Fight for Power

<]-Mithril-[>

Deja vu. Mithril was fighting Gamma Mark II on top of Omicron's territory high above the planet. There would be at least a few differences, of course.

One of them was the fact that Mithril was enraged, and will be very aggressive in attempting to blast off Zero's visor. Unlike her fight with with Strosek, Zero's main universe counterpart, where she was ultimately lukewarm in terms of going for the kill/aggressiveness, here she is most certainly not holding back the brutality.

Onto the violence. Mithril began the fight by generating a massive barrage of metal swords, axes, spears, boomerangs, scissors, and various other weaponry to hurl at the second Gamma. Zero's first action was activating the Zero Effect, and then put up an "AEGIS_SHELL," deflecting the aforementioned barrage. The various metal weapons immediately began to disintegrate due to Zero Effect being active.

Oh this again, Mithril seemed to think as the metal implements fell apart around Zero. What she wasn't expecting was Zero being much more aggressive in getting into melee range compared to Strosek; immediately rushing forward to try and slash her with that sword of his.

Mithril dodged around the blade, splitting into several clones, and then having each of them shift an arm into a large chainsword. Zero put up a barrier again, and swiped again with his sword to take out a few clones, but this time Mithril roared and then cleaved, bringing the remaining chainswords down towards Gamma Mark II's head and visor. While the barrier faltered underneath the powerful, enraged slashes, it nonetheless held long enough for Zero to tilt his head and avoid taking a blow to that area, the slashes instead carving into Gamma Mark II's armor.

That was when the chainswords disintegrated due to the Zero Effect, Zero himself healed off any damage with his nearly instant healing factor, and he dispatched of most of the clones with a series of empowered slashes, "CRIMSON_RAVE". Mithril grabbed Gamma Mark II's sword arm, interrupting said slashes, and then fired "Beryllium Buster!" at Zero's face right as the Book of the Silver Cross fired an enormous silver bolt, "SILVER_STARS: DIAMOND_STAR". The two attacks clashed and then exploded, the resulting blast forcing both Mithril and Zero backwards, creating distance between the two of them.

Mithril fired off a barrage of rocket-propelled, multi-hit "Steel Smashers!" as well a bunch of rocket-propelled drill spear missiles, "Silver Spiral Spears!" Zero put up a barrier, "GUNSHOT_DEFENSE," and the Book of the Silver Cross unleashed a massive barrage, "SILVER_STARS: FIFTY_THOUSAND."

As the two barrages collided with each other, the area shook from the shockwaves of the impacts, smoke obscuring the area.

"Chromium Killdozer!" came a roar from the smoke as Mithril quickly drove out, with her and a bunch of clones driving huge trucks with front-mounted drills and chainsaws. The roar of the engines and bellowing of road rage emanated throughout the area, as she put the pedal to the metal, fully intent on running Zero down.

<<<Zero>>>

"SILVER_HAMMER," the Book of the Silver Cross announced, as Zero raised his Divider and pulled the trigger, firing a thick silver orb off at Mithril's Killdozers. The first exploded spectacularly, and was followed by two more before they got close enough that Zero switched his stance.

"CRIMSON_RUSH," the Book called as the Divider's edge gained a red glow. Zero aligned the blade with one of the incoming Killdozers, then rushed forward, tip of the blade first, carving straight through the truck like it were made of paper. He then turned as the Book declared, "SILVER_GATLING," swinging the blade in one smooth motion as dozens of silver bullets sprayed from around it, showering the now-turning Killdozers heavily enough to break them apart.

It wasn't enough to destroy them, though, and the remnants of the dozers began to writhe as all the metal turned into a vast multitude of clones. They spread around him, beginning to fire Platinum Pain and Ferrochrome Fletchettes at him. The platinum beams were the first to arrive, and to this the Book merely said, "Divide."

Each beam split and imploded, the blast traveling back to their sources, with extremely explosive results. That took out a fair chunk of the clones right there. As the fletchettes closed the distance, the Book called out once more, "SILVER_STARS: SILVER_SHROUD."

Dozens of pages flew out into a circle around Zero and projected a silver wall, soaking up most of the fletchettes. Some, however, curved over the shield. Of those, several dissolved before impact thanks to the Zero Effect, but others were denser, and plunged into Zero's body, punching large holes in his flesh. He ignored these as he raised his shield, a glowing red image beginning to form over it.

"CRIMSON_RAZOR."

An image of a buzzsaw manifested over the gear-shaped buckler, and with one fluid turning motion Zero let it fly. The shield-turned-saw swirled around him, carving through the remaining incoming fletchettes before zooming outward, toward the line of clones. Any it struck, it went through effortlessly. Those that remained began to charge, a variety of melee weapons forming in their hands as they approached.

"SILVER_STARS: HUNDRED_THOUSAND," the Book intoned, as the pages that had formed a wall abruptly became projectiles, firing out at the incoming swarm in a devastating silver barrage. Even as the blasts echoed across the dunes, the fletchettes that had hit Zero disintegrated, falling away and allowing his wounds to close in mere seconds.

There we still plenty of clones left over, however, now closing in to melee range.

"Silver Slammer!" "Barium Buster!" "Steel Sickle!" "Radium Ruiner!" "Rhenium Razor!"

There were more attacks called out, but Zero hardly listened to them. Instead he merely raised his Divider as a red glow came over it again.

"CRIMSON_REND," the Book supplied. His first swing carved through the Silver Slammer effortlessly, and as it passed, bands of crimson energy ripped through the rest of it, transferring to the clone and tearing it apart as well. The clone wielding the Steel Sickle followed, and then the one with the Rhenium Razor. The Barium Buster and Radium Ruiner instead came upon against another AEGIS_SHELL, which was immediately followed by SHELTER_PURGE, the defensive barrier turning the received impact back, detonating fiercely enough to wipe out the remaining clones.

The sand kicked up by the blast barely had time to part before Mithril herself locked blades with him, wielding a large Silver Saber with two hands. Zero pushed back, gripping his Divider with both hands as well. It would serve as a decent enough distraction as his shield returned from behind her, the CRIMSON_RAZOR coming in high, at her stalk...

<]-Mithril-[>

Mithril effectively had eyes on the back of her head; it was trivial for her to grow some there, after all. Additionally, she had faced opponents who had been able to call their weapons back towards them, such as Broxigar and his enchanted axe.

Mithril sprouted several more arms wielding several more chainweapons, and then, making sure to protect her stalk, turned and spun around, pivoting around the Divider and unleashing a furious series of slashes. Simultaneously, she fired off a multitude of shark-tipped chains at the CRIMSON_RAZOR, knocking it down into the sand to protect her Band.

"AEGIS_SHELL," intoned the Book of the Silver Cross, putting up a defensive barrier to slow the incoming chainweapons, enough for Zero to put the Divider up in front of his visor to block. With slashes cutting through the rest of his body, Gamma Mark II alighted the Divider with a red glow and then called out "CRIMSON_RUSH," rushing through a few of Mithril's extra arms to pick up his shield.

"Titanium Trident!" Mithril roared, throwing a huge, drill-tipped, rocket-propelled trident at Zero, which the Book countered by firing a "SILVER_BARRETT", the two projectiles colliding and destroying each other.

"Platinum Laser Crasher!" she bellowed, throwing a bunch of laser-spewing, rocket-propelled trucks at Gamma Mark II. "SHIELD_OF_THE_SILVER_CROSS," responded the Book, dozens of pages flying from it and forming into a cross-shaped shield. There were clones nested inside the trucks however, which busted through the shield with "Titanium Twister!" drills. While most of them went after Zero himself, a few of the clones went after the Book of the Silver Cross instead.

Going after the Book was certainly a strategy worth considering. During Mithril's fight vs Strosek, the battle ended when Libera shoved a drill through the Book, heavily damaging it and causing Strosek to fall inert.

However, just as Mithril was about to punch through the Book of the Silver Cross with one of her clones' attacks, Overlord Omicron interfered, blocking said attack.

"Ah ah ah. Your target is Zero's visor, remember? Eyes on the prize, Mithril," Overlord Omicron admonished. One of the Mithrils, wearing an unreadable expression, turned to look at him.

"Kind of peculiar that you would interfere here. Would something interesting happen should the Book be damaged?" she questioned.

"Interesting is certainly one way of putting it."

"I wonder if you'd try and attack the Book the second time, if you were in my position, just to see what happens. You always want to know, don't you."

"Would you though?" Hyperline asked.

"Hmhm. Perhaps. Or perhaps I'd wait for a more... opportune... moment."

Back to the fight. Mithril was about to use a rocket dash to close the distance and make another attempt at hacking off Zero's visor with a chainweapon when the second Gamma decided to up the ante, firing off "DIVIDE_ZERO", a huge bombardment type beam. It tore through the clones and trucks, applying the Divide effect to said metal and disintegrating them.

Mithril herself was able to dodge the DIVIDE_ZERO, having used that rocket dash to rise above the beam. She unleashed a "Dolomite Drill Downpour!", a massive flood of various drill-tipped projectiles raining down on Zero. Gamma Mark II put up a shield, "GUNSHOT_DEFENSE," to fend off the projectiles long enough for the Book to unleash its own barrage, "SILVER_STARS: ONE_MILLION."

As the projectiles clashed and smoke filled the area, an ominous glow emanated throughout it, said smoke parting to reveal a massive, nuclear-powered spear.

"Tritium Titanslayer!" Mithril shouted, hurling the enormous weapon at Zero, the starspear undergoing nuclear fusion as it hurtled down towards him.

<<<Zero>>>

Even before the smoke had cleared, Zero had been positioning for his next attack. The smoke meant nothing to him; his vision was not like that of normal Pikmin. He'd seen the spear forming, the mathematical concepts coming together to form that devastating weapon, well in advance. So he tipped his weapon toward her, gathered power, and prepared to fire.

"SILVER_STARS:NEUTRON_STAR" the Book supplied for him. A large silver orb formed at the tip of his blade, and as Mithril threw her Titanslayer, Zero pulled the trigger.

At the sidelines, Hyperline was abruptly nowhere to be seen, Charon applied every defensive spell it knew, and the Overlord simply watched with rapt attention, making not even the slightest motion to defend himself as two stars collided.

The result was akin to a miniature supernova. An enormous explosion rocked the whole of Scala Ad Caelum, the relativistic blast scouring the desert's surface, transforming the sand into exotic materials for miles around and kicking it all up into the air, a massive cloud of radioactive dust. The blast's fallout, however, came to a sudden halt, an invisible circle blocking it from spreading any further.

"Absolutely fantastic!" came Omicron's psionic cry, accompanied by the sound of him actually clapping. "How often does one get to bear witness to a supernova from point blank range?! Oh, I knew this would be worth watching! Bravo, bravo!"

Beside him, Charon coughed loudly into their hand. "My Lord... your enthusiasm..."

"Is infectious!" Hyperline supplied as he returned. Omicron nodded in agreement, while forming a wind funnel to begin pulling the dust in. No reason to overlook a bunch of exotic materials, after all.

Amidst the storm of radiation, the fight continued, the two combatants having barely stopped to wait for the blast to clear to resume swinging at one another. Zero's armor was clearly damaged, though his visor remained unharmed; that was his mission objective, after all. Mithril, meanwhile, for once showed some signs of damage, blackened pits in her body marking damage she couldn't be bothered to smooth over right now, what with Zero constantly swinging for her stalk.

The storm of radioactive dust still didn't impede Zero's vision any, so he was able to quite clearly see Mithril's clones coming together, the numbers gathering about them as their attacks began to form. Powerful attacks... a LOT of powerful attacks. Unacceptable.

Disengaging for a moment, Zero pointed his Divider to the sky, and the Book dutifully flew up into position overhead as he gathered the energy to put this to rest.

"SILVER_STARS:HUNDRED_BILLION"

"Oh my," Omicron stated.

"Oh wow!" Hyperline cheered.

"Oh s***," Mithril summarized elegantly, as a cataclysm of silver stars sprayed out of the Book into the sky and then curved back down towards her and her clones. Remembering her fight with Strosek, a hundred million of these had taken several minutes to finish firing. This was a thousand times that many!

Mithril immediately went into her nuclear mode, her clones following suit... those that weren't immediately blown away by the downpour of silver stars, anyway. As the storm of stars began in earnest, she drew forth a pair of Silver Sabers before blasting off toward Zero, weaving through the beams that nearly filled the sky.

"CRIMSON_REND" the Book called, somehow loud enough to be heard over the storm, as Zero drew his glowing Divider up to meet her. She swung one Saber at him, only for his blade to slice through it as easily as before, the blade dissolving much the same as anything else he'd hit with that attack. Before it disintegrated completely, however, Mithril detonated the remaining nuclear power within it, then came around behind him with her other Saber... only for it to be blasted out of her hand by one of the silver beams before she could swing it.

Before Zero could capitalize, a Radium Rocket slammed into him from below, one of the clones managing to fire an attack before being blasted to pieces, giving Mithril time to break away. Thousands of clones broke away from her as she did, all producing chain weapons of their own as they dove towards Zero. Many were shot down before even getting close to him thanks to the storm of stars, but others were able to close the distance and make a swing at him. Those that did were mostly sliced through by CRIMSON_REND, disintegrating like just like before... but those that were struck released their remaining nuclear energy and exploded.

With the reprieve this bought, Mithril took a chance at raising a defensive shield, but it was blasted apart almost instantly under the endless barrage. Not a chance...

"DIVIDE_ZERO" came a call piercing through the noise, and Mithril only barely managed to avoid being in the huge black beam as it blew through the bulk of her clone army, only for another one to pierce through the haze of nuclear smoke and silver stars.

"Alright, screw this! Metal Gate: Aggro Shift!" Mithril roared, her form bulking up with heavier metals. She was immediately beset by numerous silver stars, but she would just deal with it.

"Strontium Shredder! Chromium Chainaxe!" she continued, producing a pair of oversized chained weapons before diving through the storm of beams, shedding clones in her wake, each of which also began forming weapons of their own.

"SILVER_HAMMER:PHALANX_SHIFT" the Book reported, Zero firing a shotgun blast of large silver projectiles from his Divider. Mithril dodged through the swarm, but some of her clones were not as lucky and were blown away. It wasn't enough to stop her from closing the distance and swinging both of her massive chain-blades at Zero, motors screaming. Zero actually bothered to raise his shield as the weapons tore straight through the barrier the Book placed upon him, the gear-shaped buckler itself spinning in order to counter the chains. A CRIMSON_RAZOR spun up on it as well, eating into Mithril's chainaxe before she could pull it away, but she simply generated a new one and swung at both of Zero's sides, her Shredder catching on his Divider and the Chainaxe crashing down on his shield.

Zero could see all the clones closing in, the numbers representing their weapons. He hadn't enough to hold them all off at once. Not while still protecting his visor, at least. With one mental command, the red markings representing his Eclipse infection began to glow.

"DIVIDE_ZERO:ECLIPSE" the Book announced, as Zero drained every drop of mana from the area.

<]-Mithril-[>

OH THIS AGAIN, Mithril seemed to think as DIVIDE_ZERO: ECLIPSE hit, a tangible wave expanding from Zero's location, Scala Ad Caelum shaking from the attack. Mithril herself was at point-blank melee range of the DIVIDE_ZERO: ECLIPSE, now very shaky and twitching heavily, gritting her teeth in rage.

Zero swung his Divider at Mithril's stalk, aiming for her Hero Band.

NOT THIS TIME.

Metal Gate: Accel Shift.

In one instant, Mithril moved. She detached her top and bottom halves, her upper half rising above to dodge Zero's Divider swing; both halves now rocketing towards Zero at high speed.

"Steel Scissor Slicer!" Mithril bellowed, as a giant pair of scissors grew from Mithril's two halves, snapping shut to slice off the arm of Zero's that held the Divider.

"Chromium Chainstorm!" Mithril continued, an absolutely staggering number of chainweapons growing from arms growing from clones, Zero now bombarded with chainslashes at high speed.

Zero just barely got his shield up over his visor in time, said shield having a CRIMSON_RAZOR spinning upon it to prevent the chainblades from slicing into his visor. The rest of his body fared much worse, as Mithril's chainblades were cutting into him, hacking off his legs. The Book of the Silver Cross responded with "SILVER_BURST", a high-power but short range explosion, meant to get opponents to back off. The SILVER_BURST succeeded in granting Zero a brief reprieve, forcing Mithril to back away. As Gamma Mark II's legs regenerated, he put his shield in front of him, alighted it with a red glow, and then performed a "CRIMSON_RUSH" shield charge. Simultaneously, he had his Divider fly back towards him, in a manner just as his shield had done before.

Mithril blasted the returning Divider into the sand away from Zero as the Book of the Silver Cross unleashed a massive barrage upon her. With the backdrop of Silver Stars sounding throughout Scala Ad Caelum, Mithril sent several metallic arms at Gamma Mark II's legs, and even though the Book put up a barrier to protect him, a huge swarm of "Molten Metal Missiles!" blasted through it and halted Zero's advance. Mithril tore off his shield arm with a "Steel Scissor Shredder!" chainscissors attack, but as Zero's other hand had regenerated by now, he simply switched his shield to his other hand.

At this point, it was clear to both fighters that Zero was getting speedblitzed. This was when the Book of the Silver Cross blasted away the metal arms that were entangling Zero's legs. This enabled Gamma Mark II to go all in on one final attempt at Mithril's stalk, a "QUICKSILVER_MOVE" flash step attack from behind, intended to slice away Mithril's Hero Band with his CRIMSON_RAZOR shield.

Unfortunately for Zero, Mithril, ever paranoid of having victory snatched away by a sudden reversal, had already prepared a "Platinum Pincer!" to block, seizing Zero's shield arm and ripping it off.

"Death Metal Reaper!", Mithril roared, creating a nuclear power chainscythe, and bringing it down. It shredded through the visor and Zero's head, finishing the fight. Even though Gamma Mark II had the power chainscythe shred through his head and brain, he nonetheless regenerated.

"INITIATE_REACT-" called out the Book of the Silver Cross, intending to move Zero into a second, more powerful Reaction stage. Before it could do so however...

"That's enough, Zero. Your visor is destroyed," stated Overlord Omicron, calling off the fight.

"My sincere congratulations on your victory, Mithril. I believe you have earned this." said Overlord Omicron, who pulls out the shard and floats it over to her.

Mithril suddenly notices a huge power signature and sees Omega fly in at high speed. She scowls at the arrival of the Archangel.

Omega has a curving purple pattern etched across most of his body, and six ethereal, sparkling wings.

"My lord, you called?" asked the orange Pikmin.

"Ah, Omega. My apologies for interrupting your patrol. I simply wished to... introduce you... to our guest, Mithril."

Mithril only glared at him, saying nothing. This really was like a case of being called to an area in a future disc of a video game. All the more reason to get ever and ever stronger.

She grabbed the shard, and, turning to look at Overlord Omicron again, told him this, "This had better be the last time I ever see you. If you or your goons ever show your ugly faces in my timeline, I'll ensure that it'll be your downfall."

Time and space s***tered apart before Overlord Omicron could respond to her.

<<<OVERLORD>>>
<<<OMICRON>>>

The spiraling cracks in time and space that whirled out from the 'relic' were quite fascinating. I made sure to remember each of those cracks in exquisite detail. Such details are ALWAYS important.

"Bye, intruder lady!" Hyperline called, waving at the cracks as they withdrew, leaving no trace of the metal elemental. Charon merely stared at the spot, gripping their weapon tightly. Zero re-acquired his Divider, silent as ever. His armor is a touch busted up and he will need a new visor. Nevertheless...

'An excellent show as instructed, Zero. You have my praise. Consider it a job well done,' I informed him, getting only the same flat gaze as ever in response.

"Oh, but the relic is gone! Alas, to have it ripped away so quickly..." Hyperline went on melodramatically, while Omega merely kept his gaze upon me.

"Sir, was that all?"

'Not quite, Omega. There was something I wished to speak with you about in person, concerning the relic that just... left. It is a shame to lose hold of it so quickly... but then, I never needed to keep it for long. The time I held it was more than sufficient to analyze it with my psychometry, and I have learned ever so much from it,' I thrilled at the knowledge I'd gleaned.

"But sir... my patrol," Omega protested. I waved a hand at him.

'It will be some time before the Resistance and Separatists notice your absence... and when they do, it will at least provide an entertaining diversion. Come along now... we have preparations to make.'
______________________
([{Broxigar the Red}])

f*** me, my head hurts. Feels like someone just got finished giving my brain a once over with a lemon... wrapped around a brick.

Slowly peeling my eyes open to figure out what the hell happened, I found myself... in HQ lobby? What?

The cracking sound of ice shifting, accompanied by a groan, echoed from nearby as I got to my feet and spotted Sapphire. A puddle a bit away from her was slowly gathering itself into Beta's form, and she looked just as disoriented as the two of us.

"Ah, you're awake? Good to see," came an approaching voice. All three of us looked up to see Bloodriver, with that Brown Pikmin in tow (hadn't gotten his name, really ought to ask).

"Oh, great timing. You got a Seraphim, could I...?" Sapphire asked weakly. Bloodriver nodded and hurried over to her, grabbing hold of Sapphire's arm to pull her to her feet. Sapphire sucked in a breath as she stood, looking much sturdier once she was up.

"Thanks, whatever happened must have taken it out of me... what DID happen, anyway? Where the heck is everyone?" Sapphire voiced the question on everyone's minds. Beta took a look around as if to confirm that the five of us were the only ones here.

"Unsure at this time," Bloodriver responded, pulling up a holographic display, "I woke up not too long before all of you and gave HQ a once over. I couldn't find anyone else and comms seem to be down... as well as our teleporters. We're a bit stuck here."

"Stuck?!" Beta echoed, "Well shoot, how long have we been out for? And what's going on with the rest of the world?"

"Also unknown," Bloodriver replied, tapping at the holographic display in apparent frustration, "No outside signals, and the calendar's on the fritz. There's no way of knowing-"

Bloodriver was cut off as HQ's general geography suddenly fuzzed out in multiple places. That fuzz then rapidly began to spread, altering the landscape as it went. Her holographic display began to squeal warning sounds as the change spread.

"Someone's seized control of the landscape generator...?!" she gasped as HQ rapidly changed, shifting itself into... a ruined cityscape of some kind? As the change washed over our location, I shifted my hand to my axe. I've got a really bad feeling about this...

The fuzz passed by, leaving us standing not in HQ's lobby, but in the run-down remains of... looked like it might have once been a giant robot of some kind? A quick glance around confirmed we were in its midsection. A few tentative steps outside revealed an expansive ruined city. Buildings with wide bases that thinned rapidly as they rose, though the "needle" portion of most of the structures had broken off. Much of the city was in shambles, obviously scarred by war of some kind; the desiccated remains of huge war machines scattered all over were proof enough, if the scorch marks and craters weren't. A light mist pervaded everything in sight.

"Well, this is spooky," I voiced into the eerie, dead calm as the others filed out around me, peering into the gloom.

"HQ's landscape can be changed at a whim, so who would want to make something like this...?" Bloodriver wondered aloud. A loud crash obliterating the silence answered her, a huge plume of dust and debris bursting out from one of the ruined buildings in the distance. Bad feeling's getting stronger.

Lit from behind by a flickering light, a figure strode through the cloud of dust, a large cape visibly flapping behind them.

"That cape... Libera...?" Beta called out tentatively. I stepped forward to raise a hand in front of her. Something's not right. For one, he's sure as hell not saying anything...

As the figure strode forward and the dust began to settle, his form was gradually revealed from the top down. The golden, spiked orb and skin were definitely Libera's...

The black eyes with red pupils and twitching green lines extending out from the center? Not so much. I heard a gasp from beside me as the dust fell further, revealing more of him. A large hole through his cape, matching the large, glowing white circle on his chest... equally matched by the glowing white arm on his left side, replacing the mechanical prosthetic. The red and black armor on his right arm and legs were new, however.

"I don't think that's Libera... at least, not anymore," I warned as the Golden Pikmin came to a halt in the distance. He stared blankly in our direction for a moment before raising his glowing left arm in our direction, whereupon something very odd happened to it.

The arm kind of... folded in on itself, then folded out in blocky shapes before resolving into a blocky hexagon, slowly rolling in on itself. An incredible sense of danger came over me as the glowing shape coiled on itself further.

"Lazenn... Impact..." Libera(?) said, his voice horrifyingly flat.

"Move... MOVE!" I shouted, pulling Beta aside as the hexagon imploded on itself in one impossibly violent motion, turning from a blocky ring into a solid, cylindrical projectile moving thousands of miles per hour, passing between our group with a thunderous sonic boom, blowing all five of us away from its passage, and blasting away the remnants of the giant robot we'd been inside of.

The projectile's passage left a huge cloud of dust in its wake, mercifully covering our location for a moment. A mercy validated a moment later.

"Crusher... Bit..." came Libera's voice again, as hundreds of roller-cone drills burst up from the ground where we'd been standing, shredding the area completely. Libera is one of Hero Squad's strongest members. I don't fully know what Bloodriver and the Brown are capable of, but I'm not certain the five of us can beat him, especially with whatever the f*** happened to him.

"Okay. Alright. That's... that's not cool," Beta panted, pulling herself together. "The other three must have been blasted to the other side of the projectile... hopefully."

"We're screwed if we try to fight him head on," I grunted, gesturing towards the nearest building. "Let's get out of sight for now and think of a plan."

++Bloodriver++

As a result of Libera's attack, Sapphire, rock guy, and I were blasted into a Hero Zone. It looked to be some kind of temple, containing an altar, and several stone tablets and scrolls with an ancient language on them. Various religious iconography was lining the room.

... I recognize this Hero Zone. It isn't a Zone that exists in our main timeline. That means that we're probably in an alternate future.

Sapphire notes that she doesn't recognize this Hero Zone at all.

"Wha... uh, is this part of the 'renovations' Libera made, or...?"

... I don't want most of the others digging too deep into this. Better change the subject.

"Speaking of Libera, there is something odd going on with him right now. Sapphire, as a fellow Experiment, would you happen to know anything about our opponent's current status and the strange power he wields?" I asked her.

"That? No idea. I'm not exactly the most well-acquainted with Libera or anything, but whatever was going on back there, I've never seen anything like it," responded Sapphire.

"We need to make a plan to deal with this hostile version of Libera. Additionally, as he still has his Hero Band, we need to ensure he doesn't eavesdrop on us," I noted.

"I'll handle securing the comms while Bloodriver monitors his location; I just need a bit of time," stated Xenon.

"... be careful about being ambushed. I am concerned about Libera using Spiral Perceptual Teleportation to get the jump on us," I warned.

Sapphire notices some kind of ancient weapon encased in glass, in the back of the room

"Don't touch that!" I snapped at her. "... that weapon is dangerous."

"Is it as dangerous as Libera?" Sapphire wondered.

"We are not in a desperate enough situation to use that, and hopefully never will be, ever," I replied.

Sapphire gave the weapon a good long look and then slowly backed away from it

We headed over to Rune's Hero Zone next. Rune, ever focused on security, had previously asked the Spiral duo about the possibility of hostile Spiral Warriors showing up in the future.

*Flashback, recorded transcript of those chats*

If Libera was asked about whether or not there were more Spiral Power users out there, as in more than just Libera and Anti.
What would he say?

Libera: "Course there are! Spiral Power is a fundamental force of the universe, there's gotta be others out there somewhere."

How would Anti respond to that question?

Anti: "There are. But you would be hard pressed to find them."

Rune: "Would there potentially be evil users of Spiral Power out there? If so, how would you recommend getting through their (Super) Spiral Shield?"

Libera: "Unquestionably. There's no requirement to be good to use Spiral Power, you just need determination!... and a flagrant disregard for the laws of physics. As for the Spiral Shield, not just anyone can do that; you need a LOT of Spiral Power to pull it off, and there's no bluffing your way to the kind of clarity of purpose that lets you do that. It's more than just a state of mind, it's a state of being. If you do find yourself up against someone who can use a Super Spiral Shield... well, best learn how to manipulate probability."

Rune: "So you're suggesting bad luck magic/charms/spells, or some kind of jinx."

Libera: "Ehhhhh... maybe that'd work? If it did, it'd be a fair bit easier than brute-forcing the concept of probability into bypassing a Spiral Shield. No idea how effective it'd be, though."

*End flashback*

We walked into Rune's Hero Zone, which by this time has mostly been altered by Libera hijacking the landscape generator. I say mostly because some of the higher security sections that didn't run off the landscape generator were unaffected.

Approaching the section marked "For use against hostile Spiral Warriors" I attempted to access it. It requested identification, so I and Xenon provided ours, and it let us in. Inside were various (experimental) anti-Spiral power magitek such as various bad luck charms and jinxes.

Taking those, we then visited was Chi's Hero Zone, to determine just what exactly is going on.

What we found was a clock in the middle of an incomprehensible void that struck 12, at the precise moment we found it. Instead of ringing however, it played a message in Chi's voice.

"Hello! On account of the fact that you're hearing this message, it means I'm currently s***tered across time and space, and you're gonna have to fix me if you want time to start making sense again! You'll have to find the pieces of me to do that - don't worry, it won't be anything gory - and hey, you're in luck! One of those pieces in inside HQ right now! Bad news is, well, Lazenn's the one who's got it. You'll have to beat him to get it and get things back to normal. And uh... don't worry about the others too much, the whole thing should work out. Keyword should. So have at it, good luck! This clock will kick you out in three seconds, to avoid s***tering your minds when exposed to this Hero Zone's real form. 3... 2... 1..."

As the clock hit zero, a giant cuckoo popped out of said clock and punted us out of Chi's Hero Zone.

"I presume that when that recording of Chi mentioned Lazenn, he was referring to the hostile version of Libera that attacked us," stated rock guy.

"Seems about right," I noted. "Does the name Lazenn mean anything to you, Sapphire? Ever heard of that name before this?"

Sapphire: "No... but that's what he said when he fired that first attack, right? Lazenn Impact?"

"I wonder if Anti knows anything about this Lazenn," rock guy speculated.

I went over the options we had for neutralizing Lazenn with rock guy and Sapphire.

Bloodriver: "... And lastly, we have fusion as an option. I have concerns about Broxigar's Blood Flare and... whatever happened during the Thetas vs Digital Gear and Cross fight as risks, however."

Sapphire: "Hmm... I might be able to get something done with Beta, but I'm not really sure how to go about fusion. Maybe you could fuse with Beta, both your power sets work around manipulating liquids, technically..."

Bloodriver: "That's the plan. I retrieved some (admittedly experimental) anti-Spiral power magitek from Rune's Hero Zone, once we regroup with Broxigar and Beta we can use this and equip it to Broxigar's axe to deal with Lazenn's (Super) Spiral Shield."

Rock guy confirmed that he finished fixing my power armor, so I summoned it and equipped it.

We hurried off towards Beta's and Broxigar's location. My blood sense tells me exactly where they are, so it shouldn't be long before...

Suddenly, a huge cylindrical drill slams down on our prior location from above, grinding down several feet into the ground before vanishing.

...

I've finished securing the comms, Bloodriver.

Good work, Xenon.

Making sure not to stay in one place, I contacted Broxigar and Beta and told them of our battle plans and everything that we've learned.

Unfortunately, before we'll be able to regroup, we'll have to get past Lazenn, who appears to be shambling around in the distance, looking for us.

Since Sapphire was more of a close range fighter, Xenon, rock guy, and I fired a combined range attack, a stone-encased, light and blood-imbued missile, at Lazenn.

<Beta>

So, quick recap of me and Brox for the past few minutes, namely: creeping around the ruined city trying not to get killed.

It hasn't exactly been the easiest thing in the world, seeing as Libera seems to be capable of seeing through walls or something, he sure as hell seems to know roughly where we are all the time. For instance, despite us currently being on the third floor of a building Libera has no real visibility on, here comes one of those cylindrical drills, boring through the whole building from one side to the other and just barely missing us.

"I suppose we should at least count ourselves lucky that he missing, even if it's only slightly," Brox said, waving away the falling dust as the building settled from the impact.

"How much longer can we count on that, though?" I asked as we began moving, both being as careful as we could to avoid making noise. A bolt of white fire streaked through the hole the drill had made and detonated where we'd been standing, igniting most of the floor and turning our sneaky movement into more of a panicked fleeing. If I had a moment of quiet, I could concentrate long enough to activate Serene Mind, but I'm too damn jumpy at the moment.

Fortunately, the crackling flames in the building were noisy enough to cover our escape as we moved to another building a bit further from Libera's location. Unfortunately not far enough, as a bunch of those tri-tip drills burst up from the ground beneath us. Brox reacted quick enough to vault out of the way, but I got splattered all over the area. Kind of stung, but seeing as I'm made of water, I simply flowed back together nearby Brox.

"Well that was unpleasant. I'm not sure if he realizes basic physical attacks don't work on me, and I'd rather not test it," I whispered, while Brox exhaled heavily.

"s***. You lot with fluid bodies..." he sighed.

Those ground drills are only a concern if you're on the ground floor, so we quickly made our way up the side of another building and into an upper floor, into a room that might have been pretty comfy when it was still in prime condition. The decoration sense of whoever owned this place was... well, esoteric. A bit like Libera's, honestly, if his room in HQ is anything to go by.

After a few minutes without the room being demolished by drills, Brox and I got a bit suspicious and peeked our heads out the window. Libera was nowhere to be seen.

"What, did he get bored?" I asked, just as a heavy blast echoed out from across the city. That's when Bloodriver's voice came over the comms, describing what they'd found and their plan.

"Lazenn..." Broxigar muttered, "Seems something unfortunate happened to him. Well then... let's go give him some peace!" he yelled, leaping out the window to charge in the direction of the brewing fight. I took the moment to take a deep breath, find the peace within myself, and tap into the state of Serene Mind.

Even from here, I can see Lazenn very clearly, a massive, overflowing well of violent intent, exuded in all directions in an overwhelming torrent. That made it easy enough to zero in on the location, flowing through the streets in liquid form to make it there faster.

As I closed in on the location, a huge flat drill burst through the upper floors of a nearby building, sending bits of debris flying in my direction. I weaved through them effortlessly and made my way to the street the fight was taking place on.

Lazenn, according to Bloodriver, was stood pretty much still in the middle of the street, untouched thanks to a large, translucent sphere surrounding him. He turned his gaze toward me as I stepped out into the street and pointed his glowing white arm at me. A wave of violence swept in my direction, and I began moving even before a spear of white fire blew past me. He was immediately struck in return by a barrage of glowing blood bolts and a large earthen spear, to no avail. Broxigar, however, having gotten there before me and joined up with the others, jumped in with his axe - newly adorned with some kind of mechanized edge - and cut through the barrier in a single swing. I took the opportunity to fire a high pressure stream of water into the gap in his shield, which rather gratifyingly struck him and then rebounded within his spiral shield.

"Death... Field..." Lazenn's creepy monotone voice came through, and a "wave" of drills began bursting up from the ground around him, forcing both Brox and myself to back off in a damn hurry. I quickly made my way around to where Bloodriver was; she'd mentioned fusion. Lazenn wound up for another attack, only to be interrupted as the water I'd sprayed at him froze over. It only paused him for a moment, but that was enough for me to fire another jet of water at him before he brought his Spiral Shield back up.

That was enough for me to regroup with Bloodriver. "Somebody call for a fusion buddy?" I said as way of greeting. Bloodriver nodded at me in response.

"I wish to give it a shot, considering how strong he is," she confirmed.

"One way to figure out if it works, yeah?" I replied, giving her a thumbs up. "I'm not super clear on the whole fusion thing, so you're leading the way here."

++Bloodriver++

One fusion later and now, we could see the world in Serene Mind, as Beta did.

"The main question is just how Lazenn is still... I'll say active, he doesn't seem quite alive to me. Precisely what is animating him currently? Some kind of absurd Spiral Power technique? Or perhaps he's been raised into undeath by the Necrolord?"

Regardless of the means by which Lazenn is active, a sufficient amount of damage will likely be enough to neutralize him. Integrating Rune's anti-Spiral power tech into my power armor, I fired a liquid lascannon from the integrated gun in my armor. (The integrated gun was already part of the armor and not Rune's tech)

The blast slammed into Lazenn's Spiral Shield. Unfortunately, as the anti-Spiral power tech didn't fully mesh with the weapons systems in my armor, the Spiral Shield blocked the attack.

"It can be difficult coordinating that sometimes," rock guy said, noting the difficulty in coordinating supply chain/something like that/etc etc)

Due to Serene Mind, I saw the waves of violence, even before the attacks came, from Lazenn. Already in motion, I weaved between the cylinders he fired and, using my armor-integrated bonesaw adorned with an anti-Spiral edge, blood, water, and light, I cleaved through Lazenn's Spiral Shield, allowing rock guy to fire a stone spear through the gap, the impact resulting in an explosion.

I brought my bonesaw around for a second swing, now creating an x-shaped opening in Lazenn's Spiral Shield, interrupting one of his attacks with a spray of frozen water and blood emitted from my bonesaw. Sapphire capitalized on this, a "Freezing Drill Punch!" slamming into him, freezing him solid.

If that all sounded well and good, right after that sequence, I immediately got a sense of danger from Lazenn. Grabbing Sapphire, I backed away as a massive pillar of white flame erupts from Lazenn, said pillar splitting out into a tilted cross as it rose.

Imagine Silver Stars: Very Large Number from Strosek, but the Lazenn, drill version of that. That was the attack he followed up with, "Crusher... Missiles...", unleashing a frankly ridiculous number of drills in a massive barrage at us. By this point, Sapphire had already dispersed herself into ice crystals in an effort to dodge.

I backed away even further from Lazenn, weaving through the barrage with the best of my ability, but I didn't get through it unscathed; a drill slamming into the right side of my body. I applied my healing powers to myself, the bruise healing away. My power armor also repaired itself, the dent that was in it reshaping back into an undamaged shape.

Rock guy put up many earthen walls in an attempt to slow down the missile barrage as we backed away to regroup.

"... Lazenn doesn't have much blood left in his body; for me to be able to use my blood control on him; I'd have to get a direct hit on him with one of my melee weapons and cause him to bleed from that," I grumbled. "Rock guy, perhaps we can troubleshoot and get Rune's anti-Spiral power tech to fully mesh with the weapons systems in my armor, so I can actually make an opening for a ranged strategy. Another idea would be for Broxigar to use that flying axe trick of his as a ranged option. Alas Rune's anti-Spiral Perceptual Teleportation is a work-in-progress and needs additional tweaks for that to work as well, but hopefully Lazenn's lag and slightly off accuracy with that means we have a shot. Let's test out a ranged strategy."

<Sapphire>

A ranged strategy means I'm hanging back for now, waiting for an opening. That does give me an opportunity to gather my strength for a bigger attack when it's my turn. It came decidedly quicker than I'd been hoping for.

"Aether!" Brox yelled as he threw his axe at Lazenn, the add-ons lighting up as it flew towards him. Just as it closed in, though, a swirl of white energy wrapped around Lazenn and then coalesced into a point of nothingness, leaving nothing for the axe to hit. A matching swirl of white fire then emerged right in the middle of our group.

"Same... strategy..." came Lazenn's voice, just before he slammed into the ground fist-first. "Crusher... Bit... Maximum..."

I slammed my own fist into the ground between us, throwing up a huge glacier of ice to slow his attack as dozens of massive tri-tip drills exploded out of the ground around Lazenn, forcing our group apart. Betariver (That's the name I'm going with and no one can stop me) fired a huge glob of glowing red water in his direction, landing just as Broxigar's axe whirled in and struck through his shield. The impact produced a splash large enough to obscure him from vision. I promptly froze the lot of it, and rock guy followed up with what was less a boulder and more a meteor, flattening the entire area.

Even that wasn't enough, as a wave of grinding crushers exploded out from the impact site, forcing us all back. With us now sufficiently spread out, a whirl of white spiral power erupted near Broxigar, Lazenn arriving from a Perceptual Teleport and immediately taking a swing at him with his spiral arm. Brox caught it on his axe, which Lazenn immediately grabbed hold of, drills erupting from his arm to grind and tear at it in an attempt to destroy it.

The clear attempt to destroy his axe apparently set something off in Brox, because with a roar of fury his Blood Flare activated. Seeing as Lazenn was already in contact with the axe, he simply pulled back his fist and socked Lazenn in the face, sending him careening through the city, smashing through the remains of a building before coming to rest in another. Brox took off after him immediately, a flaming streak through the city, holding onto his axe only because it'd been in his hand at the time.

"Hey, isn't that bad?" I asked as I regrouped with Betariver and rock guy. I hadn't been with the group in Hybras, but I'd heard about what happened.

"In the long run, yes," Betariver replied, as all three (or would it be four?) of us raced after Broxigar. "For now, it may be enough to tip the scales in our favor. It's called a Blood Flare... I think I may be able to use my power to calm him down if this becomes dangerous."

Lazenn exploded back out the building he'd stopped in, his left arm bursting out into a cacophony of drill-tendrils as Broxigar approached, slashing through the tendrils with his axe before diving in close to bodily ram Lazenn and carry him along, slamming back through the building and out the other side, stopping only when a burst out white fire blasted out of Lazenn's chest and pushed him away. Before he could recover, rock guy slammed a fist into the ground, collapsing the earth beneath Lazenn's feet to put him off balance while I dove in and slammed a freezing fist into his face, getting a satisfying crunch for it. Lazenn spun away, only to run directly into Betariver cutting into him with a light blade projected by her armor. Before she could bring the blade back around for another strike, however, Lazenn disappeared in a whirl of white Spiral Power, reappearing atop a nearby building.

With another roar, Broxigar charged forth, running straight up the structure's outer wall to get at him. Lazenn, however, seemed to pay him no attention, instead raising his left arm and... slamming it into the white hole in his chest? What?

With an incoherent screech, Lazenn pulled, and something red came out along with his hand. He reached down further to pull it again, and more was revealed; a twisted red... spear? With one final pull, bringing with it a spray of white flame, the rest emerged, revealing that the twined spear eventually split into two points. He spun it once in his hand, then held it up to block Broxigar's axe swing, then turned the force of the impact into a spin and thrust the twin points through Brox's abdomen, then jumped up and kicked him off, sending him careening back to the ground.

"Brox!" I yelled as he fell, racing to catch him before he landed, then swiftly backing off after I did due to all the heat coming off him. Betariver swept up next, already exerting her power on Brox's blood, even as he tried to get back up. Rock guy raised a few earthen walls around us to keep Lazenn off our backs while Betariver inspected Brox's injuries.

"These wounds aren't that bad, I should be able to patch him up if you can keep Lazenn off me for a- Incoming!" she shouted, as Lazenn swung his bident, slicing through the rock wall effortlessly.

"Lance... of... Longinus..." Lazenn growled, twirling the lance in his hand.