A/N: The songs for this chapter are FFX Assault (Original And HD Remaster Duel Mix) and Red Alert (Jaxx Radio Mix). If the duel mix of Assault ever disappears off the internet in the future, default to the original version because the remastered version alone is aasssss.
Chapter 16: The SCC's Last Stand
-FFX Assault (Original And HD Remaster Duel Mix)-
"So, what's this big plan of yours?" Courage asked, turning back toward the giant, robotic eagle.
Atticus spread out the robot's wings and inadvertently caused a large, jagged shadow to fall over much of the stadium below. "I need a high power laser."
Courage blinked and let out a very confused, "Er, what?"
"Did I stutter? Take a look at this." Atticus answered, leaning down to pluck Courage up in his 'beak' and place him atop his back.
From that height, Courage could see how little of the city remained. All he could do was hope that they had managed to save the majority of the people who could not get out in time...
"Notice something yet?" Atticus asked, robotic neck creaking as he surveyed the twisted remains of the city.
"There's a lot of debris, but that's about it." Courage answered, turning his attention onto the amalgamation whose huge form still loomed large on the horizon even as they continued their march toward the sea.
"Exactly! Now take a look in the direction they came from."
Courage did just that, and among the track of torn earth he could see that much debris was embedded in the dirt from long before the amalgamation had reach the city.
Atticus made several huge flaps of the machine's wings and prepared to fly again, much to Courage's dismay. As he did so, he explained, "They are losing a lot of mass as they move. Considering that this place looks more like it was leveled in an air raid than the remains of a city that just had most of its metal stripped from it, it is clear that they are not trying to replenish what they are losing. This city was the last chance they had to incorporate more metal into themselves. It is almost entirely empty land beyond this point, aside from that small beach side town, but unless they shift directions they're going to miss it altogether."
"So where does a laser factor into all of this?" Courage asked, holding on for dear life as Atticus took off.
The winged machine flapped wildly as Atticus tried to remain airborne. They hovered there for a moment as the machine struggled to gain any sort of height. Finally, after wobbling precariously a few times and nearly causing Courage to have a heart attack on each occasion, Atticus managed to get the machine flying properly again. It was only once they were circling high above the ruin of the city that Courage noticed that Atticus had shifted around some of the features of the eagle-like machine in mid-flight.
"That seems to have done the trick." Atticus said, looking over his shoulder and seeing Courage's pale face at the changes. "What? I told you already that I don't know a thing about aerodynamics. Making revisions is only natural as I figure this whole flying thing out."
"S-sure." Courage stammered out. Although he could hardly image what sort of changes would help when it was already nonsensical that this thing was flying in the first place.
"As for the laser, it's simple enough. Since they are already losing mass and now have almost no means to regain any significant amount of it, I'm going to use the laser to chip away at them. With some luck, I might be able to get them down to a small enough size that I can go toe to toe with them just long enough for you to talk to them. Less metal attached to them means less ways for them to beat me up...because I am certain that I'm about to take quite a beating." He ended the sentence with a long sigh of resignation.
Courage swallowed down his objections to the plan. He was not sure that he could talk them down at this point, especially after the last attempt had ended in a cannon blast to the moon. Still, he was willing to try again, even if he felt like Atticus was the one who should talk to them.
Atticus continued, "And that's not all. Even if we fail, it can only help if we separate as much machinery from their form as possible. There is no guarantee that this will work as a backup plan, but I strongly suspect that the amalgamation has a much greater resistance to electrical damage than any single Construct does. Everything else about them has been amplified to great extremes, after all. If we can get enough electrical surge generating machinery off of them, once they submerge themselves in water, it might just damage them instead of outright destroying them."
With several heavy beat of his wings, Atticus rose even higher into the sky. When he spoke again, it was with some amount of hesitancy. "However, it would be best if we avoided this last resort altogether because there are some unknowns involved. Speaking from my own experience, while the lightning strike that caused the whole Mega Muriel incident did not harm my PC body, do you remember that story I told you about the idiot who spilled coffee on me and nearly killed me?"
Courage nodded. He remembered the story all too well, even if their time in the forest was starting to feel like a lifetime ago.
"I assume you can tell where I'm going with this." Atticus said, one of his massive eyes fixating on Courage as he glanced over his shoulder once again. "Constructs give electrical resistance to the machines they inhabit, but we do not give any sort of resistance to water damage. It is entirely possible that a being as powerful as the amalgamation might have some form of resistance to water damage, especially given that they are hooked up to many, many machines instead of just one and thus can survive several of them going dark, but we have no way of knowing anything for certain. It's for that reason we need to do everything in our power to keep them from reaching the ocean."
Courage nodded and clutched at the metal in front of him all the harder as Atticus finished circling the remains of the city and started toward the ocean at top speed. "Do you know where you're going to get the parts for a laser?" He cried out over the howl of the wind.
"I believe I can build an adequate laser out of parts taken from the lighthouse up ahead. I had hoped to find a few specific parts within the wreckage of the city to make up for what the lighthouse might lack, but I didn't see anything worthwhile while circling and we don't have time to go picking through all of that debris, so we're just going to have to-"
He cut himself off unexpectedly and came to such a jarring halt midair that it was like he had slammed on the breaks. Courage was nearly sent flying off the neck of the machine.
With great strokes of his wings, Atticus remained hovering high in the sky as he leered down at something off in the distance. "You have GOT to be kidding me." He huffed.
"Wha-" Courage began, still too busy trying to recover from almost being flung. He ran a paw across his head in an attempt to get his wind whipped fur to stop sticking out in every odd angle. Squinting, he could see what looked like a cluster of headlights trailing not all that far behind the amalgamation. "Is that..." He began.
He felt the machine practically shudder with fury. "The SCC." Atticus finished for him, his voice having taken on a surprisingly menacing tone as it emanated outward from within the machine. "They've got some nerve showing up here after..." He trailed off on a surprisingly threatening note.
Courage shook his head. "I don't think they've figured out what's going on with the amalgamation. The SCC must think they're going after that beach town next. They've got to be scrambling to do something after they just let another major city get completely destroyed."
The eagle shaped machine lowered its head like a predator about to pounce. "I think I know where I'm going to get those extra parts now."
"Y-you're joking, right?" Courage asked, although it came out sounding more like a plea.
"Look, if by some miracle we actually manage to calm my siblings down, we are going to end up right back at square one if the SCC attacks them and sends them back into a murderous rage."
"Okay, I get your point. Do what you gotta do, but what about that weird EMP thing they like to use on you? We can't have you shutting down at a time like this."
"One, they don't know I'm coming. Two, I know what to look for now and that will be the first thing I disable, if they even have any of those generators left after the amalgamation destroyed their original base."
With several wing strokes, Atticus was already gaining speed and homing in on the unsuspecting army below. Courage could see now that it was made up of both the usual SCC vans and a distressing amount of tanks. Atticus had to know he was flying headfirst into danger...right?
Perhaps not. Without a single second of hesitation, Atticus sped right into the heart of the army as the features of his robot shifted themselves around to take on a far more draconic look. He was ready to go to war, even if he was vastly outnumbered.
-Red Alert (Jaxx Radio Mix)-
He dropped out of the sky and landed among the tanks with a heavy boom. The entire army came to a screeching halt and SCC soldiers spilled out of the vans. They all stared up at the draconic robot with mouths hanging open before they finally took aim with their guns in a big, panicky rush. A long moment passed where a pin could have been heard being dropped and then the creaking sounds started as every last tank turned their cannons around to take aim at Atticus.
Nothing about any of this seemed to alarm Atticus. His voice erupted from the machine, amplified to such an extent that those within the tanks would be able to hear him quite clearly. "What? Not even a 'hello' before you pull out your weapons? None of you have any manners, I swear!" The machine rose up to its full height, eyes blazing. "Well, I am most certainly about to teach you sorry lot why you don't go making super weapons that can disable all of your machinery at once."
A chorus of useless clicking followed.
"Exactly!" He quipped, his sharp, jagged, dragon-like head sweeping left and right as he took in the befuddled army of SCC soldiers. There was a muted clattering sound as several of them dropped their guns. "What? Are you scared?" Atticus asked, looming menacingly overhead. A sharp, toothy grin made out of railway spikes spread out across his robotic face. "Good!"
His torso burned bright orange and a torrent of molten metal spewed forth from his maw.
Courage winced at the screaming that followed. At least most of them had the sense to turn tail and run, but not all of them were fast enough to escape the volcanic hellfire of melted metal that rained down upon them.
"Uh, Atty?" He weakly uttered out. "You really scare me sometimes."
The serpent-like head snapped around and Courage was forced to jump back because molten metal continued to drip from what little remained of the machine's mouth. It seemed that in his haste, Atticus had not made sure that the heated metal would not cause other part of his body to melt away from the heat as well. The robot's entire lower jaw was gone, and the sight of it dripping white hot metal as it leered at Courage nearly had him peeing his non-existent pants.
"Oh, come now, I didn't kill anyone!" Atticus argued. "I just gave them horrible fourth degree burns and life ruining injuries." The robot blinked. "...I'm sure they get great health insurance!"
A sudden explosion rocked the machine and Courage was sent tumbling down into the dirt below.
"Ow! Cheap shot! I wasn't paying attention!" Atticus angrily cried out, and Courage just managed to get onto his feet in time to watch the draconic machine turn its fury upon the offending tank that had managed to get an attack in. Atticus rapidly repaired the melted jaw of the machine and had it snap its railway spike teeth over the top of the tank. With one big heave, he sent it flying into the sky.
Courage watched the tank spiral over and over as it rose higher and higher before finally beginning to fall back down toward the earth. "Really not helping your case here, bud."
"Oh, I'm sure they survived that!" Atticus dismissed with a wave of one of the machine's wings.
The tank hit the ground in a big, fiery, mushroom cloud shaped explosion.
"...Probably!"
At this point the SCC army was in complete and total retreat. Regardless, before Courage could convince him otherwise, Atticus swooped after the closest tank in retreat. By the time Courage managed to catch up with him, puffing for air the whole way, Atticus had the thing dangling from the robot's teeth by its cannon.
"P-put the tank down, Atticus!" Courage cried out, placing his paws to his knees as he tried to catch his breath.
Just when he thought his life couldn't get any weirder, he'd never once thought that he'd one day end up having a stare down with a giant robo-dragon currently sporting the expression of a defiant cat.
Atticus had the robot crunch down even harder on the tank's cannon.
Courage flailed his arms. "They're retreating! We do not need to add war crimes to the list of horrible, horrible crimes that have been committed here today!"
The robot's eyes closed. "These people have been ruining my life from the day they first made me. Let me have this."
Courage flailed his arms even more wildly. "Think of the Geneva Conventions!"
"Ugh, fine..." Atticus relented. The robot rolled its eyes and released the tank, letting it fall to the ground where it embedded itself deep in the dirt.
The hatch opened up and several SCC soldiers who were having a very bad day tumbled out. Before they could run away, Atticus got his scowling, serpentine face up close and personal. Most of them started to scream while one cried out for his mommy.
"Mommy's not going to save you from what I'm going to do to you if you don't deliver a message for me!" Atticus threatened, allowing his chest cavity to heat up once more despite the damage it had already done to his torso. "Tell Elizabeth that she'd better not have any one of you idiots fire upon the amalgamation or else I 'will' trash what's left of your sorry excuse for an army."
In a big panic, all of the soldiers agreed to deliver the message, and Atticus stepped back as they fled for the retreating army.
The robot turned its eyes upon Courage. "It is truly a shame that this is temporary. I'm rather enjoying myself."
"Still kinda, sorta, really scary, Atticus." Courage groaned.
He hung his head in defeat upon Atticus shifting his view onto the burning wreckage of tanks with as much of an enthralled expression on his face as any scrap metal machine could possibly portray.
"Could we maybe find those parts you need before your siblings die?" Courage asked, crossing his arms.
"Ah, yes, right, of course." Atticus answered, shaking his head as if he were trying to come out of a trance. "It's a shame we can't sit here and watch it burn. It's rather nice. If we ever get the chance, we should do a bonfire or something."
Courage rubbed a paw up against his face. "Yeah, sure. If it means you'll take your destructive urges out on firewood instead of, uh, people you don't like..."
Atticus spent several minutes sifting through the wreckage, and as he moved, he used his powers to deconstruct anything worth salvaging and incorporated it into the robot. Much of it went into replacing the melted metal, but the rest was used to build the laser mechanism right into the robot's torso. Its dragon shape was steadily shifted back into the slightly less intimidating eagle form, only now its chest was more like an exposed rib cage as Atticus continued to make tweaks to the laser.
"This will have to do." He announced, glancing in the direction of the amalgamation and flaring his wings. "I'll get the remaining parts I need from the lighthouse. We can't wait any longer. They've almost reached the ocean."
Courage rushed over and let Atticus pick him up and place him atop his back yet again. For once he was not quite as freaked out by Atticus's less than graceful takeoff procedures. There was no time to be scared if they were going to have any hope of saving Atticus's siblings from their hapless fate.
End Of Chapter
A/N: I've always said that I intentionally have comedic and silly stuff happen in the story because I don't want it to be bleakness and sadness all of the time, but over the last few years the story has slowly been veering more into dark comedy territory at times and I am enjoying every moment of it. Maybe I'm just writing to my own sense of humor and nobody finds it quite as funny as I do, but the imposing, nightmare mecha dragon still having the voice of a stuffy british dude who's written with a cadence like someone who's demanding to talk to your manager, it's just...*chef's kiss*. Also, if you want the perfect visual representation of the current dynamic between Courage and Computer, look up that old 'Let Me See What You Have' Vine meme and there you go. LOL