As the two axes plummeted toward his face, Carter backpeddled, only to trip over his own two feet, forcing Vanessa to dodge to the side to avoid being crushed as he fell back. The move was successful in removing Carter from the immediate danger; however, it also left him vulnerable to any follow-up attacks Erik might make, or rather, the entity piloting Erik's body, much like Carter was piloting his modified battle suit.

  Of course, Erik made use of the opening, pressing his attack by lunging forward and swinging his downward strike around until the two axes were now flying toward Carter's head. Carter raised both hands to block, but needn't have bothered as Vanessa suddenly plowed into Erik's side full force, rocketing her friend into the wall.

  Carter picked himself up from the ground at the same time that Erik did the same. There was a little blood dribbling down the side of Erik's mouth, and Carter expected him to reach up and brush it aside, or at least issue some sort of smart-ass response, but the man simply launched into another attack. This time, Carter was ready, and as the axes fell again, Carter reacted faster than he usually could, his robotic "body" responding at the speed of thought without the usual fraction of a second a biological body took to act. While the human would typically never be a threat to the strange viking-lizard-cat man, the power of the suit, combined with the greater reaction speed, was enough to bat the axes to the side. However, Erik was far from out of options as he spun and kicked Carter with enough force to launch him back again.

  At once, Vanessa was on Erik, striking him with a flurry of strikes and lunges, each of which would have been a debilitating blow to Carter outside his suit. However, Erik was made of far sterner stuff, deflecting many of the blows and simply absorbing others before lunging forward and biting with his sharpened teeth at Vanessa's throat, forcing her to dodge back as well.

  As Erik moved to follow up, Carter jumped forward, intending to grab Erik and pin him in place so Vanessa could subdue him, but the Viking must have seen it coming because he swept back with an axe, making Carter pull up a little short as Erik continued his spin, extending one of his axes forcing Carter to lean back to avoid losing his "head". Vanessa tried to move up to strike Erik while he attacked Carter, but Erik continued his spin. While the wild attack wasn't an immediate danger to either of them, the plasma edges of his axes forced them to take even the possibility of a glancing hit seriously.

  All three combatants took a moment to assess the situation as Carter spoke up. "Hey, whoever is in there, you have to know you can't beat both of us! Give us our friend back safely and in one piece, and I promise, Sybil won't shred your programming once she gets her hands on you! That's the only way you're getting out of here alive!"

  Erik gave a sort of guttural hissing laugh, unlike anything Carter had ever heard him do in the past, before he lunged forward again, feigning toward Carter before switching his attack toward Vanessa, who had been moving up behind him. However, Vanessa moved in a sudden blur of motion unlike anything Cater had seen her use before, and she was suddenly inside his guard, striking up at his chin, sending Erik falling to the floor.

  As the large viking fell to the ground, he rubbed his chin, glaring at Vanessa with accusatory eyes as if she'd somehow cheated just then. Vaness took advantage of the opportunity to turn to Carter. "Go to the helm and finish acquiring the red one! I can handle my lady on my own, and I believe he is delaying us for some reason."

  Before Carter could answer, Vanessa lunged toward Erik and jumped over the axes flashing toward her before pushing off Erik's head, then kicking off the wall to end up behind him, and sliding back close to the ground, flowing below the returning axes to sweep his legs and sending him to the floor once more.

  Realizing she might be right, Carter nodded. "Alright! Just don't get yourself killed fighting him! Erik would not thank you for that!"

  Vanessa looked back at Carter, and though the human couldn't read the Vitexrā's face, it almost felt like she was smiling as she tilted her head. "Do not worry, Captain Carter. This may be my lady's body and her moves, but they lack the innate understanding of combat my lady possesses; they behave in the most efficient way possible from moment to moment, making their moves predictable. I will be alright."

  If Carter's robot body had eyebrows, they would have shot up at that exclamation. However, he didn't really have time to dissect the claim and simply nodded before continuing toward the bridge as Vanessa leapt back to continue her fluid assault on the one she served.

  Running through the door that should have led to the bridge, Carter was surprised to see a room that looked something akin to a waiting room at an office, complete with a secretary's desk outside the main door. However, the room seemed empty, so he pressed forward, opening another door into a room that looked as if it sat exposed to the vacuum itself. In his surprise, Carter paused for a moment, only for Epitaph to speak. "To your left!"

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  As Carter turned, he was hit by something strong and heavy, sending him flying in a way even Erik hadn't managed to pull off. Turning, he could see what looked like an old man in a fine suit approaching before bawling up a fist and swinging for Carter again. Carter lept back, and the old man's fist impacted the wall beside where his head had been a moment before, denting the wall and forming cracks in the metallic surface. Carter was both impressed and concerned by the power just displayed. "Well, this guy is clearly not human! Hey, Epitaph! How's that guy's strength compare with this suit's?"

  Epitaph's voice returned as cold and emotionless as she'd been since becoming like this. "His raw power output is about ten percent higher than your own; however, I estimate you have approximately a ten percent advantage over him in joint durability."

  Carter smiled. "Well, that sounds like we can do this straightforwardly, then!"

  Lunging forward, Carter grabbed the man's hands and started pushing with all the power available to him. The man gripped back, forcing them into a raw pushing match as the two combatants tried to overpower each other through sheer strength. For several moments, the old man pushed Carter back, closer to the wall, but Carter kicked out and pressed one foot against it, so all the power of their contest was pushed back into their clasped hands. Slowly, the old man forced Carter's hands back until he was in danger of losing what leverage he had, making Carter wonder if he'd made a mistake, when suddenly one of the old man's elbow joints seemed to fail, freeing one of Carter's hands, which he then swung around into the old man's head, knocking him prone.

  Having the advantage, Carter lept onto the old man and started driving fist after fist into him. As the man's "skin" tore and broke under Carter's fists, there was no blood and muscle underneath, just metal and circuitry. It didn't take long to render the bot effectively non-functional. Standing up, Carter looked around, noticing a desk in the middle of the room. However, then another door in the wall opened up, and another old man, identical to the first, came out. Carter sighed and prepared for another fight, but Epitaph spoke up. "If that desk has an access point, I may be able to prevent further complications from arising."

  The old man didn't seem to be in a rush as he staked forward, so Carter ran over to the desk. Sure enough, there was a series of access ports. Carter looked back and forth before plugging an access cord from his suit into one at random.

  He sat there for a moment, a cord going between him and the desk as he watched the old man get closer, before Epitaph's voice spoke out over some unseen speakers. "I'm in their system. Stay alive while I figure out how to stop all this."

  With a sigh, Carter stepped forward, shaking out his "arms" as if loosening up for a slugging match before flowing into motion, swinging for the old man, who started to swing his own counter punch.

  -

  Vanessa moved around Erik's attacks again. As she'd told Carter, this Erik's combative ability lacked the savagery of her actual lady's, however there was a complication she'd failed to mention that was keeping this contest closer than it otherwise might be. Whoever was controlling her lady's body didn't seem to care about preserving its well-being if it could land a blow of its own. However, Vanessa had sparred with her lady so often that she knew all of her lady's capabilities. On the other hand, what she'd never told her lady was that she'd been holding back...until now.

  Vanessa flooded her system with combat stimulants that pushed her body far beyond her usual limits. It was based on the human adrenal system, except she could control its release, and at maximum flow, it was much more potent than that which a human could produce, sending her mind and body into overdrive. Of course, those enhancements came at a cost, but at the moment, the damage she was doing to her frame was much less severe than the damage her lady's plasma axes could do.

  As her lady's body spun its axes toward her, Vanessa spun around her lady and inside his reach, then grabbed one of his arms and spun out and behind, twisting the arm to force the grip to relax and drop the axe. Of course, her lady did the predictable thing and kicked back, pushing Vanessa to the wall, the impact causing some slight cracks in her exoskeleton. However, Vanessa simply used the wall as a point to brace and push off from, kicking up with one leg to knock her opponent's axe into the air. Though her lady didn't lose his grip this time, with the axe in that awkward position, it was a simple matter for Vanessa to spin again, backhanding her lady, then jumping onto his back and using her six legs as a cage to pin his arms to his side while she removed the two additional axes from his back, throwing them down the hall.

  At that moment, her lady lept back, intending to smash Vanessa against a wall, but Vanessa simply dropped to the ground and used her legs to trip up her lady again, making him fall against the wall harder than intended, driving the breath from his lungs.

  Her lady began wildly swinging his last axe, giving up technique for raw speed and power, making Vanessa tsk in disapproval. This was the kind of panic only a raw amateur would give in to, but it made Vanessa's job easier as she jumped in, pushing the descending axe to the side with her hands as she drove her shoulder into her lady's gut, doubling him over. Using the moment to rip the last axe from her lady's grasp and throw it spinning away.

  That was when her lady finally got a hand on Vanessa, reaching out and grasping her hand in his steel-like grip. He began to pull Vanessa in, intending to use his strength advantage to finish the fight, but Vanessa surprised him by kicking up with one of her legs, severing her own hand at the wrist and falling back again.

  She was down one hand, but her lady was all out of axes. It was time to finish this fight.