On top of a small black stone, a slightly translucent illusion of a sea turtle dressed in black kung fu pants spun a staff around and struck a fighting pose. On an opposing stone, the image of a buff rhino in a sports bra and boxing shorts smashed her wrapped fists together and started hopping side to side; light on her toes.

A short, metal finger pushed the turtle forward as a metal claw pushed the rhino. As soon as the stones touched, the turtle slapped the staff on the ground using the weapon’s flex to bounce it up at the rhino’s hip. She lunged forward, ducking in, allowing the staff to strike her shoulder guard and twisting into a right cross for the turtle’s torso.

The turtle pulled back, just barely blocking the strike with a raised shin. He allowed the force of the blow to push him back a step as he swung the staff around in a reverse half-swing for her head followed by an overhead down strike. Both attacks were blocked on her wrapped forearms. The turtle was too slow to pull his staff back in time and the rhino grabbed the bo, yanking on it as she thrust her body upward with a knee strike, breaking the turtle’s guard. The turtle stumbled a half step and caught a downward elbow to the top of his head immediately followed up by a flaming, spinning back kick to the chest.

The turtle flew back and vanished as he crossed the boundary of the illusion stones. The rhino stood up tall and thumbed her nose a few times before sneering at IronHide while jabbing her thumb downwards.

“How-- How did you even do that move? I still had plenty of energy but that got a ring out?” IronHide whined.

Carnivac shrugged and retrieved his illusion stone.

“I won,” he declared.

“Yeah yeah, I know. Fine, whatever. Go for it,” IronHide huffed.

Carnivac stood up as the small crowd of onlookers made a path for him. He drew both of his wakizashi and crouched over in a launch position with his swords trailing behind him. For a brief second, his eyes flashed and the next he was gone.

IronHide muttered at a low volume about illegally modifying one’s Fight Stone and stored his own away.

“I have to say,” Rebecca, the former Knight-Watch-Auto-turned-Valkyrie said, holding a hand out to IronHide. “I didn’t really appreciate Carnivac for what he was when we were fighting alongside him. I felt like he was a pretty solid melee fighter but I now realize that was when he was heavily damaged and barely armed. At the time, we could hang in there. Now that he’s fully repaired and loaded with weapons I feel like there isn’t much for us to do these days.”

IronHide followed her to the edge of the wooded area they had camped at and watched as Carnivac unloaded unholy death upon one of Dezarus’s mobile factories.

“I get what you mean, Becca. Despite how my dad might feel about taking a life, he did design big bro to be an absolute killing machine. He was purpose built for this sorta thing.”

“At least when you go in, I feel like we can clean up some scraps,” she laughed.

“Hulk go smash!” he said, deploying a wide, cheesy grin.

“Is that what you call your bigger form?”

“What? No? Um, I guess I could? It might be fitting in a way though maybe Hulk Buster would be more appropriate... Wait. Does that make this smaller form, Banner? Or am I Tony?” he muttered.

Rebecca slapped IronHide on the back sending him several steps forward and laughed. “You guys say some of the strangest things!”

“You’re lucky I don’t feel pain,” he complained.

“Sweetie, I’d say you’re the lucky one in that case,” she smirked.

The sound of several [Blink] enchanted kunai exploding signaled the end of Carnivac’s outing. Victoria and Reinhart had already headed out from the cover to release and tend to a terror stricken group of goblin worg riders while Prowl and Voltes picked through the remains of anything that Carnivac had touched, snuffing out survivors.

Carnivac casually picked up a few kunai that had embedded into the ground on his way back over to the forest cover, tucking them away into his [Storage].

“That’s the fifth one we’ve come across so far. They’re getting more frequent as we get closer to the border,” he announced.

“Learn anything new?” IronHide asked.

“The usual taunts and threats from Dezarus for the most part. I think he’s getting frustrated though. He said that soon his numbers will reach epic proportions and that he will descend on us like a plague of locusts.”

“Does that mean he’s upping production?” Rebecca asked.

“I don’t think so. If I had to guess, he has units headed over the border to infect the alliance forces. I don’t know how he’s going to get the power to sustain that many connections though,” Carnivac pondered.

“I’ll let big bro Cyclone know about it,” IronHide offered.

Carnivac gave him the smallest of nods before he turned around and headed back to the scattered remains of the mobile factory. In a rare show of laziness he casually poked broken Automata bodies or chunks of machinery with his toe before squatting down and touching a hand to large pieces of metal. Wherever he touched would sparkle and twinkle like glitter as it dissolved into a thick haze of metal bits. The bits condensed and reformed into kunai that then would pixelate as they transferred into Carnivac’s [Inventory].

Prime.IronHide:// Hey @Cyclone we just cleaned up another mobile factory. Big bro Carn says that he thinks Dez might be sending units over the border to look for that Automata army they got. So I guess we’re heading in that direction now.

Prime.Cyclone:// Goooot it. I’ll let the Milli-man know. It’s kinda weird that Carn can’t tell us himself anymore.

Prime.IronHide:// Haha yeah, it’s like he got himself /kickbanned

Prime.Cyclone:// @Rom I think I’m going to have to swing by again...

Prime.Rom:// Again?! This is the third time since we were force shutdown!

Prime.Cyclone:// Yeah it suxx. Greevus keeps treating me like I’m one of his soldiers and wants to keep up on my “training”. But I think he just gets off on trying to use me as a sandbag.

Prime.Ram:// You tell that bunny bimbo that if I have to completely rebuild one of your limbs again then I’m going to personally come down there and rip off anything that might lead to future bunny bimbos!

Prime.Cyclone:// Ha.... yeah I’m not relaying that. Right now he has me fighting the Lieutenant General so... Expect a lot of fire damage on me...

Prime.IronHide:// Just say no!

Prime.Cyclone:// Ah scrap, big one incoming. okaythxgottagobye

Cyclone looked up as the majority of his HUD was filled with a massive fireball. He’d already taken some light damage to a variety of areas across his frame. His left cannon was inoperable and his windscreen was left to a few jagged pieces. In a way, all of this “training” was improving him, though probably not in the way that the General had intended. Cyclone was learning more about what combat with actual soldiers was like and every time he was damaged the girls would reinforce and update those areas.

Little by little he was being upgraded. Maybe that wasn’t too far off from how the other soldiers improved after all.

Beneath the small sun forming over the training ground, Lieutenant General Winx continued to pump more power into the thing while screaming complaints about the quality of the men that were available to her. Fire poured out of her eyes like the gates of hell as the light flames that usually danced on her cracked and charred horns burst into a raging blaze that mimicked a set of giant wings sprouting from her head.

“Come on lady... this isn’t a therapy session,” Cyclone complained. “Let’s find a nice couch for you to relax on. You can tell me all about it!”

She wasn’t listening and instead threw her hands forward sending the fireball in Cyclone’s direction. He threw himself onto the ground, shifting into bike mode, tearing up the dirt and sod as he shot under the oncoming attack. The fireball punched into the ground behind him, incinerating anything that was caught within its five meter diameter. Thanks to the various upgrades he’d piled on, his mana consumption in bike mode had been brought down to a sustainable level while his mana storage had been vastly improved.

His remaining gun was still available in bike mode and he fired off a spray of rounds at the demoness as he raced at her. The bullets ricocheted and bounced off of her aura shield as she pulled her arms in, redirecting the massive fireball. She twisted her hands and turned her body as if pulling on a massive chain. In response, the fireball tore through the ground leaving a scorched path as it followed after him.

Nearby soldiers screamed and ran to get as far from Winx’s attack as possible but she just laughed maniacally and ignored them; heedless of any damage to the grounds she was causing. Cyclone dodged and weaved through the torn up terrain, looking for an opportunity to counter attack. While the colossal, flaming wrecking ball had a terrifying level of destruction, it wasn’t fast. Winx looked as though it took her a lot of physical strength to move the thing around.

At the edge of the grounds, Cyclone spotted General Greevus laughing his head off. It was impossible to tell if the General was laughing at Cyclone’s imminent demise or at how serious his LtG had gotten. Cyclone angled his course and veered for the General. The monster pink bunny managed to get an eyebrow up before Cyclone shifted to bot mode, grabbed the General by the shoulder, spun and flung the General at the oncoming fireball, and shifted back to bike mode.

In his rear view, Cyclone watched as the flung fluffball triggered an enhancement spell that coated him in a layer of blue magic energy. He slapped into the fireball and planted his feet in, crunching through several inches of dirt and rock. As the fireball tried to push through the General it was lifted up and over his head. Briefly, he stretched, pushing it up higher. Then he collapsed backward, planting his shoulders into the ground and jack-knifing his body like a compressed spring. The spring released and both of Greevus’s feet shot up into the fireball launching it back up into the air.

Cyclone was incredulous. The guy was a monster, an absolute monster. Could he actually take on the GodArmor?

Winx screamed in frustration and swung her mini-sun overhead, pulling it to intercept Cyclone’s path. Cyclone partially transformed an arm to punch into the ground, jerking him into a violently sharp turn. He pulled the arm back in and barreled straight for the Hellion. Again, he opened fire, spraying her with a steel shower. Again, her aura shield flared to life to protect her.

Cyclone kept up the spray of gunfire until he nearly collided with her. At the last second, he [Blink]ed to the side, dodging around the shield. Before it could evaporate and realign to the new attack angle he switched to bot mode and lashed out an arm, grabbing her by the face. The momentum plucked her off her feet as they sailed through the air only to come down hard as he slammed her into the ground, shattering the ashen crust.

Orange blood, glowing bright like magma seeped between his fingers and down the sides of her face. At first, Cyclone was afraid that he’d accidentally killed her but she just started laughing again; though this time sounded increasingly unhinged. The hands that had been holding onto an invisible chain relaxed and flopped to her sides as the shadow Cyclone cast down on her intensified.

“Burn for me!” she screamed, cackling like a madwoman.

Cyclone pulled back, yanking her by her face and thrust her upwards and into the falling fireball, pushing up on her chest plate to use her as a shield.

“I’m going to trust that you’re more fire resistant than I am!” he shouted.

The fireball pushed into her, pressing down and pushing that weight onto Cyclone. Like a soap skin, it squished inward a bit before it started wrapping around her, enveloping her as it pushed down. Her head and torso absorbed into the fireball as it sank further, engulfing both of Cyclone’s hands. Warning messages clouded his HUD like hungry seagulls.

“That’s enough Winx, let it go,” the General called out, casually walking over.

The miniature sun evaporated and the intense flames dissipated into the air. Both of Cyclone’s arms were cherry red up to the elbows as his hands glowed bright enough to trigger the auto-balance filter in his optics. He couldn’t move either of them, the joints likely forge welded.

“Auto, could you let go now? This really hurts,” Winx complained, tapping at the hand with a vice-grip on her face.

“Uh... not at the moment... no. All the joints in my hands are completely fused.”

Her hands reached down further to tug at the other hand in an attempt to lift herself off of Cyclone.

“I guess this one isn’t coming off either then,” she groaned. “At least put me on the ground... and could someone cover my lower half... it’s... um... breezy...”

Cyclone offered no retort but suddenly felt immensely embarrassed as he realized his hand was clamped onto the exposed breast of an entirely naked fire demon.

The general wailed in laughter, nearly toppling over in his mirth.