Masters Of War, Steely

[Relen]

Somewhere...

...And what do you propose we do?

We have already escaped his grasp again, my brothers. Servitude to the boy is nothing more than self-imposed bondage. And yet, he provides us with... opportunities.

As does the complete annihilation of this village by the Lord of Destruction!

We cannot risk being seen yet, brother. Mephisto!

Yes, my brother. I will go ahead and lie in wait. They will fall under my feet when the time comes.

Be sure that they do. Baal, with me. There is much to be done.

As you wish, Diablo.

---

We lost them yet again. This is ridiculous. Why do you bother trying to reclaim them? You know full well that we cannot keep hunting them.

Not to mention that this is insanity! We cannot stop them alone!

They're right, Luc. We cannot take on three powerful Zoids on our own. We are only two. Bastion is not a fighter as we are.

Inside the hangar space of a Dragoon Nest, a little boy sat on the steely floor with his knees cradled to his chest, oak staff laying next to him. He looked visibly ill, but the child had a determined look in his pale green eyes. A spark, a burning notion. But he spoke no words, given only to his thoughts. The Zoidian known as Luc Dawne considered possibilities and futures until yet another voice pierced his consciousness.

You must do what you think is right, Luc.

The young boy nodded, and stared into the eyes of the Organoid perched atop the nose of his white Geno Breaker, resolution set in his eyes.

For the people they could hurt.

Slowly, the tyrannosaur Organoid nodded. He understood too well what Luc was prone to doing, and it made sense. He strove to be a good person, despite the Zoids he hung around with and their tendencies. But he had to try.

---

The Dragoon Nest was making good progress overland to Terrone Town, where it would stop and rest to allow Luc a chance to obtain some food for the journey before continuing on their search, as well as provide the group with some well-needed rest time. As it approached the town, they knew not of the sets of eyes following them.

[Steel Cerberus]

In Terrone Town proper, it was yet another sunny and uninteresting day. Villagers tended to their crops on the edges of town, a brewery in town made spirits, and a certain somebody bought a case of said spirits and was currently trying to find somewhere in her Zoid to put them so the glass bottles wouldn't break. All in all, nothing particularly strange so far.

Ha... hahaha. Hahahahaha,

"...the hell are you laughing about?" Timber stopped, crate halfway wedged back behind the seat into the storage compartment, and listened to her Zoid chuckle quietly to himself. The sabertoothed tiger was lounging amongst the buildings, laying like the Spinx with his gold teeth and claws reflecting the sunlight. Even with half of his head flipped up so Timber could access his cockpit, he still managed to look menacing.

Posers.

That was the only response the Zoid gave, even after his pilot waited for a few seconds for him to explain. She grumbled something about cryptic Zoids and secured the crate, making sure it wasn't going anywhere. Luckily, the owner of the distillery knew the distance she had to travel to get here, and packed the glass in such a way that it would stand the long trip... no matter what trouble the bandit ran into.

"You are so not helpful," Timber sunk into the Zoid's seat, still waiting for a response, and still not getting one. Sighing, the woman figured that today's chores were done and it was time to take the long track home. Or she could get lazy and radio Blade to get Knox to come get her...

Naah, she enjoyed the alone time.

The canopy closed and the Proto Zaber stood, hissing and gleaming. He coiled and started off with a graceful bound, tearing down the street effortlessly.

Timber should have had a pain in the pit of her stomach, or something, because whenever Kane said something cryptic, something bad happened. But, this time she didn't invest too much thought in it. It was a nice day and she was in a good mood, which was rare nowadays. She was going to ride the natural high as long as she could.

[Relen]

Luc stared out over the grassy plains from the bridge of the Dragoon Nest affectionately known as Bastion for the fact that he, like the rest of the pack, was a bastion for the young child that lived within its bulkheads. He could appreciate the beauty of the scenery, and sitting in a chair, the Zoidian contented himself with staring out over the plains. Behind him stood his Organoid, his partner that refused to be outside the same room as the boy. Tyraeus was extremely loyal, and for that, Luc was thankful.

Very pretty, remarked the mechanical tyrannosaurus, to which Luc nodded. He had to agree; this place was quaint, picturesque. A nice place to come and relax, even if their job was not so peaceful in itself.

Luc almost wanted to fall asleep in the comfortable chair he was in; padded, warm, and with the sunlight streaming in through the viewports in the cockpit of the Dragoon Nest, he found it a brilliant chance to want to catch up on a little bit of sleep. After all, he got tired easily and had to sleep a lot, but that wasn't a problem for him. It wasn't like he had any real responsibility... yet.

But that was when he passed a distillery-- or, more accurately, noticed its Proto Zaber sitting out the front. Luc placed a hand on Bastion's console, and pointed towards the Zoid; Tyraeus grumbled a simple command to slow down, and the giant lobster followed. Tyraeus' word was Luc's word, as the Organoid was the most closely bonded with their human counterpart. It was rare to see Zoids out here; and Luc was interested in taking a closer look at a Zoid he was unfamiliar with.

Most people probably wouldn't respond to a Dragoon Nest slowing down right next to them, though; innocuous as it was for Luc to just want to look, the way he did it spoke otherwise.

[Steel Cerberus]

Kane didn't shoot off quite yet, even though he wanted to. He could feel the subtle adjustments in Timber's seating, hear what she was thinking, and knew that there was no rush. The cargo was secure and there was no reason for them to run home. The Zoid quietly looked around, green eyes intensely focused in on everything at once, like he always did.

He was about to start off, when he jerked. His gaze had landed on the giant lobster for a split second, though that didn't appear to be the reason that he so abruptly stopped.

Don't do that in there.

"What?" Timber paused where she was kicked back, cigarette in her mouth, the lighter an inch away from the end.

Don't smoke that in there. It smells.

Timber looked almost offended, "Wait, what? Since when have you cared? I've smoked in here before?"

Since that skunk-striped one cleaned out my head and got rid of the smells. Just go smoke that outside,

The bandit stared at the console in disbelief for a few seconds, until she looked around the cockpit and finally took notice of it. Come to think of it, it was a lot more clean then the last time she had been in here. Granted, she didn't let Kane get filthy, but he had been dead for years. There had still been some signs of decay in his cockpit. She felt a slight pang of guilt when she realized who had done this.

"Alright, alright. Man, all I smell anymore is smoke and whiskey," she sighed and popped the canopy, climbing onto the ridge of armor on his neck as he closed the canopy behind her. Sighing through her nose, she made to light the stick again when she noticed Kane shift. He was almost standing like he was posing... which was weird to her. She glanced at the transporter meandering nearby, but didn't give it too much thought. "What's the occasion?"

Occasion?

...getting answers out of Kane was like trying to milk a rock. So she gave up on that and finally lit her smoke. He always seemed to have some ulterior motive to everything, and never told her about it until she needed to know, so no doubt she'd be hearing the details later.

[Relen]

The Dragoon Nest had slowed to a total stop now, so that Luc could peer at the Proto Zaber. Indeed, he hadn't seen one before; they were a strange and rare sort of Zoid, a variant on a far more common model. This one was rather fierce-looking... best not to provoke it, but even so, he wanted to look. With green eyes flicking to Tyraeus for a few moments, the Organoid keyed the intercom system.

"Luxis, prepare for launch. Bastion, open the left claw."

It was as simple as that; the Organoid allowed Luc to clamber on top of his shoulders and began hovering off towards the launching station held in the left claw where the albino Geno Breaker waited for its pilot. The claw opened before Luc got there, giving Tyraeus a few moments to left the boy up to the cockpit and help him climb in. His crippled body was not the most reliable, and especially at his age in his frail state... things were hard. Life was a struggle. But he persevered.

The Breaker stomped out of the claw at its pilot's touch, rounding on the Proto Zaber, but with no malicious intent. Well, normally most people wouldn't quite respond to a Dragoon Nest and a Geno Breaker appearing out of nowhere... normally. One had to forgive Luc his childlike innocence.

About fifty metres away form the Zoid, Luc stopped Luxis from moving-- he could see its pilot smoking on the armour plates of the Zoid. Likely so as to not disturb the sensitive electronics within. That much made sense; spilling water or anything that would disturb the delicate instrumentation in a Zoid cockpit was dangerous. At least that was a responsible pilot, right?

If only he knew.

It is time.

From out of nowhere, a high-speed barrage of laser shots lit up the sky and pounded the distillery into dust, sending the building into a cascade explosion that sent its roof flying upwards-- and the flickering vision of a Zoid could be seen in the distance for barely a second before it flicked away again and ran off, sprinting towards the city and causing a wake of a firestorm as it did so, terrorising people and annihilating the buildings it sprinted past.

While Luc would have responded, it was the Organoid on top of the Breaker's head that did so. Luc had already made his mind up-- and the 'noid knew what it was without even thinking.

"You there! Help us find this Zoid and stop it!"

[Steel Cerberus]

The 'occasion' presented itself in due time, or at least what Timber assumed Kane was posing about. How he knew these things, she had no idea. The fang was always a few steps ahead of everyone else, though. Herself included. So when the Dragoon's nest started to move and open up, she didn't give it too much thought.

Timber nearly inhaled the rest of her cigarette, though, when she saw the white zoid emerge. (Oh boy a genobreaker, that's exactly what I need today,) she thought, snorting smoke before it burned her throat any more then it was already.

(It has points going for it, though. At least it's not black,)

And at the very least, Kane wasn't reacting at all, so she didn't think it was dangerous. Beyond being a breaker, anyways. Timber paused in puffing on her death stick to yawn widely in the midday sun.

"Wonder what they're looking at," she mumbled down to Kane to get some conversation out of him. The only response was a chuckle... which was a start.

Just as she started back on the final little bit of her smoke, the building behind her suddenly exploded spectacularly. She didn't move, or otherwise flinch. Instead, only her eyes bugged out before the dust and smoke from the explosion obscured view of her for a few seconds. When it cleared enough to allow her to be seen, the only movement she had done was to place her free hand atop her hat to keep it from blowing away.

"What the hell was that?" she yelled, the remains of the cigarette dropping to the ground after bouncing off of Kane's neck. Kane was hissing softly, looking in the direction that he had seen a flash of something, and Timber looked the same way. She was lunging down into the cockpit when the organoid spoke, and it was only because she was so used to organoids speaking to her that she didn't flinch.

"Half a step ahead of you, Organoid," she mumbled, flicking switches in the sabertooth's cockpit and starting up the combat system. His bright eyes flickered, and he took a few cautious steps forward, looking back and fourth for a sign of a target. He spotted the moving ruckus, and charged after that.

[Relen]

It has begun, Diablo. I see the fires in the distance.

That means our time will come soon. First, we must allow our brother to run his course-- we shall see what he has in mind. And then we will make this a true rampage.

---

Well, that had been easy. The Proto Zaber and the Geno Breaker advanced up through the swathe of destruction together, the Breaker floating on boosters instead of walking, as per Luxis' typical want to move quickly through a battlefield. A single stray laser round at this point hitting them would be a bad thing, after all. None of the wandering Zoidian's companions knew how tough that Zaber and its pilot were. But at least nothing had to be said to them just yet.

Luc, you understand what is transpiring here, don't you? Tyraeus inquired of his human partner, wondering just what kind of intuitions he was having. As a Zoidian, he knew many things.

Indeed, behind the controls of the white tyrannosaurus, the young boy was trembling slightly; the wanton death and destruction he had only seen caused by three. Three that he had tried to hold captive, three he had tried to bind again and failed miserably at. A tragic attempt by an idealistic child to bring about change in a world that did not want it. Sad eyes cast down at his feet, unable to see the chaos that he had wrought.

...Mephisto.

Indeed, it was Mephisto, the Lord of Hatred; the shroud of cloaking and the rapid-fire laser vulcan that was spitting out its insane rate of fire were the clear signs of the involvement of a Shadow Fox. But where the heck was it? Frustration bred hatred, a policy he loved; breed his own hatred in his opponents to make them self-destruct and make them even easier pickings with their clouded minds as his own overwhelming rage took hold to shatter everything in his path.

Suddenly, the area around the two Zoids was filled with thick smoke, making it difficult to see anything at all-- he had to be nearby, flittering around under stealth. Somewhere, somewhere...

And then, suddenly, an electromagnetic net was fired from the left side of the Proto Zaber, aiming to tangle it up and shock it to pieces-- the first sign of resistance had been fought back.

[Steel Cerberus]

Kane was completely silent, aside from the dull thunder of his golden paws upon the road as they ran. His joints and body made noise as well, but the sound of his footsteps drowned any of that out. Being able to hear wasn't even very important, though... they couldn't see what was causing all the trouble.

"Not like being able to see has ever been a problem for us," she smirked a little, reaching to a button on the console and pushing it. The radar screen suddenly changed, showing a smaller range, but in different detail. One dot that hadn't been there before, had suddenly appeared.

Oddly enough, it looked it was approaching them. Before heads or tails could be made of this development, the air was thick with black smoke, "...crap,"

Fox! Kane screeched, his yowl like nails down a chalkboard and breaking glass in a blender. Or something else equally horrible to hear. Timber winced a little, and wrenched the controls towards the canine.

There was nothing between them and the fox, so the fanged zoid opened fire while they were still out of melee distance. He only went with the vulcans for right now, doing a quick spray of gunfire in the stealth'd zoid's direction. His claws started to charge and glow as they got closer, but his paws slipped up in the net that was suddenly draped over them and shocking the zoid's systems.

Kane bellowed and started tearing at the net and thrashing around, his saber teeth lighting up brightly with his paws as he set about ripping it to shreds with the laser energy, before it overloaded him completely.

[Relen]

The myriad roars made the Geno Breaker turn around; however, through all the thick smoke, he couldn't see. This was Mephisto all over; induce frustration and rage and then let them destroy themselves. What an angry bastard, Luxis thought, to be doing this kind of thing. Then again, he himself wasn't much better. Luxis was pretty much likely to drop a charged particle beam on you if you screwed up, so that was... well, yeah. He would have fit in with that trio of asskicking bastards. But he had his instructions, and he'd carry them out.

For now, though, Luxis, Tyraeus and Luc were helpless-- and the boy stared on in horror, unknowing of the cruelty transpiring within the colloid shroud.

Mephisto on the other hand was having the time of his life, cackling madly as his prey began to feel the pits of despair rise up to take him. Sure, his frontal armour was now dented and smashed as he'd had to suffer the brunt of the vulcan attack (for, after all, the smoke worked both ways) but that still put him in a good position while his opponent was struggling to get out of the net.

Take advantage of the guy on the ground unable to do anything - by unloading the laser vulcan on it, then pouncing with two charged front-paw Strike Laser Claws. This was where the battle began, a vicious rolling, swirling melee that continued to build until one of them was totally annihilated, and Mephisto loved it. Loved its bloodthirsty, blood-boiling rage. And this enemy was something he wanted to smash and tear to pieces.

[Steel Cerberus]

The net melted and snapped around his laser charged paws and shining saber fangs, and despite the electricity coursing through his body and shocking his pilot, Kane had piece of mind enough to know to back up. Tossing his head and clawing, he heaved the net off and took a few more shaking steps backwards.

"Son of a bitch," Timber hissed, shuddering as the electrical shock faded from her body. She looked down to the radar and deactivated the laser charges, just as the front of the sabertoothed cat was peppered with gunfire.

"Come on," Timber wrenched the Zoid's controls to the side, and he leapt away from the gunfire, and faded out of sight and out of the radar at the same time, "Two can play this game,"

Kane turned, seeing the glow of the canine's laser claws nearby, and opened fire with his own vulcans in that direction. He could see the fox on his radar, but the Fox had no idea where he was. Just to try and keep that up, the Zoid bolted after he stopped firing, heading back towards the Breaker.

"Do you need help finding it or what?" Timber asked over the radio over to Luc and the breaker as they stalked nearby. Timber was almost irritated that the breaker wasn't doing anything, but she remembered that not everyone outfitted their Zoids like she did.

[Relen]

The ceaseless roar of chain ballistics fire tore through the air as the Proto Zaber charged at Mephisto, only to find its shells meeting open air after a second of metallic pinging; the Shadow Fox had used the cover of its faux darkness to move once again. Engage and disengage, confound the foe until their fury compounded enough to blind them. The simple methods that made things all the sweeter to savour at that final moment of breaking. The attack had only been enough to put a few more holes in Mephisto's skin.

Meanwhile, Luc was trying to find a solution to the fact that he couldn't do a thing. In his typical slow manner, he wasn't rushing, but being thorough about it-- and all answers pointed to a lack of being able to help. Nothing he could do would really work through that smoke.

As the communication occurred, Luc said nothing, simply staring into the screen and holding up a finger while he stared up to where the Organoid was sitting, out of physical sight. One gentle tap on the top of the cockpit with the boy's hand and the Orgnaoid stirred, the tyrannosaurus staring down. It was almost as if they could see through the metal between them - but this was long-practised habit.

We have no means to find Mephisto alone. We should let him come out of the smoke - stay away from it, Tyraeus cautioned Timber mentally. Even if she could, there was more he would not tell her. For now.

in the distance, the great evil serpent stirred...

[Steel Cerberus]

Prowling in invisible circles around the white geno, Kane was quiet as he plotted. Somehow the fox had dodged his gunfire even though Kane could see the black Zoid on his heat signature radar. It irritated him, but he reasoned that there had to be something that gave the fox an edge over them.

If only I had my pet, this would all be so much easier.

Timber frowned at the controls, but kept herself from asking what he meant by that. She didn't think she cared to know. Instead, she watched the boy pointing, and Kane looked at the Organoid, sneering slightly. It was a shame that she had left Gyro at home.

"Right... you guys coming or not?" she asked as Kane completed his circle and started away from all the smoke, trying to keep an eye on the fox's movements as they walked, and ready to dodge or jump away if they needed to.

[Relen]

If machines could smirk, he would have. This had played well; it took nothing to see the frustration in the woman's heart. How did a Zoid know these things? Sometimes there were... ways. The three Lords knew their places and Mephisto's was here, in the realm of frustration and anger, the self-destructing emotions that led to the blindness of humanity. A feeling that he would have veritably bathed in were it quantifiable as all that much water... but the blood of his foes would do nicely.

Off in the distance, two more looked to one another.

It is time.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a triple brace of charged particle beams incinerated the air between Luxis and Kane, the air sizzling with burned ozone as the resounding shockwave of explosive impact reached the two Zoids. To the east a building had detonated and exploded in a fireball rivalling that of the brewery's, and now the effects could be felt from all the way over here. Had they missed? Had that been their target? None would know. The smoke cleared from the air and... the Shadow Fox was gone. Indeed, were it not for the burning buildings and the charred corpses and detritus that were beginning to pile up on the ground, there would be no proof that there had been any battle here.

On a bluff overlooking the village, however, the foes made themselves apparent. On the left was a light blue Berserk Fury with its buster claws open; it was obviously responsible for the particle attack. On the right was the Shadow Fox. Its left fore paw was buckling slightly-- so it had taken damage, after all-- but it appeared no less enraged. And in the middle was a Diablo Tiger, silver and purple, head raised and maw opened in a furious roar that echoed over the landscape in a terrible cacophony of rage and terror.

The Three Lords of Evil had arrived.

Our foes, Tyraeus communicated simply to Timber as the white Breaker turned to face their opponents. Between the hill and the two were a number of civilian buildings, which would easily be casualties of battle if the three nightmares engaged immediately. All of them stared with furious eyes at the two gathered foes, their new targets; the battlegrounds were already shaping up in earnest.

[Steel Cerberus]

Kane was in mid step when the beam ripped past him, and he froze with his paw up in the air, and his tail snapping straight up in alarm. They really should have fled the area, but Timber's reasoning was that it didn't obliterate them yet, so it obviously wasn't aimed at them in the first place. Kane didn't much agree with that, and yowled while leaping away from it and spinning towards the area of its source.

The zoid and human jerked their heads up and looked around in sync, and the cat cursed when he realized the fox was gone. He flicked his head and sent a piece of burning rubble flying to the ground. Hissing around his knife teeth, Kane turned his attention to their new and visible foes, and the source of the particle cannon.

Her leather gloves strained and creaked as she gripped the controls, scanning the space between them and their opponents. She wasn't sure how useful the breaker would be, but she wasn't counting on him at all.

Just like the war, huh?

"The war we ran from? I guess," Timber pulled the controls to the side, making Kane suddenly jolt right to try and get out of the city. Timber might have been a degree of heartless, but she didn't want to see the town get destroyed or anything. She especially didn't want to get blamed for it.

[Relen]

Luc, now is the time. You must fight for your life.

The boy remained silent mentally, knowing that his three charges-- despite their open rebellion, he considered the Three Lords his charges-- were on the warpath. When they were like this, there was precious little young Luc could do to stop their insanity, but nonetheless he had to try. The lives of innocents were far to important to risk.

Luxis began to move on his own accord as the three enemies in the distance chose their targets, scoping out the Proto Zaber and the Geno Breaker. The Geno they knew well, having spent time with it prior. However, this other Zoid was a new factor for them... who was it? Mephisto had encountered it once and it was a skilful opponent. However, there would be nothing in their path as they descended the bluff, marching instead of running towards their prey - the city.

Vulcans, railguns and particle beams all opened up as one, a destructive swathe cutting across the cityline left vacant by the two Zoids that had fled their immediate line of sight. Their prey was not the two Zoids, no - it was the myriad people here.

However, as five more buildings detonated in the distance, a sudden blast of vulcan fire at extreme distance in Kane's direction indicated a change of targets. Their first volleys of fire satiated, the Three Lords of Evil had now turned on Kane and Luxis. They now stared them directly down, ready to charge in - but they hesitated a few moments to size up their new prey. If there was a chance to do anything, now was it, Luc remarked in his mind, knowing he could not be the arbiter of justice here.

[Steel Cerberus]

The buildings shot past in an earth-colored blur around the sabertoothed cat in the middle of its flat out run until they fell away entirely to leave them on open ground. Kane curved his path to keep the city on one side as he headed for the three enemy zoids.

Their real target isn't us. Look!

Timber had been doing something to the radio, but now looked up from it to see the smoke rising from where they had just been. "The city? Why."

I think because they feel like it. What's the plan now? he came to a stop, putting his claw into the ground to whip around and nearly reverse the way he was facing. His eyes were bright and head was high as he surveyed from where they were, not yet charging in, They're not paying us any attention; we could just leave,

"No," Timber said after a pause, "It's a good idea, but that kid is going to get murdered, as is a lot of other people. But if they want to play dirty, they're going to love to deal with us,"

Timber finished what she had been doing with the radio as Kane set back into town, dissolving from sight yet again. She wasn't fond of the three on two odds, but something about the situation had to turn in their favor, sooner or later. She was hoping it would be sooner.

The rocket pack on Kane's back tilted a little to put the missiles in alignment for the fury - the biggest target of the three. They loosed three rockets in an arc even as they continued moving to duck down another street. Timber hoped they had enough of an element of surprise to cripple the blue tyrannosaurus.

[Relen]

The Fury was painted in a sort of sky blue, and roared the loudest of all three of the beasts assembled. Baal, as he was known, was the Lord of Destruction. From raining torrents of triple charged particle cannons down on targets that could never defend themselves and would detonate in spectacular bursts of flame, to crushing unsuspecting Zoids in his spinning buster claws, Baal loved to cause havoc and destruction.

The missile barraged loosed, streaming smoke from the tails of the warheads launched directly at the Fury - which shed open its buster claws and extended the energy shield that it was so famous for. While the Fury was lightly armed otherwise, the claws on its back were quite possibly the most destructive multi-tools in the Zoid world. Baal knew how to use them to great effect. The missiles detonated harmlessly off the shield, but each one was a blast that impacted the ground. To keep himself out of the seemingly-eternal onslaught, the shield had to remain up and the Zoid had to remain immobile. That took Baal out of the fight. For now.

Instead, the other Zoids continued on and, sensing threats, the battle was joined. The Diablo Tiger went head-hunting straight for the Geno Breaker, knowing that the high fire rate with insane shell speed would be needed to counteract the striking powerful armour of the white titan. In the meantime...

The Shadow Fox had a score to settle. Mephisto was out for blood.

The Lord of Anger sprinted at absolute speed towards Kane, running straight behind the cover of the nearest building behind him and popping out the other side, his gatling spinning up to face the Proto Saber, and expending a massive amount of energy to shredding Timber's Zoid. It had to be removed - but the barrage lasted only a few seconds as Mephisto was behind the cover of another building. The populace would be his shield. Risk killing a lot of people, or hold fire? Luc was not there to help, after all...

[Steel Cerberus]

With Kane's rocket pod folded back against his shoulders, they regarded their handiwork for a second and continued on. He was still invisible under his optical stealth, hadn't stopped moving, and was not blind. Timber was still irritably wondering how the hell the fox even knew where they were at.

"Steely is somehow to blame for this,"

Hey now.

Kane parted his jaws in a silent roar, and small panels on his face flipped out to activate his shield to take the gunfire. He shook his head to stir the dust and smoke and get it to clear as he deactivated his shield. Timber glanced at the radar while Kane prowled, and smirked a little. Now the fox was going down.

"You called?"

Mephisto was in for a surprise when a black and silver blade liger Mk-II thundered out of a side street, claws glowing as he leapt to rip into the fox's side. No gunfire, and the liger had a controlled grace to his movements that prevented him from running into a building or destroying anything. Whoever this was, they knew what they were doing.

Raider skidded and turned down a side street to meet up with the proto zaber as they approached.

"I'm not sure if I should be happy that you're here, or pissed off that you're following me," Timber watched the other zoid as it turned in a little circle so he could walk next to Kane. Blade looked mildly offended at the accusation.

"I wasn't following you, I just happened to be in the area," he huffed. Raider fluffed his face ruffles in response.

"Uh huh sure just happened to be in the area where I was, right."

"I got a call from work!"

"That's the excuse you always use, and I know that most of the time it's complete bullshit."

Can you two argue like a married couple later? I want to rip this fox's head off, Kane hissed, leading the pair towards their enemy and preparing to get in close and do exactly what he just said he was going to do.

[Relen]

A chain of five explosions danced behind Timber that lit up the environment completely with radiant, dazzling glare; on the ridge of the hill, the sun itself seemed to be blotted out by the sheer magnitude of firepower that was being traded by Luxis and Luc, and the two Lords that were engaging them in lethal combat. The Prime Evils were just that, evil... they stopped at nothing when it suited them to carry out whatever task caught their whims. With the amount of charged particle beams being thrown around, and the terrified shrieks of humanity and loud roars of metallic monsters, this place would no longer be standing soon enough.

However, that was not enough to deter one more entering the fray. As the Blade Liger dashed in, Mephisto stopped and looked up; Baal and Diablo were already engaged and couldn't help him. That Geno Breaker seemed to be giving them a hell of a lot of trouble-- especially, as the universe displayed, the loud flash of an Organoid fusing with the Zoid core. Yes, they would be in for the fight of their life now, and he was now fighting two enemies. This was bad. Very, very, very bad.

As the Liger came running, Mephisto turned to face his weapon atop his back... and was met with a leg full of claw. The superheated metal sheared right through the armour of the front left leg, cutting deep into it, just above the knee joint like a hot knife through butter. On most Zoids, that would be enough to cause a Command System Freeze and end a battle. These three, though, were not normal Zoids. They didn't have Command Systems, for they lacked the human/Zoid interface control in this situation. If it froze, they could still operate. Command Systems were controls. Mephisto, angered truly at the appearance of a second foe, roared louder.

They would all die.

The gatling was already pointed at Raider, even as Mephisto retreated backwards to try and find some cover behind a tall building... but he wouldn't be moving very fast. That retreat was so slow that he knew he'd be done for. His stealth generators were damaged, and... this was not good. Laser vulcan rounds flew through the air at the Blade Liger for this... for this... travesty! They would die by Mephisto's hand! He would slaughter them both and use their heads as trophies to warn the next lot of pretenders that the Three Prime Evils reigned supreme over this accursed world!

However, even the Lord of Anger had a sliver of doubt in his mind. And once the seed was planted, it could sprout...

[Steel Cerberus]

Raider slowed down for a moment to take in the other zoids fighting nearby, and was surprised to see a white geno among them. Hadn't they met that zoid somewhere before?

"Will ya quit daydreamin' and help me?" Timber snapped while Kane was prowling, waiting for an opening, "The fox's got its attention on you now."

Blade looked up to see that Timber was right; the limping fox had its gatling pointed right at them. A quick twitch of his hand put into motion what the zoid was already thinking, and his face fins snapped fully open and energized to summon his shield. He crouched a little, shield still on, and charged the fox.

"Timber, what are you doing?" he asked, seeing the dot of the big cat prowling around.

"Nothing, just keep him distracted."

Raider slowed to a stop, realizing what was going on, and shut off his shield when the fox stopped firing. He started sidestepping, flipping his blades and attack boosters forward, acting like he was getting ready to open fire.

Kane suddenly thundered around the corner, mouth glowing gold, and lunged for the fox's neck. Sure, he couldn't get his fangs around it properly, but the giant knives could hopefully still melt right through the metal and maim the other zoid once and for all.

[Relen]

This Zoid was equipped with energy shielding, Mephisto mentally cursed to himself. His laser vulcan rounds, while numerous, were not powerful enough to penetrate this kind of attack. Sadly, the attack had to subside in order for this to work... perhaps... yes. Lure it in by stopping the attack and then purging the beast with a furious strike laser claw and assault of the vulcan before it could bring back its protective field. It would be a carefully-baited trap, enough to allow him a moment of respite before the foe's destruction.

The shield dropped, exactly as planned. Mephisto responded with the loudedst, most earth-rumbling roar he could muster. Even as he limped forward, the front right paw glowed brightly as a celebration of victory over the foe that had so foolishly attempted to best him. No matter what blades he brought to bear, Mephisto would cut him down, right down the middle. One sidestep as the first burst of gatling fire was unleashed had the Blade Liger evade the first few energy bolts. No matter - all Mephisto had to do was re-align his weapon more carefully and fire again. The vulcan gun indexed, right over the cockpit. Mephisto could see the human inside, and he was anticipating the screams of pain and agony that would erupt right as the blast hit the cockpit head-on. It was a delicious thought.

That thought was the momentary distraction Kane exploited, the headlong charge taking Mephisto right to the ground as the Proto Zaber towered over it. Collapsing through on the left side, right above where the leg had been damaged, the black Shadow Fox was taken down to the ground in a single strike. Golden fangs blurred hot and dug right into the metallic skin of the Shadow Fox's neck, tearing away at it as a wolf might have torn at fallen prey's skin for its meal. Hungrily, the metal of Mephisto's neck was eaten away. Piece by crackling piece, wires and tubes ripped apart, the internal structure of the writhing beast unable to handle the physical beating that it was suddenly suffering. The Zoid gave one final shriek, an animalistic roar of pain, before it fell silent. His last thought was nothing more than a question to himself: how could the hatred borne by humans be greater than his, to best him?

The Lord of Hatred had been slain.

That garnered the attention of the Lords of Terror and Destruction. In fact, they looked up from their battlefield and, with roars of their own, acted rather decisively. Baal spun his Buster Claws up to full power and knocked away the Geno Breaker. Even fused, the beast could be beaten by strong enough willpower - and willpower they had in spades.

One shot rang out suddenly through the air, landing directly in front of Raider's right paw even as he ran. It was a non-verbal warning - one more step and the next shot would be a hyperballistic cockpit slug from the cyber metal cannon mounted atop his back. At speeds liek that, the Diablo Tiger was a powerful foe. It could put a round right through a Zoid's cockpit without it being able to dodge. It inspired fear int he hearts of men with its shadowy capabilities and regenerative powers. Truly, Diablo was the Lord of Terror. Baal, his brother and the Lord of Destruction, followed suit with a twin beam cannon blast right in front of Kane.

Unfortunately, the Geno Breaker was struggling to rise, and attempted to get up - but fell back down. It needed a little more time before it could rise. The attention had been taken off it for now, and the battle was, temporarily, two on two. But could the Proto Zaber and the Blade Liger take on a berserk Fury and a Diablo Tiger - and win?

[Steel Cerberus]

Kane's paws even glowed with his fangs as he slammed the fox to the ground. He twisted his head suddenly, flinging the other zoid's head right off of its body where it clattered to a stop between Raider's paws. The black liger peered down at it, almost like he was surprised.

"Well that was easy."

"Yeah, it's a lot easier when they're distracted. I think we got the others' attention, though," Timber was looking in the direction that noise was still coming from, and thus saw the other two switch targets.

Raider jerked backwards when the ground exploded in front of him, and snapped his head up to look at the Diablo and growl. Kane stopped too, hissing as his teeth and claws stopped shining. The pair of big cats stayed still, and Timber glanced sideways at Blade.

"So shall we do the hero thing now?"

"If that's what you want to call it, sure," the Zoidian closed his eyes, and a second later there were streaks or orange and gray in the sky that dropped down into the two Zoids and made them glow.

When Kane stopped glowing, he didn't look any different, but he charged straight at the Diablo and was quite a bit faster then he had been thirty seconds ago.

Raider did look different. The Blade Liger was all jagged edges, electricity, and armed with a spiral horn on his head. The shield fins on the side of the zoid's face suddenly flared open and crackled as he charged at the Fury, his claws starting to glow again.