G.H.O.S.T.: The Vaknar War

Runners at the Helm

Xavier jumped towards the hangar door as a wave of purple fire engulfed the facility. Headquarters went on alert as the alarms blared throughout the building. Everyone headed out of the war room and towards Xavier as he was reeling from the blast.

"What's going on?!"

"Who dares set off the alarm?! I'll make them pay!!"

"Shit! What's happening!?"

"THE KNIGHT'S HERE!" Xavier shouted as his suit recalibrated for battle.

"WHAT DO WE HAVE IN COMMON WITH THE KNOLLS!? THEY ARE OUR ENEMIES, NOT US!!!!", Malcolm cried.

"BRACE YOURSELVES!"

Frost, Atlas, Kane, and Toya ran out onto the hangar as Malcom unleashed another purple wave towards the facility.

Xavier had a strange feeling, looking around to find Hunter was nowhere in sight.

Atlas ran towards Malcolm, dodging the blasts that shot past him while Kane threw a blast of plasma to conceal the crazed billionaire. Frost shielded herself from the heat waves as she shot frost towards the burning part of the facility.
Toya activated her claws and joined Atlas in fighting Malcolm, who was now surrounded by four heroes.
Malcolm momentarily regained consciousness, one eye slowly extinguishing the purple flames away

"GET THEM OUT OF MY WAY, OR I WILL DESTROY EVERYTHING AROUND ME!!" Malcom yelled.

All of a sudden, Malcom's body began to glow. His skin was covered in white light.
Toya tried to dodge the attacks as Atlas attempted to knock Malcom down with a punch. Frost was already running toward him with a sonic frozen beam aimed straight for the man's face.
But before she could activate it, Malcom fired off a giant laser beam right at the ceiling, causing it to collapse on top of Atlas.
Frost dodged the falling debris but was unable to avoid the shockwave which knocked her down.
She fell unconscious immediately afterward.
Toya quickly grabbed her fallen teammate's arm to pull her out of harm's way.

The debris crashed on top of her, and Malcom released another wave of purple fire around him.
Toya's claws nearly broke but managed to endure it long enough to retreat and fall back to the other side of the floor.
Maven's armor was overburdened by the explosion and quickly lost power, he covered his face as the explosion knocked him off balance.
He tried to get up, but his body was still recovering from his fall and his suit was damaged. His vision was still blurry from the smoke around him.
He could hear the sound of The Knight's activation with a *PING*.

He braced himself, he was gonna have to do this the hard way.
Inserting backup Tetrasonic energy coils into his suit, Xavier hauled the debris off him as he groggily headed towards the Knight.

"I knew it was going to be you, Bring me, Shane."
Xavier steadied himself as he met the Knight.

The Knight hovered in the air as his acrylic-like suit placed itself on top of his pale limbs with the helmet concealing his face. Without the armor, He looked as Ghostly as the armor he wore, a mammoth in sheep's clothing.

His chest piece was the last part to assemble as he drew out his sword. The sword's blade was slick in chrome metal as the purple flames slipped right through its engravings.
Xavier charged at the Knight, but the Knight seemed to have predicted his movement and parried his attack. He took the opportunity to use his blade to attack Xavier and the floor on which he was standing. Xavier slid right into the fiery pit the Knight surrounded himself in.

Yet somehow, he got up and jumped out of the flaming pit and kicked the Knight in the face.
The Knight recovered quickly and drew a revolver.
The Knight shot directly at Xavier's chest.
Just before the bullet could reach him, Xavier jettisoned right behind him and threw a hard punch to the base of the Knight's head.

The Knight stumbled forward, but the Knight suddenly disappeared, to which Xavier looked around the room for him.
The Knight appeared from thin air and stabbed Xavier in the gut.
Xavier fell backward and looked down, the knife was lodged in his stomach.
But before the Knight could aim again, he was suddenly knocked back.
In the last fight they had Xavier would have thought it was all over with, but he held on to his promise to himself.

"Protocol Orion," He muttered.

Xavier's suit eyes began to glow bright yellow, but the Knight was slowly back on his feet.
The Knight was able to stand up before Xavier threw another punch at the Knight.
This time, the Knight grabbed his fist and flipped Xavier over his back.
While the Knight was standing up straight, Xavier activated his jet legs and flew straight at the Knight.
The Knight stood up and took out his revolver to shoot Xavier in the face.
Xavier quickly activated his suit's claws which pierced right through the Knight's chest armor.
The Knight lunged at Xavier and threw a punch at his head.
Xavier ducked and yanked the Knight's arm hard, causing the Knight to fall on his face.
The Knight quickly got up and grabbed his sword, but it was burnt to a crisp.
He drew out his revolver but much to his surprise, it was empty.
He looked up and saw Xavier pointing his gauntlet right at him as his arm and cybernetic pistol became one.

"This is for the fallen."

"BLAM!"

The Knight crumpled to the floor as his knees hit the ground with a heavy thud.
Suddenly a piercing sonic sound could be heard as a mechanical coffin box came flying in through the hole Malcolm left. Xavier had been working on his suit for a while, producing nanotech at last along with upgrading his pistol, yet still nowhere near his future self's version. Whether he was walking towards the bleak future set for them, he had no idea, but he hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Xavier stepped over the Knight's body as he rushed over to a heaving Malcolm.
Malcom's body was on fire as Xavier took out a small nanite remote.

"What you did was courageous."

Xavier fired the remote which began to stream small nanites into Malcolm's body.
The nanites began to repair Malcolm's body.

"You're gonna be okay now."

Malcom got up and puked out the fire as he tried to breathe.

"Surprise, surprise," Xavier said.

"Huh...So that's what death feels like."

Malcom drew out a spare revolver and tossed it behind Xavier, as he turned to see Hunter with flaming purple eyes.

"Hunter, what are you doing?"

"BLAM!" Hunter had shot Xavier in the back.

Xavier was thrown forward and landed on the floor, his suit's systems began to reboot as his eyes widened in shock.

The nanites that were in control of Malcolm's body began to control his arms, as they slowly held his hands on the wall.

Xavier began to cough up blood.

Hunter slowly reached for his revolver to reload and attempted to fire again.

Xavier pressed a button on the thumb of his suit as the nanites in Malcolm's body worked to overcome the control of the Knight.

The billionaire's eyes opened after a second as he looked around panicking.

"What?! What's going on????!!!" Malcom shouted.

"He shot my suit with your revolver... but not the actual person."

Out of nowhere, a pillar beam shot through the building, and into the sky. Xavier silently cursed, The Knight had escaped death yet again.

"Where is your killer now?"

Xavier jumped up and drew out his pistol, as he charged at Hunter.
Hunter was not planning on letting Xavier take him down.
Hunter's gun was blown off of his hand as Xavier.
Xavier knocked his teammate out, placing a hand on the wall as he heaved in pain.
The headquarters was in flames, his teammates scattered,
and Hunter was being possessed.
Xavier noticed a deep gash on his arm, leaking purple fluid.

Not you too Hunter, dammit.

Throwing nanites at his friend as he did with his father. Xavier proceeded to join the rest of his comrades in battle not before releasing Malcolm from the wall.