Chapter Text
The Silver Shadow
Another late night of monitoring crime for Shuriken: scaling through building roofs, and knocking crooks out cold. Its a dangerous, intense job, having high-risk and absolutely no reward. Mostly, he just finds muggers stealing a poor ladies purse, burglars attempting to blow up ROBLOXIA Bank, the works, but nothing could've prepared him for this.
In the heart of labyrinth alleyways, there goes a handful of Biografts brawling with one singular Inphernal. He scans the demon, seeing his casual attire: that being an sleeveless, orange hoodie, and deep blue sweatpants. Maybe he's some boxer? A loud, metallic bang snaps Shuriken out of his thoughts, the Inphernal denting a Biograft's robotic face, its glowing, orange eyes flickering weakly.
Shuriken's face grimaces under the mask at the pure, raw damage the guy applied to the robot, almost feeling bad for it. Not like the stupid things are sentient anyway. A sharp blade glides past the boxer's bicep, cutting it cleanly. The guy's gear, coiled around his arms, turns a brilliant green-- healing the fresh cut with ease.
"How the hell is that guy doing that?" Shuriken murmurs to himself. The vigilante watches as the mysterious man shifted his weight, curling his fist, whipping it at another Biograft. Following that-- the boxer's horns and coils around his arms fade quickly to red, before striking the same bot with a firm sidekick, the combo sending the android toppling to the dirty, concrete pavement. SFOTH...
After the now orange and red Inphernal dismantles all the Zeta models, the vigilante decides to check out who this dude really is. Shuriken jumps building-to-building, before sticking his land.
A light thud of someone landing snaps the inphernal out of his adrenaline. Thinking its another bot, their fist snaps quickly to the "robot's" face, except he doesn't feel the usual cold metal of a clanker- instead, he feels wood. Before Shuriken can react, a punch lands square on his face, his mask protecting him barely, before Coil knocks his lights out.
Beware the Beast
"Stealing is okay. Only when I do it," is Coil's whole mentality. He was going his usual path down into the laboratory where his precious, precious crystals are kept; even bringing his gym-drawstring bag to stuff the goods in. He kicked the rusted, metal fence behind the KORBLOX Admin building, hiding behind the numerous pillars and conifer trees. "Pssh, who designed this place?" Coil thought. He travels between various blind spots, ensuring no cameras catch his presence, moving smoothly through his mission. The goal: get enough crystals to last two weeks. Easy enough, shrugged Coil.
Hiding from a camera, it rotates the other way slowly, giving Coil an opening. As it turns completely, he quickly moves towards a door-- one used for smoke breaks with the plethora of scientists and engineers. Coil grins as he strides into the building, rubbing his hands together, clearly excited to get his hands on those beautiful, amazing crystals.
"CRYSTAL CRIMINAL DETECTED," the familiar, robotic voicebank rings through the hallway, already ruining his fun.
"Hah, already?" laughed the criminal, running to the nearest room to him, the clanker following suit. The room is a random, sterile lab, clearly no merchandise inside it-- the sweet and pungent smell stinging Coil's nostrils.
"Shit," cursed Coil as he finds a dead end. The android's footsteps grow louder and louder, his heart hammering against his chest. Scanning the room, he quickly spots a vent, going into gravity mode: diving upwards toward it. As the Biograft exits the room, losing Coil, the vent hatch on the roof falls open, revealing where he truly was.
"Jeez..." exhaled Coil-- that being a breath he didn't know he was holding. He navigates through the compact vents, the metal making him packed like sardines. He manages to navigate through the duct, scooting closer and closer to wherever the hell he's going.
Soon enough, he spots light coming through the gaps of another vent hatch. Shimmying closer, he looks beneath the vent door, spotting a shelf containing those costly crystals. Jackpot. Opening the hatch, he peeks into the room, ensuring there are no people to see him, and drops down into the room, bracing for impact.
Immediately, he runs to the shelf and stuffs about 13 crystals inside his drawstring bag. He smiles to himself, before exiting quickly through the lab window. Frigid winds press against his bare arms, a refresher from the constant heat of the building.
Jogging through the frozen grass, the cold breezes become much less harsh, and as the ground fades into the recognizable lush of Crossroads, he finally spots the cirt. Before he can get a quick break, the familiar voicebank of a Biograft rings in his ears.
"CRYSTAL CRIMINAL DETECTED," the droid says.
"C'mon, is that the only sentence you'll say to me?"
"CRYSTAL CRIMINAL DETECTED."
"Aight, guess so!" Coil exclaimed, sprinting away from the robot chasing after him, coils fading to a vibrant cyan as he jumps onto a major highway from Blackrock to Crossroads.
The robot follows suit, chasing him all the way into a maze of alleyways. As more Zeta models approach, he lets out a fighting stance, balling his fists as the robots pounce on him. He jumps above them all, still in gravity mode, sending them all crashing together. The criminal dove his foot down, the metal shell of an unfortunate robot clashing with his boots before its head is destroyed. Coil rolls onto the floor, air being sent out of his lungs from the impact, but he shortly grabs a remaining scrap from the earlier bot. One lunged, cutting his arm then aiming for his chest, but he catches the futuristic blade with the same scrap of its ally. As he blocks the attack, his coils turn green, healing the wound on his bicep as his arms buckle at the strength pushing against him.
"You clankers really ARE non-sentient, huh?" mocked Coil, his coils turning a bright red, before he quickly gets up,, jabbing his compact fist right into the Zeta's face, following a sidekick. Coil chuckles to himself, seeing the mangled Biografts on the floor, smugly putting his hands on his hips. A gentle landing vibrates the ground, Coil feeling it in his frenzy of adrenaline, startling him. He quickly turns around, whips his fist onto the “chest” of the next Zeta bot, and punches the light of the "robot". But , when he turns around, expecting another AI, he sees another Inphernal out cold onto the concrete.
"...Shit."