Era of Madness

Final battle 2

"Dammit!" Tyler sweared.

Fighting cyborgs were one thing. But fighting cyborgs in a direct confrontation knowing one of them, here John, would have to stay behind to keep the situation adventageous in the terminal while preventing the Party Hall from getting hacked further, that was pure madness- or pure stupidity.

It basically meant that Tyler and Erica would each have to deal with a cyborg in a one-on-one, without being able to use the environnement as an advantage.

"Now wait a minute, isn't that a bit too unpractical?" Erica intervened. "Why would we go fight them directly while there's a far better solution at hand?"

John and Tyler looked at her, perplexed:

"Which better solution?" Tyler asked.

On this one, even he couldn't find a good way out.

"Well, think about it, those two are clearly aiming in a specific direction, but it doesn't seem to be the control room where we currently are" Erica explained. "Then where do you think they're going?"

They pondered for a short moment.

"Do you think they're going for the spatial ship?" John attempted.

"Of course, the ship... if this bitch Melia knows about this secret entrance then she probably knows about the ship too!" Tyler realized.

"Correct" Erica confirmed. "But while they're advancing toward it, they're making a big mistake"

She pointed at the two little points that were moving on a screen, representing the two cyborgs. She put the tips of her index and middle finger on each of the two points, and then brung them back together, making Tyler realize that the two points were actually pretty far from each other.

"You said the female Guardian was called Melia? Well, she sure seemed stronger than the two other Guardians but the thing is, unlike them with their wings, she's not specialized in movement" Erica said. "Meaning that the reason why they're so far from each other is that Melia most likely sent the other as a scout. But tell me... what would happen if, as the winged Guardian actually reached the place where the spatial ship is hidden, the place in question suddenly disappeared before Melia even joined him?"

Tyler finally understood where she was going:

"Of course, your mutation!" he exclaimed. "Damn Erica, you don' look like it but you're a fucking genius!"

Ignoring the dark glance she threw him, he examinated the plan: when the winged Guardian would arrive in the ship's hidden place, Erica would activate her power and make this part of the Party Hall completely invisible. This way he would be separated from Melia, who wouldn't be able to join him immediatly.

And while Tyler would occupy Melia, to stop her from finding the correct way to join her colleague, Erica would use the spatial ship, combined with her inhuman piloting skills, to swiftly eliminate the winged Guardian. Then she could join Tyler and, even if killing someone like Melia would probably still be too hard, together, they at least could escape.

In the meantime, John would've gotten the Party Hall close enough to the Outergate, and they'd just have to get him on their way. From there, they'd simply programm the Party Hall to self-destruct- of course with Melia still inside- and quickly cross the Outergate. Then, as they'd finally be in space, the self-destruction of the Hall would ensure that the terminal and its defense forces were too damaged to even think about chasing them. It'd be their win.

Obviously, this wasn't a sure-win plan: it implied that Erica would be able to kill a Guardian on her own and that Tyler would be able to occupy Melia while she did that.