The Slothful Conjurer
A week has passed since SHEEP squad's encounter with the Reaper at the Yanaka Cemetery. Things eventually settled down for the team since there have been no more alerts of people waking from stasis nor have there been any activity from Sumeragi. The only bright side is that the Persona-users of QUILL's ability have reach medium tier.
When both of them have free time, Ouka and Mr. Sakurazaki try to establish a good relationship between father and daughter. Despite seeing them as her genuine friends, Ouka confides to him that she feels like the odd one out from the others who are living in the Kamizono mansion. The closest person she can relate to is Michiru and even then the girl is the twin sister of Acura who's part of the field team.
"It's not like I can contribute anything unique since Nowa-san does the cooking and cleaning in addition to her being a navigator." Ouka confesses to her father as they sat alone in the academy's cafeteria.
When the head of a wealthy financial conglomerate heard his daughter speak of her concerns he thinks for a few seconds before giving his reply.
"Ouka, I know it's difficult having to wait for them to come back whenever they go on a mission hoping that they don't get hurt or killed. You don't even have any knowledge with computers so you can't really support them during the operations." he starts talking about her worries.
"I feel so useless, is it really okay for me to live with them and not with you and the rest of the refugees?" Ouka sadly asks.
"You're their friend who doesn't care about any of their wealth or popularity, I'm sure they're glad you're with them." her father assures nicely.
"Friend, yes, I'm their friend. Even if I can't do much, just being there with them will make them feel better knowing that someone will always be there when they return." Ouka feels better especially considering she's also there for Michiru who's also in the same position.
Another development is the budding relationship between Guren and Elise which the other girls who are helping the shy girl are quite happy with the current results.
"Being the emotional support for G.V. was a stroke of genius! Nice thinking Elise!" Michiru exclaims in joy as she, Elise, and Monica are sitting at another table in the cafeteria.
"It wasn't like that. He looked so down so I just wanted to comfort him." Elise explains while trying to keep their conversation quiet to no one else would hear them.
"It's better when it's genuine. So thank you for that at least." Monica says as the team is still shaken after they narrowly escaped death from a powerful Shadow.
"By the way, do you know how to apply makeup properly now?" Michiru asks as they continued their lessons after the incident.
"Hai, I know how to do the basic things when even going out on a stroll." Elise nods her head in affirmation.
"At least it didn't seem like G.V. remembers that the makeup we applied on you was incomplete before we went on the mission." the eldest female remembers after the drama of that day ended.
"Thank goodness." Elise sighs in relief remembering that she hid her face with her Persona form's face mask all throughout her time at the cemetery.
Unbeknownst to her, Guren did see her face with the incomplete makeup. It was after their encounter with the Reaper that she forgot about it and reverted back from her Persona form allowing G.V. to see her face as she eventually fell asleep at his side.
Fortunately for her, Guren thought she did look pretty even with the makeup that wasn't finished.
"It's too bad that we can't go anywhere outside the Anti-Shadow Domes without the risk of getting attacked by Shadows. I know a lot of places that are great locations for dates." Michiru sighs bemoaning the fact that they don't have anymore Anti-Shadow Field Generators.
"We'll make due with the Kamizono mansion and the academy so don't worry about it. Once Sumeragi is defeated we can return to our normal lives." Monica states believing that no matter what they'll win in the end.
'Normal lives?' Elise thought with a indescribable expression.
Meanwhile at the Kamizono laboratory's training area.
Gunvolt is surrounded by many training robots. Even though they're small fry the Azure Striker doesn't want to get rusty with no missions for over a week.
"Crashbolt!" lightning strikes down onto him though he doesn't take any damage.
The robots surrounding him however. Being close to the impact spot alone was enough to send them flying as they got electrocuted and destroyed.
A few seconds later G.V. sighs in exasperation.
"Not good enough, it's not challenging at all." he says dissatisfied that is was too easy.
'The only way for our power level to increase is to fight in actual combat.' Gunvolt thought but going outside the protective dome to fight wild Shadows is not a good idea.
"You're really good Gunvolt. It's no wonder you were made the team's field leader." Tenjian says impressed at his performance.
"Dealing with these robots is a piece of cake." G.V. appreciates the praise.
"Not that, it's the fact that you're wielding the power of electricity and the fact that you're able to control it." he observes despite his eyes looking like it's always closed in normal form.
"Is that so surprising?" the blue eyed young man asks not understanding his statement.
"Guren, electricity is pure energy. One that's always coursing through our human bodies. Xiao told me that the Azure Striker Septima is so powerful in its destructive force that it could level an entire building at the very least. The fact that you have it under control with your own willpower is a feat in it of itself." the wise teen explains to his junior.
Gunvolt thought about what Tenjian just said to him.
'Is my Septima really that strong? It doesn't feel like I'm burdened with such enormous amount of energy.' he thought as he feels that is SP isn't difficult to control.
Meanwhile Acura, Nimrod, and Gino are at the garage looking over the SHEEP mobile and all the tech and weapons they normally have when on missions.
"I've never really handled any of the big guns before." Nimrod admitted as he looks at the bigger laser rifles.
"Really? I'm surprised since you're an eco terrorist after all." Gino says with a incredulous look.
"Hey! I never really hurt another living being remember?!" the older teen argues.
"Maybe, but the damage you've done most likely got a lot of people fired or laid off as a result." the team's mechanic mentions as there will always be repercussions from doing illegal activities.
Nimrod looks down feeling guilty. He loves the ocean but not to an extent where he doesn't care about the lives of other people. He would never wish for the death of others who definitely do not deserve it.
"There's nothing that can be done with what already happened, let's just focus on the now." Acura states as he looks at their inventory.
'It's too bad that we don't have a doctor amongst the refugees. If we did then they could help us create medicine for our health and SP so we wouldn't have to rely on Elise all the time.' he thought as food and drink only replenishes them only a little.
While thinking about that Acura is completely ignoring Gino and Nimrod arguing the differences between the latter's eco terrorism and what QUILL does when fighting Sumeragi.
At the laboratory's main computer, while Xiao and Nowa are busy restoring Sumeragi's data files, Zonda with Lola are studying the Shadow Compendium.
"Most of these Shadows look weird." Lola states looking over a type of Shadow that looks like it's just a hand with the Reverse Magician mask on where the wrist is.
"They seem to subconsciously all made to be abstract in design." Zonda comments as she scrolls down the list.
"Sigh, if Shadows didn't exist we'd have a better time and not be restricted to two safe zones." Lola feels unmotivated by the fact that Shadows seem to only exist as an annoying obstacle they have to deal with.
'Even Lola is feeling worn down from all the fighting and missions.' Zonda thought as the fatigue of all the battles and rescues are wearing the team down.
"Zonda! Lola! I believe we've found something!" Xiao exclaims getting the two's attention.
"What is it?!" the blonde questions as her attention now focuses on the navigators.
"We may have found information on one of the Sumeragi Seven." Nowa answers for her partner.
"That's great news! Let's call the others!" Lola giddy with excitement exclaims as she floats around.
Eventually, all members of QUILL's SHEEP squad have assembled in front of the main computer along with Michiru and Ouka.
"So what else have you two uncovered?" Acura curiously asks as it's been a while since they made any progress in restoring the data from the Stratacombs.
"What Xiao and I managed to restore is information on one of the Nova's Seven Deadly Sins, though most of the data is still corrupted." Nowa explains to him.
"That sucks, who knew restoring data can be such a taxing thing to do." Nimrod says not knowing anything about computers.
"What we managed to find is that after one of them obtained their Glaive from the experiments they went through, they were assigned to be the head of one of Sumeragi's facilities." Xiao reveals
"Who is this Persona-user and where were they sent?" Guren asks the two navigators.
"We couldn't get a name but we do know where they're most likely still are currently." Xiao replies
"There's a secret Sumeragi facility beneath Neo Tokyo Bay, looks like it's some sort of Subaquatic Base." Nowa reveals as the map showing Neo Tokyo's bay with a red dot pinpointing where the base is located underwater.
"What's the reason for the place to exist in the first place?" Zonda is the one who asked that.
"Unknown, but considering that it's hidden, Sumeragi definitely doesn't want people knowing about it." Xiao theorizes(In the game Sumeragi was just building a submarine, which isn't anything that special so that's not the reason for the base in this story.)
"If it's anything like the Stratacombs where human experiments were being conducted, then we need to find what they're doing and put a stop to it." Monica declares with a hard gaze.
"Um... How are we suppose to get there in the first place?" Elise shyly asks
"Yeah, it's not like we have a submarine or anything like that." Gino agrees stumped at what should be done.
"You guys just leave that to me!" Nimrod exclaims with a confident look on his face.
"Then we'll trust you to carry it out!" G.V. announces believing he knows what the merman was going to do to get them into the Subaquatic Base.
It only took a couple of minutes for the team to get ready before they boarded the SHEEP mobile.
"Good luck everyone and be careful! Drowning is a terrible way to die!" Michiru exclaims with a smile.
"Thank you for that." Acura sarcastically says as that didn't help boost their confidence.
"While you guys are gone, Michiru and I will clean up the mansion since Nowa-san will be too busy navigating with Xiao. So we'll be preparing the victory party when you all return." Ouka declares as it's better than doing nothing productive.
"That sounds awesome!" Lola excitedly yells out.
"We'll be back before you know it." Guren assures before he and his team leave the mansion's premises.
Michiru and Ouka watch as the vehicle leaves with the occupants inside ready to the embark on their next mission against the Sumeragi group, which was...
Mission: Abyss
The drive to Neo Tokyo Bay didn't take that long, but finding the best place to park so that they're as close as possible to where the Subaquatic Base is from the surface is what took most of their time.
"Should we take one of the boats from the dock and sail over to where the base is?" Gino asks the rest of the team.
"I don't think that's a good idea. None of the boats or ships docked here are military grade. They don't have any large weapons in case we get attacked by Shadows." Monica explains as she and Gino will be alone as always while the the field team will be in enemy territory.
"So how are we going to get there?" Tenjian asks as he looks at Nimrod.
"My Septima is Ichor if you didn't already know. Manipulating all form of liquid is my specialty." Nimrod boasts as he transforms into his Persona form.
The others did so as well before they follow the merman who walks towards the sea water.
Nimrod slammed the butt end of his trident on the ocean's surface as the water started rising and forming a large shape.
Eventually the shape took on the form of what appears to be a blue whale.
"Alright everybody! Get in!" Nimrod nonchalantly announces like they already know what to do.
"What do you mean get in?!" Acura couldn't understand just like the rest of the party.
"Like I said, get into the whale construct!" the water that's shaped like a blue whale opens its mouth as Nimrod walks in like it was a real one.
"I think I get it. Whales are mammals that breathe oxygen despite living in the ocean. They have large enough lung capacity to carry large amounts of air." Zonda surmises thinking back on the story of Pinocchio(The Disney version).
"So we're using a makeshift whale as a submarine?" Acura wonders thinking it may actually work.
"Bingo! And don't worry, there's plenty of air for all of us!" the merman assures them as he knows the ins and outs of all of the known aquatic animals.
With some hesitation the rest of the Persona-users and Lola step towards the water construct.
"Wuuuhhh." Elise gets second thoughts when in front of the whale made of water as it has its mouth open for them to enter.
G.V. hears her distress and offers a hand to her.
"Don't worry Elise, nothing bad is going to happen." he assures in a calming voice.
Elise is the only one vocal about it but the rest minus Nimrod himself are worried about drowning.
A second later the snake girl takes Gunvolt's hand as he leads her inside the whale construct before it closes its mouth.
"Be careful G.V.! You're the one who's most vulnerable in water!" Monica shouts before the whale dives down taking the field team with it.
"We should get back inside before any Shadows show up." Gino advises as the two enter the SHEEP mobile.
Nimrod who's controlling the blue whale construct goes deeper and deeper down into the bay as the base in located at the bottom where no one would be able to find.
"This is actually pretty nice." Zonda notes with a smile as she and the others look around seeing all the fish swimming around them.
"So pretty." Lola amazed as she didn't think she would ever experience something like this.
"One has to wonder how Sumeragi built an underwater facility beneath Neo Tokyo Bay without anyone noticing." Tenjian comments since the bay area isn't a place where few people pass by.
"Most likely with a lot of bribes and dirty dealings." Acura theorizes as it's the most likely answer.
Gunvolt still holding Elise's hand notices that she's trembling as she looks out into the blue void.
"What's wrong?" he asks concerned about her behavior.
"We're still going down and I still don't know how to swim." Elise says as she sweats a little feeling like she's in a death trap.
'Right, I forgot about that. Guess she's still not use to such weird scenarios.' G.V. thought as he tries to comfort her.
"It's going to alright Elise, we can trust in Nimrod skills." he looks at the aquatic expert who's having no problems in manipulating his construct.
Elise looks at Gunvolt and sees that he has the utmost confidence in Nimrod's abilities and starts to calm down.
She nods her head feeling better. After all, if G.V. trusts Nimrod to escort them all safely then so would she.
"You should all be close to the target now." Nowa affirms as she sees their position getting closer to where the facility should be located on the map.
"There!" Nimrod points in front of him getting the others to do the same as they finally see it with their own eyes.
In view is an enormous building placed on the deepest floor of the bay. Several smaller building are connected to the main one by tunnels that have the top and side parts that can be seen through like glass or some harder material.
"It's even bigger than the Pharma Lab." Zonda points out as the place can hold hundreds of people inside.
"There doesn't seem to be any alarm triggering. Looks like the designers only considered the possibility of underwater vehicles being under their radar and not people swimming in by themselves." Xiao states since there are no outside defenses that can be seen.
"Where can we enter?" Tenjian wonders as it's not like they can easily enter through a back door or something.
"Over there! That building looks like an underwater dock for all the submersibles!" Acura points at a building that has a large opening that's currently closed.
"But how are we suppose to open it?" Nimrod points out as he can't force it open while keeping the construct formed.
"Looks like this is a job for Lola!" the humanoid combat pod declares with a confident look on her face.
"I've upgraded Lola so that she has remote hacking abilities. That should help gaining access to encrypted areas without using brute force." Nowa reveals to those that didn't know about it.
"That's right! Now watch me in action!" Lola exclaims before she closes her eyes and puts her fingers on her forehead looking like she's in deep concentration.
Lola being nearby is able to connect wirelessly to the network that controls the building used for docking Sumeragi's underwater vehicles. She finds the control console that opens and closes the hatch.
"There a strong firewall blocking me! It's very well made, but I''ll be able to bypass it!" Lola's eyes open as she gains control.
"Yoshi! Open Sesame!" she shouts as the outer door opens.
Nimrod then starts moving the whale construct again as it enters the building. In front of them is the inner door so the ocean water doesn't flood the inside.
"Closing outer door!" Lola announces as the door does just that.
"Now opening the inner door!" the door in front of them opens allowing the team to finally enter the facility.
Subaquatic Base Dock Building
The team emerges from the water as the whale construct opens its mouth to let them all exit. They look around and sees two large submarines and a couple of smaller submersibles floating on the water's surface.
There doesn't seem to be any personnel or robots currently inside the docking building most likely because the entire city is blocked off from the rest of the world so there wouldn't be any comings and goings.
"It was disturbingly easy to break into this joint." Gunvolt comments as there's still no alarm nor does he detect any active cameras in the area.
"It would seem that each section has their own individual Anti-Shadow Filed Generator." Xiao notes as each one only covers the part of the building they're installed in.
"I don't think the people here would have expected anyone else to have the means of getting here." Tenjian surmises as they walk towards the door that leads to the connecting tunnel.
"It could still be a trap for all we know. Keep your eyes peeled." Monica warns from their communication devices.
As they enter the long tunnel passageway that's goes to the main building the team sees that the top and sides of it are made up of a translucent glass like material allowing them to see the outside ocean.
"I hope these tunnels have emergency shutters. If even a small chunk of glass gets breached then it's game over for this part of the facility." Nimrod states as he is an expert in water pressure.
"Why even building it this way?" Elise couldn't help but mutter as the ones who built this place seem to be foolish.
"No idea, but we should be careful if we have to fight." G.V. advises with the others agreeing wholeheartedly.
The Sumeragi Subaquatic Base was originally built to be a next generation power facility until the changes were made. It was also built for deep sea mining operations, but now... While they may say that it's still a power generation facility... They're really using it as a lab where shady experiments go down. That's how Sumeragi does things.
As they run across the tunnel, a purple robot whose head looks like a bird is on top of a big wheel charges towards them.
"Look out!" Zonda warns as they all moved out of the way before any of them could get run over.
Acura is suddenly having flashbacks when he and Lola fought those Bestial Wheels.
"That's a Wheel Drone, usually used to as recon in roads and streets. I guess they're used here to patrol the tunnels." Xiao explains another Sumeragi robot.
Gunvolt tags the drone before unleashing his attack.
"Flash Field! Zionga!" the strong electric stream hits the big wheel causing it to spasm until the drone finally explodes.
"G.V.! Look out!" Elise tackles him away from another enemy that was hidden.
What appears to be a small floating drone with who tentacles that kind of looks like jumper cables dashed towards where Gunvolt just was.
"Twin Shot!" Nimrod thrusts his trident twice piercing the jellyfish looking robot destroying it.
"That was an Energy Drainer. Like the name suggests, it drains the energy or in a Persona-user's case, their Septima if they manage to hit you." Nowa informs them.
"It must have been attracted to your Flash Field since electricity is pure energy." Gino says as it's the most likely answer.
"Phew, thanks Elise." G.V. says to the girl who's still hugging him.
"It's nothing." she holds onto him for a few more seconds before letting go with a sheepish look on her face.
The party continues trekking through the passageway all the while dealing with robot soldiers like the Gunners and Missile Launchers, more Wheel Drones, and floating orb-shaped machines called Barricades that generate a purple magnetic energy field that can damage target on contact.
"So much for stealth. The people in charge here definitely knows there are intruders here by now." Acura states as they take down any opposition they come across.
Acura is correct in his assessment as not only have several Sumeragi robots been destroyed but the security cameras have also caught the members of SHEEP squad in their sights.
Meanwhile at the facility's main building, an alarm sounds throughout the security room. A door opens and in comes someone who looks like he just woke up from taking a nap.
"Yawn, yareyare(Good grief). It's 2:30 in the afternoon. Some people are trying to sleep." a young boy groggily says to himself as he goes check the alarm.
This young thirteen year old boy has blue eyes and somewhat spiky, sand-brown hair, with his bangs swept over his right eye. He wears the standard Sumeragi executive uniform, with the jacket unbuttoned, the shirt untucked, and white and black shoes with light blue soles. He also wears a pair of blue headphones.
He turns off the alarm and goes to check the security cameras. What appears on the monitors are the footage of the Persona-users of QUILL tearing through the base's defenses.
"Give me a break, they're actually here? I chose this place because it's the least likely place they would find since it's hidden. Guess they must have found some secret data. Great, now I have to do something about this." he mutters before making a call.
A few seconds later another screen appears with Nova appearing on it.
"Merak? I'm surprised you're actually calling me. Usually it's me who checks in on you." Nova states with an actual surprised look on his face.
"I wouldn't do such a bothersome thing if it wasn't important. Sigh, Quill is here and they're wrecking the joint." the now identified Merak informs his boss.
"How unexpected, the only way they could have found out about the base is from the data that was in the Stratacombs. It would seem they somehow found out about that place all of us visited in order to become what we are today." Shiden suspects as the most likely answer.
"Please don't remind me of the most painful experience I ever went through. Anyways, permission to use any means in order to eliminate our enemies?" the tired looking boy asks.
"Granted, though the one with the water manipulation Septima would be a problem for whatever you're planning." Nova gives Merak permission as six against one wouldn't fair well for the boy.
"I have a few schemes in mind. First is a little divide and conquer." Merak says as he's now beginning his counterattack.
There's not much to say about Merak and his backstory. He was born with high intelligence but lacks any form of motivation that doesn't include wanting to live an easy life and not do anything that requires a lot of effort. After all, he'd rather spend his whole day playing video games rather than having to work an eight hour job.
Back to the team, they're having no trouble fighting their way through the base's defenses as they travel through the passage.
"You guys are only halfway there. The main building is probably where the Sumeragi Persona-user is residing in so be careful. We don't know what kind of Septima power their Persona possesses so take extra precaution." Xiao advises as he watches their progress.
Zonda and Tenjian are about to attack a group of Gunners and Launchers when suddenly a vortex appears and opens up a black hole.
"NANI!" they exclaimed in shock before they end up entering it and disappearing before the vortex closes.
"What?!" Gunvolt shouts in both confusion and fear at his missing comrades.
"What happened?!" Lola looks flabbergasted at what looked like a portal appearing without warning.
"What's going on?" Monica wonders as there was a sudden energy reading when the thing appeared and then disappeared just as quickly.
"Nowa, where did they go?" Acura asks as he and the others fight the robots soldiers.
"I'm sorry Master Acura, but there's some type of interference. Neither Xiao and I can get any clear readings." the maid replies as the computer monitors aren't showing anything that can tell what just happened.
"Boss! Nimrod! Below you!" Lola warns as another vortex appears below the two.
The two get shocked as they start sinking like they're in quicksand. Lola grabs Acura to try and pull him out but it's no use.
"Guys!" G.V. shouts with Elise also looking fearful as the three eventually get sucked in before the hole that came out of nowhere closes and disappears.
"Is this some guy's Septima power?!" Gino yells getting angry.
"What do we do?!" Elise nervously asks as it's still unknown if the others are okay.
"I know it may crazy but we should also go through what I can only describe as portals." Gunvolt says with trepidation.
"G.V.! That's a horrible idea!" Monica tries to dissuade him.
"Yeah, what if they were to send you guys to a large meat grinder or something?!" Gino thinking the worst outcome.(Why didn't Merak do something like that in the game?)
"It's not like Elise and I would always be able to avoid them when trying to reach the main building anyways." G.V. suspects that the enemy would do whatever they can to stop them from reaching where they are.
"I hope you know what you're doing." Xiao can do nothing but wish them luck.
Another vortex appears and opens big enough for them to enter the black hole of a portal to send them to at least another part of the base.
"Ready Elise?" Gunvolt asks the only member of his team left.
"For you G.V., always." she says before they both jump into the unknown.
With the Base and Field Navigators
"We've completely lost contact with them. How is it on your end?" Xiao asks Monica.
"Same thing. It's most likely that there's a jamming device preventing us from making contact." the young woman theorizes.
"Dammit! That means we won't know anything until they can take down the device or the one in charge of the place!" Gino exclaims in frustration.
"It's most likely that they're all separated so the base's defenses can take care of them in smaller groups." Nowa believes as that would be a good strategy for their enemy.
"Then we can only pray that they'll all make it through this even without our assistance." Monica hopes that nothing bad happens to any of their friends and allies.
With Zonda and Tenjian
What is now obviously Merak's Wormhole Septima ability, a portal opens up as the rabbit girl and the cryomancer pop out of it before closing.
"What happened?!" Zonda questions with her in a battle ready stance holding her cards ready to attack.
"It looks like we were transported to another part of the base." Tenjian conjects since the place they're in is definitely not the dock building or a passageway.
"It's so dark. I can barely see anything." Zonda says before lighting up a hearts card in fire to see better.
It seems the both of them are in a building with lots of machinery for what purpose is currently unknown to the both of them.
"Xiao-san, do you know where we are?" Tenjian asks but gets no response after a few seconds.
"Xiao-san? Nowa-san? Monica-san? Gino-san?" he calls all four of them but no answer from their end.
"What's wrong?" Zonda asks him with worry.
"It would seem that communications are being blocked." he tells her the truth about their situation.
"G.V.? Acura? Can anyone read me?" Zonda herself tries to call the other members of their field team but there's no answer as well.
"We can't even contact them. This doesn't bode well." Tenjian then begins thinking of what to do next.
"We should at least find out where we are." Zonda advises as she moves her flaming card around to see more of the room they're in.
When she turns around the light of the flame suddenly reveals a Cowardly Maya in front of her.
"GAAAHHH!" Zonda shrieks in fright before she jumps away and throws her Agilao card at the Shadow.
However, the attack didn't hit the Maya because it was blocked by some sort of barrier.
"What?!" she didn't understand what happened.
"Wait Zonda!" Tenjian who seems to have found a control panel has managed to turn on the lights of the room they're in.
When the lights turn on, the two humans see that they're surrounded by many Shadows that are in the room but are in prison-like containers.
"Why and how are Shadows here? Each building should have an Anti-Shadow Field Generator that's active all the time." Zonda wonders in confusion because she wasn't expecting to encounter them in a Sumeragi facility.
"Hmm, it would seem that this is where the Sumeragi scientists study Shadows if what the information on this computer is true." Tenjian says as he accesses one of computer terminals and sees information on many types of Shadows like they saw on the Shadow Compendium.
"Is this the reason why the Subaquatic Base exists in the first place?" she queries even further.
"No, it was originally used for mining operations before the discovery of the Metaworld made it a perfect place to study and experiment on Shadows." he finishes the explanation.
They both look around all the containers and realize that the containers that the Shadows are in is preventing the Anti-Shadow Field from affecting them so that they stay inside them without trying to escape.
"We better get out of here. I definitely don't want to stay in a room filled with Shadows even if they are contained." Zonda declares with Tenjian agreeing as they look around to find an exit.
Merak who's watching them through the room's security cameras uses the facility's main computer to override the Shadow containment units to release all specimens while also deactivating the Anti-Shadow Field Generator for the building the two Persona-users are in.
"The scientists here have already learned everything they need to know about all the Shadows they've kept in containment, so there's no need to worry about any lost specimens." Merak says to himself as there's now a warning alarm with red lights throughout the Shadow Research Building.
Zonda and Tenjian were surprised when the alarm bellows out as the blue safety field is no longer active and all the Shadows are now being freed.
"Looks like we were in fact sent here to die." Tenjian readies his blades as he and Zonda stand back to back to cover each other's backs.
"Sigh, how troublesome." Zonda exasperates that they're in a trap.
With Acura, Lola, and Nimrod
From the ceiling a wormhole appears as three people drop down onto the floor. Nimrod lands well enough on his feet while Acura descends slowly thanks to Lola.
"What just happened?!" Nimrod exclaims in confusion.
"The most likely answer is that it's a Persona-user's Septima power, there's no known technology that can create stable portals like the one we were forced to go through." Acura supposes since it would be a breakthrough in the field of inventions.
"Then that definitely proof that there's a Persona-user in this place besides us." Nimrod uses what they just experienced as evidence that coming here wasn't a waste of time.
"Ah! I can't contact our navigators or the rest of our team!" Lola shouts in panic as her wireless connection has been blocked.
"So we're on our own." Acura states as he thinks of what to do next.
"Well, there's no use complaining about it. Let's figure out where we are." Nimrod proposes as the three look around the new place.
They're currently in a well lit hallway and sees several doors that must lead to rooms of at least some importance.
"So... which way?" Lola ponders since they don't see either of the hallway's ends.
"We may as well start with the door closest to us." Acura says as he walks towards it carefully to make sure there's no trap or ambush.
He readies his gun just before he presses the button that opens the door. The door slides open and Acura points his gun inside ready to fire if he sees a threat.
Only to see a small supply closest inside.
"... Let's try another door." Lola floats to the next one in leave the awkward situation.
She and Nimrod carefully opens the other closest door while hiding behind the corners.
They peek inside to see a room with two sofas, tables with folding chairs, and vending machines for both snacks and drinks.
"Looks like a lounge room." the three enter to see that there's no one inside.
On a bulletin board attached to a wall there's a schedule for when the base gets supplies from Babel Tower.
"This base gets supplies once a week. That's how the people here have managed to survive when all of this started." Acura reads the calendar.
"We haven't seen any signs of other human beings here other than the Persona-user, maybe they're all at the main building of this place." Nimrod believes that all personnel moved there when they were discovered.
"Wait! I think I hear footsteps outside!" Lola announces as she thinks someone is in the hallway.
Acura and Nimrod nodded their heads to each other before hiding as Lola hovers up at the ceiling.
The lounge door opens again as someone enters to take a break from working.
"NOW!" Nimrod shouts as the three members of SHEEP squad ambush the person.
"NANI?!" is what all that person can yell before getting tackled to the ground.
With Gunvolt and Elise
A wormhole appears somewhere else in the Subaquatic Base as G.V. and his 'love interest' pop out of the thing before it disappears.
"W-where are we?" Elise wonders looking around seeing nothing familiar so they're definitely not at the dock building.
"Xiao, can you tell us where we are?" Gunvolt speaks in his comm.
...
"Xiao?" he tries again but no answer.
"Nowa-san? Gino? Monica?" he tries to contact the others as well but nothing.
"What is it G.V.?" Elise asks seeing him have a worried look on his face.
"I can't contact anybody. Looks like the coms are being blocked." he explains to his only teammate at the moment.
"What should we do?" she also starts to worry since like the first time they encountered the Shadows, they have no support but themselves.
"First we should find out where we are in relation to the main building of this place. Seconds, we either need to find the others or find a way to regain communications with everyone." Gunvolt plans out what their current objectives should be.
"Oh, okay." Elise agrees with his plan since she's not the type to lead.
They look around to see that they're in a corridor before walking in order to find any clue of where they are.
"There could still be robots patrolling around so we better stay vigilant." G.V. whispers thinking it's better to sneak around and not make loud noises.
"H-hai." Elise replies in a low voice as she follows him while walking as quietly as she can.
As they reach the end of the corridor the two see a large dimly lit room that's at least four stories tall.
'Wonder what this place's purpose is?' Gunvolt thought as the wide open space seems to exists for something big to be able to move freely inside.
Suddenly the two hear something. They look to see that the center of the room's floor opens up revealing a hole where a lift should exist and from the room below comes a giant green robot with broad shoulders that have Vulcan guns for arms and is on four legs.
"Just great!" even though G.V. lived a normal civilian life he recognizes the robot since he once saw it on television once.
Sumeragi was showing off their top of the lines weapons that would be shared with the Japanese Defense Force. The most basic of these weapons are the Michi Mk 17 Type 3 'Mantis' a 9th generation unmanned tank created by the Sumeragi Futures Institute of Technology (S-FIT)'s 8th department to face their enemies though this model is specifically used for nocturnal warfare.
"It's big!" Elise screams out as the Mantis is about the same size as the Rampage Drive.
The giant robot sees two of the targets it was programmed to destroy and begins it assault. It rushes towards them in an attempt to run them over.
"Tsk!" Gunvolt grabs Elise before jumping out of the way and get some distance away from the killer machine.
"Elise, your attacks won't be effective against this thing so stay back and support me if I get hurt." he orders her since her poison and petrification won't work on it.
"Please be careful." Elise requests as there's a high risk that the Mantis seems to be powerful.
G.V. nods in reassurance before he goes to face off against their opponent while Elise herself takes cover somewhere.
The Mantis turns around and sees Gunvolt running towards it. It aims its two gun arms and fires a barrage of bullets.
G.V. jumps high up to avoid the bullets as they rain down on the floor. He then marks the Mantis' head with three darts before unleashing a Zionga attack while slowly descending down thanks to his control over electromagnetism.
Acknowledging that it's taking damage the Mantis opens it shoulders to reveal its multiple missile launchers. Several homing missile then head towards the still airborne Persona-user but thankfully Gunvolt's Flash Field is able to block all of them before they're explosions can even reach him.
Eventually the electric attack damages the face of the Mantis enough to cause it to fall down temporarily disabling it and from its back is some kind of yellow container, most likely its core, pops out as a means to prevent it from over heating.
But this only gives G.V. the chance to exploit its weakness.
"Flash Field! Zionga!" he marks the core as his electricity easily destroys it and causing the Mantis to get blown up in a fiery explosion.
"That was amazing Gunvolt! Defeating that thing wasn't hard at all!" Elise cheers as she rushes to his side.
G.V. however, is not so enthused as she is.
'That was too easy. It wasn't much of a trap with that thing alone.' he thought with a suspicious look on his face.
Suddenly the entire room is filled with more lights to reveal that there are multiple large doors that open upwards like a garage. They all open at the same time to reveal even more Mantis robots as they activate and set their sites on the two Persona-users.
"EEEHHH?!" Elise couldn't help but scream in both disbelief and terror.
"Looks like we'll be here awhile." Gunvolt whispers as he prepares for battle and to protect Elise.
Merak seeing G.V. in action through the cameras makes a startling conclusion.
"What a troublesome guy." he states hoping that he wouldn't have to battle such a strong Persona-user.
Shadow Study and Experimentation Building
Zonda and Tenjian are running around the building trying to find the tunnel that leads them out of the Shadow infested area but the monsters that are constantly attacking them are making things difficult.
"Suit of Clubs! Magarula!" Zonda throws her wind cards at a couple of Bestial Wheels knocking them down allowing Tenjian to finish them off with his ice coated swords.
"Just how many Shadows did Sumeragi capture?!" Zonda wonders as the two kept moving trying to find an exit or at least a map of the building.
"Too many, it would seem that experimenting on them doesn't ensure their survival so kept an abundance of them as extras." Tenjian suspects since scientist do tend to have a lot of lab rats or an equivalent so they don't quickly run out.
Table Shadows appear before them though these are different from the one Acura encountered during the attack at the academy. These Reverse Magician Mask wearing Shadows have a red and black table cloth with four floating objects above them which are a red sword, staff with a red jewel in the tip, red circular shield, and a black goblet filled with actual fire.
Crying Table: Wearing the Reverse Magician Mask, they use fire attacks along with a standard Strike attack.
Maragi
Both Persona-users evades the attacks with Tenjian being wary since he's weak to fire.
"Glacial Edge!" he slashes at one of the Tables inflicting effective damage to it and causing it to topple over signifying that they're weak to ice.
"Suit of Spades! Mabufula!" several ice coated cards hit the other Tables causing them to collapse and quiver in pain.
"Now's our chance! All-out Attack!" Zonda creates four mirror copies as they and Tenjian charge at the fallen Shadows as a dust cloud covers the assault.
After it was finished all Crying Tables disintegrated into nothingness.
"Gasp, that was exhausting." Zonda pants as they haven't had a chance to take a breather when the Shadows were let loose.
"We mustn't let our guard down. They could still try to surprise attack us when we're not looking." Tenjian remains vigilante as he looks around for more Shadows.
"Right, but where should we go now?!" she asks trying to make sure that they don't end up at a part of the building where they've already been.
'If only we could contact Xiao and the others, maybe they could find a route out of here.' Zonda thought as she and Tenjian continue on.
Personnel Residents Building
Acura, Lola, and Nimrod have ambushed and captured what looks like one of the scientists who works in the Subaquatic Base.
"WTF?! WHY ARE YOU GUYS ALL UP IN MY GRILL?!" the scientist who's a teenage boy shouts in fear and confusion.
He has pale green hair, a thin ponytail and darker green eyes, with his bangs swept over his right eye. He wears a green zip-up jumper under a white coat, both of which have the sleeves rolled up, blue jeans, also rolled up, and black boots.
"We're asking the questions here buddy!" Lola exclaims trying to be intimidating.
"OMG! YOU'RE FLOATING! HOW ARE YOU DOING THAT?!" he asks inquisitively completely forgetting that he's being interrogated.
"First off, use your indoor voice and second, speak in normal English/Japanese." Acura demands not getting some of his lingo that he was speaking initially.
"The name's Teseo, born in Korea, use to make hilarious internet videos before they were taken down for being too controversial. Was recruited into Sumeragi's Korean branch for my expert computer hacking skills before transferring to Japan." Teseo introduces himself and revealing some of his background.(In the game Teseo speaks in internet slang which I'm not good at so he'll mostly speak normally. Also, all of his text was in all capital letters but I won't be doing that from now on as well.)
"Alright then Teseo, we know about the Metaworld, Personas, and Shadows. What's the purpose of this base?" Nimrod questions in a threatening tone.
"Oh, this place use to be a mining base before the study of the Metaworld. Once that was discovered this place ended up being used as a laboratory to study Shadows." the young scientist who specializes in computers explains.
"There are Shadows here, but this place has Anti-Shadow Field Generators?!" Lola asks in confusion.
"We have containment units that doesn't allow the Anti-Shadow Field to affect them when they're inside." Teseo reveals to them rather easily.
"Where are those Shadows contained?! We won't let Sumeragi use them as weapons or something like that!" Acura demands their hostage.
"Pfft! We're not even close to doing something like that! Besides, they're all at the Shadow Study and Experimentation Building, and you guys are in the Personnel Residents Building." the green haired boy laughs at the Avenger's assumption.
"This is where you guys live?" Nimrod didn't even think about where the people working here rest.
"Yup, and I was going to get some snacks before you guys so rudely captured me. Let me guess, QUILL?" Teseo doesn't seem to be scared anymore thinking that these guys won't really torture him.
"Who else would challenge Sumeragi and their horrible illegal activities?!" Lola proudly says that.
"Let's get to the important things! Who's the Persona-user in charge of this place?!" Acura asks as he points his gun at the young scientist.
"Oh, that's Merak, he's probably at the main building." Teseo replies as a matter of fact without thinking that these guys might want to hurt the boss.
"Merak? Is he the one responsible for those portal things?" Nimrod questions
"That's his Wormhole Septima, it allows him to create portals in the fabric of space and travel long distances in an instant. He mostly uses it to get somewhere faster rather than walk since he infamously lazy to the other people working here." Teseo says the last part in an annoyed tone.
"We got sent here via a portal, that means this Merak guy definitely knows we're here!" Lola surmises
"Damn, even if we get to the main building he'll just send us off somewhere else with his portals." Acura curses as there's no way they can counter something like that.
"Oh, you guys shouldn't worry too much about that." the guy they're interrogating states nonchalantly.
"What do you mean?" Nimrod wonders what he means.
"Well for one, when he creates a portal, depending on the distance between point A to point B uses a certain amount of his Septima. The farther the second portal is to the first one the more of his Septima he needs to use up in order to make it and that's also taking into account that he needs to have at least a good image of where the second portal needs to be, meaning he can't make a portal to a place he's never seen before." Teseo explains the basics of Merak's power.
"Merak's the boss of this place so he's most likely is accessing the security cameras for the entire facility, meaning he probably knows where we are." Acura says though is glad that there's no camera in the break room.
"That's going to be a problem." Lola says thinking they'll have to destroy every security camera they come across so they wouldn't get transported to an even worse location.
"Oh you guys don't have to worry about that. Merak's lazy to the point where we nicknamed him the Hibernating Bear. He does the bare minimum amount of work and doesn't like to exert himself to the point where he never uses over a quarter of his total Septima unless he's in a life and death situation." Teseo reveals to them much to their surprise.
"No one can be that lazy!" Lola exclaims in disbelief.
"You'd be surprised. All I ever see him do is eat junk food and play video games. No matter how many times I challenge him to Ultra Bash Siblings, he always beats me! That jerk!" he starts going off topic.
"Hmm, wait! Since you know Merak, do you know anything about what Sumeragi's ultimate goal for the Metaverse is?!" Acura asks what's on SHEEP squad's mind from the beginning.
"I don't really know any of the details. I'm just a computer expert with the potential to be a Persona-user. All I know is that it's called..."
Project Eden
"If you want anymore information about that then Merak will most likely know more about it." he finishes as the three looks at each other with contemplative expressions.
'We have to tell the others about this!' is what they all thought.
"Alright Teseo, show us how to get to Merak from here and maybe find the rest of our party!" Acura hoists the green haired teen on his feet and pushes him out the room so he can be their guide.
"It's not like I have much of a choice." Teseo concedes as he walks to the passageway that connects this building to the main one.
Sumeragi Machine Maintenance Building
"Diarama!" Elise heals Gunvolt who took some shrapnel from one of the Mantis Robot's missile attacks.
"Thanks Elise!" G.V. then focuses his Septima in his hand.
Sacred sword agleam
Barbarous and bathed in blue
Cleaving right from wrong
Luxcalibur!
Gunvolt slashes downward cutting a Mantis in half before it explodes.
'Once they're weak point is revealed they're easy to destroy but G.V. has to damage their faces in order them to appear. That would leave him open from attack by the other robots.' Elise thought as more Mantises keep coming after a few get destroyed.
The best Elise could do is distract some of the robots so that all of them won't focus their attention on Gunvolt. Her natural speed and agility made it so that she's able to easily avoid all the bullet and missiles that were thrown at her.
'We have to find a way out of here!' G.V. thought as there's most likely even more Mantis robots ready to be deployed.
Then suddenly one of the ten Mantis robots(Only that amount can fit into the room they're in) opens its mouth to reveal a yellow particle cannon as it starts charging.
"Look out G.V.!" Elise warns seeing the Mantis aim at him.
Hi-Output Radiant Light Amplification Gun
Gunvolt ducks before a yellow beam shoots forth that would have hit him if he hadn't. Though the beam did hit another Mantis destroying it in a fiery explosion. Only for another one to take its place.
"Slithering Whip!" Elise wraps her extended snake arms around Gunvolt's waist and pulls him up towards her to he wouldn't get stepped on by one of the robots.
"We need to find a way out!" he emphasizes that it's a waste of their energy trying to destroy all the Mantis units that's within the base.
Elise tries to look for a way out of the arena sized room they're in. The door they came in from and the door on the opposite side are closed shut and won't open without sufficient force and G.V.'s too preoccupied fending off the robots.
She then sees more of the Mantises come in to replace to ones that Gunvolt destroyed and suddenly realizes a solution.
"G.V.! We can exit using the hole that leads to the floor below!" she yells to him.
After evading hails of bullets Gunvolt sees what Elise means before destroying another Mantis' core. Soon enough, the hole at the center of the floor opens to send up another Mantis. Elise changes to her snake tail form before taking Gunvolt's hand as the two rush towards the hole before the elevator carrying another Mantis can reach the top.
The two manages to go down the floor bellow to see that there are still dozens of Mantises that are currently deactivated waiting their turn on a conveyor belt.
"Are you alright G.V.?" Elise asks in concern because he's sweating and breathing hard.
"Just need to rest for a minute. I was fighting nonstop for a while." he replies as he sits down.
There doesn't seem to be any security cameras inside where they are so they don't have to worry about unexpected portals taking them back up top.
Elise remembers that each member of the team should carry provisions before they went underwater so she takes out a bottle of water from... somewhere on herself and gives to Gunvolt.
"Here G.V., you look very thirsty." she shyly hands it to him.
"Thanks Elise." he gratefully says before he removes the cap and drinks the contents.
'Guren does so much for me and the others. He's too good for the world.' Elise thought as they relax for a few minutes.
Gunvolt takes a deep breath and exhales as he stands up on his feet.
"Alright, let's find a way out of here and towards the main building. I'm sure the others are thinking the same thing." he advises as they start walking passed the conveyor belt.
"Hai!" Elise quickly agrees and follows from behind.
Main Building Control Room
While sitting on a chair Merak watches a screen seeing Gunvolt and Elise slip down the hole where the majority of the Mantis robots would enter the arena and are now out of his sight. On another he sees Zonda and Tenjian through sheer luck discovered the path to where the connecting passageway is located. Lastly, he sees Teseo as a hostage leading Acura, Nimrod, and Lola to where they need to go.
"Yareyare, I was hoping to thin their numbers by at least a half but they're more resilient than I thought." Merak sighs in exasperation.
The Shadows they kept in containment and the Mantis robots were the only things that had a good chance of taking them out two at a time. The only reason he sent three of them to the Residents Building was because there was no other place to send them to that would pose any danger to them.
"I don't want fight all of them at once. I'll definitely get killed if I do that. There's got to be another way to take most of them out before they make it here." he begins thinking of a solution to his problem while he opens a wormhole next to him, a second portal opens in front a refrigerator that's only a few feet behind him as he opens it and grabs a can of soda.
"There's only one last thing I can do but it'll cost most of the base to do it." Merak thought about for a few seconds before...
"Eh, screw it!" Merak immediately goes for the quickest and easiest plan as he types in the commands.
Personnel Residents Building
Teseo is taking cover while the Persona-users and Lola fight off a couple of robot soldiers. The Grenadiers keep lobbing grenades making the team keep their distance since the hallway isn't wide enough to maneuver effectively.
"Is it just me or does it seem like they don't care if they hit the Sumeragi scientist?!" Lola questions as she has her barrier up.
"That's ridiculous! Our robots are programmed to never hurt any Sumeragi personnel no matter what position they're in the corporation!" Teseo assures to himself more than the guys keeping him hostage.
A stray grenade would have blown him to pieces if Lola's barrier hadn't protected him.
"Maybe they're not as well programmed as I thought they were?" he's becoming less sure since he's not one of the people who programs the robots' simple A.I.s.
"Vortex Rush!" Nimrod traps the Grenadiers in whirlpools rendering their shields useless.
"Zionga Bullet!" Acura shoots each swirling torrents electrifying all the robots trapped inside.
With the coast clear everyone relaxes for a bit.
"How much further Teseo?" Nimrod asks the guy who knows the layout of the base.
"It's not that far off, we'll reach the connecting tunnel soon enough." he replies as he takes the lead again.
'Okay, the chances of him leading us into a trap is starting to become unlikely.' Acura thought as he observes the green haired teen.
"You said that Merak is extremely lazy kid. Is there anything else you can tell us about him?" he asks as they continue walking.
"Not anymore than you already know, he's a lazy genius who would find the quickest and easiest solutions instead of doing the bare minimum amount of work." Teseo answers while he has his hands on the back of his head.
"This guy's one of Nova's best employees? Besides his smarts, I don't see how useful Merak can actually be." Nimrod states in confusion at how a lazy kid can actually be a major threat to them.
After he said that everything started to shake.
Shadow Study and Experimentation Building
"What was that?!" Zonda exclaims using the wall to prevent herself from falling on the floor.
"It's sounded like an explosion." Tenjian declares while the two finally managed to located the connecting tunnel.
Then suddenly the Shadows they're fighting suddenly started fleeing as though the Reaper is coming but that's not it.
"That's not a good sign." Zonda remembers that even Shadows would run away at something they'd consider very dangerous.
Sumeragi Machine Maintenance Building Shafts
Gunvolt and Elise travels through the narrow tunnels beneath the actual floor before going back up to see that they can see the reinforced windows that allow people to see the ocean.
It would seem that they're close to the passageway that will get them to the main building where the enemy Persona-user is located.
'Hopefully they won't just transport us back here.' G.V. thought as that would be very annoying.
They look around to see that the coast is clear. No Mantises or any of the standard Sumeragi robots patrolling the area.
After making sure that al nearby security cameras are destroyed the two then proceed to where the connecting passageway is.
"This Persona-user must have another plan if the Mantis robots fail to kill us." Gunvolt whispers not letting down his guard.
Then suddenly the entire building shook.
"W-what was that?!" Elise fearful at what sounded like a huge explosion in this underwater facility.
Afterwards G.V. starts hearing what sounds like rushing water you'd usually hear at a stream, river, or any large body of moving water.
The sound came closer and closer and eventually both saw water flooding towards them.
"RUN!" Gunvolt yells as he uses his electricity on his feet to enhance his running speed speed while Elise uses her snake tail to slither faster than her feet can dash.
"What's going on?!" the snake girl shouts wondering why this is happening.
'It didn't seem like there was any hull breach when I fought all those Mantises. Even the laser beam didn't penetrate the reinforced room of the arena, so how could the sea water rupture through?' he thought as the two book it towards the tunnel.
Back with Zonda and Tenjian
With the Shadows no longer harassing them because of the rising water, the two humans run until they reached the passageway which seems to be vertical as it goes upward.
"Let's go!" Tenjian exclaims as they jump up to higher ground and to outrun the flood.
It's not easy however as there are Sumeragi robots positioned as to halt or at least slow their progress.
On one of the platforms they need to jump on there's a robotic tank that seems to be equipped with a missile pod that can fire volleys of missiles. These are called Mini MLRS.
"Incoming!" Zonda warns as the tank opens its missile pods while also revealing its head and fires a barrage of homing missiles at them.
"Mabufula!" Tenjian hurls several ice shards at the incoming missiles, blowing them up before they can reach them.
With its head exposed Zonda is able to target it.
"Suit of Diamonds! Zionga!" she throws an electric card at the tank's head destroying it and causing the rest of the body to explode.
They immediately continue jumping from one higher platform to another dealing with more Mini MLRS's and floating drones blocking their path as the two outrun the rising sea water.
'We didn't do anything that would breach the hull of this building and I doubt the Shadows would be self-destructive enough to do something like that. It could only mean...'
Tenjian thought as he suspects that...
With Acura, Lola, Nimrod, and Teseo
"There's no way Merak would destroy the other buildings just to kill you guys! That would also kill all the personnel working in each place as well!" Teseo yells in disbelief thinking of the rest of the scientists and other workers currently not at the main building.
"What other explanation is there for sea water flooding the place?!" Lola shouts back as they rush forward with Nimrod carrying the green hacker over his shoulder.
'With Nimrod's Persona and maybe Lola, they can survive this building getting compromised. But the rest of us would drown. It really does seem like Merak doesn't care who he has to sacrifice in order to kill us.' Acura thought as he shoots a Launcher Soldier before it can shoot a missile at them.
"We can argue about this later! For now let's focus on staying alive!" the Avenger recommends as the water floods behind them.
A couple of Mini MLRS tanks fired their missiles at them more to just hinder them than kill them.
"Aqua Trident!" Nimrod using one hand to hold his trident summons water spears to impale their heads destroying them.
"P-bits barrier!" Lola blocks the incoming missiles.
While the team is running and fighting for their lives Teseo couldn't help but be lost in his own thoughts.
'After everything I and the others did for Sumeragi, Merak's willing to just going to discard all of us for convenience?!' Teseo thought not paying attention to the danger he and the others are in.
Subaquatic Base Main Building
The central facility of the entire base is a large dome with reinforced transparent windows. From within the dome is a large building that acts as the central hub where the control and security room is located.
The main facility can be only be entered by the four passageways that connect to dock, maintenance, Shadow research, and the residents buildings.
With loud rumbles three groups of human beings and a floating artificial lifeform reach the inside of the dome before the emergency hull breach doors close in order to prevent sea water from flooding in the main facility.
"We made it!" Lola exclaims in relief as Nimrod seats down Teseo who's now sitting on the floor looking very distraught.
"You're all okay!" Zonda announces as she and Tenjian see the others alive and well.
"What a relief." G.V. sighs no longer anxious as they all converge.
"Looks like no one experience any major injuries." Acura points out as Elise uses a Mediarama to moderately heal the entire party of any minor damage.
"Who's this person?" Tenjian asks looking at the shell shocked scientist.
"This is Teseo... he's the only person we were able to save at the residents building." Nimrod replied solemnly.
The field team looks at the depressed guy and can't help but feel sorry for him and his coworkers. They may have been working for their enemy but that didn't mean they deserved to die in such a horrible way.
This angers Acura especially as once again Sumeragi sees even their own people on the lower end of the corporation as disposable.
"How terrible." is the only thing Elise could say.
"What do we do with him now?" Gunvolt asks as he's still technically a Sumeragi scientist.
"We were questioning him for intel. He admitted a lot just to brag about it. This place use to for deep sea mining before it was converted into a Shadow research facility." Lola explains to them.
"Just as Tenjian and I suspected when we encountered Shadows that were kept in captivity before the leader here released them to try and kill us." Zonda confirms to the rest of them.
"There was also an army of Michi Mk 17 Type 3 unmanned Mantis tanks from where Elise and I were sent to. Despite destroying over a dozen of them, more just kept on coming. We managed to escape some time before the building started to flood, though the robots tried to keep us from reaching here." G.V. explains which the others say that it was the same with them.
"The Persona-user's name is Merak and his Septima power is called Wormhole. He's the one who separated us in the first place." Nimrod reveals to the others the name and power of their current enemy.
"He's most likely still up there at the control room. Let's go and finish this." Tenjian advises as the team nods in agreement about to head off into the building.
"Yareyare, I can't believe you all survived." a voice echoes out loud enough for SHEEP squad and Teseo to hear.
The team looks around to see a wormhole open on an upper level roof of the main building. Coming out of it is a young teenage boy who looks younger than the rest of them.
'He's just a kid who looks like he turned thirteen recently.' Gunvolt couldn't help but wonder why there haven't been any adult Persona-users as of now.
"Man, you just haaad to come here, didn't you? Wish most of you guys would've just died. By the looks of you... I guess I'm gonna actually have to fight you, huh?" Merak says while sighing despondently at the work he'll have to do.
"You must be Merak." Zonda states not looking impressed at all by the boy's slacker demeanor.
"What's with you? You always this serious? Yeah yeah that's me, yup. Merak, the mighty super genius commanding officer of this Subaquatic Base. I just wanna go back to my room and jam some MMORPGs, so let's make this snappy, K?" he replies about to get ready to fight.
"WAIT!" everyone turns to look at Teseo who just shouted.
"Teseo, you're alive?" Merak didn't expect that since the flooding water took out the security cameras of those buildings he purposely destroyed with explosives that were rigged in order to hide evidence.
"NO THANKS TO YOU! DID YOU ACTUALLY FLOOD THE OTHER SECTIONS KNOWING THAT YOU'D KILL OUR FELLOW SUMERAGI EMPLOYEES?!" Teseo bellows out extremely enraged that the kid he plays video games with committed blatant collateral murder.
"Give me a break. There's six Persona-users and a floating human... whatever gunning for me. It was a tactical strategy to try to thin their numbers but apparently it didn't work at all. You should be blaming them for surviving rendering their sacrifice meaningless." Merak shifts the blame of the deaths of the scientists and other personnel on the members of QUILL.
"WE DIDN'T JOIN SUMERAGI JUST TO BE TOSSED ASIDE LIKE NOTHING! WE JOINED BECAUSE SUMERAGI RECOGNIZED OUR TALENTS AND YOU JUST SNUFFED THEM OUT LIKE THEY WERE NOTHING!" Teseo shouts wishing he can throttle the younger boy himself.
"Sigh, you're always so annoying Teseo. Especially whenever I beat you at Ultra Bash Siblings. Always throwing temper tantrums. Bleh, all this talking is making my jaw tired." Merak dismisses his attention Teseo and focuses back on the others.
'Now that it's come to this, I'll have to use everything Nova gave me.' Merak thought as he snaps his fingers.
Several wormholes appears around the base floor surrounding G.V. and the others and out of them comes an army of Sumeragi robots.
It's not just the soldier robots, but all the drones they've encountered so far and even the Mantises from the maintenance building where the flooding didn't reach because of the hull breach doors.
"They still have so much in reserve." Gunvolt mentions at least glad that he has his whole team with him this time.
"As long as Merak's able to use his Septima, there'll be no end to these things for a long while. We have to take him down." Zonda states as she readies her cards.
"One or two of us should fight him while the rest handle this army." Tenjian advises while drawing his blades.
"I'll face him." G.V. volunteers with determination.
"Me too." Acura readies his gun wanting to fight the callous fiend who only cares about his own life.
"But G.V.!" Elise pleads wanting to fight with him.
"Elise, it's best if you stay with the others. They can protect you while you heal them from any damage these bots might give them." Gunvolt insists as he looks at her with a serious tone.
"H-hai." she reluctantly agrees as the co-leaders go to confront Merak.
"We can't let any one of these tin cans interfere with their battle!" Lola declares as she and the others charge to fight the robots while also protecting Teseo.
G.V. and Acura reach the roof of the main building's first floor that's wide enough to be a fighting ground a few meters away from Merak.
"The Azure Striker and The Wild Card, of course I'll be facing the two most troublesome ones." Merak sighs in exasperation.
"Surrender and we won't have to kill you!" Gunvolt gives him their ultimatum since he definitely doesn't want to kill a thirteen year old.
"As much as I don't want to fight, there's a lot riding on Sumeragi's operations here that I can't afford to have you terrorists ruin everything." Merak answers while shrugging his shoulders.
"Is it that Project Eden that Teseo told us about, what is it exactly?!" Acura demands the headphone wearing teen.
"He told you that much? Why bother? You're all going to be dead soon enough anyways." Merak says before revealing his tarot card in his hand.
He holds the card upside down which depicts two hands holding a flame in midair with two eyes looking down at it with the infinity symbol above. On the bottom has the Roman numeral for the number one on it.
"The Magician." G.V. mutters loud enough for his teammate to hear.
"Come forth! Unwavering Spirit!" Merak summons his Glaive that appear near him before throwing his tarot card at its jewel.
The Glaive absorbs the card causing the jewel and line patterns to glow blue before Merak grabs the hilt and holds with the blade point up.
"PERSONA!"
"THE SLOTHFUL CONJURER!"
His eyes glow blue before he's engulfed by a black aura with blue outlines shoots upwards. Merak has gained black eyes with blue irises, and his hair turns a bright blue, with dark blue horn-like appendages attached to his head. He wears dark blue armor with glowing light blue highlights, and white gloves.
This surprises Gunvolt and Acura considering Merak doesn't really look all that threatening nor does he have any weapons of any kind on him.
"Yeah yeah I know. I don't look impressive at all. That's why Sumeragi scientists and engineers helped me make this." Merak says as a portal appears above him.
What came out of the portal is a hovering chair that looks like a throne with big mechanical arms and what looks like a mouth with metal teeth on the bottom.
Merak jumps up to where one is suppose to sit before doing so with one leg crossed over the other with his arms on the arm rests while one hand is holding the side of his head because he's too lazy to even use his neck muscles.
'That's something completely different.' Acura notes as most weapons Persona-users use are either guns or melee weapons and not a hovering mech.
"Like it? I thinks it's rad, and by infusing it with my Septima I can control it with just my thoughts." Merak boasts as the Armed Chair's arms to the knuckle cracking gesture to show that he means business now despite the bored look on his face.
STRIKE!
"Alrighty, let's do this thing. Niiice and easy now. Chair Punch!" the right arm of Merak's chairs thrusts towards the two by being extended with an energy chain.
Both Gunvolt and Acura dodged on opposite sides as the fist hit the floor of the roof.
"What's his deal...?" Acura wonders in confusion as despite this being a fight to the death Merak is still being flippant.
"He's just messing with us. Flash Field! Zionga!" G.V. marks the chair itself because he could target Merak from the angle he in before unleashing three streams of electricity at it.
The Armed Chair takes damage but it seems to be very durable most likely that it was built to take on even military grade weapons. There also seems to a protective personal shield around Merak himself which is why he isn't getting hurt from the electric attack.
"Not really... I'm just not trying. Waaay too much effort to go all out on even you guys. Ya see, I'm a super genius. So I really hate doing stuff myself." Merak responds to what they said as his chair throws more punches with both of its fists.
Getting hit even once would really hurt. Thankfully the speed of each fist throw was slow enough that the two could predict when to evade.
"Then why do all this? Why are you working for Sumeragi in the first? Why not stay home and avoid all this hassle?" Acura questions as he fires several rounds of elemental bullets at the chair which is able to block them with its arms.
"That would be super legit. But, no work means no food. Man, real life is the worst game ever. Thank Nova that the Metaworld exists. Now I can eat whatever types of food I want and not exercise and I'll still have a fit healthy body because I wish it to be." Merak answers with a tone that actually sounds excited and not bored.
"That's why you're working Sumeragi?! You're willing to kill your own men just for that?! Do human lives mean nothing to you?!" Acura shouts just as outraged as when Teseo confronted Merak about that.
"Whoa man, take a chill pill. You guys are like, the lamest of the lame... With extra lame on top. Worry about human lives? I can't be bothered with that drivel. All I want is a maxin' relaxin' life. Is that too much to ask for?" Merak's mood goes back to being exasperated.
"If that's what you want, allow my lightning to help you with that." G.V. says in a threatening tone.
"Duuude... You really need to lighten up a bit... Ugh, you're making me tired. Would you two just hurry up and die?" Merak creates a portal in front of him before his Chair's arms enter it.
From above Gunvolt and Acura, six portals appears and out of each of them are the arms of the Chair with their hands open because Merak can use his portals to multiply whatever comes through it.
"Wormhole Chair Missiles!" at his declaration while using one of his hands to make a gun gesture, each pair of metal hands starts firing missiles from the palms at the targets.
"Flash Field!" both QUILL members activate their spheres of electricity as the barrage explode on contact.
After five seconds the arms retract through the portals before closing with the original back on the Chair. It would seem that after it expends all of its missiles Merak's Armed Chair needs to recharge before firing more again.
After deactivating their electric fields the two prepare for their counter attack.
"I'll let you have that honor, Merak... Oversurge! Azure Striker! This is your final rite, depraved soul!" the two then dash towards the lazy bear who's sitting on his high horse.
Back down on the ground floor the others are fighting off the waves of robots that are attacking them while Elise heals then whenever they take damage.
"Vortex Rush!" Nimrod traps several soldiers and drones in his whirlpools.
"Suit of Diamonds! Mazionga!" Zonda electrifies them with her cards.
"Freezing Splitting Slash!" Tenjian dashes across the battlefield weaving passed hails of bullets and missiles from some Mantises before cutting them to pieces to expose their cores.
"Viper Throw!" Elise throws her kunai at several soldiers on key point of their bodies where they would go down quickly like the head and neck.
Meanwhile Lola has her dome barrier up so Teseo wouldn't get hurt or even killed.
"If G.V. and Boss doesn't take out Merak soon than we'll all be in trouble." Lola states as more portals open up to reveal more robots.
After venting out his rage Teseo is on his knees with his head down not paying attention to the battle around him.
He thought back on his life where he gained interest in technology, mostly computer programming, and loves to interacting in social media networks. He spent most of his childhood making video rants about anything popular and bashing it with trollish comments that earned him a lot of infamy and haters.
It wasn't until two years ago that Sumeragi scouted him for his expert computer skills like cracking and hacking that he was finally acknowledged for his genius. When he was transferred to Neo Tokyo and was made privy to the Metaworld, Teseo was ecstatic at the prospect of mental based superpowers.
Even though he was assigned to the Subaquatic Base beneath Neo Tokyo Bay, he still enjoyed studying Shadows which spawn from the more wild side of the human consciousness. With him having the potential to be a Persona-user, it was only a matter of time before he can become something like a superhero you see on television/movies/comics.
However, that reality was shattered when Merak decided to just discard him and his colleagues as sacrificial pawns so he wouldn't have to fight all of his enemies.
To make a long story short, Teseo's worldview in regards to the Sumeragi group has collapsed into rubble.
"Was I a fool all this time?" he whispers to himself as he looks around seeing SHEEP squad battling against the lazy bear and his robot army all around him.
"Am I really going to die because of a bunch of assholes who were just using me?" Teseo doubts Merak would let him live after he blatantly said he doesn't care about the lives of others.
"No! I won't let it end like that!" he stands up with a look of anger and determination on his face.
"There's no way I'm going to die fore those assholes! Not until I get back at them!" he declares as a blue light flashes before him.
The source of light is a tarot card that appears floating before Teseo who then grabs with his right hand.
"Chair Assault!" Merak charges towards in order to ram Gunvolt and Acura with his chair.
Gunvolt and Acura manages to evade what would be the equivalent to a speeding car. The former notices a bright blue glow from the ground bellow and sees Teseo holding a card in his hand.
The card Teseo is holding depicts a three story column shaped building with the top level destroyed by a bolt of lightning with two people, a man and a woman, falling from it and the Roman numeral for the number sixteen on the bottom.
"The Tower!" at this point G.V. shouldn't be surprised that someone is awakening their Persona in the midst of a battle.
"Heh heh! If I didn't know any better, I just went through a small character arc." Teseo states in an amused tone as he knows what to do next.
"I am thou, thou art I... Let me shatter all of these arrogant Sumeragi dogs' illusions!" he shouts to the heavens as the card enters his chest.
"PERSONA!"
"THE SERIAL EXPERIMENT!"
A bright blue flash and shockwave erupts blasting several solders and drones away as Lola and the Persona-users stop fighting to see what happened.
When the light dies down, Teseo's Persona form is now visible to see. He's gained dark green hair with a long, thorny ponytail that ends in a drill-like spike, and black eyes with green irises with no pupils. He is covered in black and green armor, with particular emphasis on his lower body. His knees, feet, and elbows have dark green spikes. Teseo also wears a black crown that is lined with thorns.
Floating behind him just above his shoulder are what looks like two large spools of green thread with needles attached in the middle. These are Teseo's main weapons called Bits though different from Lola's which are floating spheres.
"Heh! Always wondered what it's like to look down on other!" Teseo jests as he starts floating in midair.
"Yareyare, are you kidding me?" Merak couldn't believe how convenient that the only survivor of his purge awakened his Persona right now.
"No I'm not Merak! And don't say this is a Deus Ex Machina either!" the new Persona-user exclaims as the two Bits float in front of him with the needles point downwards as holographic monitors and keyboards appear on top of each.
Several of the robots seeing another unregistered Persona-user in their sights aim to attack him.
"With my Septima, Hack the Planet, I can even the odds for the guys who didn't leave me for dead!" Teseo types on the holographic keyboards to input his commands causing several smaller Bits to appear on his monitors before appearing in the physical plane and attaching themselves onto any Sumeragi robot with their needles.
"EM Transfer!" with this ability Teseo can create and transfer non-organic objects from computer data into physical matter and vice versa. In this case, he created the smaller Bits so he can control the robots that they've attached themselves onto.
By typing even more commands, the robots he's controlling are now attacking the ones that aren't. Detecting illegal tampering the ones still in Merak's control are now fighting their former units as well.
With less enemies to fight, this gives SHEEP squad some more breathing room.
"Way to go ya little troll!" Nimrod says with a smirk as he strums his harp to shoot his Hydro Zapper at a few Fire Gunners.
Merak watching Teseo aid the members of QUILL is distracted enough that he doesn't notice Acura ready his next attack.
"Hailstorm Blade!" using Tenjian's Septima two ice swords appear on both of the Avenger's hands.
He slashes with both of them creating frozen slash waves that head towards his enemy. Both slashes hit Merak's chair giving it moderate damage with the person sitting on it still shield from all attacks.
"Tch, how annoying. Wormhole Punch!" he opens a portal in front of him before his chair throws a punch into it while still connected with its energy chain.
Acura sensing another portal opening behind him jumps up into the air before a metal fist could punch in the back.
"You're not getting away that easily!" Merak declares as both of his chair's arms continuously punch into the portal in front of him.
Even more portals keep appearing around Gunvolt and Acura. Opening so a punch is thrown before retracting back to do the same thing over and over again.
After avoiding another punch that appeared above, G.V. ends up below Merak and his floating chair.
"Crashbolt!" lightning crashes down hitting Merak's mech enough to see visible damage even though the Persona-user himself is still unharmed.
"Lame... is that the best you can do?" the genius boy sarcastically asks as he floats away from the two.
He once again opens a portal in front of him before throwing a punch into it. However, when next portal appears it's much larger than any of the ones Merak usually creates.
"Wormhole Big Punch!" as he calls out his attack, his chair's arm comes out much bigger than it normally is hitting Gunvolt like a truck.
"Gunvolt!" Acura shouts with worry.
"And another!" a second big portal appears with Acura also getting punched by the giant metal fist.
"GUREN!" Elise seeing G.V.(and Acura) take a huge hit she tries to rush over there to heal him... I mean them.
"Wait Elise! It's too dangerous!" Zonda warns as there's still too many robots blocking their way.
"No worries, I'll give you guys a little boost! Masukukaja!"(Increases party's Hit/Evasion rate) Teseo gives his new teammates enhanced agility allowing Elise to maneuver quickly passed the enemy robots.
With the boost in speed Elise slithers passed the enemy robots and uses her extended arms to reach the upper level and pulls herself up to be in range in order to heal Gunvolt... and Acura.
"Mediarama!" Elise moderately heals the two including herself when she sees them on the floor.
"Sigh, now why did you go and do that? That was the first time I was able to successfully hurt them and now you've rendered all my hard work meaningless. This is exactly why I hate exerting myself. It's just not worth it." Merak laments that SHEEP squad has a healer on their team.
"Typical Merak! Any setback and you either quit or get someone else to do it!" Teseo's range fills a wide radius allowing him to know the entire party's status making him the perfect party navigator that can fight alongside the others.
Merak opens a portal in front of him and sends his chair's arms into it. Afterwards six portals open around Teseo to multiply what comes out of them.
"Wormhole Chair Missiles!" each pair of open palms fires missiles at the floating green haired teen.
In response Teseo summon small floating Bits around himself as they spin clockwise in a circle. Each circle is comprised of six Bits and there are six circles in total that are facing each portal.
"Code Matrix!" from the center of each circle, pairs of needle looking missiles are fired consecutively at the ones that Merak is continuously shooting as they explode in the air cancelling each other out.
"Sigh, all you've just done is waste both of our ammo. All you're doing is delaying my inevitable vict..." Merak couldn't finish his sentence because Teseo tossed his two large main Bits at him like throwing a double-bladed sword at the Armed Chair dealing some damage before returning to him like a boomerang.
"What was that?! I couldn't hear you because you were getting pwned!" Teseo laughs at his joke thinking that it's hilarious.
'It looks like they're evenly matched. Teseo did say that he regularly challenges Merak in video games though I hope he doesn't lose this time.' Acura thought as he stands up with Elise helping G.V. do the same.
"So annoying. You gloat whenever you have the advantage and when you start losing you act like an angry toddler." Merak states before his chair starts charging from its mouth part.
Light whose fell pillars
Leave rifts in the wider world
And lead it toward ruin
LAZY LASER!
A portal opens in front of Merak as his chair's mouth opens and unleashes a large continuous yellow laser into it. Another portal opens above Teseo as the laser shoots straight at him.
"Whoa!" Teseo teleports out of the way in green binary code before he could get hit.
Another portal opens as the laser enters it. This time the next portal opens near Gunvolt, Acura, and Elise.
"Watch out!" G.V. who's being held by Elise pushes her and himself away from the incoming laser while Acura dodges out of the way.
A new portal pathway opens up with the previous one blocking anyway to maneuver when the laser comes towards the fallen couple.
'Not good!' Gunvolt covers Elise with his body hoping that he would be able to shield her from the devastating attack.
"G.V.!" Elise couldn't believe that her crush is willing to sacrifice himself in order to save someone like her.
"EM Transfer!" Teseo spawns two Wheel Drones that pick up both Gunvolt and Elise jus before the laser can harm them.
Seeing Teseo create drones out of computer data, Merak couldn't help but complain as his laser finally stopped to cool down.
"You can literally create virtually anything like some cheat skill in a video game? What a drag." Merak sighs as he tries to Chair Punch the computer hacker with his mech's fists.
"It's only cheating if there's rules to break, which there aren't!" Teseo shoots back as he uses his index finger to point up.
Merak looks up to see several small Bits above him with the needles pointed downward.
"Circuit Rain!" the Bits fires green lasers that bend and spit making a pattern one would see on a circuit board that hits Merak's chair damaging it more with the personal shield still keeping the blue haired boy safe.
"Arrogant Fang!" Acura takes advantage of Merak being distracted by firing a quick beam hitting chair before shooting the plasma blade itself at it spins like a drill.
Merak seeing the drill aiming towards himself and not the chair creates a wormhole and enters it before closing just before the drill reaches its target.
'Looks like there's a limit to how much damage the shield could take.' Acura thought since Merak actually moved to evade rather than let the shield take the hit.
'If we can take down his shield than Merak would be vulnerable and we can win this.' Gunvolt thought with he and Elise standing back up.
More portals open up with more Sumeragi robots entering the battle overwhelming the ones that Teseo is in control of.
"I don't know how much longer I can fight!" Zonda exclaims as she and her mirror copies throw their elemental cards at the drones hovering in the air.
Lola, Nimrod and Tenjian agree as they both slice apart any enemy robots that tries to attack them.
Merak pops out of a portal that he opens high above the battlefield. Teseo, who can float, is the only one who can reach him in this height. After he deals with the former Sumeragi employee, the Merman is his next target.
'That way, once they're dealt with I'll just activate the entire facility's self-destruct which would take care of the rest.' he thought since it's not like Nova didn't do something similar like when he destroyed the Pharma Lab.
"You won't get away that easily!" Teseo teleport to Merak's level but more surprisingly he's using his small Bits to make green solid light platforms for G.V. and Acura to use to reach Merak as well.
Elise who returned helping the others looks up with worry for a second before continuing to support them.
"You're not going anywhere!" Acura declares with determination to finish this battle.
"I'm surprised you haven't gone back to Babel Tower or any other Sumeragi owned territory." Gunvolt wonders why Merak is still here even though he no longer has the advantage.
"That's because he doesn't have the amount of Septima he needs to make a wormhole that would reach the surface from here." Teseo explains to them from his analysis that the distance from where Merak is to where he want to go would cost more Septima than he currently has.
"In other words, he's already exhausted himslef to the point where he can't leave here using his portals." Acura simplifies his new ally's explanation.
"Bingo! Now let's end this! Time for my super special move!" Teseo proclaims as he charges up his Septima.
Let a voice cry out:
All Hail He Who Weaves The Code!
For his realm is sealed
IMPREGNABLE FORTRESS!
Several Bits circle around Merak in a sphere preventing him from moving freely with the side where the needle are on are pointed opposite of him. Afterwards each Bit starts shooting at the chair sitting kid with what Teseo would call data bombs that are spherical in shape that explode on impact.
Merak mentally commands his chair to guard him by using its arms to block the incoming bombs. The Chair and Merak's shield tank the barrage of bombs being thrown at him as each Bit moves around.
"Let's give Teseo a hand Gunvolt!" Acura calls out to his team's leader.
"Roger!" the two tag Merak's Armed Chair with their darts and unleash streams of electricity at the mech that still being bombarded with the hacker's attacks.
"Got to find a way out of this." Merak mutters looking around for an escape.
As the Bits get closer and closer to him, Merak sees an opening where he can get out of the sphere of floating spools of thread. He makes his chair move quick enough so that he slips out of the Bits' attacks.
"Gotcha!" Teseo boasts as the needles from each of his Bits are charging up their next attack.
From each needle fires continuous laser beams that look like computer code which Teseo would call his Bug Death Laser attack but with more lasers. He also makes sure none of them would hurt his allies.
'Out of the frying pan and into the fire' is the phrase best suited to explain the situation Merak finds himself in as instead of explosions his chair is now taking damage from lasers. Though each individual laser isn't as strong as his Lazy Laser, the sheer number of them assaulting his mech is really doing a number on it.
It also didn't help that his chair was also getting electrocuted by the two other Persona-users standing on the green hard light platforms.
'I don't know how much more this thing can take.' Merak grits his teeth in frustration at being pushed to the brink of exhaustion(at least to him).
"Wormhole Big Punch!" his chair's arms go through a portal one at a time trying to punch his three opponents with enlarged metal fists.
This time however, G.V. and Acura knows what coming and are able to evade the attacks by jumping from all of the platforms Teseo made while he himself teleports out of the way.
"Useless! Now for the finally!" Teseo declares as the Bug Death Lasers stops as all the Bits surround Merak once again before unleashing a final barrage of data bombs before disappearing finally ending his Impregnable Fortress special move.
As the smoke clears they see that the Armed Chair is still floating but very battered. More importantly they see that Merak's personal shield flicker before vanishing much to his shock and horror.
"Looks like you're out of lives Merak! Sparky! End this!" Teseo shouts for Gunvolt to do the finishing blow.
"Roger that!" he replies as his Septima surges all around him.
Bolts of rebellion
A thunderous voice in his heart
Speak of one true law!
VOLTAIC CHAIN!
Suddenly, large chains appear all around Merak who couldn't do anything with his Armed Chair too damaged to maneuver. Each chain wraps around the mech with the kid sitting on it having the look of fear at what's about to happen.
"I hate to do this, but you did kill your own men just to take the easy way out. It's just karma." G.V. says before he touches one of the chains and unleashes a powerful electrical surge into it.
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!
"...?! Getting... sleepy..." are his last words before he and his throne mech...
BOOM
explodes into blue particles until all that remains is his Glaive which stops glowing blue as cracks appear all over it before disappearing in a flash of light.
A small blue particle of Septima then makes it way to Acura's shield before being absorbed.
"Boss battle over! Now to deal with the stragglers!" Teseo began typing at a high speed on the holographic keyboard of his two main Bits in order to create something that would take out all of the Sumeragi robots.
While the rest of the team aren't overwhelmed by the large army of robots, they're starting to get exhausted with half of their Septima already used up. At least there are no more portals appearing to bring in more enemies.
Suddenly a large black sphere that resembles one of those old time fuse bombs you'd see on cartoons drops down in the center of the wave of killer machines.
3
2
1
BAM
Instead of a fiery explosion when the bomb detonated, a wave of electricity spread throughout the battle field hitting every robot in a wide radius. This caused every machine to immediately shutdown since the blast was a electromagnetic pulse.
Thankfully, Lola who's more of a person rather than a machine in her humanoid form was not affected by it.
And with that, SHEEP squad has conquered the Subaquatic Base.
"Thank you! Thank you! Your praise and admiration are completely welcomed!" Teseo announces as he floats down with the green platform Gunvolt and Acura are on.
"G.V.!"
"Boss!"
Elise and Lola rush to their respective partners with both happiness and concern since they just survive a hectic battle after all.
Zonda, Nimrod, and Tenjian casually walk up to their newest unofficial member of the team.
"Not bad at all Mr. Troll." Nimrod pats the back of Teseo's back causing him to wince a little.
"I would be suspicious of you if you hadn't helped us defeat Merak. It seems Sumeragi would really do anything if it meant achieving their goals." Tenjian states deciding to give the computer expert the benefit of the doubt.
"I'm beginning to worry about the people they've 'rescued' during the Media Tower Incident." Zonda says hoping that their are no secret experiments or something going on with those civilians.
"Let's not worry about that now and take a break. We've been running and fighting for a while now." Gunvolt advises as the team does that.
"We should go to the main control room, the main computer should be up there." Acura states as the group enters the building and up the elevator.
When they reached the top, everyone notices how messy the main control room actually is.
"Ew, there's so much garbage everywhere!" Lola exclaims as she sees dozens of chip bags and empty soda cans littering the place.
"You'd expect someone like Merak to have cleaner robots to take care of the place." Nimrod wonders why the kid doesn't have them or even use his wormholes to dump them where the trash would go.
"Never mind that. Let's just access the computer and gather all the data it has." Zonda states as they walk up to it.
Acura types on the keyboard of the main console in order to access the computer but...
"Looks like it's heavily encrypted, unless I have the password, we won't be able to access the files." he states to the others.
"Let me handle this. I knew Merak enough that I think I know what his password could be." Teseo proclaims as he walks up to the console that shows that the password has eight inputs.
"Hmmm." he hums as he thought of the password that his former boss of this place would use.
"I got it!" he exclaims as he moves his finger to type in the password.
1...1...1...1...1...1...1...1
'Access Granted'
"Of course." Zonda sighs not sure why she's disappointed that it was so simple.
"Alright, uploading data." Teseo attaches a small Bit that acts like a USB drive onto one of the computer's ports in order to copy all of the information.
"We should probably disable the jamming device that's preventing us from communicating with our friends on the surface." Gunvolt advises his new ally.
"Sure... let's see... oh, here it is." Teseo finds the program that controls the jamming device and turns it off.
"Xiao, are you there?" G.V. talks into his earpiece.
"G.V.! Thank goodness!" Xiao along with Monica, Gino, and Nowa are relieved that they have communications back.
"Is everyone okay?!" Monica asks with worry in her voice.
"We're all okay. The Sumeragi Persona-user separated us to different parts of the facility. Even when he flooded those areas, we've managed to reach the main area and fought him along with a new ally." Gunvolt explains the basics of what happened.
"New ally?" Gino asks as there would be only people who work for Sumeragi in that base.
"That would be me!" a holographic screen appears to reveal Teseo to the support team.
"Who are you?" Nowa questions suspiciously.
"Names Teseo! Master hacker and programmer extraordinaire!" he boasts with the four not being very impressed.
"Never mind him, we're uploading the data from the computer." Acura gets back on track.
"Yeah, Teseo told us that Sumeragi's goal in regards to the Metaworld involves something called Project Eden. Hopefully there's information about it here." Nimrod reveals to the others.
"Project Eden?" Zonda asks curiously.
"Let's see... Ah! Here it is!" Teseo finds the files for Project Eden that Merak kept that was the most heavily guarded of all and brought it up for them, even the support crew to see.
The file is actually a video that showcases what Project Eden actually is. First it shows Babel Tower with the Metaworld Field Generator encompassing the entire city of Neo Tokyo.
"So covering the entire city within the Metaworld is only the first phase of their plan." Tenjian surmises from what they're seeing.
The second phase involves finding the one who possesses the Muse Septima which is the ability to enhance the strength of virtually anything that has power. Dr. Kamizono's research indicates that there's one human being currently within Neo Tokyo who possess that Septima though the identity of that person is currently unknown.
"So it was father who discovered the existence of the the Muse." Acura mutters feeling dejected at being reminded of how his father was duped into this horrible plan.
Then the third and final phase starts showing. The Muse is then placed into a pod from a device where their power would be siphoned in order to empower the large Metaworld Field Generator. This will cause the radius of the generator to expand allowing the Metaworld to cover even more of the Earth.
This also causes Babel Tower to grow taller with the power of belief and desire until it reaches the atmosphere and when the Metaworld dome reaches the other Sumeragi Headquarters in other countries they'll also grow and contribute with their own generators until the Metaworld takes over the real world completely.
Everyone watching this is either intrigued or horrified at the Sumeragi group's true goal.
Completely replace the real world with the Metaworld.
"We have to go back up." is the only thing Guren says after the few moments of silence.
We've infiltrated another Sumeragi facility and managed to defeat another one of their Persona-users with the help of a new ally but discovered the truth to why the entire organization is doing all of this. They want to replace the real world with the Metaworld regardless of the Shadows and any future Persona-users with questionable morals. We all eventually returned to our home base to discuss what our next move will be.
End of chapter
Persona User Database
Name: Merak
Persona: The Slothful Conjurer
Septima Power: Wormhole, allows him to create portals in the fabric of space and travel long distances in an instant.
Major Arcana: The Magician(Reversed)
Glaive: Unwavering Spirit
Resists(Armed Chair): Slash, Bash, Pierce, Agi, Bufu, Zio, Garu
Weak To: None but can be exhausted very easily
x
Name: Teseo
Persona: The Serial Experiment
Septima Power: Hack the Planet, allows him to manipulate computer data by turning computer data into physical matter and vice versa.
Major Arcana: The Tower(Upright)
Resists: None
Weak to: None
Important characters
The Fool 0(Upright): Acura Kamizono
The Magician I(Reversed): Merak(Deceased)
The Empress III(Upright): Lola, Monica, Nowa, Ouka, (Gino and Xiao technically count)
The Emperor IV(Reversed): Iota(Deceased)
The Hierophant V(Upright): Tenjian
The Lovers VI(Upright): Zonda
The Hermit IX(Upright): Elise
The Strength XI(Upright): Guren Val
Death XIII(Reversed): The Reaper
The Temperance XIV(Reversed): Stratos(Deceased)
The Devil XV(Reversed): Shiden Tsukuyomi
The Tower XVI(Upright): Teseo
The Star XVII(Upright): Michiru Kamizono
The Moon XVIII(Upright): Nimrod
