(Blueshadow mentioned he might not be able to post for a bit due to Christmas stuff to me in a PM, so he will get a post up when he can while we continue)
The bomb had gotten everyone's attentions. Alarms were going off everywhere, and an unclear number of attackers were now targeting people nearby. Smoke bombs were being thrown everywhere, and others were live grenades. Not just explosive, gravity grenades, pulse grenades, sonic grenades, cryo grenades. All were thrown as weapons against the people. It was an overwhelming attack, with that bomb having disrupted the minds of all the able fighters with it's loud and deafening roar, and the shockwave created from its explosive force.
Vale was not sure if he was the first one up, but he did not take much time to get back to his feet. The bomb went off right in the building he was to meet the official in, if he had not encountered him outside. And if he had not been wearing his headphones, that explosion would have seriously disoriented. Granted, he almost always wore them. But with the big explosions over, even with the minor ones, he could not afford to be lenient on his abilities. And so, he took his headphones off...
Almost instantly afterwards, his eyes shined its brightest as he picked up the sensory information. He folded up the earpieces on those headphones and put it on his head like a hairband, except a different feature activated. It wrapped around his ears without covering them, and a neural link was established into his head. A HUD projected in his sight, and his gauntlets helped synchronize with it instantainously. Even if Vale was a combat genius, that did not mean he could just beat up everyone barehanded. Tools, weapons, armor, shielding. Vale understood the importance of all of it. In the end, no matter how much of a genius he was at combat, evne with his mutation, he was still human. A bullet to the head would likely kill him without some sort of divine luck, a knife ripping his heart out would kill him, getting incinerated by a bomb would definitely kill him. He understood all that, and although it was not everything, it was his understanding of that which truly made him a combat genius. The knowledge of knowing his limits, and when he had to run away.
No matter what material used, or how softly one walked, there would always be an echo, a vibration. Hearing was actually the perception, interpretation, and receiving of those vibrations, which made hearing closer to the sense of touch then sight. No matter how silent someone was, as long as those vibrations were in play, Vale could hear them. Of course, there were limits. Softer ones were harder to hear at long distances, and if there were many noises at once, it would also be harder to interpret. With all the explosions, there was no way Vale could account for every enemy. Especially when the enemies had more then just those that hid in the shadows.
Bursting through a wall, a cargo truck nearby, and one coming right from underground, three large scale robots emerged in the square alone. The enemy was not playing around, they meant to cause a scene. To spread chaos. And to kill the people they wanted to kill. And it was clear as day to Vale. He could not account for every enemy, but even before the robots came out he could see who were the targets.
The mailmen who were responding to the enemy.
The mailmen who were trying to save the innocent bystanders.
The mailmen who were rushing to investigate the situation or seal the area and preserve order.
"Echo".
The robots did not wait after emerging. They did not say some corny lines, wait until after they emerged to transform or release weapons, nor did they scan for enemies and only then to wait for a kill command. The moment they emerged, the three of them fired upon Vale with rockets, lasers, and chainguns. But Vale did not wait either. In fact, he made his first move before the robots even showed up.
And the weapons that fired at Vale...no, at where Vale was no longer standing, all missed. But not just missed, but they actually collided with each other instead of hurting anyone nearby or destroying a building. While they did look like Warbots, there were clear marks that showed reassembly and likely reprogramming, but even then their aim was just a little too off given the other factors of the attack. And furthermore, one of them had their optics fly off while the other had it's power circuits cut through by a holographic energy blade.
"I guess they have good reflexes after all".
In truth, Vale had aimed for the power circuits of both robots, but one detected the other getting damage and instantly evaded. Of course, it lost its main optics circuits, but neither the attackers or the original creators of the Warbots were stupid. They did not place all of the optics in just its head, and certainly not the processing core. Optics were scattered throughout the robots among other sensors, and the processing core and power core were protected in heavy metal armor. That was why Vale chose to cut through instead of using ranged attacks, so he could focus on power instead of distance.
But if that was it, Vale would not be as well known. While he missed the circuits with one blade, he had two gauntlets and managed to cut through the circuits of the second robot according to the evasion route he predicted it would take. As for the reason he aimed for the circuits and not the core, not only were the circuits easier to cut, but there was no risk of explosion.
"Haha! I probably shouldn't be saying this, but its been a long time since I had this much fun! That criminal had a disappointing amount of security! I did not even break a sweat, that security a novice could have beaten! Left me all charged up for this fight...wait, what?"
Amid his excited talk to himself, he caught onto a discrepancy. He knew that place normally had higher level of security. But when he went today, it was so much lower then what he remembered or heard. It was softer, easier to target. Had it been harder, he might have built up some fatigue already, been in trouble. If the bomb did not kill him, it would have left him in a worse state...
"...someone did soften up the security, but...why help me like that, and not just tell me in person? I mean, that job...just who did post it? Could that man have been my father?"
Of course, Vale did not let this line of thought distract him. He continued to evade the all out barrage of the final robot using everything he had to kill Vale. Of course, even if he finished with the robots, he could tell. There were others attacking all over. A number on the streets, others sniping from rooftops, and a few more hiding in the crowds, waiting for a mailmen to pass by responding to an obvious danger and missing them. Vale only noticed them because he had been monitoring the people following him from the beginning, otherwise he would have missed them. And in truth, it was likely there were some he still missed. He did not have a good read on every enemy after all.
The final robot finally launched a larger rocket from its main weapon, but Vale sent a series of sonic pulars at it and caused it to be flung into and blow up the final robot. There were a few other robots as well, but it seemed to be they sent the three most dangerous to this one location. Of course, there others were still plenty threatening. They all were capable of killing Vale. But Vale had no intention of letting himself, or other Mailmen, become victims so easily.
And also, from a rooftop nearby, Vale heard the trigger of a gun get pressed and immediately hopped back as a sniper bullet pierced through the air where his head used to be. Snipers were exceedingly annoying for Vale because if he neglected a single one, the speed of the bullet could pierce his head before he noticed it due to the speed of the shot.
He immediately looked over to see where the sniper was, but...when he looked over and used his tech to scope it out, he saw the sniper was already dead, body drooping over the side of the building, and next to him was a cloaked man. But more then that, Vale saw it. On that rooftop so far away. Blue hair, and glowing blue eyes under that hood.
"Father...why now?"
(Well, I got a bit excited and ended up typing up a lot....but, this should give everyone a good idea of what is going on. Now, I wont say which way it is or isn't, but Vale did something abnormal and assumed just because he had the same blue hair and eyes as himself, it was his father...although, given he never encountered anyone else aside from himself with those traits, you cant say its wrong too....well, I will leave it at that)