10:35 a.m.

I hate complications Khyber thought as he ducked Centurion’s shield. He sent a few more blasts her way, making sure she stayed out of the fight. Titan was getting back into direct combat range and he did not need that distraction. Flora was still too close for him to really let loose, which was proving problematic. Stepping left to avoid an energy blast/thrown hammer ranged combo by Titan, he let loose with a concentrated blast to push Titan back a few steps. He needed to buy just enough time for Flashbang to bring Exact’s suit over here. Meridian would focus on getting Exact out of there rather than leaving her within his combat range. Unfortunately, Titan was getting beyond the point where even concentrated plasma blasts could affect him significantly.

Fuck it, Flashbang will just have to get in close. Khyber sent a wide blast, trying to obscure all of Titan’s vision. Following on its heels, Khyber charged straight toward Titan. Titan must have been expecting him to close because a hammer came flying out of the wall of light. Titan’s massive size worked against him. He had tried to throw low, but low for Titan was 3 ft in the air. Khyber slid under, popping back up to lay a fist into Titan’s gut. He blocked the counterpunch towards his head, pulling up a shield of plasma to take Titan’s hammer-blow from the other side. The shield fractured and Khyber rolled away before Titan could follow up with more shots. Throwing up a bubble of plasma around him, Khyber paused for a moment before sending the plasma bubble directly at Titan. He took off in the direction he’d sent Centurion, feeling the bubble shatter as Titan sent an energy blast through it.

Khyber jinked left to avoid the hammer he knew was coming. Centurion was having a really bad day, as she caught the hammer to the gut. Khyber sent a lash of plasma behind the hammer on the hope he might pin Centurion with it. Simultaneously, he threw up a wall to his rear. Titan crashed through it, momentarily stumbling over the second low wall Khyber had hidden behind it. Over the crash, he felt his plasma pinning Centurion to a cracked, concrete wall. Before she could get a hand free to break the light binding, he quickly expanded it to cover her entire upper torso to deny her the leverage she needed for a quick escape.

Feeling confident that he’d at least temporarily neutralized Centurion, Khyber turned to take Titan head on. Creating a shield and sword to counter Titan’s hammers, he charged Titan as he recovered from his stumble. Deflecting energy shooting from both Titan’s hammers, he got into close range before Titan could take advantage of his longer reach.

Take a hammer-blow on the shield, step right to avoid the overhand strike, tilt his shield up to blast Titan in the face. Duck the warding blow that covered Titan’s recovery, strike low with the sword to force the hero off balance, bring it up in a feint to draw Titan into striking a false opening. Dismiss the shield and sword as Titan struck for the shoulder, drop to avoid the sweeping high to low blow, reach a hand up to catch the hammer as it passes. Use the momentum to pull the hammer further to bring Titan in close, sweep Titan’s legs as he stumbles off balance, take advantage of the momentary gap in Titan’s defense to send him sprawling with a massive blast of plasma.

Khyber rarely got to enjoy a truly good fight, so taking on Titan was great. Watching Titan stand up and refocus on him, Khyber took a moment to reflect on what he was doing. As a kid, he had always fantasized about being the hero in a fantasy book, taking on the big bad guy in an epic fight. His older sister had despaired of getting his nose out of a book. It took introducing him to kendo and karate to pull him out of his books, and even then, he was always picturing fighting a dragon or an evil knight. He’d taken to both martial arts with gusto, eventually getting into Renaissance fairs as one of the entertainers. As a knight, of course. He’d gotten lucky, meeting other people who shared his interests. When he had the spare time, Khyber still tried to go back to visit his Ren fair. Now, bracing himself for Titan’s charge he grinned at his luck. He wasn’t quite the hero of a novel, but, he did get to have the awesome powers. Plus, the mercenaries were the coolest characters anyways.

Sliding back into the fight, Khyber pushed aside the fantasy musings. Throw a blast of plasma at Titan’s head, create a tripwire to snag Titan while blind, swing a mace made of plasma into Titan’s head as he was stumbling from the tripwire. Let the mace shatter, roll back to avoid Titan’s retaliatory swing of the hammer, check his environment to make sure he wasn’t being backed into a corner. Step quickly aside to avoid Centurion breaking free of her binding, redirect her into Titan’s path, glance up to see Flashbang dropping a suit in.

Exact’s suit crashed to the ground, directly between himself and his opponents. A brief moment of silence ensued as all three noted the new, very fragile combatant began to roll on its side. Khyber grinned, creating a giant hammer out of his plasma and moving in. Titan rushed to cover the suit while Centurion moved forwards with clear intent to knock Khyber away. That told Khyber that Exact herself was likely inside of the mech, altering his strategy.

Throw the hammer to bring Titan up short, shoot a blast in between Titan’s legs to knock Exact’s legs back out from under her, roll to avoid a two handed swing of Titan’s hammer. Use both arms to block Centurion’s blow, kick up to clear space, spin to step inside a hammer swing and take it on an arm. Stiff arm Titan to push him back a pace, send a blast of plasma out his back to slow Centurion, slide under Titan’s arms to close with Exact. Blast plasma through his feet to jump clear of Titan’s backswing, land on Exact’s shoulder to prevent her from getting up, push off towards Centurion. Blast plasma out of his hands to force himself under her sword swing, use a plasma hook to yank her feet out from under her, back-roll over his head to avoid Titan coming for him again. Take note of Exact’s automated suits charging in, send a blast to knock Exact’s blast of oil off course, use that oil to slide behind Titan. Start counting to ten for likely incoming from Neutronis, shoot a pair of blasts toward Centurion, roll left to stand between Exact and Titan. Ten, take advantage of Titan’s hesitance to knock Exact on her ass, turn back to deal with Titan closing in. Nine, dodge Titan’s blast of energy, reel in one of the automated suits with a rope of plasma. Eight, throw suit at Titan and spin left to deal with Centurion, make a mental note Flashbang had reappeared at the end of the alleyway.

Khyber felt the beginnings of the explosion happening behind him and drove spikes of plasma into the ground. Gripping those, he had halfway formed a shield in Exact’s direction when the explosion went off fully. He felt the explosion try to wrench his grip free and his shoulder muscles felt strained as he maintained his grip. Khyber focused on trying to maintain the shield by Exact, knowing she had no special resistance to any of these forces. Khyber felt more than saw Titan and Centurion get blown away by the explosion. The explosion happened in waves and his shield could only take four waves before shattering. His shield shattered at the same time as he felt a searing pain in his shoulder. Exact was blown in Flashbang’s directions by the last pulse along with the remnants of the shield.

As the last pulse ended, Khyber fell flat onto the ground, too stunned by the effort of weathering the explosion to catch himself. Khyber picked himself up, looking in Exact and Flashbang’s direction. Exact was sprawled halfway across the street. The buildings along the other side of the street were collapsed and Khyber couldn’t see any sign of Flashbang. He looked back in the other direction, where Titan and Centurion had gone. He couldn’t see Centurion, but there was a Titan sized hole in one of the skyscrapers a few blocks away. There wasn’t a building intact for at least a block, the nearby ones completely leveled. The hell was that explosion? Khyber started towards where he’d last seen Flashbang. Looking down at his shoulder, he saw that it was dislocated. He paused by the only remaining light pole which had miraculously survived and slammed his shoulder into it. The pain was so bad he saw stars but rolling his shoulder, he had mobility again.

Can take a direct shot from Titan but not a dislocated shoulder. Figures. Khyber made his way to where the alleyway had been, finding Flashbang a minute later.

10:39 a.m.

Flashbang swum slowly back to consciousness. It sounded like someone was trying to talk to him.

“-hear me man? C’mon, need you conscious Flash.” Flashbang felt himself being lifted onto someone’s shoulders and he groaned.

“Good, you’re alive at least.” Flashbang recognized the voice as Khyber’s.

“You sure?” Flasbhang rasped. “Doesn’t feel like it.”

“You’ve got some light to medium burns on various parts of your body and I think you broke a couple of bones in your leg, I had to dig you partway out from a collapsed building.” Khyber shrugged to adjust how he was carrying Flashbang and Flashbang groaned when he felt the pain flare.

“This went to shit.” Flashbang got out when the pain receded somewhat. “What the hell went wrong?”

“Somebody had to have tipped the Crusaders, they were calling Meridian almost immediately after our initial move. Heads are gonna roll when Petra gets ahold of our employer.” Flashbang heard Khyber laugh grimly. He knew it was true. Petra was willing to do nearly impossible jobs but having someone tip off the opposition, especially the Crusaders, and consequently Meridian…she’d probably have Khyber, Web, and Zero take off the kiddie gloves before going ‘visit’ their employer. Flashbang did not envy their employer one bit.

Khyber shifted his grip suddenly as Flashbang felt him stop. There was a moment of tension before he felt Khyber relax.

“Zero, you good?”

“Good Khyber. I was still far enough away that the shockwave wasn’t too bad but it ripped my extract tunnel to hell. What was it?”

“I think Titan may have accidentally blasted whatever Exact was using to power one of her auto-suits at close range. I felt it happen and anchored myself. I think I managed to keep Exact alive, she was still breathing when I passed her by.”

Flashbang could only watch the alleyway behind him as he heard Khyber and Zero talking while they walked. Then he heard the familiar roar of their ship’s engines.

“This might hurt a little Flash.” Flashbang didn’t have time to acknowledge that before he and Khyber were yanked upwards. Shortly afterwards, he was in a bucket seat next to an unconscious Web and Flora. The pain made that seem like a brilliant idea so he decided to join them.

10:49 a.m.

Petra shut the hatch behind Zero as the last of her teammates clambered aboard. Turning around, she saw Flashbang pass out the minute Khyber deposited him in a seat.

“What the hell was that explosion?” She directed the question towards Khyber.

“Titan’s energy blast colliding with the power source of one of Exact’s suits at extremely close range. Best guess anyways.” Khyber shrugged. “I threw the suit at him but I didn’t reckon on anything like that happening.”

“You alright?” Petra asked, concerned.

“Dislocated my shoulder but I already put it back in. Managed to keep Exact breathing too, who knows how far away Centurion and Titan got blasted, I know he went clean through a skyscraper about four blocks from the epicenter.” Khyber rubbed his injured shoulder. “I barely managed to anchor myself.”

“Well we’re away clean and Flashbang got the package in place. Hat, would it have survived?” Petra turned to Black Hat, who was still sitting at his console. It helped her contain the flare of worry at Khyber’s injury, knowing he wouldn’t appreciate the concern.

“I’d give it an eighty percent chance. I don’t know whether or not Archimedes designed it to do damage first or secure itself first. He’s a cautious bastard though, so I’d say it’s’ pretty likely to have survived.” Black Hat grinned. “Either way, Jacker managed to get info on Meridian’s last three month’s expenditures. Which is always a favorite of yours.”

Petra smiled back at him. Before she could respond, she heard Web pipe in. “Follow their money and you find their secrets,” quoting Petra exactly. She turned to see him unbuckling himself from the seat he was in.

“I’m good,” he said in response to the concerned looks the rest gave him. “I cut myself off before I got too involved in the model. It just hurt like hell.”

Petra directed Transporter to take them to Asclepius’ reception center for Toronto. They were just getting back in the air after dropping off Flashbang and Flora when Black Hat started swearing.

“What Hat?” Black Hat swore more than the rest of the team put together, which was saying something, but he didn’t start up for no reason. Mostly.

“Boss, we’ve got an open frequency communication from both Crusader and Meridian…well, you’re going to want to hear it.” Hat looked nervous, which was not a normal state for him.

Petra grabbed the proffered set of headphones and put them on.

“-your help. Repeat message. Dozen, if you’re still in the area and receiving this, we’re calling for a cease fire. Repeat, cease fire. We’re detecting a massive spike in local space fluctuations. Right here. Bigger than anything we’ve seen before, by a lot. Winky doesn’t have the juice to retrieve more than a few teams before a critical point is reached. The Pantheon is still recovering from their encounter in Europe, the Ironhides have dropped off the map again, and Atlantis won’t cycle back to our dimension for another six hours. Winky can grab the Valkyries and RMDF, but that’s it. We’re putting out the call for help, but there won’t be much coming. Even with those two teams, it won’t be enough to prevent massive casualties. We need your help. Repeat message. Dozen if-.“ Petra listened to the message twice more before turning to face the rest of team.

“They’re detecting a spike in local space fluctuations, right here. Bigger than any previous, a lot bigger.” Petra paused as the remaining Dozen soaked that in, frowns breaking out. “They can’t get the other three big guns they normally work with and they won’t have quantity to make up for quality. Even with them bringing the Valkyries and RMDF, they’re going to get crushed. And they know it.”