Unmei Force Solitary Legends: Steel Avengers

Chapter 4: The Stains of Space and Time

Outside the sewer system…

The dropship arrived, carrying the rest of the group, as Jack, Gus, Red Wolf, Black Wolf, and all the kids that were freed came out of the sewers.

"Hot damn you guys made it!" Siege said with a smile, but then noticed Gus's darkened expression, as did Líf, who jumped down and walked up to Gus, whose expression was dark.

"Hey, Alex. What happened down there? What's with the look?" Líf asked as the kids got on the dropship to be hauled to safety.

"Child soldiers. That's all you need for context." Gus responded back stonily, before walking towards where Richard is, who quickly understood the underlying meaning, and Líf did too.

"Yeah, I don't think that-" Richard agreed, before Erika butted in.

"...Before you ask, I was reading a file from what I got, and to say that I'm angry… is an understatement." Erika declared, as her expression was cold. "What did the saying go? 'Heads will roll'? Oh, trust me, the heads of Desperado will roll. Being confined as a bargaining chip is hard enough for a kid, but being conditioned like this… It is a fate that no sane person would force onto someone else. It is basically cruelty to the highest extent."

"No doubt." Boris said, popping up next to Erika on the codec, also angered at this.

"And we're going to make those heads roll." Líf said, seeing Erika pull up the car from before, both of the Wolves hopping in, as did Jack and Gus, Líf riding atop the car to go with them.

"Hey! Where the hell are you three going!?" Siege yelled at his allies as the car revved up.

"We're going to finish this shit. You get those kids to safety, pronto, especially George!" Jack said to the group as he floored it, the group of five speeding away to their next destination.

Richard then turned to Siege, before placing a hand on his shoulder. "Come on, we got a job to do. Besides, trust Alex on this, when he's like this… It's going to be quite hard to stop him alone. With a lot more than himself...Well, let's say that it's a bad day to be Desperado."

Siege then nodded, before he then gestured for the children to follow, as they led them towards their hide-outs, as any civilians nearby would think that the group were some sort of refugee group being guided by officials. Reisen made sure that no-one followed them back, stealthily shooting down any cyborgs or Desperado machines that tried to follow them.

But then the group noticed something. Thrasir was nowhere to be seen… where did she go?

"Hey, Therese was here a moment ago!" Siege said in concern, when he heard the sound of a bike revving up, as Thrasir hijacked a bike, and rode away after the group. "HEY! Therese! Not you too- ahhh fuck… she's already gone."

Richard could only pinch the bridge of his nose, shaking his head in disappointment.

On the road to the World Marshal HQ at Denver, Colorado…

Lif, Gus, Jack, and the Wolves were inside the car, as they were moving along the highway into the city. Thrasir wasn't too far behind, but the trio didn't know she was following yet. Just then, George called them via codec.

"Ey ninja man and gadget boy! Wassup?" George asked as he called them. "Oh? Who riding on da roof uh dere? 'Nother ninja man?"

"Yeah, his name's Erick." Jack answered back. "He's with us, so don't worry."

"Hey there. You doing okay?" Líf asked George.

"Never better, nah!" George replied excitedly. "Your mons did a real good job. No pain, no more fuh starve while dem hungish bais eat, an mi neva feel so awake, nah?"

"Calm yourself down. We're keeping your blood sugar levels regulated with some help." Richard's voice rang through the background, as George eyed to the direction where he was.

"Anyway, mi bin hear yuh all go a walack dem skunt a dere base." George continued.

"That's right." Gus responded back. "We're taking the fight to them. Just sit tight. We'll end all of this quickly."

"Right… Mi believe in ya all." George answered back, before the codec call ended.

"So… Would you like to tell me what got you like this? Siege told me that you are never like this before much." Jack asked Gus.

"...I've seen very terrible things, Raiden." Gus answered back solemnly. "I've seen a town get nuked under implications of a nuclear device hidden amongst it, under Ri- Rai's own command. And I've seen the ugliest facets of betrayal and genocide. I've seen a lot of bad stuff, and I felt like that being merciful won't help. Rai made sure that lesson was clear long before we left our homeworld."

"...I see." Jack answered back. "So you got your own mental baggage."

Gus nodded gently, as he looked out of the window a moment, as he could swear that a painful memory resurfaced inside of him.

'Help us…! HELP US! PLEASE! HELP US!'

'We can't leave this be like this, Richard! We need to-'

'We're moving.'

'What!? But… what about…'

'Those devices will kill them regardless of what you try. And it will be painful either way. If not more if you try to interfere and break them free.'

'But… But…'

'Don't worry… We'll make them pay for this… I swear it upon the lives lost here… And your honour, Gus… We won't let them force this onto more of our men.'

'...Understood.'

"...I really do…" Gus muttered silently, as if continuing his own memory, before he then noticed a police car moving to their side. "Hn!?"

"RAIDEN! ALEX! DUCK!" Líf yelled, before the policeman in the passenger seat fired, only to get shot at by Thrasir from behind. "Therese!? What the hell are you-"

"Just never mind! Keep driving!" Thrasir yelled, as Raiden floored the gas pedal.

Suddenly, the car's comms showed Erika. "I assume that you got trouble on your tail?" She asked the group.

"No shit!" Raiden shouted back, as he saw that there was a horde of police-cars behind them.

"Good. I've got something for that." Erika answered back, before the passenger seat lowered a large screen, and several controls appeared on the sides of the seat, as Gus observed each of them.

Outside their chair, the sides and the top of the car revealed armaments, as there were missiles and vulcan turrets installed on them, as Lif moved slightly aside to allow room for the vulcan turret, as it seemed like it could be manually operated by him.

"What… What is this?" Lif asked back.

"I knew that you were walking right into the hornet's nest. So I took the liberty of giving this vehicle some offensive power to deal with whatever tries to get in your way." Erika answered back. "This kind of control format should be familiar with you, Alex."

"I understand, but wouldn't that-" Gus tried to argue, while adjusting the weapon controls.

"Don't bother. The law and military here are bought out by Marshal." Erika answered back. "So they're all after your head regardless of what you do. And as a matter of fact… FUCK them. I'm done playing nice with those bastards who would dare to go this far. Tear them all to pieces, you'll have 110% more support from me, now that I have a motivation to really take this seriously."

"You learned to swear…" Gus remarked. "Doesn't matter now. Raiden, keep the car moving along. I got the weapons under control."

"Will do," Jack answered back, before they then entered the city, before Gus opened fire with the car's weapons, as they tore through the vehicles behind them with explosions, while Lif was operating the top turret with his arms, shooting through the windscreens of the pursuit cars to kill their passengers and drivers.

Soon, the group reached a blockade. However, Gus already had a proper lock on the barricade, launching a full salvo of missiles that obliterated it and anything or anyone near it. They soon made their way through the burning wreck that was an obstruction, before they skidded to a halt, along with Thrasir, who leapt off her bike.

The group exited the car quickly, just as many patrol cars surrounded the area in front of them, as police officers holding guns emerged from them. However, under Erika's control, the top turret tore through a number of them, before it was shot to pieces by the combined fire.

"Military cyborgs of unknown designation: You are not licensed to operate in this area!" The leading officer declared. "You're in violation of state and federal law!"

Jack smirked when he heard this, looking at his companions. "Well why don't you just arrest us?" Jack mocked with a cocky grin.

The leading officer then growled back. "18-3-104.7 'Threatening a Police Officer'. Deadly force is authorised!" The lead police officer declared, before the officers pulled out what seemed to be electric batons, which sparked with enough electricity to kill a person with a single moment of contact.

However, their advance was cut short by Gus and Thrasir gunning down them quickly and efficiently, while the Wolves tore through their torsos with their HF-Blades. When the fight was over, the entire police force in the area was dead.

"As per orders, we will scout ahead." Red Wolf declared, before it and Black Wolf made their way through an alley.

"Alright, let's go." Said Líf, preparing HF Sokkvakebr to go forward.

Soon, the group encountered several GRADs moving their way, except they seemed to be mass-produced versions of the GRAD that Jack and Gus fought down at the Desperado lab.

"These things aren't so tough." Líf said, looking at them, as he and Thrasir began blitzing them with attacks, rendering all their armors scrapped in a matter of seconds, before Líf cleaved them all in two.

"Well, you sure got the law here riled up. They heard the commotion, and are upgrading the security levels around here." Erika responded back. "Good news, the more you deal with here, the less you'll have to deal with when you get inside World Marshal HQ."

"Understood." Gus responded back, before the group made their way through the streets, as there was indeed waves of cyborg police officers blocking their way forward. However, to the group, they were simple obstructions, as tearing through all of them took no time at all.

They soon reached the inside of a building, as Jack contacted Boris.

"By the way, Boris. Fancy having you watching all of this. Reminds us the first time we had this rodeo, eh?" Jack asked Boris.

"I do recall the conversation back then. But these are different circumstances. We don't have publicity to worry about this time. Just get all the brains back, hand them to our medical teams. Any mudaki that tries to get in your way and is responsible for all of this, can be dealt by you as you wish.

"Don't worry, Boris. We've got this handled." Jack responded back, before turning the comms off.

They soon traversed through the building, encountering more cyborg police officers, which were armed much more heavily after re-assessing the group's threat levels, as well as some Gekkos. They even managed to save a civilian that was being held at gun-point by several police-officers, before they reach the rooftop of another building, where there was a elevator that spanned along a tall height.

"Hope you won't mind free-falling rides." Jack joked to the others, before he then sliced the elevator gates on, as the group then stood atop the elevator itself.

As soon as they did, Jack decided to cut the cables holding the elevator up, as the entire elevator cubicle fell down, with its corners sparking massively from the friction, dropping faster than the group, as they were free-falling through the length of the elevator shaft, before both landed on the ground, in darkness.

"...Where are we now?" Lif asked Jack, as he looked around in the darkness, as his enhanced vision allowed him to see through the darkness as if it was daytime. "I can see that we're in some sort of passage, but that's all I can discern."

"This is the old railroad system in this city." Jack responded back, as he activated night-vision, and guided the group along the area. "Denver was a major transport hub in the early years of freight trains. This line we're on? It was originally constructed to transport supplies to an underground factory. Now? It's totally defunct."

"So this is our shortcut to World Marshal HQ?" Gus asked back.

"Damn right it is, and the police aren't thorough enough to poke around here. Desperado however… Well, let's just say that this place isn't alone with just us in it." Jack answered back, before they then made their way along the train tracks, assassinating any Desperado cyborgs patrolling the area from behind in the pitch blackness.

After a while, they managed to find light again, inside a large room, before their comms signalled that the Wolves were calling them.

"Raiden and company. It would appear that your only way forward is to return to the surface from your current position." Red Wolf communicated. "You will exit into an evacuated commercial district when you do so."

"Good. It'll minimise civilian casualities." Gus answered back with a grimace, as if he detested fighting in civilian-filled districts.

"Indeed, security is heavy, but there is no worry about collateral damage." Black Wolf responded back. "Proceed to the right from the exit, you will find a stairway on your right-hand side, which will lead to a shortcut through the World Marshal Headquarters. Do not be distracted by the advertisements. You are not here as tourists."

"Right, right. Don't worry about that. It's not like we have abysmal attention spans." Thrasir answered back with a tired sigh.

The group soon exited out back to the streets, as they found themselves inside the commercial district as the Wolves had informed them about, as they could see that the law enforcement in the area, as well as several of Desperado's machines were already on the patrol.

They then charged their way through the enemy, as the GRADS were taken out by either a direct grenade shot from Gus, or by the blades of Jack or Lif, before they reached the stairway, as they found lot less advanced models of the Wolves, as their only armament was a back-mounted cannon.

"The stock LQ-84 Fenrir. Unable to speak. A real dog has a far greater intellect." Black Wolf noted.

"It is truly surprising that it requires a sophisticated AI to turn us from this." Red Wolf answered back. "It would be insulting if there is any comparison between us, especially after all the modifications that Erika has implemented on us."

Gus then rolled his eyes, before he then destroyed one with a head-shot from his shot-gun, before the others took care of the other LQ-84 models, as well as the cyborgs accompanying them.

As soon as they reached the top of the long stairway, they saw several advertisements flicker around the area, before they all showed Jetstream Sam's visage.

"Seriously now, Valhalla Company… Isn't this a bit much?" Sam remarked, as the group looked at the advertisement boards, as they slowly proceeded through the area.

"Here we go again…" Jack grumbled, as he certainly remembered this part of his mission, which was one of the moments he did not like reliving.

"Looks like our dear lab director is gone without a trace. That's quite scarily thorough, don't you think?" Sam continued. "And now you're all here, some group of saints, fighting for the poor children."

They soon reached a plaza, as there was multiple advertisements boards at every angle they looked, all of them hacked by Sam.

"Hahahaha. Please. What do you all expect to accomplish here?" Sam mocked the group. "Play savior to a bunch of brains… and what? Earn some medals for it? Think about it, all of you. No matter how many Mexican kids we cut or Africans we bury, the first world looks away. No one gives a shit. Not the media, not the politicians, and CERTAINLY not the average Joe! All of them are too busy fretting over money, sex, religion or fame…"

Suddenly, the holographic projector then changed to show Sam's full body standing on it. "Ah, but you're men on a mission, aren't you all…?" He continued. "Gonna fix everything, just you and your little swords and guns there. Solve everything with violence, is that it?"

"You're not wrong." Gus responded back, before he then cocked his shotgun. "But don't act as if there is a chance to turn back from all of this. The time to sit down and negotiate has long passed, and I certainly won't expect you to do the same for us. So don't try to mock us for responding to violence with violence."

"Really? Then lemme ask you: All these cyborgs you've killed, up to now…" Sam replied back, as he placed his fingers together. "Maybe they weren't kids, but they were people."

"And your point being?" Lif asked back with a scoff.

"You ever thought about them?" Sam stated, wagging a finger. "When you're either blowing their brains out or chopping them into hamburger?"

"Of course we do." Thrasir retorted back with a scowl to Sam. "But to Erick and I, the deaths of people, maybe some good people, are insignificant when we weigh the odds."

"What's more valuable? Killing perhaps 100 good people to kill the bad ones, or sparing them and letting those bad ones ruin the lives of thousands, or even millions of others?" Líf asked. "We consider these deaths and who they may have been, sure, but if we kill some, perhaps it ensures the lives of many, and no cocky asshole is gonna change our minds."

"So I'm cocky, eh?" Sam chuckled back. "Who do you think a large part of those cyborgs were? They made their choice signing along the dotted line of their PMC contract. You think that the kids have it worse than our cyborgs? Most of them are no strangers to war. In fact, it's because of it, they already lost a limb or organ, or some of both. Many times, they were out of work and starving on the streets. So yes… They sign up for surgery to fight God-Knows-where. How else would you provide for your family when your country's embroiled in civil war? They had their pain receptors shut down, and fear-inhibiting nanomachines pumped into their heads, and sent right into the blender that you all are…? But they made their choice, haven't they? Nothing to lose sleep over, right?"

"Keep talking, you egotistical bastard." Líf snarled back.. "Keep talking, but don't expect us to react how you want us to. Should we feel sorry for those people we killed? Perhaps we should. But in the end, they chose to be our enemies. And enemies of us get slain so we can get to our true objective. Your goal is trying to stop us by making us feel sorry for those people? Sorry, but I guess to you…" Líf said, pointing Sokkvakebr right at Sam. "We're just heartless bastards? You see us that way, you simple minded foolish excuse for a persuasive speaker. We'll keep doing what we came to do, stopping you and Desperado."

"Oh, is that so? Then we'll see if you have the resolve to back those words up." Sam responded back, before he snapped his finger, then placed a hand to his ears. "Listen… Listen to them… Listen to the choir of the damned."

Líf did listen to the voices that came, as did Thrasir, but when the police officers came, they gave no mind to the voices. Gus however, was intently listening, while Jack just simply observed the situation, ignoring the voices.

"The way he killed all the others… Oh God…"

"Please, God, don't let me die…"

"This isn't fair!"

"I watched my wife and son die… This is all I have left."

"Jesus Christ… What the hell was I thinking? Why would I do this to myself!?"

Líf and Thrasir soon looked at one another, nodding.

"Erika. Remotely disable our pain inhibitors that came with our suits." Líf said with a wicked smile hidden behind his mouth guard.

"Well, it's no hard task. I can imagine what you're trying to do. Wonder what was the need for them. If you were trying to both accumulate pain to enter a pseudo-Ripper Mode, you don't have more than enough of that pain to fuel your bodies with adrenalin-" Erika answered back, before Lif and Thrasir stabbed themselves through their own abdomen. "...Oh."

"Will that do?" Thrasir asked back, beginning to get a darkened expression

"Yep. That will definitely do. Inhibitors off in 3 seconds." Erika responded back, before she then disabled the inhibitors, as Lif and Thrasir thrashed around in agony, as their own blades were tearing them from the inside, before they then tore it out in a spray of blood.

"Oh boy, there's going to be three Rippers right here." Jack smirked, before he then unsheathed his blade.

However, there was no need for Jack to get involved, as Líf and Thrasir both laughed.

"Throw away everything…" Líf began with a chuckle.

~BGM: Fire Emblem Heroes Book III Boss Theme~

"To bring the dead back to life…" Thrasir added with her own chuckle, the two laughing once more as their eyes glowed crimson red.

"SACRIFICE EVERYTHING." Líf and Thrasir said in unison, as they charged, and there was nothing but blood flying everywhere. As the blood flew, the voices and agonizing screams of the victims rang out, but it seemed to fuel Líf and Thrasir, as they laughed with each kill, and intrigued Jetstream Sam very much so. They called his bluff, they proved him wrong.

By the time it was over, Jack turned to Gus, who was silent.

"Hey, you alright… Listen, all that talk, it is just-" Jack tried to assure Gus, who stopped him.

"There is nothing to be said." Gus responded back, as he simply looked thoughtful and had a clear understanding of what Raiden was about to tell him. "Sam said it himself. They CONDITIONED those people to become the ruthless cyborgs that we're fighting. What those voices were, was what they originally were. Desperado drowned those voices out in favour for blood-lust in each of them. There is no remorse killing someone whose original mind was lost."

"...Glad to see that you see it that way." Jack answered back

After Raiden and Gus finished their talk, Líf and Thrasir reverted for the moment, both glaring at Sam and grinning as well. "See? No remorse. No concern. We kill our enemies that threw their lives away, fool." Líf responded back. "Where is your speech now? On how monstrous we are? Where is your talk of how tainted we are? We accept we are tainted, because we have to be. So, what's your response to what you just saw?"

Sam was silent, before he then smirked. "Heh. Come meet me by the World Marshal HQ." He stated, before the holograms and advertisement boards returned to normal.

The group then proceeded to the HQ, as the few cyborgs in their way were taken out without any hesitation from the group, before they found that Sam was waiting right at the front of the skyscraper-like building, while laughing and clapping his hands.

"You know… I think that you deserve proper praise face-to-face for that." Sam laughed. "I never thought that you would have responded to all of this contrary to what I expected! Oh, how very amusing, for a peacekeeping force, you're quite brutal deep inside, no different to all of us other PMC, except for your role in the world. I respect that kind of ruthlessness in all of you. How you burned that director's corpse to a few motes of ashes, how you powered through all that moral talk. You truly are soldiers built for war like me!"

"That's enough." Gus answered back, before he then raised his shotgun. "We're going in, and finishing the job. If you want to get in our way again, then it won't end well this time for you."

"Oh really? I got a few people who would like to disagree." Sam remarked, before several more GRADs, and a assortment of Gekkos, Mastiffs and cyborgs surrounded them.

And to add to all of that, there was a pale skinned indiviudual, which his body was clad in black and red armour with several different splitting joints, as his flowing white hair was outside of his helmet, a red hemi-spherical mask, covering everything but his mouth, on the top of the building.

"How pleased you are to chop away, Valhalla Company." The individual remarked back. "My name is Monsoon, of the Winds of Destruction."

He then leapt from the top of the building, before there was a pinkish static pulse around him, before the parts of his body split apart at the splitting joints along his body, before they then reassembled together slowly upon landing on the ground.

Sam scoffed, while Gus was slightly surprised to see that Monsoon could split himself in many parts. Monsoon himself flexed his arms, then snapping his neck side to side, while looking at the group.

"Feasting on the insides of your enemies. How easily you-" Monsoon was about to say, before Gus fired a shot-gun burst, before his body split apart again before the shot could reach him, as his torso split apart to let the shot sail by harmlessly.

"I prefer that we get to the point. Now." Gus emphasised the word. "We aren't here to debate morals here."

"Ha, kill or be killed, as Phnom Penh has taught me." Monsoon responded back, reforming his body quickly, before pacing along the ground. "War is a cruel parent, but an effective teacher. Its final lesson carved deep in my psyche: That this world, and its people are all diseased. Free will is a myth. Religion is a joke. We are all pawns, controlled by something greater: Memes, the DNA of the soul. They shape our will, and are our culture, everything we pass on. Expose someone to hate long enough, and they will learn to hate. And hate they will, and carry that hate as well. The sins, and despair… all memes, all passed along the generations."

"Heh, how about 'full of shit'? That a meme to you?" Jack mocked back, while Gus reached for something on his back, fiddling with it.

"You can't fight nature, Raiden." Monsoon retorted back. "Wind blows, rain falls, and the strong prey on the weak. That's the rule of nature, running its course as it should. If you're willing to follow all that… Then there is nothing to regret…"

Soon, the machines aimed at the group, before Monsoon pulled out twin sais, twirling them around in his hands. "...And you can all die with a clear conscience." He finished.

"That so?" Gus responded back, before he then fired something into the air, as it seemed to be a sphere of white light, except there was a surging crackling along it. "Then, we'll see how you'll deal with this then!"

The sphere then exploded into a massive blinding surge of light, as the machines themselves were completely shut down by the overwhelming surge of electromagnetic power from the explosion of light. Even Sam was left dazed, and Monsoon was moaning, clutching his head, as his body was temporarily disturbed by the pulse.

Thrasir took the opportunity to approach Monsoon to battle, drawing her blade and smirking as she activated a hidden magic that made her body become like that of Monsoon's, with the quiet yet still sickening sound of flesh being molded silently around her.

~BGM: Stains of Time~

"I'll handle this." Thrasir said with a chuckle as she approached Monsoon, splitting her blade in two as she approached him with a smirk

"Right, we'll leave it to you." Gus answered back, before turning to Lif and Jack. "Let's go, before Sam shakes the effects of this off. That electrical burst should be enough to disable most of the machines around Therese. It's an even fight for her."

Jack and Lif nodded, before the two of them burst through the building doors, while Monsoon recovered in time to block Thrasir's blades with his sais.

"Where did you-" Monsoon answered back, before he then noticed that the others were gone, as he scowled. "DAMN! Sam, get to the chief!"

Sam then finished recovering from the attack, although he was smirking. "Clever boy." He simply stated, before he then rushed after the group.

Thrasir and Monsoon then pushed themselves from each other, before they took combat positions. However, Monsoon smirked, before he then jumped towards Thrasir, and smashed her with his sais, as the woman blocked. Monsoon then jumped back, before the sides of his suit expelled a thick misty smoke around Thrasir, rendering her unable to see anything not near her.

"Fear the unseen much, girl?" Monsoon taunted, before he then jumped out from behind Thrasir.

However, Thrasir blocked the attack with her blade, before she then blocked every ambushing attack that Monsoon tried to throw at her through the fog, as it cleared away naturally.

Thrasir then charged at Monsoon, before she then did a series of attacks onto him, as he still hadn't activated his magnetic bonds to separate his body, taking the full brunt of the hits.

"Ridiculous…" Monsoon growled, before he then did a series of strikes on Thrasir, as she blocked most of them. However, Monsoon's last strike, a downward strikes, did slide past Thrasir's guard, as it struck through her left shoulder, although much to Monsoon's shock, the attack passed through her body, as her body part separated cleanly to let the sai strike pass through her harmlessly, before it then reverted back to normal. "W-What…!?"

Thrasir took the advantage of the shock to drive both of her blades right through Monsoon's chest, as he let out a cry of agony, before she then booted him across the ground with a powerful kick.

"What, you think that you're the only man who came up with that smart idea?" Thrasir taunted back, twirling her blades around.

Monsoon growled, before he then leapt onto a nearby lamp-post, before he then activated his magnetic aura, while the mask itself closed up, and a round segment of it on the front popped out a little. He then leapt from post to post, before standing atop the facility gate itself, and raising an arm. "This one's on me!" He cried, before lifting a disabled heli, and throwing it at Thrasir.

Thrasir then cut through it, before Monsoon threw more vehicles at her, as she sliced them to pieces quite easily. He then jumped into the air, before diving towards Thrasir, who back-stepped to avoid the attack.

"So, you decided to take this more seriously? Don't think that I don't know how to deal with that quirk myself!" Thrasir remarked, before she then slashed at Monsoon, causing him to separate and move his body parts around to dodge the attacks, although when Thrasir smacked him with a back-hand to his head, he suddenly felt that his aura had been disabled, as Thrasir made sure to infuse her strikes with enough electricity to disable the aura.

Monsoon then fell back into the mist again, before then trying to strike Thrasir much more aggressively. However, in doing so, Thrasir managed to get a opportunity to grapple Monsoon in one of his dive-attacks, before then throwing him onto the ground, and slicing through his body at lightning-fast speeds, before then jumping back.

Monsoon then leapt onto one of the walls, before he cackled. "Welcome to my utopia of death!" Monsoon laughed cruelly, before he then threw another set of vehicles onto Thrasir, as she dodged some of them, as there were too many to cut through, even with Zandaitsu active. "Magnetic force! Nature's force!"

Thrasir kept on dodging the thrown vehicles at her, before Monsoon hopped back onto ground, before the battle began anew, as Thrasir took the chance to slide a disruptor clip into one of her hand-guns, before she then shot a single bullet, landing a headshot, as it blasted Monsoon's head away, as the rest of his body fell apart. She then lunged onto the head of Monsoon, as she kicked it up and sliced through it several times mid-air, before she back-flipped to avoid the other parts of Monsoon coming towards her, as the Desperado mercenary rebuilt himself.

"You bitch!" Monsoon screamed in rage, before he then leapt on top of the building entrance, before he reactivated his aura, lifting what seemed to be a large disk-like structure made of crushed-together APCs and tanks. "Lorentz force! Go!"

He then spun the large mass of metal around, before he then rolled it across the ground at grinding speeds, as Thrasir was forced to evade being crushed and grinded under the metal construct, although it wasn't easy when Monsoon was snapping and turning it around sharply, over and over, causing her to make several split-second turns to avoid being hit by it. After a while, Monsoon threw the metal mass away, before jumping back down on the ground.

"You're dead!" Monsoon snarled, before he then finally threw his hands at Thrasir, his hands moving separate from his body, attacking Thrasir from the sides. She countered with both of her blades, before she then decided to pop her own hands off, as the two sets of detached hands decided to deal with each other, as they clashed mid-air around the group.

Thrasir then charged at Monsoon, who detached his legs next, as they stomped towards Thrasir, before attacking with a series of quick kicks, separating the leg parts to extend the range of the attack. However, Thrasir used her own legs to block the attack, moving closer to Monsoon, before then smashing him with a jumping heel-drop kick, infusing her kick with lightning, as it smashed Monsoon's upper body into pieces from the disruption of electromagnetic forces from her attack. Before Monsoon's head could begin to reform his body, Thrasir stomped a foot on the head itself, before smashing it under her foot with blinding speed, before then punting the head right onto the stone pillar, before Monsoon reformed himself, as he looked like that he was running out of energy and stamina to fight, while Thrasir rejoined her hands to her body.

He then growled, before jumping back on the ceiling, before activating his aura for what might be the last time he'll have the power to properly turn it back on, as he then raised both of his hands. "Magnetic force!"

He then summoned two of the same wheeled metal masses, controlling both with all the power he has, rolling and swinging it around the area with a frenzied cry each time. However, Thrasir proved to be too nimble to get directly caught under the attack, although she did have to block herself from the burning debris raining from the breaking metal masses. After a while, Monsoon threw them both away, before then levitating the metal obelisk in the vicinity, and then spun it around, before it turned into a spinning stake. "I'll put you under, bitch!" He cursed at her. "What will you do now?"

Thrasir merely scoffed in response, before she then back-stepped suddenly to avoid the spinning obelisk, as it dug itself into the ground. She then ran up the length of it, before Monsoon threw a series of vehicles towards her, and then jumping with both sais poised to strike.

Thrasir cut through the vehicles with little effort, before seeing Monsoon charge her. "You're dead!" He growled.

"Sorry, but that's the wrong person to say that to!" Thrasir mocked back with a sadistic grin, before she then spun around, and sped herself to kick Monsoon right onto the wall, before she then banged her foot against Monsoon's body several times to daze him, before she then brandished both of her blades. "YOU'RE dead!"

"Stop! Stop it!" Monsoon frantically exclaimed, before Thrasir sliced through him into many pieces, as Monsoon didn't have the energy to reactivate his magnetic bonds, as well as the wall behind him. She then beheaded him, as the body exploded, while Thrasir jumped back onto the ground, while Monsoon's head bounced off the ground several times, before coming to a halt, and was placed under Thrasir's heel.

Battle Results:

Combat: S

Suddenly, Thrasir's comms picked up something, as it was a connection from the dying Monsoon.

"Kill… or be killed... " Monsoon struggled to say, as his voice was already getting staticky from the critical damage he had.

"Don't be ashamed, it's only nature, running its course." Thrasir answered back cruelly. "Your memes… they end here."

"No… I passed one… to you…" Monsoon responded back. "Sure as the sun… will rise… The slaughter… will continue… Now I return… to the earth… Wind blows, rain falls… the strong… prey… on the weak… All… is as it should… be…"

Thrasir scowled, before she then finished the job, crushing Monsoon's head under her heel, leaving behind a mess of electrical components and blood on the ground.

"Good riddance." She remarked, before she then received a comms call from Erika. "Erika, where's Raiden, Alex and Erick?"

"While you've been doing your job finishing Monsoon off, they're already several floors up." Erika responded back. "You might want to hurry if you want to catch up to them."

Thrasir then looked at the side of the building, before she then smirked to herself. "No need. I have my shortcut to them." Thrasir responded back, before she then shut the comms off, before then power-running up the side of the building, in order to regroup with the others.