The VSF soldiers that had promptly disposed of the previous group of Failures were now at an all-out fight with the group that left Luna for dead, struggling heavily from the heightened numbers of enemies. Luna herself watched it all go down from the very back, lost between which group she wanted to be support for, all the while the only drops dripping from her body not being tears, but blood as crimson as that of the now drying body of shot kid.
The innocence of mere soldiers following commands, without really knowing what kind of task they were assigned? Or maybe the monsters that left her for dead, they too suffering through their own hell? This all reminded her of that fateful day. One they would never steal away from her. The words she said, she stood by until now.
"You psychotic, sick hellspawn! You! Is that what your teachings meant?! Is that what the Church stands for?!", a young, frail Luna's voice echoed in her head.
"Do deal with her."
As the voice of that cruel, cruel woman echoed, she reminded herself of the whole scene as she grabbed her head. The sound of rebounding skin, right against the back of a gun. And as if she faced the same torture from the dog pulling her hair, she again felt them almost being stretched, before she grabbed her throat from sheer muscle memory. And then nothing. She was left alone to the hollow echoes of gunshots, squelching of flesh, and clashing of steel. Exactly like it was back then. She always knew it wasn't a pretty world, and so did many others. Were they not succumbing to a fate directly connected with conflict, they'd be caught in the crossfire of something else, layered beneath or for all to see.
"Dammit, the girl slipped!", a man's voice echoed back.
"Ghuhk. Ghegk.", she tried to catch breaths from her slit throat, panicking and making it worse by the second as she hyperventilated from shock.
"Luna! Luna! Luna!", Lina echoed again and again and again.
These voices and memories, unlike those they tried to force her to be, were hers to remember and carry on. And the struggle of humanity against monsters, in this world, would continue. Whether a force of nature or themselves. And as with what she had become, she rose up from the ground and started slowly walking away from the conflict.
"I have a duty to fulfill. And a life to live.", she picked up the case and moved towards the operation room.
Such hellish machinery that failed to scare her. She was not the same girl anymore, and she could never be one again. It was but rather physically, let alone mentally, impossible. She knew exactly what to do and what to press by herself anyway. Machines that could be operated by humans, would now proceed to do it automatically. There was no need to face whomever you made a stepping stone to walk on anymore. They could just, with a press of a button, either take their life, change it forever, or simply force them to take it themselves, should their resolve be lackluster. But like H.I.V.E., where incompleteness led to her getting her way, so would the finished version of something like this be used to her advantage.
As power returned from Drima trying his best to help her from a distance, she promptly placed the case inside a vault, and let go of her bleeding neck as she accessed the computer. Strangely enough, were she to actually be anything less than the mighty enhanced version she was, this injury would've hindered her at best or have already left her dead at worst. But despite the blood drooling and the keyboard being covered, she kept on typing before she finally accessed that procedure that she wanted. Automated, because of course, even the worse and cockiest of monsters was to know that everything would catch up with them one day. And even on that day, they'd make sure that they'd leave something like that back so whatever it is they sacrificed themselves for would never fade.
She sat on the operation table again, letting herself go as it all quickly faded to black. She felt nothing and she heard nothing. Just flying across an empty black void, before slowly starting to get on her feet mid-air, and the falling stopping. An explosion happened before her eyes, and she kept standing completely still as she waited for it to finish. And as that faded, a holographic background, stale and motionless. She knew exactly what this was. And along with it, she heard a familiar voice approaching from behind.
"Welcome back to the training grounds of H.I.V.E., 007.", Mila reached her.
"I suppose the connection deepened. Hello again, Mila."
"You are completely naked, by the way.", Mila warned her.
"Hmm. Would appear so.", she crushed her fist, materializing a new, comfortable wear for her to move around, consisting of both armored and unarmored parts in a cyan and white color scheme.
"Appropriate.", Mila nodded.
"The image inside H.I.V.E. reflects the outside. This must mean that I created this in the real world too. Say, Mila. How are you still within H.I.V.E., and the others aren't?"
"They were all deleted off of H.I.V.E. after the fire, besides you and me, which were the only finished and runaway projects respectively. I have been trying to locate them for a long time, but unlike you, it is a harsh task to do so while they remain disconnected, and within Siberia, it becomes an even harder task."
"Beyond this world's Veryta and beyond Vardard.", Luna thought.
"You have already attained pieces of knowledge regarding Earth and the connection point of Zero. Good."
Luna realized where her power's origins truly stemmed from, "That, and the collapse point of the second hadron collider in Canada."
"I do not recognize what you are talking about."
"Then I won't speak of it until we are on equal terms. I seem to have been...connected, with the Abnormal Space. Must be because of the influx of liquid containing quantum fluctuations from the Quantum Irregularity."
"Your frame must either exist or not at this point, it is impossible to tell. These enhanced grounds of the also upgraded H.I.V.E. can serve as a communication point between users of the system."
"I must have been summoned here to do evaluation training for the new frame. And time's against me, considering the threats I evaded to get here.", she grabbed her throat, "So...strange."
"Indeed. I will leave you to your training, 007. Survive.", Mila exited the system.
Holographic enemies appeared before Luna, with the same style A.I. announcing from above what her task was, exactly like with Drima's lab. Already used to it, even better now that she got a grasp of reality, she got ready to face her evaluation.
"Project LF-007-E, Luna Falana. This training session has been connected to evaluate performance on 007's frame, type: Navigator. Beginning session. Eliminate enemies in front with
Taking a moment to evaluate everything and then doing as told Luna approached her enemies, preparing to throw hands with everything in sight as they approached her back. She quickly dashed to the nearest holographic enemy and punched its chest, forcing it back before she followed up with an upward switch of her materializing scythe, cutting it in half before throwing it in a wide arc in front of her, slashing two more. Catching it back, she jumped in a diving motion up front and delivered a number of slashes to nearby enemies, before she felt her restrictions lifted.
"Evaluation training, begin. Restrictions lifted at <10%>."
Luna then jumped up in the air, threw her scythe on the ground where more enemies materialized and marked the area, before landing and materializing three guns that all collectively fired at her scythe's location, eliminating the enemies in the area.
"Timeframe met. Restrictions lifted at <30%>. Enemy diversification upgraded."
Just as the A.I. spoke, an enemy materialized right behind Luna, it clearly being a Shadower mimic, and attempted to attack her. Luna then quickly stepped back, right onto its lunches, before briefly disappearing and phasing through it, appearing at its back. Then marking the enemy, she quickly took hold of her scythe and found her footing, preparing to strike. A laser gun then appeared right before the targeted enemy, and in perfect sync, it fired right when Luna cut through both the enemy and the gun itself, turning an otherwise straight, point-blank shot, into a laser-based shotgun blast as she cut the laser multiple times.
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Then seeing rather strong enemies appear before her, she held her scythe with all her might before lodging forward, breaking through their defenses and entering some sort of weird domain that materialized around her. It resembled some sort of matrix within a device, code floating around them as time went by. The enemies heavily unaffected, however, turned around and started an assault on her. Luna moved with indescribable freedom that defied all laws of physics, able to appear, disappear, move faster, walk upwards, and jump incredible distances, all the while she attacked as if gravity and momentum did not exist to slow her down.
"Timeframe met. Restrictions lifted at <60%>."
A massive single target appeared right before her, attacking her instantly before she evaded the exact same way as before, and launching her own counterattack. Still, within that matrix of hers, she quickly found herself far above the enemy, materializing a massive gun in her hands. As the matrix faded and she absorbed a massive amount of energy produced and stored within it throughout the entire duration, she fired it all once, a massive explosion erasing it at once, before she evaded her own attack-turned explosion and materializing away in a safe distance.
"Timeframe met. Restrictions lifted at <100%>. Entering the final phase. Enemy type Administrator."
Luna was surprised at hearing of that name. Where she already knew how to operate the frame from internal intelligence and her major adaptability, this name still struck interest in her in order to see exactly what that rumored Administrator was.
A massive, chaotic beast of major proportions forced the training grounds themselves to expand, her now facing something that looked as tall as a building, but without a clear image, as its silhouette failed to load with constant errors flowing around.
Knowing full well that this needed to end now, specifically due to her issues in reality, she let out the same burst of light she did before, getting ready for an all-out attack on the massive-scale enemy in front of her. Same as before, but way more controlled, she let her power overflow and burst, realizing very quickly that there was much more this upgrade allowed her to do, than merely heightening her power levels. Moving in a much more fluent manner, her burst allowed for that same matrix to expand around her and reach similar heights to her enemy.
"YOU MUST BE ELIMINATED.", she spoke in that same, loud voice.
A large area behind her started materializing a ton of guns that began firing at a synchronized rate with her attacks, hitting her enemy as she did, but despite their area of coverage, always failing to hit Luna but almost completely shattering the mimicked, errored enemy's defenses. It wasn't long at all before Luna was able to completely break its stance, leaving it dazed and open to an attack, where she promptly built distance away.
"ALL ARTILERRY UNITS ENGAGED. FOR HUMANITY'S SAKE."
All the guns behind her, matrix included started to break down into individual particles before they collided back with each other and formed one massive, extremely heavy ion gun, fully charged and ready to be fired unlike any other one of its kind that would've required possible hours to ready such a devastating shot.
"FIRE."
The shot fired right onto the massive enemy yielded but one faint spark upon collision, before it turned into a nuclear blast of such scale that it took along with it the entire training environment, as did the enemy itself. With the pure, untamed power of nature itself, every single light atom that conjured a mere holographic image of her enemy was completely eviscerated, hinting at just a spec of what the full destructive potential of this self-evolving, last stand of a weapon humanity had created.
With it all coming to such a swift end and with such ease, it was clear to Luna that not even those who initially created this frame that was forced inside her knew what the full extent of it would be. There wasn't a single chance, since the very beginning, that they'd be able to contain this. Not even the joke of an evaluation training was remotely close to testing such power, as though she became instantly adapted, it was a minimum effort to still try and pass.
"All timeframes met. Access to frame type: Navigator, granted. All restrictions lifted."
"Yeah, you think?", Luna got sassy at the A.I., "This overwhelming power...contained within a mortal body?"
Mila reappeared, "I see it was a success."
"It was objectively, way too easy. They didn't even know what they were making."
"The strength of your frame?"
"There are clear indications of mimicry, aimed primarily at Dante, or more specifically, Hikari. Though, now that I think about it, it couldn't have been."
"Are you suggesting that the frame mimicked the 'goddess'?"
"No, I'm suggesting that Hikari ripped off a part of the Abnormal Space itself to create. The ability to create. A small part, that is, merely serving as a connection to allow matter control. Whereas Dante had the innate ability to. His weapons reflect a faint ability similar to mine, while Hikari's are almost on par with mine, but never on the same level as with what I did now. That being said-", she took a step back, "I can see something different in Hikari. And those gauntlets-"
She pushed her hands forward, watching them crack the air around her as she almost got dragged within the cracks. As soon as she felt the touch of something she began pulling back more and more, causing sparks to fly around her as she kept on pulling. Eventually, with the two cracks between her arms extended forward, came a collapse that exposed a window to what looked like the Abnormal Space she fought in Drima's lab before, the item being Hikari's Gate. Unable to contain the sheer force of being pulled through space and time, faint cracks appeared around the gauntlets, as Luna struggled more and more to get them to her quickly.
Despite her struggling, however, the gauntlets bent, cracked, and eventually exploded before Luna pulled back, closing the window to the Abnormal Space as she got slightly pushed away. Mila, quickly realizing what had just happened, got near Luna to confirm she was ok, almost looking amazed at what she had done.
"The Gate Of Creation-", Mila paused.
"It was a Gate that needed to either be retrieved or destroyed. According to data analysis right now, Hikari and Mellistar are inconstants. Everything they said was true, but that still doesn't stop them from hindering this world's survival. Hikari's Gate was ripped off the Abnormal Space, when she had no innate one. It was a dangerous conjunction. And Mellistar's blade, the Gate Dante has, is also a problem. It's an inconstant that should not be able to exist, given how Gates are locked into their own timelines and spacial coordinates."
"Destructible Gates? Even in the system, that is considered impossible."
"Gates from Zero to other coordinates, considering the point of origin, is applicable. The other way around is not."
"Your vision tells a lot I can not see for myself."
"It's the frame's enhancement. It was made to navigate through Abnormal Space and the such, a.k.a., space and time, to maximize humanity's survival via any means necessary. Colonization-wise, or resource deficiency-wise. However, my access to such information is limited, and in fear of getting you through the system's bad side, I must refrain from giving you access so that you can see for yourself. I can only attach myself to what little exists from the origin point of Zero, and navigate through that, as well as nearby worlds. If I was to stray further, I doubt I could come back."
"You are an interesting case, 007. For humanity to go this far, it must be something."
"It's not humanity. Humans would never be able to create anything close to this. It's a base that self-evolved throughout time. And the materials comprised of are also impossible for humans to conjure, or any being, for that matter."
"So with false Gates gone, what is your goal?"
"It has always started with Lina's protection at first, even with the task I've obtained now. Despite my hardwiring for humanity's protection, there are certain aspects to consider. Firstly, however, exploring this frame is key. Me getting instantly dressed before is no small feat. Whereas Dante and Hikari were able to materialize weapons, I could not only materialize clothing but one with lasting effects, meaning that sufficient power was used to create it at once, instead of being forced to constantly feed it the power to not disperse. As such, now that this frame is activated, I can see that even the previous one held similar effects, some shared."
"I see. So key aspects of the liquid from Quantum Irregularity and Abnormal Space were taken by Hikari, enforced into this world, and specifically Cecilia, who passed it down to Dante via birth."
"Precisely why it evolved to handle non-organic matter, as opposed to how it could originally do both. The 'Gate' itself was temporary and only able to do so much before it lost part of its abilities and is now unable to even function properly with Hikari being drained herself. Drima pointed to Dante slowly losing the ability to materialize weapons using the power of the Abnormal Space and matter around him. Meaning that this effect, this power, is slowly dying off and instead returning to me and only me. Rather, in the Abnormal Space. Its effect is similar to Terna's boosting melodies, so it makes sense that it's a unique feature locked to my own Obsulyte or Obsulyte-mimicking substance."
"Is it possible to redirect all that signature back to you?"
"It has already begun. Hikari's ability to fight alongside Enemy has been eliminated. Dante's the same, but it also includes his weapon summons. He may still be able to properly phase his weapon in and out because it's Mellistar's previous one, affected by his world's collision, but soon enough, that weapon too should cease to exist along with him. Hikari will need a while to properly disperse her powers, although I'm not certain if her weapon has been the reason or Enemy, who apparently holds her entire abilities off of the Quantum Irregularity, which she looks to almost be made entirely of. Either way, with that Gate gone, control over that slowly returns to me."
"Hopefully, the constant of Zero can return to normal then. It would be undesirable to miss another reunion with the survivors of Project Ascent."
"Without Zero being promptly detached from the base of the Abnormal Space and allowing it to expand, it's impossible. Furthermore, if we don't first stabilize its own shattered constant...things could go very wrong. But to a thankful extent, the problem seems to slowly fix itself after this frame was activated."
"Does destroying more Gates help?"
"Gates are by default, indestructible. I wouldn't consider those things Gates. The Key Of The Gate was the only thing that could allow them to enter a place like Zero, and both the gauntlets and Excelsior are dated before the Day Of Starfall. I will grant you access to that data so you can see for yourself via H.I.V.E. The documentation heavily links itself with Drima and his survival throughout the millennia for such info to exist. But with insufficient details, maybe he too couldn't piece together something like this."
"I hope there's enough data on the Aministrator. He is...still here. Still in H.I.V.E."
"The previous Administrator, however, seemed similar to the database's Cataclysmic Threats catalog. Moreover...he's here, in England. In Victoria Plains, where we fought. His physical form, that is. If I were to do what I must in this lab, given how it's powered directly by Obsulyte deposits, it could trigger a devastating reaction."
"You are more than properly equipped to deal with the threat, 007."
"That I know...but what I don't, is if I'll be able to do it without sacrifice. It will be nothing like what I faced right now."
"Speaking of which, I suggest you prepare yourself to be ejected into reality again."
"I will. And that reality, that lacks alternatives, will be made to survive.", Luna braced herself to go back into her physical body.