Chapter 9 - Banshee Nest PT 2

Later, after they had successfully recruited IF into the party, they began to venture deep into the Monster Cave, with IF having brought out a torchlight for lighting. With the newest addition to their ranks, the two energetic girls of the group walked in front with their armour still on, talking like the girls they were like they were instead of keeping their guard up. While Nico would have reminded them of the situation they were in, he couldn't fault them for trying to find some form of normalcy here. It was what kept them happy, and he liked seeing them smile. It was much better than seeing them sad, he would readily admit that to himself.

Not sure if he would say it out loud after all.

"Say, how did you come to meet those two anyways?" IF asked while she walked beside him, eyeing him curiously. She had figured that he was the one who supplied those two with the armour and weapons they possessed, but was curious on the 'why' more so than the 'how' currently, although she was curious about a lot of things about him. Out of all the Spec-Ops agents she had heard of, Nico codename DEATHSTROKE was the least known amongst them, very reclusive and stuck to solo missions. There was a time when he had done group operations before, but usually they were because he had little options in the matter. "It's hard to imagine those two constantly fighting on the front lines, I mean, look at them. They're taking this like an everyday walk in the park."

The male regarded the brunette, wondering what to tell her. She had just happened them and he didn't know much about her. Usually his instincts told him to be tight-lipped about such matters, as more than a few times he had spilled the beans to some people, only for them to do something sinister and betray others in the end. It wasn't an uncommon practice, Guild Agents betraying and killing each other off while saying that monsters had killed them instead. It was always a power struggle with them, wanting fame and fortune from the Guild and recognition by the CPUs. It was why he hardly associated with anyone other than a select few.

Glancing at the girls ahead of them, Nico made a choice, before looking back to her as he replied. "Me and Compa go way back when. She and I first met when I was 11, and a first she was shy and timid around me, but eventually I got her to warm up to me. Now, we're really close with each other." He explained to her, remembering how he had met the girl for the first time. 'She'd been so shy back then, hiding behind the leg of her grandfather when I was first brought to her household.' He mused mentally, chuckling mildly at the memories in his head.

"As for Neptune, well… when I first saw her she looked like a human Excalibur kissing the ground, literally." He began, recalling how he and Compa found the amnesiac buried head first into the ground. "We got her out, treated her, and by the time I arrived back to check in on them, I saw Compa giving Neptune some…" he had to clear his throat at the awkwardness that those memories brought back, "bandage care, though it looked more like… something else."

At the tone, he used at the end, IF raised a brow in surprise, before looking at Compa warily. "Sounds like a colourful group of people there. Though I'm not sure what I should feel with that last bit…" deciding to not think about it, IF shook her head and moved on. "Well, you brought them here, so they're your responsibility." She told him firmly, getting an equally form nod from him.

"Hey uh guys, I was just wondering…" the sound of Neptune's voice broke them out of their conversation, as they turned to her to see that she was regarding Nico curiously, her head tilted with an index finger on her jaw. "I get that we have to find the queen and all, take out the leader of the mob and the rest are easy Pickens, basic gaming 101. But wouldn't it be helpful if we knew what it would look like?"

After she asked that, there was a short silence as they contemplated the question. Finally, IF hummed to herself. "Huh… not a bad question, Nep, which is surprising coming from you." She remarked thoughtfully while cupping her chin and looking down, deep in thought.

"Heeeeey, there was an insult there, wasn't it? don't try to hide it, lord Nep-Nep has her eye on you!"

"Huh? Did you say something, Nep?"

"Grrr!"

Nico watched the teasing that IF was giving Neptune and her responses to it with an amused twinkle in his eyes. It looked like IF was getting along well with them already, and that made her a decent person in his books. Neptune and Compa were the epitome of innocence in his mind, so those who wished them harm were nothing but scum to him. He was happy that IF wasn't like those people, that his instincts about her paid off.

Neptune was pouting deeply at the brunette who was smirking back at her, a complete opposite reaction to her words. But then, she noticed something that stopped her pouting in its tracks, changing her expression to one of curiosity and confusion, plus a little dosage of surprise. "Hold on a sec." she hummed in thought as her brain tried to process the words IF had said to her, and after a few seconds it hit her. "I just noticed this now, but… is Nep, me?"

The brunette rolled her eyes, while Nico merely covered his smirk with his hand while stifling his chuckles. 'About time you noticed, girl. A little slow on the uptake there, Neptune…' he thought to himself, finding her 'slow-on-the-uptake' quirk to be quite humorous. Nico didn't know why but something told him that he wasn't the only one who thought that. (Looking at you Neptune fans.)

"You call me Iffy, so why not? Anyways, your right that we would need an idea of what this thing looks like, but even more so we need a plan for how we're going to fight it." IF told her, before switching her gaze to their sole male member who was already searching through his Void Storage through a Holographic screen. "Something tells me you have an idea of how to proceed though."

After finding what he wanted in his Void Storage, Nico looked up and smirked at them. "Why yes I do. I like to be prepared for any situation when going on Quests like these. Banshees don't like fire or light, so I brought some flares and various materials to make fiery bombs. We can use them to trap and weaken the Queen enough for a few of your Demon Flames spells to finish it off. If that doesn't work we always have the old-fashioned way." To further empathise his plan, Nico raised a hand to his face and deployed one of his Plasma Claws. The glow of his weapon illuminated his Mask, with his sole eye set into a firm stare which pronounced an intimidating appearance.

The girls shuddered at the sight, but more important than that, they felt their fears of the Banshee Queen melt away slightly, knowing that they had a plan for dealing with it. "Alright that solves one problem," IF noted down verbally. While this was happening, they had reached a large chamber deep within the Dungeon. This Chamber was darker than the other tunnels, which made vision difficult. Several scents whiffed into Nico's Nostrils, scents that quickly put him on high alert. "The next issue is what the hell this thing looks like. Hey Nico, what are you doing?"

After finishing her second query, IF had noticed the male manipulating his Bracer. The male answered while also pulling an item out of his Void Storage, holding his hand out as the item manifested into it. When the item fully manifested, the brown-haired Guild Agent quickly realised what it was, but before she could speak Nico beat her to it. "A Sonic Grenade, meant to make an explosion of sound, nothing that affects humans but it's extremely lethal to those with enhanced hearing." He explained, internally adding 'good thing my armour protects my ears from these things, had to make mods to it when I first tried these out.'

"The Banshee Queen won't be affected as it has special coating over its ears to protect it but this isn't for her, this is for her royal Guard."

Pulling the pin, Nico quickly threw into the centre of the chamber, as well as pulled out what looked like a flashbang and threw that in for good measure. The two handheld grenades exploded, a mix of sound and light encasing the entire rom. The flashbang seemed to act as a flare, giving them enough light to see where they were going. While the Banshee Queen would be weak to light it was also able to hide away in time having used the Hivemind to get info ahead of time. The royal guards who protect her though weren't so lucky.

Screeches and shrieks filled their ears as several creatures dropped down from the ceiling, hissing and screaming in agony while motioning like they were covering their ears. Thanks to the light they could see that the creatures looked like Banshees, only they had long tails that had ended in blade-like Tipp, their arms were encased in chitinous armour, along with their heads. Their wings didn't have the scattered facial features that their brethren had, but they did have portable mouths still.

"Be wary guys!" Nico yelled as he deployed his Plasma Claws, getting into a combat stance. "Even disoriented, these guys are a heckova lot stronger than the Banshee Warriors that we faced earlier!" he told them while the creatures, numbering at 5, regained their bearings and growled.

IF looked at Nico and asked. "Why do these guys look slightly different from the others? They look tougher than the average ones." She pointed towards them, or to be more specific, the slight differences in their appearances.

As a Spec Ops Agent, Nico had an answer on standby. "They're called B. Banshees. B stands for Beta, which is just below the rank of Alpha which belongs to the Queen!" the male snorted as he said this like it was venom. "It's their hierarchy, the Queen's the Alpha and the rest are like Betas."

They couldn't talk further, for the Beta Banshees all attacked them at once. The party was forced to scatter, 2 going after Nico since he was the one that had forced them out of hiding and the rest going after the girls, 1 each. Nico parried the claws of one Banshee and ducked under the Tail swipe of another he swung his claws in fast swipes, trying to get a hit on them but they both expertly blocked and evaded his attacks, countering with their own.

Fighting these Beta Banshees was like fighting expert martial artists, they excelled at close combat and were efficient at dealing with prey with their claws. Their tails were also extremely deadly, for they could use them as stingers to inject fertilised embryos into their prey when they were defeated. They were far superior to their lesser Banshee counterparts, who may have similar combat styles, but these guys had the advantage of Tails, they didn't.

IF flipped back to avoid a claw swipe, landing in a one-handed kneeling position while sliding to a halt. She swiftly switched out her free hand's weapon, her Qatar sliding back into her Sleeves while a pistol slid out into her hand. She began firing at the enemy in their faces, which was difficult thanks to their armoured heads. Fortunately, her opponent made a mistake an ended up getting a couple shots in some of its many eyes, electing furious screeches from them as they flew at her from an angle.

To counter, IF got into a one-handed handstand, pushing herself with great strength into the air to avoid a claw that would have stabbed her from the head downwards. The claw harmlessly stabbed into the ground, and IF quickly fired on its wings a few times, before coming down in a continuous flip and slamming both her feet into its head. She then bounced of fit, flipping once before her landing, which lasted only for a second while she charged forth, intent to cut its head off with her remaining Qatar. However, the creature curled its wings in front of it, blocking her strike much to her chagrin.

After it forced her back by pushing its wings outward with a shriek, IF saw its wings beginning to bubble, a clear indication that it was about to fire something. It was only for a millisecond though before she found herself having to flip about erratically, trusting her instincts like they were her lifeline as she avoided a barrage of Shards from them. When the barrage ended, IF looked herself over and found several scratches and minor injuries over her person, some of them going through her coat, top and shorts. "Tch, a tenacious bastard, aren't you?" she remarked with a small smirk, before switching her Pistol for her other Qatar as she charged again.

Going to Neptune, she and Comp had the bright idea to team up, Neptune keeping them away from Compa by attacking them both with her Armblades while the Nurse-In-Training kept them at bay. The purplette in armour panted heavily as her arms hung at her sides. "Phew, these cool blades take some getting used to…" she mused, looking down at the Armblades, more specifically the plasma edge and talons. "Still feels cool though. I feel like that black-haired swordsman who-"

"Nep-Nep above you!"

Her monologing was stopped when an alert from her friend made her look up and cross her Armblades together, like an X. This allowed her to block an overhead claw slash from a B. Banshee while the other tried to whack her with its Tail. However, she sidestepped it and allowed her first enemy to fall to the ground, clashing with her second enemy while the first was hit many times from Compa's forearm mounted Armcannons.

Neptune and the B. Banshee swiftly exchanged blows, the creature mixing its Tail into its attacks while the preteen amnesiac parried and slashes with her Armblades. "Take that! And that! And that! Hah! She exclaimed, making battle sounds during each slash. "Oh, didn't see this coming!" Neptune the ducked under one swing and tripped the B. Banshee up, and before it could stabilise itself with its wings Neptune swiftly kicked it away, the enemy rolling across the ground.

Spinning around, she saw that the first B. Banshee had gotten closer to Compa despite her launching an endless volley of Plasma Needles at it. Not wanting it to get to close to her friend, Neptune charged in from behind. "Hey, ya big bully!" she yelled, getting its attention a she jumped and aimed a flying kick at its head. "Dynamic entry!" her attack hit the side of its head, sending it tumbling sideways away from the Nurse-In-Training, who could only sweat drop with a weak smile.

"Thanks, and all, Nep-Nep… but did you have to reference that guy in green with bushy eyebrows?"

Back to Nico, the male rolled his eyes at the references Neptune was making. 'Even in combat Neptune likes to make references and memes. Well, makes her an interesting person to fight with, at least…' he thought while blocking a slash to his head. He then pushed the B. Banshee back and jumping into the air. Its partner jumped at him as well, intending to cleave him in too had Nico not spun into a roundhouse kick, hitting it in the side of the head and sending it crashing to the ground.

The B. Banshee below quickly spread its wings intending to fire Spikes at him, however Nico acted first, swan diving down at it and raising his right Plasma Claw. Bringing it down, he managed to cut through both its right wing and its arm, the sounds of its screeches being his company as he deactivated his right Plasma Claw, slamming it into the ground and pushing into the air again, allowing him to flip into an upright position before landing once again.

Turning to see his Handiwork, Nico grinned as he saw the wounds he'd made on the B. Banshee, wounds that had already burned and closed, keeping any possibility of healing from happening. He wasn't sure if these guys had healing or not, these creatures always had unexpected mutations that threw off the Guild Researchers, but that wasn't important right now as he reared his left Plasma Claw back and charged, going in low while dragging his weapon through the ground, making sparks fly as he generated a powerful energy charge from his actions.

When he was close enough, the male raised his Plasma Claw for an upward swipe before the B. Banshee could recover, slicing it right up the middle. The creature gave one last dying shriek, alerting its brethren of its demise as it fell to the ground, dissipating into Particles. Its partner shrieked in anger, its Tail swaying wildly in response to its anger at him for killing its sister.

Nico turned to face it once again, his mouth smirking behind the Mask of his armour. "Alright, next?" he asked, making the 'come here' gesture with one finger. The B. Banshee shrieked, taking the challenge as it ran towards him, making slight stomping sounds as it ran at him with the ferocity of a berserk Ravager. And yeah, those were a thing at least in THIS Gamindustri. Not so sure about the Cannon Gamindustri or the other Fanfiction made ones.

The male charged back as well, activating his right Plasma Claw to go along with his left. The two met in the middle, colliding in a furious bout of claw swipes. Each was blocked, dodged or parried at a speed that surpassed that of the battles the girls were having. Raising a claw to diagonally block a strike to his shoulder, Nico thrusted a claw to its chest that it swiped to the side, the male using the momentum to spin into a knee to its abdomen. It responded by doing the same as him, using its Tail which had the same reach as his leg, the two colliding with a mighty shockwave released into the air.

Breaking off, the B. Banshee fired many Spikes from its wings, making him jump into the air. It flared its wings and took off after him, soon parrying several claw swipes from the male before using its Tail to swipe at his stomach. Nico however, twisted his leg like it was a wheel in front of him, hooking it around the Tail as it neared him, before flipping forwards and flinging it down to the ground.

His chance presented itself and Nico quickly activated one of his Skills. "PHANTOM BLADES!" he spread his arms out, and the magic circle appeared, launching the Phantom blades at the B. Banshee while it was down. The creature tried to move out the way, but dodged all but the last one which impaled one of its wings, exploding and taking the wing with it. the B. Banshee shrieked in pain at the loss of its wing, slowly getting up and gripping the stump to try and lessen the pain somehow. Though it was a wasted effort.

With his landing where the enemy once lay, Nico pivoted around to charge at the enemy, his Plasma Claws poised to strike. The B. Banshee noticed him just in the nick of time, and quickly parried both of his attacks, the two trading blows faster than the eye could see. The male was slightly impressed at this. 'Heh, I must admit, if this thing can fight like this even with the loss of a wing, then it must have received 'that' from the Queen.' He thought to himself. 'However...'

"Your wide open!" Nico suddenly launched a scissor kick out of nowhere, ending up hitting it in its mouth which sent it back a few steps. Nico then followed up with another Skill, a Magic circle appeared under his feet, which began to pulse with a faint purple aura. His eye narrowed into a deadly stare. "You like to have fangs, right? Well, how about these then?! PHANTOM WAVE!"

With the calling of his Skill, Nico made a kick in a diagonal angle like kicking a football, and from it a large crescent wave of plasma energy was unleashed from his foot. Faintly one could see the silhouette of a Shark bouncing out from its hiding place behind him into a large open mouth lunge. The attack hit the B. Banshee head on, making it shriek in agony as it was ripped apart from the attack.

Lowering his leg as the skill ended, the Magic Circle vanishing, Nico chuckled darkly while he turned away from what remained of the creature as it vanished. "Heh, the fangs of a monster outmatch anything else." He remarked while flicking his arms downward to disengage his Plasma Claws.

"That's a… unique one liner, Nicky." The sound of Neptune's voice with the teasing undertone made Nico look up, seeing that the girls had come over to him having dealt with their enemies already. "You think that one up all by yourself?"

The male shook his head while chuckling behind his Mask. They couldn't see it, but he was impressed with them. "Meh. Anyways, good job fighting those things, shows that you've all got the skill to fight things matching a Spec-Ops Agent. However," his eyes narrowed when a rumbling sound came from below them. He knew what was coming, this had only been a part of the hell they were experiencing. "It's far from over yet, the main guest is going to arrive soon."


Ever had the feeling that you would meet something worse than one's worse nightmares could create? Well, that was the feeling that the girls were getting right now. The Banshees alone were scary enough, enough to give even experienced war veterans nightmares for days on end, but what they were feeling right now coming from, what they attributed to the Banshee Queen itself as it began heading towards them from… somewhere, made that terror seem as small and mild as an ant in comparison.

"Um, is it just me or does the air feel colder for some reason?" Neptune asked with a shudder, fear and panic slowly rising within the deepest pits of her stomach… and those were deep pits in themselves, so if she could feel it from down there then it must be serious. "Cause I'mma getting the hibbejibbees…"

Compa shook her head in denial, shaking her head as she clenched her fists. She needed more comfort than that so she gripped her forearms instead, trying to find solace in the armour that was fitted around her frame. "I-I-it's not just y-y-y-y-you, Nep-Nep…" she stuttered with a similar shudder. "I-I-I-I feel it, t-t-t-t-too…"

Shaking her head at the two, IF focused on her surroundings. "Keep on guard everyone," she yelled to the group, all of them save for Nico going back to back. The male wasn't worried right now, since he'd faced foes much tougher than this. "We don't know what will happen once your highness comes over, so be prepared!"

In that moment, a hand burst out the ground. The flare that Nico had launched earlier was beginning to wear off, so he took another one and threw it into the air, reigniting their light. The second afterwards another hand burst out as they slammed into the ground, digging into it as they pulled the rest of the new arrival out of the earth, revealing its form to them all.

"Oh… My… Neps…"

"Holy Goddesses…"

"Now that's… a big bug…"

Neptune, Compa and IF all made their comments in that order once they faced their new enemy as it shook off the dirt from its body before it glowered at them. If they thought the Banshees from before were ugly, then this thing looked like an abomination. It stood at 12 feet tall, with a pair of long, bipedal legs that matched the appearance of the Banshees earlier, only they were slimmer and more… feminine. Its main body was reminiscent of a humanoid, but with a skeletal appearance. Scary thing was, that its chest was decorated with many deformed faces, all frozen in screams of agony and varying in size.

The arms were thin and weak-looking, but they all knew it was nothing but a mask to hide how much of a wallop they would pack. Especially with the Banshees they have already fought. The hands were just, hands, matching the arms in appearance, but with short-sword length talons. Out of its back were, unlike the regular Banshees, a pair of tattered wings that had multiple wing talons with opposable thumbs. The top half of their webbing was black like most of its body, but closer to the bottom specs of purple can be seen. Out the base of the spine was a long tail that looked like the extension of the human spinal column, ending in a long blade-like stinger. Finally, its head was reminiscent of the regular Banshees, but with 4 antennae coming out the top of its head and a full twisted chitinous crest.

"Okay, that's… a monster." IF commented, she'd never fought something like this before. Usually the monster she'd face weren't all that threatening, heck she would be the first to say that they looked more adorable than threatening… plus their weirdness discounted any fear they might have generated with their reputation. But this, THIS looked like a real freaking monster. Was this what Spec Ops agents went through daily? Challenging opponents like this? She could see why they would be so techy then, and how they would need to be the best of the best in terms of their skillsets.

Compa shook slightly as she held her Syringe. Just before she could open her mouth to say something however, the beast reared its head back and let out a mighty shriek/roar sound, making everyone save for Nico cover their ears. When it stopped, the creature began to run at them, its feet making moderate booming sounds as it stomped towards them. "Eh?! It's like the others, it doesn't wait for the battle to begin!"

Its first target was, low and behold, the Nurse-In-Training herself. Compa eeped as she tried to roll to the side to dodge, only for the creature to be too fast, and thus managed to slam its claw into her stomach. The armour she wore stopped it from being a fatal blow, but it didn't stop it from hurting like a thousand volts of electricity. She screamed while being sent flying away, finally slamming into a section of the cave wall with enough impact to create a large indent in it. "Kya!" she cried out.

The Banshee Queen roared as it ran towards her to finish it off, when suddenly it sensed danger and swiftly jumped back, avoiding a Plasma Claw slash to its face. The wielder, a very pissed off Nico, landed in a crouching motion while his comrades attacked in his stead. Neptune went and slashed at its feet only for its Tail to block her attempts, while IF made to activate her DEMON FLAMES Skill.

Heat began to gather below it, and the creature gave a hiss as it rolled to the sides, avoiding the Skill and everything associated with it, much to the girl's shock. "What?! How can it avoid my Skill like that?!" IF screamed as it got up and flicked its Tail in their direction. From it, a series of Spikes were launched, flying with the intent to impale and kill. The Girls barely managed to get out their way in time, but the places they landed in became small craters from the impact. "Monsters' can't move like that, it's almost like it predicted my Skill's activation!"

"Likely it did!" Nico's voice rang out as he ran at the beast, avoiding its slashes and going for its legs. It twisted itself out of danger though, and made to spin its Tail into a Tail swipe to his back. Nico could dodge this by jumping into the air and back flipping over the Tail, stabbing one of his Plasma Claws into it. The Banshee Queen shrieked in anger as it swung its Tail about to get him off, but his Plasma Claw stuck to it like glue. "Banshee Queens are usually the most intelligent of their species, they have to be so they can lead their Hives effectively. It likely analysed us though our previous battles with her children and learned of our tactics!"

Hearing his words, Neptune groaned in dismay, not too fond of an enemy that could plan like they could. "Well ain't that just chipper?" she remarked with heavy Sarcasm, her Armblades scratching the ground when she dragged them across it. "Then what shall we do about it?" she yelled back before they quickly jumped away to avoid an overhead Tail smash.

Using this, Nico flipped off the monster's Tail and back pedalled to Compa, the Party regrouping as they faced off against the Banshee Queen, which hissed in challenge as it stomped towards them, Tail swishing behind it. "I have a plan, but for it to work I need to be the bait for it to focus its attention all on me, while you girls hit its openings." Nico said.

Compa turned her head to look at him, and if she weren't in her armoured state Nico would have seen how displeased she was with the idea. "What?! Ni-Ni, that's crazy!" she protested, the preteen amnesiac nodding in agreement, but before she could continue her protest she felt a hand clasp onto her armoured shoulder. "Eh?" turning her head, Compa saw that it was IF who grabbed her, and she was giving her a level stare and a shake of the head. "Iffy?"

"DEATHSTROKE's got the right idea, the way I see it he has the most experience fighting monsters like these, more experience than even me… Though it's hard to admit that." She said, grimacing at the last part. She didn't like admitting to another that someone was stronger than her, but in this case, she had no other option. She could tell that this creature had her outclassed in both strength, speed and stamina from their short collision earlier, so any plan that DEATHSTROKE, a Spec Ops Agent who was more equipped for this situation, would be one she would adhere to.

The cream haired girl wanted to protest further, but she stopped because now that she thought about it, IF had a point. Nico had more experience in these types of situations, more so than IF who may have been a Guild Agent longer than him, but she handled only the normal monsters, the ones that Nico fought were on a whole different level, both in abilities and in horror. A defeated sigh escaped her lips before she looked to him, her eyes forming a determined gaze behind her helmet, "Just make sure you don't die, Ni-Ni, I'll never forgive you if you do!"

At this, the male chuckled in amusement, before giving her a smile. "I'll try, Compa." Was all he said, before looking to the Banshee Queen which was close to them, about to raise its claw for an overhead slam. Nico swiftly activated his PHANTOM BLADES skill, sending the blades at it to stop its progress and make it stumble back. "Sorry bitch, but you're gonna get owned." The male snarled with his lone eye narrowing darkly. "Have a PHANTOM WAVE!" he swung his leg like he was kicking football, sending the wave of purple energy into the creature, further stunning it.

With that done, Nico took his chance and charged at it. His mind raced with options for what kind of weapon he would use on this thing as his Plasma Claws wouldn't cut it. True most of his arsenal was Plasma Based, but he needed something with a big amount of force behind it. 'Hmmm, usually blunt weapons would work best here, its shoulders are the weak spot when using blunt weaponry, but they're not my forte so I don't use them… hmmm… wait, I know!'

Using all his experiences with his Armour, Nico activated the Void Storage ability on his right Bracer, swiping his other hand across the holographic inventory screen, swiftly selecting the weapon he would need to use to emerge victorious, while flipping over the creature's claw swipes and Tail smashes as he lured it away from the Girls, who split off into multiple directions. His Plasma Claws were disengaged as he swiftly reached behind him for one of the Holsters on his back, the diagonal one, a purple stream of data swirling into a vortex inside his hand as the weapon he chose took physical form.

Just as the Banshee Queen had jumped into the air and tried to stomp on him when it came down, his weapon was fully formed and he used it to deflect the attack, causing the creature to fall onto its side from the lack of balance. The male jumped back and landed in a crouch, one hand on the ground to slow his movement to a halt with his weapon now in hand. It was revealed to be a massive Claymore with a heavy double-edged blade, notched on both sides near the tip. The pommel was a plain one, with a plain grip, but the guard is skeletal, with a skull-design on each side leading to the rib cage from which the blade emerged; on one side of the blade, the skull is that of a human, while the other uses a horned demon's skull. Lastly was the cross guard that was folded inward against the Ribs of the blade.

The blade had a static aura around it, HF Technology having been outfitted into the blade itself to give it an increased damage effect. Both its edges were constantly crackling to enhance its dangerous appearance. Plasma energy canisters were located on the bottom of the grip to supply it with more Plasma Energy. Nico grinned behind his Mask as he got into a Stance, muttering to himself. "Hello Rebellion, been a while since I drew you. Looks like it's your turn to play."

Rebellion was a special sword, a magical sword that was not made by any military or the WDD. This sword was found by Nico himself one day when travelling back from a mission to the Guild. He'd been stressed out at the time because of the things he'd seen on that mission, but when his Bracer detected some ruins nearby, he had gone and investigated them, leading to him finding the sword buried within the crypt of someone who had long since passed.

The moment he saw it however, the blade seemed to thrum with life, as if it were calling to him. When he'd touched the blade, Nico had not been expecting for what seemed to be a message to be burned into his brain. It was: 'To whom may pick up my blade. I name you the successor to my will. Heed my words, for this sword, Rebellion, contains the strength of over 1000 demons, slain by my hand. Wield it well, and its power will be yours to command.'

Boy was the message right, as not long afterwards he'd been faced with dozens of living skeletons, demons and other Monsters as he fought with Rebellion, understanding what it could do, and what the message was trying to tell him. When he'd returned to the Guild at last, he had asked to study the blade and have it outfitted with HF technology, before adding it to his lethal arsenal. It was a pain, they said, for the blade seemed unusually... resistant, to the changes, until he watched it during the fitting. It seemed to be... settled with him nearby, so the researchers were convinced that it had some form of sentience. Though he didn't mind, as the blade seemed to see him as a worthy wielder, and that was enough for him.

The Banshee Queen screamed with rage as it got up again, glaring at Nico with utmost hate as it launched a series of spikes at him. The male's hidden grin only widened as he reared Rebellion back and swung sideways, cutting the first of the deadly spikes, slashed the opposite way a second later, then sidestepped the third one. He saw several more coming his way, so Nico pressed a button on the Claymore's hilt, and the static around the edges began to decrease in stability. "Heh, time for a little CHARGE!" he yelled, swinging sideways and allowing the energy to launch itself as a wave of static.

His attack shattered the Spikes coming his way, and headed towards the Banshee Queen. It barely rolled out the way in time, having sensed the danger that the wave possessed and instinctively tried to avoid it. Then, when it was on all fours while trying to get up, it was forced to put its Tail before its face to stop a slash from slicing through its head. Nico grunted as Rebellion was pressed against the Tail, its HF Blade constantly grinding against it. The Banshee Queen groaned and growled as it saw the Tail slowly being sliced through by the blade, its pain receptors screaming at it in notification.

Before he could slice the Tail off, the Banshee Queen screeched as it took to the skies, pushing the blade in a harmless direction as it tried to get some distance between them. The creature then made to dive at him with the intent of skewering him with its talons, only for a barrage of thin Plasma Needles to hit it in the sides. It screeched in anger and looked to the source, finding Compa having aimed her Armcannons at the enemy with a deadly steel to her tone. "Stop trying to hurt my Ni-Ni!" she yelled with several tick marks over her head.

With fury in its eyes, the Banshee Queen roared as it charged down at her, intending to cleave the girl in two. However, someone else had jumped up and slashed at one of its wings, knocking it off course and to the ground. It stumbled to its feet, glancing at its damaged wing to note that it wouldn't be useful for a while if it survived this encounter. It looked to the one responsible, and saw that it was Neptune with her Armblades empowered by her HDD energy.

Another Shriek came from its lips as it made to charge at her, only for something to happen that stopped it. The Banshee Queen froze, no longer being able to move. Confused and now a little scared along with its anger, it looked down to see a purple Magic Circle under it. Identifying the colour to the wielder, it turned its head to see Nico stabbing Rebellion into the ground, his lone eye gleaming with malice and dark amusement. "Sorry bitch, like I said, you were going to get owned, now to show you how. CHAINS OF HEPHAESTUS!"

From the Magic Circle, purple coloured Chains of pure Plasma Purple Energy burst out, wrapping around and restraining the Banshee Queen, halting any mobility it had earlier. it couldn't even move its Tail, which was its only source of ranged offence it had since unlike the Banshees it made, its wings were designed more for flight than combat.

With the creature Bound, Nico pulled Rebellion out of the ground and ran towards the enemy, with Neptune following suit when she realised what he was planning. The two quickly sped up into a blurred motion, dashing past the Banshee Queen continuously while leaving countless cuts and lacerations across its body. first its arms, then its shoulders, back, tail and lastly its legs. It was screeching and roaring in agony as it tried in vain to defend itself, only to fail each time.

'It's weakened enough for the final blow!' the Spec Ops Agent thought while turning towards the brunette. "IF, now!" the Guild Agent nodded in affirmation before activating her DEMON FLAMES Skill, bombarding the Banshee Queen with fire based damage. By the time the Skill ended, the creature was horribly charred and damaged beyond recognition, with its wings reduced to soot, its Tail burned to nothingness down to the base and its body full of cauterised holes.

Deciding to hold off on using his explosive bombs, Nico chose to jump towards the near-dead Banshee Queen's head with Rebellion dangerously crackling with electricity all the while. By the time he was at its face, the male was glaring into the many eyes it possessed, while the Banshee Queen did its best to glare back. Even now when its demise was immanent, it would not falter before its enemy. 'Well, the bitch is a leader till the end, at least…' the male thought to himself before raising his Claymore and bringing it down, ending the beast's life when his blade cut its head clean in half through the middle.

The body fell limp onto the ground, motions ceased forever as it, like with all other monsters, disappeared in a flurry of white particles, signalling the battle to be over. The male stumbled back, heaving a sigh of relief before he stabbed Rebellion into the ground and using it as a makeshift stand to lean back on when he fell onto his backside. Lifting one leg to his chest, the male murmured with relief, his helmet splitting open in its usual manner. "At last, the threat is vanquished…"

"Yay! Yippee! Huzaah! We did it guys, we beat the meanie monsters!" Neptune cheered as she dismissed her armour form, revealing her true appearance to the Brunette who hadn't seen it yet. "all because of our coolness! We're unstoppable!" she cheered as her friend Compa did the same.

When her armour was gone, the Nurse-In-Training looked at everyone with concern. "It's over, so I need to ask if anyone's hurt. Nurse Compa will fix you up good, no matter how many owwies you have." She said happily, while everyone gave her wary looks. The way she said that with such casualness and a big smile on her face was… creepy, almost scary.

"Well, at least the enemy's gone. We can report to the Guild that the mission's complete now, maybe make a recommendation for Guild Agents to watch out for any stragglers." IF mused in thought. She was not going to be fooled into thinking they killed all the Banshees, some of them must have fled into Virtua Forest or other Dungeons. It never hurt to be too cautious after all.

She then turned to the armoured male, who was now closing his eyes to catch a small amount of rest. "Before you go to blissful sleep, Nico," she called out, making him open his eyes and turn his attention to her. "There's something I'd like to know. What was that skill you used? I've never seen such a skill be used before, usually Skills end up in large explosions for massive damage. True some leave status effects, but yours focused solely on binding."

The male sighed, rolling one of his shoulders as he looked up at the ceiling. He figured there'd be no harm in telling her, after all it wasn't uncommon knowledge or anything too major. "Your right there, IF. It's a Skill I developed myself. Many Spec Ops Agents have their own unique Skills meant to counter the erratic behaviour of these stronger monsters. We even have a codename for them: 'Abnormal' due to their behaviour, appearance and abilities being so unlike the average monsters. CHAINS OF HEPHAESTUS: A Skill that focuses on Binding the enemy, and can work on practically any foe I meet. The only problem is that I need to magically 'mark' them for the Skill to work, and to do that I need to touch the enemy." He explained.

A light of comprehension entered IF's eyes as she digested this information. "Huh, I see… it makes sense to have these skills on hand, since these Abnormals don't follow the norms of Gamindustri Monsters." She admitted, cupping her chin in thought. With the success of this Skill, despite its flaw, she may have to see if she could learn some herself. They seemed to be filled to the brim with uses, uses that could possibly save her sorry hide in troublesome situations.

All in all, she could realise why Spec Ops were well sought after.


Chapter end!

Now, I'm sure you're aware of the significance of the Sword that Nico pulled out, right? Well in case your not, it is the sword Dante from DMC uses as his main weapon. Nico's moves are going to be formed from a mix of both DMC and one other franchise I won't mention yet. This is why I didn't make this fanfiction a Crossover, because so many anime references are being added to this.

You can count on the fact that Abnormal Monsters will be similar though, I intend to make the Monsters more dangerous and significant to the story, but I won't outright discard the normal Gamindustri Monsters. I'll likely use them for some form of humorous scene. While I want a dark and serious version of this story, I'm not going to keep it like that. Seriously, Neptune's character makes it impossible to keep a tale like this dark for long time periods.

Now, as for the power balance, because of these changes I intend to upgrade everyone, IF, Compa, Neptune, the other CPUs, everyone will get buffed up so the power balance is better in this version of Rebirth 1. Badassery and intense action scenes are going to be the norm around here, so be prepared. I get the feeling people like the action scenes anyways, hehehehehehe (devious laughter)

Now, I must be off. The rest of the story is calling me, and as an author, I must answer!

cheerios!