgot how to use it. "
The crew sighed in tiredness. Rhea just stared at Albur.