//------------------------------// // Knees in Tight // Story: The Rock in the Gulch // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// Omega laughed darkly to himself as he stared down at the approaching Reds, Blues, pony, and Freelancer. "Soon...soon they will all be nothing but bloody smears, and I will be victorious! Oh look, they're dividing their forces, how cute! It will all be for nought, since there is no way-" <"Why does the Manticore look different?"> Lopez inquired curiously. "Oh, it's just a new paint job-" The outer wall exploded as the Manticore Prime discharged its kinetic explosives before shooting off a sand dune and into the air to hover over the base, raining kinetic explosives as the kinetic energy cannons absorbed both their forward momentum and the vast majority of their downward momentum, constantly firing to purge so they floated down like a leaf on the wind. "Grif!" Sarge shouted out. "That gun placement over there is out of range of the kinetic explosives, and we can't aim the sting downward! Take it out!" "Really? Me?" Grif asked derisively as he leveled a rather wicked looking weapon that seemed to be made almost entirely of magnets. "In case you'd forgotten, all I'm armed with is a glorified slingshot! Just how much damage can that do-" His words cut off as he pulled the trigger, and the tiny pellet launched out the front of the gun in a shockwave that neutralized all sound. It impacted against the tower the gun turret was braced on, and the entire thing exploded. A crater five feet deep was all that was left of the tower, and flying chunks of masonry was all that was left of the entire corner of the fortress the tower had been a part of. Sarge, Donut, Caboose, and Grif stared at the devastation that had been unleashed. Donut was the first to speak up. "That was incredible!" "I love the big booms!" Caboose squealed out happily. "I WANT ONE!" Sarge roared out excitedly. Grif glanced from the devastation to the weapon in his hand. "...okay, you know what? Just call me David." He reloaded the 'slingshot'. "'Cause I'm going giant hunting." "Where the hell did they get these wonderful toys?!" Omega demanded in rage. "And why don't I have any?!" Tucker, Texas, and Simmons carefully made their way into the Fortress while the distraction was going on. They were briefly distracted by one of the towers erupting in light, followed shortly by Sarge's shout of "I WANT ONE!" "Oh, looks like Grif finally fired his 'slingshot'," Simmons mused idly. "Did...did you give him the best weapon of all?" Texas asked carefully as she walked across the inside of a rotating cylinder. "He's the closest thing to a friend my own age I have in this whole mess," Simmons explained readily as he followed. "Of course I'm going to do everything in my power to ensure he doesn't get killed." "And now that's just one more thing I have to overcome to beat that fat idiot," Tucker snapped irritably as he stopped at the edge of the cylinder. "Did you ever think about that?" "It doesn't load with training rounds, so he won't use it against you," Simmons pointed out readily. "And how am I supposed to compete out heEEEEERE!" Tucker began, his voice turning into a shocked scream as he fell down a hole in the cylinder by stepping forward at the wrong time. "...seriously? When did I become the comic relief?" "Don't be like that," Simmons called out teasingly. "I'm sure you'll find something of your own to be awesome about that absolutely won't be one upped by something Maud makes on a whim." "O-ho-HO!" Tucker suddenly cried out before leaping out of the hole clutching something in his hand. "Check this out!" He gripped what was in his hand tighter. Kffsh! Blades of pure energy extended from the two sides of the grip, coming together at an almost point with a gap between the tips. The energy could be seen through, and the very air hummed as he swung the blade about. "Awesome energy blade for the win!" Tucker cried out happily. "Beat that, Grif! I don't care how big an explosion you can make, nothing says bad ass like an energy sword! Hoo-ah!" He proceeded to swing the blade around expertly, performing a few ninja flips with it that would have surprised anyone that hadn't watched his sparring sessions with Grif before. "I-aw, dammit!" Texas snapped irritably. "My sensors tell me that's a bloody life-bond weapon." "A what?" Maud asked in confusion. "Oh, that means it only works for the person who picked it up until the bond is broken," Simmons explained readily. "With life-bond, that's until they're killed. Soul-bond extends even beyond death, and generally is a means of resurrection. Or at least, it is in the games I took the term from when I designed the sensors...I guess." "Aw, man..." Texas pouted. "I want an energy sword..." "Yup!" Tucker crowed happily. "Chicks dig the-" His words were cut off as Maud punched a nearby chunk of rock, causing bits to fall off into a perfectly cubic work table with nine square segments on top. Setting the bomb down, she proceeded to dump out three chunks of diamond, six chunks of ruby, nine chunks of copper, and four dark blue pearls that glowed with odd mystic power. She then proceeded to put them onto the table in sets of one chunk of diamond, two ruby, three copper, and one pearl, changing only the orientations. She pulled off one grip and two projectors as a result, before putting them back on with the last pearl. She then took off what looked like the base of Tucker's energy blade, but dark blue and night black. "Happy Mother's Day," she said calmly as she handed it to Texas. "...thanks," Texas said warmly after a stunned moment of shock. Taking the grip, she squeezed...and a blade that seemed to be made of ghostly white flame extended silently, whooshing through the air as she swung it. "Very nice..." she purred eagerly. "You just had to jinx it!" Tucker snapped as he put his energy blade away to punch Simmons in the arm.