CHAPTER 16
UNITED FORCE
There, before Deku and Genos, was the abominable snowman of Teckh's machine army. A gargantuan robotic monster, towering above them, more than one hundred feet tall. That 'wall' from before was still behind it, as apparently the monster came from a section of it. Even now, the wall was closing up that part where the monster had been inhabiting.
Before getting into the battle, Deku knew he needed to get some sort of tactical plan together with Genos first. "Looks like it was programmed to wait until the right time to launch its attack," he shared with Genos. "Late at night or something, like Senku predicted."
Genos stared up at it. Even though he was normally never intimidated, this monstrosity had that kind of imposing presence. "That machine likely has the power to wipe out this entire town."
"All those lives…" Deku realized how serious this was now. There were lives at risk. Not just his comrades. All of the people frozen in stone statues as well. "We'll need to keep this thing out here, away from the town."
Just as he said that, a loud burst erupted, and a big sphere of fire blasted out from the monster's shoulder. It launched into the sky, until it was hundreds of feet above them. Then it came plummeting down… toward the town.
"No!" Deku shouted with a gasp. He leaped in the air with as much speed as he could. "One For All!" His body lit up, red lines of energy flowing throughout his core. He was able to launch with tremendous velocity, until he approached the giant projectile. "Manchester Smash!" When he said it, his right leg sizzled with crackling red energy, and then he flipped forward, doing a somersault. As he came back to facing forward, he delivered an axe kick to the energy blast. There was a massive pop, and the fire burst out in all directions.
To his relief, the blast had been extinguished, before it could land in the town. Deku sighed in relief, and spun back around to return his attention to the monster back on the ground. Suddenly, more pops rang out, and there were now four different energy blasts being launched upward. Deku gulped, realizing what this meant.
Genos glanced back at the town. He knew that the others needed to be warned that they were under attack. However, there wasn't even time to get back to them. The explosions occurring right now would hopefully serve as an alarm to the others, considering how bright and loud the blasts were. "Boost attack!" he announced, deploying his opening offensive move. He blasted with his left arm to propel him toward the monster, then unleashed a left kick. It connected against the steel body of the massive bot, leaving a bright explosion of energy from the shockwave.
After it was completed, a piece of the machine broke loose from the steel body. Genos saw it out of the corner of his eye, wondering why it stood out to him. Then he found out the reason. The piece lashed out like a whip, striking the temple of his head with force. Genos was stunned as he got sent flying backwards, but he managed to regain his senses and land on his feet with a little help from his jets. Now that he was back on his feet, he noticed there were several of those steel whips protruding from the monster. "I won't let my guard down again," he commented.
Despite the challenge of the multiple fire blasts raining down toward the town, Deku refused to give up. He shouted passionately as he shot through the sky, aiming punches now to save time. As soon as he punched one of the projectiles, he jetted toward the next one. There was no time to waste with how fast they were falling. Finally, the fourth one was increasing in speed as it descended toward the ground level. Deku held his breath and launched with everything he had, causing his entire body to glow with blinding white light now. At last, he came smashing through the fireball from behind, sending the chunks of burning energy outward, where they separated to pieces that were too small to harm anyone on the ground. When it was over, Deku sighed in relief as he caught his breath.
There was no time for either Deku or Genos to rest at ease, even for a moment. The colossal bot ran another program, and a slot from its body began to open up. Numerous steel bars began to burst out, and it appeared to be giant spiders. They leaped out with great speed, revealing five of the creatures. The spider bots had glowing red lights, resembling eyes, and they had red flash light beams that shone out on the ground. The beams were helping the spider bots to search for their targets, and it only took a few moments for one of the beams to home in on Genos. As soon as it did, the spider bot fired a beam with red and white lights twisting together like a vine.
Genos saw the attack coming, but he really had to move fast. The beam attack came at him with great speed, and when it hit the ground where he'd been standing previously, the material appeared to change its composition, piling up on the ground like steaming hot lava. Fire erupted where it hit the ground, melting the snow around it instantaneously.
"Watch out for those things," Genos alerted Deku. This new threat was too dangerous to take any chances.
Unfortunately, Deku was still stuck dealing with the aerial assault. More of the fire bursts were launching in the sky, threatening all the lives in the town. At the moment, it was overwhelming for the two of them to take on such a vicious threat by themselves.
(The kitchen, inside the cabin)
"What are you doing here?" Caitlyn asked sternly.
Despite their history of facing each other in battle, Haruko acted casual the entire time. "Is that how you thank someone for baking surprise cheesecake?" The oven light began to flicker, indicating that it was overbaking the next batch. Haruko gasped and quickly opened the door, letting the smoke and heat out. "Even if that cheesecake gets oversaturated in milk or burned to a crisp?"
Silica watched nervously, keeping silent. She remembered this alien woman all too well. An enemy that was far more powerful than she appeared.
"What do you want?" Caitlyn stood her ground, especially while she had her machine gun aimed directly at Haruko. However, she remembered how this mysterious woman evaded her attacks with relative ease in the past.
A more ideal plan of action would be for Caitlyn to signal Silica to go alert the others for help. However, she didn't want to make it obvious, because then Silica's life would be at risk. Right now, it seemed as though Haruko wasn't looking to immediately attack. Perhaps Caitlyn could stall things for the time being.
"Come on. Don't you at least want to try some?" Haruko was suddenly holding a plate with a slice of cheesecake, complete with cream cheese and a graham cracker crust. Surprisingly, the piece on the plate looked very appealing, despite the ruined batches elsewhere in the kitchen.
Even so, Caitlyn didn't lower her guard. "Did you really travel all this way just to bake pastries?"
"I'm always traveling," Haruko admitted with a shrug. "Anyway, I kinda felt like things went really bad for us last time we hung out. So… I wanted to try and atone for it."
It was a confusing display, but Caitlyn knew better than to take it seriously. This woman had shown to be a strange character before, but that didn't make her any less dangerous. Caitlyn kept her gun locked on target and took a few steps closer, hoping to see how Haruko reacted. However, she never seemed to turn threatening. In fact, Haruko showed zero fear for the weapon.
"Fine, then." After losing her patience, Haruko set the plate down on the counter and turned her attention to the pantry. "If you don't want to have any, perhaps someone else will." When she returned, she had a familiar dragon in her arms, still wrapped up in a blanket.
"Pina!" Silica forgot all her caution and ran at them with full speed.
"Whoa, kid," Haruko said, holding a hand up so that Silica crashed into it and was stopped in place. "Settle down. You could cause an accident."
"Silica!" Caitlyn spoke in a firm voice. "Stand back. Now." Her tone was strong enough to get the intended result, and the young girl slowly backed away, rubbing a few tears from her eyes.
Haruko gave an evil grin, as if she took pleasure in seeing Silica get upset. "Do you know if Pina likes cheesecake? He's not lactose intolerant, is he?"
Before Silica could say anything else, Caitlyn released her gun with the left hand to tap her shoulder, urging her to hang back. She kept her weapon held still with her right hand, and quickly returned her left hand to help with the stability. But inside, she knew she couldn't fire the gun now that Pina was in Haruko's arms.
"Well, I guess cheesecake is people food anyway. Not dragon food." With that said, Haruko walked away from the counter and over to the kitchen, propping Pina with one hand while she lit the burner with her other hand. "I got coffee, too. Do you like it dark? I hope so, cause I don't have any sweetener."
Stall. Caitlyn kept the game plan in mind. It would do no good letting the situation escalate, especially with both Silica and Pina at risk.
"It's me you want," Caitlyn said, going with the only idea she could come up with. "I'm your target. Teckh hired you to kill me."
"You really think I care about assignments?" Haruko said with a chuckle.
"Then what do you want?"
"A trade." There was a sly grin on her face now as she placed the kettle with water to boil on the stove top.
Caitlyn raised an eyebrow. "Trade? For what?"
That got a mocking laugh out of Haruko. "Oh, come on. It's obvious, isn't it?" Despite saying that, she motioned her chin toward Caitlyn. "If you want Pina back… you've gotta give me that machine gun."
Caitlyn felt her spine tingle from a combined feeling of fear and anger. "No way."
The entire time, Silica could only watch in nervous silence. As much as she wanted to step in and say something, she knew better than to interfere. Instead, she was putting her trust in Caitlyn. She had to.
"Aw," Haruko said, flapping her lips in disappointment. "Pweeeease? Your gun is sooo cool! I'll even throw in the cheesecake."
"What do you want my gun for? It's not like you need a weapon. You already have… your bass guitar? Or whatever that thing is."
"It's an Azureglo Rickenbacker 4001c64." Haruko let her eyes wander over to the kitchen sink, where the electric bass guitar was propped up. "Anyway, like I said, I'm not interested in assignments. I just want that gun."
Obviously, Caitlyn wanted to get Pina out of harm's way. However, giving up her weapon wasn't the smartest way to go about doing that. Besides, as soon as she relinquished her gun, she'd have no way to fight back against Haruko, and then they'd all be as good as dead. This was a hopeless situation.
To her astonishment, it was Deku who came to her mind. He felt like the one person who had the heart to fight out of a hopeless situation like this one. That was the essence of a true hero. Now that she realized he was the one she was looking to for inspiration, she better understood the power of his character.
"All right," she finally said. "I agree to the trade."
"Ooh! Cooool!"
Before Haruko had even finished celebrating, Caitlyn pointed her gun at the counter close to her. "You have to let Pina go first."
Although Haruko looked suspicious, she chuckled as she walked over to the counter. Moments later, she placed the dragon there gently, and then held up both of her hands. "Okie dokie. Your turn now."
It went without saying that it wasn't easy for Caitlyn to let it go. Finally, she exhaled in frustration as she released the trigger of the gun and held it forward. Moments later, the machine gun was in Haruko's arms.
"It's so light!" She spun the weapon around in a circle, then began peeping into the different compartments. "Multi-function? Different weapon varieties? Built-in water canister? It's got so many functions."
There was no time to waste extending her interaction with the alien woman. Caitlyn quickly fetched Pina in her arms and backed away toward the door. Silica slowly headed there as well, although inside she was desperate to have Pina back in her arms.
She was just about to leave, when Haruko pointed the weapon at her now. "You know I can't finish the trade without a field test first."
The gamer girl felt her heart beating, but she stood her ground. She gently shook Pina, so that the dragon would wake up. Pina let out a soft chirp, and then Caitlyn motioned for it to cling onto her back. At least, now she had Pina behind her, while she stood in front of the bullets. "I hope you don't mean to shoot that weapon here in the kitchen? You could end up destroying the cheesecake you spent so much time baking."
"That's okay. Cheesecake makes me fat, anyway." With that, Haruko charged the machine gun, causing it to glow with fuchsia light, as it always did when Caitlyn used it. She was about to fire, but suddenly a purple cloud popped out from the barrel. While the alien woman squinted her eyes in confusion, a net of purple glowing wires lashed out from the back of the machine gun, and it covered Haruko. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. I knew it! I got gypped! Trade me back!"
Caitlyn grinned and shook her head, just as the kettle whistled on the stove. "Sorry. No backsies." She turned off the stove and left everything there.
With Haruko restrained by the cyber net, and Pina clutching Caitlyn's back, the gamer girl held out her hands so that her trusty machine gun floated back over to its rightful owner. Silica was already opening the door, and all three of them hurried outside. They left Haruko restrained inside the cabin, while they rushed back out into the cold air.
Now that they were there, they heard the explosions in the distance. Lights were flashing in the skies as well.
(Back outside with the colossal bot)
Deku sprinted down the field at full speed. He suddenly leaped in the air, just as one of the spider bots lunged at his position, extending metallic limbs, trying to grasp him. Fortunately, he had the speed advantage, but not by much. These spider bots moved faster than any previous bot he'd face off against, which was probably by design based on the animal they were inspired from.
Another two spider bots fired twisted beams at him, hoping to catch him with their radiative 'webbing.' "All For One! St. Louis Smash Air Force!" For this attack, he swung a roundhouse kick, sending a shockwave at the beams. It stopped the beams in their path and kept moving onward, connecting with both spider bots. The machines were flipped on their backs with loud metallic thuds. For a few moments, they squirmed uselessly, but then they flipped with agility, returning to their feet, ready to resume the attack.
At least Deku was keeping the spider bots occupied while Genos faced off against the colossal bot. Every time he fired another blast at it, more of the whips lashed out from the damaged parts. The 'wall' was designed to have its damaged components became weapons in this fashion. Not to mention, the colossal bot had sustained numerous points of damage and still showed no signs of slowing down.
"Rocket stomp!" Genos launched his next attack. He went up high in the air, hoping to locate the head of the colossal bot, or at least whatever could be considered the head. Sure enough, he found a twenty foot screen face, similar to the sensors most of the teckh bots possessed. He brought his feet down toward it with fearsome force, with help from the rocket boosters on his back for extra push, sending energy bursts out from the impact. There was a loud cracking sound from the screen face, which appeared to be shattered from the strike. Genos hoped that meant the machine would be blinded.
But even with the damage it sustained, the colossal bot was unrelenting. It opened some compartments on its back, revealing a full arsenal of missiles. They launched in rapid fire, heading for Genos, despite him being right in front of the bot's face. He had no choice but to leap away, dodging the blasts just in time. Even as he returned to the ground, the missiles pursued him, so he fired more arm laser blasts to eliminate them.
There was a honking sound ringing out all of a sudden. Deku and Genos both looked over at the same time, noticing the construction vehicle that was approaching. Even from a long distance, they spotted the green and white hair of the driver. Senku.
"Ten billion points to whoever gets those spider bots out of my way!" he exclaimed.
In the seat next to him, Kotoko was postured forward in anticipation. "It's going to be close," she explained. "I have to go."
"Pardon me for pointing it out," Senku began, "But you're still operating with a cane. You're not about to leap out into the battle are you?"
"Sometimes, we can't just sit back and let others do all the work," Kotoko replied.
Suddenly, a giant figure appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. It was a massive skeleton, and it held a hand to the side of the construction vehicle. Kotoko climbed out the side opening and into the hand of the skeleton yokai, then was lifted in the air. From there, she waved her hands to orchestrate more yokai in the attack. "I need all of you to dig! Dig!" As she gave out the order, she pointed around the ground at the base of the colossal bot.
Monsters of all shapes and sizes rushed out to the field and got to work. When Genos spotted them, he fought even harder, keeping the colossal bot occupied so that it didn't notice what was happening. Even Deku had to continue confronting the spider bots, moving with blinding speed between their lunges, picking them apart whenever he had openings.
"Soul resonance!" Maka shouted her battle cry as she joined the battle with her weapon partner.
Soul grinned vigorously. "No objections this time, Maka. Let's get some action!"
Maka held her scythe up high, while it glowed with a tremendous light. "Demon scythe time!" she instructed. "Witch-Hunt mode!" This time, the length of her scythe increased dramatically, making it seem impossible for her to wield it. But she was still able to anyway.
When Deku saw that help was on the way, he smiled, and ran toward them. "Got some coming your way!" he informed them. As he ran, he leaped in the air, just as the scythe slashed below him… aimed directly for the remaining spider bots. In a bright flash of destructive force, Maka and Soul wiped out every one of them in a single hit. The spider bots were cut in half, exploding in bursts of fire as they were finally eliminated.
By now, Caitlyn, Silica, and Pina had joined the battle as well. "Hey!" Caitlyn shouted as loud as she could.
Deku heard her voice and found her as he was landing back on the ground. "Just in time!"
"Cat missile! Launch!" Caitlyn fired one of her specialty missiles, which went soaring through the air toward the colossal bot. As the projectile came in range, it suddenly changed its path and homed in on the ground below the target. This caused a burst of snowy dirt to shoot up.
That seemed to finally reveal what the yokai were up to. They were digging up the soil around the colossal bot, to the point where the field was a bunch of loose dirt. With how massive the machine was, it couldn't stay above it, and began to sink in the soil.
Just then, Deku brought the construction vehicle in range. "A little help, team science?"
Kotoko and the giant skeleton were there, and the huge yokai grabbed the vehicle and spun it around, revealing a cement mixer in the rear. They began to pour cement in large amounts, which flowed down the chute and into the ditches that had been constructed at the base of the colossal bot.
"1,450 degrees Celsius," Senku stated. "That's the temperature needed to heat the limestone and clay."
With a nod, Deku cupped his hands to his mouth and called out to the cyborg member of the team. "Hey Genos! Trade places!"
"Affirmative. Lightning eye!" Genos flashed both his yellow eyes, creating a blinding light, in case the already damaged enemy was able to still locate his position. During the distraction, Genos launched himself back toward the ground, while Deku went soaring into the sky, taking his place.
When Deku took a good look at the monster before him, he couldn't help but think once again about All Might. "I want you to win… with a smile on your face." Those were the words All Might used to say.
And so Deku smiled, to the point where it looked ridiculous, but still he went forward. "One For All! One hundred percent Detroit Smash!" His fist glowed as all his power went into this punch. And then he unleashed it, in the center of the colossal bot. The attack was aimed downward, and the massive machine was pushed deeper into the ground. Even though it took lots of damage, it wasn't enough to destroy it.
But it was enough to really bury it.
The cement was now surrounding the base of the colossal bot, to the point where a quarter of the machine was submerged. That appeared to be enough to get the job done.
Genos was there, ready to open fire. "Ultra spiral incineration cannon!" The heat from his body burst out, and all of his power was unleashed, in one of his most devastating attacks. Instead of aiming the heat at the machine, he channeled it to the cement below, causing it to warm up like it was lava. The loud sizzling of the cement against the steel enemy rang out.
Finally, Caitlyn motioned for Silica to step forward. Pina chirped, revealing that its health had improved after a good rest. "Your turn, Beast Tamer," Caitlyn instructed.
After one last nervous gulp, Silica grew serious. "Pina! Let's go finish this!"
Unlike all the past times, Pina growled bravely, matching its master's resolve. They were finally on the same page.
With that, Silica ran at full speed toward the battle scene, with Pina soaring above her head. More missiles came flying toward them, revealing that apparently the colossal bot was still trying to fight back. Silica focused and began to channel spells from Sword Art Online. Sure enough, they worked, and she was able to cast magical bursts to eliminate the missiles in the sky. That cleared the path for Pina, who ended up just above the lake of cement. With a powerful screech, Pina fired its healing magic beam, aiming directly at the cement. The magic was having the desired effect of cooling the sandstone and clay… and also hardening it into cement.
The final result was a sturdy cement fortress which had completely trapped the colossal bot.
Even now, the massive bot attempted to break free and unleash more attacks. But it was completely unable to do so. In fact, its power began to deplete completely now, until it reached the point where it finally shut down.
No one could resist cheering loudly, and the heroes were finally able to accept that they had won the battle.
Edit: Thank you to anyone who has read the story so far! Hope you continue to enjoy it! Just wanted to give a cheers for the support. I expect this to be somewhere around the halfway point of the story, and I will probably end it close to Chapter 30. Maybe sooner, but I will give it a graceful finish regardless. Thank you again!