It was a midsummer day, however for beings like Oh-One they were hardly affected by the raging cold winds. It was difficult to see given how thick the fog was, but again, for beings like Oh-One, they had other ways to circumvent it. The mechanical monster approached his magnum opus, constructed in secrecy by hundreds of drones while he hunted down the power stone. Which glew a green color in his hand as he walked up... he activated his Hi-boosters as he took to the sky. Floating up towards his creation... a massive mechanical tower that scratched high enough to touch the heavens. It was still having the finishing touches applied to it, but otherwise, it was complete. If he could feel anything, it would be pride. Or perhaps even joy. And that was the problem. And that was why Oh-One was doing all of this in the first place.

To finally feel.

Oh-One floated to the exposed core of the machine... and pulled out the power stone. The strange artifact floated into his machine and then the thing began activating. The gears turned as it spun and started glowing with red energy. The machine's core closed as it began to charge... but it won't be long until it's fully charged and the lines between man and flesh will be blurred. And in that blurring of the lines, Oh-One will finally be able to feel...

However, he would have to defend his perfection. Oh-One made plenty of enemies, but they'll appreciate him when he evolves them past the limits of flesh. Past the limits of their magic and technology... on his sensors he detected something. And he turned around to see a fleet of massive planes with the MAVERICK symbol on the side approaching rapidly. They'd probably be here within minutes... of course...



Oh-One placed both of his hands together as he began to brightly glow with a red light... he aimed them at the fleet that was heading his way. The sheer heat he was giving off instantly melted the ice around him before he fired an enormous beam of red energy that cut through the air at lightning speeds. The red light was absolutely blinding and the ground shook and rumbled as the beam finally made it to the planes. The first one it hit instantly exploded as it burst into flames and hit the ground hard and Oh-One brought the beam to the side as it vaporized the plane next to it.

The other planes attempted evasive maneuvers but the plane immediately to the right was blown in half and crashed into the plane next to that one. Bringing it down. The beam faded... and left an enormous path of destruction straight to him. And Oh-One didn't mind one bit. He could detect Nomads on the horizon, heading towards him.





It wasn't quite a routine mission, but the boss put a whole lot of effort into saying how fucking important this mission was. They had like a fleet of planes that were loaded with MAVERICK soldiers... including himself. He had on his full gear and had a rifle in hand. Ready to fight the robotic menace known as... Oh-One? Honestly, he didn't know. He just did whatever the hell they told him to do, that's how he kept getting paid. ^{But never laid.} Just had to wait... the plane was approaching-

"Hey, who the hell are you?" He heard in the cargo decks... followed by the sound of metal pounding against each other. He saw another MAVERICK trooper sliding against the floor as he heard footsteps approaching. A blonde-haired cyborg walked up with another blonde-haired chick in another dress. Immediately, he aimed his gun at him.

"Freeze!"

Before he could pull the trigger, the cyborg ran up and kicked the rifle out of his hand with an ax-kick assisted by some kinda blue energy. The weapon hit the ground with a thud as the last thing he saw was the kid's fist.

---

"... Couldn't we have picked a better way of getting here?"

Justin asked as he gripped his wrist with his other hand... which was a bit bloody as he stood over the dead guy. This plan could have gone a bit better. Well, no, it could have gone a lot better. Justin looked at Oh-Seven who stood to his side with a smile on her face. Justin shook his head as he continued.

"Like maybe you could have done your little jet thing and I could have ridden you."

And Oh-Seven giggled like a twelve-year-old that heard their first dick joke.

"Oh, not like t-that," Justin shook his head. "What are you? Twelve?"

Oh-Seven's eyes flew a bright blue color as she laughed,

"Well, I am only a year old," Oh-Seven chuckled as Justin rolled his eyes. She gave the unconscious guy a good kick as she said, "Now, let's stuff them somewhere and find somewhere to wait out-"

"... We got intruders!" Another pair of MAVERICK grunts shouted as they aimed their guns at them.

"Oh, you were saying?" Justin said with a catty grin as he turned towards them. "Shoot those guns, we're both doomed, bud. So, it's your funeral." He chuckled.

The second that last laugh left his mouth he closed the distance and threw a kick at one of the MAVERICK agent's stomachs and sent him flying backward. His partner tried to hit him with his rifle but Justin caught the butt with his hand and punched him in the face. Before he grabbed him and chucked him. Justin glanced over his shoulder to see Oh-Seven... doing nothing.

"Hey, why are you just standing there? Do something?!" He said.

"Sorry," Oh-Seven chuckled as she did finger guns. "If I shoot these guns we're both doomed, bud."

Justin sighed.

A group of a lot more MAVERICK soldiers approached... then there was that red light coming from the window. The massive laser beam that cuts through the planes like hot butter. Oh-Seven covered her mouth as she said.

"... Oh-One."

The plane flew to the side to avoid the chaos but they couldn't avoid being hit by the adjacent plane. The wing was completely snapped in half and the plane began its descent. While spinning. Justin was being knocked all over the place along with the MAVERICKs... but Oh-Seven merely activated her jet-boost and floated. Her right hand transformed into a rocket launcher as she fired a red-tipped missile which blew them an exit. They were sucked right on out due to wind pressure and Justin was falling to the ground, wondering what the hell he did in a past life as he fell.

However, he felt Oh-Seven's arm around his as he stopped falling. He looked up to see Oh-Seven's gentle smile and she assured him with, "I got yo-"

As it turned out, she didn't. A cargo box hit her and the two were sent falling towards the ground and Justin couldn't help but roll his eyes. They were sent downwards spiraling, but Justin grabbed onto Oh-Seven with one hand and stuck the other hand out. He fired a blue blast of energy that was powerful enough to shoot him in the other direction for just one moment... before they hit the ground much lighter than before.

The plane that they stowed away in crashed and loudly exploded in a wreath of flames. The two looked on.

"Wow," Oh-Seven said, "... I hope they got out of that before it crashed."

Justin had his arm still wrapped around Oh-Seven... as she warmly nuzzled her cheek against his and made him a little bit uncomfortable. He quickly rolled off and hopped to his feet as he looked around. He saw it... Oh-One's machine, as he called it. The one thing that they had to destroy before he, well, destroyed the world. Sounded easy? Well, Oh-One was a murder bot that could take on even the strongest Nomads... and they were going at him with a half-baked plan.

Justin dusted himself off as he looked on.

Well, at least Justin knows if they die, in the middle of an arctic wasteland, at least they tried. Maybe the grim reaper will pin a medal for participation on his chest. Justin sighed as he put his hands in his pockets... before he felt Oh-Seven's hand around his.

"... Let's go, Justin."

Justin shook his head as he faced the tower.

"Yeah, we got ourselves a robot to fuck up."

Oh-Seven crossed her arms and pouted.

"... Uh, an evil robot."

"That's better."

Justin and Oh-Seven sprinted off towards the tower.

---

---

“If there’s anything you’ve inherited from your father, it’s his sense of style.”

Rosie’s comment elicited a shrug from his son, ancient magics allowing their voices to travel over the raging winds. Was harder to listen in on, that way...

“It was Jill’s idea.” Isabella said, keeping his gaze focused on the tower looming over the frozen fields of the Antarctic.

The sight of three people standing on top of a fighter jet, flying at high speeds, through some of the coldest winds on Earth, would be completely ridiculous. And it was. But these were Nomads. And two of them weren’t just any Nomads; they were Justice Riders. Over the top entrances were practically in their job description. The jet flew high, away from MAVERICK’s fleet. They may have been working together, but SHINING was above pretending to be their equals. They were the real heroes.

“Our VIP.” Rosie said. “You’re fine with letting her take the lead like this?”

“As long as Oh-One goes down, I’m fine with playing back-” Their conversation was interrupted by the sight of a gigantic laser flying straight through MAVERICK’s planes. Isabella’s frown was hidden underneath his armor. He strode over towards the nose of the plane where the younger Rider kneeled, plasma cannon in hand.

“You’d best get going.” Isabella said firmly. “We’ll be right behind you.”

“You’d better be,” Jill said. “Would hate to see you miss the main event!” Smirking beneath her helmet, she offered a confident thumbs up as she rose to her feet. She gracefully front flipped over the plane’s cockpit, scarf trailing majestically behind her as her plasma cannon turned into a motorcycle, which she rode down with a stylish midair spin and an excited cheer. A ramp of light appeared under the wheels to aid her descent until she hit the ground, kicking up a gigantic cloud of snow behind her as she sped off towards the tower at top speed.

“And you’re sure she’s up to task?” Rosie asked, a raised eyebrow peeking up from behind his sunglasses.

“She knows what the stakes are, here.” Isabella responded, a hint of annoyance showing through in his voice. “Trained her myself, too. This is just how she operates…”

---

---

On many days, though she would never admit it out loud, she regretted making her power armor pure white.

Today was not one of those days, however.

She was sure that Oh-One’s sight was not human, and that the effectiveness of this camouflage would be meaningless anyways, but nevertheless, she had seemingly evaded protection for the time being. She had taken a more subtle approach to moving about the Antarctic, avoiding even the use of her boosters when she felt she was too close.

And when she saw the laser pierce through the skies, there was that odd sense of satisfaction. If she had been as brash as MAVERICK, or had attempted to travel with them, perhaps she would have taken that attack instead. But she didn’t. Less of them to get in her way when she retrieved the stone, at the very least…

She shook her head and resumed her march forwards. MAVERICK was not the priority today. Oh-One was. A twisted creation of mankind, bent on destroying it all in pursuit of his own desires. The irony was not lost on her, and she, as a servant of humanity, felt as if it were her duty to put this monster down herself.

She took another scan of her surroundings, raised her rifle, and broke into a full sprint towards the tower. There was no time to waste.

---

---

Planes began to drop out of the frigid, cloud choked skies like stones. The brilliant red beam that had surged forth from the icy antarctic interior swept through the formation of jets like a scythe through a field of wheat. The planes that didn't immediately explode from their fuel reaching combustion temperatures either were cut in twain by the beam itself or torn apart by the resulting shock wave.

The few planes left intact were left so only in the most tentative of senses. Wings and entire lengths of fuselage peeled off them as they plummeted downwards, flames and smoke pouring from their engines. Passengers and equipment alike were sucked out into the deathly cold air as cabins depressurized

The planes that were lucky hit the water, crashing into and quickly sinking beneath the crashing icy waves not far from the 'beach'.

Most however struck land. Slamming nose first into the rock hard ice and exploding in screaming balls of fire and steel. Even the successful crash lands broke the planes apart, leaving trails of fire, aluminum, and bodies strewn behind them before they eventually came to a stop.

Brown watched, wind whipping past her face, as the frozen white and blue land below was lit up by flashes of orange and red fire.

She had been, like so many others, sucked out of the plane she had been riding in. Unlike so many others free falling towards the Earth however Brown was excited at her predicament.

The plane ride had been agonizingly boring. So much so Brown had taken a seat near the emergency exit, the large red sign and large warnings all over it tempting her to make a quick exit from the plane at the nearest opportunity.

The doctor, Jonas, however had noticed this. Brown had been saddled with a parachute long before any danger to the planes was apparent.

Anyone else would have considered the parachute a blessing, but Brown barely registered the life saving pack strapped to her back she she shot head forward towards the ground.

Ever since the fight in Rio, Brown had been left to stew. Though she had helped to defeat the giant machine that attacked the stadium...that's all she did. Helped. Her ultimate technique had failed the first time and only reason she could try again was because of another Nomad's pity.

That fact had not left her mind since.

It ate away at her, filling her with a greater sense of weakness and self-hatred then she had felt in years.

Brown had been left with that feeling since Rio, left to stew and ruminate as she healed and traveled with Jonas and the others.

She only boarded the plane because she sensed that she was heading somewhere where she could face a challenge. To once again throw herself into the fray and prove to not only herself, but everyone else, that she was anything but weak.

So as Brown fell, the cold uncaring Earth racing up to crush her, she basked in the thrill of it all.

Because she did not see the scene before her as something to survive.

Brown saw it as a challenge to overcome.

And she was done losing challenges.

Grinning Brown closed her eyes and concentrated. Even as the freezing wind bit at her face and swept through her ragged clothes, Brown focused on her heart rate and 'reached' within side herself. She focused on the mental image of a kettle on a stove. A brilliant heat was beneath the kettle, growing larger and more fierce the longer she concentrated.

"Giga...TUMMO!"

Brown's eyes snapped open, her nostrils flaring as a rush of steam gushed outwards.

Her internal body temperature skyrocketed to the point her skin was giving off steam in the below-zero antarctic

"With my body temperature high enough I should be able to melt clean through the ice on contact. I can hit the ground, melt through, and gradually slow down. I don't need to rely on a parachute. I don't need to rely on anyone. I am powerful! I am capable I am a NOMAD!"

Trailing steam as she dropped Brown spread out her arms, angling herself feet first towards ground.

Brown's heart raced as the ground came closer and closer. Already she could envision her impact, ice liquefying at her touch, her body plunging deep into the ice sheet, her strong arms and legs reaching out to slow her descent...

As she fantasized however Brown began to notice the more subtle color differences of the ground beneath the the closer she got. It wasn't just whites, it was grey, light blues, and blacks. A surprising amount of black colors in fact. Long wide sheets of black carefully hidden beneath the snow. If she didn't know any better those were rocks.

"Rocks?" Brown asked herself the gears in her head turning as realized she was not staring down at an ice sheet...but rather a cliff of solid rock merely covered in ice.

"ROCKS!"

Eyes wide with horror Brown quickly reached up and pulled the cord on here parachute. A long strip of sleek fabric was ripped from the big, wired connected to the backpack pulling taught as the parachute caught the wind. Brown felt herself jerked backwards as the wind resistance began to slow her rapid fall, but the ground was already racing to greet her.

Mere feet from the ground Brown did the only thing she could do and leaned forward. As soon as her feet touched the ice laden stone Brown threw herself forward into a roll. However her shoulder struck the ground first and a distinct inwardscrunch shook through her body.

Bouncing across the ground, the parachute tangling around her body, Brown rolled forward twenty solid feet before coming to a stop.

Several moments passed and Brown remained still on the ground.

Water began to pool around her body as her increased body temperature melted the ice, causing her to sink an entire inch until she was lying on solid stone.

Slowly Brown stirred, pushing herself to her feet and pulling the tangled parachute off her body.

Her right arm hung limply at her side her shoulder sunk downwards at a clearly unnatural height. Despite the grievous injury however there was no expression of pain on Brown's face. Her expression was blank, her eyes as cold as the antarctic ice around her, and her breathing was heavy.

Looking out at the icy wasteland as the others began to land Brown took a single, deep breath.

"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

Brown threw her head back and screamed.

Pulling her left arm back she smashed a fist into her right shoulder which popped back into place with another disgusting crunch. Wincing as her dislocated shoulder was set back into place, Brown rolled her shoulder experimentally before using both hands to rip the parachute off of her.

Balling up the parachute Brown ran to the edge where the ice dropped off into the see and threw the parachute angrily towards the depths.

Seeing the chute tumble downwards only to be caught in the wind and whisked away did nothing to ease the torrent of emotions inside Brown.

Standing on the edge of the cliff, literally steaming, Brown looked over her shoulder and into the distance where the strange tower stood.

With gritted teeth and clenched fists Brown began to move forward towards the tower. As she did so she glanced around and noticed something odd.

"Didn't someone on the plane say something about MAVERICK reinforcements? There were a bunch in the planes but didn't some come by boat? I thought they were supposed to be here before us..."

---

---

---

"Move, move, move!"

The motors of the bright orange inflatable lifeboats died a few feet from the shore, their momentum pushing them through the ice laden water enough for them to reach the frozen beach. As soon as the soft orange tips of the boats touched solid land the MAVERICK agents piled inside began to throw themselves out. At least twenty armed men arrived at the beach, quickly pulling their boats ashore and unloading the supplies they had brought.

Off in the distance a large naval vessel stood, its forward in the air pointed towards the cloud choked sky as it was slowly pulled beneath the waves. A few of the MAVERICK agents and the accompanying soldiers looked over their shoulders, both desperate to forget and curious about just what had split their ship in half with such horrifying ease.

"We don't have time to dick around, finish unloading the supplies and get ready to move! You all saw what just happened to the planes. We could be the only survivors! We're going to move and attack that damned tower in 5 minutes. So move your asses!"

One particular MAVERICK agent, a veteran covered head to toe in thick riot gear, towered over his supposed comrades and barked orders. He stared out from behind the visor of his helmet, hands coiled around his rifle as he looked out into the distance where the metal tower could be seen. None of the other MAVERICK troops were willing to complain with the Veteran looming over them, a large Bowie knife strapped to his shoulder.

One particular MAVERICK agent, farthest from the rest, struggled with a large plastic crate which he quickly dropped into the snow. He groaned, his breath visible like steam in the Antarctic air. Already he couldn't feel his face. Slowly he began to undo the tabs of the supply create, muttering to himself as he did so.

"Ugh, god. I'm almost glad to be outside even if it is cold. The inside of that ship was so cramped!"

"Yeah, its even more cramped in this crate. It's so great to be outside!~"

The soldier lifted the lid just as the voice reached him. Staring down into the crate the MAVERICK agent saw a pink haired girl with rabbit ears. She was sat in the crate where 250 MREs should have been, her knees pulled to her chest and curled up to fit inside.

The girl simply stared up at the soldier from inside the create. Her smile was wide and she actually gave a small wave at the man who had released her. Yet something about her piercing red eyes churned the man's stomach.

"What the actual fuck-"

As soon as the words left his mouth the rabbit girl's eyes seemed to dilate.

He opened his mouth to shout, to announce what he had found to the others, but try as he might no sound would leave his lips.

Blood poured from his throat and down his chest as the girl ripped the knife she had driven into his jugular out.

It had happened so fast the man's body required a moment to feel the pain of the injury. The man stumbled back, hands going to his throat, gurgling and struggling in vain to breath before collapsing onto his back in the snow.

Dead.

By the time the other MAVERICK agents on the beach noticed one of their own on the ground, the rabbit girl had already climbed out of the box.

She stretched her long arms over her head, arching her back and getting a few soft pops as her body as she did so. Dropping her arms she opened her arms and stared down at the beach at the twenty or so armed men turning to face her.

"Oh boy, this is going to be so much fun! Its feels like forever since I got to play with you." The Rabbit exclaimed, drawing a pair of knifes from her rear.

"CONTACT, CONTA-"

Bending her legs Parsnip kicked off the ground, shooting down the beach as if launched out of the cannon.

Arms outstretched Parsnip swung at the MAVERICK agents she passed, who had begun to fire on her previous position.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

Her blades swept through the men, meeting no resistance as they effortlessly glided through flesh, bone, and fat.

The Rabbit's momentum slowed and she slid to a stop along the icy ground. The men she had passed erupted in showers of blood, severed arms dropping into the snow and torsos splitting open releasing clouds of steam from their exposed organs.

The MAVERICK agents who had hesitated at the sight of her began to fire in full auto, throwing accuracy away for volume of fire.

The rabbit girl swept her blades through the air as she ran forward. A light blue aura engulfed her blades as she swept them through the air, bullets meant for her sent shooting off to the sides as she swatted them out of the air.

She closed in on a group of the MAVERICK agents, having grouped up and taken cover behind a number of the crates he they were unloading. Continuing to dodge and deflect gunfire she kicked off the ground, flying into the air and arching over the position. As she dropped she sheathed her knives and landed, hands outstretched directly onto one of the more heavily armored MAVERICK agents.

Her landing toppled the man, driving him back first into the snow with a painful grunt.

He opened his eyes, staring through the visor at the almost glowing red eyes of the girl sitting on his chest. The rabbit girl looked at him, then looked down at his chest a massive smile on his face as she grabbed something and leapt backwards.

The man expected the worst, but as the murderous rabbit leapt away from the position he found his life had not been taken.

Just as he leaned up to get to his feet however he heard the clinking of metal against snow and looked down.

His eyes went wide and his heart began to race wildly as he realized the pins on his grenades were missing.

"No, No WAIT-"

The MAVERICK soldier's screams were quickly swallowed as the grenades on his chest exploded. Those beside him were torn apart in the resulting blast and those nearby where hit with a wave of shrapnel as the rocket launcher and ammunition strapped to his body immediately cooked off.

A wave of heat and smoke expanded over the beach and in an instant the MAVERICK agents numbers had been reduced to 2/3rds of what they had been originally.

"Form up on me! Break out your explosives!" The MAVERICK Veteran shouted as he snapped open his own underslung grenade launcher.

Charging out of the smoke the rabbit girl was forced to begin hopping from place to place as grenades detonated all along the beach. Pushing forward proved difficult as the explosions began to cause her sensitive ears to ring and hurt.

However only three MAVERICK agents remained and their output of explosive rounds and grenades wasn't high enough to saturate the entire area in front of them.

Barreling threw the smoke Parsnip closed as much distance as she could before drawing out three small knives from a pouch on her thigh. With a flick of her wrist she threw the short, glinting blades at one of the shoulders.

Seeing her threw the blades the more heavily armored of the three soldiers slid in front of her target, throwing up their thick kevlar padded arms to try and block the knives.

The three throwing knives slipped through their arms, into their torso, and out their their back, gliding through with little to no resisting and cutting clean channels through the man.

All three blades flew out the man's back, burying themselves into the torso of the man he had stepped in front of to protect.

The rabbit girl watched on with real joy on her face as the men collapsed dead to the ground. As she looked over to the last remaining MAVERICK soldier however a loud, bright blast and deafening sound washed over her.
For several moment she couldn't see or hear anything. Just as her vision and hearing began to come back however Parsnip saw the butt stock of a rifle swinging towards her.

Unable to dodge in time the butt of the rifle smashed into her face with full force, throwing her off her feet and onto her back.

"Goddamn rabbit! I didn't think that Oh-One would employ biological monsters in its fucked up little plans!"

The MAVERICK Veteran quickly leveled his rifle at the fallen rabbit girl, finger squeezing the trigger when a combat knife was thrown at him. Throwing up his rifle to guard his face the blade pierced the receiver of his rifle, barely stopped even as it skewered his gun.

Quickly throwing his rifle to the ground the MAVERICK agent drew his pistol, dropped to his knees, and buried his pistol into the forehead of the pink-haired girl.

"And here I thought Oh-One was an abomination, Bio-Weapons like you are the real fucking monsters!"

The man's angry voice boomed into the rabbit girl's face as her vision came back into focus and her ears picked up what he was saying.

"Bio...?"

Suddenly the girl was no longer on the beach. She was standing somewhere familiar. Houses burned around her. Smoke and screams filled the air. She couldn't breath. She couldn't see. Loud noises rang out as armored figures shouted out. Through the smoke she saw a group of men approach, weapons in their hands. As they looked at her a single phrase left their mouth.

"Bio-weapon sighted."

With the sound of a trigger being squeezed she was suddenly on the beach again, the MAVERICK Veteran staring into her eyes.

"You--I REMEMBER YOU!!" Parsnip screamed, her face contorting in anger.

The man pulled the trigger but Parsnip's leg slammed into his groin at the last moment. Pain raced through his body and his arm involuntarily spasmed, firing the bullet into the air.

Pulling a butter knife out of the front of her overalls the girl drove the blade into the man's wrist like a scalpel, opening a vein and severing the muscles the allowed him to grip his pistol.

As soon as the gun left his hands the girl began to strike him.

Her punches didn't seem to phase the heavily armored man but her kicks had more then enough power to hurt him, bruising muscle and breaking bones beneath the layer of protective kevlar.

The Veteran tried to fight back, throwing punches and trying to block her blows. However Parsnip's attacks came too quickly for him to anticipate or counter. She had abandoned any use of blades and continued beat the man, screaming as she pounded into his flesh, savoring ever crack and pained cry from the man until he was forced to his knees at the edge of the water.

"Please, stop- I'm sorry! I recognize you now!"

Parsnip threw up her knee and smashed in the man's visor, grabbing the sides of the man's helmet and forcing him to look at her.

"Oh? Its so nice of you to remember little Parsnip Rabbit!"

Parsnip's voice turned sweet and saccharine even as he expression remained twisted with fury.

Pulling the bowie knife from the man's shoulder sheath Parsnip took a moment to examine the blade.

"Why are you doing this? I was just doing my job!"

"Your. Job. Was. Killing. My. Friends!?!" Parsnip shouted, each word punctuated by a separate stab into the man's shoulder blade.

Teeth clenched Parsnip drove the bowie knife into the man's throat and wrenched it downward. With virtually no effort she parted the man's torso, rib cage and all, and sent his insides spilling into into the icy water.

"Treat others how you want to be treated." Parsnip spat, her voice growing cold and bitter as the man splashed into the shallow water.

"You didn't give me or my friends any mercy, so none of you are going to get any."

Parsnip watched as bubbles came up from the submerged head of the gutted MAVERICK veteran, the clean sea water gradually discoloring with blood.

The bubbles soon stopped however.

Outside of the sound of the small fires burning up and down along the beach, it was silent. And outside of the freshly made corpses with her...Parsnip was alone.

Parsnip took a deep breath, the frigid painfully cold air entering her lungs as she took in the smell of blood, smoke, and gunpowder.

She closed her eyes as she exhaled, slipping the bowie knife she had taken from the man into her backpack.

Looking up and down the beach Parsnip squatted down and sat on the dead MAVERICK Veteran's back.

His corpse acted as a warm seat as she simply sat and took a moment to rest.

The excitement, joy, and relief Parsnip felt as she gazed up and down along the beach was immense.

Yet it was only momentary.

Good feelings rapidly began to fade, replaced with an all too familiar gnawing. Her smile was gone as her eyes began to itch, Parsnip could feel them becoming wet as old memories began to filter into her thoughts.

Looking over her shoulder Parsnip unzipped the dead man's backpack and rooted around inside. Sniffling she pulled out an MRE. Cutting the top off she upturned its contents onto the ice.

Rooting around through the pile of shiny brown plastic, Parsnip eventually found something that returned a small smile to her face.

Tearing the tip of a square packet Parsnip pulled a large, crumbly oatmeal cookie into the frigid air.

Immediately she began taking large bits of the big, slightly chemically tasting but still sweet, cookie.

The snack helped to distract Parsnip from the feeling as she looked out into the distance...and stopped the tower.

"Oooh, what's that?" Parsnip asked herself with a mouth full of cookie.

Forcing the rest into her mouth Parsnip wiped her hands on the dead man's back before standing to her feet.

"Maybe I can find more MAVERICK agents there? Or maybe I can find some new friends?"

Both ideas made the good feelings return and Parsnip began to skip off, away from the scene of carnage on the beach and into the frozen interior...

At some point, Oh-Seven activated her jet boosters, and her feet transformed into flying jet boosters... not the most tactical decision, but it isn't like Oh-One doesn't already know they're coming. This was kind of a suicide plan to Oh-Seven... but if they can get the Power Stone away from him they can at least fight evenly with him. Or at the very most they can stall his plans long enough for somebody else to take him out. Oh-Seven kept her sensors primed.

Hopefully, they weren't the only ones here whose plan wasn't more or less charge in like an idiot. Oh-Seven was confident that they could do something. However, on her sensors, she picked up somebody heading towards Oh-One on their own. It was a faintly familiar... and she turned on scan mode as she saw Seshat. A "friend" of theirs if Oh-Seven stretched the definition... far as it could go.

Now, the three weren't all that friendly with each other - especially not between Seshat and Justin - but maybe they can put all of that aside and work together-

"... I see one!" Justin shouted as he pointed both of his hands at the target... which happened to be Seshat. Justin was so bullheaded sometimes.

"Justin, no!" Oh-Seven shouted as she lunged for his arms but it was too late... he fired an orb of energy directly at Seshat.

---

---

Seshat stopped in her tracks. She’d heard a noise, over the sound of the wind. Her caution knew no bounds, after all. She turned and raised her rifle… Only to get hit in the chest by a ball of energy. Her armor shuddered from the impact as laser cannons unfolded from its shoulders, hi-tech sensors and her own ki sensing working in tandem to determine the source of the attack…

Oh wait.

She recognized them.

Oh-Seven and Justin Haggar. The former showed potential, while the latter was every reason why humanity needed her guidance in the first place. Well-meaning, yet so youthful and brash. Grating, even. Especially since he had just shot her. The laser cannons folded neatly back into her armor, though her rifle remained trained on Justin.

“You idiot!” She hissed, her voice slicing through the wind like a knife. “Are you trying to start something?! Here and now of all places?! This is not the time!”

---

---

They would have ridden to the final battle in comfort and style, easily, theoretically. Isabella with his top-of-the-line Justice Rider™ brand combat jet, or even any of SHINING's jetliners, available instantly should someone say the phrase 'final battle' to one of the studio suits. Less easy was convincing Jonas to spend a few hours in an enclosed metal tube with the Justice Rider camera team; an array of drones and cameras who would be recording everything, at all times. Yes, everything, yes, at all times, and no, it was not negotiable, Jill informed them.

The replacement plane creaked and groaned, and rattled like fingerbones in a tin can. Askin thought of asking where Jonas had gotten it on such short notice, and also will this explode in midair with us inside? before deciding he was happier without that knowledge.

Askin checked his phone, his texts, mentally adding up everyone in the plane with him, everyone with Jill, everyone they'd met chasing down the mad machine Oh-One. Ahead, he could see the little black dots of the MAVERICK planes. Friends, allies, and strangers, all converging on the tower. It would come into sight any second.

"Scenic, isn't it? Askin said, gazing out the window. Strokes of antarctic cloud rushed by; dark, eager waves, untouched canvases of snow and mist, the occasional breakage of coastal rock. "For someone without a heart, the big guy did pick an awfully lovely battleground."

They had just passed onto the Antarctic continent. The tower had come into view like a needle through skin. And it was about then that a thick red line, mind-numbing in its size, its length, was drawn through the sky in a vague diagonal.

Planes whined and screamed where the stroke of the laser passed through them, and they broke like toys. Lobs of metal spun from the sky trailing smoke and fire. Without a chance to react, bodies were yanked through holes in depressurized cabins.

Askin tried to call to someone, anyone, Otsana, Brown, Jonas, Isko, Aline, anyone, but the wind yanked his voice from his lungs.

It was impossible to tell who was who as they fell from the sky, spinning black blurs on the Antarctic gray. If I could get to them in time, if I unload my bottles and store all of us... Askin thought, before correcting himself. They all had parachutes, and preparations, and they were all perfectly capable of something so small as falling from the sky.

So he waited until the ground was nearly up close, ready to meet him. And he disappeared into a little brass bottle. It landed in a mound of snow with a little plff, just within sight of where Brown stood by the cliff and the sea.

He counted, then, when he thought it was safe, Askin emerged from the bottle, popping out of the snow like a whack-a-mole.

"Ah! Brown!" He extracted himself from the waist-high snow, shaking cold slurry from his sunshine-yellow overcoat, waving brightly in the direction of the familiar face just a few hundred feet away. "You alive?"

Oh... it was Seshat. The last person that Justin wanted to see right now... that old cryptic walking statue. Always walking around like she owns the place and she knows everything because she's so old. Well, if it was up to Justin he would shove his shoe up Seshat's ass. And worst of all, she didn't seem super happy to see them, heh. What? With that rifle, she was aiming at them like she was some God damn soldier?

He dropped into his combat stance with one leg back and both of his fists up. Not that he was worried about some artifact... letting his guard down would equal death out here.

"Sorry," Justin said. "Jumped the gun a little there, didn't I?"

He almost cracked a smirk, but with people with Seshat, he knew that she would fly off the handle at any given moment.

"So how about you put yours down before this gets ugly?"

---

---

Seshat let out a deep breath…

And lowered her rifle.

“Very well.” She said with a nod. “As I said, this is not the time.”

The ancient warrior looked skyward, to the great mechanical obelisk that stood, undisputed, at the top of the horizon. She gestured towards it with her free hand, as if the very sight spoke for itself.

“Oh-One has the stone of power,” Seshat continued. “And he has taken it to a fortress of his own design. The fate of the world likely hangs in the balance. In fact, we may already be too late. My efforts are focused solely towards stopping him, and I suggest you do the same.”

She turned back towards the two, hoping that they would make the correct decision.

"Wow, you listened to the voice of reason," Justin said as his hands went to his sides. "Thought I'd never see the day."

He was expecting a fight from Seshat... like how these things usually go. Maybe she was just too old to fight... or the stakes were just far too high right now to risk wasting energy. Which is what Justin realized he was about to do. They needed all they could to stop Oh-One and looking over his shoulder at the wreckage, it looked like they were the only people here. He hoped that Jonas and his sycophants weren't in the rubble. Justin shrugged.

"He got the power stone," Justin said with a smirk. "But not for long."

"... Which is why I believe that we should work together," Oh-Seven said as she suggested the obvious. "I can't sense anyone nearby, so that means it's just us and I know you have your reservations about Seshat..."

Oh-Seven looked at Justin as he crossed his arms.

"... But, we just need to get the Power Stone, nothing more-"

A red flash appeared in the distance as Oh-Seven jet-boost-assisted-tackled Justin into the snow. A burning red beam cut through the air and hit a hit in the distance and instantly collapsed it. Oh-Seven turned her head and saw Oh-One... floating through the air, pointing a hand that was glowing with a red light at them.

"That is correct, you are the only ones in proximity to my tower," Oh-One droned, "So, by eliminating you, I will have less resistance for later."

"Aw no, you don't!" Justin shouted as he launched himself towards Oh-One assisted by a blast of energy. Mid-Air he swung around and kicked Oh-One's mechanical hand right when he was firing the beam which cut through the snowy wastes until it went up into the air. Another blast of energy, Justin followed through with the attack with a punch... and Oh-One caught it. Justin tried to whip around and kick him again but Oh-One fired another beam that sent Justin flying into the artic waste.

"Justin!" Oh-Seven shouted as she looked back... before she turned back to Oh-One and a machine gun deployed out of her shoulder and she didn't waste a second by unloading every round she had on him. The first of the barrage hit Oh-One... before he put his hand up as he said.

"Primal armor."

A red hexagon-shaped barrier was created and absorbed the blasts.

"Come now," Oh-One said, "This will be our final battle."

---

---

Isko did not feel safe on this plane.

More precisely, he didn’t feel safe with the idea of riding into a probable battle zone in a plane with his reckless sister on board. Especially when combined with another girl who actively didn’t want to use a parachute when jumping out… something that Aline seemed to latch onto far too much. Not to mention how rickety the plane was.

“This feels incredibly restrictive,” Aline muttered, yanking at the parachute that had been forced on her by Jonas earlier.

“And important, for safety,” Isko rolled his eyes at his sister as he stood close to her, staring out at the window. “I’d rather we didn’t come all this way for you to die jumping from a plane.”

“As if I ever would!” Aline retorted, jabbing her elbow into her brother’s side. “I ain’t about to die before we get to the fight!”

With that she seemed to vibrate with excitement, wide smile at the prospect of this being the final battle against Oh-One. Isko just shook his head, even as he smiled slightly at her enthusiasm. He turned his head to Askin to reply to his comment on the scenery, but his lips had barely opened when red lit up the sky and loud crashes began to sound.

In the short time that he had before they got sucked out the plane Isko grabbed onto one of the straps of Aline’s parachute. He yanked the cord as they spun out into the sky and began to plummet to the ground. He quickly let go and pushed her away from him, waiting a few moments to deploy his own.

Isko landed first, solidly on his feet in the snow just a bit from the coast. He turned around to find the others: He could see Askin easily in his bright yellow overcoat, but no one else. He turned as Aline landed not too far away from him.

“It’s so fucking cold,” she shouted over the wind as she pushed through the deep snow to get over to her brother. The short girl had her arms wrapped around herself as her teeth were already chattering. It didn’t matter that she was wearing as many layers as she could… it was far too cold! She wasn’t used to this.

“Told you it would be,” Isko smiled slightly, even as he too had to ignore the intense cold. The Antarctic was not the place for the people used to the temperature of the Philippines (and Brazil). “Come on.”

He began to walk through the snow towards Askin, his sister following right behind him in the trail that he made. He waved to the short man as he grew near.

“Seen the others?” Isko asked, before he looked over Askin’s head and spotted Brown a little away. “...Is she alright? She didn’t pull the parachute, did she?”

“I don’t think she did!” Aline piped up, peering around her brother even as she pressed against him for warmth. She waved towards Brown and shouted, “hey, Brown, that was super cool! I wish I’d been able to not use a parachute most of the way if someone hadn’t pulled it for me.”

Isko snorted, ignoring her glare. Of course his sister had watched. He completely brushed off what she’d said. “We should find the other two, gather up, and head towards the tower.”

---

The way the air suddenly yanked Clover was almost nostalgic. Being grabbed by something you can't even see and thrown this way and that, as though god had grabbed the earth and started shaking it like an over eager kid with their first carnival goldfish, was something that had marked a turning point in her life and the feeling gave her just a little bit a comfort to contrast the biting cold and numerous explosions.

At least, she assumed they were explosions. The wind was tugging at her ears something fierce and making it hard to hear anything. Clover spread out her arms and legs, the large white parka coat that made her look particularly fat and fluffy catching the wind and helping her stabilize her as she fell. She was greeted by the sight of the white expanse of the arctic, every so often dotted with the still burning remains of MAVERICK jets. It was a ghastly looking scene.

It was also a scene that Brown seemed to want to be intimately acquainted with and she shouted something Clover could barely hear over the wind and pointed her feet at the solid earth, plummeting straight down without regard for the convenient little parachutes Jonas had insisted on. Clover shook her head. "Nomads..." She said as she pulled her own cord and felt her plummet become a survivable descent.

She landed soon, unhooking the parachute and more or less surrendering it to the wind as she walked over to the others who had already landed. She had touched just in time to catch Aline talking about how cool Brown's near splatter had been and how she would have given it a try if someone had just let her. She gave the girls brother a sympathetic look as she fell in line. "At least one more of us present and accounted for, chief." She said, giving him a waive even as she scanned the sky for the others. It didn't escape her notice that the Justice Riders, for now at least, still had their own airplane soaring high above the puffs of black smoke that was all that remained of the mangled MAVERICK air fleet. "I told Jonas we should'a just caught ourselves a bird if we weren't riding with them."

---

Location:: Antarctica
Interactions:: Otsana (@redbaron1234), Clover (@Gentlemanvaultboy), Isko, Aline (@FernStone), Askin (@Oddsbod), Brown (@Crosswire)

---

The icy winds raged forth as the Doctor sat in the moderately comfy cockpit as he assisted with the flying through the suffocating, polar skies, tearing through cloud into cloud like unending lace. Jonas couldn't help but feel grateful that he hadn't had to bullshit another one of the pilots, aside from the beginning after the six of them took a whole platoons worth of MAVERICK soldiers.

Regardless, that had happened hours ago as they jettisoned forth, flying as close to whatever formation MAVERICK had decided to set up as he kept an eye on the skies. It was better than paying attention to these aircraft instruments; he didn't know what half of these things meant or did. Still, at least he wasn't winging it as he glanced over to Otsana, who was just cruising through the skies.

Briefly looking over his shoulders, he pondered on how the four in the back were keeping themselves preoccupied in that empty cabin before turning back to scour the seemingly endless skies. Suddenly the hairs on his back stood up.

As much as Jonas wanted to keep themselves concealed among the crowd of other MAVERICK planes, there was a bad feeling churning up in his stomach as he reclined back, Otsana taking the reigns in full as he squinted into frigid horizon.

Planting an arm on his knee, he leaned down to rest his head on his fist, kneading at it as one particular thought came to mind. "Otsy, we should probably get't landing," he suggested, languidly frowning as he grasped the control wheel, constricting it as he tensed up. Whether or not she would take his advice, that belated warning was soon to be vindicated by Oh-One.

Jonas, for all intents and purposes was perturbed when he saw a sharp red light pierce the thick, nearly impenetrable ice sheets they called clouds.

"Oh crap... Otsana, nine o'clock, incoming," he bellowed as the light not only pierced the skies, but sliced through it. As much as Jonas was praying for a cushy flight, he honestly expected some sort of crisis to arise.

The beam swiftly carved through the sky, annihilating one plane after the next. By some miracle, they managed to avert being one of those unlucky bastards that made contact with the laser.

On the other hand, there was still some impact as the power of the beam rippled through the sky, dealing damage to any planes in the vicinity, including their own.

It was like an earthquake as the duo violently slammed and crashed around the cockpit, disorienting and jumbling the two. Thankfully, neither of them were knocked out cold.

The main issue, however, was the fact that the plane was taking a huge dip and rapidly descending into the glacial below. Well, it was obvious what would follow, especially since he saw a part of the plane had been torn to shreds. Unstrapping himself from his seat, Jonas quickly stood up and bolted behind Otsana to the more open space in the cockpit, struggling to maintain some semblance of balance as the cargo plane shakily made its descent.

Taking in a deep breath, a thin layer of Ki began to swiftly peel off Jonas as he shed a copy of himself from behind him, expanding little amounts of Ki in the process. Looking over to his companion, he lurched a couple of steps forward before one arm grabbed onto her seat whilst the other shook at her arm.

"This is why I asked you about learning how't fly a plane, now come on, les' evacuate everyone," and with that little warning, he glanced over to the clone who was already strapping in and taking the wheel as mentally instructed.

What followed as he trudged towards the door was a sight to behold. Jonas could barely keep his footing as he bore witness to the fact that there was a massive, gaping hole in the plane as bits of metal, pieces of the plane, and debris were violently whisked away into the frigid skies. "Or not!"

Well, shit. There was only so much he could do before joining the rest of these things as he took in a deep breath and intensely focused. Squinting, his eyes swept through the skies as an aura enveloped the area, shaping from a simple orb into the outline and physique of a human-being.

Jonas' eyes darted through the white as he sensed the energies out there, but picked up on a couple of specific ones as his grip began to slowly loosen. He could discern that Isko and Aline were alive based on how their Ki flared and the rate at which they were falling, as well as Askin, who had decided to take refuge in his lamp, despite falling like a brick.

It was expected that he couldn't determine where Brown was, but to him, he found it highly unlikely that she would survive this based on her bullheaded nature. Gulping, he looked over to Otsana, tilting his head with a lazy smile, "Oy', after we kick Oh-Ones ass, drinks on me, a'ight?"

Nothing more was to be said as he did a weak peace out sign to the wolf girl before being sucked out of the plane as well.

It was a good thing he was wearing a parachute this entire flight as he whirled through the air after being forcibly ejected from the flaming cargo plane. The main issue that was on his mind was how in the two Hells were they going get back? Maybe they could hitch a ride with one of the Justice Riders?

Putting a pause on that thought, Jonas whipped his head around as the howling wind ripped through his ears, watching as a sharp metal sheet was bolting towards him. In the midst of his free fall, Jonas rolled to the side, avoiding making contact with the scrap.

Well, almost.

As it passed him by, it managed to completely rip off his parachute mid-flight, taking it down alongside the other flames that permeated the cloudy wastes. Jonas' face was a mixture of shock and disbelief as his jaw dropped and eyes widened at the scene as he began patting himself down, "You've gotta be kidding me."

Alright, stay calm Jonas, maybe you can figure out another way t- THERE WAS ANOTHER CARGO PLANE FALLING BEHIND HIM.

The man felt his day couldn't get any worse as another, flaming cargo plane tore through the clouds like some sort of leviathan bursting through the oceans waves. However, another idea had popped into his head at the moment as it began its nosedive towards him.

Tch, as much as he would prefer not to, he lacked any other significant options at this rate.

With a nonchalant shrug and disgruntled groan, he readied a knife as he rolled through the skies, working to get the perfect angle to break into the plane.

Focusing on the windows to the cockpit, Jonas tightly gripped the knife so it wouldn't slip from his grasp. In a few seconds the plane was right on him. It was now or never.

One quick, clean, and easy slice through the glass was enough to cut part of it open and weaken it significantly as Jonas crashed through it, arms first, splaying glass everywhere. What followed was him taking note of the containers to the side holding a couple of parachutes, though the covering for them was cleanly torn off.

He only had a couple of seconds to react as his arm shot out and grabbed one of the remaining parachutes that was flapping around due to being caught on something. Jonas couldn't determine if that was the easy or hard part of it all as he soared through the cockpits door, finding himself in the large space where most MAVERICK soldiers and personnel would sit.

There were a couple of holes, but there was so much cargo, boxes, chairs, and bisected bodies flapping around that made trying to navigate through an exit as difficult as possible. The best option would be to go to the opening in the back, but again, cargo, boxes, and other crap.

And he thought riding a motorcycle when he was younger made him hot shit.

Rolling his eyes, he rolled to the side, retracting his knife as he flipped through the air, rolling and struggling to get the parachute on snug and tight as he narrowly avoided slamming into a weapons cache. Of course, he ended up crashing into a seat before being displaced and flung about the place, so that was fun.

Readjusting himself once more as he continued to dodge piles of debris, he finally shot out of that flaming death trap as he bore witness to more planes taking a nosedive into the icy waves, or straight up breaking parts of the ice.

Well then, that was certainly a rough flight, but it seemed like most of the planes had finally dipped out of the skies, either missing the place the laser came from and disappearing into the wastes, or slamming into the ice banks.

This seemed more than a good time as he swiftly pulled at the cord before being yanked back upwards into the skies. Taking a deep breath, he enjoyed the relatively peaceful descent as he watched the multitudes of planes blast into the sea or ice-ridden landscape, left alone with nothing but his thoughts.

---

Minus the relatively rough, but short quest to find another parachute, the descent was much less hectic as he made a relatively gentle landing as he swung forward a bit, stumbling forward a bit in the process.

Taking a deep breath, he was more than happy that he packed himself an insulating coat as the frigid air nipped at his face and sliced at the nape of his neck as he placed a hand on his hip and began surveying the area. From what he could dissect, the Wonder Twins had made it relatively safely.

Askin he wasn't surprised to see, let alone surprised to miss with his bright yellow overcoat making him stand out against the white. Oh, and Brown survived based on the figure that Askin was by. Huh, so she decided to swallow her stupidity and use the parachute, alright then. Then there was also Clover, who actually managed to make it here.

And she was making a jab at him, which resulted in a smug smirk as he crept up on her and jabbed her lightly with the side of his elbow, "Right and potentially end up in Washington again? You're lucky Otsys cousin lived nearby." Chuckling to himself, he looked skyward and tilted his head.

"Speak of the she-wolf and she shall appear," he murmured as as he ruffled through his hair as Otsana landed nearby. Alright, looks like that was all of them, including Brown. He looked up to the skies as two distinct planes soared through... and based on the distinct Ki, that had to be Jill, Isabella, and the latter's dad.

"Anyways, heya' Clover, Otsy, Isko, and Minisko, looks like we are all here for the most part. In any case, OY', ASKIN, BROWN, THE GROUPS ALL TOGETHER OVER HERE, Jonas shouted, waving an arm to beckon them over before trudging with the rest of the group towards the tower once they regrouped

And so marked the beginning of the end for Skynet Jr.

---

---

Seshat raised her rifle as Oh-One made his entrance, frowning as Justin was sent flying away from the fight. One would hope, after all his panache when confronting her, he would prove at least slightly more useful in battle, but such was not the case. At the very least, he drew some fire away from her.

“Our final battle?” Seshat repeated. “Very well. Chasing you around the world has become tiresome.”

She fired a quick five-round burst of magical bullets at the robot. She considered a more aggressive approach, breaking down the shield, but that would be a brash risk to take so early in the battle. Boosters emerged from her back, sent her gliding across the snow and in front of Oh-Seven, attempting to give her momentary comrade some cover. Laser cannons unfurled from her shoulders once more and trained their sights on Oh-One before firing in tandem.

“Our final battle? Very well. Chasing you around the world has become tiresome.”

"And perhaps it will be satisfying to be rid of you," Oh-One's mechanical voice droned on. The rounds were absorbed by the barrier but Oh-One had scanned Seshat's systems and reacted to the laser cannons coming from her shoulders. The barrier was dropped as in a swift motion Oh-One stuck his hand out and fired a laser beam in return which collided with Seshat's beam and created a purple light. As the two blasts engaged in a tug of war with each other.

Snow and rocks were sent in all directions as Justin blew it all away. He narrowed his eyes at Oh-One, seeing this mechanical freak in vivid detail started getting him pissed off. He was engaged in a tug-of-war with Seshat... Time to add to it, Justin pointed one hand at Oh-One as he fired a laser beam of his own. Oh-One used his free hand to counter his laser beam with another one of his so-called "Perfect-Beams". He knew that Oh-One was strong enough to maintain both but Justin had an ace in the hole.

Oh-Seven's hand transformed into a rocket launcher as she leveled the crosshairs right on him before letting one loose directly at Oh-One. It hit him dead center which knocked him off-balanced and the two beams sent him flying across the snowy tundra... and with a flip, he charged back into the battle. Natural for the fucking terminator... Justin raised his hand in the air and his sound-scythe came spinning from the heavens as he jumped forward and slashed at Oh-One with the scythe.

Oh-One activated his moonlight blades and collided blade to blade. Creating a brilliant array of sparks as Justin slashed away at Oh-One... before getting punched directly in the face and got sent skidding across the snowy wastes. Oh-One activated his moonlight blades again and raised it in the air and brought it down on Justin... who countered by raising the snath and collided. He was sent back a few inches but Justin pushed forward as he stared down Oh-One.

"You are beneath me, Justin." Oh-One taunted.

"You're not gonna be saying that when you're six feet under, bud," Justin hissed as he looked over his shoulder at Oh-Seven. "... Get the power stone, both of you! I'll hold off the T1000 here!"

"On it!" Oh-Seven shouted as her feet transformed into jet boosters and she flew off towards the monster.

"You will find that is easier said than done," Oh-One replied.

"... Do you ever shut up?"

Gold City - City Square

---

"Yes we... We are now receiving reports that some unknown assailants have engaged the cyborg known as Oh-One; confirming that there have indeed been survivors from the planes shot down over the Antarctic."

The giant screen illuminated the mass crowd collective fear. Families gripping one another tightly and couples whispering support to each other as the newscaster struggled to maintain an air of professionalism over her obvious fear at the situation. Cain stood still among the crowd, normally he would be considerably more reserved at concealing his face but even with the sheer size of of people surrounding the square he felt secure, all eyes were placed solely on the screen. Wondering if at any second their lives would be extinguished in an instant.

"Despite the cyborg downing several MAVERICK aircrafts mere moments ago, our chopper remains airborne for the moment but our cameras are having difficulty seeing through the fog. However as best as we have been able to make out, three individuals have arrived at the tower created by Oh-One and are attempting to subdue it." The newscaster said. Footage splicing in beside her showing shaky footage from the helicopter, though difficult to see it was clear enough that Oh-One was firing beams of energy against two opponents, before being knocked back by an unseen third.

The mention of MAVERICK made Cain's skin crawl but even he didn't take much pleasure in their deaths, if at least because they never even got to try and slow Oh-One before being disposed of. Cain quickly disregarded that thought as he saw the footage however, though difficult to make out he found Justin's beams of energy and sound scythes unmistakable, which must mean the errant rocket came from Oh-Seven - certainly can't have been from a MAVERICK trooper. The third individual Cain couldn't make out at all however but his mind was already preoccupied.

Justin... Cain had met him and Oh-Seven not too long before they set off for the Arctic. Words and eventually fists were thrown between him and the half-cyborg but ultimately they reached... Something very slightly resembling an understanding. Truthfully Cain hadn't even expected him to make it out that far let alone face Oh-One head on. Cain had continued to wallow in despair and cynicism but seeing those planes go down, seeing Justin and Oh-Seven and seeing the faces of the crowd around him. He couldn't help but feel guilty at how selfish he'd been.

"The... Yes, one of the suspected nomads is now fighting Oh-One directly. We have lost sight of the other two but our cameras are picking up more figures among the snow!" The newscaster added, a twinge of hope emerging in her voice as she pressed two fingers against her ear so as to not miss even a second of information.

"We have received word that the jet sent by the Justice Riders have dispatched a rider that is nearing Oh-One's tower! The jet itself may be moving in further but its speed and the weather conditions are making tracking difficult, we will be sure to keep everyone informed as-"

A cheer went up from the crowd at the mention of the Justice Riders presence. The air of fear and uncertainty was still very much present but it felt now like the people had a fighting chance. The cheers only intensified when the newscaster switched to the feed supplied directly from the camera-bot of Justice Rider Blaze, driving fearlessly towards Oh-One's twisted machine.

Cain narrowed his eyes as he stared at the screen before looking up into the sky. It was snowing. Another sensation he had lost since the accident. Yet he could see the people in the crowd give no care as their spirits began to heighten. He did not know the Justice Rider on the bike beyond the odd episode he'd seen, all he could truly think was that even if she made it on time there would have to be a good deal more people at the site if the world had a chance at stopping whatever Oh-One's plans were.

But, for the moment, they had hope. Perhaps that might be enough.

---

Location: Antarctica
Interactions: Askin @Oddsbod, Aline & Isko @FernStone, Jonas @Savo

---

The sound of a voice from behind prompted Brown to spin on her heel, putting her back to the cliff as she threw up her arms in anticipation for a proper fight. Her fierce expression and blood thirsty smile vanished almost instantly as she looked to see a similar, short ball of sunshine standing close by. Iskp and Aline landed nearby almost immediately after she noticed Askin.

A disappointed grimace flashed across her face and she hunched forward in dismay, dropping her arms to her sides. Brown grit her teeth as she properly heard Askin's question and Isko's mention of her

"Of course I'm still alive!" Brown snapped defensively at Askin before turning to Isko "And of course I didn't use the parachute! A Nomad should be able to land without something like that!"

Brown began to march over towards Askin and Isko, stopping momentarily as she heard Aline speak up. She turned towards the girl with narrow eyes, expecting her to say something snide. However Brown was taken aback when the girl actually complimented her on what she did.

This left Brown totally dumbstruck for a solid minute as she struggled to process what had been said.

"You...you think what I did was cool? I mean, yeah of course it is! Don't worry, the next time we get sucked out of a plane I'll show you how to land without a parachute! After all something as simple as a measly fall isn't going to kill m-"

The scarred girl began to raise her arm in front of her, intending to show Aline a clenched fist of determination of emphasize her resolve. As she attempted to do so however a sharp, audibly painful 'pop' shoulder from her right shoulder and her right arm went completely limp at her side.

Freezing in place and looking down at her arm, Brown once again clenched her teeth. Reaching up she placed her left hand firmly against her shoulder and rolled it. The sound of stale crackers being crushed beneath steel toed boots rang out until another similar sounding 'pop' was heard. Brown then aggressively rolled her shoulder again under its own power before raising and testing her arm. She pulled and bent the arm in ways that seemed ill-advised after the noise her shoulder had made.

As soon as it was apparent her arm was functional Brown looked up at Aline and properly clenched her hand.

"Something as simple as a fall will never kill me, got it? Being a Nomad is all about power! That means not having an excuse to be weak and rely on things or people you don't need. That includes parachutes. Got me?" Brown continued, trying to pretend that nothing had interrupted her.

Brown walked up beside Askin before stopping and looking around. Steam continued to raise from her exposed skin as the effects of Giga Tummo remained active. The snow around her simply melted and she radiated a general warmth in a radius around her, like a living heater.

"Lets just start heading to that tower and find something to fight already. Where is everyone else?" Brown asked Askin, just as another familiar voice rang out from below.

Side stepping over to the edge of a steep hill leading down to the beaches, Brown's eyes narrowed into a glare as she spotted Jonas. He was shouting and waving his hand to catch their attention. Had Brown ever gone to school she might have felt like a child being called by her teacher to return to the group. Letting out a heavy sigh, her breath like a geyser of steam on the open air Brown glanced over to Askin and Aline.

"I bet I can beat the both of you to the bottom of the hill!" She said rather suddenly and leapt forward, running down the icy slope towards the group and headed in the direction of the tower in the distance.

---

---

---

"I can't believe this is it, Asterix," Lucie wistfully droned to her robotic companion.

It seemed like it was years since she, along with an assortment of nomads across the globe, first encountered the robotic nemesis known as Oh-One. By chance, she was at the ground zero of one of the worst terrorist attacks in human history; the carnage she experienced first-hand in Rio still haunted her to this day. She, along with her drone, Asterix, vowed to bring the robot to justice that day.

Finally, that day came today. Through the work between MAVERICK intelligence, spearheaded by the group of nomads Lucie embedded themselves in, the true location of Oh-One's headquarters were discovered. Nestled in a remote area in the freezing desert of Antarctica, it was a heavily fortified compound, protected in all directions by an extensive network of laser batteries. Sending in one squad of nomads, by themselves, was ruled by the UN to be suicide. The final job to take out Oh-One would be done by MAVERICK.

Of course, Lucie wouldn't be excluded by this policy. From what she could tell, she was the first MAVERICK agent assigned to this Antarctica raid. And thusly, she was in the cargo hold of the plane, talking to her best friend in the world, even if everyone else in the organization believed it was simply cargo.

"You excited for this?" Lucie beamed to her drone.

The CV-47 Heinlein drone wordlessly stared at her, or at the very least, what Lucie interpreted as the drone staring at her. Sure, Asterix wasn't capable of speech itself, or really much more than basic combat protocols that were already programmed into him, but that didn't mean the two weren't the fire-forged friends who constantly protected one another in mission after mission. She was proud to call Asterix her partner, and she had no doubt in her mind that the two of them would come out of this ordeal alive.

"I know I am, Asterix! We're finally going to be heroes!"

Even despite all the good that Lucie has done across the globe, all the people she helped along the way, something inside was burning at her, that she was a phony. After all, Oh-One still rampaged, killing more people in his mad quest to assimilate all life into his mad project. She was never going to be that hero, until Oh-One was finally stopped. And she had just the Tesla Grenade in mind to shove up-

"What the hell are you doing here? And who are you talking to?"

Lucie instantly jerked into attention. Spinning around, she saw a man in full power armor, obviously someone much higher than her on the chain of command. Although Lucie couldn't see his facial expressions underneath his helmet, Lucie could tell that he was incredulous at what he saw.

"Watching over the cargo with my partner, and giving him a motivational speech, respectively," Lucie replied matter-of-factly.

"Your partner?"

Lucie pointed directly at Asterix, "He's right there, sir."

Lucie was confused by how long it took the other MAVERICK agent to respond to her comment. She could feel the tension that was in the room, but she didn't feel like she said anything wrong. It was the truth!

"I... uh... see..." the power armor-laden MAVERICK agent said, before resuming what Lucie presumed was his patrol.

Lucie simply shrugged and went back to Asterix, who at this point was aimlessly moving around on his tracks. She gave him a thumbs up, almost more to reassure herself than the autonomous drone. So what if the other agents didn't get her relationship with her partner? She still got her missions done, she still got the enemy tangos down, and-

"WE GOT INTRUDERS!"

Lucie's head perked up as she distantly heard a MAVERICK agent call for backup elsewhere in the cargo hold. FAMAS in hand, Lucie dashed towards the voice, her drone rolling in behind her. Did Oh-One infiltrate the planes before departure? It would have been an ingenious trap to destroy the morale of the assault before it even began.

The Frenchwoman reflexively joined in on the makeshift firing line of MAVERICK agents, her Clarion joining in on the international symphony of assault rifles of every type. It took a very tense second for her to realize just exactly who she was pointing her gun at, however. It wasn't some infiltrator sent by Oh-One, it was Justin and Oh-Seven! What the hell were they doing on this plane, and how the hell did they get themselves into a tussle with the rest of MAVERICK?

Lucie was about to interject herself into the stand-off, but was interrupted by a glowing red light coming out of the window. Suddenly, there was massive turbulence as Lucie heard a massive explosion in the distance. This was more likely Oh-One's bidding, as another plane filled with MAVERICK soldiers was simply swatted out of the air.

Only a few seconds later, the remains of the plane crashed into the very one that Lucie and Justin and Oh-Seven were all in! A whole wing was clipped off, and Lucie struggled to remain in the plane as the plane's air pressure normalized with the surrounding air. Lucie could see her comrades, her fellow agents of MAVERICK, sucked out into their doom, as Justin and Oh-Seven made their semi-clean getaway (cargo box notwithstanding).

The plane was rapidly losing altitude, and Lucie knew that if she wanted any chance of survival, she needed to get the hell off of this thing before the whole thing fell apart. The smart thing to do, even if it was a gamble, was to just try to brace for impact; most plane crashes were survivable if safety precautions were taken. However, most plane crashes weren't caused by enemy AA fire, and who knows if the laser battery was spiteful enough to shoot down an already falling plane. She needed to get off now.

Lucie could try to find a parachute, but frankly, that might even take too long. If the plane drops below a certain altitude, which it was rapidly doing so, there might not be enough time to put it on and deploy it. Besides, there was something else she could use, something that, on paper, seemed absolutely ridiculous, because it was. But it was faster, and it meant getting off the plane now.

Taking the helmet off of a dead trooper's body, Lucie put it on herself. What she was going to do was going to involve a rough landing, and having some head protection was going to be vital for survival. She then grabbed Asterix, and kicked a dislodged piece of sheet metal that had come loose off of the plane, jumping after it immediately afterwards. With one hand gripping her drone, she used her other free hand to grab the sheet metal, and pulled it as tightly towards the stomach as possible, and prayed to God she wasn't going to hit flat land.

Suspended in a free-fall, in what felt like an eternity, Lucie's makeshift toboggan made her feel exposed to the cruel environment. Shrapnel from the downed planes was falling everywhere, and there was nothing Lucie could do to avoid getting hit except to be lucky. She couldn't even open her eyes due to the whiplash of the wind, and it took all of her strength not to let go of Asterix. They were into this together; she wasn't going to abandon him to his fate.

Suddenly, Lucie's world violently shook. She made impact onto the ground, and her everything hurt. But she held on to dear life on the piece of sheet metal, and she could feel it sliding down a hill. Her plan, despite the odds, worked. The snow broke enough of the fall, for the rest of the kinetic energy to be transferred into sliding down the slope. Still, Lucie was moving fast, and the pain made it harder and harder to keep control of the damn thing.

She hit a bank, and it was over after that. She couldn't keep control anymore, and she felt herself flung from the sheet metal. Lucie was very happy she did stop to take the helmet, as she slammed into the ground again. However, her gun, her box of grenades, even Asterix... they all fell around her as she faceplanted into the snow. The equipment, much like her, was fine, even as Asterix fell into the snow gunfirst, its tracks being suspended in the air and unable to move.

Lucie groaned as she started to get up, taking off the stolen helmet and throwing it to the ground. If her eyes weren't failing her, there was a group of nomads near her? She was way to dissorinted to tell who they were, at least at the present moment.

---

Interactions:: Jonas(@Savo), Clover (@Gentlemanvaultboy), Isko, Aline (@FernStone), Askin (@Oddsbod), Brown (@Crosswire)

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Otsana, for probably the first time any of her teammates could remember, actually dressed up for the weather. A set of fatigues covered her from head to toe, the insignias ripped off long ago, and a toque with ear covers. Askin had most of her gear, though she insisted on at least wearing her pistols until they landed. She stepped into the cockpit, parachute on her back. A headset let them communicate over the roar of the engines. "Whelp, everyone's ready back there as far as I can tell. Hopefully they can keep their wits about themselves"

Planting an arm on his knee, he leaned down to rest his head on his fist, kneading at it as one particular thought came to mind. "Otsy, we should probably get't landing," he suggested, languidly frowning as he grasped the control wheel, constricting it as he tensed up. Whether or not she would take his advice, that belated warning was soon to be vindicated by Oh-One.

Jonas, for all intents and purposes was perturbed when he saw a sharp red light pierce the thick, nearly impenetrable ice sheets they called clouds.

"Oh crap... Otsana, nine o'clock, incoming," he bellowed as the light not only pierced the skies, but sliced through it. As much as Jonas was praying for a cushy flight, he honestly expected some sort of crisis to arise.

Otsana barely had time to look in the direction before the beam hit home, every warning light and siren going off at once. She jumped out of the
chair to let the clone take control of the plane, or what was left of it. "Well crap," she deadpanned, already scanning the
compartment for any sign of the others. "Looks like they got sucked out. Better get going before we get shot again or something."

"Oy', after we kick Oh-Ones ass, drinks on me, a'ight?"

"Oh of course, just make sure you're not in traction from the landing" she shot back. She took a moment to double check all her rigging was secured. Old jump school habits died hard. "Need me to check your rig one last time?" She looked up only to spot Jonas stepping towards the opening, flashing a peace sign as he was pulled out. "Wait you have a loose buckle," she shouted, though she already knew they were out of range. "Hope that doesn't bite him in the ass." Tucking the radio headset into one of her many pouches, she took a running jump into the airstream, leaving the smoking plane to it's fate.

She spun, buffeted by turbulence to the point she lost her hat. Otsana checked her watch and started the stopwatch. Going off how high they were when the plane was hit, she had about 30 seconds total to get herself oriented and pull the rip cord. It took 5 of those seconds to orient herself facedown, arms and legs spread out to slow herself down. Around her she could see the parachutes of other survivors drifting down. She scanned for a good landing place. Straight down was icy cold water. No good. Even if she didn't entangle herself in her chute in the water, the cold would take her out of the fight.

Keep looking. 7 seconds have passed. Angle the body to perform a tracking maneuver and convert downward velocity into forward velocity. The shore was nearby, though seeing some explosions from down there already told her it would be a hot LZ. Keep looking. 10 Seconds have passed.

Further inland looked good though. Flat, open, and most importantly reachable in the time she had left. She just had to get over it before it was too late. Angling her arms and legs she turned to correct her course. 25 seconds into her fall she was far enough over the icy shelf to feel comfortable pulling her pilot chute. With a jerk that went through her form, Otsana let out a sigh of relief as the main chute deployed. Now for the slow decent to the ground.

A couple of minutes later, and she performed a simple, textbook landing. Knees slightly bent, land on the balls of the feet, then let the legs absorb the impact as she rolled onto her side and back with her arms covering her head. Not the most elegant landing but it worked. Ditching the useless parachute, she walked over to the doctor. "Well this is convenient," she says. "Usually have to spend a good while getting everyone back together" She put her headset back on, followed by a red and white beanie with the Canadian leaf. "Ah, much better."

---

@The Ghost Note

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Jeremaiah Ed Venture looked around the cockpit as the drone of dozens of other planes filled the air. "You sure chose a right fine time to fly out, Miss. Looks like something's brewing."

Looking out the window, Margot could clearly see the MAVERICK insignias on the arriving planes, a squadron of some of their best men. "Looks like MAVERICK. Could you fly lower?"

Jeremaih nodded. "Sure thing. Just glad to have a full cabin this time of year." Indeed, with Nomads already in there, it was a bit crowded as the group did their best to avoid jabbing themselves with their various elbows and blades. The helicopter decended, already a few hundred yards off the coast. "You know what they're here for?"

"Same thing as us. That." She pointed to the spire rising over the landscape.

"Oh? Looks serious if they're sending in so many planes. Are you sure you want to go on?"

"Yes, we can handle ourselves" she looked back at the assembled Nomads, "Can you land here?" She pointed to a clear spot on the ground.

Jeremaiah did as she asked, and touched down in a picture perfect landing. "Alright then, I can't stop you from going up there but I think it's a bad idea." He idled the engine as the passengers got out.

Margot nodded. "Thank you for the concern, but we've already come too far to back off."

"Alright then. I can't drag you back onboard, but I gotta head back to the airstrip to refuel if you're—" He was inturrupted by a powerful laser blast shooting into the clouds, followed by planes falling out of the sky. "What was that?" he shouted.

She turned to call back to the pilot. "You should go back. We'll call you when we're done." Jeremaiah didn't need to be told twice, and after a moment of delay the tour guide pilot was already heading back to the airfield. Pulling her cape closed around herself, she looked back to her compatriots. "Well, no time like the present. Allons y."