*8-bit arcade letters flash* Insert one coin to continue

Mendoza stood atop a large tower overlooking the apartments. He was balancing precariously on the small and steep piece of roof. It was nighttime, but that made no diference to the huge cyborg. He could see perfectly fine, as if it was broad daylight. Fortunately for Mendoza, that wasn't the same for the eight armed UWUC members guarding humans' homes.

Mendoza was holding a small customized XM-11 sniper rifle. He would have preffered his XM-30, but that was much too loud and he didn't want UWUC to go into a frenzy. They always did when humans were in danger. Instead, he steadied the crosshairs on an unexpecting UWUC member. If Mendoza fired, the alien would go down in an instant, and no one would know. It was so quiet and the laser so dull-colored and small, this was the perfect weapon for his mission: kidnapping four male humans. Females were supposedly too weak. That's what Mendoza had been told, but being human himself, he knew that wasn't true. But his objective was very specific, and he had to follow it.

Mendoza had no pity for the fellow humans he was kidnapping. His client didn't care what happened to them as long as they were brought to Weavon alive and capable of several years' worth of mining work. He already knew where almost all the humans were, thanks to thermal vision. It appeared as though the fourth apartment floor was deserted, and there were only two humans on the third floor. The second and first floors were thriving with human and a couple alien heat signatures. Almost all of them were asleep. Perfect. He would just have to hide from the UWUC troopers. It was too easy to imagine UWUC everywhere in just minutes after being seen. But at least he could have some fun. In his nearby stolen ship there was a medical bay. He could hurt the humans as much as he wanted as long as he didn't break any bones or arteries. Then he could throw the human in a medical bay, and by the time he was back at Weavon, the human would be healed.

Then, Mendoza saw an even better chance then before. To hell with walking into a guarded builing...A lone and what looked like half-asleep human was stumbling toward the apartments. But he was only about a block from the main entrance. Mendoza couldn't let an easy kidnapping like this slide by. He aimed his rifle at two UWUC troppers at the apartments' main entrance. He steadied his crosshairs and squeezed off two quick shots. The troopers were killed instantly, a blast of hot plasma melting through their heads.
--
Kenji limped back to his apartment. What in the hell happened? One second he was on a date, the next his head was hurting, Lobo was gone, and an hour had just slipped by. Dammit! This was certaily the worst date in history... and Lobo was probably angry at him. But he would worry about that later. He could hardly think straight, never mind walk straight. Suddenly two dull flashes of red caught his eye. He stopped and studied what had happened. Everything was still blurry and he could hardly see at this time of night, but at the gate of his home, a light post illuminated two aliens with gaping holes in their heads. One was lying on the ground, the other slumped against the wall. Blood was pouring out of thw wounds. What the hell is happening tonight? Kenji hoped they were hallucinations. Yeah, that's it, two aliens that weren't real were just murdered right in front of his eyes.

That small whistling noise like something was falling from the sky was also a hallucination, riiiight? Kenji looked up anyway, just in time to see a hulk of metal drop from the sky and crash into the ground in front of him. He stared at it. It wasn't just a hulk of metal, it was a gigantic armored figure. "Who..." Kenji was interuppted as the figure lashed out its hand. The fingers jabbed straight into the center of Kenji's sternum. The air was punched right out of him. Oh shit! The figure then lashed out a foot straight into Kenji's stomach. He flew backwards, sprawling on the pavement several meters away. He tried to breathe, with no success. Instead he went into a coughing fit. He remembered his training on Earth. He had been trained for situations like this, to fight and to kill. Kenji painfully got back on his feet. The robot wasted no time and sprinted at him. He noticed now that its fists had spikes. They were gleaming in the dull light from a light post. The robot threw a spiked fist at Kenji, aiming straight for his face. Instincts from Kuntao training took over Kenji's body. He snapped his right forearm forward, blocking the punch perfectly as his arm landed between the two spikes. Then he folded his left arm inward and lashed out. His elbow slammed into the robot's neck. It would have killed any organic being. But with horror Kenij realized that his martial arts moves were pretty much useless against robots. They didn't have pressure points, and they didn't feel pain. He swore under his breath. All he did was hurt his elbow against the steel...But stubbornness ruled running away as not an option. He couldn't accept defeat.
--
Mendoza was shocked by the human's manuever. So much for half-asleep. Not that it mattered. He always won. Mendoza grabbed the human's head with his free arm. The human started to say something but was cut off when Mendoza slammed his head downward and rammed his knee into the human's skull. There was a satisfying cracking noise and human cried out in pain. Then, Mendoza kicked the same leg outward and again into the human's stomach, sending him several meters away, sprawling on the ground like he had been hit by a car. He approached the human again, this time more wary of a counterattack.

Lobo walked through the halls of the apartments, her face almost frighteningly blank. Fleeting thoughts crossed her mind, though they were jumbled and fragmented beyond recognition. The only thing she could feel was throbbing pain in her shoulder that seemed to be spreading farther by the minute. Lobo climbed up a flight of stairs, her now loose bow swinging haphazardly at the back of her head. As she neared her room she began to hear things. Odd bumps and a rings, like the sound of something hitting metal. In her mindless state Lobo paid it no attention. Then a crack, and a scream. Lobo's head snapped up. Kenji? Suddenly everything registered all at once. She had left him, just left him on the floor. She felt terrible. How could I just leave him? She didn't remember leaving but apparently that was what happened. She lifted a hand to her face, it was then that she realized that she had been crying. She shook herself mentally. Kenji's in trouble. Without a second thought she rushed back outside. A huge, humanoid robot towered a few feet from where Kenji lay on the ground. She remained resolute. The robot was large, and very obviously powerful. Could she win? There was always a way. Should she just ask the robot to leave? No, that wouldn't work, he was on some sort of mission. Her eyes blazing she summoned all the power she had. Suddenly blazing white forks of electricity sprung forth from the air around Lobo. She made a small gesture with her arm towards the robot and the charged air surged forward.

ooc: THIS POST IS FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTPRRRRRRRRRTTTP D<

Mendoza was feeling pretty good. This mission was going very smoothly. As if on cue, just to ruin his day, he heard the air crackling behind him as if there was a lightning storm. He quickly spun around just in time to see large bolts of yellowish-white flying toward him. There wasn't enough time to dodge, and the electricity hammered into Mendoza's left side. He was blasted off his feet. The electrical equipment inside his armor crashed and shut down...for a mere second. When he hit the ground rather hard, Mendoza used the momentum to roll back on his feet. He stood between the two humans, wondering what to do. His job called for only males, so he could annihilate the girl and everything would be fine. But he didn't kill humans unless it was absolutely necessary.

Mendoza raised his right hand, palm facing the girl. A ring in the center of his hand starting glowing red. The laser built into his hand fired two shots at the girl, aimed at her arms. Hopefully she couldn't shoot lightning at him without the use of her arms...but that was yet to be seen. Mendoza would enjoy toying with his prey.
--
Kenji lay flat on his stomach. It felt like his forehead was on fire. The one eye he could see out of was diluted with blood. He tried to move, getting nothing out of it but excruciating pain. He tried to swear, and coughed up blood. I'm gong to kill that thing. Kenji tried to move again and this time his arms finally cooperated. Kenji pushed himself up and stumbled over to lean against a nearby wall. He wiped blood out of his eyes to try and see what was happening. Everything was still blurry, and all he could see was two fuzzy pictures of things on two legs. It was easy to guess what one of them was. Then, for just half a second, the fuzzy pictures became clearer and he saw who the other figure was. Lobo! Kenji tried to call her name out, but all he got was another coughing fit. And this time he coughed up blood. The wound on his forehead was still bleeding too, and the blood covered up his vision again. Dammit no! He stopped leaning against the wall and collapsed beside it. Whatever had happened on the date was still affecting him. Then, Kenji felt something nice and useful on the wall beside him. It was an electrical socket. He wiped more blood from his eyes. He was covered in blood now, but Kenji ignored it and stuck two fingers inside the socket and started to absorb energy. Stealing, UWUC would call it. Well, they could burn in hell for all he cared.

Lobo smiled a deranged smile. She was angry now. This robot, no, this monster was threatening Kenji; a boy that she daresay loved. Her pupils dilated, a sign that she had achieved the highest level of concentration possible. Then she saw Kenji rise at the corner of her vision. He looked pathetic. He was covered in blood. The sight greatly disturbed Lobo. "Kenji," she said aloud. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to get the disturbing image out of her head. She couldn't let this happen. Whatever this robotic man was trying to achieve couldn't' happen, and she'd do everything in her power to make sure it didn't.

In that instant the robot lifted it's mechanical arm to her. She saw a flash of red, then she was on her back. A crippling amount of pain shot through her arms. Blood seeped out of two deep burns on her shoulders. Her breath coming in ragged gasps she shakily got to her feet. Her arms hung limply at her sides, useless. She had to stop that thing, no matter what. Her eyes flicked to Kenji, who was now sitting up. Lobo grimaced. With her arms out of commission she'd have to get creative. She could still generate mass amounts of electricity but aiming them was the problem. The only thing she could do now was get closer. She took off running towards her target, sparks flying in her wake. She'd have to brush against the robot. As Lobo got closer to her target the sparks intensified into small forks of lightning. The random spouts of electricity threw spastic shadows onto the scene. Lobo fought to control her movements, she had close to 800,000 volts stored within her. Of course this would be deadly to any normal human being, but by now she had learned to control the voltage in a way that made it relatively harmless. The only downside to carrying this much electricity was the difficulty in controlling motor functions. Just as Lobo was about to collide with the robot she faked left then swerved right. If all went according to plan she'd lightly brush against the robot, causing no damage to herself, but sending the robot an 800,000 volt present.

Mendoza laughed as the girl came running at him. Something had really gotten on that human's nerves...but that was okay. People did foolish things when they were ticked off. He didn't have to touch or even shoot her to incapacitate her. Mendoza concentrated on the environment around him and used his own power. He made the ground between him and the girl seem to melt into a cloud. Without twitching a finger, he transformed several meters of pavement into a concrete wall behind the newly formed ditch. But that wasn't the best part...Mendoza changed most of the molecules in the ground and rearranged their atoms, creating a new and explosive substance within the wall. Mendoza knew his cover was pretty much already blown. The electricity all over the place almost certainly woke people up, not to mention get the attention of the six more UWUC guards. So the explosion would be okay. Mendoza waited a few seconds as the chemicals within the wall mixed. He wondered if the girl had stopped, or had fallen in the ditch. He didn't have time to switch to his thermal vision and see. The chemicals within the wall exploded, sending billions of small pieces of concrete in all directions. Mendoza's armor protected him from the small shards. Muy perfecto.
--
Kenji was still absorbing electricity. Xychus city had a lot more extra electricity than he had expected. It actually started to hurt more than his head after several seconds...not that he could feel his head very much anyway. He watched as the robot somehow made a wall and decided this was the time to kill the damn thing. Kenji raised his right arm, palm facing the thing, and loosed all his energy out of his palm. The electricity fired from his hand so violently it seared his palm. The blast of energy hadn't even completely left his hand when the wall exploded, fragmenting into nothing. Incredibly, the robot also dodged to his right as if it knew the blast was coming the whole time. Without a solid object to block the electricity, the energy kept flying past everyone and ended up colliding into Kenji's very own room. The was a thunder-like sound when the energy impacted the cheap walls, and then every square inch of the fourth apartment floor seemed to be consumed in one huge explosion. Fire exploded outward and onto some spots of the third floor. Kenji stared at his huge screwup. Ohh....Shit.

Tiny bits of rock battered Lobo from all directions, accentuating the already terrible pain of her injuries. But what hurt worse was the fact that there was nothing more she could do. Her last resort had failed, but she wouldn't accept defeat. Not until I'm dead. She racked her brain, trying to think of something more she could do. Her thoughts were beginning to meld together, becoming completely undifferentiated from one another. Weakness was beginning to settle in, yet still she remained defiant.I can't... I can't lose. The electrifying exhilaration of the last few minutes was fading fast. She couldn't see for all the blood in her eyes. She stumbled around for a moment then finally collapsed. I can't give up. Trembling, she rose to her knees. Using all the energy she had, she raised a bloody arm. A weak bolt of electricity shot out, but it hardly made it 3 feet before it dissipated into nothing. Defeated.

Mendoza watched the girl as she stopped moving. He turned his back to her and the now burning apartments. The human he was kidnapping was an idiot. He raised his left hand and out shot a tranquilizer dart. The human who literally just level his own home was unconscious in a couple of seconds. Why didn't he just do that in the first place? Because, his job would suck it that's all he did.

Mendoza grabbed the human by his neck and slung him over his shoulder just as an alarm screamed to life. Paranoid UWUC would be here in a matter of minutes. He activated the jetpack on his back and quickly flew away from the apartments. After flying a couple of blocks, he flew up a high-rise building and onto the roof, where the stolen ship Lucifer's Bane was delicately perched. He didn't know who the hell Lucifer was, and who his bane was, and why the hell a ship named about killing someone had a medical bay, but it didn't matter. The ship was very small and very fast and, most importantly, was a civilian vehicle. Ignoring the medical bay, Mendoza threw the human's body into the ship's tiny storage compartment. He got in the cockpit, quickly checked a control panel to make sure no one screwed with 'his' ship while he was gone, and flew off into the night sky.

Faint slivers of dream rushed through Lobo's mind. She saw Kenji, knocked out and covered in blood. Then the robot, Kenji over his shoulder, flying away. In an instant Lobo was awake. She was numb. Her back felt as if a boulder had just been dropped on it (in fact a bit of floor four had). Her arms were as immobile as the rest of her. With a groan she squeezed herself out from under the slab of concrete that had fallen on her. She was riddled with small cuts and scratches. Shakily she rose to her knees. Her state, as it was so much of the time now, was zombie-like. Her eyes were out of focus, as if she had been crying. Thoughtlessly she rose up the stairs and to the apartment she and Caleb shared. Just as she was about to crack open the door sentient thoughts rushed back into her head, like water after a dam breaks. The robot, the fight... Her losing the fight. It was too much. The only person she'd loved that was still alive was gone, probably dead. And it was her fault. If I would have just... She couldn't think of anything she could have done, but the fact only made her feel more helpless. She stepped into the single- room apartment. Hot tears beginning to stream down her face she took some clothes from her dresser and rushed off to take a shower.

The cuts on her arms were deep. She wouldn't be able to fully utilize her powers for a good month or so, and even then she'd still be pretty scarred up.

ooc: THIS POST SUUUCKKKKKKSSS. Probably because the convo on the Cbox was too distracting.