Bando quickly takes aim with his machine gun and fires. Sarge dives for cover on instinct, some of Bando's lucky shots plinking off his armour. Sarge quickly returned fire to which Bando also ran for cover.

Meanwhile, Kaede is still covering Aiko with her vectors.

"There's a red one now." Aiko says. "Who are these guys?"

"That's Sarge, and he's with me." Kaede states.

"You also knew Donut?" Aiko asks.

"Yeah... how do you know Donut?" Kaede also asks.

Meanwhile, one of Bando's shots disarms Sarge, knocking his shot gun out of his hands. Sarge vaults from his cover and charges Bando.

"You're pretty gutsy, huh!" Bando exclaims before firing another volley all of which are deflect by Sarges armour. Sarge slaps Bando's gun out of his hands and goes for a punch to the face, but Bando dodges and punches him in the gut where there is no armour. Sarge backs away to recover.

"That's some pretty impressive body armour you got there." Bando compliments the red soldier. "Though why the colour? You're just making yourself a brighter target."

"Because Red is the best colour of all! It is the chosen colour of God! And me and my team wear it proudly!" Sarge exclaims.

"Hmph, crazy old man." Bando retorts. "Let's see how good your red is."

"You'll see, I'll even paint you with that colour while I'm kicking your ass!" Sarge exclaims.

The two charge each other, fists raised and meet with a flurry of blows to each other. Sarge has the edge due to his limited hit area.

"Kick his ass Sarge!" Kaede cheers from the sidelines.

"Sarge?" Bando backs away. "You got a team?"

"I do, and they consist of the best soldiers you'll ever see... and Grif." Sarge explains.

"So you're the big guy then. I'll be sure to send your team your regards when I beat the shit out of them next." Bando taunts. Sarge takes his pistol from his holster and Bando does the same, however, Bando is faster, disarming Sarge of his weapon again.

He keeps fitting his pistol on Sarge but to no effect.

"Heh heh, bullet proof." Sarge musses. Bando lobs a grenade before jumping away. The grenade bounces off Sarges chest plate before falling to the floor. "Oh shit." Sarge says before trying to jump away, however, the grenade goes off and blasts the red leader away. Sarge let's our a grunt of pain before slowly getting up.

"Hmm, So explosives pack a real punch even against that armour." Bando mutters to himself, mind on his rifle with his grenade launcher attachment.

"No more soldier guy. Grant me mercy, I beg of you!" Sarge cries.

"Hmph, given up that easily? And we were just having fun." Bando aims his pistol to Sarges unprotected neck. Quicker than he can react, Sarge pulls his previously hidden shotgun from the ground and blasts Bando's arm clean off. He then rushes the soldier delivers a hard punch to the face, knocking him to the ground.

"Heh, fell for the old gun nearby and false surrender move from that old Transforners movie." Sarge says. "Which is a shame because that's the move Megatron used to-"

"Time and place Sarge!" Kaede calls to him.

"Yeah. Crying about dead robot father figures can wait." Sarge agrees.

"You bastard! You bastard!" Bando screams, in pain. "Just you wait. I'll find you again and kill you!"

"A rematch, eh? That's something to look forward to. What's your name, soldier?" Sarge asks.

"It's Bando. Remember it cause it the name of the man who'll fuckin kill you!" Bando screams.

"Heh heh, alright Bando, till the next time I beat you red." Sarge then turns to Kaede and Aiko. "Let's get out of here. That explosion will have drawn attention, and that's one thing we don't want."

The three get away as Bando glares daggers at them. By the time they're out of sight, Bando slumps.

"Shit."

The three find a secluded area, closer to Maple Inn and farther away from Bando's broken body.

"Th-Thank you, sir." Aiko eventually says to Sarge.

"No problem little missy. Just another day of being on the red team." Sarge says with pride.

"Red team?" Aiko questions.

"I'll tell you about it later." Kaede assures her.

"So Kaede, feeling better?" Sarge asks.

"I think so." Kaede answers. "I want to talk with the others... figure this thing out."

"And we with you. We've all been worried about you." Sarge tells her.

"Okay. I'm just going to go home then." Aiko says. She turns back but is stopped by an arm on her shoulder.

"You can't go back there." Kaede firmly says.

"But, where else will I go?" Aiko asks.

"We'll talk with Kouta, you can live with us in the Maple Inn." Kaede says to her.

"Why's that?" Sarge asks.

"Can I tell him?" Kaede asks Aiko. She looks away for a moment, uncomfortable.

"F- Fine." Aiko softly replies.

"Her Father is abusive. We can't let her stay there." Kaede tells him.

"Want me to rough him up a bit. Show him what happens when he beats friends of red teams members?" Sarge asks her.

"Uhhh..." Kaede drones on.

"No. That won't be necessary." Aiko says. "Don't bother with him. There's no point. Let's just talk to Kouta."

Sarge grumbles a bit before reluctantly agreeing. He and the other two make for Maple Inn.

Elsewhere, Caboose was running after Wanta after accidentally letting him get free. The blue soldier chased after the madly barking dog.

"Please Wanda! Stop running away!" Caboose exclaimed as he chased the dog. "I only want to be your friend!"

The Dog ran all the way to the beach where it stopped and barked madly at something while also barking to Caboose as if to prompt him over.

"Did you find a ball? A bone? *Gasp* buried treasure!" Caboose asks Wanta as he walks over. He then seems that Wanta seems to be barking at a military helicopter surrounded by soldiers. They seemed to be loading someone in.

"And there wasn't even a clue as to where she went?" Kurama asks a soldier.

"No. It's as the report says. Bando was founded with a severed arm while his partner had a huge hole in his chest." The soldier explains. "Sato seems to have been killed by a powerful shot gun like some of the guards who were shot by that red soldier yesterday."

"It's clear that mere soldiers will not be enough to stop Lucy and her own soldiers, at least, not on their own." Kurama says.

"Well, whatever that plan, I hope it works." The soldier says.

'It's time to get Nana back into the field.' Kurama thinks.

"Wanda, that's just people getting into a helicopter. Nothing strange." Caboose tells the dog.

"Maybe we should go over and say hello to them!" Caboose exclaims before attempting to walk over before being tugged back by Wanta. "Aw, come on Wanda, I know you are shy, but it's always nice to meet new people."

Wanta whimpers as he continues to tug on Cabooses pants.

"Wait, are you hungry? You're hungry aren't you Wanda?" Caboose asks. "Okay! Let's go back to Maple Inn and get you some treats!" With that, the two head back for the Inn.

It was at some point that Kaede's group happened to cross paths with Kouta's group.

"Kaede..." Kouta carefully treads. "Are you..."

"I'm fine, for now at least." Kaede assures.

"Donut?" Aiko asks.

"Oh, hey Aiko! Long time no see." Donut greets.

"But how? I thought you had died!" Aiko exclaims.

"I thought I died too, but really that grenade just took me back to the desert where I had to trudge all the way home to get some help." Donut cheerily explains. "So how have you been?"

"Aiko needs a place to stay." Kaede firmly states.

"What?" Kouta questions.

"The family she is with treats her terribly. We can't let her stay there!" Kaede explains.

"If it's not too much trouble that is. I have a job at the cafe and can help with expenses if you need me to. I can sleep with someone else if it's not a bother, or on the couch." Aiko explains.

"It's fine. We have plenty of room anyway." Kouta assures her. "Come, Aiko. We'll show you the place."

With that, the group led Aiko to what would be their new home.

"So, we're just picking up who ever we can now?" Grif asks upon seeing their new housemate.

"So what if we are, private? We need more people to help make up for the void you add to the group." Sarge says. "Speaking of, did you clean the house top to bottom?"

"I was out searching with Simmons!" Grif exclaims.

"So, our playing grab ass with Simmons, eh?" Sarge inquires. "I guess you'll just have to go through the extended training coarse I have mapped out for today and tomorrow."

"Aw, WHAT!" Grif exclaims.

"They're... all so strange." Aiko mumbles.

"Welcome to the family. We're all gonna have a great time, Aiko!" Donut exclaims.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

"Oh no, I just realized I'll have to explain this to Yuka..." Kouta realizes.

AN: Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I am putting this fic on hiatus a bit for two key reasons.

One; I will be attempting to get a new job, and therefore, a new schedule. I want to work at it a bit if I do end up getting it to see how I can now integrate writing this at the same time. Ever since I started the Kamakura arc, 90% of the work I've done on this was during my 15 minute breaks.

Two; I am struggling on where to go next. I wanna start at working at Nana joining the Maple Inn, but I have no clue on how to go about that. Its a problem I've had to think about since I've started the Kamakura arc and I've yet to figure out an answer. I also think I'm integrating the RVB characters in the Elfen Lied storyline... poorly. I still think I've done a good job here and there, but for the most part they feel like side characters. I dunno, maybe everyone is fine with it.

Out of everyone though, I think I am handling Washington and Carolina very poorly. Sure, they're useful during the institute break-out, but after that they don't really do much. It's just I have absolutely no idea what to do with these characters.

In short, IRL changes will be occurring and I'm struggling on what to write and how to write it. If any of you, have any suggestions or ideas on how to combat this, please, I would really like to hear it.

A thanks to all who took the time to read this update.