Freya and Imogen appeared to want to gang up on Ally, and it is to be expected. That's all that the sorry creatures such as the Ten Fingers can do. Whatever attacks they throw towards her will eventually be useless, and that's Ally's power.
With a strange innate confidence radiating from inside her, Ally stood tall as she ripped off the last of the fabrics of her clothes barely clinging onto her body.
'Come.' Ally said, as the two figures glowed ever brighter in their power-ups. Now she can see clearly the difference between Imogen and Freya, as Freya's power leaps up yet another whole level, a clear sign of Escalation 3. Imogen's increase in power is a lot smoother, and the same is for both herself and Jon.
She has asked Pethant about this, and he did mention about a small percentage of superhumans operating outside of the Escalation scales with a much smoother increase in strength rather than three distinct levels. However, the pitfall of this generalization is that...
You are never sure if someone is outside the scale, or that you are only worthy of their Escalation 1.
This is a question that hasn't been answered.
'Beam of Dreams!'
Imogen commanded as the robotic armor pointed one hand forward before a massive beam of energy is projected from its fists, blasting away the rocks in its way and creating a channel on the ground. Ally moved out of the way the moment the robot's fists lit up, but Freya appeared right behind her with her final form at Escalation 3.
'Valkyrie SLAM!' With a furious scream, Freya landed her first hit on Ally as her current speed at Escalation 3 far exceeded what she was capable of mere moments ago. Her fist connected with Ally's body, and she sent the android flying back into the Beam of Dreams special attacks.
The firing continued for five more seconds while Ally took on the brunt of that attack before Imogen finally decided to pull it back.
Raising the helmet from her robotic armor, she approached where Ally's supposed to be with Freya and tried to spot out the android amid the smoke and fire.
There, a melting silver figure was crawling on the ground, struggling to move.
'it-hurts...it-hurts...where-are-you.....why.....' Ally cried out inside of her as parts of her body is completely burnt off while the rest is severely damaged by the Beam of Dreams. She tried to dig her finger into the ground, but the structural integrity of her fingers gave away like melting butter as she felt her face rubbing against the ground, 'I-will-destroy-you...i-will-kill-kill-kill-KILL-KIIIILLLLLl!'
With a flash of light, lines of circuits appeared on top of Ally's body before the melting exterior began to reform together. Her sensations from her extremities have returned, and everything is freshly painful. Then, she felt strength in her arms and legs again, when her inner systems started to adapt to the amount of damage she has sustained.
She is still alive, and she can still fight!
'No-no-no-no-NOOOOOO!' Standing up at last and screaming into the night, Ally declared this fight not over. Then, she tilted her head hauntingly towards the two girls around her with old skins still being shredded and new android flesh reforming by the second, 'I-will-kill-you!'
The aura of death swallowed everything in her vicinity, and her deathly glare towards Imogen sent chills down her spine.
This cannot be allowed to happen! She is one of the TEN FINGERS! She will not be scared by this no-name android!
'BEAM OF DREAMS!' Imogen attacked again, but this time Ally simply raised her right hand, deforming it and reshaping it into a wedge-shaped mirror, deflecting the beams towards the side with little effort as the reflections burned into the mountainside around them.
Knowing that attack isn't going to be effective on Ally's body anymore, Imogen pulled back the beam before shaping a sword in her right hand and charged forward.
At the exact same time, Freya circled to right behind Ally and prepared her attacks.
With her powerfully activated at Escalation 3, she now has access to all of the information in her surrounding space. She not only can see, feel, and understand all of those individual strands of information, but she can also manipulate it.
However, to her surprise, this android in front of her is a big unknown, not just metaphorically, but literally. She can only see the outputs coming out of her body, and yet she cannot...no.....this isn't right. There is no information that she cannot access the state of Escalation 3. She must go deeper.....
Reaching her mind into the body of Ally, Freya felt a sharp pain exploding from within her mind, ejecting her away from the inner space of Ally. She looked up and saw a line of bloodied writing lingering in her visual field as a result of her probing of Ally's interior.
FUCK YOU, LEFT MIDDLE FINGER. YOU CAN NEVER SEE INSIDE HERE.
'Shit...she really is made to kill us.....' Feeling a sense of fear and nervousness for the first time in this battle, Freya pondered what her next steps should be. Her Escalation 1 allows her to take in her physical characteristics and enhance her physical combat ability to the highest extend while being able to process information from selected targets around her. Her Escalation 2 allows her to exert that full control to a small bubble around her, while her Escalation 3 allowed her to extend her reach to a way bigger area.
Taking advantage of all of that information, she can practically leech strength from her opponents by stealing their combat information and using it in her own style of combat. This is what the instantaneous understanding of all information processed is for, and somehow...Ally is made in such a way that Freya simply cannot understand at the current level.
'What are you doing, Freya!' Imogen's voice broke Freya from her analysis, and she looked up to see Imogen now literally throwing everything from the books in order to hit Ally, but she was able to quickly read Imogen's patterns of attack before countering with her very own.
The handful of monster bites and scratches, beams of energy, and projectiles that made contact with Ally's body had merely delayed her movements ever so slightly. Then, the effectiveness of the same attack is drastically reduced the next time, and nothing ever hits the third time.
Ally's true power is adapting on the fly, and that's why she appeared more and more powerful by the second! Freya finally realized before creating a strand of light directly between herself and Imogen in an attempt to communicate that information across when Ally suddenly pulled back from her relentless attack against Imogen and stepped up in the middle between the two.
Then, she raised her hand, formed it into the shape of a scissor, and cut off the strand of light.
'WHAT?!' Freya only had a moment to process what has happened when Imogen dashed behind Ally and chopped down with her blade.
Spinning around gracefully, Ally parried the blade with her forearm. What was once able to leave various cuts and wounds on her body is now nothing more than a blunt kitchen knife, struggling to cut through the softest of fruits.
With a knock against the side of Imogen's blade, Ally shattered it effortlessly before following up with a punch through the armor.
'Don't look down on me! I am one of the TEN FINGERS!' Dispelling the rest of her armor in a spiraling pattern, Imogen grabbed onto Ally's arms with her own hands before thousands of smaller black arm extended out from her own body and locked onto Ally's arm again. She tried to shake loose from it, but Imogen held firm with strength rivaling her very own.
'Valkyrie SMASH!' Freya appeared behind her with wings of light extending out behind her body. She wrapped countless strands around her own fist and slammed down diagonally on Ally before sending her flying into the mountains like a missile. The impact of Ally's body cracked the mountain with the sound of explosion audible even at the resort miles away. The ground shook as if an earthquake is occurring, and rocks raced down the mountain towards where the two Fingers are standing at.
'She is getting stronger by the minute!' Imogen said, looking down at her charred fingers as Ally heated her body like a piping hot iron in an attempt to free herself from Imogen's grasp, 'we can't let this fight drag on.'
'She needs to die.' Freya said, and even Imogen is surprised by her response.
'Freya, there is no need...'
'Imogen! She is designed to kill us, and her abilities are designed to counter ours.' Freya said with a serious tone on her face, the wings of light behind her now closing in around the armor of light she had constructed, 'she may fail today, but she won't tomorrow. I tried to read into her, but it wasn't possible.'
'...Shit.'
'Yeah, it was unlucky, for her.' Freya said, preparing herself for a final blow while Imogen reluctantly did the same, 'we cannot allow for such a dangerous being to exist any longer. As the Ten Fingers.'
'For the record, I don't want this.'
'Yet you are going to help me.' Freya turned around and cracked a vicious smile when Imogen finally had a good look at the various wounds and damage put on her by the android, 'I will finish her personally. Just give me a speed boost.'
'Just...get it done...' Imogen said, and Freya lets out a series of exciting chuckles when she lets her ESCALATION 3 form go wild. Her construct of armor lit up like a sun and illuminated the deserted lands with her wings positioning at fully stretched positions. Then, Imogen constructed a gigantic cannon with Freya at the center.
'Blast me.' Freya said with a look of bloodlust, 'I will kill that bitch.'
A warm current came from behind her and gently brushed against Freya's wings before the real blast whacked her right across the body like a tennis bat and sent her dashing across the battlefield towards Ally who's still stuck in her own crater in the mountains.
Freya's Valkyrie form moving at such a high speed had turned her into a spear of pure light and energy, and she shot through the air at such speeds that all of the air particles had no options but to burn up and be turned into plasma. All Ally can see is a gigantic ball of death flying towards her, and there is nothing she can do.
The dark flames inside her burned ever so brightly as hate and fear filled her entire existence. But something felt wrong deep down...What happened...Why am I going to die this way...
My love...I am sorry....but at least you don't have to see me like this...
'VALKYRIE'S BULLET!'
As Freya reaches her fist forward and ready to punch through Ally's soft silver body, she suddenly felt a figure standing next to her. Then, both of them flickered away as the mountain behind them was obliterated in a barrage of smoke and fire.
Rocks were sent flying in all directions as the mountain was flattened by Freya's attack with more rocks being flung towards the resort-like projectiles from ancient siege weapons. However, all of those rocks bounced off a shield and didn't cause much substantial damage beyond a small scare for some of the customers looking in the wrong direction.
Looking up, Ally blinked a few times and tried to refresh her visual system when she caught a glimpse of the aftermath of Freya's devastating attack. She was being held in a princess's pose by someone, and she saw a smooth black hoodie with silver linings running all the way through.
The dark flames are no more, and Ally wrapped her arms around the body of the man who saved her tightly, and all that remained in her glowings eyes is the warm orange.