Sector 4 was a cold industrial district, filled with giant smokestacks and cyborg assembly plants.
That night, The Four Pions received their first official mission directly funimportant infiltrate the research facility of Goliath Heavy Industries, assassinate its lead scientist Dr. Vance, and seize the Hyper-Core prototype.
Above a massive exhaust pipe leading into the factory ventilation system, the four of them crept forward in silence.
"Ugh... this oil smell is making my nose itch," Scyte whispered, rubbing his nose with the base of his iron scythe.
"Shhh! Keep it down," Tora warned. His blindfold helped him detect the heat signatures of the bionic guards below them.
"The target is in the main control room, three floors down. We go in, eliminate the guards quietly, take the item, and leave. Understood?"
Rare nodded innocently while hugging his oversized Excalibur. Arrow had already prepared his arrows, standing guard behind them.
But the stealth plan fell apart within five minutes.
The moment they reached the second floor, Rare's giant sword accidentally struck a pile of scrap-filled metal drums.
CLANG! BRUK BRUK BRUK!
The noise echoed throughout the entire facility. Red alarms immediately lit up, and sirens screamed through the halls.
"RARE!!" Tora shouted in frustration.
Rare grimaced. "Sorry, Tora... the sword got stuck."
Before they could argue further, a dozen bionic guards armed with laser rifles surrounded them.
Tora clicked his tongue. "Tch, forget it then! Smash everything!"
He burst forward, swinging his twin axes that absorbed energy from the surroundings. Three bionic guards were split apart in a single strike.
Scyte laughed excitedly, leaping from wall to wall while releasing crescent-shaped energy slashes that sliced enemy rifles like butter.
Rare refused to be outdone. He swung Excalibur one-handed, smashing the steel floor hard enough to trigger a small quake that sent the remaining guards flying.
Arrow supported them from behind, firing arrows precisely into the guards' mechanical joints.
"Hahaha! Too easy!" Scyte boasted smugly.
They easily kicked down the steel doors of the main control room.
Inside, Dr. Vance, a man with half his head plated in metal and glowing red optical eyes, stood holding a glass tube containing the brightly shining Hyper-Core.
"Lowly rats from District 9," Dr. Vance mocked in a mechanical voice. He did not look panicked in the slightest.
"Too much talk!" Tora leapt forward, raising his axe high to split the scientist in two.
At the same time, Rare attacked from the left with a massive slash from his giant sword.
Two physical attacks powerful enough to level a building shot straight toward Dr. Vance.
But Dr. Vance merely pressed a button on his belt.
BZZZTTT!
A transparent yellow hexagonal barrier instantly expanded around him.
TRANGGG!!! DUARRR!!
Instead of breaking through, Tora's axe and Rare's sword were reflected back with twice the force.
Physics itself turned against them. The Kinetic Reflection Grid absorbed incoming kinetic force and hurled it back.
"Ughh!" Tora was blasted backward into a computer console.
Rare's smaller body flew even farther, crashing into a steel wall hard enough to dent it. Excalibur slipped from his grasp.
Both groaned in pain, their muscles numb from the rebound of their own strength.
"Tora! Rare!" Scyte shouted in shock.
He spun his scythe and launched a ranged slash, but the energy attack was also absorbed by the barrier, making it glow even brighter.
"Your brute strength is foolish," Dr. Vance sneered as he walked toward an automatic escape capsule at the far end of the room. "This shield system absorbs all kinetic and energy-based attacks. The harder you strike, the stronger it becomes."
He entered a code into the capsule panel. The door began to open.
Tora tried to stand, but his hands trembled violently. He could not lift his axe.
"Damn it... cheap trick..."
As despair began to rise, Arrow took a deep breath. His hunter instincts took over.
His sharp eyes locked onto the flickering barrier.
He noticed something. The shield perfectly absorbed attacks, but there was a microsecond delay in the projector on Dr. Vance's belt whenever the barrier flickered to adjust to his footsteps.
Arrow drew a single arrow. He looked at Scyte.
"Scyte! Channel your energy into my arrowhead. Just a little, don't make it explode!"
Scyte did not question him. He touched the tip of Arrow's arrow, coating it with a sharp glow of energy.
Arrow pulled his bowstring to its limit.
He did not aim at the shield, nor at Dr. Vance himself.
He aimed at a one-millimeter gap between the belt and the shield generator, at the exact microsecond Dr. Vance stepped into the capsule.
SWUUUSH!
The arrow flew. Not with explosive force, but with absolute precision.
It slipped through the tiny opening just before the shield sealed shut, embedding itself into the core generator on Dr. Vance's belt.
KRAK! BZZT-POOF!
The kinetic shield shattered instantly, short-circuiting as the tiny physical strike destroyed its internal circuitry.
"ARGH!" Dr. Vance screamed as his belt sparked and exploded. The Hyper-Core tube flew from his hands.
Scyte leapt forward and caught it before it hit the ground.
But the wounded Dr. Vance quickly rolled into the escape capsule and slammed the emergency button.
The capsule door sealed shut and shot through the underground evacuation tunnel at rocket speed.
"Tsk! He got away!" Scyte grumbled.
The control room fell silent.
Only the crackling of damaged computers remained.
Tora finally stood, clutching his still-aching arm. Rare crawled back up as well, rubbing the bump on his head.
They all stared at the tube in Scyte's hand.
The mission to retrieve the artifact had succeeded, but the mission to kill the main target had failed completely.
Worse still, their two strongest fighters had just been humiliated by defensive shield technology.
Tora looked at Arrow, who slowly lowered his bow. The usually arrogant axe warrior let out a long breath, his head slightly lowered.
"Arrow..." Tora muttered quietly. "Good work. If you weren't here... Rare and I might've died like idiots trying to break that shield."
Rare hugged his sword tightly, staring at Arrow in admiration.
"See? Arrow is amazing!"
Scyte patted Arrow's shoulder with a wide grin.
"Wow, our little village archer actually has a brain! Unlike the axe idiot who only knows how to charge in, aw..."
Tora immediately punched Scyte hard in the head.
Arrow could only smile awkwardly while scratching his cheek.
"Hehe... well, back in the village, if we recklessly spear an angry honey bear, we're the ones who die. You have to know when to strike its weak point."
That night, they returned to No Name Corporation headquarters carrying the Hyper-Core prototype.
They were still far from a perfect team.
Tora and Rare learned that absolute strength could be broken by the right technology, and they were beginning to realize... within their team, no role was unimportant.