Ardwen sat trembling in the cockpit of his Goliath as the voice of the enemy field general boomed out onto the battlefield. "I am Field Commander Ramirez of the Artisan Confederate. I would advise that you stand down and surrender to our forces to evade death." As Ramirez spoke the three enemy battlesuits advanced on Riya and Nami, who were wrestling as Riya attempted to hold Nami back from her anger.

Ardwen stepped in between and braced himself. His suit was not designed for combat and a three on one was certainly not going to end well. Already his strategic mind was trying to work out different angles of approach, processing how the enemy would strike. A duck and a kick here, a retaliatory elbow, perhaps try to wrestle a gun away from one of them.

The odds never lined up though. No matter how many looks he took at it Ardwen just couldn't wrap his head around a way to win, especially when there was always Ramirez watching even if he did make any sort of movements. Things were hopeless. This battle was ending in a loss.

The first bullet impacted Ardwen's hull and he anticipated the warning klaxons going off throughout the cockpit. Instead there was only an eerie silence, followed by more projectiles hitting his exterior. Ardwen was shocked to find his systems shutting off almost instantly and his Goliath teetered a little before comically falling onto its back.

In an instant the three enemy units were on top of him, pulling out specific wirings with mechanical precision and Ramirez's voice was broadcast out again. "It would be a waste to let such valuable Goliaths be filled with bullet holes. Instead we will just have to pry them open and take out their useless contents before we refurbish them for service in our armies. Imagine, young boy, bringing back to your generals six unique Goliaths and six young captives. What a marvellous chance for a promotion wouldn't you think? I crave to shed this pitiful armour and don something of worth, a powerful behemoth that can crush entire armies. You, my young friend, will be my ticket to exactly that."

Ardwen found his own communication unit was working, though he could only broadcast to the air around and not within the comm network of his team. "How do you know who we are?"

"You don't think we have our own recon units moving forward? Your landing was not an extremely subtle one as we scouted out the little town we would be attacking. Weren't we surprised to see a defence mobilized of youngsters who haven't been in Earth's atmosphere for nearly half their lives. What a disappointment. But the weapons they bring to bear! Such marvellous creations. So of course, as you can see, I went ahead in taking precautions to ensure I could capture your devices. You could not have won from the start."

The three Goliaths were now yanking Nami and Riya apart, their machines also disabled by the enemy armaments and they pulled out their wiring. While they were doing this Ramirez had latched his chain onto Raul's Goliath and was dragging it out to rest beside Chase and Porter. The battle had ended. All six were beaten and the finale was closing in for the students of St. Maurius.

There was a very loud groan that rang out through the battlefield that shocked the rest. "Ooh does my head ever hurt right now. What happened?" To the surprise of all onlookers, Porter's White Storm rose up off the ground and shook its head. It took a look around the battlefield and scratched its head in bewilderment. "Weren't we winning? What's going on here?"

Ramirez gave a snort of indignation. "Hmph, it would seem one of them escaped a dismantling. No matter, you'll soon join the rest of your pathetic friends."

There was a realization in Porter as he began to figure out what was occurring. Immediately the rage that had pushed him forward into the initial charge rose up again within him. It grew larger though as he saw the three Goliaths hovering over Nami and Riya, plucking out their cables gleefully as the two girls were powerless against them.

It continued to build inside of Porter, so much so he felt a crackle of electricity surge through his skin, raising little bumps along it and forcing his hairs to stick straight up with static. "Did you just call us pathetic?" There were flashes in Porter's head of Chase above him, celebrating another victory in sparring practice, or of Nami wiggling a perfect test score, and now it was of this enemy commander above his disabled comrades, laughing at them all. "We're not pathetic. We're going to be heroes!"

There was a crash of thunder as the White Storm was struck with a lightning bolt, electricity rippling through its metallic frame and a great discharge burst forth off the hull, blue sparks shooting out in all directions. Porter gripped his twin blades tight and felt the rage flowing between him and his machine, out through the controls and spreading throughout the battlesuit as the two began to merge.

And the White Storm disappeared. In the blink of an eye it was beside the three enemy Goliaths, one blade had stabbed through the chest of one of them and another blade was sitting just on top of another battlesuit's head. In another flash the blades had sheared straight through the bodies of the machines, one split horizontally, the other vertically, cutting through steel like it was butter as the electrical currents created superheated swords.

The now freed blades split through the last enemy Goliath with an x-shaped slash across the chest that broke the whole machine into four equal pieces. Within the cockpit, Porter was still energized, all of his hair now standing on end and his eyes glowing blue, the iris, pupil, and all other portions of the eye ignited with this power.

Another bolt struck the White Storm and it was in front of Ramirez, striking down with all its force. But it came to a screeching halt as it smashed into Ramirez's forearm, biting into the metal chain. "Hmm, some incredible speed, but not a whole lot of control. You seem to think that just because you possess power, nobody else will?"

Ramirez threw Porter back with a wave of his arm and took up a fighting stance. There was a pregnant pause between the two. Ardwen's video systems were starting to flicker back to life as the crippling shots from before started to wear off. His motor systems were still shot but he could now see Porter in a standoff against the one remaining enemy, the others lying in heaps on the ground.

And then things became blurry. Porter unleashed a flurry of attacks that Ramirez managed to knock aside with his hands and with little shifts in his movements to dodge blows. An uppercut scraped along the chest plate of Ramirez as he back stepped it and sent shocks throughout his system and left his teeth chattering. The electricity from seemingly nowhere was all too real and Porter's motions were beginning to hold a little more control and finesse.

As Ramirez continued to parry his shoulder-mounted cannons began to charge, twin-linked weapons capable of obliterating nearly any enemy if they got a large piece of them and at this range it was almost a guarantee. He also tried to understand exactly how all of this was happening. Surely it had to be coming from the machine itself, an older looking device he couldn't quite identify. Perhaps it had some sort of electrical generator in it, an overdrive function that enabled all of this. It was just too much of a shame that he would have to destroy it.

The cannons lit up as they unloaded their stored energy, two separate beams fusing together into a massive circular blast that ate up the same space a Goliath occupied. But a Goliath was not there to be hit and the light from the attack dissipated into the air. The White Storm had vanished once more.

With an explosion of thunder Porter reappeared behind Ramirez and drove his blades through the back of the enemy commander's Goliath, each one poking through where human kidneys are located but instead they burst out the front smeared in oil and mechanical fluids, not blood and guts.

Ramirez's chain whipped up and over his shoulder, wrapping around the White Storm's neck and head. It was an unfortunate weakness of a Goliath to be designed similar to the human body where the cerebral core of the machine was located in the head and without it the rest could not function. "It is too bad you could not kill me young boy. Now it is a stalemate. Can your blades reach my battlesuit's spine before I tear your head off?"

Porter jiggled the blades a little but they were firmly entrenched in the enemy's body. Ramirez gritted his teeth as another wave of electricity coursed through him and his arm stalled a little, the motor mechanics beginning to stutter from the shocks. "I don't do a stalemate you Artisan jerk!" Porter pulled his blades out and pulled backwards and the chain snapped, the numerous chinks Porter had made it in earlier giving way.

The swords flashed again, cutting into the two shoulder cannons and destroying them instantly, leaving Ramirez weapon less. The field commander spun around to face Porter and was met with the full release of an enormous shockwave, sending the Goliath stumbling and reeling back, blue electrical bolts dancing across its exterior hull and its internal systems going berserk in warning.

"Now," said Porter through his pants, (the two were nearly exhausted from their tremendous efforts and it was their breathing mostly heard over the speakers) "let us start over again and we will see who the pathetic one is!"

A/N: The battle reaches electrifying heights but can the young will of Porter keep lasting against the veteran presence of Ramirez? Find out in the next exciting chapter!

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