Victory and Flight

"YESSSSSSSSSSS!"

Layla's cry broke the silence, which made the remaining gangsters take up arms again. Blackfire had to push Layla down behind the cover she had made, the laser bolts either bouncing off the metal or starting to leave burn marks in it. She was glad Zac won as well; it was a damn impressive trick he pulled off but now wasn't the time to celebrate. She was about to call for Zac to hurry up when she saw his shape jump behind the barrier too.

"I beat the boss; shouldn't they give up?" he panted.

It was clear that while he won, the back-to-back transformations had taken a toll on him. She could hear it in his voice and see it in how he was posed; hunched over more out of sickness or tiredness than trying to get more cover. How much longer could he fight for? She poked her head over the top for a look as Layla moved over and gave her dad a hug.

"At this point I don't even know if they are his men..., I think they might be Syndicate soldiers.... which for you, are basically PMCs or mercs. And they are probably more scared of returning with news of failure than they are of anything we can do to them. ...., WELL, anything YOU can do to them." she huffed out.

If it wasn't for the fact she didn't want to leave a mental scar on Layla, she probably could just start beating them with their own limbs and smashing others with their own jaws. But she felt a similar pain in her heart about doing that to Layla as she did when she thought Zac got killed. Maybe not as drastic but it was in the same emotional area. This was a weird and annoying feeling she'd work out later.

"Think that's a good idea? Wouldn't that just tick them off more?" he asked as he fiddled with something.

"At this point I'm not sure how much more attention or hate we could be getting from them. So why not just show them what they are dealing with...," her words slowed as she turned to him, "What are you doing?"

"Hmm?" he grunted as he looked up.

He was messing around with that strange ax the gang leader had been using. It was beat up from the fight just now but the main center eye of the axe was still untouched. Zac was trying to get into the odd vent that was located there, using the hilt of his sword to try and wedge it open. He was smart enough to not have the water part moving, as it simply dripped down the length of the blade. He waved Layla away from trying to touch it but part of Blackfire felt that it couldn't hurt her if it was even moving. Still, what was he doing?

"I'm the one that's usually for looting so this is unexpected from you..., what do you want to turn it against them?" She asked, raising her hand up to aimlessly shoot out a few Blackbolts down range to make the gang take cover, "Do you even know how that works? Besides I don't need that anyway."

"It's for me. I'm taking them on."

"EXCUSE YOU!" she got in his face and poked his chest, hard, "You're all but spent! I'm not gonna have you dying on me at worst or at best, passing out! I have enough luggage to carry around with Layla, I can't fight and carry both of you."

"That's the idea though." he said back, meeting her gaze, "I AM basically tapped out. I dunno when I'm gonna drop out and I'd rather pass out doing something I know is gonna help then be might sprint and giving out like last time. So just sit down and lemme do this."

"Don’t you think I can take them?" Blackfire said, shoving him against the barrier again, only to lean up and send out a few more blasts before turning back to him.

"I know you can, I just worry about how long it's gonna take. Even with us here I get the feeling you might..., play with your food so to say. How about I make things easier for you?" he answered back as he was able to get out of her grip.

She was about to tear into him about how stupid he was when her words hitched in her throat. The thugs were coming, out for blood, coin or whatever. Layla was close to panicking again. And he himself was basically about to pass out if he pushed himself any further.

And here this man was, knelt one knee with head bowed to her.

"The fuck are you doing?"

Layla's eyes were wide open from not only the shock of Blackfire using a bad word, but how her dad was posed. She'd seen this in a lot of movies and books and had a couple ideas of what this meant but right now, she saw them not as dad and new mom, but as a different pair of figures. And Zac seemed to have the same idea when he spoke.

“You’re royalty aren't you." he asked, taking her hand in his, "Please…, if you have any faith in me at all, let your knight do this one act for you.”

Her brain sort of … broke.

Oh, it came back to her in a very short amount of time but that time processing what he just did felt like hours to her. He was her 'knight'..., that... when was the last time someone offered themselves to her like that? What should she do here; she had servants, minions, hire thugs and more but a knight? Did her people have knights at all last she checked? Royal guards yes but a knight? Images of earth stories of a princess in a knight had filtered into her head, her cheeks blushing as a small wave of energy appeared at the edges of her eyes.

"Well… I cough…, if that's... what you want to... offer to me and I'm willing to accept..." she started to babble.

A stray shot that singed brought her back to herself. Honestly, she was willing to go over there and beat the offender with his own rifle but if Zac was willing to do it, and was confident he could pull it off, why not? After all, being royalty meant getting someone else to do stuff for them. She would grant him this honor and then maybe... reward him later.

She daintily put her down which he took into his. He looked up which she knew he was looking dead on into hers even through the helmet. She gave a small smile as she spoke.

"In your queens name then, smash them aside."

"At once." Zac answered and gave her hand a kiss...., or at least as much as one could with a helmet on.

Blackfire made a sort of noise that he wasn't sure what it was. But whatever it was, she sounded cute when she made it. Part of him wondered if he could make her do it again. The look on her face that was a mix of frustration and embarrassment was also something he didn't think he'd get to see..., but part of him wanted to see it again.

It had been a bit of a gamble, playing to her conceit about being royalty. But he had meant it; he knew his body was running on empty. He probably couldn't process repeated transformations just yet but all he needed to do was two more things and then he could pass out. Just get the opening Blackfire needed to make a break back to the ship. If acting as her knight would let her shallow her pride and let him do this, he'd do it in a heartbeat to get them out of this mess faster.

Besides, acting as a knight in front of his daughter was..., a pretty nice feeling anyway.

He grabbed his twin blades and had Blackfire move Layla out of the way. He swung at the axe wildly now, trying to break the vent part as fast as he could. There was another room stunning crack when it finally gave out and he reached it. It took more **** for him to pull whatever was inside out, metal screeching and cords ripping but finally he was able to rip whatever the core was out.

Only to slam it into his belt.

"ARMOR CHANGE!!!"

Once more his armor vanished into orbs of light before making a formation in front of him. Blackfire saw it as a large circle with a short-curved line on top, as if it was horns. They transformed into different armor pieces and attached themselves to Zac, all the while earth and gravel were summoned from nowhere, covering both him and the destroyed axe. Different parts of the rock started to glow and solidify into fully formed gear.

He was bigger now, the armor almost covering his entire body and easily adding another head and a half to his height. His helmet was heavy and thick, with a wide nose guard. Two horns, craved out of rock, sprouted off his head; one curving to the side before turning forward while the other was about a third it’s length, the end snapped off. His broad shoulder guard held the same symbol that the lights had shown before, with a large chest-plate to make them, a large mammal creature emblazoned on it.

The gauntlets looked a bit like what Torde had used before, only more streamlined and with sharpened spikes held against the forearm which looked made from the same rock his helmet's horns were made from. Rather than sabatons, his greaves seemed to end in hooves, a mix of metal and rock forming a natural defense. Even the axe was changed, the blades growing longer and more curved to reflect the shape of the horns, and losing all the rust as it reformed itself to fit its new master... or perhaps true master.

"Eternal Resilience! Taurus armor!"

"Wooooooooooooooow...!" Layla was vibrating in place as she saw her father go through another transformation. Would he get twelve forms at the rate he was going? "Kick their butts!"

Zac nodded and jumped over the barricade, taking the new emblem, and inserting it back into reforged ax. Gravel started to form around the edges of the blades, swirling like water as he focused, using still more earth to block the incoming shots.

"STARLIGHT BREAKER - TAURUS!!!"

He raised the axe over his head and spun it several times before bringing it down against the floor. A wave of rock started to rise from the metal floor, sending a series of jagged stalagmite rocks towards the gangsters. Not only did this attack end up barreling them over, sending them flying each and every way, but the torrent of earth eventually froze mid motion, forming a large barrier of rock, feets in depth. Even with explosives, it would take a while for them to make it through that.

And just in time too as Zac's armor shined bright before vanishing with a crack, leaving him staggered. Before he could hit the ground though, someone pulled him back to a standing position.

"Not how I would have handled it but..., good job." Blackfire said as Layla ran over and gave her dad a hug.

"You'd probably blow out a couple walls to do so." he told her which earned a chuckle.

"Well, I mean...., how do you think we're getting out of here?"

Carm was sitting in the away vessel, wondering where her masters were. Surely, they'd be here sooner than later. There were a few..., odd people she noticed around the hangers though; sticking to shadows and carrying long objects under wraps. Those were no doubt weapons but she couldn't do much, she wasn't a combat model. Hell, she was barely a maid model.

Still, it wasn't a bad life she had been given thus far; better here taking care of a child with a crazy mistress than being just a hole. Granted this might end with her being dismantled at the rate her mistress was making enemies but it wasn't like she could do much right now besides keeping the engines warm and answering that banging.

Wait banging?

Well, it wasn't a banging, more a crashing by the sound of it. And it was getting closer. Those in the hanger, even those strange men with the weapons, started to look around while a few started to answer calls on their devices. But no 'emergency' signal had been sent out just yet so what was happening?

The answer to that came to her as one of the bulkhead doors dented for just a moment before it tore open. Alarms started to blare but that wasn't Carm's concern. What was though was the fact her Mistress, Master, and young lady were flying towards their ship at an alarming rate. With Blackfire mouthing 'Start the engines!'. Well, she was probably yelling it, but that was kinda hard to hear over all the noise and through the ship hull.

Blackfire hadn't bothered much with 'staying quiet' this time. She had downloaded schematics off a device Torde had (looting the loser it was tradition) which gave her a pretty good map of the station. She spent a few moments planning out a path while the thugs had tried to get through the barrier. And then, she started smashing.

Not mindlessly though. Before sure, but with these two in tow; she smashed walls to make short cuts as opposed to getting out as fast as possible. Hallways into hallways, into empty alleys, into closed workshops into abandoned living habs; she made sure to target anything that seemed to have ties to Vertex Industries. A last 'fuck you' to them on the way out. Of course, this whole act not only alerted every Syndicate thug that was after them, but Station security and the random gang that may or may not have ties to the Syndicate.

She made a lot of friends while Zac held on to dear life, Layla keeping her head down but her giggles heard over the chaos.

She finally got to the hanger and to her surprise, the away ship was still there. Carm seemed to have kept the ship running, which was fortunate. Quickly she flew over, tossed the pair of humans inside the door, and told the robot to floor it. The ship's engine roared as it took off, Blackfire running interference. She still couldn't just destroy them all so simply took to more concussion **** Blackbolts and melting their weapons. To make sure they wouldn't be easily followed from this hanger, she blew out the control room; only after sending a warning shot that burnt into the room and sent the two techs running.

Once the ship was away from the Station, she still stayed outside. A few ships were starting to turn, some away others towards; she wanted to keep anyone that had ideas of stopping them from trying anything. She didn't have to worry too much though; her antics had left both security and the syndicate basically panicking over what to do about someone that could tear bulkheads to pieces like that.

Only two ships, what looked to be patrol vessels tried to do anything and... it was just cute. Those were just such old weapons; they didn't even tickle when she took the shots. Still, she couldn't just... remove them. So, she put on a show of tearing off the guns from one and flinging those into the engine of the other. Ah delivering this kind of humiliation; she'd only gotten to do it once really since this whole 'marriage' thing.

"Ah I'd love to play around more but... I suppose I should catch up to those three by now." she said more to herself than anyone.

Channeling energy around her and putting a lot of distance between her, the station, and the away vessel; Blackfire let out a huge blast of energy. However, this wasn't one of destruction but rather light. Oh, sure she was probably going to damage or frag some sensors and a couple people would be blinking lights out of their eyes for a day or so but she could have done OH so much worse. Instead, she just let out a blast that was a mix between a massive flash back and EMP burst. Well, it wasn't the same but she was sure it was going to overload some things so whatever.

That should be enough to let them get back to their actual ship and warp off. She flipped the station off one more time before taking off to catch up with the others.