#i think he should have more guns mechs and explosives again. its his right

[futuristichedge]

Drawing that fox

[introvertguide]

15 Badass Movies for a Fun Time at Home or with Friends

There is a buzz in the air as COVID-19 vaccines are rolling out and the hope of having a movie night with friends is again becoming a reality. Watching alone isn’t as fun because I want to talk to somebody about what I have just seen. A full theater does not agree with my introvert nature because somebody screaming or laughing or talking on their phone will ruin it for me. Watching with a fellow cinephile or two is perfect. But what to watch first? People have been stuck inside, so fantasy and alternative worlds have been overly popular. All I do is talk over zoom for a living. I think what I need most right now is a movie about realistic people with realistic skills that go into a situation and just wreck house. I need a badass movie. What is this “badass” movie you might say? Well, here are some basic criteria: 1) There must be a tough lead character who kicks butt while spouting one liners and doesn’t need superhuman powers (high levels of peak skill with speed, aim, or strength is OK if they are plausible in the real world), 2) most of the characters (good and bad) must be likable, admirable or at least memorable, 3) the lead must face and defeat overwhelming odds against them, and 4) extra points for memorable one liners. Also, I am only dealing with human protagonists (sorry Terminator), but slightly superhuman opposition is acceptable. This list is by no means exhaustive, it is just an example of some badass movies. So in no particular order:

1) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

To start off the list, I want to mention the most well known American badass. Indiana Jones is a smart guy with a gun and a whip. He is rugged and punches guys in the face. He has weaknesses but works through them to get the job done. Harrison Ford was in his early 40s for this role and had this tough-as-nails and seen the world kind of feel while still being young enough to fight hand to hand. Any of the first three films featuring Indiana Jones would work here, but this is the original and it started the fun. Easy to watch. Easy to cheer for. Great movie. You can’t really go wrong with any age or group with this one. 

2) 13 Assassins (2010)

This movie is extremely badass but not for everyone. This is one of the goriest films I have ever seen as 13 warriors kill off a couple of hundred soldiers and the evil leader that they guard. The movie was directed by Japanese extreme horror icon Takashi Miike if that means anything to you (hey made Audition and Ichi the Killer). The movie has gallons of blood, but also an amazing story of redemption and honor. There are tons of scenes of a single warrior taking on dozens of soldiers and managing to overcome. Not for everyone, but still very much a badass movie.

3) The Raid (2011)

This is an Indonesian action thriller with the word action in bold. The film is directed by Gareth Evans and stars Iko Uwais as part of a small police force that tries to take down an old building that houses a drug lord and his violent gang. It has a lot of what I like in badass movies: one-on-one fights between the lead and almost superhuman villains, long well-choreographed scenes, a banging soundtrack, ridiculous weapons, and ridiculous gore. The fight scenes in tight places and the use of the environment for weaponry is amazing and the sound design makes sure you can feel every punch. The lead character should have no chance, but he makes up for it with skill and being a pure badass. This movie is one of the few that I would describe as having non-stop action.

4) Jon Wick (2014)

When did Keanu Reeves become so cool? I grew up with him being part of the Bill and Ted duo. He decides to learn martial arts and play a god-like being in the Matrix movies and then becomes a one man wrecking crew? I guess he is a badass because he does it so well. Keanu plays a retired hitman who is wronged and decides to go back to work for vengeance. He just won’t stop coming and seems to constantly survive out of pure hatred alone. There are 3 films in the series and any one of them will impress. Pure fun too watch.

5) Casino Royale (2006)

When I was asking around, there were many people who thought that James Bond was the ultimate badass. I disagree in that many of the older films show Bond as overconfident with the assistance of many people. In fact, Q is more of a badass in many ways than James Bond. However, when the series was taken back to its roots with the last book that had not been made into a serious film and made darker, it reached badass levels. From the parkour chase to a poisoning to an extreme torture scene, this was not like any James Bond movie before it. Roger Craig plays a much colder lead who gives no quarter, much more like what the greatest secret agent would have to be. Heavy on violence but light on gore, this film is more for all audiences than other films on this list.

6) Desperado (1995)

What makes this movie is not all about Antonio Banderas and Selma Hayek. It is that every other character is memorable and badass as well. The street standoff with Bucho’s men versus El Mariachi, Quino, and Campo is iconic. El Mariachi murders everyone in a bar with precise skill. The rogue assassin Navajas with all the knives played by Danny Trejo. Nothing but extreme shoot outs and fight scenes with a ridiculous variety of guns and explosives. I think what makes this movie so amazing is that all these amazing assassins are incognito and, when they suddenly produce an arsenal out of nowhere, it is always a pleasant surprise. Quino and Campo are amazing when they bring their guitars. 

7) Pulp Fiction (1994)

Truly the role that made Samuel L. Jackson into the ultimate badass. He and his partner Vincent are hitman that keep running into the worst situations. The thing about the film is that everybody is so cool. The characters are cool, the music is cool, the dialogue is cool, hell even the diner featured in the movie is cool. The movie only spans a couple of days (in completely separate segments shown out of order) but packs in 7 distinct situations that are all berserk. From the mind of Quentin Tarantino, this movie is dripping with the best characters traveling through the best story. Highly recommend.

8) Leon: The Professional (1994)

Also known simply as The Professional in the U.S., this film features the debut of Natalie Portman. It is directed by Luc Besson at his best period, right between La Femme Nakita and The Fifth Element. The lead is actually a quiet hitman who reluctantly takes a little 12-year-old girl on as an apprentice to become a paid assassin. Her parents were killed by a corrupt cop and she wants Leon to help her exact revenge. He is an absolute badass and somewhat of a caring surrogate father to the girl. Unlike a lot of the films on this list, the premise is not simply kicking butt in a bad situation. There is serious character growth. Apparently you can be a caring parent and a cold-blooded murderer...and that is badass.

9) Kill Bill (2003)

Being a badass is not exclusive to men and The Bride is a prime example of this. She survives a shot to the head, kills deadly assassins, slaughters a gang, and takes on a crazy school girl bodyguard. She is tougher then any lead I can think of and she has the bad attitude and sense of vengeance that makes for a badass. Combine this with the soundtrack and beautiful cinematography associated with director Quentin Tarantino and you have a beautifully violent movie in which the hits keep coming. Even on this list, the fight scene between the bride and Gogo Yubari is insane. Also note the nod to Bruce Lee with the bright yellow motorcycle suit. Beautifully badass film.

10) Aliens (1986)

In nature, there are few things more dangerous than a mother protecting their young. A mother will fight you to the death and make sure that, at the very least, you won’t be able to go after her kids. Now imagine an alien planet covered with hostile beings created in the mind of James Cameron and Stan Winston and you have a setting made to create a real badass. In the beginning, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is just desperate to survive and barely knows how to use a weapon. She meets a little survivor named Newt and then has a real reason to become aggressive. She and a group of marines fight through a station filled with super destructive xenomorph aliens made straight from nightmares to save this kid. The transformation is truly amazing and culminates in a mech suit versus a giant queen alien and it is extremely badass.

11) Army of Darkness (1992)

Far and away the funniest movie on this list, this is the third film stemming from Evil Dead and again stars Bruce Campbell taking on the deadites that were raised by reading from the Necronomicon. The opposition is the undead evil that faces the world which makes the violence very unrealistic. This was early work from Sam Raimi and features a variety of different shots done to the extreme. What really makes this film stand out is how Bruce Campbell is amazing at delivering a one liner. His classic quips have been used as fun Easter eggs in video games like Duke Nukem and World of Warcraft for decades. The quintessential horror comedy and a perfect example of a badass.

12) Die Hard (1988)

Apparently, I am a big fan of single characters that need to work their way through a building of villains using mostly intelligence and the element of surprise. Throw in some one liners and I am all for it. That is exactly what this is with Bruce Willis crawling barefoot around a 40 story building and fighting off a gang of villains. The movie also has Alan Rickman as the main bad guy and he is chewing the scenery. This is a great example of being a badass, but it is too bad that the follow up sequels were so poor. Definitely stick to the original and let the rest pass by.

13) The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966)

An OG of the badass movie genre, this is some of the best of Sergio Leone and the spaghetti western. Instead of one badass, this movie has three different leads that are all amazing. You have the good, Clint Eastwood, who is an amazing shot and a heart of gold under a rough exterior. You have the bad, Lee Van Cleef, playing an conniving assassin that will kill anyone that he doesn’t have a use for. Finally, you have the ugly, Eli Wallach, as a desert rat that will do anything to survive. They all gain information about a gold stash and need to work together to get it, but this creates a vortex of cheating, undercutting, and straight up murder. Clint Eastwood is more of the classic badass with his cigar, hat, and poncho, It is an iconic look on an iconic character in an iconic movie. That is what I call badass.

14) Ong-Bak (2003)

This less of a badass movie and more houses some of the most amazingly badass fight scenes that can only be described as badass. This movie introduced the great Tony Jaa to the western world and showed the high flying nature of Thai boxing and Muay Thai in general. The main character is entered into a street fighting tournament and the moves include a flying double knee drop and a full splits kick. If the whole movie was the tournament, it would be the best movie that ever existed. The variety of opponents makes the fighting even better and the cinematography is top notch. Tony Jaa is truly badass in this film.

15) Dredd (2012)

Not the crappy version with Stallone, this movie is seriously badass. It features Karl Urban who is helmeted for the entire film (as Dredd would be) taking on a 200 story mega slum filled with residents that want to shoot him dead. There is a drug dealer high up in the building and she locks down the entire compound with instructions to kill Dredd, who only has his rookie partner to help. He takes on random resident mobs, groups of gang members, and even a trio of mini guns that have bullets that can rip through walls. He has a smart gun with a bunch of ammo that he uses judiciously to kill everybody. This movie was seriously underrated since it had not been that long since the garbage Judge Dredd came out in 1995. The 2012 is a far superior movie, being much more violent and dark instead of having Rob Schneider as the comedy relief (not badass).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I know there will be a lot of opinions about what makes a badass film and what movies i didn’t add. Feel free to add your own movies or critique my choices. I will stand by my choices, however, and recommend any of these films for a night of cheers and badass action.

[dragongirl642]

Sunstreaker/Sideswipe x human!female!reader (bayverse) part 5

Recap:

Once he was calm, we hurried to collect the Allspark. That humming in my chest, just kept getting stronger and now it was accompanied by a sense of urgency from Starblaze but also this feeling of awesome power.

One thought crossed my mind. 'I got a bad feeling about this.'

-------------------------------------Recap end------------------------------------

I was riding an ATV following the transport units. My speciality is mobile battle. The modified ATV's two sub-automatic machine guns being my best friends in battle. Closely following my cousin's truck, I could clearly see Lennox sat in front of me, through the open back of the vehicle. He was briefing the unit on possible hostiles and giving the oh-so-positive, 'it's better to live to fight another day, than die doing a heroic stunt that gets you killed' kind of speech.

The Allspark and Sam were riding with Bumblebee up ahead. We were heading to Mission City; whilst there it should be easier to contact the copters and get the hell out of the Decepticon's reach. Keller agreed with the idea, so here we were.

Starblaze and the twins sent me encouraging pulses over our bond. 'Wait...I can feel the twins now too...must be a Gaian thing.'

I was busy watching William until I heard the roar of engines ahead. Holding the handlebars of my ATV steady, I twisted to look behind me. A blue Peterbuilt semi-trailer truck with flame decals (Optimus Prime), a silver Modified Pontiac Solstice GXP (Jazz), a black Modified GMC Topkick C4500 (Ironhide) and a Yellow Hummer H2 Search and Rescue SUV (Ratchet) were coming the other way. The songs bursting out of Bee's radio signalling that these were the other Autobots. They passed us and I heard the squeal of tires as they made u-turns at breakneck speed. 'But then again they don't have necks to break in that form'. They began gaining on us from behind.

My ATV's inbuilt radio crackled, orders to fall back and hold the rear; I complied. I slowed and allowed them to pass me. William threw me a thumbs up from the back of his truck, I sent back a small wave. We continued in this formation, Mission city in our sights.

As we joined the main highway, civilian cars either side. I heard metallic clicking behind me. Yet again I twisted to look and wished I hadn't. 'Scrap'. I faced forward and hit the throttle. Shooting forward just in time to avoid the metallic fist that came down were I had been moments before. I powered forward passed the Semi as it transformed into a tall, powerful looking Autobot. 'The red and blue really suit him'. He began skating and turned back to face the threat. I weaved my way through the other Autobots and came up behind Lennox. He looked at me as I jokingly called, "Definitely a Decepticon...get ready to have some fun", as I flicked the switch on my ATV's dash to power up my guns. The blur of motion as the chambers spun and set, hitting home. One recruit went completely white. 'Hope he doesn't throw up...too late...that's gonna be a mess to clean up later'.

We made it to the city. The communication with the Nellis Air Force base lifting spirits; help was on the way. The first transport units sending out fire teams to clear buildings and set up sniper points. The Autobots transformed and we spread out. I parked further up the street with my guns pointed towards the highway. The whine of an F-22 Raptor was heard. 'Thank God they're here...wait that was too quick, something's wrong'. I opened my mouth to call my cousin just as smoke flares were sent up. The Raptor changing course, heading straight for our position. I set my guns, plotting its trajectory. Good thing too...it was a Decepticon. The Black Autobot, Ironhide, called a name; "Starscream". Bumblebee and Ironhide picked up a truck as the jet transformed into a grey Seeler, 'seekey, seekser, oh...seeker I think it was'. Ironhide ordering everyone to "fall back". Starscream shot at them and the resulting explosion almost blinded me. My battle goggles tinting automatically. As the smoke cleared I could see that Bumblebee had been decapitated. Ironhide had been blasted backwards so poor Bee took the brunt of the shot.

Starscream stood over him, ready to give the finishing blow. Ironhide was coming around and the other Autobots were already springing into action, but an idea came to me, 'stupid but brilliant, as they say'.

I gunned the throttle, shooting forward at speed. I opened fire. Bullets distracting the seeker as I did one of those idiotic heroic stunts Lennox was talking about. Using a crushed car as a ramp, I leapt with my ATV, straight for the astonished Starscream. Knuckles white with the effort it took to stay seated as the wheels of my ATV struck his faceplate. I kept the throttle on as they gave him tyre burn. Also sending me into a backwards flip. 'This was not part of the plan'. Starscream fell back and holding his face transformed and flew off while I held on for dear life to my ATV. Thankfully it landed right way up, so I wasn't about to be a (y/n) pancake yet. But the resounding crack upon impact wasn't the most reassuring sound in the world.

Lennox sending me the radio version of an angry face. I just sent him back the radio version of a wink face. 'You gotta have a sense of humour in this job, otherwise I would've gone mad years ago'.

The sounds of battle crashed around me as I gunned the throttle once more. The familiar feeling of adrenaline filled me as I differed to my training, the battlefield becoming a blur.

I was moving, running, ducking through showers of bullets and firing my second sub-automatic machine gun, (I'd taken them off the ATV when it was scrapped by a Decepticon bullet shower). Just as I was about to turn a blast of wind rushed past, accompanied by a figure, 'no make that two'. The silver Autobot, Jazz, was being carried off by Megatron. The huge 'and I mean HUGE' scary looking leader of the Decepticons. Jazz was fighting bravely but I could already tell he was going to die. You would have to be able to fly to rescue him. 'WAIT A MINUTE'.

I ran for the building they were heading towards. Dropping my gun, I performed the transformation sequence as I ran. "Gaian fusion, partner up!" The transformation was quicker this time, maybe because I was in the middle of a battle.

With a powerful downthrust of my wings I was airborne and heading for the two mechs.

"You want a piece of me", I could hear Jazz's taunts. I raised my bow and drew back the string a glowing arrow taking form. It was growing the longer I held the bow taught, but I didn't give it time to grow. I let loose just as Megatron began to reply, "No I want..." The arrow hit his left servo. He yelled in pain and dropped Jazz, grabbing his injured servo with his good hand. On reflex I dived. My fingers finding the grooves in his armour, I took hold, and beat my wings furiously to slow us down. It worked and I deposited him on the floor. Floating before him I gave a quick nod before spotting my cousin over his shoulder.

Mouth agape, all surprised, he was quite the sight. Staring at me like I'd just turned into a 'wait'. The comic picture was broken by the sight of an injured brawl returning to his feet and aiming his gun for Lennox's unprotected back. I swooped forward. Shield at the ready I blocked the incoming fire. Ironhide, Ratchet and Jazz rushing back in to re-engage.

"How?...What?...When?...WHAT?" Lennox was spluttering and gaping like a fish. I composed myself, ready to tell him everything when he honestly surprised me. "You know what, tell me after we don't die" and he ran off.

The blur of battle setting in once more...this time though...I fought using my powers. Slash and parry, let loose a volley of small arrows, block, shield at the ready and begin again.

Startled once more out of my trance, by an almighty crash and the audible cracks of something very important. Glancing over my shoulder, Megatron is standing there, Optimus injured, sitting in a small pile of rubble, leaning against a damaged building and Sam running for his life. All the nearby soldier's radios crackled to life, Lennox's voice sounding from all around. #(y/n)...protect Sam#

I took the order to heart. 'So sweet of him to include me though' I thought, and vaulted over several cars to run beside the teen; along with Ironhide and Ratchet. Sam threw me an incredulous look but kept running. A Decepticon made a swing for him, raising my shield up to block the attack we slid under the blade. We kept running. The pounding in my ears almost drowning out the sound of Starscream engaging our two Autobot protectors.

A thump crashed behind, "Give me the cube boy!" Megatron was chasing us, 'well that's just fragging great now isn't it'. We didn't see the SUV till it was too late. I pushed Sam ahead, he fell and dropped the cube. A wave of power being discharged, hitting me and several machines; bringing them to life and causing general mayhem. While I dropped to a knee in pain. Heat flaring within my chest. The feeling of a sparkbeat began, then failed, then began again.

"Go Sam" I choked out before collapsing.

He ran on, darting into a relatively undamaged building. I lay there, wings twitching and body wracked by painful spasms. Images flashing through my mind, a planet wracked by war, a desperate plan, a secret, a void, "You will do my will"...and a dark voice. "They will never follow you brother". I watched helpless as two vast beings fought. Then the one who spoke last held out a hand, 13 pinpricks of light appeared and formed into, what I recognised, as cybertronians.

"Behold my Primes, they will be your undoing brother unless you turn back from this foolish path, return...please". The last part almost a whisper.

"NEVER!" The dark voice ringing in the void. It hurt.

A flash and the dark voice screamed, in pain and anger...slowly it faded, drifting away, swallowed by the void. I felt that kinder presence turn to me, "What you have seen young one, learn from it. You have felt the power of the Allspark and carry part of it within you, use it wisely." I felt myself being dragged away.

"Wait...what do you mean?" I called but no answer came. I was falling into a dark all-consuming abyss. Then a small spot of light appeared. I recognised it before it spoke. "Come back...partner" Starblaze. I followed and the light grew enveloping me.

I opened my eyes. I was lying on the ground, cheek pressed to the hard asphalt. Just in time to see my cousin perform another one of those heroic stunts'...on a motorcycle no less'.

Blackout fell and I slowly sat up. A headache slowly fading. 'When you're in the middle of a battle, you're not supposed to black out and hope for the best.' Silently berating myself, I stumbled to my feet, a cascading waterfall of dust and rubble falling of my body. 

Swaying I summoned my bow. Pulling back the string and taking aim. I could feel the F-22 raptor pilots panicking above as Starscream appeared in their midst. Lennox and the ground forces fired on Megatron, so did the remaining raptors. They were trying to expose his spark, but though he fell back there was still the protective layer of his spark chamber to contend with. 

I released the arrow. It struck home, burning through the final protective layer. Megatron howled in pain, Optimus using that moment to strike him. Grappling the two titans almost crushed Sam. I saw Optimus's dermas move but I didn't hear what he said. Nevertheless, Sam thrust his hands upwards, pushing the Allspark into Megatron's spark. Another white hot flare built in my chest and Megatron's spark shone and pulsed erratically. The Allspark burning up. Eventually it went dark and Megatron fell to the road, offline.

I ran over to Lennox, out of the corner of my eye, spotting Sam pick something up from the ground. He looked at me with a smile. I was not prepared to be picked up and spun like some doll by an over energised cousin. 'He's still in a battle high...great' I internally rolled my eyes.

When he put me down, he gave me a look up and down. I cocked my hips, giggled and gave a spin to show off my new look. My wings buffeted his face and he promptly sneezed. 'Who said I don't have a childish side'. The other members of the unit were looking at me in awe. One cheeky lad at the back even wolf-whistled.

"Ok, now I've seen it, is there any way to unsee it" he stated.

I performed the motions while calling "Power down" and with a flash of light I was back in uniform.

I watched as the Autobots and Sam gathered around Prime for a speech. I just smiled and turned back to my cousin. Opening my mouth to speak and finally explain my whole crazy story when I felt a tug within my heart.

Starblaze exuding waves of calm while the twins were frantically asking me whether I was ok. I responded yes and then their alt-modes just rolled, all calm like, out of a nearby alley and transformed.

With panicked yells everyone raised their weapons at the newcomers. "Whoa, hold your fire, hold your fire!" I called running in front of everyone, arms raised in the classic I-am-defending-this-person position. Lennox marched, like two steps, over to me, "Who are these guys?" He then studied me up and down, noting how I was calm and obviously protecting the trio, he rolled his weight onto his back foot and leisurely said, "Friends of yours?"

'How does he stay so calm?' I questioned in my head. I gestured behind me, "This is Starblaze, my Gaian partner and his siblings, the twins, Starocean and Starwave. I'll explain later Cousin..." I put on the most sweet voice I could, "I have something I need to discuss with dear Starblaze here." now I turned to Starblaze, "AND WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN, I'VE BEEN FIGHTING FOR MY LIFE AND YOU'VE BEEN CHILLIN' IN AN ALLEY THIS WHOLE TIME!" I was going into rant mode. "YOU COULD HAVE DECIDED TO HELP AT ANY MOMENT BUT NO..." Starblaze raised a hand for silence, cutting me off mid-rant.

He just looked at me, completely unimpressed, and said, "You're a competent fighter, I said we would come if you were in danger, you weren't. You are still alive are you not?"

'Oh that just takes the cake' I geared up for a real rant, I could feel my face going red as blood rushed to it. Some of the other soldiers, having realised these were friends, wore broad grins on their faces, just waiting for the show to begin.

"Should we run", said Starwave. "Probably" replied his twin and they slowly backed off hands raised, leaving their older brother to face his partner's fury.

Of course they didn't get off that easy,

.

.

.

The Autobots had noticed the new arrivals.

[petitelepus]

Decepticon For Life, Part 12

You get Autobot mechanic Bulkhead to help your side, Decepticons to finish the Space Bridge. Now if only things would go as planned... NOTE, I’m trying to bring this story back! It has been my most read story and now with Killer May reaching for this story’s hits I need to update this story. It’s been a while, but give the Decepticon For Life a read and I won’t disappoint you! Also, happy Juhannus!

It was all going according to lord Megatron's plan. He got Bulkhead to work with you and now he was giving orders to Constructicons how to finish the Space Bridge... The only problem was that he couldn't help but argue with professor Sumdac about how to move forward. You groaned as you listened to them argue where hollow cato tube should go.

Out of all the jobs, Megatron could give you it was to watch over them. You knew nothing about Space Bridges but apparently you knew enough is someone was trying something. Suddenly there was a loud clank as the giant tube was thrown on the ground and the Constructicons sat down.

"That's it! We're on a break!" Mixmaster exclaimed and he and Scrapper poured oil down their intakes. You shook your head and went to them. "Okay, guys, do what you must but next break is in 3 hours!"

"Whatever you say, babe," Scrapper said between the chugs of oil. You groaned but then you heard professor and Bulkhead argue with each other. You walked up to them and cleared your intake, getting their attention. "I hope you don't plan to do anything stupid. Lord Megatron gave me permission to knock some sense into you if you decided to act foolishly."

Bulkhead shook his helm. "Wouldn't think of it."

You nodded, "Good." and turned to go and get your Constructicon friends to work again. When you were out of the earshot professor Sumdac turned towards Bulkhead. "I can't believe she was an Autobot...!" He grumbled in disbelief and Bulkhead looked at the man like he had grown a second head.

"What? What are you talking about?" The green mech asked, "The femme Decepticon? She isn't an Autobot!"

"Oh, but she was!" Professor exclaimed as loudly as he dared so he wouldn't catch your attention. He looked over his shoulder and when you didn't turn towards them he looked at Bulkhead again. "She came here months ago with Starscream but she had this Autobot symbol with wings on her chest. She appeared to have amnesia and she couldn't talk until I fixed her. Starscream was most likely using her so when Megatron took her in she fell for everything that monster has to say."

"Wait, are you saying that femme is an Elite Guard?!"

"Shh...! Not so loud!" Professor hushed before checking if you heard. No, you were nagging at Mixmaster and Scrapper how they chugged too much oil to be healthy. Professor turned to Bulkhead. "I don't know who she was when I fixed her, but she had some poor lady's purse. You don't happen to know anything about it, do you?"

"Hmm, not that I can recall..." Bulkhead admitted before turning serious. "But if you tell me she was an Elite Guard then she could have been a spy!"

"Impossible! As I said, she had no idea who or what she was before Megatron took her in!" Professor snapped and this time you had heard them.

"What are you doing?!" You asked as you stomped over to them and placed your hands over your hips. "Did you come to an agreement over that tube? Because if not, I will personally stuck it up to your aft Autobot!"

"Yeah, we got it now..." Bulkhead grumbled and the professor nodded with him. You nodded and turned towards Constructicons, yelling them how their break was over.

It took hours, but finally, the Space Bridge looked like it was done. Megatron stood by the control panel with you behind him and Bulkhead stood next to him.

"I did what you asked. Now, why don't you let me and professor go and we call it even?" The green Autobot asked. Megatron glanced at him from the corner of his crimson optic.

"All in due time, Autobot," He said. "Are you certain it will work this time?"

"Ooh, absolutely." Professor Sumdac said as he walked to the controls and pushed a button. The bridge's engine sputtered and coughed, but nothing happened. Your optics widened in shock. Had they failed? If they failed, what would it mean for you?

"Oh well, too bad, nothing anyone can do, I guess we should just keep going-!" Professor was saying when suddenly the giant machine turned on, coughing and roaring as it created a blue ball of energy between its long towers. You smiled excitedly. It was actually working! Oh, Megatron was right when he got that big oaf Bulkhead!

"At long last, I will lead my troops back to Cybertron and reclaim what is rightfully mine!" Megatron boasted and you clapped your hands behind him. "Bravo, my lord! Your plan worked as planned!" You praised him. You have no idea what this Cybertron planet held, but you swore you would be right behind your lord as you would claim your home planet.

Suddenly there was an explosion behind you and you all turned to look what it was when you saw the Autobots emerge from the newly made tunnel they had exploded open.

"Too bad there is nobody for you to lead, Megatron!" Optimus Prime, leader of this small Autobot group shouted. You were about to pull out your guns when you noticed Scrapper above the mine. You grinned at the evil bots, "I don't think so!"

Scrapper jumped down with a warcry and snatched the two smaller Autobots, the yellow and light blue ones, into his arms. "Who you're calling nobody!?" He asked and Mixmaster shot cement mix at the Autobot leader and their ninja bot, trapping them on their spots. Mixmaster jumped next to Scrapper who held the bots in his arms and Optimus glared at them, "So you two are working for Megatron now."

You walked up to the Constructicons and grinned. "They were always on the winning side." You said but just as the last word left your mouth, the mountain trembled and groaned as the mountain's roof over your helms was blasted into oblivion. You shielded your face from falling rocks.

Who dared to attack you like that?! Did Autobots come with backup?

When the smoke cleared you looked up and you couldn't believe what you saw. It was Starscream! He was using the jets on his legs to stand above you all and he wasn't alone. There were 5 jets circling him. Had he come for revenge? He couldn't have picked any worse time, but you might as well take him down with Autobots and make him tell who you were.

"Megatron, my old friend! Thanks for making all the hard work for me! Ha ha ha ha!" Starscream laughed and you grounded your denta together in fury. You wouldn't let him get away again. Not without answering your questions first.

"Star-!"

"Concentrate your attacks on Megatron!" Starscream ordered, cutting you off, and the jets behind him transformed and shot straight at your lord. You watched in horror how the shots landed and threw Megatron back into boulders and stone wall. "Lord Megatron!" You shouted and quickly run up to him.

"More Starscream clones!?" The ninja bot exclaimed followed by Optimus' question, "How is that even possible?!"

The blue bot started to rant in a quick manner about a theory that Starscream had claimed pieces of AllSpark and made clones with it. You didn't listen that closely as you focused on helping your lord up to his feet. Megatron growled and pulled out his sword.

"Lugnut, Blitzwing! I need backup at once!" He shouted, out loud and through comm links, but no one came. "Where are you?!"

Where indeed were they? Should you go look for them, but would you dare to leave your leader alone to fight against Starscream, his clones, and Autobots? Granted, Autobots were out of the picture. The shots get coming so you jumped behind a boulder and returned the fire at the clones with your gun.

Megatron was doing amazing, fighting off 5 clones and blocking their attacks with his sword and fusion cannon attached to his right arm.

"It will take more than a few pathetic clones to defeat me Starscream!" Your lord shouted and shot a blast of energy at Starscream who dodged the attack. You shot at the clones with your best abilities and you managed to keep a couple of them on their toes if they didn't want to get shot.

"Mixmaster, find Lugnut and Blitzwing! Dreadtrap and Scrapper back me up!" Megatron ordered. Scrapper let go of the Autobots he was holding and as soon as the bots' pedes touched the ground they took off quicker than you have seen someone go.

"You, hey, I never bargained, but this? I'm a builder, not a fighter!" Mixmaster said, but just as he was done a shot went through the oil canister he had on his hand and all the precious oil leaked through his hand. The Constructicon saw red, just like his optics, and threw the messed canister on the ground. "That's it! Nobody messes with my motor oil!"

You heard banging and saw that Optimus Prime had broken free from cement and with a single punch he released the ninja bot also. You growled but focused on Starscream's clones. You wouldn't let them hurt your lord any more than they had already. Mixmaster run past you and he came face to face with a blue Starscream's clone.

"Fool! A mere construction bot is no match for my superior firepower!" The clone boasted and Mixmaster frowned. "Oh really? Then you know where you can stick it?" He asked as his hand transformed and he shot a load of wet cement at the clone. He hit the bullseye and the clone screamed as he couldn't move.

"Gaah, impossible! You can't defeat me! You're not worthy, you're an inferior and your job stink!" The clone shouted as he struggled against he gooey cement like a fly in spider's web but just like on the web, he just got himself more mixed up. Mixmaster seemed satisfied with it, but when he turned there was a white clone pointing his gun at your friend.

"Don't worry, I won't shoot!" The clone shouted but his actions told another story. You switched tactics and took a shot at him and just as you were about hit him, the ninja bot thew one of his throwing stars at the clone's leg. That sent the white con flying and hurling through the air and he hit ground face first and hard. The ninja bot jumped at him ad cuffed him. "One Starscream down, five more to go."

You had a shot at him. You had him in your scope but you didn't take the shot. He could be useful against the clones, you ensured yourself. You cleared your optic and the ninja was gone.

"I'm not down, I can escape anytime I want to! I just don't want to." The clone talked to himself when an orange clone flew to him and shot the static cuffs off from the white's hands.

"Brilliant strategy, brilliant! It's such an honor to help you escape from such an elegant Autobot trap!" The orange clone praised and the white looked at him as he got up, "What are you talking about? I escaped all by myself!" He claimed and flew off. You tried to shoot what you thought was the real Starscream but he wouldn't let you get a clear shot. That's when you heard pathetic crying coming and you looked to the side.

The blue Autobot had a whiny clone in cuffs, but then came the blue clone who was still struggling against the cement mix around him and he hit the Autobot and clone head-on. The blue bot shouted rapidly for the cons to get off from him, but they were just as trapped as he was. The jets in blue clone's legs were still working and they pushed the trio through the Space Bridge's portal.

Three enemies gone, a bunch of them left. You took a shot at the white clone and he noticed you hiding behind a boulder as you kept shooting at him and his allies. He laughed and shot at you and you quickly ducked your helm down before he blew it off. As soon as you could, you took a shot at him again and hit him straight on the wing.

"Ouch! You didn't hurt me, didn't hurt at all!" The white clone exclaimed and you were starting to doubt everything this clone said. Megatron and Starscream were fighting hand in hand combat, though your lord had his sword and Starscream had his guns attacked to his arms.

"Starscream! Give up this foolish mutiny!" Megatron ordered but Starscream didn't give up. He gave Megatron an ugly glare and activated his jets and dodged a sword's cut, rounding around your lord. Megatron turned to shoot him, but two clones, white and femme ambushed Megatron from behind.

"My lord!" You shouted, but just as the clones were about to take a shot, Optimus Prime out of all the mechs tackled them head-on, saving your lord. The grey mech lowered his sword and looked at Optimus. "Why, you would be the last bot I expected to come to my rescue."

"I wasn't coming to your rescue." The Autobot leader snarled. You looked him through your scope, but you didn't shoot. You saw both leaders fighting back to back, against two clones and one original scumbag Starscream. You saw orange at the corner of your optic and you saw a blur of orange before you were tackled hard.

You let out a loud 'oof' as you lost your gun and the orange clone got up from on top of you and pointed his gun at you. You glared at him and he cackled. "Brilliant spot, just brilliant for shooting from a hideout!"

You glared at him. "You have no idea." You lifted your leg and activated your own jets, sending flames at the clone's face. He screamed and backed up, just enough for you to get the opening you wanted. You reached for your gun and took the shot, sending the clone flying through the room.

Suddenly you heard screaming and you turned to look, only to see your lord using Autobot leader Optimus Prime as a shield. What a brutal turn of events. Mixmaster was shooting wet cement at the ninja bot who kept dodging his attacks and then the small yellow bot tried to ambush the Constructicon from behind, but he was quickly pinned into the wall by quickly hardening the cement.

"Mixmaster, considerate your attacks on head Starscream!" Megatron ordered as he threw his Autobot shield on the side. Your leader and Starscream shared words and insults and you started shooting at the femme clone, trying to keep her busy. The ninja bot went to his leader's side, but he couldn't help him as the orange clone snapped static cuff on him.

"Brilliant, such a brilliant move with static cuffs! I just had to try it out!" He kept praising and you took a shot at him, but he saw it coming and dodged. You growled and followed his movements through your gun's scope when you suddenly saw a bright light and you fell back in pain. Someone shot you!

You groaned as you tried to get your processor and limps working. Whoever had shot you they had gotten you good. Your vision was fuzzy, but when it started to finally return you watched in horror how the clones were holding Megatron back as Starscream approached him with your lord's own sword. How did he get the sword from your lord's hands?

"Oooh, I have been waiting a long time for this...!" Starscream smiled as he looked at his reflection from the sword's black blade. Megatron tried to struggle and get the clones to release him, but it was in vain. Starscream grinned. "Don't worry, I'll tell you went offline valiantly... Just as you named me as your successor!" He raised the sword above his helm and you cried out in horror.

"Lord Megatron!"

[laurazepamwrites]

The Chemicals between us ~Ch.7

‘You’re serious? You're not fucking with me are ya Old lady?’

‘I can assure you Jamison that I am completely serious. You and Rutledge are both assigned for our next mission..should you choose to accept.’

Ana sat and watched patiently as the Junker let out a whoop of delight and began racing around his quarters, grabbing whatever might be useful without even knowing what he was doing and where he was going and throwing it into a duffle bag. His mouth was racing as fast as he was moving and in his excitement jumped on Roadhog a couple of times.

‘Gonna be like this for awhile..’ Roadhog warned her.

‘Just as well, briefing is not till tomorrow morning, but I am here to discuss privately with you both about what is needed..and expected.’

Her tone made Junkrat finally slow down, his arms full of assorted wires which trailed to the floor as he cautiously peered at her. Ana smiled lightly and folded her hands in front of her. ‘There was of course some disagreement to you joining us on this mission. Good points were made on both sides but ultimately the decision to let you come was made. It seems a skill for destruction would be most beneficial to us if used correctly.’

Junkrat giggled, ‘Trust be lady, much more of me would be missing if I didn't handle explosives correctly. You just tell me who or what needs blowing up.’

‘There is a compound outside a small town in Russia. We know Talon are using it for storage of some kind. Weapons we expect. Once we have cleared out what guards they have and find any useful information then the building and its contents need to be destroyed.’

Junkrat made a dramatic sigh and slouched lower into his chair. ‘Issat all? Fuck, give me a challenge why don't ya?’

Ana narrowed her eyes at him. ‘Don't be cocky, the last time you met Talon your friend was injured. There will be more guards, more guns, even Mechs. We need your complete cooperation on this Fawkes.’

‘Yeah yeah, I’ll do what I’m-’

Ana held up a hand to silence him, mildly surprising Roadhog when he did keep his mouth shut, her warm expression had gone, now she was talking to him like a Captain.

‘Commander Morrison was against you coming and he was not the only one. You are used to working alone but here we work as a team, If you do  anything to jeopardize the mission or us then it will not be Morrison or Talon you need to fear, and if you even consider running then know this; I may only have one eye but my aim is still deadly, and I have something much worse than a sleep dart.’ She leaned closer towards him. ‘Are we clear Fawkes?’

Junkrat made a frightful glance towards Roadhog before gulping and nodding his head vigorously. Ana also turned to look at him, fixing him with her gaze until he too nodded in agreement, and with that the sweet old lady was back as Ana smiled brightly and clapped her hands together. ‘Wonderful! Well then gentlemen, I shall see myself out, be sure to be at briefing at nine am sharp, It will not do to be late. Goodnight!’ She closed the door behind her leaving the room with a few seconds of silence before Junkrat broke it.

‘Wouldn't fuck with her mate..’

He only grunted in reply. The one man apocalypse refusing to agree that an over sixty year old woman with one eye just made him feel like a ten year old child.

          ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

‘You cannot be serious?’ Asked Fareeha.

‘Do you see me laughing Fareeha?’  Morrison replied wearily

‘Mom! You can't expect two Junkers to undertake missions!’

Junkrat choked on his coffee, ‘ Cough!  Fuck! Fuck..sorry.  Cough!  First; none taken Birdy. Second; Shes your mum!?’

Fareeha ignored him, throwing her hands in the air in an exasperated manner.

‘The decision is final, and not for debate.’ Ana’s reply was curt.

‘I think it's a great idea!’ Hana chipped in cheerfully.

Junkrat pointed at her. ‘See? Lil Sheila gets it!’ He flashed a grin at her.

‘That's enough.’ Morrison raised his voice above them, sure enough the rooms attention settled on him. He brought up a satellite map of the Compound and surrounding area.

He sighed deeply, deciding for the millionth time in his mind if this was the right call.

‘Ok.’ He finally said. ‘This is how we play this out. We are outnumbered so communication and efficiency is key in this mission. Our first objective is to dispose of the perimeter guard.’ The map highlighted the perimeter. ‘This will be completed by Team A made up of myself, Tracer, Genji and McCree, once they are dealt with we rendezvous with Team B. Torbjorn and Winston will take down the gate and fence security with Athena's help. This may get messy here and if Athena can’t bypass their security then we storm the gate. Either way Team A and B both access the gate together and for god's sake stay close to Reinhardt's shield. Once those gates are breached Team B enter, you're the heavy hitters. Take out as many as you can whilst Team A flank. Hana I want you and Fareeha focusing fire on their Mechs. Once the courtyard is clear Team B head into the compound whilst Team A flush out the outer buildings. Look for anything that might be useful. Im talking files, security footage, anything that may give us a lead. In the meantime Fawkes will rig the place. Once we have everything we need we clear the area and rendezvous at the Orca, the compound goes down once we are airborne. Questions?’.

‘What if backup arrives?’ McCree asked.

‘It really shouldn't, not until we are long gone. Talon should have no idea we are going there.’ Ana replied.

Lena raised her hand. ‘When do we commence the operation?’

‘In two days. We’ll be arriving outside Bryansk at approximately four am, we’ll meet up with Genji and Zarya. The perimeter guard has a round at six am sharp. That's when Team A strike.’ Morrison replied.

Junkrat raised a metal hand. ‘Question mate.’

‘What is it?’

‘So, right, you want me to blow this place sky high yeah? With what exactly? I haven't been allowed near any of my gear or whatever good stuff you have. Happen to have any bombs lying around the place or what?’

It was Winston who answered. ‘Commander Morrison, Captain Amari and myself have already discussed this. You have permission to work on explosives suitable for the mission in a designated area in the watchpoint, just make a list of what supplies you will need and Torbjorn will try and accommodate you.’

‘You saying I get me own workshop?’

‘We’re saying you get a place where if a bomb goes off you don't bring down the whole watchpoint with you.’ Interjected Morrison.

‘ Pfft! Unlikely but whatever..’

Morrison sighed. ‘How long will it take you to rig the building?’

Junkrat stood up and leaned closer to the compound map, he furrowed his eyebrows and chewed his lip as he studied the building, eventually slouching back into his chair.

‘Gonna be two hours tops mate..’

‘Really? That long?’

‘Oh, oh yeah sure i'll rush it shall I? Look mate, you want it done right and it's getting done right. I need at least eight explosives to bring down a building that size and one fuck up and we go down with it. I can maybe speed things up if they have a gas supply or generator I can use to accelerate the blast.’

‘Er..actually I think there is a main power supply which luck would have it is right next to the main building.` Said Winston.

‘That’ll do it, ta very much.’

Morrison stood up. ‘Very well, Fawkes. Go make your list and get to work. Everyone else prepare and have the workshop make sure your weapons and armor are good to go. Winston, prepare Athena as much as you can. Everyone dismissed.’

Hana immediately grabbed Junkrat's arm, bouncing slightly in excitement 'This is gonna be awesome! We haven't struck at Talon this hard before. They won't know whats hit them with you two on board.’

Junkrat was just as enthusiastic. 'I'm getting off this rock! Im gonna blow shit up and im getting off this fucking rock!’

Hana grinned up at Roadhog. ‘Hope you're feeling better big guy, would hate if you got wiped out before we even get going!’

Roadhog tilted his head at her and contemplated the young woman smiling broadly at him, eventually he gave her a nod. Satisfied she turned her attention back to Junkrat.

‘C'mon let's go find Lu and get some breakfast.’

Roadhog watched them leave before deciding he should probably eat himself and slowly followed behind. ‘ Must be getting soft  .’ He thought to himself. ‘  Or that girl is a lot braver than she looks. ’

Mei left her quarters as the briefing adjourned. As she was not called to be present she knew once again she’d be left to babysit the watchpoint, not that she minded so much for this particular mission. It would be bloody most likely and her skills did not lie in combat however she could help with shutting down the defences..she could assist Winston with Athena, she could-

  ‘Oof!’  

‘Whoa! Morning Mei.’

In her thoughts Mei had turned the corner and had walked into Fareeha. ‘Sorry! Sorry Fareeha, guess i got a bit distracted.’

‘Its fine, don't worry about it’ Fareeha replied brightly. ‘To be honest that may have been my fault..briefing was..let's say, unexpected.’

‘Oh? Are you still going?’

‘Yeah I'm going..but guess who else? I have no Idea what the Commander and my Mother are thinking! To let those Junkers in on missions now? Its madness!’

Mei’s expression instantly darkened. ‘What?’

‘Right? How hard can it be to bring down a building? I don't trust them and I hope I’m wrong but-hey? Mei? Where are you going?’

Mei had hardly heard her, her temper had flared up with an added dose of jealousy and with this fueling her she was ready to let her feelings known to either Winston or Morrison. She saw Hana and Lucio leave the common room and decided to hang back a bit, she was in no mood for their cheerfulness. Once they had disappeared from view she continued down the hallway stopping by the common room door, her temper only made worse by its lone occupant and her new target.

Mei stormed into the room. ‘Ta me de! You're going? You?!’

Junkrat was sitting on the counter halfway through a first round of toast, the kettle was softly boiling behind him. ‘And a good morning to you too Frosty..’ He said with a mouthful of his breakfast.

‘How?  Why? Why you? You're a manic pyromaniac!’

‘Woke up on the passive aggressive side of the bed again I see.’

Mei smirked ‘I did not realize Overwatch were so desperate we now consider using Junkers..’

‘Don't mince your words will ya.’ He took another bite of toast. ‘Past the point of considering anyway, me and Hog are most definitely going.’

Mei glared at him and began to rather aggressively make herself a cup of tea whilst ignoring the smug smirk on his face as he watched her with amusement. She did not even want it but she did not want to give him the satisfaction of leaving even more. She tutted at him ‘Could you move? You’re blocking the kettle.’

He sighed and jumped down from the counter ‘I love our little talks..’

‘Really? Because I don't.’

‘Not so fluent in sarcasm are ya?’

‘ Hmph! Well you know what they say, it's the lowest form of wit.’

Junkrat laughed ‘Know who said that Frosty? People with no sense of humor.’

‘Well just because I find yours to be immature does not mean I don't have one!’

‘Oh do you? Has anyone actually seen the mythical creature that is your sense of humor?’

Mei slammed the spoon she was about to stir her tea with hard on the counter ‘Why do you always have to be such a Jerk?’

‘I was minding me own fucking business and you come in here yelling at me for something I had no say in! Fucking go moan at Morrison or better yet Torb since it was his fucking idea! Christ woman…’

He was right of course, although it suited him greatly it was ultimately the decision of the Commander and Captain. Not wanting to apologise and with nothing else to say she silently stirred her cup of tea, only looking up when fresh toast popped up from the Toaster.

‘Look Frosty.’ Said Junkrat as he reached behind her and took his second round of toast. ‘I get you feel shitty, really. It fucking sucks and I get that you feel even shittier about me cos youre actually Overwatch and I’m whatever unsavoury name you wanna call me. So I reckon you use some of that attitude you save especially for me and go confront Old man winter or the Monkey yeah? Ask em to send you out.’

She blinked at him in surprise not expecting him to show any sign of understanding how she felt, he flashed a grin at her and took a bite of his toast as he began to leave. She felt a pang of guilt for being so rude to him. ‘I was going to..erm..maybe I was rather..’

Junkrat interrupted her, turning around and walking backwards with his mouth still full. ‘Who better to give the weather forecast eh?’

‘ Gah!  Thats not what-! I hope your mission sucks!’

He flashed a grin and winked at her. ‘Not really the team spirit but its so sweet you’ll be thinking of me!’

Mei glared at the now empty space and blew on her tea only to grimace when she took a sip. After all that she had forgotten to put the teabag in.

[foxyninjabear]

A Hacker’s Tale - Chapter 2

[CHAPTER ONE]

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!: This fic is rated as PG-14+, so read at your own risk! There’s swearsies, suggestive references, and LOTS of blood and gore! Be aware!

________________________________________________

Lucky

Guns popping. Swords clashing. Machinery whirring. People chatting.

Lucky hated all of the noise.

The blonde was up against the wall of the block, fidgeting with a stray bullet casing he found on the floor and trying to distance his mind away from his surroundings. Almost everyone else around him was sparring or preparing for the world hijack mission. After Lucky had shared all of the information he found with the team, Nightingale had dismissed everyone and ordered them to continue preparing until it was time to leave.

That was almost half an hour ago, and Lucky had absolutely nothing. No weapons, no armor, nothing but the clothes on his back, the googles perched on his head, and the boots on his feet.

Maybe trying to drown out the sound wasn't a good idea after all.

Lucky peeled his gaze from the bullet casing in between his fingers and leaned away from the wall. His eyes shifted around the room from person to person; Coda and Jazz testing their guns on the firing range, Nightingale picking out some armor from the racks, Sakura trying to work out the kinks of her mech. All he needed was to get a weapon and a set of armor in the next ten or so minutes.

Simple.

The blonde started to make his way to the rack of blades and guns, returning to the safety of his wandering mind as he walked. Maybe if he just pretended he was somewhere else, he wouldn't be so on edge. The thought of his bunker in the Cyber Division’s segment of the Hive sounded heavenly. Nobody to bother him, peace and quiet; nothing but him and his holographic monitors-

He was snapped out of his thoughts once he suddenly smacked himself against the rack of weaponry, causing many of the blades and guns to rattle on their perches. “Gah!!” A bright red blush of embarrassment flushed across his freckled cheeks, and he wildly glanced around at everyone else in the room, desperately hoping that nobody saw. But as far as he could tell, every person he could see at that moment was still focused on their own activities.

Lucky let out a shaky sigh of relief before turning back to the artillery he came to examine in the first place. Swords, axes, guns and explosives. How dangerous was the mission supposed to be? Soon his gaze landed on a small serrated knife, and he figured that at least something sharp would come in handy.

The blonde carefully grasped the dagger’s handle and took it off its perch, looking back at his reflection in the shiny blade. The idea of using a weapon was still a very foreign concept to him. He only went through the standard amount of combat training, unlike most soldiers, who started off in either Infantry or Medical to further their experience in the field. Instead, he was immediately put into the Cyber division. His knack for interfering with a World’s code and gathering information on the fly is what landed him a spot, despite his age and lack of physical skills and strengths.

And even after eight years of experience, he mostly remained the same. He was still quite scrawny, and he wasn’t that strong either. But it wasn’t too bad. He never had to operate or use any sort of larger artillery anyway.

“You picking out a weapon?”

Lucky jumped at the voice, his grip on his knife tightening. Once he looked to see who it was, he saw the Infantry soldier with long red hair standing a few feet away. What was his name again? Seth? Seth. That sounded about right.

“Hey, it’s alright,” Seth assured, holding his hands up. “Jumpy much, aren’t we?”

The Cyber soldier’s face reddened. “U-uhh… s-sorry…” He cleared his throat. “Y-yeah, I’m just… g-getting a dagger.”

The redhead raised a brow. “That’s it?”

Lucky shrugged, holding his blade closer to him. “Y-yeah… wh-why do you ask…?”

Seth glanced over at the weapon rack. “You should at least have a gun on hand. Can’t have our techie be unarmed now, can we?” He then reached his hands up to a large assault rifle and picked it up off its shelf.

"U-uhh…" The blonde timidly raised a finger, eyes filled with worry at the sight of the gun. "I-I don't think I have permission to use those…?"

"Then let’s make sure you don’t get caught.” Seth replied, a charming grin on his lips. He grabbed the younger soldier’s dagger and set the rifle in his hands, who then stumbled a bit at how heavy it was.

“U-umm…!” Lucky tried to get a better grasp on the large gun, but every time he tried to adjust his hands, he felt like he would drop the weapon on the floor and possibly damage it. “I-I don’t know if this is a good idea…!”

The taller redhead tightened his ponytail and chuckled. “Alright, alright,” He grabbed a hold of the rifle and removed it from the Cyber soldier’s grip, trading him his knife back. “Just playing with you.” He said, before strapping the gun to a holster on his back. “Now, don’t die out there.” Seth winked, and before the younger male could respond, he suddenly disappeared in a flash of red pixels, leaving the blonde all alone.

Lucky wiped some sweat from his forehead, still shaken by the ordeal. “O...okay…” He squeaked out to the empty air, and glanced back down at the dagger in his hand. Maybe he should get a gun…

“Don’t let him get under your skin.”

Another sudden voice made the blonde jump and shriek where he stood. He snapped his head around and readied his knife, but glanced up to see Nightingale’s tall figure standing before him, now donning a set of sleek black plated armor, a dark combat helmet tucked under her arm. Her face was expressionless, as it had been for most of the hour or so he had seen her.

“M-ma’am...!” He stuttered to his superior, taken off guard by her abrupt appearance. He quickly drew back his blade and looked at the floor in shame. “I-I…uhh-”

“No need to apologize,” The ebony woman cut him off, her gaze empty and void of almost any emotion. “It was a justified move.”

Lucky shakily lifted his gaze back to Nightingale. “A...are you sure, ma’am…?” He asked, . “I-I could have hurt you…”

“Lucky, as far as I can tell, weapons aren’t something you’re used to handling.��

The blonde’s face turned scarlet at the statement. “I-I...umm…” He struggled to come up with a response, but soon caved and gave the sniper a nod. “Y...yes, ma’am…”

Nightingale continued, simultaneously slipping the helmet under her arm over her head. “And there’s nothing to be ashamed about that.” She shifted her gaze to a sleek set of black and red armor perched on a nearby mannequin, and was silent for a brief moment. "Here, take this." She held out her hand and made a fist, before pulling her arm back in. As if drawn to her movements, the dummy zoomed across the tiled floor towards the pair, wobbling slightly when it came to a stop.

Lucky blinked in confusion, before realization set in and he understood what the woman wanted him to do. "O-oh!" He then stepped up to the figure and began to slip the pieces of high tech gear on, one by one.

“Now, a word of advice,” Nightingale said as she pulled a large black and red quarterstaff off the rack and began to examine it. “Know that combat is much more than using a sword or a gun,” She stated, twirling the long weapon in her hands. “You play to your strengths. Use them to your advantage.”

The blonde’s movements stopped as he was about to put on the helmet of his armor set. "I...I'm sorry, ma'am?" What strengths? He could barely lift a sword without having it shake in his hands.

The sniper pressed a button on the side of her helmet, and the visor hiding her face retracted. “I don’t just mean physical capabilities, Lucky.” She replied, and suddenly threw her spinning staff up above her head. Lucky was filled with immediate worry of getting hit by the rod as it began to fall back down, but just before it could, Nightingale flicked her hand in its direction, causing it to hover in midair. “Your hacks play a key role in how well you perform out on the battlefield. Don’t be afraid to get creative with them.” She said, before grabbing the staff and holstering it on her back.

Lucky thought for a moment, but just as he opened his mouth to reply, he heard a loud beep come from Nightingale’s communicator. Aware of the noise, she lifted her wrist up closer to her face to have a look, before she raised her voice to get everyone’s attention. “Nine thirty, people! Whether you’re ready or not, it’s time to move!” 

The blonde flinched at her loud statement, but quickly slipped his visored helmet onto his head. He glanced around at everyone in the room, and they were all decked out with powerful armor and weapons. Even the two medics had equipped some artillery that put Lucky’s light armor and dagger to shame. Still, the thought of a gun was all too scary…

But he turned around and snatched a pistol from the weapon rack anyway, quickly tucking it in his boot before following his colleagues out the doors.

~~~~~

Lucky was left alone to his thoughts while he and the rest of the byte made their way down the bustling foyer. He could feel the barrel of the pistol he grabbed rub against the side of his foot with each step he took, and he silently hoped he wouldn't get a blister.

The blonde shifted his gaze around at the soldiers walking in front of him. Nightingale in the lead, Coda and Grey on her left and right, and Seth, Sakura, and Nix behind her…

But where was Jazz?

"Hey dude."

Even though that was the third time in the span of thirty minutes that somebody spoke up from behind him, Lucky still reacted the same exact way; he shrieked, jumped, and spun around to see who it was. But instead of fearing the person he saw, the nervous feeling in his chest disappeared at the sight of the Special Ops soldier with bright blue hair and eyes. Jazz.

“J-Jazz!” The blonde exclaimed. He then crossed his arms, pouting a bit. “You scared me!”

Lucky could practically feel the smirk radiating off of Jazz’s face. “Aw, c’mon,” He chuckled. “I can’t have some fun with my baby brother?”

Lucky puffed out his cheeks in embarrassment at what his older brother called him. “J-Jazz… I’m twenty six.”

“And I’m thirty.” The blue-haired man patted the top of his brother’s helmet, chuckling. “You’re always going to be my little bro.” He then pressed two buttons on the side his own helmet to retract his visor and reveal the top half of his face. “And even if you try and deny it, you can’t. We look way too similar for you to hide it."

The shorter brother sighed a bit. “I know…” He often wondered how he and Jazz could have been related in the first place. Sure, they were both naturally blue-eyed blondes, and they had strikingly similar facial features, but all similarities stopped there. Jazz was much taller and appeared much stronger than him, not to mention his colorfully dyed hair. His personality was also the complete opposite of his younger brother’s; Lucky was timid and constantly anxious, while Jazz was laid back and much more extroverted, even courageous.

Maybe that’s why Lucky was put into the Cyber Division. He couldn’t do anything else but type away at a keyboard and be an information hotline for people in the field to call. And yet his brother was all the way at Special Ops, carrying out classified missions and taking on the most dangerous and sickening tasks the Shadowbyte Army ever had to do. From stopping a corrupted World from spreading their infected code to another, to taking down the leaders of child trafficking rings, Special Ops soldiers did it all. They were the heroes, the ones put on a pedestal and praised, the ones given stacks upon stacks of medals and awards by Ecryptos himself.

As much as he hated to admit it, he was deeply jealous of Jazz. Jealous of the fact that people actually appreciated what he did. Jealous of how people didn’t push him around like a ragdoll. Jealous of how the leader of the entire Army even acknowledged his existence.

But Lucky could never get angry at his brother. As envious as he was, he looked up to him and cared for him immensely; he was the only family he ever knew, after all. Both of their parents had died when Lucky was just a few months old, leaving him and Jazz with nowhere to go. But a small recruitment unit was stationed in their home World, and once they found them, they took the two boys and brought them back to Fort Oblivion without a second thought. They were saved from an otherwise cruel fate and given a brand new home. Just like the countless amounts of other children taken under Ecryptos’ wing over the many years since his founding of the Army.

And Lucky was more than grateful for that. 

“Lucky?” Jazz’s voice made his train of thought screech to a halt. “Lucky, you in there?”

“Hmm?” The blonde blinked and glanced up at his brother. “O-oh, yeah, I’m here.”

“Spaced out again?”

Lucky fell silent, and gave a shy laugh. “U-uhh… maybe…?”

Jazz let out a small chuckle in return. "It's alright, you didn't miss much." He then gestured up ahead of him and the rest of the group, where a large mechanical door could be seen. The entrance to a proxy teleportation hub. "If anything, you skipped on some of the waiting."

The blonde blinked. "O-oh!" His freckled cheeks turned slightly red. “W-well… I guess that’s good…?”

Jazz let out another laugh. “Never change, dude,” His older brother patted his shoulder. “Never change.” Now outside the metal doors, he walked through as they opened, revealing a large, circular platform in the center of an otherwise empty chamber, save for a window which appeared to have a control room on the other side, harboring only a single soldier. “Now, come on.”

Lucky followed his brother and the rest of the byte into the room, the doors shutting behind him. He took a breath of assurance as he stepped onto the raised part of the floor, and his eyes wandered around everyone in the group, eventually landing in Nightingale. 

And not a moment later, the ebony woman lifted her head and gave a nod to the soldier in the control booth, who gave a thumbs up back before pressing a few buttons on their console. Loud sirens blared and flashed on the walls as the platform beneath everybody’s feet gradually lit up. The blonde soon felt the nervous thumping of his heart in his ears; the sirens always put him on edge.

“Beginning proxy teleportation sequence.” A calm, robotic voice echoed over the alarms as the red glow grew brighter and brighter. “Please remain on the platform so you safely arrive at your destination.”

Lucky soon squeezed his eyes shut when the light filling the chamber became too intense to bear. A weightless feeling bubbled up in his chest as he felt his feet slowly lift off the ground, before all of the air suddenly left his lungs and the blaring sirens in his ears ceased. He hesitantly cracked his eyes open, and was met with an inky darkness peppered with tiny puffs of dust floating through the air.

The Void.

“Hey, bro!” Jazz’s voice crackled in Lucky’s ear, making him flinch at the sudden noise. “Down here!”

“Huh?” The blonde glanced below him, and he saw the rest of the byte about ten meters below him. All of them had their focus straight on his hovering figure, with Jazz waving his arms. “O-oh! Sorry...!” He slowly adjusted the flight hack given to him by the proxy, allowing himself to lower towards his seven colleagues.

Nightingale kept her helmeted gaze on him as he descended. "As long as you don't get lost, you'll be fine," She said through the intercom, before gesturing behind Lucky. "Which I doubt will happen, given that our target World is right behind you."

Lucky blinked and turned to look over his shoulder. In the distance, a massive blue sphere stood out against the darkness surrounding it, giving off a bright light. The faint outline of a darker blue orb could be seen inside the bubble, at the exact center. HermitCraft.

"Well, what're we waiting for?" Coda asked, before her flight hack disabled. "C'mon, this World isn't gonna hijack itself!" However, instead of plummeting into the endless darkness, her feet landed on the air beneath her as if it were completely solid. Air walking hacks. 

“Hold your horses, kid,” Grey stated as his own flight hack faded away and made him fall for a moment, only to enable another one to remain hovering in the air. Many others followed suit, save for Nix, who used an air walking hack, and Sakura, who had activated her mech and climbed inside, activating the jets to keep herself from taking a nosedive into the Void. 

The creeper turned to face the medic. “Who ya callin’ kid?” She placed her hands on her hips. “I-”

“Do you want to get muted again, Coda?” Seth nudged his friend with his elbow, in an attempt to try and prevent a repeat of what had happened before.

Coda fell silent, before letting out a huff. “Fine.” She crossed her arms, appearing to make an attempt at standing in place and not running off. “But I swear, if we don’t-”

Nightingale then cut her off, her tone stern and harsh. “Watch your tongue, Coda.” She looked down at the creeper, and even though she didn’t have her focus on him, Lucky felt the hairs on his neck stand up at her words. “It will get you into trouble, and you might not be able to get yourself out of it. Am I clear?”

To Lucky’s surprise, the soldier’s confident body language faltered for a moment. “Y...yes ma’am,” She answered, her shoulders slightly drooping.

“Wise decision,” The sniper then took her gaze from Coda to the rest of the byte. “Now, you all know the drill. Once we get to the border, the rest of us will stay on guard while Lucky disables the firewalls.” She made a small gesture to the short blonde. “We then get inside, split up, regroup when one of us find the main area of operation, and round up each and every member. Secure who you can… bag the rest.” Her floating figure then rose higher. “Now, move in.”

Lucky saluted along with everyone else. As people began to fly or teleport or airwalk towards the World, however, the Cyber soldier continued to hover in place, closing his eyes; he had to focus to get it to work. He felt a buzzing sensation in his chest grow and grow, before it all burst in what felt like a static shock, and he activated a teleportation hack that zipped him all the way to the World’s firewalls in one shot. His stomach churned for a brief moment, only to quickly settle right as the rest of his colleagues arrived.

The blonde, feeling more secure that the rest of the team was there, floated up to the firewall and tapped on it twice, and a large holographic panel pixelated before him. Countless lines of seemingly indecipherable code ran past his vision, but he knew what every single one meant and did. He lifted his hands up to the screen and began to type, sifting through the code to try and disarm the massive force fields.

Several moments of silence ensued, surrounded by the faint echoes of the Void, the pulsing of the firewalls, and Lucky’s typing. “...so when you gonna be done?” Coda asked over the intercom after about a minute, an impatient tone to her voice. 

Before Lucky could respond, Jazz spoke up in defense of his brother. “Give him time, Coda,” He gave a stern reply to the creeper, giving her an answer to her question. “There’s five firewalls to take down, and it isn’t as easy as you think it might be-”

The soldier suddenly fell silent, before he spoke again, this time in a panic. “Shit, we’ve got trouble!” He stated. “Malware, six o’ clock!”

The blonde almost stopped his typing at what he had heard his brother announce. “M-malware? Already?!” He stuttered. “What is it…?” He instinctively looked behind him, and he saw what Jazz was talking about. A massive rope-like figure made of blue and black pixels slithered and twisted in the Void, flying closer towards the team. A single red eye glowed on its large head, and it unhinged its jaw to show off several rows of razor sharp teeth and let out a terrifying, static-filled roar.

“Is that what I think it is?!” Seth asked, slowly pulling out his assault rifle.

Lucky gulped and nodded. “Th-that’s a worm…” 

His mind nearly went into a panic just at the sight of the malware barreling towards him and the other seven soldiers. How could a worm get that large? He knew that all worms did was eat anything they could find to get bigger, but they would reach only about five meters in length before they were found and destroyed. This one surpassed that mark by a landslide. Eighty meters? Ninety? A hundred?! The worm was moving too swiftly to tell. And how did it manage to only appear then?! Somebody should have heard something!

It was the sound of gunshots that snapped Lucky out of his thoughts. Coda had snatched Seth’s rifle out of his hands and fired several times at the rapidly approaching malware in the distance.

“Wait, stop!!” Lucky panicked, reaching his hand out. “Bullets aren’t going to do anything! It’s too big!”

“Well, what the fuck are we supposed to do?!” Coda screamed and turned to look over at the blonde. “We’re sitting ducks if we don’t kill that thing!”

“J-Just… Just buy me some time!” Lucky felt his breathing quicken as he typed faster. He had to find the core of the firewall’s security and shut it down, and quick.

“He’s right!” Nightingale added. “Everyone, fan out! Keep that worm occupied!”

The Cyber soldier turned away from the group, flinching as he heard more roars from the worm. He had to resist the urge to look back at his team, back at the imminent danger. What was going on? The malware was screeching and letting out ear splitting cries, so much so that he couldn’t hear anybody else. All he could do was type and tap and push buttons as fast as he could…

And then he made it to the arming system on his panel of code. With one final smash of a button, every single firewall disappeared in a shower of blue pixels before his eyes, leaving the World inside completely exposed.

“They’re down!” Lucky shouted into his earpiece. “They’ll come back up in ten seconds, so we’ve gotta get in there NOW!”

Ten… nine... The byte began racing towards the World as fast as they could, Lucky in the lead. Nightingale, Grey, and Jazz activated flight hacks, Seth and Lucky started teleporting, Coda and Nix used speed hacks as they activated airwalks, and Sakura activated the propulsion jets on her R.O.S.A. and flew alongside the group. All were determined to get inside the World before they were locked out and had to face a grim demise.

Eight… seven...

The worm let out another fearsome cry, and Lucky instinctively glanced over his shoulder as he teleported from place to place. He wished he didn’t; the terrifying piece of malware was getting closer, sharp teeth on display and hungry for a fresh kill. The blonde felt his heart pound against his ribcage at the sight, and he immediately cried out over the intercom. “It’s gaining on us!”

Six...

“Ya think we can’t hear that damn thing?!” Coda shouted back.

Five…

“Let’s try to focus on not getting eaten, hmm?!” Nightingale ordered.

Four...

Another roar echoed behind the group of eight. Lucky could feel the sound vibrate through his chest. He knew this time he couldn’t look back. He just had to keep teleporting as fast as his hacks could take him.

Three...

Lucky felt himself becoming wearier with every time he teleported. His heart pounded, his vision blurred, his stomach churned. A side effect of using so many hacks in such a short amount of time.

Two...

But all he hoped was that they would be quick enough to get him out of this alive.

One...

Blue light flashed around the group, and the firewalls flickered back to life behind them. Before it could react, the worm slammed against the barrier with a loud THUNK, and let out static roar. It retracted itself back and shook its head several times, its massive red eye blinking. Not a moment later, it huffed, mandibles shifting, and flew off back into the darkness of the Void from where it came.

Everyone let out a sigh of relief. The constant feeling of death breathing down their necks was finally over, a giant weight lifted off their shoulders. Lucky felt his heart start to slow down as he gradually caught his breath, and he wiped a layer of dust off his visor. “Thank goodness…” He muttered to himself, clutching his stomach as he tried to let it settle.

“That was close…” Sakura said, breaking the constant huffs and exhausted coughing. “Is everybody okay…?”

“I’ve seen better days,” Grey groaned and rubbed his shoulder. A large gash could be seen on the shoulder pad of his chestpiece, a few black and blue pixels dotted along the surface.

Coda let out a chuckle as she breathed heavily. “You mean younger days, old man?”

“I’ve been at this longer than you’ve been alive.” The medic replied. “I’m not the man I was thirty years ago.”

“You’ve been enlisted for over thirty years?” Sakura asked, sounding genuinely interested. “Shouldn’t you be close to retirement by now?” 

“Two more months,” Grey replied, chuckling a bit. “Then I’m going to be relaxing on a beach somewhere in some deserted World-”

“As much as I would love to talk about retirement plans,” Nightingale’s stern voice cut Grey’s sentence off short. “We need to move before we get noticed by anything. Or anyone.”

Lucky gave a rapid nod and saluted along with several of the other soldiers, his nausea now fading away. “Y-yes ma’am!” He said, following everyone else’s lead. He looked over his shoulder at the rippling bluish-white wall of the World border, and took a deep breath to reassure himself that it would be alright. Closing his eyes, he then hurled himself forward, passing through the border and feeling gravity take hold of him once again as he landed on what he presumed to be the ground. To his surprise, he didn't stumble or fall. Not that he was complaining, of course.

The blonde cracked open his eyes, and the inky darkness of the Void was now replaced with bright colors and light. He stood in a massive field of grass up to his knees, a painted blue sky dotted with clouds up above. There was a soft breeze, making the expansive meadow around him ripple in waves of green. Everything was cast in a warm, gentle glow from the sun above the clouds. 

However, as lovely Lucky thought his surroundings were, he also thought that the view wasn’t enough compensation for him nearly being torn to shreds. Nothing probably would. But it wasn’t like he could exactly leave; the Army gave him a lot of debt to pay, after all.

It was the sound of feet planting on the ground behind him that made him turn around. Not too surprisingly, it was the rest of the byte, sticking out against the gentle landscape with their bold colored armor and artillery. 

Coda pushed a button on the side of her helmet, and the glass visor retracted itself to reveal her face. She took a deep breath in, and sighed in relief. "Finally, fresh air…"

Many others followed suit, including Lucky, either taking off their helmets completely or retracting the glass visors to allow them to take in the warm summer air. Even Nightingale had taken off her helmet, letting her midnight curls spring outward.

A minute of silence passed upon the group of soldiers as they all took the scenery in. Nothing but the summer wind and the distant chirping of birds could be heard. If only every day could be this calm, this serene...

But of course, the moment had to come to an end at some point. In this case, it ended with Nightingale breaking the silence. “Alright, get with your partners!” She barked out an order, slipping her helmet back onto her head. “Then head off towards your quadrinths!”

As soon as the sniper made her command, everyone broke away and paired with each other. Sakura with Coda, Seth with Nix, Nightingale with Grey. Which left Lucky with Jazz, and he was more than happy. The thought of being paired with almost anyone else (spare for Sakura and possibly Nix) made him feel uneasy.

At least he was going to have his brother by his side.

~~~~~

“How long have we been moving…?” Lucky asked Jazz, letting out a small groan in pain. His feet were killing him, hurting more with every step he made.

Jazz looked down at his brother as they walked through the dense woods. “About an hour.” He raised an eyebrow after a moment. “You tired of moving already?”

The blonde groaned again. “W-we nearly got eaten by a worm four times the size of an Ender Dragon…” He said. “And I’m not used to going in the field. Of course I’m tired.”

His brother let out a chuckle. “Fair enough.” He replied. A moment of silence ensued, before he spoke again. “You did good back there, by the way. With taking down the firewalls.”

Lucky felt his cheeks flush red at the compliment. No matter how many times his brother gave him any sort of praise, his face would practically turn into a cherry. “Y-you think so, Jazz…?” He asked.

Jazz smiled. “I know so, dude.” He assured, setting a hand on his shoulder. “And so do you. And the people that don’t think that are idiots, cuz you saved our asses today.”

A shy smile began to gradually form on the blonde’s face at his brother’s words. “Th...thanks.” 

“Anytime, Lucky.” There was another moment of quiet between the two brothers until Jazz spoke again. “...I’m proud of you, you know that right?”

Lucky blinked and stopped in his tracks. “Wait, what…?” His eyes widened as he looked up at his brother. “You’re...you’re proud of-”

"This is Bloom looking for Nightingale. Over." Sakura's voice crackled through the com, rudely interrupting the heartfelt conversation between the two brothers. 

A moment later, Nightingale's voice sounded as a reply. "Hear you loud and clear, Bloom." She said. "State your message. Over."

"Tiny Dancer and I have found signs of player activity in the south eastern quadrant," Sakura answered back. "And it appears to be recent. Should I send you all the coordinates? Over."

The sniper’s reply was almost instantaneous. “Yes, Bloom. Send them right away.” She ordered. “Everyone else, once you get their location, head there immediately. No stops. Nightingale, over and out.”

As the message ended and the coordinates sent through, Jazz glanced over at Lucky. “Well… time to go, I guess.” The corners of his mouth turned down into a slight frown for a moment, only to disappear as quickly as it came. “You got the coords?”

The younger of the two brothers glanced down at his communicator. “Y-yeah, I got them.” He said. “S-see you there.” He gave his brother a quick smile, before he closed his eyes and felt his stomach churned as he teleported. Once he opened his eyes, he saw everybody else there with him, including Jazz. He then shifted his eyes from them to his surroundings, and saw that he was in some sort of small town.

Well, more like a compound, the more he looked at it. But what it lacked in size it made up for in both security and class. Massive walls of wood and stone bricks stretched high above the group of eight and the buildings inside, making it very apparent that the stronghold was very defensible against most outsiders.

Emphasis on most, of course.

Lucky soon heard Grey speak up. "So should we try and lock this place down? Secure the perimeter?" He asked Nightingale, catching her attention.

The taller woman nodded. "Yes, we are," She answered. "And it can be safe to assume that if we find anyone, we'll be able to handle them." She shifted her one-eyed gaze around, before it landed on a stone building secured with a set of iron doors. "Now, follow me."

Being led by the famous sniper, everyone had their weapons equipped, save for Sakura, who had by this point exited her R.O.S.A. and compressed it back into its cubic form. Even Lucky had his grip on his knife for a moment, but soon put it away.

Nightingale then stepped up to the doors, but as she grasped the handle and tried to turn it, it refused to move. "Hmm?" She shook the lock a bit more, only to soon turn to Sakura. "It's locked… you have a lockpick?"

The mechanic bit her lip. "No ma'am…" She started, but she stepped up to the iron barrier anyway. "I can try to unlock it though." Pulling out a screwdriver from her tool belt and a small bobby pin from her hair, she knelt down to the lock and began to work.

But after several moments of jiggling the lock, breaking several pins, and nearly breaking the handle off the door, the brunette sighed in defeat. "It's not budging…" She said, standing up. "We're going to need a key."

Coda then spoke up and stepped towards the door, cracking her neck. “Don’t worry, I got one already.” As Sakura blinked in confusion and opened her mouth to ask what she meant, the creeper swiftly slammed her boot against the iron barrier with a massive BANG. The instant her foot collided with the metal, the door flew right off its hinges and skidded along the floor in a trail of sparks.

Lucky nearly shrieked at the loud noise, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment and clapping his hands over his ears. He hated that his ears were so sensitive to sound. Maybe it was all of that time spent in his control room at the Hive…

But no matter what it was, he knew he had to brush it off and keep going.

And that’s exactly what he did. He followed behind the group as everyone walked in single file, before making their way down a flight of stairs, and being greeted with a series of winding hallways. What was that place? A bunker of some sort? Lucky couldn’t tell. But with every footstep that sounded through the air, he became more and more certain that-

“Hello?”

Immediately, Lucky felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise. The echoing voice wasn’t one that he recognized. It had to be one of the World’s W.E.S. residents. But how had they found the byte already? Was it just blind chance? No matter what it was, he panicked out of instinct, and dashed into a nearby room, everybody else soon following.

The blonde darted his eyes around the dark room as he pressed himself against one of the walls. Countless boxes and crates were stacked among each other, some of their contents spilling out onto the tile floor. Books, picture frames, clothes. He even thought he saw something that looked like a drone sticking out of one of the containers. Perhaps the bunker was some sort of storage area. The W.E.S. employees could have possibly brought some of their own personal belongings to the World.

But he was shifted back to the present once he heard the voice again. "Doc? Is that you?" Footsteps then sounded, getting closer by the second. Lucky flattened himself further against the wall, eyes on the door to the hallway. He hesitantly reached for the knife on his belt, and held it close to his chest. He could do this...

Hopefully.

He glanced over at Nightingale, who had her rifle grasped in both hands. Her one-eyed gaze was fixed on the door, just like his was, but hers was much more calm, collected. And once that iron door opened and someone entered the room, she immediately knocked them to the ground and pointed the gun at their chest.

“GAAHH!!” The person who entered had let out a shriek as he hit the floor, before his eyes filled with fear as he saw all eight hackers before him. “Wh-what…? Wh-who are you?!” The brunette scrambled further back against the tiles beneath him, desperate to get away from the group of eight as they stalked closer. "P-please, I don't have anything…!" He begged.

“We don’t want money, kid,” Grey stated, pulling his pistol from his holster. “Just stay calm and-”

“Get away from me!” The green-eyed man attempted to fumble to his feet. “I-” Just as he was about to try and dash off, Nightingale suddenly teleported before him and jammed the barrel of her sniper rifle against his forehead. “GAAH!!”

The woman pressed her rifle’s barrel further against the man’s temple as he shrieked. "I would advise against trying to run." She stated, her voice cold like ice. “Understand?”

The brunette’s figure shook violently, his green eyes filled with fear as they were focused on the gun against his head. “Y-yes…!” He squeaked, trying to press himself further against the wall.

“Good.” She removed her rifle from his forehead, making him sigh in relief. “You’re going to tell us what we need, and you just might make it out alive.”

The man blinked, but he quickly nodded. “Y-yes, of course!” He agreed. “Wh-what do you want to know?”

The ebony woman kept her gaze locked with his. “First off… what’s your name?”

The hostage immediately answered. “Scar…! G-GoodTimesWithScar!”

“Scar, you say?” She removed her focus off of him and shifted it over to Lucky. “Lucky, check it against the list you made.”

Lucky nodded and pulled up his keyboard and holographic monitor with the photographs he compiled earlier. “Yes ma’am.” He plugged in the name into a search bar above the collage, pressed one final button, and then one of the images expanded to show who it was in greater detail. And sure enough, it was the same man cowering against the wall. “Yup, he’s telling the truth, ma’am. GoodTimesWithScar, famous builder turned full time W.E.S. employee.” 

Scar's eyes widened in confusion as his personal information was read off. "H...how did you…?" His sentence trailed off as a small ding sounded in the air, followed by a repeated buzzing.

Most members of the byte instinctively lifted their wrists to check their communicators, including Lucky, but nothing was showing up on any of the screens. The only one who didn’t move was Nix, and he had his dark brown gaze set on Scar.

"...wait, what's the quiet kid staring at?" Coda asked after a moment of confusion. Lucky shifted his focus back to the hostage, and then noticed what the silent medic was looking at. On Scar's wrist, a communicator was lit up and buzzing, signifying that someone was calling him.

Immediately, Lucky felt a sickening sense of dread in his chest. If Scar had a communicator, it meant that everyone in that World likely did. And more often than not, they had tracking systems built into their hardware, including an emergency feature that sent out an alarm to all other connected devices, notifying that somebody needed assistance ASAP. Plus, with somebody calling him, he could alert the others by answering and begging for help.

Apparently, Sakura had the same idea; get the communicator away from the hostage. Right before Lucky could say something, the brunette sprung into action and reached her cybernetic arm out and flicked her hand upwards. The device on Scar’s wrist then snapped off and flew straight into the mechanic’s palm.

"H-hey…!" Scar tried to lunge for his wrist com, but soon had the barrel of Jazz's combat shotgun lazily pointed at his head.

"Just make this easy so I don't have to scrub your brains off the wall," The soldier stated, yawning a bit. Lucky’s stomach churned a bit at his brother’s words. "Blood stains are tough to clean up…" 

The brunette’s green eyes widened, and he shrunk back his arm to hug himself. He tried to make a response, but could only let out a terrified squeak.

“Jazz!” Sakura stated, crossing her arms. “You’re scaring him!”

“That’s the point,” Jazz replied. “We can’t have this guy blow our cover.”

“I get that, but we don’t have to threaten him with his life-”

“Hey,” Nightingale interrupted the two and grasped their attention. “Another time, you two.”

Sakura looked at the ground in shame. “Yes ma’am…” She said.

Lucky’s brother soon followed. “Yes ma’am. It won’t happen again.”

“It better not,” Nightingale’s response made Lucky uneasy, and even more so when she shifted her raven gaze to him. “Now Lucky, you can create anti-teleportation restraints, I presume?”

The blonde gulped and nodded. “Y-yes ma’am…” He answered, feeling himself start to shake from anxiousness.

“Excellent.” The ebony woman gestured to Scar, who was still shivering in fear against the wall. “Put a pair of handcuffs on him. Make sure he can’t get out.”

Lucky nodded another time. “O-of course, ma’am!” He then held out his hand, and before his eyes, a glowing blue pair of translucent handcuffs pixelated in a matter of moments. With his new restraints in hand, he then knelt down, grasped the brunette’s arms and tightly snapped the cuffs around his wrists. 

“O-ow!!” Scar gasped out in pain. “Th-they’re too tight!”

Seth then stepped closer to the hostage. “That’s sort of the point.” He stated, before locking his gaze to Scar’s. “Now, hold still for me.”

The brunette blinked, confused. “Hold still-”

Scar's face paled in horror as he saw Seth's figure and features suddenly begin to shift and change before him. His fair skin tanned and freckled, his long red hair became brown and short, his eyes went from a striking grey to a soft green. Even his armor shifted into a brown jacket, pants and hat, and his tall figure shrunk down into one of the same size and stature as Scar's.

In fact, he looked exactly like Scar. A perfect carbon copy. Not a single feature or mark or scar was out of place, except for Seth's signature sly grin, making the innocent appearance much more sinister and malicious.

"There we are," Seth said, and showing to the group that his voice had changed as well. It was now slightly higher pitched, and much less formal than it was just moments before. Scar's voice. “Now, let’s call that friend back, shall we?” He turned to look down at Lucky. “You able to access it?”

The blonde nodded. “Y-Yeah. Just one moment,” He shifted his blue gaze to Scar’s communicator, and tapped the screen a couple times. To his surprise, there was no password required to gain entry into the device; he only needed to swipe left on the screen to open the main menu, its background of an adorable gray and white cat with a red collar wrapped around its neck. 

But as much as Lucky wanted to obsess over how cute the feline looked, he had a job to do. He darted his eyes around the screen, before landing on an icon of a phone. A single red dot blinking on one of its corners, signifying a missed call. Once he clicked on the image, a long list of previous calls made or received on the communicator appeared, with the latest being from a contact listed as ‘Doc’.

Doc. That name immediately rang a bell in Lucky’s mind. Doc was the name of the military scientist turned cyborg after getting blown up by one of his experiments. And from what he remembered from his profile picture, the creeper appeared extremely intimidating. All that he hoped as he pressed the button to return the call and handed the device over to Seth was that Doc didn’t suspect any foul play.

“Hello? Scar?” A deep, accented voice sounded from the communicator. “You there? I’ve called you twice…”

“Yeah, I’m here,” Seth spoke back, impersonating the handcuffed hostage perfectly. “Just got caught up with something.”

Doc chuckled, making Lucky feel more at ease at how it was all going smoothly. “Jellie again?” He asked. “What did she do this time?”

The soldier gave a chuckle in return. “She stole my hat and ran off.”

“Again?” The creeper asked, laughing. “It’s like she tries to hoard things, I swear…” After a moment, he then cleared his throat. “Anyway, I wanted to call to ask if you were still up for helping me, Impulse, and Stress out with the boxes down in the storage bunker. There’s still a bunch of equipment that needs to be sorted out.”

Lucky blinked at two things; one, the last two people mentioned, and two, the location of where they planned to meet up. Stress and Impulse? They had to be some of the other W.E.S. members stationed in the World. In terms of the meeting place… where they were seemed like the place. And he didn’t know if having all three people come at once was the safest option.

But before he could say anything, Seth replied to Doc with a wide grin. “Yes, of course.”

“Alright!” Doc said to his ‘friend’. “I’m on my way right now, so I should be there soon. Stress and Impulse are right behind me.”

The imposter grinned even wider at his success. “I look forward to it. See you in a bit.”

“See you, man.” 

The communicator then let out a beep, signifying that the call was over. Seth handed the device back to Lucky and turned to grin at Scar. “Well then…” He tipped his new hat in the hostage’s direction. “I suppose I have a friend or two to meet up with, hmm?”

All Scar could manage to do was let out shocked squeaks and sounds as he tried to come up with a response. “P-please don’t do this…” He begged, his eyes becoming more fearful as his double turned around and started walking out of the room. “Please, don’t…!”

Sakura stepped closer to the brunette and knelt down a bit, a soft smile on her face. “Don’t worry,” She started, resting a hand on his shoulder. “As long as you and your friends cooperate, you’re all going to be okay!”

Lucky gazed back at the disguised Seth making his exit. Although he knew it was probably just him being anxious, he had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. A feeling that something wasn’t going to turn out so well…

~~~~~

“...geez, when’ll he be back?” Coda let out an agitated huff, throwing her arms up in the air.

“Coda,” Grey started, pinching the bridge of his nose. “It hasn’t even been twenty minutes...”

“It shouldn’t take this long to just bring a scientist down here!” She retorted, gritting her teeth at her former mentor.

Lucky looked past his holographic screens as he was sitting in a corner of the box-littered room. As terrified as he was of the creeper, she had a decent point. Twenty minutes was a bit long… maybe too long.

However, not a moment later, the blonde could hear voices echo throughout the halls of the bunker. And it wasn’t anybody else there. “W-wait…!” He whisper-yelled, in an attempt to get everyone to fall silent. “I think he’s back!”

He tried to listen closer to the voices bouncing off the stone walls as he edged closer to the door to the room. Sure enough, he could hear Doc’s voice and Scar’s (or technically in this case, Seth), and he sighed in relief. Everything was going to plan!

Lucky shifted his gaze around the room at every other group member. Jazz, Nightingale, and Coda had their weapons drawn, poised and ready to pounce. Nix, Sakura, and Grey, however, got behind some of the stray boxes, ready to duck behind them just in case they needed cover. He soon realized that he was the only one besides the real Scar that was out in the open. Not wanting to be caught in any potential crossfire, he then scrambled behind a crate, only poking his head out from behind the container.

“So this is where the rest of the supplies should be?” Doc’s voice could be heard clearly now, his footsteps approaching.

“Yes, I’m pretty certain.” Seth replied, before his disguised figure could be seen through the small windows in the iron door. “Just in here…” The metal door then creaked open, and the imposter walked inside, followed by the cyborg, who was a lot taller than Lucky expected. Doc appeared to be almost a head taller than him! But the blonde soon shook the thought away as he realized that the creeper could see every single soldier eyeing him down.

Doc’s functional eye widened in confusion as he saw the seven hackers in the room, a terrified Scar handcuffed among them. “Wait, Scar? What the hell-”

But before Doc could finish, he was slammed up against the wall by Seth, who's disguise had disappeared. The hacker grasped his natural arm and roughly twisted it behind his back, a sickening crack sounding as a result.

Lucky flinched at the massive scream of pain that then came from the scientist and the cry of concern that sounded from Scar. He could never get used to that part. No matter how many missions he was sent out on, no matter how much he tried to accept that it wouldn’t change, he always cowered in fear as saw soldiers hack and slash and pulverize the enemy without mercy. All he was proud of was the fact that it wasn’t him at the end of their gun barrels and steel blades.

Coda groaned in annoyance, despite the anguished cries that came from Doc. “Synth, we’re supposed to take care of the merchandise. Bruisin’ ain’t good.”

The redhead shoved the cyborg onto the ground next to Scar, where he continued to writhe in agony from his broken limb. “He’ll live.” He assured.

Lucky blinked at what Coda had called Seth. Synth? Was that his name? The blonde’s face began to glow red, embarrassed at himself.

“Doc!” Scar cried out as the creeper collapsed to the floor. “Doc, are you okay?!”

Doc huffed in pain, clutching his natural arm with his cybernetic one. “He broke my damn arm…” He said through gritted teeth, before shifting a hateful gaze up to who he thought was the real Scar he knew. “Who are you?! What do you people want?!”

Synth looked back down at the creeper, his grey eyes unwavering. “What do we want?” He repeated the question, and knelt a bit closer to the floor. “What we want is for you and your colleagues to cooperate. If you all do… you live. And if you don’t… well, we wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise, now would we?” A wide, almost malicious grin crept onto the man’s lips.

The cyborg’s natural eye widened, before his expression turned to one of anger and fury, and he tried to prop himself up despite his injury. “If you hurt any of them, I swear I will-”

“D-Doc?!”

The voice of an unknown woman sounded out in the room. Lucky whipped his head around, and he saw two terrified people standing in the doorway. One was a short woman with big brown eyes and brown hair, donning a pink cardigan. It could easily be assumed she was the one who cried out. The other person was a man with dark brown hair and eyes, wearing a black t-shirt and cargo shorts. His face was so pale with horror that Lucky was surprised he was even standing.

Out of the corner of his eye, the short blonde saw Coda whip out a pistol and point it at the pair of brunettes. “If you so much as twitch, I’ll put a bullet between your eyes.” She stated, before stalking towards them and yanking both of them by their shirts through the doorway. “Now, c’mere!”

The woman’s eyes widened in fright at the sight of the gun, and she let out a fearful shriek as she was dragged across the floor. “W-wait, pleas-” Her sentence was cut off as she and the man were thrown to the cold tile floor next to Doc and Scar. “GAH!”

“Stress, Impulse!!” Doc cried out for the two people now beside him. He tried to reach out for the man, but gasped in pain as he moved his broken arm.

“Doc, Scar, what’s going on?!” The man asked, sounding terrified and desperate for an answer. His eyes darted around to every hacker in the room. “Who are they?!”

“We don’t know, Impulse!!” Scar struggled against his handcuffs. 

Lucky’s eyes were wide as he watched all of their panic unfold, and they widened even more as he saw everyone else’s expressions. Almost everyone’s face was completely blank, nearly void of any reaction to what they were witnessing. Was seeing horror and fear something to be expected while out in the field?

“Lucky,” Nightingale’s cold voice made Lucky snap out of his thoughts. “Cuff them, would you?”

The blonde gave a nervous nod and saluted. “Y-yes, ma’am!” He formed another three pairs of the translucent shackles in his hands, before going up to the three new hostages to restrain them. The woman (presumably Stress) and Impulse were easy enough to cuff; they were so scared of setting anyone off that they let even the weakest one move them around however ne needed them to.

Doc, however, was a bit more difficult. Even with his broken arm, he still tried to fight back, struggling against Lucky’s grip. “We have people that will be looking for us!” He said as the blonde finally managed to restrain him. “They’ll find you all and have you arrested!”

Coda let out an amused snort at Doc’s statement. “Arrested?” She asked through her laughter. “How? You guys don’t even have respawn yet! Let alone having contact with the authorities; that’ll be months away!” She sat on the floor next to him as he struggled against his cuffs. “Which leaves us all alone with you guys…” Her eyes then landed on Stress, who was curled up into a ball, too scared to make a move.

“Oh hello…” The creeper grinned slyly and leaned closer to Stress' face. "You're a cute one, arentcha?~" She purred, slowly twirling the barrel of her gun through the woman's short brown locks. The hostage froze at Coda's touch, and she let out shaky, terrified breaths.

“Leave her alone!” Doc growled, struggling against his handcuffs.

Coda turned to the scientist and stuck out her bottom lip, tilting her head to the side. "Aww, but I don’t want to!" She whined, before giving him a grin and laughing. “Besides…” She then leaned forward towards him and traced the barrel of her pistol along his cheek. “If you try, I can just rip off your other arm. Matching set sounds nice, dunnit?"

Lucky felt his stomach twist at her words. He wondered how Nightingale (or anyone, for that matter) wasn’t disturbed at the creeper’s intimidating behavior. But as far as he knew, she was pretty good at what she did… maybe she got a bit of a free pass.

“Alright, that’s enough,” The blonde was proven wrong as Nightingale had grabbed Coda’s shoulder and ripped her off the ground to face her. “Taunting them isn’t going to do anything good.”

Coda crossed her arms in defiance. “Fine… whatever you say…” She leaned in close to her superior’s face. “Boss.” Her final word dripped with venom, before she wiggled out of the woman’s grip and walked calmly to the other side of the room.

The sniper gave the creeper a hard glare, before pinching the bridge of her nose and sighing. It was obvious to Lucky that her patience was wearing thin. “Jazz, Sakura, Lucky,” She stated after a moment of apparent frustration. “Head outside and stay on guard. Keep an eye out for any others that might wander into the bunker. Understood?”

Lucky gave a nod and saluted. “Y-yes ma’am…!” He stood up and scurried out the door to the room, following his brother and Sakura down the winding hallways.

After a minute of their footsteps being the only sound, Lucky wasn’t surprised when Jazz pulled out his game from his back pocket and began to play. Though he didn’t exactly mind, Sakura spoke up. “Maybe you shouldn’t have that out while we’re on duty…” She said, a worried tone to her voice.

Jazz kept his gaze on the device in his hands as he walked. “Sakura, I’ll be fine. And besides, nobody’s here.”

Sakura frowned, obviously becoming more concerned. “Jazz…!” She stated, borderline begged. “Please, just put it away!”

The soldier didn't listen. "I told you, we’ll be alright," He assured. "It's not like we're going to get caught-"

Jazz's sentence was suddenly cut short by a large crossbow bolt zooming right past his younger brother, before ripping through the device in his hands and shattering it to pieces.

[lbat1901]

Eddsworld: At World's End Chapter 3

The Unexpected Surprised Attack - (Chapter 3) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Okay, just who are you and what made you think that you can come here?" asked Patryck while pointing a pistol at a soldier. "I suggest you lower that pistol so I can tell you clear and slowly. Listen, I know that this is sudden, but here me out. I'm a soldier of an army that's stronger than the army you're in" said the soldier. "What are you talking about? There is no army that's stronger than the Red Army. What's the meaning of this?" asked Patryck while keeping his cool. "Oh so you haven't heard the news lately? Heh....what you don't know is that small villages all around Europe are being invaded along with their sources and having their inhabitants killed or taken in as slaves. This army in is-GAHH!!!" yelled the soldier as something made the Red Army base shake. "What the? Stay here and don't move, I'll be back after checking what just happened" said Patryck. "Heh good luck with that. I have a feeling that whoever caused that explosion already raided your weaponry supply" said the soldier. "Wait....what....? Just WHO ARE YOU!?" yelled Patryck while putting a finger on trigger but not actually pulling it. "Let's just say that I'm one of the best soldiers of the army that likes to raid villages. I'm second lieutenant and a four star general known as Sergeant Fredrick, but you may call me Fred for short" said Fred. "I...I need to go and get rid of the intruders. Please excuse me" said Patryck. Patryck goes to the source of the explosion only to find that the entire area was covered in thick gray smoke and before he could do anything the smoke gets cleared up by someone using a fire extinguisher. "Patryck, boy am I glad to see you" said Yuu. "Yuu? What are-did you see who caused all this smoke?" asked Patryck. "I didn't, but whoever was smart enough to plan this explosion sure was smart. They caught me and other soldiers working in the weaponry supply by surprise and most of them are fighting the intruder. What's worse is that Yanov is missing, we need to find him" said Yuu. ~Meanwhile~ "Yanov! We can't hold them off any longer, they're just too strong. What are your orders?" asked a lower ranked soldier. "We need to protect much of the weaponry supply as possible, but if we're getting backed up against a corner than we need to move. Now!" yelled Yanov. As Yanov and the other soldiers were about to take off, they were suddenly stopped by a large steel beam coming down and blocking the closet exit near them. "Seriously!? Who dares to trap us!?" yelled Yanov. As Yanov said this one of the Red Army mechs came landing down a few feet away from where they were hiding behind. "Hey guys, do you like my new mech? Tell you what, I'll give you a deal, no even better, a profit. This mech is very special and it can be yours for a good price. How about 30% off?" asked Banana. Yanov and the other soldiers only stared at him but mostly Yanov was starring at him in anger. "I see you're not convinced. I know, maybe you need a demonstration" said Banana before quickly slamming one of the mech's giant fists onto the ground. Luckily Yanov and the other soldiers dodged this as the impact recoiled Banana back. "Grr...I WANT THIS MECH TAKEN DOWN RIGHT NOW!!!" yelled Yanov. ~Back With Patryck and Yuu~ "Alright Yanov, where are you?" asked Patryck. It's been a couple of minutes of searching for Yanov and both Patryck and Yuu keep finding nothing. "It's not like Yanov to go that far unless he went outside to fight the intruders" said Yuu. "Outside you say? Well then that's where we're going" said Patryck. Both Patryck and Yuu made their way outside only to get a surprise. "Did you get the power cell?" asked Yamiyo. "Yes I did and also stole all of their uranium and a lot of their ammunition without them noticing a thing" said Raspberry. "Hehehe.....excellent work. We've got we needed, now let's get out of here" said Yamiyo. "Not so fast" said Patryck as he and Yuu confronted them with their guns pointed at them. "Well, well, well, isn't more of the Red Army losers. Let me guess, aren't you two the higher ups in soldier ranks?" asked Yamiyo. "Well actually, Patryck here has a higher rank and- OW!" yelled Yuu as he got slapped hard by Patryck. "You idiot! Now's not the time" said Patryck while ignoring the fact that his hand hurts. "My you sure know who deny that claim. I hope your Red Leader trained you well, because you're going to need it. Activate plan destroyer" said Yamiyo. Patryck was preparing himself on anything what he didn't expect was a fighter jet to come to both Yamiyo and Raspberry's aid. "Hey, that's my jet!" yelled Patryck. "Oh really? How embarrassing for you. I'm going to destroy you with your own toy" said Blueberry who piloting Patryck's jet. "You won't get away with this! Yuu, we need to take this guy out of the sky" said Patryck. "Right! Let me find a bazooka or something" said Yuu before quickly running just to find a bazooka. "Oh it would be a great time for you to show up, Yanov" said Patryck. "How do you control this thing!? When I'm done with you, I'll be taking this jet to the junkyard where it can be scrapped for parts that will probably be useful" complained Blueberry who was trying to figure out the controls. "It only takes a well trained pilot with years of experience like myself to figure out a jet like that" said Patryck. Patryck then aims his gun at the jet before firing several rounds of bullets at it. The jet does take some damage before Blueberry decided to fire off some of the jet's missiles. Patryck sees this and takes cover as the missiles missed him and hit one of the satellites of the Red Army base. "Well those missiles were meant for you, but at least I hit something that's worth of value" said Blueberry. "I found a rocket launcher and a bazooka!" said Yuu while running to where Patryck was at. Patryck sees Yuu before noticing something large coming down. "Yuu, look out!" yelled Patryck. Yuu notices the large object before quickly getting out of the way, much to his surprise it was a mech. Suddenly Yanov came down landing safely on the mech before quickly getting up. "Yanov, you're alive" said Yuu. "Of course I'm alive. I was just a bit busy dealing with something" said Yanov. "Save the reunion you two, I think the guy in the mech is about to get up" said Patryck. Banana manages to get the mech off the the ground and standing again before recalling his thoughts on what just happened. "Haha....I can see that 60% off for this Red Army mech wasn't good enough for you. Hmm....my final offer for you will be that it's 80% off since it's national rocket day today" said Banana before having the mech fire off missiles. The missiles instead missed their target and ended up almost hitting Blueberry who just barely dodged. "Watch where you're firing those missiles at! You almost took me out of the sky!" yelled Blueberry. "I have an idea. It might sound crazy, but one of you two distract the guy in mech. I'll be using the wires from the same satellite that got destoryed" said Patryck. "Sounds perfect enough" said Yuu. Yanov picks up a rock and throws it at Banana which got his attention making him towards him. "Hey ugly! You can't catch me" said Yuu while taunting at Blueberry. "Why you little- YOU'RE SO DEAD!!!" yelled Blueberry before firing missiles at Yuu only for him to dodged them. As Banana made his way to the wires of the satellite, Patryck used jumper cables to make the wires conduct electricity. Once Banana was about to fire more missiles he made the mech step on the wires thus getting electrocuted and with a sudden shock the missiles fire off by themselves. The missiles hit the jet that Blueberry was in and went down. Luckily Blueberry used a parachute and landed safely. "What's the matter? Did you had a rough landing?" asked Yuu mockingly. "Heh, we would love to stay and chat with you, but we have a flight to catch" said Raspberry. A helicopter appeared as Yamiyo, Blueberry, Raspberry, and Banana quickly climbed up the ladder. "Oh and one more thing, we'll be back to finish you losers once we got all resources we need for world domination or should I say the Black Leader's world domination plans" said Yamiyo before climbing up the ladder. Soon the helicopter takes off to the skies and away from the Red Army base. Paul then walks up to Patryck, Yuu, and Yanov just to check on what happened. "I just gotten a report that most of our ammunition along with some of our uranium supply has been stolen. Do you know was responsible for a attack like this?" asked Paul. "Oh it just happens that we were attacked by some forces of an army known as the Black Army" said Patryck. "Black Army? I never heard of that army before. Just who are they?" asked Paul. "To sum things up, they're very ruthless and have no care if they invade an innocent village and take their resources along with killing the inhabitants" said Patryck. "My god....that's awful. It's so sickening to hear. What else happened?" asked Paul. "Those monsters stole my mech and Patryck's jet just so they can destory a satellite that's super important" said Yanov. "What? Pat, I need to come with me. The leader called us in for something important" said Paul. While Paul and Patryck were walking down the long hallway to their leader, the two were talking. "So did you do it?" asked Patryck. "Yes I did. I tried warning him, but he wouldn't listen" said Paul. "Heh, I hope he's happy about the new arm" said Patryck. "Oh he is happy" said Paul. ~Tord's POV~ I sat in my chair in disbelief and frustration. How can we be attacked? I literally had soldiers stationed in many different places. I looked at my robotic arm watching it give off a blue glow from its highlights. Oh Edd, I'm so sorry that I had to betray you like that. I lost all the sense to realize that you were and always will be my friend over the fact that I wanted world domination. You probably hate me more than Tom does and to be honest I deserve it. Before I can go way deep in my mind my thoughts were suddenly interrupted by both Paul and Patryck, my finest soldiers. "Tord- I mean great Red Leader, I have- well we have some terrible news to tell you" said Paul. Hmm...he seems very nervous. "Is about the attack that happened? Tell me everything from top to bottom" I said. "Well we were attacked by forces from an army known as the Black Army. They destroyed one of our most important satellites, raided our weaponry supply, and stole some crates of uranium" said Paul. They did what!? What is the black army? "With what exactly?" I asked. "They bombed a large portion of the base and used Yanov's mech as a distraction. They even stole my jet before we took it down along with electrocuting Yanov's mech" said Patryck. I pondered at what Patryck just said before forming a wicked smile on my face while laughing. "Oh man this is perfect. I never thought that I the leader of the Red Army would have to deal with rivaling armies in my life. I must know more about this Black Army and find out the who's the leader" I said in excitement. "Technically the leader is called the Black Leader as said by one of their higher ranked soldiers" said Paul. "Yeah, yeah, I know that. I said that if I found out the Black Leader's identity, than maybe I can form an alliance with them. Oh yes! I can see it now" I said while fantasying what it would be like if two armies came together for an alliance. I then noticed that Paul and Patryck weren't really sure if it will be a great idea. Oh well, it's their lost. "Hmm, if we're to form an alliance how would I do it? Oh I know! I'm going to write them a letter informing them about the alliance and they might agree to meet me somewhere" I said. Oh look out now Black Leader because I, Tord the Red Leader, is coming for you.

[classicdaisycalico]

12 Sonamy!

protective sentence starters

First of all, I’m SO SO SORRY that I never got around to answering this sooner! Somehow I can’t search through my own tags anymore through the search bar so it’s been really hard finding the original post containing the prompts in the first place. But I haven’t forgotten your prompts! I promise! Anyway, here’s one of the first ones you requested!

(Also I’m just gonna put this under a “Read More”, btw)

“You’ll back off if you know what’s good for you.”

It was hard to think of a characteristic of Dr. Eggman that was actually somewhat positive, but persistence was often the first thing that came to Sonic’s mind. The same could be said for Amy, in some ways, as well, though at least her persistence didn’t bother the hedgehog anywhere near as much. This didn’t mean, however, that there weren’t times that he found it annoying, especially if he had to deal with them at the same time.

Such was the case today, as he was busy fighting off yet another swarm of motobugs and crabmeats that were currently attacking Green Hill. Eggman’s latest world domination plot may have faltered at the hands of the Resistance previously, but that didn’t mean his motives were completely crushed underfoot.

Seriously, when is Baldy McNosehair just gonna give this up already? he thought to himself as he sped through another hunk of scrap metal. How has he NOT gotten tired of going through the motions over and over again?!

“Sonic!”

It was Tails. Somehow he had caught up to him after getting overwhelmed with a previous wave of robots, but judging by the giant battered wrench he was holding in one hand, he seemed to look okay, save for a few bruises here and there. Sonic also noticed the Miles Electric in the other hand, still intact. “Got any more intel on this yawn-fest, buddy?”

“It looks like you’ve pushed through the last wave of robots, but there’s something on my radar up ahead. It’s readings look familiar, some other things constant, others not so much…keep on the look-out for anything unusual.”

“I’m on it!”

A roundhouse kick here, a boost there, and a hop, skip, and several homing attacks later, they found himself face-to-face with…

“The Death Egg Robot?” Sonic skidded to a stop in his tracks, Tails following suit. “I thought that hunk of junk was down for the count, last time I checked…”

“That’s where you’re wrong, you annoying blue pincushion,” Eggman’s voice boomed from his Eggmobile. “I was able to rework the outer shell into a battle mech that could function on its own.”

“How is that possible?!” Tails asked incredulously. “The outer shell was constructed specifically to keep the Phantom Ruby’s power in check. When the robot physically holding the Ruby ejected itself, the shell should have been rendered completely useless!”

“That’s only what I wanted you to think, fox boy,” Eggman sneered. “You should know by now that I never construct any of my plans with just one backup in mind. OHOHOHOHOHOHO–”

“Can it, Eggface,” Sonic retorted. “Knowing you, any and all of your half-baked ideas wouldn’t last you half an hour no matter how much work you put into them!”

“Oh, you naive little rodent, you,” Eggman bit back. “I can assure you this one won’t be as easy to push through. You see, I rewired the shell so it would run on a different energy supply.”

As if on cue, the core of the shell began to glow, pulsing almost like a beating heart. Unlike the first encounter, however, the “heart” did not glow red like the Phantom Ruby, but green…then blue…then silver…then gold…then red…then purple…then cyan…

Tails’ eyes widened in horror as he finally put two and two together. “…no…”

The mad doctor laughed again. “Oh, yes…while you were busy destroying the Phantom Ruby, I was on the hunt for something far more powerful. So naturally, the Chaos Emeralds were a fitting substitute…all seven of them.”

Sonic shook his head in disbelief as he watched the scene play out before his eyes. “I can’t believe how hard we’ve been duped…the entire Resistance just…completely forgot about the Chaos Emeralds…”

“It was a little difficult to get my hands on the last one, but no matter,” Eggman mused. “At least she’ll be here to catch a glimpse of both of you falling victim to your doom! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!”

Tails raised an eyebrow in confusion “…she?”

“Oh, yes,” Eggman said as he yanked up a bright pink hedgehog by the collar of her red dress. “SHE.”

Sonic’s eyes instantly widened as he realized who it was Eggman was holding hostage. “Amy?!”

The pink hedgehog’s ears perked up as she heard her blue hero’s voice for the first time in days. Just as she was about to shout his name at the top of her lungs, Eggman shoved a hand in her mouth, muffling her scream.

“This little nuisance has been a thorn in my side for the past few days.” Seeing the scowl on Sonic’s face grow, he added, “Perhaps when you’re done for, I’ll finish off your pretty little girlfriend, as well.”

“Finish me? You?” Sonic’s eyes narrowed as he readied a battle stance. “We’ll see about that.” With that, he sprinted in Eggman’s direction as the the Death Egg shell readied its laser cannons and machine guns.

“Sonic!” Tails exclaimed as the weapons opened fire. “Watch out!”

The fleet-footed hedgehog knew exactly how this machine worked like the back of his hand. Effortlessly, he dodged lasers and evaded bullets left and right until he found the core, the shell’s only weak spot, fall into his line of sight.

Now I’ve just gotta ram into that thing a few times and make that thing cough up those Chaos Emeralds, he thought to himself. Here goes nothing!

One.

He felt the shell push back on contact. So far, so good.

Two.

He reached farther, pushing harder. Once again, the shell skidded backward, further back this time.

Three.

As he rammed into the core, the Chaos Emeralds released a shockwave, stunning Sonic and warping him back to Tail, his quills in disarray from the electricity emitted by the gems in the shell’s core. “I can’t stop it fast enough,” he groaned.

“Did you try taking out all the guns?” Tails inquired. “Maybe the Chaos Emeralds took some time to charge up before you damaged the shell enough, so maybe if you don’t get sidetracked by enemy fire, you’ll get to the core faster and deal more damage!”

“Great idea!” He was on his feet again in no time. “Thanks, buddy! And while you’re here, try to get Amy out of that Eggmobile! I’ll take out whatever’s trying to lock on you!”

Tails gave his best friend a thumbs-up as he took flight, beelining straight for the Eggmobile with his big wrench in tow. After narrowly escaping various lasers and deflecting numerous showers of bullets, he was able to sneak up on Eggman from behind. While the doctor wasn’t looking, Tails pointed his wrench at his head. “Where’s Amy?” he asked, trying not to shake in his little shoes.

Underneath his glasses, Eggman’s eyes widened. In the excitement of finally taking down Sonic in his new weapon, he had completely forgotten to keep track of the other annoying rodent in his possession! He slowly turned to his right. No sign of bright pink anywhere. He snapped his head to the left. Still no Amy to be seen. Come to think of it, she hadn’t made so much as a peep in a while…

“The little brat must have left when I wasn’t looking!” He slammed his fist against the dashboard of the Eggmobile. “Blasted hedgehogs. ALL OF THEM!”

In the meantime, Sonic was slashing through every weapon in sight, and was just about to tear through the last laser cannon when he saw the Chaos Emeralds about to form another shockwave. Right as it was about to release, however, there was a huge explosion from within the core, and the shockwave fizzled out. Within less than a second, he sprinted over to investigate. By the time he reached the core, he noticed that the glow of the Chaos Emeralds was absent. In fact…

“The Chaos Emeralds…they’re gone? Where did they go?”

Sonic looked closer at the core. It was completely destroyed, so clearly something must have gotten inside and damaged it enough so the Emeralds could be freed. He looked at the damage around where the core was housed. Were those…hammer marks?

“SONIC! LOOK OUT!”

He whipped his head around to find who screamed his name, but right as he saw who it was, the laser had already found its target. It stunned him, and pain shot throughout his shoulder and into the rest of his body. With no sense of coordination at this point, he toppled out of the core and back onto the ground. Although his vision was blurry at this point, he could make out the faint image of a pink hedgehog surrounded by seven other glowing hues.

“Amy…” he murmured as he fell. “What are you doing…”

“OHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!” Eggman cackled. “At last, Sonic the Hedgehog is finally out of commission! Now, with the power of the Chaos Emeralds, I can restart my efforts to bring the world under my control ONCE AND FOR ALL!”

“OH, REALLY?!”

Sonic’s vision was starting to clear, and he was just about to get back on his feet, when pain starting shooting through his body again. All he could do was lift his head up. What greeted him was none other than Amy Rose standing in front of him, with all of the Chaos Emeralds surrounding her. “Leave him alone, you jerk,” she hollered.

“And what should I do about it, little girl?” Eggman taunted.

“You’d back off if you know what’s good for you!” Amy shouted.

Sonic was able to push himself up off the ground slightly. Amy looked really angry. The Chaos Emeralds were revolving around Amy at an even faster pace now. Suddenly, in a fantastic flash of light, Amy was floating gently in the air, her quills glowing a radiant gold, her red eyes flashing.

The blue hedgehog on the ground gaped. She…she can use the Chaos Emeralds? She has a super form?!

She flew off, zooming towards Eggman, with her giant, walloping hammer in hand, and with one fell swoop, she swung at the Eggmobile, denting it severely as the head made contact. Instantly, the Eggmobile flew into the sky at an alarming speed.

And she didn’t stop there. Right as Sonic finally got back on his feet, she sped past him, readying her hammer to strike the Death Egg Shell, knocking him back to the ground.

Her hammer struck the core with a force so hard, it exploded, taking the rest of the shell down with it. Eventually, it toppled onto itself, clouds of dust emerging with every hunk of scrap metal that hit the dirt.

Sonic was back on his feet again when the smoke cleared. What he saw in front of him was Amy, smiling sweetly at him, as if nothing at all happened. He felt himself reaching out to her, almost reflexively, in an almost protective instinct, even though the roles were so obviously reversed. “Amy…”

His hand was shaking like the rest of his body. She took it in her own and walked closer to him, letting her own free hand rest on his bruised shoulder. Her hand was so warm, so gentle…under the soft little brushes of her fingers, Sonic could feel the pain melt away almost instantly, but he was still as weary as could be. Knowing Amy would want him to rest, he collapsed into her, letting her carry him as she flew back into the air to greet Tails. “Let’s go home”, she said.

And she flew away toward Green Hill, Tails following suit.

[elementseries]

EleMenT Chapter 113

Chapter 113: Royd and Lloyd

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Lloyd got up from the ground after he was punched by Dominic. He wiped the blood that was oozing down from his mouth and smiled. “A fellow space elemental? This should be interesting…” he said {A Colonel in the Elemental Extremist Army: Lloyd Nebulous}. Dominic charges at him, aiming another punch to his face. Lloyd simply smiles and waves his finger across from his body. Suddenly Dominic’s arm swings to the far left, missing Lloyd completely. “Huh!?” Dominic expressed shock. Lloyd quickly kicks Dominic in the face, thrusting the sole of his boot right into his nose. Dominic skids back on his feet a bit and holds his bleeding nose. “The hell was that!?” he shouts and charges at Lloyd again to punch him. Once again Lloyd moves his finger far off to the side and Dominic suddenly moves to that side before he could hit him. “Again!?” he shouted, completely bewildered, before Lloyd swings his foot into his jaw.

  Dante watched Dominic fall to the ground and shouts, “What the hell are you screwing around for!?” at him. “Wait… that space elemental… he has a something about him…” Dale said weakly. “What?” Dante asked. As Dominic got back up, he spotted a sword laying on the ground a few yards away. He opened his palm and teleports the sword to his hand. He charges at Lloyd once again and swings the sword at his neck. Lloyd waves his fingers to the side and the sword is suddenly bent towards the side before it touches him. “So that’s it…” Dominic said. “Heh…” Lloyd smiled and swipes his finger across from Dominic’s abdomen, causing him to reel back in pain, clutch his stomach, and cough up blood. “Ugh! It felt like my body was going to be torn in half…” he said. “Watch out Dominic!” Dante shouts and shoots an energy blast at Lloyd. “Oh crap!” Dominic said as he rolls out of the way. “…pure energy?” Lloyd questioned before he swipes his hand up, the energy blast bending upwards and flying towards the sky.

  “He’s bending space itself and redirecting our attacks…” Dante said. “Ugh, he can move the space around him?! I never seen such a technique in my life, I didn’t think such a feat is possible!” Dominic said, getting back up. “Never seen an elemental that can shoot pure energy… are you a rare breed?” Lloyd asked Dante. “Hmph… Dominic, let’s punch him at once. He might be able to deflect one of us…” Dante whispered to Dominic. “Gotcha!” Dominic shouts and gives him an “OK” sign. “Keep it down… we’re trying to plan out next attack, don’t let the enemy know we’re up to something…” Dante whispered in a frustrated tone. “…?” Lloyd just watches them, waiting patiently. “Okay…” Dominic whispered and teleports themselves right in front of Lloyd, ready to punch him. “Heh…” Lloyd simply swings both his arms in an X, causing Dante and Dominic to punch each other. “Ow!! Dante what the hell!? You said he couldn’t deflect more than one thing!” Dominic shouts angrily. “I said he MIGHT! He MIGHT!!” Dante shouted back. Meanwhile Dale watches them with a flat face as he recovers on the ground. “Idiots…”

  “Hahahahaha! How entertaining! It’s like a comedy routine!” Lloyd laughed and clapped his hands as he mocked them. “Bastard’s making fun of us! Let’s see who’s laughing after I smash your head against the ground!” Dominic shouts in anger. “Calm down Dominic…” Dante said and puts a hand on his shoulder. “I have a new idea…” he told him. “I don’t wanna hear it!” Dominic shouts. A large shadow appeared under them and when they look up to see what’s causing it, they see a large tank falling down on them. “Whoa!” Dominic shouts as he and Dante quickly runs out of the way before the tank lands. “You guys are boring me with your chatter… I hate being bored…” Lloyd said, scowling at them. “Impatient little bastard… aren’t we?” Dominic said, glaring at Lloyd and cracked his knuckles. “Guess we just improvise…” Dante said, gathering energy in his hands.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Not too far from the Novastar’s battle, another battle was taking place. Explosions erupt everywhere as Alexander fired missiles from his Elemental Buster, and while Grover runs away from the explosions at a high speed and dodges the missiles that came towards him, Royd stands still as missiles were closing in on him. Grover glanced over and watched him, curious to know why he doesn’t attempt to dodge. Suddenly, Royd raises both his hands and the space in front of him suddenly ripples like water, pushing the missiles back at Alexander. “What!?” Alexander shouts in disbelief as the missiles strike his Buster, causing a large explosion. “I’ve never seen a space technique like that in my life, what on earth was that?” Grover asked in disbelief. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” Royd said. The smoke clears and Alexander’s buster received a small amount of damage, but still stands. “Damn elemental…” He said and the gems in his buster began to glow. “Try deflecting this!” he turns the buster’s arm into a giant cannon and a large and very wide beam of energy fires from it. Royd simply puts his hands together, and then spreads them apart as if he was pushing a pair of invisible doors open.

  The giant beam suddenly splits in half as is gets close to Royd, and then merges back together behind him, creating a space within the beam that he can safely stand in. “He can even create spaces around himself?” Grover asked. “Damn it…” Alexander cursed as the other arm turns into a giant mini-gun and fires at Royd, who once again, stands still as the bullets miss him completely, bending and twisting the space around him to change their trajectory. He then suddenly points to the mini gun and a large hole suddenly appears on the barrels, the surrounding mass pushed outward and bending. “My gun!” Alexander shouts. “He can even create space in objects?” Grover wondered. Royd then suddenly darts towards the buster and swipes his fingers across the air, and the mech suddenly bends and breaks in half. “What!?” Alexander shouts in disbelieve. Grover uses this opportunity to encase Royd in a large green crystal.

  “Jade Prison…” Grover said while having his hands together. But Royd suddenly disappears from within the crystal and reappears behind Grover. “Forgot I could teleport?” he asked. A giant jade crystal erupts from the ground underneath Royd, launching him in the air. He then sends a barrage of sharp jade crystals at him while he was still in midair. “So utterly futile…” Royd said and teleports before he was hit by them. “Now where will he…” Grover said as he looked around in all directions. He spots Royd reappearing on the ground a few yards away. “There!” He springs towards Royd and aims a punch to his face. “!!” Royd notices him at the very last second and manages to jump back to dodge it. “Impressive eyesight…” Royd told him. Grover makes a large smirk and swings his hand down, the large jade crystals that were in the air shoot down at Royd, crashing down on him. “…” Grover takes a deep breath, watching the dust settle around the crystals. Suddenly they were all bent in half, breaking apart as Royd stands in the center, injured slightly. “Are you surprised? My space bending can cause any kind of matter to break apart, even the hardest materials…” Royd told him. “…” Grover said nothing, breathing fast but quietly. “Out of tricks yet?” Royd said as he gets ready to attack him. Suddenly missiles were launched at him from behind. “…” Royd quicky turns around and makes the space around the missiles ripple like water. “Rippling space?” Grover questioned in his mind as he got away from Royd. The missiles slowed down tremendously as they entered the ripple, Royd walking away as he saw Alexander’s mech, the legs were replaced with metal spider legs. “I thought I broke your little toy…” Royd said. “Don’t doubt the human’s incredible engineering prowess!” As the missiles passed through the rippling area, they suddenly sped up even faster and crashed into the ground, exploding. “That ripple caused the missile’s momentum to build up inside such a small space…” Grover observed.

  Alexander’s mech walked towards Royd, the arms transforming into a large array of fire arms, “I wonder how much your space bending techniques can help you when you’re being continuously assaulted by gun fire?” Royd just smirks and opens his palms and curls his fingers. “You won’t even get the chance…” he said, small tiny dots of rapidly rippling space appearing in front of Alexander’s buster. “!?” He watched as the buster was ripped apart when different parts of the mech touched the dots, shredding through the metal like it was made of paper. The spider legs and the arms were torn off, leaving the cockpit. “What the hell… was that?” Grover asked. “Rippling space… condensed and concentrated in small points. They pull apart anything that touches them instantly” Royd said. Alexander grins and presses a button, the shell around the cockpit breaks open and the machine inside sprouts smaller arms and legs. A large lance and shield emerges from its back, then reaches back to grab them. “…a buster inside of another buster?” Grover asked. “What you destroyed was simply this knight’s armor…” Alexander said. “Now this is getting interesting…” Royd said, cracking his fingers.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Dominic was slowly moving in the air as the space around him rippled, pulling his face back as he attempted to charge at Lloyd. “Dominic! What the hell are you doing!?” Dante shouted at him. “I… can’t… help… it~!” Dominic said despite his cheeks being pulled back. Lloyd simply walks away as Dominic was getting to the end of the rippling effect. Once he reached the end, he was sent flying towards a building at ridiculous speeds. “Gyah!!” he shouts as he crashes head first into the building walls. “That idiot…” Dante grumbled and shoots a beam of energy at Lloyd. The space elemental simple curls up his fingers can creates small dots of rippling space in front of the beam, causing it to split apart and scatter in different directions. The beams missed Lloyd completely, leaving him unharmed. “What kind of techniques are those?” Dante asked Dominic. Dominic rubbed the giant bump on his head, crying little tears of pain, and said “I have no idea, I never seen such space techniques in my life!”

  “You dumbass… what kind of space elemental are you if you can’t even recognize your fellow space elemental’s techniques?” Dante coldly said. “Hey shut up! Space elementals usually use hand to hand combat! We usually only use supporting techniques!” Dominic shouts at him angrily. “Well this one is using offensive techniques too, so maybe you should start copying them so we can defeat this guy already…” Dante said, glaring at his brother. “As if I can just copy him all willy nilly! Give me a break!” Dominic shouts. “Well think of something!” “YOU think of something! Blast him to smithereens already!” “I’ve tried that, it doesn’t work!” “Is shooting beams all you can do!?” Lloyd watches the two argue in front of him, scratching his head with a smile. “At this rate they might as well kill each other before I get the chance…” he thought. “That’s it, I’m getting tired of you!” Dante shouts and gathers energy in his fist. “Oh? You wanna go!?” Dominic shouts, putting his hands up. “Oh? Are they really going to do it?” Lloyd thought, watching on. “RAAAGE…!” Dante shouts as he pulls back his arm and lunges forward.

  Dominic smirked and pointed two fingers up. “Space Exchange…” he said as he suddenly teleported away, switching places with Lloyd. “…!?” Lloyd watches as Dante’s fist connects with his face. “FIST!!” Dante shouts, punching Lloyd as energy erupts from his fist and sends him flying. “Yeah! We finally got a hit in!” Dominic cheered. “Too bad that won’t be enough to knock him out…” Dante said, taking a deep breath. Lloyd got back up, grinning as he licked the blood from his mouth. “Now this is getting fun!”

===========================================================

[kidolegend]

Renewals - A Prompto Argentum Fic (Part 6)

Previous | AO3 Link

Hellooo~ I’m so happy there are people who are interested in Renewals and I wanted to post another (action-filled) chapter for those who have joined my journey through this plot~ Y’all are so awesome and sweet ;__;

Any reblogs, comments, moral support, constructive criticism, or just some hellos are always appreciated~

Tagging: @blindbae @xnoctits@themissimmortal @poisonous-panda​  @insomniascure​ @thegoddesseos​ @crossedquills​ @cupnoodle-queen @sriracha-chocobo @decision-height @lithiumkatana17 @roses-and-oceans @thirsty-angst-lord @drpepper280 @sailormars109 @e-addi @atlerion @ultimoogle (and as always please message me if you would like to be removed from my tagging list, my last wish is to bother you)

Bust-a-Base!

Aylin and Prompto worked quickly once they had formulated their strategy. They backtracked outwards, making sure to leave some room for error in case Aylin’s arrow didn't fly as expected.

“Think you can make the shot from here?” Prompto had long since relinquished the explosive to Aylin, letting the young woman get a feel for the weight of the device as they knelt at their chosen recon position.

Aylin was busy lashing the flare to a bundled set of three arrows, trying to get it as sturdy as possible. “From this distance…” She paused in her handiwork, closing one eye and tilting her head as she took aim at the center of the warehouse. “Yeah, I’ll be good.”

“Sweet.” He grinned at her. “Once that goes off, we should head for the turret on our right.”

“Do you wanna take the sniper there out, or…” Aylin gave a pointed look at the trooper standing motionlessly at the mounted gun.

“I can totally make that shot, but I bet the MT’ll move behind the turret so I might not have an opening. If I give you a boost, can you handle it?” Prompto folded his arms, concerned.

“Shouldn’t be a problem.” The young woman shrugged at him. “After that… It’s just disabling that central control panel, right?”

“Yup. I’ll clear out anything around the turret, so you’ll just have to watch my back while I work on that panel. After that’s done, we get out, and then mission complete!”

“Okay, sounds like a plan.”

The blonde’s grin reappeared and he allowed himself to feel confident in his abilities. ‘I can do this. I can really pull this off. I’ve tackled things way tougher than this, it’ll be a cinch.’

Aylin tugged the wire securing the grenade a few times, making sure it was pulled tight before she knotted it down. She held up her contraption, frowning at it. “Bit heavy…” She mumbled.

“...Will you be okay?” Prompto questioned again. They could move forward a bit more but he would rather not chance it--the explosion was going to be huge and it would be stupid if they got caught in the blast radius.

The archer contemplated the device again, weighing it in her hands and lifting it up to her bow. Her arms held steady as she nocked the set of arrows to the bowstring and her eyes squinted at her target. “I’ll just aim high to counter the extra weight. Should be good enough.”

He nodded. “Yeah, all we need is the flare to land close enough to detonate the energy tanks… The rest should do itself.”

She sighed, lowering her weapon. “I hope so… Lev would have made this shot, no problem.”

“Your brother?”

Aylin dipped her head once.

Prompto bit his lip, recognizing the familiar self-doubt. It was a constant emotion he had to deal with, especially considering his remarkable three companions and dubious background. “Uh, I mean… I never knew him, but I’m sure you’ll be able to do just fine, too. You've done pretty awesome so far.”

“Thanks,” She gave him a slight smile before refocusing her attention. “All right… You ready?”

“You bet.” Prompto brandished his pistol, his expression hardening as Aylin lifted her bow.

Aylin exhaled slowly as she pulled her arm back, the bow shifting in her fingers as she aimed carefully. She rotated the arrow slightly--making sure the flare would clear her bow without running into the side of it--before making eye contact with Prompto one last time.

‘Wow, nice eyes...” The blonde found himself distracted.

His stray thought was cut off as Aylin looked away and relaxed her finger, letting the arrow fly.

There was a crushing silence that followed, as if the arrow had sucked the air away as it flew into the distance. Prompto found himself holding his breath as time slowed and his blood began racing.

The arrow struck low on its mark, hitting the bottom of one of the energy tanks, but the force was enough.

Prompto didn’t even have time to cover his ears before the darkness exploded into life, making the ground beneath them shake violently with the impact of the blast.

“W-waaah!” The gunner was blown backwards onto his rear and he instinctively grabbed Aylin, who had also lost her footing. They lay low on the top of the freight container until the waves of heat had stopped surging past them, before finally lifting their heads to examine the damage.

“H...Holy shit.” Prompto swore as he stood and helped Aylin to her feet. The entire warehouse was engulfed in smoke and as they watched in awe they could hear secondary explosions going off--the magitek armors were self-destructing due to the irreparable damage inflicted upon them. The front and back of the now-ruined building had blown out completely, and the blonde was thrilled to see that the force had done much more than he had expected.

“The control booth!” Aylin spoke loudly, barely able to hear over the first explosion and the cacophony of debris and destroyed magitek sounding around them.

Prompto nodded, a breathless grin on his face. The entire shack had been demolished, the walls crumbling and the panel a melted heap of scrap metal.

There were loud metallic thuds that sounded behind them and they whipped around. The single patrolling magitek armor had spotted them, thanks to all the additional light the flaming warehouse provided.

“Crap,” They both dove in opposite directions as the armor opened fire, raining a shower of bullets over the freight.

Prompto landed roughly, allowing his body to move with the fall so he could roll to his feet. He looked over and Aylin was already up and running, her arrows effectively drawing the attention of the mech.

“Hey! The turret!” The gunner shouted, ducking as a trooper slashed at him. Prompto’s eyes narrowed and he charged.

“Gotcha!” He fired a crackshot into the leg of the distracted magitek armor, effectively bringing it down to its knees and giving Aylin enough time to get around it. “Get to the turret!”

Prompto was no longer the silly photographer who often injured his tailbone attempting to pull off ridiculous trick shots while leaping around with his guns. This time, he was dead serious.

“On my way!” He barely heard Aylin’s reply as he flung himself into the mass of magitek soldiers. All of Prompto’s excess energy surged forward and gave him a hyper-awareness of everything around him, throwing his senses into overdrive.

“Watch your right!”

He dodged with the warning, straightening up in time to see Aylin taking a leap at him, whipping her body around and striking the infantryman in a flying roundhouse kick. The trooper went down with a heavy thud and Aylin’s weapon--now separated into dual blades--plunged into the gap in its chest armor, silencing it for good.

“Whoo, nice one!” Prompto followed up Aylin’s attack with several rounds of bullets, keeping the MTs back far enough for the two of them to head towards the turret. His eyes widened as he spotted the sniper taking its place at the mounted gun. “Ah, run!!”

They split up, weaving in separate directions as another hailstorm of ammunition exploded around them. Prompto reached the tower first and he spun on his heel to see Aylin making her way towards him, with MTs hot on her tail.

“Take this!” Prompto yelled, summoning his auto crossbow and unleashing a flurry of bolts, taking care not to hit his ally. He could feel small cuts and scrapes prickling at his arms and face--he had managed to avoid the bullets but the debris was a different story--but he ignored it. He had been through worse before, after all.

Much worse.

Aylin put on a burst of speed to get past the enemy machine gun fire, switching her blades so they were both in one hand. She locked her gaze on him, her brow furrowed in concentration. “Get ready!”

Prompto reloaded his crossbow gun before letting it dissipate into thin air and nodding. “Go for it!”

Aylin ran straight at him and Prompto clasped his hands together in front of him, kneeling down slightly. She slowed just as she reached him and stepped up onto his palms, bracing her free hand on his shoulder.

“Hup!!” Prompto heaved upwards, tossing her easily into the air. She was a lighter than Aranea and he glanced back, making sure she would be able to clear the height of the turret platform. She flew past it with ease and continued a few more feet above that before gravity finally took over.

Aylin used her inertia to help strengthen her blow as she descended onto the trooper in command of the turret gun. It fell easily under her blades and it only took a moment to situate herself at the gattling gun and give Prompto the thumbs up.

“I’ve got your back!”

He nodded once and launched himself back into the fray. The magitek armor he had stunned earlier had finally clamored to its feet, taking aim at the blonde. He dodged around the rockets it fired from its arms, sliding between its legs and firing his pistols, keeping its attention solely on him while Aylin cleared out the rest of the troopers with the gun. She wasn't a great shot with the heavy machinery, but she made sure to give Prompto a lot of room to work with in case her bullets went astray. Prompto kept his body moving, constantly weaving around the magitek armor so it couldn’t get a clear shot at him. He spotted a trooper taking aim at him and he grabbed his drillbreaker, pulling the charge on it as he spun and aimed at the giant armor bearing down on him. “This’ll be… a blast!” Prompto overloaded the energy output on the machinery so it exploded with enough force both trip up the armor and send him flying backwards. Prompto slammed his back into the chest of the infantryman, dazing it long enough for him to pull his handguns and fire two shots into its head.

“It’s over!” He taunted the MT, his habitual lines leaving his mouth without worry, grinning as he relinquished the pistols with a rare air of confidence.

That is, until something slammed into his back from behind.

[funkymeihem-fiction]

The A-Mei-Zing Outback Adventure- Chapter 20

The scene grew more chaotic the closer they got. There was the smell of oxidizing metal and circuitry all around them, acrid black smoke poisoning the air from things that were never supposed to be burned. It did nothing to dissuade the horde of junkers. Large chunks of hull and sentry turrets had already been cracked loose in the initial attack, and each chunk of ruin was swarming with men and women, ripping away whatever they thought could be scavenged or trying to fight whoever else got too close to their claims. There were also several bodies laying on either side of the road, but they lay mostly forgotten, save for an occasional figure scavenging the parts from them as well. Mei tried to see if the corpses were anyone from Overwatch, but they seemed to be junkers, taken out by the pulse turrets or (judging by one of the more decapitated ones) flying metal debris. She had never seen anything like this. For some reason they reminded her of insects, as though someone had foolishly disturbed an ant’s nest or a hornet’s hive. The junkers had no organization at all and attacked quickly, en masse, and without mercy. They swarmed over scrap like it was fresh meat. And the people around them were merely the stragglers, with the main pack still dogging the heels of the Orca ship as it steadily lost altitude. Roadhog blew past them, engine still roaring and tires kicking up red dust behind them. “Crikey, the whole fuckin’ outback’s showed up for this one!” Junkrat exclaimed, his grenade launcher at the ready as they passed by two junkers fighting viciously over a downed turret gun. “Bet there’s more on the way, too! Oi, I think I know that guy!” He pointed at the either unconscious or dead figure of another male junker on the ground as they sped by. “Well, I never liked him anyway.”

They rounded the bend of the shallow canyons, and were greeted with the almost impressive sight of the junkers in full force. Chaos was reigning. There were hundreds of them, jockeying for position as they pressed their attack. The vehicles they had cobbled together were less cars or trucks than they were monstrosities of war. Missile launchers had been tacked onto the beds of lorries and hover-cars carried men bristling with weapons, while jeeps equipped with spiked javelins and harpoons, laden with chains and ropes, dragged themselves in the sand in an attempt to hobble their prey. There were shields and spikes in abundance, war paint and decals and racing stripes, and a disturbing amount of effigies, strapped across them in a mish-mash of of leather straps and feathers and bones, animal and human alike. It was impressively tribal. The Orca was doing an adequate job of defending itself from the onslaught, at least, but it wouldn’t last. Turrets were firing from its bottom and shield generators struggled to keep up with the damage, but they could do little about the metal harpoons that were already scattered in its metal underbelly, dragging the attached junker vehicles along or entire sections of its metal armor coming loose and crashing to ground, to immediately be overrun and infested with the scrap hunters. Mei had no idea what to do. The other junkers were ignoring them as simply one amongst their number for now, but she had no way to hail the ship or let them know she was even here. Roadhog was wisely keeping them a safe distance away, enough to pursue but avoiding the explosions and gunfire as he weaved in and out of the other pursuit vehicles. They would be arriving at the designated meeting spot soon, and it seemed like there might be one chance and one chance only to get aboard. They followed until the Orca slowed and came to a stop, turning as abruptly as the immense ship was able, its back to the cliffs as it turned to face the junker hordes. There was the whirring clank of more turrets getting into position, and then a shimmer as its shields refreshed and a door to its cargo bay opened. Mei thrust one arm forward, “There! There, they’re waiting for us! Let’s go!” It should have been simple. Get to the ship, get picked up by Overwatch agents and brought aboard. But every other junker in the vicinity had seen the same door open, and they surged forward as if a living wave, and the motorcycle was quickly crowded out by the larger vehicles all around it. Roadhog rumbled a low curse, then nodded down to his partner, who was grinning and starting to vibrate in his seat. “Rat. Clear ‘em.” This time, Mei made no move to stop them, one hand on her pistol as she huddled into the side of the sidecar, taking hold of Junkrat’s leg to help steady him as he reared up with his frag launcher at the ready, giggling wildly. “Never thought you’d ask, mate!” Mei shut her eyes as there were several large booms and waves of heat from nearby, with the shrieking of both metal and people deafening in her ears, nearly drowning out Junkrat’s maniacal laughter. The motorcycle started moving again. Junkrat kept firing, grenades flying amongst the clouds of choking dust and embers, tongue waving from his mouth and practically slavering amongst the chaos. The motorcycle came to an abrupt stop as it hit something in front of them, the entire thing jolting back and then forward, Mei having to wrap both arms around Junkrat’s legs to keep him from going flying as he landed with a crash atop her in the sidecar. Something rose from the smoke in front of them, a cobbled-together metal monstrosity lifting up on two legs, machine-gun arms clacking noisily, and its junker pilot grinning at them from inside its metal control cage. “Aw fuck me, I hate fightin’ mechs,” Junkrat groaned, before grabbing onto Mei and launching both of them out of the sidecar, nearly dropping her as he ducked and rolled to the side, narrowly missing a rain of machine-gun fire at his ankles. They both landed in the dirt, scrambling upright on either side of the mech as it turned to face Roadhog, who was dismounting his motorcycle and angrily pulling his gun. “Get to the ship!” Mei called to them both, pulling her pistol and going to dash forward. The mech thrust one arm out to block her, but there was another boom and it fell slightly to one side, as one of Junkrat’s sticky mines hit its mark. She made a move to try and duck under it, but the barrel-guns of its arm swung and effectively clotheslined her across the chest, sending her flying back where she’d come from and sliding painfully on the rocky ground. It opened fire and she tried to roll, but a round of bullets sprayed her gut, and she screamed as she felt something tear open and start bleeding, pressing her sticky shirt over the ragged wound even as Junkrat bellowed in anger and positioned himself in front of her, fumbling to reload his grenades. “Kkeojyeo! Geim-eul hamyeon igyeoyaji!” Something very large and pink and vaguely rabbit-shaped landed with a crash of metal against metal, as D.Va’s MEKA slammed full-force into the junker mech. The other mech might have been larger, but it was far from nimble, struggling to even turn as the MEKA practically danced around him, bullets flying as its boosters sent it in agile dodging motions to and fro. From inside its protective pilot shield, D.Va blew a bubble with her gum and popped it impatiently, finally jamming both guns into the other mech’s core and firing, sending the whole thing crashing down as the junker inside ejected free and went scrambling. “Aw yeah! That makes me four-time reigning Australia mech-fighting champion! GG E-Z!” She struck a pose, both metal arms punching forward dramatically, before turning to face them. “Jamie! I thought I saw your weird hair out here!” “Oi, my hair ain’t weird!…Okay, it’s kinda weird,” Junkrat grumbled. “Give us a lift, won’t ya? Mei’s hurt and don’t have any more ice left.” “Sorry, not that kind of MEKA! And you’d be shot right off, I’ve never seen so many people here to fight! I’ll radio the others to let them know you’re coming in!” There was the rattle of more gunfire as more pulse rounds slammed into the MEKA’s side, causing her to shriek within. “Apa! Oh, you’re in for it now!” With that, her boosters flared white-blue and she went careening off back into the melee. Junkrat scratched at his self-admittedly weird hair. “Well, she’s clearin’ a path at least! You all right, love? Can y’walk?” Mei took his hand, hauling herself upright. “I-I think so? Oh! Jamie, you’re bleeding too!” He blinked in apparent surprise, looking to where a hole in his arm was also streaming liquid red. “Oh! Hey, guess I am! Eh, she’ll be right, I can still shoot. Oi, let’s grab Roadie and- Aw shite, we got company.” Roadhog had seemed to have gotten into an entirely different kind of trouble, and he and the bike were surrounded by a group of scavengers. Mei lifted her pistol, but to her surprise, the enormous junker was almost unmoving, and though the people around him milled about and bristled their weapons, none of them had made an actual move to attack him yet. “That ain’t him. It’s someone pretending to be him,” She heard one insist. “Who the fuck’d pretend to be him?” “Isn’t he the one who killed DogEater’s entire gang?” “That was him? Ripped t’fucking pieces…” “Yeah. That’s the real Roadhog, nobody wears a mask like that except Roadhog. Uh…you take ‘im first, I’ll go behind...” “You take ‘im. I ain’t fucking with the pig man,” a smaller man replied, backing into a retreat. Roadhog said nothing, as usual. His wheezing breath remained steady, rattling in and out past the mask’s filters, blank lenses still set upon the junkers facing him. Naturally reluctant to face a well-known bruiser that was over seven feet of fat, muscle, and silent rage, the men jostled and pushed at one another, none of them wanting to be the one to initiate combat and make themselves his target. And when Roadhog slowly lifted his immense hook, the metal catching the sunlight and glinting sharply, the enemy junkers seemed to reach their limit and suddenly and quickly dispersed into all directions, trying to find easier targets. “Hhm…” Roadhog said. “Knew there was a reason I kept you around, mate,” Junkrat grinned. “Besides your winnin’ personality.” “Mm.” The trio continued to struggle forward amongst the chaos, trying to maneuver through. She thought she could see occasional glimpses of other agents from time to time…Pharah’s rockets occasionally flared in the sky, and D.Va’s gaudy pink made for an almost obnoxious moving target as she saw it diving to and fro amongst the red and brown dust of the junkers around her. And despite all the screaming and blasting, she definitely heard Reinhardt’s booming voice, challenging all and sundry to come and face him. The junkers were fighting each other almost as much as their targets, and she nearly lost sight of her companions several times, sometimes firing off warning shots at those who saw her much tinier size and obvious wounds as an opportunity. But even her bodyguards’ gigantism couldn’t hold all of them off, and more than once both Junkrat and Roadhog were pulled away from her at once to try and keep the others at bay. She continued to try and struggle through, darting into and then out of a brawling group of junkers who were getting closer and closer to the dropship, when she saw a familiar flash of red, white, and blue fabric. Her expression lit up, immediately dashing towards it.  Soldier 76 was holding off a crowd of foes at once, pulse rifle rattling as he stood in front of the Orca’s open doors. The junkers were getting bolder and bolder as minutes went by, to the point where he was physically having to push them back at times as the bolder ones tried to rush him. He had been forced into a slow but steady retreat, and could barely pause to even reload without retaliation. And he was making another attempt to reload when one of the junkers rushed him yet again. This one was a surprisingly tiny woman, covered in blood and dust and very faintly yelling “76! 76 it’s me!” over the din as she made a beeline towards him. He lunged forward before she could properly react, launching one strike directly into her sternum. He heard her words cut off and she staggered, the wind knocked out of her, and he went to finish the job, his arm around her throat and swinging her up into the air before going to smash her down into the ground so he could take the shot... Mei barely managed to let out a strangled cry of “C-Commander Morrison!” He stopped immediately, almost freezing mid-air. The back of her head slammed audibly into the ground and she uttered a little noise of pain that sounded familiar, her glasses clattering onto the ground beside her and one of the lenses cracking…Since when did junkers wear glasses like that? He kept his forearm in her throat, her chin pressed upward and pinned, but paused to actually look at her. She looked different now. Her face was thinner and her cheekbones looked more hollowed out. Her eyes were shadowed and tired and squinted to see without her eyewear. She wore a headscarf with a familiar little piggy face on it, but there was precious little hair beneath it. No wonder he’d mistaken her at first glance, but it was definitely… “Mei?” he asked in a bewildered tone, easing his arm off her neck. “Is that-” “Get offa her, you senile old cunt!” Junkrat hit them both like an incoming freight train, his entire gangly mass hitting Soldier dead-center and ripping him from atop Mei like a charging bull. She landed sprawled on her back, the air still knocked out of her. Junkrat had dragged his stunned target some feet away, his fists clenched in the namesake 76 jacket, and went to slam Soldier rather brutally into the ground several times, spitting curses and nearly foaming at the mouth. But Soldier 76 was a seasoned veteran who had dealt with more than an enraged junker in his time. He recovered and he retaliated, and the two quickly became a mess of wrestling limbs and jabbing fists as they fought, and their guns were entirely too close by for comfort. Mei’s head spun as she righted herself, sitting up and trying to yell at them. Her breath came out as a pathetic wheeze, her lungs still emptied as she inhaled and tried again, holding her chest. She tried to call out, trying to identify herself and order Junkrat and Soldier off each other, but only a few words made it out and it sounded more like she was trying to scold a misbehaving dog. “Jamie!…No! Down!” To her surprise, it worked. Junkrat managed to kick Soldier off of him, jamming a boot into the other man’s belly as he scrambled out of the melee, hurrying back to Mei’s side and helping her upright. Soldier stood as well, holding his gun warily at ease as he faced them both. “Mei-Ling? And…Agent Junkrat. Hm.” His gravelly voice showed a hint of clear displeasure. “Didn’t see that it was you.” “Who the bloody fuck else would it be!” Junkrat sneered, fingering the trigger of his grenade launcher even as Mei tried to keep him at bay. “That’s a fine howdoyado! We called you to rescue her, not to fuckin’ end the job!” “It’s fine! I should have identified louder, it’s my fault! I’m sorry, let’s not fight!” Mei protested, even as she pressed both hands to his chest and tried to push him back, leaving red smears across his shoulders. “You ain’t got nothin’ to be sorry for, love! It’s this drongo here-!” “I thought she was another junker,” Soldier growled, “I’ve never seen her like th-” Several bullets spattered into the rock above them and peppered them with dust, causing all three to duck and immediately forget their squabble. Soldier lifted his pulse rifle and immediately began firing back, backing away to help shepherd the two towards the ramp. A gloved hand reached up to flick at something on his tactical visor, which glowed vivid red as the holographic field displayed before him, locking onto his targets one by one as they came into view. Junkrat put aside his grudge at least long enough to help, slamming another case of grenades into his launcher’s feed as another round of frags went sailing into the air. “You get inside, find the doc. I’ll be back in just a tick. Oh, I’m gonna enjoy this,” Junkrat said, his grin widening and baring his teeth. Mei lifted a hand to stop him but he was already gone, bounding off into the chaos with no small amount of glee. Soldier followed after him not long after, still uselessly trying to order the junker about. Llimping and bloody, with no ammo left for her gun and her glasses cracked on one side, Mei finally headed up the ramp and into the rescue ship. It was a little strange to be back, back in the familiar belly of the vehicle where she’d deployed from so many times before, usually sitting as far away from the junkers as possible. She immediately slumped into her favorite chair, coughing a little and wishing she had a communicator to let the others know. She felt a little thrill of hope in the pit of her belly, though she wondered if that also might have been a side effect of the blood loss from her gut. “Hello? Is anybody else here?” she called. “Mei! Mei, love, is that you!” Tracer’s voice, cheerful but more than a little stressed, sounded up by the front. The little pilot clearly had her hands full, numerous buttons blinking and beeping urgent messages from all sides of her as she flicked some of them on and off, her gaze roaming constantly over various screens and gauges all over the control board. “It’s me, Lena! I’m so glad to see you again. I’d offer a hug…” She winced a little, still holding her hand to her side. When she looked down and peeled it away, her palm was smeared with red. “Oh! Maybe another time, don’t let me forget! A bit busy myself, here, or I’d greet you proper! But once we’re back-” The whole ship shuddered as there was another boom outside, and Tracer grasped a hold of the yoke, pulling it upward as she struggled to maintain control. “Oh bugger! Not sure how long we can keep this up! Athena, get everyone back on board so we can get out of here! If we can get out of here!” She no longer wore a communicator, but Mei could almost hear the soothing tones of Athena’s vocal systems in her head, relaying the orders of hasty retreat in her ever-polite manner. She slumped down into a seat, the one she usually took on their missions, tucked away in a corner. Snowball buzzed about happily before spotting its favorite charging station, settling onto the plug as its visor went dark. Mei smiled at it a little, glad at least someone was entirely happy about their return, before turning to watch as the other agents returned, one by one. Roadhog was wheeling the half-broken remains of his motorcycle up the ramp, resolutely ignoring Soldier 76’s bellowing to leave it behind as he provided cover fire. Pharah had been shot down and rather haphazardly tossed over the massive shoulders of Reinhardt as he backed slowly into the cargo area, shield upright. D.Va’s MEKA landed with a booming crash outside, metal feet clanking as she steered it inside. Then all eyes immediately turned when there was a shrieking whistle outside and an explosion, and Junkrat’s blurry form was spinning through the air and into the cargo bay, singed form leaving a trail of black smoke as he went skidding along the floor before coming to a stop with a painful-sounding thud against the far wall, his spindly legs bent nearly double over his head before slumping sprawled out and face down on the floor. “Jamison!” Mei called in alarm, starting to stagger upright. “I swear, Mr. Fawkes, the situations you get yourself into…” Mercy’s voice somehow always sounded so gentle, even when irritated. She cut an angelic figure as she appeared amidst the smoke and dust, valkyrie wings glowing and coming to a gliding landing next to the downed junker. A little check-over and a quick glow of her Caduceus Staff seemed to do the trick, and a moment later Junkrat was groaning and holding his rattled skull as he awkwardly rolled onto his back. “That was a good one, mate,” he wheezed, coughing up a black cloud as Roadhog’s huge fingers suddenly closed around his head, carelessly dragging him up and setting him back on his feet. Mercy rolled her eyes slightly before pausing, catching sight of the other junker that had mysteriously appeared on the other side of the ship. She approached with a hand raised, concern written all over her face. “Oh Mei-Ling…” she breathed out, going to gingerly place her fingers on her shoulder almost as if to check she was real. She’d seen her only briefly and rather blurrily, on that fuzzy old camera from their safehouse broadcast. But she looked so different in person. She didn’t even look like the same person, really, and the only clue it was her at all was the dimpling in her cheeks and a faint glint in her dark eyes that looked like the old Mei. “Dr. Ziegler. It’s good to see you again. Um…I think I might need some help?” Mei said, and peeled her hand away from her gut with an unpleasantly sticky noise. “Oh! Of course. Und, wo tut's jetzt weh?“ Mercy’s brows rose, quickly moving into action with the same grace as always. The staff lit up soothing yellow, and Mei relaxed immediately as its gentle glow enveloped her, eyes drifting shut almost in a daze. It was the first real healing her body had been able to do in months, and while normally the sensation of billions upon billions of glowing nanobot swarming her body, wounds knitting themselves shut and flesh sealing neatly under the skin was something Mei had always found a little eerie, it felt so wonderful that it rendered her into a stupor. She didn’t even notice Mercy’s increasingly worried expression, her eyes glued to the little display on her staff and her mouth moving in unheard muttering. “Ach Du meine Güte…I think perhaps we’d best move you to the med bay for now? Nothing to fret over, just, taking a few precautions. Reinhardt, if you wouldn’t mind helping me move-” “Oi, I’ll get her! C’mere, love!” Junkrat perked immediately from his seat, lifting both ash-covered hands to help. Mercy turned a stern gaze upon him, holding up a hand. “That will not be necessary, Mr. Fawkes. We are very thankful that you are all back and mostly in one piece, but I’m afraid that our investigation into the situation is still pending and Mei is…less medically sound than I previously thought. Until we can get a better handle on the whole thing, I’d like you and your partner to remain as you are. Reinhardt, if you would please take her to the bay table?” “That ain’t fuckin’ fair! I know what you’re doing!” Junkrat protested, pointing in an accusatory way towards the medic and the immense armored German man now gently lifting his charge. “You got no idea what’s happened to us and we don’t have to tell you a fuckin’ thing, so how about you and your monkey take your investigation an’ shove it right up your beautiful angelic-” “You vill not talk to Angela like that!” Reinhardt boomed aloud, angrily whirling upon the junker with Mei still in both arms. “Well, maybe you all shouldn’t be talking to him like that,” D.Va remarked a little snidely. “We’ve been fighting off crazy people in this crappy desert for a rescue mission, and now we finally do rescue Jamie and the others, and you immediately want to investigate him because, what, he kissed your friend?” Soldier 76 was already strapped in and waiting to go, his face in both palms. “This is why I always thought interdepartmental fraternization should have been banned.” “Please don’t fight,” Mei said weakly. “Hey!” Tracer’s voice suddenly blared over the intercom. “Would someone please just move the lady and get everyone strapped in, because I’m turning this old girl around and we’re still under attack here, just in case you’ve forgotten! Oh! Damnit! Brace yourselves!” The ship abruptly pitched to one side, causing everyone not strapped in to stumble and Junkrat to land square on his ass as his peg went out from under him. But at least it seemed to resolve the situation, as Reinhardt quickly righted himself and hastily moved Mei into the tiny ship med bay as Mercy bustled about her, strapping her into place and covering her with a blanket as she bustled about. Mei craned her neck from side to side, and was briefly glad of the straps when the ship lurched to and fro before struggling up into the air. She could hear the pinging of more bullets and javelins against the underside of the ship, one last desperate attempt by the attacking junkers to bring it back to ground, before the thrusters all activated at once and the Orca went surging forward, the G forces so strong that they sent Mei careening to one side on the table and Mercy dropped her staff to hold on to her chair’s handles with both hands. But soon the ship slowed to more manageable speeds and the doctor was fussing over her again, pressing and prodding her beneath the blanket and occasionally tapping things into her pad. “I’m sorry to cause such a fuss, Dr. Ziegler,” Mei said, even as the sounds of another argument started up from the room next door. “Junkrat and Roadhog are sick too, don’t forget to make sure they’re okay, please.” “It’s fine, I’ll be checking on them in just a moment. I can tell you’re fretting. Don’t worry. You haven’t done anything wrong, Mei…Well, other than cut communications when we still wanted to talk to you, but that was merely another little matter that just got a bit out of hand. It’s all merely a collection of things that got out of hand. I’ve already spoken to Winston about it, it is all being handled.” “I…noticed Winston isn’t here?” “Ah, no. Winston could unfortunately not attend. But I assure you he wanted to, and he was the first on the list until an emergency called him away. It’s nothing you’ve done, and you don’t need to worry. Now just try to relax, you might feel a pinching sensation…” “Okay,” Mei said a bit unhappily, not entirely sure she believed the good doctor. “You know, the junkers haven’t done anything wrong either. I know that during the call, things got a little- Owch!” “There’s that pinching sensation, dear.” “It’s like you said, Dr. Zeigler, it just got…a little out of hand. I wasn’t feeling myself. I’m more than happy to start my report right away! If you would just get me a tablet, I’m sure we’ll have a few hours where I can work and start to get everything cleared up.” “I would not be feeling myself either, with these levels of radiation sickness, weight loss, sun poisoning, and other afflictions..Not to mention fresh bullet wounds, and I understand you were mistakenly punched by one of our own? As much as I know you want to start getting organized, I must insist that the only thing you’re going to be doing right now is resting,” Mercy chided. “It’s amazing you’re doing as well as you are, considering your state. Now, take two of these-” She handed Mei two pills and a water, watching with a hawk-like gaze until she was sure Mei had taken them both. “-And try to concentrate on resting, if you must concentrate on anything.” “I’ll be fine. What about the others?” “If I believed that I could get either of the junkers to start taking their medicine and resting properly, I would do so. I have tried, believe me I have tried. The first time I tried to lock Junkrat into a private room with just a bed so he could begin recovery, he had apparently hidden a charge on his person and then blew the door controls…I think it might have been in his ear canal. I distinctly remember checking his mouth and nose and…other places… ” She coughed, abruptly turning her back and starting to fill a syringe with clear liquid. “That sounds like something he would do,” Mei admitted with a sigh, before shaking her head abruptly, “Wait, you mean you checked his-” “Most likely a technique he picked up in the various prisons he’s frequented,” Mercy said smoothly, sitting down next to her patient and motioning for her to look away before taking her arm and administering a careful injection. Mei winced and glanced away, waiting until the cool swab of cotton wiped over the spot. Mercy continued on, voice softening slightly. “I know you might think we are being hard on the junkers…your friends. But I have nothing against them and I assure you that I will do everything I can to make sure that both of them are as healthy and hale as I can. If we held a grudge against everyone who’s ever been imprisoned or on the wrong side of the law, I would have an awful lot of free time on my hands. But we still have protocol to follow, Mei, you know that.” “You don’t believe I really have Stockholm Syndrome, do you?” “I thought at first you might have been in trouble, I will admit. I was worried. We all were. We had no information about you, Junkrat, or Roadhog. You three had vanished off the face of the earth. Then you suddenly re-appeared from nowhere. There were signs of bondage on your wrists and you were clearly hurt and sick…” “I’m so sorry we worried you…” Mei couldn’t help but give a little half smile. “And don’t let Jamison hear the word bondage.” “Mei! Goodness, maybe you really have been spending too much time around the junkers.” “Sorry. But I tried to explain what happened, and then the moment I start talking about how they helped me, Winston suggested it was all just a trick of the mind? I just…That made me angry. I’m sorry, but I did, I got angry.” “It’s not so simply cut and dry as that. I believe that you faced unimaginable difficulties and bonded with the only two people around you that you could rely on. Such bonds can become very deep. We’ll have to wait on a full psychological profile after this, but…honestly, after the trauma you’ve faced, you becoming  close with Mr. Fawkes is near the very bottom of my list of concerns. And Winston was just-” She sighed a bit, patting Mei’s arm. “I don’t want to speak for him, but I hope you and he can clear things up with each other. He’s been frantic, searching for you these months, and I believe both of you were simply…shall we say, overwhelmed.” Mercy’s voice was getting further and further away as the medicine started to take hold, but Mei found herself agreeing with whatever it was she was saying. “I know, Doctor Ziegler…I just…This just isn’t how I thought things would go…according to plan…” she said, slurring a bit as she focused on the spinning ceiling. “Things rarely do,” the doctor’s voice replied distantly. She kept telling herself she was safe now. The rescue mission hadn’t exactly gone off without a hitch, but she was safe. Junkrat and Roadhog were safe. After everything they had gone through, it was over. They could head back to the base, start the long process of getting better, and maybe, just maybe, things could go smoothly from here? She gave a strange, reedy little laugh as she started to slip into unconsciousness, even causing the doctor to pause and check over her once more. Who was she kidding? Things never went smoothly for someone like her.

[bunnerz-lalonde]

Because Overwatch 2 is never coming out, I sat down and decided to write an unpopular opinion on every hero!

Ana

Weird being a sniper with no mobility and nothing to compensate. Sleep dart only counts if your team's not dumb enough to wake them up. On scope or crouch, either one, she stealths until she unscopes/stands up. Keep the tracer shots, make her flicker when she moves.

Ashe

Nice to have BOB around if you're in overtime, but he's kind of a lump. If aimed at a specific hero, BOB charges them, specifically, until the end of his charge or he hits something as normal. Fires with both arms until that person is dead-dead before switching to another target. Increased damage output thanks to doubled attack speed at the cost of pure focus on one person.

Baptiste

Switch his E and his ult. Pretty simple. Invuln field can't be destroyed and slowly regens health inside it. Maybe add a pass through effect for melee attacks, but as an E, it wouldn't last as long.

Bastion

Reduce turret damage, keep speed and tighter focus. When they tightened up his bullet spread, they made him into a tankbuster nobody asked for. Alternatively, fire rate increases over time, promoting sustained suppressing fire and frequent, short bursts.

Brigitte

Health packs grant instant armor, then convert bonus armor to healing over the duration. If the target's already at max health, it's just armor.

Doomfist

There isn't much I'd change about Doomfist, honestly. I had to think about this one, he's pretty solid and really contingent on proper placement. If I had to change anything, I'd say enemies hit by his ult should be knocked up based on proximity to the center. This gives him a lot of power after landing, which can be pretty easily mitigated by disabling him for about a quarter of a second. This way his team can capitalize, but he doesn't strictly gain unnecessary strength.

D.Va

I'm tempted to say her ult should kill her again just to be spiteful, but I have some opinions. I get that she's supposed to feel helpless without the mech, but I can't help feeling like she needs an alt fire. Specifically, she should get a tazer that stuns enemies to help her escape. Also, give the girl some out of mech emotes. Come on, Blizz.

Echo

Echo should always be able to duplicate allies. Her kit's... Weird to me, but I like it overall. I think Flight should be a toggle, maybe something more like Pharah's jetpack with a fuel mechanism, but aside from that I don't really have much to say. Maybe lose the forward dash or make it directional.

Genji

Should not be able to block Chain Hook and Whip Shot, there I said it. His E should only refresh on kill with it, specifically, or if the target dies immediately after, as in within the same .3 second duration.

Hanzo

Move Storm Arrows to his right click if he hasn't or has just started to draw his bow, bring back Scatter Shot. Storm Arrows lasts its full duration, no ammo counter.

Junkrat

Another one I had trouble with, I really like his kit. However, hear me out, alt fire shoots his entire clip at once in one big spread shot.

Lúcio

Songs ramp up over the duration instead of starting at full power. His E brings it up to full effect instantly. If used while they're already at full effect, it adds a new effect; overheal shields for healing, attack speed boost for speed. His ult should provide shields equal to 100% of the ally's missing health in addition to the base 750 and decay at a set rate rather than lasting a particular duration.

McCree

His shift should reload his gun and fire a shot at the closest enemy in a small radius. Again, there's not a lot to change about McCree. It'd be nice to see a shared passive between him and Ashe though, something to play on their lore.

Mei

Primary fire ices the ground, increasing movement speed for all players on it. Alt fire bursts into an ice patch if it hits terrain, doing the same. Ice Wall leaves a patch when it pops... Doing the same. Ult ices the radius... You see where this is going. Basically, give her a passive.

Mercy

The effect of her heal and damage boost decay over time, to a minimum. Mercy must look at her target to maintain connection, but has a brief period before the connection is broken in case she loses line of sight.

Moira

While using Fade, Moira cannot pick up health packs. Self-heal and damage are linked, damage decays over time, but she can also heal from Biotic Orb's damage.

Oirsa

Enemies are slowed when her alt fire tethers to them, not after, but the slow is weaker before the pull. Also, give the girl her shield back.

Pharah

Alt fire should lock on to a target, requiring the button to be held for a second before firing, but almost guaranteeing a hit.

Reaper

Stop buffing his healing, first off. There's no reason to do that. Second, lose the invulnerability when leaving Shadow Step, but give him damage reduction instead. Increase rate of fire by allowing players to fire both shotguns by alternating left and right mouse buttons to trade off for a significant heal reduction and increased risk of play. Pressing one button will alternate shotguns, but each gun would have shorter refresh by clicking its designated button.

Reinhardt

Increase his attack speed as he swings his hammer. The longer he swings, the faster it goes. The tradeoff being he would start with significantly slower attack speed - say, one swing a second - and end a little higher - about a swing every quarter second.

Roadhog

The damage reduction for his heal begins when the animation begins, giving him two seconds of damage reduction, but one second of healing. If enemies leave line of sight of his hook, they are still pulled toward him, but stop at terrain.

Sigma

His shield should persist after elimination or hack, but it does not regenerate if it's destroyed while he's hacked until the hack ends. His E should not ignore Deflect, Defense Matrix, or Kinetic Grasp. His ult should disable all movement, Fade and Wraith Form included and should deal damaged based on the hero's max HP minus any bonuses.

Soldier: 76

Soldier's ult should be able to target all enemy objects, including traps and turrets, allowing him to clear the field. He should also be able to get headshots, but should keep the center mass lock, forcing the player to still somewhat aim without the risk of losing damage.

Sombra

She should be able to hack barriers to disable them, but doing so spares the people behind it. For instance, she can disable Reinhardt's shield, but not Reinhardt. Enemies entirely behind cover or a barrier aren't hacked by her ult, same with Zarya's barriers.

Symmetra

Defense Matrix, Deflect, and Kinetic Grasp should all destroy her turrets in transit. They should have a finite amount of ammo, but once they run out, they become invulnerable homing grenades that detonate after a short duration.

Torbjörn

Give the tiny man his armor back. That's all I have to say about Torb.

Tracer

Blink should trigger, but be unaffected by, Steel Trap and Venom Mine. Recall should return her to her original position if she was on a moving platform instead of the platform she was on. It should also restore temporary health she had at the time.

Widowmaker

Hitting an enemy with the grappling hook should deal a small amount of damage. Infra-Sight should provide an audible warning when the enemy team is getting close to the point or payload.

Winston

Winston's Tesla Cannon should have an alt fire which lobs a sticky grenade. If it hits an enemy, it sticks to them, dealing constant damage over a short duration. If it hits terrain, it arcs out lightning at nearby enemies.

Wrecking Ball

If Wrecking Ball's grapple hits a player, he should be able to drag them a short distance, dealing damage and potentially even launching them off ledges.

Zarya

Zarya's energy should be restored on resurrection. Her explosive shots should increase in size and radius based on her energy, but consume energy instead of ammo. They would reach max damage at 20% energy and consume as much.

Zenyatta

Launch additional orbs to allies and enemies he passes by and amplify the effects. Orbs of Harmony heal for 90 per second and Orbs of Discord increase damage taken by 75% for the duration and do not return based on range or line of sight. At the end, all orbs are returned to Zenyatta.