Once Maki finished with Rin and let the other medics know they were leaving, she went over to the group waiting for her.

"We're fine to leave now" she called out.

"Ok. Some of us are already in the air, the last of us are taking off"

"Where are you guys going?" Nath said as she came over.

"A military base near our bunker was destroyed so we're leaving now to check on it before heading back" Maki responded.

"Sure, I'll have some more people go with you. I can't go myself but hopefully they will be helpful in case anything happens" Nath said.

"Ok thanks"

"Before you leave, do you have any thoughts on the fog during the battle?" Nath asked.

"It's probably being created by the enemy somehow, but I'm not sure how" Maki responded

"I see. So even you've reached that conclusion. Anyways, take care" Nath said.

"We will, thanks" Maki said before flying up with Rin.

After letting the others know some more people are coming back with them, they all left together. Thirty minutes later someone started radioing them. Maki responded to the incoming call.

"Hello? Who is this?" Maki asked.

"Hanayo… enemy… started firing… city"

"What? How many?"

"… not sure"

"We'll be over right away!" Maki said before disconnecting.

"Enemies are attacking a city, probably the same one from before! Let's hurry up" Maki told everyone.

"It sounded kind of staticy" Rin said.

"We'll worry about that later" Maki said. Although it shouldn't have static. Maybe somethings wrong on their end, I'll have to let papa know later.

After another ten minutes Maki could hear someone trying to contact them again. Rin moved over to Maki and responded.

"Hello. What is it now?"

"…"

"Hello?" Rin asked again.

"City… attack….. dangerous…. Come…" The person said before it was entirely static.

"Could you repeat one more time?" Maki asked but there was no response to her question.

"Let's move quickly, the bunker might be in danger!" Rin said as she sped up.

"Hold on, don't move so fast that no one can catch up!" Maki shouted after her.


"The city under attack, it's a trap. It's incredibly dangerous, DO NOT COME!" Hanayo shouted into the radio. "I repeat, don't come, it's a trap to lure you inside!"

Listening for a response, Hanayo only heard static. "Please respond!" She shouted again.

"Hanayo that's enough, we're not getting through. Give us some time to see if we can fix whatever's wrong" Someone said.

The door opened and another person walked in. "We just checked, we can't get any visuals on the city anymore. I think there's some sort of interference going on. Either the area got hit by an EMP or they have something to block signals"

"How are we going warn them then!" Hanayo shouted.

"We can't, we just have to hope they got enough of our message"


As they arrived Maki could see the city under attack. Several buildings were destroyed leaving lots of rubble and fire.

Seeing Maki in shock, Rin decided to take charge. "Maki! Follow me. The rest of you split up and take out the enemy!" Waiting until Maki nodded to confirm she understood, Rin moved down to the city.

Inside they spotted several four-legged machines the ground. Maki moved to one side of the street while Rin moved to the other. As they passed overhead the fired their weapons down to destroy them.

"Next group" Rin said just as an explosion was heard behind them. "Huh?"

Maki quickly looked around assuming to see a machine getting destroyed but was shocked at what she saw instead. A large skyscraper's bottom was blown out and it was now falling on top of them.

"Rin!" Maki shouted as she dashed over some buildings to the side. As she passed over them several beams, bullets, and rockets came at her forcing her back. She had just enough time to see several machines on the other side trying to keep them in the skyscraper's path. Looking up she also saw several beams getting shot out the skyscraper's windows trying to prevent them from escaping.

"Maki this way!" Rin screamed at her before smashing through the window of a building. Maki followed her, narrowly avoiding hitting a wall inside before coming out the other end. She was met by a large amount of bullets and rockets. Maki could see Rin dashing a metre above the street swerving out of the way as rockets came at her. As she tried following Rin the building they just left exploded creating a shower of debris. Rockets were being fired out every window in the street at them, almost hitting Maki.

As the skyscraper crashed behind Maki, she had a sudden realisation. They were never trying to destroy the city. All this rubble, this set up of machines, hiding inside buildings… this was a trap designed to lure us in and we fell for the bait.

Several humanoid shaped machines came from above to block her path to Rin. Raising their arms, they fired beams at her forcing her to dash to avoid being hit. As she did that some more machines came from behind and fired rockets, trying to force her to dash into some.

Instead of attempting to dash out of the way Maki waited until the rockets were close to her. Once they were, she created a shield around her and let the rockets hit it before she tried dashing out of street level. A large laser appeared over the street as Maki moved up. As soon as she touched it she immediately moved back down. Why can't I dash through that? She screamed in her head.

The machines from before were now surrounding her and simultaneously fired rockets at her. Maki fired her beam rifle at one of them, making sure to hit its rocket along the way before quickly dashing through the opening. She saw several of them get hit by their ally's rockets. Taking her chance, she fired her rifle to destroy them so they wouldn't cause more issues.

Maki was then forced to move to the side of the street as several machine guns fired from the other side at her. Just as she moved over the buildings on her side of the street exploded catching her by surprise and leaving her no time to react. Coughing a bit from the smoke she moved over where buildings used to be to get away from the machine guns, her once bright red hair becoming covered in ash.

Maki spotted a group of machines on her side at an intersection. As she dashed towards them a laser filled the area where they used to be, leaving no trace that they ever existed. Looking around for others Maki only saw group after group be destroyed by ambushes. Right before giving up hope she spotted a familiar orange haired girl.

"Rin! This way!" She shouted, catching Rin's attention.

She moved towards Rin hoping to meet up with her when several rockets suddenly interrupted their reunion. She looked at where the rockets came from. Curse all of this!

Inside an apartment was a large machine, red orbs visible at every window firing rockets and beams. Rin noticed this quickly and shouted at Maki "How are we going to destroy that?"

"Just run away" Maki said. Looking around to make sure that plan was viable she saw they were surrounded, machines moving in to force her and Rin closer to the apartment. "Never mind, we dash around like madmen and let it create an opening for us"

Rin pointed to the top of the apartment. "I think it's the one firing the giant lasers. We can't run with it still alive"

"Then we destroy it instead" Maki shouted, her plan changing yet again.

Moving to one side while Rin moved to the other, Maki fired her beam rifle while Rin fired her machine gun while dodging attacks from the machines around them. One suddenly made a sprint towards her as it began glowing bright red. Sensing danger Maki fired her beam rifle at it twice, managing to hit it. The machine exploded leaving a bright red sphere in it's place moving in the direction it used to be. Maki moved out of its way, getting hit by a rocket in the process. Screaming in pain she took her bazooka out and fired aimlessly at the wall of machines surrounding them to thin their numbers.

Rin quickly passed under her shouting "base of the apartment". Maki looked and saw what Rin was trying to do. She stopped her attacks and followed Rin, letting all the machines fire at them. Rockets fired by the machines around them missed and slammed into the base of the apartment, while the apartment machine's attacks hit the enemies around them instead. This might destroy part of the city but it's the only chance we have Maki thought.

Rin quickly changed direction and reversed her dash. Maki followed assuming Rin must have seen something she didn't. Her assumption turned out to be correct as another large building collapsed into the apartment.

The apartment collapsed under pressure from all the rockets revealing a very unarmoured machine inside. So it was using the building as armour was it? Time to end this. Maki moved inwards with Rin and began firing at every semi-important looking part of it. Within five seconds they managed to collapse the machine bringing its terror to an end. After that they attacked the machines around them. After one minute only the two of them were left, surrounded by burning parts and twisted metal.

"Are you hurt?" Maki asked.

"Just a bit. I got hit several times by some machine guns and rockets. I avoided all the beams though" Rin said.

"That's not too difficult when you're dashing all the time" Maki said. "I got hit by a rocket, a laser, and was caught in some explosions. Other than that, I'm mostly fine, although I should have papa do a check up. Let's head back now?"

"Up there" Rin said pointing at the sky.

Confused Maki looked up and saw two people hovering above.

"I think we need to figure out who they are first" Rin said.

"Good point. Let's try to make sure they don't notice us coming" Maki said.

Moving up Maki began to hear the two people arguing.

"There was no point in coming here, Kotori's obviously not here" the blue haired one said, holding a large bow.

"This should have been the city she went too though" the ginger haired one said. "This is also the most likely place she would have been defeated"

"She could be dead for all we know. You could have gotten into a lot of trouble if it wasn't for me! We're already going to explain why so many of us died for nothing"

"It wasn't for nothing, we killed all of them I think. Besides, we could have come a lot sooner if you let me!"

"You didn't have permission Honoka! You would have just been executed for deserting! There aren't any modified humans here either, so she probably disappeared somewhere-"

"Look Umi! People!" Honoka interrupted.

The two of them watched as Rin and Maki moved up to the same altitude. Honoka looked around for a second before remarking "I think the four of us are the only ones alive right now."

"Why did you tear up the city like that!" Rin suddenly cried out. "Do you have any idea how much people died there! Are there even any civilians left?"

Umi ignored Rin and asked "Do you two know if a battle was fought here around two weeks ago?"

"Yes, there was one" Maki said. Umi and Honoka's expressions became darker upon hearing her answer.

"So… if a battle happened here and you're here… that means you probably fought Kotori. As you're still alive, that means Kotori didn't win" Umi said.

"LET'S KILL THEM! KILL THEM NOW!" Honoka screamed, dashing towards Rin and Maki.

Maki and Rin didn't have time to respond before Honoka was in front of them surrounded in a red glow. The glow suddenly exploded leaving Maki and Rin unable to see temporarily.

"Ahh" Maki shouted while covering her eyes.

"HOT!" Rin shouted.

Maki felt something sharp cutting through her stomach and immediately dashed backwards. Her entire body felt very hot. How did she raise my heat? This is bad, even if I'm modified and should take less damage, with this much heat I'll go down quickly.

A storm of beams suddenly came towards her. Maki dashed out of the way with Honoka following close behind. Desperate to stop Honoka catching up to her, Maki stopped dashing and fired her beam rifle, dashing again before firing it once more. Honoka ignored the attacks and dashed through them. Maki quickly looked for Rin and once she found her, dashed as quickly as she could towards Rin. Honoka shouted "Shield Invert!" and a barrier passed through Maki, stopping several metre's ahead of her. Maki kept going towards the barrier thinking she could pass through until she smacked into it. Still processing what just happened, she rolled out of the way as Honoka stabbed where she just was.

Maki dashed along the edge hoping to find an exit but became filled with fear as she saw that she was trapped inside a spherical arena. Maki could see Rin trying to come over but was too busy dodging beams and rockets fired by Umi to make progress. Giving up, Rin charged at Umi. Maki then moved over to the middle of the arena to give herself more room to dodge Honoka's attacks. Maki felt her stomach and felt some small relief that her wound closed already, silently thanking her father for giving her faster healing.

Spotting Honoka moving towards her again, Maki fired her bazooka several times at her. Honoka dodged them all, taking several sharp turns. She's just as bad at managing her heat as Rin Maki thought. Honoka was suddenly surrounded by a cone of pink and charged straight at Maki, who fired several more rockets at her. The rockets exploded upon hitting the pink cone leaving Honoka undamaged. Maki attempted to spin out of the way, screaming in pain as a sword went through Maki as Honoka passed by.

Maki dashed away trying to get as much distance between them as possible but started panicking as Honoka began catching up again. She stopped quickly and fired her beam rifle at Honoka's cone instead of her bazooka, and was surprised when Honoka let out a yelp of pain and dashed away from the rest of her beams. That cone destroys rockets but not beams Maki realised, quickly forming a plan to fight Honoka.

Maki moved on the offensive now, firing a mix of beams and rockets at Honoka to keep her away. She managed to hit Honoka several times but quickly realised that Honoka was a lot more durable than Kotori. She's too reckless Maki thought while shooting at Honoka, I could probably use that against her. It will require me fighting recklessly to bait her, but that's probably my best hope of survival right now.

Maki stopped mid-air and switched between her bazooka and beam rifle without moving, leaving Honoka a path towards her which Honoka took. Honoka became surrounded by a red glow and released it in an explosion near Maki. Maki managed to make out Honoka's silhouette in the light and fired a rocket at her. The rocket passed through Honoka confusing Maki until she felt something very hot and hard hit her back knocking her forward. Rolling in the air she saw Honoka dashing towards her again.

Maki dashed down just as Honoka reached her, cutting her previous location with her sword and leaving a reddish glow for a second. Maki then fired her beam rifle into Honoka who was now spinning around to find Maki. Once Honoka found her, Maki dashed out of harms way again.

I didn't know she could do that, this was an awful idea. What else can she do?

Honoka charged Maki again who managed to barely avoid the attack. Maki then spotted Rin coming, firing her machine gun into Honoka's back. As soon as the bullets hit, Honoka dashed up, curving to come down on top of Rin. Maki fired her bazooka ahead of Honoka to block her path to Rin causing Honoka to swerve out of the way. Once Rin was closer Maki called out "How did you get in here?"

"I just dashed in. I think the field might just stop us from leaving" Rin replied.

Maki raised her shield quickly when Honoka tried interrupting them with another attack. As soon as Honoka collided, she moved up again.

"By the way, that blue haired girl followed me" Rin said just as several rockets followed by beams smashed into Maki's shield.

Once the attack stopped, Maki stopped her shield to let her and Rin dash away again.

"Blue haired girl?" Maki asked.

"Ya"

They both charged towards Umi, avoiding her attacks. Umi then fired several blades at them which they avoided only to be caught by surprise as the blades switched direction mid-air and flew into their backs. Honoka took the chance in their confusion to catch up and slash Maki some more. Maki recreated her shield and sent it quickly outwards knocking Honoka back to defend herself. She then kept the shield active to give herself some time to breath.

Rin was almost caught up to Umi now but as Rin came closer, Umi dashed extremely quickly away before stopping and pulling her bow back, particles starting to gather in front as she aimed. Rin moved out of the way which Maki understood, but even Honoka stopped her assault on Maki to get away. Why would she get away from that Maki thought just as Umi released her attack.

The large blue beam soared across the sky, piercing through Maki's shield instantly. Maki was caught in the beam and carried by it until she smacked the edge of Honoka's shield around the area. Five Honoka's were already moving in for the kill, Honoka seeming to have known what would happen. Coughing some blood out, Maki fired her rifle at one of the Honoka's with no effect. She fired at a different Honoka instead but nothing happened either. Giving up, Maki waited for them to get closer before rolling out of the way at the last second. With the Honoka's grouped up together right in front of Maki, she fired her beam rifle at them while watching for a reaction from one. She heard a grunt of pain from one of them and targeted that Honoka with her bazooka to force her away. Instead of dashing away, Honoka's fist glowed red while she swung it forwards, destroying the rockets.

Honoka then glowed a bright red colour and shot forward towards Maki, destroying all rockets in her path. Maki switched back to her beam rifle and fired it into Honoka who ignored it and sped up. Maki moved out of the way as Honoka passed her. Honoka then turned back around and came at Maki again even faster. Maki dodged Honoka several more times until she slowed down. Her glow exploded out but Maki was prepared this time, shielding her eyes with her arm. Looking back again she could see Honoka coming towards her with a sword raised. Maki looked down quickly to confirm what she was thinking. The real one is down there trying to get past me while leaving this fake one.

Maki ignored the one coming towards her and fired her beam rifle at the one moving below. Just as the beams hit Honoka below she heard a voice behind her say "Bad guess" as a sword cut down her back. Maki immediately created a shield and sent it outwards to knock Honoka back. She coughed again and wiped her mouth with her sleeve, noticing some blood now. I'm going to die at this rate she thought. Whoever's listening up there, please let Rin be safe.

Rin was dashing around avoiding Umi's attacks when she saw Maki get hit. I have to do something, but what can I do with this girl trying to kill me?

She avoided another rocket when a thought came to her, that might work. Rin continued dodging Umi's attacks, occasionally firing her machine gun at Umi while waiting for the right moment. Looking towards Maki and Honoka, she decided to try her plan. Rin dashed close to Umi again but instead of attacking she created her shield. Umi raised her bow again, letting particles gather at the front.

"You're point blank now, are you an idiot?" Umi asked.

Just as she fired her beam, Rin immediately stopped creating a shield and dashed to the side, her legs scraping the beam a little. Umi's eyes widened as she saw where her beam was going, crying out "Honoka!". Rin took her chance and a pink cone formed around her as she pointed her sword out and charged straight into Umi. Now in Umi's face, Rin repeatedly slashed Umi with her sword leaving Umi with no time to aim properly. Umi quickly raised her bow and fired several rockets which Rin easily avoided, swerving behind Umi and attacking her back moments later.

Umi dashed away again and fired more rockets. Rin charged forward again, a pink cone coming from her sword surrounding her. Umi then fired several beams into Rin knocking her back. Rin quickly recovered and dashed straight towards Umi again who fired several more rockets. Rin moved through instead of dodging, letting herself get hit by the rockets which caused her walkie talkie to come loose and fall. Blood came from her mouth from the attack as she resumed her assault on Umi.

Maki dodged another attack by Honoka, immediately dodging a second Honoka's attack. She had given up on attacking for now, hoping to stall long enough for Honoka to make a mistake. Honoka charged forward again while Maki dashed backwards. While moving back she noticed a large beam coming towards them. Now's my chance!

Maki stopped her dash back and dashed towards Honoka instead. She raised her arms in front of her head as she collided into Honoka who swung her sword into Maki. Maki ignored the pain and created another shield, sending it outwards to knock Honoka back just enough to be caught by the beam as it passed by, taking Honoka with it. Maki quickly followed and as soon as Honoka hit the edge of the barrier she fired her bazooka, dashing around before firing again to hit Honoka from as many angles as possible. Honoka was still stunned from the force of the beam and was unable to dodge any of the rockets.

The arena disappeared as Honoka lost consciousness, falling towards the ground now. Maki coughed again and wiped some more blood off her mouth before dashing towards Honoka again. Part way through Honoka's fall she woke up and tried to dash away. Maki didn't let her, firing several more rockets into her until she started falling again. Soon Honoka crashed into the street leaving a crater where she landed. Maki flew up slowly, too tired to dash anymore.

"Maki! Are you ok" she heard Rin call.

She looked up to see Rin moving towards her while covered in some blood.

"I'm alive. I want to go home" she said exhausted. "What happened to the blue haired one? Umi I think it was"

"I destroyed her bow and attacked her until she was unconscious. After that I came over as fast as I could" Rin said, also tired from the fight.

"Is she alive still?" Maki asked.

"I don't know. What about her?" Rin asked, pointing towards Honoka.

"She's not going to live without medical attention. Since we're the only ones in the area she probably won't survive"

"Can't you use your first aid kit?" Rin asked.

"Ignoring the fact that I'm not sure if she'd try to kill me still, I lost it somewhere so I can't do anything" Maki responded sadly. "I think I might have some morphine in my pocket. I can at least give her that so take the pain away as she dies"

After injecting Honoka's unconscious body with morphine the two of them left back to the bunker.


"Maki, I'm going to head out to deal with something. Just stay here and rest, your mother will come over shortly to check on you and Rin" Mako said as he left the hospital room.

"Ok papa, be safe" She said.

Maki waited several minutes before getting up to follow him. Where's he going? He made it sound like he's leaving the bunker.

As she opened the door a worried looking Hanayo was there.

"Maki, what are you doing out of bed?" She asked worriedly.

"Papa left and I was worried. It sounded like he might be leaving the bunker so I wanted to check up on him" Maki said.

"Don't! You're injured, go back in bed now!" Hanayo scolded her. "I overheard someone on the radio begging for help. Mako was nearby and took over the call. I think he's getting some medics and an ambulance carrier to leave and get them"

"But-" Maki started before being interrupted by Hanayo. "No buts, go back to bed now" Hanayo said.

"Fine" Maki said as she crawled back in bed.

Thirty minutes later she could hear some voices in the hallway. She got up to look and saw two stretched being raced down the hall. She spotted Umi laying in one, conscious but not resisting at all. The other one must have the other girl, Honoka I think it was.

When Mako returned to check on Maki she asked him "What are those two doing at the bunker?"

"Which two?" He asked.

"Umi and Honoka. Blue and ginger haired ones"

"Ah. Umi radioed us and begged for someone to help them. She said she only knew enough to keep Honoka alive temporarily, so we went over and picked them up and then brought them here for treatment"

"They just tried to kill us. Are you sure it's safe to bring them here?" Maki said.

"You brought Kotori here even though she tried to kill you. Besides, we're bringing them to a special unit in the hospital where we can contain them in case anything happens, although it's likely nothing will happen" Mako said.

"How did Umi contact us?" Maki asked curiously.

"She said she found a walkie talkie and tried using it hoping that someone would help. I think it was probably Rin's because she didn't return with the one she was given, and we weren't contacted over open radio channels. Anyways, I have to go back and to check on Honoka". Stopping by the door he added "Also, didn't Kotori mention at some point something about Umi and Honoka? Maybe these two are the same ones?"

"They mentioned Kotori, so they're her friends I think" Maki said.

"Then could you, Rin, or Hanayo let her know later today please? She would probably like the see them" Mako said before leaving.

Maki sighed as she lay back down in bed. I hope Kotori won't be upset with me or Rin.


Notes:

Hopefully this chapter was enjoyable. I think I should probably have someone beta-read the story but I'm not sure how to go about doing that. Do I just pm them from their beta profile or is there some application I need to fill out? I can't seem to find much info. Next chapter will take longer, sorry.

Also, some video's to showcase what modified humans are like and why they're so powerful if anyone is interested.
watch?v=I8uGRa9sEX8
watch?v=JwrjRjkUviQ (might want to mute music)