The Ether Conflict
Chapter 24: Prison Break
"Hanna, target at 2 o'clock! Saori, keep laying suppressive fire!" Miho yells as yet another tank comes out from the entrance of the underground lab, its white metallic body shimmering at the evening sun.
After the Insertion Force had left Odysseus to deal with the three unknown figures that appeared out of nowhere, they covered the rest of the distance without any problems, but when they reached the entrance of the underground lab...all hell broke loose. The entrance was at the foot of a hill with a narrow road leading to a flat area. On the left was another narrow road flanked by other hills on its sides. On the right was a narrow road that lead to the city of Tokyo, which was visible from their position. Despite the decoy attack that was happening in Tokyo, the enemy had positioned a reasonably big force to defend the lab. After arriving, at least 40 soldiers with helmets that had orange lights at where the eyes were supposed to be, "Gears" as they had been nicknamed, due to their computer-like nature of following orders, along with 5 Angel units and 2 Mammoth heavy tanks greeted them with small arms fire and cannon reports. Thankfully, the Insertion Force was led by the modified Type 10, so it tanked most of the shells and bullets, that would have probably ripped the Panzer and the Cerberus tanks to shreds. After 5 minutes, only 30 of the Gears remained and the 2 Mammoth tanks had been destroyed.
"Leave it to us," Reiji says calmly through the radio as the Cerberus moves to the right in order to flank the Mammoth. Being spotted by it, the Mammoth fires its 130mm cannon but misses by a wide margin, the shell crashing on a nearby hill and throwing dirt in the air. Another cannon report is heard and a shell slams on the side of the Mammoth's turret, but due to its angle, the shell makes a small dent at it, before bouncing sideways.
"No penetration," Hana informs Miho and Yukari immediately loads another shell in the gun breach.
"Mako, take us to its left flank. Saori, keep firing the machine-gun, we can't let them near the tank," Miho orders, her voice getting drowned from the sounds of bullets pinging off the tank and the bow machine-gun spraying lead everywhere.
"Roger," Mako says and the tank starts rolling on its left, attempting to flank the Mammoth tank.
"Do these guys get produced in an assembly line or something?!" Saori yells, emptying another box of ammunition at the seemingly endless numbers of enemies. "Reloading!"
As the Type 10 fires another shot at the Mammoth tank, its remote controlled machine-gun at the top of the turret starts unloading its rounds at the Angel units that hover in the air above, preventing them from diving on top of the tanks. The driver of the M1A1 Abrams peeks from the back of the Type 10's turret, where he is taking cover, and a bullet barely misses his head, prompting him to lower his head back in cover to avoid any misfortunate accidents.
"I didn't sign up for any of this!" he yells, as more bullets start hitting the Type 10.
"Quit your whining," the T-90U commander says to him, as she too is taking cover behind the turret.
"I'll whine as much as I want!" he snaps at her.
"Whatever," she says, before noticing one of the Angel units crashing next to the tank. Though his body is quite mangled from the fall, the weapon seems usable, so with no second thought, she jumps from the tank to the ground, grabs the assault rifle that lays near the dead body and bolts back behind the turret, climbing the tank at record times, bullets barely missing her body.
"Are you nuts?!" the M1A1 driver yells incredulously at her.
"At least now I can fight back," she says, peeking at the top of the turret and firing at any Gears she can see.
Meanwhile, the Cerberus has managed to flank the Mammoth, narrowly avoiding shells from it, with one of them miraculously hitting at such an angle, it bounced upwards in the sky, before falling down on earth. Getting behind the Mammoth, the Cerberus rocks sideways as it unleashes a 130mm shell on its engine block, which starts smoking heavily.
"The Mammoth is down," Reiji informs the rest of the Insertion Force, as the Cerberus returns back to the others.
"Copy that, Reiji. Everyone, focus fire on the infantry units! If we defeat them, then we can enter the-" Miho gets interrupted from finishing her sentence, as a loud buzz suddenly feels the interior of the tank.
"What is that?" Saori wonders aloud, failing to notice that the sounds of small arms fire have stopped completely.
"Miss Nishizumi, I think the buzzing is coming from outside," Yukari tells Miho.
"I'll check it out," she says and opening her cupola and pulling her body halfway out, she notices that everyone is looking behind her and to her left. Following their gazes, her jaw drops at the spectacle that unfolds in front of her. In the distance, a huge pillar of blue light rains down on earth through dark clouds that somehow sprouted out of nowhere.
"Miss Nishizumi is someth-" Yukari asks as she exits her hatch to witness the pillar of blue light too.
"What in God's name is this?!" Saori whispers in awe, her eyes widening in amazement.
"Oh my. This is...quite..." Hana trails off, not finding any words to describe how she feels. Mako says nothing, but looks at the pillar with curiosity, trying to understand it.
"I...I think Odysseus might be the one who created it," Miho says slowly, having composed herself enough to speak. "This...pillar...was made from Ether. I could feel its energy from over here and it felt quite familiar to that of Odysseus," Miho explains quietly, still looking at the direction of the pillar.
"That thing is like one of HAVOC's laser strikes!" the Type 10's commander gasps and Yukari's eyes start sparkling.
"You mean the American satellite that was launched some years ago, equipped with a state of the art laser focusing weapon capable of penetrating the atmosphere and annihilating anything the beam hits?!" Yukari screams like a fangirl and everyone gives her weird looks. "What?"
"You sure do know a lot of things," Miho smiles a bit awkwardly and the rest of the girls giggle at that remark.
"Sorry to interrupt your chat, but...where all the soldiers went?" the T90-U commander asks, looking at the now empty lab entrance, its huge metal doors laying open. Everyone looks back at the entrance with confused looks.
"But the soldiers were there just a moment ago," Saori says, baffled at this turn of events.
"Maybe they retreated while we were preoccupied?" Hana suggests.
"Then why leave the entrance open?" Mako counters.
"Hey, where the fuck do you think you are going?!" Miho hears the Type 10's commander yelling through the open channel and Miho notices that a tank is missing.
"Reiji, what's going on?" she says quickly.
"Well...Annabelle was really concerned about Odysseus, so she is driving the tank back to where we left her," Reiji responds back.
"If that pillar was made by Odysseus, either her powers have gone out of control or she has gone insane!" Annabelle's voice blares through the radio, full of worry and concern.
"It's okay, you go check on Odysseus. We will secure the lab's entrance and then enter," Miho says and cuts the transmission.
"Are you sure about that? It could backfire really badly," the Type 10's commander warns Miho.
"I am sure. Anyway, let's secure the-" Miho stops her sentence as a man appears in front of the lab.
"Hello, Subject 23. It's been quite a while...since we saw each other," the man says, his hand behind his back, a smile etched on his face. Everyone snaps their gazes at him, eyeing him carefully.
Miho can feel faint traces of Ether at him. His voice sounds familiar, she thinks, before her eyes widen in realization. "No...i-it can't be... Y-You are Mannheim?" she stutters, as she remembers the dream she had a couple days ago. Yukari, Hana and Saori gasp at this sentence and even Mako widens her eyes a bit.
"So you do remember me. I thought your memory was wiped out when your powers went out of control," he comments, looking a bit skeptical.
Then that means my dream was a memory. But if it was a memory than that means... Oh no, Sakura. Miho can feel her hurt sink, as she recalls the whole dream she had after she fainted.
"A girl named Sakura! Do you know her?!" she yells quickly, her expression becoming more worried by the second.
"Ah, you are referring to Subject 22, codenamed Winter. I do know her, she was paired with you during the experiments," Mannheim answers in a bored voice.
"Then...is she...d-dead?" Miho asks in a whisper, her stomach churning and make her feel like she is about to vomit.
"I think I answered enough questions for now. If you want to know the rest of the truth, go to the lab's lowest level." With that Mannheim swings his left arm sideways and the soldiers that had vanished reappear, aiming their guns at Miho and the others. "If you survive, that is," he grins and the Gears open fire. The girls instinctively duck inside the tank and seal their hatches, bullets pinging off of the tank's armor. Mannheim walks inside the lab's entrance and the doors behind him start to close.
"Does this guy have powers too?!" Saori yells, spraying bullets with her bow machine-gun to cover the T-90U commander and the M1A1 driver.
"They appeared out of nowhere," Mako comments, looking at the enemy, whose numbers are slowly but steadily decrease.
"What is this?" Hana points at a Gear, who is holding a rectangular tube over his shoulder, aiming it at the Type 10.
"Miss Nishizumi, that looks like a rocket launcher!" Yukari yells a little too late, as the soldier fires the rocket, which soars through the air at the Type 10. A second later, an explosion is heard as the rocket gets destroyed by the tank's A.P.S. (Active Protection System).
"Don't worry about us, we can handle rockets just fine," the Type 10 commander says smugly.
"Then take point, we need to clear-"
"To all units in the Insertion Force, this is Watcher 2-3. Odin has fired one of its payloads at your coordinates, estimated time of arrival, 1 minute and 3 seconds. We recommend immediate withdrawal," a voice blares through the open channel and everyone inside the tank freeze.
"Watcher 2-3, this is the commander of the Insertion Force, do you copy?" Miho asks quickly, but no answer comes back. "Mako, can we escape the payload?" Miho asks Mako.
"Even if we exit the crater radius, the shockwave will probably hurl as like paper in the wind," she responds back, her face slightly pale.
"Commander, we should withdraw immediately!" the Type 10 commander yells on the radio a bit too loudly, causing Miho to cringe a little.
"Negative, hold position. I'll deal with it."
"What?!" everyone inside the tank gasps, looking at her with wide eyes.
"I know you have magic, but this is insane!" Saori yells first. "How will you stop a weapon like that?!"
Miho says nothing and swiftly exits from her cupola, activating her powers at the same time. Yukari tries to grab her, but misses by a narrow margin. Miho jumps in front of the tank and rotates counterclockwise, swinging her hand left at the same time. A huge wall of red semi-transparrent energy erupts from the ground, separating her and the Gears from the tanks.
"Miss Nishizumi, what are you doing?!" Yukari yells, having exited the tank and standing in front of the red wall. Miho doesn't respond and eyes the enemy in front of her, her right hand getting covered in red energy. "Please Miss Nishizumi, come back!" she yells, hitting the wall with her hands. Everyone at the side of the tanks looks on Miho, as she punches the ground with her right hand and red energy starts trailing to the enemy soldiers through the ground. Reaching them, the ground beneath them explodes with enough force to throw them in the air and cause them to faint.
"Now that the annoyances are out of the way, time for the main event," she murmurs to herself, looking at the clear sky. Though the sky seems fine, she can already see the tungsten rod falling towards them at several times the speed of sound. Inhaling and exhaling deeply, Miho's right hand starts glowing red and red energy starts swirling around it. What happens next, makes everyone to look at Miho with their jaws hanging open. As the tungsten rod reaches a distance of 2 meters away from Miho, she whispers one word. "Overclock," and everything around her slow to a standstill, except for the rod that seems to approach her with the speed of a walking person. She still can move normally, so she raises her right hand backwards over her right shoulder and making a fist, she punches the rod at its pointy nose with a grunt. The slow motion effect instantly vanishes, time returning to normal for her. A huge shockwave occurs as the air around the contact point gets displaced outwards, hitting the wall of energy and cracking it, though it thankfully doesn't shatter. Miho puts every ounce of her strength to her right hand and legs, trying not to get blasted backwards by the immense kinetic force the rod has. The ground under her feet cracks and dirt gets blasted everywhere. Neutralizing the rest of its kinetic force, Miho finally gets blasted backwards at extreme speeds, crashing through the energy wall and shattering it. She barely misses Yukari as she flies past her and hits the ground, rolling for about 50 meters, before grinding to a stop. The tungsten rod, now horribly dented and mangled, falls to the ground with a loud thud, sinking on it due to its weight. Everyone looks in shock and awe at what has happened in front of them. The whole scene happened in less than a second and everyone is still processing what they have seen.
Snapping out of her shock first, Yukari runs towards Miho, who is lifting herself to sit on the ground, panting heavily. "Miss Nishizumi, are you all right?" she shouts, kneeling besides her and checking her body for any serious wounds. Other than small scrapes and a tattered uniform, she is relatively unharmed.
"I'm fine Yukari, don't worry," she says, though her tone sounds like she is a bit annoyed. After catching her breath, she stands up with Yukari's help and heads towards the entrance of the lab. By now, all of her friends have gathered around her to see how she is.
"That was nuts!" the M1A1 driver comments, as he eyes the Ooarai team.
"You can say that again. Imagine what she'll be able to to do if she gets angry or go all out," the T-90U commander says, shivering at the thought of how much chaos and destruction Miho could create. Meanwhile, the Type 10 has positioned itself in front of the metal doors of the lab, putting its back on them.
"That was insane! Everything happened so fast! One moment you were just gazing in the sky and the next you were lying on the ground and a huge metal rod was falling to the ground!" Saori says in amazement, using her hands to show what she saw.
"It was...breathtaking to say the least," Hana says in a graceful manner, though her heart still beats fast thanks to the adrenaline that flowed through her system.
"Awesome," Mako says, raising a thumbs up to Miho. This causes the girls to giggle a bit.
"Sorry to interrupt your chat, but the lab door won't open. Seems like the shockwave dented it pretty badly." the T-90U commander informs the girls, having gone and checked the door's controls.
"I'll open it. In the meantime, stay here and guard the entrance. You and the driver can use our tank for now," she says to the T-90U commander, before turning to face her friends. "Grab your weapons, we are going after Mannheim," she says and everyone nods with determination.
As the girls grab their weapons, Miho nears the metal doors and creates a black kunai knife at her right hand, which has a red energy ring around it. Throwing it at the doors, it gets stuck at the middle of them and a few seconds later it explodes, forcing the metal doors apart, the gap created being big enough for a tank to pass easily.
"I feel like we will be out of business soon," the Type 10's commander murmurs, having witnessed how easily Miho forced the doors to open.
As she sees the Anglerfish team entering the entrance to the lab, she gazes to the city of Tokyo, where multiple explosions are present. At least the assault is going well, she thinks, seeing the explosions are progressing on the other side of the town, meaning they are winning.
1 minute till Odin's payload hit its target
"How much will we have to wait?" Momo grumbles in annoyance. For the past day the Student Council, along with the other Ooarai teams, have been waiting for something that would tell them the lab would be under attack, in order to enact their escape plan, but so far nothing has happened.
"Momo-chan, you have to be patient," Yuzu smiles to Momo.
"Don't call me that!" she half-yells, but since they are inside an air duct, her voice gets amplified and sounds like she actually yelled.
"Keep your voice down, we don't want to be discovered," Anzu says with a lazy tone, waving a chip of dried sweet potato with her left hand. "Just be patient as-" she stops talking mid-sentence as she hears footsteps echoing throughout the hallway the air duct is connected to. Suddenly, the girls hear a loud crashing noise from above them and everything shakes, as the tungsten rod collides with Miho's hand, prompting all Ooarai teams that this is the signal to commence their escape.
"What was that?!" Momo yells in fear and surprise.
"The attack on the lab must have started," Yuzu says quickly, as the shaking stops.
"This is it, are you ready?" Anzu asks calmly Momo and Yuzu, eating the last dried sweet potato chip from her bag of chips. Both Momo and Yuzu nod and open slowly and carefully the cover of the air duct they are hiding in. Exiting as fast as they can, they spot a two-man patrol on their right, who are currently distracted by all the shaking that has occurred and are looking at the ceiling of the hallway. Both Momo and Yuzu approach one soldier each and put them in a headlock, suffocating them till they fall unconscious. Leaving the bodies to fall to the ground with a thud, they take their weapons and any ammunition they might have on them, before turning around and looking at Anzu, who stands in front of them.
"Good job. Let's hurry to the elevator and meet the others. We might also find one of the teams along the way," she informs both of them.
"Yes!" both Momo and Yuzu nod in agreement, before leading the way towards the elevator, where they are to meet the rest of the Ooarai teams.
Mallard team's containment cell
After the shaking stops, all three members of the Morals Committee stand up, since they had been thrown to the ground by it.
"Okay, this must be the signal. Pazomi, do you have the ID card?" Sodoko asks, as both Pazomi and Goyomo stand in front of her at attention.
"Yes!" she curtly says, before handing Sodoko the ID card.
"Great. Listen well, the plan is to meet the others at the lab's elevator and escape from this facility. If we meet enemies, we either try to bypass them or knock them down. I think we all agree we shouldn't kill them, but...if it comes to the worst possible scenario, we might be forced to do it," she says the last part with an unsure and soft voice and the two girls in front of her gulp audibly, before nodding.
"Anyway, time to move out, so stay sharp!" she tells them and then proceed to the sealed door. Next to its frame is bolted an electronic lock with a slit to swipe through ID cards. Swiping the card, a small beep is heard, before the door opens, getting retracted to the side. Peeking carefully out of it, Sodoko scans the hallway for any movement and seeing no one, she motions to the other two to follow her.
"Remember that no matter what, we should not split up," Sodoko says and both Pazomi and Goyomo nod curtly. Traversing the hallway, they notice that there aren't any enemies patrolling, which confuses Sodoko greatly.
Where is the enemy, she thinks, as she continues navigating through the hallway. Something's not right. Rounding a corner, she bumps into someone, causing her to fall to the ground on her butt.
"Hey, watch where you are going!" she shouts angrily, before looking forward and losing all the color from her face. In front of her stands one of the Gears, his weapon already aiming at her head. Pazomi and Gomoyo just stand behind Sodoko, trembling like leaves, frozen in fear.
Before the Gear can open fire, a shot rings out and the Gear collapses on the floor on his back. Sodoko immediately stands up and looks for the origin of the shot, while Pazomi and Gomoyo dart behind her back to hide.
"Are you all okay?" a voice calls out to them as three figures approach them quickly.
"Miss Momo!" Sodoko says relieved, watching Yuzu and Anzu approaching them. Momo lowers the assault rifle she holds, gunpowder smoke escaping its barrel. "Why are you here? I thought we were all supposed to meet at the lab's elevator," Sodoko sighs and asks calmly, now that her life is safe. She still feels a little unnerved that Momo had to shoot and kill a human, but she won't question her actions when they have saved her.
"It seems the hallways intersect with each other at some points, so it seems the teams might stumble on each other," Anzu informs them, picking the now dead Gear's submachine gun and any ammunition he might have. "Enough chattering, let's go on the elevator and see if anyone else has made it there."
Taking the lead, the Turtle team continues towards the elevator, followed closely by the Mallard team.
Hippo team's containment cell
As everything stops shaking, the members of the Hippo team slowly rise to their feet, having been thrown to the ground by all the shaking.
"Did they decide to bombard the lab with Schwerer Gustav?" Erwin groans, rubbing the back of her head slightly. Standing up, she picks her peaked hat from the ground and dusts it, before putting it on her head.
"I don't think the Romans had any siege equipment of such tremendous force," Caesar comments, dusting herself a bit.
"Whatever the case, I think that is the signal the lab is being attacked," Oryou informs the others.
"Saemonza, get your bow; we might need to defend ourselves," Erwin orders. Saemonza nods and goes to a certain point of the floor and picks it up, revealing a hollow space underneath it. From inside it, she retrieves a composite bow and some arrows. For the past year, during their visits, the Turtle team would bring the Hippo team small parts of the bow and after gathering all of them, Saemonza had pieced them together to create it. The same was for the arrows.
"You think we will meet Guderian again?" Saemonza asks, equipping her bow and passing the arrows to Oryou to hold.
"I hope. If what the president said was true, then she, along with the rest of the Anglerfish team, is participating in this attack," Erwin says as she approaches the door. Sliding the ID card, the door beeps once and it opens. Erwin peeks her head out and after seeing no enemies, she beckons the others to come. "Everything's clear, let's get going."
Walking through the hallways, the girls notice that there are no Gears patrolling them.
"You think they ordered them to go and protect the lab's entrance?" Erwin suggests, as they walk carefully, making sure not to make any noise.
"That would mean the forces that are besieging the lab are numerous," Caesar says in a low voice.
"Or the forces that have been sent are extremely good at their job," Saemonza comments, keeping an arrow in the bow's string, ready to pull and release it, if the need arises.
"Guts!" they hear a familiar voice saying and in an intersection where the hallway they are in meets with another, they see on of the Gears stumbling backwards and Akebi performing a right hook at him. The Gear ducks and avoids the hook, shooting upwards like a spring and performing an uppercut on her. Akebi crosses her arms and blocks it, but gets pushed back slightly, her arms aching from the punch.
Saemonza pulls back the arrow and aims for the Gear's right leg and releases it, which lodges itself on his thigh. The Gear merely stumbles and looks at Saemonza's way, but this gives Akebi an opening. She performs a side-kick on him and he crashes to the ground to his left. As he tries to get up, Akebi kicks him in the head with just enough force to knock him out. Another Gear stumbles back into view for the Hippo team to see, like he was kicked in the gut, before Taeko spears him on the ground and punches him on the face. The man returns the favor by punching Taeko on the face too, forcing her to fall backwards. Another arrow soars through the air and strikes the Gear on his neck, lodging itself on his spine and killing him instantly. Saemonza finally lowers her bow, but not before she puts another arrow in its string. Akebi finally notices the Hippo team and waves at them, though her breath is heavy.
"Hey girls," she says to Erwin and the others, panting heavily. By now, the rest of the volleyball team has come to check up on her and Taeko, who sits on the ground clutching on her face.
"Ah, Hippo team!" Noriko exclaims happily, running in front of Erwin. "You are alright!"
"Same to you," Erwin says with her trademarked smile. "Though I have a question. The way to the elevator is the other way, so why are you coming here?"
"Well, we might have been lost," Noriko smiles awkwardly.
"Captain, Akebi and Taeko are fine!" Shinobu says to her, having checked Akebi and Taeko for any injuries. "Though Taeko seems to be a bit dizzy," she notes, as Taeko tries to stand up and nearly falls back down.
"I'm fine don't worry," Taeko assures everyone as she shakes her head lightly.
"It is better if we keep moving, we don't know if there are more enemies," Caesar suggests and everyone nods in agreement.
Rabbit team's containment cell
"Girls, we need to stay calm!" Azusa shouts to the rest of her team, that look all around the room, hugging each other like scared rats, with panic and fear written all over their faces. The only exception is Saki, who has a thousand-yard stare at one of the walls...or is looking at a butterfly.
"But what was this shaking?! I don't want to die!" Karina cries as she hugs Yuuki a bit too tight, Yuuki feeling like she will pass out from asphyxiation soon.
"Maybe this is the signal Miss Yuzu mentioned?" Ayumi asks with a slightly trembling voice.
"It could be," Aya says, picking her glasses that had fallen from all the shaking. "I wish i had my phone, maybe I could check on the Internet about it," she says in a dissapointed tone.
"They'd probably ask you to take your shirt off first," Ayumi says quietly and everyone shares a small laugh.
"I think we should get going. The more quickly we go to the elevator, the more quickly we will find the others," Azusa says and everyone seems to relax a little, their faces not showing panic anymore, though they still seem to be tensed. Azusa walks to the door and swipes the ID card. After the door opens, she comes face to face with a Gear. Before she can do anything, the Gear uses his weapon to push Azusa back, causing her to trip on her feet and fall to the ground on her butt.
Acting on impulse, Karina charges at the man, headbutting him on his abdomen. The man falls on the ground and while he is down, the rest of the girls find this an opportunity to escape. Aya helps Azusa on her feet, Ayumi grabs Saki by the hand, who is only now registering what is going on and Yuuki drags Karina from her arm, since she is clutching her head from the intense pain she is feeling and they all exit from the cell, running towards where the elevator is.
"Do anyone knows where we are going?!" Aya shouts, looking behind her over her shoulder and seeing the Gear rising to his feet, his weapon still on his hands.
"I know! At the next intersection, we have to turn right!" Azusa responds back. A loud bang is heard and a bullet passes next to Yuuki's left leg, causing all the girls to scream.
"He is shooting us!" Ayumi yells in fear, causing panic to grip the girls. Reaching the intersection, all the girls round the corner, but as Karina rounds it, another bullet is fired and it grazes her right leg slightly.
"Aaaaaa!" she cries as she falls to the ground. "It hurts!" she says through greeted teeth, grabbing her leg just above from where the bullet grazed her.
"Ayumi, Yuuki, carry her, we cannot stop now!" Azusa orders and Ayumi and Yuuki immediately grab one arm each and help support Yuuki with their shoulders. As they reach the middle of the hallway, another Gear makes his appearance in front of them and raising his weapon, he shouts in his heavily synthesized voice. "Stop, or I will open fire!"
The girls stop dead on their tracks, with Azusa standing in front of all her friends, who seem to be cowering behind her and trembling once again, except for Saki, who just stares at the barrel of the gun with slightly widen eyes.
"You are to return to your cell, or lethal force will be used," the Gear that was chasing them, says, raising his own weapon at the girls.
"Leave them alone!" a voice yells and a wrench hits the Gear that was chasing the girls, on the side of his head, the force of the blow cracking the helmet and giving the man a serious concussion. Seeing his ally crumbling to the ground, the remaining Gear aims at the one that wields the wrench, but as he is about to pull the trigger, another girl performs an axe kick on his head, knocking him out instantly.
"I knew we could perform these moves from the video games!" Momoga shouts excitedly, pumping a fist in the air.
"Are you alright?" Hoshino asks, as Suzuki puts the wrench she is holding over her left shoulder.
"We are fine, but Karina was shot in the leg," Ayumi tells them quickly.
"Let me she it," Momoga says quickly, crouching in front of Karina and checking her wound. "It doesn't seem to be deep and it's not bleeding, but it will need medical attention." Standing up, Momoga picks up Karina and puts her over her right shoulder. "We really need to be going."
"Hey, Momoga, where are the rest of the Anteater team?" Hoshino asks, as her team approaches Momoga and the Rabbit team.
"They are already at the elevator. I just came back because I heard gunfire," she replies curtly, before making her way to the elevator with Karina on her shoulder, the rest of the girls following her closely. After a minute or two, they finally arrive in front of the elevator door, where the rest of the Ooarai teams are.
"Good, you finally arrived," Anzu says, before noticing Momoga is carrying Karina. "What happened to her?"
"She was shot in the leg, but thankfully the bullet just grazed her," Momoga answers as she carefully sets Karina down. The rest of the Rabbit team gathers around Karina, to see how she holds out and how her wound is.
"She might need medical attention then," Momo says.
"Umm...president...we might have a problem," Yuzu says slowly.
"What is it Yuzu?" Anzu asks quickly.
"The elevator has just passed our level," she informs Anzu.
"What?" Anzu glances just above the elevator's door and sees the indicator stopping at six. "Wait a minute, since when does the lab has six levels? I thought it only had five,"she mutters to herself.
"President, we have enemies!" Momo shouts in alarm, as she spots Gears approaching. Raising her weapon, she starts firing at them, hitting one square in the chest and forcing the other one to run for cover in one of the intersections the hallways meet. The girls from the Rabbit team start screaming, as they get startled by the gunfire.
"Miss Momo, you actually hit a target," Erwin says in a surprised tone. The other teams look surprised as well, except for Rabbit and Mallard, who are too scared to notice or care about it.
"Why are you acting surprised? My aiming is-" she starts saying, but gets interrupted by Anzu.
"Listen up! Rabbit, Mallard and Anteater, you take the elevator first and go to the Garage Depot and wait for us there," Anzu commands as she joins Momo along with Yuzu. As the doors of the elevator open, the girls from the mentioned teams enter inside and the elevator doors close.
"Next will be the Hippo, Duck and Leopon teams. We will come last," Anzu says between her gunfire.
"More Gears!" Yuzu says, noticing more soldiers coming towards them. Returning, the elevator doors open and in go the Duck and Leopon teams.
"Saemonza, are you sure about this?" Erwin whispers to her quickly.
"Yes. They need as much help as possible," Saemonza replies quietly.
"You know what that entails, don't you?" Erwin asks with a serious look and Saemonza nods. "Then good luck and be careful." Erwin gives a quick salute and enters the elevator with the rest of the Hippo team.
"How many Gears are in this level?!" Momo asks incredulously as another three Gears make their appearance. "Everyone, hit the ground!" she yells, as bullets start flying above their heads. As one of the Gears peeks out of the intersection's corners to fire on the girls, an arrow pierces his helmet and head, killing him instantly. "Saemonza, what are you doing here?" Momo shouts at Saemonza, who shoots another arrow and hits yet another Gear.
"I thought you could use some help," she says in a genuine tone. After two minutes and dealing with the rest of the Gears, they hear the elevator doors open and so they enter inside.
"You could have been seriously injured or died," Momo reprimands Saemonza for choosing to stay to help out the Student Council.
"Momo-chan, we are all fine thanks to her so-" Yuzu starts saying when she spots something at the end of this long corridor that makes her face pale considerably and whisper one word. "Executioner."
Both Anzu and Momo snap their gazes at the end of the hallway and surely enough, a man with a helmet that has six red lights slowly approaches them.
"We need to go now," Anzu says in alarm and presses the button for the elevator to go to the Garage Depot and as the doors close, the Executioner teleports in front of them and literally bends the doors outwards, his metallic gloves bending them horribly out of shape. Saemonza just stares at the Executioner with a shocked expression, both of her eyes being wide open.
Thinking fast, Anzu retrieves a strange black sphere from one of her uniform's pockets and crushes it on her hand, which starts glowing a white-greenish color. Punching the Executioner, a spike of the same color exits through his back, before the Executioner collapses on the ground.
"Now, press the button again!" Anzu says quickly and the elevator starts going up to the Garage Depot. As the glowing from her hand fades, she can feel her body losing some of its strength, but she maintains her composure, even if it is to make sure the others don't get worried.
"What...was that?" Saemonza asks slowly, still feeling shocked from what she witnessed.
"We will explain everything once we are safe," Anzu says quickly. Reaching the Garage Depot, they get out of the elevator and look around for the rest of the teams.
"Miss Momo, Miss Yuzu, president, over here!" Erwin waves at them and the girls approach the members of the Hippo team. "The rest of the teams are already outside and have made contact with forces from a PMC named Blackout," she informs Anzu and the rest while they all walk to the lab's entrance. "Though there is something that...might surprise you," Erwin finishes her sentence, saying the last part with a slight hesitation.
As they exit, Anzu notices the doors have been forced open somehow. She also notices the Anglerfish team's Panzer IV ausf H, which fills her with relief, but also with dread for some reason. If Miho is here, than Mannheim will most likely confront her, she thinks, though what she sees next makes her to whistle. A huge and horribly bent tungsten rod sits on the ground, which has cracked and sank a bit. "What is this?" she hears Yuzu ask in amazement.
"This is a tungsten rod designed to be dropped from low orbit, like an artificial meteor of some sorts," the Type 10's commander informs them. "Normally it can do tremendous amounts of damage." In the background, a loud crashing noise is heard as multiple tungsten rods start falling all over the city of Tokyo. "Like this." Everyone looks with stunned looks at the city...or what remains of it, getting annihilated by the rods.
"Then, how this one didn't destroy the whole lab?" Momo asks slowly, still eyeing the destruction the tungsten rods have caused.
"One of your friends stopped it," the commander says like it is an every day occurrence and everyone looks back at her with confused expressions.
Anzu stares at the rod that lies in front of them. "Miho," she blurts out and everyone falls silent, looking at her.
"What?!" Everyone, except for the Turtle team and Saki, shout in disbelief and the girls start speaking with each other, their voices getting mixed into a loud buzzing.
"Everyone, shut up!" Momo roars and everyone calms down somewhat. "The president will explain everything, so remain silent."
This is going to take a lot of time, Anzu sighs mentally, as she begins to explain to the rest of the girls about Ether, Miho and anything else that relates with them.
A/N: Yay, another chapter finished! The Battle between Mannheim and Miho draws closer and the girls are finally free, but why would Blackout bombard the whole city of Tokyo with Odin? Or was it something else? And I'll be running an OC contest in a couple of chapters. Anyway, as always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!