"Let me get this straight," Director Dante said as she stared down at her incompetent, sniveling subordinate. "You're telling me that the Monsters and the new specimen escaped from their confinement, stole several million Euros worth of equipment, including a jet, and took off on said jet to God-knows-where. And nobody could stop them. Is that right?"

Her subordinate, a balding scientist, swallowed fearfully. Only a few minutes ago, he had received a report that the Monsters had taken the new specimen and escaped from the labs. He didn't dare say that it was the Director's orders to put the boy in with the Monsters."Ma'am, I can explain…" He began.

"Oh," She interrupted. "I'd love to hear how you and all the rest of the people at this base are so negligent that they let a bunch of powerless lab rats escape!" The Director then pounded the table, causing her subordinate to flinch.

"That's just it, Ma'am. The Monsters seemed to have miraculously healed from the recent surgeries performed on them. And that's the least of our worries," He said.

As he spoke, he rummaged through his coat pocket until found and pulled out a bag with a bullet inside. Noticing Dante's confused expression, he explained, "According to our databases, this bullet is the same type of bullet that the Cyborg is designed to use. And that isn't the only anomaly either." Reaching into his other pocket, he took out a small tablet. Turning on the screen, he began showing Dante footage of an unconscious brown-haired doctor being connected to an IV tube.

"We found Doctor Tucker unconscious in the alchemical department. He had no discernible injuries on his body, there weren't traces of any incapacitating agents used either. All signs suggest that the vampire used her newly-installed "Stained Gaze" technique to render him unconscious. Not only that, but the werewolf's weapon disappeared from its workstation. I'm sure that you understand where I am going with this."

Dante's eyes widened in realization. "They can use their powers now," she sat back in her chair, wide-eyed.

The bald scientist nodded his head in affirmation. "I'm afraid so. It should have been impossible for them to do such a thing since the panacea formula we gave them was too diluted for them to use their powers."

The director's look of confusion turned into a snarl. "You're right. They'd need a much purer panacea for them to accomplish this. And if they were somehow hiding that much panacea formula, they would have attempted to escape long ago. There could be only one explanation: the new specimen must be able to cure them of their impure panacea! In that case, we must recapture it as soon as possible! We cannot afford for it to continue running around!" She said forcefully and clasped hands, trying to calm herself.

Just then, her eyes widened. She then looked at the bald man with an intense gaze and asked him "Didn't we extract some of the new specimen's blood? Where is it?"

The balding scientist flinched at the glare that was directed at him. Swallowing his saliva, he answered, "It's already being sent to Italy for testing," He then tensed, knowing what he was going to say next would cause his superior to lose what little patience she still had. "We won't be able to contact them while they are transporting it."

While European civilization was still a shadow of its former self ever since the fallout of the Second World War, the efforts of the United Nations had been steadily building civilization back up, brick by brick if they needed to. But this process was intricate, going through even the underground societies of the continent. The Illuminati preferred to stay under the radar, away from the public's view. This unfortunately meant refraining from standard communications devices outside of emergencies.

"Son of a - And if the specimen's blood is the way that it heals, then the Italian base will ask for more samples for testing!" The director complained while putting her hand on her face in defeat. "I'll become the laughing stock of the Illuminati for such a colossal failure!"

The balding scientist looked at his superior in nervousness. He knew that the woman would have his head if he didn't think of something soon. After thinking for a bit, something came to him. The man coughed to catch Dante's attention.

"Ma'am I didn't want to suggest this, but we do have a weapon in testing that could retrieve the experiments. However, it may take a few days to finish the preparations." Said the balding man, scratching the back of his neck.

Dante looked up at the doctor with confusion in her eyes until she realized what "weapon" he was talking about. "I see. However, if I remember correctly, it's very unstable." She breathed in, and, in a commanding voice, ordered "Then send a retrieval team with the weapon, but only use it as a last resort. I want the sample and those Monsters back as soon as possible." She ordered. The bald doctor nodded before going out to make a message to send out a retrieval team as quickly as possible.

When the scientist left the room, Dante allowed herself to slump in her chair, despairing at the thought of her failure. She can only hope the retrieval team and "weapon" would be enough to bring the experiments back to their rightful place.

XXXX

"What the hell?" Millaarc could only mutter out in shock when she saw the same shattered moon that Steven saw in the night sky. She couldn't believe what her eyes were telling her, but when she saw the others, she knew she wasn't hallucinating.

Vanessa had put the plane on autopilot at Steven's question, and looked out the cockpit's window to see the moon for herself. When she saw the moon, she soon adopted a look of shock as well. Hiding her downcast expression with her palm, she wondered aloud, "How did this even happen? What could have reduced the moon to such a state?"

Elsa grabbed her pink hair in shock. With a trembling voice, she could only ask one thing that would make the other two stop cold in their tracks. "H-How long were we inside there, being experimented on by those scientists? How long has it been since we became monsters?"

The three monsters couldn't remember the last time they had looked at a calendar or even a clock. They were frequently unconscious for more than a few days at a time because of the experiments. Without any way to tell the time, they had given up on trying. That was now coming back to haunt them.

"This-This just doesn't make any sense! I was on the moon just a few days ago, and it was just fine!" Steven commented, still staring at the moon in shock.

At Steven's response, the three monsters turned towards the young boy with clear disbelief in their eyes. It was Millaarc who broke the silence with irritation in her eyes. "Here we go with the 'half-alien crap! Don't you dare lie about this! There is no way that you were on the moon! Tell us the truth, now!" She demanded. She clenched her fists tight enough that her sharp nails were beginning to cut into her palms.

Steven's eyes widened at Millaarc's demand. He began waving his arms in front of him in a panic, "I'm not lying! If I was lying, why would I make up something like that!?" he said.

That made Millaarc pause for a moment, knowing that Steven had a point. But before she could give a retort to Steven, Vanessa put her hand on the vampire's shoulders with a calming smile on her face. "Calm down Millaarc, I'm sure that there is a logical explanation for all of this. We just need to listen to Steven's story first."

Millaarc sighed, letting out her frustration with a single breath. When Millaarc seemed to calm down enough, it was Elsa who started the questioning. "Steven, what do you mean you were on the moon a few days ago?" She asked.

This made Steven scratch his cheek with a sheepish look on his face. He started his explanation, "Well, it's a long story, but basically, there were this group of aliens that the Crystal Gems and I called the Ruby Squad. They came to the planet to look for another Gem called Jasper. Amethyst, a friend of mine, had to fake being Jasper to trick them into leaving."

Despite the incredulous looks on the Monster's faces, Steven continued his tale. "They then took us to their moon base so that they could contact their leader. Once there, they found out we were frauds, and I had to open the airlocks to get rid of them. I got grabbed by one of the Rubies and got taken out into space too. Last I remember, I was floating in space, passing out from exhaustion. When I woke up, I was in that cell with you guys."

Elsa put her hand under her chin in thought after receiving the information from Steven and began to mutter to herself. "Assuming that you are telling the truth, how was the Illuminati able to recover you from the clutches of space?"

Steven continued to scratch his cheek, trying to remember anything else, his eyes squinting at remembering one more detail. "I think I remember seeing a green light before I passed out," Steven began to say before pausing again. The boy shook his head while shrugging at his companions. "Sorry," he apologized, "but I gave you everything that I know. I can only say that just a few days ago, the moon was not broken into pieces."

Millaarc just groaned out in frustration at Steven's answer, putting the palm of her hand onto her face. "Great, now we know that we've been Monsters for at least three days," she sarcastically muttered out of her mouth.

While Steven could only give an apologetic look towards the vampire, Vanessa could only sigh to herself in mild disappointment. It might be for the best though,' she thought. 'I don't want to think how much of our lives were stolen from those damn alchemists.'

To take her mind off of the moon, Vanessa decided to distract herself for a bit, and turned back to the plane's controls to check the plane's course.

According to the GPS, the Illuminati's base that served as their prison was in the center of Germany's Black Forest, and the four of them were currently headed west. The plane didn't have enough fuel to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, so the Americas were out of the question. They also couldn't keep the plane, as it would make it too easy for the Illuminati to track them down. The smartest option then was to jump out of the plane at some point and let the autopilot maintain its course until it runs out of fuel. It would then crash somewhere discreet, leading the Illuminati away from them.

With a plan in mind, Vanessa inspected the map, trying to decide where would be the ideal place to leave the plane. She couldn't pick one of mainland Europe's "safer" areas, such as Lisbon, Portugal for example. While it may appear to be a shining beacon that the rest of Europe should strive towards, Vanessa was very aware that the Illuminati had ears in every nook and cranny of nearly every major city. It wouldn't take very long for the four of them to be found and hunted down like prey.

Landing in the United Kingdom would be far better than anywhere else in mainland Europe, but she was worried that the plane would be detected by the country's superb coastguard. The United Kingdom had a very strong policy against interacting with the outside world, so their military shot at anyone suspicious that crossed their borders. Unfortunately, their plane lacked cloaking technology, so they would appear on the United Kingdom's radars and make a confrontation with their military inevitable.

Vanessa put her metal fingers on the bridge of her nose in frustration, pinching it tightly. She closed her eyes shut to focus. 'I should have thought of this while we were in the cell. I was so caught up in the excitement of escaping that I didn't consider what to do after.' Vanessa looked at her three companions through a reflection of the navigation screen, none of them wearing a look of confidence they had after discovering the state of the moon.

The very idea of the three of them wearing looks of distress made her feel like she had a pit where her stomach used to be. Her eyes then narrowed at the night sky in determination. 'No, I can't falter here. They're counting on me to make the right call, so I can't afford to screw this up.'

Vanessa opened her eyes once more and looked at the map once more. She could pick one of the more abandoned cities. While the city was probably picked clean by scavengers a long time ago, the Illuminati's influence there wouldn't be as strong as it would be in a thriving city due to being considered a low priority.

Vanessa looked over France's map, noticing a city that caught her interest. From what she remembered, the city of Rennes in France was mostly abandoned, with only a few stragglers deciding to stay there for the most part. They could pass themselves off as refugees still in the city if they played their cards right.

Making her decision, Vanessa drew a route onto the GPS that the plane's AI will follow until it runs out of fuel. It will do various twists and turns, flying over as many cities as it could before falling into the English Channel.

Nodding her head to herself, Vanessa turned her seat around to face her three companions, who were still trying to process what they saw in the night sky. Giving her best attempt to give a reassuring demeanor, Vanessa smiled at them. "Everyone, as comfortable as this ride is, we'll have to get off soon. Gather up as many supplies as we can."

Her three companions stopped their mulling when they heard Vanessa's proposal. This made Millaarc sigh out in slight disappointment when she heard Vanessa's idea. "Damn, I guess we can't go further than that in this piece of junk, huh?"

Meanwhile, Elsa slightly stiffened up when she heard that they were going to France, her discomfort visible on her face. However, rather than protest the idea, she decided to keep her misgivings to herself.

Noticing Elsa's expression, Steven raised his hand like he was a kid in class. The sight of the boy's enthusiasm made Vannessa chuckle. "Yes, Steven, what is it?" Vannessa asked.

"Why don't we go back to my home in Beach City, America? The people are nice there, with lots of fun things to do there. I'm sure you guys would love it there."

Vannessa could only sigh at Steven's naivety, thinking that they would be accepted by society in their current forms. Whatever life he had in his past didn't prepare him for the reality he was living in now. "I'm sorry, but even if we wanted to live in your city, we can't fly across the ocean with so little fuel in the plane's tanks. That's part of why we must get off in France." After rejecting Steven's offer, Vannessa got up from her chair to begin searching the plane, ignoring Steven's downtrodden face. This prompted the other three to do the same.

The four of them were searching the plane in silence for quite a while before Millaarc decided to break the silence while she was looking through yet another empty cabinet. "What kind of stupid name is 'Beach City'?" She asked Steven with a bemused expression.

Steven gasped at the vampire's question. "Hey, it's not stupid!" He said with a pout. "I think it's a perfect name for it! A nice and simple name is a good thing to call it!"

Elsa, who was walking towards a closed cabinet in the back, decided to get in on the conversation. "Millaarc, I don't think you should be saying anything about terrible city names. Wasn't there a town in Austria named-".

"Shut it. Austria hasn't been calling it by that name for decades, and you know it." Millaarc glared at the werewolf, who only shrugged as she opened the cabinet. Inside, she found a pair of water bottles hidden in the back and tucked them under her arms.

After searching the plane from top to bottom, the four put the meager amount of supplies they found in a small pile. There were the aforementioned water bottles, a pack of gummy worms, three trail mix bars, and a single stick of gum. It was only enough food to last them two days, even if they rationed as much as they can.

Vannessa sighed while putting her face into her palm after seeing how little supplies they have. "I should have expected this. We did take the plane while it was being prepped for take-off after all."

Steven looked up towards Vanessa with a shaky smile. "Well it's better than nothing, isn't it? I'm sure we can get more food when we land anyway!" He tried to dismiss their worries while waving his hand side to side.

Vanessa mumbled into her palm with a groan. "For our sake, you'd better be correct. Otherwise…" She left the implication to hang in the air, silencing her three companions.

She then silently went towards the cockpit to look at the GPS once more. Searching the plane had taken some time, but they still had about a couple of hours left before they arrive at their destination. Turning back to her companions, Vanessa gave a warm smile. "I would recommend you rest as much as you can before we land. It has been a long day, and I think you all deserve some time to recover."

With a nod, the three sat down in their seats to take a short breather the sorely needed. With heavy eyelids, Steven nodded off in his chair.

Xxx

Steven was sleeping peacefully when he felt a cool, metallic hand shaking his shoulder, forcing his eyes to open groggily. He was greeted by the sight of Vanessa smiling down at him.

"Steven," the motherly woman said. "Glad to see you're up, sleepyhead. We need to get going now," Vanessa explained with as calm of a voice as she can.

Steven nodded his head at Vanessa's order, and got up from his seat, yawning as he did so. Turning around, he saw that Millaarc and Elsa were already up, though they were still rubbing their eyes from being woken up so suddenly.

After gathering up their meager supplies, the younger three got off the plane while Vanessa had the plane's Artificial Intelligence begin its drawn course on its own. The plane's propellers were pointing downwards like a helicopter before it began lifting off, with Vanessa jumping out before it got too high.

With the plane's propellers causing their hair to wave haphazardly, the four of them watch as the plane flew upwards into the sky until it became a dot in the night sky. They then saw the speck begin its predestined path away from them, where it soon disappeared from their sight.

When the planes flew out of their sight, it was Steven who broke the silence plaguing them. "So, where do we go now?"

The four of them had landed in a clearing that rested on top of a hill, surrounded by a thick forest. Off in the distance, slightly illuminated by the moonlight, Steven could barely make out the outlines of a city.

With a soft voice, Vanessa gave her order, a smile appeared on her face. "Now we make our way towards the city. We can probably find something that we can use on the way there." Steven thought that her smile looked crooked.

Vanessa started walking towards the trees, signaling the others to follow her lead. "Now come, I saw a road over this way while we were landing."

After what felt like forever, the four of them managed to reach the roadside with only the moonlight guiding them, but they eventually stumbled across a gas station that was next to the roadside.

The building had seen better days in the past, parts of the roof over the store had caved into itself. The store's windows were broken with graffiti covering every inch of any piece of the walls that were still standing. The wooden boards that were covering the windows were a sickly green, rotting away.

"I suppose that it will suit our purposes, even if it could use some… renovating," Elsa commented when she saw the very out-of-shape building.

"You can say that again," Millaarc mumbled out while opening the door, mindful of the broken glass poking out from the frame of the door. The inside of the building wasn't much better than the outside. The shelves that were supposed to contain goods were laying on the ground in pieces, parts of the ceiling had fallen on the ground, and the door to the freezers was missing.

The four of them cleared a section of the store of debris as much as they could. With the shattered moon shining down through a glassless window, the four sat down to rest. That was when Vannessa saw Steven and Elsa clutching their stomachs.

Putting on a smile of concern, Vanessa pulled out one of the trail mix bars. "I think it's time we get something to eat." Vanessa opened the wrapper and broke the bar into four unequal pieces. She gave the two biggest parts to the two younger companions and gave Millaarc the second smallest. That left her with basically a sliver of a bar for herself. "Here, don't eat too quickly, alright?"

Steven and Elsa both looked up at the cyborg uneasily. It was the half-gem who asked the question. "But don't you need to eat too? I can give you some of my food if you want."

But Vanessa just waved it off. "Thanks, but you needn't worry. One of the few good things about my condition is that I don't need to eat as much as you three," She replied with a wink and a smile.

Steven still looked unsure, but he watched as Elsa took her portion of the bar from Vanessa's hand. He reluctantly followed her lead, taking a portion. "Thanks, Vanessa," he said before biting into his bar. It wasn't the best thing he'd ever tasted, but it was still considerably better than the gruel he'd been given by the guards for the past few days.

As Steven savored his part of the trail mix bar as though it were a feast, Millaarc looked outside of the window at the moon falling from the crest of the sky. She then looked at Vanessa, her eyes pleading to her.

Vanessa nodded, then addressed the three of them saying, "Given the circumstances, perhaps it'd be better if we rested here for the night. We've got a long day tomorrow, everyone."

Despite not having anything like a blanket, Steven and Elsa were too tired to complain about the cold tile floor. Within minutes, they fell asleep shivering on the cold floor. As they did, Vanessa gathered two old newspapers she'd found behind the cabinet and laid them over the two youngest members of their quartet as blankets. Then, she turned to Millaarc. "I take it you want to keep watch for tonight," She asked in a whisper.

Millaarc nodded. "Vampire, remember? Sleeping at night isn't as strict a requirement for me." She stood there resolutely, her confidence warring with her tiredness.

In response, Vanessa only smiled warmly. "I appreciate the thought, but it's not as strict a requirement for me either. Feel free to wake me up if you get too tired. We should take shifts tonight."

Vanessa's face shifted to a slightly concerned one. "You know that they wouldn't give us up so easily, right?"

Her question made Millaarc sigh in frustration. "Yeah, I'm not stupid. They're probably tracking us down right now. They spent too much time poking and prodding us to let their damned data go to waste. But now, we can fight fire with fire if we have to. After all, there's no better way to ward off monsters than another monster." Then she waved her hands dismissively at Vanessa. "Now, get some rest."

Vanessa yawned before deciding to sit down in a corner of the bar. "Big sister's proud of you, you know?" She said sleepily.

Millaarc blushed but did not respond. She instead looked out the window, gazing up at the broken moon, wondering what tomorrow would bring.

XXXX

Ogawa was busy at work inside his hotel room, busy getting the necessary documents to get the fastest plane he could get on short notice. Tsubasa and Maria were needed at S.O.N.G. headquarters as soon as they could be. He still couldn't believe that the Noise had managed to return to reality, but he assumed that he'd get some answers once they returned to Japan.

While he was rubbing his tired eyes, his phone began ringing. That was odd. He only ever used his phone to browse the internet or to order food. He didn't even have any contacts. He only ever used his official communicator to talk to headquarters.

Beginning to have suspicions, he reluctantly picked up his phone and swiped on the accept call button to see who called him. "Hello, this is Shinji Ogawa speaking."

"This is Dominic Matthews, an agent of the Secret Intelligence Service," a smooth, English-speaking voice with a British accent came out of the other end. That got Ogawa's attention. That would explain how they got his information. Looking out the hotel's windows into the night sky, he let Matthews continue.

"Is this about the incident at the concert? I assure you that the S.O.N.G. agents stationed here in London will head back to Japan to plan our next course of action," Ogawa asked in English as courteously as he could.

"To be blunt, we were not sure this is related to your incident, but it has been decided that it would be for the best if we made you aware of what we had found a few short hours ago. It would be best to not talk over the phone about this, so could you come to the Royal Docks as soon as you could?" Matthews asked.

Ogawa considered his options in his head. He then nodded his head to himself. "I should be able to arrive in about thirty minutes. Shinji Ogawa out." He hung up on the call and gave a short text to Tsubasa telling her where he was going.

Pocketing his phone, Ogawa opened the window, and then jumped out of the hotel room onto another roof, and began making his way to the Royal Docks.

XXXX

After authorizing his identity with the guard in front, Ogawa was instructed to wait for a United Nations agent to collect him. After a few minutes, an agent arrived. After exchanging identification papers once more, Ogawa was led towards a boating warehouse, surrounded by agents.

After getting the authorization to go inside, a shorter man with his hair cut short came up to him. "I assume you must be Mr. Ogawa. I am Domonic Matthews. It's a pleasure to have you here." The man straightened his crisp suit. "Now I assume you have a lot of questions on why you were called here, so I'll cut to the chase. Follow me, would you?"

Ogawa nodded his head towards the man and followed him across the boathouse. When they reached their destination, Ogawa's eyes widened when he saw the remains of a helicopter-plane hybrid floating in the landing bay. "Where did you find this?"

Matthews looked up at Ogawa in bemusement. "We had detected something coming from France a few hours before the attack at the concert. We spent several hours searching for it, so close to giving up for the day. That was when the attack made us redouble our efforts in locating the vehicle. We theorized that this was used for the spies to infiltrate England, but we wanted to get a second opinion on this matter."

While he was by no means an expert on mechanical engineering, Ogawa could still tell that this plane was in bad shape. Just stepping on it the wrong way could damage any evidence it could have on it.

"I feel that it would be best if we have professional engineers investigate and repair the plane. If this is really how the enemy got into the country, then it could reveal their headquarters," Ogawa decided, knowing that he will have to call in some agents to keep watch over the plane.

Matthews nodded his head while snapping his fingers. Soon, another MI6 agent came up to him, holding a tablet and stylus. On it was some official documents. Ogawa read over them. On it was an offer to collaborate with MI6 in investigating this incident.

Matthews said. "Let's cut to the chase, Mr. Ogawa: I would like S.O.N.G.'s help investigating this plane. It's entirely possible that tonight's attack an assault on both your Symphogear and my country's national security. If we combine our efforts, we might be able to discover the mastermind behind all of this," Matthews said. "What do you say?"

Ogawa nodded, signed the forms, and then looked up at the British officer. "On behalf of S.O.N.G., I accept your offer of cooperation," he said resolutely. After all, there was no downside he could see to cooperating with the British government.