Glancing over towards the trio of the cameraman that seemingly emerged out of nowhere with a backdrop of the giant middleman decimating the entire city block, Mu found herself more lost than ever. A moment ago, both Jupiter and herself are fighting to silence Jon from exposing whatever happens here, and now they wanted them to work with the cameraman?
Just what is the big deal?
Mu looked over towards Jupiter instinctively for answers, as he was always the one with the tactical brains back in their training days, and his stern look showed that he had already figured out the reasoning behind the shift.
'With the secrets already exposed, the only way for the two countries to look good is to pivot their stance and spin the story.' Jupiter explained, 'With the middleman appearing as the obvious enemy, the best steps to take to avoid any international issues would be taken down the supplier of the Red Blob for good in public, which will allow the countries to take an anti-Red Blob stance.'
'So we are just pretending all that had happened before doesn't exist?!' Mu asked.
'No.' Jupiter shook his head and looked towards her, the same look as before finally returning, and Mu found the trend now strangely smoothing, 'we are pretending all that happened before was a misunderstanding.'
Then, he walked towards Jon, Pethant and Ally not too far away from the two of them, and spoke up after stopping three meters away.
'Mr Cameraman...'
'Call me the Spectator.' Jon replied.
'Ok. The Spectator.' Jupiter acknowledged Jon's preferences, 'we were really ordered to take down the dealers of the Red Blob, and we apologize for the previous misunderstanding.'
'Oh! No problem at all!' Jon said with a jolly smile and shaking his hands, 'I got some excellent shots saved up in the cloud anyway.'
'The...cloud?' Jupiter had never heard of such technology coming from Necrovia, and he looked up onto the cloudy sky.
'Forget it.' Jon said as Pethant pointed the camera protected in the middle of his heavily damaged armor towards Jupiter, 'what are you really here for?'
'I would request your aid in taking down the enhanced middleman.' Jupiter said, looking onto the giant still rampaging through the city. The attacks appeared patternless and indiscriminate, and perhaps that is a side effect of Red Blob overdose.
'No can do.' Jon said, shaking his head, 'we are bound by the Principle of Non-Interference. Now I know, I am not exactly the best one to uphold the rules, but...you have your orders, and you have your mission, don't you?'
'It's up to you two now.' Jon said before standing up, 'but I promise I will do my best to get the best shots. I am sure your presidents will appreciate that.'
There is nothing Jupiter can do, and he simply turned around and walked back towards Mu without a word.
'Master...?' Pethant asked before coughing a few times, 'why now...?'
'You are in no condition to fight, and neither is Ally.' Jon said, slapping Pethant across the shoulder, 'but well done. You have done exactly what we needed. Now, we have the eyeballs of the entire world, and it's thanks to you two.'
'But what have we really done...?' Pethant followed up.
'The eyes as sharp as a string of molecules...' Jon whispered, as his eyes glowed a faint light. He looked beyond the horizon, and the reinforcements that were planning to rain fire down from both sides of the abandoned city have all pulled back, 'you have done enough, Pethant. No, this is no more than a joined special mission involving superhumans rather than an international conflict between two opposing countries...'
'mah-luuuuve...' Ally mumbled, rolling over on the ground as her clothes have completely been blown to bits during the fight. To Jon's surprise, there isn't single visible damage on her body, and her 'mind' just seemed to be...knocked out. She looked as if she is taking a nap on the battlefield, and Jon isn't exactly keen on waking her here. Perhaps that's how androids recover after a fight.
'Take care of her, okay?' Jon said before reaching out a hand, 'now...can I borrow your camera?'
'You really need to bring a back up next time.' Pethant grunted, pressing a button and releasing his own spherical camera from the secure hold.
'Well, I thought bringing spares is the job of the intern.' Jon joked before turning and walking towards Jupiter and Mu. Putting the stream on hold, for now, Jon dropped the camera down to his sides as he approached the two.
Despite the new orders, Mu is still on guard with Jon approaching the two of them. However, she didn't realize that Jon was never on the offensive through all that time. His overwhelming speed and agility are all that was showcased apart from his flawless camera skills. If Jupiter's strength is akin to the size of the planet Jupiter, then Jon's unknown powers felt as vast as the sun when the two ganged up on him. Something tells Jupiter that no matter how much he tried, there is no taking down this cameraman.
'Mu, it will just be the two of us taking on the enhanced Middleman.' Jupiter explained though Mu isn't exactly surprised by the responses he got from the cameramen, 'you ready?'
'Don't insult me like that.' Mu said with a puffed cheek, though there is a sense of elation within her being able to fight alongside Jupiter for a little while longer. However, none of that showed on her face obviously.
'Haha...you never change.' Jupiter smiled genuinely, and that expression freaked out Jon slightly with his skinny look and white long hair.
'Anyways...I will be filming the heroic acts of you lovebirds.' Jon said, raising the spherical camera overhead, 'with this footage, your leaders should be happy with the outcome, and the Conglomerate of Cities will be happy with the destruction of Red Blob supplies. You good with the arrangement?'
Jupiter nodded, and Mu also did so reluctantly. Then, Jupiter looked towards Mu before the two of them both levitated off the air and dashed across the skies in two flashes of brilliance towards the giant. Underneath them, a ghostly figure followed them closely on foot with a spherical camera locking onto the two of them with a hand as steady as black holes.
'Over here!' Jupiter declared as he sends out a massive beam of light blasting towards the giant, leaving a massive patch of burns towards his upper chest and drawing his attention towards the two figures flying towards him and blinding speed.
'You should have taken the deal earlier.' The giant said, swing his fist slowly and tried to hit both Jupiter and Mu, but they scattered around the slow-moving fist before Jupiter landed barrages of fire while Mu danced around in space and completely twisted the giant's fingers together in a tangled mess. However, the giant simply reorganized the blob of meat into a fist and slammed onto the ground.
The impact stirring up massive gusts of wind, jets of dust, and flying pieces of materials upwards as both of the National Treasures flew high up into the air to avoid the attacks.
'All of those resources...wasted!' The Middleman said, flipping over entire plates of the ground and swinging it as a bat towards Jupiter. Jupiter instead dashed through the piece before approaching the head of the giant and blasted a massive amount of energy directly into his face. Smoke rose and explosions went off on his face, and the giant seemed undeterred, 'you are watching, aren't you? This is the power of the Red Blob!'
'This is the power of an entire city worth of superhuman powers condensed into a single vile!'
The declaration echoed back and forth along the empty streets of the abandoned city, and Jon barely managed to hold his camera steady as the middleman said it.
'You are watching, aren't you? I am nothing more than a mid-tier 2 at best with superhuman durability. But now....now even two heightened generations at ESCALATION 3 can't touch me!'
'Who are you referring to?!' Mu yelled out, as she evaded the attack of the giant again before swing her right hand down and her left hand up in a crisscrossing pattern. The space contorted around the giant before its right hand is chopped clean off. A material the size of a small plaza landed on the ground and shattered into millions of pieces with a small mushroom cloud forming in the aftermath.
'The buyers...the underworld...the suppressed...if you want POWER, all you have to get your hands on is the SATAN'S BLOOD! You wanted it, don't you? Why else would the national treasures of Necrovia AND Basha be here?!'
'To stop this madness.' Jupiter said, and Mu screamed as she channeled more and more of her power into the dance as the bright angelic aura surrounding her began to brighten more and more, and she is slowly matching the brightness of Jupiter.
If anyone had a chance against the middleman, it will have to be Mu. Only she can create attacks powerful enough to counter the massive size of the enhanced middleman.
Straining her body to the utmost limit, she flipped vertically in a circle, cutting off the giant's left forearm, however, the middleman had reformed his right hand by the time she finished channeling.
'Tsk!' Mu cursed underneath her breath. Baby attacks onto his extremities aren't going to work. She will have to land a decisive hit in his vitals.
The next dance will have to take out his head!
'No more games!' He declared before bringing both hands together in front of him, 'enhanced special attack...ARMOR SHED!'
The giant glowed a dark red aura before pieces of shield began to slowly peel off his body like hairs rising in response to the formation of goosebumps. Then, those millions of pieces all around his body are shot out like storms of bullets outwards. The first wave rammed through the last remaining buildings in the area and collapsing it without any hint of resistance.
Jupiter channeled his Second Sun ability to its utmost extreme, letting out blasts of heat and melting away all of the pieces of the giant's armor before any of them made contact with his body. Mu is simply channeling the damage immunity in her dancing forms before starting another preparation for a devastating attack.
'Cover me!' Mu said, and Jupiter charged towards enhanced middleman without a moment's hesitation. Jupiter may not have the most amount of raw output power when compared to Mu, but his flashy powers are perfect when it comes to drawing away attention from the giant.
'OVER HERE!' Jupiter screamed as he flew alongside the body of the giant while leaving tracks of burning everywhere he went before creating a massive outburst of light and radiation near his face. The giant swung his hands and tried to knock Jupiter away, but he easily maneuvered around those attacks. A pulse of pain originated from his palm, and all that remained in his Escalation 3 mode is a faint glow. The implant on his left chest is pulsing hard and burning hot.
Jupiter doesn't have much more time in Escalation 3 anymore, but it doesn't matter.
'GET OUT!' The middleman screamed, and the shockwave generated from his gigantic voice box actually pushed Jupiter straight back a few meters.
'Now!' Mu screamed, and Jupiter regathered his bearings before dashing straight down and out of the way of Mu's attack, 'DANCE OF THE FALLING SUN!'
With her right leg raised high up to the side, Mu spun around slowly and gracefully as a rift in the fabric of space is created through the tip of her dance shoes, and a dark horizontal flash of light blinked in and out of existence for an instant before the giant's head is shifted ever so slightly to the side. Then it tipped over the edge and rolled off the giant's shoulder.
'YES!' Mu screamed out in joy as the giant's head free-fell onto the ground and was smashed into a thousand pieces.
Jupiter spun around and flew towards Mu when he spotted a dark shadow emerging from behind her, dashing towards her back at blinding speed. It was one of the fragments of the giant's Armor!
Reaching out with a hand, Jupiter prepared to clear it away with a single blast of light, but nothing came out as the pain from his hand became even stronger than before.
Then, he was forcibly ejected out of his Escalation 3 state.
NO! NOT NOW! Jupiter screamed as he dug his nails deep into the center of his palm as the tip of the armor closes in on Mu's back like a silent yet deadly serpent.
'ESCALATION 3.....BE WITH ME ONE...LAST...TIME.....'