Chương 270: Fight and Flight

"AAARRGJJH!! GOOD SAAVE ME"

*Crunch!*

Ori shakes the blood and grey matter from his fist and moves onto his next target, sliding over and grabbing the man's foot before swinging him backwards to use as a living shield against the charging Adam Smasher.

The borg doesn't give a single shit and cleaves the man in half before making a grab at Ori, only for the merc to dart to the side, blocking a slug with his arm and clotheslining the offending MaxTac soldier hard enough to behead him.

"YOU'RE DEAD!" Smasher growls as he pursues, but even with his own Boosterware he wasn't as manoeuvrable as Ori, who continued to duck and weave through the panicking soldiers.

Ori pushes a shotgun to the sky while redirecting another at his side to the soldier's colleague. The man flinches and accidentally pulls the trigger, killing his own. Ori snatches the crusher out of the other's hand and bats both over the head's with it, splitting their skulls while snapping the gun in half.

He then grabs the two bodies in either hand to block a barrage of shots from the remaining Arasaka soldiers, only to grunt as Smasher crushes a soldier and rams his wolver claw through Ori's back.

It hadn't cut his spine but it was perilously close to it, Ori replies with a metal elbow to the borg's face, rocking him, but yelps as two MaxTac men speed forwards and start unloading their Crushers into his chest and face.

The slugs break through his defences, turning his organs to mulch while he loses an eye in the process. The nanites turning his face pitch black while reinforcing it is barely enough to stop them from destroying his brain, but the vision was spinning regardless.

He wasn't able to extract himself from Smasher's claws, but the nanites were working on it, using microgenerators to melt them within his body as fast as possible... By this time however, Smasher had already reached around with his other hand to Ori's neck, gripping it tightly.

"This is your end, meat!" he spits as he twists, snapping Ori's neck with a sick CRACK!

His body goes limp but his eyes stay widened and focused. "Motherfucker!" he shouts despite everything from the neck down being paralysed.

"I might be." Smasher smugly remarks, "You have something I want, you will die later." he states and looks to the speckled groups of survivors, "Is the pilot dead!?"

"Y-yes sir!"

"Get another, we're heading back to HQ." he growls, maintaining a crushing grip on Ori's neck, aware of how quickly the merc could heal.

"Oi, Smasher, how's it been being a Corpo slave? That body isn't even yours, is it?"

"Bought and paid for, now shut it."

"You think I won't tell everyone with ears you killed Yorinobu?"

"Don't give a fuck, you want your jaw?"

"My what-"

*SSKKKCUN!*

Ori barely holds in a scream as Adam grips his lower jaw and tears it completely off, flesh and tendon separating and hanging from his face, his tongue left dangling.

[Ready to operate: Flesh Administrator] the collective report while disabling the pain receptors in his face, allowing him to focus.

Troops are sent off to search for his escaped crew but he knew they were long gone, With Lucy in deep net, Kiwi and Sasha with Falco, there was no chance of them getting tracked down.

"S-sir, some of the guys want some-er, payback?" an Arasaka grunt quietly asks Smasher, his friends waiting behind him with crossed arms.

Adam tilts his head at them and shakes Ori's limp body slightly, "Him?" he questions if they meant him or the prisoner.

"Him... Sir."

The borg shrugs, "Go ahead, he won't feel shit though." he says, holding Ori up like a punching bag.

Ugh, this is gonna take a while...

-----------------

Ten minutes later they were in an AV headed for Arasaka tower, Smasher still gripping Ori's neck like a vice... His jaw had already regrown but he'd wisely kept his silence, until now...

"Hey, Smasher."

"What, meat? Do I need to tear out your tongue this time?"

"Knock, knock."

...

"Come on, play along."

"Quiet."

"Fine." Ori mutters. "Let's go!" he mentally orders the nanites, who expel the newly regrown Monowire from his wrist, wrapping it around Smasher's knee and pulling hard, severing vital fragile components.

"WHAT!?" Smasher growls as he drops to a knee, Ori's body smashing his elbow into the borg's face to escape his grasp. The other soldiers in the cabin go to act but he sweeps the Monowire around, cutting them to pieces... Along with breaching the hull of the AV.

*Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep!*

Alarms blare as the wire catches and short-circs an engine, and the nanites take full advantage by throwing Ori's body against the breach. He crashes through the metal and is sent tumbling to the city below, no, not the city, the river between City Central and Japantown.

"FUCK YOU SMASHEEEeeerrrrr!!" he shouts as he falls, cackling as the enraged cyborg grips the severed walls of the AV and slams them closed like a door.

----------------

*Slam!*

Smasher stomps into the corporate room despite his sparking knee and glares at the occupants, his red optics glowing dangerously, "Are you playing with me!?"

Hanako Arasaka crosses her legs, Sandayu Oda and Takamura Goro standing protectively at her back. "I suppose you lost the prisoner, then?"

"Who's fucking fault do you think that is!? You forget to mention he didn't need his spine to move!" he glowers.

"Mind your tongue!" Oda exclaims with a glare.

"Fuck you, I did my job, and you give me faulty intel!?"

"I told you what we know. The target can operate while unconscious, and can recover quickly from any wounds, even fatal ones... It is you who should have suspected he had more tricks." Hanako neutrally states.

"And what now? He's gone, dust in the wind, our contract doesn't mean shit!"

Hanako steples her fingers, "He won't leave, not while he still has resources. Get yourself repaired and ready, the assault on Sekaiheiwa will begin soon."