Chapter 12

War zone

"Oh, I know fully well how phantom task works. I've been keeping my eyes on every single one of your members. Ralem Agni, you sure do not know how to keep things well hidden." Jessica puts on a fake grin, hiding her fear.

"Or maybe I'm good at torture. I am the reason that you are even here. I have taken control of how you live your life, for a short while. It's quite fun." Ralem smiles.

"I have only given my life to my husband and children!"Jessica rushes forward at blinding speed, pulling out a Khopesh, and a longsword.

"Your Phoenix blades starting things off? I'm flattered you think of me as a threat." he pulls out a long, spiked, black sword, and rushes at her as well.

"I will not allow you to hurt my mother!" Dylan charges towards them with his two knives at the ready.

"Dylan and I just got together, and we hope to be man and wife one day. I will not allow you to take my husband or my soon to be mother in law." Laura calls, shooting out her wire guided daggers.

"L-Laura!" Dylan blushes, but keeps his eyes on Ralem.

"It's okay. You two better be planning to get married, otherwise you won't be lasting long." Jessica slashes at Ralem.

"Does that mean that we have your blessing? " Dylan asks, firing his amp blasters.

"Of course you do, the real challenge will be your father. You know how practical he is." Jess grins, taking out two golden pistols and fires them rapidly.

"How do you think that that would do anything? Your weapons are highly inferior, they are not powerful. They are built to be devastating only in a battle against something like your brothers IS. You are not equipped to handle me." Ralem lets loose a rain of crossbow bolts.

"You will not harm my son!" Jessica flies in front of Dylan and blasts a huge flame ball into the barrage.

"Oh, but of course, Jessica, why would I just harm him, when I could kill all of you?" Ralem fires his crossbows again, pulls out his sword again, and starts charging up an attack, a dark aura starting to surround the blade.

"YOU STAY AWAY FROM MY BABY BOY!" Jessica yells, rapidly firing her pistol.

"No one can protect another person forever! Eventually, that person will break from the pressure. Your shield energy is not infinite!" He rushes towards her, his blade emanating a, now solidified, black aura, lengthening the blade.

Jessica holds up her sword, stops the blade from hitting her, then pulls out her pistol and shoots at Ralem, but they get blocked by his shield energy. "I am the golden Phoenix! I am immortal! I will stand by my family forever, no matter what!" Jessica yells, firing her pistol more.

"Nothing is immortal. Not even your IS. Yes, it has crisis packs, which can bring your shield energy back up to full. However, you only have two of them. And I know where to find them." Ralem smiles wide. "They are more vulnerable than you think. You are not immortal like the Phoenix! You are all going to lose this fight. "

"Not to the likes of you!" Dylan and Laura say in sync. Dylan fires multiple sound waves at Ralem, and Laura lets her wire guided daggers loose. Ralem dodges out of the way of the daggers, but not of the sound waves, blasting him back.

"Laura! I have a plan of what we can do! Mom, I'm going to need your help with this!" Dylan sends a morse code message to them, and it immediately translates.

Laura nods and replies. "I've been your partner for a long time, now that's just correct in more than one way. Let's go!"

Jessica smiles and sends back her own message. "You're my son, I will not allow harm to come to you, and I will support you no matter what. Ready when you are."

"Alright. Mom, distract him, blind him, do whatever, just try to make him dazed, or stop moving." He sends that, Jessica nods and flies forward, and then he starts one for Laura. "Laura, use your daggers and throw him at me. It's time I used Lincoln's little additions."

Laura smiles and then pulls back her wire guided daggers and prepares to aim. "Alright!"

Jessica repeatedly fires her pistol at him, aiming for the legs of his IS. At random intervals, she rushes at him with her blade. He tries to fire back at her, and tries chasing her, but then she starts going too fast to chase. He just starts firing his homing crossbow bolts only for them to be sliced out of the air. Jessica, then, leaves an opening for Laura, who takes her opportunity and lets her daggers loose.

Which is precisely the moment that everything went wrong. Ralem dodged all the daggers, and threw them at Jessica, who gets caught in them. Dylan gets surrounded by an electronic, purple aura. "Jordan's IS was already strong enough, mine could use a bit more melee strength and firepower. So, say hello to the first psuedo Tertiary shift! The vengeance of the Death god Hades!"

"So, Lincoln has been quite busy, I see. You have to be kidding yourself if you think that it can be totally sustained already. He's not the only one working on it, it's been being worked on by us for a while!" Ralem smirks.

"But you do not have the same connections, nor the intellect, that my father and I have. We hated it, but we got a little help on this project from that Shinonono woman." Luke comes out with a notepad, and multiple devices floating around him.

"Even the scientist wishes to enjoy a battle, eh? Your lab not entertaining enough that you wish to put your life on the line? That's fine by me, I was planning to take your life as well!" Ralem grins.

"Our lives are our own. It's simple scientific fact the there is no way for people's lives to be hijacked without the use of complex machinery." Luke looks at him straight in the eyes.

"Your lives are mine! A mere scientist cannot stop me. It took two second shift IS to take me down, what can you do?" Ralem taunts.

"I am more than just a scientist." Luke smiles. "I have that complex machinery." He takes out a rocket launcher with the words 'the crow' on the side, and fires at Ralem. The rocket hits him, but there is no explosion. Instead, a bright green light emanates from the hole in the IS. Ralem's head falls.

Another, robotic, voice speaks from Ralem's mouth as he lifts his head.

"Operation infiltration is successful."