EDZ, Earth
Sol System
Seeing that the major threats were the three Champions of Xol and the Voice of Nokris Taken Grimm Manticore, Prometheus-23 activated his Hammer of Sol Super. Flaming hammer in hand, he charged forward and jumped in the air. Hovering over the battlefield, he threw his hammer, impacting standard Taken and the champions. The one that was the former Valus Ta'aurc, summoned a Taken version of his gatling gun and fired at the Guardian. He managed to dodge the bullets, before heading back to the ground and charged at the three Champions.
The voice of Nokris spread its wings to join in, but it was caught by surprise by the T-Rex. The dinosaur charged at the Taken Grimm, slamming into its side. Neo jumped off the dinosaurs back and using Super good Advice, peppered its dark hide with bullets.
Which left the ace-Ops to deal with the rest of the Taken.
Clover stepped up and issued orders. "Harriet, take out the Taken Psions!" Prioritizing the taken that can multiply on the battlefield. Taken Psions had the ability to split in two making an exact duplicate of itself. Said duplicates also have the ability making them useful on the battlefield to overwhelm their enemies. All it took was one to make an army. "Right." Harriet shouted as she used her Speed Semblance and charged at them. Her speed was the only thing that saved her from their shots. She dodged their blast, which to her were in slow motion. She maneuvered around the shots, and those she brushed up against, her Aura shielded her. As she approached each Taken Psion, she punched them to death, their bodies fading into nothing.
As she dealt with the Taken Psions, Clover issued more orders to the rest of his team. "Vine, deal with the Taken Hobgoblins. Elm and Marrow, help Prometheus-23, but be careful. Unlike him, you two can't be brought back from the dead. I'll deal with the rest." Like a well-oiled machine, they followed their orders.
Vine used his Aura Vines to swing via the branches to reach the Taken Hobgoblins. He reached one, punched it, then moved on to the next by swinging to another branch. He barely dodged a blast from the one he killed. He berated himself in forgetting that upon death, Taken Hobgoblins unleash three blasts that seek out the one that killed them as one last fuck-you. He continued swinging from the branches, also observing said branches so he didn't fall downwards.
Clover found himself surrounded by six Taken Hive Knights. He saw their mouths open, about to spew a stream of flames to burn him. Brushing his thumb against his pin, he stood in place and timed his moment. Opening their jaws wide, they belched flames at him. His time having arrived, he jumped and did a flip. By sheer luck, the flames that they all spewed hit the Taken Knight across from hi and vice versa. The taken Knights killed one another. Clover looked over his vanquished foes, thanking his Good Fortune Semblance and went back into the fight.
Elm and Marrow were fighting the Taken Champions alongside Prometheus-23. As the Titan's Hammer of Sol faded, he was now facing the Taken Hive champion. The former champion of Crota, Urzok was a frightening foe in life. And with him being Taken only added to the sight. A piece of its taken form split off from his body, going down its arms. The fragments solidified and turned into a sword and shield. Flames leaking from its mouth, weapons in hand, the Taken Hive Knight Champion of Xol charged at the Titan. Elm was the one who came to the Titan's side as she used her Aura Roots Semblance to stay in place as it brought its sword down. She used her weapon in its hammer form to block the swords descent. That gave Prometheus-23 a chance to switch out weapons and brought out his own sword; Complex Solution. Together, the sword wielder and the hammer wielder of the Ace-Ops fought together against the former Hive champion, now Taken Champion.
All that was left was Marrow against the Taken Cabal Champion. Having some will of his own from his former life, the former Valus Ta'aurc, tossed away his weapon and brought his hands out. Orbs of taken energy flew out of them and towards marrow. Marrow ran here and there to avoid the blasts. However, these orbs were one of the few "gifts" bestowed upon Taken Cabal. Orbs that followed their targets regardless of whatever obstacle in their way.
Marrow managed to dodge a few, his Aura taking some damage, but her still had more coming. Seeing the giant Taken Cabal, he had an idea. Signaling Vine who was wrapping up his task, his plan was et in motion. Running as fast as he could, Marrow turned around and charged right at the Taken Champion with the orbs, still following behind him. When he got close to him, Marrow jumped upwards, pointed at the Taken and snapped his fingers.
"Stay!"
His freezing Semblance activated, the Taken froze in place, however, it was already moving slowly. For his semblance to be in full use, Marrow had to be still pointing at his target and he must stay in place as well. But those brief moments frozen in place helped. When Marrow was stopped in the air activating his semblance, the orbs quickly caught up, mere feet away. By quick timing, Vine came towards him, gripped marrow from behind and lifted him upwards. The orbs, not changing course quick enough impacted the semi-frozen Cabal Champion of Xol. His body falling forwards as the top portion of its head dissolved. Just as the body touched the ground, the rest of the body faded signaling the death of the Taken Champion.
"Nice plan." Vine said as he set Marrow down.
"Thanks."
The two were joined by Harriet who finished off the Taken Psions and the rest of the fodder.
"Who do we help? Prometheus and Elm?" Marrow pointed to the Titan and the heavy hitter of their team facing off against the taken hive Knight. "Clover?" Pointing to their leader who was facing off against the invisible Taken Fallen Baroness. "Or Neo and her mount?" Finally pointing to the Agent of the Vanguard who alongside her mount/pet, dealing with the Voice of Nokris.
"I'll help the mute with the taken Grimm." Harriet said giving suggestions. Since Elm was the second in command of the Ace-Ops, she wasn't technically authorized to give orders to her teammates. Something the others were quite thankful for. "I'll help with Prometheus and Elm. My semblance would be useless against the Taken Baroness." In order for his semblance to be of use, he had to have visual contact with his target. With this particular Champion being invisible, he would be at a disadvantage. "Then I'll help Clover." Vine said before propelling himself towards their leader.
Even with the help of his Semblance, Clover found himself at quite a disadvantage. This particular Taken Champion was known as Baroness Drevis; Baroness of House Wolves. When she was alive, she was the leader of the Silent Fang. A group of assassins for House Wolves who were experts in stealth and infiltration. And as a taken, she was granted not only the ability to propel a wave of darkness to blind her opponents, but to become invisible for an extended amount of time.
Even when blinded by the Wave of darkness, his semblance saved him by giving him a feeling from time to time. Said feeling saved him from getting stabbed, dodging a punch or another Wave of Darkness. But not always. His aura was already beginning to waver and he was getting small cuts here and there. But it was only a matter of time.
Luckily, helped arrived in the form of Vine.
Vine arrived by using his aura Vines to stretch out around him. He spun around, his arms fanning out trying to feel anything. His fingers brushed up against something, but before he could, he found himself on the ground, a punch to his face. He landed with a thud; dead dirt sent upwards creating a dust cloud covering his face. He coughed out the dirt, seeing it dissipate onto the ground. Both Clover and Vine saw the dust and got an idea. Vine reached upwards towards a dead tree, propelling himself upwards. Creating his Aura Vines again, he enlarged the fists and punched downwards, creating more dust clouds.
The dust clouds created filled the battlefield, obscuring the ground. By design, the dust clouds also revealed the hidden Taken Champion. While she was invisible, her invisibility displaced the dust clouds, revealing her. Using his weapon, Clover came at her and by luck, removed one of her limbs. Using her other three limbs, Drevis sent out another Wave of Darkness. Vine punched her in the face from up above. Seeing red, she looked upwards and sent another Wave of Darkness. This left her open with Clover stabbing her in the head, killing her. The two watching as the body faded away.
That left only one Champion of Xol left standing and the Voice of Nokris.
Prometheus-23 and Elm had held their own against the Taken Urzok, she with her hammer and the Titan with his sword. They would parry, lunge, smash or dodge. Urzok, using fragmentary memories of his former life, used his skills with the blade to block or slice down.
"Stay!"
Urzok felt himself freeze in place as he felt an impact from Elm's hammer now turned rocket launcher. The rockets impacting his body, sending him flying. The explosion shattered his shield, leaving him with his sword. A fire burned in his chest and he opened his mouth and spewed fire towards the one responsible for him being frozen. Marrow dodged the fire and Prometheus-23 charged with blade drawn. The fire washed over the Titan, but he took the damage as he swung the blade at Urzok's head. The body quickly faded away followed by the head.
Neo ran around the feet of the Voice of Nokris, firing Super Good Advice as her T-Rex smashed into the taken Manticore. The AI within her weapon shouting profanities or cheers as the T-Rex took chunks from the body. But the Taken Manticore had a few tricks up its sleeve.
It reared its scorpion tail and struck at the T-Rex. While its hide was tough, it only took a few strikes for the stinger to imbed itself into its hide. The T-Rex roared in pain, but that only enraged it even further. It charged at the taken Manticore, but its wings spread out and batted the T-Rex to the side. This gave it the opportunity to swipe its paw across the side of the dinosaur. The T-Rex gave a bellow as it landed on its side. The Voice of Nokris, having some instinct from its previous Grimm life, found the scent of the wounds the T-Rex gave out intoxicating and crept forward towards the kill.
It was stopped however with a combination of gunfire and a punch to its muzzle. It shook its head and saw Neo with her gun pointed at it with a look of rage, and a yellow blur that became Harriet with her fists up. The two then charged at the Taken and the fight began.
Harriet sped towards it, avoiding the scorpion tail and the claws, delivering punches here and there. By chance, the Taken entity did the usual Taken-twitch where one of its extremities or its whole body spasmed. In this instance, it was a wing that bent downwards, colliding with her body, sending her flying. She was caught by one of Vine's Aura hands, placing her back down and joining the fight. Soon followed by Prometheus-23 and the rest of the Ace-Ops.
Vine used his Aura Vines to grip onto the Taken's hind legs to keep it in place. The Voice of Nokris, seeing the irritant, twisted its scorpion tail in a way that was physically impossible for a Grimm, but not impossible for a Taken. Twisting it around, it stabbed downwards towards Vine.
"Stay!"
The stinger stopped mere feet away from impaling Vine, stopped in place by Marrow's Semblance.
The Taken tried to retract the tail, but found it frozen in place. Rockets slammed into its side. It turned and saw Elm down below shooting at it. It tried to pounce on her, but due to its tail, couldn't move that far. Making a choice, it ripped its own tail off. Screaming in pain, what passed for blood amongst taken sprayed from its stump, falling to the ground. A few splatters dropped onto Marrow, who found out that said blood burned. Luckily, his Aura was up and shielded it from the worst of the burns.
The Taken charged at Elm, but met the fist of Prometheus-23 who sent it flying. As it laid on its side, it tried to get up, but found the ground beneath it instead. Clover sat in a tree, his hand patting his lucky pin. His Good Fortune Semblance kicked in the form of an unstable bit of land forming right underneath the Taken. Prometheus-23 channeled Arc Light into his Super and flew through the air and into the Taken's face.
Its death was confirmed when the Taken shadows around the Shard of the Traveler.
00000
After leaving the forest with the shard in tow, they bid Neo a heartful thanks and a goodbye to the quickly healed up T-Rex. Last they saw of her and her giant mount, they were heading towards an encampment of Cabal Red Legion troops to raid for the rider, and a meal for her steed. After going through FTL, they were soon flying over the red sands of Mars with the Shard of the Traveler in tow. After arriving on Mars, the crew had gotten coordinates to where Anastasia and Penny were waiting to assemble the Valkyrie Javlin.
"We're approaching the facility now." Prometheus-23 said as he flew at the controls. The Ace-Ops were in the back alongside the Shard. The shard was currently wrapped in a tarp and held down by straps. "Copy that, me and Penny are at the facility now. We should have it up and running by the time you arrive. Facility's seen better days. And be careful. A lot of seismic activity. Looks like the hive know what you have."
"Don't worry, we're keeping an eye all around. So far, no Grimm/Hive hybrids of the flying variety in the vicinity."
CRASH!
Their communication was cut off when something extremely big grabbed onto their jumpship and brought them down. Prometheus jumped from the cockpit and towards the back, quickly creating a Ward of dawn around the Ace-Ops and the shard. He looked over his shoulder to where the cockpit window was. All he saw was a large maw lined with mandibles and glowing green teeth. The ship shook as the thing that had the jumpship in its mouth crashed back into the ground below. Prometheus-23 channeled more of his Light into his Super to keep him and the ace-Ops in place. While the Ward of Dawn acted as a shield, it can be moved if pressure was added to it, according to Zavala who did something similar in the opening salvos of the Red War.
His arms shook trying to keep it up, but something was countering his Light. His arms shook trying to keep the shield up, but soon he was at his limit. The shield flickered and he along with the rest of the Ace-Ops fell. They fell against the walls, some hitting their heads against the walls and passing out. Prometheus-23 however was subjected by a force of Darkness that was making his vision dizzy. The last thing he heard and see was a large serpentine being slithering away, its tail slapping the ceiling causing the rocks above to fall and the sound of its voice.
"You're Light Will Not Save You. You Will All Fall. You Will All Drown. You Will All Drift…In The Deep!"
A/N: Taking a short break to play more Final Shape. Also like to announce I'm in the beginning stages of creating two new fanfics. The first being a synopsis on how Halo Season 3 should go down, if renewed.
The second being Nomad of One Piece: El Rey. A crossover between Nomad of Nowhere and one Piece. It details how Nowhere plays into the One Piece World and El Rey's influence in it. Tell me what you think.
See ya next time!