MrKrazy

((Bleh, forgot the assault on the Bots. Sorry, Bwerp.))

Jake's many minions were, indeed, getting slashed up pretty badly, deep gashes showing in much of their armor, even as their slammed the small women with as much force as their arms could muster, breaking ribs and skulls as the women flew backwards.

However, the women were barely even making a dent, if you'll pardon the pun, in the mechs. Deep gashes were made, but nothing else. This metal was something else entirely, and it would take several slashes perfectly positioned on the exact same spot to break through.

In the mean time, however, weighted arms still flung into the skulls of the women, knocking them away with the force of a truck.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
*BOOK SMASH ATTACK*

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh? Which character do you have to unlock to use that?

[/ QUOTE ]

I hear you can only get it with one of the new VEATs.

[censored]! was Jake's initial thought at seeing the undead rise. A shudder, too great for even the many web grenades piling up on him to contain, resonated throughout his body, goosebumps already appearing on his skin.

Dammit! I [u]HATE[u] zombies!

Of course, he would never say this out loud. Judging from the necromancer's refined speech, he would most likely take extreme insult from that line of speech, and, taking into account his performance in raising not only the dead, but moral as well, that would be what one would call a 'bad thing.'

Instead, Jake only shook his head to force himself out of his terror. Whatever. He's helping us, that's all that matters.

Still hiding behind his Personal Forcefield, Jake simply watched the fight continue, planning.

-----

Malta's attack involving the Bane Spider could be considered ingenious, especially in a chaotic situation such as this one. The fake Spider could easily go by unnoticed toward the med-porters, and destroy one with utter ease.

However, that was all he could do. Just after the shut down of this life saving device, nearly every Bane Spider took notice.

"Hey!" One shouted, pointing to him accusingly. "I can't sense him in the mental network!"

"The line's been breached! Defensive action!"

The Battle Drone portion of Jake's minions turned and began firing plasma at the poor sap, and even the other Bane Spiders, in their embarassment of someone actually impersonate one of their 'brothers', began to fire without remorse at the imposter.

So, how would he respond to a projectiled attack on two fronts?
-----

Were it not for the miraculous catch of the ankle of Silver Meniscus by a turned dead-man, the Arbiter would surely be dead before the med-porter could even take effect, his heart literally being crushed beyond all repair. Thankfully, for the Arbiter and Arachnos, in any case, the save had been made, and incapacitated her long enough to give the man enough reason to pop off at least one more shot, aimed straight at her forehead.

-----

Suddenly, Jake, in his incapacitation, had a thought. A rather dramatic and cliché'd thought, but nonetheless, a thought.

"New guy!" He shouted, gesturing in the direction of Jason with his chin. "How do you feel about flaming zombies?"

With that sentence, a single Battle Drone fell back behind his companions, his right 'hand' already morphing to suit a new purpose.

"'Cause I may have something that just reeks of Hollywood in mind."

((... Dammit. Curse you skimming!))

Jake's eyes widened at the sight of the decimated med-porter, the reality hitting him right then and there of what they planned to do.

"Moo ohduh!" He somehow managed to shout, the webbing constricting even his speech. "Pwotek da med-pohtuhs!" If one weren't on the side of Arahcnos, the whole endeavor would've been rather comedic.

However, the message got across. All of Jake's henchmen jumped away and toward the med porters, the Protector Drones putting up shielding on each of them while the other three all launched plasma at the OpCommander, his nature having made it obvious to them by now that he was in command. In all, there remained three med-porters.

For now, anyway.

-----

The Arbiter, having only glanced from the corner of his eye that Jake's minions were coming to defend the porters, jumped to the side just barely in time to avoid Silver's snipe, pulling his pistol and firing off three shots to her head and chest, quickly following up with a kinetic blast and, should she be knocked over, several more shots.

-----

Just then, three figures inexplicably fell from the ceiling, seemingly oblivious to the conflict around them. Taking no chances, Jake acted quickly, negotiating with the trio.

"Ooo thwee!" He shouted, narrowing his eyes and quickly jerking his head back, freeing his lower jaw from the trapping. He cleared his throat. "You three! If you help Arachnos in this fight, I'll see to it personally that you are rewarded for your trouble!"

"Er, hey! Now waitaminnit!" She shouted, turning around just as the door shut. "That's not even fair! Damn villain." She landed on the ground and stomped her foot, shutting off her Personal Forcefield. "Stupid little... How the Hell am I supposed to help out here now!?" She, frustrated, stomped around the building, headed for the back entrance.

"... Damn." She said, suddenly throwing her arms up in front of her face and summoning a spherical shield around her. It was transluscent with a tint of blue, allowing her to see what little there was to be seen outside of the bubble.

Many heroes knew it as a 'Personal Force Field', but in truth, it was far less useful. It could only hold out against anything for about ten seconds. Only just enough time to get away. And, for lack of knowledge about its limited time, get away Julia did.

She took off, blasting out the door and waiting just outside until signs of the killer storm ceased.

"Crap." She said, jetting sharply to the left as Cynic aimed his staff. There was no way in Hell she was getting hit with whatever this guy was stocking in that thing.

"The Die is Cast"

Skjebne's Private Lab,
Under the WEB,
9AM, local time

Skjebne's lab was nearly spotless, the only dirty places were the places of extermination of failed Arachnoids. Almost every wall not hung with shelves, containers, and other storage means was completely covered in LCD panels. One by one, they flickered on and off every minute or two to show the different subjects and test "volunteers". But there was something wrong about them today; they all had simply switched to show seven silhouettes sitting around a silhouetted table in a very dark room.

Skjebne could hear movement, people talking, doors opening and closing, guns being fired, but the image stayed the same. It then hit him that this was merely a picture projected with audio. He took his glasses off, ran a hand though his hair, and smiled to himself. It had been too easy, far too easy.

Minutes passed but seemed more like hours standing there looking at the seven men's pictures. Finally, audio was established on his end. "It's been done."

The figure on the left end of the table spoke, "He wishes to have a meeting with us, correct?"

"Correct."

Another figure spoke, "Then let him have it. What harm can be done in sending a proxy?"

The middle figure responded, "True this, but who shall we send as our proxy?"

"Shall we consult the book?"

"It would be wise."

The second voice could be heard flipping though pages of some book until it found what it was looking for. "Ah... Here we are. Will this one do the job?"

"Obviously, he won't willingly."

"Then it's agreed." They all spoke in unison. "Assimilate him."

The attention shifted back to Skjebne, it was his turn to speak but he had nothing to say. He thought of a few possible subjects for assimilation, but he could not think of someone who could be the proxy they were speaking of. Finally, he began to talk. "Recluse is willing to gamble, and so are we. I suggest we give him everything he wants with in reason."

"Agreed."

"Agreed."

"Wise words from a not so wise 'human'."

Skjebne cut the audio, shut off the video feed, and went to destroy the hard-copy of the conversation.

-----

Recluse still sat in his dim office, reclining in his executive chair as he pondered over the situation.

This was a golden oppurtunity for Arachnos. If the Arachnoids could be perfected, the military might of his organization would double- no, triple, even with the production of only several dozen. It was too good to be true. Literally. Nothing came this easily. Nothing. He knew that his suspiscion was well founded, but the temptation of such an increase in strength was too much to outright deter him from considering the offer. It would be absolutely foolish to completely discard their proposition.

But then, it very well may be just as foolish to accept it.

A loud beep resonated throughout the room, a small screen on his desk flashing with a 'Call Waiting' message. He hesitated, having only just been knocked out of his thoughts, however, quickly accepted the call after the noise registered in his head. No one could call him without going through the Arachnos mainframe, so he didn't suspect this one to be malicious in the least, despite his current state of paranoia.

The face of Doctor Skjebne appeared on the screen, his face as unmoving and unemotional as a rock. "My lord, I've contacted the benefactor, and they have agreed to meet you unconditionally. They ask that you set the location and time."

"Ah, good, good." Recluse stated, a rainbow finally showing through the overcast in his thoughts. He would be in contact with his benefactor after all!

And, of course, Skjebne had made one crucial fact clear. Said benefactor was an organization. His loose use of the term 'they' made this much clear. But just how much did he know of them? Such knowledge, especially such knowledge kept from Recluse, hinted at something larger. Why wasn't this brought to him sooner? Did he think it trivial and not worth mentioning? Did he assume Recluse, in all his genius, would already know?

Regardless, it was yet another reason to suspect this organization and their too-good-to-be-true offer.

"Ask them to come to my office in Grandville, set for tomorrow evening. I'll clear my schedule from six to nine."

"Understood, sir." Skjebne replied, the screen blacking out and retreating back into his desk.

Tomorrow evening. Recluse thought, tenting his hands beneath his chin.

The die is cast.

Julia, for the moment, chose to completely ignore Doctor con Vulse, the large electrical brute, and all six of the robots, for the time being, instead focusing on, what seemed to her, Cynic's much more dangerous assault. She raised both hands and fired streams of plasma at... The staff?

She wasn't an idiot. It was painfully obvious that the staff was this villain's source of power, therefore, if the staff goes, then he goes with it.

In any case, she also rose higher into the air in order to obtain extra manuverability, charging up her plasma blasts the whole time.

Yes, the Arbiter was caught totally off guard by this manuever, however, he didn't need to be aware of his opponent in order to keep a passive shield up. Her blow, though, did have more of an effect than last time, his heart almost being directly struck from his being unprepared. He jumped backwards right after the blow, then dropped to a kneel, heavily breathing. His armor was cracking around where his heart had been, indicating that her hit had been severely damaging.

"Dammit..." He wheezed, looking at his assailant. "Stupid... wench..." With that, he dissapeared, presumably to some medporter.

But, said medporter could be anywhere.

Including being one of the pieces of equipment Arachnos forces lugged in just moments before.

He appeared right inside of that device on the other side of the room, completely healed and none the worse for wear. The only indication that he had been injured in the first place was a shattered chest plate.

"Round two, [censored]."

-----

Now, on to the Malta's plan of action. Considering the Arbiter wasn't very dead, it was mostly demolished, even moreso destroyed by the fact that the shields that he had put up were, indeed, passive.

As long as the Arbiter remained, there would be no sapper rays affecting any Arachnos forces.

But that didn't keep everything from affecting them.

Somehow, some way, a stray web grenade made its way through all of Jake's shielding and to the young mastermind himself, pinning him down in a rather sticky manner.

[censored], no! He thought. His shields had to be renewed every five to ten minutes, otherwise, they would wear off and become ineffective. It had already been three minutes since he had put up his shielding, so that left him two to eight minutes to get them back up.

But how long would he be stuck for?

In the meantime, a hail of plasma and Arachnos Mace blasts continued to barrage the group. Whatever they were going to do, it would either have to take care of those first or go strategically around them. 'To get to the king, one must first go through the pawns.'

Julia, being fairly on balance due to her successful kick, gracefully avoided the blast, smirking with spite at the minor pain of her opponent. "Hah indeed." She said, when suddenly she heard a voice.

[ QUOTE ]
"Gotcha."

"Negative. Right choice. Might buy some time. Keep it open."


[/ QUOTE ]

"Ah, [censored], there's more? How many are there? Are you all working together?" She began to quickly spout off questions until the six robots and an electric armored man came into view.

"... [censored]... I may need some support..."

Normally, Cynic would've been far too much for the young high-school girl, his strength easily surpassing her's. However, her armored suit gave her not only the ability to create and manipulate plasma, but a signifigant boost in strength as well. She wasn't going to go pick up any cars any time soon, but it was at least enough for her to hold her ground against any melee oriented villains.

In any case, she quickly reoriented her attack, changing it to a defense as she caught both of Cynic's punches, letting the plasma work its magic on his, no doubt, now boiling fists.

She wasn't content with this, though. In an attempt to get some ground between the two of them, she lifted both of her feet, rockets still blazing, and attempted to kick him in the torso with both of them, thereby giving her a boost in the opposite direction.

"Now you wait right there!" Julia yelled, Commander Cynic just now coming into view, her goggles indicating him a known enemy. "I swear, you're gonna get such a beating for interrupting my trip to Portal Corp.!" She leapt at him, rocket boots activating and lifting her in the air almost at the same time as two streams of plasma shot from her fore-arm, each headed straight for Cynic's head. Additionally, her momentum kept up, and, should he manage to dodge the two prior beams, he would find her literally holding plasma in her fist as she attempted to punch him. Her suit was built to handle the stuff, so doing as such was no great feat.

"Excellent work, Julia." An observing researcher commented after a young girl in a simple T-shirt and jeans corrently answered a question regarding the basic function of a portal. "I have to admit, I'm impressed. That was a tough one even for our interns."

The girl smiled and flicked a lock of hair out of her eyes. "It was nothing." She stated, putting her hands in her pockets afterwards. "Portals really aren't all that difficult to-"

A loud siren interrupted her mid-sentence, indicating that a Portal Corporation building had just been assaulted.

"Perfect." She muttered, although the researcher seemed ecstatic.

"Oh, what perfect timing! Now we get the treat to see the great Veta in action, right, class?"

The students around her had mixed responses. Some genuinely seemed to be intrigued at the concept of watching her work her magic. Others seemed bored with the entire situation. Some only snickered. But no matter what the response, the general sound the group produced was an incomprehensible murmur. The researcher's eyes lost some of their brightness. But only some.

"Well well, come on now! No time to waste! Portal Corp.'s safety is at stake."

-----

A few minutes later, a girl in a pure white tech-armor suit entered the door, careful to step around the fallen Longbow. "Alright," She yelled, glancing around the room at those she would be facing. "Who the Hell interrupted the most important field trip of the year?"

The Arbiter's aforementioned kinetic shield prevented the blow from having its full effect, giving her attack the impression of suddenly having to punch through a very durable sponge. Regardless, her blow was nothing to sneer at, and it glanced off of his spine, causing him to hop forward instinctively away from the blow. Cursing, he twisted around quickly and fired a quick kinetic blast at the girl, hoping to knock her slim figure over and get her off balance. At least enough time to employ a pistol.

And what of Jake's already-in-place Force Bubble? Her petite figure would be powerless, now that she was out and in the open, to fight back against its kinetic might. Soon enough, she would be head-over-heels, so to speak, for the Arbiter.

-----

The Knives of Artemis sorely misunderstood the purpose of Jake's shielding. The individual shields that he had already put up largely prevented any attack from hitting him, save for that attack being of an extremely high velocity. As soon as a stun grenade came near him, a feat in and of itself due to the extreme amount of deflective shielding he had up, it simply flew off in a random direction, Jake's individual shield knocking it away from him as if slapping away a fly.

He glared at them, as if taking their targetting him as a personal insult. "Attack painted target." He simply stated, designating a random Knife in the crowd of them. "Use acidic missiles."

The robots turned, cold logic placing a targetting reticle right on the head of a poor girl just as it fired.

-----

The turrets would, depending on their weight, be thrown back as well by the kinetic force of the force bubble. It was probably safe to assume that, considering they were labeled as portable, they were fairly light-weight, and, thus, would be subsceptible to such effects.

Of course, this didn't diminish their danger. Just spread it out quite a bit more. Bullets flew everywhere as the two guns flew back, Jake ducking behind a piece of equipment as it sprayed its rounds, the Arbiter, strategically relocating, jumping aside behind a statue.

((Written in collaboration with Yosef Vanya.))

Wrong Place at the Right Time

Elevator shafts are cold, dark, damp places. You never quite know what you'll run into. You could run into a guy talking too loudly on his cell phone, you could run into a nightmarish creature from the Abyss beyond imagining, your evil twin, or even death's cold touch. In this case, something entirely different.

Devlin Skjebne was on his weekly commute to work. He had flown to the island known as "Spider Land", more formally known as Warburg, on an Arachnos helicopter along with his personal guard. Unfortunately for Skjebne, his personal guard was not allowed into this section of the lab. It seemed too quiet here in the WEB on this day. There was usually typing, people walking around, but today, nothing, however, this could be explained as there was to be a meeting on the technological discoveries of himself and his coworkers. In the melancholy of the silence, only the smell of death filled the air.

It was his death. Or was it his rebirth?

Today he had chosen to wear what he usually wore to meetings, his "good" lab coat, which was no more than a shade lighter than his "work" lab coat. Te work lab coat had been a hue of black and grey, no one was really sure how it had been turned that particular color, but it was and it was weird. He normally wore what was left of his hair in a loose pony tail that more or less hung over his left shoulder, but on today, he wore his in a neatly tied pony tail that hung evenly between his shoulders.

The elevator's roof buckled under the pressure of something too even to be anything organic. It pressed in only slightly before bits and pieces fell on to the floor. The pieces began to form into feet, legs, arms, a torso, a head, arms, clothes, and everything else a normal human being has. The face of the man was that of himself. The figure disappeared. Doctor Skjebne collapsed to the floor and dissolved into the elevator floor. The roof regained it's normal shape and from the floor rose the good doctor himself. However, this all had happened too quickly for any eye to see, organic or technological.

"Doctor Skjebne," reached for the communications box on the elevator and pressed a series of keys which established live video feed and voice communications. "How long until the meeting on our newest adancements start?"

The system crackled and the voice of just another droned response answered. "It will begin in exactly fifteen minutes, Doctor Skjebne."

"That sounds about as planned." He then entered the code to shut down the audio and visual communication. The elevator soon came to a sudden halt, and the Doctor's clone stepped out.

-----

He had arrived at the meeting without much incident; his way through the WEB, having been previously vacated due to said meeting, went largely unimpeded, only the occasional Arachnos patrol stopping him for his ID. He eventually arrived in a small chamber, dim lights and black metallic panelling giving the entire room an overall morbid and negative feel. None other than the inner-circle sat in the center of the room at a large circular table, steadily rising at an incline, with who else but Lord Recluse sitting at the head, his hands tented just under where his chin should be. Many different representatives from many different branches filled the chamber, each ready and willing to give whatever reason for funds being allocated to their division, or why their branch should deserve a salary increase. Very rarely did these meetings actually surmise of anything productive.

Which brings us to the appeal of what our clone had to say. After the end of a speech by a certain Mu Mystic, something involving more supplies for rituals, 'Doctor Devlin Skjebne' stepped up, a platform elevating him for the entirety of the room to see, however, not so high as to meet the eyes of Lord Recluse. An extremely subtle but effective display of dominance and authority.

"My lord," he began, giving a slight bow, almost as if Recluse himself were royalty rather than the militaritive dictator the world knew him to be. "I have, in lieu of begs for money and pleas for equipment, a rather effective plan to propose."

"Recently, several things have come into my possession, namely several million U.S. dollars and the promise of full cooperation from a benefactor who wishes to remain anonymous." It looked as if Recluse wished to speak, but Devlin held up a hand. This alone should've been enough to indicate that he was not who he claimed to be, but his suspiscion gave way to intrigue, and he continued to listen.

"They promise us funds, materials, research, and skematics for extremely advanced pieces of technology. They express the desire to assist Arachnos in its noble goal, and ask that you use these resources in any way you and your inner-circle see fit."

"This is absurd." Ghost Widow interrupted, always the voice of reason. "I find it extremely unwise to accept help from a completely unknown source. Heaven knows who or what could be hacking our computer system from those devices, and that's not even the biggest worry that we-"

"Silence!" Black Scorpion bellowed, slamming his fists down on a desk. Fortunately, it had been steel plated beforehand in anticipation of any such outburst. The man, if you could call him that, was extremely predictable. "Are you an idiot!? He's offering us technology! Technology that could go into improving my suit! How could you ever deny a generous offer like that?"

"Please." Malak, better known as Scirrocco, interrupted, waving Black Scorpion's claim off with a wave. "You're a buffoon and not suited for your position."

"That's enough!" Recluse shouted over the voices of his seconds in command. Black Scorpion snickered, oblivious to the fact that he, too, had been scolded. "We will accept the offer. While I am curious of the source, there is nothing that they can offer us that cannot be run though a simple scan for safety. We will incorporate these resources into our plans. Dismissed."

The others seemed to be forgotten. Lord Recluse, already wrapped up in the possibilities that now faced him, had chosen to simply ignore them, instead wishing to explore matters further. His metal boots clanked as the large crowd dispersed for him, allowing him to exit largely unimpeded. He had plans for these materials. Oh, did he have plans.

But first, the master of the Rogue Isles needed to speak with a trusted advisor of his.

"Skjebne. Come with me."

The clone smirked. "Yes, my lord."

-----

Roughly fifteen minutes later, the two of them were relocated to a private room in Recluse's Tower, found right in the heart of scenic Grandville. It was often used for one-on-one interviews the Master of Arachnos wished to conduct with his subordinates. From interrogations to simple status reports, the room had been used for all. Again, the lighting in the room was as dim as any human could possibly imagine, however, despite this, it had a very pleasant atmosphere. Lush red carpet lined the room, accenting a large mahogany desk located toward the back. Recluse beckoned his researcher to have a seat, which he politely accepted, the cushiony upholestery attempting to make his time their as comfortable as possible. Recluse, himself, preferred to stand, thus keeping the air of superiority. He paced back and forth, the clank of his boots muffled by the carpetting.

"Earlier," He began, "You briefly mentioned a plan. What is it?"

He smiled. "Ah, my Lord, nothing escapes your ears. True, yes, I have a plan for these components. I, personally, would attempt to use these materials to better our failing Arachnoid program. I've looked at a few of the skematics, and I believe that we can convert their function to turn their rogue-like nature into machine-like efficiency."

Recluse seemed slightly taken aback by this. The Arachnoids? Could they truly be tamed? He had considered the project a failure, and had nearly been ready to call the entire project off on the suggestion of one of his advisors, yet here sat his top researcher informing him that to do such would be folly? That hope for not only success, but utter obedience from the Arachnoids was well within reach?

Needless to say, the Lord of Spiders was estatic, if not skeptical.

"You can honestly sit here and tell me that a mystery benefactor from nowhere can provide to me the means with which to complete my greatest triumph ever? When Arachnos, the most powerful force known to man," Clearly a bit of egotism going on here. "Has yet to uncover its secrets?" Finally some of that logical skepticism that Ghost Widow had displayed was shining through. In all of his thoughts of victory, he absolutely had to question the credibility of something so impossibly convenient. Just as informercials claim to cure hair-loss or reduce weight, it was most likely a farce.

But it was a very intriguing farce.

"Very well. We will incorporate this technology into the Arachnoids. However, I would like to request a meeting with this benefactor, anonymous or not."

Skjebne's clone, had it any emotions, would have burst out laughing at the irony of the situation. Instead, it only smiled. "Of course, my Lord. I will contact them immediately."

"My, aren't we popular." Jake stated, his goggles allowing him to view the coming onslaught. His quick thinking and reflexes allowed him to activate a favorite toy of his that he often found little use for. The Force Bubble.

Soon, everything labeled unfriendly would be flung back several dozen feet, especially if said unfriendlies were small and petite, like, say, a woman.

Unless these girls were able to put on some incredible weight, they'd be flung back like a barn in a tornado.

Additionally, with the group of intruders now convienently bunched up together due to said Force Bubble, they could effectively unleash an effective volley of attacks. His Assault Bot launched dozens upon dozens of small missiles at the large conglomeration of people, everything from fire to acid to traditional explosions bathing them, and, if that weren't enough, the other five continued to fire burning hot plasma at the group.

It was undeniable. Malta was on the defensive in this fight.

Meanwhile, The Arbiter continued to hop around the room, slamming the (From what he could see) group of Malta with several blasts of kinetic force from a random direction roughly every three seconds.

When it came down to it, Malta sapper rays were an absence of energy, draining the fuel straight from whatever poor sap happened to get hit by it. This transference of energy gave the rays a state of equilibrium, and thus, they dissapate, having become balanced.

However, when the force you wielded WAS pure energy, it was a simple matter to negate said beams, rendering everything but the actual gun utterly useless, as it could still be thrown.

The Arbiter's quick reflexes and former experience with Malta were the only things that allowed him to cancel out the beam when he did, after which, he put a shield up around himself and his allies to prevent such a thing from affecting any of them.

You see, the Arbiter wielded pure kinetic energy, the force of movement. And, while not what most think of when the word energy is mentioned, it is still a valid form of it, and highly useful in many situations.

Having completed his defense, he again threw an invisible force at the group, repeatedly knocking them over as they attempted to formulate an attack strategy.

In the meantime, Jake's bots were careful not to destroy any more equipment, under the young mastermind's orders. However, their accuracy sensors were spot on, and allowed them to manuever into such a position as to not hit anything while still firing on the squad, mostly involving the six of them hovering in the air while they fired.

"Was afraid of that." Jake muttered, throwing down his disks, revealing half-a-dozen robots and nine Arachnos Drones. Fifteen bright flashes filled the room with enough light to at least rival that of a flash grenade, and, in addition, their onslaught began immediately. The Arachnos Drones, armed with disinigration rays, began firing on whatever targets they saw, while Jake focused his minions' attack on the head of the operation, the six of them launching into the air, firing plasma at the man all the while.

In the meantime, Jake had already placed several powerful shields up on himself, the Arbiter, and the Arachnos agents that were alraedy there.

Oh, yes, of course! The Arachnos agents certainly couldn't be left out of the fray. Energy and webbing, too, flew toward the squad of Malta. By the end of the attack, not only would the Arachnos agents be utterly unharmed due to Jake's brilliant defense, but the Malta Operatives would also be reduced to a scorched pile of flesh.

It was good to be a villain.

-----

The Arbiter wasn't very pleased with his failed bluff, his face tightening into a grimace as the attack began. He quickly shielded his eyes from the flash bang, expecting it beforehand. Afterwards, he held out his hand, sending several agents flying back.

Clearly some invisible force had just been unleashed, but what was it?

Whatever it was, it had felt like a truck had slammed into the two and just kept going. Not to mention, said truck was under the command of the Arachnos Arbiter.

But what was it?

Tamesis glanced back as Daos left the office, turning his head once he actually left. Sighing, he moved his eyes to gaze at the charred piece of metal, picking it up and juggling it a bit.

"Well, beats fighting the creature from Hell. Jake can handle it. He always does."

He walked out of Daos's office, making his way back to his own. Hopefully, that assistant of his had some new Arbiter armor ready for him.

"Cynic?" Tamesis replied, dissapointment crossing his face as he rubbed the back of his head.

Was hoping for some sort of promotion...

"The guy's kind of creative, I guess. That staff he has comes in handy, and he can sure work his way out of a rock and a hard place, but he doesn't seem all too trustworthy. I mean, I dunno what you told him, but I doubt anybody would pledge their loyalty to an organization they just became aware of, especially if just the moment before they were attacking it."

He finished, not changing his position much during the evaluation.

"Why? What's up?"

"Alright, thanks." He shouted back, giving a wave as he fell out of sight.

-----

A few minutes later, Tamesis walked nonchalantly into Daos's office, grabbing a chair in front of his desk and flipping it around, straddling it. "So, Daos, what's up? You wanted to see me?"

Arbiter Tamesis only stared at the Mu, the sudden transition from raging battlefield to sterile environment, creepy guy included, through his mind for a metaphorical loop.

"Um... Okay?" He muttered, nodding a thanks to the man as he stepped out of the med porter, feeling the area where he'd been hit. His armor had remained shattered around his torso, and the surrounding area wasn't fairing much better.

"So, personal assistant, right?" He said as he walked. "Mind getting me some new armor while I'm talking to Daos?"

Under any other circumstance, Jake wouldn't have worried at all about the crumbling state of the building around him. Indeed, it would have even given him an advantage, allowing him to remain safe inside of a repulsion bubble while his enemy suffered under several metric tons of weight. However, this wasn't any other circumstance. His shield had been weakened, and he was beginning to worry if it would even hold out in the case of a... Wait... That was it.

"You have fifteen seconds." Jake shouted to Acanous, immediately after rocketing toward the nearest exit.

"You guys know what do do."

"Statement: Witty Comment. Reference: Comics. W007 smash!"

"Statement: Indeed."

"Good."

As soon as they were out, the five unleashed a barrage of missiles, lasers, and plasma, all aimed at the supports of the structure. This was a last resort, but the Ultra had to be taken down. There was no way he would be stuck fighting the 'It Came From Planet Mars' monster reject for any longer. A screech filled the air, followed by a slow groan as one could literally see the walls bending, eventually giving way to a collapse of the ceiling. Anyone around without any ear protection (Which, thankfully, was Arachnos standard issue. Never know when a screamer will show.) would be slightly deafened for a good time to come.

And even if worst came to worst, he had pulled the railguns out before the demagnetization. All barrels were trained on where the creature had been before the collapse.