Minka still looks bad from rejection, her usual cheerful look has seemingly faded away. Now as if it is a husk of a body. Trazyn couldn't really notice but Monika is seriously concerned about this. She pulled Trazyn over and told him everything that had happened.
"So, you want me to bring her around? You know I can just control him and make him like Minka."
"That is a horrible idea, I don't want you to bring any similar ideas near me please." Monika is slightly pouting: " Anyways, since you two are such a pair, why don't you show her something she likes, so it might improve her mood," Monika said it sarcastically.
"I guess we can pat her head a few times. This surely will cheer her up."
"Don't play dumb with me Trazyn, I can tell you have become more sensitive in a matter like this. Don't worry, I didn't fall in love with you because of your robotic demeanor or lack of human moral value." This is the few times Monika is slightly scolding Trazyn.
" Hmmm… maybe we can… aha I know just a person to ask." He snaps his finger: "Do you know where Lynine lives?"
"How do you know about her? I mean I do know where she lives… she's living in the funeral parlor outside of the city." Monika looks at Trazyn with a suspicious glare.
"Anyways, maybe we should pay her a visit with Minka. Doesn't this sound fun?" Trayzn purposely shouted in Minka's direction.
Monika is still glaring at Trazyn, it is also a good time to find out what's going on between Lynine and Trazyn. When they arrived, Trazyn knocked on the door. This place seemed to be abandoned.
But soon Lynine came out in pajamas: "Oh... Isn't this the former prez? What do you want? Let me guess you want to humiliate me in front of people again?"
"I told you that wasn't me." Monika seems not to be backing down from her claim.
"Then it was nice talking to you." Lynine then slammed the door open.
Trazyn turns slowly and looks at Monika: "What happened between you two?"
Monika's tone isn't nice: "What happened between YOU two? Why did you want to come here all of a sudden? How do you even know about her? "
"We time-traveled to another reality that has very little different than this, and we kinda made friends with Lynine." Minka replied: "Mom, please don't blame dad, he did it to save the world."
Monika takes a deep breath and knocks on the door again. Lynine looks at Monika in a despised way: " Lynine, here it is the truth. The reason I had to get you expelled is that a lot of people are trying to get rid of you. I know I should've told you and considered more about your feelings. But we can really use your help a bit."
Lynine's expression didn't even change, but she just stepped away from the door and let them in: "I'll be right back, I need to get a change of clothes."
"Honey… I am sorry for not telling you about the time travel thing." On a rare occasion, Trazyn actually sounds completely different than his usual self.
Monika crosses her arms but then she lets out a sigh: "I am sorry as well… I wasn't really mad about your time travel adventure. It's just after my memories came back, there's a lot on my mind and every time I think about what the phyrexians have done to my people my blood starts boiling. And I just feel… helpless, I am weak. Too weak to even fight."
Trazyn holds Monika's hand: " You don't have to worry about any of that, we will stay by you and support you."
"I want to become stronger." Monika's eyes are glittering with rage: " Traz, I don't ask a lot of things from you but please. I want to be stronger to protect everything I love."
"I'll help you mom." Minka is touched by Monika's spirit: " I will make you stronger, but I need you to have the resolve to prepare to die."
"You don't really need to scare your mom, Minka." Trazyn shakes his head.
"But it looks cute."
"STOP TEASING ME!" Monika pouts.
"Can you guys keep it down a bit?" Lynine came out dressed like one of those bounty hunters: "So, what do you guys want?"
"Do you know the exact location of Glissa the traitor?" Trazyn asks.
"Maybe, how much do you guys want to pay?"
"I mean you have lived for millennia; you surely don't lack wealth..." Minka said.
"Monika, keep your dog on the leash." Lynine didn't even look at Minka.
Trazyn holds Minka's shoulder to prevent her from jumping and dismembering Lynine: " I have a piece of the script that belongs to the dark age of technology."
"Fair enough, anything else?"
"Minka actually has a relationship problem regarding a man that's not interested in her. But she's deeply in love with him..."
"Dad!" Minka shakes Trazyn's body.
"Young lady, I suggest you move on. Dwelling on the same spot will bring you endless pain, I speak from experience." Lynine looks rather more approachable while answering the relationship question.
"I like you, Trazyn. You stick to the rules and respect them as well. We can do business in the future." Lynine throws Trazyn a map: " It's already marked, if you need anything come and see me alone." She then opens the door, signals them to leave.
After they leave, Trazyn is a bit surprised at how different a human can change after eight years. If it is up for a necron, a century feels like a blink of an eye.
Monika's negative emotion is only for Trazyn, because with him it is the only place where she's comfortable being herself. Her fist is clenched hard but, in the end, she didn't lose her cool. Later at night, she came to Lynine's house again. This time she came alone, and she wanted to talk about what happened between her and Lynine in high school.
"Lynine, I didn't do those things to hurt you." Monika's tone is commanding but also honest.
"Noted, do you want tea or coffee? If you are not here for business, then I suggest you leave."
"Lynine, please. They were trying to kill you! I had to protect you somehow."
"Yea, thanks. Now leave please."
"I will not until you forgive me."
"Don't push your luck, Monika." Lynine's passive tone suddenly changed: " What's in the past is in the past."
"Lynine.." Monika touches Lynine's hand but she slaps her hand away. The force was so strong that Monika's hand bounced on the wall, a crack sound came out from her forearm.
"Wait, you lost your enhancement?" Lynine crouches down and checks Monika's forearm: "If I have to be honest, this did make me feel better."
Monika is gasping in pain, sweat coming down from her head and her face has turned more pale than usual: " Please… I don't want to hurt you again; this is why I came alone..."
"I don't even think you can hurt me at all." Lynine pokes at Monika's broken arm: "Hmm, this is the real deal." The pain is so severe that Monika had to shut her eyes, but then Lynine bandaged her arm and reinforced it with a splint: " Look, like I said, I was never mad at you. I am mad because you thought that I was mad therefore stop contacting me. I was mad at you because you tried to burden all the blame instead of the people that actually tried to kill me."
"I am sorry... I never really saw it that way..." Monika shyly looks away.
"Don't worry about it, I've been living for millennia. I should be the bigger person. But." She pokes Monika's arm again: "This is fun. Never heard you gasp because you were always so perfect. You don't get mad, or you don't seem to be overjoyed as well."
Monika curses Lynine in her mind, but at least their relationship has become normal again. Before Monika leaves, Lynine stops her: "Give this back to Trazyn, for your effort. Why don't you impress him a bit?" She gave back the artifact that was from Trazyn this morning to Monika with a meaningful look.
"Thank you Lynine, Good night."
Somewhere on the planet, Nova suddenly woke up from the bed. With it a cathartic scream. She looked around like a mad person, a doctor came into the room. But Nova immediately grabs his collar and pin him on the wall: "WHERE IS TRAZYN?!" Nova's grip gets harder until that doctor went unconscious.
Her expression is terrifying, it is as if she has gone through hell. But from the way she moves around in the hospital, it is obvious that Nova is in control of her body. She took down some guards and hijacked the valkyrie aero fighter on the roof.
"Welcome back sister." Leonard's voice came out through the voice channel in the ship.
"Trazyn, he's the reason that we lost. I need to kill him. He's been allowed to live for way too long." Nova is setting course to where Monika is. She knows this is where Trazyn is going to be. She doesn't mind if she has to kill Trazyn in front of Monika's face. This is bigger than just the Terra family, it is bigger than all of them. Trazyn killed her, and for some reason that she came back. She's not going to let this slide.
"Nova, retreat from your current location. This is an-" Nova shut off the voice channel. Soon, she finally arrived at the location of Trazyn. Nova got off the plane and loaded her gun.
"Aunt Nova." Minka decloaked from the shadow, she's in her full battle suit: " Whatever you are doing is faulty. I was ordered by the central command to stop you. Trazyn is not an enemy."
"You are the daughter of that devil, of course, you would defend him." Nova's lightning stuck right on top of Minka but that was just merely an illusion.
"You were charmed by the witch of wrath, it was not Trazyn who killed you. We are not even sure if you are under her charm as well. If you wouldn't mind, I will check on your status." Minka approaches.
Nova scoffs: "Come and find out then." Minka and Nova's attack clashed with each other, and quickly they were broken off. Nova's control of lightning is somehow stronger than her peak, a storm is brewing on top of the city, and it is going to consume everything. Nova then shot Minka with a lightning-infused bullet. It is so fast that no human can even see its trace. But Minka is not a normal human, she vaporized the bullet with her psychic blast. But doing that also costs a great deal of Minka's stamina.
Another bullet is out, and Nova is controlling its trajectory to make sure it never misses. Minka soon realizes Nova has the advantage when it comes to firepower, she then focuses on her energy to infuse on her lance. It is strong and sharp even to split a lightning-infused bullet. And every time Nova shoots, Minka just simply slices it in half.
"Impressive, but you have made a fatal mistake." The lightning as if it's living surges from Minka's lance and made an energy blast on Minka's hand. When the smoke settles down, Minka's full right arm armor is completely shredded off. Blood came out from Minka's arm and there's still some blue energy spark in her vein.
Minka got off the ground and reattached the dislocated arm with her psychic ability. But this doesn't mean she can use that arm anytime soon. Nova shouts to the sky: "Do you really want me to kill your little pet? Didn't you say that Monika is more like a pet to you? Then you wouldn't mind if I kill this one huh? You said so many things to me before I died and guess what. I AM BACK." Nova stomps the ground, and the blue lightning disintegrated the surrounding houses.
"Enough." Trazyn steps out of Monika's house.
"Dad... I still can."
"It's enough Minka. Nova is not in her real self. I will end this. Go find mom in the backyard and run as fast as you can." Trazyn is doing a gamble, he's not at his prime. In fact, from a raw strength perspective, she's not even on Minka's level. But whatever is going to happen, he's going to stop Nova.
"So, you are not going to die as a coward?"
"I did not kill you, Nova, I was not even there."
"You think I would listen to a liar? I knew you were a hustler since the first day we met, now." Nova threw out a device that immediately encircled the area, the device she developed ages ago that would make sure that Trazyn would never escape: "You are not going to go anywhere. I will make you pay for what you've done."
Lightning infused into blade shape; this was never done by any human. Yet Nova's power is far beyond the comprehension of any recording made. She strikes at a speed that's as fast as her lightning bullet, from outside she has become a thick blue light ray. She strikes from all directions, but Trazyn's shield is hard to penetrate: "Did you enjoy it? The feeling penetrated my chest with a blade. I went to hell and came back just to kill you!" The blade eventually broke the shield, and Nova cut off a whole arm from Trazyn.
Electrical spark coming out from the cutoff part, Trazyn's nanobot is quickly sealing the wound, but the fact that he lost an arm just put him at a significant disadvantage.
"You said being a human is the worst thing that has happened to you, living among us is like torture every single day. You said it with such arrogance and relief. Trazyn, you are a heartless bastard and today I will not only kill you but make you realize how wrong you are."
"NOVA!" Monika's scream silenced everything.
"And you poisoned my sister with your faulty idea of 'love'. For this, I will make sure this will be painful and slow." Nova still mutters the words from her mouth, she completely ignored Monika.
Nova charges in again but this time Monika stood in between Trazyn and Nova. Trazyn is shocked, if Nova didn't stop, with the current strength of Monika she would just get maimed over like a pigeon in front of a high-speed train.
"Nova please… he didn't do it, it wasn't him." Monika is crying out of sadness, she finally has her sister back, but she can't believe the first thing Nova does is to kill the man she loves.
"Monika, move."
Monika shakes her head while blocking the path, she doesn't want to see this. Having the people she loves the most in the world and fighting till one's death is the saddest thing that can happen.
"Monika…" Trazyn said: " It was me who said it. Please step aside, Nova will kill you."
"What...?" Monika slowly turns her head, but in an instant, Minka dashes in and picks Monika with her.
At this very moment, Nova stabs her blade in Trazyn's core: "How does it feel?" Nova whispers in Trazyn's ear. She then turns her blade: " At least… you didn't die a liar."
Trazyn's system is failing and due to Nova's device, he cannot just leap to another body. This might be his end here. But this is Trazyn, the man who was bountied by generations of hunters and has survived and escaped in every single scenario. He pulls out the necklace that was on Monika's neck which has Vegas stored in it. Instead, he puts his consciousness in the necklace and at this very moment, Minka grabs Nova's head from the back and puts her into sleep.
"Traz!" Monika holds Trazyn's body with a hole in the chest: "Please... Don't leave me." She still hadn't noticed she was sitting on the necklace which Trazyn escaped in. He can't call for help because it doesn't have a voice projector, Vegas could talk because the cufflink has a voice projector.
Minka received a message from her HUD, it was Trazyn asking for help. If Monika steps on that he's gone for real: "Mom, can you move a bit?" Minka picks up the necklace and puts it in Monika's palm: " He's in here, you can kinda torture him a bit if you want."
"Why would I do that?!" Monika immediately rushed to the basement and put the necklace next to the backup body.
A few moments later, the backup body was operational. What's welcomed first is a big tight hug from Monika: "I thought I'd lost you for real…" Tears of happiness pour out from her eyes.
"I thought as well. But... It was you who saved me. Without you stopping Nova for that mere moment, I could not have thought about replacing Vegas with my consciousness. But for real though, I do not wish to fight her again."
Minka is trying to figure out how Nova came back from death, she said she went to hell, but this doesn't simply draw the conclusion. In her timeline Nova never actually told Minka about how she came back from death as well: "Dad, did you actually… kill her?"
"No, I said what I said because I wanted to grab Monika's necklace." Trazyn is glad that Monika isn't too concerned about this part: "My best bet is she was sent back by Lucifer. But I have no way to confirm it because the hell's gate is closed for some reason after the invasion."
Minka takes off Nova's shirt and suddenly finds out something, no scar was on her back, but Minka can tell that it was surgically fixed and whoever has done that must have some advanced technology. Minka can still tell where the blade was stabbed after the battle with the phyrexian champion even without the scar. This should be a fatal wound even for Nova. However, who could've done that? This started to hurt Minka's head a bit and she went to get a glass of water. The blue color of the glass suddenly made Minka remember something.
"Mom, do you remember who Eula Lorence is?" Minka is sure about this.
"Yea, she was in my school. I never knew her well but why you are asking?"
"She was the one that saved Nova."
"That's not possible." Monika dismisses Minka's idea: "Because she's dead. I was at the funeral. She died in an experimental fighter accident."
"But what happens if that was the cover?" Minka insisted.
"Honey, why don't you go look around with Minka? I still need some time to adjust some settings for this body." Trazyn said.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
Seeing this Monika lets out a short sigh and grabs the motorcycle in the backyard: "Alright, let's go."
"I'll drive." Minka hops on the bike and puts on the helmet. Monika didn't protest and just sat on the back. She suddenly coughed, a bit of blood came out and it was mixed with some black matter. Minka thought it was just a puncture on her lung so just ignored it.
They soon arrived at the old Lorence supply center; this is the place where Minka was captive in the alternative timeline. Before going in, Monika put on the power gloves. She can feel a battle coming.
When they enter the underground tunnel, the light starts flickering. It is weird that there's even light in the first place. Minka suddenly stopped and yelled at the end of the hallway: "Why don't you come out now? We will not fight."
"We are not?" Monika is surprised but then people start fading out from the shadows, seeing this Monika immediately deactivated her power gloves.
"Smart move." A woman spoke from the shadow, but she seemed like lighting a cigarette: " Not a lot of people know about this place and even fewer knew about the soldiers that walked among the shadow." In the flickering light, Minka can see a suit that's rather out of the era.
After the cigarette had been lit, she came out from the shadow: " So, why don't we start with a basic introduction? I am Cecilia, this is of course my code name. I am one of the heads of administration. "
"Minka."
"Monika."
"Similar names, whoever named the second one must have been a lazy lad." For some reason her pupil is light pink, extremely rare in any case for a human: "Now, how do I put it simply, you have trespassed the government property, I need to take you guys in."
"We are here for Eula Lorence." Minka said: "I am a colonel in the Astra militarum."
"Yea, You guys only lasted for about seven hours. Do not try to threaten me with ranks. But you are still a colonel nonetheless, I guess I'll take you guys to see Eula." Her tone is arrogant but for some reason, Minka doesn't have to urge to punch her: "Hold on, I just realized something, did you say your name is Monika?" she points her finger: "Monika Terra?"
"That's me," Monika replied.
"Huh, I always thought you should've been taller. Now come on." the wall next to Minka rises up and there's only the pure white void that can be seen from outside: "Alright, lights off for these two." Cecilia snaps her finger.
Suddenly, a research center-looking place appeared in an enormous underground facility: "What was that?" Monika asks.
"We put some chemicals in the tap-water system on this planet. It blocks a certain wavelength of light. I believe for you guys everything you see here with the light on is just invisible. But I believe that wasn't the case for you, is it, Colonel Minka?"
"All sector C or above members have an eye implant that allows us to see through things like this," Minka explains to Monika.
They finally reached a control room looking place, and Monika immediately recognized one of the people in the room. Leonard turns away from the monitor and walks in front of Monika: "Oh hey, didn't expect to see you here, are you here to visit your big bro?"
"Where is Ria?" Monika is trying her best not to punch this guy in front of her.
"I have no idea who you are talking about. But if you want to have a tour, I am a bit busy right now. Cecilia is going to take you wherever you wanna go." Leonard just slightly pinches Monika's cheek with a warm yet fake smile.
"You heard the man, so… Eula is coming now. And I will be here if you need anything." Cecilia grins warmly, which is a weird scene compared to the background structure.
"What do you guys want?" Eula is clearly not happy to see these two.
"Were you the one that saved Nova?" Minka asks.
"Yes, now you have got your answer. Leave." Eula turns away.
"Why did she say she went to hell? And why out of everyone, it was you who saved her?" Minka isn't letting this slide.
Eula approaches Minka in a menacing way but Minka isn't even backing off an inch: " Listen… you little crusade means absolutely nothing in a grand scale of matters which is what we are doing here. So, why don't you take your useless mother and leave this place?"
Minka is shocked that Eula knows about her real identity: " I am here to save the world."
"A word of advice: don't. You are not the hero in this story and furthermore, this world already has us the government to save. The best thing you can do is to stay put and wait." Eula pushes Minka into a corner.
"This is enough, now you can leave the guests to me." Cecilia lights up another cigarette: "I am sorry for my colleague's rudeness, she's a work in progress." She talks to Minka and then gazes towards the argument between Monika and Leonard. Well, it's more like Monika is annoying Leonard: " Monika is really something isn't she? Stubborn to the core and isn't bright on the head."
"You sound like you know a lot about her."
"My fiance talks about her all the time."
"Wait… you mean Leo..."
"Yep." Cecilia isn't even dodging the question, compared to her, Minka is just like a child when it comes to almost all the qualities when it comes to being a woman: "Anyways if you want to know about what happened to Nova then I'll tell you. It's not really a secret really."
"It's not?"
"We basically summoned her with an avatar of doom summoning ritual and then used artificial intelligence to figure out the remaining text on an almost ruined spellbook which gives the instruction on how to cut ties with hell. Really no biggy." Her expression is so calm that it is as if this kind of thing happens almost every day.
"I can't really believe the clearance level difference between C and D is this huge." Minka only got to C even with her ability, these rankings have more politics in them rather than depending on individual capability.
"So, what should you call me from now on? I prefer the word: queen. If you may."
"That's not happening. Also, are you going to help mom or not? She looks like she's almost crying." Minka is pointing at Monika who's currently dragging Leonard's arm.
"This is really embarrassing for Monika, but Leonard and I have a strict no PDA policy in the workplace." Cecilia, however, gave me a small intel storage device: "This is the maximum I can help, I don't want to leave a bad image for you two. Because we are going to come out one day anyways. Good luck~" She winks and off to another sector in the facility.
"Come out of what?" Minka is confused, but they've got what they came for anyways: "Mom... let's go."
"Not until I get where Ria is." But Monika just got replied with a simple head pat from Leonard, as if she's not his sister but a pet.
Minka just grabs Monika's hand and starts walking out: "Cecilia gave us something. We should have a look at it first."
"Wait here." Monika runs towards Leonard again, this time she seems to be telling him something. His expression changed from his usual smug to serious. He then hugs Monika goodbye.
"What did you say to him?"
"Family Matters."
"But I am part of the family."
"You are too young to know about it." Monika winks.
Minka pouts and proceeds to leave the place, at least now they have a lead, the intel shows a secret military base that's on the outskirts of the city Cadiarc. Monika hasn't really been there for a while, she thought maybe this is a good chance to enlist help from Anton. Besides this would make Minka feel happy.
"Traz~" At night Monika put her head on Trazyn's chest: "Tomorrow can you please stay put for a bit? I wanted to give a surprise to Minka."
"What kind of surprise are you talking about?"
"Letting Minka team up with Anton. She seems to be in love with him, so… I kinda feel bad that she is being left behind when it comes to love." Monika's voice cracked a bit when talking about the last part.
"Minka is a big girl, I think she can take care of herself."
"Traz, you need to be more sensitive about your surroundings."
"Are you a love expert?"
"You know what? Just stay put. I'm going to sleep now." Monika sounded a bit mad then turns her head away and eventually falls asleep.
The next morning, Monika woke up at dawn, she stood in front of her house to wait for Anton. After a few minutes, he arrived with Elaria, Emilia, and Kira: " Commissar Anton Thorn and the second resistance squadron reporting for duty!" He salutes in perfect form.
"Oh… I didn't expect you to bring your friends..." Monika's project might not work now.
"They are excellent fighters; we would accomplish anything," Anton said.
"I was thinking maybe this can be a dual mission, but I guess this can also work…. Anton, Minka is coming with you as she's the original discoverer of the intel. But due to the nature of the mission, I suggest you guys split up when reaching the designated location." Monika is briefing the mission.
"I'll go with shorty and no one else, you three can be the second team." Elaria grabs Kira who's only on her chest height. Kira didn't protest because she's already gotten used to it.
"I don't see a problem, Emilia, do you have a problem teaming up with Minka?" Anton knows about their relationships.
Emilia scoffs: "Only if she has a problem with me."
"Oh, hey. Emilia long time no see. How have you been?" Minka pretends that she didn't see her until now.
"You've put on weight, sis. Seems like you've been eating well." Emilia's tone is horrible.
"Alright, you two. We are about to go on a mission if you have any problems with each other. Leave it after the mission." Anton is very strict when it comes to rules.
"I am sorry..." Minka lowers her head, she still has feelings towards Anton, if it is her normal self, she would already order Anton to stand down due to the rank difference.
"Nice one honey." Trazyn came out of the house as well.
"I feel like I might be making things worse…." Monika lays her head on his shoulder.
"Don't worry about it, let these three work it out themselves."
On the ride, no one was talking to each other. Emilia just blankly stares outside of the window and feels the wind breeze through her face. Maybe it is a Terra trait that they fight their siblings to find out who's the strongest.
"So, shorty. What's the deal with these two?" Elaria asks in the back seat.
"They are sisters. Both of them are the descendants of Monika Terra. I don't really know who's the father, but I can tell that they have conflicting opinions on identity." Kira tries her best to analyze the situation. But in reality, this isn't the case. They dislike each other simply because Minka left the timeline once and for all. And Emilia found out the truth, thus she's here to bring her back and possibly terminate this timeline as Minka did.
In a way Kira was right, but Elaria just got completely bored by it: " Yea, yea. They have family issues. Do you see? People like us who don't have a family should help out each other."
Kira's family died from an Ork invasion, but she doesn't want to mention it to Elaria because she can tell that this tall, mean and rude person actually is vulnerable at heart. Saying the truth won't bring back her family but at least it will make Elaria feel better: " Indeed, we have fewer problems to worry about compared to them."
The person who felt the worst on this car is actually Anton, there's no way he can command a squad when two of them even refuse to talk to each other. He feels like Monika gave Minka to him so she can take a day for vacation. Soon, they arrived at the spot.
"Elaria, Kira. Go recon the surroundings. We will approach from the front." Anton signals the squad.
Minka and Emilia are still acting like children. Anton has absolutely no idea about how to deal with the situation but since he's the man in command, a decision has to be made.
"Minka, come with me. Emilia stays with the car and provides overwatch." He said that because he knows Minka has feelings for him, she would be more obedient to what he says.
"I refuse." Emilia looked at Minka in a despicable way.
"That's an order!" Anton shouts
"It's ok... I'll stay." Minka lightly pats Anton's shoulder to let him calm down. Soon, Minka sits on a tree and looks at the far mountain with a saddened expression.
Anton knows in this case he probably should have stood with Minka, but the mission came first. When Emilia and Minka enter the building, they start looking for possible clues that might come in handy about Ria's location.
"So… you wanna talk about you and your sister?" Anton is asking because this place is pitch black, having a conversation will help us to know each other's location.
"I have nothing to say about her. I hate her." Emilia replied.
" You know, my brothers and I always fight but at the end of the day we are still brothers, so we will have each other's back..."
"Is this why you are the only one in your family who hasn't advanced in rank?"
"Emilia, listen. I am trying to help, besides I stayed at my position because I believe here, I can help people more directly." Anton is checking a corner seemingly not annoyed by Emilia's rude statement.
" If you really want to help then when we get out, restrain Minka and then I and she will disappear from your life completely."
"Is there a way to talk to you that wouldn't get me in any trouble?"
"Yea, there is." Emilia shines the flashlight on Anton: " Go on a date with my sister for real."
"I am not interested in that."
"So what? You can't just turn down a person's advance like that. Especially Minka whose emotion isn't as complicated as the people of her age. Do you have any idea how much courage she's gathered to finally decide to ask you out?" Emilia in reality loves her sister, but she's just too prideful to do that in front of her.
"I don't know if you noticed but I like men."
"Like I give a damn. The way you replied to Minka made your relationship with her awkward. And guess what, it was not me that ruined the operation but the horrible way you denied her advance." Emilia actually has a point: "She was sad because she thought not seeing you might solve the problem but when she's with you, she just couldn't help but act not like herself. This is not something you should exploit."
"The mission came first, soldier."
"I DO NOT CARE!" Emilia's scream echoes within the structure, suddenly a noise of loosened debris startled these two.
"Fine, I will go but can you please keep your voice down a bit? I think we have a company."
Emilia checks for her weapon and is ready to fire. Soon she feels something is dripping on her shoulder, the moment she turns her flashlight upward, what she's seen has scarred her for life.
A human, yet not human-looking creature with ice white pale face screamed at them, it has six legs like a spider, but it was all human organs. Emilia quickly fired a few shots, but it all missed due to its insanely fast movement.
Anton quickly fired a signal shot at the ceiling so it would light up an area. The being's movement is so fast that even under bright light Emilia and Anton still couldn't see it clearly. It suddenly struck Anton, but a precision shot from Emilia quickly repelled it away.
This is the time when they could finally see its face, an eyeless and toothless horror that seemed like a human. Emilia wanted to get another shot at it, but it suddenly screamed in the distance. Emilia's head felt like something was trying to squeeze it from outside, she dropped her weapon and screamed in agony. While Anton is shooting the monster with a pistol, it does absolutely nothing.
A blade quickly slashes through the monster and makes it lose an arm. However, it quickly regenerated back. The scream suddenly stopped at the same time.
Elaria attacks swiftly, but the monster's speed surpasses her, and it can move in a way that defies human knowledge. She quickly dashes back and stays near Emilia and Anton: "Kira fires another shot of flare!" Elaria shouts.
Another shot illuminated the whole area, but the monster seems like it isn't afraid of the light. In contrast, it seemed to sense the location of Kira. Elaria quickly chases the monster, for her, Kira is more important than anything in this world. Just as the monster almost pulled Kira out from the corner and dismembered her. A flying sword pinned the monster's torso against a wall, and Elaria kicked the monster on the head. But it doesn't seem to be bothered by it at all.
Kira quickly fired a c-foam grenade, it hit the monster, but it just broke the frozen limb and regenerated in an instant.
"Alright, you ugly fuck." Elaria pulls out another sword on her back: " Let's dance."
Elaria's strike is suicidal, the attacks are so deadly from her that little to no creature can survive its full-on attack. But in the meantime, scratch marks and lost flesh constantly flashed out on her body but thanks to her regenerative property she didn't sustain too much damage. This goes to the same as the monster she's fighting. Both of them are just constantly healing and attacking each other. But this is a monster, in the long run Elaria might be at a disadvantage.
Kira is aiming at the monster's head with a penetrating hel rifle. But their movement was too fast, it took a while for Kira to be able to take a clear shot. The round penetrated the head of the monster, but it just healed back in a few seconds. This move has seriously pissed off the monster and it is charging straight towards Kira. Elaria quickly dashes at Kira and pushes her away before the monster could get a hand on her. However, because of this, Elaria also lost all the advantage she had, and all her limbs were being pulled by the monster. Just when Elaria was going to get pulled to pieces, Emilia came back to her senses and shot a special explosive round at the monster's head and blew it clean off.
What's terrifying is even without a head, it is still seeking a target. And it locked on Emila again, this time no one can stop the monster from getting Emilia. But just a few centimeters away from the monster's hand touching Emilia. It suddenly stopped, as if frozen in time. Minka heard the exploding noise and arrived in time. Minka lifts the monster up and clenches her fist. The monster starts turning into a meatball and its bone and flesh are squeezed into a smaller ball by the second. After a burst of blood spill, it became a watermelon-sized meatball on the ground.
"That surely helped to blow off my steam." Minka acts like it's nothing. But everyone else except Emilia was surprised by how strong Minka is: "I think it's better to stick as a team. Who knows what kind of monster we are going to encounter."
A hidden camera starts zooming in on Minka. Whoever was behind all of this apparently is also impressed with Minka's ability. That person pressed a button and in a few other monitors, a lot of monsters started to move out of their containment cage.
"Emi are you ok?" Minka picks Emilia up from the ground: "I should've come earlier, I'm sorry." Minka is like another person when talking to Emilia.
Emilia just dodges the gaze from Minka, she just doesn't know how to reply in this situation. Anton came over and said: " Thank you for your assistance, with your skill we can take back this planet in no time. Can you please think about staying with the squadron for a period of time?"
"I would love to..." Minka shyly replied, if this means spending more time with Anton, Minka doesn't mind at all.
"I always have an individual meeting around lunchtime, every time there's a new member… So, after this mission, please join me for it." Anton tried his best to put the words together, he also sees this as an opportunity to fix their relationship.
Minka blinks, she never thought this would become a reality. But she doesn't know that all of this is thanks to Emilia.
"Hey ! We didn't get to have free lunch!" Elaria protests, but Kira just drags her away because this is clearly their own moment, it's better not to disturb them.
"Well, now let us continue with the search. My scanner shows that there's an underground structure below this." Anton points in a direction that leads to the structure.
Soon, they encountered all kinds of monsters but with their skillset and flawless teamwork, they soon reached in front of a vault: "Well, how are we going through this?" Anton looks at the vault that's three times higher than him.
"I'll take a crack at this." Emilia pulls out a bag of tools: "This is a naval-made WST-2000 vault door, originally should be used for storing government bonds, but this vault shouldn't pose a challenge."
Minka looked at Emilia with a weird expression: "So, you became a thief after I'm gone?"
"Not a thief, a specialist on acquiring unobtainable artifacts." Emilia made this look like it's every day for her: " Also you don't get to talk about what I've chosen, mom was more disappointed in you, not me."
Anton just gave up, instead of trying to butt his head into this situation, it's just better to let themselves deal with it.
"Bravo!" A voice came out from the speaker and the light from the underground facility turned on: "I have to thank the emperor for bringing me such amazing test subjects."
"We are the special squadron of the imperial naval force. Identify yourself." Anton said.
"We have no name, as we do not need them. We are immortal, as we finally reach perfection. We are not individuals, as there's strength in number." Dozens of hidden doors suddenly opened, monsters started pouring out like water broken out from a dam. There are monsters from all kinds of races, there are humans, phyrexian, ork, and even elves. What's identical is all of them are hellish beings that should've never existed: "Your flesh will become the next step for the ultimate evolution."
"I am sick of this." Minka snaps her finger, and all of those monsters suddenly explode, the whole area is filled with a pool of blood that surrounds the squad: "Now, bring me some real challenge."
"As you wish." Another door opened, and there was a human with white hair.
Everyone immediately recognized that this was Ria. But her expression is rather machine-like. She doesn't recognize them, or her movement looks like she's either being controlled or rather more clunky.
"Do not harm her." Anton commands while spreading the team out, if they surround Ria, it should be easier to take her down: " Paralyze her if you can."
Ria's head suddenly turns towards Minka, Minka immediately activates her shield, a huge metal bar is stuck on the shield and if Minka reacted a bit too late, she might have already got her head removed: "Guys, she's not an easy target, Anton, Kira, and Emilia. Find somewhere to hide."
"I will stay." Emilia insisted. She takes out the service weapon and it transforms into a sniper rifle.
"I will distract her then." Elaria directly dashes forward.
Minka at the same time tries to dislocate the joints from Ria but for some reason, she cannot touch her with psychic ability. Instead, she takes out her rifle and tries to shoot her with a blackout round.
Elaria isn't doing well; Ria's attack is so vile and powerful that she's constantly getting slashed. If she's a normal human, she'd be dead a few times already.
Minka is creating the blackout round out of the stone, it is not an easy process but she's still doing it as fast as she can. She finally got one and aimed her shot, the shot was homing towards Ria's head, but when it got close to her, the round suddenly disintegrated.
"This is magic." Minka suddenly realizes, she tells Elaria to fall back immediately and regroup.
Emilia shot a smoke round at Ria to help her retreat: "What should we do?"
"Damnit, I gave the chronosphere to dad. I could beat her easily if I had that. Now we just have to beat a super-soldier who's capable of super strength and magic." Minka is a bit out of tricks. She doesn't want to danger Emilia in the process, so a lot of suicide attack plans are off.
"We could try to flashbang her." Elaria said: "She's been in this cave for so long that her eyes must be sensitive to light."
Minka and Emilia agreed with the plan, and they proceeded to execute it, Elaria activated the 'berserker' mode, which allows her to attack faster and stronger. The drawback is the reduced regenerative ability.
"Look over here!" Minka waves at Ria, it was at this moment Emilia shot a bullet at Ria. The bullet disintegrated but the room suddenly flashed with the light of a hundred suns. Elaria's eyes are not affected due to the special enhancement, which goes the same to Minka and Emilia.
Elaria strikes from the back; the blade has passed through Ria. But she didn't seem to be bothered, Elaria tried to strike again but suddenly, a black spike came out from her back and pinned Elaria on the wall through the shoulder. Ria breaks the spike and slashes Elaria on the stomach, blood coming out from Elaria's wounds and soon she stops struggling. This wound is not fatal for her, but this surely will disable her movement for a while.
"Emilia, run." Minka mutters the words to her. She's going all out, and it could level the mountain.
Emilia wanted to say more, but seeing the determined look in Minka's eyes, she ran out and eventually met Kira and Anton again, she knows that even Minka's full power cannot completely defeat Ria, they need to set up a trap.
After a few minutes, the whole underground center is sunken even further, there's a huge hole on the ground, Minka grabbed Elaria and flew out from the hole. When she landed, she immediately fell into a coma.
"Set up the trap, I'll take care of her," Anton ordered. She gave a shot of a nanomachine to Minka, this was given by Trazyn. He told him that if Minka ever went into trouble, give her that.
Elaria's wound is healed but it took a great deal of energy to do so, she's not in the condition to fight. It's only up to Kira and Emilia. Kira brought out the two auto-turrets from the car and set up various mines and c-foam mines around the area.
Emilia is adjusting her eye implant, the moment the target is seen, it will automatically shoot the enemy with the gun without the process of thinking or aiming.
A robot head flew out from the pit with its spinal cord on it. Ria climbed out from the pit soon after: "Guys, calm the hell down. It's me." She walks towards them.
"Don't take another step!" Anton shouts.
"Fine, test me. Or you know what, I'll do some self-testing. I once saw Kira sleep with a pink-"
"Sir, it's her. We are good." Kira puts down her weapon, the humiliation is more than enough.
"So, what really happened under there? What is this thing?" Anton asks.
"It's out of your jurisdiction, commissar. All you need to do is that I am back." Ria lightly hits Anton's shoulder.
Minka woke up a bit later, she coughs on her hand. The black blood is as dark as the raw fuel, but she didn't seem to be concerned at all. She just leans back on a tree and wipes the blood away: " I guess I was on borrowed time…" She takes out her little notebook again, her list is almost finished. There are only two more things to go.