Fight for Power

<Epsilon>

Stumbling backwards, Epsilon called in his bits to cauterize the bleeding stump of his left leg. He'd never been very fond of that prosthetic, perhaps he could get a better one afterwards. Bereft of it, though, he had to assemble a number of the bits into an ad hoc leg. Enough to stand on, at least. Having pulled the requisite bits from over his chest, it revealed the pendant that Pluto had handed him, back on the sub.

For good luck, he'd said. Epsilon scowled. He'd make his own damn luck. Unknowingly, he echoed exactly the same thought Mithril had.

'No more running.'

Rather than retreat any further, he simply charged in, deploying a swarm of bits to blow away any of the clones that approached him. His eyes were locked on one, and only one. The real one. If she was surprised by his choice of action, she didn't show it, moving only to meet him head on.

"Metal-" she began, only to cut off as a swarm of bits blasted at her head. Annoying, but ultimately harmless. It hadn't been intended as anything more than a distraction, though. Epsilon took the moment to slam his left palm into her chest, an action that cost him immediately when she brought her arm down, slicing his own off at the shoulder. Another prosthetic, he lamented silently, as the fifteen Spirium bombs he'd just stuck in Mithril's chest all detonated at once.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" the metal 'min roared as the strange green liquid seared through her. It was a long shot, but... there! Some... thing that stuck out from the surrounding metal. That had to be the core. Epsilon locked on immediately, drew forth every single one of his bits - even the ones he'd been using as a replacement for his leg - and fired everything on that one spot.

A horrific metallic screech emanated from it, causing Epsilon to stumble back, trying to cover his ears only to remember that his left arm was missing. As the noise died down, he turned away to call back his bits and call in someone to haul his ass out of here. Somebody was getting reamed for not sending him any backup.

"Metal..." came a whisper from behind him. He turned back around just in time to see death coming. He merely narrowed his eyes at it.

'I miscalculated...' was his only thought as Mithril's hand slammed into his chest just above Pandora's emblem, knocking the emblem away. The bits went with it, quickly reforming into the box's base form. Mithril, however, kept going.

"SPINERIPPER!" Mithril roared, slamming him into a wall, where her hand sliced through his chest, ribcage, and spine in one shot. Epsilon spat up blood on the impact and stared numbly down at the arm intruding in his chest.

"What... do you have to say... to that?" Mithril choked out. That attack had clearly done some damage... just not enough. Epsilon coughed up a bit of blood with a near silent sound.

"What was that? Didn't... quite hear you," Mithril growled as she leaned closer. The Warboss of the Stealth Squad took the chance to spit a wad of blood over her face before croaking "Now."

The thump behind her was the only warning she got. She turned just in time to see Phase step on top of the upright Pandora's Box before the front lid opened to release a bright light, and everything became pain.

'Sorry, Black Hole... this is as far as I could go,' was Epsilon's last thought as darkness claimed him.

The Fist of Zeromus

Being the closest, Ark'thugal was the first to notice the psionic shockwave that echoed through the network. He merely scowled in the direction it had come from before scoffing.

"Well then..." he muttered as he finished repairing Eranikus's damaged head. Hopping up onto the plague wyrm's back, he commanded it to take flight.

"I suppose that means we're moving to plan B..."

Down below, mostly encased in nearly an entire glacier of ice and bone, Adaptrix wondered exactly how it was that he hadn't been destroyed just there. Shifting into a bunch of blades to cut himself free, he gazed up at the slowing shrinking dragon.

'Did he... spare me?'
_________
Barrack, being the most psionically sensitive, was the next to notice. It was fairly obvious, what with coming in the form of a massive headache that sent him stumbling back.

"Gah, what the hell..." Barrack growled as Kazul jumped in front of him, swatting aside the incoming strike from Dusk.

"What the hell's wrong with you?! Shake it off!" his fellow Warboss growled at him. Barrack shook his head. A shock like that... that could only mean...
_________
The wave washed over Skys***ter next, knocking him off balance just long enough for Rune to get a good hit on him. He repaid it with a point blank wind blast that sent her skidding across the street, tatters of her outfit falling in her wake.

'f*** was that?' Skys***ter growled.

Not far away, Juggernaut found a break in his fight with Barricade as the massive Black Pikmin ground to a sudden halt, giving Juggernaut a moment to shoulder bash him to the floor. The massive Purple Pikmin was bleeding from all over, and while he felt no pain, he did kind of still need blood. Quicksilver had been doing everything in his power to keep the rest of the Boyz off his bigger friend and was currently sweating something fierce, so the momentary break from most of the Boyz suddenly collapsing was welcome.

"Did she do it...?" Quicksilver muttered to himself.
_________
Trombe was the second to last to feel it, and it brought him to a complete halt as his head snapped around towards the source.

"Eps...?" Trombe whispered, eyes wide. Zeta took the opportunity to sock him in the chest, sending him skidding backwards, leaving a trough in the street as he went. When Trombe recovered, however, his eyes were suddenly lit with an intense fury.

"OUT OF MY WAY!" the Warboss roared, slamming both chainswords into Zeta's shoulder and gripping the triggers with all his strength. Zeta howled in pain as the blades ripped through him, causing more damage than he'd thought he could still take at this point, before Trombe kicked him away and through the wall of a building.

"Zeta!" Rho yelled, rushing in with Burgundy active. Trombe ducked aside from his attack and slammed him into the floor with one of his chainswords. Before he could grip the trigger, Hydross slammed into his back, jamming his spear and sword into Trombe's neck. The larger Black Pikmin simply released one of his swords to grab Hydross, pull him around, and slam him into the ground before stomping on his head several times. With the immediate obstacles dealt with, he sheathed his chainswords and took off in the direction he knew Epsilon was in.

Blackfuse noticed last, as all of his Boyz stumbled in momentary confusion, enough for Vashj to send them all off balance by sending a massive ripple through the water that Beta had accumulated.

"The hell was..." Blackfuse started before his face suddenly twisted into one of pure rage. "You... you b****es distracted me! ZEROMUS DAMN IT!" he roared as his mek shifted in shape, gaining several feet as the arms were covered over, a massive set of claws growing over the electrode and a huge circular saw springing forth from the left arm. His next action was quite simple; he lowered the electrically charged claws into the water.

A few of his Boyz got shocked, yes, but then so did Bloodriver, Vashj, and Beta. They got the worst of it, being so close to him. Blackfuse's mek stomped forward towards the largely paralyzed Bloodriver, the circular saw spinning up.

"Now then, think I'll take the difference OUTTA YOUR HIDES!" he roared before bringing the sawblade down... only to find it sliced in half, the two pieces embedding themselves into the walls of two nearby buildings.

"A HERO ARRIVES IN THE NICK OF TIME!"

"What now?" Blackfuse demanded, turning towards the source of the voice. All he could see was a shadow atop the tallest building in the area, backed by the sun.

"A hero strikes when least expected! The enemies of all that is good, the ones who want to destroy this world that is made of love! And peace! Will never escape from justice!"

"Is that..." Beta whispered, staring upwards with a giant grin.

"Specially in the moment that he feels safe, he will know! There is nowhere to hide! The name for this!" the figure yelled, now leaping from the building towards Blackfuse's mek.

"IS!"

A pair of drills sprouted from the figure's strange left arm.

"DYNAAAAAAMIIIIIIIIIC

ENTRYYYYYYYYYY!" Libera roared as his mechanical left arm burst into flames.

"NEVER-ENDING-COMBUSTION-OF-A-MAN'S-SOUL FALCON DRILL PUUUUUUUUNCH!" he roared as the flames formed into a massive falcon, the twin drills behind its beak.

The tips of the drills made the slightest physical contact with the mek...
________
Somewhere else...

Anti's eyes narrowed in displeasure at the world-shaking explosion. Well, it had been inevitable, hadn't it...
________
Blackfuse rolled end over end as he was ejected from his mek mere seconds before the impact, having recognized a fatality when he saw it. Libera now stood amidst the burning wreckage of his beautiful mek, brandishing his left arm like a deadly weapon. It was mostly red and black, with some kind of skull shape over the forearm and the upper arm made of... was that some kind of drill?

"Had enough, villain?" Libera taunted, twitching his index finger. Blackfuse snarled an incomprehensible string of pure anger at him before forming some kind of laser rifle to fire at him. Libera simply stuck his hand forward and caught the beam, splitting it into several smaller, harmless streams, before opening his hand to reveal the cannon in his arm.

"GETTER BEAM!" Libera yelled, firing a swirling green beam back at the Warboss that tore his laser cannon right out of his hands. Fuming, Blackfuse formed a jetpack and boosted away before Libera could come up with anything else.

Rather than give chase, he turned to the other three Hero Squad members, who were now getting back to their feet.

"How's it going, guys?" Libera greeted them with a wide grin.

"Well, better now than the last few minutes. Nice arm," Beta replied with an equally wide grin.

"Isn't it just?" he laughed back.

<]-Mithril-[>

PF666: Omen. The final Pandora form. Dangerous indeed. However, if they thought that this was enough to kill Mithril, then they were sorely mistaken.

As the light subsided, Phase noticed something odd. Wasn't his view too low to the ground... ?

And then Phase noticed his mangled body, lying quite a bit apart from him. He had just been decapitated. Right as he thought that, Mithril's foot slammed down on his head, stomping him out of existence. Mithril blasted away at the two corpses here, annihilating the remains of Epsilon and Phase.

Mithril called over a few robots and had them haul away Pandora. She made a few clones to escort said robots on their trek. They would find a way to safely dispose of that damn thing; had someone other than Mithril taken that final attack, they probably would've died.

Walking over to the black orb that had once been attached to Epsilon, Mithril picked it up. Soon afterwards, Trombe burst into the area, searching around for Epsilon's corpse.

"Yo, looking for this?" Mithril asked, holding up the black orb and waving it around. Trombe immediately raged and charged at Mithril, who responded by rocketing away from the Warboss.

Trombe was very intent on recovering Epsilon's orb, which made it very easy for Mithril to kite him inside one of the few remaining buildings here. Trombe's focus was so narrow that he didn't pay much attention to the cube of metal that had completely enclosed him and Mithril, cutting off all light from this place.

And that was when Hero Squad's psionic weapon hit.

Trombe hissed in agony, feeling like his brain was being ripped out of his skull. However, as bad as this was, it was about to get worse.

Mithril, in a very deft maneuver, suddenly ended up behind Trombe, and then she did something to the back of Trombe's head. He couldn't see what Mithril did, but whatever she did made the pain amplify a dozenfold.

With that accomplished, Mithril tossed Epsilon's orb in front of Trombe's face. She had completed pretty much all of her objectives here.

As the metal cube came down around Trombe, Mithril strolled out of the building, idly noting the absurdly large radio tower thing that was now looming ominously over Ludibrium. The aforementioned radio tower thing was Hero Squad's super secret Black Pikmin killing psionic weapon. And judging by all the dead Black Pikmin lying around, it was quite successful.

Said weapon worked more like a bomb, dishing out as much damage as possible before it was inevitably destroyed. Even if any of the Black Pikmin survived the initial psionic pulsing, the brain cancer that they'd contract would eventually finish them off.

Mithril called up Libera and advised him and perhaps a few of the others to go back up Orvtre and company. They would need help in their task to fend off Black Scythe. Quite a few Warbosses are retreating now, and with the psionic weapon thinning out their numbers further, it wouldn't hurt too much to devote more personnel to repel the Supreme Warboss.

As for Mithril herself? She had taken more damage than she had liked back there against Epsilon, especially from Pandora Form 666: Omen. With that in mind, Mithril was withdrawing from Ludibrium, at least for the time being. She wanted to rest up a bit to mitigate the damage somewhat and avoid stretching herself too thin, as Epsilon made such a novice blunder and horribly, terribly overextended. There wasn't any need to take such a risk at the moment.

After all, Libera is fresh and ready to roll.

<Trombe>

The pain didn't really mean anything to him. Not now, anyway. He didn't feel the pain of his injuries. He didn't feel the weight pressing down on him from above. He didn't feel anything, other than the weight of that black orb in his hand. Slowly, as if the debris above him wasn't even there, Trombe stood up, cradling the orb like it was the most precious thing in the world, and shuffled out of the former building like a zombie.

He didn't stop until he'd reached the Cathedral Stormrider.

Trombe has exited the battle...
______________
>>>Blackfuse<<<

"Nobody beats Blackfuse... NOBODY!" the enraged Warboss growled as he touched down on the Cathedral. From there he stormed up to the bridge. Skys***ter wasn't back yet, so that meant he had command of the ship.

"Listen up, ya gits! Turn every single one of our weapons on this city, and BLOW IT TO f***ING SMITHEREENS, YA HEAR ME?!" he bellowed at the bridge crew as he arrived.

"Err... wot about da rest o' da Boyz down dere?" one of them asked, flinching as Blackfuse cast a baleful glare at him.

"They'll get the picture when the guns turn, or they'll roast with the rest of the damn city! Now MOVE IT!"
______________
Black Scythe

The two psionic shockwaves that washed over him, nearly back to back, were a clear sign that it was time to stop dragging his ass. So when Sapphire rushed him down again, he didn't bother blocking; he simply opened his guard and let her hit him.

Even with the power boost she'd gotten from Orvtre, Sapphire stopped after a few blows when she noticed Black Scythe's total lack of a reaction.

"Hoo boy... were you screwing with us the whole time?" she winced, already preparing to backstep before the Supreme Warboss simply opened his mouth and let loose a roar that shook the very foundations of the Path of Time. The ear-splitting scream was enough to send Grav to the floor with convulsions, while Sapphire, Broxigar and Sigma clapped their hands to their ears. Orvtre, being immune to pain, had no reaction until Black Scythe was suddenly in front of hir.

"Radio Knife," was all he said as he swiped his electrically-charged armblade through Orvtre's midsection. Two blades of lightning followed after, quartering hir in one shot.

"Electrodispenser, Black Storm," was his followup, a large number of balls of lightning firing off from him as an ominous layer of clouds formed throughout the room. Under the cover of the clouds and the thunder that followed it, he simply vanished into the shadows.

Orvtre, meanwhile, was quickly finding that that had been no simple cut, as the wounds refused to regenerate. 'A regeneration suppressant?! Does he really have an answer to everything we can throw at him...?' shi thought. The energy behind that attack was dissipating, though, so the effect wouldn't last forever.

"Hey, go after him! I'll be fine, just make sure he doesn't get away!" Orvtre shouted out, unsure if the others could even hear hir after that massive scream.

"Not a problem!" came Libera's voice, a green streak zooming through the cloud as he went. Something else moving very fast followed, followed by three others moving through before the unmistakable bulk of Juggernaut pushed through the gloom.

"Smell funny here," the massive Purple Pikmin complained, even as he scooped up the others in order to carry them while they recovered.

<Aeonus>

"Just got confirmation from Mithril; Epsilon's down," Libra reported, getting a scowl from Aeonus and his Infinite allies.

"One job, Blackfuse..." Aeonus muttered.

"So that's it, then, isn't it? It's over," Chi pointed at him with a bizarre weapon he'd pulled from... somewhere. "Whatever you were up to, its failed."

"Not yet," Aeonus shot back, dozens of weapons shimmering into existence around him. "I may have pointed them to one of the events that had to happen, but I wasn't stupid enough to point out all of them. As long as Black Scythe can make it to the Clock Tower, I win. I told you... time is on my side," he declared, unleashing havoc upon the two opposing time travelers.
_________
>Adaptrix<

Damage report was quite messy, severe damage everywhere... the fact he hadn't been destroyed outright was a small miracle. Or perhaps Ark hadn't thought him worth the trouble of destroying. Either way, he wasn't in any condition to keep fighting here, even with the weapon deployed.

Nevertheless, the distinct sound of thrusters set him back on alert, at least until he identified the source. It looked an awful lot like Seraph... well, how Seraph used to look, anyway.

"Unit Adaptrix identified. Extensive damage detected. Unfortunately, I am not equipped for repairs," it said as it approached and touched down near him. It struck Adaptrix just how small Seraph's frame had been; Adaptrix was hardly a giant, but he was still taller than not-Seraph here.

"So, Omicron decided to deploy you here? When I saw that dropship earlier, I figured he'd be helping out more during the battle..." Adaptrix muttered, sparks fuzzing through his voice every few words.

"This unit has been designated 'Mara'. Master Omicron intended to send support earlier, but circumstances came up to prevent him from sending aid," Mara replied. "I was sent both to provide support for Libera, and because Master Omicron believes it is likely Seraph will show himself here."

Adaptrix blinked at his "younger brother". There were two things that stood out to him there.

"Circumstances...? And Seraph's coming here?!" he barked. Mara's reply was simply to turn his head to the side and project a hologram from one of his eyes. The hologram showed the colony, and immediately showed just what the "circumstances" in question were.

The entire colony was bunched up and very low to the ground, with most of the smaller biospheres tucked underneath the main colony. The primary sphere itself had a huge black mark on one side, pitted with small indentations.

"The colony's under attack?!" Adaptrix shouted.

"Indirectly," Mara confirmed, dismissing the hologram, "The Black Pikmin appear to have constructed a long-range weapon to fire upon the colony. Master Omicron believes this was specifically to keep him from involving himself in the battle here. I was asked to secure your aid in destroying this weapon."

Adaptrix ran that for a few cycles. All things considered, Hero Squad would probably have to deal with a weapon like that one way or another, so it would probably be fine to set that as their first target.

"As for the Fallen Seraph, Master Omicron believed it likely he would attack here, in an attempt to strike at Black Scythe. He will likely have backup. I suggest preparing for his arrival."

<]-Mithril-[>

In Hero Squad HQ...

As Mithril strolled past the medical bay where Gamma and Orbin were treating Rho, Hydross, and Zeta, she received a call from Adaptrix, which told her about the situation with Omicron and the Megadakka that was shooting at his colony. Sighing, Mithril advised Adaptrix to withdraw, given how damaged he was.

After all, they had some reserves in store who could help destroy that artillery cannon.

First among them was a dude made of rock, who had joined Hero Squad during their stay at Blackrock Descent. He specialized in throwing rocks, whether big or small, with very high accuracy and power. He was quite strong and sturdy, but he generally liked to stay in the background. He had been sniping away at some Black Pikmin Boyz during Ludibrium to thin their numbers, but he should be willing to help out with the artillery cannon problem.

Then there were the miscellaneous Bloodseed, who were eager for a fight.

Next were the various summons Orvtre and Rune had gathered, such as the Anodized Cannonball Beetle, the strange, Asura-like cyborg beast with dozens upon dozens of arms, and the Blasting Corkoink.

Finally, there were the other robots. EBO-01/Vector 1K, EBO-02/Venom 5K, EBO-03/Lance 10K, EBO-04/Rapier 20K, EBO-05/Phantom 50K, C-024TR/Chevalier, and G3.

G3 in particular was currently inside some kind of action-figure packaging. The Bloodseed were curious and decided to turn all the robots on all at once. For G3 in particular, one of the Bloodseed turned it on by pressing a button on the back of the action figure packaging, causing the packaging to unfold...

'This should be interesting,' Mithril mused, generating a few clones to keep an eye on things as she headed off into her own Hero Zone.

Black Scythe

Having put some distance between himself and Hero Squad, Black Scythe nonetheless couldn't help but notice he wasn't alone.

Something lurked down here within the depths of the Path of Time. Or rather, somethings. A lot of them.

"See the spirits writhe and twist... the numberless shades, forsaken by time," the Supreme Warboss muttered whimsically as the many spirits moved around him. Some of these teddy bear automatons had found their way down here, only to be possessed. They presented little threat to him.

Unfortunately, the reprieve was short lived, because that was about when a white blur rushed ahead of him, then made an about face to slam into him at high speed. Black Scythe released a wave of flame to ward Quicksilver off of him, but the distraction was still enough for someone else to strike at him.

"Buster..." came a voice from behind him, giving him only just enough time to turn around and swipe at it with his claws. Libera ducked under his swipe, however, and slammed his left arm into the Supreme Warboss's chest as a number of metallic rods extended out from it.

"COLLIDER!" Libera roared as his arm released a massive jolt of electricity. Black Scythe roared in return, swinging his left tail around to jab at the golden Pikmin's mechanical arm. Libera was able to twist his arm around at the last moment to avoid having it sliced off, instead simply receiving a shallow gouge along the edge. The force of the blow was still enough to knock him off balance, though, and Black Scythe took advantage of it to kick him in the chest, sending him sprawling across the area.

Before he could follow up on that, a pair of attacks streaked through the gloom at him, a wave of searing hot blood followed by a small storm of watery projectiles. Then Sapphire leapt out at him, slamming a fist into his guard that released a wave of frost, freezing the water that had hit him. This proved more effective than her previous attack, holding Black Scythe in position just long enough for Sigma and Broxigar to slam into him, Sigma gouging a hole through his armor that Broxigar proceeded to fill with his axe. Black blood seeped from the wound and promptly crystallized into spikes, forcing both of them back.

It was when Juggernaut brought his hammer down atop the Supreme Warboss that he decided he'd had quite enough of this. Catching the hammer with his left hand, he jammed his right arm into the floor.

"Bonescythe Graveyard," Black Scythe growled as dozens of copies of his armblade sprouted from the ground. Juggernaut grunted as several found their way into him, while a series of yelps and a few cries of pain echoed from the others. He followed this by gathering some of the blood leaking from his chest into a sphere in his hand.

"Blood Nova," he called, raising the sphere up at then detonating it, sending the black blood all over the room. A few seconds later came the sound of it crystallizing painfully upon whoever it landed on.

"Do you fools really think you can stop me? That you have even the slightest prayer of victory? I am beyond you. You have no hope," Black Scythe mocked, spitting a wad of blood onto the floor as Hero Squad moved to regroup.

"Why, you're absolutely right, I'd say. They really don't have any hope... but then, that's what I'm here for," came another voice, one that Black Scythe immediately recognized and despised.

"Step aside, you worthless heroes," Digital Gear crowed as he materialized from the shadows, a crowd of Gearteeth and MP units appearing around him as they folded in, "The real star of the show is here."

?-Orvtre-?

Nobody here really enjoyed Digital Gear's presence, except Digital Gear himself of course. Sapphire in particular shot the machine an angry glare, which Digital Gear just laughed off.

Black Scythe may have enjoyed Digital Gear's presence the least, however, as the Supreme Warboss immediately charged at him and swiped at him with his namesake blade. Digital Gear was fast enough to dodge aside, a pressure wave lashing out at the machine's previous position. The machine then retaliated by firing several missiles at Black Scythe, but the Supreme Warboss responded by blasting the missiles out of existence with a storm of electricity.

The Supreme Warboss continued rushing at Digital Gear, clearly intent on slicing him apart, however the mechanical tyrant just kept dodging. It was clear that Digital Gear had a decisive advantage in speed here. Black Scythe then fired off a few Needlers at him, but Digital Gear blocked that by putting up his hexagonal barrier.

Black Scythe sent a "Wind Scar" Digital Gear's way, but the strength of his hexagonal shields meant that the machine only had to dodge the scythe blade itself.

While they were watching this, Hero Squad was formulating a plan. They would not enjoy having to team up with Digital Gear in this fight, but it was probably necessary. That said, Digital Gear hadn't busted out his radiation weaponry... yet, but Bloodriver was already preparing countermeasures for the radiation.

Hero Squad announced their (admittedly reluctant) intent to team up with Digital Gear and then moved into action. Libera started things off by charging in, activating his Super Spiral Shield in the process.

However Digital Gear decided to be a dick and use Libera as a distraction, by shoving the golden Pikmin towards the Supreme Warboss. Digital Gear paid for that.

"Room," said Black Scythe, who followed up with "Shambles," swapping Libera's and Digital Gear's position. Unfortunately for the machine tyrant, that meant he was in range of Black Scythe's...

"Radio Knife," hissed the Supreme Warboss, as he swung his electrically-charged scythe at Digital Gear. The machine was not quite able to avoid the entirety of Black Scythe's attack at this position, the blade cleaving through the hexagonal barrier and leaving a moderate gouge in the robotic body that wouldn't heal for the near future.

<Gamma>

These three are not in good shape.

Zeta's not in any particular danger, but even then, Trombe nearly took his arms off. All of the flesh on the upper part of his shoulders has simply been torn away, and there are several gouges in the bones. I've wrapped him up with everything I possibly can, but those injuries are going to take a while to heal. I'm not sure when Alpha showed up - how is that light bulb so damn stealthy? - but he took up a spot near Zeta and hasn't moved since then.

Rho's probably the least injured of the lot, but he still had a chainsword slammed down on his back. Even if the blades weren't spinning, they still left a bunch of grooves along his back, starting at his shoulder and criss-crossing down to his thigh. His ribcage also took a beating from the sheer force.

Hydross is in pretty bad condition, what with Trombe having introduced his boot to his head several times. His face is a bruised mess and his skull is fractured in several places, not to mention the other injuries he picked up over the course of the fight. Honestly he's lucky Trombe didn't kill him. He and Zeta are likely to be out of it for a while after this.

What's more, we've now got some news that Omicron's under attack, and the team decided to activate those robots Omicron lent us in order to deal with it.

Most of them simply activated and ran a systems check, but then there was the one Libera had worked on, G3. The one in action figure packaging. As it unfolded, it revealed that apparently it actually came in several separate, miniature robots that combined together. A Pikminoid base, what looked like a tank with a pair of drills attached to the front, some kind of triangular plane, and is that a bullet train?

It was largely black and red with a bit of white and a golden lion head on the front once the whole combining sequence was done, whereupon it banged its fists together, producing an electrical crackle between them.

"G3, online. All systems go," it belted out in a very deep monotone. Yes, this is entirely what I expected from something Libera had a hand in.
_______
)))Digital Gear(((

As soon as Black Scythe landed a hit on him, he jetted backwards and let his swarm of mechanical minions swoop in. Predictably, none of them had much of a chance against the Supreme Warboss, but it bought Gear time to fire a pair of purple beams in Black Scythe's direction.

Both beams curved around him and sputtered out on impact, getting an annoyed sound from Digital Gear. "Looks like an energy deflection ability. Physical it is!" he called out, firing a barrage of small missiles glowing the same purple color.

Black Scythe carved the first few out of the air before several objects slammed into him from behind, small bits of debris that Grav had increased the weight of before launching. The next missile salvo hit home, prompting an aggravated growl from Black Scythe.

"So many little gnats swarming about me... deal with these vermin," he snarled, as black globs slid off of him... before reforming into phantasmal Black Pikmin. A series of drills sprouted beneath them as they formed, but the swarm of Black Phantoms simply pulled themselves back together and launched themselves at Hero Squad while Black Scythe himself redoubled his focus on Digital Gear.