Rioter Prime

A protestor protests.

The massive head swiveled smoothly and with an eye-watering speed. It moved so fast that the wide-brimmed hat atop the head simply flew off, revealing a wide face with deep-set eyes that seemed to absorb the light—an edgeless black. There was something horrifying about the look, but that was eclipsed by the massive body that, despite having been slammed into by the riot cop, had simply not budged.

The trousers on the man were obviously armored and themselves enormous, comically so. Whatever the protestor was that the riot police were attempting to take down, it was not entirely human. The sudden snap of fabric as the protestor’s arms moved through some sort of combat kata confirmed it. The riot policeman found himself stumbling backwards onto his haunches.

The hands snapped through another kata sequence and then the enormous protestor thrust forward into an oiled and machine-like run, directly at the riot line. Stomping right over the downed riot cop, the protestor kept accelerating and, at the last moment, dove directly into the riot line, smashing into the troopers as if they were just human skittles.

Having downed several of the riot elements, the protestor stood again with an impossibly precise and smooth motion. Massive and unrelenting, it turned again and this time it roared—a challenge, a war cry that declared its intent for mayhem.

It followed that throatless roar with an instant demonstration. Picking up a dropped riot shield, it tossed it into the air. A simple flex of its body and the shield was hurled a hundred feet up. As it spun upwards, riot police stared up at the impossible sight. The protestor leaped forward—another impossibly smooth, impossibly powerful move—and crunched down atop the enormous riot van, caving in the roof and forcing the thing down hard on its suspension. A multi-ton armored assault wagon, the riot van was capable of shrugging off actual tank main gun rounds, and this creature had just caved it in.

This, of course, was a signal for the real police force to mobilize. And they did, with a crushing and totalitarian force.

From suddenly hovering blackened shapes, drop squads rappelled down fast ropes, snapping assault rifles into position as they touched down and opened fire on the imposing protestor now designated Rioter Prime on their helmet displays. Sabot rounds impacted all over the protestor’s body and it went flying backwards, unable to resist that kinetic fire.

But, incredibly, the protestor rose to its feet—not as smoothly as when it made its other movements, but with the exact same finality and surety. The drop squads did not hesitate and continued to pour on the fire, spreading out as their training demanded and moving to more optimal fire positions.

This clearly angered the protestor, because it roared again—this time with words interlaced throughout the infrasound. “Fight!” it bellowed, and zig-zagged its way to the nearest trooper, grabbing him by the rifle and hoisting him into the air.