"Good to see you on your feet, Marty." RZ informed the blonde Guardian as he could be fond stretching his legs inside the HOK.
"It's better than lying on that bed all day." Marty joked with a smile on his face.
"I still recommend you rest though, your injuries while non life threatening where still bad–"
"I know, I know. But I do feel much better than I did yesterday." Marty said once again with a big smile on his face. RZ was about to respond when the door to the HOK opened and in walked Tua, Jack, Dean and Ricky.
"'Sup bro?" Marty said as he walked up to Tua and gave him a high-five.
"Just ready to get back to work." Tua said with a smile of his own.
"At least you are." Jack mumbled under his breath, which nobody heard.
"What happened in New York?" Marty asked his friends.
"One word, Behemoth." Dean answered. "Son of a gun grew to twenty feet tall and wiped the floor with us." Dean said bitterly. "Piece of junk got the Giants Megacore." Dean said just as bitterly as his previous sentence.
"Ricky, Jack, you two fearlessly defended the Jets Megacore." Marty said as he gave Ricky a fist bump.
"More like we dodged all incoming fire and out-ran that bucket of bolts." Jack growled as he remembered the battle with F18. Marty was about to answer when the alarm inside the HOK began to sound.
"What's going on?" Ricky asked as he and his fellow Guardians ran over to RZ.
"Troy's team has sent an SOS." RZ said in a concerned tone.
"I thought Troy was sent on a secret mission with Aaron?" Marty asked RZ.
"He was, and the fact that he's sending an SOS must mean something has gone wrong. To make matters worse I cannot contact him as the line is being jammed–"
"RZ, permission to take Dean and back up Troy and Aaron?" Ricky asked his leader.
"Granted." RZ answered simply.
"Where exactly are we going?" Dean asked his leader...
'It seems they have took the bait.' Endgame thought to herself as she sat at e mechanical chair in front of her ships central computer. Unbeknownst to Ricky and Dean was the fact that Endgame was the one who had sent out the SOS... as a way of finding her target, Sandra Taylor...
-Later-
"RZ, you sure this is the right location?" Ricky asked as he and Dean had just exited a portal, and could currently be found at an abandoned warehouse outside of New Orleans.
"Affirmative, this is the spot the SOS originated from–"
"It doesn't make sense RZ." Dean said as he looked at the warehouse. "Everything seems to be fine." Dean said in a confused tone.
"Perhaps we received a false alarm." RZ admitted after a moment of contemplation. "Regardless I would still like you to link up with Troy and Aaron and make sure everything is alright." RZ instructed the veteran and rookie Guardian.
"Consider it done." Ricky said in a firm tone as he closed the communication app and proceeded to walk with Dean towards the huge warehouse entrance doors. They had just reached the intro when an energy blast struck the ground at Ricky's feet, which resulted in him looking around wildly for the shooter.
"That was a blue energy blast." Dean whispered to Ricky as he walked up to the door and knocked on it causally. "Hold your fire, friendly's coming in!" Dean yelled as he slowly opened the door, only to be met by an outstretched fist glowing blue with energy.
"Dean, what the heck are you doing here!" Troy asked as he lowered his armored fist.
"I could ask you the same thing." Dean replied as Troy lead Dean and Ricky into the warehouse.
"RZ sent me here–"
"Well I know that." Dean answered as Troy lead them to the center of the warehouse's main floor. "What exactly are you and Aaron doing here?" Dean asked the veteran Guardian. In response Troy raised his NFL-R to his armored up mouth.
"This is Troy, bring me down." Troy ordered as all of a sudden the floor began lowering and within a minute they where on the sub-floor, and then Troy led them down a long hallway, the floor raising back up to normal behind them.
"Where are we going, Troy?" Ricky asked as they finally reached the end of the hallway, and came upon what appeared to be a mirror. In response to Ricky's question, Troy raised his NFL-R and the mirror emanated a beam that met his NFL-R and the mirror opened up to reveal a room behind it.
"Troy what was the perimeter... oh." Aaron said as Troy, Ricky and Dean entered the room.
"That answers that question, I guess..." Aaron said lowly.
"What exactly are you and Aaron doing here, Troy?" Ricky asked after a minute of silence.
"They're with me." a female voice answered the question, which caused Ricky and Dean to turn their heads and look at the source of the voice, that being Ish's mother Sandra.
"Mrs. Taylor." Ricky said in a surprised tone.
"What are you doing here, Ricky, Dean?" Sandra asked in a surprised tone.
"I could ask you the same thing." Ricky said in a surprised tone. "But that's beside the point. RZ received and SOS from this location, more specially, he received one from Troy–"
"Troy, did you send out and SOS?" Sandra asked in a confused tone
"No I didn't." Troy answered very quickly with his own confused tone. Before anyone could say another word, an alarm in the room started blaring loudly.
"What's that?" Dean asked quickly.
"That's the perimeter alarm." Troy answered quickly. "That also means we have company, and I doubt it's any old friend." Troy added quickly. "Ricky your with me. Dean, Aaron... protect Mrs. Taylor." Troy ordered as Ricky fell in behind him and they began running back towards the main floor, while the two rookies stayed behind.
"We should head outside, gives us more room to fight." Ricky suggested to Troy.
"Negative, they might just pass us–"
"Troy's statement was cut off by the roof of the warehouse being ripped off by a twenty foot tall Crusher.
"Behemoth!" Ricky hissed as a second later, the Saints Crusher dropped into the warehouse. "And Sinner as well!" Ricky hissed once again as a third being dropped unto the warehouse floor.
"Hello Troy, Ricky." Endgame greeted them in an almost sincere tone.
"Endgame!" Troy hissed angrily.
"Who else could have tracked you down?" Endgame asked the third leading Guardian.
"I'm assuming it was you who sent out the false SOS. I'm also guessing that was your way of finding this place?" Troy asked Endgame in an accusing tone. His response was Endgame delivering a slow mocking clap.
"Smart boy." Endgame said in a mocking tone. "I already have eleven Megacore's, and soon I will have her research data." Endgame said in a dark tone.
"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Ricky said as he took up a combat stance.
"I'll second that!" Troy said as he as well took up a combat stance.
"Behemoth, Sinner?" Endgame asked her Crushers. In response Behemoth shrunk himself so he could step into the warehouse while Sinner took up it's own combat stance. "Keep these two busy, I have other matters to attend to." Endgame ordered her crushers as with a single thought she put them on 'Attack Mode' and they rushed at the veteran Guardians, who rushed right back, and soon the Guardians where doing battle with Endgame's Crushers.
'This should keep them distracted long enough for to acquire my target goal.' Endgame thought to herself as she quickly blasted a hole in the ground with a lightning and dropped to the bottom floor. The sounds of battle above did nothing to phase her as she quickly found the mirror that served as she hidden entrance to Sandra's lab. 'This is too easy.' Endgame mused as she quickly shattered the mirror with a powerful punch, which opened the door to the lab. To her non-surprise she was greeted by seemingly endless energy blasts, to which her armor deflected the attacks and she walked into the lab and saw that Aaron and Dean had formed a human barricade in front of Sandra.
"You are in my way." Endgame hissed as she kept walking towards her targets, and to her surprise the energy blasts ceased as Dean got in front of Endgame and unleashed his sonic lions roar at nearly point blank range. But to his surprise, the attack did little to phase Endgame.
"Did you say something?" Endgame mocked as she released an energy pulse from her metal body that struck both Guardians, and while it sent Aaron flying backwards, Dean unleashed an even more powerful roar that countered the energy pulse and sent it flying backwards at Endgame. The roar combined with her own energy pulse actually made her stumble a few steps backwards.
"Yea I just said it!" Dean hissed as he rushed at Endgame. But Endgame was not as disoriented as she appeared as she quickly regained her balance and fired a beam from her chest which struck the eight Guardian when he was within range and made him drop to a single knee, but he was still very conscious, but that problem was solved when Endgame picked him up by his collar and delivered the sleep inducing punch.
"What will you do, Sandra?" Endgame mocked Ish's mother. "There are more Guardians for you to hide behind." Endgame said as she walked towards Sandra.
"Big talk from someone who had to bring two Crushers as a distraction." Sandra shot back at Endgame, which earned a scowl from Endgame.
"Be that as it may, I will now take what I have come for... your research data please, and I will only ask once!" Endgame hissed.
"Not a chance!" Sandra said defiantly.
"So unwise." Endgame mocked as she fired a low powered lightning bolt at the woman. Her aim was true as the bolt struck her knee and made her nearly fall on her face.
"That all you got?" Sandra hissed in that still defiant tone.
"Your life is literally in my clawed mechanical hands, I could squeeze the life from you right now–"
"Go ahead, do it!" Sandra hissed, and that actually surprised Endgame, for most humans usually begged or their life when faced with death, not welcoming it.
"You would welcome death?" Endgame questioned Sandra.
"You have had many chances to kill us, yet you always choose not too, making your threat empty." Sandra mocked the robotic woman, which made Endgame think for a minute.
"You are quite correct." Endgame admitted after a minute. "It is a fact that I could squash you like a bug right now, but the truth of the matter is that I have other plans for you, your son, the rest of the Guardians and Rusherz. When my plan comes together, that is when you all will die, and that is no threat... it is a promise." Endgame said in a low yet dark tone as she kicked Sandra in the face knocking her out, and then quickly found Sandra's laptop and extended a spike from the palm of her hand and plugged it into the computer and quickly downloaded all of the files...
-Later-
'I now have access to all of her blueprints for Guardian upgrades and counter measures, but there is still one more prize to be had today, Man Eater?' Endgame asked with a single thought as a mechanical Tiger walked in on it's hind legs and handed Endgame a Megacore. 'Excellent, the Bengals Megacore.' Endgame thought to herself as an evil smile formed on her face, and she began laughing maniacally...