A/N: Ditto. Longest chapter so far! Yay!
"THAT BACKSTABBING BITCH!" Phoenix yelled. The normally cool-headed leader of the Federation was anything but cool, instead she was fuming with pure rage. "I swear, the moment I see her, she's dead!"
The Federation soldiers who were in the room were currently shaking in their boots, why they never deserted yet was beyond anyone's idea. The only person who was not cowering in fear was a lanky man. He wore a wielding mask that was flipped up on top of his white hair. He had on a lab coat over a blue shirt and black bulletproof vest, and brown slacks. He calmly approached the commander, who's hair was currently on fire.
"Phoenix," he said. "You don't have to get worked up over this,"
"Worked up? WORKED UP? Carter, my own SISTER just betrayed us!" she shouted. "How can I NOT be angry at that?"
"Aggression only leads to mistakes," the scientist said. "I suggest we should leave before the Allies arrive..."
"Leave! But those idiots-"
"Phoenix, I know you want to get those guys but it's not worth the risk right now, if the Allies blockade the planet we have no chance of escaping alive,"
Phoenix huffed before smacking a Foot Soldier in the face and leaving the room in a hurry.
"Get the medics," Carter said with a sigh as other went to check up on him.
The RED HQ was in chaos as everyone scrambled to assemble a plan to attack the Federation camp once again. A holographic map of the camp, provided by Evie, was deployed in the middle of the living room.
"Men and women," Soldier said. "The enemy knows we're out there so I propose we attack them right at their front door!"
"A full frontal attack?" Joli asked. "That's fucking suicide, buckethead,"
"Not really," Evie said. "We can simply use the frontal attack as a means of distraction while a smaller group infiltrates from another angle,"
"I'd reckon that could work," Engi said. "I mean it may catch them off guard, right?"
"Sounds like a plan, like we have anything else," Jewel said, she muttered the last part. "Anyone objects?"
No one raised their hand.
"Good, let's get ready then,"
"Ok Dell, you got this, this is just the same as any other mission," Engi said to himself. He honestly was quite scared. The team barely got away from the camp the last time, and now they had to jump right back in.
At least it's better than being blown to smithereens right?
"Engi? You in here?" he internally sighed a breath of relief. That was one voice that could calm him a little. He turned to find Pyro leaning against the doorway idly twirling a stand of her brown hair around her fingers.
"Yes I am," he replied. "Need something, sweetheart?"
She went over to Engi and wrapped her arms around him. "I'm scared," she whispered into his ear.
"We're all scared, Pyro. There isn't anything wrong with being scared,"
"I know...but if we fail...then-"
"Let's not talk about that quite yet," he interrupted. "We've pushed through tougher situations before haven't we?"
"Mmmhuh,"
A knock on the doorframe caught the two's attention. "Engi, Pyro," Jaz said. "Briefing starts in five minutes, meet in the living room,"
"Gotcha," Engi said as the demolitionist walked away. "If everything goes to plan Pyro, we, and I mean everyone should be ok,"
Pyro silently nodded. "Kiss?"
"Kiss,"
And the two kissed.
"Everyone here?" Jewel asked as she surveyed the room. "Ok, everyone listen up,"
"Mainly everyone here will be in the main attacking force serving as a distraction" Arachne said. "This includes the Scouts, Soldiers, Demos, Heavies, Medics, and Snipers. TT, Jewel, Jaz and Joli, and Evie will also be with them as well,"
"The second group will include everyone else not mentioned," Jaz said. "While we're out there fighting off the entire Federation force, you must infiltrate the camp and try and make contact with the Allies in any way shape or form,"
"Any questions?"
Scout raised his hand.
"Yes Scout?"
"Are we fucked if we fail either way?"
"Yes," Arachne answered bluntly.
"Any other questions that are not stupid?" Jewel asked.
Silence.
"Good, roll out,"
"Arachne is this really a good idea?" Wolfshire asked his sister, as she looked over the map over and over again. They rode in the back of Sniper's van with some of the other mercs.
"Not the best time to ask Wolfy," she replied.
Wolfshire sighed before rubbing his face with his hands. "Uuuugh, why did the Federation have to be created in the first place?"
"We're here lads," Sniper said from up front.
The group exited the van and joined up with the rest of the mercs. They looked at the Federation camp, the setting sun making it look more intimidating.
"Give them everything you got," Jewel said. "Give them no mercy, cause they're not going to give any to us,"
The demolition twins silently nodded at each other before taking off in the direction of the camp, with TT following close behind.
"Arachne, Wolfshire, stay safe," she said before taking off as well.
"FREEEDOMMM!" Demo yelled as he started to run.
The distraction force slowly dispersed leaving only the infiltration team near the vehicles. The sounds and sights of explosions echoed across the desert.
"Let's go," Arachne said to the group and made their way across the desert to the camp.
They eventually got to an opening which was guarded by two LOW-DRs instead of a Foot Soldier.
"They've stepped up their game," Wolfshire said.
"How are we supposed to get past them without our muscle?" Engi asked.
"I've upgraded the Spy's Sapper to short circuit the LOW-DRs," Arachne said. "Once they jump out to fix the problem, we got ourselves a ticket in,"
Spy took out his Sapper and looked at it before looking at the LOW-DRs. "Um, where do I place it?"
"No need to place it, just turn it on and get near the LOW-DRs, it should emit an interference signal that will eventually short out the LOW-DRs,"
"Ok then, wish us luck," he said before cloaking, his BLU counterpart following suit.
Under cloak, the two Spies crept up close to the LOW-DRs and uncloaked. They turned on the Sappers. At first, nothing was happening, then suddenly the LOW-DRs fell to their knees. Their cockpits opened and the two Foot Soldiers who were piloting them got out.
"Shit, what the fuck just happened?" one asked.
"I dunno, they just shut down," the other replied.
They never felt the knifes that entered their backs.
"Nice job, Spies," Arachne said. "Engis, I know you two didn't have much practice but could you two pilot the LOW-DRs?"
"Why?" BLU Engi asked.
"You want muscle?" she pointed to the LOW-DRs. "Here they are,"
"Joli, we got a squadron of H-Choppers coming our way," TT said as he created a fire wall on the ground, stalling some enemy troops. "We're going to be in a lot of trouble if we don't take care of them,"
"Got it!" she said as she dodged a barrage of rockets fired from a Rocket Trooper. "Everyone hang on!" she fired a grenade at the center of the H-Choppers. The grenade exploded and created a gravitational surge which sucked anything close enough into the small ball. A second later the ball exploded into a shower of green and red sparks.
"Woo!" she hollered. "Never felt so ALIVE!"
The attacking group was actually holding pretty well against the Federation. The Heavies, Soldiers, and Demos cleaned up most of the enemies, while the Scouts and Snipers picked off anyone else. The twins and TT kept the skies clear while providing air support, and Jewel and Evie helped the frontline classes with the more armored units.
"Yo batter up!" Scout said as he ran past a Gunner, smacking him in the face with his bat and knocking him out.
Blue colored Roadrunners attempted to flank the team but were quickly taken care of by the demolitionists or by the sharpshooters.
"You kids today don't know how to fight like a man!" BLU Soldier shouted as he shoveled a Shield Soldier before letting loose a plasma rocket at a cluster of Tows.
"Jewel!" Evie shouted as she conjured up another stone golem.
"What?" she shouted back.
"We've got an A.R.T!"
The cowgirl turned to find a silver colored, hulking, bipedal robot that was about the same size as Heavy. One of its arms was a laser cannon that glowed green. It was dressed similar to a knight.
The robot aimed its arm cannon at the two women and fired. Evie quickly put up a shield just as the blast got to them.
"What the bloody hell is that?" Sniper asked.
"An advanced rocket trooper, or an A.R.T," Jewel said as she waved the smoke away from her. "That thing makes up for any weaknesses that a Rocket Trooper may have,"
"We have more company!" BLU Sniper shouted into the radios. "We have multiple robots entering the battle,"
The team looked to find the Federation soldiers reforming ranks with the A. .
"Jewel we have to land," Jaz said. "I'd rather not take a plasma blast while I'm up here,"
"Just try and stay up there as long as you guys can. We need the air support,"
"I'll try and divert their fire," TT said. "You just have to shoot them," the dragon banked hard to the left to avoid a plasma blast.
"I hope the others are there already," Joli said. "Another black hole nade's going out! Get ready!"
The others were slowly creeping their way to the communication station. There was not much resistance inside the camp, since every single Federation soldier was trying to fend off the massive onslaught. The majority of the group lurked in the shadows, while the Engis slowly trudged along in their LOW-DRs. It was a surprise no one noticed them yet.
"Spy, where was the comm station?" Arachne asked.
"There," he pointed to a building with a large satellite dish on top. Unfortunately, it was the only building in the entire area to be guarded, which looked strange to the group.
"Why is it so heavily guarded?" Wolfshire asked.
"I don't know, but we need to get in there," she said. "Wolfshire get the swordsman, everyone else will mop up the others,"
He nodded and summoned his gauntlets. He rushed out of their hiding spot and leapt at the swordsman, who blocked the attack with his katana.
"Intruders!" he yelled as other soldiers readied their weapons. A Commando and Sharpshooter took point and open fired at the young man. Wolfshire used one of his gauntlets to deflect the incoming fire while he slashed at the swordsman.
Arachne fired back with her pistols, while sending her constructs to aid Wolfshire. The Spies helped by gunning down any Federation Soldiers with their laser pistols.
The Engis were currently battling Federation LOW-DRs. A LOW-DR smashed one of its claws into Engi's cockpit, cracking the window slightly. He retaliated with a punch of his own, knocking the LOW-DR back. He ran up to it and jumped on it; the cockpit crushed under the weight of the LOW-DR.
The swordsman knocked Wolfshire to the ground, he was about to finish him off when Pyro came in and swung her fireaxe at him. The axe embedded itself in the swordsman's throat. She pushed him to the ground and continued to pummel him with the axe. Blood flew everywhere as the axe swung. Her face had a crazed look, with blood occasionally splattering on her face.
"Pyro, he's dead you can stop now," Wolfshire said as he got to his feet. But she couldn't hear him. "Pyro," he repeated. He grabbed and shook her. "Pyro, that's enough,"
Her breathing was heavy when she did stop. She gave Wolfshire an apologetic look as she wiped the sweat off her forehead. "Sorry...got carried away," she said.
By the time Wolfshire was able to get Pyro to stop, all the guards were dead. The only loss the group had was BLU Engi's LOW-DR, which was disabled by a Sharpshooter's shot.
"Is that all?" Engi asked. "This seems way too easy,"
"I know," Arachne said. "Something's not right,"
"You sure got that right,"
The group froze at that voice. They turned to find the last person that they wanted to see.
Phoenix.
"So you've decided to come back into the lion's den," she said. "How foolish of you,"
"Phoenix, we don't have time for this," Arachne said. "Besides, you've lost already,"
"Or did I?" she snapped her fingers. Federation H-Choppers flew overhead and landed. Multiple Federation soldiers exited the helicopters while throwing on the ground their prisoners.
It rest of the team, and they looked considerably wounded. Another H-Chopper dropped a net containing a charred-looking TT.
"Ok...that hurt," Joli said.
"Ooooh, I feel like every BONE in me body is broke," BLU Demo said.
"I was expecting something like this," she said. "The old diversion tactic, never gets old...not,"
"So what? The Allies are still coming," Wolfshire said.
Phoenix chuckled. "It won't matter if you're not alive," she said. "I was going to let you live, when I captured you guys but I guess I have to kill you instead. Makes it so much easier,"
"You ain't taking our friends that easily," Engi said as the remaining mercs got in front of Arachne and Wolfshire. "We're going to beat you like a retted mule,"
"Engi, you can't fight her, it's almost suicide," Arachne said.
"I always liked a challenge," Phoenix said as she spun two knives around. "Who's first?"
The mercs opened fired at the woman. Phoenix expertly deflected every shot with her knives, while dodging the LOW-DR's flamethrower. The Spies tried to fend off the relentless commander, but were easily defeated. BLU Spy was punched in the face and knocked out, while Spy was kicked into the side of the communication building. BLU Pyro was stabbed in the gut, fell to one knee and was kicked in the face. Pyro lasted the longest so far, as she was used to fighting against knives. She expertly dodged every swipe and stab that Phoenix threw at her. Pyro found an opening and landed a sucker punch right in her face.
Phoenix staggered back a little as she felt her nose. Pyro gave her a smirk...before getting punched in the face as well.
"Bitch," she said to the pyrotechnic.
"Hey!" Phoenix turned to find a LOW-DR behind her. "I don't appreciate you messing with my little lady," Engi said. A clawed hand pulled back before sending Phoenix flying through buildings.
"Well that was anti-climatic," Scout said. "Did we win?" he observed some their new friends' expressions as well as some of the Federation soldiers' and slowly realized he was wrong.
"Oh shit," a Foot Soldier said.
"I think we need to back up a little," another said.
"Screw backing up, I think we need to run!" an Officer said.
Suddenly a huge fireball came back from the direction Phoenix was thrown and smashed into the LOW-DR. The mech flew backwards, flipping over and over until it came to rest against a Tow.
"ENGI!" Pyro yelled.
As the dust settled, everyone saw that the fireball was not a thing but rather a person.
It was Phoenix. She was surrounded by a bright orange aura that was almost blinding. Her hair was literally made of fire and her eyes glowed a bright orange-yellow.
"What-what the hell?" BLU Engi was able to choke out. "What the hell is she?"
Engi coughed as he slipped out of the mangled LOW-DR. The LOW-DR's structure saved him from getting killed, but it did leave him with a broken leg. He looked up to find a woman literally on FIRE slowly approaching him. Engi mustered his strength to lift and aim his plasma shotgun at her. He fired twice and missed both times. He kept firing, but the woman kept dodging each shot. He ran out of ammo as soon as she got to him.
Phoenix picked up Engi by the neck and brought him close so he could hear her. "I know you're an educated man," she hissed. "So I believe you know it's rude to hit a lady," Phoenix's left hand started to glow orange. "Now die,"
"Hey bitch,"
Phoenix turned to find yet another fist in her face, and dropped Engi to the ground. She growled at Pyro, who was staring daggers at her.
"No. One. Fucks. With. My. Snugglebuddy," Pyro said.
The Scouts couldn't help but snicker at Engi's nickname.
"Then burn," Phoenix brought her hands back and thrusted them forward and sent a huge column of fire towards Pyro. The pyrotechnic put her arms up and braced for the attack.
Time slowed as the wall of fire slowly engulfed Pyro. Everyone watched in pure horror as they could only assume that the RED Pyro was killed. As the fire died down, everyone braced for the worse.
Turns out...they never needed to.
Pyro slowly opened her eyes to find that she was ok. She wasn't burnt to a crisp like she was supposed to; everything was a-ok, right?
Well...almost all right.
"No way," Phoenix said in shock. "There's no way..."
"Holy crap," Wolfshire said.
"..." was basically everyone else's response.
"Um, what?" Pyro asked, getting slightly creeped from the looks the others were giving her. Then she saw her reflection in the broken cockpit of the LOW-DR and gasped.
She wasn't in her asbestos-lined fireproof suit as she was before. Nope, she was wearing a red, unzipped hoodie over a yellow bikini top with an unbuttoned, khaki colored shorts held up by a belt. Her once short black hair was now long and tied in a ponytail, it was alternating between a yellow-orange-and red color, giving it the look as if it was on fire. And her different colored eyes were now a bright shade of red. She also had on brown colored boots.
"Wow..." she said.
"Damn she's hot," Scout said before getting whacked in the head by a frowning Medic.
Meanwhile
Desperado waited idly on the bridge of the S.S Orion as it and the S.S Juniper came closer to Earth. His blue lit eyes stared emotionless at the planet.
"Sir, we're about thirty seconds till we're within firing range," an Officer said.
"Good,"
"Desperado," said another voice. He turned around to find a woman wearing a green hunting outfit and a green cloak with hood. She had a quiver of arrows and a bow on her back. See had brown hair tied into a ponytail with brown eyes to match. "Is this really necessary just to take care of the Federation?" she asked.
The cowboy sighed. "Yes, Wheel doesn't like it either, but you can't make a omelet without cracking some eggs can't you?"
"I guess so..."
"Ion cannons are at one hundred percent charge and ready to fire," a Techie said.
"Fire on my count," Desperado said. The air was tense with tension and it was ready to snap.
"Five,"
"Four,"
"Three,"
"Two,"
"On-"
"HOLD YOUR FIRE!" an Officer shouted. "EVERYONE STOP!"
Everyone's attention snapped to the Officer that shouted. She was panting as if she ran a marathon.
"This better be good Officer Bates," Admiral Jacob said.
"Sorry Admiral, but we picked up something," she said. "We found our missing members,"
The entire bridge became silent, the only noise was coming from the monitors.
"We were doing a scan of the planet one last time when we picked up a strange anomaly in the southwestern part of North America, and when we checked...well we found them,"
"Are you sure?" the admiral asked.
"Yes I'm positive sir," Bates replied. "Our scans never wronged us before,"
"Admiral," Desperado said. "Relay that information to the Juniper. Prepare for ground assault,"
"Of course," he said with a nod.
"C'mon," he said to Swift. "Let's help our friends,"
Engi sat on the ground completely dumbfounded. He had no idea what just happened or HOW it happened, cause it defied any logical laws of anything, but overall he was completely stunned.
Pyro was equally confused, but mostly embarrassed. She usually never had this much skin exposed before since she was usually inside her suit for most of the time.
She never got too much time to dwell on this when her reflexes kicked in to avoid a flaming punch from Phoenix. She evaded each punch before catching a flaming fist in her hand; this slightly surprised her, since her hand wasn't burning from the fire. She pulled back with her other hand and threw a punch at Phoenix, knocking her significantly back.
"Uh Pyro?" Engi said. "Your hand,"
She looked at her hand to find it on fire. It took a couple of seconds for it to register in her mind. "Pretty..." she said, intrigued by the flame.
"Wrong reaction," Engi thought as he facepalmed.
As Pyro was distracted, Phoenix took the opportunity to recover. She lunged at Pyro with her knives, each blade was on fire.
However, Pyro wasn't distracted...no, she was merely pretending to be. She ducked down and let Phoenix jump over her, and picked up the Powerjack she happened to drop earlier. Without warning, a swirl of fire engulfed the makeshift hammer and turned it into something worthy of a god. It now looked like an actual hammer; the head was now made of obsidian and the shaft made up of a glowing red metal.
"Hammer time," she said with grin as she charged Phoenix.
A/N: Next chapter will be the last of this story. And if you never saw what my update page said- I'm accepting OCs for Through the Rift. So far I've only got two or three.
Here's the spreadsheet for the OCs, I need at least this below, but you can add on if you want (details people!). I would like to have it to me, or you can put it as a review here or on The Rift's review page.
Name:
Age:
Species (human, dragon, anthro, etc...):
Hair color (if he or she has):
Eye color:
Appearance (what he or she looks like):
Clothing (what he or she wears):
Attitude (how does he or she act):
Background (what's his or her's backstory?):
Weapon(s):
Special Attack(s):
Till next time,
-D.W