Dimensions and Time, A Take a Stand Spin-Off

by CrystalWolfMaster

It's been one month since Team Ceartais' battle with Doom and the team and their families are in shambles, and none are feeling more hurt and isolated then Robyn Wilde. The hybrid hero has turned to her mirror powers for comfert. But when a mysterious incident sends Robyn and a small group on a new adventure, they will need to overcome their differences or risk never getting home.

22. Chapter 21: The Stars Align

It's been a long month.

I of course mean that in more ways than one. I like to imagine I don't need to explain that to anyone reading this fic. Zootopia is a movie about self examination in the face of an unkind world, and the Take a Stand series is unashamedly pro LGBTQIA+, more so then a lot of series to be honest. But still, I'm making my stance clear, black lives matter and there needs to be change now. It's been hard to find time to focus on this story and be in the right headspace for it, especially since this is nearly 20,000 words long. But it's here and I hope it gives all of you something to enjoy in these trying times. Thank you so much to everyone who followed, favorited and reviewed Dimensions and Time so far, and let's get rolling.

Chapter 21: The Stars Align

The Mage was flung high into the air by the pulse from Scarlet's mirror, but he'd been prepared for it and recovered quickly. Floating at nearly the eighth story of the PMR Labs gave him a good view of the damage that had been done. Nearly everyone was knocked to the ground and many mechs and turrets had been destroyed. Every window was shattered, including the ones for the command center.

Can't save everyone with a portal, we need to capitalize on this quickly…

"Everyone, we need backup now!" Scarlet called from down below.

Before Scarlet had even finished her call, a figure emerged from the blue light. She was a white vixen like hybrid with beautiful stripes along her face and tail. She had blue and silver armor including a large blue mask there hid her milky eyes. In her hands were her pair of tranq pistols inked by a large cabal and she had the acid shell shotgun she'd 'borrowed' from the Champion's universe. Hannah Wilde Savage: Prime Bullet.

Less then a second later another figure emerged. A red vixen weilding a high tech bow and wearing an advanced protection full pink and grey bodysuit. Her mask hid her full eyes but did display their natural amber color. Her pink hood was up and she already had an arrow notched on her bow. Luna Wilde: Maiden.

Right behind Maiden was a bunny garbed entirely in a black sneaking suit, complete with a lower face covering black cloth and an ear concealing tight hood. A pair of goggles hid much of what little of her white fur was visible, but they did not hide her striking golden eyes. She was armed with a handgun, a belt of kunai and a katana sheathed in a red scabbard. Alice Kirabito: Slash.

The Mage did some math in his head, Even if all four teams are here in full, we're still outnumbered and surrounded. Scarlet and her portals were almost in the middle of the massive field, facing the back of the PMR Labs and thus the command center. To Scarlet's back was the entrance where the Powered Mammal First Responders unit had arrived. Off to their right was a staircase and elevator entrance where Skye had emerged with their captured allies.

The roar of engines sounded from below as a mech suit emerged and flew up. It had a dark olive green hue and a sleek aerodynamic design. It was about the size of an average lion and armed with anti infantry and anti mech weapons. It's huel was marred by numerous scars gathered from battling Phelps' machines and mercenaries. Olivia Dawson: Spitfire.

Right behind Spitfire, another mech emerged from the blue light. This was much bigger, especially in the chest and shoulder area. It had a pair of small backwards facing horns along the side of its spherical head and its arms were topped off with large fists. It had a lighter green and white color scheme and was geared towards fighting other machines, especially energy weapons. When it was rebuilt after the battle with Doom the cockpit was removed since the mech was now being controlled by the team's AI. Bella: Spitfire.

Guess we're taking a stand here, The Mage smiled as he whipped his wand towards the ground. The nullifying collars on several of their allies' necks came open and fell to the ground, and two of them immediately took advantage of that.

The first was a large mare dressed in black gear that resembled a scuba suit, she also wore goggles, a fabric undershirt that resembled white bandages and a pair of half dress like frills on her hips that resembled fins. She called on her water control powers to create a wave on solid ground which she thrust back at her controlled teammates. Regina Lowell: Orca.

Off to the far right of the field, a golden furred she wolf summoned a surge of electric energy to her hands. She wore a purple and yellow skin tight fabric suit that went from her chest to her hips. She also had shoulder length arm gloves and knee length boots topped off with spikes. A purple scarf and domino mask completed her look. She flew up a few feet off the ground and unleashed her energy not as beams but as a more flimsy wall of energy. Clara Bloom: Sirius.

Orca and Sirius' attacks gave their friends time to recover and retrieve their gear, but the first to recover was standing halfway between Scarlet and the upper left wall. A white bunny with a sword coated in a red energy deflected a few bullets coming from a certain lion snipper trying to keep her friend pinned down. Her geisha mask had been shattered, leaving her face exposed, but she still had her white trench coat with red trimmings, hidden weapons within and her simple long black pants. Alice Wilde: Blade Dancer.

The figure at her side was finally able to get himself back to his feet. His rapid healing let his body shrug off the damage though he still grit his teeth in pain. Pushing that aside he got his skull mask and scarf back in position, pulled up the hood of his long red cloak that partially concealed his crimson and white body suit, and flexed his fingers within his steel plated gloves. The bunny fox hybrid vigilante was ready to brawl again. Reginald Wilde: The Crimson Banshee.

Scarlet could only watch as her allies recovered and more reinforcements arrived. She hadn't dared hope that all that many mammals would answer the call; at best she expected the mammals from Reginald's world to be prepared since Aaron was with them. And yet mammals had already arrived from all the worlds they'd visited on their world tour. Everyone, is everyone coming?

A somewhat scruffy looking gray wolf leapt out next, a card already in his hand. He wore a tattered balck jacket, a beanie hat, and was armed with a plethora of trick cards including taser, tranq, shrapnel and even a few explosives he saved for special occasions. Kodi Jones: The Trickster.

At his side was a white vixen like hybrid, though this one had covered her stripes with medical spray. Her armor was silver, but also balck where her counterparts' were blue. She had her tranq pistols holstered and was instead wielding a pump action shotgun loaded with stone pellets, similar to what all her counterparts had used in their early outings. Hannah Savage: Shadow Bullet.

The former of the two happened to emerge facing a mammal he initially mistook for his teammate. This bunny fox hybrid wore what looked like colorful swat gear, a white bodysuit with a red vest and crimson highlights like his scarf, knee pads and belt. He had his helmet on but had pulled his goggles up since one of the lenses was cracked. His belt was empty of grenades and other gadgets, but he still had his tranq pistol in hand. He was using that gun to help cover his own retreat back to the main group. Ronan Wilde: Sergeant Red.

One beatle drone that had survived Excalibur's pulse tried to attack Sergeant Red from above, but a sonic scream from below shattered the drone before that could happen. The scream came from a brown furred lynx wearing an outfit that resembled a fancy dress. It was mostly black colored but had several gold parts as well, including puffy upper arm pieces and elbow length white gloves. There were also four decorative insect like oval wings on her back, though those were bent out of shape. Sabrina "Esso" Resse: Chime.

Above the rapidly growing circle forming around Scarlet, The Mage continued to use his wand and his magic to interfere with Ryan's recovering defenses. Still at a disadvantage, we need...Mage's thoughts were interrupted by a sound from below, exactly that.

A loud battle cry drew many eyes to Scarlet's portal as a gigantic white lioness emerged. She was well over twelve feet tall, wore a black sleeveless midriff that showed off her incredible muscles, and also had urban camo pants and a belt containing some gear. Kiara Priderock: Roar.

In rapid succession Scarlet watched two groups emerge from the different portals, the first from the one Roar had come from. A gray wolf wearing a simple black jacket and beanie combo was first up, his jacket had a golden star on the back. He also had a different array of trick cards like flashbangs and cryos, as well as his trusty hacking wand on hand. Kodi Jones: Young Mage

Next was a red vixen weilding a wooden bow she'd received as a gift from her grandfather. Her outfit was mostly dark green and consisted of long pants and an open vest. She also wore a sturdy black sports bra, long yellow gloves, a black utility belt and a yellow cap with a red feather sticking out. In addition to her bow and arsenal of trick arrows she also had a long knife attached to each of her upper legs. Luna Wilde: Young Andraste.

The last of the group was nearly identical to Scarlet's wife. Same blue and silver armor, same twin pistols, same white fur. This one had apparently had the time to apply her strip masking spray and carried what looked like a grenade launcher on her back. She was younger and a bit smaller then her counterparts. Hannah Savage: Young Bullet.

Scarlet paid the trio no mind as her eyes were drawn to the group coming from her home dimension. A light peach furred lioness hopped out of the light wearing jeans and a long sleeve jacket. She had one of the Bunker's assault rifles loaded with rubber bullets in hand as well as a lethal side arm strapped to her hip, and a telescopic staff strapped to her belt. It looked as if she had grabbed whatever she could easily access from the Bunker before jumping through. Kiara Priderock: Agent of Camelot.

Next was an older arctic vixen wearing a simple black suit. At her side was a striped bunny also in a suit. The vixen had a medium mammal sized rifle in hand while the bunny was using a compound bow. Both also had their sidearms holstered. Skye Savage: Director of the MCB, and Jack Savage: Agent of the MCB

"Jack? Skye? What are you doing here?" Scarlet asked as the mammals emerging from the portals hit a lull.

Skye didn't answer, too occupied with looking around and trying to take in the situation, but Jack turned to face his daughter in law. "Hehe, well we sort of knew what might be coming thanks to Aaron so everyone was camping out around the mirror and...just call it instinct okay?" Jack was a bit flustered, both from the question and the relief of seeing that Robyn was alright.

Up above, The Mage threw up a series of earth walls around the group, letting the less durable combatants take cover.

Off to the right, the captive mammals took advantage of the distraction caused by Roar's appearance to retreat back to the main group. A brown furred lioness wearing vibrant purple short pants, a sports bra and a domino mask with a plume of feathers used her fire powers to set ablaze a line in the field behind them. This stopped their recovering pursuers and interrupted the local Skye's attempt to ensnare them with her numbing tendrils. The lioness wore nothing aside from her limited garb, as she found it harder to de and re-materialize when she turned parts of or her whole body into flames. Rani Nighttrie: Pyre.

At the front of the retreating mammals was a slender cheetah wearing a long cloak-like trench coat complete with simple black pants and a white shirt. She used her newly acquired powers to turn invisible whenever she felt too exposed. While she had martial arts training, she was far from an expert and was unarmed aside from her claws and fangs. Fuli Duma.

The red vixen behind her wore an outfit inspired by her vigilante grandfather. A hooded dark green sleeveless jacket with a mask of the same color and sturdy black pants. She had a high tech compound bow in her hand and still had a number of trick arrows in her quiver. Unlike her counterparts, this archer vixen carried no melee weapons. Luna Wilde: Hooded Andraste.

The fourth and final of the arctic vixen looking hybrids had an identical outfit to two of her counterparts. Blue and silver, twin handguns, she even had her stripes uncovered since she'd run out of the surgical spray she used the previous week. The only difference was the high powered rifle she carried and the more loaded utility belt. Hannah Savage: Sniper Bullet.

At the base of the wall below the command center, Ryan had recovered from being flung away by Exciliber's pulse, but he was stunned watching nearly every mammal Robyn had met over the course of the trip he'd somewhat unintentionally sent her on emerge to help her out.

His eyes bulged particularly wide at the sight of an arachnid mech awkwardly climbing out of the light. It was pitch black save for the eight red camera eyes which offered its pilot excellent circular vision. The large abdomen housed various missiles, darts and traps that could be loaded into either the turrets on the top and bottom of the thorax or shot out of one of the eight legs. The eight legs allowed the mech to rapidly crawl up and down any surface and up to two of them could be detached without hampering it's mobility. Olivia Dawson: Nightspinner.

"Merde!" Ryan heard a familiar shout as another white bunny emerged from the portal right under Nightspinner's legs. This one wore a black sneaking suit, a cloth covering her lower jaw with a skull design on it, and a pair of goggles over her golden eyes. She was armed with a sheathed sword, a belt of kunai knives, a handgun, and a utility belt containing various toxins and grenades. Alice Kirabito: Ronin.

"It's another Olivia Ronin!" Sergeant Red assured her as he sparred a moment to look back at his ally.

"Ronan!" A voice called as a figure emerged from the light. Ryan's jaw dropped as he realized he recognized the voice, and it wasn't coming from the command center. An older vixen pulled herself out of the portal. She wore a largely balck and white bodysuit and held two batons she used for melee brawling. The most distinctive feature was the violet veil she wore over her snout Marian Wilde: The Maid.

"Nana!?" Red gasped, "Wha, what are you doing here?" His surprise was shared by Scarlet, Ryan further away, and Jack who was shocked to see the old vixen alive and well.

"Well Scarlet did sound pretty urgent." Another voice called in advance of a mammal stepping through. This one was an older red fox in a simple green jacket with a large hood, he also had a green mask and simple black pants. He held an older bow in his hands and had a quiver of arrows on his back. Robin Wilde: The Hood.

Before The Hood could invoke the same kind of reactions The Maid had, another figure stepped through, and this one Scarlet didn't recognize. It was a mech suit shaped like a fox, shiny black armor covered the entire frame; including a lighter cover for the tail. The only other trace of color were the amber lights coming from the eyes. The suit didn't appear to have any visible weapons, but in truth it could let out a burst of pressurized raw energy from it's right hand and a small arm brace on the left arm contained a pod of mini missiles.

"Who's the armored fox?" Skye asked, finally looking back.

"Name's Hightower," the armored vixen replied in a somewhat raspy voice. Victoria Todd looked back at Scarlet and saw the shocked look on her face, "there've been a few attempts on my life over the years, Olivia figured this would be a good thing for me to have."

"You have so much explaining to do," Skye shook her head. Her tone wasn't accusatory, merely tired.

Up above the circle of mammals The Mage floated and quickly realized they hadn't turned the situation around just yet. We've got around thirty mammals total, but Ryan's still got us outnumbered and some of them aren't heavy hitters. Looking across the field The Mage saw Ryan back on his feet and the initial shock of the situation had worn off the hybrid's face. Looking down again The Mage noticed that many of his new allies wore looks of confusion. The last of the captive allies were making their way to the circle in the middle, but if Ryan's forces attacked now it would descend into total chaos.

With a flick of his wand, The Mage connected his earpiece to everyone's down below and spoke in the clearest voice he could muster. "Everyone listen up!" He paused for just a moment to let that command sink in. "You don't know everyone around you, but all of you know me so pay attention. The mammals surrounding us right now are under mind control, their brains have been taken over by a corrupt version of project steelblood. We've got cops, MCB agents, drones, mechs, powered agents, heroes and criminals. And all the superpowered ones are immune to tranqs. The one behind all of this is Ryan Wilde, he's the hybrid standing at the base of the big observation point on the top floor. Our goals are to take out Ryan himself and the command center."

The Mage paused to catch his breath and let the situation sink in. The newly arrived mammals had a lot of unanswered questions, but The Mage's speech had given them the gist of the situation. Only a minute had passed since the first Bullet emerged from the portal and already some of Ryan's forces were recovering, mainly the non mechanical ones. The group had been forced to take defensive actions during Mage's speech.

"So the funny box over there is the prize right?" Roar called up.

"Yes but he knows how to fight us Roar," Red cautioned, earning a nod from the huge lioness.

Skye was looking at the controlled MCB agents with concern, she recognized some of the faces in the crowd. "Is there any way to free these mammals?" She asked aloud, "we could use the help!"

The local Bullet answered her other mother, "We have a very limited supply of a cure, but it knocks a mammal out in the process." She let the tactical implications of those limitations speak for themselves.

"Which means we need a plan of attack," Spitfire declared.

"And that's to make the best use of resources," The Mage called out, "here's the plan. Roar and Bella Spitfire, you two are our hardest hitters, go for their most dangerous powered mooks and take em out."

"Of course Mage," Bella replied.

"Sounds good," Roar agreed.

"Sirius and other Spitfire, you're in the sky with me, we can't let these drones get on top of everyone else or we're done." Mage was joined by his fellow flying wolf and the sleek mech and they formed a triangle in the sky.

"Bullets, yes all four of you, focus on the cops and agents. We're way outnumbered so thin the hoard. Archers focus on the guys on the first couple of upper floors, Young Mage, stay in the back and use your wand to mess with the lab's systems." Mage's rapidfire orders were acknowledged and followed as the array of smaller mammals got into position. "The rest of you, stay in groups, and the more vulnerable members stick to some of the stronger ones. Don't let pride or ego get in the way of knowing which of the two you are." The whole group held its breath, knowing what was likely to come next.

Prepared them as best I could, just hope it's enough, The Mage grimaced as his HUD mask showed him that more of the mechanical defenses of the PMR Labs were coming back online. We need to move now! "Everyone, fight smart, fight hard, and fight together so we can get through this. Today the stars align! Oh-de-lally!"

"Oh-de-lally!" Many of the group echoed as they broke from the circle to go on the offense.

The powered mammals and law enforcement under Ryan's control reacted in kind, and Rough and Rumble were the first to close the gap. The rhino duo had been steadily advancing on the earthen walls The Mage had thrown up, but they rushed in when they saw mammals breaking from cover. Their massive forms left visible footprints in the grass as they charged their powers up; Rough's iron skin and Rumble's vibrating fists. A loud roar bellowed a challenge for the two as Roar herself met their charge with one of her own. The goliath lioness ran on all fours to intercept the two before they could reach the vulnerable members of their party. Right as the three mammals were about to converge, Roar pounced sideways and slammed Rumble to the ground with a tackle that sent chunks of the field flying back when they landed. Rough stumbled as he brought his advance to a halt, the momentum of his charge preventing him from pulling a quick turn. He never got the chance to right himself as a pair of arrows pricked his chest. Jack and The Hood's taser arrows sparked to life and sent the rhino drone to the ground where he convulsed violently.

"Still got your aim eh Skippy?" The Hood quipped.

"I haven't been called that in years," Jack sighed, still overwhelmed by the strangeness of the situation.

Ahead of them, Roar had rendered Rumble unconscious with a series of blows to the head. The rhino's vibrations might have been able to harm the lioness, but his concentration was broken by the sudden impact and he couldn't recover. Any projectiles the guards fired at Roar bounced off harmlessly. Roar stood up and hopped over to Rough just as he stopped convulsing and knocked out the second rhino with a simple stomp to the face.

Above the center of the field The Mage, Spitfire and Sirius were attempting to cover everyone as the advance got underway. The Mage was focused on defense, throwing up more walls of earth and trying to mess with the lab's systems with his wand. Sirius and Spitfire were taking the more direct approach.

"We're right back to fighting drones in the sky, ain't we Goldie?" Spitfire laughed while she fired a mini missile at a recovering beetle drone. "Can't believe it's only been a few days."

"It's not just the machines that are drones here," Sirius sighed as she blasted an inactive turret before it could come back online. The explosion that occurred wasn't all that big, but it was more than enough to ensure the turret would stay out of commission. "Everyone that we are fighting is a drone, unwillingly turned into very partial cyborgs and then mind hacked."

Inside her cockpit, Olivia gasped, "Hellfire, that's twisted. I don't want to imagine what it's like for them right now."

"In hindsight it's like a clear but kind of foggy dream," Sirius described the experience in a quiet and angry tone., "parts of your memories are just blotted out and you know you've done things that your mind didn't give your body okay to do."

Spitfire put two and two together, "You were?"

"I was," Sirius conformed as she dodged an attack from a beetle drone, "so I can tell you that it's absolutely worth whatever pain a fight puts you through if it means being free from that."

"Then let's free all of them!" Spitfire shouted as she zeroed in on the lion assassin Scar, who was still taking cover behind various pillars trying to get a good shot in.

While his two aerial companions traded words, The Mage observed the state of affairs down below and provided support as needed. His arsenal was the least suited for long range attacks.

At least the groups split up fairly evenly, really was no time to direct everyone in a direction, The Mage could see that their forces had separated into four groups in addition to his trio, each facing a different group of foes.

Roar had begun the push towards the front of the labs, which was where a lot of the PMFR was located. Most of her team had stuck with her as Young Bullet, The Maid, The Hood and Young Mage were all in that group. The latter was hanging back and using his wand as instructed, but stuck close enough to the group so he wouldn't be left behind. Chime and Orca also joined the battle against their teammates and the group was rounded out by Jack, Hightower and Slash.

Only Bella Spitfire, Pyre and Hooded Andraste were attacking the back of the field towards the command center, but Pyre's sweeping fire and Spitfire's huge arsenal covered a lot of ground. Hooded Andraste, the hood being what The Mage latched onto to distinguish her from the Andraste of Ronan's world, was aiming solely at her brother Ryan. Every arrow flew straight and true and Ryan was forced off the field to avoid the constant barrage.

The left and right flanks were manned by cops and MCB agents respectively. Both had the security forces of the PMR labs mixed in. On the left, The Crimson Banshee and Blade Dancer led the assault, with his teammates Trickster and Shadow Bullet right behind them. Kiara and Young Andratse rounded out the group, both firing their weapons from behind cover.

Nightspinner was using her back mounted turret to keep as many MCB agents as preoccupied as she could, giving Maiden, Skye, Sergeant Red, Ronin, Prime Bullet and Sniper Bullet space to push an advancing line of offense.

Ugh, why did all four Hannah's have to share the same code name? The Mage bemoaned, hard enough to keep track when there's two of them. Okay Ronan's is Young Bullet cause they're all a few years younger, Reginald's is Shadow Bullet cause she was nice enough to have a different outfit, but how do I tell mine and this world's Bullets apart? I can't even go by the stripes. At that moment Sniper Bullet whipped out her sniper rifle and tranqed a black bear who'd been about to throw a flashbang grenade. The little device clattered to the ground and disrupted several MCB agents instead.

Sniper Bullet it is, The Mage grinned at the easy solution, and I'll call my Bullet Prime Bullet. As far as The Mage could tell there were only two mammals unaccounted for. Fuli had turned invisible and The Mage couldn't keep track of her, though he hoped she was trying to get to safety. The other was Scarlet, who was still keeping the portal open at the center of the field. The Mage was about to tell her to join the fighting when he heard her softly speak.

"Come on Kion, we need your help," no answer came and it was clear to The Mage that Scarlet was hoping their friend was at the Bunker and would be willing to come to their aid.

Probably won't happen, The Mage sighed, but him turning up could seriously turn the tide. The Mage flew back up and let Scarlet keep the portal open for a little while longer.

000

At the back end of the field, Ryan composed himself after escaping his sister's arrow barrage. He used the long section of wall as a barrier from the battle raging on the other side, but his temporary safety did nothing to alleviate his growing anger.

"I won," Ryan seethed, "I had them beat. I called almost all of their moves and all they managed to do was cause me a temporary setback. Then Robyn just pulls...something out of her dimension to undo all my work!" Ryan left a sizable indent in the wall when his fist smashed into the wall. I need a plan.

Ryan ran and jumped up the inside staircases until he reached floor five. He reached the balcony and witnessed the chaos in the field below. Damn it, I can't get in touch with Nana, I just have to hope she and my drones are enough. There were too many factors in this fight, no countermeasure would suffice, and right in the middle of the field was the mammal behind it all.

You linked us via those mirrors, this all started with you, and now you could ruin everything. "Robyn, you'll pay for this." Ryan looked further down the balcony and saw one of the turrets that hadn't activated when he sprung his trap on The Mage. "Too dangerous for your average meat bag, but you can take it Robyn."

000

He's not coming, Scarlet realized as another minute passed. Not much time had passed since The Mage had given his combat speech and Scarlet was hoping that Kion would join them. A second Roar would unquestionably swing the fight in their favor. But it was clear that no one else was coming through at this point. He did say he was done, guess it is a lot to ask someone to jump into another dimension.

Scarlet was about to pull her hand out of the mirror and join the fight when a voice called out, "Mom!"

"Aaron?" Scarlet looked down at the portal leading to Reginald's world, though it was honestly hard to see much of anything through the tiny mirror shard.

"Aaron slow down!" Another familiar voice called.

"Mom? What's happening?" Scarlet asked, relieved to hear her mother's voice again.

"Let go of me!" Aaron cried.

"Aaron's trying to go through the portal," Judy answered.

"What! Don't let him...Aaron you can't come here!" Scarlet, in her panic, forgot that she could just pull her hand out of the mirror and end the issue.

"I'm trying but he's using his telekinesis to fly!" Judy hurriedly called, "Aaron it's too dangerous!"

"Mom, I'm coming," Aaron shouted.

"No!" Judy cried as she and Aaron emerged from the portal. Aaron had stopped trying to escape his grandmother's grasp and opted to just lift and toss her while she was still holding onto him.

Before Scarlet could even register that her mother and son had just arrived in the middle of a battlefield, another voice called, "Robyn look out!" Ryan's voice came from the back end of the field. Scarlet looked up and her eyes shot open in pure dread. Ryan was standing next to some sort of turret several floors off the ground, a turret that was firing some sort of energy blast right at her and her family.

Other mammals in the field looked back at the incoming blast and attempted to react. Bella Spitfire heard the call, but even though she could process what was happening in an instant, by the time she was able to physically prepare the mech to intercept the blast it had already passed overhead. The Mage turned just in time to see the blast cross the halfway point between the turret and it's target, he attempted to raise an earth wall but it was far too late. Sirius' attempt to intercept the attack failed when she overshot with her energy beam. Judy and Aaron hit the ground just in time to see certain death racing right at them in the form of a ball of orange light. Only one mammal on the field was in a position to help.

Scarlet braced her feet against the ground, ready to launch herself into the air and take the blast, but a white furred figure emerged from the portal just before she removed her fingers. It wasn't the figure Scarlet had hoped for. A blast of sonic intercepted the energy attack first, and with barely a swoosh a vibranium sword slashed downward right into the attack. The blast split in half and went to the sides of the Wildes, but only just. Black scars of scorched grass created a very narrow v around the four mammals, the intercepting attack had worked by a very narrow margin.

000

Up on the fifth floor, Ryan's expression of horror stayed on his face even as the attack that had nearly killed Robyn's mother and son was countered. The figure that emerged was a white bunny wearing a tattered white coat and sneaking suit. She had a mechanical arm and a red sword scabbard on her hip. Ryan's eyes were drawn to her face, her jaw was covered by a cloth mask with a black bunny skull image on it, and her eyes were pitch balck pools of darkness. Her eyebrows were creased in a furious glare aimed right at the mad hybrid. Alice Wilde: Yueri.

Despite knowing full well who this new combatant was, Ryan in that moment feared for his soul. Then the illusion was shattered when Yueri tried to land on one of The Mage's earth walls. Her right leg buckled under her and her body went stiff, she toppled backwards and out of Ryan's sight.

"Ryan jump!" Marain screamed over the intercoms. Ryan looked up just in time to see Sirius fire twin beams of energy right at his position. They hit the turret and an explosion consumed the weapon and sent Ryan to the ground. He looked up to see that part of the balcony and it's railing had been vaporized. With his ears still ringing Ryan stumbled forward only to have another explosion go off behind him, Spitfire had fired a missile at the wall next to him. This time the hybrid stumbled forward and fell through the hole in the railings. Ryan tried to grab hold of the floor but missed and fell down two stories before grabbing another railing. His ears picked a faint twing sound and he instinctively jumped off to avoid Hooded Andraste's explosive arrow, only to jump right into Pyre's fire blast. His screams of pain prevented him from hearing the thrusters of Bella Spitfire's mini missiles. This time the explosion hit him directly and Ryan was tossed violently to the side, he sailed through the air and crashed violently on the second floor. The impact sent him tumbling down the hallway before friction finally stopped him.

Ryan Wilde lay in a circle of ashes and blood as his healing factor worked to repair the damage. His eardrums burst, he had burn marks all over his body, multiple bone fractures and his left leg had been blown to pieces. Ryan's mind finally caught up with reality, less than half a minute had passed since he'd fired his energy blast but it felt so much longer. He knew from experience that he had to just let his body heal, but the pain, shame and humiliation did not let him rest peacefully.

000

The Undying Scarlet watched her teammate and sister in law tumble backwards off the earth wall, her sword falling from her hand in the process. It was just about the least graceful movement she'd ever seen any Alice Kirabito take. Yueri hit the ground and let a pained groan as her own mechanical arm dug into her side. Not seeing any physical action for over a month had left the former assassin's body stiff and sluggish, and the lack of sleep she'd allowed herself over the past several days wasn't helping either.

"Merde," Yueri cried as she struggled to her knee, shocked at how weak her body felt, "I haven't felt this weak since…"

"Cover his ears." The doe bunny turned to find Scarlet advancing towards her. The hybrid had just finished checking to make sure her mother and son were okay. She pulled down her scarf and hood to reveal her full face, and the look of barely restrained fury on her face. "Alice."

"Robyn, you're alr…"

"Take that ridiculous ghost mask off so we can talk face to face," Robyn demanded. Alice pulled her mask down and removed her eye coverings, slipping them into their carrying case on her belt.

"Okay, Robyn I…"

"What the hell were you thinking!?" Robyn screamed in Alice's face, all restraint gone. "Jumping in front of energy attack! What could've possessed you to do something so catastropically stupid!?"

"Aaron and Judy were about to be…"

"And you didn't think I was about to intercept it myself? I can come back from something like that! You can't!"

Alice let that statement sink in, the energy attack may have been excruciatingly painful for Robyn, but she had come back from far worse. "You're right," Alice admitted, "that wasn't necessary, but they were in danger and there wasn't time to…"

"There wasn't time?" Robyn echoed, "just like there wasn't time for anything other then you going to track Ronin and Andi down, just like there wasn't time for you to do anything other then use your pregnant self as bait!?" Robyn's hand shot forward and grabbed Alice's robotic arm. She held it in front of Alice's face, "You know how fragile you are, so why do you keep doing shit like this?" Although Robyn's expression was still twisted in anger, Alice saw that tears were forming in her eyes. "You aren't an assassin anymore Alice, you aren't disposable, the life you earned matters, you mean something to your family," Robyn's voice started cracking, "but sometimes you act like it doesn't, you act like you're still Ronin and you'll have to bail at any minute. Do you have any idea how that feels for the mammals who love you?" Robyn finished her speech and let her head drop down. Hot tears rolled down her snout and onto the field below.

Alice watched as her sister struggled to keep more tears from forming and let her words sink in. Do you consider yourself a lucky mammal? Nick's question came back to Alice and mixed in with Robyn's. On the surface Alice really had changed from the dangerous but lonely mammal she used to be, but some instincts die hard and Alice was realizing she was no exception.

"Is that what you were really angry about?" Alice asked softly, "me putting myself at risk."

"Oh, I AM mad about a lot more than that but, yes, that was the first thing that came to mind when I walked out of that meeting room," Robyn attempted to joke, "Kion quitting, you putting yourself in danger, Luna being demoted...Hannah betraying me. I haven't been short on things to be furious with, but everything else came later, when I had more time to think about it."

With that admission, both Robyn and Alice finally understood the root of the rift that had formed between them; anger born of worry.

"Alice," Judy called, drawing attention to her, "you promised me you wouldn't do anything this stupid again." Judy's face was cold and stern, Alice could feel the disappointment radiating from her step-mother.

"I know," Alice sighed, hating that she'd broken her promise so easily, "I, I didn't think it through. Robyn's right, I do still think like Ronin sometimes."

"What if your sword had just passed through that laser thing and did nothing? You'd be dead and if Luna had died during our little multiverse roadtrip your kits would be orphans!"

"I'm sorry!" Alice cried, "About everything, no, about that stupid trap we set, about the way I acted afterwards, about taking so long to try and fix it, about throwing myself in danger again. I still have a long way to go, but I promise I'll try to be more thoughtful about how my actions affect all of you."

"I believe you," Robyn said sadly, "I just really hope you'll stick to your word this time."

Before any further talking could occur, The Mage called down from above, "I'm glad to see we're making more progress on picking up the pieces, but we're kind of in the middle of a battle! Robyn, get those three back home."

"Won't work," Judy sighed, holding up Robyn's make up kit. The mirror shards had shattered at some point after Alice had arrived, possibly from the sonic blast.

"Damn it," The Mage swore, "okay, got an idea. Ronin, Slash, Blade Dancer get back to the middle of the field for a guard mission!"

Alice's ears perked up when she heard her former codename called, but it was nothing compared to the shock of seeing three of herself arrive in rapid succession. In short order, Robyn said her goodbyes to her family and left to join the frey, leaving the three swords mammals to guard Judy, Aaron and Yueri.

000

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Young Mage asked. The wolf had been following his older counterparts orders to stick back and use his wand when a voice had spoken over his earpiece.

"I am the Bella of this world, Mage," Bella Olivia replied, "I am operating from a stealth vehicle outside of the Powered Mammal Research Lab, using a hacking wand similar to your own."

"That's cool and all but...wait," Young Mage grinned, "are you suggesting we team up to hack the shit out of this building?"

"That is exactly what I am suggesting, two is better then one and your older counterpart appears to be preoccupied," Bella Olivia confirmed.

"Let's do it, not like I'm gonna be much help here anyway," Young Mage lamented as he witnessed the many dangerous powered mammals around the field.

"We all have a part to play," Bella Olivia reassured, "now I suggest we focus on the command center."

Further toward the front, the heroes' advance was forced to a halt by a single enemy combatant. Wildhorn used his power over plantlife to create a thick web of roots that came up to Roar's chest and towered over everyone else. The deer was too far back for any long range attack to reach and any of the smaller mammals risked being ensnared if they got too close.

"This is exactly how he captured us back at the base," Orca cried in frustration. Her water slashes and attempts to drain the liquids out of Wildhorn's roots were just as ineffective now as they had been before. The young mare wasn't happy that their attempt at a distraction had come to a premature end.

Chime's sonic screams were more effective at destroying the roots, but her throat would tire long before Wildhorn's powers, "We need a plan here, we don't even know where Harper is."

"About three meters to the right of the doors from our perspective," the two friends turned to see that Young Bullet had joined them , "this Harper of yours is over there."

Chime sighed, "Reliable as ever blindy but we still can't get to him."

Young Bullet chose to ignore the crass nickname, "That scream of yours was sort of working."

"So? Sort of isn't is," Chime snipped before using another scream to blast a root group trying to reach the three.

"So, how about a team up, big mouth?" A much deeper voice answered as Roar joined them as well. "Your scream and my roar in the same direction."

"Oh, oh that could work," Chime smiled for the first time in the battle.

"What about Harp, er, I mean Wildhorn? Will it hurt him a lot?" Orca asked.

"He your teammate?" Roar questioned.

"...And boyfriend," Orca muttered.

"Then he'll have a headache," Roar said nothing else before she and Chime lined themselves up and inhaled before letting their respective cries loose. Wildhorn's roots were shredded and the path to the deer was clear, as was him stumbling backwards from the force of the attacks. Orca wasted no time running forward and drawing more water to her hands, arrows flew past her as the archers covered her advance. Just as she was about to reach Wildhorn, he tightened his fist and and a fresh burst of roots and vines lifted the mare into the air. Wildhorn got to his feet as he continued to raise Orca off the ground to increase the distance between the two. Wildhorn looking up at his victim meant he wasn't keeping his eyes on the ground, and that let Chime race forward at him. He tried to intercept her with more roots but the lynx summersalted over them, landed on her hands and delivered a brutal handstand kick to Wildhorn's crotch.

Wildhorn doubled over in pain and Chime followed up the attack by kicking his legs out from under him. A freed Orca created a pair of watery handcuffs and lifted her boyfriend back into the air. She quickly searched his pocket for the cure syringe he'd taken from her earlier and showed it into his arm. Both mammals stepped away as Wildhorn went limp, the rest of their group already capitalizing on the hole in the enemy's defenses.

The hero group that was having the most trouble advancing was the one on the right side of the field. The MCB and their powered allies made it difficult to advance without being met with a hail of projectiles. Skye and Prime Bullet were hiding behind an earth wall, pinned down by the enemy. "Do we have any openings?" Skye asked.

"None, there's too many of them," Prime Bullet answered. Her pulse let her sense her entire group was in a similar situation. Nightspinner wasn't as powerful as Spitfire and couldn't hold down an entire front by herself. Before Prime Bullet could speak again her pulse let her know that someone she knew better then anyone else was approaching.

The Undying Scarlet landed next to Prime Bullet and took cover. "First things first," Scarlet said as she pulled her scarf down. Scarlet pulled her wife into a kiss that was happily reciprocated, both mammals delighting in each other's company for a fleeting moment. They quickly separated and Scarlet turned to Skye, "Sorry about that."

"Don't be, it was needed," Skye smiled at her daughter in law, "do you have a plan?"

"Yup, remember the opera house?" Scarlet asked.

"Squall maneuver?" Prime Bullet smiled.

"Everyone get ready!" Skye called, needing no explanation as she recalled the move the two had used six years ago.

Scarlet took Bullet in her arms and leaped into the air, but she put a twist on the move. Rather than the twirling in midair they'd employed before, this time Scarlet's jump carried them in an arch that had her back facing the wall of agents the entire time. This meant all the enemies weapons would harmlessly be absorbed by Scarlet and none reached the actual threat. Prme Bullet unloaded every round of ammo she had in the tranq pistols at the MCB agents, the high angle meant they couldn't take cover very effectively. Between the rain of bullets and the distraction of the two hybrids up in the air, Skye, Red, Sniper Bullet, Maiden and Nightspinner had the perfect opening to advance and take out even more agents. Scarlet landed behind another earth wall and cooed, "haven't lost your touch Blind Badass."

"Blind Badass, seriously?" Sniped Bullet blushed heavily.

"I think it's super cute," Maiden lightly teased. Neither Scarlet or Prime Bullet cared enough to be embarrassed about their little moment.

Back at the front, the heroes had advanced to the edge of the field after defeating Wildhorn. Now they were fighting powered mammals in the hallways. The Maid and The Hood were locked in combat with Slipper, the thieving antelope. Like all the powered criminals she was an expressionless drone at the moment. Slipper was already immune to tranqs thanks to her power, so the M. were essentially fighting a young and very agile mammal they couldn't easily disable

The Maid was getting up close with her batons while The Hood hung back and attempted to use his arrows. Slipper easily dodged their attempts while The Maid had several close calls dodging her kicks. The Maid back flipped away and landed by her husband, "This isn't working."

"Try attacking at the same time," was all The Hood could say before Slipper was on them again. The Hood drew a flashy flare arrow and aimed his shot, The Maid went for a brutal jab towards the gut that forced Slipper to roll to her left. The Hood fired and while Slipper was able to narrowly dodge the arrow, it left her leg open to a hard swing from The Maid. Slipper stumbled and that was all the opening The Maid needed. A rapid succession of jabs to the gut, chest and face brough the antelope down and knocked her out.

"Gah!" The Maid turned to see that two ordinary lab guards had gotten the drop on The Hood while he was focused on Slipper. The old fox managed to jab the attacking hyena with a taser arrow, but the white wolf guard lashed out with a kick that sent The Hood to the ground. The Maid was too far away to reach the wolf as he proceeded to follow up with a downward chop, but an energy blast caught the wolf in the chest and sent him into a wall. He slumped to the ground unconscious.

"You can't try and pull the same tricks you did when you were younger," The Hood's savior chastised. Hightower walked over to the two, her palm still smoking from her energy attack, "You'll only get yourselves killed, and you two would leave quite a mess behind in your family if you died out of the blue."

"Noted," The Hood gasped as The Maid helped him back to his feet.

"You heard The Mage, weaker members stick together," Hightower continued, "now come on, we can turn the main entrance into an ambush point." Bruised but still in the fight, The Maid and The Hood followed.

"Who are you exactly?" The Hood asked as he readied another arrow.

"Hightower, I lead the team on Reginald's dimension," underneath her mask, Victoria amused herself with the thought of all the surprised faces she'd get if she unmasked herself.

Up on the balcony overlooking the left side of the field, The Crimson Banshee was in pursuit of the assassin Scar. He'd jumped up well ahead of his allies specifically to neutralize this threat.

Blade Dancer told me about this bastard, he nearly took out the entire team before she stepped in. Crimson bore that in mind, since it meant this lion was able to defeat Ryan, whom he shared a power set with. Ryan, you say you don't want anyone to die here, but you have nowhere near as much control as you think. Crimson unleashed his banshee wail to try and trip up the lion, but Scar fought through the pain and shot Crimson through the gut with his rifle.

Crimson doubled over in pain and Scar used the opening to easily dodge a blast of energy from Sirius. She and the other airborne heroes had been taking frequent pot shots at the assassin. Climbing to all fours, Crimson leapt forward and Scar's feet. The lion made a downward jab with his hunting knife, but Crimson brought himself to a halt and instead jumped up at the lion's face. He sailed right over Scar's jabbing arm and landed a clean hit. He grabbed Scar's sickly black mane to hold onto, but the assassin quickly tossed his knife to his other hand and stabbed Crimson in the back of the neck before another punch could be landed. Blood poured out of Crimson's neck and onto Scar's emotionless face, the blow also causing Crimson's scarf to fall. The assassin was surprised to see Crimson smirking down at him, and turned toward the field too late to realize he'd left himself wide open.

Spitfire's missile wasn't an explosive, but an electric pod similar to a taser. Scar had no time to dodge as the pod impacted him and sent high voltage electricity into his body. When the lion stopped shaking he was sitting on the floor and just lucid enough to comprehend The Crimson Banshee. The hybrid's wound had healed, though blood decorated the front of his uniform, and he wasted no time delivering a knockout punch to Scar's face.

"Scar's been defeated," Blade Dancer reported to her counterparts and Judy. The six mammals were still in the center of the field and feeling very exposed. "The left side now had the least of Ryan's opposition, I propose we escort Judy, Aaron and Yueri to that side of the building and away from the fighting."

"We will have to fight our way through some opposition still," Slash cautioned, "perhaps we should wait for more to go down."

Ronin shook her head, "No, it's only a matter of time before they start engaging in emergency procedures, we want to get out while there's still an opportunity."

"I agree with the majority," Yueri spoke up, "I have no desire to keep my nephew in harm's way any longer." Judy nodded in agreement.

'Then form up," Blade Dancer called, "I'll take point, Ronin and Slash take the sides."

"Wait," Judy called, "I have complete faith in your capabilities, but with so much going on something could go wrong very easily. I'd like something to defend myself with." Judy waved her hand's at her police uniform to indicate she was unarmed.

"You could use my handgun, but that's lethal," Ronin indicated the largely useless sidearm.

"I suppose you'll have to make do with some of these," Slash indicated her kunai belt.

"Use this," Yueri spoke up, eliciting gasps from her counterparts. Judy turned and her jaw dropped. Alice was offering her sword to Judy.

"Alice that's, that's" Judy struggled to form words.

"The sword that Oni, my mother, gave to me so I could survive my life as an assassin," Yueri reflected on her mentor and mother, more now than ever she was able to appreciate everything she'd done for her. "But I am an assassin no longer and...I don't need to hold onto this all the time." The others could see the pain on Alice's face from the confession. "So it's appropriate that I, temporarily, give it to my...new…" Alice struggled to get the words out.

In one smooth motion, Judy stepped forward, scooped the sword out of Yueri's hand and pulled her into a sideways hug, "I told you sweetie, you can call me that whenever you're ready." Judy brough the focus back to the moment by handing Aaron to Yueri. "Use your sonic cannon if you have to, but keep Aaron safe." Yueri nodded, taking the little koala in her right arm. Aaron had quieted down a good deal, shame over putting himself in danger and fear of the loud battle going on around him kept the child quiet.

"Not to downplay the gesture, but how is the sword any less lethal than a gun?" Blade Dancer asked. Judy turned, smiled, and unsheathed the sword while activating the energy field. A blue light resembling flames enveloped the sword.

"Knockout field," Yueri explained. Blade Dancer grinned in return and triggered the red energy field around her sword to match.

"I want one," Slash spoke up.

Ronin chuckled, "Well I call the green field."

"You can focus on that when you get home," Blade Dancer got the group focused, "for now, form up and let's get going." Just as the group started to leave the center they noticed a section of the field near the front open up to reveal something being lifted via a platform. Blade Dancer's eyes widened in fear, "Move move move!"

000

Up in the command center, Marian Wilde was attempting to exercise some level of control over the chaotic situation. Ryan was still out of action in a hallway, and the various groups were fast approaching the perimeter of the field. She'd already prepared the Hellfire mech for deployment, but they needed more. It didn't help that the lab's systems were under constant hacking attempts from at least two of Kodi's wands, and Marian suspected there was a third.

If those wolves get into the drone control systems they could free every powered mammal at once, and frankly they aren't as effective as pure drones anyway. With a few seconds on her keyboard, Marian activated a protocol that brought a change over the living powered drones. After a momentary pause, they awoke and seemed at a glance to be their regular selves. The truth was that it was a semi awake state that allowed the original personality through but kept it focused on a signal task. While it allowed the drones to be more effective and operate autonomously, they would start to figure out something was wrong after a time. So it was impractical for long term use.

Marian let out a breath, now able to focus solely on commanding the mechanical drones. Like the Hellfire mech that was now rising to the field. The mech was the most powerful of the Spitfire line; a massive fifteen foot high giant built to take on the strongest of powered mammals. It traded the usual green armor for red and black. The upper body was mostly a large torso because the head was a small bowl shaped dome, though it maintained the usual Spitfire laser eyes. The large torso was there to store the ammo for the weapon pods mounted on either shoulder, as well as to provide greater armor. The legs were also bulky pillars but they had a different role. Gyroscopic joints and small thrusters worked together with their own dedicated computer to keep the Hellfire upright as often as possible. The Hellfire couldn't fly, but it could use those thrusters for short long jump bursts.

Good luck Ceartais, you'll need it now more than ever. Marian thought as she observed the Hellfire wasting no time unleashing its opening salvo. Both shoulder pods launched a swarm of mini missiles towards every corner of the field. Heroes dove to the sides as several earth walls were destroyed and any forward momentum the group had gained was halted. The Hellfire immediately followed up with a volley of conducive grenades launched into the sky. Sirius simply turned intangible, but The Mage and Spitfire had to dodge high into the air. The golden wolf aimed a two handed energy blast at the Hellfire and fired, hoping to overload the mech. The blast connected, but to Sirius' horror, the Hellfire absorbed the energy and seemed to redirect it into its left arm.

The arms were the one asymmetrical aspect of the Hellfire. The left arm featured a more standard looking arm with no obvious added features. That was until it opened its palm and revealed a glowing white outlet; the arm was an energy converter, capable of absorbing redirected energy and unleashing it as a devastating blast. The Hellfire had already selected it's first victim. The left arm turned independent of its body and fired, a massive energy blast struck the ground at Orca's feet and flung the large mare backwards. She hit the ground of the field, bounced a few times then came to a sudden stop when she hit the wall to the side of the front entrance. From her vantage point and using the cameras she still had, Marian watched as her counterpart rushed to Orca's side and confirmed what the vixen already knew. Orca was defeated but only knocked out.

The Hellfire didn't rest on laurels, instead turning to fire another missile barrage at the earth walls on the right side, which would leave the mammals there with no cover. Just as the missiles were leaving their pods, a wall of sound assaulted the Hellfire and caused the missiles to explode prematurely. Roar barreled across the field to fight the mech head on. The leg thrusters allowed the Hellfire to avoid being blown over by the sound wall and it prepared it's attack, but Roar had a good opening move. Roar took advantage of being shorter than the Hellfire to push upwards with her initial tackle, both went into the air and Roar leaned forward. The motion caused the mech to fall to the ground shoulders first in a manner its thrusters couldn't help with. Roar still wasn't done, she followed that up with a downward chop right at the connection point between the chest and the left shoulder pod. Marain's screens confirmed that the pod had lost the ability to reload due to the damage.

Impressive, she not only figured out the Hellfire's balancing act and how to counter it with just one example, but she also took out one of its key weapons. If that is you Kiara, then well done. It's too bad you forgot about the right hand.

The Hellfire's right arm was effectively a massive metal fist powered by an extremely powerful internal catapult. The first would crank in and then fling forward with enough force to throw a military fighter jet far and fast enough that it could take off, and that first had been charging since Roar approached. Like the legs and left arm, the right arm had its own operating system. The metal fist flew forward and caught Roar in the chest, sending the goliath lioness into the air and crashing down in pain. Roar felt the impact wound as she struggled back to her feet, but she nonetheless inhaled and let out another roar at the Hellfire. Not to damage the mech, but to keep it at least somewhat off balance.

I felt that. I haven't ever felt something like that once I've transformed. This thing is stronger than anything Phelps ever threw at us. If I'm so evenly matched by it, then the others are screwed if I lose. Roar closed the distance between her and the Hellfire again, determined to contain the giant mech.

Though Roar was keeping the Hellfire occupied for the moment, the initial rampage it went on severely altered the momentum of the battle.

On the right flank, every combatant had been forced to take cover and that gave the MCB time to regroup. Sniper Bullet had lost her rifle and was separated from Sergeant Red, so she found herself alone very near the edge of the field. Too late she realized who was a mere few meters away.

Clear energy tendrils shot out from behind one of the pillars and Sniper Bullet was again snared by her mother's numbing powers. Director Skye stepped out and looked past her daughter at the mayhem in the field.

"This is always what happens when mammals with unchecked power are given free reign; utter chaos," Skye sighed before looking down, "and you my daughter, are right in the middle of it. Do you even have a shred of self awareness?"

Sniper Bullet scowled defiantly, "I'm not…"

A shot rang out and a tranq bullet grazed Director Skye's cheek. "Are you serious!?" An angry voice called. Director Skye turned to see a hybrid identical to the one she had bound pointing twin guns in her direction.

"We've had our differences, I know that, but do you care about me so little you mistook that other dimensional copy for your own daughter?" The Bullet in front of her snarled.

"What? But I…," Director Skye trailed off, to her shame, she couldn't tell the two Bullets apart. It left her open to a hail of tranq bullets as the unbounded Bullet charged in. The tranqs didn't affect her, but they still stung and made it hard to focus.

Bullet swung her gun like a flail and the unhanded gun slammed into Director Skye's face. "You're unfocused," she stated. Director Skye tried to recover and snare Bullet with her tendrils, but she couldn't concentrate enough to make them fly at maximum speed. "You're slow," Bullet stated as she easily dodged and roundhouse kicked the arctic vixen in the gut. Director Skye's focus broke completely and Sniper Bullet was freed. "You should've won this easily," Prime Bullet surmised, "instead." A rubber bullet struck Director Skye in the chest and Sniper Bullet stabbed her mother with the syringe of the cure.

"What?" Director Skye gasped as her vision started to blur. Her daughter caught her before she could collapse and she glimpsed a mirror image of herself who still had her gun trained on her.

"Don't worry Mom, you'll be okay," Sniper Bullet assured, "and you didn't mix us up, my counterpart was just messing with your head." Sniper Bullet felt some of the tension leave her mother's body as she slipped into unconsciousness.

"Terrible pun incoming," Scarlet warned as she approached, "damn Hannah you savage."

The two Bullets groaned though Prime Bullet did do with a blush, but snapped their heads in Skye's direction when she let out a brief snort, "Sorry, I don't think I was supposed to laugh at that."

Scarlet shook her head in amusement then got her head back in the game, "Alright, none of us can do a damn thing about...that," she indicated Roar's fight with the Hellfire, "so we need to focus on clearing out as much of this building as we can. Hannah, you and your mother head towards the front and join up with Red, other Hannah and I will head towards the back."

"What about Maiden and that arachnid mech?" Skye asked, noticing two of their squad were missing.

"They've taken a higher path," Prime Bullet informed, pointing up to indicate that the two had ascended the walls to get a better vantage point. "Come on we've still got a battle to win."

Up in the sky, The Mage and Spitfire had been forced to move further away from the ground to escape the Hellfire's barrage, but their dangers were far from over. High above them, on top of the lab's roof, a lone mammal was eyeing the flying mech.

Freefall was a flying squirrel member of the PMFR, not a flying squirrel species, she was a squirrel with the power of flight. She wore a simple aviator's jacket and pants complete with a helmet and goggles. She was a little confused on how the battle had started, but the steelblood in her mind was keeping her on task.

Jeez, talk about a madhouse down there, wonder what Spitfire's doing with them. Olivia wouldn't…

Don't overthink the enemy.

Freefall shook her head, "Must be a hacked suit or something, good thing they taught me how to deal with them." Freefall pulled down her goggles and prepared to jump, the Hellfire having provided a perfect distraction. Freefall silently flew over the center of the field, right above Spitfire, and waited for the right moment

Three, two, one...Geranimo! Freefall mentally screamed as she ceased her powers and fell towards the mech. With a precision honed by years of practice, she landed on Spitfire's leg undetected. The next moment, an electric pod was slapped to the mech's leg and Freefall let go. The pod wasn't a full EMP, but it did unleash an electric surge that fried much of the circuitry in the leg's area.

"What the!" Spitfire screamed as half of the force keeping her in the air was suddenly cut off. Suddenly her flying was erratic and uneven, and the mouse pilot had to focus all her efforts on not crashing, but the mech was still losing altitude.

The Mage watched as his comrade in the skies struggled to stay airborne and looked for the source. Just as Spitfire got herself semi stable, The Mage witnessed something zoom down from above towards the mech. "Spitfire watch out!" He called but was helpless to assist since a whole squad of six beetle drones and one old model Spitfire mech attacked him at the same time. Freefall pulled the same trick a second time and Spitfire's remaining leg thruster was taken out.

Olivia screamed inside her cockpit as her mech dropped several stories to the grassy field below. Thankfully the drop was too little to do more than rattle the mech and its pilot, but Olivia could only watch as Freefall plummeted towards her a third time. No doubt planning on disabling the main body. A card landed on Spitfire's hull and a flashbang was unleashed, blinding the falling squirrel. Freefall attempted to pull up, but a net suddenly formed around her and she was pinned to a wall.

Spitfire sat up and saw that she'd landed near the front end of the field, The Young Mage and his self appointed escort Jack Savage had saved her and trapped Freefall with a net arrow. The squirrel was attempting to free herself from the net, but the wires held firm.

"Are you okay, can you still fight?" Young Mage asked his leader.

"I think so," Spitfire said as she got to her feet, "my thrusters are toast but I can still bloody walk thanks to you two."

"Good," Jack said, "we could use a new heavy hitter down here."

On the left side of the field, the ZPD had taken advantage of the Hellfire's appearance to try and outflank the heroes. It was target practice for Shadow Bullet, but everyone else was struggling against the surge of opponents. Kiara in particular really wished she had a better weapon then her rubber bullet rifle, they just weren't effective against some of the larger officers. At least not without causing the kind of harm the agent was unwilling to inflict upon a mind controlled enemy. A rhino and a water buffalo closed in on the lioness, Kiara thrust forward with her staff and smashed the buffalo's nose, then slipped around his back and grabbed his tranq pistol. Seeing that the pistol was loaded with a large mammal tranq she fired it into the rhino before ducking down and kicking the buffalo's feet out from under him. A hard punch to the face on the way down finished off her opponent, but there were so many more. Kiara heard someone approaching her from behind and swung her staff around, only to find that it had sailed over the head of...herself.

Lieutenant Kiara Priderock, being a drone, was not momentarily stunned by seeing another version of herself. The cop took advantage of Kiara's overswing to deliver a rapid series of punches to the face, arm and gut. Kiara dropped her staff and fell to the ground, her attempt to roll away foiled by the Lieutenant's kicks. Kiara groaned and looked up to see her counterpart about to deliver a hard downward punch, but then her discarded staff seemed to move of its own accord and whack Lieutenant Priderock in the back of the head. The lioness landed on the ground next to Kiara and a tranq dart knocked her out a moment later.

Kiara watched in absolute confusion as her staff faded from view before suddenly reappearing along with a trench coat wearing cheetah. "Are you okay?" A cheetah Kiara recognized by sight and the sound of her voice, her coat even resembled a cloak. Fuli Duma.

"You!" Kiara snarled.

"What?" Fuli gasped as she backed off. "Wait, you're from Robyn's world. Okay I promise I have no desire to drown, kidnap, brainwash or do any of those other horrific things to anyone nor am I itching to start a murder cult. I just run a relief center."

"You...aren't helping," Kiara sighed as she sat up.

'Fine, I'm not your enemy, we've still got a battle, here's your stick," Fuli tossed the staff to Kiara's feet before fading from view. Kiara noticed the tranq pistol on the rhino she'd downed was lifted in midair before also fading from view.

Great, now I have to apologize to Fuli at some point. "Robyn, I see why you hate this dimension travel nonsense," Kiara said aloud before rejoining the fight.

000

Up in the command center, Marian observed the results of the Hellfire's appearance. All the heroes groups were recovering, but their momentum was brought short and cracks were starting to appear. She witnessed Bella Spitfire defeat Chester Hornsworth when the latter attempted to spread his burning force field across the entire back of the field. Bella Spitfire punched a hole in the ground at the force field's perimeter and stuck her arm through. Though the force field dug into the joint, she quickly fired a single missile that knocked Hornswrth off balance and disabled the field. Marian grinned as she watched the bigoted deer be punched in the gut by Bella Spifire's electric fist.

Less gratifying was the sight of Sergeant Red battling Chief Mustang, the head guard of the PMR Lab. Mustang was a tall brown stallion with enhanced agility and strength, more than enough to keep up with Red. Marian knew from Sirius' report that Red preferred to avoid hand to hand combat if he could, so he didn't have much skill in fighting a martial arts master like Mustang. Ronan wasn't her grandson, but seeing any child of her son's being kicked around so much was an unpleasant experience.

A notification informed her that the hacker's had managed to sever the command center's link with the powered mammal drones, but her earlier actions already covered that. The unexpected connection failure meant the drones wouldn't listen to any command for the next hour to prevent them from being deceived by a false signal.

Of course all of that was just a sideshow to the main event still playing out in the middle of the field.

Roar took several pained breaths as she got back to her feet, having been knocked down by a glancing blow from the Hellfire's catapult fist. Her mind was quick to analyze her opponent, a habit she'd picked up fighting Phelp's larger mechs. The Hellfire's legs were hard coded to always keep the mech facing upright if it could be helped, the energy cannon did not have much internal power since it hadn't been used once since the first time, and the catapult fist needed about thirty seconds to recharge after each use. It was also painfully clear that the Hellfire would outlast her if she didn't turn things around quickly.

I can't make a dent in this monster, and if I go down everyone else is fucked, I need something stronger...than...me. A plan formed in Roar's head but she knew that she would need to time things just right. The Hellfire loaded a new swarm of missiles in it's remaining shoulder pod, no doubt hoping to stun Roar before closing in and finishing her off with one last punch. Roar waited for just the right moment and then let loose her signature roar, causing the missiles to explode right as they left the pod. The Hellfire stumbled for a moment and Roar rushed in from the left side. The Hellfire tried to aim it's catapult fist at the charging behemoth, but Roar got there first and rammed the arm. The catapult fist was launched right into The Hellfire's hips, lodging the mech's own weapon deep within itself. The right leg was severely stiffened and the torso could no longer turn. Roar pressed the advantage and leapt up, she ignored the pain from the Hellfire shooting her with it's leazer eyes and delivered an uppercut to the remaining weapon pod on it's shoulder. This time the pod was nearly dislodged and Roar pressed her feet against the Hellfire's torso and pushed off. The lioness landed safely while The Hellfire fell to the ground, its damaged leg preventing it from catching itself.

Roar didn't give her opponent the chance to recover, she rushed in and delivered a palm strike to the catapult arm's elbow. The metal fist was pushed even further in and the Hellfire experienced numerous system failures.

From her vantage point, Marian could see that the Hellfire was done for and prepared a final trick. She remotely activated another of the canon's Ryan had stupidly fired at Robyn. Used only for testing the most durable of objects and as a defense against especially powerful attackers, the canons were far too lethal to have been employed in this battle. The canon charged and fired a burst of energy down at the Hellfire. Roar leaned back to dodge the attack, but she was not the target. The Hellfire absorbed the blast into its left arm cannon. Before Roar could dodge, the Hellfire shot its left arm forward and grabbed her by the head. Roar's face was slammed into the Hellfire's haul before a flash of light blinded her as the cannon fired point blank. Roar was unconscious before her limp bodies hit the ground.

Spitfire watched the events unfold in horror, her strongest teammate was down. She quickly fired a spread of missiles at the arm cannon, striking the barrel. The explosive hitting the still smoking canon was devastating, it destroyed the weapon and took the Hellfire out of the fight for good. But the damage was done.

During the giant mech's rampage, Blade Dancer had done her best to lead her escort to safety on the left side of the field. The ZPD's officers were no match for the trio of former assassins, but they were not the only threats to the group. A powered mammal and member of the PMR labs security force had the six mammals dead in her sight. She was skunk named Samantha, and she'd avoided using her powers earlier in the fight because they would've affected her fellow guards and the ZPD as well. Now however her allies were stretched thin and she saw an opening. Taking a deep breath she unleashed a cloud of knockout gas from her mouth. The large cloud quickly expanded out and forward toward the group.

Thankfully the bunnies ears had caught her taking the initial breath, and most of the group were ready to dodge. Yueri and Judy dove towards the back of the field, while Slash and Ronin leapt towards the front. Ronin made it clear but Slash was a second too slow and caught a breath of the gas, she stumbled and got even more causing the black clothed bunny to fall unconscious on the ground. Blade Dancer phased through the cloud towards the skunk and readied her sword, Samantha shrieked in terror and hopped back while unleashing another cloud. Blade Dancer calmly rolled under the attack and slashed Samantha in the side. The skunk fell unconscious but the two clouds of gas she'd created had separated the escorts from their mission, and Blade Dancer wasn't sure which way Judy and Yueri had gone.

Up above, The Mage and Sirius were feeling the absence of Spitfire. Both wolves now had to cover half the sky on their own and the effort was taking a toll on Sirius. The she wolf had long lost track of how many turrets, beetles and Spitfires she'd defeated, but the hoard seemed endless. A particularly aggressive Spitfire mech attacked The Mage and Sirius was suddenly alone. A new wave of beetles seemed to come from every direction at once, over twenty of the insectoid mechs closed in on Sirius. The she wolf attempted to turn intangible and escape the sphere they were forming, but the drones followed her every move with weapons aimed at her.

Going intangible was, on paper, one of the most powerful tools in Sirius's arsenal. Truthfully the technique had a few downsides; it drained her energy much faster than even her strongest attacks and she couldn't attack back while in the state. Between the long intangible use she was currently employing, as well as the constant attacks, flight and physical exertion of the battle, Sirius was close to collapse. She hadn't had the time to build up the stamina of her veteran teammates and it was catching up with her. So she decided to use a desperate move, one she'd tested only once before in the Bunker.

Sirius charged up as much of her remaining energy as she could, causing her body to glow brightly in the sky. She couldn't attack while intangible, but she could charge energy. Right at the moment she became tangible again she unleashed all her energy in a spherical pulse that vaporized the drone's projectiles and destroyed the drones themselves.

Down below, The Mage defeated the Spitfire mech and looked up just in time to see a mass of explosions surrounding Sirius. "Clara!" he called in alarm as he witnessed his girlfriend's limp body fall out of the sky. Sirius was barely conscious at this point, but through her hazy vision she witnessed a ring of orange pass her line of sight. Next thing she knew she wasn't falling, but rising out of the ground. Her momentum carried her a few feet in the air before she even out and fell the short distance to the ground. The portal closed beneath her and Sirius was out cold before she slumped to the ground.

The Mage breathed a sigh of relief when Sirius landed safely, but now he had to hold the skies by himself and still support his allies. Another squad of Spitfires rose from the lab's basement and The Mage prepared to face them, but several corrosive arrows and an EMP pod intercepted three of the mechs before The Mage made a move. A quick glance revealed that Hooded Andraste, Nightspinner and Maiden had made their way up the walls and were providing the heroes with their answer to the turrets.

The Mage took advantage of the lull in action to catch his breath and take stock of the battle. Despite the intensity they were still doing well. They had thirty two combatants not counting Yueri and Aaron and only four had gone down; Orca, Roar, Slash and Sirius. Three of them were heavy hitters, but they still had more of those and The Mage was beginning to feel like they could actually win this.

His lack of focus meant he didn't spot the danger until it was too late. Maiden fired her magnetic arrow up several stories to get a better vantage point, but she didn't see a certain powered mammal down below. Leap, the high jumping boar criminal, had been in an extended game of keep away with Skye and Prime Bullet. Mother and daughter were unable to keep the boar pinned down, but in turn he was unable to do much in return. Then he spotted Maiden and an opportunity, he braced his feet against the ground and sprang up and over his opponent's heads right at Maiden.

"Maiden behind you," Prime Bullet called as she uselessly fired a tranq bullet after Leap. The Mage's attention was drawn by the call, but it was only to witness Leap slamming into Maiden from the side. The two mammals were flung onto the balcony of the fifth floor, and even from far away The Mage could see that Maiden's left arm was broken. Leap got to his feet and stared at his handiwork, Maiden was clumped against the wall, double over in pain with a clearly broken arm. Her bow was nowhere to be seen, probably dropped when he tackled her, so she was defenseless. The small time criminal grinned at having actually taken down a hero, but he forgot that they weren't alone.

The Mage rushed to Maiden's position, but Nightspinner got there first. Leap turned to see the arachnid mech crawl into the corridor like something out of a horror movie. Inside her cockpit Olivia shouted, "I am not not watching another Luna Wilde get mutilated!" She didn't bother with any of her ranged weapons and simply charged the boar, who suddenly realized he had no place to jump to. Nightspinner reared up on its back four legs and used the front four to rapidly jab the boar at high speeds. The boar was pinned against a pillar as the brutal flurry of jabs soon knocked him out.

"Maiden!" The Mage called as he arrived at his teammate's side.

"I have a medical kit in this shell!" Nightspinner called as she scurried over as well.

"Arms...broken," Maiden cried in pain. She hated to admit it, but as an archer she needed both arms to battle. Maiden was out of the fight.

"Painkillers," Nightspinner deployed a package containing a pair of pills and a small bottled water, "I'm also getting a sling ready for you in here."

"Thank you," Maiden groaned before quickly downing the pills. Looking at her two caretakers, Maiden pushed her pain aside and addressed them, "You should get back out there."

"This wouldn't have happened if I hadn't let my guard down," The Mage lamented.

"Maybe, maybe not," Maiden shrugged with her good shoulder. "Either way you can't let stuff like this keep you down," she forced a weak smile, "take it from the expert."

It was a poor attempt at humor, but The Mage smiled in return all the same. He nodded and took off with Nightspinner on his tail. Sadly, plenty had gone wrong in their absence.

Ever since they'd reached the doorway to the front entrance of the lab, Hightower and the M. had been camping the chokepoint, ambushing anyone who came through. The Maid's ears perked up as she heard loud footsteps coming from the front end.

"Big one incoming!" She stepped back as The Hood and Hightower readied their weapons. A large bison burst through the doors and took a fighting stance. Hightower and The Hood fired, but their weapons had no effect. The Maid came in from behind and jabbed him in the back of the knee, but it felt like just ramming her tonfa into concrete. And that was because it was.

The bison was a member of the PMFR named Walter West, and he could absorb any solid material to turn his skin into said material. His hero name was the Absorbing Bison and his skin was currently composed of solid concrete.

A sharp jolt of pain went up The Maid's arm from her failed attack, and the Absorbing Bison took advantage of his opponent's weakness. He lifted his leg off the ground and kicked back right into The Maid's face. The impact and subsequent slam into the wall knocked the old vixen out.

"Marian!" The Hood called in alarm.

"You bastards are screwed now," the bison boasted before charging at The Hood. The taser arrow proved useless and The Hood was barely able to roll to the side. The bison was surprisingly agile for his size and turned with The Hood, a quick but strong punch connected with the bow and broke the weapon. The Hood desperately tried to escape his opponent, but Hightower's earlier warning proved true, he just wasn't agile enough anymore. The armored vixen's attempts to distract the bison with her energy palm proved to be little more than a nuisance. Just as The Absorbing Bison was about to land a direct hit, a small explosion went off at his side.

Young Bullet rushed in to save her mentor, wielding her grenade launcher rather than the useless tranq pistols. With impressive speed she loaded another grenade and fired, knocking the already stumbling bison to the ground. "Get Marian out of here!" Young Bullet ordered while reloading her launcher.

The Hood locked at his destroyed weapon, but there was no time to mourn the loss of the venerable bow, "Right, be careful" he warned before running off. He stepped around Hightower who was still pelting the bison.

The Absorbing Bison took several more blasts from Young Bullet, but she could tell that he hadn't been defeated yet. He was digging the hand that was facing away from Young Bullet into the ground in an attempt to get some footing. At least that's what Young Bullet thought he was doing. She was proven wrong when, as she fired her seventh grenade, the Absorbing Bison jumped to the side and hurled the large piece of the floor he'd dug up right at her. Young Bullet had to roll sharply to her left to dodge the attack, but that left her open to the bison's follow up. A concrete hand snagged her by the leg and Young Bullet was quickly smashed into the ceiling twice in quick succession. The Absorbing Bison let her fall with one hand and, just as she reached his eye level, punched her full force with the other.

Young Bullet's unconscious body sailed out into the field and over the retreating Hood. The old fox took a moment to absorb the sight before turning to see the bison staring him down.

"No one messes with this lab or my friends and gets away with it," the bison snarled in anger before charging at The Hood once more. The Hood tossed The Maid to the side and definitely took an arrow in each hand, but before the bison reached him he felt something heavy press against his shoulder.

Chime had been running low to the ground to avoid the Absorbing Bison's sight. She jumped, used the Hood's shoulders as a springboard and let her sonic scream loose on the charging bison. The out of nowhere attack sent the bison to the ground, his ears ringing from the sheer loudness of it. Chime landed and, ignoring The Hood's cry of pain from his shoulders, unleashed another scream at point blank range on her teammate. The blast was powerful enough to hurl the massive bison off the ground and back towards the front entrance. He landed at Hightower's feet and the old vixen saw that he was passed out, his body returning to normal flesh and blood.

Not confident she could hold the front by herself, Hightower retreated.

The Absorbing Bison's attack had been deliberately timed. Vizor, the wolf leader of the PMFR, knew he wasn't a match for many of the powered mammals present so decided to bide his time. His target was the alternet, and clearly younger, The Mage. The younger wolf had been sticking to his initial orders and had avoided nearly all fighting in favor of using his hacking wand. Vizor knew from the occasional team up he'd had with Ceartais that the wand was a ridiculously useful piece of utility and that the Mage was one of the more vulnerable members of the team. Any sadness over thinking of his world's departed hero reflected in his counterpart or confusion over why they were fighting was quickly pushed aside by the steelblood in his mind. All of The Mage's allies were occupied save for a single bow yielding bunny, Vizor seized his chance.

Step one was to close in, and Vizor quietly slipped around, using the earth walls and the occasional downed mammal as cover. Soon he was close enough to make his move. He leapt over the earth wall and called, "Mage look out!"

The distraction worked. The Young Mage looked in his direction as planned, but the bunny guard instead looked over to The Mage to see what was going on. That was all the opening Vizor needed to unload a small mammal tranq dart into Jack's chest. The bunny collapsed and The Young Mage was left alone. Information overload worked in Vizor's favor as The Young Mage was overwhelmed by the rapid series of events, and that gave Vizor the time he needed to close in. His target wasn't the wolf, but the wand. He snatched the wand out of his hand and forward rolled away. Vizor didn't hesitate to bring his fist down on the wand, snapping the device though not breaking it altogether.

It didn't matter that a flashbang card sailed past his head and went off a moment later, nor did it matter that he was left vulnerable to a flurry of punches and kicks. He'd taken out the wand and at least one member of the much smaller enemy team, and The Absorbing Bison was no donut wrecking havoc. Those comforting thoughts accompanied the wolf tactician as he lost consciousness.

On the fourth floor balcony overlooking the left side of the field, The Crimson Banshee took down the last of the ZPD officers on the upper floors. After defeating Scar the ghostly hybrid had scoured the upper floors for any mammal, drone or turret and had methodically taken them out, making things much easier on the left field group down below.

"Crimson!" a somewhat panicked voice called. He looked over the railing to see Blade Dancer standing to the side of an expanding cloud of gas. "Judy and Yueri are on the other side of that cloud, give me a lift over!'

Crimson saw that the cloud expanded quite a ways and couldn't see Chief Wilde on the other side. He vaulted over the railing but it seemed to him that he was falling slower than usual. He knew something was up when Blade Dancer began floating up. Both mammals quickly rose past the second floor.

Crimson looked around in confusion while flailing his limbs uselessly. "It's Chiffon!" Blade Dancer shouted. At Crimson's confused look, she explained, "She's a stoat who can control gravity!" Blade Dancer knew how the PMFR's smallest member operated, she had to be nearby for her very taxing powers to work. She couldn't see her, but someone down below could. "Bullet!"

Shadow Bullet heard her name called and realized that her teammate and Blade Dancer weren't just above her, but floating there. "What the hell?"

"Stoat, nearby, can control gravity," Blade Dancer listed off. Shadow Bullet needed no further explanation and reached out with her pulse. Through the havoc still playing out on the field, she picked up a tiny form hidden behind a pillar at the edge of the field on the ground floor. Shadow Bullet advanced to the side of the field first, while Young Andreste stuck close to the cloud.

She's forming a pincer attack with me, clever. Shadow Bullet silently praised as she closed in. Shadow Bullet sensed the stoat was within shooting range and Andraste jumped in the air to get a better angle. Shadow Bullet fired her shotgun, knowing she was far enough away that the pellets would only hurt the stoat, since her tranqs were useless. Both the arrow and the pellets veered off course at an upward angle. Chiffon was onto them and both mammals knew it when they were also lifted into the air. Andraste floated up with Crimson and Blade Dancer, but Shadow Bullet was slammed into the ceiling then dropped. The process repeated several times during which she dropped her weapon. The dazed gunslinger only saw a glimpse of a ZPD wolf officer below her before a tranq dart was fired.

Chiffon could feel the sweet pouring down her face, using her powers on so many targets at once was always exhausting. Shadow Bullet was down, but the other three were still floating in the air. Her guards were about to head out and tranq them when a card sliced through the air right at them. Trickster's shrapnel card started to float up and away, but exploded and released it's payload while still in range of the stoat. Chiffon gasped and dove for the floor, briefly releasing her hold on the three mammals in the air.

A few shouts of surprise came from the sudden drop, but Chiffon composed herself and recaught the three mammals. This time Trickster was also caught and floated up.

"You could show a little concern," Chiffon huffed in exasperation at her guards. The ZPD were silent. What's wrong with…

Focus on the mission.

They're focused on the battle, and I should be too. Chiffon focused on the mammals in her grasp, they still needed to be dealt with and she couldn't hold them forever. "Get them now!" She called. Her squad ran out and fired four darts upwards, but none of them worked. Blade Dancer and Andraste easily deflected theirs, Trickster intercepted his with a card and Crimson was immune. Seeing the four were too focused to be taken out easily, Chiffon came up with another strategy.

Up above, Crimson was now well above the fifth floor and could now clearly see what was happening on the other side of the gas cloud. His heart sank at the sight of Yueri and Aaron with their backs to the cloud with only Kiara and Judy to guard them. Yueri was using her sonic cannon and even Aaron was occasionally throwing something with his telekinesis, but they were still outnumbered. He witnessed a female warthog tackle the lioness agent into the cloud before he was suddenly dropped.

Chiffon let the four drop a few stories before suddenly catching them again, hoping that the sudden fall and jerking stop would leave them vulnerable. Crimson was unaffected of course, and Yueri phased through the dart on instinct. Young Andraste was cleanly darted and Chiffon let her fall, but Trickster got annoyingly lucky when he threw a handful of cards towards the ground as a shield. The dart happened to hit a flashabng card and set it off, blinding the ZPD down below. Realizing he had a way of fighting back, Trickster methodically set off several flashbangs in a row, each timed to follow the last and keep the mammals down below distracted. Trickster's shield of light quickly ceased when a thick string of stick glue shot out from the balcony and pulled the wolf out of the fight.

"Damn it!" Chiffon gasped, her scheme had only defeated one of the four and the wolf would've outlasted her if not for some unseen allies' intervention. She was sweating and taking tired breaths frequently to try and calm the aches around her small body. So much so that she didn't register the prick on her leg as anything serious. As she began to refocus her powers, she saw that it wasn't just the two remaining foes that were lifted. Spreading out from the little stoat, the whole building was starting to rise. Chunks of the ground, fallen mammals, the walls and floors in uneven pieces, everything. "NO!" Chiffon screamed, she tried to turn off her powers, but it didn't work. The stoat watched her worst fears of losing control of her powers play out in vivid detail.

"Desole, little hero," Chiffon turned to see a white bunny blowing a cloud of dust in her face. The stoat felt woozy for a moment before sleep mercifully claimed her. Ronin pulled her mask up and sighed, not happy at having to use her nightmare needle on someone who was likely a hero.

"We need to get back to Mrs. Wilde!" Blade Dancer called. She and Crimson had landed now that Chiffon was out. The ZPD had been taken out by an invisible Fuli using their own darts against them.

"Oui,' Ronin agreed. Crimson scooped up both bunnies and jumped up to the higher floors. On the way up he caught a glimpse of Trickster defeating Gluestick. The sticky goo producing bunny was not much of a combatant and Trickster had easily disposed of him. Crimson jumped over the highest point of the cloud to get to Judy while Trickster made his way to a nearby staircase.

While Chiffon's trap was being sprung, Judy and Yueri were dealing with the horrifying aftermath of Samantha's gas attack. The two were separated from their escort and there were still plenty of cops around. Kiara had rushed to their aid, but they were cornered against the cloud which was still expanding. At least Judy was getting a feel for the sword, she'd never say it out loud, but the weapon was really more of a club with its energy field around it then anything else. Between the sword, Alice's cannon and even Aaron hurling a knocked out rhino at an unsuspecting lion, it looked like they were making some progress.

Then an all too familiar lady warthog barreled into Kiara's side and sent her into the cloud. Kiara struggled to get up but the gas overwhelmed her. Judy recognized her officers anywhere, even other dimensions. "Anders," she whispered. Unwanted flashbacks of the time she'd fought the Anders of her precinct came to the bunny. One of her most promising younger officers betrayed her for the Drowned and beat both her and Aleks Rojak in the process. It was only Nala's timey rescue that saved a weird way it had been a relief when she learned that Anders was brainwashed and had not betrayed her willingly.

Now she was facing a mind controlled Anders yet again. Judy gripped her sword and charged, determined to end the fight quickly. Anders read her move and jumped over the bunny, sending a downward kick that Judy barely dodged in the process. Anders landed, and was immediately met with a sonic cannon blast courtesy of Yueri. Judy smirked, her attempt at making history repeat itself had worked. A simple slash later and Anders was unconscious, just in time for Crimson to arrive with Ronin and Blade Dancer.

Up above, Ryan had finished healing after a painful period of regrowing his leg. The long wait had left him with nothing but his thoughts as he could only speculate what had transpired below. His clothes had been shredded by the various attacks he took earlier, so all he had left were the remains of his pants. They now resembled uneven cargo shorts more than anything else. "Next time I won't give them the chance to talk. No, no there won't be a next time!" Ryan rambled as he made his way to the balcony on the second floor. He was greeted with a sight that shook him to his core. All around the field mammals were unconscious, destroyed drones were scattered and fights raged on. He saw the Hellfire in ruin towards the middle, ZPD officers lay scattered all over the ground in front of him, Mustang overwhelming Sergeant Red on the other side of the field, and other fights that were still ongoing.

"This wasn't what I wanted," Ryan said aloud with a quiet despair. Then his features twisted into a snarl of anger, "This isn't supposed to happen!"

"Yeah well you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and elephants,' a cocky voice taunted from behind. Ryan turned and froze at the sight of Trickster staring him down from the hallway. It was one thing to see his fallen friend through the eyes of his puppet Sirius, it was another thing entirely to confront him face to face.

"Kodi," Ryan mumbled.

"The name's Trickster, and you're the bastard responsible for all this right?"

"NO! This is Robyn's fault," Ryan shouted.

"Right, delusional, got it," Trickster deadpanned, "Not like I haven't taken down your type before." Trickster hurled a flashbang as his opening move.

Ryan had trained with his Kodi countless times since they formed Ceartais and knew how to deal with this move. He fell to his side and did a sideways role hop that was timed so he was facing down just as the flash went off. Ryan jumped to his feet after the role, only to step right onto a small square of taser cards.

Trickster had unknowingly recreated the move The Mage of this dimension had used to win his last battle, but he wasn't done. "And for my next trick," he rushed forward and slammed two handfuls of shrapnel cards right into Ryan's chest and stomach.

Ryan screamed in agony as his organs were shredded by small pieces of metal, some passed through him, some lodged in his ribs, but worst of all were the ones that became tangled in his organs. Ryan could barely focus as he shut his eyes and mentally begged his healing to kick in faster, and it was made no easier when Trickster roundhouse kicked him in the gut and sent him to the ground.

Kodi why? Ryan asked in his hazy delirium, you've never hurt me except, except when I did that awful thing to you. You were still my friend, you kept it a secret, you even tried to help me. You were, you…Ryan steadied himself as his healing pulled his innards back together. "You, Kodi…" he muttered. "You aren't him!" Ryan shot up to a sitting position and glared daggers at Trickster.

"Not the one you know, but I am Kodi Jones," Trickster retorted while preparing another handful of cards. He wasn't ready for Ryan to pounce forward and headbut him hard in the gut.

"Nothing but a cheap knockoff!" Ryan screamed before grabbing Trickster by the throat and hurling him against the wall. "A pale imitation!" Next he grabbed the wolf by his leg and slammed him to the ground. 'You can never by a tenth of the mammal he was!" Ryan picked up Trickster by the back of his head and yelled in his face before throwing him at the balcony railing. The throw was high and Trickster went over the railing, his legs clipping them and causing him to fall down head first.

Ryan took several calming breaths as he walked forward, then stopped when he realized what he'd done. I just threw a mammal, Kodi, off of...the second story head first! A fall in that manner would most certainly be fatal, and Ryan realized too late he may have just killed, no, he couldn't think like that.

He reached the railing and looked down expecting to see a dead wolf on the ground. Instead he saw a leopard wearing a PMR Labs security uniform clutching the upsidedown wolf to her side. Ryan didn't get a better look because a ring of orange opened beneath the two and the leopard let go, the two reappeared in the middle of the field.

Ryan knew many eyes were likely on him after he nearly killed a mammal for the second time that day. Having no desire to repeat the earlier punishment he'd taken, Ryan turned and ran back inside the building. He subconsciously focused on how to get back to the command center, but his own actions were on the forefront of his mind.

I nearly killed...all this madness is making me mess up. I need to get things back under control before...anything else happens.

000

In the short time he'd left the fight to check on Maiden, The Mage could see that they'd lost a lot of mammals and more still were growing tired. Mage's attention was drawn to Sergeant Red, who wasn't far from where he'd taken flight.

The hybrid was fast losing his fight with Mustang, the stallion completely out-ranged him and was faster and just as strong. Red did not have the martial arts expertise needed to exploit the horse's lower defenses. Ronan desperately tried to jump up and over Mustang to deliver a blow to the back of the head, but his opponent easily read his move. Mustang jumped straight up and twisted his body to deliver a brutal spike kick that sent Red straight to the ground. He wouldn't get to enjoy the victory. Mustang saw something out of the corner of his eye and turned his head to see The Mage flying towards him. The stallion was not prepared for the massive demon hand that emerged from the wolf's card and his trashing did him little good.

Prime Bullet and Skye were tending to Red when The Mage landed next to them. In his hand was a card depicting a heroic stallion unknowingly bound by chains made of machinery. "You okay officer?"

Red sat up with a groan, "Yes, I've felt worse, we met when it happened." Red referenced the toxins Phelps had used to overwhelm his steelblood.

"It really is you," Skye stated, " Judy you lucky bunny."

"You're Ronan right?" Prime Bullet asked, wanting confirmation.

Red nodded, "I am, and you're the lucky Wilde Savage, correct?"

"Yeah, lucky," Prime Bullet sighed.

Red noticed the depressed face immediately, "You know she spent a good chunk of time these past several days looking into a mirror for you, she was more worried about you than anyone else back home."

"I know I'm lucky to have her, but I took that for granted," Prime Bullet echoed Rocket's quote.

"Well from my perspective she doesn't love you any less," Red said plainly.

"He's right Hannah," The Mage agreed, never taking his eyes off the rest of the field, "I know you messed things up, but getting miserable about it won't solve anything. Learn from what you did wrong so you can be better going forward."

Prime Bullet was caught off guard by her friend's advice, "Are you speaking from experience?"

"Robyn and I made up," The Mage said.

"What? Really?" Prime Bullet asked as she got back to her feet. The Mage's confirming nod caused a wide smile to cross her face. Finally things might be looking up.

"Shit!" The Mage shouted as he summoned an orange ring around his hand.

"What's going on?" Skye asked.

"Trickster got thrown off the balcony by...Ryan," The Mage reported as he saw the deranged hybrid step out into view. Trickster was saved when a leopard security guard teleported in to catch him, though both were now hanging from the first floor railing. The Mage's portal opened below them and deposited them in the middle of the field.

"It's Tanya," Red smiled at the sight. At their confused looks he explained, "She's the guard who met Robyn, Reginald and myself outfront and walked us in. She seemed to be sympathetic to our plight and it looks like the cure worked on her."

"The cure," Skye muttered, "is that really Nick and Judy's kid up...he's gone," Skye realized Ryan had run off.

"Yes," The Mage confirmed, "he went mad after my counterpart in this world died. He's got all of Robyn's pre purple sky powers and he's incredibly unstable and dangerous." Trickster nearly got himself killed, and we're losing mammals fast. We need to finish this. "Time for a change of plans," The Mage stated as he flew up into the air again.

Every member of the group with an earpiece heard the mammal who'd organized them initially speak up once again. "Everyone listen up, we're losing too many mammals to hold all the fronts, retreat to the middle of the field. Scarlet, take Red and Crimson and go after Ryan, we need to finish this. The rest of us can hold the line…" The Mage's speech was cut off suddenly. Marian was jamming their signal from up in the command center, but he'd already gotten the important stuff out. The Mage retook his position above the middle and began using his portals to safely retrieve their fallen allies while the remaining ones flocked to him.

"You've got this Robyn, just don't do anything reckless."

000

Ryan was just finishing preparing his final defense when the elevator to the command center pinged. "They're here," Marian siad unnecessarily. Felicia Otterton remained at her side, the loyal bodyguard's steelblood having reprogrammed her to protect Marian as dutifully as she would Mayor Bellwether.

"It's over Ryan," Scarlet stated as she, Crimson and Red steeped into the room.

"Your forces have been outmatched and we've still got plenty to go," Sergeant surmised.

"So stand down before you hurt anyone else," Crimson added.

Ryan turned to face them, but all three caught a glimpse of a small mechanical box attached to the back of his head. "Are you all familiar with what happens when we get shot in the head?"

Scarlet was not expecting that question, but answered, "We call it survival mode, we go savage and get a lot stronger while our brain heals."

"Yes yes, that's it," Ryan rambled out, "extremely dangerous but does tend to keep us safe, pity it was utterly uncontrollable."

"Was?" Red asked, not liking where this was going.

"Was," Ryan confirmed, "before the smartest mammal in this entire building found a way around that limitation!" Ryan gave a manic grin as the device on the back of his head punctured his brain with several sharp metal needles. It was designed to work with his steelblood to trigger survival mode without the loss of higher brain functions, as well as dull the pain from the needles. Despite Ryan's boasting, it wasn't a complete success. Ryan was haggard over and a noticeably feral look came over his face. Slanted eyes, deep breaths and a very angry disposition.

"Now! You! Will! Pay!" Ryan screamed as he rushed forward in a semi savage rage.

AN: And that chapter is finished, but the battle of the PMR Labs sure isn't. Ryan's got plenty of tricks up his sleeve still to play.

Next Time: The four siblings duke it out and Robyn puts several puzzle pieces together.

I promise the next one won't take a month to come out.