The Business of War

Truth & Darkness, the White Knight doth approach....


Scenario A
Participants:
Artilleryman (C)
Drastic Measures (RPD)
Geminiman (SA)

Location: Toronto, ON, CN
SA Troops: 2481
RPD Troops: 573
Wily Troops: 814

Undisclosed area:

The twin terror stood in the middle of a laboratory now a sporting an almost pure looking white paint job.

“Admiring your new look, Geminiman?” Mesmerman’s voice echoed inside his head.

“The general has done… wonders with this new paint job…” Lennon said in an almost whimsical tone.

“And the upgrades?” the manipulative voice asked.

“I have yet to test them out.”

“Well then I bring good news, you have been asked to move a large army of over 2000 Sniper Joes into Toronto and reduce the city into rubble. I trust you will have sufficient grounds to fully experiment all your new abilities and upgrades. You should feel honoured; the general must have great faith in you to gift you with such a large army.”

A wide grin began to form on the bishounen robot’s face as he continued to admire his new look. He couldn’t wait to see what he was now capable of.

“Well then, I mustn’t disappoint him then, I should make haste and round up the troops and prepare them for battle. With my commanding skills I doubt that I will run into much trouble.” The twin terror walked out of the lab and walked down the hallway towards the deployment area of his army, still smiling with dreadful glee, “Very soon the streets of Toronto will be paved in beautiful bloodshed. It will be a glorious sight to behold.”

The crazed Geminiman laughed maniacally while within the depths of his mind, Mesmerman grinned…

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Several kilometres outside Toronto…

Geminiman stood in front of his troop, almost numbering 2500 Sniper Joes armed and ready for combat. His eyes, completely black, his smile, still creepily wide.

“Such a poorly defended city… I’d almost feel pity for poor lives waiting to be brought to my symphony of slaughter… Almost…”

Lennon calmly assessed the city from afar. He searched for the ones he desired, the ones that drove him so madly, so obsessively, but he alas, he could not feel their presence anywhere.

“He is not here… neither is she… very well, I will be sure to encounter them soon enough, but for now, Toronto shall fall, for Elysium awaits!”

The Sniper Joes began to march and the twin terror pressed forward, now brandishing two long swords rather than his old riot-sticks, his eyes, still fully black remained focused on the target before him, and from his smiling lips his voice murmured…

“The white knight doth approach…”

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The dark halls of the RPD headquarters were ablaze with activity, with enough static in the room to keep a bulb lit. Almost every occupant in the building was running from one place to another, with a report of some sort to give to a higher up, before it was made obsolete. And yet, amid the frenzy, 5 figures sat, talking amongst themselves, and only that. Yet, no topic they brought up was enough to shake the anxiety of their upcoming meeting with the chief, Crorq. Any and all concentration the group did have, was shattered as a Police Bot approached them, informing them their briefing was now, yet the group could hear the voice of the chief echoing in the room.

Entering the briefing the room, The Five Robot Masters were completely ignored by their chief, Crorq who was more interested in the bucket of Chicken in front of him as they entered the room. His gaze didn't change as each Robot Master took a seat.

Clearing his throat loudly, Turboman finally asked, “Um Chief?”

“What? Oh right, you INFIDELS! “ Crorq says, finally looking at the team, yet as always, he seemed to look behind the team, not wanting to look directly at beings with less power than himself “ We got a distress call from Toronto, seems the Scissor Army is trying to take the town. Now, we don't have enough manpower to stop them, so I'm sending you INFIDELS in to hold them and this mysterious officer off as the town is evacuated.

“Mysterious Officer?” chirped in Burstgirl, a look of confusion on her face.

“You mean we are going into battle not knowing who we are fighting?” Asked Springman, seconds too late did he realize his mistake...

“YOU INFIDEL! HOW DARE YOU QUESTION ME! “ Screamed Crorq, jumping to his feet, knocking over the desk and sending the bucket of chicken flying, it splattering all over the wall. “MY INTELLIGANCE IS LIMITLESS! How DARE you insinuate that I DONTT KNOW SOMETHING! NOW GET OUT OF HERE! “

“Um, chief, don't we get any troops?” asked Junkman worriedly.

“WHY ARE YOU STILL IN THE GREAT CRORQ'S PRESCENSE? I WANT YOU OUT OF HERE, NOW!” Crorq screaming still, as a picture that hung on the wall of something someone once did that was no longer remembered fell and smashed on the ground. Mere seconds after, the five Robot Masters left the room.

In the hallway, assuring themselves they were far enough away from the screaming Chief Robot, Drastic Measures came to a halt.

“Geez, do we even have a chance?” asked Cloudman, signs of doubt evident in his voice even at this stage.

“We don't need to win, we just can't lose this battle. “ Piqued in Turboman, who would have had a smirk on his face if his face mask didn't cover his mouth.

--------------------

Toronto, Canada:

The five then continued on, all the way to Toronto, landing down on the ground, in a beam of light, each shaking off the feeling of teleporting off quickly. None of them were used to it yet, never having used teleportation before “joining” the Robot Police Department, which is more an army now. As each member looked over their force, and the reality of the small numbers of it, only fewer than 600 troops, when it was confirmed that the Scissor Army had over 2400. And a “mysterious commanding officer”, it seemed.

From all sides, people, normal people who shouldn't be a part of this, women, children and man alike ran. They ran for their lives. Watching the people run, Drastic Measures finally came to realize what it truly was that they faced. This was no normal war. War doesn't come to describe what this is. If there was a word to describe the scenes of death they could see in the distance, not a single one of them could think of it. Then again, none of them really had any coherent thoughts. When faced with what could be truly described as hell, could anyone?

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The scene of a massacre…

Hundreds upon hundreds of Sniper Joes marched through the streets shooting down anything that was caught in their sights. Buildings can crumbled and bodies littered the streets, and at the centre of it all, a robot in white stood amongst the crowd with a gleeful look on his face.

“Oh I love the smell of conflict! The screams of the innocent, the sight of slaughter, it is all so wonderful! It’s all so… beautiful!”

At the corner of his eye, he spotted a group of Police Bots approaching, ready to defend against this onslaught of killing machines and then a flash of bright light came and there was nothing left but some charred remains and smoke from where the pitiful robots once stood.

“Magnificent…” Geminiman said as he looked satisfied at the power of his new Gemini Laser. He fired another beam, this time towards a building and then marvelled at how it gracefully bounced off the side of the building and into the dead centre of a crowd of innocents trying to flee.

“The loss of power from the impact on that building was barely noticeable… this laser is perfect!”

Lennon let out another maniacal laugh and fired two more lasers into the streets and continued pressing the attack on the people. He was getting closer and closer to a certain destination, a place of significance, somewhere we he would finally confront any doubt in his mind about what he was doing.

“CN Tower… a place filled with so many nice memories… but that’s all they are, aren’t they? Memories…”

The twin terror’s grin slowly faded as he looked at the tower as his march was rapidly approaching towards it.

“I want that tower destroyed! It would make an excellent closing number to this concert of carnage…”

The Sniper Joes complied with the orders and increased the pace towards CN Tower, destroying everything in sight; however the White Knight’s grin did not resurface to his face. At the base at the tower five figures stood waiting for him.

“Drastic Measures… so they sent you lot to deal with me? Although there are only five of you left I see… While you do possess the experience to hold a decent counter-offensive, the question is, can you overcome such overwhelming odds?”

The five robots before him stood with a look of shock and bewilderment. For this time the enemy that was looking down on them now could be considered was one of their own. Geminiman politely bowed to his former friends and then looked at them with his black soulless eyes.

“Oh, where have my manners gone? I’ve forgotten to introduce myself. I am Geminiman, White Knight of the Scissor Army!”

--------------------

Enemies. Wrongdoers. Bad guys. Whatever you want to call them, one thing is always certain – watching them struggle in futility as they attempted to escape from my bubbly prison, as they awaited an explodey doom, always gave me a twisted sense of joy… sweet, sweet justice! Their mangled pieces strewn across the battlefield should say enough about how I feel regarding their evil intentions.

But now was different. I had accepted the possibility that a warrior’s life would throw such crap at me. But, I can’t say I was actually expecting such crap to be thrown in my direction… though, really, I should have… I was blessed the fortune of our enemy’s friendship, in bygone days. And now look where he is. He’s working with the very forces that I long to slaughter in the most brutal and inhumane way possible…

But… Gem? I can’t do such a thing to him. Even if he was acting a little pissy from the last time I saw him in LA, I gave him the benefit of the doubt, for I could easily understand the trauma that whole mess may have inflicted upon him… for he was a long time hero, and friend… ARGH! I shouldn’t even be thinking like this! I have to fight him… SOMEHOW… not even just focusing my attention on killing the grunts will allow me to avoid him. Trust me, I know his fighting style, he’ll be EVERYWHERE…

I don’t want to have to kill him, but… looking back on the stupid government I serve, and that assholish monster of a police chief, it looks like I have no choice… if I turn my attention away from the mission for even a second, there is no telling what will happen… either we will fall in battle, or we will fall to the morons we serve. I’d like to think I can reason with him, but… it is not worth it. Possibility or no, I’m as good as dead if I don’t give forth my utmost effort to make him dead, for all my superiors care…

Its times like these that I wish I was as cold and emotionless as the robotic goon squad that was assigned to assist us. Yes, my methods I employ against the enemies of which I hate, or just plain don’t care for, may cause some to perceive me as such… and the joy I get out of their destruction may not help matters any, but do know that I indeed have a soul…

Gem… I know deep down that you are a good person, but… I’m sorry. I hope you don’t think any lesser of me, or of my team. Them and I… we have to do it, and we don’t like it, none of us… but it is the only way to go, for peace and goodness and all that. If we do send you to the next life, I hope you will always treasure our friendship in the hereafter…

--------------------

Lennon looked on as the Drastic Measures team were still trying to contemplate how they were going to fight someone they thought they knew, someone they thought was a friend, someone who they thought was a Mechanical Maniac.

“What’s wrong? Surprised to see me? Or perhaps you’re all just dazzled by my new fancy appearance? It was inevitable that I would end up on this side of the war… For years I had worked my hardest to protect the people, people who I thought cared about what we did, people who I thought gave me respect. I had also fought to protect someone very dear to me, and to earn the respect and trust of someone else… But that was just an idealistic dream… the people didn’t give a damn about what I did for them, instead they spat in my face with this joke of a Shutdown Code! The one I care for abandoned me, and the person who I thought acknowledged me as part of a team left me to die! So here I am with the Scissor Army, under their power I will get the respect that is due for my efforts! Now what about you? What are you five still doing with the police department? You were a proud team that didn’t care what happened to the places you destroyed just as long as the job was done! Now the government has you all on a tight leash, were you all so blind to the poor treatment you got? Did you really think you’d get some sort of thanks for helping out these poor sacks of meat? Where is your pride?” the white knight yelled angrily at his former friends.

“Where’s our pride? Where is yours? What ever happened to your honour Geminiman?” Burstgirl yelled back at the former Maniac, “You used to stand for justice, honour and chivalry! You were the knight in shining armour! You were the last samurai!”

“My dear Burstgirl, your words offend me, I still have my honour, in fact, to prove it to you. I shall offer you lot a deal…” the sadistic grin returned to Lennon’s face as made another light bow to the team of robots before him. “Since the five of you are so poorly outnumbered, I offer you the chance to withdraw, just come back to the police department and tell that obnoxious pompous windbag of a robot Crorq that you got here too late and the city was lost. There will be no fight as I desire to avoid a conflict between old friends…”

Turboman looked around and then noticed that the Sniper Joes of the Scissor Army had he and his team surrounded, there were so many of them and they only had a handful of Police Bots to support them. While the idea of avoiding conflict sounded good, he knew that the twin terror had no intentions of letting his team off easy nor could he back down now, not after seeing all that carnage.

“So this is your idea of an honourable gesture?” he asked.

“Ok, I lied… honour can go to hell, along with the rest of you!”

The white knight gestured to his army and the Sniper Joes opened fire.

--------------------

Every time I went onto the battlefield, I always have the same goal: Crush the enemy before they crush you. No way was I going to fall in battle.

Now, as we begin what maybe the biggest war in history, we are face to face with someone I recognized: Geminiman. It's a shame, really... A damn shame to see the man they once called a Mechanical Maniac be so easily swayed into fighting for that madman and his beliefs. It scared me to think that we may have to fight our former ally...

..But, in reality, I knew what it meant: In order to save the world, we could.. No, we had to possibly destroy our former ally in order to save Canada's largest city from the grasps of the Scissor Army.

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“Just my luck…”

Artilleryman watched on from his hiding space near the CN Tower as his long-time foe and recently revealed Scissor Army member, Geminiman commanded his SA Joe army to open fire on the RPD robot masters sent to hold off his invasion.

“Cossack sends me all the way over here to fetch some sort of data, supplies and tools; I thought easy money, gets the bills paid faster, so I came all the way here, managed to locate and obtain all the requested items with relative ease and thought being the errand boy might not be so bad, but no, there just had to be an invasion occurring at the same time and I’m not almost caught in the middle of it!”

The former Wily bot looked at his old foe, he seemed preoccupied with the RPD, and this would give the perfect opportunity to escape back to Dr Cossack unnoticed, however…

“If I took out a leader of the Scissor Army, just imagine the big pay increase I’ll be rewarded with. I could blow off the rest of this stupid war and just lay low until it all dies down. This will be so easy, no stupid team-mates getting in the way of my shot to glory.”

Artilleryman carefully locked on to the white knight and smiled as his target still looked on at the battlefield, completely unaware of his impending doom…

“Finally, revenge for all my previous embarrassments against you will be paid in full, Geminiman, Prepare to meet your maker!”

The mercenary fired his giant arm cannon launching his standard Pyro Cannon shot at his enemy, he smiled, for once he was going to win, and he was going to take all the glory. But then he saw it, Geminiman had turned his attention towards to ball of fire heading his way.

“It’s too late,” Artilleryman thought, “There is no way he could avoid getting hit by it now, I have won this time Geminiman!”

Sure enough, the ball of flame connected with its target and an explosion could be seen where the former Maniac once stood, Artilleryman let out a good laugh having finally vanquished his foe with little effort at all, he looked on as the smoke cleared hoping to see the remains of his trophy target but then his eyes widened in shock…

Geminiman was still standing, his shield was up and he had taken no signs of damage from the Pyro Cannon. Not even a speck of dust could be seen on his shiny white armour. The mercenary stood in fear as the white knight smiled and then vanished.

“Come now Artilleryman, you didn’t honestly expect it to be that easy did you?” Lennon’s voice suddenly sounded from behind Artilleryman, whom then turned to find himself a little too close for comfort with one of the white knight’s swords. Reacting quickly, the mercenary jumped back and took to the air with his jetpack to fire another shot at his assailant.

“What the hell?” Artilleryman screamed as he fired more and more shots at Geminiman who simply stood laughing as he blocked all the incoming shots with his shield and slowly he seemed to fade away into the smoke.

“Trying to take to the air so that I can’t get to you so easily?” Lennon’s voice came again causing Artilleryman to swerve around again only for his face to be greeted by a Shooting Star Punch from Geminiman, whom had suddenly appeared behind him. The punch had sent Artilleryman crashing back into the ground in pain; he looked up to fire back at Geminiman, but the Scissor Army robot had vanished. The mercenary’s radar system alerted him of an incoming beam of energy coming from his right and then turned to see a Gemini Laser close in on him.

Fortunately for the mercenary robot, the laser was still as slow as ever and he managed to dodge just in time, but then looked in horror as another laser suddenly appeared in front of his face…

The beam had narrowly missed his head but the damage was still significant, the missile launcher on his left shoulder had taken a direct hit and the resulting detonation of the stored missiles had taken off his left arm and fired his radar but before he could even recover, a burning pain suddenly registered itself on Artilleryman’s back as the first laser he had previously dodged had rebounded and hit him square in the back.

“Your movements were too easy to predict, Artilleryman” The white knight said mockingly as he slowly approached the former member of the Evil Eight. “Now I have removed your missiles out of the equation and dealt a significant amount of damage to your jetpack which in turn removes a lot of your mobility. What will you do?”

“You cheating bastard…” Artilleryman spoke in pain as half his face was charred from the laser attack, “How the hell do you move so quickly?”

“What are you talking about Artilleryman? I’m no faster than I was when I’ve always faced off with you.”

“Liar! There is no way you could have jumped from where you stood before to where I was hiding so quickly! Since when have you had that insane amount of speed?” The mercenary yelled back.

“Your complaints bore me Artilleryman, it does not matter whether I am faster or not, what matters is that you are on the verge of death and I have yet to fully enjoy testing out the full capabilities of my beautiful new upgrades on you. Now stand up and fight or face an elegant execution.”

“Fine, I suppose you asked for it then!” Artilleryman yelled as he shot a stun laser from his remaining shoulder cannon at the white knight, catching him by surprise due to the laser’s amazing speed, the laser had immobilised Lennon but this time Artilleryman wanted be sure he could hit his target with everything he had and so he promptly fired an electro-net to fully trap the stunned robot.

“Your laser did a really bad number on my jetpack, but I still think I have enough power in it to perform this one last attack on you!”

Artilleryman took to the air once again; he only had one shot at this so he had to make it count.

“Switching arm cannon mode to particle beam…”

The mercenary robot began to charge up energy into his cannon while the white knight still remained entangled in the electric net he was encased in. There was no possible way for him to escape this time. He had won, Artilleryman thought,

“You might remember this weapon from when I got my Navi form, well before I left Dr Wily I managed to steal a couple of upgrades for my cannon and this was one of them. Last time you managed to block four particle beams with your lousy shield but this time you’re trapped inside my electro-net, you cannot escape your death now, Geminiman!”

Finally, he would have got rid of Geminiman and come home with his task complete and a grab big payment from Dr Cossack. Nothing could stop him now.

The particle beam fired and hit its target full force. The recoil blew Artilleryman back a fair distance and he ended up crashing back into the grounds as his jetpack had given in from the laser damage it had previously taken, but all that didn’t matter to him as he laughed in triumph once again as the smoke cleared and he slowly approached the wreckage he had caused with his immensely powerful beam. Nothing was there…

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The world, in their perspectives, soon became smaller, each now determined at the task at hand. Of course they were confused and scared of what happened to their friend, but now was not the time for that. It was do or die time. Given the alternate, each one had no choice but to start to fight.

Over the com link shared by the police bots and Drastic Measures, Turboman issued an order to the Police bots. “Destroy the Sniper Joes, defend the humans.” Before the order was out for more than 2 milliseconds, the Police Bots started to fire. Not soon after, Drastic Measures entered the fray, each risking their very own lives for people who sooner have them deactivated.

Springman started by bouncing up, high into the air as lasers went soaring under him, destroying a lone Police Bot who hadn't started his assault. As he started his descent, Springman fired his Wild Coil, releasing his hand as another one formed, the detached one sailing on a high arc until it started it's descent into a Sniper Joe. The Wild Coil slammed into it, as each part of it flew off and slammed into other Joes surrounding it, each one continuing this cycle. Despite the number of enemies being hit, the overall damage was devastating, but not critical.. Just about to hit the ground, Springman flung his arm out to a building, pulling himself away from enemy fire. As he landed on the roof, he let another Wild Coil out into the crowd, before ducking down to dodge the incoming fire.

Turboman saw him, a lone Sniper Joe who broke free from the relentless Police Bot fire, and tried to make a mad dash for what he couldn't figure out. Shifting into his car mode, Turboman gunned his engine, hitting 60 miles per hour. While fast on its own, it was merely a small fraction of what he could do. The Joe flew high into the air, with Turboman following, shifting back to his “human “ form to finish off the robot. Before gravity exerted its force and returned the two mid air robots to the ground, Turboman had already removed the robot's head with his wrist mounted disc brakes, which work as blades. Finally stopping, that action having taken no more 3 seconds, he needed a second to get his surroundings. But he wouldn't get those, as his com link burned with static in his ear. Just as soon as the static started, it ended, replaced with Junkman's voice.

“Shadow, civilian in middle building of the cluster of 3 off to the right." He said into the com link, sounds of destruction were audible behind his voice.
“Alright, I hear ya. “ Turboman confirmed, clicking off the com link, only to activate it again, this time connected to Cloudman. “I need some cover fire. Can you help? “
Cloudman answered, all the while forming a tornado and attacking a large group of Joes with chain lightning. “Yeah. Get going. Now why there is a slight opening. “ Turboman then shifted back into his car mode as a tornado ripped into the enemies in his way. More replaced them, and were about to fire, as bubbles came up from under the ground, capturing each one, and every one in his way. Reminding himself to thank Burstgirl later, he sped off towards the building.

--------------------

“Impossible, I know my beam is powerful, but it couldn’t have completely vaporised him.”

“You’re right about that Artilleryman, that beam was a particularly nasty piece of work. But as you can see, it hasn’t done any particular life-threatening damage to me at all. Perhaps if you thought out your attacks a bit more carefully the outcome might have been slightly different.” Geminiman said appearing behind Artilleryman once again, although now clearly looking a bit worse for wear as his shiny white armour was now showing some rather large burn marks, he then proceeded to fire several shots into him with his standard arm cannon rather than the Gemini Laser, taking out fragments of the mercenary's armour and shooting off his right shoulder cannon.

The mercenary robot kneeled over in pain and looked in horror as the white knight was slowly approaching.

“How did you take so little damage from that beam? That’s impossible!”

“You seem to have forgotten the most important aspect of fighting me, Artilleryman, I am everywhere…” Geminiman’s voice emerged from another direction and Artilleryman turned to see yet another white knight approach him. It had all fallen into place now, Geminiman wasn’t insanely fast or durable, it was all his clones, but both the degree of power and the efficiency of the clone movements seemed almost as if he hadn’t split at all. Every time he had shot at Geminiman, that clone disappeared and another one had appeared unnoticed and continued the assault while he was none the wiser, and when he had fired the particle beam, another clone must have appeared in front of the beam and blocked it with the shield.

“So that was your trick all along?” Artilleryman sneered at the white knight.

“It’s always been my trick; I’m just getting better at it. Of course now that you know it, I can’t allow you to leave this battlefield with that knowledge.” Geminiman had then suddenly revealed all six of his clones who were now standing in a circular formation surrounding Artilleryman and they all started slowly walking in a clockwise direction while closing the circle formation making it smaller and smaller.

“Behold the Celestial Dance of the Gemini, I shall make your death a most wonderful one, Artilleryman, you should feel honoured.”

Artilleryman was in a bind, his jetpack was dead, his left side was missing and he couldn’t use his particle beam, Geminiman was closing in almost as a taunt on how casually he could destroy him but it was no over yet. Artilleryman pointed his cannon at the Geminiman in front of him and fired a Pyro Cannon shot once again, only to see all the clones in his line of vision suddenly swerve out of his vision and hear the sound of an arm cannon being pointed at the back of his head.

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"There's no way we're going to lose here! Team... Looks like we're gonna fight."

The look in my eyes was of an an intent to fight. Yes, I knew that Turboman didn't want to fight Gemini. Hell, he was our ally when we met down in Los Angeles. The shock of seeing him with Scissor Army had finally subsided as the Joes fired at us, shot after shot nearly hitting me and the others. I've had enough.

'Looks like it's time to take out the trash...' By this time, I've managed to form my Junk Staff and started to swing it around and around, deflecting some of the shots from the Joes on to the other Joes while other shots went flying into the air and avoided the others and the humans who were trying to get away. That's when a SA Joe decided to get too close for his own good...

This Joe tried to throw a punch at the liquid metal armour I was encased in. Big mistake. After he hit me, I turned around and grabbed him with my claw. With the SA Joe caught in my grasp, I turned my attention to the so-called 'White Knight.'

"Hey, traitor! Yeah, you. This is what I think of you and your forces..."

I have the Joe trapped in my grasp as I started to put on more pressure onto the robot. I decided to make my point short and sweet...

"You think you've won, you think all is well... But kiss my junk encrusted ass, I shall see you in HELL!"

With the last word of that sentence, I obliterate the SA Joe's torso with my claw. The eviscerated Joe struggled to get to his lower half, but I put a stop to it when I dropped my foot onto his head. The sound of crushing metal under my feet was a good thing. Soon, we would have the upper hand.. Or so I thought.

--------------------

“Checkmate, Artilleryman…” Lennon said, but before he could fire his laser a small explosion interrupted him and he turned to see some of the Drastic Measures team, having broken through some of his Sniper Joes approach him.

“I hate interruptions so much; some people can just be rude…” He joked as he split back into six once again and kicked Artilleryman out of the way.

“On the other hand, this interruption might just make this fight all the more beautiful…”

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Springman stood on the roof, sending cluster bomb after cluster bomb, yet each time he would fire at the ones aiming at him, they would start to guard. Then the one's next to them stopped guarding and started to fire. Despite how simple the strategy was....Springman just couldn't get ahead of it. Unlike his team-mates, he didn't have a piercing or an explosive weapon. Throwing caution to the wind, He bounded off the roof, into a group of Joes, and using all his strength, stretched out his limbs and started to flail madly, smashing everything, robot and building alike, which a formidable force. He continued on like that, until the Joe's got wind of his strategy and started to fire at him. He took 5 shots to his torso, damaging him enough for him to retreat back to the roof.

The fight was continuing to get easier and easier for Junkman. As each enemy fell, he got more and more things to use to fight. Slowly and slowly, his Junk Shield was getting thicker and thicker. As a new wall of enemies appeared in front of him, he utilized a small portion of the junk orbiting around him to fire it in a blast he called Junk Shot-Hadoken formation. Each individual piece of junk went flying at a high velocity, ripping through the Sniper Joes, who then were drawn in to form another section of his shield.

Burstgirl found herself having trouble damaging more than a few enemies at once. With the amount they faced, they had to. That is, until she had an idea . Calling Cloudman over, she relayed to him the plan. As Cloudman heard him, he couldn't help but laugh. A few moments passed by, and nothing happened.

Then the high winds came, and on those winds, were Danger Wraps, hundreds, which started to slam into the Sniper Joes. The new nature of the Danger Wrap allowed multiple enemies to be ensnared by the bubble, before exploding in a formidable force. The winds died down as the bombs ended, as a great portion of the enemies captured, but not long after they exploded.

Turboman busted down the door to the building, quickly shifting back to Human form. From behind him, walked in a regiment of Police Bots, who followed Turboman, somehow not only keeping up, but surviving. “Guard this door. Let no Scissor Army robot in here” He said, turning to them, as they each confirmed his order by moving into battle positions. He soon found himself on the second floor, where he found a little kid, no older than 5, crying his head off.

“Hey, calm down. You’re safe now. “

“but...the robots...they....they....killed my mommy. “

“You’re the only one here?”

“My daddy is on a trip for his company.” cried the kid, who was still scared.

“I'm sorry about your mother...but we have to get you out of here. “ Turboman said, as he picked up the child, and started towards the stairs.

As he hit the bottom floor, a Police Bot came over to him and took the child, all the while the others continued to fire out the door. “Get him to safety, I'll draw the fire. “ Turboman said, as he ran out of the door. Glancing over his shoulder, he watched the Police Bots leave, quickly ferrying the child to safety. With a grin under his mirrored visor, and forming him Scorch Saber, Turboman looked into the large army in front of him, he couldn't help but laugh to himself. “This will be fun” he said to no one but himself, as he ran forward. He looked over the crowd, seeing his team making great strides into the large mass of enemies. Seeing that, his smile got wider, as he ran into what could be his last fight.

--------------------

“How nice of you to join us, Junkman…” Geminiman sneered as the liquid metal robot approached him taking in all the fallen robot parts and debris as part of his armour.

“I see… by using magnetic force you draw in all the junk in the area and it piles up into your liquid metal form to create a thicker armour for yourself. I’m impressed; this must be your ideal battlefield.” as Junkman drew closer, Geminiman pointed his laser at him, grinning in anticipation, “By the looks of it, melee combat against you would be pointless due to all that thick armour, I wonder… will my laser be capable of tearing through all that junk?” After that, all Junkman could see was bright beam of light…

“How dare you ignore me?” Artilleryman screamed from his half-burnt face firing continuously from his Pyro Cannon at one of the Geminiman clones.

“Still trying to put up a resistance? Your efforts amuse me Artilleryman.” The clone laughed as he returned fire with his simple arm cannon, each shot simply taking away more and more of the mercenary’s armour plating, he was simply toying with him now.

“Not all that powerful now that you’re dealing with other opposition?” the mercenary still had some strength to say, but that was just met with a small chuckle from the white knight.

“You think because I’m too busy focusing my firepower on the Drastic Measures team means I’m leaving myself weak to your attack?” the clone went into a fit of insane laughter as he fired several more shots into Artilleryman, “No, the reason I’m appearing weaker to you now is because using any more force against you would just be a waste. I’ve already burnt off half your body and disabled all your weaponry, save for that oversized arm cannon of yours. You are almost as worthless as those Police Bots that are hopelessly trying to stop my glorious army.”

“Don’t be so arrogant!” Artilleryman yelled as he finally fired a shot that hit home. Geminiman reeled back as his face got engulfed in a ball of fiery death and his maniacal grin soon turned into a look of psychotic anger as he realised the flames had done a number on his looks.

“My face, you little bastard!” he yelled as he continued shooting Artilleryman more and more but still avoided destroying him, he wanted him to pay…pay in full for the damage he had dealt to his beautiful face. Artilleryman screamed out in pain as each shot started to tear through his armour and damage his insides while the white knight took pleasure in hearing the mercenary suffer.

“Weather manipulation must be a wonderful thing, I quite like the part where you mix her bubbles with your wind to spread the explosions against my troops” A Geminiman clone spoke while he and another clone approached Cloudman and Burstgirl. “However, this ends now!” the clone continued, firing a laser at the two robots who promptly dodged as the large beam of light bounced off the ground.

“But, you can’t use the laser while you’re separated…” Burstgirl commented as she looked on in horror, not only at how her enemy had just fired a laser he normally could not fire while separated but also just at how powerful that laser seemed, had she moved a second too late she probably wouldn’t have been alive to make such a comment.

“I’ve had a few upgrades. However, as usual I can only fire two lasers at a time, and since one of my clones is fighting Junkman with the laser that means I only have one laser to deal with one of you while the other will just have to settle with arm cannon fire. So, who will be the lucky one?”

“Another bomb user? No wonder this team causes so much collateral damage…” Another clone had appeared near Springman, startling him a bit, first all those Scissor Army Joes and now he was looking the twin terror in the eye.

“I was getting bored just taking on Artilleryman and then Junkman decided to pay me a visit, so I figured why let him have all the glory when the rest of you might want some share of the fun?” The white knight then brandished one of his burning swords and took a swing at the robot master spring who jumped back quickly as the blade narrowly missed his eyes.

“I imagine you will look very good when you’re in pieces… Be careful, while I’m fighting you at this range, you wouldn’t want one of your bombs to go off would you?”

Swords clashed as Turboman and the final Geminiman clone duelled with their respective blades. Each slash was met with another as the two put on an impressive display of speed and skill.

“Rather nice sword you have there Turboman, considering my hatred towards heat I imagine I won’t be looking so good if that thing makes contact with me.”

“Well if I keep you occupied here then your other clones might not be able to perform so well against the rest of us. I know your style, Gem, while it looks like all your clones have their own personas, they are all just puppets being controlled by a central mind, and there is no way you could control a puppet that can match my skills with just swiftness!”

The two clashed swords once again, while Geminiman laughed.

“You’d like to think that wouldn’t you? However I think you should know something.” The white knight smirked while assuming his stance once again, “I can shift my mind between clones now…”

Lennon made one swift movement and made an attempt to cut through the leader of Drastic Measures.

“I no longer have to worry about a central mind controlling all the clones simultaneously, I can transfer my mind to anyone of them and any given time to better operate them in combat. So you see, my weakness in having to manage so many clones at once as now been turned into my true advantage. I can truly be everywhere and be freely moving any clone I want the way I want. So I suggest you prepare yourself Turboman, because the truth is, I haven’t shifted my mind into this clone yet…”

Cloudman fired yet another lightning bolt at the clone facing off against him but because it was fighting so close to another clone, they kept merging and splitting off in order to dodge the bolts while the other was masterfully avoiding the incoming Danger Wraps being spread by Burstgirl.

“And they say lightning never strikes the same place twice?” The white knight remarked as another lightning bolt narrowly missed him. “Although I must commend you Cloudman, your constant use of lightning has kept me on my feet and prevented me from planning out an attack path for my laser. Perhaps I should have chosen to use my arm cannon against you instead of Burstgirl.”

“You’re putting up a decent performance as well, have you considered taking up dancing rather than fighting? Because from up here you look a lot better as a dancer!” the floating robot joked as he fired another lightning bolt.

“Ha-ha, very amusing Cloudman, however you should probably be a bit careful with your lightning strikes. You never know what you might hit…”

The white knight faded into invisible mode and then revealed to Cloudman his error, all this time Geminiman had been evading his attacks and provoking him so his attack would set himself perfectly aligned with another target, the last person that would ever want to be hit with lightning…

--------------------

I saw the laser coming at me at full speed. I did my best to avoid the shot, but with the bulk that I had, I couldn't avoid the attack at all.

The laser basically created a giant hole in my shoulder that was at least 15 inches wide. It made my claw arm all but useless for battle. Couple that with all the shots that I've taken from the Joes and the arm has nearly been torn asunder from the attacks.

Then, it hit me...

Cloudman's Thunder Bolt hit me in the chest, causing a massive short circuit that wiped out my magnets, virtually turning me into a useless robot. The clone turned around to see me fallen and badly injured. He decided to gloat over this... "So, the mighty Junkman has fallen.. A shame really. You never did stand a chance against my laser at medium range... Let's see if you can survive it at close range!"

But, I had one last trick up my sleeve. I used what was left of my power and focused it to the useful arm.

"You... YOU!" I screamed as I used my good hand to point at the Gemini clone. "You will pay for what you've done, traitor! The least I can do is to give your sorry Scissor Army ass a farewell gift... From me, to you."

With the useful arm gathering junk, I continue to focus on the clone. He just stood there with that killer intent that I had in my eyes when the battle started. He aimed his Gemini Laser at my face..

"Prepare to face your fate, Junkman!"

"I've already met my fate... and it hasn't been sealed yet!"

I had enough junk in the palm moulded into a giant ball the twice the size of the Gemini clone. "Take this... Hellfire Blast!"

I slammed down the ball with tremendous force. The impact caused it to create a giant wave of junk screaming towards the clone at full speed. The Geminiman clone couldn't do anything else but take the full brunt of the junk wave. After what seemed like an eternity being in the wave, the clone got out of it a little worst for ware. He definitely took a beating though.

As the last fleeting moments of consciousness were going away, I looked at the battlefield and saw what I have done. Hundreds of SA Joes torn apart by my hands. The bodies strewn across the land. My team-mates were still battling Gemini clones and I said to myself, "Go.. Go and take out that traitor, my friends." With those last words, everything then turned black...

--------------------

“Junkman…!” Burstgirl dropped her guard slightly at the sight of her friend’s mishap which then left her open for an assault from Geminiman’s arm cannon, upon impact, Burstgirl’s counter reflex kicked in and more explosive bubbles began to litter the area.

“An interesting ability you have here, Burstgirl. This poses a difficult problem, if I attack you, you’ll drop more of your explosive bubbles causing my mobility to be propositioned if I can’t step anywhere without getting caught in an explosion. On the other hand…”

Lennon called in a group of SA Joes and they began to open fire on Burstgirl causing more bubbles to fly out and soon, the ground was covered with a large amount of explosive.

“Watch where all those bubbles are going Burst!” Cloudman yelled. Reacting quickly, Burstgirl deactivated her reflex and then launched a counter attack at the SA Joes by restricting their movements with a bubble bath. However, Geminiman smiled at the scene as it went exactly as he predicted it.

“And now for the final touch…” the white knight remarked as leapt from the ground to the roof of a small building and fired a shot to trigger off a bubble bomb off and soon the rest of the bubbles began to explode taking a large number of SA Joes and Police Bots alike, but that was not all…

Cloudman’s mobility was greatly reduced as explosion after explosion occurred around him and then he looked up as Geminiman had gracefully leapt directly over him.

“I’ve got you now…” he said before firing his laser straight down at the floating robot. The blast burned a chuck off the front his armour but thankfully missed his head. Unfortunately it then proceeded to bounce off the ground and rebound off a nearby building and head back at Cloudman's back. Before he could realise what had happened, the rods at the back of his body had been blown off by the laser and he found himself falling into the ground littered with exploding bubble bombs.

The last thing he saw before fading into unconsciousness was the white knight grinning as he faded into his invisible mode.

"If only I could make it rain.... then his little trick wouldn't work anymore...." he thought to himself and then his eyes had shut.

“Son of a… That actually hurt!” The white knight said; his face was bleeding profusely while he brushed off the pieces of junk and shrapnel that clung onto the shredded remains of his armour.

Junkman’s unconscious body lay before him; sadly that last attack had number a severe blow to all of the clone’s attack functions so a killing blow would now be impossible.

The clone sighed and faded into its invisible mode.

“While I won’t be able to fight in this form, there are some other things I’ll be able to do…” it thought to itself as it hid amongst the chaos.

--------------------

“I imagine you will look very good when you’re in pieces… Be careful, while I’m fighting you at this range, you wouldn’t want one of your bombs to go off would you?”

The smug smile of the clone shot through Springman more than any damage from the blade would have inflicted if it would have hit. He knew he was up against evil, but this being had no conscience or morality. Clone or not, he knew the Geminiman they once served with was no longer present.

“Are you not going to attack me? Are you just going to stand there, trembling in fear like the rest of the low lifes I have taken out did? I thought you and your comrades would be more of a challenge!”

With each word, the Gemini clone kept flicking his blade at the tentative Springman, in a taunting, menacing manner. The look of confusion and frustration enabled the clone to humor himself as he playfully teased the mind and thoughts of his opponent.

Springman kept his eyes on the blade, not paying attention to the clone’s movements. As horrified and sickened as he was by the carnage and the blatant disregard of remorse shown by their former ally, he knew he could not let his feelings get in the way and had to plan his counter attack based on his opponent’s. He was too far away still for any damage to happen upon his opponent, as well as the chance of him dodging. Only one, risky maneuver could be used.

“You talk a good game Gemini, but you seem hesitant to come at me in full force. You know as well as I that my bombs are useless in close quarters. Why don’t you just try to strike me down now?”

A smile went across the unrelenting knight’s lips, giving Springman hope that he could put a plan in motion. Since his transformation, his new armor, unbeknown to Geminiman, had a significant upgrade to shield him from his bomb blasts. Although he would still be badly damaged, he knew still it would be nothing compared to his cloned adversary.

“You want to display honor by challenging me to hand to hand, but you are gravely mistaken! I thought that you were the strategist, the enigma of your team and in some sense a more intelligent adversary. All you have made me realize is that you are nothing more than a fool!”, the clone said with a sinister chuckle to his voice. “I could have dispatched you anytime instead of toying around, letting your final moments go more slowly as you get to witness the destruction of some of your friends before your doom. If you don’t want it, so be it!”

The Gemini clone quickly closed in on Springman, letting his blade take over for his words. The metallic robot master used his agility to the best of his abilities, but the clone’s blade cold not be denied. Hitting strikes against Springman’s left arm and two on his right leg, the evil clone shook his blade with another laugh at point blank range.

“You are finished, my Springy friend! You may have the protection on you chest, but your limbs cannot help you out of danger anymore. I will make this quick…and painful!”

As the clone raised his blade for the what he deemed to be the final blow, Springman outreached his ten explosive charged fingers, releasing them at their feet.

“You fool!” exclaimed the clone, with hatred in his voice. “You may try to take me out, but you have signed your death-“

The Gemini copy couldn’t finish his sentence before the ensuing explosion sent them both tumbling down and badly damaged.

After the smoke cleared, Springman was able to position himself back to his feet and survey the aftermath from his almost suicidal attack. He looked at the clone, still down on the ground, stunned more than anything. Springman brushed off his hands as he readied to finish the job.

“COMPRESSON CAGE!” called out the springy robot, triggering a slew of springs in every shape and size to surround his fallen adversary.

As Springman started to close the sides of the cage, the clone regained his composure. He didn’t scream. He didn’t say a word. All he did was laugh, laugh more maniacally and disheartening than he did when he was in control of the fight.

The pure evil and unremorsefulness from the clone was getting to the robot master. More so than the taunting or the killing of earlier acts by his opponent, this final laugh of horror caused fear and the feeling of hopelessness of winning the battle go into his mind did this final strike. Although this clone will be disposed, the true threat was more lively, cunning, and evil than this abomination.

Springman looked away as the cage closed and the laughter stopped, knowing the overall battle was yet not done.

--------------------

Turboman was blocking every move that the White Knight threw at him, but the slashes came by so quickly he barely had the time to react each time, the fact that Geminiman said that he hadn't transferred his mind into the clone he was fighting YET indicated that now he had and this increased movement and speed was the result.

"The presence of his mind in this clone makes THAT much of a difference?" Turboman thought as he was getting forced into a corner, "Damn it, at this rate, I don't think we can hold him off completely, I need reinforcements to keep him better occupied."

Turboman went in a low arc to the ground, he activated a beacon, and not soon after, three robots appeared in the air around them.

"So I guess now is as good as time as ever to use these."

“Special Forces eh?” Geminiman said as the 3 hulking robots were called into the scene as reinforcement proceeding to decimate the unprepared SA Joes. “I had anticipated the appearance of something big appearing on the battlefield.” He continued sounding rather amused.

“Let me ask you something Turboman; were you aware of the numbers I had brought to this battle?”

“We were informed you attacked the city with almost 2500 SA Joes.” The Drastic Measures leader replied, suspicious of what his adversary was about to say next.

“Right you are. I did come with approximately 2500 SA Joes, well… 2481 to be exact. However, I funny thing to note is that when you and your team intercepted me, I only had 1250 Joes with me, it would have been rather foolish of me to reveal my entire hand at the start of the performance, so I naturally sent advance parties of Joes to enter the city from different directions through my comm. devices, and while I’ve been fighting you, I’ve also been sending signals to my advance units of troops to occupy strategic buildings and lie in wait for certain opportunities.” Turboman’s heart sank upon hearing those words, his team was already on the ropes fighting the White Knight and his police bots were nearing total destruction and they were only dealing with half the army while the other half were apparently in hiding.

“Care to guess where the rest of my army is?” Lennon sneered as he fired a signal laser into the air and suddenly a barrage of plasma bullets flew from a building and into the back of a Special Forces unit. 312 SA Joes emerged from the wreckage of a nearby building concentrating all their firepower on a single Special Force unit as it turned to launch a counter attack against this sudden ambush.

“They say that the might of one warrior is no match for numbers and strategy, I feel like testing this theory.” the white knight sneered as the ground suddenly collapsed underneath the Special Force unit as another large amount of SA Joes came swarming out of more buildings with enough firepower to create a small pitfall keeping the hulking robot off its feet. Although the mighty Special Force unit still showed off its formidable might and still managed to lay waste to the offending SA Joes in the dozens, it was still no match to the concentrated fire of roughly 625 SA Joes coming from all angles and soon it collapsed a broken robot, but the Joes victory was short-lived as the two remaining Special Forces proceeded to try finish off what the first one started.

“I suppose that gets rid of one of them. Sadly, I don’t think I have enough troops to coordinate another one of those.” Lennon commented as he smiled at the destruction of one of his greater obstacles in this battle before parrying a sword slash from Turboman. “What? Are you disappointed that my cunning intellect has already dealt a major blow to your trump card?”

“This is far from over Geminiman!” Turboman cried out as his attack became more and more aggressive to keep the twin terror on the defensive. The flames from the transformer’s Scorch Saber were doing a number on the burning element of Geminiman’s sword, making it weaker and weaker with each mighty slash that came down on it, but in his aggression, Turboman left an opening, in which Geminiman quickly exploited.

The Drastic Measures leader reeled back holding his stomach as Geminiman grinned at the success of his shooting star punch hitting home with explosive impact.

“Careful, the next mistake might cost you a little more than that.” The white knight said before lunging at his opponent with a sword thrust but Turboman was quick to parry the lunge and then grabbed hold of Geminiman’s sword arm and underneath his visor he grinned as he activated his turbine punch and twisted the knight’s arm into a disfigured state as the former Maniac screamed in pain before charging his laser energy into the hand, burning Turboman’s hand, loosening his grip allowing the twin terror to jump back, his right arm pointing out in an unnatural angle.

“Careful, the next mistake might cost you a little more than that.” Turboman said mockingly, repeating his enemy’s earlier words before making another swing with his sword, Geminiman, unable to properly defend himself howled out in pain as he saw his right arm separate from his body and land off the side, sword still in hand.


“You bastard… Why don’t you just kill me?” Artilleryman uttered as he lay broken on the ground while a burnt clone looked down at him with an expression of rage.

“I still haven’t paid you fully back for the sins you have made upon my magnificence! Besides, I am having too much fun seeing you squirm!” Geminiman was about to fire a few more shots into Artilleryman when he got interrupted by incoming fire. But it wasn’t from the police bots, or anyone from Drastic Measures, The white knight turned to see a swarm of Wily bots rushing into the scene, they were over 800 strong and their sudden appearance had caused disarray to his large force and soon the Scissor Army found themselves confused at this new enemy appearance.

“That damned Wily, I suppose I should compliment his ability to spawn an almost countless supply of enemies for rush tactics. He has completely scattered my forces. However, I still have one trick left up my sleeve…”

In response, the remaining portion of Geminiman’s troops appeared, 581 in total and launched a counterattack on the new Wily force.

“Congratulations Wily, you forced my hand into play earlier than I wanted it to be played. Now then, back to you, Artilleryman…” The white knight remarked as he turned to face his old foe but was now surprised to see him leaning against a piece of debris with his cannon now pointing in an upwards angle.

“Didn’t expect this place to get so crowded so damn quickly… The Scissor Army, the RPD and now even Wily have got a whole lot of numbers here while I’m just all on my lonesome. I knew I should have just run off when I had the chance.” The mercenary said, panting as he was still recovering from his injuries. “I now have no chance left in his fight, but I still have my trump card that the doctor managed to outfit me with. He called it a Long Tom Cannon; it basically fires a large shell capable of destroying a large heavily armoured assault robot. But the recoil from it is ridiculous so I can only fire it while I’m in the air. But seeing as I’m basically doomed regardless of the situation I don’t really think that matters anymore so if I’m going to go out, I think I had better go out with a bang!”

Artilleryman pointed his cannon at an angle which would eliminate the greatest concentration of robots and then smiled.

“The doctor had better damn well pay me good for this…”

“You little…” Geminiman said before the Long Tom Cannon fired and the resulting recoil ripped Artilleryman’s body in half and sent his arm cannon crashing into the ground and exploded taking out what was left of the mercenary robot. However, that was nothing compared to what that final attack was going to do.

The shell hit the conflict dead centre and exploded, suddenly there was just a blinding light and a deafening noise erupted in the ears of everyone in the vicinity as the devastating force of the artillery shell blew a massive crater in the ground engulfing all the robots, Scissor Army, RPD and Wily bot alike leaving nothing but pieces of shrapnel that blew everywhere wounding even more of the soldiers.

Turboman picked himself up from the aftermath of the explosion and examined the damage, he was alive… somehow and he as he looked around he saw that the rest of his team was still active, however what ever hit the scene had did a number to them as he saw the wreckage of another Special Forces unit amongst the pile of scrap metal that once formed the robots of the SA, the RPD and Dr Wily. Then it came to him, Geminiman was nowhere to be seen… had whatever that attack was taken him out as well? He scanned the battlefield and couldn’t see the white knight anywhere and the remaining numbers of SA, RPD and Wily bots were all in disarray due to the large explosion. But then his thoughts were cut off as a searing pain came to one of his arms which had been severed by a familiar figure.

“Miss me?” Geminiman said, now sporting a brand new arm brandishing a sword in place of the one that had been broken and cut earlier. “It would appear that one of my combatants has taken a permanent leave of absence, so I decided to use that spare clone to perform a little maintenance from before and return the favour. Now, shall we continue where we left off?”

"Tch, I suppose I'm beginning to get all little too overconfident. I should count my blessings that I survived that attack..."

Another clone appeared amongst the disarrayed robot troops, looking worse for wear as a result of Springman's Compression Cage, and then yelled through his comm. line to the whole of his army.

“Troops, we must regroup at this and take advantage of this confusion! Divide our forces in two even squads, one will eliminate the remaining Wily forces, the rest shall lay waste to the RPD and seize CN Tower! Also, I want that last Special Forces unit destroyed…”

As much as he hated to admit it, that final explosion caused by Artilleryman was a blessing in disguise for the twin terror, now the Drastic Measures team were disorientated and unaware that all his clones had switched to invisible save for the one fighting Turboman and the one quickly approaching that last Special Forces unit.

He had already lost one clone to fix the damage caused by Turboman’s attack and another was practically rendered useless by Junkman’s final attack and was currently hiding out for reconnaissance purposes. Excluding the one already fighting Turboman, he had 3 clones left to deal with this hulking super robot of the RPD, along with several hundred SA Joes for support. Shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

“Ok, we shall use our usual strategy against this one,” Geminiman commanded his soldiers, “One group of you attack his blindside while the rest defend against his attack, when he turns to counter-attack, we switch offensive and defensive positions and our dance of death will be completed.”

The white knight and his group of SA Joes spread out and surrounded the final Special Forces unit which then reacted quickly by attacking the group of SA Joes closest to it, a good number got destroyed by the Special Force’s overwhelming power but that did not stop the rest from shooting at it. However, in an unexpected move, the Special Force unit grabbed hold of a SA Joe and then began to spin it around and knock the surrounding Joes out off formation. Lennon dodged an incoming Joe and pointed his laser at the hulking robot.

“This might be a little bit more difficult that I thought…”

The Special Forces unit fired a huge blast of energy at the White Knight who promptly blocked it with his shield and then smiled as one of his clones leapt from behind the unit and ran it through with his sword, but the attack seemed to have no effect as the clone got thrown off the back its target but it left itself open to another attack from above by the last remaining clone’s arm cannon. But it still wouldn’t fall down.

“Everyone fire! That robot must fall, fall and die!” he cried out as the SA Joes regrouped and opened fire against the last Special Forces unit, despite its formidable strength, it was just simply overwhelmed by the powerful forces of so many SA Joes along with 3 Geminiman clones and soon it collapsed and was no more.

“Good, that finally gets rid of that nuisance. Now we just clear this city of the last handful of enemy units.” The white knight said as he commanded his soldiers to carry on the momentum of battle.

--------------------

CLASH. CLASH. The sound of the two swordsman's battle rang out over the whole battlefield. Even though one had only one arm, he didn't give up. He couldn't. Geminiman slashed in a wide arc, only for it to be blocked. “You can still fight with only one arm? That is admirable. Stupid, but admirable. “ cackled the psychotic white knight.

“ Not everyone can regrow limbs by using underhanded tactics. “ breathed Turboman, full concentration on looking for a opening. Geminiman was just about to say something, when he found that opening. Turning his body, he slashed, or so it seemed. As The White Knight brought up his own blade to counter, Turboman's slided down it, as he went past the blade, and he twisted his hand, the Sword in his hand missing anything and everything. But that wasn't the target.

Geminiman screamed in anger and pain as three of his fingers fell to the ground, having been severed by Turboman's mounted Disc Break Blade. “You....DARE disfigure me?! “ He screamed, no more in control of the situation like he wanted. As Geminiman screamed, he charged, slashing wildly. Turboman tried to dodge, but lost the very corner of his shoulder.

Turboman had a look of pure agony on his face, but that was hidden by his visor, something he was glad of...for once. “Time to end this.” he said, and his blade, which encased his hand, started to spin. It reached deafening RPMs, as Geminiman looked on in horror. “This is a new move. It just came to me. Turbine Sword, I think I'll call it. “ Flames flew off the spinning blade, going every which way, As he advanced towards The White Knight. Geminiman jumped forward, with a controlled slash, but he was knocked back as Turboman defended, and in retaliation, took off a part of The White Knight's arm.

“You are going to die, and I will revel in your defeat, and the defeat of this world!” screamed The White Knight, as the sword in his hand burned brighter. Turboman dashed forward, and Gemini reciprocated the action. Each slashed with all their might, their sword's meeting in the air. A resounding clash filled the air....as each sword broke. Both Robot's looked stunned, as their weapon's hit the ground. Geminiman was soon to fill the void, as he kicked Turboman and then merged with another clone to repair his damage once more.

Turboman was on his last legs. Twisting in mid air, Turboman changed into his car form, which didn't look much better. His grey and blue color scheme was wrecked. He hit the ground abruptly and, and peeled out towards Geminiman. He had one last idea. It wasn't very good, but it would have to work. It was his last chance.

The White Knight saw his enemy advancing towards him, this time in his alternate mode. This didn't change his mood, as he saw the disarray his enemy was in. His mood quickly changed, though, when he was splashed with Battery Acid. Geminiman screamed in pain as his face was burned with the acid.

Turboman wasted no time, gunning his engine. He quickly made several very quick turns. When he was done, he launched himself into the air, and turned back into his human form. And he waited.

Geminiman was in agony. The battery acid melted his face. When he was finally able to get it off, and be able to see, what he saw, wasn't pleasant. “What is this?” he asked.

Turboman looked at him, a smirk on his hidden face, “Oil.” He didn't waste time. As soon as the word was out of his mouth, he formed a Scorch Wheel, and hurled it towards Geminiman. The wheel of fire spun as it went through the air. Geminiman looked on in horror, the whole action reflected in his eyes, as the wheel fell. The Scorch Wheel hit the ground, igniting the oil around Geminiman, before spinning into him. Geminiman was hit hard, and burst into flames, effectively trapped.

--------------------

Geminiman found himself surrounded by Turboman’s oil slick which had been subsequently set on fire effectively trapping him within the raging inferno as the flames began to overwhelm the white knight.

“You think this trap has won you this fight?” Lennon shrieked from within as Drastic Measures looked on at his peril. “I will not go down this easily.” He continued as his sadistic grin returned to his face. “For you see, I have already found a way out of this trap.

Suddenly a clone appeared behind Burstgirl and tackled her down before leaping into the ring of fire while holding on to her tightly. They passed through the fire engulfing them both in flame before the clone quickly merged with Geminiman to prevent further damage to itself although this also set fire to the already melting Geminiman who then promptly flew through the wall of fire and merged with another clone positioned outside the inferno but was now covered in flames as a result of the merging.

“The question is, can she?” he sneered.

--------------------

The heat was getting to Burstgirl’s systems. It felt as if someone had unleashed a school of hungry piranhas inside of her body, chomping and tearing her apart from the inside, as the effects of the flames had caused her internal chemicals to rise to great temperatures. Despite the excruciating pain, she pulled herself from the ground, only to find herself surrounded by the burning ring of fire – as it circled around her, she began to notice that it was closing in, ready to engulf her very form in a blazing inferno…

Shakily, she raised her hands above her head, and clapped them together. After about a second, she pulled them apart, forming one large bubble that stuck to either palm, which she quickly pulled over herself. Now that her whole self was encased in the bubble, it drifted upward, allowing her to narrowly avoid the flames’ enclosure. However, the bubble shield proved to be just as much of a hindrance as it was a help, for the very chemicals used to make it were still a bit too hot for her to handle. She quickly drifted out of the flames’ range, and popped the bubble shield before she would be boiled from the inside of it.

She landed on one knee. The gel tanks on her calves seemed to have gotten the worst of things, as it had seemed the proverbial piranhas have been gnawing away in there for the longest. At this point, she barely had any feeling left in her legs, but she stood up regardless… however, she was beginning to question how well she would be able to maintain her balance. But she had to, for an enemy could strike at any time. And no sooner did she realize that she was faced a joe, priming its buster cannon. She swiftly formed a danger wrap, and spiked it at the joe, trapping it in the bubble. Dashing for the trapped Joe, she slammed it in the direction behind herself, setting off an explosion that took out three more joes which she had previously spotted out the corner of her eye.

By then, things seemed to have calmed down, and an eerie silence followed… the battle couldn’t have been over, could it? Burst was not one to believe so. She took this time to scope out a good hiding spot amongst the rubble, one from which she could unleash an ambush when the time came. She thought… that old, wrecked van? Or maybe the nearby dumpster? But in an immediate, ironic twist, it was she who had become the victim of a surprise attack… for she had noticed an arm, plated in silvery white armor, wrapping around her arms and torso. This was immediately followed by the vision of a sword, illuminated by a blue glow, being held dangerously close to her neck.

“You… coward…!” shouted Turboman, who stood in horror at the sight of Geminiman gripping Burstgirl. “My my,” continued Geminiman, “It would pain me so much to harm this fair maiden, but if you do not surrender this instant, I’m afraid I will be force-” His sentence was stopped midway as Burst slipped out her combat knife and jabbed it into Geminiman’s side. Stunned, not so much from the pain of the weapon penetrating his armor, but from the sheer surprise of the situation, he released Burst from his grasp. Taking advantage of the fact that Geminiman had dropped his guard, Burst grabbed her knife, and twisted it around a bit, before yanking it out from her adversary’s side. Taking no time to wipe off Geminiman’s synthetic blood, she sheathed her knife back onto her belt. “Do all your rejections end like this?” Geminiman said mockingly, whilst clutching his knife wound.

“So, you expect me to play the role of damsel-in-distress, do you,” Burstgirl began to chew Geminiman out. “No way in hell,” she continued, “No way in hell you or anyone else will even THINK to reduce me to that shallow, despicable archetype, and expect to get away with your body, and hell, your very psyche intact! Now, you have some very painful suffering to do, mwhehehehehehe…” Geminiman looked puzzled. “Very well then…” he said. “I apologize for my rudeness. Now let our fight continue on as normal, with no more cheap tricks!” Burstgirl laughed deviously at that remark. “No more cheap tricks? HA! You said it yourself – honor can go straight to hell!” With that she clenched her fists, and upon releasing them, a rapid stream of bubbles, at least a several dozen, flowed from each hand, and stuck onto Geminiman.

This “bubble bath” attack limited Geminiman’s movements even further, and not long after that, each bubble detonated upon him. But Burst’s furious assault upon her enemy didn’t end there. As the small bubbles each let out a crack upon her foe, she formed a particularly large danger wrap, and spiked it at him, trapping the white knight inside. This was it. No one humiliates Burstgirl like that and gets away alive. At this point, she no longer cared that the man she was fighting was once a great friend. For all she had cared, Lennon, the true Geminiman, was long dead. This monster was not Lennon. He was just another villain… just another one of Burstgirl’s hapless prey.

Her face turned to a twisted smile. Seeing the villain hopelessly trapped inside of a bubble, awaiting “explodey doom” as Burst called it just wasn’t enough… he had to suffer not only for her humiliation, but for the pain inflicted upon her teammates, and for all the greif and suffering he has caused for the residents of Toronto. He needed to feel pain, and lots of it. So, Burstgirl began forming more danger wraps, then proceeded to spike them so that they would be absorbed inside of the large one that held the villain who was once Geminiman. She continued this attack in clockwork, until finally…

BOOM. Each bomb inside of the large bubble detonated in a fireworks-like display, setting off a chain reaction, until finally the largest bomb was set off. Burstgirl fell to her knees, smiling. “Heh heh… nighty night, o white knight!”

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As the dust cleared, Springman breathed a sigh of relief while Burstgirl looked rather proud of herself.

"That should take care of him." Turboman said as he began to turn to the large army of SA robots clearing off the last of the Wily Bots and turning their attention to the last few Police Bots the RPD had left to offer. "Unfortunately, I don't think we can do much more here but at least we managed to get rid off..."

A maniacal laugh sounded, interrupting Turboman and the Drastic Measures team stood in horror as Geminiman appeared to them almost unscathed, in fact he seemed like he was in better condition than before Burstgirl's explosive attack on him. The white knight continued laughing at them as they were kneeling down in pain completely confounded on how he survived.

“A valiant effort indeed, however I'm sure you've noticed by now.... When one of my clones gets damaged, I can merge it with another clone to recover the damage done to both of them. The final product is made up of all the least damaged parts of the clones merging resulting in a more powerful being! So by now you've probably guessed that I had an extra clone still lying about so all that damage you just performed on me..... I was able to nullify it!”

The white knight's laughter became more hysterical, and more psychotic as he then pointed his laser at the base of CN Tower and said “However the fact that you have done so much has sealed my use of my clones if I use them again you might be able to destroy them with relative ease which won’t really be good use for me, so I believe now would be the best time for the grand finale…” and fired.

The massive beam of energy went into a hole in the structure and began to bounce inside the structure and soon, it the massive tower began to give way and soon the tower was falling.

“Quick! Everyone pull back!” Turboman yelled out to his team but they were already running away from the toppling tower and soon the rubble and debris crashed into the ground blocking off the Scissor Army from the remnants of the RPD.

“They escaped… well, it’s no real loss. We may have lost several hundred of our number but they have been dealt a crippling blow before my beauty! Now, Toronto is ours, and this tower will become a stepping stone to my conquest!”

The white knight stood triumphant as his large body of SA Joes stood in what he believed was a victory and then he laughed in glee at the devastation left by his symphony of slaughter.

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Turboman looked out over the war torn area that was once called Toronto. Himself, barely fuctioning, he glanced at his team, who were no better, Junkman and Cloudman even unconscious. As the last dust from the Tower finally settled, Turboman couldn't help but think that they failed. Their mission was to save, not to stop, but he just couldn't get the thought out of his head. The rest of them thought the same. Looking over the still active members of his team, Burstgirl, and Spirngman, each noded in agreement, as he activated the teleportation signal. Not long after, they disapared in a bright light. Yet, hours later, not a single one felt they did enough to save the city.

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Yeah… we lost alright. Toronto was in ruins, and that monster… the one falsely calling himself “Geminiman” got away… and after all I did on him?! Come on. I blew him to bits… I didn’t give him my permission to survive! I was so looking forward to the sight of all the little, shiny, silvery white pebbles strewn about the wreckage, glistening in the moonlight… The beautiful symbol of our triumph against that madman, if nothing else…

That was a sight I never got to see. And for that, I was so… INSULTED! That was another failure, on top of the fact that we had failed to save the city. But our humiliation didn’t end there… oh no, we had to endure the lecture of an enraged monster computer of a police chief, spitting chunks of some sort of meat in our faces (which was very disturbing – I couldn’t even tell if it was beef, or pork, or what…) as it reminded us of our blatant failure, again and again, insult after insult…

We did succeed in one goal of our mission, however… that of course was evacuating the citizens to safety. As long as the people are alright, that’s what matters, ya? So, I tried to focus on that part of it at least… not so much the fact that, that... fake Geminiman got away, or that my legs had failed on me… That’s right, when I was being burned, it seems something inside either leg had gone haywire… until eventually, at about the time I had blown up the white knight, they gave out, and I fell to my knees, unable to walk at all…

I could have defeated the knight. But noooooooo… my stupid legs just had to go and break before I had the chance. Being a machine kind of sucks some times, you know? When I returned to the base, my lower legs had to be temporarily removed for repairs. While this was nothing short of a total pain, I think it is safe to say I was one of the luckier ones (the only other lucky one being Springman)… my condition was a mere circuitry-related thing that could easily be fixed, but as for the others…

Poor Turboman had lost an arm, completely. It didn’t just “break” or anything – it was gone. He needed a new one… and a new brake system too I think… and Junkman… ugh. His internal workings were really messed up bad… he is still undergoing repairs. I just hope he turns out to be alright… and then there was Cloudman. I never thought I’d say that I was upset about inadvertently causing him harm, seeing as how he is normally an annoying little troublemaker… but I was. He lost several chunks of his armor, and looked to be in bad shape… though from what I hear, he should make a full recovery, so that is good at least…

At least it wasn’t too long before I got my legs back, and I was able to walk around again. And with any luck, Turboman’s new arm should be ready some time soon as well. In any case, I was glad he wasn’t lamenting on the idea of a failure of any sort. Because that would be just depressing, you know? The way he saw the outcome of the battle, it was a quasi-victory on both sides – the Scissor Army had aimed to conquer the city, which they did. And we had aimed to hold them off in order to allow the citizens to evacuate, which we did. Better to try to look on the bright side of things, no matter how grim the situation seems.

We must have faith. We will avenge Lennon, along with all the others lost to this Scissor Army… look out, General. You may have caught us off guard this time… but next time we’ll be ready. We’ll tear a piece out of you for each person you let die. And we’d watch you cry out in pain, and we’d enjoy it… all of us… every one of us on the planet. You deserve it, General, and we’ll see to it that you receive it!

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