Owls of the Storm

When Cyroid slashed his glaive to destroy Covinski's rifle, the General quickly drew a combat knife to slice the weapon in half. He stabbed Cyroid in the chest but it broke, making Cyroid laugh. The mechanized man punched a metal fist into Covinski's chest and sent him flying. His red goggles glowed, firing scorching lasers that tore the trees apart.

"You're no match for me," Cyroid chased Covinski. "How can a human ever defeat a superior machine like me?"

The General didn't reply but chucked a grenade at Cyroid, enveloping him in smoke. Cyroid walked out unscathed as Covinski charged and fired his pistol. The mechanical human smirked as the bullets bounced off his armor until he ran out of ammunition. Covinski boxed Cyroid's chest with his fists, but the droid felt nothing. Cyroid punched Covinski and held him by the throat.

"How futile," Cyroid's goggles charged its scorching laser. "What do you hope to accomplish with your feeble attempts to defeat me, human?"

"You smug robot. I'm an old man, but you underestimate us humans," Covinski laughed and coughed blood. "Those weren't normal punches. Bet you didn't calculate that, hmm?"

Cyroid heard a beeping noise and realized his chest had tiny pellets clamped into his armored skin. Covinski planted them in with his fists.

"Do you droids get heart attacks like us old timers? Time to find out!" Covinski pressed a button on his belt, activating the pills to emit an EMP that burst through Cyroid's heart and nervous system. "This is for gassing our young kids, coward!"

"Th-that doesn't compute... that-this is illogical... incomprehensible... 0%," The mechanized man muttered nonsense, unable to talk as his circuitry overloaded.

His grip on Covinski loosened when the electricity made his goggles explode, leaving Cyroid limp on the ground.

"Handcrafted those little boogers from those Reaper Squad crossbows," General Covinski massaged his neck. "Been waiting to use them on a droid opponent. Not too shabby if I say so myself!"

The General then looked at the sky where condor frigates and chimaera battlecruisers battled to the death. "The rest is up to the UICA now. Give them Kneapexists a good ol boot out of this country!"

***

"Mommy! Mommy!" A wailing baby echoed through the darkness of the White House.

"Stop it! That ain't no baby!" Captain Arius ran after the naive Red Strix commandos. "Listen to me!"

The soldiers separated from the group and ventured deep into the abyssal halls to find the baby. Little did they know that their compassion was being preyed upon until they learned the hard way.

"What little dummies. Let me hear you scream! Weee!" Zentroid sang from afar, munching on the screaming soldiers. "I can't feel empathy, but I am entropy!"

The remnants of the squadron squirmed from the wicked laughter, knowing that the men that broke formation were too late to be saved.

"It's time we do something about that monster!" Magnus stomped.

"But how?" A commando asked. "Our guns can't scratch him!"

"May I propose an idea?" Forroway asked.

"Uh, sure?"

He told them his wild plan to take down Zentroid.

"Oh, hell no! That's not going to work!" Magnus violently shook his head. "It's too risky!"

"Zentroid is a sadistic creature that enjoys other peoples' suffering. He won't resist what I got in store for him!" Forroway coughed.

"With all due respect, Mr. President," Captain Arius worried. "I get that, but you might die!"

"Maika made me watch Zentroid devour my colleagues, but I learned his weaknesses over time. I'm not letting that monster roam on American soil and torment our friends and families!"

"Ready or not, here I come!" Zentroid finished his meal, searching for the rest of the UICA battalion.

His computer screen displayed a necrotic smiley face with bleeding fangs as he hovered across the hallways.

"Magnus! Arius! Where are you all?" Forroway called. "Don't leave me here with that thing. I'm dying!"

"Toodle-oo, you sack of organs. Time to die!" Zentroid scrambled his tentacles excitedly.

He giggled, rampaging towards Forroway's location. "The White House is my circus, and we're role-playing. I'm smarter, and you're just a martyr! Hehehe!"

Zentroid's neck twisted and elongated with chortles when he spotted Forroway alone on the floor. The bandages that covered his bleeding leg were unraveled, spilling blood that made Zentroid's three tongues drool on his abdomen.

"Awww! Did you fall?" Zentroid's abdomen loomed over Forroway. "Don't get up!"

"Stay away from me!" Forroway crawled back, firing his pistol.

Zentroid thrashed a tentacle to slice Forroway's hand to disarm him. He then wrapped the President with three long tongues and dragged him across the floor.

"Don't worry, kiddo. This won't hurt," Zentroid opened his giant three-mandible abdomen with hundreds of fangs each. "The first million times!"

He took the bait! Forroway gagged from the stench of Zentroid's fleshy mouth. This is it!

Zentroid pulled the President into its widened abdomen. Right when the creature closed its bloodthirsty jaws, Forroway focused on the disgusting center of the three mandibles. It was a digestive dome packed with thousands of pores that oozed green saliva.

The brave President ignored the pain of the tightening tongues and sharp fangs, shoving a grenade into the grotesque organ. "Checkmate, you computerized freak!"

The evil creature squealed as his insides exploded, opening its abdomen and spitting Forroway and metal shrapnels out. Zentroid lay with tentacles twitching in agonizing pain as his PC screen jumbled with bleeding black circles.

"He's wide open! Aim for that gross thing in the middle!" A dying Forroway shouted. "Don't let him close his mouth!"

The Red Strix ambushed the paralyzed monster, gunning the nasty dome down. The UICA commandos shot taser cables into each mandible to stun Zentroid's mouth from closing.

"Please, God, Father Almighty..." Forroway begged through his fatal wounds. "H-help us destroy this creature of darkness..."

Unable to control his shocked abdomen jaws, Zentroid whipped his rabid tentacles at the Red Strix. "You piles of lowly flesh dare hurt me? I'll hang you slabs of meat on the ceiling!"

"Hold the line! Shields up!"

"Take him down! Take him down!"

"Don't give up! Give it hell!"

The Red Strix struggled to maintain their grip on Zentroid as they resisted the painful tentacles. Zentroid elongated his neck at the soldiers with a crying baby baby face oozing with black fluid.

"Get your ugly face checked, Zentroid!" Magnus smashed his shield into the PC screen.

As the Red Strix blasted rockets and flamethrowers into Zentroid's bleeding digestive organ, Arius threw his laser fedora into it. "This is for Cecilius!"

With one final shriek that shook the White House, electricity and blood erupted from Zentroid's innards. His PC screen flashed into every screaming face of each man, woman, and child he devoured before powering down.

"Th-thank you, L-Lord..." Forroway smiled, breathing his last breath. "T-take me home... K-King of Heaven..."

Arius and Magnus shook the US President's body, but Forroway was gone. He sacrificed himself to destroy Zentroid and save millions.

"F-Forroway was a true President of America," Arius closed Forroway's open eyes. "H-he truly cared about his people to the death. Rest in peace with the Lord, dear friend."

***

The cardinal fighters rained missiles into the barracuda hovertanks outside the White House windows as Saitori unleashed a slashing fury at Maika. Her two blades cut diagonally in x-shapes as Maika spiraled her sword like a blooming rose to shield herself. When the timing was right, Maika extended her weapon forward, pricking Saitori by the waist.

The General winced as Maika thrust her rose blade forward repeatedly like a swarm of needles. Saitori blocked most of them, but the swarm tore holes into her cape and cornered her to the wall. The General sprung her feet from the wall and struck a blow across Maika's shoulder. The Rose Warrior backflipped behind Forroway's desk and kicked it at Saitori. After Saitori jumped over the table, Maika grinned when her wasp helicopter beat its hexagon-scaled wings in front of the destroyed windows. It fired its stinger laser cannon at Saitori while Maika retreated into the aircraft.

Damn it, Maika. Of course, you learned to cheat like Hernamidos. Saitori tumbled from the lasers. Two can play that game!

She closed her lips on two fingers to whistle loudly. The blue owl drones that stood guard outside the White House bobbed their shield heads in response and lifted off, chasing Maika's helicopter away. Saitori made a hissing sound like a barn owl's call, signaling one of the owl drones to meet her. An owl landed in the tattered office, rotating its head and looking at Saitori with its large turquoise eyes.

"Good boy," The General stroked its head and climbed its back. "Maika! You made the Eclipser virus, and you won't get away with it!"

When she pointed at Maika's fleeing aircraft, the owl bent its knees and propelled itself into the sky to join the other owls.

The wasp chopper zoomed over the streets where the battle thrushes flapped their wings full of rockets, launching them into the brachyura terrortanks. Saitori and the owls soared through the fiery city of Washington D.C., flying by the hammerhead gunships that blasted cardinal fighters down with hordes of missiles.

"Idiots! Shoot those dumb pigeons down!" Maika yelled at the crusader droids inside the chopper.

The crusader droids assembled their door gunners and fired at the squawking owls. Their heavily armored heads plowed through everything the droids threw at them.

"You've got to be kidding me. Move!" Maika groaned, pushing a droid gunner out of the way. "Guess I got to finish her myself."

She closed one eye and aimed her protonet crossbow at Saitori's owl. When she fired, the electric net wrapped onto Saitori and her owl drone. The owl thrashed and whined as the electricity shocked it along with the General. Saitori felt the painful electricity crackle through her body as she quickly cut the net, but it was too late to save her owl from losing power.

"I'm sorry," She had no choice but to jump onto another owl, letting the other crash land into a lake.

Maika aimed her crossbow at another owl, but Saitori threw her Shin-Kaminari sword at it. The blade cut the weapon and one of Maika's fingers. Saitori made a barn owl screech, ordering her new owl to charge at a door gunner. It closed its wings, boosting its tail thrusters to lunge at the helicopter with jet speed. The owl bashed into the droid gunner as it dropped Saitori into the aircraft. With her laser-edged UICA blade, she swung at Maika with powerful, compact strikes.

"You birdbrain still swinging that sword around!" Maika growled, parrying with her rose blade.

The wasp helicopter flew nearby a chimaera battlecruiser fighting with a condor frigate. Its triple-barreled battleship fin cannons fired at the owls as Maika kicked Saitori in the face. The owls boosted their tail thrusters to rush by the bombardment and ram their heads into the wasp's rotor mast, disrupting the beating wings. The destruction made the wasp spin in circles while Saitori bonked Maika's forehead with the hilt of her sword.

As the condor frigate attacked the chimaera with its talon-shaped rockets, Maika and Saitori fell off the crashing wasp aircraft and continued fighting midair. Saitori punched the Rose Warrior in the face and flipped upward to avoid Maika's sword strike. The General thrust her blade down, but Maika dodged and held Saitori by the throat as they fell. Saitori headbutted her and grappled Maika's throat in vengeance.

The two crash-landed into the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting pool with a giant splash. Both jumped out of the waters and bellowed war cries across the memorial park where the Red Strix and Reaper Squad battled to the death.

I trust you as my successor. Saitori remembered what Cecilius said before dying. Have faith. God will bless you and keep you.

Cecilius! The General slammed her sword against Maika's rose blade with great force. Thank you for believing in me! God help us all! We're winning Democracy back today!

Saitori and Maika flipped their blades against each other in flurries of strikes fast like spinning atomic electrons. As they did throughout the exploding park, they roared with all their might for their causes within the glare of the red sunset. Saitori fought for Democracy, and Maika fought for Kneapexism. Their war cries shook the memorial hall where Abraham Lincoln's statue was seated in witness to the grand duel between freedom and oppression.

A chimaera battlecruiser opened its head to fire defoliator cannons into the lake, causing a Saturn-shaped explosion that sent everyone flying. The Washington Monument crumbled as the Red Strix yelled coordinates into their transceivers.

The nearest battle thrush's beak opened in response, revealing a giant railgun. It blasted a hyper beam into the chimaera's exposed head cannons, making the Federation war machine erupt in purple fire.

"Get back here, you coward!" Saitori caught Maika trying to flee from the smoke. "I'm not letting you get away!"

"Why, you stinking pest!" Maika held her sword against Saitori's in a deadlock.

Both combatants pressed their blades so hard that they shattered. Maika drew a knife upward at blinding speed, cutting one of Saitori's eyes. The General ignored her pain and growled, drawing a sidearm pistol to shoot Maika's hand, disarming the knife. Maika twisted Saitori's elbow and disarmed her gun. When Maika aimed her pistol, Saitori kicked her in the chin to knock a tooth out and disarm her again.

"Just die, you wretch!" Maika caught her pistol and shoved it toward Saitori's heart.

"It's over, rosy brat!" Saitori also reclaimed her gun and aimed for Maika's chest at point blank.

With a loud bang of their bullets, the General and the Rose Warrior glared at their opponent, feeling their chests sting with sharp pain. The Red Strix and Reaper Squad paused their battle to see who won the duel. Maika and Saitori looked at each other's weapons that fired simultaneously. Saitori's wound was merely an inch away from the heart to her right, and Maika's was pierced cleanly at the center. The winner was clear as Maika fell on the grass, dead. It was God's miracle.

"General Saitori won!" The Red Strix faced their rifles at the Reaper Squad. "Your Rose Warrior has fallen!"

The Reaper Squad shuddered and retreated when they realized Maika was defeated fair and square. As the Red Strix chased them out of America, the rest stayed behind to tend to a one-eyed Saitori.

"C-Cecilius, we won," Saitori mumbled, coughing blood before losing consciousness. "T-thank you, God."

The news of Maika's defeat spread quickly, driving SANDRA and the rest of the Federation forces out of America. The UICA and Vulpi wept joyful tears, overwhelmed by their victory after being framed and persecuted for so long. The manipulative mastermind of Project Zeruqkchiyion and maker of the Eclipser Virus, Colonel Shiran Maika, the Rose Warrior, was finally defeated. Players returned to the real world and reunited with their families. America was set free, and the Eclipser Conflict was over.