Chapter 37-Skyfall
The beginning of the assault popped off with the first wave of Skywatch tanks, talos and attack helicopters. Thanks to Pisces's advancements and upgrades, the vehicles were able to deal more damage in their opening attack on the Decepticons. A volley of missile and laser fire assaulted the Cons once they got close enough, momentarily slowing them down.
"Laser weapons?" Nightshade frowned, firing an arrow at a tank and destroying it before taking out one of the stationary plasma cannons. "How the hell did they get laser weapons?"
"It seems Skywatch has been busy this past year." Megatron said. He pointed his fusion cannon at the entrance lift where the talos were coming from and fired. His fusion beam slammed into a honeycombed hard-light barrier that rippled visibly a bit before fading again. "Hard-light shields. Something is definitely wrong here."
"Dreadwing, take out those gunships!" Nightshade commanded.
Dreadwing and his Seekers took flight and headed for the oncoming fighters. The pilots broke away and engaged the Seekers, their sleek new fighter jets (experimental models that improved enough on the original F-35 design to ensure piloting ease and comfort even in dogfights) enabling them to somewhat match their speed. Though the fighters put up a hard fight, their skills paled in comparison to the more experienced Seekers.
Megatron and the rest of his ground forces steadily advanced while shooting at the wall of talos and tanks blocking their only entrance into the complex. The enemy had assembled in a defensive line just beyond the boundaries of the hard-light shield that was erected. Megatron was starting to get annoyed by the barrier, still wondering how the hell the humans managed to achieve this level of technological sophistication in such a short amount of time.
"Lord Megatron, while our attacks can't pierce their shielding, a successive assault should be enough to wear down the barrier's power to the point where we can cause them severe damage." Demolishor said.
"I know that, Demolishor!" Megatron snapped. "Decepticons, focus your firepower on a single point in their shield array. Shockblast, Astrontrain, attack the complex from above. Do not give them a single second to catch their breath!"
Soundwave, who was standing next to Megatron monitoring their troops on the field, tensed up when his enhanced senses detected something not too far from them. "Megatron, I've detected a large group of brain waves about a mile northwest from our position."
Megatron saw a pillar of light appear and from it materialized a large group of dark grey mechanoids with horned skull-like heads and joined by about 40 humans in black armor. In the lead of the group was a white armored giant heading the group, most likely the commander.
"Those humans…Megatron, look at their armor." Nightshade said.
Megatron saw it. A bird-like emblem etched onto the front breast plate of the humans' uniform.
"OZ." Megatron growled hatefully. He marched forward, pushing past Wreckage and Darkshadow. "They would have a hand in this. Nightshade, take command of our main forces. Darkshadow, you and your team join me in fighting these pale imitations. Leave the white giant to me!"
Megatron had no idea what that white monstrosity was, but he wouldn't put it past OZ to have made some mutant abomination specifically to fight cybertronians. The white giant stared back at him before the armor plates around its mouth slid back to expose its sharp teeth and it roared at him.
The Death's Head drones followed Pisces's forward charge, with the inhumans riding on their shoulders. As they got closer to the Decepticons, the inhumans unleashed their distortion halo fields on the cybertronians, and unleashed hell.
Megatron hissed as a halo blast scorched his right leg, but he fought through the pain and continued forward. He ignored the inhumans and focused on Pisces, who lunged forward to grab him. He avoided the Zodiac's tackles and attempts to grapple him, knowing that the giant could do some powerful damage if he got a hold on him. Unfortunately for Pisces, Megatron was no stranger to fighting bulky warriors as strong as him.
"Do you know who I am, monster?" Megatron dodged a kick and landed one of his own to Pisces's chest, delivering a blow so strong it cracked the armor plating on Pisces's chest. "Do you know who you are fighting?"
Pisces growled and lunged forward to throw a punch at Megatron's head. The warlord titled his head just enough to let the punch sail past his face by a hair's breath before pulling his fist back.
Pisces had no time to move as Megatron's fist shot forward, slamming into the left side of his face. The punch completely shattered the armor plating on his face and crushed the skin and bone underneath, throwing Pisces to the ground. Steam rose from his damaged face as it began to heal and Pisces glared up at Megatron, who stood over him.
"I am Megatron!" The warlord howled, his red eyes flashing with battle lust.
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Darren, Annie and Gina ran through the halls of the prison block looking for Veronica Howard. They were far from the chaos ravaging the rest of the base, but they could hear the gunfire and shouting going on.
"What's going on out there?" Annie grunted. "Did some of the Cons get into the base?"
"It's Pisces, he's started his takeover of Skywatch!" Gina said. "We have to find Dr. Howard now and get out of here."
"Let me handle that." Darren stopped and put his hand to the wall. He focused and released a telekinetic wave that reverberated throughout the area, like echolocation. Ever since he used this technique back when he and Annie were saving Debbie from Flamewar, Darren had been practicing on using it with Undertone, though he never had to really use it until now. It didn't take him long to locate Veronica, and he opened his eyes.
"I found her, come on!"
The girls followed after Darren as they ran down the hall and turned a corner. There they almost stumbled into a pair of guards on patrol.
"What the—?!"
Before they could even raise their guns, Darren rushed forward and slammed his fist into the first guard's chest, releasing a telekinetic blast that sent the man crashing through the door to one of the empty cells. He ducked under the second guard's arm and chopped the man in the throat, making him choke before grabbing his head and slamming him face first into the floor. Darren smoothed out his shirt and kept walking.
"I don't have time to screw around with you people." He spat, not noticing Annie and Gina's looks of surprise.
They reached the cell Veronica was being held in and Darren easily ripped the door off its hinges with a single pull of his mind. Veronica screamed and fell off her cot.
"What…it's you!" Veronica gasped. "The Autobots' friends."
"Veronica, we're here to set you free." Gina stepped forward. "The base is under attack from the Decepticons and OZ is starting a takeover of the base."
"OZ? So Prowl was right." Veronica scowled. "And Laguna Harvey is—"
"Pisces, one of the twelve Zodiac generals who lead OZ. Right now he's out there fighting the Cons, but left behind his reserve forces to take over the base." Darren said. "We need to leave right now before we're caught in the worst of the fighting."
Veronica nodded and followed the children out of the cell. "I know a way to the emergency exits. Follow me."
Veronica led the children out of the prison block and up a few flights of stairs to the second sub level. Unfortunately there were already several gun fights going on between OZ soldiers and Skywatch agents.
Meanwhile, Siegfried was directing the assault on the base while ripping through the security forces that tried to stop him. It was pathetically easy, as Skywatch was unprepared for the betrayal and sudden attack on both fronts, as well as the combined power of two inhumans.
"Sir, we've got a problem!" One of the agents radioed Siegfried. "The children that were taken prisoner earlier have gotten free and are now moving up the base."
"Say no more. I've got it handled." Siegfried said. He turned to Brianna, who just got done snapping a soldier's neck in her hands. "Brianna, new orders. We've got—"
"I know, I heard it all. You handle the twins." She said. Brianna marched down the hall with a fierce scowl. "Gina is mine."
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"So Skywatch has the children hostage and now the Cons are getting involved." Trailbreaker looked at the other Autobots. "Anyone wondering how the Cons knew where there were?"
"Megatron has as much reason to hate Skywatch as we do, Trailbreaker, but that's not important right now." Optimus said. "Darren, Annie and Gina are literally in the middle of a warzone right now and the entire region is about to implode. We need to go in and rescue them before the Decepticons level the base."
"What's the plan, Prime?" Tomahawk asked, looking at the computer. "Because there is a lot of firepower being thrown around at that base."
"Thanks to the Neo Knights, don't ask me how they're able to find us, we have the childrens' exact coordinates, which save us the trouble of trying to locate them. But we still have to fight through Skywatch, the Decepticons, and potentially OZ." Optimus said. "Let them fight each other. We'll use the battle as a distraction to get as close as possible to the base."
"Do you really think it's going to be that simple?" Rodimus asked.
"No. I'd be a fool for thinking that. But it's the only plan we've got." Optimus said.
The Autobots assembled in the shuttle bay, where Ratchet and Prowl were waiting by the ground bridge controls.
"We'll monitor things on this end, Prime." Prowl said. "I'll keep Colonel Barnett informed of the situation."
"Thank you, Prowl." Optimus folded his ion rifle and placed it into his back compartment before sheathing the Star Saber. "Autobots, transform and roll out!"
The Autobots transformed and sped into the ground bridge, onward into battle against their two most dangerous enemies with the intent of saving their friends.
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Steam rose from Pisces's damaged face as he healed from Megatron's powerful punch. His left eye had already grown back and he was glaring up at Megatron.
"What's the matter monster?" Megatron taunted. "Can't you take a punch?"
Megatron lunged forward and sent another punch at Pisces, which was blocked when the esper crossed his arms in front of his face. The force of the blow knocked Pisces back into the canyon wall and cracked the armor plates all along his arms. Megatron gave him no time to recover as he fell upon him raining punch after punch at his upper body.
'This mech's as bad as Optimus Prime!' Pisces thought. He could already feel his armor cracking and breaking from Megatron's powerful blows and knew he had to act fast.
Pisces waited for a lull in Megatron's assault before he shot forward at the warlord. Megatron jumped back to avoid the grapple, but Pisces managed to grab hold of his leg in an iron grip.
With a roar, Pisces lifted Megatron right off his feet and threw him over his head for all to see before slamming him into the ground. Rocks and dirt flew everywhere as Megatron's large body made a crater in the ground. Pisces pulled Megatron toward him by the leg and threw a punch at his face, but Megatron tilted his head to let it slide past his face to bury into the dirt.
Megatron twisted his body and kicked Pisces in the face before wrapping his legs around the esper's torso and using his weight to throw Pisces away. Pisces rolled across the ground to right himself, but he stumbled back to avoid Megatron's right hook, almost losing his jaw to that attack.
'This isn't working.' Pisces thought as he backpedaled away. 'He's too strong to grapple and he hits even harder than Prime. I might need some help fighting him.'
"You're a decent fighter, monster, but you're no Optimus." Megatron said. "And I don't have time to play with you. Nightshade!"
Pisces stiffened and looked up to see Nightshade firing an arrow in his direction. It moved too fast for him to avoid and all he could do was raise his arms to blow it as the arrow exploded and filled his vision with bright light.
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While the Decepticons were fighting the majority of the base's defenders, the Autobots had just emerged from the ground bridge on the other side of the canyon, right on top of the hidden entrance to the base. As soon as they got within a certain distance of the base, the facility's hidden weapons activated, firing upon the Autobots.
"Let us pass!" Optimus drew the Star Saber and swung it, releasing an energy wave that destroyed the automated cannons as well as a huge chunk of the canyon wall. The Autobots focused their firepower on the outward defenses, completely demolishing them as they got closer to the base.
"Focus your fire on the shields! We can overload them if we—gah!" Ironhide took a laser blast to the chest that sent him crashing back into Rodimus.
"Watch it, old timer!" Rodimus grunted.
The Autobots came to a stop as a large group of unknown mechanoids appeared in a burst of energy—the Death's Head drones. While Hollander's doubts about the drones' effectiveness against the cybertronians in a prolonged battle were not unfounded, he didn't know that the drones proposed to him weren't the models built to OZ specs. The fifty-five units assembled in front of the Autobots were hardier and scarier than the initial designs introduced to the former director. They were powered by hybrid palladium energon reactors and used energon-based plasma weaponry (experimental) that allowed them to be somewhat of a match for whatever cybertronian crossed their path.
At the head of the small army was the massive scorpion shaped talos that was piloted by Scorpio—the Skorpios. Inside, Scorpio grinned at the sight of the Autobots.
"Looks like the gang's all here." Scorpio said, his voice carrying through his talos's speakers. "I'm guessing you're here for the brats, right?"
"You're smarter than you look." Optimus spat, gripping his sword tightly.
"Oh, I can see you're in a bad mood if you're throwing around insults, Prime. I'd watch myself if I were you, or your friends will have an even harder time inside." He said.
Arcee stepped forward and pointed her blaster at the Skorpios. "We don't have time to play games, Zodiac. Get out of our way!"
"Oh but you are playing a game, Arcee. It's called war. And OZ is currently winning this war, whether you like it or not." Scorpio pressed a button on his control panel and the drones pointed their plasma cannons at the Autobots. "Now let my friends entertain you here while the inhumans ravage the base inside and massacre your friends."
The Death's Head drones opened fire and Trailbreaker ran forward to bring up a shield to deflect the plasma bolts. "Okay, these things hit harder than they look."
"These must be the drones Prowl mentioned." Optimus said. "Tomahawk, Skyfire, lay down cover fire. We have to break through their defenses."
The two flyers transformed and took to the air, attacking the drones with a combination of missiles and laser fire. Scorpio fired a plasma beam from the stinger of his talos while peppering the other Autobots with missiles from his unit's claws.
"Any time now children." Scorpio said to his partners. "If you want revenge, now's your chance."
Optimus spotted Scorpio through the bombardment and charged at him, his Star Saber glowing in his hand. But before he could swing it, there was a large particle beam that slammed into the ground before him, blasting him back. Prime stumbled back, trying to regain his footing, and from the dust cloud came a maroon talos wielding a glowing blue sword. It slashed at his hand and made him drop the Star Saber before pressing its attack.
"I'll kill you!" Roared Nina, pushing her Drei to its limits as she slashed and hacked away at Optimus in an attempt to gut him.
Optimus brought out his battle axe and deflected her sword, but was hit in the back by another plasma beam. The black armored Eins landed beside him, pointing its beam launcher at his head.
"Nina, he's the only one we can't kill." Johann said, his tone dry and laced with pure loathing at Optimus. "No matter how much we might want to rip him apart."
"They didn't say they needed him in one piece!" Nina shouted as she blocked a strike from his axe.
Johann shook his head and took aim at Optimus again, but saw a blue flash at the corner of his eye. It was only thanks to the intensive training he took under Leo's tutelage that he was able to dodge the downward slash that almost cut his talos in half. "Shit!"
Arcee flipped over the Eins and landed in front of it, kicking the talos in the chest and stabbing at its head. Johann smacked her rapier aside and folded his launcher back into its gun mode to fire more rapidly. Arcee easily deflected his shots and charged at him.
"You're not getting Optimus under my watch!" Arcee snarled and attacked the Eins relentlessly.
Scorpio ordered his drones to advance on the Autobots, and while the majority of the Autobots were fighting off the drones, Rodimus and Ironhide targeted Scorpio, aiming to take him out. But as they ran at him, a red flash followed by an explosion made them stop in their tracks.
"Where do you think you're going?" From the smoke came Thornment, wielding her twin heat rods, the thorn covered weapons glowing with heat. Rodimus scowled at her presence.
"Thornment." He growled.
"Rodimus, fancy seeing you here in the middle of a battle." Thornment said, giving him an unseen grin. "Did you finally wash off the stench of your last ass beating against me."
Rodimus fired his arm cannons at her, which she deflected. Ironhide lunged at her with his war axe, but she dodged him and kicked off his head, leaping into the air and whipping her heat rod downward, hitting the ground between Ironhide and Rodimus and sparking an explosion that blasted both of them apart.
When she landed on the ground, Thornment got a call from Scorpio. "For god's sake, Thornment, stop fooling around and send in the beast before the Autobots overwhelm the drones!"
Thornment looked around and saw that the initial advantage the drones had was starting to fade and they were slowly getting taken out by the Autobots. That outlier with the shield powers wasn't making it easy for the drones to do serious damage.
"Stupid toys. I knew they'd be useless." Thornment muttered. Turning to Rodimus and Ironhide, she said, "Well, I hope you two aren't full yet because we're just getting to the main course."
"Damn it, I knew it'd get worse." Ironhide growled.
"Your fault for jinxing it." Rodimus remarked.
Thornment contacted someone over the comm and seconds later something else appeared through MASS teleportation. It was a creature about the size of an eighteen wheeler truck, but it had dark green scales and a heavily muscled frame with two leathery wings on its back. It took the Autobots a moment to realize that it was an adolescent dragon, though it looked like it had been artificially enhanced with something, if its bulging muscles and crazed multicolored eyes were anything to go by.
"Now we can really let loose!" Thornment hollered and charged at Rodimus and Ironhide with a loud war cry just as the mutated dragon released a tremendous burst of orange flames at the Autobots.
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"This place is a freaking maze." Annie said.
"The base goes down several miles underground and extends just as long in all directions." Veronica said. "This base is the heart of Skywatch's global operations. It has to be big."
Veronica led the children further up the base to the upper levels, making sure to avoid the violence going on throughout the complex. The higher they went, the more gruesome the remnants of the battle became as they walked through halls stained with blood and body parts, leftovers from the inhumans' mindless carnage. Veronica herself nearly threw up from seeing so much gore in one place (and don't even talk about the smell of burning flesh) and the children were no better.
"The fighting's getting worse out there." Gina commented when she felt the base shake. "What the hell did you people do to make them hunt you down so relentlessly?"
"We discovered Ravage and Laserbeak in the aftermath of a volcanic eruption and tried to reprogram them to hunt down other cybertronians. The project fell through due to some complications that I'm sure was caused by outside interference from OZ, and Megatron got wind of us. Honestly, I can't blame them for being pissed." Veronica replied, exiting the elevator lift. "This hall leads to the hangar area where our talos are stored. We can use one of the platforms to get to the surface—"
She was cut off when a gunshot echoed throughout the hallway just as she turned a corner. Veronica fell to her knees as blood leaked from a wound in her ribs. She looked up and saw Agent Jackson standing there with a large group of soldiers pointing their guns at her.
"Where do you think you're going?" He asked coldly.
"Veronica!" Gina ran over to the woman and put pressure on the wound.
"I knew you would cut and run after causing all this damage, you coward!" Hollander marched into view, his expression one of pure rage. "First you sabotage my organization and now you run free with escaped prisoners. You have truly fallen!"
"My only regret was not ditching you assholes sooner!" Veronica groaned.
"Leave her alone!" Annie growled, extending two bone spears from her arms.
"Don't try it freak!" Fredericks yelled, coming from the adjacent hallway with his own squad of soldiers. "We have you surrounded!"
"What is wrong with you people?" Darren asked. "The Decepticons are right outside and OZ is tearing you apart, and you're still fighting us?"
"I'm taking care of loose ends. I'm in no position to fight Harvey, or Pisces, or whoever his name is, but I can certainly take care of you!" Hollander said. "You children know more about the cybertronians than anyone on this planet. Your contributions could greatly help us in this war, but you refuse to see reason!"
"Damn right we're not helping you!" Annie yelled. "Stop fighting the Autobots! We can work together to protect Terra! They're just trying to help!"
"They brought their war to our world and put billions of lives in danger. They can no longer be relied upon to serve humanity's best interests." Hollander growled. "If mankind is to survive, then we must take what we can and show that we will not be collateral damage in this war. And if you won't help us, then you are traitors to the human race and will be punished accordingly."
Veronica reached to her belt as she pushed herself weakly to her feet. "You first."
Her arm shot up to reveal a small pistol she had hidden from view and fired a shot at Hollander, hitting him right between the eyes. Jackson reacted almost immediately, firing his assault rifle and hitting her in the chest with several rounds in a spray of blood.
"NO!" Darren lashed out with a telekinetic wave that blew away the soldiers and grabbed hold of Jackson with an invisible hand.
"Wha—" Jackson had no time to speak as Darren snapped his neck, nearly twisting his head all the way around in the process.
"Ah! K-Kill them! Kill them!" Fredericks shouted, frightened by Darren's brutality.
The soldiers opened fire, but their bullets only hit Darren's telekinetic bubble as he rushed towards them and began demolishing the squad with telekinetically enhanced punches that broke bones and caused fatal injuries. Darren didn't care who he killed as he ripped them apart one by one with his powers.
Annie and Gina knelt down to Veronica, who was already starting to fade.
"No, no, come on, Veronica, stay with us!" Gina cried.
"Gina…" Veronica coughed up blood, her eyes glassy as she gave the girls a bloody smile. "S-Sorry…"
"She's fading, Gina." Annie said.
"At least I…I did the right thing…" Veronica's eyes slowly slid closed. "Tell Prowl…I'm…sorry…"
Veronica's body sagged and her head fell to the side, but the woman died with a small smile on her face. The girls stared at her motionless body in shock, and Gina began to cry. Rage filled her heart and she glared hatefully at Fredericks and his surviving men as they tried to survive Darren's onslaught.
Jumping to her feet, Gina pushed Darren aside and sent a condensed distortion halo at Fredericks' team, unleashing a white burst of energy that completely vaporized the soldiers in one blast. They didn't even have time to scream.
The children stood alone in the bloodstained hall with Veronica's body, the sounds of fighting still going on around them. Annie gently rested Veronica's head down and stood up.
"What do we do with her body?" She asked.
"We'll have to leave it. There's too much going on right now to safely take her outside." Darren said softly. He was covered in blood from the soldiers he killed, and his tears left red trails down the sides of his cheeks. "We'll come back for her when it's safe."
The girls nodded and solemnly followed him down the hall, reluctantly leaving Veronica's body behind.
After a long walk, they made it to the talos hangar, which was mostly empty thanks to the deployment of the talos and OZ's ambush eliminating the remaining personnel in the area. When they entered the hangar, they were greeted by an unwelcome but not entirely unexpected surprise—it was Siegfried and Brianna.
"You kids certainly have been busy." Siegfried said stoically, noting the blood on their clothes. "You know how this works. Surrender—"
Gina slammed her fists into the floor and used a distortion halo field to transmute the metal panels into spears to send at the two inhumans. Brianna and Siegfried jumped away to avoid them, but Gina rammed right into Brianna and the two girls crashed through the wall behind them.
This left Darren and Annie facing off against Siegfried, who they were not eager to fight. The twins glanced at each other and sighed.
"Let's get this over with." Annie grumbled.
"Aye to that." Darren said.
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The regenerative powers of Pisces were on a level that many doctors and biologists would be highly envious of. So long as his brain was intact, he could regenerate any part of his body, from limbs to organs. This was an ability of his main esper power—the ability to transform into the Armored Titan. It expended more energy in his body than a ten hour workout routine, but it was incredibly useful.
Such as when your head was blown off by a giant explosive arrow.
Pisces's Titan body sat motionless on its knees, steam rising from where its head used to be. A lump formed in the nape of its neck where Pisces's real body emerged from the fleshy tendrils.
"Shit." He growled before coughing. It was stupid of him to think that Megatron wouldn't have someone watching his back even in midst of battle.
"So you're the human in this walking flesh puppet." Megatron said as he stomped over to him. "Another one of OZ's generals—Pisces, I presume?"
"That I am." Pisces nodded.
"You animals seem to like sticking your noses in other people's business." Megatron growled. He pointed his fusion cannon at Pisces. "Let's see if you'll last longer than those headmasters."
"You already have your answer." Pisces smirked.
Megatron's danger senses went off and he jumped away seconds before a blue explosion of energy erupted where his head had once been. General Sankt, who had come to his leader's aid, ran over to Pisces, his eyes charging up another distortion halo.
"Are you alright, sir?" He asked.
"Yes, Sankt, thank you." Pisces stood atop the dissolving body of his Titan form and grinned at Megatron. "Megatron, I'd like you to meet my inhumans, my crowning achievements."
"Leave it to the mad scientist to hide behind his creations!" Megatron spat and fired his fusion cannon at the Zodiac.
Pisces leapt off his body and landed next to Sankt. "All inhumans, initiate Scorched Earth!"
Sankt and his inhuman platoon activated their distortion halo fields at the same time, and the discharge of energy on such a large scale emitted a powerful distortion field that washed over the entire battlefield. Explosive bursts of blue energy as hot as the surface of the sun erupted all over the field and no one, from Decepticons to Skywatch, were safe from the radiant hell the inhumans unleashed.
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Brianna and Gina crashed through the wall and landed in the base's cafeteria. It was surprisingly fortunate that no one was there, as the two girls crashed through several tables before Brianna kicked Gina off. Gina twisted her body in the air and landed on her feet.
"This isn't going to be like last time, Gina." Brianna said, letting her hair down. "This fight will end differently."
"Yes," Gina agreed. "It will."
Both girls charged at each other at full speed and met in the middle in a flurry of fast punches. Each blow they dealt and took was enough to seriously injure a regular human, neither girl holding their strength back. Brianna deflected a punch from her face and palm thrusted Gina into a wall. She used her distortion field to transmute several stone spikes from the floor to launch at Gina, who created her own stone shield to block them.
The spears didn't touch her, but the energy blast that came afterwards blew her through the wall. Gina tumbled back in a daze and Brianna flew through the smoke to grab her throat and punched her hard enough into the floor that she smashed down into the floor below them on the second sub-level.
"Shit!" Gina cursed as she landed headfirst into a pile of dumbbells. She shakily got to her feet with a pounding headache and looked around, spotting numerous pieces of exercise equipment. Was this the gym where the soldiers worked out?
Gina heard a rumble above her and jumped away as Brianna came crashing down through the hole she made. Gina grabbed one of the barbells and threw it at Brianna. When it was dodged, she picked up two weights and charged at Brianna.
Brianna tried to hit Gina, but her genetic twin ruthlessly slammed the weights into her face multiple times. Gina didn't stop pummeling Brianna until the girl was brought to her knees, and then the weights shattered from being used as blunt objects by a superhuman girl. Once the assault stopped, Brianna lunged forward and punched Gina in the chest, knocking her onto her back. Brianna leapt up and landed on Gina, their combined weight causing the girls to once again crash through the floor again and down into the third sub-level.
"I heard something break." Brianna said, glaring down at Gina. The girl was still on the ground clutching her ribs with a pained wince.
She picked Gina up and threw her through a wall into the hallway. Brianna followed after her, wincing a bit from her aching head and the throbbing bruises that were forming from where the weights hit her.
"That was two ribs, Gina." Brianna continued. "I'm stronger than you, and far more experienced in fighting too. You can't win this with brute force. Even you know that."
Gina groaned and pulled herself out of the wall, spitting out blood. "Says who?"
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Even though Darren and Annie were still at odds with each other after their last bloody battle, they still had that team dynamic when fighting against a strong enemy like Siegfried.
Darren used his telekinesis to deflect the man's distortion halos as best he could. Annie went on the offensive, growing steel hard bony plates all over her body as a form of armor before charging at Siegfried to slash away at him with her bone swords.
"Do you really think that can hurt me?" Siegfried grunted. "Pisces said that you children were smart, but this hardly seems to be the case."
"Desperate times, desperate measures bitch!" Annie growled, dropping down to slash the back of Siegfried's leg, making him fall to one need.
Darren leapt forward and slammed into Siegfried's chest, slamming the bigger man into the floor and causing the entire room to shake. Siegfried recovered and threw a punch at Darren, who was barely able to create a TK shield to block the punch before he was sent flying back several feet into a jeep, which was sent crashing into another jeep from the strong impact.
Annie leapt onto his back and stated stabbing away at his neck and shoulders, but was only able to deal superficial damage before Siegfried tried to grab at her. Annie jumped off and tried to stab his ribs, but he kicked her away before looking up to see a jeep flying at him.
Siegfried easily destroyed the vehicle with a quick distortion halo, but Darren came flying at him through the flames like a missile, his body covered in a glowing white telekinetic aura. Siegfried dodged his frontal assault and grabbed Darren's leg, throwing him into the floor and stomping on his chest for good measure. Even with the protection of his TK armor, Darren had the breath knocked from his lungs and blacked out for a couple of seconds.
Annie slashed at the back of Siegfried's neck and he retaliated with a backhand that smacked her to the floor. The girl grunted in pain as she felt her bone armor crack and chip as she was sent crashing into the windshield of an armored convoy. Annie hissed as the shattered bones in her shoulders and spine realigned and healed over before glaring at the inhuman.
"Of all the people we had to fight, it had to be the walking atomic bomb!" She growled and charged back into the fray.
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Optimus grunted as he deflected another one of Nina's strikes, the blade of her sword grazing his arm before he jumped away and made for the Star Saber. The Drei leapt forward and slashed at his head, forcing him to stop and block the attack yet again.
"I'm not letting you get your little toy!" Nina growled.
She pressed her attack, unleashing a flurry of attacks that pushed Optimus backwards. He heard loud explosions going off behind him, followed by the intense flames of the mutated dragon unleashing its fiery fury upon the Autobots. Thankfully the beast hadn't taken flight, if it was even able to do so with its increased muscle mass, and remained grounded. Though that wasn't much of a blessing considering it delivered just as much punishment on the ground as it would if it could fly.
Arcee was fighting against Johann and was giving the young pilot a run for his money. Filled with fury and a sense of urgency to save the children, she didn't have time to pull her punches with this guy. She was out for blood and no one was going to get in her way.
"Damn it, she's tearing me apart!" Johann grunted. He was forced to rely on his sonic vibration blade and his beam rifle for offence, and had to rely on his beam cannon's retracted form in order to fire more rapidly while sacrificing accuracy. The Eins couldn't even use its mega beam cannon because it lacked the Zwei's middle component to provide targeting data. He was essentially going half-cocked right now and it was starting to show.
"What's the matter? Not so cocky now that you're down a man?" Arcee taunted.
"Shut it, tin can!" Johann snarled, rushing forward and attacking with a flurry of attacks. Arcee skillfully blocked them all and used her smaller size to move faster than him, weaving around his extended arm and slashing at the talos's back.
Johann tried to match her speed, but Arcee was relentless, and soon he was struggling to defend himself. Arcee's attacks became stronger and faster, and her swords caused sparks to fly against Johann's vibration blades. Desperate for an opening, Johann deployed his unit's arm blade, a short blade extended from the Eins' left arm coated in a thin layer of energon, and thrust it forward at Arcee's chest. His gamble failed as she dodged it by mere inches and brought her rapier down on the Eins' arm, severing the limb.
"NO!" Johann roared. He grunted when his talos was rattled violently by Arcee smacking its severed arm against its head three times before jumping onto the Eins' back and raising her rapier above its head.
"Say hello to your friend in hell for me!" Arcee brought her sword down with the intent to impale the talos and the pilot inside.
But just as the tip of her rapier touched the Eins' head, Arcee was blasted off the talos by a laser bolt that hit her in the back and sent her crashing to the ground. Behind her, two Death's Head drones marched towards her, firing their arm cannons at her repeatedly. Arcee deflected the bolts, but was shot in the shoulder by Johann, who fired his beam rifle at her.
Moonracer, who was busy covering Bulkhead's back while shooting at the drones swarming them, noticed her sister in trouble. "Cee!"
Bulkhead saw the pink femme being outnumbered, he pushed Moonracer forward. "Moon, go help her!"
He pointed his blaster at one of the drones and fired a blast, destroying its head. Johann jumped and spun around to see Moonracer running at him with her sniper rifle pointed in his direction.
"You bitch!" Johann extended his beam cannon to its full length and charged up the weapon to full power.
Both man and Autobot fired their weapons at the same time. The beam blast Johann fired hit Moonracer in the shoulder, knocking her off her feet. The pulse blast Moonracer fired was more accurate, hitting the Eins' right in the head and destroying its primary cameras.
"Shit, no!" Johann cursed and tried to redirect his monitors to their secondary cameras as fast as he could.
"Now's my chance!" Arcee jumped to her feet and leapt over the drone in her way, beheading the machine in one clean motion and charging at the Eins.
Johann managed to get his secondary cameras operating again and spun around to see Arcee right on top of him. He angled his beam cannon at her, but she performed a fast spin that sliced off his other arm before thrusting her rapier forward, directly into his cockpit.
The cockpit hatch was ripped apart as the large glowing blade stabbed into it, and impaled Johann through the torso. He felt a burning pain across his body, before everything went dark and he knew no more.
XXXXXX
Nina felt as if she were in a nightmare when she saw Arcee stab the Eins through the chest, right into its cockpit. She knew instantly that Johann was dead.
She had no time to process this, as Optimus used her distraction to launch a kick at the Drei's head, completely taking it right off its shoulders and blinding Nina. She tried to switch to her secondary cameras, but Optimus was already using his axe to slice off her talos's arms and legs, letting her immobile torso fall to the ground, violently jostling her in the cockpit.
"No, no, no!" Nina screamed over the alarms going off, frantically jerking her control sticks back and forth. When it was clear that she was out of the battle, she screamed and began punching and kicking everything she could get her hands on.
Optimus stared at the immobile talos for a minute before turning away to retrieve his Star Saber. He looked at the rampaging mutant dragon and contemplated using the sword on it…but not before he cut the head off this monster OZ was running.
Scorpio fired his talos's stinger cannon at Trailbreaker's barriers, trying to force the Autobot to use up his energy to weaken him. He had let the drones go in first to wear the other Autobots down before moving in himself, firing his missiles at the scattered Autobots. More and more drones were being destroyed, but they did their job in somewhat weakening the Autobots. The dragon and Thornment could finish the job.
"We lost Johann and Nina?" Scorpio said shocked. "Damn it, Leo, I thought you said these kids were good pilots! Those Thrones aren't worth shit the amount of resources that were put into them!"
Before Scorpio could contact Thornment to take care of the Autobots in the eastern part of the field, his computer detected a strong energy surge heading his way and instinctively forced his talos to move back. He was lucky that the Skorpios was faster than it originally was, because seconds after he moved, a crescent energy wave carved a path right through his team of drones and continued onward towards the base, slamming into the shield generator. He cursed when he saw the hard-light barrier flicker for a moment. It wouldn't survive another hit.
"Where did that come from?!" Scorpio growled and turned to the direction where the attack came from…and saw a large form charging straight at him!
It was Optimus Prime, and he was holding the glowing Star Saber high above his head as he charged right at Scorpio at full speed. Scorpio gave an alarmed cry and sent out a command for all nearby drones to defend him. They did so without delay, standing before their leader as they fired upon the Prime with their laser cannons and missile launchers. Many of their attacks hit, but Optimus shrugged them off as he swung his sword and cut through them without even slowing down.
"No, get away!" Scorpio growled as he forced his talos to skitter back, cursing when he slammed back into one of the drones behind him. "Get the hell out of my way!"
Scorpio charged his talos's tail cannon to full power and fired it at Optimus. Prime raised his sword and let the beam hit the flat of his blade, still continuing in his charge. The Zodiac was panicking now and he retreated backwards while still maintaining the beam. Forcing his weapons to such limits was putting a severe drain on his unit's power reserves but that mattered little to Scorpio, who saw his death coming for him.
"You will never," Optimus growled, his eyes glowing bright blue as he neared Scorpio. "Ever harm another living being ever again!"
Optimus brought the Star Saber up above Scorpio, and he screamed as the giant blade fell down upon the Skorpios, smoothly cutting into its armor and slicing the machine in half. Scorpio was completely obliterated within his cockpit as his talos exploded from within, and the energy wave that Prime unleashed tore through the earth to slam into the canyon wall where the shield generator was located, destroying the device and causing the hard-light barrier to break apart.
XXXXXX
Rodimus narrowly dodged a fireball thrown his way from the dragon as he continued to fight Thornment. The femme was just as much of a pain to fight as she was last time. Even with Ironhide's help they were barely able to land a hit on her before she hit them with those stupid whips of hers.
Thornment danced around them, spinning her whips around her body to keep the two mechs at bay while delivering fierce attacks. Ironhide and Rodimus were already sporting several burns from direct hits from her heat rods and they were slowing down. She had just kicked Ironhide in the face after he missed hitting her with a plasma blast when she lost contact with three of her comrades.
'There goes the Eins and Drei. Honestly, Leo is so unreliable sometimes.' Thornment thought. Then she felt another sensation in the back of her mind, the sudden loss of contact with Scorpio. 'Slag, they even got Scorpio? If it weren't for the dragon, I'd be worried. This means the only other person running the show besides me is Pisces and he's fighting Megatron. Damn, this isn't looking good.'
"Ha!" Rodimus charged at her from behind and fired his arm cannons at her. Thornment spun around him and cracked her whip at his face. Instead of the expected explosion followed by a cry of pain, Rodimus leaned back and grabbed the whip and let it wrap painfully around his arm.
"Let's go for a spin asshole!" Rodimus heaved and pulled Thornment off her feet, throwing her over his head and into the ground. She grunted and flipped back to her feet, but he was on her in an instant, slamming a knee to her face before landing an elbow to the back of her head.
Thornment slapped his face and dug her claws into his cheek, leaving three deep gouges in his faceplate before he pushed her off. Thornment yanked her whip out of his grasp and wrapped it around his neck, intending to choke him. Rodimus struggled against her, feeling the whip slowly heat up against his mesh.
"I'm not a fan of slow deaths, but for you I'll make an exception!" She snarled, tightening the whip around his neck. She would've kept going if her danger senses hadn't went off and made her back off just in time to avoid the ion blast that shot past her face by mere inches. "You?!" She snarled at Optimus.
Rodimus used her distraction to slip his head out of the loop and turned around to point his arm cannons at her face. Thornment smacked them away, but was forced to dodge another blast shot her way. She hissed and decided to abandon Rodimus entirely, jumping up and running at Optimus.
"Come on, Prime! Let's see you go for a killstreak!" Thornment roared and sent two whips heading his way. They cracked against the Star Saber and exploded together, engulfing Optimus in a large fireball. But to her surprise he emerged from the flames without much care for his injuries.
She growled and swung her heat rods as hard as she could, leaving fiery trails in their wake. Optimus dodged them as best he could but was forced at a distance as she swung her whips over and over, creating a wall of deafening explosions around her. Optimus took a step back and raised the Star Saber in a reverse grip before stabbing it into the ground.
Thornment wondered what he was doing, but when the ground began to tremble, she realized what his plan was. The ground underneath her blew apart as a burst of energy surging from the Star Saber blasted her into the air. Pain erupted all over her body as she was sent flying and she hit the ground hard enough to bounce off the stone three times before coming to a stop. Gasping in pain, she got to her feet and held her whips ready, her armor scorched and leaking energon everywhere.
"You think that's enough for me?!" She howled. "I've fought stronger foes than you!"
"But were as they as handsome as I am?"
Thornment spun around but had her arm severed at the shoulder by a clean strike from Rodimus's hand saw. Energon splattered across the ground as she stumbled back away from him, her eyes widened in shock. Rodimus sent her a grin before jumping aside, and she turned to see a blue arc of energy coming her way. Thornment jumped away, stumbling over herself as the attack narrowly missed her.
"You bastard!" She snarled. "I'll tear our your Spark!"
"You're welcome to try." Optimus said strongly, holding the Star Saber in a two-handed grip. "Now begone!"
A red haze fell over Thornment as she channeled all the energy at her disposal. Quintessential energy stored within her body poured forth like a raging flood, and the air visibly shimmered from the heat rolling off her body. Optimus held his sword ready as Thornment supercharged herself.
"I've come too far to let the emissary of a false god stop me!" Thornment shouted and twisted her whip around her body to send it at Optimus.
The tip of her heat rod glowed like a red star and its heat was strong enough that Optimus felt it before it even got halfway to him. He dug his feet into the ground and raised his sword above his head to bring it down in a horizontal slash, blue energy emanating off the blade.
The two opposing energies clashed and created a strong shockwave that nearly blew the two fighters off their feet. Thornment righted herself and tried to attack again, only to see a glowing object shoot out of the smoke—it was the Star Saber!
Thornment used her whip to smack the blade aside, but not before it released another energy wave that slammed into her with enough force to shatter the armor plating on her chest. She fell back, coughing and hacking with more energon leaking from her. Quintessence still flowed from her body, but she was losing control of its emission now in her haggard state. Thornment looked up and saw Optimus still standing where she last saw him.
"Ha…hahahahaha!" Thornment laughed, giving a mad cackle with the battle still going on around her. "That was the best you could do? Your most powerful weapon and you throw it at me to give me a love tap? I thought you were dead set on killing me!"
"I decided to hand that duty to someone else." Optimus said.
It took a moment for Thornment to realize what he said. "What?"
A shadow fell over her and Thornment looked up to see the orange glow of Prime's battle axe in the grasp of Rodimus as he brought it down right on top of her head. The axe's energo-blade smoothly cut into her skull and sliced right down the middle with disturbing ease. She was already dead before he was done cutting her in half, and when he was through, both halves of her body hit the ground.
Rodimus finally let exhaustion take over and fell to his knees, panting to keep his overheated systems cool as Optimus ran over to see to him. He weakly kicked Thornment's corpse and said, "Round two…is mine…you bitch." He groaned before falling over.
XXXXXX
Gina crashed to the floor from another punch from Brianna. She tried to punch her back, but her fist was smacked aside and she took a headbutt to the face that threw her into a wall.
"Fight back, Gina." Brianna growled, shoving Gina's face further into the wall. "Come on, I said fight back! Two broken ribs shouldn't be enough to keep you down!"
Gina slammed her elbow into Brianna's nose and broke free to land a right hook to her jaw, only for Brianna to kicked her through the wall and punch her still healing ribs, causing her to fold over.
"You're pathetic." Brianna spat, looking just as bruised and bloody as Gina. "I have superior power, superior skills, strength and everything, and yet Pisces is so damn fixated on you!"
She pulled Gina up by her shirt and pinned her to the wall with an arm on her throat. "I hated every moment of being around you people. Laughing and playing around like your world isn't slowly being torn apart!"
"No…you don't." Gina coughed.
"What did you say?"
"You didn't hate any of it, and you know it. What you hated was that you didn't get to enjoy any of those things growing up the way you did." Gina said and glared at her. "Don't pretend that you respect Pisces. I know he's just using your connection to Doctor Brown to get to you. He trained you to be a killer and you hated all of it!"
Gina began to slowly push against Brianna, wrenching her arms away and fighting Brianna's strength. The two inhumans glared at each other, their muscles visibly straining to the limit.
"You can't understand how someone can be so happy while the world around them falls apart. You can't comprehend how anyone could drive someone as sweet as Justine to the breaking point. You even doubt OZ's bullcrap goals of advancing mankind!"
Gina's left arm shot up and her fist slammed into Brianna's face, sending her crashing back into the hallway. Gina limped towards her as she continued her tirade.
"You loved being with us because you got to experience what other people take for granted. Having a childhood." She said. "A life, a real family…even love."
"Shut up!"
"Your feelings against me isn't just because of our genetic connection. You hate me because I have something you want—Darren. Through our connection you've probably seen us loving each other and it wore away at you, hasn't it? You fell for him the same way I have, and I can only guess it's part of the reason Justine tried so hard to kill him. You're in love with someone, and it hurts that you can't have him."
Brianna roared and threw a kick at Gina's head, but she caught her leg in a tight grip and threw the girl into another room. Brianna landed on her feet and grabbed Gina and pinned her to the wall to repeatedly punch her in the face.
With each hit, Gina's resilience outweighed the pain of each blow and when Brianna's punches didn't even turn her head, she kicked her away and rammed into her, sending both girls smashing through wall after wall, landing in the bathroom. She grabbed Brianna's hair and threw her with all her might through several stalls before she hit the sink.
"This life isn't for you, Brianna. I'm sorry Pisces put you through all that crap, but you are not dragging me and my friends down with you!" Gina roared.
She charged up a distortion halo and crouched low to prepare for a powerful attack. Brianna got to her feet as well, blood running down her face from a deep cut in her forehead. She too charged up her energy, ready to match Gina's charge with an all-out assault of her own.
The two girls charged at each other at full speed, pulling their fists back and throwing punches at each other. At the same time, their distortion halo fields clashed and reacted violently to each other as well.
There was a bright flash, like lightning, followed by the deafening boom that rattled the entire floor as the resulting explosion ravaged everything within 12 feet of them.
XXXXXX
Bulkhead and Hound fired everything they had at the dragon, but their laser blasts weren't slowing it down. The massive creature roared and charged forward, barreling into Hound like a freight train and swinging its long tail at Bulkhead. Bulkhead gripped its tail and dug his feet into the ground in an attempt to pin it down, but he was suddenly yanked off his feet and thrown into the air like a fish tossed overhead by a bear.
"Scrap!" Bulkhead cried out as the dragon leapt up with its jaws open wide to devour him. Then Skyfire flew in and snatched Bulkhead up before the dragon could bite him in two. "Skyfire? Thanks for the save!"
"You're welcome, now get off before we crash. You're heavy!" She grunted.
Tomahawk, who had been peppering the Death's Head drones with her missiles, directed her attention on the dragon, firing armor piercing bullets that shot into the dragon's scaly hide. The bullets pierced its scales and caused blood to spurt from its wounds, but seconds later those same wounds would close right up as if nothing happened.
"That thing is healing too fast to cause any real damage. It's just soaking up our laser fire like a sponge!" Tomahawk said.
The dragon hissed up at her and inhaled deeply before exhaling a massive plume of flames that burned hotter and brighter than anything a regular dragon could produce. Tomahawk swerved to avoid the flames, but got her tail rotor hit. She spun out of control and almost hit the ground had Trailbreaker not run in and caught her.
"You okay?" He asked her.
"Yea—look out!" Tomahawk exclaimed. Trailbreaker instinctively summoned his barrier just as a wave of fire washed over them. The dragon slowly moved closer to the pair as it tried to burn them alive, its glowing eyes alight with murderous, aimless rage.
Optimus charged at the best firing his ion rifle at its side. The blasts left bleeding holes in its body that healed over but also caught the dragon's attention. It roared and shot a fireball at Prime, who dodged it and ran full speed at the dragon. He swung the Star Saber and the energy wave slammed into its side, right above the ribs. The dragon staggered, and Optimus continued his assault, attacking its legs next. Before the next wave could hit it, the dragon dodged the attack and rushed at Optimus at surprising speed, lashing out with its massive claws.
Optimus grunted as he was sent flying by a powerful blow from its claws and then slammed back down to earth by the dragon, narrowly avoiding getting crushed by the beast. He jumped to his feet and stumbled back, jumping to the side to avoid another fire blast that hit his hand and blasted the Star Saber out of his grip. He grunted in pain and held his burnt hand in agony.
"Optimus!" Rodimus called out and tossed him another weapon—one of Thornment's heat rods.
Optimus caught the whip and swung it at the dragon's outstretched claw, the whip creating an explosion that completely blew apart the dragon's limb into chunks of flesh. The dragon reeled back and gave a deafening howl as it regenerated its missing claw and slashed at Optimus, who moved back.
'Time to switch it up.' Optimus thought and picked up the other heat rod Thornment had dropped. He cracked both whips in the air and then began slashing them at the dragon. Slowly at first, but then grew faster and faster, each whip hitting the dragon's hide with explosions that tore off chunks of flesh before it could heal.
Eventually the assault began to wear away at the dragon's regenerative abilities and its wounds began to heal slower. But that didn't slow it down as it launched a fireball at Optimus. Trailbreaker generated a barrier in front of Prime, but the force of the explosion still knocked Optimus back. He rolled across the ground before getting to his knees, exhausted and in pain.
"Come on, Prime, it's almost dead!" Ironhide said and fired several laser blasts at the dragon. "Take it down!"
"Ironhide, wait!" Arcee called out.
The dragon focused its red gaze on the red Autobot and stomped the ground before charging at him. Ironhide took out his war axe and raised it as the dragon's long head barreled towards him. It opened its jaws to bite him, but Ironhide leapt right over its jaws to bury the blade of his axe into the front of its skull. Flipping himself over to land on the back of its head, Ironhide began pumping shot after shot right into the back of its head, causing the dragon to thrash around to throw him off.
"Holy slag, that mech's insane." Rodimus breathed.
"How do you think he survived this long?" Bulkhead quipped.
Ironhide held on as long as he could, and he yanked on the dragon's head to steer it towards Optimus. "Prime, kill it!"
Optimus got back to his feet and raised his whips, focusing on the energy pulsing within them to deliver one final, decisive blow. Ironhide jumped off just as the energy within the heat rods reached critical mass and Optimus cracked them back before launching them both at the dragon head on.
As soon as they made contact, the dragon's entire upper body was engulfed in a brilliant fireball that completely blew apart its head and began a large explosion that blew everyone away. Optimus landed hard on his back and took a moment to sit up, his head ringing from being so close to the explosion.
"Optimus?" He opened his eyes to see Sparkplug leaning over him with a concerned expression. "Optimus are you alright?"
"…Ask me again when my head stops ringing like a church bell." He groaned and fell back down.
XXXXXX
Megatron hissed in pain, gritting his teeth as he fell to one knee while sporting several deep burns from the distortion halo field that damn near cut him in half. He had no idea where his fusion cannon was, and he lost track of Keraunos in the chaos.
Pisces's inhuman blitzkrieg had caused untold devastation to the entire battlefield, affecting human and Decepticon combatants alike. Megatron knew that some of his troops were caught in the assault, he could hear Demolishor yelling for a medic through the ringing in his head, and he saw no sign of Nightshade or Soundwave. Megatron himself could feel his left arm, which was severely burnt to the point of being blackened, and a chunk of his left leg was also damaged. The air was charged with enough static electricity to severely harm a regular human and made even Megatron a bit dizzy from its effects on his systems.
"How the might have fallen."
Megatron looked up to see Pisces's Titan form slowly stomping towards him, its head slowly regenerating with steam pouring from its headless stump. At the back of its neck was Pisces's human body, partially fused with his Titan form and grinned arrogantly at him. That grin reminded him of Starscream and it made him angrier.
"How do you like them? They were supposed to be the vanguard in OZ's war against you, but thanks to the Autobots I have to use them sparingly. Still, they're effective enough weapons against your kind." Pisces taunted.
"You sound like another mad bastard I know who thinks too highly of himself." Megatron said.
"You're one to talk. You attacked a base out of nowhere without know it's full capabilities, thinking you were going to have an easy time." Pisces said. "That's the highest form of mindless arrogance, Megatron. Thinking that we humans can't hurt you."
"Says the man who torched his own people in an attempt to get the edge over me."
"Like you haven't done the same." The Zodiac sneered.
"You're right, I have done the same." Megatron said, a smirk growing on his face. "But the difference between us is that I don't play all my cards in one go!"
Pisces felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and retreated into his Titan's body just as a metal spear impaled Sankt, who was standing on his shoulder, right through the chest. Pisces heard several more cries and looked around the battlefield to see dozens more metal spears impaling his inhumans at lightning fast speeds, catching all of them off guard.
"Ack!" Sankt coughed up blood and looked at the spear in his chest. It was one long piece of metal, smooth like liquid that's been given shape. In fact, it was actually beginning to spread throughout his body.
"You're a resilient one." Pisces froze and looked up. Hovering high above them was the leader of Karaba and co-leader of the Brotherhood Alliance, Dreyas Lehnsherr.
"Dreyas!" He snarled.
"Hello, Pisces. It's good to see you again." Dreyas said. "Wasn't expecting us to come to the rescue, were you? For all your intelligence, you've fallen for the biggest flaw all intellectuals suffer from—hubris."
Dreyas raised his hand and curled his fingers. The liquid metal spear in Sankt's body dispersed into his body through the entry wounds. Sankt gave an unholy scream and convulsed before his body exploded in a gory mess.
Pisces stared in horror as his strongest warriors met similar gruesome ends, and the inhumans lucky enough to avoid getting impaled were quickly finished off by the other Decepticons. It got even worse when Dreyas focused on the remaining Skywatch vehicles and talos, lifting them all into the air and began crushing them under an increased gravity field.
"I think my work is done." Dreyas said, wiping imaginary dust off his shoulder. "He's all yours, Megatron."
Pisces retreated back into his Titan body and merged his consciousness into his larger body, though not fast enough to escape the sucker punch Megatron delivered to his healed face. The transformed Zodiac stumbled back and fell to a knee, his jaw broken and the armor plates on his face shattered, revealing the muscle underneath. Pisces growled and stood up, only to notice Nightshade standing right behind him.
'NO!'
Pisces roared and tried to evade her arrow, but it hit his right leg, completely blasting it off. He fell forward, leaving him vulnerable to Megatron, he was on him immediately.
Megatron grabbed him from behind and reached around to grab Pisces's face. He squeezed on the esper's skull and Pisces roared and howled, struggling as he felt his head slowly being crushed.
"What's the matter, Pisces? Afraid of a little pain?" Megatron squeezed harder, blood gushing through his fingers. "If you can't handle pain, then leave the fighting to real warriors!"
Pisces elbowed him in the jaw and broke free, trying to run way. But Megatron was ready, calling upon his missing scythe, which flew into his hand. One swing was all it took to separate Pisces's upper body from his legs, cutting him in half.
'No…I've…failed?' Pisces thought, in despair. 'Despite all my efforts, I've failed everything. My life's work…all gone.'
Megatron's shadow loomed over him with Keraunos crackling in his hands. Pisces's turned back to see the electrified scythe descending upon him.
'If I have failed OZ, then this is my punishment. May the others carry on my work, and succeed where I have failed.'
Those were Pisces's last thoughts before the curved blade of Keraunos sliced through his neck, severing his head and killing him once and for all.
XXXXXX
Darren created a strong TK barrier in front of him to block the focused distortion beam Siegfried fired at him. He forced as much power as he could into that shield and struggled to maintain it as the beam grew stronger, eventually overpowering him and blasting him back across the room. Before he could hit one of the remaining talos parked behind him, Annie jumped up and grabbed him before they hit the ground.
Out of breath and dizzy, Darren mindlessly tore apart one of the talos into several pieces and launched them at Siegfried. He blasted away two of them, but the third piece, the leg of the talos, slammed into him and sent him smashing into several vehicles.
"I don't think we can keep doing this." Darren panted, his body aching painfully. Protected as he was by his psionic armor, he could only take so many hits before he ended up breaking something. "He's wearing us down."
"But he can't keep this up either." Annie said. She glanced worriedly at him when he gripped his shoulder with a wince. Unlike her, Darren lacked any regenerative powers. He was running on fumes right now. "I think I have a plan, but it'll be close."
Darren looked at her, and she stared back. After a few seconds he nodded. "Okay, what's your plan?"
Siegfried pushed himself from the wreckage with a grunt and stood up, slightly panting. His skin felt hot and his eyes were beginning to hurt, the first signs of overexertion that he was told to look out for. He looked around for the twins but saw no sign of them.
"Come out, children! Don't tell me you're giving up after all that!" He called out.
Suddenly the jeep next to him exploded and Siegfried leapt back to avoid the flames. He turned and saw Annie flying at her with her bone claws extended. Siegfried threw a sweeping kick at Annie, but the girl twisted her body over the kick and thrust her claws at him. Siegfried batted her claws aside and snatched Annie up in a bear hug.
"You should know better than to get close to me, girl. I'll break you in half and send you back to your friends in pieces." Siegfried growled, squeezing her small body in a bone crushing grip. "Where is your brother?"
"Taking a breaker," Annie groaned, already feeling her reinforced skeleton begin to fracture in several places. "And giving you a goodbye present!"
At that moment, Darren emerged to fire a projectile at them—a long bone spear that shot through the air at the speed of a bullet. It stabbed into Annie's back and went right through her chest to stab into Siegfried's chest, almost going all the way through him. Annie gave the shocked inhuman a bloody smile before pulling her arms free and stabbing her bone claws into Siegfried's eyes, skewering her brain.
"Die, die, die!" Annie repeatedly stabbed the man in the head, not stopping until she felt the inhuman finally fall to the floor. Wrenching the spear free from her chest, Annie pushed herself off Siegfried and fell onto her back.
"Annie!" Darren ran over to her and knelt down. "Oh my god, Annie, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm good. Healing factor, remember?" Annie grinned, pointing to her already healing chest wound. "God I love my powers."
Darren sighed in relief and helped Annie to her feet, leaving the uber's corpse behind. Their job was done, now all they had to do was find Gina.
XXXXXX
Almost the entire third sub-level had been destroyed by the resulting clash of energies caused by Gina and Brianna delivering their final blows. They were lucky that they didn't bring the entire cave down on them, but when the smoke cleared, all that was left was one entire floor of ravaged rooms and a seriously destroyed bathroom. The girls themselves lied amidst the debris covered in still healing bruises, cuts, and torn clothing, unable to move thanks to their broken bones that were slowly healing over.
By some miracle they were still conscious, though immobile. It went unsaid that they were no winners of this sad fight, not that anyone was keeping track anymore.
"Hey," Gina said. "You still alive?"
Brianna said nothing, but Gina knew she was awake.
"Thought so. If you're anything like me, then you're too stubborn to die."
"What do you want?" Brianna asked.
"I just want to say that…you should come home with us."
If she had the strength, Brianna would've turned to Gina in shock. "What?"
"Can you hear it? The fighting's died down. I'm guessing that Pisces and Scorpio are probably dead if they hadn't come for us by now. Skywatch high command is most likely dead too. Anyone holding your leash is dead." Gina said. "You're free now."
"I don't need your pity." Brianna spat.
"If you want me to do something stupid like kill you, then think again. This day has been…terrible. Too many people have died already and I'm sick of it." Gina sighed. "I just want it to stop."
"Gina, you're hanging out with the Autobots. The killing will never stop." Brianna remarked.
Gina was silent for a minute before she nodded. "You're right. It's not going to stop."
The girls fell into a quaint little silence that was rather welcome after all the explosions and smashing they were doing earlier.
"I don't want to go back." Brianna whispered. "I…I can't face Justine or Darren like this. It's too complicated."
Gina painfully rolled over and pushed herself up to her knees with a groan. She looked down at Brianna, who was staring up at the ceiling with a blank expression.
"I won't force you to come with us. It may be a bit awkward considering our…similarities." Gina avoided mentioning Darren. "But if you or Doctor Bergen need our help, just give us a call. Our invitation stands."
"Gina!"
It was Annie's voice, calling down to her from the upper floors. They must have done some serious damage to be able to hear her this far down. Gina smiled and weakly got to her feet, using the wall for support.
"Think about it. You're a cool girl, Brianna, no matter your origins. Don't let anyone else say otherwise."
Gina limped out of the destroyed room, leaving Brianna alone to think on her words.
"Home. Yeah, home sounds really good right now." Brianna muttered and closed her eyes. "I'm coming home, mom."
XXXXXX
It took quite a while for Gina to reunite with Darren and Annie, but she managed it. She wasn't expecting to see them completely covered in blood though, though the level of destruction left behind from their battle was to be expected.
"We had to improvise. You got the easy job." Annie grumbled.
The three friends headed back to the first level and took the service tunnel to the outside world, where they were met with a welcome surprise.
"Darren, Annie, Gina," Optimus Prime welcomed the trio with an unseen smile. "It's good to see you."
"Optimus!" The children exclaimed.
"Hey, kids!" Rodimus grinned.
"Are you kids alright?" Arcee worriedly asked as she went up to them. "Primus, is that blood on you?"
"Yeah, we staged our own escape. Had a few fights along the way." Darren said, rubbing his bruised ribs. "Reckon you guys had a slightly easier time than us."
"We fought a mutated dragon, several drones and a psychopathic femme. Honestly, not my idea of fun." Bulkhead grumbled, lowering his hand for the children to get in. "Let me carry you guys."
"How did you find us?" Gina asked.
"We were alerted to your location from a friend of Annie's." Optimus said cryptically. "I'm sure you know who I'm talking about?"
"We do." Annie smiled and leaned against Bulkhead's thumb. "Told ya my crew would come through for us."
Optimus, whom the children just realized looked more haggard than the rest of the already exhausted Autobots, stepped up to them. "Our work is done here, Autobots. Let's go home."
"What about the Cons?" Sunstreaker asked. "They're here too."
Optimus looked back at the ravaged base for a moment before saying, "There's nothing we can do here. Skywatch has sown the seeds of its own destruction, by Megatron's hand and OZ's. It's over for us."
As Optimus called for a ground bridge, Darren looked at Gina. "Where's Brianna? Did you…?"
"No, I didn't." Gina said, noting Darren's relieved look. "We beat each other to a bloody pulp, but that's it. I just gave her some advice and left her alone."
"Do you think we'll see her again." He asked.
"Probably. Though she'll need to sort herself our first." Gina said. "Today's been a rough day for all parties involved."
"Speak for yourself." Annie grumbled, poking the hole in her shirt.
XXXXXX
"Megatron, the Autobots are retreating." Soundwave reported. "Shall we pursue?"
"No, let them go. We've accomplished our mission." Megatron said.
"Megatron, if you want to do anything else, you better do it now. The Osean military will be on us soon." Nightshade said.
"Leader-1, take Soundwave inside and download any information you can find." Megatron said. "Anything you can't take, destroy."
"Yes, Lord Megatron." The Minicon said and assembled his team of Mini-Cons to go into the base with him.
"So what now?" Nightshade asked. "We've destroyed Skywatch once and for all, but the Autobots are still a problem."
"With Skywatch out of the way, and OZ licking their wounds, we can finally focus on accelerating our plans." Megatron answered. "Thanks to the tireless efforts of our comrades in Karaba, we now have sufficient numbers to begin the next stage of our plans."
"And what is that, exactly?" Dreyas asked.
Megatron grinned at the revolutionary. "Devastation."
That's it for the arc. Coming up will be the final story arc for this story, though I will be taking a break from posting for a little while to work on future chapters as well as try to get past chapter 3 of Mosiac, because I honestly should have gotten more done with that story. 2020 hit me hard, okay? I won't go into details on next chapter, but let's just say that the Brotherhood makes a major move in acquiring a new headquarters. Be sure to check out this story and others on the official Transformers Titan website on WordPress. Thanks for reading, please leave a review, and stay safe everybody!