Blood Sisters
Chapter 20

Allison Ashton spoke hurriedly into her Bracer Communicator “Liberty to Goldstar, I need my Knight in White Satin.” “Groovy, be right there babe!” came the reply. Miss Liberty closed her eyes to the ensuing chaos as the new humans, armored humans, agents and synthoids began to clash. With deadly calm, she reached out with her bio-energy sense to make a map in her head to where her most powerful opponents were, then in a blur of red, white and blue Mighty Miss Liberty launched herself against her foes.

Miracle flashed into the fray. She decided to see if she could take out Wildfire, who appeared to have only beta-cloth for protection. Before he was able to bring up his flames, The Golden Girl was behind him and kicked out savagely, hitting him squarely between his shoulder-blades. Jenny was in no mood for caution, and they were badly outnumbered. She let loose a force-field spark as her heel dug into Wildfire's back. Mark was taken completely by surprise, he let out a low grunt and fell forward onto the polished concrete floor, his back smoking.

Cricket charged the nearest bloodsister, digging her shoulder into it. The mute synthoid had no expression as she was knocked off her feet and slid across the floor. The Mighty Bug spun around with a back-fist and hit another bloodsister synthoid across the side of its head, who fell stiffly to the floor with a blank face.

Titan had been standing next to Wildfire and turned to face Miracle. He uttered “Sorry Jenny” as he grew above her and brought his mighty fists down on her force-field like a sledgehammer. The golden shield of energy buzzed in protest, and Miracle was knocked onto her back, looking up at the Towering Titan. With no satisfaction he kicked at Jenny, hard, like a big yellow soccer-ball; sending her arcing into the air right out the big doorway. Jenny felt that, wincing as her force-field sparked all around her and hummed loud in her ears. Miracle shook it off quickly, and still in mid-air she acrobatically oriented herself. Jenny glanced over her shoulder, waiting until she started angling downward towards the ground. “Surprise” she said with a grin. In a flash Miracle teleported up behind Titan, with all the momentum she still had from the kick that sent her flying. She came down hard on his shoulders, wrapping her legs around his big neck and juicing up her force-field. As he fell forward next to Wildfire she started to squeeze his neck between her thighs and calves. Miracle wrapped her arms around the big man's forehead and gripped as hard as she could, her whole body now pressed against the back of his head, holding on with her arms and legs wrapped around his face. Jenny sparked and sparked; Titan yelled loudly into the floor as his head began to smoke.

Broadsword shouted in alarm “TITAN!”. He threw his heavy metal body against Miracle, just managing to break her grip on Titan's head. Todd bellowed in pain as his head snapped around, following Jenny as she was tackled off of him. He ended up on his side as The Metal Man and The Golden Girl tumbled away from him. Titan's body was still smoking from his shoulders up. He moaned and rolled onto his back.

Iron Gorgon hesitated, she was new to all this, and everything was crazy. But when she saw Titan go down, that was something she understood. Her armor came to life as it carried her quickly through the battle. Gorgon did a quick medical scan of Titan with her new sensors. A flexible carbon-nanotube cable with a utility head shot out of a panel at the top of Medusa's head on her armored breastplate. Iron Gorgon sprayed an anesthetic protective foam over Titan's burns then gave him an injection to help with the pain and clear his head. She gave him a little shake on his big shoulder “You okay Todd?” her voice came over his earpiece. “Yeah, thanks” he moaned. He looked over at Jenny and shook his head. Miracle indeed.

Peregrine hit her plasma jets and lifted up into the air towards the ceiling high above. Her scanners and battle systems sprung to life and information streamed in quickly on her HUD. She picked up Miss Liberty's transmission and spoke into the USSM comm system “Goldstar incoming, heads up”. Lisa cursed and added “I have several alarms coming in from the Ops center, it's a safe bet Goldstar freed North Star. Grr”. Peregrine started locking in the unfriendly targets for her weapon systems to track.

D-Day hated this. He knew Miss Liberty was already steamed at him, so he might as well try to draw her fire. With his thick armor he might be able to take a hit or two from her... maybe. Paul's hands flew over his control panels as he locked his target in. With a frown he saw the shape of his long time friend come up in the crosshairs. He closed his eyes as his fingers pressed down on the launch control.

A swarm of tracking mini-missiles launched out of a pod on D-Day's battlearmor. They streaked at Miss Liberty leaving ribbons of white smoke behind them.

Agent David tapped his earpiece, giving instructions to the revenant operators. The bio-energy drones came to life as the commands came through the sub-dermal implants in their heads. Goliath took a knee and brought his AR-15 to bear. The golden globe around Miracle was hard to miss. He clicked his ammo selection switch to concussive and fired off a burst. The high-tech bullets slammed into her halo with surprising force and she was knocked across the floor away from Broadsword. “Oof. What the heck was that?” Jenny looked over at the agent with the assault rifle. She had not considered him a threat. “Huh” she muttered, flashing back to her feet.

Several of the bloodsister synthoids tackled Cricket, trying to pull her down, she went to punch one, but her arm was grabbed, then her other arm. Another one got her arms around Cricket's legs and she went down with a yelp. Her synthoid twins swarmed over her. Pinning her to the ground. “Crap!” Cricket yelled. Twisting herself side to side trying to break free, all Cricket could see was girl bodies all around her. “Get off me!” she shrieked. Her bloodsisters bore down until Cricket could barely move, and was struggling to breathe.

Goldstar had held back as his wife and the girls had gone in to see D-Day, just in case something like this happened. When it was clear it was going to be a fight, he streaked into the Ops center in his energy form until he found Winter. She stood up when she saw him “Goldie... its a” He shifted to matter and blew a hole in the wall. “A trap, yeah we know. Lets rock North Star, Ally needs us!” then he was gone like a flare arcing around towards the other side of the mountain. Winter jumped from the smoking hole in the wall and made herself a slope, skiing down to the ground. Icing the ground in front of her she forced water jets out of her body, following behind as fast as she could.

In little over a second Goldstar had covered the distance between the Ops center and the open doors of the R&D facility on the far side of Shay's Mountain. He could sense all the radio transmissions around him, voice communication and otherwise. He followed the signal from Agent David to the facility control room. He shifted back to matter and his force-field flared around him. Goldstar smiled at the startled personnel. “Now, where are the dudes pulling the strings of those Frankenstiens. I'd like a word...” Several of the staff pointed over to where there were uniformed US Marshals hooked into VR systems. Just as Marty brought up his hands to take them out he was hit really, really hard from behind. Goldstar flew into the armored wall of the control center, denting it as he hit with massive force. Marty yelled out his pain as he fell to the floor, fighting for consciousness. Were it not for his powerful force-field that blow would have killed him instantly. Struggling to his knees, he looked up at a revenant crossing the floor to finish him off. Straining with effort he raised up a hand, and discharged a cannon of bright gold energy, striking the revenant center mass, and sending it catapulting against the far wall of the room. Grunting, Goldstar struggled to his feet. He saw the repulsive clone of his wife do the same across the room, whisps of green bio-energy leaking out of it. “Oh hell” he muttered.

Out in the cavernous main room, Miss Liberty's eyes snapped open as she flew into battle. Bio-mutant energy exploded behind her as she pushed for as much acceleration possible. With her fists before her like a battering-ram she flew right through one revenant, then another, then a third. They all broke apart, green energy and flesh exploding everywhere. Allison grabbed another revenant as she swung around, hurling it full strength at D-Day. The synthoid's body catapulted through the air and smashed into Paul's walking red and silver tank. Armor dented and sparks flew as the unit tumbled over. Alarms blared and flashed in the cockpit as the acceleration compensator was overpowered and the hydraulics failed. The small man was shaken around as the D-Day battlearmor crashed into the floor. Miss Liberty shouted in anger “DAMN YOU PAUL!” as she pulled up in the air. Pointing her fist at D-Day, a globe of bright bio-mutant energy gathered around her hand, with a battle-cry Miss Liberty released it. Like a comet it flew into the D-Day armor, scraping it across the floor into the wall. More sparks flew and pieces of twisted armor exploded into the air from the impact. Where the bio-energy struck steel armor it smoked and melted. In the cockpit, many controls blinked out and the master alarm sounded. Paul's face was tinted red as more and more displays showed system failure warnings. Miss Liberty took a breath, feeling slightly weaker after her flying rampage and large discharge of bio-energy at Paul's armor. While she hovered, D-Day's missiles finally hit home. Miss Liberty was blown through the air as dozens of missiles designed to destroy tanks exploded against her flesh. She tumbled high up into the wall in a cloud of fire and smoke. Shaken, Allison put her hand on the wall and steadied herself, 30 feet up in the air. She shook it off and looked down, assessing the battle.

Peregrine took the opportunity and flew over at Miss Liberty, her plasma jets flaring. When in range she quickly slowed to a stop, plasma flaring around her, and launched back away from her target, almost blacking out from the staggering g-force. The superheated plasma from Peregrine's maneuvering jets burned into Miss Liberty, who screamed as she was scorched and blown against the wall. Her beta-cloth blackened and melted to her flesh. Despite the pain and smoke, Allison's skin was only red below the spots where the jets hit and burned away her uniform. Ally looked at Peregrine through narrowed eyes. Lisa gulped.

Miracle teleported across the room, appearing beside Goliath, taking him by surprise. Jenny effortlessly kicked him into the wall, no spark. He fell against the armored wall with a sickening crunch, likely cracking a few ribs. His head hit the wall hard, and he slumped to the floor. The AR-15 dropped into his lap, but his sunglasses stayed in place, showing no damage from the impact. “I need a pair of those” Jenny quipped. She then spun around with a kick, stretching out her energy field to carry the force of it to Wildfire, who was just getting to his feet.

Mark saw the glowing pseudopod coming at him just in time and he ducked away from it. He could feel he heat of its discharge right behind him, where his head was a split-second ago. He glared at The Golden Girl and his body exploded into flames. Wildfire gathered up a fireball and hurled it at Miracle, but she teleported away, and instead the fire exploded on the big agent behind her, scorching his clothes and his hair and making a circle of black ash on the wall around him. “Damn that Philly’s quick” he twanged. As he was turning to see where Miracle went to, he noticed that big agent's sunglasses were still securely in place, unaffected by his blast. “Damn, I want a pair of those” he said.

Broadsword saw Miracle take out Goliath, then saw her flash away from Wildfire's attack. He had been studying Miracle's tactics and anticipated her move. Just as Jenny appeared behind Wildfire, Jack swept a long flat blade that extended from his arms and cut through the twelve feet of air between him and Wildfire. The heavy blade cut into Jenny's force-field, which sent sparks rippling over it's surface as it dented in. The field held, but Miracle felt the impact. Taken by surprise she tumbled off balance across the floor. “Ow” she breathed. Miracle flashed to her feet, wincing as a pain shot through her still tender side. Wildfire gave Broadsword a grin “Thank ya”. Jack nodded grimly. He was not happy about any of this.

Iron Gorgon looked at her medical status readout and saw that Paul's condition was fine, though he was in a battered, smoking wreck. She hit her jump jets and crossed the room to where Goliath was slumped. A quick scan showed he had a concussion and some broken ribs in addition to his obvious burns. After spraying his burns with the protective anesthetic She applied a stabilizing foam to his torso and neck that quickly hardened, holding the big Agent's injured body in place. Another black carbon-nanotube cable shot out of the metal head of Medusa on her armor's chest and wrapped around the agent. Gorgon lifted Goliath with it, and moved him several yards to a safer area behind a metal stairway. She unwrapped the cable, and it whipped back into the armor. Iron Gorgon then started to turn back to the fight, when she suddenly stopped. Gorgon's head looked back towards the stairs, the mirrored visor reflecting the room around her. Without a word Iron Gorgon ran for the steps, servos whining and steel thundering as the armor moved.

Cricket finally managed to get some wiggle room and kicked out savagely, knocking one of the bloodsisters back. Then another as she was able to get a punch off. The Indestructible Girl with staggering effort rose to her feet, her synthoid sisters grabbing at her every limb. Cricket swung her arm around and another bloodsister tumbled away “This... really... sucks!” the girl said in protest.

Titan had gotten to his feet, Excess foam dripping from his face. He saw the flash of light as Miracle came to her feet after Broadsword's blow. With a single long stride, The Towering Titan moved into range of her and sent his big fist down. Jenny looked up as his shadow fell on her and she rolled away from the strike, the same way she had practiced over and over again with her trainers. With a loud kiai She kicked Titan in the knee hard as she could, hitting him solidly with a spark. There was a loud snap as the joint bent sideways, and Titan fell hard, howling in pain and grabbing his leg, the beta-cloth over his knee smoldering from Jenny's kick. “Stay down dude, your a mess” Jenny said sympathetically.

A revenant stood up from the wreckage of the D-Day armor. Bio-energy leaking all over from it and pooling at its feet like dry ice vapor. It's controller had it target Miracle and it stomped over towards her. Jenny, who's attention was just leaving Titan, snapped around towards the sound of it just a moment too late. The smoking fist of the revenant collided with Jenny's force-field, there was the sound like a thunderclap, and bolts of energy struck all through Miracles protective bubble, her field stretched to the limit, pressing against her before it recoiled and she was thrown back from the force of the blow. Jenny's face contorted with pain as her guts got crushed and her flesh was seared from her own fields discharge. The armored wall of the room was coming up fast, the whole mass of the mountain behind it. Miracle knew she would at least be out of this fight if she hit that wall, if not worse. Barely clinging to her senses as waves of pain were shooting through her Miracle trusted her phenomenal luck and teleported blindly, straight up.

High above the frey, Miss Liberty was angry. She rocketed at Peregrine and smashed the breastplate of her flightarmor. The full force of Allison's momentum and strength was focused down onto the surface area of her fist. Even though Allison pulled her blow at the last moment Peregrine's armor was crushed. The shock absorption layer below did its job, spreading out the force of the impact, however, Even Miss Liberty's pulled punch was a mighty blow that far exceeded what the armor was able to withstand. Most of the force was directed away from Lisa's body, but it moved in a shockwave through the composite layer below the titanium armored shell. Pieces of Peregrine's armor blew off her, raining down on the combatants below. As the flightarmor fell apart a fail-safe system automatically shut down the magnetoplasma engine before the magnetic fields failed and caused an explosion of plasma. The armor completely lost power and shattered, destroyed by the overwhelming energy of Allison's punch. The ejection system launched Lisa from the armor as it disintegrated around her. Airbags inflated out of Peregrine's beta-cloth flightsuit, surrounding her completely in a protective polyhedron. Lisa pounded into the wall then fell to the ground, bouncing again, and again before finally rolling against the far wall. As she came to a stop, the bags around her deflated, and the unconscious body of Lisa Shaw lay still on the floor. Miss Liberty looked down at the fallen hero, and her anger washed away. Ally was stunned by what she had just done. Then with a shock, she saw her daughter hit by the revenant, heard her cry of pain and watched her vanish out of thin air a split-second from hitting the armored wall above where Lisa was sprawled. “This has gone too far” Allison said to herself. Miss Liberty lifted her arm to speak into her golden M-Tech bracer. But before she got a word out, everything around her suddenly went dark.

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