As Neil had expected, most of Bigfoot Army's forces had been drawn towards the cylinder at gate level by Beta Toon's presence. He had done his research beforehand, knowing that the enemy was one of the armies which placed all their best soldiers in one toon and their worst in another, and he - separating from his own forces - lifted himself to the near top of the battle room so that he could stare down at the battle as it unfolded – callously observing it just as he had the simulations he programmed into his desks every night.
By floating so high up and out of the way, he was able to get a clear, impartial view of most of the cylinder and those that fought around it. Three toons had gone straight for Beta; one of which maneuvered themselves and fought with impressive skill which made Neil assume that it was Bigfoot Toon A, consisting of their best soldiers. The other two toons which joined them moved sloppily in comparison; one seemed especially unskilled and quickly suffered heavy losses. Likely Toons C and D, their worst two. Between Toon A's ability and their superior numbers, it was clear that Beta was fighting on a losing front. But that was fine. A game of chess cannot be won without making sacrifices.
Delta and Gamma Toons were already in position, taking the top and bottom edges of the cylinder which Bigfoot had ignored in favor of fighting near gate level. As their forces were busy dealing with the remnants of Beta Toon, the two strike forces would come down and easily crush them from two opposite fronts. Bigfoot was a weak army overall, and it was only a matter of time before they had achieved certain victory.
Hovering in place, he noticed that the enemy's reserve toon – Toon B, he assumed – had seen the incoming ambush and chosen to head downwards to confront Delta. They swooped on them from above and unleashed a storm of lasers to cripple them, but Delta's escort, consisting of 6 members of Alpha Toon, had positioned themselves between them and the attackers and took the brunt of the damage. The escort was almost instantly eliminated, but in doing so they gave Delta the perfect opportunity to carve into the attacking toon. Delta would be delayed of course, but they would have little trouble taking out their opponents.
'This would be Check, I believe,' Neil thought in confidence, continuing to stare down at the conflict below.
Moving with agile grace, Gamma Toon Leader Rolf Lindbergh – or Lightning Bolt Rolf, as he had been nicknamed - grinned while landing and grabbing onto the upper rim of the cylinder with three limbs. His toon and their escort did the same as he stared down at the fight happening further down the cylinder. 'Beta won't last much longer,' he thought cautiously while whipping out his blaster in his free hand and clinging to the rim with his hands and feet. He motioned to his toon with the same hand.
"Alpha, you head down first and draw their fire. Gamma, take positions and hit them unaware – hard," he said, just before pushing himself up and kicking off the rim of the cylinder to jump across its gap. He grabbed onto the ring of the other side to stop himself, before rolling around it and kicking off again in order to jump off the cylinder and reach the wall opposite their own gate. At the same time, Alpha had dived down at an angle into no man's land, opening fire on the unexpecting bigfoots. Most of the enemies retreated behind the columns and rings they were clinging to for cover, and Delta moved out. Using the sliding technique, he surfed down the wall while holding out his pistol and firing down at their backs. In thirty seconds, he alone had frozen two bigfoots and injured two more.
"We turtles got a nasty bite!" he mocked as he came down, and the enemy began to scramble in chaos. A skilled shooter had turned and fired upwards at him while he was still around thirty meters overhead, only for him to laugh as he kicked off the wall before he could pull the trigger, doing a backflip of sorts while returning fire from an upside down position and nailing his attacker in the chest before landing on one of the columns and continuing to fire downwards.
Trapped behind one of the pillars, Timmy found himself looking around at the rest of his army fighting near him. Feliz, Nike, as well as four members of Beta Toon had already been taken out, while Klas and four more were injured. Like him, most of the others – even Beta Toon – were forced to go on the defensive. Most of them – Amadei, the Beta Toon Commander, and his second being the sole exceptions – ended up spending more time cowering behind the safety of the pillar and rings than actually returning fire. It was difficult to so much as get a chance to peer over their covers without getting shot at themselves, let alone take aim and fire. They'd taken out a good chunk of the enemy swarm beforehand, but the difference in their numbers was still great.
He frowned as he saw Beta's second, positioned on the ring above him and to the right, take a headshot and float slowly backwards, frozen. He then shook his head, grinding his teeth. 'What am I doing hiding? We're supposed to be relieving pressure off Beta, and giving them more clear shots. Even if that means taking a risk.'
He clenched his fist and prepared to jump out – but it seemed someone had beaten him to the punch. "Eat this, doll backs!" Lynn screamed as she recklessly pushed out of her hiding place behind a pillar to his right and rapidly fired at the bigfoots. Timmy wondered if she had come to the same conclusion as he had, although he thought it more likely that she had simply grown tired of hiding and wanted to show off. She paid the price, of course, being quickly frozen, but her failure had become his greatest chance. Pivoting around the pillar, he aimed for her and kicked off with all his strength. Shooting forward, he grabbed Lynn's frozen body as he passed by her and dragged her with him towards the next pillar where Klas extended a hand to help pull them to a stop.
"Hey bab, gimme cover," he said to the frozen Lynn as he held her body a few inches from the side of the pillar, leaving enough room for him to slip his blaster arm through while Klas held his legs to keep him from floating off. Lynn muttered angrily at his use of her body, but found her voice muffled by her helmet which clasped around her jaw. Regardless of the girl's discontent, Timmy's improvised three man formation proved to be quite useful. Within Lynn acting as a shield protecting him from enemy fire, he peered over her shoulder and was free to aim and fire. Gamma Toon had made its move at the same time, completely solidifying the turning tides in their favor.
Bigfoot Army was in chaos, and he enjoyed shooting them down one by one as they scattered about in search for better cover. This was the end.
His eyes fell upon a tall, muscular boy who moved about with impressive skill and appeared to be directing those around him while easily avoiding Amadei's attempts to shoot him down; probably an enemy Toon Leader. He struggled to follow his movements with his gun's line of fire – whoever this was, he was good. Really good. He watched as the enemy spiraled around mid-leap, taking aim and puzzling Timmy as he fired far downwards well away from where any of Beta or Gamma troops could possibly be. He pondered this for an instant, before Klas' voice cried out in his ear.
"They got Delta's Toon Leader!" he said, having had a chance to observe the battlefield and other toons as he clung to the pillar and held the two of them in place
A chill went down Timmy's spine upon hearing this, realizing exactly what it meant. Delta Toon was occupied with the enemy's reserve toon below them, and could hardly have expected an attack from above as they did so. And he couldn't blame them for having that opening either. The fact that he had managed to take aim and accurately fire at distant target – let alone identifying their toon leader and taking him out - while in the midst of Beta and Delta's assault was a testament to the individual's skill. His stomach churned with an uneasy feeling, having the sensation that things were about to get a whole lot harder.
Down below, Delta Toon could not help but falter at the unexpected loss of their officer, giving the reserve toon they had been about to tear apart a second wind. Back above, the enemy toon leader was barking commands and slowly but surely bringing order to his army's chaos. A portion of their troops jumped and sacrificed themselves as the rest made their way downwards, continuing to fire both at them and downwards at the same time.
Before long, Delta Toon was no more, and Bigfoot's reserve toon rejoined their main force, which shifted directions again in order to come upwards and face the rest of Turtle Army on even standing. He shifted Lynn's body at a downwards angle to fire down at them, but paused before long as he noticed a brief light flash behind him accompanied by the buzzing of a disabled flash suit. He felt Klas' grip around his leg disappear and turned his head to see his frozen teammate floating away. It was all he could do to release Lynn and grab onto the pillar before he too drifted helplessly off. 'No way… from above!? Impossible! Who could have fired that?'
His heart beat fast, knowing that no one on his side would be safe until they located the enemy that had snuck above them and hidden himself. This was going to be even harder than he had thought.