Metallic Knights

Goddammit. I totally forgot about Sonata. >_<

In the morning, I'll ret-con her in, along with the next part of this particular chapter.

Alrighty, I repaired the current chapter. Vale will take the next one, and after that, we'll see how Team A does against Skull. :P Stay tuned!

The southern edge of the Abel City Ruins was most likely an odd part of town. Buildings with illegible signs and odd architecture suggested to many historians as being the art districts. Despite that, the large, screw-shaped building marked the end of the ruins, and the Outer Wastes New Harmony Robot Masters rarely dared to venture out to.

"About another day and we should be there." Octave clutched some of the dust at his feet and let it fall between his fingers. "And a whole lot of desert between here and there."

"Thank you for stating the obvious. Now please, shut your mouth for the rest of the walk." Hymn spat, continuing forward past Octave.

"Hey, whoa whoa. I saved your life not an hour ago. Some gratitude would be nice." Octave stepped in front of Hymn.

"Thank you. There, now shut up." Hymn pushed past Octave, bumping shoulders as he did.

"It's like dealing with a teenage human a swear." Octave groaned loudly, Hymn reacting by lifting a middle finger into the air behind him. "Is it too late to get a different mission partner?" Octave joked.

The dunes of the Wastes were an even more hostile place for humans to roam. With less hiding spots than the ruins of Abel city, humans would be exposed to the elements and Malevolent attacks.

As the sun rose into high noon, the heat causing the Combat Master's bodies to heat up enough to cook an egg on their forearms. The silence of the last few hour walk not making the burden of the heat any easier. Not that Octave felt its effects like a normal human; his Integrated Circuit informed the Combat Master of the heat and negative effects it has on his body, causing Octave mild discomfort.

Octave soon, while keeping pace, veered off into thoughts and memories of better and worse days.

Pastoral tapped his brand new shield with his buster, the clanking of metal echoing in the room as Octave walked in.

"Bonafied Combat Master, huh? I always knew you were too good to be a support unit for long." Octave jested, patting his brother on the shoulder.

"Thanks, bro. I never saw this day coming, but it's here and I ain't complaining." Pastoral replied in kind.

"So, what combat name did they brand you?" Octave asked.

"PulseMan. Monday said this shield is one of the most powerful short range EMPs he's ever created." Pastoral replied, waving his shield around.

"Yeah, watch that, it's razor sharp too." Octave stepped back, his hand up protecting his face as he chuckled. "Any idea what your first assignment is gonna be?"

"I requested a scouting mission with my bro, of course! General already gave me the go-ahead. I'm just waiting on the date."

"Yeah, well, shield and sword is a pretty good combination." Octave veered off, staring off into the distance.

"What's up, Octy?" Pastoral stepped in closer, retracting his weapons back into his arms.

"Well, two things. First, don't call me Octy. You know for a fact that I hate that. Second, I don't know. You just... Grow. You grow so fast and I don't." Octave took a step back from Pastoral as he spoke.

"Well, it sounds to me like you just need something to aspire to. Some level you feel in your very bones that you need to hit or something." Pastoral put a single, loving hand on Octave's shoulder.

"Octave... Wait..." Hymn stopped, scanning the sandswept skeleton of a destroyed building, it's steel frames all that remained.

"See something?" Octave asked.

"No. No I don't think-" A hollow rumble shook the sand, shifting it beneath the Robot Master's feet.

Before either could gather what exactly was happening, the quake stopped.

"What the... What was that?" Hymn look around, confused.

"That wasn't a natural earthquake. Reminded me of Cresendo's... Look out!" Octave grabbed Hymn by the neck and threw him behind him, the large snake head protruding from the sand missing its attack. The head opened its mouth wide, a humanoid figure with armor painted green with scale-like designs to it imurged from the darkness of the maw.

"Combat Masstersss..." The figure, obviously Malevolent, said in a hussy voice. "But not jussst any... Do they finally send a legend after me?"

"So you've heard of me, so you know what I can do to you if you don't let us pass. We're not here hunting you down, we have another mission elsewhere." Hymn stepped forward triumphantly. While his scouting missions list ran short, Hymn prided himself for killing several powerful Malevolent in his travels, though he had no clue how many Octave himself had claimed.

"Not you, imbecccile! The Blue Death, The Butcher, New Harmony'sss mossst powerful weapon. A Master so dangerousss he outlived hisss monikersss. SaberMan.

"You spend a lot of time behind the walls, Hymn. Malevolent won't just 'let us pass'. We're gonna have to fight." Octave engaged his combat subroutines and matrix, slotting his visit over his eyes and mouth guard over his mouth. He drew his weakened saber from inside his right hand and readied himself to fight.

"The large one seesss himself... Important. If you wissh to run away, I won't sstop-" The Malevolent stopped as he saw Hymn too had activated his combat matrix. "Gusst!"

Suddenly, a small, controlled sand storm swept SaintMan and SaberMan Into the air, crashing into the bones of the dead building, SaintMan landing in a pile of literal bones.

"Snake! I know we can take them!" Gust shouted, floating in the air with his arms to either side while he controlled the tornado of sand all around him.

"Do not be a fool! SaberMan is weakened like the rumorss ssay. I've ssseeen his blade before, and that was not it." Snake climbed atop the large snakehead he once rode inside and commanding it forward toward the building. "But he iss sstill dangerousss!"

"I call the one with a snake fetish." Hymn grunted, shaking a bone off of his shoulder as he stood.

"When we win this, I want to talk about how you thought you were a legend." Octave scolded, climbing out of the building ruins.

John's got the talking stick. It's about to get grimy.

As buster-fire raised dust and beat pockmarks into the ground, Cavatino gave the order. "Alright. Pastoral, I want you to get in close. If you're any bit as fast as you were while fighting me, you should be able to scrap Skull in a fair fight."

Pastoral nodded, a vengeful grin spreading across his face. "He's mine."

"...Pulseman, you have a lot of pent up rage lately," Cavatino mused. "I like that. Use it." Pastoral gave a grunt of ascent as Cavatino continued his orders, the red robot master turning to the larger of the quartet. "Cresendo, I need a decent sized disturbance in the ground. Enough to tilt the building, or knock it over. That'll get rid of most of the drones. The rest will be easy pickings."

Cresendo nodded, his drill revving as he tilted his head, popping his neck muscles.

"ARE YOU LITTLE BITCHES GONNA COME OUT ANYTIME SOON?!" Skull shouted, pointing his long-ranged buster as he stood safely on the roof of the tall building. "I'm gettin BORED."

Sonata winced as Skull swore at them. She'd never met anyone so profoundly unfriendly. Pastoral placed a hand on her shoulder. "He's just a bag of bones. I'll knock him apart, kid, so don't worry."

Sonata's fists clenched. "Cavatino, give me an order too!" Her eyes blazed as she looked up at her ranking officer. "I may only be B-rank, but I can still fight! I'm strong in the real way!"

Pastoral felt a sudden, odd pang when she heard those words. They were...familiar. He couldn't quite grip the memory from whence they came, but they were certainly poignant.

Cavatino lifted an eyebrow, approving of her grit. He expected the new girl to cower while her superiors handled it. "...I can see a bit of Octave in you. You may be stronger than you think. Once the building falls, pick off the drones. And try not to get hurt. EVERYONE. ATTACK."

Pastoral stood in front of a small stone in the ground. He knew he was in the right place without reading the words. He could feel it.

There was a massive shrine dedicated to Doctor Monday in the Museum of History, but Monday always had this private lot reserved. Pastoral's arm was missing, the stump bound tightly with a docking cap to keep his weapons systems from fraying.

He'd just come back from the field, and from one of the hardest battles of his life, but Doctor Monday hadn't died in the thick of war. He'd gone quietly from a massive stroke.

For all his power, Doctor Monday was stolen by an enemy Pastoral could have never fought, even if he was here.

"I'm sorry I didn't get to see you off." The damaged robot took off his helmet with his remaining arm, lowering his head.

Placing the helmet on the ground, he removed his shield. He had no flowers to lay at the grave. Only his most prized armament. "...Thank you for believing in me, Sir. Thank you for making me strong."

Pastoral knelt, laying the shield down in front of Monday's tombstone. "You...you didn't need an immortal body, or a buster cannon to be strong. You were strong in the real way, sir."

The Robot Master stood, and turned, unable to remain any longer. Walking away quietly, he exited the graveyard. It would be a long time until he dared to return.

"TREMOR BREAKER!!!" With a powerful thrust of his arm, Quakeman sent a powerful fisher through the earth, a gap forming under his fist. The building on which Skull stood shook, then tilted.

Cavatino was next. He moved out of Cresendo's shadow, fast as a motor bike. He smashed through one of the building's windows as it tilted. His hand moved through the body of a drone like a hot knife through butter, his palm's ferromagnetic power cleaving the robot to pieces. A drone fired at him, but he tilted only slightly, evading the buster shot with ease as he grasped the drone by the side of the head.

With a pull, he tore its head off, whirling on the balls of his feet and throwing the head like a baseball. The projectile crushed another offending drone.

Cresendo, while slower, was no slouch. He approached quickly, leaping upwards. Sonata stepped on his back, and he boosted her upwards. He burst through the second floor of the tilting building. "GENTLEMEN!!!" He grinned, as buster-shots pinged off of his armor. He turned, throwing a barehanded punch and knocking a drone through a wall, destroying it utterly.

Sonata landed inside the fifth floor, just below Skull. She cocked her fist, jumped to the ceiling, and with a mighty punch, she burst up and onto the roof, where Skull was waiting for her. "So, they sent a RUNT to fight me?!" He aimed his buster and fired, but Sonata dodged, flipping from hand to foot, avoiding three shots from Skull's ranged buster. "Hold still, twerp! I can't believe they thought YOU could take me!"

"Wrong, asshole!" Sonata smiled brightly, ducking to all fours to avoid another grey burst of energy. "They thought I could DISTRACT you!"

Skull's eyes widened with horror as he noticed a shadow growing behind him. Pastoral pounced, aiming his right buster. "EAT THIS!" He fired his shot. Skull, on any other day, would have been dead to rights.

Unfortunately, today was a new day for the traitor. A grey energy shield bloomed around him, and Pastoral's golden shot glanced off, sent sailing into the distance. "PASTY! You didn't think I'd let my paint get scratched, did you?!" Skull's shield morphed, and lengthened, its vector striking Pastoral and sending him flying backwards against an ancient air-conditioning unit. Pastoral sprang back onto his feet, fists raised. "Get a load of my new finish protector. The New and Improved SKULL SHIELD."

Pastoral grimaced, his fist clenched. The building slowly tilted beneath his feet, dangerously close to toppling. Skull snickered, and leapt off. "SONATA! Let's go!" Pastoral leapt off of the building, giving chase. Sonata followed, the two of them on Skull's tail, unwilling to let him escape.

"Defense is a sword's and greatest ally. Let your guard down, and the enemy will seize the opportunity to kill you." General paced back and forth before the trembling Octave.

The gray Robot Master was at his knees, scuffed and damaged to the point of electrical sparking from his joints.

"You're determined to be an asshole about this." Octave grunted defiantly as he stood upright.

"An asshole? Witty remark." General huffed, smirking as he did so. "If you were as willing to use your saber as you are with your mouth, then you'd be an S-Rank before your first century alive. Again." General mocked before beckoning, using his unarmed left hand to signal Octave to attack.

Octave shot upright and dashed into General, their sabers clashing when he got close. In a short grapple, Octave struggled to get an upper hand on the much more powerful foe. General stood at his leisure, tilting his weapon and sending Octave stagger to the side, opening his flank for a roundhouse kick.

Flying into the steel wall of the sparring floor, Octave let out a shout before tumbling to the ground. By the time he forced himself up, General was in his face with another kick, this one to the head. The blow sent Octave skipping across the dirt that lay at the base of the sparring room.

It was to give the illusion of intense, gladiatorial combat should the fight be lacking. This one wasn't.

"Your flanks are your weakest point, yet you flaunt them around like a fortress wall. Again."

"I can't..." Octave whimpered.

"Excuse me?" General stopped, lowering his saber.

"I can't win and I can't learn, man! I'm a fucking robot! And I'm a month old! And you keep beating me into the dirt before I can even get a good try in, so what's the point!" Octave shouted, retracting his saber and reforming his arm into a humanoid fashion.

General strolled up beside the fallen robot and crouched down towards his level. "Every defeat is a lesson as long as you do not allow it to happen again. When you were learning to walk in your frame for the first time, did you quit and cry after falling from the first step, or did you get back up and try again?"

"I got up."

"Good, I would hope so. So now, you're going to get back up and attack me again. And if you are right and you cannot learn, I will keep knocking you down until I find you worthless and kill you." General's tone got more and more dire as he spoke until he finished and stood, a seemingly sadistic look on his face. "Or, you will prove to be the stubborn child I take you for and FIGHT BACK!"

General suddenly aimed his saber downwards and stabbed. In a twitch reaction, Octave rolled away from the attack and brought himself to his feet. He drew his saber once more and attacked in a violent and fear-filled volley. General clashed and swatted away every strike until Octave's back was exposed. He went in for the kill, a beheading blow flying at the back of Octave's neck. His face softened with disappointment as he struck.

But this is not where Octave would die. He turned around sharply and ducked below the swing and spun, his saber coming around at General's ankle, the hit landing and sweeping General off of his feet. Now on one bracing hand and one foot, General was exposed at the midsection. Octave brought his spinning momentum back around and stood, putting his saber in the air and throwing it down for the kill.

Faster than Octave could see, General clutched the hilt of Octave's saber and impaled him at the hip. In a show of mercilessness, General lifted Octave from the ground, his saber slowly cutting its way up Octave's torso up into his breast before the veteran finally slid him off of his blade, Octave screaming in agony the whole time.

"Vesper! See him to Doctor Monday and get him repaired. Octave, you will NEVER be an S-Ranked Combat Master from what you have shown me today." Octave glared at General with pure hatred from the floor as he laid there clutching his wide open torso. "But maybe you might just survive long enough to prove me wrong."

SaberMan made a dash for Gust, who blew him away like a piece of paper in the breeze. Rolling backwards over his shoulder, SaberMan recovered almost instantly.

"Having trouble getting close, blue boy?" Gust chuckled as he spun a new cloud of dust and shot it in SaberMan's direction.

The blow was wind and sand, sharpened to a point of deadly edge. It dashed toward SaberMan at a deadly speed, one only SaberMan could dodge as easily as he did. In a remarkable show of speed, SaberMan ran towards Gust, hurtled over another blast of sand and wind, and found himself above looking into the eye of the storm. He shouted, and began flipping side over side to gain momentum. As SaberMan descended, Gust attempted to dodge too slowly, a deep gash in his chest to show for it. The hit knock Gust out of his whirlwind and send him reeling back into the sands.

"No. I am not having any trouble, thank you." SaberMan walked towards the cowering for at a slow place, intimidating Gust as he went in for the kill.

"Wait, hold on. No!" Gust shot his hands forward, two blasts of wind hurling towards SaberMan. The hit sent SaberMan to the floor. To follow, Gust stood and waved his hands downward, sharp shots of air cutting down on SaberMan and sending him deeper into the sand.

SaintMan shot a heavy blast from his buster behind his small shield on his left arm, the snakehead carrying Snake dodged it easily. Snake drew his own busters on either hand, shooting three snakes into the sand from one arm, and another sending fully automatic small rounds all around SaintMan, most of which he dodged.

The snakes protruded from the sand beneath SaintMan, the Combat Master barely fast enough to dodge the bites. As the first one attacked, SaintMan brought his energy laced mace down, smashing it to death with ease. The second struck SaintMan from behind with a headbutt, launching him into the air. SaintMan landed and recovered too slowly to dodge the third snake, that bit his armed arm and held him there, the second snake coming and taking hold of the other.

Snake stepped off of his animal and strolled over to SaintMan, shooting another snake into the ground and holding his buster arm to SaintMan's head.

"Consstrict..." Snake hissed with a sinister tone and the new snake wrapped itself around SaintMan's torso and began crushing him. SaintMan screamed in pain as he did so.

"Shit." SaberMan stood upright, looking over at Gust as he paced around to SaberMan's left. "Sorry." SaberMan dashed away from Gust, who stood in annoyance for a second before creating another tornado of dust to float upon to chase.

SaberMan smashed into Snake with his side, sending Snake to the floor a few feet out and stunning him. Before either Snake or Gust could react, SaberMan cut apart the snakes constricting and holding Hymn, freeing him soon enough to jump and deflect Snake's shot at SaberMan with his buster.

"Switch?" SaberMan asked, annoyed at Gust's new tornado.

"Go."

The two turned around sharply and switched opponents. In one fell swoop, Octave dodged the large snakehead's fatal bite and cut the top of its mechanical head off at the jaw and continued his charge at Snake, who fired six more snake drones into the sand while he back pedaled to the top of a nearby dune.

One by one, out of the side of the dune, the snakes bit out at Octave, who slashed them away with terrifying ease. The sixth and last one, being the largest, stood at the width of the end of a baseball bat. Octave clutched it by the neck and crushed it in his hand as he continued his sprint up the dune.

Atop the large dune, Snake stood, waiting on his impending battle that would either destroy him or make him a force to be feared in the Wastes among all Malevolent. Despite his common sense telling him to flee while he had the chance, his pride forced him to stand and prepare for the fight.

Snake aimed his Serpent Buster downwards, sending ten of the largest snake drones he could produce among the denizens of the dune. When Octave arrived at the peak of the dune, he would be in for a surprise.

"So, promise me this envy. Get it? Green with envy? Your armor's green? Nevermind." Octave chuckled, stopping his dead-on sprint and deactivating his combat mode when he reached Snake's level. His saber and facial protection retracted.

"Promisse you... What?" Snake hissed, eager to launch his trap.

"Look, if this goes south for me, I want you to promise you'll see a vocal coach for that damn lisp." Octave reactivated his combat matrix, drawing his sword and lowering his face gear.

"Now... I've alwaysss wondered why you wear both gogglesss and the mouth-piecce." Snake bided for time, his drones still maneuvering on SaberMan's position in the dune. "Isss it really for protection or do you jusst play up the whole... Intimidating asss thing?"

"Funny. No, no, that was funny. See? I'm laughing. No, seriously. That was hilariousss. For your information: yes. It is to intimidate. Look at your arm, it's shaking like a newborn." SaberMan pointed at Snake's arm. When he went to look down at his very still buster arm, SaberMan dashed toward Snake with deadly intent.

But his roll was soon slowed.

A very large snake droid bursts through the sand beneath SaberMan, one about the same size as the droid Snake rode in on. SaberMan went flying into the air, another snake droid coming up beneath him to swallow him up.

As he fell, SaberMan knew he had limited options. As fast as he was, he couldn't change his direction so quickly in midair. He had no idea just how many drones Snake commanded at this size, so killing the one beneath him would prove almost pointless. Besides that, his weaker blade had a charge, and it was at 40% now. While he could still kill this and a few more snakes, SaberMan didn't know if he could win this fight with the charge left in his saber, and if he did win it wouldn't charge for hours. So, weighing all that, SaberMan made a choice even he knew might just prove fatal. He bent forward, aiming his saber at Snake and put the last of his blade's charge into one last attack.

"BREAK-RAID"

SaberMan shot his blade just between his dangling legs. It traveled through the head of the snake drone that shot him into the air and speared Snake right in the center of his knee, the sheer power of the move blowing the left half of Snake's body clean off up to his breast, and sending him tumbling down the other side of the dune as SaberMan plummeted into the snake drone's mouth.

SaintMan shot his buster, knocking Gust out of his tornado with ease, the wind calming without his presence. As Gust landed, he looked down and saw his chest was now blown open, the mechanics of his torso falling out like organs on an injured human. He screamed profoundly before looking up at the approaching Combat Master.
___________________________________

"No, wait! Please! I don't want to die!" Gust begged, his arms sparking from damages as he attempted to use his powers once more.

"Heavy shot, huh? One of the strongest busters ever made, forged by a very young Monday. Now, if you don't tell me the force strength of the Spire Nexus just South of here, I'm going to show you just how heavy my mace is." SaintMan threatened, crouching down to Gust's level and waving his blunt weapon in his face.

"I've only been there once, but the Screechers flock to it, you know!? There's hundreds of them just wandering nearby picking off curious humans who have no sense!" Gust spouted the information almost too fast for SaintMan to register, but he understood the situation well.

"Any high functioning Malevolent? Tier 1 or Tier 2's?"

"I don't know what that means!"

"Right. Screechers are Tier 3 Malevolent, low functioning. You, you are Tier 2. You're better, but not so tough. A Tier 1 Malevolent would be a general or a leader or some guy no one wants to fuck with because he's so tough." SaintMan explained, trying to ease the process of information gathering while inching his mace closer to Gust's wound.

"Okay, okay, okay! There's a few 2's who keep the Spire Nexus safe, but the Toymaker sent the Gemini. They'd be like, Tier Zero or something. That's all I know I swear!" Gust pleaded, hoping he staved off the Combat Master's thirst for his life.

He was wrong. SaintMan was a brute without mercy or most forms of honor. Unless outlawed directly from the mouth of General, he tended to do as he pleased, to the misfortune of those around him.

In a single mighty blow, SaintMan bearer his mace down on Gust's head, completely destroying his Integrated Circuit and killing him and his Soul forever.

When he stood and looked over his shoulder towards SaberMan's bout, he saw sign of his ally, only Snake crawling away at the foot of the dune.

"Your body should lock up here soon. Until someone finds you and repairs you, you'll be stuck here, totally aware and awake, but unable to perform much past moving your eyes. Where's Octave." Hymn deactivated his combat matrix as he approached the fatally wounded Malevolent. An unfortunate defense mechanism, the bodies of both Benevolent and Malevolent Souls will lock up when the damage is too great of a toll for the Soul to bear. When a Soul is alone without anyone looking for them when this starts to happen, many kill themselves. It's a fate worse than dying.

"In... The belly... Of the whale... Prick." Snake had lost his breathy tone for a more staggered, injured one.

"You know, I was gonna kill you, but that hurt. When I report this, Lady Opera is going to be upset that I let a Soul suffer a lockdown, Malevolent or Benevolent. Have fun." Hymn walked to the top of the dune, away from Snake, whose screams could be heard for miles before his body finally locked down.

Atop the dune lied a dead mechanical snake, a large explosive hole in its skull, and nothing else. Octave was nowhere to be found.

Suddenly, Hymn staggered back, activating his combat sequence when another large snake protruded from the ground, it's maw wide open facing the sky. It held itself upright for a moment, and then tumbled into the sand, mouth agape with the oil-covered Octave crawling out.

"It's... A good thing snakes don't chew." Octave huffed as Hymn deactivated his combat mode and aggressively helped him up.

"What'd you do to that Malevolent? That was some gruesome stuff to look at." Hymn turned South and continued walking, almost as if nothing had happened at all.

"We got a new big-shot in town. Manhattan's good. I've got a goddamn edged cannon right here." Octave patted his saber arm, which vented out the residue of the energy he used while fighting.

"I've got information on the Spire Nexus. It's surrounded by a few hundred Screechers, staffed by a few Tier 2 Malevolent and commanded by some Tier 1's that go by The Gemini." Hymn stated, his walk becoming a jog to hasten the traveling process.

"Sounds... Daunting." Octave matched Hymn's lugging speed with ease. "Sounds like we could use some backup."

"Please. I'd be able to do this myself, but I have to drag you here with me. Besides, I don't think many of the other Combat Masters care enough as to follow us all the way out there."

There you go!

It should be stated that in the original picture that Pastoral is not 95, he's 94. My fuck-up. Morgan fixed it.

Also, I changed one of the parts earlier in the series. It originally had Cavatino tearing Octave's limbs off because General was taking to long to take care of him carefully. Now, it has Cavatino dismembering Octave because General was going to kill him. Small difference.

"I can't believe I care enough to follow Octave all the way out here." MarksMan grimaced as a missile passed his head, whizzing over his shoulder as he moved his head to avoid the shrapnel. "Friggin' brothers, man! I don't know how Pastoral deals with all the damned stress!"

The annoyed Master moved into the open and fired his assault buster. The bursts of plasma screamed across the battlefield, striking his opponent center mass. The interloper between MarksMan, ChargeWoman, and their objective, was an immense, heavily armored War Sphynx. The creature stood on four legs, and possessed a smooth, humanoid face, which had a terrifying lack of emotion despite full articulation. It occasionally grimaced, or screamed with rage as it opened fire, but even as MarksMan's bullets damaged its armor, it stared blankly at MarksMan, returning fire.

"INCOMING!" MarksMan leapt, and slid into a small canyon to avoid a spray of fifty calibre turret-fire. "Feel free to help out, ChargeWoman!"

ChargeWoman sat behind cover, her legs crossed, as she tuned her helmet's radio to pick up FerroMan's signal. "I don't feel free to help. My charges have a limited effective range, so until I can get closer, this battle is mostly yours to fight."

MarksMan groaned. "WELL, I always did like big targets, didn't I?" The experienced Master sprang out from behind cover, preparing his grenade launcher. "SUCK ON THIS!" MarksMan fired a high, arcing grenade round, which landed at the Sphynx's feet, exploding. The blow knocked the creature over.

In a flash of speed,  seized the opening and charged, her right leg glowing. Clearing nearly a football field of distance in mere seconds, she leapt over the Artillery Sphynx and swung her leg. The blade tipped, charged up kick destroyed the beast's main cannon, as she darted back to cover.

MarksMan pumped his fist, grinning widely as ChargeWoman scored the hit. The tacit ChargeWoman, on the other hand, focused on contacting the leader of the expedition to report the battle. "FerroMan! Come in, FerroMan! We've run into trouble! An Artillery Sphynx has us fighting in and out of cover! Can you make the objective?!"

















"Alright, why do you keep calling them 'The Gemini' like it's a damn movie title? Is he a dude, or a group, or what?" SaberMan, beguiled and annoyed, readied himself to beat the information out of them. It would be a difficult fight, but he was up to it, even if he was working with replacement parts.






















SaintMan sighed, correcting PulseMan. "ApacheWoman and I got this."

It might get a little confusing here with the enemies. "The Gemini are two brothers who are similar to each other. The first Gemini uses teleportation and a buster, while the second Gemini uses a shield he can make and form on a whim.

The tension of the scene was thicker than any other situation any of the New Harmony Robot Masters had encountered before. Grossly outmanned, no idea the exact power of the Malevolent before them, the odds looked out of favor.

The valley they stood in was wide and dead, nothing but dry sand and scattered shrubs landscaped it. The valley at the base of the Nexus Spire sat below a surrounding hillside of dying green grass. In the times before the war, these hills were probably famous for their famous rolling green vibe. Now the place was a graveyard.

Knight, Dynamo, Gravity, Quick, Shadow, Junk, Grenade, Sword, and Plug stood across from PulseMan, SaberMan, SaintMan, and the cowering ApacheWoman. Knight had his eyes fixed to SaintMan, shifting his feet towards him, ready to follow as soon as SaintMan made a move.

SaberMan, always riding the line between cocky and confident, held up a single finger towards the enemies before him and dashed towards the entrance of the Nexus Spire at a lightning speed. As he neared the door, a red apparition stood between him and his goal. Quick, one of the fastest Malevolent known in the Wastes, drew his razor-sharp boomerang and tossed it at SaberMan’s neck.

The Combat Master leaned backwards, sliding on the sides of his knees and dodging the boomerang. He jumped upwards, doing a handspring off of the top of Quick’s head. When SaberMan landed back onto the floor, he grabbed Quick’s arms and held him still as his own boomerang impaled his chest.

“AH! SON OF BITCH!” Quick shouted, struggling to no effect.

“Hey, I’m a child of the Domain like everyone here. You know, it was Hell. So, if it makes you feel any better, you can think of me more of a DEMON!” SaberMan, seeing the battle erupt in front of him, kicked Quick in the back, sending him right into the center of the commotion.

SaintMan approached SaberMan, running at a miserable and slow top speed compared to SaberMan’s. To a human, however, SaintMan would be running at a record-breaking speed.

“You know that guy who looks just like you is gonna come after you, right?” SaberMan said, slowing down as he entered the base chamber of the Nexus Spire.

“I’m holding my ground here. Without any of his peons to back him up out there, I’ll crush him like the tin man he is.” SaintMan smirked as his mace fell to the floor, the chain connecting it to his buster now exposed, now making it a flail.

“Good luck, asshole. Let’s just hope that the Toymaker didn’t make him thinking you’re actually deserving of your S-Rank.” SaberMan chuckled as he spoke, slowly walking to the elevator at the back of the dimly lit room he and SaintMan stood in.

“Fuck off and go get killed by those Gemini guys.” SaintMan spat back, now facing the front door with his back to SaberMan, not even turning as he spoke.

SaberMan entered the tight elevator, should he be attacked, the quarters would be too close for him to fight effectively. A Screecher who only relied on their claws, would tear SaberMan apart.

Suddenly, the elevator stopped, and the doors opened before SaberMan to reveal a large, circular room surrounded by windows. There, the Gemini stood, awaiting their challenger.

Both were a pale green shade with black body suits. One, who stood to the left, had angular armor, his chest two isosceles triangles meeting in the middle with two smaller triangles below them. On his crown were three diamond-shaped pieces of armor, the long ends pointing upwards. He had “T2” etched onto the circular buckle of his belt and a black face cover. The first Gemini, who stood to the right, had more rounded armor. His breastplate in the shape of two teardrops, the rounded ends meeting in the middle. His crown seemed a rainstorm of three teardrops placed on the forehead of his helmet. He had a “T1” on his belt and light blue goggles covering his eyes.

“He’s here…” The second Gemini, with the”T2” on his belt, said excitedly.

“Yes. Though, he seemed crippled. Tell me, blue man, is that a weaker saber?” The first Gemini asked as SaberMan stepped forward towards the center of the room.

“Yeah, but don’t worry. It’s all I need.” SaberMan said calmly, waving around his weaker standard blade.

“That sounds BORING!” The second Gemini exclaimed, aiming his buster towards SaberMan before his brother lowered with his hand.

“Excuse my brother. Though he was examined second, he only holds the mental capacity of a child. Allow me to speak, brother. SaberMan, we’ve heard much about you…” The first Gemini stepped forward, moving a mere meter from SaberMan. “And we would be honored to be the ones to kill you.” The first Gemini stood calmly, his smirk glowing beneath his goggles.

“Right. Well, you can go ahead and try, bro.” SaberMan stood ready, posed to fight.

Both of the Gemini chuckled slightly. The suddenly, the second Gemini dashed towards SaberMan, who readied himself to strike. Instead of attacking, however, the second Gemini created a large dome around SaberMan. It seemed a hologram shield made of sections shaded like right triangles. SaberMan attempted to bust out, but the shield way too powerful for him to break.

The first Gemini teleported inside the dome and engaged SaberMan. He rounded to the left to wind up a kick that SaberMan blocked with his unarmed right hand before he went in for a jab. The first Gemini dodged the stab with a flip over SaberMan. Then, he aimed his buster all around and fired wildly, none of the initial shots hitting SaberMan.

The first Gemini’s buster shot long, concentrated, light-green lasers that bounced all around the large dome. SaberMan soon realized the strategy; to trap him inside this dome and allow the ricocheting laser rounds to tear him apart. SaberMan swatted three of the bolts out of the air as the darted towards him, causing them to dissipate on impact. SaberMan continued the motion as fast as he could, but soon a laser round found its mark and hit him with a glancing blow on the back of his leg, right below the knee. Despite the injury, SaberMan continued swiping and swatting at the lasers until none remained, and the dome fell.

Before SaberMan could react, the first Gemini teleported right in front of SaberMan, crouching beneath a horizontal slash at his head and bringing his foot up to SaberMan's chin, throwing him into the air.

Before SaberMan's stagger into the air was complete, a small shield wall appeared behind him. When SaberMan hit it, the shield shifted from its vertical positioning to a horizontal one, sending SaberMan straight down to the ground at an impressive speed. The blue Combat Master stood slowly, his body still trying to recover the damage he just took.

“Fast, but frail.” The second Gemini commented, deactivating his shield as he spoke.

“Yes, brother. It is the heel of all New Harmony built masters: in order to gain strength, they lose speed. In order to gain speed, they lose strength.” The first Gemini teleported next to his brother.

“The Toymaker is a superior craftsman in that regard. We may not be quite as fast as this little fuck, but we’re close, and much tougher too!” The second Gemini began jumping around, excited at the thought of continued combat and the upcoming death of SaberMan, like a shark with blood spilt into the water. As he began to grow wilder, the first Gemini placed his hand on his shoulder, easing him to keep his cool for battle.

“Yeah…” SaberMan finally reached an upright stance, his body even more scratched up than it was when he arrived. “I’m not that tough or heavily armored. Just enough to kick your asses.”



“My creed dictates I should introduce myself. I am Knight, one of several Toymaker Malevolent created to mimic and destroy the S-Ranked Robot Masters who serve New Harmony.” Knight entered the large, circular, dimly lit room just as the elevator SaberMan had just taken up returned to the ground floor. As Knight spoke, he lifted up his armed hand, switching between several medieval-themed weaponry, including a broadsword, mace, flail, lance, axe, and spear. He was much more well armed than SaintMan in all regards, but the Master remained confident.

“That’s a nice little creed of yours. Does it have you tell me your weaknesses too or do I… I’ve been spending way too much time with SaberMan.” SaintMan's boisterous tone stopped suddenly when he realized he was speaking much like his most recent comrade, which terrified SaintMan a little bit.

Expecting more exposition and pre-battle rambling, SaintMan was taken off guard when Knight attacked so suddenly, which was normally his thing. Knight led with his broadsword, which SaintMan jumped aside from just before it hit its mark. SaintMan tossed his arm down, sending the chain to his flail to wrap around the blade. He then shot his entire body back upright, sending Knight’s arm into the air and leaving his chest exposed. Using the opening, SaintMan drew his heavy buster behind his lantern shield and shot two shots to either side of his ribcage, just next to the shoulder, and one to his face, which sent the Malevolent flying and falling to the ground.

“Did the Toymaker get his tips about me from SaberMan? Because you sure are-” SaintMan stopped when the smoke from Knight’s body cleared, and the Malevolent stood up with only vague scorches to mark where he shot, the face shot apparently landing right on his mouthguard.

Knight charged, dragging his broadsword on the ground behind him as he readied his skyward attack, which SaintMan easily dodged, the sheer weight of the missed attack slowing Knight down considerably for a first. SaintMan used this to send his flail whipping at Knight’s head, which the Malevolent ducked under to dodge before backing up entirely.

“You’re more heavily armored than I thought.” SaintMan sighed, setting his heavy buster to full charge without a tell revealing so.

“And you’re much more of a coward than I thought.” Knight charged once again, and once again missing, his strike a horizontal one aiming for SaintMan's belly. Mid-swing, however, Knight switched his weapon to a longspear and spun around, the sharp tip of the blade landing a shallow cut across SaintMan's chest.

As SaintMan assessed his damaged, Knight made another attack, a stabbing strike for SaintMan's left arm. SaintMan stepped to the right and jumped to his left, a flying knee to the base of the spear sending it away from him and opening Knight up for an attack with his flail. SaintMan swung his arm around, his flail locked in position before swinging just in front of Knight and shooting like a chained cannonball hitting Knight right in the top of the head on the base of his helmet just above his eyes.



SaberMan jumped away from a dome, the second Gemini’s throwing of both his hands a sure tell that he was attempting to trap him. The first Gemini, who teleported rapidly, came in close. SaberMan checked his kick with his foot and came in with a hook on his swordless arm, sending the Gemini reeling backwards. SaberMan dashed forwards, intending to outright kill one Gemini to level the playing field, but it was not to be, a small shield appeared just at the tip of SaberMan's saber to save the first Gemini’s life.

Damn… Without the other, just one of them would be easy pickings. But with one running interference, I can’t do anything. SaberMan thought to himself as he backed away from the shield just before it attempted to swat him again.

The first Gemini arose, shooting his laser buster between teleports. SaberMan jumped backwards as each shot approached, dodging them expertly. But when the last one hit the floor and blew up, a boot was met to SaberMan's back, the first Gemini had teleported behind him and attacked from the rear. As SaberMan met the floor with a rolling recovery, he turned to see a laser shot coming right at him. With barely any time to react, SaberMan swatted the shot away, a bit of the laser having made it to the hilt of his blade and dislocating a large chunk of his metal. Just as SaberMan was preparing to charge, the first Gemini shot his buster all around SaberMan in a wildly fashion with no sense of aim. SaberMan turned to see a giant shield wall behind him, deflecting the bullet straight to him. SaberMan dashed for the first Gemini, who he stood behind as a human shield until he teleported to the other side of the wall. With not enough time to dodge the hits, SaberMan braced himself as all twelve of the laser rounds peppered him, sending SaberMan to the floor, smoking.

“Brother, this Master is no joke!” The second Gemini stated, excited as he saw that SaberMan survived the volley.

“Which is why I told you to be prepared to fight a challenging fight!” The first Gemini scolded his brother, before turning to the realization that SaberMan was only feet in front of him.

As SaberMan came in for a fatal slash, a shield popped up right in front of him. SaberMan jumped over the small human-sized shield and brought his saber up to strike down on the second Gemini, his ruse working perfectly.

The second Gemini was not fool to the concept. He placed small shields where SaberMan seemed to attack with each swing, SaberMan's saber promptly clashing against every one just as he was about to hit. When SaberMan's final, strength backed slash suffered the same fate and SaberMan's midsection was exposed, the second Gemini placed a small shield just inches in front of the exposed area and shot it forward, sending SaberMan straight into the wall behind him.

The first Gemini approached, waving his gun around in SaberMan's face and taunting him.

“What’s that about defeating us?” The first Gemini said proudly, his buster still right in front of SaberMan's head. “You see this? We got an ugly wall mount for the Nexus!” The first Gemini joked.

“I HATE blue!” The second Gemini shouted as he set up a shield around SaberMan's head and began shrinking it.

“Looks like you lose, SaberM-” Before the first Gemini could finish, SaberMan regained control of his weapon arm and swing, slashing the first buster in half down the center horizontally, the weapon causing a small explosion, harming the Gemini.

SaberMan slipped under the shield and ran over to the dazed Gemini and impaled him just next to the shoulder and whipping him into the wall, the Gemini sliding off of SaberMan's blade as he swung it around.

“Broth-!” Before the second Gemini could finish the word SaberMan was face to face with him, SaberMan's expression stone-cold and pissed off. Using the momentum he gained from the dash and the strength he gained from his anger and annoyance, SaberMan kicked the second Gemini into and through the window just behind him, sending him flying out onto the outer platform just below it.

As SaberMan thought to address the first Gemini, he suddenly felt arms wrap around his waist. He was lifted into the air and brutally suplexed into the ground behind him, the tip of one of his dual spikes on his helmet chipping right off as he landed and tumbled backwards from the impact.

“Did… Did you just fucking suplex me?” SaberMan felt his broke spike, like a piece of him was missing. SaberMan was annoyed at the notion of the move, that the first Gemini was so pissed he risked his own injury of the ridiculous move people stopped using generations ago.

“Did you just kick my brother through a window?!” The first Gemini, obviously protective of his brother, teleported forward just as SaberMan had returned to one knee, and kneed him right in the face, cracking the left side of his visor from the impact and returning to his back on the floor. “Are you okay brother?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. This guy’s a real DICK!” The second Gemini jumped into the frame of the shattered window as he spoke, both angry and excited as he did so. “Your arm?”

“Some major damage and limited use of my left arm. Hear that?” The first Gemini teleported closer to SaberMan again, just as he had rolled over and gotten to his hands and feet, the first Gemini kicked SaberMan in the midsection and sent him rolling to the other side of the room. “MY LEFT HAND ISN’T QUITE AS STRONG!”

“Sorry princess… Heh…” SaberMan started weakly. “Want me to start going easy on ya?” SaberMan chuckled painfully, like he was just about run out of fight in him as he once again struggled to his hands and knees.

“I’ll kill him!” The second Gemini was once again over excited, and before his brother could calm him, the Gemini went rushing over to finish SaberMan. When he drew close, he formed a shield around SaberMan and rushed to make it close on him, crushing and killing the Master once and for all.

But, way faster than the second Gemini could prepare for, SaberMan rolled to his back, grabbed the hilt of his saber with his other hand, and aimed his saber right at the Gemini’s face.

“BREAK-RAID!!!” SaberMan shouted as his saber glew with a glorious blue light and fire, shattering the second Gemini’s shield and blowing through his head, the sheer power of the attack blowing his body apart from the waist up, leaving no trace of his Soul or Integrated Circuit, which acted like a brain for Souls, left to be recovered and backed up into a new body. The second Gemini’s limbs, inner mechanical workings, and other shattered bits flew all over the room. The shot fired almost went and hit the first Gemini, who teleported away from it to leave the path of attack with all but a singe on his right arm where he narrowly dodged the attack.

At the horror of his brother’s defeat, the first and last remaining Gemini wailed loud enough for the whole battlefield around and below to hear.

Next chapter coming soon! Didn't like the one that I pumped out. Gonna regroup and re-bang out something that's more narratively satisfactory, with TEN TIMES the violence.

Pastoral broke the silence by sliding his visor down and into place. The metallic snap made Grenade's hand twitch, as the robot slid a bomb from the node on his palm to the palm of his hand. The enemy robots stood tense, as Pastoral grinned, waiting for one of them to make a move.

"Well? You have me outnumbered. Don't be scared. Make your move."

"You're gonna regret talking big. We're gonna put a dent in your frame for every dick-sucking syllable." Dynamo dug his boot into the concrete, waiting for the order from Gravity to spring into action.

Sonata stood behind him. To her credit, she was incredibly good at sneaking, hiding in plain sight without attracting attention. She was frantically thinking of a way to take them out all at once, but it was clear that this fight would be an asymmetrical skirmish. Pastoral looked over his shoulder, speaking to her. "Yo. ApacheWoman. Just jump one of them, and attack as hard as you can. If you get in trouble, call out, and I'll help you. Okay?"

"ENOUGH TALK!!!" Gravity pointed his finger, commanding his teammates to strike. "All of you!!! ATTACK NOW!!!"

Before anything more could be said, Grenade strafed left and tossed a pair of grenades. The green spheres bounced off the ground, hovering in the air in front of PulseMan and ApacheWoman, who both sprang in different directions, avoiding the searing heat of the blast. PulseMan stopped his fall with one hand, springing head over heels and landing on his feet. Athletic and fast as any robot, such a predictable attack would have never worked on him.

However, it was a feint; Dynamo moved behind him and pointed his hand. A large, garish, but fairly graceful and fast creation, Dynamo aimed the node on his palm, firing a bolt of blue energy. Pastoral dipped low, and the attack sailed over his shoulder. He had no time for a charged shot, but he fired two bursts from his right cannon. Both struck Dynamo center mass. "GAH!!!" The robot was knocked straight backwards, his chest armor singed.

The first strike went to New Harmony. Another pair of grenades landed in front of him. Grenade formed and lobbed them quickly, and soon there were three bouncing towards PulseMan. The robot master rolled his eyes, and leapt forward, the explosion blasting scorched craters into the earth around him.

"Is that all you have?!" PulseMan snarled and lifted his left buster, opening fire. The silver burst of energy missed Grenade by a hair, as the robot scrambled backwards, hiding behind a barricade of scrap metal.

Gravity, the leader of the assault, stood with his arms crossed. He rolled his eyes, and barked an order to his compatriots; "Shadow. Quick. Junk. Keep him occupied while I get ready."

PulseMan, noticing Gravity's prone status, turned both his busters towards Gravity, intent on killing him then and there. Unfortunately, he never got his chance; Junk moved in behind him.

A fairly large robot, built out of rusted metal around a powerful endoskeleton, Junk had physical strength in spades. He grasped Pastoral by the back of the helmet, lifting the robot into the air. "You should have paid better attention, human-lover!!!"

Junk's bluster was silenced when the robot master turned and planted a boot on his face, stomping him on the mouth and nose. The blow knocked Junk's grip loose, and freed PulseMan, who turned and fired into the robot's chest, knocking him over. Pastoral charged his right buster, intent on firing a point blank shot into Junk's chest.

"GET HIM!" Dynamo barked, firing an arc of lightning towards PulseMan. However, an aquamarine blur intercepted the strike. ApacheWoman blocked the electricity with her metallic tomahawk, electrifying her weapon. As Junk rose, she turned and swung her now sparking metal weapon, striking Junk across the chest and knocking him back onto his butt. PulseMan fired over Sonata's shoulder, striking Dynamo in the leg and knocking him to his knees.

Quick and Shadow approached. With incredible speed, they seemed to coordinate their movements. Quick leapt over Shadow, who moved fast and low, the two crossing a several meters in an instant. PulseMan fired on the both of them, but his buster-shots missed their mark. ApacheWoman watched with horror as they came.

"SONATA! RUN!" Recognizing the danger, Pastoral's first act was to usher Sonata to safety. If she fought these two, she would be destroyed. He retracted his busters, clenching his fists and charging to meet the two head on.

Shadow threw a kick, and Quick thrust a straight punch. PulseMan blocked the kick with his left arm, and the punch with his right shin, his grounded boot digging into the pavement beneath him. They were faster than him, and just as strong, but he was trained to deal with multiple, even opponents. He charged his right buster and fired straight forward. The both of them dodged, but the shot scattered them. As an unexpected bonus, it struck Grenade, knocking his arm off. "OWCH!!! GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!!!" The green robot clutched his damaged shoulder socket, wincing.

Gravity simply snickered at Grenade's misfortune. "Hah. Dumbass. You shouldn't have been standing there. Just let Shadow and Quick handle it."

And handle it they did. PulseMan threw a straight jab, but Quick easily evaded the blow. He noticed Shadow behind him, and swung around, throwing a powerful kick. Shadow leapt over him, and threw a pair of thick, ceramic titanium ninja-stars. Pastoral ducked one then caught the other.

However, Quick struck him from behind. He threw a sharp, tiny boomerang that sliced PulseMan across the back. The robot turned to fire on Quick, but the red blur was already gone. Shadow threw a powerful wheel-kick, and smashed Pastoral on the side of the head, sending him flying several meters.

Sonata watched, partially terrified and partially outraged. "LEAVE HIM ALONE!" She sprinted towards Pastoral, but a looming figure cut her off. Junk lifted both arms, swinging them down in an attempt to crush her. She leapt back, avoiding the blow, but tripping over a rock. Junk lifted his arm, and attempted to crush ApacheWoman then and there.

PulseMan's fist halted his progress. Clearing the distance in a heartbeat, he decked Junk hard, nearly breaking the robot's neck servos. Junk glitched, knocked off his feet and landing on his side. Quick and Shadow charged Pastoral, who was ready for them.

Knowing he couldn't win by going on offense, he cleared his mind and guarded. Listening to their footsteps and paying attention to their body language, the blocked repeated blows.

Quick approached from the front and threw a rapid-fire barrage of punches. Pastoral blocked with his arms, then planted his feet, throwing a punch of his own. Quick darted out of reach, perturbed. Shadow picked up the slack, throwing a kick as Pastoral ducked, backing up and engaging in a thunderous hand-to-hand exchange.

Quick mulled over the engagement. We were kicking his ass earlier, but now he's hanging tough. It's like he's learning as he fights. Quick watched as Pastoral blocked a punch from Shadow, and prepared his cannon to fire. Shadow leapt out of the way, as Grenade, sparking and enraged, pounced towards the robot master.

"DIE!!!" Grenade screamed as he lifted a single fist. Without his severed arm, he couldn't produce grenades anymore, so he intended to attack Pastoral with simple melee.

PulseMan blocked Grenade's punch, and caught his arm. The robot master threw Grenade over his shoulder and onto the ground. As the green robot rolled to his feet, Pastoral threw a kick that shattered Grenade's helmet, breaking it into pieces and tearing off a layer of his artificial skin.

With his buster charged, PulseMan brought back his arm, stepping forward to throw one of his favorite finishing attacks.

"GOLD KNOCK!" The robot master punched Grenade in the sternum, the blow attended by a burst of bright, sunny gold. The strike blew a clean hole in Grenade's chest. Grenade's body was devastated by the blow, sending him flying backwards. Offline, Grenade went limp.

Gravity, sighed, stepping forward. A mechanical whirr slowly began to amp up around him, the pavement cracking beneath his feet. "This is what he fucking gets for ignoring MY DIRECT ORDERS." Gravity waved his hand. "ALL OF YOU! DISENGAGE!!!"

Shadow turned to Gravity, nodding and leaping away from Pastoral. Quick sighed, and rolled his eyes. He sped away from Pastoral as well, shouting to Junk. "JUNK! Gravity's about to go on a rampage! Get clear!!!"

Junk stood, a bit worse for wear, but still pissed. He crept away, keeping an angry eye on Sonata and Pastoral as he moved several meters away from them.

Gravity lifted both hands, slowly levitating off the ground as a wry grin spread across his face. "Sorry for the delay, but it takes a while for the Graviton Generator to boot up. Now, I intend to come at you with my full power."

Pastoral wiped his visor. "I wouldn't have it any other way. If I beat you before you were ready to REALLY fight, then you'd cry to your friends that I cheated."

Gravity's smirk quickly dissolved into an angry frown. "...Poor choice for last words."

"That remains to be seen."

Pastoral fought on even footing with the dastardly Shadow and the perceptive Quick, and with an assist from Sonata, he even managed to get the better of Dynamo and Junk, and put the Kibosh on Grenade!!!

But, even in the face of danger, Gravity seems confident that if he goes all out, he'll crush Pastoral into a small cube! What mysterious power does the Graviton Generator possess, and can Pastoral find a way to shut it down?

What the fuck are Cavatino and Cresendo doing?! Where are Vesper and Solo?!

Find out next time, on Metallic Knights!!!

Minor continuity edit regarding that douche Hymn. I forgot he already won his fight in the previous chapter. My bad!

Chapter complete! The next one will come out soonish, so hold on to your socks! Pastoralfest 2015!

“Brotherhood’s a tragic thing.” SaberMan lowered his bladeless arm. His usage of the Break-Raid attack left him without his saber for quite a while. This was his way of stalling. "The connection's strong. So strong it feels like the two of you can overcome anything."

As SaberMan spoke, the only remaining Gemini clenched his fist as tight as he could, the injury SaberMan gave him on his left shoulder causing the fist to tremble.

"But when you meet a threat that you cannot defeat..." Gemini teleported directly behind SaberMan, reading his right leg for a kick. As it went to land, SaberMan took the hit and grabbed Gemini's leg, spinning sharply and throwing him onto his back. "I bet the loss is unbearable."

Gemini looked over to his side, a large piece of his brother smoldered on the floor. Half of it was burnt, the other half the light blue/green that the two Gemini wore on their armor. It wasn't much, but it was the only piece of the second Gemini that could actually be held.

"What do you know! You're just a cold, unfeeling weapon! Nothing more!" Gemini put the burnt piece of metal in a compartment on his belt before he stood.

"I know." SaberMan chuckled.

"You... I'LL KILL YOU!" Gemini roared as he teleported to close that gap. He appeared in midair, leg drawn back for a powerful kick. SaberMan lept backwards, easily dodging the attack. As the thought, without the other, just one would be an easy fight. Even if Gemini still had his buster, SaberMan could tear him apart.

"I won't lie to you. My saber's drained right now. You've got about a minute before I cut you in half like the half-baked Malevolent you are." SaberMan, still in his combat mode, returned his saber's hilt into his arm, a hand forming in its place.

Without another word, Gemini began teleporting rapidly to disorient SaberMan before coming in on his left side for a high axe kick, meant to land on the top of SaberMan's head.

The dark blue robot master brought his left arm up, blocking the kick with his forearm. Before the negative effects of that kick could land him in trouble, Gemini teleported backwards to land and immediately teleport once more.

In an ill fated attack, Gemini teleported close to SaberMan's front once more, sending a powerful left hook, the very arm SaberMan practically crippled by impaling his left shoulder. Knowing this, SaberMan centered his weight, bent his right arm and put his fist next to his face, completely blocking the punch. Before Gemini could do anything, SaberMan straightened his arm, wrapped it around Gemini's and tightened his grip as he brought up his legs and pushed against his enemy's chest.

Screaming loudly in pain as SaberMan ripped his arm off, Gemini teleported in an attempt to get away. When he did, SaberMan came right with him, finally ripping the arm off as the teleportation completed. Gemini fell backwards as he cried out, placing his destroyed buster on his shoulder in a futile attempt to ease the pain.

"You know? I've got a brother." SaberMan said casually over Gemini's screaming. He threw the arm left in his hands to the side as he approached the defeated Malevolent. "And I'd love to finish you here, so you can join yours in... Wherever we go when we die."

SaberMan placed a boot on Gemini's right shoulder, putting all of his weight to hold the Malevolent down.

"But... We're not supposed to do that. Your brother was an accident, so I think they'll understand. But I've gotten in trouble with General before with mercy killing. So, I gotta smash your noggin open, rip out your Integrated Circuit, and turn it in. You understand."

Gemini, too delirious and in pain to respond, laid there and continued screaming as SaberMan slashed open his skull. When the master ripped out Gemini's Integrated Circuit, the screams stopped suddenly, and his body went limp. Now only aware within the confines of the chip, Gemini was as close to dead as New Harmony technically allowed. SaberMan placed the chip in a large, secure pocket under his armor's jacket.

---

Hymn exited his combat mode, removing his mouth guard and sheathing his energy mace and heavy buster. The victorious combat master stood over Knight, who laid on the floor, head cracked open from the impact of Hymn's mace, Integrated Circuit exposed. With a single boot, Hymn hovered over and crushed the chip, officially killing the Malevolent.

"One day, you're gonna have to decide whether you're a bad guy, or a good guy." Octave said, standing in front of the elevator, which had arrived without Hymn's knowing.

"Since there were two enemies up there, and my HUD only reads one enemy IC on you, sounds like it's a choice you'll have to make too." Hymn smiled as Octave walked closer to him calmly.

"Accident happen." Octave grunted as he passed Hymn.

"Tell that to the families of the people you killed back home."

"You know?" Octave started, stopping his walk to turn back towards Hymn, "I think I will."

John's got it next! He's gonna end this over-long conflict and I'll start the next segment... The part we left it on when we discontinued the last Metallic Knights Thread... THE [REDACTED]!!!

PulseMan stood proud, his eyebrow raised and his fists clenched. Frankly, he wanted to see what it was that Gravity had to offer. The robot master dipped into a fighting stance, ready to dodge or counter Gravity's attack.

However, the malevolent dipped low, placing his hands against the ground. The jewel on his chest emitted a strange glow as Gravity ran his hands over the ground, a wide smirk on his face.

"Satellite." Gravity's words were accompanied by a cacophony of cracking ground. The earth under his feet strained and warped, as his Graviton Generator kicked to life, casting a wide net across the ground beneath his feet. "Eighty tons."

The ground below Gravity ceased falling apart, finally breaking off from the earth itself. An island of concrete and dirt was hefted off the ground and into the air, hovering several meters off the ground with Gravity standing atop it. The robot smirked, raising an eyebrow at PulseMan, who seemed fairly unimpressed by the display.

"You sure you got the hang of this?" PulseMan, a sportsman at heart, watched Gravity with keen interest. "It doesn't seem very practical."

"No appreciation for ART, eh?" Gravity grinned, as he lifted his hand, and slung it. A huge chunk of rock broke off from the island of floating pavement, tearing through the air at the robot master. Pastoral quickly dodged out of the way, avoiding the strike. Another chunk of earth came towards Pastoral, who simply readied his right cannon and fired, blasting the car-sized rock into pebbles.

Gravity continued dishing out dirt, as PulseMan avoided and blasted the rocks with pinpoint accuracy. The moment the assault ended, Pastoral realized the entire island was coming down on him. Gravity rode on it, guiding it down. "TAKE IT ALL, BITCH!!!"

The robot master, accepting the challenge, pooled energy into both busters, silver and gold energy glowing from his left and right cannons. The robot master aimed his cannons up, and fired.

"Platinum Star!!!" The blast travelled like a wave of continuous energy, piercing and crushing the satellite of concrete into smaller rocks. Gravity, losing his footing as it fell apart beneath him, leapt off, landing on his feet as the individual parts of the island crumbled to the ground, kicking up dirt.

Gravity ground his teeth, as Pastoral stood with his arms folded. "That all you got?! I'm getting bored!" The robot master pointed to Gravity, unable to resist explaining his strategy. "Everything you lift to toss at me has to be solid. It I hit it center mass with my buster, the constructs crumble and implode, because your gravity generator is holding them together." Pastoral grinned, aiming his buster at Gravity. "They're just like you. If I shoot you, you'll crumble."

The Malevolant wiped his nose, still confident in himself. "You haven't seen the good part yet." Gravity suddenly lifted his hand, staring Pastoral in the eye with a cocky grin. "Satellite. Ragdoll."

Before PulseMan could react, a strange feeling washed over him. He tried to move, but his step made him suddenly lose orientation, his boots scraping the ground, and his body rotating. The robot master had been rendered weightless.

"Dynamo! Take him out!" Gravity barked the order to his cohort, who quickly obliged. Dynamo was practically giddy at the opportunity to strike PulseMan while he couldn't defend. Recognizing the danger, Pastoral's instinct was to dodge, but he had no traction on the ground, floating a few feet in the air. He was little more than a target.

Dynamo fired, and Pastoral was stricken with a bolt of lightning that temporarily offlined his sensors. "GaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAGHHZKT" The robot master was sent reeling, sparks flying off his body as he landed against a junk pile, dazed.

PulseMan slid to the ground, laying upside down, wincing with pain. Klaxons went off in his head, pain receptors alerting him to the damage as his body performed a system's reset. Dynamo's laser was powerful, but normally easy to predict and dodge. However, whatever Gravity did took dodging off the table.

"Satellite."

The word set off warning bells in Pastoral's head. The robot rolled to his feet, and jumped as high as he could. Perhaps he could evade Gravity's area of effect. However, he was stopped in midair, locked in place by the malevolent's ability.

"Reel."

Pastoral, disoriented, soon found himself torn through the air, unable to predict exactly where he was going. Gravity, true to his word, was reeling him in.

The moment PulseMan was in swinging distance, Gravity decked Pastoral powerfully on the chin, sending the robot flying aside. Pastoral struck a nearby wall, knocking it to pieces. He stood awkwardly, dazed.

"Satellite. Ragdoll."

Standing again, PulseMan found that he was without gravity, drifting aimlessly. Worse yet, Shadow was directly behind him.

"...I apologize for your indignity, warrior." Shadow hopped, spun, bringing his leg around. "Fifty Tile Breaking Shin." The kick smashed Pastoral against the ground, bouncing him against the pavement. "Seventy Tile Crushing Palm." Shadow thrust his hand, and the blow smashed Pastoral's chest, sending the robot sailing across the field. Pastoral landed in a pile of concrete and bent rebar, disorientated and defeated.

He couldn't attack or defend. The enemy was frankly beating the snot out of him, and he couldn't think of a way to retaliate.

His opponents were unbeatable.

Looks like Pastoral is in a pickle!!! How can he win in such an unfair fight?! Will help arrive, or will one of the twins be terminated?!

This is Part 1 of today's 3 Part Update. The fight is a bit longer than I presumed it'd be, and I need a break, and I don't want to risk Fanfiction resetting my shit. Part 2 will come this afternoon, then I'll finish this Nexus Saga off with Part 3 after that! So, stay tooned, fuckers!

PASTORALFEST 2015!!!

QuakeMan cocked his arm, his energy drill whirring as he stood face to face with the Yellow Devil. He sneered as the strange creature thrust its tendrils towards him. Lifting his powerful arms, Cresendo guarded, striking one of the tendrils aside with his elbow, then sidestepping another. He managed to simply catch a third, locking the creature in place.

"Tremor Breaker!!!" Calling his strike, QuakeMan slammed his drill against the ground, sending a fissure of dark, cracked earth towards the Yellow Devil. Its gooey feet sank into the crevice, and the beast found itself stuck for a moment. "Cavatino! Go for the eye!"

FerroMan didn't need to be told twice. He leapt, holding a massive slab of metal the size of a bank vault door. Deceptively strong, he hoisted it as he sprang several meters in the air, swinging it in front of him. "Rend." Firing a pulse of energy through the metal, he separated it on a near subatomic level, ripping it to shreds, sending a hail of shrapnel raining down on the Yellow Devil. The creature was peppered by pellets of steel, but it did fairly little damage.

That, however, was only the setup. FerroMan had lined the goo, which was impervious to his touch, with metal. If he got ahold of the creature now, he could at least damage it.

Unfortunately, the scheme didn't work. As Cavatino attempted to grapple the creature, it shrank dramatically in size, evading him as he landed on the ground. Adopting the figure of a serpent, the Yellow Devil slithered away from FerroMan, beating a hasty retreat.

However, as the creature slithered away, its path was intercepted by a glowing sphere. One of ChargeWoman's bombs. he blast evaporated a small chunk of the creature's goo.

Energy bullets of incredible calibre assailed the beast, as MarksMan fired his rifle. However, he couldn't seem to get a clear shot into the Yellow Devil's eye.

Vesper and Solo's combined surprise attacks failed to slow the creature, as it desperately and erratically retreated. "Sorry we're late," MarksMan shouted. "We got held up! Where are the twins?"

FerroMan nodded to his arriving allies. "We'll regroup with them once we've dealt with that creature. It's too dangerous to be left alive."

"Right," ChargeWoman noted. "It's fast, but it leaves a trail. Let's chase it down!"


Dynamo cackled as PulseMan, battered and dented, attempted to rise to his feet. "You should have known better than to fight the likes of us! You never stood a chance, did you, little prick?!"

Shadow shot Dynamo an angry look. "Silence, disrespectful fool. Without Gravity's help, he would have been out of your league."

Quick sighed. "Yeah, I feel you, Shadow. It's a shame. The poor guy is just on the wrong side of the war."

While the others conversed, Gravity stood calmly and casually, waiting for Pastoral to get on his feet. He liked to drag fights out, so he let his teammates chat while PulseMan prepared himself.

To their surprise, PulseMan replied. "Wrong side...?" He chuckled darkly. "You honestly think protecting the weak from cowards like you is wrong?" The robot glared up at his attackers. "I'll defend the humans until the day I die, and I'll never regret it!!!"


Gravity replied, a wide, toothy grin on his face. "Protect the humans? Well, I can personally account for humans who you've failed to protect."

PulseMan froze when Gravity said those words. "...What?"

"Well, just a few days ago, we found a roving band of humans. They shot at us with rifles, so I used my gravity powers to flatten them. I could show you their bones, if you want. If they're not dust by now."

Shadow seemed somewhat disgusted, and Quick folded his arms, clicking his teeth. "Gravity, you're a piece of work," Quick muttered.

"Here. Junk, give Pastoral here an object lesson! Stomp his head flat!" Gravity snapped his fingers, and Junk quickly stood over PulseMan, lifting a massive, steel boot to stamp down on the robot master's head.

However, a turquoise blur approached Junk. ApacheWoman slashed at Junk's leg, tearing the robot's hydrolics, and knocking Junk off balance.

"GET UP, PASTY!" Sonata shouted at PulseMan, who was staring at the ground, thinking. "We can beat them if we work together!"

Junk, supremely aggravated, swung his arm at ApacheWoman. She vaulted over the strike. Pastoral watched as she turned in mid-air, and swung her arm, punching Junk square in the face.

Then, it clicked in Pastoral's head. The way Sonata moved and pivoted in midair. The way she turned and reoriented herself without touching the ground.

His enemies weren't unbeatable. He just needed to change his strategy.

Dynamo targeted ApacheWoman, and fired his lightning beam, but PulseMan stepped in the way, blocking the lightning strike with his bare arm. He was used to the pain, so he simply ate the damage and redirected the blow. He quickly cycled his cannons. Both of them were still online.

"Sonata. Take care of Junk. I'm gonna get rid of all the others."

ApacheWoman looked at Pastoral cautiously. "Are you sure?"

"Super sure."

With that, ApacheWoman raised her metallic tomahawk. As Junk swung at her, she performed a handstand, kicking him once on the chest, then swivelling and kicking him in the waist. Junk stumbled, as Sonata continued her attack, intent on doing her part to win. No more hiding or running! I'm taking this guy out! Junk caught Sonata's arm and threw her, but she landed on her feet. "That all you got?!" Junk, furious, charged her, and the robot master held her ground.

PulseMan gave her a nod of approval. She was getting better slowly. He bet on her to win, before turning to Gravity, who didn't waste a second on banter.

"Satellite. Ragdoll." Gravity lifted Pastoral off the ground. "Dynamo! Shoot him!"

Dynamo readied his laser cannon and fired a beam of electricity. PulseMan, rocking back, tested his theory. The bolt passed over his shoulder, missing by inches. Hah! It missed! He mentally cheered himself on, as he spun end over end.

"Dynamo, you nitwit." Gravity cursed himself for trusting the robot. "Quick. Shadow. Take his ass out."

Quick and Shadow, moving with their trademark precision and speed, closed the distance in an instant. Shadow quickly found that even without footing, PulseMan wasn't entirely helpless. The robot master blocked his first kick, but Shadow, with the advantage, swung his arm around. "Eighty Tile Breaking CHOP." The blow struck the side of PulseMan's head, putting a small crack on the side of his helmet. "Quick!"

Quick circled around, fist cocked. He intended to break Pastoral's skull, quickly and cleanly.

However, Pastoral, spinning head over heels, spotted Quick. Do or die time, Pasty... He tensed his arm, and prepared to defend.

Quick swung his fist, and to the malevolent's horror, PulseMan blocked the punch. As he rotated, Pastoral rocked his head back, then swung it forward. The blow, a common headbutt, carried enough force to knock Quick off his feet, smashing the robot against the ground.

Shadow was dumbfounded. Quick, now sporting a broken nose, immediately rolled away before PulseMan could stomp him. The speedy robot master immediately sprinted away, terrified. "HOLY SHIT HE HIT ME." Quick attempted to straighten his nose, as Gravity laughed uproariously.

"HAH! WOW! Quick, he got you GOOD. How about all of you stay back while I handle this."

Quick and Shadow recognized the danger. PulseMan grinned, preparing his right cannon. Shadow immediately barked a warning to Gravity. "Gravity, beware! He's seen through your technique!"

"YEAH, don't use the Graviton shit!" Quick nodded. "He has your number, man!"

Gravity ignored their warnings, grinning widely. "Satellite. Reel." Quick smacked his face with his palm, as PulseMan was yanked towards the malevolent.

Preparing his fist, Gravity readied himself to clock PulseMan on the jaw.

PulseMan, however, steadied himself. He brought back his arm, and the moment he was within arm's reach, he brought it around. "GOLD KNOCK!!!"

The clash ended decidedly in Pastoral's favor. In a splash of golden energy, heat, and metal, Gravity's right arm was completely destroyed. The malevolent took a moment to notice the destruction of his limb, but when he realized it, the horror set in instantly. "OW!!!" PulseMan readied his left buster, having charged it up prematurely. "No, wait!"

"Silver Splash!" A hail of blinding white bullets peppered Gravity, knocking him back and superheating patches of his armor. The robot screamed in pain as he was seared by the burst of energy.

Shadow attempted to intervene. "One Hundred Tile Heel Drop." He sprang above PulseMan, bringing down his heel. However, the strike was parried by another robot.

Having just arrived, SaberMan grinned, blocking Shadow's boot with his arm. The cheap limb cracked, and Octave winced, but it was worth it to defend his brother. "GET HIM, PASTORAL!!!" SaberMan threw a kick of his own, striking Shadow and knocking him to the ground. He readied his blade, but Shadow retreated.

"Quick! Come! We shall leave Gravity to his fate!" Shadow ushered Quick away, as the two retreated. "The Yellow Devil will retrieve the remains without fail. Our best option is a full retreat, before more enemies arrive."

Quick rolled his eyes. "...Yeah yeah. That Pulse is somethin' else. I can't wait to have a fair fight with 'em." The grinning malevolent sped off, leaving Pastoral to kill his enemy.

Gravity was stunned, and badly damaged, but he wasn't completely out yet. "...SATELLITE. SEVENTY-THREE QUINTILLION TONNES."

Gravity's body began to glow, as he lifted his arm. "YOU FUCKERS THINK YOU CAN BEAT ME?! I'll crush you with the weight of the moon!!!" His arm raised, and Pastoral felt a weight fall upon him, bowing his shoulders. His boots dug into the ground, as Gravity maniacally laughed. "I'LL CRUSH YOU ALIVE!!!"

However, despite the weight, PulseMan lifted both cannons. "How fast can you do it, then?" Pastoral grinned, as energy pooled in both cannons. "Let me give you a bit of advice, if your best attack is this slow, never save it for last!"

Gravity scowled, as PulseMan prepared to fire both busters.

"Game over, Gravity! PLATINUM STAR!!!"

The blast, just as blinding as the last, tore Gravity's body in half at the waist, destroying his graviton generator, and sending his legs flying across the ground. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAKZATTAZZ" Gravity's upper body landed on the ground, twitching and broken.

PulseMan stepped over the broken Malevolent, grasping his head and tearing it off. He yanked out Gravity's integrated circuit. The robot didn't deserve to be spared, but Pastoral didn't make exceptions.

"DIE!" Dynamo, largely forgotten, screamed as he pounced towards the robot master. PulseMan, without a second thought, threw a right kick into Dynamo's chest, smashing his sternum in and sending him flying back. The robot landed face-down, temporarily put offline by the force of the offhanded blow.

PulseMan tossed Gravity's integrated circuit in the air, catching it in his palm. "If you wanted a fair fight, you should have brought more robots."

Part 2 comes tonight (or tomorrow morning)!!! With that, I'll bring this saga to a fuckin' END.

In the wake of Pastoral's victory, Sonata didn't slow down or call for help. Junk was a well met adversary for the new-girl, but the robot master hung tough in a manner that made her "older brother" genuinely proud.

Junk reeled from another of ApacheWoman's kicks, stumbling back and lifting his arm. "JUNK HAMMER!" The whirr of a powerful electromagnet came to life, as Junk attracted the rusted metal around the battlefield. It collected around his arm, forming a rusted, powerful club. Lurching forward, the malevolent swung his arm down, but the agile robot whizzed under the strike, swinging her tomahawk around and scraping Junk across the chest. His reactor exposed, Junk fumbled back, clutching his shield.

ApacheWoman leapt into the air, releasing a mighty war whoop, and brought her tomahawk down, chopping through Junk's arm and striking his core. Smote down, Junk screamed before deactivating entirely, landing on his back. Eyes empty and glassy, he'd been bested by Sonata, whose mouth-guard snapped open.

"YEAAAAAAAAH! I got him!" Sonata pumped her arms, turning to Pastoral to brag. However, she went quiet when she saw the damaged robots at his feet. Dynamo had a massive, footprint shaped dent in his chest. Jewel, destroyed early and quickly, laid in complete wreckage. Gravity was blasted into two even halves.

"Good job, Sonata." Pastoral gave Sonata a wave. "Now, collect his integrated circuit."

"...His what-now?" Sonata replied flatly. Octave rolled his eyes, his mask opening.

"Rip off his head, pop it open, and there will be a chip about the size of a library card," Octave instructed.

"...A what-now?" Sonata, totally unfamiliar with the concept of a library, was stumped. Octave snorted, putting his face in his palm and trying not to laugh, as Pastoral indulgently approached.

"Here, Sonata, I'll show-"

Pastoral immediately prepared his buster and barked a single order. "SONATA, BEHIND YOU!"

Sonata turned, and recoiled as a yellow tendril lightly prodded the side of her helmet. "EW. Ew ew ew."

The Yellow Devil's single eye leered at her, flashing red for a moment as it scanned her. It quickly decided that she wasn't worth worrying about, before slithering onto Junk's chassis. The Devil's movements were eerie. Slow, methodical, and seemingly docile, it shrank down a few tendrils to pick apart Junk's face in a grotesquely precise series of yanks. The jaw was tossed aside, knocking Sonata on the head.

Sonata didn't take kindly to that. She snapped her mouth guard in place, and lifted her tomahawk. "I'll take care of this thi-"

Before she could swing, the Yellow Devil detected the hostile tone in her voice, and spotted her threatening body language. It fired its tendrils hard, the blunt force smashing ApacheWoman in the stomach. She was sent sailing head over heels away from the creature, much to Octave's consternation.

"Why you," SaberMan charged the creature, lighting his blade and leaping forward. The creature attempted to strike him with a tendril, but Octave was a step ahead. He slashed through the yellow slime, as he aimed for the eye.

"Assimilation Protocol Complete."

The creature suddenly, assembled Junk's body into a makeshift, robotic arm, reaching up. The arm caught SaberMan by the throat, and bashed him against the ground. The unexpected blow knocked the daylights out of Octave. The arm tossed Octave aside. Turning on Jewel next, the Yellow Devil, now featuring an armored endoskeleton inside its goo, reached out and searched Jewel's body, finding nothing.

Pastoral's eyes widened. This soulless abomination's power was clear to him. It was accessing the memory of the fallen enemies, and using those memories to replicate powers. Just like the grey robot the two had encountered before, this Yellow Devil was a copycat.

The creature, losing interest in Jewel's circuitless body, then turned towards Dynamo. Pastoral quickly moved out of the way, studying the beast. He raised his cannon, but one thing stopped him from firing.

If he did, he could risk permanently killing the souls that the Devil was collecting.

SaintMan, however, had no such moral concern. "I've seen enough." Hymn prepared his mace, and pounced high and far, aiming for the Yellow Devil's eye. He swung his mace down with a low grunt, but the creature outmaneuvered him. Disassembling its endoskeleton, the creature allowed SaintMan's blow to slop into its gelatinous center mass, trapping SaintMan's mace. The creature then grasped Hymn by the back of the neck, using its endoskeleton to punch him on the stomach. The blow battered Hymn aside, sending him crashing against a nearby wall.

...I'd be lying if I didn't say I enjoyed that. Pastoral allowed himself a wry grin, before aiming his cannon. He fired on the creature's leg, and managed to damage its endoskeleton. The creature fell to one knee, but didn't seem particularly bothered. It finished integrating Dynamo's circuit, and happily reported that it had done so.

 "Assimilation Protocol Complete."

ApacheWoman, still not down, charged the creature, lifting her tomahawk. She failed to realize that the creature, with Dynamo's power, could now electrify its membrane. Sparks flew from its body, as Sonata prepared to attack.

"SONATA! Don't touch it!" PulseMan intervened as the creature lashed out. The tendril, now backed by a painful electric shock, snapped around PulseMan's arm, zapping him badly. A rusted, metal arm simply flicked Sonata out of the way, and she painfully landed on her side.

As Octave stood, he watched one of the most horrifying moments of his several century long life. PulseMan, stunned, was lifted by the creature. It took a moment for Pastoral to come to, when he realized a simple, horrifying fact.

Jewel's circuit was in Pastoral's stomach compartment.

"OH GOD NO NO NO NO-" Pastoral readied both cannons, but the creature wrapped its tendrils around his arms, pinning them down as it stuffed a single, thick tendril down Pastoral's throat. The robot master kicked his legs, muffled screams coming from his mouth. Octave, eyes wide with sympathetic horror, lit his saber. "HYMN!!! GIVE ME A HAND!"

Hymn, having recovered, simply watched. ...I'd be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying this. A slow grin spread across his face, as Pastoral was orally violated by the creature.

Octave cleared the distance quickly, and slashed the tendrils holding Pastoral off the ground. It was too late; the creature had scored Jewel's integrated circuit from Pastoral's stomach. The twins landed on the ground, and PulseMan fired his cannons, striking the creature and exposing its eye. SaberMan leapt in an attempt to stab it, but came up short; the creature swatted him down, and he landed on top of Pastoral.

By then, reinforcements arrived. Cavatino pounced towards the creature, who used its endoskeleton in an attempt to punch him. Cavatino smirked. "Using metal against ME?!" It was the height of comedy, to be sure. He caught its hand, and sent a pulse of red, crackling energy. FerroMan's Rend attack immediately destroyed the creature's endoskeletal arm. However, its tendrils picked up the slack; the creature slapped at Cavatino, who dodged out of the way.

An energy charge from ChargeWoman smashed the creature, the explosion knocking it backwards. However, it immediately regained its equilibrium. Vesper thrust her energized boot, but the creature used Jewel's power to harden itself. With skin harder than diamond, Vesper's blow echoed, but did no appreciable damage.

Cresendo, Solo, Cavatino, and Vesper surrounded the creature, as it snatched up Gravity's body. Tearing Gravity's upper half apart, it claimed his integrated circuit, completing its collection, for now.

"Assimilation Protocol Complete. Retreating."

"Just where do you think you're going?!" Solo, preparing his rifle, aimed for the creature. "Even if we have to wail on you all day, we're not letting you fuckin' go anywhere!"

The creature, manipulating its gravitational field, simply drifted upwards into the sky. In mere moments, it disappeared in the hazy grey clouds. Solo, scratching his head, lowered his rifle.

"...Well, now I just look like an asshole," he muttered.

Pastoral, having been put through the wringer for today, patted Octave on the shoulder. "Seems like your mission was a success, but that creature could be a problem. It recovered every circuit, of every robot we defeated out here. It could just rebuild them."

Vesper chimed in, folding her arms. "Or, it could just stay like that. That thing seemed pretty threatening on its own."

"This is why you should have just smashed their chips from the start," Hymn growled. He folded his arms, as Pastoral immediately turned and responded.

"We don't do that." The response was simple. "If we break a circuit, the robot's dead. As New Harmony Robot Masters, that isn't who we are."

"Oh, but killing humans is fine?" Hymn replied. Octave visibly tensed at the reply.

Vesper, placing her hands on the twins to hold them back (most notably Pastoral, who nearly drew his buster at the comment), responded on their behalf. "Are you looking to switch sides? Because I'd break your circuit in half any day, Hymn."

"ENOUGH." Cavatino, his patience frayed, stepped in the center of the conflict to end it. "Our mission is complete. We've all been recovered, and there is no point in further bickering. You should all be more mature and behave better, like Sonata." Sonata smiled proudly. Cavatino clearly didn't know her very well.

Cresendo, folding his broad arms, nodded. "Yeah. Fighting amongst ourselves ain't gonna get us home any faster. Let's start walkin, people."

More MK?!

HNNNG.

The unnatural beauty of New Harmony seemed almost jarring to most combat masters after returning from a long mission. For days, Octave, Pastoral, Cavatino, Crescendo, Vesper, Sonata, Solo, and Hymn were outside the walls of the city, surviving in the brown-washed Wastes. Inside, however, everything was clean. The sky was a clear, clean blue, the gardens and lush plantlife grew radiant green with bright colors from the blooming flowers. Everything looked beautiful, which brought much comfort to most returning combat masters, but not all.

Octave’s eyes slowly slide open, large pieces of text running across his vision as his body checked itself. Everything felt different to him somehow. While he understood the need for a new paintjob, reworkings of his chipped and shattered pieces of armor, and a reunion with his older and better saber, he just felt different.

“What’d you do to me, Manhattan?” Octave asked, sitting upright on the table, examining his arms.

“Simple hardware and software upgrades. Sonata stopped by and said I should fix your eyes, so I did. They’re blue now. They match your armor.” Manhattan said cheerily, his back turned to Octave as he clacked away at his tablet.

“Oh.” Octave sighed, not totally surprised or angry about that change. “Anything I should know about with these upgrades?”

“Sure. First of all, I tweaked your old saber a bit. Gave it some new parts to make it run smoother and emit more energy, so it’s a bit stronger. I added the Burst-Raider ability to your saber as well. It works exactly the same as Break-Raid, but you’ll only have a three-second wait for your blade to recharge.” Manhattan turned, pointing at sketches and schematics that meant nothing to Octave as he explained.

“Okay. Anything else?” Octave asked.

“Yup. I completely replaced your visor, so it won’t crack so easily anymore. I re-worked your joints, so your limiters will allow you to run even faster now, if you can handle that. Lastly, I reinforced the plating on your left forearm, making it into a type of shield. If you were to hit it against a blade like yours or even a heavy buster, you’d lose the arm, but by something weaker like a metal sword or a lighter caliber buster, and you’ll be fine.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.” Manhattan said, leaning back in his chair, proud to somehow upgrade the last frame ever built by the legendary doctor Monday.

“Later.” Octave leaped off the table and exited the room, not as impressed with the upgrades as Manhattan projected he would be.

As Octave exited the front entrance to Manhattan’s lab, he noticed a familiar and unfriendly sight. Hymn leaned against the wall, head lowered, eyes closed, and arms crossed. When Octave entered his field of view, however, he stood upright, eyes squinting in disgust.

“I guess the humans decided you were no longer a threat despite the fact that you’re a simple malevolent.” Hymn mocked, a pleased smirk running across his face.

“It probably helped that I didn’t take pleasure in the act of killing. You and those malevolent we met at the Nexus Spire seemed to have that in common.” Octave replied coldly as he went to walk right past Hymn.

“Being General’s pet project won’t keep you safe forever, SaberMan. You’ll fight and fight and fight until you die, just like the rest of us.” Hymn practically shouted to Octave’s back, trying to get the last word as always. Octave paused for a second, replying with his head turned slightly, looking at Hymn through the side of his eye.

“And being General’s personal bitch won’t save you from that fate either.” Octave shot back before continuing his steady pace forward.

The dirt road Octave walked on seemed to stretch on forever. Most robot masters would take the faster route of teleportation to their destination, and humans used vehicles to travel long distances such as this one. But Octave prefered to walk. While it made him late to almost everything, he did it anyways.

Suddenly, a brown beam of light came shooting straight down in front of Octave from the sky. Pastoral had teleported near his brother’s position.

“Yo! How are you, bro? Manhattan gave you a real overhaul.” Pastoral said with a loud, jubilant tone. He stood still, waiting for his brother to pace towards him so they could walk together.

“I’m fine. Manhattan went a little heavy on the upgrades, so I was out for a bit.” Octave replied in his ever calm and collected tone, which always struck Pastoral as ironic. Once you get to know him, Octave was one of the least calm and collected people one could meet.

“So I went with Solo when he handed in the circuit he collected. Album told me you handed in one too. Said you labeled it ‘The Gemini.’ Weird name.” Pastoral always had a penchant for small talk, and more annoyingly, dumb human. “You’d think with a name like that, he’d have two chips. Eh?”

“You would think that, wouldn’t you?” Octave said cryptically, causing Pastoral to stop dead in his tracks while Octave continued with his forward march.

“Wait. Whoa whoa whoa what’s that supposed to mean?”

---

"Can I go now?" Little Duet, in the corner of the room, had been sitting
patiently. "Combat is scary without Big Brother..."

Sonata rolled her eyes and ended the training simulation, her tomahawk retracting and returning to its form as a simple, slim arm. "You PROMISED you’d hang out with me."

"...I didn't see much alternative." Little Duet’s eyes veered away, a slightly terrified look on his face as Sonata approached him. The skittish, childlike support unit was actually much older than Sonata, who was built centuries after Little and Big Duet, despite his frame placing him around the age of ten. He was the forever puppy of robot masters.

"I KNOW! We'll go to the streets!" Sonata placed her foot on the much shorter Little Duet's shoulder, in a brave, captain-like pose. "If I'm going to learn, I should do so by experience. Meet humans, eat things like Pastoral, run around like Octave! It'll be fun!"

Little Duet rubbed his chin with his hand. "Big Brother does always tell me I should get out more…”

Sonata knelt. "Why's that?"

"Because I look 'normal,' like a little kid. He's afraid that he scares people, so he stays near the Cathedral, or near military bases."

Little Duet looked down at the floor, "He thinks I don't know how scared he is of how he looks. It's really sad."

Little Duet looked up, and passionate tears ran down Sonata's face.

"...That's… beautiful. So sad. My face is leaking." Sonata, only months old now, had never been inactive enough to experience sadness. She was too busy in the training rooms or on the field with Pastoral.

...She is a woman of extremes. Such people should be feared. Little Duet’s eyes widened in contemplation. But, she's nice, so I'll stay with her until Big Brother asks me to come back.

---

“Bang.” Solo muttered, aiming his finger-gun off into the distance and raising it as though it had just been fired.

“Where’s Octave? Shouldn’t he be all fixed up by now?” Vesper asked sternly as she kicked her foot off the edge of the rooftop.

“You know how he is. Never teleports and he’s always late.” Solo sighed as he sat down, joining Vesper on the edge of the tall building in New Harmony’s downtown.

“So. How you feeling about your next assignment. I picked it for you specifically.” Vesper said, a large, mockingly goofy smile on her face when she finished speaking.

“You know I hate sniping. I get that the convoy needs cover, but I’d just prefer to get in the action like everyone else does.” Solo started, staring at his right hand, the very hand that could change into a deadly sniper in a moment’s notice. “I’d hate to bitch to my boss, but I think I’m just better at a mid range.”

“Jeez.” Vesper said, leaning back on her arms as they stretched out behind her, propping her up from the ground. “I guess I shouldn’t have brought up work. But if you want, I can get Octave and Pastoral on the job, make you guys ground escorts if you want.”

“Um…” Solo stammered, shocked at the appealing offer. “Y-yeah! Thanks, Ves. But I’d rather take Sonata and Pastoral. Octave always tries to fucking show off and take on everything alone.”

“Oh, I know.” Vesper let her head fall back. Without her helmet to keep her hair up close to her head, Vesper’s synthetic, but hyper-realistic hair fell back, hanging behind her. “One time, before you were born, I had to locate and rescue Octave because he got torn in half by some high tier malevolent he chose to fight. On a recon mission! Turns out the bot wasn’t very smart, but he should try to be more careful.”

“I… I can totally see that happening. He probably said something vague to someone on the radio before charging into the fight.” Solo chuckled.

“And I bet he thought it sounded way cooler than it actually was.” Vesper added, causing the two to burst out in a fit of laugher at Octave’s expense.

---

"Ice cream?" Sonata read the words, searching her memory for other times the words had been nearby each-other. She drew a blank, but the ice cream stand seemed to beckon her. It seemed… right.

"It's a human treat." Little Duet led Sonata by the hand. He seemed overly conscious of the looks that Sonata was receiving. Her armor, ice blue with ancient, native american decorations, stuck out like a sore thumb, the metal feathers on the left side of her helmet not helping at all. "I've never tried it. It might not be good."

Sonata smiled, and stepped forward.

"Hello. I'm ApacheWoman. I'm a super fighting robot. Nice to meet you!" Sonata bowed to the ice cream stand attendant.

A corpulent man, his stomach bulged against his apron. His thick mustache punctuated a pair of rough lips, pressed together in a thin line of confusion. His eyes widened, as Sonata leaned forward, waiting and expecting.

"...Ok." He murmured. He'd NEVER seen a real combat master up close. Many people hadn't. They weren’t exactly social Souls, especially since Octave’s little incident just over a week prior.

"Well?" Sonata folded her arms.

"Well what?" The stand attendant's mustache bobbed with each word.

"...When I see an evil robot, I kill it, because it's my primary function." Sonata stared at the sign. "You work here, right? So your function is to give me ice-cream. So...give me some please."

"You need to give him money first." Little Duet pulled her hand. "C'mon. We don't have any money, so we should go..."

Sonata, in a state of melodrama, hung her head down low. She was not yet capable to cope with her emotions just yet. She would learn in time to handle rejection, but for now all she knew was not to cry and shout in public.

"You know what? Sure. You robots do a lot of good for the city, and a few free scoops won’t break my bank." The gentleman took his scoop, and rolled up his sleeve. "What flavor?"

Sonata scratched her helmet. "What's a flavor?"

“I… Just… Um… Here. This is a fan favorite this time of year. It’s called strawberry.” The ice cream man pulled out two cones and placed two perfectly round scoops of ice cream into them before handing it to the robot masters. “And I don’t use the cheap pink stuff. I start with vanilla and roll in actually strawberries. See? No food coloring.”

Within a single taste, Sonata’s eyes widened along with her child-like smile.

"...This...is...delicious." Sonata crammed the whole ice-cream cone into her mouth. She chewed it, the cone crunching and the ice cream melting in her mouth.

Little Duet looked up at her, smiling. He had a strange admiration for Sonata's strange, naive behavior.

"You'll get brain-freeze eating like that." The stand owner, amazed at Sonata's capacity for ice cream consumption, made her another cone.

"Our internal processors can handle temperature variants up to the degree of harshness offered by deep space. Only an Absolute Zero temperature could harm my thinking capacity." Sonata blurted, snatching the next cone. "More! Thanks!" She crammed it in her mouth bite by bite.

She looked down, noticing a spark in Little Duet's eye. It quickly died down, consumed by a look of wistful depression.

"What's wrong, little guy?" The stand owner's bushy brows and mustache raised in concern. Sonata nodded, licking her fingers.

"...I thought it'd be nice to bring my Big Brother here, but he...he doesn't want to scare anyone."

Sonata took another cone. "Stand Owner excepted ME well enough. Your brother seems nice."

The stand owner shrugged. "Sure. I'll make a sign. 'FREE ICE CREAM FOR FREAKIN’ ROBOTS.' It'll be good for business. My name's Giseppe by the way."

Sonata nodded, licking her lips, remembering Giseppe's name.

"...But he's afraid that the way he looks will scare people. He doesn't want to startle anyone." Little Duet looked up at Sonata. "Do you think people will like him?"

"I like him. He's BIG. They'll probably just be impressed." Sonata crammed more ice cream into her mouth. "If he lets them, people can ride on his shoulders… Paint him… Get a bunch of flowers and cover him in them! It sounds like fun!"

“I don’t know…” Little Duet mumbled as he looked down at the floor.

“Well, if he never comes out to play and meet people, how do they know he’s an evil, scary, robot? I mean, Octave walks around here all the time, and he can be real scary. Just because he doesn’t look human like the rest of us doesn’t mean he can’t come out and play like us.” Sonata said, with an odd sense of childhood wisdom.

Little Duet felt the words sink in, pondering them.

Giseppe scratched his head. "Those words have a lot of weight, kid. For someone dressed funny and eating ice cream, you're pretty wise."

"And I’m only two months old!"

Giseppe shrugged. "Neat."

---

“If you want to make it downtown within the week, Octave, you’d better teleport there.” Pastoral started, unknowingly walking past his brother as he stopped in the dead center of the dirt road. “Vesper’s pretty chill, but I can’t imagine she’d react well to being stood up.”

“You ever get a sinking feeling in your stomach like everything’s gonna change?” Octave asked suddenly from his fixed position, causing his brother to stop and look at him with a look of confusion.

“Whaddya mean?”

“I meant what I said. Do you ever feel like things are about to change?” Octave said, slightly annoyed at his brother now.

“Well, Octave. Things always change.” Pastoral replied, simply.

“You’re right, you’re right. Forget about it.” Octave shook his head, almost as if he could shake the very thought from his mind. “You coming? Ves won’t be happy when I tell her you held me up on the way here.”

“Yeah, sur- wait. What? You’re the one who always walks!” Pastoral yelled, marching over to his brother, as if he were ready to fight.

“Eh. He said, he said.” Octave smiled widely as he became a blue blur in the sky, rapidly approaching the downtown area of New Harmony.

“Oh son of a-” Pastoral grumbled with a smile before following straight after him to clear his name in Vesper’s eyes.

I'll be doing the next two parts, and John will pick it up afterwards.

The next part will come here soon, because I'm writing it as we speak, and then the third will be either this afternoon or tomorrow.

Enjoy the wait, fuckers!

You know...When it comes to narration and Pastoral and Octave you can tell who wrote it.

But the other characters seems pretty much the same regardless of who wrote it.

It's a neat effect.

The afternoon sunset falling over New Harmony’s downtown shone down on the city like a glorious orange and yellow ocean in the sky. It’s current main admirer’s; Solo, Vesper, Octave, and Pastoral sat along the edge of a skyscraper, one of the tallest buildings in the city. Kicking their legs along the edge, none of them feared falling. Despite the damage done to the road, potential pedestrians, and vehicles, they’d be perfectly fine if any of them fell from this height.

“You know? I forgot we did this. It’s been a long while.” Pastoral said with a sigh of relaxation, his hands interlocked behind his head as he leaned back, completely comfortable.

“We used to do this after every mission together. It’s been almost a decade since we were last assigned a task as a team, all four of us.” Vesper added, the same relaxed tone and sigh Pastoral gave rang from her voice.

Octave, however, wasn’t as comfortable as his company. Normally, Solo would comment about these sunsets as being the only time Octave removed the rod from his ass, but today was not the case. That thought Octave had earlier, about everything suddenly changing for the worst, seemed to haunt his thoughts. Instead of enjoying the sight, he stared off into space and attempted to focus on exactly what he thought would change, to no avail.

“You okay there, Blue?” Solo leaned forward, looking past Pastoral to his right to address Octave, who shot a surprised look back.

“Huh? Yeah… I’m just thinkin’ about some stuff.” Octave said, waving his hand to convey he was okay, so the group moved onto a different topic.

“You hear about that captured Malevolent? General had him moved somewhere secret.” Solo said, looking back over to Vesper with the news.

“Good. Bastard fuck with there two’s head. I say they just rip out his IC and be done with it.” Vesper said, coldly, staring off into the sunset as she spoke.

Pastoral and Octave grew deathly quiet at the thought of that day. When both of them revisited the Domain in a very real, but still imaginary way. Octave killed 4 people, and will never be able to live that down. Pastoral made a connection with 95 that should stay between the three of them. It was a day that everyone should have just forgotten.

“Sorry I brought it up.” Solo apologized after the long silence.

“No, no. It’s fine. You two worked hard bringing him intact. Must feel good that he’s somehow important to General.” Pastoral chuckled, attempting to break the tension by patting Solo’s shoulder.

“I’d say. Bastard had the ability to copy our weapons and abilities. We’re just lucky he didn’t even touch Solo.” Vesper said, her inflection getting the point across very well that it was no easy battle.

“Yeah, and he damn near cut you in half with his copy of Octave’s sword.” Solo chuckled, poking fun at Vesper’s difficulty with the close quarters battle.

“Hey, he gave me a run for my money with my own weapon.” Octave said from the edge of the line, practically not even a part of the conversation. “If he got close, he would have cut you in half, Solo.” Octave finished with a smirk, causing the rooftop to burst out in laughter at Solo’s expense.

---

“You WHAT?!” General exclaimed uncharacteristically as he quickly jumped up from his chair, walking angrily towards Hymn.

“I observed the battle, and I request that both Octave and Pastoral be cut from the combat master program.” Hymn stuttered as he spoke. In his years of working with General, he had never seen him livid, most frustrating situations he handled with a sense of bravado and a level of suave. But, for reasons Hymn do not yet understand, General was pissed.

“You can dislike those two all you want. But to leave Sonata, a NEW COMRADE OF OURS?!” General paused, quickly regaining his chilling cool with a simple deep breath. “You dishonor yourself and you dishonor us all.” General turned back around and slowly returned to his chair, his rage almost completely gone in seconds.

“Sir, Sonata was combating a single foe and performed impressively against a more powerful enemy. I expected Pastoral to perform as he did--better than he did. Sonata, however, I simply had faith that she would-”

“You, Hymn, are a spiteful, shameful Soul. You’d have watched Sonata be torn apart if it meant letting Pastoral or Octave fall in combat.” General turned his chair away from Hymn, who hung his head in shame. “Two combat masters I now consider more skilled than yourself. My only dilemma now is whether or not to move them to S-Rank, or lower you to A-Rank. You are dismissed.” General waved his hand, telling Hymn to leave.

The knight stood and turned, his eyes wide and steaming with rage at the very thought of Octave or Pastoral being above him. As he exited General’s office, Hymn’s internal thoughts leaked out of his mouth in hushed, but furious whispers.

“How could he even entertain that thought? Son of a bitch. I’ll show him exactly why I’m an S-Rank and they’re not. Put them in their place… By any means necessary.”

---

The afternoon shone bright in New Harmony. In the streets, humans wore less clothing than normal to keep cool. Octave and Pastoral sat down in the observational room of the simulation chamber, unaffected by the heat. The duo peered through the window, watching Sonata cut down a holographic Malevolent after swiftly dodging a buster shot.

“She needs to put more power behind her swing.” Octave said plainly. To someone else, the simple and stiff comment would come across as crass, as if Octave disliked the young Soul he had been training himself. But Pastoral knew better. Had Octave felt negatively towards Sonata, someone else would currently be observing and training her. Octave, despite his emotional unavailability, seemed very fond of the childish Soul before him.

“Sonata nearly cut that Junk guy clean in half.” Pastoral added, leaning back in the chair, resting his feet on a button-less section of the panel before him.

“Probably because he was made out of junk.” Octave said, turning to his brother with an annoyed look on his face as he pointed out the obvious.

“Still. She’s learning quickly, moving that fluidly this early on is crazy impressive. But apparently she’s not so chill outside of combat. Ran around downtown the other day scaring people to death.” Pastoral redirected the conversation as Sonata did a back handspring to dodge a melee attack.

“She’s a child with a weapon. It’s sort of a scary concept.” Octave commented stiffly yet again.

“I guess she takes after her teacher more than we know.” Pastoral joked. As Octave sat upright to omit a response to the remark, a pair of heavy boots crashed through the door and stomped towards Octave and Pastoral, who soon turned around to see who it was.

“SaberMan. We are dueling in the next sim room over. NOW.” Hymn ordered, as if he had some actual authority over the lower ranked Masters.

“Get out sir douchebag. We’re observing Sonata. If I’m too busy stepping on your squishy head, then I might miss a mistake she makes. One that might get her killed.” Octave said, sighing before turning back to watch Sonata battle a large, tank-like simulation.

“How dare you-” Hymn started.

“Seriously. SaintMan. Get out.” Pastoral stood from his chair and clenched his fist as he took a single step towards Hymn.

“You think such a base support unit like yourself could take me on, PulseMan?” Hymn stepped in turn, the two powerful fighters now standing face to face.

“I think we’ve already had this conversation. And you’re starting to give me an excuse.” Pastoral replied sharply.

As the tension rose, Sonata’s attention went towards the large window to her right, viewing the scene as an outside observer. The break in focus caused her to take a hit by the tank hologram, knocking her onto her back and ending the simulation with a loss.

“Start it again and keep your eyes on the fight.” Octave spoke into the intercom sternly as Sonata rose to her feet, now even more driven to succeed. “Look, Pasty. You wanna shut this guy up, you gotta break his jaw. But Sonata needs to focus.”

“Yeah… You’re right.” Pastoral sighed, feeling guilty about making a scene that distracted Sonata so greatly. “Let’s go and see how much you grew on that last mission, SaintMan.” Pastoral ended, defiantly, before marching past Hymn and heading out the door.

“Good luuuuck.” Octave said, coyly.

“No amount of luck will save him from this embarrassment.” Hymn turned away from Octave to follow Pastoral out the door and into their duel.

“I wasn’t talking to Pastoral.” Octave added, a smile on his face stretching from ear to ear as Hymn marched out of the room.

---

ChargeWoman jumped into the air, spinning in a tucked position until she reached the peak of her ascent. Almost as if she was floating, ChargeWoman straightened herself out in midair and held her hand outwards, a ball of energy forming in her hand. She hurled it downwards before shifting her weight and landing on the floor. As ChargeWoman landed, the ball of energy bounced high into the air. When it came back down to her chest level, she kicked it in a roundhouse motion with her energy engulfed legs, shooting the bomb forward at an almost impossible speed.

MarksMan, familiar with this attack, dodged just before the kick met the bomb, and still was only barely able to avoid a direct hit.

With a sideways roll over his shoulders, MarksMan drew his Long-Buster, a high powered sniper rifle capable of shooting and killing almost anything. ChargeWoman, however, wasn't just anything.

In a charge to close the distance with the longer ranged combat master, ChargeWoman dashed ahead, her charged legs allowing for more powerful, and subsequently quicker movements. MarksMan fired, the shot ringing all across the valley of the wastes. When the round got to its mark, however, ChargeWoman jumped and aimed the side of her torso at the sniper round, sending powerful waves of energy through her frame and negating most of the power of the shot. The impact of it, however, quickly stopped her charge, sending her sliding onto her feet in a defensive position.

"Gotcha." MarksMan said in a sing song tone of voice, his scope fixated on ChargeWoman and nothing else.

"Thought you said you weren't a fan of sniping, asshole." ChargeWoman met MarksMan's glee in kind. She struggled to talk, the round she just took to the body did a lot of damage to her hull.

"I don't like it." MarksMan remarked, pulling back the action on his Long-Buster. Traditionally, a bullet would have fired out of the side, but since busters are energy based, all this did was recharge the one shot weapon. "But I know when to use it."

In a last ditch effort, ChargeWoman quickly charged and threw another energy bomb, and as expected, MarksMan shot it out of the air, creating a thick cloud that MarksMan could not see through.

"Ah shit! Shot-Buster!" MarksMan cried, backpedaling to try and get some distance between himself and the wide range of places ChargeWoman could be hiding inside that cloud. But it was pointless.

“INK-DROP!” MarksMan heard the cry and looked up, ChargeWoman coming down at him like a bomb in a pencil dive. MarksMan scrambled away, and without landing a direct hit, ChargeWoman only caused harm by sending MarksMan flying in the large explosion following the attack touching ground.

MarksMan brushed rubble off of himself, his HUD informing him he was fine. But it was not the time to get comfortable. ChargeWoman was a hyper lethal foe, her powers of charged energy were no joke. Unless MarksMan ended this here soon, she would get close. And then it would be all over.

When the dust cleared, MarksMan found himself just a few meters from the edge of a large crater ChargeWoman had just created. In a horrifying image, MarksMan saw ChargeWoman, still standing in the center of the crater, looking right at him.

“Think maybe we could talk it out?” MarksMan chuckled, shrugging his shoulders as ChargeWoman walked towards him, eerily calm.

“Sure.” ChargeWoman stopped her walking and powered down her charged energy that was lighting her arms and legs up. MarksMan's eyes widened with surprise and confusion. “But let’s talk with interpretive dance.”

As ChargeWoman arrived on the edge of her crater, the simulation suddenly ended. MarksMan and ChargeWoman's battle damage faded off of their bodies, and the shifting room returned to its boxed, girded, silver appearance.

“Get out.” Hymn ordered, walking into the room while Pastoral leaned against the framed of the door, an entertained look cemented onto his face.

“What the hell do you mean get out?” ChargeWoman cried out, her arms outstretched as her combat form shifted into her passive mode. “We were in the middle of killing Solo!”

“We?” Solo questioned, his worrying tone accompanied by his terrified, shocked expression on his face.

“Yo. Ves. We’re gonna do something real important. Think we can borrow the room for…” Pastoral shifted his attention from Vesper to analyzing Hymn, who turned towards him. “Eh… Five minutes?”

“Good work, kid.” Octave said, clapping slowly as he entered the empty gray simulation room. He stopped his clap suddenly and returned his hands to his side, suddenly realizing that the clapping schtick was General’s thing. His expression suddenly reeked of horror, and just as suddenly faded.

“Thanks, Octy! I’ve been training a lot!”

“Don’t call me Octy.”

“Yes, Octave.” Sonata said sharply, correcting herself before Octave got mad, which she knew he could, and probably still could.

“Here’s the thing: you gotta put more power behind your hips. Sure, if you’re fighting a hunk of scrap, you could sneeze in their direction and they’d fall apart.” SaberMan’s blade shot out from his arm, his mouth guard and light green visor revealing themselves from his helmet just as quickly. “But, should you ever face a well made enemy, such as myself…”

“I’d do jackshit.” Sonata gulped, terrified but still somehow awkward. She was still completely new at the aspect of cursing, and it was obvious.

“There ya go. Ready for this?” SaberMan took a combat pose, lifting his saber into the air and holding his left, free hand directly out in front of him.

“No. I want to know what happened to Pastoral. He was in there with you.” Sonata demanded, annoyed that SaberMan simply ignored the confrontation she had witnessed not too long ago.

“He and SaintMan… Went for ice cream.” SaberMan lied, his tone making it obvious.

“OOH! Can we go for ice cream!?” Sonata jumped up and down, completely ecstatic at the idea of ice cream.

“Tell you what.” SaberMan lowered his guard, standing upright. “If you can break my guard and hit me once, I’ll go get you ice cream until it’s leaking from your eyes.”

Lowering his guard suddenly seemed like a mistake when ApacheWoman charged SaberMan, now fiending for a single strike to land to receive her reward. SaberMan swatted the light attack away and brought his free hand up, palming ApacheWoman right on the forehead, stunning her and opening her stance for an attack.

SaberMan sent his blade forwards, placing the tip just in front of ApacheWoman's eyes, causing her to panic when she opened them.

“I win. Again.”

ApacheWoman swung her tomahawk in a forehand, knocking SaberMan's blade away as she lunged in for a backhand attack. SaberMan clutched the base of her weapon, grinding the assault to a halt before kicking her shin, knocking her off balance, and letting her fall forward on her face.

As the younger combat master went to stand, she noticed that, once again, SaberMan's blue sword was just next to her face.

“You’re going to have to try better than that. Again.”

ApacheWoman spun her hip to the side, kicking her legs out to the side and spinning her body around. When her legs came around in an attempt to sweep SaberMan's legs, the elder master jumped, seeing the move coming. While he was impressed at the attempt, she projected and allowed plenty of time of time for SaberMan to react.

By the time SaberMan landed and readied himself for a strike, ApacheWoman was back on her feet and in the process of jumping backwards. The second she landed, ApacheWoman jumped forward, rotating her body and coming in for a wide swing with her energy tomahawk.

Ignoring the fact that he could easily dodge, counter, and kill ApacheWoman right here and now, SaberMan admired the string of attacks and placated the strike. Guarding the side of his head, the connection of their weapons did little to stagger SaberMan, who was much less physically imposing than most other combat masters. SaberMan's strength was his speed. In a showing of this skill, SaberMan brought down ApacheWoman's tomahawk, shifted backwards, and swung, all in an instant. The attack left ApacheWoman with a shallow cut across her cheek.

Very unfamiliar with the pain of such a minor wound, ApacheWoman clutched her face with her free hand and stepped backwards in an unimpressive feat. Frustrated with his pupil, SaberMan decided it time to show her the error in such an overreaction, kicking her in the center of the torso, running around her in a blink of the eye, and allowing her backwards stumble to impale herself on his saber.

In a scream that pained SaberMan, both emotionally and physically (to his ears), ApacheWoman cried and clutched the blade sticking out from the lower left side of her body, just above the hip. Upon grabbing the saber in an act to gain some relief from the pain, the thin layer of metal and plastic around her hands was burned from the powerful energy emiting from the saber. In an act of mercy, SaberMan sheathed his blade and caught ApacheWoman as she fell backwards, clutching her wound and continually screaming.

“Octave!” Vesper darted into the simulation room, shoving Octave off of his own pupil as she grabbed the wallowing master in her arms. Vesper removed Sonata’s helmet and began stroking her hair in an act to calm her down.

“What the hell?!” MarksMan, close behind Vesper, ran up to Octave, pointing his Shot Buster straight at Octave, worried about the mental state of his close friend.

“She needs to learn to deal with the pain!” Octave yelled over Sonata’s screaming and reached out, swatting MarksMan’s buster away from his face. MarksMan, unphased by the act, took a step back and re-aimed his weapon at Octave’s face.

“Well she’s not you and you’re not General!” Vesper turned, shouting at Octave furiously. “Training it not a do or die situation, Octave!”

The comment hit Octave hard. For decades General trained him, stabbed him, shot him, abused him. All to make him stronger. In an act to try and teach Sonata to protect herself, Octave had become the very thing he learned to hate.

Eyes widened and mouth gaping, Octave slowly backed away from Sonata’s kicking, screaming, heavily damaged body and sprinted out of the room, faster than either Solo or Vesper could catch.

“Shhh shhhh, child.” Vesper whispered lovingly into Sonata’s ear. “Solo, teleport with her to Manhattan’s lab. I’ll go talk to Octave.”

“Should I alert General?” Solo asked, taking over on holding Sonata as she clawed at his arms.

“No. He’d probably just praise him.” Vesper sighed, disappointed at the situation. “Just… Get her to the lab. If I don’t calm Octave down, he’ll just freak out and do something stupid.”