602 Removing Threats

"I've gathered some floor plans. No data on potential storage regarding the information we're looking for. However I did find something of interest."

Akiol eyed the facility. Incredibly clean hallways, simplistic coloring, and colored lines meant to help navigate made the halls. He noticed some markings on the floor, large footprint-like imprints. He assumed this is where the machine came from and considered heading in that direction. Yet when the voice mentioned a point of interest, he chose to listen for a moment instead.

The voice explained, "Just about all the rooms and pathways have some sort of description. I was only able to access about half of the floor plan, but there's one room that has no information on it at all. It's the furthest away, and could just be a red herring."

Akiol spoke, "Then we move that way."

Something felt off. There wasn't much resistance in the facility. As if whoever was inside had quickly left the moment they breached. That or they were preparing an assault.

"Keep your eyes open", Hank warned.

It seems he too had his concerns. Akiol made a motion to signal his acknowledgement, but remained silent. As they moved through the halls he occasionally closed his eyes, but saw nothing.

"There's not much resistance. It was supposed to be heavily guarded, what's going on?", the voice spoke.

"Shouldn't have said anything.", Akiol spoke.

Their ears filled with sound almost immediately after. Turning high on alert both Akiol and Hank remained on guard. A group of high tech suits began to arrive down a different hall, high pitched whirring becoming louder by the moment.

Hank wasn't too confident upon seeing the army of advanced suits, "We should retreat, find a better area. This force is-", he didn't get to finish before seeing Akiol dash forward, "Are you insane?!"

The suits moved together, their movements sort of robotic. Akiol didn't intend to recklessly tackle them head on, rather his goal was to disrupt this synchronization they had going. Once chaos broke loose, Hank would stand a better chance at taking action.

The suit closest to Akiol threw a punch forward, but Akiol instead leapt over the suit, jumping higher than a normal person should be capable of. Landing in the middle of the suits his sword flickered about as he caused several gashes in the suits.

Several suits threw punches forward, some having blades on their arms. Akiol almost immediately noticed that none of the attacks were impeding on the other. A showcase of perfect teamwork. Yet also still holding the robotic feel to it. Akiol slipped through the attacks, mostly dodging underneath them. Supporting himself he kicked upwards, knocking the arms away. Pushing himself off the floor he executed a spin kick. The force from the impact made a suit stumble back.

"As expected, there isn't anyone real in these suits.", Akiol deduced, "Hank we have to disable their movements."

"In that case it's doable.", Hank replied as a loud bang traveled down the hallway.

One of the suits had their leg shattered to pieces. A gunshot from Hank's powerful weapon. The suit stumbled about trying to keep its footing, but only proved Akiol's words. The suits were empty! Most likely being controlled by artificial intelligence. Explaining their perfect teamwork yet robotic movements.

Without the quick reactions of humans, the A.I. was limited in its choices. Clearly it hadn't been fully developed yet since the suits struggled to make adjustments. Akiol moved faster, cleaving off the suits limbs with a swing each.

Krrr-!

A suit lifted a strange object and aimed it. Hank spotted it and aimed his rifle, but just as he shot the suit also fired. Flames spit out of a rocket as it traveled down the hall, moving at an incredible speed. Akiol noticed the projectile, but he wasn't expecting the next move. A suit instead jumped in the way of the projectile, causing it to explode next to him!

Flames rolled through the hallway as the explosion spread. Hank dove for cover but held a lot of concern. How could anyone survive an explosion from that close? The truth is, Akiol wasn't able to escape unharmed! Instead he removed the enhancement of Aura around his sword and instead further increased his defenses. Just barely managing to take cover behind another suit Akiol had managed to get away with his life, but still sustained several injuries. Fragmentation from the explosion had dug into the suit and blood was beginning to leak through.

Hank quickly rushed towards Akiol when the explosion faded. Upon noticing Akiol's condition Hank suggested, "We should get you treated."

"We keep moving, this much I can handle."

Nothing fatal was hit, but his movement would be restricted somewhat. Akiol returned to his feet and moved his limbs about. Akiol felt in his heart that if he backed away now, there wouldn't be another chance to stop this.

He wasn't doing this for the betterment of the world. Rather he viewed this suit, and the fact that they may put a target on him, as a threat to he and his friends safety. Thus it would be best to end it here and now.

Just as Akiol returned to his feet, another set of suits came around the corner. Akiol gripped his sword and took up a stance, "Incoming."

Hank turned to see them and aimed his weapon, "This is ridiculous."