Wow. I keep dragging out these chapters like RWBY episodes: some action here, some action there. And as much as I love that I hate it as well. I'M FEELING SO CONTRADICTORY RIGHT NOW! Ugh! I've been watching too much RWBY. …No I haven't—I take that back—strike if from the records. *sighs* Anyway, this is sort of a "welcome back" gift for my spark-sister WolfAssassin396. Good to have you back, Bug-a-boo. :D

WolfAssassin369—You would think, right? Evidently not. And *hugs* welcome back!

Alice Gone Madd—Don't worry. She'll be all right for a few more chapters before the big bad happens.

AllSpark Princess—Andromeda will eventually get better to the point we'll probably end up liking her. But for the moment, not so much.

SunnySides—Like I've said before sometimes the plugs are intentional, sometimes they're not, it's all about what I like that can fit really. As for Optimus and Fowler—maybe, maybe not, I'm not telling so soon.

Hey, Hunter, get in here! We got a question for ya!

Hunter: *comes in and reads question* Shattered Glass universe? What's that?

It's a version of the TF universe where the Decepticons are the good guys and the Autobots are the bad guys.

Hunter: So… you mean Dad's the human-hating, power hungry warmonger and Megatron is like Dad?

Yeah.

Hunter:… I'd rather not answer this question then. It's too weird to wrap my processor around.

Shadescribe—She'll learn soon. Don't worry. ;)

I do not own Transformers or anything in relation. I only own Hunter, the Hybrid race, and any other character that you may not recognize.

Gothic Storm; Stand and Fight

9

Ω Pugna of Conscendo OlympusΩ

(The Battle of Mount Olympus)

A scream went up from the students as several of them went running out of the way of the collapsing bleachers. Hawk stood frozen across the gym with the rest of the class, staring in horror before his eye quickly flickered over to the two women who had buried Hunter beneath the stands. Who were these people? What did they want with Hunter? A protective male, Hawk's instincts told him that he should get in there and help his friend out , but what exactly could he do? He had no idea who he was up against here. Plus, unlike Hunter, he didn't have multiple lives like she did so if the worst happened to him what would become of Star? He'd promised his parents and then grandparents that he'd look out for her. What good would that promise be if he went and got himself killed in a battle against strange Hybrid? Still, Hunter needed help. And he knew how to fight. But what if he was killed? Hawk went back and forth with this moral dilemma, trying to decide what to do and if it was necessary.

One of the masked women marched over to the pile of bleachers and picked her way up it, looking around. After a moment she stopped and turned to look back at her teammate. "I think we got her," she called down to them. It wasn't a second after that that a large explosion occurred, scattering the bleachers and well as turning some of them to rubble and shrapnel.

Hawk ran out in front of his classmates and held out his hands, stopping a large section of bleacher that had come flying their way. The metal came into contact with his hands and caved in but stopped its forward progression. A lavender aura surrounded both the eighteen-year-old and the metal bleacher for a moment before it disappeared. The bleacher crashed to the floor. Feeling the kinetic energy absorbing into his muscles, making him stronger, Hawk turned his attention back to where the explosion had taken place. He was relieved to see Hunter, mostly unscathed, back up to her feet.

Growling and fists still ignited in hot blue flames, Hunter glared out through the smoke at the remaining woman. Reaching up to her left shoulder she yanked off her sleeve that was just hanging by a thread igniting it and burning it to ash as she did. "Let's do this," the teen snarled mainly to herself. With that she crouched down into a start position. There was a boom and in the blink of an eye the masked woman was flying across the gym and through the wall, through another wall, though another wall after that, and, ultimately right out the side of the mountain before slamming against the force-field that concealed the school and crashing to the ground. Standing where the woman had previously been, Hunter lowered her extended fist. When she heard groaning, she whipped around towards the sound, seeing the first two she had taken out—the team leaders—starting to come to. Another grow rumbling up from her throat, she advanced towards them.

Sitting up, both the man and woman shook their heads before looking around to see their team scattered around, all either dead, or wounded and unconscious. The woman sighed heavily and shrugged her shoulders in defeat. "Well," she remarked, "that's what you get when you take the rookies out."

The man turned his attention towards the fuming girl storming her way across the gym towards them. "You're just a regular little powerhouse, aren't you?" he declared with a slight laugh.

Hunter shook her head, his laugh only fueling her anger. "You guys," she rumbled, "picked the wrong damn day for this crap."

Her opponents got to their feet. "We did, huh?" the man questioned, cracking his shoulders and neck. "Well, that remains to be seen."

"I will make mince-meat outta the two of you!"

"Well, then," the woman laughed, drawing out her weapons as her partner drew out his, "come on, Hunter. Show us exactly what you can do."

"Hmph!" Hunter extracted her razors.

For a long moment the three of them stood there in silence, having a face-off, waiting to see who would make the first move. Then it happened. "Huh!" Hunter launched herself into the air, moved into a horizontal spin, and came down between her captors, slashing for them. "Hrah!" They both leapt out of the way. The teen paused for a quick moment, deciding who to go after first, before she lunged at the male, teeth bared. "Hah!" She swung her left set of razors forward, only to be blocked with the sword in his right hand, so she swung her right set soon. Once again, she was blocked by the dagger in his left hand. Quickly retracting her claws, Hunter dropped down and swiped a leg out at his ankles, trying to knock his feet out from under him. "Uh!" She did hit him in the ankles, but instead of falling he bent over backwards, planted a fist against the floor, moved up into a graceful handspring and was up on his feet again. The teen would have gone after him again had it not been for her ESP tingling. Spinning around she just shifted off to the side to avoid being impaled on a sword. "Ugh! Uh!" She grabbed her opponent's other wrist as the woman tried to bring it forward and stab her with her dagger. Bringing her arm up, she elbowed the woman hard in the nose, knocking her back. Whipping around again, Hunter lifted her razors up again and caught the blades of the man with them, holding them off. "Rah!" For a moment she meet his eyes, hidden behind those red-lensed goggles. Then she raised her leg up and kneed him in the gonads, hard, causing him to cry out and drop his weapons before grabbing his tenders as he sank to his knees. Hunter then spun round and planting her foot in the side of his head. "Huh! Hyah!"

A hand gripped her shoulder and Hunter reached around and grabbed the wrist it was attached to. Swinging the woman up and over she slammed her into the floor and planted her foot in her shoulder as she kept a hold of her arm, twisting it. The woman cried out in obvious pain before reaching up and grabbing the redhead's ankle and jerking her leg. "Whoa-oof!" Hunter faceplanted into the floor. Growling, the teen quickly rolled onto her back and kicked a foot out at her opponent's ankles. "Hah!" The woman fell and her forehead cracked against Hunter's knee. While she laid on the floor for a moment, trying to shake the dizziness and pain away, Hunter got back up on her feet before reaching down and grabbing the woman by the back of her armor. Jerking her up off the floor, she wrapped her arms around the woman's shoulders and neck in a headlock. "Like I said," she panted into her ear, "you guys picked the wrong day to do this."

Behind her mask, the woman smirked and laughed darkly. "You think so, huh?" she challenged. Suddenly she threw her head back and bashed it against the teen's and then threw her arm back to elbow her in the temple, causing Hunter to let go. She then reached down and grabbed the redhead's leg, jerking it up between hers while twisting off to the side and wrapping her leg girl's waist to force her to fall. Once they were both on the ground, the woman bent Hunter's leg sharply down to the floor, causing a sickening crackling sound to come from her hip. Hunter threw back her head in a cry. Snickering, the woman got to her feet and stood over the prone girl, smirking down at her. "Seems like we picked a pretty good day to me," she remarked. With that she lifted it a foot and was about to smash it down against Hunter's face when she was suddenly blasted away from the girl and crashed against the wall.

Grunting, Hunter managed to sit up and looked to see what has forced her opponent away from her. Her eyes widened. "Hawk?"

The Canadian was standing there half-court, eyes glowing red with some kind of energy. His eyes were trained on the woman before they finally shifted down to Hunter. The red energy surrounding them dissipated and he rushed over to help her up. "You okay?" he asked, hoisting the girl up on her feet and allowing her to lean on him for support. His silver eyes did a quick look-over for any obvious injuries.

Grimacing, Hunter pressed a hand against her hip as she straightened her leg out, biting her lip against the pain as it popped back into place. "You should get out of here," she grunted. "This isn't your fight."

"Hey, we're teammates," Hawk replied. "Mi casa es su casa and all that."

"Since when did houses come into the picture?"

"You know what I mean."

"All right then," Hunter sighed. "If you wanna fight, knock yourself out." She shoved away from Hawk and started stalking towards the masked man who was starting to recover and get up himself. "You take She-vis over there—I'll take Butthead." Clenching her fists, the teen walked away, a growl rumbling in her chest.

Hawk watched after her for a moment before turning back to "She-vis". He got into a ready position as she began getting up and took several deep breaths to try and calm himself down. This was the first actual fight he'd ever been in. Well, okay, he'd been in other fights earlier in his life too, but this was the first life and death fight he'd ever been in. "Just don't get killed," the boy whispered the oh-so-comforting piece of advice to himself. "Just don't get killed."

Groaning, "She-vis" straightened up and stretched her back before cracking her neck, then she turned her attention on Hawk. Another smirk materialized at her lips. She began sauntering towards him, her hips possessing an extra sway as she murmured, "You're gonna regret the decision to help your pal, little boy." She chuckled as she pulled out her sword and dagger again. "You have no idea what you got yourself into."

"Well," Hawk commented somehwhat cheekily. "I always have liked mysteries."

The woman snorted, then charged. "Rraahh!"

Ignoring the fight that had just commenced behind her, Hunter focused all her attention on "Butthead" standing before her and the mêlée that was going to commence there. "Just you and me, pal," she informed him. "I'll let you pick—easy way or hard way?"

"Butthead" walked over to his fallen weapons and retrieved them, spinning and flipping both of them expertly in his hands and on his fingertips. He snickered. "One in the same to me, little girl," he answered. "You're gonna find out pretty quickly that I don't go down so easily."

"Says the guy who doubled over when I nailed his crotch," Hunter snorted.

"Well, everyone has a weak spot. I'll just be extra careful and make sure to guard mine now that you know where it is."

"Won't make any difference," Hunter snarled. "I'll still knock you to Kingdom Come and back again."

"Butthead" snorted. "Good luck with that, sweet-spark," he patronized. "I take hits a lot better than most Hybrids do."

"Oh, yeah?" Hunter challenged, the statement piquing her already flaming ire a bit more. "Well here's a newsflash, buddy," Hunter kicked in her hyper-speed and dashed towards the man, punching him square in the face and through the wall behind him, "I hit a lot harder than most Hybrids do."

Sitting up amid the rubble on the other side of the wall, "Butthead" put down his dagger for a moment (he'd somehow managed to keep hold of his weapons) and rubbed his jaw for a moment, moving it around as well. "Not bad, Ms. James," he commented. "Not bad at all." With that he grabbed his dagger again and stood back up. "Well, then," he sighed, coming back through the hole into the wall and into the gym, "let the battle begin."

Growling, Hunter moved into a ready position and released her blades before barreling in the man's direction. "Hhhhaaahhh!" She swung her right set of razors up only to be blocked, then quickly swung her left set up to be blocked again. The teen pivoted around with an extended leg. "Hyah!" Her opponent dodged and came at her with his blades: Hunter blocked the sword and just managed to duck out of the way of the dagger. The redhead was quickly back up, swinging and slicing away at the man. "Butthead" continued to block. Using the moment of one block he spun around and bashed the butt of his sword hilt into Hunter's cheek. "Ack!" Hunter stumbled back, dazed and seeing stars. Before she had time to collect herself again, the young Hybrid was backhanded across the face hard enough to send her flying away from her opponent. Crashing down mid-court, Hunter rolled before finally regaining her senses and moving into a somersault in order to right herself. Finally up on her feet, the sixteen-year-old shook her head and glared back up towards "Butthead", teeth bared in a growl.

Spinning his sword around his fingers, the man chuckled. "I can do this all day, sweet-spark," he stated, resting his sword on his shoulder.

"Let's test that theory," Hunter murmured to herself. She lunged. "Rah!" Arms risen high up over her head, Hunter came down atop her opponent, clashed metal with him, planted a foot in his face and shoved off into a flying leap backwards across the court again. "Ha!" Landing in a half-crouch, the girl grabbed at the floorboards and gouged a track in the floor to stop her backwards skid. She ran forward again.

Swing, block, stab, spin away, block, slice, slice, dodge, block, block, duck, attack, block, parry, block, block, jump away; it was a high-speed, blade clashing, sparking, life-and-limb dance the two performed. So far "Butthead" seemed to be the leading party. Suddenly Hunter felt a slicing, stinging pain on her lower left side. "Ahh!" Crying out, the sapphire eyed girl sank down to a knee, grabbing at said area. She pulled her hand away from her side to see it coated with energon. Her eyes widened. He'd cut her! Of course it was healing up quickly, so the injury was not going to be an issue at all, but still he'd cut her! That just fueled the teen's anger even more. Glowering back up at "Butthead", Hunter stood and swung her blades. She kept it up, swinging harder and fasted each time. While he was preoccupied with blocking she swept a leg out at his and took them out from under him. Her opponent hit the floor. Raising both sets of razors above her head she swung them down at once. "Rraahh!" The man moved to get up, raising up his sword in a desperate block. The blades connected. There was a deafening ring and an explosion of sparks and metal shards. Propelled backwards with the force of the blow, Hunter hit the floor and slowly sat up with a groan. She looked down at her still extracted razors. A barely audible, quivering gasp left her. Her razor blades… they'd been broken! Only the broken off, jagged-edged nubs of what had been foot long metal blades extended out from her knuckles now—nubs just barely long enough to stab someone if she needed to. Hunter's shock faded away into rage. That was it—she'd had enough of this crap!

Retracting what was left of her razors Hunter stood, clenched her fists, and, taking a deep breath, slammed them together. A pillar of blue fire exploded around her, almost seeming to ignite her entire body on fire, though neither she nor her clothes burned. Kicking her in speed once again, Hunter zoomed towards her opponent, stopping on a dime in front of him and slamming her flaming fists as hard and fast as she could against his face and torso. "Ha! Huh-huh! Hah! Hyah! Hrah!" Drawing a fist as far back as she was able, Hunter swung it forward, slamming a foot down into the floor to plant it there, and would have cracked the man across the jaw had a maroon-red energy orb not appeared around her oncoming fist, causing it to swing prematurely in front of her target. Hunter spun around and fell to the floor with the force behind the swing. "Whoa! Ugh!" The energy quickly moved from her fist to encase her whole body for a moment, extinguishing the flames flickering around her. In fact it almost seemed to reach within her and douse the very source of her pyrokinesis. Then the aura was gone, leaving Hunter feeling weak and dizzy. The front of her shirt was grabbed and she was jerked up off the floor and held face to face with her aggressor, staring wide-eyed down into his goggled gaze. Scrud….

"Butthead" grinned sinisterly, part of it visible through a burned section of his mask. He rumbled, "My turn." Tossing the teenager up in the air, the man jumped, flipped and kicked a leg out, slamming his foot into girl's middle.

"Whoa!" Hunter flew up into the air, crashing through a brace and a couple panes of the glass dome. She slammed into a stone pillar of the temple ruins atop the mountain before crashing to the ground, the top half of pillar itself crashing around in pieces around her. "Oof! Uh…." The redhead pushed herself up into a sitting position and shook her head. "Mmmm…." Reaching up she rubbed the back of her head, sucking in a sharp breath through her teeth. Dang! There was a poof followed by a whooshing sound and the next thing the young Fuser knew a hand was wrapped in a strangle hold around her throat and she was behind smashed back against the lower half of the pillar with such force a dent formed around her. Gasping and choking, Hunter grabbed at the gloved hand and desperately tried to pry it loose. "Frag!" she coughed out.

"I won't lie," "Butthead" growled as he slammed her back against the pillar again, "I've always been a bit of a brawler, so I enjoy a good fight, and—I have to tell you—this has been one of the best I've had in a long while. But I'm getting awful fed up with it now. Do both yourself and me a favor and come quietly!"

Hunter met his gaze and glared at him. "Take it and shove it, Butthead," she barely managed to get the words out.

"Nox," the man rumbled. "My name is Nox."

"Tell it to someone who cares," Hunter seethed. With that she kicked her feet up, braced them against her opponent's chest and forcefully him away. At the same time she did this, the teen also launched herself backwards through the stone pillar, through the next one after that and on down the line until she'd demolished the entire side. The temple came tumbling down.

Not able to get on his feet fast enough, Nox disappeared in a poof of smoke, just seconds before a large section of the stone structure came crumbling down atop him, and reappeared a few feet away. The man rose to his feet again, dusting himself off. As annoying as this all was, this girl definitely had fire and determination, he had to give her that much.

"Hhhaaahhh!"

"Huh?" Nox turned towards the wreckage and looked up to see a certain redhead soaring through the haze of dust towards him. Her foot came into contact with his face, knocking him back against a glass panel of the dome, causing it to crack. "Uh!" He chuckled and held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, girl," he said. "You've made your point."

"Shut up!" Hunter roared, enraged fire dancing in the sapphire depths of her eyes. Picking up a large piece of pillar that was still intact, the sixteen-year-old easily hefted it over her shoulder then swung it towards Nox. "Hyah!" She batted him through the glass and over to the other side of the dome, successfully demolishing the rest of the skylight.

"Hey."

Hunter turned around to see "She-vis" standing there behind her. The girl's stomach dropped when she saw that not only was the woman standing there but so was Hawk, suspended in some sort of maroon-red energy-field. Growling, Hunter dropped the pillar and instinctively released her claws though they wouldn't be much good to her now. She stomped towards the woman.

"That's close enough," the woman stated. As incentive to make the teenager stop, she moved her hand, which was also surrounded by the same energy that was holding Hawk in place, towards the side of the mountain, holding the boy out over the drop off. It worked. Hunter stopped coming.

"Let him go, glitch," Hunter hissed.

"She-vis" giggled innocently. "Oh, I don't think you want me to do that," she replied, looking over at the terrified boy. "I do and he plummets to his death."

"You know what I mean," Hunter rumbled.

"Yes," the woman admitted with a nod. "I do. And not to worry, I will… on one condition." She looked at Hunter. "Surrender."

Hunter clenched her fists even more tightly, her lips pressing into a firm line. "And if I don't?" she challenged.

"She-vis'" voice was almost too cheerful as she answered, "This." With a flick of her hand, the energy that surrounded both her hand and Hawk disappeared and Hawk was falling.

"Hawk!" Hunter screamed, barreling towards the cliff. Without a second thought she dove over the side, nose-diving after Hawk down the mountainside through the clouds. Squinting her watering eyes against the wind, Hunter pressed her arms as close to her body as she could and practically melded her legs together in order to go fast. Hawk was right below her; just a few more feet and she'd have him. Closer…. Closer…. Almost…. Nearly…. There! The redhead reached out and grabbed her friend, holding him close. "Hang on!" she yelled above the roar of the wind. Hawk all but completely wrapped himself around her body—he didn't need to be told twice! Hunter angled them onto their sides and let one hand go of the older boy as she stretched her arm out back towards the cliff top, hand spread open. She aimed and fired. Her grapnel hook and cable shot out from her palm and spiraled upwards towards the cliff until it slammed into the rock and lodged there. Hunter reeled the cable tight and grabbed it. The two teens were snapped out of their freefall and were swinging through the air and into the side of the mountain, Hunter slamming her feet into the rock.

Hawk breathed a heavy sigh of relief. "Thanks," he panted, looking over his shoulder down the mountainside. That was a long way down—way too long for him to hope surviving it, even with his kinetic absorption.

"Consider it payment for coming to my rescue in the gym," Hunter replied. She smirked at him out of the corner of her eye and stated, "We're even now." Turning her attention back to the situation at hand, the redhead took a tighter hold of her cable, telling Hawk to hold on once again. Then she began reeling in her cable, running along with it until she could finally plant her foot on a small ledge and launch off that, using her pyrokinesis to propel herself up through the air. The duo landed on the mountaintop once more. Hearing applause, they stood and glared up at their opponents who were standing there atop the rubble.

"Not bad, kiddos," Nox praised them while he clapped. He stopped his applause and leaned down, bracing his forearms on one of his knees snarling, "But playtime's over." The man turned to the woman. "Umbra," he addressed her, motioning to the children, "why don't we take this battle to safer setting?" Umbra smirked and raised both hands in the air, waving them. Clouds of black smoke curled up and surrounded them all.

The next thing any of them knew they were down at the base of the mountain on the front lawns of the school. To make things even worse and more complicated there were hundreds of students and faculty around. Evidently they had started evacuating the school as per instructions. But now the fight they'd been evacuating from had just showed up right in the middle of them all—what an unfortunate twist that was.

"This is not good," Hawk murmured as he looked around at their crowd, all of whom had frozen in shock and were staring at them.

"Ya think?" Hunter replied, stomach plummeting until it completely bottomed out. So much for trying to keep this thing contained.

"Well," Nox laughed, stepping forward and holding his arms out as he took in the crowd around him, "now that we have an audience, what do you say, younglings? Round two?"

Confession #29:

I just did some research and found out the 'Nox' is actually the name of the Roman goddess of the night. I named my male 'Nox' after a female. …Oh well.

Confession #30:

For those of you who are wondering, Hawk's abilities include: superstrength, hyperspeed, microscopic/telescopic vision (like all Hybrids do) and energy sourcing, kinetic absorption, concussion beams, and combustion-bending (yes, like from A:TLA).

REMEMBER TO SUBMIT YOUR HYBRID QUESTIONS!