Chapter 75: Cruelty
Heavy Duty was in a great mood. He sat in his quarters, feet propped up on the table, humming a tune leisurely.
The strike teams had been deployed for a while, and he estimated they should be bringing Mason back soon. Of course, if they brought back a corpse, he wouldn't get the satisfaction of seeing the shock in Mason's eyes.
Suddenly, a piercing alarm blared through the room. He was startled at first, then sprang up from his chair.
"Base breach!"
"It's definitely Mason!" He grabbed the communicator from the table. "Full combat alert! Eliminate all intruders!"
"Damn it! They've taken the control room and locked down multiple sectors. We can't get reinforcements through!"
"Damn it!" he cursed under his breath, quickly issuing several orders before grabbing a grenade launcher from the weapons locker, kicking open the door, and rushing out.
As soon as he emerged, he saw other G.I. Joe members also running toward the control room.
"It must be Mason! Only he knows the base layout! That traitor! Shoot Mason on sight!" Heavy Duty roared, veins bulging on his face.
He was about to rush forward when his expression suddenly changed. "What's he doing there?"
"Damn it—the nanotech warheads!" Heavy Duty gripped the grenade launcher and quickened his pace, rushing in another direction.
He was only the acting commander of G.I. Joe and didn't have authorization to use General Hawk's former office. However, for security purposes, he'd still stored the four nanotech warheads in a combination-locked safe in the General's office.
Just as he turned a corner, Heavy Duty spotted Mason at the end of the corridor. He roared, "You traitor! I knew you joined G.I. Joe with ulterior motives. Tell me! Did you orchestrate the General's death?!"
Mason sneered, pressing his hands to his waist. With a soft click, a layer of metal covered his palms, transforming them into a pair of gleaming silver gauntlets.
"You wouldn't believe me anyway, so why bother asking?"
"What a shame—we could have been friends." With that, Mason raised the pulse rifle hanging from his chest and fired!
BOOM!
The pulse weapon was extremely powerful. After one shot, the entire corridor trembled, plaster peeling from both sides as the energy wave surged forward, pushing aside all obstacles and heading straight for Heavy Duty's position.
"Die!" Heavy Duty roared.
He raised the grenade launcher and fired a round into the floor midway down the corridor. With a violent explosion, smoke and debris erupted, obscuring Mason's vision. At the same time, the scattered shrapnel partially dispersed the pulse wave.
After the pulse rifle's cooldown ended, Mason didn't hesitate and fired another shot. This one cleared the smoke and debris, removing obstacles in his path. But at the end of the corridor, Heavy Duty's figure had disappeared.
"Trying to run?" Mason sneered and pursued with his weapon ready.
A metal door at the end of the corridor had been blown open, and a crooked sign lay on the ground, the words "Special Equipment Armory" still faintly visible.
Mason remembered that his gauntlets came from here. "This guy's definitely going for special weapons!" he thought with a start, rushing inside.
Following the trail of destruction, he soon reached the back, where through an open doorway, Heavy Duty was struggling to don a heavy suit of powered armor.
Mason recognized it—this armor was arguably the most expensive equipment in the G.I. Joe arsenal, each suit costing millions of dollars.
The Delta-6 Accelerator Suit covered the entire body, allowing the user to run faster, jump higher, and unleash machine-enhanced power.
When Mason arrived, Heavy Duty had already donned the upper body and arm sections and was loading a 10mm caseless Gatling gun into the weapon mount on his arm.
Mason raised his weapon to fire but suddenly noticed the various flammable and explosive ordnance throughout the room. One shot would obliterate not only Heavy Duty, but himself and the entire section.
"If you don't mind us both dying, then go ahead and try," Heavy Duty grinned maliciously.
"Looks like you're planning to hide in that turtle shell and fight me!" Mason lunged forward, kicking the machine gun out of Heavy Duty's hand.
Unable to recover it quickly, Heavy Duty didn't bother reinstalling it. He roared and charged, attempting to bear-hug Mason. The armor's power system activated with a mechanical whir, hydraulics pumping.
"Hah!"
Mason roared, resisting Heavy Duty's crushing pressure with all his might. Veins bulged on his face from the excessive strain, but even with his enhanced strength, he couldn't overpower the machinery.
"Tsk tsk! Not looking so tough now, are you?" Heavy Duty mocked brazenly. "I'm going to snap your spine and let you experience having your body broken in half!"
Mason remained silent, gathering all his strength in his arms. With a roar, he violently thrust outward.
This sudden burst of power clearly caught Heavy Duty off guard, and his arms were forced apart slightly—but he quickly compensated and increased power output.
"Useless! No matter how strong you are, you can't beat—" Before Heavy Duty could finish, he suddenly felt the light dim before him. Taking advantage of the opening he'd created, Mason used his core strength to deliver a devastating headbutt to Heavy Duty's face!
CRACK!
The armor's faceplate shattered with a resounding crack, and Heavy Duty felt his nose break with an audible snap. A wave of searing pain swept over him, and in his agony, his grip loosened. Mason seized the opportunity to shove off his chest and launch him backward.
"You talk too much!" Mason fired the claw mechanisms from his gauntlets mid-flight, landing and scraping across the ground to arrest his momentum.
As soon as he stopped, he pushed off and charged forward again.
Heavy Duty's vision blurred. He ripped off his damaged faceplate, wiping the blood obscuring his sight. An even sharper, more intense pain shot through him, nearly driving him mad.
"I'll kill you!" he shouted, charging at Mason.
"Idiot!" Mason sneered, leaping onto a nearby wall about two meters before reaching Heavy Duty. Using the rebound, he vaulted over Heavy Duty's head.
Heavy Duty noticed Mason's movement but couldn't react in time. In the instant Mason jumped, he grabbed Heavy Duty's face and raked his claws across it.
"AAAHHH!"
Several deep, bone-revealing gashes tore across Heavy Duty's face, flesh splitting open, blood gushing out—and one eye was gouged completely.
But Mason wasn't finished. After landing, the razor-sharp blades at his fingertips swiftly sliced across Heavy Duty's ankles and the back of his knees. As Heavy Duty fell, Mason plunged his claws deep into the gap in his back armor!
He leaned close to Heavy Duty's ear and whispered,
"The Accelerator Suit is impressive—but you're too slow!"
THUD!
Heavy Duty's scream cut off abruptly as he crashed to the ground.
At that moment, the Baroness's urgent voice came through Mason's earpiece.
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