Angie was busy chasing the Kaiju that snatched Anna away, but an explosion that happened behind her shortly after caused her to stop mid-air. She looked back and see debris falling from the sky. It has yet to settle in what had happened. Meanwhile, the two people fighting down there stopped. It was getting there nowhere, so they decided to call it a day.

The tentacled man clicked his tongue. He is unsatisfied with today's outcome as well. His opponent sighed, before looking at his hand, which looked back to normal.

"Another time, Syd?"

"That time will be the fucking last, Isaac."

Syd retracted his tentacles back into his body before leaping away. From a nearby rubble, the girl who was with Isaac emerged from hiding. She holds a stopwatch. The time was stopped at 7 minutes and 43 seconds.

"I'd say that's a new record, Silvie."

"It's definitely a lot faster than last time. By 5 minutes, in fact." She replied.

"The need to be flashy was lost a long time ago. Now it feels like a chore. Like taking out the trash."

"So you keep missing the garbage man, I suppose."

Silvie could hear him mumble 'Fuck'. She knew how hard it is fighting one of your own kind. Especially one as tricky as Syd. But this feud has been going on for 10 years, each encounter resulting in a draw. Even the world wars didn't last as long as this.

"Even after going back there did I fail to evolve. What do I need..." Isaac mumbled. "Welp, no point in wasting time here. Lets go."

Before they left, a lingering feeling of a third person hit Isaac. On reflex, he turned around to see nothing of note other than the destroyed ruins.

"Could have sworn that another one of us was here as well..." Silvie could only hear him grumbling to himself.

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When Angie snapped out of her derailed thoughts, her attention quickly steered towards Anna. She looks at the map on her display screen in front of her. Samantha's signal is completely blacked out, and Anna in the red. I'll mourn later.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

When she arrived at Anna's location, all she could see was a dead Kaiju, and a destroyed Valkyrie with its cockpit torn open. Angie landed right beside and exited her mech to search for any signs of Anna. A trail of Kaiju blood lead her to a subway station underground. Angie headed back to her mech and pulled out her backpack. She then took out a pistol and a short metal rod that she hanged on her waist with a carabiner clip. She also grabbed a flashlight, which she used to illuminate her descent into darkness...

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It didn't take long for her to find Anna. She was laying against a wall nearby the ticketing counter, with a pool of Kaiju blood nearby. The source of all that blood was a half-eaten head belonging to the Kaiju that took Anna away.

Angie went straight to Anna's side to check for a pulse, before breathing a sigh of relief. She is unconscious, but alive. Tears streamed down Angie's face. She hugged Anna, silently weeping on her uniform. Anna, disturbed by sudden actions, wakes up to see Angie crying and hugging her tightly.

"Ugh...What...happened...?"

Angie did not respond and only wept. Anna comforted her, before they decided to return home. Neither of them talked about what happened to Samantha until they returned.

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Callum wakes up on the dusty floor of a building. His memory after leaving the Sanctuary is a bit fuzzy. His palms felt wet, and when he brought them up to his face, he stumbled back. A green liquid drips down from his hand. Still fresh. Smells like blood. In fact, his entire back felt wet. Callum stood up to find himself standing on the same green blood. He could barely hold back his vomit. Even then, swallowing it back in disgusted him as well, so he puked it all out. Brain matter, an eyeball, and some flesh was among the vomit that stained the ground. A thought emerges in his head.

ThAnKS.

He is taken aback. It felt like someone was talking directly into his ear. He scanned around him for any presence of anything. Nothing. The voice had a demonic aura attached to it. He started sweating profusely, afraid for his life. He pants as he tries to calm himself down. Memories from 'that' time started resurfacing, and Callum quickly tried to push it back down into the depths. He is already having a breakdown now, he doesn't need another one.

Eventually, he calmed himself down. He slumped by a wall, before sliding down into a fetal position. He remained that way for a while, unsure what to do next. He eventually just got up and headed back to the Sanctuary. He would rather deal with this later.

To be continued...