"—Do not engage the pod nor the creep until given further instruction. Do you copy?”

The white beast’s attention is drawn to the crinkling of the falling glass, then looks up to the building where the pod lay still. The blue veins on its broad arms and legs start to display as its eyes give off a crimson glare.

The beast then roars, bellowing into the air causing Koko to cover her ears as it rattles the surrounding buildings and shatters the windows of broken-down buses and cars in its vicinity. It then stands on it’s hind-legs and leaps several meters into the air burrowing its hands and feet into the pod’s building and racing up at an incredible pace.

“Ohh, that’s not good…” Koko murmurs as she continues to eye the beast racing to the top.

The brute then reaches the top of the building and with a gravity-defying leap, it lands itself on the rooftop. It circles around the black space-pod with an inquisitive gaze, drool dripping from the sides of its lip as it breaths heavily from its mouth.

It then lunges forward, grappling onto the top of the pod with its hand, crushing the power thrusters on its surface. One of the thrusters explodes, covering the beast’s hand in a dense white flame and smoke causing it to howl and smash the floor with clenched fists.

Enraged, the beast wails at the front of the pod making sparks fly. It then tears the front door clean from its hinges and throws it into the air.

“—What’s going on Koko? Any updates on the pod or who’s in it?”

Koko continues to survey the rooftop with the sight of her rifle only getting short glimpses of the white-skinned beast continuing to circle around the pod.

“No… Can’t really see anything… H-hey I think it just threw somethin—“

—TWANG

With a jolt, she looks over to her side with a slow turn to the metal door of the pod implanting itself in the floor a few inches away from her. Her eyebrows raise as she looks back up to the rooftop with a nervous smile.

“W-Well, there’s an update alright. Whoever’s in that pod is probaably dead.”

Her eyes return to her holo-sight, she now sees a mist forming at the door’s entrance.

The beast eyes the door with a snarl and takes a step forward. A short-sounding whirl makes it stop its advance and sniff the air as a small ring of blue light appears from the smoke.

Koko scrunches her eyes attempting to make out the sphere as its light becomes ever so radiant. In an instant, the smoke makes way for a narrow blue ray to shoot from inside the vessel, it closing in on the beast as it gives out a warrior’s cry.

The ray shoots into an office level above Koko, her eyes reflecting the blue beam with yellow bolts twisting around the energy signature. The building rattles as the upper level is consumed by brisk smoke and fire as the beam fades.

“—I saw a blast fire from your area. That wasn’t you, I’m assuming.”

“Negative. Whoever is in the pod is carrying some serious firepower. If I’m not mistaken that’s an XMS-series weapon, does that mean that the person inside is with—“

A shadowy figure leans over the ledge of the rooftop and descends onto the ground below. With a sudden thump it crashes onto a car, Koko looks through her holo-scope at the white beast’s head shot clean off its nape with blue blood drizzling down the car’s interior.

She then returns her gaze to the top of the building, making out a blurry individual resting on the roof’s ledge. The person’s eyes then shoot forward, casting its glowing crimson gaze in Koko’s direction making her hand tremble and eyes dilate.

“—Koko? Do you have a visual? Koko?”

Despite the comms from her superior, she continues to look at the bright glare from the humanoid figure contrasting with the endless black clouds sitting behind them. Koko’s finger slowly slides inside of the trigger guard and grazes the trigger with her index finger.

—VREEEM

A bolt of black lightning shoots from her rifle cannon, causing air and smoke to seep from her position as it makes its way toward the character on the opposite roof. The beam seemingly connects with the target, as their head turns to the side.

“—…Ko… Koko! What is going on? Why did you give away your position? Answer me!”

Koko shakes her head and comes back to her senses, taking her finger away from the trigger with a deep breath. “I-It’s one of them…”

“—Them? Whatever, just get out of there ASAP! You are to disengage and retreat to the retract point before more creeps—“

Several large howls emitting from the metal gates still standing in the middle of the road rattle are accompanied by galloping as both ample sounds become louder with every passing moment.

Koko wipes a bead of sweat from her brow and ungrips the tripod of her rifle cannon from the floor and folds it to her side. Her eyes widen as she looks forward, the entity from before continuing to stare at her with a glowing gaze.

The howls then become earshot as three white-skinned brutes rush through the doors and bolt through the metal doors. They all sniff the air and look toward’s Koko’s building, performing three defeaning hollers as they race toward it.

Koko presses a blinking gray neon button on her skirt pocket, causing a transparent hexagon grid to form around her body until it creates a set of slender black armor and a clear helmet wrapping around her head.

She then dashes forward, shattering a glass window with a jab, and shoots a metal-steel rope to the top of the building as it starts to descend to the bottom. She straps a sliding mechanism from the front of her suit onto herself and descends down the rope at a fast pace.

As she’s sliding down, she looks into one of the mirror panes noticing a small entity closing in on her location. She looks back, and before she could react, is met with two black boots that kick her through the next story’s window, shattering the glass, and making her tumble across the floor with a gasp.

She jumps from the floor and raises her side rifle toward the assailant hiding in a nearby shadow, the only perceivable detail was their glowing red eyes.

“Mission control… Looks like I’m a bit of a situation here…”