[Unmaking] The Siege of Markov

[Ridley]

In this moment, Chara Dreemurr knew more fear, anxiety and pain than she had ever felt in her miserable existence. It hurt more than when she had taken a fall through a steep hole in a mountain. It even hurt more than she had when she'd decided to willingly make that jump.

It turned out that all that's required to make a person hurt more than they'd ever known prior was simply giving them more to lose, and then ripping it all away with all the kindness and delicacy of a crowbar.

But Chara was determined. She had never stopped being determined since Asriel's family had taken her in. She'd never once stumbled in her determination since it had been given back by the family who loved her. And she was not going to let this army take away her brother, even if she had to kill every single zoid herself.

The Dreemurr's smile faded as she searched in the code, looking for any little strand, any loose piece, she could pull on to find him.

She didn't know where Asriel was, after all, but she knew who he might be looking for... and even if he got tied up on the way, Chara knew he was smart enough, good enough at grabbing information, that he could help her find her brother. get him out of here.

Assuming he was alive...

A pang of fear and anxiety she wasn't ready to feel hit her, and she growled at the feeling. No matter what Asriel said, there was just no way. She did not care about humans, period! That was an idea she'd thrown away nine years ago.
...right?

A sigh came from the Dreemurr, as she scrolled through. so many variables and panicked data, even ignoring the toll this 'unmaking' was having on the data in question, and the thought, that abominable little thought danced that Hiro might have already fallen to his own heroistic Hubris...

The young mage wiped her eyes at the thought, her breath catching... but as she dried them, a certain set of numbers came into view, and Chara didn't waste a second as she pushed herself into that code, pulling herself into the front

The scenery shifted as the world changed, the scenery changing, reformatting around her. It wasn't so much that Chara teleported, moving to some other place, as she had loaded herself into a different checkpoint within the world.

In this case, it was a checkpoint right behind Hiro Hamada.

Well, close to right behind, for as the Boy gave a solid smash into a corrupted tiger-zoid's face, something far darker coalesced right near his undefended back... an Akata, but far larger than normal, closer to the size of a hippo than a lion.

Chara didn't think, as a knife flew out of a secure pocket of the hoodie, and before Orion had time to issue the warning on his lips, she struck

The silhouette of a large eye appeared in front of her, As tall as she was, and thrice as wide, as she raised the steak knife,, and coalesced into a line as she struck. The Akata, sensing danger, immediately turned to deal with this new problem, but Chara had put in too much magic and it had been too foolish to simply dodge out of the way.

With a single hit, and a jagged, orange gash that seemed to stain reality, Chara separated the front of the Akata in two neat halves.

"...Chara?" Hiro asked, looking straight at her. The Dreemurr girl had a happy, red smile, and glowing eyes under her hooded figure that seemed to glow hard enough to light up the local area. The look seemed to make him a little suspicious.

Riza Hawkeye turned, stern gaze locked on Chara. "Is this one of your Colleagues, Hiro? I told you that deep web link was skirting the-"

Chara was not interested in hearing the speech, not now, and not as exhausted as she was, so she used her magic for just a little more pizazz, and put the woman on mute for a moment.

And then, the red glow faded from her eyes, the smile left her, and the shadows on her face faded as she pulled the hood down, leaving small, dilated pupils that were filled with terror, a pale face covered in sweat, and an expression that could only be read as complete panic.

Hiro could certainly tell that this was completely wrong, as he stuttered to find the words to enunciate it. "Chara, did something happen. What's got you-"

"Have you seen Asriel?" The girl asked, desperation and frustration and so much heartache seeping into her words, and the look of sympathy and horror on Hiro's face showed that, to his horror, he understood exactly what was going on.

"I-I don't know. Did he run off? There's a lot of zoids around, but I figured if anyone could find him, it'd be you, right?" Hiro asked. a pang of hurt flashed through Chara's eyes, and Hiro gave a look of sympathy. "We're on our way back! if we see him, we'll-"

"-Just use some magical means to silence me, young lady? We don't have time for this in the middle of an active battle! Who are you?" Riza continued, and bless her, she spoke like she really thought Chara gave a crap about the authority of a human.

Still, she supposed she needed to oblige. they had a shared, vested interest in breaking the siege, but Chara didn't feel like she needed to be nice about it right now.

"I am Chara..." The girl replied with a big grin, before pointing her knife forward, briefly debating on whether she should really share her adoptive ancestry.. "...My mother is a captain of the Cevanti armed forces, Toriel Dreemurr, and my father was a Major before his retirement. Both trained me. Is that satisfactory, miss..."

Chara wasted a couple MP for the sake of dramatic effect as she read the name tagged to her particular code. "...Riza Hawkeye. ."

Riza's expression shifted to surprise for the briefest moment, before nodding. "...Then make sure you don't slow us down" Riza relented, pausing to release a hail of pin-point show on the Head chassis of a mech Riza had pinned down by putting her knife through it's giant metal foot. "But it does mean I am calling your mother when I find a dull moment."

"Don't bother. she's probably off-world escorting the evacuees right now." Chara added bitterly, before noticing a transport above, falling from the sky and wreathed in flames.

Well... She hoped her mother was off-world already

Chara has now joined the Mustang Gang. Asriel Is elsewhere right now. Chara has also essentially used all of their applications of focus just getting here and slicing that akata, on top of the stuff she'd been doing before the battle started, so she is noticeably very fatigued from abusing the crap out of her magic. But she's here, ready to fight, and uses esoteric magic as well as a very abnormally sharp and durable knife to do it.

 

[Mickey Mouse]

Before Sarah Kerrigan's post...

“You! Did you defect from the enemy?”

A long, dramatic gasp pierced the air as Starscream’s pincer-like digits flew to his chest. He looked down at the one-eyed, monkey tailed-man. For a robot, his face was surprisingly expressive, betrayal exuding from his optics and dropping down the rest of his face. Was that droopy countenance made of silicon steel?!

“What do you take me for, meatsack?!” the formerly docile giant mech screeched. “You dare compare me to one of these inferior fools? I am a superior life form, I will have you know!”

He harrumphed loudly, casting a theatrical glance away from the adult man. Hiro merely stared; for the past minute or so since the being had landed, he’d been altogether enraptured by the sheer beauty of his design and construction. He had to know who made him, he had to talk to them -- maybe they would take him on as their apprentice or something…

The bang of Hawkeye’s pistol and the sound of another dead raptor crashing to the ground next to him broke Hiro out of his stupor. “Can we get some focus, Hamada?” the lieutenant barked.

“Ah, yes, as I was saying,” Starscream oozed, “did you need transport? I am here to help.”

“If you’re not one of them,” the gruff Saiyan growled, “then do you have a name, machine?”

“My name… is Starscream,” the Deception flourished. If a crew of five or six new raptors hadn’t been encroaching on them, perhaps the three humanoids in the bot’s presence would’ve been awed by the dramatic display. As it was, his performance fell a bit flat, surrounded by a crew of pretty vicious-looking zoids. Hiro’s attention had been fully refocused on the task at hand: he had to get one of these guys and bring them back to Mustang’s command post. If they could figure out what the hell was going on with this dark slime shit, then maybe they could turn the tide.

“How about you?” Hawkeye called out, pistol at the ready, glancing over her shoulder at the Saiyan. “What’s your name?”

The man scowled as he lowered himself into a battle stance. “Orion.”

“You’re one to talk about not being equipped, bro,” Hiro snarked, glancing over to see that the eye-patched man had no weapons to speak of. “Sure, you can fly, but what else ya got, huh?”

Orion huffed ever so slightly, but didn’t deign to look at the boy. Instead, it seemed a demonstration was in order, as he lunged at the nearest zoid and smashed through one of its metallic limbs, severing the leg from the body and watching as the darkness-infested creature collapsed before him. Another raptor leapt at him, and he reached up, grasping it by the neck and literally ripping the wiring out of its throat, letting it fall onto a pile with its brethren. Two others leapt for him, and he held out two palms and shot bright blasts of energy directly into their chests. The mechanized monsters exploded, stumbling into the heap of zoid corpses, as Orion let his singular eye fall on Hiro.

The boy genius nodded. “Okay, I’m impressed.”

A crunching sound came from behind Orion as one of Starscream’s digits impaled a zoid that had tried to get the jump on him. The Saiyan glanced up at the Deception. “Thanks,” he offered, begrudgingly, and Starscream postured a bit.

“Look alive, crew, one more,” Hawkeye called out, training her pistol on the final zoid. The creature seemed to whirr and chitter a little bit, almost out of… fear? Or was it something else? Hiro lowered himself into a fighting stance, letting the magnets on the end of his gauntlets start to glow.

This is our chance.

“Okay, I’ve got this,” the boy held up a hand as his three compatriots converged behind him. “We’ve gotta get it alive. I can handle it.”

“Boy,” Orion muttered, “don’t be rash.”

“I’ve got this,” Hiro assured the group. He took a step toward the zoid, and suddenly it… spun around and started running away. “What the hell?!” he called out, dashing after it without thinking.

“Hamada!”

Hawkeye shouted after him, but it was too late: the violet-armored boy was already in hot pursuit of the runaway zoid, completely oblivious to the fact that it had started to make a beeline straight for the giant, hulking dark mech at the back of the pack. The lieutenant darted after him, skidding to a halt as the young boy’s boot thrusters fired up and he launched into the air and then onto the fleeing zoid’s back.

Hiro grapsed on tight to the raptor’s neck as he plopped down on top of it, letting out a yelp as it continued to gallop straight towards the darkness behind the rest of the zoid army. Hiro Hamada shook his head, trying to collect himself, and then quickly his eyes fell upon his unwitting mount’s destination.

Any normal person might’ve aborted the mission at that point, but this boy genius was too curious for his own good. His brow furrowed and he leaned in. Would he get a chance to see this insane, huge monster up close? Maybe he could garner some sort of info about it that would help them defeat it -- that would help them save Cevanti.

The Cevanti wastes surrounded him on all sides, and from his vantage point atop the back of this flailing, very angry raptor zoid, he took it in. This world was, most definitely, a Tomb World. It had been hanging on the edge of death for a long, long time, but somehow, the people here clung on. Markov might’ve been full of unsavory types, of people just looking for the next buck or dime, but deep down, they had all made a commitment to this planet. The way people looked at Cevanti and what it had to offer might be different, but they all saw its potential.

As Hiro looked around him, he saw visions of the buildings that had once been rising up out of the ground. What must this world have looked like before the End? He couldn’t be sure -- truly, no one alive now could -- but the greenery that remained, the whispers of a forgotten glory, the beeps and buzzes of long-forgotten tech still lying dormant out here in the wastes spoke to something great.

Flashes of memory rushed into his brain. He saw Tadashi. He saw his life before his brother’s untimely death.

But he knew the glory lingered. Every bit of code within Baymax’s robot brain was evidence of Tadashi’s genius -- of his fervent desire to help others. Seeds that his brother planted still grew, within himself.

Cevanti had to be saved, and taking down that mech was the key to doing it.

The line of the horde about sixty feet ahead of Hiro and his raptor exploded. From its depths, a tall, lithe creature with four arms, decayed gray skin, and glowing red eyes flashed jagged teeth at the boy, spreading its full wingspan in an attempt to catch the rider as he passed. Hiro buried his face in the zoid’s shoulder, jamming an armored hand into the side of its torso and letting out a huge yell as he tried to push himself off the creature’s back. He tumbled to the side, closing his eyes and jerking his hand out of the zoid’s body as he fell toward the ground -- only to be scooped up just before impact.

His eyes snapped open, and he looked up to see Orion. “Hold on tight,” the flying man shouted, pulling him close and changing course dramatically. The pair flew straight up, and Hiro looked down to see a jet speeding just above the surface right behind where Orion had been. Hawkeye shared the cockpit with a tiny droid, firing bullet after bullet at the ferocious looking parademon. The shots seemed to do nothing other than annoy the creature, so the jet-formerly-known-as-Starscream swerved around, and Orion lowered himself down so that he flew alongside the bot.

“Hamada!” Hawkeye called from her seat in Starscream. “You’re an idiot! We didn’t even get a damn zoid because of you!”

Hiro smirked, and held up his left gauntlet. He clicked a button, and a small test tube full of black matter glowing an eerie blue popped out into his hand. “Didn’t we, Lieutenant Hawkeye?”

Hawkeye grinned, in spite of herself. “Okay, you’re a brave idiot.”

***

During/after Sarah Kerrigan’s post…

SMASH!

The flight back to Markov’s walls was not a short one, and within seconds, an obnoxiously large tiger zoid barricaded into the paths of the quartet. Starscream, being a highly efficient model from what Hiro (drooling slightly) could tell, quickly barrel rolled out of the way. Hawkeye held on for dear life, watching as the zoid crashed into the pair of men to her right and separated the boy genius -- and their only piece of evidence about the mysterious darkness overtaking the beasts -- from his ride.

“Hamada!” the blonde yelled as Hiro fell straight into the path of an oncoming akata. As he plummeted down, his brain raced for something, anything he could do to save himself, but for once, his resourcefulness failed him, and hope seemed to dwindle away right before his very eyes.

Then the akata split in two, also right before his very eyes.

His face bashed into the ground. Dirt kicked up around him, and he quickly scrambled to his feet to see what, exactly, had rescued him. A further display of Orion’s power? No, wait, that was --

“Chara?”

Starscream’s jet form skidded to a halt next to them, and Hawkeye popped out of the cockpit with her stern face and even sterner questions. Orion hovered nearby as Chara defended her credentials to the Lieutenant, but the encroaching horde drew Hiro’s attention and he quickly clambered up onto Starscream’s wing, moving to slide into the cockpit next to Hawkeye and… whatever this droid was supposed to be. Quite an inferior design to the Decepticon, firstly.

“That seat only seats one! You’re overcrowding me!” Starscream whined as Hiro squeezed in with Hawkeye and the WALL-C.

“Thanks for the ride,” Hiro grinned, slapping the control panel. He could’ve sworn the jet growled a bit at the human touch.

“Shall we get going?” Orion scowled, above.

“Affirmative,” Hawkeye nodded, “Mustang will want to hear about this.” She turned to Hiro, a curious glint in her eyes, and spoke in a low voice. “You trust this girl, Hamada?”

Hiro looked down at Chara.

“Nope,” he shrugged, “but I don’t really trust you either, do I?” Hawkeye glared, and the same annoyed growl came from Starscream as the jet started to whirr to life again and lift off the ground. “But Cevanti’s in trouble, Lieutenant,” Hiro lowered his orange visor over his eyes and averted his gaze back toward Markov. “And someone has to help.”

 

[Shinku]

“What the hell! You planning to get all those aboard this ship? Are you fucking insane!” Rocket grunted, dumbfounded of the volume that Roy was trying to fit into their almost wrecked ship. He tailed the commander who quickly stepped out of the Quinjet and greeted the pilot union soldiers, or at least those who were still alive.

“That’s the plan alright!” Roy snapped his finger, drawing a wall of flames that separated the Pilot Unions survivors from the pack of Zoids that pushed them to the corner. The red cladded robot on the other hand, proceeded to assist the injured, as some of the survivors started to enter the ship one after another.

“We were barely able to get here with that garbage and now you want us to take off with that much load! Not to mention that we haven’t got enough space to even take off!” The raccoon continued, as a succession of explosions echoed through the small battlefield. A volley of gunfires and missiles flung around area, waltzing at the orchestra of death and despair.

“Well figure something out! We’ll...discuss the price later!” Roy retorted while incessantly snapping his fingers, conducting an opera of flames and explosions.

“Aaaaargggh! Why am I always surrounded by douchebags!” The raccoon screamed, his hands clasped into his face, hiding the scowl that formed beneath it. “Alright! But you’d have to buy me time.”

“What do you think I have been doing all this time! Playing around! Go ahead and do your stuff while I handle mine.” Focused on the advancing droids, Roy laced the battlefield with carpets of flames, melting light metals that served as minor parts of the droids. The raccoon on the other hand, ran his sight across the makeshift defense area, scanning whatever he could use for their virtually unfeasible escape.

“Ok I’m going to need three things for our ship! Six of those C4 grenades, three of your men’s powered suits and that robot’s fist!” The raccoon demanded, greatly emphasizing at his final demand with his finger pointed at the robot that had been continuously attending to every medical concern within the area.

“Just get whatever you need and get on with it! And you better make it quick!” Droplets of sweat began to form across the commander’s face, who was juggling between keeping the zoids at bay and tending to the raccoon’s needs. At least ten among the Pilot Union survivors barely held the line of defense, assisting the commander’s reign on fire.

“Oh and I’m gonna need one more thing to complete my plan. That soldier’s bionic arm.” Rocket whispered with a smirk painted across his face. “Just look at him. God knows I need that arm more than him.”

“And what do you need that for!” The commander snapped, exasperated at the raccoon’s unending demands.

“I uh...Do I really have to explain at a time like this! Do I have to remind you...Watch out!” Rocket fired his blaster at a missile that was about to blow them into pieces. The raccoon was successful at intercepting the missile but the impact sent the two, a couple of meters back.

“Ughhh this plan of yours better be good.” The commander threatened, while struggling to get himself back to his feet. “Hey soldier! You with that metal arm! This rodent needs a word with you.”

“Hey shouldn’t you be the one doing the talk! And I’m not a fucking rodent!”

“They’re not my soldiers goddamit! And I need to defend this place. Just settle things out. Here he comes!”

“You called for me sir!” The soldier surprisingly came, even running for the commander’s aid along with Baymax who saw the two tossed in the air by a nearby explosion.

“Hello. I was alerted of your medical emergency by the view of you falling to the ground. At a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your pain.” The robot came at Roy first, who was finally able to stand back up.

“Zero!” Roy promptly responded, then proceeded on snapping his fingers to once again hold the zoids back with a series of explosions.

“Look here soldier. You understand our situation right? We need to get out of here as fast as we could.” As the robot interrogated the commander, Rocket wasted no time to speak with the soldier who was summoned by Roy.

“I do understand that.” The soldier responded awkwardly, surprised at the creature that spoke before him.

“Well you see that ship over there! It’s obviously a piece of trash now, right? Well in order to escape from here, you’ve gotta do us a very tiny favor.” Rocket explained, almost hesitantly yet emphasizing on his last words. “I’m gonna need that bionic arm of yours.” The raccoon was barely successful to control the chuckle that almost escaped his lips.

“I do want to offer whatever I can for our survival but you do realize that losing this would cost me a lot don’t you.” The soldier responded in a similarly hesitant tone.

‘Oh come on! You’re clearly a piece of trash!’ The raccoon thought as he tried to compose his next response. “Ummm you see, soldier. Sometimes the best we could offer to a great cause is a part of ourselves. Battles are won by sacrifices. Great deeds are...oh forget it I believe Roy here would generously compensate you anyway.”

“Hey I don’t believe that is part of the deal!” The commander interjected upon hearing his name being dragged at the raccoon’s talk and at the same time annoyed at the robot’s continuous queries.

“Well do you, or do you not want to leave here alive!” The raccoon finally threatened, infuriated at how the discussion had been dragged for so long.

“Alright! Whatever just please get on with whatever plan you have in mind! Just make sure you bring us all back alive or I’ll be the one haunting you in hell!” The commander retorted, his mind still juggling between defense and the discussion.

“Well you heard the commander! We ain’t got more time so let’s get on with it.” Rocket pressured, and was finally able to convince the soldier to give up the bionic arm.

---​

“Hey how long do you plan on making us wait! Their numbers don’t seem to dwindle down. If this goes on, we’ll definitely be run down by those zoids. We can’t go on holding this line forever!” The commander yelled, with the last energy he could muster, almost succumbing to fatigue.

“Just relax!” The raccoon responded with a yell, his eyes focused at a C4 grenade. “I just need to…” Rocket delicately worked on connecting several wires, careful as to match the correct pairs together.

“Easy for you to say! The soldiers here are almost out of ammo!” Roy retorted, huffing his voice barely audible at the raccoon’s distance.

“And that’s the last of it!” Rocket threw his arms in the air, in celebration of his accomplishment. “Ok guys time to leave this fuckin’ place!” He yelled, catching the attention of Roy and the survivors who remained for defense.

“Ok soldiers! Time for our exit!” Roy sounded the retreat just in time as zoids leaped one after the other beyond the flaming wall that he created. “Quickly to the ship!” The soldiers retreated, their faces still turned to the advancing zoids, firing all they could to push the enemies back. Roy himself, started to step backwards, yet still determined to provide cover for his companions.

“Ok ladies! Let’s dance!” One of the survivors cried, seemingly in a code that only their group could comprehend. Half of the squad raced towards their extraction point while the others kept their stance to help Roy keep the enemies at bay. “The floor is yours!” One of the soldiers near the ship yelled upon reaching his destination.

“Come on. Let the others handle the cover. It's our turn to escape.” The survivor who seemed to command the others tapped Roy as a signal for their retreat. The survivors crouched as quickly as they could as their companions rained the pursuing droids with bullets and missiles.

It wasn’t an easy routine nevertheless, all the survivors, including Roy were able to get back to the ship yet obviously, safety was still out of their reach. The commander continued to snap his fingers, intercepting missiles that raced their way towards the Quinjet.

“I just have one concern.” Baymax interfered, his voice patched through the transport’s communication system. “Blowing the ship up might result in third degree burns, ruptured eardrums, internal damage and 80.96% of fatalities among this ship’s crew.”

“Wait what? Who’s going to blow the ship up!” Roy panicked, his face veering towards Rocket.

“Relax! No one’s going to blow the ship up. I’m just giving us some extra thrust.”

“Are you…”

“Fire in the hole!” Before the commander could finish his retort, Rocket pushed a red button on a box shaped device that he secured on his belt.

A succession of explosions were heard underneath the ship followed by a violent pulling pressure, with the ship being thrown miles up into the air. A couple of the survivors stumbled on the ship’s floor with minor bruises appearing at some of them.

“Holy shit! I can’t believe that actually worked! Now if I could just…” The raccoon grunted, as he pushed a lever on the control panel before him.

“Can you tell me what just happened!” Roy barked, his teeth clenched at their unsafe take off.

“Well I was able to get us back up in the air. And you’re welcome.” Rocket mocked, with his hands fixed on the controls. The ship flew unsteadily, wiggling as if going through a turbulence. “Though we can’t fully relax just yet. I see four incoming!”

At the raccoon’s warning, Roy left his seat and faltered towards the open side of the plane that once held a door. Two of the soldiers followed him, all somehow made themselves stable through an iron bar located just at the top of the opening.

The soldiers lit their missile launchers, sending a barrage of rockets towards the tailing zoids. Roy on the other hand, countered some incoming missiles with his alchemy of flames. Following a thud underneath the ship, the transport’s flight finally stabilized somehow.

“Can’t we go any faster!” Roy demanded as a cloud of darkness started to build up just a few meters behind them.

“I’m glad you asked. Hey Baymax you better secure yourself in there. I’m lighting up the boosters!”

“I’m strapped in and secured. Possibility of failure is 99.98%” The robot’s monotonous voice once again echoed from the ship’s radio.

“Well fair enough. Let’s boost her up then.” The raccoon pushed the lever in front of him farther until it’s handle touched the panel, making the ship greatly accelerate. The soldiers at the opening tightened their grip as the ship sped up towards their base. The dark clouds grew thinner from their sight and the tailing zoids shrinking to almost tiny dots. The acceleration did not last that long but was enough to make their pursuers disappear from their sights.

“And did we lose them?” Gradually, the ship returned to its normal speed as the soldiers, including Roy staggered back towards their seats.

“I think we did.” The commander let out a sigh of relief, finally able to breathe normally after all the mayhem they just went through. “Hey isn’t that the bionic arm? What did you use that for?” Roy remarked, seeing the familiar object strapped on the plane’s ceiling just above Rocket.

“I can’t believe y’all actually fell for that! I was just kidding about that arm!” The raccoon burst into laughter, throwing the commander into a fit of rage.

“All the arguments about that arm. And you’re telling me that...” The commander’s rage was gradually pacified by the realization of their mission’s success. "Well thank you for getting us out there alive."

“30,000 units or whatever your currency here is.” The raccoon’s laughter likewise turned into a rather serious tone.

“And what does that supposed to mean?”

“You did say we’d talk about the price later.”

“Oh yes of course…”

“Nah! Forget it. Just give me one of these babies. And oh I mean the working ones, and of course in perfect condition. Imma get back there and teach those zoids who they’re messing up with!” Rocket grunted, his face as determined as ever surprisingly to get back to mayhem they just escaped from.

 

[Domri Rade]

All of his courage fled immediately once the Gruul Shaman begun to bury Domri Rade alive. Each shovelful of dirt took chunks of his sanity and as he was about to scream in fear, mud fell onto his face. The weight of the ground pressed into his chest and the beastmaster began to hyperventilate. He prayed to the Old Gods and even some ones that he didn’t believe in, that he would be able to make it. He clenched his eyes shut as he began to hyperventilate...and

The crushing pressure of the soil was suddenly lifted. Had Domri’s prayers been answered? He slowly opened one of his eyes to see. Ruins of a foreign city surrounded the chaotic teen. He wasn’t in Ravnica anymore, though the shattered buildings and sundered walls were a welcome sight. He wasn’t able to enjoy the brief moment of relaxation for long. A large force pounced on his shoulder, tearing into his scrawny frame. The beastmaster reached to his side to take out his bone mace, using all of his might to smash it into the attacker’s skull. There was a loud squish as the weapon met its mark, but the animal didn’t yelp in pain.

Domri leapt back, tossing the makeshift staff in between in hands. “Oi, I sure do love a good tussle,” he gleefully cheered, his bravado coming back to him. However, the monster did not enjoy such taunting. He was face to face with an enormous blue dog with tentacles on its head. He smirked, another trophy to be claimed. He clicked his tongue a few times, circling the beast. “Let’s go, ya bugger!” he shouted as he raised his weapon. However, he had no chance to use it, as he was roughly slammed into, staggering him.

“You tryna knock me down? I’ma little busy here,” his face scrunched up in anger. His assailant groaned in response, with outstretched hands and a parasite for a tongue. “You’re one ugly motherf-,” he chuckled to himself before another void zombie haphazardly charged from the ruins.

One of the zombies grappled Domri’s weapon as the other launched its parasitic tongue into Domri’s calf. He winced as the little tongue wiggled and sucked on one of his veins.

“Ah, fuck,” he whipped his mace, throwing the zombie onto the ground. The beastmaster then ripped out the worm from his leg and crushed it on the ground, spitting on it as it floundered. It was then the Akata pounced on him, forcing Domri underneath its heavy paws. It silently opened its maw, darkness oozing out of it. It was suffocating. He whimpered as the beast brought its jaw over his throat, struggling frantically to push it off.

A red and green fire sparkled to life next to him. The monster was briefly distracted as a large white warboar came to life and quickly used its tusks to impale and shove the creature off of Domri.

“Tusker, ya cheeky bastard,” Domri chuckled, pulling himself off of the large boar’s tusk. “Let’s crack some heads in,” he grinned, patting the thick, coarse fur his companion. Tusker snorted in agreement, stomping its foot.

The Akata, oozing darkness and blood, limped onto its feet before trying to make its escape, a few void zombies walked to block the beastmaster.

“Oh no ya don’t,” Domri sneered, hopping onto the side of Tusker, grabbing hold of the reigns. “Let’s go, bud,” he patted the boar’s ear affectionately before it charged forward. Domri dispatched the void zombies before they could stop his pal Tusker, cracking open their skulls with his weapon. His animal companion eventually caught up to the wounded Akata and was able to finish it off with his tusks.

***​

Domri petted Tusker, shushing and calming the boar from the violence. A plane shot by overhead, making a large wooshing sound and startled the two. Explosions echoed throughout the air and Domri grinned. Where there were booms, there was destruction, and Domri wanted to be a part of it.

 

[Ohm Zui]

Ohm burst through the formerly locked doors, speeding over to the counter. The store owner jerked up in surprise, her hand racing to the alert button.

“Hey! How’d you-”

“I’d like to use your store to defend Markov!”

The owner paused, clearly confused. Ohm pressed the initiative.

“We need to get eyes in the sky out on the front, so I need your stock to make surveillance drones. If you want compensation, I can offer you coin: worst comes to worst, you can petition the Kingdom with your security tapes after this.”

“Uh… we don’t sell drones. This is an electronics store.”

“That’s fine, let me show you!”

Ohm zipped around the store, plucking components and digital devices from the shelves before placing them all on the counter. The zoombini tore into the assembled items, parts being pulled apart and put back together in ways that made sense. Puzzles and mechanical engineering turned and changed the pieces, before a small orb with propellers, antennae and lenses sat on the counter. Ohm pressed a power button and the propellers whirred quietly to life.

The store owner seemed astounded, mouth hanging open as she blinked repeatedly.

“So… for Markov?”

---

Ohm worked frantically, creating drone after drone. The store owner, Celerity, had agreed to let the zoombini work, and was on the phone to her suppliers, whose warehouse was much closer to the north-west wall of Markov. She looked back at the zoombini, marvelling at the speed and precision of the blue blob’s work.

“Look, let me put you on video,” she said, “Let me show you what’s going on here.”

She turned on her phone’s camera and let her supplier observe the engineer at work.

“So you see why I’m convinced. It would make more sense if they were able to work nearer the wall.”

A pause as she listened.

“They offered, actually. I’m going to take inventory later, but if this really can help… Markov’s a grey place to live, but it’s my place. I’d rather try to keep it than be evacuated without anything.”

A smile.

“Yeah, I thought that might convince you. We’ll see you soon.”

---

Ohm took a breather as they made the last drone they could. They were in the back of a minivan that Celerity had borrowed from a friend, making their way through the backstreets to avoid getting in the way of the Kingdom vehicles that continued to funnel troops and supplies to the north-west.

They transferred control over to the intel group. The drone blinked green for a second before one of the gamers took control and flew it out of the window and into the sky.

Ohm checked the model, and already the blinking green dots of the small fleet of drones they’d made were spreading out over the combat zone. The feeds from each drone were available to view to the entire forum, and they cycled through the video feeds, confirming that they were all working.

Already the members of the intel group were dissecting everything they could gather from the drones, question marks on the main display turning to icons, details and information filled in for each combatant spotted and tracked.

A ping from their messaging program drew their attention.

turnuptheBASS: Drone 7’s hovering in place, who’s supposed to be moving it?
UnitRushTactic: I am. I thought @exodusAlighted might want to see what the Kingdom’s doing
igrewthetechtree: What good’s the drone going to do? They’ll just shoot it down?
op122: Wait, there’s that dude from the video! Mister Mustache!
UnitRushTactic: You mean Mustang, and no that’s not.
op122: How can you tell?
Utube43: Because Drone 12 just saw him launching fire out of the back of an old transport at some flying zoids
Utube43: The codefreaks are still working on splicing in some tagging and tracking software so we can’t flag it yet.
Utube43: But UnitRushTactic and I are roommates and I’ve been keeping xir in the loop with the VIPs I’ve spotted.
exodusAlighted: Hi! @Utube43, do you know which drone their ship was heading towards?
turnuptheBASS: The bossman’s in the house, everyone look busy!
op122: shut up bass your not funny
Utube43: I think they were heading towards drone 4.
exodusAlighted: Thanks! Good work! Also @UnitRushTactic I’m working on getting tactical data from the Kingdom. Good thinking, but if you could fill in the spot between drones 5 & 9 until Ohm gets more in the air that would be great.

Ohm switched programs, taking control of drone 4. After a few moments of gaining altitude, the drone stabilised. The ship Utube43 had spoken of flew past, and Ohm flicked a switch to flip the drone in the open cargo door. They opened the mouthpiece of their phonic device and began to speak.

---

Mustang had just clicked his fingers to launch another blast of fire when a small metallic object flew past his head and crashed into the back wall of the transport. Fearing a projectile, the officer spun to protect the soldiers on board, only to find himself staring at a small, partially broken drone. The shell looked to be made of bits of phone casing, the cameras looked straight off a photographers desk and it was held aloft by two hover propulsors that seemed repurposed from a hover tv.

“What’s the racket back there?” came the drawl of the racoon piloting, “and why can’t I hear Roy doing his snappy fire thing? Did we lose him?”

“Negative. A small electronic device just brushed past Major Mustang. I detect no additional signs of injury.”

“Thanks for the update, balloon bot.”

Mustang gestured for a couple of soldiers to take his place, kneeling down to get a better look at the device. It didn’t seem to be damaged beyond repair, but it certainly wouldn’t get airborne again. The angle those blades were now, it would be difficult for it to-

The device beeped and a small screen popped out of a slot. It looked like a repurposed pda, and on it was a grainy image of what seemed to be a small blue blob with a green nose and goggles.

“Ba-zoo! I landed the drone safely.” It’s face turned serious. “Major Mustang! This is Ohm Zui. I’m working with an individual known online as exodusAlighted. We’ve been organising a civilian effort to analyse data and get a real time picture of what’s going on, since there’s a big lack of communication and coordination right now.”

“Show me,” Mustang said. In response, a small tacky holoprojector crammed in the back flickered to life, displaying a 3-D model of Markov alight with dots and movement. It clearly was a work in progress: as he and the others watched, dots blinked into existence, others becoming little question marks or skull symbols. A patch made the program fizzle, before returning with holographic buttons to choose a VIP or Major Threat to follow.

“It’s still ongoing, but we’re trying to get access to the other major battle networks on the field right now. We’re talking with a few people on the ground already, mostly Guild and PU people, but once I get more drones out there I’m going to start providing the independents with communication links.”

“How so?”

“Give me a moment.”

There was a crunch and a screech from the drone and Mustang leaned back in surprise. The shell crumpled inwards on both sides, pieces breaking and falling off the device. Little arms with tiny heating elements sliced off pieces before finishing with themselves. After barely a few seconds, the football sized drone had turned into a device that looked like a piece of medical gear, bare bone metallic loops and rod holding some of the camera lenses, the screen and the holographic projector.

“Ba-zoo! Each drone can cannibalise itself to make a communicator and battlenet observer. It’ll keep broadcasting position and camera feed back to us, but it won’t last more than a day.”

Mustang picked the communication device off the ground and checked it for any more activatable parts before attaching it to his arm. He furrowed his brow at the display.

“Keep me in the loop if you find anything.”

“Will do! exodusAlighted already tried to contact you at the Kingdom command centre to ask for your IFF frequencies, but they haven’t been answered.”

“I’ll give them an answer when I get back. For now, I need to protect the transport.”

“Understood! I’m just reaching the warehouse of components to build more drones, let eA know if there’s anything more you need!”

And with that, the call ended.

---

Ohm finished the call and put away their phonic device, flying out of the minivan and towards the warehouse Celerity was walking towards, ready to continue making their drones.

 

[Rebecca Chambers]

The deafening scream of a pair of jet engines roared overhead, whipping dirt up from the battlefield and drawing the attention of those fighting below. The defense force would marvel at the silver craft’s proximity to the cracked earth below, wondering at the pilot’s guts, while the enemy would eye it with vacant, hungry stares, eager to cannibalize whatever fueling it contained to feed their ranks.

Chk chk chk!

A series of sharp cracks rang out as Lieutenant Hawkeye fired from her cramped position inside Starscream’s cockpit, dropping several members of a horde of akata-infested zombies. Others rose to replace them soon enough, some of them cut nearly in half by the hail of gunfire raining down from the turrets mounted along the city’s walls, gory skin shifting and writhing as bullet fragments came burbling to the surface. It was a gruesome sight, one that was nearly matched by the mess of torn, bloodied bodies and steaming wrecks the territory outside Markov had become.

Starscream, for his part, hissed as one of the accursed fleshbags wriggling around inside his cockpit began to do something to his control panel, the feeling of the human’s inferior digits dragging across the various dials and HUD screens nearly driving him to madness. It was almost as if they were searching, and as Starscream directed his attention inward for a moment to check, he discovered that the one called Hamada was leaning awkwardly forward from where he was wedged into the pilot’s seat beside his companion, head stuffed under the control panel.

“That’s enough of that!” snapped Starscream, injecting as much outrage into his voice as he could manage. The boy jerked backward, the top of his cranium banging painfully against the bottom of the control panel. “Just what do you think you are doing?!”

Hamada winced, rubbing at the sore spot on the back of his head. “Uh… I’m looking for your manufacturer’s mark? I’ve only seen a few bots that match your level of sophistication, having the ability to transform into a vehicular mode is genius! I gotta know who—”

“I was not manufactured,” Starscream interrupted with a hiss. By the Allspark, why the Autobots made a habit of collecting these creatures as loyal little pets eluded him. “Do I spend my days inquiring about human reproduction? No! Because it would be rude, and also because I suspect it would be far too primitive to be of interest!”

“Oh,” said Hamada, face reddening. Yet somehow, despite it all, he was still undeterred. “Well, how can you see while flying? Are your eyes mounted somewhere on this form, or do you use like… sonar or something?”

Starscream growled in frustration. “That’s none of your business. You would do well to focus on more important matters, human. Such as where I will be landing!”

The blonde-haired woman, Hawkeye, stirred from where she’d been observing the battlefield below, handgun clutched tightly in her grip and poised to fire. Her brown eyes scanned one of the red-colored HUD displays before her, and she reached out to gently tap a small blip that had registered to Starscream’s optical sensors several kliks away, a set of crosshairs blinking over it in response to the physical stimulus.

“That’s the command post,” Hawkeye said. “It is crucial that we deliver the zoid sample to this exact location. Do you think you can manage it?”

Starscream delayed his response for a moment, turning his attention outward once more to scan the dark sky around him. While the zoids below directed a mixture of gunfire and laserfire at him in bursts, brilliant flashes of light dancing across his visual field, it was simple enough to veer upward and avoid their blasts altogether. Only the occasional laserburn scraped against his wings, jostling his passengers as the jet spun away from further harm.

It was to be expected, really; of course Starscream, a glowing specimen of Cyber-evolution, would hold complete supremacy over these alien skies. Of course.

“Certainly,” said Starscream finally, his ordinarily shrill voice dropping into a self-satisfied purr. His jet form thundered over the battlefield and toward the energy barrier shimmering in the distance, enemy rockets exploding in his wake, the fragmented explosives raining down in a hail of sparks.

He had no idea where Orion and the other one had gone, their positions lost to him through the smoke and flaming debris. No matter— those particular organics could fend for themselves; Starscream would ensure that this sample (and, tragically, his organic cargo) was delivered and seek out fueling in return… a roughly equal exchange, in his opinion.

Something rose behind him, a flash of movement in his periphery that appeared to split off from the writhing hordes of shadowy beings and living metal below. Two somethings, if Starscream’s optical sensors were to be believed— and approaching fast.

Very deliberately, Starscream slowed, keeping the bogies in his sights.

The two humans trapped inside his cockpit noticed instantly, boggling at how their previously swift transport had dropped into a lazy cruise directly above an active warzone. Hamada leaned forward, the grubby little fleshling’s hands moving to grasp at Starscream’s controls—

“Do not touch—” began Starscream, thoroughly distracted, then snarled as something crashed into one of his wings a mere second later, a heavy weight hanging off it and throwing his jet form off balance. Another weight smashed into the other wing, frenetic claws grinding painfully against his plating and tearing long scars across his marvelous silver finish, the added weight sending him spinning wildly off-course.

Hamada and Hawkeye stared out of either side of the cockpit’s bubble-shaped canopy, marveling at the pair of massive griffin-type zoids attempting to bring their transport down, the winged machines working in tandem to pry apart Starscream’s wing plates with their sharp beaks and claws. That is, until Hawkeye caught sight of one massive shoulder-mounted cannon angling in their direction, a blast of fiery energy surging inside.

“Get down!” she yelled, shoving Hamada’s head down so that they were both painfully bent double, the tiny robot tangled between their legs letting out a concerned beep.

PHOOM! A jet of flame flashed overhead, searing across their backs and splintering the polycarbonate canopy over their heads. Tongues of heat slipped through the cracks in the glass, turning the inside of the cockpit into a super-heated prison. The humans inside struggled, gasping for breath and sweating profusely as the temperature rose to unbearable levels.

Thoroughly unconcerned by the plight of his passengers, Starscream growled as one of griffin-zoids managed to pry open a section of his plating. It paused, beak poised to rip out the arm cabling hidden inside, and that was the very last mistake it would ever make as far as Starscream was concerned.

With a violent jerk to the left, the zoid was dislodged from his wing with a shrill cry, sharp claws slipping from the sleek metal as it was hurled off into the ether. The seeker was only mildly annoyed to see the griffin-zoid’s white-colored wings fanning out to steady itself as it plummeted, but by then it was but a speck far below, beneath his notice. It would only be able to catch up if he remained at this speed, and Starscream did not intend to wait.

The roar of Starscream’s engines was all the warning the remaining griffin-zoid received before its prey was rocketing forward, tearing toward the approaching energy barrier at breakneck speed. In a last desperate bid to hang on, the zoid lunged for the glass cockpit, mechanical paws clasping around it and causing additional cracks to spiderweb across its surface.

Angry red optics glared down at the humans hunkered down inside the jet, an ear-splitting screech rattling through the pair as the griffin-zoid began to peck wildly at the bubble shielding them. Shards of glass rained over their heads, piercingly cold winds rushing in to clear out some of the hot air.

Shielding Hamada with her body, Hawkeye fumbled around for a weapon, slicing her palm open on a piece of broken glass. Hissing through her teeth, her fingers wrapped around the warm grip of her handgun, discarded somewhere by her feet during the chaos. Blowing her sweat-laced bangs from her face, Hawkeye raised her gun, took careful aim, and fired.

Bang! The griffin-zoid faltered, one crimson optic sparking as it howled in pain— a perfect bullseye. Unfortunately, this only seemed to enrage the feral zoid further, as it lashed out at the cockpit with a massive paw, hook-like claws delving inside to turn its foes to mincemeat.

At least, that was the zoid’s plan, until it felt a crackle of electricity at its back. Turning, the zoid had only a split-second to recognize the incalculable mistake it had made before it was smashed against the massive, rippling barrier of azure energy surrounding Markov, the leonine robot exploding into a blazing firework of mangled metal.

Cackling, Starscream swooped past the barrier, a slight spark of residual energy tingling throughout his chassis as he cleared it. He circled around to land beside the command post, taking in the sight of numerous rundown buildings narrowly clustered together, dozens of organics rushing between them with military vehicles and weapons on display, scrambling to mobilize their forces to combat the threat outside.

The seeker plummeted down and transformed, pulverizing the ground beneath his pedes. With far more care than he would ever admit, Starscream reached inside his cockpit to extract his squishy, vulnerable cargo, crouching to place them gently on the ground.

He then surveyed the damage to his chest with a sneer, ignoring the two humans in favor of grumbling quietly to himself, a few answering beeps emerging from the WALL-C unit hanging halfway out from his cockpit.

“Quiet, you!” Starscream hissed, deftly flicking the tiny construction bot back inside.

Hawkeye watched their newfound ally closely, still doubtful of the massive robot’s intentions. The way Starscream had spoken to Hamada, paired with his complete disregard for their safety during their transport here, did not amount to a being with wholly good intentions...

“Lieutenant?”

The woman turned at the sound of Hamada’s voice, straightening her uniform.

“Hamada,” she acknowledged.

Hamada quirked a grin at her. “I think we picked up an evil robot.”

Starscream, Hiro, and Hawkeye have reached the command post with the zoid sample!

 

[The Future Warrior]

Ashe's titanic form thundered across the terrain and toward the battlezones. She stepped and vaulted over obstacles in her path -- the crumbling forms of ruined or demolished buildings and other combatants in the fray alike. Many startled looks were directed her way, and more than one rogue burst of haphazard gunfire along with a string of curses. She paid them all no mind; this situation was tense enough that such things were to be expected when an unrecognized entity made such a passage.

She crashed through a pile of rubble, and brushed aside the resulting dust while coming to a halt and quickly surveying the scene around her. Cycling through her multiple sensors, it took only a few seconds to gain a clear picture of the matter at hand.

It was not difficult to identify the targets of opposition. The zoids she knew and could pick out easily enough, the few that were actually this far in. The ones known as 'Akata' she had never seen before, but it was not hard to discern them among the ongoing chaos. They were huge beasts of inky blue-black, not dissimilar in build to huge wolves or lions, with eyes of bulging and gleaming yellow and manes of writhing and flailing tentacles. Hideous and terrifying things, to be sure just based on appearance and not even factoring in how they pounced and mauled with terrific ease through the defenses of Markov. Their threat was readily appreciable.

Less immediately appreciable but still quite apparent from a short study was the way that those the akata cut down tended to not stay down for long. Swiftly rising up again with jerky and shambling movements, the zombified individuals lurched about to turn on their once-allied, adding further chaos to the ranks. The situation was grim, and would only grow moreso as time went on if left unchecked.

"I see why the Major advised I come this way," Ashe murmured. "This issue must be quelled immediately."

She surged forward from her previous stop, and in one single motion brought down a fist on a void zombie as it struggled to rise, reducing it into naught but a messy smear on the ground. Another hand snatched an akata out of the air as it made to pounce on one of Markov's defenders, and with a violent motion she hurled it the opposite direction. A flash of blue light and a pulse of laser followed it from her opposite arm, blowing the creature in two just as it impacted a section of wall.

The soldier she had saved whirled around with his weapon raised at her, though stalled momentarily at the sight. "Holy mother of....the hell are you?!"

"I am designated as Ashe-0. I am here under advisement of Major Roy Mustang to lend assistance." She paused to idly swat aside another of the beasts with a sharp kick, sending it almost comedically sailing end over flailing end over a nearby building. "You seem to require it."

The soldier could barely contain the amused grin that crept onto his face at the sight of the beast sailing away. "Yeah, uh...well, good! We could use the help. Just keep doing uh...that!" And he gestured at the messy remains of the two already dispatched.

"Negative." Ashe shook her head, in a gesture she understood to be a common way of disagreement. "I will be working to dispatch the re-animated entities and prevent them from causing further complications, and engaging the akata creatures should they cross my path. Your forces should continue to focus on the enemy at the front."

"Uh..." He just shifted in place for a moment, before flinching at the crunching of another building section crumbling down under force of a rogue grenade blast. "Yeah, fine, whatever!" And he huffed, before scurrying off to rejoin the fighting.

The lull in motion and action, after the frenetic pace of moments before, gave the two yellow-coated mice clinging to the war machine's boots the opportunity they needed to disengage and return to solid ground. Ever so slightly unsteadily after the dizzying ride they had just had, they scrambled several paces away from their towering steel conveyance to regain their bearings and set into the thick of things themselves. Being so unseen and privy to all of the information which had brought them here was a plus, as they now knew exactly what was going on and what the enemy was.

* * *

The ensuing brawl had been nonstop and filled with no small amount of mess. Ashe's clothing and much of her artificial skin was scratched and torn, covered in the disgusting ooze of the akata's infection and what blood remained in the zombified bodies. Several places were scorched and blackened from rogue electrical burns from the unexpected help of the two small rodent-like creatures who had appeared out of nowhere. But it was nowhere near enough to impede her overall functions, most of the damage thus far being thankfully surface-level.

With the aid of the electrical mice, she had been able to work much quicker than normal. Their shocks and zaps had been of great help in stunning and slowing the shamblers, and their quick and agile movements were of no small value in zipping around to distract both them and the akata whenever they reared their heads. The teamwork that had developed was rough and uneasy, especially with the constant collateral from the sheer voltage of electrical output, but it was working. Working more effectively than trying to stick to their own devices, at least.

It was as she was finishing off another grouping of the zombies, quite literally using one to turn another two into a bloody mess, that she caught sight of another oddity among this entire scene. Another human, not wearing the same uniform of the soldiers of Markov nor anything resembling it, but still fighting back against the ghoulish hordes and their bestial creators. Alongside him fought a huge boar, if her sensors were correct.

Another who had come to the city's aid and just doing his best.

Ashe drew back the arm holding the remains of the void zombie in her grasp, and let it fly. Just as one of the Akata was about to pounce the man and drag him down, the mangled corpse-parts hit it broadside like a macabre shotgun and knocked it aside. The man whirled about with wide eyes, a crude instrument of blunt trauma delivery raised in one hand. "What in the fuck? Tusker, you see what did that?" he demanded, eyes sweeping back and forth over his immediate surroundings. The boar at his side simply snorted and stamped the ground in response. "Yeah, me neither..."

"That would be me." The amazonian golem spoke up, intentionally raising her voice above the din of the ongoing siege. "And you are about to be flanked again."

"Not a chance!" The man gave a cocky grin, and jerked one hand up. As if responding to the motion, his boar companion snorted and reared up, delivering a vicious kick with both rear legs to the sneakily-approaching akata behind it and sending it flying with a meaty-sounding crack.

"You are surprisingly capable," Ashe noted. "Are you also here to defend Markov?"

"The fuck's a Markov?" the man snapped, uneasily shifting his weight from foot to foot. "I just woke up here! But all this chaos and destruction going on around here? Too good to pass up!"

Ashe's silent stare down at the man was joined by that of one of the Pikachus as it scrambled up to perch on her shoulder, its ears twitching in open disbelief. The other one sat on her opposite side, perched atop her boot. "....your reasons for venturing further into this are irrelevant. If you wish to enjoy yourself further, we are in no position to turn you away, so long as you focus your efforts on the enemies of the city."

"Yeah, yeah...." The man shot a weather eye at them, looking Ashe and her two 'friends' up and down quickly. He lightly tapped his bone mace against his leg for a moment before grunting. "Whatever. Guess I can manage that. Who's the enemies?"

"The akata, and the fallen they reanimate." She lifted one hand with a finger raised to forestall the question she knew was coming. "The strange blue and black creatures. Yes. Those are the akata."

"Well, what're we waitin' for? Let's get back to smashin' 'em already!" The man chuckled, as he quite literally hopped back to it, in spite of his readily apparent injuries. "C'mon, Tusker!" And his huge boar simply snorted and trundled after him with the gleam of violence in its eyes.

 

[Mewtwo]

Pikachutwo eyeballed the Skarmory-like creature as they approached it. The closer they came to it, the more apparent it became that it was not a Skarmory - or at least, not one of the type Pikachu knew from Kanto and Johto. Perhaps a local mutation or some form of evolution? And the screeches it emitted, he could not understand a word of. Yet it was not mere roaring to intimidate opponents, as it stood unchallenged. He presumed it was ordering or informing the hordes beneath them. Yet, it was not in Pokéspeak.

With the seven other Pikachus in tow, he leapt across a chasm between two buildings, into their target building through a window, and from there they climbed the stairs towards the roof. Here he put on a more leisurely pace, as he intended to conserve energy. Whatever was going on, there was a full-blown war occuring around them after all. They had avoided the engagements so far, but it was only a matter of time before they got dragged in. And he was not optimistic at the prospect of this Skarmory-like Pokémon to be open towards his questions.

“Is everyone still charged?” he asked as they began to climb the staircase towards the rooftop. “Good. Keep yourselves at the ready. Retreat to here and cover yourselves with Thunderbolt if they move to attack. We’re clones, so I can trust your judgement as good as mine.” Then he jumped up, pulled the door handle down and another Pikachu pushed it open.

The Zoid turned its head towards the door as the eight small rodent Pokémon swarmed onto the ample roof. Its camera-lens eyes seemed to widen a bit, as it was unprepared and its circuits did not hold a ready response. Thus it opened its wings, ready to defend itself, when one of the mice stepped forward.

“Pika! Pika pi, chu? Pika. Chu, chu”, Pikachutwo said. And naturally, the Zoid understood not a word. It raised its wings, logic circuits now coming back into order and the corruption controlling it dictating that it had to defend itself - aggressively. Its response was an ear-piercing “SKREEEE!” before it leapt into the air and struck at the frontmost intruder with its talons, then soared over the edge of the roof and looped back around to perform another divebomb attack.

Pikachutwo only barely dodged having his head sliced open by diving to the ground and making himself flat. Even so, the Zoid’s talons scraped over his back, thankfully leaving only two shallow scratches. “Damnit! Everyone fall back to the staircase!” he yelled as he started to run, but the Zoid had something different in mind and landed between the group and the door, blocking their access and slamming it shut with its tail. They were trapped in the open.

“We’ll fight instead”, one of the squad said. No questions about it, they were eight against one after all. And though this non-Pokémon was fearsome, it was but one.

Lightning erupted from their cheeks as the eight mice charged forward. They needed not to speak among each other, they coordinated with simple glances as they encircled the Zoid which was just flapping its wings to take back off. But it never got to. As it pecked at the one in front, one of the Pikachus behind him jumped onto its backside while two others grasped its tailfeathers and one of its wings, respectively. As the Zoid whirled around and ‘SKREEEEE’d angrily, the others backed away. It tried to shake the ones on it, but they clung on too tight at angles that were safe from its beak.

“Piiiikaaaaaa… CHUUUUU!” the three exclaimed, simultaneously using Thunderbolt. Lightning surged from their small bodies, easily conducted by the Zoid’s metal armor. As circuits were fried and memory banks overloaded by the discharge, it skree’d again, this time in a cry of agony. The three Pikachus were already jumping off before they could be hit by each other’s lightning, but none of them relaxed just yet. Their opponent wasn’t done yet.

The Zoid should have been done for, but it was not. It staggered on its feet as a dark energy leaked from its joints. A large Ω glowed on its forehead, and it thrashed around before promptly stopping and setting its lens-eyes on one of the group.

What was worse, Pikachutwo noted, were that its scream must’ve been a cry for help, because several aerial Zoids were suddenly veering off their course and diving straight towards them. But he bared his short teeth for an angry growl. “You three, stay back and recover. You three, blast the incoming foes with Thunderbolt once you have a clear shot - don’t waste your energy. And you’re with me - we’re defeating this beast!” he ordered. The advantage of this situation was that their opponents understood not a word even if they heard them. Not that he would bet on it, but it seemed like these were not normal Pokémon after all.

The Zoid screeched as it raised its wings. Then it sharply flapped them, hitting the area with shrapnel. But the Pikachus were prepared - it was little more than a Slicing Wind attack with added metal bits, and their small size helped them at dodging the bulk of it. None got away without a few scratches, but it was inconsequential. Pikachutwo was already retaliating: he used the opportunity to drop to the ground and speed forward, under the Zoid’s right wing and behind it. As it tried to turn around, he caught its wing and climbed its top, then jumped onto its head. He allowed the Zoid no time to process what was happening as he clung to its head and beak, covering one eye with his belly, instead he unleashed a thunderbolt of his own, at point-blank range.

Electric bolts arced over the aerial Zoid’s body, finishing the job that the three previous attacks had started. The Zoid thrashed back and forth, small explosions ravaging its body as tiny motors and hardware processors failed and the lightning wreaked havoc on its core systems, allocated in its head. Worse yet, the Zoid relay’s information to surrounding Zoid forces, informing them of strategic points to attack, positions of defenders and high-risk areas to navigate around, all spreaded through radio waves, was replaced by a maddening interference that sent the surrounding Zoids into a brief frenzy. The aerial Zoids that the Pikachus had not taken out began to turn on each other, many of them screeching and filling the sky with an ear-piercing cacophony of sound.

It did not last, however, as the corruption inside them gained the upper hand once more. Their circuits were still intact and they resumed their attack, but many of the Zoids at ground level found themselves suddenly clueless. Having relied on the relay to inform them of the paths to take to navigate the street mazes of Markov’s suburbs outside the shield, they began to scramble around. The aerial Zoids, by virtue of flying over the visual obstacles, knew where to attack still, and several of them defaulted back to assaulting the shield, veering away from the rooftop while others remained - but only two reached the roof without the Pikachus’s thunderbolts taking them out of the sky, and the two that remained were swiftly dispatched as well. However, the momentary disruption went not unnoticed.

---

Far behind the front lines, the Fade felt a smidgen of its attention drawn towards the outage that the death of one of the Zoid relays had caused. It was but a pinprick in the grand scheme of things, but it was nonetheless irritating. It could slow the siege down were the defenders to be made aware of this structure of info flow. And so, it lined up one of its cannons to aim slightly away from the area it was shelling, and fired a single High-Explosive mortar shell with a deafening blast. Ground zero: the tower where the now-defunct Zoid relay had been. The defenders’ celebration would be short-lived, though they could congratulate themselves for catching its attention for but a few seconds. As the projectile whizzed through the air, calculated to impact exactly where it was intended to, the Fade returned its focus to the bigger fish it had to fry.

---

Pikachutwo climbed off the wreck of the Zoid, avoiding the black stuff that leaked out of its joints and breathing heavily. The full-power Thunderbolt had exhausted him more than he’d thought. “Status report”, he called out.

“Everyone accounted for. Only minor injuries, no casualties”, the Pikachu that had been with him against the Zoid replied. “But some of us are running low on energy.”

“Good.”

“Everyone, you need to see this”, one of the three Pikachus at the edge of the roof called. He waved them over and as they rejoined, he pointed at a small pack of bipedal Zoids that were running into a dead end street. “Their advances are a lot less coordinated out of a sudden. Is it because of this Skarmory-like we took out?”

“Likely. I believe that we defeated some sort of officer or local commander”, Pikachutwo replied. He eyeballed the Zoids that charged around them, still flooding the streets below. “These are foot soldiers. A war is won on their backs, not by them. Without a leader to tell them where to go, they are as a headless Farfetch’d. Mere cannon fodder, nothing more. Come, we must get lower before we are spotted by the flying ones again.”

“They are not Pokémon”, stated one of the squad as they collectively smashed open the door and rushed down the staircases several floors.

“And thus they will not be of aid as we cannot communicate with them, unlike with the humans”, another determined.

“We have already taken sides when we eliminated one of their number. But now we can garner the humans’s favor by aiding them further”, remarked a third one.

“We are small in number and in stature. We will not last long in a battle of attrition”, a fourth pointed out. They stopped before a broken window, then Pikachutwo of them climbed to the sill and jumped through the broken glass, onto the roof of the adjacent building. The others followed their leader.

“That is why we will avoid engaging the foot soldiers”, Pikachutwo closed. “Surgical strikes to eliminate their command force is what will halt their advance.” He pointed towards a group of four-legged Zoids that were climbing a small hill, surrounding a larger one that was shaped oddly like a Houndour. These he had seen earlier from the rooftop, and now he was leading the squad on a path to intercept them. “That one… the big one is likely to be a replacement for the officer we eliminated. They are rushing to get to a vantage point. To strike their leader, we should navigate this block carefully and attack from behind. We’ll begin by descending towards...”

As he began planning his route however, a whizzing sound drew his attention. He turned his head the other way, and his eyes widened as he saw a slowly growing shape in the sky, headed almost straight for them. “Take cover!” he ordered, but the other Pikachus had seen what he had. Each using Agility, they leapt off the roof of the building and away from the incoming projectile, to the ground level where they ducked into a now-abandoned store. They ignored the pain surging through their legs as they landed from such a height, the adrenaline rushing through them helped a great deal with that. They hid under the rubble of the shop’s collapsed roof and burrowed as deep as they could under layers of reinforced concrete and metal.

Then the mortar shell hit and razed the housing block around the impact site in the ensuing explosion, sending the several ground Zoids that stood in the open flying every which way.

---

About two kilometers above, Lieutenant Carver sharply pulled his flight stick to the right and called out: “Breaking!” as the explosion wave far below threatened to reach them. By putting their ACS parallel to the explosion, he minimized the area that the pressurized air and whatever shrapnel might be sent flying would hit. Halen bit her tongue before a curse could escape her. Thankfully the pressurized cabin and the steady air supply that she breathed through her mask kept the worst out of it, but the sharp turn, even with a warning, made her stomach tumble.

On the plus side, the aerial Zoids they were fighting against did not react to the explosion so well. Three of them were thrown out of whack by the air wave, one was hit by a large piece of concrete and dropped out of the sky. Their locks were broken, too.

“Command, this is Anvil 3-2, do you read? I repeat, does anyone read?!” Carver asked with some agitation in his voice. Only radio static was the response. Shortly before the blast the comms had gone silent for some reason, some sort of interference possibly caused by the Zoids themselves. “Damnit, still can’t reach them.”

He was incredibly calm for someone in such a situation, Halen thought. Her heart had been beating hard nearly non-stop for several minutes now, as they had been dogfighting against the Zoids. Most of the aerial mechs could be eliminated with a single missile or a good volley of cannon rounds, but their efforts barely put a dent in their numbers. For each they took out, another two took their place. She had barely gotten to drop any bombs, which she thought should be their priority - help out the ground forces by thinning out the incoming Zoids with antimatter bombs, no?

“Halen, I’m switching us from Hover mode. You okay back there?”

Her throat felt dryer than the Cevanti desert but she managed to croak out something like “Yes Sir, I’m okay. Go ahead.”

“Switching now.”

Around them the ACS rearranged its parts like some child’s Transformer toy, switching from a plane shape to a more humanlike one in a matter of seconds. The jet engines were placed to aim downwards and only slightly backwards, slowing down their forward speed but greatly increasing their manoeuverability. They could from here on turn around midair to attack forces behind them, and the side thrusters allowed them to perform swift evasive manoeuvers.

“Good switch. We’ve got a lull now… alright Halen, switch to local comms and see if you can zero us in on any outposts. We need to get a line to command, asap!”

“Yes Sir!” She pulled up the radio communication device as Carver flipped their suit around and took a look every which way before initiating a slow descent. While Halen began to send a signal on all military channels requesting response, Carver checked the systems.

“Seems like we’re running low on missiles. Still almost full on bombs... we need clear skies for those though”, he remarked. “Halen, if you can reach any other pilots in the air those have priority 2.”

“Sir, I’m picking up a signal from an aircraft at the edge of our range, three clicks out. Model seems to be a transporter, no inbuilt weapons systems. Should we hail them?”

“Negative. We need fire support, not some civvie or medevac airship.”

Also true, Halen thought as she hammered the buttons trying to extend the reach of their short-range radio a bit further. “This is Airman Dasha Halen, 4th Platoon of the Pilot Unin, callsign Anvil 3-2”, she called out. “Our long-range comms are damaged and can’t reach command, can anyone extend and patch us through?”

The only response was garbled static, nothing of use. She muttered a curse.

“Halen, I’m getting ready for a run, ready to light ‘em up.”

“Ah - yes Sir.”

“I told you to call me Carver”, came his amused reply as she flipped her seat downwards again and lined up her visor. Good lord… there were dozens more Zoids beneath them, like a flood they were running around. Her attention was briefly drawn by the heat signature of a half-dozen or so small creatures crawling out into the street at the edge of the earlier explosion, she switched to zoom and deactivated thermal vision. Some sort of yellow and brown fat rabbits? Not Zoids at any rate, besides they were out of range. She shifted her eyes back to the Zoid force below and slightly in front of them, and flipped open the protective case over the trigger button to drop the Antimatter bombs. The distance indicators coupled with the numerous indicators of projected flight path and explosive radius made it child’s play to place the bomb exactly where she wanted it, she thought to herself. Then the outline of five Zoids and two Akata turned red and she pulled the trigger.

This time there was no security lock. The bomb was released, whizzed for a few seconds as it dropped through the air, slowly losing the forward momentum it had inherited from the suit it had been dropped from, and hit the middle Zoid in the back. The next moment the ground lit up as the corrupted wild beasts went up in flames and the Akata barely had time to register what was going on before the antimatter explosion tore them apart.

“Good hit. Got two new bandits on our six though. I’m defending. Halen, switch back to airfighting if you would.”

As Halen switched her systems back to forwards combat mode she shivered a bit in her seat. Why did the ACSes have to drop the bombs that way, anyway? Couldn’t they have attached the bomb compartment to the faux legs when it was in hover mode, in that almost human shape??

There might be some necessity that meant that it was impossible to engineer the suit any other way without making it less efficient or costly, but still. WHY of all places did the bombs have to drop out of its butthole?!

As she locked onto the first of the two incoming Zoids and got ready to fire, suddenly a pair of missiles came in out of nowhere. They literally appeared out of thin air, and blew up the mechs that had been caught entirely unawares. Carver immediately reacted by adjusting their position to face towards the new, invisible threat, and Halen readied the flares, but nothing came. Instead, several fighters appeared as they deactivated their cloaking fields. Halen relaxed as she spotted the emblem on their wings.

Carver hailed them with local radio, using one of the encrypted channels for the Pilot Union. “This is Lieutenant Carver speaking. Thanks for the assist”, he called to them. “Our long range comms are damaged, can you patch us through to command?”

The death of the Wild Zoid acting as a relay, plus the Fade's mortar shell exploding, has caused a localized disruption of radio waves that's cutting everyone off from command, and will last a little while. Feel free to be affected or nah!

 

[Roy Mustang]

First Constable Ephrem was getting sick of fighting robots. They were all you got to fight with Cytokine these days. He had signed on to be part of their private army because it was the best chance he would get for a real fight on this god-forsaken lifeless planet. He was a savant, an expert warrior with the guts to go for the kill that had earned him the winning title in the last three Brawler's Leagues. Nobody in Markov could make use of him. All the Pilot's Union would let you fight was the bloodless Zoids, even the kingdom was squeamish about people getting their hands dirty on duty. The pansies.

The Gundam pilot hopped backwards, easily evading the swipe of a scorpion-esque Zoid, and unloading his plasma rifle into it at point blank range. the impacts were good and solid, but all it did was collapse and spark quietly. He could have gotten in tight with one of the crime bosses he supposed. They needed people like him and they'd actually let him use his talents on occasion, to really sell a message to somebody who was given them too much lip. They all had such swelled heads though, so full of themselves they couldn't see their toes behind their dreams of actually making an impact. Plus, then he'd have to deal with all the bullshit that came with being part of the underground, laundering money and hiding his tracks. Such a pain.

The clicking of his rifle informed him the last bits of its energy core had been drained. He chucked the three meter weapon end over end into one of the zoids, then bisected another with a two-handed swipe of the energy blade. Two clean chunks, metal bubbling at the point of contact. It was too clean, too fake. They had stopped letting him brawl after the fourth league championship match. something about bloodsports being bad for the "collective consciousness of Markov" or some bullshit. It wasn't a problem with the state suppressed a revolt by any means necessary, but if you weren't licensed to draw blood, oh then it was a bad thing!

He stabbed his laser blade into another of the stupid wolf zoids, crushing its equivalent of a windpipe for good measure. Stupid zoid probably didn't care that its throat was scraps. He shouldn't have bothered, it wasn't even a good sound when it crunched! Cytokine was supposed to be the people who weren't afraid to make the tough calls for tough situations! And that idiot Asari was just up and listening to King patsy. Cytokine was easily big enough to stake a claim to one of the backwater planets, Inverexe or Kraw, give his skills some real challenge! Something that would at least try to outsmart him, make him think a little. His sergeant may have been having a hissy fit about how the Zoids were being too clever for normal or whatever, but from his point of view the Zoids were still painfully predictable. Fire some missiles from range, then come in for a bite or a stab or a claw. They weren't even as clever as beasts, whatever those bleeding-heart activists tried to claim. Where was the satisfaction in ending the life of something that was barely even sentient enough to notice.

There was a thudding sound that overpowered the chaos of battle. Ephrem turned as his HUD alerted him to the arrival of the largest Zoids he'd ever seen. They were elephants, both in size and design, standing near three stories tall as they barreled towards his unit, knocking aside smaller zoids with a carelessness that Ephrem hoped was some kind of bloodlust. This was more like it! He ignited his second laser blade dropping into a crouch before he counter charged the vanguard Zoid, ignoring Seregent Lame's frantic shouting to reform the unit. He leapt a good twenty feet into the air, slamming the energy swords into the eye sockets of the elephant zoid. It reared back, but didn't even acknowledge his attack with a scream of pain. Instead the creature's trunk wrapped around the core of his unit. His own metal shell now squealed with protest, as the Zoid constricted his chassis. Ephrem attempted to pull open the trunk, but the metal links snapped closer and closer, locking like ratchets with their vise-like grip. The legs of his suit separated cleanly from the torso with a final decisive crunch.

Ephrem ignored the alarms that blared everywhere on his blacked out cockpit, the suit was done for. Hunk of junk had it coming, but if that damn Zoid thought it had him cornered it was another dumb beast. He found the emergency component with the pyroknife and the pistol, then popped his cockpit, crouching on the seat to leap onto the Zoid himself. The cockpit snapped open with a pneumatic hiss, and First Constable Ephrem found himself facing a Zoid missile launcher, primed and ready to fire.

Damn.

"Clever girl..." he muttered before the cockpit was fragmented into slag by a point blank missile shot.

---

Mustang examined the device skeptically. It smelled to him like a set up. This pair of information brokers happen to surface the same day that Markov is thrown into the worst crisis since the End, and they mobilize an armada of anonymous citizens to create a more powerful network of intel than the kingdom had developed with decades of state funding? In a day? Exodus Alighted wanted access to the Kingdom's network as well. What were they expecting, blind trust that they wouldn't take this opportunity to install some back doors for themselves in the future? That was naïve. War bred opportunity, it was only natural that some scalpers would arrive to take advantage of the desperation to their own advantage. They already had access to the Pilot's Union and the Guild, and acted as though the hack was routine enough they had even asked him to give them access? Just who was this pair? They'd established no motives for themselves beyond the defense of the city. A convenient lack of an angle to establish them as concerned citizens. He pocketed the device, this would be something that would merit handling in the future.

The transport jolted and creaked, protesting the maneuvers Rocket was forced to perform to avoid the missiles of the pursuing Zoids. The PU forces understood the situation and to their credit were attempting to provide what defense they could with their personal weaponry. However, they had been forced to abandon the operational walkers in the alley and were armed only with light sidearms that were not designed for combat at this scale or range. Mustang took his position again, and snapped his fingers, a long string of flames skipping out from the side of the vessel to engulf one of the Zoids that was hanging too close to move out of the way. the scorched mechanimal wheeled away to regain its bearings, and after a few more bursts of flame to encourage them, the two other Zoids that had been tailing them swerved back to the main dogfight. in the moment of respite Mustang glanced down at the battlefield below him. The sight was alarming to say the least.

A coordinated herd of elephantine Zoids stampeding forward in a rough wedge formation had managed to punch through a gap in the Cytokine defensive net. They had chosen not to circle round on the defending force, which was a relief as the whole sector of streets was taunt to its breaking point just holding the front like they were. But the fact that the enemy had left the frontlines behind was not exactly much consolation at the moment. The ten strong pack of trumpeting metal behemoths was now making a direct line for the energy barrier, protected from artillery fire by the surrounding structures. Cytokine didn't have an intercept force prepared that he could see. Hell, their command might not even be aware of the breach.

"Rocket!" Mustang shouted, rushing over to the front of the transport, "Get us closer to that pack down there. They're going to try to breach the barrier!"

"The big zapper thing we barely avoided on our way out? Still waiting on a thank you for that flying by they way. What makes you think that a batch of zoids that small will be able to bust through?"

"They're making a break for it, they've passed two turret nests already. Anything that the enemy is focusing on destroying, we need to make sure stays intact."

"You mean like this ship? They haven't really stopped shooting at us since we got here and we're a gust of stiff wind away from plummeting outta the sky, with all these idiots you wanted to rush out and save, might I add."

"Fine. Then patch me through to Pilot's Union HQ, so they can sound the alarm."

Rocket laughed, banking around a surface-to-air missile from a particularly ambitious Zoid below them.

"You're a funny guy Mustard, you know that?" the raccoon shook his head with bemusement as he refocused his attention on flying "Working communications on this hunk of junk... it's like he doesn't even realize we're flying a piece of tissue paper stuck together with gum!" he muttered under his breath with incredulity.

Mustang strode back to the main section of the transport, running a hand through his hair as his thoughts raced. He could use this communicator to get in touch with kingdom personnel, but it hadn't been vetted or cleared, he would have to use his access code to get past their encryption, which would mean that Exodus Alighted and Ohm Zui would have his codes until he got them changed, and that would give them access to untold amounts of the Kingdom's network. But... if he only reached out to third parties, that would handily sidestep the issue of his benefactor's motives for the time being.

It wasn't perfect, but it would have to suffice for the moment. Mustang pulled the communicator back out and reattached it to his wrist. Excellent, Ashe-0's data signature was within range. He widened the broadcast slightly from there, on the off chance that someone else in the area might be able to lend her a hand.

"This is Major Mustang reaching out from an independent channel. We have an enemy strikeforce behind the lines of battle. They are heavily armored and bear shield-breaking technology. The Energy barrier is Markov's most vital defensive structure, all available operatives, engage and stop them before they can reach it! Enemy coordinates are beaming now." He attached the information to the tail end of the message, then sent it out three times to make sure the signal cut through the scrabble of data.

It was such an empty gesture, but Mustang couldn't do anything more to stop them at this point, unless he dove off the transport to go fight them. He would have to trust in the ground forces to stop this threat. He reached up and took hold of a steel ring as the battered transport limped back over the energy barrier and sputtered onwards towards the relative safety of the forward command post.

 

[Ohm Zui]

Ohm finished making their fortieth drone, transferring control over to their intel group and wringing their flagella out. They glanced over at their phonic device, which they had plugged an adapter into to allow it to send its data over to the holographic projector set up on the floor next to them. They gave a hum, picking up the phonic device and beginning to type hard.

“Everything alright?” Celerity asked from where she was sorting parts at a workstation nearby.

“Something’s changed, zoo-ee. Now I’ve got a better picture of what’s going on, I think it’s time to start doing something with it. Now let’s see…”

Ohm concentrated on the map. By now, the intel group had chosen a name for both the battle map and themselves: Crystal Ball Array, or CBA. The CBA was full of information, now applicable as separate overlays, and Ohm navigated the choices and focused in on the fighting going on in the streets behind the main defensive lines. It wasn’t enough, not nearly: the drones were useful, but the coverage was spotty even with the thirty odd drones that had survived the battlefield and the various other sources of data.

A couple of flicks through a menu and some of the drone feeds came up over specific parts of the conflict, showing the desperate skirmishing and unfocused combat. Ohm scanned the images, looking for a pattern to understand, or an oddity to examine. Perhaps there… and with that… Guild mercenaries at that junction… and again over there… outtowners up there, and down in that vault… akata cutting through those alleyways… void zombies gathering at those locations… Kingdom troops waylaid on their way to the frontline… Cytokine mech ambushed by akata there… blue-on-blue air support by a PU bomber mech on some unfortunate Guild mercenaries turning the corner… outtowners left to fend for themselves by Guild runners there… and there, a strong pair of independents wading into the fray.

“Ba-zoo! Got it!”

“Got what?”

“How to fix a problem.”

As they went to activate their phonic device’s video lens, a message popped up. Sent by Mustang… and accompanying a selection of new enemy contacts. Ohm glanced at the hologram. The zoids, the threat they represented… well, no time like the present to start the next step of coordinating combatants.

The zoombini faced the lens and began to record.

---

Lee span the wheel, the van lazily responding as she managed to pull it around the corner of the junction in a skid that splattered a group of void zombies as the runner group chased down a pair of akata that had been giving them the slip for a couple of minutes.

“Bee!”

“Wait for it… now!

“Launching!”

The runner group fired in concert, hamstringing the two blue lions and finishing them off with a second volley. Lee glanced down to the dashboard and pulled a face.

“Alright, give me a path to a safe place, I need to take ten and fix the suspension.”

Simone poked her head up.

“Wait, what about the ranking?”

“Ugh, I can’t keep us going. We’re back in the low 600s, but that’s because of a bunch of us have been struck from the leaderboard. If we don’t take a break, we’ll join them.”

Filigree gave a noise of relief.

“Thank goodness, my acid burners are on twelve percent and I need that stuff to live. Also, we need someone to have a look at Giorno.”

“Quite.”

“Yeah, yeah, Beezlebub, give me a path.”

The decker flicked a pair of fingers and a path appeared on the windscreen. Lee glanced up at the map, then took a second to blink hard.

“Wait, where the hell did you get all of that?”

“Some bright spark made a group calling themselves the Crystal Ball Array. Apparently they’ve got these drones and they’ve got some hackers and coders and stuff. A mate of mine gave me a headsup.”

“Well… that’s good, I guess.”

“Yeah… oh shit!”

“What?” Lee instinctively slammed her foot on the accelerator, and the van sped up, barely dodging a collapsing facade as a stray rocket crashed into the roof.

They focused back on passing safely through the battlefield, passing by several Guild checkpoints where those mercenaries who weren’t intelligent or fortunate enough to bring their own ride had established camps for their own fights. Near the energy barrier, a Guild mechanic waved them over to a small technomancy setup that would help fix the van up for a small cut of their kills.

The runners piled out of the van as Lee pulled it to a stop, taking a watchful place at the small barricades set up by the technomancers. The sound of explosions and the haze of dust hovered over the entirety of the cities north and west areas, aerial combatants visible in frantic dogfights and lines of flak and chaff hurled up to pin in the zoid threat.

Lee gave her van a once over with a modified Identify spell. The technomancers were already hard at work, but there was still at least five minutes left before the combat vehicle was ready to go again. Another vehicle, a warthog from the looks of it, turned the corner, driving in and its three occupants leaving it to await the tender graces of the mechanics.

“Lee.”

Her gut churned, and she turned with a sneer already tugging at her mouth.

“Jason.”

The dragonborn, Lee’s ex, scoffed and tilted his head at the magic missile launcher held at her side.

“Since when did you rely on amplification?”

“Since when were you an idiot who wouldn’t use every advantage you could get your hands on?”

“Since I stopped having to drag your pointy-eared ass out of trouble.”

“Ugh, what did I ever see in you.”

“Likewise.”

The two of them stared daggers at each other, refusing to look away. Lee narrowed her eyes, tightening her grip on the magic missile launcher.

An explosion nearby had both of them whipping round, Lee’s overpowered magic missiles joining Jason’s swiftly conjured fireball to annihilate the dragonfly zoid that had just been sent crashing into the street. As the smoke cleared, the Guild members looked up to see a small aerial mech drop from the sky to follow it, legs whirring as it slowed from a run to a jog to a halt. The cockpit defence cleared for a moment, revealing a member of the Pilot’s Union giving them all a cocky salute before the boosters engaged to launch the mech back into the sky.

“Fuckin’ PU.”

“You said it.”

Tension broken, the two exes strode back to their crews. Filigree looked up from where she was filling up on chemicals.

“Hey Lee! Beezlebub’s got something interesting. A bunch of the Guild are getting this too.”

She took a breath and walked over and looked over Beezlebub’s shoulder.

---

Ohm faced the camera, looking serious. Even while filming, they didn’t let up on their work, assembling surveillance drones from spare parts and electronic devices.

“Greetings! If you’re watching this message, you are likely a member of the Guild, and currently fighting outside the energy barrier.”

“I am representing a civilian group, the Crystal Ball Array. We’re keeping an eye on the conflict out there, but we need to act on what we know. In exchange for sending us your personal battlefield intel, we’re sending you the information we have access to, and you can cash in on our micro-bounties.”

“We’ve spotted that there are some areas that need to be dealt with ASAP, and the Guild is clearly in the best position to clear out the void zombies and akata in those areas. As such, we’ll be putting out small micro-bounties on the enemies killed in those areas.”

“Clear those areas out, and not only does Markov stand a better chance of weathering this attack, but you get a small profit on top of your current contracts.”

“The first set of microbounties are already up: Major Mustang, one of the Kingdom officers, has requested the elimination of a set of elephant zoids charging at the barrier. Any kills of void zombies, akata or zoids in the indicated line of attack are worth 0.1 coin, with 10 coin to any participant that assists in the takedown of the zoids themselves, all on top of whatever your current incentives are.”

“This is Ohm Zui. Happy hunting!”

---

Lee’s eyes grew wide.

“What the heck is that thing?” Simone wondered, the gnome peering Beezlebub’s other shoulder.

“No idea, but do you know what this means?” Lee asked, excited.

“That this is easy cash?”

“No, better than that! If there are trouble spots, there’ll be a lot of enemies to kill, and we can try to get in the top five hundred! Come on, they should be done with the van, let’s go!”

---

In the warehouse, Ohm took a brief lap of the room to stretch their propeller before settling back in their workstation.

As they continued to assemble drones, they cycled through identified independent combatants. While their surveillance drones could convert themselves into communicators, each time they did so there was one fewer point of view for the CBA. They needed to select their choice of combatants carefully when considering which to provide communicators… but at the same time, the more people in the loop, the better.

They chose the second recipient, and took control of the nearest drone.

Time to coordinate.

 

[Domri Rade]

Domri cackled in glee as Tusker raised its hooves and stomped the life out of one of the void zombies. They didn’t stop coming, and that made it so much fun. Smashing in heads was one of the beastmaster’s pastimes. The speckles of blackened blood invigorated him, making his accumulating wounds feel less painful. He raised his bone staff and crushed down on a skull.

“Ya alright there, Tusker?” Domri prodded, turning his head to check on his animal companion. His warboar turned and snorted, stomping his foot a few times. The beast had decorated his tusks with impaled corpses and seemed to be enjoying himself as he trampled over the mindless opponents. Tusker, however, had not noticed the Atarka that had been stalking behind him. The void creature leapt towards its prey, maw open wide. Before Domri could warn his pet, a bright flash of blue light pierced through the Atarka, leaving a sizable, charred hole in its torso. It’s body comically flopped on the ground, with nothing more than a few death twitches.

The chaotic teen’s jaw dropped. “That. Was. Awesome!” he cheered, pumping his fist in the air. He turned to look at Ashe-0, her palm still a bright blue and smoking from the blast.

“I am merely performing my objective,” the robot stoically stated as she smashed her fist into a poor, lonely void zombie.

Domri couldn’t help but continue to fangirl over the towering destructive force. “You destroyed that critter! You had to enjoy that a bit, didn’t you?” he exclaimed, with a wide grin on his face.

“Negative,” the robot responded, shaking her head, “I do not enjoy this as you do. I am only performing the tasks necessary for the protection of Markov.”

The beastmaster groaned, rolling his eyes and slumping over, “Ugh, there ya go about Markov again.” He took his staff and smacked one of the approaching zombies. “I liked you better when you were bashing shit!” he said as he shadowboxed, trying his best to imitate the gargantuan machine.

Ashe-0 opened her mouth to respond, but her head let out a loud static noise. She pressed her hand against her ear, clarifying the transmission that was being sent to her brain. A man’s distressed voice came through.

"This is Major Mustang reaching out from an independent channel. We have an enemy strikeforce behind the lines of battle. They are heavily armored and bear shield-breaking technology. The Energy barrier is Markov's most vital defensive structure, all available operatives, engage and stop them before they can reach it! Enemy coordinates are beaming now."

“The fuck is a horse doing as a Major?” Domri scoffed, leaning against his boar.

Ashe-0 for the first time since they met displayed human emotion, scowling at the young beastmaster. “Roy Mustang is my ally and requests our support. We shall assist him. I have the coordinates, follow me,” she commanded, swatting away one last Atarka before she would stride off into the nearest forest, with the small yellow mice on her shoulders.

“W-wait,” Domri called out, before tripping over himself as he scrambled to get on Tusker’s back. “Wait for me,” he shouted before gently tapping the boar’s side, causing Tusker’s to lumber forward.

Domri couldn’t help but question this plane’s oddities as they passed by the thick jungle and underbrush on their way to the requested reinforcement spot. Only the Rubblebelt had this type of wild growth that was uninhibited by the disaster that was civilization. He cringed as he thought about those pencil pushers and their shiny, white offices while the wildlife suffered. It gave him some small satisfaction to see it the other way around on this planet, where the wildlife can roam free. Though these blue beasts seem more alien than natural wildlife.

Close behind the large robot, he could hear her mumble ‘Oh s**t’ to herself before he could see what was wrong.

“Can’t even curse, love? What’s wrong?” Domri teased before he and Tusker stopped dead in their tracks. To their right was an enormous electrical barrier that was sure to even keep the rowdiest Gruul out of its borders. And to their left was a stampede of gargantuan metallic elephants. “Oh shit.”

Domri slapped his face and Tusker likewise did a large grunt, before shaking his head wildly. “Ya know what they say,” Domri grinned happily, getting a quizzical look from the robot. “The bigger they are, the harder they fall!” he shouted before charging ahead.

 

[Lord Zedd]

This was a mess.

Knox was one of many soldiers posted on the wall, but their position had fallen apart. Only his squadmates Cade, Grace, and Laci were left standing at this point, and they all would have been effortlessly killed too had it not been for the timely arrival of a genocidal slab of meat and steel. Yet, even that shocking development was getting old. The Akata were rushing their position with increased fervor, and their own ability to support the battle below had given way to the need to just survive. Again, they were unspeakably lucky Zedd had arrived and was busy thrashing the creatures with his bare hands.

Didn’t make the situation suck any less.

“Enough!” Zedd roared during a reprieve from the silent shadow beasts, looking to the battle waging beyond them. “It is time to take the fight to them!”

Cade looked to Grace in disbelief. The redhaired girl shook her head quickly.

“I, uh, am not sure we can do that,” Laci admitted, the blonde adjusting her rifle a bit. “We kind of had orders to hold this.”

“Your orders are as irrelevant as you!” Zedd barked as he turned to the soldiers and marched over them. He sized up the motley crew. He would need to know how to address them. “Identify yourselves, immediately.”

“Uh, I’m Laci,” the blonde girl remarked, before pointing to the three other members of her squad in succession. A light skinned man with brown hair, a dark skinned bald man, and another female with red hair. “That’s Knox, Cade, and Grace.”

Zedd paused at their names, sensing something familiar about them. It was very strange, but he decided to leave it out of his mind. There was power to be obtained in this realm and these peons were certainly not the path to it. But, they could prove useful.

“Alright, call this shit in,” Cade finally said to Knox. “We need some help.”

“We will storm into the field of battle and lay claim to one of the Zords that attacks this city!” Zedd continued to rave about a plan that seemed perfectly fine to him. “With that steed, we will conquer these would be invaders!”

“Zoids,” Grace helpfully chimed in.

Zedd paused and stared at her through the cold expression of his facemask. Grace gulped as she realized he was likely deciding whether or not to kill her where she stood.

“They’re also not something you can really forcibly take command of,” Cade felt the need to add, getting Zedd’s attention back in the moment. “They look mechanical, but they’re actually alive.”

“That has never stopped me before!” Zedd proclaimed as he began to march forward, into the next wave of akata.

“Yea, this is what’s left of the 82nd Support,” Knox was saying into his radio. “We got a new arrival here, like brand new. He’s a bit… much. We might need some help with him. We only kind of think he’s on our side.”

“We can’t hold this position,” Grace reasoned with her squadmates. “If we stick with him, we might have a chance to see tomorrow.”

Cade could only sigh heavily. “I’m here to tell you, we’re fixing to fuck up.”

“Our position has fallen, we’ve only got four left,” Knox said, looking at the group before making an executive decision to get the hell out of here. “We’re moving to a more fortified area with this Zedd guy.”

The radio squawked with heavy interference, and Knox couldn't even be sure the message got out. As a result, the four could only hope they were making the right call as they pursued the rampaging dark lord.

 

[The Future Warrior]

Ashe remained still for several seconds while she carefully calculated the situation in her head, running over the odds and trying to determine the best course of action. Just one target of that size would be a tough order, let alone dealing with the entire coordinated herd of them. All she need do was to break their charge and stop them from breaching the barrier, not actually stop them or destroy them all. She understood and acknowledged that much, but the idea of how was what was eluding her. If it was just one, or maybe even two, she could try simple brute force and hope what firepower she had available would be sufficient for the task, but with this many...

She was jerked out of her pondering and deliberations by Domri and his boar companion charging ahead and into the fray, directly toward the lumbering behemoths. Ashe scowled, reaching out to grasp at the limb of a nearby tree. It swiftly crunched and snapped into splinters under her grip. So strategy was out the window, if she was going to have any semblance of working with this utterly unhinged fool.

"Pika?" The electric rodent on her left shoulder spoke up in its odd way, leaning forward slightly with twitching ears.

"Chuuuu...." The other, perched on her right shoulder, responded in kind as it shook a coating of dust and grit off itself.

"Very well, then...brute force and ignorance it is." She tossed aside the remnants of the shattered tree limb and stepped forward into the open, swiftly picking up to a job and then an all out sprint. "If you two wish to continue to lend any assistance, now would be very appreciated." Her cyclopean gaze roved around to glance at each of the two diminutive creatures in turn for a moment. "You have been capable enough thus far I do not feel any need to offer instruction or advice. Do as you will, even should that include evacuating this situation."

From that point on she put on all speed to charge ahead. She broke from the rough terrain near the treeline, her running pace carrying her right over the heads of Domri and Tusker with a single bound, and then over (and partially through) a building and into the city streets again. She swept an arm through the air to swat aside the rubble and dust as she turned on the spot, two arms on the side facing the approaching zoids lifting. With a single outstretched index finger from each for greater precision, she lined up her shots...and let fly.

Two bolts of blue light lanced down the street, both striking the target right where she wanted....almost. One shot was only a glancing blow near to the truck, though the second scored a direct hit on the eye of the leading behemoth in the pack. It shattered and blew out in a cascade of sparks and ruptured metal, eliciting a loud and angered trumpeting noise from the struck zoid, but doing nothing whatsoever to slow it down. Getting a read on these things was difficult at the best of times, but she suspected all she had done was make it angrier.

Like poking a tiger with a stick.

She clenched her two outstretched hands into complete fists again and prepared to bound back into action. The two pokemon on her shoulders took the opportunity to disengage, leaping aside and scampering away under cover of the rubble and gathering chaos of the moment to come.

Three quick steps was all she needed to get going with any reasonable speed, and then build up to full momentum. There was no easy or safe plan to be taken here, so she would have to resort to the standby of trying everything, no matter how unlikely or idiotic. Brute force would have to suffice here, when she couldn't yet identify a weakness. She did have at least a sensible target, however, based on her observations as she charged headlong at the mass of steel elephantine beasts.

The sound of crunching stone from the side, along with a wordless and horribly inarticulate battle cry quickly announced the arrival of a certain chaotic teen and his board-ish companion as they quite literally charged through a wall and into the street. A quick moment for a dramatic snort and stomp was spared, before shaking loose the worst of the rubble and lurching back into motion.

"The legs!" Ashe shouted, her voice rising to an uncharacteristic volume and urgency. "Aim for the legs!"

"Yeah! Trip 'em up, bring 'em down!" the crazed beastmaster cackled and wooped, waving his mace over his head. "Let's go get 'em, Tusker! Bring 'em down!"

The amazonian war machine chose not to speak up with a reminder about how suicidally inadvisable this plan was, or any warnings about being careful. They would likely be ignored or written off anyway. And besides...no better idea was forthcoming anyway.

"Here goes nothing..." She spoke quietly as she drew within spitting distance of the first of the steel titans. All four fists clenched tightly enough to produce a whining of strained metal, and the blue glow in her eye brightened. It grew to a fierce, crackling intensity that stained her entire field of vision blue, and lines of blue light spiderwebbed all along her body. Like veins on a living being, they pulsed and thrummed with a suddenly very visible flow of energy.

System overclock initiated. System performing at unsafe parameters.

She took one last step, up onto the blasted out skeleton of an armored truck, then another up onto the crumbling remains of a second floor ledge. It held for the precious half second she needed to push off and jump. She lurched up and through the air, making a perfectly calculated arc to meet the foremost zoid head-on.

All four fists connected nears-simultaneously with a resounding staccato crashing of metal on metal, and one instance of shearing and tearing steel as the damaged section of trunk plating caved completely under the blow. Her impact and weight staggered the elephantine beast, throwing it off balance for the opening that she had hoped to create.

With a mad cackle, Domri urged his boar companion on and it crashed into the leg of the teetering elephantine monstrosity, right at the ankle. There was a heavy, sharp CRACK of snapping metal as the joint twisted and broke loose, giving way under the numerous conflicting forces applied all at once. The mighty zoid let out a deafening trumetping noise as its leg buckled and slid free of its normally secure footing, toppling over roughly to one side and sending up a huge plume of dust and collapsing no small number of buildings under the resulting shockwave.

Ashe hit the ground with a similar, albeit smaller impact. Her internal sensors and readouts were by now giving off increasingly demanding warnings about pushing her systems in such a manner, but she pointedly ignored them and charged forward the two steps needed to close back into reach of her target. Two arms closed around the fallen beast's trunk, and two more around the nearer tusk.

"Yeah! That's one down!" Domri cheered, pumping his mace into the air. "Now we just gotta move on to...." He paused, cocking his head at Ashe's efforts. "...the fuck are you doing?"

"Breaking the charge of the remainder." Her tone was as flat as ever, though now held a curious tinge of vibration to it, as of one speaking through a fan or from a trembling platform. "You would do well to clear the area." And she heaved with all the force she could muster, immediately eliciting a sound of straining and groaning metal.

Several reports and warnings immediately flashed onto her internal displays, giving readouts on damage and straining of synthetic muscle and risk of tearing or complete destruction. She ignored them.

The realization slowly trickled into completion in Domri's mind, and he literally stood up on the back of his animal pal, staring at the behemoth with something between admiration, incredulity and outright disbelief fighting for dominance of his expression. "Are you fuckin' nuts?! Those things are like five times your size! You won't even be able to budge it!"

Ashe immediately proved him wrong with the sound of metal scraping against stone, as the immense bulk of the fallen titan shifted and dragged along the ground. Showers of sparks and shards of asphalt went flying everywhere, and Ashe took a shaking step forward to better anchor herself down. "This is not a matter of 'can' or 'cannot' do." She tightened her grip, and hunkered down with a renewed effort. "This is about what I will do."

"Holy hell..." The chaotic beastmaster nervously sank back into his seat, and carefully tapped Tusker's side. ".....well...fuck it! This is just crazy enough to work, I guess! You're gonna throw this one into the rest or something, right? Or use it to smash so much of the area they won't have the momentum to go anywhere?"

"Yes. Something like that." With a monumental heave, Ashe slowly began to build up momentum. The ground under her feet splintered and cracked, her boots sinking deeply into the ruined stonework. "I just need...to get it moving..."

"C'mon, Tusker! Let's give her a little extra push!" the teen shouted, and gave Tusker a light slap to one side, urging it forward. He snorted and barreled onward, through the clouds of debris and around the legs of the slowly moving behemoth. Circling around, it charged again, slamming into the underside of the shifting zoid. Against a bulk of this magnitude, it was only a miniscule push. But it was still a push. It provided that last little fragment of momentum.

Ashe shifted her stance and started to slowly turn in place, dragging the colossal elephantine beast with her. It took time and so much effort the servos on one arm began to crack, the muscles in two others straining to the point of wearing and tearing, but it began. The second turn came easier with the built up momentum. "Almost...there...!"

Another turn, and the elephant completely left the ground to become airborne as it whirled around haplessly in Ashe's vice-like grasp. It trumpeted and blared its war cries and signals for all to hear, flailing its legs and starting to aim its weapons.

That tactic was put down swiftly by the sudden striking of two bolts of lightning, crashing into the mighty zoid's body. Its second eye blew out in a shower of sparks and melting metal, and one of its beam cannons similarly exploded under the voltage, ruining its attempt at any sort of coordinated fire.

"And now...you...go!" And Ashe stepped slightly forward, putting in every last ounce of force and momentum she could summon up, as she released her grip.

Domri quickly signaled Tusker to step back, and he looked up at the colossal beast as it sailed through the air like the improvised projectile it had become. It flailed helplessly, firing its remaining weapons with wild and reckless abandon...

...and crashed to earth with an explosive impact like an actual missle, throwing up a colossal plume of dust and shattering the entire street as it filled with rubble, burying at least part of the remaining herd and sending up a herd of panicked shouts and screaming trumpets as they were cut off from their charge.

For Ashe's part, she immediately buckled. The blue glow faded in intensity in her eye, and the pseudo-veins in her arm lost their burning hue, leaving only faint burn marks in her skin, tinged faintly blue. Her entire body shook and vented steam from every joint, and an audible warning siren blared from someone within her frame.

She carefully picked through her databanks to pull up the originator of the signal that the Major's message had come from previously. "Objective...successful..." she said, in a voice that shook as much as her body did. "...shieldbreaker charge...halted." It felt as if it took just as much effort as it had to throw the beast, but she slowly lifted her head to stare toward the almost mushroom cloud-shaped mass of billowing dust and smoke. "...for the moment."

Ashe has used one application of Focus to do Badass Things, overlocking her strength output (via Move Object ranks) to let her hammer throw a giant elephant. It was pretty cool, but grossly impractical.

 

[Saryuu Evan]

The war with Ceventi’s bounds has long started since the chaos of parademons, rabbid akatas, zoids and other abnormalities made themselves known to the denizens of the planet not too long ago. In fact, several people had felt this world given how chaotic things became in a short amount of time and panic were in the streets. Cars crashing into one another, people yelling and screaming in panic, this world has gone to hell in a hand basket, but it’s could had been so much worse. Given that Governmore had been directly impacted as the chosen catalyst for this grave disaster, they had no time to react, they weren’t prepared but so were the other planets. Arbiters forbid that the Corruption takes another planet under its fold and the city, oh the the city, forbid it that it falls.

Markov was the battleground they can’t afford to lose.

Amongst the pandemonium, a lone oni-masked, heavily cladded robed figure runs in the dark of the peril with electricity running through their veils with each and every step taken. Their speed, focused and unrelenting, that it is almost if lightning was touching the ground and before long, a wild tiger Zoid came in the way among the alleyways in the depths of the city. Large robotic creatures that had been once peaceful, now turned wild and vicious as simply so. Given the circumstances, they had an upper hand in her sleeve: the Azure Striker septima which was a power that they were granted with.

As the creature growl and snarl at the other, said adept hesitated no time to unsheathe a katana-like weapon from the scabbard, wrapped around their back as surely but slowly as they drew it out from its resting place. They vowed to put an end to the creature due to the destruction and chaos going on, as a flash of memory came to her in the format of people screaming and panicking from monsters before she came in; it was personal and they were ready to fight, making direct eye contact with the creature.

"Come." spoke a feminine voice, soft yet firm, while she narrowed her eyes behind her mask while her electricity acted up, lighting her area dancing around the likes of metallic surface, moments before the Zoid would fire out lasers as the first means of the assault while the female dodged swiftly as she ran at a fast rate.

The electric Adept ran across the alleys, dodging the gun fire and even countering several shoots back to the robotic animal with her blade, parrying the dangerous shots, however it would take for sometime before some progress was made as the Zoid was on her tail. However, judging by the quick thinking, the female noticed another wild Zoid ahead, only to teleport herself in a sudden flash of lightning as she appeared on the other's back. This one was of a wolf and a loud roar could be heard from the robotic animal from within sound distance, frightening away any nearby denizens within earshot distance of the situation.

The magnetism caused by the electricity around her metallic boots allowed her to stick on the creature’s metallic back. Looking back for a moment, she had to think fast as the Tiger Zoid was closing in their direction, soon to be firing several lasers in her direction. However, she was focused as she went to slice the laser canons on the Zoid with her blade before she used her septima to stir up an electrical flash field.

The oncoming laser would be countered but at the same time, the electric currents were electrocuting the Zoid, overloading its circuitry as the creature was roaring out in pain before the darkness that was the corruption replaced that weakness and caused the creature to charge around going out of control. At this rate, it turned around and started charging itself towards the Tiger Zoid, wanting to crush the female who was on top.

A desperate attempt but at the same time, the female had to prepare herself and right at the moment leapt off as the two Zoid would collide headfirst into each other, making for a powerful slam against two different species of machinery, leaving immense dents as the female landed on the ground with herself in tact, putting her blade away in it’s scabbard.

“For a couple of robotic animals, you put up a fight.” she sighed under her breath as she was watching closely, looking for any format of future movement from the collision that was made. Granted that their metal layering was damaged among their lens and other things, she was wondering about something until she turned around and started to walk away in the opposite direct with her back turned. All was silent for a couple of moments until the creatures began to move again, causing her to stop in place and looked over. “...I had a feeling that this wasn’t over. That would had been too easy...”

Drawing out her weapon again, she prepared herself as she had to deal with the Tiger Zoid’s attacks with its laser canon. At least with the wolf one, she took it out with a hefty slice of the weapon she had but something told her that there’s going to be more trouble and in between the brief hint of darkness, that wasn’t clearly a good sign at at. This corruption, it keeps just coming back for some reason and she wondered even as she went on and fight against the creatures before they would be defeated once more. Or so it seemed.

‘Damn it, they just keep coming back.’ she thought as her teeth gritted at the prospect that these Zoids were relentless, but part of her wanted to put an end to it as another conflicted, however remembering her stance, she can’t and she won’t as a powerful electrical charge overcame her as she would do one last final attack and put an end to the Zoids that stood in her way. “Wicked blade agleam, barbarous and bathed in darkness, cleaving all in its path! THUNDERANDEL!”

The electrical output has increased as she should charge into the Zoids with her weapon and finish them off once and for all, frying their circuits and everything else that came in her way, only for her to put up her weapon and walked away with the Zoids fallen on the ground, lens crack and light faded until no more. On the other hand, not only the final blow had sapped up a considerable amount of her energy but had exposed a good amount of electricity in the bounds of the city as a beacon of her location, only just momentarily that was.

Despite the fight ended, she regenerate from over time and while she was panting, she was still going strong in her fighting spirit. However, for someone that has been a denizen of this world for years, she was used to normal life, not to be playing vigilante even despite being her past. Right there in that moment, just as she was thinking to herself, she heard an explosion from a good distance from her location and looked over as the light shone against the metallic surface of her mask.

Airstrikes it seems. Well, she wasn't the only one that was fighting after all.

Blade has made her appearence. While she's around the city bounds, she's making her way through the lines and cutting across the chaos. If anyone in the area saw electricity flying around, feel free to do whatever.

 

[Mickey Mouse]

The forward command post was positively bustling with activity. From what the three newest arrivals could tell, something wild was happening at the nearest wall of the energy barrier; elephant zoids or some such nonsense. Hiro Hamada hadn’t ever heard of ‘Ashe-0,’ but she apparently seemed to be a pretty big deal, as all the mech pilots were chattering away about her combat prowess and the warrior with her. Hawkeye smirked a bit when she heard the story, and Hiro made a mental note to ask the lieutenant later about this formidable fighter; ‘Ashe-0’ seemed, to his expert ears, like a robot’s designation, and he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to learn about another awesome fighting bot.

Starscream’s capabilities had already basically overloaded his own senses. He couldn’t imagine the work it would take to create a mech like that -- something with a pretty sentient AI, that had both an incredibly capable fighting bipedal form as well as being able to turn into a damn jet?

Damn, that was cool.

The jet-bot himself, however, seemed less impressed with the humans’ resources.

“This is your base of operations?” Starscream screeched. He looked down -- quite literally -- on the rinky-dink command post. It already was pretty cramped by Hiro and Hawkeye’s standards, but it most definitely would not be a comfortable fit for Starscream. Or, really, a possible one at that; the giant, probably evil, robot was simply much more gargantuan than any entrance, or the roof, for that matter.

Hiro placed a hand behind his head and chuckled nervously. “Well, it’s not my base of operations,” he shrugged, ignoring the glare he received from Hawkeye.

“Whoever’s it is, it is quite… disappointing,” the Decepticon sneered, crossing his arms and performing a melodramatic turn o’ the heel. “It’s almost as if you’re trying to exclude me,” he whined, and Hiro, once again, stifled a laugh.

“It wasn’t exactly built with giant, transforming robots in mind,” Hawkeye rolled her eyes. She reached out and grabbed Hiro by the shoulder. “Come on, we’ve got to get that zoid sample to the Major. He’ll know what to do with it.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming,” Hiro nodded, and Hawkeye, with a bit of a scowl, stepped away and through the open doors to the command post’s interior. Hiro, for his part, looked up at Starscream a bit more, continuing to admire the bot’s handiwork. “So, Screamy, I gotta know: do you run on supercapacitors?”

Starscream scoffed. “I run thanks to the energon running through my veins, small child,” he said with a slight scoff, “and by the blessing of my spark.”

Hiro blinked a little bit. He considered himself pretty much an expert on robots, and ‘energon’ and ‘spark’ weren’t things he’d ever heard of. He’d also never really considered the mechanized life-forms having veins, either. Nevertheless, he had no reason to doubt Starscream’s explanation, so he resolved to dig in and do some research on it later -- assuming he managed to make it out of this whole siege alive. That motivation was as good as any, then: survive for Starscream.

As the boy genius spun around and entered the forward command post’s main control center, he heard the Deception mumbling behind him. “Foolish humans,” he chittered, “there’s too many creatures similar to me around here for them to have not built this base to my specifications…”

Hiro let out a sigh. Starscream’s displeasure toward the humans’ set-up wasn’t completely wrong; the Kingdom, Cytokine, the Pilot’s Union… Hiro had been dealing with all three of them for the better part of a few years, and he’d certainly found many things to complain about in how they juggled the governing of Markov. The restrictions placed on the citizens in some ways really grinded his gears, and, well, he’d found himself on the very wrong side of the Kingdom’s stupid laws more than once.

Yet, still, despite his problems with those who claimed to be the word of law on Cevanti, he’d leapt into action the moment he and Baymax had found out the city was in trouble. In the back of his mind, he always dreamed of finding someplace else to live out the rest of his days and start a new life, but the thought always persisted: would he even be able to make it somewhere that wasn’t this dump of a planet? His robotics skills, at least, were in high demand around these parts. And no matter how much shit he talked about it, Cevanti was his home. Whether he stayed here forever or not, he was born here, Tadashi raised him here, and he was here now, so he would do whatever the hell he could to protect it.

“He did what?!”

Hawkeye’s voice yanked him out of his thoughts. The blonde, getting one of her wounds from their fight with the zoid patched up by a young, dark-skinned doctor, sat in a rolling chair, talking to a squirrely-looking soldier. “Who let him go out to the front?!”

“It was… chaotic, Lieutenant,” the soldier frowned. “But his transport just landed, you should be able to see him sooner rather than later.”

“He better hope it’s later,” she scowled.

“Trouble in paradise, Lieutenant?” Hiro smirked, sliding his way into the conversation. Hawkeye shot him a glare.

“Hamada, this is Doctor McStuffins,” she breezed past the subject and nodded towards the young girl, probably his age or younger, patching her up. “She’s one of the foremost biotech minds we have here in Markov, and she’s going to help you try to figure out what the hell that stuff is.”

Hiro held up the vial filled with the dark matter, and looked over at McStuffins. “You’re a biotech expert?”

“More bio than tech,” the Doc admitted, “but I hear you can make up for me in that regard.”

The boy flushed a little bit, then placed his hands on his hips confidently. “I know a thing or two.”

“Hiro.”

Hiro Hamada turned towards the door, face growing warm as the familiar form of Baymax squeezed into the control room. The boy genius broke into a sprint, opening his arms wide and wrapping them as far as he could around the robot’s midsection.

“Baymax!”

“I am back,” the bot whirred, returning Hiro’s hug.

“Oh, good,” McStuffins piped up, putting the finishing touches on Hawkeye’s bandages, “that bot’s yours? He was super helpful earlier and probably will be figuring out this dark matter shiz.”

Hiro stepped out of the hug and lifted up a fist. “Oh, yeah, we’ve got this.”

Baymax gently bumped his fist against Hiro’s. “Ba-la-la-la-la-la-la,” the pair said, almost in unison.

“Good, if the bot’s back, that means the Major is back,” Hawkeye muttered, sliding out of her chair and making for the door.

“Major Mustang has returned,” Baymax confirmed dryly.

Hawkeye barely acknowledged him, shouting out a command as she passed through the door. “Your lab’s that way, Hamada. Please try and get us something we can use.”

“You got it, Lieutenant!” Hiro waved. “Tell the Major I said hi!”

 

[Rebecca Chambers]

Starscream watched as Hamada and Hawkeye vanished inside the positively miniscule command structure. Good— as painfully excluded as he felt from the conflict’s proceedings, he also didn’t particularly care to listen to whatever these insignificant organics called “strategy.”

The former Decepticon glanced around, optics flicking from left to right, sweeping the area. Humans and other similarly squishy bipeds buzzed around him either on foot or in vehicles, much too occupied with the siege to pay him any mind. Hmm…

With far more stealth than any giant robot had any right to have, Starscream crept behind one of the tiny little buildings he’d noticed various organics entering and departing from. It was an old and decrepit concrete structure, shattered glass littered on the ground around it in a sparkling sheet of debris, the windows blown out long ago by a doubtlessly powerful explosion.

A number of crates were stacked inside the building and along the outer walls; Starscream identified several transport vehicles picking them up before speeding off toward the front lines. Weaponry, most likely, though he couldn’t be entirely sure unless he looked for himself…

Taking a wary glance around at his surroundings, Starscream bent down and flicked one of the crates open with his claws. Perhaps he’d been expecting too much of these organics, but the sight of a multitude of firearms haphazardly thrown together into a pile was disappointing all the same. It did grant him further information on the nature of this attack, however— while the military might of Markov was undoubtedly great, they had been forced to mobilize far too quickly. It was a wonder they had managed to avoid being soundly crushed beneath their enemy’s heel for this long.

For a moment, Starscream indulged in a minor fantasy where he was the one overtaking this city by force, an armada of 'Cons at his back, and then soundly wiped the thought from his processor. He needed to find something useful, and it wasn’t long before he was moving on to the next crate, cracking open its pathetic locking mechanism through brute force.

As the wooden lid and iron lock splintered, a red glow surged out from within the crate’s depths, illuminating Starscream’s sharp and twisted features in a hellish light.

Oh. Now this was interesting.

Starscream gave a sinister chuckle, extracting his prize from the mess of supplies lumped around it. He turned it over, examining it with a critical eye. Yes, it was just as he suspected: red energon, refined into its liquid form. The small vial of bright red fluid was disappointingly small in his grip, amounting to nothing more than a single dose for a being of his stature, but it would suffice.

The tiny bot tucked inside his cockpit stirred abruptly, beeping at him, and the sound of tires crunching over glass came from the opposite side of the building, a few shouts ringing out as the newly-arrived soldiers conversed amongst themselves. Starscream glanced up, mildly panicked, and stuffed the gleaming red vial inside his cockpit, shushing the WALL-C unit. He had no reason to make enemies of these fleshlings just yet, however ridiculous it felt to serve as a glorified passenger plane.

Creeping out from behind the makeshift supply depot, Starscream observed as the official-seeming human woman, Hawkeye, came striding out from the command post, uniform rippling in the slight breeze and very obviously with a set destination in mind. Almost despite himself, the seeker found himself admiring her stoicism and level-headed demeanor. She was… surprisingly competent, for a lesser being.

But, this turn in proceedings left him at a bit of a loss. He could potentially depart, he supposed, and save himself the torture of being turned to scrap by a horde of feral zoids. Yet, he felt strangely… attached to this area, like there was still unfinished business that needed tending to. Perhaps securing the trust of these fleshlings could offer some heretofore unseen advantage…

All of a sudden, a staticky crackle erupted from inside his cockpit, startling him.

“This is what’s left of the 82nd Support… might need some help…” the radio managed to choke out, the rest of the message garbled and riddled with interference.

“Are all of the communicators inside this city so defective, or is it just you?” Starscream demanded of Wallcee, who had migrated to his pilot’s seat and was quite happy to nonsensically whirr and chirp at him. The smaller bot’s oddly colorless optics blinked dully at him, not seeming to process his ire, and it wasn’t long before the seeker had to look away from that hopelessly insipid stare, an irate hiss leaving him.

He had no idea where this “82nd Support” was. Perhaps they could be located if he scouted around.

Following the clank and crunch of a transformation sequence, a sleek silver jet rocketed past the roof of the command post and up into the sky, tearing up a thick plume of dust in its wake.

Acquired some red energon for a future consumable (pending approval). Didn’t quite manage to write out the part where Starscream, y’know, gets to Zedd, but that’s where he’s going.

 

[Domri Rade]

Domri’s jaw dropped when he saw the massive elephant-shaped zoid soar through the air before it made a land cannonball onto the ground. The mechanical wailing of the animal was delightful, before the shockwave of pressure, debris, and mechanical shrapnel exploded from its source. The impact must have knocked over the remaining stampede, or at least provided enough obstacles to stop them. The frustrated trumpeting of their trunks was like music to the beastmaster’s ears.

The chaotic teen turned, with a gigantic smile on his face, to see the triumphant Ashe-0 in all of her glory. Though the reality of the situation was more gritty, the robotic champion kneeled over in exhaustion, her limbs loosely dangling. Domri sprinted over to the fallen robot, who still was ironically taller than him.

“Oi, you need to lick your wounds?” he asked, his voice filled with concern. “Don’tcha worry! Me and Tusker got ya back,” he ended the sentence more cheerful, pointing to his large warbeast.

“I am unfamiliar with that expression,” the robot stoically stated, though her gears seemed to be whining at even the smallest of efforts. “I do not believe the use of saliva to be an effective healing method,” she continued, the point going over her head. Domri chuckled at her ‘joke’, slapping his knee and tearing up a bit. Ashe-0 was unamused. “I have completed my task and am no longer operational. Any efforts of recovery are grossly impractical,” the robot seemed to swallow this conclusion fairly easily as if this wasn’t the first time that this had happened.

Domri brushed off Ashe’s pessimism. “Nah, you’re one of the pack now,” he playfully punched her knee, though her metallic body stung his knuckles. “You can’t leave a wounded dog behind,” he chuckled. He then leaned forward and slapped the robot heroine’s head and screamed into it, “Commander horsey!-”

“Major Mustang...”

“Whatever,” Domri mumbled, shrugging before continuing to shout at Ashe-0’s head. “Your mate is wounded, come and get them!” he hollered.

“That’s not how my communications works,” Ashe groaned with a hint of frustration.

“Like I give a shit,” Domri rolled his eyes. “Make it work for me, wontcha bud? Else we’re all fucked,” he cheered, before giving a final pat to Ashe’s head. He put his fingers up to his lips and let out a high pitched whistle, calling Tusker to his position. “We gotta buy some time for our pal here,” he chimed in, grabbing ahold of Tusker’s saddle and leaping on. The beast snorted and stamped its foot a few times. The chaotic teen chuckled, “You ‘eard that too? The shit she says!”

The plume of dust from the collision settled, revealing a pack of Akata’s and their ensemble of oozing, void-zombies. “Perfect timing!” the beastmaster shouted, patting the warboar to spur it forth.

“This is Ashe-0, requesting evac at coordinates…”her voice trailed off as Domri and Tusker charged forward.

Domri leaned to the side as they approached one of the oozing, black zombies and caved its skull in with his bone mace. “Nice!” he shouted when he felt the impact. He groaned when Tusker one-upped him. He could feel the turbulence as the cheeky boar trampled over at least three of those fuckers.

“Ay, no fair!” Domri shouted. “Don’t think you can outdo me!” he roughly smacked Tusker’s side. The boar grunted, but the beastmaster knew Tusker’s ‘laughing’ grunt when he heard it. “Stupid, smug boar,” he bitterly muttered to himself as he sadly smashed his mace into another void zombie’s chest.

Not fully aware, he lurched forward as Tusker reared it’s hind legs to kick one of the approaching abominations. However, the strength of the beast’s kick went straight through the zombie’’s ribcage. The corpse wrapped itself around Tusker’s ankle. “Nice bracelet, boy!” Domri couldn’t help but laugh, almost falling off of him. The boar angrily snorted and stomped his hind, leg shaking off the corpse. Domri petted the top of the boar’s head as he winded down his laugh, “Okay, okay, let’s call it even.”

He then pointed toward the oncoming horde of enemies and shouted, “Chaaaarge!” This is what Domri lived for. Commanding his trusty companion, watching him impale, crush, and kick the zombies and Akatas. It was even more fun when he got to smack those in Tusker’s blind spot. He giggled like a child and hugged his oversized pet for just a moment, and the two enjoyed each other’s presence. When Domri released, he realized that they had been surrounded by a pack of Akatas with the void zombies in the rear ranks.

“Oh bugga,” Domri sighed. “We charged too far in didn’t we?” The boar responded with a sigh, the akatas slowly stalking and advancing on their prey. The beastmaster desperately for a path of resistance to find none.

“Oh... I really botched that, didn’t I?”

 

[Roy Mustang]

"Confirmed, they're the remnants of the Red Devil Squad. I'll get someone to get you a personnel list of the survivors in a moment. Mustang out." He set down the headset and moved towards the door, the flurry of activity keeping his thoughts at bay. The pilot's brother hadn't been among the survivors. He had fallen during the defense before the transport had arrived.

The emotions that had swept across her face when the squadron was shuffled into the medical bay... The sorrow, then sudden spark of gratitude and hope, as she saw the PU survivors coming in. Then finally the stunned despondence as she was told what had happened. She had thanked Mustang dully, like she was dreaming, then settled back down into the medical bed.

He ran his fingers through his hair, trying to ignore the pounding in his head. He would stop by the medical bay, get someone to take a count of everyone who had made it. He had hoped that second lieutenant Hawkeye had successfully obtained the Zoid sample, it had been long enough that they should have been back, but the jeep they had taken had not returned. If they had lost the vehicle they'd have no way to radio for backup, and Hamada seemed to have redirected the mission to take them deep behind enemy lines...

The communicator Ohm had given him blinged to life with a chirping tone. He frowned, pulling it out of his pocket. The unmistakable near monotone of Ashe-0 came through, surprisingly high quality for something that been supposedly thrown together in record time. She had done it! Somehow she had managed to halt the charge, pin down the Zoid Vanguard. They'd be able to mobilize a gundam team, encircle the creatures in the narrow streets where they wouldn't be able to build the momentum up to fight back as effectively. Amazing!

His hopes sunk as a second transmission came through from the colossal war machine, this time requesting evacuation. She had sounded rough in the first transmission, but this one made it clear that her success had come at a price. Images flashed in his brain. A moonlit forest clearing, then a coastal cave. Pain spiked in his chest. He coughed. Why was it so difficult to catch his breath? He took a step forward, but the floor seemed to slant away from him. He stumbled slightly, leaning against the door frame. He had done it again! Left her to clean up his messes while he fled the scene like a coward! With a growl he pushed off the door frame and stormed towards the landing pad.

He nearly ran into Hawkeye as he turned the corner. Good, she was safe at least. He barely stopped, giving her a brief nod of recognition and moving to continue.

"I need to get back to-"

"Major." She said levelly, catching a handful of his uniform in passing, "Might I have a word with you?"

She pulled Mustang into a small corridor that led towards one of the side exits of the building, out of the main avenues of traffic. Mustang started to protest, but her stare mollified his argument before he could voice it.

"What are you doing, major?" she spoke calmly, but the urgency was clear behind her words.

"There isn't time for this right now, Hawkeye..." He warned. Hawkeye ignored him.

"With respect, Sir, there is no reason for you to have led that rescue mission. You shouldn't be in the field to begin with, and you sure as hell shouldn't have been a part of a suicide mission like that! The fact you survived doesn't change that a complete moron would know not to try what you just did!"

She was absolutely right, and Mustang knew it. But he couldn't spare the time for this discussion. Not now...

"Right now a member of my team is in severe condition, second lieutenant. Following orders that I gave them. They need to be evacuated from the front at once." He started to leave, heading towards the side door so that Hawkeye couldn't stop him again.

"Major!" she followed after him as he pushed open the door and rushed down the short set of stairs. It had started to rain in earnest now. Not yet a downpour, but enough that it'd probably douse some of the fires the fighting had started. He would grab one of the spare jeeps, drive out to the front and...

"And what will you do, sir?" Hawkeye stood in the doorway, and Mustang slowed to a stop at the bottom of the steps, rain pattering down as he turned back to face her.

"This battlefield is too big to claim responsibility for every front, major. It just isn't possible, not even for you. There are too many people in trouble. Too many problems to fix. You know that, sir. Stretch yourself too thin and you only create the opportunity for more errors, more losses. You're needed to focus these people on the big picture. On efficiently utilizing the resources we have. Running out into the field to solve every problem by hand? That's childish, sir."

Mustang was quiet for a moment, fists clenched at his sides. His head bowed forward as the rain washed over him.

"She needs help. I won't abandon her again." he said eventually.

"Then send help, sir. Send me out, get some of the mercenaries to go. You're needed here, major."

Mustang did not respond immediately, but after a moment, he let his clenched fists release.

"You can be quite stubborn, second lieutenant." he said eventually, slowly ascending the steps back towards the door. she stepped to the side, holding the door open as he moved back inside, rainwater dripping off his coat.

"That should come as no surprise by this point, sir." she stated simply.

---

"This is Major mustang to all mobile units in combat zone theta-zero-seven. I need additional support to cover a retreat at these coordinates. There aren't many Zoids, but we're picking up spawn signals, so there's likely numerous Akata nearby. Defend the giant robot who isn't a zoid. You won't miss her." he spoke into Ohm's communicator, then switched the address to Ashe-0's signal only.

"Well done, soldier! We'll send in a strike team of Gundams to capitalize on the opening you've made, and reinforcements are in route to make sure you can pull back for repairs. Give me a status report on your condition."

"I am functional." came Ashe-0's response, "Though... my diagnostic systems appear unresponsive... I cannot satisfactorily assess the extent of the damage..."

"Can you move?"

"I... Yes."

"That's a start. Just get yourself back to the headquarters as best you are able. I have someone here who should be all too happy to get you back in fighting shape. Inform me if there are any changes to your situation."

"Understood."

"I have the manifest of the survivors here, sir." Hawkeye returned, handing Mustang a datapad and a towel. He accepted both with a faint smile, reviewing the list before handing it back to her with a nod.

"Send that on to the PU, so they can update their records and assess the survivors' statuses. My guess is that group's out of the fight, but maybe they'll transfer a few into other groups." he said tiredly, drying his head quickly with the towel.

As he set the towel back down, his gaze fell on the communicator that he'd left on his wrist. With a slight pause, he began searching the screen in front of him. "Did we get contacted by an ExodusAlighted by any chance, second lieutenant?"

Hawkeye frowned, but nodded.

"Yes sir. Shortly after you left, Hamada attempted to communicate with them from one of our machines. They seemed interested in accessing our files, I believe."

So whoever this was, they had ties to vigilantes here in Cevanti. He took the communicator off and held it up, examining it with his head propped on one arm. Ohm had created an extensive, if spotty map of the battlefield. Supposedly they had done this independently from any major powers. He frowned, glancing towards Hawkeye again.

"Get Fuery on a train to this base. If this Ohm Zui refuses to meet, I'll want his opinion on this."

"Yes, Sir." she nodded, not even acknowledging the strange name She replaced her headset and began to transmit the instructions to the Eastern branch.

Mustang activated the communicator again, sweeping through the addresses until he found the first in its list of calls.

"Ohm Zui, This is Mustang. You and ExodusAlight are providing a useful service, coordinating this much information. I'd like to believe that you're here to help, but I find myself questioning your motive behind all this. Would you both be willing to meet in person and explain to me why I should be trusting you with access to the kingdom's information network? I expect it'd be enlightening for both of us."

He sent the message, and set down the communicator to wait.

 

[King Kong]

Fox Enters the city of Markov, a metropolis that is different from Corneria's.

This settlement is the biggest on this planet to live if you had no place to go or can't even afford to get off this miserable rock.

The scout party mechs walk through a south security checkpoint, returning from the wastelands. MS-06 Zaku II mechs guarded the south point entrance to the vast city. Soldiers and Snipers patrolled the wall that secured a perimeter, protecting any harmful creatures or things that the wasteland can throw at the city. While Fox walks through security with his rescuers, he can hear radio channels on the soldiers or hams that were going off crazily. Fox listens in on chattering about the attack and forces communicating about the matter.

Word gets out to Markov's forces that a similar hero like the rest has entered the city, ready to join forces. The scout squad departs their ways with Fox at the other side of the checkpoint, promising him that the arwing will locate at the airfield. Major Mustang has received confirmation about a stranger's arrival willing to have a place to help in this dreadful fight. An M831 Troop Transport Warthog waits for Fox, parked in the dead street. The pilot didn't realize that the warthog was going to be his ride.

While Fox became lost where to go for the HQ and walked down the sidewalk, the driver started the warthog. He turns the wheel to the left then presses his foot on the gas pedal, making a complete U-turn. The warthog drives down the street to catch up to Fox. Coming up on the pilot from the side of the road, the driver catches his attention.

"Are you Fox McCloud?" the driver questions about the identity of the humanoid fox.

"Yeah, what's going on?" Fox is confused by how the stranger approached him and asked for his name.

"Major Mustang sent me to pick you up and requests to meet you now." the combat armored clad baldheaded soldier mentions. "We are in a dire need to recruit more pilots even off the streets for Markov and Cevanti." He continues about recruiting Fox for battle.

"That's what I'm here for; you can count me into stopping whatever is currently happening to your planet," Fox replies in a positive attitude giving a single thumb up for approval.

"Hop on in, pilot!" the soldier invites Fox to take a seat in the warthog.

The leader of Star Fox gets into the warthog on the passenger side, and off they go traveling down the empty streets of Markov. Getting to HQ fast was easy for the driver because the areas they drove through evacuated earlier that weren't protected by the city's dome force field system. To enter the protective dome, they had to stop and go through a security checkpoint to access the inside. It was easy to pass thanks to Major Mustang's orders. On the inside of the dome, refugees traveled on the streets, forced to leave their homes in the warzone. However, under Kingdom Palatinus law, a curfew has been set recently.

Seeing a kingdom of innocents suffer from chaos, and war sparks a similar fire within Fox. He has experienced this fighting feeling before; it all started when his father died in action, and the Lylat war begun. Innocent citizens suffered from the attacks carried out by Andross's Empire. It's similar to these people, hearing bombs try to penetrate their safety dome. Children are confused and crying to their families that will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

It is not fair for ordinary citizens to be under attack by these abominations. No, this won't tolerate at all. Someone has to stand up for these people, and thankfully he won't be the only one. He now has an itching sensation to witness if the Military's repairmen fix his arwing in record timing. If not, he'll be sure to find a way to reach for the skies. He will give it his all if it means that the innocents will live for another day.

Not too far out from the command post, they pass several combat-ready Gundams marching out toward the designated warzone. Giant metallic combat feet slam into the ground each step they stride, making the street rumble. Fox's eyes locked on the squad of Gundams and watched them head off northwest. He sits back in the seat and gets comfortable before they arrive at the HQ. They come to an abrupt stop because traffic is gathering at one of the command compound's entrances.

Everyone has to go through a checkpoint, so there will be a slim chance of the enemy sabotaging the heart of the operations repelling the opposing force. It took fifteen minutes to arrive at the security booth. They check in with no problem and drive up to the central command building buzzing with activity. The driver stops the warthog at the main entrance, dropping off Fox at his destination. Fox, thanks to the soldier for the ride. He stands up and steps down onto the gravel ground, crunching the pebbles underneath his metallic boots.

The pilot enters the building while the warthog drives off to park the vehicle. It will only be a matter of minutes before someone points Fox in the right direction where Major Mustang is within here. He received reports that Major Mustang is waiting for him in a specific operation room, communicating to channels, and giving out commands. It didn't take too long for Fox to figure out where the room's location. The automatic slide door opens, catching Major Mustang's attention and making his eyes shot up to gaze at whoever walked into the room.

No, this wasn't a soldier, but the stranger he requested to see immediately after getting reports about someone willing to jump in and help out the fight. Fox's appearance gave the Major an idea that this fox humanoid fits to be a pilot.

"Major, I received your request for help, and I'm well aware of the situation. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Fox McCloud, leader of Star Fox that's contracted to the Cornerian Army. I am no stranger when it comes to piloting and taking combat to the skies. My services are expandable to you, Major, and the branch that you serve. Ready to follow your commands, sir!" Fox stands at attention with his arms stiff, pointing straight toward the ground.

"I am pleased to meet you, Fox. Your service benefits greatly for going out of your way to help. For the time being, I need more pilots to provide air support either in the skies or on the ground. I do not have any specific commands for you, Fox. I trust you on the tactics when it comes to piloting in the sky. You won't be alone out there; I will patch you in the Pilot Union's channels to acknowledge that the ship you will pilot is a friendly. That is all I have for you currently. A warthog will be waiting for you outside to transport you to the airfields. By the time you arrive, your arwing will be operational." Major Mustang informs Fox's part during the siege.

"Yes, sir!" Fox salutes the Major, honored to serve by his side.

Ten minutes later, the pilot exits the main building seeing a single warthog parked in the courtyard. He assumes that it must be his ride, walking toward the heavy-duty military ATV.

"You ready to hit the road, soldier?" the driver questions his rider, eager to drive.

"You bet!" Fox chirps, hopping into the passenger seat then holding onto a handle to keep his body inside.

They drove off toward an exit that is en route to the military airfield of Markov.

 

[Mickey Mouse]

What the hell is going on here?

The dark matter zipped and zapped. Its essence was almost completely pitch black, but every few seconds a bright blue energy streaked through it, lighting it up almost like a lightning bolt. Hiro Hamada gazed at his third as it squirmed inside a petri dish, fighting valiantly -- but in vain nonetheless -- to escape.

It was, by far, the weirdest shit the boy genius had ever laid eyes on. Where the hell did it think it was going to go? Hiro’s best guess was that it wanted to get back to what he just knew had to be at the center of all of this: that gigantic mech at the back of the horde. The Kingdom, Cytokine, the Pilots’ Union, all the superpowered fighters the Major had called in… they were all missing the point.

He bristled a bit just thinking about it. This wasn’t about the zoids, or the akata. They’d always been feral, ever since The End, but never like this. He’d argued and argued with Tadashi about it, and then had more than a few run-ins with Major Mustang’s forces as he’d tried to curb some of the damage to the robotic wilderness the city’s major powers had been doing. What they were doing now was coordinated, wildly so, and the teen knew that this battle was only going to end under two circumstances: either they stopped whatever the hell that thing was at the back of the pack, or they all died.

He tried to laser in on the sample again. He wasn’t planning on dying today.

The last half hour had been mostly consumed by intense, focused work on the part of Markov’s trio of unlikely scientific saviors. From what Mustang’s subordinates had said as they’d escorted Hiro, Baymax, and Doc McStuffins to a lab nearby, the Cytokine scientists were pretty much a wash at this point, mostly working now to keep the mechs in fighting shape as the zoid horde encroached further and further on the barrier. After being left alone by the troops, the two young science whizzes and their robotic assistant had worked mostly in silence.

“Yo,” McStuffins finally broke the silence. She didn’t turn away from her sample though; she kept prodding it with tools, looking at different sections of the microscope. The girl might’ve been tired of the quiet, but each one of the scientists knew the stakes; the pressure they were under.

“Yeah?” Hiro replied, doing much the same. “What’s up, Doc?”

“Hiro… Hamada,” she said aloud. It wasn’t a question so much as it seemed like the girl was trying to let the name sink in by letting it escape her lips. “I guess you’re Tadashi’s brother, then?”

Suddenly, Hiro felt a shadow covering over him, as well. Was all of Markov destined to feel this darkness before long?

“Yeah,” he nodded, sliding his microscope away. He needed a sec.

“I knew him,” McStuffins said. Hiro heard the clanking of her medical instruments, and knew she’d stopped working for a brief moment as well. “We were… well, he took a few medical classes at the university when he was working on Baymax. Everyone really admired him, you know.”

“So did I,” Hiro responded without even having to think about it.

Tadashi and he hadn’t agreed on everything, but his brother had always been the person he’d looked up to most. His whole philosophy came from the older Hamada -- that fervent desire to help people. Hiro’s desires spread even further, now. He’d found a way to empathize with the wild, mechanized creatures of Cevanti in ways that even Tadashi hadn’t. But his brother had always worked to help the people of the planet get along even just a little bit better. The boy’s eyes fell on Baymax, still examining his sample across the room. His whole purpose when Tadashi’d created him had been to help people.

They’d been doing that, hadn’t they? The young scientist didn’t exactly know what to think about the messes they’d gotten themselves into. Baymax always had some comment about Tadashi’s intentions when programming him, but he’d also always been able to find a way to connect Hiro’s choices to Tadashi’s mission to help others. A mission that Hiro had readily adopted. But had he been going about it the right way?

He frowned, but then he thought… well, they were doing it now, either way, right?

Would Tadashi be proud?

“Hiro,” the monotonous drone of Baymax pierced the silence that had grown in the lab. “There is a problem.”

“What?” the boy asked. “What is it, Baym -- ” he started, accidentally brushing his hand across the table and knocking the petri dish to the floor.

He sprang into action, leaping to the floor and attempting to cover the dark matter with his body. As he collided with the ground, he felt a burning and stinging piercing his chest, and rolled over off the shadowy substance to find a hold burned through his racing red t-shirt. Should’ve kept my armor on, he cursed himself. He’d abandoned it when they got to the lab because doing any sort of minute data gathering with it on was just exponentially harder. The dark matter slithered across the floor toward Baymax, and Hiro looked up in horror to see that Baymax’s sample had already slithered up his arm and was sinking into his chip bay.

“Baymax!” the science whiz shouted, scrambling to his feet and rushing over to the healthcare bot. He frantically pressed into the chip bay and the tiny, cylindrical container slid out. Baymax’s superhero chip and Tadashi’s healthcare chip sat side by side in their slots as the dark matter attempted to seep into the third slit. “Oh, no you don’t -- ” Hiro grunted as he tried his best to get his fingers on the piece of shit. He felt the same burning again and watched as his fingertips started to gray. He let go, and looked up to see Baymax’s eyes go completely red before the robot’s big, bulbous white fist wrapped around Hiro’s throat and lifted him into the air.

“I have a new patient,” Baymax deadpanned.

Hiro blinked, and furrowed his brow. Between bouts of choking, he coughed out maybe the most important question he’d ever asked: “Who?”

Baymax didn’t get to answer before bolts of electricity radiated throughout his body. His grip on Hiro’s throat loosened and the boy fell to the ground to see Doc McStuffins standing behind him, pressing a miniature electromagnetic pulse to the back of his robot companion. Baymax’s vocal receptors stammered out a few short bursts of mostly meaningless text before he crumpled to the floor, temporarily shut down by the EMP.

Between the seize ups and chitter chatter, one word stuck out to Hiro.

‘Darkseid.’