Fight for Power

<]-Mithril-[>

Even in hir weakened state, Libra should be able to hold off Aeonus long enough for Mithril to kill off Epsilon. Even if Libra had to retreat early because of hir prior "injuries", they could also call in Chi to help, as he was a Hero Squad member and had fought against Aeonus previously.

Mithril was making a direct beeline towards Epsilon. That said, there were also a lot of Infinites flying around. Predictably, some of those tried attacking Mithril. Those Infinites that tried attacking Mithril died very brutally.

SLASHYSLASHYSLICYSLICY

In a flurry of chainsaws and blades, a few dozen Infinites died. There were much more than that remaining; enough for Mithril to grab one on the run, stuff it full of explosives, and then hurl it at a few unlucky Black Pikmin to cause a bloody explosion.

Mithril was strong enough to simply brute force ram past the mass of Infinites. That said, the sheer number of them acting as a wall was enough to slow her down a bit. She was, unfortunately for Epsilon, still rushing towards the Warboss's position at alarmingly high speed.

Epsilon fired off another shot at Mithril. Mithril was informed by the other Hero Squad members that Epsilon does not miss twice; indeed, the second shot Epsilon fired rushed straight towards her head... before Mithril violently fisted said shot with a white glow surrounding her hand, the forceful attack punching said shot out of existence.

Mithril grew several more arms and then fired off multiple exploding rocket fist beams at Epsilon's position. The huge mass of Infinites slowed down the shots a tad, giving Epsilon barely enough time to make a dodging leap off Helios Tower and onto one of Blackfuse's fast-looking Meks. The top of Helios Tower disintegrated from the sheer power of Mithril's barrage.

>>>Blackfuse<<<

"Comin' through!" was the only warning Mithril got before a few dozen tons of something that might have been made of metal slammed into her at high speed, intercepting her attempted next strike at Epsilon even as the sniper leapt from the Mek he'd jumped to, a much smaller vehicle catching him out of midair and zipping around to a new vantage point.

"You want somebody who can put up a good and proper fight, then you want somebody more like me!" Blackfuse taunted through his Mek's speakers. A cacophony of sparks burst from the massive electrode on the Mek's right arm, a leering face built into its torso.

Mithril's immediate response was to rip it to shreds from within... except that didn't happen. The Warboss inside laughed uproariously at her surprised expression.

"That trick ain't gonna work on me!" Blackfuse shouted as a pair of turrets sprouted from the mek's shoulders, each firing a sustained laser that left crackling flames in their wake. Dodging around the beams, Mithril charged and bodily slammed into the mek's face, shoving it over before leaping away.

Not quite fast enough to avoid being tagged by the electrode, though.

A searing pain ripped through her entire body as electricity jumped from her to anything around her, melting the ground beneath her feet with its intensity. Blackfuse cackled as his Mek righted itself, only to squawk indignantly when Mithril returned a burst of electricity to him, searing his Mek's shoulders.

"Oi! Watch the merchandise, punk!" Blackfuse roared angrily, a salvo of missiles emerging from his back Mithril countered the barrage with a spray of metal projectiles, only for a much faster one to slam into her from behind, blowing through her body and searing a hole in the floor with its passage. Far above, Epsilon shifted Pandora out of its cumbersome railgun form and zipped away on his hovercycle. A good sniper rarely sits still, after all.

Even with the blow from the railgun having knocked her off balance, Mithril still had the presence of mind to dodge when Blackfuse swung in with the electrode again and immediately launched a barrage of metallic fletchettes at it as she leapt backwards. The attack was for naught, though, the blades simply being repelled by the electrode's powerful electromagnetic field.

"Heheh. Ain't gonna be that easy, princess. Big shot gave me all the specifications I'd need to take you out," Blackfuse boasted, the Mek's shoulder turrets firing a blazing path behind her. Mithril snapped her attention to him at that sentence.

"How would Black Scythe know that much about me?" she demanded, producing a variety of weapons and vehicles to throw in Blackfuse's direction.

"Well, boss man's got his own methods... but I wasn't talking about the boss man," the Warboss replied smugly as a large number of circular saw blades ejected from within his mek to circle around it protectively. "You're a smart kid, figure it out!"
____________
Black Scythe

The Infinite has made his move. Now so shall we.

The entire city shook as something hit the side of the "bowl" like a meteor, blowing open a massive hole. The huge, armored form of the Supreme Warboss stomped through the opening, giving only one last look behind him before he stalked inside.

Below, the rest of the Black Pikmin's ground forces approached...

<]-Mithril-[>

Ah yes, Aeonus informed Blackfuse of Mithril's combat abilities beforehand. That said, attempting to kill Blackfuse here was a waste of time; so Mithril secretly called in some other Hero Squad members to intercept said Warboss.

As for her current salvo, Mithril fused the various metal weapons and projectiles she had generated together into an exploding, rocket-propelled UBERSPEAR and then fired it at Blackfuse, before darting in Epsilon's direction. Blackfuse was just a glorified distraction; he wasn't worth the time here.

One huge explosion later, and Blackfuse attempted to intercept Mithril again, but the Warboss was in turn intercepted by a white streak slamming into his Mek, causing him to tumble back onto several large nets of light... which was followed up by a bloody slash carving a chunk out of the Mek.

Arriving to hold off Blackfuse were two Hero Squad members, Bloodriver and Quicksilver.

Mithril then fired off another massive fistbeam that forced Epsilon to dart out of the way, Mithril's renewed attention on the Warboss discouraging the use of the cumbersome railgun form.

Tearing through several dozen Infinites, Mithril resumed her charge towards Epsilon. However, that was when several Nobs and Meks dropped down from the sky in an attempt to stop her.

Let them try.

Black Scythe

'What pitiful resistance,' the Supreme Warboss thought to himself as he stepped over the mutilated bodies of the city's defenders, his left tail whipping out to impale one who was still alive. His prize was somewhere in the depths of this city, and he would continue his descent until he found it.

The only real obstacle thus far was the fact that the inconsiderate pricks hadn't made the doorways large enough for someone of his stature, and even that was solved as easily as making new doorways. Shaped like him. By melting through the walls.

It was after going through a wall in this fashion that he found the next room not filled with defenders with weapons prepared, but suffused with a soft glow from the single occupant, gazing at him as though expecting him. Black Scythe directed a sneer at the glowing Pikmin and simply moved past him.

"Are you sure this is what you want?" the glowing figure asked quietly. The Supreme Warboss didn't even slow down.

"What I want doesn't matter. And frankly, I'm not sure if it ever did," he growled back, slamming through the next wall with brute force rather than melting through it.
________
<Aeonus>

"Give up! If you know anything at all about me, then you know you can't win," Aeonus taunted Libra as he called up swirling sands beneath the other time traveler, then followed by firing a truck-sized glob of sand as his opponent was slowed. Another shield of light popped up, but it wasn't enough to stop the attack fully.

"Maybe not by myself," Libra admitted, firing a beam of light that tore through Aeonus's body. As all the other hits shi'd landed, though, the wound vanished in an instant. "But I can stall."

"What do you even hope to accomplish here?" the Timeless Pikmin asked as he silently called for several other Infinites to lend him a bit of their strength, preparing a massive temporal blast. "Do you think you can stop me here? That you can change the fate I've worked so tirelessly to weave?"

"I'm trying to stop you from making a mistake. You have no idea what-"

"I have no idea?! Fool!" Aeonus roared, a sound that rippled through time and space itself. Everything around them either decayed instantly into dust or unmade itself on the spot, while several old and new wounds blossomed into existence over Libra's body with an unpleasant tearing sound. "I am the master of the timeways! I have seen all timelines! I AM Infinite! And you think you've seen something I haven't?!"

Libra twitched only slightly at the injuries as they began to seal over, having been preparing a large scale attack of hir own in return. "The Galactic Gods-" shi began, only to be cut off once again.

"Are nothing compared to what I've seen," Aeonus hissed, paying no heed to Libra's attack; it'd be just as useless as the rest of them.

"Gonna have to explain that one to me," lilted a voice from behind him, and now he threw up a temporal wall to fend off the enormous beam of light Libra sent his way, even as he turned his back on it to glare at his counterpart.

"So, you decided to show up, Chi..."

!-Libra-!

Just now, Aeonus had blocked Libra's attack instead of ignoring it. The reason for this? Chi had arrived, and he carried with him the means of timelocking Aeonus: the Hourglass of Time.

Of course, what that meant was that Aeonus would immediately go after said hourglass. The Infinite Spawn fired off a large glob of sand at the hourglass, however Libra threw up several walls of light in front of Aeonus's attack, giving Chi time to float the hourglass away from Aeonus's barrage. Chi then called forth several high-powered gatling guns, unleashing a hellish spray of bullets that Aeonus blocked with a wall of sand.

Chi whispered something to Libra. The cosmic Pikmin nodded, and then Chi rushed in towards Aeonus, the Temporal Eldest pulling twin powerswords somewhere from time and then bringing them down upon Aeonus. The Infinite Spawn countered by throwing up a wall of sand at Chi, and then attempted to send a temporal wave at Libra's direction.

That attempt was interrupted when Libra sent beams of light down at Aeonus, who sent a temporal wave in return, slowing the barrage enough for the Infinite Spawn to dodge aside. Aeonus then attempted to make a beeline for the Hourglass; Libra's attempt at stopping him with several rays of light were only met with more sand.

Chi made an attempt at intercepting Aeonus, this time with some magical blades, but Aeonus's response was to angrily snarl at the Temporal Eldest and violently headbutt him. The Infinite Spawn was promptly blindsided however, when Chi pulled some of Libra's attacks through time at him. Although Aeonus put up some temporal walls in response, the sheer number of Libra's attacks that Chi pulled through meant that an attack of Libra's broke through in part, singeing Aeonus.

That prompted the Infinite Spawn to hiss angrily, unleashing a torrent of sand and time at Libra, Chi and the Hourglass. Unlike the previous times where the wounds inflicted on Aeonus simply disappeared, the burns left from Libra and Chi's combined attack stuck, the injuries remaining on the Infinite Spawn's body.

Libra generated several legions of light walls while Chi pulled out several futuristic-looking guns. With the Hourglass here to timelock Aeonus, headway was finally being made in this fight.

-*-Black Art-*-

The ancient mage stood near the water's edge, gazing up at the ongoing battle. The Cathedral had now drawn in close to the city and had turned to orbit it, firing randomly and dispensing more Black Pikmin as it went. Things looked to be going well.

He turned a sly grin towards his approaching kin, a pair of the Warbosses that had not already joined the battle; Kazul, the spiky one, and Barrack, the psychic one. The Death Knight had already begun his ascent thanks to his plague wyrm, so that just left everyone else.

"Worry not, Boyz, I have a way for us to get there despite this water. Observe..." Black Art announced, placing his hand just under the water's surface and releasing a few pulses of magic before standing and stepping back. A moment passed in silence before a rumble became evident, and an enormous bulge formed in the water's surface as something moved underneath.

A moment later the source made itself known, bursting forth from the water to clamber ashore at its master's call. A frankly massively Segmented Crawbster dragged itself up towards Black Art, who favored it with a nostalgic grin.

"Thud! Good to see you, buddy. Been getting along well? I see you've grown in these past thousand years!" Black Art called up to it, grinning all the while. Thud made a series of clicking noises and was shortly joined on the shore by a few dozen smaller Crawbsters. Black Art gazed across them for a moment as his grin grew even wider.

"And you got busy while I was gone, I see," he chuckled, turning back towards his kin. "We need some transportation to that city over there, think you guys can handle it?"

Thud gave him a series of clicks, and Black Art's grin turned malevolent. "Well then... all aboard the Thud Family Express, Boyz!"
____________
]]]Skys***ter[[[

"Pound you flat!" the massive Purple Pikmin bellowed, swinging his enormous hammer at Skys***ter. The Warboss, however, merely grinned and swiped his own hammer, the gravity wave deflecting the much larger hammer with ease.

"Size ain't everyfing, big shot," Shys***ter taunted, "Sometimes, wut matta's howse ya use it!"

He followed this with another swing of his hammer, the gravity wave pushing Juggernaut back several meters before he caught his footing and began to charge once again. This time, though, he was intercepted.

"Crush!" bellowed Barricade as he shoulder-tackled the large Purple Pikmin, bulldozing him through the wall of a nearby building. The Warboss of the 'Ard Boyz was promptly slammed by an arcane beam from Rune, but shook it off like he'd been bitten by a small insect, focusing his attention in on Juggernaut.

Juggernaut, for his part, wasn't quite used to fighting anyone as large as he was, and was having a rather rough time of it, not the least because Barricade didn't seem to be affected by much of anything that came his way. As much as he wanted to help, Quicksilver had his hands full with Kanaedolph. The Warboss of the Rakuen Maigo wasn't as fast as him, but he was fast enough to make it difficult.

All the while even more Boyz were swarming in, and a considerable number had converged on Orvtre, enough to keep hir occupied with them rather than Skys***ter. The Warboss of the Storm Boyz had decided to take the opportunity to move in on Rune, slamming down where she'd been standing a few seconds previous with a thunderous smash.

"Les' 'ave a go at it den, luv," Skys***ter drawled, whirling his bolt pistol around in his left hand.

@-Rune-@

Rune hissed in irritation. She was informed that only one Warboss was even vulnerable to death here at Ludibrium, and that Mithril would kill said Warboss off. While the metal 'min was busy targeting Epsilon's life, Rune was stuck here with the scarred Warboss with the power boots and the gravity hammer. Joy.

Dodging Skys***ter's bolt pistol rounds, Rune's irritation promptly increased when she was forced to block the Warboss's hammer blow with her staff. The exchange caused Rune to skid backwards; the magician slamming her staff into the ground to slow her skid.

Skys***ter sent a taunt her way; Rune's only response was to charge at him, her staff glowing alight.

"Arcane Lightbringer," Rune hissed, sending a lot of arcane and holy power Skys***ter's way.

"Did ya thing such a straightforward attack would-" Skys***ter mused, blocking the attack with his gravity hammer before Rune followed up by splitting her staff into two magic scythes and hacking away at Skys***ter aggressively.

This only resulted in a few minor cuts on the Warboss. Rune would land a more significant blow however, when, in irritation, the magician punched Skys***ter in the face hard with a fist infused with arcane power.

Skys***ter responded by slamming his gravity hammer into Rune, sending her flying back.

"I admit that stings a bit," Skys***ter notes, before grinning. "I like the ones with more fight in them."

This was getting to be really annoying.

<Epsilon>

She was persistent, he'd give her that. Unfortunately Epsilon wasn't the kind that really appreciated the persistent type.

Deciding that breaking line of sight would be best, he dipped low into the city streets when she became occupied with a large group of Infinites backed by a bunch of Mek Boyz, then kicked off of his speeder, allowing it to swoop up into a holding pattern while he set up.

"If she thinks she's so tough," Epsilon muttered, slamming Pandora to the ground as it began to shift and split, "Then let's see how her friends handle it."

In a matter of seconds, the box had transformed into a missile platform, with a viewfinder attached at the front. PF066: Sloth. Epsilon had hooked up the viewfinder to a camera on his speeder, and now used that to pinpoint the locations of each member of Hero Squad and lock on.

"Eat s***," the Warboss growled as he stomped the firing pin, launching a single massive missile into the air. Once it cleared the buildings, it split open, releasing a gigantic swarm of missiles into the air. Epsilon took the moment to shift Pandora back into its box form and begin moving. That shot would have been a handy beacon signalling his location; he couldn't stay here.
________
<Hydross>

'This is impossible,' Hydross thought to himself, the tendrils on his back waving around irritably. In spite of all their effort, Trombe just refused to go down. Against Zeta, of all f***ing people!

Even now, he was still tangling directly with both Zeta and Rho, easily keeping pace with both of them. He sure as hell couldn't kill Zeta, but Rho was starting to look ragged. Every few seconds the sound of Trombe's chainswords revving would float over, often followed by a meaty sound as he carved into Zeta, who had taken it upon himself to at least try to shield Rho from further attacks.

As for Hydross, Theta, and Grav, they were currently dealing with a veritable tidal wave of Black Pikmin, their numbers growing faster with every passing minute. It had been fairly simple at first, but now they were swarming in in earnest, and keeping up with their increasing numbers was becoming impossible. The 'Ard Boyz protecting them from retaliation definitely didn't help matters.

And then the missiles struck.

The first few hit Zeta, who wasn't much bothered with them, but Rho, tired as he already was, couldn't fend off the barrage and took several direct hits. Then came the barrage aimed at Hydross, Theta, and Grav; so many that even with Theta and Grav's quick reaction times, a few got through, and they hurt. A similar wave of explosions erupted all across the city, and in his blast-addled mind Hydross realized that attack had been targeted at Hero Squad specifically.

"Heheh. Looks like Eps' has 'ad enuff o' da games," Trombe cackled, still standing with barely a scratch on him. "S'pose dat means I should finish ya off, den," he growled, blades revving. He hadn't even been fighting seriously before.

++Bloodriver++

Even though Blackfuse's Mek wasn't designed to counter Bloodriver in particular, said Mek was nonetheless a formidable opponent. That said, Bloodriver was playing a defensive game; they just needed to hold out and minimize injury until Mithril killed Epsilon. Once that occurred, things should turn around...

The other Hero Squad members had been informed to keep tabs on their stamina closely and manage it wisely, but some of the more... forward amongst them like Rho might be a tad bit reckless. Still, they were strongly advised to fall back and have another Hero Squad member rotate in should the need arise.

Bloodriver had instructed Gamma and Orbin to distribute healing/stamina potions to some of the more worn out Hero Squad members when an opening arose; said potions were specifically designed to harm Black Pikmin instead of healing them, to prevent the Boyz from looting them.

Now, onto the problem of Blackfuse.

Bloodriver had been able to block some of the missiles sent her way by Blackfuse, while evading the other missiles and the flame lasers. A series of light nets and blood traps limited Blackfuse's mobility, so that Bloodriver managed to negate most of Blackfuse's attacks. Once in a while, Bloodriver would step forward and fire off a precision attack, sometimes getting damage onto Blackfuse's Mek, keeping the Warboss occupied with fighting her.

That said, Bloodriver could not negate both the missile barrage that came from Epsilon and the missile barrage that Blackfuse sent her way at the same time, and that resulted in quite a bit of damage for the Pink Pikmin general.

Blackfuse laughed for a bit before Bloodriver returned fire with a well-aimed photon charged blood wave, cutting into the Mek and gouging a chunk out of it. The Warboss hissed and swore an expletive in response as he sent more missiles Bloodriver's way.

Black Scythe

A gout of black flame washed over what few defenders dared to stand in the Supreme Warboss's way. Those not burned alive by the flames watched in horror as the fallen stood back up, wreathed in the shadowy fire.

"See how the shadowflame animates their bones," Black Scythe whispered, a grinding, abrasive noise, "They fight at my command."

The burning undead clashed with the living and their teddy bear animatronic guards, while Black Scythe himself skulked through the shadows at the edge of the room. Something so big should not possibly have been able to move so silently, but logic and reason did not seem to apply to Black Scythe.

He paused only briefly to spit a tiny needle into the neck of the guy that looked like he was in charge, who flopped bonelessly to the floor, then swelled up and exploded. With that done, he ghosted through their piddly defenses and into the next room. With all their troops behind him, he stomped the floor, engraving a rune there that would have very messy results for anyone that walked over it.

Ahead of him, at last, laid a massive, golden archway, the design clearly clashing with the rest of the city's aesthetic. Beyond it lay a seemingly endless abyss, the bottom obscured by thick, swampy fog. It was much too far down for the structure around it to possibly have contained it. Oh yes... this was the place.
_________
/|\Ark'thugal/|\

As soon as they were over the city, most of the Death Knights that had hitched a ride with him had ditched, dropping down to engage with the enemy, but a few had hung on in order to get deeper. Ark himself, however, had his eyes fixed on one single location.

The spot where a swarm of Infinites and Black Pikmin had converged on, with one shiny metallic point barreling through them.

He announced his presence via Eranikus's haunting roar and pestilent breath descending upon the metallic Pikmin, shortly before Ark'thugal himself came down, his axe coming with a few inches of cutting through Mithril's body. Mithril glared a hole in him. How many more of these jackasses could possibly get in her way?

That was when her vision fragmented.

'What?' Mithril clutched at her head. The other warbosses clearly had fates that showed they wouldn't die her, save for Epsilon. This one, though... he had no fate attached to him. No fate, no future, no past, no present. He was just... blank.

"Don't go poking your head where it doesn't belong," was Mithril's only warning before Ark's axe came down again. She dodged back, but was then blown further back by the shadowy wave that echoed from its impact.

'I don't have time for this,' she decided, blasting off to the side to zoom around Ark'thugal, only for a tendril of purple energy to wrap itself around her and drag her back, straight into a massive strike from the Warboss's axe.

"Going somewhere?" Ark sneered, shouldering his weapon, "I think not. Not until you show me a bit of fun, at least!"