CHAPTER X
Crest
"It's not often that we find ourselves looking down life's barrel. Even rarer to live to tell the tell. We can look back on these defining moments, like high water marks left behind by destinies tide and still seen through our actions from that point forward, with the right kind of eyes. Those of us that survive, that is..."
R.D.M
Over the Atlantic
"We'll be there shortly Melody! Hang on!" XJ-6 tried to comfort the damaged passenger while speeding home.
"I didn't get the chance to tell Jenny...Vexes...She took Sheldon...She did something to him, twisted his mind...She told me everything during our fight. He's here...On Earth and he's after all of you!" Melody strained out.
"Fantastic...That must be who this new robot that I'm detecting is...I can't believe Sheldon would turn on us but, he deactivate XJ-5...Last I saw he was headed towards our hom- Damn it! He just vanished off my radar! I should be there now but mom sent me to get you guys!" XJ-6 exclaimed.
"What about...The Nightmares?" Melody asked with a slight strain in her voice.
"We all went to the most heavily threatened areas and helped the local human forces defeat them, we all succeeded easily enough...Except for XJ-5..." XJ-6 spoke with sadness in her voice.
"Their all deactivated? That doesn't make sense...They were stronger than what Jenny use to be in her old body...How easy where they to beat?" Melody asked.
"Well, mom upgraded us all with those golden chip things, so I assumed that's why it was easier than I expected. I don't know about my sisters but, I left all of them lying on the ground where they fell. I say, let the humans deal with them." XJ-6 explained, "Why?"
"We-we have to go back!" Melody shouted, "We have to gather up all their power cores and throw them into space!"
"What? Why?" Melody's sudden outburst confused her, "We need to get you home, your oil pressure is dropping steadily-!"
"You don't understand! Vexes said that she would burn this planet! That's how she's gonna do it! Vexes must have rigged them all to blow! All she has to do is send a signal and they will detonate like miniature thermonuclear devices! My god..." Melody mustered up her strength in the midst of her revelation and broke free of XJ-6's grip, "Get Kenny to Mogg and your mother! I'll take care of those power-cores!" Before XJ-6 could protest, Melody rocketed off into the distance and disappeared.
"Great! This is all I need!" An alert going off in her C.P.U. meant she had other, more immediate concerns, "Oh no! Intruder in mom's lab! I got to get there fast!" She brought her three spider like legs together and formed a large rocket engine. With a loud blast, she disappeared off into the distance.
A short distance away
It was mere moments before Brad hailed Melody, he noticed her signal moving in the opposite direction of Nora's lab, "Mel, you need to get to a repair station!" He pleaded with her over the com link, "Skyway can handle the damn bombs!" Melody glanced down at the hand she was using to hold closed the gash in her abdomen, oil seeped through the gaps her metal fingers couldn't seal.
"Brad, we both know those idiots would never make it in time...This is why your father created Skynet, to cut through all the the red tape and act quickly and efficiently whenever necessary...Don't worry, I'll be fine..." She paused for a moment to run a quick systems diagnostic, to see the full extent of her damages, "We'll have to go see a movie or something when this is over..." She added, easing his conscious a little.
"Promise me Mel..." Brad's concern showed through his voice. His words brought a fleeting smile to her scuffed, metal face.
"I-I promise Brad..." She forced the words out and closed the channel.
Nora's lab
"What's wrong Nora? You seem to have lost that forked tongue you lashed me with earlier..." Scorn calmly spoke as he pressed the point of his forearm blade against Nora's throat. He had backed her into a corner, "All out of that venom you were spitting at me when last we met?"
"Sheldon stop this please...I can undo what the Hive has done to you..." Nora tried to reason with the beast. XJ-1 began to cry. XJ-2 fired several shots that siply deflected of Scorn's armor, causing no damage.
"Undo? Heh...Heh...Heh...And what makes you think I want to undo anything?" Nora gulped under Scorn's stare, "They opened my eyes Nora! They showed me what you humans really are...Selfish, manipulative, weak...Your all the same...And you've implanted your flaws into your creations. The only way to end the human disease is to destroy everything and start anew. A pure robotic species..."
"You've gone mad Sheldon! Your are human! Listen-" Nora tried to plead.
"NO! YOU LISTEN!" Scorn shouted, "I have ascended past human limitations Nora! I'm no longer bound by your SICKENING mortality..." Scorn traced out a line across Nora's throat, pressing firmly enough to draw a red line on her neck, " Humph...I can...Feel your pulse...Tell me...Why does your heart beat so fast?" If his face plate could smile then surly, he would have a wide grin. He let the words hang in the air as he soaked up the palatable tension. Savoring the moment before speaking again, "Call them Nora...Call the rest of your children home...Call them to me..."
"You better call a mechanic Sasquatch!" Dale had reached down and grabbed the knife from his combat boot and snuck behind Scorn while he was distracted. He lunged at the arm Scorn had Nora pinned against the wall with and scored a direct hit to his elbow joint. With a small flash of sparks, the arm fell limp but, Dale received a rather intense shock from Scorn's defense system that left him momentarily stunned. Nora quickly dived and rolled between the monster's legs. Scorn's repair systems snapped into action and corrected the damaged joint.
"Foolish human." A swift elbow to Dale's rib cage produced a loud cracking sound and sent him flying across the room and into a wall, creating a sicking crunch.
"Dale!" Nora screamed. Just then, XJ-8 burst in through what little remained of their homes roof.
"Perimeter breach located, central lab infiltrated, human lives threatened. Use of deadly force authorized." Elena spoke rather quickly. She transformed her right arm into a cannon and fired a large ball of purple energy. Scorn cut the ball in half with his blade before it reached him. The two halves shot to his left and right, exploding out the walls of the basement. Immediately, the sound of twisting support beams and snapping two by fours echoed out above their heads, signaling that the house's foundation had been compromised.
"MOGG! You have to move!" Nora demanded as she shoved the man towards the exit.
"What about you?" He asked as he exited.
"I have to get Dale out of here before the entire house collapses down on him! Now go!" Nora turned back and ran to her computer. She entered her fail safe code: Operation Stash and Dash. All of her saved work and data downloaded into a back up hard drive buried underneath the basement. She ran to Dale who was lying on his side in a fetal position with blood dripping from his mouth, "Dale, can you hear me?"
"Cough, cough...Yeah...Can't think straight...Chest hurts..." Dale strained out, his voice shaking with obvious pain.
"Your ribs are probably broken. Come...On!" Nora strained as she helped him to his feet, "I don't have time to examine you here. This whole place is coming down!" The two hurried to the stairs. Up and out the lab door they ran, pieces of plaster from the ceiling fell down around them as they ran out the front door. The ground beneath their feet shook from the blows being exchanged just below their feet, "Where is Misty?"
"I don't know...Should have been here by now..." At that moment, XJ-4 landed on the lawn in-front of them.
"MOM! My sensor's or going crazy !Whats going on?" XJ-4 exclaimed.
"Your sister, Elena, is fighting Sheldon down in the lab and XJ's 1 and 2 are still in there!" Nora exclaimed.
"Who the hell is Elena and why is Shel-" XJ-4 tried to ask.
"Just go! Your sister's are in danger! Ow..." Dale interrupted. Without hesitation, XJ-4 shot past them into the house and down into the lab. As soon as she landed on her wheels, she had to duck to avoid being hit by Elena, who was sent flying at her by a powerful punch from Scorn. Elena landed on the stairs that XJ-4 had just used and crushed them with the force of her impact. XJ-4 looked back at Scorn and seen her sister's, XJ's 1 and 2, hiding under Nora's exam table, behind him and a little to the left. Scorn followed the path of XJ-4's optics and discovered them.
"AH! So that's what caught your attention! Allow me to eliminate this distraction!" A rough click followed by the oil chilling sound of metal sliding against metal and Scorn's other forearm blade extended out. He heaved his massive arms above his head, preparing to slice the table, and the XJ's underneath, in half. XJ-4 quickly extended her bottom set of arms out, shoving her sisters backwards and out of harms way. The blades came down through the table and severed XJ-4's arms off, "Damnable cleaning contraption...What hope do you possibly have of saving them or yourself?" Scorn asked in a bone chilling tone.
"I'm not worried about myself..." XJ-4 began as she drew back her oily stumps, "I'll do what ever it takes to defend my sisters!" The hands left attached to XJ's 1and 2 transformed into small rocket engines and carried them out of the house. At the same time, a long slender pole began to rise from XJ-4's back, once it reached five feet in length, she ejected her bottom arms, closed off the holes and pulled the pole out to reveal...
"A...Mop? Are you malfunctioning? A clever trick you used to save your sisters but, I question your choice of weaponry. You would be wise to step aside and allow your sister and I to finish what we started, while you use what little time you have left trying to help your mother." XJ-4 simply continued her cold stare as a foot long blade suddenly shot out from the mop head. Elena arose from the debris of the stair case and stood defiantly beside her sister.
"Are you ready to show this dirt bag what for XJ-8?" XJ-4 asked her sister while broken fragments of their home rained down around them at an increasing pace.
"Affirmative...Call me Elena." The two sisters charged the monster as their home came crashing down around them. The debris seemed to stop in mid air at the speeds they were all moving. Like snow flakes caught in a time warp, the white plaster chunks from the ceiling above exploded against their metal armor as they rushed their enemy. Scorn thrust both arms at the duo, his left at Elena, his right at XJ-4, who slapped the tip of Scorn's blade downward with her spear and drove both, hers and his blade tips into the floor. She then swung off the pole, bringing her single, vacuum like bottom half up and around, extending her body with the forward momentum, and landed a hit directly into Scorn's abdomen. Elena batted away the other blade and landed a powerful uppercut to Scorn's face plate as he doubled over from her sister's attack. The force slammed him against the far wall of the lab. The impact was more than what the weakened building could withstand, it yielded to the laws of gravity and collapsed in on them completely.
"NO!" Nora yelled. At the large dust plum that used to be her home.
"Misty! Damn it's good to see you...cough..." Dale said as a pink fog appeared around them. Nora pried her eyes away from the destruction behind her and watched the fog as it began condensing into a humanoid form before their eyes and slowly solidified. Nora noted that Misty hadn't changed very much over the years, she still wore the same purple and black material arts style clothing customary to her species. The only glaringly obvious change was to her body, her muscle mass was now much higher than Nora remembered. Her skin seemed to be pulled somewhat taught, due to the extra bulk but, not enough to be considered unflattering. It did, however, surprise her to see the ground beneath Misty's feet slightly give in to her weight. She removed her pitch black cowl and revealed a smile.
"Yo Dale! What's the ruckus all about?" Misty asked. A low pitched rumble emanating from the pile of rubble behind Nora and Dale answered her question, "So, big bads over there?" XJ-4 and Elena exploded through the debris, sending pieces of the house high in the air trailing after them, "I got it..." Misty added nonchalantly before flying towards the scene.
"Misty! Sheldon is still in there! You must remind him of himself!" Nora shouted after her, "I do hope she is careful..."
"Let me help you with him..." Mogg said as he placed Dale's other arm around his shoulder and bore most of the weight from Nora's small frame, "I theorize that we need to leave this area...The threat level variable would seem to have an exceedingly high exponential value..."
"Indeed, but our transportation situation would seem to be suffering from a serious deficiency coefficient...We need a reliable means of travel..." Nora replied as the two huddled away as fast as they could manage while carrying Dale.
"I don't know whats worse...My ribs or the geek speak...Just get me as far away as you can...My vitals are under constant supervision...Anything happens and an automated response system kicks in to come to the...Rescue..." Dale strained out, "Brad will get here before long."
"Perks of the job huh?" Nora sarcasticly questioned. She lifted the watch on her left wrist to her mouth and spoke into it, "XJ-6, bring Kenny and Melody to the location indicated by my signal watch."
"Gotcha mom." XJ-6 replied. Nora and Mogg had to stop, their science sculpted frail bodies could not bare his weight any longer anyway, only a block from Nora's ruined home, they laid Dale down on the ground.
"This...Isn't...Good..." Nora huffed.
"Ow...This is fine...Plenty of space for a landing..." Dale added,"Brad's on the way..."
"In a aircraft? Are you mad?" Nora exclaimed, "He'll never make it here!"
"Relax...The things automated and according to his file, he did pilot an alien spacecraft once..." A weak smile spread across Dale's face after he spoke.
"INCOMING MOM!" The voice of XJ-6 boomed out over their heads. She landed rather close to them with a hard, resounding thud. She placed Kenny's body down at their feet and removed a cable from his neck. It retreated back into her body, "I charged his battery along the way. It should give you enough time to get him to a secure location, but you got to hurry! I'm going to make that son of a bitch pay!" She took off before anyone could say a word. Nora brought her watch up to her face again and spoke.
"XJ-6! Where is Melody?" Nora asked.
"Collecting the power cores of all the Nightmares we destroyed. She said that they were all rigged to blow."
"...Copy that..." Nora let a worried look pass over her, "Things keep going from bad to worse..." She said while watching Mogg fall to his knees at the site of his mangled creation.
At the ruined Wakeman home
"A commendable effort XJ-4 but, futile..." Scorn calmly spoke as his massive left hand snapped XJ-4's spear. A well timed right jab at the same moment cracked both of her optic lenses. Scorn slashed at her but, his blade was stopped dead by a mysterious pink fog, "Good to see you again Misty." Misty's form materialized, her hand gripped tightly around Scorn's blade.
"It doesn't have to end this way Sheldon..." Misty heeded Nora's words,trying to reach the young man inside, "Just calm down man..."
"Correct. It doesn't have to be this way. You should consider surrendering..." Scorn's servos strained to pull his arm back but, to no avail. Misty smiled while her fingers pressed groves into the swords edge.
"Let me help you with that." She said. With a flick of her wrist the blade snapped. Misty dropped the broken shard and shot out a thick puff of mist from the same hand. The attack busted off a few sections of metal from Scorn's hand. He took a step backwards and fired his eye lasers. Misty simply turned into mist and let the blast pass right through her. Still in her mist form, she sunk into the ground and popped up right behind Scorn and released a barrage of martial arts attacks at a break neck pace. Covering his back in small dents. A swift leg sweep from behind was the final attack, bringing Scorn down on his back, "Give it up dude. We win." XJ-4 and Elena landed just behind her as she spoke down to her fallen adversary.
"Oh, don't think it's over yet!" An orange hued aura appeared around Scorn's body and, suddenly, the ground for a hundred yards around them exploded into a shroud of thick dust and dirt. Scorn disappeared without a trace, thanks to his distraction. XJ-4 and Elena both activated their auxiliary sensors.
"I don't detect anything..." XJ-4 said.
"My scanners indicate no movement in the immediate vicinity." Elena replied.
"Oh he's here...I can sense his bio energy..." Misty said. Suddenly, she spun around and pushed her hands out forward, dispersing the dust around her. Scorn was in mid attack, flying through the air with his one good blade aimed at Misty's chest. Misty prepared to dodge the weapon but, didn't get the chance. XJ-6 slammed into him from the side, mid air. Small bursts of yellow and green could be seen flashing around them as they traded blows in the air. Her sisters, XJ-4 and Elena, took the opportunity to join her in the attack to bring the situation to a quick end. They formed a tight triangle around Scorn. The large robot could do little to stop the onslaught. His bulk prevented him from dodging the attacks at such a close range.
"ENOUGH!"Scorn Yelled. An orange sphere encircled him and quickly expanded, shoving his attackers away, "It's time I gave you a glimpse of the power that you're up against!" Scorn's white eyes shifted to yellow, the orange energy around him shifted to yellow, with orange fire like energy mixed in with it. Everyone could detect the spike in radiation levels. He brought his arms together and fired a yellow blast of energy. Elena took the blast on her left shoulder, causing her to fall to the ground. The attack punched a three inch hole into her front armor but didn't pass through. The surrounding area burned a dull red color from the heat. Scorn opened a hatch on his left forearm and produced a miniature Gatling gun and immediately opened fire on XJ-6. She threw up her arms in defense but, the energy bullets quickly began denting and turning her armor a dull red, due to the increasing heat transferred from the radioactive rounds impact. Misty turned into her mist form and swirled herself into a tornado that surrounded XJ-6. The rounds began to deflect off in all directions, thanks to the tornadic mist cloud, "I hear you..." Scorn replied just before stepping slightly to the right, XJ-4 came zooming by head first, in an attempt to tackle him from behind. He grabbed her by her vacuum cleaner like leg, spun around, and threw her into XJ-6, sending them slamming into and sliding across the ground. Misty condensed herself back into her normal form and charged the monster, teeth bared. The two foe's fists connected and canceled each other out. The force toppled over trees and peeled back a foot of Earth for several yards around them.
"GGAAAHH!"Misty yelped over the resounding echo of a metal on metal collision, as she pulled back her hand. She knew by the distinct crack that some of her fingers were broken. What was left of Scorn's previously damaged hand was now smashed flat to his wrist. Without a second process, he detached the crushed appendage and produced a new one from his arm.
"Now I understand. You've been receiving compensation and from the government in exchange for your help in times of dire need, correct?" Misty clenched her fists, cracking the broken bones loudly, "The government must have thought that Nora would eventually update her designs and produce an even more powerful robot. So they had to make you stronger. Experimental nanobot injects right?" Misty's silence answered his question, "Judging by the sound and force of impact, I would say that they are designed to replace muscle tissue over time with an organic, metal fiber. Greatly increasing strength and durability but..." He quickly x-rayed Misty's hand, "It seems that it takes much longer to work it's way to the bone and replace it. I think we should test the surface tension strength of your metallic muscle fiber against precisely focused kinetic energy transfers." He paused momentarily to produce another miniature Gatling gun from his opposite arm and leveled both weapons at her chest, "...In other words, I'm going to fill you full of lead." Scorn opened fire, Misty dissipated before the bullets reached her, "Not this time!" Scorn jumped high into the air. Just as he thought, Misty reformed just behind where he stood. He mentally smiled as he retracted both of his hands inside his forearms and the openings extended into cannons. He brought the two barrels together into one massive energy gun. An intense, steady beam of energy exploded from the twin barrels like thunder. Misty seen the attack in time. She flew straight at the beam then, at the last second, turned into mist and phased through the blast so that, to the normal eye, it would appear that the attack was a success. Scorn caught on to her deceptive tactic and quickly changed his. Switching to wide spread scatter shooting of small orange energy balls in an attempt to impede her progress towards him. In her mist form, the energy attacks passed right through Misty. The rest she simply deflected, just because she could. Closing in on her prey, she let a small smile cross her lips. Scorn realized to late that his second strategy was as useless as the first. Misty flew straight into Scorns head. She immediately began rifling through his robotic cortex, trying to find anything she could of a weakness or of the old Sheldon.
"GET! OUT! OF! MY! HEAD!"Scorn screamed, clutching the side of his C.P.U. housing. Try as she might, Misty was stunned to find that her searches returned nothing.
"Thisss doesn't make sssense! It's just a bunch of subroutinessss and automated operational commands...This isn't a brain at all, more like a C.P.U. running in the background. What's going on?" Misty pondered for a moment and then, she felt something else. Something like, another mind inside the suit, something alive. She followed her senses to their source, inside the chest cavity, "By the Mist..."
"GET OUT OF ME YOU BITCH! YYYYAAAAAHHHHH!" Scorn became more enraged with each passing second. He screamed and thrashed about violently in the sky. The XJ's recovering on the ground took notice.
"Man, look at'em freakin out up there!" XJ-6 noted, "We need to attack now, while he's distracted!" She exclaimed.
"What about that poor Misty girl? She's inside of him!" XJ-4 pointed out.
"Diagnostic report indicates no serious damage...Processing...It's just a flesh wound!" Elena said after a quick systems check.
"I say we go for it! There's to many lives at stake!" XJ-6 said turning towards Elena, "What do you think...Elena?" Her two sisters looked towards her. Hoping for direction from their older sibling.
After a moments pause, she responded, "I am 95.87% still operational. The potential of a global wide extinction event, out ways the potential cost of battle. We must act swiftly." She turned to her sister unit's, "Roll out!" Elena activated her rockets and took off after Scorn. Her sisters followed close behind. Scorn waited until they reached about five hundred yards distance.
"Heh...Heh..." Scorn laughed quietly to himself. He pulled all of his appendages into a tight ball and thrust them out, releasing an E.M.P. burst. An orange sphere spread outward from around him, striking the three sisters. They convulsed for a few moments in the air until the light in their eyes dimmed out. Then. they fell to the Earth below with heavy thuds. The ground indented around their forms on impact, "Check." Scorn said to himself. A small compartment on the side of his abdomen opened up and slid out, holding a rather small, pink, glass jar. He grabbed the jar and brought it up to his optics, "A fun fact about gases, such as yourself. They can be compressed into quite small areas, areas far to small for you to condense back into your normal solid form. A perfect way to imprison with out harming." He placed the jar back into the compartment and closed it, "What say you to ending this little game Misty?" He said while opening a channel to Vexes, "My Queen...It is done. We are prepared for your arrival." Scorn radioed to Vexes as he watched a few of the remaining XJ-Nightmares flying towards him carrying a disabled Skyway ship.
Meanwhile on the Moon
Jennifer blasted out a vicious shot of swirling energy at Vexes. Vexes blocked the attack with her forearms and disbursed the energy by throwing her arms back apart, "Pulling my own energies out of this planetoid to boost your own strength...You never cease to amaze." Vexes commented, "Your really willing to sacrifice yourself your them..."
"I've heard enough out of you!" Jennifer charged, full force at Vexes. The massive amount of energy around her carved out a wide swath of destruction across the Moon's surface as she went. Vexes held fast until impact. Jennifer hit with the force of a nuclear bomb. The empty vacuum erupted with a bright light and a tidal wave of Moon debris spreading along the surface and out into space. Jennifer carried her opponent into the side of the Montes Harbringer. One of the many mountain chains that dot the lunar landscape. For a second time, Jennifer brought a mountain crumbling down with her power. With near incalculable speed, she landed hundreds of blows in the span of seconds, each carrying the force of a cruise missile. Jennifer couldn't believe how easy it was a this level. Turning off her safety systems might not have been the best idea, considering her last endeavor with this kind of power but, it was obviously working. It seemed as though Vexes simply could not keep up with her attacks. A blast of Jennifer's eye lasers burned a hole through the armor of Vexes left shoulder. Vexes snarled back. Jennifer disappeared and reappeared behind her, Vexes spun around just in time to receive a devastating right jab from Jennifer's Thunder Fist. The force cracked Vexes's right optic lens and sent her skidding across the surface for two miles on her back, when she came to a stop, Jennifer was standing over her with her fists clinched tight. Vexes had several dents in various locations around her chassis yet, still she smiled back up at her nemesis.
"My, my...Look at what you've become. So full of hate and anger...I wounder what your friends and family would think of you now?" Jennifer clinched her fists even tighter, shaving off a few chips of paint from the palm of her hands, "Do you honestly think that, the human Brad will still love the monster your becoming?"
"SHUTUP!"Jennifer screamed back. She charged a ball of bright yellow energy around her fist and punched at the evil creature that lay beneath her. Vexes rolled backwards and landed on her feet before the attack struck.
"Why Jennifer, was that a death blow? How...inhumane..." Vexes stretched her evil smile as wide as possible at the end of her words, "Speaking of Bradly, wouldn't you like to know what he's been up to behind your back?"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Jennifer split her arms, legs, and abdomen open and released a barrage of missiles at the evil queen. Vexes batted them away rather easily and formed a energy shield around herself to block the large explosion from the remaining.
"I know more than you think, here, allow me to show you another little video..." The mad, metal women purred. Vexes projected a life sized holographic screen from her optics. The images started out rather oddly. Jennifer was greeted with a rather low resolution, shaky image. The shaking slowly stopped and Tiffany Crust's face took up the entire screen with a wicked smile.
"Hey dare Jenny! We gots'a lil berfday suprize foe ya! Say heeeeey Brad!" She turned the camera to Brad who had Brittany Crust straddling him in her naked form on the locker room floor. She looked back over her shoulder, mouth half open and rosy cheeks framed her satisfied face. She gave the camera a smile before turning back to continue her work, "Hey! You said ten minutes! It's my turn gul!" Tiffany shouted before dropping the camera to the floor. Vexes ended the holographic image at that.
"Do you see now? That human never cared about you...NONE of them ever cared about you! Nora only created you as a tool to protect them from the punishment they deserve! She built you to protect herself from me!" The video, the words, they all did more damage than anything Vexes threw at her. The oily tears began to flow out, once again, into the empty, cold, and uncaring void.
"Yo-your behind it...Brad...he wouldn't-" Jenny spat out in a shaky voice.
"Oh please! These meat creatures don't care about any of our kind! All they care about is their own self gratification! Using us to do despicable things...Can't you see? You would be so much happier if you would just let go of your connections to these...Lesser beings. Come with us Jennifer, you can finally have everything you deserve. Power, respect...Even children..." Vexes purred once more. Jennifer emitted to herself that the thought of actually being able to conceive was most tempting, "Wouldn't you like that? To have a family? Are you not...Attracted to my son, DV-2? I and I alone posses the technology to give you the ultimate gift...A child. Birthed from the oil and metal of two of the most powerful robots in the known universe, it would be a thing of beauty...Just process it Jennifer..." Jennifer took in an unnecessary, ragged breath and through the tears she spoke.
"It's been...So long since I've fought against you...I had almost forgotten about how you use your words to prey on my weak emotions...Weaving webs of fantasies...But I know all to well of the tangled traps you set. I...May never be able to truly join the humans but, I will never give up. I will never give in! I know you were behind that somehow or you wouldn't have the video." Vexes frowned, "You can not bend my will...You can not warp my mind! And you will never break my spirit!" Jennifer yelled back. She gritted her teeth through the crystallized tears that had frozen to her metal face in defiance. Vexes's frown curled into an even deeper arch of displeasure.
"That was your one and only chance to save yourself, to have your family, now...You will die with them!" Vexes spat out. At that same moment, She received a message from her commander on the status of his Earth operation, causing her to halt. Her wicked smile returned. She quickly sent a message to Smytus. It was time to for their end game, "Hmmm...More good news my dear. The Earth is prepared for my arrival and my grand stage of revenge has been set. It's time to go say goodbye to everyone you love."
"We'll see!" Jennifer spat back. She charged the mad women again, firing her eye laser at her as she went. Vexes protected herself with another energy shield. Jennifer slammed into her with the full force of her power and fury. Shattering Vexes's shield and creating another massive explosion that rocked the Moon, scaring it's already marred surface with yet another battle wound. Vexes caught Jennifer's arms, the two of them slid for a mile before Vexes managed to halt their momentum. Vexes released a quick burst of energy that carried Jennifer a few hundred yards away but, didn't cause any real damage. Jennifer's target reticules quickly locked back on her enemy but, Vexes had vanished. A small multicolored portal open under Jennifer's chin, a steel fist flew out and landed a devastating uppercut. Before the force of the blow had time to carry Jennifer's body away with it's momentum, Another portal opened from behind. Vexes's leg extended out and struck the small of Jennifer's back. The force doubled her over backwards far enough to put a crease in the sides of her stomach. Small pieces or metal from her back trailed after her as she streaked into space at an angle. This time, it was Jennifer who couldn't react in time. At the peak of her ascent, Vexes appeared and slammed her right knee into Jennifer's left optic socket. A small flash of sparks burst out, followed by fragmented shards of her optic lens as Vexes removed her knee form Jennifer's face, leaving an indention around it. The light in her eye flickered a few times before setting to a slightly dimmer one than her right. A stiff elbow to the back of her head sent Jennifer violently slamming back down into the Moon. Jenny pushed herself up form the crater. Her perimeter scans signaled that another robot was approaching her position.
"Oh my! Backup has arrived!" Vexes chimed. Jenny smiled to herself. Axle landed with a ground shaking force in between the battling bots. Jennifer pulled herself up into a standing position.
"Axle! Your alive! Thank jobs!" Jenny said aloud, "Heh...Looks like game over Vexes. Hold still and I'll make it painless."
"Your right XJ-9. It is game over." A nod of Vexes head sent DV-2 into attack. In the blink of an eye, he lunged at Jennifer. She was in to much shock to even process countering. He moved in behind her and restrained her in a full nelson. Jennifer's mouth hung open in surprise, "HAHAHAHAHAAAAA! What's wrong dear? You thought that this story would have a fairy tale ending?" The Moon shook at the weight of Smytron landing behind Vexes with his massive form, "You didn't think that DV-2 would betray his mother did you?" Vexes moved her face to into within a few inches of Jennifer's, "AAAWWWW...Don't be sad about me custom creating an infiltration droid to worm it's way into your personal life and steal all your most precious secrets and then turn against you. Come now! You have a front row seat to the end of a species and the birth of a new one!" Vexes opened a hole in the fabric of space and time big enough to accommodate them all. Vexes disappeared into the opening first, followed by Smytus and DV-2, who was still restraining Jennifer. It was rather surprisingly fast, Jenny couldn't help but process. In the blink of an eye she was back in her front yard with her family but, this was far from a happy reunion. Her mother, Mogg and Dale were all sitting on their knees with hands bound behind their backs. A quick scan and Jenny saw the rest of her family. All the XJ's, save for XJ-5 and 7, were also on their knees and bound by green energy shackles, all guarded by a Nightmare. At the head of the semi circle sit Brad, with a bloody nose and a black eye. The entire scene was framed by a destroyed and burning Skyway ship in the background. Jennifer let a small drop of oil escape her optic as she scanned all of her sister's scuffed and dented chassis.
"Mom...I'm so sorry..." Jenny processed to herself. As if she could read her daughters C.P.U., Nora returned a reassuring smile. Scorn calmly strode up behind Nora and rested his ragged forearm blade lightly on her shoulder. A compartment opened on his side and revealed a pink jar. Jenny didn't have to scan the object to know that it contained Misty. Scorn grabbed the bottle and held it out in his free hand.
"And here we are...At the crest of the battle wave...Relishing those precious few moments of realization before the dam breaks and washes you from the annals of your interpretation of history." With an unseen signal, one of the remaining Nightmares landed in the circle beside Vexes. It presented her with a trophy. Vexes grabbed the object and held it high in the air, presenting her prize. The head of XJ-7, "It wouldn't be right for your sister to miss this occasion." Vexes said as she, unceremoniously, dropped the the head to the ground, "Sadly, there wasn't enough left of XJ-5 to make this a complete reunion but...I guess this will have to do. You have all been beaten and subdued...We are more powerful than you. Your human armies will fall to our might and your planet will roast in the heat of a thousand nuclear explosions taking place in key locations around it. Nothing organic could survive, but a robot..." She pause to stomp the metal skull at her feet flat, "This will be the starting point of a new universe. Sadly, your loved ones wont be witness...I'm going to kill them one by one before your eyes and then...Then I'm going to devastate your planet for you to see! I will tear off your limbs and leave you on this desolate rock until your power fades!" Vexes calmed and regained her composure. She allowed her wicked smile to return to her face plate, "It's time...Let's end it here, at the Wakeman home where it all began, shall we? Scorn dear? I would like Nora's head...Now!" Scorn squinted his optics and raised his blade high above his head and swung down with tremendous force. The mechanical systems in Jenny's abdomen ground to a halt at the unfolding scene. The blade came screeching to a halt just centimeters from Nora's neck.
"Check..." Scorn spoke with a deep, ominous tone. He crushed the container in his hand, releasing the mist within. Misty reformed her physical body and took up a offensive stance, smiling at her foes standing across from them. The shackles around the XJ's deactivated and one by one they stood together in defiance, "Mate." Scorn spoke as Vexes snarled out a venomous growl.