A/N: Oh... my... GOOOOOOOOOOD! I have never been so happy to be done with a chapter, and not in the good way! This thing was an utter nightmare to work through for me, i think the lack of posting can attest to that. Idk why but I have never struggled before with a chapter in ANY of my past fanfics as much as I did with this one.
Idk what caused such an issue for me in the first place, and personally, I don't really care for once. I'm just glad to finally be done with this for the first time ever (marking how much of a chore this was for me to do T_T). I think my biggest problem was that I differed too heavily from the main show on this and the last chapter, forcing me to come up with stuff on the spot rather than on the occasion all throughout the chapter.
It felt exhausting, painful, and annoying to bear all throughout the chapter as I tried to come up with something so different, and idky. All I know is that this was almost torturous to write, so I hope you guys can still enjoy the chapter either way. And for once I don't say that optimistically, i mean I really hope you guys enjoy the chapter X/...
...
...
...
*Crash!*
"Agh!" Catra cried out as she was slammed against the mushy floor of the surrounding forest.
Nothing she's fought in the past has ever compared to this. Every swing she attempted to strike the robot with was perfectly countered with ease, blocked off with the robot's protective carapace over its limbs or the newly grown maces in its hands, or sidestepped like one of her previous attempts that resulted in a metallic knee in her gullet. The same counter was followed by getting thrown across the air and slamming into a tree, nearly costing her life as the robot raised the oversized maces above its head to deliver the finishing bow.
If it wasn't for Glimmer and Frosta's attempts to fight back against the robot, coating a sheet of ice over its arms to weigh it down and charging straight at the robot's torso with a magical staff, she might not have lasted as long as she did. With a valiant cry, Glimmer attempted to strike the robot straight through its metallic chassis, only to be batted away at the last second by the robot's increasing strength and added bulk of the frozen pillars around her arms, knocking her a near-two dozen feet away along the ground, disorienting her.
Momentarily taken back by what she had just witnessed, Frosta nearly found herself getting crushed under the robot's frozen arms, backing away from the direct hit, but not enough to resist the sheer force of power that launched her several feet away from the impact. Her head was the first thing met with the rough ground as it dazed her, Frosta doing everything she could to shake the dizziness from her eyes as the robot forced its right arm to bend at the elbow, breaking away the block of ice with ease, and marching its way to the fallen princess.
If it wasn't for Catra's timely intervention, throwing a golden lasso, long enough to stretch over its head and tighten at its neck, Frosta would've found herself stuck under the robot's metallic boots like a piece of chewed gum. Orbko struggled against the bindings for a bit as it pulled at the ropes around its neck, trying to pry the surprisingly sturdy rope from itself as Catra twisted and jerked the rope in one direction at a time, doing everything she could to pull back against the robot one foot at a time as she fought against the robots own strength without the use of her She-Ra form, at least the fourth of it she could achieve.
Like everything else the robot reacted to, it managed to adapt to a new strategy as it spun its head in a one-eighty degree angle, facing the magicat and scanning her within nanoseconds with its glaring-like red eyes. Seeing how pulling at the rope around its neck yielded no results, it did the next best thing it could think of. Grabbing onto the stretch of rope distancing themselves from each other, the robot's hand rotated several times in a perfectly circular motion, catching Catra off guard as the spinning wrapped her own around around both her wrists, pinning them together.
Knowing what was coming next, the feline braced herself as she was pulled off her feet, giving a small yelp as she was flung through the air into a bundle of leaves among the tall trees, losing her grip on the lasso and her strength as she began falling through a tumble of various sized branches, each one thicker than the last as her head and back bumped into each branch until she finally met the ground. It gave the robot enough time to casually slip the rope off over its neck as it approached the young princess.
Catra gritted her teeth to shake off the sores around her body and grab for her mystical weapon, rolling off to the side before the robot's massive mace could meet her directly as it slammed to the ground. She was forced to stick on the defensive as she transformed the lasso into a shield, nearly missing her chance to block the onset barrage of strikes that came from the massive robots weapons as she backed away, pushing against her shield against each of the robot's mighty swings.
It was thanks to their combined efforts that they managed to keep the robot on its toes, less they give it any leeway to finish one of them off. Yet for every moment they gained the upper hand, the robot managed to adapt to its struggles with little effort.
One of the dreaded things they came to realize about this robot was its ability to adapt and evolve to what it was fighting. In the present example, the robot's arms began to overheat with extreme temperatures, melting away the blocks of ice over its other arm within a few short seconds until all that was left was a thick cloud of steam over it. Upon the last drop of water evaporating from its metallic skin, it quickly followed up by dropping one of the heavy maces as it more than doubled its assault against the shielding Catra who had to stand her ground right then and there to keep the robot from pushing her back any further, just as Glimmer got back to her feet.
Having encountered this robot much sooner than Frosta did, she already used up a great deal of her energy as she was forced to teleport herself, Catra, and the bot at least once, and herself and Catra almost immediately after teleporting the massive bot at a height that should've destroyed it upon landing. With all the excess energy she was forced to use up, she had enough energy remaining to pull off one more two-person teleportation and keep on fighting, and she planned to save it for an emergency.
LIke Frosta's ice, her energy blasts were proving ineffective as the three fought the dangerous being. It reconfigured the adaptable carapace around its limbs to turn into a bowl-like surface, one capable of reflecting Glimmer's magic away from itself and back at the caster at almost twice the speed. With nothing else left, she was forced to fight it with all her physical might and staff, realizing that fighting from afar was proving more problematic than it should have been.
The fact it was attacking Frosta at all proved problematic for the young girl. She was working undercover for the Horde since she officially joined the Princess Alliance. While they were out and about taking on the droids within the woods, she was supposed to be keeping tabs on the princesses at all times. She was also supposed to keep her head down and out of sight whenever they were approached by the droids in order to keep her allegiance a secret to the rest. With the droids programmed not to attack her on sight, she could only feign ignorance as to why they didn't attack her for so long until somebody became suspicious.
She had enough suspicions coming out of Catra through the one time she didn't see them attacking her, and that was bad enough!
So why was this droid-like robot attacking her all of a sudden? She knew Adora was trustworthy enough to not betray her out of nowhere, especially since it would mean losing all the valuable resources she had obtained since joining the Horde, and even if she wasn't interested in the resources, she wasn't stupid enough to throw away a powerful ally, one that had one of the strongest kingdoms out of the Princess Alliance.
From what little she knew of the situation, she hoped at least, the robot was acting on its own. Whether she did something to it when she smashed an icy fist in its face, or Catra did something to it earlier, she knew she had to play along for now, and work with the others to either disable the droid without destroying, or find a way to destroy it before it could overpower them anymore than it already had.
And they weren't the only ones struggling either...
...
"TURN IT OFF!" Adora shouted worriedly as she watched the screen.
This was a complete nightmare. Since she's joined, Princess Frosta's allegiance to the Horde has been nothing but beneficial to their side. With resources provided weekly, territory they could set up additional outposts in, as long as they didn't interfere or occupy any space they weren't allowed to, and soldiers geared with the Horde's technology, they were a formidable ally to be had, and one of the worst kingdoms to make enemies with. And, as crazy as it sounds, something told Adora the Kingdom of Snows wouldn't take it very well if the Horde had to explain why their ten-foot robot was scraping off what remained of Frosta if something happened to her.
"I-I'm trying, I'm trying!" Entrapta squealed, typing madly into one of the large-screened computers of her lab.
Entrapta had no idea how she should feel about this. On the one hand, she created the closest thing to artificial free will! such a feat has never been heard of in the science community, and this was the closest thing to that. To think, the very robot she made, one of her greatest creations, had the capacity to act, think, and behave in the same manner as a human. With a will and desire to preserve its own life, it overwrote its programming to defend itself against Frosta, designating her as an enemy, something it did entirely on its own!
On the other hand, she created near-free will into a giant murder machine that was currently fighting off three powerful princesses at once, one of which happened to be an ally of theirs. It didn't matter what sort of accomplishments she could achieve by creating free will, it would tarnish her reputation if her own creation ended up costing the life of a fellow princess, and a child at that. It would turn her greatest work into her greatest failure, and she would live with that burden for the rest of her years.
Typing away as fast as her fingertips and hair tips could, she realized it was the greatest conundrum she ever had to face; either be renowned as the greatest scientist in human history who ever lived that also cost the life of a young child, or to find a way to shut down, deactivate, or destroy her greatest creation. WHY DID LIFE HAVE TO BE SO CRUEL?!
"What's taking so long?" Scorpia panicked, turning back and forth between the robot's point of view on the monitor and the dreadful scientist. "Can't you just hit the off switch or something?"
"It doesn't have an off switch," Entrapta snipped back, "and it's not responding to any of my codes! It must've thought its own programming was fighting against itself, so it rewrote its own programming to fight against it!"
"It can do that?"
"Apparently...?" How was a scientist supposed to explain herself when she didn't know what was going on to begin with? "The First Ones' tech I used to make it adaptable must've been more powerful than I thought. It didn't show any signs of programming capabilities when I ran it through an initial test run. Then again, I never really tried hacking its own programming before either."
"What about its self-destruct function? Can't you just use it and make a new one later?"
"Don't you think I've thought of that already?!"
"No!"
"Exactly! I can't afford to destroy something this grand of a design!" How can she expect her to understand, or any of them for that matter? This wasn't just some hinky-dinky robot that she put together through wires, metal, and several dozen pieces of alien technology. This was the first ever creation she's made that came close to achieving conscious thought, lines of reasoning. This wasn't just a breakthrough of modern technology, this was an entire new chapter in the laws of reality itself!
Even though she wasn't as enlightened as Adora and Entrapta were, Scorpia knew it would've been a painful process to force Entrapta through to destroy one of her beloved creations. "Look, Entrapta, I know its kind of a hard thing to do, but-"
"No, I mean I literally can't afford to destroy it!" She emphasized, wiping a bead of sweat from her brow with her hair. On top of the constant arguing, now she had to deal with the sweat rolling down her forehead and distracting her. "I only had enough of the First Ones' technology to make one droid like Orbko! If I destroyed it now, I'd never be able to make another one without more First Ones' parts."
"Then how do you plan to stop it?" Adora interjected, turning away from the screen for just a moment. "We can't let anything happen to Frosta even if it does mean losing a robot."
"I don't know!" She squeezed her head in frustration. "It keeps locking me out everytime I try to rewrite its programming or order it to stop! It won't respond to anything I say, it keeps adapting to any commands I try to give it, and there's too much pressure going on right now!" She was just a genius scientist with an average 180 I.Q. and hair that she could control like her arms and legs. How was she any different from any other scientist?!
"There's got to be something you can do!" Surely, if anyone could fix this situation, Scorpia knew Entrapta could... right? "I thought getting the parts were more important than fighting the princesses, anyway?"
"It is! It's just..." Blinking, a flash of realization dawned upon Entrapta's trembling mind as a lightbulb mentally went off in her head. "Wait... That's it!" Regrowing the same grin of ingenuity in a single moment, the scientist typed away fastily against the keyboard of the control module, with thousands of codes being displayed in the process.
"What's it?"
"It's priority!" With another click, a smaller display popped up next to the rows of coding, showing an image of Orbko's head with several green arrows pointing around it. "I can't change its programming without it rewriting to protect itself, but I should be able to adjust what it values as a priority, meaning it should ignore the princesses long enough for the princesses to get away!"
"Do you think it'll really work?" Adora tried to pry any of the potential optimism remaining from the situation.
"The robot only acts in self-defense if something tries to interfere with its mission or attacks it. As long as it thinks its priority isn't with the princesses, it shouldn't try to overwrite its programming."
"And how long will this take?"
"Assuming all goes as planned... it shouldn't take anything more than five minutes. Why?" The question was followed by another crash erupting from the display, Adora and Scorpia watching as the robot punched an entire tree off its stump. Like her optimism, the tree came tumbling down, leaving only a small layer of wood in its place.
"Because I don't think they're going to even last two minutes at this rate..."
...
...
*clang*
"Rngh!" Catra grumbled as she pushed against her shield, doing everything she could to stay on her feet as the robot bashed away with its maces.
From behind the terrifying droid, Frosta arose from a wave of ice being channeled under her feet, gathering her magic as she released a solid stream of ice towards the robot's metallic head. As the robot raised its mace again, its entire head was suddenly covered in a block of ice, at least two inches in thickness as it became engulfed in its frozen prison. In addition to its own self-defensive programming distracting it enough to focus on adapting to the thickening ice, the added weight forced it to grab on to its own head, holding it upright as it tried to maintain its balance, and dropping the maces in the process.
At this, the Princess of the Kingdom of Snows quickly jumped over the great machine, landing behind the magicat who picked herself off from the ground. While the robot was too preoccupied with its freezing conundrum, Catra saw the perfect opportunity to get some much needed payback for how long this robot's been bashing away at her and her allies, the way she felt it was insulting her lack of power.
Transforming her great shield into an agile combination of a chain 'n sickle, Catra narrowed her eyes in contempt as she twirled the small ball attached to the other end of her chain, flinging it with great dexterity and precision as it shattered off a small bit of the robot's right-armed carapace, just an inch's worth, which was more than enough for her satisfaction after all the beatings this robot brought to them. The minute she began to pull it back did she lunge for the towering figure, extending the claws in her feet as she tore a small bit into the robot's back and dug the small sickle straight into its abdomen as cleanly as paper.
"Catra, stop!" Her attention was stolen by the sound of the pleading tone coming from behind her, seeing Glimmer stopping just a few feet from her. "We can't destroy the bot, remember? Bow needs it intact!"
"Are you kidding me?" This robot was the worst combination of things rolled into one- something that really annoyed her and something she wasn't allowed to break! "We finally have a shot to smash this thing before it can recover and you don't want me to break it?!"
"Catra, please!" The pained look in Glimmer's eyes as she pleaded gave a small sting to Catra's heart. "If Bow can make a kill switch, we wouldn't have to waste anymore time in these woods. We'll be one step closer to taking the fight to the Horde!"
"Yeah, but-!"
*Rrrrrnnnnnnnghhhh*
"Hu-?"
*pew*
"Ahh!"
"Ahhhh!" The two princesses were unprepared or the massive attack that came back to them as Glimmer was thrown against the ground by a flailing Catra who crashed into her after being blasted at pointblank-range from the droid's eye. Within the two seconds she had, she barely managed to regrow her sword back to its original form, barely having enough time to deflect the powerful burst of energy that shot out of the block of ice from the robot's lone eye, a trail of steam still hissing from the melted hole it had created.
There wasn't any time to so much as blink for Glimmer as she felt Catra's entire body being shot at her, tumbling to the ground with the magicat atop of her as they were blasted away from the terrible droid. With a clear opening from its eye to the edge of the ice, about half a foot in diameter, the robot managed to squeeze the tips of its metallic fingers into the open socket, pulling apart the blocks of ice and tossing them to the ground, leaving a faint residue of cold around its head, one it managed to warm up with its own internal temperatures.
Catra winced as she slowly rose to her hands and knees, shaking her head as she looked over the equally-exhausted friend Glimmer rubbing her own face, pushing herself up from the ground by her elbow. "Are you okay?" She glanced over her friend with worry, knowing the cat took the brunt of the blast directly.
Sneering, Catra gave her a small scoff as she wiped the dirt from the left of her sore chin. "What do you think?" The contempt for the girl was noticeable even as the mechanical deathmachine stomped its way over to the injured friends.
It didn't matter if they could dodge out of the way of this thing's next attack, they needed to think of a plan! Everything they shot at it was thrown back at them or shrugged off in a matter of seconds, every advantage they found over this thing being nothing less than a miracle that was quickly taken from them. And every time they managed to get the drop on the robot, they could never do it in the same process twice.
Maybe that's why Frosta was caught off guard as she attempted to charge the robot from behind again on another wave of ice, morphing two solid hammar-like blocks of ice over both her hands. Sensing the essence of magic creeping from behind them, without so much as a twitch of warning as the younger girl neared it, the robot dodged with the simple turn of its body, leaning itself to the right without moving its feet apart just as the young princess rushed right passed him. Before she could even blink, Orbko rose its powerful right fist through the solid sheet of ice like wet paper, crashing through the thin layer of ice and knocking the princess off her wave.
The helpless girl was sent hurling through the air as the trail of ice shattered behind her, crumbling all along the trail to the dusty pathway she rode over. No sooner did Catra get back to her feet did she feel herself being thrust towards the ground again, now with the added weight of a princess half her size toppled right on top of her. It would've been a rather humorous sight to see for the Princess of Bright Moon was Catra was knocked away two feet beside her if it wasn't for the great trembling of the ground from the robot's massive footsteps.
There was nothing they could do at that second to stop it as it collected the maces along the ground as it approached them. Even if she did roll out of the way, that would still leave the fumbling Catra and Frosta in its wake as the two struggled to pull off from each other with the injuries thus sustained. The robot was too strong, it read their movements perfectly after the first time, and it managed to adapt at every given situation.
All Glimmer could do was channel a small fount of energy around her front as she held her mystic staff, ready to take on the brunt of the robot's monstrous force as it lifted one its maces to land the deadly blow.
*twigg*
Luckily, it was a blow that never came as the robot's wrists were ensnared by a tangle of thick green vines, ones with a familiar scent of flowers which grew along the massive roots. Orbko was rather perplexed by the sudden predicament as it had yet to register the mysterious vines that wrapped around its arms, or the mysterious force that beckoned the plant to do so in the first place. Looking passed the massive bot, Glimmer had never found herself so relieved to see the stern face of one of their precious friends, the Princess of Plumeria, Perfuma, or the massive roots that sprouted from each side of her.
"Get away from my FRIENDS!" She shouted. With a grand roar, shuffling her arms as if she was pulling it directly, she pulled the robot off its feet as she tossed it away behind her a good twenty yards, slamming the incredible new droid into the sturdy ground away from her.
No sooner did it land, its wrists still attached to the magical entanglement, did it already begin to adapt to its newest enemy. Reformatting the carapace-turned-maces in its hands, it rematerialized the great metal into a new kind of weaponry, one that was almost liquid in form as the robot wrapped it around its own arms. Concealing the robot's arms entirely, several dozen rows of spikes behan to jut out from the terrifying droid before rotating at a high velocity all around its arms, cutting away at the hazardous vines like a chainsaw cutting through a thicket of bushes.
Despite not seeing her, it was given enough details from the readings it took from physical contact. The Princess was known as Perfuma, who specialized in plants, and was capable of using nature itself as a weapon. Like it was programmed to, it was already developing over a hundred different means to defend itself against the new princess with its internal systems prepared to adjust to a high temperature capable of burning the plants away on a moment's noti-
*Splash!*
*Wham!*
Any such thoughts were swept away like the robot itself as it was blasted with several hundred pounds of force against one of the large trees of the Whispering Woods, drenching the robot in a deluge of water pushing against its entire body. When the water pushed passed it, it gave the great robot a small glimpse of its assailant, spotting a ticked-off Mermista glaring back at it as it brought force the same wave of water, blasting against the robot once again.
This went on once again as the Princess of Salineas summoned forth another wave of water, continuing to cycle a rotation of the great water pushing back the robot with as much force as she could muster, and pulling it back to her side for another blast each time. While it may have looked like she had the advantage at first glance, even she knew this strange new robot wasn't going to stay down for long. Already, it was adapting to the princess's powers as it hardened the carapace around its body, shrugging off the princess's attacks a little more each time it was struck by great blast of water.
She knew she wouldn't be able to keep this up forever. All Mermista was concerned with right now was keeping the robot at bay long enough for the others to recuperate.
With the crisis temporarily adverted, Glimmer let out a sigh of great relief as she steadily rose to her feet, welcoming the sight of Bow as he rode atop of a familiar white horse that went by the name of Swift Wind. "Glimmer!" He called out, earning a smile from the relieved princess as he hopped off the alicorn. "Are you okay?"
"Bow!" She panted a little as she ran up to her friend. The scrapes along her arms and legs, as well as Catra's and Frosta's, was all Bow needed to understand the turmoil they've been pushed through. "Yeah, we're fine, thanks to you guys." The two paused briefly as they heard Catra let out another grunt she pushed the shorter girl off of her, eliciting a small grumble from the icy princess who had to dust herself off. "How did you guys know we were in trouble?"
"We saw you teleporting above the forest earlier," Perfuma answered in his place as she rushed over, "and Swift Wind managed to track your location thanks to his bond with Catra."
"No need to thank me," the horse stated nonchalant with a strut, "just look into getting me that chair at the Meeting Table and we'll call it even."
"Heh, I'll speak to my mom first thing when we get home." Glimmer chuckled, finding a small sustenance of joy from this brief moment of peace.
"With that in mind, what the heck is that thing?" Shifting his head back along with the others, they were greeted with the sight of a struggling Mermista who continued to hold Orbko at bay, using everything she could to keep it pressed against the tree as it gained an inch every second.
"The Horde sent some type of new droid, and its unlike anything we've fought before."
"I'll say," the galiant unicorn tilted his head in fascination, "it's a lot more clunkier than what they usually send."
"No, I mean it's really dangerous!" It was times like these the Princess of Bright Moon wished she had a camera to show footage that could emphasize her point. "That thing's predicting our movements every time we launch an attack, and it keeps changing its body to fight against whatever we throw at it."
"You mean it's learning?" Bow didn't know whether to be impressed by the technical prowess behind the creation, or deeply concerned over what cynical mind could've created such a device. The amount of detail that would've gone into such a highly advanced creation would've taken the most brilliant of minds of Etheria to even comprehend such a creation, let alone build it.
"She means it's annoying!" Turning their attention back, they were approached by an irritated Catra who was still in a huff. "The same move never works on that thing twice, and the longer we keep fighting it, the faster it adapts to anything else we can do."
"Then how do we stop it?" Perfuma was the only one who didn't turn away from Mermista's struggle as she weighed in on the conversation. "We can't let it go on like this, and we can't destroy it if Bow needs it to create his switch thingy."
"We don't have to!" The sound of optimism drew in the small crowd around him as Bow assured them, squeezing his fist with confidence with a satisfying smile of confidence on his lips. "If its as intelligent as you guys said it was, then it has to have some sort of powerful core running its systems in its chest. All we have to do is remove the core and the entire thing should power down."
"Is it really that simple, though?" Glimmer raised a brow with concern. "How are we supposed to get it to hold still long enough to remove its core?"
"Hmm..." The thinker behind the Princess Alliance rubbed his chin in contemplation. "How long did it take to adapt to whatever you guys were doing?"
"I'd say about twelve seconds," Frosta spoke in Catra's and Glimmer's place as she approached, "give or take. Why?"
As the archer went over his plans from the other end of the clearing, Mermista had just reached her limits with this nightmarish contraption. Every wave she pushed against the mighty machine went on to further its own defensives, its metal reshaping and resurfacing with each passing wave to harden and combat against the princess's magic. Unlike the previous attacks it took, it required more time to evaluate its entire structure and reshape it into the now-darkened metal that overtook its entire person, a metal durable enough to withstand the blast of several hundred pounds of water pressure at once.
One that was capable of walking through it like a brisk walk through the rain, the torrent of water pushing through it being nothing more than a breeze in the wind to it.
Mermista's stance stiffened at the sight of the massive bot walking towards her with ease. Even after she attempted to blast the dreaded bot with all of her surrounding water at once, it still shrugged it off like it was nothing. The robot showed no signs of slowing down or backing away from its intended target as the shutters of its camera-like eyes began to narrow. Delivering one massive fist towards her, the princess was forced to jump back from the deadly strike, inadvertently leaving herself wide open as the robot targeted thirty-two centimeters above her right knee, the precise spot that would've left her incapable of defending herself immediately after.
*Boom!*
Thankfully for her, that blast never came to her as the robot's head was suddenly struck from the sudden force of an Explosive Arrow, knocking its sensors in temporary disarray. Mermista was rather surprised by the endeavor as well before Perfuma pulled her away gently with one of her vines. The fellow princess quickly whispered to her dear friend for a few seconds, culminating to a nod of understanding as Mermista ran behind the disoriented bot, standing several yards away and getting into her assigned position as Perfuma did the same on its right.
Like she was told, Mermista saw the youngest princess standing several yards at the front of the robot with her magic at the ready, her hands giving off an icy chill as the magic gathered around the floor near her. To the robot's left, she saw Catra and Swift Wind already in position, the Princess of Power creating a gold tethered whip out of her sword, with the horse standing at the ready behind his master. That just left a certain pair of members waiting to leap into the action, standing off to the side behind a row of trees as they all waited for Mermista's signal.
This massive droid hurt her friends, tossed them aside like they were nothing, and used their powers and weaknesses against them. It could adapt to any one situation that was given to it, and could gauge how strong each of its adversaries were the minute it attacked them. All of it hinged on the fact it took a short amount of time to process and analyze each and every attack, as well as the individual who attacked it. With that in mind, Bow's planning came down to one important detail: if it took a certain amount of time to study each of the princess's attacks individually, then how long did it take to study them all at the same time?
The theory was put to the test as Mermista began the attack. With as much water as she could draw out from the surrounding fields that were still melting, she poured a massive tank of water over the mobile machine, dropping the same amount of water upon its back that it had come accustomed to over her brief fight with it. At first, it was confused. Why was she bothering to use the same attack against it if she knew it wouldn't work? Was she inferior in terms of intelligence compared to the rest? Was she too proud of herself to quit? The answers it required came to it as soon as it processed this confusing line of reasoning as the temperature around its feet began to drop.
With its sensors beginning to return to their proper functionality, the robot assessed the strange coolness surrounding its feet. What started as a small breeze quickly solidified into an icy winds as the princess of Ice gathered a large recess of ice around both its legs, stretching halfway up to its kneecaps. The princess wasn't trying to encompass ice around its entire body, just enough to make it focus on its legs.
With the attack coming from above and the one coming from below, it provided the perfect opportunity for Catra and Perfuma to pull off their line of the work. With Perfuma gathering her massive vines at her side, both girls threw their respective bonds at the incapacitated droid, with Catra wrapping the single whip several times over the robot's right arm, and Perfuma wrapping several vines over its left arm. Both of the princesses pulled with all their might as they pulled the robot's arms away from each other as far as possible, Swift Wind holding on the end of Catra's newly-formed whip in his teeth as he pulled behind her.
Just as Bow anticipated, the robot was hunched over a little as it was forced to process each of these attacks from every direction against its will, calculating and analyzing every detail in order to combat the threat, despite knowing it was being left vulnerable to further attack. With the distraction thrown in front of it, and a knowing nod to Glimmer beside him, the princess channeled the last burst of her magic that she could use to teleport with, holding onto him as they teleported and reappeared behind the robots back.
At their appearance, Mermista lowered the downpour over the robot, directing her stream atop of the robot's head to keep its vision impaired long enough for Bow to access the robot's back. Along with this, with her staff still in hand, Glimmer jammed the butt of the mystical staff straight on the nape of the droid's neck, doing whatever she could to assist in its distraction as Bow attempted to access its systems.
The archer examined the chassis of the thoroughly as he searched for any form of opening, whether a bolt or a panel itself. Seeing little to work with, knowing time was of the essence, the bowman sighed in reluctance as he grabbed one of the arrows still in his quiver, and, with a strong grip, plunged it an inch away from the right edge of the robot's back. Like many of his arrows, this one was specially modified for any sort of occasion. In this case, it was designed to build up with extreme heat at the tip, allowing it to penetrated either thicks blocks of ice, or hardened armor like the robot he was currently riding upon.
It was also proving itself to be a very useful alternative to a welding torch as he slowly traced it around the robot's back, hoping to pry off a layer thin enough to access its core without damaging anything too important. Being careful not to cut too deeply, the archer nibbled on his bottom lip as he turned the edges, being as quick as possible yet careful enough to complete his task without wasting too much time.
This is how the group found themselves for the next minute, each of them struggling on their respective sides as they distracted the robot long enough for Bow to work. With every second that passed, the grip around Catra's hands tightened as she gritted her teeth. For each tug, Perfuma required more excessive magic to maintain her hold with the enchanted vines. And with Frosta and Mermista using their magics above and below it, they had to be careful not to overpower each other while maintaining a constant stream of their magic to suppress the robot's senses.
Unbeknownst to the rest, however, the robot wasn't as distracted or shortsighted as they originally thought. Adapting and Evolving to a given situation wasn't its only means of combat. Naturally, as a being created and complexed as itself, it was capable of advanced thought. Out of the variety of data that ran through its head on an endless basis during the fight, one of the things it made sure to do was to never unleash its full power. Why? Because of situations like this.
So it could gain the upperhand and surprise the rest if it ever needed to turn things around.
With a simple pull against its restraints, the magicat nearly jumped as her feet slid across the ground, forcing her to painfully dig the claws of her exposed toes into the soil as she attempted pull harder without her She-Ra state. The same effect was being felt on the other end as Perfuma nearly lost touch with her own magic, requiring her to gather an extra bundle of the thick green vines to tighten her hold over it. And even though they didn't have to worry about pulling the robot away, Glimmer and Bow found themselves struggling to maintain their grip as the robot shook its back fiercely.
"Whhhoaoaoo!" Glimmer meeped, wrapping an arm around the bot's neck as she tightened an arm around it. She held on to the bot's neck with her fingers holding along her staff and the tip of Bow's shirt, trying her best to maintain her grip despite the torrential rain of Mermista's magic.
"H-Hey! Steady!" Bow called to the surrounding allies, tension filling the air around them as they tried to shrug off the stress getting to them.
"How much longer is this going to take?" Mermista yelled out from behind, her magic starting to wane at the excessive amount she already used from earlier.
"J-Just another minute, at most!"
"We're not going to last another minute, Bow!" Frustrated, Catra wrapped her right hand tightly around the whip, doing whatever she could to maintain her hold on the fearsome creature.
"D'ohn leh yo' 'ard 'own!" Swift Wind's slurred words did nothing for the feline as she turned her head, groaning internally at his lack of sense with talking while his mouth was full.
"I can't understand you..."
Rolling his eyes, the unicorn lifted his head as he tried to reply, "I said, don't let your guard d-"
"Ahhh!"
*swiff*
The horse barely managed to rectify its one mistake as took the whip out of its mouth. The moment he began to talk, Catra was pulled harshly against the ground, nearly dropping to her knees as she was pulled over a foot closer to the droid. In haste, the horse just as quickly stomped against the edge of the whip to hold it in place, scooping it back up in his mouth before Catra could be pulled any further, not that it did anything to prevent the irritated glare she shot back to him for his terrible mistake. "N'orry!"
"We wouldn't have this problem if we had a little more power, you know." It felt extremely obvious to Frosta what they had to do as she shifted her eyes over to infamous princess. Right away, Catra's eyes narrowed a few inches as she tried to ignore the suggestion, passing it off with a shrug like it was nothing.
"W-We're fine as we are!" She yelled back, trying to put on a brave face as she struggled to maintain her grip. "We don't need She-Ra!"
"Uhh C-Catra, I beg to differ right now!" Glimmer yelled back, the robot's shaking became increasingly violent. "We could really use's She-Ra's help right about now!"
"No we don't! We're doing just fi-"
"She-Ra, please!" The sound of Perfuma's beg-filled voice made it all the more disheartening to Catra as she tried to drown out the noise. "We need you right now! I know you can do it!"
"We just need her for a few seconds, come on!" And with the pained groan of Mermista's insistence, followed by the constant pleas of those around her, that Catra squeezed her eyes shut.
What was she supposed to do right now? She was losing her grip with each passing beat of her heart, and she knew the longer she wasted time trying to think of an excuse or a plan, the closer the robot was going to be to breaking free. She knew what was at stake here and knew the importance of this mission, less everything end in ruin. She couldn't afford to go She-Ra though when she couldn't achieve nothing more than a fourth of the form to begin with!
None of them knew about her recent status, and it was the way she wanted to keep it. How was she supposed to explain to everyone how she suddenly lost her "She-Ra-ness" several weeks ago after all this time and effort she put in trying to get it before a month ago? All that time, all that effort, all those hardships she had to endure since joining the Rebellion and to achieve the form of She-Ra, only to be taken from her after a stupid mistake, a stupid thought.
Something she has been dealing with the consequences of ever since.
It wasn't anything she could explain to them, either. How was she supposed to say "hey guys, hope you don't mind I'm not the same She-Ra that saved our butts a month ago, hope you're okay with that, and not expect any form of backlash? They wouldn't accept her for her mistakes, not after everything they did to try and get Catra to become She-Ra in the first place, and what good would it do otherwise? Even if she did tell them the truth, so what? It wouldn't stand to help any of them. And how would they react to her if they found out the truth?
Glimmer and Bow would be angry over her refusal to tell them, Mermista would berate her endlessly for not telling them the truth, Frosta would continue to poke fun at her and never let her live it down, and Perfuma would be the worst. Out of all of them, her's was the most painful to bear. There was no surprise for her respect or admiration for the holy figure known as She-Ra, or those that took the form of the blessed warrior. Almost twice a day, she would go on to make a fawned comment about the history of the glorious She-Ra and how righteous her tales of woe and adventure were.
Even if they had nothing to do with the current She-Ra.
How was Catra supposed to turn her down of all people? The first princess she's ever met, the one that held She-Ra in high regard. If she shattered her dreams out of everyone, to turn that bright cheerful smile she always had into something of twisted agony and sadness, Catra would never be able to forgive herself.
It didn't matter how much it hurt the others by refusing them when they needed it most. For now, keeping her secret a mystery was the best course of action, and the only way to keep them from being anymore hurt than they had to be.
With a single, solitary word, Catra gave them a solid response, one they were unprepared for. "N-No!" And with that utterance, their fates were sealed. Not because of her refusal to acknowledge them, or her seeming refusal to turn She-Ra when they truly needed it, but because they had finally ran out of time.
Echoing with a mechanical whir and a hum, the robot spotted the very instant their guards were simultaneously lowered enough for it to act. Without warning, the droid's right arm suddenly detached as it was fired directly at the animalistic duo, reaching Catra the very moment she opened her eyes again. Despite being futile, Swift Wind attempted to protect the both of them as he covered themselves with his wings upfront, but was powerless against the mighty fist that pushed the two back into the forest.
In the timespan it took Perfuma's eyes to widen and to let out a gasp, she was already defeated. Grabbing onto the vines that held it at bay, the robot rotated its hand at supersonic speeds, faster than Perfuma could keep up with and with enough force to pry a tree right out of the ground. Maneuvering its hands precisely, the princess of plants was caught off guard as the rotation eventually spun the the opposing ends of the roots on her sides in a timely fashion, encircling and eventually wrapping themselves around both her arms and pinning them to her sides.
All it took from there was one solid swing to thrust the girl in the bundle of twigs and leaves in the trees above. Scraping and tumbling down as she did, the princess found herself entangled in a heap of the vines connecting to her wrists and ankles, tightened around just enough to prevent her from channeling her magic, at least long enough for it to finish off the other princesses.
With both its arms free, there was nothing preventing it from its second rotation. This time, the entire robot spun its upper half with its arms still stretched at the side. All around it the leaves, dirt, and rain that continued to pour above it were blown across the clearing, creating a thin yet suffocating cloud of dust and debris that irritated the eyes of the remaining fighters, causing Frosta and Mermista to shield their eyes with their arms as the stinging combination of nature rushed passed them.
That did nothing to help Glimmer and Bow's predicament.
With the two friends still hanging on from the back, it was only natural that they would find themselves flung into the air. The intense speeds the robot was spinning itself combined with the slippery surface of its body, in small part due to Mermista's involvement, made it a harrowing ride that nobody could hang onto. In opposite directions, from the left to the right, the two friends were ejected from the machine and thrown through the air, being launched several dozen yards in two directions from behind.
Coming down to the last of the remaining princesses, the robot raised its right arm as it came to a halt, aiming it in the same direction of its missing hand as a small rocket blasted it back to its own. Swiftly bursting through the air, following a small click as it returned to its exposed socket, the robot began to channel an electrical charge into both its hands, one capable of disabling any fully-grown adult like a tazer or a stun rod, and thrust them into the ground. While the young princess was safe from where she was, the mounds of dirt resisting the splash of water that swept the field, its intended target wasn't so fortunate as she took on the full blast of the shock.
*Bzzzzzt!*
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!" From behind, Mermista screamed in agony as several thousand volts of electricity ran through her system, paralyzing her senses as a small portion of the droid's power supply ran through her.
With her feet planted in the mushy ground around her, not to mention the vast amount of water that pooled from her to the droid directly, there was nothing she could do to prevent the onslaught of misery that was inflicted upon her. It was only after the droid ended its electrical charge itself, pulling the hands from the ground, that the princess finally collapsed to the ground, conscious but numbed from the electricity that coursed throughout her body.
That just left the last of the princesses, one by the name of Princess Frosta, as the youngest member of the Alliance was finally coming out of her blinded state. While she was incapable of seeing what transpired around her, the sounds of screaming and yells throughout the recent event matched perfectly with what she saw. All around her, her allies were either gone or incapacitated, in no state to fight back or defend themselves from the robot's rampage.
Neither was she as she felt a powerful grip grab her by the scruff of her neck,
"Agghhhh!" The young princess squealed as the robot pushed her against the ground, slightly choking her throat pinned against the ground.
Orbko had finished what it was designed to do- be the perfect combat unit that could take on the evil princesses of Etheria and traitors to the Horde. All of the princesses and members of the Rebellion lied across the field, in the trees, against the ground, and in one particular case, tangled up in the trees. It adapted to each of their strengths when the situation called for it, and evolved when it needed to take them all out at the same time.
It proved its superiority.
The princesses lied around it defeated.
And it felt no remorse or sympathy as it materialized the titicular spiked mace that it once wielded in its other hand from the carapace around its arm. Raising it into the sky, Frosta's struggles were put on hold as every ounce of her body was filled with fear, seeing the light gleaming off of the raised spike looking down on her. With the lack of air she was inhaling, it was impossible to gather the concentration she needed to defend herself via magic. Grunting at the hopelessness of the situation, the young princess squeezed her eyes shut as she saw the mace slamming down on her, unable to watch as her end fell upon her.
"..." With a small breeze falling over her, the Princess of the Kingdom of Snows waited for the horrible fate that was literally falling atop of her. She could feel the shadow of the mace as it fell over her eyes, the grip of the robot's hand clenched around her throat remaining constant in strength, never showing any sign of slack or possibility for her to escape through. She still couldn't believe after all her hard work and dedication to the Horde, offering them resources from her kingdom and keeping tabs on the princesses like she was tasked with. And a part of her still wondered if this was them betraying her, or if her theory about the robot malfunctioning was accurate.
"..." That same line of wonder proved validated as the silence continued to surmount. For a supposed death that was coming towards her, it was taking its sweet time. It almost felt like... "...?" She couldn't help it. With the curiosity building over her mind, she just had to see. Cracking one eye open, she took a small peek at the round figure hovering over her, pupils dilating at the mace's spikes that were less than an inch from the bangs of her hair. They were standing above her, ready to deliver the swift justice that was her end, waiting for the perfect moment to crush the young girl in one fell swoop.
But that moment never came.
*zzzt*
"Huh?" At the sound of the mysterious static that just went off, Frosta finally opened her eyes in full. Despite everything that had lead up to this point, the tension still hanging in the atmosphere with uncertainty, the mace never came closer to her. Tilting her head up as best she could, she could see a small twitch going off from the robot's head, its neck slightly crooked from her point of view.
The robot had yet to bring the mace any closer. In fact, much to her surprise, the mace actually began to nudge a little away from her, the constricting grip over her throat loosening with each passing breath. Orbko had started to recede from its previous objected as the red coloring in its eye reverted to its original shade of blue.
It was sparing her.
...
...
"Got it!" Entrapta finally announced before collapsing against the control console. "HUUUUUUFF!" She couldn't remember the last time she gasped so loudly, panting fervently with her tongue sticking out. "Huff... huff... huff..." Every strand of hair looked more exhausted than she was, hanging lifelessly from her head all around her as the scientist had to wipe her own sweat with the palms of her hand.
She had never encountered such an exhausting experience before such as this. Oh, sure, she's hacked numerous things in the past. Most of them were her own inventions in order to hone her skills, and they were always entertaining. She used complexed factorizations to make her test runs unpredictable and challenging, forcing her to work tooth and nail, or in this case finger and hair, as she attempted to bypass the various designs and programs she used to make the tests more challenging.
From complexed algorithms forcing her to use prime factorization to debugging highly encrypted data locks that gave her access to her server's mainframes, there was never a dull moment or an unenjoyable experience she had whenever she had to hack her own inventions. But MAN was this thing a nightmare!
It was unlike anything she had ever experienced before. Whenever she bypassed one security detail, two more popped up immediately after like a hydra losing its head. Every code and encrypted piece of dialogue she had to fight through came behind several firewalls, all of which had their own security measures that she had to bypass, too. And every time she came close to finishing one detail that was preventing her from accessing Orbko's mainframe, it completely flushed her out of its systems by deploying another level of security that she had to fight through.
Ironically, her most opportune moment came during the brief scuffle the droid had against all members of the Princess Alliance. With all of them distracting the droid with an admittedly-creative means of restraint, its processing unit slowed down tremendously as it worked to adapt to the princesses' forms of magic and strength, providing an ample amount of time to hack into its systems even faster as it was too distracted by the various attacks to build any more firewalls.
From there, it was just a short matter of accessing its internal systems and compromising its Priority Database, filling it with a never-ending desire to ignore the princesses and continue on with the rest of its mission. As expected, the droid refused to counteract this new thought that suddenly infiltrated its systems, thinking it was its own doing as it had yet to do anything to hamper its combat capabilities. It took nearly a full minute for the droid to be fully integrated with the line of reasoning, ending off right around the same time it brought its mace down near Frosta's head.
It was the most mind-numbing experience she had ever gone through. Perhaps some part of it was to be expected since she was hacking the creation of a long lost civilization. Then again, considering the same civilization existed nearly a thousand years ago, it was a wonder such an old race could create something so advanced and ingenious like this in the first place.
It was brutal. It was stressful. And as fun and exciting as the challenge was for her, there was no way she would ever want to go through the same experience ever again within the next two hours!
...
...
"Agh-!" The small princess let out a small yip as she cried out, breathing heavily as the air finally returned to her lungs in full.
With Orbko's prioritize reorganized, it no longer sought reason to continue fighting the evil princesses and warriors around it, believing them to be of no consequence to its mission. Even if they were, they didn't stand a chance. It overpowered them like it was designed to do, and it was capable of finishing them off if they ever tried to fight it ever again. With its own two metallic hands, it struck down each of the princesses, and ensured they knew what little they had to hope for in terms of victory.
Taking a quick reading of its surroundings, knowing the princesses would regather in just a few minutes, it restructured the mace back to its original carapace-like form as the robot itself backed away from the perplexed Frosta. With nothing more to gain by wasting time here, it returned to its original ball-like form, turning around from the princess of ice, and sped off at remarkable speeds down the pathway of the forest to its targeted destination.
And at this, Frosta let out a sigh, collapsing her head back to the ground again.
The battle had been a grueling experience for each member of the Princess Alliance. They had just contended with a terrifying creature of power, one crafted by the Horde's best and brightest, and they had lost. They needed to capture the bot alive, to create a kill switch that could finally disable all of the droids within the surrounding forest and provide them a means to combat the Evil Horde army. And considering what the droid's intended target was, fate wouldn't provide them with a choice...
...
...
...
A/N: Ugh, that was grueling. Like I said, idk why it was so hard for me to write this chapter- yes i've differed a lot of the past chapters, but those still kept with the main flow of the show and whatnot. Here idk what exactly happened. I contemplated at least a dozen times in the past chapters whether or not I wanted to rewrite the entire previous chapter to be more fitting, and even now I'm contemplating it X/
Phew... At least on a positive side, with this chapter over, its right back to FINALLY reaching the main plot again, and i pray the update wont take as long now, or at least make the writing better overall ^^
With that said, apologies again, and I hope you all enjoyed! Leave a like, fave, follow, and review if you enjoyed and hope to see you soon!