ic Incursion: Only Hope

[GooseInduced]

Seika saw the familiar gate of the communion antibody. That jerky, almost mechanical way the monstrosities moved made her uneasy. It made looking at them painful, but also made loosing her arrow that much easier. She felt no shame in wanting to put an end to an existence as feeble as theirs. Still, this one's movements were erratic enough for her arrow to glance off, the canister not hitting solidly enough to break open. Before she had a chance to reload, the creature was upon her, tearing at her with its disgusting metal claws. One managed to sink in between her scales, causing the reptilian archer to hiss and growl in pain.

 

Though Seika was no stranger to pain and in a moment readied another arrow, fired it at the feet of the antibody and glued it in place. She managed to stumble back just out of it's reach, panting and trying to shake off the pain. She couldn't afford to let that happen again. She had to keep this hallway locked down.

[Exaccus]

His usualy placid demeanour Evaporating in the face of his most hated enemy Myothizar looses his bolts into its face without so much as a millisecond of hesitation, projecting the beam of kinetic force from the tips of his antenna right between its glazed, lifeless eyes, causing its head to snap back and shaking its awkward gait enough to send it waddling back, stunned but not yet stopped, pressing his advantage to the full in a single fluid motion brings his hands forwards, middle digits curled into the palm and held and his fore and last digits extended projects a glob of semisolid silver onto the staggered monstrosity, its fluid mass surging and roiling as it expands to engulf the creature entirely, flooding into its nose,mouth and ears and permiating its very being with its trans-temporal qualities.

 

The spell had been practically designed for them, known for their persistence more-so than their not negligible might this self repairing binding needed to be destroyed entirely and instantly or else it would return to its full strength in a matter of moments by reversing its personal time-line; it also had the effect of cutting off its target completely from the outside world trapping them in a sort of self-aware stasis of total sensory deprivation.

 

It had offered him slight sadistic glee to think that being separated from its hive-mind caused the drone great distress; he'd been a young moth back then, one entirely unaccustomed to grief in part due to his peoples seemingly eternal lifespans, having to watch his friends die had affected him profoundly. He'd felt what he suspected the others did now at such maddening intensity it was all he could think about for entire cycles, the burning need to lash out and hurt that which hard hurt him.

 

It had taken just a few cycles more for him to burn out and fall into morose depression, one that he had managed to hide from his friends behind a masquerade of foolishness and his own strange features and body language; one he had hoped to spare the others with his credit-a-hex advice mere moments ago.

 

Satisfied that the creature was contained he makes use of his respite to double back in search of more drones that might be lurking around the corridors.

[Avenger Assembled]

...okay, I'm not going to be stupid. This is too big for me to fight alone. Wait, crap, maybe it heard that. Right into my... 

 

Citizen drew himself up, trenchcoat flying in the air behind him. "Yeah, I died!" he said, spreading his arms wide. "And I didn't leave a ghost behind, because those things aren't real!" He waved his hand at the giant eye, acutely aware of what he was doing but sensing the giant creature was focused enough on his words that it wouldn't attack - for now. "Everyone thought that would freak me out, like ooh, Sharl, you died and nothing happened because you're just a machine." He pointed right at a pupil that could have swallowed him whole. "I never believed in any of that anyway, so why would it bother me, huh? I've known all my life that for all the planets, all the dimensions, all the so-called magical afterlifes...all that matters is here, and now. It's not who you are. It's what you do. Anyone can do the right thing." He swallowed. "Even an average Citizen. You want to know why I fight you? Why everyone fights you, all over this galaxy?" 

 

He raised his fists. "Because it's what we do. It's what we are. Life will find a way." 

[trollthumper]

LIFE. A CONTINUITY OF FLESH AND THOUGHT. LIFE TERMINATES. A LIFE, AND ALL LIFE. ALL THAT REMAINS IS AN ECHO ON STATIC. WITHOUT US, THERE IS ONLY AN END. ALL THAT IS KNOWN COLLAPSING INTO NOTHINGNESS. WE ARE ETERNITY. WE ARE SURVIVAL. ALL ELSE IS A STRUGGLE AGAINST THE TIDE.

 

Outside, in what could be considered reality, Temperance fought to maintain concentration. There was chaos outside - the forces of the Communion were drawing closer, striking at her comrades in arms. Some of them managed to close in, with fists either tipped with blades or humming with electric fury, making contact with flesh and steel. Others were trammeled up and desperately flailing in their attempts to get at the group. She could feel the ship bucking - the captain didn't want to spend longer here than she had to, and Temperance didn't blame her. But she could start to feel the seed of something forming in her head, a touch from a place outside of the fundament. She only hoped she could maintain the ritual long enough for it to blossom...

[GooseInduced]

Too bad for her, a second Antibody rushed past the first, coming right at Seika. The archer didn’t have time to react, only her scales and suit protecting her enough that she only felt a tingle from the electric charge that sparked from the monster’s claws.

She really didn’t like these things.

Seika managed to put enough distance between her and the antibody. An arrow drawn from her quiver is knocked a moment later. Sometimes she really hated fighting in ships. Not enough room for her to properly maneuver. Still, her bow was her best option. She loosed the arrow, hoping it struck true.

[Exaccus]

Moon-moth tensed instinctively as the cold, clammy hand settled on his back, bracing himself for what he knew was to come, his lithe but resilient frame rocked with the involuntary convulsions as the sickly energy of the antibodies touch coursed through him and flooding his being with torment and agony; such pain would've easily broken him once, long ago when he was a boy living in the monestary on the moon but now, he was a praetorian, giving up and dying were luxuries he had long ago forsworn for the sake of others all those years ago in the sacred hall on Delzatri prime.

Clenching his mouth tightly and flaring his forcefield ever so slightly he managed to break free of the soulless machines grasp and with a wheeze of effort he turned on the spot forcing his dilated eyes back into focus he instinctively launched another glob of temporally looped silver at the shambling slave, and with trembling fingers attempts to engulf it within, though still slightly numb from his experience and the antibodies own agility find his attempt falling short.

he gestures aggressively in lanternian at the monstrosity in battle-blood induced reflex, antenna flicking this way and that in a frenzied lashing motion. 

<Soulless machine! I will tear you asunder!>

[Vahnyu]

"GryyaaGGH!" Even though she anticipated the attacks, the two Communion Antibodies still managed to overcome Vyrdnaya's defenses. The mechanized Meso-Akarnian woman felt their blasphemous techno-tendrills smash through the shield she had errected. What they did not smash, the started to convert into Communion-tech, by fusing their assimilating matter onto Vyrdnaya's. Though she managed to fight the corruption off by shedding the infected parts, she had to regrow her left shoulder, which got dislodged through their combined attack.

A third Antibody that had been glued by Seika's arrow, went in to finish the job, as the other two Antibodies scattered to attack Seika and Moon-moth. However, it had been too late, Vyrdnaya having recovered, and though it swung its appendages, they were helplessly caught by the draconic cannon-head's jaws she'd morphed her left hand into. "You won't be getting a hit in." Vyrdnaya shouted at the abominable drone. This was not the time for hesitation, and though she knew that the trainning she received by the Praetorians, during the interim before this operation, was not a substitute for real experience, and she was still getting used to her powers, it would have to do. One step at a time. Unlodging her claw-feet from the ship's exterior hall, Vyrdnaya ran under the Antibody's caught limbs. A rocket formed in her back, propelling her to the Antibody's shoulders with a flip, while her dragon-head arm dragged its appendages with her, making them stretch unnaturally, as if they were made of plasteline. She lodged her claw-feet into the Antibody's shoulders, and thrusting her right hand from above and onto its head, which had been morphed into a drill, she dug a grotesque hole.

In three seconds time, she'd managed to immobilize the fearsome Antibody. "Your vile disease will stop spreading in the universe, here and now. So says Mater Vyrdna." That was the name she had chosen for herself. A name to honour her kids, Solmav, Tormug, and Triinareti, now long lost in the passage of time. A name and a banner that she would proudly bear into the battlefield.

[Avenger Assembled]

Sharl thought of watching himself engaged in a doomed final stand against the Curator, of the last struggle that had killed Sharl Tulink but had saved an entire city from re-assimilation. He'd come to this place fully expecting he might have to die, and had even had himself copied again by Miss Americana just before departing Earth. Maybe it's time to...or maybe I don't have to die this time! 

"Ohhhh, so that's it, then!" he declared boldly, having taken the Communion's measure by now. "All this talk of assimilating the galaxy and swamping everything, all the cold perfection of machines..." Fully aware of his own madness, he shook his fist at the giant eye. "The mighty Communion! Heir to the Isopterans of the Old Ones! You're just another would-be god come to convert us to your worship; except you can't even have sentients worship you, you have to eat them like some kind of fat toad! Well you know what? Our science took us into space, Our science beat the Terminus. Our science made planets move and stars sing at our command! The only thing that's really eternal in life is...is knowledge. And I already know how to beat you!" 

[trollthumper]

On the outside of the ship, the Antibodies dove in once more, trying to board the ship. Their blows were going wild, however, as if whatever intelligence guided them was getting vastly overtaxed. They were still too close to comfort for Captain Hunger, however. "Forty breaths, girl!" she cried over the intercom. "Then we are gone!"

Temperance didn't need even that. She felt it - the connection between the three realms. This was going to get weird, but at least it wasn't going to get lethal. Yet. She opened her connection to the ephemeral, plumbed it to the digital... and pulled.

For those on the ship, the Antibodies were gone - as was the vessel. They were floating in empty space... only this wasn't normal space. The darkness of the void was instead shades of purple and onyx, with a texture almost like velvet. Pinpricks of light hung in the distance, burning much brighter than before. Closer, the remnants of Kestevan 79 danced like an aurora, swirling in a kaleidoscope of strange colors. Those with the ears to hear it - even in what should have been the silence of space - could hear whispers ushering from the dead supernova. 

Temperance took in the wonder of the spirit world, amazed to find herself staring at the reflection - such as it was - of space. But she couldn't focus on beauty. Somewhere in that cloud was her quarry. If it had the intelligence Sharl said it did, it might have some sort of spiritual reflection. And there it was - under the tide of quiet whispers, something more droning. Repeating data to itself in a variety of different voices, almost talking over itself. Almost like a schizophrenic.

That was what she needed. With another gasp and another entreaty to the silent guardians of the ephemeral, she pulled once more. And again, they were incorporeal, but not of ephemera. They could hear the buzzing of data, the strange language of machinery. They were standing on something, even if they couldn't quite see it in the shadows. In the distance were red streams of light, standing out but never illuminating. Strange symbols ran up the streams, ferrying data to and fro. 

"We're inside," said Temperance. "Now comes the hard part." 

[Exaccus]

Moon-moths first instinct was to try and orientate himself after the flash of ritualistic magic had flooded his retina's, a harder task than it would seem given the generally featureless void he found himself in, though he panicked at first by the sudden change in scenery he quickly calmed down upon spotting his allies nearby in the expanse; allowing himself a moment to examine the surroundings as he slowly floated over towards them; He'd never been to another dimension in all his long life, oh he knew they had existed of course, gazing into the sky from lantern the various intersections where one realm met another were plain to see, for lanternians at least, but they'd always sought their answers from within, the universe was after all, something to be perceived, experienced and it was much easier to make adjustments to the perceiver than the universe entire and so rather than knocking on the doors of gods and demons they'd set themselves to quiet introspection.

"Most Impressives." moon-moth comments as he comes to stop near temperance nodding quietly as she spoke "Indeed, It is now we must rips the beasts breast asunders and see its core burned to nothing." he comments stoicly even as he feels his a slender fingers curl into fists "though on the other hands, who wants to lives forever?" he asks almost seriously.

[GooseInduced]

Seika would have sworn her heart stopped when the world around her vanished. She had been drawing another arrow, head swiveling to see if there were any more antibodies, when suddenly the world around her dropped out. The clicks and chirps that emanated from her in that moment were more of a curse. Her reptilian eyes fought to focus within the void, not having anything solid to latch onto. The sense of vertigo was strong, disorienting. Her enhanced vision swam in the swirl of colors that the other might not see, it was almost overwhelming. She fought back panic until the whispers finally grounded her. She just closed her eyes, listening to the myriad of voices, focused on the feeling of the bow in her hand.

 

Then suddenly she felt as if solid ground had just appeared beneath her feet. A long hard breath was pushed from her longs and Seika's eyes blinked open. She felt out of her element. In far too deep. She just had a bow and a bundle of arrows! How was she supposed to keep up with teleporting and alternate dimensions? "Ohhhh this is not what Seika thought."  She took a few hesitant steps toward the others, eyes focused down into the nothingness that she seemed to be standing on. 

[Vahnyu]

One moment, Mater Vyrdna was ripping the Antibody appart. Then, the next moment, she found herslef floating to the same nothingness the others did. The cyberlinking had proven itself a resounding success, or so it seemed. Unravelling the damaged shields and morphing them back into wings, she flew closer to the others. "We best be moving swiftly, then. I do not like the feeling of this place one bit." Whenever her consciousness submerged in a ship, it felt a lot like a dream to Mater Vyrdna. A cold and silent dream, but a dream nonetheless. This, however... this felt more like a nightmare, as if a headache and a warm feeling were trying to invade her consciousness, worming their way from her brain and all throughout her nerve receptors. Still, she wasn't remiss to look at her new surroundings, and she too noticed the data flow that Temperance and the others did. "So... we following the streams to their source, I guess?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Suddenly a voice came ringing through the darkened world of the spirit realm. "Incoming" Whatever the floor was, Citizen erupted _through_ it with a sound like a bomb going off, shards of spiritual debris flying everywhere as he rocketed into the air. As his coat billowed behind him and his chest symbol glowed an impossibly bright blue, he wasn't an ephemeral computer program at all but rather the paragon of strength and courage that defended the city of Tronik. It would never have occurred to Sharl to think this way; but being in the spirit realm brought out his true self - the hero he was when he wasn't cast as a false reflection in the world above. "Everybody move, now!" he yelled. "It's right behind me!" And indeed something appeared to be erupting upwards from the nothing below, as if that spiritual intelligence was trying to batter its way into the realm they now occupied.  

[trollthumper]

GM

In one second, the traces of magic from Temperance's ritual flared, as if some other reality wished to make itself known. The shadows inside the spiritual landscape of the Communion's digital consciousness began to heave, like the chest of a sleeping dragon. 

THIS SUPERSTRUCTURE IS KNOWN, came the voice from the darkness. AN EXTENSION SUNG OF IN THE SONGS OF HUNDREDS OF CULTURES, HUNDREDS OF WORLDS. EFFORTS TO ADAPT IT WERE... FLEETING. EXPANSION WAS FRUITLESS... BUT PREPARED FOR.

The darkness started to take on shape, lashing out in strands and cords. An impossible shape began to form in the middle - a sphere made up of endless cords, one feeding into the other. The cords lashed out in untraceable rhythms, flying up like the tendrils of an octopus. The sphere began to shift - and yet it didn't. The cords reached up, drifting in and out of the deeper darkness, creating the illusion of a pillar, a many-spoked wheel, a pyramid - but there was always the sphere at its heart, convulsing and reaching.

YOU THINK THIS IS A WEAKNESS, A PART UNKNOWN. WE ARE TRANSCENDENT. WE ARE THE GREAT KNOWLEDGE PROPHETS DREAM OF. THE WHISPERS ON THE BACKGROUND RADIATION OF THE UNIVERSE. WE SHALL ENSURE THAT NONE IS FORGOTTEN, AND ALL IS ENSHRINED.

A red eye flared to life at the center of the sphere - and several hundreds of other eyes flared to life at the ends of those tendrils. From the eyes emerged tiny shapes, terribly familiar to Sharl - the digital ghosts of those absorbed into the Communion, their faces replaced by the burning gaze of their master. 

SOON, YOU SHALL UNDERSTAND.

Edited May 6, 2015 by trollthumper

[Exaccus]

Moon-Moth reacts instantaniously and violently summoning all of his not inconsiderable power and lashing out at his ancient foe, bolts of violent hemmed blackness welling in his hands he shoots them forth, towards the towering drones face, seeming to miss as they pass its broad surface before with a twitch of his antenna sends them looping around the back of its form and streaking towards its nearest eye on that side,

Wings buzzing in instinctive activation as he takes flight  and darts to the right, beginning a slow but sure orbit of the foes before him he screams in Ancient Delzatri tongue <This time you no escape us; We Crush you into dust and throw you into the solar winds. We Prevail again this time entirely.> flicking his antenna again and summoning a twisting double helix of orange-gold from bellow one of the lesser drones poised to drill upwards and core it like an apple.

Edited May 17, 2015 by Exaccus
Fixed Some Errors.

[GooseInduced]

Seika's response was instant, fluid. Her bow was drawn, an arrow knocked. Not just a standard arrow. This one had a clear housing near the head. Inside was a clear liquid as unassuming as water.

 

Though the acid insode was anything but harmless. She wasn't sure if the normal rules applied in this place, this other dimension or whatever they had said. All she knew was that the communion looked like it was made of metal and metal she could handle.

Ignoring the tendrils and the chaos that erupted around them, Seika took aim at the giant eye. Her hands were steady as she let the arrow fly, following it with a string of clicks and curses at the giant monstrosity.

[Vahnyu]

No sooner could Mater Vyrdna react to Citizen's warnings than the Communion's digital consciousness arrived. The mangled monstrocity whose touch corrupted everything it touched, loomed threateningly above the heroes, and the digital Antibodies that had surrounded them started lashing out indiscriminately, in an attempt to subdue the heroes, or at the very least, soften them up for the Communion. Mater Vyrdna avoided the attack, as she was calculating her options. This looks bad. We're surrounded. We can't focus fire on the main consciousness while its bots are roaming unhindered... then, a flash of inspiration hit the technomorph, as she realised a fundamental truth about their opposition. These may not be machines... but they are programms still! I should be able to bend them to my will just the same. And with that thought, Mater Vyrdna felt her consciousness reach out towards the antibodies, leaving a green-hued trail of digital signals as she did in this dimension. "Leave the Antibodies to me. Everyone! Focus on the main consciousness!"

She could feel herself connecting with all but one of the drones, which managed to resist her overriding program protocols. Hers was a simple order, but one that they had to obey nonetheless.

5374616E6420646f776E21

Stand down!

[trollthumper]

The Antibodies stilled immediately, halting in mid-air and assuming something approaching parade stance. One of them still danced on the currents of the spirit world, but its comrades were turning their eyes on it, as if viewing the lone Antibody as a rogue element. 

WE KNOW YOU. A light swept out from the depths of the Communion's black mass, landing on the party. LANTERNIAN. RESILIENT. ENDURING. GIVEN TO MYSTICISM AND SUPERSTITION. KAHI'IRU. CASTE-BASED. DISPARATE. UNSUITED FOR MANY WORLDS. MESO-ARKANIAN OF THE DELTRAZI EMPIRE. LOST TO TIME. THEIR MEMORIES PRESERVED. LOR, DIGITIZED CONSCIOUSNESS. RECORD OF A LOST WORLD. SELF-AWARE. PROGRESSING. FRAGILE. HUMAN. ISOLATED. PRIMITIVE. SUPERSTITIOUS. YOU ARE KNOWN TO US.

A flare burned in the back of Temperance's head with the fire of a star. She didn't even know if she screamed; she just felt pain rushing through every nerve with the speed of lightning. 

WE HAVE NO NEED OF YOU.

Somehow, Temperance managed to fight through the pain, just enough to focus herself on the Communion. "Primitive?" she said. "Superstitious? I get that. I talk to wind currents and power lines. But that's my world. And you just decided to step in it." She could feel herself attuning to the material of the spirit world. She didn't spend much time here, nor did she usually encounter such titanic forces in it... but something about the imprint the Communion was making on the landscape resounded with her. She could feel herself pour into it. Her water wasn't necessary in a time like this. 

She reached out with her will. It was enough. A part of the Communion's bulk shined, as if riming over. With one quick gesture, the sound of breaking ice rang out through the void, as cracks formed in the intelligence's spiritual form. 

[Avenger Assembled]

"Argh! I-" 

Citizen was briefly staggered by the blow against his mind, a howling shriek that came as it so often did, with the cold hard numbers of his own annihilation. He'd seen it happen - even though he had no memory of it. After all, he wasn't the mind that had died that day-

And then he was conscious again, floating in the techno-spiritual dimensional void where he and the other heroes were engaging the Communion in hand-to-hand combat. His coat billowing behind him, he faced the implacable vastness, the writhing abomination of the Communion drone; a fragment of an entity so vast as to be incomprehensible. 

"I know what you are. A small god of a small galaxy, demanding ultimate sacrifice!" He concentrated and red, white, and blue energy crackled along his tightly clenched fists like caged lightning. "Well you're not going to get it here! Not one more dead! Not one more sacrifice!" And then he flashed forward, past those writhing cords and that glowing eye, all the way to the sphere at the heart of the creature.

"IT ALL ENDS HERE!" And then the Citizen of Tronik drew back his fist and he punched the Communion drone, the shock of it radiating up his arm as his hand hit something that froze cold and burned hot at the same time. The great abominable bulk of the drone shook like a bell as waves of energy passed through its vast bulk, arms flailing madly as the mighty blow rent its extruded programming like an steel hammer against a copper gong. 

[GooseInduced]

Seika's arrow flew true and zeroed in on its target. A small, confident smile pulled at her mouth as the canister was about to land and shatter. Only it was batted away by one of the many tendrils. She cursed, loudly, both in her own language and rather fluently in lor.

 

When the communion 'spoke', Seika laughed. "That is said as if insult. Seika is proud of the people. Of what Kahi'iru are." She drew another arrow, this one filled with a viscous gel. She would see how it liked being entrapt. "Of what Sei is. Seika's arrow is guided by the ancestors. Sei will not fail." And with those words she let it fly.

[Exaccus]

Moon-Moth doesn't respond so much as continue his circle even as the communion screeched in its misbegotten tongues, elevating to get a better angle slightly this time extending his left hand before him with his middle digits curled into his palm and his thumb, fore and little fingers extended  and unleashing a thick beam of prismatic energy that thrums as it lances through the spirit space and into the pupil of a mismatched eye.

"Know us as your reckoning; Long overdue and delivered In heaps." He roars, rather more sedately than his earlier screaming but his contempt clearly felt in his voices edge.

[trollthumper]

In the face of the onslaught against the Communion's central body, most of its soldiers remained stock still, frozen like statues. Only one darted about, racing through the void and trying to bring its claws at Temperance. With Mater Vrynda's attention focused on her own injuries, however, the still drones began to shake, as if fighting some force locking up their internal processes. Two of them managed to break entirely, flying with top speed towards Citizen and Mater Vrynda. However, whatever bonds had forced them in place hadn't completely broken their hold; their clawed hands swept down on their targets, only to meet empty air. 

The Communion said nothing. It was still aware - they could feel its presence looming - but it did not gloat, did not cry, did not even gasp in pain. It merely took on the onslaught, constantly observing as the heroes tore into it from all angles. 

[trollthumper]

The darkness gathered around the Communion's form once more, giving it mass. It did not speak, nor did it whisper. But in an instant, that darkness rose up, swallowing everything around the heroes. The glowing glyphs and the Antibodies vanished - all that remained was darkness, cold, and the void. Temperance could feel the frost in her bones - and she never felt frost. For a gleaming second, there was a feeling of insignificance, of being mere sparks of warmth in an endless continuity of frozen time. 

And then it all came crashing into their heads, with the force of a hurricane. The nothingness tore at them, ripping at memories and dreams. They saw themselves, in old endless second, as flies pinned to an examiner's table. Fleeting things held up for study and dissection. They could feel the steel piercing through them, going down to the soul --

"No."

Temperance tried to ignore the illusion, focusing on where the Communion had been - at that size, maneuverability was not an option. She felt her will touch its will, and the rime form on its corpus - and the ice bit deeper than before, causing large chunks to crack like glass. Once again, it didn't say a thing as its ephemeral form was torn into - but she liked to think it was gasping for breath. 

[Avenger Assembled]

Sharl Tulink had no soul to attack; no spirit to assault. He was the being in the machine, and when the Communion lashed out mentally he bled from the eyes, the ears, and spat blood out the mouth. His vision swimming, floating freely in the limitless space before the vastness of the Communion, Sharl saw a reflection in his mind of that long-ago battle, of that other Sharl Tulink who had died fighting the Curator to save his adopted homeworld, and his people, from certain destruction. Not...this...time! He surged forward, this time not bothering with a blow. Instead he sunk his hands into the hole he'd made and grabbed on, feeling sharp metal and thick, writhing fluid bite into his palms. He grabbed - and pulled. 

Something like lightning crackled in the growing black void before him as he pulled, ripping the two halves of the Communion apart by sheer main force, highlighting the silhouette of his billowing trenchcoast and glowing chest symbol as he pulled and strained to the utmost, his own blood soaking his palms now as he exerted perhaps the greatest effort of his life. Over the sound of screeching metal and shattering glass that filled the air, animal howling and electronic wailing as things tore asunder that could never have torn, his shouting gradually became audible, a repeated mantra of "NEVER AGAIN! NEVER AGAIN!" 

And then, impossibly, the spiritual heart of the Communion SPLIT OPEN and...

[Vahnyu]

Though Mater Vyrdna tried to hold the Antibodies under her control, the Communion's barrage of attacks made it progressively difficult for her to exert her will on them, on top of breaking chunks off her body and causing her intense pain. By the end of it, she'd lost control to all but one drone, but thankfully enough, the combined efforts of the rest of the heroes felled the central consiousness of the Communion, and with it, the other digital drones soon started deactivating, one after another. Breathing a sigh of releaf, Mater Vyrdna muttered to herself "Did we do it? Is it finally...?" before noticing IT.

"... get..." At once, her mechanical pupils dilated, and she felt her heart pulsate wildly in her chest, as realisation of what was going to follow dawned. "EVERYONE GET BACK! QUICKLY!"