Here you all go, another chapter hot off the press... which means that I just finished it as I updated it. I dislike doing that but I only managed to finish the chapter just now, and its currently around 5am where I live, and we're in the middle of a heatwave. Seriously, I'm dying here...

So I apologize if there are typos and errors. I checked over the whole thing four times but mistakes still get missed.

Ionia (city), Ionia

"Got anything?" Luka asked his AI partner.

Goth responded by shaking his head. His avatar floating a pair of feet away from Luka.

"Damn it." Luka sighed. It was still no use. There was simply no way to send a signal back home, a transmission. Hell, by now, he was certain he couldn't even send something as insignificant as a dick-pic back to TRANS-Ops.

"I believe our best bet to solving our communication problems would be to find out more about how we got here in the first place." Goth suggested.

Luka looked up at the starry sky from where he stood on his suite's balcony.

Well, the lack of industrialization in the world means no fog emissions to mess with the view of the sky… that's a plus I guess.

"So…?" He egged on his AI to continue.

"So, I believe that if we were able to gain access to the Ascension battle net we COULD possibly find a way to gather intel on their method of travel."

"And you think we're just going to stumble along an Ascension b-net server?" Luka rolled his eyes.

Goth shook his head. "I believe we are in agreement as to how low those odds are mon amie." He perked up suddenly. "But I do think we have an alternative."

"Shoot Frenchie."

"The people of this world claimed to have pulled both ourselves and Archangel and Mute out of our inter-dimensional travel mid-flight… if such a thing is true, then it would be logical to conclude that they have had experience with this in the past. It cannot be labeled a fluke, since they got us all out roughly around the same time." Goth explained.

The alpha meta-human nodded. "Right… guess that makes sense. So… you know any experts on the subject on speaking terms with us?"

"… No."

Luka shook his head and tore his attention away from the night sky for a moment

We leave tomorrow to help the Ionians with their problems…

Maybe if they were lucky… they'd come across some Ascension and get to kick their asses.

As he thought that, he noticed a strange flash of light in the night sky.

Huh?

Before Luka could comment on it, he saw another… then another.

"Goth?" He asked. As soon as the word came out of his mouth his HUD highlighted the area he had seen the flashes.

"I saw them too… give me a mome….." Goth trailed off. "Uh oh…"

"What?" He asked.

Luka's question was answered when the word's Ascension Signals Detected appeared in his HUD.

"Never mind. I see what's uh oh." He mumbled.

"Should I ping Mute?"

"Yeah you better ping her." He said, watching as another flash appeared in the sky. "Zoom in on the targeted area."

His HUD magnified the area that had gotten their attention and sure enough, up in the sky were several human figures that Luka couldn't quite make out in the night sky, but his HUD immediately labeled them as hostiles.

That's gotta be Ascension…

They appeared to be flying downwards towards the city near his position, all of them following something. Luka looked down slightly and saw another figure at the head of the pack, with several flashes of light flying past it.

… Looks like they're chasing whoever that is…

As he watched he saw one of the Ascension figures break off and get closer to the retreating figure, and his HUD highlighted it again.

"Goth, scan that one." He ordered. "I got a funny feeling…"

"Understood." Goth replied. A second later he scoffed. "If your feeling was meta… then you are correct."

"Who?"

"ID is a Beta, codenamed Starscream."

Starscream? Great… I get to fight a Decepticon knock off…

"Did Mute respond yet?"

"She did. She and Archangel saw them too. He is currently suiting up."

Luka shook his head. Of course, one of the rare occasions he isn't sleeping in his armor…

He turned around and bolted out of his room.

"Goth, get me someone."

"Who?"

"Don't care!"

The door to his room's neighbor highlighted.

Luka sprinted to it and slammed his fist on the door. After about two knocks, he forgot his own strength and his fist sailed through the door, sending splinters of wood everywhere.

Whoops.

The occupant inside screamed in surprise, which was totally understandable.

"WHO'S ROOM IS THIS?!" He shouted into the room, peeking in through the hole in the door. He was greeted with the sight of a particular half-human half-dragon rushing into view with murder in her eyes.

Luka couldn't help but let his eyes do a quick up and down over her body, since she apparently slept commando. He also took note of her obvious physical dragon attributes and muscular body, concluding that even naked, She-hulk was dangerous.

Honestly… I'm not surprised she sleeps naked given her attitude…

Luka was about to shout at Shyvana to warn her about the incoming attack when she suddenly launched herself at the door. Blitzkrieg backed away and the door flew open.

"WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM!?" Shyvana shouted at him. She looked like she was ready to murder him with her bare hands. She also seemed to not care that she was now standing naked in a hallway.

"Ascension!" He replied.

"What?!" Shyvana seemed now equal parts angry as she was confused.

I don't have time for this!

Luka growled and pointed towards his room. "Ascension! Saw them from my balcony. Get your damn armor on she-hulk and get the others!"

He didn't have time to give her all the details so he left it at that and ran back into his room, ignoring Shyvana's shouting at him for… whatever.

Guess he was doing this one solo for now. He ran out onto his balcony and vaulted over the railing. He slammed into the street two stories below with a shake, causing the cobblestone street to crack.

I'm sure I can handle this one on my own… as long as they come down that is.

Syndra cursed again as she weaved through the air, dodging the seemingly endless shots being taken at her.

They were shooting at her with some kind of weapon that seemed to siphon off her magic. It was clear to her as the night sky was that the Ascension were trying to disable her somehow for capture.

Every now and then she would launch her own attacks back at her pursuers but she hadn't managed to hit any of them. It was hard to aim like this.

Instead Syndra had hatched a plan. She hated it but it was the best one she could come up with in the moment. She was flying down towards the city, and the Ascension followed.

If I can get to the city I can lose them. Everyone down there is enemies with the Ascension too, so they'll fight them. While the two groups go at it, I'll hide myself down there and escape!

Fighting on the ground would be easier for her too, since she wouldn't need to worry about those damn soldiers weaving and dodging so much.

Of course, that was the plan. The hard part was trying to out-fly her pursuers.

She looked back over her shoulder as she darted around in the air, dodging more shots being taken at her. Unfortunately, the one who she had identified as their leader was gaining on her rapidly. It likely was due to his armor being different, she could see that he had some sort of airplane wings protruding from his back.

She cursed again and launched the three orbs following her back at him, trying to knock him off course. He dodged the first two effortlessly, and when the third one was about to strike him in the face, the man raised and arm and batted it out of the way.

Syndra was surprised. How?!

He had just smacked one of her orbs out of his way as if it was some sort of pest.

Then she saw it. The armor on the figure's forearm was glowing blue. She could sense the magic coming off it.

He's got some sort of magical defense built into that arm-guard. Syndra snarled. She tried to summon up more orbs to attack again, but suddenly the strangely armored leader zoomed towards her even faster. Before she could react, he grabbed her leg and squeezed.

Syndra let out a cry of pain and threw both her hands back at him, summoning forth her magic to send him flying.

The man let go of her leg and darted away, dodging the attack, before coming back around and slammed his body into hers.

Syndra felt the air rush out of her lungs from the impact as the two became entangled in midair, the armored figure grabbing onto her so she couldn't escape.

"Got you now bitch!" The man chuckled as he grabbed Syndra by the throat. She gasped and tried to fight him off, but she felt something hit her in the stomach.

She screamed as her body took in a massive wave of electricity, and she felt herself losing control of her limbs.

No!

Syndra summoned forth all her spite and determination, and unleashed a massive blast of magic from her body in all directions. The man attacking her cursed as he was forced to let go as he was blasted away from her.

However, before Syndra could do anything else, she felt her conscience start to fade.

You will not… take… me…

She tried to curse out loud at her attackers, but all she could do was think it as she felt her vision fade, and she started to free-fall towards the city below. Just before she lost conscious, she cast one final weak barrier spell over her body…

As Luka ran, he looked back up to the sky and saw that the figures were now much closer. He zoomed back in on the one they were chasing and was able to make out the individual the Ascension was chasing. Whoever it was had long silver hair and a black outfit.

He also got to see the one Goth ID'd as Starscream catch up to her and grab her. The two started to struggle for a moment until the victim blasted the attacker with something, causing him to let her go. However, even though the sliver haired figure managed to fight Starscream off, it suddenly stopped flying and started free-falling.

Oh Scheiße! Luka mentally cursed and set off into a sprint.

Even with his extreme speed, Luka wasn't sure he wasn't going to make it… he had to duck around buildings and run through streets after all.

"Goth get me a way-point!" He ordered. A second later a way-point appeared in his HUD a brief distance away from him.

"Judging by our previous ventures through this city, I believe they will be landing in a park of sorts." Goth shared the intel with him.

"Well..." Luka grinned as he raced down the street to said location. "Let's go play in the park… shall we?"

This is the SECOND time this has happened… I'm starting to see a pattern here.

Isaac mentally cursed as he quickly suited himself up. This was twice now. TWICE! Twice the Ascension had tried appeared now while he wasn't suited up. It was ironic, seeing how he had always been adamant about keeping his armor on at all times.

For fucks sake, I should be listening to my own lessons. THIS IS WHY I'M PARANOID!

Isaac slipped his helmet on and slammed the face-plate down into position. "Mute, status report?" He asked while locking his gauntlet into place.

"We have a two squads of shock troopers and a meta-human chasing down someone in the air. Update from Goth says they're about to land in a park about three hundred meters from our position. Blitzkrieg is nearly there to intercept."

"Did he ID the meta?" Isaac asked as he slapped his shin plates on. He normally didn't get much for pre-combat chills, but he was starting to get worried.

What if this turns into another Bilgewater? Sure, Ionia has lots of champions, soldiers, and magic, but Bilgewater had firearms and a navy… and look what THAT did.

Unware of his worries, Mute continued on with her briefing. "Meta human has been IDed as Starscream, a beta."

"Starscream?" Isaac asked. "I don't recognize that one."

"You never fought him, he was on the Russian front during the war while you were in the Middle East." Mute explained. "He's a cyborg meta human, most of his body is robotic. He's also a proficient flyer with jetpacks thanks to his enhancements. He got his nickname from a battlefield report that compared him to a Transformer, you know, the cartoons and movies?"

"Never saw em." Isaac responded, fully suited up and now quickly putting together what gear he needed. He grabbed both pistols, his grenades, and his X sheath. He thought about grabbing the new weapons but decided against it. He had to get out there quickly. "Does he have another name?"

"Yeah, Beta thirteen four, Brent Evans."

Brent Evans…? Yeah… I THINK I recognize that…

Isaac tried to put a face to the name, but he couldn't. If what Mute was saying is true (which is likely was) then Beta 134, aka Brent Evans, aka Starscream had come from the Beta batch of meta humans just like he had.

Of course, there had been hundreds of betas at the beginning, and since most of them spent their time in training, labs, surgery, etc, each Beta only got to know a handful of others beyond their names and ID's. Only the most well known and powerful Beta's got name recognition by everyone. Isaac being one of them.

On the plus side, that made things easier when fighting each other, since you didn't know the face on the other side of the mask. On the negative side, everyone in the bloody Ascension knew who he was and what he could do.

Isaac threw his door open and rushed out into the hall, where he was met with the sight of several League champions arguing with each other.

"… and we don't even… HEY!" Isaac missed the first part of what Shyvana was saying, but she stopped and shouted at him the moment she saw him leave his room. She wasn't alone, Galio, Sona, Ezreal, Ahri, Soraka, and even Nami and a smaller fish looking humanoid carrying a trident were all in the hallway huddled up in some kind of meeting.

Isaac felt all their eyes turn to him when he ran out of his room.

"Archangel!" Ezreal shouted. "What's going on?!"

"Mute?" Isaac asked his AI for clarification on why everyone was standing around carrying weapons in the middle of the night. Did they know the Ascension was here?

"Goth says Blitzkrieg got Shyvana to rally everyone."

Looks like she did… Isaac mulled as he faced everyone. As much as he didn't want to work with some of them (cough, Shyvana, cough), he wasn't going to get picky about his allies with the Ascension knocking on the door.

"Isaac, Goth just reported in, the Ascension have landed in that park, Blitzkrieg is moving to engage!" Mute quickly informed him.

"Mute get me a way-point to his location." Isaac ordered to his AI before returning his attention to the other champions. "Everyone, come with me! We got Ascension to kill."

Isaac didn't wait for them to responded and he bolted down the hallway to the closest exit. He couldn't stop the small smile from spreading on his lips when he heard everyone shouting for a second before he could hear the echoes of footsteps from everyone chasing after him.

"Mute, tell Blitzkrieg the cavalry's on the way."

"Good, because Goth just informed me that three Ascension dropships are on the way…"

"… Ahhhh shit!"

Luka cursed as he sprinted into the park, looking upwards and watching as the woman fell from the sky. She was seconds away from hitting the ground and the Ascension knew it, since they were boosting after her trying to catch her.

"I'm detecting a magic force field around the target." Goth said, "It's likely meant to cushion her fall but she's approaching terminal velocity."

"Goth! Interception point!" Luka ordered and a way-point appeared in midair less then twenty meters from his location.

Luka took his sprint up a notch and made ready to jump as high as he could.

"Goth, rear boosters!" He ordered, four small thrusters jetted out of his back. Luka jumped high into the air and the boosters fired, giving him a little more height.

Timing it perfectly, Luka threw out both his arms as he started to fall back to the earth, catching the female at the same time. As he hit the dirt, Luka broke out into a roll, clenching the body of the unconscious woman to his chest as he did.

As he rolled back to his feet, Luka looked down at the woman with long white hair in his arms.

Sheesh, talk about having a gothic episode… Luka thought as he looked the woman's appearance up and down. Luka couldn't help but take notice about how nice her body was, but he quickly pushed those thoughts out of his mind and focused on what was more important.

"Goth?" He asked. As soon as the words left his mouth, a scanner appeared in his HUD and went over the woman's body.

"Alive, but injured. Turns out I was right, that magic barrier she had around her body gave out when you caught her. If she had hit the ground at the speed she was going, she never would've survived." Goth stated. "Sadly, she still took damage when you caught her, I detect a few broken ribs and damaged organs. She is going to need medical attention or she risks bleeding out internally."

"Verdammt!" Luka cursed, and he quickly made to sprint away back to the inn.

Unfortunately... he then remembered this woman he caught was being followed.

Several Ascension shock troopers slammed into the ground, surrounding him, rifles shouldered and aimed at him. The remaining shock troopers, two of which were carrying unidentified weapons that looked like battering rams, slowly descended down from the sky and stayed hovering a good five meters into the air.

Luka also noticed how some of the soldiers were carrying odd looking shields that were emitting some kind of energy, while in the other hand those same troopers were wielding stun batons.

Right... these guys... Luka groaned as he looked about him. Yep, I'm surrounded... wouldn't be an issue if I wasn't carrying a dying woman in my arms.

A low chuckle emitted from above him, and Blitzkrieg looked up. Floating above him was the Ascension Beta, Starscream.

Luka got a better look at the meta-human. His armor appeared to be a lot thicker then the usual Ascension meta-human armor, but Luka's bio-scanner picked up that that wasn't actually the case.

Starscream was only partially outfitted with the usual Mark-Three Ascension Battle Armor. Parts of his body, such as his arms, were one hundred percent cybernetic. In fact, according to the data Luka was receiving from his scanner, nearly seventy percent of Starscream's body was made up of cybernetics.

This guy's more machine then man... Luka thought. The hell is this?

"Well, well, well…" Starscream chuckled. "The great and famous Blitzkrieg himself. We'll be taking her off your hands now."

"Like hell you will be!" Luka growled. "You really think a Transformers knock-off like yourself and these shock troopers are enough to take the Blitzkrieg on?!"

"You should check those odds again, Alpha!" Starscream spat at him.

As if on cue, Luka's HUD picked up three more objects in the sky behind Starscream a small distance away.

"Three Ascension dropships on approach mon amie!" Goth warned him, tagging both the new coming objects in the sky as the targeted aircraft.

Ah shit…. Luka thought.

"Goth? Is Archangel on his way?" He asked privately to his AI.

"ETA four minutes."

Just got to hold them off until then… Blitzkrieg thought. He looked down to the woman in his arms. They won't open fire with those assault rifles since they'll risk hitting her.

"Still feeling confident, Blitzkrieg?" Starscream taunted him.

"Still feeling like a pussy Starscream?" Luka threw a taunt right back him.

Luka's taunt quickly proved to be far more effective.

"GET HIM!" Starscream shrieked. The Ascension meta human's jetpack roared to life and he dived at Luka.

That was easy…

Luka leaped back from the attacker as Starscream smashed into the earth where he was a moment ago. The cyborg let out a battle cry and his jetpack roared again, sending him at Luka with a flying kick.

Normally, Luka would've just taken the attack head on, but this time he was carrying someone in his arms. Instead, he rolled to the side, narrowly dodging Starscream as he raced past him.

Luka rolled back to his feet and he felt something hit him from behind, causing an alarm in his helmet to go off, warning him that he had been hit with a large amount of electricity.

Luka turned his head around to see that one of the shock troopers with a shield had his stun baton pressed against Luka's back.

The Alpha meta human twirled around and roundhouse kicked the unfortunate shock trooper, sending him flying back. As he did, Luka saw two more shock troopers try to get him from behind with stun batons, and the third was aiming at his head with a rifle but held his fire.

They're worried about hitting the girl, I can use this to my advantage.

Luka threw the girl over his shoulder to free up one of his hands, which he immediately used to grab one of the approaching shock trooper's arms. Luka threw the man to the side effortlessly, sending him to the ground. He took a swing from the second charging soldier, but before Luka could counter him he had to duck and dodge again as two of the shock troopers still floating in the air took passes at him, swinging at his head.

Luka cursed as he leapt back from the melee, only to see Starscream barrel into him from the side.

The force of having the half machine man slam into him via a jetpack boosted tackle caused Luka to go tumbling to the ground, losing the girl in the process. Luka cursed loudly as he rolled back to his feet, only to see two shock troopers grabbing the woman he had been protecting, with Starscream taking up position between him and Luka.

As for the other shock troopers with rifles, they no longer had to hold fire.

"Goth!" Luka shouted, and his vision flashed yellow as his suit hardened.

Just in time too, as the shock troopers opened fire on him, sending salvos of automatic fire at him.

That'll wake up everyone in a kilometer radius…

Luka didn't waste time. He bolted ahead, using his own meta-human powers to rocket towards the enemy. He charged at Starscream, who was in his direct path to the girl the Ascension was after.

Starscream didn't have time to react as Luka reared his arm back and the small booster in his elbow fired, sending his fist forward like a missile. It connected with Starscream's head, sending him flying backwards into one of the two shock troopers who were picking up the hostage.

Using the momentum from his powers, Blitzkrieg shoulder slammed the other soldier, sending him cartwheeling away, and leaving Blitzkrieg as the only one standing over the unconscious woman.

Thankfully for him, the Ascension soldiers stopped firing at him again. Two of them slung their rifles over their shoulders and banished stun batons that cackled with energy. The pair of shock troopers charged at him from two different sides, and Luka noticed a third shock trooper carrying one of those battering ram looking weapons dive down at him from above.

Luka ducked under the diving shock trooper's attacking, causing him to pass over without harm while the other two attacked from two different sides. Luka chose to focus on a single one of them, catching the troopers weapon with his hand, ignoring the waves of electrical currents it sent through his armor and body, and ignoring the hit from the second soldier.

He pulled the shorter trooper towards him by the weapon, and grabbed him by the shoulder, wreathing the weapon out of the soldier's hand violently, earning a cry of pain from the soldier. Luka grasped the soldier with both hands and used his body to bash the second shock trooper away, sending the other soldier stumbling back several feet.

Rather then throw his human-bat away, Luka threw the shoulder to the ground, right next to the unconscious woman. The shocker gasped in pain, but was quickly silenced as Luka brought his foot down on his head with a meta-human power enhanced curb stomp. The soldier's body jerked once then went motionless.

One down for good. Luka thought. Although, some of the other troopers he had clocked so far were likely down or soon to be from having him hit them like a train.

Luka quickly picked the woman back up and hoisted her over his shoulder, his head darting side to side as he scanned the area. The shock troopers had once again taken up positions to surround him, but Luka noticed how some of them were moving clumsily, likely from having him bash them around. Starscream had taken back to the skies, and seemed ready to make another pass at him.

The three Ascension drop ships had arrived though, and were holding position over him. Goth wordlessly highlighted the weapons on each ship, a pair of forward mounted machine guns and a pair of missile pods on each ship.

Two of the drop ships were facing him, weapons trained on his position, while the remaining one started to rotate to the side. Luka saw how the rears of the ship opened up and he had to resist the urge to groan when he watched more shock troopers emerge from the ship, jetpacks igniting as they took flight.

However, to his confusion, they didn't come for him. Instead, the new arrivals took flight and raced past the dropships, which was going off in a different direction away from the park and towards the inn.

Then the dropships' forward mounted machine guns roared to life, followed by the shock troopers joining in in engaging some hostiles Luka couldn't see.

"Mon amie, Archangel as been engaged by those other dropships and they're shock troopers!" Goth reported.

"Then lets hope he can take care of those guys quickly." Luka turned his attention back to his own fight, and just in time to see Starscream charge at him again with a rage filled scream.

Isaac saw the dropship and shock troopers fly over the houses to their left.

Shit! He thought. He and his fellow champions were about to get caught out in the open in a very exposed but narrow street.

"Incoming! Mute harden!" He shouted at the following champions, thrusting a finger out towards the incoming hostiles, his vision flashing yellow as his suit activated its defenses. As soon as the word left his mouth, Ascension went loud.

Ezreal dove into an alleyway, bullets hitting the spot where he had been a half a second ago. Ahri became enveloped by a kind of bright light and dashed out of sight, grabbing the smaller fish named Fizz and dragging him along with her out of harm's way.

Sona struck a cord on her musical instrument, and a barrier of sorts appeared around herself, Shyvana, Nami, and Soraka. Bullets slammed into the magical shields, but none made it through.

Galio on the other hand, raced forwards, taking every bullet like a champion without so much as a snarl on his face.

Christ, he really is a ballsy one… Isaac thought as he raced towards the Ascension, his hardened suit taking a pounding from the automatic fire. He dove down and slid on the cobblestone road, before kicking off with his feet into a roll to dodge some of the gunfire. He thought about grabbing one of his sidearms, but decided against it.

Shock trooper armor is highly bullet resistant, need to hit them in the weak points. Isaac thought. That meant running and gunning was a waste of ammo, due to inaccuracy issues. Against shock troopers, he was better off hammering them with dark matter in the current situation.

As he rolled up to his feet, and continued running, he saw that the dropship had begun to hold position and hover, while the shock troopers split into two groups: several discarded their rifles and pulled out a variety of close combat weapons while the others took positions on rooftops to either side.

Or they could come at us… Isaac suppressed a grin. That solved one issue.

Isaac sprinted towards the closest hostile, who was armed with an unknown kind of shield and baton. The Ascension soldier hit the ground running, meeting Isaac's charge with his own with one of his comrades right behind him with his rifle shouldered.

Isaac drew two of his arming swords from the sheath on his back, and dropped to the ground in another roll, taking the legs out of the first shock trooper. As the enemy soldier cursed and tumbled over him, Isaac leapt back up to his feet and shot his leg out, kicking the rifle out of the rear shock trooper's hands.

Isaac followed up with a swing and a stab, but the Shock trooper took a leap back, dodging both and drawing a sword and baton of his own.

"DIE TRAITOR!" The Ascension shock trooper shouted over the sounds of gunfire and battle. Isaac parried a swing from the trooper's sword, and dodged the baton.

Blade's won't go through their armor… Isaac thought as he parried another blow. He had to get them in the weak spots.

Thankfully, years of fighting shock troopers had given Isaac plenty of experience.

As the shock trooper took another swing with his baton, Isaac dropped one of his swords. He grabbed the trooper's wrist and yanked his arm out and upwards, causing the trooper to stumble slightly forwards.

With one swift move, Isaac thrust his remaining sword into a small gap in the trooper's armor, located under the arm he had a grip on. The shock trooper's body ceased up immediately and he screamed in pain as Isaac drove the blade deep into the man's armpit.

As Isaac yanked the sword out of the soldier's arm pit, he glanced over his shoulder for the shock trooper he had previously tripped, only to see Shyvana in the middle of literally ripping the trooper's throat out with a snarl.

Holy shit…. Isaac thought, but his thoughts were cut short when he felt a shiver go down his spine, followed by an impact on the side of his helmet.

Shit! Isaac cursed and darted to the side. Someone had just shot him in the head! My armor is bullet RESISTANT! Not proof! He thought. He didn't want to test how many shots his helmet took take before one would get through to his soft brain parts.

Isaac quickly glanced to the roof, where three shock troopers had landed. All three where aiming down at Isaac and co, gun's spewing death. One such trooper was aiming at him.

Bastard! Isaac thought as he cartwheeled to the side, making it difficult for the soldier to hit him. It was working, since Isaac saw sparks on the cobblestone where bullets meant for him were landing.

Isaac tumbled forwards, scooping up the dead shock trooper's assault rifle in the progress and dropping his second blade. As he ran towards a gap between houses on the opposite side of the street, he grabbed Shyvana by her arm out of reflex and pulled her along with him towards cover.

"What are you-" Shyvana started to shout at him before she let out a yelp of pain.

The two rounded a corner, and Isaac pulled Shyvana past him as he twirled on the spot to lean out of cover. The half-dragon collapsed to her knees, one of her hands covering the side of her stomach.

Isaac spared a quick glance for the inhuman girl. Shyvana's face constricted in pain, she looked down to her injured side and removed her hand. There was no blood, but Isaac could easily see where she had taken a bullet.

"That's going to leave a bruise." Mute muttered in his ear piece.

Not now Mute. Isaac thought.

"We need take out that gunship!" Isaac asked the she dragon as he checked the ammo counter on the side of the former shock trooper's rifle. I've got thirty-four rounds in this thing… that'll do.

Shyvana responded by glaring at him. "I don't take orders from YOU!"

"I wasn't ORDERING you, you damn She-hulk!" Isaac cursed back. He was SO not in the mood to have another fight with Shyvana in the middle of an actual battle. "I can take the dropship, but I need you guys to take the small fry!"

Isaac didn't wait for Shyvana's response and leaned out of cover, weapon shouldered and aiming down the holographic sights. He took aim at the shock troopers on the roof, one of them still looking in his direction. He lined the red dot up with the shock trooper's neck and fired once. He was rewarded with the sight of a red splash from the soldier's neck and the shock trooper collapsed backwards.

Troopers have three main weak points in their armor. The neck, the small gap between armored plates in the arm pits, and behind the knees. Isaac thought. Everywhere else on the shock trooper's body was protected by it's armor's outer layer of ceramic and an inner layer of thermoplastic polyethylene.

In other words, highly bullet resistant.

Still, people had to be mobile, so some parts of the body were less protected then others. Even Isaac's own suit had less armor around the neck.

Isaac took aim at the other two troopers on the roof, but before he could shoot, Galio slammed into the side of the roof, sending dust and debris into the air to block Isaac's shot. He watched as the stone gargoyle throw one of the two troopers off the roof, and then proceeded to leap onto the roof and begin pulverizing the second.

As Isaac leaned back behind cover, he noticed the various colors of magic flying towards the enemy battle line, which were answered by red tracer rounds.

I don't know how well everyone is holding up against this.

Isaac turned back to Shyvana, only to see that she was in the middle of scaling a wall.

"Where you going?!" Isaac shouted up at her over the sounds of carnage.

"Getting to a better position, you useless moron!" She shouted back at him without even sparing him a look.

Isaac gritted his teeth in annoyance.

"Out teamwork is SOOOO impressive!" Isaac could almost hear Mute's eyeroll as she spoke.

"Shut up Mute." Isaac responded. He took up a position on the side of the house with the street inches away. He looked back down the way he had come, and saw the on-going fight.

Sona was strumming away on her musical instrument, keeping some kind of magical barrier up around her, Ezreal, Nami, and Soraka, all of whom were firing magical attack back at the shock troopers both in front of them and on the rooftops. One of the closer shock troopers to them was mid charge when Ezreal and Nami fired attacks at him, hitting the strange shield the Ascension soldier was employing. The shield absorbed the attacks and the soldier made to leap at the inhuman members of the group, only for Fizz to leap out from out of no where at last second.

The small fish creature collided with the side of the soldier's head, wrapping his legs around the soldier and started rapidly stabbing the soldier with his trident. Both tumbled to the ground, but Isaac could see Fizz clearly had the upper hand in the fight.

Ahri dashed ahead, her body being enveloped by a light as she went from behind house to house, keeping herself out of the enemy's line of sight as much as possible. Between rushes, she would send off small blue fireballs that were keeping a pair of shock troopers on a nearby rooftop pinned down to a degree.

Isaac wasted no time and took aim at the two shock troopers trying to punch Ahri's ticket. He squeezed the trigger and opened up on one of the back of the shock trooper, bullets ricocheting of the trooper's back. The trooper made to duck down out of Isaac's sight, when a bright orb suddenly passed through his body and that of his nearby comrade before returning though them. Both soldiers suddenly ceased up with smoke emitting from their bodies, and collapsed out of sight.

The fuck? Isaac followed the orb with his eyes, only to see it return to Ahri's palm and dim. She had a satisfied grin on her face and disappeared out of Isaac's sight.

"Annnnd that's why we want to be on her good side." Mute stated.

No shit…

"Also, I know we're kind of busy right now, but I REALLY want to get a scan of that instrument Sona is using!" Mute added in with a hint of excitement in her voice.

"… Not the best time Mute…"

But all fun and games ended when he saw several tracer rounds impact Sona, Ezreal's and Soraka's position, which were followed by the loud bangs of a .70 caliber machine gun.

The trio must have realized that Sona's shields couldn't withstand the barrage, and all four plus Fizz scrambled for cover. Isaac grimaced with he saw a mist of blood appear in the air, but he couldn't see who it was from.

Isaac looked up the street and saw only four shock troopers ahead, along with that damn dropship that was currently main cause for concern.

"Outworlder!" Isaac heard Shyvana shout his name from above. He looked up and saw Shyvana crouched down on a ledge of the side of the house he was leaning up against.

"What?" Isaac shouted back. He hoped she had something useful to say this time.

"Are you going to hide there all battle, or can you at least distract that thing so I can handle the rest?" She both taunted and asked him at the same time.

By that thing, I hope she's referring to the dropship.

Isaac knew he really shouldn't give into her taunts, but he was fed up with the half-dragon long ago.

"Oh? Is it too much for a dragon to handle?" Isaac threw back at her, even though he already had a plan to make the dropship go away.

Shyvana's eyes filled with rage. "Listen human… as soon as this is over…" She started to cuss him out, but Isaac couldn't hear her when a certain AI started shouting at him.

"ISAAC!" Mute shouted in his ear. "Now is NOT the time!"

I know! Isaac mentally cursed his AI for being so logical and correct. Instead, he decided to give Shyvana a real answer.

"As soon as you see my signal, go." He shouted at her, setting his rifle on the ground next to him.

"What signal?!" Shyvana shouted down at him.

"It'll be obvious!" Isaac barked back, and started channeling his power into his slightly nerve damaged hand. He felt his body get hot as dark matter circled around his hand, forming a small ball.

The good part about the nerve damage, I can charge up for longer without feeling any pain. It won't be good for my body, but I've never cared too much about that.

When felt that he had charged up enough, Isaac leapt out from behind the house and onto the street. He thrust his hand out and the ball of dark matter exploded.

"NOW!" He shouted, both for Shyvana and for himself. He felt the dark matter at the end of his palm explode outwards, sending out a massive lance of black and purple energy, aimed right at the dropship.

The lance slammed into the ship, just left of the cockpit. The lance bored a hole into the ship, causing explosions to break out around the impact.

Damn, I missed! Isaac cursed. He had hit the ship, but he had been aiming for the cockpit.

Although, he wasn't too pissed about it. It was very hard to aim with his powers, even more so when it was such a powerful attack. Regardless, his attack had the desired effect. The dropship's guns stopped firing and the ship pulled away from the battlefield.

Shyvana must have understood that his attack was the signal, since as soon as the dark matter began to dissipate, the She-hulk let out a furious roar, and came crashing down onto the street in her dragon form.

She landed on top of two of the shock troopers, crushing the enemy soldier underneath her, and sending the other onto his back. With another loud roar, she spouted forth a massive flame that consumed the remaining two shock troopers. As she did, Shyvana grabbed the stunned trooper and threw him to the side, in Isaac's direction.

Accepting her surprising gift, Isaac drew one of his blades and jumped on the last shock trooper as he came to a stop on his back. The gun would be easier, but he didn't want to waste any ammo.

Pinning the struggling soldier's arms down with his knees, Isaac grabbed the soldier's helmet and shoved it upwards, exposing the trooper's neck.

"NO!" The soldier screamed for mercy. "PLEA-"

His cries became gargles as Isaac pierced the man's neck with his blade.

No mercy for the Ascension. Isaac thought as he silently finished the trooper off. Why should he show mercy to the ones who showed none?

He held his blade in the man's neck until the soldier stopped struggling before Isaac stepped off the corpse. He lightly swung the blade downwards to get some of the blood off it before he returned the arming sword to it's sheath.

And with that man's death, the sounds of battle died out.

"Well that was rather cold hearted." Isaac heard Ahri approach him from behind. She had her usual grin on her face, but she was carrying Isaac's lost swords. She held them out to him. "Yours?"

Isaac took them both with a nod, but the fact that Ahri was grinning while talking about him finishing off a wounded enemy was not lost on him

He was about to comment when he heard more gunfire in the distance and turned his head towards it.

Blitzkrieg!

Isaac turned back to Ahri, whose grin was gone and now had a serious expression. She gave him a nod.

Without a word being shared, Isaac turned back towards their original destination and resumed his sprint, racing past Shyvana who was turning back into human form and started to follow him. Overhead, Isaac saw Galio zoom past, and dive bomb downwards…

"HA!" Luka taunted as he slammed his foot down on the chest of another shock trooper, shattering the soldier's rib-cage through the body armor. The shock trooper's arms went into the air on reaction, remained there for a second, before his body went limp.

Another one down.

"Mute reports Archangel's team has finished off their enemies, and are on the way here." Goth informed him.

About damn time. Luka thought as he dodged yet another pass from Starscream, and earning another grunt of annoyance from the meta-human. I've almost dealt with all of these das schwiens.

He felt impacts on his back as two of the remaining six shock troopers opened fired upon him. They apparently no longer cared if they hit the unconscious woman next to Luka.

Luka was about to throw the dead shocker trooper at his feet at them when suddenly something slammed into the ground behind the two attacking shock troopers. Luka's HUD highlighted Galio as he grabbed both troopers and slammed them into the ground, and began to unleash a hell of a smack down on them.

"Calvary's here I see." Luka nodded to himself before returning his attention to Starscream and the remaining shock troopers, all of whom were hovering in the air, but for some reason were no longer attacking as Galio beat the two other shock troopers to death behind him.

Northern Freljord, near the Gelid Vortex

Enzo shook his head as he watched the battle through the cameras mounted on the sides of the dropships. On his screen, he was currently watching the stone gargoyle named Galio slaughter two of his shock troopers, while Starscream and the remaining troopers battled the Alpha named Blitzkrieg.

Disappointing… Enzo sighed and took a puff from his cigar. The mission was a failure. Bad luck is what it was. Somehow Syndra had not only escaped, which had been a high possibly, but she managed to land in the perfect area.

Trans-Ops…

Enzo keyed his direct COM unit to Starscream. He didn't want to make this call, as it would mean that Flammenschwert's hard work had been wasted. Well, somewhat wasted.

"Starscream." He spoke, and he noticed how Starscream's body froze even from the distance of the dropship's field camera. "Enough. Don't waste your life or any more of our forces."

There was a brief four second delay before a cold heartless voice responded. "Understood."

He watched as Starscream and the remaining shock troopers turn their backs on Blitzkrieg and Galio, and rocket back towards the dropships as they pulled away from the fight.

Enzo flicked the screen off, and leaned back in his seat. An unfortunate setback. Syndra was powerful, but now she was in Ionia's heart, the same heart where the elders she hated so dearly were located.

We may have lost her, but at least she won't be a problem. He sighed. Hopefully, the elders would order her execution. Normally the League would prevent such a thing, but thanks to the Ascension's actions, the League was losing it's pull rapidly.

Regardless, he now had confirmation that Archangel and Blitzkrieg were in Ionia's capital city, since he had seen Archangel via another dropship's feed moments ago.

We should assume that they are working with Ionia… Enzo thought about his options for a moment before he keyed his COM unit again.

"Get me Flammenschwert..."

Ionia (city), Ionia

Isaac sprinted towards Blitzkrieg, keeping his eyes on the retreating figures of the two Ascension dropships and it's followers.

The hell?

"Looks like the Ascension are giving this round up." Mute observed.

"Yeah… but what were they after?" Isaac asked, knowing Mute wouldn't know.

He ran up to Blitzkrieg with Shyvana and Ahri in tow. His teammate was crouched over something. Isaac came to a stop next to the larger meta-human and saw the object of Blitzkrieg's attention.

Correction, the person.

"Who is that?" Isaac asked.

Blitzkrieg shook his head. "No clue, but she's who the Ascension was after."

Isaac heard a small gasp from his side. Glancing in it's direction, he saw Ahri with a surprised look on her face.

"Syndra?" She almost whispered before speaking up. "She's who they were after?"

Isaac furrowed his brow. "Syndra?" He looked back down at the seemingly unconscious female. She was wearing some very odd clothing that left little to imagination.

Why does she look so familiar…?

"Isaac." Mute interrupted his thought process. "Syndra is a League champion. You fought against her in your match."

… Oh right!

Blitzkrieg shook his head again. "Doesn't matter who she is, she needs medical attention right now!"

Isaac activated his helmet's scanner and did a quick one over of Syndra's body. After a second, he grimaced slightly. Blitzkrieg wasn't kidding, she was hurt pretty badly.

"I'll get Soraka!" Ahri quickly said and ran back the way they had come.

Isaac heard a grunt behind him and turned to see what it was, only to see Shyvana stepping on the moving body of a shock trooper.

The trooper growled in pain, but seemed to be injured to fight back against Shyvana.

Shyvana growled at the trooper in response as she pressed down with her armored boot, causing the soldier to groan in pain.

Isaac subconsciously started to walk over to the trooper, gripping one of his two blades to finish the soldier off.

"You know… the dead don't share secrets Isaac." Mute suddenly said, causing Isaac to freeze.

…. Good point.

"Shyvana." Isaac began, catching the dragon-girl's attention, she looked back at him with her usual snarl. "Don't kill him. We need answers."

Shyvana looked like she was about to argue, but Isaac could she the understanding dawn on her face. She turned back to the trooper on the ground and grabbed him, picking him up.

"Come on… it's your lucky day." She said as she dragged the unfortunate trooper away with Galio in tow, who was likely following her to keep her from killing the man anyways.

As Isaac turned his attention back to Blitzkrieg and Syndra, he heard the galloping of horses. Turning to the source of the noise, he saw a group of Ionian soldiers on horseback come racing around from behind a series of houses, towards them with Irelia at the head.

Well, all that gunfire and fighting, it was only a matter of time before the military noticed. Isaac thought. He glanced around him. There were craters and dead shock troopers all around them. Doesn't look like I'll need to do a lot of explaining this time though…

The cavalry came up to a halt a short distance away and dismounted.

"Fan out! Help whoever needs it!" Irelia shouted out orders to her troops as she approached Isaac and Blitzkrieg.

Isaac waved his hand at Irelia, but before he could get a word in Irelia was already bombarding him with questions.

"What happened? Is this the Ascension?" She asked, pointing at one of the dead shock troopers who, judging by the odd shape of the dented in helmet, had had his skull bashed in by Blitzkrieg.

"To answer both questions, the Ascension and the Ascension." Isaac replied as he sheathed his swords. He wandered over to Blitzkrieg, who was still kneeling over Syndra's body. "They were after her."

Irelia came up to the two of them and looked down at Syndra's body, her eyes going wide in surprise. "S-Syndra?!"

"They were chasing her, took her down midair and she landed here." Blitzkrieg explained. "They wanted her really badly. She needs a medic."

"I can see that." Irelia nodded, but then Isaac saw how her face suddenly hardened. "And a pair of anti-magic shackles…"

The next update may not be not be on a Monday two weeks from now (August 14th) but on a Wednesday (August 16th). This is because I recently handed my notice in at work and they've responded by scheduling me more 6 day work weeks, which is made worse since my workplace is understaffed at the moment because since I handed my notice in two weeks ago (gave them 4 weeks due to coworkers taking holidays right now) we've had people up and quit on us without notice. Due to that, I might be too worn out over the next two weeks to make time to write another chapter, so I'm giving myself two more days JUST in case.

So if you don't see an update on August 14th, it will be on the 16th. After that, back to Mondays.

Also, there is a new poll up on my account page relating to this story.