Antroz and Gorast clashed swords. Using her two upper arms, Gorast quickly followed with scythe and spear; Antroz exerted her Density Control powers, turning her head intangible so the spear would pass through harmlessly, while also hardening one wing as she raised it to parry the scythe. She pulled her sword back and thrust, but Gorast turned invulnerable and was simply pushed back by the strike. Laser and Heat Vision burst from Gorast's eyes. Antroz teleported above and threw down a volley of Light bolts. Gorast flew up at her, using her Dodge and Elasticity powers to evade every shot. She stopped just short as a wall of sound sprang up in front of her, and then she locked eyes on Antroz, neither moving an inch.
"You never would accept my challenges," Gorast said. "We've never been able to properly test our strength against each other."
"It would have been pointless."
"Not to me."
Antroz sighed. "That's exactly why I refused. Either you'd win and be insufferable over it, or lose and be an entirely different sort of insufferable."
"Heh…well, don't worry. You won't suffer long."
A funnel cloud rapidly dropped down on top of Antroz, slamming her to the ground. Quickly as she could, she teleported farther down the street, and turned back as Gorast smashed her axe into the pavement with enough force to carve a small trench. Two great vines rose on other side of her to hurl debris at Antroz, which she stopped with her Gravity powers. Gorast dashed in under the floating rocks; Antroz forced all the debris together into one titanic boulder and let it fall. Temporarily dropping her scythe, Gorast met the meteor with an uppercut, a pulse of energy moving from her fist through the entire rock in an instant, and the whole thing crumbled to dust.
I'd nearly forgotten, Antroz thought. She's found a way to extend her Density Control power a short distance beyond her own body, weakening a target at the molecular level to punch through them even more easily. If it's a fight she wants, she likely won't go for that sort of deathblow right away, but I need to keep that technique in mind.
Gorast whirled around to reclaim her scythe. She teleported behind Antroz before her rotation was complete, but Antroz anticipated her, ducking and swinging her sword upward to again clash with Gorast's blade. Gorast retaliated with her spear, but Antroz teleported out of reach and hurled a lightning bolt. The voltage met with the head of Gorast's axe, clinging there a moment as she used her own powers to commandeer it, and then she threw the axe at Antroz, teleported forward to grab it just before it hit her, and pulled it back as she released the electrical attack to finally catch Antroz off-guard. The blind Makuta staggered back, and Gorast gave a delighted grunt. She planted her spear in the ground, using it to push herself forward with extra force, and then dropped her sword to swing her axe into Antroz's midsection with two hands. Antroz's understanding of her surroundings shattered as she crashed through a wall.
"How's that?!" Gorast yelled, magnetically pulling her sword back to her hand. "First blood is mine! Hah-hah-hah!"
Antroz took stock of her new location as she pushed herself upright: shelves filled with small cans, confectionaries protected by a glass case, crates piled with fruit…including a mound of Thornax.
"Come on out! I'm nowhere near through with you!"
Still obscured by a cloud of dust, Antroz used her Telekinesis to arrange the Thornax into a tight formation before launching them and teleporting outside. She moved in with her Chameleon powers active while Gorast busied herself shooting them down. Just as she was about to strike, Gorast impaled one of the Thornax with her spear and swung it as a makeshift morning star right at Antroz, only just missing her. She moved as far back as she could while deactivating her powers.
"I used to see you as a rival, you know." Gorast used her Plant Control powers to rot the Thornax off of her spear. "My only rival. I thought you were one of the only ones who knew what being a Makuta really meant—you, me, Teridax…maybe Vamprah."
She swung her scythe in a wide arc. A razor-sharp wave of light flew out from it, slicing cleanly through buildings on both sides of the street as it advanced. Antroz teleported past it.
"But Teridax was on his own level, and Vamprah's too much of a freak. You, though…beneath all that pretentious, snobby pageantry…I used to think you and I were the same."
She slowly walked forward. Antroz's blade shimmered with heat.
"But we're not. None of you are like me. You've all come up with your own ideas of what being a Makuta is supposed to mean. You've forgotten the whole reason we were made!"
She feinted. Antroz hopped back to evade, twirling her sword to send disks of superheated plasma at her foe. Gorast dodged the first, then the second—but for the third, she dropped her spear and caught the attack in her hand.
"I'm the only Makuta! And I'll butcher anyone who dirties my name!"
She reshaped the mass of plasma into a javelin before throwing it back. Antroz neutralized it with a blinding flash, and said, "I pity you, Gorast."
Without waiting for her vision to return, Gorast advanced. Antroz began to teleport around at random, using Light bolts to probe for openings, but Gorast kept her Dodge powers active to maintain her defenses.
"Though we disagreed on much, I found your fierce devotion commendable. I had hope that your good intentions would spur you on to become the finest of us all."
The instant she could see again, Gorast attacked with a sweeping beam of Light. Antroz teleported behind her and thrust—the blow was parried, and she teleported away before Gorast could counterattack.
"But you never closed the distance between yourself and everyone else, and now, that distance is all you can see. You bluster about how you take pride in its vastness, but even still…"
Antroz stopped where she next materialized, facing Gorast's back from a block away. She glared over her shoulder at her.
"…there's a deep loneliness in your heart, isn't there? Cut off from all others, understood by no one…I pity you, Gorast. I truly do."
Gorast didn't reply. After she remained still for a few seconds, Antroz grew suspicious, and focused her thoughts on her opponent to more acutely sense her movements. This led her to discover that Gorast's mouth was moving. Antroz briefly wondered why no sound was coming from her, before remembering that Gorast wore the Mask of Conjuring. She moved to teleport behind cover; her powers failed her, leaving her open for Gorast to successfully teleport up to her and bring her to the ground with her scythe.
Silence, Antroz thought. She used Silence on herself while verbally programming the mask so I couldn't hear her. I never would have thought of that…
"Were you saying something?" Gorast kept the crook of her scythe around Antroz's neck as she leaned down over her. "Last thing I heard was that you think you have the right to pity me. I'll give you a chance to take that back."
Antroz again tried and failed to teleport. This must be a result of the power she programmed…but she can still teleport, so it isn't as simple as teleportation jamming. Then what?
"No? Fine then." Gorast drove her spear through Antroz's arm, pinning her. She then pointed at the antidermis that leaked out of the wound, slowly incinerating it with a focused beam of Plasma to put Antroz through as much pain as possible. "You don't get to pity me. Understand? You aren't better then me. You aren't even my equal! I'm the only one left fit to decide what a Makuta is…and you aren't it."
She simultaneously yanked out her spear and cut Antroz's shoulder with her scythe. Antroz growled, but refused to give anything more. Gorast backed up a few steps and waited as Antroz climbed to her feet.
"And without that, what even are you? You think I'm the one broken up?" She sneered. "You're the one who lost everything you ever were, and everything you were ever supposed to be. I should be the one pitying you…except I don't pity."
Antroz heated her sword once more.
"What do you have left? An army of failures you can lead to their deaths?"
Antroz hurled a wave of Plasma, but Gorast simply dodged and struck back with Lightning.
"That thing you always said, what was it…you look that way to show you fought your demons and won, or something?"
They clashed swords. Antroz blocked Gorast's other weapons by hardening her wings and arm. Both of them hardened their masks and lashed out with a headbutt, and they remained locked like this, wary of being the first to relent.
"Look at you now. Working with Krika and Bitil and Pridak and a whole bunch of criminals, throwing the whole planet into chaos as you try to destroy what the Great Beings built! You didn't beat your demons, Antroz. You became one of them!"
Antroz lost her footing. Gorast pressed her advantage and slammed her into the ground with all four arms. She raised one to make a fist, created spikes of solid light along the knuckles, and then started to punch Antroz over and over and over. Antroz struggled to break free. She knew Gorast, knew that her words were meant to egg her on more than anything else, knew there was no real weight behind them. Precisely because of this, she hated how much they affected her.
Zaekura stepped through the gap in Atero's wall and immediately came face-to-face with the brawl that had consumed the courtyard. The Rahkshi tore into the meager ranks of drones, who proved more manageable with their ability to combine neutralized. Shots flew in every direction; her allies were careful to avoid any fatal blows, but every small mistake led to a searing graze or severed limb. The blasts that missed completely struck the wall and nearby buildings, slowly eroding the grand structures that had endured the harshness of Bara Magna for thousands of years. The drones were not solely at fault: elemental blasts and exploding Cordak rockets and a dozen other weapons assisted in the destruction, all chiseling away at Atero regardless of allegiance. One of the drones exploded, taking a pillar with it and causing someone's house to collapse—a nearby unit of Toa were swept away by the rubble washing onto the courtyard. Zaekura clutched her stomach.
"Lady Zaekura," Charla said. "This way, please."
She didn't feel like moving, but she let Charla lead her along the battle's perimeter. Nestled into a corner was a makeshift medic's tent. Zaekura gagged when she saw Glatorian piling discarded limbs a few yards away, so she ducked inside to find Surja treating a wounded Su-Matoran: their left arm was burned from wrist to shoulder, and a hole had been scorched into the side of their Kanohi Ruru. Surja greeted her with a weak hiss.
"We've confirmed that all civilians have evacuated," Charla said.
Zaekura nodded. "…What about the rest of Atero's militia?"
"Our forces have encountered more units deeper inside the city."
"Right…probably want to stay away from those death machines no matter whose side they're on."
Zaekura stared out at the battle. Charla hesitated a moment before suggesting, "Perhaps we should pull back for the moment? You can issue orders from a distance until the courtyard is fully secured."
Zaekura's fingers twitched. She wanted nothing more than to remove herself from this scene. "…I can't. I need to…it's my responsibility…to really understand just what…"
"As you wish."
Out in the fray, a Toa of Sand pulled their comrade out of the rubble just as a drone set its sights on him. He prepared to dodge, but before the machine could take a shot, Aleps rolled out from behind cover and sprang at its back, the sleepwalking Rahkshi punching their foes' joints a dozen times before they hit the ground. The drone still functioned when they bounced up and staggered away—for only a second, though, as the Toa took his opportunity to finish the automaton.
"Thanks for the help," he said.
Aleps continued to stumble about. Kameter soon appeared behind them, and he and the Toa exchanged nods. Alize followed, but she immediately dropped to one knee, her breathing slow and heavy.
"Are you alright? Don't overtax yourself."
Alize hissed and pushed herself upright. Two dueling Glatorian were drawing near, one with red armor and the other wearing black; the Toa of Sand didn't recognize either. Aleps wandered over to the pair and, before either could react, dealt a swift knockout blow to the red one's jaw.
"Do you mind?" said the other. "You've ruined the tension that was building—this sort of resolution is never satisfying!"
Still asleep, Aleps walked off in search of more foes. The flustered Glatorian sheathed her rapier with a huff, and then shapeshifted back into a blue and gold Rahkshi. Inclining his head, the Toa of Sand said, "Ah, so that's it…"
She glanced over at him. "Hm? I'm afraid I don't recognize you—are you friend or foe?"
"Friend. Call me Nilkuu."
"Pleased to make your acquaintance. I am Kuroma, Daughter of Bitil." She next looked to Alize. "Overzealous…how fares she, Kameter?"
Alize answered for herself. Kameter said nothing, but averted his gaze slightly.
"Tsk tsk, you mustn't ignore your own body, sister."
Nilkuu looked away from the argument, spotting a Su-Matoran skirting the battle. He vaguely remembered seeing them in Xia, so he gave them a nod and turned in search of a new opponent.
All of this could be seen from the medic's tent, and as it unfolded, a strange nagging pulled at the back of Zaekura's mind. She studied the Matoran of Plasma as they approached Nilkuu: the style of their armor, the tools they carried, the Kanohi Ruru they wore…until it finally clicked. She turned back to Surja and the Matoran she was treating. Save for their wounds, the patient was entirely identical to the one out on the battlefield.
"Charla!" she cried, wildly gesturing to the two doppelgangers. It took her a moment to understand, but as soon as she did, she sent a telepathic signal to Nilkuu and the rest. The Toa whirled just in time to redirect an energy blast by using a sand tendril to wrench back the fake's arm.
"What…are you, exactly?" he asked.
The false Toa said nothing. Their body stretched and twisted, slipping free from the tendril in the process, and then settled into the familiar shape of Velika's drones.
"Oho!" Kuroma chuckled, drawing her sword. "Seems a rival has appeared. This should prove an interesting performance!"
Charla sent out a message warning everyone that a new, shapeshifting model of drone had appeared. Nilkuu launched a dozen sand spears, but the machine transformed into a Spiny Stone Ape before the attack connected, and the projectiles bounced harmlessly off of their target's hide. The drone swiped at Nilkuu, but Kuroma leapt forward, transforming into a Fe-Matoran as she parried the claw.
"I don't think so! En garde!"
She pushed aside her enemy's arm and threw a punch. The drone transformed into a Fireflyer in an instant, completely avoiding the blow, and after flitting to a better position it changed into an ash bear and pounced. Kuroma hopped to the side and landed a shallow jab before the drone changed into a Lohrak to escape. It didn't get far, however, thanks to a sudden twister of sand conjured by Nilkuu. Alize attempted to enter the battle, but Kameter held her back.
"No no, sister, you leave this to us! You're going to hurt yourself if you keep this up!"
Kuroma and Nilkuu leapt at the drone as it took the shape of a Catapult Scorpion. Alize growled something, but after a gentle nudge from Kameter, she hissed and dragged him off. Nilkuu did his best to keep the machine off-balance while Kuroma attacked head-on, and Zaekura held her head in her hands as she watched them.
"They shapeshift now," she said, each word heavier and slower than the last. "How am I going to deal with that? How am I going to keep everyone safe?"
Charla gently turned her away. "The answer will come in time. Our allies know to be alert now, so we must trust them to protect themselves."
"But then what's next? Velika keeps making these things harder and harder to deal with, and I'm only playing catchup. I need to try to get ahead of him…I don't know how, but I can't let him keep controlling the escalation like this. I've got to think of something!"
She sat down and closed her eyes, wracking her brain for the slightest spark of an idea. Charla started to reach out for her, but Surja called for her help; she hesitated, but then went to assist her, feeling that was where she was more likely to be of use.
Two Vorox ran across a large courtyard, each carrying a vermilion blaster with a long barrel. They crouched behind the fountain at the courtyard's center and scanned for a path through the crossfire—but soldiers from both sides fired at each other relentlessly, forming a lethal web of lasers and elemental blasts with no clear opening.
"Why did I agree to this?" one grumbled.
Her partner narrowed his eyes as he continued to scan. "No one's forcing you to stay, Graizel."
"Oh hush. Can't you just let me complain?"
"I would rather you help me out." He cocked his head. "Alright…stay low. 3…2—"
"Watch out!"
Graizel tried to pull them both away from the fountain; that was when he noticed the water reaching up and out of the pool in long tendrils. It moved faster than either of them could, grabbing and engulfing their heads to cut off their air. He struggled to keep himself from panicking. Next to him, Graizel grasped for her weapon, but the water expanded to restrain her arms. He was just about to run out of air when he saw something rush through both tendrils—a wave of sand severed them, freeing the two Vorox and letting them drop to the ground.
"Ilikar?" Graizel asked after coughing the water out of her lungs. "You're not dead, are you?"
The other Vorox groaned as he propped himself up. Spears of hardened sand destroyed the fountain from below, but the water in it escaped, moving a short distance through the air before reshaping into the body of Tarix. As the spears reformed into the Sand Lord, the soldiers lining the courtyard all gradually pulled back.
"Ah…my predecessor," Tarix said. "I had a feeling we'd meet soon."
Loose grains of sand swirled about violently. The Sand Lord glared at Tarix, saying, "Take your pleasantries to the grave. After that cowardly strike at my people, your words will never reach me."
She threw one arm back. A wall of sand appeared behind the two Vorox just in time to block a bundle of thorny roots emerging from the pavement to stab them. Tarix swung a blade of water at the Sand Lord, thinking she was distracted; she proved his assumption faulty by forming a small but intense sandstorm around him, ripping his watery body to shreds. Only then did the Sand Lord turn to look at Vastus.
"Seems we'll need to work harder to surprise you," the arboreal Element Lord said, slowly circling the courtyard. "Between the two of us, though, I'm confident we'll find a way."
Tarix reformed beside him. The Sand Lord shook her head. "You think yourselves the first to face the desert with confidence? Few mistakes have proved so fatal. Did the Great Beings truly believe merely two novice Element Lords would be able to stand against me? I have had entire lifetimes to master my element. I have become one with the sands…and I shall see you buried beneath them."
After exchanging a look, Tarix and Vastus rushed forward and swung their weapons. Sand formed a barrier to foil them, and then turned to blades as it burst outward, the Generals only just slipping out of their range. Fingers of sand reached up to grab them both from below; Vastus grew a shell of bark and rapidly expanded it to make the space he needed to jump free, while Tarix let his body permeate the sand and weigh it down. A vortex of leaves snaked forward to consume the Sand Lord, but she emerged unscathed and punched Vastus with a fist of densely-packed sand. Tarix reformed and cut apart the hand that had tried to grab him, and then crouched, punched the ground, and summoned a wall of water that burst up through the pavement and high into the air. When the Sand Lord dodged out of the way, the wall bent to surround her; reaching out with both hands, Vastus willed towering shoots of acid grass to grow within the eye of the storm, and a few seconds later Tarix let the veil of water fall. The Sand Lord was nowhere to be seen.
"I don't believe for a second that was enough," Vastus said. "Keep your guard up."
He and Tarix stood back to back and waited. When the ground beneath their feet turned into a whirlpool of quicksand, they both tried to jump clear, but a bullet of light struck Tarix and stunned him. Vastus threw a vine to him and quickly spotted the shooter: Ilikar was back up, the barrel of his blaster still glowing. Graizel attempted to shoot him, but Vastus separated his body into countless vines and let the attack pass through empty space. Tarix recovered and leapt to safety, and then swept his arm out to wash the Vorox away. The wave he asked for never came.
"As I suspected," he said. "They've expanded on the technology they used on you last time."
Vastus wove himself back together and sent thorny roots down into the quicksand. The whirlpool stopped abruptly, but just as suddenly, the Sand Lord formed with her hand around his neck.
"Don't move," she warned. "My sand can inflict a century of erosion on these fragile plants in an instant."
He complied. Tarix said, "Your prowess is every bit as great as you say, Sand Lord. There is much we could learn from you."
"Yet I feel no inclination to teach you."
"I understand that you're upset, but this is a battlefield. You can't be surprised that we would attack the soldiers fighting for you."
The Sand Lord's eyes narrowed. Vastus said, "Tarix, perhaps now isn't the time to apply pressure."
"Are you willingly so ignorant," the Sand Lord said, "or is it a natural skill? Striking down your enemies with the most cowardly of tactics…" She tightened her grip of Vastus. "Even civilians…I've already seen such cruelty wielded by Element Lords, and I have sworn to never abide it again. Our names are already stains on the pages of history; all I can do is ensure that history is where such evil remains."
The Sand Lord noticed movement: a third Vorox was approaching from behind Graizel and Ilikar. She turned back to Tarix and said, "My people deserve better than the echo of tyranny you embody. For their future—"
Every last grain of her being froze at what she witnessed next. The Vorox who had just appeared had stopped at Graizel and Ilikar's side, as she had expected. He then proceeded to strike them both in the back of the head, rendering them unconscious, and took one of their weapons for his own. The Sand Lord didn't move an inch until a burst of wooden shrapnel from Vastus' back repelled her.
"What…what is this trickery?" she asked. "One of those drones Charla spoke of? Yes, that must be it…"
The Vorox took aim at her. "Wrong. I'm a Vorox loyal to Atero, and I've come to backup the Generals. Now stand down, or I will shoot."
ADDENDUM:
-We saw Gorast's ability to extend Density Control a while back, it just wasn't explained at the time. Seemed fitting to give her a unique way of pulverizing things into oblivion.
-The Mask of Conjuring is a versatile one. You verbally describe in detail an ability that you want to "program" into the mask as its temporary power, but you do have to specify a weakness, limiting its usefulness. I thought Gorast would appreciate the advantage of being able to tailor an extra ability to a given situation, and a mask that generates new abilities sounded like a good contrast with the Felnas making abilities run out of control; her trick of using Silence to program it without letting the foe hear was something I thought of a little later. Now she can use the mask to its full potential!
-Makuta "You're not even good enough to be my fake!" Gorast
-I wanted to focus in on a Toa of Sand just a little, and with the way Stone works in G2, that seemed like an ideal place to pull names from.
-We've seen Alize and Kameter before, but Kuroma's new: she likes to maintain one form throughout a whole battle because she views them as roles to master, and she wants to stay "in-character" as it were. The concept was inspired by theater battle anime Revue Starlight, and her name is derived from the names of two key characters in the show. (If you know you know.) (If not, watch Revue Starlight.) (Seriously it's really good.) (Sub Dub)
-I really should've had more named Vorox before now…I think the names here were just syllables I mashed together, but "Graizel" probably draws from "grain". And maybe "hazel"? I need to start writing down explanations when I decide on the name…
-In the interest of transparency: I'm back in college working on a Master of Fine Arts program so that'll take some of my focus, but I am going to finish this story if it kills me, bet on it.
