Hello Good Morning
Vert wasn't quite sure what happened after the machines vanished. Seconds after he had asked for Choza's status, he'd gotten a yell in reply that he was pretty sure would kill his eardrums in the confined space of the Saber cockpit. Then he'd gotten roars of gunned engines from three of his radio lines, and before he could demand an explanation, someone whipped by the Saber, clipping it with their own side before whirling around to face the ruby hood.
The blonde human found himself looking through two panes of thick windshield glass to stare at red-headed Stanford, whose green eyes were locked on his face with a fury he remembered all too well from the Tors-10 episode. They were still driving – Vert forward, Stanford backwards – and as the Sonic Guns came out and opened fire, Vert whipped out his blades and engaged his new enemy.
Elsewhere, Zoom had quickly found himself in an impromptu motorcycle drag race that was lacking the official finish line. Choza glared at him from the Shifter's saddle, and he returned it with the kind of strength that was more from irritation towards the device causing this than actual anger at the Diad – though that was how the irate Alpha Prime interpreted it.
Internally knowing it was impossible to talk his ally out of attacking – it was only by spotting the Vandals nearby that Agura and the Cortezs had snapped out of the control of Tors-10, and Choza herself had said this one was more powerful – the Muay Thai warrior kicked the Chopper into high gear, planning to get ahead of the Diad and clip her with the blades of his bike when he came back around. As he whirled around a corner, his ally-turned-enemy hot on his exhaust pipe, Zoom got a momentary glimpse of the Buster – whose drivers were currently trying to swat Agura off their roof – before they flashed out of his line of sight.
A piece of rubble came up, suiting his purposes perfectly. Zoom raced up it, deploying the Chopper's functions and hovering helicopter-style above the ground. Whirling into a tight turn, he raced towards Choza, who – noticing her opponent bearing down on her – reached out as she whipped past a pile of wreckage and snatched a length of metal piping from the pile.
Grinning and standing up on her saddle, the Diad pulled back and swung the pipe like an oversized baseball bat. Startled, Zoom swerved out of the way and dropped back onto his wheels behind the Diad, who in turn whirled and drove backwards, even as her front headlights changed from deep red to blinding white.
XxX
Determined to get Agura off their car, without irreparably damaging either Tangler or its driver, Sherman flung the Buster into a hard left turn, firing the afterburners as he went. Spinner (who had once again ignored common sense and neglected to strap on his seatbelt) had to grip his pair of maneuverable screens to keep from sprawling over the armrests, but by letting the blue tank's right side screech painfully against the wall of a nearby building, the jolt and the speedy turn made Agura get dislodged, sliding off the top into a heap on the ground.
Knowing that this wouldn't keep the African princess down for long – she'd be wall-crawling again within thirty seconds – the brothers raced down a side-alley, Sherman running over data he had retrieved from Agura, taken while wrestling her.
"Vert," he called. "I managed to get a scan of Agura while we were fighting her. I might be able to isolate the chemical signature of the aggro-beam and trace it back to the power core."
"Great!" came the reply, and the brothers watched as Vert briefly appeared on another street, hotly pursued by Stanford and his Sonic Guns. "Any time now would be nice!"
"Ahh!"
With the sound of Zoom's cry of pain, Sherman put aside his work on the Agura-scan and sat his foot on the accelerator, tracking the Muay Thai warrior's signal to an alleyway. They found him on the street, pinned beneath the Chopper and his eyes scrunched up in pain beneath his helmet. Not far away, Choza, her face plastered with a sinister smile and clutching a heavy length of piping in her free hand, was turning the Shifter around, preparing another strike against the Human.
Spinner, as usual, was the first of the pair to panic. "Zoom! Get up, buddy!"
"He can't," his younger brother said, taking scans of Zoom and rescanning the Shifter and its rider. "Choza's bike can emit a paralyzing beam from its headlights, and Zoom got the full blast of it."
By now, Sherman had maneuvered the Buster around the fallen Scout (which had to be an unnerving experience for the fallen teen, since he couldn't try to jump over them) and had placed ten inches of thick armor between the incoming Diad and their friend. As added insurance, the brothers popped out their mace spikes and started spinning their chain flails, daring the female to keep coming forward.
Eyes wide as she comprehended her danger, Choza dropped the pipe and went into shift mode, flying onto another plane just before she slammed into the Buster. While Sherman continued to track her progress, Spinner leapt out of the back door and dragged the younger boy into the relative safety of their tank.
Calling on their magnetic grappler, the Chopper was pulled onto the back of the blue tank and the driver smashed through the wall in front of them, flying into the crumbled building as Choza reappeared at the head of the alley. She wasn't alone – Agura had gotten back up onto a building and was leaping between the gaps as she hunted, like a giant emerald lioness.
Meanwhile, Vert was starting to get worried. While he had not sustained any real damage save a few dings from falling rubble, Stanford's rage-impaired aim was now getting back to its normal sharpness. His last three sonic blasts had come dangerously close to the mark, and if Sherman did not figure out how to snap their friends out of their trance soon, the Saber was gonna need some serious repairs in the near future.
"Sherman?" he yelled into the comm., even as he screeched into a hard right turn, another pair of sound bursts slamming into the building that had been in front of him. "Tell me you can figure out how to turn this off soon!"
"Got it!" was his reply. "There's a large energy source about two clicks to the west. It matches the chemical signature of what Agura's got, and it has the same energy reading as the tripods that were chasing us earlier."
"Just when did you get around to scanning that?" Zoom wanted to know, who was hanging on to Spinner's chair as he recovered from the effects of Choza's paralyzing beam. The younger Cortez chose to ignore that question as Vert asked for the coordinates for the energy core. After sending them to the Saber's driver, Sherman put all his attention into ditching Choza and Agura just long enough to get there.
A few streets to the south, Vert was doing the same with the sharpshooter redhead, looking for a suitable diversion. It came in the form of a giant storehouse, with ropes hanging off the ceilings holding giant metal blocks. The metal wall opposite of him was warped in a manner that had curved it inward, like an explosion had taken place inside here in the past. Either way, this would suit his purposes perfectly.
Slamming the gas pedal to the metal, the blonde Human raced at the wall, using it to get up into the air. Just before he forsook wall for air, he threw himself into a spin, extending his blades again and using them to clip the ropes, releasing them of their cargo. While Stanford dealt with evading the blocks, Vert landed heavily – thankfully, right-side up – on the ground and began driving towards the energy source.
"Buster, I'm on my way to the power core. You ditch the others yet?"
"That's a big ten-four," Spinner said. "And in case you cared to know, Agura doesn't deal with Choza's beam much better than Zoom does."
Back at the site, Choza apologized multiple times to the paralyzed Agura, even as she contacted the Reverb. "Stanford, do you copy?"
"Yeah, but I won't be able to move far until I get these metal blocks out of my way."
Gritting her teeth in a snarl, the Black Diad mounted the Shifter and took off on her own. She had been listening in on the chatter of their enemies for a while, and while the aggro-beam was impairing her exact memory, she knew she could not let them reach the core. It was important, though she couldn't remember how, and to let them destroy it would be terrible.
XxX
The large, mostly-intact warehouse that was their target housed a giant, egg-shaped structure, with red pustules glowing like radioactive blackheads over the surface; more of the tripods that had pursued them earlier rested dormant in the back. As the Buster and Saber, Chopper in tow, drove up to the main entrance, Spinner made a face. "That's nasty."
"Then let's get rid of it. Think one of the bombs can destroy it?" Vert asked.
"Scans say they should," Sherman said, pulling out a capsule and handing it to Spinner, who armed it and placed it into the launcher. Just as the words left their lips, all four sets of Human ears caught the roar of an unmuffled engine, coming towards them fast. Choza veered around the corner, not looking happy at all. Not noticing the Buster initially, her eyes remained on the Saber, who was closer to the door.
Sherman reversed quite abruptly, making a stiff Zoom tumble backwards ("Ow!") and knocking Spinner's head against the back of his seat as he pulled away. Vert took the hint, whirling around and racing away from the depot. Blinded by rage, unable to think quite rationally, Choza pursued the target around a corner out of sight.
With that little problem neatly solved by Vert, the Cortezs were able to proceed with the launch. After the tank was shifted a little, the older twin cried "Target acquired!" as he depressed the launch button. The blue-tinged, oblong capsule flew out of the turret and kept a straight course at the biggest pustule, piercing it and – quite predictably – made the egg-structure explode.
Fire erupted from the thing, making the red spots burst with the crackling of shattering, melting glass. Through the flames they could see the strange, alien mechanisms that powered the nerve center of the Sanctuary/Paradox Zone's defense system, and then it fell to pieces.
"Robo-zit popped!" Spinner cheered, leaning forward and high-fiving his twin.
Over the comm., they could hear the surprised cries of their friends, newly released from the aggro-beam that had enslaved them. "What happened?" a very confused Agura asked, feeling disoriented from the draining of rage from her body and her release from the "shutterfly". In the Reverb, Stanford wasn't feeling much better.
"Just a minor drain from the aggro-beam used on us," Choza said cheerfully, recovering the fastest since had spent the least amount of time under the influence. "Don't worry; it only lasts for a minute or so. Hey, Vert," she called, "How long was it until Metaturra shut it down?"
"Actually, Metaturra didn't shut it down," the blonde admitted as he stopped next to her. "We had to blow up the core to snap you out of it."
"And it took five minutes for us to get around to that," Spinner chimed in.
The Diad's facial expression changed from a wide grin to a puzzled frown. "Weird," she murmured. "Metaturra can be difficult to reason with at times, yes, but I've been broadcasting my energy signature since we entered the Paradox Zone. I can't imagine why she'd ignore it after being chased by Krytus for a week."
While the Alpha Prime was saying that, the others regrouped and a deep rumbling emitted from deeper inside the Battlezone. As they watched, the buildings began to shift aside, like they were on treadmills or giant gears, clearing a path leading directly to the domed building where the Black Sentient was holed up.
"Looks like that's our ticket inside," Vert said, revving his engines and racing down, the others after him in a Wedge position. While Choza supposedly couldn't think of any reasons why Metaturra would attack them willfully, the Humans could think of many – and not all of them were flattering.
XxX
As they entered the dome, the BF5 caught their first glimpse of Metaturra's vehicle of choice. It resembled the Mobius Command Center they recovered for Sage hours after meeting her for the first time, but black accents replaced the blue their advisor's own had. It rested in the center of the giant space, an arena that lacked seats, grass, or anything else that distinguished it as anything other than a bunker.
It lay peacefully in the heart, but Vert ordered for the team to remain in their battle positions and approach with caution. Choza had thought that Metaturra would disable the aggro-beam about a minute after it was put into use, but it had taken five minutes for Agura, Stanford, and the Diad herself to be released – and that had been because the Cortez boys had destroyed the power core, not because the Keymaster had turned it off.
His caution was understandable, and he was proven right when the gigantic convoy vehicle powered up, its bridge rising up into a turret similar to the activation of Onslaught mode. Instead of firing its lethal missiles towards them, though, a photon cannon all-too-familiar to the crew was charging and close to firing.
In the back of the formation, Choza spotted it and – realizing that it was too late to drive away – cut her visual feed in exchange for a sonar mode. Thus, she was spared from the "shutterfly" (fortunately, she knew this version could only blind, as opposed to blinding and paralyzing) and able to maneuver away while her Human companions were crying out in pain.
Connecting her comlink to the radio feed of the Mobi, she cried out as she circled, staying close to the walls. "Black Mobi, this is Alpha Prime Diad Choza! Ceasefire, we mean no harm! Repeat, this is Alpha Prime Choza with friendlies!"
The cannon – in the midst of a recharge – froze and then drained its power, allowing the cockpit to lower back into place even as the vehicle storage doors opened. Knowing that Vert and the others would not be able to see for a while, Choza turned her visual units back on and verbally guided the group into the garage.
Meeting them was another Black Diad, shorter than Spinner by a foot and with a face contorted in anguish. "I'm sorry!" she cried in a heavily-synthesized falsetto once she sealed the doors behind the Buster. "With Krytus chasing us through the Battlezones for the last few days, I couldn't afford to take chances. It wasn't until Choza contacted me that I realized that I was executing friendly-fire."
The BF5 wasn't in the best mood or shape to accept the Diad's apology, so the Alpha Prime stepped in to try and smooth it over. "Beta Diad Vivi, I think the Five will be more willing to forgive you if you administered the appropriate treatment."
With more guilt on her facial expression, Vivi called up a computer screen and turned on a series of screens that shone onto the Humans. Choza knew from past experience that the light shining from them would ease the effects of the "shutterfly" and allow victims to see properly, but it would take about five minutes for the magic to happen.
Leaving the devices to their work, Choza made her way to the bridge of Metaturra's Mobi, Vivi trotting beside her and continuing to babble apologies about the whole incident. "It's alright, Vivi," the Alpha Prime finally said, cutting off her friend in mid-sentence. "What's done is done, and since the Sentients haven't been able to invent a way to turn back time on command yet, we might as well get over it. Speaking of which, we found Whyer in the Hub."
Vivi finally shut up and was listening attentively as Choza explained the circumstances that had brought them to the Keymaster Hub, the discovery of the Master Key's being absent, and the Alpha Diad's death. When the story ended, the smaller female let out a long, drawn out sigh of sadness. "It's a pity – I could've used his help here. I'll miss him when we get to Earth."
"Same. But where's Metaturra?"
Vivi's dark purple eyes got even darker. "You won't like this," she said grimly. "When we were about to jump into the Dark Zone, an ambush of Red Sark took us by surprise. Metaturra ordered me to enter the next Zone without her; she said that she would catch up with me once she had destroyed them. But when the Zone finished altering and I could access the Cradles, I saw the Red Zurk force the Mistress into a reverse hadron link and take her through a portal."
Choza felt a sickening, almost sour, sensation in her systems, like she had jumped over a tall cliff minus a bungee cord. "Where did they take her?"
"I managed to trace the portal's origin to the Red Sentient world – more specifically, Mados. The Master Keys Mistress has enabled me to track the place she was taken – along with her status. So far, she hasn't given Krytus the Master Keys or the coordinates to Earth, but she hasn't been corrupted."
Choza nodded soberly. "Yet," she finished, voicing what Vivi had left unsaid. Both Diads stood there in silence, in the place their Mistress had held sway from for countless years, both knowing the same thing. Metaturra would hold out for as long as she could, but eventually Krytus would tire of trying to make her see things his way. Once he did, he would poison his former mentor, turn her into a Red Sentient, and once that occurred, the Multiverse was sure to fall.
XxX
Author's Note: Gaah, I hate it when you don't have a smoothly-flowing chapter and it feels thrown-together, like this one was. . Anyway, here's my post-Thanksgiving gift to Keymaster fans, and at this point, I think I can safely tell you that there will be a sequel to this, currently titled Keymasters: Red Rivers. =D
Thanks again, and don't forget to leave a comment, for this and for my new BF5 crossover, The Age-Old Question! =P I now leave you with a random BF5 Quote of the Day:
"He's a Christmas ornament! A high-tech hacky-sack! Zoom! Can you hear me, buddy? Zoom? Zoooom!"
*coughing* "Yeah, could you hold it down? I got a wicked headache …"
-Spinner Cortez and Zoom Takazumi, Ascent of the Red Sentients – Part 2
-Inferna Fires – *gets whacked over the head with a sledgehammer for being a shameless plug*
