Driving through the night is the red van holding Raphael's team. Carie, sitting inside with the two other soldiers flanking her, fidgets in her seat, holding onto to her bladed staff with both hands. Seeing this Raphael, grabs a hold of her hands, stating “Carie, calm down and focus on getting through this. Combat isn't clean, and it is dangerous, but you have me, June and the soldiers here to protect you, so don't worry.”

Carie, with her eyes shifting slightly in the light of the van, looks Raphael in the eyes and states “No matter what you say, I'm still going to be jittery, so don't try....”

“Alright, I won't say any comforting words then.” Raphael says, taking his hands away from hers “But just know that you will survive. I will leave it with nothing more than that.”

June, who is sitting next to Raphael, is staring at Carie's hands in silence, showing no emotions on her face. She turns her eyes away moments later when Carie's vision turns towards her, but neither says anything.

The driver of the van states that they are thirty seconds from the antenna station, to which Raphael tells everyone to get prepared. Carie, in turn, fidgets further in her seat “I... I don't know if I'm up for this....”

June glares at Carie when she hears this “What did you say to me before? That you want to be a hero? Well, this is a part of it. We've trained you the best we can, now muster your courage, stand tall, and fight!”

Moments later, the van comes to a halt outside of the antenna station, and all the while Carie inner fire was burning ever brighter from what June stated “For my friends... I... will stand tall!”

The door's of the van shoot open, with June and Raphael flying out of them as they begin to open fire at the Sigil heads within it's confines. Within five seconds, eight of them standing inside the fence have been shot dead.

As they dart in the air firing into the antenna station, a great flame bursts out of the back of the van, with Carie out of it's confines and bursting through the fence's gate, leaving a smoldering wreck remaining. She continues forward still, destroying any who come within her path and smashing a flaming hole through the front door of the building.

“Whoa, I guess what you said really hit home!” Raphael says to June “We need to get in there, now!” June nods back to him and pulls out a pair of shotel swords, with Raphael unsheathing a pair of longswords. They both launch themselves into the building a moment later.

Carie lays crouched within a burning pit inside of the first floor of the station. Throughout the room are the charred bodies of ten Sigil heads. Carie, now calmer, stands up and examines the room “Is this... the power I wield?” she says, staring at her left palm as a small flame dances just above it's surface.

Raphael and June land inside a moment later, and examine the room “Damn, fire mages don't mess around....” Raphael mutters to himself.

“Well, I imagine you would know, mister Guardian.” Carie says, sticking her tongue out at him.

“Heh, maybe I'm newer to this than you think.” Raphael says, pointing to the stair in the room “Come on, we need to keep going. We don't got much time.”

Carie, taking her staff in her hands, follows behind Raphael, with June taking up the rear as the team moves up to the second floor.

Standing behind a barricade on the second floor of the building are two Sigil heads brandishing machetes. Raphael, as he moves up the stairs, notices the heavy breathing of the two would-be attackers. With a quick motion of his revolver, he aims at the cover and unloads two rounds.

The group moves past the cover, to which Carie sees that both of the Sigil heads have been shot through the center of their chest. “Damn, you're one hell of a shot....” she mutters as she walks past.

“Yeah, turns out I'm pretty good with physics-based calculus, and I can do it real fast.” Raphael says as he loads two more rounds into his revolver “Well, that's what the analysts label it as, at least. Me, I just get a... feeling, I guess. If I follow up on it, it usually turns out right.”

“Usually?” Carie inquires.

“Well, one time I shot a toaster on accident.” Raphael admits.

“A... toaster...?” Carie asks, now concerned.

“My instincts were a little off that day.” Raphael says before reeling his left fist back behind his head as they reach a door at the end of a hallway “Anyway, ya might want to stand back.” he exclaims before throwing his fist in front of him, sending out a kinetic shockwave that blasts the door and the enemy on the other side to the opposite end of the room.

Raphael moves into the room quickly, followed by Carie and June. Raphael sends a magnum round into two Sigil heads that were about to rush the door, while June sends a sky eagle round into a Sigil head that was attempting to fix it's jammed shotgun from behind a table that it had overturned for cover. Carie, meanwhile, stabbed her bladed staff through another hostile that was hiding behind the wall they entered from, ready to strike Raphael as he entered. She also sent a fire bolt at the final Sigil head in the room, who had shot at her with a pistol, but the enemy she had defeated momentarily before took the round before it hit her.

With the small team having cleared the room, Raphael looks over at the overturned table and sees the papers scattered on the floor. He looks back at the two UMA soldiers that had just entered the room and says “Search through the files, grab anything you see that looks important.”

Both of the soldiers give a salute and begin looking through the papers. Raphael looks down at the floor near where the door had landed and sees a small gathering of black blood forming on the wood. June notices this before Raphael by a moment, and moves first.

She moves over to the door and grabs it with one hand, throwing it to the other side of the room by a flick of her wrist. Laying half-crushed against the wall is a Demu wearing a commander's outfit. “Just as we thought.” she says before picking up the Demu by the throat with one hand and lifting it into the air. “I'm going to ask you one simple question. Iria and Jane Twara, what happened to them?”

Through a gurgling gasp, the Demu mutters “You... will never find them!” before biting on a poison pill hidden in his teeth, and dying moments later.

“No!” June screams before shaking the corpse of the Demu “Tell me where they are dammit! Tell me what happened to my family!”

She continues to shake his body, and only stops when Raphael goes to her and puts a hand on her shoulder “June, he's gone. There's nothing you can-”

In a quick motion, June throws the body across the room in a fit of rage “Goddammit!” she screams into the air before falling to the ground, her eyes now filling with tears “I need to know what the hell they did to them! I need my family! I need to know...! Why can't I know!”

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Raphael, looking down at June, doesn't know how to handle this situation. He stares down at her for a few seconds, but to him, it feels like hours. Deep in his mind, he begins to draw connections with her to himself. He never knew his mother, with his father only telling him that she left soon after he was born. He also knows he has a brother only of his mother's blood, but he, too, Raphael has never met. He only knows his father's family, but he has always wondered about his mother's side. Through that, he sees a mild connection with June. A boy who has never met half of his family, and a girl who lost hers.

Raphael, with a solemn look in his eyes, kneels down and wraps his arm around June's back. Her sobbing stifles for a moment when she notices, before turning her gaze to Raphael. “I know your pain more than you can guess, June. I have a hole in my life too, one that I've never told you about, and it's pretty similar to yours. Here's the thing though, I never gave up hope. I knew that one day, I would be able to fill that void, and I know that you will do the same. The only thing we can do is keep searching for that part that's missing, so wipe away those tears, stand tall against the darkness, and keep looking towards the light. Okay?”

While Raphael speaks these words to her, June's tears slowly stop, and her bravery continues to heighten. “Wherever you are, I'll find you... I promise!” she says, wiping away the last of her tears and standing up with renewed strength in her eyes. “Let's take down this relay, gather the intel, and get the hell out of here!”

“I... feel like there are underlying issues that I don't know about.” Carie says, having watched the situation that had just occurred.

“Uh, yeah.... When you join the JB, I'll explain it more clearly, but for now, don't worry about it.” Raphael says before walking over to the hallway that leads to the stairs to the rooftop. Come on, let's end this.”

The team of three continue over to the stairs, ascend and are at the roof access a moment later. Raphael kicks in the door once he is there and runs through.

They look around the rooftop, but see no enemies. Lowering his revolver, Raphael says “Looks like the station is clear, let's take out the-”

He stops himself mid-speech, as something has struck him. The slight sound of leather on pavement, the mild breathing of someone with purpose, and it is no one he knows.

Raphael spins around, looking towards the relay, and sees a cloaked figure step out from behind it. The cloak is gray, and the being has a mask on their face that is completely featureless, aside from two holes for their eyes.

“... You weren't in the recon. Who the hell are you?” Raphael says as he raises his revolver. The two other members of his team follow suite, preparing themselves for battle.

The figure stifles a laugh “Oh, you'll know, in time....” she states before launching forward at subsonic speed. Raphael brings his revolver up to fire, but his shot is deflected by a swift motion of the figure's hand.

The cloaked individual grabs Raphael by the throat as she collides with him, sending June and Carie to the side from the sonic propulsion of them being passed by. She slams Raphael into the concrete of the rooftop access, cracking and nearly crumbling it from the impact of Raphael's body.

In an attempt to defend himself, Raphael pulls his revolver up to the figure's gut, but she is able to grab his hand before he can bring it up. She moves her head next to Raphael's ear, and then speaks “Death comes for you, Guardian. Both this planet and yourself. There are plan's prepared, diabolical deviations devised to make you and all your friend's lives hell. This is a forewarning. I can say no more, so make this look good, for their eyes are everywhere.”

“Wha-?” Raphael says before being thrown to the side with a flick of the cloaked being's wrist. Raphael rolls to his feet, and then rushes them firing two shots as he goes.

The figure blocks the shots with the gauntlet on her left arm and raises her right hand, armed with a pistol towards Raphael. She doesn't have the ability to fire, however, as June strikes from her side, sending a telekinetic blast from outside of her peripheral vision and sending her through the cracked cement of the rooftop entrance.

“Stay the hell away from him!” June screams as she continues after the cloaked figure.

“Wait!” Raphael yells “I don't think she's a threat, so lets finish what we came here for.”

“The soldiers downstairs, she could go after them!” Carie yells as she makes her way over to Raphael.

“Don't worry about it, I have a reason for believing that. Now lets wipe out this relay and get the hell back to base. I wouldn't be surprised if the other squads are about done, so let's finish up.” Raphael says as he walks over tot he relay.

Once he is at the relay, and he uses lightning magic to summon electricity to his fingertips. With a few motions of his hand while speaking magic syllables, the spell he is looking for is brought to existence.

He points his hand towards the relay, and a torrent of electricity arcs outward, blasting through the machinery and setting the entirety of it ablaze. Raphael then looks back towards his team and states “All set, lets get out of here.”

With a quick agreement from Carie and June, the team exits the rooftop through it's entrance, walking past the remains of the concrete wall and noticing that the cloaked figure is nowhere to be seen.

They meet back together with the two soldiers that were left behind. Raphael says to them as he comes into the room “Anything of note in the files?”

“Nothing related to June, unfortunately.” one of the soldier's states. June looks down upon hearing this, with a dejected feeling in her mind. The soldier continues “However, it seems like the Demu are planning something.”

Raphael's eyes narrow “Continue....”

“It's not exact, but the files that we've examined hint at something being planned relating to the planet as a whole. However, the details pertaining to what are... complicated. The Demu have many ways of destroying civilizations, and they tend to be complex and vague. We'll need time to find out what their end goal is.”

“Could it be related to the Sigil Heads?” Raphael asks.

“It's possible, but we won't know until we're able to connect the dots in between all of these files....” The soldier says, glancing at the pile of paper on the floor.

“Alright, gather it all up and bring it back to the bunker. I'll get Yen to call in some experts on Demu plans. We'll find out what their planning.” Raphael orders.

The soldiers give a salute and begin gathering up the files. “They'll take care of this. For now we should-” Raphael states before him and June feel a rumble on their glasses “Hold on, we should take this....”

Both Raphael and June activate their comm glasses, allowing the call to go through. The voice on the other end is female, but there is panic evident in her voice. Raphael recognizes her immediately as his UHG contact Rift. “Raphael, I just got word about Quib, she's going into the ENCU right now. What happened!?”

A look of concern comes across Raphael's face “Wait, ENCU? What's that?”

June, with a much more distraught look in her eyes, states “ENCU? Like, the emergency nanobot care unit...?”

“Wait, does that mean that...?” Raphael mutters, the gravity of the situation hitting him in a moment. “No... I saw her just half an hour ago.... I thought... that....” he stutters, falling to his knees “Is she... still....”

Rift, hearing the exasperation in his voice, states “Look, I don't know the details, but all I know is that she's barely hanging on. It sounded like she got hit with anti-nanobot equipment. It's what the Demu use when they really want to take someone out. This... could be really bad for her, but our best course of action is to let the doctors do their job, and hope.”

Carie, looking at the ghastly expressions on her two ally's faces, is now concerned herself “What the hell happened? You both look like someone's-” she says before the reality hits her “Wait, did someone actually...?”

Raphael, haunted by the news, gets to his feet before stating “It's Quib. She's... really hurt. She could pull through, but... the doctor's don't know yet....”

“My god... if she died, I don't know what Jian would do....” Carie audibly mutters to herself.

“It... could be deadly. If she dies and he finds out, his heart condition, despite the cure, could resurface. Quib gave him a cure for one part of it, but there isn't a cure for the other.” Raphael mutters under his breath, him still trying to comprehend what he has heard.

“No.... If she dies, then we can't let him know!” Carie states, fear for her friend's life clear in her voice.

“Yeah... we can't. We'll have to lie, at least until we know if she's going to live.” Raphael states, the thought of losing two friends weighing heavily on his shoulders.

The call with Rift ends shortly after, with Raphael and his team leaving the antenna station, the group stuck in a morbid silence the entire way back.