Ch 12: Legacy of the Tsun (Pt 1)
"Why. Won't. You. DIIIIIIE?!"
With a furious yell, Ram flew up to her adversary in her HDD form and swung her Icecalibur blade with all her childish fury. Unfortunately for her, the sword simply shattered upon impact with the high-density metal. Just like the last twenty-three times the rage-filled loli had tried.
"Mrgrgr! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" The sheer amount of anger and frustration radiating off of the pink-haired girl in that moment made it very clear why she was Blanc's younger sister. Unlike with the older Goddess of Wrath however, Ram vented her anger by throwing a verbal temper tantrum rather than demolishing everything within a hundred meter radius of her with a hammer. Her tirade only came to an end a full minute later when she leveled an accusing finger at the source of her ire with a glare that could have shot out lasers if it had been any more intense.
"What stupid dummy made a robot this stupidly big and hard to beat?!"
The only sound to answer her was the crashing footsteps of the said 'stupidly big robot' as it continued its unhindered march through the city streets.
As it was, the robot that was causing Ram so much of a headache was actually a twelve-story tall Alloy Gear; one of the three that had made such a grand entrance back at the forest in fact. Bearing a sleek, aerodynamic form, the metal monstrosity had a rather reptilian appearance with its triangular-shaped head, long armored tail, and an enormous pair of double-jointed legs supporting it all. The Alloy Gear did not have any arms though as it instead had two wing-like appendages equipped on either side of its massive body. These building-sized wings most likely housed its main weaponry but it had yet to unveil any of them seeing as how it clearly did not view the pink-haired loli as a credible threat. In fact, the only offensive move it had made so far was to fire at Ram with its shoulder and leg turrets whenever she happened to wander too close to them. As was expected, Ram really did not appreciate being disregarded like this and was very much at her wit's end.
With another loud yell that sounded far more adorable than threatening, the younger twin shot out a concentrated beam of ice at her opponent's face. The attack proved to be just as ineffective as everything else she had done however as the ice beam merely ricocheted off of the Alloy Gear's upper jaw and flew directly back towards her. Swerving about just in time to avoid getting frozen by her own spell, Ram turned back on her still-uninterested enemy while waving her arms about in a rage-induced fit.
"GAAAAAH! I've had enough of you!" she finally erupted. "You think you're so cool and tough, you big dummy? Fine! I'll show you what I'm really made of!"
With that, the little girl pulled out the wooden staff that Sync had gotten for her during their dimensional side trip. With her new staff in her right hand and her main one still in her left, she flew straight up until she was hovering about a hundred meters over her opponent. With a manic smile on her face and absolutely no regard at all for her surroundings, she swung both of her weapons downward with dreadful finality.
"EXPLOOOOOOOSION!"
The giant Alloy Gear had just enough time to look up at the shout before a massive fireball engulfed it's entire form... along with the entire city block surrounding it. Thankfully, there were no fans in the area as they had already retreated from the northern sector to make way for the giant robots. The smaller, generic Alloy Gears that had been following its bigger counterpart were not quite as lucky, however, as they were immediately atomized by the blast. Buildings, signs, and abandoned cars were all vaporized in an instant as the magical fire mercilessly swept through the land. As the blinding flash of red and orange slowly faded away, a miniature mushroom cloud could be seen rising over the detonation site. All in all, the explosion was a spectacle worthy of awing even a group of transforming alien robots.
After letting out a cough from all the smoke that her attack had created, Ram looked down at her handiwork with a satisfied smile.
"Ha! How do you like that, you big stupid piece of junk?! I bet you're not so-"
Her cheers were short-lived as a large gust of wind suddenly blew all of the smoke away to reveal the completely unscathed form of the giant Alloy Gear standing below her. As Ram watched with her mouth open in disbelief, the robot scanned the giant crater it was now standing in before glancing back up and tilting its head as if to say 'really?' Not waiting for the stunned girl to respond, the robot gave what could only have been a shrug with its large wings before simply facing forward again and continuing its march.
"Wha-?" Ram eventually let out. "But I- How-?"
Before she could properly settle back into her rage-filled state, she caught a flash of green at the edge of her vision. Turning around, her eyes immediately locked onto the top of a tall building that had been just far enough away to avoid her fiery devastation. Falling out of a green portal that had most likely caused the earlier flash, a familiar coat-wearing figure landed onto the rooftop with all the grace of a sack of potatoes. Luckily for him, he happened to land on top of a goddess-shaped landing cushion who had just fallen out of the portal before him. As the white-haired woman no doubt let out an indignant squawk at the sudden weight on her back, another blond-haired person fell out of the portal and landed onto the rooftop face-first. The green spatial tear quickly faded away from existence after that as the three newcomers flailed about in an effort to right themselves.
"Ah! Sync!" Ram's face brightened up for the first time since her battle with the giant Alloy Gear. Without wasting a moment, the pink-haired girl headed towards the direction of her personal manservant. "He'll probably have something to help me beat that stupid bucket of bolts!"
As she flew, Ram looked over to her side to see how her sister and C-Sha were doing. Standing several miles off from each other, she spotted two other giant Alloy Gears that looked identical to the one she had just faced. Though they had all started out from the forest, the robots had taken diverging paths towards what could only be assumed to be the broadcast tower. At the moment, they were casually making their way through the streets while paying just as much attention to C-Sha and Rom as the other robot had to Ram. Even with C-Sha unleashing her full martial prowess in her Gold Third form and Rom methodically firing off a wide array of elemental spells at potential weak spots, the robots refused to give them any inkling of acknowledgment as all of the attacks bounced harmlessly off their metal exoskeleton.
Ram could not help but grit her teeth in frustration at the sight of her teammates failing to stop the stupid robots as well. With a renewed sense of urgency, she flew even faster towards their unexpected backup. As she neared the rooftop, she finally managed to overhear what the three now-standing people were saying.
"...doing that on purpose!" Noire (who was in her HDD form for some reason) was heard yelling. "I've seen you teleport around without landing on your idiotic face all the time!"
"That's only when I'm warping around in my set radius," Sync casually answered, his demeanor as carefree as ever. "I think I mentioned this before but my control slips up drastically if I try to warp anything further away than that."
"And just how large is this radius of yours then?" Noire quickly shot back.
Sync answered with a sly smile. "Information like that doesn't come cheap, you know. For you though, I'd be willing to give a hint if you simply agree to accompany me on a romantic date to-" He froze as he suddenly seemed to notice something.
"Note to self," he abruptly muttered, "remember to immediately turn my spatial awareness back on after performing a warp."
Ignoring the confused looks he got from Noire and Vert, he looked up with a rather wary smile only to find a pink-haired loli glaring murderously down at him. "Hey, nice to see you again Ram! Heh heh... Just out of curiosity, how much of my conversation with Noire did you manage to-"
He quickly teleported out of the way as Ram shot a blast of ice magic at his face. Not to anyone's surprise, Noire happened to have the bad luck of getting caught in the dodged attack as she found her left hand completely encased in a block of ice.
"You little brats!"
The goddess's scream went completely ignored as Sync reappeared a few meters away with his hands raised up to Ram in a gesture of surrender.
"Sorry, sorry," he quickly apologized before the short-tempered girl could unleash another attack. "It was just a joke. Besides, you know I'm not actually interested in girls with nasty attitude problems who try to look cute by tying their hair up into twin-tails."
"NO ONE DISRESPECTS THE TWIN-TAILS!" Noire all but screeched as she tried to club the boy with her frozen hand. "AND I DON'T HAVE AN ATTITUDE PROBLEM!"
Ram just watched with her arms crossed as Noire and Sync continued to play an improvised game of whack-a-mole with Sync constantly teleporting away to avoid getting his head smashed in by the furious goddess. Once Noire had finally vented most of her anger and stopped to catch her breath, Ram flew down to Sync and jabbed him in the chest with her finger.
"You. Are. Mine," she declared, enunciating each word with a painful poke. "You're my personal servant and you're going to marry me in the future! No one else is allowed to date you or be your wife! Well, except for Rom but we already agreed to share you so she doesn't count!"
Ram ignored the sudden spluttering noise that Vert made at this as she glared intently at Sync instead. Her servant looked like he wanted to say something to her rant but eventually settled for simply giving a lighthearted shrug and nodding. Of course, if it had been anyone other than him answering her like this, Ram would have frozen them on the spot for not taking her seriously. Sync, however, was her personal servant so he was allowed some extra mercy as she accepted his half-hearted response.
"Good!" she said with a satisfied smile. "I'm glad you understand now."
"Ahem," Noire suddenly interrupted. As Ram turned to face her, the Lastation CPU extended her frozen hand towards her with a pointed glare. No other words were necessary as Ram let out quiet grumble before quickly looking through her inventory for a healing item.
"Er... I'm sure I had an Ice Heal in here somewhere," the little girl muttered as she continued digging through her inventory space. After a few more seconds of searching, she seemed to give up and grabbed a different item instead. "Ugh, fine. I guess I can let you use this Lava Cookie instead."
Noire took the lumpy, burnt looking cookie that Ram handed her with with a suspicious gaze.
"You want me to eat this?"
"Duh," Ram said, rolling her eyes as if Noire had just asked something incredibly stupid. "What, you want to rub the cookie over your frozen hand or something?"
Still looking rather skeptical, Noire took a bite of the cookie before almost hacking it back up at the ashen taste. Seeing that Ram was not laughing at her and simply watched with her arms crossed, the Lastation CPU figured this was not a prank and that the medicine was supposed to taste this way. With a visible grimace, she reluctantly consumed the cookie as fast as she could. Surprisingly, the ice around her hand began to immediately thaw as soon as she finished her vile-tasting snack. In a matter of seconds, Noire's hand was completely free as she flexed her now-unfrozen appendage with an expression caught somewhere between surprise and disbelief.
"Lowee medicine's weird," she eventually said with a slight gag, trying her best to ignore the burnt aftertaste still in her mouth.
Ignoring the indignant huff from Ram, Noire turned her eyes towards the streets below only to freeze entirely this time as she finally noticed the enormous crater in front of her.
"What the hell happened to my city?!" she yelled, immediately turning back around to face the obvious culprit.
Ram's angry look quickly faded away as her eyes began to shift about nervously. "Um... the robot did it?"
Before Noire could unleash an explosion herself, Sync suddenly let out a sudden, impressed-sounding whistle.
"Dang. I sensed that these Alloy Gears were big but seeing them in person definitely makes them seem a lot more impressive."
Noire shot a final glare towards the sheepishly grinning loli before looking over to where the boy was staring at. Next to her, Vert leaned forward a bit to spot the Alloy Gears that the boy was referring to as well.
"Oh my," the Leanbox CPU breathed out, spotting the enormous robots that had managed to put quite a bit of distance between them during the little interlude. "I never expected some mere knock-offs made by the Order to look that imposing."
"Those aren't knock-offs," Noire suddenly whispered out, her eyes widening in recognition as she spotted the robots. The other three people turned to her with varying degrees of confusion as Noire clenched her hands into fists. "Those three are actual Alloy Gear RAYs. They're part of the group of Alloy Gears that my nation happened to lose several years ago."
"How do you lose an Alloy Gear?" Vert asked incredulously.
"Hey! It was just after the Deity of Sin fiasco, okay?!" Noire countered hotly. "You know just as well as I do how chaotic things were back then!" After taking a deep breath, Noire continued on with her explanation. "Anyways, the Alloy Gears were originally stored in a bunker relatively close to the Gamindustri Graveyard so we assumed they were all destroyed when the entire area disappeared. I guess the Order must have preemptively raided the place during all the confusion and relocated them to the hidden armory that K-Sha eventually found them in."
"Huh," Sync said in a thoughtful manner. "I read that the Order tried to take over Lastation during the events of V-II's Gold Third arc. If they had such a powerful weapon, I'm surprised they didn't try to use it against you during your storyline."
Noire rolled her eyes at the fourth wall breaking but answered anyways. "More than likely, they were planning on selling these Alloy Gears rather than actually using them. Besides, the Order was more than confident that their anti-CPU virus could finish off both me and Uni during that final fight." She inwardly winced at that particular painful memory. "In a way, it's kind of ironic that K-Sha was the one who ended up saving the day during that battle," she muttered mostly to herself.
Vert paid little attention to her friend's reminiscing as a familiar teasing grin suddenly formed on her lips. "Speaking of Uni, you haven't mentioned her even once during this entire mess. Could it be that you'd forgotten about your own little sister?"
"W...What?!" Noire replied, managing to get flustered even in her HDD state. "What are you talking about? Of course I'm worried about her! I just didn't mention her because I have absolute confidence that she can take care of herself!"
"Admit it," Sync said, quickly mirroring his sister's grin. "You completely forgot about her until now,"
Noire tried not to react to the obvious goading but found herself quickly cracking under the pressure of the two annoyingly identical smug looks aimed her way.
"I did not forget about Uni!" the Tsundere goddess finally cried out, angrily stamping her foot on the ground just as she would in her human form.
The two Leanbox siblings shared a brief laugh at the results of their successful teasing before suddenly stopping as their eyes met. Sync quickly gave a forced cough and looked away while Vert just pegged him with the same questioning look from before.
As Noire began to loudly complain that her life was being ruined by a pair of blond weirdos, Ram simply looked out into the party-destroyed city with a rather bored look. Having lost interest in the conversation a while ago, the pink-haired girl tried to see if she could still spot Rom and C-Sha in the distance. As she strained her eyes towards the two Alloy Gears they had been fighting, she spotted two blue figures suddenly making their way towards her. Apparently, Rom and C-Sha had finally taken notice of the impromptu gathering and decided to rendezvous with them.
"Heeeeey!" Ram enthusiastically called out while waving her arms. "Rom! C-Sha! Over here!"
Noire paused in her rant as she and her two tormentors looked over at the sudden shout. Following Ram's gaze, they spotted Rom flying towards them in her HDD form while C-Sha kept up with her by jumping from rooftop to rooftop in her Gold Third form. After a few seconds, both of them landed in front of the gathered party looking rather winded from their battle.
"Big bro!" Rom called out, her face immediately brightening at Sync's presence. "What are you doing here?"
"To see you, of course!" Sync put on a cheerful grin as he gave the blue-haired girl an affectionate pat on the head. The sound of grinding teeth emanated from behind him causing him to briefly glance back at Vert. "Oh, and also to drop off Noire and sis for the shift change," he added as an afterthought.
"Well, it's a good thing you came when you did," C-Sha said, turning off her transformation and readjusting the blue beret that reappeared on her head. "These robots are far tougher than I gave them credit for."
"Oh, that's because they're actually real Alloy Gears and not some cheap bootlegs like we originally thought," Sync casually supplied.
Noire spent the next few seconds filling in a surprised-looking C-Sha and Rom about what exactly was going on before Sync cheerfully clapped his hands together.
"Alright! Now that we're all filled in, let's get moving again! We'll leave these three Alloy Gears to sis and Noire. Seeing as how our Tsun-Tsun goddess here was the one who ordered to have them built, I'm sure she has a way of dismantling them as well."
"Stop calling me Tsun-Tsun, dammit!"
"As for Ram, Rom, and C-Sha," Sync continued unabated, "I'll get you three back over to our main base so that you can take a brief rest. With the airship back up, I'm sure we can maintain the line for a couple of minutes without any further assistance. As for me, I'll be keeping watch with my powers and step in if anything unexpected occurs." With a rather confident smile, he looked around at the group gathered before him. "So, anything else we need to add before we split up?"
Ram looked over to where her metal nemesis was still casually walking away and gave it a piercing glare. "Grrr... I wanted to be the one to kick that stupid robot's butt," she muttered angrily.
"This is a job for a real CPU, kid," Noire answered with a haughty scoff.
Ram immediately threw an indignant look at the white-haired goddess.
"I'm not a kid! And I'm just as strong as a CPU! Do you want me to suplex you into the ground again to prove it, you Tsun-Tsun dummy?!"
Sync quickly put himself between his master and unofficial wife as sparks began to fly from their eyes.
"Okay, then!" he cut in, ushering Ram into a tight group with Rom and C-Sha. "We'll be taking off now! Oh, and sis? Try not to wander off again while no one's looking."
"Stop treating me like a wayward puppy!" Vert shouted.
Sync gave a short laugh at her reaction before turning back to Noire. "And one final piece of advice. K-Sha's probably programmed those Alloy Gears to target you specifically so they'll most likely go into a frenzy the moment they see you. Just make sure you're properly prepared for that."
"Hmph! Like I need advice from you of all people," Noire brushed off with a huff.
Sync just gave a cheerful shrug before focusing on locking onto his target coordinate. After a brief moment, he looked up and gave the two goddesses a final wave before teleporting himself and the Lowee group away.
Finding themselves finally alone, Noire let out a relieved sigh.
"Ugh. I thought those annoying brats would never leave." With a quick shake of her head, she put on her business face and pulled out her large energy sword with a flourish "Alright then. It's about time I showed these Alloy Gears the true power of a CPU!"
"STOP FIRING MISSILES AT MEEEEE!"
The three Alloy Gear RAYs chasing after Noire seemed to share Sync's sense of humor as they answered her screams by unleashing an even larger cluster of cruise missiles from their left wings.
Not surprisingly, things had not been going too well for the Tsundere goddess. Rather than listening to the boy's advice and taking some proper precautions, she had instead charged straight into battle with a loud battle cry. As a result, three major things had ended up happening in quick succession: First, the Alloy Gears immediately switched into battle mode upon noticing her presence and fired a massive barrage of missiles that even Cave would have found difficulty in avoiding. Second, Noire failed to change the trajectory of her charge in time and ended up colliding (and exploding) face-first into six different missiles at once. Third, Noire came to the conclusion that this was all some sort of karmic retribution against her for stealing one of Neptune's pudding cups several months ago.
Thankfully, the Lastation CPU was more than tough enough to survive the blast and ensuing fall to the ground. After dazedly pulling herself out of the enormous crater she had made, she wisely chose to reevaluate her strategy. Seeing the amount of collateral damage that just the first attack had caused, she decided that her first order of business would be to lure the Alloy Gears back to the forest before starting the battle in earnest. With that in mind, she had quickly taken to the skies again and began her retreat with three giant robots in close pursuit.
"Veeeeert!" Noire screamed out, performing a veritable air show in her attempt to dodge the missiles chasing her. "Stop fooling around and help get these things off of me!"
Vert, who had activated her own HDD by this point, looked up and gave a sigh at her friend's un-goddess-like behavior.
While Noire had been busy pulling a Leeroy Jenkins maneuver and blowing herself up, Vert had instead chosen to do something a bit more useful. Putting her years of raiding experience to use, she had decided to take care of the remaining mob of smaller Alloy Gears while Noire was drawing the aggro of the main bosses. Knowing just how frustrating it could be to have a bunch of trash mobs interrupting your focus during a boss fight, Vert had swiftly flown in to remove said annoyances. As it was, the task proved to be far easier than expected. Ram and Rom had already done quite a number to their ranks as barely thirty of the bootleg Alloy Gears were still operational. Also, unlike the formidable RAY models that were giving Noire such a hard time, the knock-offs were little more than metal paper-weights as Vert easily tore through their generic tank-like forms. By the time Noire had been screaming at Vert for help, all of the smaller Alloy Gears had been dealt with as the green-haired goddess tried to shake off the last remaining dregs of oil from her spear.
After enjoying the rather impressive air maneuvers that Noire was performing for a few more seconds, Vert finally decided to step in and help her friend.
"Inbetween Spear!"
A large volley of glowing green spears appeared out of thin air as they flew off to intercept the missiles. With stunning precision, all of the spears found their targets as the sky above exploded into a giant fireworks show.
With the smoke momentarily obscuring the Alloy Gears' vision, Vert quickly flew up to join the still-fleeing Noire as she gave the white-haired goddess a smug look.
"Honestly, Noire. Losing your composure like that over a few missiles? Whatever happened to all that earlier bravado of yours?"
"Shut it," Noire snarled, ignoring the enraged roars of the Alloy Gears behind them. "I was just focused on luring those missiles away from all the buildings, okay? I could have easily avoided them otherwise."
"Of course you could," Vert replied, her teasing tone stating otherwise.
Before Noire could angrily retort, a sudden burst of movement at the edges of their vision caught their attention. Simultaneously turning around, their eyes widened in surprise as the Alloy Gear RAY closest to them charged forward with a sudden burst of speed and jumped into the air.
Time seemed to momentarily slow as the goddesses tracked the enormous metal beast as it sailed over their very heads. With a resounding crash that demolished two entire skyscrapers, the Alloy Gear landed from its brief flight and swiftly turned towards its stunned targets. With a loud roar, it swung its right wing towards them which opened up to reveal a giant, super-heated blade. Vert quickly reacted to the danger and flew out of the way but Noire's slower speed resulted in her taking a direct hit from the glowing red sword.
"NOIRE!"
Vert's cry was drowned out by the crackling of energy as the giant sword and Noire's outer shield of share energy briefly locked in place. Physics eventually decided the outcome of the clash however as the sheer momentum and mass behind the Alloy Gear's strike allowed it to beat out the goddess's defense. With a sound like breaking glass, Noire's aura of share energy shattered as she was sent hurtling through the air from the recoil. As Vert could only watch in shock and horror, her friend's battered form smashed through three separate buildings before finally coming to a halt as she crash-landed into a small temple. The entire structure immediately collapsed from the impact as it buried the no doubt seriously injured goddess in a mountain of rubble.
"Ah..."
Too shocked to say anything, Vert flew down towards where her friend had landed with no regard for the three Alloy Gears. Luckily for her, the robots paid her no mind as they moved forward to surround the collapsed building with all their weapons primed and ready. Once they fully encircled the ruins however, they simply waited around like a trio of cats toying with their prey.
"Noire? Noire, where are you?!"
Landing within the massive field of debris, Vert looked around desperately for any hint of her fallen friend. Her worry continued to grow until a large mound of plaster and concrete several meters away suddenly shifted to reveal a familiar black-gloved hand. Without wasting a second, Vert quickly ran over to help.
A few seconds later, Noire was fully freed from the rubble trapping her as she crouched down onto the ground with her one good arm while breathing in short, ragged gasps. The three Alloy Gears watching all of this soundlessly inched closer, causing the last rays of the setting sun to cast an ominous shadow over their prey. Neither goddess paid them any attention though as they were too focused on each other. Or at least, Vert was to Noire.
"Noire?" she asked worriedly. "Are you... are you okay?"
In hindsight, this was a rather pointless question as Vert could tell at a glance that her fellow CPU was most definitely not okay. Though she still managed to maintain her HDD form, Noire was hurt far more severely than Vert had ever seen her. Numerous cuts and bruises were seen across her tattered suit as her right arm hung limply at her side as if broken. A nasty cut ran across her left brow as blood ran freely from her wound down to her face. And judging from her breathing, it was likely that a couple of her ribs had been broken as well.
Noire did not answer Vert as she kept disturbingly silent with her eyes lowered towards the ground. After a few more seconds of silence, Vert's common sense finally caught back up to her as she quickly tried to pull out her spare healing items for her friend. Her actions were interrupted however when Noire suddenly let out a faint, barely audible, noise that sounded oddly like... a laugh.
"Heh... Heh heh... You know... I've had a real shitty couple of days so far," the battered goddess whispered out, sounding far too calm given her situation. As Vert looked at her in concern, Noire continued speaking as if talking to herself. "First my house was invaded by a stupid freeloader. Then an annoying little brat came over and caused my fans to riot. After that, I had to spend the next few days living inside an abandoned factory that didn't even have a proper shower. Oh, and let's not forget about my crazy Yandere friend who decided to go completely nuts during all of this and took over said fans as well."
"Um... Noire? You're starting to scare me a little..."
The white-haired goddess paid her no mind as she continued with her monologue.
"And just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, today happens." The injured goddess clenched her working hand as her left eye gave a visible twitch. "My plan to take back my Basilicom utterly failed. I had to be rescued by that accursed blond brat of all people. I was brainwashed into putting on my cosplay outfit and making a complete fool of myself. I was forced to risk my entire nation on a plan that even Neptune would've considered stupid. I was suplexed by a little girl that was half my height. My snacks were stolen by the blond brat. I was forced to climb up an endless amount of stairs just to fetch my partner like some kind of errand girl. I was grabbed by my fans in places I don't want to think about. My hand was frozen by the same stupid kid that suplexed me. And, of course, I was teased endlessly throughout all this by everyone, especially the blond brat and his idiot of a sister." Vert nervously took a step back at this.
"To top it all off," Noire concluded, her voice still maintaining that same frightening calmness from before, "I was smacked aside like a fucking baseball by the very machines that I ordered to be built."
Noire slowly took in a deep breath as the temperature around her seemed to drop by a good hundred degrees.
"But you know what?" she said, shakily rising to her feet. Even the Alloy Gears seemed slightly perturbed by this unexpected turn of events as they backed up a step. "Even with this entire shit-fest that I've been forced to go through, there's still at least one good thing that came from having this many crazy fans obsessed over me."
Noire raised herself to her full height as she slowly looked up at the Alloy Gears with her blood-streaked face.
"I have a fuck-ton of shares."
With a smile that could have made the Lord of the Underworld cower in terror, Noire summoned her share crystal to her working hand as a familiar HUD display appeared in front of her.
"Next Form, activate!"
The entire world seemed to explode into a flash of white as an unbelievable amount of shares responded to Noire's command. Vert was still trying to recover her eyesight when she was blasted aside by something, or rather someone, as they rocketed upwards with enough force to create a sonic boom.
"EAT THIS!"
The lead Alloy Gear RAY had no time to react as a bluish-black blur practically teleported up to its face and straight-up punched it in its lower jaw. The skyscraper-sized robot seemed to instantaneously vanish from the ground as the vicious uppercut sent it soaring into the air before its entire form disappeared into the clouds with a sad twinkle.
As Vert and the remaining two Alloy Gears recovered just in time to see the giant robot fly off into the upper atmosphere, the black-armored figure turned to her remaining targets with the same feral grin as before.
"Who's next?" Noire asked, all of her wounds magically healed as she stood proudly in her shining Next Black form.
The two Alloy Gears briefly glanced at each other before leaping back several hundred meters to put some distance between themselves and the new threat. If they had not been programmed to target Noire at all costs, they would have probably high-tailed it out of there like any other sane being. Unfortunately, they were constrained by the limits of their coding as they foolishly let out a roar and began firing missiles again at the super-powered goddess.
Meanwhile, Vert quickly flew off to the rooftop of a distant skyscraper to avoid getting caught in the crossfire. Having spent a lot of time with Gamindustri's resident rage demon, Vert knew all too well the signs of someone who had been pushed far past their mental tipping point and wanted to keep as far away from the carnage as possible. Landing on her (hopefully) safe vantage point, Vert turned off her HDD and settled in to watch the inevitable slaughter.
"AHAHAHAHA! IS THAT REALLY THE BEST YOU CAN DO?!"
With a manic gleam in her glowing eyes, Noire used her upgraded energy sword to effortlessly slice through the cruise missiles that the Alloy Gears shot at her. Apparently, all concern for collateral damage had completely flown her mind as she weaved through the tall buildings without any care for the stray missiles that blew up the city around her.
Realizing that their projectiles were not even slowing down their target, the RAY on the right opened its mouth and fired off its plasma cannon. With something that sounded suspiciously like a cheer, Noire barrel-rolled past the deadly laser and continued to close the distance between them. Moving quickly, the other RAY unit unveiled the heat blade in its right wing and swung it down towards the rapidly approaching goddess.
"NOT THIS TIME!"
Noire swung her sword up in the blink of an eye to meet the colossal weapon. A deafening clang echoed out as the two vastly different sized blades clashed against each other. Unlike last time, however, Noire's new strength allowed her to screw the rules of physics themselves as she pushed back the giant blade with a loud yell. The Alloy Gear momentarily stumbled from having its sword bounced back as it quickly tried to regain its balance. Noire never gave it the chance as she flew in like a freight train and kicked the unbalanced robot directly in the chest. With a surprised-sounding screech, the giant robot flew backwards, crashing through a countless number of buildings before its heavily damaged body crumpled into a heap several miles away.
"...It's like one of my Lowee animes," Vert whispered out, her mouth wide open as she watched the over-the-top spectacle.
The action was not finished yet though as the RAY next to Noire gave a furious roar before unleashing its own heat blade against her.
Moving so fast that even Vert had a hard time tracking her, Noire flew in and sliced off the entire wing with a single slash. Before the robot could even fully process that it was now missing a limb, the vengeful goddess put away her sword and flew down to grab the dismembered wing. Carrying the building-sized weapon with absolute ease, Noire swung the giant wing-blade towards its original owner. The slash took out the RAY's missile-carrying appendage as the heat blade easily cut through the dense metal like butter. As the giant robot staggered from suddenly losing both its front limbs, Noire swung her gigantic sword again, this time at its unguarded main body. In a scene straight out of a video game, the giant blade swung down and vertically bisected the entire Alloy Gear. Casually tossing aside her borrowed weapon, Noire turned away from her defeated foe as the two halves of the robot slowly slid apart before exploding dramatically behind her.
"Tch. Didn't even put up a good fight," Noire complained, dusting off her hands with an annoyed look.
Far away on a distant rooftop, Vert just continued to watch with an open mouth.
As Noire started to brush the dust from her armor as well, a massive laser beam suddenly engulfed her entire being. Just as Vert was about to express her shock, the glowing orange plasma faded away to reveal the completely unscathed form of the Lastation CPU. With an annoyed huff, Noire turned around to face the Alloy Gear that she had previously kicked away.
Even with the sun fully set by this point, it was still easy to spot the giant robot as the lights from the remaining buildings illuminated its heavily dented metal form. It's red eye-sensors seemed to glow even brighter than before as it let loose an angry roar at the transformed goddess. Moving at a speed that belied its bulk, the lone RAY model charged forward like a bull.
Noire just took in the rampaging mass of metal and death with an amused look.
"Heh. Guess I might be able to properly vent some stress after all."
That was all the warning the Alloy Gear got before a massive force smashed itself directly into its face. The RAY tumbled head over heels several times before it could fully right itself and register the fact that the CPU had just punched it in its face. Shaking its massive head, the robot quickly looked around to locate the goddess before a voice suddenly shouted out from above.
"Here! I got you a little present!"
Though the robot did not have the chance to see it, Vert managed to witness the terrifying sight of Noire lifting up a toppled, twenty-story tall office building and holding the entire thing over her head. What the Alloy Gear did manage to see, however, was Noire launching the skyscraper directly towards it like some kind of insanely over-sized javelin.
The Alloy Gear desperately tried to jump away but even its impressive mobility proved to be inadequate to dodge the massive projectile. A loud robotic screech rang out into the night sky as the building collided with its intended target. Even from Vert's position, the sound of several tons of metal and glass crashing into the giant metal object could be heard as the battlefield erupted into a large cloud of debris.
Noire, however, did not simply presume her opponent was defeated like some brainless Shonen protagonist as she promptly flew into the dust cloud to properly finish the job.
All that could be heard for the next several minutes were the sounds of an energy sword being swung around as well as several more ear-piercing screeches. The violent noises eventually came to a rather abrupt end though as an unsettling silence fell over the ruins of the devastated city.
Without any warning, the giant dust cloud suddenly parted as the decapitated metal head of the Alloy Gear RAY went sailing into the air before exploding into an impressive fireworks display. Noire flew back up into visibility soon afterwards as the dust cloud finally cleared to reveal a sparking mass of mutilated metal below her.
"Alright. I think it's about time our final contender came back down," Noire stated, her sword held threateningly in her hand.
With rather impeccable timing, an enormous roar shook the skies as Vert saw something that made her wonder if she was simply having a bad fever dream.
Wreathed in flames from reentering the planet's atmosphere, the Alloy Gear that Noire had sent skyward earlier was... well, not exactly flying but most definitely falling with style. With its massive wings spread out as it descended from the heavens, the flaming behemoth looked like something straight out of a picture from the end times.
Once again though, Noire simply looked more amused than anything. With a confident smirk, she looked up at the giant robot that seemed quite intent on smashing into the ground and annihilating the entire city with it.
"Diagonal Blade Dance."
Four blazing swords colored in red, green, blue, and purple appeared around her as she simultaneously flew up to confront her final adversary.
With a roar, the Alloy Gear opened up its left wing to unleash a salvo of cruise missiles. Even with the immense air pressure and heat around it, the high-tech projectiles still managed to fire properly as they made their way down towards the rising goddess.
Noire simply waved her hand in response as her four energy swords shot forward at blinding speeds. Leaving a trail of their respective colors behind, the swords began to crisscross their way through the air as they cut the rain of missiles to shreds. Realizing the approaching danger, the Alloy Gear opened its mouth to unleash its plasma cannon.
It never got the chance.
With a grand sweep of her left arm, Noire sent the four swords directly at the robot. In a flurry of vibrant colors, the energy blades effortlessly sliced their way across the entirety of the Alloy Gear a countless number of times. Though the mechanical beast was technically already destroyed by this point, the Next Gen Goddess did not stop there as she summoned a large glyph beneath her feet. Using it as a launching pad, she rocketed upwards as her four swords delivered their last few slashes and dissipated in a perfect cross formation. Moving in to deliver the finishing blow herself, she activated her wing's thrusters causing a massive burst of energy to explode below her as she shot towards the heavens like a blazing comet.
"The final strike!"
Looking like a bluish streak of light, Noire cleaved her way completely through the center of the Alloy Gear's body. There was a momentary pause before a massive shockwave of blue share energy appeared at the point of impact before seeming to collapse in on itself. Then, in a fitting finale, the condensed ball of energy exploded back outwards as the enormous explosion lit up the night sky like a second sun.
As the city was greeted by an early sunrise, Vert stood on top of her rooftop with her mind continuing to reel from the whole experience. In her daze, she hardly noticed when Noire eventually flew back down from the sky. Whether it was intentional or some lucky coincidence, the twin-tailed goddess landed lithely on the same rooftop as Vert as her transformation finally fizzled out from her usage of her Next EXE Drive.
As she turned back into her human form, Noire haughtily flicked her twin-tail at the fading blue explosion in the background.
"Hmph! Don't fuck with this goddess!"
And with that she collapsed face-first onto the ground in exhaustion.
Miles away at the distant broadcast tower, the fighting had momentarily ground to a halt as both the fans and soldiers simply stopped to stare at the insane sky battle between the Alloy Gear and Noire instead. As the Tsundere goddess proceeded to create a miniature sun in the sky above, Sync tapped his pink-hatted associate on the shoulder with a surprisingly nervous look on his face.
"Ram?"
"Uh huh?"
"I don't think we should piss off Noire anymore today."
The younger twin fearfully nodded her head in agreement.