Fight for Power

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<<<Helix>>> (SPECIAL)

"All the lights in the sky are stars." I remember being told that, once, even if I don't remember who told me.

Apparently whoever said that had never been here.

There's lights in the sky here, certainly. Plenty of them. But they're not stars, or at least most of them aren't. Much too close to the ground for that, and much too mobile. No, most of the lights up there were Seraphim. Thousands of them, flitting every which way, a near-constant stream.

Something about this world has fostered an enormous number of these elemental spirits. Not just Seraphim, either; Fiends spring up all over this planet as well. I'm told that's because of the Archfiend in charge of this world. The battles between the spirits are ongoing, have been for millenia.

I'm not sure how long I laid there, watching the lights passing overhead. Probably wouldn't have moved at all, if Bloodriver hadn't pinged me to come down and chat. I still laid there for a few more minutes until she pinged me again, to which I finally got up and headed for the hidden entrance. HQ's nice and all, but it was decided to have an on-world base as well, for this.

Ducking through what looked for all the world like a solid wall, I descended into Hero Squad's underground base, to the familiar sound of crackling lightning.

"Stormwalker getting antsy again, I take it," I stated as I entered. A digitized laugh came from a nearby speaker.

"Yep! Which means guess what you get to do?" came Control's voice from the comm.

"Splendid," I replied tonelessly. It'll kill some time, at least. Not the most popular way to do so, as demonstrated by Candle and Sigma once again having a go at their custom chess variant, with Mars watching from nearby. But chess was never really my game. The three merely waved at me as I passed, headed further towards the sparring arena. Bloodriver was standing just by the entrance, while Stormwalker was already bouncing about inside.

"I assume you already know what I pinged you for," Bloodriver piped up as I approached, tilting her head towards the door.

"That I do. Any luck with the recruitment drive?"

Bloodriver blew out an exasperated breath.

"Slowly," came Xenon's ethereal reply. "The war here has been ongoing for such a long time, and there are few willing to simply abandon the fight in order to tend to the affairs of mortals. That said, I did have a promising conversation with a Plasma Seraphim. I'm hoping she'll get along with Sigma, and then we can use their parternership as a springboard to get more spirits to join us."

"So yeah, touch and go," Bloodriver summarized. "But progress is progress."

Any further conversation was cut off by a loud crack of lightning from within the sparring chamber. Right right, keeping Stormwalker occupied. I rolled my eyes, getting a mild chuckle from Bloodriver as I entered the arena, already spinning up Anti-Spiral power in preparation for the incoming rush.

<]-Mithril-[>

He didn't mention Hero Squad.

This implies that this timeline's version of Hero Squad is either nonexistent (either having never been created or having been destroyed), in hiding, or otherwise active on another planet or something.

I was a huge proponent of Hero Squad staying hidden and quietly building up infrastructure and HQ and whatever behind the scenes, until the threat that the Fist of Zeromus posed mandated that we be more openly active and speed things up even more. Without my influence in this timeline, assuming that this timeline's version of Orvtre made it through to this planet (assuming that shi even chose this planet at all in the first place; I recommended this planet when shi was deciding between places to set up shop), shi likely would've started being openly active earlier...

... and it would've been unlikely that this Overlord would be able to capture and brainwash hir, for the simple reason that for this timeline's version of Orvtre to have made it to this planet in the first place, a certain amount of elusiveness and escape ability would've been necessary to evade the powerful factions in space. I would go into more detail on how the ability to escape bad situations and escape losing battles is necessary for long-term successes (namely, to avoid losses), but I won't elaborate on that more right now because I'm currently in the middle of a fight.

If the Overlord is as powerful as Hyperline claimed he was, then due to the unfavorable balance of power on the Pikmin planet, being active on another planet is one of the likelier situations for this timeline's Hero Squad.

Anyways, the issue at hand is Death of Obsidian Spectralids, and I've already come up with a countermeasure for that, namely a cold attack similar to the Frost Blast that Theta used against me in our fight. I created a very cold marble and then flicked it at the cloud of spectralids; the marble (or ping-pong ball of doom as Gravius would call it) bouncing from spectralid to spectralid, freezing the whole cloud solid. The mass then fell to the floor, s***tering and littering said floor with broken bits.

Now I don't think that Dark Matter was expecting me to neutralize Death of Obsidian Spectralids that easily, so if he committed a significant amount of energy into that attack, it means that I likely have an opening now.

The javelins seem to be working fairly well, so my next attack was largely more of the same. And by largely more of the same, I meant that these two were enshrouded with a mini-cyclone swirling around them, were rocket-propelled, AND explode shortly after impact. And they were accompanied by a bunch of feints, a barrage of lesser-empowered javelins that now sailed through the air, unimpeded by the formerly existing walls (walls which Death of Obsidian Spectralids destroyed).

As explosions rang out from Dark Matter's location, I had to wonder, does he bleed? Or is he entirely made up of that unknown material that he generates? Or is it somewhere in between?

One good look at him after the smoke cleared up told me that it's somewhere in between; the javelin barrage and the subsequent explosion resulted in a few cuts and scrapes on his right cheek, blood dripping from them. The more significant impact was the damage incurred on his right wing; namely, a huge chunk of that was blown off or impaled through. That said, the wing wasn't bleeding or otherwise behaving like a damaged flesh-or-blood limb, so I'm guessing that it was a prosthetic made of that weird substance he controls.

In response to that, Dark Matter snarled at me in anger, began repairing his wing with that unknown substance, then created a swarm of Fiery Bulblaxes that emitted highly corrosive smog. I sent my own swarm of frigid trucks, filled with assorted chunks of metal and pressurized metal gas, over towards the Bulblaxes, and as they clashed, the Bulblaxes broke through the truck's chilly outer later, which resulted in huge, gas-propelled metal projectiles impacting them and destroying them. The pressured metal gas being unleashed also helped push the corrosive smog away from me.

Obviously I was on the move during all of this, backing away from the enemy constructs and inching ever closer to the shard's current location. Dark Matter apparently used the remnants of the Fiery Bulblaxes to ignite the net of plants around me, the plants shifting into a series of fire geysers. I dodged around, having my clones hurl various chilly metal projectiles to neutralize the geysers, however I, now a bit singed from that flame geyser barrage, found myself in close range with Dark Matter.

Evidently Dark Matter was already tired of me throwing charged, ranged attacks at him, since he hopped onto a cavalry mount he made, traveled through the net of plants, and then appeared right beside me, extending his claws into some kind of electrical, corrosive lance attack. His cavalry mount fired some kind of acid projectile attack as well, clearly trying to capitalize on the corrosive attack theme.

You know what slows down corrosion? Mass. (I doubt I'd be able to completely avoid Dark Matter's incoming barrage at this range anyways.) Now that Dark Matter was in melee range, I settled for repurposing the charge I had built up into bulking the f*** up, growing giant, and slamming a gigantic "Molten Metal Masher!" down, aiming the massive molten club straight for Dark Matter's head.

Dark Matter

I believe I have overcommitted to this charge; my precognition didn't pick up that increase in size quickly enough. To compensate I quickly converted my mount into a large, mushroom-shaped shield growing from my arms overhead to block the blow, and emitted a pulse of ionizing radiation in a "beam" of blue light from atop it. The massive blow still punched through the mass of dark matter, and to avoid being struck directly I abandoned my forearms in the process of evading.

"Crab Rave!" I called out, producing hundreds of tiny electric crabs to swarm over my giant opponent, while growing similarly electrified filaments from the stumps of my arms. I'll replace them fully later.

"Crab what?" the intruder demanded as she was buried in crabs. Her size was sufficient to squash them in swathes, but such small constructs are easy to make in large quantities, and their electrified claws, modified for cutting strength, are easily capable of slicing through metal.

My precog gave me only a brief warning before she split into dozens of smaller copies, each blasting their way out of the pile of crabs in explosive manner.

Hmm. I am beginning to doubt my ability to win this fight.

That is not to say that I do not believe I can win, but simply that I am no longer certain of it. Her abilities are well beyond my initial assessment; it would be foolish to continue to fight this intruder by myself.

Thanks to my precognition, I had enough time to form my filaments into a net overhead, clipping a few of them before she cut through the net. I flicked my tail cannon up to open fire as I began reshaping the crabs into a number of Volatile Dweevils.

Naturally, the intruder's copies shot into the air above them to avoid the blasts, a series of fletchettes firing in my direction, forcing to turn my tail and wings to deflecting them. But that was hardly enough, as each exploding Dweevil released an expanding rust-colored cloud. With their number, the cloud was soon quite large, and I released more of it myself, producing a thick smog. Some of the copies were too slow to avoid it, and swiftly rusted over and collapsed.

My wayward brothers and sisters often make use of metal weapons and armor. It was only natural to come up with a means to counteract their tools. I can shape my Dark Matter into larger lifeforms, so why wouldn't I be able to use it to make microorganisms? Microorganisms that rapidly oxidize metals.

All I need is to hold out for a bit here. The enforcer should be arriving shortly...

<]-Mithril-[>

This is taking too long. At this rate, enemy reinforcements will arrive, and I'll have to fight Dark Matter AND whatever other stooges the Overlord sent out. Time to turn up the pressure.

I fired a radioactive blast of frigid wind at the cloud of oxidizing microorganisms, to freeze, destroy, and blow them away. My followup to this was "Silver Star Slasher!" and "Metal Reaper!", a series of razor wind pressure wave slashes, followed by one horizontal swing of a massive metal scythe. He put up a barrier of that unknown material to block most of the slashes, getting a few cuts from that, before putting up a huge mass of that strange matter to slow my scythe, just long enough to duck into the net beneath him to evade.

At this point he's keeping himself at mid-range; presumably trying to keep me too close for me to reliably play the charged attack ranged game, and too far to destroy him in melee.

Initially I tried to have my cake and eat it too by creating and keeping a mob of clones at the back to charge attacks up, while I myself rushed forward in an aggressive bid to take his head in melee, but unfortunately the net that he's spread throughout the place meant that through said net, he could create constructs to attack the clones behind me. At this point he's trying to go for a pincer attack, sending supersized acid hydrocannon-spewing Watery Blowhogs at me towards my back, and oxidizing microorganism-tornado blasting Puffy and Withering Blowhogs at me towards my front.

Enough of this. The clock is ticking and I want him out of the fight before backup comes. Metal Gate: Aggro Shift. "Osmium Overblast!" I bellowed, sending a massive barrage of fiery explosions throughout the room, igniting and detonating most of the metal in the room, gaseous and otherwise.

That cleared out the nets and cobwebs in the room, also resulting in a more scorched than he'd liked to be Dark Matter. It also resulted in a Dark Matter that retaliated with a barrage of blue ionizing radiation beams at me.

I'm taking more damage than I would be if I was using a more conservative strategy, but I don't have time for that. Press forward.

"Titanium Twister!" I roared, creating a massive drill combined with a massive metal cyclone to push aside and push through whatever defenses Dark Matter would put my way. Now with the net previously underneath him destroyed (and thus unable to duck into it), he put an enormous amount of that unknown material in front of him to block, even sacrificing his wings and his tail to do so. It slowed the drill's advance just enough for him to pivot to the side, avoiding the worst of the drill, but taking several stinging cuts to the face and torso from the metallic wind.

"Horrifying Amalgamate!" Dark Matter exclaimed, growing an enormous amount of that unknown matter from his body with a wide variety of forms, presumably with the intent of overwhelming me with the sheer mass of it all. Nothing fancy-looking, just a blob of that strange material.

However, what that means for my initial plan of growing strings from the metal gas in the area is that I need bigger strings, or, perhaps...

"Iron Maiden!" I shouted, instead coalescing basically all of the metal in the area plus throwing in more metal to encase him. He ripped through it in seconds, but as I had created more clones behind me (and he can't hit my back ranks from behind now that I've destroyed his net), I was using this chance to pile on more metal and charge my upcoming attacks.

Due to Horrifying Amalgamate, he fired an absolutely staggering amount of acid blasts, blue ionizing radiation beams, oxidizing microorganism tornadoes, flame geysers, etc. I was hit by quite a bit more of those than I liked (along with some of my clones), but I had completed my charge.

"Platinum Pain!" I roared, my clones firing a massive barrage of large, platinum energy beams at Dark Matter, who blocked a considerable portion of that. Still, it gave me enough of an opening to coalesce some metal gas into metal strings and attach them to the open wounds on my opponent.

"Osmium Overslash!" I bellowed, pumping lots of metal through said strings, which invaded his open wounds and exploded inside him, resulting in slash upon brutal slash exploding inside his body.

Dark Matter howled in agony, desperately making that unknown matter inside his body, so as to stave off as much damage as he could. However, before I could get a confirmed killing blow in by destroying his head, a massive barrier of energy was put up between us, deflecting my would-be headshot.

Tsk. How annoying. Though to be honest, even if this arriving enforcer didn't show up to generate an energy shield, Hyperline would've probably stepped in to save Dark Matter instead. At least, if nothing else, this will give Dark Matter some nasty scars as a parting gift.

The arriving guard was clad head to toe in heavy black armor, wielding a large silver blade.

"I have been watching you. You, you hate the Galactic Gods like I do. You're a member of Hero Squad, aren't you?"

"..."

"Heh, I was once a member of the Squad too. Used to think they were hot s***. However, I was mistaken. Due to the Galactic Gods' plot, shi was laid low by that person."

... I think I know who he's talking about when he's referring to that person. If that person is who I think he is, then that person is very very dead in my timeline.

The guard continued speaking. "The Overlord contacted me, and his argument was clear: Hero Squad could never defeat the Galactic Gods. Only the Overlord could ever hope to defeat them. And I joined him because he was right."

"You aren't Orvtre," I spat. "Who are you, anyways? Pluto?"

"I don't go by the name Pluto anymore. It's Charon now," drawled the enforcer, "But yes, you appear to be a member of Hero Squad, though not one I've ever seen before."

Charon generated some kind of propaganda video show using his powers, showing the Overlord's forces defeating the Correctors and the other servants of the Galactic Gods.

"Join the Overlord, join us, and we can defeat the Galactic Gods together, just like the old days," Charon offered.

"You certainly had that planned out well," I mused. "Missing the Squad already?"

Charon scoffed. "They are too weak to defeat the Galactic Gods. I only prepared this evidence so I could make them see the benevolence and majesty of the Overlord. Now are you going to join us, or... ?"

"Never," I hissed, readying my attack. "You can take your s***ty psychic cult and shove it up your-"

"The difficult way," sighed Charon. "Fine then."

XX-Charon-XX

Stoneskin. Adamant Plating. Diamond Shell. And a defensive barrier for Dark Matter.

"Rhenium Razor!" the intruder howled, charging in as a large razor blade crackling with electricity formed at her side.

Core Crusher. Offensive Stance. Supreme Sword.

"Eclipse," I intoned in response, making a two-handed overhead swing. My blade went clean through the razor, but the intruder, apparently sensing danger, slipped out of my sword's path just before it hit her, leaving it to hit the ground instead. A deadly light emanated from the point of impact, shooting forward across the sand.

The intruder spared a second's glance at what that swing had done. On the surface, it didn't look all that impressive. A foot-deep groove in the sand, a dozen yards long. If one looked closer, though, they'd see the sand along the edges had fused to glass.

The intruder's gaze turned back to me. 'That would have killed me,' was the message I read in them. The same message as in the eyes of everyone who managed to evade my Eclipse. It wasn't a particularly large number of foes. Unlike any of them, however, here I saw no fear behind the thought.

"NaK Attack!" she shouted, spraying some kind of liquid metal in my direction, which immediately burst into flames as it arced through the air toward me. A simple shield spell blocked any of it from even touching me, and a precise swing of my blade scattered it all across the desert sands with a massive burst of air.

"Iron Ripper!" came her next attack, a series of large circular saws tearing through the sand toward me. One swing of my blade s***tered each of them as they approached. Here I began walking towards her.

"Silver Star Slasher!" came her next callout, as she generated a blade to fire cutting waves of air pressure at me. These I didn't even bother blocking, allowing them to break harmlessly upon my armor.

"Metal Rea-"

"Spellsplinter Strike," I interrupted her this time, crossing the distance in an instant and cutting clear through the forming weapon as I passed, shredding the magic she'd been shaping to make it. The forming blade burst into tiny metallic particles, obscuring her from view.

"Platinum," came a grunt through the metallic dust left over, "Pain."

I raised a barrier just as a beam of silvery-grey energy lanced out of the smoke and into my shield. The pressure is considerable, but not enough to warrant a stronger barrier.

As the smoke cleared, however, I beheld the intruder stood in place with a massive, ominously glowing spear, trembling visibly in her hand with barely-shackled power. That warranted casting more defensive spells.

"Tritium Titanslayer!" she roared, launching the weapon at me. Its outer layers imploded as it flew, and the glow intensified a billion-fold as it underwent nuclear fusion, becoming a miniature star in the shape of a spear. A massive wave of radiation burst out in its wake, turning the desert surface behind it to molten glass. A thrill ran through me; when I defeat her, I will wield this power in the Overlord's service! I welcome the challenge!

The spear, however, never hit me.

An overwhelming pressure settled upon me, upon everything around me, as a faint purple glow suffused the entire area. The star-spear, and all its incredible, wondrous, amazing power, simply came to a halt, even the impending explosion seizing, the deadly glow constrained once more.

"Interesting. Very interesting," came a familiar voice, echoing through my head. My eyes - the only part of my body I could move at the moment - drifted to the figure now stood between me and the nuclear lance, as he examined the weapon as if it were no more than a passing curiosity. A silver-clad hand raised up from beneath his purple mantle and passed over the Titanslayer as he drifted past it. As he moved, the constrained plasma simply dissolved, flames akin to that of the sun dispersing as harmlessly as a common matchstick. The devastating glow ceased to be.

I felt the psionic grip loosen upon me, as another black-clad warrior stepped into place beside me. Across the heat-blasted surface of glass left in the weapon's wake, I could see the intruder, as paralyzed as I has been, eyes locked upon the purple-clad figure - the Overlord - that had so casually defeated her attack. Now, I could see something like fear - mixed with anger - in her eyes.
________________
<<<OVERLORD>>>
<<<OMICRON>>>

"An impressive display indeed, I must admit. You have my honest compliments. Ah, hold that thought," the Overlord thought at everyone around him, before drifting over to the hexagonal barrier Charon had placed around Dark Matter. It had held quite well, but Omicron dismissed it with a thought to reveal the wounded Black Pikmin. A silent exchange took place between them before the Overlord teleported him away to have his prosthetics refitted.

Now the Overlord turned his attention back to the metallic intruder, drifting uncomfortably close to the paralyzed elemental.

"Now, where was I?" he questioned, once more broadcasting to everyone present. "Ah yes, our little intruder! Or perhaps I should call you Mithril?"

Mithril's eyes flinched at the use of her name.

"Hmhm. Yes yes, your mental defenses are very impressive. I'd go so far as to say they're the most formidable I've ever encountered. But a name is quite simple to glean, no matter how well defended your mind is. On that note, your reason for being here is simple enough to not require any further reading, now isn't it?" Omicron asked, drawing a silvery gauntlet from within his robe to reveal the softly-glowing shard hovering above his hand. Mithril's gaze immediately snapped to it, only for another familiar face to block her view.

"It's such a fascinating thing, isn't it?" came Hyperline's voice as he slung himself around Mithril's immobile form. "A manifested crack in time! And it brought YOU along with it, and you're just as fascinating. The precog arrays didn't pick you up at all, and our soldiers say their precognition can barely keep up! Heck, even I can only see you a few steps in advance. And how strong you are!" the White Pikmin laughed excitedly, like a child that had just gotten a new toy.

"I could learn a great deal from studying you, but my time is valuable, and your mind is difficult to pierce. I could exert myself, and we would see who broke first, but frankly I've better things to do with my time," he admitted, drifting away from Mithril and toward the two black knights, Hyperline sliding into place beside him. "So to that end, I propose... a game."

Mithril continued to glare at him, vulgar thoughts drifting up to the surface as she weighed her options. There weren't many, here.

"Hmhmhm. I shall have you face Zero in a duel... the rules are simple; remove his visor and you win. Should he remove that little band from your stalk however, you lose. The relic, and of course your freedom, will serve as the prize."

Charon looked a bit put-off to have their battle interrupted, but did not complain as the other black knight stepped forward, armor-clad feet crunching through the field of irradiated glass, a familiar book drifting behind him.

"You may begin when you are ready," Omicron announced, releasing his psychic grip on Mithril.

Dark Matter *Side content*

The soft glow of the Overlord's psionic power washed over me, and with a quick yanking feeling, I found myself in the familiar, noisy abode of the Overclocked One, the sounds of his many devices weaving together into a strange but soothing symphony.

The moment I arrived his head perked up from whatever it was he was working on and turned toward me, his goggles adjusting to zero in on my arms.

"Hello, Gear," I greeted him, before raising up my stumps, "As you can see, I'm in need of your services."

"What do we have here?" he asked, shuffling toward me in a huff. Consider he has no arms of his own, I've always found his gait to be... odd. He leaned toward me as he got closer, examining my torn form; the Overlord had repaired much of the damage in the teleportation, but scars remained. "Missing your prosthetics, are we? My my, what happened, Dark Matter?"

"I've... underestimated an intruder."

"Tsk tsk," Gear replied, clicking his tongue at me. "So unlike you, DM... buuuut it does mean I get to make NEW prosthetics for you!" he continued gleefully, as many sets of hands suddenly pulled away from the walls. Spindly, spider-like things made of zro; Gear's hands. No need for arms when he has so many.

One of his hands drifted before me, holding a canister of white powder, while others grabbed tools from about the workshop.

"Now then, if you could provide me with some material to aid in the construction?" Gear questioned, holding out one of his hands. I began to produce the usual material when the hand tapped my forehead.

"No no, boring boring boring. We can't make them the same as before! We must innovate, my friend! I would like to request a... different... composition for this set," he explained, tone slowly creeping toward the one that meant he'd thought of something devious. I tilted my head and gave him a look.

"What did you have in mind...?" I asked. Gear's grin spread a bit wider, hands wiggling their fingers in anticipation.

"Well..."