Vates – Sector Zero

“You!” the loud metallic roar pierced the ears off all the people nearby and cast an immediate silence over the area. Vates slowly turned to see the hulking giant before him and his band of not-so-merry men. The giant had a vaguely familiar face and upon recognising a few of his men realised that it must have been the infamous ‘Chief’, the very same who had been sending his men to kill Vates. Roebuck and the others had jumped up and looked prepared to defend their friend against the equally sized gang, although their morale was clearly stunted by the daunting host. Not wanting a bloodbath to ensue, Vates held his palm towards his fellow squad mates – a signal he hoped would tell them not to attack.

“You must be Chief. I’ve heard that you’ve been trying to kill me.” Vates tried to keep a neutral stance and he managed to stop his voice from wavering. Chief clearly wasn’t interested in talking or justifying his reasons and instead stomped towards his target.

“He’s mine.” The words came out as a twisted sadistic chuckle, made worse of course by his already inhuman voice. This caused Vates to quickly begin stepping backwards as his mind began desperately tried to think of a way out of this predicament, however his mind went blank as the giant man slowly morphed into metal. By now the scene had begun to attract the attention of pretty anyone within eyesight and yet no one was really animated save for Vates and Chief.

“Run Edward!” Janus pleaded, but he went unheard. Vates heart was pumping furiously and were he not so focussed on the threat he would have felt it beating. He tried to assess the situation as quickly as he could. His blades would be useless, as would his light gauntlet. His kinetic gauntlet might be of use but certainly wouldn’t help him reach an end goal. He couldn’t run, he was still tired from earlier and he figured the giant could probably run faster anyway. If others came to his aid then there would be a bloodbath. He could try melt his foe but there was no way he could find a source of heat high enough to melt whatever metal Chief was made of. Water might oxidate his foe… after a long long period of exposure.

His scheming yielded no results quick enough however for Chief had closed the gap and begun sending a series of swipes and kicks at Vates, who only just managed to avoid them. Quickly onlookers started to edge closer to the fight and began to cheer. Did they think that the two were training? Or had society really become so desolate and barbaric in the year since the gate opened? Every now and then Vates would manage to deflect an incoming attack using his kinetic gauntlet and would quickly try a counter attack, but at best he would only manage to throw Chief off balance. After only about 40 seconds (although to Vates it felt like hours) Chief managed to clip Vates and send him tumbling over, breaking a rib and causing bruising in the process. Chief quickly lunged forwards before attempting to stomp down upon his victim, but Vates quickly rolled over and managed to stop the foot at the last moment with his gauntlet. Chief arced over to put more weight onto his leg and slowly his foot began inching towards Vates, causing him to smile manically. It was only about four inches from Vates’ upper body when he managed to shift the angle slightly and push the foot off to the right of him. Vates relief was short lived though for as he clambered to his feet Chief swung back around and grabbed him, picking him up effortlessly with one hand.

“What are you going to do now, little worm?” whispered Chief as he held his victim face to face. Vates couldn’t respond if he wanted to as Chiefs ever increasing grip left him breathless. Vates looked around at the faces of the onlookers and in his desperate moment hoped that someone would actually sweep in and save him, regardless of what fight might ensue… but no one did. Chief noticed his trailing eyes and laughed, “No, they won’t help. I’m more important to them than you are. You’re just another survivor… whereas I’m a god.” And with that he violently tensed his grip, breaking all of Vates ribs and rupturing his organs. Vates eyes opened wide in pain and horror but he could do nothing but writhe and let the blood ooze out of his mouth and various wounds. Happy that the damage was done Chief tossed the barely alive body like he was a piece of trash, and unless someone helped him immediately, he would surely die.

In the morning Zachary promptly awoke and found that breakfast, mainly cereal, powdered milk and fresh bread and toast, was available even at the relatively early time he had arisen. He found that because everybody had different duties everybody had to have breakfast at different times, so it was available early in the morning until some time approaching noon. He quickly ate his breakfast so he would be able to get busy with engineering to take his mind off the thoughts which had driven him out of bed.

After a few more hours of work, Zachary completed the device. The base was shaped like a large upturned bowl, and was actually significantly weighted to keep it on the ground when in operation. Out the top came the wind core atop a heavy metal spring, with a sheath of metal half-covering the spring. To be slotted into that sheath of metal is another metal covering over the wind core, which would direct most of the sound in the opposite direction. Out of the side of the device came an insulated wire about 5 meters long leading to a hand held switch. When not in use that wire can be coiled up and hung on a hook on the side of the device. At a flick of that switch, the circuit will be closed, a current will run through an oscillator and then to the wind core, producing air vibrations of about 2500 Hz with a loudness well over 120 dB.

That was in theory. It worked on paper, and his machine reading allowed him to ensure that there were no faults in the assembly, but certainty can only be obtained through testing. Tentatively, Zachary put on earmuffs and safety goggles, took the switch, moved the full five meters away then flicked the switch. Immediately he curled up to protect his ears from the sound, even though he was still wearing the earmuffs. Dust was shaken from every crevice of the shed and the device was vibrating so much that it was slowly moving. Less than a second later Zachary turned it off. With his ears still ringing and himself surprised with the effectiveness of his device, he approached the machine to inspect it for damage.

Satisfied that there was none, he had a modification to make. A weapon was no good if it was dangerous to the user as well as the target, so he extended the cable to ten meters, which would cut the intensity by a factor of four. Then for the next trial he attached the metal cowl over the air core, directed it away from himself and tried again. This time he did not recoil, although the sound was still very intense, but he did observe that the opposite wall was vibrating. A few seconds later he decided to turn it off.

As he checked again for any damage, he realised that the whole manor, indeed, the whole neighbourhood probably heard that noise. It did not matter. The surrounding neighbourhood was probably well under Winters' control. The project complete, Zachary removed his safety equipment, put his tools and scrap away, then lifted the sonic weapon off the ground and hauled it over to the manor.

Finding Matthias Winters was not hard, for he had heard the noise just like everyone else and had naturally come to inspect. Zachary explained the operation of the device, how it was not to be used at close range, how the cowl can be used to make the sound more directed, and where the battery is if it needs replacing before the rest of the device. With Matthias' approval, Zachary handed the device over to him, who would find it rather heavy, but still able to be carried with a reasonable amount of effort. Receiving his payment, Zachary bade Winters farewell and took his leave.


Zachary still had some business to attend to before all hell broke loose for a second time in this city. He needed to collect all his stuff and bring it to a central location, perhaps in the Winters household.

He had made it over a skyway and was navigating the streets when a military patrol of 8 soldiers was in his path. They noticed him nearly immediately, but so did Zachary so before they could start shooting him he dived into a side streets, and immediately he realised that he had made a grave mistake. The alleyway was a dead end, and before he could back out the patrol and run to the entrance. Zachary dived out of the drivers seat and took cover behind his carriage, which was now facing sideways, as plasma bolts seared down the alley. They embedded themselves into the side of the carriage, burning holes through the shell.

Zachary quickly took stock of his situation. The alleyway had no convenient doors to flee into, at least not without having to run half way out of the alley through the plasma fire, so he was trapped. There was a dumpster to one side which could serve as additional cover, and a rusted wreck of a carriage heaped with further detritus from the cataclysm at the end of the alleyway.

A sudden burst of molten metal droplets above his head made Zachary flinch. His carriage obviously wouldn't last long under constant fire like this. Quickly, he telemagnetically grabbed a few pieces of sheared metal from the end of the alleyway, peeked his head around the side of the carriage and then propelled them at the soldiers. While normally such projectiles might draw blood, fracture bone or knock over, the soldiers were largely unaffected, and Zachary realised that this was so because they all were wearing kinetic shield modules like his own. He heard shouts about him being a host, but that hardly mattered to him because they were going to shoot him either way. He needed to find another solution and fast.

The plasma rifle. Now is as good a time as any to use it, Kaa'is said.

Zachary had an aversion to using such a lethal weapon, but at the same time he knew that he was literally backed into a corner and there was little alternative. He was too far away to disarm them all. Suddenly there was a loud clunk as a plasma shot struck something important in the carriage and the front half of it fell to the ground. Hurrying, Zachary levitated the plasma rifle over the top of the carriage and started firing at the soldiers. Looking around he saw one soldier collapse as he was struck in the side and the rest make a swift retreat to cover at the entrance of the alleyway.

Now that they were restricted to firing around corners the rate of fire at him had dropped substantially, but he was not safe yet for they were still there. The man he had shot was dragging himself to cover, but Zachary did not shoot him again partly because he couldn't bring himself to, partly because he couldn't justify doing so, and partly because all his fire power was busy providing suppressive fire. He was busy trying to figure out his next move when a grenade rolled in front of his carriage. Swiftly recognising the threat, Zachary telemagnetically forced it away, and it bounced out of the alleyway and exploded somewhere outside the mouth of the alley. For a moment the shooting stopped, and he thought for a moment with a strange mixture of dread and ecstasy that he had killed them all. Unbeknownst to him the fragmentation had incapacitated three more soldiers, but the remaining soldiers were still well and able to fight and the barrage of plasma resumed moments later.

Maintaining the suppressive fire from his plasma rifle, Zachary and Kaa'is frantically tried to plan their way out of this corner without getting shot to pieces. The situation was not looking too well for Zachary, but the fire fight was also quite noisy and bound to attract attention.

Vates – Sector Zero
Vates sucked in a massive gust of breath as he came back into consciousness and his eyes failed to adjust to the light as they sprung open. As his eyes slowly gained focus he frantically patted himself down, looking for signs of the injuries he had just received… but there were none. “What’s up?” came Roebuck’s husky voice, “You look startled.”

“It was a vision?” whispered Vates to himself, not taking notice of his squad leader. Vates was still sitting on the concrete floor outside of the barracks and Hector was still giving his talk to the new host squads.

“What?” said Roebuck raising an eyebrow. He began to wonder if he had trained the squad too hard that morning; exhaustion could do funny things to a man. He turned his attention away from his friend as he heard what sounded like large thumping.

“Shit!” hissed Vates who also heard the noise. He quickly clambered to his feet and dragged Roebuck into their barracks. Closing the door behind them, Vates took up position beside a window with blinds and stared intensly through the slits. Roebuck went to ask what was going on but Vates (without looking away) quickly hushed him and motioned for him to take up position too. The two watched as Chief and his band marched past.

Roebuck was just as taken back by the giant as he had been in the vision. “Holly shit, that was one big mother fucker. You know him or something?” Roebuck asked as he narrowly opened the door and gestured for the squad to fall in. Roebuck and Vates took a seat each as they filled in quietly.

“Not quite, but he wants me dead.” Vates went quiet for a moment, the vision of his death still fresh in his mind and the squeezing sensation still tingling around his body. “Gets worse too: the bastard can turn into metal and gets even bigger when he does so.”

There was something in the faces of the squad members then, it was a mixture of anger and of diligence. “No one fucks with our squad mates!” spat one of the squad, a short man named Clarke.

“Host or not, we’ll take out any bastard that tries it on with us!” chirped another as he patted Vates' shoulder.

“Bigger they are, the harder they fall ey lads?!” came another causing the squad to cheer in agreement.

Vates was somewhat taken back by their protectiveness and inclusion of him. Many of them had appeared petrified in his vision… but then that was a different reality. Vates couldn’t help but smile and feel slightly bashful. Roebuck took a step forward with an equally big smile, “I think its safe to say the lads take you as one of their own now. We’ve got your back. Now what do you suggest we do about this tin-man?”

“Nothing yet…” Vates said, “He’s too useful for the mission. But we need to plan a way to take him down.”

"Alright, sounds good my man." *click* Nal closed the shutter on his holocom, built into the forearm piece of his armor. He turned to the rest of his squad, seven other men in total. "Round up, the host squads have been assigned and Hector has us on internal patrol to keep 'em in check." The squad broke into groans at the news that they were to watch the rounded hosts struggle to team up and train. Hector made sure to keep at least two squads watching them, because it was no mystery that they were an unstable bunch. "On me," Nal said as he motioned to his squad and began to head towards the base.

---

The squad had moved quite a ways towards the base before they came to an abrupt halt. Nal held up his fist and motioned for everyone to stop and listen. The Golden Mercenaries' minds were practically in sync, as the entirety of the group broke into a run towards the general direction of what they heard: gunfire.

"Lateral! Lateral on the east!" Nal commanded as he ran towards the intersection that seemed to lead to whatever was going on. The squad pushed up against the wall of a building that came before the intersection and as Nal thrust his hand to the other side, they ran to the opposite building. As they did so, they could make out exactly what was going on. A military patrol had stopped and opened fire on an alleyway. Nal counted four soldiers firing at who knows what, and one trying to help three others who were crawling towards the patrol. Nal thought to himself quickly. 'Hosts? Rogues? No... Victor. Speech. Rebellious citizen.'

Nal quickly nodded to his squad and pointed towards the patrol with three fingers. "Pick your targets," he said calmly. He counted three seconds and then used his whole hand to point that patrol in a karate chop motion. The squad was ready to fire off, but Nal had realized that if they went through the trouble of using their firearms, which were already sparse in ammo, they would leave traces that the military could track.

As soon as Nal motioned his squad, the four mercenaries at the front of the line broke forward in a low, crouching dash. As they ran, silently along the far walls, they unsheathed their golden daggers from a slot in their armor on the left bicep. They paused when they were about twenty feet behind the patrol, and the leftmost mercenary looked at Nal, who nodded. Almost instantly, the four ran forward at amazing speed.

The first mercenary caught one of the firing soldiers by the neck and quickly made short work of his jugular, slicing horizontally. The second mercenary kicked the second soldier who was turning around in spite of his comrade's death. The soldier bent forward and the mercenary drove the dagger into the back of his neck. The third soldier took cover and began to fire at the second mercenary, who had to roll out of the way. The third mercenary rolled past the cover of the soldier, drawing his fire the other direction while the fourth mercenary tackled him and tore his gun away. Now on top of the soldier on the ground, the mercenary had no trouble slicing the soldier's throat. The first mercenary to head the charge gave a thumbs up to Nal and began executing the remaining soldiers who were incapable of fighting back.

Nal caught up quickly with the second half of the squad and look at the end of the alley. He noticed a wrecked carriage with tons of bullet holes in it. "Whoever you are back there:" Nal cleared his throat and nodded to the rest of his squad, "Know that we are probably NOT the enemy," he and his squad began to edge closer and closer. "If you're a host, I assure you, we are not here to hurt you. We are Hector's men, you may have heard of us."

Nal held up a hand as his squad stood ten feet away from the wreckage, "Don't make the wrong decision."

When the gunfire towards him had stopped Zachary also hesitantly stopped shooting blindly over the carriage. He peered through a plasma hole and saw in the entrance to the alleyway a number of men, who also appeared to be soldiers but definitely not military. When they spoke, it took Zachary a few moments for it to click that these were Golden Mercenaries. Zachary rose up and stepped out to the side of his carriage, holding his plasma rifle by his side.

"Am I glad you guys came along. Thank you very much," Zachary said, quite relieved to not be on the brink of getting shot at.

He took in the situation again. There were eight Golden Mercenaries here, and he could see beyond them the corpses of soldiers with their throats slitted and blood pooling on the ground. This sight made him twitch momentarily, but then he subtly averted his gaze from it. It was not that he had much of a problem with the Mercenaries killing the soldiers, it was simply that killing by knife was a memory that he would rather forget.

He looked back towards his carriage, and his heart was touched with sadness seeing the state his carriage was now in. The plasma had riddled it with many molten holes so it now looked to be a wreck. "It's hardly two days old and this happens." He stepped towards it, laid a hand on its blistered side and knelt down to inspect it. While the shell on that side had been ruined, the controls shot and the chassis was damaged, the engine and works hidden within the undercarriage was mostly intact, save for a few discrete points of damage. He reached over to the controls and turned off the engine, and there was a thud as the back half stopped being aloft and fell to the ground like the front half had done earlier.

More military will be coming. We have to leave it, Kaa'is said to Zachary.

It won't take long. I can see what needs fixing. A pipe needs replacing, the front focus needs a quick patch and I can bypass some of the controls. It will be borderline, but it can be done, insisted Zachary.

Zachary stood up and rummaged around the back of the carriage for his tools. "Was there anything I could do to thank you?" Zachary asked of the Golden Mercenaries. He pulled out a welder, hammer and trap core. "I'm just trying to get this machine running again. It shouldn't take too long," he explained.

At a push of a button he dumped the contents of the trap core behind the carriage with a flash of red light and a pop of rushing air. The contents was mainly scrap metal and spare parts. He reached over and, out of view of the Mercenaries, a rounded piece of Sparker, a core casing, rose to meet his hand. He took this, hammered it flat on the ground, then he reached under the front of the carriage and started welding it into a hole in the machinery. While he was doing this he kept the corner of his eye watching the Mercenaries, just so he could see them and know if they made any unexpected movements.

Nal relaxed as the man began speaking. Upon noticing this, the rest of the squad laid their arms to rest as well. "There is no need to repay us, my friend," Nal said as he watched the man work on the machine diligently. He took a second to look at his squadmates. Each mercenary responded with a look of his own, as if to agree with whatever Nal was thinking. "My name is Nal Rosiff, Captain of Golden Mercenary Squad B1," he began with a small, informal salute. "I have no idea how you managed to move around in a working carriage, and that too, alone, but... Shit, you must be one hell of a man if you've been out here surviving by yourself." As the man seemingly summoned metal out of thin air, Nal raised a brow and nodded, impressed.

"Either way, you seem to know a bit about working vehicles. Maybe you even know enough to help get a shuttle runnin' again?" Nal said with a tilted his head. "I have no idea where you plan to be when we take charge at the wall, but I'm telling you now, we're your best bet, and you might just be ours." The rest of the squad nodded in agreement, as each and every one of them expressed their amazement at the man's ability to maintain and survive in his makeshift vehicle.

Zachary turned his head to look properly at Nal as he began to speak. Kaa'is took control with the repairs, guiding his hands and moving the metal parts and tools underneath the carriage. The military would be bound to respond if one of their patrols went missing, and if that patrol had radioed in that they had found him before they were killed reinforcements might be here sooner, so Kaa'is did not want to loose any time.

"My name's Zachary Mason. I'm an engineer. This carriage is new, though. Finished it around the time of the announcement." When Nal mentioned fixing a shuttle, Zachary's face lit up. "Ah, yes, I can fix a shuttle for you. You're in luck. Before the cataclysm I was working on designing a new shuttle engine for my PhD. Fixing a shuttle should be no trouble." The flicker of a plasma torch underneath the carriage stopped and a short length of pipe with a plasma bullet hole in it dropped out. "Who knows," Zachary added, "After we get out of here I might even be able to finish off that PhD."

As he got another length of piping and was heating the end with a blowtorch and hammering it to make it narrower, he said, "Give me five minutes and this carriage should be able to move again, and then you can lead me to your base or wherever."

In those few minutes he welded the pipe in place and then jury-rigged the controls to a functional state. The result looked much the same as it did before, but the difference came when he pulled the start lever and the carriage, with groaning metal and shuddering pipes, rose slowly off the ground. Once it was there it stopped groaning and shuddering quite so much, but it still looked quite precarious. Zachary returned the heap of scrap to the trap core. Then he got in the driver's seat and the carriage lurched down alarmingly with the added weight, although Zachary was not fazed as with his machine reading he was keeping a close eye on its performance. He could tell that if he pushed it much faster than a walk his repairs would probably fail and the carriage would stop abruptly, but until then it would work well enough.

"OK, ready when you are," Zachary said to the Mercenaries.

12 Days Later

From the distant lands past Sovereign, a lone Frigate Shuttle flew towards the military base. As it came to a swift halt and landed on a clearing, the soldiers around the camp began darting back and forth to prepare for the second arrival of the Commander. Moments later, Commander Lide stepped out of the shuttle, followed by six Vanguards. Walking past a number of salutes and greetings, Lide instantly called for the activation of the portal that led to what lay on the inside of the enormous wall. On the other side, he didn't have to walk far to greet just who he was looking for.

"Nekros, glad to see you've got my men busy. You do know they only listen to you because they fear you, right?" Commander Lide said, as he approached Nekros with not the slightest display of nervousness. "Then again, what fool would say no to someone with your power, hm?" At this, Lide was standing face to face with the large, hooded figure. "But I'm not afraid of you, Nekros. You're under my command, and that means when I ask you to do something, I expect it to be done."

Nekros remained motionless and silent. Lide shook his head and crossed his arms, "You didn't kill them when you had the chance. I've about had it with your death games, Nekros. I gave you a list."

---

Miles away from the military camp, a gentle breeze brushed past empty streets. Among these empty streets lay a dead bank, gaping open into a dead street. Inside this bank was the entrance to Sector Zero, and inside Sector Zero, a movement was brewing.

"Rapido! Rapido! Pack 'em up! Every second is golden, hermanos!" Hector Esteves commanded his men as they prepared containers of ammunition and survival gear. He walked fast with two of his assistant mercenaries beside him. As he entered a large opening in the halls, where multiple civilians were being briefed by groups of mercenaries, he called out to some more working men. "We need to pick up the pace with civilian handling! Get these people moving Montez! C'mon! C'mon!"The area was bustling with movement. The public locations of the sector were booming with masses of people trying to gather in groups and ensure they remained together. Other people began speaking of what they would do if things went haywire. Mercenaries and squads of men moved about in an attempt to organize the rush of people, while other men reviewed last minute strategies. People were preparing themselves - it was about time.

Hector continued to walk until he saw a group of mercenaries lined up besides three shuttles. He noticed one of the newcomers, who had proven to be one of the Golden Mercenaries finest assets. "Ah, Zachary and Nal! How are things coming? The shuttles good to work?" Nal smiled, "We're about to find out." Hector nodded and smiled to Zachary, "Let me know how it turns out," he said before continuing on his way.

After walking through out the sector and continuing to keep things in check, Hector stopped abruptly and turned around, "Shit, where's Ishigo and the hosts?"

---

"Death has an agenda, and I am its writer," Nekros replied to Lide, who turned red in response. "Damnit, if you won't do it, why not let someone else do it?! What power do you think you have, fool?!" Lide stepped up against Nekros, which didn't seem to faze him one bit. Instead Nekros looked back at the man with unseen, calculating eyes: "I am the end, I give you no power." Nekros took a deep breath, and Lide turned around shaking his head. He took a moment to collect himself and then spun back around at Nekros, pointing at his face. "You gave them time to assemble. You let them get riled up! Do you understand what it means if they manage to harness the power contained within these walls? If they can control that sort of chaos?!"

Nekros looked to the side at where the rest of his squad was sitting idly. He then looked back at Lide, "They do not know power."

---

Within a large forest, groups of men and women ran gathered in small groups. Some of them had been frightened off, and some of them decided that they could not handle what was coming their way. But now, those who remained gathered with purpose. A total of nine hosts remained. At first, Hector worried that the dwindling numbers of remaining hosts would threaten the integrity of their plan. But he had underestimated their power. Ishigo had known that hosts could transcend humans in every aspect of existence: not only did their bodies heal exceptionally well with their larger spirit reservoirs, but their ability to learn and progress through experience was far greater than ever imagined. What started as a group of unorganized, undisciplined, and inexperienced survivors turned into a group of synchronized, battle ready revolutionaries.

Hector walked through the doors leading to the large training forest grounds. He took a moment to look around and finally caught sight of the hosts. They were in there new squads, sitting along the lake, listening to Raeven brief them. He saw Julian, Yugeto, Chief, and Arianna, who now made up the new Splinter squad. He then noticed that Ivor, Ria, Blake, and Noel in another area. They made up the assault squad. Hector smiled but then curled an eyebrow, "Where's Ishigo...?"

---

"When they're at OUR doorstep, ready to take down EVERYTHING we've worked for, it will be on YOU Nekros. And not even your god could save you then. You know what I mean." Lide spat angrily. Nekros nodded, "Death does not forget its duty." He then turned to his squad. "It is time," he said hauntingly. No one could see his face, but they could hear his voice, as if it echoed through the air. As he said this, all seven other Hunters left their resting area to prepare for whatever came next.

Nekros slowly turned his head to Lide. "Do you hear them, Commander?"

---

Outside the base of Sector Zero, a large squad of patrolling mercenaries jogged side by side towards the base. Among this group was Vates and the rest of his squad, who had no trouble adjusting to the squad they were paired with for the rest of the operation. That is, except for their newest addition who happened to be missing. "He's flaking at the most crucial time," said one of the mercenaries at the front of the patrol, jogging right in front of Vates. The squad had grown to like Vates, as his input usually seemed to be extremely valuable to them.
The mercenary next to the first chuckled, "He's probably off looking for trouble, like usual."

---

Lide scoffed, "Hear what?" He knew Nekros spoke in riddles, and it amused him to a degree. However, he know that there were messages in his gibberish. Nekros nudged his scythe upward, nodding to the sky.

"The crows. Do you hear them sing?" Nekros looked up, and Lide remained speechless. The entire camp began to grow more ominous as the entire air began to grow chilly, and the wind picked up. The area directly above gave way to dark clouds, and the nearby trees swayed ominously in the spontaneous winds.

Nekros let his free hand rise until it was extended to his side. A dark aura began to emanate from the abyss within his hood. "Their day has come. Today, the howling winds and raging fires will chant the name of death and his glory. Today, they die."

---

*pant* *pant*
"Shit!" Kisheto leaned backwards, dodging another long kick and then jumping back to give himself some room. Ishigo panted as well, nearly out of breath.

"C'mon... you've been doing so well recently," Ishigo said, wiping sweat from his forehead. Kisheto chuckled weakly, "I'm just getting warmed-up!" he spat as he dashed towards Ishigo and let loose a flurry of strategic kicks and punches. His movement was much more fluid than before, and instead of just flailing around, his strikes were powerful and delivered with purpose. Ishigo had to resort to retreating step by step, because constantly blocking his strikes had actually worn him out. Kisheto grunted as he continued to push himself to deliver more forceful blows. Ishigo finally swept his leg under Kisheto, but Kisheto managed to flip into his fall and roll out behind Ishigo. He then proceeded to launch an elbow towards the back of Ishigo's head, but Ishigo quickly spun and swat it away before reaching forward and getting Kisheto in a standing arm bar. Kisheto cried out in pain and Ishigo chuckled.

"Close, but not quite, do you know what today is?" he said as he pushed Kisheto away. Kisheto, confused, shook his head and rushed forward, delivering more punches. "*pant* *pant* Wednesday?!" Ishigo then spun around and caught Kisheto's punch, throwing him over his shoulder. KIsheto coughed violently on the ground. Ishigo wiped his forehead and took a knee beside Kisheto.

"No, fool..." he said with a warm chuckle. He then held a hand out to Kisheto, and Kisheto grabbed it. Ishigo then pulled Kisheto up close to him and smiled, "Years from now they'll sing songs of the men and women who fought for the freedom of Sovereign. In mere hours, we'll be tasting the air of the world we were so wrongfully torn from."

Ishigo then pulled Kisheto to his feet and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Today, we rise."

Patting the side of the nearest shuttle, Zachary replied, "I've given them all a thorough going over. If they don't fly, well, I don't know how they wouldn't."

As Hector moved on Zachary turned to Nal, rubbed his hands together and said, "Time to give them their final test run."

He entered the pilot's seat and went over the controls. The past twelve days had been spent repairing these three shuttles and, when the repairs were done, on optimising their performance. Obtaining parts had not been too difficult, for it was simple enough to send a patrol out on a scavenging mission and Sector Zero had its own stockpiles and machine shop. And the work itself passed with incredible efficiency, for Kaa'is abilities of machine reading and magnetokinesis allowed him to see exactly what he needed to do at a whim and then often do it without having to crawl into the shuttle's engine spaces. He could work so efficiently that he had even been able to help in the maintenance of the Mercenary's weapons, diagnosing problems such as jams and fixing them in seconds at times.

Even with all the engineering to distract him, as the days wore on the consequences of that night were catching up with him. He was twitchy, fidgety and irritable. He would often work late into the night, and he would skip meals because he was feeling nauseous. He could rarely stop thinking about the upcoming battle, the fighting, and he was filled with excitement, desire, blood-lust. Sometimes he would just want to beat someone's skull in with a length of pipe and he would pull at his hair because there was no one whom he could do so to. He hated Kaa'is for turning him into this wreck. He hated being without any outlet. And even more frustrating was that Kaa'is was so quietly smug about it. Kaa'is did not even have to speak for Zachary to know this every time his symptoms afflicted him.

Of course, Zachary kept this to himself and he tried not to show it. As he often worked alone on the shuttles, this was not exceedingly difficult. He had taken to handling a greasy rag to cover the fidgeting, because it could easily be mistaken as just an engineer's habit. How could he bear to let anyone know the truth?

But now respite was just over the horizon. He steadied his breathing and let his mind fill the shuttle. In his mind he did a full systems check. He reached out a flicked each switch one by one, watching as power entered each system and each system spring to life in their various ways. Then came the big one, the power to the propulsion. He had no qualification whatsoever for piloting a shuttle, but twelve days of becoming intimately familiar with every wire, every core, every switch, every computer, every patch of metal and every bolt meant he knew exactly how it worked and exactly how to fly it. Even if he wasn't at the controls he could probably still fly it by magic and feel. At the pull of a switch power was supplied to the main kinetic and gravitational cores and with a roar the shuttle rose from the ground. Gingerly yet precisely Zachary flew the shuttle in a tight circle inside the hangar and gently landed it where it was before.

He shut off the systems, opened the door, poked his head out and said to Nal with a grin on his face, "It works like a charm."

He walked to the second shuttle, and as he did so he was wringing the greasy rag in his hands. Without turning to face Nal, he said, "There's been something I've wanted to ask. I've seen the Wall up close, and looked at how it was made. The military really spared no expense on it. They must have been quite confident that this cataclysm would happen. The Warshiran steel you see is just the exterior. Most of it is constructed from kinetic cores the size of apartments, powering kinetic shields that could probably withstand enough force to level all of Sovereign. And along the foundations are steel fibre cores, enough to regenerate the entire coating of the Wall several times over even if you were somehow able to damage it through the shield. I haven't seen the aerial shield up close, but it is probably almost as strong as the one covering the Wall. With that in mind, how the hell are we going to crack through it?"

Raeven eyed the groups of hosts before her with determined eyes. For a brief second, she worried that she wouldn't see most of these hosts again, but she pushed the thought aside and focused on briefing them. First, she described what the non-hosts Mercs would be doing as a way to give them an understanding of what was happening behind the scenes. Then, she moved on to tell each group what their main focus and area was to be. Once that was through, she looked each host in the eyes and nodded. "I would just like to say that it has been a pleasure to work with your group. You certainly have been the most interesting ones in this burial hole for boring, macho soldiers," she teased lightly. A small smirk tugged at one corner of her mouth. "I'm expecting to see all of your dirty faces on the other side of that wall." Though the idea seemed unlikely, she had to give them hope. "Good luck, guys. Now, fall out."

Raeven stepped down from the little stage and took a deep breath, turning to look around for Ishigo. Instead, her eyes landed on Hector and a small smile played on her lips. "That damn Ishigo is never around during my good speeches," she said to him as she approached him.

Yugeto had felt a dark convergence of spirit that weighed unbearably on his senses and he staggered as he stepped forward. He looked to his group in a sickly manner. "There's a singularity composed of the densest spirit I've ever felt...it's miles away and I can feel it from here. Whatever's waiting at that wall does not want us out." After a minute or two of struggling and stumblinng, Yugeto regained his composure and looked off in the direction he felt the essence emanating from. "When that wall crumbles, that spirit is mine."

_____________________________

Blake parted his hair and began to walk with his squad towards the wall. "So, Squad Two, we're heading to the checkpoint near the wall to serve as a backup alongside the Splinter Squad. The checkpoint was an old survivor treatment center under Hector's supervision when the incident first occurred, but it's overrun by military and prisoners of ours now. We have to help the Squad Five capture the checkpoint and free the prisoners. Are we clear on everything?" He asked as he walked on.

Hector chuckled and looked past Raeven and into the woods beyond. "He'll be here soon, I'm assuming." Hector then watched the rest of the hosts gather in their respective squads and discuss their strategies. "I'm really happy you're here, Raeven..." he said with a smile. "I mean... look at that! You managed to get all the hosts to synchronize! You're a leader and you didn't even know it." He chuckled as he continued to look over the hosts.

"Alright, I'm going to go rundown the entire plan with my men one last time. I suggest you find Ishigo and tell him to get a move on. We're good to go in an hour, got it?" Hector winked and nodded as he ran off to the rest of his duties.

---

Julian tightened the wraps on his forearms and rolled his shoulders to loosen up his muscles. He turned to Yugeto, who spoke of some strong spirit. "One thing at a time, brothah. Let's review one more time: once the golden mercenaries are lined up and ready to roll, we'll be sent to the first military checkpoint along a route of military camps to the wall. There are a total of four checkpoints. We're going to have men ready to attack each one after the first. As the splinter squad, we'll have to go all out on this first checkpoint - wreak havoc, bait a distress call. Once we can confirm they call for back up, we get a shuttle out of their and draw military attention. Sucks having to be the bait, but this will cause the Golden Mercenary squads to have a much easier time cleaning up the other three checkpoints. Once all the checkpoints are down, we rendezvous outside the final military perimeter around the expected exit out of the wall. At this time, we're hoping Ishigo and Raeven succeed in taking down the military comm grid, meaning all comms, all drones, all turrets - shut down. Once this is done, we'll have to hold off military until Victor manages to get past the weakened defenses outside. If he does that, the wall should be down. At that point - it's literally run for your life."

Julian took a deep breath and looked at his squad. "We're going to make it, yeah?"

---

Ivor nodded at Blake. "Me and Ria will station at the Infinity Skymall where I'll project her to help fallen mercenaries." Noel nodded after Ivor and then looked at Blake, "They won't be ready for what hit 'em," she said enthusiastically. Ria smiled, "We're finally going home! This is real!" Ivor simply laughed, "That's right... this is it, my friends."

---

*pant* *pant* Kisheto ran out of the locker room and into the barracks where he met up with the rest of his squad. "Yo Roebuck!" he called out, causing one of the mercenaries to turn around. "Damnit, Kish, where were you?! We had perimeter today!" he scolded Kisheto, but then immediately turned to gather some equipment. Kisheto chuckled and continued to pant, "I'm sorry, *pant*, I was training with Ishigo. Do I get heavy today?" he asked as he tried to peek past what Roebuck was doing. Roebuck scoffed, "Me and the boys decided you're best in the Mids," he said as he handed Kisheto a golden suitcase. Kisheto smacked his lips, "Whaaat?? Why can't I have something like.... that..." he said nodding to the shell of an armor built into the wall."

Hector stepped out a group of mercenaries and chuckled, "Well for one..." he said as he put his back against the armor's shell and pressed back against the wall, "...it's too heavy for your skin-and-bones body." Nearby mercenaries cried out in laughter and ooh's as Kisheto shook his head and chuckled. "And second... it's mine, vato," he said as the armor was pushed onto his back, causing it to "activate", as the plates fell into place and enclosed Hector's body. Hector's voice came out muffled from behind his helmet, which had yet to be turned on to activate voice filtering: "LES GO, HERMANOS! WE'RE MOVING IN TWENTY!"

Kisheto chuckled and opened his suit case, getting into his own rookie armor. He retrieved his rookie gear, containing one Gold Standard 9-round (GS-9) Rifle, one Spak, and a golden mercenary dagger. The GS-9 was the average quality, run-of-the-mill golden mercenary rifle, capable of firing off 5 distinct bursts of pellet-ammunition per magazine. The Spak (named due to the sound of the round hitting armor) was capable of harnessing special magazines made from kinetic core and lightning core technology to deliver heavy-impact, explosive rounds. The shot was enough to tear through human flesh easily, but the explosion was of electrical, so nearby enemies would be shocked rather than incinerated. Spak rounds packed heavy punches, but require brief cool downs between rounds, greatly reducing the fire rate.

Kisheto checked himself to make sure everything was in order and dashed off to group up with his squad, which had just returned from a patrol. They lined up behind Roebuck and began to head towards where the rest of the golden mercenaries were gathering.

Sector Zero Entrance

The entrance to Sector Zero was well-hidden. An obviously abandoned bank with a rusting vault led to a hidden elevator, which descended into the base of operations below. Kisheto and a few other mercenaries stepped out of the elevators. They marched towards a large gathering of mercenaries that were assembled in their respective ranks in front of Hector, who was busy communicating with Victor. It was about two thirds of the entirety of the Golden Mercenary operation working in sovereign; the rest were situated within Sector Zero, guiding and aiding civillians as they prepared to evacuate.

Hector stood at the edge of the clearing in which the only entrance to the abandoned bank was located. Four mercenaries guarded the only alleyway leading into the clearing.

"Alright, I'll see you when the wall comes down, hermano," he said. Closing his holocomm and turning to face his men, he began speaking. "Ok! This is it! We are the spearheads of this operation - the brawn, the tanks, the frontliners. We'll be charging the military head on while the rest of our brothers guide the civies through the back alleys.

We've re-tallied and we currently have SIX squads of non-host Golden Mercenaries suited up right here. Once the Splinter charges the first checkpoint, we're heading straight to checkpoints 2, 3, and 4 - which will be attacked by the squads matching those numbers. Squads five and six will join up with me and my men to take on the military camp while it's in distress."

Hector spoke with a calm and collected tone. He was focusing his mind for the battlefield, a habit that he and his brother shared. In fact, it was a habit taught to many Golden Mercenaries: to relax one's conscience before entering the fray to allow maximum focus. He looked around and nodded, "Ok, looking good, men. Remember, shoot to kill for military. Check you fire for civillians, host or not, we're here to SAVE the men and women oppressed by the feds. If you encounter any civillians, direct them to safety. Know that we have two shuttles being run to ferry civillians to safety. These two ferries will serve as the primary escape vehicles once the wall goes down; we'll have them run back and forth trying to evacuate as many civies as possible."

Hector strapped in his gun and put on his helmet. He pressed a button on the inside and the internal HUD lit up. Tapping the side of his helmet twice, he tested the internal holocomm. "Test, test. Tune in on this frequency. We'll have multiple channels for all ops, so we can all communicate." Hector sighed and thanked Aeritus that the CommTower mission was a success.

"Get in your stretches, putos, it's about time."

---

The mysterious black armoured woman laid beneath the rubble of a partially collapsed fifth floor, her body mostly hidden from any angle. From below all one might hope to see (if they were lucky) was her rifle which she peered down through. The Golden Mercenaries were finally on the move and they had a much bigger force than she had imagined. She let her aim drift over the large man in majestic looking armour and gave a smile. “Well well, you must be Hector.” she barely whispered, “You might stand a chance after all. If nothing else you might help me rid of Nekros and those other pricks.”

She stopped looking through her site and paused for a moment before letting her hand find the chain around her neck. She had worn it for so long that she had forgotten it was even there. With a quick jerk she broke it off and stared at the dog tag: “Vortex – X008 - LEGINIAN ARMY”

---

Kisheto cracked his knuckles and began stretching to warm his body up. He looked around and smiled at the men he would fight alongside - they had known each other for little over a week but already felt a sense of brotherhood.

"About time you showed up, stickbug," said Roebuck who pat Kisheto on the back, causing him to stagger.

"Psh, you say that as if I would miss the revolution," Kisheto replied lightheartedly.

"I thought he'd be off playing with his little host boyfriend as usual," smiled Vates "What's his name again? Fish-a-go?" Kisheto cocked his head at Vates' remark, "It's ISHIGO, son. And for your information, he's been teachin' me how to whoop "tough guy" ass like your's left and right. You're lucky we on the same team, Vates!" he said with a chuckle.

"That's why my little pat on the back nearly knocked you down right? That's some ancient technique to lure your opponents into a false sence of security?" Roebuck snorted, "Now come on lads, enough banter, we've got work to do!"

Kisheto had begun to turn slightly red under his helmet, but he quickly let it go and nodded as Roebuck called his men to focus. "Game time, baby," he said as he stood next to Vates in formation.

Pleased that the squad was ready to move out, Roebuck quickly made his way over to Vates and began whispering to him "You thought anymore about how we're going to take out that Chief guy if he causes a problem?"

Vates gave a quick nod, "I've got a couple of plans in mind."

As the rest of the mercenaries began heading out, Hector tapped his comm device, "Gordy... yeah... yeah... alright. It's time. Send the Splinter Squad out."

Nal took a step back and whistled at the sight of the three shuttles lined up. Two of the shuttles were military carriers, shaped like long rectangular prisms with two floors and plenty of room (enough for about thirty people). The third was a military bomber, with enough room to carry a small squad of people. It was shaped like an ordinary shuttle but with a much more rounded frame to allow for enhanced mobility. The bomber was equipped with two splinter cannons containing special "Splinter Cores", which could gather microscopic dust and earth particles in the air and compress them into cannonball-shaped projectiles. These splinter rounds, which appeared as swirling masses of debris the size of volleyballs, were capable of tearing through walls and devastating infantry. The bomber also contained a central plasma turret (which could fire plasma rounds in short burst) and a smokescreen emitter (which could either mask the shuttle or launch a smokebomb to a remote location).

Nal was still in shock at how efficiently and quickly Zachary had managed to salvage what appeared to him as masses of useless metal. Upon being asked about the wall, Nall scoffed. "I'm not exactly sure, Z. From what I know, Victor has some sort of core or something that can take care of the wall like *that*," he said, snapping his fingers to emphasize the point. "We wouldn't be attacking the military for the sole purpose of killing soldiers. I mean, the military obviously has a way out. We just need to take that from them if we can't break through on our own."

The sound of Hector's voice on the comms caused Nal to stop talking and listen. After hearing that the mercenaries were mobile, Nal lit up in excitement and looked to the rest of the men in the large, makeshift "hangar."

"They're on the move! Alright, alright, let's see...." he said as he looked at a crude map with multiple markings on it. He spoke to another mercenary on the comms and then looked to Zachary. "Oohhh, ok, ok. Zachary, good news. They got you on the bomber, if you're willing. Hector says the bomber will be charging the first checkpoint with the Splinter Squad, and once reinforcements arrive, you're going to have to extract them. The other two shuttles will be handled by these two fools," he said, pointing to two other mercenaries. "They will be ferrying out civilians once the wall comes down."

He sighed, "Wow... this is actually happening... So, Z, you got it? Think you're up for the fight?"

Sector A Outskirts

Julian crouched behind a large ventilation system located on the roof of a library. He peered over the edge and spotted the checkpoint that his squad was supposed to attack. He looked behind him, at Chief, the large tank of a man. He stood with his arms crossed, ready to lay waste to whatever came across his path. Julian shuddered at the thought of being on the enemy's side when Chief was unleashed. He then gulped and took a deep breath, reaching to activate his comms.

"The second patrol is well on its way. This is it - we won't get any thinner numbers," he said into his comm device. Yugeto and Arianna waited below for orders from Julian, who was their designated captain.

Arianna peeked around the upturned carriage in the street at the checkpoint just a few miles away. The campsite seemed deserted as the military men were all in the tent used for dining, leaving only a few patrols of guards sitting around. She turned back, gently resting her back against the carriage. "It seems like a good time to strike," she said to Yugeto, glancing over at her teammate. Yugeto looked to Arianna, waiting for Julian's order to strike. "Whaddya say, boss? This probably won't take too long. You want me to take 'em out quick, turn 'em against each other, or shall we just make a show out of it?" Yugeto asked eagerly.

Julian continued to scrutinize the base. He gradually began to realize that he had a small window of time to do what he had to do. But this was it - the spark of revolution, the first punch, the opening act. The pressure of the first shot weighed down on Julian as he slumped down in his cover, eyes closed and mind focusing.

"This is real... we're about to... about to..." With trembling fingers, Julian reached into a pouch on the belt of his armor. He retrieved a joint and a lighter and placed the joint on his lip. As he lit it, he looked up to the sky and took a nice, long hit.

"We're about to go down in history, my friends. We might have to - no, we will have to kill. But we aren't killers. We're sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters, and today, we're going to show the world just that. Whether we make it out or not, I want you to know... In Amdra Yasa."

Yugeto nodded solemnly, impressed by the raw conviction and passion his captain displayed to inspire them all. He then turned to Arianna. "You can read minds, yeah? If I use my power to buff you up for a bit, you think you'll be able to hold control over one of these guys for just 30 seconds when I tell you?" He asked. Arianna turned to look at him, blinking as she thought for a few moments. "I could surely try. I've never thought about controlling anyone's mind before." Yugeto grinned, and closed his eyes, channelling spirit. He pointed towards the patrolman who began to glow an off white aura. The other military men began to take notice slowly. "Wait a minute...Lou...the fuck is that?" "HOLY SHIT HE'S GLOWING!" "HOST!" Yugeto gave Arianna a thumbs up. "Get in this dude's head and have him shoot all that spirit out towards his boys. Give em hell."

Arianna nodded curtly and turned to look at the man, watching as the military men began to respond to his glowing frame. She slowly let out a breath as she focused her energy on the man, immediately hearing his frantic thoughts. The sudden influx of spirit began to kick in, allowing her to access his subconscious and also some of his memories. Unfortunately, she had no time to dabble in that no matter how much she wanted to. Slowly, she began to infiltrate his thoughts, adding her own in the same connection that his current thoughts were being processed. You don't want them to think you're a host. Rid yourself of the spirit. All it takes is just a little.. She suddenly connected with his motor functions and immediately took over. Push! In an instant, the white glow was forced from his body, the military man's own human spirit driving it out.

The men dove for cover, while some began to fire a few suppressive rounds, not so eager to kill their companion. "HE'S WITH THE MERCENARIES! THIS IS IT MEN! TAKE HIM OUT ASK QUESTIONS LATER!" The men darted around trying to seek shelter from the barrage of spirit missiles. Arianna instantly let out a small cry of pain and clutched at her stomach, the link between her and the man instantly being broken. She gasped for air, the pain of the bullet that had hit the patrolman fading. "Damn," she whispered.

As this happened, Julian took one last hit of his joint, letting the smoke completely fill up his lungs. He then looked at Chief and spoke through his steadily molding spirit: "Take 'em out."

Chief let out a war cry and charged forward with unbelievable speed. He jumped off the first building and landed on another, his momentum continuing to increase. After tearing through a couple vent lines and generators, he leapt once more into the air, directly above the checkpoint. He let out a long war cry as he descended, his body slowly twisting and enlargening until it was one, large, metallic behemoth. Chief slammed down on to the ground directly ontop of the soldier that had been sabotaged, instantly turning him into a pile of blood, guts, and shattered bone. The soldiers around gasped and started redirecting their gunfire at Chief, but the bullets only managed to sting him and drain a bit of spirit at the least. He screamed and burst into a sprint towards the most concentrated group of soldiers and slammed into them head on,causing a few to fly backwards and the others to get crushed under him.

The men screamed orders at one another, realizing that their bullets weren't doing much. They regrouped and started firing off in specific orders, causing Chief to turn in circles trying to pinpoint exactly where the gunfire was coming from. Now in the middle of the fray, Chief was subject to hit-and-run tactics, being bombarded by gunfire from one direction and immediately from another direction the next second. Frustrated, he roared and ran towards the next group of soldiers, launching his massive arm downward on a soldier who barely rolled out of the way. A nearby soldier ran towards his arm and grabbed it, trying to hold it down, but Chief simply picked up his arm and slammed it on the other side, crushing the man. Three other soldiers dashed towards him, with swords drawn. They held typical military grade broadswords, augmented with either fire or lightning cores. The first two soldiers swung their swords, which emit small fields of electricity. Chief cried out in pain as his body quickly conducted the electricity, but he pushed through it to kick one of the soldiers square in the chest. The man flew about fifteen feet until he crashed into and dented a wall. The second soldier with the electric broadsword ducked under Chief's punches and kicks, luring him away while the third swordsman, wielding a fire-augmented sword lunged at Chief's back. The sword lodged itself a good way into Chief, causing him to scream and whip around faster than the soldier could expect. Still holding onto the sword, the man was swung around violently causing his shoulders to dislocate. As he fell to the ground, Chief roared and stomped on his head, crushing it instantly. "PUNY HUMANS!" he yelled as he continued his rampage, crushing the last swordsman with the clap of his hands.

"GET THE JAVIES!" yelled one of the soldiers as he delivered another magazine into Chief's back. Chief, in the meantime, completely ignored the multitude of bullets showering on his titanic body, while slamming his fists into anything that moved. It wasn't long before a metal spear attached to a core-augmented rod tore through his left arm and impaled him into the ground. He cried out in pain as the spear activated, causing a huge electric explosion meant to stun any organic material. Instead, Chief remained impaled to the ground while the electricity tore through his metallic body. As his spirit waned, the metal began to rust and dent, threatening to disappear. Another soldier ran towards Chief, with a second spear held high. Aiming for Chief's head, he focused and tossed the spear with all his might. It flew right on target and was only milliseconds away from piercing Chief's skull.

Instead, the spear was snatched from the air by a trail of black smoke that crashed into it and redirected it to it's owner. The spear lodged itself right inside the soldier's chest and let out another electric explosion. Chief coughed and strained to lift his arm up, but with a bit of a struggle, he managed to rip the spear out of his bicep and toss it to the ground. Julian danced around the battlefield in his smoke from, drawing out fire and spears.

Still behind the action with Arianna, Yugeto began to channel a hefty amount of spirit into Chief, as the metal hardened and shined to a near crystalline degree. "If we fought this fight six months ago I'd already be halfway out of spirit. We'll do this right." Yugeto smirked at Arianna as he motioned towards the battlefield, watching Julian. "Once our good captain and Mr. Smash pummel a couple baddies, I'll sweep in and absorb their Spirit. That's when we go all out, alright? Your spirit should remain at a heightened level for the next day or so, I didn't channel enough to make the powers permanent like I did with Julian, so don't get too comfortable with 'em. In the meantime, just see what you can do now; I doubt you'll over exert yourself for the upcoming fights. Arianna nodded, watching the battle. She didn't think she wanted to be able to control people the way she had earlier, anyways. The thought of it was eerie.

"SHIT THERES MORE!" yelled one of the soldiers. "CALL FOR BACK UP!"

Julian felt a bullet graze his smoke form, causing him to fall off balance and crash back to his regular state. He swiftly rolled into the cover of a table, which he kicked to its side. Listening closely, he heard multiple footsteps rushing from the left side. He then balled up his left fist and spun out of the cover of the table to the left side.

"Let's go Senyuko!" he yelled as he thrust his fist forward as if he was jabbing at thin air. His fist turned into a much larger, denser fist made of black and red smoke that slammed into the three soldiers running at him. They flew backwards and landed on the ground, giving Julian enough time to spin around, raise his large smoke fist to the air, and slam it down on top of them. Two other soldiers fired off at Julian, who jumped and reverted to his smoke form.

Julian drew out more fire while Chief, in his new, crystaline form, roared in anger. He felt no pain, and he could barely even think. Now, he was just a man on a rampage. He ran towards a raised platform that connected to another building, like a bridge. Leaping into the air, he broke through the wall of the bridge and began punching and kicking the men with immense force. Bones became tooth picks in the wake of his brawn, and with each every kill, he felt stronger, more invincible. Julian flew right past Chief, causing the men who were firing at Julian to focus on the brute. It was futile, as the bullets merely bounced off his new frame. Julian instead flew downward and doubled back towards the unaware gunmen.

He flew low to the ground to avoid detection at first, and then quickly ascended while simultaneously releasing his smoke form. With a quick spin in the air, he balled up a dense, swirling ball of black smoke in his palm, and launched it at the unsuspecting men like it was nothing. The men didn't even care to dodge the baseball-sized projectile, which hit the ground near their feet and exploded into a large cloud of black smoke. The men closest to the blast radius were launched into the air, scorched, while others around the perimeter were brought to their knees, suffocated. Julian fell the gorund and rolled off the pain in his legs. He coughed a bit
and dashed to cover, having to sit behind an armor rack to recover his senses.

Yugeto gave Arianna a quick wink and dissolved into a white energy, speeding towards the wounded soldiers Julian and Chief had not killed, and reverting into his corporeal form. "Hello gentlemen, consider this next experience the River Styx, and consider me
Charon. I'll make sure to keep your bribes in mind as you move on." Yugeto explained to the damaged and trembling soldiers musingly, as he spread his arms out and a white circle illuminated the ground and began to spread, causing the soldiers in its radius to fall dead to the ground, devoid of spirit. Yugeto retracted the circle and belched loudly, chuckling with glee at his replenished and augmented Spirit.

Arianna smirked lightly as Yugeto winked at her before standing and dashing towards the battle. She immediately found an advantage point behind the rubble of a collapsed building, crouching down and peeking over the edge. The buffed spirit flowed through her veins, the tips of her fingers tingling with the mix of it and her adrenaline. She focused on the metal wires within the rubble and pushed them up into the air, her fingers making a link with multiple wires. She moved her hands like moving the strings on a puppet, sending the wires towards distracted soldiers. The wires then wrapped around the wrists of the soldiers and fastened them tightly together. Once this was through, she focused on the guns of the soldiers getting trigger happy towards Julian and ripped them from their hands, lifting them high into the air before curling her hands into a fists, the metal of the guns instantly crunching into balls of metal. Arianna was definitely enjoying this power boost.

Yugeto followed up after Arianna, absorbing the spirit of the incapacitated soldiers. "Now, we're gonna finish this. As much as I'd like to blow this place apart, it's a checkpoint we gotta capture. So, here I go." Yugeto proceeded to cover his body in spirit; the cloak formed into a spear of spirit, and slowly became more ornate, long, and sharp. "Do me a favor and get that last patrol squad out here, will you?" Yugeto motioned towards the end of the checkpoint where he felt the spirit of the hiding soldiers. "Just make sure you don't get any civilians caught in the line of fire...this thing's gonna go for all the signatures I detect, so keep the civs at bay."

Arianna nodded and focused on the minds inside of the building. She picked out each of the military men's thoughts and soon had them walking out of the building, their hands raised in surrender with a confused, almost terrified expression. She nodded to Yugeto. "Give me a countdown, so I can stop the link between my mind and theirs before they die." She didn't want to experience the pain that these men were about to have. "Now." Yugeto said ominously before lifting his hand and throwing the spear. "STYX AND STONES BABY! Z-Spear!" He yelled out as he threw the spear in joy. The spear weaved through the soldiers and pierced each of them, honing in on each soldier Arianna had brought out. Yugeto motioned for Arianna to follow him into the checkpoint as they checked the area briefly. "Can you call Search and Rescue for this? We should move onto the next checkpoint; it should be no issue to us if it's anything like this." Yugeto whistled as he walked off. "I named it Z-Spear. Heh."

Arianna nodded and pressed the comm on her ear. "Checkpoint one covered," she said into the comm. She turned to Yugeto. "Should we wait for Julian and the rest before going?"

Yugeto shrugged. "Might as well. They're probably a bit tired out, so we should cover the next checkpoint with more finesse. Lets wait for them here." Arianna nodded and looked back at Julian and the Chief. "Alright."

Julian took deep breaths. He could hear the fleeting footsteps of soldiers and the rumbling in the distance. Reinforcements were on their way. Julian strained to sit up and reach for his comm. He pressed a button and coughed before speaking, "Where's our DZ?! We need extraction, ASAP!" Chief chuckled, rolling his left shoulder. "Only cowards run from a fight. Are you a coward, smokey?"

Julian chuckled weakly, "No, brothah...." he said in between panths, "I'm a survivor..."

---

Shuttle Bay - Sector A Outskirts

"It's about time..." came the frustrated voice of Pyrus. "When do I get to burn?" he said, eager yet collected. Fang chuckled, amused by his anxiousness, "Soon enough, Pyrus, soon enough. Hand me the map?"

Pyrus reached behind his seat and retrieved a digital map of the area. Fang took it and looked it over. "I got four charges set around the perimeter. We'll need to get within half a mile for detonation," she said.

Zerox, who was busy preparing his armor, looked up at Fang. "What's this?" he asked, holding up a small amulet with a strange core in the middle. Fang smiled, "Oooh! That's important! One of the Level 2's can read minds. Put that on your helmet, Zerox. It'll send out signals to give her a real headache."

Zerox nodded and did as she asked. Fang then chuckled, "Oh my! Speak of the devil... Guess who just showed up on the maaaaap!" she sang. Surely enough, an orange dot blipped on the map as the shuttle neared its location.

"These are the guys that gave us the call? It's Hector's men..." said Lizard. Fang shook her head, "It's a SHE!" From the back of the shuttle, Flash interrupted, "Either way, we're taking them out. Nekros' orders. Zerox, on me. We'll clear whoever they got here. Fang, you and the rest head to their base, detonate the bombs, and clear out survivors."

Fang nodded as the shuttle doors slowly began to open. "Good luck to you two!" she said sweetly as they jumped out of the shuttle.

---

Arianna paused in her steps, furrowing her eyebrows as intriguing thoughts interrupted her own. "Bombs.." She murmured, trying to hear more. She looked up at Yugeto, her expression showing her worry. "Yugeto, we need to go back to the base. Everyone in there is going to die if we don't warn them in time." She clenched one hand into a fist. "Those bastards are going to kill all those civilians in Sector Zero just to beat the Mercs."

Yugeto raised his brow, "What? What are you talking about?" Just as he finished saying this, Julian's voice called out: "TAKE COVER! INCOMING!"

Within seconds, two entities seemed to fall from the sky, landing with a large thud. The shockwave of their impact caused a large dust cloud to rise up. As the dust began to settle, twelve people emerged, eleven of which were the same exact person.

"Ahhh, so this is the one," said Flash, pointing to the girl. "Who's the other? He's a host..." Zerox wiped his goggles and nodded, "With more spirit than I've ever seen, too... this should be interesting." The eleven other clones of Zerox all started walking towards the group slowly and steadily.

Julian looked at the two approaching individuals, obviously hosts. He then turned to his comms, "HECTOR! WE NEED A SHUTTLE!"

Arianna eyed the host that pointed to her, her brows furrowing lightly. "They're Hunters," she hissed to Yugeto, glaring at him. She then turned to look at the other and his copies, eyeing each for any differences. She winced lightly as a pang of energy seemed to hit her mind, causing a wave of slight pain. She moved to a defensive position, wondering what was causing it. "Yugeto, you need to tell the others about the bombs. There are four of them, from what I heard." With a deep breath she looked over at him. "With your boost I should be able to handle these two. The others need your help."

Yugeto funneled another strong reserve of spirit into Arianna after grasping her hand. "Good luck. We have a Spirit Link, and you have telepathy, so on top of the usual sense of spirit I can get from you, this should allow you and I to relay messages to one abother unless or until I break the link." With that, Yugeto entered his ethereal form and headed back to the other two. "What's going on, brothah?!" Julian asked. Yugeto rematerialized and spoke quickly, "They've got Sector Zero rigged with bombs and they're on their way to blow it to shit." He pointed to the shuttle that was headed towards the base. "We NEED to stop them."

Julian looked back, "What? We can't leave Arianna! Tell her to-" Chief chuckled, "I'll stay here." Yugeto shook his head, "LISTEN! They have more of where that came from!" he said pointing to Flash and Zerox. "They NEED us back at base, we're talking hundreds of innocents! Arianna can handle this!"

Julian shook his head and peeked over his cover. "Damnit..." he said, reaching to comm once more. But to his surprise, from a far off corner perpindicular to the path that the enemy's shuttle took, a bomber shuttle sped through between buildings towards him and his squad.

As Zachary was given his mission, his hands started trembling, although he could not tell if it was from anticipation or dread or just continued symptoms, or a mixture of all three. He quickly pulled out the greasy rag and clenched it to cover up the movement. He looked to the bomber, with its potent weapons, and the potential battle loomed large in his mind and swirled around like a maelstrom. If he had been in his right mind he would have had doubts about being on the front line in that shuttle, tearing apart the military defenders while the risk of fiery death loomed large, then landing in the middle of the military checkpoint. But he was not in his right mind, and he could not afford to pass up this opportunity to satiate his blood-thirst and appease his nucleus accumbens.

"I'll take it," Zachary replied. With what could be mistaken for enthusiasm Zachary swiftly entered the cockpit and ran through pre-flight checks. As he sat there he made his best efforts to steady his breath. The nervousness made his chest feel knotted and stomach feel filled with lead, but he supposed that everyone here was feeling nervous too. Then he powered up the engines and took off.

______

Flying over the streets was not difficult. The Splinter Squad had already called for the shuttle so he was trying to hurry to make up for lost time. Over the comms he replied to Julian, "This is Zachary, the shuttle is on its way. Shouldn't be more than a minute."

Then he spotted another shuttle, flying in almost the other direction. He furrowed his brow, trying to figure out why it was there. He realised that it must be a military shuttle, and also noticed that it was headed the direction of Sector Zero, so he aimed and fired the two splinter cannons and the plasma gun in sequence. However, he was not a skilled shooter, and those weapons probably aren't designed for aerial combat, so there is a reasonable chance that he would miss.

Over the comms again he asked urgently, "A military shuttle is en route to Sector Zero. Should I pursue or proceed directly to pick-up?"

The Hunters' shuttle was nearly hit by the first two splinter cannons, but it managed to completely dodge the burst of plasma rounds as it ducked into the rows of buildings and skyscrapers further down the large street. Julian looked up at the shuttle that had arrived to evacuate them, 'Thank Aeritus...' he thought as he looked back at Arianna one time. "No, pick us up first and then pursue!" he responded to his comms. 'Don't die, yulie...' he thought, having felt a wave of guilt for having to leave her. "Alright, let's get on this thing!" he called out to Chief and Yugeto. The shuttle hovered in air, in plain sight. Zerox eyed it over and began commanding a few of his clones to attack it, but Flash waved him off. "Let them chase it to their demise. We need to focus on this one..." she said, eyeing Arianna once more.

The shuttle neared the ground, hovering a good five feet above. Julian waited and watched as the doors hissed and opened vertically to reveal a spacious holding area. He jumped up and hoisted himself onto the shuttle's floor, then reached over and held a hand out to Yugeto who took it and ascended onto the vehicle. Chief simply jumped up high enough to enter the shuttle himself, having to duck under the door due to his immense size. As the doors closed and the shuttle began to lift off once again, Julian opened the door to the cockpit and put a hand on Zachary's shoulders. Using his right hand to point to the direction in which the enemy shuttle had escaped, he anxiously instructed Zachary on what to do, "That way, full speed, we HAVE to catch them otherwise we lose EVERYTHING!"

Collab between Sage, Yugeto, and Skai

Zerox and his eleven copies all turned and faced Arianna while Flash came to a halt only a mere ten feet away from her. She took a moment to size Arianna up and then proceeded to place a core amulet on her forehead guard. She wore a simple set of black armor made of unique fibers that made the set feel weightless. Arianna eyed each of the hosts cautiously, summing them up and looking for any weaknesses. She watched the eleven same men, looking for the one that was slightly different from the others. As Flash moved, Arianna turned to look at her, immediately feeling a wave of energy strike her mind as she put an amulet on her helmet. She blinked from the pain, but otherwise gave no hint that she had felt anything. I need to get that amulet off of their heads, Castiel, she said, making sure that his focus was on the amulets. Don't risk any injury in order to do it. This extra spirit gives us enough to face both of them at the same time, but that doesn't mean that we can be completely reliant on it, he responded. Flash tilted her head and spoke: "Alright, you know the deal. The more you struggle, the more it hurts," she said before quickly vanishing in a flash of purple light. Within seconds, she reappeared behind Arianna, spinning and delivering a strong kick to her back.

Arianna frowned as Flash spoke, but her frown ceased as Flash disappeared. She braced herself, sensing the host's thoughts as they appeared behind her. Quickly, she dropped to a crouch on the ground, ducking her head to miss the kick by inches. In turn, she immediately spun her leg around behind her, her mind connecting with pieces of rubble around them and lifting them into the air. Flash jumped back to avoid the kick, and began eying the rubble that was now levitating. As Arianna turned to face her, three of Zerox's dopplegangers charged her back, swinging their swords in complex patterns as if their minds were one. Arianna turned back around to Zerox as she heard footsteps, thrusting her arms forward as she commanded the pieces of rubble to head straight for the three copies' heads. The pieces of rubble weren't all that large, but they were sharp. The first two clones were instantly destroyed before their swords landed, disintegrating instantly as the sharp debris pierced their heads. The third clone, however, was prepared for such a move, having trailed in the back of the assault. Sliding under the rubble, he thrust his sword upward, attempting to bait a sidestep. Meanwhile, Flash teleported to the left of Arianna with another spinning kick, hoping to either catch her in her sidestep, or zone her out for Zerox to attack the other flank.

As the doppleganger slid towards her, Arianna lifted her arms into the air, the pieces of rubble lying where the other copies had dematerialized mimicking the movement of her hands as they, too, lifted into the air. She stepped aside and crushed the head of the copy with the rubble as her arms dropped towards him. While she had managed to dodge and the destroy the third clone, Flash used her sidestep against her, jabbing at her side and then kicking her stomach with her left leg. Arianna doubled over slightly as the pressure point screamed at her before the kick forced the air from her lungs. She felt herself fly back, lifting off of the ground a few inches due to the force. She landed on her back with a thud and a small groan. Before she had time to recover, another clone jumped up and attempted to thrust his sword down upon Arianna, while two more clones ran behind her, preparing to slice her up if she were to recover from her downed state. Arianna opened her eyes just in time to see the clone above her with the sword. She immediately connected her mind with the clone's sword and sent it up and to the side, swinging quickly towards the doppleganger's bodies. The swords easily sliced through the two clones' necks. Afterwards, Arianna turned the sword around and stabbed it through the leftover doppleganger's stomach.

Flash grunted at how much energy she had wasted in trying to kill this girl. Frustrated, she broke into a sprint towards Arianna, unsheathing a dagger that was strapped to her leg. Right as she neared Arianna she teleported behind her and kicked the back of her knee, causing her to buckle backwards. She then yanked the girl by her hair and thrust her dagger towards her throat in an attempt to make a quick, clean cut on her jugular. Arianna winced, reaching behind her to grip the host's wrist. She used the backwards momentum along with a kick from the leg that hadn't buckled to push her into the air while also pulling on the host's wrist to send her legs flying up in a backwards flip. She then thrust her feet forwards, connecting with the host's jaw and shoving it upwards. Flash wasn't unexpecting such a level of dexterity from the girl, and as she staggered back, she lost the grip on her dagger for a moment, having to cancel her strike. She tasted blood in her mouth and growled before once again breaking into a sprint towards Arianna. This time, she chose to teleport to Arianna's side and swiftly cut at her side, quicker than Arianna could process. She repeated this maneuver on the opposite side, teleporting quickly and without hesitation, as if she truly lived up to her name. She was flashing left and right, and then even vertically, as she teleported above Arianna and quickly kicked down ward before slicing her back. Arianna hissed as the blade sliced into her skin, the rapid and thoughtless succession of attacks overcoming her defense. Feeling that she had weakened Arianna's defenses enough, Flash teleported infront of the girl and jabbed her dagger forward and upward, aiming for her heart.

With no time to think, Arianna thrust her hand forwards, barely having enough time to connect with the blade. It halted half an inch deep into her hand, causing her to cringe. She gripped the blade and ripped it from Flash's hand, sending it up and over the tents and out of sight. She then turned to Flash, and in a sudden burst of frustration, connected with the host's body and sent her flying into a building, cracking the concrete wall as Flash hit it. Flash fell limp and hit the ground on her knees, coughing violently as she tried to regain her senses.

"Bested by sheer brawn... Orc would have given you a lot of shit for that, Flash..." said one of the Zerox clones. While Arianna had been fighting Flash, Zerox had channeled his spirit and conjured up many more clones, now totaling twenty. They appeared from thin air, wherever he wanted them to. As Arianna turned to see the large mass of copies, she began to worry. She had already used so much energy fighting Flash, along with the constant ebbing pain that the amulets gave her, she wasn't sure that she could take Zerox down on her own. "Search Squad," Arianna spoke into her comm, "I need back-up.. Pronto."

"Let me show you a REAL blade dance..." the entirety of the twenty one men said this in unison, their voices echoing through out the street. Ten of the clones sprinted towards Arianna, swords held high, while another ten ran around to circle around her, holding throwing knives. As soon as they neared her, the clone swordsmen unleashed a flurry of attacks. The first clone ducked and spun his sword in a full circle, while the second jumped and flipped upside down while executing a similar spin, only mirrored vertically. Arianna ducked and rolled, hearing the zing of the blades barely passing by her. She even swore she saw a bit of the end of her hair being cut off. Far from the clear, Arianna rolled right into the path of the next clones. The third clone sliced three times directly at her front, while the fourth and fifth tried to jam their swords at the sides of her legs.

Arianna calculated the movements in her mind in an instant before connecting with the swords directed towards her legs and sending them up to defend her from the sword in the front. As this happened, she jumped a few inches into the air and kicked to the side, connecting with the fourth and fifth clones' heads,

causing them to disintegrate. However, the remaining clone simply pulled his sword back and spun, returning to his original position and jabbing forward in an attempt to pierce Arianna's heart. Arianna noticed the blade in time to push her hand up, tilting her head back as the blade went by, wincing as it knicked her chin. She then spun around and delivered a kick to the clone's side before connecting with his sword and flipping it, sticking the sword into the clone's neck.

Right as the fifth lone disintegrated, Zerox chuckled. 'She puts up quite a fight...' he thought to himself. 'It's time to end this shit...' he thought as the last five clones assaulted Arianna at once with blinding speed. The sixth clone all out tackled her, disintegrating as her body was thrown backwards. The seventh clone dashed forward and leapt forward until he was right above her while she was still in mid air. With a quick kick, he slammed her body to the ground, using enough force to cause himself to disintegrate. The next clone attempted another downward thrust, which she simply rolled away from - right into the path of the last two clones who sliced her in a cross shape, making a clean cut across her torso.

Arianna coughed where she laid on the ground, wincing from the pain of the cuts. With slightly trembling hands she felt the cuts, assessing their depth and width. Her vision swam in and out of focus as the pain from the amulets was finally overwhelming her mind, giving her a killer headache. She coughed up a little blood, the blunt force of the attacks damaging her organs. She knew that she couldn't rest yet. Zerox was waiting to deal the final blow. With a small whine, she sat up, attempting to stand.

The real Zerox stood up, having been seated the entire time near the frame of a broken door on a nearby building. "Well, that went on for longer than it needed to," he said ushering the ten remaining clones to finish what he started. "Take it easy, little girl. This was a long time coming," he stated with a genuine hint of sincerity. At the same time, the ten clones surrounding Arianna ran forward and jumped in unison. As they neared the peak of their jump, creating a circle around Arianna, they unleashed a storm of throwing knives that flew through the air towards her helpless body.

---

Blake's comm picked up Arianna's distress signal. "I'll take care of this, squad. You all tend to the survivors we found here and wait for word from Sector Zero. We can't lose this valuable of a teammate." With that, he gripped Kataskai and speared towards the coordinates the comm displayed. 'Now's my shot...Now's my chance to kill her!' Dama groaned gutturally from within Blake in sheer disapproval. 'Have you learned nothing of the fruits patience yields? Analyze the opponent and Arianna herself before you make any hasty decisions; you may be able to deal with them, but if she isn't hurt enough then there's no point. Go assess the area.' Blake sighed, his inner symbiote once again bested him with logic.

By the time Zerox had swarmed Arianna with blades, Blake closed in on the perimeter. "Such a dense spiritual energy...from Arianna...?" Blake shuddered with shock and confusion. 'She's barely taken a Kage's spirit compared to our collection; why is her power on par with ours? This is truly interesting...' 'Enough with your enigmatic musings and ramblings; she's clearly not able to be taken out right now, so we may as well win her trust by helping her out, I suppose.' Blake awaited Arianna's next move.

---

Arianna clenched each hand into a fist as she heard Zerox's words. The coward must have been waiting a while to kill her, which made this defeat feel even worse. Even with Yugeto's spirit boost, she was still weak. She hung her head and shut her eyes tightly. I can't lose like this, she thought, trying to muster up enough strength to at least attempt to move out of the projectile's path. When no strength came, her emotions began to overwhelm her. Panic and frustration swarmed inside of her as her mind strived to find a way out of this. Time seemed to slow, the threat of death forcing her instincts to go on hyperdrive. "I will not die this way," she hissed. With a final burst of energy, Arianna forced herself to her feet and pushed her hands out to the side, her eyes glowing a bright blue as Castiel and her own spirit burst from her body and formed a shield around her. As the knives hit the field of energy, they halted, suddenly all connected with Arianna's mind. The knives then slowly turned, aiming towards the clones and Zerox before speeding towards them. Each knife found its target. The clones instantly disentigrated into nothing, but the final knife was still flying through the air. It was headed for Zerox.

Zerox gasped seconds before the final knife dug into his chest, right beneath his collar bone. He cried out in pain, more alarmed and frightened than anything. He had never expected such a spectacular display of power from someone who he held so close to the gates of death. "BLAST! YOU LITTLE TELEPATH BIIIITCH!" he cried out as he created eight more clones. As they gathered around him, he noticed that they refused to charge forward. Instead, they lay their crying out in pain at invisible wounds on their chests. Confused, Zerox began panicking, "shit... shit... shit... shit... FLASH!!!!"

Flash got up slowly and withdrew her Riot Cannon, a cylindrical attachment to her forearm armor that contained Iron cores, capable of blowing through walls if shot with enough pressure. "I've had it with you," she said as she teleported a few yards away from Arianna, who now lay limp on the ground. Aiming her cannon at Arianna's head, she pulled the trigger, relieved that she could put an end to a fight that lasted longer than she had planned.

---

Blake leaped to the scene, having gotten close enough to get in between Flash and Arianna. As the blast headed through Blake's path, Blake raised Kataskai and flowed spirit through it. "Metabolize!" Blake called out, as the cannon blast slowly phased into the sword, a ripple of kinetic force circumventing the projectile. "Arianna, I know you have enough in you to finish off that other clown you were dealing with; end him while I deal with this wretch."
Blake studied his now off-guard opponent, watching for her next move. He knew she could teleport, but his defense was solid against her; poised with a blessed blade in his hand, Blake stood vigilant.

Meanwhile, Arianna opened her eyes to see Blake standing before her, challenging Flash. She was barely conscious, but knew that she had to help Blake. As she turned her head, she noticed Zerox cursing her name in pain as his copies writhed on the ground due to the injury. With the adrenaline left over from her previous stunt, she lifted her arm and connected her mind with the blade. It slowly twisted in his chest, causing him and his copies to howl in pain. Zerox fell to his knees, grasping at the knife. When it didn't budge, he looked up at Arianna and snarled. "I'll finish you with my bare hands, if I have to, you little bitch!" Before he could even move, the knife had been yanked out of his chest. He roared in pain and anger, fury burning in his eyes. Arianna instantly shoved the knife into his heart before releasing it from her control. Her hand slowly went limp on the ground next to her as she let out a small sigh of relief and closed her eyes, feeling her consciousness beginning to slip. Just as she did so, all of Zerox's clones vanished, and the original fell to the ground, lifeless.

"SHIT! Z-ZEROX!" Flash yelled, quickly redirecting her gaze to Blake. "Want to get in our way, asshole? You'll regret even THINKING about that!" she spat in anger. Flash then broke into a full fledged sprint towards Blake, teleporting only second after dashing at him. She reappeared at his left and delivered two quick jabs at his head before jumping and sending a hi kick to his head.Blake recouped after taking the first two hits, a little off guard and disoriented, but caught the kick with Kataskai, redirecting the energy from the kick and the projectile's energy as pure kinetic force back at Flash, nearly crushing her leg completely. 'Her strategy will be a simple one; keeping up with the counters will tire her enough that I can kill her when she's weakened.' Blake stayed passive once more, waiting for Flash while maintaining his calm and collected demeanor.

Flash cried out in pain as she felt tremors of pain erupt in her leg. She quickly telported a safe distance away and gathered herself, taking deep breaths to alleviate the pain. "Alright, I didn't want to have to do this but..."

Flash closed her eyes and clasped her hands together. A purple aura began to emanate from the ground around her as the air began to swirl rapidly. When she opened her eyes, they began to glow purple, and her veins began to bulge and display a purple glow as well. "Now you'll see what a real host can do..." she said menacingly. With a quick jab at her side, a purple aura shot from her hand until a large, spinning circle appeared in thin air about ten feet to her right. She began charging at Blake but stopped right before he could react and shot another circle behind Blake. She then withdrew a glowing, purple dagger from her other leg and went in to jab Blake, who, slightly confused, blocked her attack. As he did this she shot her cannon towards the first circle, causing Blake to involuntarily turn his attention to the gunshot for just a moment. Just as he did this, he felt a sharp pain in his back as the bullet lodged itself mere inches from his spine. Flash chuckled and balled her hands into a fist, causing the two portals to shatter. Just as she did so, she thrust her hands forward, creating a portal in front of Blake and above him. She then teleported behind Blake and kicked him into the first portal with great force, causing him to fly into the portal and be launched downward out of the one facing the ground above her. She then jabbed her dagger upward, into Blake's abdomen, and slammed him to the ground. Blake coughed harshly, and grabbed Flash by the throat, dagger still in his abdomen. Holding Flash with his might in his grip, Blake tightened his grip on Kataskai. Flash gagged and tried to teleport but failed to do so. "Ah-hah. So you do use inverted spiritual energy to channel your teleportation. Makes sense, that's why I can absorb it..." he said with a chucle. "Now we end this. Blue Flame Core: Activate." Kataskai was shrouded in an unbearably hot blue-white flame, and after some spirit was channeled into it, Blake directed the flame to the hand grasping Fl
ash's neck. She screamed as her entire body was engulfed in the hellish flame. As the screaming died out, Blake dropped her body and wiped off his hand. "Your spirit won't go to waste, I promise you that," he said with a chuckle. He then walked over to Arianna and scooped her up. 'She's alive. You could end it here and say she was killed by these two.' Blake scoffed at the notion. Where would the justice come in play were he to end her in her comatose state? No, he instead decided that her demise would come soon, but not at that moment. "We need to regroup with the rest. I'm taking her back to the base."

Collab with Sage, Yugeto and BBeast

The shuttle heaved as Chief jumped in, his weight causing it to drop in altitude. Zachary grunted as he increased the lift to compensate. Zachary could sense the urgency in what Julian said, and quickly piloted the shuttle to ascend. He saw down below at where they were leaving and saw one young lady, Arianna, standing against twelve adversaries. It did not look like good odds, but he acknowledged that in an operation like this sometimes people need to be left behind for the greater good, and whatever reasons had led the Splinter Squad to decide to leave Arianna down there were not his to question.

He made a quick glance over to where the other shuttle was flying, and saw that it was already gaining a considerable lead. He turned his head and looked through the doorway at Chief. What he beheld was a behemoth of what appeared only manlike in form. While one corner of his mind acknowledged the Chief in his giant diamond-metal form as a ferocious warrior, the other half considered most of him deadweight in this crucial chase.

"Big guy," Zachary called out, "Can you stop being so massive? We need all the accelleration we can get."

Chief grunted and looked to the side as he relaxed his flowing spirit, causing his body to slowly thin out. The crystalline coating disappeared, disintegrating into a fine dust and what remained was his original shape, which was still far larger than average. The shuttle lurched back up again as the mass vanished, and Zachary gave all the power he could to thrust. "Get us close, let me have at 'em," Chief said firmly. Julian raised a brow, "What are you going to do, brothah? We're nearly in the sky!" He looked around, wondering if he could keep up with the shuttles in his smoke forms. "These cannons may be all we have...."

Zachary looked ahead between the skyscrapers at the shuttle they were chasing. By the looks of things he might be able to catch up once the shuttle reached full speed, but time was of the essence and that could well be too late. At a button-press the right Splinter cannon charged up a shot and fired its cannonball towards the shuttle. However, shooting was not among Zachary's skills, and the shot sailed to the side of its target and blasted out the wall of a derelict office in a tower, throwing debris into the air.

If we want to stop them, we'll have to play to our strengths, Kaa'is said to Zachary within his head, Fight smart.

He looked ahead and within his mind, together with Kaa'is, a strategy started to form. He fired off a few plasma shots, just to keep them busy for a few moments. "If I can get close enough I might be able to remotely sabotage their shuttle."

Seeing an opportunity as the military shuttle approached a gap between two large buildings, Zachary fired a smokescreen ahead of them and the two splinter cannons at the walls on either side. The projectiles struck, buildings being easier targets than shuttles, and threw debris into the path of the military shuttle, which was hopefully vieled in smoke. "Nice one, brothah!" Julian called out.

As the smoke cleared, the shuttle was nowhere to be seen. "UP! They're GOING UP!" Julian called, pointing at the top of a building, where the shuttle had chosen to completely shift its path to a vertical course. "AFTER IT! HURRY!" he cried as the shuttle cut over the top of the building and continued its path towards the base.

Zachary quickly determined another route. In going over the building, the military shuttle had wasted valuable time, so this was his chance to gain significant ground. He swerved to go around the building, banking steeply. Julian was tossed backward into Chief, and Yugeto was flung towards the side. "SHIT!" Yugeto cried out, but as the shuttle came to a stable position, the three returned to their original stances. But the maneouvre paid off, as the other shuttle was now much closer. Zachary pointed the plasma blaster at the other shuttle and fired a few blasts in the hope that one of them might hit.

"Just a little closer and I might be able to bring it down without shooting it," Zachary said. Julian nodded, "Full speed ahead then, brothah, we're nearly within range!" In the back, Yugeto raised his brows, "Hold up!" he exclaimed. He walked over to Zachary and gently placed his hand on his shoulder, "Keep on focusing on flying, I gotchu, man," he said as he began to establish a spirit link with the pilot. Julian quickly caught on and smiled, "Good thinking! Listen, Yugeto's going to give you a spirit boost, just relax and let it buff you up. You got this, brothah!"

Sure enough, the spirt link caused a great rush of spirit to enter Zachary's own pool. The sudden influx of spirit gave Zachary a euphoric rush, but more importantly Kaa'is could sense the greater power that had been granted. Try it now!

Zachary focussed on the other shuttle and, to his surprise, he was able to vaguely perceive its structure in his mind while it was still dozens of meters away. It wasn't much, but it was enough for his purposes. And with that structure, he could see exactly where to apply the minimum amount of force to bring down that shuttle. With more ease than he had ever done at a range, he moved vital metal components within that shuttle. He pulled apart the wiring in the controls. He dislodged the kinetic core directors. He jammed ailerons. He shunted the cores. The net effect was to bring the vital internal systems of the military shuttle into sudden disrepair and remove the ability to pilot the machine.

---

"FANG, I CAN'T, I CAN'T MO- THE CONTROLS ARE JAMMED! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW!" The pilot of the Hunters' shuttle began panicking and flicking switches on and off in an attempt to restablish control of his vehicle. Fang frowned as she felt the shuttle jerk in air. Her eyes widened as she heard the engine whine and sputter. "Oh damn... we were so close too..."

The shuttle's left-most engine gave out first and the lack of thrust caused the shuttle to completely roll to the left, hitting a wall and spinning out until it tore through a weakened building. Completely decimating the walls both outside and inside the building, the shuttle created a gaping hole in the architecture, only to spin out once it exited the structure. It hit the ground hard and rolled a few times before it erupted into a mess of metal, sending out massive chunks of debris due to the sparked kinetic cores.

Julian cheered alongside Yugeto, and Chief grunted in disbelief. "HOLY HELL! YOU DID IT, ZACHARY!" Yugeto sighed in relief, "Move in, we need to see what's left, especially if the detonator was spared."

Zachary himself was on a high, the act of killing the machine producing almost as good a feeling as killing a person. Almost. He slowed down the shuttle and piloted it over towards the crash site and brought the shuttle to the ground a short yet safe distance away.

Julian took a deep breath and stood by the door. "Alright, we're gonna do a quick sweep. If there're any survivors... well... y'know...." he said with a nod. Yugeto nodded in response and Chief cracked his knuckles. "Open the doors, Z," Yugeto said as he began channeling his spirit throughout his body to warm himself up. With the flick of a switch the doors unlocked and they could be opened. Julian nodded once again and activated the door control, causing the large door to hiss as it opened. The three jumped out and Yugeto and Chief began cautiously walking towards the shuttle. Julian turned around and gave a small salute, "Watch the shuttle, it's a priority. If shit hits the fan, try to give us some support with the cannons. If it's too much, just head back to base." Zachary responded with a small salute of his own. "No problem, Julian." He looked to the controls and thought through the contingencies. If the trouble appeared with the three of them in the firing line, he'd be just as likely to hit them with the cannons as the enemy, but in that case the smokescreen might help too. We've still got that extra spirit, too, Kaa'is added.

With that, Julian regrouped with the other two and neared the crash site. Chief sniffed the air, "Hm. Blood." Yugeto felt a strange sense of relief, but kept his guard up. When they were mere feet away, a single bat flew out of the wreckage and past Yugeto's head, causing him to duck. At the same time, a hooded individual in black armor seemed to rise out of the ground. Julian held his hands to his sides and held Yugeto and Chief back, "SHIT! Ready yahselves!" he cried. Chief grit his teeth as he saw another large man of similar size emerge from the wreckage. He stood at around nine feet, only two feet under Chief's height.

The brute held a mangled corpse in his hand. He was covered in cuts and bruises, but they healed almost instantly before everyone's eyes. "Lizard's dead. Blame it on the crash," he said monotonically. Chief roared at the man, feeling challenged. He brushed off Julian's arm and charged at him at full speed. The brute simply stood there, until Chief was within reach. Right before Chief could attack, however, a huge ball of fire shot out from the wreckage and crashed into the center of his torso, sending him flying backward, and then upward. As the fire engulfed his body, it flung him back downwards, causing him to crash in a fiery mess. He groaned in pain, having been able to coat himself in metal right before impact. Julian flinched at the whole scene and retreated a bit with Yugeto.

"Ghost, what now?" came the voice of the man wielding fire. The first individual whose identity was concealed by a hood and mask spoke up: "Where are your men?!"

Julian froze. Ghost shook his head and spoke once again, "We've seen your patrol routes multiple times! We have cameras EVERYWHERE! So tell me: WHERE. ARE. YOUR. MEN?!" Julian sighed, feeling at loss for plans. They weren't far from detonation range. He knew one of them had to have the device, and a chase would be futile. He would have to confront them. He closed his eyes and focused his spirit, causing a black smoke to form up around his feet and hands.

Ghost scoffed, "Ah... they're already mobile, hm? You're merely the stalling party..." He then turned to the other two. "Orc, Pyrus. Take these fools out." Pyrus nodded, "And you?"

Ghost looked at the bat that flew in circles above the group. "FANG! On me. We're going to finish what we started." Ghost pressed a button on his earpiece, "Nekros, the Golden Mercenaries are en route to the wall. That's all you. Take 'em out, they have no hosts."

Julian's eyes widened. He knew that there was no way he could chase the man named "Ghost" while he was occupied with Orc and Pyrus. He looked to Yugeto:

"TAKE THE SHUTTLE AND GET TO HECTOR ASAP! THEY'RE GOING TO BE ANNIHILATED IF YOU DON'T HELP THEM"

Yugeto hesitated. He didn't want to leave another ally behind. "I'll help you here, Zachary can-" Julian held up a hand, "WE DON'T HAVE THE TIME, HE WON'T MAKE IT ALONE! CALL UP HQ AND TELL THEM TO GET SQUAD ONE OUT HERE! WE NEED TO EVAC SECTOR ZERO RIGHT NOW!"

Zachary, who had been watching in terror as the Hunters emerged from the wreckage and the scene unfold, pressed the comms button and forwarded the message. "Sector Zero, you need to evacuate immediately. There is a serious bomb threat. Get Squad One out here immediately."

Pyrus rolled his neck and began walking forward, "Enough bantering, man," he said just as he let loose another fireball. Julian ran forward and leapt over the fireball, spinning before launching a condensed ball of black smoke. It erupted into a cloud of smog, which Julian quickly blended with. His voice echoed out of the smoke:

"GO! NOW!"

Yugeto looked around frantically and then nodded before running back to the shuttle. As the doors opened, he took one more look back. 'Damnit, Locks, you better stay alive. That buddha was too damn good.' He then jumped on board and knocked on the cockpit door. "ZACH! We're headed out! Let's go, let's go!"

"I'm already on that," Zachary replied. The engines, already active, went to full power and lifted the shuttle off the ground.

Ghost sighed and stepped backwards before spinning and breaking out into a sprint, covering amazing distances with each bound. Fang followed suit and flew through the sky and into the broken windows of a nearby building. Zachary saw them go, flitting through the buildings, and knew that he would have no chance to shoot them with his shuttle. Instead, he turned the other way and flew off towards the Wall, where we would be able to get Yugeto to help the Mercs charging the Wall. He glanced over his shoulder at Yugeto. Whatever was waiting for the Mercs at the Wall didn't sound good, but the spirit powerhouse that was Yugeto and the artillery of this shuttle gave him a shred of confidence. He glanced down at the smoke-covered crash site for one last time before pushing down on the thrust and speeding off towards Hector's location.

"RAGHHH!" Chief roared as he slammed his fist into Orc's. Orc grabbed Chief's arm and pulled him towards himself, kneeing him in chest. Chief groaned in pain, but reached for Orc's legs and suplexed him. Orc rolled out of it and shook his head to regain his senses. Chief charged his opponent again, tackling him to the ground just as a fireball whizzed past the two of them. Julian jumped to the side to avoid the fireball, but the explosion caused him to fly forward. He cried out in pain, but quickly stood up to prevent being caught off guard. Pyrus leapt up and clapped his hands together, creating a huge spiraling cylinder of fire that blasted towards Julian.

Julian gasped, "ONE MORE TIME SENYUKO!" he called, knowing he didn't have it in him to dodge. Instead, his body began glowing black and red, and he simply stood there as the fire engulfed him. As the area where he once stood caught fire and started spreading, the smoke gathered until it formed a humanoid shape. It condensed into a black smoke, and then finally, morphed into Julian. Pyrus chuckled, "That's getting old, mate." Julian ran forward and shot two condensed smoke bombs at Pyrus, but he simply absorbed them by holding both palms in front of him and creating a flat, spinning shield of fire. He then ran to Julian and ducked under his punched, uppercutting him into the air. Julian resorted to his smokeform once in the air, and he flew upward, dodging a few fireballs as he flew upward. Once he was high enough he gathered his strength and shot downward at great speed. Pyrus began focusing the fire in his hands, and right before Julian made impact in his smoke form, he let out a huge pillar of fire upward, completely devouring Julian in its wake. When the fire disappeared, so did Julian. Pyrus coughed at is exertion, and was then launched to his side as Chief's body crashed into his own. Pyrus was nearly crushed under the weight of the man, who towered over his extremely frail body. Chief got up and roared once more before charging at Orc. The two locked in a small fist fight, with Orc coming out on top once more, using his expert martial arts to conquer Chief's sheer strength.

Pyrus rubbed his hands together, preparing another fireball. Just as he did this, he noticed a ball of smoke gather on the ground in front of him. He shook his head, "Jeeze, just die already." Right before he shot the fireball at the smoke figure, a second ball of smoke appeared to his right side, and then a third to his left. He raised a brow, confused. Suddenly a fourth ball appeared behind him, but just before he could react, all four smoke balls dashed towards him and upward, cutting clean through his body as they formed a spear like shape. Pyrus coughed and fell to his knees, blood escaping his mouth. The fire in his hands died, and he looked up in despair. The four balls combined to form Julian, who shot a final smoke bomb at his head. The explosion caused Julian to fly up even higher, and it caused Orc to turn his head just in time for Chief to hit him with a well placed hook. He flew backwards and tumbled. Chief shook his hand, having felt a bit of pain at the impact. Orc quivered at his broken jaw and he looked back at the two hosts who stood before him.

"But you're just... you're just fucking... civ-civ..." he sighed, unable to speak. Julian looked to Chief, feeling slightly light-headed at his exertion and guilt. He never enjoyed the thought of winning a fight to the death. It meant he would have to kill for victory.

"Finish this. I'm going to regroup with Hector."