Ion could feel the eyes of every single protogen in the building. He could feel the stares, the palpable air of silence that perforated the room he was working in. No one wanted to say anything, to either him nor B-04.
Ion worked diligently, though he did try his best to work as slowly as possible. Luckily the machine was rather complicated, and no one else besides Ion knew how the thing entirely worked.
The machine, or more aptly The Vortex, was an ingenious invention of Ion and his Maker, Prion. It was the size of a small town, encapsulated in a dome like structure. The entire thing was mostly underground, with a lens for aiming and coordinating the main mechanism.
The dome building could retreat back inside the crust if need be, though it did not matter as with the changing of reality, they could easily target anything they needed to.
The mechanism worked by allowing a stream of boson particles in liquid state to a chamber boiling near the temperature of a sun, with some of the boson energy used to stop the metal around it to heat up.
The energy is then released from the inside of the liquid, creating a near limitless explosive yield. This beam can be fired in any direction, and it can even phase through objects if there was something in the way.
This beam could easily destroy entire planets, stars, and if enough energy is built up, even whole galaxies. Of course, this wasn't the only thing the weapon could do: It could do so much more.
It can make oxygen on a given planet turn to something else, suffocating almost everything on it. It can boil a planet alive, cause the planet to collide with its star, or even cause abominable mutations to happen to life on the planet.
It was truly a horrific machine, something that the naïve old Ion was proud to make. It was never used on planets with life, but it was used for demonstrations and deterrents to ward off the other galactic governments.
Ion grasped the odd tool he was holding tightly. B-04 ordered him to make it so that the earth would be destroyed completely and wholly. The amount of energy required for that would be much higher than most of the tests done before.
Ion finally finished with the focusing part of the machine, wiping a bead of sweat off of his visor's metallic strip. There were only two more parts for him to finish, and the machine would be ready.
He told the ever impatient B-04 that he was going to take a break, of which B-04 responded with, "You'd better hurry up, B-01 is coming soon. And I'd doubt he'd be happy coming here without the machine ready."
That little spark of knowledge gripped Ion like a voce. B-01, the only B-Series Captain that came before Ion, during Prion's time as acting Lead Scientist. Many have guessed that the A-Series' final living model, A-128, created him.
In all honesty, B-01 scared Ion to near death. Many of the other galaxies and planets believe that the Protogen Council are the ones that made the decision, but B-01's opinion is the only one that mattered. If he objected to anything the council wanted, then the council would have to follow him, if they valued their lives.
Ion made his way to the main service area, where Protogen 'Food' was created. It was mostly joyless and tasteless slop that fueled their generators and functions, though some had taste for those that had taste sensors inside their mouths.
Ion knew nothing about B-01, nor his creation. He had only ever heard about his first few escapades off world: The total eradication of Mars' population, the near extinction level event that happened on Jurie-9, and...
Ion's sensors flared to life as he heard Cypher's call, "They are here."
He took in a deep breath. His friends were here. They were the only way they could destroy this machine in time, and if possible, take out B-01 in the process. The last one though was wishful thinking.
He wasn't even sure that B-01 could be harmed.
_-_-_
The first few minutes inside what Catalyst created was suffocating. He had created some sort of vehicle out of the self-replicating Nano-fibers inside his needles, but the space was incredibly small.
Along the way, they managed to find another working Eon-Gate. It was near the main facility that The Machine was held, and although it sustained damage due to being overused and being decayed, it still was able to transport Hannah back directly to Obsidian-1.
Catalyst had syphoned a little bit of the Nano-fiber out of the vehicle he produced and created another needle of knowledge, where he imparted instructions to keep Hannah safe and entertained.
And after that brief interlude, they kept on going deeper and deeper, closer and closer to the machine.
The main compound was a large, fishbowl like dome, but the surrounding area was more like a city. Factories and resting spots were dotted around the landscape, as well as countless homes and houses and stores.
"This was here before we began work on The Machine, or The Vortex. One of the few non-protogen settlements on this planet. Unluckily, or luckily depending on who came here first, most were wiped out by a specific disease that only affected them." Catalyst explained when they first entered.
"When he got the distress call, we went to see what had happened. By then, every single one of them was either decaying, or just barely dead. B-01 saw this as an opportunity to build something he had wanted to do for a long time." He clenched the device that steered their vehicle hard, causing it to accelerate.
"He doesn't like other races, even other cybernetic ones. And because of our superiority and our discovery of Boson Energy, it only strengthened that belief. Ion hasn't met him, hasn't really seen him either. I have."
B-64 gazed at his protogen friend, a slight ping ringing in his heart. He also hadn't met B-01, even in his previous past bodies. He only ever heard about him through B-02 and B-04, and by the way Catalyst was talking, he guessed that B-01 wasn't someone they could mess with.
Marissa and Axel were strangely silent, their bodies pulsing with energy and motion, yet their drive was near shot. Seeing the decimated town put a damper on their mood, and just by hearing that they were getting closer put them even more down.
But Mason was rearing to fight. In his mind, if those bastards wanted to destroy his planet, then they were going to have to fight him. To a stop, or to his or their death, it didn't matter. They had already pulled their troops, so earth could stand a chance if they stopped them.
Mason turned his head and looked at B-64, humming a gentle tune through their minds. It took B-64's mind off of the grim situation, and they both smiled at each other through the near pitch blackness of the vehicle.
"Do you think we'll win?" Mason asked through their mind link, snuggling up all close to B-64. B-64's visor gave off an almost misty red texture, appearing as a blush. He nodded, realized he could actually talk to him, and talked to him.
"Yes, I do. Whether it be winning in the sense that we save earth, or that we destroy the machine, we shall win." Mason smiled and hugged his dear, fully embracing him.
Mason thought for a moment and gathered his thoughts. If they were going to do this, it'd be dangerous. Then again, everything they had done up to this point had been, maybe not to this extreme, but Mason was ready to face it.
He chuckled softly into his fur, "I... Well, I-" Mason was interrupted by the vehicle coming to a complete stop, causing all of them to immediately slam into one another in a flail of limbs and shouts.
"Sorry. The needle I pulled was a little out of the slowing down part of deceleration." Catalyst provided as an explanation, racking his little tuft of hair. B-64 growled a little warning cry at him, but it was mostly because Mason hit his head against B-64's visor in the recoil.
"We have to get inside here-" Catalyst pointed to one of the decrypted buildings, "-and wait for some people.
The group followed him inside, finding it almost completely barren of anything. There was a single table, though it remained somewhat charred. Even the casual weeds they saw when going there, which had grown directly out of a fire, couldn't and hadn't been able to grow through whatever the building was made out of.
"Anyways, Ion called two of his friends over, they'll help us with getting inside the main fuse rooms, and help B-64 here get to Ion quickly. I don't know if B-01 will be there, but hope to whatever deity you pray to that he isn't." Catalyst told them, still slightly weary on his paws.
"Then where are the-?" B-64 paused for a moment, his sensors overreacting to a new explosion of energy inside him. Everything began to jam, his sensors and his reality controllers. He could feel something begin to break inside of him.
"Oh. It's you." A deep, almost growl like voice entered B-64 and Catalyst's minds. Catalyst could barely withstand the pressure exerted inside his skull, not to mention the fact that his body was still trying to produce more needles.
"Cut it out Hex! Catalyst is my favorite!" A more cheerful, somewhat sunny voice entered their minds next, though it did not help ease the pressure exerting from deep inside them. Mason felt anger like nothing before begin to well up inside him.
"I told you! The guy's Upgrade is still adjusting, it's influencing him with Red Energy! Cut it out!" The group heard tearing cloth and a body hit the ground, and once it did, the pressure left both of the protogen's heads.
"I expected better of you Hexel. Guess I was mistaken." Catalyst growled in Protein, a deep scowl marked on his visor. A yellow color soon pulsed out from the dark side of the room they went inside.
A protogen stepped out: His body was geometrical, sharp and jagged points instead of circular joints, electricity coursing through his very being. The very thin lines where his metallic sheets were fused together had a thin line of yellow Pearce through them.
His visor was white, and his eyes and mouth were also yellow. Despite being quite lifeless and pixelated, they could tell that malice, anger, frustration and passion lived behind them. His claws danced with electricity as he stared them head on.
"Not cool." The other protogen, the one whose body hit the floor, stood up from the darkness. Only his visor lit up this time, and he was much smaller and quarter, even skinny compared to most protogen. His entire body, save his left leg and paw, were completely organic.
"We are here to keep guard and get these idiots inside, not be their nanny, Render." Hexel replied, staring at his friend.
Render was rather small, even compared to Mason: He was at least a foot and a half smaller, though his sears were as large as his torso. His body was completely green with light accents of white here and there.
His legs were quite unlike all the other protogen they had seen, as they were straight and connected directly to his body, like Mason and everyone else were. His arms were also weirdly out of proportion.
Small, almost ghost-like contraptions floated around his head, and Mason could tell that they had something to do with his name. Render...
"So, ya Asswipes, what's the plan."
"Don't be mean!"
________________________________________________________________________________
Heya!
(New OC, do not steal!)
Haha, I joke. Anyways, sorry for not posting for a while, I just had some stuff to do, and not a lot of inspiration to write some more. But I got it now! Next chapter should be up tomorrow, or if not that, the next day.
Oh, and regards to Render. I do plan on doing other things with him specifically. You'll learn more about his character tomorrow or the next day, but...
Yeah, it'll be something.
But seriously though, I love this name for the protogen, specifically for his particular power (can I say quirk now? I swear, I ain't trying to copy MHA!).
But, even so, I thank all of you that are still reading! It really means a lot to me!
~ Candle