It takes more self-control than Terra wants to admit to keep from growling at Salix. Because she doesn’t agree with the orders given at all. With so many of their own so horribly injured, it might be for the best to
the time to, if not heal them, stabilize them so that they don’t come back to a bunch of retired allies. What happens if Azalia and Zinnia are overwhelmed? They have no ways of repairing themselves or any ways of hiding! Yes, Azalia has short range covered and Zinnia long ranged, but if an enemy gets around that or one of them goes down, everyone behind them is screwed. Freesia would be the much better choice, she thinks. Freesia can hide everyone and then evade detection with her cloak. No combat necessary. Just as she opens her mouth to suggest this, she’s distracted by the Insect Pseudoroid’s chassis literally exploding. She immediately thinks it’s some after death trap they somehow missed until another Biometal emerges. And suddenly she understands just how such a lowly thing was able to harm the righteous so badly. Biometals are the great equalizer after all. She finds her eyebrow twitching when it begins to speak, however. Are all Biometals so… eccentric? Model SM is somewhat obsessed with fish of all things and she can barely understand this one because of its accent. She really should ask Aile and Demo when this is all over just so she has a point of reference. By the time she shakes herself out of it, Salix is already moving on so she isn’t around for Terra to critique her choices in deployment. With an annoyed sigh, she moves forward.
And immediately becomes worried Giro is holding off 3 enemies, which can only mean… yup, there’s Aile, de-merged and bleeding out on the ground. And Giro seems to be at the end of his rope, which can only mean bad things since he’s much more powerful and experienced than… pretty much all other Guardians. She actually can’t think of a more powerful Guardian off the top of her head. And the odds immediately become worse when Salix makes a (in her opinion) reckless dash for Aile and gets carved open for her troubles. She’d hoped that their opponents would be tired or somewhat injured, but from the way one of them, Prometheus she thinks Slither called him earlier, taunts them, he seems just fine. Meaning Aile likely didn’t do much before she was brought down because Giro
isn’t doing any offense right now. Her heart sinks to join her shoes when she hears Slither talk about mind control. A horrified
escapes her lips when she sees Giro locked in place, unable to dodge. That fear morphs into sheer terror when she sees clever Freesia has gone into stealth and taken the beam for Giro. Terror because that means her comrade is now under the enemy’s control. Because now they have a very real chance of retiring her in the state she’s in. She’s only slightly relieved when she sees that the mind control apparently also rejuvenates the target. That still means she has to attack another squad mate with lethal force because Freesia will almost certainly be doing that for them.
The terror of retiring a friend overwhelms Terra and suddenly she’s not in front of the Slither building, about to get into combat. Suddenly, she’s right back in that rain pounded, desolate wasteland with the bodies of innocents and her team littered around her. The fierce winds and sounds of thunder are clear in her ears. She can vividly visualize the oppressive aura of the Nightmare baring down on her, slowly heralding her to her retirement. It doesn’t help that Model Z is so close, painting the picture far better than just her memory would allow. But the scene is also an inspiration. Model Z is too weak to defeat the enemies before her. Model X has already been defeated. She knows nothing about the Biometal Demo holds and she doubts Models SM and ACM are up for the task before her. But in her worst nightmare, there’s a form fast enough that it escaped Model Z without a trace and destroyed every unit of her squad like it was child’s play. Terra as herself doubts she’ll have the resolve to do what is necessary with Freesia. The Nightmare that destroyed her team and plagues her every waking moment would not have that problem. Lowering her choker, she grabs the A-Heart chip and tears it out of its slot. With her Nightmare clear in her mind, she crushes it, utterly destroying the chip. From the remnants, a bright light emerges, at very overpowering with its brilliance, but very quickly dimming to a sickly shade of purple. When the light disappears, what she assumes is the Biometal for her Nightmare lays in her hand. She also cannot hear the voice of Model SM anymore. She has only one moment of concern, that she won’t be able to control what she does. But that was exactly what she was after when she picked this form. Anything that happens, well… it won’t be her. In her mind, what she is about to turn into is a completely separate being from herself. So if Freesia is retired… it wasn’t her fault. She hopes she has the mental fortitude to merely disable Freesia, but if the alternative is to allow her free to potentially harm her other comrades then she knows what has to be done even if she’s too weak to do it.
Spoiler (click to show/hide):
When Demo tells Giro that the loss of Model Z and Aile would be unnecessary, Giro frowns “We would lose far more humans if we left Serpent to his devices. Now that we know he’s behind the Maverick attacks, and this one would continue, far more lives would be lost than ours.” he says, a slight edge in his voice. When Demo then says that Freesia is their weakest link, Giro replies “I’ll try to tie up Prometheus while the rest of you focus on Freesia, then. If I don’t, he’ll inflict a lot of damage, VERY fast.” he says, quickly. Without a second’s hesitation, Giro then dashes towards Prometheus at such high speed that a sonic boom erupts through the area, kicking up dust and debris, then he swings his saber at Prometheus, however the target laughs maniacally as he evades the strike, raising his Beam Scythe in preparation for battle as he replies “Oh, it’s time for round three!? AHAHAHAHA!” then his armor shifts to a bright red color and his scythe ignites heat around the blade as he swings it at Giro. Giro leaps backwards onto the Slither HQ’s walls to avoid the attack, grunting as he prepares to leap back at Prometheus.
Watching the scene unfold, Efina taps her chin with one finger while raising her other hand, a void forming above it as she prepares to begin summoning Lies “So, when he says to focus on her, does he forget that Pandora is just as strong as Prometheus? Are we supposed to ignore her, orrr…?” she asks, as she tosses a Lie down onto the ground beside Demo. The creature looks at Demo curiously, then begins waddling towards Pandora extremely quickly. Pandora scowls at Efina, her armor shifting to a yellow color “Hmph. If you were going to betray us, you should have run. You’re barely worth the thought it would take to eliminate you.” she says, in a monotone, as she powers up her staff with an electrical field, before firing a bolt of electricity at Efina. Efina looks perplexed as she seemingly teleports to her left to avoid the bolt of electricity. “Do you mean that it would take too many thoughts to actually hit me with your aim?” she asks, innocently, as she forms another Lie beside herself. As the group was fighting, a massive army of Galleons were slowly surrounding them, row upon row moving into formation and preparing to attack the group, their eyes becoming red. Serpent smiled smugly at the appearance of his army.
Off he went. With disagreement to her contingency and a command to focus on their turned ally... well, she supposed they'll just have to work extra hard to make ends meet. The robot exhaled... and her gaze sharpened. "Suggestion; we watch her carefully and keep our distance. The target is Freesia. We can worry about our significantly stronger opponent after disabling her." She wouldn't want to go up against her anyway. Demo knew this was one fight where she was fairly outclassed... so the best she could do was help to even the odds for Giro to work.
Demo prepared to charge— then faltered, her oculars catching sight of an absolutely massive army of Galleons brewing around them... grand. More complications. "... Be aware; we have company. Watch for backstabbers." Mentally, the robot assessed their threat. Galleons, of course. All small fry. A true legion of cardboard she could easily shred if they came too close, but even an army of ants can take down a stronger predator...
The backs of her blades came to rest on her shoulders. Demo swiftly turned, crouching down as she did to dash right to a sudden attacker's side as she used both blades to slash at where their arm would have been had they not pulled back from their attack. Freesia was quicker than she last recalled. Her attack on Efina was sudden, but nothing neither her nor her new friend hadn't seen coming. "... Were you on this level at all times." Amusing how the girl seemed so much more threatening on the enemy's side than her faction's. "After our success in bringing you back, be sure to train to reach this level naturally." Demo pushed her attack to keep the girl off balanced, her Drive Sabers dancing in the wind without pause as she unleashed a series of attacks... that weren't connecting. It was gonna be one of those fights, wasn't it...
She idly stabbed an approaching Galleon in the chest with her saber, ripping it out and disengaging momentarily to ready herself for any others "wise enough" to sneak up on her.
Holding the Biometal in her hands, Terra has a moment of indecision. Is this really the best idea? Would one of her other Biometals be more suited for this? And then she sees the speed that Prometheus moves and the attack Pandora throws at Efina, who they didn’t even touch last fight, and knows that she can’t match them at her current level. The only way to bridge the gap, to slaughter the enemies of humanity, is to take on a form that will continue to haunt her nightmares for years to come. With a deep, shaky breath, she holds the Biometal up. “ROCK ON!” She shouts, regretting every word even as she says them.
The moment Terra shouts the words, she can hear a multitude of voices bouncing around in her mind. Unlike with the other Biometals she has used, this Biometal seemed to have an entire legion of voices and personalities, all shouting over each other in her mind, trying to be heard. The personalities all ranged from insane, to cocky, to cool, but every single voice sounded as though it was coming from the same individual. Suddenly one voice spoke above all of the others, and the voices quieted. “Brothers, the time has come.” it said, in a confident tone. Suddenly, purple silhouettes of the figure from Terra’s nightmares emerged from the Biometal and started swirling around her in a tempest of purple, each one forming sections of armor, as her clothing was replaced with a black bodysuit. Terra’s hair turned gray and extended down to her feet, while the first of the silhouettes formed a black helmet, with a green forehead gem, black visor, and a purple V fin across the front, which extended across both sides, along with a white comm system that resembled horns. Another formed a purple megaman jacket with matching shoulder pads, and two green gems across her breasts, while another formed a pair of gauntlets with a green gem on the arm. The final silhouettes formed her white codpiece and thigh-guards, as well as a pair of purple boots.
As soon as the transformation is done, Terra finds herself dangling from the ceiling of a lab. The floor was blue, with golden circuit board patterns across it, while the walls were covered in a seemingly limitless supply of computer components, effectively turning the lab into a gigantic computer. Hanging from the ceilings were strange mechanical beasts… as well as a legion of others just like her. Purple armor, pink skin, gray hair. She watched as yet another was hoisted up to the ceiling, to hang with all of the rest, by a Reploid in purple armor and a lab coat. “Another failure! HOW CAN SUCH ANCIENT TECHNOLOGY BE SO IMPOSSIBLE TO ANALYZE!?” he shouted in anger as a Reploid in black armor, with cylinder-like hair and a matching beard, wearing a lab coat watched on, a smug expression on his face, as if he knew the answer to a puzzle and was watching someone else solve it. On the other end of the lab was a Reploid completely unlike all of the other creations. Its armor was black, and its face was pure white inside its helmet. It had a red forehead gem, and two massive fins on each side of its head, its arms were huge, like two metal barrels, matching its legs. Despite the Reploid remaining deactivated, due to incompletion, Terra could feel so much power from it that it dwarfed anything she had even imagined. The scientist continued to rant, however, after several moments, he suddenly stopped, and turned to his legion of failures. “I have an idea.” he said slowly, which caused the other Reploid to cock his head in interest. “I could keep toiling away at trying to create a new Zero… or, I could get revenge on those who destroyed my creations out of fear of progress. I could show them that the greatest Reploids to ever exist are only to be feared when wronged!” he says, waving his arm dramatically, over all of the Reploids hanging from the ceiling. The other Reploid scoffed “The greatest? The greatest would be that DNA there, that you can’t analyze. I’m curious to see what you want to do with all of these failures, however… as well as that one there.” he says, cocking his head towards the black-armored Reploid with the insane power output. The purple-armored Reploid grinned “I’m going to lure out and defeat the Maverick Hunters. At least then, I can hopefully see the REAL Zero in action.” he says, throwing a switch which caused Terra to be slowly lowered to the floor. “Zero, go Retired Mavericks.” he says, smugly, to which Terra feels herself reply with a smug laugh, before dashing out of the room at such incredible speed that she basically teleports to the outside of the lab, having made her way through the halls and up a cliff in the blink of an eye.
Over the course of the next few days, she retires numerous Mavericks, which all looked like a boy in blue armor and a blue bodysuit, smugly chuckling with every retirement. This was just like in the simulations, each one lasted only a nano-second, unless she chose to stress her superiority over them. Until the last one, that is. Suddenly one talks back to her, at which point it’s suddenly X. “Who are you?” he asks, narrowing his eyes at Terra. Terra responds with the obvious “I’m Zero, don’t you recognize me? Let’s retire Mavericks, just like old times!” she says, but the phrase suddenly sounds strange to her. Old times? What happened? Why did they stop before? X replies “Quit fooling around. You’re a cheesy fake.” A fake? I’m not fake, I’m Zero. “X, it’s me. Don’t you recognize me? A… a...” wait, what’s wrong? “A fake me appeared… I don’t know what’s happening.” she says, her head starting to hurt. Her memories fading and returning so rapidly. Didn’t she fight alongside X to defeat Mavericks in five other wars? She has been doing this for so long now… shouldn’t X be familiar with her? Wait. If he has become a Maverick, maybe he can’t recognize her? X replies “I know, and you’re the fake. You can’t fool me.” he says, as he thrusts his arms in the air, then suddenly his blue armor is replaced with black and gold, a gold V-Fin with a red gem, shoulder guards with thrusts on them, a thruster pack on his back. Wait, that’s the Ultimate Armor. You recognize that… he had used it once before. In fact, it was so powerful that he had only used it once… “You have become so insane that you can’t even recognize me? That means that you have become a Maverick… as a Maverick Hunter, and your friend, I’ll retire you myself!” Terra says, drawing her silver Z-Saber. X looks angry as he leaps into the air and is covered in a blazing gold aura “You’re no Maverick Hunter, you’ve retired so many innocent Reploids!” he shouts as he charges at Terra with his Nova Strike, the stone ground being obliterated beneath the force of the attack.
After a brutal battle, Terra can feel her life force draining out of her. Where are her legs? Oh… they’re over there, on the ground. Where’s her arm? She needs to retire Mavericks, her programming tells her… oh, her arm is over there, ripped from her body. X looks down at her, still wearing his Ultimate Armor… wait… who is that red Reploid in the distance, heading towards them? Terra’s head hurts.
Suddenly, Terra is back in the heat of her own battle, her transformation complete, and instantaneous, just as before. Unlike the other times, however, she feels so much power in her body, as if this form is many times more powerful than Model SM. Every time she moves, her body is in position the moment she wills it, as if the only delay is the speed at which she can will her body to move, and with each movement, a purple after-image follows suit at half-speed, mimicking her every movement.
Terra has always thought of herself as fairly strong mentally. She has a mental fortitude strong enough to survive things that would reasonably break others. So she thought. She seriously questions that when she’s subsumed in the sea of voices. It feels like she’s losing herself in the chaos, all of the voices shouting louder than her inner self. Just as she begins to feel overwhelmed, the one voice silences them all and puts them to work. It’s at this moment she knows fear again. If the lesser voices almost overwhelmed her… well, it’s good for her that this one seems to have no desire for control. He’d tear through her psyche like a wet paper towel and leave nothing left in his wake. She has to suppress a shudder when she sees what the silhouettes are changing her into. She knew she’d look like her nightmare, she prepared for it. Doesn’t mean that actually seeing it is any more pleasant than she thought it’d be.
Then she’s dropped into a memory like she was with Model SM. A lab? Trying to recreate Zero? This was a failure!? The image of this failure tearing through her friends and teammates flashes through her mind again and she can only imagine what a proper success would have been. Just like in the memory, they only lasted a nanosecond once he decided he wanted them dead. She only survived so he could prove his superiority! But… what is with the secondary set of memories? Who else was she remembering? Someone close to X given the Legendary Maverick Hunter could pick her out as a fake immediately. Someone who saw X’s Ultimate Armor and came out alive, which can only be an ally. Given the red Reploid she saw as life fled her body… well, she probably looks very similar to Giro right now. Her nightmare version of Zero then.
That thought is the last she has before she comes back to the battlefield, overwhelmed with the power at her fingers. Combined with some of the voices crawling in her head from the transformation… “HAHAHAHA!” She laughs. The smug sounds of mirth are the only thing she can do right now. She sees her target, the weak being that Slither co-opted, and knows she can put it down. Beyond a shadow of a doubt. Still unused to her insane acceleration, she overestimates how far she has to go, missing the target with her Saber. No matter. It’s only a matter of time. She almost doesn’t notice the even lesser beings that were reduced to scrap in her passing. They aren’t worth her attention in the first place.
As Demo attempted to attack Freesia, she gave off a bright blue glow, light blue after-images appearing after her as she moved. To someone familiar with Freesia, this would indicate that she was overcharging her reactor, which would cause her to explode soon. When Demo comments on her capabilities, she makes no reply, merely twirling her two hangers in her hands as she prepares another strike. This attack, however, is interrupted when Terra, as Model NZ, suddenly appears to attack Freesia, missing only by a hair, though the mass of Galleon wreckage tumbling after her after-images indicates that she didn’t necessarily miss everything. In Terra’s mind, the voice that had silenced the others speaks “The retirement of Mavericks is music to my ears. These Mavericks will all be retired in a nano-second, just like in the simulations.” he says, with a smug chuckle. Meanwhile, Prometheus and Giro continued exchanging attacks, the speed of their slashes creating even more sonic booms as they race around each other, parrying and missing attacks, the occasional shockwave being sent out and hitting a building, or a Galleon airship, but neither one manages to land a strike. Efina spawns a Lie near Prometheus, and it quickly turns into a blob, splattering against his body just as he was coming off a dodge. He grunts, but otherwise doesn’t slow his movements, barely seeming to notice Efina’s attack.
As this was happening, Pandora turns towards Demo “Hmph. I won’t allow you to interfere.” she says, firing a blast of electricity at Demo, the yellow lightning corkscrewing through the air at her. At the same time, Freesia dashes at Terra, but suddenly disappears, before reappearing behind her. While the attack seemed to be in slow motion, despite Freesia’s reactor overcharging, her attack almost hits. Before the attack could impact Terra’s armor, one of Efina’s Lies leaps into the path and forms a concave barrier of black substance, which stops the attack in its path, causing Freesia’s eyes to widen in surprise.
After Demo evades the lightning blast, a voice enters her mind. “Allow me to assist you, Chosen One of the Almighty Porcelain Power.” it says, with a flushing sound accompanying the voice. “I have no doubt that with our combined power, we’ll be able to FLUSSSHHH the enemy into oblivion.” he says, confidently.
She noted it, and recognized the signs. A steady rise in energy level. The subtle shake of her form... and a bead of prior information all alerted Demo to Freesia's intentions; she's overcharging herself and likely to explode. A reckless, final move that would prove fatal if they didn't stop her soon... and one she knew was a result of Serpent's mind tampering. "..." Stopping her is still well within the realm of possibility. Demo prepared herself, raising her Drive Sabers in the place she expected her former ally's hangers to try to tear through— only to outright jump back as a sudden, ominous, and powerful presence surprised her from the side... "What?"
She was surprised. Rare as it were for the robot to be taken off guard, she couldn't have expected the sight before her. How in the world... did Terra transform into a form that powerful? Where the hell had she been hiding it? "..." And why does she feel more threatened by the sight of the transformed Terra than she does of Freesia? It was incredibly disconcerting. Distracting, even. The robot stared as she tried to piece together just what she was seeing, but upon hearing Pandora's practical announcement of her attack, she was soon flinging herself to the side before the other Megaman had fired her attack.
A mob of Galleons were now in the way of Pandora's lightning, and the ensuing dismemberment and total annihilation reminded her, now more than ever... how completely and utterly outclassed she was in her base form. She had trouble with Freesia and there's Terra powered like a juggernaut and probably capable of batting away the girl at any second, she felt. An odd series of... indescribable thoughts passed through her mind. Chiefly among them; doubt.
But those thoughts were interrupted by a weapon that would embarrass anyone but someone as emotionally stunted as her. "Fine. Don't disappoint me." The robot picked herself off the ground, her blades coming in to slide into their sheaths as she prepared to transform. Her gaze remained on the battle between Terra and Freesia, and she raised the Biometal... "ROCK ON!"
Demo is suddenly surrounded by a swirling vortex of water, with a loud flushing noise filling the air. As this happens, her clothes are replaced with a skintight bodysuit, then the water from the vortex flows onto her arms and legs, forming gauntlets and boots of porcelain, each with sky blue trim. One gauntlet then transforms into a buster, with a tube forming which connects to a slowly-forming water tank on Demo’s back. Followed by this, a floating toilet bowl emerges from the vortex and begins hovering by Demo’s side, while a porcelain helmet with a blue forehead gem forms on her head.
Once the transformation completes, Demo finds herself awakening to the sirens within the rundown lab that she and her squad were infiltrated earlier that day. She uses her fist to smash through the glass of her pod, then witnesses the Sniper Joe units activating in other pods in the room, as the metal door slowly opens, revealing Ranunculus, who was hacking the control panel, and Chives, who was staring at Ranunculus’ ass. Demo stomps out of her pod and fires a blast of water at Chives, obliterating him and sending his pieces scattering across the floor, just as Demo sees herself emerge from a room down the hall.
The memory ends with Crocus striking the finishing blow against her, destroying her body and retiring her, causing the Model TM Biometal to choose Demo.
"AAH!" A wide-eyed Demo swung her arm to block the incoming blow, her mind struck with an unusual amount of inner strife. She locked up as the attack came to destroy her, the end approaching by the action of an ally in cruel betrayal as her life, hoped to be meaningful, was given such a swift end...
... When she came to, her arm was in a Galleon's chest. She ripped it out and finished the damned small fry with a kick, her legs a little shaky from... whatever unwanted flash of memory that was. "... In— inquiry... could you not prevent yourself from passing your memory onto me? That could have proved fatal." Get a hold of yourself. You weren't the one who died. The robot exhaled, a cold chill overcoming her as she willed herself to calm. Okay. She, regardless, should prove to be stronger now, so this should make things easier. This... should make things easier.
There were no eyes on her at the moment. Everyone was preoccupied with their own parts of the battle, the wild warring sounding off yet going ignored as she set her sights on Freesia. A buster, she had? Then a buster she'd use. With her enemy's back turned, it'd be so very easy to aim and launch a hard shot from behind. All too easy. A task she could do in her sleep, even. Demo effortlessly aimed her new buster, ignoring the fact that she's now transformed vaguely in a reminiscent form to a toilet, and she fired a torrent of water that absolutely smashed into her target, just as it should have.
She had no trouble with it. In one attack, she defeated Freesia... or so was supposed to happen. But the imprint of Model TM's memory wouldn't fade. The perspective was... unique, seeped in betrayal. She turned on her allies. Her allies turned on her. She was ultimately destroyed and retired at the hands of someone she never thought would— and her attack went wide, even as Freesia did nothing to evade it.
Her blast dismantled several Galleons caught nearby, absolutely destroying their bodies and ending them permanently... but they weren't her target. She was not cleaning up the small fry. "Can't I hit anything right now?!" In her conflicted state, frustration easily built within her.
Derision enters Terra’s eyes when the target dares lay a hand on her. But, again unused to her speed, she begins moving too late. The worm actually would have hit her if not for the armor one of the other combatants’ minion gave her. That such a lowly thing should dare to even raise a hand against her, let alone actually connect!? “Do yourself a favor, Maverick. Retire now. I will not be so generous later.” She says, almost indolently swinging her Saber. As close as the two of them are now, there’s no possible way for her to miss with her upgraded abilities. And miss she does not, carving deeply into the Maverick with her strike, laughing smugly as she does. Her after-image, as if showing the Maverick that even her faded copy is infinitely superior than it, laughs just as smugly as it continues what it’s creator started. What’s left of the Maverick… well, it isn’t Retired, but it won’t be interfering with the battle anymore. She considers retiring the thing in front of her, but some annoying part of her screams against it. Besides that, it truly just isn't’ worth the effort.Turning away from the downed Maverick, she faces the one squaring off against her lookalike. The one in red seems to be having trouble with the Maverick. She should show them how it’s done.
With another smug laugh to announce her arrival, she dashes at the duo fast enough to shred Galleons with merely her passing, though she does expend some effort in cutting a few down. It wouldn’t do for them to interfere after all. She finishes her dash blade first at Maverick in purple. He avoids her, but she knows he can’t do so forever.
When asked if he HAD to show her his flashback, Model TM replies “When we Megamerge, we become one. My memories and power are yours, regardless of whether I desire such or not. Besides, our mighty DANKNESS FLUSHER obliterated those weaklings, you should be proud.” it says, oblivious to the fact that she didn’t want to be the cleanup crew for the worthless Galleons. Terra then cuts off Freesia’s right arm and cuts her in half in a single swing, dropping the pieces to the ground, negating the overcharge and leaving Freesia shut down. Terra then looks in Demo’s direction, looking at her as if she was an insignificant insect, before suddenly appearing beside Prometheus and taking a swing at him so fast that all that’s seen is the energy trail from the saber after the slash is completed. Prometheus, however, manages to evade the attack by a hair, looking at Terra first in shock, then laughing maniacally “ANOTHER MODEL Z?! PERFECT, ONE WASN’T ENOUGH OF A CHALLENGE, I’LL RETIRE YOU BOTH!” he screams.
Just then, Serpent chuckles “Alright, I’m interested! Let’s see how strong that purple Megaman is.” he says, as he holds out his Biometal and shouts “ROCK ON!”. He’s first engulfed in bright light, then when the light fades, he’s covered in gray and white armor, with gold trim, and orange spikes on both sides of his head, his forehead, his shoulders, his knees, and his feet. A blue visor covers his eyes, and energy radiates off of his body. “I’ll show you the power of Model W.” he says, mockingly. At that moment, a Galleon airship crashes into the highway from the air, crushing a large amount of Galleons, their limbs scattering across the road as the airship catches fire. Out of the crashed ship stumbles Ashara, a ditzy Guardian with white hair down to her shoulders, with pink streaks, pink eyes, and fair skin. She was wearing a black hoodie with pink trim and cat ear designs on the hood over a frilly white shirt, a black skirt with pink edges, black leggings with pink stripes, and black boots with a pink stripe along the soles and up the sides. Ashara was well-known among the Guardians, partly for being a sweet girl, partly for having a Biometal, but mostly for having great difficulty thinking. “REPORTING FOR DUTY- where’s Salix?” she asks, looking around at the fighting in confusion. Giro shouts to Ashara “Megamerge and keep Pandora busy, I’ll fight Serpent, Terra apparently has Prometheus under control!” he says, as he dashes over to Serpent and swings his in a mighty arc, striking Serpent dead on, right in the shoulder, and knocking him backwards. The attack causes sparts to erupt from his armor and creates a large gash at the point of impact. Serpent looks at the damage, then laughs “Aha! Not as disappointing as I thought!” he says, snobbishly.
Meanwhile, Prometheus throws his scythe at Terra, then seems to warp to it as she avoids it, grabbing the scythe and swinging it at her. Despite the fancy maneuver, Prometheus seems to be moving in slow motion to Terra, which makes the attack pretty easy to avoid. Despite Prometheus being quick and strong, Terra’s current form made it quite clear that he wasn’t very dextrous. At the same moment, Efina creates another Lie and throws it near Pandora, then the other Lies begin moving towards her, bouncing in rhythm as they eye her. “You know, with so many strong Megamen here, I’d expect people to be getting hurt. I feel bad for Inviso-Bill there, but I’m not sure she counts.” Efina says, in a bored tone.
Serpent suddenly raises his hand, a metal skeleton-like structure emerging from a purple aura around it and attempting to strike Giro, however Giro seems to teleport away from the attack with a sonic boom, Serpent’s attack not even coming close, but despite this, Giro clutches his chest and coughs up blood.
Obediently, Ashara takes out her Biometal, one shaped like a vacuum cleaner with blue metal components, and a gray bag, then raises it above her head, twirling in a circle as she shouts “ROCK ON!”. She’s engulfed in a bright light, which dissipates to reveal her now wearing a black bodysuit, beneath a blue Megaman jacket, with large blue shoulder pads, blue gauntlets with silver cylinders around the wrists, metal spikes extending from the disks, as well as from each finger. On her back is a gray vacuum bag, with a crusher at the end, rectangular with jagged, flat metal teeth. Metal spikes extend from her blue boots, and while she retains her hoody’s hood, she gains a metal plate over her eyes, with a black visor. “Alright, it’s fightin’ time!” she shouts, as she dashes towards Pandora, the mouth on her vacuum bag opening, releasing a horrifying patchwork creature with a metal arm, which flies towards Pandora, swinging its fist at her. She dodges the attack easily, which Ashara attempts to take advantage of, by extending her vacuum bag to try to bite her, however she easily hovers over the attack, practically ignoring Ashara. “OH, RIGHT, SHE FLIES!” Ashara shouts, in an annoyed tone. As if Ashara hadn’t just attacked her, Pandora’s yellow sections of her armor switch to blue, then she extends a hand towards Terra, firing shards of ice, while Pandora rides atop her staff like a broomstick. The ice, however, looks as though it may as well be sitting still to Terra.
If this is what it was like for the Maverick when it faced her squad, no wonder they fell before him so damn easily. Attacks feel like they’re lobbed at her as if in play rather than with any real force. She’s more than halfway tempted to grab the scythe flying by her to really let his inferiority sink in. She decides against it though. There might be silly little traps on that thing that would be an annoyance to deal with. She lets it go. If she had a cup, she’d collect the ice Pandora fires at her so she might have a refreshing drink later. That’s about all the attack is useful for since it doesn’t have a chance of connecting with her. Still, a flying enemy might be annoying. To some people. Not so much for her. With a swing of her sword, she fires a shockwave that locks on to the aerial woman. Seeing her futile attempts to escape causes her to laugh again. Really, she should know the attack hit the instant Terra decided to fire it. Why the woman decided to try evading is beyond her.
There was NOTHING to be proud about. Demo would've let the annoyance know of his fault had she not been caught off guard by Terra's look to her... and she, again, had to fight off warning bells telling her this wasn't a friendly. She even felt a bit more upset at how she seemed to be looking down on her. Like she was doing nothing but frying shrimp while the others battled in the wild against real sharks. "..." Demo would do little more than warily watch Terra until she disappeared. And the robot would sigh as her gaze turned to the rest of the fight.
... Freesia was downed. Everyone else was fighting everyone else. There didn't seem to be anyone targeting her, except for Galleons whom she wasted quickly with the blast of her buster. She reviewed her odds carefully, analyzing her chances with each of their enemies and picking out who she could have a chance of actually hurting... and, well, one of them was on fire. While she held a powerful water-attuned buster. Demo didn't do much math, though, Terra was already on Prometheus so... it's possible she'll just deal with him and the robot wouldn't be needed.
Before she could think further on her plan or even try her hand against Prometheus, she heard the sound of Serpent's voice, his words easily cutting through the sound of war like a hot knife through butter. It carried with it, a promise of doom. "... Fuck." One look at his newly transformed form was even more terrifying than evil Terra over there. His very presence threatened her. It threatened everyone there and all they were fighting for, cutting their protest of his strength and forcing them to accept his will. It was... terrifying, to experience. Demo was left in a stupor that she only left when Ashara crashed in.
... Reinforcements were good, but Demo didn't need to give that any more attention. More importantly, she focused on Prometheus, her buster raising in his direction as she challenged him with a blast of water. Predictably, her attack was a waste of time. She bit back a petulant protest. This was beyond her.
When Terra launches her Denharei, Pandora grimaces and attempts to quickly hover around the attack, however it follows her and slashes right into her shoulder, causing synthetic blood to gush from the wound, alongside a heavy geiser of sparks. Meanwhile, Demo’s attack misses Prometheus entirely, which he seems to find quite amusing, as he laughs hysterically at Demo’s attempt to hit him. “LOOK, TOILET GIRL’S AIM IS CRAP, WHO COULDA GUESSED IT!?” he shrieks.
At the same time, Giro slashes at Serpent again, this time striking him across the chest and leaving another deep gash, which Serpent barely reacts to, simply chuckling at the attempt, before winding up a punch and swinging his first at Giro, the attack sailing over his head as he ducks it with incredible speed.
After evading Demo’s attack, Prometheus spins his scythe over his head while shifting back to his original coloration, then seemingly warps through Terra, appearing behind her and attempting to slash her from behind, however Terra has no trouble evading this attack, much like all of the others. “HEY, PURPLE STUFF, HOW ABOUT YOU DO SOMETHING OTHER THAN DODGE, EH!?” he screams at her.
Efina, by now, was sitting on the ground and just throwing Lies into the midst of the fight, with a sigh of boredom. “You know, I feel like they forgot I was here.” she says, to one of the Lies she was holding in her hand. Meanwhile, one of her Lies throws a ball of black liquid at Pandora, smacking her in the back and causing her to grunt, nearly falling off her staff. At the same time, another Lie splattered its own attack across Serpent’s back, but he seems to ignore it completely.
As Prometheus was screaming at Terra, Ashara shouts “Hey bone boi, you need a dust mop!” as she rushes up behind him. Her Dust Phantom throws a punch from in front of him, forcing him to dodge into Ashara’s extended vacuum maw, which bites his shoulder, which Ashara punctuates by shouting her punchline “CUZ I’M ALL OVER YA!” as she kicks him in the side, shoving him into the ground. Prometheus lands on one hand, then pushes off of it, into a back-handspring, and onto his feet. “YOU’VE JUST SEALED YOUR FATE!” he shouts, spinning his scythe, causing the energy blade to extend.
Pandora nods at Prometheus, to which he responds by nodding back. Pandora then hives higher into the air “Enough of this, I’ll show you insects how weak you are.” she says, as she raises a hand into the air. Gradually, ice gathers into diamond shape in the air, growing larger with every passing moment, until it forms a colossal mountain that’s larger than the entire highway. Pandora then swings her arms down, causing the mountain to crash down onto the highway.
When the dust, debris, and ice crystals clear, the group is no longer on the highway, instead on the ground beneath it. Efina was curled into a ball, clutching the bloody and sparking stump that was her arm, while synthetic blood pours from her side and thigh, Giro is bleeding from multiple wounds on his arm, leg, shoulder, and chest, while carrying the wounded Salix, Aile, and Freesia with him, and Demo is severely damaged, one of her arms, up to the shoulder, mangled by Pandora’s attack.
Terra laughs at Prometheus as he demands she do something besides dodge. “Well, I’ve been dismantling your partner over there just fine while you flail ineffectively. But go ahead, continue venting.” She says with a sharp grin. It’s almost boring how easy it is to dodge his moves. The same, however, cannot be said for Pandora when she finally gets tired of everything. Somewhere in the deepest part of her that can truly still be called Terra, she thinks, “Oh, fuck ALL of that”. Eyes moving quickly across the damn mountain Pandora decided to call down, and… There! A valley in the mountain to duck in to! Swifter than she’s moved yet, so lunges into that spot and so is completely harmed by the time the attack dissipates. “While that was interesting looking, you seem to have missed me. With a mountain. How hard were you trying?” She says, smug as always to hide just how close that was for her. “Owari Da!” She shouts, preparing to try an attack she saw during the fight in her memories. With a punch to the ground, balls of plasma burst from the ground, flying high and striking anyone in their path. It unfortunately misses the woman she was actually aiming for, but it tags the other two combatants. They don’t seem to have taken any damage from it though. She can only conclude this move is less than optimal to use here. Better to stick with hacking them apart. The many shattered Galleons in the area aren’t really worth speaking about.
"... " When she saw the colossal forming of ice in the sky, Demo was pretty sure her end had come. The sight above her proved nothing short of a total fatality, and with her speed in comparison to this thing that was already descending down like a bullet, as massive as it was... there was no way she stood a chance to dodge it. The enormous Fuck You attack crashed down and brought destruction from the heavens.
... But. They lived. Battered and beaten as they were, all of them lived. Demo barely registered that, gasping from a crater as she tried to figure out whether she should hold her mangled arm or everywhere else the ice meteor hit. In the end, she settled for reaching for her HP injector, her last one left, to stab in and inject herself with enough juice to keep marching. She did so mechanically, with no forethought. Demo's mind remained blank as she stood up from the wreckage.
She nearly died. Efina's arm was ruined, and Giro had no doubt seen better days. The robot's gaze shifted to Terra... who was perfectly, 100% fine. "How..." Whatever the hell she's using, it's ridiculously powerful. At the same time, Ashara managed to dodge too?? The robot held nothing but confusion for that in its entirety so she won't question it. Finally, Demo turned to regard their enemies, a new appreciation for their power forming within her. Without a doubt, she knew nothing short of a miracle would win the fight now, and she knew she was the last person who could bring that miracle. It wouldn't be long before either Pandora or Prometheus would figure to just slap her away as a forethought or throw another Fuck You mountain down on top of them. If that happened... when it happens, it'll be these four to save the day. That, Demo knew, was a fact.
"... Ef- INa," hurt as she was, her voice couldn't help but reflect the damage done to her as she butchered the girl's name. "F- OCus... Prom.. ETHeus..." Demo took a small breather. The HP Injector she took earlier should... be able to repair her communication systems later. It didn't seem like Efina was getting her garbled speech anyway.
That was fine. With shocked, jagged movement, her buster raised in Prometheus' direction as she fired another shot... which didn't come close to her target. If she was missing before, there's no way she's hitting anyone at range now.
When Terra tells Pandora that her attack was impressive, but she missed, Pandora cracks the slightest smile “No, I didn’t. I only missed you and one other. Model Z is hurt severely, the traitor is on the ground, and the Commode Megaman is forced to heal herself.” she said, smugly. Her eyes widen slightly when Terra uses the Shin Messenkou. So many shots rain down on the area that by the time the attack is finished, over half of the remaining Galleon force has been blown to bits. Pandora, however, manages to avoid the attack, while Prometheus blocks it with his scythe, and Serpent straight-up punches the shot that would have struck him, destroying it.
When Demo asks Efina to attack Prometheus, she manages to raise herself up onto her knees, but then looks at her in confusion. “D-do wha?” she asks, squinting her eyes in confusion, after which her face suddenly contorts in pain, and she coughs up synthetic blood onto the ground. Just as Efina coughs up a glob of blood, Prometheus dashes over to her, screaming “You’re open!” before laughing psychotically, however Efina rolls away from the attack at incredible speed, despite how low to the ground she’s drooping. “Not nearly open enough for aim that bad...” she says, weakly.
Meanwhile, Giro set down the wounded nearby, then drew his saber “Alright, time to end this!” he said, his voice strained. His saber then extends drastically, after which he dashes towards Serpent, before swinging it, launching a massive shockwave at him. The attack seems to catch him by surprise, as he gasps just before the attack hits him. When the green explosion dissipates, Serpent has a deep gash across his armor, his black jumpsuit visible through the crevasse. Serpent sounds angry when he replies “Ah, you hit harder than I expected. I guess it’s time to get serious, then.” he says, in a threatening tone. He then strikes a pose with one fist pumped into the air and one on his hip, then a silhouette expands around his body, shining bright white. “Let’s see how you deal with this.” he says, dashing towards Giro, first ducking so low that his dash almost causes him to scrape the ground, then flashes upwards, attempting to punch Giro. Giro quickly dodges around the attack, then leaps onto Serpent’s back, using him as a boost to leap away from the strike. “Much better than you expected, I don’t doubt.” Giro says, cockily.
Seeing Demo in poor shape, and Prometheus distracted by Efina, Ashara quickly dashes over to Demo “Hold still a moment.” she says, as her vacuum bag’s maw opens, releasing another Dust Phantom. The creature falls apart into tiny metal particles, which Ashara’s vacuum bag inhales, before extending it to completely engulf Demo. In the darkness, Demo can sense a vast abyss, which is full of even more Dust Phantoms, who begin repairing Demo’s body, finishing incredibly quickly. When the vacuum bag is retracted, Demo is fully repaired. Once finished, Ashara gives Demo a thumbs-up, then dashes towards Pandora “HEY, BITCH, YOU’RE GONNA PAY FOR DROPPIN’ MOUNTAINS ON US!” she shouts, fist dashing beneath Pandora, then bending her vacuum bag backwards, using it in reverse to create a powerful enough gust to lift her off the ground. Once propelled in to the air, she reaches back into her vacuum bag, then when she pulls her fist back out, it’s coated in a heavy layer of metal debris, which she uses to punch Pandora across the face, knocking her away in the air “WHILE YOU DROP MOUNTAINS, I DROP BEATINGS!” she says, cockily. Pandora looks at her angrily, as she struggles to steady herself in the air. Her armor shifts from blue to yellow, then her eyes flash as she releases a massive electric field around her. The electric field hits Giro from behind, kills two of Efina’s Lies, and hits Ashara out of the air, causing her to drop to the ground, writhing as electricity pulses across her body. When the electric field dissipates, Giro de-merges back into his normal form, while Ashara starts struggling to get back to her feet “Okay, you shocked me there, but it won’t keep me from clobbering you! Get down here and fight like a woman!” she shouts, her voice clouded with pain.
Terra sees the battlefield, how everything is beginning to become arrayed against them. The mass majority of their group is down now and the most of the rest have been ineffective in this fight. Still, there’s only one thing she can focus on as she laughs once more. “HAHAHAHA! You seem to have made a mistake. I said you missed me. A very critical mistake.” She says as she morphs her hand into a Buster. Making the effort to actually aim this shot, she fires it straight into the flying Maverick’s gut. It doesn’t shock her that a large portion of the affected area simply ceases to be. This is proper when she decides to attack something. What does bother her slightly “HAHAHAHA! Hardy insect, aren’t you? But at this point, you’re not worth much of my time anymore. Retiring you would take less effort than this sentence did.” She says, turning away from the Maverick on its last legs to begin surveying the other two. Of them, the one who the her in red was concerned about seems to be the bigger threat. She decides to take him down next.
She has... no idea how to react to Ashara's assistance. On one hand, the moment the girl came at her with her vacuum bag she was about ready to blast her with water, but on the other, she was fully repaired despite most certainly alien sight she'd seen in that abyss. The Dust Phantoms weren't exactly the nicest sights to see either... but they helped her. For that, she offered a quick nod of gratitude to Ashara, flexing her fingers and moving her arms... though, her condition didn't matter much anyway. Whether she was 100 or 1 percent, her foes would still smash her to pieces with the flick of their hands, but staying in the fight meant she had the chance to jump in with an attack or two to maybe do something useful. They still had a chance so long as evil(?) Terra was still keeping up and Giro was combat capa—
She caught wind of the de-merged Giro, his previously powerful form gone to leave an incredibly vulnerable and harmless Guardian compared to the titans they faced. Demo stuttered in a pause. "... Chances of victory; below 20%." They hadn't even gotten to Serpent, Prometheus was in tip-top shape, and Pandora was still capable of throwing her massive world-ending attacks as she wished. The situation was descending quickly. Her prior decision to retreat popped up in her head... but, the odds of them beating a successful escape now were so abysmal they might as well just continue the fight in vain hope for victory.
... "Changing tactics." Range wasn't doing it. Her aim was trashed, part due to the extreme speed of her enemies, and also part due to her own deficiency, she could see. This meant that the only way she could hit anyone is if she got in close and attacked while they were in too disadvantageous a state to move... and who exactly would be the high profile target to get rid of? Who'd just suffered a devastating blow and was nearly downed? "Efina. Attack Prometheus." She tried again, her communication systems MUCH better now thanks to Ashara's help. Pandora just dropped from the heavens. Demo had her sights set on her.
She started forward, her walk building into a jog which built into a run as she instinctively reached to pull out a plunger from a floating toilet bowl. It had to have been a comical sight, really. The Galleons who came to stand in her way probably thought so, but she wouldn't see the humor. The robot savagely tore through them with the wave of her weapon, the plunger thrown about to break arms and bash in heads. All as she gunned it for the wounded Megaman. Closer, she was. Closer and closer...
In truth, it only took her a few seconds to strike. "HAAH!" Just as her target was beginning to recover, Demo was upon her with her plunger raised... and down it came with a final thrust. She stabbed deep into Pandora's newly made hole, and with a wild, fervent glee, the robot plunged into the wound with all the strength she could muster, forcing Pandora into the ground and shaking her with the force of her thrusting plunger until she could hear the sound of cracking, breaking... damaging. And afterward, she pulled the plunger out, ripping a chunk of Pandora out and raising it up. Demo used that chunk as a mallet to smash down on that hole.
... She took a few stumbled steps back to regard the threat, flicking plunged parts into the body of a nearby Galleon.
As Terra tells Pandora that missing her was a critical mistake, she starts to glare at her and reply, however she’s cut off by being shot in the torso by Terra’s buster, the shot obliterating her armor, causing synthetic blood to pour from the hole, alongside heavy sparking. She coughs up synthetic blood and drops to the ground, just as Demo was rushing towards her. She cries out in pain as Demo attacks her with the plunger, ripping out vital circuitry, but not so vital that she shuts down after the attack, however once Demo is finished, her Megamerge is undone. Her normal reploid form is a girl with teal-green hair down to her lower back, and long bangs, red eyes, wearing a black bodysuit under a blue top with darker blue shoulders and a yellow collar, a blue skirt with two darker blue edges on each side, and blue shoes with yellow cuffs. Pandora attempts to crawl away from Demo, groaning from the effort of merely moving.
Meanwhile, Efina, finally understanding what Demo meant, was charging up a black orb while trying to aim her shot at Prometheus. Before she could fire the attack, Prometheus hefts his scythe, then charges at Efina at incredible speed, before slashing her across the abdomen, resulting in Efina dropping to the ground from her sitting position, and going limp as the synthetic blood runs into a pool on the floor.
Seeing Demo standing over Pandora, and with Giro now down, Serpent takes several confident steps towards Demo and Ashara. “You know, it would be quite inconvenient for me if you retired her. I’d have to build another Reploid to use the Model W she has.” he says as he raises his hand and splays out his fingers. He fires five golden buster shots from his fingers, which hit Demo, while Ashara was the intended target for the others, but manages to roll away from the attack. Demo, meanwhile, is struck once in the chest, once in the left thigh, and once more in the side of the head, blowing apart a section of her body armor and heavily wounding her lower left side of her chest, her helmet, and blasting a hole through her leg.
Seeing the damage the large Maverick does to the other two combatants only solidifies her opinion that he needs to go down first. So while he’s shooting at the other two, she dashes behind and above them, laughing as she brings her Saber down on her foe. But this one doesn’t react like every other Maverick she’s cut into. It looks like it barely notices. No matter. She’s identified its strength and will be sure to punch through any defenses it can put up.
The buster shots sent her flying away from Pandora just as she'd had her plunger raised to continue her slow deconstruction of the girl, and the robot couldn't help the pained cry that came out as she was tossed away like a wet rag, her plunger flinging away for her remote toilet bowl to catch. The battered robot slammed into a group of Galleons like a cannonball. Her broken body would smash through them, coincidentally destroying the weaklings before they had the chance to take advantage of her wounded state.
... For just a moment, the robot experienced a temporary shut down as her body re-routed her remaining energy levels to keep her active. She de-merged down into her normal form, the feeling of increased power lent by her Biometal bleeding away like a fog. "... H-heavy damage sustained..." But she lived. Truly, Demo had no right to survive such a stunning attack. She knew it was more than enough to retire her, but for the sake of her mission... this ruined body of hers still had more to give. The chance for flight left long ago. Now the best she could do was fight.
And, at any rate... one enemy was down. Ashara and Terra were both still active, so if Prometheus could get taken out soon... that'd leave basically only those two to take care of Serpent. Demo struggled to sit up, her mechanical form protesting her every movement as her systems flashed red in her visual. Her energy levels were near fully depleted. Her weapons... all but gone. As she turned her gaze to assess the situation, she caught sight of Terra's attack... and how completely ineffective it proved against Serpent.
... There was no need to update the odds. Right now, she was a bit too damaged to think over and calculate to her fullest, so instead... the robot turned her sights to Prometheus as a desperate plan formed in her head. A most simple one. A plan that she detested to even consider on her most base of levels... but the only one she could use.
Demo pushed herself up with a wince and grit teeth. She limped her way over to her cocky enemy, her hand clutching her sparking side as she glared at him with all the animosity she could muster... but her head would bow soon after. "S-sit out... please. You— you can already see... we're outmatched. You'd find it more funny t-to... just watch us flail at your boss uselessly, wouldn't you..?" It was so degrading to actually ask your enemy to give you a chance. There were few things Demo felt she was above doing, but begging for mercy... that was something she was confident she was strong enough to not do. Now look where she was.
When Terra fails to inflict damage on Serpent, he turns to her and chuckles “Oh, it’s your turn now?” he asks, as he raises both arms, then thrusts them down at his sides. His body is engulfed in a bright gold light, his silhouette growing larger, towering over him, and flickering heavily.
Meanwhile, when Demo asks Prometheus to sit out, he stares at her for a second, then glances over at Pandora on the floor. “Fine.” he says, significantly less insanely than he had been acting for the entire rest of the time he had been in this fight. He casually walks over to Pandora, then lifts her in his arms, before slowly strolling over to a pile of rubble and sitting on it as a spectator.
As this was happening, Ashara releases another Dust Phantom, then disassembles it to quickly repair herself, before dashing over to Serpent while he was focusing on Terra. She shouts at him “HEY, FAGGOT, YA LIKE BUDDIES!? HAVE SOME DUST BUNNIES!” she shouts, as she fires a shot of debris at Serpent, from behind, the shot bouncing off of his helmet, with a “Tink” sound, causing Serpent’s head to budge forward the slightest bit. Serpent growls in response “If you insects are just going to start pelting me with dust and trash, I’m not even going to humor you.” he says, in a grumbly tone. His foot glows brightly, then he swings it around, striking Terra so hard that his foot cleaves clear through her shoulder armor, shattering it apart and caving in her shoulder, then across her face, breaking her helmet and sending the fragments flying. He then follows up the attack by launching a similarly glowing punch through her abdomen, ripping right through it and exiting her back, the impact sending her tumbling across the ground. “Know your place.” he says, smugly, before turning to Ashara, who extends her vacuum bag, the end expanding as if it were a giant worm, with a gaping maw of flat teeth. The vacuum bag darts forward, snapping shut around Serpent’s upper body, but it fails to crush him, sparks flying from the joints as it struggles against his armor. “HEY, SOFTEN YOUR ARMOR SO I CAN EAT YOU!” Ashara shouts.
Terra had analyzed its speed, had taken into account its strength and knew she could both dodge and withstand anything it threw at her with her Thunder Shield up. Even when it so obviously powered up, it shouldn’t have been a significant enough change to disrupt her calculations. And yet… well, she barely saw the kick that thoroughly destroyed her shoulder and her helmet. And the punch that opens a hole in her, like a parody of her attack on the female Maverick, comes while she’s still woozy from having her helmet hit hard enough to snap it to pieces. Tumbling to the floor, she can feel her connection to the Nightmare dropping. She de-merges. And it feels like she’s come back to herself. And she really wishes she hadn’t. More power than she knew what to do with had surged through her and yet she still lost. Taken down in one blow while doing nothing to hurt the one who did it. Hell, she didn’t even take down Pandora without assistance and yet she was so damn arrogant in that form! Her only victory was against Freesia and Freesia is nowhere near the level of opponent the other 3 are. And she only considers it a victory because she somehow managed to avoid destroying Freesia in the process.Otherwise it’d be a complete defeat. She knows the Biometal is overwhelmingly powerful… which means it’s her fault she lost. She’s so damn weak that even while having strength others could only dream of she still couldn’t do anything. Between this and the events earlier… she wishes she’d been retired. She isn’t useful for anything besides scrap metal.
She... very much was confused by the sudden change in behavior, and Demo was honestly prepared to grovel if he asked, but it seemed Prometheus had more care for Pandora than he did for the fight... not that Demo cared for this realization at all. Regardless, now this just meant they had their three on one with Serpent. It wasn't a victory, but it was the best she could do. "Now..." Demo called on Model TM once more. Her last act of service to the fight would be to hang at range and fire bursts of water at Serpent while Terra and Ashara kept him in close combat. Maybe the force of her bursts of water could keep him unsteady to give the two openings...
Her thoughts stalled. In the time it took for her to get Prometheus to sit out, Serpent had apparently unleashed a devastating attack on her allies. The formerly powerful version of Terra that exuded such a total and threatening presence... was gone, and the weakened form of the girl laid heavily battered and inactive. Ashara was fighting off Serpent on her lonesome, but she was, predictably, doing essentially nothing with her attacks... the robot closed her eyes. "... Unfortunate." She pulled out the Biometal with a shaky, damaged arm. Megamerging again will no doubt use up the last of her energy levels, but that's fine.
"... ROCK ON!" Failure was destined to come sometime. A soldier's retirement is found on the battlefield, after all. With the power of the Biometal loaned to her again, the critically cold robot struggled to raise her buster... she wasn't surprised by the miss.
Demo’s attack misses Serpent, despite the fact he was standing still while Ashara attempted to crush him. He seemingly gets bored of it, then seemingly teleports from the spot he was in, to right in front of Ashara. She looks at him with surprise, and only has time to utter “Ah. Shit.” before he punches her in the gut, sending her tumbling across the ground, and right through one of the remaining support pillars for the bridge, sending debris scattering in every direction. Ashara finally comes to a rest on the ground behind the pillar and demerges back to her normal form, flat on the ground. Serpent then turns to Demo “So, you’re all that’s left. Why don’t you just go ahead and lay on the ground, save yourself some trouble?” he asks, snobbishly.
... A most expected end to the encounter. Perhaps there'd been so many times they could've realized this was coming. Maybe the moment Aile was taken out, it was over... or the time Giro had been knocked out, their strongest ally. Several times prior it seemed close, but it was now, right here, would their long battle finally see an end.
"... I'll t-take a bit of trouble... if it means getting— getting a scratch on you..." In fact, she had no intention of getting out of this alive, anymore. They'd been so soundly defeated. Serpent was going to continue with his plans, the deaths of countless humans would be on her, and she'd fail her one and only prime directive. It was no use surviving this battle... so if she was going to go out anyway, Demo figured she might as well be as annoying as she could possibly manage. In the moment, she wouldn't even realize that she ultimately just felt too insulted to think things through logically, and she was lost in her desire to do something—anything—to Serpent before his victory. Ultimately, she was just tired of being useless.
"I will end you. Here and now." She reached for her toilet bowl, her hand grasping the handle of her plunger as she started to limp Serpent's way. Her pitiful speed was at such a pathetic limp that the nearby Galleons merely walked to chase her down, their sights set on a wounded opponent, nearing her to finish the job as they were meant to... but the moment just one of them attempted to attack her, Demo pushed all of her remaining energy reserves into motion. She sped off at Serpent like a bullet, her single arm winding up the plunger for a wide underhand SWING... which was obviously effortless for him to dodge. But that was her play.
Her red eyes stared at him with hot fury as her energy levels began to rise exponentially past her limits and steam erupted from her form. The initial attack, the one with her plunger that had the thing tossed away to fly through the air? All just a ploy to hide her real plan, one she started from the moment she burst with speed. And close as she was to him... practically standing an arm's length away, Demo felt this might leave some sort of mark. That's why she had the smallest hint of a grin on her face despite the absolute agony she was experiencing. It'll be worth it. "In— inquiry... can you dodge an explo—"
At that moment, the world is filled with a bright light as Demo creates a nuclear explosion on that spot. It was a long moment before the explosion finally clears, including the dust and debris. Finally, when everyone can finally see again, the situation really isn’t much different from what it had been before. Demo is on her knees, and in one piece, because Model CM and Model TM had formed a barrier around her, protecting her from her own self destruct sequence. Likewise, Giro had been protected by Model Z, Aile, Freesia, and Salix had been protected by Model X, Terra had been protected by Model NZ, and Ashara had been protected by Model DM. Likewise, Serpent was demerged, along with Prometheus and Pandora, who all had barriers around them as well. The Maverick army around them, however, was not so lucky, as not a single one of them survived. When demerged, Prometheus was a blue-haired Reploid with red eyes, his hair tied back in a ponytail that reached his thighs. He was wearing a purple jacket with red trim, white boots that reached up to his thighs, all over a black bodysuit.
Serpent brushed some dust from his coat, then looked at Demo “Impressive trick, however all you did was delay the inevitable. None of your Biometals are impressive enough to take. The Game of Destiny continues.” he says, walking back towards the Slither Inc building, Pandora and Prometheus following after him.
She was woozy. Her vision was darkening... and brightening, swimming in altering shades as her processors struggled to work and repeatedly failed in a cycle. Still, even in her limbo, Demo was aware enough of her surroundings to know... that this didn't go according to plan. Her head bowed, she could only hear the traces of Serpent's confident voice through her broken auditory systems, the tone glitching and ringing out in her head... he lived. She couldn't see it, but he was fine. He was fine and she failed her last gambit. The robot expended all she could and then some... but it wasn't enough.
She fell forward. She couldn't tell that she was falling until she hit the ground, but the moment she did, the rest of her systems shook in vibration from the clash and her body began to shut down in sections. "I- I..." Whatever she meant to say, Demo couldn't get any more words out. Her voice cut off and her vision faded. The steady thrums of her active body… died out.
Game? Did Terra hear that right? All of this was some Game to Serpent? The dead comrades all over the highway, the pain and torment those around her went through, the mental trauma she just subjected herself to by wielding that Biometal, all of it part of some game!? While she’s enraged beyond what she thought was possible for a moment, it dies out before she really has the chance to enjoy it. Her heart sunk when she saw what Demo was trying to do while she was nearby and utterly useless. The tears in her eyes that not only Demo survives her own explosion, but that the Biometals protected the others from the squad from it as well… well, if she had the energy for it, she’d be weeping uncontrollably. Still, her list of targets for Justice seems to grow ever more. Her Nightmare version of Zero is near the top, but Serpent quite clearly isn't going to stop whatever sick plan he has in motion. That can lead to so many more innocent lives being lost. Even if she’s best served as scrap for another Guardian, she really can’t, in good conscience, lie down and retire until this is resolved. Even if she’s merely a meat shield for someone else to strike the finishing blow, she can find some use somewhere. This is her last thought as consciousness fades.