A/N: Sorry I've been away! Lots of things came up (and I do mean personal things not just stuff related to writing). Nevertheless, a lot more writing this week now that I have inspiration.

Thanks to ChasexJinjaForever for the review (as always) and monsunopower.

Enjoy!


It was nearing twilight over the port city, ships coming in for the night as the sun set slowly in the distance. A group of soldiers stood by the entrance to one of the labs, waiting for their shift to end.

"You'd think a job like this wouldn't be as boring," one of them said, "There hasn't been any monsuno sightings in months."

"Shh! Keep it down!" the one next to him said, "That's suppose to stay top secret! You should know that by now."

The other shrugged, "Except there's no one around. Not even the scientists that are supposed to be working here. What was it again? Core Tech?"

The two waited a moment as a car drove by.

"… Yeah. But S.T.O.R.M.'s planning on recruiting a few of the scientists. Who knows when that'll happen," the second one yawned, "But that doesn't mean we can let our guard down."

The sun went down, and the two were left standing in the dark. The first soldier half wanted to grab one of the cigarettes from the pack in his back pocket, but instead settled for tapping his foot on the ground, both of which were habits he was trying to kick thanks to his soon-to-be-fiance.

"… Where's our replacements?" he said, "Ugh… Don't tell me they got lost again."

"I dunno, Trey. You get lost just walking around the Cloud Carrier," the other snickered.

"You know there's a good reason for that! It's huge in there!" he said, "Which is a bit of a waste if you ask-"

Suddenly, the lab nearby erupted in a burst of flames. The two stood shocked, unable to process what just happened as something roared in the distance.

"Wh-what was that?!"

Another explosion. This one nearby the docks. Soon, screams and shouts were ringing in the air as the smoke cluttered the sky.

"We have an incident down at the Core Tech labs!" the other soldier said in his communicator, "I repeat! Incident at the Core Tech labs!"

The two ran towards the lab that was on fire, scientists and guards already evacuating the building. Without warning, the entrance exploded as something charged through it. Everyone ran back in alarm as a large beast roared out as it stood by the wreckage. It's sharp eyes glowing in the dark as it glared down at them all.

"I-Is that-"

It didn't hesitate to attack. Immediately, it lashed out at the nearby buildings and people without any hesitance.

HLP

"… Hey. Wake up."

The black haired boy blinked, glancing away from the skylight above them. He looked over to see Ehna giving him an annoyed look, and simply glared back.

"Stop spacing out. The last thing I need is for you to go in a daze when we're in the middle of S.T.O.R.M. like this!" The teen snapped.

The boy made a face, but knew the other was right. At the moment, the two of them stood in the main room where the halls split off in different directions. In all honesty, Exi found this place to be rather impressive by the way that the floors and halls were all connected by this center room. He looked to the ground to see it was a large metal grate, revealing more floors below them as faint sunlight trickled through the ceiling.

It was surprisingly easy to sneak inside without getting caught. With the help of Klipse, they had found that this prison was just outside of the lowlands in one of the many gorges that littered the area. There was hardly any traffic coming through, so it was easy to find out where the S.T.O.R.M. soldiers were going. And yet...

Exi looked around, seeing some of the cell doors open. There was something wrong. They should've met at least a few soldiers by now. Even the first part of the prison, if one could even call it that, was devoid of any presence.

"… Where is everybody?" Exi asked, now walking more towards the center of the massive room. Ehna didn't respond (which the boy found strange). He huffed under his breath. The teen was probably ignoring him again. He didn't like being belittled all the time like that. Not just by Ehna, but by the other members of the Hand of Destiny. A part of him was happy that they were all finally gone, but at the same time he knew that admitting that out loud could easily get him punished. Bitterly, Exi kicked at the floor. A resounding echo sounded throughout.

Of course this immediately alerted the guards to their presence.

"You down there!"

Exi was pulled away by the back of his jacket towards a hall as gun fire rained down towards them. He didn't get his footing and fell over when the two were out of range. The boy rolled over, seeing the older's annoyed look as more bullets ricocheted against the metal walls.

"Pay attention!" Ehna hissed, "The last thing I need is for you to get turned into swiss cheese by S.T.O.R.M.!"

"Give me a heads up then," Exi frowned as he sat up. Normally he would've been able to react easily to just the presence of other people. But lately...

An alarm went off, and the older started to curse. He yanked the raven-haired boy along as they bolted for the elevator at the end of the hall. Footsteps echoed throughout the halls as orders were being shouted. The lift doors opened for them, and they could see two soldiers standing inside, caught off guard.

"Exi!"

The smaller ran ahead, gathering a bit of energy in his palm, and threw it at the door panel. Sparks and smoke erupted when it hit, and the soldiers flinched. The nearest one tried to hold up his taser, but was too slow as Exi slammed into him. They wrestled on the ground before Exi threw him out of the lift. Without hesitating, he jumped up and sent more sparks through the inner panel. The doors slammed shut and it lurched down. He didn't like the idea of killing someone so weak, especially since they had better things to do at the moment, so simply throwing him out was fine.

The lift quickly picked up speed, which meant they were heading a long way down. The raven-haired boy couldn't help but fall to his knees, feeling a bit drained. For some reason that small confrontation left him a little winded. He'd need another vile of energy soon. Exi turned around to see the brown-haired teen pinning down the other soldier against the floor.

"You have five seconds to tell me what floor Doctor Caligari is at," he said darkly. The soldier, despite looking incredibly scared, didn't respond. The teen sighed, and leaned forward. Exi turned away. He knew what that look meant, and that the soldier would regret not saying anything. There was a shift in the air, and the boy brought his hood up over his face again.

Ten minutes later, they reached the bottom of the prison. The doors opened slowly to a dark hallway, red alarms still going off. The two walked off, leaving the soldier lying on the floor.

"… So. Where is this doctor at?" Exi asked, peeking through the small windows of the doors that they walked by. Ehna didn't respond, and kept looking forward. The smaller frowned, but knew not to push too many questions at the moment. The older tended to get unstable when he used that ability.

Exi continued to glance around. He always thought the memory thing that the other did was uncanny. That could've also just been because of his own experience with memory, however. Most of the time the boy could hardly recall anything within the past few months. He never did figure out why that was (not that he thought about asking).

But… Then he saw those flashes in the S.T.O.R.M. ship where Sophia was. Those feelings were so… raw. Just the thought of it made the boy shiver a bit.

"… Here we are."

He looked up to see Ehna standing in front of a door on the right side. The older tapped a code in the panel, and the door swung open. They stayed in the doorway as they glanced around the darkened room. A rather old man was in the corner of the cell, though he probably wasn't too old seeing that he still had all his hair, though a bit grey. He slowly stood up, looking at the two of them.

"...Who are you?" he rasped out, as if he hadn't spoken in years, "And what are you doing here?"

"Hello Doctor Caligari," the older teen said, then held out a hand, "my name is Ehna. Or should I say, Shapeshifter Project I."

The man hesitated at the reveal, but took the others hand in a loose shake anyway.

"... I had heard the Hand of Destiny had terminated their experiments dealing with their Shapeshifter monsuno," he said, looking between the two of them, "I guess I was mistaken."

"That you were," Exi mumbled under his breath. Ehna shot him a look.

"Anyway," the brown-haired teen continued, "We'd like to offer you the chance for employment again. In exchange for releasing you that is."

The man thought for a moment, hardly paying much attention to the alarms going off. It had been a decent amount of time since they had gone off, so they probably had a small amount of time left before the soldiers found another way down here.

"You think you could hurry up old man? " Exi snapped a bit.

"Well aren't you an impatient little lout," the doctor sneered. The smaller made a face back, but was stopped when Ehna shot him a look.

"… Go wait outside. Keep guard," he ordered. Exi frowned, but complied. He knew what would happen if he disobeyed. Grumbling a little, he stood just outside the door, leaning on the wall as he looked for any guards who would be here any minute. Despite that, he kept glancing inside to see what was going on.

"I assume that one is also one of the projects as well?" Caligari asked.

"Project VI. Made a few weeks after you left," Ehna responded, "Which is why we came to find you actually. You made a deal with the Hand a few years back-"

"Try several. Nearly a whole decade."

"Yes of course. But we need you're research on the two that were given to you. Projects II and V?"

The man scratched his cheek a little in thought, "Yes. I do remember claiming the bodies of those two. But they were expired when I got them. Only really used for studying. Sorry to say, but you can't hope to ask the dead for help."

"Don't worry," Ehna said, then pulled the object from Droog out of his pocket, "We have that problem solved already!"

He handed the device over to the doctor, who carefully handled it, handcuffs jingling lightly. That Droog guy certainly wasn't human, and that thing he gave them was really suspicious looking. Exi honestly thought that Ehna would've thrown it out. After a moment of examining it, Caligari started to chuckle.

"Interesting," he said, "I wondered why there was reports of 'alien' monsuno. Who would think that they were literally aliens?"

"So do we have a deal?" Ehna asked, "Whatever you need we can get."

The old man looked up, "I'm afraid I no longer possess those two. I left them in one of my associates labs, hidden in the mountains. Her name was Moto if I remember right. Quiet the vile woman if I do say so myself."

He handed the device back.

"And I would rather stay out of the issues of monsuno," the old man said, sitting back down, "Even though I'm holed up here day and night, I've heard the rumors of Dr. Suno's son and his endeavors. And since he's probably like his father, getting involved would be… messy."

Footsteps. Exi quickly turned to the hall entrance and saw a few soldiers already coming. He clicked his tongue in annoyance, and glanced around. Seeing one of the large metal panels on the wall sticking out a little, he violently ripped it off and threw in the way. It got wedged between the ceiling and floor, causing the soldiers to start pushing and shouting for another way towards them.

"You and that little abomination can leave now," the scientist said, leaning back against the wall, "I would like to spend the rest of my time in peace now that Charlemange isn't in charge anymore. I can finally go about my day without worrying about being tortured before the sun even rises."

There was clamoring on the other side of the wall as the soldiers continued to shuffle quickly along. Exi heard the words 'explosive' and 'ceiling', and turned to Ehna. He had also probably heard, and was now looking around the room for another way out. He made an annoyed sound before settling his eyes on the wall the doctor was leaning on. He put a hand on it, and turned to the smaller boy.

"Go to one of the other cells. I'm sure one of them's empty enough for us to blast through the wall," he said. Exi frowned, but complied. He looked into the cell right next to the doctor's and easily tore off the door now that the locks were short-circuiting. Even though he was pretty sure it was solid rock, he raised his hands, preparing to blow the whole thing away.

...

...

"What is that thing?!"

A flash of yellow.

People running away. A pair of soldiers standing at the side as they looked on in surprise and awe. Anger arose as it looked down at them all.

Destroy.

Must destroy.

A deafening roar echoed throughout. The nearest soldier tripped as the other took off after the other people. There was fear in his eyes as he raised his hands in feeble defense.

"Stop right there!"

Across from them stood a woman, long blonde hair flowing in the wind as she glared hatefully with yellow eyes.

"Ch-Charlemagne," the soldier stuttered. She didn't pay attention, focusing on where the destruction was coming from.

Anger.

Another roar directed at the woman. Her gaze didn't waver, as if she weren't afraid at all.

Kill.

A flash of yellow, and everything vanished.

...

"Hurry up and get that hunk of metal out of the way!"

Exi blinked, immediately dropping his hands. It took him a moment to reorientate himself, remembering where he was. Slowly, he turned back towards the other end of the hallway where sparks were seen as the soldiers started cutting through the wall he ripped out.

He looked back to the empty cell, realizing he had yet to break through it. Taking a steady breath, he gazed down at his hands. Why did he...

There was the sound of shuffling, and then the sound of gagging. Exi quickly glanced into the other cell to see Caligari dangling in the air by his throat. Ehna simply grinned darkly as the man struggled to get out of his grasp.

"Y-You little," the doctor rasped out, clawing at the teens arm.

"You didn't think we'd just come in here and let you go on without a care in the world?" the teen said, "Now that you know what we're up to, we can't afford to have you tell anyone. Especially S.T.O.R.M."

The doctor voice continued to choke out as he kicked desperately. Ehna tightening his grip.

"W-Why…"

Ehna started to chuckle darkly, lips curling into a smile, "The Hand of Destiny is gone, and with it, it's secrets. Charlemagne may not have broken you-"

Exi gasped. That was the name of that blonde woman...

"-but believe me. You're going to wish that she had!"

HLP

"Tripwire! Hurry lets go!"

Alpha stood by the exit of the cave, watching as Bravo and X-Ray called their own monsuno back. Tripwire was doing its best to keep anything from falling on the three. The three people from Eklipse must've already bolted, since they hadn't been attacked for a while now. And Alpha wasn't about to wait for a sign.

"C'mon Alpha!" X-Ray shouted. The red-head nodded, and motioned for his monsuno to follow. Tripwire made a noise as they bolted through the hall and out of the collapsing cavern. Rocks continued to fall, the monsuno managing to defend the small group.

"I see the exit!" Alpha said, quickening his pace. As soon as they got out, dust followed them as the remains of the Hand's base collapsed. The three of them coughed as they looked on

"Alpha! Are you there?"

He winced at the voice blaring through his communicator. Still holding onto his core, Alpha held down the button.

"Here. What is it?"

"I just saw the ruins collapse a bit. Are you all okay?"

Alpha glanced around, seeing X-Ray and Bravo a bit disheveled but otherwise fine. He glanced down at Tripwire's core.

"Y-yeah," he said, "What about you and Tango? Is she alright?"

"I think so. I left her with the others-"

Static started to interrupt through the message. Alpha raised a brow, "What do you mean? Where are you right now?"

"Me and Dax are going after Jinja. Someone else is here."

His breath hitched a little. Someone else other then Eklipse was here? But… Who? S.T.O.R.M. captured Dr. Tallis, and Klipse would've wanted to be fighting alongside his group in case Chase showed up...

"Where are you now?" Alpha asked. Before Kilo could respond, and cloud of smoke and fire arose from the middle of the ruins. Roaring was heard as well. Alpha could faintly hear static, which meant his connection cut off.

"What's going on?" Bravo asked. Alpha glanced to the other two, then back to the ruins. Jinja was fighting on her own somewhere, and Kilo went to go help with Dax. But where was Chase? And the other two? Not to mention where those three from Eklipse went. For all they knew, that group was still lurking about. Alpha closed his eyes, trying to work through the situation.

"… Alright," he said, "Bravo, come with me. We're going to go help Jinja. There's a chance that whoever's attacking also came with Eklipse. And if that's the case, the other three we saw are probably going that way too."

"X-Ray, go track down Tango. Kilo said she was with the others, and since he didn't mention Chase, I'm going to assume that's who he meant."

The brown haired teen nodded, and started tapping furiously on one of his smaller tablets he carried with him. Alpha turned to Bravo, who nodded. The two of them hopped on Tripwire and took off towards the sound of the battle.

"Bravo. As soon as you can, spin out Deadfall," Alpha said, staring forward. It would probably be at least another few minutes before the blond could, but there was no telling how strong this foe was. He didn't have any doubts that Jinja could hold her own, but there was always a part of Alpha that wanted everyone to make it out okay. Maybe it was just his natural urge as a leader.

They slid to a halt, nearly falling off the monsuno.

"… What is it Tripwire?" Alpha asked. The beast grunted, and the two hopped off. It took a few cautious steps forward. The two followed, and saw the area nearly leveled out by the fight.

There was a roar, and then a flash that flew by. Alpha and Bravo followed it to see it was Whipper, now struggling to get back up. Alpha looked towards the direction it came from, and saw Charger grappling against someone or something.

"Look!"

He turned back to see Whipper turn into a flash of blue, and immediately flew towards the other side of the wreckage. There was a resounding 'pop!' Without a doubt, it was sent back to its core, which meant-

"Jinja!" Alpha shouted as he ran over, Bravo right behind him. When they got closer to some of the rubble, they saw the red-haired girl struggling to get up from where she laid. The two immediately helped lean her up, noticing how she had a bit of blood spotting her hair that dripped over her brow. She looked around dazed, until her eyes locked onto the two.

"You okay?" Alpha asked.

"… Y-yeah. Was just… Caught off guard..." she slurred a bit. Charger was still fighting furiously, though it looked like it would be summonded back any second now. Alpha was surprised to see it was a person draped in black that was fighting against the monsuno. There was a pause between them, and the person turned towards the group, making the teens tense up. He took one step towards them before Charger attempted another attack. Without a second glance, the person grabbed the monsuno just as it came close and threw it overhead towards the other side of the area. Alpha's eyes widened at the sight, and looked over to see Bravo openly gawking.

The figure turned to them. Alpha felt his stomach turn a little, and quickly called out to his monsuno.

"Tripwire!"

Immediately, the person bolted towards them. Tripwire barely got in front of the group just in time, but was quickly knocked to the side. The monsuno hissed, and charged again. With one punch, it was sent back into yellow sparks. Charger was still struggling to get out of the wreckage of some of the ruins, now panicking as the person eyed the small group of teens.

"… I recognize you," the person said in a raspy voice, "You're the little brat that tried to throw me over the tower."

Alpha raised a brow, and gasped in realization. He had forgotten about the incident in that cavern with the rest of team Core Tech, and moreover, the people who were trying to stop them. Somehow they… had survived?

The large figure rolled his shoulders for a moment before stalking over towards them. Before he could get too close, Bravo stepped in-between.

"… What're you doing?" Alpha whispered, only to get no response. The man stared to chuckle darkly.

"If you really think you can take me on child, then you're mistaken," he said. With one motion, he reached up and pulled the hood from over his face down. Bravo gasped, and Alpha's eyes got even wider. The man's lips curled into a sinister smile, sharp teeth bared.

"If a monsuno couldn't beat me, what makes you think you can?"


A/N: Review Review Review!