The jaw of the Terminator Spartan unhinged and a series of sparks crackled from its gaping mouth.
"They're not human, at all." Virginia breathed.
"W-W-Well, well, well..." The Terminator began to say as its jaw quivered. "Look what the c-c-cat's dragged in."
"That voice...," Simmons said as he listened intently.
"It's Dr. Raini." Ten hissed angrily as he cocked his rifle at the head of the Terminator.
"Come out and show yourself!" Carolina ordered.
"N-N-N-Nu uh." The Terminator mocked as its head tilted and trembled. It slowly got to its feet, the metal melting away from one of its shoulders.
"Hiding behind one of your puppets won't save you." Sarge yelled at it.
"Come out now and we promise we'll be gentle with the handcuffs." Donut threatened. Grif cringed to himself.
"Ha!" The Terminator laughed, and at that moment, Perun and Bast darted to the right and began to charge at half of the group.
Virtus and Ares sprung at the same time and charged at the Chorus military as they attempted to run to the base.
"Stop them!" Ten, Michigan, Oregon and Nevada rushed after Virtus and Ares. Michigan and Nevada fired their grappling hooks; letting the latches catch on their feet and yanked them backwards.
Ares flipped backwards, slashed the wiring to the grappling hook with a knife and spun around. Virtus rolled backwards and threw a knife at Michigan, who leaned to the side to avoid the oncoming blade.
"Let's do this." Nevada said as he cracked his neck before rushing at Ares.
"Kimball, can you hear me?" Wash called out over the radio.
"Yes, I hear you, Wash!"
"Try to see if you can locate where Dr. Raini is hiding. We'll take care of these fake Freelancers." Wash explained as he dodged a fist from Perun.
"On it!" Kimball responded. She looked at her lieutenants. "Team, we need to fan out! See if we can locate where Dr. Raini is hiding."
"Yes, ma'am!" The lieutenants responded simultaneously before grabbing some nearby soldiers and bounding off in separate directions.
Carolina jumped in between Wash and Perun, then rammed her knee into its chest. Tucker was rushing at Bast, who quickly tripped him as Tucker threw all his strength into a sweep of his sword.
Sarge jumped in and fired his shotgun, only to have Bast kick upward and sending Sarge falling backwards.
Virginia slid on her knees behind Bast and Grif ran at Bast, throwing all his weight into him. Bast stumbled over Virginia and landed on the ground, with Grif ramming him repeatedly with his fists. Simmons and Sarge jumped in and began to wail on Bast with the butt of their weapons. Mars snuck up to Grif and grabbed him by the neck and yanked him off. Grif went flying through the air and collided into the side of a trashed Warthog.
"Oh no! Grif!" Caboose shouted as he looked at the carnage that was once a Warthog, then looked back at Mars. Mars was twitching and sparking as it walked quickly towards Caboose.
"Caboose, get out of the way!" Tucker yelled. Caboose looked panicked as he slowly backed up. Mars marched quicker with its mechanical arm reaching out towards the cowering blue.
Before Mars could reach the soldier, a grappling hook snatched its forearm, causing the Terminator to look back at its source.
Ten was yanking at his grappling hook, letting his feet dig into rubble to keep from sliding.
"Come here, 'lil dawgy." Ten let out a 'hee-haw' as he yanked with all his might. Mars' robotic arm was ripped off with the powerful yank and the angry machine let out a sparky hiss.
Bast let out a high pitched frequency, resembling a scream altered to be high tones. Sarge and Simmons reached for their ears in habit, before Bast slammed its fists into their guts simultaneously.
Both soldiers flew backwards and slid on their backs. Sarge grumbled angrily as he struggled to get to his feet.
Bast screamed and charged at Simmons and Sarge. The two soldiers began to panic. Before Bast reached them, an explosion went off right in front of them.
"Got 'em!" Michigan cheered after have thrown a grenade.
A blackened cloud faded to reveal half of Bast's robotic shell. Part of the body sparked and withered in pieces of metallic flakes and wires.
Perun screeched as Tucker impaled his sword through the center of its abdomen. The desperate robotic Spartan grabbed Tucker by the wrist and headbutted as hard as possible.
"OW! You fuck!" Tucker yelled as he yanked the sword out through the abdomen.
Meanwhile, the lieutenants, along with a group of various soldiers and Kimball, were searching through out the area to see if they could find anything suspicious.
They had a feeling that Dr. Raini was hiding within the area, but weren't sure where to begin looking.
"Come in, come in. Kimball here. Any sightings?" Kimball asked as she was searching a nearby abandoned building with a few soldiers.
"Nothing, ma'am." Jensen responded, walking along a parking garage.
"Negative." Smith responded as he was doing a sweep of a nearby office building.
"Nada." Bitters responded, searching a nearby grocery store and helping himself to a few candy bars.
"Uh, I think I've got something." Palomo replied in a whisper. He was in a nearby botanical garden.
Three other soldiers were ducked behind Palomo; looking over his shoulder at the inside of the botanical garden.
Dr. Raini was pacing, cursing loudly and running his fingers through feathery strands of hair. His lab coat was stained with dirt, rust and possibly blood. His fingers tapped quickly at a datapad as he continued his mumblings.
Palomo explained what he was seeing to Kimball, trying to keep hidden in the shadows.
"Oh, my God." Kimball gasped. She quickly got on the radio and hollered out the findings to the Reds and Blues. "Tucker! Carolina! Wash! Come in!" Kimball barked.
"I'm here, Kimball. What's going on?" Carolina asked.
Virtus and Ares jumped at Nevada and Virginia; their fists pulled back and ready to punch. Nevada fell back and shoved his feet into the stomach of Virtus, causing him to flip and shove off into the air.
Virginia stepped to the side, spun on her foot and tried to sweep her heel across Ares' face. Ares stepped back and grabbed hold of Virginia's leg and swung her into the air. Ares followed up by leaping into the air and slamming its shoulder into her abdomen.
Virginia gasped as she was sent flying and landing in a row of hedges nearby. Ares landed on its feet and began to walk towards the fallen Freelancer, until a hand grabbed its shoulder.
"That's not very nice!" Oregon said and took hold of its arm. Ten jumped in and grabbed the other arm.
Ares screamed in a high pitch frequency as it wiggled furiously to get out of their grips.
"Time to say 'night night'". O'Malley chuckled as he pulled out his rocket launcher.
"Uh, Ten? Should we be so close?" Oregon whispered to his comrade.
"Just get ready!" Ten snapped as he held the struggling Ares.
O'Malley fired and the rocket screamed through the air. Oregon and Ten simultaneously leaped to the side, letting Ares take the full blow.
Oregon dropped and rolled on his side, and quickly looked up to see the once robotic Freelancer engulfed in black smoke.
"Direct hit!" Ten cheered victoriously.
"Nice shooting." Virginia complimented O'Malley as she stepped out of the hedges.
"No! No! NO!" Dr. Raini screamed angrily as he typed furiously on his datapad. He hunched over the datapad, looking increasingly more stressed.
"Alright, doctor. That's enough." Came a voice that broke his concentration. He looked up and saw Carolina and Wash with their weapons pointed at him.
"Put down the datapad and put your hands behind your head. It's over now." Wash instructed in his cool demeanor.
Dr. Raini stared at the two soldiers, and then craned his head back and began to laugh. Carolina and Wash both took this time to step in closer.
"Do you seriously believe you can stop this?!" Dr. Raini hissed as he quickly looked back at them. "They were built to be perfect. PERFECT!" Dr. Raini screamed. "They are fitted with A.I. of the original Freelancers. They know how to fight. They're survivalists." Dr. Raini began typing on the datapad.
"Put that down!" Carolina ordered.
"No... it's too late." He typed and then slowly lowered the datapad. "They will ensure your demise." Dr. Raini dropped the datapad next to his foot and sighed contently.
Carolina and Wash both began to step closer to him. The doctor smiled one last time, before reaching into his pocket to retrieve a pistol.
"NO!" Carolina screamed, but Dr. Raini thrusted the pistol up under his chin and pulled the trigger. "Goddamnit!" Carolina screamed as they both rushed over to the newly collapsed corpse.
Wash bent down and picked up the datapad and observed the numerous codes that ran across the screen.
"What the Hell?" He murmured.
"What's going on?" Carolina asked.
"I-I... I'm not sure." Wash admitted.
They were both cut off by an abnormally loud frequency pitch and looked in the direction from where it came.
"That can't be good." Wash stated before the two of them took off running into the direction.
Ares, Bast, Perun, Virtus and Mars all began to quiver, tremble and glow. The parts of their bodies that laid scattered amongst the ground began to slither with their wires.
"Holy shit, it's alive!" Grif screamed as chunks of metal scurried between his feet. He danced around the parts, startled.
"Esto es malo/This is bad." Lopez said as he stood alongside with the Red team. Carolina and Wash returned to watch as the robotic Freelancers began to grab at each other.
Long rivers of wires sparked and coiled around each other.
"Team, take aim!" Sarge barked as he aimed his shotgun. "Fire!"
Simmons, Grif, Lopez and Donut fired off multiple rounds of ammunition, but was deflected by the connection of glowing shields.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me." Kimball asked as she stood with her lieutenants and soldiers.
The wires connected, the metal clanked and the once distinguishable faces of armor fell away and started to form as one.
"They're combining." Simmons gasped.
"Uh, hey Grif?" Ten asked as he tilted his head towards the orange soldier.
"Yeah?" Grif choked out.
"How did they destroy the Terminator in them movies?"
"Um... with pipe bombs." Grif explained.
"We're gonna need one Hell of a bomb."
