Axel flinched as Aaron shouted down. "I'm hurrying!" he snapped back. What it actually sounded like was "Argh hurrigah!", cables clamped between his teeth. The cables belonged to a small power unit, a component that Axel had recognised was common among the cheaper augmentation parts. Biting down, Axel bit through the rubber and stripped it off, exposing a length of the bare wiring. Spitting it out, the rat dropped the power unit onto the workbench next to five identical parts, and turned his attention to a battered looking robotic hand. The augment was torn at the wrist where it had been 'removed' from its previous owner, the internal circuitry hanging loose.
Dammit... this is a long shot, he thought, even as he snatched up the hand, pulling out the wires and splaying them. Trying and, somehow, succeeding to keep his fingers stable, Axel started to connect the power units to the augment. There was a reason these types of power units were only used in the cheaper, less reputable brands of augment - made with less hardy and reliable parts, they had a tendency to overcharge. Normally this would just result in the augment losing power - but Axel knew that if more energy was supplied, chemicals within the battery could become... excitable. And he was connecting six of them to the same unit.
He heard a creak from the floor above. Whoever had come in the back door was slowly making their way through to the front, where the others were. Gritting his teeth, Axel grabbed an electrical 'wand' from the workbench, a small, thin device designed to deliver an electric current to small augment parts. He flicked it on and applied it to the first power unit. Almost immediately, the fingers of the hand started flexing.
Up top, the front door was hammered again, the hinges straining. Marcus could see it could only take another few blows. Shit... He could try sneaking out, getting close to the door and blowing a hole in whoever came through, but that would mean moving out of their cover, flimsy as it was. And if the other person came out from behind, he'd be as good as dead.
Axel threw the wand down with a clatter and hurriedly picked up the twitching hand. The power units trailing from it were humming, the batteries beginning to glow red. The spasms wracking the hand became even more intense. He didn't have long. His mouth dry as sand, Axel turned and ran for the hatch.
The front door smashed inwards. Machine gun first, the officer came charging through. The sudden transition from daylight to the gloom inside widened his pupil as his eye struggled to adjust. At the same time, his partner emerged from the rear corridor on the opposite side of the room. She indicated towards the counter on the right. "There!"
Reaching the bottom of the stairs leading up Axel heard the shout, and tossed the bundle. It flew up, over their heads of the others taking cover, arcing over the counter. The officer's eyes flicked towards the object. "Now!" Axel yelled. Marcus hunkered down, closing his eyes.
The power units and the augmented hand exploded as one, suddenly flooding the dark room with a piercing, blinding white light and peppering the room with a shower of razor-sharp augment pieces. Their attackers screamed as their vision was destroyed, blood streaming from the man's face.
Hearing their screams, Axel could only guess it had worked. "Kill them! Kill them now!" he roared up.
