Pitch black storm clouds of smoke billowed from the high-rise building in Tera Con Alpha's town square down in Area E-351. Discolored flames licked at the shattered holes in the sides and appeared to be breaking the structure down even further. Drones flew overhead and aimed at the flames with devices of their own, shooting out projectiles meant to douse the fires. It didn't last long as they were suddenly thrashed at and knocked from the air by draconic apparitions resembling snakes made of shadow. The downed drones along with those apparitions even crashed onto the pavement below in the vicinity of observing civilians, knocking them off their feet with fright.

"This is bad!" cried out one ground soldier on the scene. Another yelled, "Where's Crimson Light?" Even a third got in on the franticness, "We can't cope! We're doomed!"

"Remain calm, you guys," HUE spoke over the monitor he was operating, making sure to relay his communications to all outside units on the ground. "We are almost there."

"Chookity," Mooncake chimed in from behind HUE.

The red spaceship hovered high above the ground, halfway up the height of the burning building. "There are many people on the 58th floor," HUE reported, turning to face the pilots Gary, Quinn, and Little Cato, whom he stood behind, "It seems to be the center of the Tenebric blaze."

Gary didn't turn his attention anywhere else but stayed focused on the blazing site in front of him. He pressed a button on his controls to activate ship communications. "Fox! Tribore! Get ready to head out there in your anti-Tenebrus gear. Mech suit up!"

Another separate voice cut into Gary's comms. "I can mech suit up too, Gary!"

"No, KVN!" Gary slammed a fist on the comms button. "Shut up and stay in the closet!" Breathing a little to calm down, he turned his attention to Quinn at his side. "Quinn, you go help the guys out from the sky while they're on the ground. You got 'em?"

Quinn got off her pilot seat and turned to leave the bridge, though not before placing a hand on Gary's shoulder. "You know it. How can they mess up when I'm there?"

Gary only gave a sly look in return. "Oh, you know how," he purred. Quinn rolled her eyes and left for the airlock to join Fox and Tribore. Gary then turned upwards to address AVA. "AVA! Launch Fox, Tribore, and Quinn as soon as we're in range!"

"Preparing to launch," AVA's voice answered over the ship's intercom. Meanwhile at the airlock, Fox and Tribore were in their mech suits, which looked like average person-sized exoskeletons, standing poised for the bay door to open. Close by, Quinn was secured inside the cockpit of a small craft, a Hawk unit gifted to the Crimson Light by the Infinity Guard itself. The main ship got closer and closer until… "Launching in 3, 2, 1…" the hatch opened, shooting out Fox first. Shortly after, Tribore followed. Both continued to streak towards the flame-covered building, and as they got really close, another shadowy serpent apparition burst from the wreck to attack. It never got a chance to, as Fox swung one arm of his mech suit to deliver an anti-matter punch, obliterating the apparition. Fox and Tribore smashed through the windows and skidded to a stop after a series of dive rolls, entering an inferno of flaming desks and computers.

"Fox is on the scene!" Fox ham-handedly announced. "Got a ton of Tenebrus flares in here!" He initially began pummeling at the attacking apparitions with enthusiasm before quickly noticing he was already starting to get swamped. "Gonna take 'em all down with just two arms AND I DO NOT SEE TRIBORE GIVING ME A HAND!"

"Did somebody say Tribore?" The six-eyed alien charged his way through a flaming pile of wrecked furniture, knocking it away like a bowling ball to pins. He lifted up both arms of his exoskeleton to fire anti-matter beams from attached dual blasters at the swarming apparitions, clearing the area for Fox. He took notice of Fox looking at him. "There. Do you need to thank me? No, you don't." He gave a little pose, a hand on the hip and the other held up in front as a stop-signal while aforementioned hip was arched outward to one side.

"Uh, no. I actually wasn't," Fox complained. "You were supposed to cover me as soon as we got in here!"

"I was busy with some Tenebrus flares of my own," Tribore retorted. "Be grateful I gave you both my hands instead of the one you asked."

"Guys, don't! Not the time!" came Quinn's voice over both aliens' communications. Quinn was already piloting her Hawk just outside the building. "Fox, where are those civilians?"

Fox looked around, checking the area with the sensors on his mech suit. "Up ahead!" he reported, eyeing a pair of sealed twin doors meters from where he stood. Without another wasted second, he sprinted for the doors as fast as his weighty mech suit could allow him, giving out a long war cry. As he did that, Tribore aimed his twin anti-matter blasters in another direction where more snakelike Tenebrus flares were zeroing in to attack. He fired rapidly, taking them out before they could reach either him or Fox. Fox finally reached the sealed doors, using pincers on one arm of his mech suit to pry them open, revealing the frightened civilians huddled together inside. "They're all okay." Both Fox and Tribore got to ushering the people out through the cleared path in single file.

"Everyone out." Tribore said reassuringly. "Should you remain calm? Yes, you should." Though he couldn't help but nudge a few by the back with one of his mech suit hands. This earned him a few uncomfortable looks from them. The crunching sounds of the ceiling above prompted everyone to look up to see signs of an imminent collapse, causing the civilians to panic.

"I got it!" Fox rushed over and used the arms of his mech suit to hold up the collapsing ceiling. He then deployed a little device that projected a holographic bubble that floated in front of the civilians. "Everyone hop in while we're clear!" He waited as one half of the group jumped into the protective bubble, the space being big enough for the whole group. Tribore was doing the same thing with the other half of the group. Once every single one of them was onboard, both Fox and Tribore tethered the bubbles to themselves and ran for the outside again, smashing through another set of windows and climbing down the wall with precise scaling.

At the same time, Quinn was flying past them, upward and higher as she scanned for more people in need of rescue. She heard Gary's voice on her comms. "Ship's up at the halfway point, waiting on Fox and Tribore to pick 'em up! Quinn, how's it going?"

"The 58th floor rescue's all good! They're moving now!" Quinn then turned her attention back to the Hawk's controls, continuing her rapid ascent up the building. She read the projected data on the glass of the cockpit as picked up by the scanners. "There are people on the roof too! I'm moving in!" She directed the Hawk to move forward to the smoke-covered rooftop to make another rescue, but found herself blocked by irregular streams of void-like energy lashing out from the plumes. "Dang it!" Quinn held tight on the controls, "Tenebrus sparks! I can't get any closer! I need assistance!"

Back in the ship, Gary listened to everything Quinn had just said over the comms. He turned to Little Cato next to him. "Sounds like Quinn's in a bit of a jam. Also those people she mentioned…must be a mass Tenebrus-trapped people jam."

Little Cato arched an eyebrow cheekily, "Guess that means she needs us to spread out." Gary returned the look. Both nodded at each other and left their seats, though not before Gary told AVA to operate the ship while they were going out.

By the time both the human and Ventrexian made it to the airlock, they had just finished doing a complex buddy handshake coupled by a few impromptu dance moves. "Aw yeah! Finally time for action!" Little Cato cheered as he and Gary got into their mech suits; the mech suit Gary was in had a slightly bulky metallic-colored pack on its back. "Sets my warrior soul ablaze! Blazes of glory, right Thunder Bandit?"

"Oh, you can say that again, Spider Cat!" said Gary with a competitively higher level of enthusiasm. "Between us, one's on fire while the other's in flames! Who's it gonna be?"

"I can help decide who if you're not planning on heading out now," came an interruption from AVA. That made the two hurry up in their mech suits faster, though not without one of them muttering 'Geez, AVA.' AVA remarked, "I heard that."

"Guys, now's not the time to mess around!" Quinn spoke to them over the comms again. "AVA, can you get them to floor 108?"

"I'll bring them in as close as I can. I won't be able to get right to the 108th floor due to the Tenebrus sparks. Gary, Little Cato, you will need to perform a jettison maneuver from a few floors below the 108th."

"Well, looks like we don't have a choice," Gary concluded. He looked at Little Cato again. "Race you to the top?"

Little Cato grinned. "Loser has to –…"

The airlock suddenly opened, sending both Little Cato and Gary shooting out the ship and up the side of the building, the wind blowing away at their hair and faces – eyelids, cheeks, and lips combined. They zoomed up past Fox and Tribore and then stopped in midair just at the same level where Quinn was, just right over the courtyard-sized promenade deck on floor 108. Their ascent slowed down and then proceeded to fall right down to the deck at a faster speed, slamming onto the flooring with a crunch. Gary ended up landing flat on his face, the entire front of his mech suit touching facedown. On the other hand, Little Cato managed to land on both his mech suit's hands and feet, his back slightly arched upwards.

The civilians standing before them just gaped for a moment. "Is that guy okay?" one of them asked warily, pointing to Gary who was still faceplanted on the flooring. The question was immediately answered as Gary jumped back onto his feet, pushing off the surface with both his mech suit hands with a flash of power and speed to do so.

"And another great smash landing from Gary Goodspeed!" he proclaimed. Little Cato merely shook his head and rolled his eyes with lighthearted sarcasm. Gary continued, "Alright, everyone come this way! We're getting you all to safety!"

"Guys, do something about the smoke!" Quinn called. "It's still making Tenebrus sparks! I can't get closer while it's still there!"

"On it," Gary responded first, activating the device attached to his mech suit's pack. Said device emitted a widespread domelike field of strong wind that blew away the smoke, dispelling the means for Tenebrus sparks to generate while allowing complete visibility. Quinn landed her Hawk and opened the back bay door, allowing for the civilians to walk in in an orderly manner.

"Okay, everyone inside," Little Cato ushered to the people walking into the Hawk, securing themselves comfortably in the bay of the shuttle. "You're all safe now." As he watched them file on in, he decided to patch his comm privately to HUE. "Hey HUE, did you see which one of us landed first?"

"I did," HUE answered, "but do you want the pleasant answer or the honest one?"

Little Cato groaned, "Aw come on, seriously? No fair…" He looked at Gary, who didn't notice the Ventrexian's stare due to the concentration he held at the very moment while helping the civilians into the Hawk.

Neither of them were aware that the Crimson Light ship's scanners were picking up intense anomalous readings from the next several floors above the deck floor. HUE called out, "Gary, Little Cato, behind you."

"Huh?" the human and Ventrexian said simultaneously before turning around to look up at the top.

"I'm detecting multiple strong Tenebrus signals coming from the floors above," HUE informed them, "The pulses of dark energy present are converging, making them even stronger." Gary wasted no time in activating his power pack again, blowing away the smoke obscuring whatever was above them.

Above was a roaring wall of pulsing, living dark energy, appearing in all its void-like nebulous glory. In front of it stood three tall figures clad in threatening armor.

They all looked angular and threatening, with features that made them resemble creatures one would see in a bad dream or in artwork for a dualist religion, mostly looking draconian. They were all consistently black, but they were separated by lines of different colors running down the grooves. One was thin and had lines of teal running on their armor. Another was large with a bulky muscular figure and had turquoise lines. The third appeared to be of a medium build with a little curvature and was decorated with magenta lines.

The teal one used streams of dark energy to create a motorcycle resembling a Motocross and then hopped on. The turquoise one did the same thing to create a four-wheeled all-terrain vehicle. The magenta one, who happened to stand between the turquoise and teal figures, directed the dark energy to web up into the shape of an extravagant-sized chair, reminiscent of an overlord's throne, and then dropped down on it, sitting with one leg crossed over the other and resting their head on one hand in a condescending slouch.

Everyone in the Crimson Light was collectively taken aback, with most bar HUE, AVA, and KVN gasping simultaneously as they quickly came to realize who exactly was there right now.