NEW CHAPTER! WOO!


'Man marks the earth with ruin, but his control stops at the shore'. – 'The Deep, Blue Sea' by Lord Byron

"Five seconds.", came Minato. "…Huh?", gawked IV. "…?", came Will.

"Five seconds for you to hightail it out of here before you go home to your 'boss' in body bags; I am not in the mood for this 'Capture Nyx' shit."

IV smirked deviously before reaching into his right coat pocket. "Oh really? Well, newsflash, sucker.", he said before whipping out an Evoker of his own and pointing it at his own right temple.

"You're not the only ones with this fancy toy!"

"!", was Minato's expression.

Inside the base, S.E.E.S. merely gawked in shock.

"Seems to me we're just trading fighting words.", quipped IV. "Looks like we got ourselves a duel here, ah?"

"IV! Don't you dare-", barked Will.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP, WILL! I got this brat.", IV grinned as he cocked the safety.

"Big mistake.", Minato. He reading the Evoker as both male's pupils shrunk.

"Orpheus!"

"Tyr!"

The sound of shattered glass and rising blue flame-like lights filled the open air.


Chapter 4: MARCH OF MAN'S-'LAUGHTER'


The front entrance to the Maverick Hunters erupted in a lake of ghostly blue flames. On Minato's side erupted a creature – a mechanical doll-like, turquoise-bodied marionette with speakers in its stomach cavity, with an oversized harp on its back. Secured around its pitch-black head/face and white hair styled after its master (its right eyes was covered) were a pair of oversized headphones and a long red scarf wrapped securely around its neck.

On IV's side – the bicolored-haired teen in the white and blue outfit grinning maniacally – stood his Persona, aptly named Tyr; named after the Nordic god of war, who quelled Fenrir's rage by feeding his right arm to the wolf.

His appearance was that of a young man with neck-length magenta hair hooked at the ends wearing a crown shaped like a curved slab erecting about a foot long. He wore two azure capes – one secured over the right side of his body by a long cloth and bejeweled epaulette wrapped around his waist diagonally, and a second one secured over his left shoulder, down his back and tied to his left leg. He wore a tattered white shirt exposing his breast area and baggy beige pants. Finally, the blue-eyed warrior held an elegant bastard sword in his left hand.

At this moment, IV's grin stretched devilishly. "Attack! Slaughter him like a dog!", he commanded the warrior coated in the blue flames that came with his arrival, the warrior charged with his sword extended.

"Not likely.", said Minato calmly, and he swung out his left arm, signaling Orpheus to release sound vibrations from the boom box in its stomach. The waves formed merciless pulsations of waves that knocked Tyr back on its rear, causing IV to wince from the feedback.

After all, the connection between a Persona and its master is both its bond of strength and its source of weakness.

Regaining composure, the dual-haired male in the extravagant coat sneered. "Well, well. Nice approach. But just so you know…"

The next instant, Minato registered a shadow looming over him. Turning around slowly, clockwise, he swiftly spun once and dove out of the way of IV descending upon the spot where he stood, brandished claymore having dug into the earth lightly.

"A fight between Persona-users are not solely between our inner Shadows doing the dirty work!"

Minato eyed a long steel pipe laying by his foot as he listened to the scarred male's rant. Kicking down with one foot on the edge of the pipe - the pipe spinning rapidly as it went airborne- and gracefully grabbed it in one hand in a swift motion, holding it in a kendo grip. "Thanks for the lesson. Not that I needed it."

IV sneered again. "You sassy bitch, you. Let's see how long you can keep those shrewd lips of yours flapping, shall we?", he jested as he charged headfirst at the blunette, claymore in tow.

Just as he reached the outskirts of his claymore's attack length, a pair of buster shots struck the ground at IV's feet, halting his path.

Both males turned to see several generic Hunter foot soldiers, clad in turquoise; a small unit spearheaded by none other than Chill Penguin.

"Surrender at once! W will not go easy on you just because you're human. This is your only warning!", commanded one of the Reploids.

IV merely looked stunned for a moment, but his mouth slowly crept into a wide, devilish grin, thin as a line.

"Y'know something? I would actually find you threatening if you guys were actually… *snicker* well, threatening. But sadly for you I don't. You wanna know why?", IV said with malice in his voice.

"-Squawk- To hell with your reasoning! Men, close in!", Chill Penguin signaled.


As the soldiers moved in, back in the command center, Junpei noticed something strange on the monitor. He noticed that the second guy with brown hair and the blue overcoat was missing. Then it hit him.

"Tell them to get out of there!", he yelled at Alia. She blinked. "E-excuse me…?"

"This is no time for games! Those guys are in serious danger! Get them out NOW!"

"What do you mean?", asked X, concerned. Zero was also showing signs of intrigue at this.

"What's wrong, Iori?", aksed Mitsuru. "Don't you notice that other dude went missing? Where is he?", Junpei asked exasperatedly.

"Now that you mention it…", trailed Fuuka, instantly clamping her hands together as the room glowed from the blue flame-like light surrounding her, a tall woman in a white mask with straw-like hair in a flowing red gown, arm gloves and a crystal ball with intricate patterns incasing Fuuka like a pregnant woman carrying a child appeared, sprouting peacock feathers from its back.

Every Reploid in the room was in total awe as Fuuka successfully summoned Juno, her Persona under the HIGH PRIESTESS Arcana.

"Holy-!", gawked Red and Axl. Gungaroo blushed from its beauty. 'Pretty…' Alia, Palette and Layer shown a cross of shock and awe from the display, while X, Zero, the remainder of Red Alert, Flame Stag, and the navigators just stood there with stupefied expressions. Dr. Doppler and Izzy Glow marveled at Juno's summoning like it was the discovery of the century, as put broadly how a scientist may, in fact, marvel.

"So… this is a Persona…?", whispered Doppler, clearly at a loss for words seeing something so marvelous up close.

"Y-Yamagishi! How on earth did you-?", began Mitsuru before Akihiko placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Think about it. If Minato can summon his Persona outside the Dark Hour, then surely the same can apply to us, right…?", said the boxing champ.

"-gasp-!", came Fuuka. "Junpei was right! Look out!", Fuuka cried the last part at the open channel microphone that was connected to Chill Penguin's group at the front gates.


"Huh? Who was that?", asked one of the Reploid foot soldiers as he stopped his advance. The next moment a swift trail of black swished by said soldier, and his body was horizontally sliced into his head, torso and legs – the head and legs flung to the left, and his torso cast off to the right with a clod. The next moment Chill Penguin registered was a horrific moment – in a single flash his 10 or so foot soldiers – all standing in different positions at different distances (meaning that they were not in a straight line) were cleaved into various chunks, blank looks on their faces; they didn't even register the moment of their demise.

The petite bird Reploid watched as Will, IV's colleague, drop into a one-knee crouch position, his strange black sword in his right hand, the blade resting on his left upper arm. As he twisted his neck, there was a sadistically dead look in visible right eye.

Chill felt like he was starting a staring contest with the Grim Reaper himself. Minato himself was mortified by the display, sporting a shocked expression one would expect the silent Wild Card to make; a trickle of sweat danced on his cheek.

"'You confidence borders on the brink of arrogance. And arrogance leads to failure'. That was what you were going to say, wasn't it, IV?", said Will, running his fingertips through his hair fringing over his left ear.

IV sighed and shrugged, sporting a smug grin. "Got it in one." He then used the broadsword in his right hand and threw the handle into his left, swinging counterclockwise at the charging Minato, who easily blocked the incoming blade with the pipe, albeit that it bent to a near-right angle, thus being of no use as a straight weapon. Instead, he threw the pipe like a Frisbee at IV's face and barrel rolled to the side to ready his Evoker, signaling his conveyance of another command for Orpheus.

Easily craning his neck to dodge the brunt of the object, he paid no mind to the cut on his left cheek, his tongue sampling the trickle of blood seeping from the scratch intently.

"You know what makes blood taste simply divine?", he asked venomously.

The next moment, IV vanished, appearing before Minato, knee on the ground as he shoved the edge of his broadsword into the bluenette's stomach, robbing the Fool of his breath. Following this, IV slid the sword's blunt edge across and away from him and into Minato, effectively swatting him like a fly.

Minato stumbled to keep his footing, but landed on his bum. Attempting to stand again, he looked up to see IV in front of him, broadsword raised high and reared for the killing blow. IV's sneer was diabolic.

"It's a dash of fear!"

Just as the blade was swung down, the moment before the blade's edge reached the 12-inch zone from Minato's face, a blast of ice zoomed by and collided with the center of the sword, freezing over. As IV stopped the blade mid-swing, the blade snapped in half about halfway down the blade's length, the blade flying clumsily over Minato's head and plopped on the ground with a large 'THUD', and shattered into several pieces from the extreme temperature.

IV looked dully at Chill Penguin, a dark, annoyed "HUH?", escaping his mouth, eyes narrowed. It was obvious that Chill Penguin was in for it now. "The fuck is this shit?", growled IV.

IV lazily looked at the small Reploid, whose fists quaked with rage. "You attacked my men and slaughtered them without a second thought, you monster. I hope you're ready for the consequences!"

"You aren't honestly serious when you said that, are you?", jabbed IV, clearly get closer to a state of anger. A vein appeared on his forehead.

"For years…!", IV yelled as he kicked Minato harshly aside. "For years I had lived with the hatred towards the horrors your kind committed administered to the human race! Death, despair, bloodshed, fear, hatred… all because of Reploids!", he roared at the top of his lungs, taking aback Chill Penguin, Minato and most importantly, his comrade Will.

"I lost my home to a Maverick who – get this – betrayed your precious Hunters to enact on jealousy and a selfish desire to fight one insignificant sack of scum!"

'Wait a minute…' X pondered before coming to a horrific realization. "…Oh no… is he referring to…?"

"What are you talking abou-…", Zero trailed before coming to the same conclusion. A panicked expression on his face, he darted left and right, shouting "Where's Magma Dragoon?"

It was then, the navigators in the room, Flame Stag, Izzy Glow, Doppler, the Red Alert squad, Axl, Alia, Layer and Palette became very, very shaken. It appeared to Mitsuru that this 'Magma Dragoon' and IV's speech held a very dark connection.

"Is that guy… really a…?", muttered Snipe Anteator, clearly shaken about something.

"But… even for a Reploid that would be impossible…", gawked Splash Warfly.

"Is this guy… -gulp-… a demon?", whimpered Vanishing Gungaroo.

"A demon…?", Ken asked aloud. "What do you mean? What's going on?", inquired Akihiko with a sense of urgency; perhaps even a dash of fear of the unknown.

Everyone in the room was silent, unnerved expressions on every Reploid in the room.

At this point, the doors connecting the command center to the eastern wing of the Hunter base opened.

It was Dr. Cain and Magma Dragoon, both sporting shocked looks at seeing IV on the monitor.

"I… don't believe my eyes... he's a…!", croaked Cain. His already weakened-from-age knees wobbled from some heir-apparent stress, causing Dragoon to hoist the doctor into his forearms like a seat as he knelt to one knee.

"T-thank you Dragoon.", Cain thanked, but with some sorrow.

"I didn't think one could exist…", gawked Dragoon, clearly shaken.

"Can someone PLEASE tell me what's going on?", asked Yukari.

"…It was… some time ago…", whispered Cain. "During the war with the Repliforce's staged coup d' etat. Dragoon was the catalyst of the war by being coerced – bartered, even – into destroying a space colony in order to send the Hunters and Repliforce into a frenzy. It was called-"

-The Sky Lagoon!- bellowed IV's voice electronically through Chill Penuin's comm-link. –My home was destroyed by your insignificant war with the Repliforce! I lost everything! My home, my family, my friends… I am the only survivor of that day from Hell!-

That was the final confirming nail in the coffin. All Reploids in the room and Cain were shocked; this psychopathic young man was a survivor of the devastating Sky Lagoon space colony crash.

"Someone was able to survive the crash from space…?", gawked Flame Stag.

No one could fathom how space colony had been destroyed and how anyone could have survived; sheer dumb luck was out of the question. So how did he…

"That is why… we, the ones who survived the wars, who hatred flows harsher than the River Styx, will see to it our vengeance is achieved."

Finally, he turned to Minato. "And a certain someone here has the means to do it. We knew you'd come… Minato Arisato; Death's vessel."

Minato glared. "That was long ago. Death no longer has a place on this world."

IV gave a sly, cocky look. "Don't give me that crap. Nyx, Pharos, the immortal curse of human aging… come now, stop with the stupid shit, will ya?"

He then grabbed Minato by the throat just as the blunette shot up. "-gack-!"

IV's face twisted into one of disgust. "Keeping the goodies all to yourself… you're pretty selfish."

Minato choked out "Have you looked in a mirror? Trying to slaughter a race of sentient beings sounds pretty selfish to me…!"

"Being coy, huh? I'll fix that!", IV shouted as he thrashed Minato into a wall, smashing his spine into concrete.

"That's it!", Yukari yelled as she headed towards the door; Junpei grunting and following suit. "Where are you going! It's not safe!", cried Alia.

"You really think I'm just gonna let our friend get his ass handed to him? And think about it! Those dudes will slaughter you guys on sight!", countered Junpei.

"Be that as it may, you're unarmed! What can you-" Zero yelled before realizing that Mitsuru ran past him, a long pipe in hand, and zoomed out the door with graceful speed.

"Don't just stand there, Takeba, Iori! Let's move!"

"Where'd she get that…", Doppler trialed before realizing there were several pipes stacked neatly in the corner of the room; Mitsuru must've snuck over, grabbed one and then proceeded to running out the door.

"M-Mitsuru-senpai!", Ken yelled. "Dammit!", cursed Akihiko as he ran after the redheaded rich girl, tightening his gloves mid-run.

"S-somebody stop them!", cried Palette.

Flame Stag and Magma Dragoon, who had put Dr. Cain down seconds ago, instinctively ran after the teenagers. This was followed by Aegis, Ken and Koromaru, who lastly was followed by Fuuka, who bowed apologetically, stammering "W-we're sorry!" and chasing after them.

"Dammit!", cursed Zero as he, X and Axl follwed the 'bandwagon'.

Little did they know someone was watching this unfold. A midnight blue butterfly pressing against the window, its identity obscured by the pitch-black night and the madness of its festivities. Its wings flapped lightly and slowly took off, a gentle glowing trail of blue behind it…

"Who's the big boy now, bitch?", IV seethed. Minato struggled to remove IV's vice grip from his throat, but to no avail.

Chill Penguin attempted to ambush the dual-haired young man from behind, but was intercepted by Will, who swung his oversized black sword like a baseball bat, batting Penguin away with impressive force. There was a sizable dent in the stomach where Chill was impacted.

"I will be your opponent. That is, if you think you can handle it.", Will said calmly, the hair bathing over the left side of his face shadowing over his pale beige flesh, his yellow eye of three distinct yellows – honey, gold and lemon – stared down at the bird like were they stood was like the heights of heaven and earth.

"You think I'm scared of two teenagers? I've been fighting wars, just so you know.", Chill said harshly.

"And I was a victim of said wars. But you don't hear me boasting it, now do you. Allow to ask you a civilized question, Reploid."

Chill Penguin's expression changed to a puzzled one.

"Tell me: 'What merit is there is war'? Is it glory? It is honor? Or is it the satisfaction of crushing enemy?"

The avian Reploid was taken aback by the question, just in time for a thrown pipeto whiz by him.

Will sighed, effortlessly grabbing the pipe mid-flight while quick and skillful finger movement, which twirled180 degrees and snapped with his pointer and middle fingers, finally followed by simply dropping the halves to the ground, cluttering.

"You're quite rude…", he said to the feminine figure in the shadows.

The figure turned out to be a certain archer, accompanied by her baseball cap-wearing companion.

"…Ms. Takeba, Mr. Iori. Haven't you ever learned it's impolite to throw things at someone's head…? You wouldn't want to get someone in the eye, would you?"

"Spare the crap and get your ass out of the way! We got no time for your games!", yelled Junpei, wielding a pipe like a two-handed sword – Junpei's weapon of choice.

"Sorry; no can do.", Will said nonchalantly. The next moment, he jumped towards Junpei, grabbed him by the face and threw him to the ground, his sword's tip held inches from Junpei's nose.

"But is it's an opponent you desire… I'd be happy to oblige.", he said coldly. Before he could swing down, a buster shot hit the blade's center of torque, effectively knocking the blade out of Will's hand, disarming him.

"Sorry, bub. There'll be no roughhousing on my watch.", came Axl, the first to the scene, followed by everyone else who trailed Yukari and Junpei.

"At the cost of being arrogant… you may have me outnumbered, but I still have leverage over you all.", said Will, not losing his cool.

"Really? You an what army?", scorned Zero. Will grinned slightly. "Oh, just the one."

"Hm?", hummed Zero before instinctively dodged to the side as he sensed an entity diving from on high fist first at him; it missed Zero, but succeeded in ripping a Hunter soldier's head clean off at the neck, the head smashing into the right side of the soldier's face next to him with supreme force, ripping its head off his neck like a piece of paper torn in two.

The figure, who was overshadowed by Flame Stag lurching over it, failed to block an axel kick aimed under his chin, whipping him aside and felling him like a fallen tree.

Standing up was a young figure with mid-length blonde hair juts atop his head with long sideburn 'tails' of hair, and a long silken ponytail, unbraided. The figure wore a rose-pink dress suit and matching pants with black loafers and a red neckbow with long ends, secured by a blue-gemmed brooch. The face and upper body revealed, the figure who dashed about like a bullet and destroyed 2 soldiers was in fact a young woman, possibly in her late teens, and had a relatively flat chest, which could mistake her appearance as an effeminate male with a pretty face. She was wearing strange, oversized brass knuckles with shielding atop the knuckles and sported silken white ribbons – one ribbon on either edge, for a total of four. Each of her assaulting moves were paired with a sharp gale of wind.

"You're late, Jaguar.", said Will, an amused grin. 'Jaguar' simply ran a hand through her silky hair. "Sorry, Will.", she said in a manner mixing masculine force with feminine finesse. "It was hard to find my way here in the black of night; you know I'm more of a day person."

She turned to the Hunters, of which Flame Stag stood back up and charged at Jaguar, who blocked his incoming punch with crossed arms, thus hitting her forearms. Jaguar used the instant to grab Stag by the fists, and with a display of amazing strength, threw the deer Reploid over her shoulder and darted towards the group, fists up.

Chill Penguin took this chance to aim a precise ice blast at IV's feet the moment his attention turned away from Minato to freeze IV's ankles and create a slippery path for Minato to be slid down on his back as Chill maintained their movement speed, just in time for them to be out of IV's attack range as he shattered the ice encasing his feet.

Akihiko stepped in front of the amalgamated individuals and threw a powerful right punch towards the blond girl in the pink dress suit, which was parried by Jaguar's right punch that met its adversary in a head-on collision.

Both fighters expressed a slight tinge of pain from the strike and immediately went to attack with their left fists, which also collided, forming an X-shape with all four fists.

In the boxing world, this was what could be called a 'Double Cross Counter'.

In the split second Akihiko was overtaken by surprise from her second succeeding strike meeting his head-on with no hesitation, Jaguar gave way in one of her legs and fell enough to remove her lock with Akihiko and spun on her feet, nimbly tripping the silver-haired boxer in a single, graceful movement. Ken instinctively at Jaguar with the pipe he held as if he possessed a bladed spear – his choice of weapon. There was little room for Jaguar to actually dodge the blow, given the little room the instant of attack, the positions were she, Ken and Akihiko were in his mid-fall, Akihiko knowing he could kick at Jaguar's skull if she tried to dodge at certain angles.

But that didn't mean it was her only option. No, sir.

Jaguar snaked her arm under the pipe Ken swung and hooked her hand about the tip, using the torque force to shatter the pipe in half and propelled the pipe half into Ken's cheek, lightly cutting it under his left eye.

After the pipe bounced of his flesh, Jaguar's hand clenched into a fist and collided it into Ken's stomach, knocking the wind out of him.

Since this was all before Akihiko finally hit solid ground, Jaguar kicked herself away from the immediate area, rolled a bit and recovered into a standing position, fists pumped.

"And this is me simply being a playful kitten.", Jaguar said coyly. "You better prepare yourself for when Jaguar Sakamoto really goes for her prey!"


"Jaguar… Sakamoto…", whispered Alia. "Where have I… -gasp- It couldn't be!", she exclaimed as she typed frivolously on her keyboard, searching for that name. There was 1 result. Alia's eyes shrunk.

"The heiress to the Wildcat Finance fortune…! The one who mysteriously vanished when her family was slaughtered by Mavericks during the Repliforce war!"

"What?", gawked a voice. Turning around, Alia, Layer and Palette saw Skiver, Iris, and the 'affected' Armored Armadillo, Sting Chameleon, Slash Beast, Storm Eagle and Blizzard Wolfang.

"You can't be serious! I heard about that incident! The whole building was decimated by Mavericks in Ride Armors! There wasn't a single survivor!", gawked Skiver. Slash Beast nodded, having been on duty during that time, remembering hearing that report from Colonel himself.

"So we got two survivors of two incidents from the Maverick Wars, both with supernatural powers.", noted Storm Eagle, noting when IV summoned his Persona, Tyr. "I bet that third guy is the same case, too."

"There's probably a connection.", said Armored Armadillo. "We should move out, too."

"No.", said Doppler. "We know nothing of what this metamorphosis you all undertook has actually extended to; for all we know we could be putting you in mortal danger."

"I agree with Dr. Doppler.", said Dr. Cain. "We can't risk your well-being in a frenzied situation like this. Who knows what could occur!"

"Be that as it may…", said Wolfang. "Sitting on the sidelines does us no good. There has to be something we can do!"

Dr. Cain and Dr. Doppler looked at each other and then placed a hand on their chins; they seemed to be in thought of something.

"Cain… are you thinking what I'm thinking…?" "That depends. You thinking about the energy readings those three and young Minato and his friends are exuding?"

"My thoughts exactly. There were similar readings coming from these five recently. There are all exhibiting high-functioning brain activity; their supernatural powers – 'Persona', as they call it – could be connected.", proposed Doppler.

"…", said Dr. Cain. Doppler noticed this.

"You know something, don't you?", asked Doppler. Cain sighed. "And here I was hoping it wouldn't come to this…"

"?" expressed everyone still in the room.

"I'll explain later. Right now, dealing with these intruders takes priority.", said Cain. 'assuming that we all survive this, God forbid the worst happening…'


"I've had enough of this bullshit! Tyr!", IV roared as he shot another round of the Evoker into his temple, summoning the one-armed, battle-scarred warrior phantasm.

"Vorpal Dance!", he practically screamed. "?", was Mitsuru's and Akihiko's response.

As the slashes of purple energy danced towards the group, the soldier's Buster fire failing to steer their course and the projectiles from by all the other Hunters proving useless, Minato's instinct kicked in. Standing up and shouting "TRUMPETER!", and firing his Evoker, a skeletal angel-like figure in white robes and Gothic crown slowly forged from the blue flames, blowing its trumpet at full blast.

As it did, the Vorpal Dance's 16 or so slices of violently turbulent energy was repelled as it impacted the barrier Trumpeter erected, returning the blasts to its sender – Tyr.

As Tyr suffered damage from its own attack, IV's body jolted sharply upwards, his muscles seemingly stiffened in pain and he neck and head jerked up as IV coughed a gob of blood, which splashed against his lower lip and chin, the rest bouncing outwards from his skin on collision, barely blotching the blue rim of his neck and the tucked-in cravat he wore.

He nearly doubled over before Jaguar was able to get to IV's frame in three short steps – that was, three steps covering about 8 yards; a tough feet – and knelt under IV, catching him with his right arm slung over Jaguar's shoulders.

"You alright, IV-senpai?", asked the blonde girl in the dress suit.

"Tch. Trumpeter, huh? Didn't see that one coming, but…", he trailed before making a devious smirk. "Now the hunt gets just a little more exicting…! Keheheheh… After all, prey that yields no tricks or surprises ain't worth the hunt, y'know?"

Suddenly IV's right eye winced, as if in pain, but also as if he anticipated trouble coming. "Jaguar, jump!"

Without being told twice, Jaguar jumped a rather impressive 6 and a half feet in the air, lags curled back with IV hanging off her like a slung bag. The impulsive order was rewarded with them missing an incoming blue energy blast from hitting them dead on. But if one paid closer attention, the speed of the shot was significantly slower than that of a standard blast, Buster shot or otherwise.

Zero and X recognized that attack anywhere; their suspicions were confirmed one everyone turned to see a certain draconic Reploid donned in red, one clawed foot forward in front of the other, his hands posed as if he shot a certain energy blast technique from a certain Street Fighter.

"That's far enough.", Dragoon growled, a hint of warning in his voice. "You're very lucky that even after all that you're doing – attacking comrades and innocents alike – that I don't get serious from the get-go. Besides… I think I hold slightly more value to you than a human boy does… IV, if that IS your real name."

Landing and getting off Jaguar, IV froze in shock for a moment. It was also in the seceding moment that Will, who was still baring his blade to Junpei's neck in the ground, that he relinquished his hold on the S.E.E.S. Magician Arcana member, and ran full speed at Dragoon, baring his ebony-metal, enchanted-looking sword yelling "Don't, IV! It's not worth it! Do NOT forget your orders!"

That line caused two things to happen:

One, everyone in the area – especially Jaguar – were taken aback by Will's actions as he abandoned a perfectly crippling hostage situation against the Hunters and S.E.E.S for what seemed to be a desperation to stop something potentially catastrophic from happening; and judging by his original demeanor compared to his revealed side at this moment, it must have been something truly frightening. Jaguar realized what Will meant soon after and attempted to restrain IV, not yet even touching him.

Two, IV's expression was still in shock, but as his body trembled and clasping his face with his left hand, his face distorted to one of excitement, rage, malice and bloodlust in shades of red and black so abysmal that Satan himself might grow envious.

"You…YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!", IV roared with the ferocity of a lion pride. "So the demon decides to finally show his fucking face, huh? Planning to absolve yourself of your sins in a duel to the death? How pious of you! SO MUCH IT MAKES ME SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!" as he charged forward at Dragoon – who was shocked by IV's display of enhanced speed, rivaling those like Overdrive Ostrich or Slash Beast in a short burst. The mere shockwave given off was powerful enough to knock the wind out of Jaguar as it bashed into her chest, knocking her on her bottom and toppling over.

"Will, stop him!", cried Jaguar.

Will had firmly placed himself in IV's path, taking on his tackle as IV's force of inertia clobbered into Will's self-barricade, mere feet from a stunned Magma Dragoon, Will pinning IV on the ground. Dragoon wondered after all said and done between learning that IV survived the Sky Lagoon crash how he would deal with his torrent of mixed feelings regarding the boy; as the possibly only survivor, could he just allow this boy – a victim of his Maverick status some time before – to be 'dealt with' (put loosely), despite this said boy out for Dragoon's blood?

"Get a fucking hold of yourself, IV! You are become a threat to the mission and yourself! If our master finds out about this episode there's no telling what punishment you'll—"

"TO HELL WITH THAT! My family's murderer is right there and you dare to stop me? How you sunk so low as to side with this machine?", IV roared with great intensity. The Reploids in the area, especially X, Zero, Axl and Dragoon felt a sting from those words.

IV clearly thought nothing of Reploids but mere tools of destruction and carnage, and that they should be dealt with as such.

"Hey, genius! In case you forgot, the mission was clearly to abduct Minato Arisato, and thanks to your bipolar anger issues, we couldn't even maintain an advantage over the Maverick Hunters and S.E.E.S. – even with three members of our group and your Persona – which, mind you, was meant to be secret…", Will seethed, the last part being whispered into IV's ear.

"You'd be a horrible poker player 'cause you tipped your hand to early out of arrogance. You gave the enemy a chance to observe our tactics, techniques, and even our usage of Evokers. Do you have ANY clue of the irreversible damage you just caused?", Will continued, IV shrinking in his position.

"P-…point noted…", IV whimpered; how IV knew that Will, out of all the members of their organization, was one to be respected and feared. IV knew that he was fighting a losing battle, especially with the solid facts piling against him.

Will sighed. "Jaguar. We're retreating. The mission's a blatant failure." "…Understood."

"The hell you're getting away!", shouted Flame Stag, charging straight at Will with his Speed Burner readied. Akihiko ran behind the deer Reploid, just off angle of his slipstream to avoid being burned. "Not till what you want from Minato so badly!"

"It's none of your business, but…", Will trialed as he pulled something out of the white sash slung over his shoulder, inside the open overcoat and threw it at the ground shortly in front of Stag and Akihiko and exploded into a smokescreen.

"Death himself is our priority. We will return to extract the key to Nyx's prison; next time, you will all be shown no mercy. The Scourges have yet to purge this land, and we won't stop till we have cleansed it of Reploid scum. Till then…"

"…", came a paling Minato, who gulped silently. 'This is bad.'

"Quick! Scan for them! Don't let them escape!", yelled Zero.

"Sorry, Zero.", said Alia via the comm.-link. "However they pulled it off, they're long gone."

"DAMN IT!", cursed Axl. Junpei, Akihiko and Ken grit their teeth, Mitsuru bit her lower lip and X questioned what was going on to himself.

'Three humans with supernatural powers and a hatred for Reploids swoop in when we first came in contact with Minato Arisato's group… I don't like the sound of this. How did they know they were here in the first place…? And that thing… that one guy's 'Persona'… are these teens able to use it as well? Just what is it? With all these questions… it's gonna be a long night…'

With all the cleanup the Hunters'll have to do – from damage control to diagnosing Shade Panther and the other two ambushed Hunters, and assessing exactly what went on in the last half-hour or so, it really was going to be a very, very long night.

Too bad Reploids don't drink coffee.


Meanwhile, IV found himself slammed into the ground by an unknown male and female; the male seemed to be dressed like a blackjack dealer, complete with visor crowning his slicked and spiky blue hair, and the woman had long blond hair curled into circles at the ends, wearing a large sunhat and flowing red dress. Their faces were hidden from view, but the male's red left eye and woman's right yellow eye could be seen.

"YOU MORON!", roared a young male voice; possibly around the same age as IV, judging by the vocal range given off. "HOW COULD YOU BE SO STUPID?"

"My… apologies, master…", IV grieved lightly, hints of annoyance and slight fear in his voice.

"Sorry, does not cut it, IV.", came the young woman in red. "You screwed up big time, and now you must pay for your gross negligence."

"Gee, Elly, ever heard of the phrase 'Who asked you'?", IV quipped. This was rewarded with a sharp stomping on his spinal cord, earning a yelp of pain.

"Elly's right, IV; you showed your hand to early, and the other parties were able to counter your cards just in time. Your biggest screwup was your bloodthrist at that one Reploid, Magma Drago—"

"Finish his name, Gambler, and I assure you you'll pay with your life.", seethed IV, face half-buried into the cold tile floor of the barely-lit room.

"Enough.", commanded the mysterious male voice.

In the back of the room, Will and Jaguar merely stood, remaining silent; it was not their place to raise anything to light right now, despite how they did nothing wrong in their failed mission. They simply watched as their comrade was being court-martialed.

Jaguar, despite being a tomboyish girl with a peppery 'tude, did not like to see her allies bickering; it saddened her. Will on the other hand, stood, eyes closed, displaying a look of annoyance. 'Troublesome.'

The mysterious voice stepped forward, revealing the lilac-haired male from the Moonlight Bridge.

"It's only the first move of the chess game and we have yet to show those scum our true might. It wasn't a complete loss when you think about it."

This caught everyone's attention.

"How so, boss?", asked Gambler. The lilac-haired male smiled.

"Tell me, Will; how would you describe the Hunter's tactics in fighting you…?"

"…They fought as if they didn't want to hurt us; they were restraining themselves, resorting to tactics of evasion and immobilizing their targets, rather than straightforward fighting."

The other man grinned. "Exactly. There are restricted by the Hunter code to never harm a human; they did attack to stun, but not to harm or kill. It could also be their fear or guilt serving to hinder their performance. That is reason enough to say that this mission was not a total loss. The fruits of labor, I always say."

"So… what should we do about Minato Arisato? Shouldn't we attempt to acquire him soon?", asked Elly.

"…No; it'd be too much of a gamble to strike again so soon, even with the factors all planned out; there are too many holes to be filled first. I wouldn't want us to venture blindly into enemy territory so easily."

"I see; you'd prefer them to get comfortable first, then strike when they least expect it.", surmised Will.

"Got it in one.", smiled the lilac-haired male. "We have time on our side; let us wait till the fruits bare the ultimate ripeness before the harvest. We will obtain Pharos soon enough. It's only a matter of time."


And that's Chapter 4; took me a while, with a lot of shit going on in my life, but there you have it. Hope you enjoyed it~!