Chapter 765: Three-way Nightmare.
Nimo and Ala had tinkered with dust bombs, adding real spicy pepper and acid to it. The biggest dust bomb they had ever created was dropped, and it popped like a balloon. Shrieks of agony pierced the sky.
The world turned bright green and red. Through the dust, the heat signatures of the panicked mutants stood out like beacons. The invisible team dropped from the sky, hitting the ground like hammers, joining other superhumans.
"Dinner time!" Phillip yelled, swinging a massive hydraulic fist into the jaw of a mutant dog. The beast’s head snapped back with a sickening crunch.
It was a slaughter. A blinded mutant lunged toward a Siegfried, only for him to sidestep and drive a vibratory blade through its ribs. The watchers started their immediately escape, abandoning their watchdogs.
"More dust bombs!" Phillip shouted, opening another can that filled the air.
Suddenly, the air grew heavy. A high-pitched wail echoed through the canyon_ the Sulfur Sirens had arrived, but the superhumans were ready.
"Dragonoid- freeze front and center!" Nimo commanded.
The superhumans stepped forward, their dragonoids glowing with a cold, blue light. The dragon-ice didn’t just hit the mutants_ it turned the whole place into a freezer. The Sulfur Sirens were turned to ice in mid-air. They couldn’t even scream before they became solid statues. They fell like heavy rocks, hitting the ground and shattering into a thousand tiny crystals.
"Send for back up. They are crazy. They must be crazy." A watcher screamed.
Sunshine watched the carnage for a moment before turning to the secondary team. "The rift guards are distracted by what is happening but if back up arrives, we will be at a disadvantage. Move in. Now!"
A secondary team descended near the rift and the cryokinetics released a storm of ice from their exo suits. The Watchers guarding the portal had not even had time to realize that there was another team in the area, so far high up in the sky.
In the mix of ice, dust bombs were thrown their way. Some made a quick exit through the rift; others were frozen in blocks that floated. Others chose to fight.
One Watcher swung a sharp bladed wing, but Dominic caught it mid-air, kicked the alien in its midsection, and followed up with a point-blank blast from a wrist-cannon.
"Behind you, Nala!" He bellowed.
Nala spun, her exo suit’s servos whining, and sliced through a mutant’s beak just as it was about to spring.
But then, the rift began to pulse with a violent, violet light. The air rippled like water. Major Elio was the first to notice, and he alerted Sunshine immediately.
Pods trickled through, opening the moment they came through the rift. A new group of figures burst through_ tall and wearing strange armor that shimmered with a sickly brown energy.
"What the fuck...." Carson’s jaw dropped. "Did the watchers evolve again?"
Sunshine froze, her eyes widening as she watched the drone feed. "No... it can’t be."
The leader of the newcomers stepped forward, removing a helmet to reveal a face etched with scars and cold, calculating eyes.
"Asgeda?" Sunshine whispered.
The Watchers near the rift were equally confused. "Noxians?" one hissed. "Why are the Noxians here? Earth is ours!"
Sunshine’s mind raced. The Noxians were looking for her_ she knew that_ but the Watchers didn’t know the Noxians were rivals. She grabbed the comms. "Listen to me, new plan. Start celebrating and loudly claim that our back up has arrived and earth is now rescued."
Elio grinned. "On it." He patched his voice into a high-decibel loudspeaker that echoed across the battlefield. "Our rescue party is here to kill our enemies. Earth is finally ours again."
"Call my name, point to clone me." Sunshine screamed.
As the other superhumans celebrated by making sounds of victory, Elio shouted, "Hey Sunshine, you are so awesome. You really brought friends to kill these alien birds. You are awesome." He pointed his arm toward the distant battlefield, in the direction of the clone.
As if their necks were being pulled by a string, all the Noxians looked in that direction and saw clone Sunshine!
"There she is." Asgeda said. His voice that came through a static metal speaker was loud. "Bring her."
It was like throwing a match into a powder keg.
"What?!" Pink shrieked as she arrived. "Sunshine is ours, they can’t take her. Kill the Noxians!"
Asgeda let out a derisive laugh. "Not if we kill you first." He had his orders. Sunshine had to be taken alive, no matter what.
The battlefield turned into a three-way nightmare. The Watchers and their mutants turned their fury on the Noxian warriors. The Noxians, organized and lethal, didn’t hesitate. They formed a phalanx, their blades glowing as they drove them into the chests of charging mutants.
"For Noxis!" Asgeda roared.
Nimo, still driving like a maniac in the distance, saw the shift. A Watcher was about to dive through her windshield when a Noxian projectile took its leg off mid-air. The Watcher shrieked, tumbling into the dirt, and flew away shouting about treachery.
"Well, this just got interesting!" Nimo laughed, swerving to avoid a stray explosion. "The bad guys are eating each other! Everyone, back off! Let them play! Keep cheering for this Noxis...or whatever that ugly alien called them."
The Fortress Four teams pulled back, watching as the two alien factions tore into each other. It was a spectacle of green blood and blue sparks. The Watchers had numbers, but the Noxians had discipline and speed.
Sunshine saw the opening. This was the moment_ the tiny window of time before one side won and turned their attention back to them.
"Storm squad, with me," she commanded. "Stay low. Stay invisible."
Using the blinding buttons, Sunshine and her elite squad slipped through the chaos. They moved like shadows between the clashing armies, making sure to stay invisible. They reached the base of the rift_ a swirling vortex of unstable energy that felt like a cold wind blowing from another world.
"Everyone, stay close," Sunshine said, her voice barely a whisper. She released the robots to go out and protect her people.
As soon as they were in position, she pressed the on button "Activating Shroud Barrier!"
With a low hum that vibrated in their bones, a translucent indigo colored dome erupted from the sphere, expanding until it formed a perfect circle around the Storm Group and the rift.
Inside the barrier, the world changed instantly. The sounds of the battle_ the screams, the explosions, the clashing of metal_ died away into total silence. The dust and fire vanished, replaced by a calm, dim light. It was as if they had stepped out of the world entirely. They couldn’t see out, and no one could see in.
Sunshine looked at her team. Their faces were pale, sweat dripping down their foreheads, but their eyes were steady.
"This is it," she said, her voice sounding unnaturally loud in the silence. "They can’t get to us now, let us begin."
The storm group closed their eyes, their breathing syncing up until it was one single, rhythmic pulse. They began to summon and combine their storms to form one big one.