June 6th, 1991. Thursday afternoon, 1:07 p.m.

All reminiscing about the past stopped cold as Celestis and Khyber rounded the corner to see the rupture and what came skittering out of it. She and Khyber both darted forward to get it well within their respective ranges.

Putting a hand to his ear, Khyber began talking. “Petra, Crawler class, at least thirty legs and loaded with muscle. And-”

Khyber paused as he dodged, the Crawler spitting a stream of liquid at him. It sizzled as it hit the ground about forty feet to Celestis’ right. “-it’s an acid maker.”

The Crawler was massive; Celestis had never heard of a Crawler with more than twenty legs before. It could be compared to a centipede, except a centipede designed by a mad scientist to murder everything it ran across. It had pincers and a circular maw filled with teeth. There was a protrusion between its’ eyes where acid could be sprayed and as Celestis knew from past experience, any form of blood or liquid that came from the Crawler would also be highly acidic. Each leg was multi-jointed and doubled over, obscuring their true length and reach. They had three claws on each foot and the claws were at least a foot long. It wasn’t segmented but sinuous and its’ entire body was covered in skin that was nearly impossible to breach if past Crawlers were anything to go by.

Khyber was closing fast on the Crawler and as Celestis summoned a few dozen stars to begin testing defenses, the Crawler surged towards her with a burst of speed. Celestis summoned more stars to wall herself off and escape. As she did so, she felt an unbearable pain in her head and her focus was shattered. Her stars all winked out as she dropped into a fetal position and the Crawler bore down on her. Celestis had never been eaten by a Contender before, but the one thought that made its way through the pain was that she was about to experience it.

As she watched through the haze of pain, the Crawler reared up over her, maw wide. Before it could plunge downwards, Khyber crashed into it, a green blur. The Crawler had pulled about half its’ legs off the ground to rear up and the remaining legs couldn’t stabilize the Contender against Khyber’s slam. It went sprawling and Celestis felt the pain in her head recede somewhat.

She looked up to see Khyber holding his head with one hand and the other reaching down to yank her to her feet. His face was a mask of pain as she actually processed what he was screaming. “-list! Mentalist! Mentalist!”

1:09 p.m.

Petra watched the three Contenders emerge on screen and their opening moves played out. Minotaur, Crawler, Angel. All three of which were larger than any previously seen Contender in their class. This was turning into a shitshow, fast.

Web, hook me up to Spartan.

Web: Done

Spartan!

Spartan: The hell?!

Petra, mental comms. You’re taking over the utilitarians, Joan’s dead. Reorganize and contact me when your team is ready to go.

Spartan: I uh…

No choice, just do it.

“Mentalist! Mentalist! Mentalist!” She heard Khyber’s pained scream come over the comms.

All team leaders, Crawler is a mentalist. We’re killing mental comms, switch to electronics.

Web gave her a thumbs up as she flicked her headset over to a previous channel. “Excelsior, confirmed mentalist, Screamer’s a go.”

“Done.” Excelsior replied less than ten seconds later and Petra saw Web’s face scrunch a bit as confirmation. Petra flipped back to her team’s channel.

“Transporter, Hat, get the Red Angel’s attention and don’t let it go!”

“On it!” She heard tandem responses. A moment later, the ship shuddered slightly as a modified HEAT round was fired from their under-mounted gun. The Limo began strafing sideways and shuddered again as another round was fired. Petra watched on the monitor as the Red Angel detonated the third shell.

“We’ve got its’ attention, get us dancing Transporter. Hat, keep the damn thing pissed off!” Petra took a moment to hit the button that ejected her sand into the air around them, grabbing ahold of it mentally. She flipped channels to the other teams.

“Pike, hammer the bastard while it comes after us. We take this thing down and we should be able to -"

1:11 p.m.

“Fuck!” Petra heard a voice she didn’t recognize over the comms. “Titan’s hurt and Centurion is down! This thing doesn’t give two shits about invulnerability!”

Petra looked over to the monitor tracking the Minotaur. Titan was rapidly retreating from blurring slashes of the Minotaur’s axe, holding a hand to his chest. Sabre had Centurion in his arms; she looked to have a goring wound through her stomach.

“Sabre’s moving Centurion, I’ll take the lead against this bastard until Titan can recover.” Petra watched on screen as Arc sent bolt after bolt of lightning lancing into the Minotaur. It didn’t appear phased but the Contender’s attention shifted to Arc. Titan took the opportunity to disengage, revealing that the wound on his chest was serious.

Shit, that’s new. Petra assessed the situation and was not happy with the conclusion she reached.

“Acknowledged.” She replied directly to Arc before flipping over to a private channel with Khyber. One of these days she would have to thank Black Hat for insisting she learn how to operate the comms from her headset, it was quite possibly a life-saver here. “Khyber, can Celestis hold the Crawler by herself?”

“If you don’t mind it tearing through a block or two every few minutes, she can slow it down some now that Screamer’s up and running.” Khyber grunted. Petra watched on screen as he yanked half a dozen of the Crawler’s legs out from under it just as Celestis sent a wave of stars crashing into it. The effect was that the Crawler was flipped over onto its’ back, temporarily exposed. Khyber and Celestis took advantage as stars and plasma hammered into the slightly less armored underbelly.

“No choice, Centurion is down and Titan’s seriously injured. I need you to go contain the Minotaur, there’s no way Arc and Sabre can handle it.” Petra ordered.

“Got it.” Petra watched as Khyber signaled to Celestis before dashing off towards the square that contained the church.

“Khyber, it’s big. Biggest yet and according to Arc doesn’t care about invincibility at all.” Petra informed him as he became a green blur on her screen. “Use Ajax protocol.”

“Interesting.” She could hear the stupid smirk in his voice.

1:10 p.m.

Arc was excited as he reported the situation. Here and now, he had the chance to prove himself as the one of the best. He knew he deserved the title. He easily outclassed all his teammates on the RMDF and in his opinion, everyone else here. Arc wanted, craved the respect that people gave to Titan or even better, the Atlanteans. Centurion, the Amazon bitch, hadn’t even noticed his actions. So much for the first front-liner.

Celestis, well he wanted the respect but he also thought maybe she’d be fun to get some respect from in return. Sabre was a one trick pony in Arc’s mind and wasn’t really equipped to be a front liner.

Khyber…Arc couldn’t understand why everyone didn’t already acknowledge that Khyber was inferior to him. Arc’s abilities with lightning were almost identical to Khyber’s plasma and had better documented range, power, and flexibility. Sure, he didn’t have Khyber’s durability or strength, but he had regeneration like nobody had seen since Luna died. But everyone still called Khyber one of the best, listing him along with Dominus, the Dragon, and Ares as the best front liners around. They put him ahead of Titan and Arc was only marginally sure he could take Titan in a stand up fight. Arc thought it was time to show what the newest blood was capable of.

A familiar voice crackled in his ear after reporting. It wasn’t Petra or any of the other gifted on scene. “Rising Phoenix.”

Arc’s vision blurred for a moment before snapping back to clarity. Bleak amusement ran through him; perhaps his subconscious had anticipated this.

He unleashed a barrage of bolts at the Minotaur, which turned to bellow at him. Arc grinned as he watched Titan retreat and Sabre get Centurion out of the way. For the next few minutes, it would be just him vs the Minotaur. A Minotaur bigger and faster than any previous recorded Contender of that class. The Minotaur charged and Arc stepped aside, using a lash of lightning to knock the Minotaur off balance. He was annoyed that his lightning didn’t have much of an effect besides the impact, but he’d been told Contenders had hides that made steel look soft.

Arc ducked the backslash of the axe, sending another, much more concentrated bolt directly into the pivoting Minotaur. He was startled when the Minotaur shrugged it off without even flinching.

The thing actually faked being affected to keep me in range? Arc thought in wonder as the Minotaur’s free hand clamped onto Arc’s outstretched arm, yanking hard. Arc accepted the loss of the arm, screaming with pain as the limb was separated from his body. He jumped back from the Minotaur, which looked down at the limb in its grip before tossing it aside. Arc glanced down to his side and saw his arm had nearly fully regrown. He grinned at the Minotaur. Arc could do quite a few more regenerations like that before he needed to recharge and there was no way the Minotaur would catch him-

Suddenly, the Minotaur was standing next to Arc. As Arc tried to process that impossible movement, he failed to dodge the Minotaur’s grasping hands. He screamed and blacked out from the pain of feeling himself literally crushed as he was torn in two.

Arc came back to consciousness as he hit the ground, his mind and body screaming in pain. He blinked and tried to sit up. He managed to prop himself up on his arms, looking down to see new legs growing from his hips ever so slowly. He blinked in pain and watched as Sabre took the Minotaur’s attention away, obviously trying to buy time for Arc to escape. Arc would have laughed at the idea if he could have without crying. There wouldn’t be a retreat from this thing, it was too fast and strong.

Arc felt his convictions affirmed when Saber lost an arm and then his head in a furious clash of weapons between himself and the Minotaur. The Minotaur stomped on the body, making sure it was dead. Fear blossomed in his stomach as the Minotaur suddenly appeared beside where Centurion had been set, clearly intending to do the same. Arc looked over to see Titan leaning against a building, his features contorted in pain as he clutched at his chest. He looked back over to Centurion, resigning himself to all three of their deaths.

As the Minotaur raised its’ foot, a green blur came from a side street, streaking towards the Minotaur. The Contender turned and planted its feet, not squishing Centurion. It bellowed at the new threat only to be knocked clear off its feet as the blur collided with it. Arc was in disbelief as he saw the blur clarify into the grey bodysuit that Khyber wore. The glow from underneath was much brighter now. Arc had watched Titan attempt to do that very same thing earlier, right before he’d taken that cut to the chest. Titan had bounced off like a kid running into a brick wall.

Khyber stopped to check on Centurion. The Minotaur sprung back to its feet, enraged at this assault. Arc watched as it simply appeared right behind Khyber, its’ axe blurring toward his form. A green wall sprung up to meet it and the axe was slowed enough for Khyber to roll away. The Minotaur gave chase, ignoring Centurion completely.

As Khyber and the Minotaur faced each other from ten feet away, Arc saw Khyber put up a hand to his head. “Not just big and fast, its’ a shifter. This should be fun.”

Khyber laughed and Arc gaped.

1:12 p.m.

Khyber was glad Centurion had still been breathing when he’d arrived. This Contender was taking no chances, judging by the blood stain he guessed to be Sabre. Titan was clearly out of commission and Arc’s legs were re-growing at a snail’s pace. He put up a hand to his comm link.

“Not just big and fast, its’ a shifter.” Khyber informed Petra. “This should be fun.”

Khyber laughed, this looked to be a truly interesting fight, possibly lethal. The Minotaur charged towards him and Khyber stood his ground, ducking under a wickedly fast swing. He felt the Minotaur pivot and bring down a looping overhand. Khyber threw up a shield of plasma to obscure the Minotaur’s vision of him and dodged right, shooting a low blast backwards to foul up the Minotaur’s footing.

He wanted it to-Yes! Shift just like that.

Khyber used this second shift to confirm exactly what the disappearance and reappearance felt like in his awareness field. He ducked under the horizontal slash, conjuring up a shield of plasma to deflect the grasping hand that followed. The Minotaur bellowed at him as Khyber pivoted to face it. He preempted the next swing by shooting a blast of plasma right at the Minotaur’s face. Following up on the blind spot, Khyber closed to get inside the axe’s effective range. The Minotaur proved its’ craftiness, shifting instead of getting hit and being blinded.

It also showed its aggressiveness, shifting about five feet behind Khyber. Khyber grinned as he hit the deck to avoid the predictable swing of the axe. Rolling, he shot a concentrated blast of plasma at the Minotaur’s feet, causing it to stagger. Khyber used the time to pop back up on his feet and summon up another shield of plasma to deflect the red hot rocks sprayed from the ground underneath the Minotaur’s feet.

Feeling somewhat confident that he knew enough about his opponent, Khyber let himself slide into the flow of the fight. Step into the axe swing, coat arm in plasma to knock haft upwards, shoot a blade of plasma at the Minotaur’s hands. Move even closer, deliver a solid punch to the knee, throw up both arms to block the Minotaur’s descending forearm, cover ground in plasma to prevent more hot rocks from spraying upwards. Release block and roll to avoid the jet of lava coming from an oblique angle, turn to minimize force from an incoming kick, throw up a small shield of plasma to reduce the impact of the kick. Tumble out of close range using momentum from the reduced kick, pop up and send a flurry of blasts at the Minotaur’s face, redouble that when it charges. Hold ground, summon a lance of plasma, set it to intercept charge while still blasting at the Minotaur’s face. Change direction of lance as the Minotaur shifts, use transferred momentum to nick the Minotaur’s upper thigh, jump away from the literally volcanic fury the Minotaur displays at the wound.

Khyber began laughing and he saw the Contender’s eyes burn with fury at the sound. Evidently it knew it was being laughed at and did not appreciate it. Khyber took a moment to confirm that Titan was moving Arc and Centurion away from the scene before refocusing on the Minotaur. He paid for that lack of focus when the Minotaur’s axe caught him in the side. Khyber went flying through the side of a building, into a lobby of sorts. Righting himself after the impact, Khyber did a quick self-scan for injuries and came up clean.

Alright, now we can really play. Khyber thought as he dashed out of the rubble towards the Minotaur. Enough lightning to electrocute an army hit the Contender and it went sprawling, clearly unprepared for the attack. Khyber jumped on the opportunity, literally.