The Scarlet Knight roared as he plunged his staff into one combat bot. Before he could pull away to hit more of them, one of them managed to hit him in the head, making him let go of his staff and stumble. These new combat bots are stronger than the previous generation. It didn’t hurt too badly, though. One of them threw a haymaker, which he countered with a crane strike aimed at the neck, which decapacitated the machine. He grabbed the fall head before whipping it like a baseball.

  Aimed at the other bots that were rushing at him. He successfully took out two with that one throw. But there were still dozens of them. It didn't help that a frightened couple stood behind him, frozen in place. Gavin clicked his tongue, grabbing two sets of shiruken in each hand in his hidden utility belt. Then, jumping up just before they reached him, he threw the shirukens, which were implanted in several bots.

  Despite being inside their head, they were still operating, but not for long. After a couple of seconds, the shirkens exploded. Causing the machines to fall to the ground, smoking. Gavin landed on the ground, gasping for air. He forced his body to steady, looking over the frightened couple.

  “Get going! Clear the area!” He barks like a drill instructor, pointing in the direction outside the chaos.

  Finally, the couple scrambled out of there, running, leaving Scarlet Knight to be alone. He slowly walked up to one of the broken machines that had his staff embedded into its chest and pulled it, retrieving his weapon. However, when he takes one step, almost instantly, he drops to one knee, panting. He lets out a broken chuckle. It's funny, when he was young, even before the Super Soldier serum and surgery, he was considered a stamina beast. Being able to do heavy, intense workouts for nearly a full day.

  And after the process, he was able to fight high-intensity for nearly two days. Maybe even longer depending on the situation. But now, it only took a few encounters for him to be out of breath. Old age really does mess up a person’s stamina and strength. Granted, he hadn’t been training for years.

  And was stuck inside his shop just playing games and selling stuff. His body had withered away. It was only recently, when Ben Armstrong came to his shop and expressed his desire to be a superhero did Gavin started training again. Still, even after training for four months, he’s nowhere near his prime, even with new power armour, which helped and caused him problems.

  Project KNIGHT. Jason and his staff worked on this suit. He remembered when it was just a blueprint, how cool-looking it was. And how it will finally allow him to help out Ben in fights instead of him just sitting down and watching him struggle and get hurt. Regular power armour enhances strength, reinforces joints and absorbs a certain amount of shock.

  Though it has a misconception. Even among Super Soldiers like him. Power Armour may seem to enhance strength, but no. Well, yes, but no. It allows a user to fight with their maximum potential safely and then some. Its main purpose is for durability, not for increasing one’s physical capabilities.

  Project KNIGHT was different. It doesn't just allow him to fight with his full potential; it allows it to break and fight beyond 100%. This is due to the suit having this microscopic mumbo jumbo that Gavin isn’t qualified and smart enough to talk about. But in simple terms, it affected his nervous system, allowing him to increase physical might and even reaction speed. However, the biggest problem with it and the one currently messing him up right now is stamina drain and the strain.

  It's messing with his muscular system. Creating micro tears and even some big ones in his muscles. Even just his arm up and down caused pain to shoot up from his shoulder. Four months of retraining and this suit wasn’t enough to rebuild a decade of decline. He hears another explosion, and he turns to see another group of combat bots running at him.

  He took a deep inhale before exhaling. He forced his body to stand back up. Collapsed his staff before retrieving his dual pistols and started firing at the bots. He took out a few, but most of them were still alive and running. Scarlet gritted his teeth; he wanted to stay still for a little bit to relax his tired body for a couple of minutes. He was about to rush in, only for a translucent blue shield to cover the combat bots, trapping them in some kind of dome.

  The dome then got smaller and smaller, resulting in them getting crushed. The blue barrier vanished, leaving what’s left of the machines. He turns around to see Emily Shinichi or Kinetic panting, her legs shaking. Before she could fall over, Scarlet rushed and helped her to continue standing.

  “Nice, one. But what are you doing here?” Scarlet asked.

  “To…help…obviously!” She gasped out between breaths. “Be-Red Justice told me to evacuate everyone else and help you if I spotted you.”

  Scarlet was worried. Kinetic is pushing herself. She’s a decently powerful Esper for someone as young as her, but she’s reaching her limit.

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  “Kinetic, just rest. I’ll take care-” Scarlet begins to say, but Emily shakes her head.

  “I’m okay, besides, you seem to be slowing down. Age is messing you up, old man?”

  The Scarlet Knight chuckles. “Pretty much, but it's more complicated than that.”

  Before he could explain any further, there was a loud crash. They both whip their heads to see fifteen-meter robots stomping around, chasing another group of people. Almost instantly, Kinetic lifted some debris, abandoned cars and other items her telekinesis could grab. Flinging it at the large robot, which stumbled from the items being thrown at its head. It stumbled before taking a knee, allowing the civilians to run to safety.

  The machine, though, wasn’t giving up despite all the damage, but before it could do anything, Scarlet Knight already rushed forward and delivered a haymaker right into its head, making it explode into metal chunks. Gavin landed on his feet, looking over the headless big robot. He had somewhat recovered from the strain. Still, to think bigger robots like this are roaming around complicates things. Kinetic floated beside the old man, putting a hand to his shoulder.

  “Are you all right? You’re breathing heavily.”

  Scarlet Knight clenched his fist and forced his body to straighten. “It's nothing, let’s continue, we have to take care of this and help out any civilians still left.”

  Kinetic seemed unsure, though nodded her head. Almost at the same time, dozens of combat bots, as well as their bigger variants, smashed through buildings or ran around the corner. All of them were running straight towards them.

  “This looks bad…” Kinetic says dryly, already lifting bits and pieces of the destroyed giant bot as projectiles.

  “Yeah, it seems whoever is controlling them is now targeting us, better than them going after regular folks.”

  “Speak for yourself, I know I’m going to get a migraine after this.”

  Scarlet rushed forward to fight against the robot hoard meanwhile Kinetic moved back to support him from long-range and provide force fields to block or redirect attacks back. After they’ve destroyed their fiftieth robot, they started to get worn down. Feeling the pressure and discomfort from overusing their abilities. Gavin’s muscles screamed in pain, begging him to stop; meanwhile, Emily’s brain felt like mush. Any second now, and she’ll collapse.

  The problem was that the horde just kept on coming. No matter how much they destroyed, three new ones replaced one and continued to rush at them relentlessly.

  “Damn it!” Scarlet Knight roared, taking a bot's head off with a tornado kick. “Kinetic, get out of here!”

  Kinetic, to her credit, despite her legs shaking and behind her face mask, bleeding profusely from the nose and mouth from the strain of using her powers, shook her head.

  “No way! I’m not leaving you!”

  Scarlet Knight clicked his tongue, jumping back next to her. Before pulling out his explosive shurikens and just started to throw them with wild abandon. It did keep them at bay for a time. But it didn’t take long for him to run out. Scarlet takes a knee, taking large gulps of air; he’s reached beyond his limit and without rest.

  The same goes for Kinetic, who is shoving them back with her telekinesis. However, they only functioned to slow them down rather than blowing the bots away. To say things were dire is an understatement. Kinetic’s eyelids felt heavy and would have collapsed not for Scarlet’s support. The old Super Soldier is trying to figure out away from their dire situation.

  Until they heard a chopper fly past them. They look to see a large military chopper with camo colouring. It hovered on top of them for a couple of seconds, and then four people dropped down in the chopper. Three guys and one female. All of them were wearing lightweight tactical armour with blue metal plates.

  The big guy from the four rushed in and delivered a series of powerful hooks and haymakers to punch the larger bots. The blonde man used his baton to expertly smash the smaller ones with his baton and shield. The younger blonde one used a rifle to skillfully shoot down the robots. Lastly, the woman rushed and tapped on the bot's body, placing small sticky bombs that exploded right after.

  “Whoa, who the heck are those guys?” Kinetic said, her usual dry tone being replaced by awe.

  Scarlet Knight was also shocking, but not for the same reason. After all, while they may not have their power armour. But without a doubt, those four are Squad Nova. According to the X-Ray from Scarlet’s SEE Helmet, it seems they have multiple fractured, broken bones and bruising. Courtesy of Scarlet and Red.

  Still, they moved like they didn’t have injuries at all. Until…eventually, the robot horde attacking Scarlet and Kinetic has been reduced by just one. It crawled towards them, only to be stepped on by Fighter. They turned to face them, seemingly posing for an unseen camera.

  Gavin rolled his eyes behind his helmet. So cheesy.

  “We’re here to help.” Said Fighter.

  Scarlet Knight didn’t say anything, but pulled out his metal pole and aimed at them. He might be nearly out of stamina and is still recovering from the strain of using this suit, and Emily wasn’t doing so hot either. However, he was confident he could fight them off.

  “Are you sure? After all, this was your plan from the beginning. You fight Red Justice and me to waste his energy before making him face this crisis. All in an attempt to capture him.”

  Emily perked up at his words. She glared at the hour behind her visor and flexed her hand, ready to use her abilities. Every single one of them looked away with a guilty expression.

  “Yes, but we weren’t informed about-” Fighter gestured to everything around him. “About all this…we didn’t want to get anyone else involved.”

  The two parties became silent for several moments before Paladin stepped up.

  “I know you don’t trust us. We don’t blame you. But we didn’t sign up for this. We want to help people and not cause them harm.”

  Fighter nods, straightening himself and gives Gavin a look of determination that surprises the old man.

  “Yes. We could argue here all you want. It doesn't change the fact that countless people are getting hurt or worse because we’re talking. We don’t have time to talk about differences; we join together.”

  Gavin was speechless. He turned to Kinetic, who shrugged. Fighter was right, the more this conversation goes on, the more people get hurt, and who knows what Red Justice is doing right now! The Scarlet Knight releases a sigh, dropping his staff.

  “Very well, let’s do this.”