You wake up... Obviously

"Good morning!" Failsafe rings as you open your eyes and sit up in bed. You move Failsafe off of your chest and onto the bed beside you.

"I am surprised you managed to sleep for so long. Before you presented my new body parts you had only recently been sleeping."

You remove the sheets from your body. You grumble as you stand. You move Failsafe onto the table next to her upgrades, which you still need to clean.

You throw on clothes and pat Failsafe before leaving.

As you walk your way to the exit, you check with Flora to make sure she has enough Ether, despite already knowing she did. You won't pass up an opportunity to get an eyeful of that figure. Not when you still have a morning erection at least.

You walk into the hangar and find that it is mostly empty.

"Just in time!" Amanda calls to you, walking in your direction. "The crew just finished painting your ship."

"Come here and take a look!" Athena cals from nearby.

You walk to Athena and turn to face your ship. In a beautiful display of white and red your ship sits shining in the hangar. On the ship The Wayward Son is painted in impressive, red capital letters. Also painted in red is a symbol. It looks like a flower blossoming from a set of crossed wrenches, all contained in a circle.

You point to the symbol. "What is that?"

Athena blushes slightly. "That's your insignia." She hides an arm behind her back. "I designed it myself... Do you like it?"

You nod and give Athena's arm a lovetap. "Love it."

Athena smiles and returns the lovetap. "I have something scheduled for the crucible." She turns and gestures for you to follow her. "Lord Shaxx says he needs someone to monitor and cast." She looks you in the eye, a sincere smile on her face. "I suggested you and Shaxx loved the idea..." Her smile fades. "I know I should've asked you first!" She blurts.

You sigh. "I'll do it." You again nudge her shoulder. "I would have watched anyway."

The two of you walk for a moment in silence.

"Why does Shaxx need someone to fill in for him, anyway?"

Athena looks at you. "Today's a hopecrusher." She chuckles.

You cautiously ask what a hopecrusher is.

"A hopecrusher is where Shaxx assigns a person or small group to humiliate a rising team who is getting cocky."

"You're going to fight an entire team alone? What if you lose?"

Athena brings a finger to your mouth. "Not alone. Shaxx needs someone to fill in because we are going to crush this team."

"Just you and Shaxx?" You wanted to doubt the claim, but after watching Athena and looking at Shaxx it seemed possibly, likely even.

"That's right."

You and Athena turn the corner.

"There she is!" Shaxx booms. "And there's my substitute! Marvelous." He puts a hand on Athena's shoulder. "Are you ready?"

Athena nods.

"This is a team of six. They have been dominating in control and have been getting full of themselves. They specialize at mid-long and have two snipers, both hunters." He laughs. "Luckily for us, those are the only two hunters on the team." He returns to his serious tone. "Be mindful of your tracker. They have a titan who loves to flank with his shotgun and SMG... The last three are comprised of two warlocks and a titan." She removes his hand from her shoulder. "They have excellent teamwork." He laughs. "Let's give them hell!"

The two depart. The monitors begin to display the battlefield. The team is already there, waiting. Soon you see Athena and Shaxx transmat in.

"You should begin casting." A nearby robot says. "I'm Arcite 99-40, by the way."

You nod and bring a hand to your ear, tuning your communicator to the feed on the monitor. You stutter and turn to the robot.

The robot shakes his head and begins typing on the computer in front of him. A script appears on one of the monitors.

"Control." You read. "Those zones are your life guardians. Fight for them!"

You hear static in your ear. "You sound just like me John!" Shaxx's voice booms in your ear. "Keep it up!" He gives a thumbs up to the camera in his room, at the same time everyone on the battlefield begins sprinting.

You watch as the team swarms Zone C, two hunter splitting apart and running ahead.

You hear a static in your ear.

"It's okay, I'll be tuning your communicator for now." Arcite says.

"You've taken Zone C." You read, static ringing in your ear.

Athena and Lord Shaxx take Zone A shortly after.

"Zone A is yours." You say, independent of the script.

"Now you've got it." Arcite says. "Read out as if you are only supporting one team, I'll switch feeds for you."

You wonder how he can manipulate your communicator with such ease. You assume it is a similar way that people can tune into your feed through proximity. Athena must have given Shaxx more information than you thought.

You continue to cast as the events of the match play out.

Shaxx and Athena wait behind cover, being watched by one of the snipers. Almost immediately after the team captures Zone B Athena slides out into the opening and places a barrier. Shaxx quickly sprints his way behind her. Athena turns and cups her hands. Shaxx steps on her hand, as Athena quickly jolts into a standing position, thrusting Shaxx high into the air.

Shaxx approaches the sniper rapidly. The sniper quickly jerks his sniper to aim at Shaxx. Fire begins to trail behind Shaxx and he thrusts his knee forward. He is launched forward at incredible speed and builds more momentum. The sniper attempts to follow him with his scope, but fails. He practically tosses his sniper to handle a hand cannon.

Shaxx raises his arm, a glowing hammer materializing inside of it. He throws the hammer with **** at the sniper. The hammer crushes in the skull of the hunter.

Shaxx lands with a slide.

Only now have you noticed that Shaxx has not been wielding a weapon this entire time. That isn't to say he was unarmed, he has a hand cannon holstered and a large sword on his back.

Athena begins to run backwards toward Zone A.

Shaxx guns for Zone C.

The team is running from Zone B to Zone A, sending only one person to defend Zone C, a warlock with a pulse rifle. The other sniper drops his position to move to Zone C.

Athena stops standing behind cover near Zone A. She lowers her auto rifle, a ball of purple light appearing in her hand.

A titan jumps onto the Zone and places a barrier. A warlock floats above scouting various positions.

Right as the warlock checks Athena's position the purple light leaves her hand and sticks to the warlock. A pair of burning wings appear from the warlock's armor as he takes aim. The light explodes, rocketing him into a wall. He attempts to regain his composure to take aim again, but the ball explodes again. He falls to the ground.

The titan aims his auto rifle at Athena's position through his barrier.

Athena runs from her position and slows, bracing herself for a jump. The titan begins to aim above his shield, preparing for Athena's jump. Athena tumbles slightly, faking the jump. Instead, she slides around his barrier and begins to fire her rifle.

The titan jerks the barrel of his rifle to Athena, but it is moved by the barrel of Athena's rifle as she tosses it away. Now disarmed she gives the titan a one-two punch. He collapses, and she picks her rifle back up and reloads.

Shaxx now stands with his arms folded behind a barrier on Zone C.

The warlock sent to Zone C appears and attempts to throw a grenade behind Shaxx's barrier.

Shaxx throws his own grenade into the air, it collides with the warlock's. Both grenades drop the the ground and detonate, leaving both people unharmed.

The warlock keeps his distance, aiming down the sights of his rifle.

Shaxx laughs and boldly takes a step through his barrier.

A burst of four from the rifle of the warlock connect with Shaxx's chest. Shaxx draws the sword from his back. He blocks the majority of the next burst by tilting his blade. He begins to sprint, strafing to the right. The warlock misses his next burst as a result. Shaxx makes it to cover. The warlock jumps over the cover and aims down at Shaxx's head.

Shaxx jumps and grabs the leg of the warlock, he slams the warlock into the ground and then stomps on his chest.

The sniper appears and takes aim at Shaxx, who pulls his hand cannon. Shaxx fires with one hand, piercing the scope of the sniper. He promptly follows up with two shots to the body and one to the head.

He walks back onto Zone C.

You watch in awe as the guardians Athena and Shaxx took down are revived by their ghosts and begin to coordinate their next move.

A titan sprints into the room at Zone A, firing an SMG randomly. Athena jumps backwards and fires away with her rifle.

The titan slides onto the Zone and places a barrier. He then pulls out a shotgun and waits, strafing slightly in each direction.

Athena walks forward slowly, staring the titan down with the barrel of her rifle.

The titan sprints and slides through his barrier, a shield appearing in front of him. Athena strafes to her left before jumping away. A blast from the shotgun visually breaks Athena's shields.

The titan switched to his SMG. Only a few bullets were let loose before the clip is emptied. The titan begins sprinting again, pulling out his shotgun.

As the titan turns the corner Athena places a barrier. The titan drops his weapon as he struggles to move through the barrier. He drops to his knees as he is freed from the barrier.

Three bullets rip through the air from Athena's rifle.

Other than that titan the rest of the team remain still, thinking their next move carefully.

The titan is revived and returned to the group.

The team then moves as one unit towards Zone A, sending only the flanking titan to Zone C.

As the team floods the room at Zone A, Athena forms another purple ball in her hand. She lobs it over the group. It lands on one of the hunters, he rolls away from the majority of his team, but into the other hunter. The ball detonates once, blasting both hunters away from each other, leaving them both critically wounded. The hunter stumbles as he recovers from the first blast, but is killed by the second.

Despite the crowd shredding through the barrier that Athena has in front of her. She simply peeks around the corner and finishes off the still stunned hunter. She then retreats to more cover.

Now only a titan and two warlocks stand. They all move onto the Zone and huddle behind a barrier.

Athena begins sprinting towards the barrier, she maneuvers herself around it. The three there begin to fire, but the bullets bounce from a purple shield. Athena uses this shield to bash the titan.

The titan practically flies away. Two warlocks fumble as a purple glow surrounds them.

She fires away at the collapsing warlocks.

The titan attempts to sneak up on Shaxx with a shotgun, but is noticed and shut down before reaching optimal range.

Shaxx begins to sprint toward Zone B. Athena also does.

The team is brought back away from any of the Zones and separates to capture A and C, ignoring B, knowing that Athena and Shaxx stand there.

The team captures both Zones.

Lord Shaxx leaves B and heads toward C. He finds it empty and captures it. He then starts his way back to B.

The entire **** of the team rushed toward Point B.

Athena is shrouded by a purple light for a moment before a purple bubble appears around her, engulfing the zone. She reloads her rifle and waits.

The team files in as one group into the bubble, their bullets and punches appear to bounce off of Athena. Her rifle glows with a bright light as it begins to shoot, the bullets shred through the armor of the guardians.

Shaxx arrives on Zone B and steps into the bubble. "You could teach the Redjacks a lesson in defense!" Shaxx laughs. "Now let me teach you one in offense." His voice lowers as his body seems to catch on fire, two flaming hammers appearing in each hand.

Shaxx runs from Zone B to Zone A as the team crowds to defend it, giving up the idea of offense.

Shaxx enters the area and throws hammers at the guardians, each hammer explodes on contact, instantly laying waste to any guardian.

Everyone around is defeated except for two titans, each behind the combined form of both of their barriers.

Shaxx laughs as he brings the two hammers together, a loud ringing sound is made as the hammers become one large flaming hammer. He jumps into the air over the shield and slams down on the ground. A torrent of fire spiraling to life. He folds his arms as the torrent and his body extinguish.

Every zone belongs to Athena and Shaxx.

"Power play. That's the end. Mercy rule." You read.

The monitors turn off as does any static left in your ear.

You turn to Arcite. "I can see why Shaxx loves his job so much."