R.D. nodded. "Lay down something creative to stall those imps," he said to Matt, "Then let's get out of here."

===Sector C-5 Cybernetics Lab, Aube===

Four soldiers had their weapons armed at the front of the lab, hidden behind heavy, overturned steel tables, waiting for any possible intrusion. Behind them, further into the lab, Alasea stood with her sword drawn, waiting anxiously for her ex-boyfriend become fully equipped.

She watched as a heavy-looking, conical device made of white metal was carefully inserted into the back of Jared's black armor by a pair of technicians. "Remember, don't let it divert too much power over all of your systems," one of them said. "The Ao-Gem can still provide your armor with much energy even with the Trikeros equipped."

"Gotcha," he said, waiting patiently as the Nova Reactor was secured, then mentally activating its systems to lock with his own. A third technician came over, holding a large shield-like weapon, a strange-looking thing with a large dark gray metal plate on the side, and three long, pointed rods mounted beneath the barrel, in his hands. Jared took the Trikeros rifle and attached it over his right forearm, letting the shield plate attach to the Ao-Gem. Immediately, as power filtered into it, the barrel at the front of the weapon began to glow.

"Alright, let's see... Nova Reactor systems are running smoothly; Energy is being diverted into armor and propulsion systems," he muttered quickly. "Ao-Gem status is green, energy is being diverted into Trikeros weapon systems. Phase Shift system is... online."

With a sound, the coloring of the plate changed, turning from gray to black with a white stripe along the top of the plate. "Let's go, 'sea," Jared said, looking over at the girl. A flywheel within the Nova Reactor began to spin, causing particles of blue-green light to filter out from the cone on his back.

"Right!" she said with a nod. "We should meet up with--"

An explosion cut her off, as flames blew out of the destroyed doors. Immediately, the soldiers began to lay down covering fire, shooting a stream of bullets into the smoky hole in the entryway.

With a nod, Matt leapt back out into the hallway. "Hey, FUCKERS!" He lifted his foot. "Seismic..."

He stomped. Flat plates of rock tore through the metal floor, overlapping each other in a wave that shot down the hallway, rending metal and wall. "CRASH!"

"Now, run!" Richter shouted, as the Seismic Crash smashed into the pursuing group of Imps, causing shrieks of pain and anger as a number of them were killed by the surprise attack.

R.D. tore down the hallway, rounding the corner; then ducked as a jagged sword nearly cleaved through his neck. Surprised, he slipped and fell, sliding forward on the metal floor as a brutish, red-skinned Megademon, a gigantic monster with wings and a horned head, brought its hooved foot up and slammed it down hard into R.D.'s chest.

"Gyahh!"

The creature lifted its sword up and reversed its grip, aiming the blade straight down, only for several bullets from Richter's pistol to strike against its arm and chest, spraying black blood behind the monster.

"Dammit, not one of these things!" he swore as he emptied the clip and reloaded while the monster roared in anger.

===Sector F-13 Hallway, Aube===

"Watch out!" one of the soldiers shouted as a fireball streaked through the air. It smashed hard into the other soldier, exploding and knocking him backwards. He screamed in pain as the hellish fire began eat through his clothing and into his skin. "Fall back, fall back!"

Squeezing off short bursts of his rifle, the soldier slapped down his comrade to get rid of the fire, even as he himself did the same. Grabbing onto his collar, he pulled the soldier away from the fight as the Imps began to advance, despite the bullets and energy rounds tearing into them.

Edited by RisingDragon on May 22, 2009 at 17:50:31.

Matt pumped his arms, bolting around the corner to spot R.D. trampled under the Megademon. "Oh, HELL NAW!" He ran at the winged monster and leapt into a flying kick, emblazoned in fire. "Red Hot Kick!"

***

"Force Option!" Hugo's pickaxe launched a small orb lined with blinking red lights. It shot at the Imps and expelled a sudden wave of force, knocking them aside and punching curved dents in the walls.

"Take her to the vault!" Hugo shouted at Helena.

Helena nodded. The dragon laid down and looked toward Ileyna, lowering her wings and baring her mottled back.

It took Ileyna a moment to realize what Helena was doing, and with a cry, she ran forward and latched herself onto the weredragon's back, holding on tight with a whimper.

With his comrade pulled out of the danger for now, the first soldier stood back up and readied his weapon as the Imps began to regroup from the Force Option. Flipping a switch on the ZF-1 rifle and aimed it carefully into the group. Pulling the trigger, he fired a powerful rocket into the fray. The explosion wiped out several of the Imps in a single shot, clearing them out.

"Get going," the wounded soldier said while picking himself up, readying his own ZF-1. "You better find your friends, Hugo."

===Sector C-5 Cybernetics Lab, Aube===

The sound of the Red Hot Kick impacting against the Megademon was masked as another explosion rocked the sector they were all in. It was the starting gunshot for the combatants in the lab.

"Eeeequiiiip!" Jared shouted, thrusting his Trikeros out forward before spinning. Blue light flared as his helmet reformed over his head, masking his face. The Nova Reactor began to charge more rapidly, and the combat cyborg threw himself into the fray, past the bullets.

Lifting up his weapon, a long blade of energy lanced out, and cleaved through a four-legged, eyeless demon. "Let's go!" he shouted at Alasea and the four soldiers. The soldiers ran out of the room with guns blazing, quickly followed by Jared and Alasea, allowing the technicians to evacuate.

As Helena charged through the smoke and bounded over the corpses of Imps and soldiers, Hugo recalled his Force Option and tapped his helmet. "Stay alive." He turned and ran after Helena.

As a burn seared across the creature's chest, the Megademon backed away, slashing at Matt with is sword. Before it could hit, a bolt of energy shot up from the floor and knocked it away, as R.D. had aimed and fired with his blaster.

Growling, the Megademon roared and pitched itself forward, unleashing a gout of fire from its maw. R.D. grabbed a hold of one of its legs and yanked--instead of bringing the creature down, he succeeded in pulling himself behind it. As he shot up, his hands dropped his blaster rifle and grabbed the Phase Blades. The first one carved upwards from the creature's leg and through a wing as he stood up, and spinning, R.D. slashed along the creature's back with his second blade. Completing the attack, he swung the first blade up again in a similar manner, cleaving the creature in twain.

"Nice tactics," Richter commented as he armed his pistol. "Come on, we need to keep moving in case there's more of those fuckers."

Seril nodded, as the Magma Dragon hardened another pool of flowing magma, allowing them to cross with ease. "The pathway to the terminal you seek is near," it growled out, looking around.

Matt clenched his armored fist, taking a quick look back the way he came to check for monsters. "Right behind you."

R.D. sheathed his right-hand Phase Blade and retrieved his discarded blaster rifle, walking in line with Richter as he lead them towards the two elevators. During their run, R.D. looked to the side as they reached the intersection, and froze, seeing a wave of fire flying down the hall as a lithe, off-white demon thrust flaming claws forward.

Due to his sudden stop, Matt and Richter flew right past him. Before R.D. could dispel the flames with water, something hard and invisible struck him, knocking the wind out of him. The psychic blast sent him screaming down the hall, to impact hard against the rubble.

"What the HELL?!" Matt lifted his finger and jabbed it toward the ground. "Thunder Rave!" Bolts of lightning crackled across the ground, travelling in a straight line at the demon.

Before the bolts could reach the Arch-Vile, another explosion rocked Sector C-5, as the wall ahead and to the left of the demon was rent apart by demonic magic. A second explosion knocked everyone to the ground, and debris fell, cutting R.D. off from Matt and Richter.

"Just get out of here, Matt!" R.D. shouted as he picked himself and his weapons up. "Don't worry about me, I've faced worse!"

Dammit! "Don't you die on me, now!" Matt pushed up into a runner's position and charged, swerving past the Arch-Vile. Hope Hugo and the others were already at the vault.

R.D. readied his weapons out in front of him, and grinned at the screeching Arch-Vile, even as a trickle of blood slipped down his forehead and across the bridge of his nose.

"Alright, you, let's do this."

He threw himself forward and attacked, just as the monster screamed and unleashed its power. As Richter and Matt fled, they could feel the hallways shake as the two powers collided.

===Sector F-7 Station, Aube===

"Ahh, look out!" Ileyna shouted as Helena bounded through the into the room. Ileyna, grappled to the weredragon's neck, pointed off to the side with the hand that wasn't crushing her beret to the dragon's neck.

As if responding to the girl, the four-legged, eyeless monster with shredded, bloody flesh around its tooth-filled mouth roared and bore down on Helena, easily matching her size.

Helena snapped her head up and launched a blast of fire right at the monster's vulnerable chest.

The monster bellowed as it pushed up to slash, only for Helena's attack to catch it in the chest and knock it backwards. As it rolled over to continue attacking, a hail of gunfire tore into its side, causing it to jolt and turn towards the attack. A rocket flew across the room as one of the attacking soldiers switched firing modes, exploding the demon violently and spraying blood and gore everywhere.

"Hold on, girl!" one of them shouted to Helena before she could escape the room. "That pathway's blocked off!"

Helena skidded to a halt, craning her neck, looking for another way to go.

The soldier turned around the corner and fired down the hall, causing the screams of demons to come back at him as many of his bullets hit. "Man, I love direct hits," he muttered, switching something on the ZF-1. This time, he didn't bother aiming into the hallway--instead, he just fired in one direction, and Ileyna watched in amazement as the bullets literally curved around and into the hallway, to shred into the Imps.

Another soldier reloaded his weapon and nodded to Helena, reached over and struck a panel on the wall. A nearby door opened up. "You can get through here, but its not secure yet! Be careful!"

Ileyna snapped out on her amazement and looked down at Helena. "Where's Hugo?" she asked.

Around the corner, an Imp splattered against the wall, and Hugo ran into the scene. "Go go go!"

Helena lowered her head and ran through the door, and the Mettaur followed at high speed.

Ileyna yelped and clung to Helena as she bounded again, and a couple soldiers turned and began firing into the corridor. Shortly after they lost sight of the soldiers, the three of them heard and felt an explosion reverberate through the chamber.

===Sector C-5 Hallway, Aube===

Alasea stood up, coughing terribly as she waved dust and debris from her vision. She looked around as she got her bearings, and soon saw that a pile of rubble had blocked off the route they were going on; three of the soldiers were with her, and a fourth was crushed by the rubble following the explosion. She couldn't find Jared.

"Jared? Jared!" she shouted, looking around.

"I'm fine!" came the muffled reply--he was behind the rubble. "Looks like we're cut off, though. Alasea, get to the elevators! Ramirez, find them for her!"

"Yes, sir!"

Turning around from the debris, Jared armed his Trikeros and ran, tearing down a corridor at inhuman speeds. Another explosion suddenly hit, down the hall, and he came to a halt as he saw a black-and-white-clad body fly through the air. Was that...?

R.D. pulled himself up from the floor and snarled, aiming one of his Phase Blades at the Arch-Vile and channeling, firing a bolt of lightning through the air and electrocuting the beast. It continued to move forward, but suddenly, a black-armored figure cut through, slashing with a familiar blue-bladed knife at the demon's throat. Gurgling, the creature toppled over.

"You alright?" Jared asked, turning towards R.D..

"I'm fine," came the terse reply. "Where're the others?"

"Alasea and I got separated, but she should be fine. What about the rest of your friends?"

"Matt's with Richter. I don't know where Hugo, Helena, and Ileyna are, but they should be headed for the vault."

"Alright. Come on, then, let's go find the elevators."

"Keep moving!" Hugo said, running past Helena.

***

Where the HELL was that STUPID elevator? All these corridors looked the fucking same. Ignoring Richter for the moment, Matt burned around the next corner, spotted a group with a familiar head of hair. Alasea! "Hey!" he shouted.

Alasea turned immediately to the sound of the voice, and her face lit up. "Matt!"

With the three soldiers following behind her, she ran over to him and Richter, who just caught up. "Thank god we found you. Where're the others at?"

"We broke off from R.D. a while back," Matt said. "I have no fucking clue where Hugo and the others are. They should be trying to get to the vault, but I can't find any elevators that head that way."

"This whole place is a mess," Richter said, looking around. "They've never penetrated this far in before."

"Reports say that they've come as far as Sector G," Ramirez said, saluting his superior officer. "The lower levels beyond that are being flooded with bakelite to stall their progress."

"Right. Let's get moving; the elevator shouldn't be too far from here."

Some of the tension lifted from Matt's body, now that he was part of a larger group. Okay. Now to get to the vault.

"Alright. This way," Richter motioned with is gun, holding it in both hands as he hurried down the hallway at a steady pace. Alasea gripped the Megami Tsurugi tightly and followed after him as Ramirez moved alongside Richter, and the other two soldiers brought up the rear, ZF-1s at the ready.

And then, little more than a minute later, they were all thrown to their feet as a series of explosions tore through the entire sector.

===

"R.D., watch out!"

R.D. turned and quickly threw up a shield array as the blast wave came in. It smashed hard against it and quickly overwhelmed it in its weakened state, and exploded violently. R.D. screamed as he was thrown through wall after wall by the intense blast, the resultant explosions causing the entire sector within the facility to shudder violently.

"R.D.!" Jared shouted, trying to get a good view of him, rushing towards him. The beast that attacked them tried to follow, but Jared immediately aimed the Trikeros back, and fired several accurate shots that kept it at bay.

As the smoke cleared, Jared came to a halt as he saw an upright figure in what was left of the cybernetics lab he had recently escaped from. Only now, R.D. looked like he was clad in armor of his own.

"What the hell?" he muttered through the helmet. R.D. stood up, and growled.

"That's it," he snarled. "That is it! I'm done getting thrown around all the time!"

An aura of prismatic light erupted all around the Dragon King Armor, making it look dark as the matter converter activated in the chest jewel.

===Aube Airspace===

Fires raged across the sky as winged horrors dogfighted with the sleek crimson Falkens. With a roar of rage, one of the Devil Dragons banked off and went into pursuit of one of the Falkens, only for another one to soar in from above and shred through its wing membranes with its machine gun, leaving it to plummet to its death. Two more chased after a second Devil Dragon, launching missiles that quickly destroyed it, leaving a brilliant plume of greenish fire in the wake.

Down on the ground, Nine-Balls pounded the shorelines with their grenade launchers, the massive shoulder-mounted cannons punching holes in the ranks of the incoming seaborne enemies. There was no blood and gore to leave behind--the deadly projectiles left nothing but shattered glass as the intense heat of the explosions fused the sand and then destroyed the resulting glass with the shockwaves. The shards flew through the air, eviscerating dozens of monsters. But that didn't stop them from pouring out of the sea like a horrific plague.

"This is getting intense!" Chico growled, taking aim with his Nine-Breaker's KARASAWA rifle and firing intense beams of energy through airborne monsters. "I've never seen this many monsters in one place before!"

A Devil Dragon dived through the air, readying an intense beam of heat to fire at Chico's backside. As it fired, the Nine-Breaker rolled out of the way, and a second Nine-Breaker swooped in, a blade of blue plasma erupting from its left arm. Swinging it down, Rodeo cut the demonic beast in half, causing both halves to explode violently behind his machine.

"Yeah, but luckily they're just weak ones!" he replied through the comm. channel. "We don't have to worry about losing yet!"

"Lieutenant Massimo, cut the chatter!" ordered AWACS Thunderhead in response. Two Falkens flew by, their sharp noses opening up to reveal a white-gray barrel to slide forward within. Beams of intense blue energy erupted from the chemical lasers' barrels, and the Falkens split off to guide the beams through several dozen Devil Dragons within seconds.

"Roger! This is Razgriz-3, engaging the target!"

Matt uncovered his head. "Who the hell keeps blowing stuff up?!"

With a groan, Alasea pushed herself off the floor, bringing one fingerless gloved hand up to her head as a stinging pain radiated from it. She touched it for a brief moment and felt some sticky fluid--she pulled her hand away sharply with a hiss, and saw the blood there. "Everyone all right?" she asked.

"We're all accounted for," Richter said, looking around a brief moment. "Keep moving."

===Sector C-5 Cybernetics Lab, Aube===

Fire raged all around in the destroyed lab, causing delicate electronic devices to sizzle and explode, the shockwaves destroying various fragile pieces of equipment, shattering the glass screens of monitors, the sounds of battle muffled by the distorted hum of the matter converter.

R.D. lashed out, taking things indiscriminately as he fueled the Dragon King Armor's power. Behind him, something conical in shape disappeared into millions of tiny fragments, and swarmed into his back.

With a blink, R.D. noted a change on the HUD, a small box displaying text reading out that a change was occurring in the armor's systems. The back was warping; changing as something was built into it--something white and silvery blue, curving to a rounded point. The cone built up within, revealing three slots around the circumference and three box-like openings inbetween them. A flywheel began to spin as the newly-assimilated Nova Reactor began to charge and distribute energy throughout the frame of the Dragon King Armor.

Particles of blue-green light were being flung out as the shoulder-mounted cannons formed on the back beside the Nova Reactor, and the hip-mounted cannons down each leg. R.D. drew both Phase Blades and charged the enemy down, rushing past an amazed cyborg.

"How the hell'd he equip a Nova Reactor?" he wondered aloud, then turned and began firing at the demon while R.D. closed the distance.

"Alasea," Matt said, his fingers awash in warm green light. "Come here, lemme heal that head wound."