Cossack's Comrades! The Megaman 4 Team!

Business of War: Comrades

Ch.5 The Old Citadel

As far as the eyes could see, all was barren. An icy wasteland during this time of year, Siberia was an unforgiving zone the further north you went. It held near-Arctic temperatures, and winds that would cut through even the most well-prepared of men. It was one of the loneliest, most desolate places you could find yourself, native or not.

And, strangely, something interrupted the endless wintry desert. In the upper Northeast corner of this mineral-rich plain stood something from the country’s past. It was a rather massive fortress, erected sometime in the last five hundred years, its original purpose was now forgotten. Perhaps it guarded something or someone important.

Now, it once again had a distinct purpose. This was the cusp of freedom in the eyes of its current inhabitants. This was where the world would either maintain its freedom or die vying for it against the wave of mechanical terror that had gripped the world with a force never before encountered.

It was here in this stone-slab Citadel that Dr Cossack had called home for nearly a decade now, having renovated it into an impromptu fortress against his will to aid Dr Wily years ago. It was here where he rather unwittingly positioned himself as the coordinator of the “Cossackers”- androids who refused to buy into the Robot Police Force’s strict control over its own forces, or the robotic Scissor Army’s genocide of humanity.

Here was Cossack; stressed, overworked, and in need of sleep. He was alarmingly short on funds and raw materials to keep his own dwindling forces functional, and his core of rebels and outlaws lived on a day by day basis. However, like his namesake, he wouldn’t give up the fight. So much was to be lost and regained by merely refusing to die. So steadfast in his beliefs, that he allegedly muttered that he was the last sane man on the planet.

But now, even the barren wilderness that surrounded his Citadel seemed to turn against him. For weeks now, the Scissor Army was engaged in a campaign destined to find and eliminate Cossack and his outlaws, forming a fire blanket over even the most remote areas of Russia in an effort to pinpoint his location. Defend it as they may, it was inevitable:

The Scissor Army knew where their enemy was.

They were a force nearing twenty. On paper, that doesn’t seem like enough to decimate entire country, but for the past several weeks they’ve proven that paper numbers often lie. They were an assortment of different machines, each designed with a different approach on maximum carnage and destruction. Barely able to sit still, the group was bloodthirsty and ready to murder once again before their collective attention was snapped up by one of their most imposing members.

“Listen up, worms!”, the volcanic ash-colored Napalmman commanded attention. “Until the General himself arrives, I have full command over this operation!”

“Oh good. I thought someone had to have died to make you boss.”, the sword-wielding Captain Quint quipped.

“Watch your mouth, you useless Merc, otherwise someone here WILL die, so help me God.”, Napalmman threatened without any sign of lying.

“God?”, Gravityman’s voice rumbled as he casually leaned against one of the few pine trees dotted around the wilderness. “The General says he never existed in the first place. How can he help you?”

Napalmman wasted no time in storming to the supercharged gravity bender, shoving Android and Mercenary alike out of his way gruffly before shoving the barrel of his cannon into Gravityman’s face.

“Wanna get technical? Fine. Then until our General arrives, I’M your god. Don’t defy me unless you want me to prove that Hell really does exist even without an Almighty, belly crawler.”, the tank-like being rumbled.

“Stop wasting time ‘God’.”, Quint once again demanded attention. “I’m sure the General didn’t want you to throw your ‘heavenly might’ around when you should be getting down to business.

Then again…If you’re not feeling up to this, maybe I should assume command.”

Napalmman glared into Gravityman’s eyes as he lowered his cannon, with Gravity madly staring back, a large grin carved across his face. Slowly, Napalmman turned around, momentarily staring daggers into Quint’s visor before regaining his composure, despite nearly boiling over with rage.

“Okay…Here’s the POA (plan of attack)…”

***

“How do you feel, Artilleryman?” Dr. Cossack asked as he finished his repairs on Artilleryman in the repair bay.

Embarrassed. Humiliated. Pissed off. That was all Artilleryman could feel after Geminiman made a fool out of him in Toronto and left him to die. And having that pissant Dustman come to rescue him made the whole ordeal even more degrading. And to add insult to injury, he missed out on too many missions that he could’ve cashed in on. A cynical part of him felt that he should’ve been used these humiliations by now. But no matter how many times it happened, it never failed to create a slow-burning, festering resentment. Several Cossack bots including Blizzardman, Astroman (one of them anyway), and Diveman were in the room gawking at him. The latter of the three seemed drunker than usual, which was saying a lot. With all the dignity he could muster, Artilleryman focused on what was more important right now.

“Ready to be paid,” Artillery replied, holding out his hand expectantly. Diveman shot him a scornful look as he smoked a cigarette.

“For what? Losin' the goods to the SA? We could’ve gotten that for free!” Diveman chided. “Until ya start doin’ these things right, I say ya get squat.”

“Nothing?!” Artillery screamed. “Who died and made you king?! I deserve a hell of a lot more than that after being blown to smithereens!”

“Ya dropped the ball, Artie!” Dive angrily reasoned, putting his hands on his hips like he was dealing with a bratty child.

“Easy for you to say! You didn’t have Geminiman riding your ass!” Artillery retorted, raising his fist.

“Why the fuck were ya goin’ after him in the first place?” Dive demanded. “All ya had to do was stick to the job! A retard couda done it!”

“…I’ve got my reasons!” Artillery growled. He could’ve cared less about that stupid errand job they stuck him with. And over his dead body was he going to pass up a chance to kill his arch-enemy, even if he turned himself into some powerful monster again. It just made Artilleryman want to kill him more. But Diveman was making headway towards being added to his list, too. The punk simply sneered at him as he bitterly flicked his cigarette at him.

“Gimme a break, Inspector Gadget. Yer not even a has-been. Yer a never was! N’ expensive one at that!” Diveman sneered. “We can fight this without ya ‘f we have to!”

“No.” Cossack stated, shaking his head. Dive looked back at the doctor, disdainfully.

“Yer keepin’ tha bum?! Ya gotta be shittin’ me!” Dive protested.

“We can’t afford to let him go, now,” Cossack warned. Artillery smiled. Cossack had read his mind. If Artillery got booted, then RPD might learn Cossack’s location thanks to an “anonymous” tip. But as long as the money was still flowing, Cossack’s secret was safe with him. Diveman growled in frustration, but relented, taking a heavy drink from his flask.

“Now Artillery, you did your best out there, so you deserve something, I suppose,” Dr. Cossack reasoned calmly. “But with your repairs factored in, your original asking price is too much.” Dr. Cossack took out a pen and wrote something on a scrap of paper, and slid it towards Artillery. “Does this sound fair?” Artilleryman seemed to frown as he looked the figure over. He deserved more than what Cossack was giving. But he couldn’t kid himself. This was going to be his best offer.

“Better than nothing,” Artillery conceded. “Deal.”

“Good. Because I’ve got another mission for you,” Dr. Cossack said. Artilleryman perked up, hoping to make another quick buck. “There’s been a sharp rise of SA activity here in Russia,” Cossack explained. “Obviously, the SA’s preparing for an invasion here. But we don’t know when. Until we can devise a plan, I want you on patrol to keep a sharp lookout for any SA forces in our area. Clear?”

“As mud,” Artillery responded somewhat ruefully.

“Then get to it,” Cossack ordered. Artillery nodded, saying nothing as he bitterly marched out of the Citadel and took to the dark, snowy skies. He was angry to have another crap job dumped on his lap. Why the hell can’t anyone take him seriously?! For God’s sake, he’d brought the Mechanical Maniacs to their knees on a couple occasions! But on the bright side, he still had a future at Cossack’s, he was wiser from his battle with Gemini, and more importantly, he had money in his pocket. All he needed was the right opportunity to show those smug bastards who they were dealing with.

Much to Artillery’s surprise, that opportunity came sooner than he could’ve dreamed. Just beyond the snowy tree line, he could see several figures headed for the Citadel. One of them resembled a twenty-foot tall train spewing ash and coal, another resembled a walking black arsenal on treads. There was no mistaking it- the SA had found them out.

"That didn't take long." Artilleryman grimly mused. “Cossack, we’ve got company,” Artillery reported over his com. He was about to hightail it to Cossack, when he saw a familiar white crystalline figure off in the distance.

Geminiman…Suddenly, nothing else mattered anymore. His archenemy had returned, only this time, he wasn’t going to be as lucky. Artillery remembered every detail of his last encounter with the self-proclaimed “White Knight”. He didn’t want to waste time gloating. He didn’t want waste time wounding him. He just wanted the arrogant fool dead. The deluded Maniac was dead center is his sights. Artilleryman was ready for anything.

Meanwhile, Dr Cossack wasted no time in having his young daughter contact everyone within the Citadel en masse over the loudspeakers:

"Everyone, this is Kalinka." the girl spoke through the several loudspeakers throughout the Citadel. "Gather at the front lobby for briefing. This is not a drill, we are under attack. I repeat, we are under attack. The communication system will be updated so we can all talk to each other by using voice commands. State the initials of the team you want to reach, followed by the name of each specific person. To address an entire team, just voice their initials. Example: CC stands for Cossack's Comrades; CG stands for Cosmic Gladiators; TT stands for Technological Tyrants... " and the message continued on and on.

Immediately, those who were simply resting from their previous mission (that hadn't happened too long ago), where startled by the sound of impending doom...

All of the Robot Masters were gathered in the lobby as Kalinka began to speak on behalf of her father.

"We need all team members to please divide everyone into task force groups based on how well each Robot Master works together. We're going for strategy here, we need to work together if we want to survive this.”

The various Robot Masters began to chatter amongst themselves, trying to get decent teams formed.

Jupiter was looking around for someone who knew what he was doing when he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to face Tenguman.

"I'd be willing to bet Gyroman is out there." he said. "What say we go out there and kick his ass, together?"

"Heh, let's do it!" Jupiter agreed as the two Robot Masters got ready to take off.

T. Hawk stood next to CentaurGirl’s. "Hey, where's Blizzard?"

"T. Hawk." Regdar jumped at the Russian voice suddenly behind him.

"Don't DO that!" Regdar clutched his chest.

"Go and make yourself useful in the surrounding forest." Blizzardman said.

"Sure thing." The legendary gunslinger took off.

"Centaur, go help Slashman. He's trying to form a melee fighter group." Blizzard nodded over in the direction of the clawed robot.

"Okay." The one-woman cavalry unit trotted over to greet Slashman.

Blizzard himself walked over to Frostman. "Hey big guy." He said. Frost turned to him.

"Yeah?" He answered.

"Let's pair up." Blizzard said. "I Think Pirate and Neptune could use our help taking down Waveman and possibly Mega Water. They'll need help if they're going after both."

The two frozen juggernauts teamed up with the water hunter party. Meanwhile, Uranus was calling out to Pharoahman and Sunstar to help them crush Gravityman.

"Hey BB." Pharaoh Waved. "Wanna help us out here? We could use that shining personality of yours."

Bright Babe smiled nervously. "Sure.", she said as she walked over to the group.

Out of the corner of his eye, Blizzard spotted Toad Gal. "Excuse me for just one moment." Blizzard quickly walked over to Zapper.

"Hey, Fox." Toad Gal met Regulus half-way, returning his gentle embrace.

"You be careful out there, my love..." Blizzard whispered to her. "It's dangerous out there... I... I don't want to lose you..."

"I know, I'll be careful." Zapper replied. "And don't go hurt yourself again like you did back in Murmansk... I don't want to go through losing you twice..."

"I promise..." Blizzardman replied. Zapper kissed him on the cheek.

"I love you..." She said.

"I love you too..." Blizzardman replied.

As the two lovers parted ways into their separate groups, the various Robot Masters had finally sorted themselves into squads, each according to their natural ability. Drillman now assumed the role of key speaker, being as he was leader of the home team, and thereby somewhat of a spokesperson.

"Fellow Robot Masters." Drill began. "We are gathered here to fight off the great evil which threatens to kill off hope once and for all. This is evil unlike any other we have faced before in our lives. But we can survive this if we just put faith in each other. Look to your fellow comrades for support, and they will pull through for you. Give it your hardest. We're fighting for our very lives here, let's not fall prey to such a vile foe! You are my Comrades!"

The Robot Masters cheered with approval as they marched on to meet the enemy. They were going to fight the one army everyone was waging war against, yet each robot was surprisingly confident. They weren't going to go down without a fight, that was for sure.

The doctor himself, however, had obvious concerns. Maybe even doubts.

"I-I'll go to the control room to get things prepared." Cossack was already shaking and drenched in sweat as he headed for the exit. However, Astro interrupted him quite abruptly, grabbing him by the shoulders.

"Get a hold of yourself, doc." He tried to get the scientist to calm down. "We will get through this. Just go with the contingency plan and have faith in us." he then proceeded to give the doctor an affectionate hug. This took the man off guard, but did the trick of settling his mood... somewhat.

"Are ya through with the mushiness, Astro Boy?" Diveman questioned, once the doctor was gone. "What the hell do ya suggest we do with this potential mess?"

Blizzardman on the other hand, remained silent and deep in thought.

"For one, we should send our airborne units to do scouting while the doctor prepares the defenses." Astro replied, dismissing Dive's first comment. "Let's meet up at the front to decide our course of action. And let's hope Artillery manages to stall them long enough..."

***

Slashman looked at Swordman. "Sword, I fully intend for us to give it our all in battle. However, the plan doesn't go into enough depth. I think I know our true role in this battle. As decoys."

The other two were disturbed by this. Slashman merely laughed.

"Don't worry, here's what I have in mind. As far as the SA knows, Cossack is still with us. Thus, we have to put on a farce for them, make them think that we're guarding the actual doctor. That way, when they do find out that we're protecting nothing but the Citadel, Cossack and the others are long gone. It's called getting fooled by a fool. You two with me on this?"

He didn't wait for an answer. Already, his built-in sensor array was going off. Movement, just outside the Citadel, and it wasn't part of Cossack's forces. Wasn't shaped like any of the SA COs, either.

"Don't answer that now." he said hastily. "Something out there, probably a spy. Both of you, come with me!"

He started off on all fours, hoping that his assigned teammates would follow.

***

“So our plan is to simply run in head on to Cossack’s Citadel and lay siege upon it, Captain?” Geminiman asked in a rather impatient tone.

“Yeah. With the element of surprise in our hands we should be able to overrun their defenses in no time. You got a problem with that?” Napalmman grunted

The White Knight glared at the walking tank with his soulless voids of eyes. There was an apparent feeling of animosity between the two SA Officers as the large groups of overpowered oppressors were marching towards the Citadel. The White Knight, now having to follow orders from what he thought to be an uncouth brute of a superior was none too pleased to hear that he was not in charge of the tactical layout of this mission. Furthermore, Captain Napalmman was not trusting of his fellow officer, despite achieving two definitive wins for the Scissor Army and being entrusted with his own personal Order of ‘Holy Knights’, as he called them. The fact that the only reason he was on their side was all due to Mesmerman’s firm grip on his mind.

“I just think that if we were to launch a sneak attack, it would be best to do it from multiple sides rather than to simply apply brute force to a single area like some sort of barbarian.” The White Knight sneered causing the Captain to turn around and look the bishounen right in the eye with anger.

“You are following MY orders in this mission, so we will do things MY way, pretty boy! I will not stand for such disrespect towards the chain of command, understand?”

The White Knight simply laughed in the face of such intimidation before he made a slight bow and then voiced in a mocking tone, “Yes, Captain.”

The walking tank decided to not bother with the knight’s sarcasm and carried on his approach to the Citadel.

“With, the teleportation barrier set; the Cossacks are now trapped within their cozy little castle.” CrystalGirl laughed wickedly. “Now they can’t escape without our notice.”

“We must make haste then.” Quint added as the rest of his Mercenaries dragged behind the Ascendant Androids.

“Agreed. Remember, our mission to destroy all of Cossack’s resistance and gain access to the innards of the Citadel. However, we have not been permitted to kill the doctor just yet. That pleasure will be saved for our glorious general!”

“Onward! Kill now, for Elysium awaits!” Quint cried out, rallying the Mercenaries before marching forth.

Napalmman did not look too happy as the Mercenary leader had interrupted him but saved no time in increasing the pace of the Androids’ march towards the Citadel.

“Move like the wind, attack like fire… I suppose that works.” Geminiman commented as he followed suit in increasing the pace, catching up with CrystalGirl and Ballade.

“I look forward to working with you two lovely ladies.” He said as he gave the two girls a standard bishounen grin as he marched alongside them.

“There will be time for your own little sick fantasies later Geminiman,” Mesmerman’s voice sounded from within his head, “Right now, focus on the mission at hand.”

“Very well, the White Knight doth approach…” he grinned even more as he advanced further, but soon his expression faded as he looked up into the sky and saw something unexpected in the distance.

“You… you’re supposed to be dead!”

“Surprised to see me, Geminiman?” Artilleryman smiled looking down at the cluster of SA Officers approaching before aiming his cannon at an upwards angle. “I’ve been fully repaired just in time to find you approaching Cossack’s Citadel. Perhaps things are finally starting to go my way with my revenge… No more games this time Geminiman, this is where you will die!”

Artilleryman’s body suddenly shot downwards as he fired something into the air, the White Knight quickly realized what the former Wily Bot had just launched and his expression turned into pure horror. It was a Long Tom shell.

“Stop that shell from hitting the ground immediately! That thing could kill us all right here, right now!” he screamed out.

Artilleryman flew back up and laughed at his enemy’s peril. “I will see to it that you won’t leave Russia alive, Geminiman.”

Geminiman, you retarded yaoi reject! Napalmman cursed as the Long Tom shell plummeted back down towards the Earth, annoyed and astounded that Artillery Man was still kicking. Why the fuck couldn't the self-proclaimed "White Knight" slaughter some Crashman wannabe? Christ, Napalmman could've obliterated that loser in his sleep! Now they were all going to pay for Geminiman’s screw-up.

However, Gravityman and Stoneman were nodding at each other, as if they reached some unspoken agreement. Suddenly, a stone pillar shot up from underneath Gravityman, raising him until was almost eye-level with Chargeman. When the shell was twenty feet above Gravityman, it suddenly started slowing down. Just before it hit the dirt, the shell came to a gentle stop, then gently floated up in front of Gravityman. Pleased with himself, Gravityman sneered with delight as the shell floated just over his open palm.

"I think I'll keep this for myself..." Gravityman commented happily. Napalmman and CrystalGirl shot each other uneasy glances. Just what they all needed: a repeat of Johannesburg. As if it wasn't fun enough the first fucking time around. Goddamn Geminiman.

"THAT'S why you're not calling the shots, Almost-a-Lady!" Napalm snarled at Geminiman. "Alright twinkletoes. I want Almost-Crashman's ass on a platter. And do it right this time if you want to keep yer good looks," Napalmman barked. "Gyroman, you know the drill"

"Aye, aye Cap'n" Gyroman shot back as he took off towards the Citadel and begin his recon. Out of the corner of his eye, Napalmman could see a couple probes also racing off towards the Citadel. Sedulus must've been trying to take matters in his own hands. Just who the fuck did he think he was?! Did he forget who was running the show?!

"Congratulations, Sedulus. You just pulled guard duty" Napalmman congratulated over the com, receiving nothing but static in response.

Sedulus scanned the horizon, smiling in a friendly way, although the fact that he always expressed this face made it seem sinister.

"It would appear as though the battle has already started." Sedulus began to observe. "It was a foolish notion for Captain Napalmman to order a direct assault on the Citadel. My analysis on the moral values of the different factions would lead me to conclude that the Armored Assassins have taken residence within that Citadel. Prior observations on their operating record combined with the research that I have gathered on the other major Cossack-faction Robot Masters points to a frontal assault being ill-advised, as they have exhibited a noteworthy ability to formulate effective combat techniques when pressed beyond their normal fighting limits."

Sedulus slowly sank to the ground, as he had to hover to get a good view of the Citadel. "Thankfully, Captain Napalmman was too busy in debating the logic of the situation at hand with Scissor Army Officer Geminiman to properly monitor my actions, allowing me to implement a more suitable plan as my function dictates."

Sedulus raised his arms and a mass of floating spheres began to hover from the cover of the trees. Each sphere had a crystal embedded in the center that looked like an eye. They slowly made their way into the surrounding area of Cossack's Citadel, hardly noticeable, as they stayed low to the ground while projecting images of the surrounding background to mask their presence.

"Now initiating reconnaissance operations to assist the General in creating his model environment." Sedulus remained where he stood as his probes slowly crept towards the Citadel in the hopes of eliminating one more obstacle to perfection.

Not too far away, another SA Officer evaluated his options against Napalmman’s orders…

Wraith loomed on top of a hill overlooking the battlefield and near Sedulus, only part his face showing in his black-as-night cloak. “I can feel the horror in the air.” He said, cryptically.

Wraith looked back over to the castle where his brother and his allies were standing their ground.
“And so it is that the Scissor Army gathers at the gates of Cossack’s Citadel, a bellowing storm of arrows and swords. So it is that the meager resistance of the castle walls crawl from their misery and hopelessness to do battle with the storm, ripe with the stench of doubt. The storm moves on, spreading death and decay to all it touches, and all life is extinguished in a flurry of metal and light. What is it that will happen? The tempest moves ever closer by the second to the foolish defenders’ walls. Shall this maelstrom of death breach their defenses and very souls, or shall they flee in terror in its wake? This I ask all of them in quiet inquiry and my answer is soon to be given. My plea? Run. Run little warriors, so long as you wish to draw out your wasted lives… or embrace the storm, and the life-giving waters it will cause to flow, and the new life that will rise from the barren ashes.”

Wraith looked down, at his fellow officers, most of whom were twitching with anticipation. He laughed to himself, and said,
“Then it is to be. Let no man here look to the sky and find God’s mercy bestowed unto him. Let no man’s prayers be granted. Let no words of mercy be answered, no words of confidence uttered, and no words of hope chanted.”

And with that, he retreated to the shadows, practically melting into the void. He had a brother to find and save from his stupidity. He lurked through the shadows cast by his fellows and the grand castle itself.

***

The team of Pharaoh, Bright, Uranus, and Sunstar headed out to the terrace to scope the surrounding area.

"Aright, here's the plan." Jade turned to his posse. "We can't afford to let Gravityman near the Citadel. The General probably isn't gonna let him use too much juice since it'll be hard for him to confirm Cossack's dead if he flattens the whole place in one flick o' the wrist. But he can still keep this battle tilted in the SA's favor as long as we let him be, so we're taking him out ASAP."

Jet looked a little nervous. "That was a tough battle we had with him last time. Will we be able to do it with just the four of us?"

"That's why we have a secret weapon this time." Pharaoh motioned to Uranus. "How do you feel about putting your own gravity powers to the test, big guy?"

"Well, I don't think my powers are quite as strong as his, but I'm willing to give it a try." The enormous Stardroid shrugged.

Pharaoh nods. "That's why we're not sending you against him by yourself. We just need someone with a way to counter those Gs of his." Pharaoh comforted, then turned to Bright. "Jet, we'll need you to stick to a support role here. Gravs can't attack what he can't see, so keep him busy with your brand of million-watt sunshine."

BB laughed quietly, "O-Okay, sounds good. I'll try not to let you down."

Pharaoh smiles. "I know you won't." He looks over to Sunstar, the powerful prototype Stardroid. "You and me will be the primary attack force. While Jet and the Brahma bull there keep his threat to a minimum, we attack the guy with everything we have. Remember, he can still crush anyone around him so don't get in close. Use your best energy attacks that he won't be able to stop with his gravity powers. All clear?"

Shift nodded.

"Remember, teamwork is gonna be the key to beating him. Stick to the plan and we can win this. Everybody got it?"

The other three all silently nodded in agreement.

"Excellent. Then what are we waiting for? Let's go hunt us an Android!"

Elsewhere, Searchman had headed to another terrace of the Citadel, from which he could see the Army without being shot back. He focused his eyes ...

Yes.

Quint was here. At the thought of what he would do to his "brother" soon, he felt a sudden rise of Evil Energy, which he promptly stopped. Now was not the time to lose his mind.

He opened the communication channel.

"AA Tomahawk. Do you hear me ?"

"Loud and clear, Searchman. What's the matter ?"

"Suggestion : we take on Quint. Buy some time to the others for now. Once he gets in my range, I'll contact you back."

"Roger. T.Hawk, over."

The two-headed sniper took one of the secret exits of the Citadel. He thanked his idea of repainting his armor parts to a snow-themed camo. Once he was perfectly hidden, he checked his weapons ... and waited.

***

Quint was looking at the fight between Artillery and Gemini from the distance. He had to admit his “fellow” mercenary was faring well so far.

"Too bad you didn't join me as a co-worker..." he muttered, a grin on his face.

Taking his focus back on the battlefield, he opened a line with his own Mercs.

"Here's the plan: Buster Rod, Enker, stay grouped. We'll need a shield and explosions to distract the Cossackers from the bigger units."

"Yes sir !" they replied in unison.

"Ballade, Punk, try to break those walls down. Don't hesitate to break your opponents down as well."

The two Killers didn't reply, but Quint knew they got the order.

"What about me ?" asked Mega Water.

"Protect Waveman."

"What ? But-" complained the aquatic Merc.

"No "buts". Follow the orders. Quint, over."

And for me ... Well, let's see who I run into.

He carried on, ready to kill Cossackers in the name of the General.

In the shadow of the Citadel’s outer walls, Geminiman was quick to follow Captain Napalm’s orders as he spread out from the rest of the SA officers and headed straight for Artilleryman whom was still flying up above. His appearance was drastically different now, due to Cossack’s low budget, use of salvaged parts and overall lack of knowledge on the mercenary's build, Artilleryman was sporting a new look. While his color scheme was the same, he seemed skinner and slightly taller than his previous incarnation and even his old Crashman helmet had been replaced with something that resembled a Scissor Joe’s head although it still maintained a small fin of sorts, but the most obvious change was the addition of a set of wings on his jetpack, a creative twist from the Russian doctor, no less. “Back in Toronto, you fired that Long Tom Cannon and blew yourself into pieces. How could you possibly be alive after that?”

“Surprisingly enough, my head was still intact after the explosion. So once it got recovered, Dr Cossack outfitted me with a new body, while it may not be as sturdy as the one Wily had given me, I’ve found that it is significantly lighter and easier to move in.” the mercenary demonstrated this by zipping past the approaching White Knight while firing several blasts from his Pyro Cannon at him, Geminiman leapt out of the way and retaliated with several plasma shots from his arm cannon but the airborne Artilleryman gracefully maneuvered around the blasts and smirked back in his longtime foe. “The downside to all of this is that it all came out of my paycheck! You cost me a lot of money back then in Toronto, so now I will have you pay it all back in full.”

The White Knight observed his surroundings; they were not in his favor at all. There was not a single surface that would reflect his laser into forcing Artillery’s movements, and due to the surrounding snow he could not use his cloaking ability due to the footprints he’d leave behind. He hated to admit it, but Artilleryman had an overwhelming advantage over him now.

“This time, I will make sure you are dealt with properly. By the end of this you will be just as dead as Multiman after I blew his head off at Cape Canaveral!” the Twin Terror remarked only to be met with laughter.

“You think you killed Multiman? That’s just great! I’ll tell you one thing Gem, Multiman cannot die. Did you think he’d send all his clones into the battlefield? No, unlike you, since he only needs one alive to fully survive, he always keeps one safe and sound at Skull Fortress, making it impossible for him to ever be killed in combat! Face it Geminiman, you’re incapable of killing your enemy properly!”

Geminiman was annoyed beyond belief. Not only had Artilleryman survived his encounter in Toronto, but Multiman had also survived at Cape Canaveral, not to mention Woodman also miraculously revived after getting hit by the Celestial Dance of the Gemini back at Kalingrad. All his proud moments of battle had just been dashed. Sure, he was able to conquer the cities with a definitive victory, but he had failed to kill a single commanding officer permanently. How was he going to defeat Shadowman if he couldn’t even rid himself of Artilleryman? Something had to be done. His pride had been torn once again, but this time he was going redeem himself and he had to do it by himself, with no help from the rest of the SA. Artilleryman was his target and his alone.

“I swear that I will turn that new body of yours into nothing but charred remains, Artilleryman. I will kill you in ways that you couldn’t even imagine.”

“And how exactly are you going to do that when I’m all the way up here, and you’re all the way down there? With no walls to bounce your lasers off of you can only fire them directly up at me, and with my new body I can evade any direct attack you send my way. Face it Gem, you’re not going to win this time.”

Artilleryman then proceeded to launch a barrage of missiles down into the ground and cause several explosions around the White Knight, covering him with smoke and concealing his vision. Geminiman tried to search around for his target but the smoke was so thick that he could not see past his hand. Soon the sound of Artilleryman’s Pyro Cannon could be heard and fireballs from all directions shot past his face. He was toying with him.

The mercenary robot sneered from above with his targeting visor locking on to the White Knight within all the smoke. He was winning this time, without a doubt. He circled around the smoke once more and launched even more fiery death into the cloud, but then to his surprise he saw a bright light blast through the smoke and go right past him forcing him to quickly divert his flight path. He looked down and lo and behold, the White Knight was standing there now free from his cloudy prison, grinning back at his old rival.

“A very well thought out plan, Artilleryman. However I will not be outdone just yet.” The Twin Terror spoke as he quickly threw a clone into the air with all his might with the intention of colliding into the airborne mercenary.

“You seriously don’t think you can knock me out of the air that easily?” he laughed as he evaded the incoming clone but then heard a familiar sound of a laser being fired. He looked down to see the laser being fired from within the smoke and into the clone positioned outside the smoke with its shield up, the laser then bounced into the direction of Artilleryman.

“Cunning bastard…” Artilleryman muttered before attempting to change direction again in order to dodge the laser, the blast was so large that he couldn’t continue flying backwards, he had no choice but to descend, and then he saw it. The clone that was thrown into the air had managed to line himself perfectly with the descending Artilleryman and had his laser pointing right at him.

“And now you’re perfectly aligned for my most graceful performance…” the White Knight smirked and fired another laser straight at Artilleryman. In quick response, the mercenary launched several more missiles around him and fired his stun laser through the giant beam of light heading towards him hoping to at least immobilize one of the clones and cover his tracks immediately before he could try maneuvering his way out of this attack. However he was not fast enough and in the process of changing his flight path again, the laser had grazed him and blown off a chuck of his leg.

“Damn it, that’s more damages coming out of my paycheck! You’re only going to make him worse on yourself Geminiman!” he yelled as he flew out of the dust cloud, passing the falling stunned clone on the way up whom gave him a bitter glance and then positioned himself high up in the air once again.

“I think a nice change to the terrain is in order.” Artilleryman remarked as he switched his arm cannon into particle beam mode and charged up pointing down below to where his targeting visor told him Geminiman was.

***

Of the various Cossack troops formed, the aerial "team" was the first to be dispatched. Jupiter was worried they were only two of them. Well, at least Gyroman seemed to be the only airborne SA agent...

"Don't underestimate this guy." Tenguman warned. "The Ascendant Androids are robotic monsters..."

"Right." This only made Jupiter even more nervous.

As they circled above the Citadel, they caught a glimpse of the approaching horde of robots. Signs of a battle were seen near the Northern wall... it was probably Artillery's doing.

"Take a look around, see if they're not approaching from any other direction!" Tenguman told Jupiter.

With keen eyes, Jupiter scanned the barren stretches of snowy Earth below him.

"All is clear!" A few seconds were enough for them to confirm that it was only a frontal assault.

"TT: Astroman." Tengu voiced out loud. "Naop, they are engaged frontal assault..."

Just then, the sound of what seemed to be a chopper was heard. Tengu and Jupiter turned around to face their opponent...

***

"Understood." Astroman replied through his com link. "Guys, it's time to send out our heavy-duty units!" he ordered the people that were still in the lobby. "The enemy is relying on an all out, frontal attack. Try to hit them from the distance, and give us cover fire while we do our massive attacks! Melee units remain close behind the heavy-duty units, and guard the Citadel at all costs!"

And with those words, everyone else in the Citadel got moving. As Astro himself was heading out, he almost bumped into one of the doctor's old colleagues taking refuge within the old fortress. "Vladimir? What the hell are you doing here? Go join the others!" he shouted at the old man, who did an apologetic reverence. "Drill! Please, could you escort Mr. Chevchenko?" he asked the CC leader before he headed for the escape team's location.

After this, Astroman joined AstroChan and Toad Gal outside of the Citadel. "Okay, girls, let's get ready to..."

The TT leader was interrupted by another incoming transmission. "TT: Astroman, the motion detector gun turrets have spotted a camouflaged threat near the Citadel’s perimeter. One has already been taken down. Just thought I'd let you know." reported Pluto, who was keeping an eye on the defensive systems.

"Damn!" Astro cursed. "Spies..."

***

"What a shame, comrade Sedulus..." a voice was heard from behind the SA officer, just as a cloud of purple smoke materialized. It was Mysteryman, and behind him, a group of 5 odd-looking Joes that had recently become known as his personal "Troupe". They all sported the same color scheme in their uniforms, a distasteful green and purple combination. "It seems your plan has backfired on you."

"Hmm... It would appear so. However, only a few of my surveillance units have been taken out of commission. As of this moment, there are 30 probes still in operation." Sedulus smiled back at him.

"Well, I guess I should thank you. Thanks to your Crystal Eyes, one of my agents has already infiltrated the Citadel." Mystery confessed, while his men chuckled in unison.

"I am aware of your entry into the Citadel." Sedulus said calmly. "I would like to inquire how you were able to infiltrate the defenses with a larger and more readily visible unit such as a Scissor Joe."

"Oh, yes... You all seem to forget that I am a Cossack robot by birth. And while the old man took the time to get the location of his fortress out of my memory banks, he didn't bother to remove many other bits of useful information." the cloaked robot explained. "You see, there's a surveillance system all around the Citadel. And while you little toys were able to be undetected by the cameras, the motion sensor weapons were a different matter. So my agent took advantage of this, and while the gun turrets were focused on your toys, he made an entry."

"It would appear as though I was in error in calculating your ability to formulate competent military maneuvers under demanding circumstances." Sedulus's face had retained its smile the entire time, not in the least phased by Mystery using his eyes to gain the advantage. "Judging by your operating record, I expected something less efficient by design. You have had several notable failures on your record, one of which was a near-fatal encounter with my creator, Blizzardman of the Armored Assassins."

Mystery clenched his fist. "Blizzardman... created you?" He snarled.

Sedulus nodded. "Yes, he is quite remarkable when it comes to mechanics and programming. I was designed to look after the Flying Fortress, keeping it in a constant state of perfection as defined in my programming." Sedulus turned towards Mysteryman, still smiling.

"You underestimate me, comrade. Even our 'beloved' captain was unable to notice my agent as he went by his team..." Mystery emitted a maniacal laughter. Mystery was masking some indignation at Sedulus's lack of frustration at being outclassed, and it especially irritated him to have his failures brought up.

"Oh, I have also calculated that there is a 33% chance that the Cossack's Comrades’ leader, Drillman, may be planning to tunnel Dr. Cossack out of the barrier, as they have no other suitable alternative at the moment. It is more probable than any other plan so far according to my calculations."

"Hmm..." Mysteryman thought about it. It did seem likely... "Thank you, Sedulus." He said after giving it some thought. "I'll have my spy look into it."

"I hope that you continue to deviate from your normal performance record, as observations would indicate a strong tendency for overconfidence to alter your judgment, thus jeopardizing the success of the mission." Sedulus turned back the Citadel.

Mystery gritted his teeth. He hated to have flaws pointed out. He'd show Sedulus.

***

"DM: Slashman" Astroman commanded. "What is your situation?"

"We've located another of those crystal spheres. It has already tasted the metal of my claws. They are very sneaky and well camouflaged, though. We had to rely on infrared vision..." Slashman explained through the com link.

"Nice going. We just spotted another one escaping from the gun turrets and launched an attack in it's overall direction, managing to hit it. You should try that if it gets difficult. Astroman over and out!"

"Naop, I've done what you told me." Toad Gal came running towards the pair of Astro robots. "The first SA grunts to come this way will be greeted by a shower of acid rain."

"Great! Now let me check on the escape team... TT: Groundman. What's your situation?" Astro asked through his com link.

"Man... I'm already digging our way out since the alarm started, but..." a lot of noise could be heard on the background, obviously because of the drilling. "A few of Cossack's colleagues haven't joined us yet, they stayed behind because one of them is taking a lot to get out of the bathroom. Drill is waiting for them."

"What?!" Astro shouted. "There is no time for that! Let me talk to Drill... Naop over and out."

AstroChan and Toad Gal gave him a worried look. "No need to worry, I'm sure it's just one of those old dudes dealing with incontinence. CC: Drillman, what the hell is going on? Get that man out of the toilet!"

"Roger that, Naop, I'm already on it." Drill replied. "Mr. Chevchenko! We have no time to lose, I'm coming for you!" Astro could hear as Drill knocked on the door. Then the door was opened, and there was silence for a moment.

"What happened?!" Astro was getting impatient, he started fearing this would be a trap.

"Nothing, really. He came out on his own, we're already moving out. Drillman over and out!"

"Gee... these old folks..." Astro wasn't left with a lot of time to ponder on the situation. The SA had reached them, and the gun fire had started. The heavy-duty guys had begun their preventive attack...

Crawling next to the toilet, and old Russian scientist gasped as life escaped him. The blood pouring out of his throat, which was slit open from ear to ear. Doctor Vladimir Chevchenko was no more...

***

A blizzard had moved in over the Citadel. It was something that would be lethal for any human to fly in a modern plane, let alone a chopper.

Yet, casually, Gyroman stayed aloft a few feet before the pair of Tenguman and Jupiter, his arms folded in front of his chest as his body made minor adjustments to compensate against the wind.

“So.”, he shouted over the wind and his own engine, barely heard by the two Cossackers. “They sent you two up here to do…what, exactly?”

“To keep a scumbag like you from firebombing our place!”, Jupiter retorted.

“Ha ha…You think so? Sounds to me like they’re just trying to get rid of you guys by sending you on a suicide mission.”

“The hell are you talking about?”, Tenguman interjected. “You’re the one who’s out numbered and outclassed, genius!”

“Do I look worried?”, Gyroman commented snidely.

“No, but that’s probably because you’re a friggin’ idiot!”, Jupiter countered.

“An idiot who’s already had enough time to survey your entire Citadel! Now, we have just as much of an advantage here as you do!”, he claimed.

“Yeah, right!”, Tenguman snorted. “Man, we LIVE here! You think a quick fly by will tell you everything that we know?”

“It’ll tell me enough, let’s just say.”

“Jup, this guy’s an amateur! Let’s blow this jerk out of our skies!”, Tenguman commanded.

Gyroman began a low laughter, unheard by the other two up there with him as he silently sent a file to his commander below. Methodically, the safeties from all of his sidewinder missiles clicked off, and his machine guns chambered their first of many rounds to be fired that day…

Back down on the battlefield, something beeped in Napalmman’s mind, alerting him to a message just received. His vision now split between a live feed and the file, he was pleased to find that Gyroman, despite encountering the enemy high above, had finished his recon, and had sent him a texturized map of the area.

And while this made things a little easier for the infinitely enraged SA Captain, he still had to contend with other issues down on planet Earth.

Out of the corner of his eye, Napalmman noticed Punk and Ballade marching towards the Citadel. Christ, couldn’t these retards wait for orders?

“Where the hell do you think yer going?!” Napalmman barked over the com. “Report back to me ASAP. You too, Duchess and Houdini,” Without saying a word, the two brain-dead Mercs along with CrystalGirl and Mysteryman started falling back towards Napalmman.

“What are you doing?!” Quint demanded. “We need to attack now while the Cossackers are still off guard!”

“Hush sweetie, the adults are talking,” patronized Napalmman as he turned back to the gathered troops. Infuriated, Quint was about to draw his useless, pogo-stick thing, only to find himself staring down eight different launchers trained on him.

“Don’t even try, shrimp,” Napalmman warned. “You’re hanging on by a thread, and the General’s not going to miss you. ‘Til you and yer shit eaters stop bringing us down, you’re my bitches.” Several seconds passed as the captains stared each other down, barely flinching. Eventually, Quint resentfully disarmed, and Napalm turned his attention back towards the shitbags he summoned.

“Now listen good, you puddles of eel piss, you. Sedulus and I are gonna form a perimeter 200 yards away from the Citadel. If you see Cossack or any of his other meatsacks make a break for it, kill them on sight. Ignore any fleeing commie-bots, and take prisoners if they offer themselves up,”

“Guard duty?” Mysteryman scoffed. “I’m capable of better than that.” Steam shot out of Napalm’s vents.

“Luckily for you, I want you to keep mindfucking these commies from your position. So you get that for free,” Napalm retorted. “Like I said, nothing fancy here, just a frontal assault. We’re powerful enough to stand up to whatever these losers throw at us. Once the Citadel’s softened up, Enker, Shrimp, Spade, Buster Rod and Team Watersport will keep the General company as he storms it. I’ll provide cover fire from my location throughout the battle,”

“What about Geminiman?” CrystalGirl asked, nodding towards the pompous pretty boy as he fought the merc against the wall of the Citadel.

“Fuck him,” Napalmman dismissed. “Super Stud should be able to get himself out of this mess. Or he won’t. Either way, he’s getting what he deserves,” Napalmman snidely reasoned. “But if he pulls through, he’s stuck with guard duty. Ya hear that, Fabio?!”

“Guard duty?! You-“ Napalmman switched off his com channel to Geminiman. Napalm wasn't interested in arguing the point with Bishie-Boy. They’ve wasted enough time already.

Artilleryman was about to fire his particle beam when the Gemini Laser he had just dodged suddenly shot back up in his direction.

“Damn his bouncing laser!” he screamed out before turning away to dodge the laser at the same time as he fired the beam of light, creating a large trench into the ground which melted a large amount of snow in the process. While his attack had missed its initial target, it had done damage to some of the terrain in front of the rest of the SA. However, this did not seem all too significant to the overpowered oppressors who continued their storming of the outer walls.

“Guard duty…” Geminiman muttered under his breath, “That oversized brute is placing me on guard duty? How dare he disgrace me with such a task!” Of course, that was for later. The matter at hand was still Artilleryman, who still had the advantage of an open field and being airborne. If he could force the mercenary on to the ground, then he would be a much easier target to hit. The question was “how”, though.

The smoke from all the missiles had been a nuisance for the White Knight. It had completely obscured his vision, leaving him no idea where an attack would come from except for the clues left by the sound of Artilleryman’s jetpack and cannon, and to make matters worse, Artilleryman’s accurate aim seemed to indicate that his targeting system could see through the smoke when he had him pinned. Even if he were to cloak himself, the smoke would distort the light manipulation of his cloaking device and his footprints also left a dead giveaway. He needed to get out of the smoke, just long enough for him to regain his bearings.

“This shouldn’t be that difficult… It’s only Artilleryman! He hasn’t even got a decent build anymore. Neither he, nor any other robot present in this battlefield can match up to my caliber…” the White Knight thought to himself. “I’ll show them… I’ll show them all!”

Determined, Geminiman threw a clone of himself in a random direction. He knew from before the fight occurred that they were in a reasonably open field, so there wouldn’t be many obstacles or pitfalls that might endanger him if he threw his clone too far and so he got the clone to split off and throw another clone which cleared him out of the smoke. Artilleryman did not let this action pass his radar and quickly re-aimed his cannon at the clone outside of the smoke and fired a stun laser at the clone, freezing him in place just outside the cloud of smoke. However, the White Knight had already anticipated that, as he had shifted his mind into the paralyzed clone he could not see outside the cloud and knew immediately how to position his clones. Soon, four more Gemini clones had appeared outside the smoke screen.

“I have you now, Artilleryman…”

Two of the clones fired a laser at two of the other clones which had activated their shields causing them to bounce off them and head back into the smokescreen. The mercenary robot just laughed at the former Maniac’s tactic. It was easy to figure out what he was doing- he was trying to use the smokescreen as a cover so he wouldn’t know which clone the laser will eventually bounce upwards from and head towards him, causing him to dodge that one and force his movement into the next laser. But with all the clones outside the smokescreen all he had to do was look for how the clones would change the angles of their shield to determine which ones were going to come in his direction and in what order. From that, he would be able to dodge both lasers with ease. Or so he thought…

Finally, a laser shot upwards into the sky… From the center of the cloud of smoke. The mercenary had been paying too much attention to the outside clones that he had forgotten there was still one within the smoke.

“Damn it, the bastard purposefully left a flaw in his plan as a distraction!” Artilleryman thought as he turned his attention to the incoming laser in order to dodge it. The Gemini clones reflected the second laser to where Artilleryman was moving. But the laser was still too slow for the airborne robot and he managed to duck under the intersection point of the lasers and looked down to laugh at his adversary, only to find that he was no longer there.

The lasers had then passed over, revealing the White Knight plummeting straight towards Artilleryman, unleashing a shooting star punch right in the centre of the mercenary’s chest.

“Those lasers weren’t meant to hit you; their actual purpose was to mark the point in which I was drop down from the sky so I could personally break you and see the expression on your face when you finally realize that you are simply inferior.”

However, Artilleryman did not show any sign of anger or frustration, only an evil grin as a small compartment at the base of his fin opened up and a tiny dart fired into Geminiman’s face causing him to reel back a slight bit as the two robots crashed into the ground.

“I got you…” Artilleryman laughed as he slowly rolled over and picked himself up from his crash landing. The White Knight stood up clutching his face although angered; he was oblivious to what had just hit him.

“Argh, you shot me in the face again! Damn you…” Geminiman was about to finish his sentence when he suddenly went down on one knee and felt a surging pain inside him. “What the hell did you do to me?”

“A little secret weapon I had,” The mercenary sneered, “it’s a virus that quickly eats away at the life of whatever trash is foolish enough to get hit by it has left to offer, slowly, and painfully.” Artilleryman watched as Geminiman finally collapsed into the snow before he activated his jetpack, which was still functioning despite the crash landing, and flew away from the fallen White Knight. “I win this time Geminiman, your defeat came with your overwhelming arrogance. Now you will finally suffer a long and painful death that I had promised you.”

He turned to see the rest of the SA clawing away at the Citadel. Before activating his communicator with Dr Cossack, “I hope those reinforcements are coming soon, Doc, I can only hold off so many of them on my own.”

Geminiman was feeling the pain of the virus coursing through his body. Was this how he was going to die? No, this was ridiculous. He couldn’t die from something so trivial, from someone he deemed unworthy. This was not how it was going to end! And yet, he felt like he was beginning to slip away. It was all so pathetic, falling in a battle in which he was reduced to the lowly job of guard duty by a stupid, bombs-for-brains, oversized tank and done in by a cowardly virus deployed by a Robot Master reject. He was in the Scissor Army so he could get the respect from robots that humans did not give him, to be worthy of SparkChan’s attention and to finally show up Shadowman and prove his worth, and yet his end was approaching, and he felt that he had gotten none of that. He was beginning to feel… different, there was no other way he could describe it. His mind had seemed to have wandered as it was inching closer and closer to death and feelings of self-doubt were beginning to surface. Was this really what he wanted? Was the Scissor Army really his answer? Then a familiar voice echoed in his head.

“We’ll be having none of that, Geminiman. You still have plenty of worth left in you so it would be a shame to lose you right now.”

Suddenly, the pain from the virus was fading. Mesmerman had done… something to cure it. He was still feeling weak, but he could feel his strength slowly come back to him.

“I shall remove all self-doubt from your mind. I don’t want you blundering again, or perhaps next time I’ll remove something more precious from your mind…” the malevolent entity warned the White Knight as he stood back up and brushed the snow off his chrome plating, looking for Artilleryman.

“I must redeem myself…”

***

Static filled Napalmman’s ears, and soon, so did a voice he was much accustomed to.

“Captain.”, came his General’s calm, tenor-like voice. “As much as I appreciate you taking command of this mission while I wrapped up a few loose ends elsewhere, I’ll be taking control from here on out. Things need to run MUCH more smoothly.”

“Sir…Yes, sir!”, Napalmman responded with only the slightest hesitation.

Cutman was walking calmly towards the Citadel a few yards away from the bulk of the SA, his hands behind his back casually as he strode amongst the snow, turret fire blazing across the snow fields at his feet, barely missing him in the process. He now had a few new additions to his outfit, with pockets adorning his legs, and a satchel bag on his side, held up by a shoulder strap.

“Hmm, I was hoping for a significant breach in Cossack’s outer defenses by the time I had shown up…”, he lamented to Napalm in front of the other Officers.

“Sir, we were just getting to that.”

“And what’s this? A straight forward, full frontal assault?”, the rusty skull visage challenged his second in command’s decision. “It would appear I have made a grave miscalculation in giving you so much pull here, Captain. Time to correct that mistake…”

Cutman leapt atop a nervous Napalmman to properly address his troops.

“We do this MY way, now.

Gravity and Stone, you shall open up breaches on the North and West walls, respectively. According to Gyroman’s recon data, there are significantly fewer obstacles for our friends, the rats, to hide behind there.

Go.”

With a nod and a small salute, as well as a sneer from Gravityman to the embarrassed Napalmman, the two dutifully departed.

Cutman continued.

“Waveman, even you must realize your diminished usefulness here in the cold. It would only be a matter of time before you met your end.”

“Impossible! Look at all of this liquid, just waiting to be freed!” the watery mess retorted.

The General sighed. “You’re ignoring your own limitations. I thought I programmed the lot of you better than that. Well, let’s remedy this situation. Napalm, if you would aim…right…there…”

Cutman physically moved Napalm’s turret-like body, aiming it towards an indistinguishable spot on the terrain. With a blast from his cannons, the ground now bore a new hole, and brown water spewed, fountain-like, from the opening.

“Waveman, infiltrate through the sewer. Apparently, none of you morons even thought of such an opportunity. I doubt the Cossackers have anymore level of intelligence than you at this point.”

“Eww…Why did I have to be the one who gets the nasty jobs?!”, Waveman pouted.

“GO.”, Cutman insisted. That was all it took to straighten out the protesting Waveman, and he disappeared into the open pipe maze.

Off in the distance, Chargeman’s rampaging form could be spotted, uselessly destroying trees in the distance.

Again, Cutman sighed. “You mean to tell me…That we have access to a twenty ton wrecking machine…And you’ve simply let him flail about uselessly…Captain?”

“Well…Uh…I’ve been distracted…”

“FAILURE!”, Cutman spat. Clicking on the radio once again, he commanded the out of control beast directly. “Chargeman! This is your commander, DLNO- zero-zero-three. Cease current action immediately. Focus on the Citadel!”

“Good luck, sir.”, Crystalgirl chuckled. “Maniac psycho’s been like that since we got here. He-“

Chargeman was already running, with no hesitation, towards the Citadel, and closing in fast. Trees seemed to be of little concern to him now.

Cutman tilted his head mockingly towards the rest of the group. “You really didn’t think I’d create something like that and have no means of control over it, did you?”

“But…We…!”, Napalmman began to argue.

“Never mind! We have more pressing issues at hand, Captain! Such as righting your many wrongs.

CrystalGirl! Follow Chargeman. He’ll have no problem breaking through their defenses, so once he does, infiltrate the Citadel and take the fight to them. It should be everyone’s goal to move the fight inside of the Citadel as soon as possible. Hold off on destroying it until you get confirmation from myself that Cossack has been dealt with.

Wraithman! Where are you?”

“Sir, Wraith vanished early on.”, Mysteryman informed. “Presumably to seek out his brother.”

“Idiot. We haven’t any time to waste on trivial matters like ‘family’. I see he’s cut off communication with me.

I’ll deal with him after this is over.

Mercenaries and Mysteryman! You come with me. I am here to finish off Cossack and his inner circle once and for all, and you will be my ‘orange peel’. I cannot waste time in fighting every insignificant ant we come across, so one of you will split off of the group and engage these useless simpletons until Cossack is found. At that point, I will deal with him and whatever defenses he may have scrounged together.”

“Sir, what about me?”, Napalmman meekly asked.

“Oh. You. Let’s see…You can perform guard duty.”

"Guard duty it is, sir!”

“Good. Mysteryman, you will guard that quadrant over there” Cutman motioned towards the Northwest corner. “and Geminiman, when he’s finished with his little game over there will guard the rest. There is an anti-teleportation grid over this area, so anybody fleeing will have to do so on foot or below the Earth. I suspect they may use Drillman and Groundman to tunnel themselves out, but that’ll be easy to detect due to the noise. They may also attempt to use the sewers, which is why Waveman is down there."

Cutman leapt down and stood on one of Napalmman’s cannons, leaning casually against his torso and bringing himself face to face with his monstrous customization.

“Napalmman, now listen carefully…In thirty minutes, if Cossack is not found, I will disengage the grid. We will teleport out of there at that moment, while simultaneously, you will launch a Napalm Nuke. The timing MUST be perfect, for if we teleport in front of anyone we will give away the fact that the grid is down, and therefore give Cossack a chance to flee. The Nuke MUST hit JUST as we escape. Is this understood?”

“Sir…You can count on me!”, he exclaimed, glad to be instilled with such trust once again.

“Excellent. The rest of you have you orders. Now... Go.”

Cutman leapt down from the black tank of death and began his march towards the Citadel, Mercenaries and Mysteryman in tow.

Sedulus had heard the conversation over the com link system waiting for his assignment. When he received none, he spoke up. "General Cutman." He said cheerfully. "SA Officer Sedulus requesting permission to accompany your task force into the Citadel."

"Hmm?" The General thought a moment. Sedulus was that new recruit he had paired up with Spade. "I think I see where you're going with this, Sedulus. You may join us in an attempt to gain access to the control room. Keep your Crystal Eyes positioned at the barrier's rim so that you'll know if someone is fleeing."

"Indeed, General." Sedulus agreed. "Your decided course of action bears a substantial similarity to the method I was about to suggest. I will be with your group shortly. I shall contact Spade and inform him of the change in authority."

The General felt as though his job had just been made easier. He knew he needed to take care of something, however.

"Captain Quint." Cutman turned to the Mercenary leader, making him jump by instinct. Interaction between the two had been much less than pleasant.

"Yes, General!" Quint straightened to attention.

"I know the Cossackers have snipers who will be wandering the forest around here. Eliminate them." The General commanded.

"Yes, Sir!" Quint split off to go hunt the would-be hunters as the General returned to his business.

As the rest of the “orange peel” approached the Citadel, Mysteryman could already begin to recognize the Robot Masters far off into the distance. One of them in particular, was an old acquaintance of his: Astroman, with what seemed to be one of his copies, was guarding the front entrance of the Citadel.

“Sir!” Mystery asked for the General’s attention. “Permission to annihilate the Technological Tyrants.” He had made all kinds of plans about how he’d use his spy to regain his honor and prove his worth to the Scissor Army, but as soon as he saw Astro, his vendetta became more important. This was probably the only chance he’d get to get back at his nemeses.

“Permission granted.” the General replied after a slight chuckle. “In fact, it’s an order. If you don’t come back with their heads on a silver platter, you won’t live to see another day.”

Their original “agreement” was that Mystery would willingly join his army and serve Cutman as he pleased, and the cloaked robot only asked for one thing in return: a chance to get back at the Tyrants. And it wasn’t like the General was forced to fulfill his promise, but he would indulge him that much. After all, Mystery’s last assignment had not been a complete failure. Besides, Astro Boy was well aware of his electro-phobia. If Mysterymanaged to keep him busy, at least, it would be one less issue to worry about.

Just as Mystery was about to vanish, along the rest of his “troupe”, he heard one last warning. “Be ready to answer my call. I have no interest in your personal vendetta, if I call you up, leave everything behind.”

“Understood.” Mystery didn’t care. He would finish this business before anything else came up.

***

“Naop!!!” the voice of Koala was heard from inside the Citadel. “We have to surrender; there is no way we can win. Our only chance for survival is to join them!”

Astroman, who was guarding the entrance along Astro Chan, couldn’t believe his ears. “What are you talking about? The battle hasn’t fully started yet, and you’re giving up?” the TT leader demanded an explanation.

“I’ve seen what they can do. They are monsters! We’ll never win!” Koala declared.

“Look, I have no time for this. So you either come out here and fight like a man, or you go grab your blanky and hide under your bed. Just let us do our job!” Astro had no tolerance for that kind of attitude.

“But…!” Koala tried to complain further.

“No buts! Be a man or be gone! Now, are you ready, AstroChan?” Astroman asked his female counterpart, and she just nodded in response. “I can see them coming. Let’s launch our attack at the same time to give them a crushing welcome. On the count of three…”

Both robots started glowing as they lifted their arms, ready to greet the enemy with their Astro Crushes. “One… Two… Three…???” Suddenly, both Astros blinked for a second, and when they opened their eyes, neither the enemy nor the Citadel was to be seen. Only a splashing sound was heard.

“What happened?” AstroChan tried looking around.

Astroman turned around, just to see the Citadel a few miles away. They were now floating by the lake, south of Cossack’s. Astro knew this place too well, he had used it for training on several occasions. But he had no clue how they had been instantly transported there. No signs of teleportation, no signs of nothing. Only Koala, who had apparently fallen into the lake, was with them.

Suddenly, he noticed three people on the water's edge, shouting and waving at them. In awe, Astro realized who it was: the rest of his team (MagicMan, DynamoMan and Odin). “Stay close.” Astroman told AstroChan. He was suspicious about the whole situation. “Don’t say anything, no matter what. And try to keep your mind clear, don’t think of anything either.” As weird as it sounded for AstroChan, thinking about nothing was easier said than done.

“Naop, come here!” MagicMan shouted.

“What the hell Pharaoh? Are you the one who brought us here? Don’t you realize what’s going on?” Astro approached the trio.

“I’m perfectly aware! That’s why we came to get you.” MagicMan explained.

“Those Scissor freaks are invading this place, we thought we’d better get you out.” Dynamo interjected.

“Is that so? How kind of you to keep an eye on me…” both Astros kept getting near their “allies”. “Specially when you’re supposed to be traveling to distant dimensions, on a very important 'mission'. You took the time to come all the way back…” Astro was faking his thankfulness.

“Uhh… yeah.” Was all that MagicMan had managed to articulate.

“Well then, answer me this… why didn’t you bring Aku, Lyon and Kusa with me?” Astro got even closer. He would now be breathing down on Magic’s face, if he had been able to “breathe”.

“We couldn’t find them!” Odin intruded, in MagicMan’s defense.

“Of course you couldn’t…” Astro accepted. By now, he was sure of it. They were impostors. The absence of the secret mental link he had with his teammates was what gave them away. Several Astro-copies appeared around the trio, surrounding them with menacing looks.

“Get out of there you idiots! He knows!” a voice was heard from the distance, just as the multiple AstroMen fired their plasma shots. Unable to avoid them, the three impostors fell to the ground, their disguises vanishing to reveal their true form: that of three, unfashionably dressed, Scissor Joes.

“Nice of you to pay us a visit, Mystery…” Astro turned around to face the cloaked robot, who was now floating towards them with utmost haste.

“How dare you destroy my troupe!” Mystery shouted while pointing his finger at his nemesis. He had wisely decided to stay a few meters away from them.

“Oh, so now you have a troupe!” Astro replied sarcastically. “I gotta admit, I was wondering when you’d show up ever since the CC told me about your little charade in St. Petersburg. But to think you would recur to the same old tricks? This is getting boring Mystery, why don’t you just give up?”

Mysteryman emitted a hysterical laughter before answering him. “You think you’re the only one who can put up a good performance?”

“What are you talking about?” Astro was confused.

“I knew that you would see right through my illusory Joes. You are no longer susceptible to my fear-inducing illusions, so this was just a game, a simple greeting.” Mystery boasted.

“You mean to tell me you have something up your sleeve?”

“Precisely! I’ll give you a taste of my new abilities, endowed to me by General Cutman himself.” The bragging continued.

“Oooooh! I’m trembling!” the Astro copies mocked in unison, and fired their plasma shots without any warning.

Seemingly surprised, Mysteryman got hit, and fell to the ground. Yet another vanished disguise, revealed another Joe.

“Haha! I’m now immune to your sarcasm and humiliations!” Mystery shouted, with a disembodied voice. He was nowhere to be seen.

“Is that an upgrade you got from General Lumberjack? Sarcasm immunity? Laaaaame!” Astro kept on mocking him, while approaching the nearby forest in order to hide from the mysterious robot. His copies, plus AstroChan, were close behind. Staying in the open would make them easy targets.

“Psst… Naop!” AstroChan whispered. “Don’t you think we should be heading back? Our friends need our help.”

“I know, girl, I know. But this guy isn’t just going to let us off the hook. He might as well do whatever he did to bring us here, in order to bring us again.” Astroman had a point. “Now, follow my lead…”

Using his own holographic abilities, Astro camouflaged AstroChan and himself inside the foliage. Much like he did in St. Johannesburg, he used a hologram resembling a giant tree’s cortex to cover them up. It was not long before Mystery passed by…

He was obviously getting impatient, and was bound to let his guard down. His ego would always show in the end. Taking the opportunity, Astro jumped out of his hiding spot to surprise Mysteryman, who proceeded to blast every copy he could with his buster. He even managed to hit the real Astroman. “Haha! I bet you thought you had me, stupid psychic!”

“No, I didn’t.” Astro said, while recovering from the hit. “But she did!” he pointed behind Mystery, where AstroChan was already launching an Astro Crush.

“Nooooo!” Mysteryman shouted, as the barrage of meteorites came crashing through the foliage, pummeling him to the ground.

***

“Phew…” Jupiter sighed, looking down at the remains of Gyroman, resting atop one of the Citadel’s watchtowers. “This was one tough fight.” The Stardroid was holding on to his right arm, which had been almost completely removed from it’s socket. His leg also showed a certain degree of damage, as he limped while approaching Gyroman to confirm the kill.

“Not really.” TenguMan admitted. He had his arms crossed and was resting by the wall.

“Easy for you to say when you can control the wind to an extent.” Jupiter had fared the worst, and was covered in bullet holes. Tengu only sported a few minor scratches.

Suddenly a transmission was heard through Tengu’s com link. “TT: TenguMan. Guess who I bumped into?”

“Don’t tell me… Fishbowl-head…” Tengu guessed.

“Bingo!” Astro joked through the com line. “Anyway, I’m currently a couple of miles south of the Citadel. Can you tell me if I have a clear path back into the battlefield? As soon as I find that darned Koala, I intend to rejoin the fray…”

“A couple of miles south? What the hell are you doing there?” Tengu asked in disbelief.

“Long story… just be kind and take a look.” Astro insisted.

“Alright, alright…” the aerial robot took flight and scouted the southern perimeter of the Citadel. “It seems there are some Geminiman clones guarding the perimeter, but I can guide you through so you go undetected.” He reported.

“Awesome…” suddenly, laughter was heard through Tengu’s com link. “Shit… the guy we nailed was just another Joe. Tengu, forget about the re-entry plan. Come here and give us a…!” static was heard, interrupting their communication.

“Damn it… hey, Jupiter!” Tengu shouted back at his aerial partner. “Follow me!” the airborne robots wasted no time in jetting towards the southern lake…

“What the…???” TenguMan and Jupiter stared in awe at the strange display that was happening at the southern forest, still far away from them. The trees from a portion of the woods were disappearing, vanishing. And meanwhile, at the opposite direction, quite a commotion was going on. It was hard to tell from their location, but it looked as if that section was being devastated from the inside, as if the missing trees were being poured into the thick foliage that predominated in that area.

As both airborne robots kept approaching the strange phenomenon, they were forced to doge a few lasers fired from below. It looked like Geminiman was doing his job, but there wasn’t much he could do against them. After a while, the enemy fire subsided once they were far away from the perimeter. Tengu and Jupiter had reached the lake.

There, they found Koala kneeled by the water's edge, trembling and staring blankly into the horizon. The aerial duo descended to see what his problem was. “Hey, what’s wrong?” Jupiter tried shaking him by his shoulders, but Koala kept his blank stare.

“They’re all dead… Cossack, and all the Robot Masters.” he murmured. “And I will be dead too!”

“What’s he talking about?” Jupiter was quite confused. The battle at the Citadel had just begun, Koala was talking nonsense.

“It’s Mysteryman, the guy fell prey to his mind games.” Tengu approached them, a proceeded to slap Koala’s face several timed. “Snap out of it, dammit!”

Suddenly, Tengu heard a familiar laughter, as the water from the lake was lake being stirred, quite audibly. Unexpectedly, a gigantic figure emerged from the lake… it was jumbo-sized Mysteryman.

“Surprised to see me, Tyrant?” the giant robot asked. But before Tengu was able to say anything, a couple of figures were seen rushing out of the forest.

“Someone has been eating his veggies!” Astroman shouted, while leaning on AstroChan’s shoulder. The giant tree barrage had managed to leave him in a pretty bad shape. His levitation was erratic; a hit had messed up his anti-gravitational systems.

“Good to see you’re still making jokes…” Tengu greeted his leader. “But I believe it’s time we talked serious!” and with that, a Tengu Blade was sent flying right into the giant’s dome-shaped head… but it went right through it, only causing it to show signs of holographic distortion.

“So it was a hologram!” Jupiter shouted with excitement, while positioning himself in font of the giant hologram to try and dispel it with his electric-based weapon. And at first, it was working… the fake guy’s middle section was barely recognizable among all the distortion. But for some reason, the guy kept on laughing…

“Get back here!” Astro rushed towards the lake, ignoring the pain he felt. “It’s a tra…!”

But it was too late… the “hologram” had slapped his hands in front of him, surprisingly crushing Jupiter in the process. The Stardroid fell to the ground, by the water’s edge, like a squashed fly. Next to him was Koala, who noticed the devastated body of his “comrade” and started screaming like a little girl. Obviously, he was still in shock from whatever illusion Mysteryman had made him believe.

“You bastard!” Astroman shouted, while summoning an Astro Crush. TenguMan, also enraged, tried to cut Mystery’s hands off with his blade, but his weapon went right through them. Confused, he barely had time to move out of the meteorites’ way.

The water splashed, and a dense layer of steam covered the lake when the heated meteorites touched the surface. But when everything settled, giant Mysteryman was still there. This time with his arms crossed, laughing maniacally.

“There is no way you can defeat me now! You don’t even understand what’s going on, poor little Tyrants!” the master of illusion mocked them. His vengeance was finally coming to fruition.

“Naop… this is different.” Tengu got close to his leader, while AstroChan joined them. They were levitating above their enemy, hoping to regroup in order to formulate a strategy. “Mysteryman never showed this kind of power. And now Jupiter suffered the consequences from our recklessness. We have to start taking him seriously.”

“You don’t have to tell me that. I just came from a shower of pine trees…” Astro reminded him. “I don’t know how he does it, but he ‘moves’ stuff…”

“You mean like your telekinesis?” TenguMan inquired.

“How the hell should I know?” Astro was getting frustrated. This was way different from Mystery’s modus operandi.

“Are you done with the chitchatting?” the giant Mystery, still with arms crossed, taunted them from below. “You better watch your backs, hahaha!”

And with that, what seemed to be a gigantic hand smashed the trio of robots from behind. Again, as if they were flies, their bodies hit the water sooner than they were able to understand what was going on…

***

Beneath the main floor of the Citadel, the Comrades were hard at work on their escape plan.

"Man this bites! Why do we have to be in some God forsaken tunnel?" Jay asked Silent Bob. The two were taken by Groundman earlier and were waiting with the Doctor and Kalinka.

"Would you shut up! I'm trying to get work done here. Your bitching is louder then my drills. How the hell does Drill do it?" Ground muttered to himself.

Cossack looked up from his work and at his daughter, who had her trademark shotgun in her hands. "Kalinka...I am sorry to have gotten you into this mess...It's all my fault. I'm sorry for all the times I ever called you ungrateful..." he started, but Kalinka interrupted him with a hug.

"Father! Never be sorry for what you have done! You have done what others should have done. Look at these robots, how they believe in your beliefs. Without you, they might have joined the SA." she told him. He blinked twice and nodded.

"Thank you Kalinka..."

"Aw look at this shit! It's like some bad chick flick, eh Lunchbox?" Jay laughed. Kalinka raised her gun.

"Shut. Your. Mouth. If I have to die, I'd rather not hear your pathetic banter. It's bad enough I have to be the communications commander here," she told him bluntly. Jay looked shocked.

"Dude...weak!" he protested. Silent Bob raised a fist and hit him over the head.

A shock was heard over head. It sounded like cannon fire. Suddenly Drillman appeared. "Is everyone okay Ground?"

"Yeah, though we knocked out that stoner. Can I assume that we have company?" he asked. Drill nodded.

”We need to finish this fast."

Back within the Citadel itself, Dustman was headed outside as quickly as he could.

"No pun intended, but this is really going to suck," Dustman said as he saw the stampeding Chargeman head towards the Citadel, followed closely by CrystalGirl.

He quickly activated both his communicator and his vacuum as he prepared to engage the enemy.

"Contact everyone. Yes, everyone. I think most people would want to know we are out of time to prepare," Sean said into his communicator. "Scissor Army forces are closing up on the Citadel, and fast. Whatever you’re doing, hurry up and get ready to engage the enemy."

Dustman then closed communication and then started to aim a Dust Crusher. He hesitated for a second and reactivated his communicator.

"Connect me to CC Toad Gal, DI Astrochan, and TT Astroman," Dustman stated as he kept the incoming opponents in his sight. "Chargeman is starting to get a little too close to comfort. I'd appreciate if some fire could be given in an attempt to halt his stampede.

Once again communication was closed and once again a few seconds were spent thinking.

"Connect me to CC Diveman, DI Grenademan, DI Aquaman, and anyone you think is appropriate," Dustman said as he now started to move forward. "Long range team, I am now going to attempt engaging Chargeman and his companion Crystal. Requesting backup. Actually, wait…Cancel that. I am at the moment begging for backup because I highly doubt my ability to last long against the duo."

Dustman now closed communication for the final time and sprinted in Chargeman’s general direction. He fired off a Dust Crusher, completely unsure if it would hit its target or not. Then Sean began to gather dust particles from the air and prepare another attack.

"Well I guess if no one decides to lend a hand I can always try and run back to the Citadel," Sean muttered to himself under the sound of his vacuum.

"About time some back-up arrived." Artilleryman commented as he flew towards Dustman’s position, who was also being joined by Grenademan. "I'll take care of CrystalGirl." he continued as he prepped his Pyro Cannon and aimed it at the crystalline princess. "Just make sure Chargeman doesn't flatten our entire resistance; I'd still like to get paid my full amount."

"Ha, good to see you're still in one piece." Dustman replied as he fired another Dust Crusher at the unstoppable force that was Chargeman. "And I'd prefer it that you stay that way for the rest of this battle. I had enough fun picking up your pieces last time, so don't try any more heroics."

Artilleryman ignored the Cossack bot's remark and focused on CrystalGirl as he then unleashed a series of fireballs from his Pyro Cannon at her. As expected the large crystals surrounding her moved into position and blocked the incoming shots and now the female Ascendant Android's attention was diverted to him.

"Hmph, so Prince Charming hasn't finished you off yet." she said before making a sadistic laugh. "I suppose that means I get to tear you into pieces."

"Great, another psychopath with a penchant for shiny objects. Due to those crystals she probably also has a weakness to fire as well. I must be drawn to these types." the mercenary remarked as he fired another shot from his cannon.

"So even the General has kept me on guard duty..." Geminiman muttered as he had finally regained his composure after being relieved of that pesky virus. "I have no choice but to not disappoint him then." The White Knight promptly split into his maximum of 6 clones and sent 5 of them to go protect the remaining areas of the field.

"I will only need one clone to rid myself of that annoying mercenary..." With all self-doubt erased from his head, he headed for Artilleryman and CrystalGirl whilst laughing maniacally.

***

From the observation tower, Pharaohman spotted Gravityman. "Crap, I see him... And it looks like he brought a buddy along for the ride."

"So now what?" Sunstar inquired.

"One of these Android bastards is bad enough. It'd be suicide for our group to take on two of them. Kinda my fault, actually, I should've known better than to assume we'd catch him on his own." Jade put his hand to his communicator. "Connect me with all the other teams. We see Gravityman, and Stoneman is with him. Any chance some of you can keep rock-head occupied while we take Gravs down?"

“I’m trying to give you some cover fire, but these turrets are ancient!”, Pluto lamented over the communication line.

“Just do what you can! We’ll need all the help in the world and then some to take him out!”, Pharaoh encouraged.

Outside, Gravityman seemed to realize something.

“Oh…Right…There’s this.”, he commented, once again holding up the discharged Long Tom round.

Stoneman peeked over at him from a few yards away, somewhat fearing what this madman would do with it. He slowly began to work his way further down the wall, away from Gravityman.

The round hovered before the maniac for a few seconds as he admired it. Then, with sudden force, he punched it, using his manipulation of gravity to accelerate it far beyond its original speed, sending the shell, which shattered somewhere along the way, through the corner of the Citadel, all the way to the opposite corner, finally ending up in some forest nearly a hundred miles away.

Under the tremendous blow, the tower collapsed, taking the turret down with it. Free of two annoyances- the gun turret and the wall itself- Gravityman chuckled as he slowly began to enter the Citadel as an audience looked on above.

“God, did I draw the short straw, or what?” Dive lamented, throwing down an empty can of liquid courage. Aquaman shot him an annoyed look, but Dive ignored ‘im. He had to tango with an SA CO…with the walkin’ urinal as his back-up. What’d he do to deserve THAT?! From his position, he could see Stoneman bashin’ away on the Citadel. Gravity wasn’ his problem, so Stonehenge was gonna be his mark. Just as good as anyone.

“Any ideas?” Aquaman asked, soundin’ worried.

“Go for the eyes, Bed Wetter. I’ll nail the rest,” Dive commanded, pointin’ at Stoneman. Stonehenge’s gaze fell squarely on the two Cossackers huddled on the wall. Outta the blue, several geysers o’ rock and stone shot outta the ground, coverin’ the battlefield with rubble. Dive didn’ know what the lummox was up ta, but he hated it. Aquaman fired a steady stream of water balloons into the freak’s face, but he wasn’t lettin’ up. Dive unleashed a salvo at the brick wall’s knee, hopin’ that trick would work better here than it did with Napalm. Dive thanked all merciful God as the knee began ta gave a smidge. Bits and chunks o’ blasted rock fell off, but the stony cyclone was still buildin' up.

“Concentrate fire!!” Dive barked as he and Brita Boy hit the blockhead’s knee with everythin’ they had. Pluto joined in with a few shots from another one o’ th’ nearby plasma cannons, hittin’ Stone dead-on. By some fucking miracle, the rock monster hit the ground like a sack o’ potatoes, breakin’ off huge chunks o’ his rocky armor.

“Thanks for the back-up, Pluto!” Waterboy thanked over the com.

“That’s how it’s done!” Diveman boasted as he pulled a cig outta his jacket. Before he could light it, somuvtha debris Stonehenge kicked up started attachin’ itself on the fallen CO like a rocky band-aid.

“No friggin’ way…” Dive gasped, his unlit cig fallin’ outta his mouth. Dive and Aqua could do was watched in disbelief as more n’ more of the rubble patched up Stoneman. As long as the sonuvabitch had all that rubble around ‘im, he could just simply put ‘imself back together no matter what they threw at him. N’ there was plenty more rock where that came from. Not good. Before they knew it, the Rocky Horror Picture Show was back on his feet, larger than life, twice as ugly, and five times as pissed. Two more rocky geysers shot outta the ground, only they was shitloads bigger than the last ones, n’ they was startin’ to spin n’ churn...

“Hit the dirt!” Dive shouted as one o‘ the rocky tornado hit the wall. Diveman quickly threw himself through a window, avoidin’ the worst o’ the rock storm, but still clippin’ him n’ badly dentin’ him here n’ there. Aqua wasn’t as nimble or lucky as Dive n’ got slammed by some heavy-duty rubble, shatterin’ his water tank. The second stone cyclone tore through the battery that nailed Stone early on, reducin’ it to useless scrap.

“Crap in a fuckin’ hat,” Dive hissed as he watched Aquaman get hammered. “Yo! Man down!” Dive screamed over the com, not even botherin’ with radio etiquette crap. “Frost, Blizzard, Neptune, yer not doin’ nuthin’ constructive! Get yer asses over here ASAP! N’ Aqua’s in deep shit, too.”

“But-“ Kalinka replied over the com.

“NOW!!” Diveman bellowed over the com as somethin’ bang through the roof. Dive looked up ‘n saw Stoneman loomin’ over ‘im through the hole in the roof with a mean lookin’ warhammer in place o’ onuva his hands.

“Gimme a fuckin’ break!!”

A way’s away, Gravityman’s breach hasn’t gone unnoticed, as Pharaohman and Sunstar blaze towards Gravityman, ready to slam him with a combined surprise attack. Uranus drops down also, holding Bright Babe, using his own gravity powers to soften their landing. Jade and Shift, meanwhile, streak at Gravity, ready to unleash their full power, when suddenly, he looks up at them.

"Shit, he saw us. Sunstar! GET BACK!!"

At Jade's command, the two jump back to get themselves out of the range of Gravityman’s daunting Gravity Hold. Not wasting any time, the two raise their hands for a barrage of Pharaoh Shots and Fireball Busters, only for them to be cooled off with a shield of swirling snow as Gravityman flies back up on his feet.

"You..." Gravity gazes at Pharaohman. "I never did get to properly pay you back for the job you did on me in Izhevsk." He looks over at Bright. "Ah, lightbulb-bitch is here too. Good. I'll enjoy torturing you both."

“Come on and try it!” Sunstar challenges.

“You don’t have to ask me twice!” In a blur, Gravity streaks toward him and Pharaohman. The two of them leap back, in separate directions, Jade firing his Pharaoh Beam and Shift releasing a blast from his flamethrower. Gravity just smirks as a wall of snow bursts from the ground to shield him temporarily. He throws the frozen barrier at Jade, who wards it away with a Pharaoh Wave, but while he’s distracted he jumps at Sunstar and snares him in his Gravity Hold.

“Hrrgh!!” Sunstar struggles painfully against his grip.

“So you think you’re good enough to hang with the big boys, huh? Psh. I doubt even the General would waste his precious time on your miserable ass…”

Uranus suddenly jumps in, using his Gravity Twist to break the hold long enough for him and Sunstar to escape.

“Oh no you don’t…”

The CO turns to pursue the Stardroids, but catches an eyeful of Jet’s Flash Stopper. As he holds his eyes for a moment, the ground beneath him thrashes in his rage.

“GODDAMN LIGHTBULB BITCH!!! WHEN I CATCH HER I’M GONNA RIP THAT FUCKING LIGHTBULB OFF HER HEAD AND CRAM ITS BROKEN PIECES DOWN HER THROAT ONE BY ONE!!!”

***

Quint was extremely cautious. He just knew that the Murmansk sniper had to have been a Cossacker. The RPD was kept on edge for the first few hours of suppressant sniper fire, which meant that they couldn't have had one of their men out there. And Wily's Rescue Force was decidedly lacking in any sort of long-range support in that respect. If nothing else, he wanted the data on the shooter, or shooters (He seemed to move rather quickly for one sniper).

"If I can't take him out, I can at least gather information on him and compromise his advantage." Quint reasoned. Suddenly, an axe was hurdling towards him.

Quint dodged the projectile just barely as the weapon lodged itself into a tree trunk.

"Well, well, if it isn't Captain Quint." A deep voice mused, stepping out from behind a tree. It was Tomahawkman. "You may not know this, but I almost had you back in Murmansk. I'm here to finish the job."

"Really?" Quint sneered. "It's so easy to say something like that when I'm still standing."

The Robot Master and the Rockman Killer went into a stare down. Regdar brushed back his duster, revealing his revolvers hanging at his hips. Snow blew past them both as they stood like statues, each watching for the other to slip up.

"Say when." Regdar teased the Mercenary.

Quint attempted to draw his Saku cannon, but reeled back in pain, grabbing his right eye. Regdar had beaten him on the draw, blinding him in the process.

"MY EYE!" Quint screamed. "YOU BASTARD!!!"

"That was a right nasty trick you tried to pull there, partner, going before you gave the signal." Regdar mocked the writhing Merc. "Oh, thought you wanted to know. Blizzard's just fine."

Regdar began tossing his tomahawk up and catching it repeatedly. Quint was able to focus his remaining eye just in time to see the Silver Tomahawk attack with enough time to dodge it. The axe blade just grazing his cheek as it caught in the tree behind him.

"I can do this all day, kid." T. Hawk snickered as he lobbed another Silver Tomahawk at Quint.

The Mercenary may have had a blindspot, but he was able to dodge the tomahawks that Regdar threw at him. Finally, the Indian Robot Master decided to take a break. Quint took this time to catch his breath.

"I'm getting tired of playing Cowboys and Indians." Quint said smugly.

"Ready to play hard-ball when you are, Custer." Regdar shot back.

"Ha, ha, ha... but I'm afraid it is YOU who will be making his last stand." Quint readied his Saku cannon.

Regdar started laughing. It began as a low chuckle, then it elevated to a hearty laughter. Quint was furious.

"Hey! What's so funny?!" He demanded.

Regdar gave a brisk motion to the surroundings. "Look around you! What do you see?"

Quint looked around. All he could see were the trees. Oh, and the various botched attempts to hit him represented by the tomahawks buried in those trees.

"Lousy axe-throwing?" Quint made an attempt at a smart-aleck comment.

"No, not quite." Regdar shook his head. "I like to call it a setup." Regdar took out a silver dollar and flipped it between his fingers. "Call it in the air." He said, flipping the coin in the air.

Before Quint could react, Regdar pulled out his revolver and emptied all eight shots from the chamber in rapid succession. He didn't aim at Quint though. He was aiming at the tomahawks that were lodged in the trees. His aim as sharp as ever, the bullets ricocheted off the axe heads, heading straight for a very surprised Quint. Quint was just barely able to dodge all of the shots, taking one of the bullets right in the shoulder as he yelped in pain. Regdar put out his hand and caught the coin.

"Heads." He said.

Quint grit his teeth. "You're all out of ammo again. Just like last time."

Quint swore under his breath as he saw the gunslinger unholster a second single action army revolver. "Always carry at least two." Regdar countered.

Regdar took a tomahawk and lobbed it high into the air, then proceeded to open fire just as he had done before. This time, however, he only fire four shots at the tomahawks lodged in the trees and fired the remaining four at the tomahawk he had just thrown, showering four bullets downward on the hapless Mercenary. He wasn't expecting the downward assault, being more concerned with the chaotic ricochet attacks from the stationary axes. One of the bullets entered his left thigh. Quint screamed in pain. It was a damn lucky shot, or so Quint would have called it. The bullet struck a major nerve relay, rendering the function of the leg useless. Quint limped on his left side to avoid the falling tomahawk.

Regdar was enjoying himself. He liked showcasing his expert gunplay. "Farewell, and ado, to ye fair Spanish ladies..." Regdar sang the first line of the sea-shanty a different Captain Quint was famous for, mocking the Quint that was kneeling before him.

***

Sean activated his communicator and connected his with Grenademan’s; he had no doubt that communication would be necessary during this fight. Another Dust Crusher was launched and backed up with a few explosives and each attack hit the target. The stampeding train based robot, however, continued onward, barely slowing down as the projectiles hit.

"God damn it!" Dustman shouted over the radio. "What does it take to make this guy flinch!"

"Not sure, I guess we will just have to whittle him down," replied Maha.

Dustman paused to think for a second as he took a few shots with his buster. His eyes followed the blasts of energy all the way to impact. The giant monstrosity kept moving forward. A few more explosives hit Chargeman and succeeded in causing him to slow down once more.

"Do you think you can nail him in the face with a bunch of those grenades?" asked Dustman. "Maybe around ten grenades to the face could catch his attention.”

"Not sure," Grenademan answered. "I think he might be too tall. I've never shot a grenade that high before. Besides, I couldn't have them all go off simultaneously!"

"Let me try then. Create as many grenades as you can and then lob them towards me," Dustman said.

Maha quickly threw handfuls of grenades towards Dustman, who quickly sucked them into his vacuum, spending a few seconds aiming before he opened fire. The explosions occurred, one after the other, right in front of Chargeman’s giant head. The locomotive slowed to a stop as he screamed and futilely raised his arms in front of his face expecting more. The mechanical monster than looked around and spotted his two attackers, which looked almost like mice in comparison. A deafening, but incomprehensible, scream came from Chargeman before he altered course towards the Dustman and Grenademan.

"Well, you got his attention." Maha said. "Now what?"

"Uh....not sure," Sean answered. "Running looks like a good idea right now!"

"Wait, you didn't think this far ahead?!" shouted Grenademan. "What were you expecting?! Did you think that would be it?! I thought you would have a battle plan! You're supposed to be smart!"

"Not expecting, but I was hoping." Sean replied. "And I always thought improvisation was best for battle."

Dustman then noticed Chargeman getting uncomfortably close. He saw the snow melt and the soot stain the earth black only a few yards away.

"And I really think we should get out of the way!" shouted Dustman.

Before Grenademan could respond, Dustman used a blast of air from his vacuum to knock his ally away. Then, Dustman quickly dove in the opposite direction as Chargeman charged by. The snow and ice were melted away and the ground was overturned from the spikes of Chargeman’s feet. The ash covered the earth. Some of the soot managed to land on the two Robot Masters and they felt the heat eat away at their armor. Nothing life threatening had been dealt, but death had been far too close to comfort for both Maha and Sean.

"Okay, lets try and keep our distance from now on," Dustman said over the communication system, still rather shocked.

Grenademan quickly replied, "Agreed."

"Splitting up might be the best idea for now," Sean suggested. "He can't trail us both and whoever he isn't chasing can open fire as much as possible. I don't think he has any weaponry other than his body."

"I don't think he needs any." Maha dryly observed. "Be careful!"

Chargeman had already turned around and was about to sweep at the smaller robots once more when the two ran off in different directions. He hesitated for a few moments before running after Dustman. Grenademan then immediately turned around and began to lob explosive after explosive at the speeding locomotive while Sean ran for his life.

On the opposite side of the Citadel, Artilleryman continued his attempts to stave off the incoming Scissor Army brigade.

Shot after shot was being repelled, and Artilleryman was getting frustrated, at least when he was fighting Geminiman he felt like he was doing something by keeping him constantly moving in order to evade attacks, but CrystalGirl didn’t even move an inch when a shot came her way. Instead, one of her crystals would just instantly move to the right place and the right time, leaving no opening.

“Damn it all, my Pyro Cannon just isn’t enough to get through her defense! Fortunately, this constant attacking has kept her crystals from doing anything other than blocking, so if I can just…” the mercenary’s train of thought was interrupted when he suddenly realized a large laser beam shoot out one of the crystals and singed the side of his helmet.

“Oh, did I miss?” CrystalGirl snickered as she motioned her Crystal Eye to adjust the degree of its laser shot. Artilleryman was not pleased at this turn of events. Shiny objects, a sadistic laugh and now a laser, it was just all too familiar to him.

“Am I reminding you of somebody?” the crystalline robot asked as if she was reading his mind. “Well unlike fairy boy, I will get the job done and tear you into pieces.” She fired her Crystal Eye laser again through a larger crystal and refracted the now larger beam at the former Wily bot, who was now more prepared and flew out to evade the beam until he noticed a much larger beam suddenly pass by at a different angle. Reacting as fast as he could, he bent backwards in time to see the laser tear apart his chest-plate before it reflected off the Citadel wall and into the ground before it went back up in his direction. He rolled out of the path of the laser which narrowly blew off his left arm in the process but then noticed the laser hit one of CrystalGirl’s crystals and shot right back at him, missing him by several inches.

A familiar laugh echoed in the field and the two robots then turned to see Geminiman approaching with his arm cannon pointed at Artilleryman, his grin was as wide as ever. “Surprised to see me, Artilleryman?” he sneered at the horrified mercenary.

“Damn it, Geminiman! Watch where you are firing those lasers! My crystals are not some sort of convenient object you can bounce that pathetic laser of yours off.”

“Calm down, princess. Your crystals are as resilient as they are beautiful; I can only hope that their owner is the same.” The crystal robot felt somewhat disgusted at the White Knight’s rather lame remark and then decided to press on to attack the Citadel.

“Go back to your fantasies about your ‘beloved’. I am far out of your league.” She replied as she went to attack the Citadel walls.

“Shot down again.” The White Knight sighed as he fired another laser at Artilleryman, “It appears I’ll need to earn a bit more respect to get more of the ladies. So I’ll have to make sure I finish you off for good.”

Artilleryman managed to dodge the incoming laser and thought about his situation, Geminiman was one thing, but if he concentrated on him now, he would let CrystalGirl destroy the Citadel, wall allowing the SA to gain entry into this wing of the Citadel. This would mean his employer would be in more danger, and if he had no employer, he would not get paid. His grudge against him already allowed the SA to get closer than they should; he was not going to let it happen again so he quickly turned to fire several shots in front of her to prevent her from advancing.

“You’re not going anywhere, just because he’s here doesn’t mean you can run away, I will destroy you both.” He yelled out, determined as he was, in his mind he had realized he had just signed his own death certificate… again.

“Geminiman, you idiot, can’t you keep him occupied at all?”

“If you are so frustrated by him, princess, you might as well help.” The White Knight annoyingly stated. The two robots glared at each other before they finally just nodded in agreement and concentrated their attacks on the airborne mercenary. Their lasers flew in various directions creating a beautiful and deadly light show in which Artilleryman struggled to avoid, watching him dance in the air soon made CrystalGirl and Geminiman cry out in maniacal laughter which sounded in the ears of all that were around them. Soon the laughter grew infectious as the nearby SA officers started to laugh as they pressed their attack further.

“What the hell is so funny?” Artilleryman yelled as he struggled to return fire. “I could certainly use some help here stopping these two!”

Explosions soon occurred around the mercenary, helping put a stop to the lethal laser light show and Artilleryman turned to see the turrets pointing over at his direction before they quickly turned to face another point on the battlefield.

“I’ve got enough problems to deal with shooting at the rest of the Ascendant Androids! I can’t cover all your backs!” Pluto cried out as he was still struggling to keep the turrets functioning.

Artilleryman looked around and saw that everyone else was occupied, and then noticed the unstoppable force that was Chargeman who was moving around relentlessly around the field as so many of his comrades were trying to stop him. He then noticed that spewing out what appeared to be smoldering hot ash where ever he went and then it clicked to him. If he could somehow distract Chargeman into passing through his ordeal, the ash he’d leave in his wake would burn away at his sadistic opponents and hopefully lighten the attack load on the Citadel if he can keep him distracted long enough to draw him away from the fight. Artilleryman switched on his communicator to contact the rest of him team.

“To all the guys fighting Chargeman, listen up, I might have a plan. But I’ll need a bit of help trying to get it to work.”

***

Back in the mobile control room, Pluto was in trouble. His CPAS had started sprouting errors out the wing-wang, and he couldn't fix it with software changes. He soon realized it was a hardware problem; the components borrowed from the Sagittarius were finally falling apart. Fortunately, his limbs still worked perfectly. Pluto and Mars tried their best to defend the Citadel in spite of the glaring problem, but Gravityman had noticed the sudden change in the turret movements.

"Strange, they seem... less precise." the SA officer thought aloud while looking through the mounds of snow for Bright Babe. Seeing an opening, he rose into the air and tore off as many of the nearby turrets as he could, hurling them into the walls of the Citadel. The damage was extensive, as the holes left structural weak points and they started to collapse. Gravity just made it worse as he put even more force on the side of the building.

The two Stardroids could see the damage by looking at what parts of the Citadel had lost power. All they could do was stand and watch as the building was torn to shreds.

"That's it." Pluto said. Shouting over the com system, he warned the Cossacks of the impending danger. "Kalinka, Mikhail, get out of here now! The place is falling apart!" He turned off the speaker system and unplugged from the control panel. "C'mon Mars, we've got to get out of here!"

As he said that, a small chunk fell from the ceiling. The whole place was shaking.

"Don't you think I know that?!" Mars responded, unplugging from the control panel himself. Gathering both cords, he set them on fire and hopped into the land rover. Pluto got into the driver's seat, revving the motor as Mars charged his weapon. The vehicle sped down the tunnel as the massive explosion destroyed the small room and any trace of the control panel. Speeding through at 400mph, the land rover outran the small fireball, slowing down once the flames were no longer a danger. Suddenly, the rover spun out, colliding with the wall of the tunnel. Pluto was obviously unconscious from the impact.

"Oh no... wake up!" Mars shouted. "You can't pass out now!"

But it was no use. Pluto's already heavily damaged body had finally given in.

Mars quickly pulled Pluto into the back, and took the driver's seat. He put the vehicle into reverse, backing away from the wall and turning back to the Citadel.

I've got to get back there. Sunstar will have to pilot his ship now..., he thought.

The rover entered the charred room, and Mars jumped out. "I'll be back..." he said to his teammate. Running down the hallways, he was surprised to find the Citadel was still mostly intact. "CG Sunstar, are you there?" Mars asked over the com system.

"What is it?! I'm kinda RUNNING FOR MY LIFE HERE!" Sunstar shouted back. "Note to self: Never shoot Gravityman in the back while he's distracted!"

Below the snowy, battle-scarred fields outside of the Citadel, another front of the siege was taking place, although more quietly than a full assault.

"Filthy, filthy, filthy!" Waveman fumed as he drifted his way through the sewage. "Such a sin for water to be used like this!" As he went along he accumulated some of the water to his own mass, doing his best to purge it of unwanted particles and objects. By the time he was directly underneath the Citadel, he was about the size of a yellow devil, his immense size pressing against the sewer walls.

"Now, now, shall I wait here? The metal heads may try and escape through here... Oh, but guard duty is so boring!" the liquid behemoth radioed Napalm. "Yo, 'Palmy! Should I just wash everyone out of the Citadel?"

"That actually sounds like-"

"Good enough for me!" Waveman cackled, and closed the communication.

***

Blizzardman received the transmission from Diveman.

"Got it." Blizzardman said over the com link. He turned to the group.

"Frost, Pirate, Neptune, we have to-"

Blizzard's shout was cut off as the ground shattered and water began to spray from the hole. A crazed laughter rang out from the water as several armor pieces floated in the watery mass.

"Shit! It's Wave!" Neptune shouted.

Wave wasted no time in slamming Blizzardman into the wall with a column of sewage. Both painful and disgusting, Blizzard hit the wall, impacting the steel upon collision. Waveman shot pressurized fists in every direction, nailing everyone in the hallway. The walls began to crumple under the force, threatening a collapse from above. Waveman began cackling in his usual manner. What had he to fear of being crushed? He'd just ooze out from the rubble.

"Neptune, NOW!" Blizzardman shouted.

Before Waveman could react, Neptune blasted Wave with a shot of Aquamarine. Waveman began to shriek with pain as his own body became an acidic solution, eating away at his protein bonds. Waveman broke off from the rest of his "body," but serious damage had already been done. He had lost a lot of nanomachines from that acid bath, and he couldn't manipulate water nearly as much as before.

"Hehehehehe.. KYAHAHAHAHA!!! How could you?!" He cackled deliriously. "You've maimed me!"

Waveman realized with the flooding water, all Neptune had to do was pump the incoming sewage with acid. Then he'd be a dead man. He began to flee from the one thing he had abused on so many occasions. The other Robot Masters gave chase. Waveman saw his redemption from the flood: a staircase.

"Higher ground!" He gasped, reaching the top in one mighty leap.

Neptune was the first to catch up with him. "Why don't you stay and die like a man?" He asked.

Waveman lunged at him with his trident. Neptune shot a blast of Aquamarine at him, but he pulled out the water from his gut, allowing the blast to pass through the new hole in his body. He rushed the cosmic fighter, following the blast carefully to avoid taking in acid, and slammed his whole body into Neptune, forcing him to the ground. He pressurized water on Neptune's buster, pinning his arm to the ground. He raised his trident over his head.

"Tonight's special from the chef: skewered mermaid-thing on a shish kabob!" Waveman shrieked hysterically, thrusting the trident downward. Neptune put his arm up to defend, the trident stabbing down into his wrist and pinning it to his chest. His arm was now useless, but he avoided death, which Neptune was rather grateful for.

However, something burst out of the wall, and Neptune's heart sank as he realized that it was one of Wave's trademark giant makeshift tridents enveloped in malleable water, crafted prior to the battle from the sewer walls. It was shorter than usual to fit indoors, though.

Waveman scooped up Neptune with his new trident and swung it around 360 degrees, hurling the Cosmic Gladiator off and hurtling down the hall.

"Heyyyy! Why don't you stay and die like a man?!" Wave taunted to the still airborne Gladiator, then turned just in time.....

Frostman dashed at the watery figure before him, now only yards away from him. Wave blasted a concentrated column of water at him which Frostman blocked with his fists. The water kept pushing the behemoth back despite Wave's weakened state. Frost eventually backed into a wall, the steel starting to give under the intense pressure.

"What is this delicious evil energy I taste in you?" Waveman asked with amusement, referring to Frostman. "Oh, yes, I sense evil that surpasses any I have ever seen! KYAHAHAHAHA!! How could someone covered in so much darkness be with a scumbag like Cossack?! Come now, that energy has much better use on the other side..... On the Scissor Army!"

"Don't listen to him!" Neptune's distant voice called out.

If Frostman had even responded to Waveman’s proposal, it would have been drowned out by the insane SA officer's laughter anyway, as well as the torrent of water that began to push on with greater force.

"How does it feel to be helpless?!" Waveman cackled since Neptune could no longer assist in bathing the SA Commander in acid. "You'd put up more of a fight... If you were graced with the good General's power! Heeheeheeheehee!" Frostman only smirked.

Waveman watched as Frostman shot liquid nitrogen from his knuckles, freezing the pounding water as it attempted to push him back. The water spray began to freeze on Frostman’s knuckles, creating boxing gloves of ice. However, Frost had failed to take account of the still-active trident, and the giant weapon emerged from the flood of water, embedding itself into the behemoth's left hand. Luckily, the layer of ice he had created cushioned the hit, but it still penetrated pretty deep, and the stream of water was starting to push it in. Howling in pain, Frostman mustered all of his strength to yank the trident out and snap it in half. He clenched his injured hand to see that it was still functional, then continued to block the flood that was still pushing him.

Pirateman leapt over Frost's back and into the water stream, rushing through the mass. Waveman broke off his attack, and Pirateman stopped his rush and jumped back as the aquatic terror's stomach suddenly expanded into a huge maw that snapped at him. Several more of the monsters emerged as tentacles, lashing out at Pirateman, but the Tyrant adeptly leaped over them, the meteor kicked right through the watery monster and slamming a piece of armor out of Wave's body. Waveman growled as he saw Pirateman had snitched his crown from the water. A lightning-quick viper head attempted to snatch it back, but Pirate pulled his hand away, and instead the snake got a small portion of his shoulder armor. He saw the piece become pressurized into oblivion by Waveman, who then made a sick gurgling noise.

"Blech! Thieving Cossack scum taste horrible!" Wave complained.

Blizzardman was now rounding the corner. He began to rush up the steps as Frostman shattered the gloves and slammed his fists on the ground, sending an Ice Wave hurtling after him. Waveman jetted his body to the stairs that wrapped to the other side to avoid the blast. He began to ascend the steel walkway as Blizzardman ran to the center of the staircase.

"Frostman!" Blizzard yelled to the ice golem.

"What?!" Frostman yelled back, about to give chase.

"Fire your Ice Gatling into the air!" Blizzardman shouted.

Shit! Waveman thought as he realized their plan. However, it was too late.

Blizzardman thrust his palms above him and shot a furious Blizzard Attack as Frostman fired his Ice Gatling into the air. Waveman tried to avoid the attack, but the storm of liquid nitrogen projectiles was all too much. Waveman tried to vibrate his nanomachines in an attempt to warm himself, but friction alone wasn't enough to counter sub-zero temperatures. Waveman slowed as the storm ravaged his watery form, finally, unable to dodge the Gatlings fired at him, he was shot head on.

"How does it feel to be helpless," Frostman calmly asked, echoing Wave from before.

"Such power...." Waveman commended, his speech processors unfortunately still intact. "Butyou'dbeevenstrongerifyouwere-"

Frostman cut him short, finalizing his strike with a blob of liquid nitrogen, encasing the Android. Unable to keep his balance, Waveman tumbled off the staircase, shattering on the ground.

"Is he dead?" Frostman asked.

Blizzardman picked up a frozen shard. He placed the piece of ice into his frigid trench coat. With the ice so close to his chilled body, it would be a long time before he had a chance to thaw.

"No..." Blizzard said. "But he is in an extremely dormant state. He won't be moving for a while."

"I say we turn this room into a meat-locker." Pirateman spoke up, twirling his newfangled treasure around his finger.

"Good idea." Neptune agreed, only now returning from his previous flight down the hall. "Another good idea would be REMOVING THIS TRIDENT FROM MY ARM!"

Pirateman tried to gently removed the trident as the two ice brawlers created a winter wonderland in minutes. The whole staircase was covered in snow and ice and three feet of snow now covered the floor.

"Welcome to Russia." Blizzardman said with a chilling cold in his voice.

"AA Blizzardman. Hey, Blizzard, nice weather we're havin', eh? Just callin' to see if ye wouldn't mind GETTIN' THE FUCK OVER HERE!"

Blizzardman had almost forgotten that Diveman needed backup. Then again, didn't everyone?

Just then, the com system gave a disturbing update. Gravityman was beginning to penetrate the Citadel defenses and Stoneman was with him. To make matters worse, Gemini and Crystal were hounding Artillery while Chargeman was storming the main defenses. Only Sean and Maha were trying to stop the nuclear-powered train. The SA had too many powerful forces spread out, and this wasn't all of them. This wasn't combat, this was an extermination. Cutman wanted Cossack dead, and he would probably see to the job himself. That meant the General himself was around here somewhere. He was formidable enough without his twisted machines of war. What chance did the Citadel have?

"Zapper..." Blizzardman whispered to himself. "You guys go on, I need to help Artillery." Blizzard lied to his attack squad.

It worked. Neptune, Pirate, and Frost ran off to help Diveman while Blizzard stayed behind.

"Sorry guys..." Blizzard whispered under his breath. "But Zapper means more to me than all of you..."

***

Outside of the Citadel, Quint and Tomahawkman continued their deadly game of hide and seek in the wilderness.

Quint looked at the tomahawks lodged into the trees. "I have to get rid of those somehow." he thought.

The sniper spun the barrel of his revolver, thumbing in six more rounds before snapping the barrel back into place. He aimed at the various tomahawks lodged in the trees around the duel field and fired. Two of the bullets entered Quint's back, right under his shoulders - not enough to immobilize his arms, but enough to cause him pain as he moved them.

One other hit the back of the Officer's left knee, completely rendering the leg useless.
The fourth and fifth aimed a point just above his pelvis, which would took away his enemy's ability to move his remaining leg for a long enough time.

However, the last bullet, aimed at Quint's left arm, did not deal damage : it bounced back, as if a small force field surrounded the arm. Even worse, itcame back at Regdar, forcing him to dive out of the way.

"My turn, now !" yelled the Officer. While gritting his teeth, he grabbed his left wrist and pulled. The arm detached, and he threw it on his immediate right.

A rain of missiles hit Quint in the back before the limb fell to the ground. The Killer was sent flying in the air, and hit a tree head-first before landing, apparently knocked out.

Searchman walked out of his hiding spot, the doors on his torso still opened ; the Homing Snipers were already reloading.

The Indian Robot Master nodded at him before getting back on his feet.

Unnoticed by the pair of Cossackers, the arm had landed on a thick layer of snow, nearly forming ice. Small claws came from the shoulder and dug in.

"Thanks, Search. Now, let's get back to the SA."

"Negative." The answer from the two-headed sniper blocked Regdar on his feet.

"He's out of commission, man. We've got more important stuff to deal with."

"I must make myself sure of it."

"Don't you remember how tight our budget is ? We can't allow ourselves to waste ammo on half-dead enemies !" explained Regdar with a voice louder than he wanted to.

"I did not intend to waste bullets on him..." Searchman did a small gesture from his left hand, and a dagger appeared just above his left hand. "Do not interfere."

By now, the Sakugarne had transformed into a turret, and was aiming at the two-headed robot. An order, a small impulsion, and it would destroy the opponent.

"Hey, that's just overkill, man." Regdar's face grew pale, as he gazed into Searchman’s eyes. They slightly glowed a dark purple, and he heard what would happen next if he stood in his way. "I can't allow you to do that. I kill for a living, maybe, but I have moral standards. He may be our enemy, but he doesn't deserve that."

"He does." The aura in the Impacter's eyes grew darker, as he motioned himself closer to the corpse.

"Look. We're losing time, and there are plenty of Officers around. Do you have a special grudge against him or something ?" reasoned the Assassin.

"Actually, I do." Searchman’s heads looked away, as if he was telling a shameful story. "We are...of the same family. He dirtied our name."

"And a rain of missiles didn't clean it ? This is my final word. We go back helping the others, or I'll take you out right now." His gun wasn't loaded, but he brushed back his duster to reveal a tomahawk attached to his belt. "I won't like it, but some guys need us." Regdar said.

Searchman considered it, before retracting his blade. His eyes went a slightly brighter shade of purple as well. "Fine. New mission : Sniper actions on SA Officers."

"That's the way to go, man." encouraged Regdar.

Both of them walked away. In the middle of the soft noise they were making as they walked in the snow, he heard the start of a low humming.

Before he made a connection, the humming turned in a loud screeching, and a burning-white ray came from the spot the Saku cannon had landed.

The shot hit Searchman right in his torso, causing a chain reaction with his internal missile launchers. He exploded in a shower of metal debris, his legs still firmly standing.
Debris hit Regdar on his left cheek, causing him to "wake up" from the scene. He turned back, to see his victim was still alive.

Quint had leaned on his right side, his legs lifeless, and oily blood covering his face. He had his hand on his right ear, apparently sending a message :

"Quint to General Cutman. One sniper is down, the other should be easily incapacitated. Quint, over."

He left his arm fell, and he raised his head to see Regdar pointing his rifle at a point between his eyes.

"Funny, that. You had two good eyes, and didn't see my shot ? Talk about a sniper..." he laughed, and laughed, until the Assassin fired. Quint was finally out of commission.

Regdar was about to leave, when he realized what would happen after the battle : the SA would pick Quint up, right. But -and he stared at Searchman’s remains- they wouldn't stop at that...

"He's pretty unstable with that energy of his." he muttered, before picking up the biggest remains of his sniper colleague - the shoulders, his left arm and his two heads, still pieced together by some miracle. "But that means it'll be all too easy for Mesmer to turn him into an SA puppet." He winced at the contact of burned metal against his body, and went back to the forest's edge. He could still do some shots on the SA before having to retreat...

***

Just outside of the South wall of the Citadel, General Cutman had gathered with the majority of his “orange peel”, where he stopped and looked up at the wall, nearly forty feet tall. Knowing he could scale it with relative ease, even given it’s icy, smooth sides, he knew he’d have to leave his followers behind, meaning he’d have to waste further time in fighting off lesser robots to get to Cossack.

“Sir, you want us to take this thing down?”, Punk offered enthusiastically.

Cutman removed his frail-looking hands from his lab coat, rubbing his index finger against his metal chin. “…No. The structural integrity of the wall has been seriously compromised on the other side. Causing a massive breach here would cause the entire wall assembly to collapse, with the majority of it landing atop the inner sanctum. We’d never reach Cossack then.”

“Perhaps I should sneak in and open the front door for you, sir.”, Sedulus came up with a secondary offer. This too would be shot down.

“We haven’t that sort of time.”

Cutman’s hand found its way into his satchel bag, intriguing his troupe as they had collectively wonder what he had brought with him since he had arrived. Pulling out his hand, he produced a rather innocent looking device.

“A…hand grenade?”, Buster Rod raised an eyebrow to. “No offense sir, but I was hoping for something a little more…y’know…cool.”

The General chuckled very softly. “I suggest you stand back. All of you. The wind is going to be a factor here.”

Puzzled, the group reversed a few steps back, giving the Citadel twenty feet of space.

“A grenade?”, Mega Water whispered to Ballade. Does he really think-“

Cutman casually tossed the white orb towards the wall with an eased, underhanded pitch. The fragile casing immediately broke apart upon hitting the wall, and a gray mist spewed out, accompanied by a loud hiss.

The “orange peel” collectively leaned in closer as the wall melted away, blowing into the Citadel along with the wind that had pressed against it.

“Interesting. Four and three hundredths seconds…”, Cutman scribbled down into a notebook, which he also kept in the bag. “I’d say that first field test was successful.”

“General! What the hell was that?!”, Punk inquired loudly.

“I’ve been calling them ‘nano bombs’. You’ve heard of nanotechnology, correct? Oh, yes, of course you have…I programmed you. Anyways, this is a direct military application of that technology in a destructive force. That gray mist was a swarm of limited-life, non-replicating nanomachines programmed to disassemble any and all objects their cloud touches.”

“…Okay…Now THAT is cool.”, Buster Rod commended.

“Uh, question. What if the wind had changed direction and blew it back at us, sir?”, Enker asked with a concerned look on his face.

“Then you’d be killed, obviously.”, Cutman waved off. “I’d be fine, however.”

“…Oh.”

“How would you be fine? Wouldn’t the mist eat you?”, Buster Rod added.

“Boring details, my boy.”, the General chuckled as he readjusted the bag on his shoulder. Without answering the question, he headed inside.

“…I don’t think they’d be boring…”, Punk muttered to Enker.

Once inside the old fortress, Cutman took a moment to look around, as if reminiscing.

“I always did like the architecture of this place…”, he whispered.

This line seemed to elude most of the others, save for Ballade, who looked at him strangely for a few moments, then snapped out of it when he began heading off down one of the hallways, the rest of his “peel” following him.

It wasn’t long before the welcome wagon would interrupt their progress.

Slashman's sensor array became active. It appeared that some enemies made their way into the Citadel, a mere three feet from his current location.

"AA, CentaurGirl. DI, Swordman. We've got company. Keep on the alert, and keep in contact at all times." He whispered into his radio.

The animal-like Robot Master hid in the corridor, getting a good look at my opponents. After taking a good look, he was sure that his day couldn't get any better. The General had made his way inside, and he wasn't alone. Slashman knew that he couldn't tackle this one by himself.

He felt something tap his shoulder. Turning, claws bared, he realized that it was his partner, CentaurGirl.

"Don't spook me like that." he said in a harsh whisper. "I could've hurt you." After the reprimand, he smiled. "But at the same time, you're a godsend. Take a wild guess who's at our front door right now."

CentaurGirl didn't have to tell him in words. She only gave me a shocked look.

Slashman nodded. "Yep. The General himself decided to invite himself in and stroll around like he owns the place. Well, let's fix that."

Once their backs were turned, before CentaurGirl could protest, Slashman lept from the shadows, tackling one of them to the ground. When he recovered, he noticed that it was Enker or the Seven Mercenaries. He quickly recovered, and the others turned around.

"Well well." said the resident strongman of the 7 Mercenaries, Punk. "You have some nerve trying to sneak attack us like that."

The wolverine smiled. "Hey, it wouldn't be a war if I didn't fight, now would it?" he retorted.

Enker, now getting up from the tackle, was laughing. "You really think that you two have a chance against us? We are way out of your league, especially our master." He motioned to the General with that statement.

General Cutman studied the two Cossackers with his bloodshot eyes. "Enker," he said in his demonic voice, which sent a chill through Slashman, “You’re more than enough for these two to handle. Take care of them while we find Cossack."

Enker smiled, and drew his lance. "Gladly," he said with a sneer.

The General and the rest of the Mercs marched on. Slashman wanted so much to tear Cutman limb from limb at that moment, but Enker just wouldn't have it.

He shrugged. Ah well. At least this CO would suffice, he thought to himself. He got into his battle stance, and kept one eye on his partner, waiting to see what she would do. Would she take off after the General, or help me? Didn't matter to him either way, but he was curious.

No. No point of thinking that in the middle of combat. He smiled, and stared straight at Enker. "Your move." he said coldly...

***

“Okay, when did we start losing control here?”

“Did we ever HAVE control in the first place?”

Gravityman’s been relentless in his attacks the past several minutes. It seems the more Pharaoh and Sunstar hit him; they only succeed in making him angrier. So far, they, along with Bright and Uranus, have stayed away from the brunt of his gravitational attacks, but for the moment, they’ve been mostly defensive this whole time, focusing on dodging the huge chunks of debris and snow he’s compressed into solid ice that he’s been spinning every which way.

“We’re gonna need a bit more backup on this…” Jade muttered. “AA, Blizzardman. You got a minute?”

No answer.

“Dammit, hope he’s okay. DI, Searchman. We could use a little sniper backup with this guy.”

Still nothing.

“Crap. I’m getting no one. CC, Toad Gal. Can you give us a hand for a minute?”

No answer.

“Zap…?”

“Even she’s not answering?” Bright Babe asked.

“No. I hope nothing happened to her…”

Jet didn’t say anything for a moment, not sure what to think either. “Don’t worry, she’s probably just busy now.”

Pharaohman nodded. “Alright then, looks like we’re gonna have to bring this guy down ourselves, and go help the others, am I right?”

Uranus got out from behind their cover. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of this guy.”
The hulking Stardroid grabbed a huge piece of what used to be the North wall and hurls it at Gravityman, who easily catches it with his Gravity Hold.

“You poor fool. At the end of your rope, huh?” Gravityman smiled as he sent the large chunk of stone back with enough force to smash the Stardroid to dust. But Uranus deflects it back with his Gravity Twist. “I see, so you have gravity powers too. Well? Are we gonna fight then, or just play catch?”

He sent it back with even greater force. “Damn, I won’t be able to block…” Before he can even complete that thought, the rock smashes into him. Hard. Even with the Gravity Twist working against it, it still plows through him with enough force to cause massive internal damage.

Gravityman wasted no time dashing over to Uranus, grabbing him and slamming his massive, yet horribly damaged body into the wall over and over again. “You fat fuck!! Did you think for a second that your power could match mine?! I’M the master of gravity! Not you!!”

“Uranus!!” Sunstar cried out. He unleashed a blast from his flamethrower while Jade shot a Pharaoh Beam. Ice shot out from the ground, instantly impacted from the snow, and flew toward them, putting out their fire attacks at the same time while they jumped out of the way. Jet turned her Flash Stopper on, but Gravity wasn’t about to fall for that again; he quickly closed his eyes and sent a rock in her direction, shattering her light bulb.

“Aaaaahhh!!”

“Not so tough without that attack, are ya, girlie?” Gravity laughs as he drops Uranus’s corpse and sprints toward her. “I’m gonna enjoy making you SUFFER!!”

“Jet!!” Pharaoh ran in front of her, ready to fire a Pharaoh Shot in the SA officer’s face, but he appeared to be anticipating that as he suddenly stopped and grabbed Jade, flinging him into a nearby tree.

“You are just too predictable, you know that?” He laughed heartily as his gaze switched over to Sunstar. “Whats’s wrong? Feeling left out? Why don’t you try another attack against me?”

“Dammit…” Sunstar muttered. “I heard he was tough, but this is unbelievable… he’s a MONSTER…”

“Got that right. Don’t worry, you’ll join your fat friend soon enough.” He turned to the downed Pharaohman. “Now where was I, before you so rudely interrupted me in Izhevsk?” He grabs Bright Babe in his Gravity Hold in front of him. “Oh yes, I believe we were right here.” He started slowly crushing Jade. “Go ahead, try that trick you did before; burn your lady friend here alive. I don’t mind.” he guffawed.

“Jade…Don’t worry about me…Just defeat him... and help the others.” Jet weakly stammered.

Phraohman just closed his eyes as he tried to shake his head. “You know I can’t do that…”

“Crap, I have to do something!” Sunstar Fire Dashed at Gravityman as his back was turned, but he was obviously waiting for that as ice shot up around him, plowing into him on all sides. Gravity then tosses him aside like a rag doll.

“Down, boy! I TOLD you to wait your turn!!” The bully Officer growled. “Okay, fun time’s over. I’m afraid I have a schedule to keep today… Gahh!!”

Suddenly, a trio of plasma blast hit him from behind. It was the previously missing Skullman, standing atop a piece of the wall.

Gravityman glared at him as he fumed. “I am getting sick and goddamn tired of all these distractions!!” He shot a shower of debris at Zymeth, who simply blocked them with his Skull Barrier. Then, he ran back inside the Citadel. “That’s right, you BETTER run, you skull-faced freak!! I‘ll tear your ass apart just as soon as…”

Suddenly, he was hit in the kneecap by yet another charged plasma shot. While Gravity wasn’t foolish enough to drop his Hold completely, it was weakened enough by the distraction for Bright Babe to angle her buster enough to shoot him in the leg. Gravityman howled in pain, flinging Jet into a nearby tree. He looked at her, fire burning in his eyes “I’ve had it with you… YOUR LIFE ENDS NOW!!”

His last mistake was throwing his human shield away. No sooner did those words leave his mouth than a fully-charged Pharaoh Shot, which Jade had been powering up for just the right moment, hit his head at almost point blank range. He fell motionless to the ground, smoke pouring from his smoldering head.

With that, Pharaohman fell over, almost completely spent with that last shot.

Jet just laid in the snow a few moments after slamming into the tree. She was sporting some nasty damage now. After having a rock thrown at her earlier to break her light bulb, and now being sent into a tree full force, she was beat. Or at least it left her with enough damage to weaken her ability to fight.

Finally, after about half a minute or there about, she finally sat up, rubbing her head wondering what on Earth happened. Then she remembered...

"Oh no! That's right! My light bulb's been shattered to pieces!" she cried, almost frightened by her predicament. Not to mention a small stream of internal fluids was coming from the corner of her mouth. At least that would explain the error messages her system kept sending. She wasn't worried about that though.

She needed to find her comrades, but she stopped dead in her tracks upon finding Gravityman face down in the snow with smoke coming from his downed form.

"Oh my goodness!" she exclaimed as she got a little closer as if to be sure she wasn't seeing things. "Gravity.... Wait. Where's.."

She stopped mid-sentence upon seeing Jade exhausted and laying in the snow now.

"Oh dear!" she quickly ran over to Jade to see if he was alright.

"Jade?" she asked while she knelt next to where he collapsed. "Jade, please get up!" she cried, growing more and more worried by the second as she was scanning the scene to find any SA Officer before they found them first.

"We should get out of here now, Jade!" she said trying to help him up.

Sunstar groggily stood up and surveyed the area. First seeing Uranus's mangled body and then seeing Gravityman face down in the snow, which he glared at with hatred in his eyes.

"YOU BASTARD! Uranus was MY nemesis!" Sunstar shouted at Gravity's body before using his flamethrower as a makeshift sword to hack at the lifeless body until it was as mangled as Uranus's.

After a few moments of trying to gather himself, he finally noticed Bright Babe kneeling next to Pharaohman and walked over to her.

"Bright... We have no time to waste, though, I understand how you are worried about your fallen comrade…But we are needed on the battle field. Now, lets get our fallen comrades someplace where the SA won't find them and then try to find out where our abilities will be most needed in the battlefield." Sunstar said to Bright Babe right before walking over to Uranus's corpse, dragging it towards the Citadel. BB followed suit, pulling Pharaohman by his arms.

***

Elsewhere, a com link rattled off, begging for attention.

"CC, Toad Gal. Can you give us a hand for a minute? Zap…?”

Zapper intended to answer the com link, but she was unfortunately busy... being an audience.

"LAAAAADDIES AND... well, just you, Madame." Spade bowed in a dramatic fashion before Toad Gal, who was getting nervous. "Have I got a show for you."

Zapper had just gotten outside the Citadel when Spade caught her. Spade loomed over her menacingly, his face had a threatening glare. Suddenly, he passed his hand across his face and a new mask had appeared in place of the old one. This one had a giant grin across it's mug. He then straightened up as if he meant no harm and began to dexterously shuffle playing cards.

"Pick a card, any card at all." Spade said quickly and cheerfully.

Zapper reached for a card and Spade slapped her hand. "NO! Not that THAT one!" He corrected.

"Ow..." Zapper rubbed her hand and decided to try again.

Spade began to clear his throat obnoxiously, gagging and wheezing to indicate another lemon card. Zapper finally found a card that pleased the mad jester.

"Now, DO NOT show me the card." Spade passed his hand over his face, replacing the smile with a stern visage. "Now shuffle it back into the deck."

Zapper did so.

"WONDERFUL!" Spade switched to the crazed grin. "I shall now, without ANY knowledge of your card of choice, show you which card you picked." He lunged forward, just inches from Zapper's face, making her extremely uncomfortable. He held up a card. "Is THIS your card?"

"Umm... no..." Zapper said, rather let down by the lack-luster performance just displayed.

"Huh?!" Spade had covered his face with the fanned deck of cards, bringing them down to reveal a shocked expression. "Are you sure?" He asked accusingly.

"Yeah, that's not my card..." Zapper shrank down a bit, afraid to hurt his feelings.

"How about this card?" Spade held up another one.

"No..." Zapper was getting nervous. She didn't want to upset Spade, but she didn't want to lie, either.

"How about THIS one?" Spade chucked the card at her this time, cutting a few hairs from her head as she dodged it.

"No!" Zapper started running away from him.

"How about this one? Or this one? Maybe THIS is your card?" Spade began throwing cards at Zapper, floating off the ground and chasing her in circles as she denied each one. "C'mon, I've got a 1 in 52 chance of getting this right!"

Zapper tried so hard to dodge the attacks, but Spade was a deadeye when it came to card tricks. He kept throwing several at a time, and all she could do was let one hit her in a spot that wasn't a vital point. She was starting to receive gashes all over her body while Spade laughed like a maniac.

"Oh, I still have 22 cards left! AAAHAHAHA!" Spade began shuffling the razor-edged cards.

Spade suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder. "HERRO!-" He turned around to find Blizzard glaring at him. Spade switched to a sad mask by passing his hand across his face.

"Not the face..." He begged.

"I don't take requests..." Blizzardman stated coldly.

"YOU HAVE NO TASTE!!!" Spade screamed as Blizzardman’s uppercut sent the crazed theatrical murderer sailing over the field in a high arc, burying half of his body face-first in the snow.

Blizzardman rushed over to Toad. Dark purple blood had stained the snow where she stood, shaking.

"Zapper! Are you ok?" He asked, worried.

"Yeah..." She replied. "Thanks, Reg..."

Blizzard looked at her. His eyes once again retracted to pupils. "Zapper. Go and pack your things, we need to leave, now."

"But, Reg..." Zapper looked back at her team mates. "What about the others?"

Blizzard placed both hands on Zapper's shoulders. "I won't lose you!" He said. "I can't! I can't go on without you!"

Zapper looked at Regulus. His eyes expressed all the terror he felt when confronted with losing her.

"Please..." He begged.

Zapper stood there, motionless. Bright, Skull, Dive, Drill... they were all her friends. They were her family, and now her lover was asking her to abandon them all when they needed her most. She wanted to help, but she knew if she refused, Regulus would stay and fight to keep her safe.

"O-okay..." Zapper ran off.

Blizzardman rushed off to his room to pack a few of his things before leaving with Zapper. "I won't lose you, my love. The world means nothing to me if you're not in it..."

***

Spade kicked his legs frantically in an attempt to pull himself up from the snow. He finally dislodged himself and stood upright. "Heckler!" He called out towards the lovers, dusting himself off. "Oh well, the show MUST go on! AAAAAHAHAHAAA!"

Suddenly, Spade received a transmission.

"Hellooooo." Spade sang into the receiver.

"SA Officer Spade, this is SA Officer Sedulus. I wish to share some vital information with you..."

***

"Urrgghh... I'll be okay... I think..." Pharaoh stumbled to his feet.

"Are you sure? You look pretty messed up." Bright asked, concerned that he might be pushing himself too hard.

"Eh, don't worry about it." Jade laughed. "I've been though worse than that lummox can dish out." Not really, but he didn't want to worry her. Truth is, he was pretty badly torn up, both inside and out. To top it off, he had little strength left after putting everything into that last Pharaoh Shot. "What about yourself?"

"I think I'll be okay." Jet felt the top of her head, where her light bulb usually was. "I don't know how much help I am now if I can't use my Flash Stopper..."

"I dunno, I doubt Gravs would argee with that right now."

"Heheh. Thanks. But what do we do now?"

Jade answered by opening his com link. "CC Drillman. You there?"

"What's up, Jade?" Drillman’s voice crackled through the com.

"Well, you can forget about any trouble Gravityman might cause. We took care of him"

"Good job. What's your status."

"Not too good, to be honest. Me and Bright are pretty messed up. It's not like you can go into a fight with a walking black hole and come out unscathed, y'know."

"Yeah... Well, get to the basement in the Citadel then. The doctor might be able to patch you up temporarily, at least. And we're getting ready to get him out of here anyway."

"I see... Alright then. We'll see you in a bit." Pharaohman broke contact with Drill. He then turned to Jet. "Well, you heard the boss. Hurry on down to the basement. I'll see if I can lend a hand to any of the other Comrades still fighting out here."

Bright Babe protested. "Oh no you don't. You're not in any shape to fight! C'mon, I'm sure they can handle things."

Jade shrugged. She was right, after all. Who did he think he was kidding? He knew he wasn’t going survive if he tried locking horns with another SA Officer. Besides, it wasn’t like the others were incapable of holding their own. "Alright, alright. I guess I can't let you go by yourself, anyway." He looked around. "Hey, where's Sunstar?"

"He took Uranus back inside the Citadel. Which is precisely where we should be heading. Let's go."

As they made their way back to the Citadel, through the demolished north wall, a low moan emitted from underneath Gravityman’s demolished body.

"Gonna... kill... all... those... sons'a... Urrhhh..."

***

Mars marched back and forth near the rover he had driven outside near the back, away from the prying eyes of the SA. It was remote enough to give them protection from the SA but accessible enough to let people get there in time. Mars looked down, “Come on…” he said, anxiously. He put his hand to his headset. “If you guys don’t get here soon we’re leaving without you! Pluto’s hurt and-“

Suddenly a rogue energy wave landed near him. It was Spade, recently recovered from Blizzard knocking the crap out of him. “Oh come on. Not you!” Mars said, more annoyed than anything. “How’d YOU know we’re here!?”

Spade laughed in his normal fashion. “HEEHEHEEEEHEHEEEEE! A little birdie told me. Actually, Sedulus pointed you guys out for me, heheheheh. Sent me over here to nip a potential problem in the butt, you know what I’m sayin’? HEHEEHEEE!” Spade’s invisible “audience” erupted in applause, much to Mars’s dismay. He brushed a hand in front of his face, revealing a sinister expression.

Mars stomped his foot. “You know what, freak show!?” He demanded, readying his weapons.

“SHOW!? NOW you have the idea!!! HAHAAHAHAAA!” Before Mars could open fire Spade sprung into the air, throwing an onslaught of multicolored balls down. They all exploded in a series of flashing lights and colorful smoke, making Mars loose his line of vision. Spade giggled and leapt into the cloud, his wrist blades drawn. He teleported behind Mars, who was unaware of the killer clown’s location.

Spade leapt at the flat-footed Cosmic Gladiator, only to find that he wasn’t as well hidden from the war machine as he had thought. Mars’s foot kicked Spade squarely in the face, knocking him back out of the dissipating cloud cover. The ‘crowd’ gasped, but Spade recovered from his flight with a handspring. “Nice shot!” The jester declared, moving his face in front of his mask and adding a happy smile to it. “THIS is a show, gentlemen!”

Mars aimed his busters at him and opened fire, the nimble acrobat easily dodging the spray of bullets. Two grenade shells fired at Spade, but he caught them in mid flight, knocking them out of the air and somehow disarming them in the same motion. “HOW-“ Mars started, only to be interrupted.

“A magician never reveals his tricks, Curly Joe! HAAHAHAAA!” With that Spade somersaulted towards the Cosmic Gladiator. Mars aimed down to fire at him, and did, only to have the acrobat leap up and land in front of him. Spade delivered a humiliating slap to Mars, followed by a poke to both eyes. “Nyuk nyuk nyuk! AHAAHAAA! Someone needs to get in touch with-“

Spade was cut short as Mars backhanded him, sending him flying backwards and causing the audience to gasp once again. Spade landed on his feet, but obviously not very amused with that last attack. He looked up, his mask carrying a sad-eyed expression. “That hurt!” Spade cried, childlike. Mars only grinned.

“There’s a hell of a lot more where that came from.” Mars said, getting ready for another assault. Spade started laughing again. He gestured and fireworks erupted behind him in a dazzling display and his mask changed back to normal. He took out a deck of cards and began shuffling them between his hands.

“I won’t look at the card!” Spade declared. With that he hurled the sharpened blade at Mars, which stuck in his armor with startling destructive capabilities for such a small projectile. “Three of hearts!” Spade guessed. Mars looked down. It was. He crumpled the metal object in his hand as Spade got applause, being able to pull off the card trick this time. He fired another grenade and then a flame round, but Spade disappeared in a giant flash of light and smoke.

He saw the performer going for another card, and turned around to attack. Spade was caught completely off guard. Mars opened fire with every weapon in his arsenal. Fireballs, grenades, rockets, machine gun bullets, and others all whizzed towards Spade, causing the snowy area in which he was standing into a complete disaster zone. Mars watched the explosions and smoke fly, still firing into the murky mess. Suddenly a flash of various colored light shot forth from it, Spade screaming like a little girl.

Mars raised an eyebrow. It was obviously being showcased. But his thoughts were interrupted as he felt a pair of feet land on his shoulders. He shouted as a blade punctured his skull, unexpectedly. He managed to struggle a look upwards. Above him, Spade was in the process of stabbing his other arm down and pulling his other up. The one he had shot was an illusion after all.

Spade’s infuriating grinning mask faded out as his wrist blade plunged into Mars’s face. He aimed up through the excruciating pain and started firing in an attempt to hit the murderous jester. But Spade merely scuttled away from the fire to continue his rapid stabbing of Mars’s head and neck. The Gladiator felt his arms go limp, followed soon by his knees. Spade’s screeching laughter and the audience roaring with applause echoed through his mind as everything went black.

Spade leapt from the robot’s shoulders and bowed deeply. “Thank you! Thank you! You’re too kind!” He cried. “Then again, maybe not kind enough.” Spade mused in his best Groucho Marx impression. “Oh ho ho! Christmas came early this year. Someone’s dropped Spade off a new little toy!” He yelled, running for the rover.

Spade practically leapt through the door and spun around in the driver’s seat, getting ready to start pushing random buttons until he saw something in the back of the rover. He contorted out of the seat and slunk over to the unconscious figure of Pluto in the back. “Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww…” Spade cooed, “That’s adorable. He has no idea that he’s about to die…”

Pluto began to collect his thoughts and shrug off his unconsciousness. Pluto forced his eyes open, only to see a black and white mask with a gigantic, now demonic grin plastered on it inches from his face. “You been takin’ any illegal drugs boy!?” Spade shouted in a horrible Texas accent.

Pluto started to scream but it was cut short by Spade eviscerating him, sending him back to a mental blackout. Spade laughed and looked over his latest victim. He was disappointed though, as neither of them bled. “Oh well…” Spade sighed. He started to go back to the driver’s seat, nursing the impact wounds he had suffered, when he turned around to look at Pluto’s downed body again.

He held a light bulb over his head and it turned on. He laughed manically and hopped over to him. He reached behind his back and produced a pair of scissors and a needle and thread set seemingly from out of nowhere. He crouched down and went to work, and in moments he had the object of his whimsy. He took off his jester’s cap and replaced it with his new hat. It was a purplish fur hat, similar to a raccoon skin cap, with Pluto’s long tail dangling from its back.

“I has me a dern good-looking cap there, eh?” Spade asked himself before jumping out of the driver’s seat and running over to Mars’s downed body, throwing it in the back along with Pluto’s. He heard something from Mars’s twisted helmet. A cord popped out of his sleeve and he plugged it into Mars’s earpiece, and he heard them.

“Mars? Are you there!?” Someone asked, probably Sunstar. Spade giggled.

“If you want him to hear you…” Spade said, suddenly taking on a deathly sinister tone, “You’ll have to speak louder, hahahaha.” With that he tossed the helmet aside, hopping back in the Driver’s seat.

It was only moments later when Spade was careening around the outside of the battlefield like an intoxicated infant in the Cosmic Gladiator’s rover. “TEN FOUR! SMOKIE’S ON MY TAIL!” Spade shouted to himself. He drove around to where the real battle was taking place, and then, much to his allies’ annoyance and dismay, past it. He drove into a nearby tree, not causing much damage to the rover but still causing it to come to a sudden halt.

He toppled out of the driver’s side door without too much grace. “I’m OKAY!” He shouted, raising his hands. The General, who was looking on without much humor, only shook his head. He continued on, annoyed by the distraction.

Sedulus, who was looking on, mused to himself, “Spade’s antics, bizarre and outlandish behavior, and overall disregard for the objectives at hand are quite detrimental to the success rate of our current mission. However, his combat abilities and unique assassination talents lend much to our efforts. Overall, Spade seems to be a greater benefit than a detriment, but his exasperating behavior lends much to be desired.”

Sedulus turned to see that the General had not been listening to him, and continued following his commander. He heard Spade in the background, screaming “Check it out! I made a Pluto hat! HAAAAHAHAAAHEEEHEEHHEEE!”

Spade leapt onto the top of the rover, scouting for potential victims. He was having a lot of fun, now.

***

"How do you two feel?" Cossack asked the two Comrades. He had managed to repair the internal damages on Pharaohman and Bright Babe, fixing the latter's light bulb.

"Well I could be better, but it's great Doc. Thanks," Jade told him, with Jet nodding her head.

"Yeah, I am glad that we are all okay. I wonder how the others are doing..." she muttered.

"They'll be fine. Ground, I don’t think the top is big enough. Let's tackle that," Drill told his counterpart. The two activate their drills, piercing the rocks above.

After only a few moments, the entire tunnel shook, causing dust to fall on top of its inhabitants.

Collectively, they adopted silence for a few moments, listening for it. Finally shrugging it off, Drillman re-activated his arms and went back to work, but not for much longer.

In mere seconds, the tunnel seemed to come alive, plunging the entire group into a panicked darkness, which was quickly broken by Bright Babe. Peering ahead, they were shocked to find the cause of the problem.

With a grunt, Stoneman lifted his arm out of the ground, leaving a massive hole to the surface. Nobody in the tunnel seemed too keen on taking the chance getting out that way.

“Ohhh God!”, Kalinka yelled. “Get back! Turn around!”

Needless to say, the entire group was already on their way out before Kalinka got even halfway through her order. As fast as they ran, Stoneman disassembled himself now, and followed in hot pursuit, chasing the collective refugees back into the Citadel.

With most of the gang back inside, Groundman and Drillman fired off their explosive weapons into the tunnel, sealing it off, momentarily blocking Stoneman’s chase. Knowing that wouldn’t hold for very long, the group had to think of Plan B…Fast.

“We don’t have any other options…”, Cossack wheezed.

"...You don't mean..." Drill started.

”Yes, I do. We’ll have to use the bomb shelter exits.”

“Bomb shelter? What’s this all about?”, Drew asked.

“This Citadel has two bomb shelters built sometime during the Cold War. One is in the North, the other in the South. It’s been years since I’ve been down there to check on them, so I don’t know of the doors will open in time.”, the sweat-drenched doctor explained. “Drew…I cannot allow you to come to harm. Please take Kalinka-“

“Papa, no! I can’t leave you!”, she pleaded.

Cossack continued, holding Kalinka against his belly, tears welling up around his eyes. “Take Kalinka out through the South shelter, as well as these two.”, he asked, gesturing to Jay and Silent Bob. “Groundman, please take care of them.”

“I…will, doctor.”, the large, drill-tipped machine promised.

“My Comrades and I will escape through the North shelter. I pray to God we will meet again outside and escape to the West. Please…Be safe.”, he pleaded with the forces that be as he kissed his daughter on the head before pushing her into Drew’s arms.

“Kalinka…Its time to go.”, Drew hushed her sobs as he nodded to his old friend. “God speed, Sergei.”

Cossack nodded tearfully as he watched his daughter reach back to him over Drew’s shoulders. Mindful of the time, the Comrades took Cossack by the arms, dragging him down the opposite end of the passage way.

***

Buster Rod G. was holding to his orders: keeping his General from having to deal with any small fry. As much of an honor that personally body-guarding the General himself was, things were actually pretty boring. At least until he noticed a strange red-orange figure coming at him.

"The fu-" Suddenly Buster Rod was blind-sighted by a stampeding Swordman, with full intents on taking him out. Buster Rod quickly rolled with the tackle and somersaulted a little more until he could jump back to his feet. He pulled out his bo staff and held a defensive position, this was going to be a duel.

It started out with the obligatory, almost clichéd, stare-down. This continued for a good half a minute, until Sword took a dive at the simian Officer. Buster Rod parried the blow, but he got knocked down in the process. He rolled just out of the way of a follow-up overhead swing, and jumping to his feet, he swung his staff at Swordman's legs, hitting behind the kneecap, causing him to stumble as he was in the process of pulling his sword back up.

"This will prove interesting..." Swordman thought to himself as he stood himself back up. "The rushdown strategy worked for a little while, but he'll quickly learn to anticipate it." Swordman thought to himself, then approached his opponent. This time, Swordman thrust his sword forward in an attempt to stab Buster Rod, but the simian Mercenary was able to step aside. However, Buster was caught unprepared for Swordman's follow-up, which was a horizontal strike. Buster made a hasty attempt to block, but was knocked down by the attack. Swordman then tried to use his free hand to grab his opponent, but Buster was able to get up and back out of reach.

Back outside, the “Chargeman dilemma” continued on…

Chargeman was closing in on Dustman while Grenademan lobbed grenade after grenade. As the distance between the runners shortened, Grenademan attacked more rapidly and started shouting to get Chargeman’s attention. When Dustman received Artilleryman's message he quickly ran while trying to hold a conversation.

"You have a plan? Sure, let me here it," Sean said over the radio.

"We'll do our best to help, though we are a bit busy," Maha added.

Both listened quietly as they frantically avoided Chargeman and his superheated ash. Once Artilleryman finished, the duo grinned.

"You want to trade places for a while? Fine by me," Dustman said.

"But how are we going to get there?" Grenademan asked. "Its not like we can lose this guy that easily."

"Leave, that to me," Dustman answered. "I've been meaning to try this for a while."

Dustman activated his vacuum and sucked in nearby dirt and debris. He then spun around and aimed upwards toward Chargeman’s face. However rather than firing off a Dust Crusher, a cloud of dust came flying out of the vacuum to obscure Chargeman’s sight. While the SA officer was left blinded, Sean and Maha proceeded to run towards Artilleryman's location.

"I didn't know you could do that," Maha said.

"What's so complicated about that move," Sean replied. "Its a Dust Crusher minus a step. All I did was not bother to compact all the trash I took in."

Suddenly, lasers were flying off in every direction as Artilleryman tried to weave his way through the gaps left by Crystal and Gemini’s light show. Then he felt a burning pain as a laser had finally hit its mark, destroying his left arm.

“Ow! Son of a…” Artilleryman instinctively tried to grasp his wound although couldn't due his other arm being an oversized cannon. But, in the process he stopped his movement momentarily and then soon another laser flew past and shot off the remains of his right leg, causing him to fly a bit off course before he could adjust his balance again.

“Nice shooting, princess.” Geminiman remarked as he continued to fire off his Gemini Laser, having them reflect off the Citadel walls and his fellow officer’s crystals. “Together we make the most dazzling duo.”

“Enough with the ‘princess’, got that, fairy boy?” CrystalGirl replied as she moved her crystals gracefully around the area in order to keep her prey on his feet, so to speak, no longer caring that Geminiman’s lasers were bouncing off them constantly now.

“If my plan is to work, I’m going to need these two off my back for a while. Dust and Grenade had better get here soon…”, Artillery grunted.

As if on cue, grenade after grenade was fired on to the field as the two robots had come to Artilleryman’s aid.

“Still holding up there, pal?” Dustman remarked at Artilleryman, whom was really looking worse for wear, he then proceeded to fire a Dust Crusher at his two new opponents, who were taken aback by their sudden appearance.

“Using garbage to attack? How very uncouth of you, I believe I’ll have to show you some common decency!”, the White Knight uttered in disgust as the attack flew past him.

“Damn it all, where the hell is Chargeman? He was supposed to be running these two down!” CrystalGirl yelled out in annoyance but then she saw in the distance, Chargeman wiping off the dust in his face and a familiar look of anger resurfacing on his face, and her anger quicky turned to fear. “Shit, he’s getting in that mood again.”

“Good, all the pieces are in play. Hope you guys can all do your part.” Artilleryman said with a smile on his face as he began charging up his particle beam.

"Don't worry," Dustman said. "I think we can handle these two."

"Yeah, no problem," Grenademan replied. "Any preference, Sean?"

"I think I'll teach 'Prince Charming' that life isn't a fairytale," answered Dustman. "I'm going to show him not all weapons are nice and pretty."

"Fine, I'll handle Crystal then," Grenademan said.

The two then split up to take care of their respective foes. Grenademan began to toss explosives at CrystalGirl while Dustman used fired his buster against the Geminiman. The two SA officers were quick to recover as precious gem stones blocked the explosions and the 'White Knight' sidestepped all of the buster shots. The battle was now fairer that it was two against two, but it still would be an uphill struggle for Cossack's forces.

CrystalGirl used her crystals to block every grenade tossed her way, and Grenademan’s frustration was starting to show. The explosives were thrown more rapidly with little aiming at all as Maha tried to blast through the barriers of valuable gems. Grenademan was so busy, he didn't notice the Crystal Eye had fired until right before the laser struck. He quickly tried jerking away, but still was hit hard in the right shoulder. The laser had cut right through the armor. However Grenademan had little time to recover as a crystal shard came flying towards him and tore through his side like a dagger.

"Close range and long range capabilities," muttered Grenademan as he aimed another grenade. "It looks like the only thing General Cutman doesn’t give you guys is freewill."

Dustman was not fairing much better. The 'White Knight' was dodging everything he threw at him and Sean was having a hard time keeping up. Even when Dustman dodged Geminiman’s signature laser it would go bouncing off one of CrystalGirl’s crystals or the Citadel’s walls, coming right back at Dustman. The trajectory of the attack was precise and Sean soon found himself struggling to dodge Geminiman, rather than even attempting to launch an attack of his own.

Then Geminiman and CrystalGirl decided to come up with a slight plan of their own. Another Gemini Laser was fired, which Dustman found little difficulty to dodge. A second crystal shard was sent towards Grenademan and this time Maha had an easy time stepping out of the way. Neither realized anything was wrong until the Gemini Laser hit Grenademan in the back of his right leg and the sharpened gemstone tore through Dustman’s buster. Sean glanced down at his buster and quickly realized his secondary weapon was now useless. Grenademan examined his wounds and came to the conclusion that soon he might not be capable of keeping up the fight.

"Artilleryman, you better hurry up," Dustman muttered underneath his breath.

“Dust, Grenade, time to get out of the way!” he sounded through the communicator, and the two robots quickly acknowledged the order, barreling off to the side as far as they could, firing their weapons at their respective opponents to prevent them from pursuing. To further assist them, Artilleryman managed to unleash a salvo of missiles around the White Knight and the Crystalline Princess, to box them in. Then CrystalGirl had caught on in horror to what was happening.

“Those bastards, Chargeman stop!” she cried out in a futile effort as Chargeman’s mind was lost in his rage, completely oblivious to the trench Artilleryman had just made in front of him with the particle beam. Then everything just seemed to go in slow motion; Chargeman fell into the trench, crashing violently into the ground, causing all his burning nuclear ash to fly everywhere in front of him, covering the unprepared Geminiman and severely damaging CrystalGirl and her precious gemstones that had come to block off most of the ash headed her way.

The two SA robots screamed out in agony as the ash melted away at their armor, forcing them to the ground as they tried to cool them themselves on the snow, only to have it melt instantaneously as it touched them.

“My… my precious armor… my beautiful looks… you… you’ve ruined it all! Hurts… so… much…” The White Knight was nothing but a burning ash covered shape of what he once was; he could barely even talk as he tried to remove the ash that was clinging on to him burning into his body, eyes and skin. He could no longer take it anymore, as he shook off as much of the ash as he could he decided to merge this body with one of the clones on guard duty. He could not pull another clone from their post to carry on his fight, and so he regrettably retreated from the field.

“This is most unpleasant… I hate to leave a lady like this, but I cannot go on in this condition.” He muttered as he suddenly shifted away from the battlefield and moved back to guard duty.

CrystalGirl got off slightly better, but her condition was still almost critical. She had lost 3 of her precious gems to the ash, melted down into significantly smaller shards and her Crystal Eye was damaged beyond recognition, not to mention parts of her body were now smoldering from the nuclear ash spewed out from Chargeman. “That god damn train,” she cursed under her breath as she slowly stood up, trying to ignore the burning pain she was feeling all over now finding herself on her lonesome against Dustman, Grenademan and Artilleryman.

“I gotta hand it to you Artilleryman; that was one hell of a plan.” Dustman laughed.

His laughter slowly died away though when he then noticed Chargeman was getting up from his pitfall, looking as furious as ever.

Quick to react, Artilleryman fired his Electro Net from his shoulder cannon to try containing the beast, but it only managed to anger the Hell Train even more as he broke from the snare, the electricity doing practically nothing to him. He tried using his stun laser but it appeared to do absolutely nothing.

“Aw crap, that’s not good.” He voiced over the communicator. “You two take care of CrystalGirl; I’ll redirect this runaway Hell Train away from the Citadel!”

Not too far down the wall, Stoneman had given up on persuing Cossack through the collapsed tunnel, and was once again focused on demolishing the outer walls of the Citadel, despite Diveman’s best efforts to gain his attention…

Things were going ta shit. Fred Flintstone didn' seem ta care 'bout Dive anymore 'n was now relentlessly nailin' the Citadel walls with 'is hammer 'n giant rocky fists from the rubble strewn all over the battlefield. Dive tried slowin' 'im down by firin' Dive Missiles at odd "weakspots", hopin' one o' 'em would bring the fucker down again. Bastard didn' even slow down; he just pulled 'imself 'nother band-aid from the debris as he plugged away at the walls. However, Dive coulda sworn he saw some kinda ball floatin’ ‘round inside ‘im when a well-place Dive Missile blew a hole through ‘im. But the walls weren't gonna take this abuse much longer.

Thankfully, despite their best efforts, Pirateman, Neptune, and Frostman joined Diveman just before the wall gave.

“Sorry we’re late!” Pirate greeted. “Waveman held us up.” Dive simply gave Jack Sparrow the finger as the wall buckled.

“It’s not going to hold!” Neptune warned as he and the other Cossackers took cover down a hallway, ‘n not a moment too soon. Stoneman broke through the wall like the fuckin’ Kool-Aid Man, sendin’ concrete ‘n steel girders every whichaway. As the dust settled, the four Cossackers could make out Stone’s silhouette triumphantly raisn’ ‘is rocky fists in the air.

“Nail tha bastard!” Dive growled as he ‘n ‘is cavalry leapt from their cover, their weapons blazin’. Neptune let loose a rapid stream o’ aquamarine at the piles o’ rubble behind Stone, takin’ Stone’s pet rocks outta the equation. Dive, Pirate, ‘n Frost hammered at the asswipe with Dive Missiles, Remote Mines, ‘n Ice Gattlin’ respectively, mostly jus’ to keep Stone from nailin’ the Guppy. However Stone weren’t too impressed, n’ simply conjured up ‘nother rocky geyser which deflected their shots.

“Alright, time for step 2,” Dive noted as he pulled out a dive mine and lobbed it in front of Frostman. The mine blew up in fronta the yeti’s face, the light from the explosion blindin’ him sumthin’ fierce. The Ice Ape covered his eyes, ‘n screamed in anguish as the flash brought back all sorts o’ nasty memories he’d been tryin’ to put behind ‘im. It didn’t have as much punch as a Flash Bomb, but it was doin’ the trick. Smilin’, Dive dragged Pirate as far ‘way from Frost as he could as the yeti howled in pain…then in rage. The apeshit insane popsicle screamed incoherently like a spaz as he magiced 'im up a hammer o' ice, ‘n charged full tilt right through the rock storm straight at Stoneman. Neptune, however was caught between the Roid Rager ‘n the Rollin’ Stones, ‘n frantically tried to getta outta Frost’s way. Unfortunately for ‘im, the spaz was a smidge quicker on the draw than he was, ‘n flattened the Little Mermaid with ‘is hammer, his spine snappin' with a sickenin’ crunch.

“Diveman, you heartless son of a bitch! “ Pirate spat, glarin’ at Diveman. Dive hissed in frustration as he slugged Long John Silver.

“Fine, I’m an asshole,” Dive replied indifferently. “Now lissen good, Bluebeard. We got one shot at this…”

The fuckin' yeti bellowed with rage as he jus’ shrugged off the cyclone’s rocky punishment. The psycho slammed one o' Stone's legs, smashin’ it to splinters. Stoneman frantically tried usin' the remains o' leg to form a shield on 'is hand, but Frost jus' bashed it to even smaller pieces before it could fully form. Mongo brought ‘is hammer down on Stone's head, poundin’ it ta dust. The effin’ psycho raised his hammer ‘n screamed in triumphant rage…jus’ as two jagged shards o' stone lodged 'emselves into Frost's eyes. Vanilla Ice dropped ‘is hammer ‘n staggered ‘round, howlin’ in mad pain as Stone fixed ‘imself up from his one undissolved pile o’ rubble. Pressin' 'is advantage, Stone conjured a couple o’ rocky spikes from his rock pile 'n drove 'em into Frost's knees, pinnin’ ‘im to the wall. The snowball on steroids slouched to tha ground, howlin’ in pain as he threw a hissy fit.

"Any more smart ideas?" Stoneman smugly asked the overpowered Comrades as he raised 'is hammer. Diveman simply shot the CO a blade-like smile.

"Ever been had?" Stoneman shot the sub a befuddled look jus’ before he was blown from the inside out. While Frost kept ‘im occupied, Pirate ‘n Dive ‘n stuck a shitload o’ Dive n’ Remote mines to the rocks in 'is rubble pile. ‘N when he used ‘em to patch ‘imself up, the stupid bastard unknowingly incorporated dozens of hidden bombs into his internal structure. In a panic, Stoneman tried takin' usin' some o' 'is rubble to patch 'imself up like before, but there weren’t ‘nuff rocks nearby for 'im to use. Neptune'd dissolved 'em all into sludge with ‘is Aquamarine. The SA's pet rock was shit outta luck as ‘is busted up controllin’ spheres fell to the ground.

"Ya guys did great," Dive sneered, lightin' a cig as he looked the fallen squatters over. One o’ ‘em was flat as a pancake, the other was blind as a bat, crippled, 'n in need o’ a Ritalin OD. Pirate however, was shootin’ Dive a look as though he’d knocked up his daughter.

"CC Diveman! Where the hell are you?! We need you down in the basement, immediately!" Drill shouted over tha com. Dive rolled his eyes as he adjusted his jacket.

"Don't get yer panties in a twist boss. I'm on my way," Dive shot back as he took a drag off his cig. "Well, I gotta run. They're playin' my song," Dive jeered.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Pirate scolded, blockin’ Dive’s path. Hissin’ in frustration, Dive shot ‘im with a Dive Missile, knockin’ the prissy bastard outta his way. Smilin' his blade-like smile, Dive flicked’ his cig at Captain Hook as he left.

"So long."

***

"My, he's a tenacious one..." Buster Rod smiled to himself. Sword took a few more swings at him, they were strong hits, but nothing too hard to push away. The Impacter went for a thrust, but Buster Rod jumped and landed on top of his opponent's blade.

"Gutsy move, son." the monkey quipped. He quickly jumped forward over Swordman's head and somersaulted in the air with his staff out, hitting Swordman in the back. His floating upper section wobbled forward before it righted itself back up.

"Little bugger's quicker than I thought..." Sword thought. The two of them turned around to face each other once again. "You gonna fight me like a man or what?" He tried to goad Buster Rod.

"The ends justify the means, sir knight." Buster Rod replied. They both charged towards each other and their weapons clashed. The two were shoving at each other, trying to push the other down, but their respective strengths were so close that neither seemed to be gaining anything against the other. Swordman let up on his push so Buster Rod would fall forward. The simian caught himself on his hands, but not before Swordman took a quick swing to lop his right leg off halfway up the thigh.

"AAGH! DAMMIT!" Buster Rod screamed in agony at his dismemberment. He shakily stood up on his attached foot, propping the other side with his staff.

"So, you ready to accept your defeat?" Swordman inquired of the Officer.

"Heh, heheh...heheheheheh...haaahahahaaaa!!! Ooooooohh, far from it..." His eyes gleamed red as he maniacally laughed. Sitting down, he took the staff in hand, and started to thrust it up his bad leg. He created a horrifying sound out of his mouth during the process, a mixture of painful screaming and demented laughter. When he was finished, Buster Rod stood up on his makeshift leg, and looked into Swordman's eyes.

"I've still got more if you want it." He told the blade-armed Robot Master.

"You freaking psychopath!"

"Did you expect any less?"

Once again they took another rush at each other. Swordman took a running swing, and luckily it hit Buster Rod's new leg, tripping him over on his back.

"You die here." Sword held up his sword in a downward position, ready to thrust it into his opponent. But...

"NNGAAAAH!" Suddenly a blinding flash caught Swordman off guard. As he attempted to blindly stab his opponent, Buster Rod had got off the ground and was fumbling around him. Swordman's eyes were recovering enough to see that there was nothing on the ground. Where did he go?

"Hey Errol Flynn! Over here." Swordman turned his head towards the voice beside him to meet another flash, this time right in his face. As Swordman was reeling back, Buster Rod doubled his fists together and smashed into the top of Sword's pelvis, harming his anti-gravity device. He smashed the device a few more times until it eventually broke, making Sword's heavy upper section fall to the ground with a great thud.

"...You jackass..."

"Yeah, don't you know it?" Buster Rod stabbed through Swordman's chest with his bo staff leg, incapacitating the brave fighter. He pulled the staff out of his downed opponent and started running back towards his team mates.

***

Artilleryman flew off and the raging Chargeman chased after him. Grenademan and Dustman were now left along against the injured CrystalGirl.

"You know, I like these odds a lot better," Grenademan said with a grin.

"Bastards," CrystalGirl muttered. "I'll tear you apart!"

The remaining fragments of crystals flew out at Grenademan and Dustman as the two frantically dove out of the way. They both managed to succeed in evading the razor sharp edges, but the gemstones changed direction after they passed the two robots and returned to CrystalGirl at full speed. This time the pair were not as lucky, both found themselves receiving deep gashes throughout their body.

"You know what?" Maha asked angrily. "I am so sick of getting cut to pieces by these pieces of jewelry! This bitch dies now!"

Grenademan rapidly threw explosive after explosive at CrystalGirl. The SA officer was immediately put on the defensive as all her remaining crystals were being used to block the explosions. Dustman joined in and fired his Dust Crushers as quickly as he could, but his slow vacuum could not keep up with Grenademan’s rage. The gemstones were slowly being broken apart into smaller pieces as the grenades made impact and some of the smallest fragments were sent flying towards Grenademan and Dustman. These tiny, but sharp crystals were becoming harder and harder to dodge and easily managed to cut through the armor of Cossack's forces. However with all the bursts of flames and smoke from the grenades, CrystalGirl was having difficulty aiming.

The gap between the fighters began to close and CrystalGirl smiled realizing in close combat she would have the advantage. One crystal was soon sent flying into Dustman’s right knee, where it remained and twisted around in order to completely destroy his mobility. The vacuum based robot quickly toppled over as he tried to yank the precious stone out of his leg. Grenademan however moved in even closer as he launched one explosive after the other. There was eventually less than a foot difference between the two fighters. CrystalGirl grinned and closed the gap even more, moving in personally for a final blow. Several of her gems quickly gathered around her hand, allowing one well placed punch to tear through Grenademan’s chest. Grenademan grimaced and attempted to free himself, but CrystalGirl twisted her wrist causing her diamond sharp fist to dig deeper in the armor.

"Idiot," CrystalGirl mocked. "Did you have a death wish?"

"No, I didn't really want to die," Maha answered. "But I'm not afraid of dying for a worthy cause."

Just then Grenademan grinned and looked at his hands. CrystalGirl glanced down as well and immediately attempted to pull back. A huge burst of fire erupted from between the two opponents. Maha had used all his remaining ammo in a suicidal attack against CrystalGirl.

When the flames died down, CrystalGirl and Grenademan fell. CrystalGirl’s armor had been destroyed by the explosion; the extreme heat twisted the metal and stained what remained black. Grenademan faired even worse against his own weaponry. With all the gashes and holes in his armor, the fires had no trouble entering and tearing him apart. Both combatants were now out of the battle.

Dustman with one last tug removed the crystal from his leg. Without CrystalGirl to control it anymore, the gemstone proved much easier to remove. The Robot Master limped over to his ally and sat down.

"Good job, Grenademan," Sean said despite knowing that his friend could no longer hear him. "Personally I thought you had just gone berserk, would of never guessed there was a method to your madness. Now all that’s left is to take care of Chargeman and get us back to the Citadel."

The Robot Master laughed to himself for a second.

"Yeah, like either of those two is going to be easy. I mean, you are at best unconscious and I can only limp at the moment. Besides, Chargeman’s armor we both know is too strong and we can't attempt blowing him up like you did with CrystalGirl either," Dustman thought out loud. "With a furnace hot enough to make ash that burns through armor there would bound to be some nasty side effects if we find an explosive powerful enough to tear through Chargeman. Artilleryman and I aren't even in that good of a shape at the moment either. We really need some sort of edge..."

An idea suddenly came to Dustman. The Robot Master quickly looked down at his now useless right leg and all the crystals and bits of armor scattered across the ground. He quickly activated his radio and contacted Artilleryman.

"Hey, Artillery? I have a plan." Dustman said.

***

Artilleryman's voice was barely audible over the intercom thanks to Chargeman’s roaring. "Hey, I could use some help the Super Chief!"

"Ya already got Blizzard over there, Artie." Diveman countered. "What more could ya want?"

"Blizzard? You mean that huge Russian guy?" Artillery asked. "I haven't seen him since this party started. Don't know what's in that flask of yours, buddy."

"Sonuva..." Diveman checked his com link. "AA Blizzard. Yo, Snowcone! Ya hear me, Frosty?! Answer me, dammit!"

No response.

"Hmph. Saw that one comin’"

Diveman put his hand up to the communications receiver again.

"CC Toad Gal. Toad? Zap?"

***

Blizzardman carried Toadgal in his right arm and their possessions in his left. Zapper's com link beeped. Without thinking, Zapper picked up.

"Yeah?" She asked before realizing she wasn't supposed to answer.

Blizzardman looked down at her. She knew he wouldn't let her go back and fight. Not in the condition she was in now. All he wanted was to keep any harm from coming to her, even if it meant abandoning his friends.

"Sorry, Dive," she said. "I'm kinda busy right now..."

Toadgal cut the communication. "Reg... what if they die?" She asked, a tear forming in the corner of her eye.

"They wanted to stay, Zapper... it's their decision..." Blizzard said, gazing into her eyes. "Please don't ask me to take you back. If you die... I might as well be dead, too..."

"Okay..." Zapper relented. "I hope they all make it out okay..."

"I hope so too, love, I hope so, too..."

A plasma shot stopped Blizzard in mid-step. "Ahh... young love..." A snide voice sighed. "How is it that an oaf such as yourself has the love of such a woman, whereas my beloved refuses to return the affection I lavish upon her?"

The source of the shot walked into plain view. "Gemini..." Blizzardman growled.

"Fleeing? What a cowardly way to protect your lady!" Gemini drew his heated sword and pointed it at the Russian. He noticed the wounds Zapper had accumulated from the fight with Spade. "And you've failed to protect her as well. Perhaps she'd be in better hands were she to join the glorious General..." The White Knight's sinister grin replaced his indignant stare as a manic chuckle passed his mouth.

Blizzardman looked around as the knight began to close distance. He saw a fairly large rock to his right.

"Hold on, Zapper." He said.

Blizzardman leapt to the boulder and kicked it towards Gemini with startling accuracy. The White Knight saw the attack and put up his shield, however, allowing the rock to smash against the sturdy shield. "Such brutish tactics, you're hardly worth-"

Gemini was cut short as he caught a face-full of snow. He wiped the cold precipitation from his face and looked around. Blizzardman had whipped up a snowstorm while he blocked the rock. He glanced back and forth. Finally, he caught a glimpse of his prey as it ran through the woods.

"So, your crude display was merely to catch me off my guard for a more refined tactic! Well done, but I'm afraid it won't help." Gemini's crazed laughter echoed through the woods as he began closing distance with Blizzardman.

Blizzardman ran as fast as he could. Just as the knight was within eyesight, Blizzardman saw that the forest led to a ledge. He stopped. The ledge was about a six foot drop onto a steep incline. Gemini caught up with him.

"Any last words, you dishonorable coward?" The White Knight laughed maniacally.

Blizzardman looked back. "Yes," He said. "This is some nice powder."

With that, the Russian jumped off the ledge and his retractable skis shot out from his boots. Geminiman rushed to the edge and watched the ex-ski instructor Robot Master pick up speed while dodging trees and rocks with ease.

"Come back and face death with honor!" Gemini shouted, firing off plasma rounds as Blizzardman quickly faded out of sight. He growled and reach for his com link, but then hesitated. "Do I really want to call for backup and tell them I allowed two Cossackers to escape?" Gemini thought to himself. "Grrr, he's not worth the trouble..." He turned and then stroked his face. "How does a giant walking snowball have such a lovely lady to call his own when a far more attractive soul such as myself retires to a lonely home?"

Enker simply beckoned back at Slashman. "It's not worth my time to walk over there." He said in an almost bored tone.

The clawed robot was taken back by the insult, but he didn't show it. He only smiled. "Well, then. If you won't make the first strike, I'll cut you down to size myself!"

"No! Slash, he wants you to-" Centaur tried to warn him, but Slashman was already on the attack.

The wolverine leapt at the Mercenary, lashing out with a devastating combo attack. Just as he lashed out, however, Enker pole-vaulted into the air using his spear, slamming his foot down on Slashman's back. Slashman cried out in pain while the Mercenary laughed.

"You see? Why should I have to walk over there to kill you?" He spat.

"Oh, no. Slash!" Centaur aimed her buster.

"Heheheheh, are you sure about that, sweetheart?" Enker readied his mirror buster.

Zapper shot her spread shot, but the attack sailed past Enker, slamming into the wall and breaking into a shower of plasma fire.

"Why that little-" Enker saw the plasma coming from behind and performed a back flip over the incoming projectile.

Once Slashman was no longer pinned, he leapt up and dashed in close to Enker.

"That spear is worthless in close-range." He said with a growl.

Enker didn't even bother to answer him as he retracted the spear, it was much smaller now, and capable of being used in close combat. Enker parried a slash attack and sank his fist into Slashman's gut.

"Ever get tired of being wrong?" Enker said calmly.

The Mercenary attempted to stab him, but Slashman was nimble and jumped up just in time to avoid the spear thrust. Enker lobbed the spear at the airborne foe. The spear passed through the target, but no scream was heard and Enker didn't see any damage. His radar beeped, cueing him in their presence. Zapper and Slash were off to his far right. He had struck an after-image.

"That's a wonderful trick, Slash." He said with a light chuckle.

"That wasn't me." Slashman said, looking up at Zapper. She had used her accelerator to nab Slashman out of the air before the spear struck him.

"You're welcome." Zapper smiled. "Let's kick this guy's butt."

Slashman smiled back. "Agreed. Let's show him how it's done!"

The two Robot Masters dashed towards the Rockman Killer. Enker drew his spear. He timed their approach and leapt between the two. Now he extended his spear, tripping Zapper up and making Slashman leap over the pole. Enker lunged at Zapper's mid-section, but Slashman caught the spear by interlocking his claws to make scissors, causing enough friction to stop the blade. Zapper got up and attempted to run Enker over, but the Mercenary rolled to the side and attempted to run her through again with his spear. This time, Zapper caught the pole as it passed by her side, grabbing the length of the pole with her arm and cradling it like it was a lance. She followed the forward motion of Enker's attack by slamming her free elbow into his face. Enker landed on the ground, rolling on the floor and holding his nose.

"GAAH! I'll show you!" He shouted.

Enker pulled out a plasma spear. The tip glowed with superheated energy.

"I'LL HACK YOU TO PIECES!!!" The Mercenary screamed.

Zapper materialized a naginata. She nodded to Slashman, who nodded in return. The two ran at the infuriated spear-wielder. He ran the plasma tip in a short arc in front of him, kicking up small splash of liquid metal. The two Robot Masters were momentarily distracted, and that was all Enker needed. He shot through the two attackers, slamming the butt of his spear into Slashman's chin, sending him sprawling into the wall. He attempted to eviscerate the mythological Robot Master, but she was able to see it in time and escaped with a mild gash on her side. She swung her naginata at Enker, who nimbly evaded the attack, jumping to the ceiling and launching himself from the surface, attempting to sink the red-hot point into her chest. Slashman slammed into him, however, stopping the attack. Slashman attempted to swipe his face off his skull, but Enker defended with his spear. After stopping the attack, Enker kicked Slashman in the gut, forcing the wolverine off of him and allowing him to handspring to a standing position. The two Robot Masters rush him, wildly swinging their blades as Enker blocked and evaded the vicious steel onslaught. Enker stuck his spear into the ground and used it as a pole to hold on to as he kicked off of Slashman's face and struck Zapper in the stomach with a devastating kick. He held on to the pole and flipped back to Slashman, landing an axe-kick to his head, slamming the wolverine to the ground. He picked up the downed Robot Master and swung him across the room. The agile Slashman stuck the landing after being thrown as Enker pulled his plasma spear out of the ground to counter the naginata swipe from CentaurGirl’s. The two fighters swung viciously at each other with their mid-ranged weapons. Zapper performed a brutal overhead strike which Enker promptly dodged by jumping up as she swung, landing on the back of her head and front-flipping off her head into a perfect landing several yards away from her. Slashman had just gotten back to the fight.

"Certainly you must realize by now that the Scissor Army is invincible!" Enker laughed. "Why don't you just join them?"

"Because we're above scum like that!" Slashman shouted, dashing at Enker.

Enker simply laughed and mounted his spear against the oncoming foe. Suddenly, Zapper appeared at his side, naginata drawn, ready to slash him in half.

"Damn her accelerator!" He said, breaking off the attack.

Both Robot Masters swung at once, but Enker dropped to the floor on his back as the attacks barely missed his head. Now he leapt up into the air.

"Now you will both-" Enker was cut off in mid-sentence as Zapper reared up, goring him with the horn on her helmet.

"ACK!" He gurgled. "You-you... little... DIE!"

Enker thrust his spear into Zapper's chest. Zapper screamed in pain as the searing heat melted through her armor and ravaged her circuitry. She took her helmet off, leaving it imbedded into te ceiling where she had nailed Enker. Enker frantically tried to remove the horn as Slashman shot a goo bomb onto the ceiling, allowing him to stick to the ceiling right where Enker was nailed. He jumped into his own goo bomb, the sticky substance adhering him to the ceiling. He glared at the trapped Mercenary, who shot a glance back at him.

"You can't stop us. We'll just come back every time." Enker taunted.

"Sure, your buddies might," said Slashman, "but I have news for you, Enks. You won't."

Within seconds, Enker clattered to the ground in eight different pieces. Slashman pulled Zapper's helmet out of the ceiling and kicked himself out of his goo bomb. He walked over to Zapper, who had pulled the plasma spearhead out of her chest. She clutched her wound.

"Are you ok?" Slashman asked, worried.

Zapper gave him the thumbs-up. "Yeah." She smiled. "He missed my power-core just barely..."

"Close call." Slash said. "Here's you helmet." He said, handing her the headpiece.

Zapper brushing her long, beautiful white hair back and placed the helmet back on her head.

***

Once Dustman explained his plan to Artilleryman, the mercenary smiled and turned around to fly back to the battlefield. Chargeman continued running straight ahead for a few seconds before quickly changing changed direction.

“Not a bad plan,” Artilleryman said he began to charge his particle cannon. “Try to avoid getting flattened.”

“Don’t worry. Just lead Chargeman and fire if necessary. I’ll handle the rest,” Dustman replied.

Sean saw the massive Chargeman run towards him before he could make out Artilleryman flying in front of the locomotive. Dustman sighed and began aiming his vacuum straight ahead. Perhaps if Chargeman was not so full of rage or if General Cutman had given the battering ram more intelligence the giant would of found something wrong. The field was empty except for Dustman and the inactive bodies of Grenademan and CrystalGirl.

Chargeman increased his speed when he noticed the unmoving Dustman in his path. “Just a little more,” Dustman muttered as the distance between him and Chargeman lessened. The superheated soot was beginning to get closer and closer to burning his armor.

As soon as the black ash landed within a foot away from his feet, Dustman checked his aim and closed his eyes. Sean then fired the most destructive Dust Crusher he had ever made. All the fragmented crystals had been used along with most of the metal shards rather than the normal, harmless dust. A storm of sharp, jagged pieces of metal and gems tore into Chargeman’s legs; one of Dustman’s attacks had finally succeeded in piercing the tough armor of the crazed train.

Chargeman staggered backwards and Artilleryman quickly opened fire on his opponent’s wounds. The charged particle beam tore into Chargeman’s already weakened knees. The giant toppled to the earth causing the surrounding area to shake. Upon hitting the ground, the locomotive flailed as he desperately struggled to rise and found that he could not. Chargeman roared in rage as he squirmed on the ground

“Nice job. I don’t think the hell train is too happy about it though,” Artilleryman said. “The Scissor Army has been so kind to share their weaponry with us today.”

Artilleryman waited for a reaction and when none came he began to look for Dustman. He found Sean not too far away lying on the ground. While the attack was extremely effective, it was not without side effects. Dustman was weak to cutting weapons like Ringman’s attacks and the area most sensitive was his vacuum. Sean practically tore himself apart from the inside out to make that attack and the nuclear ash that had fallen afterwards did not help matters. His vacuum had been shredded to pieces and damaged beyond repair or recognition. Both of Dustman’s shoulders were now practically destroyed and his previously damaged right arm was gone. His left eye was destroyed along with part of the surrounding area and his right eye was half close. The previous damage to the rest of his body had been worsened by the heat of the ash.

“Come on, wake up,” Artilleryman said as he shook Dustman’s body. “I need you to get up; I can’t drag both you and Grenademan back to the Citadel.”

Sean’s right eye opened the rest of the way and he struggled to his feet once Artilleryman let go. He opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. Instead Dustman coughed violently and almost fell back to the ground.

“Are you okay?” Artilleryman asked.

Dustman shook his head.

Artilleryman paused for a second and then asked, “Can you at least walk?”

Dustman hesitated and then took a step forward, dragging his right leg behind his left. He then nodded.

“Good, we better hurry back to the Citadel before Chargeman manages to wiggle over to us or calls for help,” Artilleryman said gesturing to the squirming Chargeman.

Dustman started to move, but then stopped and pointed at Grenademan.

Artilleryman sighed, “Don’t worry, I’ll carry him. You just worry about walking.”

***

Skull took a few shots from atop the wall at a semi-distracted Spade, trying to get his attention off of the more wounded members of Cossack’s faction he was staring at. Spade stumbled behind his stolen vehicle, narrowly avoiding Skull’s shots. The plan worked as Spade teleported from behind the van to its front, lobbing an energy ball at Skull and laughing childishly. Skull activated his barrier, deflecting the shot.

Spade laughed and threw down a smoke bomb, disappearing. Skull crouched behind a low wall, waiting for Spade’s next move. The crazed jester appeared suddenly, standing on top of the wall Skull was taking cover behind. “HERRO!” Spade shouted as Skull jumped away from him firing more shots from his buster. Spade nimbly dodged each one, closing distance with Skull with his wrist blades drawn.

“C’mon, don’t you want to duke it out? I’m itching to fight with my Daniel Boon hat!” He shouted, gesturing towards the Pluto fur hat on his head.

“It’s just sheer bliss being you, isn’t it?” Skull asked, whipping his scythe from behind his back.

“Not so much lately…” Spade said, sadly, “Working with Killjoy is no fun at all…”

“Well, someone has to keep the pure, unadulterated madness in check, don’t they?” Skull replied, readying for one of Spade’s surprise attacks.

“Madness!?” Spade spat. Skull could see where this was going a mile away, but somehow Spade still caught him off guard with the sheer lunacy of his upcoming attack. “THIS IS SPARTA!!!” And as predicted, Spade kicked Skull right in the chest, causing him to tumble backwards.

Spade laughed manically while Skull started to get up, stunned by the fact that he actually got hit. “Wait…” Spade mused, “This is RUSSIA. I messed that up… Okay, come back over here, we need to try that again.” Skull began walking towards him as if to humor him, but suddenly lunged at the performer. He cocked his scythe back, ready to swing.

Spade raised his wrist blades up in defense, ready to block and counter attack. But Skull’s swing went low, imbedding itself in the floor in front of him. Spade reacted too late this time, as Skull propelled himself forward from the stationary weapon, returning Spade’s previous kick with even more force. Spade lunged backwards from the wall, falling and being imbedded face-first into the exact same spot in the snow that Blizzard had launched him into earlier.

Skull shook his head and chuckled to himself. He decided that it was a good thing that Spade played around so much. His thoughts were interrupted as Drill’s voice blared over his com link. “Skull! Get back to the basement ASAP! I’ll see you there.”

Skull put a hand to the side of his helmet. “Fair enough. I’m on my way.” He said. He jumped from the wall and made a mad dash towards the Citadel, rushing inside. He skidded to a halt in the hallway to round a corner. He took a few steps to get a run going again but suddenly a huge flash of metal flicked out in front of him. He ground to a halt and it flashed again. This time he realized it was a scythe blade.

Suddenly Zymeth realized he was standing on top of a grate. His eyes widened with the insight and he began to leap when suddenly the same flash sprang up to his left, and then his right. The four slashes made a perfect square, which began tumbling into the bowls of the Citadel. Skull pulled off his jump before the sliced section of the floor fell, but he felt a pair of hands grab him by the ankles, pulling him into the dark section of the Citadel.

The hands disappeared and he landed about 15 feed down, on top of a walkway. He looked around the long, wide corridor, finding it to be full of pipes that carried water to and from the various rooms of the Citadel. He looked up at the hole in the ceiling, only to see it become shrouded by blackness.

“Wraithman…” Skull muttered under his breath, activating the light that emanated from the gem on his chest. The only sounds at first were the vague dripping from the various pipes, and the occasional sound of an explosion from the real battle. But the sound of footsteps walking on the grated walkway began to echo, and Skull readied his scythe. He put a hand up to his helmet. "Drill-" He began, but was cut off by a horrific static sound.

"Hello, Vincent." Wraith said, emerging casually from the shadows. Skull only glared in return. “I’m so glad I caught you before something… terrible happened. I’d be quite distraught if something happened to my dearest younger brother.”

“You’re brother’s gone, Wraith.” Skull snapped back.

“Don’t talk such nonsense.” Wraith responded, waving offhandedly. “You’re just rather confused ever since your dark energy transfusion, when you inherited that man’s memories. You’re still the brother I’ve grown to care about.”

Skull chuckled in response. “Well I STILL can’t remember a damn moment we shared as brothers, if that’s the case. So what the hell are you doing here?”

Wraith looked around the room. “I’ve actually frequented this very spot many times, without the knowledge of its residents. You’re all so interesting to listen to.” Wraith looked back at Skull, who was beginning to become annoyed by Wraith dodging his question. “Hm. I’m here to save you from your foolishness, Vincent. To take you to the winning side, whether you see it fit or not. I would have thought that you of all people would have seen that.”

Skull laughed, “Well you’re going to have to drag me there kicking and screaming, bro.”

Wraith chuckled, “Well, if that is your request, it can be arranged quite easily.” Wraith lunged at Skull, his scythe spinning. Skull met it with his own, locking their blades together. Wraith yanked back and swung again, forcing Skull on the defensive. Wraith’s speed and agility made him hard to keep up with, but Skull’s sheer martial weapon prowess kept him together. Again and again their scythes clashed in the dark. Skull leapt over Wraith’s head, aiming his buster down and showering the demon with rapid-fire plasma bullets.

Wraith easily warded them away with his cloak, returning fire with black and purple fire-like shots as the white-clad brother hit the ground. Skull deflected them all with his Skull Barrier, but Wraith suddenly closed distance again, flourishing his scythe. Skullmanaged to throw an elbow into Wraith’s jaw as he swung, but Wraith didn’t recoil as dramatically as Skull had hoped.

Wraith let go of his scythe and grabbed his brother’s arm, twisting it and sending him spinning towards the pipes below. Skull stuck the landing and Wraith materialized from the ground in front of him, his scythe soon following. The two spun and lashed out at each other, cutting a few pipes in the process. Steam poured from one of them as they locked blades again, the foundations of the Citadel being shaken with yet another explosion.

“Can you not see you are doomed here?” Wraith asked, coldly. “I am offering you an easy escape. Even your treachery will be overlooked.”

Skull glared, “I can find my own way out of this.” Skull reached inside his cloak, extracting a normally unseen dagger that he had stripped from an SA Joe before. He tried to stab the tall robot in the leg, but his wrist was caught by Wraith's free hand. Skull kicked Wraith in the gut, causing him to stumble backwards slightly and allowing Skull to leap backwards, trying to put some distance in between him and his brother. But Wraith lunged forward again.

Skull began to swing upwards with his weapon only to feel a sharp pain in his left leg. He looked down to see that his own knife was lodged into his calf. Wraith’s charge had masked the fact that he had thrown Skull's knife at him before, as to keep his eyes on himself rather than the projectile. Skull cursed under his breath. Despite having no real facial features outside his yes, he could see Wraith sneering at him. He tried to swing his scythe up again, but Wraith danced backwards and responded with his own attack.

Skull stumbled backwards, trying to ignore the pain in his leg. He sliced at Wraith again, cutting through several pipes in the process and water began spewing from the incisions. Wraith batted Skull's weapon aside with his own and delivered a few more slices that Skull attempted to dodge, leaving him with several gashes on his body. Skull could feel the fatigue begin to wear into his system from the wounds. Skull continued to collect wounds, completely outclassed by Wraith.

As their weapons swung more cuts entered the pipes, allowing more water to exit them. Wraith rammed the butt of his scythe into Skull's stomach, followed by a deep cut to both his upper legs. Skull swung again but Wraith spun to the side, slamming the butt end of his scythe into Skull yet again. This time he felt the weapon enter his gut and exit his spine. The pole kept going, pinning him to a wall and puncturing the pipe that was behind him. Skull struggled against his impalement, a combination of water and dark hydraulics fluid leaking from his open wound.

"Brother..." Wraith began. "All of this could have been avoided if-" Wraith was cut off as Skull raised his buster in another attempt to shoot him. Wraith yanked the knife out of his leg and stabbed it into his forearm, inciting another holler of pain from his brother. "Why must you continue to fight against your best interests?"

Skull just looked up, glaring. "You can go to Hell, Wraith..." His right eye was twitching, manically.

"Sadly, neither of us can..." Wraith said, surprisingly compassionately. He let go of his scythe, leaving his wounded brother hanging there. "Our destinies are forever intertwined, cemented by the very darkness in which we dwell. You'll thank me for this someday soon, Vincent..." Wraith said.

"I very well doubt-" Skull began, but was cut off when more static blared into his ear from his com link. Wraith took that moment to kick the top end of his scythe, sending the pole deeper into the wall behind Skull. The blade made contact with him, finally, cutting deeply into his chest. Skull twitched for a moment before passing out, finally, along with his light.

"I promise..." Wraith added to his previous statement. He touched the side of Skull's helmet, using his darkness particles to channel the sound to his own ears. He allowed the transmission to reach him.

"Zymeth?" Drill asked, concerned, "Are you there? Can you hear me!?"

Wraith used a similar method to carry his own voice into the transceiver. "I'm afraid Vincent cannot answer you, Anime Master."

"Wraith!?" AM shouted back. "What happened? What did you do!?"

"It's quite rude to shout over the phone like that." Wraith chastised, "But I must apologize that you'll not have the opportunity to bid him your final farewells. Rather, you'll regret having that opportunity once you see him again, I'm sure." With that Wraith hung up.

He put his hand to his own helmet. "A thousand apologies, my General, but my task is complete. I think you'll find my personal victory quite rewarding." Before Cutman had a chance to answer, Wraith cut off his com link again. He yanked his scythe out of the wall, allowing Skull to fall to the ground.

Wraith began chuckling to himself. He had won, yet again. The artificial blackness of the room crept from the walls, surrounding and condensing around his form and his brother's. The black mass moved down the corridor like a great, black snake, creeping out of a small hole in the ceiling a short trip down. The blackness slithered from the opening and into the open, moving across the snow away from the battle. Eventually the shadows collected into a single, swirling mass and dissipated like smoke in a strong wind, revealing both figures to be gone.

***

Blizzard went quickly to his room. He packed all his worldly possessions together, including a picture of Zapper and himself. He sighed. He didn't really want to retreat, but he had to get her out of here. If anything happened to her, he would never forgive himself.

***

Toadgal paused as she got her things. She was torn. She wanted to stay with her love, but the Comrades saved her. They took her in even when she attacked them. She picked up her teddy bear, her favorite possession. How many a time had she clutched it while laying on her bed.

Thoughts of Bright Babe filled her head. She considered Bright to be her best friend, with the war bringing them together. Of all the people, she would miss her the most. And of course Zymeth, possibly her oldest friend. Her teammate. She hoped he would be okay.

She gathered all her things and decided to look outside. Her home was being destroyed. She wanted one more look before she fled. And she would not be alone.

***

Blizzard finished packing and went to Zapper's room. Surprisingly she wasn't there. He picked up his com link and punched in her code.

"CC Toadgal, where are you?!" he called in. Static filled his ears. Then finally a quivering voice answered.

"Reg...Listen...something came up. I need to go with the Comrades just for a little while longer. I need to talk to them. I assure you...I'll be fine. I will meet up with you at Zymeth's old hideout. I swear to you love...I will see you soon," she radioed in. Blizzard felt a twisted feeling in his chest area.

"Zapper, what happened?! What is going on?! I won't lose you!" he cried.

"Reg...This needs to be done. I will meet you there. I promise you. I love you."

Blizzard felt his heart shatter a little bit. "I...love you too Zap. I will see you there."

***

Artilleryman, Dustman, and the inactive Grenademan managed to make it back to the Citadel intact. Every few minutes Artilleryman dropped Maha's body and flew off to scout for SA officers ahead to ensure the group's safety. They often had to walk out of their way to avoid encountering the enemy, but more walking was better than any more fighting. The group could not survive another battle. Eventually they found themselves relatively safe behind the Citadel walls once more.

It didn't take long to find Dr. Cossack and the rest who would be escaping to the tunnels. They were finishing off a few last minute preparations in the basement when Dustman entered followed by Artilleryman who was still dragging Grenademan’s corpse.

"Good Lord!" Dr. Cossack said as he saw the three enter. "What happened?"

Dustman futilely tried to explain the situation with hand gestures. The only results of Sean’s attempt at sign language were some laughs from Artilleryman and looks of confusion from the rest of the group.

"We ran into Chargeman, CrystalGirl, and Geminiman. The clone was toasted and fled and CrystalGirl was defeated by Grenademan here suicide bombing her," Artilleryman explained finally dropping Grenademan’s body. "Dustman then used the crystals scattering the battlefield and my weaponry to kneecap Chargeman and leave the hell train squirming on the ground. Dustman took a lot of damage earlier and his attack on Chargeman had some rather nasty side effects. One of the things that got wrecked was Dustman’s voice box, or at least I assume that’s why he isn't saying anything."

"Good work, but I'm afraid I don't have time to do any repairs before we leave. We have little time left. The best I can offer you Dustman when we exit underground is a shoulder to lean on," Dr. Cossack replied. "Drillman, please quickly contact the members of Grenademan’s team about his current condition."

Drill nodded and activated his communicator. Dr. Cossack turned around to finish his final preparation to leave when Dustman tapped him on his shoulder to get his attention. Dustman then drew an 'S' in the air with his hand followed by a '|.' He then proceeded to point at Artilleryman.

"You think I should pay him now?" Dr. Cossack asked.

Dustman quickly nodded in response. Dr. Cossack sighed and ran off. He was back in only a few seconds with an envelope for Artilleryman.

"Thanks," Artilleryman said as he took his payment. "I hope I'll be able to continue working for you guys after this."

"So do I," Dr. Cossack replied.

***

“What’s going on back there?” GroundMan asked the people behind him. He was leading the group through the underground passage, while Drew was watching their backs.

“It seems old Vladimir isn’t feeling too well…” an old Russian woman replied.

“That guy again?!” Ground exclaimed. The group of five lab coats, was also quite puzzled at their comrade’s unusual attitude. “What’s the problem Drew?” he asked Dr. Cossack’s old pal, who was going back in order to check on Chevchenko.

The guy was crouching on a corner, covering his face with both hands. What the group didn’t know was that Chevchenko had died several minutes ago, and this guy was actually an impostor sent by Mysteryman. “Captain, I don’t have much time.” He tried speaking into his communicator a low as he could, in order to avoid suspicions. “I have to tell you about Cossack, he’s escaping through an underground passage!” just then, Drew was getting too near fro him to continue talking, so he turned off his com unit.

“What is it this time, Dr. Chevchenko?” Drew questioned.

“Hrm… nothing, nothing.” The impostor faked. “That damned stomach ache, I thought I was going to throw up, honest!”

Drew sighed, and guided the “Russian scientist” back into the group…

***

Astroman wasn’t much of a swimmer, but he had managed to reach the shore. And so did TenguMan, who was also panting next to him, coughing up some water. “Where’s AstroChan?” the TT leader asked his teammate, who just pointed at the lake, where her motionless body was floating face down, thanks to the orb that served as her lower body.

“Dammit!” Astro cursed.

“But that’s not our biggest problem, boss…” Tengu pointed at the opposite direction, where two giant Mysterymen where standing, one was double the size of the first one.

The SA officer laughed audibly again, both of them did, as they approached the duo. On their way, one of their feet almost crushes Jupiter completely, which made Koala scream further and crawl away from them. “What are you doing, you coward?! Take him to safety!” Astro tried ordering freaked out marsupial, but he didn’t care to listen.

“Get ready boss, here it comes!” Tengu took flight, foreseeing Mystery’s attack, but when Astro tried to do the same, he found out that his anti-gravitational system had been put out of commission. His attempts to levitate were in vain, and soon, a kick from one of the giants impacted him head-on. This sent him flying alright… right back into the lake.

“Naop!” TenguMan realized the situation a tad too late, and rushed to try and help his leader.

“It’s useless Tyrant, accept your defeat!” both MysteryMen threatened in unison.

“To you? Never!” with all his strength, Tengu caused a powerful gust of wind with the help of his blade, but was only manage to slow them down a bit. It was enough time to pick both AstroMen from the lake and take them all the way across.

Once on the ground, he tried to slap them awake, but only AstroChan seemed to respond right away. It seemed that his leader was out for the count. After coughing up some water, AstroChan regained her senses. “Wha-what happened?”

“Nevermind!” Tengu had no time to explain. “I need you to look after him and wait here!” The girl could do nothing but nod in agreement as Tengu jetted off to the other side of the lake.

As he approached his enemies, the Mysterymen laughed at his pathetic attempt of what seemed to be a frontal assault. But instead of attacking, TenguMan flew right through them, in order to get behind them. He had taken a risk, he didn’t know if Mystery would “become” holographic, but fortunately for him, it worked.

When the perplexed Mysterymen turned around, he saw TenguMan picking up the injured Jupiter and approaching Koala shortly after. The Tech Tyrant extended his hand in front of Koala. “Come with me, if you want to live.”

“Are you out of you mind?!” Koala backed away. “Get the hell away from me, you will get us killed!”

With a slight tint of anger in his face, Tengu decided to leave the coward marsupial behind and go join the AstroMen.

Both Mysterymen watched idly as the aerial robot passed by, unwilling to give chase. “I hope you realize how pathetic you performed in this battle.” The giants spoke. “Fortunately for you, my presence is required somewhere else. So I will let you go so you can live to remember the humiliation. And please, give my regards to that stupid psychic when he wakes up. I’d love to see his infuriated face when you tell him, but I guess it was not meant to be.”

Tengu tried hard to ignore the maniac, but he couldn’t help to notice when the giants vanished. Instead, the sole figure of Mysteryman, was now heading for the Citadel. The Tyrant was also able to see Koala crawling up to Mystery and pulling at his cloak, begging for a chance to join him. The SA officer limited himself to strike the traitor on the back of his neck, leaving him unconscious and lifting him off the ground. With Koala under his arm, Mysteryman vanished with a cloud of purple smoke.

“TT: PirateMan!” TenguMan called out. “What’s your situation.”

“Everything’s gone to hell. They’ve invaded the Citadel!” PirateMan replied through the com link.

“What?! It can’t be... what about Cossack?” It seemed things couldn’t get any worse.

“You should ask Drillman about that... the plans changed, they’re getting Cossack out through a secret passage. I’m headed for Ground’s group, right now it seem’s like our only channce to escape.” PirateMan tried to sum it up as best as he could.

“Aku, we’re already outside the teleportation perimiter. Tell me when you get to Lyon and well meet out here. I’d offer you more help, but my hands are kinda full right now...” he was carrying Astroman, while AstroChan carried Jupiter.

“Understood!”

***

Mysteryman stood atop the Citadel, contemplating the battlefield, still with the motionless Koala under his arm. His deliriums of grandeur never ended, and right now, he was having the most glorious moment in his entire robotic life. The man that created him, only to reject him and deem him as a failure, would meet his end that day. And on top of that, he had finally defeated his sworn enemy. He was at peace, inspite of the chaos ensuing beneath him inside the Russian Citadel.

He had answered his call, only to find out the single piece of information that would clear his name, and regain his honor within the ranks of the Scisor Army. His spy, had confirmed Cossack’s escape plan, and now, he was seconds away from making the General’s day. It didn’t matter if he hadn’t brought any of the Tyrant’s heads with him.

Without rushing, taking his time to enjoy the moment, he pressed the button of his com. unit. “General Cutman, I have some information for you...”

***

Drill looked to his motley crew. He seemed a little confident for reasons known only to him.

"Team, remember the plan I told you earlier? Are you all ready?" Drill asked the team. They all turned a shade of red. They had not wanted to talk about it. They had discussed it in secret when Sean arrived, badly injured with a shot vocal capacitor.

"I don' know, Fearless Leader. I think it may be a tad risky," Dive stated.

"This is our last stand for the Doctor. I'm willing to give up my life, Dive. You give me a rough time a lot, and you know…it prepared me, I think," Jet stammered. Dive smiled.

"Well, that's swell kid. Where's Phantom of the Opera and little Kermit? Shouln' they be here too?" Dive asked.

Drill looked terrible. "Wraith...got him. I don't know what he did to him...but he got him. And I think Zapper's –“

"Right here."

The Comrades jumped. It was Zapper herself, and she seemed rather frightened. "I'm sorry I'm late...but I had an..." she started. Drill cut her off.

"I can guess exactly what happened. All that matters is that you're here. But still, we lost Skull..." he limited. Zapper gasped.

"Well...that's just prime. But Drill, was it wise to split up?" Jet inquired. "They could need our help."

Pharaoh turned to his companion. "Listen, they have protection. More then enough. Besides, if this goes like we expect, they are better off."

Bright Babe looked around the tunnel, lit only by the emergency flood lights. Even in this dim light, she spotted something strange on the ground.

“Hey…Is this…blood?”, she asked, crouching down for a better look. “What the…?”

The other Comrades leaned down for a closer look, then turned to the only person down there capable of bleeding.

“Dr Cossack, are you alright?”, Drill pressed.

“It’s…a minor scratch.”, he claimed, revealing a tear on his white lab coat, with a trickle of blood running down his arm. “It’s a minor injury from the tunnel collapse.”

Toad Gal bent down, ripping part of the doctor’s long lab coat at the bottom. Before he could question her, she was tying the strip of fabric across his arm, stopping the blood flow.

“Can’t have you bleeding to death down here, can we?”, she weakly smiled.

“No…I guess not.”, he half heartedly smirked back. “We must make haste, though.”

“Right. Let’s get the hell outta here.”, Dive agreed.

The group forged ahead, with BB looking down at the blood splatter for a few more seconds before finally jogging to catch up with her friends.

***

It was getting close to crunch time and the hunt for Cossack was still on. The now-six-man “orange peel” figured everyone was already either occupied outside, hiding, or tending to whatever wounds they may have acquired. Probably even a combination of those options. Punk was just about to comment on the relative lack of resistance when a powerful voice echoed through the room. "Hold!"

It was Knightman. The medieval-styled Robot Master set his gaze upon the Scissor Army forces that were gathered before him.

"Heh... Good to know not everyone around here resorts to sneak attacks," Mega Water quipped.

Knightman ignored the remark and fixed an unearthly glare on Punk. He hadn't forgotten what had happened at Murmansk and even if Blizzardman had been restored, the actions were still unforgivable. If not for the presence of the others, he would finish off the red Mercenary for good.

Punk tensed at the unspoken challenge, remembering the unbridled brutality of the knight. Even Mega Water, who was absent from the carnage, was slightly intimidated. Ballade, on the other hand, turned to the General.

"With your permission..."

"No. Your talents will be better used elsewhere. Mega Water, you take care of him," the General replied. Ballade bowed her head in acknowledgement.

"M-me?" Mega Water stammered.

There was no answer. The group had already begun to leave without him.

"Heh, give 'im hell," Punk said over his shoulder.

Soon it was just the two of them, staring each other down. It didn't take long for Knightman to begin the attack, charging into his kappa-like foe.

"Holy...!" Mega Water yelped as he leapt out of the way of the charge, then followed up with a powerful stream of water, which splashed uselessly against the knight's shield. "Why me...?" he groaned.

***

"Hmm... It would appear as though a member of Cossack's faction wishes to lend our army is services."

Sedulus observed the rambling Frostman as he muttered to a Wraithman who had long since left the battle. Frost was apparently wandering about the confines of the Citadel, seemingly unaware of anything. Sedulus turned to his commanding officer, General Cutman.

"General Cutman. Cossack faction member Frostman wishes to join our side." Sedulus remarked with his constant soft smile.

"You know the rules." Was all the General replied with.

"Scissor Army Officer Mesmerman, this is Scissor Army Officer Sedulus. I wish to inform you that there is a former Cossack Robot Master waiting to be picked up near the entrance to the underground network." Sedulus reported.

"Oh, a new toy for me." Mesmer remarked. "It would appear as though my new toys seem to be some sort of ice-cube or another as of late. Perhaps your creator will be my next new toy, Sedulus." Mesmer giggled slightly.

The General was pleased. He wished everyone else would report to him so diligently. The group reached a hallway with a thickly reinforced steel door.

"By my architectural calculations and judging from the power output from this room, I am led to believe that this is the control room." Sedulus remarked.

"Well, let's knock and let ourselves in." Punk said. "Old man Cossack must be in there."

"No." Cutman said sternly. Punk immediately put his fist down. "I know Sergei is smarter than that. You'd only fall into a trap."

"If I may interject, General..." Sedulus interrupted. "Perhaps a suitable idea for this situation would be to turn the trap around on them. I am an expert on every single programming language known in the field, and I assisted my creator, Blizzardman, in keeping the lengthy computer code involved in running the Floating Fortress. If I have approximately one minute and 37 seconds, I will no doubt be able to hack into the main defense systems of the Citadel and turn their own weaponry against them."

"Make it so." The General commanded.

***

"Oh, we could have sent PUNK to deal with the armored tank, but nooo! Let's pick on the waterboy." Mega Water groaned as he rolled out of the way of a mace shot.

"Stop whining and embrace your fate." The armored war machine said sternly.

Knightman’s relentless assault continued as Mega Water desperately tried to dodge as many of the shots as he could. He was used to being deployed in places where there was already water. He had heard that Wave burst a waterline in the Citadel, but apparently they had already shut off the source to avoid flooding. Water dodged a mace shot that crashed right through a wall, creating a massive hole. Knightman retracted the mace and swung it at the Mercenary again. This time, he swung it in a massive arc around himself. Mega dodged the mace shot the first time around, but he didn't expect Knight to keep the momentum going for another pass. The mace slammed right into his right hip. He heard a sickening tear as the joints were crushed and torn out of place, crippling him.

Mega Water fell to the floor, writhing in pain as Knightman laughed and retracted the massive steel ball. "Now I'll crush you once and for all." He said, stomping slowly towards the fallen Merc. He wanted to take his time. If he couldn't kill Punk, he'd make sure his teammates knew pain.

"Oh, man. I'm done for..." Mega Water thought. Then he noticed the water he had shot earlier as Knightman walked through it, leaving the puddle behind him.

"Here goes nothing!" Mega Water shouted as he directed the water in a concentrated column, slamming Knightman square in the back with a pressurized blast, knocking him off his feet and slamming him into the floor face down.

Mega Water couldn't believe it. "Holy crap! I did it!" He shouted.

His jaw nearly unbolted and fell to the floor when he heard Knightman growl and begin to pick himself up.

"No, no, no..." Mega mumbled to himself.

Knightman was pushing himself up from the floor. He looked up at Mega Water. His normally white eyes were now glowing blood red. "I'LL CRUSH YOU!" He roared, picking himself up. He began to stomp over to Mega, taking slightly less time between steps this time.

Mega fumbled with his com link. "Anyone care to help me?" He looked at Knightman as the stone floor cracked under each furious step as he stomped over to him. "...Please?"

"Scissor Army Officer Spade, this is Scissor Army Officer Sedulus. I require your assistance posthaste."

"Awww..." Spade was just about to go hassle a fleeing Pirateman when he received the request. "Just give me five more minutes, PLEEEEASE?"

"Scissor Army General Cutman demands your assistance at the control room at once. I will send you the coordinates now." Sedulus cut communications.

"Awww! He's a killjoy!" Spade kicked the side of the vehicle he had hijacked. Then he got an idea.

***

"Damn, you're heavy." Pirateman groaned as he hauled Neptune across the battlefield.

Pirate heard insane laughter in the distance accompanied by the roar of an engine. He looked towards the source of the sound, his eyes growing wide. "OH NO!!" He shouted.

"WOOHOO!" Spade whooped, still wearing the Daniel Boon coon skin cap. "Remember some place in Texas that I forgot!"

Pirateman dodged out of the way as the vehicle slammed into a wall of rubble. Pirate looked back to the stolen buggy, realizing that the driver was gone.

"And that's why you should buckle up, kiddos." A voice behind Pirate said, giggling to himself.

Pirateman heard a distinct, "YOINK!" as he turned around, finding nothing but purple smoke. He felt his head.

"Wave's crown!" He shouted. "He stole it! Wait a second." Pirate thought for a moment. "Why should I be upset? I could have died..." He looked at the vehicle, then at Neptune's heavy body he'd been lugging around. "What an obnoxious little gift..." Pirate thought.

***

Sedulus was diligently working on the blast door control panel to the main control room as Spade slowly crept up to him.

"SURPRISE!" Spade yelled out, shooting streamers into the air and tossing confetti everywhere.

Sedulus remained unaffected by the sudden display.

"YOU ARE NO FUN!!!" Spade shouted, irritated that Sedulus didn't even jump. He had been trying to startle him ever since he got teamed up with him, but the killjoy never even flinched. "Look what I got!" Spade took off his Boon hat and dramatically nested Waveman’s crown on his head. "Crazy clown's crown! Try and say THAT five times fast!"

"If you are quite done with your childish horseplay, I must insist that you exercise your capacity to bring your vocal functions to a low whisper, as the occupants within this room may overhear your intense shouting, thus defeating the purpose of our mission." Sedulus scolded, although still cheerful in his delivery.

"Alright, you killjoy..." Spade switched the crown back to his Pluto-skin hat.

***

"I wish we would see some action!" Ivan slammed his right fist into his open left palm. Ever since the Special Forces unit had been reprogrammed by Regulus, he'd been itching to fight for Cossack's cause.

Just then, the door opened, and Drill stood there. "Ivan!" He called. "We need you."

Ivan stomped over to Drillman. "What is it, Comrade Drill?" He asked.

"Oh, the Comrades decided to stay in the control room and keep the Citadel from falling, you go knock some heads together." Drill said as he stepped inside the control room.

"But what about the doctor?" Ivan asked. "He must be protected! He's the spirit of our cause!"

"Oh, I'll make sure to make a jack-in-the-box out of him or something. AAAAAHAHAHA!!!!!!!" Drillman started to laugh maniacally.

Before Ivan could react, Drill slammed the button on the other side and the door slammed shut, locking Ivan out. Ivan tried mashing the key code, but the locks had been changed. "Dammit!" He began pounding on the doors with his massive fists.

Dark Moon was starting to think something was up. "You're not Drillman." He said.

"CORRRECT!" Drillman faded away, revealing a grinning Spade. "Would you care to try 'Pointing out the Obvious' for 800?"

Dark Moon didn't bother responding and instead formed himself into dozens of cubes which he proceeded to launch at Spade. Spade nimbly dodged the bodily projectiles, jumping around and shouting, "WOOHOO! WOOHOO!" in his best Daffy Duck imitation. Dark Moon reformed and stretched an arm at Spade, who leapt to the side and lopped the limb off as it rushed past him.

"Looks like you could use a hand." Spade giggled as a rim shot emanated from an unseen drummer.

Spade was about to lung at Dark Moon when the limb he had severed turned into a block which slammed him in the back of the head. "Oooouch." Spade said. "Why would you do that?" Spade had produced a blue crayon from nowhere and doodled a teardrop on his mask.

"To make you cry." Dark Moon said.

"And why would you do that?" Spade started sniffing.

"To make me laugh." Dark Moon finished.

Spade started heaving like he was about to cry, then he instantly cheered up, passing his hand over his face and wiping the crayon off while plastering a grin on the mask. "HEY! That reminds me of this neato invention I just made! I call it, 'Emo Grass.'" He got uncomfortably close to Dark Moon, shoving a clump of sod into his face. "It cuts itself!" Spade laughed with the "audience."

Sedulus watched the battle, unknown to the Yellow Devil variant. He was using a probe to mask his presence in the control room. Meanwhile, Ivan was losing his patience.

"Grrr... TAKE THIS!" Ivan began to blast the heavily reinforced steel doors, weakening their structure even more than his blows.

Spade looked at the door, it was beginning to soften under the intense plasma shots. "Err... Seddy-boy, the big guy wants in REAL bad."

Dark Moon looked around. "Who are you talking to?" He said.

"Oops..." Spade cupped his hand over his mouth. "Sorry about that, Sedulus."

"Sedulus?" Dark Moon asked. He figured it was just another ploy of Spade's as he lunged at Spade again.

Ivan finally managed to burst through the doors, showering the fight with plasma bolts as he ran through. Spade passed a hand over his face revealing a visage of shock and amazement.

"Mother..." He said weakly.

Before Spade could make a move Ivan had already plowed into him with a shoulder rush, slamming Spade all the way across the room and denting him into a wall. Ivan aimed his buster at Spade, only to have a laser hit his wrist. Against his massive armor, it only stung a little, but it was enough to direct his attention. Spade and Dark Moon continued to fight as Ivan stared down the new foe.

"I'm afraid I must interfere." Sedulus said in a friendly tone.

Ivan fired a plasma shot at Sedulus, but he disappeared, appearing on the other side of him, punishing the newcomer Cossacker with a laser to the back.

"I'm over here." He corrected. "Defend yourself."

Ivan shot another blast, only to have Sedulus warp above him, hitting him with another blast. Ivan began to growl in frustration. If only he could hit him.

"Your combat style is flawed." Sedulus observed. "You cannot keep up with me. Now would be a good time to surrender, as the General has charged us with the ability to take prisoners, unless, of course, you feel that you may be able to deactivate me."

Ivan started fired a plasma shot, then another shot behind him quickly, turning around to see if Sedulus had teleported behind him.

"I would not use the same tactical maneuver twice, I'm afraid." Sedulus said calmly. "Are you ready?"

Ivan began to fire rapid shots of plasma from his buster. Sedulus would teleport from each one as the shot neared him, hitting Ivan with a laser as punishment. Sedulus's lasers didn't do much damage, but he was consistent in his aim. Each shot hit a previous mark, and soon the Special Forces unit was beginning to take minimal damage. Nothing to be concerned over, but now he'd have to spend some time getting it repaired later.

"Stop teleporting!" Ivan shouted.

"I'm afraid that would jeopardize my combat ability, as you would no longer be at a disadvantage in this battle. I only have a 4% chance of beating you in traditional combat, as my design was not built for full-scale combat." Sedulus remarked.

Ivan clenched his fist. This was getting old.

"However, as it stands now, this battle is over." Sedulus disappeared, revealing one of his probes.

The defense weaponry of the control room pointed at Ivan and Dark Moon. Spade even stopped flitting around the room like a loon and looked at the turrets. "WAY TO GO, SEDULUS! We win!" Applause showered the killjoy from thin air.

The real Sedulus now materialized before them at the control panel, he had his hands on the keypad. "Your defense systems are easy to reroute. I was able to reconfigure them ahead of schedule." He checked his internal clock: fourteen minutes and 57 seconds remaining until the Napalm Nuke would be launched.

"General Cutman, this is SA Officer Sedulus. I have hacked into the main defenses." Sedulus reported over his com link.

"Good." The General said. "Now find Cossack. Don't bother with anyone else. Bring in your remaining probes if you have to."

"But General," Sedulus cautioned. "If I indeed pull in the remaining 24 probes, then the security around the Citadel will-"

"Cossack is in here. I know it." Cutman interrupted. "None of these scrap heaps matter. If they can escape, let them. I want Cossack. Find him."

"I will do as you have commanded, General Cutman." Sedulus cut the communication.

"You think these turrets can stop us?" Ivan shouted.

"No. I admit that the presence of the turrets only increase our odds of success to 68%. I will require further assistance." Sedulus pressed a few buttons and a steel clanging noise began to ring out from the hallway. The sound grew louder and louder until at last Cossack's wall-walker entered the room, scurrying up to the ceiling. "This brings our chances to 75%, and I am waiting on my remaining probes to assist me in combat."

Spade used the distraction of the dialog to teleport to Dark Moon. "Put'r there, pal!" He high-fived Dark Moon, electrocuting him with an obnoxious joy-buzzer he had on his ring finger. The electric current disabled Dark Moon for a while, allowing him to slump a bit.

Ivan responded with a powerful shot from his blaster, causing Spade to forfeit his attack on Dark Moon. Sedulus activated the turrets, and the fight continued, much more heavily swayed in the Scissor Army’s favor. Ivan and Dark Moon were having trouble with the auto-turrets and the wall-walker while trying to deal with Sedulus and Spade. It was hard to ignore the crazed jester, but as soon as they tried to deal solely with him, Sedulus would have open access to their weak points with all the Citadel weaponry.

Then the crystal probes began to filter in. Sedulus began to become even more active, firing his own, more potent laser into the probes and charging them. Sedulus's own lasers did more damage than the probe shots, and each probe could hold one charged laser. The fight was starting to grow hopeless even for the ever-optimistic Ivan.

"We need to get out of here!" Dark Moon said. "The control room is too heavily armed!"

"Agreed, Comrade. Let's go!" Ivan said.

Dark Moon concentrated all his mass into one enormous fist, slamming through a wall in the control room and making an escape route for the fleeing team.

"Awwww..." Spade said, disappointed. "Why do they always run?"

***

Knightman’s stomping grew even closer, and the Assassin was already swinging his mace. In a desperate act, Mega Water set himself on his left leg, outstretched his hands and formed a water shield the exact moment Knightman was to hit him.
The mace stopped, and a little variation in pressure threw it back. But Knightman was ready for it; his mace flew in a descending circle and went through the shield, hitting Mega Water in the torso.

The aquatic Merc flew away, and crashed in a wall. As he fell to the ground, he saw Knightman charging back. He inadvertently closed his eyes, and waited for his death.

...

After a few seconds, realizing his body was still whole, he opened his eyes, and saw a miracle : Cossack's castle was rebelling against its residents !
Knightman was assaulted by various security drones, and weapons hidden in the walls revealed themselves and opened fire. After a few hits in the back, he was forced to retreat, not without a final glare at the Merc, meaning We'll finish this next time.

Suddenly, the intercom was activated and a voice several people were already familiar with shouted over the intercom.

"Helloooo! Is this thingymabob working?" The sound of Spade slamming the microphone on the counter rang throughout the Citadel. "Ok. Attention everyone! May I have your attention PLEASE?!" There was a brief silence. "Do I have everyone's attention? This is an extremely important announcement, I have something URGENT to communicate... Hugbies, that is all."

Spade's laughter rang over the intercom until a wrestling noise could be heard, followed by Spade whining before the static shut down, signaling the intercom had been turned off.

Mega Water was about to send a witty remark at his opponent, but retracted. Only winners could afford themselves to gloat over their foes.

He set his hands on the ground, and created a water column. Standing on the top of it, he rushed out of the Citadel, to a place where he could safely watch at the firework show.

Maybe he'd be able to gloat over Knightman, then.

***

"My mic..." Spade had his sad face on.

"I've indulged in your childish fanatics for quite some time now, Spade, but the intercom system is not a toy. We have an objective here, and once we have fulfilled the mission, you may do as you wish with the intercom system."

Spade crossed his arms and pouted, floating upside down beside Sedulus. Even though he didn't have a tongue, he made a sound like he was blowing raspberries at the killjoy. "You've got a girly-face!" He shot back at him.

Sedulus turned around. "Hmm?" He looked Spade over. "Your waste-to-hip ratio is higher than mine. That's a rather feminine trait."

Spade suddenly hit the ground, standing up straight and looking down. "Awww..." He groaned.

***

“Someone’s coming!” Drew shouted from the back of the group leaded by GroundMan.

“Is it Pirate?” Ground asked.

“I don’t know yet, I can only hear footsteps. Let’s hide!” the scientists, Drew and GroundMan took cover in one of the tunnel’s openings. It seemed Cossack liked to plan ahead. Throughout the tunnels, there were similar gaps in the walls.

Soon, the tattered PirateMan passed by, not noticing the people hidden. He was too busy trying to keep Neptune in one piece as he carried him. “Hey Aku!” GroundMan reappeared in the tunnel once he confirmed his friend’s presence. Startled, PirateMan tuned around with his arm cannon readied.

“Oh! It’s you guys!” he was relieved. “You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to get here. The security systems have turned against us! Every turret and every trap…”

“You mean they’ve taken the control room already?” Drew asked, quite worried. “They could have seen you get into the tunnel with the security cameras!”

“I know that!” PirateMan confessed. “But I had no choice! And, there’s something suspicious about all of it… some psycho was babbling through the loudspeakers, but no one sent a CO after me. Only the gun turrets and mechaniloid traps were set. If they saw me get here, they didn’t seem to care.”

“Could it mean…?” Drew began questioning.

“Don’t even think about it.” GroundMan suggested. “Let’s just have faith in Cossack’s Comrades.” The group resumed their progress through the tunnel, now with a quicker pace, just in case they were being followed. If that was the case, Dr. Périphérique had the holographic device ready. But if what Pirate said was true, there would be no need for it.

As the people sprinted towards the end of the tunnel, Dr. Chevchenko approached Drew. “Excuse me, son…” he addressed him. “Where exactly are we headed? After we get out of this darned tunnel, that is.”

Annoyed, Drew frowned and looked at the man. “You really are going senile, old man. We’ve already discussed the plan thoroughly, so I don’t have time to answer your questions. Just move!” everybody was tired of having to deal with the guy.

The spy cursed under his breath, his inquiry for more information had failed. He would have to keep up the charade a little longer…

***

“TT: PirateMan, do you copy?” Tengu issued the voice command.

“I’m here Kusa. I’m with Lyon’s group already.” The Pirate replied.

“I’m glad to hear that. Tell me your approximate escape route, so I can meet you when you come back to the surface.” Tengu and AstroChan were flying low, in order to avoid detection by the SA goons guarding the perimeter. Fortunately, what was left of the foliage was enough cover for them.

“Good thing you asked… we’re in fact headed for the south-eastern portion of the woods. You should look for a clearing there, although the exit should be hard to spot. Cossack must have done a good job at hiding it.” Pirate explained.

“Understood. TenguMan out.” The airborne robots kept going for the east, hoping that nothing else, apart from pine trees, would stand in their way. And after a couple of minutes, they reached the aforementioned clearing.

After gently dropping Astroman and Jupiter on the ground, AstroChan started removing the snow from the ground, trying to find the passage’s exit.

“There’s no point in doing that, girl. They’ll come out eventually…” Tengu knew how stressing the situation was for her, probably, but he never used to encourage that kind of anxious behaviour. She was in fact worn out, and all she wanted was to get out of there, so she was getting impatient.

As if on cue, the sound of rusted metal was heard from behind them. One by one, people were coming out of the nearby bushes. Once they were all outside, GroundMan greeted his teammate. “It’s a shame we have to abandon our ‘ship’ like this… but there is no alternative. Where is Naop?”

Tengu man pointed at the spot where they had left their injured comrades, but only Jupiter was there. Soon, they noticed that Astroman was approaching them, levitating erratically and almost falling to the ground a couple of times. His head was a lot more flat, the orb that served as his lower body was cracked open, and he could only move one arm.

“Naop! Are you ok?” Pirate was the first to ask, and go lend a shoulder for his leader.

“Who is that fucker?!” Astroman asked, quite infuriated. It seemed his patience had run out from his battle with Mystery, and he didn’t care to watch his language. He was pointing menacingly at Dr. Chevchenko.

“What do you mean, Naop?” Ground was confused. “It’s Chevchenko!”

“No he isn’t.” he stated bluntly.

By now, the spy had gotten anxious from the killer look that Astro was giving him. Backing away some, he then proceeded to make a run for it. He didn’t know how, but his cover had been blown.

This confused the rest of the group, but they didn’t have much time to ponder, since Astro’s metallic orbs came rushing at blinding speed and squashed the escapee’s head at full force, before he was able to get any further. Surprised by the unexpected turn of events, the group turned at Astro, some of the humans already taking him for a murderer. “What have you done?!” Périphérique shouted.

“Look closer, gramps.” Astro suggested the man, and the group as whole.

The scientists approached the almost decapitated body of Chevchenko, only to find a Scissor Joe’s body instead. “How did you…?” one of them asked.

“Don’t ask.” Astro didn’t feel like explaining his telepathic abilities, which had been kept a secret.

“We’re gonna have a talk after we get out of here.” Tengu warned his leader.

“Speaking of which, can you drop the bullshit already and get us out of here?” Astro’s patience grew thinner. “And by the way, where the hell is the rest, where is Cossack?”

This was certainly going to piss him off, but GroundMan had no choice but to explain. After hearing it, Astro’s body was trembling so much that PirateMan had to get away from him. “CC: DRILLMAN!” he shouted out. “What the hell is going on, man?”

“Naop? What’s the problem?” Drill replied.

“You decided to take Cossack on your own? What’s your status? How far away are you from escaping?” he asked all the questions he could think of. On top of almost being pummelled to death, he was now worried sick about the one man they were supposed to be protecting.

“Look, I have no time for this! Our hands are full at the moment.” Drill responded.

Astro was quiet for a second. He realized his attitude was not helping anyone. He settled down, and accepted the fact with resignation. “Just… Just be careful Drill. We found one of their spies was impersonating Chevchenko. They might know where you are.”

“Roger that. We’ll be alert.” The CC leader responded.

Astro dropped to the ground, looking blankly into the sky. “Beam us up Scotty… we should settle in DI’s base and keep an eye for whoever manages to get out of the anti-teleportation field.”

“Understood…” Ground had no objection. “DI: Searchman, do you copy?” but no answer came his way. After trying a couple of times, he gave up and looked at AstroChan.

“Don’t worry. Everything was prepared before hand.” She was painfully considering the fact that Hunter had not made it out alive. “Our base should be ready to take us all in.”

“Right.” Ground issued some commands into his com unit, and soon, the group was engulfed in light. DI’s base was in fact ready to teleport them in. The escape had been a success… for them, at least.

***

With a brisk, all business stride, the skeletal figure marched through the hallways of the stone-made Citadel, exploring parts he presumed were not usually visited by its human inhabitants, given the layers of dust and neglect obvious throughout.

These were hallways lit by basic flood lights in the narrow lower levels of the fortress-like building, and the most likely place of exit for the fleeing family. His exhaust forming visible clouds that escaped through his many openings in his mouth area, Cutman’s eyes peered into the darkness, the hallways stretching on for hundreds of yards in multiple directions.

Behind him, his dwindling entourage grew restless.

“There’s way too many hiding places down here.”, lamented Punk. “It’s gonna take us hours to find ‘em at this rate!”

“We don’t have hours.”, the General replied simply. “We have…twelve minutes, fifty-two seconds.”

“General…Perhaps its time to think about leaving without confirming a Cossack kill?”, Ballade suggested, somewhat meekly.

Cutman brought his fingers to his chin thoughtfully, noticeably twitching while doing so, which he seemed oblivious to. He seemed to stare beyond the pair of fidgeting Mercenaries.

“You two…Head upwards. Check any rooms we’ve passed on our way here. Do not evacuate until the last possible second.”

“Sir, what about yourself?”, Punk inquired, seriously concerned.

“The rats are down here, of that I’m certain. Logically speaking, this is the only way out for them.”, he informed quietly while turning around towards the long stretch of hallway.

“How…How do you know?”

Cutman bent down to look at something at his feet. “I’m well acquainted with Cossack’s layout.”, his memory recalling the time he spent in another world studying Dr Light’s personal files.

“You are?! If that’s true, then why did we have to look for this place for all of those weeks? Why didn’t we just come here from the start? We could have saved alotta time!”, Punk argued.

“All valid points.”, the sheared monster answered with machine-born coldness. “Cossack has been the one wild card throughout this entire campaign. I needed to know what he had up his sleeve, and to do that, I needed to delay his death.”

“Sir, I still don’t understand…”, Ballade frowned.

“Don’t worry. You needn’t worry about doing so.”, he attempted to comfort, still with the quiet storm in his voice. He brought his twitching fingers to his nasal passages, inhaling dramatically, sniffing it as though he were a wine connoisseur sampling the aroma of a fine Chardonnay. “Our ‘red friend’ has played out all of his cards already…disappointingly. I overestimated his abilities, and that’s all there is to it.”

“You thought Cossack had some sort of trump card in the works?”, Punk questioned.

“A lesson, my creation: always assume your enemies are one step ahead of you. That is how you yourself stay ahead of them.”, Cutman reasoned. He displayed his fingers to his two cohorts.

“Blood.”, Ballade named the substance on them.

“And it hasn’t had a chance to coagulate yet. It had an initial temperature of sixty-seven degrees- still warm, indicating that is no more than a few minutes old. Given the direction of the splatter, it came from a human traveling approximately seven miles an hour down this very hallway.

There’s a Cold War-era bomb shelter at the end of this hallway, with an escape hatch leading towards the outside. From there, it would be a mere three hundred yards to the outer stretches of the grid, enabling their escape to anywhere in the world.”

“Sir! We must hurry then!”, Punk urged.

“No need, my boy.”, the skull-faced creature lectured coolly, eying the ceiling. Beyond a normal human’s ability to comprehend such speed, Cutman slashed at the corner of the hallway, severing several power lines, and plunging the hall into darkness. “Both bomb shelter doors should be electronically controlled. Sans electricity, their escape is hopelessly delayed.

But I could always be wrong. You two…Return to the surface and continue the search for as long as possible. I’ll deal with whatever the situation may be down here.”

“Understood, my commander!”, Ballade saluted, somewhat confused by her latest master’s cunning and his strange thought process. But now wasn’t the time to question him. Or ever.

Punk and Ballade exited deftly, leaving the General alone in the darkness and quiet. Fear didn’t affect him in the slightest, and the sound of metal sliding against metal was heard as he drew his shears slowly, his metallic footsteps lurking down the hallway methodically.

***

Aided by the ever-handy Flash Stopper, Drillman was hard at work on the ten-inch-thick steel door at the end of an otherwise dark passageway. Sparks flew in every-which direction, as his drills suffered against the unforgiving metal barrier- they were designed for soft Earth excavation, rather than heavy steel work. Still, he persevered because he had to. So much was riding on his efforts.

“Guys! I broke through!”, he proclaimed, exhaustion apparent through his elation.

“Keep going!”, Dr Cossack urged, himself drenched in sweat. He and the other Comrades were in an unfortunate position down here. Ordinarily, he could have Pharaohman or Diveman use their firepower to blast down the heavy door. However, with the tight area they were in (only eight feet in width, and just as tall, forcing Dive to hunch slightly) the back blast would kill the humans near their effects. Doubling back down the hallway didn’t seem like a wise option, either.

The power failure seemed to be intentional. This was an emergency sector of the Citadel, powered by a separate power source from the upper levels. Even with the upper half being decimated and no doubt left in blackout itself, the bottom levels should have survived longer than this. This was something…deliberate.

The group remained tight around the safety of BB’s glow, the darkness beyond was threatening to eat them entirely if they moved. Even beyond the noise of Drillman’s signature and Dustman helping to keep the metal shavings from being a factor, something else rang out from the dark far down the hallway. It was yet another metal cry.

Mikhail Cossack’s stomach tightened.

Pharaoh jerked at Drillman’s shoulder slightly, interrupting his work. Far too distant from breaking through enough to escape, it seemed needless to continue with the work.

Bright Babe looked up and out, using her buster as a flashlight to peer out into the dark beyond. It was clear from the erratic bouncing of the light that she was far more nervous than she wanted to let on.

There, about twenty five feet away, he made no effort to hide himself.

And Dr Cossack’s stomach overwhelmed him, forcing him to double over from the fear in his tired mind.

“Sergei.”, the skull-faced being called out, using Dr Cossack’s middle name instead of his first- something only his closest friends used. “You look awful. Troubled…are we?”

“Leave us alone!”, BB demanded. “You have no right to kill us!”

Cutman looked at his wrist, making a mental note of the time he had- a mere nine minutes to wrap things up. What a shame- he had such a speech in mind for Cossack’s end. Oh well…A deadline’s a deadline.

“As much as I’d love to engage you in my favorite debate, my dear, time is of the essence. I’m afraid its all business now.”

The weary Comrades gathered before the beleaguered Cossack, ready to defend him with their very lives. Knowing this, Cutman sauntered forth to fulfill their wishes.

***

Napalmman had stayed amazingly patient as he watched the action unfold for the past few minutes, screening the countryside for any escapees, but coming up empty handed thus far.

Suddenly, another alert sounded off within his mind, this time reminding him of the time.

“Thirty seconds…”, he uttered. “And still no sign of the General.”

Napalmman’s Howitzer slid into place, the barrel extending slightly for that extra bit of accuracy, and a trajectory reading popping into his view, automatically deducing the correct angle for him. It was as easy as just pulling the trigger now.

But without the General…Should he really go through with it?

Fifteen seconds. Out of the corner of his eye he could see several of the other SA Officers begin to prepare themselves in little ways, getting distance between themselves and who ever they were fighting at the time.

“Ready when you are…”, Crystal’s voice filled his receiver.

“Yeah.”, he returned.

Five seconds.

Ah…Dammit. Hope you got out of there…sir.

The cannon on his back barked, the concussion actually visible from the barrel as the shell took the sky. Snow all around the death tank was cleared away from nearly twenty feet all around from just the firing of the terrible weapon.

And off atop the Citadel itself, he spotted him. Standing high atop the top most part, he apparently awaited the shell’s descent as it hung high above, looming overhead.

Napalmman’s vision zoomed to maximum.

With the weathered red flag behind him, General Cutman stood atop the pointed dome that decorated the center of the Citadel, holding his prize as he enjoyed his bloody display of power.

For a mere second, he held Dr Cossack’s severed head high as the Napalm Nuke descended achingly slowly, and then casually tossed the useless cranium down below, his message already clear.

The shell hit the Citadel with blinding force at that instant, making it impossible to tell who had escaped and who didn’t. Napalmman failed to see if Cutman had teleported in time, though he assumed he escaped successfully.

Even from his vantage point hundreds of yards away, Napalmman was clobbered with giant stone debris from the ancient fortress, instantly decimated by the sub-atomic weapon of mass destruction.

When the initial fire died down, and the eye-searing blaze ceased enough, Napalmman leered at the smoldering site. There was no mistaking it- Dr Cossack’s Citadel had been wiped clean off of the face of the Earth, leaving only a burning husk as its only mark. A structure that survived centuries and countless shifts in power…gone.

Napalmman didn’t bother to get close to it to further examine his handiwork. He stayed a few more minutes to think a bit more about what it meant to him.

This was a glimpse of Elysium. The uncaring sweep of an arm over the chessboard this world had become. Decades, centuries, millennia…All of it would be cleared away for a new history to surface, and he was helping to usher it in.

This was an…honor.

“Goddamn…”, he whispered to himself. “That’s beautiful.”

~The... End?!~