As the Scarves fight their way to the engineering decks, Team Avalice fights their way towards the cockpit. Knowing that time is limited, the trio fight hard and fast, but Corazon is no fool: she's stationed just enough robots to ensure the girls are delayed long enough for the Sigwada to arrive at the location of the Bakunawa, and for the wildcat to flee to the superweapon with Merga.
However, Corazon hadn't allowed for the fact the Scarves are brutally efficient; the ship shudders to a halt less than ten miles from the location of the Bakunawa.
"What was that‽" Milla exclaims as the ship shudders.
"The Scarves buying us more time," Carol concludes correctly as the ship goes dark. "Let's not waste it."
The trio advance at pace through the red emergency lighting, soon arriving outside the dojo in which Lilac faced Merga a second time, only to be defeated, captured, tortured, and broken. A sudden wave of panic crashes over the dragoness, and she freezes, unable to proceed.
Carol notices her friend's sudden mood change immediately. "You're not alone this time," she assures.
It takes several moments for Lilac to respond. "I… I know, but… it's just…"
"Take that fear and use it to drive you," Carol instructs. "How do you think I tricked Corazon into accepting me?"
"You… You mean…" Lilac begins.
"I was scared shitless the whole time," Carol winks and smiles reassuringly.
Lilac takes a deep breath. "I… I'll try‑"
The sound of a door slamming shut interrupts them both.
"What was that‽" Carol exclaims, spinning towards the sound. "The room's in lockdown! But I thought all the systems were‑ Dammit! There must be a backup! Why didn't I think of that‽"
"Um… where's Milla?" Lilac asks, looking around.
"She was here a moment‑" The realisation hits Carol like a landslide. "She's in the room. Alone."
"We need to get in there."
"Way ahead of you," Carol agrees, already analysing the door for weaknesses.
The door slamming shut behind Milla takes the hound by surprise. Wheeling around with a shield raised, she's relieved to see no threat, but disappointed in herself for becoming isolated from her friends. Well, that was dumb. Milla approaches the door and looks for any sign of weakness. Nothing obvious… no exposed mechanism… no control pad?
Suddenly, the wall opposite the basset hound explodes, showering the floor with shrapnel. Almost leaping out of her fur, Milla spins to face the new threat. "Uh‑oh…"
Both Lilac and Carol almost jump out of their fur at the near‑deafening crash from the other side of the door.
"That doesn't sound good," Lilac comments, worry dripping from every syllable.
"Dammit! There's no way to get this open!" Carol curses. "We'll need to find another way in," she adds, sprinting back down the corridor in search of another entrance, Lilac following a moment later.
Corazon snaps to alert at the sound of the crash. What the fuck was that‽ Curious, Corazon tries once more to revive her console, thankful that one of the screens has come back to life, and is surprised at the video feed being shown on it. I thought he was in the engineering decks? Why is he in Merga's dojo?
Corazon turns to leave the bridge but hesitates. I wonder… Electing to watch, Corazon settles into the captain's chair and pulls the screen in front of her.
As the dust clears, the springer of the trap is revealed to be the greasemonkey housed safely inside his most powerful mech yet. Fully twenty‑five feet tall, the oversized spherical torso has every inch of it covered with six‑inch spikes, the only exceptions being the two powerful legs (also covered with spikes), the four arms (two ending in crushing hands, two in powerful plasma cannons), and the tiny windscreen, through which the greasemonkey can be seen laughing manically.
With her psychoergokinetic shield on her left arm, Milla draws her sword and energises it. "I won't let you win!" she challenges.
"You th‑th‑th‑th‑think you c‑c‑can b‑beat th‑th‑this?" the greasemonkey challenges.
"I've beaten every mech I've faced!" Milla boasts without arrogance.
"You w‑w‑w‑w‑w‑won't b‑b‑b‑beat th‑this one!" the greasemonkey cackles.
Milla barely has time to evade the greasemonkey's initial volley of plasma fire, the super‑hot projectiles scorching the floor where the basset hound was stood. As the mech turns, Milla recalls how Carol defeated the mech in Shang Mu, and continues to run in a circle around the mech, trying to get him to track her and overload the mech's mechanisms. But the greasemonkey is wise to the tactic: he instead rotates the torso the other way, almost immolating Milla as she slides to halt just short of another plasma blast.
So much for that tactic. Milla turns about‑face and sprints across the room, taking care to avoid the shrapnel littering the floor as she puts as much space between her and the mech as possible. This change of tactic proves sensible: the mech's weight and construction makes it ponderous in its advance. Nevertheless, Milla is forced to defend heavily as the greasemonkey unleashes a barrage of plasma bolts at the hound.
The extra distance gives Milla a second advantage: with enough time to read the direction of the blasts, she's able to manœuvre herself and use her shield to deflect the plasma bolts right back at the mech. Initially, her deflections are wild, most bolts striking the walls and floor instead of the mech. But as the greasemonkey continues his barrage, Milla's aim improves, and she starts landing deflections on the mech's torso.
However, the hound can only watch in horror as every single plasma bolt bounces harmlessly off the mech, deflected and dispersed by a shimmering energy shield.
Fighting down a rising sense of panic, Milla switches tactic again, charging directly at the mech, her shield raised in front of her. As she runs, her deflections once again become wild and scattered. But Milla doesn't care: she just wants to get close to the mech.
Too late, the greasemonkey realises what Milla is planning: before he can react, the hound slips between the legs of the mech, the crushing hands slamming into the floor just inches behind her. Now behind the mech, Milla turns and leaps into the air, using her ears to give herself as much extra height as she can. As she rises, the mech begins to turn, but it's too late: Milla slices the feed to the right plasma cannon with her energised piandao. With the feed severed, energy leaks into the arm itself, frying it and melting the mounting. Ruined, the arm falls off the mech, clanging uselessly onto the deck.
With a bellow of rage, the greasemonkey raises the other right arm, effortlessly swiping Milla out of the air and across the room. Unable to control her flight, Milla lands hard among the shrapnel, several pieces sticking in her limbs as she tumbles. When she finally comes to a halt, the hound picks herself up with a struggle, wincing from the swipe, the tumble, and the shrapnel peppering her arms and legs.
The greasemonkey aims the working plasma cannon at Milla. "Any l‑l‑l‑l‑last w‑w‑w‑words?" he cackles.
Kill him. Milla shakes her head to clear her mind. Can't let it awaken. "You won't beat me."
The greasemonkey fires.
Milla leaps out of the way, landing on more shrapnel, several pieces puncturing her foot‑pads. The hound yelps as she lands but summons internal strength to remain standing. "Try again." Kill him. No. It's the only way to win. No!
The greasemonkey aims and fires, Milla dodging with surprising ease, leaving bloody pawprints as she runs. Each step pushes the shrapnel deeper into her feet, but the basset pushes through the pain, avoiding the immolating plasma following her across the room.
Suddenly, Milla turns and once again charges the mech. However, this time she doesn't aim between the legs: instead, she charges towards the mech's left flank. The greasemonkey reads Milla's intent much sooner, but the mech is too slow to respond, and the hound once again narrowly escapes being crushed. Another Flutter Jump gets her high enough to disable the second plasma cannon, which also falls to the decking, charred and useless.
The greasemonkey once again swipes Milla out of the air, this time sending the hound hurtling into the wall. Winded by the impact, Milla slides to the deck and collapses, desperately trying to regain her breath. But before she can recover, the greasemonkey closes the distance. Reaching down, the mech closes an oversized fist around the stricken hound and lifts her up to the windscreen.
"Th‑Th‑This is w‑w‑w‑w‑where it ends f‑for you!" the greasemonkey gloats, slowly increasing the hand's pressure.
Unable to escape or even move, Milla can feel the breath being slowly squeezed from her body. Let me loose. Never! You need me to survive. No!
You don't have a choice.
The hand stops contracting.
Confused, the greasemonkey hammers away at the controls, trying everything he can think of to get the hand contracting again. Preoccupied, he fails to notice Milla's eyes snapping wide open, her irises no longer their usual jade green, but blood red.
Suddenly, the hand detonates in a blinding flash of light.
When his vision recovers, the greasemonkey looks out the windscreen, his surprise immediately replaced with terror at the horror hovering in front of the mech. For Milla Basset has disappeared: in her place is a mutated monstrosity fully ten feet long, its form that of a primitive canine, but with an oversized segmented tail ending in a large tip faceted with orange and green, and a face that is utterly alien, with one green eye above one orange.
If the greasemonkey wasn't already insane, the daemonic screech of the beast would have broken his sanity.
Outside the dojo, the daemonic screech causes Carol to pause in her attempts to open the third door she and Lilac have tried. "Shit."
"Was… Was that…?" Lilac asks.
"Shade Milla," Carol confirms.
Panicking in pure terror, the greasemonkey throws everything he can at Shade Milla. However, the beast avoids the attacks with ease. With another daemonic screech, the facets in the end of her tail part, exposing a gaping black maw. A moment later, a torrent of Phantom Blocks pours out of the maw, the beast scattering them over the entire torso of the mech. The torrent of Phantom Blocks quickly overwhelms the shields, and they fail with a flash.
This only serves to anger Shade Milla more. Unleashing a wall shuddering howl, the beast rains waves of jade energy over the mech. The energy tears through the torso, setting off an array of small explosions that threaten to rip the mech apart.
But Shade Milla isn't finished yet. She aims her tail at the greasemonkey‑
The mech suddenly detonates, catapulting Shade Milla so hard and fast across the room she slams into it with enough force to leave a dent a foot deep. Emitting a pitiful wail, the beast slips out of the wall and falls to the floor, motionless, her breathing laboured.