Catalyst sat, frozen in shock besides Ion, staring at the once great B-Series Captain before them.
"You... You want to what?" Ion asked, a small quiver in his voice. Cypher stood guard, her eyes fixated on the captain to such a degree that she barely registered anything else. She felt his threatening aura, even more so, that aura directed at Ion.
B-04 sneered, turning his head up. He hated that about Ion, all talk but no actual bite. It wouldn't be the first time he had to threaten him to get along with something B-01 has ordered, even if he had to fight that robotic assistant thing.
"B-01 has ordered the use of The Vortex. I assume that it will not be a problem for you to get the machine up and running?" B-04's voice might have sounded genuine to his teammates, but Catalyst and Ion have been through this enough times to see the thinly veiled threat.
And they had no choice. Even if The Council had decided to stop him, B-01 would just override it and activate it anyway, while threatening Ion still. Catalyst did feel resentment towards the waste of life he called B-04.
"The Vortex is only used in a last chance scenario. Surely we aren't being beaten by that planet so badly, because that would put you in the hot seat, wouldn't it?" Catalyst turned his head to B-04, a sort of antagonistic expression on his visor.
"My leadership is not the issue. The planet has had the most anomalies out of any we have seen, even beyond Exodus-1, and their technology in the realm of reality is far superior. That, my friend would put Ion there, in that hot spot."
If Ion had any lips, they would be pursed. But he had to comply, lest anything happen to his underlings, "Of course. It would take me several hours, but I would be able to get the machine running."
"Good. Now, however much I hate to ask this of you, might I ask what you are planning on doing with those specimens?" B-04 asked, and before Ion could give an explanation, he continued, "And why are you keeping that traitor."
"B-01 himself gave me clearing to reprogram him. You, of all people, should know how long that takes." Ion gave a pointed response, a slight trickle of electricity rustling against his claws. B-04 chuckled at that threat.
"That would be right. And I trust you know how that feels, so you'd better get started before I do another Surgery." B-04 turned around with the flash of his gold-rose cape, and exited the room, his guards in tow.
"Damn it." Catalyst pronounced, digging his claws against his skull as he paced around Ion. Normally he was rather eloquent when he was around Ion, who was somewhat sensitive with words, but at that moment neither cared enough.
Ion sighed and turned to Catalyst, seeing that a single needle out of his chest was no longer there, "I assume you brought the others to the Eon-Gate?" Catalyst nodded without stopping.
"We have very little time now. With him subtracting troops from the planet, B-01 is serious right now." Ion said, pronouncing his thoughts. Catalyst never stopped pacing, but he did give his two cents in.
"They aren't ready. We can't possibly, in any definitive way, beat the B-Series, even with B-02 on our side. How long can you postpone turning it on?"
"Four hours, at the most. Maybe I can intentionally mess up, but that would probably get me terminated." Ion looked around the ever expanding room, looking at the countless inventions that he has created.
"We can reactivate The Leviathans, maybe even blink back Pearly Gates before they get blown to high hell, whatever's left of them anyways." Ion paused for a moment, eyeing a canister of something underneath his main table.
"How many miles away is The Vortex from any city." He asked Cypher, who was standing perfectly still. Her Visor flashed for a moment, before it lit up with images of a sprawling futuristic city.
"The nearest city is Belta-10, home to The Principalities, Overview Hotel, and The Galactic Imperative, a hero association. It is Three-Hundred Miles away." Cypher listed in response, and once she was done, she turned rigid and unmovable once more.
"We could get the Galactic Imperative on our side!" Catalyst yelled, his bristles and needle vibrating with this newfound energy.
"No. They are mostly loyal to the council, and by definition, they are loyal to B-01. We can't ask them for help." Ion responded, turning his visor in thought. He looked back down at his table and at the canister.
"What?" Catalyst asked, seeing that Ion was looking at something. Ion released a grim sigh, and brought his claws together, rubbing them. A thin arc of electricity spasmed between his claws when he brought them together, bustling with energy.
"There would only be one way. None of the other things here, however powerful, could harm that machine in any way. Not, unless we use... that." Despite his visor being pixelated, it very clearly showcased a grim and dark expression, his eyes somehow even more lifeless and unemotional. He brought a claw up, pointing at the canister.
"The Ebony Crusade?" Catalyst asked, startled, "I thought you made up what it could do just to shut the council up. You can't tell me that it can really..." He stopped and turned his body, staring at the canister with a horrified expression.
"It had the explosive yield to literal shake planets." Ion told the startled guard, staring down at his claws with regret, "That machine was created from Genesium, the alloy that can withstand even reality altering events, or total annihilation occurrences."
"Very few things can even dent it, and the entire machine is created from it to stop other planets from thinking about attacking us. It's so tremendously powerful that it can actually withstand enough boson energy to destroy planets, in any way."
Ion's visor never moved from that expression, with his electric yellow coloring seeming to darken with every passing minute, before turning solid black and blending in with his visor. Catalyst stood transfixed between horrified and morbid curiosity.
"The Ebony Crusade is one of, if not the only, thing that can potentially damage the machine. At least enough to stop functioning. We would just need to get it inside the main fuse room, and detonate it."
Ion finally looked up from his claws, a fearful yet saddened look to his visor, "Please, go back to the Eon-Gate and train them as hard and as fast as you can. We will need every single one of them to get this thing inside."
Catalyst nodded in understanding, though his expression never changed from horrified, "But, how will we know what to do?" He asked, knowing that Ion had to go and work on that machine first.
"I'll make sure two of my old friends get inside to tell you. They're from the Blacklisted Zone, so they aren't as sane as most people, but they are smart, and I'll tell them what to do." Catalyst nodded in agreement, and quickly started for the Eon-Gate as Ion quickly departed the room.
_-0_0-_
The pain didn't just stop when Mason and the others finally bonded with their respective upgrades. Mistress Red kept them quite attentive, as she personally made sure that each and every single one of them were ready.
The Painter, the one that was supposed to train Marissa, was doing quite a good job. White Boson Energy was quite similar to Black Boson Energy, and their respective items were rather similar: A solid black paintbrush for The Painter, and an almost organic looking paint board for Marissa.
The only thing that went really wrong with hers was the fact that once her upgrade bonded with her completely, it regrew her mane quite substantially. She was more bummed out by it because of the fact that it took so long to slow the growth.
Luckily the engineer cut it without too much of a hassle, but Marissa was still slightly embarrassed, even though nobody cared.
With The Painters guidance, she managed to alter gravity to such an extent that even the solid black floor had a dent in it. Granted, it was by accident and she was barely able to do it again even thirty minutes later, but it was still progress.
Axel was the more interesting one. He had a solid grasp on how to utilize his upgrade, but he had no idea on how to be creative with it. He managed to produce a large fire stream, created a slight tremor, and froze The Engineers arm solid, but nothing more creative than that.
Mason was struggling, though just barely. It was at this point that Mason realized that he might've gotten the short end of the stick when it went to powers, as Red Boson Energy, from what he's seen, was more about strength and punching and biting than anything else.
But Amerenthia did say that, "Red Boson deals with bodily augmentation" so he wasn't exactly hopeless, just slightly bummed that he couldn't do something really cool.
But, at least he had B-64 to cheer him up somewhat, who went from complete observer, to a cheering team in just a matter of a few seconds. He jumped up and down, flashing words that he knew had a positive connotation in English ("Pleasing!" was one of them) and just being an overall fluffball.
After a while, they did get really tired. Marissa was panting hard and was about as sweaty as someone who just came out of a pool, Axel just fainted, and Mason leaned against B-64 for support.
By that time, they were so tired that they barely registered that Catalyst had come inside, and had a fairly apathetic reaction to what he told them, "We have just a few more hours to go before your planet might be destroyed."
"Oh. That sucks."
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Shorter chapter today, sorry 'bout that, but tomorrow the next one'll be out, and it'll be quite long.
So, heya!
This was a little heavy-handed in my opinion, but I can't really think of anything else to add, and I don't want this to turn into a lore book (Possibly something I'll write later on), but I do want to get some stuff out.
There is no action in this one, but I promise, the next chapter will! A lot of it, in fact.
Anyways, I hope you are enjoying this so far, and I still can't believe that so many people are still reading this thing. it brings quite a large amount of joy to see!
Thanks for reading!
~ Candle