The coastal fog didn't roll in—it dropped like a heavy, suffocating shroud, turning the battlefield into a ghostly grey void. On the main frontline, the sensors on Wolf began to scream a discordant melody of warnings.
"What the fuck is this?" Will Rogers growled, his eyes darting to the thermal overlay.
The static on the comms was replaced by the visceral sounds of slaughter: the screech of tearing metal and the desperate rattling of machine-gun fire from the peripheral foot-soldier mechs. When the wind finally
kicked the mist aside, the horror was revealed.
A mob of Rank 3 Kaijus—beasts of all shapes, from multi-limbed crawlers to armored bipedal nightmares—had encircled the command unit. The only titans still standing in the center of the ring were Grim, Wolf, AstraPrime, and AstraNova, the sleek silver machine belonging to Charlotte's second-in-command, Mira.
The monsters hissed, their yellow eyes fixed on the "prey" they had finally cornered. But in the face of certain death, Will Rogers let out a dark, booming laugh.
"You dumb monsters have no idea who we are, do you?"
Charlotte's voice crackled over the link, tight but sharp. "Oh, you've finally lost it, Will. You're laughing at our funeral."
"Not ours, Char. Theirs," Will retorted. "Spector... show them why they call you the Grim Reaper."
Grim took a heavy, mechanical step forward.
"Mira," Charlotte commanded her own subordinate. "Go on. Don't let the Blood Hounds show you up."
The two titans moved like twin avatars of death. A massive bipedal Kaiju charged Grim, its claws raised to rend the cockpit. Spector didn't flinch. He threw a single, piston-driven punch that caught the beast squarely in the jaw, driving its head into the dirt with enough force to shatter the pavement.
Another beast leapt from a nearby rooftop; Spector caught it by the throat mid-air, the titan's hydraulic fingers crushing the monster's neck like a dry twig. He didn't stop there. He seized a third by its horns, reeling it in for a relentless barrage of punches until nothing but a slurry of purple brain matter remained. Then, the massive thermal scythe came out. With a low hum of activating heat-cells, Spector began reaping, the blade whistling through the air and leaving a trail of cauterized monster parts in its wake.
"I see why he's your number two, Will," Charlotte admitted, her Astra Prime unleashing a barrage of railgun fire that turned three more Kaiju into red mist.
"Don't give all the credit to the boys," Will said, his dual blasters singing. "Your girl Mira isn't bad herself."
But as the last of the Kaiju fell, the atmosphere shifted. The air grew hot—unnaturally hot.
Out of the smoke, a streak of crimson light blurred across the field. It wasn't a monster. It was a machine. A RedArmyMech—sleek, alien, and radiating a murderous intent—charged with impossible speed and speared Grim into a building.
Spector fought back, using his thrusters to create separation, but the enemy was relentless. Two whips made of pure, liquid heat—looking like braided lava—erupted from the enemy mech's forearms. One whip lashed out, coiling around Wolf's arm.
"Argh!" Will roared as the cockpit temperature spiked. The whip began frying the titan's armor, melting the black-and-bronze plating.
Out of pure rage, Will didn't pull away. He braced his feet and yanked the whip toward himself, pulling the enemy mech into a devastating counter-punch that used its own momentum against it. The field was suddenly overrun by hundreds of Rank 6 "chaff" Kaiju, forcing Grim and AstraNova to peel off to handle the swarm. The "little matter" had turned into a full-scale war.
On the other side of the sector, Trevor's squad was drowning. They had managed to drop the two Rank 3s, but four more had emerged from the rubble. The junior pilots were flagging. Their mana was low, their armor was breached, and the shadows were closing in.
THUD. THUD. THUD.
The heavy, rhythmic pounding of hydraulics echoed through the canyon of buildings. From the dust emerged Ghost and Blue.
Xavier didn't wait for a briefing. He wanted the smoke. Ghost ignited its thrusters, soaring into the air in a high arc.
"GET SOME!" Xavier yelled.
Ghost descended like a meteor, landing a "Superman Punch" that shattered the jaw of the leading Rank 3. The monster hit the ground hard, and Xavier didn't give it a second to breathe. He mounted the beast, his 10.5% output flooding the titan's arms as he rained down a terrifying flurry of ground-and-pound strikes.
Another Kaiju lunged at Ghost's exposed back, but Mikhail was there. Blue tackled the beast mid-air, pinning it to the ground and unloading a point-blank blaster shot into its chest. Kiko and Trevor finished their marks, and for a moment, the squad stood amidst the carnage, breathing hard.
"Nice of you to join us, Reyes," Trevor panted.
But the rejoicing was short-lived. A new silhouette emerged from the ruins. It moved slowly, with a cold, mechanical precision that the Kaiju lacked. Its eyes—horizontal slits of violet light—fixed on the black-and-white titan.
"Is that a friendly, Lieutenant?" Mikhail asked, his voice trembling.
"Hey!" Trevor shouted over the external speakers. "Are you a friendly?!"
The response was a silent, explosive charge. The unknown mech ignored everyone else, diving straight for Ghost. It grabbed Xavier by the head and slammed him into a nearby building, the bricks disintegrating on impact.
Four more Rank 3 Kaiju surged forward, keeping Trevor, Kiko, and Finn occupied. Xavier was on his own.
The enemy mech pinned Ghost against the wall, its fist a blur as it hammered into Xavier's cockpit shielding. A distorted, cold voice echoed through the comms.
"Filthy human... die, you trash."
"Not today!" Xavier roared.
Ghost caught the enemy's fist in mid-swing. Using the Kid Dynamite in-fighting logic, Xavier shifted his weight and landed a short, explosive hook to the enemy's midsection, forcing separation.
Ghost stood up, its red visor glowing with a feral light.
"I'm going to help him!" Trevor yelled, trying to disengage from his Kaiju.
"Don't!" Kiko snapped, her axe buried in a monster's shoulder. "He can handle it. Out of all the titans here, that thing chose his. If he can't kill it, he's gonna fuck up the whole mission anyway. Let him fight!"
Xavier didn't need a second invitation. He charged. But instead of going for the upper body, he dropped low—a lightning-fast football tackle to the enemy's legs. The two machines slid across the battlefield, sparks showering the street like fireworks. Xavier got the upper hand, mounting the mech and landing a series of heavy, piston-driven blows.
CLANG. CLANG. CLANG.
Suddenly, the enemy mech's legs fired. A powerful kick sent Ghost flying fifty feet into the air. As Xavier came down, the enemy met him with a brutal uppercut that nearly flipped the titan over. Before Xavier could recover, the enemy wrapped Ghost in a crushing bear hug and pitched him through a skyscraper.
"That's crazy," Finn whispered, watching the HUD. "He's getting slaughtered."
The enemy mech grabbed Ghost by the arm and began bashing him into the surrounding buildings like a ragdoll. But Xavier wasn't the "Zero" anymore. He waited for the rhythm. As the enemy swung him again, Xavier snapped out of the lock, twisting his titan's frame mid-air.
He landed two mean hooks to the enemy's head, followed by a rising knee-kick that buckled its chest plate. He finished the combo with a "Spear" tackle, driving the mech into the pavement and began beating it with a primal fury.
The enemy kicked him off, creating distance. Then, the lava whips came out.
CRACK! CRACK!
The searing heat-lines lashed across Ghost's chest, leaving glowing, molten scars. Xavier's cockpit temp spiked to 120 degrees.
"You big baby," Xavier hissed, his sweat dripping onto the controls. "Who brings weapons to a hand fight, bitch?"
The whip came in for a third strike. Xavier didn't dodge. He reached out with both of Ghost's hands and caught the burning whips. The metal groaned, the heat-resistant coating on Ghost's palms beginning to melt.
"COME OVER HERE!"
Xavier yanked the whips with everything the mana core had, dragging the enemy mech toward him. As it stumbled forward, Xavier launched a devastating, high-impact kick that nearly decapitated the machine.
"MIK! NOW!"
Mikhail, sensing the opening, didn't hesitate. He ejected his spare high-output blaster. Ghost caught the weapon in mid-air, spun it once, and pressed the barrel directly against the enemy mech's visor.
"Goodbye, trash."
BLAM!
A point-blank plasma discharge vaporized the enemy's head. The headless crimson mech slumped to the ground, its lava whips flickering out into grey smoke.
Xavier stood over the kill, the 10.5% output humming in his veins. He didn't need a System to tell him he had won.