Central City (The Final Zone)

[Karl Jak]

The Challenge Zones had fallen.

The orbital stations had been secured.

What remained of the Syntech Fleet found itself on the edge of the central landmark in the Containment Zone. As they watched, the haze and mist cleared to reveal a sprawling cityscape—a fitting combat scene for what was likely to house their greatest and final threat.

“This is the where the corruption took root,” Commander-Admiral-God-King Gilgamesh replied through the communication system. “The Unmaking was drawn to something here, and this is the citadel that houses whatever foul machinations caused them to fester in this world. We’re going to slaughter everything in our path until these oceans can rest once more.”

A sinister, slightly mechanical voice replied through the comm lines. “Is that so, ‘King’?”

Gilgamesh scowled as the carriers approached the edge of the island-city. “Whoever you are, you are destined to be destroyed.”

“Others have tried,” the voice hissed as warnings went off in nearly every nearby ship’s warning system. “Countless fools in countless universes.” Something shook with enough furry to cause the oceans to pitch around the vessels as Gilgamesh and the others disembarked. Those who could took to the skies, while the others climbed nearby buildings.

From the center of the city, a monstrous beast rose and turned its hideous visage toward the invaders.

“You’re an ugly mongrel, aren’t you?” Gilgamesh replied as he turned to see where Admiral Racker was positioned.

The voice that replied didn’t come from the communication’s channels, but instead, it was right above the collection of bonds.

“That’s my pet,” the mechanized voice laughed as a beam of energy tore down and scattered the Bonds. “I am Megatron, and your heroic nonsense dies today.”

***​

Characters Involved: All PC Contestants, The Last Emperor (Rory)*, Ken'ichi (Amalia)*, Deadpool (Deadpool), Gilgamech (Gilgamesh)

Enemies: Slattern (https://pacificrim.fandom.com/wiki/Slattern_(Kaiju)), a Size 8 Kaiju + Megatron (https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Megatron_(Movie)) + an army and fleet’s worth of smaller machines and monsters.

Setting: Your in a generic mild-future mega city. There are skyscrapers and parks and even rivers that flow through this enormous space. There aren't any citizens, but there are signs they may have existed here at some point, given the parked cars and all the furniture and shit in all the buildings.

Notes: Obviously, your goal is to defeat Megatron and Slattern. The army and fleet will deal with everything else, we imagine. You’re still more than welcome to just fight the non-Boss, for whatever reason. I understand with this many writers, it can be difficult to let everyone write and not be stepping on someone’s toes every moment.

More Important Note: Be aware that probably most of you will die. There will be a prize at the end of the event, and that prize will go to the individual who accumulated the most points throughout the event. Dying in this last scene will not impact that in the slightest and there’s not extra bonus for surviving here (points will, as always, be awarded based on writing). If you have a feeling you’re going to be killed off and would rather ‘do it yourself’, that’s fine. Hell, it might be better for you if you create a super dramatic and epic post in the process.

* - I don’t anticipate these two writing, but their characters are still here regardless. Don’t put them into any undue danger.


Length of Scene: This Scene will last for at least … 7 OOC days (Saturday, September 2)
Post Count/Size: 3 posts / 3000 words maximum (for each participant)

 

[Arthur Morgan]

High above the sprawling high-rises of Central City, the pre-dawn sky was scythed open by an invisible force. The air reverberated with sound, a thunderous hum from an entity unseen filling the air high above the city like a ghostly maelstrom of power. Wisps of clouds drifted around, unable to withstand the phantom presence as it tore through them like tissue paper, allowing the sun's rays to cast a dazzling display of light on the city beneath.

The seeker formerly known as Skywarp, Redsky, dove through the steadily brightening sky like a living shadow, her jet mode cloaked by stealth protocols that had been incorporated into her re-engineered body.

Her engines emitted the slightest whisper as she flew, leaving no trace except for a lingering feeling of unease. She scanned the ground below with razor-sharp optical scanners, searching for any signs of movement within her crosshairs.

As she soared lower and faster, her fuselage creaked and groaned under the stress of the wind. Her dark wings trembled with vibrations, the g-forces enough to make most pilots pass out; but not Redsky or the pilot sheltered within her cockpit. Both were built and bred to be weapons of war, every inch designed for maximum lethality.

"Megatron," she murmured, her scanners transfixed by the figure so far below, a hint of awe tinging her voice. "It's really him..."

"Redsky," Don Isaac de Metralla cautioned abruptly from the safety of her cockpit, as though he had glimpsed the Devil himself lurking in the distance. Through their cerebral connection, he could see all that she saw, and could not allow her to be tempted. "You must not become distracted—"

Briefly, the nobleman's eyes flashed like emeralds under a blazing sun, a look of distress washing over his countenance... before it suddenly smoothed over into understanding.

"Ah," he nodded, a fierce and crooked grin spreading across his aristocratic face, teeth smeared with the crimson of warfare. "Carry on, then."

The glinting light of her nosecone was her guide as Redsky plunged from the heavens, the svelte F-18 Hornet slicing through the skies with a feral grace. Her unmoving gaze focused like a laser upon her target, who remained unaware of her wrathful descent.

Far below, Megatron towered above the crumbling city, his metallic frame gleaming like a beacon of dominance from atop the highest skyscraper. A fusion cannon, the bane to all that opposed him, was strapped to his arm like an extension of himself. It hummed with power, unleashing torrents of devastating purple energy in every direction— lethal strikes of lightning that blasted everything in sight, obliterating multitudes with scorching force.

His face-plates curled in a sinister rictus, spewing forth pure malice with each cackle of derision. The enemy forces scrambled away in panic from his cannon shots as Slattern, the massive kaiju with its monstrous hammerhead skull and scales of obsidian armor, descended among them like an unstoppable juggernaut, flattening all that stood in its dreaded path.

Uncloaking from her stealth mode, Redsky's robotic frame split apart, her metallic pedes creating a cacophony of sound that pierced the air like a thousand swords. She landed with cat-like precision upon the rooftop behind Megatron, the 10-ton weight of her high-heeled thrusters sending pieces of masonry flying in all directions.

Rage coursed through the alien warlord as he spun, and his fusion cannon whined with a feverish pitch of energy in preparation for a battle that would undoubtedly be swift and merciless.

Not deterred in the slightest, Redsky strode closer to Megatron, her armor glinting in the light with its purple and midnight black accents, a faintly reddish hue encasing her frame like a raging wildfire. Her yellow-tinted cockpit window shone from her chest like a beacon, the golden insignia of Don Isaac de Metralla’s house radiating strength where it adorned her outstretched wings.

At the sight of her former commander, the femme seeker's ailerons quivered and rose in anticipation, dark lip-plates curling up into a wicked smirk. When she spoke, her voice came out breathless and low— laced with exhilaration.

"You look lonely, Lord Megatron," Redsky cooed softly, her voice dripping with honeyed deceit, ruby optics blazing with an intensity that bordered on mania. "I can fix that..."

The other mech's colossal, jagged metal frame cast an imposing silhouette. His features were obscured by the shadows draped around him, yet his burning crimson optics pierced through the gloom like stars of pure arcanite, radiating a cruel amusement as he sneered upon her.

"Ahhh, Skywarp... my most faithful seeker," Megatron purred, his oily tone dripping with mistrust... and, perhaps something that sounded like intrigue. The armored plating of his massive shoulders rippled as he twisted to intently watch the seeker's prowling movements, and a vapor rose from them in the increasingly oppressive sunlight. "So, have you come to be part of my reign over this squalid planet? Or are you foolish enough to defy me?"

Redsky felt the ground quake beneath her as her former leader stomped closer, bristling with menace. She peered at him distrustfully, struggling to recognize the alien tank that his chassis suggested— his huge arms bearing an array of weapons and heavy treads built into his thighs, his dark armor so corroded that it seemed to have lost all its color, gleaming like rust in the sun.

His enormous pedes scraped against the pavement like the pointed toes of a giant insect's legs, each stride accompanied by an ear-shattering screech of metal on concrete, gouging out deep furrows wherever he stepped.

In answer, the seeker's missile-laden arms swept wide, the scrap metal wings on her back remaining in a deferential display as she bowed low before her commander.

"No chance! You think I'd be so foolish to stand against you, Lord Megatron?" she wondered aloud, optics flashing bright. "I've only come to catch up with an old... friend, and discuss the trouble of days gone by!"

Tipping his massive helm back, Megatron bellowed out a spine-chilling cackle that pierced the thick air, its grating notes echoing off his menacing metal carapace. The thunderous rumble of his mighty engines filled the atmosphere above Central City's skyline, a savage growl that cut through the air like a blade, stirring dread in any who heard it.

His glowing red optics bored into her with malicious glee, a sneer creeping across his gnarled face-plates.

"Foolish Skywarp," he snarled, words dark and brackish with befouled oil. "You were never a friend of mine— you were nothing more than a weapon in my arsenal, a tool, disposable and exchangeable when needed. Not a friend, merely an expendable soldier. And it appears it is time I part ways with a tool that has long lost its purpose..."

With a crash, Redsky plunged to her knees, bowing so low the point of her helm came within inches of grazing against the rooftop. Her chassis trembled in reverence, the sunset-kissed sheen of her armor glimmering in the light.

"I swear it, by Primus, Lord Megatron," she gasped with vehemence, vocalizer quavering and helm hung low, utterly wretched. "If we must join forces to crush our enemies, I... I will follow you without fail!"

Megatron's optics glowed ominously, his helm slowly angling to the side. His dentae were a razor sharp line as he spoke, the gargantuan bulk of his fusion cannon aimed unerringly at Redsky's helm.

"Your sweet words do not dissuade me from your true intentions, fool... My agents have reported of your little campaign against Darkseid's forces... you and your errant, weak-willed wing-mate. Allying yourselves with a fleshling... I sense treachery within your spark..."

The seeker couldn't help but let a shudder roll through her wings at the threat against her wing-mate, her talons curling like blades. Her frame tensed like a coiled snake, ready to strike with deadly precision... yet contorted still in a deep, subservient bow.

"Steady, Redsky, steady..." Isaac murmured from within the depths of the Cybertronian's cockpit, his teeth gritted with tension, staring out at the massive shadow looming just beyond the golden glass of her cockpit window.

His hand held onto his .45 caliber pistol so tightly that it almost seemed as if the bone from his knuckles was trying to force its way out through his skin.

"Oh, Megatron!" Redsky pleaded frantically, her expression overwrought with false sparkache, her wings fluttering madly. "Megatron, show me mercy and I shall be forever grateful. We need each other now— as we have for eons! All of this was merely a... a ploy, an act to bring us together once more as one powerful force! I have traversed this entire universe searching for a way to return to your side! What might we not accomplish with our combined forces...? Please, give me another chance!"

Gigantic and unstoppable, Megatron stood like a silver sentinel of terror, his fusion cannon blazing with incendiary rage. His optics narrowed in menacing calculation, his face-plates cold and unforgiving...

And then a cruel smirk crossed his metallic face as he powered down the devastating weapon, slowly lowering it.

“Ah, I knew you would remain true to me, my most avid seeker," Megatron rasped menacingly as his cruel talons clamped down on her shoulder pauldron. Like a vice, he squeezed, and the metal began to buckle under the pressure of his malicious strength. "Yes, yes... for now I will overlook your transgressions. Together we shall bring death and destruction to all who oppose us!"

Redsky felt the cold iron of her oppressor's grip denting her, and yet she only allowed her face-plates to reveal a sharp grin. Red rage filled her circuitry with fire, a silent inferno of defiance that showed only in the luminescence of her optics.

"It would be my absolute pleasure, Lord Megatron."

Wordcount: 1,624/3,000
POST 1/3

 

[Arthur Morgan]

Megatron's deep laughter echoed across the barren rooftop, rasping with an ominous, hollow resonance. Briefly, his grip tightened on Redsky's shoulder pauldron until the metal creaked under the pressure, then he slowly released her and spun away with a violent thrust of his arm cannon.

"Excellent, excellent..." he declared, his pitiless profile stark in the pre-dawn light. "Now is the time for us to commence our reign of terror. Starting with the obliteration of your foolish Commander..."

“Yes, Lord Megatron," hissed Redsky, raising herself up into a tall and bodeful stance. Her wings arched menacingly as her optics burned with resentment, fixed upon the back of his bucket-like helm. She slowly reached behind her, talons grasping something cold and metallic locked between her wings. "As you command."

An ear-scorching chorus of dread and rage filled the air as Redsky unleashed a savage battle cry, lunging forward. Her arms swung with astonishing force, wielding an immense chainsaw sword that seemed to take on a life of its own— revving, rasping, and roaring in ravenous wrath.

With unbridled ferocity she brought its bladed teeth to bear against Megatron's mechanical back, driving it deep into his armored plating. The wicked blade spun at a torrid pace, teeth gnashing in hungry fervor. In one swift stroke, it sought to cleave Megatron's towering silver body in two, splintering bolts and wiring in an attempt to fell the warlord before her.

The Slagmaker roared in torment as the fierce blow threw him to his knees, but Megatron was not one to succumb so easily, a gladiator's grit making the pain almost inconsequential to him. A shower of molten sparks burst from the wound as he twisted wildly around, his powerful fusion cannon already primed and ready— seething with abominable power.

An unholy beam of purple energy blazed directly towards Redsky's head, the searing heatwave mighty enough to engulf everything in its path... and for a moment, it seemed that it truly had, until Megatron's audials picked up the steady crackling of thrusters blazing behind him.

Ah, accursed teleportation.

Redsky's lip-plates curled into a chilling smirk as she descended slowly from the sky on her burning thruster-heels, her wingspan blocking out the sun. A sinister hum emanated from her servos as they locked onto Megatron, a deadly glint flashing in her crimson optics.

"Hey, hey, Commander," she sneered through clenched dentae, every syllable that left her vocalizer vibrating with pure malicious intent. "Ready for this?"

SHRRIIIIEK! A barrage of heat-seeking missiles screamed out from the launchers mounted along the seeker's arms, screeching through the air and spewing a hailstorm of hellfire and destruction. Everything around her was consumed in an inferno of dust and smoke as the skyscraper's top floors crumbled and buckled into molten oblivion, the concussive explosions echoing through the air like thunder, shaking the city around them with every incendiary blast, sending shards of glass flying like daggers in every direction.

Megatron's roar pierced through the chaos like a javelin, warning her of the impending danger, but it was too late. He burst out from the collapsing remnants of the tower, hurtling into her with crushing force. His serrated claws were clamped around her neck cabling within a split-second, threatening to choke off the last spark of life within her.

"Grrk!" choked Redsky, her own servos flying up to grasp at his arm, talons shredding at his hardened shell, sparks cascading wildly outward as she dug deeper and deeper into the metal plating, determined to rip it apart.

Don Isaac de Metralla burst from the inside of Redsky's cockpit with a deafening pneumatic hiss, his pulse racing like wildfire as he leveled the barrel of his pistol directly at the monstrous Cybertronian currently strangling his drift partner. Redsky's fury and terror resonated through the nobleman's mind as if it were his own, driving him forward with a determined fury.

With one abrupt motion he curled his finger around the trigger and pulled back, releasing a shot that pierced the very core of Megatron's heartless, blazing eye.

BANG! Glass shrapnel burst outward in all directions like a miniature hail of deadly diamonds, reflecting the evil light one last time before disappearing into the haze of smoke and dust choking the air around them. The Slagmaker howled in anguish, his grip loosening as electricity and oil bled from the jagged crater like rivers of fire.

Redsky's optics flashed with obstinacy as she mustered all her strength and yanked back viciously. She broke free from Megatron's clutches and shot into the sky like a bolt-bat out of hell, spinning wildly in an arc of destruction.

Her wings clipped the side of a skyscraper, its mirrored exterior imploding with a deafening crash, sending shards of glass scattering like rain over the city streets far below.

The jetformer shrieked across the sky, the might of her roaring engines rattling windows as she pulsed between the buildings like a glistening red and obsidian arrow. She pulled up in a hard breakneck maneuver, shooting around with a single streak of blazing fire as she darted between the towering Central City skyline, trying desperately to outrun the relentless pursuit of Megatron— the other mech also in possession of a flight-capable mode, all of his forward barrage weapons extended and firing upon her zipping, zigzagging frame.

Sparks flew wildly from the seeker's jet-trails like a crown of fire as she pushed her thrusters to their limits, desperate to shake off her pursuer.

Total Wordcount: 2,551
POST 2/3
we in the business call that “engaging Starscream protocols”

 

[Arthur Morgan]

"Scrap! We're really in it now, babe!" Redsky's mechanical voice reverberated inside the cockpit where Don Isaac was strapped in, her regretful tone as gut-wrenching as any warning siren. He could feel the turbulence of the enemy Cybertronian on their tailfins, and knew well that they had only moments left to make a daring escape. "I dunno if I can keep him off us much longer!"

"Then don't," Isaac barked through gritted teeth, his hand white-knuckled on the throttle, preparing to execute a steep climb.

He pushed it with all his might, forcing the jetformer into the air like a bullet from a gun. The g-forces pressed against his body like a vice, threatening to crush his bones, sweat dripping down his forehead as he pushed himself and the seeker to their limit.

The seeker acted with lightning speed, responding to her ally's intention without thought, her circuits buzzing as if possessed by a power beyond herself. In the blink of an eye she unfurled from the sky, her robotic mode fully formed and already diving towards Megatron.

She landed like a panther upon his flight-mode's back, razor-sharp talons extended and glinting in the light. Her claws sunk deep into his alloy frame and shredded at his delicate components in a flurry of electric sparks and boiling smoke, digging in an attempt to eviscerate him.

Then, with a violent suddenness, she yanked one servo back and plunged her colossal metal fist into Megatron's shredded, sparking back with incredible force, briefly stunning him.

The shockwave sent her enemy careening through the air like a fiery, disjointed comet. A thick plume of brackish black smoke filled the sky as Redsky rode atop Megatron's back, hurtling towards the ground in an explosive cacophony of grinding metal and roaring flame. At the last possible instant, the seeker disengaged from the juggernaut's back before the impact, just as he crashed hard into the ground.

Redsky plummeted towards the ground, arms splayed wide as she fought for control of her descent. With a thunderous crash, she hit the ground with one knee and skidded violently until her body came to a rest.

She pushed herself off the ground and spun around, face-plates twisted in a snarl of rage as Megatron wrenched himself up onto his pedes, turning to face her.

His broad back was scorched and smoking dimly, the acrid stench of burning circuitry filling the air where the chainsaw's teeth had shredded his armor like butter. Taking measured steps with an almost predatory grace, he advanced, his crimson optics blazing with hatred as they locked onto the defiant seeker before him.

"Treachery," he seethed with rage, hissing through clenched dentae. "So this was your scheme all along, Skywarp? You dare to attempt deception against me and still think you will leave here unscathed?”

"No, Megatron, no deception here," Redsky snapped, her wings flaring wide, clutching at her injured neck cabling. "I really do mean it when I say I want to make amends with you and the Decepticon cause. But what stands before me isn't the Megatron I once knew. You're somethin' else entirely; something ugly that was melted down into slag, warped and twisted until it came back wrong.”

Megatron hefted his fusion cannon, its gaping maw radiating waves of purple corruption. “This insolence will not go unpunished, seeker— prepare for your demise!"

Total Wordcount: 3,110/3000
POST 3/3
<3 It's been real, y'all. Sorry I had to bust all these out at the very start, I got a busy week ahead of me with all the hard stuff that's been going on, but I've had a blast Lemme know if you want to include Redsky in your posts, I'll vet any characterization or dialogue.

 

[Don Isaac]

"Alas," Isaac drawled out from within the cockpit of Redsky, a fist descending to slam into an oversized red button, a gavel rendering a judgement of his own. "I pardon her," he pronounced in defiance of the Tyrant as vibrant, unearthly colours permeated his vision. It was like an oil slick across the universe, flowing freely across every surface in sight- until the spark of Redsky's reactors set reality ablaze.

The world was sundered- it shattered like stained glass, the violent vista before them vanishing in a tempest of unbound power. The earth quaked, the sky wept blood, the sun screamed from its perch in the heavens- and Redsky leapt into the yawning void that had replaced all that they knew, a laugh on Don Metralla's lips as they descended into that darkness.

It happened in an instant. The fusion cannon built into the Tyrant's arm fired, bur rather than reducing his rebellious servant to slag, it instead penetrated through the surface of the isle, boiling seawater into vapour. Metallic molars grinding in frustration, Megatron turned, the settings unfamiliar from where he stood but a moment ago.

And standing behind him was Redsky, both of her arms levelled at the villainous 'bot. Megatron's mantle of silver spikes bristled at the temerity of the Seeker and the Santagrian, a metallic growl of sundered steel blossoming in his throat, only to be silenced as a fusillade of fire spat out from a chaotic mixture of machine guns and laser cannons, lightly abrading his armoured shell of the Tyrant..

As potent as the armoury built into Redsky was, it wasn't enough. Megatron trampled through the hail of bullets and searing beams of heat, cracking the earth beneath with every step, fury burning in his optics.

A fist almost the size of Redsky's torso slammed into the cockpit, cracking the tempered glass as it sent the 'mech tumbling backwards, careening through the smoke-choked air.

"Pathetic," roared the robotic overlord as it stomped forth, claws bared as a mouth full of hungry, mechanical fangs snarled like a feral beast. "Did you think that throwing your lot in with meat would make you strong?"

The metallic monstrosity screamed like a handful of nails forced into a garbage disposal- the cacophony only briefly silenced as Redsky sprung forth from her stumble, a scorching stiletto slamming into the side of the synthetic scourge's visage, sending him staggering backwards.

"Do you think it is strength that drives us?" Isaac shouted from within the cockpit, voice crackling over the speaker systems as he brought up his revving chainblade, serrated teeth cleaving through the air as it glanced off the parrying forearm of the titan before them. "I did not join myself to her to to show her my strength," Isaac snarled, stepping backwards, beyond the growling gargantuan's reach.

"Millions of years of war and death!" He howled, missile tubes revealing themselves as armoured plates slid backwards, a point-blank barrage of explosives tearing through the air and slamming into the megalomaniacal machine.

"I chose to join with her to show you how to live," the Don shouted, sweating within the cracked cockpit, ignoring the few alarms he had not already silenced with the help of a pair of wire cutters. The reactor set within Redsky was burning hot, and, frankly, he suspected he might have to seek some form of medical attention once all was said and done to avoid being more tumour than man- but that was a problem for tomorrow. Today, there was only fire and shrapnel.

Distantly, he could see other shapes careening through the ruined city, new voices crackling to life on the radio- reinforcements. Good. Just in time to see them strike down the greatest Foe this realm knew.

"How quaint," Megatron rasped, plunging through the haze of smoke as a massive claw wrapped around Redsky's throat and squeezed. His armour was blackened and battered- but an alien malice burned in those eyes, and it would not be satiated by only the death of its host.

"Then, little fleshling- let me show you how to die,” the Monstrosity pronounced, hurling Redsky bodily through the air. They flew like a javelin, careening through the mouldering concrete of a skyscraper in a cloud of dust. Rusted support beams groaned, rebar finally losing its battle against gravity. Slowly, the massive building started to tilt as a concussed Cybertronian and their pilot struggled to pry themselves out of the rubble, scrabbling across a rapidly tilting floor towards a shattered window. Beyond this faltering cage of rust and decay- the freedom of the sky loomed wide, and great, grasping hands of steel desperately reached to seize it.

Crushing the ancient masonry to dust within the machine's grip, Redsky heaved their battered form out into the open air once more, twisting, shifting, until great wings forged of hastily-repainted scrap metal scythed through the sky. Jet engines burned bright once more, skimming far overhead as Isaac looked out the cockpit, staring into the streets below as weapons fire flared through dilapidated streets.

"Right," Skywarp said, the visage of Lady Watari sitting impishly atop the armrest of the leather pilot's seat the Don had salvaged from The Red Baron. "Let's not do that again," she said, waving a hand at the Monolithic Megalomaniac taking up prime position within the streets, his cannon blazing with the fury of a sun as it responded to this fresh set of invaders.

"We made an opening," Isaac agreed, twisting their vessel through the smoke-strewn skies. "We can afford to wait for an opportunity," he concluded, quietly flicking a few more missile tubes to an active state. "After all- what's the Cavalry for, if not arriving in the nick of time?"

The both chuckled at that- momentarily content to cleave through the clouds, far above the brutality beneath. They could bide their time- they were hardly bound to the limitations of terrestrial warfare. The batteries of missiles laid ready, couched like a knight's lance beneath the wings- and before long, they'd shatter upon the foe, bringing fire and death in their wake.[/B]

1/3, 1,013/3,00 words.

 

[John Connor]

Kyle found himself wincing with pain, eventually falling asleep in the Command post, the men there with him taking the time for a quick nap. Hours passed and a loud, unruly voice screamed into the comms system "We've reached the final area, you might want to head there now." Kyle Reese picked up the comms as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. “This is Reese, what’s the situation and what does it look like?”

"Just a regular city but some robot or transformer who calls himself Megatron and his pet.”

The men scattered around the base got some sort of rude alert to pack up and get ready to head out.

Kyle bit his tongue but lightly. He knew this was the decisive battle and everyone was going to fight as hard as they could here. This was the climax.

“Keep them busy, we are on our way!” Kyle gritted his teeth.

Kyle packed up last-minute supplies and ran past the other men going to their bonds as well. The Terminator waiting for Kyle “Kyle Reese, I’ve detected Megatron and a Kaiju from a fair distance away. We should go.”

Kyle’s own determination and the total combined weight on his shoulders of protecting his son and the weight of humanity was a big one to carry and he acknowledged the giant Terminator “Bob, you alright?”

The T-800 frowned “I can fight, that means I can protect you. But you must worry about the fate of humanity, that is more important than me.” The Terminator was already making sure his Endo rifle was in prime shape and he bent down, letting Kyle Reese hop back into the Terminator’s own body.

With that, the terminator lifted into the air and headed toward the Mega-city with a determined glare and not to let Megatron and his Kaiju win.

Kyle watched what was left of the men he had gathered up around him and looked over at the others “Bob, what kind of chances do we have?”

Bob blinked “According to my calculations, we either go for the Kaiju or Megatron, mostly the Kaiju due to most of the contestants having some sort of form with Megatron himself somehow.”

Or maybe we can use Megatron against his own pet. Not literally but make sure their attacks hit each other inadvertently while we focus on both. We got to get them in one place.

Kyle’s mind was a whirlwind of ideas and plans and being a soldier only solidified that.

Sometimes hard odds require unorthodox thinking.

Now to put this plan into motion and get Megatron to convince his own soldiers that the Kaiju wasn’t on their side as much as the Deception Leader was only in it for himself and not his own minion's safety.

As they approached the Mega-city, Kyle couldn't help but reflect on the irony of the situation. He felt like he was in a position like Optimus Prime, a leader facing insurmountable odds but still willing to do whatever it took to protect humanity.

Kyle felt like he had to step up his game here. He knew what it felt like to stride in the shadows of leaders ahead of him whether it was Optimus Prime or John Connor himself.

Who knew the Decepticons could see past their fearless leader, Megatron’s plan all along?

The Terminator was determined to cause as much chaos as he could.

Kyle’s own thoughts on Megatron was getting worse with each passing moment. Megatron was one ugly piece of work right now from a distance but being Unmade of all things made him worse to look at from a distance. Past trauma from the terminator wars and past deeply rooted robot bias didn’t help the fact that Kyle saw Megatron as nothing more than a giant walking piece of machinery.” Of course, it didn’t help one bit that Kyle had PTSD from the last major Terminator war and he was letting out all his robot bias on the Deception leader.

2XXX
The scene changed and Megatron changed into Kyle’s PTSD form of a giant Harvester. Without knowing, Kyle’s PTSD had kicked up some memories.

The Harvester in Kyle’s nightmares was made to be even scarier than it made out to be. Megatron’s visage in Kyle’s messed up nightmare gave the twisted Decepticon four arms, them trying to scoop up humans trying to rally to take down the Kaiju and the giant robot together. Megatron’s four arms were scooping up humans and taking them to the nearest “work camp. “

The past and present had somehow collided with each other.

Kyle was in the middle of a Terminator battle and Redsky was another mixed machine on their side appearing to be fighting the giant “Harvester”. The images scrambling between past and future as Terminators turned to monsters, other machines turned to giant Decepticons, along with other problems

Megatron smirked “War is hell, that’s why you never let your guard down, weaklings.”

Kyle pushed back against Megatron with the Terminator’s own strength and pushed him against the Kaiju. “What, you can’t take being defeated by a human?”

The Terminator circled the city, trying to get the Slatter to come closer. “Come here, you ugly sonofabitch.”

Kyle’s voice echoed through his comms trying to distract the Slatter and rile it up.

As soon as the creature roared, Kyle commanded the terminator to pepper it with his Endo Rifle. As he got close, he made a huge turn with Uncle Bob and disappeared, leading the Slatter close to Megatron’s position.

Megatron turned just as the Slatter Kaiju’s three leather tails scraped against his own armor.

Megatron was frankly getting sick of all these little fleshling fleas getting in his path. First, his own kind, a literally invisible rat, and a mix of human soldiers getting in his way. Plus his pet was getting in his own way.

“I’m going to solve this little pest problem, once and for all!”

Megatron tried to grab the invisible terminator from the sky only to smash his fist into the back of an angry Slatter “Come on you useless animal, do something useful!”

Kyle seized this opportunity to rally the troops that were helping all of them. "Now's our chance! Keep the pressure on! We can win this! “The soldiers under his command redoubled their efforts, firing at the distracted Decepticons and the massive Kaiju. Explosions and energy blasts illuminated the chaotic battlefield. Kyle's own thoughts and fears about machines and monstrous foes faded into the background as he focused on the present, on the fight for humanity's survival.

Megatron, now entangled with the Kaiju, struggled to break free. The Kaiju, angered by the sudden attack from its ally, retaliated with fury. The battle between the two giants had become a war within their own ranks, exactly as Kyle had hoped. However, the little scuffle between the two allies had finally recognized that this was all a little ploy to throw them off guard.

Kyle knew that Redsky would move in time so they wouldn’t be caught in the crossfires of the two past allies fighting with each other.
Megatron was raging with anger after he found out about this little ploy that was going on. They were being manipulated and they finally found out.

“Who dares try to take us down? I’ll take great pleasure in crushing all of you, every last one of you!”

Post 1/3, 1231/3000 words

 

[Gizmo Gear]

Gizmo and Gadget saw the scene that lay before them. They were hiding among the ruins of the city within the Clockwork Colossus. Watching as the battle unfolded. As the main threat behind this invasion was a big grey metallic robot named Megatron while the giant monster was just his pet. That monster was too big for Clockwork Colossus to handle at this size. Even if with its great strength.

"Well I think we just stumbled upon the final boss, and neither of them seems pleasant to deal with," Gizmo said.

Gadget put a hand on Gizmo's shoulder.

"Gizmo CC has been heavily damaged from the last fight, we don't need to prove anything we can leave now." Gadget said.

"This isn't about proving anything Gadget! Every horrible thing we encountered and witnessed, every single Unmade on this planet, that guy is what attracted it and ruined this once beautiful world. I can't forgive myself if I ran away knowing I could have done something to have helped." Gizmo replied with an intense fury in his voice.

Gadget had never seen Gizmo this upset before, and frankly, he didn't want to try to stop his brother any further. It's bad enough that he never stops a goal he sets his mind to, but when it's something that has made him this upset it's best for him to keep his distance. That is when Gizmo saw Skywarp/Redsky through the viewing port of CC. Since he never met the Transformer before he assumed it was another minion of Megatron that is until she slashed him in the back and started teleporting around.

"Man, I wish I could somehow communicate to him through CC but we didn't have enough money left over to add in some type of external speaker when we were upgrading him. I could have said something cool like "Can't even control your own henchman Betatron?" or something." Gizmo said.

Gadget sighed as Gizmo seemed to have calmed down and was back to his usual self.

"And that would give away our position." Gadget noted.

Then that is when a familiar face arrived with Kyle Reese and his army as well as the giant T-800 Bob. He uses a clever strategy to try to take two birds with one stone out by having Megatron's pet be used against him. With the chaos and confusion, this gave Gizmo an idea to get a good hit in. Getting to the control port he whispered the idea to CC who then nodded. CC then aimed his fist towards Megatron aiming for the head before launching a springloaded fist from across the street blocks away knocking Megatron square in the jaw.

As the arm reloaded back CC found that his knuckles had been partially scuffed from impact and Gizmo could feel his own knuckles be scuffed too as if he hit something with his fist too hard. Megatron then turned toward where he felt that his jaw was out of alignment. Until he just simply pushed it back into place.

"A pretty good sucker punch, but you'll find that I am made of much sterner stuff," Megatron gloated.

He then stepped forward towards CC with malicious intent. His red eyes gleam as he reaches to his back. And pulls out a large sword.

"Now I don't know if you're a sparkless husk controlled by some inferior being or not but that won't stop me from turning you into an unrecognizable power of slag," Megatron exclaimed.

Megatron then charged forward with deceptive speed about to slash CC, before CC put his arms forward and clapped his hands together onto the blade catching it. Megatron tries to push forward but CC pushes him back.
Then CC grabs the blade with both hands, even if it means cutting its fingers up a bit, and yanks it out of Megatron’s hands. With the sword now in hand CC then tries to slash at Megatron but the Decepticon leader is a lot more nimble than he appears. As he swiftly dodges each and every sword swipe.

CC then gets the idea to slash a feint that misses, only for it to hit a skyscraper that crashes down on top of the robotic dictator. After gaining some distance Megatron bursts out of the rubble with his Fusion Cannon. CC tries to block with the sword only for it to be melted from the blast. As Megatron aims for another blast and fires CC then jumps in the air of the blast, and at the same time, Gizmo reflexively jumps in the air. It’s as if when Gizmo jumped CC did so at the same time.

That is realized that their Bond was more connected than their lives and pain being shared. Gizmo can synchronize his movements with CC. This gives him an idea. Getting into a fighting stance as CC does the same. He starts to use his mother’s training to his advantage. As he runs forward in place, CC begins running forward toward Megatron. Megatron goes for another blast but CC ducks in time before punching Megatron square in the stomach.

The hit actually managed him to spit out some Energon from his mouth. He gritted his teeth and growled in anger. He tried to go for a point-blank blast but CC was able to jump out of the way. While in the CC performed a kick sending Megatron back a few feet. CC was then jogging in place.

“How does this machine possess such fighting skill? And how is it able to move so quickly? Whatever, one shot from my Fusion Cannon should be all it should take to finish it?” Megatron thought.

Megatron then took his time charging this next shot, and as CC noticed he was charging for a bigger shot he reflexively side-stepped out of the way from the huge blast that then came from the weapon. Which pierced through and made a hole through several buildings. CC then found a part of its armor had been breached on the right side of its torso. A minor wound but still shows just how dangerous that weapon is.

“You managed to just barely dodge that shot, I would say that is impressive, but compliments aren’t met for dead men,” growled Megatron.

“Wow this guy is a lot more dangerous than I gave him credit for, If all else fails I just hope if I die that Gadget makes it out alive. Not to avenge me or anything like that. I just don’t want him to suffer for bringing him into this mess,” Gizmo thought.

CC then got into a defensive stance as Megatron began laughing as if brushing off the robot’s defiance as futile. Megatron then put his fists together and began cracking them. Before urging Clockwork Colossus to come closer with a hand motion. Taking some sadistic pleasure in this fight. At the end of the day, he is still after all a warrior. The two then stood still as part of a standoff.

Post 1/4 | Words: 1,171/3000

 

[Shallan Davar]

“Ah, good. I did not relish the possibility that I had been bonded with a corpse.”

Smaug’s words were only passively derisive as Shallan’s haze of pain refocused itself into discernable experiences. She had been leaving the island with Eszter when she’d collapsed. Now she was rebonded with Smaug, in-flight above some vast cityscape. Returning to Smaug’s dragon-sense was disorienting to say the least, but she doubted that she’d have been in good shape regardless. It was a profoundly offsetting experience, to have the painful and constant reminder of her own missing leg, and yet to feel the muscles and power in Smaug’s own that remained intact. A part of her almost wished to lapse back into the semi-conscious stupor again.

“How self-centered you are.” Smaug mused aloud, “Now you see the burden that I have borne since my fore-claw was savaged by that volcanic aberration, and you strive to escape it.”

The dragon circled high over the battlefield as Amalia and Ken’ichi struggled with a truly massive monster below them. With a titanic roar the kaiju hurled Ken’ichi’s bodily away, sending the massive skeleton into the side of a skyscraper. Ken’ichi slid down the side of the building, the entire structure crumbling from the impact. The kaiju bellowed triumphantly, unaware that Smaug had now circled behind it. Shallan braced herself for the rush of the surprise attack, but Smaug let the opportunity pass without so much as a twitch from his tail. He continued to spectate from the air.

“Are you going to help them?” Shallan asked in confusion. Smaug only laughed at her.

“I have grown tired of this routine.” he all but yawned as he answered, “I am not some pawn for Karl to toss away like he does his own soldiers. He did not properly survey his conquest, and had no answer to the beasts he seeks to overcome here. Rather than reconsider, his answer is to hurl foolhardy contestants at them like one might pour water upon a flame. We are not matched wisely against this foe, and I see nothing to be gained by hurtling headlong into its waiting maw. Let the lesser beings struggle futily as they wish. I see no reason to cast myself into oblivion for their strivings. Now it is clear that Syntech never intended to make good on their promises. We were not adequately prepared for this assault because we are not intended to survive it. I am done indulging that babbling idiot’s games, now I will be collecting upon the promises made for my assistance.”

“Great Smaug, please, You must-” Shallan begged but her objection was cut off with a venomous snarl.

“I am done with games and lies, Shallan of house Davar. Both Syntech’s as well as yours.”

Almighty preserve me, when did he learn that? Shallan thought, panic mounting.

“You have taunted me with knowledge from the very first, and throughout the whole of this campaign, do not claim to deny it! Ever have you coiled like a liar, couching your demands in seeming smiles! Hiding behind riddles, behind faces, behind names that are not yours! You coveted my great power and plotted to bend it to your own ends. Oh so clever, oh so cautious, did you not realize that you played with dragonfire? You sought to outwit your better, and yet in the final marches of the effort you have grown careless. After all your riddles, it was almost disappointing how easily I could pry the truths from your pain-addled brain.”

Shallan was silent as Smaug raged at her mentally, her mind racing a mile a minute.

“Know that your insults to dragonkind were sealed when you dared to bond with me, then etched deeper and more potent with every action and presumption you have made throughout our association. Know that I shall be revenged upon you and your insults. When you succumb to your injuries here. Whenever your spirit resurfaces to the crossroads again, I shall have my revenge! I shall hunt you, your kin, and your descendants all, Shallan of house Davar! To the twelfth generation!”

And there it was. After believing that she had accounted for the risks, after going into this whole storming situation with the expectation that she wouldn’t storming survive it, Shallan had managed to make things worse! She should have refused point blank from the moment that she had become aware she was to be bonded with him. Now if one of her brothers were similarly swept into the crossroads, they would have to contend with a storming dragon out for a path of bloody revenge, because of what she had done!

Shallan did not raise any contention to Smaug’s declaration, lapsing into darkness and quiet. The oblivion of her injuries beckoned to her temptingly. She couldn’t do anything about what was happening now, couldn’t oppose the unmaking, couldn’t stand up to the being she had been bonded with, couldn’t even protect those she cared about. Both in Roshar and here in the Crossroads.

Through blurred vision she watched as the kaiju’s tails sent Karakul reeling through the air. They were outsized, and outmatched, but they refused to accept defeat. They did not run from their own ruin. Did not shirk the responsibility because they knew they could not measure up. Like Shallan wanted to do. And for all his claims of insurmountable superiority, like Smaug was doing in his own manner.

A flame of stubbornness was starting to swell within her now, and with it came a desperate, perhaps foolish ploy.

She had failed to come up with a clever plan, now all she could do was the foolhardy one.

Her ability to distinguish her own body from Smaug’s was murky at best right now, but with as much focus and discipline as she could manage, she raised her own right hand, extending it out to her side.

“Stop fidgeting, or I shall silence you!” Smaug growled, but Shallan’s change in temperament caught his attention. His curiosity stole some of the vitriol from his domineering. A part of Shallan still wanted to hide away from his wrath, but she had been pushed to the edge of the cliff. Now all that remained was to see who would be going over the edge with her.

“You can’t afford to do that, O Smaug the Craven. You know my secrets, yes? Then you know that I am not lying to you now! I have a bonded shardblade, a weapon of extreme potency, that passes through the strongest armor with deadly ease. At my thought, it will materialize into hand, I would wager it might even do so despite Syntech’s inhibiting collar.”

ten heartbeats. Shallan started to count, a once familiar cold frost starting to crystalize around what she believed to be her right hand. She had to be careful not to actually call the blade, but she took some satisfaction in the uneasy twinge creeping into Smaug’s emotions as he observed her actions.

“I cannot claim to know the mind of a dragon, but I believe I know your thoughts now, Smaug the Vulnerable. You are right, our minds, our very selves are merged right now. I do not know precisely how, but neither do you. I do not know precisely what will happen when I fully summon it. What is your hand, what is mine, right now? I see through your senses, in some way, I am a part of you right now.”

Shallan mentally dismissed the blade before it could actually appear, then tried to summon it again. That would reset the count before it appeared, right? She wished she had paid less attention to Adolin’s storming beautiful hair during their lessons, and more time on what he’d been saying. He surely knew whether what she was doing would work or go horribly wrong for both of them. She had to commit either way. She was on the edge of the cliff.

“It’s entirely possible, when summoned, that the Shardblade will appear in your claw, Smaug the Great Cremling. Maybe my last act of defiance will simply be giving you a shiny blade for your new hoard. But I have been shut off from your senses before. Wherever I exist within our bonded form right now, I am certain that there is no room for a blade.”

Smaug brooded for too long for Shallan’s liking. She was forced to stop and recall the shardblade twice more before he spoke. Her storming heartbeats were so fast right now!

“You turn from lies to threats, little fool.” he rumbled, seeming unimpressed, though Shallan was part of him, and could tell he was weighing the odds. He wasn’t any more sure what would happen then she was.

“I’ve been forced into a corner, O Smaug the overbearing.” The faintest hint of a smile twitched at the corner of her mouth, “We are in agreement that the games are over. But there are people down there that I would aid, and your threats to myself threaten them as well. We will settle our score…”

Oh, Stormfather, what did I just say?

"...But that will happen later. For now, You and I will fight the Unmaking’s champion, or we shall both fall from the sky, pierced from within.”

Shallan steeled herself, borrowing Radiant's stubborn strength to defy the wrym.

“That is the terms of our new bond, O Smaug the winged snake! What is your answer?”

Shallan is using one application of focus to not quite summon her artifact to blackmail her bond into cooperation. (I swear, I don't intentionally try to make everything I do so complicated!)
0/1 Focus remaining.
1577 words.

 

[John Connor]

In between dodging a swat from the Slattern and its annoyingly precise attacks, Kyle growls from his own comms and lets the Kaiju slice a building in half as much as he hated seeing humans get hurt.
From his vantage point, he noticed Slattern's massive form raise its claw for another precise strike. Kyle made a painful decision. He allowed the Kaiju to slice a nearby building in half, sending debris and dust flying. It was excruciating to watch, knowing that innocent lives were at stake, but he had no other choice. Slattern's attention shifted momentarily to the destruction it had caused, buying Kyle a precious few seconds.

Kyle couldn’t believe his own luck and the Terminator was already flying toward a gas truck heading to the nearest gas station. His terminator knowledge always taught him that everything has a weakness and he’d work with what he had now.

He just needed stuff to blow up on or near the Kaiju. Maybe he could spring a gas leak and spread it to the Kaiju themselves.
The Terminator, a fair distance away from the Kaiju, now near the gas station had Kyle lightly reminding the Terminator that there should only be light civilian casualties even though this was all out war and there was no way to save a lot of human lives otherwise.

The terminator calculated the lives lost in the potential explosion on the Kaiju but it would be fewer casualties than if all lives were lost on the battlefield today.

Kyle yelled his plan to the giant T-800 and he bent down to hack the computers of the gas station. After a few seconds, the gas began to leak from the gas tanks and led toward the Kaiju. The closer the creature got to the gas, the better.

With a few sparks created from scraping something against the gas station wall, The T-800 lit the gas leak toward the Kaiju on Fire.

Kyle allowed himself several minutes to fly away from the eventual explosion that would occur.

“Hope this plan works for humanity” Kyle yelled into his comms, hoping the others would hear it in their comms.

With the angry Kaiju, the creature headed right toward the station and failed to notice the flaming streak of gas heading right toward it.

With the right step into the gas, the Kaiju became lit in a fiery inferno, hopefully causing major damage in the process.

The terminator was already a fair distance away before the huge gas station explosion in the area. The surrounding area sent waves through the ground.

1,231 + 430=1661/3000 (Post 2/3)

 

[John Connor]

The terminator watched the explosion hoping what was left of the gas explosion gave enough fuel to make a mushroom cloud to fell the giant Kaiju. There was enough waves to shake where Megatron was standing with Gizmo as the shockwaves made their way through the ground.

Everyone on the ground could hold themselves up.

While the Terminator couldn't feel relief or triumph, its analytical mind recognized the effectiveness of the strategy. The mushroom cloud and the shockwaves were signs that the Kaiju had suffered a catastrophic defeat.

However, the battle was far from over. The Terminator knew that the Kaiju threat was vast and persistent.

Hopefully, the mushroom cloud in the distance was enough to signal that the Slattern was either majority damaged or at least cry out in pain screeching to Megatron.

Even with the battle intensity that the giant Clockwork Colossus had with Megatron, the Decepticon leader couldn’t ignore the huge mushroom cloud coming up from the gas station.

Megatron’s optics glinted with interest and then he sneered in annoyance “What’s with you pests causing so much trouble for us?”
The terminator, unable to feel annoyance, pain or triumph, forced a smirk on his face as he watched the results of the huge bellowing nuclear gas bomb hitting the Kaiju.

One thing Kyle learned is never to turn away from an enemy. You never know until an enemy is defeated until they truly never got up.

The Terminator's mechanical face bore a calculated smirk as it observed the results of the colossal explosion. It knew that victory could never be taken for granted, and that vigilance was key in any battle, especially against relentless adversaries like the Kaiju.

“Sorry to ruin your battle, but I think it’s time all of us finished this, am I right?”

The Terminator's response was concise and to the point, its synthetic voice cutting through the tension on the battlefield. "Agreed. It's time to finish this."

The survivors on the ground, including Kyle, who had been watching the events unfold with bated breath, knew that their moment of triumph had been hard-fought and well-earned.

Megatron held a frustrated energy blast at no one in particular as he growled “What, you defeat my pet, and you think things will be all hunky-dory successful conclusion. Think I will give up at any moment’s notice? NO!”

Megatron's frustration was palpable, and he unleashed an energy blast in a fit of anger, the searing energy arcing through the air. His growl of defiance made it clear that he was far from ready to concede defeat. His determination to conquer and dominate remained unshaken, despite the setback they had just dealt to the Kaiju and his force

Meanwhile, somewhere in the far distance, Kyle’s son John Connor sat somewhere in a comfy chair drinking nothing but old coffee a Resistance soldier had gotten him. Somewhere in the comms, Kyle Reese swore he could hear his General’s voice somewhere in the backdrop, even if he wasn’t there himself.

Megatron’s frustration led to another, and he aimed the energy cannon straight at one after the other “Too bad, our master couldn’t of watched you each die on the battlefield, one after each other.”
John Connor’s words reverberated through Kyle’s head, the Resistance leader intended for the man to survive this time and not fail. But even Kyle couldn’t determine his own fate. This was war, and not everything was fair in war.

In this timeline, Kyle felt John’s words on another level and was driven to fight to the end.

The Terminator promised it would carry Kyle through to the end but no outcome is certain.

It’s only then the city looked like it was devastated by the nuclear fires of judgment day. Kyle wanted to prevent another catastrophic event and this world seemed like it was worth saving.
It was only ended by Megatron’s frustrations pushing through and the Deciption leader taking Uncle Bob through a ride of a buidling of his own.

It’s when the T-800 turned the tide and pushed Megatron toward the ground and scraped him into the road. The roads were full of
Cars and when a wrecking ball truck came flying through the road and the right time, the T-800 smashed Megatron into the oncoming truck.

“Insolent fools! I will tear you to shreds!”

Megatron went to choke the terminator near its neck but the T-800 pushed it into the next nearest truck that seemed to be timed perfectly.

Both spent countless times smashing each other in and out of incoming traffic while the fleshlings both booked it out of the area, screaming for help.

With that, the Terminator would leave the angered Megatron to the others.

As Megatron tried to push his way out of a wildly wacky situation with one of those crime scene drawings around his body to make things very awkward, the next time he tried to push himself up was met with something very funny.

The next truck ran over the Deception leader, leading the beast to chase after the nearest human and blow the nearest human up after all the chaotic trouble he was put through just by one man.

The Terminator had to think to himself since he couldn’t laugh or feel pity for the other transformer.

“Such a fitting fight for the poor bastard.”

The terminator’s thumb pointed up.

Kyle frowned “For a second, I thought we were fighting Optimus Prime or something like that.”

As the survivors regrouped and assessed the aftermath of the battle, they couldn't help but marvel at the sheer scale of destruction and the bizarre twists that had unfolded. The Terminator, always focused on the mission, scanned the area for any remaining threats, its synthetic eyes sharp and vigilant.

Kyle, still catching his breath, couldn't help but shake his head in amazement. "Well, that's one for the history books," he mused, his voice tinged with a mixture of exhaustion and relief. "Who would've thought we'd see the day when Megatron ended up under a truck?"

Kyle, never thinking it was over was debating if his whole life would be straight war. Terminator war turned to Unmade war, Depeticon war and Kaiju war.

Wait until he tells John everything, that would never go down as real.

Half of the Resistance was scattered around this place and Kyle would never get to retire and maybe get a smoke break.

The battle had left its mark on everyone involved, and the toll of constant conflict weighed heavily on Kyle's mind. The notion of a never-ending war, shifting from one adversary to another, was a daunting prospect. But Kyle had always been a fighter, a survivor, and a protector. It was the role he had embraced since the early days of the war against machines.

He knew that as long as there were threats to humanity, he would continue to stand and fight. It was a duty he couldn't shirk, not when the fate of the world was at stake. The thought of a peaceful, ordinary life seemed like a distant dream, but it was a dream worth fighting for.
The Terminator, ever vigilant, approached Kyle with a reassuring presence. "We will face each challenge as it comes," it stated in its stoic tone. "Our mission is to protect humanity, no matter the cost."
Kyle nodded in agreement, finding solace in the unwavering dedication of his mechanical ally. "You're right, old friend," he said, a determined glint in his eye. "We'll keep fighting, one battle at a time, until the day comes when we can finally secure a future without war."

Kyle watched the dust dramatically blow expecting John Connor to come out and touch his shoulder, expecting him to fight in the next war, even if it was endless.

Was this tour of duty ever truly done?
No, Kyle would see to it that this world lived peacefully just as much as the ones back home. He would make a promise to return back to HQ to John and he intended to keep it.

Even if he couldn’t, he’d make sure everyone else would survive!

Post 3/3 1352+1661= 3013/3000,
Thanks all for the awesome da! Hope I left a good finishing post, with a hint of humor!

 

[Eszter]

Molten rock and metal rained from the sky, bouncing off of Karakul’s scales as she watched on, snarling. The detonation that had consumed Slattern was impressive, certainly, but it was nothing compared to their titanic foe. There wasn’t even the grace of a tense, uncertain moment where the kaiju’s state was obscured by smoke. No, his stature was simply so vast that the smog didn’t completely envelop him, and there was no mistaking the rampaging mass surginging through the city as a corpse.

“Grah, useless tricks.” the reforged dragon spat as she tucked into a dive, swooping fearlessly towards the much larger beast. “Vermin steel and fire, useless!”

Karakul targeted Slattern’s back, determining it to be the quickest and most effective target. It was much safer than the alternatives too, but you wouldn’t hear her admitting it. The dragon queen crashed heavily into the kaiju, digging her claws in and scrambling toward his shoulders, though the impact seemed to shake him no more than if she were a scrunched up piece of paper.

Her most loathable ally, Smaug, was nowhere near as brave as herself, preferring to serve as a distraction at a distance with his fire breath. Dragonfire washed over Slattern’s hide, and skin and searing flesh but ultimately dealing no significant damage. Still, it was a sufficient distraction, allowing the comparatively insignificant drake to scale her colossal opponent unhindered. Or so she thought, at any rate.

Right as she approached the nape of Slattern’s neck, a vast shadow swept over her, giving her mere moments to launch herself into the air before she was skewered by the brutal, spear-like tail of the monster. The kaiju didn’t even have the decency to clumsily impale itself in the process, stabbing parallel to its body rather than straight down. This was no mere beast, it was smart.

Karakul hurled herself skyward to dodge the first tail, realising just a moment too late that Slattern had not attacked with just one. The second and thirds tails came stabbing towards her from below, their deadly points heading towards her chest, towards Eszter. The image of a salvo of great, explosive harpoons shot through her mind, drawing a horrific shriek from the dragon queen. The sound was a terrible mix of rage and, shockingly, fear as she swiveled in midair, trying to guard her heart as best as she could.

The second tail hit the contraption sealing her chest at an awkward angle, sending the deadly point careening off with minimal damage. The third, though, was aimed true, headed straight for Eszter, prepared to turn the pilot to minced dragonkin. Moments before the kaiju could end the annoyance, however, he was interrupted by a bolt from on high. Bellowing furiously, Smaug had descended from the skies, tackling the offending tail and savaging it with a series of bites and claws.

“Perhaps we underestimated that one.” Karakul begrudgingly admitted. The reincarnation of Yucatan swerved to the side, hurrying out of Slattern’s range, with Smaug following suit the moment that the coast was clear. The kaiju bellowed furiously at the flesh wound but was not slowed in the slightest. The firedrake has drawn blood, or whatever foul, bioluminescent substance in the beast’s veins in place of blood, but hadn’t managed to inflict any serious damage.

“This isn’t working.” Smaug snarled as he took wing alongside Karakul. “Its hide is too thick and it won’t let us do any serious damage without striking back.”

“Cowardice!” Karakul snapped back, growling at the smaller dragon. “Let it try! I will rend this beast apart before it can scratch me!”

“You arrogant-” the firedrake seethed, but was cut off before he could finish his retort.

“I think I can help.” Eszter spoke up with Karakul’s voice. From within her magmatic cocoon, she reached into her pockets and produced the shard that the Syntech scientists had given her. If there was ever a good time to use it, she felt that it was now. The crystal seemed to radiate power, heat and energy running up her arm from just holding the fragment. Even Karakul grew quiet as she felt the quiet hum of energy fill her veins.

“Ooh… I don’t know what you’ve got, little sister, but I like it.” the reforged dragon cackled. Eszter couldn’t help but nod and give a breathless ‘yeah’ in agreement. Taking a deep breath and bracing herself, the demi-dragon eagerly clenched her fist around the shard and squeezed with all her might. Typically, the collar would have robbed her of the supernatural strength needed to shatter the crystal, but it seemed to be fool-proofed against this concern. Power begot power as enhanced strength flowed through Eszter’s form, giving her the power to crush the fragment like chalk in her grip.

With a dull crunch, the floodgates opened.

The dragonkin’s head swam, almost passing out as her whole body rocked, shaken by the sheer volume of magical energy surging through her system. Everything seemed to go into slow motion as her mind went into overdrive, every sensation suddenly pulling into sharp relief. Every whisper became a deafening shout, every detail became as unmissable as the sun. And the feeling of being overcharged became impossible to ignore.

All at once, she realised that Dr Orchid hadn’t lied.

She might fucking explode.

Eszter’s veins felt red hot, as if molten metal was flowing through them, a feeling that was not helped by the fact that a bright orange glow was visible beneath her skin in spider-webbing cracks. Thinking fast, she focused her mind on the fiery tendrils that pierced her body, doing her best guess-work to channel the energy into them, into Karakul. Like electrical wires connected to a generator, power surged up the tendrils and into the reforged dragon’s heart, spreading throughout her body.

“Haha… Gahahahaha!” Karakul cackled maniacally as the same molten orange that ignited in Eszter began to flow throughout her body, glowing from beneath her scales. “YES! This is it!”

The glow beneath her scales continued to grow in intensity until it began to loft off of her body, tiny embers rising into the air and hovering over the battlefield. The first few sparks quickly continued to multiply and were soon joined by a thick layer of ash billowing from Karakul’s mouth, nostrils and eyes.

“We are fire! We are Death! We are Yucatan!” Karakul howled triumphantly as the cloud of volcanic ash swallowed her and Smaug, harmlessly wrapping the dragon’s in a protective blanket of what should have been deadly smoke. The pair were unharmed in the cloud, but the raw heat emanating from it let everyone in the vicinity know that getting too close as a non-dragon would be their last mistake. “WE ARE EXTINCTION!”

Like a meteor, Karakul dropped from the sky towards Slattern, slamming into him with reckless abandon. Despite a few snide protests, Smaug followed suit, diving towards their foe under the protection of the ash cloud. The combined weight of two dragons smashing into his flank was enough to make the kaiju buckle for a moment, just enough for them to wreak havoc across his massive bulk. The beast let out a bellow of pain and, if they could comprehend the screams of such an alien creature, surprise as burning smoke scorched its flesh. The kaiju’s hide blackened and bubbled as the ash washed over it, quickly joined by twin jets of dragonfire that burned even hotter, turning mere burnt flesh to so much more ash.

With a frustrated grunt, the monster swiped towards his foes, only to be met with empty, boiling-hot air. The dragon-concealing cloud swept across Slattern’s form, leaving burn marks and deep gouges in their wake. None of the wounds were particularly lethal, but they were enough to draw the kaiju’s attention, and his ire.

Slattern swiped with his left forelimb, and then his right, swatting ineffectively into the ash cloud. Karakul and Smaug dodged the clumsy blows easily, their evasion aided by their smokescreen. It was slow work, but they were slowly but surely chipping away at Slattern. Soon enough, they would strike their mortal blow.

As it turned out, Slattern was thinking the exact same thing.

Having narrowed down that one of the dragon’s was at the centre of the cloud, the last two swings were simply the kaiju’s efforts to corral his prey into place. With surgical precision, his tails lanced forward, striking at the heart of the smoke. Smaug, with the freedom to hide anywhere with the radius, was able to dodge them easily enough. But then, he wasn’t their target.

Karakul watched as the three tails shot blindly towards her. Each was naturally off-target due to the smoke, but the sheer size and number of the strikes more than made up for it. Eszter sucked air in through gritted teeth, syncing her mind with that of her bond. They knew, instinctively, that they needed all of their reflexes and brainpower in this instant.

“Alright, elf reflexes,” Eszter grumbled to herself, “don’t fail me now.”

The first tail pierced towards Karakul’s shoulder, aiming to sever her forelimb. A quick twist of her body sent the blow glancing off, though not without taking a chunk of scale with it. The next came dangerously close to her head, but the dragon queen craned and twisted her neck in just the right way to ensure that it would sail just beneath her jaw. The final tail shot towards her abdomen in another lethal blow, just as before. This time, however, her smoke bought her the chance to dodge the strike without Smaug’s assistance.

Arching her back much like a stretching cat, the dragon queen felt the breeze and heard the whistling air as the razor-sharp appendage pierced beneath her, scratching her leg but doing no major damage. The reincarnations of Yucatan allowed themselves a moment of relief, right before they saw the tail rise out of the ash towards them. The tail cracked and sizzled in the heat of the cloud, but Slattern was unphased. It had all been a part of his plan.

Slamming into her chest like a truck, the tail lifted Karakul into the air and launched her like a rock from a slingshot. She managed to lighten the impact, if only slightly, by flying in the same direction that the tail was moving, but this wasn’t enough to stop her from being sent flying into the air. Spinning and reeling, the reforged dragon screeched as she tried to right herself, desperate to regain control of her flight before it was rudely interrupted by the ground.

After a long moment of panic, the dragon felt her ascent slow and her descent begin, using the momentum as a guide for where exactly up and down were. Catching herself in mid-air, Karakul hovered for a moment to sight her foe, not a difficult feat considering his size. Once the draconic duo knew where he was, they dropped once more, streaking towards Slattern like a flaming comet.

Their desire to reengage like this was not purely out of their berserk rage, though that was certainly part of it. They still had one more trick up their sleeve. Reaching into her pockets once more, Eszter produced a little box. A parting gift from her last foe.

“Good thing we used the smokescreen first.” the dragonkin grinned. “Wouldn’t want to ruin this surprise.”

“And it spares us the embarrassment of the whole world knowing what we did.” Karakul sighed as the tiny box vanished from Eszter’s hands and into the massive dragon’s claw. In mid-flight, the reforged dragon delicately opened the little box and reached inside, drawing out their prize. First came a wooden cylinder, impossibly large for the meagre opening that the present had. But, still, it emerged, allowing the dragon to draw it out.

The cylinder kept coming, and coming, and coming, for an absurd time, seeming as if a telephone pole had emerged from the present. Then it got stuck.

“Come on, damn you.” Karakul grunted as she struggled to lift her prize from its box, even as they were still descending towards their foe.

“Hey, Karakul, I don’t want to rush you but-”

“I know!” she interjected, taking the cylinder in her jaws and giving it a legendary yank. With an audible (and visible in big, cartoony letters) “POP!”, the weapon was revealed: an absurdly oversized mallet with the word ACME emblazoned on the side. Triumphant, the dragon let out a muffled victory cry. “Yes! Now die, vermin!”

Slattern, having been occupied by the now-exposed Smaug, had only a moment to turn and see the cloud of death descending towards his face. With their trump cards all laid out, the reincarnations of Yucatan saw no reason for subtlety. Now was the time to go for the kill. Their true target was the nape of Slattern’s neck, but the kaiju seemed to sense the predatory instinct of his foe, and reared up to intercept them, jaws open wide to snap Karakul up.

“Alright, it’s your funeral!” Eszter snarled as the cloud swallowed up the monster’s head, concealing what happened next from all but the draconic duo and their victim. The next few seconds were a living hell from Slattern. His eyes were burned by the searing heat, his airways were clogged by cloying, choking ash. But, worst of all, he watched in alien disbelief as Karakul emerged from the smoke, a hammer raised above her head in both hands. “They won’t be able to show this one on TV!”

The mallet slammed down on Slattern’s head, instantly flattening it with a shockwave of cartoon stars. Just not in the way that Eszter had hoped. After a beat, his head sprang back to its normal shape and he stumbled backwards. The kaiju’s skull had been fractured, his face burned, and was clearly shaken, but he was still alive.

With simultaneous, furious roars, Karakul and Eszter surged forward to correct that error.

2327 words
Used Furious Shard and ACME Mallet
Used 1 point of focus to avoid injury from Slattern’s tails.
0/1 focus remaining

 

[Christopher Chaos]

You better watch out, you better not cry…

Victor scoffed, turning away from his sister. A tormentor all his life, and now, even though she’d hit double digits — ten, just two years older than him — she hadn’t yet grasped the meaning of the word maturity. He could feel the lump forming on his head, raising beneath his thin sheen of blonde hair, threatening to burst through. She spun the big, plastic candy cane in her hand before pressing its end into the carpet in front of him triumphantly, looking down at him as he nursed his wound.

“That’s how the song goes, Vic,” she grinned, sadistic at her heart. “You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout — but look at you. You’ve got tears to spare, baby brother. Santa’s not going to like that.”

“Fuck… off,” the small boy screeched, scrambling backwards away from her.

His sister’s hand flew to her mouth, her jaw dropping dramatically. “Oop! Victor said a bad word!” she shouted, loud enough for their parents to hear. She sprinted out of the room, seeking them out to make sure they knew — “Victor said a bad word!” she croaked over and over again. And the worst part was… she was right.

How had he let her get such a control over him? How had he wrestled with this for so long and still managed to lose every single match-up?

Couldn’t he get a win, for once?

Of course not. He’d never been a winner, not once in his entire existence. Sure, he was merely eight, but he could tell by now that he just wasn’t set up to be one of society’s movers and shakers. His sister knew it, his parents knew it, the other kids at Tinkerdrift Academy knew it – he was just a scrawny little science geek with a too-thin layer of hair on the top of his head. He was destined to lose his hair, and he was destined to lose at life. He could feel the tears welling up in him again at the thought, and suddenly, he couldn’t hear anything over the sound of his own sobs. He heaved and wept, burying his face in the couch and slamming into the cushions with his fists. He sobbed so loudly he didn’t hear the jingling sound behind him until the big man’s glove was on his shoulder.

“By the Arbiter!!” he screamed, scrambling up onto the sofa and retreating into one of its cushy corners. The figure before him paused momentarily, startled to have startled him, but all too quickly his rosy red cheeks lit up and his lips curled into a grin, and he started to… laugh?

“Ho, ho, ho,” the rotund man chuckled, and Victor felt his own expression sink. Even ridiculously-dressed strangers were laughing at him now, because he was just that much of an absolute loser?!

“Stop laughing!” he shouted, burying himself in the corner of the couch.

The jolly old man adjusted his red coat and stepped back, holding up his gloved hands in an offer of peace. “Victor, Victor, my boy,” he smiled, “I’m not here to hurt you, son. I’m here to give you a gift.”

Victor looked up from the pillows to see the man wiggle his nose and tap his fingers and materialize a big bag full of what looked like a bunch of cubes — boxes? — and open it. All Victor could see inside what a big, black void, but jolly ol’ St. Nick reached in and pulled out a small box, holding it out towards the child. Victor reached out and grasped it, looking at his benefactor suspiciously but nevertheless hurriedly pulling off the ribbon and opening the box. He looked up at St. Nicholas.

“I don’t understand,” Victor said.

Santa Claus smiled. “You will. May they help you see when all goes cold.”

Later that night, Victor found himself curled up in bed, clutching the ruby red-lensed goggles from the box and examining them.

CRASH. BOOM. BANG.

He shot up in bed, and without thinking, slid the goggles onto his face. The walls between his room and his sister’s seemed to disappear — he couldn’t see through them, exactly, but he could see her heat signature… and that of something else. A big, goat shaped monster creeping out of her closet. He could hear its low growl snaking through the hallways as it crept towards her.

Suddenly, the beast lunged — not at his sister, but at the collection of stuffed animals piled in the corner of her room. It began to rip and tear through them, stabbing through a teddy bear with one of its horns while swiping through a baby doll’s plastic shell with its claws.

You have been naughty, it sneered at her as she cowered.

Victor could see from her heat signatures that she tried to scream, but couldn’t muster the energy. She simply watched as the monster destroyed her toys, her room, punishing her for her rudeness to him and everyone else. Victor blinked behind his crimson goggles; was this what justice looked like? Could someone getting what they deserved look so… terrifying?

I should help her, he thought.

But I won’t.

***

Megatron.

As Eszter and Karakul handled Slattern, the Krampus set its sights on the giant evil robot stampeding through some other members of the team. Fries glared over the top of his bond’s head, watching as Megatron sliced his way through Central City, hoping to topple all of them right as they hit the finish line. He glared through the red goggles he’d been given so long ago, hands twisted up in the fur of the monster that had become something of a friend to him throughout this long march through many islands.

He and the Krampus knew that this was it. This was the final moment of Dante’s Abyss, the one they’d been leading up to the entire time. As they crouched behind one of the buildings watching Megatron’s rampage, Victor wondered, idly, if there was any way they could survive this at all.

He thought of Nora, frozen in time back in his lab on Inverxe.

Fries, the Krampus’ voice snarled into his head. We must go.

“I know, I know,” he closed his eyes, looking down. “I’m just not sure I’ve got the energy.”

The Krampus scoffed, and nodded its head, understanding him in its own way — it had, after all, been doing the majority of the work throughout the past several weeks as they’d cut a path through the unmaking. He could feel the push and pull of this moment battling inside his head, and he wondered, somewhere within himself, if there was truly a way to save anything at all.

He’d fought for years now to try and bring Nora back from the cold edge of death, had fought to fix her.

But maybe that was the problem. Maybe he just needed to let her fucking rest.

Fries, the Krampus muttered, if we don’t go out there… they can’t win without everyone.

“I know, I know, I know!” Victor shouted, pounding a hand into the Krampus’ chain. He knew that going out there would mean almost certain death, and perhaps the Dante’s Abyss folks had some way to remedy that — perhaps they’d drag his corpse out of there, resurrect him, and pour enough prize money on him to finally fund his research, to finally help Nora, to finally get his wife back. Or maybe they wouldn’t. And maybe he was just going to fucking die, a loser like he’d always been.

He couldn’t even get a win even when he was riding on the back of a giant scary monster.

It isn’t about winning, the Krampus scowled. It’s about destroying him. That’s it.

Victor blinked. It was right, of course, as it had been the entire time. The unmaking might be framed like a game here, but it was far from it — it was something real, and the creatures unleashed on this little sliver of Opealon, the creatures they’d killed, it was the real deal. And wouldn’t Nora want him to fight back against an overpowering evil like that? Wouldn’t she want him to finish the job as much as he could? This was an unwinnable war, it seemed, at this point — monsters ravaging the planets of the Crossroads for years, now. But wouldn’t she want him to do what he could, anyway?

Chip away.

“Let’s go,” he nodded, “before I change my mind.”

Alright, Fries, the Krampus nodded. Let’s go.

Slowly, the Krampus crept out from its hiding spot, watching as Megatron loomed over the horizon. The huge Decepticon faced away, dealing with some other problem it undoubtedly viewed as petty, as the Krampus whipped its chain outward and wrapped it around the creature’s ankle. The monster yanked, but Megatron barely budged.

It turned from whatever other bond it had been fighting and looked down at the Krampus and Fries. They were fleas to it, and in this moment, Victor felt like a bug about to be squashed.

“Pathetic,” Megatron droned, lining up one of his weapons at the pair.

“Now, Krampus!”

Red energy burst through the chain, shocking at Megatron’s ankle and snaking up his body. The Decepticon faltered, stepping backwards and catching himself before Krampus’ demonic chain could fully incapacitate him. Fries didn’t know if giant robots could scowl, but it certainly looked like he was. He leveled the weapon again at the pair of them, beginning to charge it.

“Worms,” he shouted, pulling the trigger. As the huge blast of energy rocketed towards him, Fries could see another one of the bonds leaping for Megatron — ready to capitalize on the momentary distraction they’d provided.

At the end of the day, that was enough — chipping away at this creature. That was how he had operated throughout this entire competition, as he and the Krampus had worked to build their trust. They’d skated around the edges, never quite pulling off the triple axel but nevertheless earning a solid score as they took out bastions of the unmaking one by one. They’d conquered the cube, they’d fought alongside Sam and Nico, they’d destroyed monsters in what was left of Nausicaa, they’d defeated Jasonzilla… little things, yes, but little things that, somewhere deep in the narrative, mattered.

This was the last little thing. This was the last chipping away they could do.

The energy blast engulfed Fries. He didn’t know what happened to the Krampus — whether it had been hit, or whether its life was tied to his, or what — but he felt himself be knocked off its back and slam into the ground on the streets of Central City. His helmet cracked, and the warmth of the air around him began to spill in.

He blinked, seeing the world through the eyes of those goggles one last time before reaching up with his one good arm — the other one had been broken on the fall — and pushing his helmet off. The heat quickly became overbearing, but he had enough time left to remove his goggles and see the world as it was. He glanced around, looking at the buildings, the grass, the trees… seeing it all.

“Victor,” a familiar voice called out to him.

Through the grass and trees, there she was — Nora.

“Victor, come,” she smiled. “It’s time.”

He scrambled to his feet. That shouldn’t have been possible, so he could only assume that he was somewhere else now. Somewhere in between. That didn’t make sense, though — Nora was alive, she was frozen in his lab, she was…

“No, Victor,” she shook her head, approaching him, reading his thoughts. “You have my body in your lab,” she nodded, “but I’ve been here waiting for you for a long time.”

“No,” he felt the tears beginning to well up in his eyes, “no, that… that can’t be right. I’ve worked so hard, done so much, tried to bring you back.”

“You did everything you could do,” she smiled, “and it brought you here. It brought you to me.”

“But our life — ”

“Our life goes on,” she reached out, placing a warm hand on his cold face. “It can go on, now, finally.”

He stared at her, felt the warmth of her hand on his cheek. She was… real, in whatever way she could be. He reached out, grasping at her waist, pulling her closer to him and pressing his forehead against hers’. He could feel his sobbing fit coming on again, just like it had all those years ago when his sister had said those awful things to him. But this time, his tears weren’t from sadness. No; they burned down his cheeks, radiating with pure joy. His Nora… she was here.

“You can rest, now, Victor,” she assured him. “You’ve found me.”

Victor Fries smiled a real smile for the first time since he’d lost his wife. In that moment, both he and his wife Nora ceased to exist in our world — off to somewhere else, embarking on a new adventure, ready to build a new life.

And finally, Victor Fries was happy again.

 

[Ridley]

Megatron’s grandstanding had tempted Ridley to give chase almost as soon as he saw it in action, but focusing his initial attention on the armies below - and above - had given Phantoon and Ridley a fantastic vantage point of the narrative this conflict had taken - as well as the cracks in the opposing Commander’s armour. He had almost been swept up in an unknown nostalgia as he watched Smaug and Karakul blast through the skies and strike at Slattern, a pang of desire to fly through the skies and paint the world his color - the color of plasma and death.

A distracting, errant thought, and one that made him react a moment too late to Krampus’s attack.

Victor Fries had been a promising doctor. Krampus had been a dangerous force of justice with latent power Ridley had respected nonetheless. But both of them, for his purposes, were already his, in his consideration.

Phantoon, lacking the emotional context, but seeing the moment, Blasted a row of Sapphire flames at the Decepticon leader, but a quicker response caused them to miss their target.

“you motherfucker!” Nico swore through sam’s voice, and the Malefactor smashed Megatron with a vicious swipe of Claws. The surprised Decepticon was sent tumbling through an apartment building, leaving the structure tottering. It didn’t have the time to fall, as Sam’s body burst open with the OBL1V10N CONFIG. The barrage of missiles and heavy ordnance didn’t leave rubble, nor pebbles, only dust.

“You buffoon!” Ridley snapped from within Phantoon’s body, as the two threw themselves into an inelegant, inefficient tackle that almost got Phantoon bitten by reflex as they pushed the Malefactor out of harm's way.

The Eldritch being was well practised in slipping in and out of the void, and this experience was all that saved them as the Fusion cannon’s blast blew through Phantoon’s ethereal body, and disintegrated the three buildings behind them.

“And now you’ve finally shown yourself, you miserable coward.”

“If we’ve met, your name escapes me.” Ridley shot back. Phantoon chose a more practical ammunition as Megatron showed himself, firing a set of blue flames that the Decepticon casually sidestepped.

The reflexes of a warrior, Ridley realised. This was not some clumsy titan, but a veteran in every movement.

“You were already an exploded stain being cleaned off the Comet’s floor by the time I ascended to the throne, worm.” Megatron replied with a laugh, rushing forward.

Sam ran ahead, and Phantoon cursed as his aim was blocked, but the Malefactor’s plan of attack was blocked by Slattern’s re-entry into the fray. Still harried by his own pursuers, Slattern Snatched the Malefactor up and pulled him from the fray.

“Get back here, you chickenshit bastard!” Nico shouted, But Megatron didn’t look back as his forces concentrated, making a brief wall between him and the rest of the battle - him, and Phantoon.

The Horror from beyond the stars rose up to his full height as Megatron leaped towards them with incredible speed, dodging the claw swipe Phantoon threw and smashing the cephalopod hard in the eye, leaving it a crimson red.. The inevitable revenge swipe, coated in flame, was grabbed and crushed in a single metallic claw, threatening to detach the limb.

Megatron’s sadistic laugh was unanswered as Phantoon’s mind gave into the incapacitation of pain, as the fusion cannon warmed up and fired.

The Pain that went through both Ridley and Phantoon’s minds was more intense than any other blow as a raw hole was ripped through Phantoon’s chest, shadow-stuff leaking into the ether as they crashed upon a nearby house from the strike.

“You were given an army to command, powers beyond any normal denizen of the crossroads, and accomplished nothing., even with all your bluster. Of all of Darkseid’s commanders, you were our greatest buffoon. A buffoon I will happily erase…” Megatron replied. “After taking that prize of yours, of course. Your sheer incompetence might make you more useful to me as an enemy than you would have been as an ally.” The Cybertronian taunted, digging a heel into the wound as he traced his fusion cannon across Phantoon’s head, charging for another fully powered blast.

“Phantoon! Get up!” Ridley commanded, but losing so much material so fast had left Phantoon stunned, struggling just to maintain cohesion, and Ridley growled. He hadn’t played his last card, and the thought of this arrogant, inferior machine beating him left the dragon seething with frustration.

“Get your fucking hands off my boss, you Whore-bot!”

Nothing There shoulder tackled the cybertronian with a feral expression, grabbing the surprised Decepticon by the neck and pinning him to the ground, her hands turning into multiple mouths. As the Beast’s revolting maws bit against the Decepticon’s frame, sparks flew from the metal, but Megatron quickly reversed the Hold with a scream of anger, digging his claws into Nothing there’s shoulder.

“You miserable Pile of flesh!” Megatron called out.

Ridley’s power surged, as Phantoon’s body was filled with a flickering - orange flames merged with blue, and Megatron was sent flying with a pulsing blast of energy - orange plasma flaring from his eye.

Megatron was sent back through the streets, leaving a vicious scar through the roadway, but got up with a laugh. “I see now why you failed! You’re no better than those heroes! You reward a failure like that with mercy.”

Ridley leered through Phantoon’s eyes. “I don’t let others manhandle what is mine, Mechanoid. Perhaps if you kept a closer grip on your own, Your minions would not slip through your fingers…” The Dragon jabbed, quite aware of his recent betrayal, as Megatron’s Photo-receptors shifted to daggers.

“Oh, Gentlemen, please!!” A booming voice called out, as an obnoxiously golden-mech burst between both of them… and a hail of Brilliant missiles covered Megatron’s body in a burst of golden explosions, causing a feral growl as the King of Heroes struck. “You’re both pretty!”

Ridley’s every fiber shook with the impulse to shake Gilgamesh and his Gilgamech until they stopped moving, but the battlefield took precedence over his carnal urges…

There’d be another Dante’s abyss, Ridley was sure.

The presence of a fighter jet above was cause for notice, however, as Ridley looked down to the item he held and sensed… opportunity.

Blasting a loose conflagration of Azure fireballs up to signal, the Decepticon - and it’s pilot, swerved after a moment.

“You signalled?” Don Isaac’s voice rang out. Ridley hadn’t the ‘pleasure’ of speaking with the organic, and certainly, hoped not to meet him again.

Yet, him and his erstwhile machine servant, this minion of Megatron’s…

“You’ve speed. Accuracy. But you lack a weapon to destroy the good general…”

Phantoon pulled a mechanical object from his folds - something cobbled together from Godzilla’s own organs, and the best engineering of Karl Jak’s naval engineer.

“I offer the heart of an atomic monster. Guarantee you can deliver it… and I’ll guarantee he cannot escape.”

1172 words.
Ridley uses 1 focus to add dragonfire+Phantoon's fire into a big ol' beam.
Ridley has given "the Atomic heart" to Redsky.

 

[Gizmo Gear]

As Megatron and the Gizmo synchronized Clockwork Colossus was about to have another fight. They were distracted by the gas explosion in the distance caused by Kyle Reese’s quick thinking and ingenuity. Then Megatron turned its attention to Bobinator and Kyle Reese. As the two were fighting Gizmo and Gadget then got distracted by two dragons attacking the giant Kaiju. They sure had a lot of weird allies helping them.

Especially considering that they used a giant hammer on the creature. They all saw a lot of weird stuff when they first came to this strange dimension/universe, but with all of the chaos going on they are having a hard time following what’s going on. It’s a good thing the bad guys were distracted so that they wouldn’t take the chance to get potshots on them. Though with the giant monster still being a problem. Gizmo had an idea to take care of it seeing that its head seems to have been weakened.

Clockwork Colossus then turned to the nearest skyscraper and then crouched down. It planted its hands into the building as it took some exertion to pull it out of the ground. And then turning toward Slattern, it throws the building like a javelin towards the monster's head. The velocity and strength of the throw did hurt its already injured head, but it also turned its head to see who threw that projectile at it. As it turned to see a robot that it absolutely dwarfed in size it started lumbering forward.

CC then quickly turned to another skyscraper, lifted it up, and threw it again, but Slattern then swatted the skyscraper with its tail crushing the building into debris. Gizmo then had an idea, but it was risky. While synchronizing with CC he climbed the tallest building he could find, he then found an antenna/radio tower which gave Gizmo another idea. Lifting it was easier and then they turned towards Slattern and lobbed it into one of its eyes like a spear.

Slattern tried to swipe at it with its tail, but it being a smaller/lighter target meant it was faster when thrown. And thus got pierced right through one of its eyes. As Slattern roared and flailed around in pain, CC then jumped from building to building while it was distracted. It then got to where its back was, and then jumped and began climbing its back using the size of the creature to its advantage. The bigger they are the harder they fall after all.

It dug its hands into its scaly back as it began climbing up. Slattern felt the intruder climbing it, but couldn’t reach it with its arms or use its tail. It started to thrash about, but it wouldn’t deter CC all that much. It continued climbing up the spine, up the neck, until it reached the top of its head. It then began punching and slamming its fist into’s skull. It kept doing this repeatedly over and over again as Gizmo frustratingly kept yelling for it to “Get knocked out” over and over again hoping for results.

This heavy amount of repeated head force trauma/bludgeoning would kill or cause it to go into a coma, but Slattern was the very definition of a monster. It began swinging its head around trying to get CC off, but with one hand implanted into the monster, it had a harder time staying on. Still slamming its right fist onto the top of the kaiju’s head. Until finally it was flung off, as the robot was flying through the air. It was then making many flips in mid-air before gracefully landing on its feet and making a pose like a gymnast.

Gizmo was fine, but then he looked at Gadget who was dizzy and about to puke because he didn’t hold on well enough when they were spinning while inside the robot’s head. Gizmo helped his brother up, but the kaiju kept coming closer. Gadget then looked at this but he couldn’t keep doing nothing forever. His brother managed to sync somehow with CC he was able to recognize that, but that doesn’t mean he can’t find a way to help CC too.

“Gizmo I have an idea I am going to go to CC’s core and jury rig something with it, keep that monster distracted, and slow it down as much as you can while I work on it,” Gadget said.

“Wait what?!” Gizmo responded.

And before Gizmo could respond Gadget was going down a hatch and climbing down a ladder down deeper into the Clockwork Collossus’ insides. Gizmo had no choice but to trust his brother. CC then picked up the abandoned cars and began throwing them at Slattern’s head. It was a nuisance but the impact kept slowing down Slattern’s path towards them. Each time it shrugged it off/shook its head it stopped for just a few seconds as it slowly stomped towards them.

As CC was doing this it was backing up and making its distance. When finally Gadget reached the core. What he was about to do was dangerous and stupid and probably something Gizmo would have thought of, but it was the only way to do any damage to that behemoth. As he started to do some rewiring to the core. Using spare parts lying around he is able to make an apparatus to focus the power from the Astral Shard Energy Core into a large powerful beam.

Although it will take some time to charge, all he needs to do is pull the lever once it’s reached enough power. He waits a bit before doing so, and when he is done he screams to Gizmo upstairs and to CC “Aim the torso toward the head!”. Gizmo then realized what Gadget was trying to do and was on board for what he believed to be an amazing and awesome plan. As CC tilted its body up and planted its feet firmly into the ground.

Finally, a large orb of energy was formed in the apparatus. And then Gadget pulled the lever and it released a large beam of energy through CC’s torso. It burns a large hole through the hull, which Gizmo feels as intense as chest pain as he just had heartburn. Slattern tries to deflect/block the beam with it’s tail. Only for it to pierce through the tail and burn a part of it off as it falls to the ground. The beam hits it square in the face and causes a large explosion as half of its face is severely burnt and two of its four eyes are now rendered useless giving it a blindspot as now it only has two eyes left on the right side of its hammer-like head.

As CC then turns towards Megatron it watches as two figures are then blown away by a large blast. Gizmo had no idea who those two were, but they were people who had lives. At this point he was tired and done, done with all of these needless deaths and destruction. He screamed and his echoes reverberated in and out of CC loud enough that people could hear him.

“MEGATROOOOON!” he roared.

Megatron only glanced at CC before turning his head and smirking with a hmph.

Post 2/3
2,389/3,000 Words Maximum
Focus used for Astral Beam Attack

 

[Gizmo Gear]

As Gizmo was commanding CC to charge forward to Megatron he stopped before the large blast that was meant for Megatron and almost hit CC and the three inside instead. And that was when he got a sight of a strange purple alien dragon riding a giant tentacled eyeball monster. Then Ridley with Phantoon began their battle with Megatron. Gizmo observed the crazy battle before him but was unsure at this point what he could even do. Especially when the guy in the giant golden mech came to help. He wasn’t needed but he wanted to do something. To get back at Megatron for what he has done to Mr. Freeze and Krampus.

He then turned to Ridley and Phantoon giving a thumbs up as CC gave a whink.

"Good job you guys but now it's my turn," Gizmo yelled through CC's body hoping that the reverberating echoes would allow Ridley and the others to hear that.

He then turned back to the tail of Slattern that fell off. That was when he had an idea. He ran toward it, grabbing it and then pulling it with him. And then once he got close enough, he swung it like a bat at Megatron. Causing Megatron to be flung back through several buildings before he busted out of the wreckage once more. And he was looking a lot more pissed than he usually was.

“I’ll rip you apart limb from limb for that! There will be nothing from your remains but ashes and rust! I’ll make sure your names won’t even be a footnote in history! I will find and kill every single person you know! And even that won’t satisfy the rage that I feel towards you all, in this microinstant! Hate, HAAAATE!” bellowed Megatron.

As Megatron charged a blast CC blocked it with the severed tail which served as a better shield than Megatron’s own sword earlier. CC then spun and threw the tail like a shockput ball at Megatron causing him to be pinned under it. It didn’t take much effort for the Decepticon leader to take it off though, but as he got up he was delivered a punch in the fact from CC right in the face. A barrage of punches came from CC before delivering a kick sending him back and slamming him against the severed Slattern tail.

He fired a fusion cannon blast but this time CC jumped and flipped over it before delivering a flying kick straight to Megatron’s face before jumping back and sliding a few feet. Megatron growled and screamed as he ran forward about to deliver a punch. Until CC and Megatron’s fists collided. Creating a shockwave that shattered the glass of the windows of each of the remaining skyscrapers and buildings standing. CC then used his free hand to deliver another gut punch towards Megatron and Megatron grabbed CC’s left arm and tore it off.

Gizmo screamed in pain as if he felt it happen to his left arm as it went limp. CC stepped back as Megatron made a malicious grin before stepping forward. Seeing a nearby gas tanker Clockwork Colossus threw it at Megatron creating a large explosion. However, a silhouette in the cloud of smoke appears as Megatron steps out, but then he finds his opponent has disappeared and has used the smoke as a cover and still carries the torn-off arm as both a trophy and a new makeshift weapon.

“No matter if they flee or not, I’ll kill the rest of these insects, and then I’ll finish them off like the wounded animal they are,” Megatron said before stepping away.

Meanwhile, CC, Gizmo, and Gadget were all hiding amongst the debris and away from everyone else. As Gadget is trying to help support Gizmo’s arm to make a makeshift cast.

“I am sorry everyone, we can’t continue this battle anymore, you will all have to finish him off without us.” Gizmo thought.

Post 3/3
3,047/3,000 Maximum Word count

 

[King Shark]

Commandant Racker surveyed the scene from the sky, a blue shape circling the battlefield like an enormous bird of prey, or maybe something more akin to a scavenger bird, given how little he’d involved himself in the fray so far. Below he observed a frenzied melee: allies he’d never met hurled themselves mercilessly at titans beyond their imagining. Time and time again they were repelled.

A mounting unease had consumed Thundercracker while he watched the unfolding battle. They had an army, warriors of all shapes and sizes who varied from strange abstract horrors to more conventional fare, like dragons whose very breath heralded death and destruction. And yet…Megatron.

There was no Optimus Prime here. Megatron, a tactician and warrior of unmatched ferocity, knew no other rival. Countless battles had proven to Thundercracker that his leader was merciless, and would not accept failure.

The uneasy knot in his cording tightened.

“Warp. Isaac,” TC started over the comms. “...I’m going in.”

A streak of cyan punched through the sky supercharged by speedy thrusters and an excellent sense of trajectory. Some expert pilots knew the way to slingshot themselves using gravity as an extra propulsion, gaining speed along the way. Actually being a plane, though? That was the next level. Thundercracker’s seeker frame, an aerodynamic marvel despite the absolute devastation battle after battle had wreaked on it, catapulted in a parabola.

Morphing in the air, Thundercracker landed in his root form in front of the titanic frame of Megatron. His pedes impacting against the uneven terrain caused him to stumble a bit, which sent a surge of embarrassment through him. He was not only embarrassed that the whole Syntech Army had beheld his sloppy footwork, but that Megatron himself had. He ground his ravaged dentae and tilted his head back, beholding the Decepticon whose flag he’d always flown under.

He was a marvel, tremendous, powerfully built yet lithe, sleek despite his bulk, with immaculate plating and a veritable arsenal of weaponry seamed perfectly about his frame. It was a wonder that more of them had not died already. Thundercracker had watched more than a few Cybertronians fall to the might of the leader of the Decepticons.

“Ah,” Megatron stated, looking down contemptuously. “My most forgettable servant. Have you come to grovel, and beg for your life? Or have you come to try your hand at deceiving me into letting you stand at my side again, like your foolish wing-mate? The two of you never were much without Starscream. You will serve me better as scrap heaps than you ever did as soldiers. And what has happened to your faceplates?”

Feeling raw, Thundercracker was reminded of the bare metal underframe and exposed wiring of his face; he fought the urge to bring up a servo to feel it again. He’d found himself in the habit of doing that lately, and it wasn’t helping the attention the deathly rictus of his visage was drawing. He was the Cybertronian equivalent of a man walking around with his skull exposed.

“Lost a fight with a can opener,” TC chuckled, waving off the comment. “Listen, I thought I should land here and see you face to face one last time, before you’re a smoldering heap of wreckage. After so many years of indentured servitude, it seemed a small thing to take a final look at the thing you were, before you’re no longer. I have to say…”

He gave his old boss a once over, and sneered with a confidence that he absolutely did not feel.

“The Unmaking has not been kind to you. You’re looking a little rusted at the bolts, boss.”

Clang.

A simple kick of his pede, and Megatron punted Thundercracker off the ground with the ease of a golfer teeing off with a nine iron. End over end TC soared through the air, helm ringing, his body feeling as if it might simply fall apart in the air and rain parts all over the dragons, mechs, and horrors below.

He shot through a building, pancaking walls behind him, then spat out the other end to continue his descent. He activated his thrusters to try and control his fall, but only managed to aid the spiral Megatron’s kick had put on his arc.

“TC!” came Skywarp’s voice.

Redsky, form of a mech, appeared suddenly in the air with a bright flash. Two powerful robotic hands seized him right out of the air stopping his freefall abruptly. The sudden stop made his helm feel like it was still spinning.

“I think I’m going to spew,” TC grunted, muffling his mouth with a shaky servo. “Oh, frag it!”

But the feeling passed, and he managed to straighten out.

They were hovering in a cluster of ramshackle buildings the years had not been kind to, whose very architecture seemed to sag at its foundations until the very walls they supported seemed to bow out in the middle. Years ago, some genius with a blueprint and a vision had mapped out the proud skyscrapers of the city, while toilsome labor had erected building after building: simultaneously the most impressive and disgusting thing about humanity, the way they could turn any landscape into a city and submit it to their will. Now, the Unmaking had claimed all of it, and only Darkseid’s vision remained. Even Megatron could not stand against it. Only they, the soldiers of this army, of which he was meant to be a Commandant, could slow the endless tides consuming the universe.

Commandant in title alone, Thundercracker knew. He was no leader.

He looked over Redsky, feeling again that it was strange to see his wing-mate ensconced in another mech. He wasn’t sure if he should feel dirty about it, or impressed by the new form. It certainly boasted a fair number of improvements. Stronger, faster, and sturdier than before; Redsky flashed a grin across her faceplates.

“Racker,” Isaac’s masculine tone came through his comms. “We’ve been given a weapon. Some kind of atomic heart. It might be our best bet at pulling through this thing, and putting a stop to him.”

“There’s still the other one, too,” Thundercracker reminded the Don, grimacing. “That crazy looking monster.”

“We’ll let the dragons handle that one,” Isaac bulled on, undeterred, and unfettered by the doubt that haunted the seeker. “I need you to draw Megatron’s attention, and when his guard’s down, I’ll plunge in with the heart.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Warp’s voice came through, fringed with uncharacteristic worry. “I mean, this is Megatron we’re talking about. Even with the others’ help, I don’t know if TC is going to be able to hold him off for very-”

“Warp,” ‘Cracker cut in. “This is me we’re talking about. I could take him on single handedly.”

He flashed a grin, made haunting by the ruin of his face. Redsky’s faceplates did not look reassured.

“Just remember,” Warp said, looking him over. “You’ve still got to introduce me to that girlfriend, and that dog of yours.”

“Right.”

“Good luck, Racker,” Isaac stated. “Whatever our differences, we’ve fought the good fight.”

Thundercracker transformed once more into a jet, and launched like a catapult away from his companions. He streaked through the cityscape, threading buildings, passing over an enormous dead creature who’d fallen victim to the battle, espying the dragons locked in with the other creature far in the distance, and soaring past the other, more unconventional giants who’d found themselves under the employ of Syntech. He was struck by how powerful they all seemed, and how different they all were, despite being conscripted into the army. If the Unmade army were a dark blanket, Syntech’s forces were a patchwork quilt, but not lesser because of it. Maybe their differences made them something more, in fact.

As he drew into Megatron’s orbit, a colossal hand swiped at him the way one pestered by a mosquito might try and swat it away. It reminded him of the Cloud Elemental they’d fought first, whose tremendous hands had pushed them away effortlessly, and how they’d managed to find a way to defeat it nonetheless. A feeling of hope passed through him.

He unleashed a payload at Megatron’s helm, streaking fiery death at the Decepticon he’d served for millennia. The munitions popped and crackled against the larger Cybertronian’s plating, doing little but coating him in explosive residue.

“Back for another punting?” demanded Megatron. “I’ll be happy to oblige.”

A massive servo clapped him out of the sky, sending him careening into the ground below. The impact was so powerful and instantaneous that a crater erupted around the fallen seeker, whose vision had flickered out with the force of the blow. A low moan let itself out of his dentae unbidden. He shifted, sheer trauma forcing him back into his ‘mech form.

When his vision flickered back on, Thundercracker spotted a massive shape rocketing towards him.

Megatron stomped on him, crushing him back against the rubble. He raised up his pede, stomped the seeker down again, and then pulled back.

The agony coursed through him, a fire through his wiring, forcing him to scream out into the air. Everything in him tensed up, causing him to coil into the fetal position.

“You’re pathetic,” spat Megatron, glowering down at him. “I can’t believe I let something this weak wear the emblem of the Decepticons.”

“LEAVE HIM ALONE!”

Warp’s voice cut through the air like a siren, causing TC to lift his head feebly.

“Warp,” he croaked, looking up to the rim of his crater. “Don’t. Do it. Can’t. Beat him.”

His trembling fingers scrabbled at the rubble, finding some loose stone that he dug into for purchase; the battered Thundercracker pulled himself forward, feeling his bashed in chassis scraping against the ground.

He continued on like that, pulling himself along for what felt like eons. When he reached the lip of the crater, he felt himself sliding backward, back into its depths. Over the precipice he could hear that Redsky had engaged Megatron, maybe alone, or perhaps aided by some of the others. What difference would it make? He’d felt the strength of Megatron, and had been crumpled by it. Maybe he should just roll over and die in the pit.

But if he did that, he’d truly have failed his wing-mate. And his girlfriend. And his dog. Was that the stuff he was made of? Failure?

He mustered up that uneasy feeling in his core, and channeled it into his fingers. With strength he was quite sure he did not have left, feeling exhausted beyond all belief, the seeker pulled for his life.

And somehow, he managed to pull himself out of the crater.

He lay there, shoulders shifting raggedly, trying to gather himself for a moment.

“TC!”

He lifted his only remaining optic and saw Redsky reaching out to him, grasping for him, a frantic look across her faceplate.

Thundercracker reached out, clutching something in his digits. He pressed it across his wing-mate’s palm, a pleading look in the lone red beacon of his face.

“Do it,” he murmured. “Do it for them.”

He pictured his girlfriend. He pictured his dog.

Then, he was lifted bodily from the ground. Megatron wrapped a massive hand around Thundercracker’s busted helm, planted the other on his shoulders, then yanked with all his might.

TC’s helm, followed by his spinal strut, were ripped free of the rest of his frame. Megatron dropped the Decepticon’s limp body back into his crater, and held his decapitated helm before him for inspection. Thundercracker’s spark chamber dangled loosely from his spinal strut, strobing weakly with dying energy. His dentae moved wordlessly, optic dimming.

“Looks better this way,” Megatron stated off-handedly.

He reached forth, popped the spark chamber between his thumb and forefinger, then discarded the disembodied head over his shoulder the way one might toss a banana peel.

He turned his attention to Redsky.

“You’re next.”

Gobsmacked, Redsky stood in silence. In her hand, she clutched the Commandant’s pin, which Thundercracker had gifted: a final message to Skywarp and Don Isaac.

Do it.

 

[Shallan Davar]

Compliments were rare from a dragon. But even Smaug could not deny, the brute had a staggeringly immense ability to endure punishment.

It was the height of folly for them all to continue attacking the monster, the foolish human would drive both him and herself to death over a meaningless show of loyalty! He could feel the cold chill of her nearly summoned blade. It hung near his fore-leg, but at the same time he could feel it near his spine. Their meshed sensations left them both unsure of the outcome, but from that stalemate came action. The best time to act against the monster was when it was beset by numerous other foes. When those she sought to protect were slain, then he would revisit with her this foolish notion of dying alongside them.

Smaug sailed around a swiping tail, soaring along the length of the monster. Many blows to its face had left the thing vulnerable there, and it seemed only logical to attack where he stood even the shadow of a chance of imparting pain. The monstrous kaiju lumbered about, swinging half-blindly at anything that drew too close. Even the monster’s allies were keeping a distance from it, preferring to swarm their gold-clad commander and other of their forces, as though they were less of a threat than this monsters inaccurate attacks.

Smaug flared his wings wide, landing claws-first onto the blinded side of the monsters face. He clung to the creature, tearing and biting as it flailed about, but its hide was too rubbery to pierce with a firm grip. With a roar, Smaug was flung loose, tumbling in the air before he could catch himself and keep aloft.

Look out! Shallan shouted a warning.

Bah! Now you seek to aid me? After such a declaration of enmity?Smaug’s serpentine neck arced around to find himself staring face to face with the titanic monster.

He had caught its attention truly now. This was the kind of error that came from distraction in battle. The kaiju roared, the very power of its voice rending the air and shredding the side of nearby buildings. Smaug’s balance was shattered by the disrupted air, and he was sent hurling through a maelstrom of debris. Steel shards and concrete chunks peppered his body, scratching his scales and battering his form.

Disoriented as he was, he didn’t have the faintest of chances to see the kaiju’s tail coming. It snapped him out of the air with a deftness that seemed out of sorts for the monster’s size, changing his clumsy fall into a fiercely accelerated descent. He landed with an impact that could be considered minor only due to the sheer scale of the destruction this conflict was causing.

Shallan continued to nag him mentally when he opened his eyes, but he was done indulging her pathetic conniving with his attention. When they had been forced to fight the spike-covered monster in that twisted hellscape, Smaug had experienced pain to an extent he could not have imagined prior. It had twisted its way through every fiber of his being. This was not pain like that all-encompassing torture had been. This was the will-sapping pain of a body spent and broken, crippled to the point where it could not continue to fight.

He struggled to rise, his mangled forelimb refusing to bear weight as he shifted under the rubble of a ruined apartment building. He shifted his good legs under him, but still his body would not lift from the ground. Opening half an eye, he peered at one of the locuses of his pain. Sombering reality stole its way through the blindness of pain.

His wing was trapped, bent at an angle by unyielding metal and the fallen wall of a three-story building. Beyond the pain he felt, he could see the tatters where rebar and metal had sliced ribbons through the skin. Even if he managed to extricate himself, his time in the air was at an end. His chance at metaphorical flight had been stolen now, along with the literal one.

The Kaiju had quickly forgotten him, now contending with a clamor of eldritch monstrosities. However, the trapped dragon proved a very appealing target for some of the lesser fleet of unmade monsters. Unmade weapons-fire strafed towards him, obliterating the scenery as it went. Smaug closed his eyes, bracing for his demise.

The sound of crouching metal and the smell of sulfurous ash enveloped him. He looked up to see Karakul, standing between him and the onslaught. The unmade vehicles opened fire, pouring blasts of energy and sprays of bullets into the cloud of ash and smoke Karakul was no emitting. Weaponry played off her metal plating as she roared in defiance. She belched forth a caustic flame, enveloping the unmade pilots in fire and death.

Not wasting the opportunity, Smaug grunted, shoving his body weight against the masonry that ensnared him and shunting it aside. He struggled to his feet, forcefully ignoring the phantom feeling that one of his hind legs was also missing.

“You seek to finish me off yourself?” Smaug spoke with a surly sneer, “How better to prove yourself a true dragon than to slay one?”

Karakul snarled in response, her face only momentarily emerging from the cloud of sulphur and ash.

“See me in my true splendour, little one! I am Yucatan, the dragon queen! A queen protects her flight.”

“No,” Smaug’s voice was more weary now, but he stood firm in defiance, “Even with all this, you are not Yucatan the Great. Borrowed power does not make one a dragon.”

Inside him Shallan protested, and outside him, Karakul seethed. For a moment Smaug thought it possible that she would kill him then and there. Certainly she now possessed the power to.

“That you still seek my assent to your dragonhood is the most damning proof of your lack, Scions of the Great Terror of Old Arcadia. We are a dying breed, yes, stretching into the depths of lost histories and forgotten tales. But the worst death our kind suffers is to see ourselves diminish so greatly that we do not even dare approach the great beings we once were.”

Wing mangled, fore-leg crippled, Smaug drew himself up to his full height.

“One does not prove themselves a Dragon. A Dragon does not argue, nor plead, neither begs nor bargains. They are, and they will not be denied!”

Smaug turned away from Karakul, his gaze settling upon the monstrous beast that would be his end. He could yet try to flee. To slink away into the shadows and the debris. With his injuries, he could hardly be thought of to bring further harm to their foe. Yet his gaze remained fixed on their foe.

Wounds could mend, but a broken body would not again be whole. His death had been foretold from the moment he agreed to Syntech’s schemes. If he died a coward, could he be so certain that his return would not meet the same indignity as Yucatan’s? No, better to affirm that he was dragonkind, in fact and deed. Wiles and schemes had their places when dealing with lesser beings. Now that he faced something stronger, he would show the indomitable power and spirit.

For he was a dragon. And he would be once again.

Crippled and bloody, Smaug charged headlong towards the kaiju, roaring draconic fire with every breath. He did not falter until the kaiju’s thunderous impacts had driven him into the ground. The monstrous creature continued its own path of conflict and destruction, leaving only a crater and a broken form

1271 words for 2848 overall.

Been an honor and a privilege writing with you all this summer. Thanks for putting up with us for this Marathon Alex! You all rock!

 

[Don Isaac]

A storm raged within Isaac's skull. Dozens of alien thoughts burned through his brain as he witnessed the scene before him, a sea of despair welling up from the neural link as he watched Thundercracker's Soul|Heart|Core shatter into a thousand pieces, a sneer dominating the armoured visage of the Tyrant|Hero|Conqueror|Despoiler as they stepped over the wreck.

"One more failure recycled," Megatron spat, claws gleaming, slick with oil as they scythed through the air, hungry to rip and tear. "Come, Skywarp- let me tear that infection from your breast," the Leviathan grinned, needle-like teeth baring themselves.

Optic and eye tore themselves away from the final message Thundercracker had left upon the pin, settling on the Murderer|Murderer. Around them, men, women, and stranger things fought- but the war faded away, now. There was simply the enemy before them, and the still-sparking corpse lying, ruined, on the broken earth.

Their chainsabre revved, teeth the span of a man's hands carving through the air as Redsky surged forth, whipping the blade towards the Decepitcon's arm. It was deflected, of course- Megatron was no novice, and he sneered as he caught Redsky's other arm, machine-guns roaring into empty air as the 'mech strained against the Tyrant's grasp.

"All units," Isaac spoke into the radio as his knuckles went white around the yoke, straining against the Dictator's deadly grasp. "Pin the beast down- give Syntech's cannons the time to aim," he spoke, gears grinding with exertion.

"Yeah? Who died and made you Commandant?" Asked an insolent voice- some gunnery officer seeking to exploit what little authority they had.

"Thundercracker," Isaac snarled, slipping his pistol from its holster and slamming lead into Megatron's chassis, barrel belching fire and defiance against the megalithic monstrosity.

"Pathetic," the Tyrant rumbled, far from impressed by the Noble's sidearm. Steel cracked beneath Megatron's grasp, pistons screaming in protest. "Did you think that letting yourselves grow weak would save you?" He snarled, driving his forehead into the Bond's brow, staggering them backwards and wrenching at their arm.

"Did you think that betraying all I taught you over this long war would redeem you?" He roared, driving a titanium knee into Redsky's gut, shards of glass spraying against the unfortunate pilot.

"Did you even think?!" The Tyrant roared, raising both hands high over his head, lacing ferrous fingers together as he brought them down to shatter Redsky's spine, to render them into so much inert metal as they did their comrade.

And then- with a flash of purple light, they were gone, leaving Megatron alone once more. He grinned, the beginnings of a gloat burgeoning on his lips. "Always the Coward," he accused, a clawed fist shifting as the heavy barrel of a fusion cannon slinked out from his internal structure. "And siding with the flesh has done nothing to free you from your fears-"

Only an instinct honed through millennia gave him the foresight to move.

The tearing tip of the chainsabre missed his spine- but it still tore through his side, greedy teeth chewing through armour plating and shredding the synthetic muscles beneath.

"Clever little things," the despot grinned, swiping out with his hand as Redsky passed, lacerating their torso as the thrust carried them past the Father of The Revolution.

They took the compliment as best they could, skidding to a halt, one hand holding the sabre as the other remained folded behind their back, a classical duellist's stance pulled straight from Isaac's mind and fed into Redsky's pistons.

"Isaac," Skywarp whispered, nothing more than the static face of Lady Watari apparating into the cockpit. There was far too much to do, to afford wasting effort on such cosmetic niceties. "You're leaking," she said, voice tight with fear and concern.

So he was. He'd hardly noticed- he felt the roar of the reactor more than the hammering of his heart, the ache of battered armour more than his own wounds. Megatron's claws had torn into the cockpit, and his own cuirass was little more than a tissue when set against such a beast's touch. He looked down- a great rent had been carved into his paint-stripped plate, and a sheet of sanguine slowly oozed forth from the wound, a lethargic crimson waterfall that was just now starting to stain his fatigues.

"It's nothing," Isaac lied, pressing the 'Mech into motion again, closing the ground between them and Megatron rapidly, swapping the blade to the 'Mech's left hand as he swung wide, forcing Megatron to exert his wounded side with a hiss of annoyance. "Meat does that, from time to time," he said- a partial truth, at least. "I'll be fine."

That was enough, for now- the battle was at hand, and there was only one refuge any true son of Santagria knew from warfare.

Audacity.

He pressed onwards, the blade wielded by Cybertronian and Man alike moving with a haste spurred onwards by the passions burning in their hearts, a scream for vengeance issued forth from mouths and chainblade alike.

He swung, a grasping claw briefly wrapping around the blade, striving to tear it from their grasp- but the blades bit deep, dragging it out of an hydraulic-drenched palm, only for a fusion cannon shot to scorch past the cracked cockpit, searing Isaac's flesh and melting internal components.

"Oh, holy mother of Martyrs," Isaac prayed, stepping backwards as he swept the blade towards Megatron's thigh, carving away more metal, like a Cook shearing servings of poultry from a roast. As a child, he'd always been told, through countless legends and histories, that hesitation was death- but bravery always won immortality. What was the end of a life, if it ensured an eternity of Glory to follow you through all others?

"Oh, bringer of the Radiance that blinds and illuminates," he continued, dipping beneath a contemptuous swing of a great set of claws, etching another oil-weeping wound in the behemoth before them. The monster could bleed, he could die, as much as the millions of years of evidence to the contrary seeping through his connection to Skywarp suggested otherwise.

"Oh, great cleanser, great consumer," Isaac spat. Was his tongue growing thicker? He couldn't feel his wounds- there was only the call to Vengeance. With an unsteady fist, he slammed a gleaming red button, calling a dozen missile ports to open and unleash their contents on the tyrant, filling the air with greasy black smoke and shrapnel as point-blank detonations erupted against the despot's armoured core.

"Oh, maker of glass and of ash," the Baron screamed, bringing the blade about in a two-handed grasp as it cleaved into Megatron's forearm, a rain of scorching oil splattering to the earth beneath as the Tyrant retaliated with a punch that dented Redsky's faceplate. They staggered, together, blade still desperately held in iron fingers. He watched blood drip from his chest onto the control yoke that was now beneath them, more curious than concerned as he felt his fingertips tingle into numbness.

"Oh, cataclysm and creation- your children call," he said, rising upwards, movements wrought with a feverish fervour that spread across the neural link like a creeping poison. The blade flickered with an unseemly haste- Megatron's arm was too slow to move, too slow to evade, and it paid the price. Steel, then tubing, cables, synthmuscle- they were shredded as the blade bit deep, a roar of fury blossoming forth from the Tyrant.

That venom, that raw, vengeful malice that pulsed back and forth among the link, a feedback loop of fury that demanded to be sated, was made manifest. These were not friendly skies, or welcoming waves- Redsky's reactor burned, and it burned like it wanted to see Megatron reduced to ash. The despot staggered backwards, the accumulation of errant atoms finally taking their toll upon his frame. Hardly helpless- but they only needed one singular, perfect moment to make this right.

"For the sake of Revenge and Renewal," he proclaimed, Redsky's lips moving in time with his own as she reached behind her, dragging forth a gory bounty from a far-off field. The heart still beat, even now. Whatever beast they had felled to claim it refused to die, refused to relinquish its power, but the cabling woven through its mangled veins spoke to Syntech's disagreement with its stance. Rosary beads- glass carved from the irradiated dunes of home- were wrapped around it now, consecrating this sacred superweapon.

"With the Heart of Hell, we strike at thee," they said as one, ramming the ravaged organ into the rent torn open in Megatron's side, forcing it into a morass of shredded metal and blackened oil. He felt it beat, a single pulse that echoed through his bones, bringing a moment of life to increasingly cold and unfeeling digits.

And one final, desperate verse, whispered without sound from pale lips.

Please, God.

It was a tentative beat on some ancient war-drum. The moment before savagery, the instant before armageddon came and swept all away in the tide. Was this what his grandfather had heard, the moment before Santagria died, the moment before it was reborn? How many people could have heard the first heartbeat of something divine slowly rousing itself into terrible wakefulness?

How few survived to tell the tale?

Their work here was done. Anything more would be simply raging at a corpse.

Isaac permitted himself a moment to clasp at the wound across his chest, feeling his life slowly slip between his fingers as Redsky moved, shifting reality rapidly as they skittered through space, redlining the teleportation drive- sympathetic pain ached through the link between himself and Skywarp as he felt it burn, a feeling only exacerbated by the grinding of the transformation cog as wings swept outwards.

"Isaac," Skywarp cried out, taking to the sky once more as they burned for safety. They could take no pleasure in the sight behind them as Megatron tore into his own flesh, listening to the rapidly increasing rhythm of the flesh that now seemed to grow within him. "Isaac, stay with me," the Lady Watari called as the Don settled back in his seat. He'd earned a moment's respite.

Numb fingers slipped from his chest as he allowed them to dangle by the side of the pilot's seat.

Just a moment.

2,709/3,000 Words. Isaac has activated The Atomic Heart within Megatron's chassis, but has suffered significant injuries in doing so. Hopefully, the Syntech fleet's guns can help even things out with Slattern.

 

[Lilith]

Innumerable armies. Mechanical constructs and fearsome creatures big and ginormous. Lilith dimly registered the tumult unfolding around her. What mattered to her right now was her initial motivation, before this whole Unmaking annoyance got in her way. Surely she had time for that before the end.

At first Ridley perceived the distant noise as a whirring gnat, a distraction hardly worth his attention. It soon crescendoed into a strident shrill, like a whining wasp harassing his ears. He could discern the contents of the commotion, unfortunately. He was all too familiar with those words coming from that voice.

“Master… Mmm- Master Ridley!”

Phantoon's cyclopean eye swiveled and beheld Lilith… leaning against an apartment block, seemingly having a stomach cramp. Neither Ridley nor his bond wished to know what unspeakable abhorrence was transpiring within Nothing There. Besides, the disgraced Decepticon leader demanded their concentration, and they would give it in full, with a shriek from the cosmos and a raised claw burning in brilliance.

Nothing There's recent scuffle with Godzilla had left the raw red meat of its ever-changing form scorched with irradiated blisters. It's usual appearance wasn't much of an improvement, though. Fingers growing on fingers growing on fingers clutched at the destitute building like concrete bedsheets, the abnormality singing in a chorus of strange, unintelligible voices, while the woman nestled in its entrails sang yet stranger. Eventually the structure gave way as Nothing There stumbled through the vacated units, adding onto the incalculable property damage incurred by Dante's Abyss. Lilith rolled about the pile of rubble like it was fresh snow after a cancelled school day, hugging herself with far more arms than necessary.

“Ahh… Just what I needed!” Lilith proclaimed.

‘Love… lo- than- ou- thank… You- ve- Thank you. Thanks for everything! I'm… You're- Love you,’ it responded.

“You're pretty great, ya know that? Er… Whatever you're called.”

‘Cool… Cool! C- Nothing… No… Not! No one- Nothing! Oh, it's nobody.

What was the bodysnatching creature truly, beneath the infinite shells? Perhaps Lilith would never know. In fairness, she has her own sides that no one is ever meant to see. “How about… Nullthing.”

‘What are we having for lunch?’

Lilith jumped onto her feet and squinted towards the kaiju looming over the battlefield. That was as good an answer as any.

Nullthing charged into the cavalcade of Unmade aberrations, arms elongating into wide blades three times larger than itself, the twin fangs of a viper piercing sentient machines, aquatic fiends, and crude fusions of the two. Lilith wasn't here to fool around with the small prey. She had a ridiculously bigger fish for the proverbial fryer.

Bounding towards the leviathan, Lilith was awestruck by its sheer magnitude. Its unfathomable size defied all attempts at a logical comparison. It was easily taller than the Eiffel tower, could play fetch with it too. Nullthing was a fire ant, if the kaiju acknowledged its presence at all. But proportions be damned, she was gonna sting.

Lilith joined the dragon pair's assault on the colossal Slattern, hurling a hail of bone lances to complement the gouts of flame breath. Little more than matchsticks to the beast's impervious hide. The mighty swing of the kaiju's talons sent shockwaves through the air, though the dragons were more favorable targets to bash. Nullthing closed in with its smaller, nimble frame, leaping off Slattern's foreleg and launching at the kaiju's hammerhead, spiked, fleshy maces slugging it square in the jaw.

From the impact spouted a waterfall proving that everything did not in fact bleed red. Noxious blue viscera drenched Lilith - she'd enjoy bathing in the stuff, but Nullthing didn't seem as enthused. She sprang away from the caustic ichor, but not before Slattern retaliated tenfold.

A trio of tails surrounded Lilith, trapping her in a swirling, oscillating cage. She couldn't even begin to search for a gap to slip through, as she became a bird caught on a windshield - too late, she was in the tendrils' trajectory. Nullthing was battered around as if it were a morbid piñata, probably non-vital organs spilling out while Slattern thrashed it from all sides like a rock in a blender.

The punishment only ceased when Slattern's bombastic roar blasted everyone and everything back, Lilith included. She smashed through several city blocks along the way. Her momentary concussion subsided as she witnessed the unwarranted treatment of her master.

No one touches Ridley and gets away with it. Not even her. Mostly.

 

[Eszter]

Taking to the air, Karakul and Eszter watched on silently as Smaug the Golden met his end. He was fearless, defiant, and proud to the end. The reincarnations of Yucatan held no fondness for him, but they could not deny the respect that swelled in their chest as he met his end on his own terms. He was a true dragon, right until his last breath.

“So his legend ends. Perhaps he will reincarnate into a demi-dragon of his own. That would serve him right, eh, little sister?” Karakul mused, but found no response from her pilot. An uncontrollable cocktail of emotions rose in Eszter’s chest, one that she hadn’t expected from Smaug’s death.

There was a vague, looming sense of mortality there, that if the great firedrake could be so easily smashed, then she would not take so much more effort. There was also a touch of sadness. Shallan may have not had any dragon blood in her veins, but she seemed like a good sort. She certainly deserved more than this fate. But both of these lasted but mere moments.

What really struck her was the smell, wafting into the air in Slattern’s wake. That familiar, noxious, cloying smell, reeking of molten metal and sulfur.

Dragon’s blood.

Karakul did a momentary double take as she felt obscene, uncontrollable rage rise in her chest, but for once it was not hers. Gritting her teeth so hard that she felt them fracture, Eszter’s gaze laser-focused on Slattern. This was not the ephemeral scent she could normally pick up with her supernatural senses, the collar had seen to that, but the odor plunged her into the fathomless depths of fury all the same.

Karakul’s body jerked forward, driven purely by the dragonkin’s seething bloodlust rather than her own choice, though she quickly obliged her spiritual descendant. Slattern, who had been previously occupied with the horrific flesh beast that was seemingly on the Syntech side, was not oblivious to her approach. One dragon had been crushed, just one more to go.

Knowing that a direct attack into the ash cloud would be of little use, the kaiju held his ground and unleashed a devastating roar which, from Eszter’s perspective, seemed to shake the world itself. She felt her bones quake and her blood vessels, already overtaxed from the furious racing of her heart, threatened to burst, but she held strong. In response, she and Karakul opened their mouths and screamed their response so loud that they could feel their vocal cords giving way in an instant.

“WE’RE GONNA RIP YOU TO FUCKING PIECES, DRAGONSLAYER!”

Anticipating a third comet-like strike from above, Slattern raised his tails in preparation, but the slam never came. Instead, with her movements cloaked in smoke, the dragon feinted the strike before diving down and swooping back up, lunging for the kaiju’s throat.

Had he been a lesser creature, Karakul would have torn his throat out in an instant. Instead, through a combination of thick, armoured skin and massive size, she only managed to latch on with claws and teeth. Slattern groped for the reckless assailant, trying to swat her off. Even as his brutal blows battered Karakul’s body and toxic kaiju blue spilled into their mouth, Eszter refused to let go.

She didn’t have cold, reptilian intelligence telling her to keep fighting, she didn’t have someone to avenge beyond a modicum of sadness for Shallan and Smaug, she didn’t have any friends or family that she wanted to protect. She didn’t even have any love for the world she was supposed to be protecting. She couldn’t give less of a shit about the world that hated her. She hated it too.

In the end, all she had was her rage.

Rage against the crossroads that didn't want her or her kind, rage against the unmade world that would replace it. Rage that nothing could stop.

Slattern was no exception.

655 words
2982 total
Hell of a ride everyone o7