The Business of War

Frozen Souls


Scenario D
Participants:
Skullman (SA)
Cosmic Gladiators (W)
Cosmic Gladiators (C)

Location: Cairo, Egypt (Wily)
Max. Cossack Scrap Value: 6903
SA Infantry: 1429
RPD Units: 1281
Wily Bots: 652

Participants:
Frostman (SA)
Armored Assassins(W)
Slashman (DM) (C)
Tech Tyrants (C)

Location: Kalingrad, Russia (Wily)
Max. Cossack Scrap Value: 5783
SA Infantry: 1134
RPD Units: 896
Wily Bots: 206


He stood atop one of the many buildings of Kalingrad. His trench coat waved in the snowstorms that now engulfed the city. He looked at the frigid wasteland he had created in mere minutes. He had ordered snow generators much like his own to be placed in key points of the city, engulfing it all in the icy winds he so loved. He gazed at his work and sighed. It was good. This weather suited him. Cold. Unforgiving. This was his element, and he'd punish all who dared oppose him. He took out a small locket from a storage compartment on his wrist. The steel locket flipped open, revealing a picture of a smiling Zapper giving Regulus a big hug. They looked so happy together. One could barely believe that the unfeeling giant holding that picture was the same kind, loving, blue Quickman-modeled Regulus that had fallen in love with a frightened robotics experiment after spending night after night staying up with her. He had held her so many times when she was having a breakdown from all the memories of her past. Over the years, she grew on him, until one day, he realized that he loved her more than just a crazed little friend. He wanted to share the rest of his life with her.

And that life was over now. He shut the locket with a distinct snap.

"Team, this is Blizzard, listen up." He radioed out to his team mates. "Use the cover of the snow to your advantage. Strike without warning and with all your might."

"Blizzard, this is T. Hawk." Regdar interrupted.

"What?" Blizzard asked.

"I hate to interrupt," T. Hawk explained. "But the new SA Co isn't too bright..."

"Huh?" Blizzard picked up a pair of binoculars from a Joe at his side. Frostman was there, and he was already ravaging the RPD as they attempted to set up a tactical rush. If Frostman had only waited, the RPD might have caught Wily's men off-guard. As it stood, they could ready themselves a bit more in the city. "I suppose that idiot was handy after all." Blizzard said calmly. "We'll thank him by destroying him. You all have your orders, now move out!"

He watched as the various specialized forces spread out. Knightman traveled with Ivan, the Special Forces Unit the Armored Assassins captured back in Cairo. He was part of the team now. He got along pretty well with the other AA members. Trailing behind Knightman were five Hammer Joes. Impressive melee units which would compliment his fighting style very well. Yamatoman kept a small battalion of shield-rushing robots. Their thrusters would push him into crowds where his deadly spear would make short work of them in close combat. Flameman had access to his personal trap-makers: small, flying robots that could drop oil lines for him to light on fire. The possibilities seemed endless. T. Hawk and Centaur paired up with regular Joe units. The shields they provided would allow them to fully take advantage of their ricochet-style attacks. Plant and Windman were the only ones who did not care to take advantage of their specialized forces, instead keeping a few measly Joes that Regulus had demanded that Plant take with him, simply for support should they need it. And as for Regulus himself...

... Well, the robot foolish enough to fight him alone would find out soon enough what tricks he had up his sleeve.

Blizzardman lept from the top of the building, impacting the pavement as he landed with a loud thud, shaking the ground beneath him and sending a few Joes sprawling who had been standing too close. He brushed himself off and walked off towards the battlefield. "Activate the main turrets. I want a steady stream of fire in the major choke points of the city." The frigid commander ordered. He turned to a Commander Joe next to him. The only thing setting him apart from the other Joes being a red paint job to demonstrating his importance. "Have the preparations been made?" He asked.

"Yes, Commander." The Joe replied. "Everything has been designed as per your specifications."

"Perfect." Blizzardman said as his thoughts drifted back to Zapper.

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

Kalinka called Naop to her office. Astro wondered why she had called him as he was about to embark on his mission with his team.

"Kalinka, you wanted to see me ma'am?" he asked his superior. She looked at him.

"I have received word that it is snowing in Kalingrad. This may not seem unusual to you, but it has done so for quite a long time. Three feet and still going. Do you know what I think that means?" she paused, waiting for a reply. When none came she continued.

"I think this means that our dear pal Blizzardman is there. If he is, I want you to talk with him peacefully. He is hurt by this almost as much as I, but he defected. He isn't on our side anymore...nobody is."

Astro was not expecting to hear about Blizzard. "I will do my best Kalinka. Anything else before we teleport out?" Kalinka nodded.

"Those two. Take 'em with you. Let them salvage on their own. They are actually quite good at that. They want to help you out, so I figured why not."

Astro had to think for a second to whom she was referring to. Then he saw and sighed. Just what he needed.

Them.

"Let's kick ass and take names Jetson! Right you tubby bitch?" Jay asked Silent Bob.

As the silent one nodded, Astro shooed them tward the door. "Come on you two. Let's get going. We will be back as soon as possible Kalinka."

"May my Father watch over you all," she claimed, waving her arm good bye. “And hopefully the Cosmic Gladiators will be watched over in Cairo as well…”

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

Sunstar and Darkmoon stood on the top of a building overlooking their troops in Cairo. "Where is he?" Sunstar pondered to himself wondering where that massive skeletal figure he saw in the distance earlier giving commands to his SA Joes disapeared to.

"Sir there's no time to let the whereabouts of that CO bother you now. The Wily bots won't last long against the Generals superior forces so we must combat the SA Joes until their CO arrives!" Darkmoon said.

"Yeah, you’re right. Now, LETS GO!" Sunstar said as he jumped off the building shooting at a few SA Joes with his rifle followed by him running towards the frontlines of the battle.

Darkmoon then turned into a puddle of black liquid and slithered into a group of SA Joes and reformed in the middle of the group causing them to scatter across the city.

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

Beneath the city of Kalingrad, inside the sewers, the Cossack team leaded by AstroMan, made it’s way inside the city. Having decided that walking through the streets in plain sight would be suicide, given the estimated number of SA soldiers that had been reported on the news, the sewers were their only alternative.

With Drew, Jay and Bob, wrapped up in thick winter coats, the robot masters made steady progress through the disgusting tunnels filled with rats and filthy waters. It was a good thing that the Russians had been kind enough to make a waterway, leaving dry and less filthy corridors for them to walk through.

“Now, listen up people.” Astro broke the silence as they advanced. “We only have to get to FrostMan, let’s not get into any unnecessary fighting. And while we find him, let’s wait until the RPD gives their best, and hopefully they’ll significantly reduce their numbers.”

“What about BlizzardMan?” GroundMan questioned, remembering what Kalinka had told his leader.

“Screw him!” Astro retorted with disdain. “Than man is a murderer, so I don’t care if Kalinka likes him enough to overlook that fact. We won’t take the time to ask for that arrogant traitor’s help. He won’t have any sympathy from me.”

“Miss Kalinka is not going to like that.” PirateMan commented.

“Well, I don’t like being stuck with the dynamic duo over there…” Astro pointed at Jay and Bob, who obviously resented the comment. “So we’ll call it even.”

“Gee… just chill dude!” Jay spat out, and his silent partner nodded in response.

“Which reminds me, you guys are going to be gathering resources here. Can I leave you in charge of that, Drew?” the leader asked the robotic-enhanced human.

“Leave it to us, Naop.” Drew responded. “But remember I don’t stand a chance against our enemies on my own.”

“You’re right, I don’t want you guys taking any unnecessary risks, so I’ll probably have one of us accompany you.” Astro admitted. “And remember we have our SF wild card. If anyone is in trouble, send word to K’ and she’ll send in the guy.”

“Don’t worry, Naop.” SlashMan interjected. This was the first time someone had been paired with the TT, and Astro did appreciate the extra help. After all, sending Slash on his own mission would have been suicide, considering how ugly things had gotten in the war. “I think that with our combined strength we will be able to get through this mission, unscratched.”

“Naop, trouble ahead!” TenguMan suddenly warned them. He had been scouting ahead using his jetpack to move swiftly though the tunnels. “I ran into some Joes and other mechaniloids patrolling the area.”

“So what?” Astro asked. “I don’t think they gave you trouble, did they?”

“No, that’s not it. I crushed them.” Tengu boasted. “But you have to remember this is Wily’s territory right now. They probably sent word to their CO already.”

“Damn!” Astro had just considered it. “As if we weren’t having a hard time trying to figure out where the big traitorous popsicle is located, that big snowball is gonna make things harder for us.”

As if on cue, the humans of the group noticed it had gotten a tad colder in there…

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

A gang of seven robots walked through a different section of Cairo in search of the same target that Sunstar and Dark Moon were after.

"This is one hell of a big city," Neptune commented, walking around a number of tiles that had been blasted off of a nearby roof.

"Tell me about it," Jupiter replied, hovering a few feet above his teammates. "I wish we had some idea where Skullman is."

Saturn's eyes lit up. "Maybe Quinten can give us some direction," he suggested. "I mean, he was helping his dad, an Egyptologist, right?" He turned to the tallest of the Stardroids.

The bullish robot shook his head vigorously. "Nah, we never came to Cairo," Uranus answered, much to the others' disappointment. "We always camped out in the ruins, so I'm as confoozered as you guys."

"So much for that," Mars remarked sarcastically, apparently attacking Saturn for the failed idea.

"Well, at least I HAD a fuckin' idea," Saturn shot back, glaring at Mars. It wasn't all that common for him to look directly at the speaking he was speaking to.

"Are you saying I COULDN'T have come up with something?" came the response.

"I'm saying we don't have an hour to sit around and wait for an idea to pop up into your head!" the ringed robot shouted. The first insult was usually the toughest one for Saturn to come up with, but after that, he'd be on a roll coming up with follow-ups easily.

Appropriately enough, Mars was known for being extremely violent. "I can tell ya this: One of us doesn't belong on this team!" He prepared a Photon Missile to fire at Saturn.

"Then let me fix that problem right now!" the brown Stardroid replied. He pulled out a couple Saturn Rings— one of Mars's two weaknesses to his teammates' weapons— but before he could throw them, a tan glove grabbed his right wrist.

"Why do you guys have to always fight?" Venus yelled. "And you were gonna weaken him so Skullman can kill him off easier!"

"Hey, I for one don't care if Devlin makes it out alive or not," Saturn snapped, using Renard's last name as a sign of contempt.

"What if you two are the only ones left and he dies?" Jupiter asked. "This isn't the time for fighting. Save that energy for Skullman."

Mars and Saturn glared at each other one last time before facing opposite directions.

Terra kneeled down. "Hey guys, look. Blood." Terra pointed into a dark apartment with a blown open wall, "And it carries on into that room". The CG follow the trail of blood, while Terra hesitated to follow as he checks out the writing on the wall, Terra read a note written in blood, "Death is here" followed by "Help".

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

“Alright, people, got your paint?”

“We’re pitch white, boss, what about you two, sir?”

“Don’t worry about me and Wind, we want them to find us, so we can actually enjoy slaughtering them.”

A platoon of ten snow-covered Sniper Joes stood around the weathered statue of Joseph Stalin, their now white colors blending them into the snow perfectly. While four small metools, accompanied by the black spider droid crawled and jumped around the streets, looking cautiously at the dark alleys.

Their commanders, Plantman and Windman stood on the big streets leading to the town square, the two of them covered in snow as well. With Plantman’s belts now holding two katanas, given to him by Blizzardman.

“This time, that little snot dropped you guys in just with us, essentially meaning there’s a chance where we will all perish in battle, provided, this is Kalingrad, with all the snow they won’t even see us!” Plantman shouted as he pointed at the roof of the buildings, the battered buildings all harbored artillery cannons, manned by Joes and Metools on them.

“Boss-man, can they seriously breach our heavy artillery fire?” The commander metoold hopped onto the spider droid, tilting his small head at his commander. While the latter simply growled as she spat a ball of corrosive venom onto the ground, the snow and cement slowly sizzling into a deep hole.

“So much for acid rain and global warning…anyways, troops, I hope you are all ready to fight, no one dies, and if we must die because we’re outnumbered. We die with some style.”

An uproar came from the small platoon. As Plantman stared at the Man of Steel, the statue and robot master exchanged grim faces before the living one turned towards to look at the distance, Windman turned as well.

“That’s…Deep Impact’s Frostman.”

“Well, Blizzard will do him in. Have any of you seen people with the big C?”

“Not a chance, sir.” The gray colored Commander Joe shook his head. “They must be hiding.”

“Alright. I guess we better move out then, Windman, where’s our dear friends?”

“…There.” Windman pointed his fan-buster at one of the dark alleyways and blew a full-fledged tornado at the small path, bricks and pavements blew past as several SA Joes fell to the ground, their armor and circuits torn to pieces by the wind.

“Alright, troops, party time!” Plantman shouted as he dashed up towards a Joe, blasting the Joe’s head off with a buster towards its chin. “Leave no one alive!”

The spider droid screeched as she fired another blast of venom, melting through the armor as the Metool Commander blew the insides apart. The Sniper Joes routed a group of SA Joes, using the snow and abandoned vehicles as cover and pelting the enemies with a barrage of plasma fire.

“I thought the SA was busy handling the RPD!” Windman roared as his turbines released a miniature hurricane towards a line of SA Joes, blowing them into the next street.

“Well, now they have time to handle us!” Plantman shouted back, jumping down from a roof, grabbing a steel pipe as he drop kicked a SA Joe in the head, the cannon fodder unit recoiled, hitting his teammates as they fell back in a domino effect.

“Eat this, take that-“ The Commander Joe grunted as he pushed towards the SA Joes, blocking off enemy fire with his shield.

“Commander!” A sniper Joe shouted as he fired a shot in the space between the gray Joe’s shield and the SA Joes, but it was too late.

A beam of ice struck the Commander’s shield. Holding it firmly in place as the SA Joes opened fire. Fully penetrating the Commander Joe’s left hand.

“What the hell…” Plantman jumped right beside the Commander Joe, ripping off his now disabled left arm along with the shield. The Joe grunted as the two continued to release a barrage of plasma towards the SA Joes.

Another beam of ice came, the flower-themed robot master jumped away pulling the two Joes with him.

“Sir, why didn’t you activate your barrier?” Having joined after the sixth war, the grunt Joe looked at his superior with a puzzled eye.

“My barrier is weak to two things, Blizzard Attack and Atomic Fire, that attack had a similar property like Blizzard Attack…” Plantman retreated into an apartment as the SA gave chase, marching quickly towards the trio. “Pull your commander up. Windman will trap them from behind while I hold this place.”

“Sir, you…”

“Get moving, we’re all going back to the space station in one piece. Not a thousand little ones, and we’re going to make Kalingrad the very foundation to Wily’s empire!”

“Yes sir!” The two Joes headed up, pelting the SA Joes with plasma bullets from the stairs. As Plantman opened fire on the hallway, blasting SA Joe after SA Joe apart, while blocking off bullets with single petals of Plant Barriers. While rolling sideways to dodge the ice beams, freezing the staircase behind him. The robot master smirked as he flicked his finger

“Wind, blow them down.”

A strong blast of wind engulfed the Joes, including the commanding Frost Joe of the platoon. Blowing them forward, timing his steps, Plantman grabbed the Frost Joe by his freeze gun and jerked it towards him, giving a clean fire of his buster in its head. The one Frost Joe of many was no more the second the plasma melted its head. As its beheaded body fell lifelessly to the ground. Plantman turned around and cleared the grounds, destroying the SA Joes in his range.

“Alright, it’s safe now…Windman, did we fend off the first wave?”

“Yeah. Thankfully, we didn’t lose much, this Joe did manage to freeze down parts of our troops though, nothing serious.”

“Gah…” Plantman grumbled as he signaled the two Joes to come down. As he kneeled down to inspect the freeze gun. “No good, we can’t salvage this one, I’ve crushed it. We’ll get a sample when we can, this gun is quite powerful.”

“Aye, Plant…”

“Damage report?”

“Boss-man, Metool #752 had a part of his helmet blown off, #642’s helmet is dented by the statue, Commander Joe #69 has his left arm and shield destroyed, Sniper Joe #532’s eye camera is functioning at 86% rate, though had it not been commander Windman, #532’s probably going to be KIA instead.” The Metool Commander repeated the report accurately in a robotic tone.

“Ja, ice cold…they have us seriously outnumbered. Stick together. I say…and how did #642 dent his helmet on the statue? Did he fly into it or something?” Plantman gave a queer look at #642. Whose eyes were half-covered by his dented helmet.

“Uh, no, boss-man…look.” The Metool Commander jumped a little on his ride. As the spider droid pointed one of its long, thin legs towards the statue of the Man of Steel, now lying on the ground, the steel statue’s legs pierced by bullets.

“Oh, man, the bloody communists will KILL the SA for this…” Plantman rolled his eyes as the group retreated onto the top of the apartment, ready to meet the Artillery busy firing on the incoming SA forces.

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

The SA troops surrounded Sunstar and Dark Moon.

"There's too many," Dark Moon stated. "How can we beat them?"

Thinking quickly, Sunstar activated his Flame Drive and transformed into a fireball, rushing about and attacking a number of SA Joes in one rush. He changed back a few seconds later, having cleared out a path for Dark Moon to follow.

A faint, high-pitched sound filled the air.

"Do you hear that?" asked the amorphous monster.

But Sunstar didn't appear to be paying attention. He ran ahead toward a building and rounded a corner. Dark Moon went after him a few seconds later.

"I thought I saw something," he explained to Dark Moon, taking out a few SA Joes blocking the path using his Solar Wave. "And now look: there's blood and corpses everywhere. Maybe this is all we need to find Skullman."

The two followed the trail and soon were standing outside a dark apartment with a wall that has been blown open. They went through the hole in the wall into what appeared to be a living room.

To say that the room was a complete mess would be an understatement. The other walls had several cracks. The furniture was sliced or knocked over. Glass was all over the floor, along with plenty of blood and a few motionless corpses. However, Sunstar and Dark Moon were instead focusing on some very familiar faces.

"What the fuck are you guys doing here?" Sunstar asked the robots headed toward the stairs to the second floor of the apartment building.

Jupiter whirled around. "We should be asking YOU the same thing," he replied. "I bet all this time you were planning to leave us just when things got serious and watch us get killed."

Sunstar scowled. "If I wanted you guys killed, I could do it myself anytime," he answered dismissively. "I'm here looking for a bigger prize."

Neptune laughed. "I doubt you 'n' Dark Moon can snatch Skullman from the Scissor Army. Just leave it to the group with the bigger team."

"You wanna start something, fishface?" Sunstar snapped.

"I think you're forgetting who's the stronger one around here," the giant aquatic Stardroid sneered.

Suddenly, something that sounded like an explosion interrupted the Cosmic Gladiators. They ran upstairs and found a giant white robot huddled in a corner of a room in which more blood and corpses decorated the floor.

"That's so gross, all these innocent people slaughtered," cringed Venus. Her face grew pallid, her voice faint, and she looked as though she was going to vomit.

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

A low laugh echoed in the sewer as condensed air began to creep around the corner of the passageway. "Well, well, well..." Blizzardman rounded the corner now. "Looks like we have some rather large sewer rats."

Yamato, Flame, Knight, Centaur, T. Hawk, and Ivan were with him. Blizzard had called them back to meet with the supposed Robot Master threat from the sewers.

"Stay out of our business, Frosty." Astro said.

"You know, I was just starting to miss hearing that from Diveman." Blizzard responded coolly. "And you're in MY city, shoving your noses into MY business, killing MY Joes." He threw down the decapitated head of a Joe. The cut was precise and clean.

"So, it's true that you've joined Wily." Ground replied.

"No... I work for RPD. Want to see my badge?" Blizzard appeared to be his normal, sarcastic self in spite of losing his loved one. "I suppose you Tin Tyrants need help catching an igloo?"

"No way. We don't want help from a murderer." Astro piped in. "We saw what you did to the Nonsteropolis RPD HQ."

"Please, you're in no condition to play Captain Morality with me." Blizzardman shot back. "If you don't help, the SA will take over, their forces are superior to the RPD and they have no Robot Master officer to match Frostman. The blood of the people of Kalingrad will be on your hands. At least I never killed civilians." Blizzard shot them a glance. "And I'll allow you all to take as much scrap as you can carry from the enemy after we're done. I know you pathetic tin cans need your junk fix."

"You think buying us off with scrap will just make up for all the things you've done? Well, I guess I should expect something like that from a murderer." Astro said.

"I find it amusing how much you detest me, despite my willingness to help all of you. I fought for you miserable whelps before, remember? I know you're in a tight spot as far as cash is concerned." Blizzardman said calmly.

"Oh, yeah." Astro's facial display rolled his eyes. "You've been helping us sooo much by bespattering our name and bailing when we needed you most."

"I know you're built to have your head in the clouds," Blizzard said snidely, "But even a space cadet like you must realize that the RPD has no hope of winning this battle. It's either the SA or Wily. The SA is attacking the RPD as we speak with a superior force."

"Pretty bold words for a coward who jumped ship once it started sinking." Pirate piped in.

Blizzard didn't even turn to the buccaneer. "Mommy and Daddy are talking, Skippy, don't interrupt."

"Why you!"

Pirateman was about to approach the ice-cold Russian when Yamatoman stepped in front of him, brandishing a spear. He stared Pirate back to his group.

"Why should we trust you?" Astro inquired. "You're a murderer."

"Murderer?" Blizzard laughed. This really was amusing to him. "The way I see it, you're the murderer. Where were you when Cossack was being beheaded? Oh, that's right. You were caught up with your personal squabble with Mysteryman." His manner became much more serious. "You even left my loved one to die, fighting for your childish morals..."

"Oh, yeah, where were you? You were too busy running away from it all." Astro countered.

"She left me to go share death with her friends! I waited for her to return! It felt like hours before that nuke hit. I WATCHED that wretched Citadel go up in flames! Not a day goes by that I haven't wished that I were the one who died back there. Don't you dare lecture me on being faithful, Astro. The whole reason I joined your doomed little band of nobodies was because Zapper joined them!" His whole body shook like he was trying to avoid tears. Nobody at the Citadel thought Blizzard could cry, really, but Astro could clearly see something forming on the rings of the Russian's eyes. He suddenly slumped and calmed himself. "But I know those childish ideals mean a lot to her... I won't try and hide the fact that I hate you all for what you've allowed to happen to her... but... but I have to keep in mind that she made that choice to die for what she believed in. I... I'm not that strong..."

Astro pitied Blizzardman, but he still lacked faith in him. For some reason, perhaps the Nonsteropolis bombing, he felt he shouldn't be trusted. But did he really want Cutman to have this city because he was too busy settling a score with another SA Commander? He'd let the Citadel fall because he was too busy with Mysteryman. Blizzard had a good point.

"Fine, but this changes nothing. Our main objective is that traitor Frostman, and I trust you about as far as I can throw you!" Which was actually saying a lot, given Blizzard's immense weight and Astro's sub-par strength. "I'll be watching you."

Blizzardman blew off the disclaimer. "Then get your asses into gear. I know Dr. Claw over there wants to prove his valor." Blizzard had heard him go on and on about how he'd kill General Cutman if it was the last thing he did. "And I know for a fact that Frostman is weak against bombs, so come with us, Hook."

"Hey, I give the orders to my team." Astro corrected. He was about to issue order himself when he realized he would only repeat what Blizzard had just said. "What he said." Astro sighed. "But the rest of you go and collect scrap."

The two drug-pushers, the cyborg doc, and the remaining TT members walked through the sewers. Drew searched through the database Kalinka had uploaded to his datapad looking for the local dump of Kalingrad.

"I'll reset the ally list of the local forces to include all of you." Blizzard said as he activated his com-link.

When the fighting force reached the surface, the respective forces were waiting for their commanders.

"Flameman, you'll come with us. And where's the weapon I requested?" Blizzardman asked through his com-link.

"Here, Commander." The red Joe replied, bringing forth a large steel crate. Blizzardman opened it.

"Ahh... just as I requested." Blizzardman reached in and pulled out an rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

"There is one round already loaded, sir." The red Joe explained. "And the belt contains three more rounds."

"Perks of being with the man who has resources." Blizzardman clipped the belt around his waist and slung the launcher over his shoulder. He turned to his group. "Armored Assassins, move out! Crush all who stand in your way!"

The world's prized fighting robots spread out. All except Yamato. "Boss Blizzard?" He asked.

"Yes, Enigma?" Blizzardman responded.

"I'd like to help you take out Frostman." The purple samurai replied.

Blizzardman chuckled. "Ok, your help is appreciated."

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

"Skullman…" Saturn spoke softly. "You murdered all these people. How could you?"

"Simple: I like killing," Zymeth replied. "I enjoyed seeing all the deaths and bloodshed at my hands. You could say it was good to the last drop." He chuckled.

"You were just with my teammates on Cossack's side not too long ago," he recalled. "And I remember St. Petersburg, where you swore to exact revenge upon Mysteryman. Did Cossack's death tempt you to defect? And why go to the Scissor Army, where you're on the same side as Mystery?"

"DEFECT?" the macabre monster replied. "I never defected. THEY TOOK ME! AND KILLED ME! And then, turned me into this monster! And I don't care anymore. I don't give a damn about the Scissor Army. I don't give a damn about Cossack either! All I care about is… killing…" He broke into a maniacal laugh.

"Then kill THEM, GODDAMMIT!!" the ringed robot shouted, beginning to let his true colors show. "THEY changed you into who you are, so it's THEM that you should exact revenge upon for what they've DONE to you!"

"Sorry," answered Zymeth. "You know I can't do that. They'll kill me first… The General holds my life in the balance… Besides—" he laughed evilly— "I can't see WHY you're so upset! NOW SHUT UP AND EMBRACE YOUR FATE!!" Unintelligible screams of anger followed this last sentence.

"You don't wanna talk then?" the brown Stardroid shot back. "Well then, I guess I'll kill YOU then!" Saturn crossed his left arm over his chest, pulling out a couple of Saturn Rings from the compartment in his arm, and then rushed forward to launch the first strike. "I'LL FUCKIN' KILL YOU!!"

"Saturn, wait!" Jupiter shouted, but it was too late. Saturn had made up his mind; he was going to see to it that Zymeth never kill another man or machine again.

And he was going to enjoy tearing Skullman apart.

Unfortunately Skullman had other plans.

Skullman blasted dark energy at the rampaging Stardroid. Saturn tried his best to evade it, but he couldn't get away fully. The energy grazed his leg, damaging it greatly. Saturn winced in pain. He had never experienced anything like this.

"Saturn! What did you do to him?" Sunstar asked the behemoth once known as Zymeth.

"He has been attacked with my dark energy. I did not give him a lethal dosage though, no. I want to prolong your deaths. I want them long...I want them painful. You Stardroids sicken me. You claimed you were a family, but now you hate each other. You disgusting worms will perish at my hands. But first...I must accomplish my mission," he said.

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

It had been roughly an hour since the initial combat had started and Knightman was having the time of his life. This was his realm. Destruction, conflict, chaos. He lived for it. With a sweep of his mighty arm he batted away an entire line of Scissor Joes, their frail bodies breaking like dried twigs under the strength that bore down upon them. A platoon of Joes ran held their ground and opened fire. The war-loving knight simply raised his mighty shield and advanced as if the steady stream of plasma-fire was merely a strong wind. The Hammer Joes behind him lobbed their heavy steel wrecking balls over their commander, striking down several Joes and causing the "lucky" ones to dashing out of the way. Knightman swung his mace at one, slamming his head clean off his shoulders. The remaining Joes were quickly swept away by the heavy mace attack group.

Knightman felt the sting of plasma on his back. An RPD bot had shot him from behind. How dare he?! A mere commoner strike such a battle-hardened warrior? His slight was quickly punished as the knight crushed the police peon. Knightman felt proud of his destruction. He was a mighty force to be dealt with alone, much less with his backup Hammer Joes. Suddenly, the knight heard large footsteps. The noise grew as a Special Forces unit rounded the corner.

"Surrender or be destroyed." The hulking robot warned.

"I shall be the one to destroy YOU!" The proud warrior roared as he swung his mace at the colossal enforcer. The robot merely dodged and fired a plasma blast which Knightman deflected with his shield.

The Special Forces unit rushed the mace-wielding group. Knight was a proud warrior, but he knew that this unit surpassed his own strength. It even overpowered Blizzardman. Just as he was about to retreat, he heard a loud roar. Seemingly from nowhere, Ivan dropped down on top of the robot, knocking him flat on his back. He grabbed the dazed unit and drug it to its feet, after which he head-butted the once-ally trump-card unit. The special force robot replied with a fist to Ivan's chin, causing him to stumble a bit. The two juggernauts locked arms, each equally matched in strength. Ivan swung himself and the SF around, exposing the enemy's back to Knightman's group.

"NOW, COMRADE!" He shouted.

The barrage was devastating. The Hammer Joes and Knightman kept a steady stream of hits, slowly crushing the back of the Special Forces unit into a mangled wreck. The unit stumbled to the ground, just functional enough to raise its buster, but Ivan put a stop to the desperate attack by grabbing the arm and crushing the metal with all his might. He now charged his buster to the maximum blast, unleashing the powerful shot into his old brother's chest, tearing a hole through the armor. He punched his fist through the damaged armor and shot another blast into the chest, killing the pilot. He turned to Knightman and grinned, giving him the thumbs up. Knightman nodded. Who would have thought Special Force units could be so warm and friendly with a little reprogramming?

"What the hell?" Kranz Felder, an RPD watcher, gawked at what had just happened from his safe, cozy spot on top of a building. He didn't mind sending his bodyguard to go destroy the rogue Robot Master due to the safety his cloaking device afforded him. He could not believe it. A unit of his own army had just turned on one of their most expensive units! "Damn shoddy AI programmers." He said. "I'll just have to deactivate this one." He turned on his watcher pad and looked for the Special Forces unit. "Huh?" He said, confused. "What in God's name? He should be right there!" Thanks to the complete system overhaul, Ivan no longer carried the Shutdown Code. He was immune to the RPD's leash. The other SF unit had been sent to lead a large force against Frostman, the local SA Officer. "Damn radar must be broken, too." He simply deactivated the only SF icon he saw. Ivan simply walked off, slapping Knightman on the back and laughing heartily. Stunned, Kranz reactivated the SF he had shut down. "Well, shit. They must have gotten their hands on one of our Special Forces units." He muttered. "Well, I guess it's to be expected. Some of them are bound to get captured."

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

Meanwhile, a group of SA Joes hurried along the streets. They had just slaughtered a group of RPD robots and were resuming their covert pace when an Indian Robot Master leapt from a nearby building into the crowd. He drew two revolvers and rapidly unloaded the chambers into the unprepared crowd. Several Joes dropped while the rest, never once being affected by the death of a fellow unit, trained their rifles on him, confident that he had spent the 16 rounds allowed by the nature of his revolvers. T. Hawk jumped out of the way as the SA Joes opened fire, one of the shots grazing his side. T. Hawk landed outside of the group, still holding his empty weapons. Now he threw them down and reached into his duster, producing two more revolvers. The Joes processed a renewed threat and began to pull out their shields, noting his precision given the firearms, but it was too late, and the remaining Joes fell as Regdar unloaded his new pair of revolvers.

"Wow, that was cool, T. Hawk!" Centaur galloped over to the gunslinger. "I was about to run in to help, but you were AWESOME!"

Regdar jumped a little. It still caught him by surprise when he saw Centaur's marred visage. "Hey, thanks, Cent." He chuckled.

Centaur stretched out her hand and T. Hawk took it. She swung the Indian gunslinger onto her back.

"Cent?" T. Hawk said.

"Yeah?" Centaur replied.

"Don't tell Blizzard I rode you." T. Hawk said with a nervous laugh.

"Oh, right." Centaur grinned.

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

Skullman fired off twelve little orbs. Suddenly they each made a horrifying noise that sent chills down the Stardroids spines. All of a sudden they started moving around Skullman, leaving behind a blue trail behind them. "Souls of the Damned...go. Destroy the city that represents your pain. Burn it down," he cooed.

The orbs struck at the city. As a blue orb charged at a wall, it plowed through it like a miniature Chargeman. But that wasn’t all Skullman had up his bones. He charged up more of his dark energy, and sent it down like lightning from the sky. The lighting destroyed all in its path. Skull added some fireballs as well, also seemingly made of the Dark Energy.

"Isn't it a sight? My Dark Energy Generator is truly amazing. I can destroy anything and everything in my way. Even you." As he talked while destroying Cairo, the CG huddled together.

"I think we should just drop this whole feud between the two sides. We are all Gladiators here. We need to stick together," Mars pointed out to his fellow teammates. Nods came from all around.

Venus spoke up. "But what about Skullman? He is too powerful...he killed all those people...we are done for!" Saturn had other ideas.

"Ugh...L...listen, we can get help. The Tech Tyrants are in K...kal...Kalingrad. They are the biggest Cossack faction." Again more nods.

Suddenly a laugh emerged from Skullman. The Gladiators turned to see the white death moving tward them. "It is time for you all to die. Die like the ones who killed my dear Katrina. Goodbye you ingrates," he said, extending claws from his hands.

But as he was speaking, the Gladiator had punched in the proper access to teleport to Kalingrad. "Sorry to disappoint Skullman, but we have to put a hold on that dine in hell. We have other plans," Neptune jested. And they teleported simultaneously away from harm.

Skull just stared at the ground. "So...you think you can defy me? Very well...I think I can assume where they are going...more then likely they will meet up with another Cossack faction to help them save their sniveling hides. It is time to wipe them out at once. All of them."

And with that, Skullman fired one last fireball, bringing the town once known as Cairo to the ground.

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

"Repel the invasion, we're pushing them out!" Plantman shouted as he grabbed a RPD Officer's head, his fingers sinking into the Officer's eyes, and slammed it into a SA Joe. Sending both flying into the wall. "Hit them while they're scattered. Avoid the ones with Freeze Guns!"

Windman roared as he held the last SA Joe up, throwing a punch at the grunt unit and slicing its head with a fan blade. "Street's clear, Plant, tell me, why is there only two of us handling THREE sides of the city when the others are busy on ONE?"

"Simple, Wind, because they know Frostman a lot better than we do." Plantman jumped down from one of the roofs, "Didn't we receive a report on sneaking robot masters in the sewers a few minutes ago?"

"Well, turned out it was the Technological Tyrants, Jay and Silent Bob, a Doctor, and Slashman of Drastic Measures." Windman sweeped his eyes around the street, looking for any hiding SA soldiers.

"Boss, a small platoon of SA is detected around us..." The Metool Commander looked around nervously.

"Where? The streets are all clear." True to Plantman's words. the streets were empty, devoid of any SA.

"Watch out..." The small squadron gathered in a circle in the middle of the street, Windman signaled the Artillery units to aim on the two entrances and exits.

"I hear a rumbling sound."

"Her sensors say the platoon is right..." The Metool Commander's face became grave as the squad looked at the sewer lid in the middle of their circle.

In less than a second, the lid burst open as a SA Joe burst into the group, gunning at everyone in the way. Windman soon disposed of the SA Joe as he sliced its head off with his wind blades, but more came swarming. As the artillery began firing at the opening. Defacing the street and causing snow and sewer water to fall together.

"Disperse, disperse, behind cars, find your cover!" Plantman shouted as he took a shot, taking out one of the SA Joes below. "Hell, they've breached the sewers from the Treatment Plant kilometers away from Kalingrad."

The fight continued as the platoon of SA Joes flowed out like the water inside the sewers. However, at a tactical disadvantage as Artillery pounded them.

"Well, we've fended off the first wave. Let's go down to check if there's anymore...if possible, block them off completely."

"There are water gates around the sewers. if we shut them off we can stop them. Like this city uses any." Plantman signaled the squadron, as they jumped down the large opening in the streets. Plantman sent a signal to Blizzard.

"Fox, this is Camelot, The SA are breaching the sewers from the Treatment Plant. I'll be shutting off the water gates to prevent any breaches."

"Plant, are you sure they can't break through the gates?"

"Those gates are made to withstand 5 tonnes of dynamite, Like hell SA Joes and their peashooters can penetrate it."

"Fair enough."

The small team of 25 robots continued to march slowly across the sewers. As the spider droid's eyes gleamed with happiness.

"We'll work our way out, from outside to inside. Thankfully, I managed to retrieve the map database of Kalingrad from the governer's building. Including sewer plans."

"There's eight main gates coming in. We'll need to close off all eight, after that, it closes into 32 small gates across the city."

"Splitting off isn't a wise idea, as much as we have a time limit, we gotta do it fast." Windman looked up as they marched past a small gate-even the small gate was over a feet thick, capable of withstanding a powerful ram.

"...stop." Plantman looked cautiously in the T-road in front of them. "Who goes there?"

"I was about to ask that." Groundman grunted sternly at the Wily Bots, while Tenguman pointed his triple-end Tengu Blades at Windman. "What do you guys want?"

"Not fighting, of course." Plantman blinked slowly as he eyed the Tyrants and the humans. "I take it you lot are gathering scrap again?"

"...Yes. While the rest are joining forces with your other Assassins to fight that traitor Frostman." Groundman's tone gave a deep feeling of distrust towards Plantman.

"Well, there's several local city dumps around...however, the biggest dump is not located on the usual city maps." Plantman pointed at the path behind them. "From the sewers, it is possible to reach Kalingrad's slums. That place is truly the biggest dump of the city, with all the scraps you need, thankfully, due to the fights, most have evacuated. You guys can take their loots. I suspect the SA has taken over some of the dumps...not too wise to walk over."

"Who do you think we are, beggers?" Tenguman glared at Plantman.

"Calm down, Tenguman. Besides, the SA are now breaching the sewers, you guys had better watch it if you guys don't want to get shot down." Windman sighed.

"I'm giving you the info at my own risk, Blizzard will probably have my neck for doing this, while we will destroy any SA Troops around these dumps, it's best advised you guys don't go near the obvious spots...my signal is easily reachable, contact me when you need help. We do have troops stationed in the sewers." Plantman gave a last glance at the Cossack people, and continued to run across the sewers with his small group of soldiers.

"Do you think we can trust him?" Drew peered at the map on the city, the slums were not far away from the sewer path's perspective.

"He doesn't seem to get along with Blizzard very well, judging by how he talked...we'll see. We could find valuable things at the slums." Groundman gave a glare at Jay and Silent Bob, the two resident drug-runners shrugged and followed suit.

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

What remained of the RPD officers continued their efforts to subdue Frostman, only to be smashed by his massive fists, frozen solid, or a combination of the two. Some were even used as projectiles against their peers. Caught up in his game of "smash the authorities", Frost didn't notice the Special Forces unit behind him, until he was shot in the back. Laughing, he turned around, and lifted his attacker to his face, smiling like a madman as he did.

"That stung, but not as much as being ripped in half!"

True to his word, Frostman ripped his prey in half, tossing the pieces into an oncoming group of officers, laughing as they exploded along with their superior. More officers appeared, opening fire on Frostman, who bellowed with rage before freezing the lot of them. Admiring his work, he sighed as he smashed them into tiny shards of frozen corpses. He fired an ice gatling into the distance, not caring who or what he hit. These weak authorities were boring him, but he felt compelled to kill them anyways. Cursing his desire to kill whatever irked him, he finally took notice of the storm covering the battlefield. Pondering how he missed a storm brewing, he smashed one of the frozen corpses scattered at his feet.

"Those crafty bastards are trying to blind me with my own element! Ha ha! I'm a threat to them! They should know not to screw with a bi-polar force of destruction!"

Slamming his fists on the ground, Forstman launches Ice Waves in multiple directions, again not caring who or what he hits. When he finished his assault on the possibly imaginary opponents hiding beneath the snow, he turned his attention to the few Frost Joes that he apparently forgot about in his massacre.

"Uh...two of you go kill things, the other one can give a report."

Two of the Joes march out of sight, as the other approaches his commander.

"Any word on where the hell everyone else in this battle went?"

"Reports from one wave indicate approximately half of the Wily forces in the sewers."

"What?! They're trying to block our route from the Treatment Plant! Order any units in the immediate vicinity to swarm them! Leave no survivors!"

"There are also reports of roughly half of the Cossack forces in the sewers as well. It seems they have a temporary truce with the Wily bots."

"Heh. Those filthy bums are probably looking for more scrap. Have the units occupying the slums "welcome" them properly."

Yes sir. There are also reports of a large RPD force after your head."

"Well, that's redundant. I just finished crushing that wave of elitists into oblivion. Radio your two comrades, and tell them to kill anything that's not SA."

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

“Plant, how long ago did you get the info the slums are still free of SA!?”

“About four hours ago, I made a miscalculation, they could’ve overran it by now, we better take it back before they move in troops from there.”

“This is what we get for handling half of the city!”

The squadron of Wily Bots fought their way through the sewers, plowing through small platoons of SA Joes in various directions.

“We managed to shut down all of the Watergates, meaning now they can only come from one direction…the ground.” Windman looked behind them as a gate slammed shut, crushing a SA Joe desperate to get through. “Do you think the Cossack People need any warning?”

“Well. That gate we just closed leads to the slums. The nearest hole we can jump out of is about a street away.” Plantman looked at the direction opposite to the gate, the unnatural eerie feeling spread across the disgusting smell of the sewers.

On the streets near the downtown slums, a large brigade of SA Joes, led by two Frost Joes marched across the streets, their cameras rolling across the snowy terrain searching for any concealed troops.

“Alright, ready?” Plantman squeaked as he opened the lid slightly, glancing at the Brigade of Joes. “These bloody idiots are going down foot-first.”

Throwing the lid at one of the Joes, the small team burst out from the sewers. Rapidly firing at the now-ambushed Joes.

“Take them down, this is orders from General Frostman!” The first Frost Joe yelled as it released a freezing beam at the incoming Windman, the hulking Robot Master kicking the Joe in the face. Sending the Joe into the wall.

“You SA Joes are hopeless at tactics.” Plantman grumbled as he grabbed a Joe by its hand, dragging its helpless head towards his buster, as a burst of light came out from it. “Then again, we aren’t any better.”

“But we know your weakness. MXN-045 Plantman!” The second Frost Joe yelled as he jumped towards Plantman, a beam of ice sweeping across the latter’s legs. “Now die!”

In a mere second, the Joe was impaled by a katana, stabbed right through his head.

“You forgot I got these, chap.”

The Joe fell limp to the ground. As Plantman continued to fire even as his legs were nailed to the ground like a bird without its wings. Rapidly firing upon the Joes like they are simply stuffed practice targets.

“We’re finished here, but there’s more coming from behind us, sir.” The Commander Joe struggled to pick up a Freeze Gun from the destroyed Frost Joe. “We’ve got to move into the slums. Or we will get finished right here on the streets.”

“There’s more objects inside for us to take cover, so we might as well.” Plantman said as he heard the sound of marching. “They’re coming, we better take them all out and keep the SA from this part of the town.”

“That, and keep the Cossack people’s necks alive?”

“If we got time, Wind, IF we got time, the more time we can get for Blizzardman to defeat Frostman, the better.”

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

YamatoMan, PirateMan, SlashMan and FlameMan were handling their share of SA troops quite efficiently. Contrary to what PlantMan and WindMan thought, they didn’t have it easy: their assigned part of town, as small as it might have been, was plagues with the SA. The battle with the RPD had taken place there, and the majority of their forces were all focused on that front.

So while Knight, Ivan, Centaur and Tomahawk where busy elsewhere in the vicinities, the team leaded by Yamato was supposed to clear a path for Astro and Blizzard, who were waiting atop one of Kalingrad’s medium sized building. Both team leaders were examining the streets from above, trying to find the ice behemoth, who had remained strangely calm and collected, since there were no more signs of his usual violent outburst. For some reason, he seemed to be hiding.

“What do you suggest we do once we spot him? It’s not like we take on his whole army…” Astro asked Blizzard, as he snatched the pair of binoculars from him in order to take a turn at finding “Waldo”. A monstrous block of ice was sure hard to spot among all of the snow. And Wily’s surveillance was no good either. The Blizzard nullified their visibility.

“Don’t worry. I like to plan ahead, unlike most of you Cossackers...” Blizzard retorted, but Astro remained calm and ignored his harmful comment. The only reason he was standing next to the Armored Assasins’ leader was to keep an eye on him at all times. This obviously irritated Blizz, but Astro was willing to overlook his rudeness for the sake of the mission. After all, he too was used to insulting people he did not like.

Astro wondered why he was allowed near the giant snowball, he was sure a resourceful bastard and he could surely have weaselled his way out of his watch if he so desired. Maybe they were just suspicious of each other. Either way, his pondering would have to wait…

“Argh! My arm!” shouting was heard from below.

Astro leaned towards the edge of the rooftop, recognizing SlashMan’s voice. He immediately noticed that the feral robot master has his right arm frozen solid. “Naop! These Joes are different!” PirateMan warned his leader from below.

Across the street, a group of five odd-looking Joes, escorted by a whole platoon of regular Joes, was marching towards them. Their weapons started firing freezing beams that the Cossackers and the AA were barely able to dodge by using cars as their cover.

“Time to give them a hand…” Astro said to himself. “Come on Blizzo!” he called out.

“You go ahead and deal with them, space cadet.” Blizzard commented, as he jumped off the rooftop and into a back alley. “I have a bigger fish to fry…”

“Bastard!” Astro mumbled, as he readied an Astro Crush. “Hold on guys!” he shouted at his teammates and Blizzard’s men. Glowing purple, he unleashed his attack without delay, taking the Frost Joes by surprise and crushing their whole squad.

But it was too soon to celebrate…

“Naop, there’s more!” Pirate warned.

From each street of that particular intersection, more freezing beams were being fired, and this time they were also aimed at the floating TT leader. And after having one of the freeze shots graze his face, he decided to take cover on the rooftop. “Shit!” he exclaimed.

Acting fast, he descended the building from the side in order to ambush at least one group of Frost Joes. His plan worked, and he was able to make short work of them without wasting another crush. He was also relieved to see that the other had taken care of a second group, using only their long range attacks. Pirate fired his remote mines, which were the most helpful; Yamato threw his naginata, managing to pierce several Joes in a row; and Flame Man melted some snow off a building, causing the remaining snow to fall down like an avalanche. SlashMan, however was unable to do much, still in show from having one of his primary weapons – his right claw - rendered useless.

But not everything was good, since a third and last group approached the intersection. They were sure to hit them if they didn’t act quick… but fortunately for them, their solution came from afar, in the form of a grenade round fired by the AA leader himself.

“Way to go Boss!” Yamato cheered.

Astro then noticed Blizzard standing atop another building further ahead, his grenade launcher still smoking. “You better take you men a couple of blocks ahead, Astro.” Blizz said. “I’ve spotted FrostMan, so I will be sealing off this area pretty soon. No one will be able to go in or out of this perimeter.”

How the hell he planned to do that was beyond him, but Astro knew he’d probably stand up for his claims. So he ordered Pirate and Slash to move forward, just like Yamato and Flame had done…

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

AstroMan remained on ground level in order to help his teammates progress through the hordes of Scissor Joes. It was not an easy feat, in spite of having six robot masters on their side. Their lines became tighter as they progressed. Whatever it was they were guarding it sure was important. At least the Frost Joes had seemed to run out.

About a block ahead of the Cossackers, Blizzard’s group was dealing with them with relative ease, but Astro’s group was having more trouble because of SlashMan’s handicap. He did give a fight though, slashing about with his remaining arm. But Pirate, Astro and him, couldn’t help to sustain damage.

“Hurry up, commies!” BlizzardMan shouted back at them.

Astro suspected something was up, so he grabbed Pirate and Slash by their armors’ collar and lifted them above the ground, quickly gathering with Blizzard’s group. They had just crossed another intersection, and as the floating robot touched the ground, the buildings behind him, only a few meters away, burst up in flames almost immediately. This caused the Cossackers to get launched forward and into the ground from the expansive wave.

“What the…?” Astro muttered as he stood up, noticing that FlameMan was now helping several mechaniloids light up a barricade of fire, using oil and other flammable materials. The TT leader rose above street level in order to get a better glimpse of what was going on… similar fire barricades had been mounted around the place. Buildings on the edge of that perimeter – about 1 kilometer radius - where now smoldering piles of rubble. “You sick bastard!” Astro immediately accused Blizzard.

“Oh, what is it now?!” Blizzard asked annoyed.

“Those were people’s homes. Don’t you give a damn?” He could believe how the AA leader was willing to maim his own city, which he was supposedly protecting.

“You have to stop complaining and start looking at the bigger the picture!” the snowy themed robot said, quite tired of Astro’s self-righteousness. “This is the only way to nail FrostMan! Or do you want a thousand little Joes breathing at your neck with every step you take?”

Astro clenched his fists with impotence. The man had a point. But before their argument could go on, a second wave of Joes arrived, now recovered from the shock of not having anything to do with the recent explosions and the chaos that ensued.

Setting aside their differences, both teams resumed their stand against the Scissor Army…

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

Fortunately for Ground and Tengu’s group, PlantMan and WindMan had done a terrific job keeping the slums secured. The worst had passed, and their human companions were intact. Now, with the trouble gone, Plant and Wave had proceeded to defend another part of the city.

They were inside a colony of what seemed to be illegal arms dealers and workshops. Robotic parts had long since become fashionable in the black market, so this was really a gold mine.

As the dynamic duo gathered everything they could carry, using an abandoned supermarket cart, Drew watched over them, in case he spotted more SA enemies. Tengu and Ground did the same, but were now more concerned with the sudden explosions that had been heard from afar. Giving Ground a lift, Tengu took flight in order to get a better view. The circle of flames at the opposite side of town was a sight to behold; it certainly stood out among the milky white landscape.

“Shit…” was Tengu’s sole comment.

“I doubt that’s a bad signal.” GroundMan stated his opinion. “It’s FrostMan they’re dealing with. Why would the SA start such a huge fire if their CO is ice themed?”

“You might be right, but I still feel uncomfortable about it. We should go check it out… just to be sure.” Tengu was more than ready to jump back into the fray. The babysitting job didn’t suit him. In his opinion, Akutare should have been the one in his place.

“Look, let’s just ask Naop.” Ground tried to remain reasonable. He pushed the button on his com unit and called out for his leader. “Naop, do you copy? What’s your status? The fireworks don’t look good from here.”

“Don’t worry Lyon, we’ve got it covered. It was all part of that damned snowball’s plan. And as much as I hate to admit it, it’s working wonders. We can see FrostMan up ahead…” Astro assured his teammate.

“Ok then, but don’t hesitate to call if you need any backup. Lyonskar out!” GroundMan and TenguMan then descended to rejoin the group. But Tengu wasn’t too happy about it, and his face showed. “What? Don’t give me that look. It’s a war, man. We gotta stay organized.”

“GroundMan!” Drew approached him hastily and whispered. “I think we’ve got company…”

“Where?” Ground asked immediately.

“Up ahead… I heard robotic footsteps all of a sudden. I told Jay and Bob to hide and I came as fast as I could.” Drew explained.

“I’ll go look…” Tengu offered.

“No wait… take cover.” Ground ordered.

“Wha… ohh…” Tengu was puzzled, but figured what the deal was. Their com units were picking up an unknown signal, and on their private frequency. Ground accepted the transmission and they all listened to it.

“… I repeat, this is Jupiter from the Cosmic Gladiators. Tech Tyrants, do you copy?”

“Cosmic Gladiators? What the hell are they doing here?” Tengu questioned, not really expecting an answer.

“Beats me, but we’ll find out…” Ground stated and pressed the button to call out for their fellow Cossackers. “Jupiter, this is Ground Man. What brings you to Kalingrad?”

Drew signaled the robot to be as quiet as he could, since the sound of robots approaching grew closer. They were hiding behind a partially destroyed wall, and the source of the footsteps was undoubtedly from the other side of the wall.

“Listen, I don’t have time to explain.” Jupiter responded. “Let’s just meet up, I don’t want to risk my team. This place looks dangerous.”

“Alright, but you’ll have to wait. Our hands are full at the moment.” Ground spoke through the com unit. “Just send your coordinates and I’ll contact you as we’re done with this.”

Closing the link, Ground signaled Tengu to ready his weapon. The footsteps where now right behind them. Silently counting to three, the TT robots leapt out from their hiding spot and intended to ambush what they believed to be a platoon of SA Joes and their standard riffles…

To their surprise, a completely different type of guns was pointed at them. But before all hell broke loose, the teams realized who it was they were facing. It was the Cosmic Gladiators. Relieved, everybody lowered their weapons. “You scared the crap out of us!” Mars exclaimed.

“I’m sorry. We had no idea what to expect…” Ground apologized. “But please do tell, what brings you guys to Russia?”

Jupiter sighed, a little afraid of what the consequences of his explanation would be. The Stardoids were not very close to the TT, after all. But in the end he figured there was no way to avoid it, so he started explained what had happened in Cairo…

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

Astro and Pirate’s weariness was starting to show. The number of SA Joes left in the area was finally decreasing, but Astro feared they would be too tired to fight FrostMan. The last platoon stood in their way to FrostMan, who seemed to just be lying on the floor, motionless.

But as soon as that team of Cossackers were about to act, another grenade exploded right in the middle of the Joes protecting FrostMan. Blizzard had done it again, and truth be told, Astro was grateful.

With the coast now completely clear, Astro approached the motionless SA commander and traitor to their cause. He poked the robot with his finger, and even gave him a slight punch in the face. “He’s out cold, that’s for sure.” He tried joking, but when he got no feedback, he cleared his throat. “Mmh… so what’s your guess, Blizzard? What happened to this poor bastard?”

“I don’t have to guess.” Blizzard stated bluntly. “My surveillance mechaniloid were watching closely when this happened.”

“You mean you know where he was the whole time we were looking for him?!” Astro demanded an answer.

“That’s beside the point.” Blizzard changed the subject. “He got deactivated when he went on a rampage and started killing his own men. It seems that last wave of RPD bots was enough to drive him into that berserker state of his.”

Deciding to overlook Blizzard’s suspicious behavior, Astro resumed inspecting the behemoth. “So they built a failsafe into this beast? Aku sure told me he could get out of control…” he was referring to PirateMan witnessing his defection. “Well, I guess we should just take him home then.”

Astro backed away from FrostMan, just in time to notice his eyes glowing red. But they had barely enough time to avoid his raging fist, which had come sooner than expected.

Immediately after, AstroMan levitated a few meters above the ground in order to fire an Astro Crush. He wanted this fight to end as quickly as possible. “Everybody, fall back!” he shouted.

“Fool!” Blizzard said, but complied nevertheless.

In matter of a few seconds, the rain of meteorites impacted FrostMan. Before the dust, or rather the snow, cleared, Astro descended. “Naop! Don’t you think we should have tried to reason with him first?” SlashMan questioned, quite annoyed by Astro’s trigger-happy attitude.

“Give me a break, the guy defected! It’s not like he was forced to do it!” Astro argued back.

“If you ladies are done with the bickering, I suggest you pay attention.” Blizzard warned. And they turned around to see that below the cloud of dust and snow, a figure was still standing. A noticeably damaged FrostMan was there, growling like a beats. And somehow, his missing limbs and parts were starting to regenerate. Seemingly, he was condensing the snow around him into solid ice, in order to repair himself.

“Holy shit… the ‘StoneMan’ syndrome.” Astro said, half joking.

“No time to give a proper name to it.” Blizzard reckoned, and then fired a grenade round at their enemy, right in the chest…

This time, there were only pieces of broken ice left. No recognizable silhouette while the dust cleared. But still… the bastard was reforming himself.

“Dammit, find his core!” AstroMan commanded. And Pirate proceeded to fire his own barrage of remote mines at FrostMan’s remains. SlashMan however, was too shocked to go closer, afraid that he might not be of any help with his limited melee attacks.

“What are you doing?” Pirate looked back at SlashMan. “Come on!”

Finally deciding to help, SlashMan dashed forward and started hacking random pieces of ice, even when they started reforming faster than they were coming apart. But before he even noticed, he was now attacking a reformed body. As if enraged, FrostMan repaired himself at a faster pace, and was in good enough condition to send Pirate and Slash flying into a nearby building with his massive fist.

This was an unexpected turn of events. Even BlizzardMan was at a loss for an efficient strategy. “Go check on them.” The AA leader instructed Yamato and Flame as he approached AstroMan. “We’ll have to hold him back until we spot his core.”

“And how exactly do you suggest we do that?” Astro questioned, just as the irrational behemoth swung his arms at them, trying to get a hold of both leaders and failing.

“Look, can you fire another of those meteor showers?” Blizzard asked.

“Can do.” Astro admitted.

“Well, just fire them at that building when I give you the signal.” Blizz pointed at a large apartment building behind FrostMan. Correctly assuming what he was up to, Astro waited for the snowball to make his move…

With inhuman strength, Blizzard rammed the behemoth head on, much to his surprise. Unsure of what to do, and unable to use his massive arms to break free, the now unintelligent beast tried to fend Blizz off by freezing him with his breath, but this proved to have no effect on his rival. Instead, Frost found himself being pushed back at an astonishingly quickly rate. Soon, before he could formulate another strategy he was pushed into the lobby of the apartment building. Both winter-themed robots came crashing inside, breaking everything in their path.

And just as frost was regaining composure, Blizzard gracefully jumped out of the building. “Now!” he signaled Astro.

Yet another barrage of meteorites came crashing down on FrostMan, but this time, the impact took the whole building with it. Unsure about their success, Astro moved forward to make sure nothing was moving under the pile of rubble that was now the building. A little relieved, but aware that most likely, their success was temporary, he approached Blizzard. “Did you see it?”

“Yes.” Blizzard simply stated. He was sure worn out from his wrestling episode with the giant popsicle.

“We have a plan!” PirateMan came running towards them. He had recovered from the attack quite easily, unlike SlashMan, who was still leaned on a wall across the street.

“What’s the plan?” Astro asked.

“Just wait and see.” Pirate kept running until he was in front of the former building. “FlameMan helped!”

Blizzard turned to see his subordinate, only to find him huffing. He was happy to see his men didn’t enjoy cooperating with the Cossackers. But they had no choice, Frost was not what they had expected. He also noticed that a thick layer of water was now covering the asphalt. Apparently, FlameMan had been melting snow. He knew what they were up to. “Aim for the eyes, hook.” He suggested PirateMan.

“Get away!” Pirate warned and started manipulating the sleet. Suddenly, a medium sized tidal wave formed among them, and they got out of its way. Pirate jumped into the devastated building, which still had enough space inside to be flooded. The crumbled walls from its several floors served as a container for the liquid.

Just as they suspected FrostMan was already reforming inside, so as soon as Pirate noticed his enemy was back in one piece, he started his attack. Forming a bubble around him, he proceeded to roll around the enclosed flooded space at an amazing speed. This proved to be quite effective, since the behemoth was almost unable to move underwater. His feet were actually starting to get off the ground, and he could have floated all the way to the surface, if it wasn’t for Pirate’s constant rolling attack keeping him down.

Soon, the SA robot was breaking into smaller pieces once again. And this time, it seemed that the water made it difficult for him to reform. But aside from that apparent advantage, Pirate was having a hard time aiming for the head.

FrostMan was desperate, and his beastly moaning was heard even under water. But he soon managed to get his act together and started counterattacking. Truth be told, it wasn’t much of a counter attack as it was a “counter-trap”. In an instant, all the water was frozen by Frost’s “breath”. This was obviously an ability that Pirate had not taken into account. Fortunately for him, his bubble had protected him from being frozen as well. But he was not trapped under a couple of meters of thick, solid, ice. Firing a remote mine to work his way out, would only end up harming him as well.

Outside of the ice trap, an enraged FrostMan had reformed atop the now frozen pile of rubble. Astro was perplexed, but Blizzard just huffed mockingly, annoyed by Pirate’s ineptitude. But actually, he had also hoped his plan would do the trick. He just didn’t want to admit it.

“My time to hold him down, Blizzo.” Astro declared, trying not to worry too much about the possible fate of his friend under the ice. Blizzard readied his grenade launcher once again, this was his last round.

And so, as Frost was about to leap at them will all his might, Astro quickly positioned himself above the behemoth, pointing the palms of his hands at him. A dosage of odd looking energy waves was emitted from them, and mysteriously, they managed to keep the ice robot in place. FrostMan, unable to move a single inch, resumed his angered roaring. “Come on, I can’t hold him down for long!” Astro warned his temporary ally.

But before Blizz could make his shot, what appeared to be a gigantic drill came out of the ground, making short work of Frost’s ice and completely pulverizing his body. Astro’s reflexes were good enough to avoid the same fate, but he was baffled to see the giant drill, no doubt about that.

The drill then morphed back into its original form, revealing GroundMan, who had timely showed up. Without wasting a second, BlizzardMan leaped onto the ice, and then onto a nearby girder suspended above the ruins. “Move!” he shouted, while pointing his launcher at the ice.

Ground had barely enough time to pull Pirate from the whole he had emerged. Apparently, they had met under the ice a few moments back. The three TT got away as fast as they could, and the grenade impacted the ice’s surface a mere two seconds later.

Now on the ground, Astro noticed that not only Tengu, Knight, Ivan, Centaur and Tomahawk had arrived as well. The Cosmic Gladiators were there too. This surprised him, but a whole different issue was at the top of his to do list. “Did you hit it? Did you hit the core?” The second Blizzard landed back on the asphalt, Astro asked anxiously. This fight had gone on for too long.

Blizzard just laughed in response, and approached the members of his team. “Did you bring the scrap?” Tomahawk nodded in response.

Now relieved, Astro proceeded to demand an explanation from his team, as was his habit. “Where’s the dynamic duo, plus Drew? And what are they doing here?” he pointed at the CG.

“Relax, Naop.” Tengu was the one to speak up. “The SA army retreated the minute they found themselves without a CO or a higher ranked officer. The city is secures. Drew and those two are still gathering parts. And about these guys… let’s just save the explanations for later, alright?”

“What choice do I have?” Astro sighed, and then approached the Armored Assassins. “I hope you’re happy Blizzo. You get to keep your city.”

“Yes indeed, space cadet. And here’s my part of the deal.” Blizzard pointed at the considerably prominent pile of scrap that they had prepared for them, while keeping a sinister smirk…

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

"Alright." Astro looked at the scrap heaps that they had gathered. "Looks like we'll be taking off."

"It does seem that way, doesn't it?" Blizzard said calmly. The Cossack group punched in their coordinates, yet the nothing happened. Blizzard noticed their surprise.

"Something wrong... comrades?" Blizzard sneered.

The Cossackers attempted to scatter, but the White Devil shot from the snow, encapsulating Astroman and slamming him to the ground. The remaining Cossack forces readied to turn on the Wily creation, but the remaining forces and the Assassins pointed their busters at them. Blizzard gave a low, chilling laugh as he walked to the new Cossack leader. The White Devil forced him to a standing position. Astro was furious.

"You... traitorous bastard!" He shouted.

Blizzard simply laughed. "Your face right now. Priceless." He slapped Astro across the face cracking his digital display. Astro continued to glare at him defiantly.

Blizzard relished the moment. At last he could take revenge for the loss of his beloved. Nothing else made him “happier.”

“If you ‘Cossackers’ didn’t call Zapper back, she would be fine. It's your fault she's dead. I will crush every last one of your chips in the palm of my hand." He clenched his upraised fist to demonstrate his point. He glared at Astroman. "Have you ever loved before Astro? If so I will find her and take her too!” His low menacing laughter made Yamato cringe slightly. This didn't sound right. This sounded... vengeful.

"Hey... Boss?" Yamato asked nervously. Blizzard didn't respond.

Astro looked pissed, but he tried to reason with him first. “Please Blizzard. This is not what Zapper wanted…”

He cut him off fairly quickly. “What she wanted? I know what she wanted! She wanted to be with me forever! She wanted happiness! Only I could give her that happiness! Not you. Not her teammates!” he yelled.

“That's not what I want Reg.”

All the Cossackers and the Assassins jumped. Who said that? It sounded like a woman…

“Wha…? What tricks are you playing Cossackers?” Blizzard demanded.

“Tricks, Regulus? Calm down. This is not the Regulus I remember.” Another voice cried out.

“Ya got tat right bossman. Little puissant is frikin’ acting like Anakin Skywalker,” a gruffer voice replied.

“Aw you are being too harsh on the guy. He thinks he has lost his love,” Yet another voice out.

“’Thinks’…what is going on?! WHERE ARE YOU?!” Blizzard yelled. Everyone turned around each way, looking for the origin of the voices.

Then finally, the answer was revealed. From underneath the ground a gigantic machine shot up. It had several drills attached to it. In fact it looked like one giant drill…

Astro looked stunned. “Dear God.”

The Drill started moving. Suddenly it cracked, and strange mechanical sounds came from it. The drill-like form shifted and transformed into a humanoid being. He had drills for shoulders and knees. A black cape flew down from his back. His face, however, was familiar to everyone.

Then from the distance, three other figures moved closer. It was the salvage crew, bringing lots of goodies along with them.

“Dude Space Man Spiff, lookie what tubby and Bishop got here yo! This shit is worth a fortune I think! Why the hell are you all looking at me like that? Do I have a boner or something? What is it lunchbox?” Jay asked his companion, who looked quite shocked. He pointed over toward the caped figure.

“So what you fat piece of…HOLY SHIT!!!” he exclaimed. He rushed over to the robotic crowd to get a better glimpse of the six new people.

“Well it looks like we got here in the nick of time. What does that make us?” Drillman asked his Comrades as they each got out of the tunnel. Each one of them sleeker, and looking quite different.

“Big Damn Heroes bossman,” said Diveman, as he smoked his cigar. Another face came up from the tunnel. That of a human scientist.

“Dr. Russkie…the Comrades…aw shit these fuckers are back! Hells yeah Silent Bob!” Jay proudly exclaimed.

“No…no this is a trick! You all are playing my emotions! I thought you were above this Astro!” Blizzard yelled. Centaur shook her head.

“No Reg…that really is Toadgal. I can feel it,” she told him. He gasped. Toadgal, in her new armor, jumped all the way to Blizzard and kissed him.

“Now am I real Reg?” she asked him, smiling.

Blizzard sobbed. "Zapper..." A tear ran down his cheek. Zapper wiped it away.

"It's me, Reg..." Zapper said softly.

Ground looked puzzled, as did the rest of the TT. “Wait, how did you survive? They found bodies at the scene…”

Drill laughed. “What a tale that is. You see, during the battle we were met up with the most unlikely person in the world: Mesmerman.”

“Mesmer wanted to keep us alive. You see he does not want Cutman to succeed, as if he does then his source of food will be gone: Humans. So he decided to keep Cossack alive. He met us in the tunnel underneath the citadel. When there, he replaced us with ‘cloned copies’ that were designed with the sole purpose to die. With that he took us to his home where he protected us,” Pharaoh added.

“Then he gave Cossack some tools to give us Transmetal Armor! We are so cool now, plus Drill and Dive are transformers! We all are extremely powerful. And we did know exactly what happened down here. We have kept tabs and have even had arguments about it. But we are happy now and are ready to kick SA butt!” Bright finished.

Cossack moved to Naop and put an arm on his shoulder. “I wish to that you all for watching over my daughter, but you in particular. You helped her take command. I am in your debt.”

“…debt? Never. I wouldn’t allow it! I am just so glad that you are all alive,” Astro told the group. The White Devil lowered Astro as Blizzard waved his hand, still gazing into Zapper's eyes.

“Have you got everything taken care of?” Astro double-checked with Drill.

“Yeah, go on. We’ve got some loose ends to take care of.” Drill shot a saddened glance at Blizzard.

Flameman couldn’t believe it. Blizzard had lied to him. “You…” He seethed. “You lied to me!” He began charging his flame buster.

“Sora, not now!” Saturn pleaded.

Flame glared at his new leader. He knew he held his weakness. He could easily kill the lying bastard. “No. I’m going to-“

“Sora, let’s just go back to base and chat. We’ll tell you the truth. Isn’t that what really matters?” Saturn stood between the new master of flame and the wintry Russian.

“…ok…” He said reluctantly. “I… I’m glad you guys are all still alive.”

Everyone teleported out save for the Comrades and Blizzardman. Regulus looked down at the new Zapper. He never thought beauty could be improved upon, but Cossack had done quite nicely. He looked up at the other Comrades.

“Anyone up for a drink?” He asked. “The city won’t mind if a local tavern forfeits a few drinks.”

“Hot damn!” Dive piped up. “I’ve got a newfound respect for ya, sno-cone!”

Jay high fived Dive. “Hells yeah! This is what I’m talking about!”

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

“Pitiful.” Knightman crushed the last Scissor Joe helmet under his foot. “Go ahead and head back to base, Ivan.”

Ivan teleported as the knight looked on at his handiwork. It was glorious. He had laid waste to the enemy. Not a single soul remained. Oil and dirt covered his once shining armor. The caked robot effluence felt like a warm blanket on a cold night. He felt accomplished.

“Ah, Knightman.” A familiar voice called out.

“Master?!” Knightman whirled around and saw a horrific figure approaching him. “What have they done to you?”

“Freed me.” Skullman replied.

“No, milord. This is not you. A foul presence overshadows thy presence.”

“You disappoint me, Knight. Allow me to show you the glory of true power.”

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

The Comrades and the Assassin leader sat at the bar. Blizzardman sat on a series of tires that he had stacked to form a seat, since the barstools would not hold him. Zapper sat in his lap and held the arm he had around her waist. Blizzard looked at Drill.

“I’m sorry, Drill…” He said. “I… I just lost it when I thought-“

“I understand.” Drill cut him off. “It’s hard to know what’s right when you lose a loved one, and this is a time of confusion anyway. We all have trouble deciding what’s right and what’s wrong.” He shot a glance at Dive, who shifted in his seat.

“Yeah, Reg, at least you didn’t do anything terrible.” Zapper looked up at her love.

“Like hell he didn’t!” Jade jumped up from his seat, glaring at the Russian. “You’re the one behind the Nonsteropolis bombing! What the hell were you thinking?”

“I was thinking to have T. Hawk infiltrate the base and get some data on the Shutdown code, which T. Hawk did. What I’d like to wrap my mind around was why the hell RING tried to blow him to hell!”

“Don’t give me that!” Jade shot back. “You were working on this together!”

“Oh, really?” Blizzard seemed curious. It was easy to have a poker face when you didn’t have a mouth. “So would you mind telling me why we didn’t just meet up somewhere outside city limits and get in together? You saw the video, we all did. Ringman snuck in after T. Hawk. He was trying to blow up the building and it’s obvious he didn’t care who was in it at the time.”

“But Ring wouldn’t…” Jet found it easier to believe for Regulus to be behind all this manipulating Ring than have Ring trying to kill Cossackers. After all, Regulus WAS pretty shady. He and Zymeth were best friends.

Blizzard stomped over to Jet. “Ring’s lost it. Whatever adorable little Hoopster you once knew is gone. He’s gone crazy. I’ve seen it myself.”

“Dude, he was crazy before this whole war started bro,” Jay added in.

“But T. Hawk still killed a guy!” Jade shouted. “He shot him faster than we could watch! You need to slow down the video to see him do it!”

“Oh, so I guess T. Hawk should have waited until backup arrived so they could determine he was a Cossack robot and give him the Shutdown Code?” Blizzard replied with dripping sarcasm.

“Frosty’s gotta point.” Dive said after downing another bottle.

“You keep out of this!” Sean snapped. “It’s obvious that you knew what YOU were doing when you shot up the Aleksandra!”

“Yeah, go ahead and stamp and shout about it till ya turn blue-oh, wait, too late! So shaddup! We went over this a Mesmer’s!” Dive went back to his drinking, a tad more heavily than before.

“Blizzard, has Ringman really lost it?” Drill said calmly.

Blizzard nodded gravely. “Yes… he has…”

“So that’s why he left…” Jet said sadly.

The little ploy seemed to be working its magic. With Drill not voicing disbelief, everyone was starting to second-guess Crorq, and why shouldn’t they? Everyone hated that KFC-munching Boss-bot. Hard to take a leader seriously when he’s always cramming something down his pie-hole and referring to himself in protracted adjectives.

Suddenly, a loud wailing noise seemed to echo in from every corner of the bar and loud scratching seemed to come from the floor.

“Ringman’s not the one you should worry about.” A crazed phantom voice rang out from the door leading outside.

The wall burst open as a large spectral skull flew towards the Cossackers, a bone-chilling shriek ran its course through the souls of all present. Everyone dove out of the way, letting the specter occupy the center of the room, and the center of attention. The skull roared at everyone in the room and then burst into flame, the entity dissolving into nothing, shrieking horridly as the flames consumed it. Everyone started breathing again as the nightmare was apparently over.

“That was some freaky shi-“ Before Jay could finish his sentence, the floor exploded at Toad’s feet as a large hulking figure leapt through the simple wooden floor, grabbing her by her throat. The skeletal creature held an all-too-familiar helmet in his other hand.

“Knight!” Zapper gasped as Skull tightened his grip on her throat.

“It appears as though a part of me was wasted in being given to this hunk of scrap. Oh, well. Live and learn.” He tossed the helmet to the ground, the armor piece clattering at Regulus’s feet. “I’m so glad you’re all alive, especially you, Zapper.” Skull stared into Toad’s frightened eyes. “Now I can tear you from Regulus a second time.”

He opened his mouth as if to take a bite out of Toad’s helmet when he felt like a train had barreled into his side. Blizzard had charged him at full tilt, knocking him off his feet and slamming him into the bar. Zymeth roared and got up, easily overpowering the juggernaut and hoisting the icy giant off his feet. He slammed him into the wall, breaking the bottles on the shelf.

“On second thought, I don’t think young Zapper has dealt with enough loss. You were only “dead” for about, what, 10 minutes in the Citadel?” He raised his claw and dug into Blizzard’s shoulder, twisting his digits in the wound. Blizzard tried to yank his arm out, but even with both hands on Skull’s arm, he wasn’t strong enough.

“Hey, only I get ta wail on the sno-cone!” Dive shouted as he warmed up his Gatling gun.

The bullets dug into Skull’s armor, making him wince. He materialized a wailing skull in front of him, causing the bullets to ricochet. The skull laughed and rushed Diveman, causing him to leap out of the way. Jet flashed a Bright Stopper at Zymeth, causing him to reel back, holding his eyes and roaring like a hell-spawned monstrosity.

“You think that will stop me?!” He roared. “I’ll crush you all!”

Skull materialized twelve skulls about him as their horrific moans and wailing filled the building. The skulls began to circle him, tightly and slowly at first, and then began to spread out, picking up speed. Blizzard and the Comrades stepped back as the skulls grew closer and closer. Eventually a skull ran into a wall, knocking it down. The ceiling gave a little.

“He’s trying to collapse the building!” Blizzard shouted. Get out now!”

Acting quickly, Drill tunneled down into the floor. “Quickly, everyone!” He yelled to his team mates.

Blizzard’s right arm ached. He knew the hole would be too small for him. Drill hadn’t thought to make it big enough, nor did he have the time to expand it. Zapper leapt over to him.

“C’mon, Reg! Let’s get out!” She said, panicked.

“No! Get out! I’ll be fine!” He shouted as another skull clipped a wall, causing the building to tremble under the decreasing support.

“No, you’re just saying that!” She hugged him tightly.

The building began to fall down. Blizzard groaned as he forced Zapper down and threw himself around her.

Drill came to the surface. “Why’d he have to pick such a huge bar?” He lamented, looking at the tremendous amount of rubble. He saw Dive smoking just outside the debris. He had apparently just barreled through the wall. His jacket had some new tears from the stunt. “Who made it out?” He called for a report.

“The two lovebirds were busy cuddlin’ last time I checked.” Dive said. “Blizzard’s a smart guy, though, he probably jimmied some way out of it.”

Just as he spoke, some rubble a few yards off shifted as Blizzard flipped a huge chunk of concrete off his back.

“Or he’s just a tough sonovabitch.” Dive shrugged his shoulders.

“Don’t… do that, Zap…” Blizzard sighed at his love.

“I was worried about you…” Zapper shifted her foot in the dirt.

“Where’s Skull?” Drill asked.

“Hopefully Skeletor did himself in and saved me the trouble o’ kickin’ ‘is ass.” Dive shot back.

“No such luck…” Pharaoh sighed as he saw rubble in the center of the collapsed building begin to shake violently.

Skull burst from the crushed building, sending debris everywhere. The dust cleared as Skull glared at his former friends.

“O-open fire!” Drill said hesitantly. He didn’t want to fight a friend, but it had to be done.

All the Comrades opened fire. Blizzard and Dive had begun to attack before Drill gave the order. Skull simply summoned Twelve floating skulls, placing them in a tight cluster in front of him. All of the attacks harmlessly bounced harmlessly away.

“Scatter!” Blizzard shouted. He slammed his snowboard down on the ground and grabbed Zapper. Drill motioned for Jade to follow him and tunneled down into the ground. Sean kicked up a dust cloud and followed Bright and Dive as they ran off together.

Skull spun his twelve barriers quickly to disperse the dust, allowing him a clear view of Blizzard and Zapper retreating. He began to chase after them, ignoring the other Comrades. His skulls followed behind, crushing buildings and knocking cars out of his way. Blizzard was fast on his snowboard, but something strange began to happen. Skull began to slow down and his skull barriers began to disappear. He clutched his sides as though in pain, kneeling on the ground. A few seconds later, he got up. His eyes had turned a deep crimson, and he looked more crazed than Blizzard ever remembered seeing him. He gave chase again, this time with increased speed. He began to catch up with Blizzard, swinging his large scythe violently. Blizzard figured whatever he had done to himself, he couldn’t use his barrier at the same time, so he fired a Blizzard Attack at Zymeth. The attack hit him dead on, forcing him back and damaging him slightly. Skull looked up and noticed Blizzard was gone. He roared in anger and pick up a car, slamming it into a nearby building. He picked up his scythe and stomped over to the building, leveling it in seconds.

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

“Drill.” Blizzard said over the com-link.

“Yes?” Drill replied.

“Let’s regroup. I know how to beat Zymeth.” Blizzard explained.

The Comrades all gathered in an ally. Blizzard called for silence.

“I’ve known Zymeth for a long time.” Blizzard said gravely. “Mesmerman magnifies the corrupt natures of his victims. Zy’s corruption is his need for vengeance… He was robbed of his love. Now he seeks to rob others of their happiness…” He turned to Zapper. “He wants to see Zapper taken from me again… We can’t damage him if he’s watching. Someone has to distract him. Zapper?” He gazed at his love.

“Reg?” She replied.

“Do you think we can keep him distracted long enough for Drill to make an attack?” Blizzard said. “He’ll focus on us so much that he won’t pay attention to Drill.”

Zapper looked around. “You don’t have to, Zap…” Drill said. “We’ll think of something else.”

“No.” Zapper said. “Blizzard’s right… I wanna help.”

“Looks like ya might have the stuff ta make it through afterall, Frogger.” Dive slapped Zapper on the back.

“Thanks, Dive…” She smiled lightly.

“He’s here.” Drill pointed to the end of the alley. Skull was standing there.

“Get moving.” Blizzard said. He dropped his snowboard on the ground and revved the turbine. “Ready, Zymeth?”

Skull simply sat motionless, his blood-red eyes glaring at Blizzard. Blizzard shot off towards Skull, quickly picking up speed. Just when Regulus was about to meet Skull, Zapper jump from behind him into his hands. Using his palms as a springboard, Zapper jumped towards Skull at full force. The combined force of both Blizzard’s strength and Toad’s jumping ability caught Skullman off-balance. Zapper slammed into him at amazing speed, cracking his armor slightly and knocking the wind out of him. Skull stumbled out of the alleyway to catch his breath, but Blizzard hadn’t stopped his approached, reaching out his arm and clothes-lining Skull, throwing him to the ground. Blizzard skid his board to a halt and kicked the snowboard up to his outstretched hand, catching it and holstering it on the holder on his back. He raised his foot, attempting to stomp on Skullman, but the berserk skeleton grabbed his other leg, throwing him on his back. Skull raised his sickle over his head about to cleave his old friend in two, when a flurry of blows landed on his back. He turned around quickly, grabbing out at his unknown assailant and finding Zapper. He caught her by the throat and glared into her eyes. Regulus attempted to strike from behind, but Skull saw the attack coming and sidestepped the attack, bringing his clawed arm down and slicing his right arm from his shoulder. He slammed his knee into his chest, throwing him to the ground.

“Why don’t you sit down and enjoy the show?” Skull taunted.

“You… you really are a monster, Zymeth…” Blizzard picked himself up. “Katrina… she… she’d be sickened by what you’ve become.”

“She died long before you were born, Regulus. Don’t you dare lecture me about her.” Skull growled. “How do you want her to go, friend? I’ll let you decide.” He held her up.

Just when he was about to choose for his friend, the ground below Skull shifted. Drill shot from the dirt, revealing his lightsaber and cutting Skull across the chest. Skull whipped Zapper at Drill, swatting him across the street with the force of the blow. Skull suddenly felt a sharp pain in the cut across his chest. Blizzard had thrust his left hand through the chest plat and had grasped his Dark Energy generator.

“Regulus…” He said, suddenly coming out of his berserker mode. “You know what will happen if you crush my generator.” He seemed worried. Regulus was staring back at him, disappointed. He nodded. “You wouldn’t kill an old friend, would you?” Regulus simply stared back at him. “Regulus?”

“It’s because I’m your friend I’m doing this, Zymeth.” Blizzard said as he closed his hand, crushing the generator easily in his hand.

Skullman reeled back, clawing at his chest. The burst of reality-bending energy circulated through his body, wracking him with pain. Phantasmal blue flames burst from his eyes and mouth as he looked up to the sky. He crumpled to the ground as the flames began to die down. Blizzard walked over to his old friend with Zapper hiding behind him trying not to look.

“We can… rebuild him, Reg, right?” Zap said, trying to hold back tears.

“His chip has been fried by the Dark Energy surge… he’s gone, Zapper…” Regulus said gravely.

“Oh, Reg…” Zapper grabbed Blizzard’s left arm.

“He would have wanted this Zapper. That wasn’t Zymeth. Cutman killed him and resurrected a monster…” He picked up his right arm. “Let’s go…”

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

Kalinka waited. She had just done the unthinkable. She used Ringman for scraps. He used her father’s name to justify killing. So far it was just her and Artillery. They decided to pack everything up and leave the DI’s base. As much as she appreciated it, with Frostman with the SA, she didn’t want to take chances. She didn’t know where to go. She would discuss it with Naop once he got back.

Suddenly people teleported in. It was the Tyrants. They were followed not only by the Gladiators, but the Assassins too!

“Blizzard! This is a surprise. Are you here to stay?” she asked the Skiing Robot.

“Yeah Kalinka. I was foolish. But in the end it doesn’t matter, for everything is as it should be. Heh,” he snickered.

Kalinka looked to Astro. “Was the mission a success?” He nodded.

“Indeed. We are in very good shape. However, Skullman is dead. The man known as Zymeth died with the Citadel, though. I am sorry.” Kalinka blinked and turned away.

“That means all of them are gone. Skull is dead. And all that remains of Ring well... He tried to justify his actions by using my father’s name! Speaking of, what are your excuses Blizzard and Tomahawk?” she asked the two.

T. Hawk searched for words. “It was really Ring. He was insane. He tried to kill everyone. You should have seen him…but we talked it over with the big guy so I think we are okay now.”

Kalinka took in what she just heard. “What? Who is this big guy?” Naop turned on his comlink.

“You guys, teleport in now. It is time…” And with that more figures teleported in.

“Who are these people…wait…” she said, looking flabbergasted. Then she moved toward them. It couldn’t be…

“Father?! Is that you?” she inquired as she moved forward. The doctor looked at her.

“My dear Kalinka…you have grown up so much in so little time…come here my child.” Kalinka ran to her father. She wrapped her arms around him, and started crying. She moved her gaze to the other figures. It was them! Her friends…were alive!

“But how? How did…” she started, but Cossack put a finger to her lips.

“Shush my dear. That is a story for later. However, we must make haste. Blizzard is letting us use the Assassins’ Flying Fortress as a new base, so long as Zapper is away training away from this. She agreed to it herself, and decided to take her counterpart with her. And it seems the SA knows we are here. And yes, I know about Ring’s actions in Nonsteropolis…I can see how you acted for my sake… ” He then looked at Artilleryman, who had remained silent the entire time. “Well, how much do I owe you this time?”

Artillery just smoked. “You know what old man, you get a free one. Only one though. I am in a good mood. In a strange way, it is nice to have you back.” Cossack went over and slipped him a bill of money.

“This is for protecting my daughter. And the fact you actually cared, in a way, for someone besides yourself.” Artillery laughed at the Doctor’s comment. He walked away, leaving the group of robots and humans.

Drill turned to Kalinka. “Did you really kill Rebel?” She shook her head.

“...he left me no choice..."

“My men and women, we are drawing closer to the end of this war. We are back, and have the ability to stop the madman known as Cutman once and for all! We can do it. I believe in all of you,” The Doctor spoke, after a moment of silence for his comrades.

With that little speech, they cheered. They had lost valuable allies today, including very old friends, but in return they regained old ones, including the man who started it all.

Cossack was back, and he was ready to claim freedom for robots once and for all.

END OF STAGE

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