Hatchling

Hanging on, Sayaka secured her hold on Samus while not so subtly trying to hold her cape over her back side. She really needed to invest in some battle shorts under this skirt…

She watched in awe as Samus froze the other armor in place again. These weapons and armor.. it was like something out of a sci-fi comic book or something. As Samus leaped up the building onto the roof, Sayaka made sure not to fall off and brushed her skirt when she was finally put down again.

She nodded up at the world above them, for a second, before turning back to Sayaka.

“She won’t stay frozen for long, and she won’t have a problem with taking this building down to get to us. We need to keep on the move.”

The other her would go after her, at least. If her time fighting against Dark Samus back on Aether and Phaaze was any indication, at least... She’d keep after her, without a doubt.

So, Samus ran across the rooftop and jumped over to the next one over, before pausing for a second to look over her shoulder to make sure Sayaka was following after her.

He dashed back towards the portal, as quickly as his legs could carry him-

but not quickly enough.

There wasn’t enough time, he realized. He was going to have to make a stand. He ripped a chunk of concrete from the wall of a nearby building, godlike muscles straining, and hurled it at the armoured woman.

She smirked behind her visor, as the man threw a large chunk of concrete at her.

Strong.

But not strong enough.

Suddenly, another similar suit of armor attacked her opponent from above. Did they know each other?  This one’s voice was strikingly familiar. “S.. Samus?” So this is what she wore in battle… It was pretty cool. 

She stood, towering over Sayaka even more so than when they’d last met, and paused before looking around the area. The structure of this sector was arguably more important than that of sector oo3... She couldn’t just blast through a wall, here, as much as she’d like to.

No, they’d need to get out through the sky.

“Come here.”

She reached out with her free arm to grab Sayaka, and quickly lift the shorter woman over one shoulder even as her alternate thawed. She fired at the phazon-corrupted alternate once more, freezing her once again, before jumping up at the wall next to her, and kicking off of it to fling herself against the other wall, reorienting herself to do much the same again and again until she reached the roof of one of the buildings.

She put Sayaka down, then, and looked over the turquoise-haired woman for a brief second before speaking.

He’s always relied on his agility, but that’s because armor on Gaia would just get in the way. But that? That’s an agile suit right there. Mother’s not the only one who wants it.

Of course, first there’s the matter of disassembling it; and before that, it disassembling him. Ironically, it’s the missile that might’ve saved his life.

Who can say for sure?

The shot is easy; Cloud’s deflected bullets more times than he can count, and he’s with mother now. It’s like breathing. But he doesn’t have the time to do anything about the missile - all he can do is hold the Buster Sword in front of him, letting its wide flat surface take the explosion.

The force puts him much, much further than those energy spirals, too fast for flying - it puts him through the concrete wall of some diner. Chunks, shards, and one annoyed SOLDIER hit the ground amidst a swarm of dust. 

Too bad it’s empty.

He stands, and the other blast reaches him. It’s too far for any real damage - there’s nearly thirty feet between him now. But the concussion hits like a hammer, drives him back a few more steps , flinging tiny shards of shrapnel and more dust for his eyes.

Positively joyous. And not the happy kind.

His back was just used to break a solid wall, and it hurts accordingly. The beginnings of a headache accompanies the pain in the back of his head. A half-dozen tiny cuts were added thanks to that bomb, and he’s smoking. Actually, his left arm is on fire, cloth burning and skin scorching. He puts it out in irritation, and glares at the now-distant armor.

For all that, considering everything he’s veer been through and the blessings of his Mother, he’s more pissed than injured.

With that, Samus broke into a run towards the other-- quickly surpassing the speed barrier on her way towards him, as he Speed Boost activated...

And then, just as she reached him, crouching for a fraction of a second, all of that speed and energy going into her legs, before she jumped straight up and rocketed into the sky, a good four hundred meters in the span of a second, a sonic boom closely following her ascent.

She begins to charge her beam, as she falls, her suit’s targeting systems locking onto the small being below, and allowing her to fire another large wave of plasma down at him as she fell.

She landed with a loud crack, on her legs and one free arm, concrete breaking under the force of her impact with the ground-- But, as it would appear, not harming her in the slightest, judging by the way she immediately swung her cannon around to point at him.

That’s like the Northern Crater in a bullet. There’s no harm done to him, but it’s sure not fun.

That armor wants to fire again. Well, he can’t just let it take potshots at him all day. Time to close the gap. 

He doesn’t cover the ground on foot - not with those little blue lights in the way. No, he makes a jump Sephiroth would be proud of, soaring into the air. Nothing new, and he doesn’t need his wing for that, oh no.

She gave a quick grunt, before releasing her beam shot, just in front of him-- And then fired off another Super Missile, point blank. He shouldn’t be able to chop that in half, considering the distance between them.

She rolls backwards, then, and finally makes the choice to drop a power bomb between them on her way. It was essentially a small nuclear bomb... There was no way he’d be able to survive that.

Zack - ?

And he’s not just any first-Class, he’s Jenova’s new son. The best of Gaia’s absolute best, made stronger than ever.

That adorable missile of the armor’s splits in half, speeding with either side of him harmlessly. It was a downward strike, and the Buster Sword meets a spiraling wave of energy.

The impact flings him back through the air. It’s almost like flying, in a way. He’s never tried to fly backwards, even though he’s been thrown before.

A backflip in the air and he plants the Buster Sword (Zack?) into the ground, flipping himself over the top. He lands with the blade and some ten feet between himself and the armor, and pulls out the sword. He spins the whole thing in front of him by the handle, shredding concrete, grinning.

Not fun.

She crouched, for a moment, as the other landed, charging her beam a bit more and contemplating on what she’d just seen. He’d been able to chop a super missile in half... Judging by that, and the throbbing pain in her back, she really would rather not find herself on the other end of it again. He was strong.

She fired her beam at him, as he spun the sword of his around, a wave of icy plasma rippling through the air to collide with the debris that moved through the air-- and pass through it entirely, continuing on it’s path.

She rolled backwards once again, intent on staying out of his reach if at all possible, dropping yet another trio of bombs even if she knew they likely wouldn’t be of much use-- They would be a deterrent, while she charged up her beam once more.

She came out of her Morph Ball to do so, briefly considering activating a Power Bomb before deciding against it-- That would lead to too much collateral damage. It would need to be a last resort.

For a second - just a split second - he’s curious. Wondering. He doesn’t want to take it apart; he just wants to ask how.

Mother wants to know. And she’ll take the little ball, smash cut, scoop out whatever’s inside.

It leaves little blue lights. too. Odd. Must be something to stop, and he needs to change momentum. So he comes down, Buster Sword, first, tip piercing right through - 

And the lights explode.

All the way on the other side of six feet of steel, it doesn’t  do much but startle him. The shockwave travels up the sword, tears the edge out of the cement. Somehow - with his wing and what momentum he could change - he lands on his feet, but only just. Off balance and surprised.

She jumps out of Morph Ball mode as quick as she can, pointing her arm cannon and firing a super missile towards the man in the space of only a few seconds. She runs after it, then, blue eyes focused on him from behind her green visor-- and goes into a somersault once more, the multicoloured energy of her Screw Attack sparking across the surface of her power suit even as she charged her power beam to shoot him.

“Time to go.”

Mother enjoyed torturing the Cetra. But she never lost focus. Neither did her sons.

His wing moves him out of the way. A backflip  as if he’s been standing on air- now, he’s never quite done that before. That’s fun. Maybe there’s no challenge, but at least he has something new.

Now it’s his turn, and he bursts with blue light.

Either way, at least he gets a fight. He always wanted to fight Barret. More so at first, and at the end. Less in the middle.

“I’d wish you luck, but it wouldn’t help.”

He leaps into the air, makes like he’s going to come back down, but no. Hovering with his wing is much more fun. What’s even more fun than that is the power that he rains down. 

That was something she could deal with.

The Bounty Hunter leaped forward, into a somersault, electricity sparking across the surface of her gravity suit as she narrowly avoided the bolts of lightning coming down at her... And then stopped, firing a long burst of cold plasma energy up at him in hopes to simply freeze him solid and send him plummeting to the ground.

It was rarely that easy, but... She could still hope.

She was able to dodge the first missile, but right behind it was a second, and she was still recovering from the first one. Quickly summoning a sword, Sayaka grabbed it and threw it at the missile, causing it to detonate. She was still close enough to get caught in the blast, however, and was thrown off to the side. 

“The Hunter. I’m here to kill you.”

The armoured being raised her beam weapon, to fire, only to be assaulted from atop a building by another, similar figure-- But for her suit being in shades of purple and yellow, rather than black and blue. The being was frozen in place for a brief second, as the other jumped down, and looked towards Sayaka.

[ϡ] Time to get back into the swing of chaos. She wills it and he wants it, so it shall be. 

There are targets everywhere, but he doesn’t want easy. Easy is boring. Why would you fight an infantryman when you could fight a SOLDIER? Not that there are any SOLDIER here but him.

Unless there’s another him. Now that would be a good fight. Doesn’t matter, though.

To a challenge, then. Can’t be too hard to find. There - that looks like a walking suit of armor. He could probably crush it, but maybe it’ll put up a fight. he hopes so.

“You live in this City, right?” Can the armor even hear him? Oh well. He points the Buster Sword at it. if it can’t hear, it must be able to see.

The irony of him mentioning a “Mother” wasn’t lost on her, either.

"I do.”

The bounty hunter began to charge her power beam, then, before raising the weapon to point at the soldier. This would be... interesting.

Hopping down from a building, the blue Magi made a smooth landing onto the concrete below. She was in a sort of alleyway now, leading into the street. With the main streets and roadways blocked due to intense battling, it was safer to travel through smaller roads in between buildings. However, Sayaka still wasn’t familiar with the layout. 

Before she had time to plan out where she would head next, a dark figure jumped down from the building behind her. A sword summoned in her hand on reflex and she turned around to face the stranger. They were more like a shadow, and it was hard to make out exactly what they were wearing due to how dark the armor was. 

The shadow figure stood and pointed an arm canon at Sayaka. As soon as she saw the canon light up she knew this wasn’t a friend, but a foe. Sayaka jumped out of the way as soon as a blast shot out from the weapon. She wasn’t sure if she should try to fight it or escape…

That didn’t matter. She needed to end her, and sooner rather than later-- There was more work to be done here. She needed to prepare to launch a more deadly onslaught on the heavily populated areas of the alternate city...

He wasn’t sure how much good it would do - whatever this being was, it wasn’t human. But he’d need all the help he could get. Whatever humanity was left in Samus would find itself nudged along into believing what he said. 

God bless pheromones. 

“I’m not going to hurt you. Or anyone, for that matter.” He spoke quickly, quietly, soothingly. 

“I’m just looking around. That’s all I’m doing.” 

It was too bad this was war. He needed to go down, either way-- For the safety of her home. It was just the way it had to be.

“You’re from their city.”

A statement, more than a question, and paired with Samus lifting her beam cannon to point it at him once more.