Chapter Four: Escape Route

Eve's hair hardened in a barricade around her as Sephira's ebony blade came down, slicing through the hesitant aura of the room in the instant the only threat's tawny eyes gazed at his alleged son.

Train wasted no time as he drew Hades in an instant and shot simultaneously as Trevaunne did. Sephira jumped back, deflecting both bullets in an instant and signaled for her men to leap into action. Sven dashed to Eve's side with his suitcase in hand and blocked the bladed attack that was directed towards the small, seemingly defenseless girl.

He grinned beneath the weight of the cloaked assassin. "I'll be your opponent," he hissed and threw the attack off.

Train leaped back in the air flexing as he dodged flying bullets and vaulted over the couch, swinging behind his temporary defensive wall as he reloaded his gun in an instant. Checking the reflection in the glossy exterior, he shot three times, once for each attacker, and peeked to ensure he had hit his targets. Having aimed for only the joints of the armor, that is the elbow, knee, hip and neck, he was bond to severe something severely enough to ensure they wouldn't be fighting anytime soon.

They aren't Bio-mechas like Sephira, then, he observed as he glanced at the woman who missed Trevaunne's neck by a hair strand's width. The armored men are just highly trained officials.

He glanced at Eve. She was surrounded by three of them and were handling them well: she flipped over one man by lifting herself quickly over his shoulder, and using that momentum slammed the heel of her bare foot—temporarily metal—into another's head. The third attacked with a thrust of his blade while he avoided the path of his comrade's stumbling to regain footing. The knife pierced the space where Eve had been before she ducked, and a powerful uppercut with her hand-morphed-hammer sent him flying into the roof.

Train smirked. Lil' Princess is faring well, he thought, then randomly pointed his revolver upwards, where in caught the helmeted jaw of a soldier about to attack him from above. He froze, the knife above him stabbed thin air.

"Don't even think about it," Train warned, before grabbing the fabric of the coat and flipping his attacker over his head, smashing in the helmet with an underplay of 'Claw'.

Sensing another attack coming in from his left he swung Hades around, blinking absently when it collided with an identical revolver. He looked at its wielder and eased when he was faced with Trevaune's equally as startled gaze.

"Weren't you fighting…?" Train trailed off.

"Sephira?" He finished, then frantically glanced up. Between Eve and Sven, those who refused to back down were being forced to their knees, and Sephira's clone overlooked it absently as she prepared a device strapped on her left wrist. Her crystal blue eyes flickered up to Eve.

Trevaunne cursed and Train hesitated once something launched from the device and hit Eve's arm. The said young girl yelped and stared at the wires wrapped around her hands, wrist and down, and pulled experimentally while attempting to cut it with her blade-formed-forefinger. She recognized the material as soon as it refused to detached from her bruising skin.

Orihalcon?

"Eve!" Trevaunne aimed.

Train instantly recognized the faint glow and crackle along the second Hades' exterior, and the bristle of the red ropes at its ends were next to nostalgic. He sprinted to Sven's side just as Trevaunne pulled the trigger.

Railgun!

The wall overlooking the road was shattered mercilessly in a thunderous explosion as the electricity propelled bullet drove catalyzing energy into everything it touched. In the fast formed clouds four figures leaped down seven meters to the ground below and took off running. Train looked over his shoulder. Sven was dragging the coughing Eve along and Trevaunne was bringing up the rear, panting slightly but keeping up a pace as he watched the scene behind him.

No wonder they want me dead, Train thought as he searched for the car ahead of them. That railgun that took him seconds to charge was almost as powerful as the one I used to take down Creed!

And he had seen Sephira take a direct hit through her abdomen before it hit the orihalcon strings, and though the bullet itself was severed to pieces, the concentrated energy seemed to burn it away before the metal could conduct it.

But aside from the temporary victory, what was that device?

An hour out of town, the route they took was the less popular highway that curved around the rock cliff looking over an ocean now painted black in the ungodly hour of morn. Sven was anxiously hunched over the wheel, constantly glancing at his rear view mirror and his grip deathly though his bruises and minor injuries complained.

Eve spoke over her shoulder as she remained the lookout: "I don't see anyone giving the chase, neither by road or air."

"Did you check along the cliff?" Train asked in a gruff voice.

Sven was about to retort the unlikelihood of men travelling at over a hundred kilometers per hour while along a steep rocky mass, but taking in consideration these particular enemies, he kept his mouth shut.

"I don't see anyone," Eve responded and sat properly in her seat. "I think we're safe for the time being."

Train blew out a sigh and closed his eyes. "Still, don't stop even when dawn breaks."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Sven muttered through his cigarette.

Eve looked at Trevaunne leaned against the window, his breathing shallow.

"Are you injured?" she asked cautiously.

"No, just tired," he responded with a weak smirk. "That was my fourth railgun for the day."

"So you're at your limit?" Train asked. "Or are you different from me?"

"Not so much; I can shoot using railgun again but it'll probably drain me to a ridiculous extent that I'll have to remain bedridden for a week." He glared at Train. "You hadn't warned me about that until after I tried it."

Train grinned. "The most effective way to learn is through your mistakes."

"Yeah, you're the same even now," he said with a faint smile, though he seemed more annoyed than anything else.

After a pause, Eve broke the silence: "Trevaunne, that odd device that Sephira—not, Sephira—used to hold me with those orihalcon strings. What was it?"

"A device that they called 'Web'," he responded, looking through the window. "By capturing a Bio-Mech with not-so-easy-to-break wires that's also a conductor, she could send a large amount of electricity into your body that would prevent your nanomachines from acting, and also knock you out as an easy capture. It's a well used weapon during the war, I heard." He nodded to Train, "That's also why they want you dead."

Train started.

Trevaunne continued, "Unlike Eve, your nanomachines purposely conduct electricity, therefore the effect of Web on someone like you is little to none. Saya and I…"

"Saya?" Train yelled, staring at the startled Trevaunne.

"My sister," he responded quietly. "Saya is my nee-chan."

Train looked down, smiling softly. Saya…huh?

"Out of curiosity, how many siblings do you have?" Eve asked.

"Including Saya, four," he responded instantly.

Train started again as he caught Sven's teasing smirk. "Ah, so you've been busy Train…"

"Sh- shut up!"

On the cliff edge, dark eyes peered down at the speeding car, and his gaze followed it to no fault. "I have them in position," he spoke into the ear-phone. "Should I disengage fire?"

"Easy, Wong," a voice crusted by static said with amusement in his voice. "You'll get your chance. Just follow them at a mile's radius."

"Understood."

And the man in scanty armor watched with an unnerving smirk…