"I'll be okay Caitlin, thank you." Aurora smiled as Caitlin helped her to her feet and the two searched for the rest of the group. For as far as the eye could see robot corpses littered the floor, the sky was dark with the remnants of war. As Aurora and Caitlin met the rest of the group and they recuperated from the figt, Aurora rested her pistols back in their holsters and perched on a pile of rubble. The fight had not been easy for a rookie such as her. She dabbed a cut on her arm with a rag from her pocket.
"What now?" She asked.

"There's a symbol on all of these things..." Aaron knelt down to examine some of the scrap, retrieving a shoulder-plate that had a Helix-DNA symbol printed upon it. Kitty and Diana would recognise it easily as the Helix corporation, Kitty moreso associating it as Dan's old company. The teachers may have seen or heard of it's shutdown facilities, but most of the group including Aaron would have no idea. "Whatever it is, they came from that way." Aaron gestured into the distance, across the field of corpses and robotic shells where a small bunker could be seen far off.

"It's our only chance, if that's where these are coming from it's bound to have some more information." He stood from the pile, gripping Mjolnir firmly before beginning to move for the bunker. "Stay together, we don't want to end up getting picked off. Gods know what other creations there could be."

The walk to the bunker was silent and eerily uneventful. They reached the entrance to a square concreted building with closed metal doors. There was no sign of them being able to open, atleast not for intruders like themselves. After some though Aaron turned to Solaris.
"Give that a blast, it doesn't seem immensely thick." He nodded, stepping back yet preparing his hammer for if something inside began to stir up.

After the battle had ended, Gelinda landed on the ground and gave everyone a quick look around, particularly resting her gaze on Aurora. She moved over to check on her but seeing thag Caitlin got to her first, she stopped and turned to examine one of the robots instead.

"They're Helix" she replied to Aaron. "From what I know, it was a robotics company that shut down years ago." She stood up and looked over to Kitty. "And it's owner was Dan."
"You know everything, don't you?" Solaris quipped.
"It's called reading, you should try it more often." Gelinda said with a touch of wit in her voice.

They followed Aaron until they approached a bunker. Solaris looked at the set of doors, examining it.
"Yeah, I can melt through that." Solaris said with confidence.
"Where do you even get the energy?" Gelinda asked.
"They don't call me Sunman for nothing," Solaris said as he pointed at the sky.
"Who?"
"The students."
"No one calls you that. In fact, I've heard a few of them name you Tinkerbell."
"Wait what?" Solaris faced her fully. "But YOU'RE the one with wings!"
"Oh just shut up and get on with it."

He mumbled a few words under his breath before turning to face the door. A golden aura began to emit from his body, first from his eyes, then mouth and then his entire form was enveloped in it. Gelinda stood back as she observed him channel a large amount of solar energy towards the palms of his hands. He stepped forward and shot both palms forward, releasing the energy in a blinding explosion that both blew and melted through the doors at the same time.

A couple of Helix robots standing guard behind the door were also hit by the blast and were send sprawling across the floor, some melted, some in bits, some both while the rest struggled to get back up. The doors themselves were twisted inwards with some bits of molten metal dripping off their sides.

Diana walked back over to Kitty, and the twins looked to Aaron. Once he referenced there being a symbol on the bots Kitty looked down, her expression souring as she realized exactly where these robots came from. "It always goes back to that bastard." Kitty and Diana walked over the remains and towards the bunker where Aaron was pointing. During the walk Diana nudged Kitty, who had a particularly pissed off look on her face. Kitty waved Diana off, the anger in her expression being replaced with a calm mask. 

As they stood at the bunker doors Kitty watched Solaris blast the doors open, making a 'Hm' noise as if slightly impressed. Walking into the bunker she took into account the mostly destroyed guards, although she didn't turn to look or flinch before withdrawing her sword and slamming it through the head of a robot crawling towards her.

Caitlin and Aurora quickly rejoined the group, just in time to set off towards the bunker. The walk was quiet with occasional bouts of bickering from Solaris and Gelinda as they finally approached the blast door of the bunker. Cat watched as Solaris made short work of the entrance without even breaking a sweat, even managing to wipe out a small group of mechs that would have been waiting to attack them inside.

For a moment she stood silently, acknowledging in her own head that she was essentially just tagging along at this point.

"You know, just once I'd like to hear about a Helix mech that wasn't just trying to straight up murder everyone..." She commented jokingly as the group stepped inside the bunker and Kitty finished off one of the damaged mechs. The air suddenly felt cold as Cat stepped inside. She didn't like this place one bit.

Aurora conjured a small ball of white light in her hands to light the dark passageways of the bunker. Before them were three separate tunnels, each one as unsettling as the next. 
"Maybe we should split up and try to get the power back on?" Aurora suggested, it would be quicker to find answers if the group spread out. They seemed to have cleared the initial robots that remained near the entrance but in the darkness ahead Aurora sensed there were more enemies waiting for them. 
"Who's going with who?" She asked the rest of the group.

As much as Aaron did not want to split the group, it seemed they had no choice if they were to gather information before another patrol came. With some thought and examining of the team, he began pointing to arrange the different groups. 
"You two," He pointed at the teachers. "Take Caitlin left. Then you two," His finger switched over to Kitty and Diana. "Take Aurora right." Dropping his hand and raising Mjolnir at the ready, he then continued forwards himself. "Look for any generators or reactors and power them up, I'm guessing there'll be one on each side, and the mainframe should be this way."

"Once the power's back meet me this way." He nodded to the others, before moving down his forward route. It was dark and cold, yet he could make out the shapes of terminals and wires in the blackness. Nothing seemed to be moving, and the corridor led simply into one large computer room.

"This looks like where information would be," He spoke to himself, moving to examine the computers to try and determine which one he should start with. "Just need some power..."

Solaris and Gelinda looked at Caitlin and then Aaron.
"Alright, let's go." Solaris said. The three began to walk down the tunnel before Solaris broke the silence.

"Did you hear Kitty when I blasted through those doors? She made that noise! You know, not becessarily a word but its like a noise you make when you approve. Like a grunt of approval! See? She approves!"
Gelinda rolled her eyes. "You can rub one off about it in your alone time alright?" She mocked.
Solaris shot her a glare. "You're just jealous..." He said.
"Uh-huh, yeah definitely jealous. I've secretly got a life-sized poster of Kitty in my bedroom like you do." She shot back sarcastically. Solaris went quiet and looked over to Caitlin, hoping she hadn't heard that he had a life sized poster of Kitty in his room.

"This must be it!" Gelinda said as they came upon a mess of wires and panels. She approached it and began to sort through the mess as Solaris looked at it and then examined their surroundings.
"Aaaand we walked right into a trap." He said.
"What do you mean?" Gelinda said as she looked up and then froze. "Oh."

Solaris turned to Caitlin. "Get ready!" He said as an aura of golden energy built up around him.
"You guys hold them off until I get the power online!" Gelinda said as Helix robots began to fire at them all around them.

Kitty glanced over at Diana who nodded, Diana would be perfectly capable of taking Aurora alone. Instead of listening to Aaron she ran over to him, standing beside him with her sword in hand. "About five minutes ago you suggested not going anywhere alone." She remarked, then fell quiet as the two walked down the dark cold corridor. Kitty brought her free hand up, a small flame casting a small amount of light and heat. 

When they got to the computer room Kitty let the flame in her hand disappear, sheathing her sword as she walked up to the computers. Kitty was perfectly capable of seeing in the dark, and continued for a minute seemingly forgetting that Aaron couldn't. "Oh." Suddenly her body aside from her hands and forearms burst into flames, filling the room with light and warmth. "I'm good with computers. You get bored when you're immortal so you pick things up." She walked up to a middle computer, pressing her fingertips to it. Her hands began to glow blue, and there was a crack that resounded through the air. 

Kitty was muttering something under her breath, little sparks flying from her fingertips into the computer. She was using magic in an attempt to power it up. Once she gave it enough power to boot up that one computer she pulled her hands away, "If I had known we were going up against robots I would have brought Tempy."

Caitlin set off walking down the tunnel alongside Solaris and Gelinda, simply staying quiet and rolling her eyes as they bickered.
"Is this really the time for you to be bickering? We have bigger issues to deal with!" She commented, clearly frustrated with the two of them by this point.

Eventually, the three of them came to a messy room full of wreckage, panels and wires. It had clearly been abandoned for the most part. Then, Solaris froze.
"Solaris, what's up?" Caitlin asked, quickly going quiet as she looked around the room, noticing all the mechs. "Oh shit..."

Almost instantly, the mechs began to fire on the trio from all sides. The situation looked as though it meant certain doom for the heroes but without even thinking, Caitlin's eyes instantly turned a very volatile shade of indigo. She reached out to the Rift subconsciously, obviously desperate to keep her friends safe and within moments an almost impenetrable force field erupted around the three heroes.

Caitlin was already looking visibly drained moments after the shield emerged.
"Someone deal with these guys already..." She struggled to say while maintaining the barrier.

Aurora kept the small orb of light in her palm as her and Diana began down their allocated tunnel. As the light began to illuminate their path all that could be seen was decay. Moss and cobwebs clung to the walls and pipes hung loose from the ceiling. 
"Doesn't look like anything living has been here for a long time." Aurora said turning to Diana. Eventually, the pair were brought to a halt by a formidable looking door. The distant echoes of the rest of the group had long since died out and now there was an eery silence. Diana took the lead, examining the door for a point of entry as Aurora kept watch for any attackers. A second later the frozen lock fell to the floor and the door swung slowly open. The two women continued with caution, Aurora's light growing weaker as they ventured deeper into the chasms. 
"I think that's the generator." Aurora whispered to Diana not wanting to disturb the darkness that was slowly consuming them. It was then that the light began to flicker, 
"Shit, no, no, no."

Then there was complete darkness. Aurora fumbled forwards to where she thought she had seen the generator, using her hands to try and find the lever. As she stumbled in the dark she heard a humming that seemed to fill the room, a sound as though the machines were beginning to reactivate...

Aaron moved to the now-active computer, beginning to type away and download any relevant data he could find. His eyes scanned the screen constantly, focused solely on the terminal to the point where he wouldn't notice the movement behind him. From beneath some of the desks crawled out strange fleshy organisms, rotten and pulsating like zombies. Scattered over their flesh however were metallic components, no doubt the virus' way of keeping organic beings under it's control.

"We need to download as much data as we can to the local servers, then when the power's back-" He was cut off by the gurgling sound of one of the creature's throats. As he turned he now saw what they were; Seraphim, infected versions of the planet's species now bent on consuming the heroes to infect them too. 

Flashing Kitty a look that said 'handle this', Aaron turned back to the machine. Without the full power of the facility he was very limited, but he can began the preparations for a full data download. He didn't know that all over the facility robotic and organic beings alike were rising to defend it's information...

As soon as the force field appeared, Solaris looked around at it with confusion for a second before realizing where it came from. Flashing Caitlin a worried look, he quickly turned his attention to the attackers.

He began to drop a few of them with blasts of heat energy from his hands, but with each attack, his energy began to weaken due to the absence of sunlight.
"Damn it..." He said before breaking into a sprint and exiting the forcefield. Instantly a barrage of energy-based attacks hit him, causing him to lose balance and drop to his knees. However, he had gotten what he wanted by this point.

Re-energised now, Solaris rose up and again broke into a sprint, faster than before - this time fueled by the energy that he had just absorbed. His movements were almost like a blur as he closed the distance between himself and a robot within seconds and with a superheated fist, punched through its abdomen. With the same hand, he opened up his palm and blasted another robot standing behind it, reducing it into a molten mess. Solaris then proceeded to absorb the electrical energy powering the robot and tossed it into a group of them before effortlessly beginning to  finish the others with energy blasts.

"Got it! The power's back online from here." Gelinda exclaimed. "We need to move...." Her voice trailrd when she saw Caitlin. She quickly got up and ran over to her, grabbing her arm and putting it around her shoulder. "Solaris, now!"
Solaris looked back at Gelinda who was helping Caitlin back down the tunnel. He nodded, threw one last heatwave at a group of robots before turning fully and following the two back down the tunnel. He took Caitlin's other arm and helped Gelinda support her weight while speeding them up.
"Alright let's go!"

Kitty could smell them before she could hear or see them, without turning around she reached towards her upper thigh where several sheathes of throwing knives were strapped. The second she heard the gargling noise she turned, a throwing knife flying from her fingertips and into the forehead of the Seraphim. 

Launching forward Kitty slammed into the middle of one of them, bringing it to the floor and quickly ripping its head from its body. Then she got up just as another one jumped on her, with the way it was holding her she couldn't reach her sword. Instead of trying to slam her elbow into it she sucked in a breath, her skin and flesh disappearing and instead was replaced by lava. She melted through the robot, then her body reformed and she withdrew her sword in a lightning fast movement. One robot was too close so she kicked it in the chest to knock it back, then she sliced through it with her sword before turning and stabbing another. 


Diana grabbed Aurora, hissing in her ear. "Stay close. I can see in the dark but you can't." Then Diana withdrew something from her pocket, it looked like one of Kitty's magical charms. "Actually, I think I've got a way to give us some light." Diana let go of Aurora briefly, biting into her own hand until she tasted blood then she wiped it over the charm. Suddenly the symbols on the tennis ball sized orb began to glow, and the orb burst into a bright light. "Yeah, that outta do it." Diana could hear the machines as well, withdrawing a knife from her thigh she passed it to Aurora. "If you run out of ammo."

Caitlin did her best to maintain her defensive barrier as Solaris began to attack their foes. As time passed, she became more and more clearly tired from power usage. She watched as Solaris sprinted outside the confines of the barrier, briefly forgetting that energy attacks would do little to hurt him.
"No!" She yelled, watching him become engulfed in blaster fire.

Solaris then launched a huge attack, wiping out most of the surrounding mechs. It was at this moment that Caitlin's barrier began to fail as she collapsed from exhaustion. Gelinda quickly put Caitlin's arm over her, helping her stand and flee the scene, with Solaris quickly coming to aid in their escape.

Caitlin's world quickly went black as she fainted, only seeing the faint light at the end of the tunnel signalling the entrance to the bunker.

It wasn't long before the entire room was pulsating with the sound of activating machinery. Aurora was desperate to find the lever, lunging forwards as her hand found the handle. She pulled with all her strength and lights began to flicker on. At the sight of her adversaries Aurora wished for a second that they had reminded in darkness. The room was far bigger than she had anticipated, there were dozens of the robot creatures, like the ones they had fought outside, it looked like some kind of storage room for the things. Aurora gave Diana a nod as the two women bolted into action. Diana began conjuring ice to disarm the creatures as Aurora grabbed her revolvers. The shots of the revolvers reverberated around the room and back down the tunnel, the rest of the group would soon hear this attack. 

Aurora stood with her back to the generator as her and Diana attempted to hold the robots off. She wasted no time in striking them straight in the head, mechanical corpses fell to the floor in quick succession. As Aurora and Diana dealt with the initial awakening of robots there was a respite for the women and they sprinted towards the door. The robots were locked on Aurora and Diana, pursuing them with fury. Aurora slammed the door behind them, trapping the terrible creatures, as they reached the tunnel. As they made their escape the furious drones of the relentless mechanical creatures could be heard behind them.

"I'm in, beginning the data download." Aaron announced to everyone, mostly through the speaker system that covered the entire facility now that the power had been restored. He knew little about computers, especially ones designed by Helix, but it was simple enough to begin a full download to the the local drives. The hard part was understanding the various signals and notices that flashed across the screen, warning of something Aaron only worked out a few moments later.

"There's a whole network, and we've just shown ourselves to it..." He spoke mostly to himself, but speaking into the microphone to everyone. "Get back to the control room, we need to defend the servers until the download is done. There are more of them incoming..." His fingers raced across the keyboard, trying to find if there was a way to disable the robots in the facility.

Meanwhile there was indeed reinforcements coming, as the production sections of the facility powered up. More Helix soldiers came one by one out of the manufacturing line, as well as other kinds of creations. Small spider-like robots scuttered out from capsules in the walls, running along the metal to try scout and attack with their metallic spiked legs ahead of the main soldiers. Specialist soldiers that seemed to have been created for riot-control wielded rectangular shields and batons, charging forward towards the mainframe to cover their allies and smack into their enemies.

"Damn it, she's passed out." Solaris said.
Gelinda examined Caitlin's face for a moment. "She's still breathing."
As soon as they left the tunnel and re-entered the bunker, Solaris grabbed Caitlin's legs and picked her up completely, before breaking into a run towards the tunnel in which Aaron and Kitty went. It soon became evident that they were being pursued by surviving robots that they had escaped, as bolts of energy and plasma landed all around them as they ran.

Gelinda moved directly behind Solaris and spread her metallic wings out wide, covering Caitlin and Solaris from the fire. Solaris soon caught sight of Kitty and Aaron down the tunnel.
"We got incoming!" He shouted to the two. "Damn it, they've got company.."

He stopped a few meters away from them and put Caitlin down. Gelinda looked at him. "Take care of them, I've got her!"
He nodded and moved to finish off their pursuers while Gelinda couched over Caitlin and wrapped her flexible wings around them, protecting them from all sides.

Kitty continued to destroy whatever came at her, but there were a few blood smears on her now. Although whatever wounds she had sustained had since healed, she was still breathing a bit hard. Turning her head at the sound of the others she moved in their direction quickly, she stood beside Solaris, her mind working quickly. Remembering what he had done before after getting blasted she turned to him, "I have no idea if this'll hurt." 

Bringing her hand back, fire formed on her palm. She continued to let it grow and grow until the fire she held was nearly as big as her. Then with her other gloved hand she gripped her sword, summoning the holy fire. Placing the sword in the massive fireball it purified it, she figured Holy Fire would pack a bigger punch. Then she slammed her hand into Solaris's back.

Aurora and Diana ran back toward the rest of the group, the almighty sound of chaos grew ever closer. 
"Trouble ahead!" Aurora shouted at Diana who already had her magic at the ready, "You go ahead I need to get this magic working!" Aurora told her. Diana ran ahead, not an ounce of fear in her eyes. 

Aurora knelt down clasping her hands together, "Come on, come on" she spoke frustrated at herself. She cleared her mind, drowning out the battle in complete concentration. She whispered some words softly under her breath, a charm she had learned on Feyworld. Sparks of white light began to emerge from her palms, she spoke the works faster and with more confidence. The sparks grew into an orb pulsing with energy, "Thank god." 

Aurora stood to her feet and with her aura growing more blinding by the second, she ran towards the battle. She blasted the mechanical spiders that crawled across the ceilings with one easy sweep, this is more like it. 

"Fifty percent," Aaron called out, still scanning each and every screen whilst trying multiple commands to find any way of shutting off the robots. It seemed however there was no control for them here, which meant their control lied elsewhere, most likely in a main headquarters of sorts. Hopefully the information they were retrieving would give them the location. Time was running out however, as more droids began filling the hallways. 

By the time everyone would reach the main room, all exits would be secured and guarded by the shield and rifle robots. They were practically locked in. With a glance back Aaron noticed Kitty's plan, hoping that it would actually work and not kill the man.
"If you can hold them off for a moment longer we can grab the servers and find a way out." He called back, before quickly snapping his attention back the screens.

It was then the facility began to shudder slightly, as another unit completed it's production. This one was unique and the only one on it's line, yet larger and far more capable than it's counterparts. It was a bulky mech creation which took up the whole width and height of the corridor, each footstep thundering through the halls so that already the group could hear it approaching...

"What are you- ooft!"
As soon as Kitty's hand made contact with Solaris's back, the huge fireball for a moment enveloped Solaris's body before shrinking and disappearing into him. Solaris dropped to his knees, shaking as he struggled to contain the massive energy input that was now aggressively circulating and pulsating around his body. A fiery golden aura emitted from his body as his skin itself began to glow, along with his eyes.
"H-holy...shit!"

He breathed out, expelling a cloud of gold air before standing back up slowly. Gelinda lifted her wing up slightly to see what had happened and her eyes widened, never having seen this much energy radiate from his body before. Solaris stood up slowly and once he was steady, his body levitated off the ground. In spite of the continuous surge of energy through his body, Solaris fought against his body to keep it from expelling the energy, as well as his instinctive primal lust for power as he turned his attention onto the robots.

For a second, his eyes seemed to blow even brighter before bright, super-hot laser beams shot forth from them, cutting clean through one of the robots. Solaris turned his head, continuing to cut through any robot he looked at with ease. He blinked a few times, causing the beams to dissipate before he turned his attention to the noise. While still floating, he turned to look at the huge robot that had just been assembled and quickly let his primal urge for violence get the better of him, instantly flying over to the massive machine and slamming his fist into its chest while at the same time generating an explosion from his knuckles enough to rival that of a grenade.

Kitty blinked, putting her hands on her hips as she watched Solaris. It was intriguing to watch Solaris be enveloped by the holy fire, only to watch it begin to shrink and disappear into his skin. "Well I'll be damned." She took a step back, now a bit uncomfortable beside him as he was exuding holy energy. Although it was quite a sight, watching him basically liquefy any robot he looked at. 

For now Solaris could handle the mech so Kitty turned, instead moving over to Gelinda and bending down beside her. She looked at Caitlin, pressing a couple fingers to her forehead before retracting her hand. "Over exerted herself didn't she? Almis's have a habit of going over the top."

The bunker shuddered as though a great adversary approached the group, and yet, in the chaos of everything no one had paid much attention. It was only when the huge mechanical creation emerged from the tunnels, its figure towering over its counterparts, that the group took attention. 
"Guys!" Aurora shouted, the group turned to see the robot beast. Solaris wasted no time in directing his powers towards it but the beast seemed to show extraordinary resilience. Aurora saw that it was charging to fire at them and she didn't want to wait to find out what kind of blast this thing was capable of. Glancing to see that Cailtin was still out cold, Aurora knew she had to protect her friends. She raised her hands high above her emitting a white glow that began to form a spherical barrier over the group. Solaris was relentless in his attack on the monster and the robot had certainly become weakened, yet they would need more time to destroy it. 

The beast jolted its mechanical arms into position and fired what would have been a catastrophic blast at the group. The walls of the bunker crumbled slightly, as debris fell from the ceiling and yet it all rebounded from Aurora's shield.  The beast was beginning to fall as more mechanical spiders scrambled with agitation as the walls cracked and collapsed. With her right hand still raised Aurora used her left to grab one of her guns, then she opened fire.

"Come on... there!" Aaron quickly pressed the final key, completing the data download. Green lights sprung up on both sides of the room accompanied by small clicking sounds. The racks in the walls had been holding hard drives, which were now ejected for taking. "Everyone take a drive." Aaron shouted out, turning to see that Solaris had wiped out every Helix reinforcement in sight apart from the still present, yet now weakened, mech.

"Then give it all you've got." He called out, extending his hand to pull Mjolnir into his grip. Once there, he then launched the hammer forward through the air, hurtling straight towards the giant robot.