236 THE JUGGERNAUTS
She activated her anti-ta field, causing the atmosphere to distort around her.
Black Halo felt it imdiately. His power tightened and was suppressed.
"Hell, not again," Dan complained.
Umbros charged, swinging anti-ta blades—his was the only power around that was unaffected by Acyros' anti-ta power.
Black Halo soared upward, narrowly avoiding the strike.
Acyros scread, "How can you still fly under my anti-ta field?!"
Black Halo laughed in a cold, violent sound."Because my power isn't powered by ta energy alone."
He activated his Cores of Genesis which uses his own blood to power his abilities.
Suddenly, Black Halo snapped his fingers.
A single bolt of lightning crashed down and obliterated Acyros. She didn't even have the opportunity to defend herself.
Umbros froze at the sight of his partner's death… just long enough for the second bolt to reduce him to smoking fragnts too.
Black Halo turned toward Dr. Revive, ready to finish the job…but a team of Rank A and AA ta humans rushed in, yanking the doctor out of danger, forming a defensive wall.
These were the executives of Atheris Corporation.
"I don't have ti for you fools," Black Halo said, already dismissing them. He didn't have ti to deal with them.
He waved his hand.
The cylindrical tank, the nightmare machine containing Argent… all of it vanished, swallowed into Dan's private dinsional storage.
With his mission complete, Black Halo rose effortlessly through the shattered ceiling, leaving the surviving ta humans watching helplessly below.
-----
[Back to the ambush in the farm]
Sienna and her siblings froze at the sight of the android soldiers pouring into the courtyard.
"I recognize this model of androids- they are Juggernauts…. Elite of the android forces", Gamboge said.
These weren't ordinary drones or androids… these were the Juggernauts… powerful advanced autonomous fighting platforms. Their armor and weaponry were equivalent to Rank A ta humans.
And there were many of them…. too many of them.
Against humans, Sienna and her psychic siblings were unmatched, but against machines… they were effectively powerless.
"I'll admit it," Sienna breathed, her voice tight. "I've never felt this helpless without Argent."
She was a formidable psychic… one of the strongest in Liberty… but her power had one fatal flaw: machines. Psychic influence simply couldn't penetrate circuitry.
That was why Argent had always been her perfect partner. His powers for dominating machines covered the weakness she could never overco and vice versa.
But Argent wasn't here.
"Next ti, don't you dare leave Argent alone, no matter what, bring him with you if you must," Celadon muttered, his eyes darting around for an escape.
"If there is a next ti," Mortuum said grimly. "We might die here today."
"It we'd known earlier we would have brought an army of drones", Isabelline said.
"How would we have known? This facility is supposed to be machineless…. Who would have thought there was an android army lurking to trap us in an ambush?" Gamboge replied.
"Focus everybody, it's not over," Sienna snapped back, forcing her mind to stay sharp.
The Juggernaut androids advanced in perfect formation. Ard with superior cha armor and powerful laser cannons, they could decimate most weaker opponents.
"Surrender now," the Juggernauts warned.
Then… shouts erupted behind them.
The mansion guards spilled out the front doors, charging the androids with desperation in their eyes.
Sienna didn't need to read their minds to know what happened—Mortuum and Isabelline had seized their nervous systems, overriding their fear and forcing them to fight…
More accurately to sacrifice themselves to save them.
The guards slamd into the Juggernauts, but the result was imdiate and brutal. Human bodies simply weren't ant to withstand Rank A ta-grade alloy armor and Rank A laser cannons.
One by one they fell, crushed or cut down.
Still…. the sacrifice bought precious seconds.
"Move!" Sienna barked.
With the human shield collapsing behind them, Sienna and her siblings broke from the mansion and fled into the open grounds, their breath sharp, hearts hamring, as the thunder of steel footsteps closing in.
-----
[GenSyn Building]
Dan hurried back into the GenSyn Industry complex, dropping to one knee as he materialized the cylindrical tank from his storage space.
The tal clanged heavily against the floor. Liorea blinked in shock.
"Boss… since when do you have storage powers?" she asked.
"It's not mine," Dan said, brushing frost from the tank's surface. "An artifact Lord Nicaesa gave . It's much smaller than your spatial capacity, but useful when needed."
Lieutenant Kalr was already rushing over, with his eyes wide opened as he tried to work the machine tank.
"I'm… not entirely familiar with this type of device," he confessed, his hands hovering nervously over the controls. "A machine that traps people in manufactured nightmares is outside my usual field. But I'll do what I can to wake him."
Kalr, ever since joining GenSyn, had beco their de facto chief scientist, though even he looked uneasy facing this cruel machine.
Within monts, chanical hisses filled the lab. The fluid inside the tank drained away, sluicing through steel channels. Locks disengaged.
The hatch cracked open with a tallic groan.
Suddenly, Argent's eyes snapped open.
Dan exhaled in relief. "You woke up faster than Ka…" He caught himself, rembering how badly Kail had reacted to the sa machine. It had taken ages to free him. Argent, on the other hand, had woken almost instantly… with no assistance.
But he wasn't supposed to say that and reveal Kail's secret.
Argent stepped out of the tank, water still dripping from his hair.
"I'm not like most people," he said evenly. "Emotions don't affect . So, nightmares don't either."
Then he lifted his gaze and fixed Dan with a piercing stare.
"Did you save ?" Argent asked quietly.
Dan didn't answer imdiately.
The truth was, he had Argent marked in the favorites list of his mining app. The mont he learned Argent had been taken, he instinctively scanned for his signal. To his surprise, the location wasn't a distant farm outside the city…it was right inside Silver City.
That was how he realized Kail's intel had been a setup, a lure carefully planted to drag Sienna straight into an ambush.
Argent's expression suddenly changed. "My sister…where is she now?"
Dan exhaled, calm but firm. "It's too late for us to interfere. That battle… should already be over by now… anwhile let bring you to sowhere safe, then I'll have to go help them…"
"I'll go with you", Argent said.
"No, you are still too weak. Maybe after you've recovered," Dan insisted before sending Argent into the basent… to their safehouse in GenSyn.
----
[At Godfather's farm]
Sienna and her siblings sprinted to their armored vehicles, the engines roaring to life as they sped out of the mansion grounds.
It didn't take long for the juggernauts to tear through the mind-controlled guards blocking their path. The towering chas activated their jet packs, rising into the sky and closing in fast.
"The juggernauts are chasing us…what do we do? My mirage isn't affecting them at all!" Celadon shouted.
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