Cheer Raider & SABRE Panther: CF

"What the hell? The Wolf Pack just stopped responding to commands! Matt, what's going on out there?" said Ricketts.

"Oh, shit," Matt said, as the pack ran at him at full speed.

Jennifer raised her pike and bent her legs into a fighting stance. Cassandra did the same. "Let's finish this!" Jennifer shouted. The two girls leaped forwards towards each other. As they passed each other in the air, Jennifer used her pike to parry Cassandra's glaive, deflecting it away from plunging into her chest. She continued falling, and landed with a rolling stop on a shop roof. Cassandra did the same across the street.

"Nice doggies, good doggies, easy now," Matt said as the wolf pack reached Panther. Two of them jumped and slammed into him, knocking him down. The rest of them quickly piled on to the fallen mech. "Gah! Get of me, get off, geez!" Matt shouted.

Jennifer and Cassandra, having jumped down to street level, ran towards each other again. This time rather than trying to run Jennifer through, Cassandra swung her glaive in an arc, and managed to slash several of the pleats on her skirt in half, also cutting her legs just enough to draw a little blood. "Dammit! Bitch!" Jennifer yelled as she counterattacked with her pike.

"Oh. Right. I still forget sometimes, here in the cockpit they're just images," realized an unharmed Matt. "Okay, panic over. Panther, how are you holding up? That's good, but still, we can't just let them keep this up. SABRE pilot to Artemis command. Give my apologies to the good people of Crosby Robotics, I'm going to have to wreck their robots just a little." He reached up his hands to the two wolves directly on top of Panther, and slammed them together. Panther's claws lit up with hot plasma and sliced deep into two more. As he got to his feet, he punched and kicked the drones until all seven units lay on the ground unable to move.

Jennifer and Cassandra continued to fight, the arms and legs of both of them now covered with minor cuts, but neither managing to strike a solid hit. Jennifer dodged the glaive and swung her pike wildly. The blade cut across Cassandra's top, and the gash opened into a wide cleavage window that showed a good portion of her large breasts. She yelped and jumped back. She glowered at Jennifer, then glanced at Panther standing over the remains of the wolf pack, and said, "I can see I'm going to have to step up my game if I want to claim what's mine. Alright, then! No more holding back! Gimme a W! O! L! V! E! S! What's that spell? Wolves!!"

On the final word she her uniform burst into a swirling cloud of silver sparkles that levitated her off the ground. The fallen wolf robots shook, and pieces flew off of them and into her transformative whirlwind.

When the sparkles lowered her to the ground and dissipated, she was wearing white armor that was patterned after Jennifer's Panther armor, but themed after the wolf pack. The helmet bore a canine face design with glowing red eyes, and the tooth-edged visor was light blue. Written across the front of the armored crop top, outlined in glowing light blue, was the word "Wolves". From the back of the armored skirt's waistband hung a wide white tail.

"That hypocritical bitch, she went and saw our movie!" Matt muttered.

"What the fuck! She can't do that! She's never seen those wolf robots until today! Can she do that?" Jennifer protested.

"No, don't you get it? She doesn't have powers similar to yours because they come from the same place," Matt explained. "She has powers similar to yours because she's copying you. She's just a knock-off!"

Cassandra flexed her fingers and watched her movements get copied by the armor's giant robotic hands with shimmering ice claws at their fingertip. She adjusted her stance, testing the weight of her knee-high boots with toes shaped like wolf paws. "Yeeeess, that's more like it! Now you're going down!" she said, and charged at Jennifer with claws up.

"Baton Twirl Blazing Shield!" Jennifer yelled. The extra length of the pike faded away as she spun it to create the barrier. Cassandra's claws hit the shield hard, sparks and steam flying as cold met hot. Cassandra leaned in hard, pushing her advantage against the shield. Jennifer resisted as best she could, but her knees slowly gave way under the force, and finally she fell onto her back. Somehow she kept the baton spinning, but Cassandra didn't let up, and immediately started slashing at the shield, alternating between her left and right hands in rapid succession.

Despite the completion of Cassandra's armor, the wolf robots continued to shake, and then moved together, pulled by an unseen force. Three of them aligned side by side, with their heads together. The other four attached themselves to that group by their tail end, in an arrangement suggesting arm and legs, with the heads as the hands and feet. Then it stood up. "Oh, look at you! Coming back for another round, I see!" Matt said. With its six eyes glowing red, the merged wolf pack reached its right jaw-hand forward. The wolf tails flew into its grip and connected end to end, shaping themselves into a sword with a curved blade that shined with an icy edge, and a full hand guard reaching from the crossguard to the pommel. "Oh, very cute. A sabre sword. Alright, then, let's go!" Matt said, and reached behind him to retrieve Panther's axe as it unfolded for battle. The two metal giants advanced on each other, weapons swinging.

Jennifer strained under the ongoing assault against her shield. Deciding she couldn't hold out like that for much longer, she abandoned the baton and rolled to the side to get away. She couldn't escape the extended reach of the wolf armor, however, and screamed out as Cassandra clawed her back, leaving four icy slash marks. Laughing, Cassandra grabbed Jennifer's legs in one hand and flung her through a large glass store window.

"Pom-poms! Fighting Spirit Fiery Burst! Fighting Spirit Fiery Burst! Fighting Spirit Fiery Burst!" Jennifer started shouting, and a series of fireballs shot out from inside the store. They struck harmlessly against the back of Cassandra's hand as she calmly walked into the store. Jennifer kept up the futile barrage until Cassandra got too close, and then switched instead to yelling, "Pom-pom Flaming Punch!" Cassandra caught the punch in her hand, the robotic fingers wrapping around half of Jennifer's arm. She turned and flung Jennifer right back out through the broken window.

Panther and the wolf-mech traded blows back and forth, each one scoring a few minor hits but mostly parrying each other's strikes as their blades clashed, gaining and losing ground in equal measure. Matt spared himself a few sideways glances towards the girls below. "Jennifer, how are you holding up?" he asked, worried.

"It's taking everything I've got just to avoid half of her attacks," Jennifer answered. Bruises were now evident all over her body, and her hair was coming undone from its braid. Once again she couldn't dodge fast enough, and Cassandra landed an oversized punch straight into her face. In the brief moment of flying through the air from the impact, before she hit the ground, Jennifer noticed that her helmet's visor was now riddled with cracks.

Matt took a wild backhanded swing with Panther's axe into the wolf-mech's sword, and it paid off. The impact broke the blade in two near the hilt, and the sharp length landed well out of reach. The small victory was short-lived, however. The move left Panther wide open, and the wolf-mech took full advantage, dropping the sword hilt and reaching up to clamp down on Panther's left arm with its jaw-hand. "Ah! Let go!" Matt yelped, but instead it reached in with its other hand, too, crushing Panther's arm with the wolf jaws. Matt struggled, but was only able to fall back when the arm finally sheared off just below the shoulder.

"Fuck!" Matt exclaimed as his opponent dropped the now useless limb to the ground. "Alright, that's a point to you. But I'll have you know, out of the four options, that's the limb I'll miss the least. In fact... Panther, help me the aim on this kick. Jennifer, heads up!" Matt lunged at the wolf-mech, pushing it back with axe strike to its chest, and then kicked the severed arm towards the other fight. It bounced a couple of times but then rolled the rest of the way. Jennifer was bracing herself for another attack as Cassandra approached, but was spared when the arm suddenly collided with Cassandra and rolled right over her, leaving her flat on the ground.

Jennifer looked up at Panther, and then back down at the arm, confirming what had happened. She allowed a smile to form across her face. "Oh, it's on, now. Gimme a P! A! N! T! H! E! R! What's that spell? Panther!!" On the final word she thrust her fist into the air, and her uniform burst into a swirling cloud of golden sparkles that levitated her off the ground. Glowing green plasma, a sparkling silver dust of repair nanites, and chunks of black armor and internal mechanisms streamed out of the severed limb and joined the cloud. When the sparkles lowered her to the ground and dissipated, she was in the Panther armor, and her cuts and bruises were gone.

"So you've armored up now, too," Cassandra said, once again on her feet. "No matter! I will still crush you!"

"Bring it on, bitch! It's time to be aggressive. B, E, aggressive," Jennifer declared.

"Shut up and fight!" Cassandra shouted, rushing in and throwing a punch. Rather than block or dodge, Jennifer threw a punch of her own. The punches landed at the same time, but the two opponents barely flinched from the impact. What followed was a flurry of punches, claw strikes, and kicks as the two of them rushed at each other again and again with their mechanically enhanced speed and power, bashing each other over and over, and spreading collateral damage all over the street as they went.

Panther's opponent had settled into alternating between close-up fisticuffs and shooting from a distance using the on-board cannons in it arms. Panther countered with his axe and antimatter cannons to devastating effect, but the wolf-mech still endured and kept fighting. Jennifer hurled Cassandra into a parked car, causing much more damage to the car, and said, "I guess the Crosby guys will be happy. If the super robot they designed has lasted this long against you and Panther, the army's going to want a fleet of them!"

"Don't be silly. Nobody would design a robot this way, and nobody would want one," Matt replied.

"Don't give me that. I've seen your toys. You have all sorts of big robots that put together from little robots," Jennifer protested.

"A foot tall and made out of plastic, sure! But on a full size battle mecha? Easy disassembly and holding up in a fight are mutually exclusive requirements!" Matt explained. "The only reason this thing is even standing is that it's got magic holding it together! In fact it's quite frustrating, none of the damage I'm doing matters one bit."

Jennifer caught Cassandra's leg in mid-kick, heaved her up into the air over her head, and slammed her down into the pavement behind her. Then she asked, "Wait, so it's nothing but a big monster made out of magic?"

"Well sure, of course!" Matt said. "Oh. Oh, right. Well, by all means. He's all yours."

Jennifer pointed to Cassandra and said, "Wait here. I'll be right back for you. Here I go!" She started running towards the wolf-mech. "Team spirit..." She extended her fingers, and the robot hands followed suit with the claws flaring to twice their original size, excess plasma streaming behind them. "Plasma inferno..." She leapt into the air, and her rockets blazed to life, propelling her up and forward on plumes of fire. "Conquering love..."

"Oh no you don't!" Cassandra screamed as she rocketed in from behind on columns of blue flame brightly lit with a line of shock diamonds in the exhaust. She rammed into Jennifer from the side, throwing her off course. Acting quickly, Matt dropped Panther's axe, grabbed the wolf-mech's arm and rammed a knee into its chest to knock it off-balance, then yanked hard. The wolf-mech was forced to stumble into the new spiraling trajectory of the two girls. The three of them collided, and the wolf robots collapsed into a pile. The sound of a small explosion followed, and several large spikes of ice and bursts of fire erupted from the heap.

"Well... I guess that still worked," Matt said, bending Panther down to retrieve the axe. About half a minute later, a piece of scrap stirred and tumbled off the pile. Jennifer crawled out from the new hole, dragging Cassandra behind her, then let herself collapse on the ground.

Cassandra stirred, and said weakly, "Don't think that I'm finished with you. This fight isn't over."

"Oh, give it a rest, would you?" Jennifer said. Before Cassandra could come up with another retort, they were interrupted by an extremely loud thunderclap. Swirling storm clouds appeared out of nowhere directly above them, turning the sky orange. They rapidly expanded to cover the entire town, and beyond. The sound of sinister laughter from a boyish voice echoed out of the scrap pile. Hailstones began to plummet from the oddly colored clouds, and even more oddly, they were on fire but did not melt.

"Whoa, cool! Flaming hail! I wonder how it does that? Methane bubbles in the ice, maybe?" Matt said.

"Matt!" Jennifer scolded.

"Sorry! Sorry, right. Apocalyptic weather is bad," said Matt.

Suddenly, the pile of scrap burst apart, and a three-headed dragon emerged from underneath and grew until it was as tall as Panther, not counting the long necks, which towered over him. The central portion of the dragon, from the middle head to the hind legs and tail, was black, but it wore remnants of the wolf robots as armor from its head all the way down the length of its spine and tail. The dragon's right side, including the head, front leg, and bat-like wing, was red and burning with fire, while their opposites on the dragon's left were white and covered with ice.

"Fuck!" Jennifer yelled, quickly got to her feet, pulled Cassandra up onto hers, and then took off running while pulling Cassandra along behind her.

The dragon's left and right heads roared and shot streams of fire and freezing mist into the air, while the middle one continued laughing. "Finally! At long last, I am at my full power! Stronger than I ever was before! Now, I reign supreme, and I owe it all to you, you ridiculous girl," he declared.

Cassandra stopped running and turned back to face the dragon. "Mr. Hoppers? Is that you? What are you saying?"

"Your petty insecurities and your idiotic jealousy gave me exactly what I needed! I bestowed some of my power on you and encouraged your anger and hate, and it paid off better than I could have hoped! Now I can have my vengeance, destroy the guardian, and lay waste to this world as I was always meant to!" the dragon said.

"No, she's mine! It doesn't mean anything if I'm not the one to defeat her!" Cassandra protested.

"Do you still not understand, you stupid brat?" the dragon mocked. "You've been nothing but my pawn all along. You've served your purpose and I have no further use for you. You can die right alongside her, and I will never again have to listen to your conceited bullshit or your pathetically entitled delusions of grandeur!"

"What? No... no, that's not true... You can't mean that..." Cassandra said, her confidence falling away.

"Cassa—" Jennifer started to say, then paused. "Chill Raider. I think we need to work together on this one."

"Stay the fuck out of my way!" Cassandra yelled, and sent Jennifer flying with a mighty punch. She hit the ground rolling and came to a stop some distance away.

Matt surveyed the scene: Cassandra on his left, Jennifer now on his right, the dragon in front of all of them, with both girls matched to the respective head in fire versus ice pairings. "I'm gonna go with you on this one. A simultaneous attack is the best bet," he said.

"Be ready to move when she does," Jennifer said, standing and preparing herself.

"Panther, deploy the shoulder cannons, and prepare to send maximum possible plasma output to the axe. Ignore safety protocols," Matt instructed.

"And you!" Cassandra shouted at the dragon, her bravado restored. "This was supposed to be my big premier. How dare you try to steal the spotlight! I deserve it! I've always deserved it! I won't let you, or her, or anyone else stop me from getting what's mine! I'll show you! I'll show everyone! I'll prove that I'm a superstar right now! Here I go!" She started running towards the dragon. Jennifer and Matt followed suit.

"Superior talent..."

"Team spirit..."

The girls extended their fingers, and the robot hands followed suit with the claws flaring to twice their original size, excess frost and plasma streaming behind them. Panther let loose a continuous antimatter barrage towards the dragon.

"Frozen vengeance..."

"Plasma inferno..."

The girls leapt into the air, and their rockets blazed to life, propelling them up and forward. The dragon shot back with its fire breath, ice breath, and the artillery cannons mounted on its central spine armor.

"Rightful glory..."

"Conquering love..."

The girls drew their right arms back, and then slashed forward. Panther did the same as the plasma edge of his axe blade roared to multiple times its ordinary size, and Matt screamed out a battle roar of his own.

"Ultimate strike!"

The explosion could be seen from Artemis Base. Its shockwave broke nearly every window within a radius covering two thirds of the town, and completely cleared the sky of clouds, orange or otherwise. The underground utilities and storm sewer system were demolished within the crater it left behind.

Matt lay in the control armature, surrounded by darkness, save for the occasional burst of electrical sparks. He moaned, and said, "Did anybody get the tail number of the jetliner that hit me?" He heard the creaking of metal above him, and then light poured in as large mechanical claws pushed the cockpit doors open. Jennifer reached down in with her giant mech hand and plucked him out of the armature. She pulled him right up close and gave him a deep kiss. "Mmm. What was that for?" he asked when their lips parted.

"I figure it's tradition," Jennifer said. Matt smiled, threw his arms around her, and pulled himself in for another kiss.

- - -

A small black worm crawled along the ground, heading away from the battlefield. It was halted when a shoe came down over its rear half, trapping it in place. "Now where do you think you're going?" Theresa asked.

"Release me, you filthy human," demanded the worm in a boyish voice that was rather smaller than it was before.

Princess Sugarshine jumped out of Theresa's arms to the ground, and said, "You may have drained most of my magic, but I still have enough power to disperse what's left of you forever."

"No! No, have mercy! Mercy!" the worm begged. Sugarshine's horn lit up and shot a beam of bright light at the worm. Theresa stepped off as the worm as it and its screams faded into nothing. Sugarshine's magic beam stopped, and she collapsed onto her side.

- - -

Jennifer broke her kiss with Matt and said, "Now get back." Matt stepped clear as her armor burst apart, and the swirling cloud of golden sparkles restored her usual uniform while returning Panther's components to his damaged arm. "How's Panther doing?" she asked.

"I think every system might be down, I'm only receiving intermittent bits of telemetry in my head. The repair nanites really have their work cut out for them this time. He might be out of commission for a while," Matt said.

"Yes! I did it! I saved the world! I'm the hero now!" They both turned to see Cassandra, facing away from them, jumping and waving her arms with excitement. "Woohoo! Hollywood, here I come! I'm ready for my close-up! I'd like to thank you all for the love you've shown me!" Suddenly, her armor fell to pieces, dropping to the ground around her with a series of clangs and clanks. Her usual uniform, sans helmet, appeared underneath, but it was unraveling from the bottom up and fading away with a faint blue glow.