Dressed in white, blue and gold, Nezha and Gauss both stared at the bright yellow Volt that landed beside them and tutted.
“What?” Volt asked as he loaded his Kuva Twin Stubbas, then pulled out a hideous, also bright yellow Zaw.
“Dude…” Gauss tutted again, flicking one of the toggles on his Acceltra Prime.
“What?”
“Look at yourself!”
Volt glanced down at his arms and chest, then peered over his shoulders, where his Uru Syandana was hanging, then turned back to Gauss. “What? Is this because I’m yellow?”
Gauss stared at Volt some more, then crossed his arms. “No, seriously, look at yourself!”
“Are you, like, allergic to yellow or something?”
“DUDE!” Gauss hissed. “You’re a fucking True Master? And you’re using a NORMAL Volt Warframe?”
Volt shrugged. “So? I’ve got, like, an Umbral forma and an Aura Forma in this beauty. I woke up in this Warframe, I became a True Master in this Warframe, I’ll go back to 1999 in this Warframe. What’s it to you?”
Gauss rolled his neural sensors, then glanced at Nezha, who hoped that the primed ring boy would add something. Nezha though somewhat relented, then started playing with the gold-trimmed hoop on his back.
“As long as he doesn’t hold us back, I’m fine.”
“Hold who back?”
A fourth Warframe joined the squad. An Excalibur, in blue and orange. Not an Umbra, a normal Excalibur. This caused Nezha and Gauss to tut again.
“Oh, he’ll definitely hold us back!” Nezha’s brief moment of chill disappeared. “I don’t normally like to say the word ‘kid’ because I’m clearly rather lithe and feminine, but Excalibur, kid, what are you doing here?”
Excalibur pointed at Volt. “He invited me.”
“Why?”
“Why not?” was Excalibur’s reply.
Nezha hissed and turned to Gauss. Everything they owned was a Prime variant, including Nezha’s Dethcube, set up to produce energy orbs. Meanwhile, between Volt and Excalibur, the only primed item they owned was Volt’s Rubico Prime. Excalibur was using a Vectis and a set of Dex Furis and a Dex Nikana, while being followed around by a normal Carrier. Volt’s Kavat, an oddly ill-fitting Vasca Kavat called Litvir, did at least look somewhat Primed, but it was black and purple with a silver Orokin neck piece. And fangs. Nezha didn’t like Kavats. Too bitey.
“Gauss, they’re both useless.”
“Dude, Excalibur is a bit weird, but Volt here is a True Master. We’ll be fine.”
Nezha relented, then activated his Fire Walker and sprinted off. Volt and Gauss both chased after him, silently racing each other as they approached the entrance of the Gas City. Excalibur glanced around awkwardly, then bullet-jumped off, following the trail of fire and electricity.
As they ran, the multitude of screens they raced past all showed a weird, somewhat sentient face. That of Natah, the being everyone had once considered the Lotus. Their former guide and leader. This should have bothered Excalibur, since he was definitely a fresh, young Tenno, but he was pretty sure things would turn out alright in the end, right?
Not that Excalibur could really understand what Natah was saying. She was droning on and on and on, something about how she was forced into helping the Tenno and how the Sentients were her family or something like that.
The team of Tenno darted around for a little too long. Excalibur did slowly manage to catch up to Nezha, but only because Volt and Gauss had overtaken him after he’d fallen down a handful of pits. The two speedsters were quite happy racing each other to wherever the mission marker was taking them.
Finally, everyone arrived an at elevator. Gauss was yet again tutting with his arms crossed and now seemed even angrier than before.
“I would have won if you didn’t use your ugly-ass operator…”
“Oh come on, it’s not a real race…” Volt protested. “You could have used your real self too, but it’s not my fault you crashed into a wall at the last second!”
“Yeah but…” Upon seeing Nezha and Excalibur, Gauss fell silent and changed the topic. “Whatever. It’s not a race. Let’s just kill this Sentient cuck.”
Volt shrugged then hit the large button on the console next to him. The platform they were standing on began to descend, dragging the four of them to a very wide, open floating area with a large cannon strapped to the ceiling and three heavy duty power generators scattered around, connected by power cables and wires. The voice of Alad V, a well-known Corpus scammer and megalomaniac, welcomed the four Tenno. Whether he was actually there or not, none of them knew, but Volt was pretty sure Alad V had gone into hiding again after the Narmer invasions. He’d always chosen self-preservation over money and greed.
“Zap that giant moth!” Alad-V’s transmissions demanded.
“What moth?” Excalibur asked.
As if on cue, the Ropalolyst hissed and screeched as it flew in from the thick, orange clouds below them. Really, the sight of this creature should have terrified Excalibur, but he’d helped take on an Eidolon before, and as far as he was concerned, this was just an Eidolon but in the air. That being said, the Ropalolyst immediately targetted Excalibur and he darted underneath it, bullet-jumping towards the set of cables immediately ahead of them.
Volt and Gauss both followed, both of them briefly switching to their true selves and shooting the Ropalolyst with their Amps, before returning to their Warframes. Nezha on the other hand tried to be clever and threw his Halo towards Excalibur to teleport towards him, but as he tried to teleport, Nezha fell out of the air, only just saving himself by grabbing onto one of the cables.
Now panicking just a little, Excalibur hid behind the only thing he could hide behind on this new platform, the large, pink power generator. The Ropalolyst screeched and tried to shoot Excalibur through it, but instead caused the generator to glow with a horrible magenta light. Not sure what to do, Excalibur peered from behind the generator and shot the Ropalolyst with his Vectis. This didn’t do anything.
“Get back to the main platform!” Volt shouted as he and Gauss skidded to Excalibur’s side. “We’ve got this!”
Excalibur did as he was told, realizing he was completely out of his depth. Volt switched back to his Operator, shot the Ropalolyst a little more, then signalled to Gauss that everything was ready, before joining Excalibur. Gauss then leaped up and jumped onto the Ropalolyst’s back.
The Ropalolyst twisted and turned in the air, but Gauss quickly took control of it, forcing the giant Sentient to crash into the generator. With a howl, both Gauss and the Ropalolyst crashed into the central platform, causing a large chunk of it to break off and collapse. However, the Ropalolyst wasn’t done and it immediately tried to get up and attack.
Excalibur glanced at Volt, who had erected some Electric Shields. Volt then fired two shots from his Rubico Prime and instantly destroyed one of the nodules on the Ropalolyst’s leg. Nezha the rushed over to a nearby console and hit the button on it, which caused the laser above the Ropalolyst to charge up and shock the beast.
“Oh, so it IS like an Eidolon?” Excalibur asked, watching as the Ropalolyst struggled to its feet, then took off once more. It quickly spotted Excalibur and fired a beam of magnetic energy towards the young Tenno.
“Yeah, basically!” Volt replied as he grabbed Excalibur by the hand and pulled him away from the beam, towards the cables to the left. Both of them dashed up the wires, with the flying Sentient chasing after them.
Realizing that the Ropalolyst really wanted Excalibur dead in particular, Excalibur quickly hid behind the pink generator again, while Gauss joined Volt on the other side of the platform and the two of them peppered the Ropalolyst with their Amps. Again, once the pink generator began to glow, Volt dragged Excalibur back to the main platform while Gauss leaped onto the Ropalolyst and steered it into the generator.
This time though, as the Ropalolyst crashed onto the central platform, it awkwardly summoned a swarm of Battalysts, horrible Sentient fighters. Nezha kindly helped Excalibur take care of them while Volt yet again set up his Electric Shields and took out the Ropalolyst’s other leg nodule. Yet again, Nezha activated the giant laser and the Ropalolyst hissed in agony.
“Damn, dude, what mods do you have on that Rubico?” Gauss exclaimed as he tripped a Battalyst over then fired his Acceltra into its chest.
“Just your basic Eidolon-hunting ones!” Volt replied. “One more and we should be good!”
This time though, the Ropalolyst was slightly more aware. Instead of chasing after Excalibur, it had identified Volt as the main threat, and fired a beam of magnetism at him. Volt silently thanked himself for remembering to equip his Arcane Nullifier, then clambered up the cables towards the last generator. Excalibur and Gauss followed, with Gauss leaving his Warframe behind and attempting to Void Dash towards the Ropalolyst. However, to Gauss’s dismay, the Void Dash failed and Gauss swiftly aborted the dash, returning to his Warframe back on the main platform.
Thankfully, Volt had managed to both charge the generator and take out the Ropalolysts’s shields on his own. But as Excalibur reached the generator platform, a shockwave sent both him and Volt flying. Somehow, Excalibur managed to remain on the platform, but Volt was dangling from one of the cables.
“Jump on!”
“WHAT?”
“Jump on the Ropalolyst!”
Excalibur wanted to shout at Volt and tell him he was insane, but another beam of magnetism stopped him from doing so. Not really having anywhere else to go, Excalibur ran and jumped at the Ropalolyst, grabbing on to one of its legs. He then used his Parazon to climb up the Ropalolyst’s body, before jamming the roped blade into the Sentient’s neck.
“WHY IS THIS WORKING?” Excalibur screamed as the Ropalolyst charged into the generator in a bid to throw the Tenno off its back. Both it and Excalibur crashed onto what remained of the central platform, where Nezha and Gauss were waiting for them. Gauss immediately opened fire on the Ropalolyst, distracting it until Volt could arrive to shoot the last nodule on its back. Meanwhile, Nezha remained by the console, defending it from a wave of Battalysts that had arrived to try and save their leader.
Finally, the nodule on the Ropalolyst’s back exploded in a shower of sparks, and the colossal beast collapsed in the centre of the platform. But Nezha was no longer at the console to activate the giant laser, having been lured away by the Battalysts and beams of Sentient energy. In a panic, Excalibur bullet-jumped over towards the console and skidded past, brushing his hands against the giant red button.
The air tingled briefly, before everything glowed purple. In one last final gasp, the Ropalolyst tried to fly away, but ended up colliding with the laser above it. An explosion rocked the entire area, and the giant Sentient monster plummeted to its doom. The remaining Battalysts all scattered, while Natah’s voice echoed by, promising that both she and the Ropalolyst would get their revenge one day.
Excalibur blinked several times, as Gauss and Volt helped him to his feet.
“Did we do it?” Excalibur couldn’t help but ask as he looked down at the still-smouldering beast.
Gauss patted Excalibur on the back, while Volt helped up Nezha and dragged him over to join the rest of the team. “Dude, you did it! Didn’t think you’d actually be useful here, but you were! Sorry for doubting you both.”
Excalibur shrugged, but Volt waved his hand dismissively. “It’s cool, mate. Mission’s done, let’s get out of here.”
“Yeah, definitely…” Nezha muttered as the four of them bullet-jumped to extraction. “Stupid Sentients and their stupid laser disco balls…”