Author's Note: Yes, I realize that this was a one-shot, but people liked the first part and I had an urge to write more to it, so here it is. Of course, it's no longer a one-shot, so we'll call this Chpater 2 of a longer fic. Not much else to say, so read and enjoy!

Outskirts of Twin Crown Volcanoes, Sector 20

Omega Land

1600 Hours

This area of Omega Land is often choked with soot and ash from the twin volcanoes that dominate the landscape. The vegetation in this area is less green then it is beige, the sky less blue then gray. And war was raging in this bleak land.

There was the Bolt Guard, destroyers of lands, seekers of power on one side, and the Allied Nations, keepers of peace, on the other. The sleek, futuristic troops of Black Hole weaved in and out of the woods and methodically attacked the enemy. Indirects were carefully hidden behind the hills and in the dense forests, prepared to rain destruction upon their foes. The other side, clad in yellow, was mirroring the enemy's tactics. Troops carefully advanced and lined up. Infantry squads slipped into enemy lines with recons to capture properties. Walls of tanks and rockets slowly pushed forward. The tactics being employed by the Allied Nations were flawless.

But that all changed in a second.

The troops suddenly rushed forward and began to fire wildly on the Bolt Guard's units. Infantry scrambled onto the hills and dived into the deep grass to snipe out other soldiers. Tanks crashed through the forests at breakneck paces, their canons ripping through trees and machines alike. Indirects retreated to nearby cities and began to pump out shell after shell. It was chaos in its purest form. Soldiers on both sides were mown down, left and right. The gray fields soon were peppered with red. Utter madness.

"Oh, this is SO much fun! Bangbangbang! Take that, you sillies! WHEEEEEEEEE!"

A small girl sitting at a huge computer terminal was the source of all this carnage. Everything about the girl spelled "chaos": her dark hair flew in every direction, her black-painted nails were chewed down to various lengths and her outrageous boots reached up to her thighs. Right now she was laughing as though she had been set loose in a chocolate factory.

"Ooooh, didja SEE that sucker go KABOOM! Teeheehee, he's gonna go splat! Watch out Mr. Tanky…CRUNCH! Teeheehee!"

"Lash, can you please stop?" said an exasperated voice from somewhere in the shadows. Sonja was lurking in the background, watching the havoc Lash was causing. Everything had been fine until Lash had taken over. Sonja had had this battle under total control, had planned out ever move and knew exactly what to do next. And then Lash had pushed Sonja away from the control terminal, yelling, "It's my turn to play now!" and, well, the results were obvious.

"Lash, do you even know what you're doing?"

"Yeah, makin' things go boom!" was the response. Lash giggled again. Sonja sighed and rubbed her temples wearily. What the hell had Rachel been thinking, putting Lash with her on this assignment? Rachel had said that this battle was very important, so what did she do? She put the loony girl on the job! Sonja could have been with her friend Sami, or with Jess, another very rational battler, but NOOOOOOOOOO, she had to get stuck with the crazy Goth girl!

"No, Lash, look…" Sonja stepped out from the corner where she had been standing and began to point out the various parts of the control system to Lash.

"Look, see the overview? The enemy has a strong force right here…looks like it's mostly Neotanks and artillery..." Sonja clicked a button and drew up a separate window providing intel on said units "...so we should probably send our rocket squad down there. Now, the enemy has few anti-airs deployed, so if we take our copter squadron here – " she pointed to the screen, where the copters were shown on the large map " – and move them down there, then we can get rid of the Neotanks before they can do much damage to – are you even listening?" Sonja asked, as Lash began to make hand motions that suggested that she was using an invisible sock puppet that was imitating Sonja's words.

"Duh. I know how this works. I was one of the top tacticians in Black Hole!"

"So why the randomness?"

"That's my style. They don't know what's coming, they can't form a plan to counter."

"Well, your 'style' is costing us troops! We can't just throw them away!"

"Poo. You don't know how to have fun!"

Sonja was forcibly reminded of when she first met Lash, almost 10 months ago. "At least I'll have plenty of pieces to play with!"

Sonja shoved Lash out of the way, ignoring Lash's cry of "Hey!" and promptly sat down in the swivel chair in front of the vast controls. "I'll show you how this is done," muttered Sonja as she began to issue new orders. As chaotic as Lash was, Sonja was orderly and precise. Her fingers flew across the keys and dials at the control panels, images flashing up on the screen, reflected in her glasses. She began to issue orders to her troops again, making them take a far more orderly course of action. They fell back into formation and rank, and stopped relying so heavily on terrain cover. In fact, the enemy had less places to hide, thanks to the hacking Sonja had done early on in the battle. She had manipulated their intel so that they were less aware of the advantages the terrain offered. Just one more nifty skill the Queen of Intel had up her sleeve.

"Right then…Company C, I want you to take a wide sweep to the south, see if you can slip in on those factories the enemy has. Company J, take those battle copters and head off those Neotanks. And…looks like we have enough funds for some units." Sonja consulted a spreadsheet in the corner of the massive screen, which showed their daily income. "Yes…we'll need one Medium tank and one artillery…build the Medium tank in factory 3 and the artillery in 4…perfect."

"Nonono, look, I show you…" Lash shoved Sonja aside and sat back down in the chair. "Look, if they have all those rockets, we can easily counter them with a tank flood. Actually, mechs are more versatile. Let's get some of those little buggers! And we need to stay in the trees more, 'cause you're moving into the open, you great big silly…"

Sonja suddenly grabbed onto Lash's wrist and yanked it away from the control panels. "Look," she said in a tone of voice that would have done an aggravated mother proud, "we both have very different strategies and clashing personalities, but we have to shelf our differences if we want to win this. This battle's important for the Allied Nations. We have to work together."

Lash just stared at Sonja for a minute, and then finally, slowly, she nodded her head. "Great," Sonja grinned, and she then turned her attention back to the battle.

"Oh, crudmuffins…" Lash muttered.

"Crudmuffins" was probably not the word Sonja would have used, but Lash was right. The enemy CO had just activated his Super Power, and the Bolt Guard forces were now amplified in strength. Sonja and Lash watched in shock as the miniature black units on the screen rushed forward to slaughter their troops. Immediately the two girls jumped into action, punching in commands and shouting out orders to their troops.

"Fall back to the woods! They don't know your HP, jump around! Counter them, counter!"

"Go to the cities, the cities! Indirects, open fire! Make 'em go boom!"

"Tank squad Echo, form a wall and strike back!"

"Mech squad Bravo, over the mountains! Go!"

Two pairs of hands flew over the keys as separate images of all the troops sprang up on the screen. A window in the upper-left corner showed their overall battle statistics. Now they had 40 squads of troops…now they had 38…now they had 31…now the enemy was down by 2 but still had 40-some-odd left…now they had fresh units leaving their bases, but the enemy was doing the same…

"That System Crash is one nasty power," Sonja muttered as she began to tap out more commands.

"Not really, 's bit random, y'see. I've seen him do less damage then Flak with it!" Lash cupped both her hands around her mouth and began to shout "FLAKALAKALAKALAKALAK!" She broke down in helpless giggles as Sonja both rolled her eyes and tried to keep a straight face.

"Look, it's wearing off," Sonja said. And indeed, the enemy forces were slowing down, their strength was diminishing, and they were firing less and less often. "Looks like they're entering a cool-down period" Sonja said to herself. "Makes sense, given the power of that System Crash program." Lash pointed at the screen. "But they still got lots of troops comin'. We need to drive 'em back."

"Got a plan?" asked Sonja.

"Nuh-uh. But we have more income, so we should be able to drive them back after…oh, say…" Lash quickly worked out the problem in her mind. "…2 weeks."

"We haven't got that much time," said Sonja, shaking her head. "We need to eliminate the Black Hole forces in here within a few days."

The two girls were silent for a minute, drumming their fingers on the control panels, watching the endless streams of digital troops on the screen. Both of them could feel their CO powers building up inside themselves. As Sonja concentrated on the screen in front of her, a plan began to formulate in her mind. She slowly turned to Lash, who was sitting on her right.

"I think I got an idea," said Sonja.

"Me too," nodded Lash.

"Actually, it's better then an idea. It's more of a…"

"BRAINSTORM!"

The two COs said the last word together, and, as one, rose from their chairs and clasped their hands over their heads. The effects were incredible. Alone, the two COs Super Powers were astounding. Together…they were phenomenal. The effects of Sonja's Counter Break and Lash's Prime Tactics were applied to their troops simultaneously. The enemy troops suddenly found that they had almost no place to hide; bullets and shells flew through the grass and trees and buildings as if they weren't there, easily finding their marks. The Allied Nations' troops suddenly found that the grass around them had grown taller, the forests had grown wilder, and the buildings around them had become better fortified, and the mountains had become craggier. Vehicles' wheels and treads were no longer snagged in the uneven terrain; they flew across the battlefield as if it were all road. And when the Black Hole troops did fire on their enemy, they found that they could not hit them.

"We did it Lash…we made a Tag Power!"

"Oh wow…look at all the little people go BOOM!"

"This'll make things much easier," said Sonja as she sank back into her chair. A single Dual Strike could not wipe out an army of that size, but it would certainly help a lot. Sonja breathed a sigh of relief and sank one of her hands into a pocket. She pulled something out and began to turn it over slowly in her hands.

"Whatcha got there?" asked Lash. Sonja mumbled "nothing" and tried to put it away, but Lash was too quick for her. "Awww, it's a little tiny chessman! How cute!" squealed Lash.

"Yes, it is, could I have it back?" Sonja muttered in an embarrassed voice.

"Why do you have it with you? For luck?"

"I don't believe in luck, Lash," said Sonja, two small patches of pink on her fair cheeks. "It's just something I've always carried with me."

"Naw, that's okay. I've got one too!" Lash dug a hand in one of her cavernous pockets and pulled out another chess piece. She handed it to Sonja with a "see?" Sonja shuttered slightly when the cold metal chessman touched her palm. It was nothing like hers, which was made of golden wood and beautifully carved. This one was made of crudely welded metal, painted black. But Sonja quickly noticed that they had one thing in common. They were both the queen.

"Look, I'm gonna go get somethin' to drink. Be back in a sec!" And with a giggle, Lash swept out of the room. Sonja smiled happily. She was sure that this battle would be over within a few days. She could see already that the enemy was quickly being forced back. Sonja pulled up her chair and was about to type in more commands when she noticed that the black queen was still in her hand.

"Lash!" she called out. "You forgot your chess piece!" But there was no response. Sonja shrugged and slipped the chessman into her pocket. Perhaps she could grow to like it…

Ending Notes:

In my own little world, Jugger's CO powers are computer programs that, when activated, provide emergancy power. Jugger comunicates with his troops wirelessly, so his "powers" effect all his troops at once.
I fealt that it made more sense to have, at least in this case, Tag Powers be two Supers stacked onto each other, rather then two Supers used one after the other.

Expect at least one more chapter of this fic to wrap everything up.