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Atelius had managed to take flight before Talon could get a firm grip on the flyer. No issue there, the bird had razors for wings. Only a fool would mess with that right now. And Talon did have bigger issues to deal with than a bird. He heard his name and took notice of what was running at him. He let a colorful curse fly from his lips, and the squid ink that dripped down his arm slipped his footing up enough that he was damn sure this wasn't going to end well.

For a moment while he ran, stumbled even, towards the ever slowly closing door, Talon stared at Kagi running at him. With all the weight on him leaning in opposite directions, Talon couldn't dodge and keep his momentum forward, and Talon knew he wasn't going to make it to the door in time. That in mind, wrenching the beast that clung to his hair, Talon threw the little Moe in the direction of the door hoping one of the others would catch him. Moe wasn't going to get caught in this...the dinosaur didn't deserve it.

There wasn't any time to try to pry the squid off his arm, nor did Talon want to tempt fate and throw a depressed spider, he cursed again and rolled out of Kagi's way, took a quick glance behind and started to get back to his running pace again. The silver ink slipped him up too much. He growled, his luck sucked. But at the very least, he avoided getting bowled over by the monster.

If he lived through this, the general was paying for his medical bills. All of them. Every single one of them. And he would make sure of it or so help her soul!

Without much thought Nick caught the flying mechanical puff of a dinosaur in both hands. The metal making a scraping noise as Moe slid into her arms. Given the present moment Nick didn't check to see if there were any scrapes. Her focus remained on the other side of the door. There would be some time for him to get back surely. Than she watched as he slipped.

"Kagi, bring him back, get over here!" She roared, her right eye brightening.

She took a step forward than Ranee tossed her grenades on the floor and called for everyone to clear. "Idiot! What are you-" She demanded than abruptly cut herself off as she backed down the hall quickly. There was nothing to hide behind but distance in this case.

The door was now a foot from the floor and now there was no hope of getting through. The one Obliterator that thought itself clever to try and cut the group off found itself halfway through the exit before the six grands went off in unison. Pebbles and dirt fell from the ceiling as the hall shook. Than those strange circles begun to appear in the ceiling lining the entire long stretch of hallway and vanishing down a fork in the massive hall. Some circles much larger than others.

Smoke poured from the bottom of the door momentarily, but when the thick black cloud cleared it revealed the door was still standing and with only minor cracks from the bottom webbing up ward and stopping half way.

Kagi dove right to the center of the Obliterators that had dared to insult him or anything of his. The fire had no affect on him as he tore mercilessly into their armor with his razor teeth, claws, and even tail. By the time Nick had called for him again only one of them remained to try and pull itself away. "Grawr!" He called before shooting back toward Talon. He was satisfied with his work. And now perhaps his master wanted to do away with this one herself. But before he could get back to Talon and than to Nick the explosions all happened causing him to dart around Talon and go right for the now closed pathway.

He let out a massive roar at the door and begun to smash his head against it vigorously.

Zutnic put himself between the door and Shun protectively, though he would only be able to successfully block any fragment from striking at Shun's legs. Part of him wanted to chase after the eggs, but when they started to explode he had second thoughts about that. Seeing Ranee toss them he wondered if those were her babies. When the smoke cleared he was disappointed to not see little flesh bags attacking the door. That would have been nice...

Atelius circled back toward Talon when the oblitorators begun to launch a nasty stream of flame toward him, nearly hitting him several times. "Telling it to go back up won't work you dolt." He squawked at Kagi upon returning. "Make yourself useful and go merge with one of those ZOIDs! That would do good to get rid of these obliterators and take the door out!"
Of course Kagi ignored him completely.

The cuddler looked from Talon to the red organoid than one of the ZOIDs still intact. Perhaps... It puffed up than detached itself from Talons arm and made a mad dash toward Kagi. It worked with the other organoid. "klululuklulululuuu!" He hollered almost like a battle cry as he charged forward.

The spider looked back up at Talon when they had tumbled. "derk..." It 'spoke' and begun to poke at Talon's chest continuously.

Their opposing force stopped in their pursuit to watch the door explode. When the smoke cleared the marched forward. The ones closer to the glowing halls turned about face and re-entered the hall and begun back to where they had come from.

Moe happily was caught by the scary metal lady. Some scrapes were given to his outer shell, but that was just some minor detail. He was still recovering from being thrown from the person he was attached to. With that, the little Dino squeaked and scrambled to cling to Nick's shoulder to stay out of the way...and to balance the woman out...though now that was probably obsolete.


He was vaguely aware that someone was ordering the monster back towards him. He was more bitter about how people were yelling his name like that would suddenly help him in this struggle. Yes... he knew his name. Alarm spread when the princess decided to blow the door, not at the closeness of the dangerous possessive one. "No- !!" But by the time he could yell for her to stop her shinannagins, the door was already destroyed and nothing more than a pile of rubble. Though, fancy that it took out one of the Obliterators. One. Feeling an eye twitch, he glared at the rubble and the tail remains of the monster wedged and crushed under the door. Thankfully, none of the salamanders seemed to be paying Talon any mind. It was probably out of pity. Ha... pity from a machine that could burn him into a crispy morsel for dragons... Talon didn't feel comforted at that thought. He made it clear by screaming curses at Ranee. Mainly about how stupid that was and why she didn't just throw her grenade bag to him instead of playing inexperienced dungeon crawler hero. It really wasn't a great speech. More cursing than actual words.

Atelius and Shuns' suggestion was fantastic and brought him from his anger induced suicidal rant. " Wait? The sentinels!? They're practically scrap! Beyond scrap! Decorations! .... no offense big saber lions...."

The detatchment of the cuddler wasn't noticed. The strange battlecry was noticed. If he hadn't been in mortal peril, Talon probably would have tilted his head to the side and said ' Awww~'. But here it was, being the brave one, running for one of the lions since Kagi was being a dolt and Atelius was a little too busy distracting. And to top off the distracting factor, Talon slipped in the 'ink' that had dripped down to the floor as he tried to retrieve the cuddler for its own safety and was getting poked at by the manacly depressed spider. "Now what!? What? What do you want?" he practically yelled at the thing in his pocket. The pokes were getting annoying.

'Fine! If that old thing explodes while I'm in it, its not my fault! I blame Kagi! And you too Ranee! Learn tactics! BAH! FLYERS! " At this point, he was almost too pissed to care there were flames flying all around him. He just stalked after the cuddler and to the ZOID the thing had decided was safe for a pilot. He wasn't trying to be mean to his team mates. He was just tired of almost being killed.

Nick took a deep breath. For all the tactics she had used on people before, cruel terrible things to get them to bend to her will, all of them gaining an image for the Iron Judge. None of those would work on such a thick headed Organoid such as Kagi. No, there was only one way to ensure he did everything according to her words without him killing Talon in the process.

She walked back to the shut stone door and leaned close, silently thankful for the counter weight that Moe provided. She could feel the vibrations in the door her thick skull friend was providing.

"Kagi, Listen to me." The banging continued. "Kagi! If Talon should die and you do not listen to what I say..." The noise continued. "Titus will be my new favorite and will get all the attention."

The noise abruptly stopped followed by a loud and pitiful screech. "Kagi, fuse with the ZOID in the best condition and bring the door down. And be sure Talon is safe."

And with those words she turned to the others and begun to walk quickly back down the long hallway keeping an eye on the ceiling and walls. "Get as far away from the door without setting off another trap as possible."

One of the large cylinder stones fell from the ceiling a ways in front of Nick. High above a glowing hole was left in the stone wake. An obliterator waited inside charging up its flame. This wasn't the only hole either . May cylinders were forming in the ceiling and about ready to free whatever wait on the other side of them.

Kagi continued his attempt on the door, creating a nice sized dent in the rock. With time maybe it could have worked, however time was not something that they had. The obliterators in the room and already nearly taken out two of the old ZOIDS by merely crawling on it with their flaming bodies. With their growing numbers it wouldn't be long before the room was nothing more than a hot oven smoldering any fleshy meat bag still within. Luckily for Talon Kagi was still a very greedy and possessive beast. At Nick's words he lifted his head and let out a pathetic screech. A noise that didn't seem possible for one of his looks to make. He than wheeled around, jets flaring as his whole body begun to glow with a green aura.

Seconds later the least melted saber lion was engulfed in the same aura as he merged with it. Moments after it emerged a completely different ZOID. Eyes glowing green with that same greed of the organoids. The tiger let out a roar as it shook whatever obliterator clung to it off and into a wall.

It than turned its attention to Talon. Gears groaned as it moved forward and lowered its head, cockpit hatch opening, to try and quickly coax Talon into the cockpit. Kagi could be heard within the ZOID growling eagerly for the human to hurry up.

The Cuddler had already latched onto the ZOID's leg by the time Kagi had fused with it. The wave of the evolution sent the mechanical mollusk flying back trailing a nice arc of silvery ink in its wake. "KUUUULL!" It bubbled as it flew to the other side of the room and nearly into the hallway where the obliterators were emerging from.

The spider sighed than turned its thorax upward and buried its face in the pocket further. "DCK" A muffled sound came from the spider when it had fully adjusted itself.

Atelius spiraled above the group, making close sweeps at the Obliterators that were closest to Talon. "Master, Should I go get the Tyrant and see if this hanger leads out anywhere?" The simple thought came when he saw the nice hole Kagi had made during his entrance. "Hopefully I can meet you on the other side. I can use your signal to follow." Atelius didn't think to explain what he meant by Talon's signal. A special something he could explain later.

Zutnic hissed threateningly at Ice than looked back at Shun, making sure his master wasn't scratched. Luckily for Ice he wasn't even nicked. "Not bright flesh bag, stop trying to hurt master because you jealous!" He huffed, spikes bristling. Than the ceiling came down revealing an oblitorator. Zutnic hissed and repositioned himself to be once again between Shun and the danger.

Curiously, a green flash moved from the door blocked by rubble to the ZOID that had the fearless cuddler attached. He had barely a moment to bring his arm up to douse the light from the activation of the Core. Needless to say, Talon had an arm up over his eyes and watched with shock, awe, and a wince as the cuddler flew across the room leaving a trail of silver ink. Poor thing.

He let out a surprised squeak, Talon did, when the cockpit came down and earnest grunts came from the monster. Glaring and still annoyed, he did climb in. taking a quick scan and flipping on the loudspeaker comm system. "Affirmative.Go for it Atelius. If it leads out , see if you can't get a signal back here. Bounce the subsonic sonar if you can to ping a map if you can. " He had no idea what the avian was talking about, but he better get all the systems of Tyrant online. Oh... an afterthought. "Null the radius to only underground if you can."

The 'Derk' spider was removed from his pocket, set on the dashboard and given a pat on the head with a couple fingers for being a good spider and not biting him. Safety restraints were put on... then discarded since they were trashed. Talon began the delicate navigation towards the collapsed tunnel and the swiping of obliterators away. " Careful. Don't bring the entire thing down on them. " It was amazing how delicate the claws of a Saber Lion could be... though he wasn't sure this was a Saber Lion anymore. Why did everything turn spikey?

The hiding Obliterator fell from the ceiling, landing on its feet as if the drop had been nothing. It hissed spewing flame from its mouth as it begun to approach. Its target was clear, Ice for some reason had this creature's fancy. Nick flexed her metallic fingers and opened her hand wide as she approached the new threat. Moe at this point was ignored.

Perhaps they would need a little more help before Kagi came barreling through the stone door. Their mechanics were a bit different from the Strikers and Seekers, but by now Nick had more of a handle on how to control them.

Her palm begun to glow red as the two closed the distance between each other. The vents along the entire arm opened releasing the black fog in a thick hiss. In a flash of fire the Obliterator lunged only to find it's skull, like Zutnic and Atelius before, caught in a tight grip threatening to collapse it. It struggled for a moment. Even its tail was brought up scorpion like in an attempt to blast Nick with a stream of white fire. However, it didn't have a chance to even ignite its tail before the tail begun to lower again. She still had her own mission to accomplish in this forsaken place and she would be darned if anyone or thing got in her way.

Two more cylinders fell from the ceiling and with them two more Obliterators. Each making their way quickly for the three.

Zutnic hissed and nearly darted for the Obliterator himself when it dropped form the ceiling. However, the black fog caused him to freeze in his tracks. The spikes along his back lowered as he begun to cringe a little. "It says nasty things..." he muttered and slowly inched back toward Shun, keeping his face toward the fog.

Atelius spiraled up and out of the massive cave. From atop he could see that they had not traveled very far from where the ZOIDs were left. The quicker the better. Using every ounce of energy he had he speed toward the Tyrant, the sooner he could get them a map the better. Perhaps he could map out the mechanics of the traps too..

Kagi roared as he moved forward toward the closed door. It would have bee easier to smash it, but reluctantly he had to let the fleshling take most control of the ZOID. He feared not being Nick's favorite more than being in total control of this one. Carefully Kagi begun to work on the wall with the ZOIDs sharp claws. Between swipes he would have to turn away to swipe at a new horde of Obliterators that dare come close.

Derk sighed and curled up in a ball on the dash, letting himself roll about carelessly with the ZOID's movements. He bubbled and made strange metallic sounds as he rolled along. As for the cuddler with the silver ink, he was lost among the new wave of Obliterators emerging from the bright hallways.

Moe was jut clinging and trying not to get in the way at this point. It had utmost faith in Nick. Though he was slightly concerned that this was the crazy lady right now. He didn't want to get tin-canned. With a flailing leap, Moe ran and hid behind Bent-Tail. Shun and Spikey-lugnut ( as Talon liked to call Zut when no one was around) seemed like good meatshields. But he soon darted to hide behind Ranee.


The delicate work of pretty much swiping at the rubble and preventing the hall from collapsing in on itself was difficult enough without the red monster taking control and keeping the living flamethrowers at bay. Talon decided to be patient through this process. And he was amused at 'Derk' the spider rolling along the dashboard. Seriously... he was a hoot. "Your a good sport in all of this. " He'd probably get a half hearted ' derk' out of the guy. Oh well. It was a shame that the silver inker had to leave. Hopefully it made it out alive and was looking for a deep pool to gather its friends from and form an attack. That...would be quite awesome.


Now, back at the Start, Tyrant wasn't too concerned about what was going on. He was happily keeping scans of the entire area as long to get an accurate reading between patrols. So far, nothing out of the ordinary. When he picked up something flying out of the ridge before him, his eyes lit up and the monster followed very closely. It sent out a quick stream of communication to Atelius expressing its concern why its pilot wasn't with the bird. But it would do whatever it could to help out, even if it meant breaking cover.

With a violent shake of her hand she released the obliterator. Its head bobbled about before it regained its balance. The vents along Nick's arm closed and the black fog ceased. The access either returned to the arm or was now within the obliterator, it was hard to tell.

"Take care of the others." Nick all but laughed at she stood and pointed to the other holes along the long ZOID hallway.

"I listen and will carry it out." The obliterator spoke in a deep rumbling tone, almost like the sound of an enormous bell.

He than turned around and started toward the other two obliterators, making his first strike at the nearest one. The two entangled each other in a mess of claws, teeth and tail. Fire attacks meant nothing to them and would be useless on each other.

Nick moved around the wrestling bunch. "Ignore them and keep moving." She ordered defaulting back to her well known military tone. Something even the affects of the black fog had failed to take away from her.

Nick didn't have to explain why they would need to be ignored. The obliterator with the hand dent in his head soon got the other to submit and charge the other remaining obliterator. Barking orders at it in some strange tongue.

"He tell other to listen to him or else the great mother's organoid will crush head. Other does as said... mind being re-made slowly." Zutnic looked back at Bent after relaxing and relayed what was going on to the Organoid. He than looked up to Shun and relayed the same message in a language he could understand.

Kagi was making good work of the wall, carefully and quickly working l so the whole ceiling would not be brought down in the hall. Obliterators were thinning in numbers, but not because of the ZOID's doing. They begun to vanish down the halls the had emerged from clearing the room little by little.

Kagi paused mid strike at the wall than growled. Strange symbols begun to appear on the communication screen in front of Talon.

Atelius relayed the situation to the ZOID via his mechanical language and urged the Tyrant to relay the temple layout to Talon. However, before he could land atop the ZOID's head as he normally did a strange feeling came over him. He circled about overhead trying to make sense of the feeling. The temple lay out would seem normal from where they started to the hall of cuddlers. There were even some rooms and compartments that were left untouched around the start of the temple. Even the intricate waterways of the cuddlers appeared to a point. But after that there was nothing to be seen. It was as if the rest of the temple did not exist. Atelius screeched than moved to land on the Tyrant's head in a panic.

"That is her fog..." Atelius warned the tyrant. "...Great M-mother is here."