Ramon was completely sick and tired of constantly letting the upstart Billion Bloodline group get away. Every single time the Syndicate moved against them, Max’s people were arrogantly surpassing his corporate expectations and making him look weak.
Even now, orchestrating a , multi-gang siege, he hadn’t expected it to be this incredibly difficult and bloody to deal with one isolated group trapped in a single building. But standing in the ruined courtyard, he was vividly seeing exactly how the Rejected Corps and the Chalkline Boys had completely fallen to them in the past.
Regardless of the mounting casualties, he had aggressively turned up today with the absolute full financial and military power of the Gilt Rats backing him. He believed a stubborn resistance like this was going to happen eventually, and now, this bloody siege would just serve as the perfect, live-fire testing ground for exactly how his expensive, newly developed combat exoskeletons would perform in close-quarters gang warfare.
Leading confidently from the front, Ramon and Darius walked shoulder-to-shoulder toward the shattered Fortis lobby. As the other remaining members outside saw the leaders finally making their move—not just the defending Billion Bloodline Group, but their own Syndicate thugs as well—they scrambled to part the way. The grunts knew perfectly well how the two bosses would react if they accidentally got in their path.
However, seeing the enemy commanders clearly walking out in the open, of course there were those brave defenders who would act right from the front line, as there were some that were incredibly confident in their own strength.
In particular, a Bloodline defender named Rick—who was widely known as an unstoppable heavy hitter back in his high school street-fighting days—aggressively broke rank and charged directly toward them.
He roared and threw out a , haymaker punch aimed directly at the head of one of the towering men in a white lab coat walking ahead of Ramon.
"Do you rich bastards really think we’re just going to politely step aside and let you guys walk right through our front door?!" Rick shouted at the top of his lungs.
He held his wrist almost for structural support as he viciously drove absolutely all of his physical power and body weight directly into the heavy punch.
When the flying fist got agonizingly close to the man’s face, the enforcer in the lab coat simply reached out his mechanical, hydraulic-assisted hand. Without breaking stride, he effortlessly grabbed Rick’s incoming fist out of the air, stopping the punch dead straight with a sickening crunch of bone.
"What the... you didn’t even flinch!" Rick gasped, his eyes wide with absolute horror as the mechanical grip crushed his knuckles. "What type of ungodly monster are you?!"
Before Rick could even attempt to pull his shattered hand away or reply, the lab coat didn’t hesitate. The enforcer launched a devastating, hydraulic-powered fist right into Rick’s exposed stomach.
The sheer kinetic impact was like getting hit by a speeding truck. Rick was sent flying completely backward through the air, crashing heavily into a couple of the other Bloodline defenders holding the lobby doors and taking them down like bowling pins.
He hurled onto the marble floor, gasping like a fish out of water as he was desperately trying his best to gather the air back into his crushed lungs. Miraculously, he hadn’t completely passed out from the shock, and the adrenaline meant he could technically still fight, but it would be a very long while until he could even stand back up, let alone throw another punch.
If that devastating blow had landed on one of the physically weaker, regular members, Rick wasn’t so sure they could say the same. They would have been dead on impact.
After effortlessly and brutally dealing with the very first person that dared to attack their vanguard, it had provided a terrifying, physical warning to any of the others that were brave enough to go after the command group. But despite the fear, some of the loyal defenders still gripped their weapons, thinking they might be able to swarm them and do something.
That was, until a sharp, encrypted message had been universally received on all of the walkie-talkies and into the earpieces of the squad captains.
"Stand down! Everyone, stand down immediately!" Vivian ordered, her voice cutting through the comms with absolute authority. "Let the command group walk right through the lobby! It’s a total waste of lives to focus on the heavy hitters! Just focus entirely on surviving and fighting the regular thugs right in front of you!"
While Stephen was desperately continuing to fight for his life near the barricades, he paused for a fraction of a second and watched helplessly as Ramon, Darius, and the mechanical monsters casually entered the reception lobby.
’It’s not like I could physically stop them anyway, even if I really wanted to, right?’ Stephen thought bitterly as he lunged to the side.
A split second later, the heavy, crumpled car door Jett was wielding slammed devastatingly into the concrete floor exactly where Stephen had just been standing.
The command group entered the grand reception area. But rather than wasting time focusing on the dozens of defenders that were fiercely fighting inside the lobby, they completely ignored them, focusing entirely on walking straight ahead—just as Vivian had strategically ordered the defenders to let them.
This chilling discipline allowed for Ramon and the heavy hitters to go right up the main stairs completely uncontested, perfectly following the exact same bloody vertical path that Skull and the invading mob had followed earlier.
Ramon had his cold eyes set on exactly one thing, and that was personally finishing off the leader of this miserable group. So he confidently continued to move ahead, the heavy hydraulic footsteps of his bodyguards echoing in the stairwell.
When they finally broke through the barricades and went through the main rooms on the upper floors, the very first major area they had entered was the sprawling Showcase Room.
It was a , pristine room filled with high-tech projectors and glass display objects showcasing the old Fortis group in its prime. It was a luxurious room that was originally meant to be strictly used for high-paying corporate clients to definitively prove why Fortis was the absolute best of the best when it came to private, military-grade security.
When Ramon and his entourage confidently entered the room, they stopped in their tracks, actually quite surprised by the sheer level of carnage. Because scattered all across the expensive carpets, they could clearly see several dozen of the Gilt Rat and Black Hound members lying completely broken and unconscious on the floor.
Standing amidst the groaning bodies, barely breaking a sweat, was Na.
"Ah... it’s that one, right? The Altered powerhouse," Ramon said softly, adjusting his glasses as he analyzed the Ranger. He didn’t even slow his walking pace. "One of you deal with him permanently. The rest of us will just keep going."
Ramon casually continued to walk straight through the room toward the opposite exit with Darius and the rest of the lab coats flanking him.
As Na could see the arrogant command group heading right past him, treating him like an insect, he growled. He reached down and easily picked up a , solid marble podium piece that was currently displaying one of the original Fortis tactical batons in a shattered glass case.
With a roar of raw Altered strength, Na hurled the chunk of marble directly across the room, aiming perfectly to crush the group of intruders.
But before the projectile could land, one of the towering men in the lab coats smoothly stepped in the way. He reached out and effortlessly caught the , flying marble podium with both of his mechanical hands, the hydraulic servos whining loudly as he absorbed the kinetic energy, completely stopping it from hitting Ramon or the others.
"Failure is absolutely not an option today," Ramon said coldly as they walked right past the impending fight and headed toward the next set of staircases.
"Oh, so I guess you’re one of those corporate lapdogs wearing the fancy new exoskeletons, right?" Na said, cracking his knuckles as he moved aggressively forward toward his new opponent. "Well, it’s my specific job today to take every single one of you guys down."
The emotionless lab coat didn’t say a word. He simply used his mechanical strength to throw the marble podium right back at Na like a baseball.
Na didn’t flinch. He planted his feet, wound back his fist, and chucked a devastating punch at the exact right millisecond. His fist collided with the flying marble, shattering the heavy stone completely in half, showering the carpet in dust.
Na smirked through the settling debris.
"This is going to be a really good test for me as well."