[Tragedy Strike Countdown: Two and a Half Hours] It's early in the morning, the day after Wally fought Morte, and about the time the students would normally begin class. The students are having a break day because of Wally's injuries. Everyone is still in their rooms just resting, except Cyrus, Dex, Jacob, McJ, and Eric. "Okay, we're all ready, right?" McJ asks the group. "Yeah, but we don't really need to pack anything besides our swords, don't we?" Jacob asks. McJ just shrugs, and Cyrus adds in "Well, I'm bringing a bag for a notepad and a couple pens, just in case we need to jot things down, oh and also some snacks and waters 'cause we'll be walking for a little while." "Oh, okay nice!" Jacob says. "If you're done packing all that, then are we ready to go? Because I'm ready when you guys are." Dex says. "I'm ready, but before we go, do we have an exact plan? Or is this just…we go there, look around, and come back." Eric asks. "I mean, yeah. We don't know much about Gravelroath to begin with, except that it's pretty dangerous. But the short version is what you said, we go there, look around, and come back before anyone knows we're gone." Dex says. "Alright, then let's go. We're not waiting for anything else!" McJ says. The boys walk out of the school, go through the front gate, and begin their walk.
They reach the device that sends an alarm to Wally if someone entered the premises of the school, and McJ asks "He won't get some sort of alert if we leave, right?" McJ asks. "No, he won't. At least I really hope not." Dex says. "Are you not sure?" Jacob asks. "Yes I'm sure! Pretty sure... When Jasper went to Gravelroath, Wally didn't notice for a little while. Unless he's updated it, which I don't think he's had the time to do yet, he won't know we're gone." Dex explains. Cyrus looks outwards and points towards Gravelroath, he says "Guys I see it, but how long exactly will this walk be?" McJ squints and sys "Wait you can see it?" Eric adds in "I can see it." "It's two miles, so should be about 30 or 40 minutes." Dex says. "Ah! This is gonna suck. Do we have to go?" McJ says, with an annoyed and slightly joking tone. "Well, actually no, we don't. But would you rather be sitting at home bored, or doing something fun, like investigating a dangerous and murderous gang like we've been planning, you literally agreed to this yesterday." Dex says jokingly.
Forty minutes pass by, and the boys finally reach Gravelroath. They're all exhausted, and the boys powered through their water bottles before they even reached halfway. While out of breath, Jacob says "Wow...we should have prepared for this better…" "Y'know...I wouldn't mind calling Wally for a ride back and being yelled at." Eric says. "We don't even have any phones to call with, so we'd better be ready to walk again soon." Dex says. As the boys enter the town they're given the same greeting that Jasper got, violent looks and stink eyes. The boys don't know it, but they got even more bad looks than Jasper did. A shady person in an alleyway sees them walk into town, and swiftly walks away through a dark alleyway. "Jasper was right, this place is pretty weird." Cyrus whispers to Dex. "Just ignore it, we're only going to be here for a few minutes, then we're going back." Dex whispers back. They walk further and further into town, seeing more and more of the messed up things that Jasper saw. The boys stick together like glue through all of it.
They look around for about ten minutes before someone with a mask comes up behind Cyrus, and impales him in the side of his neck with a needle full of a clear liquid, with a piece of tape on the side saying "Chloroform", which knocks him out instantly. The boys turn around, but barely have any time to react before they too are knocked out by even more masked men with needles. The men drag away the students, in public. No one trying to stop them or help. Besides the witnesses that saw the students get kidnapped, there is no trace that they were even there in the first place.
[Tragedy Strike Countdown: 40 Minutes] An hour later at the house, no one has yet to notice that Cyrus, Jacob, Dex, McJ, and Eric are missing. The students in their bedrooms think they just went downstairs, and the staff think they're just in bed still. Alth is watching TV, and then sees something on the news that prompts him to yell "Ruby, Wally, Thanian, Tayer, Teether, Birrah! Come look at this!" The staff walks down fairly quickly beside Wally who comes down slowly and after everyone, his wounds slowing him down. "What is it?!" Thanian asks. Alth turns up the volume on the TV, and the staff sees Osapell, one of the top largest and richest cities on Oxys is being attacked by an army of robots. "Where are the guardians? Shouldn't they have stopped this already?" Teether asks. "They're trying, but there's a whole ton of them, look, a ship floating over the city is dropping them down constantly." Alth explains. A camera man hiding behind a wall is managing to get some footage of the robots close up. Wally looks at the screen and says "Wait, pause it." Alth does so, and Wally walks up to the TV and looks closely at the robot on screen. Wally looks for a solid ten seconds, and then says under his breath "Oh shit…"
"What?! What is it?!" Thanian asks rather loudly. Wally looks back at them and says "It's Morte." "A-are you sure? How do you know?" Thanian asks. "I'm sure. That curved X pattern on their torso is the same that was on some prototypes I fought a few years ago, and the way they're being dropped from a ship above is also the same as when I fought the prototypes, Tayer, you remember." Alth plays the broadcast again and speeds up to be up to date with the live footage. "Oh my god…" Ruby says as she covers her mouth, looking at the destruction these robots alone are causing. "Wally, do you know why he'd be attacking Osapell?" Tayer asks. "I couldn't tell you." Wally says. "Oh my god oh my god are we all gonna die?!" Thanian yells quite dramatically. "Thanian! Calm Down! You don't wanna freak out the students! And we're not gonna die." Alth says. "Yeah! Wally took away his powers, we could take him." Birrah adds in. "Morte's not stupid, if he's coming here he has a plan. But why attack Osapell?" Wally says. "Could he be attacking Osapell to distract Vierd and Paki?" Tayer adds in. "That isn't a bad theory." Teether says. "Yeah, actually it makes sense, if he doesn't have his powers, taking on Wally, Alth, Thanian, Teether, Birrah, and I would be a challenge on it's own, and it would be even worse for him if the Guardians show up. So distracting them would be in his best interest." Ruby says.
"Well let's use whatever time we have until Morte gets here to prepare, what's our top priority?" Birrah asks. "The students. I can load them all up on the bus and fly them out of here. I can take them to Stavil at his Vrocilia space station." Tayer says. "Good idea, Tayer. Kids!! All of you get dressed and get down here now! You're leaving!" Wally yells up to the second floor, which causes him to ache a bit. "Leaving? Where are we going?" Tobias asks London. London just shrugs his shoulders. Along with Tobias and London, all the students are confused, but they don't argue. They all get ready and walk downstairs in a matter of minutes. "What's going on?" Jasper asks. The staff stays quiet for the moment, while Wally silently counts the students out of habit and then notices something. "Nine? Wait where's.. Cyrus, Eric, Jacob, Dex, and McJ? Are they still upstairs?" Wally asks. "What? I thought they came downstairs." Brittain says. "No.." Wally says in disbelief. Wally storms out of the front doors, and runs out the front gate and looks at Gravelroath. "No.. they wouldn't have.." Tayer runs up to Wally and says "Wally, do you know where they are?" "Gravelroath. Augh god damnit!" Wally says in frustration. "W-why do you think they're there?" Tayer asks. "Where else could they have gone that's close by? And I've seen a bunch of stuff on my laptop about Gravelroath, I always assumed someone used it to look stuff up out of curiosity, not in the hopes of actually going!" Wally explains. Wally and Tayer walk back to the staff and students, and Wally says "Well we don't want to leave here without anyone, and there's no way in hell I'm letting anyone else go into Gravelroath, so now I don't know what to do." Ruby puts her hand on Wally's shoulder and says "Don't worry, Wally. They're tough kids, they'll be fine."
McJ slowly opens his eyes, looks around, and then remembers where he is, and wakes up fully through fear. He tries to move, but his hands are shackled to the ceiling above him, and he's locked inside a cell. He looks left and the right and sees that Cyrus, Jacob, Eric, and Dex are in the same situation, but they're awake and struggling to get out. McJ looks up and sees three alien men standing in front of them. McJ begins to ask "Who-" but is cut off by one of them, who says "Save it, I'll just explain. Every single one of you asked right when you woke up, kinda annoying. I'm Oppac, the Consigliere to the entire Quarter-Star Mafia, or QS for short." Oppac looks to the side, and says "This is Aiffam, the best Capo in the QS. And finally, Arnit. He's an alright soldier, he's only here because he was the closest." Arnit begins to try and defend himself from that insult, but makes eye contact with both Oppac and Aiffam, who give him death stares, signaling for him to just stay quiet. "Why are we here? We didn't do anything to you." Jacob says. "Oh well that's not the point. I'm not keeping you here for some kind of revenge, if I wanted revenge for something you'd be dead. No, what I want is for you to tell me everything that you know about that little school you go to, and what you now know of the QS. I know you've been investigating us, I wanted to leave it alone at first because you're kids and what could you possibly do? Well, you can grow up. Get stronger. And take us out. The Boss hasn't been available for a while, the underboss is dead, so it's my job to protect the business, and I'm gonna do it my way. I don't care who I need to kill or torture." Oppac explains.
Back at the school, while the staff is contemplating on what to do, Alth notices a few slick black round ships flying towards the school, each about 15 feet long. Alth panics and yells out "He's here!!" Which shakes everyone to their very core. There are three in total, and fly around above the school, shooting down green beams of energy which shoot an immensely strong push of air straight down where they're shining, emitting a loud *BOOM*. The green light crumbles up and dematerializes what it's shined on, and the push of air is the final blow that disintegrates it. They're mostly only shooting at the terrain in and around the school grounds, some of which blows holes through the walls. The staff spread out, and Wally yells out "Kids, get inside!", which the kids do, along with Tayer. Not long passes before the first tragedy happens. The unthinkable. One of the slick black ships shoots down it's light, right on top of Thanian. The light stops Thanian's ability move and talk. The rest of the staff quickly notice and begin to panic even more. Wally runs up to the light as he yells out "Thanian! Oh god.." Wally begins to reach into the light to pull Thanian out, but Thanian uses every ounce of strength to lift his arm up, signaling for him to stop. Thanian has immense visible pain on his face, he's shivering and twitching, and has cuts, cracks, and scratches appear across his body, until a loud *BOOM* is heard, and seemingly echoes across the entire planet and back again. The push of air reaches Thanian, and turns him to nothing but dust and soot while the staff is forced to watch.
Wally stands there frozen, unable to believe what he just witnessed. Inside the school, Tayer and the students witnessed their long-time friend murdered before their eyes. Almost immediately after Thanian was killed, and with barely any time for the staff and students to process it, the large rectangular ship that Wally is all too familiar with arrives far above the school, coming from the direction that Osapell is in. "Dear god.." Wally says to himself. "He's up there, isn't he." Ruby says. "Yeah. And he's probably going to come down here and fight us himself sometime soon." Wally explains. The slick black ships fly back up to the mothership, and enter through the same way Wally entered it years ago. The staff gathers together again, with Wally saying "Everyone...I'm so sorry. This is all my fault, and because of me, you all might die. I-I'm so sorry!" Teether puts his hand on Wally's shoulder and says "Wally, no worries. You've helped us all a bunch, given us fun memories and places to feel safe. We can take this guy, and we'll all get through this." "He's right, Wally. We're all here a hundred percent, and we're not pulling punches. Let's avenge Thanian." Alth says. All the staff members look up at Morte's ship, and notice some kind of opening on the underside of the ship. Through the opening, neary 300 small rectangular boxes are dropped down, all landing either in front of the school gates or in the school grounds. "You got any tips for these guys, Wally?" Birrah asks. "Yeah, they weren't too tough back when I first fought them, just attack them like you would a normal person and watch out for their rifles. I don't know how upgraded they are now though." Wally explains.
The boxes open up in the same manner in which they did five years ago, extending out arms, legs, and guns to go with them. These new models have a similar build to the prototypes, but are slicker, and can be taken more seriously by the way they look. As the robots are getting up, and before they can start opening fire, Wally, Ruby, Teether, and Birrah run inside to grab their weapons. Wally grabs his main sword, Ruby grabs her katana, and the Kashians grab their oddly shaped handheld weapons from Kashia, which are swords with a hook shape at the end of them. Wally looks at the students huddled up with Tayer and says "Kids...come out here and use what I taught you." Some of their faces light up with determination, but Jasper has a look of nervousness. London stands up and says "Come on, Jasper! Let's go help them!" But Jasper continues to stay sat down, and says "I don't even have a real sword, I can't do anything anyways." "True! I'm staying here too." Linn says loudly as she proudly sits next to Jasper, not seeming to care about the situation. Jasper silently questions her inappropriate mannerisms and just looks away. London questions her as well, but runs outside ignoring it. All the staff and students stand proudly outside ready for Morte's army, except for Tayer, Jasper, and Linn staying back. All the robots aim in their rifles at the staff and students, and open fire.
The students are great at deflecting the bullets with their swords, and can swiftly and easily maneuver to the robots and fight them up close. "You going to do it, Alth?" Wally asks. "Yeah, I don't have anything else I can do right now." Alth says. He plants his feet, clenches his fists, and lets out a loud yell, which is followed by a powerful gust of wind, and dark green light flowing around his body. Alth throws a punch with great force towards a robot about ten feet away, and a large dark green wave of energy shaped like a wave from the ocean, which seemed to be tipped with an abundance of sharp spikes, soars forwards and destroys the robot, and others nearby.
[Tragedy Strike Countdown: 21 Minutes] Unbeknownst to the staff and students who are now distracted by Morte's army, a small drone with the QS logo on it sits atop one of the walls of the school, filming all the events that have happened for the past 19 minutes. The little drone extends out little legs, jumps off the wall, and a little helicopter blade extends out of the top of it, and flies back towards Gravelroath. For being a small device, it moves fairly quickly and gets to Gravelroath in only 5 minutes.
It arrives at the front of Oppac's building, with a sketchy looking man waiting for it. The drone falls into the man's hands as its legs and helicopter blades retract, leaving it as just an egg shaped camera. The man runs into the building, and goes down the spiral staircase to the basement where Jacob, Eric, Cyrus, Dex, and McJ are being held. The man enters the basement, meeting Arnit, Aiffam, and Oppac, and walks in up to them all while Oppac is tasing Dex, after previously tasing Eric, McJ, and Jacob for information that they don't even have. Oppac pulls the taser off of Dex, and Dex says "I barely felt anything, you could do that for hours and I'd be fine.." while slightly out of breath and a smirk on his face. "A stubborn one." Oppac begins to say. "The big one's next." Oppac finishes, referring to Cyrus. "Just stop! We told you already... we don't have any information to give!" McJ yells out while out of breath. Oppac ignores him, and then looks at the sketchy man that came into the basement. "What is it?" Oppac asks. "Sir, I've had one of my drones at the school for a while to see what they might be up to, and some guy is attacking the school! There's a whole bunch of robots shooting at the people there, and I even saw one of the guys that worked there was killed!" The gang member says. The student's hearts sink, and they're faces fill with horror. They all look at each other, worried and scared, and hoping this man is lying. "Interesting. The owner of the school must have pissed off some other gang or faction. Aiffam, go to the school. They're all distracted, and you may be able to use your Petrification Rifle to get some product." Oppac says. "Of course, sir. I'll go immediately." Aiffam says, he then picks up a large leather case in the shape of a rifle, and runs out the door. Oppac looks back at the captive students, and says "That reminds me. I'm going to 'question' the big one here. I almost forgot, hah! And if you don't tell me anything, I'm going to petrify you myself and sell you off. You'll be nothing but product to make the QS even more rich." Aiffam walks out of the building and to a nearby red car with a QS sticker on it, which surprisingly hasn't been broken into or robbed yet. Aiffam gets into the car, and drives off to the school.
[Tragedy Strike Countdown: 14 Minutes] At the school, Morte's army is being easily dealt with by the staff and students alike. The students are doing surprisingly well against the robots, although the robots have been adapting to the fighting styles of everyone at the school. This adaptation ability begins to show when the robots start avoiding attacks and start going in for physical attacks like punches. This catches Tobias off guard when he swings at a robot, which dodges off to the side, and punches him square in the face. The sends Tobias to the ground, with a bruise on his face and slightly bleeding. Tobias tries to crawl away as much as he can, but freezes in fear when the robot aims his rifle down at him, but just as it's about to shoot to kill, Jasper jumps at the robot and slices both of its hands off with his weak stone sword. The robot tries to kick at Jasper but he avoids and cuts the robot in half, shutting it down. Jasper turns to Tobias, and reaches his hand down to help him up. "Thank you, Jasper!" Jasper says "I'm sorry, for how I treated you all this time." Tobias smiles and responds with "It's fine, I figured you'd come around eventually!" The happy moment between the two is ruined when Violet lets out a loud cry in pain. Everyone looks to her, and see a pool of blood forming under her. One of the robots shot her shoulder, severely wounding her on the battlefield. Wally looks at his student curled up in pain as other students try to tend to her. Wally feels frozen, but snaps out of it and realizes he needs to keep fighting to keep them safe, and can't afford to lose anyone else. "Tobias, take her inside! You're both hurt!" Tobias responds with "Yes sir!" as he picks her up and carries her to Tayer and Linn. Not long passes until Jasper's stone sword breaks, and is seemingly forced to go back into the school, but he doesn't. He stays out, fighting off the robots with his bare hands, he takes one of their guns and starts rapid firing at the oncoming robots.
[Tragedy Strike Countdown: 9 Minutes] Aiffam finally arrives at the school after driving for about five minutes. He keeps his car unnoticed, and parks on the left side of the school outside of the wall. "Goddamn this is a fight and a half ain't it?" Aiffam thinks to himself. He brings a bag out of his car and pulls out two metal spikes. He holds one in each hand while having the Petrification Strapped around his back in the leather casing. He uses the spikes to climb up the wall, when he reaches the top he jumps down into the school grounds, and repeats the process as he begins to climb up the school. He climbs up to the outside of the fourth floor, and hides up there watching, waiting for a more pivotal time to strike. The staff and students do a good job at fending off the robots for a little while longer, with most of the robots being severely damaged or easily dealt with, until [Tragedy Strike Countdown: 30 Seconds].
Just as the staff and students seemed to have hope, a light from Morte's ship above shoots down, right outside of the front gates. The same light Morte used to travel out of and back to his ship. The light stays in place for a moment, large metallic spheres begin to drop down in multiple spots in front of and around the beam of light. "Wally, what's happening?!" Jasper asks. Wally stays silent for a moment, remembering the dark threats Morte made to him years ago, and the gruesome nightmares that came with them. Wally eventually comes to, and says "All of you. Go inside. Now." Jasper doesn't question it, he and all the students run back inside the school. leaving just the staff outside. The metallic spheres seem to open up such as the previous robots did. Large legs extend out of the spheres, as well as the turret section of a tank. Seven large legged tanks stand around the beam of light, and aim right at the staff and school. The light vanishes. Wally, Alth, Ruby, Teether, and Birrah's stomachs all sink in fear and discomfort as they see him. Morte stands before the school, with a thirst for blood. Aiffam looks down on the new opponent in the battle, and thinks to himself "This should be good." Morte stands there silently. The staff gets into fighting positions, ready to kill the man that has shown himself at the school. Morte does a little hand gesture, pointing at the school and then wags his finger up and down. Following this, one of the legged tanks takes a step forwards, and shoots right through the front doors into the school, destroying nearly everything inside and sets the inside of the first floor ablaze.
Tayer and the students frantically evacuate the school, and run off behind it to try and stay safe. Wally yet again watches what he's worked to build up crumble before him even more, but then looks at Morte with the strongest look of determination he's had thus far. As the students run out of the school, James and Chris see him. The man they've subconsciously known about for who knows how long. When they look at Morte, they can't see his face, but they definitely made eye contact. They know they do. The odd familiarity confuses the boys, just as well as it makes them curious to meet him. "Chris.. Do we know him?" James whispers to Chris. "I think we do, but I have no idea how. I think it's just us as well, no one else had a panic attack when he was mentioned yesterday." Chris says. James gulps in uncertainty, and watches the battlefield to see what's about to happen, just like most of the students.
Morte confidently walks forwards while pulling his sword out of his scabbard on his back. Without a second thought, Alth throws the strongest punch he can in Morte's direction, using his Chemical Powers to send out yet another wave of energy with tipped spikes at the end. Morte flawlessly dodges the energy, letting it crash into the ground behind him. While Morte is moving out of the way, Birrah runs at him with his hook shaped sword, and swings, and misses. Morte elbows him in the stomach, and follows up with a severe punch to his face. If Birrah were a human he'd be knocked out cold, but this only slightly sets him back. Wally and Ruby come in together, both pointing the tip of their blades directly at Morte, going for the kill. Morte hits both of their blades upwards with his own, and hits Wally in the face with a high kick so strong it sends him backwards a few feet with a bloody nose. Ruby and Morte begin fighting one on one, both extremely skilled and nearly even. Ruby manages to hold back Morte for a little while, while Alth runs up to Wally, saying "Woah, Wally you okay?!" Wally looks at the blood on his fingers from touching his nose, and says "He doesn't even need his powers to fight us off...but we can probably beat him if we all go at him at once, not holding back." "Then let's do it." Alth says. "Before you fight with us, get rid of those tank things. They're not doing much yet, but they can blow us all to dust if they were ordered to." Wally explains. "Got it!" Alth exclaims.
Wally gets up, and along with Alth, Teether, and Birrah they look at Ruby fighting in awe. She's excellent, and they almost don't even want to disrupt her flow, but they begin to jump in anyways. Teether jumps in next to Morte, and begins swinging at him as well, forcing Morte to try and fight off both of them, which he can barely pull off. His situation is made even worse when Wally and Birrah join in. All four of them swinging at him is overwhelming, but Morte even manages to barely pull it off, but is forced to back up many times and try to make distance. While they're ganging up on Morte, Alth shoots out wave after wave of energy, managing to destroy one of the tanks at first, but they begin shooting at the energy he throws, which creates loud and destructive explosions in the air as the tank's bullets and Alth's energy collide. Alth does his best to hold them all off, and does a fairly well job for the most part.
Just as more hope begins to show for the staff, it's immediately ripped away when a loud gunshot is heard. No one yet knows who shot it or who it was shot at, until all the fighters notice Teether. He was shot in the back of the neck. Wally looks behind Teether, and sees Aiffam on top of the school. "No.. what the.. What the hell?!" Wally exclaims. Teether turns grey and his texture becomes rough, and is quickly turned to a stone statue, petrified. "Teether..why wo-'' Birrah begins to say, but he is then cut off by Aiffam firing the Petrification Rifle yet again. He's shot in the arm, and the shot spreads across his whole body, leaving him petrified as well. Morte looks up in shock, but also amusement. If there was any chance that he'd get to win this fight, this is the chance. "If I get two Kashian Beasts and a faction leader in one day, my raise in this business will skyrocket!" Aiffam says to himself as he aims the rifle at Morte. Morte has no reaction to being aimed at, and just stands till, waiting for it. The remaining fighters who were previously attacking Morte back up because they don't want to be next. Aiffam fires the rifle, and as the bullet reaches Morte, he hits the bullet with this sword. One would think his sword would then be petrified, but no. Morte moves his sword in a large circular motion, while the bullet from the rifle seemingly orbits the blade. Morte then swings his sword, aiming the tip of it at Aiffam, which causes the petrification rifle to shoot back and hit Aiffaim. Aiffaim is hit in the chest, and panics for his life as it spreads, but his hyperventilating and fear is cut off when the process is finished, and Aiffam is petrified by his own bullet. His screams echo in a distorted and haunting manner around the school.
In the basement of Oppac's building, he just finishes tasing Cyrus for non-existent answers. He pulls the taser off his forehead and says "Shame. None of you said anything. Doesn't really matter anyways, I was going to petrify you and sell you off even if you did talk." The students can do nothing but look at Oppac in hatred. They feel weak and worthless. There wasn't a chance to escape without making up fake information and putting Wally in more danger. "Arnit, try to get as many valuables off their person, and then you can petrify them. I want to make as much profit from them as we can." Oppac says. "Yes, Sir!" Arnit begins the process, and starts with Jacob. He enters his cell and takes his sword and scabbard off his body, then leaves the cell as there are no more valuables on him. He does the same for Eric, McJ, and then Dex. Taking Eric and Dex's swords and scabbards. He laughs at McJ for a moment as he has no valuables to take.
Arnit reaches Cyrus' cell and says, "I'm gonna loot this last one, and then start petrifyin' them." He enters Cyrus' cell and grabs the bag full of empty water bottles, a pen, notepad, and uneaten snacks. He takes Cyrus' sword and scabbard, and begins inspecting his chestplate. He knocks on it a few times, and then says "Oppac, you got a crowbar back there?" Oppac grabs a random crowbar off the ground and tosses it to Arnit, who taps the chestplate a bit with it. "Kid.. what is this thing?" Arnit asks Cyrus. "I uh.. I don't know...But I need it to live! I think…" Arnit looks at Oppac, who nods his head a bit, signaling that it's okay for Arnit to get it off him. There's a part of the chestplate on his shoulder that can be disconnected, he tries using the crowbar to break it apart for a minute or two. Arnit then notices that Cyrus is significantly taller than the other students there. "Kid, what are ya, 16? Why are you hanging out with kids so much youn-" A loud *BOOM* is heard immediately after Arnit did it, after he breaks open the connectable part of the chestplate. Dust fills the room, the ceiling is collapsing. The entire room is filled with rocks and cloudy dust. Cyrus is extremely lightheaded, feeling the worst case of headrush he's ever had. "What..just...happened?" Cyrus looks at his now freed hands, he's vibrating at a high rate, it looks as if he's blurry. His shoes were destroyes, and he only remains in his black track suit and his chestplate. Cyrus stands inside Oppac's building, the top of his read is higher than the top of the building. He stands 50 feet tall. A Nephilim. As he finally begins to process what happened, the vibrations stop and the blurriness fades. The building begins falling to pieces around him with only a corner of the building still standing. All the people on the streets of Gravelroath look up in awe as the giant child appears and destroys the building they all commonly feared.
Inside the basement, the students are coughing and can barely see anything, "Cyrus?! You there?!" Dex yells out. Cyrus hears him from below, and says "Y-yeah." Cyrus looks down, and is filled with horror. He can see Arnit's arm poking out from beneath his foot. "Oh my god, did I kill that guy?!" Cyrus meant to just say it semi-loudly, but is caught off guard by his yell shaking the town a bit. Oppac lays in a pile of rubble in the basement. "What..the fuck...just happened…" He says, with pain and discomfort in his voice. Cyrus looks down at the crime lord that kidnaps, murders, tortures, and ruins lives for fun. He realizes the power difference between the two of them, and sees how weak the once rich and powerful man now is. "Hey kid look...I'll give you all the money you want, just-" But is silenced when Cyrus stomps on with all the force he can, which brings down the other side of the building and shakes the entire town. Because of the students being in the cages they were unharmed from Cyrus' transformation and just knocked back a bit. Cyrus reaches down and picks up each of the students, breaks open their cages, sets them free, and lets them get all their belongings from under the rubble. "Cyrus...y-you're a giant?!" Dex asks with enthusiastic curiosity. "I..I guess so. I think Nephilim is the proper term though. " Cyrus says, not really knowing what else to say. "Cyrus! Take us back to the school! Remember they said that it's being attacked, and someone died!" Eric yells. "Oh yeah, alright!" Cyrus says as he cups the boys in his hands, and starts sprinting towards the school leaving large foot prints behind him, and a long lasting mark on the Quarter-Star Mafia.
With every step he takes when running, a mini earthquake shakes the ground. After only a few minutes of running, Cyrus makes his way near the schoo. Morte looks and sees Cyrus, now giant and running with a purpose, he backs up away from the fight, and then pulls out the same card-like remote he used the previous day, and calls down something new. The third and final phase of robots. Two 60 foot towers come down from the ship, one landing in front of the school, and the other landing on the right side outside one of the side walls. Cyrus sees them and says "Uh oh...guys what are those?" as he opens his hands a bit to let them see. The students in his hands can't really see out all that well because of the constant movement and motion blur. Wally sees his missing students arrive, and sees Cyrus in his Nephilim form. "Wow, guess he knows now." Wally says. "Wait, is this the 'cool' secret you were waiting to tell us?" Ruby exclaims. "Yep, this is it. I was going to tell him when he turns 16." Wally says. Cyrus finally returns to the school with the boys in his hands, He lets them down gently, and they all have a warm greeting. Wally and Ruby hug them all, while Alth stands back, not being the sentimental type. Cyrus and the boys look around at the scene they entered in on. Teether and Birrah both petrified on the battlefield, Aiffam petrified on the roof, the students they're so familiar with cowering in fear with Tayer to the side of the school, nearly hundreds of destroyed robots, holes in the walls and terrain, the first floor of the school is charred, and many destroyed tank looking robots around the front of the school.
"Are you boys okay?" Wally asks. McJ opens his mouth to begin explaining everything, but is stopped by Dex who says "It's a really long story, Wally. We're really sorry." "It's fine guys, it's fine." Wally says, he then looks up to Cyrus and adds "Cyrus! I'm sorry I never told you about this! I should've let you know." "It's fine, Wally! I know now, and that's what matters, haha!" Cyrus says. Dex looks at Wally and asks "Wally, who died here?" Wally is silent at first, and then says "Thanian did. I'm sorry." The boys look at the ground, holding back the tears. The moment is interrupted when the large metallic towers begin to slowly transform and turn into large humanoid metal robots. "Should we go hide with the others?" Eric asks. "Mhm." Ruby nervously confirms. The boys run to the students and Tayer, except Cyrus clearly can't do that. "Cyrus. You don't mind taking out these giant robots, do you?" Wally asks. "Of course." Cyrus says as he assumes the fighting stance that Alth taught him, ready to take down the robots.
Morte runs back at the trio, and they continue their fight just as it was before the remaining students arrived. Cyrus charges for the closest robot which was in front of the school, and throws a hard punch at its face, which doesn't do much but knocks it back a bit. The robot breaks through the front wall, and engages Cyrus into the fight. Small turrets appear on the robot's arm, but Cyrus easily destroys them and continues the fight. The second robot to the side of the school breaks through the wall, and begins to throw punches and attacks of its own at Cyrus. Cyrus can, not easily, but efficiently deal with the robots.
This fight goes on for only about ten minutes before Morte shatters the hope of the staff. Alth throws a punch at Morte while standing directly in front of him, and Morte easily ducks down to dodge, and cleanly pushes his sword through Alth's torso. The fighting pauses, and seemingly does the world. Wally is forced to watch yet another friend get murdered right in front of him. But not just any friend, his best and lifelong friend. Morte pulls his sword out of Alth and takes a few steps back as the dark green energy fades, and he falls to the ground, in a pool of blood forming from his own body. Alth's life lingers on for a bit, but alas, the loss of blood proves to be too much, and Alth is lost. The students watch in pure horror, Cyrus looks away from his fight which causes him to be headbutted by the robot he's fighting, Tayer just looks away, fighting back the tears from the death of the young boy he took in and raised all those years ago, Ruby covers her mouth in pure shock and all Wally can do is look down on his friend and mutter out "No..no no no!" Wally begins to charge at Morte and starts fighting like he never has before, out of pure rage and anguish. He slams his sword against Morte's, hoping he can avenge his fallen friends. Ruby joins in the fight, both of them going full force against Morte. Morte sees a new opportunity. He runs up and punches the air out of Wally, grabs him by the neck, and tosses him towards the school like he was a piece of trash. He then takes on Ruby on his own, now he's going full force. Ruby can keep up, but not for long, and eventually loses her footing which causes her to be stabbed through the heart, killing her instantly.
Morte holds up his sword to the sky with Ruby's corpse on the end, holding it like a trophy he's proud of. Wally looks up and sees his final fighting ally murdered. Wally finally gets back on his feet, sweating and bruised. Wally stands in front of the school while out of breath and holding the side of his stomach in pain. Morte swings his sword, causing Ruby's corpse to fly off the end. He slowly walks towards Wally, ready to fulfill his threats from years prior. From the side of the school, Jasper sees his teachers and mentors dying, and can hardly sit still. "Tobias, can I borrow your sword?" Jasper whispers. "What? Why?" Tobias asks. "Just..please!" Jasper asks. "Um, okay.." Tobias says as he reluctantly gives Jasper his sword. Jasper looks back around the corner to see Morte walking towards Wally. He grips the sword and goes running top speed directly at Morte. Morte just watches the pathetic attempt to try and stop him unfold. Jasper gets to Morte and swings wildly, but of course Morte dodges, and hits Jasper on the head with his hilt only, which knocks him down and gives him a concussion. Morte raises his sword to kill Jasper, but Wally yells out "Stop!" as he grabs Jasper and throws him back towards the rest of the students, and takes the hit for him. This gives Wally a long cut all across his left arm, which is now soaked and dripping with blood.
Wally fights the pain and takes a few steps back, he yells out "Tayer! You and the kids get out of here! You're all here now so you can leave!" Tayer nods, and then looks over at Cyrus, occupied by the giant robots. "Cyrus! Lift us over the wall!" Tayer yells. "Uh, yeah, on it!" Cyrus says, he takes one step and he's all the way over where the students and Tayer are, and lifts them up a few at a time and sets them down on the other side of the wall next to the bus. "Cyrus, can you reconnect the part of your chest plate that was separated?" Tayer asks. Cyrus looks at the shoulder part of his chest plate that was pried open with a crowbar, and sees the two parts can interlock. "Yeah! Should I try to connect them?" Cyrus asks. "Yeah!" Tayer responds. Cyrus begins to try and reconnect the chest plate, but struggles at first. Morte looks back at one of the tall robots, and does another hand signal, pointing at the bus. The robot closest to the bus aims it's arm out, and it's hand begins transforming into some kind of laser cannon. The cannon begins charging up, and Cyrus notices before he reconnects his chest plate luckily. Cyrus runs away from the bus and up to the robot. He tries pushing it down or wrecking it up, but it won't budge.
While the other students are getting on the bus with Tayer, Chris and James back away from it all, both subconsciously wanting to see who Morte is, and if they really know him even though they had just witnessed the horrors he just committed. "James! Chris! What are you doing, get in!" Jade yells from inside the bus. James thinks about it, and he takes a step towards the bus but Chris stops him. He says "James. If we go, we'll never know." James continues to stay silent, and then says "Yeah...you're right…" as he reluctantly takes a few steps back with Chris. Morte continues to advance on Wally, with Wally barely being able to hold his ground, he's trying everything he can to keep Morte away from the students and Tayer. Cyrus eventually uses the full extent of his strength, he pulls the robot's arm away from the students, and it shoots up into the sky. He punches the robot in it's stomach area, rips it's shooting arm off, and headbutts it in it's face, shattering it and sending it down, all the power gained from the anger and fear of losing anyone else. Cyrus jumps back to the bus, and successfully connects his chest plate, shrinking back to his previous size, and gets inside.
Tayer notices James and Chris outside, and yells "Get on the bus what are you doing!?" Morte then pushes Wally off, pulls out the little remote card, and the giant ship above begins to aim cannons on the outside of it towards the bus. While Morte was looking away, Wally gets a good hit in on him by slicing Morte's back. The cut isn't deep, and it wasn't lethal enough to stop him. "Tayer, we have to go!" Eric yells. Tayer continues to try and think if he should convince James and Chris or just leave, he looks and sees yet again that the twins want to stay, and then decides on the latter. He closes the bus door, and heads to the skies, being shot at by hundreds of bullets from Morte's ship, and the giant robot left down at the school which is shooting its own laser cannons at them. "Kids, buckle up, this won't be a smooth ride!" Tayer yells as a warning, and all the kids follow the directions. Tayer swerves the ship all directions, left right, up, down, all to avoid the onslaught of shots from Morte raining down on them. Being an excellent pilot, Tayer avoids the bullets with close to no problem at all, except for a few weak bullets that hit them.
Wally keeps on holding off Morte, but only to distract him from attacking the students more. Morte's hits knock Wally back step by step, until they're now fighting inside the school. Wally trips over burned and charred furniture and lands on his back. He lays there silently for a moment while out of breath, before saying "You know, Morte, I accept it. I lose. I never stood a chance and I was doomed from the start." Wally utters out while trying not to inhale the smoke in the building. Morte continues to stand still, not having said a word this entire time. Wally looks out the window and sees that Tayer is far enough to escape safely. Wally drops his sword and lays back. "Morte I know you're going to kill me. But I want you to know, I raised those kids specifically to fight and kill you. Now maybe not all of them will follow through with what I had planned originally, which I don't blame them for. But some will, and they'll do it. They'll finish you, no matter how big and powerful you get, you're going to die by their hand. I was never going to be the one to do it. I regret how I treated them and I regret leading my friends to their deaths. I wish I could take it all back, but when I look to the future, I know how this'll all end. With your head." Morte looks down on him, continues walking forward, raises his sword up high and strikes down Wally. At the same moment Wally dies, a series of lights from inside his wound shoots out, all the same color as his chemical power, one of which hits Morte, all the others shooting off to the skies.
Morte begins shaking, and a strong wave of light begins flowing around him, the same white, blue, and pink color combination. His glowing white eyes and mouth return on the blank face under the hood. "Good to be back." Morte says after the short light show ends. He looks down and notices Wally's corpse, he flinches and looks away, disgusted by the gore. He regains his focus and says, "You know, a powerful man once said, 'What is a weak man's victory, if not temporary?'. Wally, I didn't originally want to kill you. But I warned you. I warned you. Yet you didn't listen. But I'm honestly happy to see you dead. You disgust me. You lead your own best friends to their deaths, and all you have to say is that you 'regret' it. Pathetic.". Morte turns around and walks out of the school and looks up to see Tayer and the students successfully escape their grip and leave Oxys. "Damn it.." Morte says with frustration in his voice. He turns back around to look at the school and raises his arms out forward towards the school. He then quickly moves his arms in opposite directions from each other, which is followed by an explosion within the school, in the white pink and blue color scheme. The explosion brings down the school to the ground, all this from just his frustration. He looks off to the side, and sees James and Chris standing before him. "You stayed. Good. If you had left I would be going to track you both down right now. You two staying just saves time...and lives." Morte says. "H-how do you know us?" James nervously asks. Morte gets a grin and says "I have connections." "But..why do we know you?!" Chris asks, not very nervously, almost demandingly. "I'm the reason you two were so ahead of your class. And the reason you lost sleep at night. You've noticed things like that, correct?" Morte says as he lifts up his right hand, and then the boys' eyes turn to static, like how they do every single night without them knowing. "I've been training you at night while Wally trained you during the day." he then turns their eyes back to normal.
"Why don't we go, you'll be living like royalty. People working for you, people doing what you say, and you can be trained by me personally." As the twins hear this, Chris has a smirk on his face, while James has an unsure look. The three begin walking towards the front gate, passing all the corpses and petrified fighters. Before they go back up to his ship, another ship appears. A familiar one. The ship of Vierd and Paki, Oxys' guardians. The two guardians come down like they did before, Paki soaring down and Vierd jumping, both arriving in front of the school. "Hey! What did you do here?! What happened!" Paki asks. Morte and the twins stay silent. "You're gonna pay for whatever you just did here! And I know it's not good!" Paki continues. Morte looks at the twins, smirks, and says "Watch this.''