Fight for Power

boop

Double boop

<]-Mithril-[>

Immediately after the time that Tectus shouted out his attack, I readied my metal and shaped it into the form of tanks, and then threw said tanks at the Bomb Boulders. Although Tectus did not initially seem to understand what I was going for, it soon became clear what my plan was when the tanks opened up and enclosed the Bomb Boulders; each of the resultant makeshift cannons now aimed at Tectus. If he had tried to stop the explosions now, tough luck for him; I used what little amount of metal remained in the Bomb Boulders to force their detonation.

Each cannon fired a huge projectile at Tectus, who crafted more large, rocky hands in response to try and block some of them. The results were mostly negative for him; while the rocky hands indeed did take some of the sting out from those shots, the unexpected nature of my tank cannon trick meant that most of the damage hit home; Tectus being forced back quite a decent amount from those projectiles.

I charged forward at Tectus, screaming and throwing even more projectiles at him; keeping the pressure up even as he slammed his hand down into the floor again and pulled up to bring more pillar walls for defense. I then created a "Double Dolomite Drill!" and then rammed into the pillar walls, using the remaining metal from the makeshift cannons as well to push forward. It gave Tectus enough time, however, to send three landslide lines at me through the pillar walls. This time, however, I made a big leap over the pillar walls and aimed an elbow drop at Tectus' face... however he had repositioned himself slightly to the side and delivered an open palm strike, which I met by slamming one of the Dolomite Drills on hand into said palm.

Said clash sent me skidding off-course, however, with a few "Alloy Anchors!" and several arms to grab the platform, I was quickly able to halt myself, throwing the remaining Dolomite Drill at Tectus. He batted said drill aside, however this time the distance was short enough for me to lunge forward and slam a multitude of fists into his face, before pulling the Alloy Anchors forward and slamming them into him, this barrage of attacks pushing Tectus ever closer to the edge of the arena...

[[[[[Tectus]]]]]

Growling in increasing anger at the repeated blows, Tectus drew back both arms and then thrust forward in a massive double-palm thrust, producing a wave of air large enough to shove Mithril back a few paces... just enough for him to slam his fist into the floor to produce more landslide lines, this time firing three forward and two backwards. As soon as those went out (and were dodged), he stepped forward and slammed his other hand into the ground, firing more lines. He repeated this several times, slowly advancing in a barrage of stone until Mithril started throwing Silver Spears at him in large quantities, forcing him to dodge away. As he did, he slammed his feet into the floor, causing more Bomb Boulders to leap out of the lava onto the platform.

As before Mithril immediately began assembling cannons over them... only for several to explode before she could finish. For the others, more rocks leapt from the lava to coalesce around the cannons and plug them. She managed to fire some of them, but the plugged ones simply exploded where they were, leaving pools of bubbling lava.

As yet more bomb boulders leapt onto the arena, Tectus charged forward, scooping up twin handfuls of lava and shaping them into still-burning gauntlets as he moved into close range, roaring furiously over the din of the exploding boulders. Amidst this, Mithril bust out another pair of Dolomite Drills, scouring away the closest bomb boulders and throwing up smaller walls simply to redirect the blasts of others. Much like her fight with Quicksilver, the platform was quickly being covered in molten slag. Unlike that fight, Tectus didn't seem to care.

The two clashed amid a pool of lava, Tectus grabbing and breaking one of Mithril's drills with his lava gauntlets, while she swept the other at him from the side, digging into the arm he put up to block it. He grabbed hold of that drill as well, hard enough to stop its rotation, and Mithril simply released it in favor of slamming into him with piston-like series of Hiduminium Hammers. Tectus could only throw up his guard to block the attack for a few seconds before stamping his foot on the ground, raising a wave of pillars in front of him like before to ward Mithril off. Unlike before, these pillars then exploded into a massive wave of shrapnel, forcing Mithril to throw up her own defenses.

As the smoke cleared, she caught sight of Tectus being engulfed in lava, the slag both on and off the platform creeping towards him into a molten blob that gradually rose up in a massive, far more girthy version of Tectus himself.

"Geocrush," the Tectus-titan rumbled, leaping high into the air and slamming down on the platform with a massive crack, as even more of the platform's edge broke and fell away, leaving very little room left to stand on. He slammed his stone fists together and rumbled once more, "Come, overdweller! We end this!"

<]-Mithril-[>

Upon the sight of Tectus clad in several tons of rock, I was already bulking up myself, jacking up the level of metal mass for huge damage. You know what else I used to pump up the pain?

Metal Gate: Aggro Shift.

I then immediately lunged forward, shifting my arms into drills and slamming them into the Tectus-rockthing's knees, my mighty "Titanium Twister!" creating massive dual shockwaves on impact. The drills imparted their spin into the metal already within the now-solidified slag, the attack damaging and destabilizing the solid rock armor that Tectus was wearing.

"Witness the fury of the earth!" Tectus rumbled, responding with a massive blast of earthen energy, clearly intending to force me off what little of the platform remained. I used various countermeasures to that, such as: bulking up even further, putting up shields to redirect as much of the blast as possible, digging my arms even deeper within the rock armor itself, and otherwise generating even more arms to grab onto whatever I could. The most important and significant of these countermeasures however, was firing a massive blast of my own in the direction opposite of that where the earthen blast would hit me, offsetting the effect of his blast and keeping me on the platform.

Having withstood his earthen blast, I continued my offensive, using the additional offensive power from Metal Gate: Aggro Shift to widen the fissures inside Tectus's rock armor, blasting metal beam after metal construct from within the stone armor and outside of it.

"Platinum Laser Crasher!" I roared, pummeling Tectus with several huge laser-spewing trucks and firing a multitude of said trucks at him. This intense series of attacks resulted in the rock armor weakening even more, loud cracking noises being emitted from said stone. I attempted to tip him over like a tree that's being cut down, but Tectus reinforced the rock armor with additional slag, and then attempted to destroy the very little piece of arena that I was standing on.

Before said platform piece was destroyed, I leapt into the air, activating Metal Gate: Accel Shift in the process. I assembled a makeshift runway in midair out of trucks and the metal cargo I had added in for this purpose, even as I landed on top of the truck that had been hurled highest into the air. I then made a meteoric run down said makeshift runway, before making a jumping leap into an axe kick downwards.

"ALLOY ASTEROID AXE!" I bellowed, the brutal axe kick slamming right into the head of the Tectus-rockthing, before plowing right through it and slamming into Tectus himself with the force of thunderbolt metal. My kick hurtled the overseer of Blackrock Descent straight through the torso of his weakened rock armor, through the arena floor and stone beneath it, before he finally slowed to a stop in the deep impromptu hole that the axe kick created.

Shakily, Tectus raised a finger to point at me, muttering, "You're... paying... for that..." before passing out from the damage received.

Ah, right, the arena. Tsk. Ah well, money problems are easily solved by taking a few quests or so from the Weirdo Hut. I'm sure I can rope several of the others into more adventures ROFLOLOLOL.

Anyways, since Tectus is now too unconscious to make a ruling, I declared myself the WINNER & CHAMPION of the ROCKY RUMBLE!!! to the sounds of thunderous cheers and booming applause from the audience, dwarfing the noise and reaction from my fight against the bomb rock guy earlier.

I'll get the money in several weeks or months or insert-vague-time-amount here. Barring an event like Tectus (at his current level of power, anyway) being stubborn or dumb enough to fight the Black Pikmin and die off, paying for the arena will go swimmingly well!!!

<]-Mithril-[>

Haha, being the WINNER & CHAMPION of the ROCKY RUMBLE!!! is great!!! They awarded me prizes for my great triumph and achievement, including, but not limited to: Adamantine light blue metal stuff!

Anyways, bomb rock guy tried to convince Tectus to organize an escape route or something for Blackrock denizens for when the Fist of Zeromus attacks; Tectus opted against that, his reasoning being that any potential escape route is also a potential entry point, and since he basically had no backup plan if Blackrock Descent falls, Tectus plans to fight to the death.

So I guess it was just a matter of convincing anyone willing to leave Blackrock before disaster strikes to do so.

Anyways, bomb rock guy has now formally joined Hero Squad! He had been on missions and adventures with us in an informal capacity beforehand, but I'm glad that this has been made official now.

We were also asking around Blackrock Descent to see if anyone else here wanted to join Hero Squad; we'll elaborate on the results of that later.

Tectus accepted that I would pay for the arena later; since they'd probably have to repair the arena twice if they repaired it before the Black Pikmin invasion, there isn't any need for the Blackrock guys to require urgent payment.

Lastly, Bulk had been loitering around for a bit. I think I had been mistaken in my initial assessment that his bones cracked from my Osmium Obliterator, mostly due to the fact that he doesn't seem to be in too much discomfort. Probably somethingsomething muscle fibers. Bomb rock guy tried using Bulk as an example of the power level of the Black Pikmin army and how Blackrock Descent needed to take special precautions, but Tectus didn't go for it.

I, along with others in the Squad, went shopping and trading here in Blackrock Descent, especially since the place's probably gonna be destroyed when the Black Pikmin arrive here. Now, let's see what there is to buy around here...

<Quicksilver>

And now, back to the present! Which is a funny thing to mention, really, given what happens next.

The lot of us have been spending a bit of time unwinding after the battle of Ludibrium, the fight at Megadakka, and the subsequent battle against Trombe. Lots of injuries to tend to, after all, and we need to give Omicron time to prepare his forces. No point going in all beaten up and weary. Sure, it gives the Black Pikmin time to recover, too, but that's just unavoidable.

As my section of Hero Squad HQ is currently a bit empty, I'm spending my time in the medical section, along with... uh... quite a few of the other members. I did say we had a lot of injuries. I've even spotted Rune in here. Good news from Gamma, though, he finished with Rho's spinal damage and said he'll be out for a while, but he should make a full recovery.

As I was chilling with Juggernaut (also on his way to recovery), Mithril popped in to look around before settling her gaze on me. She stared for a second before seeming to make a decision.

"Hey, Quicksilver, got a question for you..."

I gestured for her to continue.

"So while we were fighting Trombe, Captain got tangled up with him for a bit there, and the way he moved was very similar to the way you move. As in, precisely the same as how you move," Mithril laid out. Rune's head peeked around the corner at the mention of this.

I tapped my chin in thought for a moment before replying, "Yeah that makes sense."

There was a brief silence before Mithril sighed. "And... the reason why?" a slight hint a irritation crept into her voice. I suppose I could be less of an ass about this.

"Well, there are several reasons. First and foremost, is that I'm awesome." Only slightly less, though.

Mithril just kinda glared at me.

"Alright, alright, serious explanation. Out of everyone Omicron has thorough combat data on, I'm probably the easiest to mimic. Certainly easier than copying Juggernaut, Sigma, Libera or Omega, and somehow I doubt he wants anyone else even TRYING to fight like Strosek. I'm smaller than most other Pikmin, yeah, but it's not all that difficult to scale up. He's got plenty of combat data and video of me fighting, probably even uses it as training videos for close quarters combat.

As for Captain, I've sparred with him directly, so he knows my fighting style from experience. On top of that, he's got those prosthetics to help him with the speed. Oh, and the stimpaks," I concluded, getting an incredulous look from Mithril at the end there.

"Stimpaks? Wait, you mean Captain uses combat drugs?"

"Oh, not just Captain, all of Omicron's troops. A little something called Movit, even has a nice list of numbers for how intense you want it. Boosts strength, improves perception and reflexes, sharpens focus, MURDER on the stamina, though. Most of 'em use 1, 2 or 3, a few all the way up to 6, and then there's Captain. Captain uses 7. At that point I think you start seeing through time."

There was a brief silence, during which I looked around in momentary confusion.

"Huh. Normally that's the kinda line that gets Chi to show up."

That, of course, was when a large series of cracks appeared in midair in the middle of the room, drawing the immediate and sincere attention of everyone present.

"Um," Rune started, "Does Chi usually show up like that?"

"No," I replied in alarm as the cracks widened, "No he does not."

And then the cracks exploded outwards, and time and space s***tered.

<Quicksilver>

You know that sensation where everything tastes kinda purplish? Yeah I'm getting that sensation right now. It's a really tangy purple, too, that's the worst. Eventually though, the taste receded, leaving a gritty feeling on my back that I shortly identified as sand. Blinking until I could see properly, I sat up to find I was, for whatever reason, now in the middle of Dusty Desert at night. Looking around, I spotted a few others on the ground as well; Mithril and Orvtre, and I think that's Adaptrix I see over there.

"Huh. What in the hell was that?"

"Ugh, felt like I was being dragged along by a truck," Adaptrix complained. Before anyone else could speak up

"YOU!" a voice bellowed from behind a dune. Sounded like Rune, actually. It was loud enough to get the other three on their feet in surprise, but I was the first over the dune, to find Rune pointing an accusing finger at a Yellow Pikmin. A Yellow Pikmin with a yellow orb at the end of his stalk.

Wait.

"Me?" asked the Yellow Pikmin, tilting his head in confusion. "Have we met before? I don't recall much before I went under. Yet you express familiarity with me. Very interesting, very interesting!" the Yellow rattled off at high speed.

I blinked a few times in disbelief. "Omicron...?" I whispered, to which he was immediately in my face.

"Oh, you seem to recognize me as well! By my Experiment code, too! Say, you seem to have an orb just like mine! Well, not quite like mine, yours has spikes on it. Is there some significance to that?" the 100% flesh-and-blood Omicron inquired at high speed. Orvtre, Mithril and Adaptrix crested the dune at this point, immediately acquiring Omicron's attention in the process.

"Oh, hello! Even more strange people! Do you all know me as well? I admit it's quite strange to awaken to a bunch of faces that know me, yet I don't know them! Very, very interesting!"

Adaptrix kinda of stared at him, as a dawning horror swept over me.

"Master...?" Adaptrix asked in utter confusion. Omicron pounced on the slip instantly.

"Master? Oh, does that mean I created you? How interesting!" Omicron chattered, before flicking his eyes towards Mithril. "Did I create you too?"

"What? No!" Mithril roared back at him. Unperterbed, Omicron switched his attention to Orvtre. I kinda tuned out of that conversation at that point.

"f***ing- is THIS what that Omicron lunatic is always like?" Rune growled, obviously displeased.

"No, he's... well, the one I know is way more collected than that. Is this what he was like right when he awakened...?" I muttered, more to myself than to Rune. "But if he's just woken up then... did that crack send us back in time?"

"My scans say that's definitely Omicron, and I have no uplink to the Colony. I think... I think yeah, we just got punted backwards in time," Adaptrix offered, still keeping his gaze firmly locked on Omicron, who was still chatting amicably with Orvtre.

"Back in time to Omicron just waking up..." Mithril trailed off, before a distinctly evil grin grew across her entire face. "LET'S SCREW WITH HIM LOL!"

"I'm up for it!" Rune replied immediately, staff suddenly in hand.

"Guys..." I sighed.

"Say, that's interesting," Omicron cut in before either of them could formulate any kinds of plans. "Would any of you happen to know why the moon is an eyeball?"

There was a brief pause in any kind of activity before everyone's gaze tilted upward, towards the moon.

The moon stared back, for it was currently an eyeball. Also the sky was purple, with hundreds of little black cubes flitting through it at irregular intervals.

"Oh. Well that's terrifying," I said in the tone of voice one might use to discuss the weather.

"This is gonna suck, isn't it..." Rune drawled, while Mithril and Orvtre just stared at it flatly. Omicron merely tilted his head in momentary confusion. Before anyone could discuss further, however, another voice interjected.

"You Must Go." said a very deep, reverberating voice from right in the middle of our group. I jumped back and watched as Adaptrix and Rune did the same, but Orvtre, Mithril and Omicron hardly budged.

The origin of the voice was a... a...

"What the hell are you?" I voiced. It was taller than an average Pikmin, covered top to bottom in a black robe. A golden, conical hat sat atop its head, from which a translucent veil hung to about the middle of its body. The only thing anyone could see was its green-and-black striped arms and too-long fingers, along with a large, green "window" where I suppose its face was.

"You Must Go." the thing repeated. Omicron stepped up to in in apparent curiosity.

"Hello there! Would you happen to know why the moon is an eyeball?" he asked, seemingly totally undisturbed by the situation.

"A Class X-4 Temporal Breakdown Is In Progress. This Timeline Shall Cease To Exist In Fifteen Minutes." it replied, voice shifting unnaturally for the final two words. A visible crack spread across the sky as he finished speaking.

"Oh," Omicron said, drooping. "And there was so much I was looking forward to learning. Fifteen minutes isn't a lot of time to learn in. Ah, but I suppose I'll get to watch the end of time! That'll be very interesting indeed!" he cheered, springing right back.

"You Must Go." the thing repeated once more. Orvtre and Rune seemed to catch on at the same time.

"No," Rune voiced immediately.

"I mean, his timeline is about to end," Orvtre said.

"NO," Rune replied, louder and more insistently.

"It's not like he has anywhere else to go..."

"NOOOO," Rune repeated, even more insistently this time.

"He's not even the same Omicron!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO," Rune bellowed, arcane sparks exploding around her.

Mithril simply grinned widely. "Hey, imagine us having our own Omicron! You know that'll be fun!"

I stepped in to shut this down as quickly as possible. "Actually, know what, I'mma side with Rune here," I said, to Rune's apparent surprise. "One Omicron is more than enough Omicron."

Adaptrix looked between the two groups. "Loyalty protocols demand I advocate for the safety of my master."

"That's three to two!" Mithril crowed, to my and Rune's dismay.

Omicron blinked a few times. "You... want me to go with them?" he asked the thing.

"You Must Go." it repeated once more, then vanished, leaving behind a tiny, glowing shard. Omicron picked it up and peered at it close-up.

"Huh. I wonder what this is?" he asked as the rest of us crowded around him, at which point time broke around us once more.

<Sigma>

f***ing f***er f***, my head feels like someone just ran it over with a train or three.

The pounding rain and an enormous crack of thunder that followed did not help my headache in the slightest.

"f***'s sake, what did they do this time..." I growled as I sat up from the ground, finding myself amidst a thunderstorm. I haven't passed out like that in ages...

I twisted suddenly, generating a blade from between my knuckles, as I suddenly found myself no longer in the rain, only to retract the blade as I was confronted with a purple wall looming over me.

"Ah. Hey... aren't you injured?" I inquired, realizing that it was Juggernaut. He let loose a somewhat confused-sounding grunt, his whole body rippling as he shrugged. Something golden swept around his leg to get under the sover he was providing, which I shortly identified as Libera. Somehow or other, he wasn't even wet.

"Sup, Sig! Wouldn't happen to know what happened, would ya?" he asked, still as exhuberant as ever. "Cause it seemed like Time/Space f***ery, if you ask me."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "You uh... experienced with that kinda thing?"

He raised his mechanical arm in a fist and pumped it. "Of course! Well, in the context of Spiral Perceptual Teleportation, anyway. Whatever just happened to us was kinda like that."

"Great. Any idea where we are, then?"

"No goddamn clue!" Libera replied, unperturbed. Great. Another crack of thunder overhead rattled my skull under the continuing storm.

"Can't we just teleport back to HQ?" I prodded, only to get an answer from behind.

"Just tried, it's not working. Like he said, Time/Space f***ery," Mithril's voice growled as she stepped under the cover Juggernaut was providing as well, not that the rain bothered her any. "I was just with a couple of the others, but they all seemed to have gotten shifted elsewhere... Wouldn't happen to have seen anyone else out there, Juggernaut?" she asked, peering up at the oversized Purple. He got halfway through shaking his head before he suddenly raised his head, squinted, and then pointed out into the darkness. I couldn't see what was out there until it was abruptly illuminated by a flash of lightning.

As soon as I saw it, it suddenly crossed the distance, giving us all a much better look at a horned Yellow Pikmin with two ribbon-like extensions coming from its back. But what grabbed my attention was what was at the end of its stalk; a transluscent yellow flower, made of what looked very much like the same material as the orb at the end of my own stalk.

"... Upsilon?" I ventured, to which it screeched unholy hell at us, electricity crackling about it in voltages I didn't even want think about.

"Take cover!" Mithril shouted, snapping up her defenses as a blast of raw electricity tore through, leaving a steaming, melted lump of metal between us.

"Scatter!" I called, running in one direction while Libera ran in the other, both moving to flank... whatever this thing is. Is this actually Upsilon?