 Yeah, Cyclone agreed with himself. That was weird. But as soon as the words exited Allison's mouth, a loud BANG sound came from around the hallway, followed by the crumbling and rattling of small bits and pieces of concrete hitting the floor.
 Cyclone spun around. It wasn't a fiery explosion, since there was no heat or flames, but something had broken apart - a thin cloud of dust billowed out from around the bend of the spiral hallway's curve, and it slowed down as it approached them.
 Then, like a ghost, someone ran out of the dust field. Cyclone stepped back, Allison as well, before he recognized the girl who had rescued him before. It was Kate. She skidded to a stop and rested her hands on her knees, gasping.
 "Man I'm out of shape," Kate panted, "and Intrepid said we were under attack."
 Cyclone turned to Allison, who looked like she'd just seen a ghost, but she brought a hand to her ear and removed a small earpiece to inspect it. A green LED on it flashed. "My comm's on, but I didn't hear anything."
 "Not your Intrepid," Kate clarified, "my Intrepid. He went the other way, and then the ceiling broke, so we can't go back that way. Is there another way around?"
 "It's a spiral hallway," Allison said, "but there is a door and a connecting hallway-"
 "Good, let's go!" Kate said, grabbing Cyclone's right hand and tugging. The left side of his body suddenly felt heavy, and when he glanced down, he saw with sadness that his left arm had reverted to a blade again. How did it change? What made it change? But now Kate was pulling him down the hallway so he didnât have much time to think.
 "I'll get Ben!" Allison cried after them.
 "Who's attacking us?" Cyclone asked.
 "No idea," Kate muttered. "Can't say I know anything about dimensions, what's going on, and what's with Intrepid? Whoever knows, I sure don't."
 "Apparently he marries someone named Mara in the future." Cyclone recalled what Allison said.
 "Mara? Oh, her. Red hair. That makes sense, when Allison said Red was his daughter. Since theyâre both redheads."
 "Well actually-" Cyclone was cut off when they approached the aforementioned door and Kate pressed a button, sliding it open.
 But instead of looking into an empty connecting hallway, they found themselves looking into a full connecting hallway.
 Full of Stromling Mechs.
 "1T I5 T1M3 F0R Y0U T0 D1E." the first one said, swinging its barrel around to face them through the door.
 Kate slammed the door. "Where did they come from?" she shouted. Cyclone raised his blade arm while Kate's bow unfolded into a shield, which she held in front of them for the inevitable explosion.
 The Mech's energy blast did strike the door, blasting it out of its frame to bounce off her shield. It transformed back into a bow and she launched flaming arrows into the hallway, which quickly engulfed the close quarters within its walls and the mechs began to smash.
 "444444HHHHHHHHH!" "4444HHHHHHHHHH!" "444444HHHH!" the mechs' robotic voices echoed as they smashed into turret quickbuilds.  As soon as the imagination flames died down, and the hallway was clear, Kate and Cyclone pushed through.
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 Kate ushered Cyclone over to the door at the end of the connector, and she gave her katana a spin before triggering the door to slide open. Immediately flashes of weapons fire began to enter the hallway through the increasing gap, and sounds of combat reached Cyclone's ears.
 "Stay back," Kate warned. "If you smash, you're dead." Cyclone nodded, then she leapt into the fray.
 Intrepid Fusion Eclipse was on the ground inside a tent of overturned tables, outside of which Skilled Honored Ninja and Cailan Crateris battled. Red and Strange Odd Shadow were exchanging melee attacks with Crimson, who kept jumping out of the reach of Shadow's wrenches and dodging Red's blasters, and bounding back with powered punches that would have knocked anyone else out already, but they were resilient. Skilled's broom had transformed into an Energy Spork, and he braced and spun the double handed weapon to block Cailan's flipping kicks, and suddenly he delivered a strike that knocked the boy flying across the room. He fell over a table and crumpled to the ground.
 Before the janitor could move in for a followup strike, Crimson suddenly rebounded off Shadow's chest and flew over the rows of tables, twisting in the air to grab Skilled's head, her momentum pulling him off course, but before they hit the ground a rift appeared in front of her trajectory. They both fell in, and Red squeezed the triggers of her weapons while Kate, running to join Red and Shadow, launched an arrow into the void. Then the exit portal appeared in the ceiling above the three of them, out of which flew the hail of blaster fire and a flaming arrow, which they only barely dodged. Then Skilled fell out, landing squarely on Shadow, and Crimson followed to plant her boots on Red's shoulders. With a jump, Red was sent sprawling across the ground.
 Crimson double jumped and landed victoriously atop a remaining table, then turned to face the last one standing for the moment. "I don't think we've met? Shame we'll never get to get to know each other." she taunted to Kate, tilting her head to each side and stretching her arms outwards, before bringing her gauntlets together with a clang.
 In response, Kate smirked and mounted the table row opposite her opponent. Her bow transformed into a shield, and she held her katana in front of her, assuming a dueling stance. "Get to know this." she challenged, poking the tip of her blade ever so slightly, while maintaining a perfectly controlled balance atop the otherwise teetery structure.
 Cyclone watched as Kate launched herself across the divide and into an attack, and he heard the scrape of metal weapons against each other, and that was all he heard from that room as he had to turn around, because he also heard a scuttling sound from behind which required his immediate attention.
 A Dark Spiderling had entered the hallway and was sidling around the smashed mech parts. Approaching him.
 Cyclone gulped. It was a Spiderling that had infected him. He felt an irrational fear: had that one returned to finish the job?
 Instead of attacking, preparing to attack, or even looking threatened, the Spider continued to trot towards him. Suddenly having an idea, Cyclone raised a hand. "Stop!" he ordered in the gruffest voice he could muster. Surprisingly, the Spiderling did come to a halt, but its forelegs twitched slightly, asking to proceed, or asking for a reason not to.
 Think, Cyclone thought hard. Well, the Maelstrom was here, and they'd tried to attack them... and these two crazies were here, he could still hear the girl and Kate exchanging blows, and they were attacking them. So that could mean...
 "Our allies have this room covered." Cyclone stated. "Head back and patrol that way."
 The Spiderling nodded. Then its fangs parted, its mouth opened, and it did something Cyclone didn't think Spiderlings could do. The dark creature actually spoke, and it enunciated its syllables, the few there were, pretty well. "Got it."
 Then it turned around and headed out into the spiral.
 Wondering what use he could be, Cyclone contemplated the situation. One hit from a gauntlet would smash him permanently, since he was infected and couldn't rebuild. He could be noticed by an ally who didn't know better, and be smashed that way, and that wouldn't be nice. But there was only one other way into the hallway, and he could move farther down it and still be in a position to deter any other Maelstrom reinforcements.
 Perhaps he could use his current state to learn more about the Maelstrom's objectives in this facility.
 He looked back furtively, to see that Kate was holding her own and that the others were beginning to recover. Without another glance, he darted down the hall and followed the Spiderling's clattering steps, deeper into the facility....