In that moment, Cipher lost the ability to smile. Even when Audrey produced a small grin and provided her blessing, she failed to raise the corners of her lips. The Super Saiyan seemed to be in a frightening state of mind for all onlookers. Rather than throwing a delirious tantrum, she seemed laser focused and calm. Instead of blind rage, a silent and harnessed anger guided her actions. In turn, she was not just an angry woman breaking things around her at random. She was a tranquil deliberate machine filled with ice cold hate, uninhibited by recklessness.

In contrast, the male android behind her threw a tantrum. Something about her not being on the same level along with a monologue about Audrey doing most of the handiwork. Cipher seemed less than effected by his words, radiating an air that implied she was barely paying attention to the worm prattling on behind her. She did not need petty insults and tantrums. Those who opposed her and those she loved would die, and no words were necessary. They were as meaningless as the swordsman’s existence.

With one final offer, he demanded the power core. She stood there in silence, her golden aura burning bright around her frame. Not offering him the satisfaction of a reply, boasting an unlimited amount of apathy for his feelings despite his past flirtations, the Saiyan crouched in front of her girlfriend. Finally, she spoke to the man.

“Like this?”

After her emotionless yet mocking rhetorical question, she reached forward in an instant. She planted the core back into the woman’s chest and tapped into a reservoir of power unheard of to mend her chest enough to sew the scar back together. Cipher knew Audrey still needed to get back to the cruiser to heal more and make sure everything was fine internally, but that would do for now.

She decided to turn around and face the android. Reaching to her side with her cybernetic right hand, she summoned one of the gunblades used against them using transportation magic. It appeared from wherever its owner left it on the battlefield in an array of coalescing yellow lights. Cipher trained her eyes on the man, her expression devoid of emotion and her gaze light. Those eerie green eyes possessed the ability to peer into the future.

Cipher examined him with detachment. She scrutinized him like a scientist did a lab rat. She looked at him as though he were just an object. Her eyes looked right through him.

In an instant, she provided her answer. The gun’s blade and barrel aligned with his head, and she fired two shots towards him with the intention to blow his head clean off his shoulders. The muzzle flash enveloped the end of the weapon, while gunfire roared liberally throughout the terrain.

Made by Riley at THQ!

Even after seeing the android catch a bullet with his teeth, Cipher did not bat an eye. In truth, he insulted his partner’s weapon, which illustrated his rather limited intelligence. A sympathetic look in her eye while tilting her head to the side, she marvelled at the limitations of simple machinery. He called her a monkey, perhaps one of the most original insults the universe heard, before pointing his sword towards the sky. Cipher marginally lowered her new weapon, waiting unenthusiastically for her attacker to launch his series of assaults.

When the pressurized blades of air came crashing in her direction, they passed right through the woman. The force carved lacerations into the planet’s crust, scattering clouds of debris in every direction until it clouded the atmosphere like a thick fog. It looked as though the attacks slipped through her, but it was an illusion created from her elite speed. She evaded and returned to her placement at such a velocity it appears she stood in place and the blades of wind harmlessly passed through her.

Narrowing her eyes ever so slightly, the one detriment she had no power over was Audrey being incapable of avoiding it. Cipher could not do anything about it due to the nature of the attack. Worried as she was, she knew the android was powerful and tough and could take the hit. However, she kept in mind for the future that she needed to start intercepting some of the attacks he directed her way. Additionally, the need to take him out quickly grew in importance.

As usual, the Super Saiyan oozed such a level of confidence she looked bored. The android erased the distance between them, and she continued standing in place. She noticed that he moved with more than sheer speed, and she did not bother to use deductive reasoning to figure out what mechanism was behind it. Cipher did not care.

He started to rain blow after blow against her, but she merely stood in place. The punches may have sent gusts of wind tearing through the terrain and erupted shockwaves that could be felt for miles, but Cipher took each attack without blinking. Her golden aura continued to burn around her like candlelight. Sometime in the middle of him throwing blows at her, she sighed and spoke.

“Likewise, Tin Man.”

Raising her left hand, she literally attempted to flick him. Despite the minimalistic gesture, it carried enough force to level a city with ease. Regardless of whether she connected, she dashed backwards and slung the gun in front of her once more. Aiming for his chest, she fired once at the larger target.

Then a coat of red and black overtook the gun blade, rendering its appearance demonic in nature. She fired another round towards him, this time the shockwave splitting another chasm in the ground, akin to the biblical parting of the Red Sea. She wondered for how long the little gnat could avoid her assaults.

Take his head, Thirteen. Cipher thought to herself. Her opponent would not be able to see the ghostly entity move behind him, only feel the consequence. The jester-like apparition swung his scythe with an insidious cackle, trying to cleave the back of the swordsman’s neck. He hoped to behead him and send his blood spurting into the air like a fountain. Thirteen was in a good mood today ever since luring out the power within Cipher.

To top off her sequence of attacks, Cipher conjured blue energy around her free hand. Lowering her gun for a moment, she arched her arm back and hurled a sophisticated orb of cerulean towards her aggressor. It would explode akin to a bomb, eradicating even more of the terrain and leaving Cipher to observe the wreckage.

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Made by Riley at THQ!

The android avoided her flicking motion, distributing the force behind him. It caused stone and concrete alike to ripple under the waves of kinetic energy before they exploded into bits of debris and shrapnel. She obtained a vast power in becoming a Super Saiyan. With the amount of power coursing through her veins, Cipher felt as though she had to encumber every action as much as she could or risk destroying the entire planet. A simple flick could make stone appear no different than water, and that was not even a “strong” attack of hers.

Disappointment filled her. She wanted to trivialize and break the failure before her. Regarding him as nothing more than a reject tin can, she supposed the future held the possibility of granting her the opportunity to flick his head free of his shoulders again. Her aloof expression endured, and her actions resumed.

Cipher scored a hit with her gun, but he managed to use his arm as a makeshift barricade. She saw the bullet dig into the limb with reckless abandon. He managed to impress her marginally with his reaction time, but she knew her own surpassed it dozens of times over. In that moment, worry was a foreign concept to the ascended warrior. She achieved the legendary transformation of her race, renowned for hundreds of years, and despite the fury moving through her veins she felt accomplished.

He seemed tough, given his ability to shrug off attacks. However, he seemed to be rapidly incurring more damage than she. In fact, he failed to leave a single scratch on her throughout the entire bout even though he landed hits. Audrey and Cipher fought somebody tenacious and useless offensively in the past, and now that man dwelt within other world. Cipher intended to send the android off there as well, but she supposed he lacked a soul to guide in that direction. She continued to regard him with her atypical lethargic stare.

Thirteen found success in shaving away at the man’s neck. He let loose a steady flow of blood from his effort and remained unseen. Few people can detect the demonic apparition, which always boded well for her. With no presence, he could land attacks on her prey without them being able to dodge. His existence seemed ephemeral, but the damage tended to add up.

Considering it a job well done, Cipher did not voice any complaints towards the demon. However, the wish for him to take his head with the action burned within her. This would have to do for now.

The demon on the other hand seemed content with his work, and wagered he was not needed further. In turn, he decided to vanish even from Cipher’s sight before receding into her body. Even when contracted with the entity she was not sure of his ambitions, but she did not care. In truth, she was positive his participation stemmed from outlandish hunger for amusement and suffering.

After launching her explosive orb of energy towards him, the opponent assumed a familiar stance. It was the same stance she witnessed from Audrey on many occasions before, causing her to narrow her eyes. He met the javelin with an explosive punch, though despite his theatrics he still took the full brunt of the attack. Blue light enveloped his frame and left him singed from the impact.

“You protected the dirt behind you more than yourself. I guess that isn’t atypical in your line of work.” Cipher said, alluding to his pathetic dead friends with a mocking whistle.

Witnessing the man periodically emulate Audrey, she started to get a little suspicious. It failed to surface on her expression, but it seemed peculiar for him to continue using the moves and techniques of someone he clearly held in disdain. By now, it was obvious the two had a storied history together. Whether or not Cipher cared about it was another matter completely.

The tin man went on to insult Audrey and assert that he was doing her a favour. She did not answer the insult, but with every insidious word he spat towards her significant other, the narrower his chance of survival became. She intended to kill him in such a manner that it would trivialize even the brutality exhibited towards Marimba.

Aozaki left out a lot of details when she told her about Audrey. She supposed she did it to protect her along with their relationship, and she felt gratitude towards the redhead. Cipher learned about her discharge from the service and her exceptional performance, along with her original dislike for Saiyans, but nothing beyond that. Cipher felt a tinge of amusement when he pursued getting under her skin or trying to convert her to his side. Whatever it was he was attempting, she did not know at that point. It was a little late for negotiations.

Again the man used a technique reminiscent of the fellow Valkyrie. Lightning saturated the blade her wielded, probably some kind of attempt to lock up her muscles and thus limit her ability to fight. Deadened nerves lead to losses during competitions, but he failed to daunt her with the display. If anything, she felt a sick to her stomach that he failed to get any techniques original to his own name. She supposed with Audrey’s service they must originate from the same unit. Maybe they owed their proficiency to the same teachers.

Apparently, Audrey was relieved of her position because of an incident in Kerbala. The planet sounded unfamiliar to Cipher whose experiences were only now taking to the galactic level. Due to a compulsion to go on a solo operation, she paid the price in the lives of comrades. Aozaki mentioned nothing about that back when she provided the mechanical arm. Ambiguous feelings stirred within her, but she isolated them to prevent anyone from getting a good read on her.

Using his lightning sword, he rushed her with a barrage of powerful slashes. At first, she decided to humour him and avoid the attacks by moving out of the way. The force within every blow cleaved the ground around her apart, making it appeared mangled by a wild animal. As he attacked, he went on another story about her partner’s enjoyment in torture. With her continued denial and inner turmoil, Cipher felt Audrey’s feelings through the psychic link between them.

And then Cipher caught his sword with her bare hand.

The sword failed to slice her flesh just as the lightning failed to numb her muscles. Her lips curled into an eerie smile while she looked the opponent in the eyes.

“Are you done with your little sob story yet?”

Cipher tilted her head to the side quizzically. As she did, a sheen of black and red started to course through the man’s sword while she held it in her grip. Using her ungodly strength, she attempted to use her signature attack by twisting his sword around and slowly shoving it through him. No matter if successful, Cipher released a wave of force that would separate them once again. Pluto’s temperature failed to emulate the frigidity in the laugh that followed.

“You and your ilk are pathetic. Always crying to the strong and blaming deaths on them instead of your own weakness. You and your pitiful friends died, and will die, because of one reason only: you’re not strong. Instead of shoving the blame on others, you should have addressed your own sorry state and survived. You can take your sentiment and woes to hell with you, or wherever you toy soldiers go when you kick the bucket.” Cipher spat with another fit of laughter.

“I’m glad, really. Thank you for clearing all of this up. I could not possibly be anymore proud of my girlfriend in this moment. So much that I think when I bring you to your knees, I’m going to watch her torture you to death. That’s all you are, livestock to be consumed and enjoyed by those with more power. If you are blind to the benefits of conflict, how no society has grown to where it is today without it, then you are a fool.”

In an instant, Cipher dashed by him and swung the bladed end of the gun blade towards him, attempting to cleave his arm off his body. Spinning around to face him once again, she fired a round towards him. The bolt was potent enough to resemble a crimson laser as it split the planet’s crust once more.

“You don’t have a remote control to paralyze me, little boy! Come, come wallow in your own ineptitude one last time before you die.”

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Made by Riley at THQ!

Once again, he was able to mitigate her signature attack with his palm. Despite all the anguish, fury and rage she summoned to wield as her weapon in that moment, the man continued to deal with her attacks as though she were merely throwing pebbles in a playground. At the very least it was able to split the ground apart, resulting in another fracture in the already ransacked terrain. More fuel added to the flames burning within her, Cipher resolved to kill him slow. Instead of giving him a warriors’ death, she intended to humiliate and destroy him in ways his machine brain could not fathom.

She started to wonder what the fucker was made from. There she was, wielding the iconic transformation of her warrior race, and she failed to find purchase on some android in a trench coat. His allies remained in literal pieces strewn across the battlefield, but he remained stalwart in the face of opposition. The amount of directions Cipher could point them out was only rivalled by how haphazard his code of ethics was.

A few taunts about premature celebrations later and he poised himself to deal with her other onslaught. For the – Cipher lost count of how many times exactly – umpteenth time, he managed to just barely avoid her attack. Frustration built in her stomach as she clenched her hand into a fist, drawing more blood from the shallow cut etched into her palm. She replaced the amused expression on her face with blatant irritation, her lips neutral and her eyes blazing with murderous intent. If he thought he was getting out of this alive, he was sorely mistaken. Cipher would do everything in her power to make him suffer.

After pulling a handgun out of dynocaps, he shot more bullets towards her. As though the projectiles were mosquitoes, she swatted them out of the air with dismissive hand gestures. They collided with the ground with such force it splintered and caved in the stone and dirt like plywood but did nothing to her. With his incapability to do anything to her and her attacks seeming less than effective against him, she wondered how long the bout would last. She did not know how long Audrey would hold out in that state, and she felt a pang of worry towards her condition. Additionally, she needed to be mindful of her reservoir of energy.

“You’re such an insufferable idiot. Who said anything about strength not being subjective?” She sneered in response, elevating her left hand and blocking the onslaught of blows with her index finger. “You lack it in every possible department. Clearly deficient in intelligence, brawn, general usefulness, what do you possess that could possibly be equated to strength, trash? And consumption was metaphor for using someone or something to sate a need of your own. That is what is meant to be a consumer, or do you have some fetishes you’d like to talk about?” She doubted he would be able to understand basic logic, and she wondered why she humoured him with a response in the first place.

“But sure, let’s continue more ethic lessons from the android cunt who rips people’s hearts out at a whim,” She spat, catching his fist in hand and pointing the gun blade straight against his chest. “Right before I tear yours out of your fucking chest.”

Three consecutive shots followed, the conclusive one firing with railgun-like proportions that razed the battlefield under torrential force. All the while, her golden aura flared and burned brightly around her while she called upon her deeper reserves of energy.

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Made by Riley at THQ!