The Begining of the End

[Neki]

Neko looked at Rawling and laughed.
" If you think that you can get rid of me that easily you are so misguided bro." She looked around. There were metal head everywhere and she was unhappy that they were attacking her brother. With an evil smile, she leveled her hand. They were crackling with dark eco. Her hair was waving in small strands and her eyes seemed to get impossbly deeper.
" Die!" She yelled in a voice laced with magic. Dark eco rainged aroun her, obliterating the metalheads in her path.
" I hate metalheads." She told her brother.

[Deco]

One might very well assume that Deco was suprised to find his attack so easily deflected. That, however, was nothing compared to the shock of having the majority of his face blown off. Temporarily stunned by the rodent's unexpected assault, the dark lord could do nothing to ward off the yellow eco blasts that ripped into his torso only moments later. An inhuman roar of pain and blinding rage shattered nearby windows as his still sizzling body worked to regain it's undamaged humanoid form. "WORTHLESS VERMIN!" His burning gaze shifted from one opponent to the next, as dark bolts of energy lashed out in every direction to scorch their surroundings. "Do you have even the slightest concept of who it is that you're dealing with? I am the bringer of darkness! The god of destruction!" The very air around them began to darken and the already howling wind became all the more violent. A number of jagged tendrils also started to grow from the eco demon's back before curving around like the poised tails of a dozen angry scorpions. "I AM DECO!" With those final words, the air that had already begun to hum with evil power suddenly burst into a veritable whirlwind of dark lightning and Deco lashed out at both of his enemies with the razor sharp tendrils. No longer was this a game. These fools would pay dearly for their blasphemy!

Meanwhile...

The squad of metal-heads that had originally been tasked with accompanying Deco couldn't help but look on in wonder at the destruction that their eco cannon had wrought. Awesome! After taking just a moment to cackle with feral glee and pound each others fists in victory, they set their sights towards the much more puzzling goal of actually destroying the power station. The surviving humans had taken refuge within the building itself and were making quite an impressive show of mowing down every hora-quan stupid enough to pass through the doorway. Not a good situation. Too bad they couldn't just blow up the whole stupid building. Wait... why not? It is unknown how such a complex idea came to the minds of such normally thoughtless creatures. Perhaps it was the intelligent darkness of Lord Deco flowing throughout their veins, or maybe that day was the beginning of a massive intellectual renaissance amongst all metal-head kind. One way or the other, it was time to blow #### up... again! Scurrying quickly about the corpses, they first gathered as many red eco grenades as they could find. Then, they selected a body from the numerous cadaver piles that lay before them and strapped every last explosive that they could find too it. Oh yes... It doesn't take a genius to see where this is going. Finally, they activated a single grenade and uncerimouniosly tossed the body directly over the writhing hordes that were still trying so desperately to get inside the power station... and then they ran... Fast!

[Darkjak87]

Just like it wouldn't take a genius to know when to dodge, Zephan didn't need a second glance before he quickly ran for cover. The left side of the street was closest to him, so that was his destination. It wasn't difficult to find a small, covered space that had been created by a building's collapse. He dived, sliding smoothly underneath the rubble and being mostly safe from Deco's lethal attack. Zrion however, was not so lucky. Standing on the relatively intact right side of the street, there were very few opportunities to find cover. In fact, there was nothing but a solid brick wall to his rear. Left with little choice, Zrion gathered his red eco, and created a hasty shield. With the basic shield up, he quickly began to reinforce it, pouring his eco into the weakest parts of the shield, and strengthening it as rapidly as possible against Deco's attack. He didn't have to wait long to test his shield's defenses, as one of the tendrils crashed against the shields. Zrion's expression twisted to one of a grimace, as the shield began to rapidly drain his reserves of red eco. So far it was holding, but now multiple tendrils were pressing at multiple portions of the shield. It would not hold forever, and he knew that if one of those tendrils touched him, it would either kill him (very slowly) or permanently cripple whatever it touched. Indeed, dark eco wasn't feared for it's name and color.

Zephan crawled out from under his cover. The very first thing he saw, was Zrion taking refuge inside a shield of red eco. The shield was semi-spherical in shape, using the brick wall behind him as a barrier to conserve eco. Anger filled Zephan, as he saw his friend struggling to not cry out as his eco was drained away. "You think you are a god?!" Zephan spoke lowly, but with an intense tone that showed his anger. "Arrogant creature! THERE ARE NO GODS!" After yelling his last sentence, Zephan fired two low-powered green eco spheres at deco. His goal was not to injure deco, but to distract him from Zrion, giving his friend a chance to drop the shield and recover some of his strength. Zephan clenched his fist. He would make deco pay the price for underestimating him just because of his small form.

Back at the power station, the two soldiers were forced to duck, as the body flew in the door, and landed in the middle of the room next to Vin. They stood back up, and noticed with horror that the flashing lights on the grenades meant it was armed. The squad leader and his medic looked grimly at each other, as a brilliant white light enveloped the room, and all inside.

At main town, the area was nothing short of a complete battlefield. After the slums and industrial section had fallen to the metal heads, the Krimzon Guard had pulled back most of their remaining force to defend maintown. And indeed, that was quite a force. Over Twelve Thousand soldiers stood in maintown, fighting their hardest as they defeated wave after wave of Metal Head troops. They were backed by dozens of Trik tanks, blasting their enemy to bits. As if to ensure their ability to hold the line, dozens of hellcat cruisers swarmed the skies overhead, performing devastating strafing runs against the Metal Head troops. Most of the surviving civilian population was now taking cover in maintown, so the KG were fighting their hardest to keep it secure. There were also several thousand soldiers fighting in the gardens, although with much less success as they didn't have the benefit of massive numbers and air support, like their allies at Main town did. The Bazaar was even worse, as only 400 soldiers stood against thousands of metal head troops, pushing them farther back each minute. At the port, the area was barely even touched. No metal head entry had appeared in the port, allowing the 300 KG on station in the area to quickly divide themselves into groups of 100 soldiers or so, and to guard the three entrances to the port. This strategy along with their good fortune left the port almost completely undamaged so far. Although they had no Triks or Hellcats for support, the Metal Heads were similarly limited to only their basic ground forces. It would probably not last, because if Main-town fell, their forces would then be so limited that there would be no hope of fighting off the intense attack.

[Paladin89]

With a wave of rolling dust, Mallock's forces came to a stop outside of Haven City. The city shield still stood, the energy barrier rippling slightly as a gust of wind from the storm above hit it.
Sweeping its wings the dragon began to lower its altitude, falling in a lazy circle until it finally drew its bulk back and beat its wings until it touched down on the gravely soil. Sliding from off its back Mallock awaited for the ground forces of his army to approach and halt. There were hundreds of thousands of hora'quan soldiers all standing before him, grunts, shield brutes, rifleman grunts, and more. But that was not the more...noticeable part of the force. Lumbering up behind the smaller of its brethren came thousands of larger hora'quan, all ranging from the size of a tank up to the massive hora'quan behemoths that slowly approached in the rear, like prehistoric monsters.
The hora'quan leader looked over his army, his face calm and calculated, but his eyes glowed brightly with a terrible glee, one brought by a joy for slaughter and destruction.
Mallock raised his hands as the largest assets of his army came to a halt. Opening his mouth he spoke, his lips up turned into a sinister grin, "Prepare for bombardment, ready all guns, fire on my mark!"
The hora'quan roared, the larger breeds slamming there feet into the ground for support as massive cannons on there backs began to turn towards Haven City. The glow of eco emanated from the weapons as they came online. The smaller hora'qaun yelped with glee as they climbed up onto the backs of their larger comrades, mounting the cannons and taking control, shifting the guns until they were well aimed on the city.
With arms akimbo, Mallock turned and stared at the walled city in the distance. Roars of impatience from his horde filled the air, both from those on the ground and those in the air.
Rolling his neck Mallock opened his mouth, "FIRE!"

______________________________________________________________

The sudden appearance of metal heads all over Haven left Etrius dumbfound. His view from the city roof tops gave him an interesting perspective as he looked on with despair. Everywhere the Krimson Guard where being pushed back. Everywhere the metal heads where getting the upper hand. Even in the places he could see where the KG where holding he could tell that it would be only a matter of time before the beast ate away the KG's strength.
Smoke drifted up from the streets, carried along by the breeze from the storm over head. Large drops of rain hit Etrius on his head and shoulders as he looked down at several metal head grunts running up a street. Gun fire could be heard from a street over, the metal head grunts, stopped and looked down an alley. With a snarl, the pack turned and darted down it, looking for another kill.
Pulling his swords from there scabbards, Etrius prepared to face them when a roar filled the air. So loud was the noise it drowned out everything, even the thunder of the storm was muted.
The roar lasted for several seconds, its source seeming to come from beyond the city walls.
Slowly Etrius turned to look, reluctant to find what new horror awaited the city. What he found was indeed horrific. A black mass that seemed to strech almost halfway around the city covered the horizon. The air above the shifting darkness move as a hazy cloud of creatures swarmed overhead. As he watch Etrius saw thousands upon thousands of glow points of light, all ranging in color from yellow, red, and blue, to even glowing points of blackish purple.
As he watched his eyes grew wide as he realized what was happening. The metal heads where shelling the city.
Explosions filled the air as the eco shells slammed into the energy barrier. Bright light shone from the shield as the eco shells collided with it, causing a ripple of fire and energy to move along its surface.
Smoke filled the sky, adding to the darkness of the clouds but the shield held firm. Slowly the smoke dissipated, revealing the dark mass off in the distance.
Again a volley of loud reports sounded from the mass, rumbling forth as if the darkness was a storm of its own. Again the shield over Haven held, but for how long?
Etrius looked away, confident that the shield would hold...for a little while at least.
Hearing some more gun fire near by, he moved to the edge of the roof he was on and looked over the side. What he found was a scene of mayhem and epic heroics. Down in the street was Ezekiel, the large half dragon looking mutant, holding a massive Vulcan Fury under each arm. Bursts of blue eco erupted from the muzzles of the two guns, mowing down hoards of metal heads that swarmed up the street. Bolts of yellow eco hit the ground around him as several metal heads aimed large eco rifles in his direction.
A few metal heads still managed to get past the mutants gun fire though, there drooling maws open wide as they charged forward, ready to sink there teeth into Ezekiels flesh. One of the lead beasts jumped, sailing towards Ezekiel's throat.
Etrius watched as Z spun around, slamming his tail into the grunts side, sending the beast sailing into the side of a building with a sickening crunch.
As he watch a thought ran through Etrius's mind. Why was Z still here, why was he fighting in this empty street by himself? His eyes wandered around until he got his answer.
The orphanage!
"Damn it!" Etrius cursed under his breath. "Don't tell me the KG for got to evacuate the orphanage!"
With an irritated growl, Etrius started running along the roof top until he was up above Ezekiel. Sheathing his blades, he stepped off the roof into an alley. He fell for a few feet before he stuck out his hands and feet, catching himself on the walls around him. From there he slid another good twenty feet until he came to a stop. In front of him was a fire escape, reaching out he grabbed the edge and swung himself around. Then with effiecient quickness, he made his way down to the ground where he landed among dirt and trash. Pulling out his blades once more to he took off down the alley making his way towards Ezekiel.

______________________________________________________________

Seeing a blur come running out of an alley Ezekiel turned a Vulcan Fury to mow it down. With a look of surprise and relief he realized it wasn't a metal head but Etrius. The massive half dragon mutant turned the Vulcan back to the oncoming hordes as he opened fire with renewed vigor. "It's about time someone showed up!" he roared over the clatter of gun fire to Etrius.
Etrius slid to a stop beside the mutant, his swords drawn, ready to cut into the oncoming horde. "Why are you still here?" Etrius yelled as he cut into a grunt that had gotten past the hail of bullets from Z.
"The children and sisters are still inside," he bellowed, holding tight to both vulcan's as he pulled there triggers. "They didn't have time to evacuate!"
A look of desperation and rage covered Ezekiels' face, "Go and get them. Lead them to Maintown while I hold them off. Its just up the street, you can see the KG at the entrance."
He noticed Etrius glance back. No doubt he saw the same thing as Ezekiel. Several hundred KG fired down multiple streets, but the one that they were on was relatively clear. The only problem was that about three blocks lay between the Maintown entrance and the orphanage. That was three blocks where plenty of things could go wrong.
Still it was a chance that had to be taken. If the children and sisters stayed here then they would die for sure.
"Where are they at?" Etrius yelled as he ducked under bolt of yellow eco.
"Under-" Ezekiel roared as a blast of yellow eco slammed into his shoulder, burning away part of his cloak. The impact spun him as he felt the eco eat away at his thick hide, leaving behind charred flesh. With a primal roar Ezekiel brought the two vulcan's back up and continued to fire, "There under the floor next to the stairs. Hurry, get them out of here!"
Etrius took off for the orphanage door and disappeared inside.
With Etrius in the orphanage, Ezekiel turned his full attention back to the metal heads. Several of them had broken away from the rest of the pack, managing to get past his gun fire. One of the metal heads charged right up to Z just to find a massive clawed foot brought down squarely on its head with a sickening crunch. Another grunt jumped over its fallen comrade landing on Ezekiels' shoulder. Teeth and claws sunk into Ezekiel's thick hide to the point of drawing crimson blood. Z threw his shoulder forward, dislodging the grunt and casting it to the ground where it landed on its back. A moment later Ezekiel was on it, slamming a vulcan fury barrel into its gut and firing off a burst. A gurgle left the grunts mouth then it became still as a trace of smoke streamed out from its maw.

A squeal filled the air behind Ezekiel, cutting through the noise and chaos like a knife through butter. Z glanced back saw a nun holding onto a little girl with a look of utter horror on her face. The nuns all gasped as they saw Ezekiel beaten and bruised with bodies piled about him. All of the were stunned by the horrific scene.
Ezekiel turned and roared "Run, get to Maintown, GO!"
Suddenly a large shield wielding brute appeared beside Z. Swinging its massive shield arm to the side it sent Ezekiel rolling across the street. It paid little attention to the mutant. Instead it leveled it eco rifle at the nuns and children. A low hum filled the air as the rifle charged then---CRACK! The eco rifle fired, its barrel pointed up in the air as Etrius stood before the brute, one of his sword pushing the rifle barrel up.
The shield brute looked down at Etrius, but only had time to realize it was a human who deflected its aim, for a second later a roaring mountain of scales and feathers collided with the brute, pushing it away from Etrius. Around its waist was Ezekiel, a red gleam in his eyes as he surged forward, pushing the brute across the street and into the wall of a building. Ezekiel jumped back as he rammed his foe into the brickwork, then reaching up he grabbed the metal heads throat and and slammed it through the wall. The creature struggled as it tried to escape from the wall but was too slow.
Before it could remove its head from the buildings interior, Ezekiel threw his weight into the beasts side, moving its body while its head was unable to follow. A loud crack filled the air and the creature went limp, its body sagging to the ground while its head remained stuck through the wall.
Turning Ezekiel found Etrius fighting back several grunts as children where hurried down the street by the nuns. Not wasting a second the half dragon rushed forward, his feathered wing beating the air, pushing him forward, and right into the closest grunt.

[adeco]

The bombardment on the city shield was a frightful sight. Rawling didn't feared the worst as he observed the explosions slam against it. But there was no time to worry about the shield. He had to move!

He tied his bandana over his face and fed his body a moderate amountof blue eco. That was all he needed. He bursted off in a streak of blue directly into the horde of metalheads. They didn't even see Rawling as he popped off rounds pont blank into theirs head. A line of dropping metalhead followed the blue streak until Rawling pushed himself off the ground and took cover on top of a roof. He reloaded both of his guns and peak over the side of the gutters.

"My god...This is unreal. He said to himself. Rawling closed his eyes and took a deep breathe. "Don't think... Act." In a burst of clear ripples Rawling rushed off the roof into the air. As he hurdled to the ground his perception slowed just enough to get clear shots at a few of the grunts. Just before he hit the rubble covered streets below he released a bursted of magnetism to catch his fall. Dust and small bits of debree flew from him.

Sparks of lightning started to crack and snap over his body. He was losing control over his eco again. He never pushed the limit and he didn't want to try it now. But he may have to because when the dust settled. The first to appear was the hybrid, Sicar.
________________________________________________

Starus and his company finally blew the entry hole. But the fight was far from over. Even though that entry hole was closed, metalheads were still everywhere. His men were fighting hard but were slowly being picked off.

Even still Delta company pushed forward laying waste to whatever was in the path. Their shields were their protector and the only thing keeping the majority alive.

And finally after all of that fighting it was starting to let up. "Don't let your gaurd down just because its getting easier!" Starus shouted. "We have to get to the main gate! Move out!"

They began marching proudly through the streets of Haven fighting any resistence they encountered. Until they reached another heavy point in the battle. Near the orphanage. Where a single man was fighting them off. "Delta! Assist!" Starus shouted and pointed at a large horde. "Fan out! Bullrush!"

The company, like it was a rehearsed dance, spread into a V formation that cover the entire street. "NOW!" With that they pushed off in a small rumble and picked up a heavy cloud of dust ramming straight into the horde. Impaling and trampling.

Starus stayed behind and tooked to the... dragon? Lizard? Either way he was an ally. "Is everything alright sir?"

[Neki]

Neko atched her brother act. He was so fast, nothing compared to the only little bit of blue eco she had. She was mainly a controller of dark eco. She was better now, and getting better all the time. She knew she should help. Fusing her dark and blue eco for the moment, her movements were speeded. She wasnt nearly as fast as Ralwing, but fast enough. Her katana, Karem, flashed silver in the light. Soo though, it was covered in the dark gore of metal heads.
" Rawling, come over her, now! I have to do something for the moment!" She called through the din. She could see her brother killing metal heads at an amazing rate. She continued to throw eco balls at the metal heads, killing them one by one.

[adeco]

Rawling was wide mouthed staring upward at the towering Sicar. He didn't know what to do at this point. All he could think of doing was to stand still.

But after staring at him for a second Rawling recognized that mask. That horrid frightful mask that he kicked at their last encounter. Rawling grew smile under his bandana, "Hey! I rememeber you... uh... How's it goin', huh? The pillaging working out for you?"

At that point this ears picked up Neko's voice for help. "Trust me Neko! You don't want me to turn my back on this guy!"

Rawling cracked his neck some, "Well I know where this is going," Rawling said as he reloaded. He pulled the recoil back to load his first bullet and shifted his eyes to looked Sicar dead in the eyes."Shall we?"

[Deco]

If there was one thing aside from the near limitless power that Lord Deco possessed it was... the attention span of a goldfish. Catching the oncoming blasts of green eco across the back of his forearm and all but ignoring the sizzling pain that followed, the eco demon turned his full attention upon the defiant little rodent. "No?" A grin of wicked amusement made it's way across his features as he began making his way slowly across the street. "Then I must ask.... What is it that stands before you now? A man?" The pavement cracked beneath his feet with every menacing step. "A monster?" Dark lightning flashed about in every direction. "No? Then perhaps... I AM THE DEVIL!" With that, the beast opened his fanged mouth wide and let fly one continuous stream of burning darkness in his minuscule opponent's direction.

[Darkjak87]

Zephan's eyes widened, and he was slow to react. He moved, but too late. As the dark eco passed by him, it brushed against his foot. He immediately screamed in pain, as the vile substance burned his flesh like boiling acid. As if a white-hot knife was stabbed into his skin. Zephan clenched his teeth, as he landed on his side. No, keep it together! Purify the dark eco before it spreads! After a deep breath, Zephan began to channel his green eco into his injured leg. He felt relief, as the green eco began to slowly wash away the pain and effect of Dark Eco. He was extremely lucky that the blow had not been more direct, else he could loose his leg entirely, or even die, eco or no eco. He grimaced again, as he molded his green eco to contain the infected area of his leg, and began to force the dark eco back, purifying it as he went. It was difficult going, as deco's eco was unusually potent, but if there was no distraction he would be able to continue fighting in a moment.

Zrion dropped the shield, gasping desperately for air. He bent forward, supporting his upper body by resting his arms on his knees. He looked up, just in time to see Deco doing what looked like vomiting. He realized quickly that it was not vomit, but something much worse. He watched Zephan's expression change from surprise, to realization, to horror, and finally to determination all in less than a second. His friend dived in a not-so-graceful movement, that tragically exposed his leg to the attack. The ottsel cried in pain, landing on his side. Zrion snapped himself out of his stupor. Focus soldier! Keep that bastard busy! Zrion took one last breath, before he sprang back into action. He fired two spheres of yellow eco from his right hand, while swinging his left hand from a left-to-right slashing motion. The two spheres moved forward rapidly, while the movement of his left hand created a wider wave of eco that traveled more slowly, similar to the scatter gun. Hopefully it would work as intended and cut the so-called-god, into half. He forced his face to not show his expression of pain, as he drained eco from himself at a rate that he had never done before. He might as well be throwing blood at deco.

[Neki]

Neko sighed. The man in fromt of Rawling was imposing, and he was right.
" Then we'll just have to do this my way." She weaved through the crowds of metal heads, slashing them with katana. She came up behind Rawling, waching the man in front of him.
She healed the few injusries he had aquired so far, givimg him strength, with a hug.. She then walked over to his side.
" Hello, tall dark and gruesome!" She said to the man in fromt of her broether., waving cheerily. He didnt look to happy at the moment. I guess it's time to make his day. She thought to her self. Smiling she spoke.
" Hey, don't you need a liscence to be that ugly. I mean, come on, your face could break a mirror." She moved to the other side of Rawling, faster than normal because she was using her little bit of blue eco.
" Hey Stupid, think fast!" She shouted, trying to throw some of her dark eco at him. It fizzled , and died.
That didn't work so well. But if he's my brother enemy, he's my enemy. Plain and simple.