Mercy eventually grappled free and pushed off her assailant. There, in the downpour above the church, she came face to face with the flying Omnic, Marcion, wearing her prototype wings of old.
“You are quite the miracle worker,” teased Marcion. He floated with ease as he looked down at Junior, who was now free from his grasp.
Mercy grabbed one of her arms and shifted her eyes away from her foe as regret still lingered inside of her. “Not always...” she mumbled.
“There is no victory here, though,” Marcion continued. “I still have the Crusader. And now that I know these chips work, I can pass them on to other Omnics around the world. In fact, your friend is useless now. I should put him out of his misery.”
Mercy’s eyes narrowed. “He’s no threa--” Her right wing gave out briefly, throwing her off balance before returning to normal. She caught herself and realigned face-to-face with the Omnic. “He’s no threat...but I am.”
Marcion gave a small chuckle before responding, “I never said you weren’t.” He tilted his head in confusion. “But alas, you appear to be...”
Before he even finished speaking, he soared over to Mercy and rammed her with his metal shoulder and jumped slightly backward. She didn’t have time to react as he landed his robotic foot across her face, sending her spinning wildly through the air.
“...mortal.” Marcion finished.
Lightning streamed through the sky behind the duo. Mercy stabled herself and moved into an offensive stance, staff in hand. She vaulted toward her target and attacked in a downward arc.
To say Marcion looked and acted like a human was a misnomer. Wings aside, his movements in the air and the martial prowess displayed was far more unique and abnormal. His arms, spine, and rotations physically could not be done by a human! He danced and wriggled around Mercy’s attack and was perfectly positioned for an opening of his own. He kicked Mercy’s knee and shifted around behind her with ease. He then rotated his hand as he landed a large punch on Mercy’s spine.
She grunted as she fell forward. Her wings faltered a bit before coming back online. Mercy couldn’t worry about it, though. She had to defend herself.
Mercy once again moved toward her enemy, the butt of her staff pointing like a spear. This time, she was ready.
Marcion grabbed the staff with his hands as it approached him. Mercy then released the staff and unholstered her pistol, shooting him in the face a few times before using her free hand to grab the staff again. She pushed the staff downward, which made her legs vault upward. Her boots smacked Marcion’s face simultaneously as the butt of her staff jabbed his abdomen, pushing him back.
She immediately rushed forward and rammed into him. She turned on the blue beam of her staff and used the butt of her pistol to dent his exterior plating. Marcion struggled to react, but eventually placed his hand through the muzzle of the pistol and used his other hand to forcibly rotate the gun towards Mercy.
Her hands shot with pain as her wrist bended in a way human wrists couldn’t bend. She retracted it instinctively before the bone would shatter, now leaving Marcion in full possession of the pistol.
Marcion batted away the staff in his face and used the pistol to shoot at Mercy’s lame wing. Mercy faltered as the wing spasmed in agony. Gravity pulled heavily on the angel from this altitude and made her open to more strikes from the flying Omnic.
Continuing his onslaught, Marcion unsheathed one of the mirrored blades from his wrist and thrusted at the angel. Mercy, still trying to balance herself, was able to bring up her staff and deflect the blow before damage could be done. Yet still she felt the pull of the world bringing her down. Another attack tried to slash across Mercy’s face. She did her best to rotate in the air as her wings continued to give ground and felt some hairs slice off.
At this rate, Mercy needed her wings, otherwise this would be a short battle. She decided to overcharge them with all the power she could muster. In a flash, her wings expanded beyond her feet. The light protruding from the wings wiggled and shook at its unstableness, but it gave Mercy enough force to surprise Marcion.
Quickly, she zoomed forward and slashed the Omnic with her staff—glowing blue as it struck. Sparks and metal parts bolted from the metallic body. She then flipped around and grappled her pistol, which was still held by Marcion. She attempted to pry it back, but the Omnic retained his firm grip.
To counter this, she simply forced his aim and pulled the trigger herself, causing Marcion to shoot at his other hand. The golden shots pierced through the metallic wirsts and unfastened the mirrored blade. To finish it off, Mercy slammed her heel into Marcion’s forearm, sending the blade to the ground at record speed.
Marcion grunted and let his hand loosen on the pistol. Now that Mercy had full possession, she brought her knees up to her chest and pushed hard on Marcion to get away and make some space between them.
She flew backwards for but a moment. Marcion’s hands had grabbed the heel of her foot, causing Mercy’s momentum to, instead of going out, arc downward like a pendulum. Mercy was directly below her foe now. She used her core to sit up and fire a few shots into Marcion’s head. The Omnic brought up a free hand to block the blasts from hitting his face as he refused to let go of the angel.
Suddenly, Marion’s wings puffed out as Marcion forcibly tossed Mercy high into the air. Before her wings slowed her down, Marcion had positioned himself under Mercy. He quickly jabbed her in the spine and grabbed her throat.
The poor doctor struggled above the Omnic, unable to break free. Though her eyes faced upward, her staff and pistol moved and attempted to release her through blind luck.
But Marcion ignored the attempts. Keeping one hand on her throat, his other hand grabbed Mercy’s left wing—her good wing—and yanked. Her Valkyrie suit groaned and sparked at the attack. The power in her wings dissipated as the connection was severed.
Now the angel was getting choked in the air and had no reliable wings.
“FLY, Human!” With that, Marcion released Mercy with a fierce push towards the earth.
Mercy spun and tried to make her wings ignite, but her left was barely hanging on and her right was still struggling to function. Even the times it did cooperate, the wing only slowed her descent a bit, but she still fell at an alarming pace.
She began spinning as she fell; the wing made her imbalanced and threw off her center. This made it difficult to see where she was landing.
Until it was too late.
Mercy first saw the steeple of the church too close to her liking before her feet rammed into it, causing her to spiral even more out of control. Her torso quickly bounced off the roof of the church as she helplessly fell on the ground, rolling uncomfortably to a stop.
Her world lost all color. Her gasps were incredibly shallow. Breathing was difficult and arduous. She felt like every bone was broken. The rain pelted her limbs and face unapologetically. Mud gathered around her hands, feet, and back.
She writhed quietly as she rotated from her back to her side. As she slowly turned, she noticed her staff next to her. With all the pain in her limbs, she reached out—hands shaking uncharacteristically—and placed her hand gently on the handle.
She activated the healing beam and felt her numbness and brokenness slowly fade away. A warmth filled her and allowed her to take bigger and bigger breaths as color slowly returned to her vision. She gave a quick diagnostic of herself and made sure all her bones were properly aligned as she slowly arose.
“Give me strength...” she breathed pleafully.
Mercy angled the staff up and used it as a crutch to lift herself off the ground. The healing beam still attached to her as she balanced herself on her feet once again; her strength slowly returned.
After several long breaths, she noticed Marcion kneeling down several meters away. He was quite dented and damaged as well, but he was still very much functional. After a few deep breaths, she stood up straight and took a step forward.
“I guess it is easy to perform miracles when your staff does all the work,” Marcion goated.
“Questionable...judgment.” Mercy’s voice sounded coarse and dry as it left her throat.
“And yours isn’t?,” demanded Marcion.
Mercy narrowed her eyes and gripped her Caduceus staff tighter as she took another step. “Never said...it...wasn’t...” With that, she reached behind her and unbuckled the left wing. It fell to the ground, dead and mangled. She unattached the other shortly after. This one, fell to the floor and sparked a bit before the light faded.
In her mind, she calculated how to contend with the Omnic. He despised all things human; therefore, he would rely on “her” wings and use them to his advantage—especially now that she was without her own. She would need to aim up if she were to strike. She just needed to wait for the right moment.
Marcion unsheathed his other mirrored blade from his other wrist and hopped toward the Doctor. His speed was inhuman! His wings made it seem like he teleported from place to place. Angela realized he was trying to throw her off.
Patience, Angela...
Once the Omnic was in range for a strike, he performed a feint as his blade thrusted directly toward her head, only for the rest of his body to pounce over her and attack from above.
NOW!
Angela ducked and lifted her staff straight above her. The end of it caught the robot and lodged itself inside a portion of his abdomen. With this Angela rotated and brought the staff forcefully down to the ground.
The Omnic let out a grunt of pain as he crashed head first into the mud. Angela refused to relent. She activated the blue beam and pounced on her prey. She continued to flail Marcion with the staff mercilessly. Sparks from both the robot and the staff collided as she unleashed all she could.
The mud surrounding Marcion made it difficult for his joints and wings to function properly. Plus, the mud blotted out his six eyes, making it incredibly difficult to see. He threw up his hands in helpless defense. Eventually, the mirrored blade on his wrist was swatted away and he was merely left with his martial prowess and wings—if he could ever get an opening! Several of his systems began shutting off and malfunctioning. He needed to act now!
In an act of desperation, he stuck out his hands and spread out his fingers. On his right hand, he felt the staff lodge between his middle and ring finger. Swiftly, he had two fingers bend one way and his other fingers bend the opposite way to fully grapple the staff. Following that, he twisted his hand clockwise, causing the staff to gyrate like a helicopter blade. Eventually, he felt the staff hit flesh.
Finally!
“Let’s see if this works on Omnics,” Marcion said aloud. Given how his opponent came to check up on him and knew his anatomy, it wouldn’t surprise him if she programmed the staff to heal Omnics as well.
He instantly pushed himself out of the mud and made a tactical retreat through the rain and into the sky. With the Caduceus Staff in hand, he activated the golden beam on himself and felt invigorated as many of the malfunctioned systems were being repaired and brought back online.
“NO!” Angela screamed as she sprinted to stop Marcion from healing himself. In a moment, the human had jumped on the robot’s legs and was attempting to pry the staff away, but Marcion was ready. He wiggled out of her grasp and activated the blue beam. He then stomped directly on the woman's face, sending her back to the ground, coughing and wheezing.
Now that Marcion was almost fully operational, he knelt down and grabbed both ends of the staff, the center of it rested on his knee. Angela saw this and her heart sank. Without her wings, she was too far away. All she could do was use her pistol from afar. Marcion took several direct shots, but ignored it as best he could. With all his might—along with the blue beam—the staff cracked and split in half. Gold and blue sparks illuminated the Omnic as he now pointed the cracked ends of the staff at Angela, who watched in horror as her pistol reloaded.
Marcion flew towards the human, who now did everything in her power to dodge the blows. Between her dodges, she tried to get a few shots in, hoping to slow him down. Duck, then fire a shot; twist to the right, then fire a shot. Although some damage was done to the robot, nothing stopped its bloodthirst.
Marcion returned to the ground and faced his foe eye to eye. Taking both ends of the staff, he swung them horizontally past each other. With this, Angela ducked and stuck out her foot. In one sweeping motion, she knocked the robot prone. The heel of her boot then slammed down on Marcion’s forearm, sending some sparks flying. The hand reluctantly released the butt of her staff.
Angela immediately grabbed it and used the cracked edge to slash across the Omnic’s face. Sparks and grunts from Marcion escaped as the edge went across his six eyes, practically blinding him.
She took a brief step back and took a few more pistol shots before lining up a more important shot. As Marcion crawled up off the ground, Angela then pegged the staff through Marcion’s leg and burrowed it into the ground, immoblizing him in a crouched position.
Her instincts completely took over. She grabbed her pistol and fired a few shots at point-blank into Marcion’s other hand. It, too, released the final piece of her staff. Before it even hit the ground, Angela caught it and went in for the kill.
By instinct, she activated the blue beam, which sputtered and flickered as she winded up her final attack. The blue beam eventually connected with her for the brief second she needed as she brought down the broken end through Marcion’s head and down into his chest.
Angela breathed heavily and took a step back. Marcion’s head was stuck sideways and his damaged hands flailed uselessly at removing the staff from his head and heart. Oil began dripping out from his body as his systems shut down for good.
And Zurich returned to its deafening silence.
“You are quite the miracle worker,” teased Marcion. He floated with ease as he looked down at Junior, who was now free from his grasp.
Mercy grabbed one of her arms and shifted her eyes away from her foe as regret still lingered inside of her. “Not always...” she mumbled.
“There is no victory here, though,” Marcion continued. “I still have the Crusader. And now that I know these chips work, I can pass them on to other Omnics around the world. In fact, your friend is useless now. I should put him out of his misery.”
Mercy’s eyes narrowed. “He’s no threa--” Her right wing gave out briefly, throwing her off balance before returning to normal. She caught herself and realigned face-to-face with the Omnic. “He’s no threat...but I am.”
Marcion gave a small chuckle before responding, “I never said you weren’t.” He tilted his head in confusion. “But alas, you appear to be...”
Before he even finished speaking, he soared over to Mercy and rammed her with his metal shoulder and jumped slightly backward. She didn’t have time to react as he landed his robotic foot across her face, sending her spinning wildly through the air.
“...mortal.” Marcion finished.
Lightning streamed through the sky behind the duo. Mercy stabled herself and moved into an offensive stance, staff in hand. She vaulted toward her target and attacked in a downward arc.
To say Marcion looked and acted like a human was a misnomer. Wings aside, his movements in the air and the martial prowess displayed was far more unique and abnormal. His arms, spine, and rotations physically could not be done by a human! He danced and wriggled around Mercy’s attack and was perfectly positioned for an opening of his own. He kicked Mercy’s knee and shifted around behind her with ease. He then rotated his hand as he landed a large punch on Mercy’s spine.
She grunted as she fell forward. Her wings faltered a bit before coming back online. Mercy couldn’t worry about it, though. She had to defend herself.
Mercy once again moved toward her enemy, the butt of her staff pointing like a spear. This time, she was ready.
Marcion grabbed the staff with his hands as it approached him. Mercy then released the staff and unholstered her pistol, shooting him in the face a few times before using her free hand to grab the staff again. She pushed the staff downward, which made her legs vault upward. Her boots smacked Marcion’s face simultaneously as the butt of her staff jabbed his abdomen, pushing him back.
She immediately rushed forward and rammed into him. She turned on the blue beam of her staff and used the butt of her pistol to dent his exterior plating. Marcion struggled to react, but eventually placed his hand through the muzzle of the pistol and used his other hand to forcibly rotate the gun towards Mercy.
Her hands shot with pain as her wrist bended in a way human wrists couldn’t bend. She retracted it instinctively before the bone would shatter, now leaving Marcion in full possession of the pistol.
Marcion batted away the staff in his face and used the pistol to shoot at Mercy’s lame wing. Mercy faltered as the wing spasmed in agony. Gravity pulled heavily on the angel from this altitude and made her open to more strikes from the flying Omnic.
Continuing his onslaught, Marcion unsheathed one of the mirrored blades from his wrist and thrusted at the angel. Mercy, still trying to balance herself, was able to bring up her staff and deflect the blow before damage could be done. Yet still she felt the pull of the world bringing her down. Another attack tried to slash across Mercy’s face. She did her best to rotate in the air as her wings continued to give ground and felt some hairs slice off.
At this rate, Mercy needed her wings, otherwise this would be a short battle. She decided to overcharge them with all the power she could muster. In a flash, her wings expanded beyond her feet. The light protruding from the wings wiggled and shook at its unstableness, but it gave Mercy enough force to surprise Marcion.
Quickly, she zoomed forward and slashed the Omnic with her staff—glowing blue as it struck. Sparks and metal parts bolted from the metallic body. She then flipped around and grappled her pistol, which was still held by Marcion. She attempted to pry it back, but the Omnic retained his firm grip.
To counter this, she simply forced his aim and pulled the trigger herself, causing Marcion to shoot at his other hand. The golden shots pierced through the metallic wirsts and unfastened the mirrored blade. To finish it off, Mercy slammed her heel into Marcion’s forearm, sending the blade to the ground at record speed.
Marcion grunted and let his hand loosen on the pistol. Now that Mercy had full possession, she brought her knees up to her chest and pushed hard on Marcion to get away and make some space between them.
She flew backwards for but a moment. Marcion’s hands had grabbed the heel of her foot, causing Mercy’s momentum to, instead of going out, arc downward like a pendulum. Mercy was directly below her foe now. She used her core to sit up and fire a few shots into Marcion’s head. The Omnic brought up a free hand to block the blasts from hitting his face as he refused to let go of the angel.
Suddenly, Marion’s wings puffed out as Marcion forcibly tossed Mercy high into the air. Before her wings slowed her down, Marcion had positioned himself under Mercy. He quickly jabbed her in the spine and grabbed her throat.
The poor doctor struggled above the Omnic, unable to break free. Though her eyes faced upward, her staff and pistol moved and attempted to release her through blind luck.
But Marcion ignored the attempts. Keeping one hand on her throat, his other hand grabbed Mercy’s left wing—her good wing—and yanked. Her Valkyrie suit groaned and sparked at the attack. The power in her wings dissipated as the connection was severed.
Now the angel was getting choked in the air and had no reliable wings.
“FLY, Human!” With that, Marcion released Mercy with a fierce push towards the earth.
Mercy spun and tried to make her wings ignite, but her left was barely hanging on and her right was still struggling to function. Even the times it did cooperate, the wing only slowed her descent a bit, but she still fell at an alarming pace.
She began spinning as she fell; the wing made her imbalanced and threw off her center. This made it difficult to see where she was landing.
Until it was too late.
Mercy first saw the steeple of the church too close to her liking before her feet rammed into it, causing her to spiral even more out of control. Her torso quickly bounced off the roof of the church as she helplessly fell on the ground, rolling uncomfortably to a stop.
Her world lost all color. Her gasps were incredibly shallow. Breathing was difficult and arduous. She felt like every bone was broken. The rain pelted her limbs and face unapologetically. Mud gathered around her hands, feet, and back.
She writhed quietly as she rotated from her back to her side. As she slowly turned, she noticed her staff next to her. With all the pain in her limbs, she reached out—hands shaking uncharacteristically—and placed her hand gently on the handle.
She activated the healing beam and felt her numbness and brokenness slowly fade away. A warmth filled her and allowed her to take bigger and bigger breaths as color slowly returned to her vision. She gave a quick diagnostic of herself and made sure all her bones were properly aligned as she slowly arose.
“Give me strength...” she breathed pleafully.
Mercy angled the staff up and used it as a crutch to lift herself off the ground. The healing beam still attached to her as she balanced herself on her feet once again; her strength slowly returned.
After several long breaths, she noticed Marcion kneeling down several meters away. He was quite dented and damaged as well, but he was still very much functional. After a few deep breaths, she stood up straight and took a step forward.
“I guess it is easy to perform miracles when your staff does all the work,” Marcion goated.
“Questionable...judgment.” Mercy’s voice sounded coarse and dry as it left her throat.
“And yours isn’t?,” demanded Marcion.
Mercy narrowed her eyes and gripped her Caduceus staff tighter as she took another step. “Never said...it...wasn’t...” With that, she reached behind her and unbuckled the left wing. It fell to the ground, dead and mangled. She unattached the other shortly after. This one, fell to the floor and sparked a bit before the light faded.
In her mind, she calculated how to contend with the Omnic. He despised all things human; therefore, he would rely on “her” wings and use them to his advantage—especially now that she was without her own. She would need to aim up if she were to strike. She just needed to wait for the right moment.
Marcion unsheathed his other mirrored blade from his other wrist and hopped toward the Doctor. His speed was inhuman! His wings made it seem like he teleported from place to place. Angela realized he was trying to throw her off.
Patience, Angela...
Once the Omnic was in range for a strike, he performed a feint as his blade thrusted directly toward her head, only for the rest of his body to pounce over her and attack from above.
NOW!
Angela ducked and lifted her staff straight above her. The end of it caught the robot and lodged itself inside a portion of his abdomen. With this Angela rotated and brought the staff forcefully down to the ground.
The Omnic let out a grunt of pain as he crashed head first into the mud. Angela refused to relent. She activated the blue beam and pounced on her prey. She continued to flail Marcion with the staff mercilessly. Sparks from both the robot and the staff collided as she unleashed all she could.
The mud surrounding Marcion made it difficult for his joints and wings to function properly. Plus, the mud blotted out his six eyes, making it incredibly difficult to see. He threw up his hands in helpless defense. Eventually, the mirrored blade on his wrist was swatted away and he was merely left with his martial prowess and wings—if he could ever get an opening! Several of his systems began shutting off and malfunctioning. He needed to act now!
In an act of desperation, he stuck out his hands and spread out his fingers. On his right hand, he felt the staff lodge between his middle and ring finger. Swiftly, he had two fingers bend one way and his other fingers bend the opposite way to fully grapple the staff. Following that, he twisted his hand clockwise, causing the staff to gyrate like a helicopter blade. Eventually, he felt the staff hit flesh.
Finally!
“Let’s see if this works on Omnics,” Marcion said aloud. Given how his opponent came to check up on him and knew his anatomy, it wouldn’t surprise him if she programmed the staff to heal Omnics as well.
He instantly pushed himself out of the mud and made a tactical retreat through the rain and into the sky. With the Caduceus Staff in hand, he activated the golden beam on himself and felt invigorated as many of the malfunctioned systems were being repaired and brought back online.
“NO!” Angela screamed as she sprinted to stop Marcion from healing himself. In a moment, the human had jumped on the robot’s legs and was attempting to pry the staff away, but Marcion was ready. He wiggled out of her grasp and activated the blue beam. He then stomped directly on the woman's face, sending her back to the ground, coughing and wheezing.
Now that Marcion was almost fully operational, he knelt down and grabbed both ends of the staff, the center of it rested on his knee. Angela saw this and her heart sank. Without her wings, she was too far away. All she could do was use her pistol from afar. Marcion took several direct shots, but ignored it as best he could. With all his might—along with the blue beam—the staff cracked and split in half. Gold and blue sparks illuminated the Omnic as he now pointed the cracked ends of the staff at Angela, who watched in horror as her pistol reloaded.
Marcion flew towards the human, who now did everything in her power to dodge the blows. Between her dodges, she tried to get a few shots in, hoping to slow him down. Duck, then fire a shot; twist to the right, then fire a shot. Although some damage was done to the robot, nothing stopped its bloodthirst.
Marcion returned to the ground and faced his foe eye to eye. Taking both ends of the staff, he swung them horizontally past each other. With this, Angela ducked and stuck out her foot. In one sweeping motion, she knocked the robot prone. The heel of her boot then slammed down on Marcion’s forearm, sending some sparks flying. The hand reluctantly released the butt of her staff.
Angela immediately grabbed it and used the cracked edge to slash across the Omnic’s face. Sparks and grunts from Marcion escaped as the edge went across his six eyes, practically blinding him.
She took a brief step back and took a few more pistol shots before lining up a more important shot. As Marcion crawled up off the ground, Angela then pegged the staff through Marcion’s leg and burrowed it into the ground, immoblizing him in a crouched position.
Her instincts completely took over. She grabbed her pistol and fired a few shots at point-blank into Marcion’s other hand. It, too, released the final piece of her staff. Before it even hit the ground, Angela caught it and went in for the kill.
By instinct, she activated the blue beam, which sputtered and flickered as she winded up her final attack. The blue beam eventually connected with her for the brief second she needed as she brought down the broken end through Marcion’s head and down into his chest.
Angela breathed heavily and took a step back. Marcion’s head was stuck sideways and his damaged hands flailed uselessly at removing the staff from his head and heart. Oil began dripping out from his body as his systems shut down for good.
And Zurich returned to its deafening silence.