Fight for Power

X-Black Manta-X

As Black Manta's screams of rage were drowned out in a sea of exploding bodies, Arygas and Loki were flying off in search of Keyza. What they found instead was Visceral suddenly appearing behind them and punching the Snagret with a two-fisted quake punch. With Rampa being dragged off of his "lawn", the quake-wielding Corrector now moved to the next nearby targets, namely, the Cult duo

To be fair to the Cult members, Arygas was deaf, and Loki had most of his attention focused on Black Manta, so it wasn't a stretch for Visceral to land a surprise quake attack. With Arygas's and Loki's attention now on Visceral, they only noticed Black Manta suddenly appearing before them at the very last moment.

Black Manta's attack was simple yet deadly: Simply a very focused, very powerful geyser with tons of water packed in, fired at absurd speed. Loki barely managed to move his head mostly out of the way, the geyser drawing blood from the side of his head, and the geyser impacted Arygas's protections, being deflected by those... but not before leaving the side of Aryga's face and most of his left arm bleeding.

Before the two Correctors could attack again, Keyza appeared and sent her Bottomless Quagmire at the Corrector pair. Arygas and Loki took that opportunity to add their own attacks to the mix. Visceral repelled most of that with a quake barrier, while Black Manta defended with tidal waves.

Keyza hopped on Loki's head and the Cult trio flew off, leaving Ludibrium. Black Manta gave them a disgusted glare.

"Disgusting. Extremely disgusting," spat Black Manta.
___________
X-Phoenix-X

So apparently I can't even f***ing burn corpses in peace. Those Cult mooks were bothering me, so I burned them to death and stuck feathers into their brains.

As a horde of battle droids clashed with the Cult mooks, the Cult members apparently decided to retreat. I ripped apart several of them, and then fired a torrent of blazing sharp feathers through a lot of them as a parting shot.

Ugh, my f***ing head. I took my frustration out on the Cult mook I had grabbed out of the pile, throwing her to the floor and then stomping her brains out, before burning her to death.

Maybe now that those s***heads are gone I can finally get some shuteye.

<Sapphire>

From where I was I caught a good look at the aftermath of Orvtre's attack. Something went boom deep inside the cannon... but then it fired anyway, and the projectile hit Orvtre dead-on. The impact spiked Orvtre down into the glacier, where shi landed with a loud crack, while the projectile itself rebounded from hir, whirled through the air for a moment, then slammed down into the ice itself, some ways away. A loud metallic screech followed as the cannon's firing mechanism wound down, clearly damaged. That wasn't so important, though.

"Orvtre!" I shouted, headed in hir direction. There'd been no shockwave due to the projectile's flight being disrupted, but Orvtre had taken it head on. Vashj and Beta stayed to continue the push, which was now shoving forward in earnest with the cannon out of commission... or at least we can hope it is.

I found Orvtre in the middle of a large spiderweb crack that was generously painted with hir... blood? Some kind of fluid. Shi was slowly pulling herself up. I scooted over to help pull hir to hir feet.

"Geez, that looked like it hurt," I fussed. Orvtre shook hir head.

"S'okay," shi slurred, "I don't feel pain..."

"Just because you don't feel it doesn't mean it didn't hurt you," I countered, pulling hir to hir feet. Shi stumbled a bit, but was able to remain standing on hir own. Guess that's the benefit of healing so quickly.

"Did I get it?" Orvtre muttered, pointing at the gun, which was now leaking smoke from its base.

"Yeah, I think you took the main gun out of commission-" I started, when suddenly there was a series of thunderous roars. Several large pillars grew out from the installation, then unfolded, revealing... six more railguns.

"You've got to be s***ting me!" I called out as they fired, one after another, directly at the vessel Omicron's forces at arrived with. Whatever shield it had held up, but the six guns, though smaller, kept up a constant barrage at it, firing one after another. Each shot produced a plume of steam from within the facility, and the ice surrounded the building started to crack. They haven't got enough heat dispersion left...

"Question is, what falls first, the facility..." I started...

"Or the ship," Orvtre finished, finally shaking off the impact.

"Best not chance it. Time to hit the facility's insides?" I proposed. Orvtre nodded.

"Let's go!"
_______________
Inside Megadakka...

Rokhead, the Mega Nob in charge, was not happy. The big gun was toast, but that still left the little guns to give them a parting gift with. More important than that, though...

"Wyrd Boyz! You reddy yet wiff da fingie?" Rokhead bellowed into the depths of the base. He was heard even over the constant explosions and gunfire that had spilled inside. A Wyrd Boy saluted at him.

"Ya boss, we's reddy ta git it gon!"

"Den whatcha waitin' fer? GIT LOST, YA SQUIGS!" the Mega Nob roared. The Wyrd Boy yelped and ran off to the special room. It'd mean the end of their reinforcements, but this was too important.

"I'll make a few o' dem squishies bleed afore dey's done 'ere..." Rokhead snarled.

?-Orvtre-?

Rushing inside the facility, I was met with the sight of Omicron's forces clashing with the Fist of Zeromus. The concentration of Black Pikmin was the highest here inside Megadakka, however it seemed as if enemy reinforcements had slown down to a trickle.

Before I could ponder that further, a bunch of Black Pikmin dropped down from above to try and ambush us, screaming and wearing some kind of missile-jetpacks. Sapphire responded first; dispersing into ice crystals and flowing through the area, making attacks of opportunity wherever she could. I threw some bomb-rocks upwards towards the Storm Boyz, the explosion creating a smokescreen. Realizing that they missed me, they also realized that they had just landed into a trap: a pool of lava, some earthen spikes, and a whole lot of other elements.

Well, only some of them were dying from that; the rest of them were hardy enough to attempt to rocket jump again... only for me to electrocute them with some charged slashes from my Gurgurant. The few that remained were the bigger ones and they successfully got off their jump. Some 'Ard Boyz also caught up with the Storm Boyz and were now supplying defensive buffs to their fellow Black Pikmin. Apparently Omicron's forces had successfully interfered with the Fist of Zeromus's defensive positions...

Elsewhere, Sapphire had been stopped when a Ard Boy, using his power, turned up the friction around her. Before I could come to her aid however, something fast hit me from behind, knocking me back. I turned around and blasted the offender right in the head with a combination attack of lava and electricity that resounded throughout the facility.

As the smoke cleared, I got a better look at my opponent. He was a huge Black Pikmin, probably the biggest one in the area. He was very heavily armored, wielding some kind of power claw. Rather notable was the fact that his head wasn't armored, as if he was confident that he wouldn't need such a helmet.

A followup shot straight to the skull with the Prism Cannon likewise had the same result: no damage... ?

"Hah, mah name's Rokhead for a reason, ya git!" cackled the large Black Pikmin. Before I could bring Gurgurant to try and impale him through his armor, some other Black Pikmin grabbed me by the legs with some kind of rope or tangling power, pulling me off balance. Rokhead capitalized on that by delivering a headbutt to the torso, forcing me back.

I attempted to electrocute the tangle rope, however it proved resistant to that. I sent a few shots from the Prism Cannon towards various Black Pikmin, picking off a few isolated ones, but the others either avoided the shots or were well-protected by the 'Ard Boyz.

The rope tangle Black Pikmin wasn't killed by those shots so he sent more ropes my way while Rokhead rushed me again. I put up several walls of ice and waves of frost to slow down the Black Pikmin while evading, blasting whatever Black Pikmin I could with the Prism Cannon.

Since my clones were still providing defense, shielding, and healing to the Bloodseed outside, I was a tad bit divided in terms of focus and power. Nonetheless, I tried mixing it up, using petrification to try and weaken the binding cables the rope guy threw at me while I spewed some poison at Rokhead.

<Trombe>

Pain. Actual, real pain. That was first he'd felt since this power had overcome him. Everything else had just been numb; he'd never even considered this form might have some kind of weakness. Stumbling back from the attack, a savage growl tore its way out of his throat as he swung his swords up, the blades glowing red.

"Crimson Tempest!" the Warboss roared, spinning on the spot. A massive whirlwind of cutting force exploded outward from him, cutting down anything in its path. While Mithril and Cassandra were blasted back by it, Libera was forced to pull up his Super Spiral Shield to avoid being shredded... which immediately caused the thunderdome to flicker and vanish.

"Exanosis, Aquisoma, Deyte, Rune! Exanosis Storm!" Trombe yelled, throwing his left hand blade skyward. A huge cloud spread out from it, and then came the rain. Trombe merely recalled his sword and took off running, not bothering to see what he'd wrought.
_______
<Libera>

Curse my uselessness. If I could hold up more than one shield at a time...

No time to dwell on that. Whatever that storm Trombe called up was, Mithril had a short freak out about it and threw up a large sheet of metal as the rain came down. I immediately saw why as it finally fell; anything the rain touched was shortly covered with a thick layer of stone. My Super Spiral Shield kept it front affecting me, but even then, a rocky layer was trying to form over my shield that I had to break by moving.

Before I could say anything to Mithril, a thunderous boom echoed from nearby, the Teal Pikmin taking off after Trombe. The hell is her deal...?

"Dammit, this is different from the fog," Mithril muttered, throwing up more and more metal sheets to block out the rain. When she had a good few layers of them, she took off running in Trombe's direction as well.

"Quicksilver, give me some good news dude, Trombe's on the move again," I said over the comms, preparing a Perceptual Teleport. No need to be fast when I can find Trombe anywhere.

"Entire area's clear of civvies, so he's got nothing else to go after except..." Quicksilver cut off for a moment, then came back swearing. "s***, he's beelining straight for Megadakka! Orvtre, company's headed your way!"

I teleported immediately, reappearing near Trombe in a whirl of spiral power, before splaying my fingers open.

"Buster Missiles!" I called, the tips of my fingers opening to fire off several small but very powerful missiles. Each one blew a massive chunk out of their surroundings as they hit, but Trombe dodged around them. It gave Mithril and the Teal a chance to close the gap and strike at him, but he kept moving even as he retaliated, a pair of red waves bursting out from him to blast through the area. Something tells me he's not going to slow down enough for me to drop another Thunderdome on him... the sticky feeling dripping down both of my sides tells me I might not survive it anyway.
__________
Power: 55%

++Bloodriver++

RETREAT. With the exception of Mithril and Libera, Bloodriver immediately called back each and every Hero Squad member, every Hero Squad summon, the robots, Vashj, and everyone else affiliated with Hero Squad, warping them back to Hero Squad HQ immediately. When questioned about this sudden turn of events by a Hero Squad member not in the know about the Final Phantasm Trombe situation, Bloodriver explained that this was about to get very ugly.
_____________
<]-Mithril-[>

This is going to suck.

It doesn't take a genius to know that bringing someone as monstrously powerful as Cassandra over to a terrain where she has an advantage is an extremely bad idea. Several nuclear beams aimed at Trombe, several metallic constructs, several trucks, several arms reaching out to try and strangle his pulsing red "heart" again. After Libera threw in several beams, we arrived at Megadakka.

Okay okay, we, minus Libera, who hanged back to catch his breath and occasionally potshot Trombe with beams. Actually, minus me as well; all of our Squad's forces had already withdrawn by then, so now there is no reason for us to be anywhere near the two psychos. I do not want to be near Cassandra while she has a terrain advantage.

Omicron's forces got the hint as well since they were leaving too, with the exception of that Pikmin named Captain. Unsurprise, unsurprise, Captain has super secret powers/strengths/whatever too, since he isn't being instantly eviscerated by the Final Phantasm and is holding up absurdly well, for his "supposed" level of strength. Leg kick after leg kick, damn, his movements are kind of like a slower Quicksilver's, actually.

...

Captain moves JUST LIKE Quicksilver.

That realization was rather decidedly interrupted when the ice all around Megadakka went f***ing insane. I'm rather glad I'm not actually on the glacier right now.

One moment Captain was fighting against Trombe while I sniped the Warboss with nuclear shots from afar, the next the ice began erupting and emitting arcane bolts and I don't think ice is supposed to naturally turn into hurricanetidal waves or whatever these things are and Cassandra now has some kind evil-looking arcane ice power armor. That armor appears to be drawing power from the ice; frost rising from the ice and being absorbed into said armor.

Also, you know the gigantic gun installation that the Black Pikmin installed here? The one that has given Omicron a hard time? Cassandra just walked over and picked it up. ALL OF IT. And now she's beating Trombe over the head with it.

Naturally the ice beneath Megadakka is now cratering to a huge degree, but more than that, the gun installation just had some of its railguns snapped off by all that clubbing. Notably, it wasn't completely destroyed yet by the two maniacs, only being warped into a shape vaguely resembling a bludgeon.

...

At this point, even Captain's pulling back. That's probably a red flag that something, somewhere, is gonna give.

*A high-pitched whine emits from Megadakka, followed a chain of small pops...*

...

KRATHOOM

... Well. Megadakka just exploded. Naturally, due to my genius, I preemptively evaded the explosion. I would have still survived even that, but I plan on resting off the damage after this fight and I really do not want to deal with even more injuries and thus even longer rest time. Libera wasn't actually on the glacier so he just threw up a shield to avoid the blowback of the explosion. Also the two maniacs are still alive and still fighting.

Trombe has failed to kill any Hero Squad members and there are no more civilians in range. Hmm, I suppose the Final Phantasm's next action is going to be...

]]]Skys***ter[[[

Right, one pit stop down, two to go.

We've picked up all the Wyrd Boyz that were training in Sholazar and then set the whole place to blow. Won't be a damn thing left for anyone else who comes through. Now we're headed for Blackrock Foundry to pick up a few odds and ends, drop off some of the boyz, and then it's off to Shadowmoon to drop off Kane and his crew before we head back to Zankrieg. Blackfuse called up and said he's stickin' in the Foundry, figure he'll like it there. Also said he picked up the Boss on his way and that he's pretty torn up and muttering constantly under his breath. We'll pick him up when we get to Blackrock, see if he'll feel better in the good ole' Cathedral.

I got two of the ah... special "packages" on board here, which is why I've been slamming the boosters. Don't need anyone catching up to us right now. So far so good on that front, at least. AIn't nobody touching my Cathedral.
__________
/|\Putricide/|\

"Come onnnnnn this is taking foreverrrrrrrrrr."

"Now now, you can't rush perfection, my friend!" Putricide chided the spirit hovering over his shoulder. Koltira had been ever so noisy since his body had been pulverized. Just complain, complain, complain! Nobody likes a whiner, Koltira.

"How long could it possibly take to get a good set of limbs?!" Koltira complained some more. Maybe he just liked talking without the limitation of lungs. Hmm.

"Longer if you don't keep quiet!" Putricide informed him cheerfully. Koltira's spirit merely glared at him in response, quietly fuming as he waited. Honestly, 'how long could it take,' pah! Koltira had no eye for Abominations, not at all. Especially not one of the caliber he intended to make. Oh yes, Koltira would be very pleased with the results...
____________
>X<Cross>X<

Well, after a good thirty minutes of putting Pinocchio back together piece by painstaking piece, I think we're finally done. Ish.

"Maybe don't move too quickly or you might just fall apart, dude," I informed the puppet as he inspected himself. A lot of the pieces were really small, so I'd gone and found some duct tape to hold him together where his vines weren't cutting it. Hadn't been easy, what with Trombe having leveled the entire upper city.

"Oh, don't worry onii-chan! Pinocchio can take it from here!" he replied, chipper as ever. Grand. Dunno if he can recombine his bits or if he needs someone to do that for him, but whatever. Not my problem.

Looking around at what's left of Ludibrium... well, as I said, the upper layer of the city is kinda gone, thanks to Trombe. There's a big chunk missing where that green explosion went off, dunno what that was. There's a couple more holes from the bigger attacks that were fired during all the fighting... sheesh, the city's practically swiss cheese at this point. Most of the damage is to the upper layers, though, wasn't much fighting lower down... that I'm aware of.

I felt that big energy signature heading down into the city, musta been Father. Wonder what he's looking for down there...?

<Trombe>

As the smoke and ash cleared from Megadakka's detonation, one could see Cassandra, having been blown back, slowly marching towards the crater that Trombe had been left in.

It was, indeed, quite a crater. Though it hadn't gone all the way through the glacier, it was most of the way through, and had cracked the massive chunk of ice into many pieces. The Warboss himself laid on a floating chunk of ice that slowly spun in the gradually calming waters, unmoving.

Off the glacier, Libera, Captain and Mithril waited with bated breath. "Did... did she get him...?" Libera ventured, squinting at the downed Warboss.

Cassandra herself touched down on the chunk of ice, slowly walking towards Trombe's fallen form, gathering energy in one hand. It was then that Trombe moved. In one seamless motion he drew himself up and slammed one sword into Cassandra's midsection. The blow caused a small shockwave, but Cassandra didn't even budge save to reach out and grab the blade.

"Really? Is that all you-"

"Greater Exanosis," Trombe hissed. Cassandra's words dried up in her throat as she promptly turned to stone, frost armor and all. Trombe promptly spun, cut her head off, and kicked it into the lake.

This one did not have 'layers' like Mithril did. Even if that didn't kill her, she wouldn't be able to free herself. Breaking it would take some serious countermagic. Trombe took a few deep breaths before dropping to one knee, crimson energy billowing out of his wounds. That was pure luck that'd he'd been able to hit her with that.
__________
Power: 30%
__________
<Libera>

"s***. Guess we finish this ourselves then," I said, stepping before until Mithril held out a hand.

"Hold on. Look at him, he's burning up. We're in such a remote location we might just be able to wait for him to keel over," she pointed out. It's a good point; exhausting ourselves further would be pointless if he's just gonna die anyway.

That was when Captain started beeping. Ignoring the two of us glancing at him, he tapped a finger to his head.

"Yessir?" the Blue asked. Omicron's voice then projected through him, some kind of microphone built into him most likely.

"Do not let up on him! The readings I am getting are quite clear: He is recovering!"

A noise from the glacier got their attention as Trombe pulled himself back his feet, all the unsteadiness gone from his stance. The energy that had been flowing out his eye had wrapped around his neck like a scarf, and more importantly it was now flowing in.

"This must be it," Omicron's voice came again, "This is the Epsilon Mark II Experiment! Kill him now, or he will become unstoppable!"

Nobody needed another prompting.
________
<Trombe>

Mithril's launch towards him caused a sonic boom, and naturally she got there first, preparing a huge compound drill device to strike. She slammed it down atop the Warboss... who simply held one sword up, parried, and then carved it to ribbons. As the pieces fell away, Trombe pounced, giving Mithril a good look at his face... and the targeting reticle that now surrounded his eye and pupil.

Trombe saw a targeting reticle too.

"Epsilon... left me a gift!" Trombe howled triumphantly, his first swing striking something tangible within Mithril's body that sent her scampering away, even as Libera and Captain jumped in to fill the gap. The red glow suffusing his body doubled in strength, lighting up the Azoth as well.

"Mithril! You're going down!"
__________
Power: 40% (and rising)

<]-Mithril-[>

There was no point in conserving her strength now. Aggro Shift.

Telling Libera to move Captain out of the area, the golden Pikmin did so as Mithril immediately unleashed a horde of clones, all wielding various weaponry. As the Final Phantasm cut them to pieces, Mithril herself burst in straight from the front, both hands wielding a Kaiser each. "Metal Twin Kaiser."

The clash between Mithril's and Trombe's attacks resounded throughout the remote area, resulting in a huge shockwave... and a snap. With multiple clones supporting her, and with a multitude of Iron Maidens enclosing both of them, Mithril pushed onwards, reaching forward and targeting the dark red orb in place of Trombe's heart.

Dolomite Dissection.

An agonized, enraged, roar escaped Trombe even as the Warboss unleashed a flurry of slashes on the metal 'min. However, she refused to back off, and attack met attack; Mithril was staying in close range to send followup attacks, which were also aimed at the dark red orb.

This blow on the dark red orb was even worse than before. The red energy flowing back into him was now halved in speed, some of it dissipating instead of being reabsorbed; it was almost as if...

That thought of Trombe's was promptly interrupted when Mithril did something rather unexpected. She backed off.

The Warboss immediately found out why as he suddenly was yanked backwards, a skeletal hand wreathed with wicked energy impaling him from behind, narrowly missing the dark red orb in place of his heart. It was Cassandra's skeletal frame, grabbing ahold of him by the orb.

Trombe looked on in incomprehension. 'How did she...' the Warboss wondered, before he noticed that the Azoth he used to impale Cassandra... that blade was now snapped in two, hand imprints left in the sword where it was grabbed. A short flashback to Cassandra gathering energy in that hand and then grabbing that blade flashed through the Final Phantasm's mind... that foul magic of hers must have partially disrupted the Greater Exanosis!

Cassandra's other hand, aglow with that wicked power, intensified its grip, the orb cracking, crumpling, and finally s***tering in said grip, the vile magic pulsing outwards and obliterating the black wisps that emanated from the orb.

The nastier part was yet to come, and Trombe knew it. Cassandra's skeletal frame, wreathed in that wicked magic, now intensified its glow, pulsing ominously, before exploding in a torrent of power.

When the explosion cleared, it revealed the Warboss, damaged. His skin was now missing and parts of his bones and limbs were frozen over, decimated with that blast of vile cold. That said, he had not been killed by that blast; by reversing Omnicide Shift on the damaged blade and growing those blades to huge size, he was able to use them as shields to partially protect himself.

By this time, Mithril had returned and was renewing her assault. This was the final clash for him; and he was intent on using his full force to kill her.

"FINAL EXANOSIS!" roared the Warboss, as he used the multitudes of blades from his snapped Genocide Shift blade to rain down on towards Mithril, with 100% accuracy thanks to his Marksman's Eye. Mithril in return sent a legion of Iron Maidens at the Final Phantasm, each of the two combatants charging towards one another at full speed.

There was a terrible clash that resounded through the air.

Trombe has impaled Mithril through the torso with his Omnicide Shift Azoth. The area surrounding the blade had turned to stone, the petrification spreading to other parts of her body.

Mithril has impaled Trombe through the dark red orb. Said orb now flickering weakly, dark red energy dissipating from the area.

Around them was metal, stone and Azoths. Even as she was turning to stone, Mithril sneered.

"Begone. PLUTONIUM PAIN!"

And then the region was NUKE.

Libera regarded the area with unease as he returned to where Mithril and Trombe fought, which was now just one gigantic radioactive crater. Examining the area, he saw no signs of the Warboss.

Indeed, Trombe had been annihilated with that attack. The Final Phantasm's exposure to Cassandra's vile magic ensured that they would not have to ever deal with him again.

After a few moments of suspense, Mithril regenerated from the atomic level, now visibly spent. She turned towards Captain, who had accompanied Libera to the area.

"Omicron."

"Yes?" replied the Experiment over the microphone.

"Your creators are complete s***heads," Mithril stated flatly.

"I respectfully disagree," replied Omicron.

"You didn't have to fight and kill both of the Epsilons," Mithril retorted. "If you had been in my position, you may very well have become as annoyed as I have. That reminds me, now that the stupid gun thing that had been shelling your colony has been destroyed, it's time for you to get off your ass and contribute to the war effort."

"Oh, I assure you, I shall not be letting this particular insult go unpunished. If they wished to attract my ire, they have well and truly done so..." noted Omicron.

There was a sudden moment of tension as Cassandra appeared nearby, having countermagiced the Greater Exanosis. She had regenerated her body... well, mostly, as she was missing most of her skin and some of the stuff beneath that. She stomped onwards, and then stopped and looked at the group... before coughing up a wad of blood. The teal grunted and then stomped away, heading towards Ludibrium.

"Well... that could have gone-" Libera muttered, turning towards Mithril ... or where Mithril had once been. "... worse?"

Mithril had gone back to Hero Squad HQ to rest off the damage.

"Your organization wouldn't happen to have a casualty count for his little rampage, would you?" asked Captain.

"Uh... I'll check later. For now I think I'm just gonna... take a moment, here," Libera stated, catching his breath.

Captain nodded, and tapped his own forehead. "Requesting pickup."

<Libera>

He paid no mind as Captain was picked up by Omicron's ship and flown off; the vessel certainly didn't look like it was headed back towards the Colony. He simply focused his attention on the glacier, and the devastation that covered it.

With all the damage, the massive chunk of ice had started to break up. In time, it would probably all melt, leaving no trace of the fight.

Libera, however, was more fixated on a mental image, of Trombe crushing Epsilon's orb.

'I didn't think that was even possible, for them to be destroyed like that... Theta's orb has survived much worse than someone squeezing it, after all. And then, at the end there, he had Epsilon's eye...' Libera considered, looking down at his remaining flesh and blood hand.

'... What exactly are we...?' he thought, before turning away and warping back to Hero Squad HQ.

Had he stayed a moment longer, he may have seen a thorny, black, crystalline flower sprout up from the frozen wastes, and then watched as it vanished without a trace. But he didn't see it. No one did.
______________
Black Scythe

Within the depths of the massive, landbound submarine, the Supreme Warboss brooded, a thin growl thrumming quietly all the while.

Three. Three of his Warbosses dead, in such a short time. Ark'thugal he'd not known well, had felt like he'd never known anything about him.

But Epsilon and Trombe had been with him for so long. Even during the battle with Gear, they'd had his back. To lose them both, back to back... oh, there would be hell to pay for this.

They wanted to kill his Experiments... he'd kill theirs.
___________
<Quicksilver>

I was waiting next to Juggernaut when Libera came back. Big guy's still a bit out of it, but he's tough, he can handle it. Libera's looking a bit melancholy, though, that's out of character.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

Libera flicked his eyes in my direction, then towards the doors to where Zeta, Hydross and Rho were being held.

"Just... thinkin'. About the Experiments and all. There's... five of us dead, now."

I rolled my shoulders noncommittally. "Epsilon and Trombe signed their own death warrants. They knew what they were doing."

"I just can't help but feel like that number's gonna go up before this is all over. I know the lot of us were never really best friends or anything but it still feels..." Libera trailed off.

"Weird, cause you knew them. And now they're dead."

"Yeah..." the golden Pikmin muttered. "That and... while she was fighting him, Mithril distracted Trombe by grabbing Epsilon's orb. As soon as he got it back though... he... crushed it."

I blinked a few times. Crushed? An Experiment's orb? I hadn't known that was... uh... physically possible.

"When I saw him do it I... I kinda froze up. It felt wrong somehow. Like something in the back of my head was saying that... that it wasn't supposed to happen that way. I don't know how to describe it," Libera flailed his hands in frustration. "And then, right before the end there, I catch a glimpse of his face and he's got the Sniper's Eye! What the hell was going on with him...?"

I opened my mouth, closed it, and opened it again. "That's... huh. Gotta admit, I got nothin'. Maybe that's something to bring up with Omicron? Feels like something that would be under his, uh... purview."

"Maybe," Libera muttered, falling silent. Well now this is just awkward.