//------------------------------//
// ATTACK OF THE FOUR GUARDIANS 
// Story: Iris Strike: Sealed Power 
// by hujan86 
//------------------------------//

Godslayer May heard Godslayer Fortepiano’s voice through her SHADE’s COM system. 
“Godslayer May! The SGs are all here. What’s your status over there?” 
“I see one of them,” Godslayer May notified the Field Master, “along with two constructs.”
“I do not recommend you to proceed. Go back to the original plan and get out of there ASAP!”
“Negative!” Godslayer May protested. “I’m not going back empty-handed!”
She continued her advance on the Death Egg’s construction facility. If what the Field Master said was correct, then the one called Ruby might have been broken out by now. The only thing to do to find out the SG’s secret is to get to Zirconia and Robotnik. Besides, she reported directly to Lord Magister Varst. She need not necessarily have to follow Fortepiano’s directive.
“May, do not proceed! I repeat, don not proceed. It’s too risk-” 

“May! Do you read me!? May!?” 
There was no response from the Spirit Godslayer. 
Godslayer Fortepiano attempted to reestablish connection but it was not going through. 
She looked at Godslayer Watterson furious. “May just switched off her COM on purpose! Why would she do that!?”
“What’re you asking me for!?” the latter reacted. “It’s not like I’m the one who taught her to do that!”
Godslayer Fortepiano breathed heavily, trying to compose herself. Things were not going as planned. The way Godslayer May acted was an insult to her authority. And she had almost unfairly vented her anger at Zach.

Ruby made her way into the launch bay where automated tanks stationed there were battling to stop the golems’ advance. The golems were winning despite the hindrance by the tanks’ heavy firepower.
“Onyx!” she called, jumping and flailing her arms desperately trying to get the one of golems’ attention. “I’m right here! Hey! Over here!”
The way she acted was rather puerile. It was uncharacteristic to her composed demeanor or ferocity in battle. And which one is really Onyx, no one could tell, not even Ruby as all the golems looked alike.
“ONYX! URGH!!!” 
When none of the golems took notice of her, Ruby charged past the tanks, across the battlefield with little care or thought. It was then that a tank had her it in its targeting reticule and fired its machine gun at her. She would have been killed had not a golem raced to shield her at the precise moment. The golem charged forth, absorbing all the bullets to little consequences before pummeling the tank into a pancake. After the golem was done, it came back for Ruby.
“Err... Onyx?”

The Guardians, as they are collectively referred by their masters- Asahina and Asakura, Nagato and Konata, took their appearances in the form of female Japanese high school punks. They all wore similar attire though the blazers, pleated skirts, gauntlets/gloves/arm guards, boots and accessories have different designs. Quite different from Ragingheart’s army of constructs in Dreamfall, these four have full freewill and serve the SGs directly. They are also capable of displaying expressions associated with emotions in addition to having some personalities, though Nagato is stoic most of the time.
The two constructs hopped from the roof down into the facility. In the descent, Nagato struck down the Death Egg with her Ethereal Katana. The damage dealt was not meant to destroy the Death Egg, just enough prevent it from launching. Shortly after, she joined Konata in battling SWATbots coming at them on the docking platform. In midrange combat, Nagato utilized a Needler (Ethereal flechettes-firing pistol) while latter fired Ethereal rays from the palms of her gauntlets to destroy the SWATbots.
They both exhibited extreme agility and speed in avoiding the SWATbots’ lasers while simultaneously charging towards the robots. Once the super-strong constructs got close enough to the SWATbots, melee combat ensued. Konata delighted in the ravages she caused to all the SWATbots with her fists.

After Ruby was rescued from imprisonment, the golems withdrew from the EggDome. She then led them to a bunker located not too far away from there. After a few tries, the golems successfully smashed through the reinforced steel doors. There were a few SWATbot guards inside, but they were easy to dealt with. 
It turned out the bunker houses a weapons depot. Ruby however was only interested in certain items. Continental range ballistic missiles, prototypes of SWATbot successors (codenamed Combot), the room-sized thermonuclear bomb- none of them draws her attention. She passed the crates, various war machines and weapons to check on several containers until she found the ones she wanted. She signaled to the golems which containers to take by knocking on it. 
Just as the golems began removing the containers, Ruby was on her way out the door. One of the Golems, possibly the one going by the name Onyx, stared at her. Although the creature did not say anything, Ruby seemed to able to understand it.
Before walking out, she told the golem, “Don’t worry. I know where to go.”

Robotnik did not know when the cloaked figure had appeared. While he was witnessing the ‘schoolgirls’ (that is how   Nagato and Konata look to him) making short work of his SWATbots, the figure just seemed to pop into his view, standing there calmly outside the control room. If she had come in through any the facility’s entrances, the guards monitoring the security feeds would have alerted him.
Having destroyed the last of the SWATbots, Konata leaped from the docking platform down below to join her master. With a single strike from her fist, Konata shattered the safety glass separating Robotnik and Zirconia. The despot stepped back, shielding himself from the shards of flying glass. His guards took aim at Konata, however they themselves got blasted apart instead as their reaction was a second slower compared to the construct.
“Dr. Robotnik.”
The despot looked up at the figure. He appeared to be fine since none of glass shards managed to penetrate his suit. 
“You must be Zirconia,” Robotnik said casually, “the one Ruby always mentioned as her rescuer.” 
There was no trace of fear or nervousness at all in his voice. He is just too proud and egoistic for that. 
Zirconia nodded then gestured at Konata. “And they are what could have been yours to command had you kept your end of the bargain.”
“While I admit I could see some usefulness of their appearances in reconnaissance or perhaps even espionage missions, still not my kind of style,” Robotnik commented. “Having the ultimate assault bot in the guise of harmless little girls sounded overly silly. Don’t you agree?”
True. “You can blame Ruby for that,” Zirconia sighed. “Now then, to the business at hand.”

Above, Nagato began interfacing with the Death Egg through touch. Bits of data appeared in her vision. The codes were analyzed and manipulated as the construct see fit in order to gain access into Death Egg’s system. Once the processing was completed which took less than a minute, the Death Egg’s schematics appeared.
“Interesting,” the construct remarked after downloading the schematic and codes.
Via Nagato’s remote command, the hatch opened and the printed circuit board containing the ruby stone is ejected. After taking the ruby stone out from the slot, another command was issued. 

Crouched at the edge of the roof’s opening, Godslayer May witnessed Nagato tossing the ruby stone down at Konata. 
What was the significance of the ruby stone? she wondered. Is it the source of the Sinned Godus’ powers? If that was true, then they are not as truly omnipotent as previously thought. 
Then there was this Zirconia character. Who is she? Is she the leader? The mastermind behind the Battle of Hallow’s Victory?

“You won’t get away with this!” Robotnik warned. “Wait till I sic my combots on you.”
“I already have,” Zirconia imperiously responded. 
So far, the despot has no idea that Onyx’s golems have retrieved the missing secondary armament, Jade is working on the activating the Monster, and... Nagato had just activated the Death Egg’s self-destruct sequence.
The Death Egg’s ‘eyes’ flashed red and running lights ran across the giant weapon. 
“Self-destruct in T minus five minutes,” the Death Egg’s computer announced. The integration of the self-destruct function was intended to prevent the weapon from being reverse-engineered should it fell into enemy hands. But thanks to Nagato’s hacking, it is now the Achilles’ heel for Robotnik.
“Uh-oh,” Robotnik whispered. 
“Zirconia!” 
Zirconia looked to her side. Ruby, who somehow managed to infiltrate the facility, came running up to her. Konata stepped forth, was about to pass the ruby stone back to her but then Zirconia did the unexpected. She slugged Ruby right in the stomach. Aside from being a manipulative person, it seemed that Zirconia is also physically strong. Just how strong and what element she controls are not yet known.
Ruby gave a wheezy cough and collapsed to the floor, clutching her stomach. 
“Why?” she rasped.
“That was for your stupid mistake!” Zirconia was clearly furious at Ruby. She snatched the ruby stone from Konata’s hand and showed it to Ruby still writhing on the floor. “You would never have gotten yourself caught if you weren’t so careless to lose this!” 
“Self-destruct in T minus four minutes.” 
While the two SGs and their constructs were distracted, Robotnik seized his chance to get away.
These two can argue here for as long as they want, he thought. I for one am not going to stay here to be blown apart.
Konata aimed a palm at the despot moments before he made it to the door but abstained from firing after Zirconia told her to let him go.
“He’s no longer a threat,” the latter added.

Godslayer May had to move fast. Zirconia and Ruby, the latter powerless, two members of the Sinned Godus were now right in front of her. She had never been so close to unravel the secret behind the whole multiverse war. The problem, aside from the fact the facility is about is to explode in less than four minutes, is how to get past the two constructs Nagato and Konata?
Clearly they are no pushovers based on their performance against all the facility’s guards. Rather than risk a prolonged battle which might dragged on until the end the countdown timer, the most sensible option is to perform swift stealth kills on the constructs before moving to incapacitate the SGs. After that, it is just matter of retrieving one of them and the ruby stone and escape from the ensuing blast. Remain cloaked, she silently made her around the roof’s opening to look for a vantage point to stage a surprise strike on the constructs.

Unfortunately for Godslayer May, she was spotted all way from the docking platform. The Godslayer’s outline could be seen as a mass of static particles by Nagato. The construct’s special vision allows her to detect and track enemies utilizing light-bending camouflage technology. She reached for her Needler then began shooting at the Godslayer.   

Meanwhile, at the Monster’s construction facility, an explosion ripped through the roof. Sally looked up, fearing it was another of Robotnik’s creation sent to stop them from destroying the place. 
Through the resulting hole through the roof, Jade glided in on his hoverboard. Asakura then followed, who is revealed to have flight capability via the jet thrusters on her boots and is wielding a pair of submachine guns she referred as Spikers. And finally, Asahina teleported in, appearing as multiple streaks of bright lights. After reassembling herself on the docking platform, it is revealed that the construct wields a Beam Rifle equipped with an optical scope.  
All the Freedom Fighters became wary of the three newcomers. 
“I don’t think I’ve seen those guys before,” Rotor remarked.
“They’re new to me too,” Sally acknowledged. 
But it did not matter to her. If they are indeed Robotnik’s enforcers, they will fight them all the same, androids or Overlanders. 
The armored soldier on the hoverboard did not seem to be particularly interested in the Freedom Fighters. He just hovered right next to the Monster’s port side and appeared to be operating a device integrated on his arm guard. Asakura and Asahina were another story. Upon spotting the dynamites planted all over the place, they holstered their weapons, switching to hand-to-hand combat to avoid accidentally detonating the explosives.  
Asahina targeted Sally first because she holds the remote detonator in her hand. Sally saw the streak of lights coming at her but it happened almost instantaneous. By the time she reacted, the construct had finished materializing right before her. Asahina took Sally down with a knee strike then caught the detonator which has fallen off the latter’s hand. 
Both shocked and angry that his leader was hurt, Rotor tried to take out Asahina with his cannons. The construct reacted by kicking and swatting the walrus’ cannons away before punching him into unconsciousness. After that, she crushed the detonator in her hand.
Asakura effortlessly caught Bunnie’s punch. She tried to move her hand away from the construct’s tight grip. But to her surprise, it would not budge. Even with all the cybernetic enhancements, her strength was no match for the construct’s. She threw another punch with her other fist to which Asakura responded with the same move. 
“You’re pretty weak for an ‘upgraded’ Mobian,” Asakura taunted her. 
Desperate to gain an advantage, Bunnie used her remaining free limbs- the leg. She kneed as hard as she could right in Asakura’s underside. 
Antoine D’Coolette saw his girlfriend in trouble. “Oh no, Bunnie!”
He summoned his hoverboard to him. Leaping on to the moving hoverboard, he charged forth with his sword.
Asakura did not let go of her grip on Bunnie. She just absorbed the rabbit’s repeated attacks stoically.
“Dang it!” the rabbit hissed. “What th’ heck are you!?”
“I’m better than you,” the construct declared, a pleasant smile running across her face. 
Bunnie was butted in the head. She limped from the resulting concussion and collapsed. 
“BUNNIE!!!”
Asakura looked over her shoulder, then swung around at the incoming coyote. The swift low kick sent Antoine toppling over his hoverboard. The riderless hoverboard proceeded to crash into one of the docking platform’s columns. In spite of the pain resulting from his hard fall, Antoine scrambled to reach for his sword and rose to his feet. 
“En garde!” he proclaimed. 
Determined to avenge Bunnie, he rushed forth at the advancing Asakura. He slashed his sword but the construct caught the blade with her bare hand. Asakura wrested the sword away from him. 
He gaped in dismay when Asakura smacked the sword down onto her thigh, breaking the blade into two. No hoverboard and no sword. All Antoine got left at his disposal was his karate moves. But since even the cybernetic-enhanced Bunnie could not beat the construct through sheer strength, he doubted it will do any good. 
Tails Prower hovered above aimlessly not knowing what to do. “Oh gosh! Oh gosh! What should I do!?”
On one side, the armored soldier seemed to be doing something to the Monster, possibly trying to activate it for premature launching. On another, Antoine was in trouble of getting pummeled by Asakura. 
Unbeknownst to the twin-tailed fox, Asahina had him in her rifle’s scope. 

“Self-destruct in T minus one minute.” 
Ruby was on her feet again, albeit unsteadily, hands still clutching on her stomach. 
“I’ll be holding on to this until your punishment is done,” Zirconia told her, referring to the ruby stone. 
Ruby did not argue. But truthfully it is hard to tell her actual expression behind the mask. 
“Konata!” Zirconia called out. “Make quick work of the meddler! Then rendezvous with the other Guardians. The priority is to get the Monster safely out of this forsaken place.”
“Hai!” Konata proceeded to leap up to the docking platform then to the roof.
Zirconia conjured the dimensional gateway before her. Ruby trotted to follow Zirconia into the Light 
“Self-destruct in T minus ten seconds. Nine, eight, seven...” 

Godslayer May hurtled through the air and slammed onto the ground a block away. Nagato landed close-by, all the way from the construction facility. Konata followed a second later. 
As the SHADE began to recharge its energy shielding (indicated by a band electrical energy flowing up the armor), Godslayer May wincingly hauled herself up. She had expected the two constructs to attack her by then. But instead she saw Nagato conjured an ovoid-shaped bubble shield made out of some kind of energy around both constructs.
“Oh shit!” Realizing the Death Egg is just seconds from self-destruct, she tried to make a run for it in the opposite direction. 
She could try using her Resist Shield (refers to a static Ethereal shield that is highly durable though not indestructible). But from her past experiences, it cannot hold against explosive force of massive scale (like what happened in Dreamfall’s Killzone act).

Sonic the Hedgehog was awed at the destructive power of the two figures he has never seen before. Amber’s super-heated lightning strikes and Cobalt’s ice blast swept through the second wave of SWATbot reinforcements. In one fell swoop, all the SWATbots were annihilated, the same way the first wave did. The pair’s respective attacks had left evident mark on the surrounding structures- fire damages from Ruby’s side, and mountains of snow and ice from Cobalt’s. 
Sonic and the Godslayers watched the one-sided battle unfold from a building rooftop a block away. They managed to get this close quick as the aerial defense towers they passed on the way were inactive. They correctly assumed it was the work of Patricia May.  
“So you weren’t kidding about that,” Sonic said to Godslayer Fortepiano.  
“Still we can’t just stand here do nothing,” Godslayer Watterson said as he stepped forth right to Godslayer Fortepiano’s side. Unlike the Field Master, he is overly keen to avenge his homeworld’s destruction. “If we could come up with a good plan, there’s-”
“No,” Godslayer Fortepiano interjected. “The plan is to stop the Monster from leaving its platform in one piece. That’s what we’re going to do.”
“No argument from me,” Sonic agreed. “We’ll take the boulevard to get around those two-” 
An ear-splitting boom followed by a rushing shockwave interrupted Sonic. All of them looked towards where explosion originated. There in the distance a huge fireball billowed up into the sky. 
“That must be where May is,” Godslayer Fortepiano guessed. 
She then gave Godslayer Watterson his order. “Go and find her now!”
Godslayer Kurogane initially worried that Zach would argue back. Much to her relief, he did not. 
“Affirmative, FM.” Godslayer Watterson immediately left without saying another word. 
The Field Master is faster in terms of speed but she made right call, Godslayer Kurogane believed. If anything, the SG mentioned by Godslayer May should have left by now, she speculated. Now the only thing left to worry is if the Spirit Godslayer herself is still alive. 

The sound of the Death Egg’s destruction and its resulting shockwave jolted Jade, Asakura and Asahina. The SG quickly dismissed it and got back to his work.
Asahina’s shot missed Tails by considerable degree. The fox shuddered at the thought of he almost got shot to death. On the bright side, he now knows what to do with his slingshot.
Asahina realigned her scoped sight at the fox. When she did, her left eye was struck by Tails’ projectile. Tails did it without the aid of a sighting device whilst moving in midair. A true marksman he is indeed.
Asahina’s face twisted. On closer look, the left iris changed to lighter color and crack impressions were visible on it. Briefly, the construct was distracted by her damaged vision. So it appeared the seemingly-invulnerable Nanite constructs do have a weak point after all. 
“Kisama!” the construct cursed at Tails.
Asakura wondered what had caused the loud explosion. Unlike Nagato and Konata, the two constructs here due to unknown reasons were not aware of the Death Egg’s existence. Antoine seized his chance the moment he saw the construct momentarily distracted. His hoverboard was damaged but still usable. He remotely commanded it to hurl itself at the construct at maximum speed.
Asakura was caught off guard that she did not have time to launch herself to avoid incoming hoverboard. As a result, the crash threw the construct off her feet. Debris from the destroyed hoverboard fell off her attire as the unharmed construct sprang back up shortly after.
“Sacre bleu,” Antoine cursed. “I don’t know why I zout zat would do zee trick.” 
“Baka yarou (fool),” Asakura scoffed, smiling cynically at him.

The Death Egg’s destruction devastated the surrounding area within several blocks radius. Entire buildings had either collapsed or in flames. Smoldered debris from the destroyed facility littered the surroundings. 
Godslayer May grunted as she dislodged the heavy steel I-beam off her. She looked back. The armed Nagato was briskly approaching her. But the second construct stayed back. So it looks like it was going to be a duel between just the two of them. She conjured her personal Ethereal weapons- a katana and a wakizashi. At the same time, her energy shielding had just finished recharging.
Nagato lunged to strike at the Godslayer. The latter went into a combat-ready stance by crossing her weapons, ready to counter the attack.

Back aboard the Catgirl, the display screen showing E-Sat’s fuel cell capacity reached a hundred percent. A long list of diagnostic scan results scrolled down after that. Once it is done, the computer rebooted E-Sat’s system.  
“On,” the Mechanoid announced. His voice was low pitched and very robotic sounding as compared to when he speaks normally. “Switching solid state drive to slave mode.”
He got off table to begin working on his assigned tasks. Mika had programmed E-Sat to run in Slave Mode once he is up, considering it would be much safer that way than letting him running around The Catgirl in his damaged state. In this mode, E-Sat behaved as worker bot with the sole directive of performing whatever tasks programmed into its system. The mode can be deactivated either automatically after a specified period or manually. 
So it turned out that the instructions by Mika for him are housekeeping chores. In the bridge, he performed a routine full analysis of The Catgirl’s systems- electrical, communication, life support, thermal control etc. Later, he performed system analysis on the fusion power reactor but from the computer panels in the engine room. The air vents’ microbial filters were replaced, coolant tanks were replaced and disinfectant were injected through check valves into the pipework system. Dishware and food utensils were washed, dried and disinfected.  
In the meantime, Dash was absorbed in her reading, oblivious to what was going on outside the brig. Zach was right. Daring Do turned out to be an interesting read for her, with characters and plot elements bearing similarities to the Adventurous Abby series that she is accustomed to. The fact all the characters are animals and creatures did give her the impression that the novel is a juvenile literature, but the story is actually serious enough to warrant her interest. 
When the door opened, Dash initially thought it was Zach finally returning from his mission. It was actually E-Sat bringing in tray of food and drink for her. 
“Wha...?” Dash put down the book. When Zach mentioned there is someone else on board, he certainly failed to mention it is a robot. 
“Greetings,” E-Sat said monotonously. “You must be the human defined as Iris Dashiell. My name is E-Sat. I have been directed to attend to your meals.” 
Dash wondered if Ethenians could create something as advanced as micromachines that are Nanites. Maybe it is possible they are capable of creating robots with advanced AI and self-awareness. She did not know it yet. But on Ethenia, Mechanoids is a race of mechanical beings capable of transforming their bodies into other forms- vehicles, machineries and weapons. 
In E-Sat’s case, his alternate form is a weaponized mecha, ten times his original size.      
“E-Sat, huh?” Dash said. “Say, what does it stand for? Electronic satellite dish?” 
Though it was sarcasm, it was also to test whether the robot has a sense of humor. 
“Esoteric Satire,” the Mechanoid replied.
Dash palmed her face. What kinda name is that? Of all the names the Ethenians could come up with, only the SHADE sounded good. 
She took the tray offered to her, put it down on the bed then looked back at E-Sat. There did not seem to be any personality to him. Maybe E-Sat is just a fully autonomous service robot like the ones generically depicted in science fiction, she guessed. 
“You may be not much of a conversation companion. But on the bright side of being a dumb robot, at least you don’t get to judge me. Nor hate me.” Dash lightly tapped her fist on the Mechanoid’s shoulder. “Right?” 
E-Sat looked at his shoulder then at Dash. The fist bump somehow triggered E-Sat’s neural CPU to replay one of the memories stored in his memory modules...

***

This mission took place in Jump City, USA during in the early years in their service of the Godslayer Corps. Fortepiano’s lance were aiding the Teen Titans in battling Nanite constructs in the form of bio-mechanical, arthropodal aliens, referred locally to as the Zergs. 
Godslayer Fortepiano and Robin have just successfully taken out the last of the hives (facilities for producing endless Zerg units) before joining the rest to wipe out the Zerg remnants.
At this point, Super E-Sat was battling a rare but powerful Zerg unit, the Ultralisk. It is a quadruped assault beast equipped with heavy armor and dual scythe-like blades. The mech assailed flurry of punches at the Ultralisk’s head and neck. Due to the Ultralisk’s armor and tremendous weight, it did not flinch from the mech’s attacks. A close-up view of Super E-Sat revealed his arms work like pistons, pumping in and out rapidly from the shoulders to greatly increase the impact of his punches.  
Super E-Sat continued wailing on the Ultralisk, with one last punch with added gusto behind it broke the horn off on the beast’s head. When the Ultralisk tried to counter with its blades, Super E-Sat reacted by striking his fists at the blades, shattering them to pieces. Now weaponless, the Ultralisk did the only thing it could. It body-slammed into Super E-Sat. He staggered back, but otherwise unfazed as the attack only damaged the mech’s armor plating superficially. 
Deciding to end this battle quick, he aimed his fists forth, and fired rapid Ethereal bolts from the Gatling blasters on his forearms. The barrage shot the armor pieces off the Ultralisk then savagely reduced the beast to bits. 
Meanwhile, Godslayer Watterson, Starfire and Cyborg fought the Hydralisk swarms. Because the Hydralisks are not very durable in spite of their protective covering, their numbers were drastically cut down by the trio’s ranged attacks. 
Away from the fight, a Mutalisk lurked close-by. This airborne-typed Zerg attack by discharging explosive projectiles from an opening on its lowest abdomen. Even so, it still requires to engage its target from close range hence its action of creeping up close to Godslayer Watterson. The latter, still green and solely focused on the Hydralisks, failed to realize this until the Mutalisk was shot down by Super E-Sat. 
When the mech came to assist the trio, Godslayer Watterson lightly tapped his fist at Super E-Sat’s body and said, “Thanks buddy!” 
This was one of few occasions where Zach owed his life to the Mechanoid.

***

Dash backed away on her bed in apprehension as E-Sat began shaking violently, his eyes flashing as if he is about to burst apart. Suddenly, he went limp. 
Dash tapped on the seemingly damaged E-at to get some kind of response. The Mechanoid remained unmoving.
“Aw geez!” she cried out in despair. “Fortepiano is gonna kill me for sure! And it’s not even my fault!” 
“On,” E-Sat announced, coming back to life abruptly, to Dash’s utter shock.
“WHOA!”
“Greetings,” E-Sat said in his normal voice tone. “You must be the human defined as Iris Dashiell. My name is E-Sat,” 
“You’ve already said that,” Dash mentioned.
The Mechanoid looked around, seemingly confused. “But what am I doing here? How did I even get here?”
Dash scratched the back of her head repeatedly. “What?” 
How could she know E-Sat was running in slave mode before rebooting to his normal state or memories of a Mechanoid during not retained during slave mode.
“Oh, now I remember,” E-Sat said, slapping his clamps together. “I just blew out a fuse. That could explain it. Mika must have programmed me to-” 
“Look,” Dash interjected. “I ain’t got a clue to what’s going on with you, but I need to ask. D’you know when they’ll be coming back from their mission?”
“What mission?” 
“How do I s’pose to know?” Dash said impatiently, hands on her hips akimbo. “I don’t even know what universe we’re in right now. Aren’t you supposed to be the one who’s well-informed ‘bout this?”
“That is true,” E-Sat acknowledged. “Good day.”
Dash sighed as the Mechanoid locked the door from the outside. It seemed after twenty years of her ‘normal’ life, she kept on running into wacky characters every now and then.
“Welp, can’t worry with an empty stomach, can I?” she said, dropped on the bed and helped herself on the meal. 

Godslayer Fortepiano and Sonic shot through hole in the roof. The Godslayer slammed into Jade while the latter ran down the wall vertically, avoiding the planted dynamites while doing so. A second later, Godslayer Alkarin and Godslayer Kurogane dropped down on top the Monster’s hull. 
Sonic curled up into his spinball form and Spin Dashes into Asakura, thereby saving Antoine from getting a potential severe beating.
“Sonic! You are a life saver!”
“Don’t thank me yet.”
True enough, the hedgehog’s attack had shoved Asakura twenty yards back but the construct remained on her footing and unharmed. 
“That ain’t no Overlander nor an ordinary android,” he remarked. 
Above the docking platform, Jade fought Godslayer Fortepiano during the uncontrollable spin in midair. They struggled for a while. Suddenly Jade had the Godslayer by the throat. He slammed Godslayer Fortepiano onto a column. Choking hard on her, Jade used his free hand to slug the Godslayer’s underside. Her SHADE’s energy shielding flared electrically every time she took a hit.
Godslayer Fortepiano curled up both her legs then kicked Jade away from her. Despite the force from the kick, Jade’s feet remained glued to his hoverboard.
Godslayer Fortepiano dropped down to the floor below, using her jet thrusters to slow down her descent. Upon landing on her feet, she winced in pain. The blows she received was akin to getting repeatedly hit with a sledgehammer.
Jade looked at the display on his arm guard. He tapped on it.
“Application completed,” the device announced. “All systems now online.”
A deep rumbling thundered across the facility. The docking platform shook hard. After short moment, the Monster began to rise. This prompted Asahina and Asakura to withdraw from their respective fights. 
Sonic and Antoine both felt relieved as Asakura took off. As did Tails, when Asahina was a second away from shooting a hole through between his eyes before teleporting away. Now then, what are they going to do to stop the Monster from leaving the facility?
Godslayer Fortepiano realized the danger Freedom Fighters are in right now. “Sonic! Get them out of here!”
Sonic looked at the docking platform where the Godslayer is then up at the Monster. He understood immediately. The safety of his comrades must come first.
He called out to them, “Antoine, Tails! Grabbed Bunnie and Sally! We’re outta here!”
Then, he dashed towards Rotor and hauled the unconscious walrus over his shoulders. Antoine and Tails used their comrades’ remaining hoverboards to cart Bunnie and Sally respectively then followed Sonic back into the sewers. 
Atop the Monster’s hull, Godslayer Kurogane diverted Asakura and Asahina’s attention away from Godslayer Alkarin whom is powering up his lightning attack to detonate the dynamites at the walls whereby the chain reaction from the resulting detonation should be able to damage the Monster enough to ground it.
Godslayer Fortepiano flew up right on top of him. “Alkarin! Do it now!”
Just as Godslayer Alkarin prepared to discharge his lightning, Jade suddenly appeared. No time to use his ultrasonic rifle, he used his wind element instead to attack the Godslayers by conjuring a vortex drill around his hand.  

Extremely powerful, the vortex drill punched through the facility’s domed roof, carrying along all three Godslayers in a spiral inside its funnel high up to the sky. The vortex dissipated immediately after that, whereupon the Godslayers came crashing down through the roof of a nearby building.

Asakura and Asahina made their way inside the Monster just moments before it crashed through the roof. The docking platform collapsed as a result of debris from the destroyed roof crashing down on it, thereby setting off the dynamites planted on the trusses and columns. The resulting massive fireball spread out to the walls, detonating all the remaining dynamites at once.

The Monster made turn a ninety degree by the time Jade saw titanic eruption going on below. He projected a whirling wind all around the Monster. The wind sphere acted as a shield for the warship by repelling the rising blaze away from it. 

In the sewers, the fleeing Freedom Fighters were currently about half a mile away from the construction facility. The tunnel far behind them lit up. Sonic glance back over his shoulder to see bright orange flames engulfing the tunnel and spreading towards them. They all picked up their speed to escape the incoming blaze.

The construction facility erupted outwards from within, spraying burning debris onto the many surrounding buildings. Unlike the case of the Death Egg’s destruction, the resulting devastation to the surroundings was minimal.

The just recovered Godslayer Fortepiano witnessed to her dismay through the shattered windows the Monster emerging through rising black smoke and then took off in the direction of the inner city. She was so sure that when she heard the loud boom and felt the main shock whilst writhing on the floor, the explosion had taken out the Monster.
Down below, the SG pairs were nowhere to be seen. They must have left before or during the facility’s destruction, she theorized. 
“Where’s Alkarin?” she asked Godslayer Kurogane whom just came in from the adjacent room. 
“He wasn’t with me.”
The two began searching for the minotaur.  

Godslayer May parried the strike with her wakizashi. She tried to slash across the construct’s belly with her other sword. Nagato reacted by pulling back a bit then with one foot forward made another strike. Godslayer May parried Nagato’s katana again, pressing it down to the side. She swiftly raised her own katana up high, ready to strike Nagato down.
With one hand gripping tightly on to the hilt, Nagato released her other hand and utilized her arm guard to block the strike. The construct caught the Godslayer’s blade in between the hooks on the arm guard. For a brief moment, the two combatants locked. Nagato rotated both arms to free herself from the lock. Then, she struck Godslayer May with the hilt before kicking her away.
Godslayer May withdrew to a safe distance and deactivated her Ethereal weapons.
“What, don’t tell me you’re giving up already?” Nagato mocked in response.
“In your dreams, bitch!” Godslayer May’s cloak went active.
“That won’t do you any good!” Nagato aimed forth her Needler. “I can still see you!”
Though Nagato could spot her faint outline in cloaked mode, the Godslayer still presented herself as a difficult target.  She jinked from side to side to avoid the shots, charging forth at the same time. Up close, she ducked down to avoid Nagato’s slash then edged around to the construct’s rear. 
Nagato spun around, aiming the Needler at the decloaked Godslayer. The latter used her wakizashi to struck the pistol beyond repair and then went in for a thrust but the construct successfully deflected it. Nagato went on full offensive at Godslayer May who blocked all the strikes with both her weapons.  
Konata became impatient as she watched the two fought.
“Senpai, mou yametara! (enough playing around!)” she called out to Nagato. “Zircon-sama said we shouldn’t waste time!” 
“Hai, hai,” Nagato responded lazily, parrying another thrust before rolling to the side to avoid another strike. She stepped back into a Side Guard stance. 
As Nagato stood there unmoving, Godslayer May tried to read the construct’s intention. She knew that in this stance, it would be virtually impossible for an opponent to predict which angle the next strike would come from (low, side, middle or high). In hope of confusing the construct as well, she assumed the same stance but with her wakizashi held forth. 
Stay focus at all times, she reminded herself. If she concentrated hard enough to spot the strike in the last minute, she can counter it. 
Godslayer May lunged forward. At the same moment, against her expectation, Nagato made a hand gesture. A bright flash occurred before her eyes followed immediately by intense electrical shock surging though her body. One moment, she felt herself getting hurled back. The next thing she knew, she was on the ground woozy, her SHADE flaring intensely and emitting smoke. 
“What just happened?” she rasped. “STAT, analysis!”
On her HUD, the SHADE’s software engine scanned the energy barrier cast by Nagato, which bore similar appearance to the previous bubble shield. The analysis took a few seconds before data pop ups appeared. 
An EM repulsive field, she realized. Shit…
Konata grappled Godslayer May and picked her up, placing the Godslayer in a chokehold. 
Godslayer May, who was still weak from the shock, struggled but was unable to get herself free from the construct’s hold. Nagato proceeded to place a hand on the Godslayer’s visor. 
As Godslayer May struggled, STAT began to go haywire. The visor flashed red as system warning pop ups pulled up before her vision. Soon, everything displayed on the HUD distorted into multicolored pixels and lines. Ultimately STAT crashed, shutting down the HUD and the SHADE’s entire system as a result. 
Konata released Godslayer May and shoved her to the ground. Both constructs looked upon her with contempt. 
Godslayer May picked herself up. No HUD. No motion assistance. She could not conjure her Ethereal weapons. Nothing was responding to her commands.
“What did you do!?” she demanded from the constructs.
Rubbing her palms with glee, Konata felt confident she can take out the Godslayer in no time. “Please allow me finish her off, senpai.”
“Katte ni shinasai (Do as you please),” Nagato said. 
Godslayer May cursed under her breath. What was she to do to defend herself now?

“Access basic telemetry data on all personnel. Enter credentials. Name: Esoteric Satire. User ID: 384226. Password: Perfect Catastrophe.” 
Six portraits pulled up on the virtual screen. All but two have green status. Godslayer Fortepiano’s status was yellow, meaning she is suffering mild injuries. Godslayer May’s status however was grayed out.
E-Sat instructed the computer to perform a rescan. The same result came out. Troubled, he contacted his Field Master.

It did not take that long before they found Godslayer Alkarin lying atop a busted industrial machine. Luckily, the minotaur was back on his hooves in no time as he was not suffering from anything serious, just a little dazed from light concussion. His thick skin and solid build makes him almost impervious to physical blows. The dampening effect from His SHADE’s energy shielding also helped lessen the impact. 
“E-Sat!?” Godslayer Fortepiano blurted as soon as she heard the Mechanoid’s voice through her COM system. 
She looked at Godslayer Kurogane. “Mika, didn’t you programmed him to run in slave mode?” 
“She did,” E-Sat confirmed. “And now I’m back by Snowflake’s miracle.” 
“Why did you call?”
“I have troubling news,” E-Sat notified her. “The Catgirl’s telemetry servers were unable to pick up any feed from Patricia May’s SHADE. It was not a system glitch.”
Sweet Celestia, did she perish in the explosion? the Field Master wondered. Please don’t let that be the case. 
How E-Sat managed to reboot himself or why he was accessing the servers, those questions need to wait.  
“Bring The Catgirl down here on the double,” Godslayer Fortepiano instructed. “Scan for Watterson’s coordinates. We’ll link up at his location.” 
“Affirmative, FM.”

“What’s happenin’? Are they in trouble? Anything I can do to help?” Dash was anxious to know as she strapped herself securely to the chair. 
“I will explain once we’re reach the intended location,” E-Sat promised. “Now please remember not to touch anything.” 
Dash gave a thumbs-up.   
“No messing around,” she assured the Mechanoid.
“Locking in coordinates,” E-Sat announced.
The navigation system pinpointed on Godslayer Watterson’s current location on one of the virtual screens. 

“Setting engine power at one hundred percent.”
The Catgirl’s power reactor hummed to life. Panels around the engine room lighted up, indicating the instruments are working properly to regulate the reactor’s temperature and power output.  

“Bringing energy shielding online.”
Energy shield wrapped around The Catgirl, characterized by an electrical band flowing over its hull. Like the Godslayer’s personal energy shielding, The Catgirl’s shielding is invisible to the naked eye after complete generation.

“Firing thrusters.”
All of The Catgirl’s thrust nozzles fired up. The cruiser moved away from its orbit and began approaching Mobius. 

“Beginning final approach for atmospheric entry,” E-Sat declared, his large, blue eye focused on the main view screen. Even though he has clamps for hands, he manipulated the controls just fine.
“Why can’t we just use the Void?” Dash asked.
“You have no clue about the effect of gravitational field and mass on the Void’s collapse,” E-Sat said to her. 
“Fair ‘nuff,” Dash muttered. 

The Catgirl’s bow began to glow blazing bright once it hit Mobius atmosphere. As the cruiser pushed further through the atmosphere, heated gas layers streamed over the entire hull, creating a visible trail extending from its rear. The energy shielding flared erratically but this is a normal occurrence due to the disruption by high temperatures.

Back on the ground, the Monster hovered above the weapons depot’s outside parameters where several golems stood guard around a cluster of containers. A beam of glowing aurora shot through the opened bottom hatch to the ground whereby the containers dematerialized from view.

Godslayer May dived out of the way, narrowly avoiding another explosion. Most part of her armor, including the helmet, had been ripped off after taking direct hits from Konata’s palm rays, thus exposing deep burns on her skin. Without her helmet on, it is revealed that Patricia May is a light brown-furred anthromorphic cat. 
“Kimi tsukaene na (You really suck at this),” Nagato remarked monotonously, which really annoyed Konata.
“Kuso! Chotto kochi kite! (Get back here!)” The child-like construct caught Godslayer May who attempted to escape. “Bukkoroshite yaru! (I’m going to beat you hard until you die!)” 
Konata proceeded to beat her down severely. But then, all of a sudden, two Fiery-Ethereal arrows into the chest and shoulder sent the construct tripping on her back.
“Nanda...?” Nagato scanned the surroundings cautiously. “Kimi wa dare da? (Who goes there?)”
Not too far away, atop charred remains of concrete blocks and steel trusses, Godslayer Watterson was readying for another shot.