C9 Papa Mark’s Faceoff Part 2

“Come on, Pac, I know you can hit me harder than that! You hit like a pussy!” Mark trash-talked the robot as he struggled to use his suit’s mechanical strength to block 2Pac’s hammering blows. Mark got 2Pac off of him when he blasted the cybernetic man in the face with his machine gun.

Sparks flew from 2Pac’s face and chest from the hot white energy emerging from the machine gun. Mark returned the favor by running toward 2Pac and ramming his body into him.

He used all the thrust power in his suit to tackle 2Pac. Mark and the metal man went through a concrete wall that led to another section of the simulated nightclub. He threw down his fist on 2Pac’s metal jawline after the dust cleared from going through the concrete wall.

“You think you’re the only one who can throw down!?” Mark roared down at 2Pac while nailing his opponent repeatedly in the face. At first, Mark had the advantage, but things went downhill when 2Pac clamped a small hexagon-shaped device on the arm of his suit.

Mark saw digital numbers counting down on the device, and he knew it was an explosive. He averted all his focus on the nano-bomb, and he didn’t see 2Pac’s fist coming straight toward him. Mark went flying backward after his helmet got damaged by 2Pac’s powerful left hook.

“F#ck me,” Mark whispered under his breath in a panic. He struggled to remove the tiny hexagon explosive from the arm of his suit. He saw death staring him in the face when he couldn’t remove the nano-bomb that 2Pac clipped to a hydraulic joint within the suit’s arm. Within six seconds, Mark freed the explosive from his suit. He hurled the bomb across the nightclub. The face of death disappeared after Mark got the bomb out of his hands before it could detonate.

The hexagon-shaped bomb detonated in mid-air, sending a mighty shock wave back toward Mark. He went airborne, landing hard on the nightclub’s light-emitting dance floor, which had pulsating light that moved to the rhythm of the club’s EDM, Latin hip-hop dance fusion.

Fortunately for Mark, his suit absorbed most of the energy from the blast. The unfortunate part was that the blast damaged the optical receptors in Mark’s helmet.

Mark had to remove the helmet so he could see again. The heat from the blast singed his left eyebrow. His mouth fell open as he stared at the fiery explosion. A fireball swayed in the air and it moved in slow motion like a massive, fiery serpent slithering above the dancefloor. It moved slowly because of the strange oxygen level that the nano-bomb produced inside the simulated 3D printed nightclub. Mark knew he didn’t have time to be fascinated by anything, but he’d never seen fire breeze through the air in slow motion. He tried to figure out what kind of high-tech explosive could move in slow motion after detonating.

What also amazed Mark was that the computer-simulated holographic young people in the nightclub were dancing through the mist of the slow-motion flames. Mark’s eyes locked on to a computer-generated young woman wearing a cowboy hat who was dancing and gyrating through the fire. The young woman looked undoubtedly realistic even for a simulated avatar. Her black Pocahontas hair and her mocha brown skin look real and flawless.

Mark became entranced by the sexy CGI dancing queen. Even the sweat on her skin looked authentic. The high-octane fire did not affect the simulated young woman’s body. She moved and grooved with her hands on her shapely hips. The fire kissed her gyrating hips and her slender tattooed waistline. It kissed her denim miniskirt and her strapless red leather halter top.

It was amazing to see a hot babe with supermodel looks dancing through the midst of an explosion. Mark became a little excited when the simulated young woman caught his eyes on her. She blew a kiss at Mark as the golden fire surrounded her dancing, curvaceous body. Mark snapped out of his trance when he saw 2Pac approaching him.

2Pac glided through the flames, and it seemed like he was walking in slow motion. The metal man’s eyes still shined brightly, like high beams on a Ferrari. Mark’s skin became chilled when he saw how 2Pac didn’t have a scratch on his gleaming, armored body. The fire didn’t affect 2Pac’s shirtless metal physique. The blast didn’t even affect the light diodes in his high-resolution eyes. This was not good since the explosion compromised the integrity of Mark’s exoskeleton suit.

2Pac’s stride through the fire looked so effortless that he didn’t move like a robot. He looked like a shirtless guy encased in steel with a black bandana tied around his bald head. The only thing that reminded Mark that he was looking at a robot was 2Pac’s gunmetal silver skin and his artificially glowing eyes.

It was time to fight again, and Mark waited for the right time to press the Ghost Mode button on a touchscreen located on his suit’s hydraulic forearm, which would turn his body into a phantom for a few seconds using a quantum magnetic pulse. Mark waited for the right time to activate the Ghost Mode feature. His nerves misfired a little, but he tried to keep thinking about his son and how he was fighting for him.

Mark also thought about his dead wife, Natalie. He saw his wife watching him from heaven. He saw her screaming down at him and telling him to fight for their child’s life. Mark couldn’t lose this fight. He knew that if he lost, his little boy would pay for his failure. A shimmer of hope emerged through doubt in Mark’s heart. A strong possibility of death haunted him, but he disregarded his doubts and fears. The father tried to believe that God would help him win the fight for the sake of his little boy. One thing Mark didn’t like doing was breaking a promise. Mark’s situation seemed surreal. He had to keep telling himself that he was out in the deepness of space, brawling with a robotic bad boy.

He laughed a little on the inside, thinking how his fight with 2Pac made him feel trapped in one of his son’s PlayStation video games. He thought back on how he would play Fallout: Genocide, Mortal Kombat: Wrath Of The Gods, and Assassin’s Creed 11, with his son. Mark felt like he was inside a real-life video game trying to fight for his boy and praying to God not to die.

He battled 2Pac, but there was also a battle inside of Mark. He tried to fight the doubts in his mind. The fear in Mark’s heart told him he would lose. It told him he would die and cause his child to be executed by Princess Death Row. It told Mark he had no chance of winning against a combat machine. Mark told the fear in his heart to shut up.

Mark nailed his fear as he nailed 2Pac in the face using both fists. He fought out of his mind and he tried to body slam his doubts and fears on the inside. There was cruelty in the fact that Mark did double work in his fighting. Being human meant that Mark had to fight against a range of negative thoughts and emotions while also battling 2Pac.

2Pac didn’t have to deal with what Mark was going through. The metal man couldn’t feel pain, sorrow, or fear. 2Pac didn’t have to worry about negative thoughts corrupting the neural net processor in his head. He didn’t have to worry about negative emotions arising inside his robust 2-ton hyper-alloy body. He didn’t have to worry about feeling pain. 2Pac had the luxury of gliding his metallic muscular frame through fire without getting burned. There was an advantage to being a war machine. Mark watched as the flames rolled off 2Pac’s broad shoulders and his gold necklace.

Mark’s nerves misfired again, but for five seconds he felt immortal when he activated Ghost Mode. A quantum magnetic pulse passed through the cells in Mark’s body, making him feel invincible. He chuckled as he watched his body morph into a spirit. Mark laughed, watching as 2Pac tried to nail him in his face.

Mark felt like he was in a higher dimension. He watched as 2Pac’s fist passed straight through his torso. Mark’s body had become ghostlike. For a moment, he felt like he was God.

While the robotic 2Pac was trying to land a punch on Mark’s body, Mark activated the laser sword feature on his suit. When the furious energy sword emerged out of the suit, it looked like a medieval double-edged sword made of molten hot lava.

Mark brought the laser sword down on 2Pac’s head. When 2Pac’s arm came up to block the sword, sparks flew. Some sparks flew in Mark’s face, burning his chin and nose.

Mark shut out the pain, and he kept swinging his flaming laser sword at 2Pac. 2Pac blocked every blow from the sword, and with every block, sparks would shoot upward. The fiery energy erupted every time it contacted the metallic skin on 2Pac’s forearms.

Mark tried to swing the laser sword even faster at 2Pac and he gritted his teeth when 2Pac blocked every single blow with either his elbow, his wrist, or just the edge of his hand.

It was as if 2Pac could predict Mark’s every move. Mark had to do something that would damage the metal man’s body and he knew that his time was running out. While swinging his nuclear-powered sword at 2Pac, Mark had a strange brief memory arise in his head. It was a memory of something that he experienced, and yet he couldn’t explain it. He knew he had never experienced this memory he was having, but it felt like he did.

For some odd reason, Mark felt like he had died already. He had a memory of him, his wife, and his son being killed. Mark shook off the strange memory that flashed in his mind. He thought maybe he was having some kind of brief mental relapse caused by stress. Whatever was going on, Mark tried to stay focused on the fight.

A spark of hope recharged Mark when he knocked 2Pac off his feet a little. When Mark could see that 2Pac was off-balance, he lifted his foot, driving it into the metal man’s chest. The kick knocked 2Pac backward, but it didn’t knock him to the ground. After kicking 2Pac, Mark had that surreal feeling again. He went back to feeling like he was inside one of his son’s video games.

The robotic suit helped Mark with his fighting techniques to a certain point. The suit made him fast with his punches and kicks, but 2Pac was faster with his automated fighting skills. What made fighting 2Pac unnerving for Mark was that it seemed like the robot could predict what move he was about to make next. It was as if 2Pac could see five seconds into the future.

Mark knew the robotic suit was keeping him alive and keeping him able to still hold his own against 2Pac’s strength. At first, he was thinking about not wearing the suit. Mark was glad he ignored the thought of not wearing the suit when 2Pac grabbed his sword while body slamming him down on the nightclub’s dance floor.

Once 2Pac had Mark on his back, he attempted to bring his heavy foot down on Mark’s exposed head. When Mark saw the heel of 2Pac’s metallic foot getting ready to come down on his head, he brought up both of the shields in his arms.

Mark blocked 2Pac’s foot using the suit’s sturdy shields. He cried out in anger and he pumped up the strength level in his suit while pushing against 2Pac’s foot. He kept the shields up in front of his face and he generated enough power in his suit to flip 2Pac’s body into the air. When 2Pac tried to come down with his foot, Mark rammed his shields into the bottom of the robot’s foot with tremendous force. He caused the metal man to do an involuntary backflip through the air.

It was the first time Mark knocked 2Pac off his feet. The robot landed on his back, producing a loud metal thud against the floor. Mark leaped up from the floor, running toward 2Pac like a madman.

After kicking 2Pac in his face, Mark reached down and grabbed the metal man’s throat with both hands. He roared out to release his frustration as he lifted 2Pac’s two-ton body into the air. Mark felt unstoppable. He couldn’t believe he was holding 2Pac’s heavy body up in the air. He finally felt like he was as strong as the machine he was fighting. He had the upper hand, and he threw 2Pac’s body around the nightclub.

He threw the cybernetic man through a wall before body-slamming 2Pac with every chance he got. It seemed like the fight had gone from being difficult to extraordinarily easy. It seemed like 2Pac wasn’t even trying to fight back.

“What’s the matter, Pac!? You didn’t know I could throw down like this, did you!?” Mark shouted after hurling the metal man through another concrete wall. He enjoyed pummeling 2Pac. He enjoyed pinning the cybernetic man down on the nightclub’s floor. Mark became so comfortable and confident that he began rhythmically nodding his head to the club dj's Latin hip-hop mash-up of Daddy Yankee, De La Ghetto and Vico C.

There was a sinister reason behind why 2Pac wasn’t fighting back. He was scanning Mark’s suit to see if he could find any integrity violations. The metal soldier went through his database of past prisoners he executed, and he searched for the cleanest and most efficient way to kill Mark.

When the red fiery blade sliced through Mark’s wide neck, it cauterized the torn flesh around his severed throat, which prevented him from bleeding out. 2Pac decapitated Mark within a second. He executed Mark efficiently and the hot energy sword acted like a sealant around Mark’s throat, making the wound so hot and dry that not a single ounce of blood leaked out. The slice through was so precise and smooth that Mark’s head remained on his neck after the fiery blade severed his throat.

It took a few minutes for Mark’s head to slide off of his neck. His headless body remained upright as it sat on 2Pac’s chest. The fight was over within a matter of seconds and 2Pac won. Mark had a lightning-fast death, and he never knew what hit him.