Jennifer pointed to Cassandra and said, “Wait here. I’ll be right back for you. Here I go!” She started running towards the wolf-mech. “Team spirit…” She extended her fingers, and the robot hands followed suit with the claws flaring to twice their original size, excess plasma streaming behind them. “Plasma inferno…” She leapt into the air, and her rockets blazed to life, propelling her up and forward on plumes of fire. “Conquering love…”
“Oh no you don’t!” Cassandra screamed as she rocketed in from behind on columns of blue flame brightly lit with a line of shock diamonds in the exhaust. She rammed into Jennifer from the side, throwing her off course. Acting quickly, Matt dropped Panther’s axe, grabbed the wolf-mech’s arm and rammed a knee into its chest to knock it off-balance, then yanked hard. The wolf-mech was forced to stumble into the new spiraling trajectory of the two girls. The three of them collided, and the wolf robots collapsed into a pile. The sound of a small explosion followed, and several large spikes of ice and bursts of fire erupted from the heap.
“Well… I guess that still worked,” Matt said, bending Panther down to retrieve the axe. About half a minute later, a piece of scrap stirred and tumbled off the pile. Jennifer crawled out from the new hole, dragging Cassandra behind her, then let herself collapse on the ground.
Cassandra stirred, and said weakly, “Don’t think that I’m finished with you. This fight isn’t over.”
“Oh, give it a rest, would you?” Jennifer said. Before Cassandra could come up with another retort, they were interrupted by an extremely loud thunderclap. Swirling storm clouds appeared out of nowhere directly above them, turning the sky orange. They rapidly expanded to cover the entire town, and beyond. The sound of sinister laughter from a boyish voice echoed out of the scrap pile. Hailstones began to plummet from the oddly colored clouds, and even more oddly, they were on fire but did not melt.
“Whoa, cool! Flaming hail! I wonder how it does that? Methane bubbles in the ice, maybe?” Matt said.
“Matt!” Jennifer scolded.
“Sorry! Sorry, right. Apocalyptic weather is bad,” said Matt.
Suddenly, the pile of scrap burst apart, and a three-headed dragon emerged from underneath and grew until it was as tall as Panther, not counting the long necks, which towered over him. The central portion of the dragon, from the middle head to the hind legs and tail, was black, but it wore remnants of the wolf robots as armor from its head all the way down the length of its spine and tail. The dragon’s right side, including the head, front leg, and bat-like wing, was red and burning with fire, while their opposites on the dragon’s left were white and covered with ice.
“Fuck!” Jennifer yelled, quickly got to her feet, pulled Cassandra up onto hers, and then took off running while pulling Cassandra along behind her.
The dragon’s left and right heads roared and shot streams of fire and freezing mist into the air, while the middle one continued laughing. “Finally! At long last, I am at my full power! Stronger than I ever was before! Now, I reign supreme, and I owe it all to you, you ridiculous girl,” he declared.
Cassandra stopped running and turned back to face the dragon. “Mr. Hoppers? Is that you? What are you saying?”
“Your petty insecurities and your idiotic jealousy gave me exactly what I needed! I bestowed some of my power on you and encouraged your anger and hate, and it paid off better than I could have hoped! Now I can have my vengeance, destroy the guardian, and lay waste to this world as I was always meant to!” the dragon said.
“No, she’s mine! It doesn’t mean anything if I’m not the one to defeat her!” Cassandra protested.
“Do you still not understand, you stupid brat?” the dragon mocked. “You’ve been nothing but my pawn all along. You’ve served your purpose and I have no further use for you. You can die right alongside her, and I will never again have to listen to your conceited bullshit or your pathetically entitled delusions of grandeur!”
“What? No… no, that’s not true… You can’t mean that…” Cassandra said, her confidence falling away.
“Cassa—” Jennifer started to say, then paused. “Chill Raider. I think we need to work together on this one.”
“Stay the fuck out of my way!” Cassandra yelled, and sent Jennifer flying with a mighty punch. She hit the ground rolling and came to a stop some distance away.
Matt surveyed the scene: Cassandra on his left, Jennifer now on his right, the dragon in front of all of them, with both girls matched to the respective head in fire versus ice pairings. “I’m gonna go with you on this one. A simultaneous attack is the best bet,” he said.
“Be ready to move when she does,” Jennifer said, standing and preparing herself.
“Panther, deploy the shoulder cannons, and prepare to send maximum possible plasma output to the axe. Ignore safety protocols,” Matt instructed.
“And you!” Cassandra shouted at the dragon, her bravado restored. “This was supposed to be my big premier. How dare you try to steal the spotlight! I deserve it! I’ve always deserved it! I won’t let you, or her, or anyone else stop me from getting what’s mine! I’ll show you! I’ll show everyone! I’ll prove that I’m a superstar right now! Here I go!” She started running towards the dragon. Jennifer and Matt followed suit.
“Superior talent…”
“Team spirit…”
The girls extended their fingers, and the robot hands followed suit with the claws flaring to twice their original size, excess frost and plasma streaming behind them. Panther let loose a continuous antimatter barrage towards the dragon.
“Frozen vengeance…”
“Plasma inferno…”
The girls leapt into the air, and their rockets blazed to life, propelling them up and forward. The dragon shot back with its fire breath, ice breath, and the artillery cannons mounted on its central spine armor.
“Rightful glory…”
“Conquering love…”
The girls drew their right arms back, and then slashed forward. Panther did the same as the plasma edge of his axe blade roared to multiple times its ordinary size, and Matt screamed out a battle roar of his own.
“Ultimate strike!”
The explosion could be seen from Artemis Base. Its shockwave broke nearly every window within a radius covering two thirds of the town, and completely cleared the sky of clouds, orange or otherwise. The underground utilities and storm sewer system were demolished within the crater it left behind.
Matt lay in the control armature, surrounded by darkness, save for the occasional burst of electrical sparks. He moaned, and said, “Did anybody get the tail number of the jetliner that hit me?” He heard the creaking of metal above him, and then light poured in as large mechanical claws pushed the cockpit doors open. Jennifer reached down in with her giant mech hand and plucked him out of the armature. She pulled him right up close and gave him a deep kiss. “Mmm. What was that for?” he asked when their lips parted.
“I figure it’s tradition,” Jennifer said. Matt smiled, threw his arms around her, and pulled himself in for another kiss.
– – –
A small black worm crawled along the ground, heading away from the battlefield. It was halted when a shoe came down over its rear half, trapping it in place. “Now where do you think you’re going?” Theresa asked.
“Release me, you filthy human,” demanded the worm in a boyish voice that was rather smaller than it was before.
Princess Sugarshine jumped out of Theresa’s arms to the ground, and said, “You may have drained most of my magic, but I still have enough power to disperse what’s left of you forever.”
“No! No, have mercy! Mercy!” the worm begged. Sugarshine’s horn lit up and shot a beam of bright light at the worm. Theresa stepped off as the worm as it and its screams faded into nothing. Sugarshine’s magic beam stopped, and she collapsed onto her side.
– – –
Jennifer broke her kiss with Matt and said, “Now get back.” Matt stepped clear as her armor burst apart, and the swirling cloud of golden sparkles restored her usual uniform while returning Panther’s components to his damaged arm. “How’s Panther doing?” she asked.
“I think every system might be down, I’m only receiving intermittent bits of telemetry in my head. The repair nanites really have their work cut out for them this time. He might be out of commission for a while,” Matt said.
“Yes! I did it! I saved the world! I’m the hero now!” They both turned to see Cassandra, facing away from them, jumping and waving her arms with excitement. “Woohoo! Hollywood, here I come! I’m ready for my close-up! I’d like to thank you all for the love you’ve shown me!” Suddenly, her armor fell to pieces, dropping to the ground around her with a series of clangs and clanks. Her usual uniform, sans helmet, appeared underneath, but it was unraveling from the bottom up and fading away with a faint blue glow.
“No! No, you can’t!” Cassandra said desperately, grabbing at the fabric and futilely trying to hold it together. “I need you! I have to be Chill Raider, I have to! You can’t leave me with nothing! I’m the hero! I’m the hero!” With a silver flash, the last of the uniform disintegrated, leaving her instead wearing a different cheerleader uniform: the maroon and white of her days in the Bensonville Prairie Dogs cheer squad. She dropped to her knees and screamed, “Noooooooooooooo!”
She then collapsed to the ground with her face in her arms, crying loudly. In between sobs, she said, “What am I gonna do now? I’m not anything! All I have is a crap degree in a worthless major from a shit school! How am I ever going to be a celebrity? It’s not fair! It was supposed to be me!”
“Hey.” Cassandra looked up, tears streaming down her face, to see Jennifer standing over her, leaning down with her hand extended. “Come on,” she invited.
Cassandra reached up and slapped Jennifer’s hand away. “Fuck off! I don’t need your pity!” she said, and returned to crying into her arms.
Jennifer stared, dumbfounded. “Fine. Be that way. Cunt,” she said, and walked away.
– – –
Jennifer got back to Matt just as Theresa did. “Oh no, Sugarshine! What happened?” she asked, seeing the plush alicorn cradled in Theresa’s arms.
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