End of an Era

An Unexpected Start

Aaron shot down the hill, pulling his helmet on as he ran.  He darted through the camp, sprinting to the center.  He flipped the switch on the wooden pole outside the command tent, signalling the alarm.  With the alarm raised, the nearly completely congregated Manticore Company began to look around, seeing Aaron making his way towards them. 

"Men! Looks like we are starting early.  American troops are on our front lawn, looks like they wanted the first shot.  Doesn't matter, we will crush them, regroup, then take Fort Ballistic!" He yelled over the siren as he looked each solider in the eye. "Now, let's go get our freedom!" His words were accepted with a loud roar of approval before they all turned and moved out.  With a quick hand signal, he ordered the Hawk-eyes, Novum whose eye sight was incredible, up onto the ridge to snipe stray enemies.  He also sent the Psychos, Psychic Novum who's abilities included accelerating matter.  That left Aaron with a vast majority of the common elementals and shape-shifters.  He ordered the shape-shifters to change then go into the forest to hit them from behind while he and the elementals attacked the soldiers outside.

Once everyone was in place, Aaron signalled for the Hawk-eyes to open fire.  Their super-heated rounds, coupled with the acceleration from the Psychos, were able to punch through soldiers, and into the tanks behind them.  With another signal, the elementals sent burning stones arcing through the air where they exploded on contact with something, sending fire and pieces of stone everywhere.  Leaving half the elementals to continue the mortar-like assault, he led the other half in an arrow head charge, ready to get his own hands dirty. 

Purple lightning arced across his body as he activated his auratic abilities.  Everyone who had seen Aaron use his power called it 'Auratic Magnification', as it magnified his physical prowess.  With it speeding him up, he punched a hole in the enemy line as the arrow head formation crashed against them like an out of control wave.  His katana send sprays of blood into the air as it arced across, and usually through, his enemies.  He cut down two soldiers with a single swipe of his sword, before leaping up onto a tank, his aura increasing the cutting power of his blade.  He brought it down, shearing through the metal of the tank like it was butter.  With a sufficiently large opening, Aaron dropped down inside.   He quickly went to work, carving up the inside of the tank, turning it into scrap metal before jumping free, the tank exploding in his wake.

Taking a moment to quickly survey the battle field, Aaron found that the Novum were winning.  Fire and plasma, as well as the super heated sniper rounds, whizzed and cracked through the air, punching holes in rocks, tanks, as well as the soldiers.  It appeared that the Novum were taking alot less damage, with only about two or three of them down, where as there were a large number of America soldiers down and out on the ground, painting the road red with blood. 

"Keep pushing!" He shouted to his comrades as he raised his sword above his head before diving into another group of soldiers that were taking refuge behind a pile of broken up rocks.  There was a screech several feet to his left as the shifters bounded out of the forest, already in full animal mode.  Lions and tigers and bears pounded out of the forest, following in the wake of a pair of Rhinos that crushed and smashed their way into the crowd.  The animals, as well as Aaron, continued to carve bloody paths through the enemy with soldiers, with two more tanks exploding as he sliced them up.

As Aaron cut through another tank, he paused once more to survey the action.  This proved to be a mistake.  Something large, gray, and solid slammed into him, sending him flying into a tree twenty feet away, cracking it in half. 

"What...the hell?" He muttered with a groan as he pulled himself out of the splintered tree.  He looked up at what had hit him.  Standing in the middle of the road, panting like a dog, was a creature about the size of a professional basketball player, built like a linebacker.  It's head was grotesque and malformed.  It's right arm was larger and thicker then it's left.  Along it's shoulders, as well as it's back and chest, were growths that looked like they would burst if touched. 

"Oh...shit." Aaron muttered with a grimaced as he looked at the strange new enemy.  With a shout he charged the thing, just to have it smack him back again.  This time, however, Aaron was expecting it.  He drove his blade into the ground to lessen the knock-back.  He darted forward again, ducking underneath the thing as his aura flared bright purple.  He brought the blade up in a blur, opening up a shallow gash across the things chest.  This caused several growths to burst, spraying gray-green ligquid all over him.  It began to smoke and burn away the armor beneath it, like acid would if poured onto metal.  Thankfully, however, his armor's built in nanobots began to repair immediately.

The beast roared again, slamming it's tree trunk sized arm into Aaron's side, knocking him across the ground.  Aaron stood again, breathing heavy.  He knew he couldn't take this thing alone.  He needed his partner.

He just hoped she would be able to get to him in time.