Running under the orange hues of the burning sky. He ran faster than he ever had. His arms swung furiously, his legs crashing as powerfully as they could against the ground, making the wind trace his body lightly. After a few dozen seconds of such exertion his body screamed out for respite-his muscles feeling like stiff metal rods and his burning lungs made his breathing unbelievably erratic, to the point where he sounded like a hyperventilating ghost but he ignored it all and kept running-his face a mask of dread. 

'Please be okay Deemas-I won't forgive myself if anything happens to you. God, I'm such a lazy fool.' he cursed himself. 

At last, he arrived at the gym-a lone supermarket sized white building with a canopy supported by 5 columns with the yellow letters reading 'Country fitness'. Azario rushed to the front reflective glass door. Pushing open the door-the air felt stale and the room unsettlingly quiet. He looked around, seeing no one at the reception or even working out. 

*Bang* 

Hearing sounds of vicious struggle-he ran through the gym, his heart racing faster, getting to the back where a motionless and slumped Deemas lay. Over his body stood a black metal humanoid who barely reached Azario's chest in height. The shape of the metal humanoid was strikingly similar to that of a vertex. It's body even having the characteristic holes lining its surface by having metal craters spaced throughout instead. The craters themselves a few inches in diameter. It also had like compound eyes like a vertex with blue hexagonal shaped glass pieces for eyes-cold and emotionless. It bent down to pick Deemas up. 

"Leave... him... alone!" Azario barely mumbled, his voice sedated with terror.

Azario felt torn between his immense fear of the enforcer robot and his care for his brother-rooting him to the spot. 

The vertex enforcer robot picked up Deemas throwing him over its shoulder, as it proceeded to leave-ignoring Azario entirely. Getting close to the exit, Azario watched on feeling the tumultuous conflict within him. It neared the door, it's hand reaching out to grab the door handle. 

'No…If I let it go out, it will be able to fly away. Then Deemas will be gone forever.' 

"UGHHH!" Azario roared cathartically, expelling some of what twisted inside him.

He ran at the robot which had opened the door. When he neared it-he kicked off the ground with his right leg and his left leg shifted forward, causing him to land on it. His right knee shot up and he threw a push kick with as much force as he could muster, his hips extending the moment his foot neared the back of the vertex enforcer robot, compounding the force that would be experienced by the robot. 

*Thud-Pzzst* 

Azario's foot slammed into its back, in response faint Blue Light shone from vertex enforcer robot's back. It seemed to have momentarily activated something in order to counteract the force. A dull thud resounded in Azario's ears as he was sent back a few steps, almost slipping due to the commitment of his kick. 

"What was that?" He muttered. 

Not wasting time to think, Azario threw a wild flurry of straight punches aiming at its only perceivable weak spot-it's eyes. Despite Azario knowing he had no strength left to give-he kept swinging his faint arms, his body at this point conveyed to him that it was siphoning energy from the structures of his body itself. Not moving its legs from the spot the robot effortlessly dodged Azario's fists by crouching to the opposite side of his punches each time, causing Azario to clumsily stumble over himself since he was throwing brash looping punches. His frustrated mounting, he corrected his punching form-adopting a similar stance as Harland, his left leg farther forward than his right leg and he decided not to futilely give his all and fall into his punches. The now precise punches had no noticeable effect. The robot dodged just the same but Azario had hoped for that, as he threw a straight right punch making the robot predictably dodge to his left side crouching beside his fist. Azario threw a straight left punch but stopped halfway causing the robot to jolt then he pushed off of his back right leg drawing an uppercut with his lead left hand aiming for the robot's right compound eye region, his shoulders twisting to accelerate the punch. Giving it every ounce of strength he had. Though the robot enforcer had begun to dodge by leaning back and taking a calculated backstep- it still couldn't evade the fist that was quickly casting a shadow on it's eye in time. 

*Pzzst * 

The metal craters on the front of the vertex robot enforcer's body shone weakly in Azario's eyes for a brief moment. Its body having bent back enough to dodge his fist making it swing exaggeratedly into the open air. 

'Dammit! what is the point of even trying?! I'm basically fighting iron dude!!' he expressed to himself in anguish. 

The robot craned its head up almost looking directly towards Azario's face, not often does a 5 foot 10 inch person experience such a predicament. The robotic compound eyes were scrutinizing him- now being forced to acknowledge Azario's presence. They both studied each other in an unspoken truce. 

'Maybe if I can hold him here long enough some people will come and…call the police? Those guys have already been bought off by the vertex and this is clearly a vertex enforcer robot…but maybe this is not their official doing? Or they won't bother with the hassle and let us go? Ugh, I just need to concentrate and stop iron dude from leaving' 

Azario's face sharpened grimly, he raised his hands shakily adopting a low boxing guard. He lunged forward with as much energy as he could muster, his body sluggish-but he had resolved to keep fighting until help arrived or at least until his could no longer move. As he was in the motion of a lunge- 

*Phst* 

He barely registered the blur from the enforcer-feeling a sharp pain from his left shoulder, stopping him abruptly in his tracks. 

"Ugh... I got... sho-" Azario managed to slur, the rising panic evident in his voice as his consciousness faded-slumping to the floor. 

The last thing he heard was the cold mechanical clinking of the enforcer's left shoulder.