They always told Fish it didn't exist. They told him to stop looking for it. Maybe it's for the best that they stayed behind.
The Throne is even more glorious than he had ever imagined. It speaks of hope, of power unlimited, of rebirth, of restoration. It could save him. It could turn back all of this. It could give him everything he wanted. It could put him at the pinnacle of the new world.
His reverie is interrupted by a sound from Crystal, shifting uncomfortably on her stubby feet. In an instant he knows why, his heart sinking into his stomach, feeling like it's about to herniate. Of the six of them that set out toward the Throne, five made it -- and there's only one seat.
He admits, they had joked a little about that along the way, about the possibility that only one of them would get to sit on the Throne, about whom the honour would go to. They had all laughed when Robot weighed in: "SELECT MUTANTNAME FROM TEAMMATES WHERE THRONEBUTT_QUALITY = (SELECT MAX(THRONEBUTT_QUALITY) FROM TEAMMATES);” But nobody's laughing now. Fish knows what everybody's doing, before he even looks around. Every one of them is a trained killer, and they’re all evaluating former friends, making up minds about whom to kill first.
Crystal's tough on the exterior, but she's likely to crack once she sees her family start killing each other off. It was hard enough for her when she wasn't able to save Eyes from the Horror. Rebel's got thicker blood flowing through her, though. Fish knows she'd kill him just as easily as one of her minions if it tried to jump on the Throne. Y.V. is a wildcard; Fish doesn’t even know why he'd bother with going for the Throne in the first place or what he intends for it. Robot's the biggest worry -- it's made clear time and time again that the Throne is its greatest priority, but not whether it needs to sit on it. If it does, there's no question that it'll eliminate all of them once they’re no longer of use.
Is Fish or the others of any further use to Robot? All of them are staring at it now, hands tensed, drifting instinctively towards gun belts. Crystal's eyes catch Fish’s, and he nods -- then a sudden crash almost throws fish off his webbed feet. Instantly everyone is facing the Throne again, as ports around its base start to open, and... Something... starts to unearth itself.
The team moves as one again as they back away, drawing weapons simultaneously, as the throne lifts slowly up from the floor, looming down toward them. Green lights blaze forth from it as guns swing into position, a dozen giga-capacitors whining, charging up for the Throne's first volley. Automated defences, they should have known.
Crystal takes a dash forward and holds her arms out to either side, but fish grabs her and pulls her back before she can harden, warning her not to throw herself away on the Throne's massive claws. She nods, and her feet fuse to the floor anyway, as she hefts her minigun and begins firing alongside the rest of the group. Now singing a melancholy dirge, Fish fires hot plasma into the thrones hull. There's no telling which one of fish’s teammates is going to survive this fight, but he knows he’ll lay down his life for any of them. As long as it ensures that one of them -- any of them -- makes it onto that seat...