ORIGIN

Last Laugh

The mech suits did combat with many of the task models. Most of the robots tried to take cover because of the mech suits' elevated coverage. Many of the robots were taken out because of Circuit and the Omega helmet. He used it to cause confusion and discord among them while he was being covered by other mech suits that distracted them while he hacked them.

Within an hour, not one suit was taken out. Only a few were damaged, but not beyond repair. After every factory was destroyed and blown up, airborne shootouts spread around the compounds. After every robot was destroyed, the mech suit pilots all retreated and then entered Colosso again just before blasting off toward Celestia.

Their mission was complete! Many mech suit pilots, including Ato and Oasis, exited their suits on the ship to rejoice with each other over their triumph. Everybody praised Circuit for how efficiently he used the Omega Weapon. But everybody knew that the mission as a whole was far from over. They knew they would face harder challenges before the ultimate victory.

Alpha Maximus was aware of the attack and was establishing reinforcements for the next one.

Back on Earth, it had been months since Ezrith had escaped from Alpha Maximus' lair. But Alpha Maximus had many task models, drones, and insectoids in his eyes. He had just returned from Plumorita.

Throughout the old war zones in the city, Ezrith had collected a whole cache of weapons. He kept everything in an old subway car where he also slept. He managed to find some machine guns and ammunition he grabbed from the skeletal remains of human soldiers who died during the Robot War that devastated Japan. He survived on a diet of insects and water. The whole time Alpha Maximus was gone, Ezrith had successfully skipped from one hideout to another by way of the subway systems that were still operational. But he had been spotted several times. He had an entourage of Companion Types of every model with him. They guided and protected him in the dangerous, robot-inhabited ruins of 2098 Tokyo. He figured out many ways to disguise himself thoroughly enough to keep his android enemies from being too close on his trail. Thanks to his arsenal, he and some of the Companion Types barely survived a couple of run-ins with some of Alpha Maximus' androids that were sent out to capture him. He used his human-friendly android allies to the full. They all depended on each other for survival in the post-apocalyptic ruins filled with thousands of obsolete robots looking to scavenge each other for parts. Androids search parties were commanded to bring Ezrith back to the lair alive to be repurposed.

Eventually, not even a day after Alpha Maximus' returned to his lair, every companion type with Ezrith had been destroyed and scavenged and Ezrith had been captured by three biozoids.

The biozoids brought Ezrith back to Alpha Maximus' lair and tortured him, trying to make him give up advantageous information about Origin Project. Ezrith gave up nothing. He knew that they needed him alive to repurpose him. He prayed that Origin Project had already found the Omega Weapon.

Days later, Alpha Maximus had left Earth for Plumorita again. The biozoids kept Ezrith in some type of underground dungeon guarded by cybrid lions. Along with him were some ghost agents from Citadel who were also being tortured for information before being repurposed. But they all tried to encourage each other and they all gave the biozoids very little to go on. Ezrith wondered if he would die before being repurposed. All he could think about was Akira, Storm, Oasis, and especially Lotus. The androids barely fed him but when they did they fed him live insects. They tried to make death seem like a relief.

All Ezrith kept thinking was if any of the ghost agents gave up any good information. Hopefully, they were all willing to be martyred for the sake of humanity. Ezrith couldn't stop worrying about Akira and his unborn seed. Those thoughts consumed him until he felt insane; beyond anxious or even tearful.