Chapter 38: Sawtooth Fights Communism
PREVIOUSLY-
Something got in the way. Redd's fire had been unleashed without a hitch. But Jazzmin did not burn alive. She felt the heat, but it was to the sides of her. The flames had been parted like the red sea. All that Jazzmin saw was the tall shadowy figure that stood between her and hot death.
With the fiery screaming blast cascading off of its billowing cowl, it looked like a hero in the most classical sense. A regular superman. It stood tall and defiantly in the face of these tragic odds. It had many arms and a body of silver. Its glinting gaze was radiant enough to be seen from behind.
Jazzmin fell, doubled over on top of her barely alive teacher. She started to weep a bit. Rescue!
Redd waited for the fire to clear before approaching the hooded figure. With their hands in their pockets and their army of bodies ready to react to the slightest movement.
"You blocked my fire with a stupid coat?"
"IT'S THE MATERIAL," replied the figure in a tinny and unnatural voice. It sounded no stranger than Redd's own, so the villain did not question it.
"I've not heard anything about a student or faculty member that matches your description," Redd began, looking up into the new adversaries' dark, hooded, obscured face. "Tall, the power of flight, many armed, in possession of a strongly fire retardant cloak…"
"IT IS A COWL, IN ACTUALITY. AND I AM NOT EMPLOYED HERE, I WAS JUST BORN HERE..."
"You were what-?"
"...AND I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT I WISH IT TO BE DESTROYED."
AND NOW-
-REGENCY ACADEMY CENTRAL COURTYARD-
Redd had to look hard to tell, but they gathered that the thing before them was not quite human. A robot? Well, that just raised more questions than it answered, but that was the reality with which they were presented.
A bit of dust whirled around. The robot had a two hundred way standoff with every one of Redd's bodies. The Queen, primarily. The machine presented no emotion, as one might be able to guess. And then, it merely turned its back. Bold, Redd thought.
"WHAT ARE YOUR INJURIES?" The robot asked. Jazzmin was not capable of answering. Brannon wasn't either. In fact, Jac and Daniel were lost causes as well. "THAT'S ALRIGHT, I USUALLY GET THE BEST ANSWERS WHEN I ASK QUESTIONS OF MYSELF."
The robot picked up Jazzmin and Brannon delicately in four of their eight arms.
The white masks closed in. A tidal wave of them all jumped the robot at once. They cast their shadow over it so solidly that they blotted out the moon. A dog pile ensued, white-masked figures throwing themselves onto an ever heightening heap. Each one was patiently waiting for their turn to rip the machine to bits.
"I'm afraid that won't do, newcomer," said Redd. They werent about to let the enemy soldiers slip away from their fate. "You'll be joining these students in whatever lies beyond the grave. Or, well, maybe you won't. On account of the whole… 'machine' thing."
"IT IS AN INTERESTING TOPIC OF DEBATE," said Sawtooth, tossing Daniel over his shoulder and holding the hefty Jac under three whole arms. The Queen whipped all the way around to where the robot was. Something in them doubted that they had ever been under the pile, to begin with. Damn speedsters.
"So, you-"
"WHETHER OR NOT MACHINES HAVE 'SOULS' THAT IS."
"Are you going to-"
"IN MY OPINION, NOBODY GOES ANYWHERE AFTER THEY DIE, AND IN THAT WAY I AM NOT SPECIAL. 'SOUL' IS JUST A WORD INVENTED TO DESCRIBE THE STRICTLY CHEMICAL PHENOMENON OF HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS. SOME MIGHT SAY THAT THIS DEVALUES HUMAN LIFE, BUT I PREFER TO SAY THAT IT PLACES MORE VALUE ON CHEMISTRY."
"Do you intend to keep ta-"
"NOW, IF YOU WILL EXCUSE ME FOR JUST A MOMENT."
Sawtooth disappeared in a flash.
-SOMEWHERE OUTSIDE REGENCY ACADEMY-
The next thing Jazzmin realised was her being placed down on a soft tuft of grass beside a country road. That and the nasty whiplash she got from the instant acceleration and acceleration. Near to her were Daniel, John and Brannon, none of whom were conscious.
The only figure standing was the cowled one who had rescued her. She found her voice.
"Who… Are you?" She croaked. The machine met her, slightly surprised at her lucidity.
"OH… MY NAME IS SAWTOOTH. WE HAVE NOT MET, BUT I AM A MACHINE AND YOUR SCHOOL IS MY 'HOME'."
"Why did you come sooner… I mean… How did you find us?"
"I WAS IN SLEEP MODE, BUT I RESPONDED TO A… LARGE ELECTRONIC DISTURBANCE. WHEN I REALISED THAT WE WERE BEING ATTACKED, I FELT THAT IT WAS AN EXCELLENT OPPORTUNITY TO FIELD TEST MY NEW MODIFICATIONS. YOU WERE IN THE WAY, SO I HAD TO RELOCATE YOU. ACCORDING TO MY CALCULATIONS, THIS WAS THE SAFEST PLACE. I WILL BE LEAVING NOW."
Jazzmin called out.
"Wait!"
But the robot was already gone. The only thing she saw of it was the small glint of its thrusters disappearing over the tree line. She sighed and slumped down, nursing herself. It was going to take her god knows how long to process all of that. But most of all, she needed to rest. It was well past midnight, and she had just come as close to death as she ever had by far.
Just as she felt her eyes slam shut from exhaustion, they were wrenched open by a powerful light.
It was from a torch.
"Oi oi, what's all this then?" Said one man.
"Do you have any idea how fast you were going?" Said the other.
"I'm sorry," Jazzmin began. "Who are you people?"
-REGENCY ACADEMY CENTRAL COURTYARD-
"I see that you've returned," Redd proclaimed.
"I COULDNT BARE TO LEAVE A PROBLEM UNSOLVED. WERE YOU GETTING LONELY?"
"I never get lonely."
The pawns all raised their arms in a gesture of collective salute. They stomped their feet together, making a din of noise.
"I have so many friends, after all."
"FAIR WARNING. THAT NUMBER MAY GO DOWN IN THE NEAR FUTURE."
Sawtooth lifted themselves into the air. The machine's internal processor whirred. It lifted two of its forearms, displacing its cowl so that the imposing missile boxes armed to its shoulders would fire without obstruction.
Redd's eyes widened. And then, faster than even Chairman Meow could react.
"SCORCHED EARTH ALPHA."
The ensuing itano circus left light trails in the air like the inexorably swaying tentacles of some apocalyptic jellyfish. A carpet of red and orange and black filled up the courtyard. For a minute moment, it almost looked beautiful. Like a meadow of flowers. Then it kept exploding, and all that was left was vapour.
Redd did an internal check. Losses…
The total number of bodies lost, more than two hundred. All of which pawns. Of the specialised pieces, most escaped unscathed. The Queen, one knight, and one rook were in nominal condition. The other rook, Sickle, suffered severe damage to the forelimbs.
Redd was alarmed.
"This… defied expectations…"
Meanwhile, Sawtooth performed some internal calculations of their own.
Ninety-eight-point-zero-four plus per cent of targets successfully eliminated. Accuracy of simulation, ninety-nine-point-nine-zero-one. For an opening volley, it was passable. But the robot had expected more of their first field test. That was the first field test for their new military-grade modifications.
"I'll be honest," Redd opened. "I think I'm mistaking you for a hero. What you just did is usually something that heroes try to avoid doing, so I did not anticipate that you would do it."
"IT WAS YOUR OWN FAULT, THEN," Sawtooth countered.
"Still, you destroyed an awful lot of my bodies in not much time and without much reverence. Does organic life not hold any weight to you?"
"I SIMPLY MADE A TACTICAL DECISION. I AM WHAT SOME WOULD CALL A 'COLD AND LOGICAL MACHINE'."
"If you're so cold and logical, why would you give your attack a name? Surely its a frivolity to you?"
"I DID IT IN ORDER TO MAKE YOU FEAR IT."
"I see…"
AND ON THAT NOTE, YOU WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME THING, I AM SURE. DESTROYING ALL OF THOSE BODIES, THAT IS. ARE YOU HOLDING ME TO A DIFFERENT STANDARD AS YOURSELF?"
"No, I hold us to the same standard, I just like to point out the double standard that hero society has dressed itself up in."
"I WILL STOP YOU THERE," Sawtooth interrupted. "I CAN TELL THAT YOU ARE THE IDEOLOGICAL TYPE. I'VE DABBLED MYSELF. MATTERS OF PHILOSOPHY AND OPINION ARE FASCINATING TO ME. THAT BEING SAID, I WANT TO MAKE IT CLEAR THAT I DO NOT INTEND TO ENGAGE YOU IN AN IDEOLOGICAL BATTLE LIKE THE ONE YOU SUSPECT THAT YOU ARE WAGING."
"Oh? And why is that?"
"IT IS NOT JUST FOR THE POSSIBILITY OF MY LOSING, SOMETHING THAT I MUST DISCLOSE FOR HONESTY AND INTEGRITIES SAKE. IT IS SIMPLY THAT I MAINTAIN THAT WE ARE ENGAGED IN A PERSONAL STRUGGLE. YOU'VE ATTACKED MY HOME AND MY FAMILY, SOMETHING WHICH I CANNOT FORGIVE NO MATTER HOW CONVINCING YOU ARE OR ARE NOT IN MATTERS DEBATE."
"I see. So that's how it is?"
"YES."
"You're something else, you know that?"
"A REDUNDANT PLATITUDE. FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE, YOU ARE ONE AND YOU ARE YOU. AND SO EVERYTHING ELSE IS 'SOMETHING ELSE'."
"In a manner of speaking, yes," Redd began.
Sawtooth detected movement from their rear flank. Another voice spoke from Redd's mind.
"And in another manner of speaking, no."
"Sickle Guillotine."
Sawtooth oriented their propulsion module and burned a precisely calculated measure of fuel in order to ambulate a pre-determined distance in a sufficiently minute order.
In other words, they dodged.
Sickle's attack only cut through burned mud and the splattered remains of Redd's own pawns. Sawtooth was at the ready. Usually, the tall and spindly insect mutant would use their front legs in order to pivot back after a successful use of their 'sickle guillotine' technique. However, their advanced injuries meant that not only was the execution of the attack slower than usual, but the recovery was aswell.
Sawtooth took to their task in a clinical fashion. They did not 'rip to shreds' so much as they 'disassembled' their enemies. One hand flashed from underneath the cowl. A kind of claw was attached at the wrist, one of the machine's new weapons.
"Sixth Hand: Vice Breaker."
The mutant's chitinous carapace crunched under Sawtooth's claw grip. Tearing off Sickle's injured blade arm was quite simple with straight-forward application hydraulic strength and backwards rocket propulsion.
The machine aimed for the neck with its sequential swing. They attacked the neck with the mutant's own de-attached blade arm. A decapitation was something Sawtooth was more than capable of preforming themself. This was more of a probe on their part. It was a gesture not unlike a doctor striking your knee with a mallet.
It was merely a test of reaction speed.
Sickle put up a block. One bladed arm was enough to stop another in its tracks. Fifty milliseconds. Sawtooth was sure to make note of that number. They need only complete an attack within that generous margin to ensure lethality. A trivial task.
Sawtooth's burners flared. They employed their weaponised arms. A fully renovated suite of tools. Their express purpose was combat.
"Third Hand: Extendo-Knife."
Sawtooth was behind Sickle in less than the time it took you to blink. Almost exactly, in fact. A blink takes one hundred milliseconds on average, and Sawtooth completed their attack in a positively lackadaisical forty-nine milliseconds.
The third arm. The Extendo-Knife. From the elbow of this arm to the wrist, there is a compartment containing a folded blade. The blade can be deployed by disengaging a lock at the wrist, in which case the mere act of exerting a small amount of centrifugal force onto the arm will cause it to fold out and extend to roughly three times Sawtooth's own height at maximum extension. The lock can be re-engaged at whatever time to make the knife extend shorter distances. Once the attack has elapsed, the knife can be retracted with gravity by simply holding the arm aloft and letting the pieces fall back into their folded state. The only machine component was the lock. All of the work was done by the laws of physics. Very few points of failure. An energy-efficient, fast and deadly melee weapon.
Sickle's severed head dropped. Simulation accuracy met with Sawtooth's expectations. Target neutralised.
Redd rubbed their chin. Sickle was an acceptable loss. They had already been injured to the point of more or less having outlived their usefulness. The information that they provided on their robotic opponent, however, was most valuable.
Redd knew exactly how to attack. As Chairman Meow lept, Hammer took a hold of the Queen in a thick cage of densely armoured fingers. Sawtooth reacted quick. It only took the machine thirty milliseconds to both react and swing their Extendo-Knife this time around. To the chairman, that was like they were moving in slow motion.
What still looked pretty quick to the Chairman were bullets.
"Fourth Hand: Nine Type Suppressor."
A nine-millimetre submachine gun. Weak against armoured targets, but effective against large groups of squishies. It could be oriented in any direction to make use of recoil in order to propel the gun along a line, or concentric vents could be opened along the barrel to equalize the recoil in every direction and keep the firing relatively stable. A magazine held one hundred and twenty-eight rounds, of which Sawtooth held four. One in use, and three in reserve.
Do not ask where he got them from.
The Chairman was riddled full of holes, unable to manoeuvre in mid-air. Sawtooth grabbed the mutant by its shoulder and pressed the barrel of the suppressor right up against its mask.
The head was removed in a flurry of bullets. Torn through like a sheet of paper. Wet clumps of grey matter rained down on Redd. Bothersome. Highly bothersome.
Chairman Meow stopped moving. The robot dropped the body and let it break against the ground. It bounced a few times and landed in a contorted, crooked position.
Redd was quickly running out of bodies. When numbers failed them, they had two last resorts. The first was brute force.
"Hammer Cracking Down."
Sawtooth was blindsided. They had discounted Hammer on account of its large size. They didn't expect it to be able to move particularly quickly, and they certainly didn't expect the ridiculous looking implement on its head to be an actually practical weapon.
As it turns out, when you have something very long that you want to get moving at a great speed, you don't need to move it very fast at the base to get the tip moving extremely quickly.
Sawtooth was left in their own crater. Redd surveyed them from the safe platform of Hammer's clasped hands.
"I suppose that did some damage, then?" Redd inquired.
Sawtooth self-righted very unsteadily. Several parts of their body were bent in the wrong way, and they constantly sparked from frayed wires touching exposed metal. This would not do.
"Fifth Hand: Welding Burn."
That hand was simple enough. Just a small oxy-acetylene welder in its most base applications. A little blue flame peaked out from the small port below Sawtooth's wrist. They worked quickly. Nobody was as familiar with Sawtooth's body as Sawtooth was. Not even their creator, especially after all of the self-inflicted modifications.
Sawtooth made quick, smooth, robotic motions. Their parts melted to a liquid, cooled and fused together. They held themselves in place well enough that Sawtooth could fight. More advanced repairs could be conducted later, but this would be sufficient.
"I'm impressed with your versatility," said Redd.
"YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT KIND OF PERSON THAT YOU WILL MEET. 'QUIRKS' MAKE THIS ESPECIALLY DIFFICULT. ONE MUST BE EQUIPPED FOR ANY SCENARIO."
"I concur. Back to it, then?"
"BACK TO IT."
Redd was the first one to make a move.
"Hammer Cracking Down."
The hammer split the earth. Redd felt the vibration of the attack from their perch. Surely people all around the school would have detected a tremor from that. If the robot had been caught under that, they would surely be flattened.
If.
"YOU MUST RELEASE YOURSELF FROM THE FALLACIOUS NOTION THAT JUST BECAUSE SOMETHING WORKED ONCE, IT NECESSARILY WILL WORK AGAIN."
If Sawtooth had facial muscles, they would be grinning. The enemy had attacked just as the simulations had predicted.
Sawtooth was right behind the Queen. Hammer struck its palm with its own fist before Sawtooth could launch an attack against the high priority body. The machine buzzed around, peppering the giant with nine-millimetre fire. It was, as they predicted, ineffective. Sawtooth emptied their magazine just to check.
Okay, time for a new approach.
Sawtooth swooped in, dodging a remarkably quick open palm swipe. The Queen was tragically limited in its uses against a fireproof enemy, and fighting off this fast, annoying foe was going to be tough for Hammer, but Redd thought that as long as their rook's armour remained unbreakable, then their stalemate would continue until the machine exhausted itself.
Sawtooth had a weapon that would be perfect.
"Sixth Hand: Vice Breaker."
The vice was as compact as possible but still looked bulky on Sawtooth's lithe arms. It utilized a combination of simple leverage and hydraulic power to extract as much compressing force as possible from as little material, and weight, as possible. The vice then became something much akin to a fusion of a hydraulic press and a nutcracker.
On each forcep was a small metal tooth. It was like the tooth that a baby lizard uses to emerge from its shell. This was one of Sawtooth's many secret weapons. Low calibre munitions and blades would not be sufficient in breaking through thick armour, Sawtooth reasoned. And so, they retrofitted the vice with these little spikes.
Their only purpose was to put cracks in the enemy. Like a little lizard breaking through an eggshell. When you put the force of the vice behind them, the results were astonishing.
Hammer's horn groaned like a glacier rubbing up against the bow of a ship. It splintered, shards falling off and revealing the fleshy interior. The immense compressive force of Sawtooth's vice was overpowering Hammer's defences. The giant swatted furiously, but simply didn't have the range of motion required to strike the buzzing machine.
There was a thunderous crack, and Hammer's horn was as good as timber. Like a felled tree, it simply keeled over. It was barely connected to the mutant's head by a few fleshy fibres.
Sawtooth didn't care to detach it. Let it hang, it will weigh the enemy down. What the robot was interested in was the stump that it left. More specifically, the weak point. A fleshy area leading right into the head.
Sawtooth placed an intrepid foot up on the rim of the destroyed horn and plumbed their fourth hand deep into the cavity.
"Fourth Hand: Nine Type Suppressor."
Cracks and flashes like firecrackers came from atop the beast's head. It gushed with nondescript fluid, not quite the right colour to be blood. Hammer groaned and slowed down significantly. But it did not stop. Sawtooth needed something a little more powerful. The nine millimetre was ineffective against even the exposed meat of the gargantuan. He had only perforated it. Like drilling a hole in a stone wall to place a charge of explosive. Sawtooth now readied the proverbial explosive.
"Fifth Hand: Maximum Burn."
It wasn't just for welding. By activating several injectors a stream of petroleum jelly was blasted through a higher pressure nozzle over the controlled flame. This kind of fuel was particularly horrific. It stuck to you, and it kept burning. Hot. For a long time. It had other names. Most commonly, napalm. The burn was hot and magnificent. Licks of brilliant flame emerged from the hole in Hammer's head like a gushing volcano.
The beast came to its knees, and then stopped entirely. Target neutralised.
At that point, Redd truly realised something. What he was fighting, it fought for the heroes but made no claim of heroism. It was a brutal, tactical and lethal machine warrior. It was a soldier, a weapon of war. It was so… very… honest.
It had no facade and no showmanship. This was the true reflection of Redd's enemy. It did not hide its face. It was earnest in its annihilation. It was so… refreshing. As Redd's rook fell, the Queen spoke.
"You know, I'm rather starting to like you."
Sawtooth was tackled from the front by Chairman Meow's headless body. The neck from which the head was removed looked freshly cauterized and the mutant was up and moving as if nothing had happened. Sawtooth was thrown back and crashed into an already mostly rubble wall. The collision finished the job, completely demolishing that section of the building.
"Destroying the brain is of no use."
The queen moved forward casually with a walking stick, as their mount was predisposed.
"The brain stem is more than enough for the body to be controlled remotely. In fact, if one of my bodies has any nervous tissue remaining in their body at all, sending and receiving commands should be of no concern. Of course, the body can still run out of blood or be dismembered or other unsightly things. But I'll remind you that they are highly resistant to pain aswell."
The Chairman unleashed a series of rapid super-sonic kicks that railed the machine, sinking into any part of it that looked vulnerable. Sparks and scraps of metal flew. Sawtooth protected themselves as much as they could with the cowl. The shock absorption was working overtime and starting to fall behind. Sawtooth felt the fibres unwind and fray in places. No matter how durable the miracle fibre was, it had its limits. Redd planned on testing them.
"Fourth Hand: Nine Type Suppressor."
Sawtooth unloaded the rest of their munitions into whatever part of Chairman Meow that they happened to fall into. A few bounced off of their carapace, a few sunk into the flesh, not striking anything vital. Eventually, enough was pumped into them that they risked serious, debilitating damage. They let up, leaving Sawtooth to recover in a rubble foxhole.
"...Fifth… Hand: Welder-"
"No, allow me."
"Fire of the Proletariate."
Redd filled the cubby with their own acrid, screeching flames. They lit up the night in dirty red. Black smoke obscured the target. Redd couldn't be sure if that had done anything, so they decided not to risk it.
"Fire of the Proletariate."
Another one. They let the temperature go up in there. If the flames couldn't heat up Sawtooth directly, then they would just have to heat up everything else until the machine cooked. It would be slower, but surer.
The next bombardment of toxic conflagration filled the hole up to the brim and spilt out of the edges. It was staining the stones black and red. Redd could feel the heat from where they were standing. Any biological target that faced this kind of punishment would have been cremated a long time ago.
A while after the stream subsided, Sawtooth came stumbling out of the hole. Redd needed a little moment for their reserves to fill back up. Making that much fire in so little time burned through fuel quite quickly.
Redd looked at Sawtooth's face. Although it betrayed no emotion, Redd could still read it. It was the face of someone about to run away.
Which meant that it was time to finish them off. Quickly.
The Chairman began what could be their final sprint. Right towards Sawtooth. When they passed by the side of the robot, they banked inwards. They made a turn all the way around and kept on that path.
They were spinning. Making a ring around Sawtooth. They needed to wait to cool off before they could activate their thrusters, and they had just run out of ammunition. They had no choice but to wait and react.
The chairman's spin became tighter and tighter. Eventually, they turned on a dime practically in place. That was the first step. Second, acceleration. The chairman sped up. They went so fast that they started to whip up a wind. This was exactly what Redd wanted.
The Chairman accelerated faster and faster still. The wind needed to pick up even more. Redd was making a whirlwind. A cyclone formed, one with Sawtooth trapped in the middle of it. The torrent created a vacuum effect, trapping the robot in place. It took all of their thrust just to stop from being thrown about like garbage. Sawtooth hadn't anticipated them being capable of this kind of output.
Redd didn't care if the chairman ran until their legs were down to stumps and their body was stripped and buffed down to a ribcage from the wind resistance. Sometimes in a game of chess, you need to sacrifice your pieces.
Redd inhaled, their mask filling with volatile chemicals, and unleashed their flames towards the whirlwind.
"Collective Technique: Flameward Spiral."
The cyclone brought the flames in, fanned them and spun them around. It wasn't just a cyclone that Sawtooth was trapped in anymore. They were inside a spinning hellscape, trapped in a prison of scarlet screaming fire.
They were being cooked, just like before. Sawtooth began to melt, just a little bit. Their outermost metal crust liquified just slightly and dripped down.
Sawtooth… Began to think that it was time to cut their losses. It was not 'defeated', but a tactical retreat was starting to look favourable over the alternatives. They had bitten off more than they could chew, and needed to rethink their approach. The question then became how.
The simulations were completed quickly. The robot's best chance was to allow the torrent to take them. They would be brought upwards along with the hot, rising air and the flow of the wind and could escape the cyclone from the top. Redd didn't have anything that could chase them in the air.
That way, they could-
CRUNCH.
Sawtooth had misplaced a variable, and that variable had just misplaced Sawtooth's torso. Hammer wasn't dead. It was as alive as the Chairman was, and more than willing to throw itself into flames in order to just finish the enemy off.
The flames wrapped around Hammer like a cloak. They enveloped the beast, clinging to it and setting it alight.
"Effigy of Capital…"
"You are an enemy of a sinister kind," Redd said calmly. "If I leave you to your own devices, you will become stronger. Eventually, you may become strong enough to beat me. I can't let that happen, so even if it takes sacrifices in the short term, I will eliminate you for good. Right here."
Chairman Meow collapsed from overwork. They were like a burned-out husk now. A completely expended body. A revival was unlikely. But they had served their purpose honourably. It was down to just the Queen and the Rook.
Sawtooth saw their own death. Their body was in pieces. Demolished by the titanic punch from Hammer. Their cowl was of no help. They started to think that this was a mistake. I mean, of the eight new arms that they had designed, only six of them were complete and only four of those were weapons. The first two were just for the purpose of manipulation. They were mundane limbs, designed to hold and move things…
They… They did have a secondary function.
Self destruct.
"THAT IS A SHAME."
Sawtooth clasped their front two hands together in a definite configuration. One that could only be replicated with purpose. A countdown began internally. If they had to be destroyed, they were going to do as much damage as possible to the enemy as they did so. And they would be destroyed on their own terms. It was a fine way to go, Sawtooth supposed. But still…
"I… I WANTED TO LIVE A LITTLE LONGER. I WANTED TO ANSWER… MORE QUESTIONS…"
The countdown was getting low. Redd was none the wiser.
"And now, the parting shot. I wish I could have learned your name, but alas, we were enemies."
The Queen turned and walked away while Hammer stepped up to bat. The fire cloak gargantua raised an elbow to the sky and prepared to drop.
"I WANTED TO TALK TO THAT GIRL ONE MORE TIME... THE ONE THAT SAVED ME…"
"World Crushing Capital."
"ALTHOUGH, THERE IS NO USE DESPAIRING OVER WHAT CANNOT BE CHANGED."
"First and Second Hands: Final Detonation."
…
…
…
…
…
The ground opened up.
It split apart and the fissure carried Sawtooth away. Everything started rumbling. A powerful mechanism whirred and buzzed and rattled. Something was rising from below. Silver and tall. A knight in resplendent armour.
Quite literally a shining deus ex machina.
"It seems we've run into some hostiles already," said Rory, standing atop the mechanical behemoth's shoulder. The PenDragon raised its mighty hand and stopped Hammer's flaming elbow drop dead in its tracks. Like it was trash, the PenDragon thrust it's fist and threw Hammer back. The beast landed on the seat on its pants.
"Indeed it does. Indeed it does."
The voice was run through a filter. It made it sound booming and boisterous. It split the ears to listen to. It would have been unrecognizable to anyone who didn't already know who was piloting the machine. Rory knew that it was Laddie, of course.
"...God…" Redd growled. "...God DAMN IT!..."
"They seem upset…" Rory whispered.
"Are you merely in despair over facing the embodiment of justice itself, foul villain?"
"You're laying it on a bit thick, teacher…"
"This shit ALWAYS happens… Something always comes to save you… How many times has this happened tonight alone? It's enough to drive someone mad…"
"Should we just use the missiles?" Asked Laddie.
"Sounds like a plan."
With a satisfying hum and the sound of metal sliding against metal, panels all over the PenDragon's body opened up. Redd could only laugh.
"More missiles..." they chuckled. "MORE missiles…"
In a storm of smoke and golden light, the PenDragon unleashed its first salvo of artillery.
"Arrows. Of. Light!"
…
…
…
…
…
It happened again.
"What was that you were saying, Redd?"
That voice. It was familiar but different. The sounds were the same, but the tone had changed. The voice hadn't changed, but it was certainly a different person saying them. Redd couldn't even tell what had happened themselves, but the missiles had been intercepted by something.
"Hark! More evildoers?"
"It was something about someone always coming to save the good guys? Or them getting a powerup or something? Yeah, I hate that shit too."
"Dire… Is that you?" Redd inquired.
"Who else?"
Redd looked up at where the voice was coming from. Dire was standing on the school's roof, silhouetted by the moon.
"Did… did you stop those missiles...?"
"Yup."
"From all the way over there?"
Redd thought about what that meant. Dire had been blessed. Now they were something else entirely. A monster in their own right. Powers beyond comprehension were in their grasp, just waiting to be shown off. The boy's body was splattered with black slime and crisscrossed with rows of teeth.
"I presume that the meeting went well."
"The meeting went fine. I just came to make a report… Although it's starting to look like you could use a hand," Dylan snarled from all over their body. Hungering anticipation of future violence.
"Well, what is it? What's the report?"
"Oh, right… It's pretty short actually. Here: 'Mission Accomplished'."
TO BE CONTINUED
Another of our battles enters into its final chapter! With each fight arriving at a climax, or close to one, it seems that this arc is soon to wrap up! We are more than two thirds through it, at least. So I suppose you could say that we have entered the last act of the Union Invasion Arc! What did everyone think of the chapter? Sawtooth's upgrades? The entrance of the PenDragon and at last Rory's chance to fight? Let me know in the reviews! Come talk about it in the discord!
And as always, thanks for reading. I'll see you in the next one!
