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In his private office.
Brother Blood was having dinner when the alarms went off. The alarms have been on for a considerably long time now but he didn't seem to mind at all the urgency of the situation. Instead he went on ahead and finished his meal. He was a self-proclaimed gentleman so he finished his meal properly, not eating in a hurry and observing all the right manners.
It was a wonder what was going through his mind at that point. Despite the obvious threat to the facility, he kept a clam demeanor throughout his meal. Is he really that calm or was there something els that was being missed? Could it be that he was expecting this to happen?.
He was sipping his coffee when a knock on the door caught his attention.
"Come in," he invited.
The door opened to reveal an out-of-breath wasp soldier. Brother Blood put down his cup of coffee and stood up from his little dining table to meet the soldier.
"What is it, Sergeant?" Blood asked.
"Sir, the intruders have infiltrated deep into the facility," said the soldier, urgency clear in his voice, "One of them is still loose and the other has reached the holding cell of the Titans East."
"What of the rest of the Titans?"
"They have been released, sir. They are now running rampant in the facility. Sir, we must do something or else this entire facility could be compromised."
"I know, Sergeant. Calm down. We have to remember what's important. This was unavoidable from the beginning anyway."
The soldier did a double-take. "Sir?"
"Never mind about that now. Send your men to guard all the vital parts of the facility. Put emphasis on the power generators. I'll see to the Titans myself."
That last statement worried the soldier a bit. But he knew not to argue with his superior. "Yes sir!"
The soldier left to fulfill his duties. Brother Blood was alone in his office. He sat back down on his seat and resumed drinking what was left of his coffee. He thought about what the soldier reported to him and how everything ended up the way it was. He wasn't the least bit surprised.
He had received a few bits of criticism from his other high-ranking officers that it was a mistake leaving the Titans alive as he did, let alone holding them near the heart of their facility. Brother Blood knew himself that that was not the wisest thing to do. But he did that out of another reason. It was mostly a personal reason in Blood's case.
He knew sooner or later that the Titans East would come to try and wreck his plans whether he caught them or not. They always do. This confrontation was inevitable from the beginning. And, should truth be told, he wanted that. In the deepest part of his mind, Brother Blood desired for this confrontation. Some people might call him crazy for it.
Ever since Blood started is operations here in Steel City, the Titans always got in his way. His conquests became less and less about world wide domination and more on a personal vendetta. He still wanted world domination of course, but he wanted to take down the Titans even more. And most of all, he wanted to take down the Titans himself.
Keeping the Titans locked up in the facility itself was no accident of bad logic. Brother Blood did that to ensure that if the inevitable confrontation was to occur, it would happen on his turf. Sure he lost his psychic powers during his last encounter with Cyborg and the original Teen Titans but that was trivial. He still had what it takes and more to personally trample the Titans East into the ground.
The final battle was about to commence and Brother Blood couldn't be more exited. He finished his coffee, wiped his mouth and got back up. He adjusted his battle armor and walked out the door. A confident smile graced his face.
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In the holding cell.
All of the Titans East have now gathered together and were completely free of binding, no small thanks to Speedy. The masked archer managed to get all of those accursed handcuffs off of his teammates using his handy-dandy lock pick kit.
Aqualad was standing near the center of the room, rubbing his wrists in relief now that they were finally free after all those frustrating hours of being bound up. Más and Menos were together again, joyfully zipping around the room in a red and white blur just happy to receive their powers back. Bumble Bee stood next to Aqualad, closely inspecting her recovered weapons and she seemed satisfied with them for the meantime.
Speedy, who was watching the doorway, waited patiently for his friends to finish preparing themselves. He could only imagine how it must've been for them. Of course he himself went through a few moments like this during his sidekick days. He knew that the most frustrating part was not the fact that you were captured but the part when your captors put you in a bind where you have no option but to wait.
But for the most part, Speedy was just glad that his teammates were alive and well. Now they could finally concentrate on the main issue at hand which was to put an end to Brother Blood and Professor Chang's operation and shut down this entire facility for good.
"Okay, now that we're all here," started Bumble Bee, "We can finally get down to business."
"We need to find a way to shut down this facility," said Aqualad.
"Sí, y ¡asegúrate de que se quede cerrado!" said the twins.
"Does anyone have any ideas?" inquired Aqualad looking around the room.
"Hey, don't look at me," said Speedy, "I just got here."
"I know a way," said Bumble Bee, "Blood mentioned that the weapon needed to power up before it can do anything. If we could find the power source for the weapon and put it out of commission, then we could end the threat of the GeoHammer permanently."
"Easier said than done, Bee. Do you know how far I had to run from the entrance to here? This place is huge. It could take us forever to look through this whole place. Not to mention that we still have to deal with Blood and Chang as well."
"That's true. After all, this place is really typical of a HIVE design."
"¿Cómo está ése?" asked Más.
"¿Hay algo diferente sobre él?" followed-up Menos.
Bumble Bee nodded. "A typical HIVE facility, if it's really big, will consist of multiple facilities and departments. These departments are often distanced very far away from each other in terms of relative distance."
"Where's the practicality in that?" asked Speedy.
"None, really. The long distances between the departments are mostly for security reasons. If there is a problem in one department, it takes a while for that problem to spread to the other departments, and believe me the HIVE Academy has a lot of problems on a daily basis."
"So that means this isn't gonna be any easier for us, isn't it?"
"There has to be a way to outsmart this system," said Aqualad.
"There is," said Bumble Bee, grabbing everyone's attention, "the only way is for us to spilt up. This design may prevent problems form spreading too quickly but it also makes it hard to get to the problems if there are plenty of 'em happening simultaneously."
"Great plan," said Speedy, "So who's doing what then?"
"Our biggest priority is to shut down the GeoHammer, and that means turning off its main power source."
Bumble Bee looked around the room and spotted the twins. She smiled confidently them. "So, you guys up to the challenge then?"
"¿Tú estás bromeando?" the twins excitedly jest, "Sí, ¡podemos!"
"Okay then, Speedy, Aqualad, you guys are with me. We'll find and take down those two old crones and put them in the retirement home they belong to."
"Got it!" exclaimed Speedy.
"Oh, I've been waiting for this," said Aqualad.
They all ready themselves to leave the holding cell. Hey rechecked their respective armaments and cautiously stepped out of the door. The hallway they came to was empty except for a few unconscious bodies on the floor courtesy of Speedy. After assessing that the hallway was clear they relaxed a bit and looked around.
Looking around, they all noticed that the hallway actually went two ways. At the end of each part of the hallway, it also branched out in forks. Only then did the Titans East realize that they had a conundrum in their hands. They had no idea which way they should go to where they need to be. Aqualad brought up the issue first.
"Okay," he said, "so which way goes to where?" He actually ends up asking Speedy more than anyone else.
"Hey!" Speedy responded, "I told you I just got here. I know as much as you guys do."
"I'll take care of this," said Bumble Bee suddenly.
She moved to one of the fallen soldiers on the floor. She frisked his midsection without him noticing. She knew exactly what she was looking for and she eventually found it. A wry smile on Bumble Bee's face confirmed her successful find. She yanked it out of the fallen wasp soldiers armor and examined it thoroughly while holding it in her hand. Behind her, the boys watched curiously.
"Whatcha got there, Bee?" inquired Speedy.
"Every HIVE soldier," started Bumble Bee while reaching into her utility belt, "has a built in tracking device in their individual communicators. Makes sure that your higher-ups don't loose track of you."
She pulled out her communicator and opened it to activate. She pulled some cables that were built in to the communicator and connected it to the soldier's communicator she had in her hand. Bumble Bee then immediately went to work on her communicator. The communicator beeped and chimed much to the satisfaction of Bumble Bee as it was apparently doing whatever it was suppose to be doing.
"What are you up to now?" inquired Aqualad this time.
"The tracking software in this device," continued Bumble Bee, "is programmed with a full schematic map of whatever facility a soldier is assigned in which, in this case, is the GeoHammer. I'm uploading this map to all our communicators so we can keep track of where we are and where we need to go."
"¿De verdad?" exclaimed the twins "¡Eso es fantástico!"
"That's right you two. And I've already taken the liberty of locating the power facility and highlighting it on your communicators."
"¡Eso es más fantástico! ¡Gran trabajo!"
"Alright, now that we have the means, let's bring this whole thing to an end and go home!"
"Got it!" exclaimed Aqualad.
"Yeah!" exclaimed Speedy.
"¡Hagámoslo!" exclaimed the twins, Más and Menos.
Bumble Bee gave each of her teammates an affirming nod. She readied herself for their venture and was about to drop the soldier's communicator when she noticed something in it that was strange. The communicator displayed a general alert message that called any available unit to come to another sector of the facility in order to deal with some kind of problem.
"Looks like we have a little breathing room," said Bumble Bee, "Most of the soldiers in the place are being called to another problem elsewhere so that should keep some weight off our shoulders. Funny though, I wonder what's going on that has everybody all worked-up."
"Well," Speedy spoke up, "Guess we have Silicis to thank for that."
Everyone did a double-take towards Speedy. "Who?" "¿Quién?"
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Somewhere else in the hallways.
Silicis was literally flying down the hallway at amazing speeds. She had the convenience of floating slab of rock to thank for that. She was making good progress in navigating through the maze-like interior of the GeoHammer facility. Though it was comparatively good progress, she still had a long ways to go until she found her friends or got near to any of her other objectives. She was at least thankful that she had ran into minimal resistance to that point.
However that lucky streak ended as she rounded the next corner and traveled down the following hallway. There she encountered a four-man squad of wasp soldiers that were in an awful hurry to get to somewhere. Silicis suspected it was herself that was their cause for hurry and this was only confirmed when the soldiers stopped in their tracks and aimed their rifles.
"Like it's gonna be that easy for you…" murmured Silicis.
Before the soldiers could open fire, Silicis back-flipped off of the flying slab of rock that she was on and landed on the floor in a crouch. As soon as she was on the floor, she waved a glowing gold hand which caused the flying slab of rock to turn over on its side and fly so that it was acting like a floating shield that blocked her from the soldiers' line of fire.
The soldiers at the other end of the hallway began to open fire with their laser rifles. It was futile to say the least since the flying slab of rock pretty much stood up to the barrage of laser fire. Behind the slab a good distance away, the soldiers' true target, Silicis, was completely out of harm's way.
The slab of rock continued to loom ominously towards the wasp soldiers. The soldiers in turn started to turn pale and nervously started stepping back. It was a useless attempt to escape as they soon found themselves about to be flattened by the large piece of earth.
Two of the soldiers were lucky. They were able to jump to the side and flatten themselves up against the walls opposite of each other; hence they successfully avoided the flying rock. Their two comrades that stood in the middle of the hallway were a tad bit more unfortunate as the slab impacted them and pratically crushed the front part of their armor.
The slab, along with the two hapless and screaming soldiers flew all the way across the hall towards the end if it which right-angled towards another adjacent hallway. The impact echoed throughout the halls with a load thud. Slowly the slab of rock peeled off of the wall and fell flat on the floor. The two soldiers, birds flying circles around their heads, followed suite.
The two surviving wasp soldiers, who were now in the middle of the hallway, sweatdropped at the scene that befell their comrades. They nervously turned their heads back towards Silicis. The girl now stood in the middle of the hallway a short distance from them, smiling smugly.
The two remaining wasp soldiers aimed their rifles once again at her. Silicis on y\the other hand continued to stand there, not looking the least bit worried. Silicis brought her two hand up and suddenly clapped them together. Simultaneously, the opposite walls on either side of the two solders suddenly caved in on themselves.
The hallway was of course underground like the entire facility. The only thing outside those walls was pure earth, something Silicis took readily advantage of. She retracted both her hands and the caved in walls automatically reverted back to their original shape. Standing in the middle of the mess where the two hapless soldiers, with spiral, spinning eyes. They collapse onto the ground, unconscious.
Silicis smiled victoriously and ran past the fallen bodies of the wasp soldiers. She hopped over the two in the middle of the hall way and came tow the two that were up against the wall next to the slab of rock. Using her powers, she called forth the rock to float again in mid-air. She resumed riding it like a skateboard down the hallways.
She continued on her journey down the hallways for a short time with encountering anyone for a few minutes. Navigating through the maze-like interior, she wasn't the bit surprised if even the facility's occupants would likely find themselves lost themselves.
As her search for her friends continued on, she came across a divide in the hallway. She stopped to assess her choices. The hallway continued on ahead of her for quite a distance. But on the wall to her left, the hallway branched out to another path which lead to another hallway that ran parallel the one she was on. She simply stood there for a while, contemplating her choices of whether to continue on ahead or take the left passage.
Truth be told, she had no idea where either paths lead. It was after all her first time ever in the facility and she and Speedy did pretty much barge in a hurry. So it's no big mystery why she was lost but that didn't mean it didn't annoy the hell out of her.
She wished Bumble bee were there with her, knowing through Bumble Bee's experience with the HIVE that she would somehow explain why the HIVE facilities were always designed with so many hallways through some logical reasoning. Silicis dismissed that though rather quickly after remembering that this facility was built by Brother Blood and she knew that anything that man plans or builds hardly ever have any reason or logic behind them.
Her thought were interrupted as Silicis suddenly heard the pitter-patter of rushing footsteps from the other hallway. Worried that it was another squad of wasp soldiers, she quickly ducked behind the corner of the junction so that she was not to be seen and that maybe they'll just simply pass by without noticing her.
Her ploy worked. The company that was coming towards her from the opposite hallway passed by without seeing her. Silicis peeked out of the corner to make sure and she realized that they were not who she thought they would be. Instead of the yellow and black armored wasp soldiers she expected to see, she saw a bunch of white-suited men wearing strange gas-masks and carried unusual rod-like weapons.
Slicis instantly recognized theses guys as Professor Chang's personal henchmen. Speaking of the devil himself, Silicis' eyes went wide as she saw Chang in the middle of the troop, running along side his henchmen. It was a while before they all disappeared as they went off to an unknown destination.
Silicis, eyes narrowed. She remembered what Chang did to her and what he left her to. Boiling emotions suddenly rose inside of her at the sight of Chang. Then and there she decided what she needed to do. She thought about her friends that were still somewhere in the facility. She wondered if she could really ignore them for a while.
She thought maybe she could leave that detail to Speedy, or perhaps he has already freed them by now and they were all on their way to finish off Brother Blood. She knew from her earlier briefing with Speedy that there was good chance that the others would stay safe until either her or Speedy found them.
Regardless of their status at the moment, Silicis was sure that they'll be alright. For now. She was also sure as hell that she couldn't pass off this chance to get after Professor Chang and take him down herself for what he did to her. For what he made out of her. It was the only way she could get any peace of mind. She had to at least try.
Silicis immediately summoned up the slab of rock that she was using back up into the air. She hopped on and gave chase to the fleeing men in white.
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Somewhere else in the hallways
Más and Menos were buzzing around the hallways in hyper-speed blur of red and white. They encountered a few enemies on their way, but that was not a problem for them since the twins were either too fast to be reacted to or too fast to be even noticed.
That didn't mean the twins didn't have fun on the way to their objective. An example of this is when the twins encountered a lone soldier in the one of he hallways they were traveling on. The wasp soldier was taken aback when the twins suddenly stood in front of him, Más standing on top of Menos' shoulders. He almost fell on his back.
The twins smiled smugly at the baffled soldier. The soldier reacted out of instinct and immediately swung out his fist at the twins. Predictably enough, the soldier missed the twins entirely as they were now standing on the soldiers left, as if moving there instantaneously.
"Tú tendrás que hacer más que eso, señor," the twins mocked.
The soldier quickly reassessed the twins' position and swung his fist towards that direction. Again, the soldier hit nothing but air as the twins now instantly appeared on the soldier's right. Again he swung to his right and the twins disappeared and went back to his left in an instant. The soldier looked to that side and found the twins atill smiling smugly at him.
"Oooh, tú te estás poniendo más cerca," said the twins.
This went on for about a few more minutes of the soldier swinging madly into thin air where the twins were standing one moment then gone the next. The soldier eventually tired out until he was gasping for air out of sheer exhaustion.
The twins appeared right in front of him still with those silly yet annoying grins on their faces. Te soldier growled at them and made one last swing at them. The twins didn't even need hyper-speed in stepping aside since the swing was so slow and so weak that the soldier lost consciousness with his fist in mid-air and collapsed to the ground.
The twins cheered. "¡Éxito!"
Ten they resumed traveling at hyper-speed to their final destination. The zipped through over a mile of hallways more before they finally reached the objective. But thanks to their super speed they were able to find it in about a quarter of a minute.
The two of them stopped in front of a heavy looking door. They both looked at it and read the huge words printed right onto the door. It read: GENERATOR ROOM. The twins took out their communicators and looked at the displays. They brought up the map that Bumble Bee uploaded into those communicators just a while ago.
According to the display, they were standing right in front of their objective. Más and Menos looked at each other as they pocketed away their communicators and gave each other the thumbs-up. They then examined the door more thoroughly. They found a panel on the side of the door. A panel with a small LCD screen and eleven buttons, ten of which are numbered zero to nine and one last really thick one labeled 'Enter'. The LCD looked to be able to hold seven numbers.
The twins knew what to do. They moved up to it and prepared to perform one of their most favorite lock picking techniques. Más, the one standing on his brother's shoulders, started pressing random buttons at hyper-speed.
In the code-breaking business, this method was known as "Brute Force." It was a simple concept of code-breaking: By trying every single possible combination, it is a mathematical guarantee that you'll eventually reach the right combination. But one would think that it would be impratical.
There were ten numbers and the combination was seven digits long which meant that there were exactly ten million possible combinations. An average person, guessing at a rate of one combination every second would take at least four months to enter all the possible combination. Más however cracked the code in less then a minute.
The machine beeped in acknowledgement as the proper code was entered. The door instantly opened and allowed for the twins to enter. They did so. The room was big, it had to be. The twins found themselves standing in the middle of a large hexagonal floor. On the five sides of the hexagon (the last side was for the door) towered five vertical cylinders. On those cylinders where stickers with the depiction of a lightning bolt indicating high-voltage levels.
The twins, now standing side by side, smiled at each other and gave each other the thumbs-up once again, knowing they're in the right place. They looked around some more and spotted what looked like a control panel.
"Aparece que eso es nuestra meta ahí mismo," said Más.
"Terminemos esto aquí mismo y go ayudar a nuestros amigos," said Menos.
They started walking towards it. They were interrupted when from above came crashing down several large bodies. The twins were taken aback by the sudden and unexpected entry. The twins regained their balance and looked around them. Surrounding them were a dozen or so hive drones, giant robotic drumsticks with arms and legs. The twins narrowed their eyes at the robots.
"Bien, supongo que no debo haber pensado que sería tan fácil," said Menos.
"En esta empresa, nunca lo es," said Más.
The drones charged at the two brothers who readied themselves for battle.
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In the Control Room.
The room was empty except for one occupant. Brother Blood. He stood ion the middle of the room looking out of the glass window and onto the main part of the GeoHammer. It a few minutes the machine would be fully charged and ready to use. But once that happens, he had already programmed the computer to automatically launch an attack.
What was the target? It didn't matter to him. As long as wherever he was targeting had cirtain qualifications. Qualifications such as a hefty population,. He could try and imagine how it might look like from above ground, right in the epicenter of the attack.
People would be simply walking along, minding their daily lives. They would be raising their children, going to work, or simply relaxing while basking under the light of the life-giving sun. How would it be like for them when they suddenly found the ground beneath their feet shaking madly, as if the gods of the earth were suddenly angry with them?
How would they feel if the very soil beneath their feet were to suddenly vanish and send them plunging into the depths? They panic, run rampant with fear. They would run but have no place to run to. After all, what place is safe if it stands on the same earth that was also being destroyed. There was no place safe, not from the wrath of the earth itself and all the people could do is wonder what could they have done to invoke such punishment from their mother world.
He could almost feel like he was there, watching the squirming, panicking people desperate for survival but have less hope on Earth as they would in Hell. Their screams and cries would be music to his ears. He was the composer of this music. He was conducting this grand opera of genocide and in his ears it was brilliant beyond compare. Brother Blood smiled to himself.
Brother Blood's little daydream was interrupted when the doors to the Control Room suddenly opened. Brother Blood didn't need to turn around and see who it was. By that point there was little else who could be at his door. An exclaimed call of his name all but confirmed who it was.
"Blood!" exclaimed Bumble Bee from the doorway.
To this, Blood slowly turned around to meet them. As he was expecting, the Titans East stood there in the doorway, looking very eager to fight. He noted that the twin speedsters, Más and Menos were missing from the group. Where could they be, he wondered. He made it a point to ask the Titan Leader.
"Why Bumble Bee," he said, "It seems you are short a few members. And yet you choose to engage me now?"
"Don't act so cocky, you bastard," retorted Aqualad, "The three of us are more than enough to beat the living daylights out of you!"
"And besides," said Speedy, "Those guys have a more important job to do."
Brother Blood snickered, "Fools. Whatever you think they can accomplish, you're sadly mistaken. Remember that this is my territory. You cannot conquer me turf while I stand for it."
"Pretty soon you're gonna be lying face-first on the floor for it too."
"You underestimate me. Why do you think I kept you alive to this point?"
Bumble Bee raised an eyebrow in realization. "So, you're saying you want to take us down yourself, huh?"
"Of course. I could have done away with you a long time ago but after all the trouble you've caused me in the past; I simply couldn't allow you to pass away without giving myself the pleasure of personally ripping out your hearts."
"Don't even think for a second it'll be that easy, Blood. We've taken you down before and we can do it again!"
The Titans readied themselves fro battle. Bumble Bee drew out her twin stingers and aimed them ready at Blood, Aqualad struck a pose while Speedy slung an arrow onto his bow. Brother Blood grinned cockily at them, somewhat amused it seemed.
"An interesting theory of yours, Bumble Bee…" Brother Blood's hands started glowing red. "Let's test it out, shall we?"
Blood charged towards the Titans, hands glowing crimson.
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In another part of the facility.
Silicis has followed the troop of white-suited henchmen this far; into a large empty space filled with nothing. She wondered for a moment if she actually lost track of them and lost them entirely. She couldn't accept that readily. One of her most important targets was with that troop and she'd hate to think that she really did lose them.
She looked around the space she was in. It was familiar but also different. The closest thing it reminded her of was the garage Speedy and herself entered through as well as became separated when they encountered those three stonecutters. Except this place was more…complete.
Unlike the last one, this garage had elevated walkways and balconies, assumingly for crew members. There were also more lights so the place was slightly brighter than the last. But just like the last, this place was still unfinished. The ceiling and most of the walls were still bare soil and needed some panels. On random spots around the space were several piles of dug-up earth.
Silicis figured that she chased the troop of white-suited henchmen so far that she ended up in the opposite side of where she came in. If she wanted to find her friends now, she'd have to backtrack. She didn't worry so much though, her friends are quite capable and she felt that she didn't need to worry so much.
As Silicis floated forward slowly on her floating piece of rock, she pondered some more on where Chang's troop might have ended up in and wondered if she followed them right. Her doubts were immediately dismissed as six armed white-suited henchmen suddenly leapt off the surrounding elevated walkways and surrounded her. Silicis, instead of showing shock, showed annoyance in her face.
"I don't have time for guys like you!" exclaimed Silicis.
Silicis slapped her palm onto the rock she was standing on. Instantly, the rock exploded into several glowing golden pieces. The pieces didn't just fly in random directions however. Every piece that was broken off flew straight into one of the white-suited henchmen right in the face. The men didn't see it coming and were instantly knocked out.
Silicis now stood on the floor surrounded by unconscious men in white suits. She was now sure that she did follow the troop to the right place. Now, where is Professor Chang hiding? She decided to ask
"Where the hell are you hiding you old bastard?" she yelled into the seemingly open space.
Her voice echoed in the garage and didn't receive a response for a while. Nevertheless, she waited patiently knowing she'll get an answer, one way or another. She didn't have to wait long as sudden mechanical sounds started echoing through the space, Silicis stood fearlessly.
"You just never learn do you?" said a familiar electronic voice.
From the ceiling, some thirty yards from Silicis, came down a twenty-foot mechanical insect of sorts. It was basically a giant globe that resembled an eye that was colored in a glossy white with a red pupil, From the globe's top parts stemmed out four mechanical legs that had a several number of joints that all ended in a two-pronged claws that served as feet.
Silicis simply stared unaffected. "I suppose you're gonna 'teach me a lesson', huh?"
"I am a Professor," said Chang's electronic voice, "it's my job…"
"The only person who's gonna be schooled by the end of this day is you!"
Silicis spread out her arms which started glowing bright gold. From all different places, rocks and soil began gathering around her in the familiar fashion of her last encounter with gigantic machines. Soon the girl was completely covered in another cloud of earthen materials. The mechanical insect stood motionless, keeping a watchful eye.
From out of the cloud which slowly dissipated, the Stone Dragon came charging out towards the mechanical insect which was ready and waiting.
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Author's note: Sorry this took a while to be uploaded. I had so much stuff getting in my way. The next chapter will be the final chapter and will be followed by a short epilogue as well. It will also take a while so pleas bear with me. As usual, Pls. R&R!