Fight for Power

@-Rune-@

At this point, I had some of my summons haul away some of the dead creatures here that had very violently objected to us. It's a shame they had to be so idiotic; we had spared the ones who retreated/didn't attack us.

What was more concerning to me was what that damn spy Quicksilver was discussing with Omicron. Orvtre is there yes, but Quicksilver is fast. Fast enough to pass Omicron blinking messages in Morse Code without anyone realizing it. Fast enough to use countless spying measures without anyone realizing it. Even though I have put up numerous countermeasures against that damn spy Quicksilver, somehow it doesn't feel like it's enough. The more the merrier, I suppose.

Is Alpha a spy too? He seems suspicious. Have to be careful around him too. And around all of Omicron's secret friends. Is Sigma one of Omicron's secret friends? He seems like one. That's part of why I came here. He might know something about Omicron...

The sound of the dead glass shell Crawbster being dragged away reminded me, however, of the current task at hand. That, and Bloodriver requesting that I send over Orvtre's recruitment recording to try and sway a Beholder to our side.

I had been charging a magic-propelled very large projectile ever since I first saw the turtle. The projectile itself is physical, so it probably will not be reflected by the turtle's skin. Probably.

Just as the turtle became tired of attacking Rho and turned towards me, it was already time for me to fire the attack. Rho had done well in drawing its fire.

"Arcane Rocket Javelin."

Rho very quickly got out of the way as I launched the attack, a devastating projectile that, as it slammed into the turtle, created a shockwave and lots of shrapnel, enough that I had to put up a shield to protect Rho, Sigma, and the others from said shrapnel.

And of course the turtle's obscured by all the smoke and dust the attack kicked up. Of course. If that's still not enough, then depending on how much damage that attack did, either I'll fire off more of those, or I'll try something like that vacuum spell that did nothing to L. Or a poison gas spell. Or a sinkhole or some other spell to make it plummet so we can just fly over the creature to our next area.

<Gamma>

I've heard about Beholders, but I've never seen one before. Figured they were a mythical kind of creature. The eye-stalks thing appears to have been a matter of comprehension, though; this one had a single, huge eye on its face, but no eye-stalks. Rather it had a bunch of smaller eyes floating around it, completely unattached. Kind of creepy, actually.

It simply remained floating in the center of a circular room, eyes seemingly unfocused. As soon as Bloodriver began playing Orvtre's message, though, it locked its eye on her... and a thin beam lanced out, so fast I barely saw it, and cut across her stomach.

"Hmmmm.... centuries without new playthings..." the Beholder growled in a slow, deep, echoing voice. Something tells me it's not feeling friendly. "I will enjoy this."

Bloodriver, for her part, took what looked like a serious wound entirely in stride, sliding a finger over it and seemingly closing it in the same way you would a zipper. She then calmly wiped the blood from around the spot with her hand, scarcely even missing a drop, and deposited it into some kind of gun at her hip before drawing said gun and firing a bunch of needles at the Beholder. Most of them thudded against its hide and bounced off, but one found purchase and stuck there, injecting its contents. The contents then promptly un-injected themselves. Violently.

"Rude," Bloodriver chided the Beholder as it gave her several thin looks. A very dark purple wave followed from those looks, but this one was slow enough to simply dodge. "I guess diplomacy has failed then. You were warned." I followed her statement with a plume of green fire to obscure its vision. I think I'd rather not be targeted by that cutting beam, so I promptly circled around to get behind it. Definitely not a blind spot, though, not with all the free floating eyes. Hope it can't fire that beam from the smaller ones.

"Behold, the power of the Void," the Beholder snarled, the smaller eyes whirling around it and unleashing dark bolts. Fortunately slower than the cutting beam it had started with, so I think I can deal with it.

++Bloodriver++

Prior to playing Orvtre's message, I had given the other two Hero Squad members a heads-up of my possible future battle actions, as well as a few things they might find helpful in the near future. We need to communicate effectively to coordinate our battle strategy, after all.

Hmm, what's going on?

Ah yes, Xenon the sleepyhead. You're awake at last.

Hmm... a Beholder?

Yep, and a hostile one. Give it some light. And lots of it.

Some protective goggles were among the aforementioned items I gave my fellow Hero Squad members. They understood what I was going to do, and hastily put on said protective goggles as Xenon and I unleashed a blinding ray of light.

A quick lunge forward, and three of the Beholder's smaller eyes were swiftly eliminated. Two were destroyed when I tossed two throwing dagger-sized syringes through said eyes, and a third was neutralized with a swing of my Bonesaw.

I had hurled a glass projectile filled with a chemical upwards in an arc, and then downwards towards the Beholder's main eye. The Beholder was forced to destroy said projectile with that very fast beam, while I parried some dark bolts from the smaller eyes.

Currently, I appear to be in a better position to avoid the Beholder's fast beam here than where I was a moment ago. Let's see if I can get some more damage in before it does something more dangerous.

<Omicron>

Hmm, that's a bit of security breach, isn't it... I will have to see about closing that at some point, if possible.

Libera had made his way to the training deck while I'd been discussing with Orvtre, something he seemed increasingly fond of doing. Sitting around waiting for test results wasn't his cup of tea, apparently. That wasn't a security breach, of course.

No, the security breach was that Anti had warped in in the middle of his warm up and things had rapidly gone downhill from there. Considering the interdiction field, that shouldn't have been possible, but then Anti has always been an inscrutable sort with an equally inscrutable power. I'll comb over my instrumentation's readings while I handle the... fallout of this little disruption.

Quicksilver, having more experience with Anti than Orvtre, caught on first when we got close enough to pick out more detailed sounds and rushed ahead to... intervene? Perhaps egg them on? Equally likely. Orvtre ran ahead as well once Quicksilver took off, so I simply redirected that simulacrum to another task. I already have one at the training room, after all.

By the time Orvtre got there, the training room had thoroughly devolved into chaos and explosions, various drills sticking partway out of... approximately everything. Including other drills. In the midst of it all were Libera and Anti, each with a drill covering one hand, grinding away at each other. Libera was wreathed in a whirling green aura, but Anti looked no different than usual.

After a long, tense moment with the only sound being the two drills, Anti released a disgusted-sounding sigh.

"Your actions are as baffling as ever. Expecting logic from you is clearly an exercise in futility," Anti drawled.

"Yeah, you'd know a lot about futility, wouldn't you?" Libera spat back, clearly quite angry. Still neither moved. I am certainly not having this escalate any further while they're on the colony, so before they could get back into it, I opened the intercom.

"I would appreciate if you would not damage my colony," I spoke firmly through it. It took a few more seconds before their drills stopped spinning and both stepped away from one another. Good to see that I can still have that effect with an implied threat.

The two of them glared at each other for a few more seconds before finally turning away from one another, Libera storming out of the room while Anti simply remained where he was. I'll deal with him later.

Libera, on the other hand, made his way up to the observation deck and instantly brightened upon seeing Quicksilver and Orvtre, so that was a plus.

"Yeah Anti's being a bit of a dick, had to shut his stupid face there. 'Bluh bluh look you've already lost an arm, bluh bluh,'" he drawled in his best imitation of Anti. Orvtre, deciding not to address that just yet, instead took an interest in his mechanical arm.

"This? Ah, it's not the finished product. This is the, uh..."

"Stage three training prosthetic," I supplied helpfully. "It is to ensure proper weight distribution, as well as train the body to handle the weight. Libera has of course advanced quickly through the stages, against my own advice mind you, so I should be ready to fit the final product within a week. I expect to see you back here with an injury related to it about a week after that," I snarked the final line in Libera's direction. He stuck his tongue out at me.

?-Orvtre-?

I was about to check up on the others again when Libera suddenly shouted, "Yeah so... I'm still riled up from those shenanigans. WHO WANTS TO SPAR"

"Not it," Quicksilver quickly interjected.

"Maybe you could ask Mithril again," I suggested, "Considering how much... yeah, perhaps you two could go further in your fight than last time. Or you could ask Omicron for a fight, maybe."

At this point, Omicron's simulacrum very slowly, very deliberately dragged a palm over its face, making a metallic screeching noise. "What part of TRAINING PROSTHETIC did not make it through to your twisted mind, Libera?"

"Hey, it held up against Anti. With no injuries!" Libera exclaimed.

"None that you can see, at least," Omicron replied.

"Rubbish, I'm fine. Besides, it'll give me a nice warm up before I get the real thing. I mean, besides the one I got from Anti there."

Omicron let out a long electronic sigh. "Fine. Get yourself further maimed, if you please. Preferably elsewhere, seeing as the holodeck is a wreck."

"Sweet. So how's the rest of the crew, then? Been going a bit bonkers cooped up in here by myself."

"Wait, so IIRC you've been up here since that desert expedition, so that means that you've missed... quite a bit. For starters..." I managed to say, before I was suddenly cut off by-

"YOU'D BETTER NOT BE GIVING FREE INFO TO OMICRON" Rune shouted.

Oh, please, do not mind me," Omicron stated.

"That's hardly sporting," said Quicksilver.

"If you're going to recap Libera on everything, do if AFTER he leaves the colony and he inevitably trashes the spying spy prosethetic arm to death with drill overdose," Rune suggested.

"Oh please," stated Omicron. "The prosthetic has monitoring equipment, but only to monitor Libera. Mainly to make sure he avoids hurting himself, which he will do anyway."

Libera blew a raspberry in response.

Omicron: "Rude."

"You mean to monitor his BRAIN so you can learn all our secrets," Rune accused.

"I assure you that I have no interest in whatever is going on in Libera's brain, and that I will likely be happier if I never know."

"NOW who's the rude one?" Libera asked.

"You lie," Rune accused. "If what Mithril said about you craving all knowledge like the psychic knowledge vampire technoorganic arrogant kung fu guy vampire secret dictator with hax psychic abilities and the I can analyze and instantly counter all your powers and the I know everything and the I can reverse engineer everything and-"

"Actually that is a lie," Omicron admitted. "I would be happier if I knew, but I am not sure I would like it."

"I KNEW IT." Rune stated.

Libera: "Not sure if insulted..."

"Yeah Rune, Libera's been itching for a fight ever since Anti showed up and..." I interjected.

"... Libera, FIGHT OMICRON," Rune demanded. "I need to know the extent of his hax psychic powers and his ridiculously specific countermeasures against everything. If the arm breaks then it sucked anyways."

"But Omicron doesn't fight faaaaaaiiir." Libera complained.

Omicron: "Fair, huh. I think you will find fairness has no place on the battlefield."

Libera: "SEE?"

Omicron: "If you really MUST have a demonstration, I could perhaps set something up in the airspace around the colony."

"Also Omicron, why haven't you dropped a mountain on Zankrieg and/or Seraph's new evily evil fortress yet with your telekinesis? You're fooling no one with your "I DON'T HAVE PSYCHIC POWERS" so just hurry up and do us a favor and do it," Rune demanded.

"I believe you will find that I am only mildly psychic. An intentional restraint, I think."

"Because you're using the rest of your psychic abilities on surveillance 24/7?"

"Not an intentional restraint on my part."

"Everyone and their mom has secret powers and you KNOW it," Rune countered. "Also what the hell is Quicksilver doing now? IS HE SPYING?"

Quicksilver: "Partaking of the schadenfreude."

"So where were we?" I interjected, trying to set things back on track.

Omicron: "Setting up an appropriate arena for an exhibition match?"

"ATOP A GIANT AIRSHIP!" Libera suggested.

Omicron: "Done."

"I like how he actually just has a giant airship laying around," Libera commented.

Bloodriver suddenly entered the conversation. "... Hmm, perhaps Mithril and this Omicron person would also be willing to have an exhibition match?"

"You're new here, so you don't know. Mithril doesn't like Omicron either, so I doubt it," Rune replied.

Omicron's simulacrum tapped its chin. "I did have a new weapon I wanted to test. I suppose Libera gets to be the lucky tester then."

Libera: "OH JOY."

"Besides, I don't see the benefit of giving Omicron more info on our abilities," said Rune. "Aside from Libera and Quicksilver or whatever since they're already best buds so Omicron already knows what he can do and..."

"So I've noticed that everyone's in some kind of chat up here. What's going on?" Mithril chimed in.

"We're discussing exhibition matches," I explained. "Some candidates are Libera vs Omicron, you vs Libera round 2, and you versus Omicron."

"SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY, LIBERA VS OMICRON IN THE THUNDERDOME," Libera boomed out.

"I liked Libera's description better," Quicksilver commented.

"... How did this conversation lead to me vs Libera again and/or me vs Omicron, and why do you think I would go for the latter?" Mithril asked.

Bloodriver explained her reasoning. "Everyone seems to regard this Omicron fellow as mysterious and shady, so perhaps by fighting him, you can gain some info on him. His surveillance abilities are extensive, so I doubt you'd be able to hide everything from him and/or discover much about him just by keeping him at bay. And I doubt even he could hide everything away from you."

That's... a decent point. I'd guess that Mithril is probably smarter than the majority of Hero Squad, so she'd probably be able to expose something. Sigma was practically screaming out his backstory during the fight at Hybras, so it isn't too much of a stretch to think that may work.

"So 'experimentation SCIENCE fighting' with Omicron as the subject. Har har NERDS," Mithril jeered.

That is actually...

...

Now that I think about it...

...

HMM, perhaps... or is that just wishful thinking of mine?

...

This is interesting though, I'll make a note of this possibility for later.

"Also you could punch his simulacrums in the face repeatedly if that interests you," Bloodriver pointed out.

"Oh, these are not designed for combat. I have much sturdier frames for that," Omicron elaborated.

"Regards of what I'm going to do fightwise, Libera vs Omicron happens first," Mithril insisted. "And we'll all watch."

"If you wish," replied Omicron.

<Rho>

A low growling, crackling sound made it quite clear the big turtle wasn't quite down yet. It was shortly followed by a deep snort, and then a sustained blast of what felt kinda like if wind were made of sandpaper. That lasted a few seconds before Rune threw up a barrier to block the rest of it.

"Blegh. Breath mint, man," Sigma complained. That had been the turtle breathing on us?! Sheesh.

However, that breath-blast had blown the smoke away, and revealed the damage Rune's attack had dealt; a big chunk of crystalline shell was missing next to its neck, the smashed bits scattered across the floor. Looking closer, the gouge actually extended into the turtle's flesh... which we could now see was also crystalline. The flesh and shell were one and the same.

"Hold on, if its whole body is a crystal, then this thing should have a fracture line somewhere," Sigma explained. "Hit it just right and it'll s***ter."

Apparently intelligent enough to realize it was now in danger, the turtle let loose another growl and stomped the floor, hard enough to knock Sigma to the ground. As neither I nor Rune were actually on the ground, it didn't bother either of us. What did bother us was it launching large chunks of crystal off of its shell toward us, and given how sharp its breath was, I don't think I want to get hit by one of those head on. Diving aside to grab Sigma, I made a couple rapid moves to avoid the crystalline chunks while Rune dove backward, simultaneously beginning a scan of the turtle and charging up another attack.

She was forced to abandon her charging as the turtle began launching more crystals in her direction, apparently seeing her as more of a threat than myself and Sigma. Boy was that a poor decision. We may like our fire and blades, but always, always remember that those are just backups most of the time.

Swinging myself directly towards the turtle's head, I spun Sigma around and threw both of us into a hellish spin that ended with us both slamming a foot into the thing's forehead, resulting in a sharp, loud CRACK. It actually stumbled back a few steps as a big chunk fell away from its face, and I had to pull us away as it tried to snap at us. Take that, stupid turtle.

Rune, meanwhile, had used to distraction to finish her scan. "Fracture line located," she called over, launching some kind of small drone from her staff that settled onto a spot on the turtle's shell. "Striking here should cause the most damage."

"s***, it couldn't have been in a slightly easier spot to reach?" I griped. The damn thing was in the middle of a host of razor-sharp crystals! Mistime it and we'll basically shred ourselves. Great.

@-Rune-@

This stupid turtle is surprisingly annoying to deal with.

For whatever reason, one of the thoughts that came to mind in this instant was that Mithril may not be nearly as bothered by this as I or the other two Hero Squad members here would be. Speaking of Mithril, she's pretty cool. Nice to have someone to talk to about dealing with that creep Omicron and that spy Quicksilver. Though outside of fighting/adventuring/heroing business... I've never really seen her out of her Hero Zone much. She doesn't seem to interact much with the others outside of when we're out fighting/adventuring/heroing.

Anyways, Mithril and I both agreed to hold off on reminding Libera that Demon Blade wanted to fight him, as we want to gather intel, even the slightest bit, on Omicron's fighting style. We'll just remind Libera of the Demon Blade fight after he fights Omicron.

Now to the task at hand: the turtle. Since my two coworkers here would probably appreciate having barriers, however temporary, to ease the approach towards the creature, I've been setting up some delayed-activation barriers to block the turtle's crystals when the time comes.

After explaining my plan to deal with the creature to the other Hero Squad members, I visibly began charging up another attack, less to actually fire it off but more as an "incentive" for the turtle to redirect its fire away from the other two. That was the signal for Sigma and Rho to make their approach towards the fracture line.

Here we go.

Black Scythe

So many, so willing to fight to their last breaths. It would almost be admirable, if it weren't so idiotic, he thought as he crushed a Yellow's head and most of its torso under his foot. You saved that kind of thing for when you had nothing left to lose.

The resistance here had been... unremarkable, he mused as he approached what had to be the core of this sprawling complex. But not every battle could be worth retelling. Perhaps the part on the other side of the main room's gigantic door would be, though.

"They sure do love these bigass doors, don't they?" one of the Phantoms snarked from somewhere behind him.

"Only things that've slowed us down for any appreciable amount of time," another pointed out. "Besides the bridges, I suppose."

Black Scythe growled loudly enough to rattle some loose pebbles on the ground. He had not liked those bridges. But the doors? Those were less of a pain.

"Doc," he snarled. One of the Phantoms held a hand toward the door.

"Room."

As soon as the bubble appeared around the door, Black Scythe cut through it as if it were made of paper, carving out a hole large enough for him to pass through. Shadow was the first of the Phantoms through the door after him.

Within the room itself was a huge, square platform, rising up from a massive hole. Four electrically charged pillars marked the corners of the platform. In the middle of it, on a small circular pad, stood a familiar, winged form.

"So, you've arrived, then," Dusk hissed, hoisting his blades. "Come on then, you ugly brute. Round two."

_____
<Zeta>

That is one bigass golem. The whole thing released a whole lot of metallic groaning as it stood up, the big orb of blood in the middle bubbling within its containment. Must not have moved in a while, I know that feeling.

"Dark Animus online," a deep, mechanical voice boomed from the golem.

"Well, at least we know it has a name," I drawled, and promptly received a bolt of burning hot red goo to my entire body for being the one to open my mouth first. Ow.

"Eliminating intruders," the Animus announced, taking a few janky steps forward. Taking this as a challenge, Mithril generated her usual cadre of ridiculous weaponry and went to town on it... for about ten seconds before a massive electric wave blasted outward from the golem, stripping the tiles off the floor, slagging Mithril's barrage and, surprisingly enough, even staggering Mithril. Didn't feel too pleasant as it went over me, either. Brox and Alpha had at least had the sense to be far enough back to not get hit by it.

On that note, Broxigar took that moment to introduce himself to the golem by hurling his axe at it, knocking one foot backwards a few inches. It was enough for him to follow up and kick the axe's hilt, shoving the leg back several more feet and unbalancing it. I took that as my cue to hoist one of the massive floor tiles and chuck it at the golem. The Animus, however, responded to that by swinging one arm down, generating a huge blade made of that red goo, and slicing the tile in half.

Unfortunately for it, Mithril was behind the tile, going very fast. It made a very satisfying metallic ringing noise as she slammed into it and proceeded to do her best badger impression.

Dooby dooby doooooooooo